which also taught them, at the same time, to continue in the performance of certain solemn rites practised by their forefathers, which consisted principally in offering up sacrifices of animals, in acknowledgment of the necessity of the one true and great atonement, which was to be completed in and by Christ the everlasting Saviour. The same voice of tradition instructed them to offer no imperfect or impure animal as a victim, but to select particularly those creatures for this sacred purpose, whose natural temper and character appeared, in some degree, analogous to that glorious object intended to be thereby typified: they, moreover, poured out the blood of the immolated lamb, or whatever the sacrifice might be, either on or round about the altar; and with all this, many of them entertained opinions relative to the grand expected propitiation, which at once evinced a sense of human guilt and imperfection, together with a hope that all evil would at length be entirely removed from the race of man, and peace and righteousness once more overspread the earth. We perceive further, that the ancients had a notion of blood that might be shed, which was in its very nature far purer than that of any animal, or other victim they could themselves M offer. This was no other than the "blood of "their gods," denominated by them Ichor; a term which has allusion to those sacrificial offerings which were in fact but shadows of the great atonement. Thus, Ichor is used by the psalmist to denote "the precious part of lambs," which was always consumed by fire upon the altar. The same word is also used by Zechariah to describe that " price or value" prophetically set upon the future Saviour.* Homer mentions it in two passages; 66 ρεε δ άμβροτον αιμα Θεοιο ΙΧΩΡ οιος περ τε ρεει μακαρεσσι θεοισι : etc. Unlike our gross, diseas'd terrestrial blood. Let us, however, for the present, examine more particularly those traditions which the heathen embodied in the actions of their principal mythic personages; and which especially related to the great promise under consideration. A very large proportion of the heroes of antiquity have one grand and conspicuous ac Psalm xxxvii. 20. Zechar. xi, 13. Iliad v. 339. and 416. Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. voc "p'. tion represented to our view, in their history; and that action is the victory over a serpent. Among the foremost of these, is Apollo. He is declared to have been the offspring of the father of all things, and to have been born into this lower world in a sacred enclosure, typical of the paradise wherein the great promise was first promulgated, between a palm and an olive tree; which appear to have symbolically represented the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge, which grew in the midst of Eden.* His advent was looked for, according to Hesiod, as Ιμερόεντα γονον περι παντων Ουρανιώνων. The sun was his emblem in heaven, as a type of the glory he there enjoyed; and whenever he pleased to descend upon earth, the rocks, the fields, and the mountains, are described as rejoicing in his presence, and acknowledging him the lord of nature. However, at length, he is said to have incurred the heavy wrath of his father, and, inflamed with love to mankind, he left the bright seat of his glory, became a wanderer and an exile in the world; and is found at last in the lowly character of a shepherd, feeding the flocks of Admetus, king of Thessaly. Some have supposed that in the *Nat. Com. lib. iv. 10. name of this monarch, the title of our first forefather, Adam may be recognized; but be this as it may, certainly from the last circumstance, may be derived one of the titles of Apollo, who was hence called Nopos or the shepherd. It is true, indeed, that these traditions were often most grossly corrupted and misapplied; but our present object is to separate, as far as possible, between what is important, as being derived from primeval tradition, and what was afterwards added by the mere imagination of man. The ancient prophets sometimes spoke of the future deliverer, under this humble character of a shepherd; an instance of which occurs so early as the days of Jacob, who, when he was dying in Egypt, declared that from the Mighty God of himself and his fathers should proceed "the Shepherd "of Israel." Most likely the Egyptians were not inattentive to the prophecies of the expiring patriarch, if we may judge from the respect paid him by that nation at large, on his death and burial. Another most remarkable epithet conferred upon Apollo was that of Kapelos or Carnean, from the Hebrew p Keren, which signifies a horn. While it denotes, generally • Pausan. Corinth. p. 134 Laconic. p. 264. ; et Messen. p. 356. Nonnus applies the same title to Apollo. Dionyss. xvi. p. 290. speaking, either strength or power, there also seems to be an allusion to that species of sacred vessel, which contained the oil or perfume with which kings and priests were anointed. So that the title Kapveos which is a contraction of Kereneius, may be rendered by implication, Apollo "The Anointed." The principal action, however, of this deity, was the overthrow and destruction of the serpent called Python, traditional memorials of which victory, as we have seen, are discoverable in so many parts of the world, and are generally connected with sacred gardens. The serpent Python was none other than a symbolic personification of "that "old serpent, the great dragon called the devil "and satan, which deceiveth the whole world." From this attributed victory, Apollo was looked upon as the great deliverer of the human race; and Callimachus in his beautiful hymn, addresses him accordingly, Γεινατ' ΑΟΣΣΗΤΗΡΑ* Ευθέ σε μητηρ Thee, thy blest mother bore, and pleas'd, assign'd In memory, moreover, of this, the Pythian games (so called from Python the conquered lar * Hymn. in Apoll. Callim. 103. The whole of this singupoem is well worth the learned reader's attentive perusal. |