[401] Jalkut. Jer. 7. fol. 97. Colum. 1.
[402] Orig. contra Celsum. l. 6. f. 75. col. 4. It. Gyrald. in Deorum Syntag. 7. p. 223.
[403] D. Kimchi. Psal. 27. 13.
[404] Capnio de Cabala p. 644.
[405] P. Galatinus l. 12. c. 6.
It is much controversed among Expositors, whether the children in this sacrifice were burnt in the fire or only initiated and consecrated to Moloch, passing in the middest of two fires in sign of their consecration? It is probable, that both were in use. First, the Scripture speaketh of both. Secondly, the Hebrew Doctors shew the manner of both. That they were burnt, Jalkut expressly teacheth, and with him others accord,[406] saying, That Molech is the name of an Image; and the wise men of blessed memory interpret Molech to be an universal name, denoting any whom they made to rule over them: And it is agreed upon, that this is the abomination of the Sons of Ammon, and this phrase, to cause to pass thorow, is as much as, to burn. Others say,[407] This Idols name was Molech, and this was his worship: That he (namely, the Father) delivered his son unto the Priests, and they made two great fires; and they made his son pass on his feet between both these fires.
[406] Aben Ezra. Lev. 18, 21.
[407] Rabbi Solomon. Lev. 18. 21.
Notwithstanding, we must not think that there were no other oblations unto Molech, besides sacrificing of children: For what use then served those other six Chappels? No: I take this oblation of children not to have been forced on them by any superstitious law, or tradition, binding them thereunto; but to have been reputed a work more meritorious, because it was meerly voluntary. This I note, because otherwise there were an apparent difference between Baal and Moloch. For the Baalites offered unto their fancied Deity a Bullock, in that contention between them and Eliah, 1 Kings 18. Bullocks, and Calves, and Lambs, were their ordinary sacrifices, the sacrificing of their children, extraordinary. Yet their ordinary sacrifices, were not always altogether void of mans blood, but sometimes the Priests would lance and cut their own flesh: which custome, whence it had its original, I find not: only we find the like to have been practised by the Heathenish Priests in their sacrifices to Bellona: Tertullian[408] toucheth it, but Lactantius[409] treating of Bellona and her Priests, speaketh more clearly, saying, They sacrificed not with any other mans blood, but with their own; their shoulders being lanced, and with both hands brandishing naked swords, they run and leaped up and down like mad men. Who would not take these Bellonites to be the very Baalites, spoken of, 1 Kings 18. They leapt upon the Altar which was made —— and cut themselves as their manner was, with knives and lances, till the blood gushed out upon them.
[408] Ter. Apol. c. 9.