In 2 _Kings_ xvii. 30, we read that the men of Babylon built Succoth-Benoth, “tents for young women;” having consecrated a temple to Venus, they fixed tents round it, where young women prostituted themselves in honour of the goddess. Herodotus, and other authors, are also sufficient witnesses on this point. Now, were the Americans originally heathens, or not of Israel, when they wandered there from captivity, in quest of {20} liberty, or on any other accidental account, that vicious precedent was so well calculated for America, where every place was a thick arbour, it is very improbable they should have discontinued it: But they are the very reverse. To commit such acts of pollution, while they are performing any of their religious ceremonies, is deemed so provoking an impiety, as to occasion even the supposed sinner to be excluded from all religious communion with the rest of the people. Or even was a man known to have gone in to his own wife, during the time of their fastings, purifications, &c. he would also be separated from them. There is this wide difference between the impure and obscene religious ceremonies of the ancient heathens, and the yet penal, and strict purity of the natives of America. The heathens chose such gods, as were most suitable to their inclinations, and the situation of their country. The warlike Greeks and Romans worshipped _Mars_ the god of war; and the savage and more bloody Scythians deified the _Sword_. The neighbouring heathens round Judæa, each built a temple to the supposed god that presided over their land. _Rimmon_, was the Syrian god of pomegranates: and the Philistines, likewise, erected a temple to _Dagon_, who had first taught them the use of wheat; which the Greeks and Romans changed into _Ceres_, the goddess of corn, from the Hebrew, _Geres_, which signifies grain. But the red Americans firmly believe, that their war-captains, and their reputed prophets, gain success over their enemies, and bring on seasonable rains, by the immediate reflection of the divine fire, co-operating with them.