Laws concerning vows. As S these made a folemn part of the Jewish worship and Lars conofferings, they may properly be joined, as an appendix cerning to the former, though their being free and arbitrary doth vows. not permit us to put them in the fame rank. How foon they began to be in ufe, we fhall fee in Jacob's vowing the tenths of all his acquifitions, as he went to Padan-aramb: however, we confine ourselves to those under the Mofaic difpenfation, concerning which that lawgiver made feveral regulations, in order to direct and inforce the performance of them c. Vows were of a twofold nature; namely, 1. Of such as devoted the thing vowed, whether men, beaft, money, or any part of a man's poffeffion, to the fervice of God. 2. Of fuch as devoted them to utter deftruction © (O). Under the first head it plainly appears, that persons who were fui juris, or their own mafters, might vow themfelves, their children, or any part of their poffeffions, to GOD. We fay fui juris, because the vows of a fon or a daughter, of a wife or flave, were of no further force, than as they were approved or disapproved by those under whose power they were: fo that a parent, husband, or mafter, if he heard the vow when it was made, or when he came afterwards to be informed of it, was at liberty either to give it a fanction, or to difannul it; but, if the latter, he was obliged to do it on the fame day, according to the d Ver. b Gen. xxviii. 20. 2, & feq. e Ver. 28, 29. • Levit. xxvii. paff. (0) The original diftinguishes them by the words 7, nadar, which fignifies to vow, in the firft fenfe; and, cherem, which implies, to lay a thing or perfon under an anathema, or to devote it or him to deftruction. Several learned commentators, indeed, will not allow of this laft meaning, when it relates to men; but think, that thofe perfons, who were thus vowed, were to become wholly devoted f. Num. xxx. pass. to God beyond the poffibility of (28) Vid, Munft, Grot, Le Clerc, Pagnin. Jun. Calm, VOL. III. text Anathe mas. text; or in twenty-four hours, according to the Jewish doctors. OF perfons vowing themselves in this sense, we meet with no plain inftance; but, of their vowing their children, we have, among others, that of Samuel, who was dedicated to God by his mother's vow, ratified, as is to be supposed, from what we just now hinted, by her husband 8; and he was, accordingly, confecrated to God's fervice all his lifetime. However, in these cafes, the law of Mofes allowed of a redemption, or commutation for a fum of money, which was either greater, or lefs, according to the age and fex of the perfon vowed; for which the reader will find a rate fixed to each of them, and an allowance made for those who were not able to pay that fum, in the chapter above-quoted concerning vows . THE cafe was quite different with respect to those things which were vowed to deftruction; for they could not be redeemed at any rate i. That which had life,was to be put to death; and that which had not, was to be destroyed by fire, or fome other way. We meet with various instances of it in the Jewish hiftory; but fhall fingle only a few of the most remarkable, under the following note (P). 8 1 Sam. i. 21, & feq. ver. 28, 29. (P) Thus, for inftance, the kingdom of Arad, and the cities of the Canaanites, were under the fame anathema (29), and, more particularly, Jericho ; and Achan, and all that he had, fell under the fame curfe, because he had saved fome of the plunder of that city (30), which was to have been destroyed. As for Jephthah's vow, befides that it was not exactly of the fame nature, and authors are much divided about the manner of his fulfilling it; it will be more proper to examine it when we come to the hiftory of that judge. The Ifraelites,aflembled WHAT Levit. xxvii. 3, & feq. i Ibid. at Mizpeh, vowed thofe to deftruction that did not affift in punishing the tribe of Benjamin, for their barbarous ufage of the Levite's concubine (31): and Saul would have facrificed his own fon Jonathan, for ignorantly incurring the curse, which he had laid upon those that should eat or drink whilst he was in pursuit of his victory, had not the whole army strongly opposed it. By all which inftances, and many more that could be brought, it appears, that nothing less than death was the lot of the persons devoted by this kind of vows. (29) Num. xxi. 1, &feq. Deut. vii. 23, & feq. xx. 15, & feq. (30) Folk. vi.vii. paf. (31) Judg. xxi. 5. Thofe WHAT curfe Jonadab, the fon of Rechab, had laid upon his pofterity, if they did not obferve his arbitrary injunctions, of abftaining from wine, from planting, sowing, and Thofe who think, that, when they related to human victims, they meant no more than that they fhould be dedicated to God's fervice as long as they lived; do, indeed, object the abhorrence which God expreffes against all kind of human facrifices: but we beg leave to obferve, that the cafe here is not about facrifices, but vows, and fuch as, for aught appears to the contrary, by all the inftances we meet with, were not in the power of private men to make, but only either of the whole nation, as in the cafe of the land of Arad, or of the kings and judges, as in the other inftances above-mentioned. Befides, they feem altogether to relate to thofe idolatrous nations they were going to conquer, the measure of whofe fins had already provoked God to pass sentence of deftruction against them in which cafe, if they bound themselves by a folemn vow to put it in execution, they would be more likely to fulfil it. Accordingly, we find them very exact where that was the cafe,and as remifs when it was not; else they had not left fo many nations undeftroyed, to be a continual fnare to feduce them into all manner of idolatries. If, therefore, it was of fo great confequence to them to remove all fuch dangerous incitements, we need not wonder if they were, in fome measure, led into it by the ftronger obligation of an oath. But, after all, this precept may be only an inforcement of that vow which Mofes had exacted of the whole nation a little before his death, of observing all the commandments of God, one of which was the extirpation of all these nations, with all their monuments of idolatry: in which cafe, the meaning of those words will be only this, that, as they had folemnly vowed it to God, they muft not pretend hereafter to exempt themselves from it, upon any pretence whatever. Those who understand the original, know, that the futurë tenfe is very often used for the paft, and fo vice versa: so that the words may be properly rendered, shall have vowed, inftead of hall vow. These two verfes, therefore, seem to us to come in as an exception to the regulations which Moses had made a little before,concerning the redemption of those things which had been vowed in the first sense; and which he therefore prefaces with the word ak, notwithstanding, or neverthelefs, whatsoever shall be vowed in the fecond fenfe, that is, to deftruction, whether of men, or beafts, &c. fhall not be redeemed, but put to death: that is, ye have all bound yourfelves, by a folemn oath, to deftroy all those nations that will not accept of proffered peace, and forfake their idolatry,and to exterminate all that belongs to them: remember therefore, that and the 1ke, doth not appear; but how find obfervers 1 found themselves; at which time they fet by the price of their facrifice, in order to bring or fend it to the temple by the next opportunity. This is what we find St. Paul did, who made this vow at Corinth, fhaved his head at Cenchrea, and went, foon after, to Jerufalem, to accomplish it by the ufual offering. Laws concerning the priests, Levites, and Ne thinims. THE two laft things to be confidered, under this head Laws conof the worship of GOD, or, as it is commonly called, cerning the the commands of the firft table, are, 1. The perfons, and, priests. 2. The things, which were, in a more peculiar manner, confecrated to his fervice. Of the firft fort were the priefts, Levites, and Nethinims; of the fecond, the tabernacle, and afterwards the temple, with all the pompous apparatus of utenfils prefcribed by GOD himself to Mofes on the mount, in order to infpire that carnal people with a greater awe and reverence for his religion. As to the tribe of Levi, we fhall fee, in the fequel, how, and upon what account, it was feparated from the reft, and appointed for this important office (Q). I. Of Acts xviii. 18. (Q) Before that time the priesthood is generally thought to have belonged to the firftborn; and when Mofes ratified the covenant between God and the people at the mount, he acted the part of chief-prieft, and chose a set of young men to act under him (33); but after the tribe of Levi had been thus fet apart for the inferior, and the family of Aaron for the higher offices of the miniftry, it became a capital crime for any other tribe to interfere with them in the facred function; infomuch that God's vengeance did miraculously display itself (33) Exod. xxiv. 5, & feq. (35) Deut. xxxiii. 8, & feq. & lib. in the punishment of the first |