Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

of trumpets, on the first day of the civil year, were all intended to impress the Israelites with a deep sense of the superintending care of God at all times and in all places.-Nor did the ceremonial law inculcate a general providence only; it also taught the particular interest which Jehovah took in the works of his hands: for the whole of it encouraged every Hebrew to ask every blessing from Jehovah as their God; and to fear the evils denounced on disobedience as inflicted by him. Indeed, every sacrifice and offering were constant evidences of this truth, and encouragements to this hope: for they taught that, while God superintended the general affairs of the universe, he took a particular interest in the family of Abraham. The Hebrew worship also taught the necessity of holiness in every worshipper: for, if we consider the directions for consecrating the tabernacle and temple, for hallowing the sanctuary, for purifying and consecrating the priests and Levites, that they might be hallowed to minister before Jehovah, we shall easily observe that they all taught holiness to the Lord. Indeed, nothing unholy or unclean were allowed to approach the presence, till cleansed by the washings and sacrifices it directed; and such purity in lesser matters inferred a holiness of a higher nature, and taught the importance of being holy as God is holy, as well as of being holy because he is so. farther on this part of the subject, that the ceremonial law inculcated the doctrine of rewards and punishments, for it was sanctioned by them. The Hebrew law consisted of three parts, the moral, ceremonial, and judicial: the two last of which were, properly speaking, the law of God by Moses; for the moral law was given together with the very nature of man at his first creation. Now the ceremonial and judicial laws had their proper sanction in temporal rewards and punishments: but the

Let it only be remarked

:

moral law had from the beginning its sanction in future rewards and punishments and so actually had them at the very time it was promulgated from Sinai, and on the same evidence that had been given to Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and all the pious patriarchs. I enter not into the dispute how far the doctrine of a future state entered into the design of the Mosaical law, as a constituent part of that constitution. It is sufficient for us at present to know, that the Hebrews did not remain ignorant of these future rewards and punishments under their ritual; and did actually believe them from the common principles that made these doctrines the faith of their forefathers, and the belief of all the nations of the earth. Could they not learn, for instance, and did they not infer (as Lowman has justly observed in his Rationale of the Jewish Ritual,) from the translation of Enoch, the obedience of Noah, and faith of Abraham, that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him? When God appeared to Moses, and sent him to deliver the oppressed Israelites, he revealed himself under this title, "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob." But these were all dead, and had not received the promises, and yet God makes himself known by the name of their God. If the Hebrews therefore believed the immortality of the soul, as we see they did, and if they believed that God was the rewarder of those who diligently sought him, as they accounted Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to have done, without receiving the promises, might they not have concluded, that God is not the God of the dead but of the living; and that he, as their God, who had promised to be their exceeding great reward, would give them an inheritance in his heavenly city, and crown them with immortality in that better country, even an heavenly, which they so ardently sought after ?-Such

then was the first design of the ceremonial law. It taught the Jews the leading doctrines of religion in a sensible and impressive manner; confirming thus, what the moral law had said concerning the unity of God, a general and particular providence, the necessity of holiness in those who approach him, and the doctrine of rewards and punishments.

A second use of the ceremonial law was to preserve the Israelites from idolatry; and this it did in various ways. 1st, By removing that ignorance of God which introduced idolatry. 2dly, By giving them a full and perfect ritual of their own. 3dly, By appointing certain public marks to distinguish them from idolaters. 4thly, By restricting most of their sacred rites to particular places, persons, and times. 5thly, By prohibiting too familiar an intercourse with the heathen nations. 6thly, By the positive prohibition of every idolatrous rite. In illustrating these particulars it will be difficult to keep within proper limits; but the following observations are suggested.

And

It was said, in the first place, that the ceremonial law was a preservative against idolatry, by removing the principles that supported it; viz. ignorance of the true character of God, and ascription of divine honours to inferior intelligences. From the just notions it gave the Israelites of God and his government, it taught them that all other gods besides him were false, vain idols, the works of men's hands. It showed that those beings whom the heathens worshipped, whether the higher intelligences, that were supposed to inhabit the sun, moon, and stars, or the dæmons and departed souls of heroes and other great men, were not gods, but the creatures of the one Jehovah, and obedient to him. It taught that God was the fountain of all these mercies, and that he alone gave rain and fruitful seasons; and by VOL. II.

H

so doing it prevented them from falling into the error of inferior intelligences, as the guardians and benefactors of mankind. It allowed of no such thing as inferior divine worship, but represented God as a jealous God, who would not give his glory to another, nor his praise to graven images. In these ways, then, it removed the principles which served to support the practice of idolatry. But it was observed, 2dly, that it preserved the Israelites fsom idolatry, by giving them a ritual of their own, every way fitted to their circumstances. At the time it was promulgated, they were in such circumstances (the nations around them having all sensible objects of worship,) that if it had not then pleased God to appoint them a ritual, and by that to make them a separate nation and people, it seems morally impossible to have kept them from idolatry; and then the knowledge and worship of the true God must have been lost in the world. The same reasons that made a ritual convenient, and, in their circumstances, even necessary, made a full ritual as convenient and necessary; such as should reach to every part of worship, as it was intended to be a hedge against idolatry every way. The numberless variety of ceremonies has often been remarked: many regarding the presence of Jehovah; others the tabernacle and temple; others the priests; others the sacrifices, offerings, and proper rites of each: a vast variety were directed for their festivals, purifications, cleanness of food, births, marriages, deaths, mournings; and, to a superficial observer, all, or at least the most of them, to no purpose. But let him reflect on the conse-. quences of one less minute: they would have supplied its defects by amendments of their own, and, notwithstanding their own law, would have borrowed from their

Lowman, Rationale of the Jewish Ritual.

neighbours what they imagined had not been sufficiently provided for by their own lawgiver. Thus the law would have failed in one of its designs, to prevent their falling into idolatry. A people so fond of ceremony as the Jews were, would have been uneasy and impatient without them. When they saw that their neighbours had rites for every occasion, they would either have adopted them for their own use, or have invented others of their own imagination, of equal danger, or of worse consequence.* -Another circumstance respecting the Hebrew ritual was, that it was uniformly held out as preferable to every other. From their long abode in Egypt, it is easy to conceive the Jews well acquainted and even fond of their ceremonies. Their reputation, antiquity, and confirmation by miracles, would all add some weight to this assertion. It became, therefore, any rule, if it was to guard them against their influence, to come recommended by a higher authority than the considerations of antiquity, the use of the wisest people, or even the oracles of dæmons. Accordingly, we find it recommended as the law of God himself, and given to them as his peculiar people. Hence the common preface to each of its laws; "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them:" and hence a proper answer to the objection of its being unbecoming the wisdom of God to ratify, in so solemn a manner, a bare system of rites and ceremonies."-Nor should we overlook even the burdensome nature of the Jewish ceremonial, as a mean of preserving them from idolatry : for, while it was burdensome by the number of its precepts, extending from the greatest things to the most minute; by their rigour in demanding obedience and punishing disobedience; by their comparative inutility,

[blocks in formation]
« НазадПродовжити »