A. At the fifteenth Day of the feventh Month, at the End of all their Harveft, they begun thi Feast, and dwelt feven Days in Booths made of the Boughs of Trees, Deut. xvi. 13.

107 Q. What was the Defign of this Ceremony? A. To keep in Memory their dwelling in Booths in the Wilderness, when they went out of the Land of Egypt, Lev. xxiii. 39-44.

108 Q. How was this Feaft obferved?

A. By peculiar Sacrifices every Day of the Feast, and a holy Aflembly on the first Day, and on the eighth Day, Numb xxix. 12.

109 Q. At what Hour did their Sabbaths, and all their Feafts begin and end?

A. The Jews counted their Days, and particularly their Holy-Days, from the Evening at Sun-fet to the next Evening, Gen. i. 5. Lev. xxiii. 5, 32.

110 Q. At what Place were the Feafts to be kept? A. At the Place which God fhould chufe for the Refidence of the Ark and Tabernacle; which was firft at Shiloh, afterwards at Jerufalem; though the blowing of Trumpets to proclaim the Beginning of the Year was practised in all the Cities of Ifrael. See Deut. xvi. 16. and Pool's Annot on Lev. xxiii, 24. 2 Kings. xxi. 4.

111 Q. How then could all Ifrael keep thefe Feafts? A. At the three chief Feafts, (viz.) the Paflover, Pentecoft, and the Feaft of Tabernacles, all the Males were to appear before God in one Place with some Offering, Exod. xxiii. 14-17. Deut. xvi. 16.

112 Q. What was the Offering they were to bring unto God when they appeared before him at these folemn Feafts?

A. The Tithe or tenth Part of their Corn, Wine, and Oil, and the First-born of their Cattle; but they themselves were to partake in eating of it, Deut.

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Chap. V. Deut. xiv. 22, 23. though the Bulk of it were to be given to the Priests and Levites. See Chap. VI. Quest. 15, 16.

113 Q. Was it not dangerous for them to leave their own Dwellings, in Towns and Villages which bordered on their Enemy's Country?

A. God promised them, that when they fhould go up to appear before him thrice in the Year, no Man fhould defire their Land, Exod. xxxiv. 23, 24. which was a standing Miracle during that Difpenfation.

114 Q. Having heard this Account of Holy Perfons and Places, Things and Times, let us now enquire what were the holy Actions?

A. A thofe Actions may be called Holy, which were appointed to be a Part of this Ceremonial Wor fhip; but the Actions relating to the Natural Wor fhip of God, fuch as Prayer and Praife, are in themfelves holy and religious.

SECT. VI. The Ufe of the Jewish Ceremonies.

115 Q. WHAT were the chief Uses of all these

ceremonial Commands ?

A. These three; (1.) To diftinguish the fews from all other People as a holy People, and God's peculiar vifible Church, who eminently bore up his Name and Honour in the World, Lev. xx. 22—26.

(2.) To employ that People who were fo much given to Idolatry, in many Varieties of outward Forms and Rites of Religion, left they should be tempted to follow the Superftition and Idolatry of the Nations round about them, Deut. vi. 1, 2, 14, 17. Deut. xxix. 1, 9—18.

(3.) To

(3.) To represent by Types, Figures and Emblems, many of the Offices of Christ, and the Glories and Bleffings of his Gospel.

116 Q. How doth it appear that any of thefe Jewif Ceremonies are Emblems or Types of Christ and his Gospel?

A. I. This appears from many Places in the New Teftament, where Jefus Chrift and the Bleffings of the Gofpel are called by the fame Names. So Chrift is called our High-Priest, Heb. iii 1. and iv. 14. He is the Lamb that was flain, Rev. v. 6. 1 Pet. i. 19, 20. Our Paffover, I Cor. v. 7. and Sacrifice to take away Sin, Heb. ix, 26. The Atonement or Propitiation for Sin, Rom. iii. 25. 1 John His Body is called the Temple, becaufe God dwelt in it as in the Jewish Temple, John ii. 19, 21. Col. ii. 9.

ii. 2.

2. This appears yet further from the evident and intended Refemblance which the Scripture reprefents between several of the Jewish Ceremonies, and the Things of the Gofpel. The Blood of Chrift obtained eternal Redemption for us, as the Blood of Bulls and Goats, clean fed and freed the Jews from ceremonial Defilements, Heb. ix. 12, &c. His Blood is called the Blood of fprinkling, Heb. xii. 24. to sprinkle or cleanfe us from a guilty Confcience, as the fprinkling of the Blood of the Jewish Sacrifices purified the People, Heb. ix. 20. and x. 22. The most holy Place where God dwelt of old on the Mercy-Seat, is the Figure of the true Heaven where God dwells on a Throne of Grace, Heb. ix. 8, 24. and iv. 16. The High-Prieft's Entrance with the Blood of the Sacrifice and with the Names of the Tribes on his Breaft into the moft holy Place, to appear before God there for the Jews, is a plain Figure of Chrift's Entrance into

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Heaven with his own Blood, to appear before God for us, Heb. ix. 12, 25. The Jewish Incense was a Type or Figure of Prayer, Rev. v. 8. and viii. 3. The Jewish Sabbath or Day of Reft, as well as the Land of Canaan, was a Type of the Reft and Release of Believers from Sin and Guilt, and from an uneafy Confcience under the Gospel, and the final Reft of the Saints in Heaven, Heb. iv. 3, 4, 9, 10.

This might be proved more at large by fome other Scriptures, where the Jewish Rites in general are called Figures or Shadows of the good Things of the Gofpel, Col. ii. 16, 17. Heb. viii. 5. and ix. I-14, 23, 24.

117 Q Did the Jews themfelves underftand the Spiritual Meaning of thefe Ceremonies?

A. Perhaps a few of them who were more enlightened, might understand the Meaning of fome of the chiefeft and moft confiderable Types; but the Bulk of the People can hardly be fuppofed to have understood the spiritual Meaning of them; at leaft, the Bible gives us no Intimation of it.

118 Q. How could they be appointed as Types and Figures of Spiritual Things, if the People who were required to use them in their Worship, did not underfand the fpiritual Meaning of them?

A. 1. The Jewish Difpenfation was the Childish or Infant-State of the Church of God, as it is defcribed, Gal. iv. 1, 2, 3, &c. Now, Children are fometimes employed in feveral Things by their wiser Parents, the chief Design and Meaning whereof they underftand not till riper Years.

A. 2. If thefe Ceremonies were not understood • by the ancient Jews to whom they were given, yet they might be defigned as Types and Figures of Christ, and the Bleffings of the Gospel, in order to confirm the Religion of Christ and the Gospel, when

it should be afterward published to the World, by feeing how happily it answers thefe ancient Types.

119 Q. Wherein doth this appear?

A. St. Paul does actually confirm Chriftianity this Way, especially in his Epiftle to the Hebrews, by hewing how these ancient Types and Ceremonies are fulfilled in the Gofpel of Chrift.

Note, As a Prophecy is the foretelling of Things to come in Words, fo a Type is the foretelling of fomething to come in some real Emblem, or Figure, or Resemblance of it: Now as there are many ancient Prophecies which were not understood by the Perfons to whom they were first spoken, nor by the Perfons who spoke with them, 1 Pet. i 11, 12. yet when they are fulfilled, they come to be better understood, and bear Witness to the Hand of God both in the Prophecy and in the Accomplishment: So though Types may be obfcure when they are firft appointed, yet when they are accomplished or fulfilled, they are better understood, and fhew the Hand of God both in appointing the Sign, and bringing to pass the Thing fignified.

120 Q. Can thefe Things be faid therefore to be fulfilled or accomplished in Chrift, fince the Meaning of all thefe Ceremonies or Types is not yet known even to Chriftians themselves?

A. The New Teftament has revealed to us and taught us to understand the chief and moft confiderable both of the Types and Prophecies; but neither one nor the other are understood fully: And yet we make no Doubt but the Prophecies are, or fhall be accomplished in Chrift; and why not the Types alfo? Probably it is referved as one Part of the Glory of that happy Day, when the Jews fhall be converted, that the Reft of their Prophecies, as well

as