the fequel, give the reason why the first of these were be confecrated to GOD, and redeemed by their pare But here we muft obferve, that the word firft-born of males must not be restrained to the eldest son; for he m be eldeft, and yet not firft-born: and therefore Mofes ad that first opened the womb. So that it was poffible amo the Jews, where polygamy and polyguny were allowed, a man to have feveral firft-born, and all to be redeemed the price of five fhekels, as foon as they were thirty da old; at which time they were prefented to the priest, ar the mother offered the facrifice of her purification, mer tioned in a former article; and, the price being paid fo the child's redemption, he began then to belong to the pa rents, and not till then m (F). How they redeemed ther fince the deftruction of the fecond temple, is foreign to ou prefent purpose; the reader may fee it in Leo de Modena and other Hebrew rabbis: only we may obferve, that the children of the priests needed not to be redeemed, at any time. THE firft-born of clean beafts, fuch as calves, lambs, kids, and the like, were alfo confecrated to GOD; but with this difference, that they could not be redeemed, but were to be brought to the tabernacle, or temple, and there be killed: the blood was poured at the foot of the altar, m Exod. xiii. 2. Num. xviii. 15, & alib. good or bad fenfe. Thus God expreffes himself, concerning David, I will make him my firftborn, higher than the kings of the earth (98); where the word means nothing like first-born,in a ftrict fenfe. On the other hand, a most cruel death is in Job called min, becor-maveth, the firft-born of death (99). And Ifaiah called the pooreft, or the weakest of all, 12, becore-dallim, the firft-born of the weak (100). It is therefore probable, that this word was figuratively applied (98) Pfal. lxxxix.27. (1) Gen. xlix. 3. to the firft-born, to imply their excellency in ftrength and dignity, according to Jacob's expreffion to Reuben, his eldest fon (1). (F) According to this law, we find the Virgin Mary redeeming her child Jefus (2): nevertheless, it has been much difputed,whether he was fubject to this, or not, though he is allowed, on all hands, to have been her first-born; concerning which question, the reader may confult, among others, the authors quoted in the margin (3), (99) Job xviii. 13. (100) Ija. xiv. 30. (2) Luke ii. 22, 23, (3) Cyril. Hierofol. bomil. de occurf. Domin. Vid. Cornel. a Lapid, en Exod. xiii. & auƐt. ab eo citat. Origen. Tertul. Ambrof. & el. mult. the the fat burnt upon it, and the reft of the flesh was the prieft's perquifite; with this precaution, however, that if the beaft had any natural or legal defects, such as blindness, lameness, the want of a limb, and the like, it was not to be facrificed: the priest took it home, and there killed and eat it; and might invite whom he would to partake of it, as of any other common meat. But if it was an unclean beaft, fuch as an afs, a dog, and the like; the owner was at his liberty either to redeem it with a lamb, or with five fhekels of money, or to break the neck of it". As to the first product of the trees, all that is meant by it is, that every new-planted tree was to be reckoned uncircumcised, and impure, during the first three years. It was not lawful to gather, much lefs to eat the fruit of it. On the fourth year, all that grew upon it was the LORD's, and, confequently, the perquifite of the priests; from whom, however, the owner might redeem it, if he thought fit, by an equivalent: but, from that time, the owner was at liberty to make the fame use of them as he did of his old ones P. 7. TITHES. These and the first-fruits, and the redemption of the first-born, were the most conftant and confiderable income of the priests and Levites; though the firft is by far the more antient, as we shall fhew in the fequel of this hiftory: however, we confine ourselves to those prescribed by the laws of Mofes, in which he has been fo ftrict, that he ordained, that, of all those which confifted of clean animals, none should be redeemed, at any rate, but that they should all be facrificed to the LORD; and that those which confifted of the fruits of the earth, fuch as grains, fruits, and the like, fhould not be bought off, without paying one fifth part more than their intrinfic value 9. We need not here obferve, that they were given to them as an equivalent for their not having any share in the divifion of the land, nor any portion or inheritance with the reft of the people (H). Vid. Num. xviii. 17, & feq. Exod. xiii. 13. Deut. xv. 20, & feq. • Vid. præc. affirm. 137. P Levit. xix. 23, Ibid. xxvii. 30, & feq. (H) And perhaps, too, with avery judicious view of making them more careful to keep up the religious obfervance of God's laws among the people, top prone naturally to back flide; fince their income was fure to rife and fall, according as the spirit of religion and obedience proved more or less vigorous. THESE THESE tithes were of four forts; namely, 1. Thofe which were thus affigned to the tribe of Levir (I); and these not being of the higher rank of holy things, all the Levites, men and women, clean or unclean, might eat of them. 2. The tenths of these tithes which were affigned to the priests; for these last did not gather the tithes themfelves, but that office belonged to the Levites, who were not to touch any part of them till they had paid that proportion to the priestss, and had fent it to Jerufalem. 3. After a layman had paid his first tithes to the Levites, he was obliged to fet aside a fecond tenth, or exchange it for an equivalent in money, with an addition of a fifth part above the value; and this he was obliged to bring to ferufalem, and there make a feaft, and invite, befides his friends and relations, the priests and Levites to it (K). 4. The laft kind of tithes which Mofes commands, was to be fet by every third year, and be confumed in feasts at r Num. xviii. 20, & feq. Deut. xiv. 22, & alib. Chron. xxxi. 4, & feq. Num. xviii. 25, & feq. xii. 17, 18. xiv. 22, 23. (I) Some authors have been of opinion, that every man was obliged to bring or fend by proxy these first-tithes to Jerufalem (8): but, befides that there doth not appear the least fhadow of a precept for it, it feems rather from the fecond tithes, which the Levites were to fend to Jerufalem (9), to the priefts, that the firft was to be paid upon the fpot, or, at fartheft, in the cities of the Levites. And, indeed, it would have been too great trouble and expence, especially for thofe that dwelt at a confiderable diftance from Jerufalem, to have even sent them thither. If it be objected, that it was equally fo to the Levites, the answer is obvious, that it was much ea Vid. & 2 . Deut. fier for them to fend a tenth part, than to carry the whole thither, and be forced to bring nine parts back to their refpeЄtive homes. (K) That this tenth is dif ferent from the firft that was paid to the Levites, whatever fome commentators have thought to the contrary, is plain; 1. Because the first was the hereditary right of the tribe of Levi, which would have ftarved without it; and this was confumed by the owners and their friends. 2. The Levites were obliged to refund a tenth part of the first to the priests, but in this they were only invited as guefts. 3. The firft was paid all the land over, but this only at Jerusalem. (8) Jofeph. ant. 1. iv. c. 8. Vid. Sixt. Amam. de decim. & au&t, ab eo citat, (9) Comp. Deut. xiv, 22, 23. with Nebem. x. 34, & feq. home, home, to which they were obliged to invite the Levites, the poor, fatherless, widows, and strangers v (L). u Deut. xii. 28, 29. (L) It is, however, more likely, that this laft tenth differed in nothing from the third, but only in that this was spent at home every third year, and the other at Jerufalem on the other two years: fo that there might be properly but three forts of tithes; that of the Levites, of the priests, and these laft, which were rather a kind of euchariftical agape, which the Jews therefore called "y wyn, and the Greeks Taxodendr, the tenth of the poor, and Tobit the third tenth (10). We read, indeed, of another kind of tithes, fuch as Samuel threatened the Ifraelites, their king, if they perfifted in the choice of one, would levy upon them, out of their fields, vineyards, and flocks (11): but as there is nothing of fuch a right mentioned by Mofes in the rules which he fettled for the conduc of their future kings (12), it is likely the prophet only forewarns them of what they would be apt to do, rather than of what they might lawfully do. What the first sort of tithes confifted in, which were thus appropriated to the maintenance of the priests and Levites, whether in all great and small cattle, and other kinds of animals, as well as all forts of grain and fruits, or only in the latter, is (10) Tob. i. 8. Το not eafy to determine. The Jews, if we will believe some of the most learned among them (13), affirm, that they had no fhare nor title in the former; and that the flesh of all those creatures that were decimated,belonged to the owners: and Obadiah de Barthenora adds, that there is not one paffage in the whole law that proves, that the priest had a right to any part of it (14). It is hardly worth while to dive farther into this matter,because we cannot attain to any certainty about it. As for the manner in which the cattle was ufually decimated, we shall give it,in Maimon's own words (15): "A man, fays he, who out of ten lambs, for instance, should "have fet afide one, or ten out "of an hundred, would not be "reckoned to have paid the "tithes of them. The right "way, therefore, of doing it, 66 was as follows: they shut up "all the lambs, kids, or calves, "in a stable, which had one " door fo ftreight, that two "of them could not get out "abreaft; they then brought "their dams to the door, that "their young ones, hearing "their voice, might ftrive to 66 get out, pursuant to what is "faid in Leviticus xxvii. 32. "Every thing that palleth un"der the rod. Accordingly it (11) 1 Sam. viii. 15, & feq. 14, Seq. (13) Vid. Maimon, in becoroth, c. 6. in zebachim, c. 5, & al. (15) Maim, ubi fup. (12) Deut. xvii. (14) Bartbenor. ; To these kind of offerings we might add fome others fuch as that of incenfe (N), which the priests only were to burn every day upon the altar of perfume, before the morning and evening facrifice, and the high-priest once a year in the holy of holies, both which we have already faid fomething of; and those which were offered on folemn feftivals, new-moons, fabbaths, and the like, befides fome others, of lefs note: but we have already dwelt too long upon this article; and fhall only add, that as Jerufalem became afterwards, to the Jews, what the camp was, during their abode in the wilderness; thofe victims, which were ordered to be burnt out of the camp, were, after the building of the temple, to be burnt out of the walls of the city. "was required, that these 66 young ones fhould come out "of themselves, and not be "driven out; and as faft as "they came out one after an"other, they that ftood by told them one, two, three, "and fo on to ten. This tenth "was immediately marked with "red lead; and whether it were "male or female, whether with "or without blemish,the owner "faid, This fhall be confecrated to pay the tithes. If it was "fit, it was then to be facri❝ficed to God; if not, it might "be killed and eaten where the compofition might be, and was lawfully used; as appears by several places of Scripture. Thus we read, that Hezekiah fhewed feveral forts of them, among other rarities of his treasurehouse, to the king of Babylon's embaffadors (25): and king Afa had fome fuch-like fort used at his funeral (26). As to the reafon of this continual burning of incenfe, tho' we grant, that it might be typical of the prayers of the faints, yet we believe we may take that of the learned Maimon along with it, that the multitude of victims, that were continually offered up, would have made the holy place smell too much like a flaughter-house, and, confequently, have inspired the comers rather with disgust and contempt, than awe and reverence, had it not been overpowered by the agreeable fragrancy of thofe perfumes (27). |