God was present at their sacrifices: bright rays darting out thence, and being seen even by those who were most remote; which splendour yet was not before natural to the stone. This has appeared a wonderful thing to such as have not so far indulged themselves in philosophy, as despise divine revelation. Yet will I mention what is still more wonderful; for God declared beforehand by those twelve stones which the high-priest bare on his breast, and which were inserted into his breast-plate, when they should be victorious in battle; for so great a splendour shone forth from them before the army began to march, that all the people were sensible of God's being present for their assistance. Whence it came to pass, that those Greeks who had a veneration for our laws, because they could not possibly contradict this, called the breast-plate the Oracle. Now this breastplate and this sardonyx left off shining two hundred years before I composed this book; God having been displeased at the transgression of his laws. Of which things we shall further discourse on a fitter opportunity: but I will now go on with my proposed narration.

The tabernacle being consecrated, and a regular order settled for the priests, the multitude judged that God now dwelt among them; and betook themselves to sacrifices,† and praises to God, as being now delivered from all expectation of evils; and entertaining a hopeful prospect of better times hereafter. They offered also gifts to God; some

and Titus to the Roman empire, and that in the days of Nero, and before either Galba, Otho, or Vitellus, were thought of to succeed him. Of the War, III. 8, IV. 10, and this confirmed by Suetonius in Vespas. § 5, and Dio in Xiphiline, page 317. This, I think, may be considered as the very last instance of any thing like the prophetic Urim among the Jewish nation, and just preceded the fatal desolation. But how it could possibly come to pass that such great men as Sir John Marsham and Dr. Spencer should imagine that this oracle of Urim and Thummim, with other practices as old, or older than the law of Moses, should have been ordained in imitation of somewhat like them among the Egyptians, which we never heard of till the time of Diodorus Siculus, Elian, and Maimonides, or little earlier than the Christian era at the highest, is almost unaccountable. While the main business of the law of Moses was evidently to preserve the Israelites from the idolatrous and superstitious practices of the neighbouring pagan nations, and while it is so undeniable that the evidence for the great antiquity of Moses's law is incomparably beyond that for the like of greater antiquity of such

as common to the whole nation, and others as peculiar to themselves, and these tribe by tribe. For the heads of the tribes combined together, two by two, and brought a waggon, and a yoke of oxen; these amounted to six, and these carried the tabernacle, when they journeyed; besides which, every head of a tribe brought a bowl, a charger, and a spoon of ten daricks, full of incense. Now the charger and the bowl were of silver, and together they weighed two hundred shekels, but the bowl cost no more than seventy shekels: and these were full of fine flour mingled with oil, such as they used on the altar, about the sacrifices. They brought also a young bullock, and a ram, with a lamb of a year old, for a whole burnt offering; as also a goat, for the forgiveness of sins. Every one of the heads of the tribes brought also other sacrifices called peace offerings; for every day two bulls, and five rams, with lambs of a year old, and kids of the goats. These heads of tribes were twelve days in sacrificing, one sacrificing every day. Now Moses went no longer up to mount Sinai; but went into the tabernacle, and learned of God what they were to do, and what laws should be made: which laws were preferable to what have been devised by human understanding, and proved to be firmly observed, for all time to come; as being believed to be the gift of God: insomuch that the Hebrews did not transgress any of those laws, either as tempted in times of peace by luxury, or in times of war by distress of affairs.

customs in Egypt or other nations, which, indeed, is generally none at all, it is absurd to derive any of Moses's laws from the imitation of those heathen practices. Such hypotheses demonstrate to us how far inclination can prevail over evidence in even some of the most learned parts of mankind. See Dr. Bernard's very valuable notes upon this chapter, in opposition to Dr. Spencer, as they stand at large in Havercamp's edition.

* About an. 107, two hundred years before A. D. 93, the thirteenth of Domitian, when Josephus published his Antiquities.

Of the Jewish sacrifices, the learned reader may consult the notes in Havercamp's edition, and Dr. Outram's excellent treatise De Sacrificiis.

These old coins called Daricks, are, I think, first mentioned by Xenophon in his Kúps IIaid. page 339, edit. Hutch. a few years after the beginning of Cyaxares II. or Darius the Mede, (of whose Median name Darius this seems the only original remains in heathen antiquity,) and those by him mentioned as vastly large, seem to have been a kind of coronation medals of the same king's..

CHAP. IX.

OF THE MANNER OF OFFERING SACRIFICES.

WILL now make mention of a few of our laws, which belong to purifications, and the like sacred offices, since I am accidentally come to this matter of sacrifices: these sacrifices are of two sorts, one being offered for private persons, and the other for the people in general: and they are done in two different ways. In one case, what is slain is burnt, as a whole burnt-offering: whence that name is given to it: but the other is a thank-offering, and as designed for feasting those that sacrifice. I will speak of the former: Suppose a private man offer a burnt-offering, he must slay either a bull, a lamb, or a kid of the goats, and the two latter of the first year; though of bulls he is permitted to sacrifice those of a greater age: but all burnt-offerings are to be of males. When they are slain, the priests sprinkle the blood* round about the altar: they then cleanse the bodies, divide them into parts, salt them, and lay them upon the altar; while the pieces of wood are piled one upon another, and the fire is burning. They then cleanse the feet of the sacrifices, and the inwards, in an accurate manner: and so they lay them to the rest, to be purified by the fire, while the priests receive the hides: this is the way of offering a burntoffering.

Those who offer thank-offerings do indeed sacrifice the same creatures; but such as are

It is, says Bp. Patrick, no improbable conjecture of Fortunatus Scacchus, that from hence the heathens learned their Taurobolia, and Criobolia, which in process of time they disguised with infernal rites and ceremonies. "The Taurobolium of the ancients was a ceremony in which the high-priest of Cybele was consecrated, and might be called a baptism of blood, which they conceived imparted a spiritual new birth to the liberated spirit. In this dreadful and sanguinary ceremony, according to the poet Prudentius, cited at length by Banier on the ancient sacrifices, the high-priest about to be inaugurated was introduced into a dark excavated apartment, adorned with a long silken robe, and a crown of gold. Above this apartment was a floor perforated in a thousand places with holes like a sieve, through which the blood of a sacred bull, slaughtered for the purpose, descended in a copious torrent upon the inclosed priest, who received the purifying stream on every part of his dress, rejoicing to bathe with the bloody shower his hands, his cheeks, and even to bedew his lips and his tongue with it: when all the blood had run from the throat of the immolated bull, the carcass of the victim

unblemished, and above a year old: however they may take either males or females. They also sprinkle the altar with their blood; but they lay upon the altar the kidneys, the caul, and all the fat, and the lobe of the liver; with these they bring also the rump of the lamb; they give also the breast and the right shoulder to the priests; so they feast upon the remainder of the flesh for two days; and what remains they burn.

The sacrifices for sins are offered in the same manner, as is the thank-offering: but those who are unable to purchase complete sacrifices offer two pigeons, or turtle doves; one of which is made a burnt-offering to God, and the other is given as food for the priests. But we shall treat more accurately about the oblation of these creatures, in our discourse concerning sacrifices; but if a person fall into sin by ignorance, he offers an ewe lamb or female kid of the goats of the same age; and the priest sprinkles the blood at the altar; not after the former manner, but at the corners of it. They also bring the kidneys, and the rest of the fat, together with the lobe of the liver, to the altar: while the priests bear away the hides, and the flesh, and spend it in the holy place,† on the same day; for the law does not permit them to leave of it until the morning. But if any one sin, and is conscious of it himself, but hath nobody that can prove it upon him, he offers a ram; the flesh of which the priests eat, as before, in the holy place, on the same day. And if the rulers offer sacrifices for their sins, they bring the was removed, and the priest issued forth from the cavity, a spectacle ghastly and horrible, his head and vestments being covered with blood, and clotted drops of it adhering to his venerable beard. As soon as the pontifex appeared before the assembled multitude, the air was rent with congratulatory shouts; so pure and so sanctified however was he now esteemed, that they dared not approach his person, but beheld him at a distance with awe and veneration." Maurice's Ind. Ant. vol. v. p. 196. B.

What Reland observes here, out of Josephus, as com pared with the law of Moses, Levit. vii. 15, (that the eat ing of the sacrifice the same day it was offered, seems to mean only before the morning of the next, although the latter part, i. e. the night, be in strictness part of the next day, according to the Jewish reckoning,) is greatly to be observed upon other occasions also. The Jewish maxim, in such cases, it seems, is this: that the day goes before the night, and this appears to me to be the language both of the Old and New Testament. See also the note on IV. 4, and Reland's note on IV. 8.

same oblations that private men do; except || they so far differ, that they are to bring for sacrifices a bull, or a kid of the goats, both males.

Now the law requires, both in private and public sacrifices, that the finest flour be also brought; for a lamb, the measure of one tenth deal; for a ram, two; and for a bull, three. This they consecrate upon the altar, when it is mingled with oil: for oil is also brought by those that sacrifice; for a bull, the half of a hin; for a ram, a third part of the same manner; and one quarter of it for a lamb. They They bring the same quantity of oil which they do of wine, and they pour the wine about the altar; but if any one does not offer a complete sacrifice of animals, but brings fine flour only for a vow, he throws a handful upon the altar, as its first fruits; while the priests take the rest for their food; either boiled, or mingled with oil, but made into cakes of bread: but whatsoever it be, that a priest himself offers, it must of necessity be all burnt. Now the law forbids us to sacrifice any animal at the same time with its dam; and in other cases, not till the eighth day after its birth.

Other sacrifices are also appointed for escaping distempers, or for other occasions; in which meat-offerings are consumed, together with the animals that are sacrificed; of which it is not lawful to leave any part till the next day, only the priests are to take their own share.

CHAP. X.

CONCERNING THE FESTIVALS, AND HOW EACH DAY OF SUCH FESTIVAL IS TO BE OBSERVED.

THE

*

HE law requires, that out of the public expenses a lamb of the first year be killed every day, at the beginning and ending of the day; but on the seventh day, which is called the Sabbath, they kill two, and sacrifice them in the same manner. On the new moon they both perform the daily sacrifices, and slay two bulls, with seven lambs of the first year, and a kid of the goats also, for the expiation of sins, that is, if they have sinned through ignorance.

On the seventh month, which the Macedo

nians call Hyperberetæus, they make an addition to those already mentioned, and sacrifice a bull, a ram, seven lambs,† and a kid of the goats for sins.

The tenth day of the same lunar month. they fast till the evening; and this day they sacrifice a bull, two rams, seven lambs, and a kid of the goats for sins; and besides these, they bring two kids of the goats, one of which is sent alive out of the limits of the camp into the wilderness, for the scape-goat, and to be an expiation of the sins of the whole multitude; but the other is brought into a place of great cleanness, within the limits of the camp, and is there burnt, with its skin, without any sort of cleansing. With this goat is burnt a bull not brought by the people, but by the high-priest, at his own charge, which, when it is slain, he brings of the blood into the holy place, together with the blood of the kid of the goats, and sprinkles the ceiling with his finger seven times, as also its pavement, and as often towards the most holy place, and about the golden altar. He also at last brings it into the open court, and sprinkles it about the great altar. Besides this, they set the extremities, and the kidneys, and the fat, with the lobe of the liver upon the altar, and the high-priest presents a ram to God as a burntoffering.

On the fifteenth day of the same month, when the season of the year is changing for winter, the law enjoins us to pitch tabernacles in every one of our houses, but so that we preserve ourselves from the cold of that time of the year; as also that when we should arrive at our own country, we should come to that city which we should have then for our metropolis, because of the temple therein to be built: and keep a festival for eight days, and offer burnt-offerings, and sacrifice thankofferings; that we should then carry in our hands a branch of myrtle, and willow, and a bough of the palm-tree, with the addition of the pomecitron; that the burnt-offering on the first of those days was to be a sacrifice of thirteen bulls, fourteen lambs, and fifteen rams, with the addition of a kid of the goats, as an expiation for sins; that on the following days the same number of lambs, and of rams,

Levit. xxiii. 27. Numb. xxix. 12..

with the kids of the goats; but abating one of the bulls every day, till they amounted to seven only. On the eighth day all work was laid aside, and then, as we said before, they sacrificed to God a bullock, a ram, seven lambs, and a kid of the goats for an expiation of sins: and this is the accustomed solemnity of the Hebrews when they pitch their tabernacles.

But in the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan,* and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries, (for on this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians,) the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice, which I before observed we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover; and so do we celebrate this passover in companies, and leave nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following. The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and 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 burntoffering to God.

When a week of weeks has passed over after this sacrifice, which weeks contain forty

Or. Abid. Deut. xvi. 1..

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 shew 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 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.

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 seventh 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 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 gonorrhoea; 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

*We may here note that Josephus frequently calls the camp the city, and the court of the Mosaic tabernacle a temple, and the tabernacle itself a holy house, with allu

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 entrusted 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. 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.

But

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.

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

sion to the latter city, temple, and holy house, which he knew so well long afterwards.