mankind by the blood of the Meffiah, it CHAP. would doubtlefs be highly expedient to in- 111. ftitute fome vifible fign, fome external reprefentation, by which the mysterious facrifice of mount Calvary might be prophetically exhibited to all the posterity of Adam. With this view, a pure and immaculate victim, the firstling of the flock, was carefully felected; and, after its blood had been shed, was folemnly appointed to blaze upon the altar of Jehovah. When the first typical facrifice was offered up, fire miraculously defcended from heaven, and confumed it; and when this primitive ordinance was renewed under the Levitical priesthood, two circumstances are particularly worthy of obfervation-that the victim fhould be a firstling-and that the oblation fhould be made by the inftrumentality of fire. It is remarkable, that both these primitive customs have been faithfully preferved in the Heathen world. The Canaanites caused their first born to pafs through the fire, with a view of appeafing the anger of their falfe deities; and one of the kings of Moab is faid to have offered up his eldeft fon as a burnt offering, when in danger from the fuperior prowess of the

Edo

SECT. EdomitesP. Nor was the belief, that the

I.

gods were rendered propitious by this peculiar mode of facrifice, confined to the nations which were more immediately contiguous to the territories of Ifrael. We learn from Homer, that a whole hecatomb of firstling lambs was no uncommon offering among his countrymen ; and the ancient Goths, having “laid it down as a principle, that the effufion of the blood "of animals appeafed the anger of the "Gods, and that their juftice turned aside

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દ

upon the victims those strokes which "were deftined for men," foon proceeded to greater lengths, and adopted the horrid practice of devoting human victims. In honour of the mystical number three, a number deemed particularly dear to heaven, every ninth month witnessed the groans and dying ftruggles of nine unfortunate victims. The fatal blow being ftruck, the lifeless bodies were confumed in the facred fire, which was kept perpetually burning; while the blood, in fingular conformity with the Levitical ordinances, was

1

P2 Kings iii. 27.

q Iliad. 1. iv. v. 202.

Mallet's North. Antiq. vol. i..c. 7.

fprinkled,

1

fprinkled, partly upon the furrounding mul- CHAP. titude, partly upon the trees of the hal- III. lowed grove, and partly upon the images of their idols. Even the remote inhabitants of America have retained fimilar cuftoms, and for fimilar reafons. It is fomewhere obferved by Acosta, that, in cases of fickness, it is ufual for a Peruvian to facrifice his fon to Virachoca, befeeching him to fpare his life, and to be fatisfied with

the blood of his child.

Whence then, we may afk, could originate this univerfal practice of devoting the first born, either of man or beast, and of offering it up as a burnt offering? Whence, but from fome perverted tradition respecting the one great facrifice once to be offered for the fins of all mankind? In the oblation of the first born, originally instituted by God himself, and faithfully adhered to both by Jew and Gentile, we behold the death of him, who was the first born of his virgin mother, accurately though obfcurely exhibited. 'And in the constant use of fire, the invariable fcriptural emblem of wrath and jealousy, we

Mallet's North, Antiq. vol. i. c. 7.

view

I.

SECT. view the indignation of that God, who is a consuming fire, averted from our guilty race, and poured out upon the immaculate head of our great Interceffor. Had a confciousness of purity reigned in the bofoms of the ancient idolaters, it does not appear, why they should have had more reason to dread the vengeance of the Deity, than to expect and to claim his favour; yet, that such a dread did univerfally prevail, is too well known to require the formality of a laboured demonftration. It has been fup-pofed, and not without fome degree of probability, that the ancient Druids "believed "in the doctrine of the defection of the "human foul from a ftate of original rec“titude":" and it is actually afferted to be the invariable belief of the Brahmins, that man is a fallen creature. The argument in both these cafes is principally drawn from the fevere penitential difcipline to which they fubmitted, with a view of ultimately regaining their loft perfection". The Hindoos however, we are informed, "have an entire Purana on this very fubject; the ftory is there told in the fame

"manner,' as it is narrated by Mofes; CHAP. "the facts uniformly correfpond; and the confequences are equally tremendous*."

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The fame doctrine is inculcated by claffical mythology, in the description given of the gradual deterioration of man during the period fubfequent to the golden age. "The fecond race," fays Hefiod, "dreadfully degenerated from the virtues of the "firft; they were men of violence and rapine; they had no delight in worship

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ping the immortals, nor in offering up "to them thofe facrifices which duty required." Similar to this is the doctrine of Scripture. By the fall, every faculty of man was debafed, and he loft that relish for divine communion which once was equally the glory, the privilege, and the felicity of his nature.

III.