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I

SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS.

The first number denotes the page, and the second the line, to which the reference is made.

12. 11.

HAVING in this and the following pages described the effects which would naturally have resulted from inserting in the law of Moses an explicit statement of the doctrine of a future state; having shewn that the tendency of such an arrangement would have been most unfavourable to the propagation of that religion to which the Law was only preparatory; and having especially enlarged on the prejudices against the Gospel which it would engender in the minds of the Jewish people: we deem it important to add, in relation to the last particular, a consideration, which gives to our deductions a degree of confirmation little less than irresistible.

We are to observe then, that these deductions are not merely supported by abstract reasoning, but the evidence of fact. We admit that the doctrine of a future state is not taught in the Law; and we have said, that if it had been so taught, the consequence would have been to inflame the minds of the Jews with prejudice and hostility against the Gospel. But the Jews maintain that it actually was taught. Now the conviction that it was so, would obviously produce the same effect on their minds as the fact itself: since the certainty of a fact, and the undoubting belief of it, will naturally have the same influence on a reasonable being. We shall find then, on examining those sources of information from which only an authentic exposition of their sentiments can be obtained, that while persisting in the rejection of the Gospel, their views are precisely the same with those which, as we have said, they would have been led to entertain by finding the doc

trine of future rewards and punishments in the pentateuch.

In proof of this, the evidence we produce will, first, illustrate their opinions respecting this doctrine, as they suppose it to be taught in the Law: and, secondly, it will illustrate those other opinions which, as we have said, would have been consequently entertained as deductions from the former.

I. That the doctrine of a future state is believed by the Jews to be the doctrine of their law, will appear from the following authorities.

σε

The first which we shall adduce is that of the historian Josephus, who says explicitly: "Our lawgiver has prophesied, and God himself has pledged his steadfast faith, that to those who fulfil his laws, and are ready, if need "be, to die for them, to them God has granted both that "they shall return to life again, and obtain a better life "from the changea."

Our next authority shall be that of the rabbi Moses Maimonides. Of all the Jews who have lived since the national dispersion, it is impossible to mention a name more highly estimated by his countrymen. He is familiarly designated among them as the " Doctor of Righteousness," and the "Light of the Captivity." Such indeed is their extravagant veneration for his character, that it surpasses even that with which they regard the prophets of their own canonical scriptures. This will appear from the following testimony to his merits, which has passed into such currency among them as to have become proverbial: "From Moses to Moses, there has arisen none like "to Moses." That is to say, according to the interpretation of Buxtorf and Pococke, From the time of Moses the lawgiver to that of Moses Maimonides, there has appeared none to be compared with the latter. These particulars will enable us to estimate the credit to which he is entitled as an expositor of Jewish opinions and doctrines.

In his exposition of the Mishna we find the following passage: "As to the resurrection of the dead, that is the great foundation stoned of the law of Moses, which if a man believe not, he has neither lot nor place in the reli

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Cont. Ap. ii. 30. The words of the original are quoted, page 282 of this work.

b Buxtorfii Præf. ad More Nevochim.

Præf. ad Portam Mosis.

Literally, foundation of foundations.

to quit

"gion of the Jews This resurrection belongs only to "those who excel in virtuef."

This writer (following the example of the Christian church in regard to the Apostles' Creed) drew up a brief confession of faith for the use of his countrymen. It consists of thirteen articles, which are also called foundations of the Law. This creed is now in general use among the Jews. The last article contained in it declares the resurrection of the dead. And the penal sanction of this, in common with the other articles, is thus declared: "If any "man shall doubt respecting any one of these foundations, "he hath deserted the congregation of Israel, and denied "the foundation. He is called a heretic, an epicurean, ❝and a tearer up of rootss. Him it becomes us to hate and to destroy; since of him it is said, Do not I hate, Lord, them that hate theeh?"

Thirdly, the rabbi Judah Zabarah has the following passage: "You must know that the foundation of our faith "concerning the resurrection of the dead, is from the Law.

Now if any man shall, with a firm faith, believe the resurrection of the dead, but shall not believe that it is "a doctrine of the Law, behold, that man, notwithstanding his faith, shall be reckoned as an infideli.” -After such decided authorities, the production of any other must be needless. We shall, therefore, on the ground of the foregoing citations, feel ourselves authorized to assume the fact, That the doctrine of a future state was and is believed by the Jews to be a doctrine of their law.

II. It remains for us to shew the real existence of those erroneous tenets of religion, which, as we have contended, would naturally result from that belief. These tenets, we say, would wholly obstruct the reception of the Christian religion. They are as follows.

1. The doctrine of the Eternity and Unchangeableness of the Law. We have said, that the Jews would be naturally indisposed to embrace a new charter which contained no extension of former privileges; and that the most power

It is impossible to conceive what Warburton can have meant when he said, that "Maimonides saw nothing in the Law but temporal sanctions." Div. Leg. b. iv. §. 6. vol. iv. p. 362.

Pocockii Porta Mosis. Operum vol. i. p. 60.

• Excindens plantas.

h Pocock. Ibid. p. 66, 67.

Pocockii Nota Miscellaneæ in Portam Mosis. Operum vol. i. p. 163.

* P. 13.

ful recommendation of the Gospel would have been destroyed by annexing the promise of eternal life to an anterior dispensation. This is fully verified in the doctrine of which we now speak. It is thus stated by Maimoni des: "It is a foundation of our law, that it will not have ❝ an end nor be abolished for ever: and therefore it also "follows, according to our opinion, that there never was, "nor ever will be, any other law, besides this only law “of Moses our teacherm." He proceeds to deduce this doctrine from the consideration of the perfection of the Lawn. The scope of the argument is as follows.

Law is perfect, and therefore any dispensation which is substituted in its place, being different from that which is perfect, must itself be imperfect, and therefore unfit to supersede the former".

Again he says: "The ninth foundation of the Law is, "that this Law of Moses will not be abrogated, and that "no other than it will be given by God; that nothing will "be added to it, nor taken from it, whether in the text or "the [cabalistic] interpretation P.”

He declares the punishment of a false prophet to be incurred not only by him who shall add to, or diminish from, the Law of Moses, but by him also who should even dare to contradict those cabalistical expositions of the Law which are at variance with its literal and obvious meaning 9. For these cabalistical expositions are by the Jews regarded as equally authoritative with the Law itself, and as a surer guide to its meaning than the words in which it is expressed.

2. The doctrine of Justification by the Works of the Law. We have said, that if the promise of eternal life had been contained in the Law, obedience to that Law would have been viewed as constituting a meritorious title to it. This

I P. 22.

m More Nev. p. ii. c. 39. p. 301.

" P. 302.

Yet the same writer, with remarkable inconsistency, declares in the same work, that the ritual law was, in great part, grounded on the circumstances of the age in which it was given; and admits that those circumstances are so far changed, that even the knowledge of them had not come down to his time. His words are as follows: "Omnia præcepta, tam nega"tiva quam affirmativa, quorum nobis ratio est occulta, nihil aliud sunt, quam "remedia et medicinæ morborum quorundam illius temporis, quæ ad nostram "scientiam (Deo sit laus) non pervenerunt." More Nev. p. iii. c. 49. p. 508. It remains to be shewn how a code which was framed with a regard to changeable circumstances can, with relation to altered circumstances, maintain an unchangeable perfection.

P Porta Mosis, p. 66.

Ibid. p. 13.

· P. 12.

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