tore their hair, shaved their heads, and mangled their flesh. But the Israelites were expressly forbidden to do any of those things. Deut. xiv. 1, 2: "Ye are the children of the Lord your God. Ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead," (that is, for idolatrous uses,) "for ye are an holy people unto the Lord your God."* These directions had no view to private mournings; for on those occasions they always did these very things, but to the worship of God.

It was the custom of the Heathens to imprint on their skin various indelible marks, being figures and characters expressive of their devotedness to their gods, which must have been a painful operation. But this was also forbidden to the Hebrews. Lev. xix. 28: "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh, for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord."+

8. If the extreme of austerity was with so much care avoided in the Hebrew institutions, that of sensual indulgence was avoided with more. Every incentive to lewdness, which was encouraged and openly practised in the Heathen temples, was far removed from the worship of Jehovah. The Heathens were fond of worshipping on the tops of mountains, and in groves, in which every species of abomination was committed; and for this reason both were forbidden in the Hebrew worship. Deut. xvi. 21: "Thou shalt not plant thee a grove-near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make unto him."‡

In the rites of some of the Heathen deities, men were habited like women, and women like men. This was more especially the case in the worship of Venus. This manner of worship was also common among the Syrians and Africans, and thence it passed into Europe, the Phoenicians having brought it to Cyprus. In a religious rite of the Argives, says Plutarch, the women were clothed like men, and men like women.§ But in the laws of Moses it is said, Deut. xxii. 5, "The women shall not wear that which appertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment; for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God."||

You have seen that the Heathens had places adjoining to their temples, in which both men and women prostituted themselves in honour of their deities, and to augment the

See Vol. XI. p. 280.

+ See ibid. p. 215.

See ibid. p. 282; supra, p. 49, Note †. § De Mulierum Virtutibus, in Young, I. pp. 102, 103.

I See Vol. XI, p. 286.

revenues of the place. With a view, no doubt, to this abominable custom, the Hebrews were commanded to avoid these practices. Lev. xix. 29, 30: "Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness. Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord your God."*

9. A superstitious respect for the Heathen temples and altars made them asylums for all kinds of criminals, and it was deemed the greatest act of impiety to take any person from thence, whatever his guilt had been, and however clear the proof of it. But this was not the case in the religion of the Hebrews, which Voltaire represents as the extreme of the most detestable superstition. Exod. xxi. 12 -14: "He that smiteth a man so that he die, shall surely be put to death. If a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then will I appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die."+ Where, then, do we find the proper characters of superstition, and where are those of good policy and good sense?

DISCOURSE VI.

1

THE

EXCELLENCE OF THE MOSAIC INSTITUTIONS.

DEUT. iv. 5-8:

Behold I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep, therefore, and do them; for this is your wisdom and understanding, in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is, in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?

See Vol. XI. p. 214.

+ See ibid. pp. 162, 163.

IN my last Discourse, I began to give you a general view of the religious institutions of Moses, corresponding to that which, in two preceding Discourses, I gave you of the religion of the Heathens, to which they were opposed, in order to enable you to judge, whether it was probable that the former were devised by men, or were of divine origin. You have seen that, in a variety of important respects, the religion of the Hebrews, said by unbelievers to be a barbarous and superstitious people, had doctrines and rites infinitely superior to those of the Heathens. I particularly mentioned the great doctrine of the Scriptures, concerning the Unity of God, in opposition to the multiplicity of Heathen deities; his being represented as having no definite form, so as to be worshipped under any image; his attributes of creating and governing the world; his omnipresence, omnipotence, and infinite wisdom; the perfection of his moral character, and his making the strictest virtue the great end of his worship. I mentioned the decency of all the religious festivals of the Hebrews, as the reverse of the licentiousness encouraged in those of the Heathens, and at the same time their freedom from any unnecessary or painful austerity, and the peculiar abhorrence in which human sacrifices, and other rites of the Heathen worship, were held by the Hebrews. I also observed that the Hebrew altars afforded no asylum for criminals, which those of the Heathens constantly did.

10. I now proceed to observe that, whereas much of the attention of the Heathen nations was taken up with the superstitious practice of divination, in a great variety of forms, with witchcraft and necromancy, these being essential parts of their_religion, and more studied than any other; (so that at Rome, to despise the established auguries, would have been reckoned the extreme of profaneness the Hebrews, of all the ancient nations, were entirely exempt from this wretched superstition, the offspring of the most extreme ignorance, though they knew no more of philosophy, or the true causes of events, than other people. Every branch of this superstition was strictly forbidden to the Israelites, as well as things of greater enormity. Lev. xix. 26: “Neither shall ye use enchantments, nor observe times." Deut. xviii. 10-14: " There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer

* See Vol. XI. pp. 213, 214.

of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord; and because of these abominations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God. For these nations which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners; but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do."* Is this any mark of the detestable superstition with which Voltaire charges the religion of the Jews? On the contrary, it is such good sense as we in vain look for in the religion of other nations, that this writer represents as, in all respects, their superior.

Considering the very strong hold that these opinions and practices still have on the minds of men, (for to this day many Christians, and even many unbelievers in Christianity, have great faith in charms, and other things of a similar nature, relating to good or bad fortune, as insignificant as the sailors whistling for a wind,) there is not a clearer and more unequivocal mark of superior, of divine wisdom, than the contempt that is so strongly expressed for every thing of this kind, in the books of Moses, especially considering the times in which they were written.

11. The Heathens had many superstitious rules with respect to sacrifices. Thus, hogs were sacrificed to Ceres, an owl to Minerva, a hawk to Apollo, a dog to Hecate, an eagle to Jupiter, a horse to the sun, a cock to Esculapius, a goose to Isis, and a goat to Bacchus. The Zabians sacrificed to the sun seven bats, seven mice, and seven other reptiles. The Egyptians were so far from sacrificing horned cattle, that they worshipped them, as also the ram. The Hebrews alone kept to the natural and rational idea of sacrifices, which was to confine them to things most proper for the food of man, in order to express their gratitude to God, as the giver of it, and, as it were, to be the guests at his table.

That sacrifices, though not required of Christians, were a natural mode of worship, cannot be denied, because they were universal, and are used by all Heathen nations to this day. No philosopher, in the most enlightened period of the Heathen world, ever objected to them.

The Heathens were used to reserve some of the flesh of the animals they sacrificed, for superstitious uses, as the

See Vol. XI. pp. 283, 284.

+ See Young, I. pp. 191-195.

་་་

Christians, when superstition crept in among them, did of the consecrated bread in the Eucharist; for the Christians derived all their superstitious practices from the Heathens. When the Mahometans sacrifice a sheep, as they always do on their pilgrimage to Mecca, they dry a great part of the flesh, which, by this means, may be kept two years, and make presents of it to their friends at their return. This was probably an ancient idolatrous custom, which Mahomet kept up. But to prevent every superstitious use of sacrifices, the Hebrews were directed to keep nothing of theirs till the next day; and no flesh of the Pascal lamb was to be carried out of the house in which it was eaten. They were also strictly forbidden to eat any part of it raw, (Exod. xii. 2,) which has been observed to have been a superstitious and indecent custom with the Egyptians and others.†

12. Some parts of the first-fruits of their harvests were reserved by the Heathens for magical purposes. On the contrary, the Israelites were directed, when they presented their first-fruits, to recount the goodness of God to them in the following pious form, (Deut. xxvi. 3,) in the presence of the priest: "I profess this day, unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us.' "When the priest had taken the basket out of his hand, and presented it, he was to say farther, [vers. 5—10,]" A Syrian, ready to perish, was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation great, mighty, and populous, and the Egyptians evil-intreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage; and when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and an out-stretched arm, and with great terribleness,

* At "the place, as they say, where Abraham went to offer up his son Isaac,two or three miles from Mecca.-Here they all pitch their tents, and spend the time of Curbaen Byram, viz. three days.-Every individual Hagge" (a name conferred by the Imam, or priest, on those who have performed the prescribed devotions) "the first day throws seven" of " 49 small stones," which he had previously gathered, "against a small pillar, or little square stone building."-This_they do three days." They, at the same time, pronounce the following words: Erzum le Shetane wazbete, that is, stone the Devil, and them that please him.-As I was going to perform this ceremony, a facetious Hagye met me. Saith he, You may save your labour-for I have hit out the Devil's eyes already.'-After they have thrown the seven stones, on the first day every one buys a sheep, and sacrifices it, some of which they give to their friends, some to the poor which come out of Mecca, and the rest they eat themselves." Pitts's Religion of the Mahometans, 1731, Ed. 3, pp. 139, 140.

+ See Vol. XI. p. 141.