CH. XIX, the field of Ephratah had been never so often alienated, yet it always returned to the tribe of Judah, and fo afterwards into David's family, because it was at firft the lot of his ancestors.

This law of jubilee preserved a diftinct knowledge of the several tribes and families; and it alfo kept up a diftinct idea of their genealogies, which must be preferved entire of neceffity, that they might maintain their right to the inheritance of their ancestors.

It would be to no purpose to object against this observation, that it was impoffible to know certainly which tribe, and much lefs which family, every eftate did belong to, because one fees that the first profelytes who went out with the Ifraelites, fhared the land of Canaan together with them for one fees on the contrary,

First, that God would not allow any of the Moabites and Ammonites to become profelytes before the tenth generation;

And fecondly, that he debarred the Edomites from being admitted to make profeffion of Judaifm before the third generation, which excluded them for ever from any poffeffions in the land of Canaan.

And thirdly, one ought to obferve the difference betwixt an Egyptian profelyte, and a native Jew: the quality of a profelyte gave permiffion to an Egyptian to live amongst the Jews, and to profefs their religion; but it gave him no right to poffefs any of their land.

And then, befides that, thofe Egyptian profelytes had a particular way of praying by themselves, different from that of the Jews, as the Jews ftill teftify (n). They could not poffefs any eftate in land amongst them; this is fo true, that it was once found neceflary to make a particular regulation for the daughters of Zelophehad (0), that they might have their divifion, which was granted only under certain conditions, because the land was not to be divided, but amongst the males of the people of Ifrael.

But this is very confiderable, that, by this law of the jubilee, God fixed the Jews to the land of Canaan, by giving the children a power to look upon themfelves, not only as the prefumptive heirs of their parents, but to confider their parents only as ufufructuaries, fince all their poffefbons in land were fo entailed, that the children, or right heirs of any man, could not mifs of the reverfion; becaufe, whatever alienation was made, it could last but for a time, to the year of jubilee, which restored all the alienated poffeffions, abfolutely and entirely, to the right heirs.

Now, that this law was always looked upon as a fundamental law amongst the Jews, appears clearly from the words in Leviticus (p), and from the hiftory of Naboth, which holy man rather chose to die than to comply with the injuft defire of Ahab, who would have forced Naboth to fell his eftate abfolutely, notwithstanding God's exprefs prohibition.

The exemplary vengeance which God took upon Naboth's murder, and the relation of it recorded in Scripture, is a further confirmation of this fame truth if a king of Ifrael durft not at first infringe that law, if it was not violated by any other than Jefabel, who was a foreign princefs; if the tranfgreffion of that law was punished in such an exemplary

(n) Maffa Biccour. c. 1. S. 4. Leviticus xxv. 23. 1 Kings xxi.

(0) Numb. xxvii.

manner;

manner; who can doubt but that it was particularly obferved in the tribe of Judah, as a fundamental law by which God tied up his people infeparably to this very country?

One needs only make fome few reflexions upon those words which God makes ufe of, Ezek. xlvi. to agree to what I fay, if those reflexions which I have made already upon Naboth's murder be alío added to them.

One may obferve upon the fame fubject, that though God had feverat times fubjected the Jews to a foreign power, yet he never fuffered the whole nation to be all carried away out of Canaan at one time, nor yet to continue in captivity for the time of two whole jubilees; they were but seventy years in Babylon, which was the furtheft place that they were ever carried into.

From whence we may naturally conclude, that their genealogies could not be confounded in fo fhort a time, because many that were at the confecration of the fecond temple had feen the firft: nor could the diftinct knowledge of the feveral divifions of their eftates be obliterated; because those of every tribe who continued ftill in the land, might vifibly keep them up.

And we here of neceffity ought to obferve in the first place, what we may read in the xxxiid chapter of Jeremiah (q), concerning the fale of a field which Jeremiah bought:

And fecondly, what we read Nehem. the vth, where he is troubled to fee the alienation of their fields, which was a confequence of their mifery:

And thirdly, the manner how that people were restored to their eftates, according to the fundamental laws of their ftate.

Another very effectual means to fix that people to the land of Canaan, and to preferve their families there certainly without confufion, was the law of lineal retreats, which God inftituted for this very purpose.

For in fhort, when this rule was once laid down, that upon the failure of an heir in any family, the next kinfman was the heir at law, it appears plainly, that every one was obliged, for his own intereft, to inquire with diligence into the genealogical lives of his own tribe, that he might inftruct himself in the state of the feveral families of his kindred, and of the feveral degrees of proximity of blood whereby they might be related, becaufe the exact knowledge of thefe lifts, and of thofe feveral degrees of kindred, were abfolutely neceffary to make ufe of this right of lineal retreats.

There were two other laws which contributed alfo to this; one whereof regulated all that was to be done, when there were none but daughters left in a family: a famous inftance of which, we have in the hiftory of the daughters of Zelophehad, fet down twice by Mofes, on purpose, no doubt, that it fhould be the more taken notice of, as I intend to fhew particularly in another place.

The other law regulated all that the next kinfman of any one that died childlefs, was op iged to do in refpect of the relict, and of the eftate of the deceased, if he intended to redeem it. One finds in the book of Ruth,

(2) Jerem. xxxii.

Ruth, an illuftrious example of the execution of this law, which may found Deuter. xxv.

be

Now after all this, let any one judge, whether there could be any ftronger ties than these, to oblige the people of Ifrael to continue in the land of Canaan; and whether the divifion which God made of it, betwixt their feveral tribes and families, was not an infallible means to diftinguifh them certainly one from another.

CHA P. XX.

That the Laws which Moses made concerning the State of Virginity, did principally relate alfo to the MESSIAH, which holds alfo as to feveral other Laws.

H

TITHERTO I have fhewed the care which God took to diftinguish his people of Ifrael from all other nations of the world; and I afterwards fhewed what care he took to keep the distinctions which he first fet up amongst the tribes; and 1 afterwards explained those laws which he gave, to oblige every family in each tribe to remain diftinct; and I afterwards made it manifeft, that the divifion of the land of Canaan was a very proper means to execute this defign of God.

All which fhews, that God intended to make it easy for every man to diftinguish the Meffiah, when it it fhould be once known that he was to be born out of the family of Jee, as it was afterwards foretold by feveral exprefs oracles.

But as there ought to be fomething fupernatural in the birth of the Meffiah, who was to be born of a Virgin, fo we ought to fee what care God took in his laws, that the birth of the Meffiah, even in this very article, might not be a fact too difficult to be acknowledged and established.

In the first promife which God made to man in these words, That the feed of the woman fhould bruife the ferpent's head, being joined with Isaiah's prophecy, Behold, a virgin fhall conceive, &c. If. vii. it is vifible, that for the accomplishment of thefe oracles, one ought to fuppofe that the Meffiah must be born of a virgin, as the Chriftians profefs to believe. Why should God otherwife have taken care, to infinuate, from the very beginning of the world, that the Meffiah was to be born of the feed of a woman, without mentioning any thing of a man, if he had not fuppofed that he fhould be born without the operation of a man? And why hould Ifaiah propose the conceiving of a virgin, as an effect wholly fupernatural?

In fhort, God did therefore by his laws not only fecure the ftate of virginity, that this thing might not be ambiguous when it fhould be accomplished, but (as we fhall fee here) he has by these laws made it extremely illuftrious.

3

First,

First, befides that, God would have the punishment of death inflicted upon them that were at any time found guilty of fins against nature, as alfo upon them that should be proved to have had any incestuous commerce with those that were nearly related to them, and to whom either the nearness of blood, or affinity, gave them a more free and familiar accefs. He moreover ftraitly commanded, that all proftitutes fhould be put to death without any mercy (r).

Secondly, he is not contented to forbid fornication and adultery in general, by condemning to death those that expressly fhould be convicted of it, and by awarding the fame fentence against him that should happen to corrupt a contracted virgin, and the virgin herself (s); but he alfo hinders men, by two ways, from falling into fins of impurity; he permitted, on the one hand, a divorce where the wife did not please her husband, and on the other hand he allowed of polygamy. This tolera-. tion made that virgins, on the one fide, not remaining too long unmarried, were not eafily to be corrupted; and, on the other side, men were not very forward to debauch those women whom they did not intend to marry, or to keep when married; for he that was compelled to marry a virgin whom he had feduced, was exprefsly forbidden to put her away for ever after (t).

It is natural to obferve the defign of those laws amongst the people of the Jews (u). In fhort, the defire of iffue made them marry very young ;; moft of the men were married at eighteen years of age.

Therefore all virgins thought it a fhame to be unmarried; therefore. God makes them speak, in the third of Ifaiah, in that manner, when feven women would marry one man, without asking any thing for diet or clothes, provided only that he would take away that reproach of living without having children. It was this defire of pofterity which made the women look upon barrennefs as a curfe.

Again, this vehement defire of children made eunuchs to be regarded as men particularly abhorred of God, not only by the Jews, but also by the Heathens themfelves (x): although afterwards they paffed for holy. men, because they defigned to imitate what (as they were told) had happened to Noah, by his fon Ham, which introduced the custom amongst the Affyrians of caftrating themfelves, that they might be priests.

Thirdly, God commanded, that any virgin which was betrothed to a husband, and was corrupted in her father's house, or that was ravished without calling for help, fhould be punished with death (y); fo that all the virgins were indifpenfably engaged, for fear of lofing both life and honour together, to preferve their virginity with all poffible care.

But here is a fourth law concerning this matter, whereby God obliged the parents of all contracted virgins to take a more than ordinary care of them, when he commands, Deut. xxii. 21. That a virgin for whom the tokens of virginity were not found, fhould be brought out of the door of her father's

(r) Exod. xxii. Deut. xxii.
(s) Exod. xxii. Levit. xx.
(t) Deut. xxii.

(x) Lucian. de Eunuch. p. 537.
(y) Deut. xxii.
VOL. I.

Levit. xviii. Levit. xx. Deut. xxiii. 17.
Deut. xii.

(u) Maffec. Avoth. c. 5.
Lucian, de Dea Syriá, p. 1069.

Y

father's houfe, and there be ftoned to death by the men of the city; for fo her parents were, by that means, made partakers of the punishment of her crime, and their negligence was feverely punished by such a shameful execution as difhonoured their whole family.

Fifthly, God fubmitted women to the examination of their husbands to whom they were married: nay, one would think that he intended to raife the jealoufy of husbands, when he gives them leave to bring their wives to a public trial, and to punish them with death, when they did not preferve the tokens of their virginity.

It was for that reafon that he commanded (z), that the parents or near relations of the young married women thus complained of, fhould produce upon all fuch occafions the tokens of the virginity of those daughters which they difpofed in marriage, which was ufually done with many folemn circumftances and formalities.

And here are three things which deferve to be attentively confidered. The firft is, the cuftom that was amongst the Jews for parents never to let their virgin daughters go out their houfes; which cuftom made them be called concealed, in oppofition to those that went abroad, that is, that were proftitutes.

The fecond is, another cuftom which the juft defire of preferving the virginity of their daughters againft all accidents, had introduced amongst that people; which was, that all their virgins did wear a fort of fetters, which are called, in the Talmud, cevalim, which are defcribed by the famous Mofes, the fon of Maimon, in this manner: Cevalim funt compedes in forma perifcelidis, inter quos interpofuerunt catenulas, illis compedibus ornabant fe virgines, ut non incederent paffu magno, ne contigeret ipfis damnum in virginitate fua (a). This defcription may be thought to be one of the foolish fancies of the modern Jews, if we did not meet with proofs of the practice of that cuftom in more ancient times. In fhort, one fees, in the third of Ifaiah, that chains are reckoned up amongst other ornaments of the daughters of Ifrael, which God threateneth to take away from them, when he would force them to go captives into Babylon.

The third is, an ancient tradition mentioned in the Pirke Eliezer, in the fixteenth chapter, Solent Ifraelitæ digito educere virginitatem, ne incidant in dubitationem vel fufpicionem, juxta illud, fumat pater & mater puellæ, &c. In a word, it feems that, for fear left these tokens of virginity fhould be thought to be obfcure and ambiguous by their hufbands, God has provided for the fecuring of the virginity of their young women before marriage by a miracle, the experience whereof was ordinary and common amongst fo jealous a people; I mean, the waters of jealoufy (b), which all women, whofe carriage was fufpected by their husbands, were obliged to drink, by which God did either miraculously justify them, or elfe he began to inflict a punishment upon them, which was fo much the more dreadful and exemplary, as it proceeded from the hand of God himfelf. This miracle lafted to the deftruction of the fecond temple, as the Jews themselves tell us in that title of their Talmud (c) which concerns women fufpected of adultery.

(2) Deut. xxii.

However,

(a) Ad Maffec. Sabbath. c. 6. J. 4.
() Sota, c. 9.

(6) Numb. v. Jofeph. 1. 3. Antiq. p. 95.