10.  God then being thus great, and yet greater, (for even were I to change my whole substance into tongue, I could not speak His excellence:  nay more, not even if all Angels should assemble, could they ever speak His worth), God being therefore so great in goodness and majesty, man hath yet dared to say to a stone that he hath graven, Thou art my God Is. xliv. 17.!  O monstrous blindness, that from majesty so great came down so low!  The tree which was planted by God, and nourished by the rain, and afterwards burnt and turned into ashes by the fire,—this is addressed as God, and the true God is despised.  But the wickedness of idolatry grew yet more prodigal, and cat, and dog, and wolf The cat was sacred to the goddess Pasht, called by the Greeks Bubastis, and identified by Herodotus (ii. 137) with Artemis or Diana.  Cats were embalmed after death, and their mummies are found at various places, but especially at Bubastis (Herod. ii. 67). “The Dogs are interred in the cities to which they belong, in sacred burial-places” (Herod. ii. 67), but chiefly at Cynopolis (“City of Dogs”) where the dog-headed deity Anubis was worshipped. Mummies of wolves are found in chambers excavated in the rocks at Lycopolis, where Osiris was worshipped under the symbol of a wolf. were worshipped instead of God:  the man-eating lion The lion was held sacred at Leontopolis (Strabo, xvii. p. 812). also was worshipped instead of God, the most loving friend of man.  The snake and the serpent “In the neighbourhood of Thebes there are sacred serpents perfectly harmless to man.  These they bury in the temple of Zeus, the god to whom they are sacred.”  (Herod. ii. 74.) At Epidaurus in Argolis the serpent was held sacred as the symbol of Æsculapius.  Clement of Alexandria (Exhort. c. ii.) gives a fuller list of animals worshipped by various nations.  Compare also Clement. Recogn. V. 20., counterfeit of him who thrust us out of Paradise, were worshipped, and He who planted Paradise was despised.  And I am ashamed to say, and yet do say it, even onions Juvenal Sat. xv. 7. Illic aeluros, hic piscem fluminis, illic Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam. Possum et caepe nefas violare et frangere morsu. were worshipped among some.  Wine was given to make glad the heart of man Ps. civ. 15.:  and Dionysus (Bacchus) was worshipped instead of God.  God made corn by saying, Let the earth bring forth grass, yielding seed after his kind and after his likeness Gen. i. 11., that bread may strengthen man’s heart Ps. civ. 15.:  why then was Demeter (Ceres) worshipped?  Fire cometh forth from striking stones together even to this day:  how then was Hephæstus (Vulcan) the creator of fire?