The Eftates

brews un

eafy Account of the Manner of this Lot, which has been pretended by fome Perfons who love Objections, to be attended with fo many Difficulties, as to appear impracticable. All who have any Notion of the Manner of drawing our late Lotteries, the Numbers out of one Wheel, the Blanks and Prizes out of another, will fee this Divifion by Lot thus explained, to be not only a Thing practicable, but very easy and exact. Every Tribe and every Family being thus fettled in their Inheritances, became Local without Remove ; each was to continue, and their Pofterity after them, on the fame Estate, which originally fell to them for their Inheritance.

In order to preferve as near as poffible the of the He-fame Balance, not only between the Tribes, alienable, but between the Heads of Families and the Families of the fame Tribes, it was further provided, that every Man's Poffeffion should

Deut. xv.

be unalienable.

The Wisdom of this Conftitution had 2,12. provided for a Release of all Debts and Servitudes every feventh Year, that the Hebrew Nation might not moulder away from fo great a Number of free Subjects, and be loft to the Publick in the Condition of Slaves. It was moreover provided, by the Law of Jubilee, which was every fiftieth Year, that then all Lands fhould be reftor'd, and the Eftate of every Family, being discharged from all Incumbrances, fhould return to the Family again. For this there was an express

Law.

Law. Ye shall hallow the fiftieth Year, and Lev. xxv. proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land, 10. unto all the Inhabitants thereof: It shall be a Jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every Man to his Poffeffion, and ye shall return every Man unto his Family. It is further enacted, And the Land shall not be fold for ever; or, as in the Margin, to be quite cut off or alienated from the Family; for the Land is mine, for ye are Strangers and So- 23. journers with me.

By this Agrarian Law of the Hebrews, all Estates were to be kept in the fame Families, as well as the fame Tribes to which they originally belonged at the first Divifion of the Land by Joshua; so that how often foever a Man's Estate had been fold or alienated from one Jubilee to another, or how many Hands foever it had paffed through, yet in fifty Years every Estate must return to the Heirs of the Perfons who were first posfeffed of it.

It was at firft an excellent Conftitution, confidering the Defign of this Government, to make fo equal a Divifion of the Land among the whole Hebrew Nation, according to the Poll; it made Provifion for fettling and maintaining a numerous and a brave Militia of fix hundred thoufand Men, which, if their Force was rightly directed and used, would be a fufficient Defence not only against any Attempts of their lefs powerful Neighbours, to deprive them of their Li

berty

berty or Religion; but confidering moreover the natural Security of their Country, into which no Inroads could be made but through very difficult Paffes, it was a Force fufficient to defend them against the more powerful Empires of Egypt, Affyria, or Babylon.

The Wisdom of this Conftitution is yet further obfervable, as it provided against all ambitious Defigns of private Perfons, or Perfons in Authority, against the publick Liberty; for no Perfon in any of the Tribes, or throughout the whole Hebrew Nation, had fuch Eftates and Poffeffions, or were allow'd by the Conftitution to procure them, that could give any Hopes of Succefs in oppreffing their Brethren and Fellow-Subjects. They had no Riches to bribe indigent Perfons to affift them, nor could there at any Time be any confiderable Number of indigent Perfons to be corrupted. They could have no Power to force their Fellow-Subjects into a tame Submiffion to any of their ambitious Views. The Power in the Hands of fo many Freeholders in each Tribe, was fo unfpeakably fuperior to any Power in the Hands of one or of a few Men, that it is impoffible to conceive how any fuch ambitious Defigns fhould fucceed, if any Perfons fhould have been found fo weak as to attempt them.

Befides, this equal and moderate Provision for every Perfon, wifely cut off the Means of Luxury, with the Temptations to it, from

Example.

Example. It almost neceffarily put the whole Hebrew Nation upon Industry and Frugality, and yet gave to every one fuch a Property, with fuch an eafy State of Liberty, that they had fufficient Reason to esteem and value them, and endeavour to preserve and maintain them.

It may not be improper to take notice here, of an Obfervation of Lord Bacon, to fhew the political Wisdom of this Part of the Hebrew Conftitution. He is obferving the Wisdom of the Law, which required, " that "all Houses of Husbandry, that were used "with twenty Acres of Ground, or upwards, "should be maintain'd and kept up for ever; "together with a competent Proportion of "Land, to be ufed and occupied with them; "and in no ways to be feparated from them." By these means, he obferves, "the Houses

being kept up, did of Neceffity enforce a "Dweller, and the Proportion of Land for Occupation being kept up, did of Neceffity "enforce that Dweller, not to be a Beggar or Cottager, but a Man of fome Substance.--This, he proceeds, did wonderfully concern the Might and Manhood of the Kingdom, to have Farms as it were of a Stan"dard fufficient to maintain an able Body. "out of Penury; and did in effect amortize

a great part of the Lands of the Kingdom "unto the Hold and Occupation of the Yeomanry or middle People, of a Condition "between Gentlemen and Cottagers, or "Peasants.

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"Peasants.--Thus did the King fow Hydra's "Teeth, he concludes, whereupon (accord

ing to the Poet's Fiction) fhould rife up armed Men for the Service of the King"dom*."

How much does this Obfervation of one of the wifest and most able Politicians recommend the Conftitutions of the Hebrew Government to us, as they made fuch Provifion not only for a numerous Soldiery, but of fuch Perfons alfo who were likely to make a good Soldiery; of Men bred up neither in a fervile nor indigent Condition, but in a free and fufficiently plentiful Condition; not of Perfons who had nothing of their own to lofe, but of Perfons who had both a valuable Property and Liberty to defend.

When a good Conftitution is once well fettled, it is a next point of Wisdom to provide, that it may be preferved in After-times. The Agrarian, or Law of Jubilee, was such a. wife Provifion, to perpetuate this Divifion of Lands and Eftates, and thereby to continue. the Hebrew Nation, a numerous and a powerful People.

This was of very great Importance to the Defign, for which this Government was form-. ed. It was intended to remain a diftinct Nation, feparate from all other Nations of the Earth for many hundred Years; from the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, and their Poffeffion of the promised Land, till

*Lord Bacon Hift. Hen. VII. p. 72.

the