FROYTIS PIECE.

3

5

THE REASONS !

OF

THE LAWS OF

OF MOSES.

FROM

THE - MORE NEVOCHIM” OF MAIMONIDES.

WITH NOTES, DISSERTATIONS, AND

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

BY JAMES TOWNLEY, D. D.

AUTHOR OF

ILLUSTRATIONS OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE,” fr. 8c.

Quemadmodum adhuc viget, ita in omne ævum vigebit,

memoria. BISHOP CLAVERING,

LONDON:

LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, PATERNOSTER-ROW ;

PREFACE.

THE
HE LAWS AND INSTITUTIONS OF Moses con-

stitute the earliest and most original system of ecclesiastical and civil jurisprudence and polity, with which the world has ever been favoured. Suited to the genius, the habits, and the circumstances of the people to whom they were delivered, they comprize not merely a code of political and moral regulations, for the wise and prosperous conduct of the Jews, as a distinct and peculiar people; but rules of economy,

for the promotion of their health and domestic comfort. Justly claiming to be a revelation from God, they are marked with the authority, and inculcate the unity, purity, and goodness, of Jehovah; and promise that temporal prosperity to the obedient, which the enactments of no other legislator ever dared to propose. Designed to introduce another religious dispensation, many of the rites were symbolical in their character, and being succeeded by a series of prophetic enunciations, served gradually to develope the