SECT. 12-16.] SACRIFICES OF THE OLD LAW. 533
xlii. 8; as did Jethro also in the wilderness, Exod. xviii. 12. For from that sacrifice of Noah was this rite of whole burnt-offerings derived by tradition unto all nations of his posterity; but the end and use of it being lost, is was in process of time, by the craft of Satan, turned into the chiefest way of exercising their idolatry.
15. The matter, therefore, of this sacrifice was preserved among the heathen, although they made use of other creatures also than what were allowed in the law of Moses, or applied unto that purpose by any who were guided by divine direction. Their principal solemn sacrifices were of the herd; which therefore they called Bovdvosa, or “buthysia,” “the sacrifice of oxen,” and of all sorts of kine:—
“Taurum Neptuno, taurum tibi, pulcher Apollo,”
as Virgil, [ Ain. ii.119.] And he also expresseth the way of offering these bulls or oxen to Neptune, Apollo, and others of their feigned deities, [ Ain. vi. 253] :—
“ Ht solida imponit taurorum viscera flammis ;’’—
«They committed their whole inwards unto flames on the altar;”
which expresseth this holocaust. And they offered kine of all sorts, So Homer tells us that Nestor sacrificed jvv,—that is, an heifer or a bullock of one year old; évavoraiov, saith Eustathius, as in many cases the law directed. And the poet adds, [Iliad, k. 293],—
“Hy obra bad Cuyoy dyaryer evipp— “ Which none had brought to the yoke ;”’
as the same was required in the sacrifices of the law. To the moon they sacrificed a bullock, whose horns had turned into the likeness of her first appearance, [ Ain. vi. 251]:—
— “Sterilemque tibi, Proserpina, vaccam ;”—
« And a barren heifer to Proserpina.’’
And Plutarch telleth us that some of the old Egyptians offered a red heifer in sacrifice; which I much doubt, and suppose rather the report to have risen from the ceremonies of the red cow instituted in the wilderness, when the people came out of Egypt. But whereas an ox was a harmless and useful creature, some of them began at length to suppose that it was not meet to use them in sacrifice: but, to keep up the old tradition of this kind of offering, they made a cake, which they called papanon, and fashioned it into the similitude of an ox, and termed it an ox; as Hesychius in Udaavy. So the images of idolatrous groves, placed by idolaters in the temple of old, are called groves in the Scripture, and the small shrines made for Diana are called temples.
16. Sheep also they sacrificed, especially lambs, to Jupiter, Mi-
534 SACRIFICES OF THE OLD LAW. [EXERC. XXIV.
nerva, and Diana; and goats or kids to Bacchus. Whence is that of the poet, [Ovid. Fast. lib. i. 357]:—
* Rode, caper, vitem: tamen hinc, cum stabis ad aram,
In tua quod spargi cornua possit, erit ;’— ‘The vines cropt by the goat yet wine suffice To sprinkle him when made a sacrifice ;”
which, as Suetonius testifies, was bitterly reflected on Nero Cesar, upon his foolish edict for the cutting down of vines in Italy. Birds or fowls also they offered or sacrificed, but without distinction,—cocks, geese, turtles, and the like.
17. But besides these things, that were of ancient tradition, they added as the matter of their sacrifices all sorts of living creatures, even such as the law of nature refused, and such as among the Jews were in an especial manner forbidden; neither ever were they in use amongst the first fathers of the world, until after the dispersion at Babel. Of the first sort was their sacrificing of men, which 1 have elsewhere showed to have been catholic in the world. Of the latter, to omit horses, dogs, and the like, we may take an instance in that of swine. ‘Yodvoiau, the offering of swine, was the principal, and, as the most of them judged, the most ancient kind of sacrifice amongst them. This they constantly used, whether in consecrations, or lustrations, or confirmations of covenants,—the most solemn occa- sions of their sacrifices. So in the first way he speaks in Aristo- phanes, [EIP. 374.]:—
"Es yeoiptdidy pool vuv dcivervoy cpsis Sparcucds, Ati yap pundival we xply rebvnxévas— “ Money I want, a sacred swine to buy ; I would be consecrate before I die.” And in case of lustration or expiation, Plautus speaks to the same purpose in his Mznechmi, [ Act. 1. Sc. i, 15] :— “ Adolescens, quibus hic pretiis porci veneunt sacres, sinceri ?
Nummum unum en a me accipe; jube te piari de mea pecunia ; Nam ego quidem insanum esse te certe scio ;’”"—
“ Young man, what is here the price of swine fit for sacrifice ? take a piece of silver of me, and get thyself expiated” (or “ freed from thy malady by sacrifice”) “ with my money ; for I know certainly that thou art mad.”
And another says concerning covenants, [ Ain. viii. 645]:—
“ Cosi jungebant foedera porca ;’’— “They ratified their covenants by the sacrifice of a female swine.” But this by the way. We return.
18. First, The nature and manner of it in the church of Israel is directed, Lev.i, In general, as was said, it was 1222, “corban,” “a gift brought nigh to God.” Verse 3, 13272 ney"oN ;—“ If his corban be ghola.” From mDy “ ghala,” “ascendit,” “to go upward,” it was so