purpofe, fince every living thing is not fit for food and as the thing here given is contradiftinguished from Beafts and Fowls, which have always made up the usual Diet of Men, another meaning must be thought of, or one cannot, I apprehend, make sense of the Scriptures.

Suppofe then, that Animal Food was or was not in practice before the Flood, These words were, I think, intended only as a general Prohibition to eat any things that die of themselves; and then the sense will be this: "You may eat of every

thing that is duely killed, or that has "its life taken away; but you fhall not "eat of fuch things as die of them"felves. Every Living Animal shall be "food for you, but not if it dies of it"felf; you shall not eat it alive, or be"fore it is killed; For Flesh with the

life thereof, which is the blood thereof fhall you not eat." This I take to be, the true meaning of these words, confiftent with propriety, and univerfal practice: And thus they have nothing to do with, nor have they any relation to, any permiffion or grant to Eat Animal Food.

"The

"The fear and dread of You shall be upon <c every beast of the Earth, and upon every "fowl of the Air, upon all that moveth,

on, upon the Earth, and upon all "the Fishes of the Sea, Every moving thing in which is life shall be meat for you, just as the green herb is, But ye "shall first kill it, Flesh with the Life thereof, shall ye not eat."

The Grant then here given to Noah, is not to eat Animal Food, But it is a Right with a strict Prohibition annexed: They were always to kill before they did eat any flesh, of any Sort, whether Beasts or Fowls, or Fishes, or any thing that had life that would not come under those general claffes. It was a general Law now given to mankind, not at all containing any New Grant, but directing them how to use the power they had over the Creatures which God had fubjected to them. The First Grant to Adam was no more than a general Declaration of a fufficient Provifion for all Creatures: This Second to Noah is not a Grant of Animal Food, which before was not eaten, but it is a command to flay before they did eat any flesh:

for Flesh appears to have been used for food long before the flood, as well from the ufe of Sacrifices in thofe early days, as from the diftinction of Clean and Unclean Animals, then well known.

To return now to the Antediluvian Sacrifices.

Abel offered to God what he did eat himself, of the Firstlings of his Flock, and did not facrifice the Wool and the Milk of his flock only and as Both He and his Brother are faid to bring their refpective Offerings, we must not imagine that this implies any thing like a Temple, or fo much as a fix'd place of Worship; (for nothing tending to that is faid, nor does any thing like a Temple appear to have been till very many hundred of years after the flood, which yet would probably have been built by Noah, had there been fuch Fabricks before the Flood:) Their Bringing their offerings, I fay, does not imply any Temple in thofe early days; but Cain and Abel made to come, i. e. brought to the Altar they had raised, or to what they ufed for an Altar, or to the Fire they had kindled, or perhaps to

the

the place where God had appeared to them, their refpective Oblations; and there Abel Sacrificed the Animals to God, as Cain did his fruits of the Earth; and there they Both did partake or eat of them.

It is ufually faid, (and no fmall or inconfiderable Vouchers are brought for it) that the first Sacrifices were little elfe but Herbs and Salt, or Fruits of Trees; and that afterwards Frankincense and Animal Sacrifices were introduced. And had we no Better Books, or Older Hiftory, than what is contained or related in Heathen Writers, this might be admitted as a rational Scheme, full of Probability. But we know from Mofes, (whatever may be suggested against Abel's Sacrifice) that Noah took of every clean Beaft, and of ́ every clean Fowl, and offered Burnt Offerings on the Altar he had built, Gen. viii. 20. So that Animal Sacrifices were at least as Old as any other; and if Roots, or Herbs, or any Vegetables can be proved in any particular Country to have been facrificed, prior to Animals, no more will follow than that This was the cafe, e. g. in Greece or Italy, or wherever that Custom obtained

N 2

;

not

not that fuch were really the Oldest Sacrifices that were in the world. The Notion was formed from a Suppofition that Men once lived upon Acorns, and the Fruits of the Earth, and what they did eat themselves, That they gave unto the Gods. A Right Inference! from a fact which can never be proved to have been.

When Sacrifices firft were used, Every man feems to have been his own Prieft, and to have offered without the Aid or Affiftance of any body elfe. When a Plurality of Gods came to be the Religion of the world, Every one feems to have been at Liberty" to invoke what God << or Goddess he had a mind to have pro

pitious to him." Noah, the common Parent of all, built an Altar unto the Lord, and offered Burnt Offerings on the Altar. It is probable therefore that Altars were in ufe before the Flood, fince one was erected fo foon after it. Ten Generations after, Abraham of Chaldea built Altars to God; and fo did Job in Arabia four or five Generations after Abra

* Deam fibi invocet quam libebit propitiam. Plaut. Afin. A&t. iv. Sc. 1.

bam,