were liable neither wou'd there have been any Place or possible Occasion for Bloody Offerings Expiations or Propitiatory Sacrifices This is a farther Evidence Secondly of our Weakness if we look at the Meanness of the Intention upon which that Usage grew and was encourag'd and That cou'd be no other than the Hope of Appeasing and Gratifying Almighty God by such Bloody Oblations I speak not now of the Reasons why God instituted Sacrifices but of that Notion which plainly appears to have been predominant in the Minds of Men who did not see into the Mysterious End of them which the Generality of the Jews themselves never did and much less cou'd it be expected that the Pagan World shou'd penetrate into it It is true indeed Almighty God in great Grace and Compassion to those more early and ignorant Ages of the World which knew no better did very favourably accept Good Men when they approached him with this sort of Devotion and the Apostle takes particular Notice of his having Respect to Abel and his Offering Heb. xi as the History of the Old Testament does of his testifying that Acceptance by visible Signs in the Case of Noah Abraham and Others There being this Motive to his Mercy that what was done of that kind proceeded from an Intention to serve and honour him and that the Understandings of Men were gross and heavy they were in their Minority and under a Schoolmaster as St. Paul expresses it of the Jewish People but at the same time honest and well-meaning And it is not improbable that this Opinion so universal at That time might represent Sacrifices to them as a Dictate of the Law of Nature and the only proper Method of Divine Worship There was it is confessed another Consideration which rendred Sacrifices very valuable and well-pleasing to God whereby they were made use of as Figures and Representations of that One truly meritorious Sacrifice to be offer'd upon the Altar of the Cross afterwards But this is a Mystery peculiar to the Jewish and Christian Religion And as it is a Common so is it an Excellent and Adorable Instance of the Divine Wisdom to convert what is of Human Institution Natural Usage or of a Corporeal Nature to High and Holy Purposes and make such things as the Ceremonial Law consisted of turn to a Spiritual Account But still This does not by any means infer that God took pleasure in these things as of any real Intrinsick Worth and Good in themselves For even before Grace and Truth set this Matter in its clearest Light by the Gospel the Prophets were not sparing to declare the Contrary and Those among the Jews of more enlightened Understandings saw this perfectly well and acknowledged it even while the Practice of offering them continu'd Psal li. Thus David Thou desirest no Sacrifice else would I give it thee but thou delightest not in Burnt-Offerings Psal xl Burnt-Offering and Sacrifice for Sin hast thou not requir'd And again speaking in the Person of God himself Psal l. I will take no Bullock out of thy House nor He-Goat out of thy Folds They call'd upon Men for Oblations of another kind more Noble and Spiritual more becoming Them to bring and more worthy and fit for a Holy Deity to receive The Sacrifice of God is a Contrite Spirit and the Offering of a pure Heart Mine Ears hast thou opened that I should do thy Will yea thy Law is within my Heart Offer unto God the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice And many other Passages to the same Purpose And at last to clear this Matter and put it beyond a Doubt the Son of God himself who was Truth and the Teacher of it and who condescended to come into the World that he might disabuse Mankind and rescue them from their Ignorance and Errours hath utterly abolish'd this way of serving God Which he wou'd never have done had there been any Essential Goodness in it which cou'd have recommended it for its own sake to God his Father But when He was come to be the End of the Law and the Universal Propitiation the use of Sacrifices was at an End too John iv 23 24. and then it is They that worship God must worship him in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him And without Question next to the Extirpating Idolatry This of abolishing Sacrifices is One of the most Glorious Publick Effects One of the best Reformations which Christianity hath wrought in the World And hence it was that Julian the Emperour its most professed most inveterate Enemy in Despight to it offered more Sacrifices than perhaps any other Man ever did and endeavoured to introduce This Way of Worship and Idolatry again as being both directly in Contradiction to the Christian Religion But of This we have spoken sufficiently and therefore let us now take a short View of some of the other considerable Branches of Religion The Blessed Sacraments when Adminished to us in Elements so common and of such mean Esteem as Bread and Wine and Water and not only so but in the very Act of Administration bearing Resemblance to the most Vulgar and Despicable Actions of Life as Wishing Eating and Drinking are plain Memento's of our continual Weaknesses and Wants our Miseries and Pollutions And as the marvellous Efficacy magnifies the Almighty Power and Goodness of God so the Need we have of them should humble us with mortifying Reflections upon our own feeble Condition Thus again Repentance is prescribed as the Necessary the only Remedy for our Spiritual Diseases and 't is plain This Considered in it self is an Act full of Shame and Reproach it upbraids us with our Faults and Follies afflicts our Souls with Grief and sad Remorse and shews us to our Selves in the Worst and most Deformed Figures that can be But however Evil and Uncomely this may seem in it self yet it is Necessary for reconciling us to God and That is enough to reconcile Us to it Another Instance may be taken from Oaths which are indeed Religious Acts when lawfully practised by Reason of the Name of God solemnly invoked in them But yet it is evident that the Common Use and Administration of these is a Scurvy Symptome a most shameful Argument how little Mankind are to be trusted What Monsters of Falshood and Treachery of Errour and Ignorance we are How vilely suspicious and distrustful the Person requiring them is and how liable to Jealousie the Person from whom they are demanded and what a mean Opinion those Law-givers who ordered them had of Mens Honesty and Truth when one's bare Word will not give Satisfaction nd as our Saviour says whatsoever is more than this Matt. V. 37. cometb of Evil. Thus you see not only how Weak and Sickly our Condition is but likewise what sort of Remedies Religion hath found it Necessary to apply for our Cure Since it may be said in some
Dij placentur quemadmodum ne homines quidem sâ—ewunâ— At this rate the Gods are fond of expiations which even Men abominate and the Mercy of Heaven is purchased with such Barbarities as all Nature starts at Whence could so wild a fancy as this a fancy so distant from all the Just Ideas and Perfections of God spring up that he takes a pleasure in the misery of human nature and the ruin or at least the torment and damage of his own Workmanship What can be more impious or extravagant and how monstrous a Being does such a Belief as This make of God And how justly does the Doctrine of Christ command our Reverence and Esteem which hath abolished all such Worship and rectified Mens Notions in this matter Now as All And others wherein they differ or Most Religions have been shewed to have some Principles in common wherein they are agreed so have they likewise Others peculiar to themselves Certain Articles which are the Characters and as it were the Boundaries of their Respective Communions and serve to separate and distinguish the many Sects and Professions from one another With regard to These it is that the Men of every Religion prefer themselves above all the World besides that they afirm with great assurance their own Persuasion to be the best the purest the most Orthodox of any and as another means of magnifying themselves are eternally reproaching those that differ from them with Errors and Corruptions and by this means they are eternally employed too in creating Breaches or in widening and keeping open such as are already made by the mutual Disallowance and Condemnation which every Party is perpetually declaring against the Notions of every other Party and representing all Systems but their own to be false and dangerous and by no means to be admitted But Blessed be God We Christians need be in no pain in the midst of this Variety and Contest Our Religion having the Advantages of all others both in point of Authentick and unquestionable Testimony and in other Excellencies peculiar to it self This I have demonstrated at large in the Second of my Three Truths and shewed the manifest Preeminence due to it Now One thing is very worthy our Observation in this general Strife The later are built upon the former and more antient and That is the Advantage which Time and Succession have given in this matter For we shall find that in proportion as One Religion hath been of a later date than another so it hath gained somewhat from that which came into the World before it and the Younger hath always built and raised it self upon the Elder more particularly upon that which was next of all before it in Order and Time And the method of effecting this hath been not by disproving or exploding all that went before in the gross and at once for upon these terms it could never have found entertainment or got any manner of Footing with people so prepossessed but the Course hath been to accuse what was formerly received of some defect or Insufficiency alledging that the Institution was imperfect in it self or that it was only Temporary and the Term for which it was calculated then expired and therefore this New Additional one was necessary to succeed in the place of an abolished and to compleat an unfinished Religion And thus by degrees the new one rises upon the Ruins of the Old and is enriched by the Spoils of its vanquish'd Predecessor As we know the case hath plainly stood with the Jewish Religion when it prevailed over the Pagan and Egyptian way of Worship the Jewish people not being to be brought off from the Customs of that Country all at once And afterwards the Christian Faith and Promises when they triumphed over the Jewish Privileges and Mosaical Dispensation and since that the same Pretence hath been made use of to advance Mahumetism upon the Jewish and Christian Religion taken together Each of these hath retained something of the Religion it pretended to dispossess and built upon Old Foundations But none so much as the Mahometan which professes to persist and be fully persuaded in All the Doctrines of Jesus Christ save only that Great and most important one which asserts his Divinity So that he who would pass from Judaism to Mahometanism must take Christianity in his way And we are told there have been some Mahometans who have exposed themselves to Sufferings and Torture in defence of the Christian Truths as a Christian likewise upon his own Principles would be bound to do in vindication of the Authority and Doctrines of the Old Testament But now if we cast our Eyes upon the more Ancient sort of Institutions we shall find them dealing after a very different manner with the New which as I said in part allow and only profess to improve and refine upon Them For They reject and condemn Them intirely give them no quarter but cry out upon them for Innovations and look upon every thing of later date than themselves as a mortal and irreconcilable Enemy to the Truth as if after the Period of their own Establishment Time could from thenceforth produce none but monstrous Births and all who did not sit down and stick there must be inevitably abandoned to Falshood and Corruption This I think may be farther affirmed to be a Qualification common to all Religions whatsoever All of them uncouth to Nature that they are every one in Some Points uncouth and foreign from the Common Sense and apprehensions of Mankind And the Reason seems to be that They all of them propound to our Consideration and Belief and are Systems consisting of and built upon Points of a very distant kind from Common Sense For Some of them when weighed in the Balance of human Judgment appear to be exceeding mean and low and contemptible such as a Man of Wit and Vigorous Thought finds himself rather tempted to ridicule and expose than to pay any Reverence to them And Others again are so exceeding sublime the Lustre of them so strong the Nature of them so full of Miracle and Mystery that as Finite Causes could never effect so finite Understandings can never comprehend them fully and at These the Men of Discourse and Demonstration take offence and will allow nothing to be credible which is not intelligible Whereas in Truth the Sphere in which the human Intellect moves and acts is placed between these two Extremes For we are capable but of such things as lye in a middle State and are of a moderate proportion These only are of a size with our Souls They fit us and therefore They Only please and are easy to us those of a lower Rank we look down upon with Indignation and Scorn and those of a higher Condition are too weighty and bulky for us they create Wonder and Amazement only and therefore the wonder ought not to be great if the Mind of Man recoil again and shew a disrelish against all
the Nature of true Religion and the Dignity of an Almighty Majesty these are capable of great Allowances and suit well enough with the Simplicity of the First Ages of the World To This I presume it may suffice to answer That the Case of Moral Duties and Religious Rites is very different The One are purely the result of a reasonable and thinking Mind The Other of a Nature which we must needs be much in the dark about For though Reason would convince me that God is to be worshipped yet He alone can tell me what Worship will be acceptable to him At least if I must beat out my own Track the Notions I entertain of God must direct me Now These might convince a Man that Purity and Sincerity Justice and Goodness and the like must needs please an Infinitely Perfect Being But which way could an Imagination so foreign enter into Mens heads as that God shold be pleased with the Blood and Fat of Beasts Admit These to have been the Chief of their Substance and devoted because as such fittest for them to express their Acknowledgments by that as devoted and entirely set apart to Holy Uses it could not without Sacrilege be partaken of by Men and that from hence the Custom of Burning the Sacrifice took its Original yet what shall we say to the Expiatory Oblations And how could Men by any Strength of Reason comprehend the Possibility of a Vicarious Punishment or hope that the Divine Justice should be appeased by Offerings of this kind and accept the Life of the Offender's Beast instead of the forfeit Life of the Offender himself These things seem to be far out of the Way and Reach of human Discourse it is scarce if at all possible to conceive what should lead the Generality of Mankind to such Consequences such Ideas of God as These And I think little needs be said to convince Men that the Difference is vastly great between such Religious Rites and those Moral Duties which have their foundation in the best Reason and are all of them so coherent so agreeable to sober and uncorrupted Nature that the more we attend and the closer we pursue them the greater Discoveries we shall be sure to make and the more consistent will be all our Actions with the first and most obvious Principles of the Mind So that no Parity of Argument can lye between these Two The Force of this Reason is sufficiently confess'd by the very Learned Asserter of that Other Opinion nor can he deny Spencer Lib. III. Cap. IV. Diss II. Sect. II. as some I think with a design to make short work of it have done that Expiatory Sacrifices were offer'd before the Law But then These are supposed to proceed not from any positive persuasion or good assurance of obtaining Pardon by that means but some Hope that God would have regard to the Pious Intention of the Person and consider and restore him upon that account Which Opinion Arnobius exposes in such a manner as plainly to shew that it generally prevailed and many Testimonies of Heathen Writers themselves confess that they looked upon God to be capable of being mollified and won over as Angry Men are by Submissions and Presents and other sweetning Methods All which Misapprehensions are conceived agreeable to the Darkness of Pagans and the Simplicity of Earlier Ages Now with all due Reverence to the Authority of those Great Men who urge it I can by no means satisfy my self with the Colour they give to these Arguments from the rude unpolished State of Men in the first Ages of the World This I know is a Notion very agreeable to the Heathen Philosophers and Poets and Their Accounts of the Original of this World the Progress of Knowledge and Improvement of Mankind And This might probably agree well enough with that Age when Abraham and his Seed were chosen out from the midst of a dark and degenerate Race But whether it agree with the Times of Abel and Noah and the Antediluvian Fathers will bear a great Dispute We fancy perhaps that before there was any Written Word all was dark but there is no Consequence in That nor will it follow because Arts and Prositable Inventions for the Affairs of this Life grew up with the World that Religion too was in its Infant Weakness and Ignorance in those early Days St. Chrysostom I am sure gives a very different account of the Matter Hom. 1. in Matth. He says the Communications of God's Will were more liberal and frequent then that Men lived in a sort of familiar Acquaintance with him and were personally instructed in Matters necessary and convenient much better enabled to worship and serve him acceptably and because they did not discharge their Duty and answer their Advantages that he withdrew from this Friendly way of conversing with Mankind and then to prevent the utter Loss of Truth by the Wickedness and Weakness of Men a Written Word was judged necessary and That put into Books which the Corruption of Manners had made unsafe and would not permit to continue clear and legible in Men's hearts In the mean while the Preference he manifestly gives both for Knowledge and Purity to the First Ages and compares the Patriarchs at the beginning of the World in this Point to the Apostles at the beginning of Christianity as Parallels in the Advantages of Revelation and Spiritual Wisdom infinitely superior to the succeeding Times of the Church And it is plain from Scripture it self that Enoch Noah and other Persons eminently pious signally rewarded for it and inspired with God's own Spirit were some of those early Sacrificers Persons to whose Character the pretended Simplicity and Ignorance of the first Ages of the World will very ill agree V. There is I must own a Great Prejudice against this Divine Institution of Sacrifices from the Book of Genesis being silent in the thing it being urged as a mighty Improbability that so considerable an Ordinance and One which grew so general should have no mention made of its first Command and Establishment especially when so many things of seemingly less moment are expresly taken notice of and by that means strengthen the Opinion which attributes a matter acknowledged on all hands to be of Consequence to some Original other than Immediately Divine Now if we consider the Design and Manner of the Book of Genesis it will by no means appear strange to us that many things should be omitted This being I conceive intended chiefly to give a short Account of the Creation and Fall of Man the Promise of a Redeemer and to draw down the Line of Descent to the Chosen Seed from whence our Saviour sprung and the People of the Jews the Figure of the Christian Church derived themselves So that Their History and Religion being the principal Subject of the Five Books of Moses we find very little Enlargement upon Particulars till after the Call of Abraham For if we consider the Three first
Chapters containing the Creation and Fall of our first Parents the VIth VIIth VIIth and IXth giving an Account of the Deluge and Preservation of Noah's Family there remain but four more before the Call of Abraham and in those the Succession from Adam to Noah the Dispersion of Noah's Posterity for peopling the World and the Occasion of that Dispersion are contained 'T is true some things are inserted which to Us seem of less moment but besides that some account may in reason be given why they should be mentioned the Holy Spirit who indited these Books was the best Judge of That But it is also true that several other things as considerable as This are omitted likewise which we do not upon that score disbelieve such particularly as Those of Times stated and Assemblies convened for the Publick Worship of God and certainly it is as necessary and as important at least to expect a Revelation for the Solemn Service of God as for any particular Mode of Serving or Addressing to him I have now laid before my Reader the State of the Case as They who alledge Human Invention for Sacrifices have put it and in the Answer to those Arguments have given some for the Contrary Opinion That the Authorities on that Side are considerable is acknowledged but the General Sense of the Christian Church seems to incline to Divine Institution And the most reasonable account of this Matter if I apprehend it rightly stands thus That Almighty God instructed Adam how he would please to be worshipped and Adam trained his Family and Posterity both by Example and Instruction in the same Solemn Methods of Serving and Addressing to God That from the Time of a Redeemer's being promised Expiatory Sacrifices were both instituted and practised partly as an Intimation to Men of their own Guilt and the final Destruction they deserved and partly as a Shadow and Prefiguration of that Vicarious Punishment which God had promised to admit for the Sins of Men in the Redemption of the World by the perfect Sacrifice of his Son That as no Age of the World can be instanc'd in when God did not afford Men some visible Signs and Sacraments of his Favour and the Covenant between Him and Them so the Ages before the Institution of the Jewish Law which abounded with very expressive and particular Significations of this kind had Sacrifices for that purpose That the Heathen Sacrifices were not pure Inventions of Men but Corruptions of a Divine Institution Which being propagated to all the Offipring of Adam was differently received and depraved by the Uncertainty of Tradition long Tract of Time the Artifice of the Devil and Mens own Vicious Affections Of which whoever reads the Apologies for Christianity will find Proofs in abundance and be convinced that the Pagan Idolatry was built originally upon the Worship of the true God vitiated and perverted and misapplied For we must in reason be sensible that the likeliest and most usual way by which the Devil prevails upon Men is not by empty and groundless Imaginations or Inventions perfectly new but by disguising and mimicking the Truth and raising erroneous and wicked Superstructures upon a good and sound Bottom It is therefore it seems at least in my poor Opinion most probable that the Jewish Ceremonies were indeed adapted to the Egyptian and other Pagan Rites which the Israelites had been acquainted with and were not then in a Condition to be entirely weaned from But withal that those Pagan Sacrifices were Corruptions of the old Patriarchal not entirely mere Inventions of their own but Additions only and Extravagant Excrescencies of Error to which the Truth and Positive Institution of God first gave the hints and occasions For though it can very hardly be conceived how Sacrifices should be of mere human Motion yet there is no difficulty in supposing that the Thing once Instituted and once Established might be abused and depraved to very prodigious and abominable purposes As it was no doubt very early in that universal degeneracy to Idolatry from which it pleased God to rescue Abraham and his Posterity One very Remarkable Circumstance contributing to the strength of this Opinion is that almost every where the Ceremonies in the Act of Oblation seem to be very much alike which is very Natural to an Exercise and Institution derived down from One common Head and originally sixed by a Positive Command but scarce conceivable of an Invention merely Human where Men in all likelyhood would have run into as great Diversity and thought themselves as much at Liberty as they do in the Affairs of Common Life But especially the Sacrificing Beasts by way of Atonement obtained universally and the Imagination of Their Blood being necessary and effectual for Pardon Which I confess if a Dictate of Reason and Nature only is certainly the strangest and most remote from any present Conceptions we are able to form of the Dictates of Nature of Any that ever yet prevailed in the World And therefore This is scarce accountable for any other way than from the Promise of a Redeemer and Sacrifice to come which the Sacrifices of Beasts were in the mean while appointed to represent That such an Institution agrees very well with all the Ends of Sacrifice is not to be denied For the Death of the Beast though not personally felt by the Offender would yet give him a full and very expressive Idea of the fatal Consequences of Sin and the Acceptance of that Life instead of his own which was forfeited and by that Act of Sacrificing acknowledged obnoxious to Divine Justice was a lively representation of the Mercy of God But still the Apostles Argument is founded in Reason and may be an Appeal to all Mankind It is not possible that the Blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away Sin And therefore not only Eusebius in his Xth Chap. of Demonstrat Evang. Lib. I. ascribes this Worship to Divine Inspiration but Aquinas says that before the Law Just Men were instructed by an Inward Instinct after what particular manner God would be Worshipped as they were afterwards under the Law by External Precepts So Plato says That no Mortal Capacity can Know or Determine what is fit to be done in Holy Matters and therefore forbids the Alteration of the Established Rites and Sacrifices as Impious And the Testimonies of St. Chrysostome and Justin Martyr Taylot's Ductor Dubit B. II. Chap. 3. N. 30. have been thought to mean not so much that all Sacrifice was a Dictate of Nature as that some Circumstances relating to it were left to the Dictates of Man's Reason So that when God had taught Adam and his Posterity that they should worship in their several Manners and what he would please to accept The Manner and Measure and such like considerations were left to Choice and Reason and Positive Laws In short the Religion of our Hearts and Wills our Prayers and Praises might be natural and the result of meer Reason but
for other external Significations of this especially any so foreign as that of Sacrificing Men were not likely nor was it fit they should venture to do any thing of their own Heads Nor was it probable they would attempt it for fear of mistakes and such indecent Expressions as might be very dishonourable to the God they Worshipped and rather provoke his Justice by rash and superstitious Affronts than incline his Mercy by their indiscreet Intentions to please him And therefore considering the Confusion Adam was in after the Fall and the Circumstances of that time it seems most agreeable to believe that he waited God's directions and was fully informed by Him in such a Service as might at once excite both the Fear and the Love of God enforce the Offerer's Sorrow and Repentance and increase his Faith and Hope While my Thoughts were upon this Subject it came into my mind that possibly the Tradition of a Redeemer to come and that God would one day reconcile himself to the World by the Sacrifice of a Man and his own Son That this Tradition I say darkned confounded and perverted by the Increase of Idolatry and the Cunning of the Devil might be abused to the putting Men upon Humane Sacrifices and particularly those of their own Children I know there are other accounts to be given of this matter and I propose this as a meer Conjecture not otherwise fit to trouble the Reader withal but that I believe if strict inquiry were made it would be found that most of the Heathen Abominations in Divine Worship were some way or other at a distance by Mistake Imperfect Report Perverse Interpretations or by some Cunning Stratagem of the Devil or other fetched originally from the Revelations and Institutions of the true Religion And I cannot but think that it would be great Service to the Truth if the Falshoods that have corrupted and were set up in Opposition to it could be well traced and set in the best Light which this distance will permit But that must needs be a very laborious Undertaking and where a great deal will depend upon Probable Conjecture will require a very Judicious hand I have thus given the Reader my rough Thoughts upon the Point of Sacrifices omitting such Proofs for the Opinion I incline to as seem to me not conclusive but not any that I am conscious of on the Other side There is no danger in either Opinion considered in it self but ill Insinuations may be raised from that of Humane Invention if Men from thence shall pretend to draw Consequences to the Prejudice of Natural Religion and argue either against the Certainty of or the Regard due to it from an Imagination that Extravagances so wicked so odd or so barbarous as the Heathen Rites of Worship and the Wild Superstitions and unbecoming Notions of God upon which they were grounded resulted from Humane Nature and were the Product of Reason Rather than the Horrible Depravations of a Supernatural Institution highly proper and significant serviceable to excellent purposes and adapted to those Ages of the World And in hope of preventing any Consequences of this kind it is that I thought these Remarks might not be unseasonable And for the Usefulness and Light which this Account of Sacrifices brings with it provided we will follow it in its Natural Consequences how wise an Institution how reasonable to be incorporated into the Jewish Law how providentially dispersed over the whole World and how preparatory of the Doctrine of the Redemption of Mankind by predisposing the Gentiles also to believe the Sacrifice of Christ my Reader may if he please be informed to his great Satisfaction by that Short but Excellent Account of this Matter given by Dr. Williams the now Reverend Bishop of Chichester in his Second Sermon at Mr. Boyle's Lecture for the Year 1695. II. After so long and particular Enlargement upon the First of those Things wherein I endeavour to prevent any Mistakes that may arise from this Passage there will need but very little Addition to clear the Other For if the Arguments for a Divine Institution of Sacrifices cast the Scale the Business is already done to our hands and if they be admitted of human Invention yet according to all the Schemes of this Matter laid down by the Asserters of it Sacrificers at first were moved by Apprehensions of God very different from that of his taking Delight in the Sufferings of his Creatures For they Represent Sacrifices as the effects of Gratitude a Mind impatient to make some sort of Return and pay back such Acknowledgments at least of His Goodness who gave All as the dedicating the Best of his Gifts to him could amount to And accordingly This Circumstance of chusing the Best for Sacrifice seems to have been as universally observed as the Duty of Sacrificing it self This is the Reason alledged by some for slaying Beasts as being the Best of all their Substance and upon the same account too those kinds which were esteemed best for Food This perhaps was one Motive abused afterwards even to the introducing that Abomination of sacrificing Men and Children Virgins and First-born And even in Expiatory Sacrifices could these possibly have been invented by Men yet 't is plain the Persuasion of a Beast being accepted as a Ransom for the Owner must include an Idea of Mercy and Condescension at least in the Deity which was content with such a Compensation It argued I confess very gross Notions of God to suppose that such things could be Presents fit for a Pure Spirit and the Majesty of Heaven and Earth which every Superior among Men would disdain and detest But This grew by degrees and the Other of his being a Sanguinary Being delighted with the Fumes of Reaking Altars and drinking the Blood of Goats was owing to the Superstition and Idolatry of later and degenerate Times and is a Thought which Those who first practised this way of Worship whether by Instruction or their own mere Motion were never supposed guilty of by any that have undertook to consider the Nature and Original of the Patriarchal Sacrifices Nay I add too upon this occasion That the Notions mentioned in this Chapter which it is to be feared are but too commonly entertained of Severities and Satisfactions as they are called owe themselves to the same Causes and are the Genuine Extract of Hypocrisy Superstition and formal Devotion That Fastings and voluntary Mortifications are of excellent Use in Religion no sober Man ever doubted They are Prositable in many Cases and in some Necessary They assist us in conquering our Appetites and Passions and subdue the Man by beating down the Outworks They express a very becoming Indignation against our selves in the Exercise of Repentance and are oftentimes instrumental in heightening and inflaming our Devotion But that they are Good and Meritorious in themselves or any farther valuable than as they serve to promote our Improvement in some Virtues or Graces that are Substantially