CHAPTER VIII.

The Prohibition of external Uncleanness and Impurity is conducive to the Purification of the Heart.

ONE general design of the law is, amongst other things, to control the appetites and restrain the passions, and to exterminate and render despicable those that are unlawful and injurious. Thus, it is well known, that the major part of men place their chief pleasure in immoderate eating and drinking, and venery;-practices, destructive of man's intellectual and highest perfection, and inimical to all good order and government. For when the depraved desires only are indulged, the mental vigour is destroyed; cares and anxieties are multiplied; hatred, malice, and envy are increased; contentions, wars, and robberies are excited, and the man suffers a premature death.

The reason of this is, that foolish men propose to themselves voluptuousness, as their chief good and ultimate aim.

To remedy this evil, God, in infinite wisdom, gave us laws calculated to banish such imaginary schemes of pleasure; to divert our thoughts

from them, and to prevent every thing tending to voluptuousness, or unlawful gratifications. Such is the principal intention of our law. See, therefore, how strictly the law enjoins the punishment of death upon him who seeks enjoyment in intemperate eating and drinking; and who, in the law, is called, "a stubborn and rebellious son,-a glutton and a drunkard." (Deut. xxi. 20.) The law commands him to be stoned, and speedily taken out of the way, before his wickedness and malice proceed to murder, and his intemperance injure and corrupt others.

In like manner, it is agreeable to the general intention of the law, that man should be kind, and gentle, and obliging to his neighbours; not rough and crabbed, but attentive to the wishes of his friends, hearing their petitions, and granting their requests. To this effect is the divine

command: "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked." (Deut. x. 16.) And again, "Take heed and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the LORD thy God." (Deut. xxvii. 9.) And, 66 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land." (Isaiah i. 19.) It is also said of those who are ready and prompt to receive, and obey, that which ought to be received: "We will hear and do." (Deut. v. 27.) and elsewhere, figuratively; "Draw me, we will run after thee." (Cant. i. 4.)

Our Law also designs to inculcate purity and sanctity, or, in other words, continence and

chastity, as will be hereafter explained. For when God commanded Moses to sanctify the people, to prepare them for receiving the Law, he said, "Sanctify them to-day and to-morrow." (Exod. xix. 10.) And again, Moses said to the people, "Come not at your wives;" (Exod. xix. 15.) evidently teaching, that chastity is sanctification; elsewhere teaching also the same doctrine respecting abstinence from wine; saying of the Nazarite, "He shall be holy." (Numb. vi. 5.) In the book of Leviticus also, we find it enjoined to be holy, since it is said, "Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy." (Levit. xi. 44.) Such is the sanctity of the precepts; and as the Scripture calls the observation and fulfilment of them, sanctification and purity, so it terms the transgression of them, and the perpetration of any thing base, impurity and uncleanness.

Cleanliness of dress, ablution of the body, and the removal of all dirt and squalidness, are certainly the intention of the Law, though considered as subordinate to the purification of the heart and conduct from depraved opinions, and immoral actions. (26.) For, to suppose that exterior purity, by ablutions of the body and dress, can be sufficient, though in other respects a man indulges himself in gluttony, inchastity, and drunkenness, is the extremest folly! Hence, Isaiah says, "They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens, behind one (tree) in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed N

together, saith the LORD." (Isaiah lxvi. 17.) For these words signify, that in public they cleansed and purified themselves, but afterwards in private and in their own houses defiled themselves with all manner of sin; and ate meats that were prohibited, such as " swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse."-As to the expression, "behind one (tree) in the midst," it most probably refers to unchaste and forbidden acts. From the whole, however, we learn that they were indeed outwardly clean, but that that inwardly they were full of evil desires, and lusts, inconsistent with the Law; the principal scope and design of which is, first to check and extinguish unholy desires; and then to purify the exterior, when it has purified the inward and hidden affections of the heart. Solomon has described those who are superstitiously attentive to purifying the body and dress, but inwardly inclined to evil, and addicted to impurity, when he says, "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness." (Prov. xxx, 12.)

Let what has now been said respecting the designs of the Law be well considered, and it will be found to throw light upon the causes of many precepts which were previously involved in obscurity.

CHAPTER IX.

IT

The Law is accommodated to Nations, not to Individuals.

T is necessary for the elucidation of this subject, farther to remark, that the Law is not formed for extraordinary cases, and actions of rare occurrence; but, for the common and ordinary transactions of life; and consequently that its various precepts and instructions are principally directed to the promotion of public and general good. To form, therefore, a due estimate of that Law, which is certainly Divine, regard must be had to those extensive and general benefits which result from it to the community at large; and not to the partial inconvenience or injury which here and there an individual may sustain from its authority and exercise. Just as in the operations of Nature, benefits are common and frequent; but injuries particular and seldom.

Agreeably to these views, we need not wonder, if the intention of the Law be not answered in all and every individual; but that there are some persons to be found, who, notwithstanding every legal restraint, continue irregular and imperfect. All men are not possessed of the same natural qualities; and although all proceed from the same God, and have been formed by the same power, and are committed to the same pastor,