was more justly reputable amongst them, than a confcientious discharge of it. However, forafmuch as parents are not always the best qualified to the discharge of this duty, and a careful ftudy and thorough knowledge of the fcriptures, was of fuch vaft importance, at once to inform and enlarge their minds, and to preserve them in the purity of their religion, and keep them a distinct people, it pleafed GOD to inftitute feveral orders of men for this purpofe; of which the principal were the priests, levites, and prophets.

THE business of the priests was, to teach the law in all its parts, to judge and to decide all controverfies; and the levites were their fubalterns in all these offices. But as

a great part of their time was taken up in their attendance upon the altar, and other rituals of the Mofaic law; and as it is natural for men to lay a great, perhaps too great a stress, upon those things in which they themfelves are greatly concerned and interested it pleased GOD to raise up another order of men, to be a check upon the priests, and to be the guardians of the spiritual part of the law of Mofes, as the priests were of the cereC monial;

;

monial; and this was the order of the prophets, a race of men, trained up by a long course of study, difcipline, ftrict temperance, and utter contempt of worldly grandeur, to be teachers of righteoufnefs; and fitted, by the best habits of piety and virtue, to receive, upon extraordinary occafions, the inspirations of the Spirit of GOD.

THESE were to the Jews the great teachers of virtue and wisdom, as the philofophers were in fome measure to the Heathens; but with great disadvantage, from their deficiency in the two laft characters: whereas these advantages empowered and inspired the pophets to preach true righteousness to the people; and to depress the value of all the rituals of religion, compared with it; to preach and to prepare them for the kingdom of the Meffiah; and to manifest their miffion by miracles, and predictions of future events: which enabled them, on many occafions, to reprove and to reprefs alike the enormities of princes, priests, and people; nay, fometimes, to awe even neighbouring nations into repentance and amend

ment.

Now

Now tho' God, to fhew that the operations of his Spirit are not tied to human inftitutions, fometimes chofe uneducated men, and even women, to receive and to publish his infpirations; yet at the fame time, to manifeft the value of wife difcipline, and good inftitutions, and to fhew their fitness to prepare men for the influence of the Spirit of GOD, he generally chose his prophets out of fuch as were educated in the schools of the prophets; of which take this short account, from a work of great learning, and (I think) equal candour * :

"On the other hand, they were no less "careful to cultivate the knowledge of them (the Scriptures) among themselves. We "cannot, indeed, be sure that they had any "fynagogues before the captivity; tho' it be "far from improbable, confidering the great "distance at which fome of them lived from "the temple; and that, at the best, they were obliged to refort thither but thrice in a

year but other places they had for prayer " and inftruction, namely, the schools of "the prophets; to which they might re"pair on the fabbaths, new-moons, and

*Univerfal Hift. p. 730, 731.
C 2

"other

"other feftivals. By prophets, we mean "not those strictly fo called, men endowed "with the spirit of prophecy; but their "difciples, or, as the Hebrew idiom words.

it, the fons of the prophets. The former "were generally confulted by the kings, "prieits, and elders of their people, upon "all extraordinary occafions, whether about

religion, or state affairs; and the latter "were brought up under them, and fitted for inftructing the people in the way of virtue, "and the worship of GOD.

"THESE had their habitations chiefly in "the country; they lived in a kind of fociety among themselves, and had generally one or more of the prophets to be heads over "them, and to whom they gave the title "of father; their houfes were but mean, "and of their own building; their food was

chiefly pottage made of herbs, unless when "the people sent fome better fare to them, "fuch as bread, parched corn, honey, dried

fruits, and the like; their dress was plain "and coarse, and tied about with a leathern

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girdle their wants being fo few, were eafily fupplied by their own hands; and as their views reached no further, fo they "limited

limited their labour to that, that they might bestow the more time in prayer, "ftudy, and retirement. Riches were no

temptation to them in fuch a state; and "therefore Elijah not only refused Naa"man's presents, but punished Gehafi in a "fevere manner, for having clandestinely “obtained a small portion of them. This "laborious, reclufe, and abftemious course "of life, joined to the meanness of dress, gave them such a strange air, especially among the courtiers, that they looked (6 upon them as no better than mad-men. "Their extraordinary freedom in reprove"ing even princes for their wicked deeds, "did likewife expofe them frequently to perfecutions, imprisonments, and sometimes "to death, especially in the reigns of fome "wicked princes, fuch as were Ahab and

ર

Manaffeh; but, in the main, they were always refpected by the better and wifer fort, even of the highest rank, and used "with the utmost reverence and regard "both in language and behaviour.

رو

MANY learned men have thought, that in these schools they ftudied arithmetick and aftronomy; and doctor Patrick thinks,