It belonged to the priests to separate lepers, to judge of other legal impurities, and order the manner of their cleansing. Thus they practised a branch of physic; and though physicians are sometimes mentioned in Scripture, it is probable surgeons are meant: for the antients made no distinction betwixt these two professions. The law speaks of them, when it condemns him that hurts another to pay the physician's charges:* and in other places we read of bandages, plasters, and ointments; but no where, that I can tell, of purges, or a course of physic. King Asa, who had the gout, is blamed for putting too much confidence in physicians.' Perhaps the Israelites still followed the same maxims as the Greeks of the heroic ages, when physicians, as Plato informs us," applied themselves to nothing but healing wounds by topical remedies, without prescribing a regimen; supposing that other illnesses would be prevented or easily got over by a good constitution, and the prudent management of the sick. As for wounds, they must of necessity happen sometimes from divers accidents, even in the course of hard labour only.

The Israelites avoided conversing with strangers; and it was a consequence of those laws that enjoined purifications and distinction of meats. For though most of their neighbours had similar

Gen. 1. 2. 2 Chron. xvi. 12. Job xiii. 4. Jer. viii. 22. Isaiah iii. 7.

Isa. i. 6. Jerem. viii. 22. xlvi. 11.

Exod. xxi. 19. 12 Chron. xvi. 12.

- iii. Rep.

customs, they were not altogether the same. Thus, an Israelite had always a right to presume that any stranger he met with had eaten swine's flesh, or the sacrifices offered to idols, or had touched some unclean beast. Whence it came, that it was not lawful to eat with them, nor to go into their houses. This distance was also of consequence to their morals, serving as a fence against too great a familiarity with strangers, which is always pernicious to the generality, and which was still more so at that time because of idolatry. The Egyptians were strict observers of this maxim: the Scripture takes notice that they would not eat with the Hebrews; and Herodotus says, they would neither salute a Greek, nor make use of his knife or plate. The Mohammedans have several customs of the same nature at this day; but the Hindoos have more, and observe them with the greatest superstition." They did not keep at an equal distance from all sorts of strangers, though they comprehended them all under the name of Goim, or Gentiles. They abhorred all idolaters, especially those that were not circumcised: for they were not the only people that practised circumcision; it was used by all the descendants of Abraham, as the Ishmaelites, Midianites, and Idumeans; and the Ammonites

"Gen. xliii, 32.

• Herod. ii. This superstition the Egyptians carried so far, that they would not eat the flesh even of a clean animal, that had been cut up with the knife of Greek.

For several of these customs see the supplementary Chapter. Appendix, No. II.

and Moabites that were descended from Lot. The Egyptians themselves, though their original was in no case the same with the Hebrews, looked upon circumcision as a necessary purification, and held those unclean that were not circumcised. As for the Israelites, they bore with the uncircumcised that worshipped the true GoD, so far as to let them dwell in their land, provided they observed the laws of nature and abstinence from blood. But if they got themselves circumcised, they were reputed children of Abraham, and consequently obliged to observe the whole law of Moses. The Rabbins call these last proselytes of justice; and the faithful that were not circumcised they call proselytes by abode, or Noachides,' as being obliged to observe no precepts but those that God gave to Noah when he came out of the ark. In Solomon's time there were one hundred and fiftythree thousand six hundred proselytes in the land of Israel. "

The strangers that the Israelites were most of all obliged to avoid were the nations that lay under a curse, as descended from Canaan, whom God had commanded them to root out. I find none but them, as I said before, with whom it was not law

Herod. lib. ii. p. 116. Edit. Steph. 1592. The same author says, that the Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians, are the only nations in the world who have used circumcision from the remotest period, ar apxys: and that the Phoenicians and Syrians, who inhabit Palestine, acknowledge they received this from the Egyptians.

r

Selden de Jure Nat.

⚫ 2 Chron. ii. 17.

ful to marry.

Moses married a Midianite.

u

Boaz

is commended for having married Ruth the Moabite. Absalom's mother was the king of Geshur's daughter. Amasa was the son of an Ishmaelite, and of Abigail, David's sister. Solomon married the king of Egypt's daughter, soon after he came to the crown, and at the time when he was most in GoD's favour: therefore what the Scripture afterwards says, to blame his marrying with strange women, must be understood of the Canaanitish women whom he married, and that, instead of endeavouring to convert them, he paid them such a criminal complaisance as to worship their idols."

Much more were marriages free among the Israelites; and it was not necessary for every one to marry in his own tribe, as many, even of the fathers of the church, have thought. This law was peculiar to heiresses, that inheritances might

Exod. xxxiv. 16. Deut. vii. 3.

"If our author's comment be right, Dr. Warburton is mistaken in saying Solomon transgressed a law of Moses, when he married Pharaoh's daughter. Div. Leg. Book iv. sect. 5. 2d Edit. And Dr. Jortin might less admire Theodoret's parallel between Moses and Christ, in that the former married an Ethiopian woman, and the latter espoused the Church of the Gentiles. There was nothing so particular in the marriage of Moses; and if there had been, the similitude, I think, would have been closer, if Moses had married two wives, for the Jews were the first fruits of the Gospel. See Dr. Jortin's Remarks on Eccles. Hist. Vol. i. p. 209.-E. F.

not be confounded." Besides, David married Michal the daughter of Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin and another of his wives was Ahinoam of Jezreel, a city of the tribe of Ephraim.

CHAP. X.

Their Women and Marriages.

FROM the manner in which the Israelites lived, marriage was no incumbrance to them; it was rather a convenience, for which it was originally

Heiresses were obliged to marry not only within their own tribe, but within their own family. Numb. xxxvi. 6. Let them marry to whom they think best; only to the FAMILY of the TRIBE (or HOUSE) of their fathers shall they marry. And that the Jews so understood the law, appears from Judith viii. 2. Tobit iii. 15. This I chose to observe, because a late ingenious writer, who would seem to have examined this point, says, it does not appear that there was any other obligation even upon heiresses, than to marry only within their own TRIBE. Dr. Middleton's reflections on the inconsistencies which are found in the four Evangelists, in his Works, 8vo. Vol. ii. p. 399. Not only the words of the law, and the practice of the Jews, but Grotius and the other commentators which he had before him, expressly taught him otherwise. See likewise Kidder's Dem. of the Messiah, Part ii. p. 416-17, where the reader, if he pleases, may find three or four other of the Doctor's assertions fully confuted.-E. F.

2 Sam. iii. 2.