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PART III.

LECT. II.

SECT. I.

Objection against the reality of the Mosaic miracles, derived from the frequent idolatries of the Jews, invalidThese idolatries did not prove any doubt of the divine original of the Mosaic Law-First species of idolatry by forbidden symbols, &c.—Whence so frequent-Implied acknowledgment of Jehovah-Second species of idolatrous worship in forbidden places, and with idolatrous rites, implied the same-Third species, worship of idols with Jehovah— Whence-Fourth, worship of idols without God-Yet not an absolute denial of God, or rejection of his worshipDefeats and apostacies of the Jews confirm the certainty of a divine interposition, rather than weaken it-Objection against the divine œconomy, from the temptations they were exposed to, unreasonable-Residence of Jews in Egypt considered—And the temptations from the surrounding Canaanites-Degree and duration of the divine interposition suited to the analogy of nature-Mr. Gibbon accuses the Jews falsely of being indifferent spectators of the most amazing miracles.

PART III.

LECT. II.

SECT. I.

JOSHUA, xxiv. 31.

« AND Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all "the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which “ had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done " for Israel."

IT has frequently been asserted by infidels, that the repeated relapses of the Jews into idolatry, at various periods of their history, render the reality of the Mosaic miracles suspicious. For, as these writers conceive, it is not credible, that the witnesses of such stupendous miracles, or their immediate posterity, could have so soon forgotten the divine power thus plainly manifested, or apostatized from a religion thus awfully enforced. But these reasoners entirely mistake the nature of this apostacy, and forget the character of the people among whom, and

the

the period when it took place.* These relapses into idolatry never implied a rejection of Jehovah as their God, or of the Mosaic Law as if they doubted of its truth. The Jewish idolatry consisted, first, in worshipping the true God by images and symbols; such were the golden calf of Aaron, those afterwards set up by Jeroboam in Israel, the ephod of Gideon, and the ephod, the teraphim and the images of Micah. But. in every one of those instances, far from rejecting Jehovah as their God, the images, symbols and rites employed, were designed to honour him, by imitating the manner in which the most distinguished nations the Jews were acquainted with, worshipped their supreme divinities; or they were assimilated to the Mosaic institutions, as far as the peculiar views of their authors would admit. Thus the golden calf which the people compelled Aaron to form, was probably an imitation of the Egyptian representative of Osiris, but certainly intended as a representative of that Jehovah, who had brought f the

* Vide Warburton's Divine Legation, Book V. sect. ii. v. vi. 197 to 201.

+ Exod. xxxii. 5.

the Jews out of Egypt; as on forming it, Aaron proclaimed a feast to be held to Jehovah. The golden calves, set up by the first king of the ten tribes, were also probably imitations of the Egyptian symbols, with which Jeroboam must have been familiarized during his residence in Egypt, for the five last years of Solomon's reign; but certainly intended to represent the same God who was worshipped at Jerusalem, who had brought Israel out of Egypt, and in imitation of the Mosaic institutions; the king ordaining a feast like unto the "feast (of "tabernacles) that is in Judah." And of Micah we are told, that the silver of which the images were made, †"had been

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wholly dedicated to Jehovah, to make a

graven image and a molten image." And when he had found a Levite to officiate as his priest, he is represented as declaring, "Now know I that the Lord will do me

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good, seeing I have a Levite for my

priest." So obstinate was the attachment of the Jews to idolatrous symbols, and so dull their sense of the necessity of worshipping their God in that manner which he himself

1 Kings, xi 40.

Judges, xvii. 3 and 13.

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