in some degree abate. This the ancient philosophy hath well taken notice of, and therefore well defined δεισιδαιμονία by κολακεία, and useth these terms promiscuously. Thus we find Maximus Tyrius, writing concerning the difference between a friend and a flatterer: 'The pious man is God's friend, the superstitious is a flatterer of God: and indeed most happy and blessed is the condition of the pious man, God's friend; but right miserable and sad is the state of the superstitious. The pious man, emboldened by a good conscience, and encouraged by the sense of his integrity, comes to God without fear and dread: but the superstitious, being sunk and depressed through the sense of his own wickedness, comes not without much fear, being void of all hope and confidence, and dreading the gods as so many tyrants'.' Thus Plato also sets forth this superstitious temper, though he mentions it not under that name, but we may know it by a property he gives of it, viz. 'to converse with heaven,' distinguishing between three kinds of tempers in reference to the Deity, which he there calls πάθη, which are—total atheism, which he says never abides with any man till his old age; and partial atheism, which is a negation of Providence; and a third, which is a persuasion concerning the gods, 'that they are easily won by sacrifices and prayers',' which he after explains thus: 'that with gifts unjust men may find acceptance with them". And this discourse of Plato's upon 1 Max. Τyr. Dissert. Quomodo ab adulatore amicus debeat distingui.' 'O μὲν εὐσεβὴς, φίλος θεῷ, ὁ δὲ δεισιδαίμων, κόλαξ θεοῦ· καὶ μακάριος εὐσεβὴς, ὁ φίλος θεοῦ, δυστυχὴς δὲ ὁ δεισιδαίμων. Ονπερ οὖν τρόπον ὁ μὲν θαρσῶν τῇ ἀρετῇ, πρόσεισι τοῖς θεοῖς ἄνευ δέους· ὁ δὲ ταπεινὸς διὰ μοχθηρίαν, μετὰ πολλοῦ δέους, δύσελπις, καὶ δεδιὼς τοὺς θεοὺς ὥσπερ τοὺς τυράννους. 3 θεοὺς ἡγούμενος εἶναι κατὰ νόμους οὐδεὶς πώποτε οὔτε ἔργον ἀσεβὲς εἰργάσατο ἑκὼν οὔτε λόγον ἀφῆκεν ἄνομον, ἀλλὰ ἐν δή τι τῶν τριῶν πάσχων, ἢ τοῦτο, ὅπερ εἶπον, οὐχ ἡγούμενος, ἢ τὸ δεύτερον ὄντας οὐ φροντίζειν ἀνθρώπων, ἢ τρίτον εὐπαραμυ θήτους εἶναι θυσίαις τε καὶ εὐχαῖς παραγομένους.—De Legg. 885 B. 3 ὅτι μὲν γαρ θεοί τ ̓ εἰσὶ καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐπιμελοῦνται, ἔγωγε οὐ παντάπασι φαύλως ἂν φαίην ἡμῖν ἀποδεδεῖχθαι· τὸ δὲ παραιτητοὺς αὖ θεοὺς εἶναι τοῖσιν ἀδικοῦσι, δεχομένους δῶρα, οὔτε τινὶ συγχωρητέον παντί τ' αὖ κατὰ δύναμιν τρόπῳ ἐλεγκτέον.-De Legg. 905 D. these three kinds of irreligious Táon Simplicius seems to have respect to in his comment upon Epictetus, where he treats about right opinions in religion'; and there, having pursued the two former of them, he thus states the latter, (which he calls decías λóyor) as well as the other two, as a conceit, quod muneribus et donariis et stipis distributione a sententia deducuntur: such men making account, by their devotions, to draw the Deity to themselves, and winning the favour of heaven, to procure such an indulgence to their lusts as no sober man on earth would give them; they, in the mean while, not considering 'that repentance, supplications, and prayers, &c. ought to draw us nearer to God, not God nearer to us; as in a ship, by fastening a cable to a firm rock, we intend not to draw the rock to the ship, but the ship to the rock". Which last passage of his is therefore the more worthy to be taken notice of, as shewing of how large an extent this irreligious temper is, and of how subtile a nature. This fond and gross dealing with the Deity was that which made the scoffing Lucian so much sport, who, in his treatise De Sacrificiis, tells a number of stories how the demons loved to be feasted, and where and how they were entertained, with such devotions which are rather used magically as charms and spells, for such as use them, to defend themselves against those evils which their own fears are apt perpetually to muster up, and to endeavour by bribery to purchase the favour and indulgence of heaven, as Juvenal speaks of the superstitious Egyptian : 1 Simplic. Comment. in Epict. cap. XXXI. 2 πρὸς τὸν τρίτον, τῆς ἀθείας λόγον ἴωμεν· ὃς εἶναι μὲν τὰ θεῖα καὶ προνοεῖν τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ὁμολογεῖ, παρατρέπεσθαι δὲ δώροις, καὶ ἀναθήμασι, καὶ κερματίου δια dóσeow. Simpl. in Epict. cap. xxxi. 3 Καὶ ταύτην τὴν ἡμῶν ἐπιστροφὴν πρὸς αὐτὸν, ὡς αὐτοῦ πρὸς ἡμᾶς λέγομεν τοιοῦτόν τι πάσχοντες, οἷον οἱ πέτρας τινὸς παραλίας κάλων ἐξάψαντες, καὶ τῷ ἐκεῖνον ἐπισπᾶσθαι ἑαυτούς τε καὶ τὸ ἀκάτιον τῇ πέτρα προσάγοντες, καὶ δι' ἀπειρίαν τοῦ γινομένου δοκοῦντες οὐκ αὐτοὶ προσιέναι τῇ πέτρᾳ, ἀλλὰ τὴν πέτραν κατ' ὀλίγον ἐπ' αὐτοὺς ἰέναι. Μεταμέλειαι δὲ, καὶ ἱκετεῖαι, καὶ εὐχαὶ καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἀναλογοῦσι τῷ Kaλ.-Simpl. ibid. Illius lacrymæ meditataque murmura præstant Scilicet et tenui popano corruptus Osiris'. Though all this while I would not be understood to condemn too severely all servile fear of God, if it tend to make men avoid true wickedness, but that which settles upon these lees of formality. To conclude. Were I to define superstition more generally according to the ancient sense of it, I would call it such an apprehension of God in the thoughts of men, as renders Him grievous and burdensome to them, and so destroys all free and cheerful converse with Him; begetting, in the stead thereof, a forced and jejune devotion, void of inward life and love.' It is that which discovers itself pedantically in the worship of the Deity, in anything that makes up only the body or outward vesture of religion; though there it may make a mighty bluster: and because it comprehends not the true divine good that ariseth to the souls of men from an internal frame of religion, it is therefore apt to think that all its insipid devotions are as so many presents offered to the Deity, and gratifications for Him. How variously superstition can discover and manifest itself, we have intimated before: to which I shall only add this, that we are not so well rid of superstition, as some imagine, when they have expelled it out of their churches, expunged it out of their books and writings, or cast it out of their tongues, by making innovations in names; wherein they sometimes. imitate those old Caunii that Herodotus speaks of, who, that they might banish all the foreign gods that had stolen in among them, took their procession through all their country, beating and scourging the air as they went along2; no: for all this, superstition may enter into our chambers, and creep into our closets; it may twine about 1 Juv. Sat. VI. 539. 2 Herod. I. 172. our secret devotions, and actuate our forms of belief and orthodox opinions, when it hath no place else to shroud itself, or hide its head in; we may think to flatter the Deity by these, and to bribe it with them, when we are grown weary of more pompous solemnities: nay, it may mix itself with a seeming faith in Christ; as I doubt it doth now in too many who, laying aside all sober and serious care of true piety, think it sufficient to offer up the active and passive righteousness of their Saviour, to a severe and rigid justice, to make expiation for those sins they can be willing to allow themselves in. Α SHORT DISCOURSE ON ATHEISM. They say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him? Job xxi. 14, 15. Ἔνιοι γὰρ ἀποσφαλέντες παντάπασιν εἰς δεισιδαιμονίαν ὤλισθον· οἱ δὲ φεύγοντες ὥσπερ ἕλος τὴν δεισιδαιμονίαν, ἔλαθον αὖθις ὥσπερ εἰς κρημνὸν ἐμπεσόντες τὴν ἀθεότητα. PLUTARCH. de Iside et Osiride, 378 A. Ἔνιοι φεύγοντες τὴν δεισιδαιμονίαν, ἐμπίπτουσιν εἰς ἀθεότητα τραχεῖαν καὶ ἀντίτυπον, ὑπερπηδήσαντες ἐν μέσῳ κειμένην τὴν εὐσέβειαν. PLUTARCH. de Superst. ad fin. |