Deut. xii. 23 — 25. Only be sure that thou eat not the blood : for the blood is the life; and thou may est not eat the life with the flesh: thou shaft not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water : thou shalt not eat it, that it may go well tvith thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord.
THERE are many injunctions in the Mosaic law, which appear to have been given with more solemnity than their comparative importance demands : nor can we account for the stress laid upon them, but by supposing them to have had a typical reference. What is here said, for instance, respecting the eating
of blood, if we consider it as intended only to give an oblique hint of the duties of humanity and self-denial, is delivered in a far more emphatical manner than we should expect such an intimation to be given : for though a plain precept relating to them might fitly be enjoined in the strongest terms, and enforced by the strongest sanctions, it is not to be conceived that the image by which they would be shadowed forth, should be made to assume such an important aspect. If we mark the force and energy with which the pro- hibition of eating blood is here repeated, we shall be well persuaded that it contains some deeper mystery, which demands our most attentive consideration. But as, from the strength of the expressions, we may be ready to imagine that it is still binding upon us, we feel it necessary to guard against that mistake ; and shall therefore consider,
I. The prohibition given —
The manner in which it was given, must by no means be overlooked —
[There is not in all the sacred volume any prohibition or command delivered more peremptorily than this. Four times it is repeated even in the short space of our text, " Thou mayest not eat of it; Thou shalt not eat of it; Be sure thou eat not of it." The frequency too with which it is received in the Scrip- tures is truly astonishing. When first the use of animals for food was permitted to Noah, the grant was accompanied with this restriction, " But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eata." By Moses the restriction is repeated again, and again b. The sanctions with which it is enforced are also peculiarly awful. Not only was the prosperity of the people suspended on their obedience to this command c, but they were threatened with the most tremendous vengeance, if they should presume to violate it : "I will set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people d." Even if they took in hunting or caught by any means a beast or fowl, they must " pour its blood upon the earth as water, and cover it with duste:" and all these in- junctions must be observed by all, by strangers and sojourners
a Gen. ix. 3, 4.
b Lev. iii. 1C, 17. and vii. 26, 27. Deut. xv. 23. and several other places. c See the text.
d Read attentively Lev. xvii. 10 — 14. * e Ibid.