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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
one of the most ancient interpretations of the words that is extant , " Morte morieris * " ] Vires tuae , sustenta £ s ante per arborem vitae , deficient : quae via est ad mortem . Syri krterpretes hie habebant , mortcUis eris : quod notant Ambrosius et Hieronyrmis , " Grotii Jlnwot . ad loc . Mr * Miiford ^ s theory of the origin and < lesign of sacrifice will scarcely satisfy the typifying diyines of our day :
** Presently , then , after the account of the fa ! , a matter is related altogether strongly commanding observation , but , in part , of questioned import . Sacrifice , without any previous notice of such a rite , is mentioned in clear terms as an established duty of man , and as the means still graciously afforded by the Creator for immediate communication with himself . Together with the condemnation to mortality , it had been declared that the spontaneous productions of the earth should no longer suffice for man ' s subsistence ; by Ids labour he was thenceforward to earn his bread . It seems to me then enough implied
that , with the institution of the rite of sacrifice , the grant , in a following part of Scripture distinctly stated , of every inferior animal as lawful food for man , was made to Adam on his removal from Paradise ; thenceforward wanted , not only as of quality best supplying the failure of the life-preserving fruit , but also , as the world into which he was turned is constituted , farther necessary
for maintaining the multitudes to be born in it . Man ' s constitution , however , remaining , as far as holy writ informs us , unaltered , animal flesh in its natural state was not suited to his power of digestion , as to that of the inferior carnivorous animals : the agency of fire , which man was endowed with ability to produce and use , with art of preparation , easy to him , but not within their capacity , were requisite .
" The combination here then is eminently remarkable . When man , sinful and perishable , was suddenly turned from the ready plenty of Eden into the wide world ; not to be led , as the inferior animals , by instinct , but endowed with reason , yet reason uninformed and unexperienced , he would often want instruction , both for supplying his needs and performing his duties . Accordingly the Almi g hty still graciously allowed immediate communication with himself , through the rite of burnt-offering , which was to hallow the meal of meat insuing ; for it is abundantly marked in Scripture , and by heathen writers , that the sacrifice , among both Jews and Gentiles , always afforded a meal .
That meal , though thenceforward a main support of life and strength , must have been , till familiarity produced reconciliation to it , disgusting both in preparation and in use . But its religious purpose is obvious . Man was thus at once reminded of his degradation and of his final lot in this world ; the salutary severity nevertheless being softened by the appointment of that very rite of burnt-offering , with all its degrading circumstances , for the exercise of his yet high privilege , peculiar to himself among surrounding animals , of communicating with his Creator . "—Pp . 48—51 .
He points out the " near concurrence of heathen customs derived from Remotest antiquity , with the law given by divine authority to the posterity of Abraham . " In both , " the meal of meat" was a sacred ceremony ; insomuch that Xenophon has described cattle , taken for the subsistence of a plundering army , by the title of 'lepd , sacrificial offerings . In some of the Grecian states the public sacrifices furnished a principal part of the subsistence of the poor . The author might have observed , that some of the A postle Paul ' s counsels to the churches were occasioned by this fact , which was not a little embarrassing to the first Christian converts in Heathen
countries . It is suggested in a note , ( p . 54 , ) " that the word murder should not be applied to Cain ' s act , at least without explanation . The degree of favour shevyn by the Almighty to Cain might admonish , that to estimate his crime we are not furnished with sufficient information , and that to define it , therefore , must be rash , "
Untitled Article
214 Review . —Mitfwd * * Observations en Christianity .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 214, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/54/
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