Page:Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia) (1651).djvu/480

 the counsels of the gods, but in the midst he Judgeth the gods; and a little after, I have said ye are all gods, and sons of the most high; moreover he hath commanded concerning the worshipping and reverencing of them, decreeing tithes and first fruits for them, and giving them the power of the sword, and forbidding any to curse them, and commanding obedience to be yielded to them, though wicked. Hence all Antiquity called their princes gods, and worshipped them as divine powers, as Janus testifieth in Ovid, in his first book of Fasti saying,

When th' Earth of th' Gods was potent, I did raign And deities mix'd were with seats humane.

And Divine Plato in his third book de Republica appointed that princes both alive and dead should be celebrated with divine honors, which Institution hath ben received amongst all Nations, even from the first age, viz. to deify their princes with divine honours, and to consecrate them with eternall memory; Hence they did impose their never dying names on Cities, Provinces, Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, Ilands and Seas; And dedicated to them with great pomp, Piramides, Colosses, triumphal Arches, Trophies, Statues, Temples, Plays, Feasts; and also called the Heavens, Stars, Dayes and Months by their names. Hence January from Janus, July from Julius, August from Augustus; so dies Mercurii from Mercury Trismegist, Dies Jovis from Jupiter, which custome we read was observed not only by the Aegyptians Greeks and Romans, but also by the extream barbarous people, as Gothes, Danes and Teutones. Hence Saxo Grammaticus being witness, what day the former call Dies Mercurii, these do call Othines day: what day the former name from Jupiter, these call Thors day, from Othin and Thor in times past Kings of Gotland and Denmark; neither are they for any other reason called Gothes, then that they call in their language their chiefest god Got. Hence also the Dutch are thus called, because they named the god Mars, whom they worshipped, Teutan; by which name the Gaules also called Mercury.