Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

2, 3.

and with his seed after him. When God called Abraham from his father's house, he promised him, And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and Gen. xii. in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. In this covenant and promise there is a temporal blessing mentioned, that God would make Abraham's family a great nation, including that God would give unto them the Land of Promise. But besides this covenant of temporal blessings, there appear plainly a covenant, and promises of an higher and different nature; for Abraham was not only to be the father of a numerous family, and a prosperous nation, but in him, and his seed, all the families of the earth were to be blessed.

"This covenant," as a great author observes, limited to Abraham, and his "chosen seed, most evidently regarded the "whole race of men, and was to grow in the fulness of time into a blessing

[ocr errors]

upon all the nations of the earth; he " and his posterity, as the church of God,

66

were depositaries of this hope. Now, "as two covenants were given to Abra"ham and to his seed, one a temporal "covenant, to take place and be performed "in the land of Canaan; the other a "covenant of better hope, to be per

[ocr errors]

"formed in a better country; so are the prophecies given to Abraham, and to his "children after him, of two kinds; one "relative to the temporal covenant, and given in discharge and execution of "God's temporal promises; the other re"lative to the spiritual covenant, given "to confirm and establish their hopes of Bp. Sherfuturity, and to prepare and make ready lock on "the people for the reception of the king"dom of God."

Pro

phecy,

p. 134.

From this circumstance of the covenants between Abraham and his seed we have reason to conclude, that the laws given by Moses to this people had a particular regard to them as the holy seed of Abraham, that they would therefore have a regard to both these covenants, and teach the hopes and obligations of both; or, as the forementioned judicious author observes, “Now, if Abraham and his posterity Vid. 18. "were chosen not merely for their own "sakes, or out of any partial views and re"gards towards them, but to be instru"ments in the hands of God for bringing "about great designs in the world; if the

temporal covenant was given for the "sake of the everlasting covenant, and "to be subservient to the introduction of "it; it is highly probable, that all parts of "the Jewish dispensation were adapted to "serve the same end, and that the law p. 163. "founded on the temporal covenant was

Id. ib.

"intended, as the temporal covenant itself "was, to prepare the way to better promises, to contain the figure and image of good things to come."

[ocr errors]

Such seems to be the state of the world, and of the church, when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, and gave them possession of the promised land, and appointed them laws by Moses best suited to this intermediate state of religion, till all the nations of the earth should be blessed in the seed of Abraham, and the kingdom of the Messias.

From this view of the state of the world, and of religion, and of the Hebrew nation, you perceive that some new laws, some further constitutions of worship, would be very proper and useful in ' those times, and for that people, to maintain the knowledge of the one true God, to preserve the purity of religious worship, and to keep up the hope of the promises and covenant with Abraham until they should be accomplished, and all nations should be blessed in the Messias. When God entered into covenant with Abraham and his seed, there was a new rite added to the patriarchal worship. God appointed a visible mark, as a seal of a covenant between himself and Abraham; and God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou and thy seed after thee, in their generations. This is

OF THE HEBREW WORSHIP.

you,

[blocks in formation]

UNIVERSITY

CALIFORN

the covenant which ye shall keep between me and and thy seed after thee: every man-child among you shall be circumcised, and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and

you.

Gen. xvii..

9, 10, 11.

[ocr errors]

Yet how fit soever such a visible mark might be, to keep in remembrance the covenant between God and the family of Abraham, it was found, in experience, insufficient to preserve them from the idolatrous customs of their neighbours. They fell into a disuse even of circumcision itself, as the seal of their covenant; Moses's Exod. iv. own children were not circumcised, till 9, 10, 11. an angel showed him his fault; and Zipporah seemed to express her dislike of the use of the rite itself. Then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision. While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, this seal of the covenant was omitted for a long time; all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way, as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. These Joshua was directed to circumcise, Joshua, v. which he did at Gilgal; on which the Lord 5. said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. 9. Thus it appeared in fact, that circumcision was not sufficient to keep up the distinction of this people, and their separation from the world, to preserve the know

C

ledge and worship of the true God, the memory and hopes of the promises and

covenant.

It appears, from these general considerations, every way fit and proper to answer the great end of religion; every way becoming the wisdom and goodness of God, agreeable to his promises, and covenant with Abraham, whom he had chosen to the honour and privileges of his church, to give this people a new body of laws, now they were entering into the Land of Promise, and the covenant of their temporal blessings was to be accomplished: a body of laws suitable to the designs for which they were chosen an holy nation and peculiar people, suitable to their character as Israelites. What such a body of laws should be, to show both the wisdom and goodness of God, well deserves an attentive and impartial inquiry.

« AnteriorContinuar »