66 the most sacred ordinances of religion, were stated to have a reference to the comforts of the poor, and the ease even of inferior animals. When the land was to rest each Sabbatic year, the Lawgiver assigns as a reason, "Ye shall let it rest; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave, the beasts "of the field shall eat."* Thus also as to the Sabbath day: "Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou "shalt rest; that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son "of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed."+ "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. ‡ If "a bird's nest chance to be before thee, and the dam sitting upon "her young, thou shalt not take the dam with the young; thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, that it may be well with "thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days." § These were precepts inculcating humanity to the most helpless of inferior animals, with an anxiety and solemnity unparalleled, I do not hesitate to say, in any code of laws ancient or modern. And shall we, notwithstanding all this, stigmatise the Jewish system as sanguinary and cruel; because under an express divine command, and for the important purposes of establishing in one chosen people the worship of the true God, and the principles of pure morality, and above all, for the purpose of preparing for the Gospel scheme, it commanded the extermination of one impious, polluted and cruel nation; thus inculcating the horror of idolatry on the Jews, who were to be treated with similar severity for similar crimes; thus also proving the superiority of Jehovah over the idols of Canaan, and the terrors of the divine wrath against the vices pursued with such signal vengeance, in the only way at once intelligible and impressive, amidst a people dull and worldly minded, seldom extending their views beyond temporal rewards and punishments, and who by these means only could be disciplined and controlled, so as afterwards to be governed in a mode coincident with the general course of divine administration? Surely to neglect the various circumstances which thus explain and vindicate the severity exercised against the Canaanites by the divine command, and on account of these reject the whole scheme of revelation, would be a degree of *Exod. xxiii. 11. + Exod. xxiii. 12. incredulity and presumption, equally irrational and irreligious. Far be this from us, my brethren be it ours to weigh the dispensations of Providence with more humility, and derive, from the severity, as well as the mercy, of the divine administration, new motives to persevering watchfulness and holy obedience. P LECTURE II. CONDUCT OF THE JEWS. SECT. I.-Objection against the reality of the Mosaic miracles, derived from the frequent idolatries of the Jews, invalid-These idolatries did not prove any doubt of the divine original of the Mosaic Law-First species of idolatry by forbidden symbols, &c.-Whence so frequent-Implied acknowledgment of Jehovah-Second species of idolatrous worship, in forbidden places, and with idolatrous rites, implied the same-Third species, worship of idols with Jehovah-Whence-Fourth, worship of idols without God-Yet not an absolute denial of God, or rejection of his worship-Defects and apostacies of the Jews confirm the certainty of a divine interposition, rather than weaken it— Objection against the divine economy, from the temptations they were exposed to, unreasonable— Residence of Jews in Egypt considered-And the temptations from the surrounding Canaanites-Degree and duration of the divine interposition suited to the analogy of nature—Mr. Gibbon accuses the Jews, falsely, of being indifferent spectators of the most amazing miracles. JOSHUA, Xxiv. 31. "And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived "Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel." IT has frequently been asserted by infidels, that the repeated relapses of the Jews into idolatry, at various periods of their history, render the reality of the Mosaic miracles suspicious. For, as these writers conceive, it is not credible that the witnesses of such stupendous miracles, or their immediate posterity, could have so soon forgotten the divine power thus awfully enforced. But these reasoners entirely mistake the nature of this apostacy, and forget the character of the people among whom, and the period when, it took place.* These relapses into idolatry never implied a rejection of Jehovah as their God, or of the Mosaic Law, as if they doubted of its truth. The Jewish idolatry consisted, first, in worshipping true God by images and symbols; such were the golden calf of Aaron, those afterwards set up by Jeroboam in Israel, the ephod of Gideon, and the ephod, the teraphim and the images the * Vide Warburton's Divine Legation, Book, V. sect. ii. v. vi. 197 to 201. * of Micah. But in every one of those instances, far from rejecting Jehovah as their God, the images, symbols and rites employed, were designed to honor him, by imitating the manner in which the most distinguished nations the Jews were acquainted with worshipped their supreme divinities; or they were assimilated to the Mosaic institutions, as far as the peculiar views of their authors would admit. Thus the golden calf which the people compelled Aaron to form, was probably an imitation of the Egyptian representative of Osiris, but certainly intended as a representative of that Jehovah, who had brought the Jews out of Egypt; as on forming it, Aaron proclaimed a feast to be held to Jehovah. The golden calves, set up by the first king of the ten tribes, were also probably imitations of the Egyptian symbols, with which Jeroboam must have been familiarized during his residence in Egypt,† for the five last years of Solomon's reign; but certainly intended to represent the same God who was worshipped at Jerusalem, who had brought Israel out of Egypt, and in imitation of the Mosaic institutions; the king ordaining a feast like unto the "feast (of tabernacles) that is in Judah." And of Micah we are told, that the silver, of which the images were made, ‡ "had been wholly dedicated to Jehovah, to make a graven "image and a molten image." And when he had found a Levite to officiate as his priest, he is represented as declaring, "Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have "a Levite for my priest." So obstinate was the attachment of the Jews to idolatrous symbols, and so dull their sense of the necessity of worshipping their God in that manner which he himself required. A principal cause of this inattention to the divine prohibitions seems to have been, that the law was not read, as it regularly should have been, to the people: and when the Shechinah, or visible splendor of the divine glory, had ceased to appear in the tabernacle, and the unsettled state of society, and frequent wars under the Judges, and the permanent hostility between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, rendered it difficult or inconvenient to meet at that place which the Lord had chosen, each tribe or family adopted the idea of making a sanctuary in their own city or their own house, and setting up there some symbol of the Divine Presence imitated Judges xvii. 3, 13. * Exod. xxxii. 4. +1 Kings, xi. 40. from their neighbours, as a substitute for the Shechinah, and some rites of worship in imitation of the worship at the tabernacle. But this no more implies a rejection of the Mosaic Law, than the idolatry of Roman Catholics implies a rejection of the Gospel. The next species of idolatry, was worshipping the true God in forbidden places, on high hills and under groves; which it is yet certain did not proceed from any doubt of the existence or divinity of the true Jehovah, but from the same proneness to admire and imitate the superstitions of the neighbouring nations, which we noticed in the former case. Many of these superstitious observances, we find, prevailed during the reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat, who yet utterly prohibited and strictly punished all direct idolatry;* but could not overcome the rooted attachment of the people to these favourite places of worship: "The high places were not taken away; for the "people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places." And in another passage we find this remarkable and decisive testimony on this subject: "Nevertheless the people did sacrifice "still upon the high places, yet unto the Lord their God "only." A similar observation may be made on the observance of idolatrous rites, which, instead of implying a rejection of the Mosaic ritual, were, however strangely and criminally, yet not unfrequently, combined with it. Thus we are told,† “fourscore men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, "and having cut themselves," (contrary to the express direction of the Law, yet) proceeding "with offerings and incense in "their hands, to bring them to the house of the Lord." Thus Isaiah complains, "I will recompense into their bosom your "iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith "the Lord, which have burnt incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills." Another and more criminal species of idolatry was, § joining the worship of God and idols together; a practice which the principle, borrowed from the heathens, of an intercommunity * 1 Kings, xv. 13, 14, and xxii. 43. 2 Chron, xxxiii. 17. + Compare Deut. xiv. 1. and Lev. xix. 27, 28. with Jeremiah, xli. 5. Isaiah, lxv. 6, 7. Vide on this subject Warburton's Divine Legation, B. II. Sect. vi. and B. V. Sect. ii. Vol. IV. p. 212; and Law's Theory of Religion, p. 85. |