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be admitted, would vindicate the Israelites as well as them. It will be still said, What if the Egyptian religion was indeed full of these senseless superstitions ; is it not strange that the Israelites should be so fond of continually imitating the rites and usages of that nation? I answer: this must indeed seem strange and unaccountable, if we can imagine, that they were for copying after these patterns merely because they were Egyptian; but the fact appears in another light; if we consider that the wisdom of Egypt was in these days of the highest repute of any in the world; and that the Egyptian institutions were not at this time suspected to be absurd, unreasonable, or superstitious; P but on the contrary, reason and philosophy were thought incontestably to support the practice of them." I cannot imagine that the Israelites had been such scr vile imitators of Egypt, as some learned writers are apt to represent them. We see in fact they had rejected their gods; being convinced, that the Gon who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, was the only god to be worshipped by them; and had they been as sensible that the calf they had made, was a real absurdity, they would, I dare say, not have been at all

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• Ουδεν γαρ αλογον, εδε μυθώδες, είδε υπο δεισιδαιμονίας (ωντες ενιοι νομίζεσιν) εγκατεσοιχεια το ιεραρχίαις Plutarch. in lib. de Isid. et Osirid. p. 353.

9 Καλώς οι νόμοι τα περι τας θυσίας έταξαν, διο δεν μάλιςα προς ταυτα λόγον εκ φιλοσοφίας μυςαγωγον αναλάβοντας οσίως διανοείσθαι των λεγομένων και δρωμένων εκαςον. Id. ibid.. p. 378.

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induced to make it by any knowledge or imitation of the Sacra of the Egyptians. But according to the rudiments of the world in these ages, reason was thought very clearly to dictate, that images were necessary to a lively and significant service of the deity; and such a sort of image as the Israelites now used, was accounted to be by nature designed for this very purpose; and the wise and the learned thought they worshipped Quanws; and esteemed it a part of natural religion to dedicate these Sacra. Thus I think, I might justly say of the Israelites, that in all they did in this matter, there had no temptation taken them but what is common to man." It is indeed true, that God had made a covenant with this people, the import and design of which was to engage them to obey his voice,▾ and to walk in the ways which he should command them; that they might not walk in the counsels of their own hearts, but should trust in the LORD with their whole heart, and not lean to their own understanding. This was to have been their wisdom, this their understanding in the sight of all nations; if

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Plutarch. ubi sup. Antiquos simulachra deorum confinxisse, quæ cum oculis animadvertissent, hi, qui adissent divina mysteria, possent Animam mundi ac partes ejus, id est, Deos veros videre. Varro in Fragment. p. 40.

Τιμώντας δια τετων το θείον ως εναργεςέρων εσοπόρων και φυσεί γε yovorov. Plut. ubi sup. u 1 Corinth. x. 13.

* Exod. xxiv. 5-8. Deut. v. 3.

y Exod. xix. 5. Jerem. vii. 22, 23.

a Ver. 24.

Jerem. ibid.

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they would have bowed their hearts to adhere to it. But when or where has mankind been truly ready to pay unto God this obedience of faith? Our first parents would not be restrained by a divine command, from what they thought in reason was to be desired to make them wise. And thus the Israelites would have images, when they thought reason and natural science to be for them; though God had said expressly, make no image. In the same spirit and way of thinking, the learned Greeks in their day would not admit the doctrine of the cross, though attested to come from GOD by the demonstration of the spirit and of power, because it seemed foolishness to them. And I need not remark how difficult it is at this day, to persuade men to have their faith stand, not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of GOD. Vain man would be wise, though man be born as the wild ass's colt. A restless inclination to pursue what seem to be the dictates of human wisdom, rather than strictly to adhere to what GoD commands, has ever been the regions and wives; I might say the human foible, the seducement, which has been too apt to prevail against us. Our modern reasoners think they argue right, when they contend, that "if we find any thing in a revelation, which appears. contrary to our reason, no external evidence whatso ever will be sufficient to prove its divine original; but that upon observing any thing in it so opposite to our

a Gen. iji. 6:
f 1 Corinth. i. 24.
Job. xi. 12.

e Exod. xx. 4.

& Ver. 23.

1 Corinth. x. 13.

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natural light and understanding, we ought to give up such a revelation as absurd, and therefore false, whatever extrinsic proofs may be offered in support of it.” But was not this the part which the Israelites here acted? To have no images to direct their worship, was, according to the then theory of human knowledge, contrary to what they called science and reason. As soon therefore as Moses was gone from them, they regarded not the commandment which had been given them. The external proof, which they had of its divine authority, weighed but little with them, inicomparison of what they imagined reason dictated very clearly in this matter.

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Some learned writers endeavour to argue, that if the Israelites had not fallen into idolatry, by setting up the calf; GOD would not have given them the ritual or ceremonial part of the law. They say that at first GoD spake not unto them, nor commanded them concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices; but gave them his statutes, and shewed them his judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live by them; adding to these only his Sabbaths, to be a sign between him and them, that they might know him to be the LORD." They observe,

Antequàm offenderent Dominum, idolum illud erigentes, decalogum tantùm acceperunt; post idololatriam verò et blasphemias, ceremonias legales multas dedit, ad nihil aliud utiles, quàm ut eos remorarentur à dæmonum cultu et sacrilegâ superstitione gentium. Isidor. Clar. Schol. in Ezek. Vid. Spencer. de legib. Heb. 1. 1. c. 4. §4.

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that the ten commandments, and the statutes which fol low to the end of the xxxiiid chapter of Exodus, do well answer to these accounts of the Prophets, and were indeed such a law of moral righteousness, that the man which doth these things, shall live by them, without any further observances to recommend him unto God. But when the Israelites would not walk in GoD's statutes, but despised his judgments, and had their eyes after their fathers' idols; that then the ceremonial law was added because of their transgressions,' then Gon gave them also, or over and above what he had before commanded them, statutes, that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; namely, the positive and ritual precepts, which Moses was then directed to deliver to them. We may find this opinion at large in the work called the apostolical constitutions; and there is an appointment in the xxth chapter of

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• Ezek, xx. 25.

* Δεδωκεν νόμον απλών εις βοήθειαν τα φυσικά, καθαρόν, σωτήριον, άγιον, εν ω και το ίδιον όνομα εγκατέθετο, τελειον, ανελλειπης δεκα λεργιών πλήρη, αμωμον, επιτρεφούλα ψυχας

η δεκάλογος, την προ της τον λαον μοσχοποίησαν θέτησεν ακείλη φωνή, ατος δε δικαίας εστι, διο και

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Νόμος δε ελιν

Θεος αυτοίς ονομα

νόμος λέγεται δια το φύσει δικαίως τους κρίσεις ποιείσθαι. Const. Apost. lib. 6. ε. 19, 20, Ο ποτε δε οι τε λαμ Ψητή αμνημονες υπήρξαν, και μια χον τι θες επεκαλεσαν οποτε οργισθείς ο Θεός έδησεν αυτής δεσμούς αλύτοις πισώσει φορτισμός και σκληρότητι κλοι». ibid. • της λεω για τα επεισακτα περιείλεν. C. 22, εκ ανέλων του φυσικών νομού, αλλα παύσας τα δια της δευτερώσεως επεισάκτας ibid.

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