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dren of Ifrael the tythes which I have given you, from them, for your inheritance, then ye shall 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 beave-offering, to Aaron the Prieft.

Thirdly, there was another Tything the People were to make, befides the first, out of all their Increase; which they were, yearly, to carry up to the Temple; and there, and no where elfe, 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;

&c.

and thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tythe of thy 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 fheep, or for wine, or for Strong drink, or for whatsoever thy foul defireth; and thou shalt eat there, before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoyce, thou and thine houfhold; and the Levite that is within thy gates: Thou shalt not forfake him;

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for he hath 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 likewife in the Law; in thefe Words: At the end of three years, thou Deut, Salt bring forth all the tythe of thine in- xiv. 28, creafe the fame year; and fhalt lay it up within thy gates. And the Levite (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, fhall come and shall eat, and be fatisfied. I take this to be the same Tything with that mention'd just before; and that, instead of being carried 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 Inftance, 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 miniftred at Jerufalem: another tenth part I fold away, and went and Spent it every year at Jerufalem; And the third, Igave unto them to whom it was meet.

At the Restoration of the true Worship of God by Hezekiah, after a Succeffion of idolatrous Kings, among other things; 2 Chron. He commanded the people that dwelt in Jexxxi. 4, rufalem,to give the portion of the Priests and

&c.

the Levites,that they might be encouraged in

the law of the LORD. And, as foon as the com mandment came abroad,the children of Ifrael brought, in abundance, the firft-fruits of corn, wine, and oyl, and honey, and of all the increase of the field, and the tythe of all things brought they in abundantly. And thofe that dwelt in the Cities of Judah brought in the tythe of Oxen and Sheep, &c. And we find the fame Refolution taken and pursued, after their Return from the 35, &c. Captivity.

Neh. x.

SECT. XXII.

Of the facred MONEY.

Another Kind of Gift was the facred 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 Ufe of the Sanctuary; and this, as often as they were number'd; which, whether it were yearly,

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The latter feems

yearly, or only upon fpecial Occafions, Interpreters do not agree. to be the more probable: for otherwise, it is likely we should meet with Inftances of the Payment of it, among the other annual Observances; which are all mention'd in some other Parts of Scripture, as well as in the Books of the Law, The Direction for the Payment of it, runs thus: When thou takeft the fum of the children of Ifrael, after their number; then shall they Exod. give, every man a ransom for his foul, unto the LORD, when thou numbereft them, that there be no plague amongst them. This they fhall give, half a Shekel after the Shekel of the fanctuary (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 Ifrael, and shalt appoint it for the fervice of the tabernacle of the congregation.

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XXX. 12,

&c.

This Money seems to have been paid conftantly, for fome time, in the Reign of Jeboafh King of Judah; 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 took a cheft, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and fet it befide the altar; and the prieft that kept the door, put therein all the money that was brought into the boufe of

the LORD. In another Place, it is faid; z Chron. At the king's commandment, they made a xxiv. 8. cheft, and fet it without, at the gate of the boufe of the LORD. And they made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerufalem, to bring in to the LORD, the collection that Mofes the fervant of God laid upon Ifrael in the wilderness,

A confiderable Time after, in the Reign of King Jofiah, mention is again made of this Money upon the fame Account. He fends a Scribe to the House of the 2 Kings LORD, faying, Go up to Hilkiah the priest, that he may fum the filver that is brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people.

xxii. 4.

We hear no more of it, till after the Building of the fecond Temple; when, inftead of Chefts, we read of a* TreasureHoufe, confifting of feveral Chambers, in

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Perfico-Græcè ralopunániov. Syriacè Corban.

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