1 Sam. vii. 9. his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes: And there rofe up fire out of the rock, and confumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And we read that Samuel took a fucking lamb and offered it for a burnt-offering wholly unto the LORD: And Samuel cried unto the LORD for Ifrael, and the LORD ib. x. 8. beard him. Again, he tells Saul, Thou Shall go down before me to Gilgal, and behold I will come down unto thee, to offer burnt-offerings, and to facrifice facrifices of peace-offerings. At which Time, we find that Saul, impatient of tarrying any lonfor Samuel, refolves to facrifice without him, and fays, Bring hither a burntoffering to me, and peace-offerings. For ib. xiii. 9. which he afterwards endeavours to excuse *--11, 12. himself to Samuel, by faying, Because thou cameft not within the days appointed, therefore, faid I, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made fupplication unto the LORD; I forced my Self therefore, and offered a burnt-offering. ger And when David was ordering the Ark to be brought to Mount Sion, from vi. 13,17. the House of Obed-Edom, when they that 2 Sam. bare bare the ark of the LORD, had gone fix paces, be facrificed oxen and fatlings. And, as foon as he bad placed it in the tabernacle that he had pitched for it, he offered burnt-off rings and peace-offerings before the LORD. Also, in the Threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebufite, he built an altar, and 1 Chron. offer'd burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. ib. xxix. And, at his refigning the Crown to Solo- 21. mon, we read of his making a most pompous Offering. xxi. 26. iii. 15. Solomon, after God's gracious Promises to him, offer'd up burnt-offerings and peace- 1 Kings offerings. And, after he had built the ib. ix. 25. Temple, it is faid, Three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt-offerings and peaceofferings upon the altar which he had built unto the LORD. And when Ahaz, one of the Kings of Judah, had caus'd a new Altar to be built after the Fashion of one he had feen at Damafcus, we are told, he offered thereon; And he burnt his burnt-offering, and his meat-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and fprinkled the blood of his peace-offerings upon the altar. And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the Priest, faying, upon the great altar 2 Kings xvi. 13. altar burn the morning burnt-offering, and the evening meat-offering, and the king's burnt-sacrifice and his meat offering, with the burntoffering of all the people of the land, and their meat-offering, and their drink-offerings, and Sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt-offering, and all the blood of the facrifice. And Hezekiah, after he had fanctified 2 Chron. the House of the LORD, gathered the ruxxix. 21. lers of the city, and commanded the Priests to offer feven bullocks, and feven rams, and feven lambs, and seven he-goats, for a finoffering for the kingdom, and for the fanituary, and for Judah; and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar. And they brought forth the he-goats for the fin-offering, before the king and the congregation, and they laid their hands upon them. And the Priests killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Ifrael. And, at the Dedication of the fecond Temple, we read that they offer'd an hundred bullocks, two Ezra vi. hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a fin-offering for all Israel, twelve be-goats. 17. There are more of these Sacrifices mention'd in the hiftorical Books of the Scripture, Scripture, as likewife in the Pfalms and the Prophets; too many to be transferr'd into this Treatife. What we have produc'd may fuffice to fhew how much of the Jewish Religion confifted in them; and how pompously they were folemniz'd upon extraordinary Occafions. That the Obfervance of them was prefcrib'd to them by God himself; and was what they always thought themselves bound to as long as they had Liberty and Power of fo doing. But, after all, by the Light of the Gospel fince reveal'd to us, we are well affur'd that thefe carnal Ordinances were not fo properly an Establishment, as a Toleration. The Times, in which they were conniv'd at, Acts xiv. were Times of grofs Ignorance; and the 16. xvii. People, to whom they were indulg'd, hard- 30. hearted, ftiffnecked, and perverse to a high Degree. Yet, as they were the Pofterity of Abraham, and several other worthy Patriarchs of old, who in the main, had led their Lives in fuch a manner as to please please God; and because, the scanty Proportion of true Religion then existing in the World was no where fo great as among the Tribes of Ifrael; as likewise, because out of them, God had refolv'd the Meffiab, the Saviour of the World, fhould in the Fulness of Time be born: Therefore, he vouchfaf'd so far, to bear with their Infirmities, as to permit them to worship him, after the prevailing Cuftom of the World by facrificing Beafts to him. Since this might help, in fome measure, to kindle reverential Thoughts of the fupreme Deity in their Minds; and thereby inflame them with an ardent Defire to render themfelves acceptable to Him, by an Imitation of that Purity which they knew must be infeparable from him. And especially fince these Sacrifices were fo contriv'd, that they fhould be fignificant towards Man's eternal Salvation, by typically reprefenting that glorious and fatisfactory Sacrifice which CHRIST, in his own Perfon, would one day make, for the Sins of the whole World. And moreover, as they had been always us'd by their Forefathers, and they faw were still us'd by all the Nations round about |