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of an whole, and of what service they are to the harmony, the strength, and the use of it, they discover a wisdom which would otherwise be altogether unperceived: thus, consider the Hebrew ritual in some one particular ceremony, and you may not see either the end or the use of the institution; when, if you consider the place it has in the ritual, and how it contributes to the harmony of the whole, you will see how it promotes the general design of the whole, a design most useful and profitable, to promote true virtue and goodness, from the best principles, the fear and love of God.

As the Hebrew ritual has generally been considered, some parts of it seem to have been considered very imperfectly, or hardly at all. And too often other parts of it seem to have been over-considered, by mixing the additions of the rabbies to the rites of Moses, which alone ought to be aecounted the Hebrew ritual: these traditions have in many things obscured and corrupted the primitive laws, that their true use and design have been lost to observation; they have been so far perverted into another meaning, that men have been taught by them to transgress the commandments of God. Our Saviour gives a very remarkable instance of this. They had carried the obligation of a vow so far as to teach, if a man had made a vow of a sum of money

for the use of the temple, he was so far excused from providing for his own pa- Matt. xv. rents in their necessities.

3.

Consider then this ritual, not as loose unconnected laws, but as a regular system, and body of laws, taking care of every part of religion, omitting nothing proper to be taken care of, and ordering every thing to answer one common wise design, the glory of God, the only proper object of worship, and the perfection and happiness of the worshippers in virtue and goodness, in the protection and blessing of the Supreme God, and we shall be able to form a right judgment of it. So God directed Moses to declare to the congregation of the children of Israel, Ye shall be holy, for I the Levit. Lord your God am holy. A consideration xix. 2. of the Hebrew ritual, as a whole body of laws, would evidently show the mistake of interpreting the holiness of the law of the Mosaical ritual as only ceremonial, consisting in outward washings, purifications, expiations, and the like. It would plainly show, that the true spirit and meaning of the whole law, and of each particular rite of it, of all ceremonial holiness itself, was to teach and exhort the Hebrews, as an holy nation, to serve God in purity of heart, in real holiness, in a conformity to the whole will, and to the perfections of the holy God himself. The ritual of the Hebrews had a body of moral laws, as well

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as ceremonial constitutions, appointed in it. This the ritual itself plainly taught; thus the prophets, the best expositors of the laws of Moses, explained it.

It may be further of use to have a short plan, and in some order before us, of this state of religion, which was of divine original, of long continuance, and a figure of our own, now the promised Messiah has given the world the last and most perfect state of religion: this will help to show the proper wisdom and goodness of the law of Moses, as to its design; and the greater comparative excellency of the Gospel of Christ, which has blessed all nations of the earth with much better things than these.

It is not material, I think, in what order or method the laws of this ritual shall be digested. I may be indulged, I hope, to follow my own plan; as some of the laws of this ritual more particularly regard the object of the Hebrew worship, and the worship to be given to Jehovah as the one true God. As other laws more particularly regard the Hebrew church and nation as the seed of Abraham, and a peculiar people to Jehovah, separate from the idolatrous nations consecrated to his service, and to worship him as the only Holy One of Israel; I shall first consider those laws of the ritual which relate to Jehovah the object of their worship, and to the worship the ritual directed to be given to Jehovah, or

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to be offered before the presence; and
the next I shall consider those laws of the
ritual which relate to the holiness of the
Hebrew nation, as the church of Jehovah
and holy seed of Abraham, who were to
keep themselves from idols, and from all
idolatrous customs. These two considera-
tions will prepare the way to apply the
whole ritual and every part of it, to the
designs for which it was formed, which
will best show the wisdom and the good-
ness of these laws.

CHAP. II.

Ritual of the Schechinah, or Presence of Jehovah, the Object of Worship, and of the Worship directed to be offered at the Presence of Jehovah, or the Shechinah. ONE great end of the Hebrew ritual and of all its laws, was to preserve the knowledge and worship of the one true God, in the family of Abraham, chosen, raised, favoured, blessed, above all nations for this purpose. As their neighbour heathen nations boasted much in the near presence of their idol gods, in their images and temples, to whom they could have immediate access as their guardians and protectors, and to whom they could make known their requests without any delay; so it pleased God to give his favoured people an assurance of his immediate pre

sence with them, that his protection and blessing were near at hand, ready at what time soever they called upon Jehovah as their God. God's universal presence might have been a just foundation for this hope to men who had a right understanding of the perfections of God, who had capacities and leisure for such reasonings as should evidence the omnipresence of God; but as, in the then state of the world, and of the Hebrew nation, very few could be supposed capable of deep reasonings, or sufficiently attentive to them; and as they were much influenced by the common prejudices; and as this law was to be a ritual, for the reasons you have already seen; it became the wisdom of God, as useful to all the ends of the ritual, to appoint a visible symbol of his presence, and to fix the residence of this presence in the temple, or sanctuary, to direct all the worship of the church to it, as a kebla; to give out all the laws and orders from it, as an oracle ; and to keep there the state of a court, as supreme civil magistrate, and king of Israel. The whole worship of the Hebrew church, directed to this presence, as a kebla *, the

*Kebla, in the eastern writers, is used for a certain point in the heavens, as the east, or sun-rising; or the situation of a place or temple to which persons turned their faces when they prayed, as the Hebrews did towards Jerusalem. It is now become a term to denote the place of the presence of God.

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