and when he punishes, it is with a view of preventing distant evil.

This account of the Law of Moses must shew it to be divine; but yet our reverence for it, and our admiration of it must be heightened, when we reflect, that those very ordinances, which were so useful at first, were also types and proofs of the subsequent and ultimate dispensation.

By this train of thought, we may reconcile those passages of scripture, which describe the Law as carnal, with those which call it spiritual. As the Jews were to have a great number of observances, and were at the same time to prepare the way for a more perfect dispensation, it was wisely contrived, that their observances should be typical: these, as duties, would be carnal; as presignifications, spiritual. -Compare Rom. vii. 14. & 4. with Heb. ix. 9, 10. 24.-X. 1.-vii. 15, 16.—The general thought is expressed 1 Cor. xv. 46.-2 Cor. iii. 13, 14.

Things being thus prepared, a new Dispensation might be grafted on the Old: In which the reasons of temporal sanctions ceasing, the sanctions themselves would cease, and of course the extraordinary providence necessary to support them. And an ordinary providence would take place, and men would be directed to look forward to a future Life.

And, as we may discern propriety and fitness in the whole of the Mosaic Religion, so may we in distinct parts. Deut. xxii. 5. has been thought to be intended, not only to prevent indecency, and its consequences, but also Idolatry; as the Priestesses of Mars used to worship him in Man's Apparel, and the Priests of Venus used to worship her in woman's apparel:--The word, abomination," Boéλvyμa, seems to favour this Idea".

d Div. Leg. 8vo. vol. IV. p. 197, 316, 366.

I said,

* More instances may be seen in Stillingfleet's Origines Sacræ. Book ii, Ch. vii, at the end.

b

I said, that our Saviour had declared the Mosaic Law of Divorces to be suited to the Jews; let us now see the particular reason of it; the hardness of their hearts. Poets and Historians have described the Jews as rancorous and malevolent.Since the time of Christ,they have been often persecuted; and hatred easily becomes mutual: But in the time of Christ, perhaps spiritual pride might have arisen from their separation from the rest of the world; from the severities seemingly authorized in some of their predecessors to the enemies of their Religion. Any kind of malevolence or rancour would make them treat the weaker sex ungenerously, and in an harsh manner, inconsistent with the Christian principle of "giving honour unto the Wife, as unto the weaker Vessel."

End of Sect. 12.

The

Bp. Warburton ascribes the whole ceremonial Law of the Jews to the Hardness of their Hearts. Div. Leg. vol. III. 8vo. p. 394.

• Dio Cassius says of the Jews, τὸ γάρ τοι γένος αὐτῶν θυμωθὲν, TIKρÓTATÓ ÉσTI. 1. 49.-And see the Shylock of Shakspeare.

In 1794, I think, Mr. Cumberland brought on to the Stage a Comedy called the Jew, in which old Sheva is represented as benevolent and grateful. To appearance indeed he is a miser; and in fact lives very frugally; but he does good in secret.-We can only wish this may be founded in Nature, and ourselves endeavour to promote Christian benevolence.

In the time of Christ, the Jews might have got some malevolent sentiments from being subject to the Romans. Being obliged to submit to persons, whom we esteem inferior to ourselves in merit, generates hatred; especially if those persons have pretensions to superiority in some respects, and treat us with contempt.

1 Pet. iii. 7. What St. Peter recommends is precisely Mr. Hume's sense of the word Gallantry; Essays 8vo. vol. I. p. 148, &c. Essay xiv. On the rise and progress of the Arts

and Sciences.

What Mr. Hume says on the subject may help to illustrate the difference between Judaism and Christianity, in point of civilization of manners. And therefore to shew how ill Judaism would

The Jews were not allowed to take Interest for money, of Jews, but of strangers they were.— How far forbearing to take Interest was a duty of imperfect obligation, or indeterminate, like mercy to the poor, &c. may not be certain: the prohibition to take Interest is not followed by any specific penalty, but is expressed like prohibitions to oppress the poor: yet, as the Jews were under a special Providence, they might be sure, that they should be punished for offences, however men might sometimes evade human Laws. This idea brings indeterminate offences amongst Jews, under the Theocracy, near to the determinate. We may therefore endeavour to assign the reasons of forbidding Usury amongst the Jews, much as if that prohibition were perfectly determinate.

The Jews were to be a separate Nation; that Nation was to be divided into separate tribes; each tribe into separate families, and each family was to have its portion of Land, which should be cultivated by that family, and descend from generation to generation: this was the ordinary state of things: the only proper business of Jews, as such, was, to support and transmit a Religion; gain was not their business; and all arguments in favour of Interest, limited or unlimited, turn upon the right, which a man has to improve his property. Their business was, to keep the Jewish polity inviolate, till the coming of the Messiah. But though, in this ordinary course, they needed not either to lend or borrow; yet misfortunes might sometimes happen: if

suit the present times. I could almost paint to myself a peevish Jew taking a rancorous disgust against his wife, on account of some unavoidable infirmity, and using her so, as to make separation the least evil on the whole.

f Lev. xxv. 36, &c.—Deut. xxiii. 19, 20.

Lev. xxv. 35-37.

if they were of a lighter sort, Brother must help Brother, mutually, gratuitously, ignorant whose turn it might be next to suffer. But, if Calamity was weighty, a family might part with its real property, in the way of mortgage or sale; only for a time; it must return at the Jubilee, every fiftieth year at the farthest". Such a scheme seems best preserved by allowing no Interest, no Usury.— Why then allow Jews to take Interest of Strangers? Here the reasons ceasing, natural liberty revived. But, would not this liberty unsettle Jews? scarcely : they would have but little to lend; being not in the habit of lending, they would be very fearful; then their Land at home would always be the great tie: what they lent to strangers would be much more to residents than absentees; and would leave them still Jews, both in religion and politics.When indeed their circumstances came to be very much altered, by their subjection to the Romans, by the destruction of Jerusalem, &c. they would have to judge of the grounds of their Laws, and see how far they might innocently depart from the b strictness of them.

15. The reasoning commonly used does not satisfy the Jews, with regard to the abolition of their ceremonial Law.-Why did not Moses tell us plainly? say they. When he uses such expressions

See Reland's Sacred Antiquities, Part IV. Chap. xi. of Jubilees.

It has been a notion, that taking Interest for money was immoral: but such notion does not seem well-grounded. It must be always wrong to oppress the needy; but oppression is a vice of the indeterminate sort.-Even in the Jews, Usury was allowed to Strangers, that is, to men, as mere men: this could not have been, if it was radically immoral. Grotius supported the opinion, that Usury was wrong (de Jure, &c. 2. 12. 20.); but Barbeyrac's Note shews, that he did not continue always of that opinion.

sions as a Statute for ever, a perpetual Statute, did he mean to deceive? We answer, popular, natural language will always deceive if taken too literally; but where is the fault? not in him who uses the expressions, but in him who interprets them as he interprets no others. But let us look at a few particulars, in which expressions occur, that are not taken literally by the Jews: from these, their unfairness will appear, in taking others literally. The children of David were to sit upon his throne for evermore; that eternity has been long concluded. The children of strangers, after a price was paid for them, were to be Bond-men, or slaves, "for ever:" they could not live for ever, and any one of them might be manumitted.-" O King, live for ever!" might express loyalty and respect, but could never prevent mortality.-Twelve Stones were to be a memorial for ever of the dividing of the river Jordan when the Ark passed.

The Prophet speaks of" everlasting mountains";" and these might continue longer than the twelve stones; yet the everlasting mountains were scattered;"-nay, "Heaven and Earth shall pass away."-As "As to a perpetual Statute, or "a Statute for ever," it is literally a thing impossible, because the power that enacts can always repeal. Darius' made a decree about Daniel; it was immutable ;

* See Exodus xxix. 9. The first Article of the Treaty in 1785, between the Emperor and the Dutch, agreed upon an eternal friendship between them. And our Law about the Church of England decrees, that it shall be safe for ever."Sherlock on Tests. Oxf. 1790.

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