Exam. Diss. 4. Winder's Hist. of Knowledge, chap. i. §. 2. Barrington's Misc. Sacr. vol. iii. pp. 8. 45. Dr. Beattie, and Wollaston, as referred to and above all, Dr. Ellis's Enquiry whence cometh wisdom, &c. which together with his work entitled, Knowledge of divine things from Revelation, are too little known, and cannot be too strongly recommended. The former of these tracts of Dr. Ellis, I have never met with, but as bound up in the Collection of Tracts, entitled THE SCHOLAR ARMed.

NO, LIV.-ON THE NATURAL UNREASONABLENESS OF THE SACRIFICIAL RITE.

PAGE 44. (8) Outram states, (De Sac. lib. i. cap. 1. §. 3.) that the force of this consideration was in itself so great, as to compel Grotius, who defended the notion of the human institution of sacrifices, to maintain, in defiance of all just criticism, that Abel did not slay the firstlings of his flock; and that no more is meant, than that he brought the choicest produce of his flock, milk and wool, and offered them, as Cain offered the choicest of his fruits.

Indeed the natural unfitness of the sacrificial rite to obtain the divine favour; the total incongruity between the killing of God's creatures, and the receiving a pardon for the violation of God's laws are topics, which have afforded the oppo

nents of the divine institution of sacrifice too much occasion for triumph, to be controverted on their side of the question. See Philemon to Hydaspes, part 5. p. 10-15. The words of Spencer on this subject are too remarkable to be omitted: "Sacrificiorum materia (pecudum caro, sanguis effusus, &c.) tam vilis est, et a summâ Dei majestate tam longe dissita, quod nemo (nisi plane simplex et rerum rudis) quin sacrificia plane superflua, deoque prorsus indigna facile judicaret. Sane tantum aberat, ut ethnici paulo humaniores sacrificia deorum suorum naturæ consentanea crederent, quod iis non raro mirari subiit, unde ritUS TAM TRISTIS, ET A NATURA DEORUM ALIENUS, IN HOMINUM CORDA VENIRET, SE TAM LONGE PROPAGARET, ET EORUM MORIBUS TAM TENACITER ADHÆRERET." De Leg. Heb. lib. iii. diss. ii. cap. 4. sect. 2. p. 772.-Revelation would have removed the wonder.

PAGE 45. (h) What Dr. Kennicot has remarked upon another subject, may well be applied to this. "Whatever custom has prevailed over the world, among nations the most opposite in polity and customs in general; nations not united by commerce or communication (when that custom has nothing in nature, or the reason of things, to

give it birth, and establish to itself such a cur rency,) must be derived from some revelation : which revelation may in certain places have been forgotten, though the custom introduced by and founded on such revelation still continued. And farther, this revelation must have been made antecedent to the dispersion at Babel, when all mankind, being but one nation, and living toge ther in the form of one large family, were of one language, and governed by the same laws and customs." " (Two Dissert. p. 161.) For, as Sir Isaac Newton observes, all mankind lived together in Chaldæa under the government of Noah and his sons, until the days of Peleg. So long they were of one language, one society, and one religion. And then they divided the earth, being forced to leave off building the tower of Babel. And from thence they spread themselves into the several countries which fell to their shares, carry ing along with them the laws, customs, and religion, under which they had till those days been educated and governed. (Chronol. p. 186.)

And again, as Kennicot observes from Delaney, whatever practice has obtained universally in the world, must have obtained from some dictate of reason, or some demand of nature, or somè principle of interest, or else from some powerful influence or injunction of some Being of universal authority. Now, the practice of animal sacrifice did not obtain from reason; for no reasonable

notions of God could teach men, that he could delight in blood, or in the fat of slain beasts. Nor will any man say, that we have any natural instinct to gratify, in spilling the blood of an innocent creature. Nor could there be any temptation from appetite to do this in those ages, when the whole sacrifice was consumed by fire; or when, if it was not, yet men wholly abstained from: flesh; and consequently this practice did not owe its origin to any principle of interest. Nay, so far from any thing of this, that the destruction of innocent and useful creatures is evidently against nature, against reason, and against interest: and therefore must be founded in an authority, whose influence was as powerful, as the practice was universal: and that could be none, but the authority of God the sovereign of the world; or of Adam the founder of the human race. If it be said of Adam, the question still remains, what motive determined him to the practice? It could not be nature, reason, or inte rest, as has been already shewn; it must therefore have been the authority of his sovereign: and had Adam enjoined it to his posterity, it is not to be imagined, that they would have obeyed him in so extraordinary and expensive a rite, from any other motive than the command of God. If it be urged, that superstitions prevail unaccountably in the world; it may be answered, that all superstition has its origin in true religion: all supersti

tion is an abuse: and all abuse supposes a right and proper use. And if this be the case in superstitious practices that are of lesser moment and extent, what shall be said of a practice existing through all ages, and pervading every nation? See Kennic. Two Diss. pp. 210, 211, and Rev. Exam. Diss. 8. p. 85-89.

It is to no purpose, that theorists endeavour to explain the practice as of gradual growth; the first offerings being merely of fruits, and a transition afterwards made from this to animal sacrifice. Not to urge the sacrifice of Abel, and all the early sacrifices recorded in Scripture, the transition is itself inconceivable. The two things are toto cœlo different: the one being an act of innocence; the other a cruel and unnatural rite. Dr. Richie's remarks on the subject of this Number are particularly worthy of attention. Essay on the rectitude of divine moral government under the Patriarchal dispensation. §. 53, 54.

NO. LVI.-ON THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE NOTION

OF THE EXPIATORY VIRTUE OF SACRIFICE.

we have

PAGE 45. ( It is notorious, as already seen in Numbers V. and XXXIII. that all nations, Jews and Heathens, before the time of Christ, entertained the notion, that the displeasure of the offended Deity was to be averted by