If it be objected against this, that the Levites who were accepted to be the Lord's, instead of the first-born that were holy to the Lord, were not obliged to such strictness, I answer, that this may be one reason why God did not look on the first-born as being fully redeemed by the Levites being substituted in their stead, but there were still extraordinary charges required of them for the maintenance of the Levites, much more than in proportion to the bigness of the bribe; and God might accept this as an equivalent for their not being so strictly separated, as he accepted extraordinary redemption money for the odd number of the first-born, that were more than the Levites. Numb. iii. 46, 47, and xviii. 15, 16.

5. Those that were devoted to God to be Nazarites by a singular vow, were to devote themselves wholly to religious exercises, and to spend their lives in the most immediate service of God; for though this is not particularly expressed, but only some things are expressed that they should abstain from, yet this is implied in their being God's, his being separated to the Lord, Numb. vi. 11, his being holy to the Lord, Numb. vi. 6. All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy; and ver. 8, all the days of his separation he shall be holy unto the Lord. In like manner as in the second commandment, there are only some things particularly mentioned, that we should abstain from on the sabbath, but it is only expressly said that the day should be spent in religious exercises, yet it is implied in that, that the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord our God, and that we are commanded to keep it holy. This was evidently Hannah's intention in her vow, whereby she devoted Samuel to be a Nazarite, as was explained by her own words and practice. 1 Sam. i. 28. "Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord, as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord;" and accordingly she brought him and left him in the sanctuary, to dwell continually there, and there to spend his time in sacred business. 1 Sam. ii. 11. “And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest." Ver. 18. "But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child girded with a linen ephod."

6. It was necessary that a woman that was devoted to be a Nazarite (for a woman might be a Nazarite, Numb. vi. 2.) should thenceforward avoid marrying, and refrain from all carnal intercourse with men. If she was a virgin when she was devoted, it was necessary that she should continue a virgin until her vow was ended; and if she was devoted for her whole life, she must continue a virgin for ever; and if she was a widow, she must continue in her widowhood, and that on two accounts.

First. Marrying would be contrary to the obligation that has been taken notice of, that the Nazarite was under, with the utmost strictness to avoid all legal defilements, for marrying unavoidably exposed the great legal impurities, and of long continuance. (See Levit. xii.) There were scarcely any legal impurities to which the children of Israel were exposed, except the leprosy, that were so great as those that marriage brought women into. Being therefore devoted to God to be holy to the Lord, in the utmost possible legal purity, she must avoid marrying, and then these legal impurities rendered her incapable of those sacred offices and services that she was devoted to. It incapacitated her from conversing on holy things, or drawing near to God in ordinances, as much as being defiled by the dead body of a man incapacitated a priest from his work and office. Levit. xii. 4. "And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying be fulfilled;" which, in all, for a son made up forty days, and for a daughter fourscore days, which must needs be very inconsistent with the circumstances of the Nazarite that was devoted wholly to attend on God, and holy exercises in the way of the Jewish ordinances. If the Nazarite were a male, his marrying did not expose him to such legal impurities. The Nazarite was to observe as strict a legal purity, as the high priest himself, as has been observed; but he for the greater purity was allowed to marry none but a virgin: therefore doubtless the woman herself that was a Nazarite was obliged to continue a virgin.

Secondly. Marrying would utterly destroy the main design of her being dedicated in the vow of a Nazarite, which was, that she might be wholly devoted to the more immediate serviee of God in sacred things. If she was married, her time must unavoidably be exceedingly taken up in secular business and cares, in tending and bringing up children, and in providing for, and taking care of a family, which exceedingly fills married women's hands and hearts, and is as inconsistent as possible with the design of the vow of the Nazarite. Hence the woman that was devoted to the special service of God's house in the primitive church (though not devoted to God so solemnly, nor in so great a degree as the Nazarite) must be one that was not married, and never like to marry, and it was looked upon and spoken of by the apostles as sinful in such to many. 1 Tim. v. 1. "But the younger widows refuse, for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry ;" and the reason that is given why they should be widows that were like ever to continue so, and free from all worldly care, was that they might be the more entirely at liberty for religious duties. Ver. 3, 4, 5. "Honour widows, that are wi

dows indeed, but if any widow have children, or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home, and to requite their parents; for that is good and acceptable before God. Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers, night and day." Those widows in the primitive church, seem to be in some degree in imitation of the Nazarites in the Jewish church. Anna the Prophetess was in all probability a Nazarite, or one that after her husband's death, had devoted herself to the service of God, by such a vow as that we have been speaking of, and therefore continued in widowhood to so great an age, because her vow obliged her to it, and therefore she, throwing by all worldly care, devoted herself wholly to the immediate service of God. Luke ii. 36, 37. "And there was one Anna a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity, and she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day." The like expression with that the apostle uses, concerning widows, 1 Tim.

v. 5.

And therefore when we have an account that after Jephthath's daughter had been let alone two months, to go up and down the mountains with her companions to bewail her virginity, we are told that she returned to her father, who did to her according to his vow. That which Jephthah did was, that he took her up to the sanctuary before the Lord, and presented her before the priest, that he might estimate her, then paid according to her estimation. Thus the Jews that came out of the captivity vowed that they would offer the first-born of their sons. Neh. x. 35. Whereby she was redeemed from being made a burnt sacrifice, according to the law; and by thus presenting her in the sanctuary, and of fering up that which is accepted instead of her blood, she was actually separated according to the vow; her separation began from that time, and thenceforward, she was to begin her strict abstinence from all legal impurities, and to spend her time in sacred offices; and it is probable that Jephthah thenceforward left her in the sanctuary, to dwell there as long as she lived, as Hannah did to her son Samuel, whom she had devoted to be a Nazarite. 1 Sam. i. 22. "I will not go up till the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide for ever, and as the other Hannah, or Anna, did with herself after she had devoted herself to perpetual widowhood as a Nazarite, of whom we read, Luke ii. 37, That she was a widow of fourscore years old, and departed not from the temple." And there probably Jephthah's daughter continued in supplications and prayers, night and day, for she was eminently disposed, and

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prepared for such duties by that remarkable spirit of piety that appeared in her resignation, with respect to the vow her father had made concerning her, and what time she did not spend in duties of immediate devotion, she might spend in making of priests' garments. Exod. xxxv. 25, 26, in other business subsequent to the work of the sanctuary, as there might be enough found that a woman might do.

II. The nature of the case will not allow us to suppose that that was done that was so horrid and so contrary to the mind and will of God, as putting of her to death, and offering her as a burnt sacrifice. God took great care that never any human sacrifice should be offered to him; though he commanded Abraham to of fer up his son, yet he would by no means suffer it to be actually done, but appointed something else with which he should be redeemed; and though God challenged the first-born of all living things to be his, yet he appointed that the first-born of men should be redeemed, and so in all cases wherein persons were holy to the Lord, the law makes provision that they should not be slain but redeemed. It is particularly forbidden in the law of Moses in the strictest manner, that the children of Israel should not worship God by offering up their children in sacrifice to him. Deut. xii. 30, 31. There God charges them not to worship him in the manner that the inhabitants of Canaan had worshipped their gods, and then mentions, as the most abominable thing in their worship, that they had offered up their children for burnt offerings. And God, by the prophet Isaiah, declares such sacrifices to be abominable to him in the forementioned, Isai. lxvi. 3. See also, Jer. vii. 31, with my note on that text. It would have been symbolizing with the abominable customs of the heathen nations around, especially that offering human sacrifices to the idol, Moloch, which God ever manifested a peculiar detestation of. Here particularly observe, Deut. xii. 29, to the end; and the nature of the case will not allow us to think that Jephthah in this instance committed such abomination. It is not likely but that he, being a pious person, as he is spoken of by the apostle, would have been restrained from it by God, and then what was done was doubtless agreeable to the mind and will of God, for God otherwise would not in so extraordinary a manner have assisted her so quickly and readily to resign herself to it; there seems most evidently an extraordinary divine influence on her mind in the affair, for her resignation did not arise from insensibility or indifference of spirit, as is evident, because she desired time so to bewail what was to be done to her; and upon the supposition that she was to be slain, it would be impossible, without an extraordinary influence on her mind, for her to be so resigned. Her resignation was from pious considerations, and holy, and excellent

principles; as is evident from what she says to her father, when she sees him passionately lamenting the issue of his vow, of which we have an account in the 35th verse. "And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth, for as much as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon."

If what he had vowed to do was so abominable a thing as to kill her in sacrifice, it would not have been her duty to say as she does, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth, but she seemed to be influenced to express herself as she did, by the Spirit of God, and her resignation is recorded of her, as a very excellent thing in her.

III. Her being to be slain in sacrifice seems inconsistent with her request; to go up and down the mountains to bewail her virginity it would have been rather to bewail her untimely end.

IV. It seems evident that she was not slain, by the 39th verse, where it is said that it came to pass, that at the end of two months, she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow, which he had vowed, and the consequence of it is immediately added, and she knew no man. This clause seems evidently to be exegetical of the foregoing, viz. that he did to her accordtng to his vow, or to explain what that was that he did, viz. devote her to God in a perpetual virginity.

If she had been slain it is not at all likely that it would have been mentioned that she knew no man, for that she had known no man before this, had been already expressed in her going up and down the mountains to bewail her virginity; and nobody would suppose that she would marry and have children after she was devoted to death, and it had been determined both by herself and her father that it should be put in execution; and besides, there would have been no occasion to mention her not knowing man as soon as the two months was out wherein she bewailed her virginity, and she had returned from going up and down the mountains, the vow was immediately executed.

V. It is no argument that Jephthah thought himself obliged to put her to death, that he so lamented when his daughter met him, as in verse 35. "And it came to pass when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas! my daughter, thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me, for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back ;" for she being his only child, by her being devoted to be a Nazarite, his family was entirely extinct, he had no issue to inherit his estate or keep his name in remembrance, which in those days was looked upon as an exceedingly great calamity. Thou has tbrought me very low, i. e. thou hast quenched my coal, and brought per