he reads. Hence they have no antiquarian value; and are indeed little better than mere ornaments to a book, and quite as likely to mislead as to instruct. Feeling this, we were anxious to secure a set of illustrations more real and more instructive; but we saw not clearly how this advantage might be secured, until, happening to turn over the elaborate engravings in the great work on Egypt, we were much struck by some apparent analogies which occurred to us, and by which we were led into the inquiry which has resulted in the conclusions already stated, and in conformity with which we are enabled to offer the corroborations and illustrations which follow. The number of these might have been greatly enlarged; but it has been judged proper to reserve a portion for the illustration of Solomon's Temple. These engravings illustrate not only analogies but differences, for reasons which will appear; and, altogether, we trust they will be found to explain, and show the reason for many very precise regulations and directions in the Law, which generally create little interest in the Christian reader.

The part of our subject which now lies before us may be conveniently comprehended under the heads of

1. Sacred Persons. 2. Sacred Places. 3. Sacred Things. 4. Sacred Times. 5. Sacred Acts.

I. SACRED PERSONS.

1. THE JEWISH NATION may, in one point of view, be regarded in a sacred character, or as a holy people. As the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, set apart to preserve and transmit the true religion, they were, as a body, consecrated to God, and on this ground are often called "holy," and were considered to sustain the relation of priests to the Lord, and as being entitled to be called a sacerdotal nation or a nation of priests.' This holiness of the Jewish nation as understood in its proper application to their separation and consecration to the worship of the true God-was continued, or perpetual, even though, as often happened, there existed, at times, great moral corruptions. Nevertheless, they were constantly exhorted to maintain a purity of life and conduct, corresponding with their calling and the title which they bore; and as they were called a holy people, so to be the professors of holiness.†

2. THE LEVITES.-Under the patriarchal system of worship, the first-born was entitled to exercise the functions of a priest. This indicates the peculiar propriety with which God demanded the appropriation to Himself of the first-born in Israel, although the immediate occasion was offered by the destruction of all the first-born of Egypt, while those of Israel were preserved, in memory of which the Lord required that the first-born, thus distinguished, should be set apart for Himself. Afterwards, however, the whole tribe of Levi was taken in lieu of the first-born, by a solemn act of substitution. On that occasion it was found that the number of the first-born exceeded the Levites by no more than 273. The character assigned to the tribe was two-fold:-1. As servants or ministers of God in the public ordinances of religion. 2. As his servants in a civil or political capacity, that is, his servants or officers, as King or ruler of the state. It is in the former only of these relations that we shall now attend to them. From this tribe (of Levi) Aaron and his posterity were consecrated for the priesthood, to whom a nearer access was given to the throne of God in the Holy of Holies. The rest of the Levites performed religious duties of an inferior kind: but for the more menial employments, bringing water, splitting wood, they were allowed servants, who were assigned for the labours of the sanctuary.

The high-priest sustained the highest office in the tribe, being regarded as the head both of the priests and Levites. Separate duties were allotted to all of them,-to the menial servants, the Levites, the priests, and the high priest; and the duties of one were not allowed to interfere with those of another.

1. Servants. These did not belong to the Levitical tribe, nor were necessarily Israelites. They had their origin as a separate class of the community, from a religious practice among the Hebrews of devoting by a vow themselves, a son, or a servant, to services of such a kind. It was in reference to this practice that the law recorded, in Lev. xxvii. 1—8, was enacted,

Exod. xix. 6; Lev. xi. 44, 45, xix. 2, xx. 26; Deut. vii. 6, xiv. 2, 21, xxvi. 19, xxviii. 9.

† Exod. xx. 26, &c.; Lev. xi. 45, xix. 2, xx. 7, 8, 26.

and which fixed the price at which a person who had thus devoted himself might be redeemed. As the price of redemption was low, and might be reduced by the priest to suit the circumstances of the party, it is probable that the alternative thus offered was generally taken, as Joshua found it expedient or necessary to appropriate the services of the Gibeonites as "hewers of wood and drawers of water.' The number of these servants was greatly increased in the times of David and Solomon; and after the captivity they became a very considerable part of the population, and were called (by an honorary name that was anciently applied to the Levites) NETHINIMS, a word which signifies given, or devoted, that is, to the service of the temple and sanctuary. This employment, however it may have been originally regarded, was in later times considered highly respectable.

2. The Levites.-The solemn ceremonial with which the Levites and their posterity were set apart to the service of God, the priests and the tabernacle, is fully described in Num. viii. 5-22. After this, it became their duty to render such assistance to the priests as might be required. They kept guard around the tabernacle, and subsequently around the temple. In the journey through the wilderness, it was their duty to transport the different parts of the tabernacle, and the different sacred utensils that belonged to it ; to see that both the tabernacle and temple were kept clean; and to prepare the supplies of wine, oil, &c., for the sanctuary. They had the care of the sacred revenues; and, subsequently to the time of David, were required to sing in the temple, and to play upon instruments. In the more recent times they slew the victims for the altar; for the people generally, having for a time discontinued it, had become unskilful in the performance of this service. By the original appointment of Moses, their regular period of service seems to have been from thirty to fifty years of age; but as in another place he dates their admission at twenty-five years, it has been concluded that they served five years in the lighter duties of the office, before they were admitted to the more laborious and responsible services. But it does not appear that they were at fifty exonerated from all further service; for although they were exempted from all laborious employment, they remained with those more actively employed, and continued probably in discharge of the easier occupations, and instructed the young Levites in the duties of their office.‡

When the Israelites were settled in Palestine, and the tabernacle was no longer carried about from place to place, as it had been, the service of the Levites underwent much change and became considerably lighter; in consequence of which, David, in re-organizing their body for the service of the temple, fixed the commencement of their service at the earlier age of twenty years.§

The Levites were divided into three distinct families, in consequence of, and according to, their descent, from the three sons of Levi, namely, Kohath, Gershon, and Merari. These families had distinct parts of the tabernacle and of its furniture during the march through the desert.

The new organization which they received, and the new duties which devolved upon them when the temple was erected, will be noticed in the proper place; and their very important civil position will engage our attention under the next general head of Government.

The Levites were not enjoined to wear any particular dress. But we learn that those who removed the ark in the time of David, as well as those who were singers and musicians in Solomon's temple, were arrayed in white robes.||

3. Priests. From among the Levites the family of Aaron was chosen to act as priests to minister at God's altar, and to fill that important place in the theocratical government which will hereafter require suitable notice. It illustrates the nobly disinterested character of Moses, that, although he had sons of his own, he was content to see them remain undistinguished as simple Levites, while the family of his brother received this high and permanent distinction. Aaron had, at the time of this appointment, four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazer and Ithamar, who, together with their father, were consecrated to the priesthood. Not long after, the two

Josh. ix. 23-27.

Num. iii. 9, viii. 17, 19, xviii. 6.

Num. iii. 1-36, iv. 1, 30-35, 42, 46-49, viii. 23-26. § 1 Chron. xxiii. 24–27; 2 Chron. xxxi. 17; Ezra iii. 8. 1 Chron. xv. 27; 2 Chron. v. 12.

first were destroyed, as already related (p. 206), for offering strange fire before the Lord; and there remained only Eleazer and Ithamar, in whose posterity the family of Aaron was distinguished into two branches, which ultimately formed a numerous body.

The manner of their original consecration is fully described in Exod. xxix. and Lev. viii. and need not here be repeated. Moses officiated on that great occasion. Aaron was inaugurated as high-priest with the same ceremonies as his sons, with the addition that he was arrayed in his official robes, and the sacred oil poured upon his head, whence he is distinguished as the anointed.* Eight days were occupied in the various ceremonies whereby the priestly caste was for ever set apart from the other Israelites, so that there was subsequently no need for the further consecration of themselves or their posterity.†

It has been disputed whether the ceremonies of consecration were practised at the accession of every high-priest to his office. The texts cited below seem to favour the affirmative. The ointment or oil with which the high-priest was anointed is described; and there is a receipt for making it in Exod. xxx. 23-25.

Not only a descent from Aaron, but a freedom from all bodily defects, was requisite to qualify a person for the sacerdotal office.§ The Jewish writers enumerate a hundred circumstances, any one of which excluded a person of sacerdotal race from the priestly ministrations. Such as were thus incapacitated from the higher services of the priesthood were employed in cleaning the wood that was to be used for the altar; for great nicety was exercised in the choice of this wood, as it was thought unlawful to use any that was in the least degree rotten or worm-eaten. Moses gave no direction as to the employment of such persons, but directed that they should enjoy a full participation in the secular privileges of the priesthood.

There are several regulations tending to enforce the personal purity of the priests and the purity of their race. They were forbidden to contract ceremonial defilement,|| and thereby render themselves unfit for the discharge of their duties, by contact with the dead; but with great indulgence to human feeling, they

were allowed to contract defilement on account of a father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or unmarried sister. Even for these, however, they were forbidden to manifest the usual Oriental tokens of violent grief by making baldness on their heads, or mutilating their beards, or cutting their flesh, or rending their clothes.

Their women also were to be examples of purity. A priest might not marry a woman who had ever been unchaste, nor one who had been divorced. Whether he might marry a widow or not has been disputed; but the probability is that he might marry the widow of another priest. If the daughter of a priest was guilty of unchastity, she was to be burned ;** whereas the law provided no punishment for the unchastity of an unaffianced female in ordinary life.

Lev. iv. 3, 5, 16, vi. 15; Psa. cxxxiii. 2.

Exod. xxix. 35-37; Lev. x. 7; compare Acts xiii. 2, 3; Rom. i. 1.
Lev. xxi. 16-24.

Exod. xxix. 29; Lev. xvi. 32. xxi. 10; Num. xxi. 26-28, xxxv. 25. The Rabbins understand that the priest contracted defilement if he approached within four cubits of a dead body, or entered the house where it lay, or followed it to the grave, or discharged any act of mourning.

Compare Lev. xxi. 13, and Ezek. xliv. 22.

**Probably her body, after being stoned to death. Burning alive does not seem to have been a Hebrew punishment.

++ See also the cut at the head of this chapter, in which Egyptian women are represented engaged in their customary services in the Egyptian worship. That cut is not literally copied from Egyptian sculptures and paintings, but has been carefully composed from them for the purpose of general illustration.

These regulations about the women of the priests deserve the more attention from the fact that the wives and daughters of the priests were not employed in sacred ministrations, as among the Egyptians, and in other heathen nations; and it is very possible that this severe punishment was designed effectually to prevent the way being opened for transferring into the worship of the true God the abominable rites of the heathen, who often worshipped their gods by unseemly acts, and made brothels of their groves and sacred places. The reality of this and similar dangers is manifested by the actual profanation of the temple in this fashion, under the wicked reign of king Manassch.*

The priests were also forbidden to drink wine or any intoxicating liquor when they were to exercise their sacred functions; and this is supposed to have been occasioned by the fate of Nadab and Abihu, whose error is concluded to have been occasioned by drunkenness.

As high functionaries in the court of the GREAT KING, many of the duties of the priests were of a civil nature. Those which more properly belonged to them in their sacerdotal character were to pronounce the benediction upon the people,† and to conduct the whole service of the holy place. Theirs was the business of sacrificing, with all its rites, in all offerings upon the altar of burnt-offerings. The government and ordering of the sanctuary and of the house of God lay upon them. They kept the table of shew-bread properly supplied; they attended to the lamps of the golden candelabrum every morning; and at the same time they burnt the daily incense, that any offensive scent from the dressing of the lamps might not be discerned. It was their duty to keep up the fire upon the brazen altar, that the fire originally kindled from heaven might never be extinguished. It was their office to make the holy anointing oil. And they blew the silver trumpets at the solemn feasts, and also before the ark at its removals.

While they were few, there was enough occupation to employ them all; but when they had become numerous, they were divided into twenty-four bands, or courses, each of which undertook weekly, in rotation, the sacred services. But this regulation belongs to the time of David.

The priests ministered at the altar and in the holy place with covered heads and naked feet, like the priests of Egypt; but these indeed have ever been, throughout the East, circumstances of respect. Their services were, in most respects, the same as those of the Egyptian priests, as, indeed, necessarily resulted from the fact, that the Lord required from them most of the observances which they had learned to regard as acts of becoming worship, but always took care to draw the line distinctly between the good and the evil, the use and the abuse. They were hence also required to be as scrupulously clean as the Egyptian priests; they were to bathe themselves with water daily, before they commenced their ministrations; before their original consecration they were also ordered to shave their persons completely, but it does not appear that they were required to keep themselves thus constantly shaven, like the priests of Egypt. Indeed, we know that they wore beards, which the latter never did: but although they were forbidden to shave their heads, they were not allowed to appear with long hair at the time of their ministrations, and the high-priest, whose presence was always necessary, was not allowed to let his hair grow at all, but had it cut close, once every week.

In ordinary life, when not engaged in their sacred duties, the priests were dressed like other Israelites of good condition; but, like the priests of Egypt, they had a peculiar dress, appropriated to their sacred ministrations. This dress was kept in the wardrobe of the tabernacle,

2 Kings xxiii. 7; Lev. x. 9.

"The Lord bless thee and keep thee; The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace," Num. vi. 24-26. In practice, the priest whose duty it happened to be, stood so as to be seen by all the people, and pronounced the blessing with outspread and uplifted hands, and his face turned towards the congregation. See this attitude below in cut 5.

Compare Lev. xxi. 5, and Ezek. xliv. 20. We are inclined to suspect that the reason why, although their hair was kept short, it was not shaven, was that they might not be induced to wear wigs, &c., like the Egyptians, which might with other circumstances have suggested or tended to the use of such symbolical masks, representing the heads of beasts, birds, &c., as were on some occasions worn in their ministrations by the priests of Egypt. The retention of the beard would also be an obstacle to this.