THE PREFACE. Sbe ACRIFICES are known to have been in Ufe generally all over the World, from the earliest days to the time when Chriftianity had made great Progress in it: And the Heathen treated Chriftians at first, as Atheists, and Impious, because They refused to comply with the ufual religious Customs of the Country in which They lived. The way which the Chriftians took to vindicate themselves for refusing to facrifice, was, partly to fhew the Weakness and Abfurdity of the Heathen way of Worship; and partly to produce Authorities from their Philofophers and Wife Men, who had in their Writings condemned all Animal Sacrifices, or had given Reafons to fhew A 2 - that that fuch a Service could not make men acceptable to God. On these points the Cause seems chiefly to have refted; and the Fathers thought that They had done enough to justify Themfelves for embracing a Religion in which no Sacrifices were offered but the fpiritual ones of Prayer, and Praife, and Thanksgiving, when they had cited the Authorities of the Wifeft and Ableft Heathens, who had expressly declared against all other Service or Worfhip but that of the Mind. Thus, e.g. Because Porphyry had confeffed, * "That you ought not to burn Incenfe, or to facrifice, to the God of "all; nor ought you to imagine Thofe to be Gods who take pleasure in the Sacrifice of Animals": That "it is "the most unrighteous thing in the world "to Sacrifice Living Creatures: "That "it is impious, and deteftable, and prejudicial, and therefore it cannot be pleafing * Ομολογεί μὴ δεῖν τὸ καθόλες μηδὲν μήτε θυμιάν, μήτε θύειν τῷ ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεών μή χρήναι θεὸς ὑπολαμβάνειν τοὺς τᾶις διὰ ζώων θυσίαις χαίροντας. Είναι γάρ φησι πάντων ἀδικώτατον τὸ ζωοθυσῖν, καὶ ἀνόσιον, και μυσαρὸν, και βλαΘερόν, και διὰ τέτο μηδὲ θεοῖς προσφιλές, Eufeb. Prap Evang. 1. iv. c. 10. "to the Gods " to offer Sacrifice ; Because, I fay, He had made this Confeffion, The Chriftian Apologift readily laid hold of This to juftify the Worfhip of the One God and Father of all * "with a Mind free from all Malice; and " with a Body adorned with the Orna"ment of Chastity and Temperance; and "with the holding of right Notions, wor thy of God and fuitable to his Nature; " and above all thefe," fays he, "we pray that we may with a right Difpofition keep up and maintain that Godlinefs which our Saviour commanded, 66 even unto Death." And no doubt fo far he reasoned right from his Adverfary's confeffions,That if it was deteftable and impious to facrifice living creatures, it could not be blameable to abstain from such a Worship, or to ufe That only of an upright Heart and a pure Mind. Eufebius goes on to cite from Porphyry * Νῷ πάσης κεκαθαρμένῳ κακίας, καὶ σώματι τὸν ἐξ ἀγα νείας και σωφροσύνης κόσμου περιβεβλημένῳ, δόγμασί τε ὀρθοῖς καὶ θεοπρεπέσι, καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσι τέτοις, διαθέσει γνησίᾳ την ὑπὸ τῆς Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν παραδοθεῖσαν ευσέβειαν μεχρι και θα νάτε φυλάττειν ευχόμεθα. Ibid. a paf a paffage in which he says, that * « nothing material can be otherwise than impure to an immaterial Being." And at length he concludes, that fince Porphyry acknowledges, + "that They are "no Gods who take pleasure in Sacrifices, therefore neither the Aerial, nor Cœleftial, nor Ætherial, nor Subterref"trial Deities, were Gods; no nor Apollo himself, who had by his Oracle com"manded Sacrifice." Porphyry, who had pleaded for all these Sorts of Deities, could not with any pretence evade the force of this reasoning: And the Chriftians could not but triumph over their Adverfaries and Calumniators. But ftill a difficulty remained, which Eufebius did not meddle with; and That was in relation to the Jewish Sacrifices. Porphyry's Arguments were levelled against all Animal Sacrifices: and confequently They might be urged very justly by Chrif το Ουδέν ἔνυλον ὁ μὴ τῷ ἀύλῳ ἐυθύς ἐστιν ἀκάθαρον. c. I. † Ουκ ἦν ἄρα Θεός, ἐδέ τις ἀψευδῆς καὶ ἀγαθὸς δαίμων, ὁ τὰς δὲ αιμάτων λοιβάς τε και κνίσσας μικρῷ πρόσθεν εισ. πραττόμενος χρήσμῳδος· ουδ' ἐκεῖνοι πάνες, τις ὁ χρησμός πάειν ζῶα παρεκελεύσατο. Πλάνον άρα και ἀπατεῶνα προστάξαντα μη μόνον τοῖς χθονίοις, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς ουρανίοις ζωολυτεῖν. 6. 14 tians |