Imatges de pàgina
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Deity, whom he elsewhere calls three funs, or lights, three fovereigns-without beginning, and without end.

It must be owned, that the genuineness of this paffage is difputed by the Jews, as well as the authority and antiquity of the book itself by fome Chriftians (1); but, as to the first, it is known, that they make no fcruple of denying all that makes against them, and that where they dare not do it, as in the cafe of the facred writings, they will manifeftly pervert the fenfe, and appeal to the oral law; and as for the Chriftians, it is to be feared they are all too apt to be partial to their favourite fyftems, and to overfhoot the mark on both fides. However, though it is out of our province to enter any further into the controverfy, how far the doctrine of the Trinity was, or or might be, known to the antient Jews, from feveral places of the Old Testament, urged against them; yet we beg leave to make an observation or two out of their Talmud, which feem to make very much against them, becaufe they have not yet been taken notice of by any author that we know of. There is one fection in it (2), written dialogue-wife, in which are feveral questions; as firft, why the names of GOD, Elohim, Zabaoth, &c. are in the plural number? and secondly, why they are joined to verbs in the

fingular? [thus, for instance, the first verse of Genefis says, Elohim bara, where GOD is in the plural, and created in the fingular, which our divines have applied to the Trinity in Unity]: and thirdly, why GOD fpeaks in fome places in the plural number; as, Let us make man, &c. in our image, &c. (3)? Now it is plain, that to all these questions, or rather objections, the Talmud gives us no answers but what are plainly illufory (4), and fuch as the compilers would most probably have fuppreffed, as well as the questions, had they not defigned thereby to make a kind of a tacit acknowlegement, that these irregular expreffions contained fome mystery, which they did not think lawful to divulge. This was the reason why a learned rabbi (5), who was severely charged with having betrayed the myfteries of his religion, because the ftreightness of his circumftances had forced him to accept of the generous offer from a Roman cardinal, of a large falary for teaching the Hebrew tongue, protefts, among other things, which he urges in his own vindication, that he had never so much as explained the first verse of Genefis.

But what will convince our readers, that this was the cafe of the writers of the Talmud, is the answer that is given in the chapter above quoted, to the queftion, why the throne

(1) Vide Woolf. bibliot. rabbin. N° 2175. p. Sanhedrin. (3) Gen. i. 26. iii. 22. & alib. (5) Elias Levit. vide præf, ejufd, in

notes.

1134, & feq. (2) Tra&. (4) Vide fup. p. 10, in the grammat. Hebraic.

of

THAT they fhall engrave his laws in their hearts; diligently teach them to their children and grandchildren; and wear them for a fign upon their head. as frontlets between their eyes; and write them upon the gates, pofts, and other parts of their houfes f.

THAT they fhall circumcife their hearts as well as their flefh8; and be no more rebellious to him, but serve him fincerely, cleave unto him, and swear by his name alone.

THAT the whole law fhall be read by the priests to all the people, men, women, and children, every seventh year, at the feaft of the tabernacles i, and the substance of it fhall be learned by heart by every Ifraelite; and that every king of Ifrael fhall be obliged to write a copy of it with his own hand, from that which was by Mofes committed to the custody of the Levites, in order to be conftantly read and obferved by himk.

THAT all bleffings fhall be thankfully acknowleged to come from GOD, and punishments inflicted by him fubmiffively received, as fatherly chaftifements, or trials of their obedience!.

e Deut. vi. 6, 7. x. 16, & alib. paff. feq. ad 19.

f Ibid. 6-9. & Exod. ix. 16.
h Ibid. ver. 20.
Ibid. xvii. 18, & feq.

of GoD is in the plural number in Daniel's vifion (1). The words in the Chaldee are 1107, Carfevan remiú; which our verfion renders, the thrones were caft down, contrary to the exprefs meaning of the verb, which fignifies to raise, to exalt, and fet up; in which fense all the Jews do rightly understand it. The question therefore that is asked is, why the throne, on which the antient of days was to fit, is put in the plural? After feveral trifling anfwers, which are there given as the folutions of feveral learned rabbies, one of whom pretends, that the plural implies the thrones of GOD and Da

`(1) Dan, vii. 9.

8 Deut.

i Ibid. xxxi. 9, & 1 Ibid. viii. paff.

vid; the laft and concluding one is to the following purpofe; that it is blafphemy to fet the creature on the throne of the Creator, bleffed for ever; and closes the whole with

these notable words; If any one can folve this difficulty, let him do it; if not, let him go bis way, and not attempt it. The meaning of it being too obvious to want explaining, we fhall wholly fubmit to the reader, and only add, that fomething very like this feems to be intimated in that diftinction in their creed, about the Unity of GOD; namely, that he is one by an oneness or unity peculiar to himself (2).

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Laws concerning the

THE law fhall be engraven upon ftones, and fet upon an altar; and the bleffings of obedience, and curfes for difobedience, fhall be publickly fet upon the mounts Gebal and Gerizzim, for a perpetual remembranceTM.

No forgiveness, or deliverance from any punishment for difobedience, fhall be expected, without a deep fenfe and acknowlegement of the fault".

BURNT-OFFERINGS, facrifices, tythes, vows, firftlings of the flock, and freewill-offerings, fhall be brought and facrificed at no other place but that which the LORD fhall appoint.

Laws, pofitive and negative, concerning the Sabbath, pallover, and other feftivals, holidays, and fafts.

TH HE Sabbath, or feventh day, fhall be kept holy P (M). No fervile work fhall be done in it, by master, serSabbath. vant, flave, ftranger, or cattle 9. There fhall no fire be

kindled

m Deut. xxvii. 1, ad fin. xxviii. pass. n Ibid. xxx. paff.

• Ibid. xii. 5, & feq.
12, 14. & alib.
& feq..

P Exod. xxiii. 12. xxiv. 21. Deut. v. q Exod. xx. 10, & feq. Deut. v. 12,

(M) The Jewish doctors have ftretched this abftinence from work to the most fuperftitious degree. They extend it not only to every bufinefs that tends to the getting of food and raiment, fuch as plowing, fowing, reaping, threshing, and the like, which they make to amount to 39 negative pre. cepts, but to many other things: and hence other negative precepts which are as appendixes to the former; viz. grafs must not be walked upon, left it be bruifed ;an horfe must not be rid, left he be galled; and the like. It is not lawful to ride in a coach or cart, though an heathen drive it. No finging, dancing, playing upon instruments, or any kind of noife, is allowed, though it were to quiet a crofs child. No caufe is to be tried,

no accompts made or cast up,or marriages folemnized. No difcourfe about buying and felling, or any other worldly matter, much less loofe and profane talk, is to be fuffered.

The pofitive precepts concerning the Sabbath run much in the fame ftrain; we shall only inftance in two or three of them. On that day every one is obliged, according to their circumstances, to put on clean linen, to wear better cloaths than ordinary, to eat flesh, fish, or fowl, to drink wine, and to eat at least once in fix hours. Care alfo is to be taken that a clean table-cloth be laid, and the victuals fet upon it, the beds made, and the lamps lighted, before the entrance of the Sabbath, which begins and ends with them on or about

funfet,

funfet, according to the faying in Genefis, the evening and the morning were the fir ft day (1). A learned Jewish author tells us (2), that they were obliged,in all districts and towns throughout Ifrael, to blow the trumpet on the evening of the fixth day, fix different times, from fome eminence, whence it might be eafily heard at a due diftance; fo that they who were abroad in the fields might have timely notice to repair to their habitations before the Sabbath began. Accordingly, at the found of the firft trumpet, they left off work, and began to march homeward; at the fecond founding, all shops, ftalls, and places of trade, were fhut up; at the third, the pots and kettles were taken off the fire, the tables covered, and the meat dreffed for the Sabbath was fet upon them, &c.—The laft trumpet was generally about funfet; and, on the next night, as foon as they could perceive two or three ftars in the sky, the trumpets blew from the fame places to proclaim the end of the Sabbath; at which time the head of the family, after a fhort prayer, wifhed himself and the reft a good week, as he did a good Sabbath at the entrance of it.

Many of the wifer Jews, however, do make the fanctification of the Sabbath, to confift

in duties of a more noble nature than these talmudical trifles; namely, in meditation on the wonderful works of GoD, in the ftudy of his law, and inftructing thofe that are under them in it (3). Some of them even maintain, that they used to affemble every Sabbath, from the time of Mofes, to hear the law read and expounded (4). And this is likewife believed by feveral learned men among the Chriftians (5); who infer it from the words of St. James, that Mofes bas in every city them that preach him, being read in the fynagogues every Sabbath-day (6). But the much greater number are of opinion, that this cuftom was not fet on foot till Efdras's time. All that the priests were commanded to do on the Sabbath, was only to fet the new fhewbread on the tables, to take away the old one (7), and to offer the meat, drink, and burnt-offerings, peculiar to that day (8), however their antient doctors have fince clogged it with a great number of precepts and fubtilties.

Whether the obfervation of the Sabbath, or feventh day, be as old as the creation, as fome authors, both Jews and Chriftians, will have it, from thofe words of Mofes, And the LORD bleed the feventh day, and fanctified it (9); or whe

(1) Gen. i. 5. Vide Munft. in loc. & præcept. negat. & affirm, de fabbat. (2) Maimon, tract., cap. v. fe&t. 27. Vide Goodwin's Mof. & Aar. lífi. c. 3. §. 10. (3) Vide Munft. in Exod. xx. Meyer.de temp. facr. c. 19. §. 66. (4) Phil. in vit. Mof. Jofeph. cent. Apion. 1. ii. Talmud Hierof, tract. Megill. Maimon. Tepbilab, & Bircath bacobanim, & ac. mult. (5) Vide Cocceii fum. theol. c. 21. §. 14, & feq. Grot. & Meyer, ubi fup. (6) Acts XV. 21. comp. with ver. 36, (7) Levit. xxiv, 6, 8. (8) Numb, xxxviii. 9, & feq. (9) Gen.ži, 3.

ther

ther that text means no more than that GOD fet apart that day to be afterwards obferved by the Ifraelites, as the far greater part of the fathers and Chriftian commentators understand it; is a queftion, which, though more curious than important, has been very ftrenuously debated on all hands. The Jews are as divided about it as we; for, whilst fome affect to call the Sabbath their spouse, as being granted to the Jezus alone, exclufive of all other nations (1), others affirm, that all the patriarchs, and all good men, obferved it, up to Adam, whom they pretend to have been the author of the xciid Pfalm, intitled, a pfalm, or fong, for the Sabbath-day (2). They likewife interpret the words in Genefis, Becaufe Abraham

has kept my charge, of his keeping the Sabbath (3). The fame they affirm of Jacob, and add, that the reafon of his taking up his lodging in the open field in his way to Mefo potamia, was, that it happened to be the eve of the Sabbath; fo that he was obliged to top there as foon as he perceived that the fun was about fetting (4). Job's offering facrifices for his feven fons every feventh day is likewife underftood of his keeping the Sab bath; though another reafon seems to be given in the text (5).

Jofephus and Phile go ftill further, and affirm, that the obfervation of it had been preferved among the Gentiles. The former fays, that there was scarce any nation, either Greek or Barbarian, that did not in fome measure conform to the observance of the Sabbath (6); and Philo affures us (7), that it was not a feftival peculiar to any nation or country, but common to all, and kept as a kind of birth-day of the world. He adds, in another place, that the Jews, whilst in Egypt, having quite forgot the feventh day, GOD was pleased to indicate it to them by fending them manna fix days, and with-holding it on the feventh (8). We find likewise feveral antient writers among the heathen, fuch as Homer, Hefiod, and others quoted by the fathers, who fpeak of the feventh day as facred to religion (9). Something like this may also be gathered from that abfurd account which some others, particularly Tacitus and Plutarch, give of the Jews obferving it in imitation of the heathens, who confecrated that day to Saturn, according to the former (10), or to Bacchus, according to the latter; who adds, that he was alfo named Sabbos, becaufe they used frequently to fhout out the word Sabboi at his feftival (11). However, as thefe teftimonies would at beft

(2) Vide Chald. paraphr.

(1) Vide Selden & rabbin. ab eo citatos. Targum in titul. Pf. xcii. Middrah. Tebill. Talm. Babyl. tract. Sanbedr. & al. (3) R. Salom. in Gen. xxvi. 5. (4) Bereb. rabb. Parafb. 79. Talme tract. R. Bechai, & al. (5) Vide Abenez. in Job. i. 5. (6) Cont. Apion. l. ii. ad fin.

(8) In vit. Mof. I. i. (9) Vide Eufeb. præp. 1. xiii. c. 12. Clem. Alex. fromat. 1. v. & al.

(7) De opific. mund.

(10) Hifter, I. v.

(11) Sympofiac. 1. iv.

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