have interpreted _Urim_ and _Thummim_, manifestation and truth, [Greek:
daelosin is alaetheian]; which expresses how different those divine
oracles were from the false and equivocal demons. It is said, in the
Book of Numbers, that Eleazar, the successor of Aaron, shall interrogate
Urim in form, and that a resolution shall be taken according to the
answer given.

The Ephod applied to the chest of the sacerdotal vestments of the
high-priest, was a piece of stuff covered with twelve precious stones,
on which the names of the twelve tribes were engraved. It was not
allowed to consult the Lord by Urim and Thummim, but for the king, the
president of the sanhedrim, the general of the army, and other public
persons, and on affairs that regarded the general interest of the
nation. If the affair was to succeed, the stones of the ephod emitted a
sparkling light, or the high-priest inspired predicted the success.
Josephus, who was born thirty-nine years after Christ, says that it was
then two hundred years since the stones of the ephod had given an answer
to consultations by their extraordinary lustre.

The Scriptures only inform us, that Urim and Thummim were something that
Moses had put in the high-priest's breast-plate. Some Rabbins by rash
conjectures, have believed that they were two small statues hidden
within the breast-plate; others, the ineffable name of God, graved in a
mysterious-manner. Without designing to discern what has not been
explained to us, we should understand by _Urim_ and _Thummim_, the
divine inspiration annexed to the consecrated breast-plate.

Several passages of Scripture leave room to believe, that an articulate
voice came forth from the propitiatory, or holy of holies, beyond the
veil of the tabernacle, and that this voice was heard by the