Sage compares the commandments to a lamp, and religion itself to a brilliant light, when he says, "The commandment is a lamp, religion is a light." (Prov. vi. 23.) He intends thereby to express this sentiment: The commandment, abstractedly, is not the end and aim of observance; it is only the mere vehicle, or lamp, to which the religious sentiment and intention (which causes the command to be obeyed, because it is the will of God, and acceptable in his sight) supply the light. Consequently, he whose observance of the law is confined to the mere perform ing of what it commands, independently of the religious intention, resembles him who, in intense darkness, walks with a costly lamp, devoid of any light, and therefore cannot escape danger, but must go astray: As the Prophet says, “The ways of the Lord are right; the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein." (Hosea xiv. 9.) But of him who performs with proper intention, Solomon saith, "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth_more__and more unto the perfect day," (Prov. iv. 18,) and is never extinguished. (To be continued.) III. THE THIRTEEN ARTICLES OF FAITH. חלק TO THE TALMUDIC TREATISE (Continued from page 320.) THE better to illustrate what we have hitherto stated, we intend to append a full and clear exposition of the articles of faith, which, as Jews, we are bound to receive and believe. These articles are thirteen in number. ARTICLE I. THE existence of the Creator: That is to say, There is a Being, perfect in all the essentials of existence. In Him is the being of what ever is, and from Him all beings have their existence. It is impossible to negate or deny his existence For were He not, all beings would cease to exist, and not one of them would remain or continue to be: Whereas, on the contrary, though all other beings were to cease and no longer to be, He would still continue in undiminished fulness of perfection. As He is thus all-sufficient to himself, His is the only true Unity: Whereas whatever exists external to him, angels, astral orbits, and that which they contain, and all that is above or below, are dependent on Him for their being. The principle of this article is contained in the Divine declaration, "I am the Lord thy God," &c. ARTICLE II. THE Unity of the Holy One: (Blessed be He!) That is to say, He, the First Great Cause of all existence, is One. His Unity is not like a collective unity; nor a unity of kind or species; nor a unity like man, forming part of a whole; nor a material unity, which is divisible into an infinite number. But (He (blessed he HE!) is one, and his Unity is absolute, and not to be equalled by or assimilated to any other species of unity whatsoever. The principle of this article is contained in the declaration of the law: "Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God, the Lord is one.' ARTICLE III. His immateriality: That is to say, The Holy One is not material, has no corporeal powers, and is not subject to the accidents of matters; such as motion, rest, or occupying space, and does not sit or stand: As the prophet saith, "To whom will ye liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One?" All those expressions in Holy Writ which assign to the Deity material qualities or accidents, such as, that he goes, sits, or stands, speaks, &c.,-are merely in conformity with the way of speaking usual amongst men and their common parlance. The principle of this article is contained in the declaration of the law, "Ye have seen no manner of similitude." ARTICLE IV. His priority (p): That is to say, The Holy One is positively, absolutely primary. All beings external to him take priority relatively to each other: Whereas He is primary to all. The principle of this article is contained in many declarations of Holy Writ, particularly in the blessing of Moses. (Deut. xxxiii. 27.) ARTICLE V. THAT worship, adoration, and obedience are due to him alone, and not to any created being ;-such as angels, celestial luminaries, astral orbits, elements, or any of their component parts;-as He alone possesses absolute will and power: Whereas, these have neither will nor power of their own, are created for specific purposes, and are no mediators between Him and man; nor can they render Him propitious. Therefore, all the thoughts of man, setting aside all created beings, are to be directed to Him only. The principle of this article is contained and enforced in numerous declarations of the law. ARTICLE VI. THAT prophecy does exist: That is to say, It is incumbent on man to know that some individuals of his species have been endowed with such excellent qualities and perfections, that their souls were susceptible of receiving the impressions of absolute intellect. The impressions they thus received emanated from the perfect intelligence of the Creator; and the individuals, thus highly exalted, were prophets, or messengers of the Most High. The principle of this article is declared throughout every part of Holy Writ. ARTICLE VII. THAT Moses, our teacher, (peace be with him!) is the father of all the Prophets, both of such as preceded or succeeded him: That is to say, that he holds the most eminent rank amongst all the prophets of the Lord, whether they were before or after. He was selected from out of the whole human race, and attained a greater knowledge of the Most High than any other man ever did or ever will attain. He surpassed the standard of human perfection, and acquired angelic qualifications. No obstacle impeded his clear and perfect contemplation of the Deity, so far as such contemplation is possible to any created being of whatever degree. His intellect was not obscured or circumscribed by corporeal influence or weakness: He had overcome the force of imagination, and of the senses, and likewise of their effects; was divested of desire, and became purely intellectual. Therefore Holy Writ declares, that he conversed with the Deity directly and without any intermediate means of communication. His prophetic power was different from that of all other prophets in four respects: 1. The Divine communication to other prophets was by means of an angel or intermediate messenger: Whereas to him it was direct, as the Divine law declares, "Mouth to mouth I speak to him." 2. Other prophets received the Divine communication in a trance, when all their corporeal faculties were completely suspended; which ; visionמראה or מחזה state is called while Moses continued in full selfpossession, as his human condition and pure intellect were inseparably united; as is said in Holy Writ, "Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command." 3. Other prophets, although the Divine communication was imparted to them through an angel and in a vision, experienced terror and agitation: Whereas Moses, although in immediate converse with the Deity, did not experience any terror, as his pure intellect became attached to creative intelligence: As Holy Writ declares, "And the Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his neighbour." 4. Other prophets received the Divine communication at such certain times and seasons as it pleased the Deity to impart the same to them; often remained without any communication during a long period of time; and sometimes required considerable preparations to render themselves capable of receiving the same: Whereas Moses preserved a continual state of susceptibility, proper for the reception of the Divine communication whenever he applied for the same: As it is said, "And Moses brought their cause before the Lord.” ARTICLE VIII. THAT the law of God has been revealed from heaven: That is to say, The whole law imparted to the Israelites by Moses, such as we now have it, was communicated to him directly by the Deity. No part of it was the work of Moses, but the whole was dictated by God, and written down by Moses verbatim. Every part of the book which contains this law is alike holy and Divine; consequently, every narrative or phrase which it contains, even,-"The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim," &c.; "The name of his wife was Mehitabel;" or "Timnah was the concubine," &c., -are of equal sanctity with the words, "I am the Lord thy God," or with, "Hear, O Israel!" &c.; as the whole of the book, and every part of its contents, proceeded from the Omnipotent, is the law of the Lord, and, as such, most holy. Our duty is to imitate the example of David, the anointed of the Lord, who prays: "Open mine eyes, that I may behold wonders in thy law." The received exposition of the law likewise proceeds from the Omnipotent. And the manner and form in which we at present observe the commandments of the tabernacle, the four vegetables, the trumpets, the fringes, the phylacteries, and others of a like kind, are precisely the same as the observance commanded to Moses. He enjoined these observances on us, and his mission was true: As is declared in Holy Writ: "And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works, and that I have not done them from my own heart." ARTICLE IX. THAT the law of God is immutable: That is to say, Nothing can be taken from this law or added to it: As is declared in Holy Writ. ARTICLE X. THAT the Holy One (blessed be HE!) knoweth and observeth the works of man: That is to say, Those are wrong who say, "The Lord has abandoned the earth;" but, ou the contrary, as the prophet declares, "The Lord is great in counsel, and mighty in deed:" And, "Thine eyes are on the ways of all the sons of man, to reward man according to his ways, and the fruit of his deeds:" And as Holy Writ in another place declares: "The Lord SAW that the wickedness of man was great on earth." THAT Messiah will come: That is to say, However long his coming may be delayed, we are not to renounce it in despair, but are still to be convinced that come he assuredly will; though we are not to attempt, from passages of Holy Writ, to calculate or determine the precise time of his advent. We are to believe that he will be superior to any monarch that ever has been: As is predicted by all the prophets from Moses unto Malachi,-peace be with them!-and also in the prophecy of Balaam, which has been received into the Sacred Scriptures. This article comprises the principle, that the Israelites will have no other anointed King than a descendant of David, of the lineage of Solomon. And whosoever rebels against that dynasty offends against the law of God. ARTICLE XIII. THE resurrection of the dead: That is to say, That in due time the dead, in conformity with the will of God, will arise from their graves to everlasting life. IV. SPIRIT OF THE JEWISH RELIGION. If the history of all nations claims our attention, because the past offers its instruction to guide us how to act for the future, the history of the Jews, in addition to this, teaches us, what will take place hereafter. We devote the present article to the Passah festival, established to commemorate events which took place upwards of thirty centuries ago. All of our readers are doubtless sufficiently acquainted with the history of our nation to know, that the Israelites were bond-men in Mizraim; that Divine Omnipotence evinced its interposition in a series of miraculous events, which at once punished the tyrannic task-master, and restored our ancestors to freedom. The minute facts are recorded in a book written at the time, and acknowledged as authentic by the greatest part of the civilized world. When we say this, we mean, that the various religious systems prevailing in Europe, in a great part of Asia, of Africa, and of America, and which claim to be founded on Divine Revelation, however differing in their tenets, how much soever at variance in their doctrines, however inimically disposed towards each other, yet all agree in holding up this book as the law of the living God, imparted to man by direct revelation from above. And it is worthy of remark, that those inhabitants of this terrestrial globe who do not know or admit the Divine authority of this book, are yet in the infancy of civilization, and have adopted systems of religion so puerile, superstitious, and contrary to reason, that no civilized infidel, who refuses to bow to the authority of this book, (in opposition to the practice of the immense majority of his fellow-citizens,) would for an in. stant think of adopting those systems. We mention the extensive authority conceded to the Bible not as of itself furnishing any sufficient proof of the Divine origin of that book, but because in this enlightened age of science and discovery, when men boast of their profound research, mature investigation, and ripe judg ment, very few, in matters of religion, possess sufficient strength of mind and of principle to be guided by the unbiassed conviction of their own minds; (as was Abraham in his days;) but most men are swayed and influenced by numbers; and the more extended is the suffrage in support of any particular opinion, the more convinced they become of its truth. We, however, can dispense with this adventitious support: God's holy law, the books in which it is recorded, are an inheritance descended to us from our fathers, as it reached them from theirs. They assuredly would not deceive us, any more than their fathers would deceive them: And when they tell us, This is what we received from our fathers, who received it from theirs; each succeeding generation from their predecessors up to those who witnessed, at the very time, the events recorded in this book, which, unaltered, we now confide to you;"—when they tell us this, we have no reasonable right to doubt their veracity, as they can have no probable motive to abuse our confidence. 66 One of the events related in that book is the miraculous exit of the Israelites from Mizraim. This relation is held to be so very important, that, in very many passages of Holy Writ, the fact is repeated, and numerous laws and observances are en joined in order to perpetuate its memory. It is true, that some British Jew,-looking to the many and wonderful changes which every nation on earth has, during the last thirty centuries, experienced, and feeling comfortable in the undisturbed security of person, property, and opinion, may ask, "What could "have been the difference to me in"dividually, had the Israelites not "been wonderfully liberated from "their bondage? Amongst those who "own the sway of Egypt's Pacha, "there may not be one whose line"age ascends to the ancient oppress"ors of Israel. Without any direct "intervention of the Deity, the Jew"ish people would doubtless, in "course of time, have been freed "from the yoke of slavery; and I "should probably have been what "I am, a native of Britain, though "the Red Sea had not opened to give a safe passage to the descendants "of Jacob. What, then, to me are " events which occurred upwards of "three thousand years ago? Why "am I to be inconvenienced by nu"merous observances which have no "other purpose than to keep up the "memory of these far gone-by "events?" To such questions we, in the first instance, answer: It is possible, that you might have been what now you are, a native of Great Britain, although your ancestors might never have crossed the Red Sea; but it is certain, that, had the Jews never been released by the strong hand of the Deity visibly displayed, neither Britain nor the whole civilized world would have been what at the present day it is. You ask, What are these observances to you? We answer, The house of Israel was selected for a peculiar people. As in that people the tribe of Levi, and in that tribe the family of Aaron, were set apart for the service of the Lord; so is the Israelite among the nations of the earth: For Aaron still remained an Israelite, and the Israelite still remains a man; not selected for his own selfish advantage, but to promote the purpose of the Great Father of all, for the good of all. And as you are one of this peculiar people, the observances confided to them by the Deity are sacred to you. You owe them obedience, because they are commanded by God,-because you are bound to teach them to others, and to show them what has been and what will be,-because you are a link in the great chain of evidence which must not be interrupted or broken,-and, lastly, because) it is your duty to transmit to your children what you received from your father: As it is declared in Holy Writ, "And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, With a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt." (Exodus xiii. 14.) We have said, that, but for the miraculous exit from Mizraim, the state of the world would have been widely different from what it now is and, also, that the Israelites, selected to be a peculiar people, were constituted to be a priestly nation, the instructers of the whole human race. If these two assertions are true,-and that they are so, we think no one can deny, we may be permitted freely to examine the history of their exit, and its consequences. And, though we do not intend to enter fully into details, sufficiently known to every reader of the Bible, yet a brief investigation of general results will enable us to establish three principles most important to every man. We live in an age when nothing supernatural or miraculous is seen; but whatever occurs bears the stamp of ordinary nature. The principal occupations and views of individuals, as well as of nations, are confined to their earthly span, and to their mundane career. No startling wonder, no astounding inversion of the course of nature, rouses man from his apathy. The direct and miraculous interposition of Providence no longer strikes home to the breasts of mortals. The stupendous effects suddenly produced by the evident and overpowering operations of the Great Controller of all nature, as well as of all supernatural causes, are no longer visible on earth. And when a person of ordinary understanding reads the history of olden times, he may, with the Sacred Singer, exclaim: 'Where are thy wonders and thy mighty deeds, which our ancestors related to us?" Nor do we of the present day alone ask that question : Short-sighted man has ever been |