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well directed to the preservation of uiflversal tranquillity amongst those who submitted to their yoke . Thus protected , the Jews indulged that propensity which had become natural to them , to colonize ; establishing their synagogues for worship in every place where a few of their nation were
settled : and in this way it carne to pass , that at the time of Christ ' s appearing , their forms of worship were practised , and their religious tenets known throughout the whole world , so that there was not a province , not a considerable city in the whole empire ,
where synagogues of the Jews , with Gentile proselytes connected with them , were not to be found . From this statement it will appear , that as it was due to the pre-eminence of the Jewish people , la religious privileges , that to them should belong the honour
of giving the world its great Teacher and deliverer , so , the providence of God had wisely ordained that , in the mean time , they should establish in every civilized country such a testimony against the prevailing
corruptions of religion , as should be believed by some of the more candid and thoughtful among the Gentiles , and thus lay a godd ground-work for the efforts of teachers endowed with superior gifts , more persuasive doctrines and a kinder spirit .
Judaism , then , was in such important respects subservient to the introduction of a system of religious faith , intended for the salvation of mankind , that it certainly deserves to be regarded by every Christian with sentiments of gratitude and affection . These
sentiments may , however , be carried too far : the authority of Jewish precedents may be urged beyond their due limit . It should not be forgotten , that the Mosaic institutions were professedly calculated for a temporary and peculiar dispensation , and had
their chief beauty and expediency from being viewed in this light . If considered as expressive of the permanent principles of true and acceptable reli-Ri ° n , they may greatly mislead us , and
at best can but be precarious and doubtful authorities . Nor does it in the least degree detract from the wisdom of their Divine Author , to suppose them answerable to their professed design . > Vhoever be tjie builder , a temporary edifice will naturally be
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composed of temporary materials ; and the j wisdom of its construction appears not in a needless solidity , and an unsuitable magnificence , but in its being- fitted to answer the purpose most simply and at the least expense . So that if it had not too much the air
of a paradox * we might affirm that the less there was in the Mosaic institu * tions that had a reference to the permanent principles of religious faith and practice , or that commended
itself to approbation , independently of local and temporary propriety , the more evident would be the proof of their divine original . The platform of the Jewish Church was too narrow , too much limited by distinctions of
nation , famil y and district , to demand or even to admit of the incorporation of perfect and irreversible principles of religion : and we need no other proof of the imperfection cleaving more or less to the whole Mosaic
dispensation , than its being founded on a principle of exclusion and monopoly . It is hoped that we may now be able to meet an argument which is usually adduced in support of certain views respecting the design of sacrifices under the Mosaic law , which lies
at the very threshold of our subject . The argument is this , that Jewish sacrifices can on no other scheme be accounted worthy to have been divinely instituted , but must be abandoned by every man of sense as absurd and unmeaning ceremonies . But if the estimate which we have made of the
Mosaic institutions be correct , it follows that it ought not to be considered as any difficulty or objection in the way of their divine authority , even if we could discover no solid nor satisfactory method of explaining their design . Nothing is more probable than that observances calculated for
the use of a rude , carnally-minded people , three thousand years ago , sbould to us appear unnatural , unintelligible and aevoid of beauty and propriety . But would it , therefore , have become the All-wise Father and
Governor of men to have been the author of a dispensation which they could not have appreciated , and from which they could derive no benefit ? Indeed , it is a remarkable instance of the degree in which attachment to a system may be indulged , that any
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An Essay on the Nature and Design of Sacrifices under the Mosaic Law . 271
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1823, page 271, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1784/page/15/
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