carpenters, founders, goldsmiths, and all manner of workmen in metals, wood, and stone; and these brought in many others, without whom they could not subsist. His celebrated successor built some stately palaces as well as the temple; and these occasions gave the people such a relish for elegance, that the number of workmen multiplied more and more.

Poetry is said to be the only art in which the Israelites excelled. It had this peculiar advantage, that the authors consecrated it entirely to the honour of God, and adapted it to the service of his temple. The poetical performances of monarchs, prophets, priests, and judges, were all inspired by the most laudable emotions; written with energy, zeal, and accuracy; and rehearsed with unfeigned warmth in the great congregation. The varied feelings of the human heart, with all the passions of love, grief, joy, anger, and unbounded gratitude, were painted in the most lively colours in these productions; and whoever peruses the songs of Moses, the Psalms of David, the book of Job, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah, with any degree of attention, must of necessity acknowledge them to abound with sublimity of sentiment, imagery, and expression.

There are, however, few points more warmly contested, or less possible to be satisfactorily decided, than the metre and cadence of the Hebrew poetry. To apologise for the uncertainty of the moderns, respecting these particulars, it is proper to remark, that the true pronunciation of the Hebrew language has been lost ever since the captivity; in consequence of which it is now impossible to ascertain either the proper length syllables, or the harmony of words and ver

F3

which a great part of poetic beauty consists. Some authors have attempted to give precise accounts of every poetical piece in the Old Testament, but they have only provoked more learned antagonists to expose their weakness. It has been asserted, that the songs of Moses were written in heroic verse; and that the psalms were of a mixed sort, triineters, pentameters, and sometimes hexameters; but the generality of moderns suppose, that the greatest part of them were of the lyric kind, composed and set to music, and performed with dances and instrumental melody.

Of the music, with which they enlivened their poetical recitations, little is known but from conjecture. Mention is made, in the sacred volume, of ten-stringed instruments, of the nebel and kinor, which, probably, resembled the lute and harp; and of several wind instruments, as the flute, trumpet, and what modern versions call the organ.

Should the reader judge of the excellence of the Hebrew music, from the surprising effects it had upon the distempered mind of Saul, and the souls of the prophets, he must naturally suppose it possessed a superior energy to any composition of the moderns. Similar effects have, indeed, been ascribed to the Grecian music; and the most barbarous nations are still transported by species of music equally harsh and defective. The style of several of the psalms, and the frequent transition from the first to the third person, afford a strong presumption, that the music was performed alternately, one part of the chorus answering to the others at proper stanzas, like the choirs in bean cathedrals.

of their dances as appertained to religious

services

services were more grave and solemn, than those which merely expressed the satisfaction of a happy people; but whether confined to rules, or directed only by custom and imitation, whether circular, or of any other particular form, can only be conjectured from the practices of other ancient

nations.

With respect to commerce, it appears that they received rich stuffs, linen, gold, &c., from Tyre, in exchange for their corn, balm, and other excellent commodities: but they were totally ignorant of navigation; for the maritime. tribes contented themselves with receiving merchants into their harbours, without attempting to extend their trade; and when Solomon resolved to send some ships into foreign countries, he was compelled to have them manned with foreign ¡ sailors,

SECT. III.

The Jewish History, from Abraham to the Death of

Joseph.

A BRAHAM, the progenitor and founder B. C. of the Jewish nation, was about se- 1921. venty-four years of age when he quitted the place of his nativity with his aged father, Terah, and removed into Haran, where he had not been long settled before Terah died. Immediately after the performance of his obsequies, Abraham was commanded, by God, to depart

into

into another land where he should enjoy the protection of Heaven, and experience so felicitous an increase, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed, He readily obeyed the divine call, by migrating with his wife, his nephew, and his servants, into the Land of Promise, where he pitched his tents in the vicinage of Sichem, and built an altar unto the Lord.

B. C.

Here God vouchsafed to appear to him 1920. again, confirming the former promise, and

assuring him, that his posterity should, at a future day, possess the country in which he was now a stranger. In a short time, however, Abraham was obliged to remove from Egypt, to elude the dreadful effects of a great famine, which occurred in Canaan. The fear he was in upon account of Sarah, his wife, whose beauty was sufficiently striking to endanger the man's life who should pass for her husband, made him resolve that she should style herself his sister in every place where they might sojourn. From this descent into Egypt, the generality of chronologers compute the space of four hundred and thirty years mentioned by St. Paul, agreeably to the assertion of Moses in another place, that Israel dwelt in Egypt four hundred and thirty years.

B. C.

The patriarch had not long resided in 1919. Egypt before Pharaoh became enamoured of Sarah's charms, and took her to his court, showing extraordinary favours, for her sake, to her pretended brother. The Almighty was, however, pleased to interpose on behalf of his servants, and Pharaoh was made so sensible of the anger of Heaven, that he voluntarily restored

ham's wife, free from violation, and issued

out

ont orders for their safe departure from his do minions.

Abraham immediately quitted Egypt, and, directing his steps to Bethel, where the famine had now ceased, offered a sacrifice of thanks for his safe return. In the mean time, the herds of Lot, his nephew, increased so considerably, that sharp contentions arose between the herdsmen, and Abraham resolved to separate in a friendly manner, as is already related in the history of Moab. Upon Lot's departure to the fertile plains of Sodom, Abraham removed to the land of Moreh in Hebron, where he contracted a friendship with three of the greatest men of the place; viz. Mamre, Aner, and Eshcol, who, in process of time, rendered him some important services, and assisted him in rescuing Lot from Chedorlaomer.

He afterward removed to Hebron, where God appeared to him the fifth time in a vision, and encouraged him with fresh assurances of especial favour, adding, that he would be his exceeding great reward. Abraham now ventured to expostulate, for the first time, with his Creator, observing, that he could not comprehend how those reiterated promises could be fulfilled, while he continued childless, and, to all appearance, should leave his substance to his steward, one Eliezer, of Damascus. God vouchsafed to answer, that not Eliezer, but a son of his own should inherit his property, and promised to make his posterity like the stars of Heaven for multitude. Abraham was, at this time, eighty-five years old, and Sarah, turned of seventy-four, was deemed barren. Circumstances which might have staggered an ordinary faith, but the volume of Holy

Writ