Chap. viii. The Revenue of the Hebrew Priesthood; the Payment of Firft-Fruits ; Chap. ix. An Account of the Hebrew Tithe ; the firft, fecond, and third Tithe; the Tithing of Cattle Chap. x. Of Things devoted; the Nature Chap. xi. The Levitical Order; the Age of Admiffion of the Levites; the time of Difcharge from Duty; their Confe- cration; and their feveral Offices under Chap. xii. The Office of the Templar Le- Chap. xvii. Impoftors among the He brews; Offerers of Children to Moloch Chap. xviii. A Diviner, an Obferver of Times, an Inchanter, a Witch, a Chap. vi. The Confecration of the Ta- bernacle, and all its Veffels and Uten- fils. The Defcent of the Holy Fire upon the Altar of Burnt-Offering 304 Chap. vii. The Ifraelites guided in their Marches by the Pillar of a Cloud, or of Fire. The Office of the Levites in taking down and fetting up the Ta- Chap. viii. The various Motions and Sta- tions of the Tabernacle and the Ark, till they were placed in the Temple of Chap. ix. The Profeucha's of the ancient Chap. x. The Temple of Solomon; the Preparations for the Building; the THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE Hebrew Republick. BOOK I. CHAP. I. The Rife, Progrefs, and Decay of the Hebrew State. T O fearch into the Origin of States and Kingdoms, as it is the most noble and delightful Part of History, fo it is generally attended with great Difcouragements, occafion'd by the lofs of Books and Records, deftroy'd either by Ignorance or Time, which makes the Difficulties appear formidable, and not to be overcome. But the prefent Defign has no Misfortune of this kind to contend with; for as the Hebrews were always diftinguished as the Favourites of Heaven, fo the Care of Providence was feen in nothing more than in preferving the facred Writings of that People, and tranfmitting them uncorrupt to Pofterity. B By Book 1. By thofe Oracles of Truth we are told, that the Patriarch Jacob, who was called Ifrael, gave the Name of Ifraelites to his Family; who were likewife called Hebrews, from Heber, one of the Progenitors of that Patriarch, and of the fourth Generation after Noah. This was no more than a Family of Shepherds, who lived by feeding of Cattle in the Land of Canaan, and diftrefs'd by Famine were obliged to remove into Egypt; where God in a miraculous manner had advanced Jofeph, one of the Sons, to be Vice-Roy of that fertile Country, and rais'd him to that State of Grandeur by many ftrange and unfearchable Methods of divine Providence. By his two Wives, the Daughters of his Uncle Laban, and his two Handmaids, Jacob had twelve Sons, who afterwards became Founders of the twelve Tribes of the Jewish Nation. This Patriarch, after an Age of an hundred forty-feven Years, died in Egypt. His Pofterity for fome time underwent a miferable Servitude in that Country; till God, remembring the Covenant he had made with their Fathers, rescued them from the iron Furnace, and conducted them through the Wilderness into the Land of Promife, formed them into a Commonwealth, and fettled them under a more fix'd and certain Difpenfation. The Perfon appointed by Providence for this purpose was Mofes, the Son of Amram, the Son of Cobath, the Son of Levi the third Son of Jacob, the Founder of the Hebrew Polity. The wonderful Prefervation of this Perfon, when an Infant, prefaged him to be born for great and ge nerous Undertakings. When he came to a mature Age, he was restored by his Mother to the Egyptian Princefs, the Daughter of Pharaob, who had preferved him. This Lady adopted him for her own Son, bred him up at Court, where he was polifh'd with all the Arts of a noble and ingenuous Education, inftructed in the Modes of Civility and Behaviour, in the Methods of Policy and Government, and in all the Learning and |