could prohibit the fulfilment of the vow, where it was unreasonable: but, to omit that it is fuppofable their confent might be procured to the most unjust and tyrannical effusion of blood, by various artifices, all this about the right of the priests to annul a vow for the deftruction of human life, is pure invention, neither founded in Scripture, (for the paffage recited from Numbers to prove it only declares the priests property or intereft, in such devoted things as are there enumerated, whence he might use them for his fuftenance and comfort,) nor countenanced by any commentaries of the Jewish doctors upon it, nor fupported by any example of fuch interpofition, in the hiftory of the nation.

Finally, as to the ftatute's having a tendency, according to the interpretation which I oppofe, to fecure greater respect from children and flaves, I would afk, did not parents and mafters on their part also need fome restraint from unkind and inhumane behaviour toward them, inftead of being left free to take away their lives after a vow, without becoming obnoxious to fuffer for it? and as to its being a mean of preventing rash and paffionate vows, or curfes rather, to be affured, that after they were pronounced, there was no refiling; it behoved the unhappy perfon who was the fubject thereof, to lose his life, however reluctant and averse his devoter might be to deprive him of it, in more calm and fober hours; it is granted, it might operate this way, where was any diffuafive from natural affection or accidental tenderness, or profpect of fecular advantage; but what bloody work would the ftatute as explained open a wide door unto, wherever any injury real or

imaginary was received, and any displeasure kindled on account thereof, and no fuch friendly or interested restraints against excision? Besides, as one obferves, it was a strange way of deterring men from the wickedness of rafh curfes, to decree by a folemn and public law, that the treatment of the innocent object thereof fhould be anfwerable unto them; the proper method to hinder and discourage fuch paffionate vows of deadly import would have been, to have declared them null, and to have inflicted fome fine or punishment upon the maker thereof, inftead of dooming the guiltless perfon against whom they were levelled, to perish.

May I not now then upon the whole infer, that no more is this than the former, the true fenfe of the law, That whatever child or slave belonging to him

a man shall devote, fhall furely be put to death?” far lefs then can the intention be, Whatever man, without reftriction and limitation, any fhall devote or curfe, fhall be put to death; which yet would be its fcope, according to fuch commentators, unless the words which is his,' are repeated from the former verfe. For fuch a ftatute would have been still more unreasonable, as it would have placed every man, however independent on another, and exempt from his jurifdiction in other matters, at his mercy as to life or death, and would have afforded an eafy opportunity to any person, to rid himself of another, even the most excellent, who ftood in the way of the accomplishment of his schemes, under cover of piety, without incurring any evil for it. Who there fore can entertain the opinion, that fich can be the meaning of the ordinance in a body of laws, where

the lives of others are so strictly guarded, and so solicitoufly preferved from unjuft violence?

In vain furely is it pretended, because God here fuffered a husband to put away his wife, who was become offenfive in his eyes, upon giving her a bill of feparation, in confideration of the hardness of the hearts of the Jewish people, he may also have enacted fuch a law as Capell and his followers will have this to be, for the fame reason; for while it is obvious, that by fuch indulgence in the case of their wives, (which yet was not granted, without a caveat against the precipitate use of it on fudden quarrels, by declaring they should be free to marry other men, and could never be readmitted to the houses and beds of their former husbands, though their affection and defire should return,) greater evils and inconveniencies might be prevented, what greater mischief could be avoided by this ftatute, than that which, upon their interpretation, it introduced? Even the deftruction of the devoted, without any poflibility of redemption.

The connection in which this law stands opened, and the merit of feveral interpretations which take away all pretence for faying that it authorizes human facrifices, or the arbitrary deftruction of the lives of men, examined.

WHAT then shall we fay is the true defign of the ftatute? Perhaps we will derive fome affistance toward the discovery of it from the connection. Let us therefore confider how it is introduced.

In the former part of this chapter, rules are laid down concerning those things which were matter of a neder that is, of a bare or fimple yow, fhewing on what conditions, and at what prices things confecrated to the Lord by it, in confequence of a man's full power over them, and right in them, might be recovered for his own ufe and fervice.-Then Mofes proceeds to speak of things which were matter of a bherem ar curfe, that is, which were devoted to the Lord by any perfon, with an imprecation, or wish of mischief to himself, if he did not fulfill the engagement; as we call them fometimes in our tranflation, which were accurfed to the Lord.' And he fays, by way of exception from these things that were redeemable, because the subject only of a neder or fimple vow, Notwithstanding, no devoted thing 'which a man fhall devote to the Lord, of all that ' he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his poffeffion, fhall be fold or redeemed; every devoted thing is moft holy to the Lord.' * Verse 28.

This expreffion, 'Holy to the Lord,' does not always imply a facrifice, wherefore it is vain to argue from it, that the man fo devoted was to be facrificed. A field could not be facrificed. No more could a beaft which was of the unclean kind; or which, though it was of the clean kind, laboured under any defect, disease, or blemish; while yet if such was the subject of a hherem, it was irredeemable, so that no other could be bought with its price, and substituted in its room on God's altar. Nevertheless, it is decreed both field and beast, as well as man, fo devoted, fhould be holy to the Lord. Why then should any infer from the phrase, that a man was to be facrificed?—Add to this, from a beast's being made a burnt offering, a priest could receive no benefit; for no part would be faved from the altar for fuftenance to him and his houfhold. With what propriety then could it be or dained, Every devoted thing in Ifrael fhail be the prieits.' Numb

Neither field, nor beaft, nor man fo devoted, by a person who hath the intire and independent disposal of the fame, shall be bought off, but continue feparated unto the Lord †, that is, unto facred and religious uses. A field so devoted, shall abide the poffeffion of the priests forever, according to the exprefs determination in verfe 21. And in like manner, a beast, or even a man so devoted, as a Cananaean or other Gentile flave might be, fhall be appropriated always to the ufe of the priests about the tabernacle, instead of returning to their original proprietors, or being applied to common fervices. Then follow the words which have been fo eagerly laid hold of by fome, to evince that God authorized the Jews to deftroy the lives of their fellow creatures at their pleasure and caprice, after devotement of them; None devoted, which fhall be de' voted of men, fhall be redeemed;' or, more literally, but with the fame meaning, Every* devoted, ' which fhall be devoted of men, fhall not be redeem' ed; but shall surely be put to death.'

xviii. 14. if a beaft, upon its devotement, was to be made an holocauft, and consumed to afhes? Neither it is true could an unclean animal be useful to him for food, but it might for carriage and labour.—The reader may obferve also, that the phrase of 'Holiness to the Lord,' is ufed concerning the filver and gold, and, like fpoils of Jericho, which were to be brought into the treafury, Jofhua, vi. 19.

Thus do all the learned Jews understand the 28th verse, of à voluntary confecration to religious ufes, whether of slave, or beast, or field, by the owner. See Selden de Jure Naturae et Gentium, lib. cap 10.

כל חום אשר יחרם מן האדם לא . Verfte *

DVD Col hherem asher iahharam min baadam lo iippadeh moth iumath.