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النشر الإلكتروني

Iwell with each other as with the different situations in which Moses, its supposed author, is placed, and the different views and feelings which would naturally arise from them; and this, discovering itself in COINCIDENCES SO MINUTE, SO LATENT, SO INDIRECT, AND EVIDENTLY UNDESIGNED, that nothing could have produced them but reality and truth, influencing the mind, and directing the pen of the legislator.

Further, lest it should be imagined the common facts were indeed related by Moses himself, but that the miracles may have been afterwards interpolated by some different and later hand, I endeavoured to prove in the Fourth Lecture, that the same exact suitableness of the sentiments and language of Moses to the situations in which he was placed, the same NATURAL AND UNDESIGNED COINCIDENCES between the address to the people in Deuteronomy, and the direct narrative in the preceding books which had been observed as to the common facts, were equally apparent in the manner in which the miracles were related and alluded to; and that the whole series of facts, common and miraculous, are blended together in one uniform and consistent narrative; all related by the same writer, and with equal artlessness, fidelity, and precision, and equal regard to nature and truth.

Having thus far pointed out the general character of the Pentateuch; having evinced that its common facts are beyond all doubt true, as well as inseparably connected with, and DEPENDENT ON THE MIRACULOUS; and shown, that the relation of all the facts both common and miraculous, is evidently the work of an eye-witness, bearing with it the strongest internal characters of simplicity, impartiality, and truth; also that it is next to a certainty, that this eye-witness could be no other than Moses himself having thus prepared the way; I have in this Lecture considered the particular detail of the miracles recorded in the Pentateuch, and the proofs on which they depend; and it has I trust appeared, that the four (I may venture to call them) infallible marks of truth, which the acute mind of the celebrated Leslie has pointed out, clearly apply to them; that they were, in the first place wrought most publicly; two nations affected by them, and above two millions of souls for forty years together witnessing them. Next, that they were of such a na

* Vide Lecture V.

ture, that men's senses could not be mistaken, either as to the existence of the facts, or their reason deluded in ascribing to them a supernatural original. They could not therefore have gained credit in any nation at the time they were said to have taken place, if they had not been real. And if we suppose any attempt to impose them on the credulity of after ages at any subsequent period, this also has appeared impossible; because, in the third place, the history of these miracles states, not only that sensible monuments of many of them, were set from the very

up

time of the events, but that, lastly, outward actions and observances, public rites and institutions, had been appointed to commemorate them, commencing at the very time of their existence, and afterwards uninterruptedly continued.

In a word, it has I trust appeared, that these miracles were the foundation of the entire frame of the Hebrew polity and religion, clearly and indelibly recorded in all their rites and institutions; expressly commemorated in the three great festivals of the Jewish ritual, and recognised as the principles on which the tenure and regulations of property were founded; a point the more important, because however cold and indifferent nations sometimes become about religion, they never become careless as to property. And finally, we have observed in the Hebrew laws and ritual, a connexion between the religion and government, of so close a nature, and regulations of so singular a kind, as evidently pre-suppose the expectation of a peculiar Providence an expectation which could be founded on nothing but the certainty of the Mosaic miracles, and which therefore forms the strongest proof of their reality, and the most authentic record of their existence. From all this we are, I think, warranted in concluding, That the MIRACLES ASCRIBED TO THE JEWISH LAWGIVER WERE UNDOUBTEDLY REAL; AND THEREFOPE HIS

MISSION UNDOUBTEDLY DIVINE.

PART II.

ON THE THEOLOGICAL, MORAL, AND POLIT CAL
PRINCIPLES OF THE MOSAIC LAW.

Theology of the Mosaic Law,

LECTURE I.

General subject and arrangement of this Part. Origin,
Corruption of Patriarchal religion—By the worship

nature, and effects of idolatry.

of the heavenly bodies-The elements-Deified men. Egyptian hieroglyphics introduce

the worship of animals and vegetables, &c.

Connexion of idolatry with magic, &c.

Vices attending it. Design of cove

Idolatry not to be checked by ordinary means. nant with Abraham. Jewish scheme conducted according to the analogy of nature. Theology of the Mosaic Law-Declares the self-existence of God-His unity-His moral perfections-His providence. Such a Theology affords a strong presumptive argument of a divine revelation.

EXODUS, iii. 14, 15.

"And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the chil"dren of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt "thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the "God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you; this is my name for ever, and this "is my memorial unto all generations."

In the series of Lectures which I am now called upon to deliver, it is my purpose to endeavour to illustrate and defend that part of revelation, which contains the scheme of directions and insti tutions promulgated from God to the Jews by the ministry o. their celebrated Lawgiver.

In considering the Mosaic code as a system of religious doc trines and moral laws, it seems necessary, first, to review the doctrines which it delivers, as to the existence and attributes of God: next to develope the principles it lays down, and the precepts it inculcates, on the chief points of moral duty: thirdly,"

to examine how far it supports these principles and precepts, by a suitable system of penal Laws; and by that institution of civil government, which the Jewish Lawgiver ascribes to the same divine authority from which his religious scheme originated. Having thus taken a general view of the Hebrew religion and government, we shall be prepared to estimate, on what foundation the chief objections against them rest; and whether the Mosaic institutions deserve to be slighted, as containing little more than a multitude of useless, burdensome, unmeaning ceremonies, ill calculated to promote true religion and pure morality; or to be abused as inculcating unsocial principles, and commanding or encouraging inhuman practices.

To prepare our minds for estimating justly the necessity and importance of the Jewish code, as a system of religious institutions, it is necessary to recall to our recollection the nature, extent, and effects of that gross idolatry, which had overspread the world at the time of its promulgation; since the Jewish Lawgiver states it to be one chief design of that system of religious and civil institutions, which he delivered to his nation by the appointment of God, to guard them against the infection of idolatry, and its attendant crimes; to separate unto himself a holy people, who by a steady adherence to the code of laws he had prescribed, should preserve amongst them a system of rational faith, and pure morality. "When the Lord thy God shall cut "off the nations from before thee, take heed to thyself that thou "enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations 66 serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not "do so unto the Lord thy God; for every abomination to the "Lord which he hateth have they done unto their gods: for even "their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to "their gods. Whatsoever thing I shall command you, observe "to do it thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it."* From this emphatic injunction, not to add to or diminish aught from the Mosaic code, it appears that every part of it had a direct and necessary connexion with its main design; and that in order to discover and to expound the purpose and the relation of its various parts, it is necessary previously to consider the origin and the nature of that idolatry, against which it was calculated to guard.

* Deut xii. 29, &c.

That the worship of the one true God was the religion of Noah and his posterity before the dispersion of mankind, admits not a doubt. In this primitive and patriarchal religion, as incidentally disclosed by Moses, we discover the leading characters of that worship which was afterwards restored and guarded by the Jewish institutions; and which was calculated to preserve the knowledge of God, as the Creator of the world, by the observance of the Sabbath; as well as to inculcate the heinousness of sin, and typify the death of Christ, by the use of sacrifice. These simple ceremonies, together with the observance of the great rules of morality, and the prohibition of blood, in order to excite a stronger abhorrence against shedding the blood of one another, formed the entire exterior of the religion of Noah. The higher we are able to trace the history of every ancient nation, and the nearer we approach the sources of Eastern tradition, the more plain traces do we discover of this pure and simple worship; in which every father of a family acted as its priest, and assembled his progeny round the rustic altar of earth, to join in the sacrifice and the prayers he offered to the Creator and Governor of the world; to deprecate his wrath, and implore his blessing.

*

But the corrupt imaginations of men's hearts would not permit them to rest satisfied with a religion so pure and a ritual so simple they looked to the sun in its glory, they observed the moon and the stars walking in their brightness: they felt the benefits which through their influence were derived to men. They perhaps first considered them as the peculiar residence, or the chief ministers, or the most worthy representatives, of the Divinity; and in honouring and worshipping them, possibly conceived they were honouring the majesty, and fulfilling the will of their Creator. But they soon forgot the Creator whom they could not see, and gave his glory to the creature, whose existence was obvious to sense and captivating to the imagination. They seemed to have conceived these luminaries to be moved and animated by distinct and independent spirits,† and therefore fit

* Vide Job, xxxi. 26, 27. Deut. iv. 19. Wisdom of Sol. xiii. 2, 3. Maimonides de Idololatria, the five first chapters. Diod. Siculus, Lib. 1. cap. 1. Euseb. Præpar. Evang. Lib. 1. cap. ix. Herodotus, Clio, cap. cxxxi. Plato in Cratylus, p. 397.Vide also Banier's Mythology, Book III. ch. iii. Leland's Advantage of Revelation, Part I. ch. iii. And Bryant's Analys. of Mythology, who affirms, the gods of Greece were originally one god, the sun. Vol. I. 305.

† Cicero de Natura Deorum, Lib. II. cap. xv. to xxiii.

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