"of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? CHAP. "Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay III. thy vows unto the Moft High".-Thou "defireft not facrifice, elfe would I give "it thee; thou delightest not in burnt"offerings. The facrifices of God are a "broken spirit: a broken and a contrite "heart, O God, thou wilt not defpife." These two laft citations are not fo much prophetical as declarative; but they equally tend to fhew, that Chriftianity does not make void the Law, by abolishing its ceremonies; fince, even under the Law, God fo exprefsly denies, that they are pleasing to him from any intrinfic merit of their

own.

66

3. The prophet Ifaiah abounds with the fame expreffions: "To what purpose is "the multitude of your facrifices unto me? "faith the Lord: I am full of the burntofferings of rams, and the fat of fed "beafts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. "When ye come to appear before me, "who hath required this at your hand to "tread my courts? Bring no more vain

66

66

h Pfalm 1. 8.

VOL. II.

T

Pfalm li. 16.

"obla

3. Ifaiah.

SECT.

III.

"oblations; incenfe is an abomination
"unto me; the new moons and fabbaths,
“the calling of affemblies I cannot away
"with; it is iniquity, even the folemn
meeting. Your new moons, and your
"appointed feasts, my foul hateth; they
"are a trouble unto me; I am weary to
"bear them." After this immediately fol-
lows the reason, why these ceremonies were
a trouble to God, and what was the only
true method of gaining his favour; the
real poffeffion of those virtues, of which
the legal obfervances were only the fha-
dow. "When ye spread forth
your hands,
“I will hide mine eyes from you; yea,
" when ye make many prayers, I will not
"hear your hands are full of blood. Wash
"6 ye, make ye clean: put away the evil
"of your doings from before mine eyes;

ceafe to do evil; learn to do well; feek judgment, relieve the oppreffed, judge "the fatherless, plead for the widow."

In another part of his Prophecies, Ifaiah foretells the blind attachment of the Jews to rites and ceremonies, and that, in consequence of their not being converted to a purer revelation, they fhould be removed

* Ifaiah i. II.

from

from their own land, and scattered among CHAP. the Gentiles. "Go and tell this people, III. "Hear ye indeed, but understand not;

and fee ye indeed, but perceive not. "Make the heart of this people fat, and "make their ears heavy, and fhut their eyes; left they fee with their eyes, and "hear with their ears, and understand with "their heart, and convert, and be healed. "Then faid I, Lord, how long? And he "answered, Until the cities be wafted "without inhabitant, and the houses with"out man, and the land be utterly defolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forfaking " in the midft of the land'."

7

The fame lip-fervice, to which men in all ages are fo prone, is, in a fimilar manner, upbraided in the following paffage. "Wherefore the Lord faid, Forafmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour "me, but have removed their heart far "from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a mar

66

SECT.

III.

Jeremiah.

"vellous work among this people, even a "marvellous work and a wonder: for the "wisdom of their wife men fhall perish, "and the understanding of their prudent "men fhall be hidm." The judicial blindnefs here spoken of remains to this day. Still does the wifdom of their wife men perifh, and still is the understanding of their prudent men hid. But darkness is only come upon Ifrael for a feafon; God, in his own due time, will enlighten their hearts, and the whole world will form only one flock under one fhepherd.

4. The prophet next in order is Jeremiah, who expressly foretells the propagation of a pure and fpiritual religion; the abolition of legal ordinances; the call of the Gentiles; and the final restoration of Ifrael. "I will

give you pastors according to mine heart, "which fhall feed you with knowledge " and understanding. And it shall come "to pass, when ye be multiplied and in"creased in the land, in those days, faith “the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: nei"ther fhall it come to mind; neither fhall

they remember it; neither fhall they

m Ifaiah xxix. 13.

❝ vifit

66

"vifit it; neither fhall that be done any CHAP. 66 more. At that time, they fhall call Je- 111. rufalem, the Throne of the Lord and "all the nations fhall be gathered unto it, "to the name of the Lord, to Jerufalem: "neither fhall they walk any more after "the imagination of their evil heart"."

The other prophecy of Jeremiah, relative to the fame event, is perhaps yet more particular. "Behold the days come,

faith the Lord, that I will make a new "covenant with the house of Ifrael, and "with the houfe of Judah; not according "to the covenant that I made with their "fathers, in the day that I took them by "the hand to bring them out of the land "of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, "although I was an husband unto them,

faith the Lord. But this fhall be the "covenant that I will make with the houfe "of Ifrael: After those days, faith the "Lord, I will put my law in their inward "parts, and write it in their hearts; and "I will be their God, and they shall be ઘઉં my people." According to this prediction, the ancient Levitical covenant was

n

Jerem. iii. 15.

• Jerem. xxxi. 31.