Excerpt from The Works of the Right Reverend William Warburton, D. D. Lord Bishop of Gloucester, Vol. 2 of 12: To Which Is Prefixed a Discourse by Way of General Preface; Containing Some Account of the Life, Writings, and Character of the Author To avoid ambiguity, it will be proper to explain the term. Each of the pagan Gods had (besides the public/s and open) a secret worshipt paid unto him to which none were admitted but those who had been selected by preparatory ceremonies, called initiation. This secret worship was termed the mysteries. But though every God had, besides his open w'or ship, the secret likewise; yet this latter did not every where attend the former; but only there, where he was the patron God, or in principal esteem. Thus, when in consequence of that intercommunity of pa ganism, which will be explained hereafter, one nation adopted the Gods of another, they did not always take in at the same time, the secret worship or Jllystcries Of that God: so, in Rome, the publick and Open worship Of Bacchus was in use long before his Mys teries were admitted. But, on the other hand again, the worship of the strange God was sometimes intro duced only for the sake Of his Mysteries: as, in the same city, that of Isis and Osiris. Thus stood the case in general; the particular exceptions to it, will be seen in the sequel of this dissertation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.