discipline or practices, to those of their Eastern neighbours of India, on one side; and their Western neighbours, the Christians of Europe, on the other. That religion appears to have been a connecting link in the chain, and probably in this point of view it will be regarded by every unprejudiced person, when all the circumstances relating to it are taken into consideration. Like almost all the ancient systems of theology, its origin is lost in the most remote antiquity. Its foundation is generally attributed to a sage of the name of Zoroaster, but in order to reconcile the accounts given of him with any thing like consistency, or with one another, several persons of this name must be supposed to have lived.
2. Treating of the religion of Persia, Sir W. Jones says, “The primeval religion of Iran, if we may rely on the authorities adduced by Monsani Fání, was that which Newton calls the oldest (and it may justly be called the noblest) of all religions; a firm belief that ‘one Supreme God made the world by his power, and continually governed it by his providence; a pious fear, love, and adoration of him; and due reverence for parents and aged persons; a fraternal affection for the whole human species; and a compassionate tenderness even for the brute creation.’”[1]
Firdausi, speaking of the prostration of Cyrus and his paternal grandfather before the blazing altar, says, “Think not that they were adorers of fire, for that element was only an exalted object, on the lustre of which they fixed their eyes; they humbled themselves a whole week before God; and if thy understanding be ever so little exerted, thou must acknowledge thy dependance on the Being supremely pure.[2]
However bigoted my Christian reader may be, he will hardly deny that there is here the picture of a beautiful religion. On this subject Mr. Maurice says, “The reader has already been informed that the first object of the idolatry of the ancient world was the Sun. The beauty, the lustre, and vivifying warmth of that planet, early enticed the human heart from the adoration of that Being who formed its glowing sphere and all the host of heaven. The Sun, however, was not solely adored for its own intrinsic lustre and beauty; it was probably venerated by the devout ancients as the most magnificent emblem of the Shechinah which the universe afforded. Hence the Persians, among whom the true religion for a long time flourished uncorrupted, according to Dr. Hyde, in a passage before referred to, asserted, that the throne of God was seated in the sun. In Egypt, however, under the appellation of Osiris, the sun was not less venerated, than under the denomination of Mithra, in Persia.”[3]
3. The first dogma of the religion of Zoroaster clearly was, the existence of one Supreme, Omnipotent God. In this it not only coincides with the Hindoo and the Christian, but with all other religions; in this, therefore, there is not any thing particular: but on further inquiry it appears that this great First Cause, called Ormusd or Oromasdes, was a being like the Gods of the Hindoos and of the Christians, consisting of three persons. The triplicate Deity of the Hindoos of three persons and one God, Bramha the Creator, Vishnu or Cristna, of whom I shall soon treat, the Saviour or Preserver, and Siva the Destroyer; and yet this was all one God, in his different capacities. In the same manner the Supreme God of the Persians consisted of three persons, Oromasdes the Creator, Mithra the Saviour, Mediator, or Preserver, and Ahriman the Destroyer. The Christians had also their Gods, consisting of three persons and one God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Psellus informs us, Oromasdes and Mithras were frequently used by the Magi for the τὸ Θειον, or whole Deity in general, and Plethro adds a third, called Arimanius, which is confirmed by Plutarch, who says, “That Zoroaster made a threefold distribution of
