

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 197 



efforts of the chiefs arrong the Sabeans : and thii 

 reli_ion continued to prevail in Perfia till the 

 time it was fupcrfedcd by the doctrine of Maho- 

 met. Its morality was pure, except that it per- 

 mitted inceft. With regard to the worfhip of 

 this religion, it was fimple : philofophy and policy 

 appear to have been there artfully united. They 

 'iat Zoroafter, who retired to Balch with the 

 quality of archimagus, was there (lain by Ar- 

 gaip, king of the Scythians, and his temples de- 

 molifhed. The difciples of Zoroafter, who ftill 

 remain in Perfia, are called by the Mahometans 

 Gaures or infidels. 



VIII. (5.) Judaifm. Mofes who lived about 

 the year of the world 2550, near 500 years be- 

 fore Homer, and 900 years before the philolb- 

 pher Thalcs, was the liril who gave a form to the 

 religion of the Jews, reduced it into a fyftem, 

 and prelcribed them a law as he had received it 

 from God. This law is contained in the penta- 

 teuch of Mofes, which comprehends the books 

 ot Genefis, Fxodus, Leviticus, Numbers and 

 Deuteronomy, which are in the hands of all 

 Chriftians in every part of the earth. Leviticus 

 properly contains the law, the facrifices and cere- 

 monies of the Jews, and Duteronomy ferves as a 

 itulation or abridgement of the law. The 

 ten commandments form a kind of iummary of 

 all t! oriental laws that God prefer i bed by 



Mofes to the people of Ifracl. All thefe laws 

 arc cither religious and doftrinal, and relate to 



the 



