uch a confession from
the mouth of these gods. _Nisi se daemones confessi fuerint Christiano
mentiri non audentes, ibidem illius Christiani procacissimi sanguinem
fundite._ St. Austin likewise makes frequent mention of this deity. "What
is now," says he,(512) "become of Coelestis, whose empire was once so great
in Carthage?" This was doubtless the same deity whom Jeremiah calls the
queen of heaven;(513) and who was held in so much reverence by the Jewish
women, that they addressed their vows, burnt incense, poured out
drink-offerings, and made cakes for her with their own hands, _ut faciant
placentas reginae coeli_; and from whom they boasted their having received
all manner of blessings, whilst they regularly paid her this worship;
whereas, since they had failed in it, they had been oppressed with
misfortunes of every kind.

The second deity particularly adored by the Carthaginians, and in whose
honour human sacrifices were offered, was Saturn, known in Scripture by
the name of Moloch; and this worship had passed from Tyre to Carthage.
Philo quotes a passage from Sanchoniathon, which shows that the kings of
Tyre, in great dangers, used to sacrifice their sons to appease the anger
of the gods; and that one of them, by this action, procured himself divine
honours, and was worshipped as a god, under the name of the planet Saturn;
to this doubtless was owing the fable of Saturn's devouring his own
children. Private persons, when they were desirous of averting any great
calamity, took the same method; and, in imitation of their princes, were
so very superstitious, that such as had no children, purchased those of
the poor, in order that they might not be deprived of the merit of such a
sacrifice. This custom prevailed long among the Phoenicians and Canaanites,
from whom the Israelites borrowed it, though forbidden expressly by
heaven. At first, these children were inhumanly burnt, either in a fiery
furnace, like those in the valley of Hinnon, so often mentioned in
Scripture, or enclosed in a flaming statue of Saturn. The cries of these
unhappy victims were drowned by the uninterrupted noise of drums and
trumpets.(514) Mothers(515) made it a merit, and a part of their religion,
to view this barbarous spectacle with dry eyes, and without so much as a
groan; and, if a tear or a sigh stole from them, the sacrifice was less
acceptable to the deity, and all the effects of it were entirely lost.
This strength of mind, or rather sava