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is exercised, by whom its Laws are formed, from whom all property is held, to whose powerful interposition the nation owed its settlement, and on whose protection it depended for its continuance. All the blessings, therefore, which the Jew enjoyed under this constitution, and by this government, ought to have had the effect of animating his gratitude and piety to God, and enlarging his benevolence to the poor and the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, those peculiar objects of the divine patronage and protection. Is not such a scheme of government worthy of the divine Author to whom it is ascribed? and does not its establishment at so early a period, and amongst a people so apparently incapable of inventing it as the Jews, strongly attest its heavenly original?

LECTURE V.

Importance of the question, whether the Jewish Ritual is opposed to the system of Heathen worship, or in any degree borrowed from it?—The latter improbable, if Judaism is of divine original. Spencer's opinion-grounded on supposed political wisdom of such a proceeding-Examples he adduces-mistaken as to these examples-as to reformation from Judaism to Christianity—and from Gentilism to Christianity. Attempt to accommodate Christianity to pre-existing customs, &c.—its mischiefs-Reformation from Popery to Protestantism. Spencer's opinion contrary to Scripture. Parts of the Jewish Ritual more ancient than Moses-Origin of circumcision-Designed contrast between Judaism and idolatry-Jewish Ritual a barrier against idolatry, proved by experience-Josephus-Tacitus. Spencer's opinions supported by insufficient evidence. MinuteHow far Judaism resembled idolatry-Instances of contrast. ness of Ritual, how useful-and its sanctuary, priests, &c. Ritual not burthen

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ORIGINALITY AND DESIGN OF THE JEWISH RITUAL.

In the preceding Lectures an attempt has been made to contrast the theological, moral, and political principles of the Mosaic Law, with the idolatries and corruptions almost universally prevalent at the period of its promulgation, as well as with the carnal temper and short-sighted views of the Jewish people, and their proneness to imitate the worship, and sink into the corruptions of their idolatrous neighbours. And it has been inferred, that the establishment of such a system, at such a period, amongst a people so apparently incapable of inventing it, as the Jews, and so evidently unwilling to submit to it, strongly attests its heavenly original. In the prosecution of this argument, I did not judge it necessary minutely to examine a question which has been agitated by writers of considerable note. How far the apparent resemblance between certain parts of the Jewish Ritual, and certain practices of the Egyptians,

and other idolatrous nations, should induce a doubt of the originality of the Jewish Law; and lead us to believe that the Legislator of the Hebrews borrowed many of his rites from the practice of the Egyptians, and others of the surrounding nations, in order to accommodate his Ritual to the habits and propensities of his countrymen, by preserving a similarity between his institutions and those idolatrous rites and customs to which they had been familiarized and attached; and, many of which he in a great measure, retained, (as these writers suppose) only altering them so far as to change their object, appropriating them to the service of the true God, and blending them with the rites which originated solely in the divine appointment. Some judicious and candid critics have considered my omitting to notice this question, as a defect in this work. And in deference to their judgment, I feel myself called on to advert to it as far as I judge it necessary in my present view of the subject.

In the first place, then, if the principles and reasonings adduced in the preceding Lectures, and confirmed in those which follow, are just and conclusive, the supposition which we are now considering, becomes totally superfluous, and even in the highest degree improbable. If the great Jehovah, the moral Governor of the world, did in reality separate the Jewish nation to be the depositaries of true religion and sound morality, in the midst of an idolatrous world, and for this purpose brought them forth out of Egypt by a series of stupendous and uncontrolled miracles: if he promulgated to them the Moral Law of the Decalogue, with the most awful display of divine power and majesty; if he established over them, as their form of national government, a Theocracy, which could not be supported without the continued interposition of an extraordinary providence; if he retained them in the wilderness for forty years, to discipline and instruct them, until the entire generation, which had been familiarized to the idolatry and corruptions of Egypt, had perished; and if he then planted them in the land of Canaan by a supernatural power, driving out before them its inhabitants, or compelling the Jews to exterminate them, as a punishment for their inveterate idolatry and its attendant crimes, commanding them carefully to avoid all similar profanation and guilt, under the terror of suffering similar

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punishment;-if these facts have been established, so as to prove that the Jewish Lawgiver was clearly delegated by God to institute a particular form of worship, with a variety of regulations and rites, to preserve the separation of this chosen people from the surrounding nations ;-then the supposition, that he should borrow any thing from these rites and customs, in order to accommodate his system to the prejudices, habits, and propensities of his countrymen, becomes unnecessary, in proportion as we more clearly discern that he possessed authority to conciliate attention and enforce obedience without resorting to any such artifice. And if such an expedient was unnecessary, surely its adoption is extremely improbable. Thus to blend divine appointments and human inventions; to degrade the worship of the great Jehovah with the intermixture of rites, originally designed to honour the basest idols; to reprobate the whole system of idolatry, all its profanations and crimes, with the most vehement and indiscriminate condemnation, and prohibit every attempt to introduce any part of it, under the severest penalties; and yet secretly, as it were, pilfer from it some of its most attractive charms, varnish them with a new colouring, and exhibit them as the genuine features of true religion; this seems altogether irreconcilable with the dignity of an inspired Legislator, and the purity of a divine Law, and indeed forms a scheme so jarring and inconsistent, that it appears utterly incredible it should be adopted by Divine Wisdom.

*

The learned Spencer, the most distinguished champion for this opinion, of the rites of the Jewish Law having been borrowed from those of the Gentiles, especially the Egyptians, argues from the political wisdom of such a gradual reformation, by grafting new institutions on customs already familiarized; and he adduces examples from "the triple reformation, first " from Judaism to Christianity; next from Gentilism to Christianity; and lastly, from Popery to Protestantism: in each of "which (as he truly alleges) many instances occur, in which "the rites of the old religion were retained or imitated in the "new." But in this reasoning he seems entirely to overlook the real bearing of the very examples he adduces. Christianity * Spencer de Legibus Hebræorum, Lib. III. Hogæ Comitum-A. D. 1686. Spencer, ut supra, Lib. III. cap. ii. sect. 4. p. 27.

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borrowed from Judaism, because it was the completion of that system which in Judaism had been begun. Christ came, "not to destroy the Law and the prophets, but to fulfil them."* Hence the moral precepts of the Old Testament were preserved and perfected in the New; the rites and ceremonies of the Law were typical of the grand events and leading truths of the Gospel; and the chief festivals of the Jewish church were succeeded and superseded by corresponding festivals in the Christian. But the moment that human prejudice in favour of ancient usages would have overstepped the bounds prescribed by scriptural truth, and obtruded upon Christians the observances of a national and ceremonial law, inconsistent with the character of a universal religion and a purely spiritual worship, that moment Divine Wisdom interposed its direct prohibition against an abuse so mistaken and so mischievous. And can we suppose the same wisdom would have acted so opposite a part at the establishment of the Jewish Law, as to permit this chosen people to receive by divine appointment a Ritual, which, by its similarity to idolatrous rites, could scarcely fail to make them regard such profanations with respect, and throw in their way a most seductive temptation to imitate them more extensively?-Human policy, short-sighted in its views and defective in its authority, might, to facilitate its immediate objects, find it necessary to employ an expedient attended with so much future hazard; but surely this were unworthy of a Divine Lawgiver.

The second example appealed to by Spencer-the reformation from Gentilism to Christianity, as conducted by the well-meaning, but weak and mistaken men, who influenced the proceedings of the Western Church in the fifth and sixth centuries, exhibits a memorable and melancholy instance of the corruptions originating from thus preferring the crooked artifices of human policy, to the plain dictates of divine truth. From what other source than this were derived the errors and idolatries adopted and sanctioned by the Church of Rome ‡ which for so many ages obscured and disgraced the whole system of the Christian faith, till the wise and manly zeal of the Protestant Reformers tore off this disfiguring mask of Paganism, and again exhibited

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Vide Middleton's Comparison of Popery and Paganism, 4th edit. Lond. 1741.

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