some hundreds of Years, both before and after the Days of Joab or David. There is no mention of it in any part of the Hiftory, there is no Law that requires it, nor is there any full Precedent of it any where to be found, till after the Destruction of the first Temple, with which Mofes and the original Conftitution of the Hebrew Government have nothing at all to do.

Befides, what was it ftruck our Author's Imagination to fancy this Tax was to be paid three times every Year? This is a Blunder, for which there is not the leaft fhadow of Reason, nor do I believe it ever enter'd into any Man's Head, but our Author's. All Authors without exception, that I have ever met with, make it a yearly Payment, not three times a Year. All agree with the learned Selden " This facred Tribute was an"nual." And the Teftimony of Jofephus, alledged by him, puts it out of question, that Vefpafian" ordered the Half-fhekel to be

paid every Year to the Capitol, as it was "before used to be paid to the Temple of Jerufalem." And yet this enormous Blunder makes our Author's Computation, even in his own way of reckoning, three times as much as it fhould be, and reduces his Sum of one million and two hundred thoufand Pounds to four hundred thoufand Pounds a Year.

Exodus xxxviii.

But to fet afide all these chimerical Calculations, let us fee what it did really produce; we have a real Poll and the Sum it produced to a Shekel in the Mofaical Hiftory. The

Poll was taken on fix hundred three thou25, 26. fand five hundred and fifty Men, and the Sum at half a Shekel a Head, was one hundred Talents, one thoufand feven hundred theefcore and fifteen Shekels. This is fo exact, that when we know the Value of a Shekel and Talent, we know to a Shilling the Sum in English Money.

Whatever Difference there may be, as to the exact Value of a Shekel, and fo of a Talent, no one before our Author was ever fo whimfically extravagant as to reckon the Shekel at ten Shillings.

A very ufual Eftimation of the Shekel is at fomewhat less than half an Ounce Troy; a little more than two Shillings and threepence English Money: Then the Sum will be thirty-four thousand four hundred and eleven Pounds near.

But if we take the Valuation of the Shekel from the very accurate Accounts of Bishop Hooper, and the Agreement between the Hebrew, the Phoenician, and the Attick Weight of Solon, taken from the Tyrian, the Shekel will be the fame Weight with the Standard Tetradrachm of Athens.

As this moft judicious Author has obferved feveral Valuations of the Drachma, one at the Weight of 68,4. Grains, which he

fuppofes

Supposes to hold from Solon to Alexander; another at 65,5 Grains, from thence to the Subjection of Greece to the Romans; and another of 62,57 Grains, equal to the Denarii under the first Roman Emperors; let us compute this hundred Talents, one thoufand feven hundred threefcore and fifteen Shekels at the higheft rate of 68,4 Grains to the Drachma, which will make the Tetradrachm or Shekel fomewhat more than our half Ounce Troy; then the Sum will be forty four thousand four hundred and thirtyfix Pounds near*.

What fort of moral Computation must our Author have ufed, to fwell his Account to one million and two hundred thoufand Pounds; for he seems to understand common Numbers well enough to have seen the Truth.

But our Author would have it, that the Value of a Shekel, is not to be taken from its Weight in Silver, which yet fure is the intrinfick Value of all Coins; but from the Proportion of Money to other things. He produces an Inftance to fhew, that a Shekel ought to be computed at ten or twelve Shillings, for the Law directs a Man's Efti- Leviticus mation at fifty Shekels. But whoever confi- xxvi. 2.; ders this very Inftance, will fee, it can no ways agree with his Value of a Shekel. The Law there fets the Estimation of a Vow. These fettled Eftimations in the Law feem to be de

H 4

*Hooper's Enquiry, 335, 337

fign'd

Fxod. xiii.

13.

fign'd as a Modus not only to prevent all Difputes, but to fix the Valuation at an easy Numbers rate. Thus the Redemption of the firstxviii. 16. born is fixed at five Shekels, and the firstling of an Afs at a Lamb or Kid; which, confidering the general Use and Value of Affes to ride upon and for Beasts of Burthen, (for they had then no Horfes) was a very moderate Eftimation. And as Vows were voluntary Acts, a low Valuation to encourage them feems much more likely to be defign'd in the Law, than fetting a very high Valuation, which would probably difcourage them, if not altogether prevent the making of any.

Now if thefe fifty Shekels are to be computed at ten Shillings each, the RedemptionMoney will come to twenty-five Pounds, a full Price for a Servant, an exceffive Price for the Redemption of a Vow; whereas fifty Shekels, according to Bishop Hooper's Valuation used above, will make the Redemption above seven Pounds feven Shillings, which is a fufficient Estimation for fuch a Redemption: So that our Author's Calculation of this fuppofed annual Tax, at one million and two hundred thousand Pounds a Year, is an over-reckoning of one million one hundred and fifty thousand Pounds per Annum.

And if after all, this Tax was not annual, as I am fully perfuaded is the Truth of the Cafe, and that it was not paid above once or twice occasionally, from the time of erecting the Tabernacle to the Deftruction of the first Temple,

Temple, that is, for above nine hundred Years; our Author will have overcharg'd the Payments of the Hebrews above a thoufand million of Pounds Sterling; more than as much again as the Purchase of all the Lands in England, in Fee, would amount to at twenty-five Years Purchase.

It is the more neceffary to be thus particular, in fhewing what was not the Portion of the Sons of Levi, by the Mofaical Constitution, because without a juft Observation of this Diftinction we can neither rightly underftand the true State of the Tribe of Levi, or the true Nature and Use of the publick Revenues of the Hebrew Government; for these were all the Revenues, for the Civil Government, Laws and Religion of the whole Nation; and confidering all these Ufes of them, it will appear one of the most moderate, ancient or modern Hiftory can furnish us with.

of the Le

But let us now fee, what the proper Pro- Proper vifion for the Tribe of Levi was. Their Provifion proper Provifion, as a Tribe, confifted in two vites. Articles In forty-eight Cities, with their Territory for their Habitation; and in the Tithe of all the Produce of Fruit and Cattle. Both these are pretty well understood in general, but the political Wisdom of this Inftitution is not fo well understood as it deferves to be, because it arifes from fome Obfervations which are commonly overlook'd.

All