designed for private use, as household gods, but were also used for idolatrous and superstitious purposes, particularly for divination, and as oracles, which they consulted for direction in their affairs.-Yet, as it is generally known that many of the Jews did cast off their regard for God, and joined in the idolatrous rites of the heathen, it may be proper to say a few words concerning their manner of worship, of which we have some hints in Scripture, besides those which have already been given, when describing the different idols. Thus, they painted these idols with vermilion sometimes, and spotted them with other kinds of paint. They made convenient places for them, where they were either chained to prévent their falling, or set them in niches of a wall. They adorned them with silver, gold, and broidered garments, and set meat before them, and sometimes the idolaters joined in their feasts, offered sacrifice and incense to them, cut off their hair, like Lavinia in Virgil,' and kissed their hand to the sun, in token of veneration. Accordingly, Job says "If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge; for I should have denied the God that is above." This custom is confirmed by several later heathen authors; for Lucian, Пɛρɩ opxnσɛws, mentions the Greeks even in his time, "worshipping the sun, by kissing their hand, and then thinking their adoration complete." Minutius Felix, cap. 2, remarks that when the heathen Cæcilius observed the statue of Serapis, "he, according to the custom of the superstitious vulgar, moving his hand to his mouth, kissed it with his lips." And Apu

a Wisdom xiii. 14, 15. b Ezek. xvi. 17, 18. Baruch vi. 9-15. 27. 30.

Ezek. viii. 6. 11. 15. xxii. 9.

' Æneid, vii. 391.

leius," who lived in the second century, speaking of one Emilian, probably a Christian, says, "If he passes by a temple, he thinks it wicked to move his hand to his lips as a sign of adoration." We have several other of these practices in Is. Ixvi. 3, where, in speaking of the idolatrous Israelites, God thus describes his detestation of their conduct: "He that killeth an ox (in sacrifice to me,) is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, is as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol." But, besides the ordinary rites of idol worship, there were some that might be called extraordinary, because practised at their solemn festivals. Thus, they had their religious processions of the image of their idol on men's shoulders," on the backs of animals, or drawn in a car, like the Juggernaut of the Hindoos, and religious dances in honour of these idols, like David when he danced before the ark. They cried aloud, and cut themselves with knives and lances: like the priests of Bellona, the Roman goddess of war, who are described by Lactantius as cutting their shoulders, and as running like madmen with drawn swords. They glutted the cruelty of their deities with human victims, and even with their own children: like the king of Moab in 2 Kings iii. 27. And many, to testify their adherence to their favourite idol, marked the hand, or some other part of the body, with its name or ensign. Hence the mark of the beast in Rev. xix. 20. xx. 4, and the determined resolution of the faithful to adhere to the true God in Is. xliv. 5: "One shall say I am the Lord's, and another shall call

a Apol. p. 496.

d

a Picart, Cerem. and Relig. Customs of all Nations, vol. iii. p. 87, 88, 120, 160, 177, 234. Eng. edit. fol. e 2 Sam. vi. 14. f 1 Kings. xviii, 26. 28. Lib i. cap. 21. See also Lucan Pharsal. Lib. i, verse 565.

himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand (or rather inscribe his hand) to the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel."

Amidst such perversion of the worship of the true God, and inclination to the worship of idols, it was not to be wondered at that the divine patience was exhausted, and that he sent them into captivity, that they might experience the difference between his service and that of their despotic conquerors. In 2 Kings, xvii. 6-18, we have an affecting vindication of the divine conduct in the punishing of this highly favoured but rebellious people.

SECT. III.

The various Kinds of Divination.

By the cup; by magic; applying to wise men; sorcery, male and female; the flight of birds; motions of serpents; observing the clouds; consulting Aub; palmistry; divination; charming; necromancy; consulting those who peeped and muttered; conjuration; star-gazing; applying to monthly prognosticators, and dreamers; rhabdomancy; consulting teraphim; and soothsayers.

THE first intimation we have of this art is in Gen. xliv. 4, 5, where Joseph's steward says to his brethren, "wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? Is not this it (meaning Joseph's cup,) in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? Ye have done evil in so doing" viz. in stealing it from him. The question, therefore, here is, how Joseph could divine by the cup, which he had caused to be put secretly into the sack's mouth? I may observe, that some have ascribed it to the magical figures which were engraved on it, and others to the appearance of the liquor when poured into it, or to its known effect in elevating the spirits; but the most natural explanation is that which is given by Parkhurst (verb 3,) and which removes every idea

of divination. His words are, "Is not this it in which my lord drinketh? and, for which, searching he would search (nn Nehesh inchesh,) or would surely accurately search? Ye have done evil in so doing." Here every idea of divination disappears, and the natural one occurs, that a cup which was so much used must soon have been missing, and they suspected of the theft. In Gen. xxx. 27, and 1 Kings xx. 33, the word is translated as Parkhurst has done it. The Arabic confirms this sense, by rendering the verse in the same manner, "And he hath tried you by it." And the Chaldee makes it, "searching he has searched," or, "he has made diligent search for it." The second intimation we have of divination is in Gen. xli. 8, where it is said, that "Pharaoh called the magicians of Egypt, and the wise men thereof, to interpret his dreams. Here the magicians or heretmim (1) were a kind of diviners which the Septuagint have rendered sometimes yntau, interpreters or explainers of something secret; chanters: papuaxo, conjurors by drugs. Greek Hexaplar versions, or the Vulgate, by their translations, throw any more light upon the strict and proper meaning of the word, which may perhaps be best considered as a compound of heret, a pen, or instrument to write or draw with, and them, to perfect or accomplish, and so denote those who were perfect in drawing these sacred, astrological, and hieroglyphical figures or characters, and by means of them pretended to extraordinary feats (as Exod. vii. 11. 22,) among which was the interpretation of dreams. In short, they seem to have been such persons as Josephus" calls Iεpoyрaμualεis, sacred scribes, or professors of sacred learning, one of whom, he says, foretold Moses's birth

naodoi, en

Nor do the

to the king of Egypt; for they are eminent, adds he, for truly predicting futurities. It was no wonder then, that Pharaoh applied to them to interpret his dreams: and as for the wise men (n, Ecemim) whom he called at the same time, they were men who pretended to wisdom in the magical arts, and are uniformly called oooo by the Septuagint. The third intimation we have of divination is in Exod. vii. 11, where it is said that Pharaoh called the wise men and the sorcerers; and that the magicians of Egypt did in like manner as Moses with their enchantments." Here we have three classes of persons. 1st, the wise men, or Ecemim, mentioned in the former article. 2d, the sorcerers ( meceshepim,) or those who pretended to discover things hidden, by compositions of drugs, whether vegetable, mineral, or animal, and whom the Septuagint always render by papuaxov, a drug, or some of its derivatives. And, 3dly, the magicians, or heretmim, mentioned in the former article. The 4th intimation we have of divination is in Exod. xxii. 18, where it is said, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live;" which, from the English translation, would signify those women who pretended to have intercourse with the devil; but, as the original word for "witch" is now Meceshepè, which is the feminine of that which was rendered "sorcerer" under the former article, it naturally refers to those sorceresses who pretended to discover things hidden by pharmaceutical compositions. The 5th intimation we have of divination is in Lev. xix. 26, where it is said that "they should neither use enchantment nor observe times." The word for enchantment is n Nehesh to augur, to

a

a The learned reader may find some account of these abominable processes, as practised by the heathen, in Potter's Antiquities of Greece, Book ii, ch. 18: in Horace, Epod. v., and the Notes of the Delphin edition: in Ovid Metam. Lib. vii, fab. 2; and Lucan, Lib. vi.