There has always been, in every age, some family or nation which has been the repository of religion for the time; but the most remarkable instance with which we are acquainted, is that of the family of Abraham. They were evidently under a particular providence, and highly distin. guished by the Divine Being; for, besides the miracles which were wrought in their behalf, “ to them,” as the apostle speaks, “pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; and of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ came.”* Thus were they a lamp, set up by Jehovah, to enlighten mankind; in or. der that, from Judea, as from a centre, his knowledge and his fear might extend through the earth. Small
, indeed, was that spot which the Jews inhabited, but it was admirably situated for the intentions of Providence. It was in the neighbourhood of Egypt and Phænicia, the great trading nations : and it touched upon, or had connection with Arabia, Assyria, and Persia, the key to the whole of the eastern world. If the classical scholar, therefore, surveys with delight the states of Greece and the territory of Rome, as the cradle of the arts, and the places where genius and valour shone with peculiar lustre ; with much more pleasure ought the mind of the Christian to contemplate Judea as the land of revelation, and the birth-place of the Saviour. Let us employ ourselves, then, in considering the antiquities and usages of these singular people: and begin with the tabernacle, as the foundation of that ritual for which they were so distinguished.