rious postures in prayer many instances occur in the sacred writers. See 1 Sam. i. 13.; Luke xviii. 11.; Psal. cxliii. 6.; 2 Chron. vi. 13.; Ezra ix. 5.; Matt. xxvi. 39. ; Luke xxii. 41.; Acts vii. 60.; Exod. xxxiv. 8.; Luke xviii. 13.; Isa. i. 15.; and Psal. cxli. 2. When at a distance from the temple, the more devout Jews turned themselves towards it when they prayed. We have an instance of this in the conduct of Daniel. (Dan. vi. 10.) When the Orientals pray seriously, in a state of grief, they hide their faces in their bosom. To this circumstance the Psalmist alludes (xxxv. 13.) when he says, My prayer returned into mine own bosom. 3. Various FORMS OF PRAYER were in use among the Jews, from the earliest period of their existence as a distinct nation. The first piece of solemn worship recorded in the Scripture is a hymn of praise composed by Moses, on occasion of the deliverance of the Israelites from the Egyptians, which was sung by all the congregation alternately; by Moses and the men first, and afterwards by Miriam and the women (Exod. xv. 1. 20, 21.); which could not have been done, unless it had been a precomposed set form. Again, in the expiation of an uncertain murder, the elders of the city which lay nearest to the party that was slain, were expressly commanded to say, and consequently to join in, the form of prayer appointed by God himself in Deut. xxi. 7, 8. In Numb. vi. 23-26. x. 35, 36. Deut. xxvi. 3. 5-11. and 13-15., there are several other divinely-appointed forms of prayer, prescribed by Moses. On the establishment of the monarchy, David appointed the Levites to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at even (1 Chron. xxiii. 30.); which rule was afterwards observed in the temple erected by Solomon, and restored at the building of the second temple after the captivity. (Neh. xii. 24.) And the whole book of Psalms was, in fact, a collection of forms of prayer and praise, for the use of the whole congregation. II. To prayers the Jews sometimes added FASTS, or religious abstinence from food: these fasts were either public or private. 1. The PUBLIC FASTS were either ordinary or extraordinary. Moses instituted only one ordinary annual public fast, which was solemnised on the day of atonement, other public fasts being left to the discretion of the nation. Of extraordinary fasts appointed by authority of the civil magistrate, several instances are recorded in the Old Testament. See 1 Sam. vii. 5, 6.; 2 Chron. xx. 3.; Jer. xxxvi. 9.; Ezra viii. 21.; Zech. vii. 3. viii. 19.; and 2 Kings xxv. 28. 2. PRIVATE FASTS were left to the discretion of individuals who kept them, in order that they might by prayer and fasting avert imminent calamities, and obtain the favour of God. See instances of such fasts in 2 Sam. xii. 16. 1 Kings xxi. 27. Ezra x. 6. and Neh. i. 4. 3. From various passages of Scripture, it appears that the Jewish fasts, whether public or private, were distinguished by every possible mark of grief; the people being clothed in sackcloth, with ashes strewed on their heads, downcast countenances, rent garments, and (on public occasions) with loud weeping and supplication. (2 Sam. xiii. 19. Psal. xxxv. 13. Isa. lviii. 5. Lam. ii. 10. Joel i. 13, 14. ii. 12, 13.) At these times they abstained from food until evening. The sanctimonious Pharisees affected the utmost humility and devotion, disfiguring their faces and avoiding every appearance of neatness; against which conduct Jesus Christ cautions his disciples in Matt. vi. 16, 17. SECTION III. - On the Purifications of the Jews. I. The PURIFICATIONS of the Jews were various, and the objects of them were either persons or things dedicated to divine worship. The Jews had two sorts of - washing; one, of the whole body by immersion, which was used by the priests at their consecration, and by the proselytes at their initiation; the other, of the hands or feet, called dipping or pouring of water, and which was of daily use, not only for the hands and feet, but also for the cups and other vessels used at their meals. (Matt. xv. 2. Mark vii. 3, 4. John ii. 6.) To these two modes of purification Jesus Christ seems to allude in John xiii. 10. II. In the Mosaic law those persons are termed unclean whom others were obliged to avoid touching, or even meeting, unless they chose to be themselves defiled, that is, cut off from all intercourse with their brethren; and who, besides, were bound to abstain from frequenting the place where divine service and the offering-feasts were held, under penalties still more severe. The duration and degrees of impurity were different. In some instances, by the use of certain ceremonies, an unclean person became purified at sunset; in others, this did not take place until eight days after the physical cause of defilement ceased. Lepers were obliged to live in a detached situation, separate from other people, and to keep themselves actually at a distance from them. They were distinguished by a peculiar dress; and if any person approached, they were bound to give him warning, by crying out, Unclean! unclean! Other polluted persons, again, could not directly touch those that were clean, without defiling them in like manner, and were obliged to remain without the camp, that they might not be in their way. (Numb. v. 1-4.) Eleven different species of impurity are enumerated in the Levitical law, to which the later Jews added many others. But the severest of all was the Leprosy, an infectious disease of slow and imperceptible progress, beginning very insidiously and gently, until at length it became incurable, and most offensively loathsome. The Mosaic statutes respecting this malady are recorded in Levit. xiii. xiv. Numb. v. 1-4. and Deut. xxiv. 8, 9. The leprosy has ever been considered as a lively emblem of that moral taint or corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam*; as the sacrifices, which were to be offered by the healed leper, prefigured that spotless Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. CHAPTER VI. ON THE CORRUPTIONS OF RELIGION AMONG THE JEWS. I. On the Idolatry of the Jews. - II. Jewish Sects mentioned in the New Testament. III. Extreme Corruption of the Jewish People at the Time of Christ's Birth. I. IDOLATRY OF THE JEWS. Idolatry is the superstitious worship of idols or false gods. From Gen. vi. 5., compared with Rom. i. 23., there is every reason to believe that it was practised before the flood; and this conjecture is confirmed by the apostle Jude (ver. 4.), who, describing the character of certain men in his days that denied the only Lord God, adds, in the eleventh verse of his Epistle, Woe unto them, for they are gone into the way of Cain; whence it may be inferred that Cain and his descendants were the first who threw off the sense of a God, and worshipped the creature instead of the Creator. The heavenly bodies were the first objects of idolatrous worship, and Mesopotamia and Chaldæa were the countries where it chiefly prevailed after the deluge, whence it spread into Canaan, Egypt, and other countries. Although Moses, by the command and instruction of GoD, had given to the Israelites such a religion as no other nation possessed, and notwithstanding all his laws were directed to preserve them from idolatry, yet, so wayward were the * Article IX. of the Confession of the Anglican church. Israelites, that, almost immediately after their departure from Egypt, we find them worshipping idols. (Exod. xxxii. 1. Psal. cvi. 19, 20. Acts vii. 41-43.) Soon after their entrance into the land of Canaan, they adopted various deities that were worshipped by the Canaanites, and other neighbouring nations (Judges ii. 13. viii. 33.); for which base ingratitude they were severely punished. And, after the division of the two kingdoms, it is well known that, with the exception of a few short intervals, both the sovereigns and people of Israel were wholly given to idolatry: nor were the people of Judah exempt from the worship of strange gods, as the frequent reproofs of the prophets abundantly testify. At length, however, become wiser by the severe discipline they had received, the tribes, that returned into their native country from the Babylonian captivity, wholly renounced idolatry; and thenceforth uniformly evinced the most deeply-rooted aversion from all strange deities and foreign modes of worship. This great reformation was accomplished by Ezra and Nehemiah, and the eminent men who accompanied or succeeded them; but, in the progress of time, though the exterior of piety was maintained, the " power of godliness" was lost; and we learn from the New Testament, that, during our Saviour's ministry, the Jews were divided into various religious parties, which widely differed in opinion, and pursued each other with the fiercest animosity and with implacable hatred. II. Of these SECTS and their respective tenets, to which there are frequent allusions in the New Testament, we are now to give a concise account. 1. The sect of the SADDUCEES derived its name from Sadok, a pupil of Antigonus Sochæus, president of the sanhedrin or great council; who flourished about two hundred and sixty years before the Christian era. They disregarded all the traditions and unwritten laws which the Pharisees prized so highly, and professed to consider the Scriptures as the only source and rule of the Jewish |