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2154. [Exod. xxx. 23.] Cinnamon is a species of laurel, the bark of which constitutes its valuable part. This is taken off in the months of September and February. When cut into small slices, it is exposed to the sun, the heat of which curls it up in the form in which we receive and use it. The berry, when boiled up in water, yields, according to Raynal, an oil which, suffered to congeal, acquires a whiteness. Of this candles are made, of a very aromatic smell, which are, at Ceylon where it is principally found, reserved for the sole use of the king.

But the cinnamon of the Antients, which HERODOTUS affirms to have been peculiarly the produce of Arabia, was probably the sweet willow, or candle-berry myrtle.

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At least" it is now well understood," says BELoe, the substance called cinnamon by the Antients was extremely different from this of ours, which is peculiar to the island of Ceylon."

By cinnamomum the Antients understood a branch of that tree, bark and all, of which the cassia was the bark only. Beloe's Herodot. Thalia, cvii. notes 126, 134.

acorn.

seems indigenous to Ceylon; there are some trees in the East-India Company's garden at Anjengo, as a curiosity. The leaves of the cassia are smaller than the laurel, and more pointed; those of the cinnamon still more delicate: the blossoms of both, like the flowers of the Arbutus, hang in bunches, white and fragrant; the fruit resembles a small The young leaves and tender shoots are of a bright red, changing to green as they approach maturity; they taste of cinnamon, but the only valuable part of the tree is the inner bark; which, being separated from the exterior, is cut into pieces, and exposed to the sun, when it dries and curls up, and is packed in cases for foreign markets. FORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. i. p. 352.

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2155. [— 23, 24.] Cinnamon, cassia, myrrh, frankincense, stacte, onycha, and galbanum, are solely the produce either of India or Arabia. Now as cinnamon and cassia, which are but different species of the same spice, are not to be found nearer Egypt or Palestine than Ceylon or the coast of Malabar; and as Sabea, says Agatharchides who flourished 177 years before Christ, produces myrrh, frankincense, balsam, cinnamon, and cassia from trees of extraordinary magnitude, it is highly probable the Jews did receive these spices from the Sabeans, who are known to have enriched themselves by furnishing Syria and the Phenicians with such odoriferous commodities.

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2160.[34, 35, 37.] Lady W. MONTAGUE informs us that, during her visit to the fair Fatima, whose husband was an officer equal in rank to the grand vizier, "four slaves came into the room, with silver censers in their hands, and perfumed the air with amber aloes-wood, and other odoriferous scents." See Lev. xxiii. 40.

The Gum Arabic Acacia, brought from Arabia Petrea, near the North Bay of the Red Sea, at the foot of mount Sinai, is called Thus (Frankincense) by the dealers in drugs in Egypt, from Thur and Thor, which is the name of a harbour in the North Bay of the Red Sea, near mount Sinai, thereby distinguishing it from the Gum Arabic, which is brought from Suez, another part of the Red Sea, not far from Cairo. Besides the different places from which these gums are brought, they differ also in some other particulars. The Gum Thus is more pellucid, white, or of no color at all; but the Gum Arabic is less pellucid, and of a brown or dirty yellow color.

HASSELQUIST'S Travels, p. 250.

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the same manner as it is in our juridical faculties and tribunals of appeal; Deut. xvii. 8-13. Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. i. p. 259.

2167. [Exod. xxxii. 27.] In the Highlands of Scotland, Lochiel and the Laird of Mc. Intosh having had a long dispute concerning some lands in Lochaber, at length articles of agreement, through the interference of the Earl of Breadalbane, were signed 20th September 1665, about 360 years after the commencement of the quarrel. Next day the two Chiefs had a friendly meeting, and exchanged swords. The leading gentlemen of both clans performed the same friendly ceremony. PINKERTON'S Coll. part ix. p. 166.

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2165. [25.] It appears from what is here recorded, that those very ornaments which had been taken from the idolatrous Egyptians by way of spoil, had been so purified as to have been regularly used by the Israelites in their worship of the true God, till they had now again defiled them by idolatry. This accounts for the spoiling or stripping both of the Egyptians and of the Israelites; See, on Exod. v. 1. And the law on this subject, Num. xxxi. 21 — 24. In the New Testament gumnos (Grk.) is sometimes taken for a sinner. Univer. Hist. vol. i. p. 129.

2169. [Exod. xxxiii. 4.] According to the Septuagint and Syriac, they stripped themselves of their armour, their ruffling garb of war, and appeared in the penitential dress of sackcloth and ashes.

2170. [20.] No man can see God, unless he be filled and surrounded with the Divine Spirit; in which, as in a vacuum, he cannot possibly breathe.

See Dan. x. 8, 5. Rev. i. 17, &c. &c.

In this state, man is dead as to the body, but alive as to the soul; a proof that the soul ever lives, and is immediately present with God on the actual death of the body.

Verse 23.] Thou shalt see acharey (Hebr.), my reflex. Their voluptuous Art, imitating by softened reflexes either of moon-light or of sun-rising, represents the objects of their loves like so many Dianas or Auroras. See No. 737.

St. PIERRE'S Studies of Naturė, vol. i. p. 110.

2166: [ 27.] Amorg the Hebrews, this was the most important duty of the tribe of Levi, and what required the greatest number of its members to discharge. It was also in an especial manner the business of the Jewish priests, in all disputes of a more serious nature, to pronounce the final decision, and lay down the law; much in

2171. [Exod. xxxiv. 16.] An Israelite miglit certainly marry a Heathen woman, provided she no longer continued

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2176. [Exod. xxxviii. 8.] How could a brazen mirror be made of glass? We should therefore read mirrors, not looking-glasses. What Moses on this occasion took from the Israelites appear to have been concave reflectors, of polished brass; such as, Plutarch informs us in his life of Numa, the Greeks were accustomed to use when they would raise a fire in combustibles placed at the focus where the sun's rays were collected in the centre of a concave vase: Græcis autem in fomentis vasculo cavo impositis, et solis radiis in ejus centro exceptis, flammam concipere consuetudo erat.

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2177. [Exod. xxxviii. 8.] The Eastern mirrors were made of polished steel and for the most part convex. In the Levant they are still a part of female dress. The Moorish women in Barbary are so fond of their ornaments, and particularly of their looking-glasses, which they hang on their breasts, that they will not lay them aside, even when, after the drudgery of the day, they are obliged to go two or three miles with a pitcher, or a goat's skin, to fetch water. (Dr. SHAW's Trav. p. 421.) The Israelitish women used to carry their mirrors with them, even to their most solemn place of worship. (See HARMER, vol. ii. p. 411.) — The Egyptian women used to go to the temple with a looking-glass in one hand, and a timbrel in the other.

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See CYRIL de Adoratione in Spiritu et Virtute, tom. i. l. 2. p. 64.

Did the Israelitish women in particular, who were veiled, fix their downcast eyes on these mirrors, in order to see therein the manifested Image of the Divine Glory, as soon as it should appear on the propitiatory?

2178.

We learn from PLINY (Lib. xxxiii. cap. 9; xxxiv. cap. 17) that the Pagan women, when attending the worship of their deities, were ornamented with metallic mirrors. We are told also by CYRILLUS Alexandrinus (Lib. ii. vol. i. p. 64, De Adoratione in Spiritu) that the Israelitish women adopted the same custom, which they borrowed from the Egyptians. Metallic mirrors, since the invention of glass ones, have been entirely disused as articles of furniture. But a glass mirror, properly speaking, is metallic; for it is not the glass but the amalgam of tin, placed at the back of it, which reflects the image of the object to it.

KLAPROTH.

2179. The first and best glass-mirrors are said to have been made, long after these days, of a sand found on the coasts of the Tyrian sea: those then in use were made of highly polished metal. In Egypt, and in Palestine, they were of brass. When the antient Peruvians were first discovered, their mirrors were of brass : and at this day, in the East, they are commonly made of that, or some other metal, capable of receiving a fine polish. Dr. W. ALEXANDER'S Hist. of Women, vol. ii. p. 94.

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He also made a laver of brass, with its cover of brass, to wash in (under the inspection of the women who ministered at the entry of the door of the Dr. GEDDEs. convention-tent). See 1 Sam. ii. 22. xxv. 41. 1 Tim. v. 10. CLEMENS Alexandrinus tells us, that the daughter of Cleobulus, who was both a philosopher and monarch, was not ashamed to wash the feet of her father's guests.

Exod. xxx. 18.

Stromat. lib. vi. p. 523. edit. Sylburg.

2181. [Exod. xxxviii. 25.] A sacred talent of silver amounts to £342.3.9; a talent of gold, to £5475. But the common talent of silver was £171.1. 10; of gold, £2737.10: each being half the value of the sacred talent.

2182. [2429.] On due calculation it will be found, that the sum total of the gold, silver, and brass used in constructing the Tabernacle amounted in avoirdupoise weight, to 14 Tous, 266 pounds, in value sterling, to £244,127. 14.6.

2186. [Exod. xl. 20, 21.] Did Moses, by the beauty and elegance of the ark, the splendor of the vail, and the sumptuousness of the mercy-seat, shew as much honor to the two tables of the testimony or covenant, which he had received from Jehovah, as he could have done to Jehovah in person? This, it will appear by the following extracts, is still the practice in some Indian nations, respecting the letters or mandates of kings; they honour these equally as they would honour the royal authors. Thus

1. On the arrival of Sir James Lancaster in Sumatra, to establish there the commerce of our East India Company under the charter of Queen Elizabeth, "the King of Achen See Dr. A. CLARKE, in loco. sent six elephants, with trumpets, drums, and streamers, and a considerable body of men, to attend the admiral to The work of the Tabernacle was begun about the sixth court. finished The largest of the elephants was about thirteen or month after the Israelites had left Egypt, and set up fourteen feet high, and carried a small tower on his back, on the first day of the second year! Exod. xl. 2. in the form of a coach, covered with crimson velvet. In This was the Lord's work surely, and it is marvellous in the middle of this erection was a gold basin, covered with a richly embroidered silk, and into this vessel the queen's letter was put. The admiral was then mounted on another elephant, while some of his retinue rode, and others walked on foot. On approaching the royal presence, he paid his respects in the manner of the country, and then briefly declared, that he was sent by the most potent Queen of England, to congratulate his highness, and to enter into a treaty of peace and amity with his majesty."

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2183. [Exod. xl. 2.] At the beginning of the second year since their departure out of Egypt, the Hebrews consecrated the tabernacle and all its utensils, at the new moon in the month Nisan.

JOSEPH. Antiq. b. iii. ch. viii. § 4.

2184. [10.3 Among the vessels used in sacrifices, was a bucket called Præfericula, about two palms and two inches in height. As found at Herculaneum, it has two large, It has and two small ears which lie under the large ones. also a moveable handle, which, when turned down, lies exactly over the brim of the vessel, and is, like the vessel itself, ornamented with festoons, and other carved work. WINCKELMAN's Herculaneum, p. 68.

2185. [— 13.] The anointing oil was poured unmixed, on a prophet, or a king; but mixed with aromatics, on a priest. This fluid is useful in many respects to man, especially in hot countries; where, not being liable to be soured or corrupted by heat, when poured on the surfaces of other liquors, it preserves them. It is a peculiar property in the Olive-tree, that the root changes what is ingrafted upon it: Thus, when a graft from the wild olive is inserted into the good stem; if the root be holy, so are the branches, Rom. xi. 16.

See No. 931, 736.

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See HUTCHINSON's Use of Reason
recovered, pp. 105, 108, 118.

2. Again, At Achen, "I was conducted," says the French adventurer Beaulieu, "to an audience of the king, by the sabaudar, and four of the principal orankays, in the subsequent manner. On a large elephant sat one of the chief orankays, in a covered pulpit, who sent me a spacious silver dish, covered with an embroidered cloth of gold and silk, into which I put the letter, and returned it to him. By his command I was mounted on another elephant, together with the sabandar and two more. The procession began with six trumpets, six drums, and six hautboys, which sounded till our arrival at the palace. Then followed fourteen persons, each carrying some part of my present, covered with yellow cloth, a form necessary to be observed when any thing is to be presented to the king. After them came two orankays on Arabian horses, immediately preceding the elephant letter-carrier: and then came the elephant on which I was placed, followed by three sabandars, and all the officers of the Albandoque on foot."

3. And, On the departure of Commodore Bieulieu from the Despot of Achen, "I received," says he, "a letter to the King of France, which was brought to my house with great pomp, being carried on an elephant, conducted by one of the principal orankays, attended by many officers of rank. The letter was carried in a silver basin, in a red velvet bag, and was written in the Achenese language, in letters of gold, on very smooth paper, adorned with gilding and painting."

MAVOR'S Voyages, vol. ii. pp. 111,

235, 247.

LEVITICUS.

AR

S no poison is so dangerous as that which poisons the physic; so no falsehood is so fatal as that which is made an article of faith.

Age of Reason, part iii. p. 70.

As sacrifice was the customary external visible mode, by which the internal acts of the mind were expressed; hence that was imputed to sacrifice, which was owing to what sacrifice signified.

Psal. li. 17. cxvi. 17. Heb. xiii. 15.

Essay on the Sacrifices, p. 312.

2188. [Lev. i. 1.] The antient Egyptians abstained wholly from the use of animals in sacrifice: they shed no blood in their temples, nor brought any victims to their altars. PORPHYRY, de Abstin. ii. Their sacred offerings consisted originally of handfuls of corn, grass, and of the lotos, with other fruits of the earth. In process of time they added myrrh, frankincense, and cassia, for the service of the altar.

2189.

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When the Essenes, says JOSEPHUS, send what they have dedicated to God to the Temple, they do not offer (animal) sacrifices, because they have more pure lustrations of their own; on which account they are excluded from the common court of the Temple: but they offer their sacrifices themselves (in their own way); yet their course of life is better than that of other men; and they addict themselves entirely to husbandry. They also appoint certain stewards to receive the incomes of their revenues, and of the fruits of the ground; such as are good men and priests, who are to get their corn and their food ready for them.

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2191. [Lev. i. 2, 3, &c.] These offerings were not animals, but elements; Gal. iv. 9.

2192. There are now apparently FOUR CHRISTS in Paradise, surrounded each in their several degrees with societies that resemble in their encompassing sphere, the four kinds of clean animals offered to God, according to the directions of this book. In Hades there are also Four Antichrists, to one or other of whom all the souls in unclean animal-appearances are sacrificed, when they are about to be cast down into hell: this is the abominable idolatry prohi bited throughout Scripture.

In Paradise, the societies from the human race that appear as the clean animals offered on the altar, aresacrificed and disappear when they enter into the image of the Lord there, and go up into heaven. The unclean monster-appearing societies of Hades, in the same way go into Antichrist, before they be cast down into Hell.

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2194.

Works of Sir W. JONES, vol. iv. p. 229.

There prevails universally in Persia a practice of distinguishing a difference of sex not only in trees and plants, as is the case in some instances with us; but also in every thing else, as well natural, such as vegetables, fruit and the like, as artificial, such as flax, silk, cotton, and even in the elements, as in water and air; calling male, as is related by Seneca to have been usual with the Egyptians, that of its kind which is the strongest and most robust, and that on the contrary the most tender and delicate, the female thus, according to their philosophy and observations, which are far from bad, they judge to what use each sex is adapted. For example, female (or soft) water is better for

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