composed songs instead of funeral orations for illustrious persons that came to an unfortunate end. Such were those that David made upon the death of Saul, and Jeremiah the prophet upon that of Josiah.f

e

Though burying the dead was a duty of piety, yet there was no religious ceremony used at it: on the contrary, it was a profane action, and rendered all those unclean that were concerned in it, till they were purified; because all dead bodies are either actually corrupted, or in a state that tends to it. Thus priests were so far from being necessary at burials, that they were absolutely forbidden to assist at any, except of their very near relations. " When Josiah designed to root out idolatry, he caused the bones of the false prophets to be burnt upon the altars of the idols," to inspire his people with a greater abhorrence of them.

or funeral cry.

Between the customs of the antient Irish and those of the antient Hebrews there is a striking similarity: this

may afford matter for curious speculation.

e

2 Sam. i. 17.

f 2 Chron. Xxxv. 25.

Lev. xxi. 1, 2, 3.

h 2 Chron. xxxiv. 5.

CHAP. XVI.

Their Religion.

WHAT has been said relates to the private life of the Israelites. We come now to their religious and political government. I shall not at present be very prolix in explaining their creed: we ought to be acquainted with it, for it is contained in our own. I shall only observe, that some truths were revealed to them clearly; whilst others were still obscure, though they were already revealed."

d

b

What they knew distinctly was this:-That there is but one GOD; that He governs all things by His providence; that there is no trust to be put in any but Him, nor good to be expected from any one else; that He sees every thing, even the secrets of the heart; that He influences the will by His inward operation, and turns it as He pleases ;' that all men are born in sin, and naturally inclined to evil; that, however they may do good, yet only by God's assistance; that they are free, and

g

e

h

a

Jos. cont. App. lib. ii. c. 8.

Deut. iv. 39. vi. 4.

C

Psaim civ. cxxv.

Psalm lxii. Isaiah xxxvi. xxxvii. Jer. xvii. 6-8.

• Psalm cxxxix.

Psalm li. 5. Gen. vi. 5.

Prov. xxi. 1.

Deut. xxx. 6. Exek. xxxvi. 25, 27.

have the choice of doing good or evil;' that GOD is strictly just, and punishes or rewards men according to their works; that He is full of mercy and compassion for those that sincerely repent of their sins; that He judges the actions of all men after their death; whence it follows that the soul is immortal, and that there is another life.

m

They knew besides that God, out of His mere loving kindness, had chosen them from among all mankind to be His faithful people;" that from them, of the tribe of Judah, and the family of David, should be born a Saviour, that should deliver them from all their hardships, and bring all nations to the knowledge of the true God. All this they knew very clearly; and it was the most usual subject of their prayers and meditations. This was that exalted wisdom which distinguished them from all the people of the earth. For whereas, in other nations, none but the wise men knew some of these great truths, and that but imperfectly, and had different opinions about them; all the Israelites were instructed in this doctrine, and did not vary the least in their notions about it."

1 Deut. xxx. 19, 20.

* Psalm xvii. 1. 6. xc. 1, &c.

' Deut. xxxii. 1, 2. Exod. xxxiv. 7. Numb. xiv. 18. m Eccles. viii. 11. xi. 9. xii. 14. Wisd. ii. 23. How far this was their general belief I must leave to be settled between Dr. Warburton and his opponents. It is a subject, however, that continually occurs in their most antient writings, such as the Talmud, Mishna, &c.

"Deut. vii. 6. ix. 5, 6. "Orig. cont. Cels.

• Gen. xlix. 10. Isa. xi. 1, 10.

4

Joseph. lib. ii. App. 6.

The truths they were taught more obscurely, were, that in God there are Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; that the Saviour they expected should be God, and the Son of God; that He should be both God and Man at the same time;t that God would not give men His grace, and the assistance necessary to perform His law, but through this Saviour, and upon account of His merits;" that He should suffer death to expiate the sins of mankind; that His kingdom should be altogether spiritual; that all men shall rise again; that in another life there shall be a just reward for the good, and punishment for the wicked. All this is taught in the Scriptures of the Old Testament: but not so clearly that all the people knew it; neither were men capable at that time of bearing such sublime truths.

But my design is only to explain in what the outward practice of their religion differed from our customs. They had only one temple, and one altar on which it was lawful to offer sacrifice to God: this was a symbol of God's unity; and this building was the most magnificent in the whole world, to represent also His sovereign Majesty. It was not

"Gen. i. 26. Psalm xxxiii. 6. Isaiah xlviii. 16.

of Jonathan ben Uzziel on Gen. iv. 8. where Abel is represented as vindicating the doctrines of the immortality of the soul and future rewards and punishments against the infidel objections of his brother Cain.

one only building, like most of our churches; but a great enclosure, comprehending courts surrounded with galleries, and several offices for the different courses of Priests and Levites, besides the body of the temple. The temples of other nations, as the Egyptians and Chaldeans, had also large edifices adjoining to them, and stood upon a great deal of ground: but they always planted trees about them; whereas the Israelites would not suffer any to grow near theirs, that they might keep entirely free from the superstition of groves, which the Pagans held sacred.

The body of the temple was sixty cubits long, and twenty broad, and thirty high, without reckoning the holy of holies, which joined to it on the same floor, and was twenty cubits in length, and twenty in breadth, and twenty in height. At the

We find two different cubits in the Scripture; one of them equal (as Dr. Arbuthnot says) to an English foot, nine inches and 888 thousandth parts of an inch; being a fourth part of a fathom, double the span, and six times the palm. The other equal to one foot and 824 thousandth parts of a foot, or the 400th part of a stadium. The Romans too had a cubit equal to one English foot, five inches and 406 thousandth parts of an inch. Father Mersenne makes the Hebrew cubit one foot four digits and five lines, with regard to the foot of the capital. According to Hero, the geometrical cubit is 24 digits and according to Vitruvius, the foot is two-thirds of the Roman cubit, i. e. sixteen digits or finger's breadths. The Scripture says here, the cubits were after the first measure. Vid. 2 Chron. iii. 3.-E. F.

1 Kings vi. 2, 3, 20. Jos. Ant. lib. xv. c. ult: et De Bell. Jud, lib. vi. c. 6.