Without discussing, therefore, the truth of the theology, they resented
every affront put upon the established worship, as a direct opposition
to the authority of government.
Add to which, that the religious systems of those times, however ill
supported by evidence, had been long established. The ancient religion
of a country has always many votaries, and sometimes not the fewer,
because its origin is hidden in remoteness and obscurity. Men have a
natural veneration for antiquity, especially in matters of religion.
What Tacitus says of the Jewish was more applicable to the heathen
establishment: "Hi ritus, quoquo modo inducti, antiquitate defenduntur."
It was also a splendid and sumptuous worship. It had its priesthood, its
endowments, its temples. Statuary, painting, architecture, and music,
contributed their effect to its ornament and magnificence. It abounded
in festival shows and solemnities, to which the common people are
greatly addicted, and which were of a nature to engage them much more
than anything of that sort among us. These things would retain great
numbers on its side by the fascination of spectacle and pomp, as well as
interest many in its preservation by the advantage which they drew from
it.
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