David fummoned the Rulers, with the Pricft, Levites, &c. to fetch the Ark, v. 7. (1 Chron. xiii.) they took a new Cart, and confequently Oxen, and the Ark out of the House of Aminadab, and made the Ark ride upon the Cart; and Uzzah and Ahio his Sons, who, of course, had enjoyed the Poffeffion, and the Profits, drove or ruled the Cart and Ark, that is, Ahio went before, and Uzzah with the Ark, and the King, Rulers, and Levitical Priefts followed the Ark. And when, as we must fuppofe, the Oxen had gone a fufficient Length, and they wanted fresh Oxen, and they came to the Threshingfloor where, we may fuppofe, there were fresh Oxen: Becaufe 1 they difmiffed, releafed Uzzah's Oxen, which was taking the Ark out of his Hand, his Poffeffion; he exerted himself upon the Ark of the Aleim, and 1 in feized it as his Property, as what he had an hereditary Right to the Poffeffion of; which was perfifting, that the Lay-People of a Village, under whom he held, had a Right to appoint and confecrate Priefts to perfonate, and act in the Name of Jehovah, and to detain the moft facred Emblems, belonging to that Office. Nay even when the Pricfts, appointed by Jehovah Aleim, were taking

those

thofe Emblems, to perform thofe Offices, before their Faces; and was the most daring Crime a Man could commit, and for which he was ftruck dead. These things are writ for an Example to others, who are, or may be guilty of the like Crimes, and not to deter others from explaining them. This frighted the reft, and they durft not bring the Ark to Sion, but carried it into the House of Obed-Edom, a Levite, and the Aleim bleffed his House. That, I Chron. xv. 2. Then David faid none ought to carry the Ark of the Alcim, but the Levites. v. 12. fanctify your felves -that you may bring up the Ark of Jehovah, the Aleim of Ifrael-v. 13. For becaufe ye did it not at the firft, Jehovah our Alcim made a Breach upon us, for that we fought him not after the due Order. v. 15. The Levites bare the Ark-upon their Shoulders.

The Question has been whether the Representations of the Aleim of the Heathen, and the Services paid to them, or thofe of the Jews, were exhibited and inftituted first. They, who knew nothing of one fide of the State of the Question, have afferted that thofe of the Heathen were firft, and borrowed by Mofes; the contrary is now determined. If the Que

ftion were now, whether the Heathens fuffered the Believers or Jews to preserve their Memorials, and perform their Inftitutions in Chaldea, in Canaan, in Egypt, or, &c. if that had not been proved, as now it is, it would not have affected the main Question, when or whence the Reprefentations and Inftitutions of the Jews, when they had Liberty to preserve or ob. serve them, took their Rife; or when, or whence the Chriftian Inftitution took its Rife; both, now, are proved to have their Rife before this Syftem, and their Publication as foon as there was Occafion to exhibit them; and that all other Aleim, and Institutions, were from Defections, and 'but falfe Reprefentations of those, or such Reprefentations of falfe Objects. Nay the Word 'n Teraphim, which others ufed, nay, which the Children of Dan worshipped before, from the Time of Micah, at a Place far from the Tabernacle in Shiloh, or the Temple, to the Time of the Captivity, and which the apoftate Jews would never give us the Meaning of, expreffes the Defign of the Rubbim, of which they have made the Root 1, where the Vau is fervile, and the Root 807, where the Aleph is fometimes changed to He, and fometimes both dropped, is to cure,

to

to heal; and, befides many other Texts, is applied, Ezek. xlvii. 12. and cited Rev. xxii. 2. to the Tree of Lives, and its Meaning cannot be mistaken. So the Word expreffes the Healers, the Curers of our Defects, Difeafes, of our Sin. Nay Ons Aleim, the Word univerfally used, and which they called their Teraphim, expreffed the whole Affair, but could not be used by a Prophet, who writ strictly, for the Rubbim, because the Man was included.

The apoftate Jews would have us fuppose that their High Priest represented a Creature, an Angel; and that that Angel reprefented the Merit of the Life, and the Blood of Bulls and Goats, to two other created Angels, and that they are to represent the Merit, and Death, and Blood of Bulls, Goats, &c. before Jehovah, as of greater Value than theirs. This is pretty near what the firft Heathens believed, when they fuppofed the Names, the material Agents, intelligent, and Minifters in intellectual Matters; and Part of this is what the apoftate Jews held when they were carried into Chaldea, and the reft what they learned there. The Jews, about the Time of Chrift, pretended to make Atonement by their own Bulls, Goats,

&c.

c. at their own Expence. And, as ap pears in Buxt. Lex. Chald. they now facrifice a Cock, which they fuppofe to be fufficient to expiate. Our primitive Chriftians, upon a falfe Suppofition, that if a Creature were not made a free Agent, but restrained from finning, it would be more holy than another which was made free, and had not finned; that the Word was such a one, and that he was to take upon him Flefh and fuffer, and that the Priest represented his Merit, Blood, &c. to other two fuch, and that they were to reprefent his Merit, Blood, &c. to their Deus, which could not poffibly be of any greater Value than the Merit of a Brute, which has not Power to act otherwise than as it is defigned to act. And though all People, that ever lived, expected to make, or have Atonement by Sacrifice, our modern Apoftates have abolished Sacrifice, and fet up nothing in its ftead, but will be faved by their own Righteousness.

.

'Tis plain the Jewish High-Prieft did not act in his own Name, nor in the Name of the People, but in the Name of another. Deut. x. 8. At that Time Jehovah Separated the Tribe of Levi, to bear the Ark of the Purifier Jehovah, to stand before Jehovah to minifter unto him, and to blefs