two sources; the purified priest and the pure ai mal purified, were united in the offering of the sacrifice. But before the sacrifice could be offered, it was washed with clean water-and the priest had, in some cases, to wash himself, and officiate without his sandals. Thus, when one process of comparison after another had attached the idea of superlative purity to the sacrifice-in offering it to Jehovah, in order that the contrast between the purity of God and the highest degrees of earthly purity might be seen, neither priest, people, nor sacrifice was deemed sufficiently pure to come into his presence; but the offering was made in the court without the holy of holies. In this manner, by a process of comparison, the character of God, in point of purity, was placed indefinitely above themselves and their sacrifices.*

And not only in the sacrifices, but throughout the whole Levitical economy, the idea of purity pervaded all its ceremonies and observances. The camp was purified-the people were purifiedevery thing was purified and re-purified; and each process of the ordinances was designed to reflect purity upon the others; until finally that idea of purity formed in the mind and rendered intense by the convergence of so many rays, was, by comparison, referred to the idea of God-and the idea of God in their minds, being that of an infinitely powerful and good Spirit, hence, purity, as a cha racteristic or attribute of such a nature, would necessarily assume a moral aspect, because it

It is not argued that no other end was designed and accomplished by the arbitrary separation of animals into classes of clean and unclean. By this means the Jews were undoubtedly excluded from partaking in the feasts of the heathen around, who ate those animals which were forbidden to them. An excellent writer observes that it is characteristic of the wisdom of God to accomplish many ends by a single act of providence.

appertained to a moral being-it would become moral purity, or holiness. Thus, they learned, in the sentiment of Scripture, that God was of too pure eyes to look upon iniquity.

That the idea of moral purity in the minds of the Israelites was thus originated by the machinery of the Levitical dispensation, is supported, not only by the philosophy of the thing, but by many allusions in the Scriptures. Such allusions are frequent both in the writers of the old and of the new dispensations; evidencing that, in their minds, the idea of moral purity was still symbolised by physical purity. The rite of baptism is founded upon this symbolical analogy; the external washing with water being significant of the purifying influence of the Holy Spirit. St. John saw in vision the undefiled in heart clothed with linen pure and white; evincing that, to the mind of the Jew, such vestments as the high priest wore, when he entered the holy of holies, were still emblematical of moral purity. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is an apostolic exposition of the spiritual import of the Levitical institution, so far as that institution particularly concerns believers under the New Testament dispensation, we have the foregoing view of the design of ceremonial purification expressly confirmed. "It was, therefore, necessary," says Paul to the Hebrews, "that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these, (that is, with these purifying processes addressed to the senses) but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." The plain instruction of which is, that the parts and processes of the Levitical economy were patterns addressed to the senses of unseen things in heaven, and that the purifying of those patterns indicated the spiritual purity of the spiritual things which they represented

There is, finally, demonstrative evidence of the fact, that the idea of perfect moral purity, as connected with the idea of God, is now, and always has been the same which was originated and conveyed to the minds of the Jews by the machinery of the Levitical dispensation. The Hebrew word wp quadosh, was used to express the idea of purity as originated by the tabernacle service. The literal definition is, pure, to be pure, to be purified for sacred uses. The word thus originated, and con veying this meaning, is employed in the Scriptures to express the moral purity or holiness of God.* In the New Testament this word is translated by the Greek term 'Ayios, agios, but the Hebrew idea is connected with the Greek word. In king James's version this Greek word is rendered by the Saxon term holy the Saxon word losing its original im port, (whole, wholly,) and taking that of the Hebrew derived through the Greek, So that our idea of the holiness of God is the same which was originated by the Levitical ceremonies; and there is no other word, so far as I have been able to examine, in any language, which conveys this idea. Nor is there any idea among any people that approximates closely to the Scripture idea of holiness, unless the words received some shades of its signification from the Bible.t

*

Here, then, the idea of God's moral purity was

"my holy name." Lev. xx. 3.

One of the principal difficulties which the missionary meets with, according to letters in the missionary reports, is, that of conveying to the mind of the heathen, the idea of the holiness of God. They find no such idea in their minds, and they can use no words in their language by which to convey the full and true force of the thought. The true idea, therefore, if communicated at all, must be conveyed by a periphrasis, and by laboured illustration. This obstacle will be one of the most difficult to surmount in all languages; and it cannot be perfectly overcome, till the Christian teacher becomes perfectly familiar with the language of those whom he wishes to instruct.

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conveyed by the Mosaic economy in a manner in accordance with the constitution and the condition of the Jewish mind. This same idea has descended from the Hebrew, through the Greek to our own language; and there is, so far as known, no other word in the world, which conveys to the mind the true idea of God's moral purity, but that originated by the institution which God prescribed to Moses upon the Mount,*

The demonstration, then, is conclusive, both from philosophy and fact, that the true and necessary idea of God's attribute of holiness was originated by the "patterns" of Levitical economy, and that it could have been communicated to mankind, at the first, in no other way.t

*Ex, xxv. 9.

+ The foundation principle of that school of scepticism, at the head of which are the atheistical materialists, is, that all knowledge is derived through the medium of the senses, and that as God is not an object of sense, men can have no knowledge of his being or attributes. Now these deductions show that the truth of revealed religion may be firmly established upon their own proposition,

CHAPTER VIII.

CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE IDEAS OF JUSTICE AND MERCY, AND THEIR TRANSFER TO THE CHA RACTER OF JEHOVAH.

HOLINESS and justice, although they convey to the mind ideas somewhat distinct from each other, yet the import of the one is shaded into that of the other. Holiness signifies the purity of the Divine nature from moral defilement; while justice signifies the relation which holiness causes God to sustain to men, as the subjects of the Divine government. In relation to God, one is subjective, declaring his freedom from sin; the other objective, declaring his opposition to sin, as the transgression of the Divine law. The Israelites might know that God was holy, and that he required of them clean hands and a clean heart in worship, and yet not understand the full demerit of transgressing the will of God, or the intensity of the Divine opposition to sin. God had given them the moral law, and they knew that he required them to obey it; but what, in the mind of God, was the proper desert of disobeying it they did not know. They had been accustomed, like all idolaters, to consider the desert of moral transgression uncertain and unequal. Now they had to learn the immutable justice of the Supreme Being-that his holiness was not a passive quality, but an active attribute of his nature, and not only the opposite, but the antagonist principle to sin.