24. There ought also to be but one temple for one God; for
likeness is the constant foundation of agreement. This temple
ought to be common to all men, because he is the common
God of all men. High priests are to be continually about his
worship, over whom he that is the first by his birth is to be
their ruler perpetually. His business must be to offer
sacrifices to God, together with those priests that are joined
with him, to see that the laws be observed, to determine
controversies, and to punish those that are convicted of
injustice; while he that does not submit to him shall be
subject to the same punishment, as if he had been guilty of
impiety towards God himself. When we offer sacrifices to
him, we do it not in order to surfeit ourselves, or to be
drunken; for such excesses are against the will of God, and
would be an occasion of injuries and of luxury; but by
keeping ourselves sober, orderly, and ready for our other
occupations, and being more temperate than others. And for
our duty at the sacrifices (22) themselves, we ought, in the
first place, to pray for the common welfare of all, and after
that for our own; for we are made for fellowship one with
another, and he who prefers the common good before what is
peculiar to himself is above all acceptable to God. And let
our prayers and supplications be made humbly to God, not
[so much] that he would give us what is good, (for he hath
already given that of his own accord, and hath proposed the
same publicly to all,) as that we may duly receive it, and
when we have received it, may preserve it. Now the law has
appointed several purifications at our sacrifices, whereby we
are cleansed after a funeral, after what sometimes happens to