general cafe. Idolatry had violated all the duties of true religion, and the most abominable practices by conftitution were authorised. The Phalti (11) and the Mylli (12), rites that modefty forbids to explain, were esteemed principal parts of their Ritual; virgins before marriage were to facrifice their chastity to the honour of Venus; (13)

(11) Ex ea re tum privatim tum publicè, lignea virilia thyrfis alligata per eam folemnitatem geftabant, fuit enim Phallus vocatum, membrum virile. Schedius de diis. p. 130.

(12) Heraclides Syracufius libro de vetuftis & fancitis moribus fcribit apud Syracufios in perfectis thermophoriis, ex fefamo & melle fingi pudenda muliebria, quæ per ludos & fpectacula circumferebantur, & vocabantur Mylli. Athenæi. Deipnof. 1. 14. p. 647.

(13) This is taken notice of by the prophet Jere miah." The women alfo with cords The ranges in the temple. "about them, fitting in the ways, burn "bran for perfume; but if any of "them, drawn by fome that paffeth by, lie with her, "fhe reproacheth her fellow, that the was not thought as worthy as herself, nor her cord broken." Baruch vi. 43.

Herodotus explains this paffage of the Prophet. "Every woman at Babylon, fays the hiftorian, was obliged, once in her life, to fit down openly in the temple of Venus, in order to prostitute herself to fome franger: they enter into the temple, and fit "down

men were offered upon the Altars for Sacrifices; and children were burnt alive to Moloch and Adramalech. In a word, the most abominable immoralities universally prevail

"down crowned with garlands, fome continually going out, and others coming in the galleries where: they fit are built in a strait line, and open on every <fide, that all ftrangers may have a free paffage to

chufe fuch women as they like beft. Thofe-women"who excel in beauty and fhape are foon difmiffed; "but the deformed are fometimes neceffitated to wait "three or four years, before they can fatisfy the law. The men declared their choice by throwing

66

money into the lap of the woman they most ad"mired, which she was by no means to refufe, but "inftantly retire with the man that accofted her, and "fulfil the law. Women of rank (for none were

dispensed with) might fit in covered chariots for "the purpose, whilft their fervants waited at a diftance till they had done." Herodot. 1. 1. c. 196, 198, and 199,

Strabo likewife gives us an account to the fame purpofe. 1. 16. p. 745- -And Juftin gives this reafon. for this cuftom,-left Venus alone should appear lafciviQus. Ne fola impudica videretur. 1. 18. c. 5.

As to the breaking of the woman's cord, Dr. Hyde fays, their lower garments were tied with fmall and weak cords made of rufhes, qui ad congrediendum. erant frangendi.—Purchas pilgr. 1. 1. c. 12. p. 65. confirms this notion; having feen the thing practifed. in his travels in the Eaft. 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

H 6

faid

ed; with the encouragements of religion, men were led into intemperance, uncleannefs, murders, and many vices, inconfiftent with the profperity and peace of fociety, as

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

As to the woman's burning incenfe 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 correfpond, they always firft lighted up the fuming pan, imagining it improved the paffion. So in the Pharmaceutria of Theocritus, p. 33. we see Simetha is ufing her incantation, nunc furfures facrificabo, Hirugor, the word made ufe of in Jeremiah's Epiftle -And as if all this had not been luft enough in their religion, it was farther declared in their Ritual, that thofe were beft qualified for the sacerdotal function, who were born of mothers who conceived them of their own fons.

In respect of human facrifices, if you would have a full account of them, confult the following authors, and you will find that the Canaanites were far from being the only Pagans who were guilty of this unna-tural barbarity- Selden de diis Syris Segort. 1. C. 6. and all the authors he quotes. Grotius on Deut. xviii. Ifaac Vof. de Orig. Idol. 1. 2. c. 5. Dion. Vosfius on Maimon, de Idol. c. 6. Lud Vives notes on St. Aug. de Civit. Dei, 1. 7. c. 19.-Ouzelius & Elmenhorftius notes on Min. Fœlix. Spencer de Leg. Hebr. 1. 2. c. 13. And Fabricius, Bibliographia, c. 9. well

well as with the happiness of private perfons; and that fuch iniquities might have a perpetual fource, the moft fhameful idolatries were preferved in oppofition to the knowledge and worship of the One true God. So. general was this corruption and idolatry, that the infection feized the defcendants of Shem, the pious race. Even Terah, the father of Abram, we find charged with it. And Abram himfelf was culpable, I think, in this refpect, as the word Afebes imports. It is rendered in our Bible ungodly, but it fignifies more properly idolatry, and that is what St. Paul in the 4th chapter to the Romans hints. The Apostle speaking of Abraham, fays,-But to him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly, that is, an ungodly idolater, who has no manner of claim to the bleffings of God, he must be juftified upon the foot, not of his own prior obedience, but of God's mercy.

In fuch a calamitous ftate, a Revelation to restore the Law of Nature, and make it more fully and clearly known, to enforce its obfervance, to afford helps and motives to the better performance of what it enjoys, and relieve the guilty mind against all its doubts, would certainly be a merciful vouchfafement from God to mankind, and

and be much for their advantage and happiness; and therefore, in the year from the flood 428, to provide for

After the flood 428. Before Chrift 1920.

the restoration of the true religion, and preferve the knowledge and worship of the One true God on earth, in oppofition to the prevailing idolatry, and the grofs immoralities that were the effects of idolatrous principles and practices, Jehovah commanded Abraham to leave his country, his kindred, and his father's house, and proceed with his family to the land of Canaan. Here God entered into Covenants with Abraham and his pofterity, to be inftruments in the hands of providence for bringing about great defigns in the world-that he and his

Bp. Sherlock on prophecy, well obferves,

that tro co

venants were given to Abraham;one

a temporal co

venant, to

take place in the land of Canaan--the other a cove

nant of better hope, to be performed in a better country. p. 134.

pofterity were to be the Church of God, and depofitaries of a hope that the Covenant limited to Abraham and his chosen feed, was to grow in the fulnefs of time into a bleffing upon all the nations of the earth. Abraham was at this time 75 years old, and God added to the patriarchal wor

fhip the visible mark of Circumcifion, as a feat of a covenant between himself and Abraham.

Yet