EMPLE, WORSHIP, RITES, AND CEREMONIES. In the wilderness, the tabernacle was constructed for the worship of God; and the Jewish temple, afterwards built by Solomon, was the grandest structure in the world, and so large as to contain an immense multitude, some say 300,000 people! It was overlaid and paved with gold; and the outside, being of the whitest marble, had a singular and dazzling lustre, so as to appear at a distance like a mountain of snow. Some of the stones of it, Josephus tells us, were upwards of sixty-seven feet long, more than seven feet high, and nine feet broad. The second temple, which was built by Zerubbabel and the Jews on their return from Babylon, and afterwards repaired by Herod, was far inferior to the former; and is generally supposed to have wanted these five things, which the other contained, viz. 1st, The Ark of the Covenant, and the mercy-seat which was upon it, with the cherubim of gold, together with the tables of stone on which the law was written, which were in the ark when it was brought into Solomon's temple:* 2d, The Shechinah, or symbol of the divine presence, in a cloud of glory on the mercy-seat: 3d, The Urim and Thummim, whence the oracle or divine answers to their enquiries came: 4th, The Holy Fire upon the altar, which came from heaven. 5th, The Spirit of Prophecy; for soon after the second temple was built, on the death of Malachi, who, according to some, is the same

* 1 Kings, viii. 9.-2 Chron. v. 10.

with Ezra, the prophetic spirit ceased from among the Jews.

The house of God was holy; into the temple, properly so called, none were permitted to enter but the priests, and there they always officiated barefooted; but into the Holy of Holies, the High Priest alone could go, and that only once a year, on the great day of atonement. At the temple only could sacrifices be offered, and there all the males, i. e. as Mr. Locke observes, from twenty to fifty years old, even from the most distant corners of the land, were required to present themselves before the Lord, three times every year.†

The religion of the ancestors of the Jews, before the time of Moses, was the simplest and purest in the world, consisting in the worship of the one living and true God, under whose immediate direction they were; in a firm reliance on his promises under all difficulties and dangers; and in a thankful acknowledgment for all his blessings and deliverances. In that early age, we find the religious custom of tithes; we likewise read of altars, pillars, and monuments raised, and sacrifices offered to God; which last are now generally believed to have been of divine institution. They used circumcision, not so much as a religious act, as a seal of the cove

* Levi's Defence of the Old Testament, in a series of letters to Thomas Paine, p. 145.

+ Deut. xvi. 16.

Genesis, xiv. 20.

nant, which God had made with Abraham.

As

to the mode and circumstances of divine worship, they were much at liberty till the time of Moses; but that legislator, by the direction and appointment of God himself, prescribed an instituted form of religion, and regulated ceremonies, feasts, days, priests, and sacrifices, with the utmost exactness. The rites and observances of their religion under the law were numerous, and its sanctions severe;* and for information on this subject, from the commencement of their history to the destruction of their city and nation, recourse may be had to the Old Testament, Josephus, and Fleury's Manners of the Ancient Jews.

* So much so are they considered by the Jews at this day, that Mr. Levi (Dissertations, Vol. II. p. 144.) seems to view it as one reason, why infidelity gains so much ground among them, that " many wish not to be shackled with the burden of the ceremonial law." But why will they plunge themselves into outer darkness, instead of coming into the light? He whom they continue to reject, though doubtless the true Messiah, had also their ground of complaint in his eye, when, in the most affectionate and encouraging language, he thus called upon them: "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." But the same reason which he assigned for their forefathers not accepting his gracious invitations, may yet, it is feared, be alleged as what makes them still reject them, and choose darkness rather than light. For they must know, that though his gospel would free them from the burden of the ceremonial law, it would not release them, in the least, from those "great restraints in the pursuit of pleasure," which are now so irksome to them, as to induce them to throw off the yoke of that law.

Notwithstanding that God's prophets, and oracles, and ordinances, and the symbol of his presence, were among them, the Jews were ever very prone to idolatry, till the Babylonish furnace thoroughly purified them from that corruption. After their seventy years captivity, they turned indeed from idolatry, and have never again been guilty of the crime;* yet they turned not to true and pure religion, but to superstition, formality, hypocrisy, and schism. Such, in a great measure, was their religious worship and character in our Saviour's time; and such, many seem to think, it still continues to be, in a greater or less degree, at the present day. The noise and confusion of a Jewish synagogue are become proverbial; but I suspect that in many instances they have not been fairly represented by Christians, partly from blind prejudice, but

*The restored Jews have never again voluntarily and nationally become idolaters, but from the time of Antiochus Epiphanes to the final destruction of their polity, there was a numerous faction, which in every thing affected the Greek manners; and "this Hellenising party” (Bishop Horsley tells us, in his Hosea, p. 8.) " were idolaters to a man." Many individuals likewise have submitted to the idolatry of the church of Rome.

They had the glorious distinction of being the only nation in the Roman empire, who opposed the sacrilege of deifying the imperial family; so perfectly did their captivity at Babylon cure them of idolatry.

Tacitus has remarked with surprise, that, on Pompey's passing through the temple, and entering the Holy of Ho lies, after having conquered the Jews, "he found no statue, no symbolical representation of the Deity: the whole presented a naked dome, the sanctuary was unadorned and simple."

more frequently, I trust, from not understanding their form of worship.

Dr. Hey scruples not to say "that the modern Jews seem to walk about their synagogues in London, at religious meetings, as if religion was not in all their thoughts."*

There may indeed be some ground for this assertion; and the fact that has given rise to it is, that a great number of pauses occur in the service of the synagogues, during which the congregation is little interested, and their time is then too frequently filled up by conversation, which appears irreverent in that place. The women sit by themselves in the gallery of the synagogue, and are parted from the men, not, as has been asserted, because they hold that they have not so divine a soul as men, and are of a lower creation, but that the latter may not, by their presence, be incited to profane thoughts: an example surely not unworthy of being followed by Christians.

Ancient Judaism, compared with all religions but the Christian, was distinguished for its purity and spirituality; and the whole Mosaic ritual was of a typical nature.

As formerly, while they enjoyed an established religion, they still have liturgies, in which are all the

* Norrisián Lectures, Vol. II. p. 197.

VOL. I.

K