LXXXIX. THE third class of duties comprises those which man has towards
himself; and here the fundamental rule, from which they all emerge,
sounds thus--"Sanctify thyself, for I, the Eternal, am holy," which, in
other words, may be rendered as follows--"Imitate God, for thou wast
created in His image." As, however, this sanctification of self cannot
possibly be effected without knowing and loving God, and without walking
in his ways by practising justice and charity, it follows that this
third article is the cardinal point, which virtually comprehends in
itself the other two--it _is_ the ultimate object of all the revelation,
which purposed nothing more or less than the perfection of man; to this
grand end the whole scheme of revelation was designed.
It is clear that, in regulating the precepts of sanctification, the
revealed word had not alone to deal with the human soul, but to take
into account the body also, without whose concurrence man cannot attain
perfection. Designed for a receptacle of an immortal spirit, and for an
instrument to carry out the actions of life, the body must be preserved
entire, pure, and inaccessible to all contamination that would be an
obstacle to the high spiritual functions to be accomplished by its
means. To ensure this inaccessibility, as far as possible, the Divine
law prescribed for all mankind a rule, which, though to the short
understanding of many its character may not appear very clear, was
deemed by the eternal wisdom as calculated to promote morality.
Previously to Abraham's vocation, God forbade Noah and his children to
feed upon blood; and the scriptural declaration, that the soul of
animals resides in their blood, seems to indicate that the motive of
that prohibition is to prevent the human body being brutalised by
absorbing within itself, and assimilating, a large amount of an inferior
vitality, and thus causing the material propensities to preponderate in
man. But even if the true reason of that prohibition remained unknown to
us, this would not be the only instance of man being obliged to
acknowledge his own ignorance, and to bow reverently before an explicit
and rigorous commandment of God.
XC. The principles inculcated by the Mosaic code, for the preservation
of the body, involve, primarily, the prohibition of attempting its
existence, and, secondarily, that of cutting _off_ or injuring any part
of it. Suicide is, therefore, explicitly declared a crime; and several
precepts are directed against mutilations, marks, and all sorts of
deformations. The law does not permit voluntary macerations of the body,
capricious abstinences from lawful things, multiplied or prolonged
fasts, or subtractions from what is necessary to life. It, on the
contrary, intends that bodily health should be cared for, that
cleanliness and decency, in every respect, be regarded, a proper
development of the physical faculties promoted, and an employment
procured for them consonant with the superior requirements of man. It
_is_ likewise due to the physiology of the human body, not to use any of
its limbs in a manner contradictory to its organisation, to provide for
the restoration of equilibrium or health eventually lost, to avoid risks
of injuries or disorders, and to take advice of skilled men in cases of
disease. But food, drink, recreation, physical enjoyment, and every
other indulgence usually allowed to the advantage of the body, are
required by the law to be moderated by certain rules of a moral
standard, having in view more elevated ends than the mere gratification
of earthly wants; so that even the most vulgar acts may, from the
intentions which accompany them, acquire a certain religious importance.
In short, the government of the body must be such as to favour, and not
to hinder, the exercise of what concerns spiritual life.
XCI. Passing to other moral requirements which come within the sphere of
man's duties towards himself, it is unnecessary to demonstrate here how
it is incumbent upon every man to choose a state in society adapted to
his individual faculties and aptitude, to be industrious, sober and
decorous, to fix on a well-regulated distribution of his time and work,
to be economical without parsimony and liberal without prodigality, and
generally to follow such rules of wisdom as tend to render life
prosperous, and human conduct acceptable to society. All such rules are
self-evident, and grow necessarily out of the general principle which
demands of the functions of the body to subserve the attainment of
self-sanctification. But we must now speak precisely of this
sanctification, to point out briefly in what it consists. From the
Divine prescript, "Sanctify yourselves because I am holy," we clearly
conclude that the type of sanctification is to be sought, not in
ourselves, but in God; therefore, to sanctify ourselves is to shape our
own acts and will upon the known will of God; to be fully penetrated
with the idea of Him; to hold steadfastly to Him; to take Him for a
guide in the walks of life; to make Him the goal of our actions and the
centre of our hopes; to devote our solicitude to the accomplishment of
the high designs of His eternal wisdom; to perform whatever is agreeable
to Him; to imitate, as far as possible, His perfections; in short, so to
act, that what in Him is absolute may become in us subjective; and thus
the sanctity of God will produce man's own sanctification. Having
established this sovereign principle, revelation has accomplished its
intentions, has attained its object, for the whole sum of the Divine law
is concentrated in it; and worship, morals, judicial laws, and all
single observances prescribed, are but branches or constituent parts of
this principle; they all flow from, and return to, it, with a systematic
consequence.
XCII. Besides the three cardinal articles above stated, the observance
of which, in their general tendencies at least, is incumbent on all
mankind, there are in the sacred code various special prescriptions
obligatory only on Israel, as him who first received the revelation, and
who is bound to preserve it with particular means, and to testify it for
ever, by his acts and by his very existence. Through such prescriptions,
the law designed either to keep alive among the people the idea of the
high mission entrusted to it, and the memory of signal favours which
Providence prodigally conferred upon it in the early times of the
institution, or to initiate it into a more scrupulous sanctitude, by
interdicting to it some things that are left permissive to others. It is
not necessary here to give a complete list of such precepts, as the mere
inspection of the sacred text suffices to point them out; and we shall
confine ourselves to indicating some of the more important. Pre-eminent
among them stands the sabbath, the elevated tendency of which has been
already explained in the Sinaitic revelation; next come the three
Festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, which, besides being
linked to, and combined with, rural events and circumstances, are also
designed to commemorate luminous epochs in the national history; the
great day of atonement, as a highly important act of reconciliation with
God; the circumcision, as an ineffaceable mark of the adoption of
Israel; the assiduous study of the Divine law, as the purest source of
truth, and repository of the religious idea; the fringes in the
garments, the phylacteries or frontlets, the inscriptions on the
door-posts, and such like commemorative means; the redemption of the
firstborn children; and the offering of the first fruits, as a
demonstration of filial dependance on, and gratitude to, the Supreme
Cause; the prohibition to feed on certain loathsome animals, and
reptiles and insects, in order not to assimilate to the human body
substances of a low, imperfect, and possibly deteriorated organization;
the interdiction of marriages between certain degrees of relationships,
because wanting in the antagonism required in connubial unions;[5] the
duty of offering up prayer, one of the noblest offices of piety, and the
most effectual medium of communion with God; that of confessing sins,
the inevitable consequence of human frailty; the injunctions to reject
idolatry, divinations, charms, exorcisms, sortileges, and all manner of
superstitions, all of which are obstacles to the development of the
religious idea; and several other precepts, which may be found dispersed
throughout the sacred code, all having similar tendencies, and coming
more or less directly within the scope we have assigned to them.
[Note 5: Another probable reason of this prohibition is, that the
practice of such unions would be fraught with great domestic disorders
and unhappiness, and consequent social evils. But it is opportune here
to remind the leader, that many attempts have been made, in the course
of centuries, by eminent expositors, to assign to many of the Mosaic
ordinances motives of various characters, rationalistic and
metaphysical, sanitary, political, and mystical, but all more or less
conjectural. To the religious man the positive knowledge of the true
motives is not at all essential for the performance of the divine
precepts; and in the words of our author himself, as stated elsewhere,
"we have to bow reverently before an explicit and rigorous commandment
of God, and we consider it as calculated to contribute to the promotion
of our own weal."--THE TRANSLATOR.]