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of God, who by faith are admitted into the covenant of Abraham, and so made inheritors of the promises. Now these promises also, which are by far the greatest number, are to be set aside from our present consideration of them. 3. It hath been proved, that oftentimes spiritual things are expressed metaphorically in the prophets, by words which in their literal first sense denote things outward and corporeal. This is sufficiently evident from the instances formerly given, in which things are promised, of which it is utterly impossible that they should be a literal accomplishment; and of the like sort there are others innumerable. And thus most of the predictions that concern peace and prospe rity, must necessarily respect spiritual peace with God, because concerning the same seasons, wars and trials are in other places. foretold. 4. Whatever is foretold and promised concerning the Jews themselves, in the days of the Messiah, doubtless they have no reason to expect the accomplishment of it, until they receive him, own him, and submit to him, which to this day they have not done. When of old Moses went forth to visit them in their distress, and slew the Egyptian that smote one of them, they refused him, and would not understand that it was he by whom God would deliver them, and endeavoured to betray him to death; and because of this their bondage was continued forty years longer, and yet at length by the same Moses were they delivered. And although they have refused and rejected him who was promised to be their Saviour, and so continue to this day in their captivity, spiritual and temporal, yet it is he, by whom in the time appointed, they shall be delivered from the one and the other. But this shall not be done until they own and receive him; and when God shall incline their hearts to receive him, they will quickly find the blessed consequences of it. For, 5. We grant that there are many promises on record in the Scripture concerning their gathering together, their return to God by the Messiah, and the great peace and glory that they shall then enjoy. If we except their opinion concerning the perpetuity of the ceremonial law, and their return in the observance of it to their carnal ordinances, (which opinion is founded on an apprehension, which the rest of the world has long ago renounced, namely, that God is pleased with the blood of bulls and goats for its own sake, and not for its signification of that which was infinitely more excellent and glorious); and if we except their vain and foolish imagi nations about sensual pleasures, Behemoth, the wine of Paradise, and the literal accomplishment of evident allegories, which the wisest among themselves begin to be ashamed of: with these excep tions, there is nothing in their own expectations which we do not acknowledge that they shall be made partakers of. They shall return to their own land; they shall enjoy it for a quiet and everlasting possession, their adversaries being destroyed; they

shall also be filled with the light and knowledge of the will and worship of God, so as to be a guide and blessing to the residue of the Gentiles who seek after the Lord, and perhaps, shall be entrusted with great empire and rule in the world. The most of these things are foretold concerning them, not only in their own prophetical writings, but also by the divine writers of sundry books of the New Testament. But all this we say must come to pass, when the vail shall be taken from their eyes, and when they shall look on him whom they have pierced, and when they joyfully receive him whom they have sinfully rejected for so many generations. Until this be done, they may wrestle as they can with their perplexities, and comfort themselves as well as they are able in their miseries; they may get money in their dispersions by all unlawful arts and ways imaginable; and may expose themselves to the delusions of impostors, false prophets and pretended deliverers, which to their unspeakable misery and reproach they have now done ten times; yet deliverance, peace, tranquillity, acceptance with God and man, they shall not obtain. Here lies the crisis of their condition. When they shall receive, acknowledge, and believe in that Messiah who came to them so long time since, whom their fathers wickedly slew, and hanged on a tree, and whom they have since no less wickedly rejected; and when by his Spirit and grace they shall be turned from ungodliness, and shall have their eyes opened to see the mystery of the grace, wisdom and love of God in the blood of his Son; then shall they obtain mercy from the God of their forefathers, and returning again to their own land, " Jerusalem shall be inhabited again, even in Jerusalem."

1,2. Ordinances and institutions of the Jewish church referred to and un folded in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Principal heads of them mentioned therein. § 3. The call of Abraham, Heb. xi. 8, 9. &c. The foundation of the church in his posterity. 4. The name of Abram; signi fication of it. Changed into Abraham; its signification. 5. The time of his birth and death. Whence called. § 6. Ur of the Chaldees, where. And Haran. Extent of Mesopotamia. Moses and Stephen reconciled. §7. Abraham before his call infected with idolatry. § 7-9. Time of his call. § 10. Institution of circumcision. End and use of it. § 11. Time of the Israelites sojourning in Egypt, Gen. xi. 13. Exod. xii. 40, 41. Acts vii. 6. Gal. iii. 17. reconciled. The beginning and ending of the 430 years. § 12. The fatal period of changes in that church. $13. Institution of the passover. §14. The time of its celebration. The month. §15. Time of the day. 2712 between the evenings, when. § 16. The occasion and nature of this ordinance. The matter of it. The manner of its observance. Sundry things suited to its first celebration, not afterward observed. The number required at the eating of the lamb. By whom it was killed. Where. How dress. ed. Jewish traditions rejected. §17. The feast of unleavened bread. Its rites. 18, 19. Excision, to the neglect of what ordinances annexed. Jews acknowledge the figurative nature of this ordinance. § 20. Of frontlets and phylacteries, Exod. xxiii. 9. Signs and memorials. The sections of the law written in the frontlets. 21. The Jews' manner of making their phylacteries: deceits therein. Their trust in them: reproved by our Saviour. Of their fringes, their appointment, making and ase. 22. Dedication of the first-born males to God. Price of the redemption of children. § 23. Close of God's first dispensation towards that church. 24. The solemn vouobicia. § 25. Preparations for it. Remote. Occasional temporary institutions between the Red Sea and Sinai. Of the waters of Marah. § 26. The giving of manna. Derivation and signification of the name. § 27, 28. Water brought out of the rock. That rock Christ. § 29. Immediate preparations for the receiving of the law. The time that the people came to Sinai. The day. § 30. The time of the day that the appearance of God's glory began. The same time that Christ rose from the dead. § 31. The place. Sinai the name of the mountain, Horeb of the wilderness. Of the monastery there. § 32. Moses' first ascent. The ground of it. § 33, 34. The people pre. pared by the remembrance of mercies and promises. 35. Of their washing their clothes. Not a baptism of standing use. 36. Bounds set unto the mount. §37. In what sense it might be touched, Heb. xii. 21. § 38-40. How the offender was to be punished. 12 van 23, opened. § 41-43. The station and order of the people in receiving of the law. § 44, 45. The ministry of angels in the preparations for God's glorious presence. How the people met God, and God them. § 46. When Moses used those words, "I exceedingly fear and quake."

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§ 1. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle treats either IN directly or occasionally, of the worship of God under the Old Testament; of the state of the church in those periods; and

of the whole, or at least of the most important parts of the Mosaic economy. Indeed there is nothing material, from the call of Abraham, to the utmost issue of God's dispensations towards his posterity, that is omitted by him. And if we have not that previous acquaintance with these things, which he supposed in them to whom he wrote, much darkness and many mistakes must attend us in considering the subjects of which he treats, and the ends which he proposes to himself. Now, it will not be expedient to insist upon these things every time that they are mentioned or alluded to. I thought it meet in the close of these Prolegomena, to present the reader with a brief scheme and delineation of the whole Mosaic economy, as also of those other previous concerns of the church in the posterity of Abraham, to which the apostle in this Epistle directs us. And they are these that follow.

1. The call and obedience of Abraham, ch. xi. 8-17.

2. The institution and observance of the passover, ch. xi. 28.

3. The giving of the law, ch. i. 1. ch. ii. 1. ch. xii. 18, 19, 20, 21. 25, 26.

4. The sanction of the law in promises and penalties, ch. ii. 2. 21. ch. iii. & iv. ch. x. 28.

5. The building of the tabernacle in the wilderness, and afterwards of the temple in answer thereunto, ch. iii. 3, 4. ch. ix. 1-5. ch. x. 19-22. with its utensils.

6. The calling, succession and office of the high priest, ch. vii. 16, 17. 21. 23. ch. viii. 3, 4, 5.

7. The sacrifices and services of them both, ch. viii. 3. 5. ch. ix. 6, 7. 10. 12, 13. ch. x. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 11. ch. xiii. 11,

12.

It is evident, that under these heads are comprised all the principal concerns of the ancient church, with the worship and rule of God therein; and all of them are reflected on, and most of them explained and applied to the service of the gospel by our apostle. However, I shall not at present engage in the exposition of the particular places in the Epistle where they are treated of; this is to be done elsewhere: but I shall only represent them, as they are described in their institution and use in the Old Testament, that we may understand them aright, as they are mentioned and made use of in the New Testament.

§ 2. Many of these things, I acknowledge, especially those concerning the fabric and worship of the temple, have been so largely discussed by others, that I should judge my endeavours in reviewing them altogether needless, if the nature of our present design would allow them to be omitted. For much has been formerly collected from the Scriptures, with excellent success, respecting the fabric of divine worship, and the ceremonies

thereof, by Josephus, and more modern Jewish masters, by Abubensci, Arius Montanus, Villalpandus, Capellus, Ribera, Constantine Emperor, Broughton, Ainsworth, Weemse, Rivet, and by all learned expositors on the parts of holy writ, where these things are recorded. And there are also some of late amongst ourselves, who have treated this subject with much diligence in large discourses. They are persons worthily skilled in suitable learning, and industrious in improving their knowledge of all that learning which is needful to the due and accurate handling of this subject. But notwithstanding their labours, I shall proceed in the way which I have mentioned above, because a discourse on these subjects is necessary to my present design; and because most of the things which I am now to consider are such as fell not under the consideration of those learned persons; and because I design not an exact examination of the particular concerns of all these things, with a discussion of the reasons and arguments wherewith various apprehensions of them are supported, but only to represent such a scheme of them, as may enable the reader to judge aright of the references of the apostle to them, and of the use he makes of them in this Epistle.

§ 3. First, then, The call of Abraham, which was the foundation on which all the following administrations of God towards his posterity, and his whole worship amongst them, were built, is excellently and fully described by our apostle, ch. xi. 8-19. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should afterwards receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went," Gen. xi. 4. 66 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God," Gen. xii. 13, 14. 66 Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised," Gen. xvii. 19. xxi. 2. "Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable," 13. 16. Gen. xv. 5. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar of, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth," Gen. xxiii. 4. ch. xlvii. 9. 1 Chron. xxix. 15. "For they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country; and truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned," Gen. xxiv. 5-7. "But now they desire a better, that is an heavenly: wherefore

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