The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption…

The Perfection of the Laws of Christ will further appear, by comparing them with the Precepts of Moses, and with the Rules which the highest Masters of Morality in the School of Nature have prescribed for the directing our lives. The Gospel exceeds the Mosaical Institution;

THe Perfection of the Laws of Christ will further appear, by comparing them with the Precepts of Moses, and with the Rules which the highest Masters of Morality in the School of Nature have prescribed for the directing our lives. The Gospel exceeds the Mosaical Institution;

1. In ordaining a Service that is Pure, Spiritual, and Divine, consisting in the Contemplation, Love and Praises of God, such as the holy Angels perform above. The Temple-Service was managed with Pomp and external Magnificence, suitable to the disposition of that People, and the dispensation of the Law. The Church was then in its Infant-state, as St. Paul expresses it; and that Age is more wrought on by Sense than Reason: For such is the subordination of our Faculties, that the vegetative first acts, then the sensitive, then the rational, as the organs appointed for its use, acquire perfection. The knowledge of the Jews was obscure and imperfect, and the external part of their Religion was ordered in such a manner, that the senses were much affected. Their Lights, Perfumes, Music and Sacrifices were the proper entertainment of their external Faculties. Besides, being encompassed with Nations whose Service to their Idols was full of Ceremonies, to render the temptation ineffectual, and take off from the efficacy of those allurements which might seduce them to the imitation of Idolatry, God ordained his Service to be performed with ⟨p. 334⟩great splendour. Add further, The Dispensation of the Law was typical and mysterious, representing by visible material objects, and their power to ravish the Senses, Spiritual things, and their efficacy to work upon the Soul. But our Redeemer hath rent the Veil, and brought forth Heavenly things into a full Day, and the clearest Evidence. Whereas Moses was very exact in describing the numerous Ceremonies of the Jewish Religion, the quality of their Sacrifices, the Place, the Persons by whom they must be prepared and presented to the Lord: We are now commanded to draw near to God with cleansed hands and purified hearts, and that Men Pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. Every place is a Temple, and every Christian a Priest, to offer up Spiritual Incense to God. The most of the Levitical Ceremonies and Ornaments are excluded from the Christian Service, not only as unnecessary, but inconsistent with its Spiritualness: As Paint, they corrupt the native beauty of Religion. The Apostle tells us, that humane Eloquence was not used in the first preaching of the Gospel, lest it should render the truth of it uncertain, and rob the Cross of Christ of its Glory in converting the World: