Lastly, several of the Hebrew customs were intended to commemorate remarkable occurrences in their history, especially such as led them to recollect and reflect upon the divine interpositions in their favour. Thus, the passover was instituted in commemoration of the destroying angel having passed over the houses of the Ifraelites, when he killed the first-born in every family of the Egyptians: the feast of Pentecost was a memorial of the giving of the law on mount Sinai; and the feast of Tabernacles, of their residing many years in the wilderness, when they lived in tents, and were fed with manna from heaven. Also the rite of circumcision was instituted as a token and pledge of the covenant which God made with Abraham, or of the promise that he would give him the land of Canaan.

It is not easy to say how far, and in what respects, the Jewish dispensation was intended to be abrogated by chriftianity. Christ himself gave no hint of any fuch design, except it be implied in his faying, Matt. v. 18. that " one title shall in no " wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled;" or in his discourse with the woman of Samaria, John iv. 21. "The hour cometh, when ye shall " neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerufalem, "worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and " now is, when the true worshippers shall worship "the Father in spirit and in truth."

And

And though the apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, ch. vii. argues, in a figurative manner, that the Jews were become " dead to the law

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by the body of Christ, that they might be mar"ried to another," yet it appears from the book of Acts, that he himself strictly conformed to the temple-service, as all other Jewish christians did, after the refurrection and afcenfion of Christ. Paul did not only himself "walk orderly, and keep the " law," Acts xxi. 24. but caused Timothy to be circumcifed upon his conversion to christianity, because his mother was a Jewess, though his father was a Greek. Acts xvi. 1.

With respect to meats, the divine being seems to have intimated to Peter, that the distinction between clean and unclean was abolished. For by the vifion of the sheet let down from heaven, Acts x. II. and the command, "Rise, Peter, kill and "eat," it seems to have been intended to intimate, not only that no nation or people were unclean in the fight of God, but that those kinds of food which the Jews had been taught to confider as unclean, were now no longer so. We also find that Peter himself, when he was among the Gentiles, at Antioch, "lived after the manner of the Gen" tiles, and not as the Jews." Gal. ii. 14. though, upon the arrival of Jews from Jerufalem, he abstained, for fear of giving offence; a conduct for which he was justly reproved by Paul.

As

As long as the temple stood, the service of it was kept up, and attended upon by the believing, as well as the unbelieving Jews, and none of the apastles dropped so much as a hint of there being any thing improper or wrong in it. When the temple was destroyed, the service of it ceased of course, just as it did at the Babylonish captivity. But it is remarkable, that in the prophecies of Ezekiel, relating to the restoration of the Jews, the most express mention is made of the rebuilding of the temple, and the restoration of the temple-fervice, and especially of facrifices, Ezekiel xliii. 18. And it will hardly be supposed, that the conversion of the Jews to christianity will not take place at least very foon after their restoration.

As the Jews are still to continue a distinct people, and will probably be the medium of the divine communications, to the rest of the world, it is not improbable, but that they will always continue to be diftinguished by certain peculiar obfervances and religious rites; but whether the whole, or what particular part of their antient ritual will be retained, it is impoffible for us to say.

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A

§4. Of Baptifm.

LL the positive institutions, of which an account has yet been given, were antecedent to chriftianity. The two which remain to be treated of, viz. baptifm and the Lord's supper, are peculiar to it.

Baptifin is the appointed manner in which a perfon takes upon him the profeffion of chriftianity, or by which a person is admitted to the privileges of the disciples of Chrift; and was probably intended to reprefent the washing away, or renouncing the impurities of some former state, viz. the fins he had committed, and the vicious habits he had contracted; and it is to be observed, that the profeffion of repentance always accompanied, or was understood to accompany, the profeffion of faith in Chrift. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven " is at hand," was the general exhortation both of John the Baptist and of Christ; and, " Repent " and believe the gospel; Repent and be convert"ed, that your fins may be blotted out," was the general strain of the apostles' preaching. Now, fays Paul to the Athenians, "God commandeth all " men, every where, to repent." Acts xvii. 30. We find no account of baptifm, as a distinct religious rite, before the miffion of John, the fore

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runner of Christ, who was called the Baptist, on account of his being commanded by God to baptize with water all who should hearken to his invitation to repent. Washing, however, accompanied many of the Jewish rites, and, indeed, was required after contracting any kind of uncleanness. Also, soon after the time of our Saviour, we find it to have been the custom of the Jews folemnly to baptize, as well as to circumcise all their profelytes. As their writers treat largely of the reasons for this rite, and give no hint of its being a novel institution, it is probable, that this had always been the custom antecedent to the time of Mofes, whose account of the rite of circumcifion, and of the manner of performing it, is by no means circumstantial. Or baptifm, after circumcifing, might have come into use gradually, from the natural propriety of the thing, and its easy conformity to other Jewish customs. For, if no Jew could approach the tabernacle, or temple, after the most trifling uncleanness, without bathing, much less would it be thought proper to admit a proselyte from a state so impure and unclean as heathenism was conceived to be, without the fame mode of purification.

When a master of a family became a proselyte to Judaism, he was required to circumcise both himself and his houshold. Thus Abraham was expressly commanded to circumcise both his fon Ishmael,