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the ancient Jews did so , will admit of serious doubt ; indeed I hope to bring proof from the scriptures that they did not . Significant actions were employed in the early ages to express what language in its infant state could
not ; hence the language of signs , figures and metaphor , the Egyptian hieroglyphic , and much of the Jewish ceremonial . Certainly the more remote the era the more figurative the language ; this is evident from the most ancient Jewish and Indian sacred
books , it is therefore very likely that all the various kiiids of sacrifices , as well heathen as Jewish , originally spake a language which soon became obsolete , and which was expressive of the heart and mind of the worshipper ; and it is equally likely that this Ian guage referred to past circumstances , not to events still future . I would at
once appeal to common sense , to know what analogy there is between the sacrifice of an animal , and the future deliverance of the world from death , sin and misery , by the Messiah ? There is nothing in Gen . iii . 15 , about the sacrifice of Christ , nor is there
the least hint of this sort in any part of the Bible before the prophet Isaiah ; nor can that figurative chapter , Is . liii , be interpreted to mean any such thing as that God ' s justice was
satisfied , or his law honoured , by a most foul and unnatural murder ; or as some explain it , a wilful and deli berate suicide , as Christ ' s death must have been , if he had power to avoid it , without the sacrifice of a good
conscience . Fire and water were elements considered by the heathen as the creative and destroying principles of the universe ; they were worshipped as
deities . Fire was adopted by the Jews ( for they did not invent the idea ) as the symbol of God , and this notion of the divine nature seems to be one of the earliest of which we have any record . That animal sacrifices were
consumed to ashes as an appropriate w » y of offering them to the Deity , is * n undisputed fact ; and that in some instances in the early Jewish history yod ( b y the agency probably of lightmng ) kindled the flame upon the altar , of his of
^ expressive acceptance the ottering and the worshippers , no one * i « deny ; ' but that this fire , cither Produced by common or uncommon means , expressed Gods wrath , either
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against the offender or the sacrifice , is more than common sense can admit . However , it was a very ancient belief that a creature struck by lightning , was a favourite of the gods . Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire-Let us now proceed to consider the accounts we have of sacrifices in the
Jewish scriptures . And here I fear not to assert , that all the offerings there recorded , from the beginning to the end of Genesis , certainly refer to past events , they had nothing to do with futurity , nor had they any meaning but what we hare already advanced . But let us turn over the sacred pages . The first sacrifices which are recorded are those of Cain and
Abel : here let me remark what a fine lesson this portion of ancient history afforded the world , and especially the children of Abraham , a ferocious people in a barbarous age , fond of a splendid ritual , and expensive sacrifice , but very deficient in morals and humanity . The book of Genesis seems to have existed long before the rest , of the Pentateuch j it probably was an extract , or an abridgment modernised , of the original journal of the world , preserved by Noah and his family , either in the form of oral
tradition or writing :.. And if tfie murder of Abel originated in a religious controversy , as some of the * Jewish writers s : iy , then this lesson was calculated to convey the most important truth , to a people who were too ready
to substitute their ceremonial for the duties of moral obedience , and to consider themselves the favourites of heaven , on account of the number and order of their sacrifices . We read , Gen . iv ., that these brothers offered the first fruits of their labours to God , Cain , as an husbandman , his corn —• Abel , as a shepherd , the fatlings , that is , the best of his flock . Cod accepted Abel ' s , and rejected , Cain ' 5 Cain was highly incensed ; God condescends to expostulate , and thus he addresses him , vcr . 6 th . " Why
art thou wrath , and why is thy countenance fallen ? If thou doest well , sbalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest not well , sin lieth at the door . Here is nothing about the destruction of the offering , either by fire , or in . any other way ; nor is any reason assigned , why one offering was not m itself as acceptable to God as the
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The Doctrine of Common Sense with regard to Sacrifices . 89
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Vol , x . N
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1815, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1757/page/25/
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