himself about the precise manner of killing one bird and releasing another? Will he, who claims the worship of the heart, have such an especial regard to a drop or two of despicable blood, put upon the tip of the right ear, or the thumb of the right hand? Surely, such childish ceremonies are too minute and trivial for the notice, much more for the solemn appointment of the supreme Majesty !"

Asp. You will please to remember, that when those ceremonies were ordained, it was the infancy, at least the minority of the church. If we advert to this circumstance, we shall have reason to admire both the all-comprehending wisdom, and the no less condescending goodness, of Jehovah. His all-comprehending wisdom, in conforming, so accurately and so minutely, the type to the event, though the former was established, long, long before the latter existed. Many ages before the desire of nations appeared, his picture was drawn, was presented to public view, and is now found to correspond, in every feature, with the illustri ous original. What hand could be equal to such a task, but only the hand of an omniscient Limner? His condescending goodness, in adapting the tenor of his revelation to the state of his people, speaking unto them, even as unto babes ;'s not by naked precepts, or abstracted truths, but by earthly similitudes, and (if I may so express myself) by embodied instructions;

Lev. xiv. 4-7.

+ Exod. xxix, 20.

St. Paul calls the church of those times vnio, an infant, or babe,' Gal. iv. 1. 3. And the ceremonial institutions have been styled with as much truth as ingenuity, Evangelium elementare et præliminare." §1 Cor. ii. 1.

This seems to be our Lord's meaning, when he says to Nicodemus, If I have told you earthly things.' He had been treating of that internal spiritual renovation, which is the root and spring of all holiness. He had been speaking of that divine Spirit, whose gracious and almighty agency produces this desirable change. The nature of the former was represented under the similitude of a birth, by which we enter upon a new state, form new ideas, and habituate ourselves to new practices, plea sures, and pursuits. The operations of the latter were described by the common and well-known properties of the wind. This he mentions as a plain and familiar method of teaching; this he opposes to telling him of heavenly things, or delivering refined and exalted truths, not accommodated to the capacity, not brought within the compass of an infantine understanding, by any assimilation to sensible objects, John iij. 12.

such as were level to their low capacities, and calculated to affect their dull apprehensions.

The institutions to which you hint, were undoubt edly mean and trifling, if considered in themselves. Accordingly their wise and majestic author cautions his people against such erroneous and unworthy notions. I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices.* It was not my design that they should acquiesce in the shadow, and neglect the substance. I never intended that they should rest in the porch, but pass through these ordinances to much sublimer things. Christ and spiritual blessings were principally in my view; to which all the Mosaical usages were relative, subservient, and one continual manuduction." Considered in this light, as bearing a reference to the ever-blessed Mediator, as emblems of his person, and pledges of his grace, they acquire a real magnificence, and convey the most salutary lessons.

The blood put upon the tip of the ear, and thumb of the hand, denotes our personal application of the death of Christ; without which all its virtue, though boundless and inconceivable, will profit us nothing. Those particular parts of the body may signify the perceptive and executive faculties; in both which we offend, and for both which we need the great propi. tiation. Of the two birds you mention, one was to be killed, the other was to fly away, after it had been dipped in the blood of its fellow. Thus the Lord Jesus was crucified for our sins, and we being washed in his blood, being interested in the atonement of our holy victim and elder brother, are acquitted from guilt, and escape condemnation. Concerning the paschal lamb it was particularly enjoined, that the flesh should not be eaten raw, nor sodden with water, but roasted with fire; and of every offering from the herd or from the flock, the fat and the inwards were, by an express coramand of God, delivered up to the devouring flame. All this was an emblem of that tremendous indignation which is poured out like fire ;'t Jer. vii. 22. + Nah. i, 6.

which seized our immaculate sacrifice, that it might spare polluted sinners; and which must have consumed utterly any mediator, who was less than infinite, or other than divine.

Had you beheld our renowned Newton blowing up, with great assiduity and attention, his little watery vesicles into the air, you would, perhaps, have despised the venerable philosopher, and have thought him little better than a hoary idiot. But when you was told, that, in every one of these volatile soapy bubbles, he discovered the beauteous colours of the rainbow, and from this seemingly childish experiment, he explained the nature of that wonderful arch, you would then entertain a different notion, both of the man and of his employ. So when you discern the blessed Jesus looking forth at these windows, and shewing himself through these lattices' ef the Jewish economy, you will, I hope, conceive a higher opinion of them, and derive richer advantage from them.

Ther. There are several persons, as well as ritual observances, of a very singular character, mentioned in the Mosaic law. The leper, for instance, the Nazarite, with others of the same antiquated and grotesque stamp; which seem, to me at least, so many unmeaning narratives, that convey no manner of edification to readers in the present age. I have frequently had an inclination, and now 1 have a proper opportunity, to ask your opinion upon these points.

Asp. I thank you, Theron, for giving me the hint. What you propose is by no means foreign to the topic of our discourse. Those persons were truly remarkable; neither are the peculiarities of their case recorded in vain. They picture out, in dismal and delightful colours, the sinner and the Saviour. To know ourselves and to know Christ is true wisdom; is

Cantic. li. 9. The word, in the first edition, is flourishing through.' It was taken from the Hebrew without consulting the English Bible, and is a literal translation of yy, which signifies more than barely shewing himself; shewing himself with lustre and beauty, like a delicate flower in its blooming state and glossy colours. Yet flourishing through lattices, manifesting himself, not completely, but in part; concealing some, while he reveals much of his mediatorial glory.

indeed the consummation of all knowledge. Here we have a lecture of hieroglyphical instruction on both those important subjects.

The leper was an emblem of a sinner. His disease extremely afflictive to himself, and intolerably loathsome to others. Sin likewise is the sorest of all misevies to the wretch who commits it; and most detestably odious to the God who forbids it. The leper was secluded from the benefits of society, and all communication with his fellow-citizens. The sinner also, while impenitent and unpardoned, is an alien from the commonwealth of Israel,+ without any enjoyment of the comforts, or any interest in the privileges of the gospel. If he dies in this condition, he must be for ever shut out from the kingdom of heaven; for ever cut off from the presence of the Lord.

The contagion was sometimes so pestilent, that it not only tainted the clothes of the diseased, but spread itself over the walls of his house, and infected the timber of the beams. It was sometimes so inveterate, that it could be eradicated no other way but by burning the garment, and demolishing the building. Does not this give us a clear but melancholy view of original corrup tion, which has transfused its poison through all the faculties of the soul, and all the members of the body; nor will ever be entirely expelled till death releases the former, and consigns the latter to the dust?

What could cure this terrible distemper even in its mildest state? Not all the balm of Gilead, not all the drugs on a thousand hills; nothing but the consecrated oil and sacrificial blood, duly applied by the highpriest. And what can heal the disorders of our fallen souls so far heal them as to purge away their guilt, and subdue the prevalence of their iniquities? No acts of mortification, no vigilance, nor any efforts of our own; nothing but the atoning death and sanctifying spirit of the blessed Jesus. The malignity and virulence of this plague of the heart are absolutely incorrigible by any other expedient. But, blessed be divine grace, this remedy provided by our great High+ Eph. ii. 12.

See Lev. chap. xiii, xiv.

priest, and administered by our great Physician, is sovereign, and never fails.

The case of the Nazarites was the very reverse of the state of the lepers. 'Her Nazarites,' Jeremiah says, 'were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphires.'t A faint representation of the only-begotten Son, who is the fairest among ten thousand, the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person; both God and man in one sacred, wonderful, adorable Saviour. They, during the time of their separation, abstained from wine, withdrew from secular business, avoided every kind of pollution, and dedicated themselves in an especial manner to the service of God. A type of that glorious Nazarite, who was separated for a season from the fruitions of heaven; who was holy, harmless, and undefiled both in his nature and all his conversation; who sanctified himself, and devoted his life and labours, his soul and body to the glory of his Father, and the redemption of his people. The Nazarites, even when they had discharged their vow, and were ceremonially clean, yet were obliged to offer a sin-offering, a burnt-offering, and a peace-offering. So the great Redeemer, though he had perfectly obeyed all the preceptive parts of the divine law, yet was required to offer up a sacrifice, even the incomparably precious sacrifice of himself, in order to consummate the work of our salvation.

Ther. Have you a sufficient warrant for this strain of interpretation? Is it sound, is it rational, or conformable to any authentic standard of scriptural expo. sition? Methinks it looks more like the child of fancy, than the offspring of judgment; more like the sally of sportive imagination, than the result of a sober disquisition.

You cannot be ignorant, Aspasio, how the ruling passion tinctures the whole conduct. Hence it is, I apprehend, that your religious inamoratoes find hea. venly beauties, where Scripture intended no more than natural truths. Hence it is, that they turn plain facts See Numb. chap. vi. + Lam. iv. 7.