ch remain among the graves, and uments which eat swine's flesh, minable things is in their vessels; by thyself, come not near to me; an thou." the graves, and lodge in the mo for I am holier than thou." Here of the glaring wickedness of the e heathen devotees, who resembled the Hindoo Yogees. Those men are so isolated by their superstition and penances, that they hold but little intercourse with the rest of mankind. They wander about in the dark in the place of burning the dead, or " among the graves;" there they affect to hold converse with evil and other spirits; and there they pretend to receive intimations respecting the destinies of others. They will eat things which are religiously clean or unclean; they neither wash their bodies, nor comb their hair, nor cut their nails, nor wear clothes. They are counted to be most holy, among the people, and are looked upon as beings of another world.* 11." But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number." The margin has, instead of 66 66 troop," or Gad," and in place of "number,” "or Meni." (Jer. vii. 18.; and chap. xliv. 17, 18.) There have been many disputes among the learned, as to the meaning of the words TROOP and NUMBer. I think, however, it will appear, both from the testimony of several minent commentators, and from facts, to be adduced, that the words GAD and MENI, as found in the margin, are the proper readings, and that they actually refer to DEITIES of that name. * See on 1 Sam. xix. 24.; and the note on John xiv. 2. Calmet says on Mene or Mane, as found in Daniel v. 25., it is a Chaldean word, "signifying, he has numbered, he has counted." But on the word " Meni, as it occurs in Isaiah lxv. 11.,-"The goddess Meni is the moon! her worship was popular in Palestine, and among the Hebrews. Meni is probably Astarte, and Venus Celestis, honoured among the Phoenicians and Carthaginians." Parkhurst has ", Meni, a name or attribute under which the idolatrous Jews worshipped the material heavens." We find other traces of this attribute, Meni, among the idolaters. The Arabians worshipped the idol Mona, in order to obtain seasonable showers.* Festus relates that the Salentines, a people of Italy, threw a horse alive into the fire, in honour of "His name in Jupiter Menzan, i. e. Jupiter ', Meni." Greek, was Mǹ", Men.” "We see, also, the god Men, or Lunus, on several medals of the towns of Lydia, Pisidia, and Phrygia. On a medal of Antiochus, struck in Pisidia, the god Lunus hath a spear in one hand, and holds a victory in the other, and hath a cock, a symbol of the RISING SUN, at his feet." The Rev. Thos. Hartwell Horne, on Isaiah lxv. 11., says, "Gad is unquestionably joined with Meni (or the Moon), and both are names of idols." "Ye..... have deserted Jehovah, And have forgotten my holy mountain; And fill out a libation to Meni." Bishop Lowth's Version. It is an interesting fact (in reference to this passage) that the idolaters of the East have a deity of the same name, MENI, in whom, or her daughter, all the attributes and symbols alluded to find a parallel. Let it be well impressed on the reader's mind what it was the Jews were accused of • The people of the East believe that rain is produced by the moon! having forsaken: "my holy MOUNTAIN !" alluding to Mount Moriah, on which God's house was built. In that learned work the Sanscrit Dictionary, printed at Calcutta, is the following article:-" Meni! the wife of the Hima-laya MOUNTAIN!" and signifies, "to me any one, not comparable or equal." Her name, in Tamul, is Meni. She was the mother of Parvati, the wife of the god Siva. "The sacred MOUNTAIN Maga-Meru, is the daughter of the Hima-laya, and is more honoured than the mother." In addition to the observations on Isa. xiv. 13, 14., and the note (which see), are the following on the Hima-laya, taken from the dictionary alluded to: "The Hima-laya range of mountains, which bound India on the north, and separate it from Tartary, the Imaus and Emodus of the ancients, giving rise to the Ganges! the Indus! Bramaputra! and many other considerable rivers, and containing elevations which have been calculated to exceed the Cordilleras. In mythology, the MOUNTAIN is PERSONIFIED! as the husband of Meni, and the father of Gunga or the Ganges, and Durga, or Uma in her descent as Pārvati, the MOUNTAIN nymph, to captivate Siva, and withdraw him from a course of ascetic austerities, practised in those regions." But what are the mountains Imaus and Emodus, said to be the same as the Hima-laya range? "Imaus, a large mountain of Scythia, which is PART of mount Taurus." "Emodus, a mountain of India. Plin." "Imaus is a PART of Mount Taurus." "Taurus, the largest mountain of Asia as to extent. One of its extremities is in Caria, and it extends not only as far as the most eastern extremities of ASIA, but it also branches in several parts, and runs far into the north! Mount Taurus was known by SEVERAL names, particularly in DIFFERENT countries. Between the Hyrcanian and Euxine seas, by that of Caucasus!" "Caucasus is the name of a series of mountains, of which Ararat! is a part; and another part of Caucasus is named Taurus." "This immense range is constantly called in Sanscrit, Himachel, or Snowy Mountain, and Himalaya, or the Abode of Snow."* Here then we have a remarkable identity in the sublime and sacred heights of the Imaus, the Emodus, the Taurus, the Caucasus, the Ararat, the Kilāsu, the Maga-Meru, and the Hima-laya, of ancient and modern, of Eastern and Western heathenism; and here we have another deplorable instance of the profanity of the Jews, who forsook the "HOLY MOUNTAIN" of Jehovah for "MENI!" the wife of the PERSONIFIED HIMALAYA, the mother of the goddess Parvati, whose emblem is the crescent moon! "Prepare for that troop," "Gad." The Tamul translation has this, "prepare a feast." In the fragments to Calmet (108.) it is said, "We see how Gad and Meni terminate in the sun and moon." In this conclusion I cheerfully join with the learned editor. The word Gad signifies good fortune, fecundity, plenty; the sun is the great source of plenty, the moon also is believed to bring forth innumerable "precious things;" and here again we see the great orbs of night and day shine forth in Siva, the supreme lord of those HOLY MOUNTAINS, and in his consort Parvati; i. e. Meni, for the sun is believed to be his right eye, and the moon his left, and in his temples, his cars, in the houses of his worshippers may be seen a representation of the sun and the crescent moon. But allusion is also made to those who "furnish the drink offering unto that NUMBER," i. e. "MENI." In general, drink offerings are not presented to the gods + of the Hindoos ; * See Lempriere and Calmet, and the Sanscrit dictionary under Emodus, Imaus, Taurus, Caucasus, or Hyma-laya. There are, however, four demons to whom arrack and toddy and other intoxicating articles are offered. but to Kāli, an incarnation of Pārvati, the daughter of Meni, arrack and toddy are offered. That the heathen have taken their ideas of the gods descending or dwelling in the Hima-laya, or the Taurus, or Caucasus, from events ALLUDED to in the sacred Scriptures, I cannot doubt, and perhaps there is no single event which led mankind, in the EARLIEST ages, to reverence and almost adore those sublime heights of created nature, more than the ark of Noah having rested on "the mountains of Ararat," which form a PART of the glorious Taurus, and Caucasus of the West, and the Hima-laya of the East. In all these searchings, our minds revert to Him, "who rideth upon a swift cloud," who "toucheth the hills and they smoke." 20. "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old." From the 17th verse to the end of this chapter, there is an evident allusion to ANOTHER state of things, whether it refer to the Millennium, to the complete conversion of the Jews, or to the happiness of the Gospel dispensation, I cannot say. That there is not a reference "to the future world," is manifest from the 21st and 22d verses. The Hindoos believe the next age, i. e. the Kreatha, will be the happy one. "In those days people will be in youth, age of one hundred at the 22. years! "For as the days of a tree are the days of my people." (Ps. xcii. 12.) 66 The people of the East have a particular desire for long life; hence one of their best and most acceptable wishes is, "May you live a thousand years.' May you live as long as the Aali-tree," i. e. the Banyan or Ficus Indica. I never saw a tree of that description dead, except when struck by lightning. And to cut one down would, in the estimation of |