their admission among the number of his chosen people but that is now discontinued, as impracticable, since the destruction of Jerusalem. We must add, that the persons initiated changed their names, renounced their heathen kindred, family, and wealth, and received as it were new souls. Accordingly Tacitus reproaches them with "despising the gods, and forsaking their country, children, and kindred, whom they looked upon with indignation."

a

So much, then, with respect to the male proselytes of righteousness. The females were received by baptism and sacrifice, but now only by baptism and instruction." In perusing the Jewish writings, we find them dividing proselytism into six periods. The first was, when the Jews came out of Egypt; when Jethro was admitted to Jewish privileges, and a letter was added to his name, like Abraham; for he was formerly, according to them, Jetherreuel, or Raguel; and when others of the neighbouring nations, struck with the wonders of Jehovah, became proselytes. The second period was in the reigns of David and Solomon, when proselytes were forbidden, lest they might have become so from interested motives, on account of the flourishing state of the Jewish nation. And hence the reason why there was no Court of the Gentiles in the first Temple. The third period was between the captivity and the coming of Christ, when they were admitted to offices, and confounded by degrees

a Basnage, book v. ch. 6, 7.

b See some sensible observations on proselytism, in Fleury's Manners of the Ancient Israelites, part iv. ch. 1, and Leusden's Philologus Hebrææc-mixtus, dissert. 21.

with the original stock by their intermarriages. The fourth period was at the beginning of Christianity, when each sect, in place of uniting in the general cause, compassed sea and land to make proselytes to itself. The fifth period was after the destruction of Jerusalem, when the ruin of their Temple, and subsequent misfortunes, prevented many from joining themselves to them. And the sixth is, when the Messias shall appear, to restore the glory to Israel, and when multitudes from heathen lands shall rejoice in their connexion with the favoured race. How painful the thought, that they seek in futurity that Messiah, who is come already to purchase the salvation of an elect world!

PART IX.

LEARNING OF THE JEWS.

SECT. I.

Jewish Manner of Writing.

Origin of writing. Engraving on stone tables, on rock. The inscriptions on the mountains of Faran, in the wilderness of Sinai ; in the plain of Mummies in Egypt; at the river Lycus; on the bricks of Babylon. One of these seen by the author. Engraving on brass, and lead. Books written on painted linen, papyrus, parchment, leaves, and inner bark of trees, plates of wood covered with wax. Their pens or styles: sometimes iron; sometimes a reed. The ancient form of books in rolls. A copy of the Veda described, as seen by the author. Rolls commonly written on one side; but sometimes on both. Writings how preserved. Letters, or private epistles in the form of rolls: how sealed. Description of an Eastern letter seen by the author.

VARIOUS disputes have arisen as to the origin of writing : some supposing that it was of divine original, and never known till the time of Moses; and others, that it was known long prior to him. But, in a matter of such high antiquity, it is impossible to arrive at certainty. It would seem, however, from the perfection of Moses' style, that it was known before; unless we conclude, that God not only wrote the law on two tables of stone; but that the Holy Spirit enabled Moses to write the Pentateuch in a language, till that time only spoken, but never committed to writing; and consequently, that the five books of Moses are re

markable, not only as being the most ancient code of laws ever promulgated, but as being the first specimen of writing that ever existed. This, however, although maintained by some, is certainly carrying the argument too far. The materials on which the Jews and other eastern nations wrote were various. The most ancient that we read of, were the two tables of stone, on which the Decalogue was written; and the two altars mentioned in Deut. xxvii. 8, which were erected for a similar purpose; and in Job xix. 23, 24, we have three ways of writing mentioned, viz. writing in a book, engraving on lead, and engraving on a rock. It would appear, that engraving on rock, especially, was the way in which the ancients chose to preserve inscriptions. For the Prefetto of Egypt mentions a place not far from the mountains of Faran, in the wilderness of Sinai, where, for the distance of three miles, he met with ancient unknown characters, cut here and there on the hard marble rock, at the distance of 12 or 14 feet from the ground. Maillet mentions something of the same kind in the plain of Mummies in Egypt, (Lett. 7.) Maundrell gives an account of figures and inscriptions like these abovementioned, graven on polished parts of the natural rock, and at some height above the road, near the river Lycus, (p. 37.) And Mr. Macdonald Kinneir, when speaking of Babylon, says, that he observed several kinds of bricks which appeared to have been in use

a

Bishop Gleig's edition of Stackhouse's Hist. of the Bible, book iii. appendix to dissert. 5th, where the subject is discussed. And as the origin of language is allied to that of writing, see the divine origin of language ably defended in Magce on the Atonement, vol. ii. Illus trations, No. 51.

among the Babylonians; some of which were burnt in the fire for facing, and others dried in the sun for the heart of the building. Of the former he distinguished four kinds, but the most common were about a foot square, and three inches thick, with a distich of the characters so common at Per sepolis, and similar in appearance to the barb of an arrow. The author of the present work saw one of these bricks, exactly answering the above description, which had been brought from Babylon by one of the suite of General Sir John Malcolm."

It is generally thought that engraving on brass or lead, and on a rock or tablet of stone, was the form in which the public laws were written; but that rolls of linen, first painted and then written upon, was the common form of books. Two things corroborate this opinion: 1st, That tablets of stone or plates of metal could not have been cut with a knife, and thrown into the fire, as Jeremiah's roll was by Jehoiakim. And, 2dly, The linen bandages which surround the mummies are commonly filled with hieroglyphical characters. Prideaux informs us, that the Egyptian papyrus (from whence

a Geograph. Memoir of the Persian Empire, A.D. 1810, p. 279. As many attempts have been made to discover the language in which these distichs are written, but all of them hitherto in vain, there can be no impropriety in the author adding his opinion. He conceives them to be marks engraven on the bottom of the frames, in which the bricks were fashioned, to ascertain the individuals, or companies, by whom they were made. Those conversant with the masonic art know, that every operative has his particular mark, which he engraves on the stones hewn by him, and which may be called the hieroglyphic of his name. It was the resemblance which some of these bore to the figures on the brick from Babylon, that suggested the idea; and if it be well founded, it will afford an additional argument in favour of the antiquity of those symbols which are peculiał c Ch. xxxvi. 23. to Masonry.

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