2 Their religion at best had been contaminated with the superstitions of the church of Eome. — Tk.
638 A DISSERTATION ON DIVINE JUSTICE. [PART I.
translated from the power of darkness, and the kingdom of Satan, into his marvellous light, it is most evident that, by every tie, we are bound to offer and devote ourselves wholly to Christ, our Deliverer and most glorious Saviour, " who hath loved us, and who gave him- self for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."
Thus the prophecies concerning the oblation of Christ being but badly understood, mankind were seduced, through the instigation of the devil, to pollute themselves with these inhuman and accursed sacrifices. Perhaps, too, that most artful seducer had it in view, by such sacrifices, to prejudice the more acute and intelligent part of mankind against that life-giving sacrifice that was to be destructive of his kingdom; for such now hold these atrocious sacrifices and detestable rites in abhorrence. However, to keep the minds of men in suspense and in subjection to himself, he did not fail, from another quarter, by words dubious, to spread abroad and send forth am- biguous oracles, as if such rites and sacrifices were of no avail for the expiation of sins. Thence these verses in Cato's Distichs: —
" Cum sis ipse uocces, moiitur cur victima pro te ? Stultitia est morte alterius sperare salutem."
" Since it is thyself that art guilty, why need any victim die for thee? It is madness to expect salvation from the death of another."
I have no doubt liut that this last verse is a diabolical oracle.
By such deceitful practices, the old sei-joent, inflamed with envy, and being himself for ever lost, because he could not eradicate every sense of avenging justice (which is as a curb to restrain the fury of the wicked) from the minds of men, wished to lead them into mazes, that he might still keep them the slaves of sin, and subject to his own dominion.
There have been, and still are, some of mankind, I confess it, who from indulging their vices, are seared in their consciences, and whose minds are become callous by the practice of iniquity; who, flattering themselves to their own destruction, have falsely conceived either that God does not trouble himself about such things, or that he can be easily appeased, and without any trouble. Hence that profane wretch introduced by Erasmus, after having settled matters with the Dominican commissaiies, to a jolly companion of his own, when he asked him, " Whether God would ratify the bargain?" answers, " I fear rather lest the devil should not ratify it, for God by nature is easy to be appeased." It is from the same idea that many of the barbarous natives of America, idly fancying that there are two gods, one good and another evil, say that there is no need to otrer sacri- fices to the good one, because, being naturally good, he is not dis- posed to hurt or injure any one. But they use all possible care, both by words, and actions, and every kind of horrible sacrifice, to please the evil one. Likewise those Avho are called by Mersennus
ON HUMAN SACRIFICES. 539
Deists, exclaim " That the bigots, or superstitiously rehgious, who believe in infernal punishments, are worse than Atheists, Avho deny- that there is a God." So, too, some new masters among our own countrymen talk of nothing in their discourses but of the goodness of God. His supreme right, dominion, and vindicatory justice are of no account with them. But he himself knows how to j)reserve his glory and his truth pure and entire, in spite of the abilities, and with- out regard to the delicacy, of these fashionable and dainty gentlemen.
But Paitherford on Providence answers, " That the Gentiles for- merly borrowed their purgations and lustrations^ from the Jews, and not from the light of nature." But he must be a mere novice in the knowledge of these matters into whose mind even the slightest thought of that kind could enter; for I believe there is no one who doubts the custom and ceremony of sacrificing among the Gentile nations to be much more ancient than the Mosaic institutions. Nor can any one imagine that this universal custom among all nations, tribes, and people, civilized and barbarous, unknown to one another, differently situated and scattered all over the world, could have first arisen and proceeded from the institutions of the Jews.
" But," says he, " the light is dark, that a sinful creature could dream of being able to perfonii a satisfaction, and make propitiatory expiation, to an infinite God incensed, and such, too, as would be satisfactory for sin." Yea, I say, that a sinful creature could perform this is false, and a presumption only, arising from that darkness which we are in by nature. But, notwithstanding, it is true that God must be appeased by a propitiatory sacrifice, if we would that our sins should be forgiven us; and this much he hath pointed out to all mankind by that light of nature, obscure indeed, but not dark. Nor is it necessary, in order to prove this, that we should have recourse to the fabulous antiquities of the Egyptians, the very modest writer of which, Manetho, the high priest of Heliopolis, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and took his history from the Seriadic hieroglyphicaP obelisks, writes, that the Egyptian empire had en- dured to the time of Alexander the Great, through thirty-one dynas- ties,* containing a period of five thousand three hundred and fifty-