C'nurcli-kmls, ornaments, &g, are held sacred, The sacred cobTrge is that of the cardinals. ....

Sacred Tikcture. See Pharmacy.

. SACRIFICE, .an offering made to God on an altar, by meansof a regular minister, as an acknowledgement of his power, and apayment of homage. Sacriiices (though the term is sometimesused to comprehend all the. offerings made to God , or in any waydevoted to bis service and honour) differ .from mere oblations inthis, that in a saorhiee there is a.real destruction or change of thething offered ; whereas an oblation is only a simple offering of gift,without any such change at all: thus, all sorts of tylhes, and first-fruits, aijd whatever of men’s worldly substance is consecrated toGod , for the support of his worship, and the maintenance of hisministers, are offerings' or oblations: and these, under the Jewish jaw, were either of living creatures or other things: but sacrifices, :in. the,more peculiar sense of the term, were either wholly, or inpart, consumed by tire. They have by divines been divided intobloody and unbloody. Bloody sacriiices were made of livingcreatures; unbloody"of the fruits of the earth. They have alsobeen divided into expiatory, impelralory, and eucharistical. Thefirst kind were offered to obtain of God forgiveness of sins; the^second, to procure some favour,; and the third, to express thank-fulness for favours already received. Under ..one or other of theseheads may all sacrifices be arranged ; though we are told that the.Egyptians had 60ti ditierent kinds, a number surpassing all credi-bility. Some persons of great, name, who admit the authenticityof the Jewish and Christian sacrifices, and firmly rely on theatonement made by Christ, are yet unwilling to allow that sacri-fices were originally instituted bv God . Of this way of thinkingwere St. Chrysostom, Spenser, Grotius , and Wavburton, as werelikewise the Jews Maimonkles, 1L Levi, Ben Gerson, and Abar-banel. The greater part of these writers maintained, that sacri-fices were at first a human institution; and that God , to preventtheir being oflered to idols, introduced them iuto his service,though lie did not approve of them as good in themselves, or asproper rites of worship. That the infinitely wise and g-ood God should, introduce into his service improper rites of worship, appearsto us so extremely improbable, that we wonder how such an opi-nion should ever have entered into the minds of such learnedmen. Warburlon’s theory of sacrifice is more plausible. Accord-ing Vo this ingenious prelate, sacrifices had their origin in the sen-timents of the human heart, and in the ancient mode of conversingby action in aid of wouls. Gralitude to God for benefits received)i natural to the mind of man, as well as his bounden duty. Im-petratory or, precative sacrifices had, lie thinks, the same" origin,and were contrived to express by action an invocation for the con-tinuance of God ’s favour... “ Expiatory sacrifices (he adds) werein their own nature as intelligible, and in practice as rational, as.cither of the other two. Here some chosen animal, precious tothe repenting criminal, who’deprecates (he Deity who is to be ap-peased, was offered up and slain at the altar* ail action which, inall languages, speaks to this purpose; ‘ I confess my transgressionsat thy footstool, O my God ! and with the deepest contrition im-plore thy pardon. And 1 own that I myself deserve the deathxvhich I now inflict on this animal.’ (See Divine Legation, B.1X- 2.) '1 his system of sacrifice, which his lordship thinks .so

w ell supported by the most early movements of simple nature, weadmit to be ingenious, but by no means satisfactory. That man-kind in the earlier ages of the world were accustomed to supplyae deficiencies of their language by expressive gesticulations, weai< -‘ not inclined to controvert: the custom still prevails amongsavage nations, or nations half civilized. His lordship, however,of opinion, and we agree with him, that our first parents were in-rucled by God to make articulate sounds significant of ideas, no-ai 'd things, and not left to fabricate a language for them-' - ves ‘ That this heaven-taught language could be at first co-vvb'l’ "I 0 man wl ^ suppose who thinks' of the paucity of ideasits'n ■' '° Se w ^° sp°ke it had to express; but when we considerhurl ' “i" 1 ’- ", e , ca,,not doubt but that it was precise and perspicuous,durably adapted to all the real purposes of life. Amongn , . P oses must surely be included tiie worship of God as theinto ivn-r llant °fydk Every sentiment, therefore, which entersthe nrnfff.J'v’ 8 rat itude, invocation, confession, and deprecation,Words Hip 11 , ° fS ° . m;l| ikind were undoubtedly taught to clothe invoi., iv-1'no S j^ n T lc awt and unequivocal; but we know from

Moses, that Cain and Abel , the eldest children of pur first parents,worshipped God by the rites of sacrifice; and we cannot supposethat this practice occurred to them from their having so far forgot-ten the language (aught them by their father, as to be under thenecessity of denoting by action what they could not express bywords, The two chief observances in the Jewish ritual were thesabbath and sacriiices. Though the distinction of weeks was wellknown o.vcr all the easternWorld, the Hebrews, during their resi-dence in Egypt , were probably very negligent in-their observanceof the Sabbath . To enforce a religious observance of that sacredday, it became necessary to inform them of the time and occasionof its first institution, that they might keep it holy in memory ofthe creation ; but, in a country like Egypt , the people were indanger of lidding sacrifices rather in loo high than too iow venera-tion, so that there was not the same necessity (of mentioning ex-plicitly the early institution of them. It was sufficient that theyknew (lie divine institution of their own sacrifices,'and the pur-poses for which they were offered. Besides this, there is reason tobelieve that, to guard the Hebrews from the infections of tin: hea-then, the rite of sacrificing was loaded with many additional cere-monies at its second institution uncle.r More?, 'But the bishopthinks tliat sacrifices had their origin from the fight of natural rea-son. That ignorant pagans, adoring as gods departed heroes, whostill retaining their sensual appetites, might naturally think of ap-peasing such beings with the fat of fed beasts, and the perfumes ofthe altar, we have admitted ; but that Cain and Abel , who knewthat the God whom they adored has neither body, parts, nor pas-sions; that lie created and sustains the universe; and that from hisvery nature he must will the happiness of all his creatures, shouldlie led by the light, of natural reason to think of appeasing him, orobtaining favours from him, by putting to death harmless animals,is a position which no arguments of his lordship can ever lead usto admit. Abel ’s sacrifice was accepted, not because it proceededfrom the movements of. the human mind, but because, it was offer-ed through faith. The light of natural reason, however, does notgenerate faith, but science; and when it fails of that its offspringis absurdity. “ Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evi-dence of things not seen,” and comes not by reasoning, but byhearing. What tilings then were they of which Abel had heard",for which lie hoped, and in the faith of which he offered sacrifice ?Undoubtedly it was a restoration to that immortality which wasforfeited by die transgression of his parents. Of such redemptionan obscure intimation had been given to Adam, in the promisethat die seed of the 'woman should bruise the head of the serpent;and it was doubtless to impress upon his mind in more strikingcolours the manner in which this was to be done, that bloody sa-crifices were first instituted. As long as such rites were thus un-derstood, they constituted a perfectly rational worsiiip, as theyshewed the people that the wages of sin is death; but when mensunk into idolatry,. and lost all hopes of a resurrection from thedead, the slaughtering of animals to appease their deities was apractice grossly superstitious. It rested in itself without pointingto any farther end, and the grovelling worshippers believed, that.by their sacrifices they purchased tiie favour of their deities.When once this notion was entertained, human sacrifices weresoon introduced. By the Jewish law, these abominable offeringswere strictly forbidden, and the whole ritual of sacrifice restoredto its original purity.

SACRILEGE, means the crime of alienating to laymen, orcommon purposes, vvhat was given to religious persons and pioususes.

SACRISTAN , the same with sexton.

SACRISTY , the same with vestry.

SACROBOSCQ, Joaxjjks de, dr JOHN IIOLYWOOD, crHALIFAX, a celebrated mathematician of the 13tli century, saidby English biographers to have been born at Halifax in Yorkshire ,but both Scots'and Irish writers claim him as their countryman!After receiving his education at Oxford, lie entered into orders!and went to Paris , where he died in 1256. He wrote L DeSpha-ri Mundi: 2. De Anni Ratione: 3. Dc-Algorismo.

SADDLE, is a.seat upon a horse’s back, contrived for the con-. veniency of the rider. A hunting-saddle is composed of two bows,two bands, fore-bolsters, pamiels, and saddle-straps; and the greatsaddle has, besides these parts, corks, hind-boislers, and a trousse-qulu. The ponnnelis common to both.

6 P SADDUCEES,