17.

Lev. xxi.

6.

Lev. x.8.

Law, than given here. As to those of the Second kind; He was not to defile himself Lev. xxi. by mourning for the dead; unless in the Lev. xxi. Cafe of a Father or Mother, Brother or 2, 3. Sifter, Son or Daughter: nor was he to defile himself by touching or going in to any of these. He was, in general, to be Holy, 11. and to avoid every thing profane, in his Lev. xxi. Life and Converfation. And, in another Place, The LORD spake unto Aaron, Saying; Do not drink wine nor ftrong drink, Thou, nor thy fons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, left ye die. It shall be a ftatute for ever, throughout your generations. He was not to marry a Prostitute, or one that had been divorc'd, or Woman of ill Fame; or even a dow: But a spotless Virgin, of good Rank and Condition among his People. Accordingly we find Jehoiada the High-Prieft Lev. married to the Sifter of Ahaziah King of 2 Chron. Judah. He was not to fhave his head, nor xxii. 11. the corner of his beard; nor to make tings in his flesh. Nor to uncover his head, Ib. 10.

any

Wi

any cut

* In Ezekiel's Injunctions, they are allow'd to marry a Widow, whofe firft Husband had been a Prieft before. xliv. 22.

nor

Lev. xxi.

7.

Lev.
13.

15.

Lev.

5.

Lev.

xxii.

Lev. xxi.

22.

nor to rent his clothes. The Directions which
he was to obferve, as to occafional Purifi-
cations, are too many, to be here recited.
I shall further only obferve in this Place,
that those of the Tribe of Levi, who were
so unhappy as to have any Disqualification
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.

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 dress and prepare 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 Incenfe, 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 Instances of each of these,
separately.

xxiv. I.

For the ordering of the Lamps, the Instructions are these; The LORD spake unto Lev. Mofes, faging, 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 congregation, fhall Aaron order it, from evening unto the morning, before the LORD continually; It shall be a ftatute for ever, in your generations. He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick, before the LORD continually.

Which is to be understood, in a qualified Sense, that the High-Prieft was to fee that it was done continually, by those whofe Lot it was, to attend upon that Bufinefs. For, after, when the Levites are number'd, and their several 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. table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the veffels of the fanctuary, wherewith

they

iii. 31.

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 bufinefs. They burn unto the LORD every morning and every evening, burnt-facrifices and fweet incense; the fhew-bread alfo 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 Moses the fervant of God had commanded. Again; Aaron was separated, that he should fanctify the most holy things,

vi. 49.

J Chron.

xxiii. 13.

be

he and his fons for ever, to burn incense before the LORD. And, in this fenfe, it was Zachariah's Lot, though only a Priest of the second 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 shall be Aaron's and his fons; and they fhall 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 xxi. 4, 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 ftood 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

&c.