stale ones of the previous week were removed-and Incense, from fragrant spices, offered morning and evening upon the altar of gold by the officiating priest, and also presented on the great day of expiation by the high-priest himself, while the whole congregation without the Holy Place, silently poured forth their

prayers.

What were the Sacred Seasons enjoined by the law?

The SACRED SEASONS enjoined by the law were, the Sabbath, the Passover, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles, the Sabbatic Year, and the Year of Jubilee.

What was the Sabbath?

The Sabbath was originally instituted to commemorate the creation of the world, and was to be held sacred as a day of rest for man and beast. On this day the Israelites were solemnly to abstain from every description of employment, works of mercy alone excepted; and it commenced on the sunset of our Friday, and closed at the same period on Saturday.

What was the Passover?

The nature of the Passover, has already been described in the account of its institution. It was also called the feast of unleavened bread; it was beyond all question a sacrifice; and were it not the province of the theologian, rather than of the historian, to recite them, some most interesting points of coincidence might be presented to the reader, between the offering of the Paschal Lamb, and the sacrifice of the Son of God.

What was the Feast of Pentecost?

The Feast of Pentecost, called also the feast of weeks and the feast of harvest, derived its Greek name from its occurring on the fiftieth day after the first day of of unleavened bread. On this occasion the Israelites offered their thanksgivings for the bounties of harvest, and presented the first-fruits of the wheat harvest in bread baked of the new corn-a typical representation of the character of Christ who, by his resurrection, thus became "the first-fruits of them that slept," and who has thus afforded a pledge of the gathering in of the

great harvest, when the last trumpet shall be blown, and the divine power shall be glorified in the reanimation of the slumbering dead. According also to some distinguished writers, the Pentecost was symbolical of the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, and the first-fruits of the Christian Church.

What was the Feast of Tabernacles?

The Feast of Tabernacles, continued for a week like the Feast of Pentecost, and commemorated the dwelling of the Israelites in tents in the wilderness. On this festival, the people lived in tents or booths, which were anciently pitched on the flat roofs of the houses; various extraordinary sacrifices were offered according to the law; every man carried in his hands branches of the palm, the citron, or the myrtle tree; and the exclamation from the multitude ascended to heaven, "Hosanna! save I beseech thee!" in which impressive words they invoked the coming of the Messiah. Thus it was, that Christ was conducted by the believing Jews into Jerusalem, while they expressed their exultation and joy in having discovered the promised Messiah, by singing, "Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!"

What was the Sabbatic Year?

The Sabbatic Year occurred every seventh year, and was the "Sabbath of the soil," during which the ground was suffered to lie fallow, and its spontaneous produce was given to the servants, to strangers, or to the cattle. On this year also, there was a release from personal slavery, and the oppression of debt was taken away.

What was the Year of Jubilee?

The Year of Jubilee, was held on every seventh Sabbatic year, that is on every fiftieth current year. On the tenth day of the month Tisri, the sound of the trumpet throughout the land proclaimed the commencement of this great festival; then the captives were released; then debts were cancelled; then estates which had been sold reverted to their original proprietors; and then too the land had rest from cultivation. What was the year of Jubilee but the typi

cal representation of the era of the gospel, when the detestable yoke of Satan was broken for ever, when the illustrious Messiah proclaimed "liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound,”—and when an innumerable multitude, who had forfeited their heavenly inheritance by their guilt, were triumphantly and gratuitously restored to its possession, amidst the acclamation of angelic hosts, and to the transcendent manifestation of the glory of God?

Name a remarkable circumstance which accompanied the Sabbatic Year and the Year of Jubilee?

There was one remarkable circumstance, which under the Theocracy, accompanied both the Sabbatic Year and the Year of Jubilee; the ground providentially, and by superabundant fertility, brought forth sufficient on the preceding, for the wants of the following year. This was therefore a standing miracle, and as Mr. Horne has justly said, "affords a decisive proof of the divine legation of Moses." With him we quote the exclamation of a distinguished commentator on the Pentateuch. "How incredible is it, that any legislator would have ventured to propose such a law as this, except in consequence of the fullest conviction, on both sides, that a peculiar providence would constantly facilitate its execution! When this law therefore was proposed and received, such a conviction must have existed, in both the Jewish legislator, and the Jewish people. Since then, nothing could have produced this conviction, but the experience or the belief of some such miraculous interposition, as the history of the Pentateuch details, the very existence of this law is a standing monument, that when it was given, the Mosaic miracles were fully believed. Now this law was coeval with the witnesses themselves. If then the facts were so plain and public, that those who witnessed them, could not be mistaken as to their existence or miraculous nature, the reality of the Mosaic miracles is clear and undeniable."

Such then were the institutions of Moses, and such was their uniform connexion with the great design of God from the first revelation of his will-the preparation for the advent and mediation of his Son. As the

bud gives the promise of the bloom and beauty of the flower, so the dispensation of Moses was predictive of the full expansion of divine mercy when the lowly babe of Bethlehem was born. Like the twilight, which afterwards, in connexion with the inspiration of evangelic prophets, grew into the brilliance of a beautiful morning, it was the pledge of the radiant rising of the Sun of Righteousness, to disperse the shadows of darkness which had gathered over a gloomy world, and to constitute, by the perpetual communication of its splendour, the glories of an everlasting day.

CHAPTER IV.

FROM THE GIVING OF THE LAW TO THE DEATH OF

MOSES.

SECTION I.

THE ISRAELITES IN THE WILDERNESS.

DID the Israelites, while Moses was receiving the law from God, and afterwards, exemplify the dispositions of gratitude and piety?

WHILE Moses was on the summit of the mount, and in immediate intercourse with God, the Israelites had displayed both their impiety and ingratitude, by the erection of the golden calf to which they paid idolatrous homage, and they continued with but few intermissions to develop their inconstancy and depravity.

Which of the sons of Aaron were justly and awfully punished by God?

A C. 1490.

Eight days after the dedication of the Tabernacle, and the consecration of Aaron and his sons by divine appointment to the priesthood, an event occurred, which at once insulted the majesty, and excited the indignation, of God. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, in direct disobedience to the commandment of God, presumed to burn incense with strange fire before the altar. They were immediately consumed in the holy place they had polluted, and their bodies were committed with ignominy to the grave. The sin of Nadab and Abihu appears to have consisted in their entering into the Tabernacle under the influence of intoxication, in consequence of which they had neglected to take the sacred fire in their cen