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the Gentiles, is well known. Malachi was DISC. the last of their prophets. He lived with- VIII. in 400 years of the appearance of Jesus. What a prophecy did he leave upon the fubject, penned, as it were, with a funbeam" I have no pleasure in you, faith "the Lord of Hofts, neither will I accept "an offering at your hand: for from the "rising of the fun unto the going down of "the fame, my name fhall be great among "the Gentiles, and in every place incense “shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be

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great among the Heathen, faith the Lord "of Hofts'."

Such are the documents and the warnings, contained in the Scriptures of the Old Teftament, against the first tenet of the Jews, that, as the chofen feed of Abraham, they had an exclufive and indefeafible right to the favours of Heaven. Yet, with thefe Scriptures in their hands, in their heads, in their mouths, and upon

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DISC. their phylacteries, boafting and glorying, VIII. upon every occafion, in an exact and accurate knowlege of them, did thofe men, after having crucified Jefus, perfecute his apostles unto the death, from city to city, because the Gentiles were invited to fhare the benefits and bleffings of the Gospel. -Such is the force of prejudice! Such the illufion of felf-love!

Proceed we to confider their fecond pofition, namely, that the law of Mofes, on account of it's own intrinfic efficacy, and without a view to any thing farther, was ordained for perpetual observance.

It was by no means fafe, before an audience of Jews, to hint, though ever fo remotely, at the inefficacy of the Mofaic rites confidered in themfelves to procure the divine favour; or to infinuate, though ever fo covertly, the termination and abolition of that fyftem. Some of the "blafphemous words," charged upon the protomartyr St. Stephen, and for which he

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was

VIII.

was ftoned, were thefe; "that Jefus of DISC. "Nazareth fhould change the customs, or "rites, which Mofes delivered "." In their ears, this was the worst of blafphemies. It does not appear, that Stephen had ufed fuch an expreffion; it is probable, at that season, he was more guarded; and they, who depofed their teftimony against him, are ftyled, "falfe witneffes." By urging fome prophecy, or parallel, from the Old Teftament, as he afterwards urged several in his apology, it is likely he had intimated as much; and the words themselves, with which he stands charged, contain nothing more than the truth, fufficiently attested by the law itself; which all along carried in it the most plenary and abundant evidence of it's own prefent inefficacy, and future diffolution ; as they, who prided themselves in the ftudy and interpretation of it, ought to have known.

For, upon the first view of the law

Acts vi. 13, 14.

Let

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DISC. Let us, for a moment, fuppofe, with the
VIII. Jew, that the legal ceremonies, in them-

felves, without having refpect to any thing
above and beyond them, were indeed ef-
fective of the purposes, for which they
were faid to be defigned.-To what strange
conclufions fhall we be led? We must
conclude, that the death of a beaft could
render the Deity propitious to the offerer;
that a goat
could carry the tranfgreffions of
a congregation into the wilderness; that
the blood of bulls could atone for fin;
that water, with the afhes of a red heifer
infused in it, could purge away the pollu-
tions of the mind; and the like. But
against fuch conclufions common fenfe ex-
claims aloud, and forces us to draw ano-
ther, and the only just and proper infe-
rence, namely, that fuch rites derived their
virtue not from themfelves, but from per-
fons and actions reprefented by them; that
they were a figure for the time being; a
fhadow exhibiting to the faith of the pious
and intelligent votary the fhape and linea-
ments of a fubftance, which did not ap-
pear.

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VIII.

pear. This muft ever be the cafe of exter- DISC. nal ceremonies in religion; and we ourfelves fhould be in a fituation fimilar to that of the Jew, if blindly and ignorantly adhering to the letter of our own facraments, exclufive of the things they fignify, and the difpofitions they require, we fhould suppose a power inherent in the baptifmal water, to wash away guilt, and in the euchariftic elements, to confer pardon and peace.

Again. Be pleased to obferve the oppofite character given, at different times, of the fame rites. One while it is faid, that they were highly acceptable to God; that he was delighted with the favour of the facrifices, and well pleafed, as it is natural to suppose he should be, with the obfervance of his own inftitutions. At other

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times, we hear him declaring, with indignation, that his foul was weary with offerings, and hated the appointed feasts; that he could not away with the new moons and fabbaths; that incenfe was an abomi

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