as well as natives. Now I ask, Would this prohibition have been so peremptorily* given, so frequently repeated, so solemnly enforced; would such particular directions have been added; and would they have been made so universally binding, if there had been nothing mysterious in this appointment?]
We may be sure that the grounds of it are deserving of the deepest investigation —
[We speak not of such grounds as might probably exist, such as those before referred to, namely, the promotion of huma- nity and self-denial, (though in both these views the prohibition may be considered as highly instructive ;) but of those grounds which we know assuredly to have been the principal, if not the only, object of the institution.
We must remember, that offerings were by the divine ap- pointment presented from time to time as an atonement for sin ; that the blood of those offerings being, as it were, the life of the animals, was considered as exclusively prevailing for the remission of sins ; and that on that very account it was poured out upon the altar, in token, that it was presented to God as an expiation for iniquity, and was accepted by him instead of the life of the offender.
We must remember also, that all these offerings had respect to the sacrifice of Christ, which was in due time to be offered for the sins of the whole world.
Now it was of infinite importance that the highest pos- sible veneration should be instilled into the minds of men for the offerings which they presented to God; and that they should be deeply impressed with a consciousness of their mysterious reference to the sacrifice of Christ. But, if they had been permitted to eat of blood, this reverence would have quickly abated : whereas by the strictness of the prohibition, it was kept alive in their minds : and even their common meals were rendered an occasion of bringing to their recollection the use of blood in their offerings, and the efficacy of that blood which was at a future period to be poured out upon the cross.
Here then was a reason for the prohibition ; a reason, which accounts at once for the strictness, the frequency, the vehe- mence, with which it was given, and for the tremendous sanctions with which it was enforced. Nothing could be unimportant that had such a reference : and the more insignificant the pro- hibited thing was in itself, the more need there was that all possible weight should be given to it by the manner of its prohibition.]
But we shall not have a complete view of the subject, unless we consider,
f Read attentively Lev. xvii. 10 — 14.