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Lev.

xxii.

Lev. xxi.

22.

nor to rent his clothes. The Directions which he was to observe, as to occafional Purifications, are too many, to be here recited.

I shall further only obferve in this Place, that those of the Tribe of Levi, who were fo unhappy as to have any Difqualification of the first kind upon them, were allowed to eat the bread of their God, both of the moft boly, and of the holy Only, he shall not come in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar.

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SECT. VI.

The Office of the High-Prieft.

The Duties peculiarly incumbent upon the High-Prieft were thefe; to enter the Tabernacle, every Day; to drefs and depres pare the Lamps; to make the Oblation of Incense; to prepare, and exchange the Loaves of Shew-Bread, every Week; to offer the Sacrifices, with the rest of the Priefts, upon the Sabbaths, and Festivals; and, once a Year, to enter into the Holy of Holies, with a Cenfer of Incense, upon the great Day of Atonement, to make a general Expiation, for his own Sins, and those of

the

*

the whole Nation of the Children of Ifrael. We will produce Inftances of each of these, separately.

For the ordering of the Lamps, the Inftructions are thefe; The LORD spake unto

Lev.

xxiv. I.

Mofes, faying, Command the children of &c.
Ifrael that they bring unto thee pure oyl olive,
beaten, for the light; to cause the lamps to
burn continually. Without the vail of the
teftimony, in the tabernacle of the congrega-
tion, fhall Aaron order it, from evening
unto the morning, before the LORD conti-
nually; It fhall be a ftatute for ever, in your
generations. He fhall order the lamps upon
the pure candlestick, before the LORD CON-
tinually.

Which is to be understood, in a qualified Senfe, that the High-Prieft was to fee that it was done continually, by those whose Lot it was, to attend upon that Bufinefs. For, after, when the Levites are number'd, and their feveral Stations in the Service of the Tabernacle are allotted them. Of the Families of Kohath it is faid, Their charge shall be the ark, and the Numb. iii. 31. table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the vessels of the fanctuary, wherewith

they

they minifter, and the hanging, and all the Service thereof. And Eleazar, the fon of Aaron, the priest, fhall be chief over the chief of the Levites, and have the over fight of them, that keep the charge of the fanctuary. So Abijah fays, in his publick Harangue and Invective against Jeroboam who was an 2 Chron, idolatrous Ufurper; As for us, the LORD xiii. 10. is our God, and we have not forfaken Him; and the priests, which minifter unto the LORD are the fons of Aaron; and the Levites wait upon their business. They burn unto the LORD every morning and every evening, burnt-facrifices and fweet incense; the fhew-bread also they fet in order upon the pure table, and the candlestick of gold, with the lamps thereof to burn every evening.

As to the Oblation of Incenfe being, in the fame qualified fenfe, the Business of the High-Prieft, befides what we have spoke of it before, we find it thus fettled 1 Chron. in after times; Aaron and his fons offered upon the altar of the burnt-offering, and on the altar of incenfe, &c. according to all that Mofes the fervant of God had commanded. Again; Aaron was feparated, that he should fanctify the most holy things,

vi. 49.

I Chron.

xxiii. 13.

be

be and his fons for ever, to burn incense before the LORD. And, in this sense, it was Zachariah's Lot, though only a Priest of the fecond Order, to burn incenfe, when he Luke i. 9. went into the temple of the LORD.

&c.

As to the Management of the Shew- Lev. Bread; the Precept is this; Every fabbath xxiv. 5. he fhall fet it in order before the LORD continually and it fhall be Aaron's and his fons; and they shall eat it in the holy place. Therefore Abimelech, the High-Prieft, when David was importunate with him for fome Bread, fays, There is no common 1 Sam. bread under mine hand; and is unwilling to give him the hallowed Bread: which however David's Neceffity compell❜d him to take: For there was no bread there but the fhew-bread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread, in the day when it was taken away.

And, though our LORD, in the Gospel, excuses the Liberty David had taken, upon account of the great Neceffity he stood in of Bread, to fupport both his own Life and the Lives of his Followers; and by David's Example, excufes his own Difciples from that Breach of Sabbath which S

the

xxi. 4,

&c.

4.

the Pharifees had laid to their Charge,

in plucking the Ears of Corn; yet, he adMatt. xii. mits that David did that which was not lawful for him to do, neither for them that were with him, but only for the Priests. Chron. So it is faid; Other of their brethren of the fons of the Kohathites, were over the fhew-bread, to prepare it every fabbath.

ix. 32.

6.

As to that Part of the High-Prieft's Office which confifted in his offering the Sacrifices upon the Sabbaths and Festivals, we need not bring any further Proofs of it here, having cited fo many, under those Articles. Nor will we repeat what we have had before, concerning his making the yearly Atonement for the Sins of the People; enough having been faid of ic already, where we difcours'd of the particular Day, and Sacrifice, and the Dif miffion of the Scape-Goat.

We will only add what St. Paul says, Heb. ix. by way of Confirmation: The Priefts went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the fervice of God; But into the second, went the High-Prieft alone, once every year; not without blood; which he offered for himSelf, and for the errors of the people.

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