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form the mind to steady rectitude, internal purity, and sincere devotion. One instance as more immediately connected with this subject, I will briefly mention.*

For every transgression, the Levitical Law prescribed a trespass-offering: where the transgression was of a mere ritual precept, and committed without deliberation or design, when discovered the trespass-offering was sufficient alone; for this

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which had been made of brazen mirrors he remarks, "The priests, who were about to enter the temple, were to purify themselves, washing their hands and feet as a symbol "of innocency of life, and of a pure livelihood, obtained by praiseworthy means: and "each should remember that the materials of this vessel were mirrors; so that each "should contemplate his own mind as it were in a mirror; and if he should discover in "it the turpitude of irrational affection, or the immoderate love of pleasure, or grief "depressing him to excess, or turning him from rectitude, or desire stimulating him to "any thing forbidden, he should reform and cure it, and study to acquire the pure and "genuine beauty of the mind." But all Philo's works are so full of this, especially this beautiful Tract on Philanthropy or Charity,t that it is unnecessary to multiply quotations.

The celebrated Maimonides, in his "More Nevochim," or "Instructor of those "who are perplexed," a work containing many judicious and learned elucidations of Scripture difficulties, and particularly an excellent exposition of the grounds and reasons of the Mosaic Laws; and who, having published a laborious comment on the Mischna or system of Jewish traditions, may be supposed to speak the general sense of the Jewish Rabbinical doctors, has an express chapter, (Part III. ch. xxxiii.) to show, "That the prohibition of external uncleanness and impurity by the Law, is instru. "mental of and subservient to the purification of the heart :" and has these strong words: "Cleanliness of dress, washing of the body, and the removal of all dirt and squalidness, "is certainly the intention of the Law; but subordinate to the purification of the con"duct and the heart, from depraved opinions and corrupt morals. For, to think that "exterior purity, by ablutions of the body and the dress, can be sufficient, though in "other respects a man indulges himself in gluttony and drunkenness, is the extremest 66 madness."

Such are the sentiments of this celebrated Rabbi, conformable to the obvious intention of the Law, and we may be assured, to the sentiments of all pious and reflecting Jews, in every period of their nation. Consult, on this subject, Mr Moses Lowman, on the Hebrew Ritual. If the student wishes for a still more learned disquisition, he will find it in Maimonides More Nevochim, Part III. from chap. xxvi. to the end; Spencer de Legibus Hebræorum, Lib. I. from ch. iv. to the end, and the entire of the second book; observing, however, that the system of this learned writer is in many points successfully combated by Witsius. Vide Witsii Ægyptiaca, Lib. III. who appears to establish his opinion, notwithstanding that Warburton has espoused the scheme of Spencer. Vide the Fifth Lecture of this Part; also, the Divine Legation, B. IV. sect. vi.

* Vide Levit. ch. v. and vi. ; also Numb. v. 7, &c.

words as closely as I could. No part of his works has been translated into English, (so far as I know,) though certainly many parts deserve it.--For Josephus, I generally adopt Whiston's Translation, + Vide his Works, v. 539.

showed that the offender acknowledged the authority of the Law which he had unintentionally violated. But where the transgression included any encroachment on the rights of another, the trespass-offering could not be received, except it was accompanied by a public acknowledgment of the offence, a resignation of the usurped property, and a restitution to the person injured, if he or his heir could be found; if not, the usurped property was to be consecrated to pious uses, as the offender could not procure pardon while he retained it. What regulation could point out more clearly the inefficacy of sacrifice, where guilt was not unfeignedly repented of, and all the advantages, which had tempted to its perpetration, renounced and resigned, and where full restitution to the injured individual did not accompany humiliation before God?

Another observation on this subject, of great weight is, that the reverence which the Jew was taught his God required, is perpetually represented not as terminating in prayers and religious services alone: but as a practical principle, which was to regulate his conduct towards his neighbour, and display itself by judg ment, by justice, by humanity, and particularly by showing mercy to the poor and the stranger, the widow and the fatherless, to whom God is represented as bearing the peculiar relation of patron, protector, and friend. I might adduce numerous passages to establish this significancy of circumcision, and this practical application of the reverence due to God. But I shall content myself with one decisive of both; even the solemn requisition of their Legislator when he recapitulates their Laws, and denounces the curses which should follow their violation, and the blessings which should reward their observance-a passage* which includes and contains all the arguments I have advanced on this topic. "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, "but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to "love him, and to serve the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, "and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and his statutes which I command thee this day for thy good? Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens is "the Lord thy God's, the earth also with all that therein is. Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and

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*Deut. x. 12. &c.

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"he chose their seed after them, even you, above all people, as "it is this day. CIRCUMCISE THEREFORE THE FORESKIN OF YOUR " HEART, and be no more stiffnecked. For the Lord your God " is God of gods, a great God, a mighty and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. He doth execute "the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the "stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore "the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. "Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and "to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. He is thy "praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great "and terrible things which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers "went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars in heaven "for multitude. Therefore shalt thou love the Lord thy God, "and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments and "his commandments alway"

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Thus on a REVIEW of the topics we have discussed, it appears that the Jewish Law promulgated the great principles of moral duty in the Decalogue, with a solemnity suited to their high preeminence that it enjoined love to God with the most unceasing solicitude, and love to our neighbour, as extensively and forcibly, as the peculiar design of the Jewish economy, and the peculiar character of the Jewish people, would permit: that it impressed the deepest conviction of God's requiring, not mere external observances, but heartfelt piety, well regulated desires, and active benevolence that it taught sacrifice could not obtain pardon without repentance, or repentance without reformation and restitution; that it described circumcision itself, and by consequence, every other legal rite, as designed to typify and inculcate internal holiness, which alone could render men acceptable to God: that it represented the love of God as designed to act as a practical principle, stimulating to the constant and sincere cultivation of purity, mercy and truth: and that it enforced all these principles and precepts by sanctions the most likely to operate powerfully on minds unaccustomed to abstract speculations and remote views, even by temporal rewards and punishments; the assurance of which was confirmed from the immediate experience of similar rewards and punishments, dispensed to their enemies and to themselves, by that supernatural Power which had delivered to

Hebrew nation out of Egypt, conducted them through the wilderness, planted them in the land of Canaan, regulated their government, distributed their possessions, and to which alone. they could look to obtain new blessings, or secure those already enjoyed. From all this I derive another presumptive argument for the divine authority of the Mosaic Code; and I contend, that a moral system thus perfect, promulgated at so early a period, to such a people, and enforced by such sanctions as no human power could undertake to execute, strongly bespeaks a divine original.

K

LECTURE III.

The Penal Code of the Jewish Law conformable to its moral and religious system. Capital crimes. Idolatry, and the various crimes connected with it. Strict prohibition of human sacrifices. Supplementary sanctions, pre-supposing a special Providence. Jewish constitution a Theocracy. Severity against idolatry justified. Jewish Law vrohibits all impurity-yet not unnaturally austere. Disobedience to parents how punished. Wisdom of the Mosaic Law, respecting murder and manslaughter—with respect to slavery—and false witnesses. Principle of retaliation explained. Equity of punishment for the invasion of property. Mildness of Laws towards slaves. Form of trial. Consistence of the Religious and Penal Code.

EXODUS, xxi. 14.

"If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile: thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die."

In the last Lecture we reviewed the Moral Precepts of the Jewish Law, and the practical tendency of the Jewish Ritual; which appeared worthy of that divine original to which they are ascribed. But these religious commands and general principles of morality, however useful and important, could not alone be sufficient to form the character, and regulate the conduct of the nation, if unsupported by civil laws. And as the entire constitution of the Jews, civil and religious, was attributed to the same divine authority; in order to show it was not unworthy of such a sacred origin, it is necessary to examine how far the PENAL CODE* of the Jewish Law was conformable to the principles of its religious system, and the moral instructions of its Legislator.

In examining the Mosaic penal code, we find that at the head of its capital crimes was placed IDOLATRY.† Not only the act itself, but every attempt to seduce men to it, and every mode or conduct which presupposed or obviously led to it. Against this offence the strictest rigour was exercised: no partiality for the dearest relative was to induce concealment; no dignity to silence

Consult on this subject Maimonides More Nevochim, Pars III. cap. xli., and Spencer's Dissertatio de Theocratia Judaica, præcipue cap. vi. p. 204. + Vide Maimonides More Nevochim, cap. xxxii.

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