dour. The parable of the ten virgins in Matt. xxv. gives a good idea of the customs practised on these occasions.

Marriage was dissolved among the Jews by divorce as well as by death. Our Saviour tell us, that Moses suffered this only because of the hardness of their heart, but from the beginning it was not so (Matt. xix. 8.); meaning that they were accustomed to this abuse; and to prevent greater evils, such as murders, adulteries, &c. he permitted it; and he expressly limited the permission of divorce to the single case of adultery. (Matt. v. 31, 32.) Nor was this limitation unnecessary: for at that time it was common for the Jews to dissolve this sacred union upon very slight and trivial pretences.

CHAPTER IV.

BIRTH, EDUCATION, ETC. OF CHILDREN.

IN the East, child-birth is to this day an event of but little difficulty, and mothers were originally the only assistants of their daughters, any further aid being deemed unnecessary; though midwives were sometimes employed. (Exod. i. 19. Gen. xxxv. 17. xxxviii. 28.) The birth of a son was celebrated as a festival, which was solemnised in succeeding years with renewed demonstrations of joy, especially those of sovereign princes. (Gen. xl. 20. Job i. 4. Matt. xiv. 6.) The birth of a son or daughter rendered the mother ceremonially unclean for a certain period.

On the eighth day after its birth the son was circumcised, and received a name. The first-born son enjoyed peculiar privileges. He received a double portion of the estate: he was the high priest of the whole family; and he enjoyed an authority over those who were younger, similar to that possessed by a father. The sons remained till the fifth year in the care of the

women; after which the father took charge of them, and instructed them, or caused them to be instructed, in the arts and duties of life, and in the law of Moses. (Deut. vi. 20-25. xi. 19.) The daughters rarely went out unless sent for a specific purpose. Where there were no children, adoption-or the taking of a stranger into a family, in order to make him a part of it, acknowledging him as a son and heir to the estate, -was practised. The elder Hebrews, indeed, do not appear to have had recourse to adoption, because Moses is silent concerning it in his laws. It was, however, common in the time of Jesus Christ; and St. Paul has many beautiful allusions to it in his epistles.

CHAPTER V.

ON THE CONDITION OF SLAVES, AND THE CUSTOMS RELATING TO THEM, MENTIONED OR ALLUDED TO IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

SLAVERY is of very remote antiquity: and when Moses gave his laws to the Jews, finding it already established, though he could not abolish it, yet he enacted various salutary laws and regulations.

Slaves were acquired in various ways, viz. 1. By Captivity (Gen. xiv. 14. Deut. xx. 14. xxi. 10, 11.); 2. By Debt, when persons, being poor, were sold for payment of their debts (2 Kings iv. 1. Matt. xviii. 25.); 3. By committing a Theft, without the power of making restitution (Exod. xxii. 2, 3. Neh. v. 4, 5.); and, 4. By Birth, when persons were born of married slaves. These are termed born in the house (Gen. xiv. 14. xv. 3. xvii. 23. xxi. 10.), home-born (Jer. ii. 14.), and the sons or children of handmaids. (Psal. lxxxvi. 16. cxvi. 16.)

Slaves received both food and clothing, for the most part of the meanest quality, but whatever property they acquired belonged to their lords: hence they are said to

be worth double the value of a hired servant. (Deut. xv. 18.) They formed marriages at the will of their master, but their children were slaves, who, though they could not call him a father (Gal. iv. 6. Rom. viii. 15.), yet they were attached and faithful to him as to a father, on which account the patriarchs trusted them with arms. (Gen. xiv. 14. xxxii. 6. xxxiii. 1.) Their duty was to execute their lord's commands, and they were for the most part employed in tending cattle or in rural affairs: and though the lot of some of them was sufficiently hard, yet under a mild and humane master, it was tolerable. (Job xiii. 13.) When the eastern people have no male issue, they frequently (as in Barbary) marry their daughters to their slaves: so Sheshan did, who gave his daughter to his Egyptian servant [slave] Jarha. (See 1 Chron. ii. 34, 35.) Various regulations were made by Moses to ensure the humane treatment of slaves; among which the three following are particularly worthy of notice:-1. Hebrew slaves were to continue in slavery only till the year of jubilee, when they might return to liberty, and their masters could not detain them against their wills. If they were desirous of continuing with their master, they were to be brought to the judges; before whom they were to make a declaration, that for this time they disclaimed the privilege of the law: and they had their ears bored through with an awl against the door-posts of their master's house, after which they had no longer any power of recovering their liberty until the next year of jubilee, after forty-nine years. (Exod. xxi. 5, 6.) 2. If a Hebrew by birth was sold to a stranger or alien dwelling in the vicinity of the land of Israel, his relations were to redeem him, and such slave was to make good the purchase-money if he were able, paying in proportion to the number of years that remained, until the year of jubilee. (Lev. xxv. 47–55.) 3. Lastly, if a slave of another nation fled to the Hebrews, he was to be re

ceived hospitably, and on no account to be given up to his master. (Deut. xxiii. 15, 16.)

Although Moses inculcated the duty of humane treatment towards slaves, and enforced his statutes by various strong sanctions, yet it appears from Jer. xxxiv. 8—22. that their condition was sometimes very wretched; and, in later times, among the Greeks and Romans it was, in general, truly miserable. Being for the most part captives taken in war, they were bought and sold like beasts of burden; and were at the mercy of their owners, who had an absolute right over their lives, and who branded them, in order to mark their property. To the practice of buying, purchasing, and branding slaves, St. Paul has several fine allusions.

See particularly

The confinement

1 Cor. vi. 20. vii. 23. and Gal. vi. 17. of slaves in mines appears to be referred to in Matt. viii. 12. and xxii. 13. and crucifixion was a punishment almost exclusively reserved for them: whence St. Paul takes occasion to illustrate the love of Christ for fallen man, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and ignominy of such a death. (Heb. xii. 2.)

CHAPTER VI.

DOMESTIC CUSTOMS AND USAGES OF THE JEWS.

VARIOUS are the modes of address and politeness, which custom has established in different nations. The ordinary formulæ of salutation were The Lord be with thee! The Lord bless thee! - and Blessed be thou of the Lord! but the most common salutation was Peace, (that is, may all manner of prosperity) be with thee! (Ruth ii. 4. Judg. xix. 20. 1 Sam. xxv. 6. 2 Sam. xx. 9. Psal. cxxix. 8.) In the later period of the Jewish polity, much time appears to have been spent in the rigid ob

servance of these ceremonious forms; which are alluded to in Matt. x. 12. See also 2 Kings iv. 29.

Respect was shown to persons on meeting, by the salutation of Peace be with you! and laying the right hand upon the bosom: but if the person addressed was of the highest rank, they bowed to the earth. Thus Jacob bowed to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother Esau. (Gen. xxxiii. 3.) Sometimes they kissed the hem of the person's garment, and even the dust on which he had to tread. (Zech. viii. 23. Luke viii. 44. Acts x. 26. Psal. lxxii. 9.) Near relations and intimate acquaintances kissed each other's hands, head, neck, beard (which on such occasions only could be touched without affront), or shoulders. (Gen. xxxiii. 4. xlv. 14. 2 Sam. xx. 9. Luke xv. 20. Acts xx. 17.)

Whenever the common people approached their prince, or any person of superior rank, it was customary for them to prostrate themselves before them. The allusions to this practice, in the Old and New Testaments, are very numerous; as well as to the making of presents to superiors. (See particularly Matt. ii. 11.)

When any person visited another, he stood at the gate and knocked, or called aloud, until the person on whom he called admitted him. (2 Kings v. 9-12. Acts x. 17.) xii. 13. 16.) Visitors were always received and dismissed with great respect. On their arrival, water was brought to wash their feet and hands (Gen. xviii. 4. xix. 2.), after which the guests were anointed with oil. David alludes to this in Psal. xxiii. 5. and Solomon, in Prov. xxvii. 9. The same practice obtained in our Saviour's time. (Luke vii. 44, 45.)

The Jews rose early, about the dawn of day, when they breakfasted. They dined about eleven in the forenoon, and supped at five in the afternoon. Their food consisted principally of bread, milk, rice, vegetables, honey, and sometimes of locusts, except at the appointed festivals, or when they offered their feast-offerings; at