Mofes, on his delivery of the LAW, thus folemnly forbids all curious enquiry concerning the Pagan rites of Worship, in the Nations round. about them: Inquire not after their Gods, faying how did thefe nations SERVE their Gods? EVEN SO WILL I DO LIKEWISE. The reafon of the prohibition follows, they practifed the horrid enormity of Child-facrifice——For every abomination to the Lord WHICH HE HATETH, have they done unto their Gods; FOR EVEN THEIR. SONS AND THEIR DAUGHTERS HAVE THEY BURNT IN THE FIRE TO THEIR GODS*. The dangerous curiofity here reftrained, was not on account of the number and nature of the Gods of Canaan. For the ftriking abfurdity of their Theogony or original, and the impiety of their Mythology or history, would have ferved to attach the Ifraelites more firmly to the LAW. The prohibition only refpected an inquiry into the Canaanitish modes of worship, or, as it is better expreffed in the text,HOW thefe nations ferved their Gods. And though this inquiry might, at first, arise from nothing elfe than a wanton curiofity, yet the Legislator intimates that it would end in apoftacy from the LORD OF HOSTS-even fo will we do likewife that is, we will use those Pagan rites in the fervice of the God of Ifrael; for they were little

* Deut. xii. 30.

in danger, fo early, to ufe Canaanitish rites in the fervice of the Gods of Canaan. Befides, the caution here is not against IDOLATRY, but INFANTICIDE. Nor could they be much difpofed to forfake the God of Ifrael for the Gods of Canaan, at the very time they were fo fuccessfully marching, under the auspices of Mofes, to exterminate that devoted people. He therefore could fcarce conceive that, at this time, they needed fuch a caution. For, the reafon he gives for reftraining this hurtful inquiry is, left they should worship their own God with Pagan rites; efpecially this most abominable of all, And there was the more need of this caution, fince the firfl-born of man and beaft, in Ifrael, were to be fantified to the Lord; and though the first-born of man was redeemed, while the first-born of the clean beafts were facrificed, yet the love of corrupt and idolatrous Rites might give fome propenfity to a fatal mistake, and to flip in Sacrifice instead of functi fication.

INFANTICIDE.

Afterwards, when the Ifraelites became polluted with the infernal ftains of Infanticide, the PROPHETS never ceased to proclaim aloud God's abhorrence of this impiety. For, in order to imprefs upon the paganifed or apoftate Ifraelites a due fenfe of their frequent defections, it was found neceffary for thefe his meffengers thoroughly

X 4

roughly to probe the confciences of fuch hardened wretches, which had heen feared with the fires of Molech.

Sacred Hiftory informs us, how feverely Ahaz was punished for his multiplied Idolatries; but principally for his "burning his Children in "the fire, after the abominations of the Hea. "then [the Canaanites], whom the Lord had "caft out before the Children of Ifrael."They facrificed (fays the Pfalmift) their fons and their daughters unto Devils-the Idols of Conaanand the Land was polluted with blood-infomuch that he abborred his own inheritance." They "have built the high places of Baal (fays Jere

miah) to burn their Sons with fire, for burntofferings to Baal." And again-they caused their Sons and their Daughters to pass through the fire, to Molech §. Ezekiel, likewise, accuseth them of having caufed their Sons to pass through the fire to DEVOUR them . But further, it would feem, by the following words of Jeremiah, that thefe impious facrifices were offered, by the unnatural Jews, to the God of Ifrael himself."The Children of Judah have done evil in my "fight, faith the Lord; they have fet their abo

*

2 Chron. xxviii. 3. Pfalm xix. 5.

xxiii. 37.

+ Pfalm vi. 38, 39, 40. § xxxii. 35.

"minations

"minations in the house which is called by my

name, to pollute it, and they have built the "high places of Tophet, which is in the valley "of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their fons "and their daughters in the fire, which I com"manded them not, neither came it into my "head". The concluding words feem to intimate that thefe Apoftates pretended to have received fuch a command; or with what propriety was it fo formally denied? Poffibly they might pervert the famous paffage in Leviticust; of which more hereafter.-However, the whole of the text informs is clearly, that Childfacrifice fometimes polluted the altars of the Temple. Ezekiel feems to confirm the fame thing. "Moreover, this they have done unto

σε

me; they have defiled my Sanctuary, in the fame day, and have prophaned my Sabbaths. "For when they had slain their Children unto their "Idols, then they came, the fame day, into my

Sanctuary, to prophane it, and lo! thus have "they done in the midst of mine house ‡ ;”—i. e. "When they had flain Children to their Idols, "they, on the fame day, offered the like horrid "facrifice to me."And we know, it was their usual practice, amidst their defections, to

* Pfalm vii. 30, 31.

xxiii. 38, 39.

"

+ xxvii, 28, 29.

join idol-worship, to the worship of the God of Ifrael.

The facred Hiftorian is ftill more express to this purpofe; when he thus fpeaks of the wicked king Manaffah-He built altars in the boufe of the Lord-and be built altars for all the Host of Heaven, in the two Courts of the house of the Lord, and HE MADE HIS SONS TO PASS THROUGH THE FIRE; and obferved times, and ufed enchantments, &c.*.

On the whole, the grofs IMMORALITY of this horrid Rite, was that to which the abhorrence of God was principally, and often folely, directed. This truth would appear certain (did Scripture afford no other evidence) from the warning given by Mofes to his People, on their going to take poffeffion of the Promised Land.

But a decifive paffage in Ifaiah cuts off the fubterfuge of our Philofophers, who are ready to fuppofe that the declared abhorrence of human Sacrifices, fo often repeated in Scripture, is confined to fuch as were directed to an IDOLATROUS OBJECT; for the Prophet, in the very place referred to, speaking in the name of God, declares the utmost deteftation of human Sacrifices when offered to himself: For, speaking to thofe immoral Ifraelites, who imagined they

*

2 Kings xxi. 4, 5, 6.

could