CHAPTER XVIII. WORSHIPPING TOWARDS THE EAST. THE heathen worshipped towards the east: for this many testimonies might be produced out of their own writers. "Surgit, et ætherei spectans orientia Solis Virgil. Æneid. lib. viii. "Illi ad surgentem conversi lumina Solem, Idem. lib. xii. And herein (saith Servius) they observed the ancient custom, which was to look towards the east when they prayed. And Ovid speaks to the same purpose.-Fastor. lib. iv. "His Dea placanda est: hæc tu conversus ad ortus Dic quater." It was the general practice (as Alexander ab Alexandro testifieth) to worship the gods towards the east.-In Genial. Dierum. lib. iv. cap. 17. Hence their temples were built east and west, as Vitruvius, Plutarch, and others have affirmed. Nay, they thought no lustration was lawful, except that which was done by those that turned to the east, saith Cratinus in Chirone apud Natal. Comit. Mythol. lib. i. cap. 14. Thus do our Romanists worship towards the east and for this their famous Bellarmine urgeth several arguments. As-1. "Because Paradise was seated in the east, Gen. ii. Therefore we pray towards the east, because we profess ourselves pilgrims, and long for our country, out of which we were ejected by sin. 2. Because the heavens begin to move from the east; hence it is that that part of the world is most excellent. And therefore, when we pray, we turn our corporal face to the most excellent body, that we may be admonished to turn our spiritual face to the most excellent Spirit, which is God. 3. Because Christ, whom we invocate, is the light of the world; and therefore, to signify that we are illuminated by Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, as they are by the corporeal sun, who look towards the east, we use this ceremony. 4. Because our Lord was crucified on the cross towards the west; therefore we pray towards the east, that we may look him in the face." These most convincing arguments are urged by Bellarmine, and many other Roman doctors for this custom. But their Polydor Virgil ingenuously confesseth that it was derived from the Gentiles.-De Inventor. Rerum. lib. v. cap. 9. And Pope Leo III. acknowledgeth that this practice savours of a pagan spirit, and ought not to be tolerated among Christians. "From such institutions this impiety hath proceeded, that the sun, when it riseth in the morning, is adored from high places by simple people: which also some Christians do, and they think so religiously, that before they come to the church of blessed Peter the apostle, having passed the steps to the high altar,* they turn their bodies to the rising sun, and bow in honour of that glorious body; which being done, partly through ignorance, and partly from a spirit of paganism, we are greatly troubled, because though some perhaps rather worship the Creator of light, than light itself, which is a creature; yet we must abstain from the very appearance of such veneration: which when one that hath renounced Gentilism, observeth in us, will he not retain this part of his old religion, as probable, which he sees common both to Christians and Gentiles."-Serm. vii. de Nativit. And Pineda affirms, "That in this Pope's time the custom of building churches, and worshipping towards the east was not observed."-In Job xxxi. 26. * Though Basil made worshipping towards the east an ancient tradition, Lib. de Spir. Sanct. ; yet their infallible Leo cancelled it as an heathenish addition not fit to be entertained in Christian religion. 153 CHAPTER XIX. HOLY WATER. THE heathen besprinkled themselves with lustral or purgative water, when they went to sacrifice, and perform their devotions. "Spargit et ipse suos lauro rorante capillos: Ablue præteriti perjuria temporis, inquit ; Ovid. Fastor. lib. v. "Ter se convertit, ter sumptis flumine crinem Solvit." Ovid. Metam. lib. vii. And their hands especially were to be washed, as Homer informs us.-Iliad. lib. vi. χερσίτδ ̓ ἀνίποισιν Διῖ λείβειν αἴθόπα δινον "Non decet illotis manibus libare superno And Timarchidas, in libro de Coronis, tell us that Asterius was smitten with a thunder-bolt, because he touched the altar of Jupiter with unclean, that is, unwashed hands. Χερσιν ἀνίπτοισι ρέζων Διὸς ἥψατο βωμου Apud Natal. Comit. Mythol. lib. i. cap. 14. Justin Martyr, speaking of the Gentiles, saith, They sprinkle themselves with water, when they go into their temples, and then offer sacrifices unto their gods."-Apol. ii. And Belethus tells us, "That they built their temples near unto fountains, that they might always have water in readiness, by which they fancied themselves purified; and therefore they called those fountains Delubra, a diluendo, Explicat.”—Divin. Offic. cap. 110. And that they had certain men standing at the doors of their temples, whose office it was to sprinkle persons as they entered in, is clear from this story of Valentinian: "When the tyrant Julian went into the Temple of Fortune, the priests stood at the door, that they might sprinkle with water those that entered in; by which, according to their opinion, they were expiated. Valentinian, going before the Emperor, when he saw the water upon his cloak, smote the person that sprinkled it, and said, That he |