X. SACRIFICIAL CEREMONIES AND THEIR MEANING. 1 1. PREPARATION. THE presentation of an offering was naturally, and therefore pro-. bably, preceded by suitable proparations in consonance with the nature of the sacred coremony. Outward and inward purity the former the ritual prototype of the latter was the primary condition of man's approach to God; it was enjoined bofore great festivals, and when some special Divino manifestation was expected or hoped for; it was, no doubt, after the diffusion of the Levitical spirit and law, rigorously enforced; it was under the specific name of "sanctification" made an indispensablo proliminary to public assemblies and fasts, national works and enterprises; and it was expressed by the removal and renunciation of every emblem of heathen superstition, by bathing, and washing or change of garments, and frequently by conjugal abstinence, extended on remarkablo occasions to three and more days.2 When Samuel arrived at Bothlehom, ho addressed the elders, "Sanctify yourselves and come with mo to the sacrifice: and he sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called him to the sacrifice." The laws of purification were enlarged and intensified with respect to officiating priests. The Mishnah propounded the principle that no one, even if he were pure, was permitted to enter the Court and to take part in the service unless he had bathed boforehand. In the period of the second Temple, when, corresponding to the 24 orders of priests, the nation was divided into 24 sections for the sake of reprosonting the people, by weekly rotation, at the daily public sacrifices, those who thus acted as national delegates had to fast during their week, except on Sabbath and the day that proceded and followed it; the residents of Jerusalem and the neighbouring towns were obliged to attend at the Temple, while the inhabitants of more distant places had to perform particular prayers and devotions in the Synagogues of their districts. 4 Similar views pervaded all ancient creeds. The Hindoos were commanded to begin the sacrifice by a "bath of purification." The Egyptians inaugurated the great festival of Isis and its solemn sacrifice by a fast and matrimonial abstinence during nine days. For some time, varying from 7 to 12 days, previous to important religious observances, they were scrupulous in chastity and lustrations, avoided 1 Comp. Joel I. 14; l. 15, 16; IV.9; Mic. III. 5; Neh. III. 1; comp. P's. XX. 2 Comp. Genes. XXXV. 2—4; Exod. XIX. 10, 14, 15; XXXIII. 5, 6; Josh. III. 5; VII. 13; see Comm. on Gen. p. 396; on Exod. p. 218; comp. also Zeph. I. 7; Jer. XII. 3. 91 Sam. XVI. 5; comp. also Job I. 5. Exod. XXX. 17-21; XL. 30-32; comp. Treatise on Priesthood, ch. I. animal food and certain kinds of vegetables. Prior to killing any victim, the Persians addressed prayers to the fire, the puro cloment. Those who came from whatever distance to worship in the temple of Hierapolis, were prescribed to abstain from any drink but water and from sleeping in a bed, till they had returned to their homes. The Chinese emperor prepares himself for the grand procession and sacrifice, which take place at the commencement of spring, by severe religious exercises during three preceding days. The Greeks, considering purity of body an indispensable requisito, appeared, with their offerings, not only in clean, generally white garments, but also, except in times of mourning, festively decked with wreaths or garlands, which were made of appropriate leaves and flowers, and which, by placing the wearer under the protection of the deity, rendered him inviolable: and before the sacrificial acts were begun, a direct exhortation warded off all "profano" or unclean persons, and admonished those present to reverential silence. An ancient writer comprehensively stated the requirements in the following words: "The worshipper must approach the gods cleansed, purified, bright, sprinkled with water, washed, stainless, chaste, unspotted, hallowed, sanctified, with a pure mind, with fresh and washed garments." The women who took part in the processions of the festival of the Thesmophoria in honour of Cores, shunned conjugal embrace for nine days before. Washing of hands, facilitated by basins with holy water kopt at the entrance of temples, common cod the sacrifico; "to bo oxcludod from the holy water", was equivalent to being debarred from sacred rites, especially sacrifices, on account of guilt of blood; while "to allow the holy water", expressed admission to religious privileges. Hector, requested by his mother Hecuba during a battle to offer a libation, deprecated it with the words, "I dread to pour out the sparkling wine to Zeus with unwashed hands." "Never venture", writes Hesiod, "to offer a libation of dark wine to Jupiter or the other immortals with unwashed hands; for they do not listen, and spurn thy prayers." The Platonists, when intending to offer supplications to the gods, were recommended to fast, or at least to abstain from meat. In certain cases, offering in a state of moral impurity was, by Plato's advice, to be punished with death. The Romans combined nearly all the introductory ceremonies they bathed in spring water, arrayed themselves in fresh, white garments, washed their hands, adorned their heads with wreaths, warded off unclean persons, and in some instances refrained from sexual intercommunion in the proceding night or nights. "Worshippers shall approach to the gods with purity", observes Cicoro, "that 4 is to say with purity of mind, which is everything; not that the law dispenses with purity of body; but this must be understood in as much as the mind is superior to the body"; terms almost identical with those employed by Philo on the same subject, "It is necessary for intending sacrificers to be cleansed us to their bodios, and as to their souls before their bodies; for the soul is the mistress and the queen, and superior in everything, being endowed with a more Divine nature"; and both utterances are perhaps an echo of the beautiful admonitions attributed to the Pythian priestess: "Enter the pure god's temple sanctified "In soul, with virgin water purified: "One drop will cleanse the good; the ocean wave The broad rule was established, "Whoever wishes properly to perform a sacred act in honour of the gods, must first thoroughly purify himself"; and Virgil was praised for strictly conforming his narrative to that law. Inviting the peasants to the lustration-offering of the rural festival of the Ambarvalia, Tibullus demands, "You also I order to stand aloof approach not the altar-you who the preceding night enjoyed the pleasures of Venus: chastity delights the gods; come in clean garments, and cleanse your hands with water from the spring." And opponents of animal sacrificos pointed to the strange anomaly that, while the burning of flesh and fat, of skins and foathers, produced an intolerable stench, the worshippors wore earnestly exhorted, "whenever they prepared to visit the temples, to preserve themselves pure from every stain, clean, and above all chaste." Numa ordained that previous to religious processions, heralds were to pass through the streets and order general cessation from labour. For, observes Plutarch, "as the Pythagoraeans were known not to suffer casual devotion or worship, but demanded that people should undertake it well prepared in mind from the beginning, thus Numa believed that his citizens ought neither to hear nor to see anything appertaining to divine service at random or carelessly, but putting aside everything else to direct their whole minds to the pious act as to their most important business; wherefore he wished, during the sacred ceremonies, the streets to be kept clear of all din and noise and turmoil inseparable from everyday work." Hence it remained a Roman custom up to the latost time, that before the beginning of public sacrifices a herald proclaimed with loud voice the words "hoc age", thereby inviting all present to absorbed attention and silent devotion. 3 2. THE TIME. The Law contains no enactments with respect to the time of tho day when the offerings were to be presented; except that it orders the daily holocausts to be killed "in the morning", and "between the two evenings", that is, between the later part of the afternoon or about 3 o'clock and sunset, 2 which hours are also fixed for the killing of the paschal lamb, and were later selected for the afternoon prayer.1 As regards all other offerings, they were probably deemed suitable at any time during the day between the morning- and tho ovoning-holocaust; for the former marked the commencement, and the latter the conclusion of the diurnal public worship; therefore, sacrifices woro hardly offered either before the one or after the other; though those that had been slain in the day could be burnt in the subsequent night. Many nations selected the earlier part of the day for their offerings, in order to make the repast that followed the sacrifice coincido with their principal meal; but the Hebrews could not possibly sanction the distinction adopted by the Greeks and Romans, who sacrificed to the upper gods who give the light or enjoy its exhilarating rays, by day, and to those of the lower world who pass a cheerless existence in sombre darkness, by night. 3. THE PLACE. 8 5 Prepared in the manner described, the offerer, whether man or woman, brought the gift to the place where alone it could be lawfully presented, namely "before the Lord", or as it is more accurately qualified, "to the door of the Tont of Meeting", that is, into the Court, where the altar of burnt-offering stood; for rites designed to effect or to preserve the communion between men and God could fitly be performed nowhere except at the spot specially dedicated to Divine presence and revelation. With such severity was this rule enforced that an Israelite or stranger who slaughtered a victim at any other place, was not considered as one who had presented a sacrifice, but as one who had committed a murder, "Blood shall be imputed to that man; he has shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people."" The injunction was therefore expressly repeated with regard to every 3 individual class of sacrifice, to holocausts,' eucharistic and expiatory offerings, and offerings of purification. It was evidently designed as a means of securing among the Hebrews the unity of public worship, of banishing by a rigorous control all idolatrous rites, and of permanently strongthening the faith in the undivided authority of God. But it was no more than a consistent consequence of Levitical principles; we have above pointed out the difficulties which operated against even its approximate observance, and have tried to prove its all but total disregard during long epochs of Hebrew history." In some other polities, analogous practices were observed or advocated. An enactment of the Roman Twelve Tables enjoined, "No one shall have gods privately." Plato strongly recommended the following law, "Let no one perform sacred rites in private dwellings; but if any one desires to sacrifice, let him go to the public buildings, and there sacrifice; and let him place his offerings in the hands of the priests and priestesses to whom the holy ritual is entrusted"; if a person is convicted of special orgies in privato temples, he is to be warned, and punished by a fine or a heavier ponalty. His reasons are, in some respects, kindred to those which guided the Hobrow legislators; he saw the danger of extravagant aberration if sacrifices and the erection. of private temples or statues were permitted to the caprice, ignorance, or superstition of every individual; but he was, in other respects, influenced by fanciful considerations; ho foured that impious men, putting up altars in their private dwellings, might think they rendered the gods propitious by sacrifices and prayers in secret, and thus encouraged in their iniquitous path, they might call down the anger of the gods upon the whole community- as if the wicked could not offer blasphemous gifts and prayers at public as well as private altars. The Law ordains to kill the victim "on the side of the altar of burnt-offoring northward." Indeed, the northern side of the altar was manifestly the most convenient locality; for to the west of it was the brazen laver and the access to the Holy; in the east, it would have obstructed the entrance of the Court, especially as the place for depositing the ashes was also on the same side; and in the south, there was, at least in the later Temple, the gently sloping dam of earth, which led up to the top of the altar. 8 The Grocks and Romans offered to the upper gods on high, to the terrestrial deities on low altars, and to the infernal powers on grates |