sistently. The latter distinction, of which we speak, is agreeable to the Divine Law, and leads to the doctrine of atonement: a victim without spot or blemish was required, with great propriety. When Heathens offered unclean animals, such as dogs and swine, I am not clear whether they meant it as an affront to the Mosaic distinction, or whether they judged impure victims more acceptable to their impure deities. How deplorable does human reason appear, when it departs from the true God! departs from the true God into darkness, and then falls to giving its reasons! Here the wise man makes a worse figure than the idiot. The Christian, who looks with his eyes open into the regions of Heathenism, will often shake his head with pity, as a sober man when he looks into Bedlam. The more the Heathens were in the dark about this affair, so much the better for my plan: for, if they practised what they did not understand, it is evident, that the practice was not the result of any reasoning of their own, but that it was received from authority. The more we reflect on this, the more wè shall be persuaded of it for nothing but authority will make a wise man practise what he does not understand: and, if it came from authority, that brings us at once to the point I am aiming at. Sacrifices, according to the Scripture, were used in different capacities; as expiations, purifications, and preparatives to divine inspiration*: To expiate is to do away sin by an act of piety.; the great act of piety, the offering of a sacrifice; from whence piety takes its name and it was never thought, from the days of Cain and Abel, that there could be such a thing as They were used, as we shall see, under the same capacities among the Heathens. piety to God without sacrifice. And the same holds good to this day. He that does not offer to God some sacrifice, is not pious, but impious; his prayers are an abomination. But how could such a persuasion enter the heart of man, otherwise than by Revelation from God? No man could think that the shedding of innocent blood would take away sin, unless he had been originally told so on unexceptionable authority*; so that the very existence of such a thing in the world is sufficient to prove that it came from Revelation: and divines think with good reason that it came in with the first promise in paradise" the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Sacrifices had also the name of purifications with the Heathens: they were called κalápuara, because they took away the foulness of guilt, and purged the conscience from the sense of sin. But, besides this, they were certainly used as preparatives to divine inspiration. Balaam offered seven bullocks and seven rams before he began his prophecy. And it is remarkable, that the priestess in Virgil, before she prophesies, prescribes the same animals, and in the same number. Nunc grege de intacto septem mactare juvencos Lib. vi. 38. The coincidence is here very remarkable, and must have been derived from the highest antiquity. But the false priests resembled the true in another part of their office, beside that of offering sacrifice. A priest was not only called 'Iepeùs, from his being concerned in holy offerings; he was also called They never would have injured themselves so much in their property as to offer sacrifice, more especially when they offered hecatombs at once. ἀρητήρ, an intercessor, παρὰ τὸ ἀρᾶσθαι, ὃ ἐστιν εὔχεσθαι, from his offering prayers in behalf of the people: and it was accounted a great offence for the people to dishonour their intercessor; and Homer tells us how the Greeks suffered for it. Ablutions or baptisms were prescribed, in the Divine Law, as necessary to wash away the impurity contracted by offending against it: particularly in the case of those who touched the body of the slain : and even to this day washing with water is the outward sign of the washing away of sin*: and it was necessary that the water used for sacred purposes should be living water; that is, not stagnant, but running water. These ablutions were common among the Heathens, and the water was of the same sort applied on various occasions. In the case of Æneas, we have nearly the whole doctrine. Having been defiled among the slain, he declares himself unfit to meddle with holy things, till he had washed his body with living water, Abluero +. Donec me flumine vivo The articles of wine, flour, cakes, oil, honey, incense, salt, were all used by Heathens as in the law of Moses: insomuch that I heard it once observed by a learned man, to whom I looked up for much information when I was young, that even Homer alone, in the circumstantials of sacrifice, would nearly *Pilate, an Heathen, washed his hands, to signify that his conscience was clear of guilt. + The same occurs in Homer. Χερσὶ δ ̓ ἀνίπτοισιν Δίϊ λέιβειν ἄιθοπα οἶνον "Αζομαι· οὐδέ πή ἐστι κελαινεφεϊ Κρονίωνι Αἵματι καὶ λύθρῳ πεπαλαγμένον εὐχετάασθαι. ζ. 167. 3 furnish us with the particulars of the Levitical ritual. But it is time now to consider, that the rites of worship require a place wherein they are to be performed. In this place the Scripture was called the tabernacle or temple, into which it was commanded that offerings of every kind should be brought. The Heathens also had their temples, and they were almost as numerous as their deities. In these their sacrifices were offered; and I suppose 'Iɛpsov, a victim, to have been so called from 'Iɛpòv, a temple: because it was the chief offering made in that place. They affected a division in their temples similar to that of the Jewish temple; as that had a secret place called the Holy of Holies, so had they their adyta, with tripods and cortynæ, and other furniture, where the oracles were delivered. As to the oracles themselves, I care not what they were they might be false in their matter, or false in their author; all I say is this, that there never would have been a false oracle, unless there had been a true one. And the same may be said of dreams; which was another mode of divine revelation; and another name for a prophet was a dreamer of dreams. The same character we find in Homer*, on occasion of the Greeks desiring to know the reason why they were visited with a plague. 'Αλλ' άγε δή τινα μάντιν ἐρείομεν, ἢ ἱἑρῆα Η καὶ ὀνειροπόλον (καὶ γάρ τ' ὄναρ ἐκ Δῖος ἐστιν). I might collect many other circumstantials relating to offerings, purifications, and ablutions; but what I have mentioned seem to me of principal consideration. * And under both the names of μάντις ὀνειροπόλος. But there is one custom of very high antiquity, which ought not to be forgotten. We read that the Father of the Faithful offered to Melchizedech, as the priest of God, the tenths of the spoils he had taken in war. This we find to have been the practice with Heathens *; who also paid tenths to their kings, for religious uses. Florus tells us, that the Romans sent the tenths of the spoils they had taken, after a ten years' siege, to Apollo Pythius. Lib. i. cap. 12. As we read of many signal judgments in the Scriptures; so there was an universal opinion, that the Gods visited the sins of men, and had been known to have done it personally. But, instead of searching for particulars, I shall speak of one instance, which might stand for all the rest; and this is the destruction of the world by a flood. The testimony of Ovid is so well known, that it need not be repeated; but the fact is attested by the Greeks as well as the Latins. They relate, that the present race of wicked men are not the first that were upon earth; for that there were a former race, who all perished; and that the present race came from Deucalion, a man who survived the flood, by entering into an ark with his family, and all kinds of living creatures, none of which hurt him: that this fact was annually commemorated at the temple of Juno, in Syria, a temple said to have been originally built in commemoration of the flood. All this may be found in Lucian's Treatise de Dea Syria, quoted by Grotius, lib. i. 16. Mr. Bryant has taken great pains to show, in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology, what foundation the Arkite ceremonies of the Heathens had in Divine Revelation. For this he has met with his due praise: but it is much to be regretted, that when he * Josephus gives many examples from Heathens in his Antiquities. |