Page:Three Books of Occult Philosophy (De Occulta Philosophia) (1651).djvu/569

 all the Gods, as the Eagle is of other birds; the other, because all things are subject to him; in like manner we also reverence the Image of a Lamb, because it representeth Christ, and the picture of a Dove, because it signifieth the holy Ghost, and the forms of a Lion, Oxe, Eagle, and a man, signifying the Evangelists, and such like things, which we find expressed in the Revelations of the Prophets, and in divers places of the holy Scripture: moreover those things confer to the like revelations and dreams, and therefore are called sacred pictures; there are also sacred rites and holy observations, which are made for the reverencing of the Gods, and religion, viz. devout gestures, genuflexions, uncoverings of the head, washings, sprinklings of Holy water, perfumes, exterior expiations, humble processions, and exterior Ornaments for divine praises, as musical Harmony, burning of wax candles and lights, ringing of bells, the adorning of Temples, Altars and Images, in all which there is required a supream and special reverence and comeliness; wherefore there are used for these things, the most excellent, most beautifull and pretious things, as gold, silver, pretious stores, and such like: which reverences and exterior rites are as it were lessons and invitations to spiritual sacred things, for the obtaining the bounty of the Gods; concerning which Proserpina beareth witness in these verses,

"Who ever did the brazen statues slight, The yellow gifts of gold, or silver white, Who would not wonder, and not say that these Are of the Gods? -"

The priests also are called sacred, and the ministers of the divine powers, and Gods, and they themselves being consecrated do both administer all the holy things, and also consecrate them, whence Lucan.

"The consecrated priests, to whom great power Is granted -"

And Virgil saith of Helenus the priest of Apollo,

"He praies for peace of th' Gods, and doth unloose The Garlands of his sacred head -"

Those