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sumed. Among those that were dedicated entire to the service of the sanctuary, were the vessels appropriated to the sacred uses, and the Levites appointed to assist in the sacred functions. The Levites were formally offered to God by Aaron, before the door of the tabernacle," and were called "an offering;" yet they were not slain as victims, but devoted alive and entire to the sacred office.* All those vessels of the sacred service, the chargers, bowls, and spoons, which the princes of the tribes contributed for the solemn dedication of the altar, were presented to God before the altar, on account of which they are also called "offerings," and were afterwards preserved entire for the service of the sanctuary. Hence it is, that neither the Levites, nor the vessels appropriated to sacred uses, notwithstanding they were offered to God, are ever reckoned among the sacrifices. The same observation must be made respecting the goat, which after having been offered to God before the altar was led away alive into the wilder

ness.

II. Those things which, being placed before the altar, or on the sacred table in the outer sanctuary, were offered to God in this manner in order to be consumed in due form, are included by the Jews in the number of the sacrifices. According to their opinion, then, a sacrifice may be defined, an offering duly consumed: or to be a little more explicit, a sacrifice among the Hebrews, was such a sacred oblation as was first offered to God, and then, in due form, cut in pieces and consumed. Sacrifices were duly consumed which were slain, burnt, poured out, or used for sacred feasts, with rites of divine institution. Of those rites + Numb. vii. 10, &c.

• Numb. viii. 10, 11. 13.

Fev. 14.

Deut. 21.

2.

and ceremonies we shall have to treat more at large hereafter.

But the definition just given comprehends only those sacrifices, which, as we have already stated, are considered as such by the Jews, and which the scriptures call "oblations" or " offerings." I make this remark, because the scripture mentions some other victims, which, as they were never presented to God before his altar, are no where called oblations, and yet, I think, may justly be denominated expiatory sacrifices. In this class ought to be reckoned the bird killed for the purification of the leprosy; and also the heifer whose head was to be cut off for the expiation of murder in a case where the murderer was unknown. Though this heifer is not styled an offering in any passage of scripture, yet it was truly an expiatory victim, and in an extensive sense might, perhaps, be called a sacrifice; especially as the attendance of the priests was required on that oc3. casion. Nor can any very different opinion be Num. 19. formed of the red heifer, whose ashes were to be kept for the purification of persons defiled with dead bodies. For, though that heifer was to be burned without the sanctuary, and even without the camp, there seems to be so much the greater propriety in classing it among the sacrifices, because its blood was to be sprinkled before the sanctuary seven times, and that by the hand of the priest: so that the life of that heifer was considered as presented and consecrated to God. The goat which on the solemn day of expiation was sent alive into the wilderness, bearing away the sins of the people that had been laid upon him, was presented before the Lord, and is expressly said "to make an atonement:" and may

4. Lev. 14.

indeed be called an expiatory victim, but not strictly a sacrifice, because it was not to be slain with sacrificial rites, but on the contrary, as far as appears from the law, was to be sent away alive into the wilderness. For as to the account of the Jews that this goat used to be precipitated from a certain mountain,* I am so far from thinking it to have been commanded by the law, that I should rather conclude it to have been forbidden. These things may serve to indicate the nature of those oblations, which were either sacrifices properly so called, or were piacular offerings, but less properly denominated sacrifices. The former were both offered to God, and afterwards slain and consumed. The latter, either were not offered, as the heifers which we have already mentioned; or were not slain and consumed, althongh they were duly presented to God, as the goat which was led away into the wilderness.†

III. Of those which were both offered and consumed with solemn rites, and which alone the Jews are accustomed to consider as sacrifices, some were selected from inanimate things, others from animals, and almost all from things that were used for human food: which God required to be devoted to himself, as the lord and giver of those things which contribute

*Misn. in Joma. c. 6.

TR.-The author seems to have overlooked the connection of the two goats as constituting one offering. This has been set in a very clear and convincing light by Dr. Magee. Attend particularly to the fifth, seventh, ' and tenth verses of the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus, from which it appears, that the two goats are spoken of as one sin offering; being ex'pressly so called in the first of these verses; presented jointly as the offering of the people in the second; and though separated into two 'distinct parts, by the lot cast in the ninth verse, yet each described as " contributing to the atonement for the people, as appears from the tenth verse compared with the seventeenth.' Disc, and Diss. No. 71.

H

to the sustenance of life. An oblation of any thing inanimate, the scriptures designate by the term mincha,* which signifies a present, offering, unbloody oblation, bread offering, or meat offering. But any one selected from animals, with the exception of birds, is generally called by the Jews zebach,† a victim. This term is scarcely ever applied by the sacred writers to any sacrifices, except the peace offerings. But it is of little importance to contend about terms, provided we understand the things. All the sacrifices, therefore, which were selected from animals we shall call victims, and the rest meat offerings.

IV. All the meat offerings of the Jews were composed of wheaten or barley flour; some with, and others without, the addition of wine. Those which were accompanied with a libation of wine, the Jews, on account of the wine, called drink offerings; and they were all to be mixed with oil, and were invariably to be connected with some kind of victims, and never to be offered without a victim. The victims which God required to be always accompanied with meat offerings were all the burnt offerings of the whole congregation, with all those of individuals, and the peace offerings selected from the flock or the herd, but none taken from birds, except when birds were substituted for a quadruped, nor any sin offerings, except those offered by a purified leper.§ The three victims commanded to be offered by a leper at the time of his purification, the first for a trespass offering, the second for a sin offering, and the third for a burnt offering, were accompanied by three tenths of

an ephah of fine flour. Hence it is generally concluded by the Jews, that one tenth of an ephah belonged to every victim: which is the more probable, because the burnt offering of a purified leper was of that class, to which the law given respecting such things prescribes the addition of only one tenth of an ephah. Concerning the addition of wine to the meat offering of a purified leper, the scripture contains no particular direction: but that wine was required to be added, the Jews conclude from the general law, which is given in the fifteenth chapter of Numbers, and which they understand as implying, that every burnt offering taken from the flock or the herd was to be accompanied with a meat offering, and that in every such meat offering wine was to be one of the ingredients. V. But the same portion of flour, oil, and wine, was not to be used with every kind of animals; but one portion was required for bullocks, another for rams, another for goats and female sheep, and also for lambs and kids:-for bullocks, three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mingled with half a hin of oil, and half a hin of wine :-for rams, two tenths of an ephah of fine flour, mingled with the third part of a hin of oil, and the third part of a hin of wine :—and lastly, for goats and female sheep, as well as for lambs and kids, both male and female, only one tenth of an ephah of fine flour, mingled with the fourth part of a hin of oil, and the fourth part of a hin of wine.* But the lamb which was offered on the same day as the sheaf of the first fruits, was to be accompanied with two tenths of an ephah of fine flour.†

VI. Not very unlike the meat offerings which were accompanied with a drink offering of wine and Num. xv. Maimon. in Maase Korban, c. 2. + Levit, xxiii. 10-13.