in things not contrary to the laws of nature, which sacrifices certainly are not; since God, who has never commanded any thing contrary to the laws of nature, enjoined them on the people of Israel. Nor do they think it at all surprising, if the first men took particular care that the sacrifices which they offered to God should be consumed by fire, unless perhaps they were consumed by fire descending from heaven: their entire consumption being necessary to prevent any part of what was consecrated to God from being transferred to profane uses; a circumstance which might have occurred, unless the oblations had invariably been committed to the flames. But however this may have been, they consider it as an act of presumption in any persons, to pronounce that sacrifices originated in a divine command, which is never mentioned in the scriptures; it being altogether incredible that such a law, if any such had been given by God to our first parents and their immediate descendants, should have been intentionally passed over in silence by all the sacred writers, as a fact of no importance.

But how do the advocates of this opinion account for the high commendation of Abel's faith? They say, that his supreme veneration for the former of all things, and for his dominion, power, and goodness, led him to conclude, that the best of all his flocks ought to be solemnly offered, as an expression of reverence and gratitude to his Creator, the giver of all and the sovereign of life and death; but that Cain being destitute of these pious sentiments, the fruits which he offered were neither the best of his crops nor acceptable to God.

V. Persons who view the subject in this light, there

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fore, are convinced that the primitive sacrifices were not occasioned by an express command of God, but by the dictates of natural reason. They believe that the first men were taught by the light of nature to discover that public worship and honour ought to be paid to God, and that this might be best effected if every individual made a solemn consecration to him of the best of his possessions. This notion, they think, derives considerable support from that passage of Moses: "And in the end of days* it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the .ground "an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat "thereof." For they understand "the end of days" to mean, with respect to Cain, the completion of his harvest, and, with respect to Abel, the time when his wealth was increased by the multiplication of his flocks; so that each of them at these seasons, taught by his own reason (for no law is produced) considered it his duty to offer to God some portion of the gifts received from him; but that one neither offered the best of his possessions, nor exercised sufficient gratitude of heart, whereas the other did both. To this purpose may be cited the language in which God censures the Israelites for an excessive confidence in sacrifices. Put your burnt offerings unto "your sacrifices, and eat flesh;" that is, 'Eat if you please, 'not only your peace offerings,' which are intended by the word here rendered sacrifices, but also your entire victims;' which nevertheless was forbidden by the law. "For I spake not unto your fathers, nor "commanded them, in the day that I brought them "out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings

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66 or sacrifices."* For how could the declaration here made by God to the Israelites, that when he brought their forefathers out of Egypt he gave them no immediate command respecting sacrifices,-how could this diminish their excessive estimation of those rites, if he had enjoined on mankind the very same species of worship and similar sacrificial rites from the earliest ages? Who will imagine that the laws given to Adam and his immediate descendants from the beginning of the world, are to be considered as less important than those which were afterwards given to the Hebrews on their departure from Egypt? So that there could be no reason why sacrifices should be said to have been commanded at a subsequent period, as being evidently things of very little importance; if they had been already appointed from the commencement of time.

VI. These and similar considerations, therefore, led most of the ancient fathers to conclude that sacrifices originated, not from any divine command, but from natural reason. Thus the author of the Answers to the Orthodox: None of those who offered animals in sacrifice before the law, did it by any divine precept; though God appears to have accepted the 'sacrifice; his acceptance of the offering being a proof ' of his acceptance of the person who offered it.' And again: God nowhere appears to have given any law to Noah for the sacrificing of animals.' On this passage of Moses, "And in the end of days "it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of "the ground an offering unto the Lord," Chrysostom makes the following observations. See how the ' author of nature endued the conscience with know+ Resp. ad. Quæst. 83.

Jer. vii. 21, 22.

ledge. For who, I ask, led him to such a conside'ration? No other than his own conscious intelli

gence. He brought, it is said, of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord; for he saw and was persuaded that it behoved him to offer some of 'his property to God, as the lord of all his posses'sions; not in consequence of any necessity in the 'Divine Being; but to testify the gratitude of his 'heart for the enjoyment of such beneficence.' And a little after, speaking of Abel as well as Cain: Nor had he any teacher, monitor, or counsellor ; ' but each of them was excited to this oblation by the 'teaching of his own conscience, and the wisdom 'given from above to mankind.' Addressing the people of Antioch, he says of Abel: 'Without having been instructed by any one, or received any law respecting the first fruits, but of his own accord and

taught by his own conscience, he brought that sacri⚫fice."* To the authors already cited may be added Justin Martyr, Irenæus, Tertullian, Theodoret, Cyril of Alexandria, and some other ancient writers; who believed the Jewish sacrifices to have been instituted,† because the people, having been long accustomed to such modes of worship in Egypt, could scarcely have been confined to the worship of the one true God, without the indulgence, and introduction into their religion, of those rites to which they had been long habituated and were exceedingly attached. This cause for those rites would never have gained the approbation of such eminent men, if they had apprehended the same forms of religion to have been instituted by God at the beginning of the world. Nor could it

* Homil. 12. + Spenceri Dissert. de Urim et Thummim, c. 4. s. 7. TR.-Vide etiam Suiceri Thesaur, tom. 1. p. 1418, 1419.

escape their observation, that if God had any reason for originally enjoining sacrifices on the parents of mankind, the same reason, without any regard to customs long practised by the Egyptians, might have caused his injunction of the same rites on the Hebrews at their departure from Egypt.

The same opinion respecting the origin of sacrifices appears to have been held by Maimonides, as we shall soon see; and also by Rabbi Levi Ben Gerson, as his language sufficiently shews: Cain ' and Abel, as we have said, were very wise men; ' and so it came to pass, that when they had arrived at the proposed end of their labours, each brought 'from his possessions an offering to God. The rea

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son of this oblation appears to me to have been, 'because they knew that all things which come into 'existence are under the administration of God, to 'whom be praise, and that God is their true cause; ' or perhaps they brought offerings of those things, 'because they understood that all things were certainly created by him.* They are followed by Rabbi Isaac Abarbinel: Adam and his sons offered sacrifices, because they considered themselves as thereby 'worshipping God.'t With these, among more modern writers, agrees the very learned Grotius, who is of opinion, that Cain and Abel offered sacrifices, ' not by any divine command, but from the dictates ' of reason, that public honour ought to be rendered 'to God, and that the best way of doing this was 'by presenting to him those things which are most ' valuable to men.'

Eusebius of Cæsarea, from his observations on the sacrifices offered by Abel, Noah, Abraham, and

* In Genes. iv.

In Præfat ad Levitic.

In Genes. iv. 3.