to the varying exigencies of different ages, in the exist-
ence of one and the same nation. In the Mosaic
writings we seek in vain for a specific ' form of govern-
ment ' a constitution for the state. Certainly, its
governmental and social principles tend rather to the
production of a republican government than of any other,
of Avhich Mosaism recognises a necessary head in the
person, indifferently of a judge or a general, or a high
priest, without pronouncing definitively on the matter,
since it places the priest* and the judge in juxta-position,
and scarcely adverts to their mutual relation.

It even predicts the demand arising for a monarchical

form of government, thus f " When thou art come unto

the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt

dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me,

like as all the nations that are about me ; thoii shalt in

any wise set him king over thee whom the Lord thy

God shall choose : one from among thy brethren shalt

thou set king over thee : thou mayest not set a stranger

5Mos. 17. !. t Ibid, 17. 14, ]r>.

K '2



68 LECTURE III.

over thee, which is not thy brother,"* etc. As Mosaism
so repeatedly proscribes the -laws and customs of the
nations " that are around thee " in all other matters,
this one exception is. worthy of all note. Moses proceeds
here on the idea that the people either live in strict ac-
cordance with the doctrine and the law that have
been revealed to them, or else forsake them. In the
first case, no constitution would be productive to them
of injury ; in the second, none could benefit them. A
fixed form of government would, therefore, have been a
useless restriction, which might have become, subse-
quently, highly prejudicial in its operation. We must
here clearly distinguish the circumstances obtaining in
the time of Moses, and those prevailing in that of
Samuel, and not attribute to the former, the opinions of
the latter. In short, Mosaism places society, by means
of its system of morals, on a firm basis, and leaves the
form of government free, while presupposing that form
to be republican. It divides the people into tribes,
generations, families; further, into sections of 10, 100,
and 1000. It assumes that the elders and priests are
to be the judges and rulers ; but it bestows the right to
these offices, the supremacy over the people, on no one
family, or generation, or race. The best qualified for
the performance of these public duties was to be chosen
" out of the midst of the people," as the one called to
the superior rule or presidency over the people, whether
as judge or king. Nothing more specific is to be found.

* If all the. crowned kings took to heart the simple teaching
of the king's duty, as set forth hi the closing verses of the
chapter, would not the conflicts between nation and nation, and
between sovereigns and their people, which up to this hour make
the world's history a blood-stained record, be among the things
of the past ? A. M. G.



THE SOCIAL MOKAL1TV OK MOSAlsM. 60

It need scarcely be observed, that the true direction of
the national destinies of the people of Israel is uniformly
regarded by Moses as vested in God alone, as all cir-
cumstances relating to the people are referable solely
to Him. A theocracy which should form a part of the
state, or executive government, was the ideal creation
of Samuel, and was not instituted by Moses. Nothing,
be it here remarked, more clearly demonstrates the au-
thenticity of the Pentateuch than this apparent omission,
since it thereby provided for the mutations, which all
subsequent changes of material and political circum-
stances were sure to induce.

If we further call to mind that Mosaism especially
regards 'the family' as the basis of its society, out of
which it springs, and on which it is to flourish, a new
and peculiar light is cast over our entire previous state-
ment. Mosaisrn urges repeatedly on the attention of
the people, that all its members spring from one an-
cestor, "stf")^ *J3 is the national appellation. It
carefully preserves the division into tribes, and thus
provides against the passing of the real property of one,
into the possession of any other tribe. It maintains
the sub-divisions within these tribes into generations
and families. The above fundamental laws become the
more intelligible, when the soil on which they are
planted is remembered, the consciousness of the jpeople
naturally producing equality and brotherly affection. Nor
shall we be surprised to find that Mosaism zealously
promotes family love. It regards the filial and conjugal
relations as its ground-work. Both are sanctified in
the Decalogue. An infringement of the obedience and
reverence due to parents, is a capital crime ; to scoff at
and blaspheme them, is to scoff at and blaspheme God.



70 LECTURE III.

Moses teaches that marriage is an institution appointed
directly by God : Adam received his wife as a creation
direct from God. The merging of all individual into
one common interest in marriage, is exquisitely ex-
pressed.* The inviolability of marriage begins from
the moment of betrothal, and its violation is a capital
crime. Marriages, it is true, can be annulled, if they
do not fulfil their higher design ; but divorce requires a
legal procedure, while the marriage promise requires
none, to render it binding.

Mosaism, therefore, protected the marriage relation
with laws requiring the strictest and purest chastity.
It opposed the moral depravity of the Asiatic and
African nations with ardent zeal. It strictly forbade
all intercourse Avithout the pale of marriage, and un-
compromisingly excluded prostitution from among the
people. It re-asserted the deep and significant natural
character of the conjugal tie, by prohibiting marriage
between persons who spring, whether contemporaneously
or successively, from the same stock. It promoted fra-
ternal and family ties of affection, and enforced the
duty of redeeming from sale both the persons and the
property of kindred.

In a system that considered the entire nation as a
unity, and human morality as a whole, it was impos-
sible that the relation of man to the animal creation
could be left undefined. While granting to man ' the
rule over all the creatures of the earth/ Mosaism at the
same time considers the relation of man to the animal,
nay, even to the vegetable kingdom, to have a deep
significance, and limits his dominion over them by cer-
tain legal restrictions. That growth of recent times,
* 1 Mos. 2. 24.



THE SOCIAL MORALITY OF MOSA1SAI. 71

the laws against cruelty to animals, was thus early (if
not so materially and circumstantially expressed) a
peculiarity of the code of Moses.

The law of nature, as the work of God, is sacred in
Mosaism, and everything opposed to nature is a dese-
cration of God's work. Thus to sow the same field
with different kinds of grain, to mutilate animals, and
to permit the crossing of different species, are forbidden.
Mosaism prohibits, therefore, seething the kid in the
milk of the mother, as in the material destined to sup-
port its life by the Creator, killing the mother and her
young on the same day, taking the parent bird and
the eggs at the same time from the nest. Therefore
Mosaism ordains that the beast of the field shall share
man's sabbath of rest, and that the ox shall not be
muzzled when he treads out the corn, etc. From all
these, and many other similar special enactments, we
have to deduce the general principle, that it is an in-
fringement of the law of God to do that which is
opposed to nature, and that the exercise of mercy
towards the brute is the duty of man. The manner
in which these ordinances are expressed, and sometimes
reiterated, proves that they were considered by Moses
as an important portion of the law, and that their
object was to ensure and to develop, in this respect, the
morality of the human race.

Having thus considered man in his relation to God,
to his fellow-men, and to the animal and vegetable
kingdom, we resume the subject of the individuality or
personality of man. It is manifest, that to it the first
principle, " Be thou holy, as the Lord thy God is holy,"
is especially applicable.

How docs Mosaism understand this sanctification ?



72



LECTURE III.



It is self-evident that Mosaisra does not consider duty
and right to be something external, but to consist in the
spiritual resemblance of man to God ; that it refers all
man's relations to God, to the world, and his fellow
being, to his inward individual nature ; and as signifi-
cant as it is sublime, is the concluding and crowning
command of the Decalogue, of which the object is the
purification of the very recesses of the human heart.
' Thou shalt not covet the wife of thy neighbour, the
house of thy neighbour/ etc.

If, therefore, to acknowledge God, to be filled with
that knowledge, to love God, to confide in Him, to love
your neighbour, and to put all these high motives and
feelings into action by strictly fulfilling the revealed
law, constitute this sanctification in general (and that
these do constitute it, the Mosaic writings repeatedly
and emphatically declare), if, as the fifth book of the
Pentateuch earnestly urges on the hearts of men, these
general conditions form the true life which blesses
and renders man happy here below, certain it is that
the special fundamental idea of Mosaism is this ' To
sublimate the moral consciousness of man above all
things sensual and temporal, and to secure by these
means the dominion of mankind over things sensual and
temporal.' Thence it follows, that Mosaism, regarding
man as a unity, cannot stop short at holiness of spirit,
but must secure a like holiness in the life material
and of the senses. Let us examine, first, what refers
to these senses. Though Mosaism recognises the dis-
tinction between mind and body, it considers man to
be the union of the two. The body is the bearer of the
spirit the body, according to Mosaism, is elevated to
such a position as alone fits it to be the vehicle of the



THE SOCIAL MORALITY OF MOSAISM. 73

god-like, self-sanctifying spirit. Therefore anything
that tends to corporeal degradation or depravity, or to
' give the body predominance over the mind, is opposed
to Mosaism, because it disturbs the moral consciousness
of man and subtracts from his holiness. Spiritual
holiness is expressed in Mosaism, also by corporeal
cleanliness and purity. Where any physical causes
render the contrary unavoidable, it is to be succeeded
by a purification partly real and partly symbolical.
Sexual life giving a certain ascendency to the sensual
portion of our nature, is subjected to fixed regulations
and necessitates subsequent purification, as we before
observed, when treating of the laws that refer to mar-
riage.

Further, Mosaism restricts,* or wholly forbids, the

* Modern medical science confirms these hygeian principles of
the code of Moses, and indicates them to be further evidence of
his inspiration. As man advances to civilisation in all nations, he
discovers the laws necessary to health, and as he so advances, an
approximation, and only an approximation, to the hygiene octroyee
of the Pentateuch is everywhere manifest. Ignorance of sanitary
principles, even at this day generates too commonly a belief, that
the Mosaic dietetic ordinances were induced by the climate of
the East, and were not the inspiration of that divine wisdom
which prompted his other utterances. While it must be at once
admitted, that to the inhabitant of more temperate climates their
infringement is less injurious, in them must yet be recognised,
the universality of that law, divinely inspired for all ages, and
for all countries inhabited by man. The general value of this
physical code finds full confirmation in the works of many
writers on medical science, especially in those of one who, by his
professional brethren, is regarded as one of the most profoundly
learned of modern pathologists. His kindness affords me the
opportunity of citing his opinion succinctly stated (in a note
which I textually quote) on the

' DIETETIC AND SANITARY CODE OP MOSES.

'Madam, I have great pleasure in complying with your
request, that I would furnish you with some references to my



74 LECTURE 111.

employment as articles of food, of things calculated to
vitiate that body, whose office is to be the vessel of the

work on practical medicine,* indicating my opinion as to th
injurious influences of several articles of food which are forbidden
to be used in the admirable institutions of your lawgiver
Moses, and which are too generally employed in Christian and
other countries. I have stated, in various parts of my work, that
these kinds of food are the causes of several diseases, have
enumerated the articles in question, in connection with the dis-
orders of which they are often the exciting and concurring
causes, and have remarked, that they are still more productive
of disease in warm and hater-tropical countries. In the first
volume of the work above-mentioned, at p. 566, I have, when
treating of the numerous causes of disease, mentioned amongst
others of those causes, the use as food of pork, and pork meats,
of the blood and viscera of animals, and of shell-fish, as being not
merely predisposing causes in many instances, but often also
exciting or concurring agents.

' Under the heads, Dysentery (vol. i.p. 695) and Diarrhoea, I have
stated that in the east these diseases have been rendered almost
epidemic by the use of the articles in question. The late Sir James
Annesley mentioned to me that fresh pork was served out to a
regiment in India, and that dysentery and diarrhoea were the
consequences in two-thirds of those who had partaken of it ;
these diseases subsiding after the cause was relinquished.

" In the several parts of my work where erysipelas and other
diseases of the skin are treated of, the use of shell-fish, has been
assigned as one of the chief causes of these numerous and often
dangerous forms of disease. When describing also the effects of
various articles of animal food, which often become poisonous,
owing either to their respective natures, or to diseases of which
these articles may have been the seats, I have particularly
indicated fresh pork and pork meats in any form, the viscera and
blood of animals, and shell-fish (see vol. iii. 385 389). What I
have stated respecting the nature and treatment of the poisonous
effects of these substances is too detailed to admit of tran-
scription, as it would fill many pages even of print. But I may
quote the following passage : 'Fresh pork is often injurious,
and gives rise to various symptoms according to the idiosyncrasy
of the individual, and to the manner in which the animal has



* A Dictionary of Practical Medicine, etc. By James Copland, M.U.,
F.R.S., etc.



THE SOCIAL MORALITY OF MOSAISM. 7 ~>

god-like soul. The physical constitution is liable to
be animalised by the inordinate enjoyment, not of
vegetable but of animal diet. 1st. It is forbidden, that
such parts of the bodies of animals as are especially
imbued with the vital principle, such as the blood (by
Scripture said to contain the life] should pass into the bo-
dies of men, because they would render them too animal.
2ndly. It is enjoined that no animals be eaten which sub-
sist on carrion or flesh, such as all beasts of prey. 3rdly.
All such creatures as are imperfectly organised of their
kind (such as those that chew the cud, but do not part
the hoof, or vice versa, and those fishes that have not both
fins and scales) : and 4thly, all animals in general that
form the inferior orders of organised beings, such as in-
sects, worms, and amphibia, are declared unfit for human
food, in order to prevent the vitiation of the body by the

been fed. In the East, especially in warm climates, pork is
often productive of diarrhoea and dysentery, effects which I have
seen caused by it in this country. The Mosaic law forbade the
use of it ; and there can be no doubt of the wisdom of this law
as respects warm countries, and /believe as regards all countries.'
(vol. iii. art. Poisons, p. 387). I afterwards go on to describe the
symptoms and the treatment of the poisonous effects of pork.

' When treating of Scrofulous and Tubercular Maladies (vol. iii.
p. 736), I have noticed the influence of the articles in question,
in producing gout, and scrofulous and tubercular affections in
the offspring of persons who use these articles.

' I have the honour to remain,
' Madam,

' Yours respectfully,

' 5, Old Burlington Street. 'JAMES COPLAND.'

By such of niy brethren and sisters as desire not only to read
and accept, but to comprehend, the code given by their Creator
for the well-being physical, mental, and moral of His creatures,
many portions of my learned correspondent's valuable work
(particularly those referred to) will be found to be as useful to
the general, as to the scientific reader. A. M. G.



76 LECTURE III.

introduction into it of imperfectly organised matter.
Assuredly all this is based on a profound knowledge of
the laws of nature.

The same tendency prevails in the regulation of
temporal as of sensual life. Mosaism estimates the
professional and industrial life of man at its just value,
and recognises it to be the vocation appointed to him
by God. But it also duly perceives and appreciates the
danger likely to result to men in their intellectual and
spiritual life, from the exclusive devotion of the faculties
of the spirit created in the image of God, to that profes-
sional or industrial calling.

It therefore provides specially for the periodical sus-
pension of industrial exertions, fixed times, at which
man shall wholly cease from his labour, and living the
life of the spirit, devote himself to the advancement of
his intellectual and religious being. To this end was
the sabbath ordained, a Mosaic institution that has won
the adherence of the whole civilised world.

" Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, but
thou shalt rest on the seventh day." The very spirit of
Mosaism rendered the limitation of this institution to
its outward form impossible, but imparted to it a defi-
nite relation to religion itself. Mosaism therefore
combines it with the knowledge of God as the Creator
and ruler of the Universe, thus making it the medium
by which the idea and the acknowledgment of God are
manifested, the basis of the whole of the Mosaic system.
An intentional violation of the sabbath is a violation
and abandonment of the whole of Mosaism. It was
quite consistent with its design, that Mosaism should
include, besides the sabbath, the appointment of certain
times at which the religious dependence of man on



THE SOCIAL MORALITY OF MOSAISM. 77

God, should be especially recalled to his consciousnes ;
festivals of which the idea sprang partly from the
nationality or history of the people of Israel, such as
Passover and Tabernacles ; partly from the operations
and gifts of nature, such as the harvest festivals,
Schevang and Tabernacles ; and partly from the general
spiritual requirements of mankind, as the day of Atone-
ment, for which the day of the blowing of the trumpet
or of memorial, was a preparation.

The Day of Atonement being of general importance
for mankind, must detain us for a brief space. We
have perceived that Mosaism pronounces sin to be the
antagonism of holiness ; that it considers it to be a dis-
turbance of the due relation existing between the
god-like soul and the Divinity, but that it declares it
annulled by a return to holiness, as sinfulness is
effaced by means of repentance, and through the mercy
of God. Further, it is consistent with the design of
Mosaism that this return and this consequent blotting
out of sin, were not to be purely abstract, but that Mosaism
sought to lead man to this course and to help him on
his amended path. This was the indwelling thought
of the Day of Atonement, a thought which has partially
disseminated itself through human society. A recur-
rent period, at which this idea of the abandonment of
sin, the return to God's ways by means of repentance
and self-examination, should be permitted and brought
specifically to the consciousness of man, was a want, a
benefit, and a powerful aid to self-sanctification.

Mosaism formed a complete contrast to antiquity and
the middle ages, in this great consistent and uniform
system, social and moral. We perceive clearly that
Mosaism propounded a system of ethics and of society



78 LECTURE III.

wholly new, wholly different to any other produced by
antiquity. The conditions of these differences are the
following Mosaism declares the attributes of the
Supreme Being to be love, justice, and purity, while
antiquity bases its most refined code of morals on
egotism.

While the 'Beautiful and good' of Plato, the 'Middle
Course' of Aristotle, the 'Abstinence' of the Cynic, the
' Pleasure ' of the Epicurean, and the c Indifference ' to
pain of the Stoic, are but variations of one and the same
principle of egotism, Mosaism adopts personal freedom,
equality of right and justice, and possible equality of
possession, as the basis of its society. Antiquity, on
the contrary, has, for the natural elements of its society,
castes, the predominance of certain races, the freedom of
certain races, and slavery. Like circumstances obtain in
the feudal system of the middle ages. You must in-
deed, my hearers, have perceived that much which has
been attained to in the most recent times, is declared
in Mosaism ; much more which Mosaism enforces, can
be achieved only in ages yet to come.

All this Mosaism pronounced to be, thousands of
years ago, not the consequence, but the basis, of the
development of the human race.



79



LECTURE IV.

PROPHETISM.

MOSAISM had furnished the doctrine of a unique, essen-
tially one, supermundane, and holy God ; of the world,
as the work of God, which He causes to continue by
means of the laws of nature ; and of man as the unity
of a spirit in the image of God, and the most highly
organized body, to whom God stands in the immediate
relation of Providence, Judge, the Fountain of atone-
ment and of revelation. In a word, Mosaism had fur-
nished the religious idea and moreover the realization
of the idea through the sanctification of man, manifesting
itself in the individual, under the form of justice and
mercy, of love to God and man ; in society, in equality
of rights, and all practicable equality of possession.
This mosaic holiness demands further, the dominion of
moral consciousness over the sensuous and the worldly ;
in one word it demands religious life.

The essential object of the following lectures, can
only be, to shew in how far this doctrine took a firm
root in mankind, and is progressively taking a still
stronger hold ; and lastly, what have been its peculiar
effects within Judaism itself. For it must be remem-
bered, that in man there exist instincts, directly
opposed in their tendency, to these teachings. Man's
natural standard being himself, his instincts are for the
most part egotistical. According to that standard, he
seeks to comprehend, to measure and to judge, God



80 LECTURE IV.

and the universe. He must thus ever come to con-
clusions opposite to those produced by Mosaism, since
God and the world merge into one, and since egotism
and its coarse or more refined gratification, would
appear to him to be the law of actual existence.

Nor should it be forgotten, that according to the
teachings of Moses, man is unfettered a free agent;
and that the first condition of this free agency is the
creation of the spirit of man in the image of God.
That, therefore, the law could not consistently with its
own teachings, in any way arrogate to itself, like a
deus ex machina, the immediate subjugation of the
spiritual world, but that it presupposed and set forth
the gradual development of mankind. The principle
of egotism, which is inherent in man, and antagonistic
to the Mosaic doctrine, was allowed to develop and
exhaust itself throughout antiquity, until mankind
arrived at the conviction of the comfortlessness of this
system; when at the fitting period Christianity and
Islamism, emanating from Mosaism, were commissioned
to propagate the Mosaic view. And to this subject we
shall hereafter return.

All the history of man's spiritual development, when
considered from two points of view, becomes clear and
consistent with itself. The first point is the adoption
by mankind of the religious idea as presented by