them among the Egyptians, which we never hear of till the
days of Diodorus Siculus, Aelian, and Maimonides, or little earlier than
the Christian era at the highest, is almost unaccountable; while
the main business of the law of Moses was evidently to preserve the
Israelites from the idolatrous and superstitious practices of the
neighboring pagan nations; and while it is so undeniable, that the
evidence for the great antiquity of Moses's law is incomparably beyond
that for the like or greater antiquity of such customs in Egypt or other
nations, which indeed is generally none at all, it is most absurd
to derive any of Moses's laws from the imitation of those heathen
practices, Such hypotheses demonstrate to us how far inclination can
prevail over evidence, in even some of the most learned part of mankind.

[23] What Reland well observes here, out of Josephus, as compared with
the law of Moses, Leviticus 7:15, [that the eating of the sacrifice the
same day it was offered, seems to mean only before the morning of the
next, although the latter part, i.e. the night, be in strictness part
of the next day, according to the Jewish reckoning,] is greatly to be
observed upon other occasions also. The Jewish maxim in such cases, it
seems, is this: That the day goes before the night; and this appears to
me to be the language both of the Old and New Testament. See also the
note on Antiq. B. IV. ch. 4. sect. 4, and Reland's note on B. IV. ch. 8.
sect. 28.

[24] We may here note, that Josephus frequently calls the camp the city,
and the court of the Mosaic tabernacle a temple, and the tabernacle
itself a holy house, with allusion to the latter city, temple, and holy
house, which he knew so well long afterwards.

[25] These words of Josephus are remarkable, that the lawgiver of the
Jews required of the priests a double degree of parity, in comparison
of that required of the people, of which he gives several instances
immediately. It was for certain the case also among the first
Christians, of the clergy, in comparison of the laity, as the
Apostolical Constitutions and Canons every where inform us.

[26] We must here note with Reland, that the precept given to the
priests of not drinking wine while they wore the sacred garments, is
equivalent; to their abstinence from it all the while they ministered in
the temple; because they then always, and then only, wore those sacred
garments, which were laid up there from one time of ministrati