2. He may be considered as the God of Israel, or the Jews, as a church outward and visible; whom he had separated from the rest of the nations to be a peculiar people to himself; and so he prescribed to them peculiar forms of worship, and special ceremonies and rites of religion, as tokens of their duty and his grace.

3. He may be considered as the proper King of the Israelites, as a nation, and as they were his subjects, and so he gave them judicial or political laws, which relate to their government, and the common affairs of the civil law. But these three sorts of laws are not kept so entirely distinct as not to be intermingled with each other. It is all indeed but one body of laws, and given properly to that one people under different dispensations, And on this account it is sometimes hard to say under which head some of these commands of God must be reduced. Some commands relating to their houses and garments, their ploughing and sowing, and the prohibition of ticular sorts of food, are naturally ranked under their political laws: and yet there is plainly something ceremonial or religious designed or included in them. Again, that which we call the Moral Law, or the Ten Commands, is for the most part the Law of Nature, but it has something of a positive institution, ceremonial or ritual, in it. This is very plain in the fourth command of the seventh day sabbath; but in this catechism it was not proper to enter into too nice inquiries on this subject. The three branches of this distinction of the Jewish laws in the main are evident enough, though they happen to be intermingled in some instances.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE MORAL LAW.

1 Q. Which was the moral law given to the Jews? A. All those commands which relate to their behaviour, considered as men, and which lie scattered up and down in the books of Moses: but they are as it were reduced into a small compass in the Ten Commandments.

2 Q. How were these ten commands first given them?

A. By the voice of God on Mount Sinai, three months after their coming out of Egypt; and it was attended with thunder, and fire and smoke, and the sound of a trumpet, Exod.xix. 18, 19, and xx. 1-18. 3 Q. Where was this moral law more especially written?

A. In the two tables of stone which God wrote with his own hand, and gave to Moses, Exod. xxiv. 12. xxxii. 15, 16, and xxxiv. 1.

4 Q. What did the first table contain?

A. Their duty towards God in the first four commandments. See Exod. xx. 3-11. Deut. v. 11. 5 Q. What are these first four commandments? A. (1.) Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (2.) Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (3.) Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

(4.) Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it.

6 Q. Is God's resting from his works of creation

on the seventh day, the only reason why the Jews were required to keep the sabbath or day of rest?

A. This latter part of the fourth commandment, namely, the reason of the sabbath, taken from the creation, and God's resting on the seventh day, is entirely omitted in the rehearsal of the ten commands in the fifth of Deuteronomy: and instead of it the Jews are required to observe this command of the sabbath or holy rest, for another reason, namely, because they were slaves in Egypt, and God gave them a release and rest from their slavery, Deut. v. 15. Though it is possible both reasons of this command might be pronounced from mount Sinai, and only that mentioned in Exodus be written on the tables of stone.

7. Q What did the second table contain?

A. Their duty towards man in the last six commandments, Exod. xx. 12-17. Deut. v. 16-21 8 Q. What are these last six commandments? A. (5.) Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

(6.) Thou shalt not kill.

(7.) Thou shalt not commit adultery.

(8.) Thou shalt not steal.

(9.) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

(10.) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house: thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

90Q. Were these ten commands given to the Jews only, or are they given to all mankind?

bi Almost every thing contained in these commands is taught by the light of nature, and obliges all mankind: the honour that is done them in the New Testtament intimates this also. But there are several expressions in these laws by which it plainly appears, they were peculiarly appropriated and suited to the Jewish nation in their awful proclamation at Mount Sinai.

10 Q. Wherein does it appear so plainly that these laws, as given at Mount Sinai, have a peculiar respect to the Jews?

A. This is evident in the preface, where God engages their attention and obedience, by telling them, that he was the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt." This appears also in the fourth command, where the seventh day is the appointed sabbath for the Jews: and in Deut. v. 15, God gives this reason for the sabbath, that "He brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand." It is yet further manifest in the fifth commandment, where the promise of "long life in the land," literally refers to the land of Canaan which God gave that people: "that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Yet, as is before intimated, the citation of them by the Apostles in the New Testament as rules of our duty, doth plainly enforce the observation of them so far on the consciences of Christians.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW OF THE JEWS.

1 Q. What was the ceremonial law?

A. All those commands which seem to have some religious design in them, especially such as related to their cleansing from any defilement, and their peculiar forms of worship.

Note, I have hinted before, that several of the political laws which were given to the Jews by God as their king have something ceremonial in them; and they were designed to be emblems, types, or figures, of some spiritual parts of religion. There was also some part of their ceremonies of purifications and their rites of religious worship which have a political aspect, and were prescribed by God as king of their nation. But I choose to rank all their purifying rites, and their rules of worship, rather under this head of the ceremonial or religious

laws, because their forms of purification do more plainly and eminently typify or represent to us how much care the people of God should take to be separated and purified from every sin, and from the communion of sinners; and the Jewish rites of worship represent to us, by way of type or emblem, that spiritual and evangelic worship which should be paid to God, especially under the New Testament, as the Lord of souls and consciences; as well as those blessings of the Gospel, which are brought in by Christ and the Holy Spirit, are represented hereby. SECTION I.

Of the Ceremonies of Purification.

2 Q. What were the chief rites or ceremonies appointed for purification or cleansing among the Jews?

A. Washing with water, sprinkling with water or blood, anointing with holy oil, shaving the head of man or woman, together with various sorts of sacrifices, and some other appointments, Heb. ix. 10, 19, 22. Lev. xv. xvi. and xiii. 33. Numb. vi. 19. Exod xl. 9. 3 Q. What were those things or persons among the Jews which were required to be purified?

A. All persons, houses, buildings, garments, or other things which were set apart for the service of God; and all such as had been defiled by leprosy, by touching human dead bodies, or the carcass of any unclean animals, or by other ceremonial pollutions. See Lev. xi. xii. xiii. xiv. and xv. Exod. xl. 9-15. Numb. viii. 6. and xix. 9, &c.

4 Q. How were the persons or things of the Gentiles to be purified for the use of the Israelites?

A. The things which could endure the fire were to pass through the fire; other things were to be washed with water, Numb. xxxi. 20-24. And the maidens were to have their heads shaven, and their nails pared, before an Israelite could take any of them for a wife. Deut. xxi. 12.

6 Q. Were there not some things which could not be purified at all by any ceremonies?