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compound between the murderer and the friends of the deceased who prosecuted him, by causing the malefactor to give unto them, or to the child or wife of him that was slain, a recompense which they called an eriach. And thus we find in our Saxon laws (particularly those of King Athelstan) the several weregilds for homicide established in progressive order, from the death of the ceorl, or peasant, up to that of the king himself. And in the laws of King Henry I. we have an account of what other offences were then redeemable by weregild, and what were not so. As, therefore, during the continuance of this custom, a process was certainly given for recovering the weregild by the party to whom it was due, it seems that, when these offences by degrees grew no longer redeemable, the private process was still continued, in order to ensure the infliction of punishment upon the offender, though the party injured was allowed no pecuniary compensation of the offence.

"The only offence against one's relation, for which an appeal can be brought, is that of killing him, by either murder or manslaughter. But this cannot be brought by every relation: but only by the wife for the death of her husband, or by the heir male for the death of his ancestor; which heirship was also confined by an ordinance of King Henry I. to the four nearest degrees of blood.

"If the appellee be found guilty, he shall suffer the same judgment as if he had been convicted by

indictment: but with this remarkable differencethat, on an indictment which is at the suit of the king, the king may pardon and remit the execution: on an appeal, which is at the suit of a private subject, to make an atonement of the private wrong, the king can no more pardon it than he can remit the damages recovered on an action of battery. In like manner as, while the weregild continued to be paid as a fine for homicide, it could not be remitted by the king's authority. And the ancient usage was, so late as Henry the Fourth's time, that all the relations of the slain should drag the appellee to the place of execution; a custom founded upon that savage spirit of family resentment, which prevailed universally through Europe after the irruption of the northern nations, and is particularly attended to in their several codes of law; and which prevails even now among the wild and untutored inhabitants of America: as if the finger of nature had pointed it out to mankind in their rude and uncultivated state h❞

h" To restrain these private wars between great families, which disturbed the public tranquillity, and prevented the regular course of justice, many laws were made, particularly by King Edmund, who reigned from A. D. 940, to A. D. 946. By one of these laws it is declared, that a murderer shall alone be obnoxious to the resentment of the relations of him whom he had murdered, and not his whole family, as formerly."-(Henry's History of Great Britain, book ii. c. 7.)

"In Turkey, murder is never prosecuted by the officers of the government. It is the business of the next relations, and them only, to revenge the slaughter of their kinsmen: and if they rather

The last observation of the learned Judge is remarkable. And we have seen that "The finger of nature," which pointed out this practice, was no other than the primeval law of God respecting the punishment of murder, which tradition has so won

choose (as they generally do) to compound the matter for money, nothing more is said about it."—(Lady M. W. Montague, lett. 42.)

"Among the Circassians, all the relatives of the murderers are considered as guilty. This customary infatuation to avenge the blood of relations, generates most of the feuds, and occasions great bloodshed among all the tribes of Caucasus; for unless pardon be purchased, or obtained by intermarriage between the two families, the principle of revenge is propagated to all succeding generations. -If the thirst of vengeance is quenched by a price paid to the family of the deceased, this tribute is called Thlil-Uasa, or the price of blood: but neither princes nor usdens accept of such a compensation, as it is an established law among them to demand blood for blood."-(Pallas's Travels, vol. i. p. 405.)

"The interest of the common safety has, for ages, established a law among them," the Arabians, "which decrees that the blood of every man who is slain must be avenged by that of his murderer. This vengeance is called tar, or retaliation; and the right of exacting it devolves on the nearest of kin to the deceased. So nice are the Arabs on this point of honour, that if any one neglects to seek his retaliation, he is disgraced for ever. He therefore watches every opportunity of revenge; if his enemy perishes from any other cause, still he is not satisfied, and his vengeance is directed against the nearest relation. These animosities are transmitted, as an inheritance, from father to children, and never cease but by the extinction of one of the families, unless they agree to sacrifice the criminal, or purchase the blood for a stated price, in money or in flocks. Without this satisfaction, there is neither peace, nor truce, nor alliance, between them; nor, sometimes, even between whole tribes. There is blood between us, say they, on every occasion; and this expression is an insurmountable barrier."-(Volney's Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. i. page 367, third edition.)

derfully preserved in almost all nations of the earth. But to return.

A Redeemer, then, according to the usages of ancient times, was a near relation, called upon, by some disastrous event, to stand forth as the representative of his deceased or incapacitated kinsman. From the hand of his Redeemer the captive expected the ransom price, which was to restore him to liberty. To his Redeemer he looked for those powerful exertions which were necessary to effect his deliverance by force of arms. To the Redeemer, lastly, it belonged to avenge his blood upon his murderer.

For we are to remark, that all these acts, as performed by this relative on behalf of his kinsman, would, in the Hebrew language, be denominated

, Redemption. But that the same actions performed by another person, a stranger in blood, could not properly be distinguished by this term, except indeed in a figurative sense, in allusion to this ; and this figurative sense is extremely rare in the Holy Scriptures'. For when the term is

i Thus in some of the duties assigned to the Redeemers by the laws of Moses, respecting the ransoming of persons or estates: if a person had no relation to redeem for him, it is said he might do it for himself, and the action bears the same name (Lev. xxv. 25, &c. &c.) It is used also in this more general sense in the last chapter of Leviticus, for a man's recovery of the property which he had consecrated to God. And if any other instances can be pointed out, they are certainly so few, that they can by no means render questionable the proper and most frequent meaning of

used of the interposition of God in the concerns of mortals, it will be found generally to have a reference, more or less direct, to the incarnation of the Son of God, by which gracious act he becomes, in fact, our kinsman, and obtains the right of redemption in behalf of his brethren.

II. Having now pursued our inquiries to a sufficient length respecting the meaning of the term Redeemer, we proceed to trace, in the sacred writings, in what manner, our gracious Lord has fulfilled the several parts of the character which that name implies.

From what has been said, it will appear, that when Christ is promised, or spoken of, in the character of the Redeemer of his people, we are to include, in the signification of that title, together with the more common notion of a Ransomer, that of a Deliverer, and an Avenger, of an injured brother.

And, as we shall be able to show, all these several parts of this character does the blessed Jesus sustain, in regard of his acknowledged friends and

-The redemption, the deliverance, or the vengeance, which is accomplished by a kinsman, is his right of blood.

It should be noticed, however, that there is another term in the Hebrew language expressing the idea of redemption, 775, with its derivatives. It is the common word, indeed, for redeeming, whether that redemption be effected by a -a kinsman, Redeemer or not; or whether by price, or by power. We there fore, as might be expected, in some places meet with the terms as synonymous. But they are not equivalent, since does not express the act of a relation exclusively, nor does it include the notion of vengeance.

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