E 6 1 Reafon, efpecially depraved and fallen Reafon, could never have fuggefled a Type or Allufion of this Kind to the grand Sacrifice, which a future Redeemer would make for Sin; if the divine Wifdom, in giving the Pro- rude, had not fettled this Inf}itution, partly to keep the Objets in View, and partly to exercife the Faith of the firlt Believers upon thofe Means, by which Redemption was to be accomplifhed. The Patriarchs, like our mo- dern Deifts, might have dreamed of forne unknown and therefore uncertain Mercy in the Almighty ; but they could never have imagined, without an exprefs and po- f tive Revelation, that the SON of GOD would expofe himfelf to every Evil, Pain, and Death, upon their Ac- count ; or that, by shedding the Blood of Beaffs, they 'hewed forth the LORD'S Death till he carne. Without this View, their Sacrifices (could they even have invent- ed them) would have been nugatory Ceremonies, and Services of filch unwarrantable Cruelty, as would have appeared to be open Violations of both Reafon and Na- ture. But GOD approved; and therefore, as nothing can be confonant to his divine Mind but what himfelf hath enjoined, thefe Immolations were in(tituted by him. . The very Heathens have univerfally entertained this Rite in all Ages, undoubtedly from an abufed Tradi- tion of their Fall, and from an Opinion that the Deity was only to be reconciled by the Effufion of Blood. They corrupted indeed the holy Emblem; but the Cor- ruption itfelf implies, that Sacrifice was an eftablifhed Principle of Religion among all Men, * and that without Jhedding of Blood there is no Remillion of Sins. Thefavage Inhabitants of Madagafcar ufe Sacrifices, when they would fupplicate the Deity in their Diftreffes. Upon which Mr. Ives, in his Travels through Perja,. obferves, that " He faw many Circumllances in the Madagafcarian Sacrifice, fo exactly refemb- " ling thofe which are mentioned in the Old Teftament as offeredup " by the Jews, that he could not turn his Thoughts back to the Ori- " gseal, without being fenfibly ftruck at the Exatinefsof the Copy." Ivas's V age. p. 16. This is a modern Teflimony. Celar furnifhes us with an ancient Example among the Gauls, concerning Sacrifice, when he conquered them, Coin. de Bell. Gall, 1. vi. c. 16. Without
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