their Parts*. Thus did Jofephus answer Appion, and fairly retort the Calumny upon him. But here again I wish he had not ftopt there, but had given us his Thoughts concerning the Rife and Original of this Slander, which I am perfuaded must have been very curious, and far more fatisfactory than all the Gueffes and Conjectures of the modern Writers. ift, A learned Man thinks, that when the Heathen faw the Jews pray with Hands and Eyes lifted up to Heaven, they concluded they worshipped the Clouds and the Heavens; which is hinted at by Dio in his Account of the Jews, and laid to their Charge by Juvenal, Sat. xiv. v. 97. Nil præter nubes, & cæli numen adorant; and that gavòs, the Heavens, being by Contradiction written ovos, this might give occafion to think that the Jews worshipped that Animal. The judicious Mr. Reland endeavours at another Solution: He thinks 'that as the Grecian Veffels, with two Ears, called dupaτides, were alfo named o'vot, Affes, the Afs faid to be found by Antiochus in the Temple, was no more than the Pot or Veffel of Manna which was repofited there: But as it is agreed on all Hands, that this Veffel, as well as the Altar of Incense, the Shew-Bread Table, and the golden Candlestick, was deftroyed with the firft Temple; and it does not appear it was made anew after the rebuilding of the fecond, as indeed it could not be for want of

*Ægyptius, fi quid tale apud nos fuiffet, nunquam debuerat nos increpare, cum non fit afinus deterior, furonibus, hircis, & aiiis qui apud eos funt dii.---Hæc igitur debuerat Appion refpicere, nifi cor afini ipfe potius habuiffet, atque impudentiam canis, qui apud eos affolet coli. Nos afinis neque honorem, neque aliquam poteftatem damus, ficut Ægyptii crocodilis & afpidibus; quando eos qui ab iftis mordentur, & a crocodilis rapiuntur, felices & deo dignos arbitrantur; fed apud nos funt afini, quod apud alios fapientes viros, onera fibi impofita fuftinentes, & fi propofita non adimpleant, valde multis plagas accipiunt. Jofeph. ib. pag. 1065.

that

13 that Manna that came down from Heaven; there feems to be no Ground at all for the Conjecture of that learned Writer: As to the Traditions of the Jews, thofe religious Triflers, that it was hid with the Ark and other Utenfils, and preferved by Jeremy; or that Jofiah, hearing from Huldah the Prophetefs, that the Temple would speedily after his Death be deftroyed, caused the Ark to be put in a Vault under Ground, which Solomon, forefeeing that Destruction, had caused on Purpose to be built for the preferving them; these are too trifling and inconfiderable to fuffer any Strefs to be laid upon them. Tanaquil Faber, one of the boldest Criticks of his Time, faith, this Calumny might proceed from the fchifmatical Temple of the Jews, built by Onias in Egypt; and that it being called Oves vd, and the Town 'Ovetov, from its Founder (which comes very near to "Or, an Afs) this might give the firft Rife and Occafion to that Report. This may ftrike at firft Sight, and feem to carry fome Probability along with it; but befides that Appion was too learned a Man to commit fuch a Mistake, as he himself lived in Egypt, where that Temple was built, it is likely he would have fixed the Adoration there, not have placed it at Jerufalem, where he faith it was difcovered by Antiochus Epiphanes. But the moft pleafant Solution of all is that of the late Mr. Jurieu, a French Clergyman in Holland; which he thinks is very clear, and comes up to the Point, if you will allow of his Suppofitions: He faith, that as the Cherubims in the Temple were reprefented by four Faces, one of which was that of an Ox; this last, if the Horns were taken away, and Ears clapt on inftead of them, might very eafily pafs for the Head of an Afs. But, allowing this to be true, can it ever be fuppofed that the Jews at that Time fhould play fuch a filly Prank, fhould fo difguife

their Cherubim, and this at the very Time that Antiochus was befieging their City, and ready to break into their Temple. By this Way of Reafoning, and the Help of fuch Suppofitions, one may prove any Thing in the World, that Black is White and White is Black.

But I rather believe that the Law of Mofes, and the Practice of the Jews, might give the Heathen Occafion to invent this Calumny. They had obferved, that the Jews offered and confecrated the Firft-born of all their Beafts, except that of an Afs, which was not offered nor facrificed, but was redeemed by Money; from which Distinction they might infer, that they had fome fpecial Regard and Efteem for that Animal beyond the rest; and from a Regard and Efteem, the Tranfition was eafy to a religious Worfhip. This is what Jofephus particularly wards againft, and lays the greatest Strefs upon, declaring that the Jews paid no other Honours and Regard to the Afs, than other Nations did; that they employed them in laborious Offices, and punished them when they neglected their Works. I fhall now have done with Appion, whom I will leave under the Lafh of Jofephus, who has treated him as he justly deserved; and fhall proceed to the Accounts which fome other Authors have given of the Religion of the Jews, as Trogus Pompeius, Tully, Strabo, Dio, Tacitus, and Plutarch; of whom I have already obferved, that the most antient and early of thefe Writers have given truer, fairer, and more impartial Accounts of the Jews, than later Authors, who had greater Opportunities to be better informed, which I fhall endeavour to account for in the Sequel of my Difcourfe. To fet the Matter in a clearer Light,

*See Mr. Selden's Table-Talk.

and

and make the Contraft the stronger, I fhall begin with these last. And ift, Dio, an excellent Historian, does the Jews the Juftice to fay, that they had no Statues and Images in their Temples; it being their Opinion that God could not be defcribed or represented by any visible or corporeal Appearance whatsoever. He extols the Beauty and Magnificence of their Temple, and only finds Fault that its Courts had no Roof or Covering, but were naked and open to the Air; from whence he feems to conclude, they paid theit Adoration to the Heavens and the Clouds. Some learned Men have thought this Notion of their worshipping the Clouds, which Juvenal, as I have before obferved, had taxed them with, might proceed from God's appearing to Mofes in a Cloud, for the Space of fix Days in Mount Sinai, when he called him up through that Cloud, and delivered him the Laws on the two Tables of Stone Others derive it from that Pillar of Cloud which went before the Ifraelites, and was a Guide to them when they travelled through the Wildernefs; and laftly, others think it came from the Cloud which filled the Tabernacle when it was first dedicated to God; fo that Mofes was not able to enter into the Tent of the Congregation, because of the Cloud and the Glory of the Lord, which filled the Tabernacle. But of all Writers of the Affairs of the Jews, no one has fhown more Malignity, and been guilty of greater Errors and Miftakes, than Tacitus. He ftumbles at the very Threshold, and trifles egregioufly about the Original of that People, whom he fometimes derives from Mount Ida in Crete, fometimes from Egypt, or the Land of Ethiopia. I do not take this Author to Task upon the Account of any new Calumny he

* Turner's Calumnies, p. 107.

has

has caft upon the Jews, but to fhew the Blunders, Mistakes, and Self-contradictions he has fallen into, in Relation to that Nation. He has little more than copied the Slanders of Manetho, Appion, and others. He follows the first in the Story of their being expelled Egypt by Reafon of their Leprofy; and the fecond in the ridiculous Accufation of their worshipping an Afs; of which he gives this Reafon, that as the People of Ifrael in their travelling through the Wilderness, were ready to perish for Want of Water, Mofes, by the Direction of a Drove of Affes, difcovered fome green and florid Grass, and found out Springs, that refreshed his Army, and hindered it from dying with Thirft; and that, out of Gratitude for this Discovery, he made the Figure of an Afs, confecrated and placed it in the * Sanctuary, there to be adored and worshipped by the People; in which he betrays a fhameful Ignorance of the Jewish Worship; fince the Septuagint, Jofephus, or any of the Jews, would have told him, that the High-Priest only, and that but once a Year, was allowed to come into that Holy Place; and that the People were fo far from being permitted to come there, that they cou'd not fo much as look into it, by Reason of a Veil and Tapestry that was hung before the Door, to ftop and intercept the Sight. This Writer feems to agree with Jofephus, Dio, and Strabo, who fay the Jews had no Statues and Images in their Temples, as not thinking that God could be pourtrayed and reprefented by any human Art. The Jews (faith he) own

* Sed nil æque quam inopia aquæ fatigabat, jamque haud procul ab exitio erant, cum grex afinorum agreftium e paftu in rupem nemore opacam conceffit. Secutus Mofes, largas aquarum venas aperit. Effigiem animalis, quo monftante errorem fitimque depulerant, penetrali facravere. Vide Tacit. Edit. Elz. 1634. p. 671.

but