The religious notions of the Greeks were equally impure: they could not think of any means for conciliating the favour of their gods, more efficacious than gifts. Homer paints his gods as exceffively mercenary. In the fourth book of the Iliad, Jupiter fays, " Of these cities, honoured the most by the foul of "Jove, is facred Troy. Never ftands the "altar empty before me, oblations pour"ed forth in my prefence, favour that "afcends the fkies." Speaking in the fifth book of a warrior, known afterward to be Diomedes, "Some god he is, fome power against the Trojans enraged for “ vows unpaid: deftructive is the wrath " of the gods." Diomedes prays to Minerva, "With thine arm ward from me "the foe: a year-old heifer, O Queen, "fhall be thine, broad-fronted, unbro being offered to the gods in facrifice. The reafon I take to be, that the most favoury food of man was reckoned the moft agreeable to their gods; that favages never thought of fish till land-animals became fcarce; and that the matter as well as form of facrifices were established in practice, long before men had recourfe to fish for food. VOL. IV. PP "ken, t "ken, and wild her to thee I will offer “with prayer, gilding with gold her "hörns." Precifely of the fame kind, are the offerings made by fuperftitious Roman-Catholics to the Virgin Mary, and to faints. Electra, in the tragedy of that name, fupplicates Apollo in the following terms. O hear Electra too Who, with unfparing hand, her choiceft gifts The people of Hindoftan, as mentioned above, atone for their fins by auftere penances; but they have no notion of prefenting gifts to the Deity, nor of deprecating his wrath by the flesh of animals. On the contrary, they reckon it a fin to flay any living creature; which reduces them to vegetable food. This is going too far; for the Deity could never mean to prohibit animal food, when originally man's chief dependence was upon it. The abstaining however from animal food, fhows greater humanity in the religion of Hindoftan, than of any other known fountry. The inhabitants of Madagascar are are in a stage of religion, common among many nations, which is, the acknowled ging one fupreme benevolent deity, and many malevolent inferior deities. Most of their worship is indeed addreffed to the latter; but they have so far advanced before feveral other nations, as to offer facrifices to the fupreme Being, without employing either idols or temples. Philofophy and found fenfe in polished nations, have purified religious worship, by banishing the profeffion, at least, of oblations and facrifices. The Being that made the world, governs it by laws that are inflexible, because they are the best; and to imagine that he can be moved by prayers, oblations, or facrifices, to vary his plan of government, is an impious thought, degrading the Deity to a level with ourfelves: Hear, "O my people, and I will teftify against "thee: I am God, even thy God. I will "take no bullock out of thy houfe, nor "he-goat out of thy fold: for every beaft "of the foreft is mine, and the cattle upહતું. on a thousand hills. Will I eat the "flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of 66 66 goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving, Pp2 * and "and pay thy vows to the Most High. "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I 66 66 will deliver thee, and thou fhalt glorify me (a)." "Thou defirest not facrifice, elfe would I give it; thou delightest not "in burnt-offering. The facrifices of "God are a broken fpirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise (b)." "For I defired mercy, "and not facrifice; and the knowledge "of God more than burnt-offerings (c).” In dark ages, there is great fhew of religion, with little heart-worship: in ages of philofophy, warm heart-worship, with little fhew * (a) Pfalm 50. (c) Hofea vi. 6. This (b) Pfalm 51. Agathias urges a different reafon against facrifices. 66 Ego nullam naturam effe exiftimo, cui "voluptati fint foedata fanguine altaria, et animan"tium lanienæ. Quod fi qua tamen eft cui ifta fint "cordi, non ea mitis et benigna eft aliqua, fed fera "ac rabida, qualem pavorem poetæ fingunt, et "Metum, et Bellonam, et Malam Fortunam, et "Difcordiam, quam indomitam appellant."-[In Englifh thus: "I cannot conceive, that there fhould "exift a fuperior being, who takes delight in the "facrifice of animals, or in altars ftained with "blood. If fuch there be, his nature is not bene"volent, but barbarous and cruel. Such indeed ་་ were This is a proper place for the history of idolatry; which, as will anon appear, fprung from religious worship corrupted " were the gods whom the poets have created: "fuch were Fear and Terror, the goddefs of War, "of Evil Fortune, and of Difcord."]Arnobius batters down bloody facrifices with a very curious argument. "Ecce fi bos aliquis, aut quodlibet ex "his animal, quod ad placandas cæditur mitigan"dafque numinum furias, vocem hominis fu"mat, eloquaturque his verbis: Ergone, O Jupi ་ ter, aut quis alius deus es, humanum eft iftud et "rectum, aut æquitatis alicujus in æftimatione po"nendum, ut cum alius peccaverit, ego occidar, et de meo fanguine fieri tibi patiaris fatis, qui nunquam te læferim, nunquam fciens aut nefciens, "tuum numen majeftatemque violarim, animal, ut "fcis, mutum, naturæ meæ fimplicitatem fequens, 66 nec multiformium morum varietatibus lubri"cum?"— [In English thus: "What if the ox, "while he is led out to flaughter to appeafe the "fancied wrath of an offended deity, should affume "the human voice, and in thefe words aftonish "his conductors: Are thefe, O merciful God, are "these the dictates of humanity, or of juftice, that "for the crime of another I fhould forfeit my life. "I have never by my will offended thee, and, "dumb as I am, and uninformed by reafon, my "actions, according to the fimplicity of my nature, "cannot have given thee difpleasure, who haft made nie as I am."]- If this argument were folid, it would be equally conclufive against animal food. by |