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was flain the same day may help us to some light in this matter. Aaron was to offer his Bullock for a Sin Offering for himself, and make Atonement for himself and for his house, Levit. xvi. 6. His confeffion on this occafion was in the fame words as when he confeffed the Sins of the Nation, putting only *, "I and my

Family", inftead of, "thy people the "House of Ifrael." And when He confeffed the Sins of the Sons of Aaron, the fame form was used, only putting in the words, "I and my Family and the Sons "of Aaron thy holy people."

Here then a Bullock was flain, and God was prayed to cover, or remove away the displeasure which might juftly have arifen from their Sins: But not a word to defire of God to accept this Bullock as their Subftitute, or in lieu of them. Could the High Priest have failed to use fome word that would have implied this Subftitution? Would he not have used

*Tribus vicibus in die Expiationis confeffionem edidit [Pontifex Maximus.] Prima pro fe: Secunda pro fratribus Sacerdotibus; et ultima hac vice, pro univerfo cœtu. Sheringham in loc. vid. Mina. ibid.

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fome term or other which after ages found out? Would he not have faid as the later Rabbins have faid,-" Let his Blood be for

my blood, his Soul or Life in lieu of mine."

But .יהי דמו תחת דמי נפש תחת נפשי :)

this was a Notion of later times, when the Original Ideas of Sacrifices had been changed, and men's Imaginations or Inventions had supplied the place of Facts.

6. It may perhaps be thought, that tho the High Prieft did not ufe fuch a Form as implied a Subftitution of the Victim in the place or ftead of the Offerer, yet the Form of Confeffion made by a private perfon when he offered his Sacrifice, may be full to the purpose. And fo indeed it may feem. His Form was-* « I be"feech thee O Lord, I have finned, I "have done Iniquity, I have tranfgreffed, “have done fo and fo" [here a particular mention of his Sins was made] " and I "have returned by Repentance, and This

*Obfecro Domine, peccavi, deliqui, rebellavi, hoc et illud feci; nunc autem pœnitentiam ago, Sitque Hoftia hæc Expiatio mea. Dr. Outram cites this Form from Maimonides in Maafe Corban. c. 3. Outram, p. 170.

" Victim

"Victim is, or, Let This Victim be my

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Expiation." The Remark which the Learned Dr. Outram makes on this is*«These last words fignify, as the Jews "tell us, Let this Victim be fubftituted in my place, that the Evil which I have

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deferved may fall upon the head of this "Sacrifice." The Jews may tell us this, but the words-Let this Victim be my Expiation-mean no more than ThisLet this Victim remove all difpleasure of God from me; Let this be my cleanfing. Repentance would always cover Sins, and make them not be remembred or imputed to the Sinner: and a Sacrifice attended with Repentance would always produce the fame effect; and without Repentance ten thousand Sacrifices would never caufe that Sin should not be remembred. When therefore a Sacrifice was offered as it ought to be, with a right mind, and with a hearty defire to return into favour with

Quæ vero verba formulam claudunt, Sitque hæc Expiatio mea, hoftiam ipfam defignabant offerentis manibus jam fubjectam; ac quidem, ut Judæi docent, hujufmodi fignificationem habent, Sit Hoflia hæc meum in locum fubftituta, ut quod ipfe malum merui, id in hoftiæ meæ caput recidat. Outram. ibid.

God,

God, the Offerer might well fay, as he did in the Form just mentioned-Let this Victim be the means of my pardon, and make mine Iniquities be remembred no more -without any Notion of the Victim's being a Substitute, and without any Prayer to God that the Evils which the Sinner

deferved might fall on the Head of an innocent, harmless, Creature.

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The Nature and Intent of Sacrifices being thus confidered, it will be not improper to make fome further Observations upon this Practice. Burnt Offerings were certainly the most antient of all that are mentioned fince the Flood. Noah took of every clean Beast, and of every clean Fowl, and offered Burnt Offerings on the Altar which he had built, Gen. viii. 20. was done very foon after he went out of the Ark: For as foon as he had made his Sacrifice, God declar'd that he would not again curfe the Ground any more for man's fake. Now it is certain that Noah was not the Inventer of Sacrifices; and by his offering Burnt Offerings of Beafts and Birds, He feems to have obferved what was practifed before the Flood, when

every man was his own Prieft, and offered Sacrifices for Himself. Every man, or at leaft every Father of every Family, feems to have brought his own Sacrifice to such place as he thought proper; poffibly (as it was in much later times) to his own Hearth; And he brought of the fruits of the Earth, or his Cattle, or what he was Mafter of, and with them He made his Prayer, or he returned his Thanks, and thus endeavoured to be, or continue, in a State of Friendship with God. It is probable, I fhould think, that he built an Altar wherever he thought fit, as the Patriarchs in after times did; And if we may judge of others by the Sacrifices of Cain and Abel, it is very likely, as Lucian has obferved *, that "the Farmer offered "an Ox, the Shepherd a Lamb, and "fome a Cake only."

It is certain that Abel was a Keeper of Sheep, but Cain was a Tiller of the ground: And suitably to their refpective Occupations, Cain brought of the Fruit of the Ground an Offering unto the Lord; and

* Βῶν μὲν ἀροτῆρα ὁ γεωργός, ἄρνα δὲ ὁ ποίμηνὁ δὲ τις #avo. Lucian. de Sacrificiis.

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