sons of a nervous habit. But it is manifest, that the persons, who in the New Testament are said to be possessed with devils (more correctly with demons) cannot mean only persons afflicted with some strange disease: for they are evidently here, as in other places, particularly in Luke iv. 33-36. 41.-distinguished from the diseased. Further, Christ's speaking on various occasions to these evil spirits, as distinct from the persons possessed by them,his commanding them and asking them questions, and receiving answers from them, or not suffering them to speak, and several circumstances relating to the terrible preternatural effects which they had upon the possessed, and to the manner of Christ's evoking thein, particularly their requesting and obtaining permission to enter the herd of swine (Matt. viii. 31, 32.), and precipitating them into the sea; all these circumstances can never be accounted for by any distemper whatever. Nor is it any reasonable objection that we do not read of such frequent possessions before or since the appearance of our Redeemer upon earth. It seems indeed to have been ordered by a special providence that they should have been permitted to have then been more common; in order that He, who came to destroy the works of the Devil, might the more remarkably and visibly triumph over him; and that the machinations and devices of Satan might be more openly defeated, at a time when their power was at its highest, both in the souls and bodies of men; and also, that plain facts might be a sensible confutation of the Sadducean error, which denied the existence of angels or spirits (Acts xxiii. 8.), and prevailed among the principal men both for rank and learning in those days. The cases of the demoniacs expelled by the apostles, were cases of real possession: and it is a well known fact, that, in the second century of the Christian æra, the apologists for the persecuted professors of the faith of Christ, appealed to their ejection of evil spirits as a proof of the divine origin of their religion. Hence it is evident that the demoniacs were not merely insane or epileptic patients, but persons really and truly vexed and convulsed by unclean demons.

SECTION IV.

ON THE COMMERCE OF THE HEBREWS.

I. Commerce of the Midianites, Egyptians, and Phænicians.—II. Mode of transporting Goods.-III. Commerce of the Hebrews, particularly under Solomon and his successors.-IV. Notice of antient Shipping.—V. Money, Weights, and Measures.

I. THE Scriptures do not afford us any example of trade, more antient than those caravans of Ishmaelites and Midianites, to whom Joseph was perfidiously sold by his brethren. These men were on

their return from Gilead, with their camels laden with spices, and other rich articles of merchandise, which they were carrying into Egypt; where, doubtless, they produced a great return, from the quantities consumed in that country for embalming the bodies of the dead. From their purchasing Joseph, and selling him to Potiphar, it is evident that their traffic was not confined to the commodities furnished by Gilead. But the most distinguished merchants of antient times were the Phoenicians, who bought the choicest productions of the East, which they exported to Africa and Europe, whence they took in return silver and other articles of merchandise, which they again circulated in the East. Their first metropolis was Sidon, and afterwards Tyre, founded about 250 years before the building of Solomon's temple, or 1251 before the Christian æra: and wherever they went, they appear to have established peaceful commercial settlements, mutually beneficial to themselves and to the natives of the country visited by them. The commerce of Tyre is particularly described in Isa. xxiii. and Ezek. xxvii. xxviii.

II. The commerce of the East appears to have been chiefly carried on by land: hence ships are but rarely mentioned in the Old Testament before the times of David and Solomon. There were two principal routes from Palestine to Egypt; viz. one along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, from Gaza to Pelusium, which was about three days' journey; and the other, from Gaza to the Elanitic branch of the Arabian Gulf, which now passes near Mount Sinai, and requires nearly a month to complete it. Although chariots were not unknown to the antient inhabitants of the East, yet they chiefly transported their merchandise across the desert on camels, a hardy race of animals, admirably adapted by nature for this purpose and lest they should be plundered by robbers, the merchants used to travel in large bodies (as they now do), which are called caravans; or in smaller companies termed kafilés or kaflés. (Job vi. 18, 19. Gen. xxxvii. 25. Isa. xxi. 13.)

III. Although the land of Canaan was, from its abundant produce, admirably adapted to commerce, yet Moses enacted no laws in favour of trade; because the Hebrews, being specially set apart for the preservation of true religion, could not be dispersed among idolatrous nations without being in danger of becoming contaminated with their abominable worship. He therefore only inculcated the strictest justice in weights and measures (Levit. xix. 36, 37. Deut. xxv. 13, 14.); and left the rest to future ages and governors. It is obvious, however, that the three great festivals of the Jews, who were bound to present themselves before Jehovah thrice in the year, would give occasion for much domestic traffic, which the individuals of the twelve tribes would carry on with each other either for money or produce. From Judg. v. 17. it should seem that the tribes of Dan and Asher had some commercial dealings with the neighbouring maritime nations: but the earliest direct notice contained in the Scriptures of the commerce of the Hebrews,

does not occur before the reign of David. This wise and valiant prince, by many victories, not only enlarged the boundaries of his empire, but also subdued the kingdom of Edom (which he reduced into a province), and made himself master of the two ports of Elath and Ezion-geber on the Red Sea. Part of the wealth acquired by his conquests he employed in purchasing cedar-timber from Hiram Í. king of Tyre, with whom he maintained a friendly correspondence as long as he lived; and he also hired Tyrian masons and carpenters for carrying on his works. This prince collected for the building of the temple, upwards of eight hundred millions of our money, according to Dr. Arbuthnot's calculations. On the death of David, Solomon his successor cultivated the arts of peace, and was thereby enabled to indulge his taste for magnificence and luxury, more than his father could possibly do. Being blessed with a larger share of wisdom than ever before fell to the lot of any man, he directed his talents for business to the improvement of foreign commerce, which had not been expressly prohibited by Moses. He employed the vast wealth, amassed by his father, in works of architecture, and in strengthening and beautifying his kingdom. The celebrated temple at Jerusalem, the fortifications of that capital, and many entire cities, (among which was the famous Tadmor or Palmyra,) were built by him. Finding his own subjects but little qualified for such undertakings, he applied to Hiram II. king of Tyre, the son of his father's friend Hiram, who furnished him with cedar and fir (or cypress) timber, and large stones, all properly cut and prepared for building; which the Tyrians carried by water to the most convenient landing-place in Solomon's dominions. Hiram II. also sent a great number of workmen to assist and instruct Solomon's people, none of whom had skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians (1 Kings v. 5, 6.), as the Israelites then called the Tyrians, from their having been originally a colony from Sidon. Solomon, in return, furnished the Tyrians with corn, wine, and oil; and he even received a balance in gold. (1 Kings v. 9-11. 2 Chron. ii. 10.) It is not improbable, however, that the gold was the stipulated price for Solomon's cession of twenty towns to the Tyrians; which Hiram, not liking them, afterwards returned to him. (1 Kings ix. 12, 13.)

The great intercourse of trade and friendship, which Solomon had with the first commercial people in the western world, inspired him with a strong desire to participate in the advantages of trade. His father's conquests, as we have already seen, had extended his territories to the Red Sea or the Arabian Gulf, and had given him the possession of a good harbour, whence ships might be de

1 Eupolemus, an antient writer quoted by Eusebius (De Præp. Evang. lib. ix.); says that David built ships in Arabia, in which he sent men skilled in mines and metals to the island of Ophir. Some modern authors, improving upon this rather suspicious authority, have ascribed to David the honour of being the founder of the great East Indian commerce.

2 Tables of Antient Coins, pp. 35. 208.

spatched to the rich countries of the south and east. But, his own subjects being totally ignorant of the arts of building and navigating vessels, he again had recourse to the assistance of Hiram. The king of Tyre, who was desirous of an opening to the oriental commerce, the articles of which his subjects were obliged to receive at second hand from the Arabians, entered readily into the views of the Hebrew monarch. Accordingly, Tyrian carpenters were sent to build vessels for both kings at Ezion-geber, Solomon's port on the Red Sea; whither Solomon himself also went to animate the workmen by his presence.

Solomon's ships, conducted by Tyrian navigators, sailed in company with those of Hiram to some rich countries, called Ophir, (most probably Sofala on the eastern coast of Africa,) and Tarshish, a place supposed to be somewhere on the same coast. The voyage required three years to accomplish it; yet, notwithstanding the length of time employed in it, the returns in this new channel of trade were prodigiously great and profitable, consisting of gold, silver, precious stones, valuable woods, and some exotic animals, as apes and peacocks. We have no information concerning the articles exported in this trade; but, in all probability, the manufactures of the Tyrians, together with the commodities imported by them from other countries, were assorted with the corn, wine, and oil, of Solomon's dominions in making up the cargoes; and his ships, like the late Spanish galleons, imported the bullion, partly for the benefit of his industrious and commercial neighbours. (Kings vii.-x. 2. Chron. ii. viii. ix.) Solomon also established a commercial correspondence with Egypt; whence he imported horses, chariots, and fine linen-yarn: the chariots cost six hundred, and the horses one hundred and fifty shekels of silver each.. (1 Kings x. 28, 29. 2 Chron. i. 16, 17.)

After the division of the kingdom, Edom being in that portion which remained to the house of David, the Jews appear to have carried on the oriental trade from the two ports of Elath and Ezion-geber, especially the latter, until the time of Jehoshaphat, whose fleet was wrecked there. (1 Kings xxii. 48. 2 Chron. xx. 36, 37.) During the reign of Jehoram, the wicked successor of Jehoshaphat, the Edomites shook off the yoke of the Jewish sovereigns, and recovered their ports. From this time the Jewish traffic, through the Red Sea, ceased till the reign of Uzziah; who, having recovered Elath soon after his accession, expelled the Edo

1 It is certain that under Pharaoh Necho, two hundred years after the time of Solomon, this voyage was made by the Egyptians. (Herodotus, lib. iv. c. 42.) They sailed from the Red Sea, and returned by the Mediterranean, and they performed it in three years; just the same time that the voyage under Solomon had taken up. It appears likewise from Pliny (Nat. Hist. lib. ii. c. 67.), that the pas sage round the Cape of Good Hope was known and frequently practised before his time; by Hanno the Carthaginian, when Carthage was in all its glory; by one Eudoxus, in the time of Ptolemy Lathyrus, king of Egypt; and Celius Antipater, an historian of good credit, somewhat earlier than Pliny, testifies that he had seen a merchant who had made the voyage from Gades to Ethiopia.

mites thence, and, having fortified the place, peopled it with his own subjects, who renewed their former commerce. This appears to have continued till the reign of Ahaz, when Rezin, king of Damascus, having oppressed and weakened Judah in conjunction with Pekah, king of Israel, took advantage of this circumstance to seize Elath; whence he expelled the Jews, and planted it with Syrians. In the following year, however, Elath fell into the hands of TiglathPileser, king of Assyria, who conquered Rezin, but did not restore it to his friend and ally, king Ahaz. Thus finally terminated the commercial prosperity of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. After the captivity, indeed, during the reigns of the Asmonæan princes, the Jews became great traders. In the time of Pompey the Great, there were so many Jews abroad on the ocean, even in the character of pirates, that king Antigonus was accused before him of having sent them out on purpose. During the period of time comprised in the New Testament history, Joppa and Cæsarea were the two principal ports; and corn continued to be a staple article of export to Tyre. (Acts xii. 20.)2

IV. Respecting the size and architecture of the Jewish ships, we have no information whatever. The trading vessels of the antients were, in general, much inferior in size to those of the moderns : Cicero mentions a number of ships of burthen, none of which were below two thousand amphora, that is, not exceeding fifty-six tons ;3 and in a trading vessel, in all probability of much less burthen, bound with corn from Alexandria in Egypt to Rome, St. Paul was embarked at Myra in Lycia. From the description of his voyage in Acts xxvii. it is evident to what small improvement the art of navigation had then attained. They had no compass by which they could steer their course across the trackless deep; and the sacred historian represents their situation as peculiarly distressing, when the sight of the sun, moon, and stars was intercepted from them. (Acts xxvii. 20.) The vessel being overtaken by one of those tremendous gales, which at certain seasons of the year prevail in the Mediterranean (where they are now called Levanters), they had much work to come by the ship's boat, which appears to have been towed along after the vessel, agreeably to the custom that still obtains in the East, where the skiffs are fastened to the sterns of the ships (16.); which having taken up, that is, having drawn it up close to the stern, they proceeded to undergird the ship. (17.) We learn from various passages in the Greek and Roman authors, that the antients had recourse to this expedient in order to secure their ves

1 During this period, the Jews seem to have had privileged streets at Damascus, as the Syrians had in Samaria. (1 Kings xx. 34.) In later times, during the crusades, the Genoese and Venetians, who had assisted the Latin kings of Jerusalem, had streets assigned to them, with great liberties and exclusive jurisdictions therein. See Harmer's Observations, vol. iii. pp. 489-492.

2 Jahn, Archæol. Hebr. pp. 169-174. Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol.

i. pp. 22-24. 26.

Epist. ad Familiares, lib. xii. ep. 15