War they had alwaies good success when the Kings very often had their rashness requited with ill fortune Sometime also the same Judges were employ'd in civill affairs and heard causes but those of the greater moment For they seldom sate in the judgment seat Only the commands and the Empire and the Soveraingty pertained unto them The last of their number was Samuel He whom the Kings followed Who not content with power and rule lifted up themselves above the multitude in their robes and ornaments and splendor of fortune Moreover besides the Soveraign Rulers and Judges of the people and those that were after called Kings there were others not a few who consulted of the Common-wealth gave judgment and arbitrated business For there were certain Synedryes or Councils wherein who were the Senators and what where the matters of their cognizance we must now enquire In the first place presents it self the great Councill of the Sanhedrin into which were ascrib'd seventy Adsessors That Council constituted by Moses continued under the Judges and Kings and high Priests untill the last desolation of Judaea and was holden in that City which was the seat of the Sanctuary and the head of the Common-wealth But because the first times and the next to them are most part obscure and the Holy Book hath delivered to us nothing of principall consideration concerning the City Shiloh We will deliver what the Jews have observed of that Council in the Princess of Cities Jerusalem after the Temple was built there and then wee shall speak of the other Councils which were either at Jerusalem or at particular Cities The Seat of the great Council was in the very Sanctuary where the seventy Senators judged both of divine and humane things Men not chosen from among the Plebeians but all most noble commended by their honourable Parentage and the antient ornaments of their family The place was assigned to them by Moses who commanded they should meet in the place which God should choose to have his name adored there From these Judges was no appeal Whatsoever the other Magistrates and Judges in the towns of Palestin and in Jerusalem it self were not able to decide belonged unto their jurisdiction Two of them excelled the rest in honour and authority one was the head of the Sanedrin by the Talmudists entitled Prince in every place the other next in degree but inferiour to him whom they called the Father of judgment The rest were equall among themselves This Senatorious dignity because it was most honourable was granted to none without a legitimate act namely imposition of hands So Moses layd his hand upon Josuah and the seventy Elders which solemnity being performed presently a divine spirit from above fell down upon them and fill'd their breasts And these being thus initiated themselves admitted others after the same way Yet could not that rite be used without the Holy Land because all the vertue thereof was confined by the bounds of Palestin It is very observeable which Maimonides hath delivered in the fourth Chapter of his Halacha Sanhedrin For whereas of old this act was celebrated at their pleasure by all those upon whom hands had been once imposed that right saith he was streightned by the wise men and a constitution made that no man should after that time use it but by grant from Rabbi Hillel that divine old man He was Prince of the great Councill and had another vice President Sameas a man truculent and ambitious whose followers when a little after they had risen up against the Disciples of Hillel stirred the minds of men with so much passion that willingly the whole people was drawn into their party At length this imposition of hands which had been used long ceased And there was only pronounced a certain form of words according to Ben Maimon of this sense Behold the hand is imposed on thee and power given thee to judge in criminall causes also Besides the Talmudists have told us of another form whose words because the illustrious Joseph Scaliger * In elenâ—ho Trihaeres hath mistaken we shall here restore unto their proper sense The Talmudists after they had spoken of Juda the son of Baba a stout defender of the antient customs of his Nation and who when the jurisdiction in criminals and imposition of hands were almost lost supported the sinking cause adde thus That solemn act is not only done by the hand imposed as Moses did to Josuah but it is also done by a form of words only after this manner I impose my hand upon thee and be the hand on thee imposed But the excellent Scaliger collected from the place that Juda had found out a form different from the most antient which is there conceived when 't is not so nor do the Talmudists say so being deceived by a word which bee renders besides which in Rabbinism signifies only But this is a Grammaticall note and ought to be left to others We are here to consider graver matters Into the Great Councill not only Citizens of prime Nobility as we have said but Levits also and Priests were chosen And the High Priest saith Maimonides was elected too if he were a considering man and fit for Counsell Otherwise it was lawfull to lay him aside For he came not to the Senate by any right of his own but he was admitted by suffrages All the Adsessors were required to be entire and perfect in body Whosoever had any main or deformity was excluded Nor were strangers and foreiners received into this order except the Mother at least were a Jew The Senators of the Sanhedrin had this charge to make their progress through all Judea to take a view of the Assemblies of the people to appoint them Magistrates in every town And all the vertue and authority of the Cabbala a mysterious doctrine delivered from hand to hand even from the beginnings of the CoÌ„mon-wealth was with them Their part also it was to make Statutes in sacred matters and to devise certain wayes to expound the Law Whereof Maimonides hath spoken with great care Moreover the causes of Prophets who had highly offended were no where tryed but in this great Councill Which our Saviour had respect unto when he said in Luke It is not possible that a Prophet should perish out of Jerusalem Lastly which is a point of the greatest power they did also constitute a King and deliberat of waging War and giving battail to the enemy and enlarging the Empire But because in these things the common safety and publick state was so much concerned consultation was therein had for the most part with the people For meetings were called wherein alone they had some share in the Government And truly otherwise they ought not Honours and Magistracies are committed to single and select men Plebeians have not strength and skill to bear them In their meetings as Aristotle hath discreetly noted and in conjuncture the multitude hath some understanding and can advance the publick
PETRUS CUNAEUS OF THE COMMON-WEALTH OF THE HEBREWS Translated by C. B. Nec omnia nec nihil LONDON Printed by T. W. for William Lee and are to be Sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Turks Head in Fleet-street over against Fetter-Lane 1653. THE AVTHOR'S PREFACE TO The States of Holland and Westfrisia Most illustrious Lords I Offer to your view a Cōmon-wealth the most holy and the most exemplary in the whole World The Rise and Advance whereof it well becomes you perfectly to understand because it had not any mortall man for its Author and Founder but the immortall God that God whose pure veneration and worship You have undertaken and do maintain Here you shall see what it was that conteined the Hebrews so long in an innocent way of life what rais'd up their courage cherished their concord bridled their desires Indeed that people had Rules of Government excelling the precepts of all wise men that ever were Which Rules we have shewed may in good part be collected out of the holy Bible Only of their Military Discipline very little is deliver'd to our memory Yet must every one that considers their victories and atchievements confess that the Hebrews for military vertue were inferiour to none For in the quality of banished men when they were come out of Egypt where they had long sate after a tedious march up and down in the deserts of Arabia for the space of forty years they encountred with mighty and valiant Nations expell'd them and possessed their Country where they built new Towns and dedicated to God a magnificent Temple In this most happy soil where their valour had planted them their mutuall concord made them grow to admiration The Counsels of all provided for the safety of all and the Cities which were many did not every one aim at their own dominion but all used their best endeavours to defend the publick Liberty That the Government might bee compleat and uniform they had the same Laws Magistrates Senators Judges and the same weights measures mony Wherefore all Palestin might be accounted as one City but only that all the Inhabitants were not shut up within the same Walls Such a Community and Conformity there was between them all Yet by the Law there was one City Privileg'd above all the rest not to have dominion over the rest but that all even the remotest dwellers should every year thrice hold their Religious meetings in it A thing so far from breeding any difference among them that it was the strongest bond of union Thus did the twelve Tribes of Israel every one being multiplyed marvellously into the greatness of a Nation overspread a very great and fertile Country The force of enemies the Tempests of Wars and other the like evils nothing prevail'd against them They alwaies rose higher by their overthrows were enriched by their losses and the keeness of their enemies sword put the more courage in them For a long time the Common-wealth of the Hebrews continued in this state till at last after Salomons death having attained the height of prosperity a great alteration happened A certain man Jeroboam all whose hopes consisted in the discord of the people stird up sedition among them and drawing to his party ten whole Tribes constituted a kind of Common-wealth a part to himself the head whereof was Samaria And now there was no longer one but two Common-wealths That of Israel or the ten Tribes lasted but a little while being conquered and carried away into eternall exile The other of the Jews whose imperiall City was Jerusalem although before the times of Vespasian the Emperour it was not wholly ruined yet the power of it was so enfeebled that it could seldom bear up against the enemy Certainly none of all this had come to pass had not they fallen to pieces by their own dissentions who whilst they held together and kept their force united were victorious over so many Nations The discords of the people give the greatest advantage to the enemy This was the cause of the Hebrews ruin and the same hath destroyed the most flourishing Kingdoms other Nations Please you to return into the memory of all former times you shall find scarce any other thing to have given a check to the most high and most mighty States Fortune though envious to such as prosper seldom assisteth any people to the destruction of another unless the people first create trouble to themselves at home knowing neither how to moderate their vices nor govern their own forces It is clear That Politic Nation the Romans who as Tully saith by defending their confederates made themselves Masters of all the world understood exceeding well how the most easy way to subdue confederate people was by their domestic troubles and dissentions Thus while they aided the oppressed party or became Arbitrators of the difference they brought all things into their own power and where they had made a waste they called it peace The Achaians were once terrible to all their Neighbours by means of a confederacy wherein upon fair conditions the Cities of Peloponnesus were united Their Common-wealth was of an excellent frame and very like to yours most illustrious Lords strengthned by their united powers and invincible How often did that Lordly people of Rome knowing Greece was inexpugnable so long as confederated endeavour by art and cunning to dissolve that union The Proconsul Gallus was put upon the business and when he found no success the Spartans by a treacherous device were added to the ligue but upon unequall terms to be a perpetuall cause of difference amongst them This afterward undid the Achaians The Annals are full of such examples but here is no place to make a long relation Rome the Lady of all Nations born for the ruin of the world as Mithridates said groaning under the peoples discord and Senators faction at last gave up her liberty and submitted her proud neck to the yoke of Caesar But to return to the Hebrews I shall mention that in the last place which is the chief of all The formention'd breach after Salomons death had been probably made up again in a short time but that the ambitious Author of it Jeroboam by changing the old true Religion into a vain and senseless superstition obstructed the way of concord and by a smooth oration having obtruded upon the ten Tribes his new invention made them very prone to take armes not so much now for their Estates and Liberty as for their Altars and Idols These things and many more of this sort we have discoursed of in this Treatise and we thought it not unfit to see the light You that are the Fathers of your Country have alwaies had this truth in mind That by concord a small Estate is raised and the greatest is by discord overthrown Your own experience confirms you in it since by divine favour and your own vertue and the conduct of your Invincible Leader your Common-wealth by many degrees is
possession of his House again Thus the Talmudists In the Cities of the Levites it was not so but for their houses they had the benefit of the same Law which was establisht by Moses concerning the Fields and rurall possessions of all the Hebrews as hath been said Wherefore they might redeem them after the year was past and what was not before redeemed the Jubily restored Amongst all the Cities most eminent was Jerusalems sanctity and as the Talmud delivers it remain'd perpetuall ever since the Dedication by the most glorious King Salomon That Ezra consecrated it again was unnecessary for it was not capable to be prophan'd like other Cities by the hands of the Sacrilegious Whence it came to pass as the Talmud-tradition is that it was lawfull to sacrifise at Hierusalem and to feast upon the sacrifices even in the dust and ashes of the destroyed City But how great was the Religion of the place appeared by those Jews whom Hadrian the Emperour permitted once a year to visit the deformed reliques of the holy City and there to lament and deplore the misery of their Nation This City was not assigned by lot unto any one tribe but was common to them all Wherefore the Talmudists free it from that Law which commands the bloud secretly shed in the borders of the Tribes to be expiated by slaving of a Heifer This which follows is not from superstition but from the antient and approved custom of the Nation Maimonides relates if any had an upper room so high that it gave them a prospect to the Holy of Holies they might indeed once a week go up to see all safe but oftner or for other cause they might not Verily King Agrippa much offended his people when from a lofty room in his palace he took a frequent view of the Temple saw from on high what was done within it The Jews thinking this to be an unsufferable thing raised a high wall to cut off the Kings prospect and without delay sent unto Rome ten Legates with Ismael the High-Priest and Eleazar the Treasurer to Petition Nero for a confirmation of that which Religion had compell'd the people to do What Hecâ—taeus of Abdera saith in Flavius that Jerusalem was of 50. furlongs compass inhabited by one hundred twenty thousand persons were not very materiall for us to know but that there is something of singular note concerning the enlargement of their pomaeria which Maimonides hath declared out of the Talmudicall Books And this it is In the enlargement of the City the great Senate Sanhedrin and the King and one Prophet consulted the oracle called Urim and Thummim After that they had agreed among themselves about the interpretation of the divine answer the Senators of the Sanhedrin recited two Verses of thanksgiving and having taken two Loaves of leavened Bread and departing presently with instruments of Musick made a stand at the turning of every Sticet and at all Monuments erected in the City and pronounced these words I will extoll thee O Lord because thou hast lifted me up At last when they were come unto the place designed for consecration because it was to be the bound of their pomaeria they all stayed and there of the two Loaves taken with them after the Verses sung they eat one the other they burnt in the flames These things received from their Ancestors the Talmudicall writers have thus left upon record Nor are they improbable seeing the like and almost the same are exstant in the 12. Chapter of Nehemiahs commentaries Yet in after times the liberty of the Jews being opprest by the Romans this prolation of their pomaeria depended not upon the pleasure of the great Councill but of the Roman people Farther this is also deliver'd by Cornelius Tacitus that the Jews with a great sum of money purchased leave to fortify Whence it appears the Queen of Cities Jerusalem was in the same condition with all towns under the Roman power whose Walls could not be repair'd without the Authority of the Prince or Governour nor any thing joyned to them or set upon them as * L. 9. sect ff de rerum divis Ulpian the Lawyer saith And truly Claudius Caesar when he had received intelligence that they were enclosing Jerusalem with a mighty Wall admonished Agrippa of that new attempt and thereupon the King in obedience to the Emperour left off the work he had undertaken The Talmudicall writers say Jerusalem had this privilege above other Towns of Judaea that no house in the City after one year could be retained by the buyer They say also it was not lawfull to plant Orchards or gardens there affirming that of the whole City which Hecataeus hath written of the circuit of the Temple Dead bodies which were carried any whither were not admitted into that City out of a respect unto the Holiness thereof Only two Sepulchers were there of David and of Olda built they say by the old Prophets Yet were the Levits bound up with a more strict Religion being prohibited to bury the dead in their Cities and in the Field of their Suburbs too Wherefore by divine appointment they received from the other Tribes a parcell of ground without their own borders where they might lay the bones of their dead to rest In other Towns it was not unlawfull to bury provided seven honest men gave assent thereto but when once the Corps was carried forth of the gate it might not be received again within the walls although all the people should desire it Jerusalem as we said above was the head city the seat of Religion and holy rites Wherefore that being overthrown there fell with it the form of the Jewish Common-weal both Civill and sacred Truly what Flavius saith of a voice heard out of the Temple before the destruction of the City Let us go hence seemeth unto me to signifie nothing else but that the Common-weal was to be dissolved and the Scepter to be taken away which of old was given to the holy Nation For within a short time the orders and functions and rites and almost all their Laws ceased and there followed great confusion desolation and distraction First of all the most sacred College of the Hasideans that drew its Originall from the Prophets was now no more because their custom was to goe every day to the Temple and to bestow voluntary charges upon Sacrifices and upon the Porches and Walls of the Sanctuary And whereas Moses imposed upon strangers that should become Proselytes the oblation of some certain gift this upon the dissolution began to be deferred altogether till another time when the third sanctuary which they yet expect shall be built Nor doe they any more marry their Brothers Widows which have no Children And the solennity of the Passeover never since that time hath been rightly celebrated for the Law commanded it should be kept in that place wherein God had chosen the seat of his house Of so much consequence was the
Jews and others When the Common-weal was of all the Hebrews when of the Jews What the Scepter was The plausible opinion of Eusebius confuted Wherein consists and to whom belongs Imperiall Majesty WHat we have now said of the sanctuary is of great moment to the confuting of Mâ—â—monides but wee must produce other Arguments to prove that the Common-wealth of which old Jacob spake to Juda on his death Bed was no where seated but in Palestin We will not go far but cite Mâ—â—monides for a witness against himself How often doth he tell us the holy people without the bounds of the Holy Lâ—nd was loosed from many of the Mosaicall Laws He hath a notable * In Halacha sanhedrin d ssertation wherein he circumscribes with certain limits the power of the Judges both of Palestin and Babylon Certainly the greatest part of Mâ—ses Law is conversant about criminall causes The judgement hereof saith Maimâ—â— could be no where exercised by the Babylonian Jews no not in Palestin And the Jews of Palestin as by the Law they gave judgement to their own people in all causes within their own Country so without it they gave no sentence upon their Country-men unless by the permission of the Babylonian Peers or other heads of the exiled Jews Whence we gather that the Jews of Palestiâ—â— judged of crimes in their own Country alwaies by vertue of the Law sometimes out of their Country but by permission and leave of others the Babylonians no where judged of them not in their own dominion not in Palestin not by force of Law nor by permission And are these the men think you to whom was given the Jewish Scepter after the affairs of Palestin were broken and decayed Surely either the excellent writer knew not what was the dignity of the Scepter or he thought too well of some States of straw that do there boast themselves to be of Davids house But wee wonder not at this light mistake of Maimonides when we consider by what strange interpretations others have laboured for the sense of Jacobs divine speech I remember I had conference concerning this with the honourable Apollonius Scottus assessor of the supreme Senate at what time in his house at the Hague I sweetly spent the Vacation and with great ardor ran over the Luculent commentations of Rabbi Ben Maimon wherewith I was so taken that I crossed almost all my former notes concerning the Jewish State There did this Senator such is his learning and the exceeding vigor of his wit signifie more than once that in his judgment no other Text in the sacred Book is more examined by learned men and less understood Verily I was glad to find of my opinion a man whose authority and repute might encourage me to oppose the interpretations of any other whatsoever Wherefore by his incitement I think I shall not do amiss if in so great a multitude of conjectures I shall also publish what my judgment is about a prophecy so illustrious The Argument indeed is worthy wherein the wit of every man may exercise it self and shew its strength Although in this our Treatise we handle the affairs of Hebrews and Jews in common and without difference for the most part yet to secure the Reader from mistake we will once for all demonstrate that the sacred Common-wealth constituted by Moses according to Gods appointment was alwaies the same and founded on the same Laws but not alwaies of the same persons A long time it was of the Hebrews afterward by change of times it was only of the Jews And so the oracle of Jacob which is of Juda's Scepter pertaineth only to those later times The ignorance whereof is the cause why this admirable prophecy hath been hitherto misunderstood I will not mention here the miserable hallucinations of Origen Austin Epiphanius and others who thought the Jews were promised by those words of Jacob a perpetuall succession of Kings of the same tribe and the same linage even to the times of Messiah An opinion which led the followers of it into insuperable difficulties for they know not what to say nor whither to turn themselves when they saw from the death of Sedechiah to the times of Aristobulus the Kingdom of the Jews was none and after that untill Herods tyranny it was in the hands only of the Hasmonaei of the tribe of Levi. These things of late are discussed well and with good success in the exercitations against Baronius by the most learned man of our age I saack Casaubon who is pleased with the famous opinion of Eusebius extant in the eighth Book of his Evangelicall demonstrations We pretermit all things rightly said both by Eusebius and by Casaubon that we may not do what is done to our hand And we confess among all the Interpretations hitherto divulged that of Eusebius is far the best But because neither Eusebius nor that great Scholar that follows him seem to me to have understood what that Scepter is of which the old Prophet speaks to his Son a little before his death nor when it was given to the Jews this is needfull now to be cleared but not without a preface For it is no pleasure to us to dissent neither from Eusebius whom we have ever esteemed among the greatest writers nor from him whom we have above named the prime man of our age the follower of Eusebius to whom we owe so much reverence that no man is so great with us as He. For He it is by whose conduct these our times have made admirable proficiency toward the perfection of all learning But we are constrained by our ingenuous love of truth to lay aside affection and impartially inquire what is right The first error of Eùsebius is that the Scepter was given to Juda even from the time of Moses because this Tribe excelled alwaies among the rest with singular dignity and held a more honourable place both in the Camps and in the order of them that offered gifts in the Temple Which Argument moves me no more thaâ— if one should say the Majesty of the Scepter at Râ—â—â— or Athens was not in the Romaâ—â—â—â— Athenian people but in one 〈◊〉 which was more noble or flouâ—â—â—ing For truly it is manifest by the most constant affirmation of antient Authors that in Rome and Athens both were many and divers tribes some above the rest in dignity place and order What is it then Verily I suppose the Scepter to be nothing else but the Majesty of Empire Majesty I mean pertaining to the Common-wealth it self Wherfore whose is the Common-wealth theirs also is the Scepter Now the Hebrew Common-wealth from the age of Moses until the reign of Rehoboam was not of the Jews but of the twelve tribes Whence it follows that the Scepter all that space of time was of all the Israelites But of this Scepter which a long time was common to all the tribes the divine Patriarch spoke not in that celebrious oracle He had respect unto
the later times and the ages to come when the tribe of Juda the people being divided into contrary parts began to have a Common-wealth of their own a sunder from the Israelites a Common-wealth approved and favoured of God and called Judaicall from the name of Juda alone untill he should come who was designed for the King not of the Jews only but of all Nations And this Majesty of the Scepter from the time it once began to be the Jews continued theirs although the State of the Common-wealth was sometimes altered and the power was in the hand one while of the best men and the Priests other while of the Kings and Princes It is want of judgment in them that restrain the honour of this Title to Kings alone For what people soever enjoys a Common-wealth of their own and Laws of their own that people may justly glory in their Empire and in their Scepter It is recorded that in Jerusalem even at the time when the people were govern'd not by Princes but by the best in the midst of the Great Councill which they call Sanhedrin there hang'd a Scepter Which was no question a certain token of that Majesty which * In part orat Tully expresseth to be a certain greatness of a people in retaining that power and right which appears in Empire and all kind of Honour Not Kings not Princes but Consuls and Senators managed the Roman Common-wealth when that Law of confederation was given to the Etolians as Livy relates that they should well and truly conserve the Majesty of the Roman people And that the same was imposed upon all free people that were confederates but upon unequall terms and friends to the Romans the Lawyer * In l. 7. ff de captiv postlim reversis Proculus is a witness Neither is it materiall to us of what family or tribe they were who governed the Judaicall State For although the Hasmonaei of the tribe of Levi many years possessed the Kingdom nevertheless was the Common-wealth of the Jewish people Nero Caesars most wise * Sen. l. 1. de clementia Master told him The Common-wealth is not the Princes but the Prince the Common-weal's And Ulpian the Lawyer was just of the same opinion The crime of Majesty * L. 1. sect 1. ff ad logem Jul. Majest or Treason saith he is that which is committed against the Roman people or against the security thereof Ulpian lived in those times when neither the commands nor suffrages were in the people but the Caesars held the Empire and power of all yet he that is wont most accurately to define every thing ascribeth Majesty to the people CHAP. X. The twelve Tribes of the Hebrews was never called by the name of Jews The ten tribes carried captive by Salmanassar never returned into Palestin Two tribes served the Romans and no more in the time of Josephus EUsebius is not sufficiently confuted untill wee have made it plain how imprudently he drew himself into the snare L. 8. Demonst evan dem 1. In the forecited Book are extant these words Ever since the time of Moses the Governours of Israel if you look upon them in particular were chosen out of severall tribes but in generall the tribe of Juda was over the whole Nation Hitherto he agrees with himself and falls into no contradiction but he addes For example as in the Roman Empire the Governours of several Nations and Camp-masters and the Kings greater than all the rest were not all born at Rome nor descended from Romulus and Remus but sprung of many other Nations some of one some of another and yet as well all the Kings as the succeeding Governours and Leaders were called Romans and the power and authority said to be of the Romans not of any other name so must we think of the Hebrew State that one tribe of Juda gave an illustrious name to all the rest though the Rulers and Kings were created out of the severall tribes all honoured with the common appellation of Jews See whither incogitancy will bring a man Eusebius concludes contrary to what himself would have For affirming the Scepter was the Jews from Moses time he proves it by this reason because the Common-wealth the Empire and the whole people of twelve tribes had their appellation from the one name of Juda. With this argument twice or thrice in severall places he triumpheth and you shall hardly find any other proof of his opinion in the whole discourse But by his leave all this is nothing For neither did the Common-wealth nor the Empire begin to be called after Juda's name till after the greater part of the Israelites had made a defection drawn away by Jeroboam who shortly at Samaria strenthened his Kingdom by introducing a change of ceremonies and Religion I will make it good to Eusebius and to all that have any acquaintance with sacred story that this is so Eusebius often and with confidence affirms all the twelve tribes were called by the name of Jews and hath obtruded this groundless opinion upon unwary men nor have there been wanting some writers of greatest eminence to defend it We cannot yield unto it whether you respect the times antecedent to the seisure of the Kingdom or subsequent And we may conjecture that Eusebius although he doth not plainly express his mind thought it came to pass at the rise of the Empire when the Common-wealth was first setled in the Land of Canaan and it was debated by what name to call it But this hath no colour of truth wherefore that excellent man the Defender of Eusebius makes him think otherwise of the time and what he believes he thought himself approves and follows For saith he it was observed by Eusebius that the twelve tribes of Israel received appellation from the name of Juda and the appellation began to be used when the Kingly power which the tribe of Juda had lost in Sedechiah was by the High Priests transferred upon themselves And this saith he is a thing most worthy of admiration and fell out by speciall providence For seeing in Polybius his opinion 't was not without some great cause that the Acheians a little people of Greece once gave name to all the Grecians surely here also we must conceive some more sublime and weighty reason when after the return from captivity all the children of Abraham of all the tribes were called Jews This errour we neither can nor ought to excuse The truth is this When the Kingdom of the Israelites was rent and divided two tribes Levi and Benjamin joyned themselves with the Jews which tribes being but few in number and of mean estate were accounted but for an addition the Common-wealth was not named from them but they even lost their own name and at length the name of Jews was common to them all There is no doubt to be made of thus much But what or how this can concern the other ten tribes let them
consider that are pleased with the conceit Certainly after that those ten tribes of Israel were once carried away by Salmanassar the Assyrian and dispersed through Colchos Parthia India and Ethiopia they never came back again into their native soil nor were again conjoyned with the Jews but even to this day if there be any reliques of them under the command of barbarous Nations they suffer the grievous punishment of their Apostacy Wherefore to be in the Common-wealth of the Jews or to have the honour a name from the Jews was impossble for them who had no familiarity nothing to do with the Jews but were seated in another World far off and beheld a different Heaven different Stars It will be worth our pains and much to the present dispatch to examine a memorable place that is in Flavius Josephus * L. 11. c. 5. Antiquit. an Author of exquisit and unusuall diligence Flavius had spoken first concerning them who from every quarter out of the neighbouring places came to Babylon that they might return with Ezra to Jerusalem They all were Jews and their Associates of Levi and Benjamin And then concerning the Hebrews of other tribes he addes But all the people of Israel remained in their * Where they were carried by Salmanassar beyond Euphrates seats wherefore both in Asia and in Europe two tribes only fell under the dominion of the Romans the other ten do still continue on the other side of Euphrates being infinite in number and unknown Verily they were under a harder fate whom Salmanassar led into captivity than whom afterward Nebuchodonozor carried away For the Israelites were for ever restrained and kept back by the River Euphrates which they had once passed over But the Jews passed the same and repassed and came again at last into Palestin and when Palestin it self became either too narrow for them or less gratefull they enlarged and spred their habitations through Europe and Asia This is the reason why Josephus said only two tribes of the Hebrews were brought into subjection by the Romans For at that time the people of Rome although they had almost subdued the World and the Sun did both rise and set within the compass of their Empire being Lords of the East and West they had not yet extended their bounds beyond Euphrates Therefore that the ten tribes of Israel shut up in eternall prison by that River were not then under the Roman power was truly said by the most accurate Writer CHAP. XI Their Conjecture that say the Scepter of Juda was first given to David The prophecy concerning the Scepter not fulfilled till after times When the Scepter was taken away I Have ingenuously and freely spoken my opinion when the Scepter whereof Jacobs prophecy is extant was given to the Jews also what were the members of that Common-wealth which had its rise and beginning from the Secession of the common people These things Eusebius did not understand yet he alone among so many Interpreters hath rightly and almost divinely judged of that oracle The comments of other men I will not relate But what Eusebius affirms to have been done from the beginning of the Hebrew Common-wealth very many conjecture came to pass at that time when the royall power was devolved upon David descended of the tribe of Juda as the sacred History doth witness These men have already received such a solid and happy confutation from Eusebius that no place is left here for the industry of any other For he shews that Davids posterity possessed the Kingdom only for a small time untill the Babylonian captivity and the sundry Scriptures that speak of his eternall throne he hath well and wisely interpreted in relation to the Messias To adde more of this after Eusebius were to labour in vain for by his pains herein he hath eased every one It remains only that wee answer their doubt who wonder why the event came so far behind the prediction concerning the Jewish Common-wealth For we have said it began under Rehoboam and not before But we give them to understand this was very agreeable to the meaning of the prophetick Patriarch For the old Father before his death breathing forth his last words to his children saith he would tell them what should come to pass in the later dayes Besides in prophecies the times are not curiously to be insisted on for most of them are to be interpreted with very great latitude Observe in this very prophecy when it is said The Scepter shall not be taken away untill Shiloh come you would think 't were meant that presently upon the appearance of Messias the Scepter should be snatcht out of the hands of that Nation Which came not so to pass For the Jews lost not that honour till the City being destroyed and the Temple burnt they ceased to have any Common-wealth and to govern themselves by their own Laws Nevertheless the oracle was infallibly true For although the Saviour of the World had left the earth long before yet for certain these things hapned in the same age which was presignified by the Messias himself wher he speaks of the destruction of the City and Temple in these words Verily Mat. 24. this Generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled This is enough for the wise The rest that love to raise doubts and scruples every where we regard not For my part seeing men of great name fluctuating among uncertain errours I applyed my self to find out some firm ground to rest on which henceforth I might without danger constantly maintain For otherwise this matter would have often hindred our proceeding in this Treatise CHAP. XII Of Dictators and Judges Of the Senate Sanhedrin Of the initiation of Senators The imposition of hands and the solemn words Who were chosen into that Council and what was their jurisdiction Of the peoples assemblies WE have shewed that the Common-wealth of which we discourse was of all the Hebrews for a long time and then only of the Jews The stating whereof concern'd us much Now having past the trouble of that dispute let us declare who they were that ruled over the Holy Nation and what is to be thought of their judicature and of their Senate The Divine goodness granted not leave to Moses to behold in Palestin the beginnings of that Common-wealth whose Laws he had published in the wilderness That Grace was vouchsafed to his Successor Josuah the Captain General and Soveraign of the people for both at home and abroad in the War his word was a Law His Successors with equall power were they who for going in and out before the people and commanding them might well be called Praetors and Dictators but in the sacred Annals are for the like reason named Judges Flavius hath stil'd them Monarchs a name that the Greek writers gave also to Sylla Cinna Marius and other Roman Dictators These Judges in great commotions were created by necessity and experience witnessed that in