First, Corporeal punishment was that only of stripes, not exceed- ing the number of forty, Deut. xxv. 2, 3. An account of the Jews’ opinions, and the manner of their execution of this punishment, is given us by many, in particular exactly by Buxtorf in his preface unto his Bibliotheca Rabbinica, whither I refer the reader® They call it mpbn, or “ beating by strokes,” and sometimes D'YIIs8 mpbo, “the beating of forty,” or with forty; and he that was lable unto it + was nixon 43, “filius plagarum.” Many crimes, doubtless, rendered persons obnoxious to this penalty, but they are not directly ex- pressed in the law. The Jews now reckon up seven instances of
SECT. 26-30. | IN PROMISES AND THREATENINGS. 511
unlawful copulation with women, free and unmarried; for adultery, as is known, was capital by the express sentence of the law: as,— 1. With a sister; 2. A father’s sister; 3. A mother’s sister; 4. A wife’s sister; 5. A brother’s widow; 6. An uncle’s widow; 7. A woman separated. Many other crimes also they reckon up with reference unto cerernonial institutions, as eating of fat, and blood, and leaven on the passover, making an oil like the holy oil, even all such trans- eressions as are threatened with punishment, but have no express kind of punishment annexed unto them.
28. Secondly, Punishments respecting state and condition were of two sorts;—l. Pecuniary, in a quadruple restitution im case of theft; 2. Personal, in banishment, or confinement unto the city of refuge for him that had slain a man at unawares, Num. xxxv. 25.
29. Thirdly, Capital punishments they inflicted four ways:—1. By strangulation, Deut. xxi. 22; which was inflicted on six sorts of trans- gressors:—(1.) Adulterers; (2.) Strikers of parents; (8.) Man-stealers; (4.) Old men exemplarily rebellious against the law; (5.) False pro- phets; (6.) Prognosticators by the names of idols. 2. Burning, Lev, xx. 14; and this, the Jews say, was inflicted by pouring molten lead into their mouths, And the crimes that this punishment was allotted to were,—(1.) The adultery of the priest’s daughter. (2.) Incest,—[1.] With a daughter; [2.] With a son’s daughter; [3.] A wife’s daughter; [4.] A wife’s daughter’s daughter; [5.] A wife’s son’s daughter ; [6.] A wife’s mother; [7.] The mother of her father; [8.] The mother of her father-in-law. 38. Death was inflicted by the sword, Exod. xxxii. 27,—(1.) On the voluntary manslayer; (2.) On the inhabitants of any city that fell to idolatry. 4. By stoning, Deut, xxi. 21, which was executed for incest,—(1.) With a mother; (2.) A mother-in-law; (3.) A daughter-in-law; (4.) Adultery with a betrothed virgin; (5.) Unnatural uncleanness with men; (6.) With beasts by men; (7.) With beasts by women; (8.) Blasphemy; (9.) Idolatry; (10.) Offering to Moloch; (11.) A familiar spirit of Ob; (12.) Of Jideoni; (13.) On impostors; (14.) On seducers; (15.) On enchanters or magicians; (16.) Profaners of the Sabbath; (17.) Cursers of fathers or mothers; (18.) The dissolute and stubborn son ;—con- cerning all which it is expressly said that they shall be stoned.
30. Unto the execution of these penalties there were added two cautionary laws ;—first, That they that were put to death, for the increase of their ignominy and terror of others, should be hanged on a tree, Deut. xxi. 22; secondly, That they should be buried the same day, verse 23. And this is a brief abstract of the penalties of the law, as it was the rule of the polity of the people in the land of Canaan.
512 OF THE TABERNACLE AND ARK. [ EXERC, XXII.
EXERCITATION XXII. OF THE TABERNACLE AND ARK.
1. The building of the tabernacle. 2, 3. Moses’ writing and reading the book of the covenant. 4. Considerations of the particulars of the fabric and utensils of the tabernacle omitted. 5. One instance insisted on; the ark —The same in the tabernacle and temple—The glory of God, in what sense. 6. The principal sacred utensil. 7. The matter whereof it was made. 8, 9. The form of it. 10. The end and use of it. 11. The residence and motions of it. 12. The mercy-seat that was upon it. 13. The matter thereof. 14, 15. Of the cherubim—Their form and fashion. 16, 17. The visions of Isaiah and Ezekiel compared—Difference in them, and reason thereof. 18. Two other cherubim also in the temple. 19. The knowledge of God enjoyed under the gospel superior to the typical representations of him under the old dispensation.
1. THE people having received the law in the wilderness, and therein a foundation being laid of their future church-state and worship, which was to continue “until the time of reformation,” Heb. ix. 10, they had also, by God’s direction, a place and build- ing for the seat of that worship assigned unto them. This was the tabernacle erected in the wilderness, suited to their then moving state and condition; into the room whereof the temple built after- wards by Solomon succeeded, when they had attained a fixed station in the land of promise. Our apostle respecting the ordinances of that church as first instituted by Moses,—which the Hebrews boasted of as their privilege, and on the account whereof they obstinately ad- hered unto their observation,—insists only on the tabernacle, where- unto the temple and its services were referred and conformed. And this he doth principally, chap. ix. 1-5, “ Then verily the first cove- nant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candle- stick, and the table, and the shew-bread; which is called the sanc- tuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; and over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat.”