for the purpose of warming themselves through the whole winter; they are neceffary for cooking, but no fires were to be kindled through their habitations on their Sabbaths, Exod. xxxv. 3 there was to be no feafting then. It was to be a time of repofe, not therefore of dancing, which it fhould feem is rather a violent exercife in thofe countries'.

But this prohibition of the Jewish lawgiver, and afterwards of Ifaiah, did not arife from a fullen diflike of every thing pleasurable even in religious folemnities. In their feast of Tabernacles they were commanded to rejoice, and the injunction was redoubled. They were commanded alfo to rejoice before the Lord in the feast of Pentecoft3. Ifaiah speaketh of a fong in the night, when a holy folemnity was kept, and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord to the mighty one of Ifrael*; and Da-. vid danced before the ark of God, when it was removed from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David'. But their Sabbaths were to

See Dr. Chandler's Travels, p. 24. "Our janizary, "who was called Barneter Aga, played on a Turkish in"ftrument like a guittar. Some accompanied him with "their voices, finging loud. Their favourite ballad con"tained the praises of Stamboul or Conftantinople. Two, "and fometimes three or four, danced together, keeping "time to a lively tune, until they were almost breathless. "Thefe extraordinary exertions were followed with a de"mand of bac-fhifh, a reward or prefent, &c."

2 Deut. 16. 13, 14, 15. • Ch. 30. 29.

3 Ver. 10. II.

5 2 Sam. 6. 14.

be

be observed in a more compofed and filent

way.

This arofe then from other caufes-from a principle of benevolence, that the labouring hand, the flave, and even the cattle, might not be overborn with inceffant work-that they might gather together for religious purpofes-that they might have time for meditation, and thofe devotional exercises of the heart which are fo much it's natural confequence: "Remember that thou waft a fervant "in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand, and by an out-ftretched arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded "thee to keep the Sabbath-day"." Every one knows how favourable ceffation from business and folitude are to meditation, and it's attendant exercises: reading and prayer.

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These are moral confiderations, and all of them perfectly agreeable to the Christian difpenfation, and confequently it should feem, that if we obferve one day in the week as facred, it should be obferved, in general, after the fame manner-as a time of ceffation from business as far as may well be; freedom from company; an attending public worship; and the exercifes of devout retirement. Jewish peculiarites cannot be neceffary; but the diffipation of the Greeks cannot be agreeable to the genius of the Gofpel, which though

Exod. 23. 12.

2 Lev. 23. 3.

3 Deut. 5. 15.

by

by no means morofe and gloomy, is serious and thoughtful'.

OBSERVATION XCV.

The firetching out the hand towards an object of devotion, or an holy place, was an ancient ufage among Jews and heathens both, and it continues in the Eaft to this time, which continuance I do not remember to have feen remarked.

"If," fays the Pfalmift, "we have for"gotten the name of our God, or stretched out "our hands to a strange God: shall not God "fearch this out," Pf. xliv. 20, 21. "Ethio

pia fhall foon firetch out her hands unto "God," Pf. lxviii. 31. "Hear the voice "of of my fupplications, when I cry unto thee: "when I lift up my hand towards thy holy "oracle," Pf. xxviii. 2.

1

"Work out your own falvation with fear and trem"bling", fays the Apostle, Phil. 2. 12; to which may be added, that being "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of "God; having a form of godlinefs, but denying the power "thereof;" is the defcription the Apoftle gives of those that are under the influence of a spirit, the reverse of that of the Gofpel, 2 Tim. 3. 4, 5. Celebrating days devoted to religious exercises, after the manner the ancient heathens obferved their feftivals, by no means agrees with the apoftolic inftruction, Rom. 12. 2; as attention, recollection, and withdrawment from wordly cares and converfations, are what the Lord Jesus enjoins those that hear his word preached, as appear by the parable of the sower, Matt. 13. 19, 22.

That

That this attitude in prayer has continued among the Eastern people, appears by the following paffages from Pitts, in his account of the Religion and Manners of the Mahometans. Speaking of the Algerines throwing waxcandles and pots of oil over board, as a prefent to some marabbot, (or Mohammedan faint,) Pitts goes on', and fays, "When this is "done, they all together hold up their hands,

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46

begging the marabbot's bleffing, and a "profperous voyage." This they do in common, it seems, when in the Straights-mouth'; "and if at any time they happen to be in a very great strait or diftrefs, as being chafed, or in a storm, they will gather money, and "do likewife 3. 3 >> In the fame page he tells us the "marabbots have generally a little neat room built over their graves, resembling in figure their mofques or churches, which is very nicely cleaned, and well looked after." And in the fucceeding page he tells us, "Many "people there are who will scarce pass by

any of them without lifting up their hands, "and faying fome fhort prayer." He mentions the fame devotion again as practifed towards a faint that lies buried on the shore of the Red-Sea, p. 114.

In like manner, he tells us, that at quitting the Beat, or holy house at Mecca, to which

• P. 17, 18.

2

Where, on the Barbary fhore, one of these marabbots lies intombed, Ib, * P. 18.

they

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they make devout pilgrimages, "they hold up "their hands towards the Beat, making earnest petitions; and then keep going backward "till they come to the abovefaid farewell gate. All the way as they retreat, they "continue petitioning, bolding up their hands, "with their eyes fixed on the Beat, 'till they are out of fight of it; and fo go to their lodgings weeping," p. 143, 144.

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OBSERVATION XCVI.

The threshold of the palace of a living prince, and the threshold of a dead highlyhonoured perfonage, are fuppofed to be the places where thofe that propofed to do them honour, proftrated themselves, touching it with their foreheads in token of folemn reve

rence.

For this reafon it is, I imagine, that the prophet Ezekiel calls the fanctuary the threshold of God, and idolatrous temples, or chapels, (when more than one place were dedicated to the worship of distinct idols, in one and the fame building,) their thresholds, ch. xliii. 8. "In their fetting of their thresh"old by my thresholds, and their posts by my

pofts, and the wall between me and them," (or, according to the marginal tranflation," for there was but a wall be

■ Our tranflation differs from fome other translations, in making these three words plural.

"tween