{ 21} 3. Thus every nation had a class of deities peculiar to itself, among which one was supposed to be pre-eminent over the rest, and was their king, though subject himself to the laws of fate, or to an eternal destiny. The oriental nations had not the same gods as the Gauls, the Germans, and the other northern nations; and the Grecian deities were essentially different from those of the Egyptians, who worshipped brute animals, plants, and various productions of nature and art. Each nation, likewise, had its own method of worshiping its gods; differing widely from the rites of other nations. But, from their ignorance or from other causes the Greeks and Romans maintained that their gods were universally worshipped; and they therefore gave the names of their own gods to the foreign deities which has caused great confusion and errors in the history of ancient religions even in the works of the learned.
4. Heathen Toleration--Its Cause.--The variety of gods and religions in the pagan nations produced no wars or feuds among them. Each nation without concern allowed its neighbors to enjoy their own views of religion, and to worship their own gods in their own way. Nor need this tolerance greatly surprise us. For they who regard the world as divided like a great country into numerous provinces each subject to a distinct order of deities, cannot despise the gods of other nations nor think of compelling all others to pay worship to their national gods. The Romans in particular, though they would not allow the public religions to be changed or multiplied, yet gave the citizens full liberty to observe foreign religions in private, and to hold meetings and feasts and to erect temples and groves to these foreign deities, in whose worship there was nothing inconsistent with the public safety and existing laws. (See note 2, end of section.)
5. Character of Heathen Gods.--The greater part of the gods of all nations were ancient heroes, famous for their achievements and their worthy deeds; such as kings, generals { 22} and the founders of cities; and likewise females who were highly distinguished for their deeds and discoveries, whom a grateful posterity had deified. To these some added the more splendid and useful objects in the natural world, among which the sun, moon, and stars being pre-eminent, received worship from nearly all, and some were not ashamed to pay divine honors to mountains, rivers, trees, the earth, the ocean, the winds, and even to diseases, to virtues and vices, and to almost every conceivable object, or, at least, to the deities supposed to preside over these objects.