thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy 13. God to be lacking from thy meat-offering.

r

The Israelites owed the fruitfulness of their land, the increase of their corn, and wine, and oil, to the continual blessing and care of God's providence. It was fit they should acknowledge such goodness of God, and these offerings were very significant expressions of it; or, in the words of Bishop Patrick on the place, "They were offered

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as a grateful acknowledgment unto God, "that they held all they possessed of him, "as their sovereign Lord, whom they supplicated also hereby, that he would be still "mindful of them, that is, be gracious to " them." As these sacrifices were to be also feasts, in some of which the priests, in others the offerers had their part, it was proper they should be attended with meat and drink offerings. Being thus entertained at God's table, they had a declaration of peace and friendship between God and them: hence Bishop Patrick observes, the salt of all sacrifices was called the salt of the covenant, to signify, as men were used to eat and drink together, in making covenants, and as salt was always used at table, so God, by these offerings, and a feast upon them, did testify his covenant with those who were invited to partake of it. Leaven and honey were ferments, and considered as having contrary qualities to salt; or, as salt tended to the preservation, so leaven and honey

place.

tended to the alteration and corruption of what they were mixed with; so that they were used as emblems of malice, hypocrisy, and moral corruption. It is further observed, that honey had been abused to superstition; the Egyptians had a composition called kuphi, which they offered constantly Kup. every day, morning and evening, on their altars, in which honey, with figs and sweet fruits, with myrrh and cardamoms, and fragrant spices, were mixed together, as an acceptable oblation to the gods, as Bishop Bishop Patrick has observed from many testimonies Patrick of the best authority. The meat and drink on the offerings then were proper offerings, an of- Levit. ii. fering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto 9. the Lord: a thing most holy, of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. This ritual of the Hebrews, directing what was to be offered in sacrifice to Jehovah, directed chiefly meat, bread, and wine, such things as were of most common use, without any magical rites, or superstitious compositions of things, as more acceptable to the gods, and more likely to make them propitious; they were such things only, as were a natural and decent expression of thankfulness to God for former mercies, and hope in God for mercies yet to come, or pledges of God's covenant mercies to a chosen and favoured people. That all things in this worship might be done to answer the intention of the ritual itself, to stop every passage of superstition,

10.

Ritual of the sacri

ficial ac

tions.

Levit. i. 3 to 10.

the law wisely took care to give particular direction for each sacrificial action, both with respect to the offerers, and with respect to the priests. We have a sufficient delineation of these rites in Levit. i.

It is directed, with respect to the offerer, He shall offer it of his own voluntary will, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord; and he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering, and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him; and he shall kill the bullock before the Lord; and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about the altar, that is, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; and he shall flay the burntoffering, and cut it into his pieces. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire; and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood, that is, on the fire which is upon the altar; but his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water, and the priest shall burn all on the altar.

From hence the Hebrew masters observe there were five things relating to the offerings which were to be done by the offerers themselves, and five others which were to be done by the priests only. They generally suppose the offerer was to lay on his hands, that he might kill the bullock,

flay it, cut it in its pieces, and wash the inwards with water; but the other five, receiving the blood of the sacrifice, sprinkling the blood, setting in order the wood for the fire of the altar, and laying the parts of Reland. the sacrifice on the altar, were proper acts of the priesthood.

Antiq.

Part iii. c. 1. § 14.

In offerings of fowls the rites were somewhat different. If the offering be of Levit. i. fowls, then he shall bring his offering of 14, 15. turtle-doves or of young pigeons; and the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head, and burn it on the altar, and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar. In this offering the blood was to be sprinkled on the altar, in the act of killing it; the priest is therefore directed to kill it himself at the very altar. There are some other particular differences in the rites of different sacrifices, the principal of which may be easily seen in the ritual itself.

crifice.

The ritual first directs, when a sacrifice Oblationis rightly chosen, the offerer is to bring it of the savoluntarily to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; and so before the presence of Jehovah, or before the Shechinah, which was the kebla of the Hebrew worship. This was necessary to prevent the custom of offering sacrifices at any place they should choose, and therefore by any persons, and with any rites they should think fit; which would expose them to the danger of using some idolatrous ceremo

Levit.

4.

nies; therefore it is so severely forbid. This xvii. 2, 3, is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, saying, What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, and bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering to the Lord, before the tabernacle of the Lord, blood shall be imputed to that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people. "Which severe penalty," says Bishop Patrick," was enacted to preserve the Israel"ites from idolatry; for, if they had been permitted to offer sacrifices where they pleased, they might easily have forsaken "God, by altering the rites which he had "ordained, nay, by offering to strange gods, particularly to the dæmons, which we "render devils, Levit. xvii. 7." This was a proper oblation by the offerer, an oblation of the sacrifice now alive, by the offerer himself, as his own voluntary act, as there was another oblation of the sacrifice slain by the priest, when he offered the blood of the sacrifice upon the altar.

Outram,

1. i. c. 15.

$ 4.

Imposition of Levit. i.

hands.

4.

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The person who thus brought his offering before the presence of Jehovah, was to put his hand upon the head of it: And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering, and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him. It is not material to inquire whether the offerer put