you reigned, and your throne and sceptre have been wrested from you by the mule of our oracle, even Cyrus, who, his father being a Persian and his mother a Median, fills the measure of its import." Behold the system! Behold the commentary! Each worthy of the other, and both of that infernal craft and policy, in which they had their origin. One hardly knows against whom to feel the greater indignation; whether against the contrivers of such a system of delusion, or the bold blasphemer, who dares to liken it to that oracle of eternal truth, whose immaculate responses were fitly symbolized by a legend, which signifies, "LIGHTS AND PERFECTIONS."

Infidels have indulged in a superabundance of malignant and silly ridicule over this divine oracle; but with their usual want of inquiry and reflection. I admit, that it is an extraordinary institution. I admit, that it is altogether without a parallel in the history of the world. But this is no argument against either the fact or the wisdom of it. No other civil society has ever been formed for precisely the same objects, nor existed under exactly the same circumstances. No other civil polity ever proposed, as its main end, the overthrow of idolatry, the preservation of true religion in the world, and the education of mankind for a more spiritual and universal dispensation of grace. Add to this, that the human race was then, as it were, in its infancy and nonage. It had but few abstract ideas. It was, for the most part, confined in its mental operations to sensible objects. In such a state of things, philosophy itself would teach us to look for just such an institution as the Hebrew oracle. And when we find it making its appearance in the Jewish church, enlightened reason is prepared to exclaim in the language of revelation, "Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God."

The oracle was the institution of all others, adapted to the mental condition, habits, and needs of the Hebrew people.

It operated as a salutary check to the ignorance and rashness of both rulers and people. By powerfully impressing the imagination through the senses, it supplied the place of a strong, realizing conception of an infinite and omnipresent spirit, which was wanting in that minority and pupilage of the nation. It served to detach their affections and their trust from the pompous and alluring idolatries of their heathen neighbors. This sensible manifestation of the Deity, -the cloud of glory shooting up to mid-heaven in a column of massy splendor, or resting in luminous folds over the mercy-seat in the holy of holies,-is so far from being incredible, that, while scripture affirms its truth, reason and philosophy declare its expediency. The divine oracle with its attendant visible glories,-the ark, the mercy-seat, the cherubim, the luminous cloud, the breastplate of judgment, with its mystical urim and thummim, and the audible responses of the Deity,-formed a school, designed, with admirable wisdom and condescension, for tutoring the infant intellect and heart of the world, and training them up to a full spiritual maturity and strength. "To pour contempt, therefore, on these extraordinary appearances, as absurd and romantic fables, would be as unphilosophical and as ungrate ful, as it would be for a child, when arrived at manhood, to censure and despise those condescending methods, by which parental wisdom and love had moulded and carried forward his childhood to manly vigor and understanding."* Let us not be guilty of the folly, the injustice, we may say, of measuring the intellectual and religious wants of a comparatively rude and infant state of society, by those of our own more cultivated, more enlightened, more spiritual, more manly, and christian age of the world. And while we admire the beauties of the dawn, and adore the wisdom and benevolence of those early pencillings of spiritual light, let us rejoice and

*Tappan's Jewish Antiquities, Lect. 6.

be grateful, that the full-orbed sun has arisen upon us in all his splendor.

"In the oracle, then," to conclude this chapter in the words of Lowman,*"we see a considerable part of the Hebrew constitution to direct the councils of the united tribes, the political wisdom of which is seldom remarked in the civil government of that nation. There was a congregation of all Israel, or assembly of the people, that all things might be done with general consent. There was a senate of wise and able persons, to prepare things by previous deliberation and consultation, that things might not be concluded rashly in a popular assembly, before they were maturely considered and examined by men of wisdom and experience. There was a judge to assemble the states-general on proper occasions, to preside in their assemblies, and to command the armies of the united provinces, and to see the national resolutions duly executed. And finally, here was an oracle, which was to be consulted by the high priest on great occasions, that no rash resolutions of the people, senate, or judge, might be brought into execution, in cases of moment and difficulty; but they were to ask counsel of God, or to obtain the royal assent of Jehovah, as king of Israel, by his oracle. This was a wise provision, to preserve a continual sense in the Hebrew nation of the principal design of their constitution, to keep them from idolatry and to the worship of the one true God, as their immediate protector; and that their security and prosperity depended upon adhering to his counsels and commands."

*Civ. Gov. Heb. c. 11.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Hebrew Priesthood.

I USE the term priesthood here in an enlarged sense. I include, under that designation, the whole tribe of Levi, as possessing a sacerdotal or sacred character. It is of this tribe, that I now propose to treat, in its constitution, its functions, and its revenues. No part of the Mosaic institution. has been, either more grossly misunderstood, or more wickedly misrepresented. It is proper, therefore, to examine it, in the relations just indicated.*

The tribe of Levi had an organization quite different from that of the other tribes. These were settled in distinct provinces, and had each a government of its own. This had no landed property, did not live together, and was without an independent government. Its members were dispersed through all the territories of Israel; drew their livelihood from the other tribes; and were subject to the government of the province, in which they lived.

How this happened, it is interesting to inquire. On the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, all their first-born males were sanctified to the Lord, and destined to the altar. But

*On the subject of this chapter, see Lowm. Civ. Gov. Heb. c. 6; Cunaeus de Repub. Hebr. 1. 2. c. 1; Mich. Comment. Art. 52; Jahn's Heb. Com. b. 2. 12; Salv. Inst. de Moïse, 1. 2. c. 1. and 1. 3. c. 3; Fleury, Manners of the Israelites, Pt. 2. c. 22, and Pt. 4. c. 5; Lewis's Antiq. Heb. Rep. b. 2; and Harrington's Commonwealth of Israel, b. 2. c. 2.

the difficulty of obtaining from each family its first-born son, the difficulty of detaching them from their private interests, as citizens of such a tribe or such a town, rendered this mode impracticable. Moses, therefore, without in the least changing the original principle, substituted, for this service, the tribe of Levi, in place of all the first-born. But why was this tribe chosen? And, of all its members, why did Aaron and his sons obtain the priesthood? Two circumstances dictated the preference of the tribe of Levi, the smallness of its numbers, and the zeal which it had displayed in punishing the Israelites for their idolatry in the matter of the golden calf. The talent, eloquence, and eminent public services of Aaron, which had already won the admiration and gratitude of his countrymen, pointed him out as the person most worthy of being raised to the second dignity in the state.

It is remarkable, and deserves attention, as showing the democratic character of this government, that the tribe of Levi, though designated by Jehovah to the service of the temple, received its legal institution from the Hebrew people, as represented in the states-general of Israel. In the first instance, Moses, with the senate and the congregation, consecrated the high priest and his associates, thus evincing, that it belonged to the general diet to choose the chief pontiff from among the priests most distinguished for their ability and merit, and to establish him in his charge. Afterwards, the whole assembly of the children of Israel was convoked to induct the Levitical order into their office. The people, by their representatives, laid their hands upon the Levites, and the high priest consecrated them in the name of the children of Israel, as an offering freely made by them to Jehovah their king.t

*

From the above detail it appears, that the designation and institution of the high priest belonged, not to the council of priests, but to the senate, and must receive the confirmation Numb. viii. 5-22.

* Levit. viii. 2–5.