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
courses , showed , in a great variety of instances , the equity of the laws of Moses , and particularly those relating to the sabbatical years . And from thence I was led to inquire , whether these
laws were ever put in execution ? And I thought there was too much reason to think , they never wete practised all the time of the Old Testament before the Babylonish Captivity ; for , if they had , they must have been taken notice of .
The transactions of a year of Jubilee were important things , and a national concern . There is sometimes an account of keeping
the passover , an annual solemnity . Why should not there be also of a septennial , or quinquagesimal solemnity , which are more con * siderable . The neglect of these
solemnities , when the kings were idolatrous , may be accounted for ; "but at other times , it seems strange , and yet , i I fear , was matter of fact . Be pleased to read 2 Chron . xxxvi . 21 . and consider ,
whether it is not there implied , that the land of Judea had never enjoyed her sabbaths , or the years of rest , which God had appointed . In Jerem . xxxrv . 8 , &c . is an account of an attempt to set servants or slaves at liberty , according to the institution of the seventh sabbatical year . But it was not
effected By Hebrews and Hebrew - esses I suppose to be those who were not Jews by birth , to whom alone these laws reached . And , perhaps , one reason why this law
was not obeyed , was the covetousness of great and rich men . The Jews , after the return from the captivity , were , generally , cured of idolatry , and became zealous for the law . But it was starce to be expected , that tte
Untitled Article
promise , relating to the great jit . crease of the sixth year , sHoilJ then be . fulfilled . The Jews in that space were seldom an inde . pendent people , but were sub « ject either to the Persians , or to Alexander , or his successors , and afterwards to the Romans . If Divine Providence did not so for favour them , as to keep them from subjection to foreigners , it was not to be expected that they should enjoy ail the distinctions
which had been stipulated , upon the condition of exact obedience and conformity to the law that had been given them . You remember the history in
2 Kings xxii , xxiii r of repairing the temple , and finding the laws , and keeping the passover , after the wicked reigns of Manasseh and Amon . This is a most de .
plorable case . The law found in the temple could not be the original book writ b y Moses , but a copy of the laws or books of Moses . None
had seen a book of the laws before , neither Josiah , nor any of his courtiers and wise counsellors * The law , therefore , was then ift great danger of being quite lost . There was ^ a copy then among the Samaritans , but whether atiy other among the Jews may be
questioned , though vte cannot say there was not . That book of the law found in the temple , had probably been many years before se . cretedfor safety * bv some pious
. Israelite or Levite , now dead , iu some private place . Neither thfl king nor his counsellors kneii what the book contained . Tfief
had indeed begun to repair thf temple ; that building was visible , and they knew it had been abused to idolatry > though cons $ ratW
Untitled Article
16 $ Original Letter qf Dr . Lardner ' s .
Untitled Article
' ¦ ¦ *¦ ¦ 3 . . ;¦
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1810, page 162, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2403/page/2/
-