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LECTURE VI.

The superior excellence and authority of the Hebrew constitution and laws, as an immediate communication from Jehovah. The manner, in which this communication was made. Hebrew theocracy the most antient system of government. The particular design of the Jewish oracle, and the happy effects of its establishment.

IN several preceding lectures we have given a

brief analysis of the antient Hebrew government. We have shown that this government, besides possessing other advantages peculiar to itself, combined all the essential features of the most perfect constitutions adopted in after ages; particularly that it established those three great departments or balances of power, a popular assembly, a senatorial council, and a presiding magistrate. But the most distinguishing and crowning excellency of this constitution was, that it placed at the head of administration a perfect Sovereign, viz. Jehovah himself. As God was the Creator and moral Governor of the Israelites, in common with the rest of mankind, and in this capacity enjoined upon them all moral duties; and as he was also their religious or ecclesiastical Head, and in this character prescribed the peculiar forms and rites of their worship; so he was the Sovereign of their body politic; and in this relation he gave them civil and judicial laws, proclaimed war and peace, and appointed officers in the state. As their political King, he ordered a palace to be built for his residence among them, I mean the tabernaele, and afterward the temple, in which he visibly dwelt, or manifested his presence, by the Shechinah, or bright cloud of glory, appearing over the mercy seat between

the two cherubims, in the innermost room of the palace; on which account he is said to "dwell," and to "sit between the cherubims."* From this seat he gave forth oracles, or notified his pleasure respecting important matters, which were not previously settled by the written laws.

It is evident, at first view, that if God was in a peculiar sense the King of the Hebrew nation, as their whole history proves; he must have had some fixt and unequivocal method of conveying to them his royal pleasure; otherwise his authority would have been nugatory, and his will perpetually liable to be counterfeited, mistaken, or perverted. It is therefore an important question, how the voice or oracle of Jehovah, which was the highest and last resort in the Jewish administration, was given forth and ascertained? This question demands a more critical attention, on account of that fashionable incredulity and indiscriminate contempt, with which some modern inquirers regard every antient story of oracular or supernatural inspiration. The mind of man, at this day, enlightened by christian knowledge and human science, is forcibly struck with that combination of deep cunning and ignorant superstition, which gave birth and reputation to the heathen oracles and auguries even among the refined Greeks and Romans. We readily grant that the heathen oracles were in general the artful devices of priests and priestesses, who gave forth responses according to the pay, which they expected or received; and who uttered their predictions in such equivocal terms, as might suit the event, whether favorable or adverse. Kircher, an eminent philosopher, with a view to undeceive the credulous, and to account for some strange

• Psalm lxxx. 1. xcix. 1.

I

things related of the Delphic oracle, fixed a tube in his bed chamber in such a manner, that, when persons called him at the garden gate, next to his lodgings, though they spoke no louder than ordinary, he heard them as distinctly, as if they were in the room, and returned as audible an answer. This tube he afterwards wrought so artificially into a figure in his museum, that the statue would open its mouth, move its eyes, and apparently speak; when he supposed that the heathen priests by a similar artifice made the superstitious people believe that the idol returned answers to their questions. But the oracle of the God of Israel was totally different from the pagan divinations. It could not therefore originate from the same source, nor be the mere imitation or offspring of heathen superstition.

For first, none of the pagan communities regarded as their political sovereigns those deities, whose oracles they consulted. For the most part these deities were not owned as the tutelar gods even of those particular cities, in which their oracles were stationed. This remark applies to the famous oracles of Apollo at Delphi, and of Jupiter Hammon in Libya. But the oracle of Jehovah among the Hebrews was part of a very peculiar and sublime policy, constituting him their supreme Lawgiver and Magistrate, and was of course the appointed and suitable organ of his will on evey great political occasion, A plan of civil policy so novel and grand could not be borrowed from the heathens, whose ideas and customs were opposite to it; but was evidently designed to counteract their favorite and pernicious idolatries.

We add secondly, that the theocracy of the Hebrews if far more antient than any of the pagan oracles. A de

istical writer of the last century has insinuated, that "while the Jews were in Egypt, they had been much surprised and dazzled with the infallible declarations and decisions of Jupiter Hammon," and from this source took the first hint of a future oracle among themselves. But unluckily for this suggestion, the fact is, that Jupiter Hammon was not born till above four hundred years after the Jews went out of Egypt. The true chronology of Egypt, as restored by the great Sir Isaac Newton, places Hammon, king of that country, about one thousand and thirty four years before the Christian era, that is, about four hundred and fifty years after the law of Moses. This illustrious writer gives us the first rise of heathen oracles in the following words. "The year before Christ one thousand and two Sesac reigned in Egypt; he erected temples and oracles to his father in Thebes, Ammonia, and Ethiopia, and thereby caused his father to be worshipped as a god in these countries. This was the original of the worship of Jupiter Ammon, and the first mention of oracles I meet with in profane history. The Greeks in their oracles imitated the Egyptians; for the oracle of Dodona was the oldest in Greece, and was set up by an Egyptian woman, after the example of the oracle at Thebes." To derive therefore the Hebrew oracle from the Egyptian, discovers an ignorant or wilful misrepresentation of chronological facts.

We observe thirdly, that the design of the Jewish oracle, and the manner, in which it uttered its decrees, precluded every appearance of imposture or superstition. The design or use of this oracle was very limited. It was not intended to issue any new laws, nor to repeal or change any former statutes, nor to decide private matters, * Dr. Morgan, author of the " Moral Philosopher."

[LECT. VI. or common judiciary causes; for a complete and unalterable code of laws was already established, and provision made for their due application in every ordinary case. The oracle was therefore instituted for the sole purpose of determining judicial and public questions of extraordinary moment and difficulty. As such an establishment suited the Jewish theocracy, so it was an instance of great condescention and goodness in God, the political King of that nation, and an inestimable privilege to his loyal subjects, as it insured to them his unerring and gracious direction. Thus, while they had an assembly of the people, who gave their free and general consent to public measures; while they enjoyed a wise senate, to examine, prepare, and mature those measures, and to check popular rashness; while they had an executive Judge, to convene and preside in those bodies, to carry their resolutions into effect, and to command the armies of the nation; they were also favored with a standing oracle, by which on great occasions they were to ask the counsel, and obtain the royal assent of their divine Sovereign. This operated as a final check upon any hasty or wrong measures, which the people, senate, or judge might in difficult cases be led to adopt. It was also an excellent mean of keeping alive in that nation a sense of their constant dependence on, and duty to God, as their immediate Director and Patron; of making them feel that their safety and prosperity must result from a close adherance to his counsels and commands. Thus it directly promoted the pious and beneficent object of their constitution. But it may be asked, might not this business of consulting the oracle be abused? Might not the High Priest, who alone was authorized to consult it, fabricate or report such answers, as suited his own policy? Might

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