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jfr which , anxongst the grounds of human salvation , the psalmist does not mention one word about sacrifices . King Solomon declared , that "To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to God than sacrifice * " Isaiah ,
44 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me , saith the Lord , &c . ; Am I to be served with burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts , or with the blood of bullocks , of lambs and of he-goats—things
of which I have no desire ? ' bee also Isaiah viii . at large , where moral and philosophical principles are laid down , and no mention whatever is made of sacrifices . He also quotes Jer . vii . 29 , Hosea vi . 6 , Micah vi . 6 , and alludes
to many other prophetic passages pointing to the same object . From these prophetical declarations , he adds , " we obtain in the plainest language the validity of my third assertion , that the whole of the commandments of sacrifices were neither
absolute ones , nor essential to human salvation ; for how could the prophets be in unison in exclaiming against absolute laws , enacted by a divine legfalator as essential to salvation , and in declaring them null and void ?
Either the declaration of the first prophets or of the latter ones must then be absolutely false . But it appears frotn what has been proved , that the primitive institution of sacrifices was » ot established as essential to the
remission of sin t . and that the shedding of Animal blood was not in any wise indispensable to salvation—that the institution of them was not absolute , but merely ceremonial and temporal ; and therefore the prophets did , with af truly philosophic air , justly exclaim against the infatuation of the vulgar
practices and forms of false devotion , which sought to appease an offended Deity by a fat ram , a roasted bullock or a vessel of good wine , while the heart was corrupted and depraved , and destitute of all divine and moral principles . * Throughout the
Penta-* It fa surprising' that our Calvinistic friends do not see the striking analogy between the effect produced by the Jewish sy stem of sacrifices , and their system of yJWMlan $ hjQoug& the atoning- blood of c "iptk . , fWitii * T many of them , as we a ^ re P 38 P ^ & . ^?* Vmny fW ^ jsnt Jejyfc , their ^ ^ ette * Nature" opposes the influence of we ir ^ ysi ^ n ^ and * leads them to virtue . vol . xi . l
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teuch we observe , that in the tre&r passes between man and man the first and chief thing required was retribution ; the sacrifice was but an inferior maM er- ^ -and so with a transgression of a civil or moral nature , which wa » an offence against God . '
Mr . Bennett then proceeds to produce some authorities from the most ancient rabbies , whom he calls the Links of Tradition ; from whom he makes it appear that all commandments which relate to the productions
of the land were applicable only to the land of Israel ; that tithes , agricultural donations , sacrifices , &c . being land productions , were not obligatory nor ever esteemed so , without the boundaries of Palestine . And he
quotes a case , in which many of the dispersed Jews of Babylon , Mesopotamia , Syria , &c . countries adjoining Palestine , brought sacrifices to Jeru- * salem ; and that the Doctors of the Temple would not accept them oo
this very ground that , They might not encourage the belief that the law of sacrifices was an absolute law ; - from which we obtain the assurance that they were local * temporary and ceremonial , by no means absolute and not essential to human salvation .
Another argument he adduces appears to be conclusive , that while all the other commandments of the Pentateuch , both of jurisprudence , criminal , conjugal , inheriranr , &c . as well as the rites of the sabbath , public festivals , impure animals ,
circumcision , &c . were general and universal , given to the . nation at large for all times and all places , of abode , the laws relative to sacrifices have these peculiar exceptions , —they were limited to a class , the tribe of Levi ; to place , the temple of Jerusalem ; to time , while the commonwealth of
Israel was in possession of their patriarchal inheritance ( Palestine ) . Is it consistent with reason , and still more with divine justice , that sacrifices should be essential to human salvation , and yet that their observance should be conditional and confined to three things—class , place and time ? f
Not so , alas ! the 1001 ) 116 vulgus that fotV low their faith ! ' -f * Orife cannot * help being" struck wftK ' * the ift&ommon reseittblaiice between * ™ £ * corruptions of 'Judafaft a . id those of < % i £ - ^ tianity ^ nor are we surprised to find tn'tft
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Analysis of a Work by a J&ois ]* Autkcr , Mr . Bennett ^ on Sacrifices . « M
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1816, page 73, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2449/page/9/
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