meant by that act to devote himself, using the animal as his substitute or proxy; then certainly it was not fit that he should represent himself by unclean creatures, whose instincts and manners would convey an odious idea of his own person and character; and consequently make his devotion ridiculous. In order to make a sacrifice acceptable, it was requisite that the qualifications of the offerer should correspond with those of the offering. The innocent manners of a clean victim were a tacit reflection upon an unclean offerer. When the worshippers of the true God were corrupt in their principles or morals, their oblations were no longer either proper or acceptable which was signified to them in those words of the Prophet-He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man: he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck: he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swines blood. The prophet adds the reason, why their devotion was thus censured-they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations; with which, such abominable sacrifices as the Heathens offered to their impure Deities, would have corre sponded better than those appointed by the law of Moses. And this shews us the folly of the heathens, in sacrificing swine, dogs, and even human creatures: which could happen only through their ignorance concerning the origin of sacrifice, and their imperfect notions of moral purity. The characters of their Deities were strongly marked with uncleanness, cruelty, and all kinds of immorality: a Inter quæ nonnunquam et homo fit hostia, latrocinio sacerdotis, dum cruor etiam de jugulo calidus exceptus paterâ, dum adbuc fervet, et quasi sitienti idolo in faciem jactatus, crudeliter propinatur. Tertull. de Spect. cap. x. The like practice of offering human sacrifices to the Manes of those who were slain in battle, is alluded to in Virgil, who seems to have borrowed the sentiment from Homer, Iliad xxiii. 175. Sulmone creatos Quatuor hic juvenes, totidem quos educat Ufens Captivoque rogi perfundat sanguine flammas. Æn. x. 517. Instead of spiritual, they adopted physical reasons for some of their sacrifices; slaying the hog in honour of Ceres, because it roots up the grain. As if the Deity were mean enough to take delight in being revenged upon his own creatures, for exercising the instincts he hath implanted in them, and seeking their food in the common course of nature. Prima putatur Hostia sus meruisse mori, quia semina rostro Eruerit pando, spemque interceperit anni, Ovid, and as a false object of worship naturally leads to false devotion, we are not to wonder that the custom of sacrificing, which they had received by tradition, degenerated in many respects into downright absurdity. But there is another sense in which the institution of sacrifice is to be understood: for every sacrifice had its prophetic use, and was prefigurative of the true sacrifice of Jesus Christ: with respect to whom it was necessary that every animal, preferred to this sacred application, should be recommended by every possible character of innocence, purity, and perfection therefore the sacrifices were taken from the three tribes of Sheep, Goats, and Oxen; each of which were always to be perfect in their kind. XIV. The Diet of the Hebrews being thus immediately connected with the most solemn Acts of religious Adoration, the daily course of their living carried with it an exhortation to purity of mind and body, and directed their faith to its greatest object, the vicarious Sacrifice of the Messiah. Unless the circumstances of man under the penalties of Sin had required a propitiatory sacrifice, perhaps animal food had never come into use, the human teeth, as well as the intestines, seeming rather adapted to a vegetable or farinaceous diet: and if this is the origin of animal food, the consideration of it will reconcile every Christian Believer to practice, which hath appeared very shocking to natural reason.) Men of abstraction and refinement, whose lives were remote from war and rapine, and devoted to rational exercises, reasoned themselves into an abhorrence of animal food: pronouncing it to be unnatural and barbarous, that poor innocent creatures should be put to death for the support of human life, which might well be supported by other means, and with a far better prospect of health and longevity. I say innocent creatures; for according to the observation of unenlightened heathens the lot hath universally fallen upon the more innocent part of the creation; -Non rete accipitri tenditur, neque milvio, The Pythagoreans are represented by Ovid exclaiming in a very pathetic manner against a The Question, whether man is naturally carnivorous, was learnedly agitated by Dr. Wallis and Dr. Tyson: their observations are very curious and worth examining. See Phu. Trans. No. 169. p. 769. the the cruelty of mankind, in behalf of Sheep and Oxen, Quid meruistis oves, placidum pecus? &c. Quid meruêre boves, animal sine fraude dolisque, Innocuum, simplex, natum tolerare laborcs? And again in his Fasti; Apta jugo cervix non est ferienda securi, Unless we were hardened by daily custom, it would surely be impossible for any rational man to reflect without pity and indignation concerning the multitudes of harmless labouring oxen, which are daily led out to the slaughter; or the thousands of helpless bleating sheep, first stripped of their clothing, and afterwards bled to death, to supply the wants of the human species. But they, who carried their humanity to this unreasonable height, were ignorant of the best and truest Philosophy, and vitiated in their understandings by that old Egyptian Conceit of the Metempsychosis: for thus it ought in reason to be. The moral necessities of man can be supplied only by the Death and Benefits of a propitiatory Sacrifice, the common substitute of all mankind: whence D 4 the |