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    of the sacerdotal vestments , were worn , we are told , the one , that he might bear the iniquity of the holy things of the people ; the other , that when he went into and came forth from the holy place , he should not die . ( Exod . xxiii . 35 , 38 . ) Now , that such a virtue resided in the plate of gold , inscribed even as it was with Holiness unto the Lord , or in the mere semblance of the fruit and sound of the metal , could not surely have been for a moment credited by those who had been so clearly taught that Jehovah' dwelt not in images of silver or of gold , nor in any work of man ' s hands .

    " To a people , too , thus instructed , the whole system of expiatory sacrifice must have appeared intelligible and reasonable , only upon the supposition of its being figurative or allegorical . Admitting readily , that even the most pious and spiritually-minded among them might be far from understanding the precise nature and full value of that great sacrifice which we ( neither

    unscripturally , we trust , nor irrationally ) believe to have been thus shadowed out , we would yet contend that they must have regarded that which of a truth purged their iniquities , the iniquities even of their holy things , as somewhat far higher and more available than the blood of bulls ana goats , and the sprinkled ashes of the heifer . " %

    We have no intention to enter into the question respecting the Jewish ideas of sacrifice , and will only oppose to Mr . Conybeare ' s presumption that tlie Jews must have had the notions which he attributes to thefm , the fact that from the first of their historians to the last of their prophets there is not a single passage which shews , or even seems to shew , that thdy attached any such opinions to a rite of which they were in the constant exercise . But as he says that circumcision is ' * expressly declared b y Moses to have a spiritual meaning , " it may be worth while to examine what it is the Jewish

    Lawgiver really says . Circumcision was not of Moses , but of the fathers , and in the 17 th chapter of Genesis is declared to be the covenant ( i ; e * sign of the covenant ) between God and Abraham , that the land of Canaan should be given to his descendants and possessed by them , while they continued obedient . The command was renewed and incorporated with the law ( Lev . xii . 3 ) without a word being said of any spiritual meaning . But in his address to the people in Deuteronomy , Mose 3 twice exhorts them " to

    circumcise their hearts ; " and this Mr . Conybeare calls an express declaration of the spiritual meaning of the rite . If this be an express declaration , may we not ask , what can be called an incidental allusion ; or if this application of it in a moral sense prove that it bore a secondary and spiritual meaning , why may we not say that it had a third and rhetorical meaning , since Moses declares himself to be " of uncircumcised lips" ( Exodi vi * 3 ( ty ; or a fourth and horticultural meaning , since he speaks of a tree being un * circumcised ? ( Lev . xix . 23 . )

    Hitherto we have spoken generally of the doctrine of a double sense in the Scriptures of the Old Testament , but it is necessary to direct our attention more particularly to the subject of the historical * and prophetical types which are supposed to be so abundant in the law and the prophets . We must endeavour first of all , if possible , to acquire some distinct idea of whait is meant by a type . Mr . Conybeare gives no precise definition .

    According to Mr . Chevallier , " one person is an historical type of another , when the real actions of his ordinary life designedly , by the providence of God , prefigure the real actions of the life of the person to whom' reference is made . " P . 30 ; If we further inquire how this design is to be ascertained ; we are told that " unless the Scripture has declared the connexion exists , we can never ascertain that any resemblance , however accurate , is any thing more than a fanciful adaptation , and we may go on to multiply imaginary

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    Review , —Tite Bampton and Hulsean Lectures . 39

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 39, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/39/