10). They _went out_ into _Baal Pheor_, and _separated themselves
to their shame_. And it is the opinion of Jerome, who quotes it from an
ancient tradition of the Jews, that _Baal Pheor_ is the _Priapus_ of the
Greeks and Romans; and if you look into the vulgar latin (1 Kings xv.
13.) we shall find it thus rendered, _and Asa, the King removed_ Maacha,
_his mother from being queen, that she might no longer be high Priestess
in the sacrifices of Priapus_. And he destroyed the grove she had
consecrated, and broke the most filthy idol, and burnt it at the brook
_Kedron_. Dr. Cumberland inserts, that the import of the word _Peor_, or
_Baal Pheor_, is he that shews boastingly or publicly, his nakedness.
Women to avoid barrenness, were to sit on this filthy image, as the
source of fruitfulness; for which Lactantius and Augustine justly deride
the heathens.
[26] There was an awful mysteriousness in the original Druid sacrifice.
Descanting upon the human sacrifices of various countries, Mr. Bryant
informs us, that among the nations of Canaan, _the_ victims _were chosen
in a peculiar manner_; their own children, and whatsoever was nearest
and dearest to them, were thought the most worthy offerings to their
gods! The Carthagenians, 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 were seated.
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