continues seven days, wherein they feed on unleavened bread; on every one of which days two bulls are killed, and one ram, and seven lambs. Now these lambs are entirely burnt, besides the kid of the goats which is added to all the rest, for sins; for it is intended as a feast for the priest on every one of those days. But on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth, for before that day they do not touch them. And while they suppose it proper to honour God, from whom they obtain this plentiful provision, in the first place they offer the first fruits of their barley, and that in the manner following: They take a handful of the ears, and dry them; they then beat them small, and cleanse the barley from the bran; they then bring one tenth deal to the altar to God, and casting one handful of it upon the fire, they leave the rest for the use of the priests; and after this it is that they may publicly or privately reap their harvest. They also, at this participation of the first fruits of the earth, sacrifice a lamb as a burnt-offering to God.

When a week of weeks has passed over after this sacrifice, which weeks contain forty and nine days; on the fiftieth* day, called by the Hebrews Asartha, which signifies Pentecost, they bring to God a loaf made of wheat flour, of two tenth deals with leaven; and for sacrifices they bring two lambs; and when they have only presented them to God, they are made ready for supper for the priests: nor is it permitted to leave any thing of them till the day following. They also slay three bullocks for a burnt-offering, and two rams, and fourteen lambs, with two kids of the goats for sins nor is there any one of the festivals but in it they offer burnt-offerings. They also allow themselves to rest on every one of them: accordingly the law prescribes in them all what kinds they are to sacrifice, and how they are to rest entirely, and must slay sacrifices in order to feast upon them.

However, out of the common charges baked bread was set on the table of show bread without leaven, of twenty-four tenth deals of flour, for so much is spent upon this bread; two heaps of these were baked; they were taken the day before the sabbath, but were brought into the holy place on the morning of the sabbath, and set upon the holy table six on a heap, one loaf still standing over against another, where two golden cups, full of frankincense, were also set upon them; and there

* Levit. xxiii. 16.

+ We may here note that Josephus frequently calls the camp the city, and the court of the Mosaic tabernacle a temple, and

they remained till another sabbath; and then other loaves were brought in their stead, while the loaves were given to the priests for their food, and the frankincense was burnt in that sacred fire wherein all their offerings were burnt also; and so other frankincense was set upon the loaves instead of what was there before. The high-priest also, at his own expense, offered a sacrifice twice every day. It was made of flour, mingled with oil, and gently baked by the fire. The quantity was one tenth deal of flour. He brought the half of it to the fire in the morning, and the other half at night. The account of these sacrifices I shall give more accurately hereafter, but I think I have premised what for the present may be sufficient concerning them.

CHAP. XI.

OF THE PURIFICATIONS.

Moses took out the tribe of Levi from communicating with the rest of the people, and set them apart to be a holy tribe, and purified them by water, taken from perpetual springs, and with such sacrifices as were usually offered to God on the like occasions. He also delivered to them the tabernacle, and the sacred vessels, and the other curtains which were made for covering the tabernacle, that they might minister under the conduct of the priests, who had been already consecrated to God.

He also determined concerning animals, which of them might be used for food, and which they were obliged to abstain from, which matters, when this work shall give me occasion, shall be farther explained, and the causes shall be added by which he was induced to allot some of them to be our food, and enjoined us to abstain from others. However, he forbade us entirely the use of blood for food, and esteemed it to contain the soul and spirit. He also forbade us to eat the flesh of the animal that died of itself, as also the caul, and the fat of goats, and sheep, and bulls.

He also ordered that those whose bodies were afflicted with leprosy, and that had a gonorrhoea, should not come into the city;† nay, he removed the women, under certain situations, till the sev enth day, after which he looked upon them as pure, and permitted them to come in again. The law permits those also who have taken care of funerals to come in after the same manner, when this number of days is over; but if any continued

the tabernacle itself a holy house, with allusion to the latter city, temple, and holy house, which he knew so well long afterwards.

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longer than that number of days in a state of pollution, the law appointed the offering two lambs for a sacrifice, one of which they are to purge by the fire, and the other the priests take for themselves. In the same manner do those sacrifice who have had the gonorrhea; but for the lepers he suffered them not to come into the city at all, nor to live with any others, as if they were in effect dead persons. But if any one had obtained, by prayer to God, a recovery from that distemper, and had gained a healthful complexion again, such a one returned thanks to God with several sorts of sacrifices, concerning which we will speak hereafter.

Hence one cannot but smile at those who say, that Moses was himself afflicted with the leprosy when he fled out of Egypt, and that he became the conductor of those who on that account left that country, and led them into the land of Canaan: for had this been true, Moses would not have made these laws to his own dishonour, which indeed it was more likely he would have opposed if others had endeavoured to introduce them: and this the rather, because there are lepers in many nations, who are yet in honour, and not only free from reproach and avoidance, but who have been great captains of armies, and been intrusted with high offices in the commonwealth, and have had the privilege of entering into holy places and temples: so that nothing hindered, but if either Moses himself, or the multitude that was with him, had been liable to such a misfortune, he might have made laws about them for their credit and advantage, and have laid no manner of difficulty upon them. Accordingly, it is a plain case that it is out of violent prejudice only that they report these things about us. But Moses was pure from any such distemper, and lived with countrymen who were pure of it also, and thence made the laws which concerned others that had the distemper. He did this for the honour of God; but, as to these matters, let every one consider them after what manner he pleases.

As to the women, when they have borne a child, Moses forbade them to come into the temple, or to touch the sacrifices, before forty days were over, supposing it be a boy; but if she hath borne a girl, the law is that she cannot be admitted before twice that number of days be over; and when, after the aforementioned time appointed for them, they perform their sacrifices, the priests distribute them before God.

* Num. v. 27.

These words of Josephus are remarkable, that the lawgiver of the Jews required of the priests a double degree of purity, in comparison of that required of the people, of which he gives

But if any one suspected that his wife had been guilty of adultery, he was to bring a tenth deal of barley flour: they then cast one handful to God, and gave the rest of it to the priests for food. One of the priests set the woman at the gates that are turned towards the temple, and took the veil from her head, and wrote the name of God on parchment, and enjoined her to swear that she had not at all injured her husband, and to wish that if she had violated her chastity, her right thigh might be put out of joint, that her belly might swell, and that she might die thus: but that if her husband, by the violence of his affection, and of the jealousy which arose from it, had been rashly moved to this suspicion, that she might bear a male child on the tenth month. Now when these oaths were over, the priest wiped the name of God out of the parchment, and wrung the water into a vial. He also took up some dust out of the temple, if any happened to be there, and put a little of it into the vial, and gave it her to drink, whereupon the woman, if she were unjustly accused, conceived a child, and brought it to perfection; but if she had broken her faith of wedlock to her husband, and had sworn falsely before God, she died in a reproachful manner :* her thigh fell off from her, and her belly swelled with a dropsy: and these are the ceremonies about sacrifices, and about the purifications thereto belonging, which Moses provided for his countrymen. He also prescribed the following laws to them.

CHAP. XII.

OF SEVERAL LAWS INSTITUTED BY MOSES.

As for adultery, Moses forbade it entirely, as esteeming it a happy thing that men should be wise in the affairs of wedlock, and that it was profitable both to cities and families that children should be known to be genuine. He also abhorred a man's connexion with his mother, father's wife, aunt, sister, or son's wife, as instances of abominable wickedness. He also forbade a man to lie with his wife when she was defiled; and not to come near brute beasts; nor to approve of the lying with a male in order to hunt after unlawful pleasures on account of beauty. To those which were guilty of such insolent behaviour, he ordained death for their punishment.

As for the priests, he prescribed to them also a double degree of purity; for he restrained them in the foregoing instances, and also forbade them

several instances. This was the case also among the first Christians of the clergy, in comparison of the laity, as the apostolical constitutions and canons everywhere inform us.

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