in the public worship, to implore the grace of God, and to keep up and maintain within our souls the spirit of pure religion, and the influence of faith. And as we thus devote and dedicate to Thee ourselves, our souls and bodies, with the seventh portion of our time as Thou hast commanded, so also do we here devote, and dedicate, and promise, and vow to Thee the prayers and the praises of the morning and the evening of every day in the week, that we never forget Thy mercies, nor wilfully depart from Thy laws. And as we thus surrender to Thee, by a solemn vow, promise, and profession, ourselves, our souls and bodies, the morning and evening of our days, and the seventh portion of our time, so also do we pray Thee to enable us to surrender, and so also do we pray Thee to accept, the tenth part of the gold and the silver, the possessions and the riches, the blessings and the gifts, which Thy providence hath bestowed upon Thine unworthy servants. We are not worthy of the least of these Thy mercies, which Thou hast vouchsafed to us. Open our hearts, that of Thine own we may give unto Thee. To the extension of the benefit which religious societies established among us would bestow upon the heathen, the ignorant, and the unenlightened, may we devote our wealth and our substance. As the Christians of the olden time brought their goods, and laid them at the Apostles' feet, so may we bring of the possessions Thou hast granted us, and lay them at the feet of the ministers and stewards of Thy word, for the common good of Thy people. To the enlargement of Thy Church, the extension of Thy word, the improvement of the world, the conversion of the heathen, and the universal illumination of those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, may our worldly wealth be devoted and dedicated as to Thy service, the Lord and Master, the Creator, the Redeemer, and Sanctifier, of Thy sons, and all Thy servants. So may we live and act in the spirit of the vow and promise of Thy faithful people to do all that Thou hast commanded, to renounce all that Thou hast forbidden, and to believe all that Thou hast revealed. We vow to Thee, we devote to Thee, we dedicate to Thee, our hearts and our souls, our actions and our lives, the division of our time and the ordering of our substance. We devote and dedicate to Thee, O God, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and under the influence of Thy Holy Spirit upon us, now, once more, and for ever, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto Thee. O Lord, hear: O Lord, accept our sacrifice. Lord, hear our prayer. Let our cry come unto Thee. Let our vow, and prayer, and promise, be acceptable to Thee, O God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, now in life, in death, and for ever. We ask all in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. In His name we call upon Thee as

all. The proportion of this offering was left to the pleasure of the offerer. These were given to the priest.

2. The heave offering, or

or firstfruits of corn, wine, oil, wool, or the like, was also given to the priests; but, as Moses does not determine how much the quantity should be, the Jews assessed it at a fiftieth part (Sol. Jarchi, ad Deut. xviii. 4, and Jerome, ad Ezek. lv.), but declared that he who gave a sixtieth part was discharged. Some gave a fortieth part, and this was called a "Therumah of a fair eye;" the fiftieth part was called "a sufficient, or adequate Therumah;" while the sixtieth, which was called a "Therumah of an evil eye," or a niggard's gift, was equal to the heave offering commanded in Ezekiel xlv. 13 and 11.

3. After the above offerings had been made from the offerer's store, he was commanded to offer out of the remainder the first and second tithe. The first tithe was paid to the Levites, who gave out of it a tenth to the priests (Numb. xviii. 28); this was called a "tithe of the tithe;" and no part of this first tithe could be spent by the Levites, until they had paid the priests their portion out of it for the priests received no tithe from the husbandmen.

4. Out of the nine parts that remained after the payment of the first tithe, the owner was obliged, before he could make any use of that remainder, to set apart another tithe (Deut. xiv. 23), which he was to carry, in kind, to Jerusalem for two con

secutive years, if the distance was not too great; otherwise he was to convert it into money, adding a fifth part to the value (Lev. xxvii. 30, 31), and there he was to spend it in feasts, something like the Agapæ, or love-feasts, of the early Christians. But in

the third year he was to spend this tithe upon the poor, "the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow," and the Levites, within his own gates. This was called "the poor man's tithe." Selden holds, that the second tithe, and the tithe of the third year, are the same in substance. He gives the following schedule of all the tithes :

After the first-fruits paid in ears, admit The increase 6000 Ephahs; the heave offering at least must be 100:

The remainder, 5900. The First Tithe, 590; and, out of this, 59 to the priests. Out of this, the

The remainder, 5310. Second Tithe, 531, which every two years the Levites had at Jerusalem, and every third year was spent in the gates of the husbandmen.

The rest, 4779, was kept for the husband

man.

So that, of 6000 Ephahs, the Levites and poor had, in all, 1063 to themselves; the priests, 159; and the husbandmen, only 4779. He yearly thus paid more than a sixth part of his increase; besides first-fruits, almost a fifth 7.

The History of Tithes, chap. ii. sect. iv. 7 Ibid. sect. iv.

SECTION CXLIV.

NUMBERS I. 1-4. I. 47-54. II. 1, 2. III. 5—10.
IV. 16. 19, 20. 47, 48, 49.

TITLE.-Not even the blood of martyrdom can expiate the crime of causing needless divisions, or schisms, in the Church of Christ. The encampments of the Church of Israel in the wilderness must be considered as the representation of the order that shall reign in the future millennial Church of Christ militant here on earth. The union of Christians must be expected from their love of peace, and obedience to God's revealed will, rather than from their adherence to partial truth, and separating opinions.

INTRODUCTION. We cannot possibly understand the plan of God's government of the world, unless we consider the Bible as a revelation which developes the whole system of that government, from the beginning to the end. We read in the beginning that mankind was one family, and that a curse was denounced upon it for evil committed, but that the influence of evil should be destroyed

when "the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head" (Gen. iii. 15). We read in the end that mankind shall again become the family of God, "for the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ" (Rev. xi. 15), and that there shall be "no more curse" (Rev. xxii. 3). The whole intermediate history between the fall of man and the completion of the prophecy which followed that event is only the development of the manner in which the prophecy was to be fulfilled: and, as the earthly Canaan was the type of the heavenly Canaan (Heb. iii. 11. 17; iv. 1-11), and the Church of Israel the type of the Church of Christ; so also may we consider the order and unity of the Church of Israel, in their three several numberings before they entered Canaan, to be the type of that unity of the visible Church of Christ, which shall prevail within it, before it shall obtain possession of the true Canaan. There were three several numberings of the people: one for the payment of the redemption money (Exod. xxxviii. 26); one for the preparation for war, related in this Section; and the last for the possession of Canaan (Numb. xxvi. 51). The Church of God has always these three great objects in view ::-the redemption of the soul; the conquest over the evil of the heart; and the final possession of its promised inheritance. And as in all these objects of the numberings of the people the account of their thousands was not taken in a confused and disorderly manner, as if they were merely a large and miscellaneous mass, but in a regular and well-arranged order, as of a wisely organized body of persons, we may infer that so it should be with the great mass of Christians. They, too, look to Jesus Christ for redemption. They fight the good fight of faith against the evil within them. They hope for the possession of the spiritual Canaan. The Christian Church, therefore, ought not to be regarded by others, or to be considered by themselves, as the fashion of the present day is to esteem them, as a collection of religious individuals, or as a mass of opinionists, religionists, and sects, divided under the several classes of the names they assume to themselves, or bestow on each other. They ought, rather, to be regarded as the one universal Church of Christ, not only looking for redemption, resisting evil, and hoping for heaven, but orderly arranged and organized as one holy Society, divided into lesser Societies, not by their clashing opinions, but by their adherence to the revealed commands, regulations, and ordinances, which are intended to bind them together in one systematic order. And the nature of that order, which should bind together the Christian Church, is represented in the Jewish Church, as the type and emblem of the union which shall prevail in the millennial Church, before the spiritual Canaan is possessed as its inheritance.

The Jewish Church was one body, divided and arranged in tribes, families, and houses. So the Universal Church is to be one body, divided and arranged into its several states, provinces, and districts. So also every Christian nation ought to be divided and arranged in provinces, districts, and parishes and the whole of the visible Church of Christ ought, therefore, to be divided and arranged into National Churches, as the Church-general of Israel; into provincial Churches, as the National Church of Israel was divided among the twelve

Tribes; into parochial Churches, as the Tribes were divided into families; and into domestic Churches, or the private assemblies for worship in the associations under each head of a family, as the Church of Israel was divided into houses. And thus the whole visible Israel formed one spiritual Church, as the whole visible body of Christians should form one spiritual Church, of whom God is the invisible Head; communicating His will to Moses by the word from Heaven spoken, and to the Christian rulers of each respective Church by God's word written. Because the Church of Rome has erred, the notion has but too frequently prevailed, that the Christian Church has been resolved into its elements; that each individual Christian is to separate himself from his National Church if there be any doctrine, or form of discipline, there inculcated which he disapproves; though the salvation of the soul be not thereby endangered, nor the law of his God broken. But the God of the Jew is the God of the Christian. Though the letter of the commandment, which was intended to preserve union in the Jewish Church, is done away, the spirit of the commandment must be believed to continue. The will of God, therefore, must be believed to remain unchanged, that in the Christian Church, as in the Jewish Church, the intolerable and deplorable evils of schism, dissension, hatred, and disunion be avoided; and love, peace, order, and union reign in the nations, the provinces, the parishes, and the dwellings of Christians. And the strong language of one of the most eloquent Fathers of the Church may be said to be true, "That not even the blood of martyrdom will atone for causing needless schisms; for nothing is so grievous to the Spirit of God as to create divisions in His holy Church!" Let us proceed through the contents of this Section, and see how entirely the truth of these remarks is confirmed. The Book of Numbers begins with the command to take the sum of the people, by their armies which came out of Egypt, as the one Church delivered from bondage, and baptized to God in the Red Sea; so are the Christian Churches bound by the one sacrament of covenant-their baptism and dedication to God (Numb. i. 1-4). We omit the names of the chiefs and captains and heads of the tribes, families, and houses. The Levites, however, were not to be numbered with the other tribes. They were to be dispersed through the tribes of their brethren, according to their father's dying prediction (Gen. xlix. 7), the curse being overruled for a blessing, because of the obedience of the tribe of Levi; as the ministers of God, from the days of Christ to this hour, are set apart from their brethren to attend to the duties of the tabernacle, which is ever to be so placed in the nation as one chief object of the attention and devotion of the people (Numb. i. 47-54). To prevent any confusion or disarray of the vast multitudes which composed the visible Church, every man was ordered to pitch his tent in his own tribe, or company; and every Christian is required, in his own locality, to support the Church of God, by keeping in view the tabernacle

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1 Οὐδὲν οὕτω παροξύνει τὸν Θεὸν, ὡς τὸ ἐκκλησίαν διαιρεθῆναι . . . . οὐδὲ μαρτυρίου αἷμα Taúrny dúvaodai ¿§adeípeiv rǹv àμapriav Epnoev. Hom. xi. in Epist. ad Ephes. iv. Chrysost. Op. vol. v. p. 958. Francof. ad Moen. 1697.