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."

EXERCITATION XIX.

$1,2. Ordinances and institutions of the Jewish church referred to and unfolded in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Principal heads of them mention, ed therein. §3. The call of Abraham, Heb. xi. S, 9, &c. The founda, tion 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. 17. 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. 27 12 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: re. proved by our Saviour. Of their fringes, their appointment, making and use. 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 voμobiol. § 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 prepared 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. 7o 12 Dan Nb, 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. When Moses used those words, "I exceedingly fear and quake."

46.

§1. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle treats either 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 Abubensei, 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 Epis

tle.

§ 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. "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a 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. "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 heavy enly: wherefore

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God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he had prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and (or even) he that received the promises, offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, 'In Isaac shall thy seed be called," (so that he was his only begotten with respect unto the promise, Gen. xxi. 12. xxii. 9.) "accounting that God was able even to raise him up from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure."

The design of the apostle in this discourse, is to set forth and commend the faith of Abraham from its fruits, in the whole course of his obedience; but he builds it upon, and resolves it into his call:"By faith Abraham being CALLED." It is not my present purpose to open particularly the discourse of the apos tle, which must be referred to its proper place; but as what we do now, is in a subserviency to the right understanding of the Epistle, I have cited the account here given of the call of Abra ham, and of his faith and obedience, as the reason of our insisting on it, and as the ground on which this discourse rests. Neither shall I now at large declare the nature of this call of Abraham, with the several occurrences that accompanied it; partly because it is already touched on in a former exercitation, and partly because I have elsewhere handled it more largely, and cleared it from the corrupt traditions and opinions of the Jews concerning it. But as this was the root from which the Jewish church did grow, the stock into which all Mosaic institutions of worship were grafted, it is necessary that we give a brief historical account concerning it.

§ 4. Abraham was called by his parents 28, Abram, that is, a high father; not without a signal presaging providence of God. For as of old they gave significant names to their children, so in this they had respect to their present condition, or to some prospect of future things given them by the Spirit of God, in which they or theirs should be concerned. Thus we have the reasons given us for the names of Cain, Gen. iv. 5. of Seth, ver. 28. of Noah, ch. v. 29. of Peleg, ch. x. 25. and of sundry others. And if we may not suppose that the parents of Abraham were directed to give him this name of a high father, by the spirit of prophecy, yet if we consider its suitableness to what God had designed him for, and its readiness to yield to that change which God made afterwards in it, unto a great strengthening of his faith and significancy in a way of instruction unto future generations, we must grant that it was done by the designing holy wise providence of God. For he was a high father indeed, as being the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the flesh. In process of time, upon the solemn establishment of the covenant with him, God changed this name of Dax into 128, Gen. xvii. 5. "Neither shall thy name