consistent injunctions, of which one directs the ministry of the Levites to commence from the thirtieth year, and the other from the twenty-fifth.* The former relates to those more burdensome labours which I have mentioned, and the latter to the care of the tabernacle. These different employments required persons of different ages and different degrees of strength. I know that some persons endeavour to obviate this difficulty by another solution. They suppose the Levites to have been called to a course of instruction for their office at their twenty-fifth year, but not to the actual performance of its functions till the completion of their thirtieth. But this supposition, as Abarbinel observes, is at variance with the scripture, which expressly states the Levites, at twentyfive years of age, to have been called "to wait -66 upon the service of the tabernacle," which clearly denotes, not instruction for their ministry, but the ministry itself:' and there can be no doubt that their instruction for their office began before that age. But these remarks are to be understood of the Levites before they were numbered by David. For David, a little before his death, directed them to be called to their office "from twenty-years old and "upward." I say nothing here of such as were appointed to preside in civil affairs; but those who had attained that age, and were devoted to the service of the sanctuary, were divided, as we have before observed, into three orders; and each order was distributed into twenty-four classes. One of these orders was appointed to assist the priests; the second, to keep the gates of the sanctuary; and the third, to + Maimon, in Chele Hamikdash. c. iii, * Num. iv. 3. viii. 24. § I Chron. xxiii. 27. accompany the public solemnities with vocal and instrumental music. But it is said by the Jews, that, to preserve the divine worship from being disgraced by the less melodious notes of old men, every one more than fifty years of age was removed from the quire. This idea is conveyed in the following passage of Abarbinel. The Levites are incapacitated by age, not by corporeal blemishes. The priests are. 'disqualified by corporeal blemishes, but not by age. For though the sons of priests were not accustomed to perform the sacred functions before they were twenty years old, yet, as the same author has remarked, there is no law of God forbidding them to officiate under that age. What then, according to the divine law, is the proper age for exercising the sacerdotal functions? The same, says Abarbinel, as for observing God's commands in general: A priest 'is really qualified for his office, as soon as he has ' attained an age capable of knowing his obligation 'to observe the precepts of the law. But the priests, his brethren, permit him not to officiate till the completion of his twentieth year.' IV. As the Levites were given to be assistants to the priests, so were "the Nethinims appointed for the service of the Levites," but with considerable inferiority of condition. The Nethinims were descended from the Gibeonites, whom Joshua, on account of the league he had made with them, would not utterly destroy, but whom, on account of the fraud employed by them to accomplish that league, he devoted to perform the drudgery of the sanctuary; commanding them to be made "hewers of wood and drawers "of water." * Ad Num. viii, Ezra viii. 20. Josh.ix. 21. 94 CHAPTER VIII. The Nature and different Kinds of Sacrifices, according to the Jews. Particular Account of the Meat Offerings. THE preceding disquisition respecting the sacred places and the ministers of religion, appointed for the Hebrews, prepares us to enter with greater facility on an examination of their sacrifices. Since the Jews consider no dedicated things as sacrifices properly so called, except that class of oblations which the sacred writers name Corban,* we must first inquire what is it that the scripture designates by this term. It is applied to whatever was offered to God before an altar. Nor is any thing else ever distinguished by this appellation, except the wood provided for the sacred fires; which I suppose to have been so denominated, because it was designed to be used upon the altar. Now all consecrated things ought to be considered as offered before an altar, which were brought to the door of the tabernacle; that being the place where God commanded sacrifices to be offered to him, and where the great altar was placed, which after the erection of the temple was removed into the court of the priests: so that whatever was offered at the door of the tabernacle, was at the same time offered before the altar. Of those things which were offered to God before the altar, some were dismissed and sent away, as the goat which was led into the wilderness; some were dedicated, entire and uninjured, to the service of the sanctuary; and others were cut in pieces and con+ Nehem. x. 34. xiii. 31. Levit. xvii. 4, 5, 6. Exod. xl. 6. 29. קרבן * sumed. Among those that were dedicated entire to the service of the sanctuary, were the vessels appropriated to the sacred uses, and the Levites appointed to assist in the sacred functions. The Levites were formally offered to God by Aaron, before the door of the tabernacle, and were called " an offering;" yet they were not slain as victims, but devoted alive and entire to the sacred office.* All those vessels of the sacred service, the chargers, bowls, and spoons, which the princes of the tribes contributed for the solemn dedication of the altar, were presented to God before the altar, on account of which they are also called "offerings," and were afterwards preserved entire for the service of the sanctuary. Hence it is, that neither the Levites, nor the vessels appropriated to sacred uses, notwithstanding they were. offered to God, are ever reckoned among the sacrifices. The same observation must be made respecting the goat, which after having been offered to God before the altar was led away alive into the wilder ness. II. Those things which, being placed before the altar, or on the sacred table in the outer sanctuary, were offered to God in this manner in order to be consumed in due form, are included by the Jews in the number of the sacrifices. According to their opinion, then, a sacrifice may be defined, an offering duly consumed: or to be a little more explicit, a sacrifice among the Hebrews, was such a sacred oblation as was first offered to God, and then, in due form, cut in pieces and consumed. Sacrifices were duly consumed which were slain, burnt, poured out, or used for sacred feasts, with rites of divine institution. Of those rites ↑ Numb. vii. 10, &c. Numb. viii. 10, 11. 13. and ceremonies we shall have to treat more at large hereafter. But the definition just given comprehends only those sacrifices, which, as we have already stated, are considered as such by the Jews, and which the scriptures call "oblations" or "offerings." I make this remark, because the scripture mentions some other victims, which, as they were never presented to God before his altar, are no where called oblations, and yet, I think, may justly be denominated expiatory sacrifices. In this class ought to be reckoned the bird killed for the purification of the leprosy; and also the heifer whose head was to be cut off for the expiation of murder in a case where the murderer was unknown. Though this heifer is not styled an offering in any passage of scripture, yet it was truly an expiatory victim, and in an extensive sense might, perhaps, be called a sacrifice; especially as the attendance of the priests was required on that occasion. Nor can any very different opinion be formed of the red heifer, whose ashes were to be kept for the purification of persons defiled with dead bodies. For, though that heifer was to be burned without the sanctuary, and even without the camp, there seems to be so much the greater propriety in classing it among the sacrifices, because its blood was to be sprinkled before the sanctuary seven times, and that by the hand of the priest: so that the life of that heifer was considered as presented and consecrated to God. The goat which on the solemn day of expiation was sent alive into the wilderness, bearing away the sins of the people that had been laid upon him, was presented before the Lord, and is expressly said "to make an atonement:" and may |