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xxxi. 11); they were bound, at all times, to give instruction in the principles thereof, to those that needed it: being possessed of no land, but supported by tithes and offerings, they had ample leisure for all religious duties; whilst having their cities of residence dispersed through all the tribes, amongst whom (unrestricted by any vows of celibacy) they were freely permitted to intermarry, they were admirably calculated to answer the purposes of their institution, by consolidating the union of all the other tribes, and binding them by the holy ties of religion, virtue and piety.

The Mosaic Law extended its fostering protection also to the very lowest classes. The stranger, the slave, the poor, the fatherless, and the widow, are always represented as peculiar objects of the Divine care; and it denounces, in various places, God's peculiar indignation against any injurious treatment of them (Deut. xxvi. 12. Levit. xix. 33. Deut. xv. 7). Even their sensitive feelings were to be respected; e. g. "When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house, to fetch his pledge" (Deut. xxiv. 10); the humiliating circumstances of his poverty, were not to be exposed to the creditor's eye, but he was to "stand abroad; and the man to whom he had lent, should bring the pledge out to him."

The same spirit of benevolence directed the hus

bandman to leave ample gleanings for the stranger, fatherless, and widow (Deut. xxiv. 19); it impressed reverence to the aged, even "to rise up before the hoary head" (Levit. xix. 32); and compassion for those under bodily infirmity (Levit. xix. 14). It taught also the supreme necessity of promoting the cause of virtue to the utmost; "thou shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him, thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour, as thyself: I am the Lord." What an admirable correspondence between these sublime principles, and the Divine Original from whence they flowed.

Considering then the whole circumstances of the Jewish Civil Polity; First, in its establishment of an independent yeomanry, secured in their inheritance, attached to their land,-bound by domestic charities, governed by respected princes and magistrates of their own, and forming a secure barrier of defence for their liberties; and, secondly, in its appointment of a whole tribe, to diffuse moral and religious instruction through the whole mass,-forming a sacred bond of union amongst all the rest; from whence, as a joint result, population was encouraged, freedom secured, agriculture, with purity and simplicity of manners, provided for; domestic virtues, kindness, benevolence and justice inculcated by the most for

of the Egyptians, or other heathen nations, in order to accommodate his ritual to the habits of his countrymen, by assimilating it to the idolatrous practices to which they had previously been familiarised. He was invested with authority to secure their obedience, without resorting to such contrivances; and it was irreconcileable with his dignity, as an inspired lawgiver, and with the purity of the Divine law, to degrade the worship of Jehovah, by an intermixture of those very idolatrous rites, which it professed to prohibit and condemn, under the severest penalties.

The probability of this hypothesis, however, has been attempted to be supported by examples adduced from what is called the "triple reformation; first, from Judaism to Christianity; next, from Gentilism to Christianity; and, lastly, from Popery to Protestantism;"" in each of which, the rites of the old religion were retained, or imitated in the new.” But the force of the argument entirely fails, from the very examples themselves. For Christianity, indeed, borrowed from Judaism, because it was the completion of that system which Judaism had only begun. Christ came "not to destroy the law, but to fulfil.” Hence, its moral precepts were preserved and perfected in the Gospel; as were also such rites and ceremonies as were typical of the leading events and truths thereof. But when human prejudice wished to ́

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fetter Christian liberty, by other ancient ceremonial usages, immediately did Divine wisdom interpose to prohibit it (Acts x. 11 and 15). Again, with respect to the reformation from Gentilism to Christianity, the fifth and sixth centuries do, indeed, afford some sad instances of a weak compromise of sacred truth; but, then, the only result was, an origination of those corruptions, which increasingly obscured and debased true Christianity under the Papal sway; and at last Protestantism tore off the debasing mask of Paganism, and exhibited the genuine features of pure religion once more. But, of course, it retained all the great truths and original rites, rejecting only the novelties that superstition had introduced.

And if the hypothesis alluded to cannot be supported by the examples thus adduced; still less can it be so by Scripture, which solemnly reprobates the system of idolatry in general, and also rejects and prohibits, under the severest penalties, any approximation to its particular rites and ceremonies. The law, for instance, strictly forbids any images of the Deity, human sacrifices, divinations,-in all which idolatry abounded. It prohibited things in themselves apparently innocent, but which were prevalent in heathen countries; such as worshipping on high hills or consecrated groves, rounding the corners of the hair on the head and beard, &c. Even the regulations

as to articles of food had in many instances, a similar object in view, viz. to establish an effectual opposition between the religion of Jehovah and that of Pagan superstition. So that such an habitual horror and contempt of the rites and sacrifices of idolaters did result, on the part of sincere Jews towards the heathens, as to render all familiar intercourse impracticable. And we have the express testimony of the celebrated historian, Tacitus, to the fact, that this feeling of contempt and dislike was reciprocal, on the part of heathens towards the Jews; whom he represents as being universally hated for their perverse and "hostile hatred towards all mankind." Thus did the Jewish ritual exhibit so striking a contrast to heathen rites, as to form an effectual partition wall between the people of God and surrounding nations; and the hypothesis of its borrowing and consecrating their ceremonies, is not only improbable, but entirely inconsistent.

In fact, the fancied resemblance amounts to little more than this: that in both, there were priests, temples, altars, sacrifices, and festivals, calculated to arrest the attention, and captivate the senses and imaginations of their worshippers, by their splendour and solemnity. But, as it has been shown, all these were directed to opposite objects; in one, to the Supreme God; in the other, to the basest idols. And as the objects, so were the rites, designedly contrasted;

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