dren of Israel the tythes wbich I have give en you, from them, for your inberitance, then ye fall offer up an beave-offering of it, for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tythe: And ye shall give thereof, the LORD's heave-offering, to Aaron the Priest.

Thirdly, there was another Tything the People were to make, besides the first, out of all their Increase; which they were, yearly, to carry up to the Temple; and there, and no where else, banquet upon it,

together with the Levites. Thou shalt truDeut. ly tythe all the increase of thy feed, that xiv . 22, the field bringeth forth year by year;

and thou Malt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which be shall choose ta place his name there, the tythe of tby corn, of thy wine, and of thine oyl, and the firstlings of thine herds, and of thy flocks. And if the way be too long for thee, thou shalt turn it into money; and bestow that money for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for Strong drink, or for whatsoever tby foul depreth; and thou shalt eat there, before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoyce, thou and thine boushold; and the Levite that is within tby gates : Thou shalt not forsake bim;

29.

for be bath no part nor inheritance with thee.
Some confound these Tythes with the first
Sort; but they are plainly a distinct Kind.

There was a fourth Kind of Tything,
mention'd likewise in the Law; in these
Words : At the end of three years, thou Deut,
Saalt bring forth all the tytbe of thine in- xiv. 28,
crease the same year; and salt lay it up
within thy gates. And the Levite (because
be hath no part nor inheritance with thee) and
the stranger, and the fatherless, and the wi-
dow, which are within thy gates, shall come
and fall eat, and be satisfied. I take this
to be the same Tything with that mention'd
just before; and that, instead of being car-
ried to the Temple and partaken of there,
every third Year, they might eat it at
Home; and distribute it among the Levites,
and the Poor, in their own Neighbourhood.
Of the three Sorts of Tythes payable by the
Laity, we have an Instance, at once, in the
Apocrypha; where Tobit says; The first tenth Tob. i 7.
part of all increase, I gave to the fons of
Aaron, who ministred at Jerusalem: another
tentb part I sold away, and went and spent ite-
very year at Jerusalem; And the third, I gave
unto them to whom it was meet.

Ac

PA

At the Restoration of the true Worship of God by Hezekiah, after a Succession of

idolatrous Kings, among other things ; 2 Chron. He commanded the people that dwelt in Jexxxi. 4, rusalem,to give the portion of the Priests and

the Levites that they might be encouraged in
the law of the LOR D. And, as soon as the com
mandment came abroad, the children of Israel
brought, in abundance, the first-fruits of
corn, wine, and oyl, and honey, and of all
the increase of the

field, and the tythe of all
things brought then in abundantly. And
those that dwelt in the Cities of Judah
brought in the tytbe of Oxen and Sheep, &c.
And we find the same Resolution taken

and pursued, after their Return from the 35, &c. Captivity.

SE C T. - XXII.

Of the sacred MONEY.
Another Kind of Gift was the sacred
Money; which every Male, from twenty

to fifty Years old, was to pay into the Numb. Treasury of the Tabernacle or Temple, by xxxi. 54.

way of a Capitation Tax, for the Use of
the Sanctuary; and this, as often as they
were number'd; which, whether it were
4

yearly,

Neh. x.

XXX. 127 &c.

ci yearly, or only upon special Occasions, In

terpreters do not agree. The latter seems Es to be the more probable: for otherwise, it

is likely we should meet with Instances of

the Payment of it, among the other anInual Observances; which are all mention'd i in some other Parts of Scripture, as well E as in the Books of the Law, The Direc

tion for the Payment of it, runs thus : When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, after their number; then mall they. Exod. give, every man a ransom for his soul, unto the LORD, when thou numberest them, that there be no plague amongst them. This they

shall give, * half a Mekel after the shekel of s the sanctuary (a fhekel is twenty Gerahs;)

an half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD. And thou shalt take the atonementmoney of the children of Israel, and salt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.

This Money seems to have been paid constantly, for some time, in the Reign of Jeboash King of Judab; and to have been

2 Kings applied toward the Repairs of the Tem- xii.4,&c. ple : when, we are told, that Jehoiada the

* Half a Shekel is about one Shilling and two pence.

priest

priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar; and th: priest that kept the door, put therein all the money that was brought into the house of

the Lord. In another Place, it is said; z Chron. At the king's commandment, they made a xxiv. 8. chest, and set it without, at the gate of the

house of the LOR D. And they made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the LORD, the collection that Moses the servant of God laid upon Ifrael in the wilderness,

A considerable Time after, in the Reign of King yoñab, mention is again made of this Money upon the fame Account,

He sends a Scribe to the House of the 2 Kings Lord, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the priest,

that he may sum the filver that is brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the door bave gathered of the people.

We hear no more of it, till after the Building of the second Temple; when, instead of Chests, we read of a * TreasureHouse, consisting of several Chambers, in

xxii. 4.

* Persico-Græcè asoquad xrov. Syriacè Corban.