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$50. [Exod. xxiv. 8.] And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you.

This was sprinkled, as St. Paul observes, both on the book of the Law and on the people. And, by the following extract from MAVOR's Voyages and Travels, blood, so sprinkled, appears to have been, in remote ages and countries, a token of peace.--" After the death of Magellan, the company on board, which amounted to eighty men, continuing their course towards the Moluccas, arrived at Paviloghan and Chippit, where there was gold, with plenty of fruits, and spices. The natives treated them in a very amicable manner; and the prince stained his body with blood, as a symbol of the covenant of peace.

851.

Vol. i. p. 286.

Among the Romans, on the day of marriage, the bride was sprinkled with lustral water (a mixture of red-wine and water, Heb. ix. 19, 20.) in order that she might enter holy into the house of her husband. (Dr. W. ALEXANDER'S Hist. of Women, vol. ii. p. 253.)—Among the Jews, the bride, and also the bridegroom, were sprinkled with the blood of the grape which sprinkling distinguished their marriage garments. See Isai. lxiii. 3.

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clothes, which they took as a favor; and also daubed all the stools, where they were to sit, with wet sweet-meats.

From the Harleian Manuscripts in the
British Museum, No. 991. fol. 23.

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

853. [Exod. xxxii. 27.] And Moses said to the Levites, Thus saith the LORD GOD of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every-man his neighbour.

In Malabar, there still prevails a similar sort of itinerant justice. A magistrate there, accompanied by four soldiers, goes about through all the streets; and if they observe any disturbance, they quell it on the spot, and punish the offenders. (BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston, p. 312.) -As Solomon did ask wisdom of God, that he might come in and go out before the people; which, in another place, is expressed and explained by, judging the people. Bib. Research. vol. i. p. 319.

See No. 598, 665.

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858. [Deut. xvii. 19.] To shew the peculiar equity and unvarying perfection of the Divine government,—The very

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864. As, however, the city Gate was not only the place of justice, but also of public concourse, when there came a very intricate cause before this court, and any present thought that a malicious accuser was doing injustice to a poor man, or to a person who could not help himself; such by-stander, if he felt himself inclined, and had made himself well acquainted with the circumstances of the cause, might plead (as was allowed and even enjoined-Isaiah i. 17.) in behalf of the accused: thus becoming, merely from noble-mindedness, and a regard to justice, the advocate of the unknown.

Ibid, vol. iv. pp. 321–323.

865, The execution of the awarded punishment took place immediately after sentence was pronounced; in order that the delinquent might not leave the court, till he was considered as cleared from his offence by the restitution he had made, and could in consequence be re-admitted into social and religious Covenant with God and man, by partaking penitently in the prescribed ordinances of the sacred altar. Ibid. p. 361.

866. [Lev. vi. 2, 6.] The CHRIST of Sacred Scripture, positively directed, or rationally influenced, the wise and good in all ages and in all countries, respecting the diet to be used in support of human life; and condescended also to dictateLAWS, and to establish them in writing among his people, for the complete regulation of man's civil, moral, and religious conduct; to appoint administrators of those laws, who should do justice and execute judgment without fee or reward; to ascertain the precise degree of retributive compensation to be made, by every offender against the legal institutions; and then,— "after conviction in a court of justice, and confession of the crime implied by sin and trespass-offering, the crime was no further punished, the offering being regarded as a sort of 'atonement' or mulct, that completely acquitted the guilty." Ibid, vol. iii. p. 109.

867. [John i. 17.] Indeed Law itself (especially that of GOD) is only Beneficence acting by a rule.

BURKE.

868. [Lev. iv. 1.]:Now what is called, in the Mosaic law, a sin of ignorance, is (a voluntar acknowledgment), when any one sins, and is conscious of it himself, but has no body that can (in a court of justice) prove it upon him. (JOSEPH. Antiq. b. iii. ch. ix. § 3.)-For such as had thus sinned, when the priest had made an atonement" by a proper offering, the sin is declared to be "forgiven;" Lev. iv. 20, 26, 35.

error.

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869. [Num. xv. 27, 34.] If an individual sin through error, he shall offer a yearling goat, and the priest shall atone for him before Jehovah, for the sin thus committed, that it be forgiven him. For the native, that is, the born Israelite, and the stanger sojourning among them, there is, in the Mosaic code, oe and the same law, where the matter proceeds from But whoever, whether native or stranger, shall audaciously transgress the law,-contemns Jehovah, and must be extirpated (or excommunicated) from his people; for he has despised the word of Jehovah, and broken his law (wilfully and repeatedly). Such a man shall be "extirpated;" but let the judge impute this punishment to none other than himself. (SMITH'S Michaelis, vol. iii. p. 488.)--This was the real act of judicial" reprobation." (Sce 1 Cor. xvi. 22. n. 244.)-Thus in every Dispensation of mercy and grace from GOD to Man, particularly in that of the Gospel,—“ it is a great work," says Dr. A. CLARKE, "to bring sinners to

a consum

(their) CHRIST; it is a greater work to preserve them in the faith and it requires much grace and much wisdom to keep the Church of Christ pure; not only by not permitting the unholy to enter, but by casting out those who apostatize or work iniquity." (See his Commentary, on 2 Cor. vii. in fine.)-But in such awful instances, especially when the decision was to be made against nations, tribes, or obstinately incorrigible individuals, the SHECHINAH HIMSELF visibly interfered to smite in judgment the rebellious with " ing fire" Deut. iv. 24. Thus, saith the Apostle, “if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries" either manifestly before the eyes of numerous beholders, as in the case of Koral, Dathan, and Abiram; or secretly, but evidently to the understanding, as when Ananias and Sapphira, and others on record with lying imprecations in their mouths, have suddenly dropped down dead, allowedly "by the visitation of God."

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THE SACRIFICES.

874. [Lev. i. 2.] If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.

Even when things are written plainly, it pleases God, sometimes, to let the knowledge of them sleep till there be occasion, and gives clearer lights of them, as it best serves his purposes of informing ages, when the knowledge of such things is most needed. (HUTCHINSON's Works, vol. i. Nat. Hist. p. 39.)-Let it however be remembered, that Harvey is entitled to the glory of having made, by reasoning alone, without any mixture of accident, a capital discovery of one of the most important branches of science. Yet it was remarked that no physician in Europe who had reached forty years of age ever, to the end of his life, adopted Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood; and that his practice in London diminished extremely, from the reproach drawn on him by that great and signal discovery. -If such be the opposition to improvement in every science, what resistance may uot the display of new truths in religion, whether among Jews or Gentiles, be expected at all times to encounter from superstitious prejudices! Acts xxviii. 28. HUME'S Hist. vol. vii. p. 347.

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876. [Gen. xii. 16.] The oxen in Guzerat (whose skins were used in the Jewish sacrifices) are esteemed the finest in India; they are perfectly white (as the Egyptian Apis), with black horns, and a skin delicately soft. Those reared in the northern part of the province are most noble animals, for strength, size, and docility; some of them travel with a hackery from thirty to forty miles a day, and are yoked to the carriages of the wealthy Hindoos in distant parts of India. The Ayeen Akbery mentions that some of them were valued at a sum nearly equal to two hundred pounds sterling, the pair; while at the same time the usual price of a good cow, yielding daily twenty quarts of milk, was only about twentyfive shillings. See FORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. 99. p.

877. [Gen. xxx. 35.] The Angora goat is by far the most elegant of all the varieties of the goat kind. It is generally of a beautiful-milk white color, with hair of uncommon length

and fineness; which, being used particularly in fabricating the robes of priests and judges, the goatherds of Barbary and Asiatic Turkey are extremely careful to preserve it in good condition, washing and combing their flocks with the greatest diligence.

See SHAW's Zoology, vol. ii. part ii. p. 375, &c. And Nat. Delin. vol. iii. p. 23.

878. [Lev. xvi. 7.] The yellow goats of Tartary (sacred, as supplying sacrificial skins, of "golden fleece") are seldom seen in the plains, except in large herds. They are of the shape and size of common goats, only their hair is yellow, and not so smooth: they are likewise extremely fleet, which makes it difficult to catch them. See Modern Univer. Hist. vol. iv. p. 287.

879. [Exod. xxv. 5.] Red goats, in Malabar, are (on account of their skins) sacred animals, for which the Indians entertain the utmost reverence; putting them under the care of certain shepherds (or, more properly, goatherds), who form a particular caste. BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston, p. 211.

880. [Lev. v. 6.] The common buck-goat (whose skin was used as a bottle, or containing vessel, in some of the Levitical sacrifices) is found to produce with the ewe an animal that in two or three generations returns to the sheep, and seems to retain no mark of its antient progenitor. The sheep and the goat, therefore, may be considered as belonging to one family (having but one and the same name in the Hebrew Bible, says Dr. GEDDES); and were the whole race reduced to one of each, they would quickly replenish the earth with their kind.

GOLDSMITH'S Hist. of the Earth, vol. iii. p. 35.

881. [Gen. xxx. 35.] A gentleman, who visited the Holy Land in 1774, was struck with the difference between the goats there, and those that he saw in countries not far distant from Jerusalem. They are, he says, black, black and white, and some gray, with remarkably long ears, rather larger and longer-legged than our Welsh goats. He observes also, that the sheep of that country are, in general, white with large tails, resembling those of Syria and on the plains of Damascus. —RAUWOLF observed goats about Jerusalem with hanging ears, almost two feet long. (See Fragments to CALMET'S Dict. 2d Hund. p. 110.)—These and the other animals, whose skins were used in the Temple Service at Jerusalem, may be said to have been truly sacred, as to the use that was thus made of them; and would be treated accordingly.

882. [Gen. xxi. 14.] Thus all sacred and other bottles were then made of leather. They were of different sizes, according to the size of the animal whose skin they were made of. Geddes.

883. [Lev. xiii. 48.] The leather-bottles, used by the Arabs, are in general made of goat-skins. When the animal is dead, they cut off its feet and its head, and draw it in this manner out of the skin, without opening the belly. They afterwards sew up the places were the legs and the tail were cut off; and when it is filled, they tie it about the neck. Sir JOHN CHARDIN.

884. [Ps. cxix. 83.] To make their bags for liquors, the Baschkerians scrape the hair from the skins of camels, horses, and cows, stretching them afterwards on a cone composed of poles, covering them with pieces of felt, and then placing them over a very smoky fire of rotten wood and cow dung, made in a hole dug in the ground, till the skin has acquired the consistency of horn; this preparation takes up about eight days. For making their sava, or great bags or bottles of leather to hold milk, they sew the skins together with thread made of sinews and horse-hair before they smoke them.

History of Russia, vol. ii. p. 199.

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887. [Lev. vii. 23, 25.] The girba is a beeve-skin, squared, and the edges sewed together very artificially, by a double seam, which does not let out water, much resembling that on the best English cricket balls. An opening is left at the top of the girba, in the same manner as the bung-hole of a cask. Around this, the skin is gathered to the size of a large handful, which, when the girba is full of water, is tied round with whip-cord. These girbas generally contain about sixty galons each, and two of them are the load of a camel. They are then ali-besmeared on the outside with (wax or) tallow, as well to hinder the water from oozing through,

as to prevent its weing evaporated by the heat of the sun on the girba; which, in fact, happened to us twice, says BRUCE, so as to put us in imminent danger of perishing by thirst. See his Trav. vol. iv. p. 334.

888. [Gen. xliii. 11.] In the East they put into goatskin and kid-skin vessels every thing which they want to carry to a distance, whether dry or liquid; and very rarely make use of boxes and pots, unless it be to preserve such things as are liable to be broken The reason is that, for carrying such things, they make use of beasts of burden which often fall down under their loading, or throw it down; and also because it is in pretty thin woollen sacks that they inclose what they carry. There is another advantage too, in putting the necessaries of life in these skin-vessels, they are preserved fresher: the ants and other insects cannot make their way to them: nor the dust get in, of which there are such quantities in the hot countries of Asia, and so fine, that there is no such thing as a coffer impenetrable to it; therefore it is that butter, honey, cheese, and other like aliments are inclosed in vessels made of the skins of this species of animals. According to this, the things which were carried to Joseph, were probably inclosed in little vessels made of kid-skins, not only the balm and the honey which were somewhat liquid; but the nuts and the almonds too, that they might be preserved fresh, and the whole put into slight woollen sacks.

-

Sce HARMER'S Obser. vol. i. p. 220.

889. [Lev. xi. 32.] The next day, says BARTRAM, after my arrival at Attasse (see n. 195), I was introduced to the antient chiefs, at the public square or areopagus; and in the evening, in company with the traders, who are numerous in this town, repaired to the great rotunda, a vast conical building dedicated particularly to political affairs: here were assembled the greatest number of antient venerable chiefs and warriors that I had ever beheld among the Indians. These aged chiefs and warriors are seated on their cabins or sophas, on the side of the house opposite the door, in three classes or ranks, rising a little, one above or behind the other; and the white people and red people of confederate towns in the like order on the left hand: the king's cabin or seat is in front; the next behind it is the head warrior's; and the thir or last accommodates the young warriors, &c. When all things are duly arranged and prepared, the skin of a wild cat or young tyger stuffed with tobacco is brought, and laid at the king's feet, with the great or royal pipe beautifully adorned; the skin is usually of the animals of the king's family or tribe, as the wild cat, otter, bear, rattle-snake, &c. A skin of tobacco is likewise brought and cast at the feet of the white chief of the town, and from him it passes from one to another to fill their pipes from, though each person has, besides, his own pecu iar skin of tobacco. The king smokes first in the great pipe a few whiffs, the chief white man next, and then the great war chief; from whom the pipe circulates through the rank of headmen and warriors, and then returns to the king. After this each one fills the pipe which

had been previously given him, from his own or his neighbour's skin: and thus the evening and greatest part of the night, so devoted to the public reception and honor of strangers, are socially spent in drinking the unintoxicating Cassine, and smoking tobacco. On presenting an extremely aged Indian chief with a very fine handkerchief and a twist of choice tobacco, he thanked me, says our Traveller, and returned the favor immediately with his own stone pipe and a cat-skin of tobacco. See his Travels, pp. 448, 497.

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