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Selection of the phrase € < vicarious import of the Mosaic sacrifices , " declares even this position to be unnecessary for the establishment of his
main argument , and after having bestowed more than twenty pages upon the proof of vicarious import in the Mosaic sacrifices , subjoins a No . 40 , in which he amusingly tells his fatigued reader that all this had been " an
argument ex abundanti , " and had been introduced rather for the purpose of shewing the futility of objections so confidently relied on , than as essential to his inquiry . All that Dri Magee considers as necessary to the defence of what is called orthodox y on this subject , is to Shew that the Jewish sacrifices were
propitiatory , ( or in other words , says he , No . 40 , ) that in consequence of the sacrifice of the animal , and in virtue of it , either immediately or remotely , the pardon of ( sin in ) the offender was procured .
For our own part , however , we are of a different opinion , and feel it necessary to maintain the position still further against all objectors , that the Mosaic law contains nothing emblematical of vicarious punishment .
* There is an argument , used by Dr . Outram , on the opposite side of the question , which it seems proper to examine . He says , ( lib . 1 . cap . xxi . § 6 , ) " Although there is a somewhat clearer indication of vicarious punish-, ment in those sacrifices in which the
blood of the victims was carried into the holy place , and their bodies burnt without the camp , yet the same meaning really existed ia all the other trespass and sin offerings . Which is apparent from this , that when offences of a more aggravated nature
were to be expiated by the death of the guilty person himself , those of a lighter kind were to be expiated by the blood of an animal . For example , let it be supposed that any one had reached such a height of impiety as to compose for Ms own use holy oil , or knowingly and advisedly to eat of fat or blood , hia sins were to be atoned
for by Ms own death : on the contOftify , the same crimes committed tferotagh ignorance ¦ and by < accident , wftrfettf be expiated t > y the bloo < tof fc victim ^ ' . * Wherefore ^ kayft Dr . Out * rani , what eaiA bto more evident than that the pii&thment , whic ^ ia more
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aggravated cases was inflicted upon the offender himself , in lighter offences was transferred to his victim , and that the punishment of the beast was substituted for the punishment of the man ?"
We must profess ourselves incapable of perceiving these evident marks of vicarious punishment , which our author claims for the instances which he here adduces . May not the following explanation sufficiently account
for this difference of treatment , namely , that when the offence was too light and fugitive to be treated in a strict , judicial way , the Divine Lawgiver was pleased to appoint a method by which the offender might be reconciled as a worshiper ?
The ceremony of shedding and sprinkling the blood of the victim in the ritual of the Mosaic sacrifices , ia thought to be a strong argument in favour of the opinion of vicarious
pu-Bishment . And though , as we have observed already , any force which this may appear to have from other considerations is weakened by the occurrence of the ceremonv in Mosaic
sacrifices of all kinds , that is , in a great number of sacrifices where no confession of sins took place , and consequentl y no vicarious import could possibly be conveyed ; yet it must be allowed that more is to be ? said in
defence of the vicarious import of this part of the sacrificial rite than any other . There is a passage in Leviticus , which is certainly more like an indication of the vicarious substitution of
life for life than any other passage to be found in Scripture relating to Mosaic sacrifices . It is as follows , ( chap . xvii . 10 , 11 , ) " Whatsoever man there be of the house of Irael , or of the
strangers that sojourn amoogst you , that eateth any manner of blood , I will even set my face against jthat man that eateth blood , and will cut him off from amongst his people . " The next verse runs thus in tlieHebrew :
vnm * mi H > n toia nt * an w& } ^ G »> nttr £ U Vir ^ tob mmft Vjr szxy > nay tttfUX tftrt ciniJi O thus fcraaala * - ted , Anima enim omnis carnis est in 8 # ivguioe euxnqufivobfe'inuaj athdediad expiaailaai amroa&ye&itraa .: * Sanguia enim < mA , 4 us ~ jkb 0 i aniooA expifttio ^ m fecit > Ai ! d * the fcltoWingise ^ iiu * t 6 b ^ tbeiintfat exact traqpfetiou of , it into English
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336 An Essay on the Nature and Design of Sacrifices under the Mosaic LavK
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1823, page 336, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1785/page/24/
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