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BIBLICAL CRITICISM.
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I CRITICISM UPON H £ B . xii . 22 , 23 , 24 * " Ye are come unto mount Sion , and unto the city of the living God , the heavenly Jerusalem—and to an innumerable company of angels . —To the general assembly and church of the first born which are written in heaven , and to God the judge of all , and to the spirits of just men made pdrfect , and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant , and to the blood of sprinkling , that speaketh better things than that of Abel . "
As I conceive that this passage is , in general ill understood , I shall endeavour to point out its real signification „ The figures employed in these verses are Jewish figures , the writer alludes to certain facts in the Jewish records and certain parts of the Jewish ceremonial .
It appears to me that he here sums up those more remarkable points of superiority in the gospel to the Mosaic law on which he had enlarged in the course of the Epistle . The objects described in this passage are the mild and benevolent genius of the Christian doctrine , its universality and wide extension , its numerous teachers and professors , its spiritual and perfect nature , its founder ^ its ratification and its
purpose . I . The mild and benevolent genius of the gospel dispensation : c Ye are come to mount Sion / The author had directed our attention in v . ] S , to t * ie characteristic features of the Jewish law , and had represented it as a mountain spread all over and burning with fire ; manifestly alluding to Sinai , the spot whence it was delivered with extraordinary
circumstances of dismay . Using the same image , he goes on to describe in contrast the spirit of the gospel . This he calls € mount Sion *—the city of David , a place of high distinction among the Jews . As the Jewish community is sometimes spoken of in the old Testament under this name , ( Isa . lxi . 3 . Joel , ii . 32 . ) ~ the like phraseology is very naturally applied in the new Testament to the Christian church , t The
expression denotes a scene where God reveals himself in mercy to mankind , and is therefore signally descriptive of the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ . " jfiu allegorical history in the Epistle to the Galatians , ( iv * 24 , &c «) greatly resembles the language under consideration .
The Jewish system is there described by a reference to mount Sinai , while the Christian is represented as the " Jerusalem which is from above . " Though much stress ought not tQ t > e laid upon the coincidence , it furnishes additional support
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( 142 )
Biblical Criticism.
BIBLICAL CRITICISM .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1807, page 142, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2378/page/30/
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