tion to particular idolatries then in ufe in the world, the memory of which is now almost quite abolish'd. Thus for the purpofe, the famous facrifice of the red heifer, Numb. xix. from the afhes of which the holy water of cleanfing was made, was inftituted in oppofition to the Egyptian idolatries. The nature of this facrifice was fuch, that whatever clean perfon touched it was thereby made unclean: It was not to be killed in the camp, least the people fhould be polluted If it was not red, and a heifer, the facrifice was nothing neither. Thefe circumstances seem ftrange to us at this distance; but when we confider that the Egyptians thought no crime fo heinous as to kill a Cow, we fhall fee this was an effectual method to wean the Jews from their idolatry, when they were commanded to facrifice a Cow, and to the moft ignominious purposes, which carried along with them the most ignominious effects. This made thofe nations odious to one another, as a heathen writer has long fince remarked.

Worshipping in groves feems ftrange to us now-a-days, yet antiently all the world over, where-ever there was a pleafant green grove in a delightful fituation, there fome particular idolatrous rite was performed: This explains that law, Deut. xvi. 21. wherein groves were forbidden to be planted near any altar made for the worship of God.

Seething a kid (or lamb as the original will bear it) in its mother's milk, is forbidden three times in the law of Mofes, Exod. xxiii. 19. xxxiv. 26. Deut. xiv. 21. an odd law, one would think, to be fo often repeated. This law in Exodus comes immediately after the command to bring the firft fruits of the land into the houfe of A 4 God;

God; which firft fruits were commanded to be brought in as a token of gratitude for the prefent harveft, and to implore a bleffing upon the harveft of the year following. Now the heathens had a custom to facrifice a goat and kid, and to make offerings of goats milk upon the like occafion; and with that likewife (as with a fort of holy water) they fprinkled their trees and vines, and fpread it upon their plowed lands to fecure to themselves for the next year a plentiful crop. This law then obviated that fuperftition, and taught them all to look immediately only up to the true God, who had blefs'd, and was still able to blefs their grounds, as he had hitherto done.

God forbad honey in his facrifices, because the Gentiles conftantly us'd it, especially in their libations to their fubterraneous Gods, and they thought the palates of their Gods would be pleafed with fuch fweet things, as well as their own; this was beneath the Majefty of God to allow Tho' leaven was difallow'd in the fame law, Levit. ii. 11. that fo every thing wholly offer'd to God (as all burnt offerings were) might have one fimple tafte, not cook'd up to please the palate, as we do upon earth to please and fatisfy the luxury one of another.

The law that forbad the Jews to let one of their feed pass thro' the fire to Molech, (Levit. xviii. 21.) is fo direct against a fort of idolatry which looks very horrid to us at prefent, that there needs no pains to fhew the reafon of its institution. To offer children as facrifices by fire, and ones own children too, is what one fhould think mankind could never be fo far infatuated, as to believe that their Gods could ever defire it: Yet heathen hiftory fhews it as well as

facred;

facred; fometimes indeed the children were not burnt, only caufed to pafs between two great fires to Molech, or the fun, the fource of fire, whom most of the ancienteft idolaters worshipped. Both facrificing, and this purifying by fire, are equally prohibited by this law.

Another very strange cuftom is difallowed in the next chapter (Levit. xix. 27.) in these words, Te shall not round the corners of your head, (i. e. make a circular tonfure of your head from your temples along the extremity of your hair) nor mar the corners of thy beard. This to us who can find no moral good or evil in fhaving the hair, or keeping it unfhorn, appears odd: But there are still remains of idolatrous cuftoms which the Gentiles used at funerals, when they offered their locks to the fubterraneous Gods, by throwing them into the grave where bodies were buried, and into the Pile where they were burnt, which takes off the wonder.

By this method abundance of other laws to be met with in the Pentateuch may be folved; if you want any affiftance towards the folution of any others in your reading, draw fhort memorandums, and I fhall labour to fatisfy you.

But this was not the fole reafon of the whole inftitution Chrift Jefus, and the atonement which he made by himself once offer'd upon the crofs, was the thing fhadowed by the Levitical priesthood. Sacrifices were probably in ufe in the world before the flood; whether thofe Jewif laws concerning facrifices were given out of compliance to the humour of the people, that they might not be too unlike to the nations round about them, or in purfuance of a prior law given by God to the ante-diluvian world, it is hard at this time of day to decide. The

Jewish priesthood was certainly typical of that by Chrift, who was a Prieft for ever after the order (i. e. after the manner) of Melchifedec; i. e. not inheriting by birthright, as the defcendants from Aaron, but by his own direct right, to which his Parents did no way contribute.

Yet the facrifices and the atonements made by the Jewish High Prieft, were only shadows of the good things to come. The Apostle to the Hebrews reafons long upon this matter, to fhew the Jews by a nearer infpection into their own law, that a nobler difpenfation was yet to be revealed. If the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away fin (Heb. x. 4.) fomething nobler muft; for man had loft innocence, and without fome expiation, cou'd never fo regain his purity as to appear fpotlefs before God. Chrift then being become a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with bands, i. e. not of this building. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood be entred into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us, Heb. ix. 11, 12. These words of the Apostle explain the defign of the Aaronical Priesthood, which being intended but as scaffolding to the great building, was to be taken away as foon as that was finished.

The temple then with all its fervices, the great expiation by the High Prieft once a year by the Holy of Holies, the fcape-goat, the daily facrifice, and all the offerings for fin, were all typical of the great facrifice offered by him who at once was Prieft and Sacrifice, and who once for all did that effectually, which the Jewish facrificers could do only imperfectly and in a fha

dow.

A

A third thing which the Jewish law had a refpect to, was the enclofing that nation in a diftinct pale by themselves, with customs and laws that fhould reftrain them from gadding, and keep them effectually fever'd from all the world.

The ufe of this was manifold. In Judæa Jefus Chrift was to be born: That the world fhould receive him it was neceffary that one whole people fhould be vouchers and Guarantees for him to the rest of mankind, whenever he should appear. If then the nation of his nativity fhou'd be taught to expect fuch a law-giver, fhould from time to time be accustomed to prophecies wherein his name, his office, his birth-place, his family, the time of his appearance, his death in its minutest circumftances, with divers other remarkable particularities, fhould all be foretold, then this nation must be kept together as a gazing stock to the reft of the world; and the more particular their cuftoms were, the more they would be observed.

This exactly was the cafe of the ancient Jews; their law was wholly framed and fitted to this end; their country was divided as an inheritance among one man's children: No land could be fold at all, nor alienated by way of mortgage above 48 years. The allotments to tribes, when once fix'd, were irreversible; the next heir always inherited (Numb. xxvii. 8-11.) and if the next heir was a woman, fhe was obliged to marry into her own tribe, (Numb. xxxvi. 6, 8, 9. ftrangers by this means would have fmall encouragement to fettle in a country where no ftay, nor any merit could make them free of the place. Near a fifth part of the riches of the country was befides in one fingle tribe, that of Levi.

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