great and precious sacrifice which His Son should one day offer up: and that, as soon as these sacrifices ceased to be animated by this spirit, (as those did which the carnal Jews offered) they became insupportable to Him. 2. How many The end of all religion is sacrifice: and there was never any religion without it. As to that of animals, I shall speak of it only so far as is necessary to render those parts of Scripture, where they are mentioned, intelligible; and shall therefore here confine myself to the explaining, 1. What these antient sacrifices were. sorts of animals were used in them. 3. What the manner of offering them was. 4. What ceremonies attended it. 5. Who was the minister. 6. The place. 7. The time for them. 8. How many sorts of them there were. And, 9. What was the manner of partaking of them. All which I shall endeavour to do in a very few words. 1. Sacrificing is the offering up an animal to GOD, whereby His Supreme Majesty is acknowledged, sin expiated, and the Divine Justice rendered propitious. Man by sin merited death; and, in order therefore to satisfy in some measure the demands of God's justice, He substituted animals in his own room; whose blood, nevertheless, would have no efficacy in blotting out sin, were it not that it was a type of the precious blood which JESUS CHRIST has since poured out for us on the cross, and by which He has reconciled us to His Father. So that, by the death which the victims suffered, and by the fire which consumed them, were represented to sinners the two punishments which sin had deserved, namely, death and eternal fire; and sacrifices were at the same time both marks of repentance, and pledges of a reconciliation. 2. There were but five sorts of animals, which could be offered up in sacrifice; and these were oxen, sheep, goats, turtle doves, and pigeons; which are indeed the most innocent, the most common, and the most proper animals in the world, for the nourishment of men. And among these great care was taken in the choice of such as were designed for victims; for the least defect that could be discovered in them made them unworthy of GOD. If the beast be blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto the Lord, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the LORD. Maimonides, in his treatise on this subject, gives us a long enumeration of all the defects which pollute an animal. He reckons up fifty which are common to beasts and men, and three and twenty which are peculiar to beasts only; and gives a sort of anatomical account of the parts in which they are found. And what then is this great purity which God required in the choice of His victims, but another proof that they were only designed to be the figures of JESUS CHRIST, whose innocence was to be perfect, and the holiness of His sacrifice infinite. 'Lev. xxii. 22. De Ratione Sacrif. 3. He, who offered sacrifice, led up the victim before the altar; laid both his hands, according to Maimonides," but only one, according to other Rabbins, and see the Scripture upon the head of it,' upon which he leaned with all his strength; and, while the sacrifice was offering up, said some particular prayers. If several offered the same victim, they put their hands upon his head one after another. Which imposition of hands upon the animal, which they were just going to sacrifice, was to shew, that they loaded him with their iniquities, and that they had deserved the death which he was going to suffer. And hereby the victims of the Old Testament were again the types of JESUS CHRIST, upon whom was laid the iniquities of mankind; and they were likewise the symbols of repentance. For which reason, Maimonides adds,' concerning the sin-offering, that if he who offered it did not repent, and make a public confession of his sins, he was not cleansed by it. 4. The manner of killing the animal was this. They cut through the throat and windpipe at one stroke and they catched the blood in a bason which they kept perpetually stirring about, lest it should coagulate before it had been sprinkled upon the vail, or upon the altar, or other things, according to the nature of the sacrifice. What blood remained after these sprinklings was poured De Ratione Sacrif. c. iii. n. 13. Lev. iv. 5-7. m 'Lev. i. 4. 1 De Rat. Sac. c. 3. out at the foot of the altar, either all at once, or at different times, according to the kind of sacrifice that was offered. There was round the altar a sort of trench, into which the blood fell, and from whence it was conveyed, by subterraneous channels, into the brook Cedron; and this altar, which was raised very high, was a representation of the cross, to which JESUS CHRIST was fixed, and which was sprinkled with His precious blood. After these aspersions they skinned the victim, and cut it in pieces, and carried up the parts of it to the altar in great pomp by a little hill or ascent to it. The priests, as they went up, lifted up that part of the victim which they carried towards the four parts of the world. Either the whole victim, or some part of it only, (according to the different sorts of sacrifices,) were burned upon the altar, where the priests maintained a fire always burning, by taking care to be perpetually laying fresh wood upon it. As they went up to the altar they salted the victim; for the law forbad the presenting any there which was not salted: and the sacrifices were always attended with libations, which were a mixture of wine and flour. Sometimes they had cakes made of the finest flour, and oil, and incense, which were baked in a pan, or upon a gridiron; and at other times they had such as were made of parched wheat only. One half of these cakes were burnt, and the other half belonged to the priests. And all See De Tabern. lib. 7. c. 7. § 1. Maimon. de Ratione Sa crificii, c. 6. n. 18. these which I have mentioned, the victim, the wine, the oil, and the cake, are all expressed in the single word Corbanoth, that is, Gifts offered to GOD; and were all either to be consumed, killed, burned, or poured out, with the ceremonies which the law prescribes, or else to be reserved for sacred banquets. Nevertheless, the victims and cakes have different names among the Hebrews; the former of which they called Zebachim, that is, Sacrifices, and the latter Mincha, that is Offerings. And the cakes which were made of the flour of wheat or barley, and wine, were called cakes of libation. All those which were offered at the altar must first have had some oil poured upon them; and incense must likewise have been first put to them, as is expressly commanded in Leviticus." Salt was likewise put in all these cakes; and this is what Virgil calls salsas fruges, for the heathen had all these ceremonies. The cakes were burned upon the altar, and the wine poured out at the foot of it but it was not lawful to put upon the altar either honey or leaven. 5. As to the ministration of the sacrifice any one might kill the victims, and skin them, and cut them in pieces: but the ceremonies, as those of catching the blood, and sprinkling it, belonged only to the priests. And in this the law is very express, that he who offers the sacrifice shall kill it on the side of the altar, and shall cut it in pieces; but that the priests, the sons of Aaron, shall sprinkle the blood ⚫ Chap. ii. 1. |