Another was found fome years ago in the County of Longford, and fold for twenty-flx guineas. The breaft-plate of the high prieft of the Jews, was named en chofhen, Exod. xxviii, 4. and in Exod. xxviii. 15. Den chofhen mefhephot, that is the breaft-plate of judgment. The Greeks name it, i. e. rationale, quia ad pectus, rationis quafi fedem, fuit appofitum. It is very particularly defcribed in Exodus xxviii, and 15th verfe, "Thou fhalt make the breast-plate of judgment with cunning work, after the manner of the Ephod thou fhalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of fcarlet, and of fine twined linen fhalt thou make it. Four square fhall it be, being doubled. And thou fhalt fet in it, fettings of ftones, even four rows of ftones, &c. And thou fhalt make upon the breast plate chains at the ends, of wreathen work and pure gold, and two rings of gold, and thou shalt put the two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings, &c- and thou fhalt put in the breastplate of judgment the URIM and the THUMMIM, and they fhall be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth before the Lord. There is no miftaking this defcription of the breaft-plate of the Jews; the chains excepted, it has no refemblance to that of our Hibernian Druids. Looking into Buxtorf's Chaldee Lexicon, I found Ioden fignified the breaft plate; and that Moran, did the fame; but I could no where find Ioden-Moran compounded. The commentators in my poffeffion, afforded no information; I then applied by letter to R. J. J. Heideck, Profeffor of Oriental Languages, and received the following anfwer: "Sir, "Sir, "I find on chofen hemefphot, or the breaft plate of judgment, named Ioden Moren, by Rab. Joda in Talmud Sanhedrim, p. 134. And in Comm. Ein Jacob, p. 150, it is derived from the imperfect verb wer which he fays is Moren, and Cow he fays is the fame as Ioden, and he adds, that the words Urim and Thummim have the fame fignification; but Rab. Simon in Ejus: p. 135 and 151, more plainly says it is Moren Ioden, which according to Rab. Solomon Iarchis, is alfo Ioden Moran. Rab. Meir calls it Doen Moren, The Rab. in Talmud fay, that the Meffias fhall be called Ioden Muren. for he fhall be the judge, as in Ifaiah xith. Thus, Sir, it is very plain that the Irish name is derived from the Chaldee Chofhen Hemefhpot, or Ioden Muren *. Temple-bar, 1st July, 1783. I am, &c. JOHN JOS. HEIDECK, In the Irish language Dunn is a judge, and Maor, a lord or chief. The explanation given by Buxtorf to Moran or Maran, fo perfectly correfponds to Keating's picture of Moran, one would think the Irish word had originally the fame meaning. * The Irish word is often written Iodh, and I think has the fame meaning as Urim, viz. an oracle. Heb. iad, oraculum, prophetia, as in Ezek. iii, and xxii. And the iad of the Lord was there upon me; iad is a hand, and thus it is trandated in the English; but the commentators all explain the word by prophetia Domini. VOL. IV. No. XIII. F Maran; Maran; Dominus dicitur autem de politico & ecclefiaftico domino, id eft, doctore excellente, reliquorum fapientium capite: qui fimul judicandi habet poteftatem. Maran de fummo, qui præerat reliquis fapientibus quem etiamnum hodie communes Rabbini vocant Morenu. Inde & Chriftus vocatus fuit per excellentiam Maran. Hinc vox ifta Syra in N. T. Maranatha Dominus venit, qua extremum anathema indicabant. All the Hebrew writers confefs themselves ignorant of the materials and of the form of the Urim and Thummim. Kimchi obferves, it is no where explained to us what were the Urim and Thummim ; it is plain from the Scripture, they differed from the stones of the breast plate. (in voce T.) Munsterus fays, what they were no mortal can tell. Sirachis thinks they were gems; and Schindler us, that it was only an infcription or writing of the name Jehovah, or fome other word, introduced between the linen of the breast plate. Some affert the words were written upon a plate of gold. Many opinions might be collected, but fays Rab. David, he spoke beft, who ingenuously confeffed, that he knew not what it was. That it was an inftrument of divine revelation, is very plain. And according to Jofephus, this oracle ceafed about 112 years before Christ. We learn from the Holy Scripture, that God revealed himself chiefly by four ways; 1ft, by Nebuah, i. e. by visions and apparitions; 2d, by Ruach Hecodesh, i. e. the infpiration of the Holy Ghoft; 3d, by Urim and Thummim; 4th, by Beth-Kol, i. e. the daughter of a voice or an echo. The Hibernian Druids pretended tended to enjoy the fame divine honours, calling them by the fame names, except the laft, which they termed Mac Col or the fon of a voice, i. e. an echo *. The answer to thefe oracles were always delivered from the Dar, the facred oak tree. Mr. Hutchinson has fhewn, with a great deal of learning and judgment, that the Heathens, in fome of their facred trees, recognized the very tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and alfo, more particularly thought he faw frequent mention of it in the old Testament, under the name of hadar, i. e. the refplendent tree; but we are no way informed of what fpecies of fruit the dar was. (Holloway Orig. Phyf. & Theol.) The antient Britons call the oak dar and derw, perhaps from for its durablenefs; from a contraction of their dar an oak, and dewin a prophet, they seem to have formed Derwiddon, the famous Oak Prophets called Druids. (ibid.) † The prophets and their actions mentioned by Mofes, which were before him, or which are occafionally mentioned by others after him, prove that there were feveral before the flood and the patriarchs, and fome few others afterwards; of whofe predictions, fome are recorded, 'till Mofes who was like * Breith-call is an oracle in Irish; correfponding to the Chaldee Birath Kola, i. e. filia vocis: from the Irifh Aireacal, the Latin Oraculum. Call-mhuin is another name of an oracle, meaning the voice of Man, i. e. Deus. There cannot be a ftronger example of the Welsh and Irish languages having been the fame originally; and of the corruption of the Welsh. I have elfewhere fhewn the derivation of Dru or Draoi, a Druid. the plural of which is Draoith, whence the Welsh Drwiddon, perhaps with Duan in the termination. the great prophet, was raifed up. Ecclef. Antediluv. xiii. Gen. 6, and 5. dicitur fpiritus Dei difceptaffe cum filiis hominum quæ vox T DUN per totam fcripturam fignificat publicum officium in Ecclefia, feu predicationem qua arguimur, reprehendimur, difcernimus bona a malis; hence the Irish Dunn, i. e. Ollamhan a doctor, a Druid in his Oracular office. The antient Heathens, the falfe priefts to their false Elahim, performed, I think I may say, almost every individual article in the inftitution and exercife of the priesthood. And though among the modern Heathens, fome abufes had by ignorance and mistakes, crept in; yet in the main, they retained many of them, and fomething aiming at those they miftook which is another demonftration, that all thefe inftitutions and typical actions, were in being and practifed before the difperfion at Babel. † The Heathen falfe prophets, pretended their deity, their light, their spirit conveyed their wills to them, by all the methods, by which Jehovah conveyed his will, or the knowledge of things paft or to come, to the true prophets, by oracle, by dreams, visions, fpeech, &c. and imitated as far as they could, the true prophets in their actions, &c. which is demonftration that oracles, prophets, and all thofe methods, were in being and practised before the difperfion at Babel. As it is clear, that while the effence was united to a man upon earth, and the Holy Ghoft fupernaturally infpired the apoftles, &c. Chrift fuffered fatan, the infernal fpirits, to dwell in men, and Hutchinfon, Data in Chrift. p. 62. † ibid. 82. by |