e of this opinion, it was the first but arduous duty of
a Christian to preserve himself pure and undefiled by the practice
of idolatry. The religion of the nations was not merely a speculative
doctrine professed in the schools or preached in the temples. The
innumerable deities and rites of polytheism were closely interwoven
with every circumstance of business or pleasure, of public or of
private life; and it seemed impossible to escape the observance of them,
without, at the same time, renouncing the commerce of mankind, and all
the offices and amusements of society. [40] The important transactions of
peace and war were prepared or concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which
the magistrate, the senator, and the soldier, were obliged to preside or
to participate. [41] The public spectacles were an essential part of the
cheerful devotion of the Pagans, and the gods were supposed to accept,
as the most grateful offering, the games that the prince and people
celebrated in honor of their peculiar festivals. [42] The Christians, who
with pious horror avoided the abomination of the circus or the theatre,
found himself encompassed with infernal snares in every convivial
entertainment, as often as his friends, invoking the hospitable deities,
poured out libations to each other's happiness. [43] When the bride,
struggling with well-affected reluctance, was forced into hymenaeal pomp
over the threshold of her new habitation, [44] or when the sad procession
of the dead slowly moved towards the funeral pile; [45] the Christian,
on these interesting occasions, was compelled to desert the persons
who were the dearest to him, rather than contract the guilt inherent
to those impious ceremonies. Every art and every trade that was in the
least concerned in the framing or adorning of idols was polluted by the
stain of idolatry; [46] a severe sentence, since it devoted to eternal
misery the far greater part of the community, which is employed in the
exercise of liberal or mechanic professions. If we cast our eyes over
the numerous remains of antiquity, we shall perceive, that besides the
immediate representations of the gods, and the holy instruments of their
worship, the elegant forms and agreeable fictions consecrated by the
imagination of the Greeks, were introduced as the richest ornaments of
the houses, the dress, and the furniture of the Pagan. [47] Even the arts
of music and painting, of eloquence and poetry, flowed from the same
impure