Jehovah, to consecrate and institute to the sacerdotal office.* Is it said, that he had received a special divine commission authorizing such procedure? Yet withal, it must be admitted that such special commission had been confided to a civil ruler, and, therefore, to one, who, as such was utterly incompetent (on the theory of our opponents) to its appropriate execution. Then again, at Mount Ebal, Joshua, his valiant successor, the conqueror of one and thirty kings, is found rehearsing before all Israel the benedictions and maledictions of the law.t Nay further, it was also under his dictatorship that the Levitical distribution of the conquered territory was first accomplished. So that his entire policy contemplated not less the spiritual than the material interests of the Jewish Commonwealth. In like manner, the Suffetes or Judges exercised jurisdiction in causes ecclesiastic. The only female who attained to the Judicial throne was "a prophetess."+ The first and last of the recorded acts of the famous Gideon, during his judicature, were acts of civil interference in matters of religion.§ While the last two judges were * Comp. Exod. xxviii., xxix.; Lev. viii. ; and Numb. viii. + Eth mishnêh tôrăth môshěh-Repititionem legis Mosaicæ. Intelligendæ sunt benedictiones, Deut. xxviii, 1-14, et maledictions. Ibid xxvii, 15-26, xxviii. 15-68, Comm. Gramm. Hist. Crit. in Vetus Test. scripsit F. J. V. D. Maurer, Ph.D., vol. i., p. 110. Joshua xxi., Cf. Numb. xxxv. 1-8, 1 Chron. vi. 54-81. Judges iv. 4. § Judges vi. 22-32; Ibid. viii. 24-27. not warriors but priests,-the one being a prophet and the other, a pontiff. * And similarly under the monarchy. David, for example did not think religion alien from the regal functions ; but contrariwise. He ordered the fetching of the ark from Kerjath-jearim to Obed-edom, and from Obededom to Jerusalem; he prepared a tabernacle for its reception, arranged the order of its attendant ministration, and even aspired to erect the magnificent temple, the erection of which was reserved as the magnum opus of the not less brilliant reign of his successor in the throne. It was David too, who distributed the priests and Levites, the singers and porters "into courses" and orders, and who, in a word, re-organized the temple-service. His reign was in fact a splendid episcopate. Nor was that of his illustrious son any the less remarkably illustrative of the happy effects which may take their origin from royal interposition in matters of religion. It has been affirmed, that "there was under the Jewish constitution no such thing as human legislation"and that "to no magistrate, did that economy commit any such right."+ But the flagrant inaccuracy of such a statement places it almost beneath reply. The Hebrew monarchs as must have already appeared, had both the right and the power to prescribe whatever seemed in their opinion * 1 Chron. xxii,; xxiii. 1-26, Comp. chaps. xxiii., xxiv., XXV., and xxvi. National Establishments, by Dr. Wardlaw, p. 108. Witness * likely to promote the interests of true religion. the important ecclesiastical reforms of David. the deposition of Abiathar from the pontifical throne. Witness the conduct of Asa, who sought the extirpation of idolatry (an ecclesiastical act) and the testimony left upon record that he" did that which was good and right in the of the Lord his God." + And witness the many eyes religious acts of Jehoshaphat, Jehu, § Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, and Josiah, as a more than complete refutation of the absurdity of the objection that the Jewish monarchs could not legislate. * 1 Kings, ii. 27. +2 Chronicles xiv. 2-5.; and ch. xv. 2 Chron. xvii. § 2 Chron. xxvii, 8.; 2 Kings, x. It must be remembered, however, that the scriptural evidence in favour of state-churchism is not solely derived from the history, either of the Patriarchs upon the one hand, or of the Jewish nation upon the other. There is happily ample proof, derivable from collateral sources, of the principle that state interference or rather intervention in the affairs of religion is not only fitting, but obligatory, and that universally. This is seen, in the instance of Pul, one of the Kings of the First Assyrian Empire, who, as such, was unquestionably under no duty of obedience to the ecclesiastical provisions of the Mosaic constitution-no, not even to the extent of the most formal patronage of religion. Here, to say the least, there was no theocracy. And yet, when the prophet predicted the proximate overthrow of the mighty metropolis of the empire, this monarch was not slow to discover his duty. Had he con soled himself with the soothing illusion that, in his kingly capacity, he had nothing whatsoever to do with religion, Nineveh must inevitably have perished,-the great capital must have been "overthrown." But it was not so. Pul together with his nobles, not content with their own personal contrition and humiliation, issued an edict, enforcing a general Fast, and commanding his subjects to cover themselves and their beasts with sackcloth,* and to "cry mightily unto God," and "turn every one from his evil way." Here the subject was not left to his own choice. The edict was compulsory. It constituted, on anti-state church principles, an arbitrary violation of the liberty of conscience of the great Assyrian populations. But how did God regard the event? It is written, "and God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way......and repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not." And similarly under the kings of the second Assyrian Rosenmüller comments thus :-"Quod jumenta quoque saccis operiunda ex regis jussu scriptor narrat, forsan intelligi voluit de equis, mulis et camelis, qui pretiosis integumentis ornari solent. His itaque detractis vilia imposita fuisse. ut hodie, sicut et olim, teste Chrysostomo, in funeribus nobilium equi generosi, quibus defuncti usi sunt, panno nigro induuntur, ut simul lugere videantur."-in Jona iii., 7. The edict was as follows :-"Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste anything, let them not feed nor drink water (Cf. Virg. Eclog., v., 24,); but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to Godlet them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell, if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not."-Jonah iii, 7, 8, 9. K |