On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
selves ,-that iK is difficult to draw any line between direct Revelation ana natural impulse ; so tliat primitive custom ( if recorded on good authority ) niay be deemed yearly synonydivine institution
mous with . Corruption would soon , liowever , change this state of things ; primitive custom would become perverted and depraved , and when a proper occasion presented Itself , it surely could not be unworthy of God to restore the purity of ancient
observances , or to appoint new ones , adapted to the progressive condition of the human race , or to their increased danger of being seduced from their obedience to him .
Secondly , although there is nothing in Scripture which can be said positively to forbid the supposition of the human origin of sacrifices , yet , if we attach credit to the Mosaic record , it
seems highly reasonable to infer from their early and frequent mention , and from their being evidently accepted by the Almighty in the case of Abel , Noah and Abraham , that God himself \ y § s the original author of this mode ^ fcworship . For it cannot well be tlffiftted that the marks of divine
f 8 S * acceptance would follow | UK acts of worship as were unauflrazed and self-invented . Joeing assured , then , that God himself was the author of these institutions , and at the same time aware that he gave them only a limited and conand he
ditional propriety ^ that hatii now entirely superseded them , we might here rest satisfied , and might deem it superfluous to bestow minute attention on the particulars of such obsolete ordinances , were it not , that the frequent allusions to them which
are met with in the New Testament , have naturally given them fresh consequence in the eyes of Christians , and have led to their being generally regarded important and legitimate authorities for the determination of doctrinal questions in the Christian church .
This circumstance makes jt necessary to go into an inquiry that might otherwise be thought one of mere curi osity , and to look through the ceremoni al institutions of the Jewish
, for the purpose of observing whether any traced ckn be discovered of & prospective reference to ( the articles of Chris tian belief . For certainly every
Untitled Article
judicious person must admit that gome such declared and orjginal testimony in the records of Jewish Jaw is wanted to furnish proof of this position . The language of comparison and allusion employed in the New
Testament , can scarcely of itself . demonstrate the solidity of such a position as this , that $ he Almighty , thought proper to epact an elaborate and multifarious system of religious cerempnies , for the especial purpose of bestowing a shadowy existence upon ,
events and doctrines which were afterwards to receive all the confirmation of a clear discovery , a glorious display of miracles , and a signal increase of spiritual knowledge and understanding . If we cannot in the original record of the Jewish ceremonies
discover the remotest allusion to that subsequent event , of which it is argued they were merely emblems , it may reasonably be inferred that there is no inherent nor divinely instituted correspondence between them , but only such a resemblance as might make it natural for persons who were familiar
with the former , and interested in the latter , to compare them together . Nqw since a very slight and fanciful resemblance would be sufficient to suggest comparison , nothing can with any certainty be concluded merely from the use of sacrificial language in the New Testament .
Description of the Mosaic Sacrifices . Hitherto we have spoken generally of the Mosaic Institutions , ( though with a special reference to such of them as related to divine worship , ) we must now confine ourselves to more exact views of those parts which are to the purpose of the present inquiry .
The distinct subject of our present inquiry is the nature of sacrifices under the Mosaic law ; and it will not be required to take particular notice of every thing that may be included under the notion of Jewish sacrifices , but only of such as are conceived to
allude to the persoii and office of Chnst ; Several definitions of the meaning of the word sacrifice , as employed in this connexion , have been proposed ; ljut without canvassing their re&pectjve merits , we shall adopt one given by Tk , Outr * m in Jus Treatise " D * tfacrificiis , " printed , London , 1677 >
Untitled Article
j n Essay on the Nature andDesign of Sacrifices under the Mosaic Law . 2 ? 3
Untitled Article
vol . xviir . 2 n
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1823, page 273, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1784/page/17/
-