Horae Mosaicae Volume 2; Or, a Dissertation on the Credibility and Theology of the Pentateuch. Comprehending the Substance of Eight Lectures Read Befo (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECT. I. XHE MUTUAL CONNECTION OF God's SEVERAL DISPENSATIONS. CHAPTER I, GENERAL GROUNDS OF THE MUTUAL CONNECTION OF GOD'S SEVERAL DISPENSATIONS. have now sufficiently established the divine legation of Moses, and consequently the divine authority of the dispensation which he was appointed to promulgate: we must next investigate the mode, in which it stands connected with the other dispensations of God. I. The Levkical dispensation itself did not commence, until many years after the deluge, and there' fore until many more years after the creation: and, as its very contexture shews it to be intended for a particular people in a particular country; we have, from the mere facts of the general dispersion of the Jews and the desolation of their holy place for more than seventeen centuries, as decisive proof ascan be desired, that by the counsels of infinite wisdom it is now completely abrogated. Such being the case, it occupies an intermediate period of time, cut out (as it were) from the entire number of years, which have elapsed between the creation of the world and the day of our own mortal existence. Hence we have a considerable space of time before the promulgation of the Hebrew Law, and another cpnsiderable space of time after its abrogation. So that the whole period, which has elapsed from the creation to the present hour, theologically divides itself into three smaller periods: the time previous to the Law, the time occupied by the Law, and the time subsequent to the Law. Now the time occupied by the Law is a period, occupied by, what we have proved to be, a dispensation miracu' lousJy promulged from heaven by the subordinate agency of Moses. Here therefore an important question naturally presents itself. Under what aspect are we to view the two periods, b...