Priest, the Trimming and Lighting the Seven Lamps, and the Burning of the Incenfe. As no Part of the typical Ministry could be performed without the Mediation of the perpetual Fire, the Law concerning this Type fhall be first opened and explained, which we find recorded in Leviticus, Chap. vi. ver. 12, 13. of which I will give a very literal Tranflation: And the FIRE upon the ALTAR fhall be burning in it, it shall not be put out: and the PRIEST fhall burn Wood upon it, (a) every Morning; and fhall place upon it the BURNT-OFFERING, and shall burn upon it the FATS of the PEACEOFFERINGS. Fire CONTINUALLY. Shall be burning upon the Altar, it shall not be put out.

Now the Care of preferving, and nourishing this perpetual Fire by the Prieft below, typified the Prefervation of a perpetual Fire, by a Prieft of an higher Order above: and, indeed, had we not loft our true Flesh, or Body of Paradife, and our true Fire in the Sin of ADAM, we fhould

(a) The Hebrew is, In the Morning, (in the Morning.)

fhould not have wanted this Tabernacle, and dwelling Place of God by a (b) new Birth of it, (called Regeneration or being born from above, in the Language of the Gospel) before we can enter again the Paradife of God, and be his Sons in (c) white Rayment, or a (d) Body of Light. And in this Inftitution of the *Fire which was not to be extinguished; and on which the LAMB was 'to be laid, and to afcend up in Smoke and Vapor, two Types and Shadows of the greatest Moment were kept in View by the Record and

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(b) John iii. 3, 5.1. (c) Rev. iii, 5, 18. (d) Rev. iii. 4.

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What is faid by the Talmudical Writers concerning three or four Fires upon the Altar of Brafs, appears to be their own Invention, at leaft it has no Ground from the Law. One was called the great Fire for the Burnt-Offering; the Second was to kindle the Incense, and the Third for preferving the Fire. As to the Care and Choice of the Wood, that it should not be Worm-eaten, that it must be new, and other Particulars of this Kind; thefe Rules carried a natural Decorum in them, but the Law prescribed no fuch Caution. See Ainfworth on this Paffage, Lamy de Tabernaculo, p. 955. and Cremeri Antiquit. Mofaico-typica, Vol. II. 384.

and Memorial of a CONTINUAL SERVICE, namely, the Figure of that boly Fire which will confume all Flesh begotten by the (e) Will of Man, and born of Bloods; and which will impart the new Fleft, or Body from the one Blood of

the true Son, or (f) Male, to live and rejoice in the Embrace and Union of that eternal Fire from Heaven, which never will be extinct in the Redemption.

Thus it is faid, this is the Law of the Burnt-Offering; it is that which ASCENDETH by burning all the Night, until the Morning, Lev. vi. 8.

Ainsworth

on this Place fays, the Reason of the Name is here given, for in the Hebrew, the Burnt-Offering is Gnolah, that is, an Afcenfion; because by burning all in Fire, it went up in Smoke and Vapor. So far it bears a good Senfe, and has fome Correfpondence and Analogy with the Truth of the Antitype and Substance of the Gofpel. It is the Holocauft according to (g) Cremer,

(e) John i, 13.

(f) Rev. xii. 5.

(g) Antiq. Mof. Vol. II. 383.

Cremer, because it is burned by the Fire of divine Wrath, and all the Night fignifies the Old, and the Morning the New Teftament. In the first Place it may be answered, that the Fire was no Emblem or Mark of Wrath against the Lamb on the Altar, but juft the Contrary; it was a Feaft upon his Flesh and Blood, continually prepared in that Fire, and afcending and giving his Substance in Smoke and Vapor; because what went up in this aerial and free Diffusion, was the Lamb in another Mode of Appearance and Manifestation: and the Ascension of it through all the Night was a Figure of his perpetual Work of feeding his Ifrael; as it was alfo of the perpetual Action and Power of the Fire. And as neither of these two Operations ought to cease, they prefigured the great Work and Ministry of the true Lamb then in the Glory, in the holy Fire, (where no Wrath dwells) which was then operating without Ceffation or Interruption.

Nor could a more lively Exhibition, and Leffon of heavenly Truths, be given through the Mediation of earthly Ele

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ments

ments and typical Rites, than this was; though according to the Letter, there must be a Difference. For in the first Place, how could an Image and Figure of a continual Communication of Flesh and Blood from the heavenly Lamb, be fhewn in an outward Manner, but by killing the Lamb daily, to give his Flesh and Blood, as the Meat and Drink of Ifrael? Secondly, How could the Union of the heavenly Fire with the true Flesh and Blood, be fhewed in a figurative Way, but by the correfpondent Element of * Fire in this World? Thirdly, How

could

*The Fire upon the Altar was only like other Fire; for in the true Fire of Heaven there is no devouring Property; and that which confumed the Sacrifices, was only a Figure of a better, and not the Reality itself. The Jews, however, to justify their Adherence to the Figures of their Law, affirm this Fire to have been the Light of the first Day of the Creation, and magnify it, as the Cause of continual Miracles, faying, that it ascended always in a direct Line, was never affected by the Wind, nor extinguished by the Rain. Vid. Buxtorf. Exercit. Sac. 231, 238, 258, 260. This is ever the Procedure of fuch, who build their Hope on the external Part of religious Obfervances, and overlook the internal and spiritual Sense. For if thefe Mi

racles