solemn act of religious worship, which consisted in dedicating or offering up something animate or inanimate on an altar, by the hands of the priest, either as an expression of their gratitude to the Deity for some signal mercy, or to acknowledge their dependence on him, or to conciliate his favour. The origin of sacrifices is by some ascribed to the Phoenicians; but Porphyry ascribes it to the Egyptians, who first offered the first-fruits of their grounds to the gods, burning them upon an altar of turf: thus in the most ancient sacrifices there were neither living creatures, nor any thing costly or magnificent, and no myrrh or frankincense. At length they began to burn perfumes; and afterwards men, leaving their ancient diet of herbs and roots, and beginning to use living creatures for food, began also to change their sacrifices. The scriptures, however, furnish us with a different account: for Noah, it is said, sacrificed animals at his coming out of the ark; and even Abel himself sacrificed the best and fattest of his flock; but Grotius thinks it more probable that he contented himself with making a mere oblation of his lambs, &c. without slaying them.

The Jews had two sorts of sacrifices, taking the word word in its largest signification: The first were offerings of tythes, first-fruits, cakes, wine, oil, honey, and the like; and the last, offerings of slaughtered animals. When an Israelite offered a loaf or a cake, the priest broke it in two parts; and setting aside that half which he reserved for himself, broke the other into crumbs, poured oil, wine, incense, and salt upon it, and spread the whole upon the fire of the altar. If these offerings were accompanied with the sacrifice of an animal, they were thrown upon the victim to be consumed along with it. If the offerings were of the ears of new corn, they were parched at the fire, rubbed in the hand, and then offered to the priest in a vessel, over which he poured oil, incense, wine, and salt, and then burnt it upon the altar, having first taken as much of it as of right belonged to himself.

The principal sacrifices among the Hebrews consisted of bullocks, sheep, and goats; but doves and turtles were accepted from those who were not able to bring the other: these beasts were to be perfect, and without blemish. The rites of sacrificing were various; all of which are very minutely described in the books of Moses.

The manner of sacrificing among the Greeks and Romans was as follows. In the choice of the victim, they took care that it was without blemish or imperfection; its tail was not to be too small at the end; the tongue not black, nor the ears cleft; and that the bull was one that had never been yoked. The victim being pitched upon, they girt his forehead and horns, especially if a bull, heifer, or cow. The head they also adorned with a garland of flowers, a woollen insula or holy fillet, whence hung two rows of chaplets with twisted ribands; and on the middle of the body a kind of stole, pretty large, hung down on each side; the lesser victims were only adorned with garlands and bundles of flowers, together with white tufts or wreaths.

The victims thus prepared were brought before the altar; the lesser being driven to the place, and the greater led by an halter; when, if they made any struggle, or refused to go, the resolute was taken for an ill omen, and the sacrifice frequently set aside. The victim thus brought was carefully examined, to see that there was no defect in it; then the priest, clad in his sacerdotal habit, and accompanied with the sacrificers and other attendants, and being washed and purified according to the ceremonies prescribed, turned to the right-hand, and went round the altar, sprinkling it with meal and holy-water, and also bepiskrinking those who were present. Then the cried proclaimed with a loud voice, Who is here? To which the people replied, Many and good. The priest then having exhorted the people to join with him by saying, Let us pray, confessed his own unworthiness, acknowledging that he had been guilty of divers sins; for which he begged pardon of the gods, hoping that they would be pleased to grant his requests, accept the oblations offered them, and send them all health and happiness; and to this general form added petitions for such particular favours as were then desired. Prayers being ended, the priest took a cup of wine; and having tasted it himself, caused his assistants to do the like; and then poured forth the remainder between the horns of the victim. Then the priest or the cried, or sometimes the most honourable person in the company, killed the beast, by knocking it down or cutting its throat. If the sacrifice was in honour of the celestial gods, the throat was turned up towards heaven; but if they sacrificed to the heroes or infernal gods, the victim was killed with its throat towards the ground. If by accident the beast escaped the stroke, leaped up after it, or expired with pain and difficulty, it was thought to be unacceptable to the gods. The beast being killed, the priest inspected its entrails, and made predictions from them. They then poured wine, together with frankincense, into the fire, to increase the flame, and then laid the sacrifice on the altar; which in the primitive times was burnt whole to the gods, and thence called an holocaust; but in after-times, only part of the victim was consumed in the fire, and the remainder reserved for the sacrificers; the thighs, and sometimes the entrails, being burnt to their honour, the company feasted upon the rest. While the priest was sacrificing, the priest, and the person who gave the sacrifice, jointly prayed, laying their hands upon the altar. Sometimes they played upon musical instruments in the time of the sacrifice, and on some occasions they danced round the altar, singing sacred hymns in honour of the god.

Human Sacrifices. One would think it scarce possible, that so unnatural a custom as that of human sacrifices should have existed in the world: but it is very certain, that it did not only exist, but almost universally prevail. The Egyptians of old brought no victims to their temples, nor shed any blood at their altars: But human victims and the blood of men must be here excepted; which at one period they most certainly offered to their gods. The Cretans had the same custom; and adhered to it a much longer time. The nations of Arabia did the same. The people of Dumah, in particular, sacrificed every year a child; and buried it underneath an altar, which they made use of instead of an idol: for they did not admit of images. The Persians buried people alive. Amethis, the wife of Xerxes, entombed 12 persons quick under ground for the good of her soul. It would be endless to enumerate every city, or every province, where these dire practices obtained. The Cyprians, the Rhodians, the Phoceans, the Ionians, those of Chios, Lesbos, Tenedos, all had human sacrifices. The natives of the Tauric Chersonesus offered up to Diana every stranger whom chance threw upon their coast. Hence arose that just expoliation in Euripides, upon the inconsistency of the proceeding; wherein much good reasoning is implied. Iphigenia wonders, as the goddess delighted in the blood of men, that every villain and murderer should be privileged to escape, nay, be driven from the threshold of the temple; whereas, if an honest and virtuous man chanced to stray thither, he only was seized upon, and put to death. The Pelasgi, in a time of scarcity, vowed the tenth of all that should be born to them, for a sacrifice, in order to procure plenty. Aristomenes the Messenian slew 300 noble Lacedemonians, among whom was Theopompus the king of Sparta, at the altar of Jupiter at Ithome. Without doubt the Lacedemonians did not fail to make ample returns: for they were a fierce and revengeful people, and offered the like victims to Mars. Their festival of the Diamantigona is well known; when the Spartan boys were whipped in the sight of their parents with such Such severity before the altar of Diana Ostilis, that they often expired under the torture. Phylarchus affirms, as he is quoted by Porphyry, that of old every Grecian state made it a rule, before they marched towards an enemy, to solicit a blessing on their undertakings by human victims.

The Romans were accustomed to the like sacrifices. They both devoted themselves to the infernal gods, and contrained others to submit to the same horrid doom. Hence we read in Titus Livius, that, in the consulship of Emilius Paulus and Terentius Varro, two Gauls, a man and a woman, and two in like manner of Greece, were buried alive at Rome in the Ox-Market; where was a place under ground, walled round to receive them; which had before been made use of for such cruel purposes. He says it was a sacrifice not properly Roman, that is, not originally of Roman institution; yet it was frequently practised there, and that too by public authority. Plutarch makes mention of a like instance a few years before, in the consulship of Flaminius and Furius. There is reason to think, that all the principal captives who graced the triumphs of the Romans, were at the close of that cruel pageantry put to death at the altar of Jupiter Capitolinus. Caius Marius offered up his own daughter for a victim to the Dioscuri, to procure success in a battle against the Cimbri; as we are informed by Dorotheus, quoted by Clemens. It is likewise attested by Plutarch, who says that her name was Calpurnia. Marius was a man of a sour and bloody disposition; and had probably heard of such sacrifices being offered in the enemy's camp, among whom they were very common: or he might have beheld them exhibited at a distance; and therefore murdered what was nearest, and should have been dearest, to him, to counteract their fearful spells, and outdo them in their wicked machinery. Cicero making mention of this custom being common in Gaul, adds, that it prevailed among that people even at the time he was speaking: from whence we may be led to infer, that it was then discontinued among the Romans. And we are told by Pliny, that it had then, and not very long, been discouraged. For there was a law enacted, when Lentulus and Crassus were consuls, so late as the 657th year of Rome, that there should be no more human sacrifices: for till that time those horrid rites had been celebrated in broad day without any mask or controul; which, had we not the best evidence for the fact, would appear scarce credible. And however they may have been discontinued for a time, we find that they were again renewed; tho' they became not so public, nor so general. For not very long after this, it is reported of Augustus Caesar, when Perusia surrendered in the time of the second triumvirate, that besides multitudes executed in a military manner, he offered up, upon the Ides of March, 300 chosen persons, both of the equestrian and senatorial order, at an altar dedicated to the names of his uncle Julius. Even at Rome itself this custom was revived: and Porphyry affirms us, that in his time a man was every year sacrificed at the shrine of Jupiter Latarius. Heliogabalus offered the like victims to the Syrian deity, which he introduced among the Romans. The same is said of Aurelian.

The Gauls and the Germans were so devoted to this shocking custom, that no business of any moment was transacted among them without being prefaced with the blood of men. They were offered up to various gods; but particularly to Helios, Taranis, and Thausates. These deities are mentioned by Lucan, where he enumerates the various nations who followed the fortunes of Caesar.

The altars of these gods were far removed from the common resort of men; being generally situated in the depth of woods, that the gloom might add to the horror of the operation, and give a reverence to the place and proceeding. The persons devoted were led thither by the Druids, who presided at the solemnity; and performed the cruel offices of the sacrifice. Tacitus takes notice of the cruelty of the Hermunduri, in a war with the Catti, wherein they had greatly the advantage; at the close of which they made one general sacrifice of all that was taken in battle. The poor remains of the legions under Varus suffered in some degree the same fate. There were many places destined for this purpose: all over Gaul and Germany; but especially in the mighty woods of Ardennes, and the great Hercinian forest; a wild that extended above 30 days journey in length. The places set apart for this solemnity were held in the utmost reverence, and only approached at particular seasons. Lucan mentions a grove of this sort near Massilia, which even the Roman soldiers were afraid to violate, tho' commanded by Caesar. It was one of those set apart for the sacrifices of the country.

Claudian compliments Stilicho, that, among other advantages accruing to the Roman armies through his conduct, they could now venture into the awful forest of Hercinia, and follow the chase in those so much dreaded woods, and otherwise make use of them.

These practices prevailed among all the people of the north, of whatever denomination. The Massagetae, the Scythians, the Getes, the Sarmatians, all the various nations upon the Baltic, particularly the Suevi and Scandinavians, held it as a fixed principle, that their happiness and security could not be obtained but at the expense of the lives of others. Their chief gods were Thor and Woden, whom they thought they could never sufficiently glut with blood. They had many very celebrated places of worship; especially in the island Rugen, near the mouth of the Oder; and in Zeeland: some, too, very famous among the Semones and Naharvali. But the most reverenced of all, and the most frequented, was at Upsal; where there was every year a grand celebrity, which continued for nine days. During this term they sacrificed animals of all sorts: but the most acceptable victims, and the most numerous, were men. Of these sacrifices none were esteemed so auspicious and salutary, as a sacrifice of the prince of the country. When the lot fell for the king to die, it was received with universal acclamations and every expression of joy; as it once happened in the time of a famine, when they cast lots, and it fell to king Domalder to be the people's victim: and he was accordingly put to death. Olaus Tretelger, another prince, was burnt alive to Woden. They did not spare their own children. Harald the son of Gunild, the first of that name, flew two of his children to obtain a storm of wind. "He did not let (says Verstegan) to sacrifice two of his sons unto his idols, to the end he might obtain of them such a tempest." tempest at sea, as should break and disperse the ship- ping of Harald king of Denmark." Saxo Gramma- ticus mentions a like fact. He calls the king Haquin; and speaks of the persons put to death as two very hopeful young princes. Another king slew nine sons, in order to prolong his own life; in hopes, perhaps, that what they were abridged of would in great mea- sure be added to himself. Such instances, however, occur not often; but the common victims were with- out end. Adam Bremenius, speaking of the awful grove at Upsal, where these horrid rites were celebra- ted, says, that there was not a single tree but what was reverenced, as if it were gifted with some portion of divinity; and all this because they were slain with gore, and foul with human putrefaction. The same is observed by Scheffer in his account of this place.

The manner in which the victims were slaughtered, was diverse in different places. Some of the Gaulish nations chined them with a stroke of an ax. The Cel- tic placed the man who was to be offered for a sacri- fice upon a block, or an altar, with his breast up- wards, and with a sword struck him forcibly across the sternum; then tumbling him to the ground, from his agonies and convulsions, as well as from the effusion of blood, they formed a judgment of future events. The Cimbri ripped open the bowels; and from them they pretended to divine. In Norway they beat men's brains out with an ox-yoke. The same operation was per- formed in Iceland, by dashing them against an altar of stone. In many places they transfixed them with arrows. After they were dead they suspended them upon the trees, and left them to putrefy. One of the writers above quoted, mentions that in his time 70 car- casses of this sort were found in a wood of the Scavi. Dithmar of Merseburgh, an author of nearly the same age, speaks of a place called Ledaer in Zeeland, where there were every year 99 persons sacrificed to the god Swantowite. During these bloody festivals a general joy prevailed; and banquets were most royally served. They fed, caroused, and gave a loose to indulgence, which at other times was not permitted. They im- agined that there was something mysterious in the num- ber nine: for which reason these feasts were in some places celebrated every ninth year, in others every ninth month; and continued for nine days. When all was ended, they washed the image of the deity in a pool; and then dismissed the assembly. Their servants were numerous, who attended during the term of their feasting, and partook of the banquet. At the close of all, they were smothered in the same pool, or other- wise made away with. On which Tacitus remarks, how great an awe this circumstance must necessa- rily infuse into those who were not admitted to these mysteries.

These accounts are handed down from a variety of authors in different ages; many of whom were natives of the countries which they describe, and to which they seem strongly attached. They would not therefore have brought so foul an imputation on the part of the world in favour of which they were each writing, nor could there be that concurrence of testimony, were not the history in general true.

The like custom prevailed to a great degree at Mexico, and even under the mild government of the Peruvians; and in most parts of America. In Africa it is still kept up; where, in the inland parts, they sa- crifice some of the captives taken in war to their fe- tiches, in order to secure their favour. Snellgrave was in the king of Dahomey's camp, after his inroad into the countries of Ardra and Whidaw; and says, that he was a witness to the cruelty of this prince, whom he saw sacrifice multitudes to the deity of his nation.

The sacrifices of which we have been treating, if we except some few instances, consisted of persons doomed by the chance of war, or assigned by lot, to be offered. But among the nations of Canaan, the victims were peculiarly chosen. Their own children, and whatever was nearest and dearest to them, were deemed the most worthy offering to their god. The Carthaginians, who were a colony from Tyre, carried with them the religion of their mother-country, and instituted the same worship in the parts where they settled. It consisted in the adoration of several dei- ties, but particularly of Kronus; to whom they of- fered human sacrifices, and especially the blood of children. If the parents were not at hand to make an immediate offer, the magistrates did not fail to make choice of what was most fair and promising; that the god might not be deprived of his dues. Up- on a check being received in Sicily, and some other alarming circumstances happening, Himilcar without any hesitation laid hold of a boy, and offered him on the spot to Kronus; and at the same time drowned a number of priests, to appease the deity of the sea. The Carthaginians another time, upon a great defeat of their army by Agathocles, imputed their miscar- riages to the anger of this god, whose services had been neglected. Touched with this, and seeing the enemy at their gates, they seized at once 300 children of the prime nobility, and offered them in public for a sacrifice. Three hundred more, being persons who were somehow obnoxious, yielded themselves volunta- rily, and were put to death with the others. The ne- glect of which they accused themselves, consisted in sacrificing children purchased of parents among the poorer sort, who reared them for that purpose; and not selecting the most promising, and the most honou- rable, as had been the custom of old. In short, there were particular children brought up for the altar, as sheep are fattened for the shambles; and they were bought and butchered in the same manner. But this indiscriminate way of proceeding was thought to have given offence. It is remarkable, that the Egyptians looked out for the most specious and handsome person to be sacrificed. The Albanians pitched upon the best man of the community, and made him pay for the wickedness of the rest. The Carthaginians chose what they thought the most excellent, and at the same time the most dear to them; which made the lot fall heavy upon their children. This is taken notice of by Silius Italicus in his fourth book.

Kronus, to whom these sacrifices were exhibited, was an oriental deity, the god of light and fire; and therefore always worshipped with some reference to that element. See PHOENICIA.

The Greeks, we find, called the deity to whom these offerings were made Agraulos; and feigned that she was a woman, and the daughter of Cecrops. But how came Cecrops to have any connection with Cy- prus? Agraulos is a corruption and transposition of the original name, which should have been rendered Uk El Aur, or Uk El Aurus; but has, like many other oriental titles and names, been strangely sophicated; and is here changed to Agrulos. It was in reality the god of light, who was always worshipped with fire. This deity was the Moloch of the Tyrians and Canaanites, and the Melech of the east; that is, the great and principal god, the god of light, of whom fire was esteemed a symbol; and at whose shrine, instead of viler victims, they offered the blood of men.

Such was the Kronos of the Greeks, and the Moloch of the Phoenicians; and nothing can appear more shocking than the sacrifices of the Tyrians and Carthaginians, which they performed to this idol. In all emergencies of state, and times of general calamity, they devoted what was most necessary and valuable to them, for an offering to the gods, and particularly to Moloch. But besides these undetermined times of bloodshed, they had particular and preordained seasons every year, when children were chosen out of the most noble and reputable families, as before mentioned. If a person had an only child, it was the more liable to be put to death, as being esteemed more acceptable to the deity, and more efficacious of the general good. Those who were sacrificed to Kronos were thrown into the arms of a molten idol, which stood in the midst of a large fire, and was red with heat. The arms of it were stretched out, with the hands turned upwards, as if it were to receive them; yet flopping downwards, so that they dropt from thence into a glowing furnace below. To other gods they were otherwise slaughtered, and, as it is implied, by the very hands of their parents. What can be more horrid to the imagination, than to suppose a father leading the dearest of all his sons to such an infernal shrine? or a mother the most engaging and affectionate of her daughters, just rising to maturity, to be slaughtered at the altar of Asheroth or Baal? Justin describes this unnatural custom very pathetically:

Quippe homines, ut viuissim, immolabant; et impuberes (quae aetar beftium infiericordiam provocat) aris admovebant; pacem sanguine corum exspectantes, pro quorum vitâ Dit regari maxime silent. Such was their blind zeal, that this was continually practised; and so much of natural affection still left unextinguished, as to render the scene ten times more shocking from the tenderness which they seemed to express. They embraced their children with great fondness, and encouraged them in the gentlest terms, that they might not be appalled at the sight of the hellish process; begging of them to submit with cheerfulness to this fearful operation. If there was any appearance of a tear rising, or a cry unawares escaping, the mother smothered it with her kisses, that there might not be any show of backwardness or constraint, but the whole be a free-will offering. These cruel endearments over, they stabbed them to the heart, or otherwise opened the juices of life; and with the blood warm, as it ran, besmeared the altar and the grim visage of the idol.

These were the customs which the Israelites learned of the people of Canaan, and for which they are upbraided by the Psalmist: "They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them; but were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works: yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a-whoring with their own inventions."

These cruel rites, practised in so many nations, made Plutarch debate with himself, "Whether it would not have been better for the Galatae, or for the Scythians, to have had no tradition or conception of any superior beings, than to have formed to themselves notions of gods who delighted in the blood of men; of gods, who esteemed human victims the most acceptable and perfect sacrifice? Would it not," says he, "have been more eligible for the Carthaginians to have had the atheist Critias, or Diagorus, their lawyer at the commencement of their polity, and to have been taught, that there was neither god nor daemon, than to have sacrificed, in the manner they were wont, to the god which they adored? Wherein they acted, not as the person did whom Empedocles describes in some poetry, where he exposes this unnatural custom. The fire there with many idle vows offers up unwittingly his son for a sacrifice; but the youth was so changed in feature and figure, that his father did not know him. These people used, knowingly and wilfully, to go through this bloody work, and slaughter their own offspring. Even they who were children would not be exempted from this cursed tribute; but purchased children, at a price, of the poorer sort, and put them to death with as little remorse as one would kill a lamb or a chicken. The mother, who sacrificed her child, stood by, without any seeming sense of what she was doing, and without uttering a groan. If a sigh did by chance escape, she lost all the honour which she professed to herself in the offering; and the child was notwithstanding slain. All the time of this celebrity, while the children were murdering, there was a noise of clarions and tabors sounding before the idol, that the cries and shrieks of the victims might not be heard. Tell me now," says Plutarch, "if the monsters of old, the Typhons, and the giants, were to expel the gods, and to rule the world in their stead; could they require a service more horrid than these infernal rites and sacrifices?"