own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and Jerved the creature more than the Creator, who is bleed for ever. For this caufe God gave them up to vile affections.

ROMANS i. 18-26.

THE most plaufible objections made to the fyftem of revelation, and those by which perfons who have no knowledge of antiquity are most liable to be impreffed, are those which relate to the Jewish religion, and the books of the Old Testament, with which the generality of Christians are too little acquainted. Voltaire, and other unbelievers, are more particularly fond of reprefenting the inftitutions of Mofes as unreasonably intolerant, with respect to the heathens, who, they say, only differed from the Hebrews in religious opinions. It therefore behoves those who undertake the defence of revealed religion to fhew, what it is very easy to do, that ancient heathenifm was by no means a mere system of fpeculative opinions, and innocent practices; but that, befides being abfurd in the extreme, it really promoted the most destructive and the most execrable vices, and that

the religion of the Hebrews was free from every tendency of the kind, and infinitely fuperior to it in every other refpect.

In my last difcourfe I gave you an idea of fome of the enormities of the heathen religion, fuch as, though well known to the learned, are not fo to the generality of Chriftians, and yet without this knowledge it is impoffible that they can have a just idea of the value of their own religion, or a right understanding of the fcriptures, especially those of the Old Testament, in which there are perpetual allufions to the principles and rites of the heathen worship. I particularly mentioned the multiplicity of the heathen deities, the vile characters of many of them, the horrid rite of human facrifices, the painful aufterities to which their religion fubjected them, and the open proftitution which was encouraged by it, and practifed in their very temples; and in fupport of my reprefentations, I recited a variety of facts, from the authority of the fcriptures, and other ancient writings. Had I contented myself with exclaiming in general terms only against the religion of the heathens, faying of it, as Voltaire does of the religion of the Jews, that it

was

was an execrable fuperftition, without reciting any of the circumftances which fhew it to have been fuch, all that you could have inferred would have been, that I was defirous of impreffing your minds with an abhorrence of that religion, but then you would have had no knowledge of the reafons why it deferved that abhorrence, and therefore might have paid no regard to my unfupported representation.

My laft difcourfe concluded with obferving, that a most prominent feature in the religion of the ancient heathens was the encouragement it gave to lewdnefs, and this continued with increase, when, in the progress of civilization, the cruel rite of human facrifices, and their painful aufterities, became less frequent. For this reafon the apostle Paul, in the chapter which contains my text, and in other parts of his epiftles, particularly dwells upon it.

On this fubject I fhall only mention one more circumstance, which is feveral times mentioned, or alluded to, in the fcriptures. It is that a confiderable revenue arose to many of the heathen temples, as is now the case in Indoftan, from the prostitution that was encouraged

couraged in them, or in places provided for that abominable purpofe adjoining to them. The divine Being, alluding to this practice of the heathens, fays, by Mofes, Deut. xxiii. 18, Thou shalt not bring the hire of a harlot into the houfe of the Lord thy God. There shall be no harlot of the daughters of Ifrael, nor a Sodomite of the fons of Ifrael. For, incredible as it may appear to us, who have had the happiness of being educated in the principles of the purest of all religions, even unnatural pollution was allowed, and encouraged, in the religion of the ancient heathens. For this we have the clear evidence of the fcriptures, as well as of many ancient writers. Concerning the pious king Jofiah, we read, 2 Kings xxiii. 7, that he brake down the houses of the Sodomites that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove, or rather for Afteroth, or Aftarte, a famous Syrian goddess*.

In

* Herodotus informs us, that at Babylon, a city the most devoted to the worship of idols of all the nations of antiquity, every woman was obliged once in her life to prostitute herself to some stranger in the temple of Venus. Because the most wealthy difdained to expose themselves in public, amongst the reft, they went in covered chariots

to

In the time of Conftantine, and no doubt from times of the most remote antiquity, the Egyptians had religious rites in which fodomy

was

to the gates of the temple, with a numerous train of fervants attending at a distance. But the far greater part went into the temple itself, and fat down covered with garlands. The galleries in which they fat were in a straight line, and open on every fide, that all strangers might have free paffage to chufe fuch as they liked best. The beautiful women, he fays, were foon difmiffed; but the deformed were fometimes obliged to wait three or four days before they could fatisfy the law. The person who made choice of any of them made her a prefent, which which was facred to the deity, and could not be refused, though ever fo fmall.

The fame hiftorian fays that the women of Cyprus had a custom not unlike this of the Babylonians. There was the like in the temple of Venus at Sicca in Africa, at Corinth, and at Comana in Cappadocia. In the temple of Venus at Aphaca, on mount Libanus, there was a kind of academy of lewdnefs, open to all debauched perfons, where the most beaftly crimes were committed in the temple, as a privileged place, exempt from all law and government. The ludi Florales at Rome were celebrated by a company of prostitutes, who ran up and down naked, ufing the most lafcivious postures. The temple of Venus at Corinth maintained above a thousand proftitutes, facred to her fervice, and what they got was given to the goddefs. The fame is the cafe at this day with respect to many of the temples in Indoftan. Tavernier fays there is a pagod near Cambaye where women proflitute themfelves;