two Tables of Stone, which he deliver'd to Mofes on Mount Sinai, for the Ufe of the Jewish Church. These Ten Commandments are call'd the Decalogue; and may be seen in Exod. xx. and Deut. v. To thefe general Heads of Morality contain'd in the Decalogue, there were added divers particular Rules and Precepts fuited to the Cafes of private Life; all which Mofes wrote in a Book, and then read it to the People. To thefe Mofaical Precepts of Morality, which The feven Preare of Divine Authority, may be added the Seven cepts of Noah, by Tradition. Precepts of Noah, which are merely Traditional; Noab having (as the Jewish Doctors pretend) receiv'd the first Six by Tradition from Adam, and added the seventh himself, from whom the Rabbinical Doctors fay they have them alfo by Tradition: They are as follow. (1.) To renounce What they be all Idolatry. (2.) To bless the Name of God. (3.) To abstain from bedding Blood, or Murder. (4.) Not to uncover one's Nakedness, by which Fornication, &c. is forbid. (5.) Not to steal, or commit Rapine. (6.) Judgments or Punishments of Malefactors. (7.) Not to eat any Part of a Beast taken from it alive. These traditional By whom to be Precepts of Noah were to be acknowledged and obferved. obferved by those whom the Jews call'd the Profelytes of the Gate. THE Ceremonial Law of the Jews was that The Ceremo which appointed the Rites, Ceremonies, and Or- nial Law. dinances, which made up the Jewish Service and Worship. This confifted principally of the following Parts. (1.) Sacrifices and Offerings. The Jewish (2.) Libations. (3.) Prayers. (4.) Preaching. Worship. (5.) Confeffion. THE Sacrifices were made only of five Sorts The Sacrifices, of Creatures, viz. Oxen, Lambs, Goats, Tur- of what made. tle-Doves, and young Pigeons. They were of four Sorts. (1.) The Holocauft, or whole Burnt- Of how many E 4 Offering, forts. Libations, or ings. Offering, every Part whereof was confumed by Fire, Levit. i. (2.) The Meat-Offering, confifting of fine Flour mingled with Oil, &c. See Levit. ii. (3.) The Peace-Offering, the Manner of which fee in Levit. iii. (4.) The SinOffering, of which you have an Account in Levit. iv. and following Chapters. THE Libations were thofe Drink-Offerings Drink-Offer which were added to the Sacrifices. These were made of various Quantities of ftrong Wine, which was pour'd forth to the Lord in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle; concerning which you may read Numb. xxviii, and xxix. Their Prayers. tures. Kiriath Shema. THEIR Prayers made another Part of their Service; thefe at firft were very few, but afterwards increas'd to a very large Bulk. Their Liturgies and Rubrics are fo long, tedious, and perplex'd, that in this Refpect, as well as feveral others, they vie with, if not exceed, the fuperftitious Roman-Catholics. The moft folemn Part of their Prayers are thofe which they call Shemoneh Efbreb, or the eighteen Prayers, which they fay were composed by Ezra and the great Synagogue; to which another Prayer was afterwards added. Their reading THE reading and expounding the Scriptures and expound made the most confiderable Part of the Service ing the Scrip- of the latter Jews. The reading the Scriptures is of three Sorts. (1.) The Kiriath Shema, or reading the Shema; it confifts in reading three Portions of the Scripture, viz. from Deut. vi, ver. 4 to 10. from Deut. xi. ver. 13 to 22. and from Numb. xv. ver. 37 to the end of the Chapter. This reading the Shema is accompanied with feveral Prayers and Benedictions. (2.) The Reading the reading the Law; which in the Hebrew Bibles is divided into 54 Sections, one of which they read on each Sabbath, and fo the whole Law was Law. read read once a Year. (3.) The reading of the Pro- Reading the phets. In the Time of Perfecution under Anti-Prophets. ocbus Epiphanes the Jews were forbid to read the Law; instead of which they substituted 54 SeEtions out of the Prophets, and read them to the Times of the Maccabees, who reftored the reading of the Law, and then both were read; the one for the first, the other for the fecond Leffon. See Acts xiii. 15. and 27. After reading these Leffons, they preach'd to the People. Preaching. THE next thing refpecting the Jewish Wor-The Jewish fbip is their Festivals; of which they have feve- Festivals. ral. As (1.) The Sabbath-Day, which they de- The Sabbath. dicated wholly to Reft, and Religious Purposes. (2.) The Paffover; for the Time and Manner of celebrating it, fee its Inftitution in Exod. xii. The Paffover. This was call'd the Feast of unleavened Bread. (3.) The Feaft of Pentecoft; fo call'd because it of Pentecoft. was the Fiftieth Day (or Seven Weeks) after the fecond of the Paffover; its Inftitution is in Levit. xxiii. 17, &c. The Feafts of the Paffover and Pentecoft anfwer to our Eafter and Whitfuntide. (4.) The Feast of Tabernacles; during which the ofTabernacles People lived in Booths, which was seven Days. See Levit. xxiii. 34. and Numb. xxix. 12. (5.) The Feast of Trumpets; this began the first Day Of Trumpets. of the Month Tifri, and was proclaim'd by Blowing of Trumpets. (6.) The Feast of Ex-Of Expiation. piation, call'd the Day of Atonement; and this was the Day on which the Priefts went into the Sanctuary. See Levit. xxiii. 27, &c. (7.) The Feast of New-Moons; this was every first Day Of Newof their Months. See Numb. xxviii. 11. (8.) Moons. The Sabbatical Year, or Year of Reft, wherein The Sabbatical they neither fow'd nor reap'd; this was every feventh Year: Levit. xxv. 2, 3, 4. (9.) The Year of Jubilee; which was every fiftieth Year: Of Jubilee. This was a Sabbath of annual Sabbaths; this was the Year. Lots. In the last Feaft God commanded the Jews, and the moft folemn; for then all Eftates alienated return'd to thofe who had fold them, and Slaves Of Purim, or recover'd their Liberty. (10.) Feaft of Purim, or Lots: See its Original in Efther ix. 21. this Feaft the Hiftory of Efther was read, and at every mention of Haman the Jews fmote upon their Benches and Seats, as if they would knock Of Dedication. him on the Head. (11.) The Feast of Dedication; of this we read John x. 22, &c. This was an anniversary or yearly Solemnity appointed by Judas Maccabaus in Commemoration of the Jews Deliverance from the Tyranny of Antiochus ; concerning which fee 1 Macc. iv. All Festivals began and ended on the Evening of the Day. Places of di THE Places confecrated to Divine Service unvine Worship, der the Jewish Difpenfation, were (1.) The TaThe Tabernacle bernacle, which was moveable, and but for a San&tuary. Time, viz. of their fojourning State. (2.) The The Temple. Temple built by Solomon. In both these there were three remarkable Parts, viz. 1. The Sanctum Holy of Holies. Sanctorum, or Holy of Holies, the moft holy Place; into which only the High-Priest might enter, and that but once a Year; which was on the Feast of Expiation, to make an Atonement for the People. 2. The Sanctuary, or that Part before the Holy of Holies. 3. The Court before the Tabernacle and Temple. (3.) Synagogues; thefe, with respect to the Temple, were as ParishChurches with us in regard of the Cathedral Churches. The Rule was, to have a Synagogue in every Place where there was ten Batelnim, or Perfons of full Age, and free Conditions, always ready to attend the Service of it. (4.) The Profeucha, Oratories, or Houfes of Prayer. These were not cover'd, but open above, like Courts; and in which every one pray'd apart for himfelf, as in the Courts of the Temple. They were Profeucha, Oratories, or built chiefly on high Places, and are the same, probably, which in the Old Teftament are call'd High-Places. High-Places. Orders. As to the religious Orders in the Jewish Mini- Religious ftry, the principal was the Sacerdotal Order, or that of the Priesthood. In this Order there was Priesthood. one Chief or Head, call'd the High-Prieft. Of thefe Aaron was the Firft, and the High-Prieftbood was peculiar, or tied, to his First-Born; and that thro' all Ages of the Jewish Oeconomy. (2.) The common Priesthood, to which the Pofte- The Levitical rity of Levi was particularly confecrated. The Priesthood. peculiar Offices of the Aaronical and Levitical Priesthood are largely fet down in the Books of Mofes; together with the Manner of the Confecration and Ordination proper to each. (3.) The Netbinims, who were a fort of an Order of Netbinims. Deacons; they were Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water for the House of God. These were neither Levites, nor even Ifraelites, but tributary Gibeonites. See Job. ix. 23. and Ezra ii. 43. These three Orders were proper to the Cathedral or Temple Service: But befides these there were (4.) Elders or Rulers of the Synagogues; and next Elders of the to these (perchance one of them) was (5.) The Synagogue. Minister of the Synagogue, whom they call'd Sheliach Zibbor, i. e. The Messenger or Angel of the The Sheliach Church: In reference to whom, the Bishops Zibbor, or of the feven Churches of Afia are fo call'd, Rev. Church. Angel of the i. 20. Under these were (6.) The Chazanim or The Chazanin Overfeers of the Synagogue, who had the Charge or Overfeers. of all things in it, and kept the Books of the Law, Prophets, Liturgies, &c. with the Utenfils belonging to the Synagogue Service. But particularly the Chazan ftood by, overlook'd, directed, and corrected those who read the Lefons out of the Law and the Prophets. See Luke vi. 20. (7.) The next Officer was the Interpreter, whofe The Interpreter Business |