fins before the LORD i (W). The confeffion being ended, he delivered the fcape-goat to a man appointed for the purpofe, who conducted it into a defert place, and there left it to fhift for itself according to fome, or threw it down a fteep precipice according to others, as we have seen in å former note. After this ceremony the high-priest washed himself all over, and having changed his cloaths, or, as seems most likely, having put on the ephod, mitre, breastplate, and his other prieftly garments, he was to offer a burnt-offering of two rams, one for himself, and the other for the people. As for the man that conducted the scapegoat, he was deemed unclean, till he had bathed himself, and washed his cloaths, as were also those who carried i Levit. xvi. 30. plague, famine, and other public calamities, and on whom they fo liberally bestowed all the curfes which they thought due to themselves, have had their original from hence (78)? This is what the apoftle juftly complains was practifed againft the first Chriftians (79), fince there hardly happened any public calamity in the empire, but they were immediately perfecuted with the utmoft cruelty, as the cause of them; and were looked upon as proper victims to avert the divine anger. (W) He was likewife to make fuch another confeffion when he offered the bullock for himself and family, before he ventured to enter into the holy of holies; but, inftead of the houfe of Ifrael, he only mentioned that of Aaron. The reader may find it in the Mishna, in the place above-quoted. It is plain, however, from the ce (78) Vide vet. fcholiaft. in Ariftoph. remonies which he was to perform there, that he was to enter four times into it on that day; 1. To fet the incenfe a burning; for he went in with both his hands full, and could carry nothing else with him (80). 2. When he carried fome of the blood of the bullock that was offered for himfelf (81). 3. When he carried fome of that which he offered for the people (82). And, 4. When he went to fetch out the cenfer and fire. The Talmud adds, that it was death for him to go in the fifth time. And therefore when the apoftle fays that he went in but once a year (83), it is plain he has followed the verfion of the Septuagint, which render the words 7, achat bashanah, by ἅπαξ τῇ ἐνιαυτέ• but it is certain it might have been more properly rendered one day in the year. (79) 1 Cor. iv. 13. (81) Ibid. ver. 14. ennot. in pandest. de poenis. Goodwin's Mof. & Aar. lib. iii. Vide Buda. c. 8. §. 7, & (82) Ver. 15. away away the flesh, blood, and entrails of the bullock and goat of the fin-offering, to be burnt without the camp k. It was likewife on this day that the high-priest entered the moft holy place in the grandeft manner, and gave the people the folemn bleffing prefcribed by Mofes, in which he pronounced the unutterable name of GOD, of which we fhall fpeak in a more proper place in the fequel; for, according to the Jews m, the uttering of that word had been forbidden upon any other occafion, by a particular law, ever fince the ftoning of a notorious blafphemer ". However that be; the pronouncing of that tremendous name, joined to the facred awfulness of the place, inay be reasonably fuppofed to have filled him with uncommon dread whilft he stayed in it, which is the reason why he ufually made what hafte he could decently out of it, left he fhould be ftruck dead for fome accidental miscarriage or inadvertency during his fhort ftay there; and when he came out he went backwards, keeping his face ftill towards the mercy-feat, and bending towards the ground. All these things, no doubt, took up a confiderable time; the refidue of the day was spent in prayers, and other works of mortification; and they were fo afraid of shorten ing it, that they begun it half an hour fooner, and ended it half an hour later than other feaft-days; after which the trumpet gave notice that the folemnity was expired; and then they dreffed themselves in white, or, at least, put on clean linen, and, after a bleffing, fat down to break their faft. They feldom failed making a plentiful meal, and to rejoice that their fins were now expiated; but,above all, the high-priest expreffed a more than ordinary joy, that he had gone through the folemn and dangerous office of that day, and was come alive out of the most holy place. Laws concerning other expiations or atonements. ВЕ EFORE we leave this subject of expiations, it will not be amifs to give an account of some others, which were injoined by Mofes, upon their contracting of any legal impurities, fuch as thofe of a woman after child-birth, of a man by touching of any unclean thing, as a dead body Ibid. xvi. paff. ibid. vi. 30. Vide FAG. in loc. HoTTING. & al. 1 Numb. vi. 24, & feq. lib. iii, JOSEPH. Talmud, & al. • Vide Mishna, tract, yoma. MEYER, C. XV. §. 9. PHILO, in vit. Mof. □ Levit. xxiv. 10, & feq. MAIMON. tract. yom hakiphur. E 2 ог or carcafe, or an unclean perfon, as a leper, and the like; and fecondly by the breach of any one branch of the law, whether knowingly, or through ignorance. By thefe and fuch-like the perfons contracted a kind of legal defilement, from which they could not be cleanfed, but by offering fuch facrifices as the law appointed (Y); and this purification was to be performed in the following manner. The perfon who had committed any trefpafs, whether knowingly or ignorantly, was to bring his victim or finoffering to the door of the tabernacle. This offering was to be a bullock or a goat, if it was for a prieft, and, if for a layman, a goat, fheep, kid, or lamb; and if the person was too poor to afford one of thefe, then two pigeons or turtle-doves, or even a fmall quantity of flour, was accepted of. One or more of thefe, according to the nature of the trefpafs, or the circumftance of the perfon, were brought to the priest, by the perfon to be purified by them, who, having confeffed his fin, laying his hands upon the head of the victim, killed, and offered it up. The prieft then took up fome of the blood with his fingers, and, applying it to the horns of the altar of burnt-offerings, poured the remainder at the foot of it. He then took the fat of the caul, kidneys, and the rump, and burnt it upon the altar, and having prayed for the perfon, pronounced him pardoned and abfolved from his trefpafs; the flesh of fuch victim thus offered, belonged to the priest alone; none other was allowed to eat of it P. This ceremony was fomewhat more folemnly performed when the king, highprieft, or the whole nation, had committed a trespass; but, in the main, it was the fame. As for legal pollutions, fuch as we mentioned above, there was added another ceremony for their cleanfing; P Vide Levit. iv. v, vi. pass. (Y) We believe it is fcarce neceffary to obferve here, that in the language of the Old Teftament, all tranfgreffions,before they were expiated, are compared to a filth or deflement contracted by the tranfgreffor; and the pardon that attends this expiation of them, to an ablution or purification from it. It is according to this allufion that the Septuagint have rendered the words 1 and , kopher and kaphar, as likewife thofe of and on, tabar and chatah, when this laft fignifies a forgiveness, by καθαρισμός and καθαρί Cew and it is in the fame fenfe that the writers of the New affirm CHRIST to cleanse and purify us from our fins by his blood. namely, namely, the ashes of the red heifer referved for that purpofe. The ceremony of killing and burning it, as prefcribed by Mofes 9, was after this manner: The highprieft was to take care that it was without spot or blemish, and that it had never been yoked. It was to be carried out of the camp, where he killed it, and made a sevenfold afperfion of the blood with his fingers towards the sanctuary; after which a large fire being kindled, it was flung into it, with its fkin, entrails, and other appurtenances, and a bundle of cedar-wood, hyffop, and scarlet, and burnt to ashes before his face, himfelf helping to caft her into the fire; and this was to be done in the prefence of the people. The ashes were then gathered, and laid up for use, and all that had had a hand in this ceremony were to be unclean until evening. Whenever afterwards any perfon had contracted a pollution, fuch as made him unclean seven days, he was to be sprinkled with water, in which some of these ashes had been thrown, on the third and feventh day, on which laft he was to be clean; but if he neglected being sprinkled on the third, he was not to be clean till the tenth day. This law was fo fevere againft those who were polluted by the touch of a dead body, or by coming into the tent or room where it lay, that if they offered to go to the tabernacle before they had been thus purified, they were to be cut off, as having polluted the fanctuary. The very veffels that were in the place uncovered, as well as the place itself where the corps lay, were likewife defiled, till sprinkled with this water of feparation, as it is called in the text. How often this grand ceremony was repeated from Mofes to the captivity is not agreed. Some affirm, that the heifer which was burnt by Eleazar, Aaron's fon, did last them all that time; others, that there was one burnt every year, and that fome of the afhes of it were fent to every city and town in Ifrael (Z). Whether or no this facrifice was to Numb xix. per tot. (Z) It is juftly wondered, that this water thus mixed with the afhes of the red heifer fhould purify the unclean, and at the fame time pollute not only those who affifted at the flaying, burning, and gathering the Vide HIERON. epift. 27. be afhes of it, but even those who fprinkled the unclean perfon with it (84). The Jews have a very antient tradition, that Salomon, who was master of all other myfteries and knowlege, and could account for every be numbered among the burnt-offerings which were made for the whole nation, is a dispute amongst the learned, both Jews precept in the law, even thofe which forbad the eating of fwine's flesh, or wearing of mixtures of linen and wool, yet owned himself ignorant of this red heifer (85). How ever, our Spencer has ventured to dive deeper than he, by the help of his infallible rule of conformity or oppofition to the Egyptian rites: he ranks therefore the red heifer un der this last class, because that nation facrificed nothing but male animals, and that they had an averfion to all red-haired creatures, and even to the colour itself, whereas the Mofaic law makes no diftinction of colours in any cafe but this (86). But we beg leave to obferve here, that the Jews were as little fond of the red as the Egyptians; and that Mofes commanded the use of fcarlet in facrifices for fin, only to exprefs the guilt of it. Accordingly all the infpired writers compared fins of the deepest guilt to crimson and scarlet, as they did innocence to white (87); and this we think doth fufficiently account for the colour of the heifer. And here we beg leave to fubjoin a remark to the fame effect; which is,that in the 22d pfalm, which abounds with many particularities relating to CHRIST'S paffion, there is one expreffion, not hitherto obferved, nor rightly rendered by any tranflation that we know of. It is where he is called a worm and no man (88); for it is plain the word nysin, thoLabath, is no-where used in Scripture, but to express either the crimfon or fcarlet colour itself (in which cafe it is commonly joined to the word ', hani, and fignifies double dyed); or at most the infect from which that dye is made, unless it be figuratively taken to imply a deep degree of guilt, as in the place above quoted out of Haiah. The most literally therefore that the pfalmift's words can be rendered would be; As for me, I am a fcarlet infect or worm, and not a man: but the figurative sense will be plainly this; I bear the scandal and reproach of the deepest guilt, and am wholly free from it; I am reputed a finner, and yet am free from fin. But this by-the-by. We shall only add, that the Jews, Maimon excepted, whom Spencer affects to follow, allow, that there is deeper mystery in the ordinance of the red heifer, than any in the whole Scripture, and highly condemn the prefumption of those who pretend to dive into that deep abyfs (89). However, what was a mystery to the Jews is fufficiently explained to (88) Ver. 6. (85) Mifbn. tract. de. Maimon. more nevoch. p. 3. c. 26. vide & lib. Falcut, & al. (86) De leg. rit. lib. ii. c. 15. (87) Vide int. al. Ifai. i. 18. (89) Vide Mifbn. ubi fup. R. Abr. Seba. in Zeror Hamor. fol. 113. & feq. RR. Salom. Abenez, Abarban. & al, the |