_Amestris_, Queen to the famous _Xerxes_, caus’d twelve Men to be burn’d alive, as an Oblation, to pacifie and oblige _Pluto_ to maintain them in their present Grandeur. [Sidenote: _Rer. Persic._ l. 1.] _Procopius_ relates of the People about the _Arabian Gulph_, “That they oftentimes Sacrific’d Men to the Sun.” [Sidenote: _Lib. 3. sect. 8 Geogr._] “The _Indians_, saith _Pomponius Mela_, kill their nearest Relations and Parents, before they decay by Sickness or Age, and judg’d it fit and most Religious to Feast and Banquet themselves with the Entrails of the slain.” [Sidenote: _Lib. 11. Geog._] The _Albanians_, as _Strabo_ relates, offer yearly one of their Priests to the Moon. The same _Mela_ relates of the _Tauri_, That they us’d to cut the Throats of Strangers, whenever they came near to the Place of their Sacrifice. [Sidenote: _Lib. 2. cap. 1_.] The _Egyptian_ Idol _Typhon_, as you may read in _Manethon_, was daily made red-hot, and living People put in, and broyl’d to death. [Sidenote: _Bell. Gall. Comm._] But to pass by several other People guilty of such bloody Idolatry, How did the Altars erected in the Woods in _Gaul_ and _Germany_, for _Taran_, _Hesus_, _Teutates_, and _Woden_, continually smoke with the Blood of Humane Expiations? Of which _Cæsar_ saith thus in his _Commentaries_; “The _Gauls_ are a very Devout and Superstitious Nation; and therefore when any were dangerously sick, or likely to be worsted in Battel, they vow’d to feast their Gods that sav’d them with Humane Flesh, and if need were, would make themselves a thankful Sacrifice to those that help’d them off in such an Exigence. Concerning these bloody Rites, they consulted and imploy’d the _Druydes_, by whose advice they all believ’d that no Victim was so acceptable to the _Numens_, as pour’d-out Humane Blood, but especially that of Malefactors; which Dainty if they could not procure, their Gods must be treated with the Lives of the Innocent.” [Sidenote: _2 Reg. 3. v. 26, 27._] Lastly, the Holy Scripture saith thus, _When the King of_ Moab _saw that the Battel was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred Men that drew Swords, to break through even to the King of_ Edom; _but they could not. Then he took his eldest Son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a Burnt-offering on the Wall._ These Testimonies are sufficient Witnesses, That the Ancient _Heathens_ express’d the height of their Devotion, and fury of mad Zeal, in such execrable Rites, as to this day the like is practised by the _Indians_, _Chineses_, _Japanners_, and others: Wherefore it can no ways be a sufficient ground to prove, that the _Americans_ are deriv’d from the _Phenicians_, because of their Humane Sacrifices, for that they were usual Customs in all Places. [Sidenote: Third testimony, That the _Americans_ are deriv’d from the _Phenicians_, because their Language agrees] [Sidenote: Is contradicted.]