Lustrations

LUSTRATIONS. This Word is set apart in the Style of those Authors who have treated of religious Ceremonies, to signify the Aspersions, Fumigations and other Ceremonies used in purifying polluted Places or Persons. For Example, God commands Moses to take the Levites from among the Children of Israel, and clean them with the Water of purifying; Aspergantur aquâ Numb. viii. 6, 7. Numb. xix. 20.lustrationis. In another Place he ordains upon Pain of Death, that whosoever shall pollute himself by touching a dead Carcase, or by being present at the Funeral of any one, should be purified by sprinkling himself with the Water of Separation, which was a kind of Lye made by throwing into clean Water an handful of the Ashes of a red Heifer, sacrificed upon the great Day of Expiation. Persons and Things which had contracted any Uncleanness upon the Account of a dead Body, were sprinkled with this Water. What was practised when a Leper was cured of his Leprosy, or when a Woman came and presented her self at the Temple after her lying in, may be likewise called a Lev. xiv. 1, 2, 3, 4. Lev. xii. 6, 7, 8.Lustration.

The Word Lustrare is also frequently used when Mention is made of Parents consecrating their Children in Honour of the false God Moloch. They obliged them to pass either through the Flames, as some will have it, or between two Fires, as others; or lastly, they consumed them in the Flames, which is the most common Opinion. This is what God expresly prohibited¹, and what nevertheless was frequently practised in Israel. See hereafter MOLOCH, and our Dissertation concerning this Deity of the Ammonites, printed before our Comment on Leviticus.

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