dlestick, because these suit the notion of a dwelling-house. The table must have its dishes, and spoons, and bowls, and covers, belonging to it, though they were never used, and always be furnished with bread upon it. The candlestick must have its lamps continually burning.

Hence also there must be a continual fire kept in this house of God's upon the altar, as the focus of it: to which notion, I conceive, the prophet Isaiah doth allude, chap. xxxi. ver. 9. N

,which I would thus translate בציון ותנור בירושלים

qui habet ignem suum in Sion, et focum suum in Jerusalem,

Ver. 12.

And besides all this, to carry the notion still further, there must be some constant meat and provision brought into this house, which was done in the sacrifices, that were partly consumed by fire upon God's own altar, and partly eaten by the priests, which were God's family, and therefore to be maintained by him. That, which was consumed upon God's altar, was accounted God's MESS, as appeareth from the first chapter of Malachi, where the altar is called GOD'S TABLE, and the sacrifice upon it, GOD'S MEAT; "Ye say, the table of God is polluted, and the fruit thereof, his meat, is contemptible." And often in the law the sacrifice is called God's on, that is, his bread or food. Whence, in that learned Hebrew book Cozri, the king Haber objects to the Jew Cozar against his religion, that it seemed to place corporeity in God, in making him to feed upon the flesh of beasts in these sacrifices. To which the Jewish doctor answers cabalistically in this manner; that as, in men, corporeal meat is a

means to unite and continue the soul (which is a spirit) to a body; so, in the land of Israel, the blood of beasts offered up in sacrifice had an attractive power to draw down Divinity, and unite it to the Jews. And methinks this may be a little further convinced from that passage in the 50th Psalm, "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" For though it be here denied, that God did really feed upon the sacrifices, yet it is implied there was some such allusive signification in them.

Wherefore it is further observable, that beside the flesh of the beast offered up in sacrifice, there was a mincah, or meat-offering, made of flour and oil, and a libamen, or drink-offering, that was always joined with the daily sacrifice, as the bread and drink, which were to go along with God's meat.

It was also strictly commanded, that there should be salt in every sacrifice and oblation, because all meat is unsavoury without salt; as R. Moses Bar Nachman hath here also well observed,

מפני שאינו דרך כביר להיות לחם השם טפל מבלי מלח

i. e. Because it was not honourable, that God's meat should be unsavoury, without salt.

Lastly, all these things were to be consumed on the altar only by the holy fire, that came down from heaven, because they were God's portion, and therefore to be eaten or consumed by himself in an extraordinary manner. And this the devil sometime imitated, in some sacrifices offered up to him. For so I understand that passage of Pindar in his Olympiacs, Ode vii. speaking of the

Rhodians, that when they had prepared, and were come to offer sacrifice to Jupiter, they had by chance forgotten to bring fire with them: but Jupiter, being conscious of their good intentions, rained down upon them A GOLDEN SHOWER (as I understand it), A SHOWER of fire; a pure imitation of the sacred story. Take it in that elegant poet's own words:

That is, according to Benedictus's metaphrase, "Etenim Rhodii ascenderunt, quamvis non habentes ardentis semen ignis. Verum dum instruunt sacrificiis igni carentibus aram in arce, illis quidem flavam adducens nebulam, multum pluit [Jupiter] aurum."

And Solinus reports it of the Vulcanian hill in Sicily, that they which offered sacrifice upon it never put fire to it, but expected it should be kindled from heaven. His words, according to Salmasius's edition, are these; "Nec longe inde Collis Vulcanius, in quo qui divinæ rei operantur, ligna vitea super aras struunt; nec ignis adponitur in hanc congeriem. Cum prosicias intulerunt, si adest Deus, si sacrum probatur, sarmenta, licet viridia, sponte concipiunt, et nullo inflagrante halitu, ab ipso numine fit accendium. Ibi epulantes adludit flamma, quæ, flexuosis excessibus vagabunda, quem contigerit non adurit; nec aliud est quam imago nuncia perfecti rite Voti." The place is very remarkable; and where he says thus, "epulantes adludit flamma," he alludeth to that

custom of feasting on the sacrifices, which was before explained.

I will add to all this the words of a late learned author, that sometime stumbled unawares upon this very notion which we are now about, and yet expressed it happily in this manner; "Deus adsuam cum populo Judæorum familiaritatem significandam, sibi ab illo carnes, sanguinem atque fruges in ALTARI atque MENSA offerri voluit, ut ostenderet se quasi COMMUNEM in illo populo habere MENSAM, esse illius CONVIVAM perpetuum, atque ita familiariter cum illis habitare."

And as it was thus among the Hebrews, so it seems, that sacrifices had the notion of feasts' likewise among the ancient Persians, that worshipped the fire, of whom Maximus Tyrius thus relateth, Ὅτι ἐπιφοροῦντες πυρὶ τροφὴν ἐπιλέγουσι, Πῦρ, SEOTOTа, olie, i. e. bringing in the sacrifices to the fire, which was their god, they were wont to say, "Ignis, Domine, comede."

The sacrifices then being God's feasts, they that did partake of them must needs be his coNVIVE, and in a manner EAT and DRINK with him. And that this did bear the notion of a federal rite in the Scripture account, I prove from that place, Lev. ii. 13. “Thou shalt not suffer the SALT OF THE COVENANT of thy God to be lacking; with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt." Where the salt, that was to be cast upon all the sacrifices, is called THE SALT OF THE COVENANT, to signify, that as men did use to make covenants by eating and drinking together, where salt is a necessary appendix; so God by these sacrifices, and the feasts upon them, did ratify and confirm his covenant with those that did partake of them,

inasmuch as they did in a manner EAT and DRINK with him.

For salt was ever accounted amongst the ancients a most necessary concomitant of feasts, and

כל סעודה שאין מליח בה אינה .condiment of all meats

TYD, saith the Jewish proverb in Beracoth, "Omne convivium, in quo non est salitum, non est convivium." And therefore because covenants and reconciliations were made by eating and drinking, where salt was always used, salt itself was accounted among the ancients AMICITIA SYMBOLUM. "Aλeç kaì τpáñɛča, sal et mensa-was used proverbially among the Greeks to express friendship by ; Αλας καὶ τράπεζαν παραβαίνειν, in the words of Origen before quoted out of Archilocus, "sal et mensam transgredi,"-was to violate the most sacred league of friendship. Eschines, in his oration De Perperam Habita Legatione, hath a passage very pertinent to this purpose; Tous yap τῆς πόλεως ἅλας καὶ δημοσίαν τράπεζαν περὶ πλείστου δεῖ TOLOα, Etenim civitatis sales et communem mensam ait se plurimi facere debere. Thus I understand that symbol of Pythagoras, τὸν ἅλα παρατί Osoba, (by Erasmus's leave) for friendship and hospitality. There is a pregnant instance of this very phrase in the Scripture, (Ezra iv. 14.) where our translators read it thus, "Because we have maintenance from the king's palace:" but the words in the Chaldee run after this manner,

e. quod sale palatii . כל קבל די מלח היכלא מלחנא

--

salivimus "Because we have eaten of the king's salt [that is, because we have engaged ourselves in a covenant of friendship to him, by eating of meat], therefore it is not meet for us to see the king's dishonour." That proverb men