Nothing but the want of love for Moses and his institutions. We are convinced that many of the Jews have never considered this matter, or they would not act as they do. The habits of thought induced by early education, the customs of their nation for two thousand years, have drawn a sort of veil over their understandings, so that they have not been able to see the palpable inconsistency of professing a zeal for Moses, whilst they do homage to principles which cut up his institutions by the roots. Until the priests be reinstated in their functions and their rights, as the divinely appointed teachers of religion, the Jews can have no ground whatever to pretend that they are disciples of Moses. They are, at present, nothing but partisans of the sect of the Rabbinists. And if they choose to persevere in their attachment to this sect, they are bound, as honest men, to renounce all profession of regard for the law of Moses.
No. XLIII.
SANHEDRIN.
It is certain that the Jews cannot appeal to the law of
the prophets to defend their rejection of the old religion of
Moses, and their preference for the new religion of the
rabbies. Neither Moses nor the prophets knew anything
about the rabbies. They are quite a new order of men,
never heard of until the Jewish polity was tottering to its
destruction. There is, however, another argument to which
they might appeal, in order to justify the reception of new
religious teachers, and that is, the existence of the Sanhedrin.
It may be said, that when the rabbies arose and
taught, both they and their doctrines were approved by
this great council, and that this approval is sufficient to
establish the justice of their claims, and the truth of what
they taught. Indeed, the rabbinists do actually look upon
the Sanhedrin as the great foundation on which the oral
law rests:—
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