congregation. And, when, notwithstanding this common source, from whence both were derived, we discern a striking and radical opposition between the most important parts of either, we cannot doubt, that this was designed by the Deity, as a barrier to separate the one from the others. For, if the animals worshipped by the Egyptians were selected, as the sacrificial victims of the Levitical sanctuary, and if those which were venerated in Egypt with the highest honors, were desecrated and appointed typical bearers of the sins of the Israelites, it is manifest that the Law of Moses was adapted to represent Polytheism and its ordinances as an abomination to the Supreme Being. Nor can the two systems be coalesced without the destruction of one of them :—thus, when Jeroboam, from a principle of state-policy, attempted to unite them, the law of the true God was disregarded, although its veracity was evinced by the fulfilment of every punishment denounced in it on the transgressors. For he had chosen Judah to be his sanctuary, and Israel to be his dominion:-He had willed, that the temple on

mount Moriah should be the earthly seat of his holiness, and had designed, that, whilst the rest of the world irrationally addressed him, through symbols and the works of his own hands, from hence his mercy and truth might shine forth, that the law might proceed from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Hence, no image of any thing in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth,-no representation of the One Invisible God was permitted within its courts, lest man's apostate heart, thence selecting some object of adoration, might forget Him by whom the worlds were made, and in whose hands is the breath of life.

Nor were the typical parts of his institutions mere symbolical portraitures of animals and things, as in Egypt:-they were transferred to sacrificial rites and divine services, and were prophetic of his hitherto darkly-disclosed purposes, and were so admixed with the whole arrangement of the system, that in every act of devotion they figuratively directed the worshipper to the future dispensation of the Gospel. So far

were they from inducing a spirit of mysticism, that we find the astronomical speculations of the Pagans every where decried, lest astrology being united to the faith of his chosen people, they might relapse into those superstitions from which Abraham* had been reclaimed:-the queen of heaven, the sun and stars are described, as created objects, lest being mistaken for subordinate powers, they should, ultimately, be put in competition with their Creator.

Hence that fine strain of prosopopoeia in the Psalms:-"praise ye HIM, sun and moon, praise HIM all ye stars of light-praise HIM, ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters, that be above the heavens :- -let them praise THE NAME OF THE LORD; for, HE commanded, and they were created †.”

But these were not the only points of distinction: the classification of meats into clean and unclean was, frequently, at variance with that which had been observed in the house of their bondage, and the

* Cf. Joshua xxiv. 2, 3. It is pretended, in a variety of traditions, that Terah was a maker of idols.

+ Psalm cxlviii. 3, 4, 5.

mutilations in honor of the dead, which were there practised by solemn usage, were expressly forbidden by the Levitical code. Embalming, also, was one of the most common customs of the Egyptians, and was in some instances performed by the Israelites, during their association with them but it is no where recorded to have existed among the Jews after the Exodus, and was probably not authorized by the law, on account of its tendency to introduce the worship of deceased ancestors. No adoration of defunct heroes or prophets, at any time, disgraced the Mosaic theology: the body of the legislator himself was committed to an unknown sepulchre, nor was consigned to the last cares of those, who still mindful of Egypt, might have embalmed it, and ascribed to it divine honors; deposited in the hostile land of Moab, the dead lawgiver could not occasion that apostacy, which, when living, he denounced.

* These are all mentioned in the fiftieth chapter of Genesis; and excepting in the Apocryphal books, we read no more of the practice.

Although the creed of every other nation and tribe was replenished with spiritual intelligences, they found no place in that ritual, which proposed God, Maker and Director of all things in heaven and earth, as the only object of contemplation and devotion. Associated with none, he is described as Ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth, and his angels are exhibited as messengers executing his will and counsel, and in no wise, as in other systems, exercising a mediatorial capacity between him and his creatures. He is constantly pourtrayed as infinitely removed in his exalted nature from all impurity, and totally dissimilar from man's vain conceptions of his attributes; and of all early books of theology, the Pentateuch alone makes mention of him without blaspheming legends and incoherent fictions. He is there depicted as invested with the majesty and dignity of Omnipotence, as not taking his name. from human ideas or prejudices, but immediately from his own essence, that, when his creatures address him, they may contemplate him as a necessarily eternal and