Sigalion in the Shield of Croesiades or Apologetic Dialogue for the Mystery of Detected Syncretism

name of a Symbol I hear, CELESTIAL DEITY is to be worshipped, but I detect three senses under one name. The Celestial Deity—that is, the Jehovah of the Hebrews—is to be worshipped with a bare, asēmos sign-less/formless cult, to be practiced in the sacrifices of Jerusalem alone. The Celestial Deity—that is, the immortal Jupiter who is never buried—is to be worshipped with a Symbolic cult, which rises to the heavens through terrestrial images, and by a certain fiction of the mind, feasts with Jupiter far away and is fed with the entrails of the sacrificed. The Celestial Deity—that is, the mortal and buried Jupiter—is to be worshipped with a terminating cult, which is directed into an idol endowed with the vital and divine spirit of Jupiter, and through the idol speaks as a loquacious oracle, worthy of having its knees smeared with oil; whom he has as a most present guest, who eats the entrails consecrated to Jupiter.

In these things, to command consensus, or at least a tolerance that is a traitress to the truth and a friend to the false—is this not ta asynklota synklethein to weave together things that cannot be woven? To pair goats with wolves, waves with flames?

§. 8. Nor is the question about the shadow of an ass a reference to the proverb "fighting about the shadow of an ass," meaning a triviality, about the mode of worshipping and the manner of koinonia communion/fellowship; but it penetrates to the inner shrines of religion. If you do or decide something differently even here, God will interpret it as an injury. Nor, if a client is ignorant of the certain manner of worshipping, and it remains meteoron suspended/in doubt, can he hope for help from heaven. Nor will he obtain the help he hopes for from a GOD who is unknown, or absurdly conceived, and disregarded. (c) See Justin, Book 4, ch. 3. It happens here to those ignorant of such mysteries as it does to those who view the promontories of (c) Sicily from a distance; they think the dry sea is not crossed, but as they approach more closely, they see that things which they previously thought were joined are actually departing and separating. Thus, religions seem to coincide from afar, but when inspected more deeply, they have a great chaos between them. But indeed, must one yield to necessity? Must one consult the Republic, to whose good all things yield? I concede all private conveniences, but I deny [the compromise of] sacred things; I deny the celestial safeguards referring to the Palladium; I deny things that are not of our human right. Although I do not know if that extemporaneous and violent association of parts is not exposed to equal or greater danger, at least it is not solid and does not endure over time. For who, with war raging, would prudently join arms with one in whom all rancor is not yet destroyed, all hatred soothed, who secretly worships a GOD alien to mine, who mingles his adverse Deity with my propitious one? Cranes agree with cranes,