was, fays the Apostle to the Hebrews, (xi. 4.) by Faith. But what Faith? Not a Faith that the Almighty loved Blood; but a Faith in the Merits of the great Sacrifice of his Son, and a Belief of the Promifes made through him. For this is the Faith on which the Author of that Epistle expatiates through the whole of it, and which is particularly extolled in that Chapter. Cain then had not that Regard, in his Offering, to the promised Seed, which Abel had; and therefore God had refpect unto the one, and not the other.

Again; It is faid, immediately after the Promise of the Meffiah, that the Lord God made Coats of Skins for Adam and Eve, and clothed them. Whence then came these Skins? Were they taken from fuch Beafts as the first Man and Woman had eaten, or fuch as died. of themselves? Not the former, because they were not yet permitted to eat Flesh; their Food was confined to every Herb bearing Seed, and every Tree in which is the Fruit of a Tree bearing Seed; that is, to Herbs, Roots, and Fruits. Nor is it likely that any Beafts fhould die a natural Death fo foon after the Creation. Moft probably therefore they were the Skins of fuch as God had ordered to be facrificed to him; and this Command may be the Reason, why it is faid of these Coats of Skin, that the Lord God made them.

Once more; That bloody Sacrifices of Beafts and Birds were common before the Flood,

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Flood, feems very plain from the Distinction that was made between the Clean and the Unclean; and the great Acceptableness of Noah's Sacrifice to God of this Kind, feems plainly to imply, that it must have had its Inftitution from himself. Beafts and Birds could only be distinguish'd into clean or unclean, either because fome were fit to be eaten, and others not; or because fome were appointed for Sacrifices, and others not. They are all in Nature equally pure; and the Dif tinction could not proceed from the former Cause, because Mankind were not permitted to eat Flesh till after this Time. It was therefore made in relation to Sacrificing; and accordingly we find, that Noah took of every clean Beaft, and of every clean Bird, and offered Burnt-Offerings on the Altar (Gen. viii. 20.) The Confequence of which was, that the Lord fmelled a fiveet Savour; or, as it is better render'd in the Margin, a Savour of Reft; that is, God was pacified, or refted from his Anger, and promifed Noah that he would no more curfe the Earth for Man's Sake, which, as Jofephus obferves, was probably the Bleffing that Noah prayed for. Whence then had the Burning of Beafts or Birds fuch Efficacy with the Almighty? There was no moral Goodness or Rectitude in it; nor is it conceivable, that an Act of this Kind, which had been founded only in the Caprice or Invention of Men, could be fo acceptable to him. Nothing lefs

than

than his own Inftitution feems fufficient to account for his Approbation of an Action otherwise founded in no Reason, and at best in itself indifferent, if not criminal.

Here then we have Noah [the Father of the fecond World] and Abel (if not Adam, the Father of the firft) both offering these Sacrifices, and both received with peculiar Marks of Approbation and the Inftitution of God, and his Design in that Inftitution to point out the Death of his Son, are fufficient Reasons why Men should make this a religious Duty, and why the Discharge of it should be wellpleafing to him. Which being fuppofed, it is eafy to account for the univerfal Prevalence of the Custom of Sacrificing, in all Parts of the World, by Tradition from him who was the Father of it. But without this Suppofition, it will be very difficult to find out any Pretence for the Rife of this Practice, and much more fo, to reconcile it either with the Attributes of God, or the Reafon of Mankind. Thus much of the Origin of Sacrifices.

As to the Design of them, all Mankind agree, that their Intention in them was to reconcile themselves to an angry God, and that by fubftituting the innocent Animal to fuffer in the room of the guilty Votary. This was the Opinion of the ancient, and is to this Day of the present Heathen, who are as uniform in this Doctrine of expiatory Sacrifices, as in the Practice, They were all fenfible of their

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having

having provoked to Anger thofe whom they worshipped, and deferved Punishment at their Hands; and this has ever been the received Method ufed to avert that Punishment, and appease that Anger, tho' neither they nor their Fathers were ever able to give any rational Account why they pitched upon it. Guilt naturally fills the Criminal with inward Remorfe, and strong Apprehenfions of Danger; and no Wonder therefore, that all who were thus terrified fhould be fond of catching hold any means, how irrational foever, to get rid of their Anxieties, fince it came authorized with the Sanction of being practifed by their Forefathers, and handed down from Time immemorial.

of

And with regard to the Jews, the fame Doctrine is taught them of their Sacrifices, but with this Difference, That God does not require the Blood of those Sacrifices as having any inward Virtue to wash away Sin, but as Symbols of the Blood of Chrift, which alone was meritorious. Whereas the Heathen had forgot the Reason, which alone could authorize the Thing, tho' they continued the Prac tice. The Blood of the Animal, fays God (Levit. xvii. 11.) is the Life [or Soul] of the Beaft, which I have given you upon the Altar, to be an Atonement for your Souls; for it is the Blood that maketh an Atonement for the Soul. And the Ceremonies used in the Act of Sacrificing according to the Mofaic Law evidently fhew,

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fhew, that the Animal was fubftituted in the room of the Sinner, that he might thereby escape. But these things, fays the Apostle, were not inftituted for their own fakes, they were only the Shadows of good Things to come, (Heb. x. 1.) but the Body is of Chrift. The Substance at which they all aimed was his Merits and Sufferings, to which they alluded, and in which Allufion their whole Efficacy confifted. The Washings, Purifications, Sacrifices, and other Institutions of the Mofaic Oeconomy, were only Patterns of heavenly Things; and defigned to lead an obdurate and harden'd People, who could not bear a clearer Light, to more real Purity, and to a better Sacrifice than thefe. And whoever confiders the Jewish State in this Light will find Reafon to admire the Goodness of God in the Inftitution of it. He will not barely confider the Sanctuary, or Temple, when flowing with the Blood of Thoufands of Animals, as a Slaughter-house, in which the God of Nature can take no Pleasure; but as vifible Memento's of the Death of his only-begotten Son, in whom alone he is well pleafed; and as very proper Objects to raise in the Minds of all prefent a Deteftation of that Sin and Corruption for which he was to die. This Confideration will also give a Man a very high Idea of the Excellency of that Person who was ushered into the World with all this Pomp and Magnificence, for fo many Ages; and of the Efficacy and