yet repented, nor is there any appearance that the great body of the Jews will do this in their prefent difperfed ftate. But having met with better treatment from christians of late years, they have not the inveteracy against them that their ancestors had; and being reformed in other respects, it may be hoped that they are not improper objects of divine mercy. Their complete reformation, and their repentance of the perfecution of chriftians, may be deferred to their final restoration. The remains of the ten tribes are probably the Afghans, who are now Mahometans, and that they will be converted before their.restoration is extremely improbable. But a new series of miracles, which we are taught to expect in the latter days, may reclaim even them, and bring them into the fame fold with their brethren the Jews. Ch, XXVII. 3. If any perfon devoted himself to the fervice of God, and his personal service at the fanctuary was not wanted, he was to pay a fum of money in proportion to the value of fuch fervice. This fum was not to exceed what is here fpecified; and if he was not able to pay it (without, it must be understood, difireffing his family) the priest had the power of reducing it as he fhould think reafonable. 10. This was to impress an idea of respect for whatever had been dedicated to God. 13. The priest might, through ignorance of its rea! value, rate it too high; and the man was not obliged to give more than he had really intended. 17. A man could not give his fubftance to God any more than to a man, beyond the time of jubilee. This would would prevent the perpetual alienation of land from motives of fuperftition. 21. this land, however, the priests were not forbid den to fell, and it is thought by fome that they were un der obligation to do it to fome perfon of the tribe t which the original proprietor had belonged; becauf the priests could have no permanent property in land. Lowman fupposes the meaning of the law to have been, that tho' in general lands reverted to the original proprietors at the jubilee, this remained in the poffeffion of the priests till it was redeemed; so that there was what we call a mortgage upon it. Whatever the law was, we read of no complaint of the acquifition of landed property by the priests in any part of the Jewish hiftory. 28. The term that is here made ufe of, is not the fame with that which was used before, which fimply fignified a gift; whereas this was devoted not as a gift, but as accursed, and devoted to deftruction. But as this could not fet afide any known law of God, it could not be the caufe of taking the life of any human being. 30. The tythe that was given to the Levites as a compenfation for the fervices which they rendered to the nation, Lowman computes to have been not more than three and an half per cent. of the produce of the lands, above what ought to be confidered as their proper eftate, to which they were intitled as one of the twelve tribes. On the civil Government of the Hebrews, P. 326. 32. 1 his, it is thought, alludes to the mode of taking the tythe of cattle. It is faid that as the fheep went out of the fold, a man, with a rod coloured with ochre, stood at the gate, and marked every tenth. But the phrafe passed under the rod, may only mean all that were numbered, or of which an account was taken. This was done by the fhepherd with respect to his sheep, as they passed under his crook, or rod, every night. There is an allufion to this in Ezekiel, where it is faid Ch. xx, 37; I will cause you to pass under the rod, or I will take an exact account of you, and appoint a certain proportion of you to deftruction. It was only of the young of any cattle that tythe was taken. NOTES NOTES ON THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. THIS HIS book has its name from the ac › count of the numbering of the people contained in it. A great part of it is historical, especially relating to the events of the last part of the abode of the Ifraelites in the wilderness. A part of it alfo relates to particular laws and institutions. The want of what we should think to be a good method in the arrangement of the materials of which these books of Mofes confift is one evidence, among many others, of their genuineness. Any person who had undertaken to forge books, would have had more skill in the art of compofition than we fnd in thefe, the feveral parts of which were evidently written as particular occafions occurred, with no attention to artificial method. But the uncommonly numerous particulars of perfons, places, and dates, which occur in these books, is the ftrongest evidence of their having been compofed at the time of the events; and of this the nation, for whofe ufe the books were written, and whom they are far from flattering, never entertained any doubt, Ch. I. 1. This was after they had continued a year near mount Sinai. Had this people left Egypt of their own accord, with a view to a fettlement in another country, it is obvious to remark that they never would have continued fo long in one place, and especially fo near to Egypt; from which they would naturally expect to be attacked, in order to their being brought back to their state of fervitude. They would naturally have pufhed on to their intended fettlement, and have endeavoured to take it while its inhabitants were unprepared to refift them. Inftead of this, they spent a whole year in the neighbourhood of Egypt, and employed themfelves in conftru&ing a coftly place of worship, with a great variety of implements adapted to it, and alfo in digefting a complete body of religious and political inftitutions. No other emigrating nation acted in this manner. They first fecured a fettlement and then made their laws, as they found they had occafion for them, and in the mean time conducted their worship as they had done before. Inftead of this the first thing the Ifraelites do is to change the whole form of their religion, making it as unlike as poffible to any thing they had been accuftomcd to, or could have feen or heard of; and in framing laws fundamentally different from thofe of Egypt, or thofe of any other country. As all this must have been done by a few, it must neceffarily have fo much fhocked the |