no tolerable Account can be given, why the Fourth or Fifth, or any other Portion might not as well have been fet apart for that facred Ufe to which the Tenths were applyed; as we shall by and by more fully demonstrate.. At prefent let it fuffice to obferve,in Confir tion of our Affertion, that God vouchsafeds to deliver feveral Precepts to the Patriarchs (which afterwards became Part of the Law of Mofes) which yet we have no particular Account of in the facred Hiftory, as to the Time when, or Occafion upon which they were delivered. We find that Noah facrificed, and that he pleafed God in the Performance of that Duty; furely it will not be pretended, that he did this in complyance with the Practice of the Heathens, there being then none left alive whom he could imitate therein, and therefore we may fafely conclude, that his Sacrificing was an Effect of God's immediate Infpiration, tho' we do not meet with any antecedent Command importing any fuch Thing. Again, God, himself testifies of Abraham that he had received fome Laws from him, and had lived conformably to them: Abraham obeyed my Voide, and kept my Charge, my Commandments, my Satutes, and my Laws, Gen. 26. 5. What this Charge, thefe Laws, or Commandments were, we do not find any where distinctly fpecified; but may juftly prefume they were of great importance to the Conduct of religious Life; and to think otherwife would be to have unworthy Conceptions of the Wisdom of their Author. That they were

not

not barely the feven Precepts given to Noah, we have reason to believe not only on Account of the Covenant of Circumcifion, which God entred into with Abraham himself, but alfo on Account of fome Laws which were received among the Patriarchs long before the Time of Mofes, particularly that which obliged the Brother to marry his Brothers Relift, and that of punishing an Adulterefs with Death, Gen. 38. 8. and v. 24. Now it being highly probable, that of thofe Divine Statutes and Laws which Abraham is faid to have kept, fome, if not the greateft Part, related to the Worship of the true God, which that Patriarch was to teach his Children, Gen. 18. 19. and which without an agreeable Provision for the Ministers employ'd in the Performance of it, could not have been fupported: it is most confonant to Reason to believe, that God gave Commandment to Abraham to separate the Tenth, for that facred Ufe, and that in pursuance of the faid Commandment he not only paid Tithes himself, but tranfmitted to his Pofterity the Knowledge of their Obligation as in other Things, fo alfo in that Particular, And this, not to his immediate Defcendants only, but likewife to all with whom he converfed: Whereby it came to pafs that the Egyptians, among whom he fojourned, were inftructed by him in thofe Things which God had been pleased to communicate to him the Knowledge of. These Inftructions palling by degrees into other Nations, came at: laft to be generally received; only with this Difference,

ference, that whereas Abraham inftructed them to whom he first deliver'd thofe Divine Precepts to worship and ferve the true God only; they notwithstanding upon the Growth and Prevalence of Idolatry and Po lytheifm, paid Divine Service to their Idols, and confecrated their Tenths for the Support of their fuperftitious Practices. And therefore to conclude from that Agreement be twixt our Rites and ufages, and thofe received among the Heathens, that our Laws were calculated to comply with their corrupt idolatrous Cuftoms is to begin at the wrong End: The Truth being this, that the Patriarchs taught the World the Things which they had receiv'd by Divine Inspiration, (as our Writers generally agree, and Jofephus does pofitively determine in the firft Book of his Jewish Antiquities, chap. 9. not to infift on the Teftimony of Eufebius, and other Chriftian Fathers in this Affair, which yet they ought to have fome regard to a gainst whom we now difpute;) But that the Heathens corrupted what they had fo received to ferve the Ends of their falfe Worship. Notwithftanding therefore that the Law of Mofes does in many Particulars fall in with the commonly receiv'd Practices of the Heathens; we are not upon that Ac count to infer, that it was in fuch Particu lars deriv❜d from thofe Practices, but being enacted by God's immediate Authority, did but renew thofe Injunctions, which himself had given to the Patriarchs, and which the Heathens had receiv'd from them, though

after

afterwards, as we have faid, by them perverted to their own unwarrantable Purpose. And this we fhall be the more confirm'd in the Belief of, the more we confider the Per fection of the faid Law, which is a Chara fter no way reconcilable to the Practices of the Gentile World, which were so far from being perfect, that they were not tolerable in the Sight of God. Befides, the fame Law forbids us to do after or walk in the Manners of the Heathens, Levit. 29. 23. That is, it forbids us to ferve God in their Way, or to imitate them in their Corruptions, but obliges us to keep to the primitive Inftructions given to the Patriarchs, which the Heathens had moft grofly perverted and abufed. But if the Law its felf was derived from the known Practices of the Heathens, then the meaning of that Prohibition will be, that we muft not do what the Law ftrictly enjoyns to be done, and they that can entertain fuch a Notion as that, may be fafely let alone to believe what they pleafe. In the mean time every unprejudiced Perfon may plainly perceive how injurious to the Wisdom of God fuch an Opinion is in its neceffary Confequences.

Having thus endeavour'd to answer the Question propounded by us, we shall next proceedto enquire why the Tenth,and not the Fifth, Sixth, or any other Part, was affign'd for the Maintenance of the Ministers of Religion? In answer hereunto I fhall not go about to examine all the Reasons alledg'd by the feveral Authors that have handled the

Point; fome whereof pretend, that it was on Account of the Tenth Number's being the moft perfect of all others, because a com, pleat Number is terminated in it, and takes its beginning from it, and therefore was most fit to be apply'd to the Worship of the most high God, who is the Beginning and End of all Things, for the Support of those that were employ'd in his Service others, that the Tenth Number comprizes in it all fingle Numbers, together with their: Differences, Analogies, Perfections and Species, as both Philo Judeus, and feveral of the Heathen Philofophers, particularly thofe of Pythagoras's School, have undertaken at large to demonftrate. Ifhall not, Ifay go about to examine thefe Reasons, and therefore I hall only obferve, that the Cuftom of paying the Tenth rather than any other Portion could not proceed from human Appointment, because then the Obligation to comport with the Custom of paying Tithes, muft arife purely from the Nature of the Thing, compar'd with the Ends of Religion; whereas no imaginable Reafon can be given why the ninth, eleventh or twelfth Part might not as well have anfwer'd the faid Ends, fince there doth not appear any natural Unfitness in them. And furely 'tis next to impoffible, that Men fhould univerfally agree in their Apprehenfions of any thing, concerning which no poffible Reafon from the Nature of the Thing can be aflign'd, why they should fo agree. And therefore the Cuftom of affigning the Tenth rather than any other Portion, to the

Ufes