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it the more strange, that the Romans fhould afterwards erect Temples and Altars to the most unlikely things, to a Fever, and to ill Fortune, as the Athenians did to Contumely and Impudence: But it is ftill more amazing, that they fhould, by the Decrees of the Senate, deifie the worft of Men, the very Monfters and Reproaches of Mankind: And whilft the Chriftians fuffer'd for refufing Adoration to their Emperors, they had divine Honours paid them by the graveft Heathens, fuch as Quinctilian, not only through Fear of Death, but out of Compliment and bafe Flattery.

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2 All manner of Debauchery and Lewdnefs made fo great a part of the Heathen Religion, that it is too fhameful and too notorious to relate. The Romans fometimes rejected foreign Deities; and when they received the Gods of other Nations, they did not worship them after their manner; and yet the Rites of the Romans themselves, in the Worship of Cybile, Flora, Bacchus, &c. were very fcandalous and wicked. And all their Sports and Spectacles (which had nothing furely in them that could be proper for Divine Worfhip) were invented and performed in honour of their Gods, and had the prefence of the Pontifex

Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. iii. De Legib. lib. 2. Valer. Max. 1.2. C. I. Plin. Hift. lib. 2. c. 7.

Quint. Inilifut. lib. 4. Prooem.

w Tertull. Apol. c. 6. Liv. Decad. 4. 1. 9. Eufeb. Præpar. lib. ii. c. ult, ex Dionyf. Halicarnaf. lib. ii.

* Ludi verò quos facitis quibus Floralibus & Megalenfibus nomen eft, ceterique omnes alij, quos effe facros voluiftis, Religionum inter officia deputari; quam rationem habent, quam caufam, ut inftitui condique debuerint, & ex Numinum appellatione fignari? Arnob. lib. 7. p. 281. Sedent in fpectaculis publicis facerdotum omnium, magiftratuumque collegia, Pontifices Maximi, & Maximi Curiones: Sedent XV. viri laureati, & Diales cum apicibus Flamines: Sedent Augures interpretes divine mentis & voluntatis: Necnon & cafte virgines, perpetui nutrices & confervatrices ignis: fedet cunctus Populus & Senatus, &c. Id. lib 4. fub fin.

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Maximus, and of the other Priefts and chief Magiftrates to celebrate them; whence Quinctilian y fays, the Theatre might be filed a kind of Temple. It was a custom to perform Funeral Rites to the Dead, by killing Men at their Sepulchres; and for this reafon, Captives were wont to be flain at the Funeral of a General, 'till at laft the Gladiators, call'd Buftuarij, were appointed inftead of them. a Another account of the original of Gladiators, is from an ancient custom, for Men to devote themselves to Death, to appeafe the Wrath of fome Deity towards their Country. But this was a fort of Devotion, which was more-efpecially paid to b Saturn, whofe Image was placed in a Cavity contrived under-ground to receive the Blood of the Slain. And as fome of their Gods delighted in Punishments and Blood, fo others were fuppofed to be pleafed with Sports.

3. But befides their bloody Spectacles, where Men were expofed to be killed by Beafts, or by one another, their Altars themfelves were not free from humane Blood. For the barbarous Cruelty of the Religions amongst the Heathen was fuch, that they were obliged to offer up innocent Men and Children in Sacrifice to their Deities. Some of the Rabbins have been of opinion that Jeptha facrificed his Daughter,

y Quintil. Inflitut. lib. 3. c. 8.

z Serv. ad Virg. Æn. 10.

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Capitolin. Vit. Max. & Albin.

b Εν αιμαῖς ἢ ἔσης ἔτι - Ἑλληνικῆς δεισιδαιμονίας, ἅμιλλας με νομαχίας ἐπεὶςλάνο το Ρωμαίοις με καιρούς κέκρυπιο δέ τις ὑπὸ γῆν Κρόνο, λίθοις τε]ρημείοις ύποκεχηνώς, ἵνα τῇ τοῦ πεσóviC naτausúvolo udg. Cyril. Alexand. contra Julian. lib. 4.. p. 128. Edit. Lipf.

Labeo numina mala victimis cruentis atque hujufmodi fupplicationibus placari exiftimat : bona verò ludis & talibus, quafi ad Latitiam pertinentibus rebus. Aug. Civ. Dei, lib. 8. c. 13.

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but others deny it, and all are agreed, that if he did facrifice her, he finned in doing it: and we know, that Abraham was hindred by a Miracle and a Voice from Heaven, when he was about to flay Ifaac. But the chief Oracles among the Heathen, appointed humane Sacrifices, that of Delphi, that of f Dodona, and of 8 Jupiter Saotes. The Romans were enduced to offer thefe Sacrifices, by confulting the Sibylline Books. It was a cuftom among the Phoenicians and Canaanites for their Kings, in Times of great Calamity, to facrifice one of their Sons, whom they loved beft; and it was common both with them, and the Moabites, and Ammonites, to facrifice their Children. The Egyptians, the Athenians, and Lacedæmonians, and generally all the Gracians; the Romans and Carthaginians, the Germans, and Gauls, and Britains, and in brief, all the Heathen Nations throughout the World offered Humane Sacrifices upon their Altars; and this not on certain Emergencies, and in imminent Dangers only, but constantly, and in fome places every day; but upon extraordinary Accidents, multitudes were facrificed at once to their bloody Deities; as i Diodorus Siculus and others relate, that in Africk Two hundred Children of the principal Nobility were facrifi

Utcunque autem fe res ea habuerit id certum puto effe, non reperiri apud Magiftros, qui ex jure aliquo immolandam eam effe affirmaverit. Selden. de jure Nat. & Gent. lib. iv. c. 2. The Daughters of Ifrael went yearly to lament, or to talk with her, as it is in the Margin, Judg. xi. 40. The word is tranflated rehearfe, or speak, Judg. v. 11.

e Paufan. Meffen. & Bæot. Eufeb. Præpar. Evang. 1. 5. c. 19. ;f Id. Achaic. g Id. Bæot.

*Ex fatalibus libris facrificia aliquot extraordinaria falta, inter qua Gallus & Galla, Gracus & Graca in foro Boario fub terrå vivi demiffi funt in locum faxo confeptum, ibi ante hoftijs humanis, minimè Romano facro imbutum. Liv. lib. 22. c. 57. Plut. Quæft. Rom. Δια τί τὰς καλυμένας Βλετονησίας, &c.

h Grot. ad Deut. xviii. 10.

Diod. Sic. 1. 20. Lactant, lib, i. c. 21. ex Pifcennio Fefto.

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ced to Saturn at one time. And Ariftomenes facrificed Three hundred Men together to Jupiter Ithometes, one of whom was Theopompus, King of the Lacedamonians. And the fame cuftom is found practifed amongst the Idolatrous Indians, of offering whole Hecatombs of humane Sacrifices to their falfe Gods. In Peru, when their new Incha was crown'd, they facrific'd two hundred Children from four to ten Years of Age: And the Son was wont to be facrific'd for the Life of the Father, when he was in danger of Death. Sometimes the Mexicans have facrific'd above five thousand of their Captives in a day, and in divers places above twenty thousand, as Acofta writes out of the Informations he had from the Indians. m Livy makes mention of humane Sacrifices at Rome. n Dion Caffius relates, that Two Men were facrific'd in the Campus Martius, under Julius Cafar. He fays, it was a Custom begun under Auguftus, for Men to be devoted to Death for the Safety of the Emperor. From P ancient times, it had been cuftomary among the People of Italy, in cafe of great Danger, to make a folemn Vow, that whatever should be brought forth in the following Spring, fhould be facrificed; and Apollo being confulted, what was to be done in order to be freed from the Peftilence, anfwer'd, That the Vow had not been performed in Sacrificing Children, but it should fuffice, if those who fhould have been killed, were now banifh'd. This is the Meaning of Ver Sacrum, which is mention'd in Livy. And nothing less than Banishment would be accepted by the Gods, instead of the Death of fuch Children, as were then

k Eufeb. Præpar, lib. iv. c. 16. Macrob. Saturn. lib. i. c. 7. Alex. ab Alexand. lib. vi. c. ult.

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born. 4 Suetonius mentions, that fome Writers affirm'd, that Auguftus offer'd a great number of Enemies, who had furrender'd themselves, to be flain on the Ides of March, in Devotion to the Manes of Julius Gafar. We are inform'd by Pliny, that, A. U. C. DCLVII. a Decree of the Senate paffed, that no Man fhould be facrificed, and that till then fuch Sacrifices were publick. This Prohibition feems to concern only the common and frequent ufe of them: for befides what has been already obferv'd, Plutarh fays, they continued in his time, and it was not till about the time of Conftantine's Reign, that a final Stop was put to fo ftrange and abominable a Practice; for tho it was forbidden by Adrian, and very much abated in his Reign; yet Antinous was made a Sacrifice by Adrian himfelf. "Tatian declares, that the humane Sacrifices offer'd to Jupiter at Rome, and to Diana not far from thence, were one chief Cause of his leaving the Heathen Religion, and becoming a Chriftian. Pliny acquaints us, that they were practis'd in the Age in which he liv'd; and Minutius Felix, that they were used, when he wrote. y Porphyry mentions them as notoriously practis'd at Rome in his time; and LaEtantius fpeaks of them as not laid afide in his. Notwithstanding this Ufage is fo much against humane Nature, as well as contrary to the Divine Mercy and Goodness, yet it made up fo great a part of the Heathen Religion, and was become fo cuftomary, that it was hard to bring Men off from it; which at the fame time demonstrates both how falfe fuch Religions were, and that Men had a moft undoubted Experience

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4 In Aug. c. 15. r Hift. 1. 30. c. I. §. 3.

s Plutarch. in Marcello, initio.

* Ετι καὶ ἱερος ηθείς, ὡς ἡ ἀλήθεια ἔχει, Dion. Caf. 1, 69.

Orat. adv. Gentes.

* Plin. Nat. Hift. 1. 28. c. 2.

* Αλλ' ἔτι καὶ ναῦν τίς ἀνος και τ' μεγάλίω πόλιν τῇ το Λαγιαρίο Aros jogin opacopo aver; Porph, de Abftin, 1. 2. c. 56.

# Lact. 1. 1. C. 21.

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