same word, as implying Aaron's clothes, or those of his sons, and no other. And again, Moses says, "uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes, lest ye die;" still the word is the same, for he is there speaking to Aaron and his sons, and to none other. But when he says, "your clothes are not waxed old," the Hebrew word is no longer the same, though the English word is, but is the other word of which I spoke ; for the clothes of the people are here signified, and not of the priests.

2

This, therefore, is all that can be maintained, that the term used to express the "raiment" which Rebekah brought out for Jacob, is the term which should express appropriately the dress of the priest, though it certainly. would not express it exclusively. But again, the epithet "goodly" (or "desirable" as the margin renders it more closely,) annexed to the raiment is still in favor of our interpretation, though neither is this word, any more than the other, conclusive of the question. Certainly, however, it is, that though the word translated "goodly" is not restricted to sacred things, it does so happen that to sacred things it is attached in very many instances, if not in a majority of instances where it occurs in Holy Writ. Thus the utensils of the Temple which Nebuchadnezzar carried away are called in the Book of Chronicles the goodly vessels of the House of the Lord." And Isaiah writes, "all our pleasant things are laid waste," meaning the Temple-the word here rendered "pleasant." being the same as that in the former passages rendered "goodly;" and in the Lamentations we read, "the adversary hath spread out his hand upon all our pleasant things," where the Temple is again understood, as the context proves; 3 mabu

1 Lev. x. 6.

2 Deut. xxix. 5.

and in Genesis,' 66 a tree to be desired to make one wise," the term perhaps meant to convey a hint of violated sanctity as entering into the offence of our first parents. In other places it occurs in a bad sense, as relating to what was held sacred by heathens only, but still what was held sacred-"The oaks which ye have desired," "all pleasant pictures," objects of idolatry, as the tenor of the passage indicates" their delectable things shall not profit,” that is, their idols. I may add too, that the orol of the Septuagint, (for this answers to the "raiment" of our version,) though not limited to the robe of the altar, is the term used in the Greek as the appropriate one for the robe of Aaron; and finally, that the care with which this vesture had been kept by Rebekah, and the perfumes with which it was imbued when Jacob wore it, (for Isaac "smelled the smell of his raiment,") savor of things pertaining unto God.

Again, it seems to be by no means improbable that "the coat of many colors,” (xıūra noizilor, as the LXX. understands it3) which Jacob made for Joseph, was a sacerdotal garment. It figures very largely in a very short history. It appears to have been viewed with great jealousy by his brothers; far greater than an ordinary dress, which merely bespoke a certain partiality on the part of a parent, would have been likely to inspire. They strip him of it, when they put him in the pit; they dip it in the blood of the goat, when they want to persuade Jacob that a wild beast had devoured him. Reuben, Jacob's first-born, and naturally therefore the Priest of the family, had forfeited his father's affection and disgraced his station by his conduct towards Bilhah. Jacob might feel that

1 Gen. iii. 6.
4 Ibid. xliv. 9.

2 Isa. i. 29.
5 Gen. xxxvii. 3.

3 Ibid. ii. 16.

the priesthood was open under the circumstances; and his fondness for Joseph might suggest to him, that he might in justice be considered his first-born: for that he supposed Rachel, Joseph's mother, to be his wife, when Leah, Reuben's mother, had been deceitfully substituted for her. He might give him therefore, "this coat of many colors," as a token of his future office. Hannah brought Samuel "a little coat" from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer his yearly sacrifice:' and, though Aaron's coat is not called a coat of many colors, it was so in fact: "and of the blue and purple and scarlet they made cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron." On the whole, therefore, I think there was a meaning in this "coat of many colors," beyond the obvious one; and that it was emblematical of priestly functions which Jacob was anxious to devolve upon Joseph.

4. Furthermore, the Patriarchal Church seems not to have been without its forms. Thus Jacob consecrates the foundation of a place of worship with oil;3 the incident here alluded to being apparently a much more detailed and emphatic one than it seems at first sight: for we find him, by anticipation, calling "this the house of God, and this the gate of heaven," and promising eventually to endow it with tithes and we hear God reminding him of this solemn act long afterwards, when he was in Syria, and appropriating to himself the very title of this Temple: "I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me.' 176 And accordingly we are told at much length, and with several of the circumstances of the case described, that Jacob, after his

1 1 Sam. i. 19. 4 Ib. xxviii. 17.

2 Exod. xxxix. 1.

3 Gen. xxviii. 18.

5 Ib. xxviii. 22.

6 Ibid. xxxi. 13.

return from Haran, actually fulfilled his pious intentions, and "built an altar," and "set up a pillar," and " poured a drink-offering thereon.”

Then there appears to have been the rite of imposition of hands existing in the Patriarchal Church: and when Jacob blessed Joseph's children he is very careful about the due observance of it; the narrative, succinct as on the whole it is, dwelling upon this point with much amplification.2

Again, the shoes of those who trod upon holy ground, or who entered consecrated places were to be put off their feet; the injunction to this effect, of which we read in the case of Moses at the bush, implies a usage already established; and this usage, though nowhere expressly commanded in the Levitical Law, appears to have continued amongst the Israelites by tradition from the Patriarchal times; and is that which a passage in Ecclesiastes1 probably contemplates in its primary sense, "Look to thy foot when thou comest to the House of God." And finally the Patriarchal Church had its posture of worship, and men bowed themselves to the ground when they addressed God.

But if there were Patriarchal Places for worship-if there were Priests to conduct the worship-if there were decent Robes wherein those priests ministered at the worship-if there were Forms connected with that worship; so do I think there were stated Seasons set apart for it: though here again we have nothing but hints to guide us to a conclusion.

5. I confess that the Divine institution of the Sabbath

1 Gen. xxxv. 1. 15. 4 Eccles. v. 1.

2 Ibid. xlviii. 13-19. 3 Exod. iii, 5.
5 See Mede's Works, b. ii. p. 340 et seq.

6 Gen. xxiv. 26-52; Exod. iv. 31; xii. 27.

as a day of religious duties, seems to me to have been from the beginning; and though we have but glimpses of such a fact, still to my eye they present themselves as parts of that one harmonious whole which I am now endeavoring to develop and draw out--even of a Patriarchal Church, whereof we see scarcely anything but by glimpse.

"And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came, and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none." 971 And again, in a few verses after, "And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days." Now the transaction here recorded is by some argued to be the first institution of the Sabbath. The inference I draw from it, I confess, is different. I see in it, that a Sabbath had already been. appointed that the Lord had already given it; and that, in accommodation to that institution already understood, he had doubled the manna on the sixth day. But even supposing the Institution of the Sabbath to be here formally proclaimed, or supposing (as others would have it, and as the Jews themselves pretend,) that it was not now promulgated, strictly speaking, but was actually one of the two precepts given a little earlier at Marah, still it is not uncommon in the writings of Moses, nor indeed in other parts of Scripture, for an event to be mentioned as then

1 Exod. xvi. 22.

2 Exod. xv. 25, and compare Deut. v. 12.