on, or by the grave of a good man from time to time, for the benefit of the departed soul?

Our translators understood it in the first sense; and it is certain something of that kind was practised among the ancient Jews, as it is now among some of the Eastern people; but it may be, at least, as well translated, Pour out thy bread on the sepulchre of the just and if this translation is allowed to take place, it would prove that the Jews were supposed, by this writer, to show their respect to the dead at that time, in the way the Russians of the last century did.

And to make this translation appear more probable, it may be observed, in the first place, that the rapos, used in the Greek, in which this book is written, will not be found, I apprehend, to have been used of the time or act of interment, any where in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, or in any of the apocryphal books written in that language; but of the place, Lexicographers indeed tell us, it is used in such a sense as our translators have put upon it here; but it does not appear to have been used in such a sense by any of these Hellenistic writers,

Secondly. The Jews of that time seem to have imagined, that the actions of the living might be made profitable to the dead: at least the author of the second book of Maccabees

appears to have thought so. For speaking of some of the Jewish nation who were slain in battle, under whose clothes were found things

consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, which things were forbidden to the Jews, by their law, he goes on and tells us, that when Judas "had made a gathering throughout the company, to the sum of 2000 drachms of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin-offering, doing therein very well, and honestly, in that he was mindful of the resurrection, (for if he had not hoped that they that were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead;) and also in that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly. (It was an holy and good thought.) Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin." 2 Macc. xii. 40.

If the imagined sin-offerings might be beneficial to the dead; they might as well believe, that the giving of alms might produce something of the same salutary effect.

Thirdly. We find, accordingly, that the Mohammedans, as well as the Christians of the East, (of whom Sir John Chardin speaks in his manuscript note on Ecclus. xxx. 17,) have adopted this practice: for in his printed description of Persia, he says, People of the middling and lower ranks of life begin to visit a sepulchre eight or ten days after (the interment), and the women in particular never fail

66

This is the principal text on which the Papists found their doctrine of purgatory. Should the reader say, this is taken from the Apocrypha, and therefore of no autho rity: I say, truc; but the Papists receive all the books of the Apocryphal as canonical Scripture. EDIT.

to do it. The burial-places are always full of them, especially at some holy seasons, more especially in the evening or morning, having their children with them, both great and small.There they sit themselves to lament the dead, with cries and tears, beating their breasts, tearing their faces and their heir, intermingled with long recitals of their former conversations with the deceased; and the constant burthen of these lamentations is, Rouh! rouh! soul! spirit! whither art thou gone? wherefore dost thou not continue to animate this body? then, Body! wherefore didst thou die? didst thou want gold or silver, garments, pleasures, the tender caresses (of those near to thee?) and such like impertinencies. Their female friends comfort them, and then carry them away with them, leaving sometimes offerings of cakes, fruits, sweetmeats, which are, they say, for the guardian angels of the sepulchre, to render them favourable to the deceased.""

And

Authors that speak of the Eastern people's visiting the tombs of their relations, almost always attribute this to the women; but it seems by this passage, that the men visit them too, though not so frequently as the other sex, who are wont to be more susceptible of the tender emotions of grief than the men, and at

The very same custom and precisely the same expressions are used among the native Irish to the present day. Another proof to those in Mr. Ledwich, that Christianity was introduced into Ireland not by Popish Missionaries, but by Missionaries from the East. See also the Caoinan inserted p. 40. EDIT. Tome 2, p. 387.

the same time think propriety requires it of them; whereas the men commonly think such strong expressions of sorrow would not become them. Accordingly we find, that some male friends came from Jerusalem, to condole with Mary and Martha, on account of the death of their brother Lazarus; who, when they supposed that her rising up, and going out of the house, was with a view to repair to his grave to weep, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. John xi. 31.

It is no wonder that they thought her rising up in haste was to go to the grave, to weep there, for Chardin informs us in the same page, that "the mourning there does not consist in wearing black clothes, which they call an infernal dress, but in great outcries, in sitting motionless, in being slightly dressed in a brown or pale habit, in refusing to take any nourishment for eight days running, as if they were determined to live no longer," &c. Her starting up then, with a sudden motion, who, it was expected, would have sat still, without stirring at all, and her going out of the house, made them to conclude it must be to go to the grave to weep there, though, according to the modern Persian ceremonial, it wanted five or six days of the usual time for going to weep at the grave the Jews, possibly, might repair thither sooner than the Persians do; if not, they could not account for this sudden starting up any other way.

But to return from this digression.-If the

Jews in the East readily adopt other usages of Eastern mourning; if they deck the graves of their dead with green boughs, as has been taken notice of under a preceding Observation, it cannot be unnatural to suppose, they might adopt the custom too of leaving bread, or other eatables, in their burial-places, in the time of Tobit, though it may now be seldom, if ever done: since, according to Chardin, the modern Persians now practise it, however not often, but rather sparingly.

The Christians too of that country seem to practise something very much like it, if not altogether the same, according to Dr. Russell, who tells us, "They are carried to the grave on an open bier; and besides, they have many appointed days, when the relations go to the sepulchre, and have mass said, and send victuals to the church and poor, many of the women go every day for the first year, and every great holiday afterwards." This sending victuals to the church, seems to come very near the placing eatables upon the tombs of the dead; if the expression is not designed directly to convey that thought to the mind.

He does not say exactly the same thing of the Jews of Aleppo, but he tells us concerning them, that " they have certain days wherein they go to the sepulchres,; and the women, like those of other sects, often go there to howl and cry over their dead relations." How far the conformity of those other sects is carried, "Vol. ii, p. 56. * Ib. p. 87.