conviction of the fall and of its consequences in a penal subjection of man to the effects of sin; or that the notions which occasionally prevailed with respect to the efficacy of sacrifice, and the necessity of mediation, led the Heathens to regard their offerings in a just and figurative view, with.relation to their primary objects; but only that some traditionary notions had descended, and some vague apprehensions prevailed, which prepared the way for the reception of the great doctrines of the Gospel. Little of just conviction, indeed, appeared in the general practice and superstitions which arose; and with regard to the dreadful abomination which led mén to attempt to propitiate the gods by human sacrifices, it must have been suggested by him who was the prompter to all evil; deriving no authority from the command given to Abraham with respect to Isaac, since this was intended only to try hist faith and obedience, and to lead to the display of a prophetic representation; being withdrawn when the patriarch had been proved by the test proposed.

The notion of a moral purification also to be effected by water, whether derived from

a figurative application of its natural effects, or from some notion of the religious importance attached to it by the Jews, prevailed among the Heathens. This is the more remarkable if we consider the sanction which some have thought to have been given to the idea, by the water which flowed with the blood from the side of Christ when it was pierced; and by the appropriation of the element of water to the sacramental rite of baptism by Christ, to which St. John refers.

Some of the Heathens derided the credulity of those who attached an efficacy to the aspersions and purgations which were used; as might well be the case, when these rites were employed as having an intrinsic value without reference to the great purification to be introduced by Christ;

Fond men that think by water's chrystal flood
To cleanse away the horrid guilt of blood *.

The perverted notions of men led them to ground the most wicked and preposterous customs, on the belief which they entertained

* Ah! nimium faciles, qui tristia funera cœdis, Tolli flumineâ, posse, putatis, aquâ.

persua

of the efficacy of blood*, and especially of that of human victims. Early and sad effects of such persuasion appear to have prevailed the idolatrous nations of Canaan, preamong viously to the settlement of the Israelites in that country; and traces of a similar sion occasionally + shewed themselves among other nations. Diodorus represents the Carthaginians to have offered up human sacrifices; and Pliny relates that vestiges of the horrible custom were to be found in Italy, as noticed in the twelve tables; and that even so early as the year 657 a decree of the senate was passed in the consulship of Cornelius Lentulus and Publius Licinius. Crassus, forbidding the abomination which till that time had been openly practised. Diodorus afterwards mentions the same custom as prevailing among the Druids ‡. Adeo ista (says Pliny) toto mundo conquanquam discordi et sibi ignoto §. The relations with respect to Curtius and the Decii are well known. Cicero, speaking of the opinions that the gods were to be propitiated by individuals devoting

sensere

Magee on the Atonement, vol. i. p. 98, 99.

+ Numb. xiii. 32. Isaiah xxxvii. 5.

Bibliothec. lib. v. c. 31. vol. i. p. 354. Cæsar de Bell, Gall. lib. vi. 16.

§ Nat. Hist. lib. xxx. c. 1.

themselves to death, enquires remarkably enough with respect to the deities who had required the devotion of such men as the Decii: Quæ fuit eorum tanta iniquitas ut placari populo Romano non possent nisi viri tales occidissent?

It is to be observed however, beyond what has been stated, that there is ground to presume that the Heathens looked, under vague and general convictions, to a mediator interceding by personal offices.

This persuasion is to be found among the earliest notions of the East.

The worship of the Sabæans was directed to the heavenly bodies, as to the supposed tabernacles of intelligent beings, who acted as mediators to conciliate the gods †.

Horace also, after describing events which indicated the displeasure of the gods, enquires to whom shall Jupiter give the part of expiating guilt, and he points to Apollo as the intercessor‡.

* De Nat. Deor. lib. iii. 6. Edit. Olivet. et pro M. Fonteio, 10.