298 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



this abufe of eating living meat, or part of animals while yet 

 alive, was known in the days of Noah, and forbidden after 

 being fo known, and it is precifely what is practifed in Abyffi- 

 nia to this day. This law, then, was prior to that of Mofes, but 

 it came from the fame legillator. It was given to Noah, 

 and confequcntly obligatory upon the whole world. Mofes, 

 however, inlifts upon it throughout his whole law ; which, 

 not only mews that this abufe was common, but that it was 

 deeply rooted in, and interwoven with, the manners of the 

 Hebrews. He poiitively prohibits it four times in one 

 chapter in Deuteronomy*, and thrice in one of the chapters 

 of Leviticus f — " Thou flialt not eat the blood, for the blood 

 " is the life ; thou flialt pour it upon the earth like water." 



Although the many inftances of God's tendernefs to the 

 brute creation, that conftantly occur in the Mofaical precepts, 

 and are a very beautiful part of them, and tho' the barbari- 

 ty of the cuftom itfelf might reafonably lead us to think that 

 humanity alone was a fufficient motive for the prohibition 

 of eating animals alive, yet nothing can be more certain, 

 than that greater confequences were annexed to the indul- 

 ging in this crime than what was apprehended from a 

 mere depravity of manners. One £ of the moll learned 

 and fenfible men that ever wrote upon the facred fcrip- 

 tures obferves, that God, in forbidding this practice, ufes 

 more fevere certification, and more threatening language, 

 than againft any other fin, excepting idolatry, with which 

 it is conftantly joined. God declares, " I will fet my face 

 " againft: him that eateth blood, in the fame manner as I 

 •' will againft him that facrificeth his fon to Moloch ; 1 will 



"fet 



ft Deut. chap. xii. f Levit. cl.ap. xvii. J Maimcn. more. Nebochim. 



