criminality of others, will receive a propor- CHAP. tionable recompense in the world to come.

V.

2.

Objection

gainst the

part of the

2. A fecond objection has been made against the Mofaical difpenfation, on ac- made acount of the numerous rites and ceremo→ ceremonial nies of the Law. These have been repre- Law, as fented as useless and trifling; anfwering answered. trifling; and no one good end, and totally unworthy of divine wifdom.

The Jews were a carnal and grofs people, unequal to any refined and abstract ideas. Owing to this temper, they were

"treffed, our faith, shall be granted us to reward it. And I "muft profefs (as unfashionable as fuch a profeffion may *feem in a gentleman not yet two and twenty) that I find "the ftudy of those excellent themes, God's word, and his "providence, fo difficult, and yet so pleasing and inviting, "that could heaven afford me no greater bleffing than a "clear account of the abftrufe mysteries of divinity and pro*vidence, I should value the having my understanding gra"tified and enriched with truths of fo noble and precious ec a nature, enough to court heaven at the rate of renouncing "for it all thofe unmanly fenfualities and trifling vanities, "for which inconfiderate mortals are wont to forfeit the in"tereft, their Saviour fo dearly bought them in it." BOYLE'S Seraphic Love, p. 154-159.

What a fingular contraft is there between the humility of this truly great man, and the ludicrous felf-conceit of modern deistical pretenders to philosophy!

perpe

SECT. perpetually degenerating into a worship of 11. fenfible objects, while they forfook their own religion, which defcribed God as incorporeal, and to be comprehended by the intellect alone. Thus we find, that their ceremonial law, though cenfured for being deficient in purity, was yet even too pure for their dull and grovelling faculties. Hence the Deity, graciously confidering their infirmity, was pleased to remedy it, by lowering the perfection of divine truth to the standard of Jewish abilities. The Law was a kind of preparation for good things to come. Its fupporting hands, the rites and ceremonies of the temple, were stretched forth to fuftain the yet feeble limbs of childhood; but, when that which is perfect came, then that which is imperfect was to be done away. As, in the investigation of mathematical truth, the human mind requires the fupport of certain figures; fo the ancient Ifraelites, seeing as in a glafs darkly, were unable to admit divine truth, except through the medium of a regular system of typical obfervances. God himself explains the diftinction between clean and unclean beasts, as allufive to the temporary feparation between the Jews

V.

Jews and the Gentiles": and, if we ex- CHAP. amine the arrangement of these different animals, we fhall find all the unclean beafts to be emblematical of fome vice, and the clean ones of fome virtue, which they who are Ifraelites indeed ought to poffefs. In a fimilar manner their various washings were apt representations of internal purity, and their numerous facrifices were all typical of the one great facrifice for the fins of all mankind.

That this interpretation is not fanciful appears from many paffages of Scripture, even before the time of Chrift; and it is furely equitable to fuffer a law to explain its own fignification. Thus we read of the circumcifion of the heart; and are required to rend our hearts, and not our gar

ments.

"To what purpofe is the multitude of "" your facrifices unto me? faith the Lord: "I am full of burnt offerings of rams, and "the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not

h Acts x. 9.

See Jones's Figurative Language of Scripture. This fubject will be confidered more at large hereafter.

"in

332

SECT.

II.

"in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or "of he-goats. When ye come to appear "before me, who hath required this at

your hand to tread my courts? Bring no "more vain oblations; incenfe is an abo"mination unto me; the new moons, and "fabbaths, the calling of affemblies, I can"not away with it is iniquity, even the "folemn meeting. Your new moons, and your appointed feafts my foul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary "to bear them. And when ye And when ye spread "forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes "from you; yea, when ye make many 66 prayers, I will not hear: your hands are "full of blood. Wash ye, make ye clean:

66

put away the evil of your doings from "before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn "to do well; feek judgment, relieve the

oppreffed, judge the fatherlefs, plead for "the widow." Perhaps there cannot be a better comment upon the meaning of the ceremonial Law, than what is contained in this paffage.

There was moreover an additional reafon for the inftitution of many of the Jewish ordinances; they appear to have been de

* Ifaiah i. II.

V.

figned to feparate the peculiar people of CHAP. God from the idolatry of their neighbours. Thus, feveral things, in themselves innocent, are forbidden, because they were cuftomary throughout the reft of the world.

"Ye fhall not round the corners of your "heads, neither fhalt thou mar the cor"ners of thy beard'. Neither fhall a gar"ment mingled of linen and woollen come upon theem. Thou shalt not feeth a kid " in his mother's milk".'

,

Some rites likewise are enjoined, so very opposite to the fuperftition of the Egyptians, and striking fo completely at the root of one fpecies of idolatry; that they must have made the Jews appear to them

Levit. xix. 27.

m Levit. xix. 19. n Exod. xxiii. 19.

"Plutarque nous aprend que les Egiptiens avoient le vin "en horreur, le regardant come le fang des impies, qui "firent autrefois la guerre aux dieux. C'eft de là que vient "l'abomination que les Mages, les Gnoftiques, les Arabes, "les Brachmanes, et les Moines de la Chine, ont pour la "fruit des vignes; et c'eft pour diftinguer fon peuple du "refte des nations idolatres, que Dieu a introduit sous le "Vieux Teftament l'ufage du vin, auffi fréquent dans fes "ofrandes." Differtation Litéraire, &c. par Schmidt, Archæologia, vol. i. p. 244.

impious