It was so much the custom in the middle ages of Christianity to respect the cross, even to superstition, that it would have been indeed wonderful if the same ignorant bigotry had not converted it into an ordeal: accordingly we find it used for this purpose in so many different ways as almost to preclude description.

Another trial of this kind was the Corsned, or the consecrated bread and cheese: this was the ordeal to which the clergy commonly appealed when they were accused of any crime. A few concluding observations from Dr. Henry may not be unacceptable to the reader :

"If we suppose that few or none escaped conviction who exposed themselves to these fiery trials, we shall be very much mistaken. For the histories of those times contain innumerable examples of persons plunging their naked arms into boiling water, handling red hot balls of iron, and walking upon burning ploughshares, without receiving the least injury. Many learned men have been much puzzled to account for this, and disposed to think that Providence graciously jaterposed in a miraculous manner for the preservation of injured innocence.

"But if we examine every circumstance of these fiery ordeals with due attention, we shall see sufficient reason to suspect that the whole was a gross imposition on the credulity of mankind. The accused person was committed wholly to the priest who was to perform the ceremony three days before the trial, in which he had time enough to bargain with him for his deliverance, and give him instructions how to act his part. On the day of trial no person was permitted to enter the church but the priest and the accused till after the iron was heated, when twelve friends of the accuser, and twelve of the accused, and no more, were admitted and ranged along the wall on each side

of the Nazarite.

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of the church, at a respectful distance. iron was taken out of the fire several prayers were said: the accused drank a cup of holy water, and sprinkled his hand with it, which might take a considerable time if the priest were indulgent. The space of nine feet was measured by the accused himself, with his own feet, and he would probably give but scanty measure. He was obliged only to touch one of the marks with the toe of his right foot, and allowed to stretch the other foot as far towards the other mark as he could, so that the conveyance was almost instantaneous. His hand was not immediately examined, but wrapped in a cloth prepared for that purpose three days. May we not then, from all these precautions, suspect that these priests were in possession of some secret that secured the hand from the impression of such a momentary touch of hot iron, or removed all appearances of these impressions in three days; and that they made use of this secret when they saw reason? Such readers as are curious in matters of this kind may find two different directions for making ointments that will have this effect, in the work here quoted. What greatly strengthens these suspicions is, that we meet with no example of any champion of the Church who suffered the least injury from the touch of hot iron in this ordeal: but where any one was so foolhardy as to appeal to it, or to that of hot water, with a view to deprive the Church of any of her possessions, he never failed to burn his fingers, and lose his cause." I have made the scanty extract above from a very extensive history of the trial by ordeal, which I wrote several years ago, but never published.

All the forms of adjuration for the various ordeals of hot water, cold water, red hot iron, bread and cheese, &c., may be seen in the Codex Legum Antiquarum, Lindenbrogii, fol. Franc. 1613, p. 1299, &c.

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4 All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine-tree, from the kernels even to the husk. 5 All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no frazor come upon his head; until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.

6 All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD, & he shall come at no dead body. 7h He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die; because the consecration of his God is upon his head.

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tsemach, Zech. iii. 8; vi. 12, which is quite a different word; but this title is expressly applied to our blessed Lord by the above prophets; but in no place do they or any other prophets call him a Nazarite, in the sense in which i nazir is used. Indeed it could not in truth be applied to him, as the distinguishing marks of a Nazarite never belonged to him. He was, it is true, the netser or branch out of the root of Jesse, the genuine heir to the throne of David, whose dominion should extend over the universe, who should be King of kings, and Lord of lords; but the word Naswpatos, Matt. ii. 23, signifies merely a Nazoræan, or inhabitant of Nazareth.

Verse 3. No vinegar of wine, &c.] chomets signifies fermented wine, and is probably used here to signify wine of a strong body, or any highly intoxicating liquor. Dr. Lightfoot supposes that the LEPER being the most defiled and loathsome of creatures, was an emblem of the wretched, miserable state of man by the fall; and that the NAZARITE was the emblem of man in his state of innocence. Wine and grapes are here particularly forbidden to the Nazarite because, as the doctor thinks, being an emblem of man in his paradisaical state, he was forbidden that tree and its fruits by eating of which Adam fell; for the doctor, as well as the Jewish rabbins, believed the tree of knowledge to have been none other than the vine.

Vinegar of strong drink] See the note on Lev. x. 9. Verse 5. There shall no razor come upon his head] The vow of the Nazarite consisted in the following particulars-1. He consecrated himself in a very especial and extraordinary manner to God. 2. This was to continue for a certain season, probably never less than a whole year, that he might have a full

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9 And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it.

10 And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congre gation:

11 And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day.

12 And he shall consecrate unto the LORD the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year m for a trespass-offering: but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.

h Lev. xxi. 1, 2, 11; ch. ix. 6. Heb. separation.xviii. 18; xxi. 24.- Lev. v. 7; xiv. 22; xv. 14, 29.v. 6.Heb. fall.

k Acts m Lev.

growth of hair to burn in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace-offering, ver. 18. 3. During the time of his separation, or nazarate, he drank no wine nor strong drink; nor used any vinegar formed from any inebriating liquor, nor ate flesh or dried grapes, nor tasted even the kernels or husks of any thing that had grown upon the vine. 4. He never shaved his head, but let his hair grow, as the proof of his being in this separated state, and under vows of peculiar austerity. 5. He never touched any dead body, nor did any of the last offices, even to his nearest kin; but was considered as the priests, who were wholly taken up with the service of God, and regarded nothing else. 6. All the days of his separation he was holy, ver. 8. During the whole time he was to be incessantly employed in religious acts.

Verse 7. The consecration of his God is upon his head.] Literally, The separation of his God is upon his head; meaning his hair, which was the proof and emblem of his separation. Now as the hair of the Nazarite was a token of his subjection to God through all the peculiarities of his nazarate, a woman, who is married, is considered as a Nazarite for life, i. e., separated from all others, and joined to one husband who is her lord; hence St. Paul, probably alluding to this circumstance, says, 1 Cor. xi. 10: The woman ought to have power upon her head, i. e., wear her hair and veil; for this hair is a proof of her nazarate, and of her being in subjection to her husband, as the Nazarite was under subjection to the LORD by the rule of his order.

Verse 10. Two turtles, or two young pigeons] The same kind of offering made by him who had an issue, Lev. xv. 14, &c.

13 And this is the law of the Nazarite, when the days of his separation are fulfilled: he shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation;

14 And he shall offer his offering unto the LORD, one he-lamb of the first year without blemish for a burnt-offering, and one ewe-lamb of the first year without blemish for a sinoffering, and one ram without blemish for peace-offerings;

15 And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, and their meat-offering, and their drink-offerings.

16 And the priest shall bring them before the LORD, and shall offer his sin-offering, and his burnt-offering:

17 And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace-offerings unto the LORD, with the basket of unleavened bread: the priest shall offer also his meat-offering, and his drinkoffering.

18 And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle

Acts xxi. 26.-P Lev. iv. 2, 27, 32.- Lev. iii. 6. Lev. ii. 4. Exod. xxix. 2.- Chap. xv. 5, 7, 10.- -" Acts Verse 18. Shall take the hair-and put it in the fire] The hair was permitted to grow for this purpose; and as the Nazarite was a kind of sacrifice, offered to God through the whole term of his nazarate or separation, and no human flesh or blood could be offered on the altar of the Lord, he offered his hair at the conclusion of his separation, as a sacrifice-that hair which was the token of his complete subjection to the Lord, and which was now considered as the Lord's property.

The Hindoos, after a vow, do not cut their hair during the term of their vow; but at the expiration of it they shave it off at the place where the vow was made.

That the hair of the head was superstitiously used among different nations, we have already had occasion to remark; (see the notes on Lev. xix. 27;) and that the Gentiles might have learned this from the Jews is possible, though some learned men think that this consecration of the hair to a deity was in use among the heathens before the time of Moses, and in nations who had no intercourse or connection with the Jews.

Verse 21. This is the law of the Nazarite] We learn from Maimonides, in his Treatise of the Nazarite, that a man might become a Nazarite in behalf of another; that is, might assist him in bearing the expenses of the sacrifices, &c. "A son may fulfil the vow his deceased father hath made, but did not live to accomplish-He that saith, upon me be the shaving of a Nazarite, he is bound to bring the offerings of

when his vow was fulfilled.

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of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peaceofferings.

19 And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and w shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite, after the hair of his separation is shaven :

20 And the priest shall wave them for a wave-offering before the LORD: this is holy for the priest, with the wave-breast and heaveshoulder and after that the Nazarite may drink wine.

21 This is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the LORD for his separation, beside that that his hand shall get: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation. 22 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 23 Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise y ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,

xxi. 24.-1 Sam. ii. 15. w Exod. xxix. 23, 24.xxix. 27, 28.- Lev. ix. 22; 1 Chron. xxiii. 13.

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shaving for cleanness, and may offer them by the hand of what Nazarite he will. If he say, Upon me be half the oblations of a Nazarite, then he bringeth half the offerings by what Nazarite he will, and that Nazarite payeth his offerings out of that which is his."

"By this," says Mr. Ainsworth, "we may see the reason of that which James said to Paul, though he had no Nazarite's vow upon him: 'We have four men who have a vow on them; them take and sanctify thyself with them, and BE AT CHARGES WITH THEM, that they may shave their heads, &c. Then Paul took the men, and the next day, sanctifying himself with them, entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of the days of sanctification, (or Nazariteship,) until that an offering should be offered for every one of them;' see Acts xxi. 23-26. For though Paul had not vowed or fulfilled a Nazariteship himself, yet might he contribute with them, and partake of their charges about the sacrifices."

Verse 23. On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel] The prayer which God makes for his followers, and puts into their mouth, we are sure must be right; and to it, when sincerely, faithfully, and fervently offered, we may confidently expect an answer. If he condescended to give us a form of blessings or a form of prayer, we may rest assured that he will accept what he himself has made. This consideration may produce great confidence in them who come with either prayer or praise to the throne of grace, both of which should be, as far as circumstances will admit,