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like for which reafon the priests and Levites were appointed to affift, if not to prefide in them. The next in authority to the magiftrates, were natural parents; and these were to be honoured and obeyed in a most particular manner (U). St. Paul obferves, that this is the firft

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m Exod. xx. 12.

likewife allowed a counsellor to plead for him, who was called nya, babal-rib, the mafter of the process; and he stood on his right-hand, and pleaded for him. Many expreffions there are, in the pfalms, in the prophets, and other places of the Old Testament, that feem fo plainly to allude to one or other of thefe judicial forms,as make it more than probable,that they were in ufe long before the captivity. After a full hearing, the = votes were gathered and examined; and,according to them, the perfon was either abfolved, or condemned, in words to this purpose: Thou, Simeon, art in nocent; thou, Judah, art guilty: and if the latter, and his crime was capital, he was immediately put into the executioner's hands, and led to execution but if the crime was fuch as only deferved whipping, it was forthwith performed,before the whole court (73).

(U) The Talmudifts observe, that the law lays a greater ftrefs upon honouring our parents, than upon honouring God; because we are only injoined to honour the latter with our fubstance (74); whereas we are

Deut. v. 16, & alib.

command

bound to honour the former, whether we have any substance or not; and to work, in order to be able to maintain them (75). This is a duty to which the Egyptians feem to have been ftrangers, if what Herodotus fays of them be true, that the fons were not bound to maintain their parents, unless they were willing; but that the daughters were obliged to it, whether willing or not (76). It likewise excelled that of the Perfians, Greeks, Romans, and other polite people, in that it included both parents; whereas these only, or, at moft, principally, the father. This appears by the Perfian law mentioned by Ariftotle, by the Roman digests, and inftitutions mentioned by Epictetus, Simplicius, Philo de legatione, and others (77). We' fhall obferve farther, that the words of the promise annexed to this command run thus in the original: That they may prolong thy days, and fo on. From which the generality of Jewish interpreters conclude the word they to relate to the father and mother fo honoured; namely, that they might prolong, by their prayers and blef

(73) Vid. de his Mifbn. tract. fanbedr. citat. Vid. & præc. affirm. fup citat. Simeon. Vid. praec. affirm. 112, & 113. Carlet, barm. of N. and P. laws, c. 6. VOL. III.

c. 5. Maim. M. Kotz, & al. fup. (74) Prov. iii. 9. (75) Rab. (76) Herodot. l. ii. c. 25. Vid. (77) Idem ibid.

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fings,

Punish

ments.

command with a promise"; and the punishment of difobedient and wicked children was no lefs fevere. It was death for any to curfe or ftrike their parents, or even to continue in a ftubborn difobedience to their commands. In this last case, they had power to inflict any penishment but death upon them; and, if that proved ineffectual, they might then bring and accufe them before the judges, who, upon full proof, were obliged to condemn them to death P, without mercy or delay. And, now we are upon the subject of punishments, it will not be improper to conclude this article with an account of those which were either appointed by the Mofaic law, or made ufe of at the prince's will, against obnoxious perfons, before the captivity.

OF the firft kind were the smaller fort of punishments; which were either, 1. Fines by way of compenfation for wrongs, theft, and the like. 2. Selling for flaves those who were not able to pay their debts, or make fatisfaction for a wrong. 3. The talion law, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, ftripe for stripe, &c. Laftly, whipping; and this laft was not to exceed forty lafhes 9. The capital punishments were of four kinds; namely, ftoning, burning, beheading, and ftrangling. 1. Stoning was the moft usual; and when the law condemned a perfon to death, without naming the kind, this was always understood to be meant by it (W). The crimes, which deferved this

*

" Eph. vi. 2. • Exod. xxi. 15. 17.
xxi. 18, & feq.
9 Ibid. xxv. 3.
Num. xv. 35. 1 Kings xxi. 13.

fings, the life of their dutiful
children. The words are,indeed,
capable of either fense; but, if
the Jews had taken them in
this last in our Saviour's time,
they would not have met with
fo fevere a reproof from him
for eluding that precept.

(W) Some modern Jews ra-
ther think, that it was ftran-
gling, because it was an easier
death; and that, in cafes where
the particular kind is not ex-
preffed, the most favourable is

(78) Vid. R. Salem. in Exod. xxi. 16.

vil. 5.

Levit. xx. 9. P Deut. r Ex. Levit. xxiv. 14. & * Vid. Deut. xvii. 7.

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death, were all kind of inceft, fodomy, beftiality, ravishing a betrothed virgin, or her confenting to be defiled by another man; blafpheming, fabbath-breaking, witchcraft, idolatry, inticing others to idolatry, rebellious children, offering one's feed to Moloch, and fome others of the like nature. For fome of these laft, the criminal was likewife to be hanged, after he had been ftoned to death, as we have feen in a former note; where we have alfo hinted fomething concerning the manner of this execution, and to which we have nothing to add, but that it was always done out of the city, as it was out of the camp during their abode in the wilderness: here, after he had confeffed his fault, the witneffes came and laid their hands upon his head, and faid aloud, Thy blood be upon thee, and threw the first ftone; and the reft of the fpectators helped to dispatch him*(W). This, however, muft be understood of regular cafes; for there were others of an irregular nature, wherein it was allowed to ftone the criminal, fuch as a blafphemer, idolater, adulterer, upon the spot, without further trial. But thefe ought rather to be looked upon as zealous mobbings, though encouraged under the fpecious title of judgment of zeal, founded upon the action of Phineast, of which we shall speak in the fequel of this hiftory.

2. BURNING. This punishment was ufed before Mofes, as appears by Judah's condemning his daughter-in-law to the flames w. Some interpreters, indeed, think, that he meant no more than to have her burnt in the forehead, or ftigmatized her for her incontinency,but without any proof, as will be feen in the fequel. The Mofaic law condemned the daughters of priests to be burnt for incontinency x; and Achan was condemned to be ftoned and burnt for facrilege Y. These are the only two places where that punishment is mentioned. The Jews tell us, alfo, of fome

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other crimes which were punished with it, particularly fome kinds of inceft. They add, that it was twofold; namely, burning with fire, and with melted lead poured down the criminal's throat.

3. BEHEADING. This, the Jewish doctors fay, was a punishment appointed only for murderers, and for towns that were fallen into idolatry: but we find nothing like it to have been practifed before the captivity, in a judicial way (X).

BUT

2 Vid. Mos. Korz, in tract. fanhedr. c. 1. GOODWIN'S Mof. and Aar. 1. v. c. 7. fect. 13.

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(X) It is true, indeed, that Abimelech,one of Gideon's fons, caused feventy of his brothers to be beheaded upon one ftone at Ophra (82); that the men of Samaria fent the heads of the fame number of Ahab's fons to the new king of Ifrael (83); and that forty-two of Abaziah's brethren were put to death, probably, in the fame way, by the fame Jehu's orders (84) but it is plain, that none of these were done in a judicial way. We find, likewife, inftances of perfons being put to death by the fword: thus Samuel killed the king of Amalek (85); in the fame manner David ordered the meffenger of Saul's death to be flain (86); and Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei,were killed by Solomon's order, one of them at the very foot of the altar (87).

4. Strangling. The text makes no explicit mention of this kind of death; but the Talmudifts reckon fix forts of criminals that were condemned to it; namely, 1. Thofe that

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4.

ftruck their parents. 2. Menftealers. 3. The priests that refufed to conform to the determination of the court. Falfe prophets, or those who prophefied in the name of falfe gods. 5. He that defiled another man's bed; and, 6. He that had criminal converfation with a prieft's daughter. These were executed as follows; they were immerged in dung up to the knees; two executioners tied a napkin about their neck, and twisted it till they were quite fuffocated. All kinds of criminals were buried apart by themselves, and on the fame day, together with the inftruments of their death, whatever they were, to blot out, as much as poffible, the remembrance of it (88).

To these we may add fome foreign punishments, which were afterwards adopted by their kings: fuch were those which David caufed to be inflicted on the Ammonites (89), and that which Manasseh put the prophet Isaiah to, whom he

(83) 2 Kings x. 7. (86) 2 Sam. i. 15. fanbedr. ubi fup.

(84) Ibid. ver. 13, & feq. (87) 1 Kings ii. 25. 30, (89) 2 Sam. xii, ult,

BUT the most dreadful of all their punishments, though Excommunot a capital one, was excommunication, especially that nication, which they called shematta (Y), answering to the Syrian

is fuppofed, by feveral antient fathers (90), to have caused to be fawn in two from the head downward, with a wooden faw, from the words of the apoftle (91), Some were fawn afunder. The difficulty here is about the wooden faw, how it could be fit for fuch a purpose: but,allowing the thing to be really fact, and a tradition of it to have been preserved, we need but fuppofe the expreffion to be an Hebraism, that is, a wooden faw,for a faw with which wood used to be fawn, which is a common idiom in that tongue. This expreffion of cutting in two, and cutting afunder, is, indeed, frequent in the Old Testament, and in the apocryphal book of Sufanna. We omit fome other punithments of the like nature, which would only fill our readers with horror: as for that of crucifixion, fuch as Chrift fuffered, though fome have fanfied it to be implied in the words of Deuteronomy (92), If a man be hanged on a tree, bis body shall not remain all night on it, &c. yet it is generally allowed to have been, not a Jewish, but a Roman punishment, and fo foreign to our purpose.

(Y) The Jews reckon three kinds, or, rather, degrees of excommunication. The first they call '17,niddui, from 7,

maran

nadah, to feparate, or put from one fo that this word was indifferently used to express those that were feparated for any uncleannefs, or for any crime that came within this degree of excommunication (93). The time of its lafting was limited to 30 days; and yet the delinquent could either fhorten it, by doing penance; or lengthen it, by ftubbornness, even to the end of his life, if he perfifted in it. In this laft cafe, they refused to circumcife his children; and, if he died impenitent, the judge ordered a tone to be thrown into his coffin, or bier, to fhew that he deferved to have been ftoned.

The fecond degree they cal led n, cherem, anathema; and this, they pretend, was more fevere than the niddui, because it excluded the perfon from the fynagogue, and from all civil commerce, which the other did not. But we fhall fhew, in the fequel, that this word fignified quite another thing, and was applicable to men and things vowed to death or deftruction (94). And our learned Selden has proved, that there were really but two kinds of excommunication, the leffer and the greater; and that the terms, niddui, cherem, and hematta, were used indifferently (95).

(90) Juftin. Mart. dialog. cont. Tryph. & al. (91) Heb. xi. 37.

The laft, however, according

Orig. ex lib. apocr. Hieron. in Isa, (92) Deut. xxi. 22. (93) Vid. int. (94) Vid. Levit. xxvii. 29. Joh. vil. 11, & feq. (95) De Synedr, vet, Heb. 1. i, 6, 7, & S.

al. Ezek. xviii. 6.

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