460 STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OP HUMAN REASON. that must be infinitely offensive to the blessed God, rather than any way capable of obtaining his approbation or favour. It would be endless to repeat their various superstitions. I shall mention only the cruel and bloody rites, whichwere practised by the Mexicans in their human sacrifices, as Antonio de Herrara gives us an account, in the third volume of his General History ofAmerica. Many of these wretched victims, which were taken in war, were successively carried up to an elevated place, where the high-priest stood, and were held fast by five men, one to each arm, one to each leg, andone to hold the head : Then this inhuman sacred butcher, whowas trained up to the office , with a broad and sharp flint, instead of a knife, ripped up the breast of a man, tore out the heart reeking with his hands, and sheaved it to thesun, -offering him the heat and steam of it : Then he turn- ed to the idol or image, which was set near him, and threw the bloody heart in his face And the bodies of these sacrifices, thus murdered in a long and dismal succession, were tumbled down from that elevated place of slaughter, and were eaten in a festi- val, by those who had taken them prisoners: Sometimes, says he, these sacrifices, after a victory, have arisen to many thou- sands in all the country for this was practised by all the nations near Mexico. Why does their self-sufficient reason permit them to practise these mischievous impieties, and call it all religion ? If we survey those countries of Asia, where the gospel was never preached, or never received,.how little of true reli- gion is found among the people of the continent, or the numer- ous islands ; I mean; religion that can please the true God ? China itself is really a polite and ingenious nation, and their natural reason teaches them a thousand fine contrivances and manufactures, which relate to their present life ; yet how little has it taught them that relates to the true Gol, or the life to come ? They are so vain and conceitedof their wit and ingenuity, that they say, the Europeans have one eye, the Chinese have two, and all the rest of the world are blind. They boast themselves to be the brightest and most rational people under the heavens ; yet have they wandered into gross darkness, and wild supersti- tions, as father Le Comte at large informs us. This country is supposed to be peopled very early, by the children or posterity of Noah, and they retained the knowledge of the sovereign Lord ofheaven, or the supreme Spirit of heaven andearth, and offered sacrifice to him anciently, even seven sorts of animals. .Their learned men tell us, that for two thousand years there were no idols nor statues seen among them ; and great morality and vir- tue were practised through the whole nation. But now they generally adore an idol, or fancied god, whom they call Fo, as the only god of the world. This was brought from the Indies,
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