Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	king_n	time_n	year_n	9,514	5	4.8121	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63903	Boaz and Ruth a disquisition upon Deut. 25, 5, concerning the brothers propagating the name and memory of his elder brother deceased : in which the antiquity, reason, and circumstances of that law are explained, the mistakes and impositions of the Jewish rabbins, in this and other matters detected ... / by John Turner ...	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1685 (1685)	Wing T3303; ESTC R10986	186,035	472

none 2 Kings 1. 17 but his Brother for Jehoram is expressly called the Son of Ahab 2. Kings 3. 1. and v. 2. it is said that he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord but not like his Father that is Ahab and like his Mother that is Jezebel for he put away the Image of Baal that his Father had made that is again Ahab for so it is said of Ahab 1 Kings 16. 31. that he went and served Baal and Worshipped him and v. 32. He reared up an Altar for Baal in the House of Baal Jehoram was succeeded by Jehu the Son of Nimshi the Captain General of all Jehorams forces a man very famous for his exploits in War and particularly for the boldness and fury of his attacks in Battel who knowing very well that expedition is the very life of business when the messengers from Jehoram came one after another to ask him is it peace would not so much as stay to give them audience but with a military roughness what hast thou said he to do with peace turn thee behind me and so drove on with all the speed he could for Jezreel where Joram lay to be healed of the Wounds which he had received in a late Battel against Hazael King of Syria at Ramah and the Watchman that stood upon an eminence to observe what became of the messengers that were sent knew that it was Jehu by the fury of his driving though neither of the Messengers that were sent returned the driving said he is like the driving of Jehu the Son of Nimshi for he driveth furiously And though it cannot be denyed that Jehu was in a most especial manner appointed by God himself for the sins of Jehoram and the House of Omri to be King and was accordingly Anointed to the Kingly Office by the prophet as hath already been shewn yet this divine designation had its effect by natural and human means by the power and interest of Jehu in the Army under his Command as it was in the case of Omri the head of that Royal family which was extinguished in the person of Jehoram and of his Seventy Brethren the Sons of Ahab 2 Kings c. 10. For so it is expressly said when Jehu had acquainted the Captains of the Host with the subject of the Prophets message to him 2 Kings 9. 12. Thus saith the Lord I have Anointed thee King over Israel that v. 13. they hasted and took every man his Garment and put it under him on the top of the Stairs and blew with Trumpets saying Jehu is King and Jehu's party that had proclaimed him was so strong that the rulers of Jezreel and the Elders that brought up Ahabs Children being Seventy in number c. 10. saw it was in vain to insist upon their right against so powerful a pretender to the Throne v. 4. behold two Kings stood not before him that is Jehoram King of Israel and Ahaziah King of Judah how then shall we stand so that they were forced though as it seems contrary to their Inclinations to comply with the Conqueror in a very cruel and sanguinary Command v. 6. take ye the heads of the men year Masters Sons and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time and accordingly it came to pass v. 7. when Jehu ' s letter came to them that they took the Kings Sons being seventy persons which were with the great men of the City that brought them up v. 6. and put their heads in Baskets and sent them to Jezreel and as he had served his Sons so he served likewise all that remained of the House of Ahab in Jezreel and all his great Men and his Kinsfolks and his Priests until he left him none remaining v. 11. So that this is another instance of military revolutions and of the mischiefs and calamities to which that nation is exposed where Armies are in constant pay and are either divided among themselves in the consequences of which division the State cannot be unconcerned or acted unanimously by their own discontents or by the designs the ambitions or the private and concealed resentments of their leaders or when being at leisure from any Forreign service they are at leisure likewise to do the more mischief at home as it is morally impossible so great a body of men made up for the most part as it is in all the world besides of a mixt multitude of Knaves and Fools should not brew some mischief when they are out of Employment and the Commanders have little else to do but to lay out a Scheme of greatness for themselves and then pursue the means of compassing their designs Jehu Reigned Twenty and Eight Years and at length died in peace and slept with his Fathers and Jehoahaz his Son Reigned in his stead 2 Kings 10. 35 36. And in the line of Jehu the Kingdom of Israel continued during the Reigns of the four Immediatly succeeding Princes that is to say Jehoahaz Jehoash Jeroboam the second of that name and Zachariah against whom Shallum the Son of Jabesh conspired c. 15. 10. and that it was by a publick and formed conspiracy as well as any of those other changes in the Crown of Israel which have been mentioned appears by this that it is said that he smote him before the people and that he Reigned in his stead The first of which he would not have dared to do and the last he could not possibly have effected had he not had before hand a considerable power and interest in the people before whom he is said to have slain Zachariah But to see the inconstancy of disloyal Subjects who have once forfeited their Allegiance to their Lawful Prince they can be true to no Interest no Person or Estabishment as it proved by our own experience in the late giddy times when once they have prostituted that incommunicable fidelity which is wholly and entirely due to the rightful and Lawful King and to none else besides him for Shallum Reigned but One single Mouth and then gave place to Fate and to the more powerful interest of Menahem the Son of Gadi who went up from Tirzah and came to Samaria and smote Shallum the Son of Jabesh in Samaria and slew him and Reigned in his stead 2 Kings 15. 14. And with what cruelty he mannaged that power which he had gotten and the conquest which he and his party had made over Shallum and his adherents appears immediately in the next words and is a woful example as well as the story of Jehu of those unspeakable miseries and devastations with which all publick revolutions are generally attended v. 16. he smote Tiphsah and all that were therein and the coasts thereof from Tirzah because they opened not to him therefore he smote it and as if Tipsah and Tredagh had been the same he put all the Inhabitants and the Garison to the Sword And all the Women therein that were with Child he ript up and the cause of this cruelty being

Priesthood which consisted in sprinkling of the blood and making an atonement for the Souls either of themselves or others belonged only to the Priests properly and strictly so called this being the most sacred and essential Character of the Priesthood and therefore was not common to all the Levites who were dispersed through the whole Land and had in a greater latitude the charge of the holy things but was peculiar to the Sons of Aaron who had always their constant residence at Jerusalem and were bound to give their daily attendance upon the Altar so that the Priesthood of Jeroboam being not barely a Levitical but a more strict and sacrificial Priesthood such as was peculiar to the Sons of Aaron by the Law of Moses and the only places of Sacrifice set up by Jeroboam being the two Altars erected at Dan and Bethel it follows plainly from the nature of his Priesthood compared with the places where it could only be exercised that these two were the only places where his Priests resided An Eleventh consideration by which the distinction of the Mosaic Priesthood from that of Jeroboam will appear may be taken from the different solemnity of their respective consecration to the Priestly Office as it is described Levit. 8. and 2 Chron. 13. in the words of Abijah so often appealed to A Twelfth argument shall be taken from the difference of the Feasts which were observed by the one Priesthood and the other for Jeroboam to make the greater distinction and the wider breach between the two nations of Israel and Judah had altered the time of the solemn Feasts that the people might not be tempted to go up to Jerusalem and do sacrifice at the same solemn and stated times when those of Benjamin and Judah repaired thither 1 Kings 12. 32. And Jeroboam ordained a Feast in the Eighth Month on the fifteenth day of the Month like unto the Feast that is in Judah it was like the Feast in Judah but it was not in the same Month in which that Feast was kept for it follows v. 33. so he offered upon the Altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the Eighth Month even in the Month which he had devised of his own heart and ordained a Feast which had not been ordained before at that time unto the Children of Israel and he offered upon the Altar and burnt incense If you ask me what Feast in Judah that was which was resembled by this I Answer it was the Feast of the Passover and the reason I give of my opinion is this Epiphanius in his Haeresies mentions among the Samaritans a Sect called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sebuaei who had their name from sheba which signifies Seven because they observed the Passover in the Seventh Month that is in Tisri whereas by the Law of Moses it was to be observed in Abib or Nisan that is in the first Month and their name put into Greek is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have elsewhere observed against Joseph Scaliger Now Seven and Eight in these cases are the same as Grotius hath observed before me and therefore Josephus saith of the Passover somtimes that it was a Feast of Seven and sometimes of Eight Days continuance in the first account excluding that day in which the Passover was killed which did not belong to the Feast of the Passover properly so called and in the latter including it And so here if you take in the Terminus à quo which is the Month before Nisan then Tisri is the Eighth Month but if you consider the Months only inclusivè beginning at Nisan or Abib then it is the Seventh which is a plain way of reconciling this seeming disagreement betwixt Epiphanius and the writer of the Book of Kings And to shew still more plainly that both writers are to be understood of the same Feasts it is to be considered that the Samaritanes received their Religion from the Israelitish Priests which were sent among them to instruct them as appears by the Seventeenth Chapter of the Second Book of Kings where the story of Salmanesers deportation is related and these Priests were subjects of that Kingdom and Priests of that Order and Institution of which Jeroboam was the Founder so that I think there can be no doubt that the same Feast is understood by Epiphanius with that which is mentioned in the Book of Kings but Epiphanius his Feast is expresly said to have been the Passover therefore it follows that in the Book of Kings we are also to expound and interpret it of the same and as Epiphanius explains the sacred story so on the other hand the inspired Writer returns Epiphanius his kindness back again by giving authority and credit to his relation And if we consider that Epiphanius did not understand Hebrew which it is easie to prove that he did not and I think I have done it in some other papers the name it self does sufficiently vouch the credibility of the story since its signification is so well accommodated to the practice of the sect it self which he describes I do therefore disown and recant those reasons which I have given of the Samaritan practice as to this particular in the papers I have mentioned which being already finished from the press though not yet published cannot be recalled since it appears so plainly that it is wholly owing to the perverse institution of Jeroboam which was devised by him on set purpose to make the breach wider and the enmity more irreconcileable betwixt the two Kingdoms of Israel and Judah And it is further to be noted that he did not only institute a new Feast or which is the same thing an old Feast at a new time but also that he did sacrifice in his own person by that means invading the Priestly Office a sin so grievous in the sight of God that for this very thing for offering sacrifice of himself before Samuel came into the camp the Kingdom was rent from Saul and his posterity and Azariah or Vzziah only for burning Incense upon the Altar of Incense though in all other respects a very good and a very pious King was smitten with the Leprosie all his life-life-time after But in the thirteenth and last place it appears beyond all possibility all colour of contradiction that the Priests of Jeroboam were not dispersed in the Levitical Cities all over the Land of Israel as the Levites themselves were but only in Dan and Bethel from the express words of the text it self 1 Kings 12. 32. And he placed in Bethel the Priests of the high places which he had made and there being the same sacredness of Dan as of Bethel the same kind of Priests belonging to them both and the same sacrifices and ceremonies to be performed at both places there is no question but it is to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them both that Dan as well

I have given the reasons of my opinion I will then submit it to the publick Judgment whether the Rabbins or I be in the right The time which I shall pitch upon shall be that of the division of Israel and Judah into two Kingdoms by the policy and seditious practices of Jeroboam at which time it is expressly said that he expelled all the Levites out of his dominions in which there being forty Levitical Num. 35. Citys four in each Tribe these two things do naturally and unavoidably follow First That the Levites being driven out of all their Cities belonging to the Ten Tribes over which Jereboam ruled it was impossible that the Levitical Cities which remained in the other Tribes of Benjamin and Judah together with the half Tribe of Manasseh which is to be taken into this account should hold them all together with their Wives Children Servants Goods and Cattel wherefore it was necessary they should be allow'd to shift for themselves and to settle up and down in common with the other Jews living by their Labour and enjoying Land of Inheritance if by their industry they could get it as well as others And as their slocking in such numbers into the Territory of the King of Judah must needs make the alteration I have mentioned in those places whether they repaired so if you consider the Cities which they left together with the Suburbs or Pomaeria belonging to them these Cities being all of them filled upon the banishment of the old Proprietors by new Inhabitants this makes a new and a very great alteration in the old partition or distribution of Lands which was setled by Moses and Joshua at the first arrival of their Fathers out of Aegypt But you will say perhaps that these Cities were bestowed upon Jeroboam's new Priests whom he set up in their stead of the meanest of the people to which it may be answered First That this being only said not proved a bare denyal is a sufficient answer to a bare affirmation 2. Since Jeroboam established not only a new Priest-hood but a new Worship too erecting his Golden Calves in Dan and Bethel it is more likely that his new Priests and his new Altars went together and that Dan and Bethel were the only places where this Lay Priesthood and Mongrel Clergy resided Thirdly The reason why this new establishment was made being expresly assigned 1 Kings 12. 27. If this people go up to do Sacrifice in the House of the Lord at Jerusalem then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord even unto Rehoboam King of Judah And then it follows v. 28 29. Whereupon the King took counsel and made two Calves of Gold and said unto them it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem Behold thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the Land of Aegypt and he set the one in Bethel and the other in Dan. Now the motive which induced him to make this alteration being so expressly set down viz. lest the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord and it being certain which was the fundamental Maxime upon which Jeroboam proceeded that an union in the manners and customs of any nation with another does also produce an union of heart and mind into the bargain and it being equally certain by experience that this is much more true in all kind of religious observances and rites than in any other that an uniformity in divine Worship does naturally produce a strange and admirable sympathy of will and affection in men to one another and the contrary to this a diversity in the outward modes and formalities of Divine Service if obstinately adhered to and affectedly embraced and hugg'd by the several parties produceth as strange and unaccountable an enmity betwixt them it was for the interest of Jeroboam whose design was to make the hatred of the two people of Israel and Judah as mortal and inveterate as he could it was but a consequence of that fundamental reason upon which he proceeded to alter the old establishment of the Mosaick or Levitical Kingdom as I may so call it as much as ever he either could or durst that so the greatness of their disagreement as to the customs or constitutions of this divided people might produce the greater hatred and aversion in them both for one another which was the very thing he intended and which it was so highly and so manifestly his interest to promote by all the contrivances and all the stratagems that either wit or malice could devise Fourthly It would be much more for the advantage of such an usurper to divide those Cities among the common people as a common prey to unite them to one another and to himself and against his Enemies by a common band of mutual and reciprocal interest among them all which is found by experience to be the strongest and the most lasting engagement of affection than by setting up a new order of men that had no legal right to what they enjoyed and separating them after the Levitical manner from the rest of the People to raise the hatred and envy of the commonalty against them both the King and his new Priests together And as it has been the practice of this and other ages as well as of that of Jeroboam to lay the foundation of civil alterations in some either real or pretended scruples of Religion so when those scruples had taken their effect and had subverted the goodly frame of Government and the peaceable dependance of the several parts of a wise and beautiful establishment upon each other then to secure themselves in that Dominion which they had Usurped it was the policy of the leading Rebels to throw the Kings and Churches Lands as a spoil among the people the better to engage them in interest to stand by their new Masters to which no principle of Duty could oblige them But Fifthly If he would not suffer the people to scramble for the spoil yet still there was a better way than to give it to the Priests and that was to turn all these Levitical Cities into so many Garrison Towns or Nurseries for Souldiers and military men to keep his Subjects in awe and serve him in his forreign Wars and it is the more likely that he took this or some such course because no Usurpation can be long maintained without a standing Army whereas a rightful Authority is a thing to which all men have a reverence because it is a part of that regular and wholesome justice by which every man is secure in the enjoyment of his own it is a thing against which no man can have a just pretence and which none but necessitous or desperate persons whose ruine is usually owing to their vices can have any real interest to oppose Or Sixthly If he did not take any of these courses yet he might have farmed out these Levitical Cities and their dependancies at an easie and under rate