Frederick opened the nest; and we examined it without fear, because the mason wasp having deposited its egg, and supplied it with food, does not remain to guard it. We found twelve grubs closely packed; each of them being coiled above the other in a succession of rings, and the earth so pressed on them as to prevent their movements from injuring the egg. The remainder of the hole was filled up with some of the pellets that I have already mentioned.
28th, Sunday.—This morning my uncle proceeded to explain the Levitical dispensation. He began by reminding us of the gross corruptions, which had again crept into the Patriarchal dispensation, notwithstanding the awful warning of the flood.
“But,” said he, “even in those corruptions the main principle of that dispensation was preserved; that principle which marked the fallen state of man, and to which every hope of future pardon was necessarily attached. Instead of rejecting that doctrine of the atonement and the hope of the promised Deliverer, the apostates of that age made those points the very basis of their heresy. Their creed was built upon the necessity of expiatory sacrifices; and, though they impiously divided and multiplied their hero-gods at pleasure, still each remotely signified the predicted seed of the woman supposed to be corporeally manifested in this, or in that illustrious human character. The Almighty, however, had declared that there should not ‘any more be a flood to destroy the earth.’ In his merciful councils other means were adopted for counteracting the evil, and for reclaiming mankind from a depraved polytheism, in which the true belief would be altogether lost; and with it the only means of ultimate reconciliation. The Patriarchal dispensation was no longer suited to this altered state of the world, nor sufficient for this gracious purpose; it was, therefore, to be superseded by a new and intermediate dispensation, which should strongly inculcate the doctrine of the Divine Unity, and perpetuate and confirm with unceasing light, from time to time, the true original doctrine of redemption. Such was the object of the Levitical dispensation.
“The dispersion of the people at Babel had spread the corruptions of which they had been guilty, over the face of the earth; and it pleased God to separate from them one family who were to be the depositaries of that peculiar principle which was to give efficacy to all religious duties. For this purpose Abraham was selected from amongst the idolaters of Babylonia, to be the father of a nation to which the new dispensation was to be committed. They were to preserve the true principles of religion for the rest of the world; and from them that Messiah was to proceed whom they never ceased to desire, though they so strangely misconceived his real character, and debased the sublime object of his mission.
“The Patriarchal religion had been originally conferred on all mankind; its principle was universality: but that being now changed, and a single people being chosen out of the corrupt mass, in order to preserve the truth, we may say that the chief distinction between the two dispensations was, that the first was universal, the second particular.
“The law as delivered by Moses, and called the Levitical dispensation, because its ordinances were confided to the tribe of Levi, was not sent to do away the original religion, nor was it intended to supply new motives, or new sanctions. The law did not reveal the doctrines of the Divine Unity; or of redemption through a promised Deliverer; or of a state of future reward and punishment—for they had been already established; but to those great doctrines the law ‘was added, because of transgressions[8].’ It was added, in part to preserve the knowledge of the Divine Unity in the midst of surrounding superstitions; in part to preserve the doctrine of redemption amidst the idolatrous Gentiles; and also, by imposing on the Israelites numerous observances and restrictions, to preserve them separately from the world, a peculiar people; as Balaam said, ‘Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.’
“But as the time drew near when the sun of righteousness was to rise, the characteristic of particularity began to be withdrawn from the Levitical church. The light of the gospel was preceded by a faint knowledge of the truth which began to spread into other parts of the world. The Babylonish captivity left some traces of it in the East; the emigration of numerous Jews into Egypt carried it there likewise; and the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek opened the eyes of many pagans, so that several proselytes to the worship of Jehovah were received into the Levitical church.
“Such were the preparatory steps to the abolition of paganism, and to the introduction of the last, and most important, of the three dispensations; that which was to do away with all other codes and rituals—which was to put an end to all emblematic sacrifices—and which was to collect into one fold, under one shepherd, all the nations of the earth.”
29th.—This evening I was talking away at a great rate to Caroline—probably a great deal of nonsense—and having frequently used the expressions, I conceive, I imagine, my uncle at last asked me if I could explain the distinction between those two words.
I considered for a little while, and then said, that though I had been using them very negligently, yet I thought I could point out the principal difference.—Conception is the calling up an absent but distinct idea of something we have already perceived or felt—a complete picture in the mind of some former sensation. But by imagination we take a bit of one of these pictures and a bit of another—we select different circumstances from a variety of things that we have seen—and by combining them together according to some particular view, we form a new creation, and obtain the idea of something that we have not seen.