16. Sacrifices and Priesthood.

A Mong all the odd whims fuperftition

ever brought into the worship of the

Deity, there is hardly any thing which at first fight appears fo abfurd as that of facrifice; for how can it be fuppofed, that the great creator and fovereign of the universe should be pleased with shedding the blood of animals, and the smell of burnt fat; and so pleased, that, in confideration thereof, he fhould pardon the offences of man, turn away from his wrath, and forbear the vengeance justly due to them. Nor is the folly of fuch a perfuafion any where more ftrongly expofed than in the facred writings, particularly in the 51ft pfalm.

And yet it is certain, the practice univerfally prevailed, not only among the rude and ignorant, but more efpecially among the most knowing and civilized nations; where it made the principal part, and in a manner the whole of their religious worship. Philofophers and wife men faw, and expofed, the absurdity of it. But it kept its ground notwithstanding, in spite of all that reafon VOL. I.

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could

could fay against it. And no wonder it fhould; for it was powerfully fupported by an universal tradition, that it was of divine institution. This was carried yet farther, when the world loft fight of the creator, and took up with the visible heavens, his agents, and split the feveral powers thereof into fo many deities. Every deity they thought had ordered certain beasts to be offered, and certain rites to be observed in their worship; and that fo ftrictly, that if any mistake was committed, the effect of the whole would be loft.

And furely it affords a ftrong prefumption in favour of the tradition, that a practice, which could never have entered into any man's head, fhould become thus univerfal; and that from the earlieft ages. For in all the hiftories of the world, there is no hint of its first inftitution. Where-ever the history commenced, even in the darkest and moft fabulous ages, facrifices were always found among them. And no wonder; for indeed the practice appears to be very nearly as ancient as the word itself, Cain and Abel offered their facrifices very early; and though we have no record of the first inftitution,

ftitution, yet the divine acceptance of Abel's facrifice is a fufficient document of it. Nor have we any reason to imagine, that Adam had never offered even before that time, though there is no record of it, nor indeed of any others presenting such offerings until the deluge. But the diftinction then fubfifting between clean and unclean beafts, is more than a prefumption that the practice continued. Noah offered immediately after the deluge, and God was pleased with it. Abraham built altars whereever he came, and offered facrifice; Ifaac and Jacob did the fame. And when their descendents were brought out of Egypt, they had a law given them, wherein this was made the most folemn part of their worship, and very particular directions given about it.

During the patriarchal times, it appears that every man offered his own facrifice. There is no mention of any priest in those ages, excepting only Melchizedeck, and he appears to have been an extraordinary perfon, raised up for anfwering the particular purpose of reprefenting the true king of righteoufnefs and peace, the great priest

over the houfe of God. Neither can I find any good foundation for what fome learned

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learned men are very pofitive in, that the priesthood was confined to the first-born of the family, and that none might offer but they. Surely Abraham and Jacob were neither of them the firft-born. The claim afterwards made upon the firft-born of the Ifraelites ftood upon another bottom; and the affuming the tribe of Levi, and confining the priesthood to them, was evidently an act of fovereign authority.

Whence the other nations took the hint of fetting apart a certain order of men for this part of their worship, is not fo eafy to fay. It could hardly come from the Mofaic law, and the practice of the Ifraelites; especially if the men called by the title commonly given to priests were really fuch; and not, as David's fons were, minifters of state, who are a fort of mediators between king and people. But however that was, fuch an order of men were in every civilized nation; each deity had his own prieft or priests; and an office of great honour and credit it was. No man among the Heathen might offer his own facrifice, nor confult the oracles even in his moft weighty and fecret affairs, any more than one among the Ifraelites; among whom it was fo exprefsly

prefsly forbidden, that the priests found themselves obliged to refift one of the greatest of their kings when he attempted only to offer incenfe on the altar and their zeal was justified in a very fenfible manner by God himself; the king was ftruck with leprofy.

We have a number of inftances on record, which at once prove the divine inftitution of this feemingly irrational piece of worship, and God's acceptance of it, by fire from heaven confuming the facrifices; of which we need not give particular inftances, especially as they were extraordinary cafes, and defigned to anfwer particular purposes. The fureft way of adjusting our notions of it must be, a careful confideration of that system of sacrificature, given with fuch folemnity by the ministry of Mofes, by fpecial divine appointment, and proved to have been fo by the most irresistible evidence. The particulars are numerous, as directed to answer all the particular cafes of offences, defilements, and pollutions, that were pardonable by that law: for fome crimes, particularly idolatry, murder, and finning prefumptuously, inferred unavoidable death. It