DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0144
134
A solemn ablution, too, always preceded initiation into the
^Egyptian and Eleusinian mysteries and when a Jewish proselyte
was admitted, he was baptised in the presence of three witnesses,
after being circumcised, but before he was allowed to make the
oblation by which he professed himself a subject of the true God.
As this ceremony was supposed to wash off all stains of idolatry,
the person baptised was said to be regenerated, and animated witli
a new soul ; to preserve which ia purity, he abandoned every
former connexion of country, relation, or friend.1
167. Baptism or purification by fire, is still in use among the
Hindoos, as it was among the earliest Romans ;3 and also among
the native Irish ; men, women, and children, and even cattle, in
Ireland, leaping over, or passing through the sacred bonfires annu-
ally kindled in honour of Baal ;* an ancient title of the Sun,
which seems to have prevailed in the Northern as well as Eastern
dialects : whence arose the compound titles of the Scandinavian
deities, Baidur, Ilabaldur, &c. expressing different personified
attributes.3 This rite was probably the abomination, so severely
reprobated by the sacred historians of the Jews, of-parents making
their sons and daughters i^ass through the fire: for, in India, it is
still performed by mothers passing through the flames with their
children in their arms ;6 and though commentators have construed
the expression in the Bible to mean the burning them alive, as
offerings to Baal Moloch, it is more consonant to reason, as
well as to history, to suppose that it alluded to this more inno-
cent mode of purification and consecration to the Deity, which
continued in use among the ancient inhabitants of Italy to the
later periods of Heathenism; when it was performed exactly as it
' Apuleii Metamorph. lib. ix. Diodor. Sic. lib. i.
- Marsham Canon Chronic, s. ix. p. 192.
3 XIvpKaias irpo twv awqvtuv yevecrSat KeXeivas (6 Pwfxv\os), e£cryei rov \eo>v tm
(p\oyas {nrep9poiaKovra ttj? dtxicciTeois toiv trup-araiv ercHft. Dionys. Hal. A. R. I. lxxxviii.
4 Collectan. de reb. Hibernic, No. v. p. 64.
s OL.Rudbeck. Atlant. P. ii. c. v. p. 140.
6 Ayeen Altbery, and Maurice's Antiquities of India, vol. v. p. 1075,
A solemn ablution, too, always preceded initiation into the
^Egyptian and Eleusinian mysteries and when a Jewish proselyte
was admitted, he was baptised in the presence of three witnesses,
after being circumcised, but before he was allowed to make the
oblation by which he professed himself a subject of the true God.
As this ceremony was supposed to wash off all stains of idolatry,
the person baptised was said to be regenerated, and animated witli
a new soul ; to preserve which ia purity, he abandoned every
former connexion of country, relation, or friend.1
167. Baptism or purification by fire, is still in use among the
Hindoos, as it was among the earliest Romans ;3 and also among
the native Irish ; men, women, and children, and even cattle, in
Ireland, leaping over, or passing through the sacred bonfires annu-
ally kindled in honour of Baal ;* an ancient title of the Sun,
which seems to have prevailed in the Northern as well as Eastern
dialects : whence arose the compound titles of the Scandinavian
deities, Baidur, Ilabaldur, &c. expressing different personified
attributes.3 This rite was probably the abomination, so severely
reprobated by the sacred historians of the Jews, of-parents making
their sons and daughters i^ass through the fire: for, in India, it is
still performed by mothers passing through the flames with their
children in their arms ;6 and though commentators have construed
the expression in the Bible to mean the burning them alive, as
offerings to Baal Moloch, it is more consonant to reason, as
well as to history, to suppose that it alluded to this more inno-
cent mode of purification and consecration to the Deity, which
continued in use among the ancient inhabitants of Italy to the
later periods of Heathenism; when it was performed exactly as it
' Apuleii Metamorph. lib. ix. Diodor. Sic. lib. i.
- Marsham Canon Chronic, s. ix. p. 192.
3 XIvpKaias irpo twv awqvtuv yevecrSat KeXeivas (6 Pwfxv\os), e£cryei rov \eo>v tm
(p\oyas {nrep9poiaKovra ttj? dtxicciTeois toiv trup-araiv ercHft. Dionys. Hal. A. R. I. lxxxviii.
4 Collectan. de reb. Hibernic, No. v. p. 64.
s OL.Rudbeck. Atlant. P. ii. c. v. p. 140.
6 Ayeen Altbery, and Maurice's Antiquities of India, vol. v. p. 1075,