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mentioned, was in conformity with the heathen ritual. All wore garlands at a heathen sacrifice, both the people and the victims.1

Singing and dancing were the general attendants of some of these idolatrous rites: thus, the Israelites danced before the golden calf. (Exod. xxxii. 19.) To this day, dancing before the idol takes place at almost every Hindoo idolatrous feast. But their sacrifices were not confined to irrational victims: it is well known that the practice of offering human victims prevailed to a great extent; and among the Ammonites and Phoenicians they were immolated to propitiate Moloch and Baal; and children were in some manner dedicated and devoted to them. The idolatrous worshippers are said to make them pass through the fire; denoting some right of dedication and purification. This was most expressly forbidden to the Israelites. (Levit. xviii. 20.) In this manner Ahaz devoted his son (2 Kings xvi. 2.): but as Hezekiah afterwards succeeded his father on the throne of Judah, it is evident that he was not put to death. From the declarations of the psalmist (cvi. 36-40.), and of the prophet Ezekiel (xvi. 21. xx. 26. 31.), it is, however, certain that many human victims were thus barbarously sacrificed.

The adoration or worship which idolaters paid to their gods did not consist barely in the sacrifices which they offered to them, but likewise in prostrations and bowings of the body; thus Naaman speaks of bowing in the house of Rimmon. (2 Kings v. 18.) It was also a religious ceremony, to lift up the hand to the mouth and kiss it, and then, stretching it out, to throw as it were the kiss to the idol: both this and the former ceremony are mentioned in 1 Kings xix. 18. And so Job, in order to express his not having fallen into idolatry, very elegantly says, If I beheld the sun while it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, &c. (Job xxxi. 26, 27.); for to kiss and to worship are synonymous terms in Scripture, as appears from Psal. ii. 12. There is an idolatrous rite mentioned by Ezekiel, called the putting the branch to the nose (Ezek. viii. 17.), by which

1 Data sunt capiti genialia sacra. Ovid. Met. lib. xiii. ver. 929. Ereppar' exon ev Xepoiv eenboλov Añoλλwvos. Iliad. i. 14. Dr. Haod's Intrworoduction, vol. ii. p. 301. 2 The Egyptians had several cities, which were termed Typhonian,—such as Heliopolis, Idithya, Abarei, and Busiris,-where at particular seasons they immolated men. The objects thus devoted were persons of bright hair and a particular complexion, such as were seldom to be found among that people. Hence we may conclude that they were foreigners; and it is probable that while the Israelites resided in Egypt, the victims were chosen from their body. They were burnt alive upon a high altar, and thus sacrificed for the good of the people: at the conelusion of the sacrifice, the priests collected their ashes, and scattered them upwards in the air,-most likely with this view, that, where any of the dust was wafted, a blessing might be entailed. By a just retribution, Moses and Aaron were commanded to take ashes of the furnace (which in the Scriptures is used as a type of the slavery of the Israelites, and of all the cruelty which they experienced in Egypt), and to scatter them abroad towards the heaven (Exod. x. 8, 9.), but with a differ ent intention, viz. that where any the smallest portion alighted, it might prove a plague and a curse to the ungrateful, cruel, and infatuated Egyptians. Thus there was a designed contrast in these workings of Providence, and an apparent opposition to the superstition of the times. Bryant, on the Plagues of Egypt, p. 116. Op the prevalence of human sacrifices in antient times, see Vol. I. p. 6. and note. 46

VOL. III.

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For he is a god-the supreme God; you worship him as such; and doubtless he is jealous of his own honour, and the credit of his votaries. Either he is talking-he may be giving audience to some others; or, as it is rendered in the margin of our larger Bibles,—he meditateth-he is in a profound reverie, projecting some godlike scheme or he is pursuing-taking his pleasure in the chase-or he is on a journey, having left his audience chamber, he is making some excursions-or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked. Absurd as these notions may appear to us, they are believed by the Hindoos, to each of whose gods some particular business is assigned, and who imagine that Vishnoo sleeps for months in the year, while others of their deities are often out on journies or expeditions.1 Accordingly the priests of Baal cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner. This was not only the custom of the idolatrous Israelites, but also of the Syrians, Persians, Indians, Greeks, Romans, and in short of all the antient heathen world. Hence we may see the reason why the Israelites were forbidden to cut themselves, to make any cuttings in their flesh for the dead, and to print any marks upon themselves. (Deut. xiv. 1. Levit. xix. 28.) For the heathens did these things not only in honour of their gods, but also in testimony of their grief for the loss of any of their neighbours. The Scythians, as we are informed by Herodotus, were accustomed to slash their arms on the death of their kings; and it is not improbable that some similar custom obtained among some one of the neighbouring nations. The modern Persians to this day cut and lacerate themselves, when celebrating the anniversary of the assassination of Hossein, whom they venerate as a martyr for the Moslem faith.3

5. The heathens showed their veneration for their deities in various ways, the knowledge of which serves to illustrate many passages of Scripture. Thus, nothing was more frequent than prostitution of women, with examples of which the antient writers abound. According to Justin, the Cyprian women gained that portion which their husbands received with them, on marriage, by previous public prostitution. And the Phoenicians, as we are informed by Augustin, made a gift to Venus of the gain acquired by the same disgusting means.5 Hence we may account for Moses prohibiting

they offered sacrifice, used to invoke all the gods and goddesses, lest any one of them should be adverse to the suppliant. Servius, in Virgil. Georg. lib. i. 21. (vol. i. p. 178. of Burman's edition, Amst. 1746. 4to.)

1 Ward's History, &c. of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 324.

2 Herodotus, lib. iv. c. 71.

3 Mr. Morier has given a long and interesting narrative of this anniversary. "It is," he says, " necessary to have witnessed the scenes that are exhibited in their cities, to judge of the degree of fanaticism which possesses them at this time. I have seen some of the most violent of them, as they vociferated Ya Hossein! walk about the streets almost naked, with only their loins covered and their bodies streaming with blood, by the voluntary cuts which they had given to themselves, either as acts of love, anguish, or mortification. Such must have been the cuttings of which we read in Holy Writ." Morier's Second Journey, p. 176.

4 Hist. lib. xviii. c. 5.

5 Calmet on Levit. xix. 29. Michaelis's Commentaries, vol. iv. pp. 183-185.

the Israelites from committing any such atrocities. (Levit. xix. 29.) --Others dedicated to them the spoils of war; others votive tablets and other offerings in commemoration of supposed benefits conferred on them.1

A more frequent and indeed very general custom was the carrying of marks on their body in honour of the object of their worship. This is expressly forbidden in Levit. xix. 28. To this day, all the castes of the Hindoos bear on their foreheads, or elsewhere, what are called the sectarian marks, which not only distinguish them in a civil, but also in a religious point of view, from each other.2 Most of the barbarous nations lately discovered, have their faces, arms, breasts, &c. curiously carved or tatooed, probably for superstitious purposes. Antient writers abound with accounts of marks made on the face, arms, &c. in honour of different idols,-and to this the inspired penman alludes, (Rev. xiii. 16, 17. xiv. 9. 11. xv. 2. xvi. 2. xix. 20. xx. 4.) where false worshippers are represented as receiving in their hands, and in their forehead, the marks of the beast.

The prohibition in Levit. xix. 27. against the Israelites rounding the corners of their heads, and marring the corners of their beards, evidently refers to customs which must have existed among the Egyptians during their residence among that people; though it is now difficult to determine what those customs were. Herodotus informs us, that the Arabs shave or cut their hair round in honour of Bacchus, who (they say) wore his hair in this way; and that the Macians, a people of Lybia, cut their hair round, so as to leave a tuft on the top of the head :3 in this manner the Chinese cut their hair to the present day. This might have been in honour of some idol, and therefore forbidden to the Israelites.

The hair was much used in divination among the antients; and for purposes of religious superstition among the Greeks; and particularly about the time of the giving of this law, as this is supposed to have been the era of the Trojan war. We learn from Homer, that it was customary for parents to dedicate the hair of their children to some god; which, when they came to manhood, they cut off and consecrated to the deity. Achilles, at the funeral of Patroclus, cut off his golden locks, which his father had dedicated to the river god Sperchius, and threw them into the flood.4

1 See much curious information on this subject in Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. vi. pp. 444-448. 8vo.; and Mr. Dodwell's Classical Tour in Greece, vol. i. pp. 341, 342.

2 See Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 15.

3 Herod. lib. iii. c. 8. and lib. iv. c. 175.

4 Στας απάνευθε πυρης ξανθην αποκείρατο χαίτην,
Την ρα Σπερχειο ποταμω τρεφε τηλεθόωσαν
Οχθήσας δ' αρα ειπεν ιδων επι οινοπα πόντον,

Σπέρχει, αλλως σοι γε πατηρ ηρησατο Πηλευς. κ. τ. λ.

But great Achilles stands apart in prayer,
And from his head divides the yellow hair,

Iliad. 1. xxiii. v. 142, &c.

Those curling locks which from his youth he vow'd
And sacred grew to Sperchius' honour'd flood.

From Virgil's account of the death of Dido,1 we learn that the topmost lock of hair, was dedicated to the infernal gods.

If the hair was rounded, and dedicated for purposes of this kind, it will at once account for the prohibition in this verse.2

A religion so extravagant as that of paganism could not have subsisted so long, had not the priests by whom it was managed contrived to secure the devotion of the multitudes by pretending that certain divinities uttered oracles. The researches of enlightened travellers have laid open the contrivances by which these frauds were managed, at least in Greece.3 Various were the means by which the credulity of the people was imposed upon. Sometimes they charmed serpents,-extracted their poison and thus rendered them harmless;-a practice to which there are frequent allusions in the Old Testament, and it must have been a gainful and an established traffic. Moses has enumerated seven different sorts of diviners into futurity, whom the Israelites were prohibited from consulting (Deut. xviii. 10, 11.), viz. 1. Those who used divination, that is, who endeavoured to penetrate futurity by auguries, using lots, &c. ;-2. Observers of times, those who pretended to fortel future events by present occurrences, and who predicted political or physical changes from the aspects of the planets, eclipses, motion of the clouds, &c. ;-3. Enchanters, either those who charmed serpents, or those who drew auguries from inspecting the entrails of beasts, observing the flights of birds, &c.;-4. Witches, those who pretended to bring down certain celes tial influences to their aid by means of herbs, drugs, perfumes, &c.; -5. Charmers, those who used spells for the purposes of divination; -6. Consulters with familiar spirits,-Pythonesses, those who pretended to inquire by means of one spirit to get oracular answers from another of a superior order;-and, 7. Wizards, or necromancers,

Then sighing, to the deep his looks he cast,
And roll'd his eyes around the watery waste.
Sperchius! whose waves in mazy errors lost,
Delightful roll along my native coast!
To whom we vainly vow'd, at our return,
These locks to fall, and hecatombs to burn-
So vow'd my father, but he vow'd in vain,
No more Achilles sees his native plain;

In that vain hope, these hairs no longer grow;
Patroclus bears them to the shades below.POPE.

1 Nondum illi flavum Proserpina vertice crinem
Abstulerat, Stygioque caput damnaverat orco-
-Hunc ego Diti
Sacrum jussa fero; teque isto corpore solvo.
Sic ait, et dextra crinem secat.-Æneid. 1. iv. v. 698.

The sisters had not cut the topmost hair,
Which Proserpine and they can only know,
Nor made her sacred to the shades below
This off ring to the infernal gods I bear;
Thus while she spoke, she cut the fatal hair.-

2 Calmet and Dr. A. Clarke on Levit. xix. 27.

-DRYDEN.

3 See Dr. Clarke's Travels, vol. vi. pp. 479, 480.; also vol. iii. p. 298.

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