one sentence, sums up his notion of Moses's
very long and very serious exhortations in the book of Deuteronomy; and
his words are so true, and of such importance, that they deserve to be
had in constant remembrance.

[16] This law, both here and Exodus 20:25, 26, of not going up to God's
altar by ladder-steps, but on an acclivity, seems not to have belonged
to the altar of the tabernacle, which was in all but three cubits high,
Exodus 27:4; nor to that of Ezekiel, which was expressly to be gone
up to by steps, ch. 43:17; but rather to occasional altars of any
considerable altitude and largeness; as also probably to Solomon's
altar, to which it is here applied by Josephus, as well as to that in
Zorobabel's and Herod's temple, which were, I think, all ten cubits
high. See 2 Chronicles 4:1, and Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 3. sect. 7. The
reason why these temples, and these only, were to have this ascent on
an acclivity, and not by steps, is obvious, that before the invention of
stairs, such as we now use, decency could not be otherwise provided for
in the loose garments which the priests wore, as the law required. See
Lamy of the Tabernacle and Temple, p. 444.

[17] The hire of public or secret harlots was given to Venus in Syria,
as Lucian informs us, p. 878; and against some such vile practice of the
old idolaters this law seems to have been made.

[18] The Apostolical Constitutions, B. II. ch. 26. sect. 31, expound
this law of Moses, Exodus 22. 28, "Thou shalt not revile or blaspheme
the gods," or magistrates, which is a much more probable exposition than
this of Josephus, of heathen gillis, as here, and against Apion, B. II.
ch. 3. sect. 31. What book of the law was thus publicly read, see the
note on Antiq. B. X. ch. 5. sect. 5, and 1 Esd. 9:8-55.

[19]Whether these phylacteries, and other Jewish memorials of the law
here mentioned by Josephus, and by Muses, [besides the fringes on the
borders of their garments, Numbers 15:37,] were literally meant by God,
I much question. That they have been long observed by the Pharisees and
Rabbinical Jews is certain; however, the Karaites, who receive not the
unwritten traditions of the elders, but keep close to the written law,
with Jerome and Grotius, think they were not literally to be understood;
as Bernard and Reland here take notice. Nor indeed do I remember that,
either in the ancienter books of the Old Testament, or in the books
we call Apocrypha, there are any signs of such l