maran-atta used by St. Paul, which fignifies, in both tongues, the Lord comes, or is at hand. Enoch, the feventh from Adam, is fuppofed the author of it, because St. Jude quotes that faying of his, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his faints to execute judgment; and so oni: which must have been, at leaft, owing to fome tradition among the Jews (Z). h1 Cor. xvi. 22. to them, was this, now, bematta, which, they pretend, was proclaimed by the found of 400 trumpets, as, they fay, it was dene at the curfing of Meroz by Deborah. A perfon, fo excommunicated, was never to be received again into the congregation; and fome pretend, that it was even lawful to put him to death. For this reafon, they derive the word from , ham, there; and, mattah, death: to which the expreffion of St. John is fuppofed to allude, There is a fin unto death; that is, according to them, a fin that deferves to be devoted to death (96). But all this is forced; and that which derives it from, the name, and N, comes, or is at hand; feems to us the most rational, and answers to the Syriae maran-atta, which bears the fame fenfe. As for the crimes to which these excommunications were annexed, and the manner of pronouncing them, or of abfolving thefe that had incurred them, the reader may confult Selden and Buxtorf in the places abovequoted, or the learned 7. Jam. Hottinger (97), and others. (96) 1 John v. 16. Vid. Bertram, theol. de pænitent. p. 49, & feq. X.7, & feq, Nebem. xiii. 25. i Ver. 14. (Z) However, thefe fetch the original of it both from thofe frequent expreffions in the Mofaic writings, That foul fall be cut off from Ifrael; and thou shalt put away evil from the midst of thee: and, more particularly, from the words in Deborah's fong, Curfe ye Meroz, faid the angel of the Lord; curfe ye, bitterly the inhabitants of it (98). But, without inquiring into the validity of thefe fubtil etymologies, we find a more express form of it in Ezra and Nehemiah (99), who excommunicated all thofe that refused to repudiate their ftrange wives; and exacted an oath from the people, to avoid all affinity and commerce with them. The fame account of it we find in Jofephus, who adds, that the goods of the excom municated perfon were to be confifcated to the holy treasury (100). It is true, this was done after the captivity; but we need not doubt but they had precedents and laws for it before that time: for it is faid, that it was performed in a legal way, and purfuant to the laws of God. de polit. Jud. c. 2. (98) Judg. v. 23. (100) Ant. l. xi. c. 5. 5 (97) Diff. bift. (99) Exra Law Laws against murder. MOSES tells us, that, from the time of the flood, Murder. murder could not be expiated but by the death of the murderer P, whatever might be the punishment of it before that time. Under the law, GOD feems to exprefs a much greater abhorrence against it: he not only forbad it in the decalogue 4, but appointed avengers to punish the guilty perfon where-ever they found him, and permitted him to be torn from the moft venerable fanctuaries to condign punishments, as was lately hinted; and exprefly forbad both the avenger and judges to make any compofition, or to accept of any other recompence for the crime; and thefe laws extended equally to Ifraelites, and to the ftrangers that dwelt amongst them u (A). We may alfo add another inftitution, extremely proper to infpire the people with an uncommon horror against wilful murder; namely, that for the expiation of an uncertain murder, It was as follows: As foon as the judges, who lived near the place where a man was found murdered, were informed of it, they were to examine what town was nearest to it, and to fummon the elders of that city, who were thereupon obliged to bring an heifer that had never been yoked, and to drive her into a rough uncultivated valley, and there ftrike her head off: these, and the priests, were then to wafh their hands over her, and to profefs, that their hands had not fhed this blood, neither their eyes feen it done; after which, they were to pray to God not to lay it to their charge w (B). Laws against adultery, and all other unlawful commerce of fexes. The trial of adultery, or waters of jealoufy concerning marriage and levirate. Against 1.T will scarcely be thought needful to inquire how far adultery. the words, Thou shalt not commit adulteryx, excluded all other carnal gratifications which were not confined within the bounds of lawful wedlock (C). It is fufficient to fay, that inceft, rape, fodomy, and beftiality, are forbid by other exprefs laws, under pain of death, as well as w Deut. xxi. 1, & feq. * Exod. xx. 14. Deut. v. 18. (C) This is, indeed, the received opinion of many Jews and Chriftians, who, by the word N), naph, understand all kind of illicit coition, and unnatural lufts (1). Yet we beg leave to take notice, that fome of the antients, on both fides, underftood it of the breach of conjugal faith. Accordingly, we find, by Philo and Tertullian, that fome of the Greek copies placed this law against adultery before that against murder in the decalogue; and these two great orators have taken the pains to prove the former to be the more grievous crime of the two, and to defcribe the great hurt it doth to human fociety; the latter concluding it to be the greater crime, because forbidden before murder (2). However, it is certain, that Mofes has no-where given fuch a weighty reafon against that, as he doth against this, when he fays, For in the image of God created he man (3). (1) Vid. Abener. in Exod. xx. & comment. fer. om. in loc. de pudicit. Vid. Carlton. concord, c. 7. (3) Gen, ix. 6. (2) Tertul. adultery. adultery. As for fornication, though it was not made capital in fome cafes, yet was it forbid by feveral laws z: the difference was, that any woman who ventured to marry under the notion of being a virgin, and was proved to be otherwife, was to be ftoned a; whereas, if a man defloured a virgin, he was to pay her father fifty fhekels of filver, and to marry her, without having it in his power to put her away, during her life. Adultery was punishable with death in both parties, whether they were both married, or only the woman; but we cannot affirm the punishment of a married man to have been the fame, who committed adultery with an unmarried woman: for, befides that the crime was not alike, with respect to society, it is plain,that Mofes was forced to indulge them, in fome other particulars, as unjuftifiable as this; fuch as polygamy, divorce, and the like; which are justly condemned in the gospel. HOWEVER, with refpect to the wives, as there was a neceffity, that they fhould be kept under ftricter ties, to prevent ftrange mixtures in families; fo, in order to deter them from all unlawful liberties of that kind, as well as, perhaps, to prevent thofe that were innocent from being unjuftly fufpected and ill-treated by their jealous husbands, Mofes was commanded to appoint the waters of jealousy, with the promise of a conftant miracle, by which the guilty fhould be punished in a very dreadful manner, and the innocent cleared with applaufe. The ceremony was to be performed in the following manner c : 2. WHENEVER a man had conceived a miftruft of his Waters of wife's incontinency, he was to bring an offering for her, jealousy. peculiar to this cafe; namely, a cake made of barley-meal, without oil or incenfe, and to put it into the hands of the prieft: at the fame time he brought his wife alfo, and declared what grounds he had for fufpecting her: the priest then took the accufed woman before the LORD, either to the tabernacle, or temple, uncovered her head (D), and put y Vid. Levit. xviii. paff. Ibid. xx. 10, & feq. Deut. xxii. 22, & feq. 2 Ibid. xxiii. 17, 18. Levit. xxi. 7. a Deut. xxii. 20, 21. b Ibid. ver. 28, 29. Num. v. 24, & feq. (D) The Jews understand by it, fhaving her hair, or, at leaft, cutting the curls off. They add, that they tore her cloaths down to her breaft, and tied them with a packthread: others fay, put the offering into her hand, whilft himfelf took fome holy water, impregnated with wormwood, or fome fuch bitter herbs, into which he put fome of the duft of the floor, or pavement, together with the words of the curfe written at full length, to this effect: That, if she had been. guilty of defiling her marriage-bed, thofe waters fhould fwell and burft her belly, and rot her thigh; but, if the was innocent, they fhould have no power to hurt her. These words he firít read to her aloud, and, if the perfifted to go on with the trial, the answered, Amen. He was then to blot out the words of the curfe in the bitter water, they being, according to the Jews, written with an ink made without vitriol, which would be eafily wafhed away; after which, he gave her the water to drink, whilft he took the offering, or cake of jealousy, off her hand, and wayed it to the LORD, and burnt part of it upon the altar: the confequence was, that, if fhe was guilty, the water did burst her belly, and rot her thigh, and fhe died, foon after her drinking it; but, if he was innocent, the not only came off unhurt, but, as a token and reward of her continence, fhe became more healthy and fruitful; and the husband was to take her home, and cherish her the more, for having given him fuch an eminent proof of her chastity (E). For view. These circumftances, they tell us, had fomething fo dreadful to the Jewish women, efpecially the chafte ones, that they ftudied nothing more, than to keep themselves free from any fufpicion, which might expofe them to that, which they efteemed worse than death. For this reason, they did not suffer a woman to be brought to this trial upon every flight fufpicion the husband was to bring fome proofs, that he had forewarned her,more than once or twice, against being feen in fuch a man's company as he was jealous of; notwithstanding which, they had been found together in private, or in fome remote place, at least, as long a time as a man might boil an egg, and eat it (4). (E) This is all that we find in the Mofaic law. The Talmudifts have added feveral other circumstances relating to this ceremony, which we should be loth to warrant, both because, by their own confeffion, it had been difufed feveral centuries, before their time, fince which adultery became more frequent; and because neither the canonical, nor apocryphal books,or, indeed, any of their writings that we know of, afford us one fingle inftance of its ever having been used before that time, whereby one might guess where they had them. Thus they affirm, that, if |
