Although we have no specific account in holy writ of the origin of sacrifices, still from allusion we may infer that they were in the earliest ages divinely instituted. Those who oppose the Christian doctrine of redemption are driven into many absurdities to account for the universality of a notion so repugnant to nature and to reason, as that of destroying the lives of innocent brute creatures, and offering them up to the just Creator in atonement for the sins of men. It is, in fact, impossible to account for it on any other principle than this; that God, in the promise to Eve of the seed that should bruise the serpent's head, revealed a vicarious Saviour, and ordained that a perpetual faith of the fulfilment of that promise should be kept alive by sacrifice. It is probable that our first parents used the ordinance immediately after the curse pronounced upon the earth; for we read that they were clad in coats of skins, which implies slain animals; and we know that flesh was not given to man for food until the blessing bestowed upon Noah after the flood. The learned Hugo Grotius, and others, profess to see nothing of a sacrificial and bloody rite, in Abel bringing the firstling of his flock and of the fat thereof, to which, as unto Abel, the Lord had respect: they interpret it, as a simple presentation of a lamb, and ewe's milk, in acknowledgment of a shepherd's gratitude for increase: but to this pernicious notion, one word from St. Paul affords sufficient answer; in Hebrews, xi. 4, he calls Abel's offering, a Ovoía, which can mean nothing else than strictly a slain sacrifice; the idea of Porphyry that its root is Ovμiáw being a grammatical absurdity. The subject throughout is one of deep importance, and has been ably discussed by many theologians: let us briefly pursue a few other passing thoughts. A more fearful proof of the fallacy involved in the popular saying, "Nemo repente fuit turpissimus,” could not be met with than that afforded by the instance of Cain. Sin had indeed entered into the world, and death by sin; but the first dereliction of duty was as innocence itself compared with the first recorded crime. The primal act of disobedience had some seeming excuses; the human frailty of coveting a thing forbidden; the intrinsic worth of that knowledge, which, doubtless, was to have been withheld only for a while, as an evidence of selfdenying duty; and chiefly, the subtlety of an unsuspected tempter in the case of Eve, and every impulse of natural affection in that of Adam. The French have a juster saying than the Latins, "C'est le premier pas qui coute;" for the first, to human judgment, half-venial fault soon grew up to the heinous magnitude of atrocious crime: the egg of the cockatrice was barely laid, before the full-fledged monster was brooding over the habitations of men. Gentle Abel, the accepted worshipper of a God then familiar with his creatures, for the sole cause of superior goodness, was murdered in the eye of day by his only brother; a crime for which in all its features the world has not furnished a parallel. There is, without doubt, much of hidden intention and instruction in the account of Abel's death, Gen. iv. 3, &c. Jehovah had instituted sacrifice as the legitimate mean of approach to Him by fallen creatures, and Abel, in obedience to the ordinance, offered with acceptance a lamb; whereas Cain made the unwelcome, because unlawful, offering of fruits: conveying in apt images the covenant of grace and the covenant of works, the systems of revealed and of natural religion. Hebrews, xi. 4, "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain," &c., furnishes proof that Abel was a spiritual worshipper, who perceived the real meaning of a sacrifice, and it is therefore somewhat remarkable that the Greek church, which has celebrated, if not canonized, every other worthy of scripture, has omitted "righteous Abel." Probably few readers will need to be reminded of the poem on the death of Abel, by Gessner of Zu rich, although it is now not so popular as its pastoral beauty, and occasionally its epic sublimity deserves. Our English translation by Mary Collyer is replete with accurate elegance, and falls little short of the original: a praise not common, nor easily to be deserved. person whom we read Even in that age of Abel is the only unmarried of among the antediluvians. the world when increase was accounted the greatest of blessings, the first and most favoured martyr-servant of God is taken from the earth and leaves no image of himself: assuredly, to preach the lesson that even the best of human treasures are but secondary to those which are spiritual. Every other of the earliest men, whether bad as Cain, or virtuous as Seth, "begat sons and daughters:" but of Abel, the fairest character of all, the decree went forth from the chancery of heaven, "Write this man childless." It certainly appears to the writer an oversight in the structure of Gessner's Poem, to have bestowed a Thirza upon Abel: he should have been left isolated, as the first type of Christ, whom however the Romish Church has had the absurd audacity to betroth to one of her pseudo-saints. ENOCH. Of whom earth was not worthy; for alone For thrice an hundred years, in trust and love The bold prophetic woe with judgment rife Or hurl'd at thee their threatened vengeance oft, From those fell clamours of ungodly strife God took thee to himself;-behold on high The car of dazzling glory, borne aloft, Wings the blest mortal thro' the startled sky! |