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Untitled Article
Hence the acceptance of Abel ' s offering , sand the rejection of Cain ' s . In this way reasons Maimonides , as well as most of the Jewish Rabbis . At first , sacrifices may be considered to have been but little more than grateful offerings from the creature to the Creator : then , by an abuse and perversion of the principle out of which they arose , the more costly the offering was made , the greater was the value which it was thought to possess : and
so , in spite of the remonstrances of some of the wisest and best of the heathens , the offering of slain animals came gradually to be regarded as a vicarious atonement for the crimes of the sacrificer . When men had gone thus far , it is no wonder that they went still further . Having arrived at the opinion that animal sacrifices were vicarious and expiatory , it was natural for them to think that the more costly the sacrifice was , the greater would be its efficacy in turning away the anger of the gods . Hence the origin of human sacrifices , they being considered as the most precious that man could possibly present .
When the Israelites quitted Egypt , the practice of sacrifices was so universal and so common , that it could not have been easily dispensed with . Suddenly to change the habits and customs of a whole people is a matter of extreme difficulty , and therefore Moses , the legislator of the Jews , thought proper not to abolish the general practice of sacrifices , but to reduce them to a well-defined and orderly system , and to make them subservient to his great purpose of preserving them from the guilt and evils of idolatry , and of
keeping them faithful and steady to the worship and service of the one God . The ancient Christians , says Outram , in his work on Sacrifices , were of the opinion that the cause why God required sacrifices of the Israelites was tjie deep root which this kind of religion had taken among them , before their departure from Egypt . Of this opinion was Maimonides , who says , that sacrifices were commanded by God , not because they were necessary , but because the people , accustomed to sacrifice in Egypt , would go back to the
religious rites of the Gentiles if they were not permitted or commanded to sacrifice . Chrysostom reasons in the same manner , and denies that God from the beginning required such an outward form of worship ; The character of the Jewish people at this time , as given by their great lawgiver , should never be forgotten . He describes them as a stiff-necked and rebelr lious people , a nation void of counsel , and in whom there was no understanding . With the ignorance and weakness of children , they united the rudeness and barbarism of the sayage . For a perfectly pure and spiritual
religion , therefore , divested of the garment of rites and ceremonies , they were wholly unfitted . It would have reached neither their understandings nor their hearts . The experiment , indeed , was tried , and tried in vain ; thus * displaying to the conviction of every succeeding generation the ignorance and degradation of the Israelites , and so vindicating the wisdom and goodness of God in adapting their economy , to their capacities , in fitting the dispensation to the temper and genius of the people for whom it was intended .
Having made these remarks upon the introduction of sacrifices into the Jewish religion , we proceed now to notice Dr . Smith ' s statements respecting the objects which they were designed to represent , and the purpose which they were intended to answer . - " The ancient sacrifices , " says he , " were designed representations of the work and office of Christ . " We would willingly enter into a minute examination of all the passages to whi b , for the establishment of this position ,
Untitled Article
Review . —Dr . J . P .: Smith ' s Discourses * 4 " % 7
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 477, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/45/
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