like our churches, wholly religious in their design and use. On the contrary, they had a character and a purpose eminently political. Public worship was certainly performed there. But there also the states-general held their sessions; and there the national treasure was kept. The Israelite, who consecrated any thing to Jehovah, must not be supposed to have devoted it to the priest in person, but simply to have made use of his ministry to convey it into the sacred treasury, which was no other than the national treasury. Not to the priests themselves, therefore, but to Jehovah, belonged whatever came into their hands. A liberal sum was, doubtless, allowed for the support of their families; but, after this had been taken out, the rest became a part of the public treasure. This is what I had to say on the constitution, the functions, and the revenues of the sacerdotal tribe among the Hebrews. Three considerations the Levites rendered to the rest of the Israelites for whatever they received from them. 1. The tribe of Levi gave up to the other tribes their whole share of the promised land, except so much as was sufficient to afford them a place of habitation. 2. They parted with the right of an independent government, such as the other tribes enjoyed, and completely sunk their political existence. 3. They gave up themselves to the national service, as ministers of religion, ministers of state, magistrates, teachers of the people, and literati of all the faculties, as explained in a former part of this chapter; services the most laborious, responsible, and useful to the commonwealth. For all this, they received a simple annuity, liberal it may be, but depending solely upon the national faith for its payment, while they divested themselves of all power of re-entry in case of non-payment. Let the benefits surrendered and the services performed be weighed in just balances, and the rent-roll of the tribe of Levi will appear rather below than above the demands of reason and justice. CHAPTER IX. The Hebrew Prophets. THE right understanding of the prophetical office among the Hebrews will throw much light on the Mosaic constitution, and strikingly evince the popular character of the Isra elitish government. On this point, far be it from me to disturb the faith, which we have inherited from our fathers, or to unsettle, in any mind, the received opinion concerning the true divine inspiration of the Hebrew prophets. I receive, with implicit and unquestioning faith, the testimony of Paul, that "all scripture is given by inspiration of God,"* and the testimony of Peter that "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Nevertheless, to foretell future events, and to impart religious truth and spiritual lessons, were not the whole duty and office of a prophet, under the constitution of Moses. Doubtless, the most important functions of the Hebrew prophets were, in the strict sense, religious in their character. The office of the prophets was much more like that of our modern clergymen, than was the office of the priests, who had, in fact, but few points of resemblance to the ministry instituted by Christ. The prophets were the preachers of A single fact is decisive of this, viz. their living in cities by themselves. How could christian pastors discharge their appropriate functions, how could they fulfil the command to watch for souls, if they dwelt in the ancient church. According to Augustine,* they were the philosophers, divines, instructors, and guides of the Hebrews in piety and virtue. These holy men were the bulwarks of religion against the impiety of princes, the wickedness of individuals, and every kind of immorality. But by far the most important part of their commission was to foretell the coming and kingdom of the Messiah, with their attendant. circumstances, and, by slow degrees, yet with constantly increasing clearness, to acquaint their countrymen with the approaching change of their economy, and with the nature of the new, more spiritual, and universal dispensation, which was to succeed it. Still, as hinted above, the duties of the prophets were not wholly religious. Their relation to the civil state was not, indeed, fixed by any constitutional provision, or legal enactment. They did not form a component part of the political system.§ They were not a branch of the machinery of government. Yet their authority and influence in affairs of state was by no means inconsiderable. They were, so to speak, the privileged state-moralists, guardians, and popular orators of the republic. Coleridge] speaks of them as uniting the functions and threefold character of the Roman censors, the tribunes of the people, and the sacred college of augurs. The historian Schlosser says: "We hear, in the prophets, the voice of true patriots, who, standing upon a provision of the law of Moses, spake the truth to the people, to the priests, and to the kings." Horne** speaks of them as possessing great authority in the Israelitish state, and as highly esteemed by the pious sovereigns, who undertook no important affairs isolated towns, twenty, thirty, or fifty miles apart, instead of living as now among their respective flocks? * De Civitat. Dei, 1. 18. c. 21. Horne's Int. Pt. 5. c. 4. Warburton's Div. Leg. 1. 3. Appendix. J. A. Alexander's Earlier Prophecies of Is. Intr. p. 16. || Manual for Statesmen. without consulting them. Alexander* represents their influence in the government as very powerful, not indeed by official, formal action, but as special divine messengers, whose authority could not be disputed or resisted by any magistrate, without abjuring the fundamental principles of the theocracy. Miltont compares them to the orators of the Greek democracies. The lines which this sage and learned poet puts into the mouth of our Savior, both from their truth and appositeness, deserve to be cited here. "Their orators, thou then extoll'st, as those Than all the oratory of Greece and Rome. In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt, Nobly said, and truthfully too! The prophetical writings abound with the finest lessons of political wisdom. I know of no compositions more worthy of the profound study of statesmen and legislators, than the writings of the Hebrew prophets. In seven verses of his forty-seventh chapter, beginning at the seventh verse, the prophet Isaiah, as Coleridge has observed, revealed the true philosophy of the French revolution of 1789, more than two thousand years before it. became a sad, irrevocable truth of history. A collection of political maxims, forming an excellent manual for statesmen, might be culled from the books of the Hebrew prophets; a collection, which would surprise even diligent students of the scriptures by the number, the variety, the purity, and the deep and comprehensive wisdom of its counsels. * Earl. Proph. Is. Int. p. 12. Paradise Regained. But it is time to look at the institution of the prophetical office, as it is related in the Hebrew history. The record is contained in Deut. 18: 9-22. I cite the passage in a somewhat abbreviated form, retaining, however, all the material parts of it. "When thou comest into the land which Jehovah, thy God, giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found **** among you any * * * * that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. **** Jehovah, thy God, will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken. But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name, of other gods, even that prophet shall die. When a prophet speaketh in the name of Jehovah, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which Jehovah hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him." On this passage I offer the following observations. 1. At the time when this law was given, it was the custom of mankind to pry into future events. No propensity was stronger or more general than this; and religion was universally regarded as the means of gratifying this curiosity. Indeed, it was looked upon as a chief service, which religion owed to her votaries, to give them information concerning the future. The nations, by whom the Hebrews were surrounded, had their various ways of peering into futurity, some of which are enumerated in this law. If no means had been provided, whereby the Israelites could foreknow things to come, it would have been very difficult, considering the prying curiosity of those early ages, to keep them from despising their own religion, and resorting to the divinations of |