institutions which may have been devised by natural reason as adapted and suitable to the public worship of God. If any have referred it to the laws of nature, their error is easily proved from this fact, that the sacrificial rites practised by the ancients have been wholly abolished by Christ among his followers; though he was far from abolishing any of the laws of nature, but by his authority ratified, confirmed, and established them all.

VII. But though it does not clearly appear, whether the first sacrifices were offered in obedience to any certain command of God, or in compliance with the dictates of human reason, yet it is beyond all doubt, that, on the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt, God himself enjoined on them the rite of sacrificing, by a written law. His design in doing this is the next subject of inquiry.

On this topic Maimonides justly observes, that in the religious rites connected with sacrifices there was nothing intrinsically acceptable to God, nothing with which he was pleased for its own sake; and hence he concludes, that the law of sacrifices was not given by the first counsel of God, but proceeded from the second.* This is clearly suggested in the following passages, as Maimonides himself also perceived. ean, and their different success. Abel who by sacrificing an animal acknowledged his true character as a sinner, and evinced his faith and hope in the divine mercy by the appointed way of seeking forgiveness,—was accepted: while Cain who contented himself with a eucharistic offering, acknowledging his obligations as a creature, but regardless of his condition as a sinner, and neglecting the instituted means of seeking the divine mercy, was rejected. So the publican, with his confession of guilt and supplication for pardon, "went down to his house justified, rather than "the" pharisee, with his fastings and tythes and thanksgivings. Cloppenburg Sacrif. Patriarch. Schol. apud Shuckford, Vol. I. p. 87, 88. Edit. 1731.

Moreh Nevoch. par. 3. c. 32.

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"Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings "and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the "Lord ?* To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of "the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed "beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, "or of lambs, or of he-goats. I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that "I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: but this thing com“manded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will "be your God, and ye shall be my people." The following passage also is to the same purpose. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow "myself before the high God? Shall I come before "him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? "Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, "or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, "O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord "require of thee, but to do justly, and to love

mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"§ From these scriptures it is fairly concluded, that those things which pertain to the immutable law of nature, rest on a very different foundation from sacrifices; that the former are of themselves acceptable to God, but that the latter, unconnected with the former, afford him no pleasure at all.

VIII. But though these things are sufficiently evident, it was not for trivial reasons that God enjoined on the Hebrew nation, a religion which consisted in a great measure in the offering of sacrifices. The ancient * 1 Sam. xv. 22. † Isai. i, 11. Jerem. vii. 22, 23, § Mic, vi. 6, 7, 8,

Christians, indeed, were of opinion, that the cause of this appointment was the deep root which this kind of religion had taken among that people before their departure from Egypt. With this rite the sons of Adam, Noah, and Abraham himself, who was always held in high estimation by his posterity, had worshipped God, as is sufficiently manifest. But it prevailed most of all in succeeding times in Egypt, where the Hebrews dwelt for a long series of years. Hence the fathers concluded, that the attachment of the Hebrews to sacrifices was such as could neither be safely prohibited, nor, amidst the daily growth of superstition, be left to the choice of every individual. It could not well be prohibited, they say, especially among the Hebrews who were so excessively addicted to sacrifices; the practice having grown so inveterate, that there seems not the least reason to doubt but they would have offered sacrifices to false gods, if they had not been permitted to offer them to the true God. Nor, on the other hand, would it have been proper to leave to individual choice a religion which, if not defined and circumscribed by the laws of God himself, might easily slide into barbarous and strange customs, and gradually draw a superstitious people into a strange worship. And this is supposed to have been the reason why God transferred the rite of sacrificing to his own worship; being a rite of such a nature as could not be advantageously, either abolished, or practised in a variety of ways according to individual caprice.

But it must be particularly observed, that the things which the heathens connected with their sacrifices were not all introduced into the worship of God with the sacrifices themselves: neither the kinds of ani

mals, nor the sacrificial rites, were all the same in the religion of the Israelites as in that of other nations. God made a great selection, both of things and of rites, for his sacrifices. Thus he indulged in some measure the disposition of the people, and opposed the corrupt inclinations which would carry them away into strange superstitions.

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IX. These are considered, by ancient as well as modern writers, as the reasons which induced God to enjoin the rite of sacrificing upon a people unacquainted with heavenly things. Thus Justin Martyr: Accommodating himself to that people, 'God commanded them to offer sacrifices to his name, that they might not fall into idolatry."*— Tertullian: Let no one censure the burdens of 'sacrifices, and the troublesome niceties of operations and oblations, as though God really required such things for himself, who so explicitly expostulates, "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacri'fices unto me? Who hath required this at your 'hands?" 'But let us observe the constant care of 'God by which he designed to attach to his religion

a people prone to idolatry and transgression by ' ceremonies similar to those practised in the super'stition of the age; to call them away from it, by 'commanding those ceremonies to be performed to ' himself as if necessary to him, lest they should fall 'into idolatry.'-Origen: 'God, as he says by ano'ther prophet, "eats not the flesh of bulls, nor drinks 'the blood of goats." And as it is written in another

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place-"I commanded thee not concerning sacrifices

' or burnt offerings in the day that I brought thee out ' of the land of Egypt." But Moses enjoined these

* Contra Tryphon.

† Adv. Marcion. Lib. 2. cap. 18.

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things upon them for the hardness of their hearts, and ' in consideration of the very evil customs to which they had been habituated in Egypt, that as they could not refrain from offering sacrifices, they might offer 'them to God, and not to demons.*-And Chrysostom: Think it not unworthy of God that the Magi were called by a star: thus you would dishonour every thing among the Jews, the sacrifices, the purifications, the new moons, the ark, and the temple itself; for all these things derived their origin from ' heathen stupidity. But in order to save those who 'were going astray, God suffered himself to be 'worshipped by these things with which other na'tions worshipped demons; correcting them a little, ' that by gradually withdrawing the people from their 'former custom he might conduct them to superior 'wisdom.' The same opinion was maintained, as Spencer has observed, by Cyril of Alexandria, by Jerome, by Isidore of Pelusium, and other ancient writers. They are followed, among other moderns, by the very learned Grotius. He says: As the ' ends of sacrifices were various, which you may find ' in Arnobius and Jamblichus, and partly in Macro'bius, so also were the rites connected with them; 'which were either derived from the Hebrews by other nations, or, which is more probable, being ' used by the Syrians and Egyptians, were corrected 'by the Hebrews, and adopted by other nations 'without that correction."

Nor have these sentiments been held by Christians only, but also by some Jews, They are maintained in the following passage of Maimonides. It was

• Homil. 2, in Numer.

Dissert. de Ur. et Thum. c. 4. s. 7.

+ Homil. 6. in Matth.

§ In Levit. i.