days, plainly disobeys the Divine command as given by Moses and the prophets; how then can the Jews of the present day deceive themselves by supposing that they have the religion of Moses? The main difference between Heathenism and the religion of Moses is, that the latter gives a revelation of God's will to guide us in difficulty and to comfort us in affliction. The main difference between a Heathen and a Jewish mourner ought to be, that the Jew flees for consolation to God and his Word, whilst the Heathen indulges in sorrow as those that have no hope. The oral law, however, breaks down with this distinction, and reduces the Jew to the level of the Heathen, by robbing him in his hour of need of God's promises, and commanding him to abstain for seven days from all study of God's Word. These laws respecting mourning, then, as being oppressive to the poor, insulting to the unlearned, degrading to humanity, and contrary to the express precepts of the Divine law, have no intrinsic merit to commend them to Israel, and no claim upon their obedience.
No. LVI.
DISPENSATION FROM AN OATH.
A religion which is plainly contrary to any of the Divine
attributes, must necessarily be false. For instance, God is a
holy God: a religion, therefore, which would promote unholiness
could not have the Holy One of Israel for its author.
God is also a merciful and a just God: a religion, therefore,
which is characterized by cruelty or injustice, cannot proceed
from him; and for this reason, amongst others, we believe that
the religion of the oral law cannot be that true religion which
God gave to Moses and the prophets. The oral law is most
unjust in its laws respecting Gentiles, slaves, and unlearned
men, and most unmerciful in very many of its enactments.
But if there be one attribute more than another, which is
distinctive of the true God, it is truth. In the prophecies of
Jeremiah, He is even identified with truth, as it is said:—
(
Hebrew characters)
"The Lord God is Truth." (Jer. x. 10.) And in that prediction, which he put into the mouth of Balaam, he says, that it is by this attribute that he is distinguished from the sons of
