Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/86

 GS THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, great Author. They affirmed, ///a^, if the Being, who ^^' is the same through all eternity, had designed to abolish those sacred rites which had served to distinguish his chosen people, the repeal of them would have been no less clear and solemn than their first promulgation: that, instead of those frequent declarations, which either suppose or assert the perpetuity of the Mosaic religion, it would have been represented as a provision- ary scheme, intended to last only till the coming of the Messiah, who should instruct mankind in a more per- fect mode of faith and of worship P; that the Messiah himself, and his disciples who conversed with him on earth, instead of authorising by their example the most minute observances of the Mosaic law"", would have published to the world the abolition of those useless and obsolete ceremonies, without suffering Christianity to remain during so many years obscurely confounded among the sects of the Jewish church. Arguments like these appear to have been used in the defence of the expiring cause of the Mosaic law ; but the industry of our learned divines has abundantly explained the am- biguous language of the Old Testament, and the ambi- guous conduct of the apostolic teachers. It was proper gradually to unfold the system of the gospel, and to pronounce with the utmost caution and tenderness a sentence of condemnation so repugnant to the inclina- tion and prejudices of the believing jews. The Naza- The history of the church of Jerusalem affords a cTfTeru-"'^'^ lively proof of the necessity of those precautions, and salem. of the deep impression which the Jewish religion had made on the minds of its sectaries. The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised jews; and P These arguments were urged with great ingenuity by the jew Oiobio, and refuted with equal ingenuity and candour by the christian Limborch. See the Arnica CoUatio, (it well deserves that name,) or account of the dis- pute between them. 4 Jesus . • . circumcisus erat ; cibis utebatur Judaicis ; vestitu simili ; purgatos scabie mittebat ad sacerdotes ; paschata et alios dies festos reli- giose observabat: si quos sanavit saliatho, ostendit non tantum ex lege, sed et exceptissententiis talia opera sabatho non interdicta. Grotius de Veritate Religionis Christiana?, 1. v. c. 7. A little afterwards (c, 12.) he expatiates on the condescension of the apostles.