A lecture on the harmony of teetotalism, with the divine word : as expressed in the authorized version of the Bible (with answers to several objectors) / abridged from the works of Dr. Lees, and printed for general circulation.

  • Frederic Richard Lees
Date:
[between 1850 and 1859]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the harmony of teetotalism, with the divine word : as expressed in the authorized version of the Bible (with answers to several objectors) / abridged from the works of Dr. Lees, and printed for general circulation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Josephus Dr A Clarke Abstinence divinely prescribe to the Nazarites Art. Nazarite Vicar Jordan 30 About the purpose of this prohibition, commentators have been agreed: why, then, should they dispute its necessity or its wisdom F—• or what is the same thing, affirm the excellence and safety of the prohibited article ? “As for the Priests,'’5 remarks Josephus, he prescribed to them a double degree of purity .—They abstained from wine, lest otherwise they should transgiess some rules of their ministration.55 1 Now it is clear, that, unless wine had in itself a disturbing power, it would no more need to be prohibited to Judges and Priests—“ lest they should err in vision and stumble in judgment55—than would milk. On Lev. x. 10, Dr. Adam Clarke, observes:— “This is a strong reason why they should drink no inebriating liquor, that their understandings being clear and their judgme?its correct, they might be always able to discern between the clean and the un¬ clean, and ever pronounce righteous judgment. Injunctions similar to this, were found among the Egyptians, Carthaginians, and Greeks.55 These injunctions wherever found, imply that the highest functions of life are incompatible with the use of intoxicating liquor. The Jews evidently understood this; for they applied abstinence to the Ruler, “ lest he should pervert judgment,55—and the early Christians, as appears from the ‘Apostolic Constitutions,5 applied it to the Ministers. If good in the administering of law, it must be good for the adminis¬ tration of a holy life. The Divine prohibition translated into the plainest fact, is just equivalent to saying:— “With your ordinary work and life, I shall not interfere. You may imitate my doings, or follow your own devices,—my positive law will not be carried into the natural sphere,—but this work of the Holy Tent and the Temple is my work; and it shall be done only on the principle of abstinence Second, God prescribed absthience from wine to his Holy Nazarites, specially raised up to exhibit a life of purity. On Numbers vi., Dr. IPaweis says :— “There will be found among God’s people, some more eminent for their graces than others—the Nazarites among their brethren, [who Were] not to taste wine, that they might show themselves patterns of sobriety, and be ever fit for the service of God.—They who have a deep concern about their soul, will have a noble neglect of the body.55 The symbolic teaching involved in this institute, as it would appear to a Jew, is well expressed in Dr. Kitto’s Cyclopaedia-.— “ As the Nazarite was separated to the Lord, so was it proper that he should be in full vigor of body (secured by the presence of his hair) and of mind (secured by abstinence from strong drink). As animals offered in sacrifice were to be faultless and spotless, so a man or a woman set apart to God was to be in full possession of their faculties.” y in his admirable essay On the right Interpretation of the Scriptures, says: —“ Commandments may be of a transitory nature, and binding [as such] only upon particular persons, or at particular times; but yet when they proceed from the highest authority, their indirect use may be universal.”—So the Vicar Jordan observes of Gen. ii. 3, that it is not a ‘ commandment,’ but must be regarded “as revealing a principle to us rather than formally expressing a law,”—adding, “we are bound to recognise and reverence the revelation of such a principle in the light of a law, and to obey it accordingly I—All which means, as 1 take it, that we owe allegiance to Truth or Divine Law whereso¬ ever and howsoever we may discover it.