gings, which boys received on the altar of the goddess. The lashes were continued, till the blood gushed out. They sometimes ended the life of the wretched sufferer. Diana's priestess was nigh at hand, urging increased severity. Parents were present to exhort their sons to endure the lash with patience and constancy. Those, who died by these means, were buried with garlands on their heads, in token of joy and victory, and had the honor of a public funeral. Potter 1. 408. Anach. 11. 271. 320.

There is no part of pagan worship, which strikes us with greater horror, than the well known fact of their offering human sacrifices.

This kind of worship appears to have prevailed to very great extent. It was practised by the ancient Persians. During a tempest, as Herodotus informs us, (Note, vol. 3. p. 296.) the Magi offered human victims. We are informed, that Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, buried twelve persons alive, as an offering to Pluto, on her own account, that is, as a sacrifice, by which it was designed to procure the favor of the gods for herself. The same Amestris is said to have caused fourteen children of the best families in Persia to be interred alive, as a gratification to the god beneath the earth. When the enemy of Xerxes came to a place, called the Nine Ways, the Magi took nine of the sons and daughters of the inhabitants, saith the same historian, and buried them alive, as the manner of the Persians is.

It was the custom of the ancient Scythians to sacrifice every hundreth captive. Having poured libations on their heads, they cut their throats into a vessel, for that purpose. From these human victims, they cut off the right arms, close to the shoulder, and threw them up into the air. This ceremony being performed on each victim severally, they depart. The arms remain where they happen to fall; the bodies elsewhere.

Among the Thracians, a human sacrifice was offered every fifth year, to the god Zamolxis.

Our account of this sanguinary worship might be much enlarged, on the authority of Herodotus.*

Human sacrifices, says the Abbe Barthelemi, were not unfrequent among the Greeks. They were common in almost every nation. Twelve Trojan youth were sacrificed by Achilles, at the funeral of Patroclus.

Leland, quoting from Porphyry, enumerates, among those, who sometimes offered human sacrifices, the Lacedæmonians and Athenians.

This mode of worship was early received, and long retained by the Romans. Lactantius mentions the sacrificing of human victims to Saturn, as an ancient rite; informing us, that the sacrifice was not made by immolation at an altar, but by plunging the devoted person from the Milvian bridge into the Tyber. Infants were sacrificed to the same god. Virgil represents Eneas, as sacrificing eight young men to the infernal gods. Livy, in the twenty second book of his history, tells us of four persons, who were buried alive, by way of sacrifice.

Nor does it appear that this practice was abandoned, among the Romans, until the beginning of the second century of the christian era. Though condemned by the best among the philosophers, it had not been extirpated. Even at a later period, than the second century, all remains of it were not destroyed. Lactantius asserts, that even in his time, i. e. in the fourth century, offerings of this kind were not wholly abolished. "Latialis, Jupiter etiam nunc sanguine colitur humano."

Among the the Carthagenians, these sacrifices were not uncommon. When they were conquered by Agathocles, King of Sicily, thinking, that the god was angry with them they sacrificed to him two hundred sons of the nobility.

Cæsar gives us the following information, concerning the worship of the Gauls. When they are afflicted with any dangerous disease,-when they are engaged in war, or ex

*Beloe's Herod. II. 275. 376. IV. 100.

posed to hazard, they either immolate human victims, or make vows to do it; and in these sacrifices they make use of the ministry of the Druids. Others, it appears, formed images of immense magnitude, whose limbs were made hollow by a texture of osiers, into which were thrown living men to be consumed by the fire. Human sacrifices, as we learn from Tacitus, were offered by the ancient Germans.

To these testimonies, we shall add a small number from the sacred scriptures. Speaking of the ancient inhabitants of Canaan, the Psalmist asserts, that they sacrificed their sons and daughters to dæmons, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. To the same purpose speaks the prophet Jeremiah. They built the high places of Tophet, which is the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daugh ters in the fire. They built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire, for burnt offerings unto Baal.

The account here given, of the cruelty and licentiousness, which accompanied the pagan worship, is brief, and might easily be enlarged. The reason why more facts have not been exhibited, and why their sacred rites have not been made to appear more infamous and detestable, is, that any description of them would be indecent, whatever circumlocutions were resorted to, or how great soever might be our caution in the selection of words.

I would now request your attention to those reflections which naturally result from the facts stated. And,

I. Agreeably to what was observed in the last lecture, we perceive, that no objection can be made to the testimony of the poets, in regard to the history and character of the gods. To persons, imbued with those truths, which are derived from the fountain of sacred scripture, it cannot, at first, seem credible, that the human understanding should ever be so deeply degraded, as to receive for religious doctrines, the absurdities of poetic mythology. But the fact is, that the legislators, who organized the system of pagan

worship, formed it agreeably to that model, which the poets gave. Whether the poets invented these fictions, or only gave them a more alluring dress, I pretend not to determine, though the latter is probable. All that I would be understood to assert, is, that the religion adopted by the mass of the people, was the religion of the poets. This was the religion, which the legislators designed should be believed and maintained. The ceremonies of the established worship were so construed, as to preserve in the public mind, not only the virtues, but the vices of those mortals of either sex, whom they denominated gods and goddesses. Arnobius, as quoted by a writer, whose name has been frequently mentioned in this lecture, upbraids the heathen, for "ascribing the most base and unworthy actions to him, whom they described as father of gods and men, the chief God, the thunderer, who shakes heaven with his nod, and to whom they attributed the most divine titles. He thinks, that, if they had any regard to piety and decency, the public authority ought to interpose, by forbidding such representations. Instead of which they encouraged them and admitted them into their religion; whereas they would punish any man, who should cast such reflections on a senator or magistrate."

II. Let us, for a moment, compare the effects, which would naturally result from the worship of such deities, with those, which might be expected from the worship of the true God. To say nothing of such gods, as Bacchus, Venus or Mercury, how was it possible for the votaries of Jupiter to contemplate his character with reverence, or rational affection? What was there to revere in a being, whose pas sions were more violent, and whose crimes were more numerous than those of human offenders? With what sense of moral obligation could the ancient pagans have gone from Jupiter's temple, when they had been engaged in those rites, which brought his vices to their recollection? Far from blushing at their sensuality, they must have justified it, as

we know they did, by the example of the god, whom they worshipped. "Whenever vice comes to be considered, as a divine quality, as well as an act of devotion, or, in other words, when it is practised, both in honor and in imitation of the gods, it is hereby authorized and sanctioned; and men must sink into the lowest degeneracy."

On the contrary, when men have been employed in the worship of that Being, whose dwelling is not with flesh;who is infinitely removed from human passions and human guilt;-whose irresistible power is under the direction of moral purity and infinite wisdom;—who regards with divine indignation, all the workers of iniquity;—and accepts that service only, which proceeds from uprightness and simplicity of heart:-they must perceive, that a virtuous life is essential, as well to their safety, as their duty. This conviction will be forced upon them, whenever they use a moment's reflection. Accordingly, in a christian country, nothing tends more directly to purify the morals of a community, than general attendance on public worship.

Among those, who entertain just notions of the Supreme Being, it is a natural sentiment, that divine judgments are to be averted by penitence and reformation. This sentiment appears to have made no part of the pagan creed. If public calamities were felt or threatened to appease the gods, and avert the impending evil, they had recourse to some trifling ceremony, but not to repentance and a reclaimed life. They might revive ancient rites, or institute new ones; but reformation of morals, saith Warburton, was never made part of the state's atonement. The fact was, as Dr. Priestly has remarked, that the heathen religion had nothing to do with morality.

III. From the facts, stated in this lecture, we learn how to estimate a remark, not very unfrequently made, that, on supposition, a man is sincere, it is of little importance, what may be his creed. That there were many among the ancient heathen, sincerely attached to the prevailing mythology, it