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diate punishment declared to be inflicted for their offences. Where it is not, we are undoubtedly called on to compare their conduct with the PERFECT MODEL of our LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, and by this comparison judge how far they are worthy of our imitation; adopting the sentiment of the Apostle, who declared, *" For such an High Priest became us, who "is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those "high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and "then for the people: for this he did once, when he offered up "himself. For the law maketh men high priests which have "infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, "maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore."

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I shall here close these remarks, by entreating my younger readers, that in considering this as well as every succeeding part of the Jewish dispensation, they may recollect, that the effects arising from it were at no one period so complete and extensive, as to justify us in supposing the state of things at that period was that on which Providence rested as perfect and final. No, it was still a system in progress. To this hour the Jewish scheme is yet in progress. Important as are the effects it has already produced, still the singular situation of this people at this moment, (outcast as they appear to be from the kingdom of Christ,) when compared with the prophetic declaration of their future conversion, after the "fulness of the Gentiles shall have "come in,"† must convince us, that we cannot yet fathom the counsels of God, in the entire series of the divine economy Yet we perceive its perpetual tendency :-sometimes to produce in the whole mass of the Jewish nation, an increasing sense of virtue and religion, by counteracting their prejudices and errors, and punishing their crimes and apostasies; sometimes leading a chosen few within the bosom of this nation, to far higher attainments in piety, and making them the instruments of impressing religious instruction, and religious sentiments, not so much on their immediate countrymen, as on remote nations in remote ages; and thus at a great distance preparing the way for the Christian scheme.

Finally, let it be recollected, that the design of the Jewish economy was not solely or chiefly to preserve the Jews themselve † Rom. xi. 25.

*Heb. vii. 26-28.

in perfect separation from the surrounding nations, and in perfect obedience to the divine law; so that where this effect was not fully produced, it should be supposed to have failed in accomplishing its purpose. No, the GREAT OBJECT of this dispensation was, to preserve in the world, a STANDING MONUMENT and a stand

ING PROOF OF THE UNITY, THE SUPREMACY, AND THE PROVIDENCE OF

JEHOVAH. And this effect was perpetually and uniformly produced in all the periods, and by all the events of the Jewish history. Whether the Jews were obedient and prosperous, or idolatrous and depressed, in their apostasies and captivities, as well as their repentance and restorations, the power and providence of Jehovah were equally conspicuous. And, so far as concerned the great bulk of mankind, the interests of religion equally promoted and secured, and that providential dispensation successfully conducted, which was necessary to prepare for ad introduce the GOSPEL of CHRIST.

LECTURE III.

SANCTIONS OF THE JEWISH LAW.

PECT. I.-Objections against the Mosaic Law, from its employing temporal sanctions— and visiting the iniquities of the fathers on the children, Warburton's opinion on this subject—his Work incomplete-—his reasoning not perfectly conclusive—how far I agree with, and how far I differ from, his opinion. Two conclusions seem true: first, that Moses employed temporal sanctions in his Law: second, the history of the Old Testament shows he believed a future state, and contains a gradual development of it. Moses employs temporal sanctions both nationally and individually—This ac counted for-from the nature of the Jewish theocracy-Reality of the extraordinary providence exercised over the Jews proved in this Work, without resorting to Warburton's medium-Temporal sanctions sufficient-necessary to confute idolatry—adapted to the intellectual and moral character of the Jews-best mode of introducing the doctrine of a future state with effect-a necessary part of the theocracy—exemplified to man the principles of God's moral government.

DEUTERONOMY, xxx. 15, 16.

"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee "this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, and "his statutes, and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God "shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it."

In reviewing the system of religion and policy established by the Jewish Lawgiver, two circumstances claim particular attention: one, that the rewards and punishments of a future life were not inculcated by Moses as sanctions of his laws; and the other, that he has employed as a sanction the declaration, that "God would visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children "to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him; and "show mercy unto the thousandth generation of them who should "love him, and keep his commandments.*

Both these circumstances have been the subject of long and warm discussion. The former has been objected to as an omission of necessary truth, which no genuine revelation could

Exod. xx. 5, 6.

overlook; and the latter has been represented as a violation of natural justice, which God cannot be supposed to perpetrate or authorize." While, on the other side, the defenders of revelation contend, that both these circumstances naturally arise from the peculiar character and views of the Jewish law, and are closely connected with the reality of that extraordinary providence by which the Jewish scheme was introduced and supported; and therefore, far from being inconsistent with the divine original of that system, they, on the contrary, illustrate and confirm it.

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On this subject the celebrated Warburton has peculiarly distinguished himself: to do him justice, I shall state his argu ment in his own words.t "In reading the law and history of "the Jews, with all the attention I could give to them, amongst "the many circumstances peculiar to that amazing dispensation, "(from several of which, as I conceive, the divinity of its origin may be fairly proved) these two particulars most forcibly struck my observation; the omission of the doctrine of a "future state, and the administration of an extraordinary provi"dence. As unaccountable as the first circumstance appeared, "when considered separately and alone, yet when set against "the other, and their mutual relations examined and compared, "the omission was not only well explained, but was found to "be an invincible medium for the proof of the divine legation "of Moses: which, as unbelievers had been long accustomed "to decry from this very circumstance, I chose it preferably to any other. The argument appeared to me in a supreme degree strong and simple, and not needing many words to en"force it, or, when enforced, to make it well understood."

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Religion hath always been held necessary to the support of "civil society, because human laws alone are ineffectual to "restrain men from evil with a force sufficient to carry on the "affairs of public regimen; and (under the common dispensa❝tion of Providence) a future state of rewards and punishments

* These objections have been brought forward by a number of infidel writers, Vide their arguments, collected and answered by Warburton, Div. Leg. Vol. IV. In the appendix to his Fifth Book, he refutes those of Bolingbroke. Vide also Leland's View of the Deistical Writers, Vol. II. Letters xxv. xxvii. xxx, and xxxiii. Vide also Leland's Answer to Morgan, ch. xi. Vide also Calmet's Dissertation s la Nature de l'Ame, Tom. xxvi. p. 196.

+ Warburton's Divine Legation, B. VI. sect. vi. the Recapitulation. p. 362..

is confessed to be as necessary to the support of religion, because nothing else can remove the objections to God's moral government under a providence so apparently unequal, whose ' phenomena are apt to disturb the serious professors of religion "with doubts and suspicions concerning it, as it is of the 'essence of religious profession to believe, that God is a rewarder "of them that diligently seek him.

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"Moses, who instituted a religion and a republic, and incorporated them into one another, stands single amongst ancient " and modern lawgivers, in teaching a religion without the "sanction, or even so much as the mention of a future state of "rewards and punishments. The same Moses, with a singularity as great, by uniting the religion and civil community of "the Jews into one incorporated body, made God, by natural "consequence, their supreme civil magistrate, whereby the form "of government arising from thence became truly and essentially a THEOCRACY. But as the administration of govern"ment necessarily follows its form, that before us could be "no other than an extraordinary or equal providence. And "such indeed not only the Jewish Lawgiver himself, but all "the succeeding rulers and prophets of this republic, have invariably represented it to be. In the meantime, no lawgiver or founder of religion amongst any other people ever promised "so singular a distinction; no historian ever dared to record so "remarkable a prerogative. This being the true and acknowledged state of the case, whenever the unbeliever attempts "to disprove, and the advocate of religion to support, the divinity of the Mosaic dispensation, the obvious question (if each be willing to bring it to a speedy decision) will "be, whether the extraordinary providence thus prophetically "promised, and afterwards historically recorded to be performed, was real, or pretended only. We believers hold that it "was real and I, as an advocate for Revelation, undertake to prove it was so: employing for this purpose as my medium, "the omission of a future state of rewards and punishments, "the argument stands thus.

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"If religion be necessary to civil government, and if religion "cannot subsist under the common dispensation of Providence, "without a future state of rewards and punishments; so con "summate a lawgiver would never have neglected to inculcate

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