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as the Rites and Ceremonies of their ancient Worfhip, together with their Accomplishment in Chrift, and the Gospel, fhall be more compleatly underftood.

CHAP. VI.

Of the Political or Judicial Law of the
JEWS.

QWE have had a particular Relation of the Moral and Ceremonial Laws of the Jews, Say now what was their Judicial or Political Law? A. That which related to their civil Government as a Nation.

2 Q. Who was their Governour?

A. God himfelf condefcended to take upon him the Title of their King, and he appointed various Kinds of Governours under him as he thought fit, Judges viii. 23. 1 Sam, xii. 12, 13. Ifa. xxxiii, 22.

Note, Since the fame Perfon was both their God and their King, the Tabernacle and the Temple may be confidered not only as the Refidence of their God, but as the Palace of their King alfo: The Court of the Tabernacle was the Court of the Palace, the Holy of Holies was the Prefence-Chamber, the Mercy-Seat was Throne, the Cherubs reprefented his Attendants as God, and the Priefts were his Minifters of State as a King, the High-Prieft his Prime Minifter, the Levites were his Officers difperfed through all the Kingdom,

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the Table of Shew-Bread, together with fome Part of the Sacrifices which were given to the Prieft, did represent the Provifion for his Houfhold, &c.

Whatsoever other Governours were made from time to time, either Captains, Judges, or Kings, they were but Deputies to God, who put them in and turned them out at Pleasure.

3Q. What did the Political or Civil Laws, or Commands oblige the People to?

A. To many particular Practices relating (1.) To War and Peace. (2.) To Hufbands and Wives. (3.) Parents and Children. (4.) Mafters and Servants. (5.) Food and Raiment. (6.) Houfes and Lands. (7) Corn and Hufbandry. (8.) Money and Cattle. (9) The Birds and Beafts. (10.) The Firft-born of all Things. (11.) The Maintenance of the Levites and Priefts. (12) The Care of the Bodies and Lives of Men.

4 Q. What were fome of the more peculiar Laws about War and Peace?

A. That they should make no Peace with the seven Nations of Canaan, but that they fhould deftroy them utterly; and that when they went to War, every Soldier who was afraid might go home, Deut. vii. 1, 2, 3. Deut. xx. 8.

5Q. What were fome of their peculiar Laws about Hufbands and Wives?

A. That a Man fhould marry his Brother's Widow, if his Brother died child lefs: And that Men were permitted to put away their Wives by a Wri ting of Divorce, Deut. xxv. 5. xxiv. 1. And that Adultery was to be punished with Death, Lev. xx.

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6 Q. What were fome of their Special Laws about Parents and Children?

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A. The firft-born Son was to have a double Portion: And that any Child who fmote or curfed his Father or his Mother, or was obftinately rebellious and incorrigible, was to be put to Death, Deut. xxi.; 17, 18-21. Exod xxi. 15, 17.

7Q. What are fome of their Special Laws about Majters and Servants?

A.. Any Servant might go free, if his Mafter had maimed him: And an Ifraelitish Servant, though he were bought with Money, fhall go out free for nothing in the feventh Year; and if he will not go out free, his Mafter fhall bore his Ear through on the Door Poft with an Awl, and he fhall ferve him for ever, Exod. xxi. 2—6. and 26, 27.

Note, This Word For-ever fignifies till the Year of Fubilee, for all Servants or Slaves who were Hebrews, were then to have their Freedom, and return to their own Lands and Poffeffions in their own Tribe. See Lev. xxv. 39-42. And this is the best Way of reconciling Exod. xxi. with Lev. xxv. where one Text faith, the Servant fhall go out free in the feventh Year, and another in the Year of Jubilee, and the third faith, he shall serve for ever.

8 Q. What Special Laws had they relating to their Food?

A. That they should eat no Blood, nor the Fat of the Kidneys, nor any Thing that died of itself, or was torn of wild Beafts, nor any of the Beafts or Birds, or Filhes, which were pronounced to be unclean, Lev. xi. and xvii. Deut. xiv. 21. And therefore they would not eat with Heathens, left they fhould tafte unclean Food.

9 Q. What were fome of the Laws relating to their Cloathing?

A. A Man muft not wear the Raiment of Women, nor a Woman the Raiment of Men: They

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must wear no mixed Garment made of Woollen and Linen; and they were required to make Fringes in the Borders of their Garments, and put upon the Fringe of the Borders a Ribbon of blue, that they might look upon it, and remember to do the Commandments of the Lord, Numb. xv. 38, 39. Deut. xxii. 5, 11, 12.

Note, In our Saviour's Time they wrote Sentences of the Law on Parchment, and put them on their Foreheads, and their Garments: Thefe were called Phylacteries, Matt. xxiii. 5.

10 Q. What are fome of their Special Laws about Houfes and Lands?

A. That every seventh Year the Land should reft from ploughing and fowing, and God promifed to give them Food enough in the fixth for the three Years. And every fiftieth Year, which is the Year of Jubilee, all Houfes and Lands that were fold, fhould return to their former Poffeffors, except Houfes in walled Towns, Lev. xxv. 2—17, 20, 21, 30, &c.

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Note, Every feventh Year, in which the Fields were not to be tilled, was called a Sabbath or a Sabbatical Year: And after feven Sabbatical Years, i. e. forty-nine Years, was the Year of Jubilee in the fiftieth: Though fome have fuppofed the Jubilee to be the forty-ninth Year itself, that fo two Sabbatical Years might not come together: For in the Jubilee, it is plain there was to be no Ploughing nor Sowing, nor Reaping, nor Vintage, Lev. xxv. 11.

11 Q. What were fome Special Jewish Laws about Corn and Hufbandry?

A. They were forbid to plough with an Ox and an Afs together; to fow their Fields with Seeds of different Kinds; or to make clean Riddance of their

Harvests,

Harvests, either of the Field or of the Trees, for the Gleanings were to be left for the Poor, Deut. xxii. 9, 10, 11. Lev. xix. 9, 10, 19. And any Travellers might eat their Fill of Grapes or Corn in a Field or Vineyard, but might carry none away, Deut. xxiii. 24, 25.

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12 Q. What were fome of their peculiar Laws about Money, Goods and Cattle ?

A. They might lend Money upon Ufury to a Stranger, but not to an Ifraelite. That a Thief fhould reftore double for whatsoever Thing he has ftolen ; but if he ftole Cattle, and killed or fold them, he must pay five Oxen for an Ox, and four Sheep for a Sheep, Exod. xxii. 22. Deut. xxiii. 19, 20. Exod. xxii. 19. But if he has nothing to pay, the Thief fhall be fold for his Theft, ver. 3.

13 Q. What Special Laws related to Beafs and Birds?

A. They were forbid to muzzle the Mouth of the Ox that trod out the Corn, that fo he might eat fome while he was treading it: Nor when they took a Bird's Neft in the Field with Eggs or young ones, were they permitted to take the Dam with them, Deut. xxv. 4. and xxii. 6, 7.

14 Q. What Laws were given them about the Firftborn?

A. The Firft-born of Man and Beafts were devoted or given to God, as well as the Firft-fruits of the Trees and of the Field, Exod. xxii. 29, 30. Numb. xviii, 12, 13.

Note, The First-born of Men were redeemed by: the Levites: The Firft-born of Beafts were to be facrificed, or fome Way put to Death, if not redeemed, Exod. xii, 2, 12, 13, 15. Numb. iii. 41..

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