suitable to the rank of the donor, and offered to a propitious deity. On the birth of a child, a representation of a girdle was offered to Diana; on an escape from the dangers of the ocean, mariners presented offerings in the temple of Neptune; and on recovery from sickness, acknowledgments, indicative of the nature of the disease, were made to Esculapius. These offerings were sometimes fixed in the rocks near the precincts of the building; sometimes to the walls and columns of the edifice, and not unfrequently to the statue of the god. Even the very medicine was sometimes deposited: and it is worthy of notice, that from a list of remedies collected in the temples, Hippocrates, of Cos, the famous physician, framed his Art of Medicine; and reduced the practice of physic to a system.

This practice, which evidently originated in a deep consciousness that every blessing was dispensed by some divine, superintending agency, descended into the Christian church; and may yet be traced in countries where the Greek and Roman Catholic religions are professed, and also to Denmark and Norway. See Dr. E. D. CLARKE's Travels, vol. v.

0.

"Go up before me unto the high place."-1 Sam. ix. 19.

"In the early ages of the world, the devotion of mankind seems to have delighted greatly in groves, woods, and mountains, not only because these revered places were naturally fitted for contemplation, but probably also because they kindled a certain sacred dread in the mind of the worshipper. It is certain that nothing was more ancient in the east, than altars surrounded by groves and trees, which made the place very shady and delightful in those hot countries. The idolaters in the first ages of the world, who generally worshipped the sun, appear to have thought it improper to straiten and confine the supposed infiniteness of this imaginary deity within walls,

and therefore they generally made choice of hills and mountains, as the most convenient places for their idolatry; and when in after times they had brought in the nse of temples, yet for a long time they kept them open-roofed.".

"But at length these hills and groves, as they were more retired and shady, became so much the fitter for the exercise of their diabolical rites, and for the commission of the obscene and horrid practices that were usually perpetrated there.On this account God expressly commanded the Israelites, that they should utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations of Canaan, whose land they should possess, served their gods upon the high mountains and upon the hills; and to pay their devotions and bring their oblations to that place only which God should choose."

"It should, however, be recollected, that there were two kinds of high places, one frequented even by devout worshippers who lived at a distance from Jerusalem, and made use of by them in sacrificing, and for other religious purposes; and which were tolerated contrary to the divine command, by such of their kings who otherwise are said to be pious princes. The other kind of high places were such as were considered as abominable from the first institution, and made the receptacle of idolatry and wickedness. These last were the high places which Asa took away; but those where God alone was worshipped, had obtained so long, and were looked upon with so sacred a veneration, that for fear of giving a general offence he did not venture to abolish them." Mention is made of them daring the reigns of most of the succeeding Jewish princes; but "at length good king Josiah―utterly cleared the land from the high places and groves, and purged it from idolatry; but as the four succeeding reigns before the Babylonish captivity, were very wicked, we may presume that the high places were again revived, though there is no mention of them after the reign of Josiah."-Rev. T. H. HORNE'S Introd. part iii. c. 1. § 3.

P.

"The house and lineage of David."-Luke ii. 4.

See Gen. xxi. 2, 3.-xxv. 26.-xxix. 35.-xlvi. 12. Ruth iv. 18, 22, 1 Chron. ii. 3-15.-iii. 5, 10-17.

St. Matthew finding fourteen generations from Abraham to David inclusive, seems to have adopted an artificial mode of genealogy, which that circumstance evidently suggested-a distribution of the generations between Abraham and Christ into three epochas, each containing fourteen.

To effect this, it was necessary to drop some of the supernumerary names: and hence, during the second epocha, Uzziah (or Azarias) is placed after Jehoram, Matt. i. 8. though he was the son of Amaziah, Jehoram's great grandson.

In the third epocha there can be no doubt that he used the same liberty for St. Luke, who reckons the genealogy from another branch of David's house, makes the number of gene

rations from Nathan to Christ forty-two. If from these we deduct seventeen, (the actual number from David to the captivity, in the line of Solomon) twenty-five remain to be interposed between the captivity and the birth of Christ. So great a disproportion as fourteen to twenty-five, in the lines of Nathan and Solomon, is hardly credible; and after the proof we have before us of St. Matthew's artificial calculation, we need not hesitate to conclude that the number of generations in the third epocha have been reduced to fourteen, to make them correspond to the numbers of the others. This was the only system he could adopt: for to add generations between Abraham and David was inadmissible, being a deviation from truth; whilst the known practice of the Hebrews, in calling any ancestor, however remote, the father of any of the succeeding generations of his family, fully warranted the method he appears to have adopted.-See Matt. i. 1-17. Luke iii. 23-38.

Q.

"In that night was Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, slain.”— Dan. v. 30.

According to SCALIGER and other critics, Belshazzar is the Laborosoarchod of profane history, and was slain at an impious feast, not by foreign enemies, but by a conspiracy of his own people. By this scheme, Darius the Mede becomes the same as the Babylonish Nabonadius. This opinion, however, is ably refuted by Dean PRIDEAUX, in his Connection, parti. book 2.

But DR. HALES, in his New Analysis of Chronology asserts, that on the assassination of Belshazzar, the last of Nebuchadnezzar's family, the Babylonians invited Darius the Mede to the crown, as being the next of kin by marriage; that he accordingly took the kingdom, but appointed Nabonadius, a nobleman of Babylon, to be viceroy; that Darius died two years after, and Nabonadius rebelled against Cyrus; and that

fifteen years after the death of Darius, Cyrus captured Babylon. This hypothesis, however, is as objectionable as SCALIGER'S for it is obvious from Dan. v. 28. that Belshazzar's kingdom was to be divided, which it was not, if it passed, by succession or gift, to the king of Media: besides in this case it would have continued under its own laws. Contrary wise, it is evident that Darius took the kingdom by conquest, Dan. v. 31. and governed it by the unchangeable laws of Media and Persia, vi. 8, 15. which circumstance proves also the union of those two monarchies at that very time.

R.

"Wherefore they called these days Purim.”—Esth, ix. 26.

"The FEAST OF PURIM, or of Lots, as the word signifies, is celebrated on the 14th and 15th days of the month Adar, (or of Ve-Adar, if it be an intercalary year.) On this occasion the entire book of Esther is read in the synagogues of the modern Jews, not out of a printed copy, but from a roll which generally contains this book alone. All Jews, of both sexes, and of every age, who are able to attend, are required to come to this feast, and to join in the reading, for the better preservation of the memory of this important fact. When the roll is unfolded, the chazan or reader says, Blessed be God, the king of the world, who hath sanctified us by his precepts, and commanded us to read the megillah! Blessed be God, who in those days worked miracles for our fathers! As often as the name of Haman occurs, the whole congregation clap their hands, stamp with their feet, and exclaim, 'Let his name be blotted out! May the memory of the wicked rot!' The children at the same time hiss, and strike loudly on the forms with little wooden hammers made for the purpose.

When the chazan has finished reading, the whole congregation exclaim, Cursed be Haman!-Blessed be Mordecai!