had a twofold cause, viz. a literal cause, according as they were
intended for Divine worship; and a figurative or mystical cause,
according as they were intended to foreshadow Christ: and on either
hand the ceremonies pertaining to the sacrifices can be assigned to a
fitting cause.

For, according as the ceremonies of the sacrifices were intended for
the divine worship, the causes of the sacrifices can be taken in two
ways. First, in so far as the sacrifice represented the directing of
the mind to God, to which the offerer of the sacrifice was
stimulated. Now in order to direct his mind to God aright, man must
recognize that whatever he has is from God as from its first
principle, and direct it to God as its last end. This was denoted in
the offerings and sacrifices, by the fact that man offered some of
his own belongings in honor of God, as though in recognition of his
having received them from God, according to the saying of David (1
Paral. xxix, 14): "All things are Thine: and we have given Thee what
we received of Thy hand." Wherefore in offering up sacrifices man
made protestation that God is the first principle of the creation of
all things, and their last end, to which all things must be directed.
And since, for the human mind to be directed to God aright, it must
recognize no first author of things other than God, nor place its end
in any other; for this reason it was forbidden in the Law to offer
sacrifice to any other but God, according to Ex. 22:20: "He that
sacrificeth to gods, shall be put to death, save only to the Lord."
Wherefore another reasonable cause may be assigned to the ceremonies
of the sacrifices, from the fact that thereby men were withdrawn from
offering sacrifices to idols. Hence too it is that the precepts about
the sacrifices were not given to the Jewish people until after they
had fallen into idolatry, by worshipping the molten calf: as though
those sacrifices were instituted, that the people, being ready to
offer sacrifices, might offer those sacrifices to God rather than to
idols. Thus it is written (Jer. 7:22): "I spake not to your fathers
and I commanded them not, in the day that I brought them out of the
land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt-offerings and
sacrifices."

Now of all the gifts which God vouchsafed to mankind after they had
fallen away by sin, the chief is that He gave His Son; wherefore it
is written (John 3:16): "God so loved the world, as to give His
only-b