OFFERING. 
422 
rally from an inferior to a fuperior. Obligatory gift to 
the church; (fee Oblation.) A facrifice; any thing 
immolated, or offered in worffiip.—When thou (halt make 
his foul an offering for (in, he (hall fee his feed. Ija. liii. 10. 
They are polluted offerings, more abhorr’d 
Than fpotted livers in the facrifice. Shahefpeare. 
Inferior offerings to thy god of vice 
‘Are duly paid in fiddles, cards, and dice. Young. 
God’s ancient people had various forts of offerings; but 
they were in general of two kinds: viz. gifts, where no 
life was deftroyed ; and facrifices, wherein the life of the 
thing offered was taken awky. The defign of all offerings 
was either to make atonement for fin, thank God for mercy 
received, or procure fome new favour; and all pointed 
out our Redeemer, who by one offering for ever perfected 
them that are fanftified. 
Immediately after the fall, God inftrutted Adam and 
Eve to offer facrifice; and it feems their firft robes were 
the fkins of facrificed animals. Gen. iii. zi. When Abel 
was grown up, he, by faith in the divine appointment, 
offered not the milk, as fome think, but facrificed the belt 
of his flock ; for his oblation is called thyjia , i. e. “ a (lain 
facrifice.” Gen iv. 4.. 10. When Noah went forth from 
his ark, he offered an acceptable facrifice to God. Gen. viii. 
2d. At different places, Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, built 
altars, and facrificed to the Lord. Gen. xii.xiii. xxvi. xxviii. 
xxxiii. &c. Job offered facrifice for his children and 
friends. Job i. 5. xlii. 8. From the injunttion of facrifices 
to the ancient patriarchs before and after the flood, the 
cultom of facrificing fpread into the world. The Hea¬ 
thens retained the rite, and loaded it with vain ceremo¬ 
nies, but loft the view of its fignification. As their na¬ 
tural confcience aiftated to them the infufficiency of ani¬ 
mal facrifices to atone for the fins of men, it is not to be 
wondered at, that the murderous oblation of human fa- 
crifice was fo generally prattifed by them. 
Before the Hebrew tabernacle was erefted, there was 
no limitation as to the place of offering facrifices; and we 
fuppofe thofe offered in faith were generally confumed by 
fire from heaven ; and mod of them feem to have been 
of the form of burnt-offerings. The ceremonial law, 
given by God to Mofes, added various diftintlions and 
rites of oblations. The facrifices properly fo called, 
wherein animals were flain, and offered to God on an altar, 
by priefts of his appointment, were diflinguiflied into 
burnt-offerings, peace-offerings, fin-offerings, and tref- 
pafs-offerings. 
1. The burnt-offering confided of a bullock, a he-lamb, or 
a kid ; or, if the offerer was poor, a turtle or pigeon. The 
animal deftined for facrifice was led to the eaft end of the 
tabernacle or temple ; the offerer laid his hand on its head, 
confeffing his guilt, and transferring his defert of death on 
the animal. The pried then (lew it on the north fide of 
the brazen altar, and fprinkled its blood round about the 
altar. The (kin was then taken off, and the pried had-it 
for his (hare. The inwards and legs were waffled, and the 
whole dedi falted, and burnt on the altar with (acred fire. 
If the offering was a turtle or pigeon, the pried pinched oft' 
its head with his. nails; the blood was wrung out at the 
fide of the altar, and the body was freed from the garbage 
and feathers; and, being aimed; but not wholly cleft, 
was burnt on the altar. The pried arrayed himfelf in 
common apparel, and carried the allies and excrements of 
the bullock, flieep, or goat, and the allies, feathers, and 
garbage, cf the fowl, without the camp. Every burnt- 
offering, except that of the turtle and pigeon, was at¬ 
tended with a meat-offering and drink-offering. The 
burnt-offering; was the chief of all the oblations. And 
befides what was voluntary, the law required burnt- 
offerings on nine dated cccafions, viz. at all the daily, 
weekly, monthly, and annual, feafts; and, in the different 
occalional cafes of confecration of priefts, defilement of a 
Nazarite, or expiration of his vow ; and in purification 
from child-birth, leprolies, iffues, &c. Lev. i. ii. vi. vii. xxii. 
Numb. xv. xxviii. xxix. 
2. By the peace-offering, the offerer thanked God for 
mercies received, paid vows, or thought to obtain favours. 
At the confecration of a prieft, for we reckon this a peace¬ 
offering ; at the expiration of a Nazarite’s vow, it was to 
be a ram. At Pentecoft too, perhaps the two lambs were 
to be males ; but in other cafes the offered animals might 
be either male or female ; only here, as in every other 
oblation, they were to be unblemiflied ; and their num¬ 
ber might be few' or many, as the offerer pleafed. After 
the offerer had laid his hand on this victim, it was killed 
at the north fide of the altar, and its blood fprinkled round 
about the altar ; the fat that covered, the rump, and the 
inwards and kidneys, and the caul above the liver, was 
falted, and burnt on the brazen altar above the burnt- 
offering; the right bread: and (houlder, with the cheeks 
and the maw, being heaved and waved, together with a 
portion of the attendant meat-offering, were given to the 
priefts ; that they, and their fons and daughters, might 
feed thereon. The reft of the fle(h, and the reft of the 
meat-offering, was returned to the offerer, that he and his 
friends might feaft on it. If it w’as a thank-offering, the 
fleflt was to be eaten that very day; if it was a vow or 
voluntary offering, it was to be eaten that day and the 
next; and if aught remained, after the appointed time, 
it was to be burnt with fire. Lev. iii. vii. xix. xxiii. Deut. 
xviii. 3. 
3. The fin-offering was diverfified in its matter, to point 
out the different degrees of the crime, or to anfwer the 
ability of the offerer. For the fin of a prieft, or the oc- 
cafional fin of the wdiole congregation, or for the Levites 
at their confecration, it was a bullock. Exod. xxix. Lev. iv. 
xvi. Numb. viii. A male kid was the Hated (in-offering 
for the whole nation at their folemn feafts, and for the 
occalional fins of a ruler. Numb. xv. xxviii. Lev. iv. A 
female kid, or lamb, for the occalional fins of a private 
perfon ; or, if a man was fo poor that he could not afford 
a female kid, lie'gave two turtle-doves or two young- 
pigeons, the one for a fin-offering, and the other for a 
burnt-offering; or, if he could not afford thefe, he gave 
an homer of fine flour, without either oil or frankincenfe. 
Lev. iv. v. 9, 10, 11. An ewe-lamb wans the fin-offering 
for a Nazarite at the expiration of his vow ; and for a wo¬ 
man’s purification after child-birth ; or for a leper, and 
for the breach of a Nazarite’s vow. Numb. vi. Lev. xii. xiv. 
xv. The animal (in-offering was brought to the brazen 
altar; the offender transferred his guilt thereon, by lay¬ 
ing his hand on its head. Except the blood of the prieft's 
bullock and of the people’s goat, which was carried into 
the fanctuary, the blood of (in-offerings was poured out 
at the fide, or at the bottom, of the brazen altar ; the fat, 
being falted, was burnt on the altar to the Lord; and the 
reft of the oblations was the prieft’s; on the fle(h thereof, 
he and his fons feafted in the holy place. The very pots 
in which the flefli was boiled were rendered unclean ; and, 
if of earth, were broken to pieces ; but, if of metal, were 
to be rinced in water. When the blood was carried into 
the fan (St u ary, the fieffi and (kin were carried into the 
place aftigned for the allies of the burnt-offerings, and 
there burnt; fo the priefts had no (liare at all of their 
own fin-offerings, and he who burnt the flefli and (kin was 
rendered unclean. As the (in-offering of fowls had no 
fat, two were neceflary, that the one might be tiled in- 
ftead of the fat, in form of a burnt-offering; and the 
other, after its blood was poured at the altar, might, as 
the fin-offering, be given to the prieft. No blood of a (in- 
offering was to be carried out of the facred court, not fo 
much as in a fpot on the prieft’s garment, but was to be 
waflied out before he went forth. If the (In-offering was 
of meal, an handful of it was burnt on the altar inllead 
of the fat, and the refidue belonged to the prieft. Lev. iv. 
v. vi. 
4.. That the trefpafs-offering was really different from 
the fin-offering, is evident in the cafe of the leper, where 
both were conjoined ; (Lev. xiv. 10, ao.) but it is not 
eafy to (late the difference between them. Some think 
fin-offerings re (petted fins of omilfion; trefpafs-offerings, 
»ij>« 
