To these we might add a multitude of other furniture fubfervient to other ufes, fuch as kettles, pans, fryingpans, ovens, fhovels, tongs, pickaxes, hatchets, cleavers, knives, forks, tables, tubs, trays, dishes, and many more; all of which were either made of brafs, or of wood covered with it; but it is fufficient to have named the most confiderable of them. We fhall only add, that the charge of all these was committed, the most facred ones to the priefts, and the reft to the Levites, whofe business it was to pack and cover them up with proper cloths and skins, made for that purpose, whenever they removed (G).

THESE are the principal laws relating to the worship of GOD, or, as they are commonly called, of the firft table; but, before we pafs to thofe of the fecond, it will be neceffary to fay fomething of those which related to the profelytes (H). There was an exprefs command of GOD,

beth may have flipped in here inftead of the caph, by reafon of their likeness; efpecially if they remember, that the former is never used, that we can recollect, to exprefs the metal or matter of which a thing is made; fo that this let ter is here altogether irregular; whereas the, which fignifies as, like unto, according to, gives a good fenfe to the phrase.

(G) It is obfervable, however, that in all this account we find no mention made of any pavment or flooring, fo much as for the tabernacle ; and yet it is hardly credible, as was obferved before, that its rich and facred utenfils fhould ftand on the bare ground. We may therefore fuppofe, that Mofes has barely mentioned all that was done before the fetting up of the tabernacle. And, if we confider their vast number and variety, the richness and curious workmanship of a great part of them, and the little

that,

time the whole was finished in, not much above five months (8), we fhall have caufe to wonder at their dispatch, unlefs we suppose a vast number of hands to have been employed in it; but this need not hinder us from fuppofing, that Mofes might add many others, as he faw needful in process of time; among which, this flooring might be one.

(H) The text diftinguishes them only by the words, ger, a traveller or fojourner, and, neker, a stranger or alien. However, we may make a threefold diftinction of them; namely, of fuch as continued ftill in their idolatry, and the religion of their fathers; fuch as had renounced it to worship the only true GoD, but remained fill uncircumcifed, or bound themselves, as the Jews pretend, only to the obfervation of the Noachid law; and, laftly, those who by circumcifion were bound to

(8) Ita Judæi. Vide fedar olam. Munft. Cun. Ufer ann. p. 16, & al.

that, if any stranger was defirous to be admitted to eat of the paffover, he was first to be circumcised; after which he was to be admitted, not only to that grand folemnity, but to all the other religious privileges, in common with the Ifraelites. Of this number was a great part of the mixed multitude which came with them out of Egypt, and of the conquered inhabitants of Canaan. And indeed the condition of those who became circumcifed was fo preferable to that of those who continued in their old religion, that the number of the former increased very much; and this is fupposed to have put the selfish Jews upon the diftinction between profelytes of the gate, and profelytes of righteoufnefs, the former of which, continuing uncircumcifed, and being bound to obferve only the precepts of Noah, were kept in a state not many degrees better than flavery. We find no less than an hundred and fifty-three thousand and upwards of this kind in Solomon's time, who were all employed in the moft fervile and laborious works a. But because this would have proved a moft effectual way to have made them embrace the Jewish religion, in hopes of bettering their condition, the Jews tell us, that they admitted few, if any, especially in the happy reigns of David and Solomon, left they fhould be induced to it only from worldly ends b (I). MOSES

a

z Exod. xii. 48. Numb. ix. 14. 2 Chron. ii. 17, 18. b MAIMON. Vide SELD. de fynedr. BuxT. fynagog. & alib.

cumcised, they were then diftinguished by the name of the gare haberith, ftrangers or profelytes of the covenant, and Ty, gare zedek, profelytes of righteoufness.

observe the law of Mofes, and were thereby intitled to the fame privileges with all Ifraelites. It is true, they were not to fuffer any of the first fort to live among them; but it is plain by the fequel, that they became extremely remifs and negligent in this refpect, and were often reproved for it by the prophets. The fecond fort were called hyun, gare hafhahar, ftrangers of the gate, from the expreffion often used in the pentateuch, the stranger that is within thy gates. But, when any of either fort became cir

(I) The Talmud compares those profelytes to the ruft in iron, or ulcers in the body; and adds, that too much caution could not be taken in the admiffion of them (37). For this reason they add, that they were refused three times; but, if they perfifted in their defire of being admitted, they were then to be circumcifed before

(37) Vide Seld, de fyned. lib. ii. c. 2. art. 5.

two

MOSES made likewife fome difference between nation and nation, with refpect to their admiffion, into what he terms the congregation of the LORD. The Edomites were received after the fecond generation, because they were brethren; and fo were the Egyptians, because Ifrael had been a stranger in Egypt, The Moabites and Ammonites, on the contrary, were not to be admitted till after the tenth generation, as fome understand the text, or, according to the letter of the original, not even after the tenth generation, because, inftead of receiving the Ifraelites with a brotherly hofpitality, they hired Balaam to curfe them (K). Baftards, and all illegitimate iffue, were under the fame exclufion with them (L). The Amalekites, e Deut. xxiii. 1, & feqq.

two or three fufficient witneffes, to be baptized, in order to wash away the filth of heatheniẩm; and laftly, to offer up the ufual facrifices for fin, &c. after which they were received as fervants of the GOD of Ifrael (38).

(K) The Jews obferve, that Mofes expreffes himself only in the mafculine, Ammoni and Moabi, a man Ammonite or Moabite, to intimate, that he did not mean to exclude a woman from being admitted upon fome extraordinary account. For Ruth, though a Moabites, was, for her extraordinary piety, married to Boaz, the great grandfather of David (39). But we shall fee in the next note, that this is not the only inftance of their admitting perfons exprefly excluded by that lawgiver.

(L) The original word is inn, mamzer; by which the Jews generally understand, not only all kind of inceftuous and

as

adulterous iffue, but likewise children begot in fornication, or even in wedlock, when either of the parents were Canaanites, or of any idolatrous nation, and unconverted (40). The Septuagint, Vulgate, and the canonifts, take it to fignify only the fon of a proftitute. The truth is, the right meaning of it cannot be fixed, because it is used only in this place, and inZechariah(41); but in neither is explained by the context. What has induced the Jews to understand it of inceftuous, and other unlawful iffue, is, that the mamzer is mentioned just before, and put upon the fame foot with the Ammonites and Moabites, who were born by inceft (42); but if that were the cafe, how came the two fons of Judah, Pharez and Zarah, whom he had by his daughter-in-law Tamar (43), not to be reputed spurious? If it be faid, he knew her not, yet it is plain

1.

(39) Vide Munft. in (42) Gen.

(41) Ch. ix. 6.

(38) Vide Bafnag. ex Cunao, tom. ii. lib. i. c. Deut. xxiii. 1, & feqq. (40) Idem ibid. xix. 31, &feqq. Vide fup. (43) Gen. xxxviii. 13, & feqq.

I 3

as well as eunuchs of all kinds, were totally excluded ; the former, because they were under the divine anathema f; and the latter, because their condition was accounted a legal defect g (M). Thus much for the laws of the first table. Laws

f Exod. xvii. 14, & feqq. fhe knew him; and the Jews, against whom we object this, pretend, that either in inceft or adultery, though neither party be conscious; as, when a woman, believing her hufband long fince dead, marries another, or vice verfa; yet the iffue of fuch a marriage is mamzer, or fpurious; fo that, according to this canon, thofe two, and their pofterity, ought to have been excluded.

8 Vide Levit. xxi. 20. but even to that, whose legitimacy is any ways doubtful (45).

(M) What is meant, by not entering into the congregation of the LORD, is not agreed; fome understanding by it, their being denied admittance into the Ifraelitis commonwealth by circumcifion; and others, their being only excluded from places of authority. This laft is the moft probable, and moft received among Chriftian interpreters. The Jews, however, understand it of contracting affinities and intermarriages with the Ifraelitish women; for it was a received maxim among them, that the children did follow the quality of the mother. Every profelyte of righteousness was obliged to circumcife all the males, and baptize all the females in his family, under the age of thirteen ; but those that were above that age, might chufe whether they would fubmit to it, or remain in their own religion. On the other hand, those under thirteen could not be admitted to profelytifm, without the confent, either of their parents, or, in cafe of their refusal, that of two or three judges. In this cafe, their admiffion was looked upon as a new birth, and their parents were no (45) Vide Seld. ubi fup. & de jur. nat. & gent. lib. v. c. 16. & lib. de success, bon. 1. ii, & alib, pajj. Munft, ubi sup. & al. it, præc.

Again, as to the children of whoredom, it is plain, they have not always been rejected, fince Jephthah, who was both judge and general in Ifrael, was the fon of a concubine (44). We must therefore fuppofe, either that these were particular cafes excepted, or, which is moft probable, that mamzer fignified fomething different from either of thefe; perhaps, the children begot by an Hebrew upon a Canaanitish, or any idolatrous woman, in order to deter them from fuch unlawful mixtures, by the confideration, that the iffue of them must be excluded from all the privileges of the Ifraelitish commonwealth, both civil and religious; but, whatever it meant at first, the Jewish ca nonifts, according to their ufual rigidness, have extended it, not only to all illegitimate iffue,

(44) Judg. xi. 1.

meg, 117.

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