a funeral to accompany it, and join in the lamentation."

"It enforces the reverence of parents next to that of God; and him who does not repay their kindness, or who in anywise neglects them, it delivers over to be stoned. It requires the young to honour their elders; for God is the oldest of all. It suffers us to conceal nothing from friends, for that is not friendship which does not put complete confidence; and it prohibits the revealing of secrets, though it should ever end in enmity. If a judge receives bribes his punishment is death. He who neglects a suppliant when he has power to relieve, is criminal. No one shall demand a trust which he had never deposited, nor touch any thing belonging to others. He who lends, is not to receive interest. These, and many other similar to these, are the regulations which' mutually bind us in social harmony."

Having described the principles, by which the Jews became attached to each other, he next refutes the calumny that they were enemies to mankind, by shewing their willingness to extend to all the blessings which themselves enjoyed. "It is fit," adds he, "to see the benignity which our legislator inculcated towards strangers; for while he ordained that all men should be freely received into communion with us, he has wisely guarded against the corruption of our own insti

N N

tutions. All then that are willing to live under our laws are received with cordiality; and they learn from us, that affinity does not consist merely in the ties of blood, but in similarity of principles and practices. The strangers, indeed, who happen to live among us, are not permitted to join us in familiar intercourse. But he hath enforced towards these the performance of those offices, which are necessary in the conduct of life; such as to impart fire, water, and food, to those who need these things; to shew the way to the traveller, not to overlook the unburied dead, nor to indulge in wanton cruelty, even towards those who have proved themselves our enemies. He does not suffer us to waste their corn fields, nor to cut down their fruitful trees, nor to plunder even those who have fallen in battle. He commands us to protect all such as are taken in war, espécially the women, against injury or violence. He hath so trained us up indeed to habits of meekness and humanity, that he hath not overlooked even brute animals, permitting only the lawful use of them, and prohibiting every thing beyond it; nor does he allow us to slay those animals which take shelter in our houses, thus imploring as it were our protection, nor to kill even in an enemy's country those which work for the service of man."

Josephus at the close thus briefly recapitulates the moral excellence of these laws; "I need not

5

say more in praise of them; they have been themselves examined, and are now known to inculcate not impiety, but piety the most genuine. They call upon us not to hate, but to embrace mankind, and to share with them our own goods. They studiously aim at righteousness, and are inimical to injustice. They banish idleness, extravagance and luxury, and teach industry, temperance and contentment. They forbid war as a pretext for covetousness and ambition, and train men to be brave only in defence of their principles. The punishments which they inflict are never evaded, and they are supported not by the sophistical eulogies, but by the actions, of those who arè subject to them; and the preference which we give to deeds over mere professions, is a demonstration of their superior excellence. For this reason I confidently affirm, that we are become the instructors of other men, in most things that are truly good and honourable. For what can be more honourable than undeviating piety? What more just than obedience to the laws? What can be more desirable than that a nation should live with one another in love and harmony; that they should not quarrel in adversity, nor become insolent and turbulent in prosperity; that they should cultivate agriculture, and all the arts of peace, and shew their bravery only in unavoidable wars, being persuaded that God inspects

and governs all the actions of nien? If such laws had been enjoined by any other legislator before Moses, we should have cheerfully embraced them with the gratitude which disciples owe to a master. But if we appear to have used them before all others, and to have been their real authors, the Apions and Molons, and those who, like them, delight in falsehood and calumny, are sufficiently refuted. To thee, O Epaphroditus, who lovest the truth, and to those who, like thee, wish to be informed about our laws and nation, I dedicate this and the foregoing book."

Here Josephus holds forth his belief of the gospel in terms sufficiently explicit, by characterizing an eminent believer in it, as one who loved the truth. In the commencement of his Antiquities, he intimates that, in the composition of that work, he wished to gratify those among the Greeks and Romans, who embraced christianity or were likely to embrace it. Here he is more express and unequivocal, by saying that he dedicated his work against Apion to such men as Epaphroditus. It is here worthy of remark, that the elevated and refined morality, which Josephus ascribes to the Jewish religion, belonged to it only as it was developed and perfected by Christ. A Jewish doctor would have given a very different account of the law of Moses: but Josephus, who was a christian, has described the moral influence

of it, as one of the apostles, or as Christ himself would have done*. Having thus spoken of the moral effects of the divine law, he thus notices its great sanction, the doctrine of a future state.

"The reward of those, who live in every respect conformably to our laws, is not silver, or gold, or a garland of olive, or of smallage or some such honour, but the firm conviction, which each

From our Lord's discourse on the mount, we perceive the imperfect and, in many instances, the false notions which the Scribes and Pharisees had of the Mosaic law. Having proposed juster and more complete rules of conduct, than those on which they acted, Jesus adds, "Therefore all things whatsoever you wish that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them: for this is the law and the prophets." Matt. viii. 12. Which is to this effect, "The object of the law is not to teach us to observe external rites, but to transfer to others the interest which we feel in ourselves, to improve the selfish into social love, and to make this principle which implies equity, candour, and every other laudable quality, whenever we are ourselves the object of it, the rule of our behaviour to those around us." With the same just and elevated views of the law, St. Paul says, Rom. xiii. 8. “ Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth others hath fulfilled the law." In the same spirit St. James writes, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." chap. i. 26. Of these holy and wise men Josephus was a disciple, and he has given the same just description of the law which they every where iuculcate.