branches of this distinction of the jewish laws in the main are evident enough, though they happen to be intermingled in some instances.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE MORAL LAW.

1 QUESTION.

WHICH was the moral law given to the Jews?

Answer. All those commands which relate to their behaviour considered as men, and which lie scattered up and down in the books of Moses; but they are as it were reduced into a small compass in the ten commandments.

2 Q. How were these ten commands first given them?

A. By the voice of God on mount Sinai, three months after their coming out of Egypt, and it was attended with thunder, and fire, and smoke, and the sound of a trumpet; Exod. xix. 18, 19. and xx. 1—18.

3 Q. Where was this moral law more especially written?

A. In the two tables of stone which God wrote with his own hand and gave to Moses; Exod. xxiv. 12. and xxxii. 15, 16. and xxxiv. 1.

4 Q. What did the first table contain?

A. Their duty toward God in the four first commandments. See Exod. xx. 3—11. Deut. v. 6-15, 22.

5 Q. What are these four first commandments?

A. 1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 2. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 4. Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath-day and hallowed it.

6 Q. Is God's resting from his works of creation the seventh day the only reason why the Jews were required to keep this sabbath or day of rest?

A. This latter part of the fourth commandment, viz. The reason of the sabbath, taken from the creation, and God's resting on the seventh day, is entirely omitted in the rehearsal of the ten commandments in the fifth of Deuteronomy: And instead of it, the Jews are required to observe this command of the sabbath or holy rest for another reason, viz. because they were slaves in Egypt, and God gave them a release and rest

from their slavery; Deut. v. 15. Though it is possible both reasons of this command might be pronounced from mount Sinai, and only that mentioned in Exodus be written on the tables of stone.

7 Q. What did the second table contain?

A. Their duty toward man in the six last commandments; Exod. xx. 12—17. Deut.

v. 16-22.

8 Q. What are these six last commandments?

A. 5. Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 6. Thou shalt not kill. 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 8. Thou shalt not steal. 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

9 Q. Were these ten commands given to the Jews only, or are they given to all mankind?

A. Almost every thing contained in these commands is taught by the light of nature, and obliges all mankind; the honour that is done them in the New Testament intimates this also. But there are several expressions in these laws, by which it plainly appears they were peculiarly appropriated and suited to the jewish nation in their awful proclamation at mount Sinai.

10 Q. Wherein does it appear so plainly that these laws, as given at mount Sinai, have a peculiar respect to the Jews?

A. This is evident in the preface, where God engages their attention and obedience by telling them," that he was the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt." This appears also in the fourth command, where the seventh day is the appointed sabbath for the Jews: And in Deut. v. 15. God gives this reason for the sabbath, that he brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. It is yet further manifest in the fifth commandment, where the promise of long life in the land literally refers to the land of Canaan which God gave to that people. "That thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Yet, as is before intimated, the citation of them by the apostles in the New Testament, as rules of our duty, doth plainly enforce the observation of them so far on the consciences of christians.

CHAPTER V..

OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW OF THE JEWS.

WHAT was the ceremonial law?

1 QUESTION.

Answer. All those commands which seem to have some religious design in them, especially such as related to their cleansings from any defilement, and their peculiar forms of worship.

Note, I have hinted before, that several of the political laws which were given to the Jews by God as their king, have something ceremonial in them, and they were designed to be emblems, types, or figures of some spiritual parts of religion. There was also

some part of their ceremonies of purification, and their rites of religious worship, which have a political aspect, and were prescribed by God as king of their nation. But I choose to rank all their purifying rites and their rules of worship rather under this head of the ceremonial or religious laws, because their forms of purification do more plainly and eminently typify or represent to us how much care the people of God should take to be separated and purified from every sin, and from the communion of sinners; and the jewish rites of worship represent to us, by way of type or emblem, that spiritual and evangelic worship which should be paid to God, especially under the New Testament, as the Lord of souls and consciences, as well as those blessings of the gospel which are brought in by Christ and the Holy Spirit, are represented hereby.

SECTION I.

OF THE CEREMONIES OF PURIFICATION.

2 Q. What were the chief rites or ceremonies appointed for purification or cleansing among the Jews?

A. Washing with water, sprinkling with water or blood, anointing with holy oil, shaving the head of man or woman, together with various sorts of sacrifices, and some other appointments; Heb. ix. 10, 13, 19. Lev. xv. and xvi. and xiii. 33. Num. vi. 19. Exod. xl. 9.

3 Q. What were those things or persons among the Jews which were required to be purified?

A. All persons, houses or buildings, garments, or other things which were set apart for the service of God; and all such as had been defiled by leprosy, by touching human dead bodies, or the carcasses of any unclean animal, or by other ceremonial pollutions. See Lev. xi. and xii. and xiii. and xiv. and xv. Exod. xl. 9-15. Num. viii. 6. and xix. 9, &c.

4 Q. How were the persons or things of the gentiles to be purified for the use of the Israelites?

A. The things which could endure the fire were to pass through the fire; other things were to be washed with water; Num. xxxi. 20-24. And the maidens were to have their heads shaved and their nails pared, before an Israelite could take any of them for a wife; Deut. xxi. 12.

5 Q. Were there not some things which could not be purified at all by any ceremonies? A. All the several nations of Canaanites, and the males among other gentile captives in war who had refused the offer of peace, were judged so unclean and polluted, that they were all to be destroyed; Deut. vii. 1-4. Joshua vi. 21. and vii. 26. and x. 28, 30, 32, 40-43. Deut. xx. 13-17. And the houses and garments of the Israelites, where the leprous spots could not be taken away, were to be destroyed also; Lev. xiii. 57. and xiv. 45. and those Israelites in whom the leprosy prevailed were to be shut out of the camp as unclean; Lev. xiii. 45, 46.

6 Q. Were there any crimes of real immorality or impiety which could be taken away by any of those outward ceremonies of purification?

A. The mere outward performance of any of these ceremonies did purify the persons defiled no further, than to set them right in their political state, as subjects under God as

their king; and to cleanse them, as members of the jewish visible church, from ceremonial defilements. Heb. ix. 13. The blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth no further than to the purifying of the flesh. But Heb. x. 4. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins; that is, as they are committed against God, as the Lord of their souls and consciences.

7 Q. How then were the sins of the Jews cleansed or pardoned, I mean their real immoralities and impieties against God as the Lord of conscience?

A. They obtained pardon of God according to the discovery of grace and forgiveness scattered up and down through all the five books of Moses, and especially according to the promises made and the encouragements given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and in general to all those who sincerely repent of sin, and trust in the mercy of God, so far as it was then revealed, and to be further revealed in time to come; Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. Deut. iv. 29, 30, 31. Isaiah lv. 7—9. But this forgiveness is owing to the effectual atonement of Christ, which was to be made in due time, and which took away sins past as well as to come; Rom. iii. 21, 24, 25, 26.

8 Q. Did these outward rites of purification then do nothing towards the removal of their moral defilements or sins?

A. As their outward or ceremonial defilements were appointed to be emblems and figures of the spiritual or moral defilement of the soul by sin, so many of these cere monies of purification, and particularly those by water and blood, were pledges and tokens to assure them that God would forgive sin; and they were also figures and emblems of the removal of moral defilement or sin from the souls of men by the atoning blood of Christ, and by the sanctifying Spirit of God, which is represented under the figure of clean water. See Heb. ix. and x.

Note, The following question perhaps might come in properly after the account of sacrifices: But having here enquired whether the ceremonies of purification did any thing toward the removal of the moral defilement of sin, I thought it as proper to introduce it here, as a kind of objection against the foregoing answers.

9 Q. But were there not some jewish sacrifices and methods of purification and atonement appointed for some real immoralities and wickedness, as, when a man had committed a trespass against the Lord, by lying to his neighbour, by cheating or robbing him, or by swearing falsely when he had found any thing that was lost, and withheld it from the owner? Lev. vi. 1-7. Is it not said, he shall bring his trespass-offering to the Lord, and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord, and it shall be for. given him?

A. This trespass-offering would set him right indeed in the sight of God as king of the nation, against whose political laws the man had committed this trespass; but it was never designed to free him from the guilt of this sin in the sight of God as the Lord of conscience, unless he repented of this sin in his heart, and trusted in the mercy of God so far as it was revealed in that day; for it is a certain truth, that the blood of beasts cannot take away sin; Heb. x. 4.

SECTION II.

OF THE HOLY PERSONS.

HERE the reader may take notice, that several things mentioned in this and the two following sections, viz. of holy persons, places, and things, are described in figures, to give a plainer idea of them.

10 Q. Having finished the rites of purification, let us enquire now what were the most remarkable things relating to their forms of public worship?

A. These five, viz. holy persons, and holy places, holy things, holy times, and holy actions.

11 Q. What mean you by calling all these holy?

A. I mean such persons, such places, such things, and such times and actions, as were devoted to God and his worship, or appointed for his special service; Num. xvi. 5. Lev. xxi. 8. and xxii. 15.

12 Q. Who might be called the holy persons among the Jews or Israelites?

A. The priests, and the nazarites, and all the levites; Lev. xxi. 1, 6. Num. vi. 2, 8. Num. viii. 14. though sometimes the whole nation are called holy; Exod. xix. 6.

13 Q. Who were appointed to be priests?

A. First Aaron himself, and then the eldest of Aaron's family, were appointed to be high-priests in succession, and the rest of his sons and their posterity were the priests, provided they had no blemish in their bodies; Lev. xvi. 32. and xxi. 17. Exod. xix. 30. Num. iii. 3, 4, 10, 32. and iv. 16. and xvi. 40. and xx. 25, 26.

14 Q. How were they made priests?

A. They were solemnly separated at first to the priest's office by anointings, and purifications, and sacrifices; Lev. viii. 6—36.

15 Q. What was the business of the priests?

A. Their chief business was to offer sacrifices to the Lord, to burn incense before him in the holy place, to kindle the lamps, to do the higher services of the sanctuary, and to instruct the people; Lev. i. 5, 7, 8. and ii. 2. Num. xvi. 40. Exod. xxx. 7. 16 Q. What was the office of the high-priest?

A. He was appointed to come nearer to God, even to enter into the most holy place, to do special services on the yearly day of atonement, to oversee all the public worship, and to judge among them in many civil matters as well as religious; Acts xxiii. 4, 5. Lev. xvi. Num. iii. 4, 9. Deut. xvii.

17 Q. Was there any work which the priests performed in common with the highpriest?

A. All the priests were to teach the people their duty, to assist in judging of civil and religious matters, and bless the people in the name of the Lord; Deut. xvii. 8—13. and xxi. 5. Num. vi. 23-26. Mal. ii. 7.

Note, The priests were appointed to give the sense of the law in civil as well as religious concerns, because the same God who was the object of their worship was also King of their nation.

18 Q. Who were the nazarites?