LECTURE XXII.

JEWISH SACRED ORDINANCES.

This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings; which the Lord commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he comanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai. Leviticus vii. 37, 38.

WE shall say so much in this Lecture on the Jewish Sacrifices and holy Times as may serve to give us something like an orderly idea of this part of their ritual. The Priesthood, be it remembered, was confined to the family of Aaron: the Levites also were employed in the service of religion. See Exod. xxvii. 1-5, and Numbers iii. and iv. These were the persons who were set apart for religious purposes. We have seen (Lect. xix.) the Tabernacle, or place of worship. If we add a distinct notion of Sacrifices and holy Times, we shall have a tolerably correct view of the principal parts of their religious ordinances.

I. Their extraordinary or occasional Sacrifices. Of these we have an account in the seven first chapters of Leviticus. There were bloody offerings, as the burnt offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering: or they were unbloody offerings, read Levit. Chap. ii. which were composed of materials taken from the vegetable kingdom; to these may be added the drink offerings, which accompanied both of the preceding, but were not offered alone; as also the voluntary free oblations or sacrifices in performing a VOW. See Numbers xv. 2, &c. There was also a stated unbloody offering, the heave offering of the tithes : see Numbers xviii. 26, &c. But we should particularly notice the rites which were observed in the bloody

sacrifices. The victim was to be without blemish; the person who offered it was to put his hand on the head of the victim, thus confessing his guilt, and transferring his sin to the victim, as the appointed atonement; the blood was to be sprinkled round about upon the altar; and the victim was either wholly, as in the burnt offering, or in part, as in the other offerings, to be burnt on the altar.

II. Their ordinary or stated sacrifices; and these are connected with their holy Times.

1. Observe the daily sacrifice. This was a lamb, morning and evening; Exod. xxix. 38-42. Sweet incense was also burnt morning and evening; Exod. xxx. 7-8. Thus was every day sanctified by established acts of religion. What a lesson for Christians to look daily to the great Sacrifice for sin, and to offer daily the incense of prayer to God!

2. The Sabbath offerings, or weekly sacrifice. Numb. xxviii. 9-10. This was double the daily offering. Thus we are taught that the sabbath is a day which demands of us a great attention to religious duties.

3. The monthly sacrifice. Numb. xxviii. 11-15. At every new moon, with which the month began, an especial sacrifice was appointed, in addition to the daily oblation.

This was

4. We now come to the annual sacrifices. The principal of these were at the three great festivals. 1. The feast of the Passover. Exod. xii. kept during seven days in the month Abib. 2. The feast of Pentecost. Levit. xxiii. 9-22. This was kept as a Thanksgiving for the beginning of wheat harvest; and also perhaps as a memorial of the giving of the Law on mount Sinai.

3. The feast of Tabernacles. Levit. xxiii. 33-43. This was to be kept by the Israelites as a commemoration of their dwelling in the wilderness forty years. To these we must add, 4. The feast of Trumpets, Levit. xxiii. 23-25, and Numb. xxix. 1, &c., which most

probably was kept to celebrate the beginning of the year. 5. The great day of Atonement, when the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies, with the blood of a peculiar sacrifice, sprinkling with it the mercy seat, making atonement for the sins of the nation, and offering incense in the golden censer. Levit. xvi. and xxiii. 26-32.

Let it be farther observed, that every seventh year was a year of rest, or a sabbatical year. Among other lessons, it taught the Israelites their dependence on God, and his providential care of them. The fiftieth year also was the Jubilee; partly a civil, and partly a typical matter. It was a time of rest, freedom, and recovery of possessions; as a type, prefiguring the gospel and the final resurrection. See Exod. xxiii. 10, 11, and Levit. xxv. Isaiah lxi. 1—3.

III. Let us consider a few of the practical lessons which this subject suggests to us.

1. It is the will of God that great attention should be given to religion. This is evident from the appointment of so many stated and occasional services. If we are truly religious, we shall not fail to give an exact and cheerful attention to all religious services, be they the stated duties of the Church, or the voluntary services, of the Closet and the Family. If we attend but little to religious ordinances, it is a proof that we attend but little to religion itself. Conduct unfolds the heart.

2. Remarkable seasons ought to be remembered. Our Church does wisely in calling our attention statedly to the commemoration of the great events of our religion: we show our lack of piety in not regarding the call.

3. Sacrifice has a great place in religion. The shedding of blood was continually before the eye of the Jewish worshipper. There was no approaching to God without sacrifice. So it is at present. We do not offer victims; for our Redeemer has offered himself to God a sacrifice for sin once for all: but if we draw near to

God acceptably, we must always look to this Sacrifice, always view its blood, always plead its worth and virtue.

4. The superiority of our dispensation. The Jews had the types and shadows of good things to come; we have the substance, the good things themselves. We walk in the light; we enjoy the true sabbatical year, the jubilee of divine grace. The veil is rent; the Holy of Holies is open; and in the name of Jesus, pleading his blood and intercession, we have access to God. The unsearchable riches of Christ, the work of the Spirit, and our prospects beyond the grave, are all before us in the plainest manner.

5. Our peculiar obligations to eminent piety. How shall we escape the heaviest displeasure of God if we neglect so great salvation? Do we clearly see the whole counsel of God, the great plan of redemption; and shall we close our eyes and ears, and maintain our own errors, and go on in sin and worldliness, as if we knew nothing of the will of God; as if we were only creatures born for the world that now is? Where much is given, and he who has the Bible has much, much will be required. If we bear the Christian name and have Christian privileges, but still refuse to be true Christians, refuse to improve our blessings, we shall not go unpunished. We ought to be pious, and eminent in piety.

THE PRAYER.

O gracious God, I thank thee for all the ordinances of religion. I especially bless and praise thee for that full discovery which I enjoy of a Saviour, whose blood cleanseth from all sin, and whose intercession prevails with thee. Make me a true believer in him: and also make me active, laborious, and faithful in the discharge of all my duties respecting the public and the private ordinances of religion. Preserve me from all deadness and formality in them: let me always look to the great

and only Sacrifice for sin, and always serve thee in spirit and in truth. Thus may I glorify thee, work out my own salvation, and finally obtain eternal blessedness; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer and Advocate. Amen.

LECTURE XXIII.

THE LEPER.

This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest. Levit.

xiv. 2.

THE 13th and the 14th chapter of this book treat of the leprosy; a dreadful disorder, of which, in our temperate climate, we can have no just notion. This is a subject which we are naturally led to consider in a spiritual view. We do not assert that this account of leprosy was primarily intended to give us a view of our spiritual condition: but it has been considered in that light by the wise and good of every age; and the agreement between the natural and moral disorder is striking. I. Consider the Malady. The leprosy is a disorder so noisome that it might well pass for the utmost corruption of the human body on this side the grave." In this disease, the body is covered with thin white scales, or a foul scurf, and the joints, particularly the wrists and ancles, are so swelled as to be loathsome to look Let us notice a few particulars:

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on.

1. The malady began with a spot. Chap. xiii. 1. The appearance at first is small, merely leading to suspicion: a rising, scab, or bright spot, is all that can be

seen.

As to spiritual matters, we are all infected with the