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Devotions; any thing unto which Divine worship and honour is given.
To the unknown God: it is storied, that in a plague time, when the Athenians had wearied themselves with their supplications unto all the gods of their country, they were advised by Epaminondas (a devout man amongst them) to erect an altar unto that god who had the power over that disease, whosoever he was; which because they did not know, and would be sure not to omit in their devotions, they erected an altar unto him under the name of
The unknown God. Some say, there was a more general inscription, To the gods of Asia, Europe, and Africa, to the unknown and strange gods; though the inscription the apostle mentions in the singular number, might be usual too: for the Athenians, who entertained all manner of gods, fearing lest there should be any which they had not heard of, for their greater security, as they imagined, would have an altar for such also. Now this unknown God, St. Paul says, which was worshipped by them, was the true God: for,
1. They had an apprehension that Christ was the true God,
whilst that wonderful eclipse at his death was
effectually considered amongst them. Hence it is said,
that Dionysius cried out, Deus ignotus in carne
patitur. Now the unknown God suffers in the flesh.
2. The God of the Jews, whose name the Jews took to be so
ineffable that they would not undertake to speak it, and
who was not wholly unknown to Plato and Pythagoras, and
who is truly invisible and incomprehensible, might upon
that account be thus styled amongst them.