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ART. VI. - The Rationale of Religious Enquiry. By JAMES MAR-

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THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

No. LXXVI.

THIRD SERIES-No. VII.

SEPTEMBER, 1836.

ART. 1.-The Character and Institutions of Moses, considered with particular Reference to their Bearing on the Science of Government and Civil Liberty.

WHEN We see it stated, that some of the early colonists of New England determined to govern themselves for a time by the Hebrew laws, many are strongly tempted to smile at their simplicity. But the colonists knew what they were doing. They were right, in supposing that the Hebrew institutions were intended for a state of affairs very similar to their own. Some parts of the ancient code, some of its local provisions, would not answer for modern times; but with some abatement, principally, however, of laws which could not possibly be brought into use and action, the Hebrew constitution was as well suited, as any that could be devised, for the infant colonies. of our country. Those who ridicule the measure, are probably not aware, that the Hebrews lived under a government of laws and not of men. It was the spirit of freedom which ran through those institutions, that recommended them to the strong hearts of our fathers. They saw, what many others who read the Bible never saw, that it was the constitution of a free people.

A government of laws and not of men! How much the institutions of the United States have been admired because these words describe them! The friends of freedom, in all the civilized world, are looking upon us with deep and anxious interest, because they believe that our government is the VOL. XXI. 3D S. VOL. III. NO. I.

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only one on the face of the earth, to which those words will apply. It is thought, that such a government has been wrought out by the experience and wisdom of ages. The world, after ten thousand trials, has come to certain conclusions; and these results, practically applied to our social system, have given it the excellence which it is allowed to possess. And so hard is it to reconcile liberty with order, to allow the utmost freedom to the individual and at the same time to secure the greatest peace and welfare of the whole, that no thoughtful man wonders, that so many ages passed, before the world discovered how a people could be selfgoverned and yet governed, how men could be kept in order, and still be free.

If such is the slow process by which the world arrives at such results as this, what shall we say of the Hebrew constitution, which gave, to those who lived under it, as much freedom as ours? Was it not a brilliant discovery, in an age of barbarism, which thus anticipated the best wisdom of modern times? Is it not a most surprising thing, that the Hebrew lawgivers should thus have solved the problem, of reconciling liberty with order, which the gifted minds of succeeding ages have till lately attempted in vain ? Those who doubt the divine legation of Moses, will find an argument here, to which it is not easy to reply.

Perhaps, however, many are not aware of the true character of the Hebrew constitution. The hard name of Theocracy has disguised it. This name is given to it, because it recognised God as their national king. And yet this, if understood, is the exact description of a republic. A republic is a government, which has God, and God alone, for its king. By the Hebrew constitution, every individual was held directly responsible to God, and to God alone, for the use of his political privileges and powers; so it is in our republic. The Hebrews, as a people, acknowledged no human power above them; the same is true of us. The Hebrew constitution allowed no one to injure or oppress another; as respected their civil rights, all were equal, and all free. The Hebrew constitution allowed no privileged orders. The case of the priesthood may seem an exception to this remark; but it was not so in reality, for they were not a privileged order; they were rather a disfranchised body. They had no means of gaining wealth, influence, or power. As to wealth, they were restrict

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ed to a fixed income, and constant and laborious duties. to influence, they had no means of gaining it, since they had no personal intercourse with the people. Their services were not required or permitted at marriages or funerals; they dwelt apart in their own cities, associating only with each other, and were thus deprived of all temptation to gain power which could never be used. Since it was necessary to have a national religion, a priesthood could not be dispensed with; but it was guarded with provisions, which, so long as they were observed, made it perfectly impossible for it ever to endanger the liberties of the country.

As an evidence of the general inattention to the true character and provisions of the Hebrew law, one or two particulars may be mentioned; and, if there is a prevailing mistake as to details, it can hardly be expected that general views of the character and spirit of the law should be sound and just. We remember to have been informed by a clergyman, that he was dismissed from his charge for refusing to marry a man to the sister of his deceased wife. On our asking why he refused, he said that such connexions were forbidden by the Hebrew law. Probably he had not read the law, but had acted upon his impressions. Had he read it, he would have seen that Moses prohibited marrying a wife's sister only when the wife was living, and gave as a reason the rivalship which it would occasion between the two. Many, to this day, believe that the marriage of first-cousins was also forbidden; forbidden by the Canon law it was, but the law of Moses contains no such prohibition. It would be easy to produce many other examples to show, how little some of those who profess to pay most respect to the Hebrew law, are acquainted with its provisions; and, this being the case, we could hardly expect to find them taking just views of the spirit and tendency of its institutions.

Before remarking upon those institutions, we will give some account of their illustrious founder, and the remarkable manner in which divine Providence prepared him for his difficult and important duty.

From his childhood he was designated to the high trust which he afterwards fulfilled; and with his infancy commenced his education for the part he was to sustain. The Hebrews, when God determined to separate them as a peculiar people to keep alive the knowledge of himself in the midst of an idolatrous world, were thrown by a succession of events, all

bearing upon this purpose, into the very heart of Egypt, the very place to which they would have gone to learn the arts, sciences, and general improvement, in the highest perfection in which they then existed. Egypt was the fountain of intellectual light to the ancient world. The intellectual men of Greece, her philosophers and historians, always travelled to Egypt in search of instruction; in truth, it was their boast that they sprang from Egypt, Danaus, the founder of Greece, being, tradition says, the brother of Egyptus, the Egyptian king. Possibly it was by birthright that Greece inherited that beautiful and perfect taste, which made her the glory of ancient times. That Egypt was able to give improvement in the arts, is attested by her architectural monuments, which still bid defiance to the waste of time and the elements, and even to man, the most barbarous of all destroyers. After the land has been ravaged by Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, and in modern times by Saladin and Napoleon, her temples are upright and firm as in the day when Cambyses halted his brazen chariot to gaze on their majestic walls. It was to this land that Providence conducted the descendants of the patriarchs, that they might learn the arts and employments which they would require, when they were changed from wandering shepherds into a fixed and industrious people. The circumstance that they were in bondage there, was favorable to this kind of improvement; and how independent of other nations this discipline made them, appears from the description of the tabernacle or pavilion which they constructed in the wilderness; a work of splendor and skill that could not be exceeded in that day.

But while the Hebrew people, any or all, could learn the arts and employments of Egypt, her learning and intellectual improvement were less accessible. They were all in the hands of the priests, who confined them jealously to their own order, and never suffered any one who was not of their caste to receive the least portion of instruction. And their attainments were such as to give them a commanding title to respect. They were the surgeons and physicians of the day; they were also the astronomers, and traced, with surprising accuracy, the movements of the heavens; they were also geometricians by profession, and surveyed the land every year, after the inundation of the Nile had swept all the landmarks and boundaries away; in short, they knew all that was then to be known, and

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