her, though it could not include a Dog or a Swine? Notwithstanding that God hath exprefly forbidden to offer to him a human Victim, and declared it to be an Abomination to him. If any Circumftances can make it neceffary to tranflate the particle Vau, rather Or than And; is not this a Circumstance that ought eminently to do it? If Jephtha's Vow could not include a Dog, or a Swine, or any Beast that was not proper to be facrificed; how could it include a human Creature, his own Daughter? Is it more abfurd to offer up in Sacrifice to God, a Dog, or a Swine, than to offer up his own Daughter, and thereby to become a Parricide, as well as to offer an Abomination.

What is already faid, may really seem to be enough for deciding this Question. But it has been rendered fo intricate by the artful and laborious Pleading of learned Men, that for clearing it up, it is neceffary to omit nothing of any Weight, that is pleaded upon it, on all Sides.

I fhall begin with the Arguments that are pleaded by thofe of the harsh Sentiment, who think Jephtha's Vow did bind him to facrifice his Daughter; or at least that he did himself fo understand it; and accordingly

cordingly did really execute it, upon his Daughter.

They think the Words in which the Vow is conceived, are to be fo understood, by Reason of all the concurring Circumstances, that relate either to Jephtha himself, or to his Daughter, or to the Jewish Laws. Where fore our Differtation shall be first

Concerning the true and deferved Character of Jephtha himself.

That the Words of the Text under Examination, may bear an Exposition directly oppofite to the barfh Sentiment, is manifeft, from what has been faid, if the concurring Circumftances will fuffer it; and the Character of Jephtha himself is a Circumstance upon which the Iffue of this Controverfy doth very much depend. For he must be supposed to have been, not only groffly ignorant of God and his Laws; but a barbarous Savage; that had no Regard to the Sheding of innocent Blood; Cruel to his own virtuous. Daughter, and capable of thinking it a Duty, as his Vow ftated him, to offer unto God a human Sacrifice; before one can embrace the harsh Sentiment. Whereas on the Contrary, if it fhall be ma

3

nifeft,

nifeft, that he was not only a brave expert Captain; but also a wife, well accomplished and polite Prince, and a holy religious Man, it affords to thofe of the mild and charitable Side an unanswerable Argument to convince that the Text under our View, ought never to be interpreted according to the harsh Sen+ timent; when it may fo well be tranflated in another manner. Let his Character therefore be strictly examined and fifted, as far as the holy Scripture has afforded Light to discover it.

They of the harsh Sentiment say, His Education was in a Time of great Ignorance and Corruption, even in the Jewish Nation; but the worse for him, that by the Envy and Hatred of his own Brethren, the Sons of his Father, he was obliged to abandon his own Country, when young; being the Son of an Harlot, and therefore debarred by his Brethren from any Inheritance; and constrained to fly from them for Safety; and to dwell in the Land of Tob, where he became the Captain of vain Men, that were gathered to him. And fo being a military Man, had paffed his younger Years in an idolatrous Country, and in bad Company. Therefore, they think his Ignorance of the Law of God, and his military Rudeness

and

and the barbarous Practice of human Sacrifices, then usually in the idolatrous Nations, particularly among the Ammonites against whom he was going to fight; occafioned his rafh Vow, and his tenacious Adherence to it, fo as inflexibly and unnaturally, as well as impiously, to execute it upon his innocent Daughter.

In Anfwer to all this, it may be juftly pleaded on the more mild and charitable Side as followeth.

First, That all they of the harsh Sentiment, who think his Vow proceeded from Divine Inspiration, are thereby precluded from pleading in this Manner. Because if it proceeded from the Spirit of God, it could not be the Effect of Ignorance, Rudeness and Barbarity; nor in Imitation of the impious Sacrifices of the Pagan Idolators.

Secondly, They who think Phineas the High Priest was then ftill alive, and the Priesthood attending the Sanctuary at Shiloh, and the Sanhedrim fitting, have no Claim to ufe a great Part of the foregoing Pleading; and this is the Opinion of most of those of the harsh Sentiment: Because altho' it may be allowed that there was then among the Ifraelites a great Corruption and Defection

from

from the true Worship of God; yet they muft own, that this was not from the being deftitute of the Means of Inftruction. And therefore, at least at Jephtha's Return into his own Country, he did not want the Opportunity of being inftructed, both concerning his Vow, and the executing it. And this doth very much abate the force of the foregoing Pleading.

Thirdly, They are manifeftly precluded from pleading in that Manner, who say Jephtha was bound to lay his Daughter, by the law of Cherem, as they call it, in Levit. xxvii. 28, 29. Because this is to own that he was skilled in the law; yea, in a nice Point of it; and therefore could not be ignorant of the plain Law against the Offering of human Sacrifices.

But Fourthly, and chiefly, To affirm that Jephtha was an ignorant and rude Man; is grofly falfe; whatever his Education was. For by what is related of him, in the short Hiftory of the xith and xiith Chapters of this Book of Judges, it is manifeft, that he was not only a brave and expert Captain, but also a very prudent, polite and well accomplished Prince: And not only so, but further too, from the Holy Scriptures it is manifeft, that he was a virtuous, religious