e were considered as more acceptable. Seneca, as quoted by Augustin," says so of a heathen priest. Lucian mentions some ministers of religion called Galli, who were wont to emasculate themselves in honor of Rhea. Strabo tells us that the priests who ministered to Diana at Ephesus did the same, to take charge of the sacred virgins. The Egyptian priests at Heliopolis were eunuchs. And Hieronymus says that the Hierophants of the Athenians, even in his day, were emasculated by a draught of poison (sorbitione cicuta) to qualify them for the pontificate. It is evident then that the law in question had two objects in view. 1. To preserve a respect for the priesthood among the Jews, since eunuchs are generally despised, and it would have been wrong for those to officiate who, by cutting off the virile part, which was one species of eunuchism, were thereby deprived of the sign of that covenant which distinguished their countrymen. And 2. To distinguish them from the priests of the heathen temples, where both the kinds of eunuchism mentioned in Deut. xxiii. 1, were but too frequently to be found.-Every one in the least acquainted with the history of heathen worship, knows that their temples were the very centre of iniquity, by having females and even males attached to them. It is therefore not without probability that Spencers explains the law in Deut. xxiii. 17, which forbade a whore of the daughters of Israel, or a sodomite of the sons of Israel, as referring to this; and he and Parkhurst" have given sufficient testimonies of the heathen practice. I shall only add one law more, which is connected with, and explained by the fore-mentioned practices. It is a De Civit. Dei, Lib. vi. cap. 10. "Ille viriles sibi partes amputat, ille lacertos secat." © De Dea Syr. f Advers. Jovian. Lib. i. mentioned in Deut. xxiii. 18, immediately after that we have been considering, and forbids them to bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord their God for any vow." Evidently alluding to, and intended to counteract that abominable practice the heathens of consecrating the money they got among for their violated chastity to their gods, and for sacred purposes, such as repairing the temple, supporting the priesthood, and purchasing victims. Micah i. 7, mentions these hires as common in Samaria. And in the apocryphal Book of Baruch, vi. 43, we have the manner in which the women sat at these heathen temples. "The women also with cords about them, says he, sitting in the ways, or avenues to them, burn bran for perfume: but if any of them, drawn aside by some that passeth by, lieth with him, she reproacheth her fellow, that she was not thought as worthy as herself, nor had her cord broken." The best paraphrase on which words will be found in Herodotus, of which a translation is given in Part VIII. Sect. 2; when describing the manner in which they worshipped Succoth-benoth. The law then, forbidding the hire of a whore to be brought into the house of the Lord for any vow, evidently referred to these violations of chastity by persons otherwise chaste, who considered their appearance at a heathen temple once in their lives as a religious duty. a As for the price of a dog, which was also forbidden to be brought, it hath been explained variously. Some taking it to mean a sacred sodomite, and others a favourite dog, which, being the first born, they were anxious to redeem. But the words allude to Egyptian idolatry; and as they worshipped a dog, so a dog and its gifts were abhorred by Jehovah. Diodorus Siculus b Lib. i. cap. 199. Biblioth. Hist. Lib, i. p. 74. says that "the Egyptians above measure venerate not only some living animals, but also some dead ones, as cats, ichneumons, rats, and dogs." Plutarch says that "anciently the dog was chiefly honoured in Egypt." Juvenal asserts that every city worshipped a dog, but none Diana. Herodotus says that " in whatever temple the cat dies, the inhabitants of it shave their eyebrows only; but in that where the dog dies, they shave their whole body and head." In their religious festivals, dogs consecrated to their idols, in great pomp, headed the procession. And two reasons are assigned for this honour: 1. That as the Nile rises at the time the Dogstar rises, so they worship a dog, as its symbol, because the Nile is the fertilizer of their country. 2. That this honour was paid to the dog as a lively emblem of Anubis or Mercury. For Diodorus Siculus tells us that "the Egyptians were wont to worship Anubis under an image with a dog's head." Lucian calls Anubis or Mercury the dog-faced Mercury: xvvоnρоσwros Epuns. Athanasius and others call him "the dog-headed Anubis:" xvvo xepaλos Aveßis. 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 that 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."a We have been thus particular concerning the laws in the Mosaic ritual which were intended to 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 its influence, 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." b Hitherto we have been considering the first two ends of the ceremonial law: viz. that it was intended to teach the Jews the leading doctrines of religion 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, Lib. ii. cap. 36. "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 ) calls the Jewish ritual the shadow of good things to come, figures or antitypes of the true, an example and C 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 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 mode of instruction. It was consonant with 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 va aula for the common people, and ra vona for the wise; doctrines exoteric and eisoteric; 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 • Heb. x. 1. d Heb. ix. 9. 82 Esdras ziv. 26. 44-48. + Heb. ix. 24. * Heb. viii. 5. M |