THE TRANSITION FROM THE MATERIAL SYSTEM, BY WHICH RELIGIOUS IDEAS WERE
CONVEYED THROUGH THE SENSES, TO THE SPIRITUAL SYSTEM, IN WHICH
ABSTRACT IDEAS WERE CONVEYED BY WORDS AND PARABLES.
Human language has always advanced from its first stage, in which
ideas are acquired directly through the medium of the senses, to the
higher state, in which abstract ideas are conveyed by appropriate
words and signs. When an idea is once formed by outward objects, and a
word formed representing that idea, it is then no longer necessary or
desirable that the object which first originated the idea should
longer be associated in the mind with the idea itself. It is even
true that the import of abstract ideas suffers from a co-existence, in
the mind, of the abstract thought with the idea of the object which
originated it. Thus the word spirit now conveys a distinct idea to the
mind of pure spiritual existence; but the distinctness and power of
the idea are impaired, by remembering that the word from which it was
derived originally signified wind, and that the word itself was
originated in the first place by the wind. So in other cases, although
the ideas of abstract and spiritual things can be originated,
primarily, only from outward objects, yet when they have been
originated, and the spiritual idea has been connected with the sign or
word conveying its proper sense, it is desirable, in order to their
greater force and perspicuity, that their connection with materiality
should be broken off in the mind.
In all written languages this advancement from one stage of perfection
to another, by the addition of abstract ideas, can be traced; and
experience teaches, incontrovertibly, that the advancement of human
language, as above described, and the advancement of human society,
are dependent upon each other.
The preceding principles being applied to the subject under
consideration, it would follow that the Mosaic machinery, which formed
the abstract ideas, conveying the knowledge of God's true character,
would no longer be useful after those ideas were originated, defined,
and connected with the words which expressed their abstract or
spiritual import. It would follow, therefore, that the machinery would
be entirely dispensed with whenever it had answered the entire design
for which it was put into operation. Whenever the Jews were cured of
idolatry, and had obtained true ideas of the attributes of the true
God, then the dispensation of shadows and ceremonies, which 'could not
make the comers thereunto perfect,' would, according to the reason of
things, pass away, and give place to a more perfect and more spiritual
dispensation.
We find, accordingly, that the machinery of the tabernacle was
gradually removed, it never having existed in perfection after the
location of the tribes in Palestine. They sojourned in the wilderness
until those who had come out of Egypt died. The generation who
succeeded them had the advantage of having received their entire
education through the medium of the Mosaic institution, and thus of
being freed from vicious habits and remembrances contracted in
idolatrous society.
Afterwards the Prophets held an intermediate place between the
material dispensation of Moses and the pure spirituality of that of
Christ. In the prophetic books, especially the later ones, there is an
evident departure from a reliance upon the external forms, and an
application of the ideas connected with those forms to internal states
of mind. Their views of the old dispensation were more spiritual than
the views of those who lived near the origin of the institution. And
in the dispensation of the Messiah, the Prophets evidently expected
clearer light and purer spirituality.
The state of the case, then, is this: The old dispensation was
necessary and indispensable in itself, and in its place; but it was
neither designed nor adapted to continue. The knowledge of Divine
things which it generated was necessary for all men, but as yet it was
circumscribed to a small portion of the human family. The point of
inquiry now presents itself: _How could this essential knowledge
concerning the Divine Nature and attributes be extended throughout the
world?_
There would be but two methods possible--either the same processes,
and the same cumbrous machinery (which were a 'burden' that an apostle
affirmed neither he nor his fathers were able to bear) must be
established in every nation, and kindred, and tribe of the human
family, and thus each nation be disciplined and educated by itself, or
one nation must be prepared and disciplined, their propensity to
idolatry destroyed, the ideas coined in the die prepared by Jehovah
thrown into their minds, and then, being thus prepared, they might be
made the instruments of transferring those ideas into the languages of
other nations.[22] If the Almighty were to adopt the first method, it
would exclude men from benevolent labour for the spiritual good of
each other; and besides, the history of the process with the Jews, as
well as the reason of the thing, would indicate that the latter method
would be the one which the Maker would adopt.
[22] There is a common, and to some minds, a weighty objection
against the truth of revealed religion, stated as follows:--If God
ever gave a religion to the world, why did he not reveal it to all
men, and reveal it at once and perfectly, so that no one could
doubt? If this had been possible, it might not have been
expedient; but the nature of things, as we have seen, rendered it
impossible to give man a revelation in such a manner.
But, in order to the diffusion of the knowledge of God by the latter
method, some things would be necessary as pre-requisites, among which
are the following:
1. That the Jews, who possessed these ideas, should be scattered
throughout the world, and that they should be thus scattered long
enough before the time of the general diffusion of Divine knowledge to
have become familiar with the languages of the different nations where
they sojourned. This would be necessary, in order that, by speaking in
other tongues, they might transfer into them their own ideas of Divine
things, by attaching those ideas to words in the respective languages
which they spoke, or by introducing into those languages words and
phrases of Hebrew origin conveying the revealed ideas. Whether the
different languages were acquired by miraculous or by human
instrumentality, there would be no other way possible of transferring
ideas from one language to another, but by the methods above
mentioned.
2. It would be necessary, before the Jews were thus scattered, that
their propensity to idolatry should be entirely subdued, otherwise
they would, as they had frequently done before, fall into the
abominable habits of the nations among whom they were dispersed.[23]
[23] Idolatry is one of the most unconquerable of all the corrupt
propensities of the human soul. Miracles under the new
dispensation had scarcely ceased--the apostolic fathers were
scarcely cold in their graves, before idolatrous forms were again
superinduced upon the pure spirituality of the holy gospel; and in
the papal church the curse continues till this hour.
3. The new and spiritual system should be first propagated among
those who understood both the spiritual import of the Hebrew language,
and likewise the language of the other nations to whom the gospel was
to be preached. It was necessary that the new dispensation should be
committed, first to the Jews, who were scattered in the surrounding
nations, because, as we have seen, they were the only individuals
immediately prepared to communicate it to others.
Now the following facts are matters of authentic history.
1. By instruction and discipline the Jews were entirely cured of the
propensity to idolatry--so much so that their souls abhorred idols.
2. They were, and had been for many generations, dispersed among all
nations of the Roman world; but still, in their dispersion they
retained their peculiar ideas, and multitudes of this peculiar people
assembled out of all countries, at least once a year, at the city of
Jerusalem, to worship Jehovah; and it was while the multitudes were
thus assembled that the gospel was first preached to them; and
preached, as was proper it should be, by power and miracle, in order
that those present might know assuredly that the dispensation was from
heaven.
3. The new dispensation was likewise introduced, in the first place,
among the Jews who continued to reside in Palestine, and when a
sufficient number of them were fully initiated persecutions were
caused to arise which scattered them abroad among the nations; and the
Gentile languages not being known to them, they were miraculously
endowed with the gift of tongues, that they might communicate to
others the treasures of Divine knowledge committed to them.
Thus, when the old dispensation had fulfilled its design in
disciplining the Jews, in imparting first ideas, and thus, as a
'schoolmaster,' preparing the people for the higher instruction of
Christ; and when the fulness of the times had come that the means and
the material were prepared to propagate the spiritual truth of the new
dispensation, then the Mosaic cycle would appropriately close--it
would not be consistent that it should remain longer, for the plain
reason given by Jesus himself, that new wine should not be put into
old bottles, nor the old and imperfect forms be incorporated with the
new and spiritual system.
Therefore it was that so soon as the new dispensation had been
introduced, and its foundations firmly laid, Jerusalem, the centre of
the old economy, with the temple, and all things pertaining to the
ritual service, was at once and completely destroyed, and the old
system vanished away for ever. It would not have been expedient for
God to destroy the old system sooner, because it was necessary to
engraft the new system upon the old; and it ought not to have remained
longer, for the reasons above stated.[24]
[24] It was necessary that the old system should be destroyed at
this time in order to throw the Jews upon Christ as the sacrifice
for their sins. Under the old dispensation the sacrifices for sin
were allowed to continue to the end. From this sacrifice they were
taught to hope for pardon. An idea had been, by the process which
God himself instituted, originated in their mind, that death must
ensue for sin; but by transferring their sins to the head of the
sacrifice, it died as a vicarious expiation, and they lived. It
had become a part almost of the Jewish mind, that they could not
hope for pardon, unless the sacrifice was offered. They felt that
their life was forfeited by sin, and they were unpardoned until
the sacrifice was made, and it could be made nowhere else but at
Jerusalem. Now God destroyed Jerusalem, and caused the offering
for sin to cease, and entirely annihilated the possibility of
their ever again expiating their sins by the bloody sacrifices;
they were therefore shut up to the doctrine of Christ's sacrifice
for sin. By the destruction of Jerusalem the alternative was
presented to the Jews--Accept of Christ's sacrifice, or you have
no propitiation for your sins.