sacred institutions which were framed for the sanction and service of a state of innocence, were so ordered, that the remembrance of them might be productive of great benefit to the fallen creature, as soon as the means of restoration were promulgated.

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CHAPTER VI.

Of Sacrifice.

THE first institution of this most expressive rite of symbolical worship, has been considered as involved in great obscurity. This suppo

sition has given birth to suggestions, not only wild and fanciful, but even contradictory to the general tenor of Scripture, and the doctrines of revelation.

The brevity of the sacred historian on subjects so remote, may be urged as one, perhaps the principal reason why the first establishment of this solemnity has been passed over in silence. This will be strengthened by the consideration that other institutions of great importance are only glanced at, nor even that, except when incidents occur which have a close connexion with them, and push them, as it were, into notice. The observation of the sabbath, supplies a very remarkable instance. No mention is made of it from its first sanctifica

tion in Paradise, until the giving of the manną in the wilderness; and then only to caution the people against the expectation of a supply on the next day, because it was the sabbath, "And Moses said, let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank, And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, this is that which the Lord hath said, to morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that which ye will seethe; and that which remaineth, lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein." mode of expression sufficiently proves that the sabbatical institution was in prior observance, yet no mention is made in any portion of the intervening history either of its enactment subsequent to the fall, or to any customary use of it during a space of more than two thousand five hundred years. In a similar manner, it escapes the notice of every subsequent histoExod. xvi. 19, 20, 22-24.

The

rian, from the time of Moses, to that of the author of the second book of kings, a period of about five hundred years, during which the incidents recorded are both more numerous and more fully detailed than during the preceding ages; yet, even then, the accidental occurrence of an event in private life, causes the allusion without which the omission would have run on to a much longer period."

*

The silence preserved on this subject is the more remarkable, because in every age, the strict observance of the sabbath has been a distinguishing feature of the true church of God. To the sincere worshipper, it has not been more important as a duty than it has been beneficial and consolatory as a privilege. We may measure the purity of doctrine maintained, and the practical activity of the principles of vital religion in every generation, by the regard paid to this holy day; and in conformity with this, the fact of keeping the sabbath is frequently appealed to as the sign or mark of separation between the Jews and Heathens; the testimony that the former were included, and the latter excluded from the visible church of God. But in every system, civil or religious, that part which forms the test or distinguishing mark of it, must be most frequently brought into notice.

* 2 Kings iv. 23.

The case respecting the institution of sacrifices is very similar. The establishment of the first sabbath was closely connected with the work of creation, and the state of man; these could hardly be recorded without some reference to it. But sacrifice could not exist whilst our first parents preserved their state of innocency. The purport of the solemnity is to enforce a feeling of delinquency, and teach the means of reconciliation to that Being whose commands have been transgressed; therefore, the offence must have been committed, the breach must have been made before the rite of atonement could be established.

It will be difficult, if not impossible, to explain one of the first incidents upon record, without admitting the early date of this act and mode of worship, though no mention is made of any one similar to it until many years after, when the different receptions given to the offerings of Cain and Abel, and which seems to have been the exciting cause of the murder of the latter, induces the historian to refer to it. The subject is wrapped in the same silence from thence to the removal of the deluge, when the renewal and confirmation of the covenant with Noah and his posterity, invites to a further mention of it.

Without doubt, many pious men existed