ned from some
dictate of _reason_, or some demand of _nature_, or some principle
of _interest_, or else from some powerful influence or injunction of
some Being of universal authority. Now the practice of animal
sacrifice did not obtain from _reason_, for no reasonable notions of
God could teach men that he could delight in blood, or in the fat of
slain beasts. Nor will any man say, that we have any natural
_instinct_ to gratify, in spilling the blood of an innocent
creature. Nor could there be any temptation from appetite to do this
in those ages, when the whole sacrifice was consumed by fire; or
when, if it was not, yet men wholly abstained from flesh; and
consequently this practice did not owe its origin to any principle
of _interest_. Nay, so far from any thing of this, that the
destruction of innocent and useful creatures is evidently _against
nature_, _against reason_, and _against interest_, and therefore
must be founded in an authority, whose influence was as powerful as
the practice was universal and that could be none but the authority
of God, the sovereign of the world; or of Adam, the founder of the
human race. If it be said of Adam, the question still remains, what
motive determined him to the practice? It could not be nature,
reason, or interest, as has been already shown, it must therefore
have been the authority of his Sovereign, and had Adam enjoined it
to his posterity, it is not to be imagined that they would have
obeyed him in so extraordinary and expensive a rite, from any other
motive than the command of God. If it be urged, that superstitions
prevail unaccountably in the world, it may be answered, that all
superstition has its origin in true religion; all superstition is an
abuse; and all abuse supposes a right and proper use. And if this be
the case in superstitious practices that are of lesser moment and
extent, what shall be said of a practice existing through all ages,
and pervading every nation?--See Kennic, Two Diss. pp. 210, 211 and
Rev. Exam. Diss. 8 p. 85-89." Magee on the Atonement, vol. ii. part
i. pp. 27-29.--_Ed._]

250 [That is, restrain.--_Ed._]

251 [See note page 96.]

252 [Lucius Cinna was the grandson of Pompey the Great. It was through
the intercession of Livia, the wife of A