whatever shipwrecked strangers they find upon their coasts to Diana of Taurus.' Thence, ye inhospitable shores, Euripides again and again bewails in his scenes these your sacrifices.'-Clemens's Exhortations to the Greeks. But what he says concerning Euripides, has a reference to the story of Iphigenia among the inhabitants of Taurus :d where, however, the poet signifies that she detested such kinds of sacrifices; for he introduces Iphigenia, then priestess of Diana, thus bewailing her lot: 6 say no They have appointed me priestess in these temples, where Diana, the goddess of the festival, is delighted with such laws; whose name alone is honourable: but I more, dreading the goddess. For I sacrifice (and it long hath been a custom of the state), every Grecian that arrives in this country.'-Eur. Iph. in Tauris. Thus far Clemens, who also demonstrates the same thing of the Thessalians, Lycians, Lesbians, Phocensians, and Romans, from Monimus, Antoclides, Pythocles, and Demaratus. That deed too of Agamemnon, alluded to by Virgil, furnishes another proof. Sanguine placastis ventos, et virgine cæsa, &c. DRYDEN'S VIRG. Tertullian also bears witness to this wickedness: In Africa they openly sacrificed infants to Saturn, even down to the time of the proconsulate of Tiberius; and what is surprising, even in that most religious city of the pious descendants of Æneas, there is a certain Jupiter, whom, at his games, they drench with human blood.' e It is notoriously known, that in the sanguinary games of the Romans, they made atonement to the gods with human blood, namely, that of captives. But Eusebius Pamphilus enters the most fully of any into this matter: for he shews from Porphyry, Philo, Clemens, Dionysius of Halicarnassia, and Diodorus Siculus, that this ceremony of offering human sacrifices was practised all over the world. Porphyry, indeed, shews, at large, who instituted this kind of worship e d In the play of Euripides, called Iphigenia in Tauris. Bishop of Cæsarea, in Palestine, a very learned prelate, and one of the greatest writers of his time. in different places, and who put an end to it. Another very ingenious poet brings an accusation of extreme folly and madness, against this rite, in these verses. It is a Plebeian addressing Agamemnon: Tu quum pro vitula, statuis dulcem Aulide natam, When your own child you to the altar led, Agamemnon is introduced thus apologizing for himself, on account of the utility and necessity of the sacrifice. Verum ego, ut hærentes adverso littore naves But I, while adverse winds tempestuous roar, FRANCIS'S HORACE. The Plebeian again charges him with madness: Nempe tuo, furiose? What! your own blood, you madman? But Philo, in his first book, relates that one Saturn (there were many illustrious persons of that name, as well as of the name of Hercules), when the enemies of his country were oppressing it, sacrificed at the altars his own daughter named Leudem, which among them, viz. the Tyrians, means only-begotten. I have little or no doubt but that this Saturn was Jephthah the Israelite; that their Hercules was Joshua, the celebrated Vossius has clearly proved. Book i. of Idol. But as we have made mention of Jephthah, it will not be foreign to our purpose, briefly to treat of these three famous examples of human sacrifices recorded in the sacred writings. The first is contained in that celebrated history concerning the trial of Abraham: an undertaking so wonderful and astonishing, that no age hath ever produced, or will produce its like. It even exceeds every thing that fabulous Greece hath presumed in story. A most indulgent and af fectionate father, weighed down with age, is ordered to offer his only son, the pillar of his house and family, the trust of heaven, a son solemnly promised him by God, the foundation of the future church, in whom, according to the oracles of God, all the nations of the earth were to be blessed; this most innocent, and most obedient son, he is ordered to offer as a burnt-offering: a dreadful kind of sacrifice indeed! which required, that the victim should be first slain, afterward cut in pieces, and lastly burnt by the hand of a father! What though the purpose was not accomplished, God having graciously so ordained it; this obedience of the holy man is, notwithstanding, to be had in everlasting remembrance! And forasmuch as he begun the task with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, the Holy Spirit bears testimony to him, as if he had really offered his son. Heb. xi. 17. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises, offered up his only-begotten.' The fame of this transaction, no doubt, was spread, in ancient times, over many of the Eastern nations. But that those, who were altogethe rignorant of the communion and friendship which Abraham cultivated with the Lord, and yet were convinced in their consciences, that a more noble sacrifice than all cattle, and a more precious victim was necessary to be offered to God (for if this persuasion had not been deeply impressed on their minds, the devil could not have induced them to that dreadful worship), assumed the courage of practising the same thing, from that event, there is not any room to doubt. And farther, if any report were spread abroad concerning the divine command and oracle which Abraham received, the eyes of all would be turned upon him as the wisest and holiest of men, and they would be led, perhaps, to conclude falsely that God might be propitiated by such kind of victims. For they did not this, from any rivalship of Abraham, whom they respected as a wise and just man; but being deceived by that action of his, and endeavouring at an expiation of their own crimes, they did the same thing that he f Abraham is now said to have been a hundred and thirty-three years of age: for some are of opinion that Isaac, at the time he was to have been sacrificed, was thirtythree years old: Josephus says, twenty-five. The Jews in Seder Olam, thirty-six. Nor is it any objection that he is called Naar, for so Benjamin, the father of many children is called, Gen. xliii. did, but with a very different end: for the offering up of Isaac was a type of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But from that right and dominion, which God naturally hath over all the creatures, or from that superior excellence and eminence, wherewith he is endowed and constituted, he might, without any degree or suspicion of injustice or cruelty, exact victims as a tribute from man; but he hath declared his will to the contrary; Exod. xxxiv. 19, 20. But the firstlings of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb and the first born of thy sons thou shalt redeem.' Partly, lest human blood, of which he has the highest care, should become of little account; but especially, because all mankind in general being polluted with iniquities, a type of his immaculate son could not be taken from among them. But this history, the falsifying poets of the Greeks have corrupted, by that fable of theirs, concerning the sacrifice of Iphigenia, begun by her father Agamemnon, but who was liberated by the substitution of a doe: hence, in Euripides, these words are falsely applied to the virgin, destined to be sacrificed, which (the proper changes being made), might with more propriety be spoken of Isaac, when acting in obedience to the command of God, and of his father. ὦ πὰτες πάρειμί σοι, &c. &c. 'O, father, I am here present, and I cheerfully deliver up my body, for my country, and for all Greece, to be sacrificed at the altar of the goddess, by those who now conduct me thither, if the oracle so require.'-Euripid. Iphigenia in Aulis, near the end. It is worth while to notice, by the way, the use of the word up; the virgin to be sacrificed, declared, that she was willing to appease the anger of the gods, and suffer punishment in behalf of, or, instead of her country and all Greece and but a little before she is introduced, exulting in these words, Ελισσετ' αμφι ναον, &c. Invoke to her temple, to her altar, Diana, queen Diana, 8 Agamemnon, as the story runs, had killed one of Diana's stags; and the goddess would be appeased on no other terms than by the sacrifice of his daughter: but after she was laid on the pile, Diana, pitying the virgin, put a doe in her room, and made Iphigenia her priestess. the blessed Diana: for if it shall be necessary, by my blood and sacrifice I will obliterate the oracle.' Justly celebrated too, in the second place, is the history of Jephthah's sacrificing his only daughter, related by the Holy Spirit, in these words, Judges xi. 30, 31. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands; then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors. of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering.' But when he returned, 'his daughter came out to meet him; and at the end of two months, he did with her according to his vow.' If any passage ever puzzled both Jewish and Christian interpreters, ancient and modern, as well as all your disputants upon, and patchers up of common-place difficulties, this one has. For on the one hand, here it is supposed, that all offering of human sacrifices is detested and abhorred by God; and to ascribe such a thing to a man of piety, and one celebrated by the Holy Spirit for his faith, many will not venture. But again, on the other hand, the words of the history, the circumstances, the grief and lamentation of the father, seem hardly capable of admitting any other meaning. But to me these things are ambiguous. First, It is evident, that a gross ignorance of the law, either in making the vow, or in executing it, is by no means to be ascribed to Jephthah, who was, though a military man, a man of pięty, a fearer of God, and well acquainted with the sacred writings. Now then, if he simply made a vow; that a compensation and redemption, according to the valuation of the priests, ought to have been made, could not have escaped him; and therefore there was no reason why he should so much bewail the event of a vow, by which he had engaged himself to the Lord, and to which he was bound: for he might both keep his faith, and free his daughter, according to the words of the law; Lev. xxvii. 21. 31. Or if we should conjecture, that he was so grossly mistaken, and entirely unacquainted with divine matters, was there no priest or scribe among all the people, who, during h That is, the expressions relating to this subject are capable of more meanings than one; and to ascertain the right one, is attended with difficulties. |