'will surely give the tenth unto thee.' This shews the matter of the vow in its proper and true light'.

VOL. II.

20

We

1 As this latter part of Jacob's vow has been made much of in the long agitated controversy about tythes, it may not be amiss to offer here some scriptural observations upon that subject. We find that, at this time, Jehovah had made a donation to Jacob of a vast tract of country, (see the map of it Gen. xv. 18-21.), without the reservation of any part or portion, but all and whole in free gift to him, and his heirs for ever; and had further promised to be with him, and protect him in all his ways, v. 13, 14, 15. In grateful return for these undeserved favours, of which he always retained the most profound sense, Gen. xxxii. 10. xlviii. 15, 16. the patriarch binds and obliges himself to make full and frank cession of the tenth part back to the gracious donor, to be at his disposal in all time coming. So from this time, and by this deed, Jehovah, the original Lord of the land, became proprietor of the tenth; and could, by this newly acquired right, settle it in what way, and upon whom he pleased. Accordingly, when he had brought Jacob's posterity out of Egypt, and after forty years trial of them in the wilderness, had settled them in the promised land, which he appointed to be divided among their several tribes by lot, he chose the tribe of Levi to himself, to be his Priests, in room of the first-born, and assigned to them, in that character, the tenth, which Jacob had given back, instead of the portion of land which would have fallen to them by lot. Now let it be remembered, that by the general disposition of things at that time, the tribe of Levi, now become the clergy-part of the nation, had an antecedent title to their twelfth share of the land, with all the profits arising from it, on the same footing with the rest of their brethren. Of all this their sacred destination denuded them; and it was not only reasonable, but even necessary, that some provision should be made for them, as an equivalent for their share of the ground, and a compensation for their public service. I do not mean to enter into the merits of this cause, but would only hint to, the christian clergy, who claim the tenth as of divine right, not to rest their claim on this old Levitical precedent, unless they could produce the same titles which, we see, the Levites in their lay state had, to the greater part of what was thus allotted to them.

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We read of another angelic interference that Jacob had', as to which, Moses says, that it was a man' that appeared to him, and wrestled with him. The prophet says it was an angel. The patriarch himself seems to have viewed the apparition in a higher light than either man or angel, in our common acceptation: I will not 'let thee go,' said he, except thou bless me; and 'he blessed him there; and Jacob called the • name of the place, Peni-al, (the face of God), for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.' Which will account for, and vindicate, that strange-sounding expression in the 24th Psalm, This is the generation of them that seek thy face, O Jacob,' which the LXX. and Jerom turn into the face of the God of Jacob,' and our margin, thy face, O God of Jacob;' but which, from this Penial appearance, may be better expressed (as such apostrophes are frequent) by that face ⚫ which thou, O Jacob, saw at Peni-al, and rejoiced in it. So true is the observation I have so often made, and indeed it cannot be made too often, about the self-interpreting sufficiency of the Bible. Now, as Jacob is acknowledged to have been a representative, and eminent type of the church, and as in that capacity he was blessed with these visions or sights of Mahanim, we may now find out the meaning and pertinency of the allusion before

us,

1 Gen. xxxii. 24-30. and explained Hosea xii. 4. 5.

·

Compare Heb. vii. 7. ' the less is blessed of the greater.'

us, in the long-continued protection and support of the church, under the many pressures and dangers to which she has been exposed in general, and our own small portion of her in particular, to such a degree, indeed, that, according to a common phrase, there certainly is a visible hand of Providence in it. May we not observe too, that I may let no apparent beauty of this poem pass unnoticed, a striking analogy, or similarity of idea between the dagluth, banners,' in the 4th and 10th verses, and the mahanim, encampers,' here, both military terms, the one clothing her with terror-'terrible as an army ' with banners,' the other making her a most delightful object to look at-Return, O Shulamite, that we may look upon thee, with thy heavenly chorus of Mahanim about thee?

CHAP. VII.

VER. 1.-How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter? The joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning work

man.

In the first five verses of this chapter, we have a renewed panegyric on the fair one's beauty, drawn from several of the bodily members, which had not been brought into view before; and we find herself addressed under a new appellation, , bathnadib, prince's daughter, which has been offered as a proof of her being the Egyptian bride, or Pharaoh's daughter. But prince, in this sense, is not the proper sense of nadib, as I have shewn already; and the title here may have a reference, a very apparent one indeed, to the Ami-nadib, the willing people above-mentioned. • How beautiful thy feet, Ty, pomik, not the substance of the real members, for which the proper word is, regli, but diaßnματα, LXX. gressus, Jerom, the steps of the feet ' in motion,' whence it is often used to denote times repetition of so many times, like the regu

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lar

lar beating of hands or feet in music.

, benolim; this part of dress,

With shoes, though now common, and even vulgar, among us, was of more honour and distinction in these old times, and seems to have peculiarly belonged to such as came under the appellation given to the spouse here, to the nadibim, the ingenui, to gentlemen,' as we might say, and their connexions. Moses makes them a part of the patriarch Asher's blessing'. Ezekiel speaks of them as one of the marks of honour conferred on the poor outcast foundling *; as St Luke does on the returning prodigal3. And as wearing them was an ornament of dignity, so putting them off was an act of humility and veneration, not from superstitious invention, but from divine command 4. St Paul will give us the spiritual intendment of the particular beauty here described, Your feet shod with the preparation of 'the gospel of peace.' These are the shoes which adorn the church's feet, and make her steps, her pomi, beautiful; and thus shod, she will be both inclined and enabled to turn her feet to the divine • testimonies 7. But there is likewise another sense in which this mention of shoes may be taken. There is a strange sort of declaration in two of the Psalms,