tituted the honour of both, by robbing God of the obedience due to him, and by submitting himself a slave to the elements of the world. When he looked up to the heavens, and saw the glory of the sun and stars, instead of praising the Lord of all, he foolishly said, these are thy gods, O Man! An universal apostacy from the primitive religion prevailed. They began with the heavenly bodies, or sydereal gods, and proceeded to heroes, brutes, and images, till the world was overflowed with an inundation of idolatory, and superstition; even such superstition, as nourished under the notion of religion, and pleasing the gods, the most bestial impurities, the most inhuman and unnatural cruelties, and the most unmanly and contemptible follies. Moral virtue and goodness were totally extinguished. When men had lost the sense of the supreme Being, the Creator, Governor, and Judge of the world, they not only ceased to be righteous and holy, but became necessarily vicious and corrupt in practice; for iniquity flows from corrupt religion, as the waters from the spring. The principles and ceremonies of the established idolatries gave additional strength to men's natural inclinations, to intemperance, lust, fraud, violence, and every kind of unrighteousness and debauchery. Long before the days of Moses this was the general case. Idolatry

had violated all the duties of true religion, and the most abominable practices by constitution were authorised. The Phalli* and the Mylli,† rites that modesty forbids to explain, were esteemed principal parts of their ritual; virgins before marriage were to sacrifice their chastity to the honour of Venus ;‡

* "Ex ea re tum privatim tum publicè lignea virilia thyrsis alligates per eam solennitatem gestabant: fuit enim Phallus vocatum membrum virile." Schædius de Diis Germanis, edidit Keyslero, 1728, 8vo. p. 130.

"Heraclides Syracusius libro de vetustis et sancitis moribus scribit apud Syracusios in perfectis thermophoriis, ex sesamo et melle fingi pudenda muliebria, quæ per ludos et spectacula circumferebantur, et vocabantur Mylli."-Athenæi Deipnos. 1. 14. p. 647.

This is taken notice of by the prophet Jeremiah. "The women also with cords about them, sitting in the ways, burn bran for perfume; but if any of them, drawn by some that passeth by, lie with her, she reproacheth her fellow, that she was not thought as worthy as herself, nor her cord broken."-Baruch, ch. 6. v. 43.

Herodotus, who lived almost two centuries after, in explanation of this passage of the prophet Baruch, tells us, "Every woman at Babylon, was obliged, once in her life, to sit down openly in the temple of Venus, in order to prostitute herself to some stranger: They enter into the temple, and sit down crowned with garlands, some continually going out, aud others coming in: The gal

men were offered upon the altars for sacrifices; and children were burned alive to Moloch and Adrama

leries where they sit are built in a strait line, and open on every side, that all strangers may have a free passage to chuse such women as they like best. Those women who excel in beauty and shape are soon dismissed: but the deformed are sometimes necessitated to wait three or four years, before they can satisfy the law. The men declared their choice by throwing money into the lap of the woman they most admired, which she was by no means to refuse, but instantly retire with the man that accosted her, and fulfil the law. Women of rank, for none were dispensed with; might sit in covered chariots for the purpose, whilst their servants waited at a distance till they had done." See Herodotus, translated by Isaac Littlebury, 1709, 8vo. vol. 1. p. 125.

Strabo also furnishes an account to the same purpose, lib. 16. p. 745; and Justin observes the reason for this custom, was ne sola impudria videretur, i. e. lest Venus alone should appear lascivious.-Lib. 18. cap. 5.

As to the breaking of the woman's cord, Dr. Hyde says, their lower garments were tied with small and weak cords made of rushes, " qui ad congrediendum erant frangendi." Purchas confirms this notion; having seen the thing practised in his travels in the east. Pilgr. book 1. ch. 12. p. 65. But Grotius on Baruch says, the meaning was, the women had cords given them, as a token that they were under the vow of prostitution, which when they had performed, the cord was properly

lech. In a word, the most abominable immoralities universally prevailed; with the encouragements of religion, men were led into intemperance,

said to be broken; for every vow may be called vinculum, or a cord. As I take it, the case was both as Hyde and Grotius relate it. I was in company with a physician, who had spent many years of his life in the East, and he assured me, he had seen both circumstances practised in the kingdom of Cranganor.

As to the woman's burning incense or bran for a perfume, it was the custom before coition, by way of charm and incentive. When a Babylonian and his wife had a mind to correspond, they always first lit up the fuming pan, imagining it improved the passion. So in the Pharmaceutria of Theocritus, p. 33. we see Simætha is using her incantation, 66 nunc furfures sacrificabo," Tupov, the word made use of in Jeremiah's Epistle. And as if all this had not been lust enough in their religion, it was farther declared in their ritual, that those were best qualified for the sacerdotal function, who were born of mothers who conceived them of their own sons.

In respect of human sacrifices, if you would have a full account of them, consult the following authors, and you will find that the Canaanites were far from being the only Pagans who were guilty of this unnatural barbarity. Selden de Diis Syris. Segort. 1. c. 6. and all the authors he quotes. Grotius on Deut. 18. Isaac Vossius de Orig. Idol. 1. 2. c. 5. Dion. Vossius on Maimon. de Idol. c. 6. Lud. Vives Notes on St. Aug. de Civit. Dei. 1. 7. c. 19.

uncleanness, murders, and many vices, inconsistent with the prosperity and peace of society, as well as with the happiness of private persons; and that such iniquities might have a perpetual source, the most shameful idolatries were preserved in opposition to the knowledge and worship of the one true God. So general was this corruption and idolatry, that the infection seized the descendants of Shem, the pious race. Even Terah, the father of Abram, we find charged with it. And Abram himself was culpable I think in this respect, as the word Asebes imports. It is rendered in our Bible ungodly, but it signifies more properly idolatry, and that is what St. Paul in the 4th chapter to the Romans hints. The apostle speaking of Abraham, says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly, that is, an ungodly idolator, who has no manner of claim to the blessings of God, he must be justified upon the foot, not of his own prior obedience, but of God's mercy.

"In such a calamitous state, a revelation to restore the law of nature, and make it more fully and clearly known, to enforce its observance, to afford

Ouzelius et Elmenhorstius Notes on Min. Felix. Spenceri de Legibus Hebræorum. 1. 2. c. 13. And Fabricius Bibliographia. c. 9.