bered by the circumftances which the law required in the exact performance of them.

Add hereunto, the numerous rites prefcribed to the Jews, in the very culture of their bodies; and that, in the very minutest things. They could not fo much as cut their hair, or shave their beards, but under the restraint and fcruple of law. When a child was born into the world, the mother was obliged to take a journey to Jerufalem, to facrifice for her purification. And the child itself was to be redeemed at a certain price, if it were a son, and her firstborn.

And now that I have mentioned purification, what fhall I fay of the numerous cafes, wherein the Jews were made unclean, by the sentence and judgement of the law? What shall I fay of the feveral washings, the several facrifices, fometimes required to purge and make them clean again? What fhall I fay of their confinement, and feparation from the congregation, during the time they were unclean? The Jews observe, that there were eleven general fources of polluG 4 tion

tion; and these generals were almost infinite in their particular parts and branches, If a man had touched an unclean creature, or any of the clean which died of themfelves; if he had touched a dead man's body, or any thing else which that had touched; if he had an iffue of blood in himself, or had touched another that had fuch an iffue, or any thing else which he had touched In these, and in numerable other cafes, he was by the law pronounced unclean; and, being unclean, was required upon pain of death to purge himself, fometimes by facrifice, fometimes by the water of feparation, always by bathing himself in water.

The time would fail me, if I should infift upon all the minute and fcrupulous rites, which the law of Mofes enjoined to the Jews; and indeed I have faid enough already, in order to 'my prefent purpose. For (as it appears from what I have faid) they could not legally worship God, without abundanc of nice obfervances, wholly indifferent in themfelves, but hard and troublesome in performance. They could

not

not discharge their moral offices towards men, without moft fcrupulous obfervations in point of circumftance of time and place, and other minute confiderations. They could not manage the least affairs, they could not do the commoneft things, without the scruple of law and conscience. For they could not build, or inhabit their houses; they could not so much as cloath themselves; they could not plow, nor fow, nor plant; they could not reap, nor gather in their fruits; they could not eat, nor prepare their meat; they could scarce difcharge any one action, religious, moral, civil, or natural, but under the check of a pofitive law.

And that which is further to be observed is, that the most exact performance of the letter of all these pofitive laws, might leave them vicious and immoral, full of hypocrify, pride, and malice, flaves to the world. and their own lufts; and that where it left them in this condition, it did neither improve them in themselves, nor recommend them to God's acceptance, much less procure eternal life: Which plainly appears

from

from the fcribes and Pharifees, who although they were the most exact observers of all thofe ritual inftitutions, were yet most impure and foul within, and least acceptable unto God.

Yet after all, it was not needlefs, and therefore no unreafonable thing, that a people, amongst whom God himself, in the firft ages of their polity, held the place of a civil magistrate, a people, prone unto idolatry, and living among idolatrous nations; I fay, it was not unreasonable, that they should be thus bound up by pofitive laws, in every inftance of life and action; that fo, whatsoever they should see or do, the commoneft actions in the world, might put them in mind of the true God, and of his abfolute fovereignty over them. Efpecially confidering, that their bondage under this toil fome difpenfation might better difpofe them to embrace the easier ftate of Christianity, when God should please to call them to it. St. Peter tells them, that Mofes' law (meaning its pofitive inftitutions) was fuch a yoke, as neither they nor their fathers were able tą bear.

bear. Chrift tells us, that his yoke is eafy, and his burden light. St. Paul, in this fame epiftle to the Galatians, tells the Jews, that they were in bondage under the elements of the world. But we (as St. James expreffeth it) are under a royal law, the law of liberty; a law recommended by better promises; a law attended with greater helps, larger effufions of God's Spirit; a law that requires little elfe, but what is unalterably good in itself; a law, that where it proceeds further, refts in few and easy instances, in baptism and the Lord's fupper. These are the facraments of the gospel. These are but two; and both of them easy in practice, easy in fenfe and fignification, and also greatly useful to us, both to oblige us to our duties, and to increase our strength and comforts.

Such is the liberty, wherein the gospel hath placed the profeffors of Christianity; a liberty from thofe numerous rites, thofe fcrupulous precepts and injunctions, which fettered and perplexed the Jews, in every inftance of life and action,