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II.

from the very first circles of fociety; pro- CHAP. vided only his manners be elegant, and himself guiltless of non-conformity to the fashionable world. It is not difficult to affign a reason for this ftrange inversion of right and wrong. "There never was a "good man, nor ever will be, who was "not evil fpoken of, and depreciated in "the judgment of the public; and the "rule is fo univerfal, that our Saviour faith "to all Christians, Woe be unto you, when "all men speak well of you. Evil words

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are not pointed against evil things. The "world delights to afperfe thofe, who are "unlike to themselves."

6.

The red

6. A fingular ceremony, ordained for the purification of the unclean, is recorded heifer. in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Numbers. The children of Ifrael are commanded to bring a red heifer without spot or blemish, and which had never fubmitted to the yoke. The priest is directed to lead her out of the camp, in order that she may be flain in his prefence. After her blood has been fprinkled feven times before the

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SECT. tabernacle, the whole of the animal is to

II.

be burnt with cedar wood, hyffop, and scar-
let. The
let. The priest is then commanded to
bathe himself and to wash his clothes; to
return into the camp, and to be reckoned
unclean until the evening. A man not la-
bouring under any legal impurity collects
the ashes of the heifer, and depofits them
without the camp in a clean place, to be
reserved for a water of feparation to purify
the Ifraelites.

The manner of using the afhes was as follows. A portion of them, being mixed with running water in a proper vessel, was fprinkled with hyffop upon the tent, and upon all contained within it. The unclean perfon himself next underwent the fame ceremony on the third and feventh days; and, after the appointed ablutions were performed, his purity was reftored.

This type is applied by St. Paul to our Saviour, in two feveral places. "If-the "afhes of an heifer fprinkling the unclean "fanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; "how much more fhall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit,

" offered

"offered himself without fpot to God, CHAP. purge your confcience from dead worksh II. "to ferve the living God."

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But as it may be thought, that this is spoken only by way of application and comparison, let us proceed to examine the "The bodies of thofe beafts, "whose blood is brought into the fanc"tuary by the high-priest for fin, are "burned without the camp. Wherefore,

other paffage.

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Jefus alfo, that he might fanctify the

people with his own blood, fuffered with"out the gate *." It appears then, that Chrift was crucified out of the city, in order that this typical Prophecy might be accomplished.

By an attentive obferver, many points of resemblance will be difcovered between the emblem and the reality. The heifer was free from all blemish; Chrift was pure from every ftain of fin. The heifer, on account of the impurity of the people, was

The fprinkling of the water of feparation is particularly faid to purify from the contact of a dead body.

iHeb. ix. 13.

k Heb. xiii. II.

made

SECT. made unclean'; Chrift, on account of our II. iniquities, was made even fin itself. The heifer had never been brought under the yoke; Chrift, fo far from being fubject to the bondage of fin, conferred upon others the glorious freedom of the fons of God. The heifer, as St. Paul obferves, was flain without the camp; Chrift fuffered without the gates of Jerufalem. Such are the principal features, in which the type and the antitype resemble each other.

A curious Jewish tradition refpecting this ceremony is mentioned by Maimonides;

1

תשע פרות אדומות נעשו משנצטוו במצות זו עד שחרב הבית בשניה: ראשונה עשה משה רבינו שנייה עשה עזרא ושבע מעזרא עד חורבן הבית : והעשירי עושה המלך המשיח מהרה Nine red heifers * יגלח אמן כן יהיה רצון :

"have been facrificed between the original

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delivering of this precept, and the defo"lation of the second temple. Our master "Mofes facrificed the firft; Ezra offered

up the fecond; and feven more were "flain during the period, which elapfed "from the time of Ezra to the deftruction

1 Numb. xix. 7, 8, 10, 21.

m 2 Cor. v. 21.

" of

II.

"of the temple. The tenth, King Mef- CHAP. “fiah himself will facrifice; by his speedy "manifestation he will caufe great joy. Amen, may he come quickly "."

The Lord has indeed revealed himself already, and in his own perfon has offered up the laft and the true facrifice, of which all others were only the appointed emblems. At once the priest and the victim, he has fully accomplished this fingular prophetical tradition, and has fhewn himself to be the only oblation which can take away the fins of the world. It is poffible, that God may have ordained it, that the Jews fhould thus unconsciously and involuntarily bear their teftimony to the felfoffered facrifice of the Meffiah. Such a supposition is not entirely devoid of proba`bility, fince a fimilar inftance of undefigned prophecy is recorded by the pen of St. John°.

7.

The cities

7. There is a circumftance in the appointment of the cities of refuge, too re- of refuge. markable to be omitted in difcuffing the

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