A. The New Testament has revealed to us, and taught us to understand the chief and most considerable both of the types and prophecies; but neither one nor the other are understood fully: and yet we make no doubt but the prophecies are, or shall be accomplished in Christ; and why not the types also? Probably it is reserved as one part of the glory of that happy day, when the Jews shall be converted, that the rest of their prophesies, as well as the rites and ceremonies of their ancient worship, together with their accomplishment in Christ and the Gospel, shall be more completely understood.

CHAP. VI.

Of the Political or Judicial Law of the Jews.

1 Q. WE have had a particular relation of the moral and ceremonial laws of the Jews; say now what was their judicial or political law?

A. That which related to their civil government as a nation.

2 Q. Who was their governor?

A. God himself condescended to take upon him the title of their King, and he appointed various kinds of governors under him, as he thought fit. Judges viii. 23. 1 Sam. xii. 12, 13. Isa. xxxii. 22.

Note. Since the same person was both their God and their King, the tabernacle and the temple may be considered not only as the residence of their God, but as the palace of their King also. The court of the tabernacle was the court of the palace; the holy of holies was the presence chamber; the mercy-seat was his throne; the cherubs represented his attendants as God, and the priests were his ministers of state as King ; the high-priest his prime-minister; the Levites were his officers, dispersed through all the kingdom; the table of shew-bread, together with some part of the sacrifices which were given to the priest, did represent the provision for his household, &c.

Whatsoever other governors were made from time to time, either captains, judges or kings, they were but deputies to God, who put them in and turned them out at pleasure.

3 Q. What did the political or civil laws, or commands, oblige the people to?

A. To many particular practices, relating, (1.) To war and peace. (2.) To husbands and wives. (3.) Parents and children. (4.) Masters and servants. (5.) Food and raiment. (6.) Houses and lands. (7.) Corn and husbandry. (8.) Money and cattle. (9.) The birds and beasts. (10.) The first-born of all things. (11.) The maintenance of the Levites and priests. (12.) The care of the bodies and lives of men.

4 Q. What were some of the more peculiar laws about war and peace ?

A. That they should make no peace with the seven nations of Canaan, but that they should destroy them utterly; and that when they went to war, every soldier who was afraid might go home. Deut. vii. 1, 2, 3, and chap. xx. 8.

5 Q. What were some of their peculiar laws about husbands and wives?

A. That a man should marry his brother's widow, if his brother died childless: and that men were permitted to put away their wives by a writing of divorce. Deut. xxv. 5, xxiv. 1. And that adultery was to be punished with death. Lev. xx. 10.

6 Q. What were some of their special laws about parents and children?

A. The first-born son was to have a double portion: and that any child who smote or cursed his father or his mother, or was obstinately rebellious and incorrigible, was to be put to death. Deut. xxi. 17, 18-21. Exod. xxi. 15, 17.

7 Q. What are some of their special laws about masters and servants?

A. Any servant might go free if his master had maimed him and an Israelitish servant, though he were bought with money, shall go out free for nothing in the seventh year; and if he will not go out free, his master shall bore his ear through on the door post with an awl, and he shall serve him forever. Exod. xxxi. 2-6, and ver. 26, 27.

Note. This word, forever, signifies till the year of jubilee; for all servants or slaves who were Hebrews were then to have their freedom, and return to their own lands and possessions, in their own tribe. See Lev. xxv. 39-42. And this is the best way of reconciling Exod. xxi. with Lev. xxv. where one text saith, The servant shall go out free in the seventh year, and another in the year of jubilee, and the third saith, he shall serve forever.

8 Q. What special laws had they relating to their food?

A. That they should eat no blood, nor the fat of the kidneys, nor any thing that died of itself, or was torn of wild beasts, nor any of the beasts or birds, or fishes, which were pronounced to be unclean. Lev. xi. and xvii. Deut. xiv, 21. And therefore they would not eat with heathens, lest they should taste unclean food.

9 Q. What were some of the laws relating to their clothing?

A. A man must not wear the raiment of women, nor a woman the raiment of men: they must wear no mixed garment made of woollen and linen; and they were required to make fringes in the borders of their garments, and put upon the fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue, that they might look upon it, and remember to do the commandments of the Lord. Numb. xv. 38, 39. Deut. xxii. 5, 11, 12.

Note. In our Saviour's time they wrote sentences of the law on parchment, and put them on their fore-heads and their garments: these were called phylacteries. Matt. xxiii. 5.

10 Q. What are some of their special laws about houses and lands?

A. That every seventh year the land should rest from ploughing and sowing; and God promised to give them food enough in the sixth for the three years. And every fiftieth year, which is the year of jubilee, all houses and lands that were sold, should return to their former possessors, except houses in walled towns. Lev. xxv. 2-17, 20, 21, 30, &c.

Note. Every seventh year, in which the fields were not to be tilled, was called a sabbath, or sabbatical year; and after

seven sabbatical years, that is, forty-nine years, was the year of jubilee, in the fiftieth. Though some have supposed the jubilee to be the forty-ninth year itself, that so two sabbatical years might not come together: for in the jubilee it is plain, there was to be no ploughing, nor sowing, nor reaping, nor vintage.. Lev. xxv. 11.

11 Q. What were some special Jewish laws about corn and husbandry?

A. They were forbid to plough with an ox and an ass together; to sow their fields with seeds of different kinds; or to make clean riddance of their harvests, either of the field or of the trees, for the gleanings were to be left for the poor. Deut. xxii. 9--11. Lev. xix. 9, 10, 19. And any travellers might eat their fill of grapes or corn in a field or vineyard, but might carry none away. Deut. xxiii. 24, 25.

12 Q. What were some of their peculiar laws about money, goods, and cattle?

A. They might lend money upon usury to a stranger but not to an Israelite. That a thief should restore double for whatsoever thing he had stolen ; but if he stole cattle, and killed or sold them, he must pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. Exod. xxii. 22. Deut. xxiii. 19, 20. Exod. xxii. 1-9. But if he had nothing to pay, the thief should be sold for his theft.

ver. 3.

13 Q. What special laws related to beasts and birds?

A. They were forbid to muzzle the mouth of the ox that trod out the corn, that so he might eat some while he was treading it: nor when they took a bird's nest in the field with eggs or young ones, were they permitted to take the dain with them. Deut. xxv. 4, and xxii. 6, 7.

14 Q

born?

What laws were given them about the first

A. The first-born of man and beasts were devoted or given to God, as well as the first-fruits of the trees and of the field. Exod. xxii. 29, 30. Numb. xvii. 12, 13.

Note. The first-born of men were redeemed by the Levites. The first-born of beasts were to be sacrificed or some way put to death, if not redeemed. Exod. xii. 2, 12, 13, 15. Numb. iii. 41.

15 Q. What were the laws about the maintenance of the priests?

A. The priests were to be maintained by the firstborn of all cattle, and the first-fruits of oil, and wine, and corn, and they had a share in various sacrifices, namely, the heave-offerings, the wave-breast, and the right shoulder, &c. Numb. xviii. 8-19.

Note. Heave-offerings were to be moved upwards and downwards, towards heaven and earth. Wave-offerings were to be shaken to and fro, or moved toward the four quarters of the heaven. All this is supposed to signify an offering of them to God, as universal Lord of all parts of the creation, and who dwells every where.

16 Q. What were the laws about the Levites' maintenance?

A. They were maintained by the tenth or tithe of fruits and corn, which God appointed for them. Numb. xvii. 21, 24. And they had some cities and their su burbs, given them out of every tribe. Josh. xxi.

17. What were some of their special laws about the bodies and the lives of men 2

A. He that killed, or stole, and sold a man, must die for it. Exod. xxi. 12, 16. And in all cases of real injury or mischief, life was to pay for life, an eye for an eye, a hand for a hand, or a foot for a foot. Lev. xxiv. 17-20. And this was the penalty of a false witness, who intended to bring any mischief whatsoever on another, Deut. xix. 18, &c. for the same was to be executed on the false witness.

18 Q. Was there no pardon for him that killed another?

A. If he did it wilfully there was no pardon; but if it was done by chance, there were six cities of refuge in the land of Canaan appointed, to which the manslayer might fly and be safe. But he was bound to dwell there till the death of the high-priest. Numb. xxxv. 11—35.