although our Saviour came to abolish the ceremonial and judicial laws, he came to confirm and fulfil that which is moral.

SECT. II.

The Ceremonial Law.

1st. Taught the Jews the leading doctrines of religion in a sensible and impres sive manner. 2d. Served to preserve them from idolatry-by removing that ignorance of God which introduced it-by giving them a full and perfect ritual of their own-by appointing certain marks to distinguish them from idolators-by restricting most of their rites to particular places, persons, and times-by prohibiting too familiar an intercourse with the heathen nations-and by the positive prohibition of every idolatrous rite. Here the singular laws of the Jews explained, such as sacrificing to devils, making the children pass through the fire to Moloch, using divination, observing times, eating with, or at the blood, seething a kid in its mother's milk, rounding the corners of their heads, and marring the corners of their beards, making cuttings in their flesh for the dead, confounding the distinctive dresses of the sexes, sowing their fields with divers seeds, plowing with an ox and an ass together, allowing cattle of different kinds to gender, using garments of linen and woollen, condemning eunuchism, bringing the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, to the house of the Lord. 3d. The ceremonial law served to prepare their minds for a brighter dispensation. Reasons assigned for its comparative obscurity. The gradual abolition of the ceremonial law.

SOME writers on Jewish antiquities have thought that the ceremonial laws were merely arbitrary, and that the reasons of them were only to be sought for in the will of God, which he has not chosen to reveal; making them thereby to differ essentially from the Christian institutions, which are said to be 20yıxov yaλa, rational milk, and 20yıxov λarpeα, a rational service. But this is surely derogatory to the character of God, and hurtful to that obedience which he required. A more natural reason is therefore to be found in our ignorance of history, and of the relations that existed between the Jews and the neighbouring nations; nor should we overlook

a 1 Peter ii, 2. Rom. xii. 1.

the natural language in which laws are expressed, which is authoritative and absolute, in order to give them the greater weight, and prevent those cavils which might be raised against the reasons assigned by the lawgiver. Yet, the study of the ceremonial law is pleasant, both on account of its very great antiquity, its frequent reference to the laws of neighbouring nations, its suitableness to the state of the Jews to whom it was given, and its utility in explaining many parts of the old Testament, and showing us the liberty wherewith Christ has made his people free. Let us attend therefore to it particularly, and see what the intention of Jehovah was in giving it to the Jews.

There are three ends which it evidently served. It taught the leading doctrines of religion in a sensible and impressive manner: it served as a defence against idolatry; and prepared their minds for a brighter dispensation.

It was said, in the first place, that the ceremonial law taught the Jews the leading doctrines of religion in a sensible and impressive manner. Thus, it taught the unity of God by having only one presence; one most holy place as the seat of that presence; one altar at which all the priests were to minister, and all the sacrifices to be offered; and only one tabernacle and temple consecrated to that one Jehovah, the creator of all things, of what power or dignity soever they were conceived to be.-And, as it taught the unity of God, so it also taught the doctrine of a general providence. The throne in the tabernacle and temple was only the figure of his throne in the heavens; and the daily sacrifices, the burnt offerings appointed for the sabbaths every week, for the new moons every month, and for the feast

a Lev, xvii. 1-9.

of trumpets, on the first day of the civil year, were all intended to impress the Israelites with a deep sense of the superintending care of God at all times and in all places.-Nor did the ceremonial law inculcate a general providence only; it also taught the particular interest which Jehovah took in the works of his hands: for the whole of it encouraged every Hebrew to ask every blessing from Jehovah as their God; and to fear the evils denounced on disobedience as inflicted by him. Indeed, every sacrifice and offering were constant evidences of this truth, and encouragements to this hope for they taught that, while God superintended the general affairs of the universe, he took a particular interest in the family of Abraham. The Hebrew worship also taught the necessity of holiness in every worshipper: for, if we consider the directions for consecrating the tabernacle and temple, for hallowing the sanctuary, for purifying and consecrating the priests and Levites, that they might be hallowed to minister before Jehovah, we shall easily observe that they all taught holiness to the Lord. Indeed, nothing unholy or unclean were allowed to approach the presence, till cleansed by the washings and sacrifices it directed; and such purity in lesser matters inferred a holiness of a higher nature, and taught the importance of being holy as God is holy, as well as of being holy because he is so. farther on this part of the subject, that the ceremonial law inculcated the doctrine of rewards and punishments, for it was sanctioned by them. The Hebrew law consisted of three parts, the moral, ceremonial, and judicial: the two last of which were, properly speaking, the law of God by Moses; for the moral law was given together with the very nature of man at his first creation. Now the ceremonial and judicial laws had their proper sanction in temporal rewards and punishments: but the

Let it only be remarked

moral law had from the beginning its sanction in future rewards and punishments: and so actually had them at the very time it was promulgated from Sinai, and on the same evidence that had been given to Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and all the pious patriarchs. I enter not into the dispute how far the doctrine of a future state entered into the design of the Mosaical law, as a constituent part of that constitution. It is sufficient for us at present to know, that the Hebrews did not remain ignorant of these future rewards and punishments under their ritual; and did actually believe them from the common principles that made these doctrines the faith of their forefathers, and the belief of all the nations of the earth. Could they not learn, for instance, and did they not infer (as Lowman has justly observed in his Rationale of the Jewish Ritual,) from the translation of Enoch, the obedience of Noah, and faith of Abraham, that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him? When God appeared to Moses, and sent him to deliver the oppressed Israelites, he revealed himself under this title, "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob." But these were all dead, and had not received the promises, and yet God makes himself known by the name of their God. If the Hebrews therefore believed the immortality of the soul, as we see they did, and if they believed that God was the rewarder of those who diligently sought him, as they accounted Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to have done, without receiving the promises, might they not have concluded, that God is not the God of the dead but of the living; and that he, as their God, who had promised to be their exceeding great reward, would give them an inheritance in his heavenly city, and crown them with immortality in that better country, even an heavenly, which they so ardently sought after ?-Such

then was the first design of the ceremonial law. It taught the Jews the leading doctrines of religion in a sensible and impressive manner; confirming thus, what the moral law had said concerning the unity of God, a general and particular providence, the necessity of holiness in those who approach him, and the doctrine of rewards and punishments.

A second use of the ceremonial law was to preserve the Israelites from idolatry; and this it did in various ways. 1st, By removing that ignorance of God which introduced idolatry. 2dly, By giving them a full and perfect ritual of their own. 3dly, By appointing certain public marks to distinguish them from idolaters. 4thly, By restricting most of their sacred rites to particular places, persons, and times. 5thly, By prohibiting too familiar an intercourse with the heathen nations. 6thly, By the positive prohibition of every idolatrous rite. In illustrating these particulars it will be difficult to keep within proper limits; but the following observations are suggested.

And

It was said, in the first place, that the ceremonial law was a preservative against idolatry, by removing the principles that supported it; viz. ignorance of the true character of God, and ascription of divine honours to inferior intelligences. From the just notions it gave the Israelites of God and his government, it taught them that all other gods besides him were false, vain idols, the works of men's hands. It showed that those beings whom the heathens worshipped, whether the higher intelligences, that were supposed to inhabit the sun, moon, and stars, or the dæmons and departed souls of heroes and other great men, were not gods, but the creatures of the one Jehovah, and obedient to him. It taught that God was the fountain of all these mercies, and that he alone gave rain and fruitful seasons; and by VOL. II.

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