صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

ledge of the principal verities of their religion, and especially to renew perpetually, the hopes of that people, as to the Meffiah, who was promifed to them from God.

For God having fhortned the long lifes which men commonly enjoy'd in the beginning, before they went out of Egypt, fo that five or fix perfons could no longer preferve the tradition of 2000 years, as they had done till Mofes's time, God was of neceffity obliged to make use of some other means to fupply that defect.

He had already made ufe of feveral before, amongft which, was that which we find prefcribed Deut. XXVII. where he ordered the building of an altar with rough ftones, whereupon the names of the twelve tribes, and the whole law were to be ingraved.

He afterwards follow'd other methods, and thus we fee, that Samuel following Mofes and Joshuah's example, repeats before a folemn affembly of the people met at Gilgal, for the confecration of Saul, the things that came to pass during the government of Bedan or Sampson, of Jephthah and his own.

[ocr errors]

But yet the best way was to fix this people to one tabernacle, wherein we fee that befides the monuments which preferved the memory of the great miracles that God had wrought at the foundation of the Jewish common-wealth, as the pot of manna, Aaron's rod that bloffom'd, the plates of the altar that had been made out of the cenfers of Corah, Dathan, and their confederates.

One fee's, that the law, and the books of the covenant were depofited there by God's order, and the principal tranfactions and deliverances that were wrought by God in the behalf of that people, were continually celebrated with hymns and other tokens of publick thankfulness.

It

was, no doubt, upon this account, that he caused the book of the law to be laid up there, with many ceremonies and expiations; and that he enjoyned it to be read publickly in the presence of the whole congregation every seven years: one fee's, that he commanded, that every family fhould read this book continually, and that all should entertain their wives and children from their tendereft years, with the defign of the law, night, and day, in the countrey, and in the town, at all times, and in all places.

One fee's, that God engaged them to it not only by an exprefs command, but alfo by an indifpenfible neceffity, because he made it death for any man to violate any of thofe ceremonial laws, from a principle of obftinacy, no pardon could be obtained for the tranfgreffions committed through ignorance, before they were expiated by certain facrifices, the forms whereof were fcrupulously prescribed in the law, and which could be violated upon no account whatever.

If one confiders those things, he may fay, that the Jews had scarce one' moment free in their lives, fo preffing was the neceffity which lay upon them to confult the law of God, the regulations of which were fo very exact and particular, that there, no actions publick, or private, could happen, but what were regulated, and determined by thofe conftitutions.

If a beaft was born, the owner was to examine whether it was the first-born,

first-born, or no, whither it was clean, or unclean, and whether it was to be redeemed, with feveral other things of this nature.

If a woman was big with child, there were many queftions to be afked: when the came to lie-in, feveral very different ceremonies were practis'd, according as the child was a first-born, or not. The law en❤ joyned various purifications according as the woman brought forth, a fon or a daughter.

God had prescribed a great number of laws for all the accidents of life, for marriages, for fucceffions, for funerals, for mourning, for unforeseen accidents, as the death of a man that was kill'd without the defign of his murtherer, for the several crimes that might be committed, in their feveral pollutions, and fequeftrations, &c.

It seems, that this whole people, from the time that they came, to the use of their reason, to the time of their death, was ftill continually obliged to keep up a correspondence with the priests and Levites, whom God had for this purpose dispersed amongst all the tribes of Ifrael, and to confult the law and the teftimony to be inftructed in the manner of governing themselves: but particularly, they were to look upon the temple and the tabernacle, as the center of their whole religion: and how could they do this, without carrying their profpect at the fame time to those great promifes of the Meffiah, of which the Ifraelites were depofitaries: I fay, upon those promises, which raised up fo many jealoufies betwixt their forefathers, and the ancestors of thofe neighbouring nations, with whom they had always fome controverfie, and were to be confidered as glorious and honourable to the whole nation.

[ocr errors]

СНА Р. XXII.

That it appears by the Books of MOSES, that this whole Model which God bad framed, was to last but until the Coming of the Messiah.

CUT if we find in Mofes's law a fevere reftriction in all that beBlongs to the execution of the promife of the Meffiah (which

fhews, that God intended to have that nation distinguish'd from all others, till the bleffed feed was come ;) if we find, that he restrained that promise to one tribe, one town, one family, one particular individual perfon in that family, that they might not be to feek in a confufed crowd of a whole people, made up of feveral millions of perfons, or in a whole tribe, or even in a city filled up with feveral families; if upon this account his birth was restrained to one people, one tribe, one little town, and one fingle family which was fetled there, the Jews could not but obferve, that it was God's defign to break all those restrictions, and to follow quite another method, when the Meffiah was once come.

For in the first place, the first promise of the Meffiah, was exprefs'd in very general terms, which mentioned a common benefit to all the fons of Adam. This promife was made before God had rejected Cain's pofterity,

Y 4

CH. XXII. rity, by preferring that of Seth; it was made before the restriction was made to Noah in Seth's family, and to Shemin Noah's family.

Secondly, God, who by circumcifion had diftinguished Abraham and his pofterity from the reft of the family of Sem, did exprefly promise to Abraham, that in his feed all the nations of the world thould be bleffed: This promife was made alfo, before God had reftrained the promise to the perfon Ifaac in prejudice of Ifhmael, and then afterwards to the perfon of Jacob, in the prejudice of Efau.

Thirdly, one fee's this fame truth yet more clearly explained out of Jacob's oracle concerning Judah, Gen. XLIX. wherein Jacob exprefly foretels, that the Meffiah fhould be the expectation of the nations; that is to fay, the comfort, the glory, the hope, and the joy of all the nations: of the univerfe.

As this was a capital truth, fo God propofed it by Balaam, at the Iraelites entring into Canaan, that they might thus understand, that all thofe diftinctions, which their feparation living in Canaan from the rest of the world, might keep up, were not always to laft.

[ocr errors]

But this particularly appears out of Mofes's law, which allows of fe- 7 veral forts of profelytes, receiving fome without tying them to the ob fervance of all the ceremonies in the law, which it would never have done, if it had been abfolutely neceffary to be a few before they have a fhare in the benefits of the promise.

[ocr errors]

Secondly, it fuppofes, that God was to remove that people out of Canaan into remote countreys, and to difperfe them, as it were, into the uttermoft parts of the world, which was done by Divine Providence, only to publish the promise of the Meffiah, to establish the belief in the Prophets, and fo to facilitate the calling of the Gentiles to the faith.

Thirdly, he declares exprefly, as St. Paul obferves, that he was to call his people, that which was not his people, that he might by that means provoke the people of Ifrael to jealoufie. This notion of jealousie mentioned by St. Paul, deferves to be taken notice of with very great care, if we reflect upon the fpirit of jealoufie, which reigned amongst the Ifraelites, and their neighbours.

I shall take notice in another place of the great number of oracles of David upon the fame fubject, altho' he otherwise infults upon the Moabites, and Edomites, upon all occafions, and fhews as much averfion, and jealoufie against thofe nations, as was poffible for one that lived in a continual war with those people.

I fhall also make some reflexions upon Solomon's marriage with the princeffes of Tyre, of Sidon, and of Egypt; that is to fay, with the pofterity of Ham, which was united to that of Judah, to take a part with them in the bleffing; from whence it came to pafs, that the Song that was written upon that marriage, was preferyed as a piece divinely infpired, and ought to be confidered, as a happy prefage of the calling of the Gentiles to the communion of the Meffiah.

One may also joyn here the manner of Solomon's giving to Hiram's fubjects, who had helped him in the building of the temple, the countrey of Chabul, which was inclofed within Judea, altho' thofe people were of the Canaanites pofterity, upon whom Noah had particularly pronounced, Curfed be Canaan (e).

One

(e) Gen. ix.

One may also fee, that as God had permitted his people to be tranfported into Chaldea, and Babylon, and had raised up there Prophets amongst them on purpose to acquaint the world with the glorious hopes of the Jews, fo he caufed the books of Scripture to be tranflated into Greek about 300 years before our Saviour's birth, not only to prevent all fufpicion of falfhood in the minds of the Gentiles, if they were produced of a fuddain after the birth of the Meffiah, but also to inftruct the Heathens by little and little of the right which all nations had as well as the Jews to that promife; that they might take their share in it whenever they should be invited to it by God, and especially to take away the fcandal which was to follow upon God's deftroying the form of that commonwealth by the Romans, according to Daniel's prediction.

All these things, no doubt, engaged the Jews who read the books of Mofes to make particular remarks upon them.

But they ought to have obferved three things efpecially the first was, that altho' God had at firft chofen their whole nation, yet he was pleased to disperse afterwards almost ten parts of thirteen; which plainly fhew'd that this choice which he had made, was only an economical choice, and for a particular defign.....

[ocr errors]

The second is, that altho' he was very fevere and punctual in exacting obedience to the ceremonial fervice, yet he had fixed the most part of their obfervances to certain places, to certain times, and to certain perfons: it was eafie to judge, that when God bounded them in this manner, it was only for an economical fervice prescribed only upon a particular profpect, which was one day to have an end,

The third is, that experience convinced them that altho' God feemed to have fixed his fervice to the temple, yet he fuffered the Chaldeans to deftroy the firft, and did not restore to the fecond, the firft marks of his prefence, when it was rebuilt by the order of Cyrus.

From whence it was natural to conclude, that fuch a glory as retired by little and little from that place which God had chofen, was only defign'd to be there for a time, till God fhould extend his fervice, by cal ling all the world to his religion, and fo making the whole univerfe his temple, as we fee it done in our days, by the calling of the Gentiles to the religion of our Saviour.

THE

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

N my Reflexions upon the Book of Genefis, I have shewed the means God made ufe of to imprint the idea's of the Creation C# of the World, and the Promise of the Meffiah, during that long tract of 2500 years, before the children of Ifrael departed out of Egypt, and before the hiftory of it was penn'd by Mafes.

They that confider that God at first prescribed the law of the sabbath, to fix the belief of the creation of the world, and that this law hath been conftantly observed fince the beginning of the world, until Mofes, and is ftill to this day obferved amongst the Jews, eafily apprehend, that this fact of the creation, could not be more incontestably proved, or more firmly grounded.

In like manner an attentive Reflexion upon the Oracles which I have mention'd, and which alone at first were the foundation and hope of the religion of the Patriarchs, and were afterwards recorded in the Book of Genefis, is fufficient to perfwade any one, that it was impoffible, but the memory of the Promise of the Meffiah, fhould be deeply engraven in the minds of the Ifraelites, tho' we should fuppofe, that the spirit of jealoufie, which God had raised amongst the feveral pretenders to the execution of that great Promife, did not much contribute to preferve the remembrance of it; as I have shown very carefully, that it was very useful for that purpose.

I have in my Reflexions afterwards proved upon the four last Books of Mofes, that God profecuted the fame defign in the laws which he gave to the people of Ifrael, as well as in the peculiar forms and regulations of their government and religion; the great defign of which rules, was only that the Meffiah at his appearance in the world, might be unquesti onably known.

Whoever shall read the Reflexions which I have made upon this matter, will eafily perceive, that the long life of the Patriarchs, was of great efficacy, to make fo fresh and lively an impreffion of thofe illuftrious facts, the Creation of the World, and the Promife of the Meffiah, that there was no need of very frequent Oracles to confirm the fame, as indeed we find that in the fpace of 2553 years, only five or fix principal Oracles were given, which have a particular relation to the Meffiah, as I fhall fhew afterwards.

Now

« السابقةمتابعة »