C

Anubis under an image with a dog's head." Lucian calls Anubis or Mercury the dog-faced Mercury : κυνοπροσωπος Ερμης. Athanasius and others call him the dog-headed Anubis:" xuvoxapakos Avous. And Virgil' says the same thing. It was no wonder, then, that God forbade the price of a dog to be received among the gifts of animals which were redeemable. It was to inspire them with hatred against the Egyptian idols, and their impure worship. They might redeem a horse, ass, camel, or ape, but were on no account to redeem a dog. God would not allow it to enter his treasury.→→ Should it be asked, what connexion there was between the price of whoredom and the price of a dog, I answer, that at the temple of Isis, or Venus, the women sat as described formerly; and at the temple of Anubis or Mercury, that dog-headed deity, there was probably a similar practice. They were connected together as Egyptian deities, and the prohibition was also connected, to prevent the Israelites from worshipping them. Spencer mentions an Egyptian column dedicated to Isis, which shows their connexion: "I am Isis, the queen of this country, educated by Mercury; I am she who arises in the Dog-star," &c.

We have been thus particular concerning the laws in the Mosaic ritual, which were intended to

a Lib. de Sacrif. p. 186.

The author inch long,

b En. viii. 689. c Omnigenûmque Deûm monstra, et latrator Anubis. has seen two little images of that deity: one of them 1 by half an inch thick; the other 17 inch long, by half an inch thick. They were found at Thebes A. D. 1810; were of a greenish colour ; and from the small hole through the back of each of their necks, they seem to have been suspended from the neck, as amulets, or charms. d Lib. ii. cap. 36.

be a defence against idolatry, both because of their singularity and importance. Against them have the shafts of ridicule been chiefly directed, and it became us to show their reasonableness and utility. Living, as the Jews did, in the midst of idolaters, it was necessary to defend them against idolatry, and to secure their allegiance to the true God. The words therefore of Tacitus are strictly true, if, instead of Moses, we substitute God. "Moses, that he might attach the nation of the Jews for ever to himself, instituted new rites, and contrary to the rest of men. For all things are profane to them, which are accounted sacred by us: and all things are permitted to them, which are prohibited to us."*

Hitherto we have been considering the first two ends of the ceremonial law: viz. that it was intend. ed to teach the Jews the leading doctrines of reli. gion, in a sensible and impressive manner; and to be a defence against idolatry: let us now attend to the third end for which it was given, viz. to prepare their minds for a brighter dispensation. St. Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, calls the Jewish ritual the shadow of good things to come, figures or antitypes of the true, an example and shadow of heavenly things," a parable of the time to come;" the whole law a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ; and its institutes the elements of the world, or rudiments to teach the world the first principles of piety, and of the gospel, in a manner

a "Moses, ut sibi in posterum Judæorum gentem firmaret, novos ritus, contrariosque cæteris mortalibus indidit. Profana illis omnia, quæ apud nos sacra. Rursum concessa apud illos, quæ nobis incesta." (Hist. lib. v. sub init.)

adapted to the childhood of the world. Nor are there wanting sufficient reasons why God delivered gospel truths in this mysterious manner. It suited

the state of the Jews, to whom, as to an early and rude people, types, symbols, fables, and parables, were the common modes of instruction. It was consonant to the education of Moses, who was taught in all the hieroglyphics of Egypt. It was fitted to the intermediate nature of the Jewish dispensation; giving it more light than the patriarchal, but less than the Christian. It was placing the old covenant and its mediator, below the new covenant and its mediator. And as the Jewish law was given to the whole Jewish nation, learned and unlearned, it was proper that there should be ra auta for the common people, and rα Honza for the wise; doctrines exoteric and esoteric; truths for the carnal, and truths for the spiritual-minded Jews. Hence hath the ceremonial law been often termed the Jewish gospel; because it exhibited to those who were exercised to godliness the leading doctrines of the covenant of grace; faith in the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world; acceptance with God through the blood of atonement; holiness of heart, and holiness of life, through the gracious aids of the Holy Spirit; and a future state of rewards and punishments. On all these points the Epistle to the Hebrews forms a beauti

a 2 Esdras, xiv. 26, 44-48. This kind of teaching was not confined to the Jews. The followers of Pythagoras were so divided. And when Capt. Light visited Lebanon in 1814, he found the religion of the Druzes divided into aallem and jahel; or the doctrines taught to the initiated and uninitiated. (Travels, p. 223.) A distinction which also obtains among the Hindoos. (Vide Crauford on the Hindoos, vol. i. p. 19.)

ful commentary. A religion then, that had such advantages as these to boast of, ought not to be too hastily decried. It was perfect, in that it was suited to the situation and circumstances of the people to whom it was given; it was only imperfect when compared with the more complete economy of the gospel.

One cannot contemplate the ceremonial law without also reflecting on its gradual abolition. For it was positively binding on every Jew till the death of Christ, in whom its spiritual meaning was fulfilled. Its observance became a matter of indifference, between the death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem, and hence those prudential maxims and regulations which are to be found in the Acts of the Apostles, and the several Epistles, with respect to those converts from Judaism to Christianity who had still an attachment to it. But it became criminal after the destruction of Jerusalem, because then it could not be legally observed, since the temple and altar were then destroyed.*

* Leusden's Philologus Hebræo-mixtus, dissert. 37.

SECT. III.

The Judicial Law.

The forms of government in the different periods of the Jewish history; patriarchal, the theocracy, an elective monarchy, an hereditary monarchy till the captivity: governors after it; the Asmonæan family; Herod; the Romans. The revenue of the Jewish kings.

THE judicial law comprehends two distinct branches. 1st, The form of government in the different periods of the Jewish history; and 2dly, The civil and criminal laws by which justice was administered.

The first form of government among the Jews was the patriarchal, when the father of the family exercised that power which God, and his superior age and experience had given him. This was the sway that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had over their respective families. And when their posterity became more numerous after their death, the heads of the tribes supplied their places; were their counsellors in peace, and their leaders in war. We find traces of this kind of goverment, as far as circumstances permitted, at the time when Moses was commissioned to free them from the bondage of Egypt. But when God effected that deliverance, their government assumed a new character; the patriarchal form was exchanged for a theocracy. The Ruler of the universe became the king of Israel. He assumed a visible relation to, and took a particular interest in his chosen race. He became their king, their lawgiver, and their judge;