monies in the christian religion? Having discussed this question, we shall close with a few practical remarks. God grant we may be built up in our most holy faith!

I. We respect Jewish ceremonies, because they were appointed by God; and we reject the same ceremonies in christian worship, because they are not appointed by him. In natural religion mankind are left to exercise reason, and to form a ritual by conjecture; but in revealed religion reason is silent, the Deity speaks, and conjecture is at an end. If God condescend to instruct men how to worship him, obedience to his will is the. highest exercise of reason, and essential to religion.

It was glorious to Moses, the messenger of God, to publish his new religion in the land of Ham, at that time the most learned and the most idolatrous country in the world, consequently the best able and the most likely to detect imposture. Thither, into the chambers of the king, the man of God went, thus saith the Lord in his mouth, and the rod of God in his hand. There he brought forth frogs in abundance, flies of divers sorts, darkness upon the land, and death upon the firstborn. There, in the name of God, he claimed civil and religious liberty for his nation, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son; let my son go, that he may serve me: and there, when Pharaoh replied, I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go, he confirmed his mission by miracles, became a god to Pharaoh, and forced even magicians to exclaim, This is the finger of Jehovah!

This is that Moses, who was in the church in the Wilderness, and who received the lively oracles of God to give unto the Jews. Thus, by divine commission, he appointed the Jewish ritual, and ordained positive institutes by what only could authenticate them, the supreme will of God, the sole legislator to mankind.

Moses never proposed to appoint a ritual for the last ages of the world. A Prophet, said he, shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, a legislator as I am, him shall ye hear. In the fullness of time this legislator came with divine commission to new model religion. He dissolved the old œconomy, established a new one on a larger and more comprehensive plan; and, in abundant compassion to the whole species of mankind, made the world a present of a religion that contained all the excellencies and none of the incumbrances of the former œconomy. That was a ministration of death, which doomed thousands of animals literally to be killed in sacrifice: this is a ministration of life, requiring no animal to die, but inviting millions of rationals by instruction to live.

The founder of the christian church appointed no Jewish ceremonies to be performed in divine worship; yet (as our protestant ministers have always argued against the church of Rome) express positive divine law is essentially necessary to religious institutes. It is not enough to say, a rite is not forbidden, it must be commanded; and we may honestly reason, where there is no divine law or

daining a ceremony, there is no transgression in neglecting to perform one.

The supreme power in the primitive christian church, not only omitted to appoint a new ceremonial; it went further, and actually abrogated in form the old ritual of the Jews. The case was this: In the church at Antioch, where the disciples of Jesus first received the honourable appellation of christians, some converted pharisees, prejudiced in favour of their old religion, taught the brethren, that circumcision and keeping the law of Moses, were necessary to salvation. Paul and Barnabas denied this doctrine, and after much altercation, both sides agreed to lay the matter before the whole apostolical synod at Jerusalem. In that venerable assembly the question was fully discussed. Never was a question of greater importance laid before a synod; never were judges so equal to the investigation. The extraordinary abilities of Peter and Paul, Barnabas and James, directed and assisted by the Holy Ghost, were employed on this occasion. In the end, an unanimous resolution was formed into a decree, and sent in writing to the churches in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. This decree declares--that no commandment to keep the ceremonial law (no other law could possibly be meant) had proceeeded from the Apostles-that such a commandment had been a trouble to the church, and tended to subvert the souls of the disciples-that it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to the synod, to lay no such burden on christians-and that, if they

abstained from a few offensive customs, which were merely local and temporary, they should do well. When Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, and delivered this epistle to the multitude to read, they perused it with pleasure, and rejoiced for the consolation. A high satisfaction indeed, to be freed by such authority from a yoke, which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear!

Here then, christians, is your discharge from Jewish ceremonies: this is your reason for rejecting the rites of Moses. It seems good to the Holy Ghost to publish, and to you to enter into the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made his people free. This persuasion cometh of him that calleth you.

II. We respect the ceremonies of the Jewish religion, because they were established by the universal consent of the nation: and we reject the same ceremonies in the christian church, because no such consent hath ever been obtained. The consent of the will is essential to the religion of a ceremony; and without such consent, the performance is not religion. Moses, who perfectly understood this, took particular care, as God directed him, to collect the sense of the people, to obtain their consent in form to his law, and to preclude all future pretence of imposition by engaging the whole nation to adopt it as their own.

Before the man of God published his commission, he gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. To this assembly Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken to Mo

ses, and did the signs in the sight of the people: The people believed the messengers of God, and, being touched with a sense of divine goodness, in token of their consent to the whole plan of redemption on God's part, and obedience on their own, bowed their heads and worshipped.

As God continued to open his mind at different times to Moses, Moses continued to reveal it to the people. This was the method: The Lord said, these are the words, which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses laid before their faces all the words, which the Lord had commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. Hence this exhortation, Keep these statutes and judgments, and do them, for this is your wisdom. Hence this declaration, See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. Choose life that thou mayest live. Hence this triumph, This commandment is not hidden from thee,- But the word is in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

-The Lord hath avouched thee to be his people, and thou hast avouched the Lord to be thy God. Hence, Moses, when he had made an end of writing the words of the law in a book, until they were finished, said to the Levites, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.

In succeeding times, solemn recognitions were