**Chronus offered up his only begotten son as a burnt offering, to his father Ouranus, when there was a famine and a pestilence." "Chronus whom the Phenicians named Israel [It should be II,] and who was after his death consecrated unto the star Saturn, when he was king of the country, and had by a nymph of that country, named Anobret, an only begotten son, whom, on that account, they called Jeud, (the Phenicians to this day calling an only begotten son by that name,) he, in his dread of very great dangers that lay upon the country from war, adorned bis son with royal apparel, and built him an altar, and offered him in sacrifice.' The Phenicians, when they were in great danger by war, by famine, or by pestilence, sacrificed to Saturn one of the dearest of their people, whom they chose by public suffrage for that purpose. And Sanchoniatho's Phenician history is full of such sacrifices. [These hitherto I take to have been before the flood.] "In Arabia, the Dumatii sacrificed a child every year.”|| "They relate, that of old the [Egyptian] kings sacrificed such men as were of the same colour with Typho, at the sepulchre of Osiris." "Manetho relates,¶ that they burnt Typhonean men alive in the city Idithya, [or Ilithya,] and scattered their ashes like chaff that is winnowed; and this was done publicly, and at a set season in the dog-days." **The barbarous nations did a long time admit of the slaughter of children, as of a holy practice, and acceptable to the gods. And this thing both private persons, and kings, and entire nations, practise at proper seasons." "The human sacrifices that were enjoined by the Dodonean oracle, mentioned in Pausanias' Achaics, in the tragical story of Coresus and Callirrhoe, sufficiently intimate that Phenician and Egyptian priests had set up this Dodonean oracle before the time of Amosis, who destroyed that barbarous practice in Egypt." Isque adytis hæc tristia dicta reportat : - He from the gods this dreadful answer brought, And Grecian blood once more atone the main. DRYDEN. These bloody sacrifices were for certain instances of the greatest degree of impiety, tyranny, and cruelty, in the world, that either wicked demons, or wicked men, who neither made, nor preserved mankind, who had therefore no right over them, nor were they able to make them amends in the next world for what they thus lost or suffered in this, should, after so inhuman a manner, command the taking away the lives of men, and particularly of the offerer's own children, without the commission of any crime. Philo. Bib. ex. Sanchon, p. 76. Porphyry, p. 77. § Porphyry, p. 77. Cumberl. Sanchon. p. 378. This was, I think, an abomination derived from him who was a murderer from the beginning;* a crime truly and properly diabolical. 5. That, accordingly, Almighty God himself, under the Jewish dispensation, vehemently condemned the Pagans, and sometimes the Jews themselves, for this crime; and for this, and other heinous sins, cast the idolatrous nations (nay, sometimes the Jews too) out of Palestine. Take the principal texts hereto relating, as they lie in order in the Old Tes tament. †Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech. Defile not yourselves in any of these things, for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you," &c. "Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojonrn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech, he shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones." "Take heed to thyself, that thou be not snared by following the nations, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God; for every abomination of 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." See Deut. xii. 30, 31. chap. xviii. 18. 2 Kings xvii. 17. "|| And Ahaz made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel." "§ Moreover, Ahaz burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children [his son in Josephus] in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel." And the Sepharites burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anamelech, the gods of Sepharvaim," &c. "**And Josiah defileth Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire unto Molech." "Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto demons; and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood." See Isa. lvii. 5. "The children of Judah hath done evil in my sight, saith the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name to pollute it: aud they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart." Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle, because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents. They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their John viii. 44. 2 Kings xvi. 3. + Lev. xviii. 21, 24. Ibib. xix. 3, 4, 5. Lev. xx. 2. 2 Kings xvii. 31. Jer. vii. 30, 31, 32. sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded them not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind," &c. "They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither came it unto my mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin." †Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast born unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them." "Thou hatedst the old inhabitants of thy holy land, for doing most odious works of witchcraft, and wicked sacrifices; and also those merciless murderers of children, and devourers of man's flesh, and the feasts of blood, with their priests out of the midst of their idolatrous crew, and the parents that killed with their own hands souls destitute of help." 6. That Almighty God never permitted, in any one instance, that such a human sacrifice should be actually offered to himself, (though he had a right to have required it, if he had so pleased,) under the whole Jewish dispensation, which yet was full of many other kinds of sacrifices, and this at a time when mankind generally thought such sacrifices of the greatest virtue for the procuring pardon of sin and the divine favour; this the ancient records of the heathen world attest. Take their notion in the words of Phylo Byblius, the translator of Sanchoniatho : "It was the custom of the ancients, in the greatest calamities and dangers, for the governors of the city or nation, in order to avert the destruction of all, to devote their beloved son to be slain, as a price of redemption to the punishing [or avenging] demons and those so devoted were killed after a mystical manner." This the history of the king of Moab,§ when he was in great distress in his war against Israel and Judah, informs us of; who "then took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burntoffering upon the city wall." This also the Jewish prophet Micah¶ implies, when he inquires, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burntofferings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, and ten thousands of fat kids of the goats? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" No certainly, "For he hath shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thyself to walk with thy God?" It is true, God did here try the faith and obedience of Abraham to himself, whether they were as strong as the Pagans exhibited to their demons or idols, yet did he withal take effectual care, and that by a miraculous interposition also, to prevent the execution, and provided himself a ram, as a vicarious substitute, to supply the place of Isaac, immediately :** “ And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham, and said, Abraham, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold a ram caught in a Ibid. xxxii. 35. + Ezek. xvi 20, 21. 1 Wisd. xii. 4, 5, 9. thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son." Thus though Jephthah* has, by many, been thought to have vowed to offer up his only daughter and child for a sacrifice, and that as bound on him, upon supposition of his vow by a divine law, Lev. xxvii. 28, 29. of which opinion I was once myself; yet upon more mature consideration, I have, for some time, thought this to be a mistake, and that his vow extended only to her being devoted to serve God at the tabernacle, or elsewhere, in a state of perpetual virginity; and that neither that law did enjoin any human sacrifices, nor do we meet with any example of its execution in this sense afterwards. Philo never mentions any such law, no more than Josephus: and when Josephus had thought that Jephthah had made such a vow, and executed it, he is so far from hinting at its being done in compliance with any law of God, that he expressly condemns him for it, as having acted contrary thereto; or, in his own words,† "as having offered an oblation neither conformable to the law, nor acceptable to God, nor weighing with himself what opinion the hearers would have of such a practice.' 7. That Isaac being at this time, according to Josephus, who is herein justly followed by Archb. Usher,|| no less than twenty five years of age, and Abraham being, by consequence, one hundred and twenty-five, it is not to be supposed that Abraham could bind Isaac, in order to offer him in sacrifice, but by his own free consent; which free consent of the party who is to be offered seems absolutely necessary in all such cases: and which free consent St. Clement, as well as Josephus, distinctly takes notice of on this occasion. St. Clement describes it thus: "Isaac being fully persuaded of what he knew was to come, cheerfully yielded himself up for a sacrifice. And for Josephus, after introducing Abraham in a pathetic speech, laying before Isaac the divine command, and exhorting him patiently and joyfully to submit to it, he tells us, that Isaac very cheerfully consented;" and then introduces him as giving a short, but very pious answer, acquiescing in the proposal; and adds, that "he then immediately and readily went to the altar to be sacrificed." Nor did Jephthah** perform his rash vow, whatsoever it were, till his daughter had given her consent to it. 8. It appears to me that Abraham never despaired entirely of the interposition of Providence for the preservation of Isaac, although in obedience to the command he prepared to sacrifice him to God. This seems to me intimated in Abraham's words to his servants on the third day, when he was in sight of the mountain on which he was to offer his son Isaac ;†† We will go and worship, and we will come again to you." As also in his answer to his son, when he inquired, “Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." Both these passages look, to me, somewhat like such an expectation. However, 46 9. It appears most evident, that Abraham, and I suppose Isaac also, firmly believed, that if God should permit Isaac to be actually slain as a sacrifice, he would certainly and speedily raise him again from the dead. This, to be sure, is supposed in the words already quoted, that both "he and his son would go and worship, and come again to the servants :" and † Antiq. b. v. 7-10. Ibid. b. i. chap. ii. Clem. sect. 3. Antiq. b. i. chap. xii. sect. 3. tt Gen. xxii. 5, 7. Jud. xi. 30-39. is clearly and justly collected from this history by the author to the Hebrews, chap. xi. 17, 18, 19. "By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting, or reasoning, that God was able to raise him from the dead." And this reasoning was at once very obvious, and wholly undeniable; that since God was truth itself, and had over and over promised that he would "*multiply Abraham exceedingly; that he should be a father of many nations; that his name should be no longer Abram, but Abraham, because a father of many nations God had made him, &c.; that Sarai his wife should be called Sarah, that he would bless her, and give Abraham a son also of her, and that he would bless him, and she should become nations, and kings of people should be of her, &c.; and that in Isaact should his seed be called." And since withal it is here supposed, that Isaac was to be slain as a sacrifice, before he was married, or had any seed, God was, for certain, obliged by his promises, in these circumstances, to raise Isaac again from the dead; and this was an eminent instance of that faith whereby "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness," viz. that if God should permit Isaac to be sacrificed, he would certainly and quickly raise him up again from the dead," from whence also he received him in a figure,” as the author to the Hebrews here justly observes. 10. That the firm and just foundation of Abraham's faith and assurance in God for such a resurrection, was this, besides the general consideration of the divine veracity, that during the whole time of his sojourneying in strange countries, in Canaan and Egypt, ever since he had been called out of Chaldea or Mesopotamia at seventy-five years of age, he had had constant experience of a special, of an overruling, of a kind and gracious providence over him, till this his 125th year, which against all human views had continually blessed him, and enriched him, and, in his elder age, had given him first Íshmael by Hagar, and afterwards promised him Isaac to spring from his own body now dead, **and from the deadness of Sarah's womb, when she was past age, and when it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women, ††and had actually performed that and every other promise, how improbable soever that performance had appeared, he had ever made to him, and this during fifty entire years together: so that although at his first exit out of Chaldea, or Mesopotamia, he might have been tempted to stagger at such a promise of God through unbelief,‡‡ yet might he now, after fifty years' constant experience, be justly "strong in faith, giving glory to God; as being fully persuaded, that what God had promised," the resurrection of Isaac, "he was both able and willing to perform." 11. That this assurance, therefore, that God, if he permitted Isaac to be slain, would infallibly raise him again from the dead, entirely alters the state of the case of Abraham's sacrificing Isaac to the true God, from that of all other human sacrifices whatsoever offered to false ones, all those others being doue without the least promise or prospect of such a resurrection; and this indeed takes away all pretence of injustice in the divine command, as well as of all inhumanity or cruelty in Abraham's obedience to it. Gn. xvii. 2, 4, 5, 6, 16. + Gen. xxi. 12. || Hen. xi. 11. 19. § Gen. xii. 4. Heb. xi. 11. ++ Gen. xviii. 11. ↑ Ger. xv. 6. Rom. iv, 19. |
