to domestic life, estranged from war, but bound to assemble for their country's defence, and thus forming a secure barrier against hostile violence or insidious ambition. They are governed by a nobility, by magistrates and elders, possessing properties suited to their several ranks, respected for their patriarchal descent, uniting in their persons civil aud military authority by an hereditary right, which precluded jealousy and discord. The whole tribe of Levi is set apart to attend to the religious and moral instruction of the nation, for which they have the fullest leisure, and to which they are bound, by the strongest interests, dispersed over the whole, and forming a cement and bond of union between the remaining tribes. In this domestic and family government as it has been justly termed, population is encouraged; freedom secured; agriculture and residence in the country, and by consequence, purity and simplicity of manners provided for; domestic virtue, reverence to the aged, kindness to the stranger, bounty to the fatherless and widow, justice to all, are inculcated in the most forcible manner, and with the most awful sanctions, even the favour or the displeasure of the Lord Jehovah, who is the immediate sovereign under whom this government is exercised, by whom its laws are formed, from whom all property is held, to whose powerful interposition the nation owed its settlement, and on whose protection it depended for its continuance. All the blessings, therefore, which the Jew enjoyed under this constitution, and by this government, ought to have had the effect of animating his piety and gratitude to God, and enlarging his benevolence to man. Is not such a

scheme of government worthy of the divine Author to whom it is ascribed? and does not its establishment at so early a period, and amongst a people so apparently incapable of inventing it as the Jews, strongly attest its heavenly original ?”

SECTION IX.

ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS OF THE MOSAIC DISPENSATION.

WHAT arrangements were made by the Mosaic law for divine worship?

THE arrangements of Moses for the proper worship of God, so important to the Hebrews, not only to distinguish them from every other nation, but to typify the mediatorial sacrifice of the Messiah, were declared with the most accurate precision, and immediately carried into effect with the greatest solemnity. The Tabernacle, a structure forty-five feet long, fifteen wide, and fifteen high, was fabricated, and was adorned with all the ingenuity and magnificence which could be furnished by the Israelites. It was divided into two parts; first, the Holy Place, in which stood the table of shew-bread, the altar of incense, and the golden candlestick. The second was the Holy of Holies, containing the sacred ark, in which were deposited the two tables of stone on which the law was inscribed, and Aaron's rod which budded.

Describe the sacerdotal orders established among the Israelites.

To perform the rites and to maintain the principles of religion, various orders of men were established. I. The LEVITES, divided into twenty-four classes, some of them the judges of the country in the law, others attended the priests in the ministrations of the sanctuary, others performed the musical part of the worship of God, others superintended the sacred treasures, and others were door-keepers to maintain a watch, first at the door of the tabernacle, and afterwards at the gates of the temple. The Levites, as will presently be seen, were afterwards distributed through the whole country of the Israelites; forty-eight cities were assigned to them for their residence; and a tithe of agricultural produce was devoted to their support. The Levites were subordinate to, II. The PRIESTS, who were

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exclusively taken from the family of Aaron, who served the altar, prepared the victims, offered the sacrifices, maintained the perpetual fire on the altar of burnt-offerings, made and changed the shew-bread, and presented the incense. In times of peace, they were judges of controversies and interpreters of the law; and in times of war, they carried the ark, they sounded the trumpets, and encouraged the army to the battle. Of the priests there were twenty-four classes, and each class was under the superintendence of a president, who determined which of the sacerdotal families under his controul were to offer the daily sacrifices. When, after the Babylonish captivity, only four classes of the priests returned to Jerusalem, these were divided into twenty-four classes, to correspond with the original number. The greatest possible care was taken to preserve the purity of the sacerdotal blood; the genealogies of the priests were preserved in the public registers, to prove their descent from the family of Aaron; and it was a decision from which there was no appeal, that bodily defect excluded from the service of the altar. They were distinguished by an appropriate dress; they were exempted from all secular labours; and their revenues, arising from the appropriation of parts of the sacrifices to their use, and the redemption of the first-born of man and beast, who were legally devoted to God, were sufficient, though not to enrich them, yet to preserve them from necessity. Thus," says a modern writer, and it would be well, both for the interests of society and religion, if his language were applicable to the Christian ministry now, "their political influence, arising from their sacred station, as well as from their superior learning and information, was checked, by rendering them dependant on the people for their daily bread." As the Levites were subordinate to the priests, so the priests were subordinate to, III. The HIGH-PRIEST, to whom was committed the exclusive prerogative of entering into the Holy of Holies; who possessed the supreme direction of sacred things; who was the final arbiter of all controversies; and who, therefore, exercised very considerable authority and power. His inauguration in his office, was performed with considerable magnificence; he was anointed with the holy

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oil, and was solemnly arrayed in the dress which belonged to his station. That dress consisted, besides the garments which were common to the other priests, of the robe of the ephod, made of blue wool, on the hem of which were placed seventy-two golden bells, separated from each other by as many artificial pomegranates of the ephod itself, which was a garment of fine twisted linen, wrought with gold and purple, to each of the shoulder-straps of which was fastened a precious stone on which were engraven the names of the twelve tribes of Israel-of the breast-plate of judgment, composed of cloth doubled, upon which were set twelve precious stones, with the names of the twelve sons of Jacob, and the words Urim and Thummim, signifying "lights" and "perfections," whose use and nature were too mysterious now to be explained-and of the plate of gold on the forehead, on which was engraven two Hebrew words, signifying, "Holiness to the Lord," and which, called a crown, was fastened to the tiara or turban of the HighPriest with a blue ribband. There can be no doubt that the High-Priest was a type of the "great Apostle and High-Priest of our profession," the Lord Jesus Christ, "the propitiation for the sins of the world," who "ever liveth to make intercession," and who, from the throne of his mediatorial glory, dispenses infinite, inestimable, and everlasting blessings upon the millions of his redeemed.

What were the sacrifices of the Mosaic dispensation?

The SACRIFICES of the Mosaic dispensation were of two kinds. I. Sacrifices of blood, which have been accurately defined by a great writer already quoted to be "the infliction of death on a living creature, generally by the effusion of its blood, in the way of religious worship; and the presenting of this act to God, as a supplication for the pardon of sin, and as a supposed mean or compensation for the insult or injury offered by sin to his majesty and government." This definition, which every attentive reader of the Old Testament will consider to be scripturally correct, directly conducts to the conclusion, that these sacrifices, having in themselves no moral efficacy, "for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should

take away sin," were intended, as their great, their instructive, and merciful design, to be symbolical of the INVALUABLE ATONING SACRIFICE OF THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN, so that the blood which was thus shed upon the ancient altars of Jewish worship, was typical of the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God, "which cleanseth from all sin."

The animals which were sacrificed were always free from every blemish; before the building of the temple, they were offered up at the door of the Tabernacle; but after the completion of that sacred edifice it was illegal to present them in any other place. The burnt-offerings, or sacrifices by fire, were either freewill-offerings, wholly devoted to God according to the primitive patriarchal usage or peace-offerings, in token of reconciliation between God and man, presented either for the obtaining of mercy, or in thanksgiving for blessings received-or sin-offerings, presented for the expiation of offences committed against God, and without which, the infliction of his vengeance was to be apprehended. Trespass-offerings, appear not to have materially differed from sin-offerings. The PERPETUAL SACRIFICES, were-The daily sacrifices, of a lamb offered every morning, and another every evening the weekly sacrifices, of the same nature with the daily sacrifices, and offered every Sabbath in addition to them-the monthly sacrifices, on every new moon, consisting of two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs of a year old, a kid for a sin-offering, and a bread and a drink offering-and the yearly sacrifices, the Paschal Lamb at the Passover, which was the beginning of the ecclesiastical year-on the day of Pentecost, or day of first-fruits-on the new moon or first day of the seventh month, which was the beginning of the civil year-and on the day of annual expiation.

II. There were also sacrifices without blood, consisting of meal, bread, ears of corn, parched grain, with oil and frankincense prepared according to the law.

To these offerings, drink-offerings were added, which consisted of wine, partly poured upon the sacrifice, and partly drunk by the officiating priests. There were also other ordinary offerings the Shew-Bread, consisting of twelve loaves, placed hot every Sabbath day upon the golden table in the sanctuary, when the