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all ? Where is it revealed ? To v / hom is it revealed < What is the penalty of rejecting it ? As the sacrifices olfered to God by the patriarchs and enjoined by the Mosaic dispe .. s-uioii have been represented as expiatory and typical , and some of In rri expressly intended to re ^ present , not only the death of the Messiah , but also the end for which he died ; namely , as is commonly taught to satisfy the wrath of God , we shall begin our inquiries , by endeavouring to understand their true nature : and we would hint to your readers , that some things will be submitted as
plausible conjectures only ; oHd ^ r ^ and those the most interesting , will be asserted as facts > on the ground of scriptural evidence ; deductions , inferences , and explanations , will of
course arise out of these facts , and they will be cheerfully offered ( as they have been fairly made to thebest of the writer ' s ability ) to the plain understandings of sincere Christians of every denomination .
That sacrifices were offered to the Deity from the earliest ages all history testifies , but it is not clear that animals were slain in sacrifice in the first age of the world , nor can it be proved by scriptural authority , that any such were enjoined at that time .
The first offerings were probably nothing more than what are called in the Levitical law thank-offerings ; I think there is no proof to the contrary in either sacred or profane history . The poet Ovid , that collector of old
traditions , as well as heathen fables , says , lacte mero veteres usi narrantur ct herbis , sponte sua signa terra ferebat . And it is likely that while the inhabitants of the world were but few , their food was not the flesh of
animals , but the fruits of the earth , this appears to have been the food of the first parents of men , it is therefore probable that in those , days bloody sacrifices were not offered , and if so great a portion of the inhabitants of India have in all past ages abstained
from animal food , occupying , as they are supposed to do , the original seat of mankind , we have then an instance of the continuance of this custom to this day , by millions of the human race . If we take the scriptural account of the first ages of the world literally ,
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we must believe that God did , by some visible and audible medium , make his presence obvious to mankind in those ages , and that it was so is very pro ^ bable , because no man could acquire ideas of God , truth and duty , without adequate means of instruction , and
though natural religion might teach the existence of Deity , some of the duties which we owe to him , to ourselves and to one another , yet I think the state of the heathen world , after they
had lost by their crimes just ideas of God , and degenerated into idolatry proves that there is much of G od and of duty , and the means of happiness , "which cannot be known , except by revelation : if this be a mistake , it
would be difficult to prove the necessity of such a revelation , and if ever , it was always necessary , and never more so than in the infancy of knowledge , while language was barren , because ideas were few , and arts
unknown . I am speaking of such a revelation only , as was adapted to the then existing circumstances of the world . The art of language is one of the most valuable discoveries made by
man ; it must have been perfected by degrees , as ideas increased , and if not taught as to its first principles , by the Author of our being , it is one of the highest proofs of the grandeur and excellence of human nature . I conceive
then , that the parents of the world , very likely by divine instruction , had methods by which they acknowledged their dependence upon , and obligations to their Creator . Here seemi
to be the origin of -worship and sacrifice j a sacrifice was an act , speaking the language of gratitude , adoration and praise . As Hosea expresses it , " We will render thee the calves of
our lips ;' and that this was the idea of St . 1 ' aul is , I think , evident from his exhortation , Rom . xii . 1 , * ' render your bodies a living sacrifice to God , holv , acceptable . '
Several of the sacrifices offered to Cod after the patriarchal times , . seem to have been refinements on the simple original idea , and in after agts that iden was almost lost , together
with the knowledge of the true Cod , by the far greater part of manl ^ nd ; certainly the Egyptians , Greeks and Roman ' s , considered many of their victims in the light of vicarious sacrifices , but that the enlightened among
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88 Titt Doctrine of Common Sense with regard to Sacrifices .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1815, page 88, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1757/page/24/
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