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Numb. xv. 37 — 41. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Sp>eak unto the children of Israel, and bid them thai the// make them fringes in the borders of their garments, through- out their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue : and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the com- mandments of the Lord, and do them ; and that ye seek not after your own heart, and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring : that ye may remember, and do all my com- mandments, and be holy unto your God. I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God : I am the Lord your God.
A VERY principal distinction between the Chris- tian and Jewish codes is this ; that our laws are given in broad, general, comprehensive principles ; whereas theirs descended to the most minute par- ticulars, even such as we should have been ready to conceive unworthy the notice of the Divine Lawgiver. There was scarcely any occupation in life, respecting which there was not some precise limit fixed, some positive precept enjoined. If they ploughed, they must not plough with an ox and an ass. If they sowed their ground, they must not sow divers kinds of seeds. If they reaped, they must not reap the cor- ners of their field. If they carried their corn, they must not go back for a sheaf that they had left behind. If they threshed it, they must not muzzle the ox that trod it out. If they killed their meat, they must pour the blood upon the ground. If they dressed it, they must not seethe a kid in its mother's milk. If they ate it, they must not eat the fat. If they planted a tree, they must not eat of the fruit for four years. If they built a house, they must make battlements to its roof. So, if they made a garment, they must put upon it a fringe with a ribband of blue. This last ordinance, it may be thought, like all the other cere- monies, being abrogated, is quite uninteresting to us. But, if we consider it attentively, we shall find it by no means uninstructive. It shews us,
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