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fast and total abstinence from food for forty entire days and in this practice he had, when Theodoret wrote, perfevered twentyeight years, fafting forty days together in each year. During the first part of which days he used constantly to ftand; and when, through want of nourishment, he grew too weak to endure that pofture, he then began to fit; but at the laft was forced to lie down half dead and almost spent. He fixed his perpetual station on the top of a pillar, whofe circumference was hardly of two cubits, (three feet); and after he had spent many years in that position, like a statue upon its pedestal, on several different pillars, he mounted one at laft thirty-fix cubits (fiftyfour feet) high, and lived thirty years upon it". ADD to these inftances of particular perfons, what Theodoret relates of the hermits and monks of Egypt and other neighbouring countries. Some of them fed upon stinking and loathsome meat, that they might receive no pleasure in eating. Others accustomed themselves to stand on their feet all night at prayer; to walk bare-foot upon briars and thorns, in remembrance of the pain that Chrift fuffered by the nails that pierced his hands and feet; and alfo to ftand whole

• Ibid. p. 131.

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nights

↑ In Marciani vita de Sabino, fub fine: from a treatise concerning policy and religion,

p. 578.

nights with their arms ftretched out in imitation of his crucifixion.

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SECTION IV.

FRO

'ROM the confideration of religious or devotional cruelties which men have excercised upon themselves, we shall pass to those practised on other creatures, and on their own fpecies.

As hardly any method of worship was more early, or for a long space of time more generally in ufe, by almost all nations, than bloody facrifices, fo none can be a more evident proof of what has been fo frequently and unavoidably mentioned in this Effay, which is the cruelty of men's difpofitions and tempers; for to that the origin of such expiatory facrifices is undoubtedly owing. Indeed, the ancient and general use of them in moft parts of the world hath been thought, by fome perfons, a ftrong argument to prove they were of divine institution: but let thofe, who thus think, remember, that idolatry has been more general than facrifices, and very ancient also; yet no chriftian will fay this is any reason why idolatry should be esteemed of divine appointment. The truth is, that men being fo generally cruel and fuperftiI 3 tious,

tious, and priests always ready to take every advantage of the vices, the weakneffes, and the paffions of mankind, and turn them to the emolument of the facerdotal order; these, and fuperftition being very apt to appear in the fame fhape in different ages and nations, are the real caufes why facrifices have fo generally prevailed. Men being themselves too commonly vindictive, revengeful, and blood-thirsty, imagined their gods to be fo likewife. But furely it is difficult to fay, whether the folly or cruelty of inftituting fuch abfurd and barbarous practices was greater. Could there well be a greater folly, than to believe, that cutting the throat of an innocent lamb fhould atone for the crimes of wicked men? And is it not great cruelty thus needleffly to shed blood?

SOME perfons may perhaps afk, what harm or cruelty there was in killing beafts for facrifice, any more than for food, which is the general and daily practice throughout the world? To which may be answered: If the flesh of animals is abfolutely neceffary for the fubfiftance of man, that may be a reafon why he should kill fuch as he cannot do without; but this will not excufe his flaughtering them for fuperftitious ufes, which is not only unneceffary, but for a very bad purpofe alfo. And that the flaughtering of animals,

3.

mals, as an atonement for fin, was a fuperftitious cuftom, evidently appears both from fcripture and reafon : for whatever is performed as a religious duty, which cannot poffibly answer the end of its performance, must be fuperftitious: but, " IT IS NOT "POSSIBLE," faith the apostle Paul", and fo faith common fenfe and reafon, "that "the blood of bulls and of goats" (that is, the flaughtering of any animals) "should take away fins."

IT

It is very remarkable, that although the religion of the Jews confifted fo much in bloody facrifices, yet feveral of their prophets, as well as the apostle Paul above quoted, declared against this cruel and prepofterous method of worship, and acknowledged that God had not commanded it. The Pfalmift thus appeals to God:-" Sa"crifice and offering thou didst not defire: « * * * * * burnt-offering and fin-offering "haft thou not required"." Jeremiah, per"I fonating God, tells the Jews," I fpake

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not unto your fathers, nor commanded "them in the day that I brought them out "of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt"offerings or facrifices." Ifaiab declares, "that God delights not in the blood of bul

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"locks,

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locks, or of lambs, or of goats." This prophet very candidly informs the people what worship was most acceptable to God: "Ceafe to do evil," fays he, learn to do "well, feek judgment, relieve the oppreffed, judge the fatherless, and plead for the "widow "." Good fenfe has taught the fame to heathens. The best and most pure worship of the gods, fays Cicero, is to serve them with an upright, chafte, and uncorrupt mind and heart. The paffage, at length, is as follows: Cultus autem Deorum eft optimus, idemque caftiffimus, atque fanctiffimus, plenissi mufque pietatis, ut eos femper pura, integra, incorrupta et mente et voce veneremur a. And agreeable to this are thofe fine lines of Perfius:

Compofitum jus, fafque animi, fanctosque receffus
Mentis, et incoctum generofo pectus bonefto;
Hæc cedo, ut admoveam templis, et farre litabo",
Thus Englished by Mr. Dryden :

A foul, where laws, both human and divine,
In practice more than fpeculation fhine:
A genuine virtue, of a vig'rous kind,
Pure in the last recefjes of the mind:
When with fuch off'rings to the gods I come,
A cake thus giv'n is worth a hecatomb.

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But

y Ifaiah i. II. Ibid. 16, 17. De natura Deorum,

lib. II.

b Sat. II.

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