"Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem rife! CHAP. "Exalt thy towering head, and lift thy eyes! IV. "See a long race thy fpacious courts adorn; Meffiah. I cannot conclude this Differtation on the Types of the Old Teftament, without earnestly recommending to the attention of the Reader, that excellent work of the late Rev. W. Jones, "Lectures on the Figurative Language of Holy "Scripture." The pleasure and inftruction, which I have derived from the perufal of it, will never be erased from my remembrance. Opinions CHAP. V. OPINIONS OF THE JEWS. IN this attempt to interpret the hidden meaning of the Mofaical difpenfation, I have taken the whole tenor of the Epiftle to the Hebrews for my guide, and St. Paul's express declaration for my authority. "The Law" is "a fhadow of good things "to come, and not the very image of the things." Before the fubject be entirely difmiffed, it will not be ufelefs to confider the fentiments of the Jews themselves. 66 The doctrine of the Law being typical of the Gospel, is frequently afferted to be merely the fanciful reverie of Chriftian divines, and equally unknown and unthought of by the church of Ifrael. Nay, even St. Paul himself has been charged with yielding to the impulfe of a too warm imagination. Suppofing however, for a moment, that the Jews were entirely ignorant of the design of their Law, this would not prove, that it contained no hidden a Heb. x. I. b By Dr. Priestley. meaning; V. meaning; but if it can be fhewn, that the CHAP. very reverfe is the cafe, fuch a demonftration will ferve as a corollary to what has been already advanced. Many are the teftimonies which the Jews bear to the truth of St. Paul's affertion, that all the facrifices and rites of the Old Teftament relate to the Meffiah. They fet out with the following general כל מה שנזכר בתורה נביאים ; propofition כתובים רומזים אל החכמה; "All things "which are mentioned in the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, relate "to the Wisdom ;" under which cabaliftic name, they defignated, as it is well known, the Meffiah. To this rule they strictly adhere, and maintain, that under the literal fense of the words a myftical meaning lies concealed. Such is the doctrine of the המתרגם פסוק כצורתו ; Babylonian Talmud Whofoever expounds the : הנה זה בדאי : "text, according to its form, (i. e. its li"teral fenfe) lo! he is a liar." The fame notion is advanced by R. Samuel Laniadu, בעסק התורה יש שני ; in his Commentaries מינים האחר בפשטיה והשני בסודותיה להבין In the ftudy of the Law, a Heb. paffim. "" double SECT. " double method is to be obferved; the "one, that its literal meaning may be ac"quired: and the other, that its hidden fignification may be understood." The Glofs upon the Talmud is yet more ex ציורי המשכן לציורים שכליים ולהבין ; ! The figures of * מהם האמונות עליו:: : " the tabernacle relate to fpiritual figures, to learn from thence more fublime truths." R. Bechai is perfectly in unison חקים הם ציורי ; with the above citationis The ftatutes * ענינים שכליים של מעל : 66 (of Mofes) are a figure of spiritual things; "and thofe fpiritual things are above." In fhort, they all agree, that the ceremonial Law had an immediate reference to the Meffiah himself, and to the fublime truths, which it would be his province to inculcated. Upon the doctrine of the great facrifice to be made by Chrift for the fins of the whole world, the Jews are remarkably exprefs. Let the following paffage from the Jalkut Chadafch declare their fentiments נשמות הצדיקים מגידות למשיח .on this point יסורין של בני ארם מיד מקבל משיח עליו יסורין ומקביל d Præf. ad Maimon. de Vaccâ Rufâ. .CHAP ומקביל מישראל והוא במקום הקרבנות שהיו The fouls of the * בזמן שבית מקדש קיים : V. 66 righteous make their boast in the Mef"fiah; the chastisement which is due to "the fons of Adam, the Meffiah immediately taketh away; upon him is the chastisement, and he taketh it away from "Ifrael. And he is in the place of the offerings, which, during the appointed "time of the house of the fanctuary, were ftretching forth the neck in eager expectation of his approach f." 66 R. Menachim fpeaks in the following terms of the intent of the facrificial rites; נמצא שכהן אעלה נפשו מעלוי לעלוי וזהו סוד "The priest, whilft he afcends "the altar, is found raifing up his foul "from the lofty One to the lofty One; " and this is the mystery of the altar." By these terms we can only understand the Father and the Son; and indeed the Rabbii are fufficiently explicit in declaring, that this is their meaning. The idea then of the paffage, when divefted of its obfcurity, will be, The priest rises in contem e See Parkhurft under 1. Differt. in Maimon. de Vaccâ Rufà, p. 492. plation |