Purchas his pilgrimage. Or Relations of the vvorld and the religions obserued in all ages and places discouered, from the Creation vnto this present In foure partes. This first containeth a theologicall and geographicall historie of Asia, Africa, and America, with the ilands adiacent. Declaring the ancient religions before the Floud ... With briefe descriptions of the countries, nations, states, discoueries, priuate and publike customes, and the most remarkable rarities of nature, or humane industrie, in the same. By Samuel Purchas, minister at Estwood in Essex.

CHAP. X.

Of Babylonia, the originall of Idolatrie: and the Chaldaeans Antiquities before the Floud, as BEROSVS hath reported them.

COnfusion caused diuision of Nations, Regions, and Religions. Of this confusion (whereof is alreadie spoken) the Citie, and thereof this Countrey, tooke the name. a Plinie maketh it a part of Syria, which he extendeth from hence to Cilicia. b Strabo addeth, as farre as the Pontike Sea. But it is vsually reckoned an entire countrey of it selfe, which c Ptolomey doth thus bound. On the North it hath Mesopota∣mia, on the West Arabia Deserta; Susiana on the East; on the South, part of Arabia, and the Persian Gulfe. Luke (Act.7.21) maketh Babylonia a part of Mesopotamia: Pto∣lomey more strictly diuideth them: whereunto also agreeth the interpretation of the Land of Shinar, that it was the lower part of Mesopotamia, containing Chaldaea and Babylon, lying vnder the Mount Sangara. D Willet in Dan. cap.1.9.15. In this Coun∣trey was built the first Citie which wee reade of after the Floud, by the vngratefull world, moued thereunto (as some thinke) by Nimrod, the sonne of Cush, nephew of Cham. For as Cains posteritie, before the Floud, were called the Sonnes of Men, as more sauouring the things of men then of God; more industrious in humane inuenti∣ons, then religious deuotions: so by Noahs Curse it may appeare, and by the Nations that descended of him, that Cham was the first Author, after the Floud, of irreligion. Neither is it likely, that he which derided his old father, whome Age, Hobnesse, Fa∣therhood. Benefits, and thrice greatest Function of Monarchie, Priesthood, and Prophecie, should haue taught him to reuerence: That he (I say) which at once could breake all these bonds and chaynes of Nature and Humanitie, would be held with any bonds of Religion; or could haue an eye of Faith to see him which is inuisible, hauing put out his eyes of Reason and Cimlitie. Had he feared God, had he reuerenced man, had hee made but profession of these things in some hypocriticall shew, he could not so easily haue sitten downe at ease in that Chaire of Scorning, whence we reade not that euer he arose by repentance. From this Cham came Nimrod, d the mightie hunter before the Lord; not of innocent beasts, but of men, compelling them to his subiection, although Noah and Sim were yet aliue, with many other Patriarchs.

As for Noah, the fabling Heathen, it is like, deified him. The Berosus of fabling An∣nius, calleth him Father of the Gods, Heauen, Chaos, the Soule of the World. Ianus his double face might seeme to haue arisen hence, of Noahs experience of both Ages, before & after the Floud. The fable of e Saturnes cutting off his fathers priulties might take beginning of that act, for which Cham was cursed. Sem is supposed to be that

Melchisedech King of Salem, the figure of our Lord, and the propagator of true Re∣ligion; although euen in his posteritie it failed, in which, Abrahams father, as witnes∣seth f Ioshua serued other Gods. Iaphets pietie causeth vs to persuade our selues good things of him; Cham and his posteritie we see the authors of ruine. g Philo and Me∣thodius (so are the two bookes called, but falsely) tell, That in these dayes they began to diuine by Starres, and to sacrifice their children by Fire; which Element Nimrod compelled men to worship: and that to leaue a name to posteritie, they engraued their names in the brickes wherewith Babel was builded. Abram refusing to com∣municate with them (and good cause, for h he was not yet borne) was cast into their Brick-kill, and came out (long after from his mothers wombe) without harme. Nahor, Lot, and other his fellowes, nine in number, saued themselues by flight. i Others adde, That Arane, Abrams brother, was done to death for refusing to worship the Fire. Qui Bauium non odit, amet tua carmina Maeni.

To come to truer and more certaine reports, Moses sayth, That the beginning of Nimrods Kingdome was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calne which three some in∣terprete Edessa, Nisibis, Callinisum. And whereas commonly it is translated in the next words, Out of that land came Ashur, and built Niniue. Tremellius and Iunius reade it, Out of this land he (Nimrod) went into Ashur or Assyria, and built Niniue and Re∣hoboth, Calah, and Resen. But k most vsually this is vnderstood of Ashur the sonne of Sem; who disclaiming Nimrods tyrannie, built Niniue, which after became the chiefe Citie of the Assyrian Empire, to which Babylon it selfe was subiected not long after. Xenophon de Aequivocis (if his authoritie be current) saith, That the eldest of the chiefe Families were called Saturni, their fathers had to name Coelum, their wiues Rhea: and out of a pillar, erected by Semiramis to Ninus, alledgeth this inscription; My father was Iupiter Belus, my grandfather Saturnus Babylonicus, my great grandfather Satur∣nus Aethiops, who was sonne of Saturnus Aegyptius; to whome Coelus Phoenix Ogyges was father. Ogyges is interpreted Noah, therefore called Phoenix, because of his ha∣bitation (as is thought) in Phoenicia, not farre from whence, in Ierusalem, Sem raig∣ned; Saturnus Aegyptius may be the name of Cham, of whose name Aegypt is in Scripture tearmed l the land of Cham. Saturnus Aethiops is Chush; Nimrod Baby∣lonicus, the father of Belus, who begat Ninus. But this cannot be altogether true. For Niniue hath greater antiquitie then Nimrods nephew (howsoeuer the Greeke Histories ascribe this to Ninus, and Babylon to his wife Semiramis) except wee say, that by them these two Cities, formerly built, were enlarged and erected to that mag∣nificence, which with the growth of the Assyrian Empire they after obtained.

m Eusebius in the first booke of his Chronicle attributeth the originall of Idolatrie to Serug the father of Nahor. n Beda sayth, In the daies of Pbaleg Temples were built, and the Princes of Nations adored for Gods. The same hath Isidore. o Epiphanius re∣ferreth it to Serug; and addeth, That they had not grauen Images of Wood or Met∣tall, but pictures of men; and Thara, the father of Abraham, was the first Author of Images. The like hath Suidas. These times, till Abram, they called Scythismus. The reason of their Idolatrie Eusebius alledgeth: That they thus kept remembrance of their Warriors, Rulers, and such as had atchieued noblest Enterprises & worthiest Exploits in their life time. Their posteritie, ignorant of that their scope (which was, to obserue their memorials which had been authors of good things, and because they were their fore-fathers) worshipped them as heauenly Deities, and sacrificed to them. Of their p God-making or Canonization this was the manner: In their sacred Bookes or Kalen∣dars they ordained, That their names should be written after their death, and a Feast should be solemnized according to the same time, saying, That their soules were gone to the Isles of the blessed, and that they were no longer condemned or burned with fire. These things lasted to the dayes of Thara; who (sayth Suidas) was an Image∣maker, & propounded his Images (made of diuers matter) as Gods to be worshipped: but Abram broke his fathers Images. From Sarueh the Author, and this Practise, Ido∣latrie passed to other Nations: Suidas addeth, specially into Greece: for they worship∣ped

Hellen, a Gyant of the posteritie of Iapheth, a partner in the building of the Tower.

Not vnlike to this, we read the causes of Idolatrie in the booke of q Wisdome (sup∣posed to be written by Philo, but, because the substance is Salomons, professing and bearing his name) which of all the Apocrypha-Scripture sustaineth least exception, attaineth highest commendation: When a father mourned grieuously for his sonne that was taken away suddenly, he made an Image for him that was once dead, whom now he wor∣shippeth as a God, and ordained to his seruants Ceremonies and Sacrifices. A second cause he alledgeth, viz. the tyrannie of men, whose Images they made and honoured, that they might by all meanes flatter him that was absent as though he had been present. A third rea∣son followeth: the ambitious skill of the workman, that through the beautie of the worke the multitude being allured, tooke him for a God, which a little before was honored but as a man. The like affirmeth r Polydore de inuentoribus, alledging Cyprian de Idolis for his author. s Lactantius (as before is shewed) maketh that the Etymologie of the word Superstitio, Quia superstitem memoriam defunctorum colebant, aut quia parentibus suis superstites cele∣brabant imagines corum doms, tanquam Deos penates: either because they honored with such worship the suruiuing memorie of their dead ancestors; or because suruiuing and out-liuing their ancestors, they celebrated their Images in their houses, as household∣Gods. Such authors of new rites, and deifiers of t dead men they called Superstitious: but those which followed the publikely-receiued and auncient Deities, were called Religious, according to that verse of Virgil. Vana superstitio veterum{que} ignara deorū. But by this rule (saith Lactant.) we shall find all superstitious which worship false Gods, and them only religious, which worship the one and true GOD. The same Lactant. saith, That Noah cast off his sonne Cham for his wickednes, & expelled him. He abode in that part of the earth which now is called Arabia, called (sayth he) of his name Ca∣naan, and his posteritie Canaanites. This was the first people which was ignorant of GOD, because their founder & Prince receiued not of his father the worship of GOD. But first of all other the Aegyptians began to behold & adore the heauenly bodies: And because they were not couered with houses for the temperature of the ayre, and that Region is not subiect to Clouds, they obserued the motions and eclipses of the starres, and whiles they often viewed them more curiously, fell to worship them. After that, they inuēted the monstrous shapes of Beasts, which they worshipped. Other men scattered through the World, admiring the Elements, the Heauen, Sunne, Land, Sea, without any Images & Temples worshipped them, and sacrificed to them sub dio, till in processe of time they erected Temples and Images to their most puissant Kings, & ordain∣ed vnto them Sacrifices and Incense: so wandering from the knowledge of the true GOD, they became Gentilos. Thus farre Lactantius. And it is not vnlike that they performed this to their Kings, either u in flatterie, or feare of their power, or because of the benefits which they receiued from them, this being (saith x Pliny) the most ancient kind of thankfulnesse, to reckon their benefactors among the Gods. To which accor∣deth Cicero in the examples of Hercules, Castor, Pollux, Aesculapius, Liber, Romulus. And thus the Moores deified their Kings, and the Romans their deceased Emperors.

The first that is named to haue set vp Images, and worship to the dead, was y Ninus, who when his father Belus was dead, he made an Image to him, & gaue priuiledge of sanctuarie to all offēders that resorted to this Image: wherupon, moued with a grace∣lesse gratefulnesse, they performed thereunto diuine honours. And this example was practised after by others. And thus of Bel or Belus began this Imagerie, & for this cause (saith z Lyra) they called their Idols Bel, Baal, Beel-zebub, according to the diuersitie of Languages. Cyrillus calleth him Arbelus, and saith, That before the Floud was no Idolatrie amongst men, but it had beginning after in Babylon, in which, Arbelus (next after whom raigned Ninus) was worshipped. Tertullian a out of the booke of Enoch, before mentioned, is of opinion, That Idolatrie was before the Floud. Thus to conti∣nue the memorie of mortall men, & in admiration of the immortall heauenly Lights, together with the tyrannie of Princes, & policies of the Priests, begā this worshipping of the creature, with the contempt of the Creator: which how they encreased, by the mysteries of their Philosophers, the fabling of their Poets, the ambition of Potentates,

the Superstition of the Vulgar, the gainefull Collusion of their Priests, the Cunning of Artificers, and aboue all, the Malice of the Deuils, worshipped in those Idols, their giuing Answeres and Oracles, and receiuing Sacrifices, the b Histories of all Nations are ample witnesses. And this Romane Babylon, now Tyrant of the West, is the heire of elder Babylon (sometimes Ladie of the East) in these deuotions, that then and still Babylon might be the mother of Whoredomes and all Abhominations. To which aptly agree the Paralels of Babylon and Rome in c Orosius, the Empire of the one ceasing, when the other began first to haue a being; which he further prosecuteth in many particulars.

But before wee prosecute these Babylonian affaires after the Floud, it shall not be amisse to shew here the Chaldaean fables of Antiquities before the Floud, out of Berosus, a Chaldaean Priest, which liued in the time of Alexander. Polyhistor d citeth out of Berosus his first Booke this report of himselfe; and Tatianus e sayth hee was the Priest of Belus, and wrote his Chaldaean storie to Antiochus, the third after Seleucus, in three bookes. His name by Scaligers interpretation signifieth the sonne of Osee.

Alorus raigned the space of tenne Sari (Sarus with them is three thousand sixe hundred yeares) Alasparus, three Sari; Amelus, thirteene Sari; Amenus, twelue; Metalarus, eighteene; Daorus, tenne; Aedorachus, eighteene; Amphis, tenne; Oti∣artes, eight; Xixnthrus eighteene: in his time, as is said before, the Floud happened. The whole space is an hundred and twentie Sari, which amounteth to foure hundred thirtie two thousand yeares. This I thought not vnfit (although incredible) to report from Berosus, both because my scope is to declare as well false as true Religions (it be∣ing not Theologicall but Historicall, or rather Historically Theologicall) and because the Ancients, Cicero, Lactantius, Augustine: haue mentioned this monstrous Computa∣tion of the Chaldaean Kalendar, which yet they racke higher to foure hundred three∣score and tenne thousand yeres. Here you haue the particulars, out of Apollodorus and Abidenus, which both borrowed them of Berosus. f Polyhistor addeth, That there came one out of the red Sea, called Oannes, and Annedotus a Monster (otherwhere like a fish, his head, feet, and hands like a man, as sayth Photius but Al. Polyhistor ascribeth two heads, one of a Fish, and the other of a man) the Image whereof was vnto his times reserued. This Monster liued without meat, and taught them the knowledge of Letters, and all Arts, buildings of Cities, foundations of Temples, enacting of Lawes, Geometrie, and Husbandrie, and all necessaries to mans life. Afterwards he returned to the Sea: and after him appeared other such monsters. Foure of them came out of the Sea, sayth Abidenus, when Daos (whom Apollodorus calleth Daorus) raigned; their names were Enedocus, Eneugamus, Enaboulus, Anementus. Pentabiblus (it seemeth) was then their chiefe Citie. That Oannes the first did write of the first beginning: That all was darkenesse and water, in which liued monstrous creatures, hauing two formes; men with two wings, and some with foure; with one bodie, two heads, one of a man, and another of a woman, with the priuities of both sexes: others with hornes and legges like Goats; some with Horse feet; some like Centaures, the former part Men, the after part Horses: Buls also headed like Men, and Dogges with foure bodies &c. with many monstrous mixtures and confusions of creatures, whose Images were kept in the Temple of Belus. Ouer all these ruled a woman, named Omorka, which signifieth the Sea, and by like signification of Letters, the Moone. Then came Belus and cut her in twaine, and made the one halfe of her Land, the other Heauen, and the creatures therein appeared. This Belus made Men & Beasts, the Sunne, Moone, & Planets: These things reporteth Berosus in his first booke; in the second he telleth of the Kings (before mentioned) which raigned till the floud. After the floud also the same Polyhistor out of him sheweth, That Sisuthrus hauing, by Saturns warning before, built an Arke (as is be∣fore said) & layd vp all monuments of Antiquitie in Sipparis, a Citie dedicated to the Sunne, & now with all his world of creatures escaped the floud, going out of the Arke did sacrifice to the Gods, & was neuer seen more. But they heard a voice out of the aire giuing thē this precept, to be religious. His wife, daughter, & shipmaster were partakers

with him of this honour. He said vnto them, the Country where they now were was Ar∣menia, and he would come againe to Babylon, and that it was ordained, that from Sipparis they should receiue letters, and communicate the same to men: which they accordingly did. For hauing sacrificed to the gods, they went to Babylon and dig∣ged out the letters, writings, or bookes, and building many Cities, and founding Temples, did againe repaire Babylon. Thus farre out of Alexander Polyhistor, a large fragment of the true Berosus.

Notes

• a

  Plin. l. 5. c.12.
• b

  Strab. l.16.
• c

  Ptol. Geograe. l.5.c.20.
• d

  Gen.10.9.
• e

  Saturnes filius Coeli, cui sub••∣ic••t virilia.
• f

  Iosh.24.2.
• g

  Philo de Antiq. Method. Reuel.
• h

  The buil∣ding of Babel was An. Mund. 1757. and A∣braham was born An. 1948.
• i

  Chronic. be∣fore the Bible.
• Gen.10.9.
• k

  Ar. Montanus. Melanctbon Chron. Gramay. Asia.
• l

  Ps.78.51.
• m

  Chron. Gr. Edit. Scal. pag. 9. & 13.
• n

  Bed. Chronic.
• o

  Epiphan. can. her. l.1. in initio.
• p

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• q

  Wisedome ca. 14.14.
• r

  Polid. lib. 1. dt inuentorio.
• s

  Lactant. li. 4. ca. 28.
• t

  Omnia idola ex mortuorum errore creuerūt. Hier. in Hos. 2.
• Lib. 2. c. 14.
• u

  Bullinger de orig. erroris li. 1. ca. 9.
• x

  Plin. l. 34. c. 4.
• De Nat. D. l. 2.
• y

  Ambros. in e∣pist. ad Roman. cap. 1.
• Some think, and with pro∣bable coniect∣ture, that Belus was Nimrod.
• z

  Lyra. in Sap. 14. Petr. Comest. Hist. c. 40.
• Cyril. l. 3. cont. Iulian.
• a

  Tertal. de idol.
• b

  Oenomaus out of ••••esiod affi•••• ••th the number of Gods in the world to be 30000: which number he saith was then much encrea∣sed. Euseb. de preparat. l. 5. c. 15.
• c

  O cf. l. 2. c. 2, 3.
• d

  Polyhist in Eus. Chron.
• e

  Tatianus apud Scalig.
• f

  Fragmenta hec e•• •••••• in Chron. gr. Euseb. l. I. per Scalig.
• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉