much pomp, and with various ceremonies; the principal of which was the anointing with holy oil, which was sometimes performed by a prophet, but at other times, and especially after the establishment of the monarchy, by a priest. This fact accounts for the title frequently applied to the king of Israel," the Lord's anointed."

For the revenues of the king, Moses made no provision; they were, however, abundantly supplied from the following sources.

First. The produce of the royal flocks. (1 Sam. xxi. 7; 2 Sam. xiii. 23; 2 Chron. xxxii. 28, 29.)

Secondly. The royal demesnes, consisting of arable land, vineyards, and olive and sycamore grounds, which had originally been uninclosed and uncultivated, or were the property of state criminals and had been confiscated. These demesnes were cultivated by bondsmen, and, perhaps, also by the people of conquered countries. (1 Chron. xxvii. 26–31; 2 Chron. xxvi. 10.)

Thirdly. The tenth part of all the produce of the fields and vineyards, the collection and management of which seem to have been confided to officers whom Solomon constituted principally for the purpose. (1 Kings iv. 7.) It is also probable that the Israelites paid a tax in money. Solomon appears to have increased these imposts, and the refusal of Rehoboam to lessen them was the ostensible cause of the revolt of the ten tribes from him.

Other sources existed in plunder taken in war, and imposts paid by foreign merchants, who passed through the country. (2 Sam. viii.; 1 Kings x. 15.)

At the expiration of the seventy years, during which God had decreed that they should be in captivity in Babylon, as a punishment for their sins, Cyrus, who had subverted the Babylonian monarchy, authorized the Jews to return to their own country, and enjoy their own religion and laws, and caused the city and temple of Jerusalem to be re-built. Thus their Theocratic

government was renewed, and placed under the administration of the divinely inspired and pious gover nors, Ezra and Nehemiah, who did much to restore their institutions to their original purity. After them, the government passed into the hands of the successive high priests, under whom, for a period of nearly three hundred years, the Jews enjoyed full liberty and uninterrupted national prosperity; till the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of Syria; when they were most cruelly oppressed, and compelled to take up arms in their own defence. After twenty-six years war, however, and with five successive kings of Syria, Judas the Maccabee, aided by his valiant brothers, succeeded in establishing the independence of their country, and restoring their ancient institutions. The

princes of this illustrious house, (for they united in their own persons the regal with the sacerdotal dignity,) administered the affairs of the Jewish commonwealth pretty nearly according to the Scriptural model, for about one hundred and twenty-six years, when disputes arising between Hircanus II. and his brother Aristobulus, the Romans, under Pompey, defeated the latter, captured Jerusalem, and reduced Judea to a Roman province.

From this period, which was about fifty-nine years before the Christian era, to the destruction of Jerusalem, which happened ahout the seventieth year of that era, the Jews were under the rule, sometimes of a tributary king of the Romans, but mostly of a Roman procurator. They enjoyed, however, a large measure of national liberty. "It appears from the whole tenor of the New Testament, (for the particular passages are too numerous to be cited,) that they practised their own religious rites, worshipped in the temple and in their synagogues, followed their own customs, and lived very much according to their own laws. Thus, they had their high priests, and council or senate; they inflicted

lesser punishments; they could apprehend men and bring them before the council; and, if a guard of soldiers were necessary, they could be assisted by them, on requesting them of the governor. Further, they could bind men and keep them in custody; the council could likewise summon witnesses and examine them; they could excommunicate persons, and they could inflict scourging in their synagogue; (Deut. xxv. 3; Matt. x. 17; Mark xiii. 9 ;) they enjoyed the privilege of referring litigated questions to referees, whose decisions in reference to them the Roman pretor was bound to see put in execution, Beyond this, however, they were not allowed to go; for, when they had any capital offenders, they carried them before the Roman procurator, who usually paid a regard to what they stated, and, if they brought evidence of the fact, pronounced sentence according to their laws. He was the proper judge in all capital causes; for, after the council of the Jews had taken under their consideration the case of Jesus Christ, which they pretended was of this kind, they went with it immediately to the governor, who re-examined it, and pronounced sentence. That they had not the power of life and death is evident from Pilate's granting to them the privilege of judging, but not of condemning Jesus Christ, and also from their acknowledgment to Pilate-It is not lawful for us to put any man to death; (John xviii. 31;) and likewise from the power vested in Pilate of releasing a condemned criminal to them at the Passover, (John xviii. 39, 40,) which he could not have done, if he had not the power of life and death, as well as from his own declaration that he had power to crucify and power to release Jesus Christ. (John xix. 10.)”* Such is a compendious view of the polity of Ca

* Vide Horne's Introduction, vol. iii. pp. 102, et seq.

naan as it existed at different periods of the history of that country. We have seen that it varied in its form "at sundry times," but never lost its distinguishing characteristics. Thus it bore evidently the impress of the divine hand-forming it as an instrument with which to accomplish a specific work, and continuing it in existence, in all its essential qualities, till that work was accomplished.

LECTURE XVIII.

CANAAN.

ITS LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

ITS LANGUAGE.

HAVING Considered the Polity of Canaan, we proceed to the consideration of its Language. This indeed underwent a modification during the exile in Babylon, the captives, through long intercourse with them, adopting the language of their capturers; so that before this event and after it, the language of Canaan appeared in two different forms. As, however, all the Jewish Scriptures, except two very small portions of them (part of the book of Ezra, and part of the book of Daniel) were written in the language as it existed before the captivity, and the language, as it existed after that event, was merely a sister dialect of the former, if it were not a dialect springing from it, and differed from it no farther than the Scotch differed from the English in the days of queen Mary and queen Elizabeth, we may confine our attention to the primitive language of Canaan.

This language is called Hebrew,—either from Heber, a descendant of Shem; or from its being the language of the people who inhabited the country west of the