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ical truth, which are the basis of civil order and prosperity. Its influence on the spiritual condition of that people was still more important. For the solemn rest and worship of the seventh day, after six days of labor, held up to the very senses of that rude and ignorant nation a lively image of the work of creation and its infinite Author. The sabbath was to them the birth day of the world; it led them to recognize and adore the divine power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator; it effectually taught them that the gods, which the heathens worshipped, such as the sun, moon, and stars, were the mere creatures of that Being, whom they celebrated. Thus it openly separated them from the whole idolatrous world. By calling them every seventh day to the devout acknowledgment of One eternal, omnipotent, all perfect Being, it proclaimed and confirmed their contempt and abhorrence of the senseless and impotent, the impure and fictitious gods of the Gentiles. It kept them stedfast to the worship of Jehovah, and to a thankful, united celebration of his attributes and benefits. It allured them to this by the sweets of rest after toil, and compelled them to it by awful punishment threatened to transgression. It taught them humanity and kindness to strangers, to their laboring servants, and even to their cattle, by giv ing to these an equal share with themselves in the refreshing rest of the sabbath. It conferred upon all classes of the people the incalculable moral advantages and pleasures, which result from public religious instruction and devotion. It led forward the contemplation of the pious Jews to that heavenly rest, of which their sabbath was a lively figure and anticipation. Agreeably, one of their learned writers has these remarkable words" the law of the sabbath points not only to that fundamental

article of religion concerning the creation of the natural world, but to that spiritual world, where there shall be true rest, and real enjoyment. There we shall obtain a true respite from all corporeal labors. We have therefore, adds he, two sabbaths, the one bodily, in memory of the creation; the other spiritual, in memory of the soul's immortality and refreshment after death." Hence the Jews to this day, far from esteeming the strictness of the sabbath a burden, venerate and delight in it as the greatest blessing. Beside the moral advantages, it brought to their minds a standing confutation of the old pagan doctrine, that the world was eternal, that the celestial luminaries were so many deities. The strictness of their resting on the seventh day was to them a striking image and enforcement of the Mosaic history of the creation, and tended to keep alive in their minds that reverence and homage, which are exclusively due to the infinite Creator. Thus it operated as one of the best checks upon idolatry, and one of the most powerful supports of true religion and virtue, which could have been devised. And though the peculiarities of this Jewish institution have ceased, we have reason for grateful joy that a weekly Lord's day has succeeded in its place. The liberal dispensation of the Gospel, and the more improved state of the world, have indeed removed the necessity of observing the christian sabbath with the Jewish precision and severity. Yet every pious christian, every good patriot, every true scholar and philosopher, will reverently and thankfully observe that day and those public religious ordinances, which are dedicated to the memory of our creation and redemption, and which are so propitious to the best interests of individual and social man. He will detest the thought of idolatrously sacrificing to

sensual ease and pleasure a season, which from the be ginning of the world has been sacred to God and virtue. On the return of every sabbath his heart will echo that sublime language of antient piety, "this is the day, which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

Having in this and the preceding discourse sufficiently explained the import and high utility of those two capital institutions of Judaism, circumcision and the weekly sabbath, we will attend in the third place to the nature of the Hebrew worship. As this worship, externally considered, abounded with ceremonies; so these consisted very much in sacrifices and offerings, or in presenting to the Deity certain slain animals and fruits of the earth. The origin of sacrifices has been greatly disputed. Some have supposed that mankind in their early and uncultivated state would naturally offer to their divine Benefactor a part of his own gifts, especially a share of those things, which were most valuable and delightful to themselves; that they would be prompted to this by an idea, that what was most pleasing to them, would be most acceptable to him, and also by witnessing the efficacy of costly gifts in appeasing the anger and procuring the favor of men. Others, improving upon this scheme, and finding the use of sacrifices to have commenced soon after the fall of man, have sup-t posed that this practice became so general and radicated, that the Most High, though he did not originally ap point or approve it, yet thought fit to indulge the Israelites in this favorite custom, and at the same time, took care to purify and guard it from every defiling and idolatrous abuse. This opinion is strongly patronized by Grotius, Spencer, and other respectable names. These

writers forcibly urge those texts of scripture, which speak of sacrifices as having no value in the sight of God, and as forming no part of his original prescriptions. It is certain that the divine institution of sacrifices is never mentioned, until the Israelites had shown a mad propensity to them in the affair of the golden calf. Yet on the other hand, both Moses and Israel, long before this event, yea, the early patriarchs as far back as righteous Abel, certainly practised this kind of worship. Now what should lead these holy men into a practice like this? Could they, on any principle of nature or of genuine piety, imagine that the blood of innocent animals would be grateful or conciliatory to the infinite Spirit? Could Cain and Abel infer this from the effect of gifts on men, at a period when both man and gifts were but beginning to exist? Besides, if these two brothers both sacrificed on this wrong principle, why were not both rejected? We may further ask, how could Abel offer his sacrifice “in. faith," as we are told he did, without some divine institution and promise, as the ground of that faith? And if we consider how severely God resented and punished unauthorized or will worship in other cases, we cannot suppose he would have shown such high approbation of Abel's sacrifice, if he had not previously commanded it. It is therefore at least highly probable that this mode of worship was appointed by God himself in the first age of the world; and that it was traditionally conveyed from Adam and Noah to all the antient nations. This hypothesis, and this only, satisfactorily accounts. for the early prevalence of religious sacrifices, not only among the worshippers of the true God, but among pagan idolaters. For in process of time, this branch of worship, in common with every other part of relie

gious faith and practice, was wretchedly corrupted by human folly and wickedness. "Instead of brute animals, which God had appointed, human sacrifices grew into use; and it became no uncommon thing in several countries for parents to sacrifice their children. Not only the matter but the object of sacrifices was also changed; for the Gentiles sacrificed to demons and not to God." When therefore Jehovah selected Israel to be the depository of the true religion, it was necessary that the primitive law concerning sacrifices should be published anew, with such additions, as would better preserve them from corruption, and render them more suitable and beneficial to such a people as the Jews. Let us then critically inquire into the nature and use of this part of the Hebrew Ritual.

The Jewish law prescribed or allowed five sorts of sacrifices, three of beasts, and two of birds. The general design of these was to express the various acts of devotion, which dependent, guilty, and favored creatures owe to their Creator; or in other words, to express by significant action their dependence on and gratitude for divine favors, their penitent acknowledgment of transgression, and their hope in the mercy of God, through the future atoning sacrifice of his Son. Agreeably, the several sacrifices of their law were so many symbols, which, according to the usage of those early times, corresponded to the several duties or branches of piety, or which manifested by some striking ceremonies the same sentiments and affections, which are verbally expressed in prayer and praise. To confirm this observation, we will briefly run over the several kinds of Jewish oblations.

The first and most antient sort was the burnt offering,

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