stedfast, and EVERY TRANSGRESSION AND DISOBE DIENCE RECEIVED A JUST RECOMPENCE OF RE→ WARD, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation * ? St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, speaking of the advantages which Christianity had over Judaism, says: Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by Faith into his Grace, wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God: And not only so, but WE GLORY IN TRIBULATION ALSO, knowing that Tribulation worketh patience, &c. Here St. Paul, opposing the advantages which the Gentile Converts had by FAITH, to those which the Jews, in contempt to the Gentiles, gloried to have by the Law, adds, in order to shew those advantages in their highest superiority, that the Christian Gentiles could glory even in that which was the very opprobrium of the Jews, namely, tribulation. For the sanction of the Jewish Law being temporal re wards and punishments, administered by an equal providence; Tribulation was a punishment for crimes, and, consequently, an high opprobrium. But the followers of Christ, who were taught, that we must through much TRIBULATION enter into the kingdom. of God, had the same reason to glory in the roughness of the road, as the ancient Agonista had in the toils which procured them the victory. This is urged with great address. But the Critics, not taking the Apostle's meaning, have supposed, in their usual way, that he here broke in upon his argument, with an idea foreign to the point in hand. * Chap. ii. ver. 2, 3. See note [S] at the end of this Book. § Acts xiv. 22. + Rom. v. 1. & seq This will help us to explain an odd remark of the excellent Maimonides: That their wise men talked of a thing which was NOT TO BE FOUND in the LAW, namely, that which some of them call the CHASTISEMENTS OF LOVE, by which they meant that TRIBULATIONS might befall a man without any precedent sin*, and only in order to multiply his reward. And that this was the very opinion of the Sect called Muatzal, of which, or in favour of which opinion, there is not one single word to be found in the Lawt. This seems to have perplexed our Rabbi; and with cause. He lived when his countrymen were under a common providence, and had the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments, which, he took for granted, was always in the Jewish Economy. These things disabled him from seeing that--NO CHASTISEMENTS OF LOVE was a necessary consequence of temporal rewards and punishments administered by an equal providence: And likewise that when this sanction ceased, and a future state was known, then CHASTISEMENTS OF LOVE became a necessary consequence. But if by the LAW, Maimonides did (as the Jews frequently do) include the writings of the Prophets, then he was very much mistaken in saying there is not one word in it concerning the chastisements of This explanation was necessary; for, another kind of chastisements of Love there was in the Law, namely, paternal chastisements. Thus Moses: Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. Deut. viii. 5. Unum tamen occurrit in verbis sapientum nostrorum, quod NON INVENTTUR IN LEGE; id nempe, quod quidam eorum dicunt CASTIGATIONES AMORIS. Juxta hanc enim sententiam possunt TRIBULATIONES alicui evenire sine præcedente peccato, sed ut multiplicetur ejus Remuneratio. Atque hac ipsissima est sententia Secta Muatzoli, de qua, aut pro qua, ne verbulum quidem in Lege reperitur. More Nevoch. Buxtorfii, p. 381. love. For Zechariah, prophesying of a NEW Dispensation, describes this sort of chastisements in very express terms: " And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; and they "shall call on my name, and I will hear them.". So admirably do all the parts of God's grand Economy support one another.. We have seen what testimonies their coeval writers afford of an extraordinary Providence. But we must not suppose the Jews always held the same language. The difference is great between the early and later Jews, even during the existence of the Republic. Take an instance from the Psalmist, and the writer of Ecclesiasticus. The former says, I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the Righteous forsaken, nor his Seed begging their bread*. The latter-Look at the GENERATIONS OF OLD, and see: Did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded? Or did any abide in his Fear and was forsaken? Or whom did he ever despise that called upon him†?. The Psalmist, living under an extraordinary Providence, appeals to his own times; the Author of Ecclesiasticus living when it was long ceased, appeals to former times. But as we have been told, that this talk of a particular Providence is only an Eastern Hyperbole, in which every thing is ascribed to God, I think it not improper to take notice here of one singular circumstance in favour of the Reporters. We may observe, then, that the spirit of Gentilism was always uniform; and, throughout its whole duration, had ever the same unvaried pretensions to divine Intercourse, supported by the same sort of Oracles and Divinations. But amongst the Jews matters were t Chap. ii. ver. 10, &c. * Psal. xxxvii. 25. on on another footing. After their perfect settlement, on their return from Captivity (when we know, from the course and progress of God's Economy, that the extraordinary Providence was to cease), we hear nỡ more of their pretences to it, though they now adhered more strictly than ever to the Religion of their forefathers. They made no claim, as we see by the excellent Writer of the first Book of Maccabees, either to Prophets, Oracles, or extraordinary Dispensations. When they write unto the Lacedemonians, for the renewal of their Alliance, they tell them, at the same time, that they need it not, FOR THAT THEY MAVE THE HOLY BOOKS OF SCRIPTURE IN THEIR HANDS TO COMFORT THEM*. Language very different from their forefathers', when God was wont to send immediate help from the Sanctuary. How ingenuously does the same Historian relate the misfortune of Bethsura, caused by the observance of the Sabbatic Yeart? A misfortune of which we have no instance before the Captivity; and therefore a plain evidence that the extraordinary Providence was indeed withdrawn. Besides, if we consider the nature of the Religion, the genius of the People, and the circumstances of the Time, we shall find, they all concurred to favour the continuance of a pretension to an extraordinary Providence, had it been only a pretension, 1. The Mosaic Religion, like the Pagan, had a public part, and therefore the Jews might, with the greatest case, have still carried on the Superstition of Oracles, had their Oracles been indeed a superstition; especially as they were now become so closely attached to their Religion. For when did ever Greece or Italy” confess that their Oracles were become dumb, till the Consulters had generally forsaken them, and the † i Mace. vi. 49. * Chap. xii. ver. 9. whole whole frame of their Religion was falling to pieces? Besides, the practice of this superstition had been as easy as it was commodious; for the Oracular Voice was wont to come from the Mercy-Scat behind the Veil. 2. The genius of the People too would have contributed to the continuance of this claim. For, some how or other, it was become their character to require a Sign*; and though, now, really superstitious, yet the humour spent itself rather in telling lies of former times †, than in inventing any of their own. This, on a supposition of the human invention of their Law, is altogether unaccountable. But take the matter as we find it in their sacred Books, and nothing is more easy. For if they had indeed been long accustomed to a miraculous Dispensation, they would, ever after, be strongly disposed to require a Sign; but it would be only such a Sign as bore the evident marks of a Divinity; which not, being to be had in human inventions, they would be kept safe from delusions, and made sensible of the difference of times; And such was, in fact, their case. 3. Add to all this, that the time of the Maccabees was the season of Enthusiasm, when that airy Spirit is at its height; after the national Genius, long sunk by oppression, begins to rise and recover itself to a vindication of public Liberty. And of this we have a signal instance in the person of Judas Maccabæuş himself; who, in imitation of Gideon, would set upon an army of twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse, with only eight hundred straggling desperadoes; which rash and fanatis attempt was followed with the fortune that right, at this time, have been expected ‡. + See note [T] at the end of this Book, 1 Cor. i. 22. |