i

Fiftieth Psalm, according to the Hebrew, I will
not speak to you at all concerning them, viz. that
you shall slay Burnt-offerings upon Burnt-offerings,
or that I will accept young Bullocks or Goats out of
thy Fold: For all the living Creatures, which feed
in the Forests, and wander upon the Mountains, are
mine; I number both the Birds and the wild Beasts ;
so that if I be hungry, I need not come to declare it
to you; for the whole Universe, and every Thing in
it is mine. Do you think I will eat the Fat of Flesh,
and drink the Blood of Goats? No: Sacrifice Thanks-
giving, and offer thy Vows unto God. There are
some amongst the Hebrews, who affirm, that this
was said, because they who offered these Sacrifices
were unholy in their Hearts and Lives. But the
Words themselves, which we have quoted, tell us
the contrary, viz. that the Thing was not at all
acceptable to God in itself. And if we consider
the whole Tenor of the Psalm, we shall find that
God addresses himself to holy Men; for he had
before said, Gather my Saints together, and after-
wards, Hear, O my People. These are the Words
of a Teacher; then having finished the Words be-
fore cited, he turns his Discourse, as is usual, to
the Wicked: But to the Wicked, said God; and in
other Places, we find the same Sense. As Psalm
li. To offer Sacrifices is not acceptable to thee, neither
art thou delighted with Burnt-offerings: But the
Sacrifice which thou truly delightest in, is a mind
humbled by the Sense of its Faults; for thou, O God,
wilt not despise a broken and contrite Heart: The
like of which is that of Psalm I. Sacrifices and
Oblations thou dost not delight in, but thou securest
me to thyself, (a) as if I were bored through the Ear;
thou dost not require Burnt-sacrifices, or Trespass-of-
ferings; therefore have I answered, Lo, I come; and I

(a) As if I were bored, &c.] A Mark of Servitude amongst
the Hebrews.

{

~

am

am as ready to do thy Will, as any Covenant can make me; for it is my Delight. For thy Law is fixed in my whole Heart; the Praises of thy Mercy I do not keep close in my Thoughts; but I declare thy Truth and Loving-kindness every where; but thy Compassion and Faithfulness do 1 particularly celebrate in the great Congregation. In Chap. i. of Isaiah, God is introduced speaking in this Manner: What are so many Sacrifices to me? I am filled with the Burnt-offerings of Rams, and the Fat of fed Beasts; I do not love the Blood of young Bullocks, of Lambs, or of Goats, that you should appear with it before me: For who hath required this of you, that you shall thus pollute my Courts? And Jeremiah vii. which is alike Place, and may serve to explain this. Thus saith the Lord of Angels, the God of Israel, ye heap up your Burnt-offerings with your Sacrifices, and yourselves eat the Flesh of them. For at the Time when I first brought your Fathers up out of Egypt, I neither required nor commanded them any Thing about Sacrifices, or Burnt-offerings. But that which I earnestly commanded them, was, that they should be obedient to me; so would I be their God, and they should be my People; and that they should walk in the Way that I should teach them, so should all Things succeed prosperously to them. And these are the Words of God in Hosea, Chap. vi. Loving-kindness towards Men, (a) is much more acceptable to me than Sacrifices; ta think aright of God, is above all Burnt-offerings. And in Micah, when the Question was put, how any Man should render himself most acceptable to God? by a vast number of Rams, by a huge Quantity of Oil, or by Calves of a Year old ?

God answers, I will tell you what is truly good and

(a) Is much more acceptable to me, &c.] So the Chaldee Interpreter explains this Place.

acceptable

acceptable to me, viz. (a) that you render to every Man his Due, that you do good to others, and that you become humble and lowly before God. Since therefore it appears from these Places, that Sacrifices are not reckoned amongst those Things which are primarily, and of themselves acceptable to God; but the People, gradually, as is usual, falling into wicked Superstition, placed the principal Part of their Piety in them, and believed that their Sacrifices made a sufficient Compensation for their Sins: It is not to be wondered at, if God, in Time, abolished a Thing in its own Nature indifferent, but by Use converted into Evil; especially (b) when King Hezekiah broke the brazen Serpent erected by Moses; because the People began to worship it with religious Worship. Nor are there wanting Prophecies, which foretold that those Sacrifices, about which the Controversy now is, should cease: Which any one will easily understand, who will but consider, that according to the Law of Moses, the Sacrificing was committed entirely to the Posterity of Aaron, and that only in their own Country. Now in Psalm cx. according to the Hebrew, a King is promised, whose Kingdoin should be exceeding large, who should begin his Reign in Sion, and who should be a King and a Priest for ever, after the Order of Melchisedech. And Isaiah, Chap. xix. saith, that an Altar should be seen in Egypt, where not only the Egyptians, but the Assyrians also and Israelites should worship God; and Chap. lxvi. he saith, that the most distant Nations, and People of all Languages, as well as the Israelites, should offer Gifts unto God, and out of them

(a) That you render to every Man his Due, &c.] Therefore the Jews say, that the 202 Precepts of the Law are by Isaiah contracted into six, Chap. xxxiii. 15. by Micah into three in this Place; by Isaiah into two, Chap. lvi. 1. by Habakkuk into one, Chap. ii. 4. as also by Amos, v. 6.

(b) When King Hezekiah, &c.] 2 Kings xviii. 4.

4

should

should be appointed Priests and Levites; all which could not be, (a) whilst the Law of Moses continued. To these we may add that Place (b) in Malachi, Chap. i. where God, foretelling future Events, says that the Offerings of the Hebrews would be an Abomination to him; that from the East to the West, his Name should be celebrated among all Nations; and that Incense, and the purest Things should be offered him. And Daniel in Chap. ix. relating the Prophecy of the Angel Gabriel, concerning Christ, says, that he shall abolish Sacrifices and Offerings: And God has sufficiently signified, not only by Words, but by the Things themselves, that the Sacrifices, prescribed by Moses, are no longer approved by him: Since he has suffered the Jews to be above sixteen hundred Years without a Temple, or Altar, or any Distinction of Families, whence they might know who those are who ought to perform these sacred Rites.

(a) Whilst the Law of Moses continued, &c.] Add this Place of Jeremy, Chap. iii. 16. "In those Days, saith the Lord, "they shall say no more, the Ark of the Covenant of the "Lord, neither shall it come into their Minds, neither shall

they remember it, neither shall they visit it, neither shall "that be done any more." (Even the Jews themselves could no longer observe their Law, after they were so much scattered. For it is impossible that all the Males should go up thrice in a Year to Jerusalem, according to the Law, Exod. xxiii. 17. from all those Countries which were inhabited by them. This Law could be given to no other, than a People not very great, nor much distant from the Tabernacle. Le Clerc.)

(b) Malachi, Chap. i. &c.] See Chrysostom's excellent Paragraph upon this Place, in his Second Discourse against the Gentiles.

WHAT has been said concerning the Law of Sacrifices, the same may be affirmed of that, in which different Kinds of Meat are prohibited. It is manifest, that after the universal Deluge (a) God gave to Noah and his Posterity a Right to use any Sort of Food; which Right descended not only to Japhet and Ham, but also to Shem and his Posterity, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But afterwards, when the People in Egypt were tinctured with the vile Superstition of that Nation; then it was, that God first prohibited the eating some Sort of living Creatures; either because for the most Part (6) such were offered by the

(a) God gave to Noah and his Posterity, &c.] The Mention of clean and unclean Creatures, seems to be an Objection against this, in the History of the Deluge; but either this was said by Way of Prolepsis to those who knew the Law; or by unclean, ought to be understood, those which Men naturally avoid for Food, such as Tacitus calls prophane, Hist. VI. Unless any one had rather understand by clean, those which are nourished by Herbs; and by unclean, those which feed on other living Creatures.

"

(b) Such were offered by the Egyptians, &c.] Origen in his Fourth Book against Celsus: "Some wicked Dæmons, and (as I may call them) Titanic or Gigantic ones, who were rebellious against the true God, and the heavenly Angels, and fell from Heaven, and are continually moving "about gross and unclean Bodies here on Earth; having "some Foresight of Things to come, by reason of their Free"dom from earthly Bodies; and being conversant in such "Things, and being desirous to draw off Mankind from the "true God; they enter into living Creatures, especially those "that are ravenous, wild and sagacious, and move them to "what they will: Or else they stir up the Fancies of such living Creatures, to fly or move in such a Manner; that Men, taken by the Divination in these dumb Creatures, might not seek the God that comprehends the Universe, nor inquire after the pure Worship of God; but suffer "their Reason to degenerate into earthly Things; such as

"