expiring of the term; for, when he had taken the reproof to heart, and the time had expired, he became free. In short, it was a voluntary act of the individual, arising from a conviction of his past misconduct, and the offence he had given to society and the church. It was submitting to the sentence of the synagogue as just and proper."

2dly, The Nedui "7, or separation, was inflicted on those who despised the admonition, or had been guilty of refusing to pay any debt which the bench of three had found him liable to, or had been guilty of any of the twenty offences which are collected by Dr. Lightfoot," and Dr. Owen out of the Talmud. It might be pronounced by any of their religious assemblies, but was commonly executed by the synagogue, or rather by the bench of three attached to the synagogue; who sent their officer to summon him to appear on a certain day. Thus, they appointed him the second day of the week, or their first court-day; the fifth day of the week, or their second court-day; and the second day of the week following, or their third court-day. And if the matter was about money that was owing to any member of the synagogue, they allowed all the three days to run, before declaring him contumacious, and thereby subjecting him to the Nedui; but if it was concerning any of the twenty offences formerly alluded to, they inflicted the Nedui, on his refusing to appear the first time; for they justly thought that he who had been guilty of such offences should make every haste to express his contrition. The time of its continuance was commonly thirty days; but if the person neglected to apply for a remission at the end of that time, he became virtually subject

a Lightf. Heb. and Talm, Exer. 1 Cor. v. 5. .

b Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations on 1 Cor. v. 5.

• Exposition on the Hebrews, vol. i. Exercit. 21st.

to the next highest degree of censure, although it was not always inflicted. During the continuance of this sentence, he was not prevented from hearing the law, or even from teaching it, if a master in Israel, provided he kept four paces distant from other persons. Nay, he might even go into the temple to attend divine service, but he entered in and came out at the contrary doors from the rest of the people. And if he died while under this sentence, they threw a stone upon his bier, to signify that he deserved stoning.

3dly. The next higher punishment was the Herem

, or cutting off. It was an authoritative and publie censure, inflicted by the synagogue; and was commonly inflicted on those who despised the Nedui, or were guilty of higher provocations, and lasted for thirty days. With persons in that situation it was not lawful so much

as to eat.

The 4th and highest degree of ecclesiastical separation, was the Shemetha &D, from now Shemeth, to exclude, expel, or cast out: meaning that they were cast out from the covenant of promise, and the commonwealth of Israel; and that they should be accounted by the Jews as an heathen man and a publican. It was inflicted on those who despised the Herem, and by the greater part of the Jews was esteemed total and final: the person that fell under it being left to the judgment of God, without hope of reconciliation with the church. Hence it is called in the Targum," the curse and execration of God:" and by the Talmudists, "the anathema of the God of Israel."

The above is the arrangement of ecclesiastical censures among the Jews, as given by Godwin, and Dr.

a Num. xxi. 25. Deut. vii. 27.

Moses and Aaron, Book v. ch. 2.

Owen: but Dr. Lightfoot arranges them differently. For he places the Shemetha before the Herem, making the Shemetha the same as the lesser excommunication; and the Herem as equivalent to the greater.

Dr. Owen gives from Buxtorff the form of the greater excommunication, which I shall here transcribe.

By the sentence of the Lord of lords, let such an one, the son of such an one, be in anathema, or accursed in each house of judgment, that above and that below (meaning by God and his church ;) in the curse of the holy ones on high; in the curse of the seraphims and ophannim (meaning the wheels or cherubims in Ezekiel's vision;) in the curse of the whole church, from the greatest to the least. Let there be upon him strokes great and abiding; diseases great and terrible; let his house be an habitation of dragons or serpents. Let his star (or planet) be dark in the clouds. Let him be exposed to indignation, anger, and wrath; and let his dead body be cast to wild beasts and serpents; let his enemies and adversaries rejoice over him; and let his silver and gold be given to others; and let his children be cast at the door of his enemies; and let posterity be astonished at his day. Let him be accursed out of the mouth of Abiriron and Athariel; from the mouth of Sandolphon and Hadraniel; from the mouth of Ansisiel and Pathiel; from the mouth of Seraphiel and Sagansael; from the mouth of Michael and Gabriel; from the mouth of Raphiel and Mesharethiel. Let him be accursed from the mouth of Zazabib, and from the mouth of Havabib, who is the great God; and from the mouth of the seventy names of the great king; and from the mouth of Tzorlak the great chancellor (names partly significant and partly

a

Exposition of the Hebrews, vol. i. Exercit. 21.

b Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations on 1 Cor. v. 5.

insignificant, coined to strike a terror into weak and distempered minds.) Let him be swallowed up as Korah and his company, and let his soul depart with fear and terror. Let the rebuke of the Lord slay him; and let him be strangled like Achitophel. Let his leprosy be as the leprosy of Gehazi; neither let there be any restoration of his ruin. Let not his burial be in the burials of Israel; let his wife we given to strangers; and let others humble her in his death. Under this curse let such an the son of such an one, be, with his whole inheritance. But unto me, and all Israel, let God extend his peace and blessing. Amen."

one,

To add to the terror of the above sentence, they usually accompanied the pronouncing of it with the sound of trumpets; as the Targum says Barak did in the cursing of Meroz." "He shematized him with four hundred trumpets."

Such, then, were the different degrees of ecclesiastical censure among the Jews. The first of which, we may well suppose, would not be unfrequent among so large a religious community as that of Israel; accordingly our Lord recommends it in Matthew xviii. 15. The second is thought to be referred to in John ix. 22. 34. xii. 42. xvi. 2, where the Jews determined to cast those who embraced Christianity out of the synagogue. The third is alluded to by the apostle in 1 Cor. v. 11. And of the fourth we have two instances: the first in 1 Cor. xvi. 22, where those who love not the Lord Jesus Christ are declared to be anathema maranatha, or under a curse, till the Lord come; and the second in Ezra x. 7, 8, where it is said that "they made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem, unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves to

Judg. v. 23.

gether unto Jerusalem; and that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be divided, and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away." It will readily be noticed that a double penalty is here threatened to the disobedient; viz. that they should be separated from the children of the captivity, or excluded from sacred privileges and looked upon as heathens, and that their substance was to be divided or confiscated, which commonly implied an application to pious purposes, or to the service of the temple, as the apocryphal book Esdras ix. 4, explains it. Hence some have made the following distinction between the different degrees of censure: The admonition was friendly and private, and lasted for seven days. The Nedui, or separation, was friendly and public; the censure being made known to the congregation, and implying an exclusion from sealing ordinances for thirty days. The Herem, or cutting off, implied both an exclusion from sealing ordinances, and many of the ordinary civilities of life and the Semetha, or exclusion with a curse, included an utter exclusion from the congregation of Israel, confiscation of property, and exposure to death by the visible interposition of God. It is thought by some that the apostle refers to this last part of the sentence, or death by the hand of God, in 1 Cor. xi. 30, when he tells the Corinthians that, in consequence of their improper observance of the Lord's supper, many were weak and sickly among them, and many slept or died by the visitation of heaven." And perhaps it is to this visible judgment of God in the apostolical age against egregious offenders, rather than to the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, that the apostle John also refers in his 1st Epistle, v. 16, when he says, "If any man see his brother sin a sin, which is not unto