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Action feems to have been given him against Mofes, for not circumcifing his Son, Exod. iv. 24, 25, 26. if Zipporah had not attoned for him by taking that Office upon her Self. For God is not fuppofed to inflict punishments in his own Perfon, but by the miniftery of the Devils, which are therefore called evil Angels, Pfal. lxxviii. 49. Thus therefore, the meaning of the forementioned Text will be, that, if the Iraelites had allowed Marriages with the Shechemites without Circumcifion; this might have expofed them to fome Divine Vengeance, fordoing fo, by God's allowing the Devil their Adverfary's Plea against them, and confequently by giving him leave to inflict thofe Punishments upon them for it, to which he was fo prone otherwise on account of his natural Malignity against them. For God himself was, as I faid, particularly concerned to fee fuch breaches of Faith punished, not only in regard of the honour claimed by them, of being nearer to him than other Nations, but also of their covenanting Imprecations imply'd in the nature of fuch Contracts, even when they are not exprefly mentioned. And his way of Punishment is, to deliver them up to the Fury of fuch malignant Spirits. It may not perhaps be amifs to obferve, that thefe Reproaches are usually joined with Curses, If. xliii. 28. Jer. xlii. 18. xliv. 8, 12. I know very well, that it is not unusual in Forms of Reproach, to upbraid Men with being obnoxious to Curfes. So in the Greek Comedians, Men are reproached with the Names of ἐπικατάρατοι, καθάρματα, πεψήματα. But in the way I have now explained the Word, the Reproach is indeed the fame with the Curfe imprecated for ratification of this Covenant I am fpeaking of: And therefore

this

S. XV.

this I take for the true account of this Matter. By this. Explication therefore, it will appear, that those Patriarchs thought, that the giving Wives to, or taking them from, any other Na tion that was not in the Peculium, was a vio lation of their Covenant with God, and a For feiture of the Privileges to which they were intitled by that Covenant, and an expofing them confequently to the Curfes imprecated by themselves for fecuring performance on their own part, and gave God a juft caufe by their own confent, to inflict thofe Imprecations. Thus Jofephus understood this place, when he gives this as a Reason why Facob was fo backward in accepting fo advantagious a Match for his Daughter, that he thought fuch Marriages un lawful: ετε νόμιμον ἡδέμλυΘ αλλοφύλῳ σωοικίζειν Jusalée. Ant. 1. 19. p. 33.

I do not know whether the cafe of Mofes in The Ethiopi- marrying the Ethiopian Woman, with which an pretended to he is upbraided by Miriam and Aaron, Numb. be married by xii. 1. be another inftance that fuch Marriages Mofes, was Zipporah, who, were then reputed unlawful. That Wife, whothough a Mi-ever fhe was, is in the Hebrew called a Cushite, dianitefs, was which by the Seventy two Greek Interpreters, a Profelyte, is generally rendred Ethiopian. And I am apt and therefore to believe that this Miftake, being fo antient,

of the Pecu

lium.

was all the ground of that antient Fable in fo fephus, concerning his marrying the King of Ethiopia's Daughter. Yet this very Fable he had from Cornelius Polybiftor's Artapanus, an Author confiderably antienter than himself, as appears from the Words of Artapanus, ftill preferved by Eufebius in Prap. Evang. Yet, if Ethiopia be taken for the Ethiopia which lay South of Egypt, (as Jofephus feems to have understood it not only Bochart in our Age, but, long before him, Matthaus Beroaldus hath

ery fatisfactorily confuted that Fancy, how reat Authorities foever of the Antients have avoured it. In the Scriptures, which are the Only credible Monuments of these Ages, we ind no mention of any more Wives that Mofes ever had than one, Zipporah: And though Fier Father have three Names, fometimes that of Fethro, as moft frequently, fometimes that of Raguel, fometimes that of Reuel, yet he is always taken for a Midianite, not for an Ethiopian. The name of Hobab afcribed to him, Judg. iv. was really the name of his Son, as appears Numb.x. 29. However, Midian might very conveniently be defigned by the Greek Name of Ethiopia. Fofephus places it in Troglodytica, a place very fit for Mofes to fly to, to be out of danger, and yet to be within call. And this will very fitly come under the name of the Eastern Ethiopia, according to that moft antient Divifion of Ethiopia alluded to by Homer, as Strabo obferves out of the most antient Grammarians. Cufhan is famed for Tents, Habb. iii. 7. This is very applicable to the Arabes Scenite, placed in this fame Situation by Ptolemy. If Zipporah therefore were the Wife with whom Mofes was upbraided, fhe will not come under the rank of thofe who were directly unlawful by the Reafonings now mentioned. The feven Canaanitish Nations were forbidden by God, not only by a particular exprefs Command, but for a fingular Reafon not common to them with others. They were guilty of piacular Crimes, and for that reafon defigned by God for deftruction, Lev.xviii. 27, 28. This was a cafe that would have made Heathens cautious of Intermarriages with them, confidering the opinions concerning a Piacu lum received in thofe Times. On this account Herodotus.

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Herodotus tells us, That Pififtratus, though had recovered his Government in Athens by th help of Megacles, on condition of his marryin the Daughter of Megacles, yet he avoided h ving Children by her. For this very_Reaf as it fhould feem, that none of his Pofter might be liable to the Piaculum Cylonianum which Megacles and the Family of the Alcme nide were concerned. The punishment of Piaculum was Death, as I have fhewn, in the Pofterity of Saul, for his breach of Faith wi the Gibeonites, though Banishment was al that was demanded on both fides, by the La damonians in the cafe of the Piaculum of Cyler and by the Athenians in the cafe of the Piaculur of Paufanias, immediately before the Peloponne fiac War, as appears from Thucidides. Nothing of this could be pretended in the cafe of Zippo. rah. Midian, from whom he was defcended, was of the Pofterity of Abraham by Keturah And though he was not of the Peculium, yet he was more nearly related to it than the Wives of Ifaac and Facob, whofe Extraction was from Bethuel, the Brother only of Abraham. Befides, there is reafon to believe, that the Midianites being thus defcended from Abraham, though they were not of the Peculium themselves, yet had a great veneration for the God of their Forefather Abraham, who was the God of the true Peculium. And God, no doubt, had a greater regard for them than other Nations, for that very reafon, because they were of Abra ham's Seed, as he had, for the fame cause, for Ishmael, Gen. xxi. 13. though he also was ex cluded from the Dignity of the Peculium. Thus much therefore may be faid for the Midianites in general, that they were free from the pollu tions of others, unless where they had a parti cular

cular Defign, as in the matter of Peor. But, whatever the Nation was, yet, there are partiular reasons to believe that Jethro and his Faily were Profelytes. He fpeaks very honouably of the God of Ifrael, Exod. xviii. 10, II. That is not all: He communicates alfo with hem in their Sacrifices, ver. 12. which was a Favour none could be admitted to but a Profelyte of Fuftice. Befides, there was a perfect good understanding between the Family of Febro and the Ifraelites. Mofes invited his Son Hobab to come and fhare with them in the Land promised to them, Numb. x. 29, 30, 31, 32. A Favour not likely to be granted to any by the Legiflator himself, but to fuch as were ederally Holy. And Jofepbus tells us, that the Family was accordingly confidered in the Divifon of the Land of Canaan. And not improbably For there we find them afterwards. Firft among the Kenites, who were one of the Nations delivered over to the Ifraelites, Gen. XV. 19. Thence they were called Kenites, Judg. i. 16. Afterwards in the Plain of Zaanaim, near Kedefh Nephthali, Judg. iv. 11. There Fael, the Wife of Heber the Kenite of that Family, fhews her good will to the Ifraelites, by killing Sifera. After this, King Saul finds them among the Amalekites, and fpares them on account of their kindness to all the Children of Ifrael when they came up out of Egypt, 1 Sam. XV. 6. These are not likely to have been the original Kenites, but this Pofterity of Fethro, who were, as I have fhewn, called alfo Kenites. Zipporah also her felf, fhewed her good will to the Law in circumcifing her Son, when her Husband was in danger for having neglected it. I do not therefore fee, what Aaron and Miriam could object against her, unless, perhaps, they thought

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