the things which were thus given to God, were reckoned among things sacred, which nobody could alienate without sacrilege.

3dly, The prescribed oblations were either, 1st, the First-fruits, or 2dly, the Tenths.

Est, All the First-fruits of both fruit and animals were due to God.* Among animals, the males only belonged to God, and they not only had the liberty, but were even obliged to redeem them, in the case of men, and unclean animals, which could not be offered up in sacrifice to the Lord. And as to fruits, they were forbidden to begin the harvest, till they had offered up to God the Omer, that is, the new sheaf, the day after the great day of unleavened bread; and were forbidden to bake any bread made of new corn, till they had presented the new loaves, on the day of Pentecost. Before the offering up of the first-fruits, all was unclean; after this oblation, all was holy. To which St. Paul alludes in the xith chapter of his epistle to the Romans, when he says, If the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy. The law commands, says Philo, that as often as the people make bread, they should lay aside the first-fruits for the priests, and this keeps up religion in their hearts; for when they accustom themselves to lay aside something for God, they cannot easily forget him. To which Maimonides adds, that he that ate of his fruits before he had paid the tythe of it, was punished with sudden death. And as of fruits and animals, so likewise of oil

*Exod. xxii. 29. ↑ Ver. 16

and

and wine, the first-fruits of them were paid to God.*

2dly, Besides First-fruits, the Jews likewise paid the Tenths of all the fruits of the earth. St. Jerom, in his Commentary on the Fifty-fourth Chapter of Ezekiel, divides the Tenths into four sorts; 1st, such as were paid to the Levites by the people, who were forbidden the eating any fruit before this tenth was paid, upon pain of death; 2dly, such as were paid by the Levites to the Priests; 3dly, such as were reserved for the banquets which were made within the verge of the temple, to which the Priests and Levites were invited; and, 4thly, such as were paid every three years, for the support of the poor. If any one had a mind to redeem the tythes he was to pay, he was obliged to pay one fifth above their real value; and the tythes that belonged neither to the Priests nor Levites, were carried to the temple of Jerusalem, from all parts of the world, where any Jews were. But the distant provinces converted it into money, which was sent to Jerusalem, and applied to the sacrifices, and entertainments, at which the law required gaiety and joy. Josephus, who relates this custom, calls this money consecrated. And we may say, that it was either in order to support this pious custom, or else in order to substitute a more necessary one in the room of this, which was now no longer so, that the apostle took care to send alms to Jerusalem from all parts of the world. The account of it is in the first epistle to the Corinthians, where St. Paul

* Deut. xviii. 4.

says,

says,* Now concerning the collection for the samts, as I have given order to the churches of Ga latia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. And when I come, whomsoever you shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem.

CHAP. V.

Of the Ministers of the Temple, the Priests, Levites, Nazarites, and Rechabites.

THE Jews, in the establishment of their republic, had no other king but God himself; and the place appointed for their sacrifices and prayers, was at the same time both the temple of their God, and the palace of their Sovereign. And hence comes all that pomp and magnificence in their worship, that prodigious number of ministers, officers, and guards; and that very exact order in their functions, which was first established by Moses, and afterwards renewed by David with yet greater splendour. The tabernacle was the first palace God had among the Hebrews, and to that the temple succeeded; and the tribe of Levi was chosen, if I may so speak, to form his household. And for this reason, it was disengaged from all other cares, and absolutely devoted to the service of the

* xvi. 1, 2, 3.

altar:

altar but the honour of the priesthood was reserved to the family of Aaron alone, and the rest of the tribe divided only the inferior offices of the temple among them, so that all the Priests were indeed Levites, but all the Levites were not Priests: nor were the Priests and Levites' the only sacred persons among the Jews; and therefore, in order to comprehend them all, I shall in this chapter speak, 1. of the Levites, 2. of the Priests, 3. of the Officers of the synagogue, 4. of the Nazarites, 5. of the Rechabites, 6. of the Patriarchs; and 7. of the Prophets.

1. Of the Levites. But before I enter into a particular account of their functions, I shall say something, 1st, of the estates which God assigned them for their subsistence, in order to free them from the importunate cares of life, which might otherwise have diverted them from his service; 2dly, of their consecration; 3dly, of their age, and then proceed to say something, 4thly, of their functions; 5thly, of their number; 6thly, of such of them as were officers of the temple; and, 7thly, of the Nethinim, or their ser

vants.

1st, Then, in the division of the land of promise the Levites had not their portion of it; there' were only eight and forty cities with their territóries assigned them for the support of their cattle, and thirteen of these came to the share of the Priests. And these are all the possessions the Levites had; but to make them amends for that, the other tribes paid them the tythe of all their estates, and they paid the tenths of that to the Priests. And besides this, the Priests had likewise the first-fruits, and a considerable part of

the

the offerings that were made to God. All which may be seen in the book of Numbers.*

2dly, As to the admittance of the Levites into. the ministry, birth alone did not give it them; they were likewise obliged to receive a sort of consecration. Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, says God to Moses, and cleanse them. And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them; sprinkle water of purifying upon them, and let them shave all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean. Then let them take a young bullock, &c.f

3dly, Nor was any Levite permitted to exercise his function, till after he had served a sort of novitiate for five years, in which he carefully learned all that related to his ministry. Maimonides, who gives us an account of this custom, thereby reconciles two places in Scripture, which appear contrary to one another: for it is said in the book of Numbers, in one place,‡ that the Levites were not admitted into the service of the temple, till they were thirty years old, and in another, that they were admitted at twenty-five. The last of which two ages shews the time when they began their probation, and the other, the time when they began to exercise their functions, So that the Levites were at the full age of a man, when they were admitted into their office; and at the age of fifty they were discharged from it. But this Rabbin pretends, that this discharge was only granted in the wilderness, because the tabernacle often

+ Numb. viii. 6,7,8. Exod. xxix. 1—37. § viii. 24.

changed