to
prevent impostors pretending to be prophets, and to save the people
from being enticed by wicked deceivers into idolatry. In the time of
Moses there were many who had recourse to diabolical arts. The
oblation of children to Moloch being frequently mentioned, together
with other diabolical and divinatory arts, reasons appear for
supposing there was something magical in such superstitious rites, and
that thereby people consulted demons about things future or secret.
Moloch was the principal idol of the Ammonites, but other nations took
the same idol for their chief god; for it appears from Pagan records,
that the different nations were so very accommodating with their gods
that they lent them to one another. Moloch seems to have been the same
as Baal, both names signifying dominion, or more particularly the sun,
the prince of the heavenly bodies.

There can be no doubt but the passage in the Old Testament, "Thou
shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk," was a warning to the
Hebrews not to follow the example of the heathen in connection with
the payment by the latter of their first fruits. Dr. Cudworth, writing
on this subject, says that he learned from the comments of an ancient
Karaite upon the Pentateuch, that a superstitious rite prevailed among
the ancient idolators, of seething a kid in his mother's milk when
they had gathered in all their first fruits, and sprinkling the trees
and fields with the broth, after a magical manner, to make them more
fruitful in the following year. Spencer also observes that the Zabii
used this kind of magical broth to sprinkle their trees and gardens,
in hope of obtaining a plentiful crop.

The smooth stones mentioned by Isaiah, to which meat offerings were
offered and drink offerings poured out, were anointed stones in the
streets, on which passengers poured on them oil from phials; but what
advantages were to result from the custom we are not fully informed.
Oil and candles were believed by the ancients to possess peculiar
virtues. Oil was often burned in honour of the dead; and the
Algerines, when on the water, tied bundles of wax candles together,
and, with a pot of oil, threw them overboard as a present to the
saint, entombed near the Barbary shore, whom they regarded as their
protector. We believe few who partake of sheep-head or sheep-head
broth know that it is, or was, a custom with the Jews to serve up
sheep-head on New Year's Day at their chief entertainment, as a
my