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An Essay on the Nature and Design of Sacrifices under the Mosaic Law , and the Influence which Jeivish Ideas and Language concerning them had upon the Language of the New Testament . By the late Rev .
( Concluded from p . 378 . ) WE come now to the last part of our undertaking , namely , after the view that has been given of the subject of Jewish sacrifices , to account for the language of the New Testament concerning them . We do not
intend—it is no part of our object in the present essay , to take a general view of the design of Christ ' s death , or of the arguments which are brought from a variety of sources to prove what are called orthodox views
respecting it . Our intention is , on the supposition that other evidence is inconclusive , or at least not forcibly and undeniably leading to the adoption of these views , to examine what is urged in further proof of them from comparisons made in the New Testament between the death of Christ and the
sacrifices and ceremonies under the Mosaic law . And we think that having first shewn that there are no indications in the original records of the Mosaic institutions , or in any of the language of holy Jewish writers respecting them by which we could
discover that they were appointed with " a principal intention to prefigure the death of Christ , " we may fairly demand a proportionably stronger ease to be made out , in proof of the literal
sense of such expressions occurring in the New Testament ; and may conclude that there is considerable previous probability in a scheme of figurative interpretation with respect to them . This , however , is a course of
argument which Dr . Magee charges with artifice and sophistry . ( See No . 38 . ) And in his second sermon ( near the beginning ) he protests against the use of it in the following words : " In the mode of inquiry which has usually
been adopted on this subject , one prevailing error deserves to be noticed . The nature of sacrifices , as generally understood and practised antecedent to the coming- of Christ , has been first examined , and from that , as a ground of explanation , the notion of Christ ' s
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sacrifice is derived , whereas , in fact by this all former sacrifices are to be explained , and in reference to it only , are they to be understood . From an error so fundamental " &c .
Now , is it possible for Dr . Magee to be blind to the futility of such an argument ? Is it not , in the most glaring manner , to beg the question in dispute ? If the notion of Christ ' s sacrifice is already determined , as Dr
Magee would have it , why inquire further into the matter ? But if confirmation be sought for , from the ancient sacrifices ; then , let them speak for themselves , and shew us what their real and original import was .
If Dr . Magee would avoid arguing in a circle , he must take the course of the argument he condemns . The question of the proper sacrifice of Christ is at issue—argued in the affirmative , by shewing that the death of Christ is compared to sacrifices
under the law ; we should now expect that a distinct inquiry should be made into the nature and purport of sacrifices under the law ; and that it should be proved that they represented the
doctrine of the satisfaction of sin by vicarious punishment , and whatever else is essential to the popular notion of the sacrifice of Christ ; and this is attempted to a certain point - ( y indeed , the older writers would have been
ashamed to confess failure in it ;) but when it is found , or at least vehemently suspected to be untenable , ( see Dr . Magee ' s first sermon , passim , and No . 13 , 17 , and especially 39 , ) then the advocate for modern orthodoxy
turns round upon us , and tells us that it is unnecessary to inquire further into the Mosaic sacrifices , for they are compared in the New Testament to the great sacrifice of Christ , and " from this alone derive their meaning , by this alone can be explained . "
And the next time that the sacrifice of Christ is questioned , he will run the same round ; shifting from one to the other , and escaping confutation by assurning alternately , the vicarious import of the death of Christ , and that of the Mosaic ceremonies—so
lhat we may well adopt an expression pronounced on a somewhat diffe rent occasion , and say , that ** so long ad the first of Dr . Magqe ' s discourses on
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460 An Essay on the Nature and Design of Sacrifices under the Mosaic Law .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1823, page 460, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1787/page/28/
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