8), and second, by the call of Abraham (Gen. 12: 1-3). By keeping Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob moving to and fro as pilgrims and strangers, and by special revelations, God preserved a holy seed until it should become a nation. The development was in all other cases away from God. This is declared by Paul (Rom. 1: 21-23), indicated by the record in Genesis, and supported by a comparison of ancient religions. It is said " that the fundamental elements of religion are the same in all the ancient records we possess; and the further into antiquity the history is pursued, the more does that in which they differ diminish. Consequently, the reasonable presumption is that if we could follow them all up through their history, we should find that the primitive religion in each of the cases was identical with that in all the rest." 9 Fitted to the condition of the race in its primitive needs, this form of the church did not conserve piety, nor fellowship nor unity. It was preparatory, not permanent. § 14. There There was in the patriarchal dispensation no marked separation between saints and sinners. Cain and Abel seem to have worshiped together, until God signified his approval of the one and disapproval of the other. In that act of discrimination a distinction was made between an external worship and a service springing from true faith in God; but that distinction aroused the anger of Cain, and murder soon silenced the first saint and martyr. Cain was driven out, and Seth revived the line of saints. But when "the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair," the line of Seth mingled again with the line of Cain (Gen. 6: 2), until the flood established anew a godly seed (Gen. 7: 1). The call of Abraham was a more marked separation, followed by the expulsion of Ishmael and the choice of Jacob instead of Esau. Then, as now, children of the same parents were not the same; but good and bad shared in the rites and worship of the household. The outgrowth of the divine life in the Moffat's Comp. Hist. Relig. 1, 246. hearts of men took no discriminating form; it was bounded only by the sacredness of the family. The birthright had in it the priesthood of the family and the promise of the father. But the faithful and the unfaithful, the righteous and the wicked, were in the same household until they instituted households and clans of their own, when each followed his own bent, the many into idolatry, the few into monotheistic beliefs, like the patriarchs of Israel, Melchizedek, and even Balaam (Gen. 14: 18; Heb. 7: 1; Num. 22: 9, 18). While this family form of the Church could easily have become ecumenical, it lacked the essential element of universal fellowship. It could not express the communion of saints, and did not, therefore, foster piety. Even the covenant which runs through the three dispensations is a family covenant. The life, begotten by the Holy Ghost, began in the family relation (Gen. 3: 15), was nurtured long in the household, and is still largely dependent on the family; but in due time it outgrew this narrow limitation, and entered upon a second stage of development. II. - - THE CEREMONIAL DISPENSATION, OR THE NATIONAL FORM OF THE CHURCH OF GOD. § 15. Near the close of the preceding dispensation, God prepared the way for the evolution of a new and better out of the old and inadequate form of the Church. This he did by confining the promised seed to the family of Abraham. He entered into a covenant with one man, to train him and his posterity, in one line, as a peculiar people, the chosen of God, until the Messiah should appear to bless "all the families of the earth" (Gen. 12: 3). This covenant he ratified in a solemn vision (Gen. 15: 5-18); and confirmed unto Isaac (Gen. 17: 19; 26: 3) and Jacob (Gen. 28: 13). When the sons of Jacob became twelve tribes, and were consolidated into one people by the bondage of Egypt, God led them into the wilderness to train them, and there he renewed this covenant with them as a united people. He purposed to weld them into one political and religious life. He said unto all Israel: "Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. And all the people answered together, and said: All that the Lord hath spoken we will do " (Ex. 19: 6,8). Thus the whole people as a nation became consecrated unto God in church relations (Acts 7: 38); it was henceforth the kahal, or "the congregation," or Church of Israel, and was so treated in all sacred history. The family Church thus became a national Church. § 16. This covenant involved true religion, or the life of God in the heart, but did not distinguish by rigid tests between the holy and the wicked. It required circumcision of the heart (Lev. 26: 41, 42), but the outward sign and seal were applied only to males. To observe every ordinance and keep every commandment was to be holy; and yet the inner observance is not confounded with the outward performance (Rom. 2: 28, 29). This distinction runs in varying degrees of clearness through the whole sacred record. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit," and similar utterances, show that the pious understood the law as exacting more than external compliance (John 3: 3–10). § 17. The law followed immediately upon the renewal of the covenant. As the nation was also the Church, moral, religious, ceremonial, civil, military, and sanitary laws were intermingled in one code. Rulers and courts had jurisdiction in all matters. The code was specific and inflexible, covering the dress of the priests, the form of the tabernacle, the kinds. of sacrifices, the time and number of feasts, every thing, indeed, that pertained to its gorgeous ritual. § 18. The place of worship tended to national unity. That place was at first the tabernacle, afterwards the temple. During the disorganized period of the judges (Judges 17: 6), there was no fixed capital nor stable government, but the tabernacle was a movable sanctuary. The law, however, was explicit, making one place the center of all worship (Deut. 12: 5-7), and so securing "the communion of saints." The unifying power of this law was such that Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who rebelled, set up a counterfeit system to counteract it (1 Kings 12: 26-29). He ordered his subjects to worship at Dan and Bethel. The civil power, he thought, needed the backing of the ecclesiastical, and so he caused Israel to sin. § 19. The priestly function of the father was now confined to Aaron and his posterity. Of this priesthood it may be said: (1) That it existed in three orders: the high priest, the priests, and the Levites. The Levites, taken instead of the firstborn of Israel, could not even see the holy things. while uncovered; but they carried and cared for the sacred utensils when covered by the priests. The priests offered sacrifices as mediators between God and the people. The high priest made annual atonement for the whole nation. (2) This priesthood was national, chosen from among the children of Israel to offer for all the people. (3) It was also exclusive. Only the male descendants of Aaron could be priests. "The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death" (Num. 18: 7). (4) The priests were not, as such, rulers in Israel. Priestly, not civil, functions belonged to them. The rulers were at first chosen by the people. (5) To this priesthood the irregular order of the prophets did not belong. The prophets were inspired teachers, whether lay or priestly. They came from all classes and conditions in society, and were the moral and religious teachers of Israel. § 20. The ritual was minute and inflexible. Nothing in it was optional. It was a yoke which could with difficulty be borne (Acts 15:10). Passing minor matters, it required: (1) A bloody initiatory rite, which every male born into the nation or admitted to citizenship had to undergo. There was one law for the home-born and for the stranger (Ex. 12: 48, 49). No male could possess national rights without enduring this ecclesiastical rite. (2) The annual festivals brought all males three times a year to the ecclesiastical capital, if they obeyed the command respecting them (Ex. 23: 17; Deut. 16: 16). (3) Their memorial feast was the passover, which was a type of Christ (1 Cor. 5: 7). This, when last observed by Christ, passed over into the Lord's Supper. It was observed in small companies. Thus the passover and circumcision became the germs of the Christian sacraments. § 21. The creed of this dispensation gathered about a belief in one personal and holy God, in the promised Messiah, in the law revealed on Sinai, and in the revelations made by the prophets. It became fuller as the prophets disclosed the glories of the coming reign of the promised Seed. Samuel founded the school of the prophets regular societies for the purposes of instruction, the original of colleges, seminaries, universities. "Long before Plato had gathered his disciples around him in the olive-grove, or Zeno in The Portico, these institutions had sprung up under Samuel in Judæa." 10 § 22. God was the Ruler of this nation and Head of the Church. He instituted all laws, ceremonies, rites. He inspired the prophets. He decided causes when appealed to him (Deut. 1: 17). God was the recognized Ruler of the people, the judges being his deputies, and the kings his viceroys. A "Thus saith the Lord," if properly authenticated was the end of controversy. The prophets were God's interpreters. To withhold tithes was to rob God (Mal. 3: 8), and idolatry was adultery (Jer. 3; 13: 27). This dispensation was a pure theocracy. There was no falling away from belief in a personal God, as in other religions; instead, God was made the national Ruler and constant Revealer. The prophets, whose writings we possess, would not let Israel forget God. Though they could not counteract the evils of Jeroboam's separate ecclesiastical establishment for the ten tribes, called the kingdom of Israel, they saved the kingdom of Judah from a similar fate, and attested to both kingdoms the existence, power, justice, and grace of an ever-living, personal God. 10 Hist. Jewish Ch., Dean Stanley, i, 422. |