toms and method of cure may throw some additional light on the state of medicine among the Jews: “A fire glowed within him, which did not so much appear to the touch outwardly, as it augmented his pains inwardly; for it brought upon him a violent appetite for food; his bowels were ulcerated; an aqueous and transparent liquor settled itself about his feet; a like matter afflicted him at the bottom of his belly; and when he sat upright he had a difficulty in breathing, which was very loathsome on account of its stench; and he had convulsions in all parts of his body, which debilitated him in an unsufferable degree." Such is the account that is given of his case by Josephus, and the method of cure prescribed was, first to drink and bathe in the hot wells at Callirrhoe, beyond Jordan; and when these had not the desired effect, the physicians bathed him in a vessel full of oil, which had nearly cost him his life.

a

It deserves to be noticed, that Antiochus Epiphanes, and Herod Agrippa, who killed James with the sword, both died of worms; but their case is accounted a judgment of God, on account of their impiety and persecuting spirit. We may add from Buxtorff, that, notwithstanding their numerous purifications, the Jews were afflicted with various diseases besides these already mentioned, viz. mori, vari, ecthyma, sacer ignis, comitialis morbus, pestilentia, &c.; that they had no great knowledge of physic, and that their treatment consisted either in magical charms, the most simple internal remedies, or external applications. It will be in the recollection of the classical scholar, that the physicians of Homer were rather surgeons than physicians; and Jo

Antiq. xvii. 6.

d

In his Wars with the Jews, i. 33, Josephus recounts the symptoms somewhat differently, but the method of cure is the same.

• 2 Maccab. ix. 5-10. Acts xii. 23.

d Synag. Judaic. cap. 45.

sephus, in his account of his own life, tells us of one Joseph, the son of a female physician, which is alone sufficient to convince us that the medical art had made no great progress in Judea in his days.

There is still another circumstance connected with the present subject, which, although an anomaly, ought not to be overlooked; I mean the remarkable cases of demoniacal possession which are mentioned in Scripture. These have, indeed, been denied by some authors, and attempts have been made to account for them, either as the effects of natural disease, or the influence of imagination on persons of a nervous habit. But the following observations of Dr. Campbell, in his dissertations on the gospels, abundantly refute it: "If there had been no more to urge," says he, "from sacred writ in favour of the common opinion, than the name dauovi ouevos, or even the phrases δαιμονιον εχειν, εκβαλλειν, &c. I should have thought their explanation at least not improbable; but when I find mention made of the number of demons in particular possessions; their actions so expressly distinguished from those of the man possessed; conversations held by the former in regard to the disposal of them after their expulsion; and accounts given how they were actually disposed of;-when I find desires. and passion peculiarly ascribed to them, and similitudes taken from the conduct which they usually observe, it is impossible for me to deny their existence without admitting that the sacred historians were either deceived themselves with regard to them, or intended to deceive their readers; nay, if they were faithful historians, this reflection, I am afraid, will strike still deeper." Such are the words of this excellent writer.-But another question still occurs, viz. how it happened that these

■ Prelim. Dissert. vi. part i, sect. 10.

possessions were so frequent in the days of our Saviour, and so little heard of afterwards? the following is offered as a solution. When the devil deceived our first parents, and thereby ruined their posterity, he was contented to rule in their minds, and by various arts addressed to their corrupt passions and inclinations effected their destruction; but four thousand year's experience in the arts of seduction made him more bold. Having ex'tended his dominion over the greater part of the Jewish and Gentile world, he thought he might advance a step farther than he had hitherto done, and, accordingly, instead of contenting himself with influencing the minds, he began to take possession of the bodies of men. Such was the state of things when Christ appeared. He came to destroy the works of the devil. The strong man had long kept the house, but a stronger than he came to cast him out. He appeared, therefore, infinitely superior to the devil and his angels: they were in the utmost dread of his power; they instantly obeyed his mandate, and would have given their testimony to his exalted character, if he would have permitted them. Here, then, do we see the reason why Christ delayed so long his coming. It was to give full time for the devil to establish his power, and when that power was at its height he destroyed it. Philosophers had in vain attempted the task; they wielded the sword and the shield of philosophy against his temptations, and fondly hoped, by means of these, to rescue men from his power, but they were disappointed. Age after age they lamented their inefficacy, and longed for a person divinely commissioned to dispel the clouds of ignorance, break the bands of sinful desire, and introduce a new era of knowledge and happiness among men. Their wish has been granted; Jesus has appeared, and life and immorfality are brought to light by his gospel.

We cannot close this short account of the state of medicine in Judea, without adverting to the vast advantage which that science has acquired by the introduction of christianity, which dispelled the ignorance and prejudice that had so long shackled the human mind; taught men the value of health and life to beings acting for eternity; and led to operations on the living subject, and dissections of the dead. To the same benevolent source may we refer all those charitable institutions which constitute the glory of modern times, and the numerous hospitals which are every where opened for the reception of the distressed and unfortunate. They were unknown to the polished nations of antiquity, and are still strangers to those lands where the light of the gospel hath never shone. Their incalculable utility is confined to christendom, being the fruit of that humanity which the gospel recommends.

SECT. XIV.

Treatment of the Dying and dead.

The hours for visiting the sick; conduct of visitors. Dying persons addressed their children and relations; made their latter will. A strange custom of changing the name of the dying person. After death the nearest relation kissed the deceased, and closed his eyes; the other relations tore their upper garment; spectators tore theirs only a hand-breadth; women hired to cry; minstrels ; Sir John Chardin's account of their lamentations. The dead body washed; wrapt in spices; bound in grave-cloths; laid in an upper chamber. The Egyptian method of embalming. The persons employed about a dead body accounted unclean. Funerals, either public or private; insignia suited to the person's character laid on the coffin; hired mourners; Dr. Shaw's account of them; minstrels at the funeral; ceremonies at the grave; the sittings and standings in their return to the house; seven of these; 'mourning for the dead either extraordinary by lamentations, tearing the hair, cutting their bodies, &c. or ordinary, by tears, tearing the upper garment, covering their lip. Entertainment after the funeral. The ordinary mourning before the funeral; for the first three days after; for the next four; for the remaining twenty-three. Funerals of children; cemeteries always without cities; potter's field; public burying places; regulations concerning them.

Private burying-places; Rachel's sepulchre; Joseph's soros, or mound; Isaiah's and David's tombs; Absalom's pillar; Esther's and Daniel's tombs; tombs of Jonah, Zecharias, and Lazarus. Sepulchres of families commonly in caves; these described; tomb of Lazarus; tombs of the Judges; sepulchral monument over the Maccabean family; sepulchres of the kings of Syria and Israel; money said to have been in David's sepulchre examined; all the sepulchres white-washed on the 15th of the 12th month; garnishing sepulchres accounted meritorious. The written mountains in the wilderness of Sinai. Two Hebrew epitaphs; the bodies of criminals left without burial.

1. Treatment while Dying.-Visiting the sick was enjoined to be neither in the three morning, nor in the three evening hours, from motives of delicacy and convenience for the distressed, and when they went, they commonly said, "God pity you, and all the sick among the Israelites." If the person was dangerously ill, either the friends or some Rabbi discoursed with him on subjects suited to his situation; and if near death, they had a formula for the confession of sin, which is given by Buxtorff: for they considered a natural death as the expiation of all his sins; a doctrine which, although it might soothe the patient with a false hope, was yet of dangerous tendency to his eternal interests. At the approach of death, the person dying assembled his children around his bed and blessed them, well knowing that the heart was then susceptible, and that the instructions of a dying parent might be remembered when his body was mouldering in the grave. The patient then, also, if not formerly, made his will, bequeathing his property equitably among his children, and if he was rich, he gave legacies to the poor, for the endowment of schools, and for the erecting of synagogues. They had a strange custom of changing the name of the person before he died, the reason which will be seen in the following prayer: "O God, take pity on N, and restore him to his former health; let him be called henceforth