well received by the public, and is in general a truly excellent work, but it is now become almost obsolete, the public having decided in favour of similar works, perhaps a little more accurate in some dates and facts, but much less spiritual, and consequently better adapted to the depraved reigning taste of the times. His Historical Catechism, published first in 1683, 12mo, is also a very valuable work: it has gone through various editions, and has been translated into several languages. All his smaller works, which contain about forty different treatises, have been collected into 5 vols. 8vo, and published at Nismes 1780, under the title, Opuscules de M. L'Abbe Prieur d'Argenteuil, et confesseur de Roi Louis XV. This edition was printed to accompany a new edition of the Ecclesiastical History, published at the same place in 25 vols. 8vo. Great, pious, and useful as the Abbe Fleury was in his life, his name would have long since been extinct, had he left no writings behind him: by these his memory has been embalmed, and his fame is become imperishable. Every new edition, is, so to speak, a resurrection of this learned and pious man; and by the diffusion of his works, he who was during his life time necessarily confined in courts among the great, becomes introduced to every department of society, teaching piety to God and benevolence to men by his most excellent precepts and amiable spirit. It is to be lamented that no account has been given to the public of the religious experience of this eminent man, nor of his last moments. As his life was holy and useful his end must have been peace: thus far we may safely conjecture.

The testimonies of his contemporaries speak much for him; and his unspotted life confirms all that his warmest friends have said of his sincere and unaffected piety. His religion was such as to emit a steady and brilliant light in the midst of a court which at that time had attained the acme of worldly glory. Yet even there the man of God was distinguished, and all were obliged to own that the

glory of that kingdom which is not of this world, infinitely exceeds all the splendours which can possibly adorn the most illustrious kingdoms of the universe. Reader, give God the glory due to his name for the light which in his eternal mercy he has caused to shine in a dark place, as a testimony to his power and goodness: and let this example encourage thee to confess thy Lord amidst a crooked and perverse generation, among whom if thou be not wanting to thyself, thou mayest shine as a light in the world.

Manchester, December 12, 1804.

MANNERS OF THE ISRAFLITES.

PART I

CHAPTER I.

The Design of this Treatise.

THE people, whom God chose to preserve the true religion till the promulgation of the gospel, are an excellent model of that way of living, which is most conformable to nature. We see in their customs the most rational method of subsisting, employing one's self, and living in society; and from thence may learn, not only lessons of morality, but rules for our conduct both in public and private life.

Yet these customs are so different from our own, that at first sight they offend us. We do not see, among the Israelites, those titles of nobility, that multitude of employments, or diversity of conditions, which are to be found among us. They are only husbandmen and shepherds, all working with their own hands, all married, and looking upon a great number of children as the most valuable blessing. The distinction of meats, of clean and unclean animals, with their frequent purifications, seem to us as so many troublesome ceremonies and their bloody sacrifices quite disgust us. We observe, moreover, that these people were prone to idolatry, and, for that reason, are often reproached in Scripture for their perverseness and hardness of heart; and, by the fathers of the church, for being stupid and carnally minded. All this, joined to a general prejudice, that what is most ancient is always most imperfect, easily influences us to believe, that these men

were brutish and ignorant, and their customs more worthy of contempt than admiration.*

And this is one reason why the Holy Scriptures, especially those of the Old Testament, are so much neglected, or read to so little purpose. Several wellmeaning people, who have not quite got over such prejudices are discouraged by the outward appearance of these strange customs; and either impute the whole, without distinction, to the imperfection of the old law; or imagine, that some mysteries, beyond their comprehension, are concealed under these external appearances. Others, for want of faith, or uprightness of heart, are tempted, upon such pretences, to despise the Scripture itself, as full of mean and trivial matters; or draw wrong conclusions from it to countenance their own vices.

But, upon comparing the manners of the Israelites with those of the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, and other people of former ages, which we hold in the highest veneration, these prejudices soon vanish. We observe a noble simplicity in them, greatly preferable to all refinements; that the Israelites had every thing that was valuable in the customs of their contemporaries, without many of their defects, and a great advantage over them in understanding (what ought to be our chief aim in this life) the nature of that true religion, which is the foundation of morality.

We must learn then to distinguish what is only offensive to us in their customs, from what is really blameworthy; what we do not like, upon account of the distance of times and places, though it be in itself indifferent, from that which, being good in itself, displeases us for no other reason, than because

* It would not be difficult to prove, that the major part, if not the whole of the animals, the eating of whose flesh was forbidden under the Mosaic law, are unfit for the purposes of nutrition. Blood, which is so often and so solemnly forbidden, affords a most gross and innutritive aliment. The laws relative to lepers and other infected persons, and those which forbade contact with dead or putrid carcasses, were wisely ordered to prevent the reception and diffusion of contagion. Their frequent washings and bathings also, had the most direct tendency to promote health and ensure a long and comfortable life.