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person should be so unadvised as to lay the entire stress of the argument , for the divine origin of Judaism , upon an alleged reference of some of its prescribed observances to Christian tenets ; and should so far commit the cause of revelation , as to avow that
the Mosaic ceremonies were in themselves unreasonable and ridiculous , and only to be defended upon the ground of their being typical and prospective . We shall presently examine the merits of the theory in recommendation of which this extraordinary
position is hazarded ; but , in the mean time , it is well to expose the folly of attempting to put a stop to all dispute by a threat of consequences : an old and much practised manoeuvre of theologians : to set up a scare-crow at the threshold of their argument , and to threaten the abandonment of the
cause of God , and the loss and alienaation forsooth of their puny services , if every item of their interpretations be not accepted as infallibly true and orthodox . How presumptuous thus to commit the ark of God to the hazard
of being overthrown by human unskilfulness ! If some acquaintance with the history of mankind , and their slow progress in spiritual undemanding , have prepared our minds , by a genuine
humility , for taking a judicious view of the nature and design of Judaism , we shall not expect to find it a stupendous and magnificent institution , embracing a number of refined and lofty sentiments , but shall think it reasonable to
assign easy and palpable meanings to Its rites and observances , as most suitable to the circumstances of those for whom they were intended : and we shall be inclined to think that any symbols , obscurely representing
distant events and metaphysical tenets , must instantly have lost their proper effect and purpose , if introduced among a people so gross in their conceptions , and so little disposed for spiritual or metaphysical inquiries .
Ihcse considerations may serve to guard U 3 against drawing hasty conclusions from any apparent puerility or unreasonableness in the Mosaic ceremonies , according to any given scheme for explaining them , and judging of them by the standard of that more brilliant revelation of divine
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truth , which has since arisen to enlighten the world . We havfe fceen how this method of judging has carried some theorists into one extreme : there is an opposite extreme , which appears to originate in the same prejudice . For others , seeing no good reason to
believe that the Mosaic ceremonies were appointed with a view to typif y the leading features of the Christian dispensation , have concluded that the general fabric of Judaism was strictl y of human invention , and that when the Almighty entertained the design
of preserving some of the primary principles of true religion from the corruption and oblivion in which they were in danger of being overwhelmed , he thought fit to incorporate them in a system of external observances , borrowed and selected from those which
had naturally arisen , and were gene * rally prevalent . Thus in kind compliance , it is thought , with prejudices and customs which had sprung up in the infancy of the world , no one knows how , God was pleased to bestow an outward frame on the Jewish religion , which was calculated to conciliate the
attachment of those for whom it \ vas designed , though it was not strictly of divine origin , nor altogether worthy of the Divine mind . It must be confessed that many great names in the Jewish and Christian Churches have given authority to this opinion . And yet there are some
material objections to it . First , it is adopted from an idea , that to suppose the Deity to be the Author of an imperfect and temporary frame of religious worship would be derogatory to the absolute perfection of his character ; but is it not so , in a higher degree , to conceive of him as leaving * it to his creatures to devise modes of
worship which he afterwards adopted ? Must it not reflect upon his providence to suppose that he left them without guidance or instruction , in respect to so important a subject ? It is surely more agreeable to sound judgment to conclude , that as soon
as the Almighty discovered himself to mankind , he instructed them in a mode of worship which would be acceptable to himself , and at the same time edifying and intelligible to them . Ind « ed > at their first creation , inon must hav ^ been so helpless and bo incapable of directing them-
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272 An Essay on the Nature and Design of Sacri fi ces tinder the Mosaic Law .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1823, page 272, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1784/page/16/
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