(3.) Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

(4.) Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

6 Q. Is God's resting from his works of creation the seventh day, the only reason why the Jews were required to keep the sabbath or day of rest?

A. This latter part of the fourth commandment, namely, the reason of the sabbath, taken from the creation, and God's resting on the seventh day, is entirely omitted in the rehearsal of the ten commands in the fifth of Deuteronomy: and instead of it the Jews are required to observe this command of the sabbath or holy rest, for another reason, namely, because they were slaves in Egypt, and God gave them a release and rest from their slavery. Deut. v. 15. Though it is possible both reasons of this command might be pronounced from Mount Sinai, and only that mentioned in Exodus be writ on the tables of stone.

7 Q. What did the second table contain?

A. Their duty toward man in the six last commandments. Exod. xx. 12-17. Deut. v. 22.

8 ૨. What are these six last commandments ?

A. (5.) Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill.

(7) Thou shalt not commit adultery.

(8.) Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

(10.) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house;

thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, mor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

9 Q. Were these ten commands given to the Jews only, or are they given to all mankind?

A. Almost every thing contained in these commands is taught by the light of nature, and obliges all mankind: the honour that is done them in the New Testament intimates this also. But there are several expressions in these laws by which it plainly appears, they were peculiarly appropriated and suited to the Jewish nation in their awful proclamation at Mount Sinai.

10 Q. Wherein does it appear so plainly that these laws, as given at Mount Sinai, have a peculiar respect to the Jews?

A. This is evident in the preface, where God engages their attention and obedience by telling them, that he was the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. This appears also in the fourth command, where the seventh day is the appointed sabbath for the Jews and in Deut. v. 15, God gives this reason for the sabbath, that he brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. It is yet further manifest in the fifth commandment, where the promise of long life in the land, literally refers to the land of Canaan which God gave to that people: that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Yet, as is before intimated, the citation of them by the apostles in the New Testament as rules of our duty, doth plainly enforce the observation of them so far on the consciences of Christians.

CHAP. V.

Of the Ceremonial Law of the Jews.

1 Q. WHAT was the ceremonial law ?

A. All those commands which seem to have some religious design in them, especially such as related to

their cleansings from any defilement, and their peculiar forms of worship.

Note. I have hinted before, that several of the political laws, which were given to the Jews by God as their King, have something ceremonial in them; and they were designed to be emblems, types, or figures of some spiritual parts of religion. There were also some parts of their ceremonies of purification, and their rites of religious worship, which have a political aspect, and were prescribed by God as King of their nation. But choose to rank all their purifying rites, and their rules of worship, rather under this head of the ceremonial or religious laws, because their forms of purification do more plainly and eminently typify or represent to us how much care the people of God should take to be separated and purified from every sin, and from the communion of sinners: and the Jewish rites of worship represent to us, by way of type or emblem, that spiritual and evangelic worship which should be paid to God, especially under the New Testament, as the Lord of souls and consciences; as well as those blessings of the Gospel, which are brought in by Christ and the Holy Spirit, are represented hereby.

SECT. I. Of the Ceremonies of Purification.

2 Q. WHAT were the chief rites or ceremonies appointed for purification or cleansing among the Jews. A. Washing with water, sprinkling with water or blood, anointing with holy oil, shaving the head of man or woman, together with various sorts of sacrifices, and some other appointments. Heb. ix. 10, 13, 19. Lev. xv. xvi. and xiii. 33. Numb. vi. 19. Exod. xl. 9.

3 Q. What were those things or persons among the Jews which were required to be purified?

A. All persons, houses or buildings, garments, or other things, which were set apart for the service of God; and all such as had been defiled by leprosy, by touching human dead bodies, or the carcases of any unclean animal, or by other ceremonial pollutions. See Lev. xi, xiim xiii. xiv. and xv. Exod. xl. 9—15. Numb. viii. 6, and xix. 9, &c.

4 Q. How were the persons or things of the gentiles to be purified for the use of the Israelites ?

A. The things which could endure the fire, were to pass through the fire; other things were to be washed with water. Numb. xxxi. 20-24. And the maidens were to have their heads shaven, and their nails pared, before an Israelite could take any of them for a wife. Deut. xxi. 12.

5 Q. Were there not some things which could not be purified at all by any ceremonies?

A. All the several nations of Canaanites, and the males among other gentile captives in war, who had refused the offer of peace, were judged so unclean and polluted, that they were all to be destroyed. Deut. vii. 1-4. Josh. vi. 21, vii. 26, and x. 28, 30, 32, 40, &c. Deut. xx. 13-17. And the houses and garments of the Israelites, where the leprous spots could not be taken away, were to be destroyed also. Lev. xiii. 57, and ch. xiv. 45, and those Israelites in whom the leprosy prevailed, were to be shut out of the camp as unclean. Lev. xiii. 45, 46.

6 Q. Were there any crimes of real immorality or impiety which could be taken away by any of these outward ceremonies of purification?

A. The mere outward performance of any of these ceremonies did purify the persons defiled no further, than to set them right in their political state, as subjects under God as their King; and to cleanse them, as members of the Jewish visible church, from ceremonial defilement. Heb. ix. 13. The blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth no further than to the purifying of the flesh. But Heb. 10. 4. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins; that is, as they are committed against God as the Lord of their souls and consciences.

7 Q. How then were the sins of the Jews cleansed or pardoned, I mean their real immoralities and impieties against God, as the Lord of conscience ?

4.They obtained pardon of God according to the

discovery of grace and forgiveness scattered up and down through all the five books of Moses, and especially according to the promises made, and the encouragements given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and in general to all those who sincerely repent of sin, and trust in the mercy of God, so far as it was then revealed, and to be further revealed in time to come. Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. Deut. iv. 29-31. Isa. lv. 7, &c. But this forgiveness is owing to the effectual atonement of Christ, which was to be made in due time, and which took away sins past as well as to come. Rom. iii. 21, 24, 25, 26.

8 Q. Did these outward rites of purification then do nothing towards the removal of their moral defilements or sins?

A. As their outward or ceremonial defilements were appointed to be emblems and figures of the spiritual or moral defilement of the soul by sin, so many of these ceremonies of purification, and particularly those by water and blood, were pledges and tokens to assure them that God would forgive sin; and they were also figures and emblems of the removal of moral defilement or sin from the souls of men by the atoning blood of Christ, and by the sanctifying spirit of God, which is represented under the figure of clean water. See Heb. ix. and x.

Note. The following question perhaps might come in properly after the account of sacrifices: But having here inquired whether the ceremonies of purification did any thing toward the removal of the moral defilement of sin, I thought it as proper to introduce it here, as a kind of objection against the foregoing answers.

9 Q. But were there not some Jewish sacrifices and methods of purification and atonement, appointed for some real immoralities and wickedness, as when a man had committed a trespass against the Lord, by lying to his neighbour, by cheating or robbing him, or by swearing falsely, when he had found any thing that was lost, and withheld it from the owner? Lev. vi. 1-7. Is it not said, He shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord, and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord, and it shall be forgiven him?