possible. Besides, dear friend, remember the sanctuary; do not refrain from entering the place where prayer is offered, and where praise ascends." God's children find his house to be a Bethel, a place of hallowed and sublime enjoyment. Be assured that you will know little of the tranquillity and felicity of heaven, if you are remiss in your attendance on the instituted means of grace, or unanxious with regard to those interesting exercises which occupy the attention of the followers of Jesus while they continue "strangers and pilgrims" on the earth. "Keep also the heart with all diligence." Mark its principles, its errors, its passions, its feelings, its propensities. Set a watch here, and never abandon the employment; for, if the heart be wrong, it is impossible that tranquillity can be pure and unmingled, or that Christian joy can be lively and transporting. Dwell much on the love of Jesus-on the sovereignty, the richness, the extent, the immutability, and the infinitude of that love, and it will resemble a pure and a perennial spring, from which you will draw water of the truest and the sublimest consolation. Anticipate heaven; think of the beauty in which you shall be there arrayed; of the glory by which you shall be there encircled; of the inexpressible dignity to which you shall be there advanced; of the perfect security you shall there enjoy; of the unmixed and rapturous felicity you shall there experience; and of the high employments which shall there occupy your unceasing attention; and this reflection, or anticipation, will diffuse through your bosom the most delightful and enviable emotions. Still, friend, let us remember that we are not to expect, while here, that our tranquillity will be unruffled, or that our peace will flow constantly as a river." The stream of our enjoyment will often be obstructed in its progress; our sky will often be clouded; the tear will frequently trickle down the cheek; and the feeling of sorrow and anguish will often be excited; but it should be remembered that we are still imperfect creatures; that we still bear about with us "a body of sin and death;" that we often deplore the absence of our God and Saviour; that we are involved in domestic difficulties; that we have to undergo personal trials; that we are in a world where every thing not only forcibly reminds us, but most impressively convinces us, that this is not our rest; wherefore we must not wonder, when the eye is suffused with tears, or when the heart is full with grief. It is as natural to weep, as to smile; it is as natural to mourn, as to rejoice; and it is as desirable too, conducing to our growth in grace, and to our advancement in every Christian excellency and virtue. Well, it is a delightful anticipation, my dear friend, that the period is near, when the eye shall be dry-when the countenance shall be lighted up with celestial enjoyment-when the heart shall be transported with that ecstasy of bliss which shall constitute the portion of the redeemed, in regions beyond the grave Then garlands of immortal joy, Shall bloom on every head; cease. From the Home Missionary Mag FRAILTY AND FELICITY "For there is hope of a tree, if it be eut do will sprout again, and the tender branch ther "But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, n up the ghost, and where is he?"—Job xiv. 7, 1 BORN in anguish, nursed in sorrow, Journeying through a shadowy s Fresh with health to day, to-morro Cold and lifeless,-such is man. Richly shines the rainbow glowing. There are three opinions concer scope of these words. First-Some JOB expressing his hope of the resurre this comparison, and then the words militude, not a dissimilitude; as a down sprouts again, so, though man down by death, yet he shall revive again. What the prophet speaks of storing of the people of God, the Je the grave of their civil death (their in Babylon) is as true of the restoring people of God from the grave of a death. Thy dead men shall live, toge my dead body shalt they arise. Au sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for th as the dew of herbs, and the earth sha her dead." Isaiah xxvi. 16. In purs which exposition the question at the the 10th verse, "And where is he? with an admiration, which gives t thus:-Doth the tree grow when c and doth man die, waste away, and gi ghost? and is he no where? What! where? That is incredible: man is so when he is not here, and in due ti appear where he is. We may see a tion in the annual reviving of a tree in winter casts its leaves, and looks but when the sun returns, and with heat, the tree reviveth. Every sprin surrection from death! Secondly-Others interpret Job b the condition of man; the boughs] may be lopped, yea, the body of it down, and yet feels no pain; the grieved, how much soever you hew mangle it; but when God lays his i to the boughs of man, by sickness, di outward afflictions, or to his root by d feels pain; every stroke puts him to Thirdly-The words carry an arg move the Lord to spare Job, or not down, though he had beaten off his fruits (his substance being swept aw bers), though he had lopped off his b branches (his children being swept death), yet he desires that he would upon his person also, and cut him q because then he should be lost for e this world. He was not like a tr Sweetly smells the flow'ret blowing, Deeply rolls the mountain stream: Yet though pass'd awhile, these lie not Though the flow'rs may fade, they die not, Spring shall wake their buds again; Man alone, when death hath bound him, Of the friends, who once were round him, Cheering splendour yet attends us, 'Midst these scenes of deepest gloom; 'Tis our HOPE IN CHRIST defends us From the terrors of the tomb. From the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine. MOSES. From the "More Nevochim" of Rabbi predominates, and where the Philosopher, it is often difficult to determine; but of this we shall be convinced, that "the key of knowledge," which the Scribes took away in our Lord's time, by their traditions, was not again found, either in the visions of Plato, or the sterner investigations of the Stagyrite. The volume before us is made an interesting and instructive one, not so much by what Dr. Townley has translated of the "More Nevochim," as by the introductory Dissertations and appended Notes, with which he has judiciously furnished it. It is in them, rather than in what Maimonides has written, that the student will find an apparatus for understanding the Law, and his way prepared for the study of larger treatises. These Dissertations are on the Talmudical and Rabbinical writings; the Zabian Idolatry; the originality of the Institutions of Moses; the distinction of clean and unclean Animals; the prohibition of Blood; the typical character of the Mosaical Institutions; the Leprosy; Talismans, talismanic figures, and judicial Astrology: all of them subjects necessary to be understood, in order to explain many parts of the Old and New Testaments, and to enter into their general design. The best authors have been consulted; and the articles are drawn up with great judg ment and clearness. When, however, we say, that this is the most valuable part of the work, we do not intend too J. F. H. greatly to undervalue the "Reasons of the Laws of Moses," as given by Maimonides. The Mosaic precepts stand connected with Antiquities and History, which a learned Jew might usefully study and explain; and so far as they are parts of a civil code, their philosophy, as well as their adaptation to the circumstances of an early period of the world, might be often disclosed to the researches of one who, as to other subjects of a higher and of more permanent importance, had "the veil upon his heart." The true " reasons of the Law of Moses," as to its highest design, and as to many of its most singular and impressive Institutions, could not be known to Maimonides, nor to any man not a Christian; nor even to any professing Christian expositor, unless he held the Divinity and sacrifice of Christ, as the grand basis of all God's dispensations of religion to fallen man, whether Patriarchal, Mosaical, or Christian. Maimonides is an interpreter of the Old Testament, of the same class as Socinians of modern times; and the Laws of Moses wore to him much the same aspect as the doctrine of Christ, wears to the latter: both are converted into "the letter which killeth;" and from both "the Spirit which giveth life" escapes. It is nevertheless not unprofitable to notice what "reasons" a shrewd and philosophic mind can give for precepts which have no true comment but in the acts, and sufferings, and offices of a Mes THE work which Dr. Townley has here translated, has been quoted at different times, and by the most celebrated Christian writers; and has sometimes afforded useful illustrations of Jewish Antiquities: at other times it has helped to give a show of authority to some erroneous views of very important subjects. At first sight, the opinion of a learned, and upon the whole a rational, Jewish Rabbi, would seem to be a sanction from which it would not be modest to appeal. We must, however, take this impression with many serious allowances and deductions; and we shall come to this conclusion at last, if the inquiry be conducted carefully, that, since the dispersion, the Old Testament has been very little indebted for explanation to any Jewish Theologue. One class Rabbies have been besotted with tradi struggles, is, Whether the Mosaic precepts | have a discoverable design; or depend solely on the will of God? The mooting of this very point shows the perplexity into which the learned and inquisitive among the Jews were thrown in his day; a perplexity which involves them still, and must ever involve them whilst they reject the solution of the whole, which is contained in the Gospel. No such question was ever, or could ever, be agitated as to any other ancient system of polity and jurisprudence. All other codes are at once assumed to have a reason; and the reasons for what is most singular in them have been satisfactorily evolved by the study of their circumstances and relations. Here, however, we find the intelligent Jews confessing that their Law is sui generis; and that not only with respect to its Author, but as to its precepts; the reasons of which to them are so obscure, that some give up the point in despair, and resolve the whole into the arbitrary will of God. This very circumstance is a strong presumption that the solution must be sought where they were unwilling to search for it, even in the New Testament; for the doctrine of arbitrary will is too violent a cutting of the knot to give any wise man satisfaction. It is therefore a just and unanswerable argument of Maimonides, to those who contend that the precepts of the Law have no discoverable reasons," According to them, man acts with design, in all he does and says; but that God commands us to do those things, from the performance of which we shall derive no benefit, and by the neglect of which we shall sustain no injury. Far indeed be this from the Creator, who has himself intimated to us, that the design of all the precepts is, to promote our happiness," for our good alway, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day." (Deut. vi. 24.) In this sense, it is also said, "This is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these things." (Deut. iv. 6.) And again, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." For these words show that all nations will understand these statutes to be replete with the highest wisdom and intelligence. But if the causes of them were hidden, and no utility could be discovered in them, either producing good or averting evil, wherefore should it be said of those who receive and practise them, that they are wise and intelligent; or that they are great, and the admiration of all nations?" Maimonides therefore wisely plants himself among those who think that the Mosaic Institute was grounded on reasons, which he very well refers to FAITH, MORALS, and CIVIL POLITY; but as the great object was to discover a rationale of the whole Institute, which should exclude all typical and adumbrative rites and injunctions, that might tend to conduct the reader to Christianity, he takes this as the grand key, "God enjoined these precepts, that we might by them be led to the knowledge of God, and the abandonment of idolatry, which are the first intention of the Law. In this he has sometimes been too incautiously followed by Christian Commentators; who have thus, unintentionally, no doubt, greatly betrayed the cause of truth, by sinking into a secondary and inferior place those glorious evidences of the divinity of Christianity which arise f being so manifestly the substance of th tical shadow. The Law was not given men to the knowledge of God; for G already known to the Jews; although it that the knowledge of God was augmen enforced by the Law. Nor was the La to lead men from idolatry, which the I did not practise: though it is true, tha sign was to preserve them from it, a they needed so strong a sanction to their falling into this infatuation. Stro ever, as it was, it did not always ac this end. But whilst this principle is a there are two modes of applying it which is exceedingly partial and delus to this Maimonides and his followers ha the preference. The intention of the Law, say the preserve the knowledge of God; the precepts were directed against every i and superstitious practice, which imp jection of any of His perfections, or in them. The rites of idolatry were and cruel; therefore, in all the Mosai tions, which forbid pollution and crue join the contrary, there is a referenc rites. Now this may be in some ca yet it carries us but a little way in th tion of the Mosaic economy; and the is lost sight of, that the knowledge of a worship free from pollution and su were to be maintained not merely tail of minor precepts and usages, w only subsidiary to the grand design; establishment of a formal and comp code of faith, worship, and morals." words, false religion was to be kept much by introducing a more hallov the heathen ritual, in some of its b tions, and by forbidding other mino tious practices, as seething a kid in it milk, and sowing a field with differe grain; but by the establishment of for the ends intended, a perfect syst religion; by establishing in a more f ner the system of the Patriarchs, an ing it with the solemnities of nation legal enactment, and public instruc not at all satisfactory, to be told, be of the rites which were forbidden to were practised by idolatrous nation cause of the Mosaic Law was to idolatry by the establishment of a This may be true in some particula want the grand reason still of the c ham; the election of the Jews; th the Law; the preservation of a sepa by miracle; the establishment of a and sacrifices in the solemn order so carefully enjoined; the success phets; the constant looking forw Institution, in all its parts, to somet and more perfect; and the singul nexion of the Jewish history with great States of antiquity. These nomena to be explained, and of wh tracted and superficial theory of offers no solution. To maintain his hypothesis, tha intention of the Law was to rescu idolatry, and that its object term Maimonides assumes the high antiquity of Zabianism, or the worship of the stars, pretends to have the books of the Zabii before him, affirming this antiquity; and he accounts for the call of Abraham on the sole ground of his being designed to bear testimony against this corruption. Now this point alone shows the insufficiency of this Rabbi to give "reasons for the Laws of Moses;" since it shows that he sacrifices to theory what is plainly said of Abraham in his own Scriptures. We may allow indeed a high antiquity to the worship of the celestial bodies; but it is perfectly gratuitous to ascribe the perfected system of gross Zabianism to the age of Abraham. Maimonides seems to represent the world then as lost to the knowledge of an immaterial Deity, and an eternal Creator; (p. 157;) whereas the history of Abraham shows, that both in Egypt and in Canaan the true God was familiarly known, publicly worshipped, and recognised as a just Governor of the world. Whatever minor superstitions had crept in, or however, along with Jehovah, other ideal beings were associated as objects of hope or fear, the nations had not then fallen into that besotting and material idolatry which afterwards debased them. As for the books of the Zabii, consulted by Maimonides, they either misled him by pretensions to antiquity, which we know no books at that time existent had, though it has been common for pagan books to affect dates extravagantly early; or else he willingly assumed that the books which detailed the opinions and rites of idolatry at the time they were written, contained the description of the actual idolatry of the first ages; forgetting that men do not all at once, and cannot all at once, put out the light of truth, and prostrate the common sense of men before the ravings and dreams of a matured system of superstition. We attach little weight therefore to his quotations from such books. But his most marked error is, in representing the call of Abraham as intended merely to raise up a man who should "by argument refute the Zabian opinions, and by gentle and persuasive methods draw men to the worship of the true God." For, not to urge that the Mosaic history gives no countenance to this notion, it leaves quite unaccounted for the great events of the life of Abraham. It gives no reason for his call out of his own country; or rather it makes him a persecuted exile from it, instead of a man chosen by God to sojourn in another land for the sake of preparing the way for the ulterior designs of Providence. The theory also leaves quite unexplained the Covenants with Abraham; and the promise of a Seed, in which all the nations of the earth should be blessed: neither of which could have any relation to Zabianism. It affords no key to the intentional offering of Isaac, and which might rather seem to encourage human sacrifices among the hea was, in fact, the great seat and source of astrological idolatry and delusion. We have a very different account of "the reasons" of all this in Christianity; and the reader has only to ask which of the two theories best explains the facts recorded in the book of Genesis; and which, though overlooked by Maimonides, could not be denied by him. Abraham and his seed were made the depositaries of the promises of the Redeemer; his offering of Isaac was the sign of his prevalent faith in them; the line of the descent of Messiah was marked out; the method of obtaining an interest in the mercies he was to convey to mankind was exhibited by the justification of Abraham by faith, of which circumcision was the sign; he and his sons lived in tents, to testify their faith in a heavenly country: and their connexion with Egypt issued in that series of national arrangements which was intended to prepare the way for the future manifestation of the promised Redeemer. But concerning these obvious intentions the Rabbi is totally silent. Thus Maimonides mniserably fails to explain the reasons of the call and conduct of Abraham, as they are recorded in his own acknowledged sacred books; and equally as to the Mosaic Institute is his theory, like "the bed" of the Prophet, "too short for a man to stretch himself upon;" and, in fact, leaves almost every thing peculiar to that dispensation without any reason at all. A few specimens, however, will more forcibly show how little explanation is given by this writer to the higher branches of the Mosaic dispensation; and how far the Rabbi is from conducting us into its spiritual significancy; much as he has been praised by some Christian theologians. In his division of the Mosaic precepts into fourteen classes, he makes the first to comprehend "fundamental articles of faith." These, however, he abstains from enumerating, and passes them over with a few jejune general remarks; so that he loses a fair opportunity of exhibiting the true glory of the doctrine of Moses, in comparison of the state of religious knowledge among the nations. This is a remarkable omission; and especially as the list of fundamental articles, if fairly given, must have contained some reference to the hope of the Fathers,-The promised Messiah. The Rabbi perhaps felt this to be tender ground; but the absence of all notice of this strong peculiarity in the theology of the Jews, shows how little qualified he was, not from want of learning, but from want of all true scriptural knowledge and taste, to comment upon these ancient revelations. Circumcision offers another illustration. He assigns to it first a physical reason, certainly of no weight; then he makes it, like the sign of Free-Masonry, a means of sectarian recognition: and when, finally, he is obliged by the circumcision, after he has read St. Paul; who expressly tells us that Abraham "received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had being yet uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also." But this is a point which some Christian Commentators have also overlooked. They have followed the Rabbi, and have forgotten St. Paul. The following dry and puerile observations on "the holy places," will afford a specimen of the Rabbi's research into "the reasons' of these sacred things; and after reading them, the rich exposition of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, of the Tabernacle and its furniture, will appear in striking contrast. In this point indeed Maimonides falls infinitely below Josephus, which is the effect of the cramping hypothesis he had adopted. "The ancient nations also erected temples to the stars, and placed in them idols dedicated to certain of the heavenly bodies which they universally worshipped; and hence, we were commanded to build a temple to the Most High God, and to place in it the ark, enclosing the two tables of stone, in which was written, "I am the Lord thy God,-thou shalt have no other gods before me;" (i. c. the whole of the Decalogue.) "Further, it is acknowledged, that belief in prophecy precedes belief in the law; (for if there be no prophet there is no law;) and prophecy is never communicated to a prophet, but by the mediation of angels, as it is said, (Gen. xxii. 15,) 'The angel of the Lord called unto Abraham;' and again, (xvi. 9,) The angel of the Lord said unto her;' and in innumerable other places: thus, also, the first revelation of prophecy to our teacher Moses, was by an angel,The angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire;' (Exod. iii. 2;) consequently, belief in the existence of angels must be prior to belief in prophecy, and belief in prophecy prior to belief in the law. But the Zabii being ignorant of the nature of the true God, and regarding the heavens and the heavenly bodies as that eternal Being who was free from all privation, and supposing that from thence all kinds of power flowed down into images and certain trees, called in the law Asheroth,, concluded that those images and trees inspired the prophets with the prophetic language which they uttered in their visions, predicting good or evil. But when the truth is made known by the wise men, and it is fully proved that there is a Being who is neither a body nor an attribute of body, namely, the true God; that he is One; that besides Him there are other abstract and incorporeal beings, (called angels,) upon whom he confers his light and goodness: and that all those beings are distinct from the spheres and their stars, they learn from thence that angels, and not images or trees, impart the words of truth to the prophets.-From what has just been the figure of two angels (cherubims) made and placed upon the ark, that the of men might be confirmed in the belief existence of angels, since this is an ar faith next to that of the being of a G prior to that of prophecy and the law there had only been the figure of one a cherub, it might have led them into since they might have imagined that it image of God such as the idolaters m designed to be the object of worship, o have been induced to believe that the but one angel, and thus have fallen int rent errors; but the making of two che accompanied by the declaration, T our God is one Lord,' placed these ar belief beyond dispute,-that angels d and that they are numerous; and took occasions of error in supposing they w by declaring that God is one, and the of all of them. "After this it was commanded to p candlestick before the ark, (Exod. X xxvi,) for the decoration and honou house of God, as it is certain that h be most highly venerated by men in light is kept perpetually burning with and, we know how earnestly and so the law endeavours to convince us of nour and glory of the sanctuary, th view of it we may learn humility, an ness, and mercy. Thus, in like ma mediately after enjoining the obser the sabbath, it is said, 'Ye shall reve sanctuary,' (Levit. xix. 30,) in order t our veneration for it. "The need of the Altar of Incen Altar of Burnt Offering, and of the ments or utensils, is sufficiently obv as to what regards the Table, and the be continually placed upon it, I am h norant both of the reason of them a objects to which they refer." (pp. 2 With sacrifices the Rabbi is evide perplexed; and he disposes of the suming, that before the giving of they were used for idolatrous pur under the Law they were transferre of worship to the name of God; fo can we interpret the following pass "The primary intention of every Law, is, that ye should know me, a the service of other gods, that I ma a God, and that ye may be to me and the precepts which enjoin obi command you to worship in my given to instruct and assist you in for the reason why I have trans mode of worship to my own name, the remembrance of idolatry, and e doctrine of my unity." (p. 184.) But as his own Scriptures had int that sacrifices were offered by all archs, and that to the honour of the name of God, his "reasons" for cial precepts of Moses, demanded reasons" for this primitive and ad |