DEUTERONOMY XVIII. 9. When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 10. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 11. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. The art of divination is supposed to have had its rise among the Chaldæans, whence the Greeks and Romans derived their knowledge of it. The last had so great regard for this science, that there was a law of the twelve tables making disobedience to the augurs a capital crime. There are various kinds of divination noticed in the Holy Scriptures, of which some illustrations will be found under the texts in which they are respectively mentioned. Prometheus claims to have been the inventor of divination "I taught the various modes of prophecy, What truth the dream portends, the omen what, Of nice distinction, what the casual sight That meets us on the way; the flight of birds And mounting flame, to mark th' unerring omen. One class of charmers professed to be able to cure wounds and diseases by a song or incantation. "With bandage firm Ulysses' knee they bound, The tides of life regain'd their azure course.' HOм. Odyss. 1. xix. v. 457. "Charmers go about the country (India) and are supposed to cure wounds made by serpents."-STRAB. 1. xv. c. 1. "Come now, says Socrates, listen to me too, if you please; for Thrasymachus seems to me to have charmed you just like a snake, more quickly than he ought." PLAT. de rep. 1. II. c. 2. See Psalm LVIII. 5. "The art of divination in Egypt is confined to certain of the deities. There are in this country oracles of Hercules, of Apollo, of Minerva, and Diana, of Mars, and of Jupiter; but the oracle of Latona, at Butos, is held in greater estimation than any of the rest: the oracular communication is regulated by no fixed system, but is differently obtained in different places."-HDT. 1. II. c. 83. Hecate, "Who stays the torrent in its headlong course; The planets from their devious range detains." APOL. RHOD. Arg. 1. m. v. 532. Among the Germans, the matrons who had the care of divining, used to do it by the eddies of rivers, the windings, the murmurs, or the noise made by the stream." PLUT. Cæsar, c. 19. "What eye is it that has fascinated my tender lambs ?"-VIRG. Ecl. III. v. 103. Isigonus and Nymphodorus inform us that there are in Africa certain families of enchanters, who, by means of their charms, in the form of commendations, can cause cattle to perish, trees to wither, and infants to die. Isigonus adds that there are among the Triballi and the Illyrii some persons of this description who have all the power of fascination with the eyes, and can even kill those on whom they fix their gaze for any length of time.”—PLIN. Hist. nat, 1. VII. c. 2. DEUTERONOMY XIX. 14. Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it. The Romans had their god Terminus, who presided over boundaries and frontiers. His worship was instituted by Numa, who commanded that every one should mark the boundaries of his land by stones consecrated to Jupiter. Annual festivals, called Terminalia were held at Rome, in the month of February. The peasants then assembled near the principal landmarks, and after they had crowned them with garlands and flowers, a libation of milk and wine was poured out, and a lamb or a young pig was sacrificed. "Numa commanded every one to place stones at the boundaries of his property, and every year, on a day appointed, to perform sacred rites in honour of the tutelary deities who preside over boundaries. Any one who might dare to destroy or remove these land-marks was counted guilty of sacrilege, and might be slain with impunity." DION. HALIC. 1. II. "Let the God who separates the fields by his mark be celebrated with accustomed honour. Ye boundaries, whether formed of a stone, or a ditch dug in the ground, have your divinity."-Ov. Fast. 1. 11. v. 639. "A lamb, slain at the feast of the god Terminus."-HOR. Epod. II. v. 59. "Then heaved the goddess in her mighty hand A stone, the limit of the neighbouring land, There fixed from earliest times, black, craggy, vast." HOM. I. 1. XXI. v. 403. "Let no one voluntarily remove the land-mark of his neighbour; and against him who does remove it, let any one who is willing inform the land-owners.' "The sacred land-mark strives in vain You break into your neighbour's grounds, PLAT. de leg. 1. viii. c. 9. And over-leap your client's bounds."— HOR. 1. II. carm. 18. แ "No sacred stone, as an umpire, divided the lands in the plain." SENEC. Hippol. v. v. 526. "Should a litigious neighbour bid me yield Or from my bounds the sacred land-mark tear, My humble offerings, honey, meal, and oil ?"-Juv. Sat. XVI. v. 37. "With mighty effort he rolled away the stone by which the land was divided." STAT. Theb. 1. v. 558. 16. If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong; 19. Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother so shalt thou put the evil away from among you. "False accusers were, by the laws of Egypt, to suffer the same punishment as those whom they falsely accused would have undergone, if they had been convicted of the offence."-DIOD. SIC. 1. I. c. 77. DEUTERONOMY XX. 5. And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. 6. And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle and another man eat of it. 7. And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go, and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. "Protesilas the brave There lies, far distant from his native plain; And his sad consort beats her breast in vain." HOм. II. 1. II. v. 698. "A bridegroom requests you to pour into his ointment box one cyathus of peace, that he might not go on service, but remain with his wife at home." ARISTOPH. Acharn. v. 1051. "Arms stir up the fight; the fight is unsuited to the newly wedded; when arms shall have been laid aside there will be a more favourable omen."-Ov. Fast. 1. III. v. 395. 19. When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an ax against them for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege. "There are laws in India which conduce much to the prevention of famine. Amongst other people, through devastations in time of war, the land lies untilled; but amongst the Indians husbandmen are never touched, though armies meet and engage under their very eyes. The husbandman is regarded as a servant of the common good, and is on that account sacred. Neither do they burn their enemies' country, or cut down their trees or plants."-DIOD. SIC. 1. II. c. 36. DEUTERONOMY XXI. 3. An heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke ; "A youthful steer shall fall beneath the stroke, With ample forehead and with spreading horns, Whose taper tops refulgent gold adorns."-Hom. II. 1. x. v. 292. 23. He that is hanged is accursed of God. Hanging has always been esteemed an accursed and disgraceful death. The prostitutes at the court of Ulysses were hanged, that their death might be in keeping with their shameful life. "So they, suspended by the neck, expired, It is said of Lavinia, Hoм. Odyss. 1. XXII. v. 471. On account of the disgrace attending this mode of punishment, bodies were sometimes hanged on a tree or crucified after death, as seems to be implied in the text above. "Oroetes having basely put Polycrates to death, fixed his body to a cross." HDT. 1. III. c. 125. Cæsar, when he had captured the pirates by whom he had been taken, crucified them, as he had sworn to do so; but first ordered their throats to be cut." SUET. Cæsar, c. 74. Tarquinius Priscus, at a time when suicide was a thing of common occurrence at Rome, ordered the bodies of all who had been guilty of self-destruction to be fastened to a cross, and left there, as a spectacle to their fellow citizens." PLIN. Hist. nat. 1. xxxvI. c. 24. DEUTERONOMY XXII. 6. If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young. By this law the extinction of any species was guarded against. "Let no one take a bird's nest with all its occupants, But let the mother go free, that she may again produce young." 8. When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence. For want of some such precaution, Eutychus fell, and was taken up dead (Acts xx. 9.); and before him, according to Homer, Elpenor. 'Elpenor, careless, on a turret's height, With sleep repair'd the long debauch of night; Hoм. Odyss. 1. x. v. 552. 10. Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together. When I'm "It suggests itself to my mind that you are the ox and I the ass. yoked to you, and when I'm not able to bear the burden equally with yourself, I, the ass, must lie down in the mire. You, the ox, would regard me no more than if I had never been born."-PLAUT. Aulul. Ac. II. sc. 2. DEUTERONOMY XXIII. 18. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God. The immoralities that have been practised under pretence of religious ceremonies are almost incredible. The rites of the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Greeks, were full of iniquity. The same is recorded of " the nations" in holy Scripture, whose corrupt example was too readily imitated. (Num. xxv. 6. 1 Sam. II. 22.) The houses of the Sodomites, which Josiah brake down (2 Kings XXIII. 7), and which were "by the house of the Lord,' were connected with religious rites, to which probably allusion is intended by the term "dog" in the text. Dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers are joined together (Rev. XXII. 15) as being no longer within the sanctuary, but "without." The author of Ecclesiasticus also says "A shameless woman shall be counted as a dog." (Ecclus. xxvi. 25.) "The Babylonians have one custom in the highest degree abominable. Every woman is obliged, once in her life, to attend at the temple of Venus. The money given to them is applied to sacred uses, and must not be refused, however small it may be." HDT. 1. I. c. 199. "The temple of Venus at Corinth was so rich, that it had more than a thousand women consecrated to the service of the goddess, courtesans, whom both men and women had dedicated as offerings."-STrab. 1. vIII. c. 6. "There is a custom, prescribed by an oracle, for all the Babylonian women to have intercourse with strangers. The women repair to a temple of Venus. The money is considered as consecrated to Venus."-IBID. 1. XVI. c. 1. At the annual orgies in honour of Adonis, "Such of the ladies as refuse to consecrate their hair, undergo the penalty of being obliged to offer themselves for hire in public during one day. Of the profits, an oblation is made to Venus."-LUCIAN. de dea Syr. c. 6. Dogs, as well as cats, were held sacred by the Egyptians. "On the death of a dog the Egyptians shave their heads and every part of their bodies. Of the canine species, the females are buried in consecrated chests, wherever they may happen to die."-HDT. 1. 11. c. 66-67. DEUTERONOMY XXIV. 1. When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. "Romulus enacted that severe law which gives the husband power to divorce his wife in case of her poisoning his children, or counterfeiting his keys, or being guilty of adultery. But if on any other occasion he put her away, she was to have one moiety of L |