Manners of the Ancient Israelites; Containing an Account of Their Peculiar Customs and Ceremonies, Their Laws, Polity, Religion, Sects, Arts and Trades, Divisions of Time, Wars, Captivities, & C. with a Short Account of the Ancient and Modern Samaritans, (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1825 Excerpt: ...a saint that was neither murderer, traitor, nor guilty of perjury; who avoided the company of those that had committed such crimes, who kept up the rights of hospitality and places of refuge, who faithfully performed his vows, and gave liberally towards sacrifices and public shows. Religion was looked upon as a trade; they made offering's to the gods, that they might obtain what they desired in their prayers. As to any thing else, debauchery did not offend it at all. Apuleius, after all the villanous actions with which he fills his metamorphosis, concludes with a description of his devotions, that is, how officious he was to get himself initiated into all sorts of mysteries, and how exact in observing all the ceremonies of them. Debauchery was so far from being condemned by religion, that it was sometimes enjoined: there was no celebrating the Bacchanal feasts in a proper manner without getting drunk, ff and there were women Wisdom xiy, 27--29. Tertull. de Spect. August. 2. de Civ. Dei. Demosth. Fhilipp. 5. August. de vera Kelig. in init Plato Eutyphron. Apul. 1. i. ff Clem. Alex, in protrcpt. that prostituted themselves in honour of Venus, particularly at Corinth. It is well known what the god of gardens, and the mysteries of Ceres and Cybele were, Thus they honoured the gods whom they thought kind and beneficent. But for the infernal deities, Hecate, the Eumenides, or Furies, the Parcae, or Destinies, and others, with the stories of whom they were terrified, they were to be appeased with nocturnal sacrifices and frightful inhuman ceremonies. Some buried men alive; others sacrificed children, and sometimes their own: as the worshippers of Moloch mentioned with so much detestation in Scripture, who still kept up this abominable custom in Africa in Ter...