the antient Jews understood it in that ftrict and refined fense which the gospel doth, or only of fuch overt acts as tended to the procuring of any thing by unlawful means, is not eafy to determine. The Talmudifts, however, condemn by it the very defire formed and indulged in the heart, though it doth not proceed to actione. An abridgment of fome other mixed laws relating to food, raiment, planting, sowing, decency, and cleannefs; and of fuch difeafes as excluded men from common fociety. O F all the food prohibited by the Mofaic law, blood may be reckoned in the first place, that prohibition being as old as the deluge f: for GOD,having, immediately after it, given Noah the liberty of eating the flesh of animals, as is moft generally fuppofed 8, forbad, at the fame time, under very fevere threatenings, the eating not only Against the blood itself, but the flesh, alfo, mixed with it; that is, eating of of any animal, either ftrangled, or killed by any other way blood. than by drawing the blood thoroughly from it (D). cordingly, we find it no lefs exprefly forbidden by Mofes, in feveral places, not only to the Ifraelites, but to the ftrangers that lived among them h, even under pain of death. Ac • Vid. præc. neg. 158. f Gen. ix. 4, & feq. g Vid. fup. vol. i. p. 259. h Levit. xvii. 10, & feq. Deut. xii. 23, & feq. (D) The reafon given in the text is, that blood is the life of the animal; by which is meant, that no animal can live without it. But it is not improbable, that the end and defign of this prohibition was, that it might be a kind of acknowlegement that our privilege for killing, and eating the flesh of thofe living creatures, is not derived to us from the law of nature, which feems rather to be against it, but from an exprefs permiffion from the author of nature. And this feems to be the reason why it was not only enforced by the Mofaic law, but, alfo, retained by the gofpel, and injoined to its profelytes from Gentilifm(51). This law, we are told, by a modern traveller (52), is still strictly observed by fome eastern churches, not, as our author fays, by virtue of the law of Mofes, but of the apoftolic canon, 'which has been kept, ever fince, by the eastern, and, for feveral ages, by the western church; and confirmed, by feveral councils, from time to time. (51) Vide A&s xv. 28. (52) Ludolph. hift. Æthiop, l. iii, c. 1. num. 51. Goo Gop feems even to put it on the level with facrificing one's feed to Moloch, when he threatens to fet his face against him that tranfgreffes in either cafe; which expreffion is not used in any other prohibition: only, under this typical difpenfation, GoD is pleased to give a new reason for this interdiction; namely, that it is the blood (which is alfo the life) of the victim, that makes atonement for fin; pursuant to which, the tabernacle, with all its utenfils, was at first purified with it; the covenant between GOD and the people was ratified with it, and without blood there could be no remiffion for fin i; all which the apostle fitly applies to that of CHRIST under the gospel k. NEXT to the blood, was forbidden likewife the flesh of Unclean a confiderable number of beafts, fowls, fishes, and rep-meats. tiles, which were therefore to be deemed unclean. This diftinction, however, of clean and unclean, can hardly be fuppofed to have its origin from the Mofaic law, and to have been used proleptically, when the divine historian mentions it even before the flood: but we shall not repeat what has been said on that fubject in another place *; neither fhall we enter into a nice fcrutiny about thofe animals thus forbidden, but refer the curious to the learned Bochart's elaborate treatife on that fubjectm, and mention only the general rule which Mofes has given to diftinguifh the clean from the unclean", which the reader may fee in the following note (D). h Levit. xvii. 11. Ibid. ver. 13, & feqq. Hierozoic. paff. RAIMENT. i Heb. ix. 22, & alib. paff. Gen. vii. 2. * Sup. vol. i. p. 239. n Levit. xi. 1, & feqq. (D) Of beafts, whatever did both chew the cud, and divide the hoof, was to be reckoned clean ; and whatever did not both thefe, as the fwine, which divideth the hoof, but doth not chew the cud, or the camel, hare, rabbet, which chew the cud, and do not part the hoof, was forbidden, as unclean. Of fowl, ail carnivorous birds, fuch as the eagle, vultur, and the like; all that had four feet, and yet flew, as the bat. Of much less because it is hard of digeftion; which is the reason and Raiment. RAIMENT. Mofes has left no pofitive laws relating to drefs, except that which belonged to the priests, of which we have spoken elsewhere, and where he orders the people to wear blue fringes to the borders of their garments, for a remembrance, that they were now no longer to live after their own will, but after the commands of God. As to thofe of the negative kind, the two moft confiderable are, thofe which forbid the promifcuous habit of both fexes, and the weaving of two different ftuffs, such as linen and woolen, in the fame garment; the first is fuppofed to have been defigned to prevent the fhameful abufes which might attend fuch unnatural disguises, and the second to prevent unnatural and dangerous intermix-. tures, confufion, &c. (E). and blood, and fwines, and (1) Vide Levit. iii. 14, & feqq. BUT • Ibid. ver. 5 muft be purified, and the perfon who touched them was to wash himself, and be unclean until evening. A well, however, a fountain, or any large receptacle of water, were not defiled by it, but only the perfon who took the unclean creature out of them (3). (E) To the fame purpose are thofe which relate to fowing divers feeds, or planting divers kind of trees in the fame field; or forbid to plow with a mixture of cattle, fuch as an ox and an afs (4). Cleannefs and decency, though fo neceffary in hot climes, that there needs hardly any law to enforce them, are yet injoined by Mofes under fevere penalties, as well as the neglect of thofe proper ceremonies, which he had injoined to those who had laboured under any defilement, in order to their purification. We have already spoken of this (2) Exod. xxii. 31. Levit. xvii. 15. (4) Deut. xxii. 9, & feqq. latter BUT, of all the difeafes mentioned in the last note, the leprofy was reckoned the most defiling (F); for which Leprofy latter under another head, and fhall only mention the chief of the former they were fuch as forbid all matrimonial commerce for one certain time after child-birth; during the monthly periods, or after any accidental weakness of that kind; in men, nocturnal pollutions, running fores, ulcers, gonorrheas, and fuch-like; whatever was touched by any perfon fo defiled, whether chair, bed, table, or any other utenfil, was also to be deemed unclean, and to defile those that touched them; and all were to be purified according to the law. In both fexes likewife, the touching of a dead body, carcafe, or any unclean thing, had the fame effect. (F) Mofes diftinguishes three forts of leprofy, namely, that of the body, garments, and of houses. The firft of thefe is a cuticular difeafe, not unlike an inveterate itch or fcurvy, which occafions a violent itching pain; and whether caufed by fome prolific animalcula communicated by the touch, or by corrofive vitrioline falts (though the former feems the moft probable), will in time corrode the flesh, even to the bone. We fhall not difguft our readers with repeating the marks which he gives of that diftemper (42); nor with what fome phyficians have wrote concerning it; but only obferve, that it is of a much reafon more corrofive and dangerous nature in hot climates than in cold ones. They obferve three kinds, or rather degrees of it. The first of thefe, namely, whilft it is, as it were, in its infancy, may be easily cured: the fecond, when it has communicated itself to the blood, cannot be mastered without great difficulty, and a long regimen of diet and phyfic: the laft, which is when it is grown inveterate, and has fixed itself, and corroded the folid parts, is reckoned incurable. However, Monfieur Tournefort, who had feen it in the Levant, thinks it rather a kind of venereal difeafe; and that, if taken in time, it might be cured by the fame method. But be that as it will, it is certain, that this leprofy must have been fufficiently known by the Ifraelites in Egypt, fince Mofes fpeaks both of the difeafe and its marks, as of things which were plain and obvious. The leprofy of the garments is fuppofed to have been owing to fome defect in the management of the wool, skins, and stuffs, of which they were made; those manufactures being then very imperfect. The heat of the climate, and perhaps many other things, might contribute ftill more towards it. Mofes has likewife described the marks of this kind of leprofy: they were fpots, either of a reddish or greenish hue, reason thofe, who were infected with it, were forced to live feparate from the reft, till they were cured; monarchs themselves were not exempted from this law, as appears from the inftance of king Azariah, or Uzziah, as he is called in the Chronicles, who, having too far intruded into the pricftly office", was fmitten with an incurable leprofy, deprived of his government, and forced to live apart to the day of his death. And, indeed, one kind of it was of fo infectious a nature, that too much caution could not be used to prevent its fpreading; infomuch that even those that died of it were buried feparately from the reft ; as for the other, namely, the dry one, it was rather an eye-fore, than an infectious disease (G). X AND w Comp. 2 Kings xv. 5. & 2 Chron. xxvi. 16, & feqq. x Ib. ver. ult. which appeared upon the garments, whether of linen, woolen, or of skins. In thefe cafes they were to be brought to the priests, and according as they appeared to them, they were either to be burnt, or to be washed and cleaned, or the fpots to be cut out, and the reft declared clean and wholfome. This garment-leprofy is likewife fuppofed to be a kind of worm, which breeds in thofe ftuffs, occafioned by the oils, greafe, and other ingredients used in the dreffing of them. The fame may be faid of the leprofy of houses; in the morter and ftones of which, another fort of vermin was bred, which had four jaws continually working, and eating holes in them. This was one of the tokens of its being infected; there were fome others befides, which were a kind of ruft or fcurf, that spread itself along the walls. In all these cafes, the priests were directed to fhut the house up for a week; and it is probable, they made fome kind of fumigation, during that time, though no mention is made of it; elfe we cannot fee how the bare fhuting it up could contribute to the cure. If, upon the opening it again, they found the marks gone, they pronounced it clean; if not, they caused them to be fcraped off everywhere, and the houfe to be fhut up another feven days; and if that did not work the cure, they ordered it to be demolished, and fuch materials of it only to be preferved, as were free from the infection, in order to build it up in fome other place (43). (G) The priests were the proper judges both of the difeafe and of the cure; concerning which Mofes gave them feveral plain directions, though (43) Levit. xiii. 47, & feqq. & xiv. per tot. Vide journal des Scavants, ann. 1668. Calmet, differt. prefix, at the bead of his comment. on Levit, |