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.. to p ^ eBfti hi # lying ; do ^ nfduriijgl the w } p ^^ t £ h } & per iods At his deat h , h | s . body t # as taken dowii frota the column * jby the , bands of Christian bishops , and conveyed to Antibch , , uncler ~ an escort of 6000 soldiers , where it was interred with all the
pomp which the fanatics of that age could devise . The imitators of this Syrian ^ recluse were for several centuries Bstrenaely numerous . -We even read of one who ascended a lofty pillar of this kind , and remained exposed to
the view of the world , and to the tempests jof beared , for sixty-eight years . This preposterous superstition was , however , entirely , suppressed by authority , soon after the year 11 QO , having th ^ n disgraced the Christian church for six centuries . *
Theodoret , in his Ecclesiastical History , relates that , in the fourth and fifth centuries , there was also a numerous body of Anchorets , who aimed at reducing themselvesto the state of
the brute ? creation * for the glory of God y and that many of them acquired the habit of grazing in the fields of Mesopotamia , wHh the . common herd . And if we descend to modern times , we shall find one ; sect of Christians as
familiar with the : use of images as the Heathens ever were ^ and their absurdity , as the late Mr . Farmer has remarked , is still more glaring than that of the Pagans , because they believe that the whole bodily presence of Christ is in ten thousand different
places ia the same instant of time . Rhea was esteemed by the Heathens to be the mother of the gods ; and this same sect of Christians , as though they Were determined not to be outdone by any of the devotees of antiquity , has bestowed a similar title upon Mary , the
mother . of the great Prophet of Nazareth , the founder of our holy religion . In conformity with this usage of his church , the learned Lipsius , who died ia the year I 6 o 6 , and by his last will
left his gown , lined with fur > to the image of the Virgin at Hall , calls thb mother of Jesus a goddess , the queen of heaven , the queen of the sea and of the earth , t it is probable , that in the dark
— ¦ - ¦¦ ' ¦ ' l i J ¦ | t r ii . hnir r' I , VM ' ,, i ' \ - l . \ A l - l i i ' i . i i _ i li . - .- i ¦ ' ¦ ii-t — * Gibbofe , 8 vAw VI . 265 , and other historiaiMk / H :.: ' ^ - ; ¦/¦ . ¦>¦/¦ . ¦ <> . > ' ¦ ; - f iiipsiu ^ itt Br ographical Bietionary , ^ d T ^^^ n . on IdoUlry , MtWO ; V
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ages , ^ the ^ f te achers of ? Ghl 4 ^ tiHtiilV ibuu 4 it ektremely difficult to dtetiaim the pieople entirely firom their iddfatrous practices , the worship of dine self-existent and independent Beiag
being too spiritual and refined to suit their ^ ross conceptions ; and , therefore , they elevated the mother of Jesus- ajKl other devout persons to the rank- ^ f Christian saints , that those who em *
- braced Christianity might have a class of beings to whom they could apply as intercessors between them and the Almighty . In like manner , finding that they were unable to withdraw tlie people from the adoration of stones , and : the worship of the temples . or
burial places of the celebrated dead , . they c ut crosses on the one ; and dedicated the other to ^ some pa rticular saint , * and thus , in extirpsltiiig ido-Iatry > they unintentionally encouraged the ^ dissemination and growth of superstition . :
The religion of Mahomet is also overioaded with superstttioiiis . Thfe destruction of the great Alexandriah Library ^ f a few years after the death of Mahoniet , and which was so large as to require sik > m 6 nths for its
consumption in heating the several baths of the city of-Alexandria , w ^ as occasioned solely by mistaken notions of religion . The regard which is paid to doves and pigeons , and to some peculiar species of fish , are remarkable instances of Mahometan
superstition . At Mecca , hundreds of people go about with a little sort of dish , made with rushes , beseeching the wealthy to bestow something on the pigeons of the prophet . % lii the court-yards of their temples , they
have basons or ponds for the sacred fish , and those which have been consecrated , are adorned with goldeii necklaces , and have rings of gold and of silver in their nostrils by way of ornament . § An Armenian Christhtri .
. ¦ - > i , : —_—_ r- , . , . . __ , — - ^— . - I ' ' > ¦ ' ' , '¦ ¦ " " * " Borlase ^ s Antiquities of Cpriiwal | , r p 222 . . ¦ ' ' " . "•' ¦ " + In the year 640 .
J 4 < Throughout the crowded towns the milk-white 4 ove , j . In Syria sacred , ; way With safety roye . " : , ZPibutlus *
§ Dr . Richard Chandler , in his Travels in A * ia M inor ^ relates a practice somewhat similar to this among the ancient Pag-ans , Seep . 197 . , ::.. - ; ,..:. ;¦¦
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X 3 n the general Prevalence of Superstition . * &W 8
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vol . xiiu % s
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1818, page 313, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2476/page/25/
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