all Antiquity has judg'd incompatible therewith and against which our Instructors never cease to declaim True we abhor Idolatry but we do not see it any where without it be among the Papists it having been entirely decryed for above a thousand years We must not therefore believe the Israelites were more stupid than other People because the repeated favours which they received from God did not cure them of Idolatry But we must acknowledge that the wound of Original sin was very deep since such holy Instructions and such great wonders were not sufficient to elevate men above sensible things And Besides we see that other People the most illuminated in other things as the Greeks and Egyptians were also without Comparison more blinded herein CAP. XXII State Politick Liberty Domstick Power AFter the Religion we must say a word or two of the Politick State of the Israelites They were perfectly a free People and chiefly before they had Kings In their Country were neither Homages nor Censives nor constraints for Hunting or Fishing nor any of those different sorts of Subjection which among us are so usual that great men themselves are not exempt from them since we see Soveraigns who are Vassals and even Officers of other Soveraigns as in Germany and Italy Thus they enjoy'd that Liberty so much cherish'd by the Greeks and Romans and it was their own fault that they did not always preserve and enjoy it It was the intention of God as appears by the reproaches Samuel made them on his behalf when they demanded a King Gideon was well inform'd of this for that when they would have made him King and setled the Kingdom on his Posterity he generously return'd Answer I will not rule over you neither shall my son rule over you the Lord shall rule over you So that their State was neither Monarchical nor Aristocratical nor Demccratical but as Josephus calls it a Theocracy that is to say God himself govern'd them immediately by the Law he had given them So long as they were faithful in observing it they lived in safety and in Liberty As soon as they broke it to follow their particular Inclinations they fell into Anarchy and Confusion This is what the Scripture shows when it sets it down for the Cause of the greatest crimes In those days there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes This Anarchy divided and weakned them and gave them up a Prey to their Enemies until that returning to themselves they had recourse to God who sent 'em deliverers Thus it was that they lived under the Judges falling from time to time into Idolatry and Disobedience to the Law of God and by those means into confusion and slavery still recovering themselves from time to time In short they chose rather to have a Master than to remain in Liberty by faithfully keeping the Law of God Their Liberty being reduced to it's just bounds consisted in being able to do all that the Law of God did not prohibit and in not being obliged to do but what it commanded without being subject to the Will of any Particular man But the Domestical Power of the Fathers of Families was very great over their Slaves and their Children Some Hebrews were slaves to their Brethren and the Law set down two causes which might bring 'em into that condition Poverty which constrained them to sell themselves or the Trespass of a Thief who had not wherewith to make Restitution It seems this latter cause does extend to other Debts by the example of that Widow whose Oyl Elisha Multiplyed to the end she might have wherewith to pay her Creditors and keep her Children from bondage nevertheless those Hebrew slaves might become free after six years to wit in the Sabbatical year And if they would not make use of that Priviledge they had that of the Jubile to be free after fifty years and to preserve their Childrens freedom It was recommended to treat them gently and rather to make use of forreign slaves The Israelites might kill their slaves with impunity and that right was then common to all Nations For Slavery proceeded from the right of War when instead of killing Enemies they chose rather to spare their lives that they might have their Service So they supposed that the Conquerour had always a right of taking away their lives if they rendred themselves unworthy of them that he acquired the same right over their Children in regard they could not have been born if he had not preserved the Father and that he transmitted that right when he alienated his Slave This is the foundation of the Absolute Power of Masters and it was seldom that they misused it For their own Interest obliged them to preserve their Slaves who made part of their estate This is the reason of that Law of God for not punnishing him who had struck his Slave after such a manner that he dyed thereof some days after He is his money said the Law meaning his own Loss did sufficiently punish him But if he kills him down-right upon the Spot it declares him culpable Wherein it is more Humane than the Laws of other People who made not that distinction The Romans had during above five hundred years the Right of putting their Slaves to Death and their Debtors into Irons in default of Payment and of selling their own Children even thrice before they went out of their Power and all this by virtue of those wise Laws of the Twelve Tables which they brought from Greece at the same time when the Jews reestablished themselves at their Return from the Captivity that is to say about a thousand years after Moses As to the Paternal Power of the Hebrews the Law permitted 'em to sell their Daughters But that sail was a kind of Marriage and if a Son was disobedient and debaucht the Elders of the City condemned him to dy and he was accordingly stoned to death That very Law was practised at Athens but at Rome the Fathers had a long time the Power of life and Death over their Children as well as over their Slaves This so rigorous right was grounded upon the Children's holding their Lives from their Parents and they supposed there would be none found so unnatural as to cause their Children to perish if they did not commit the most horrible Crimes However that fear was very useful to keep Children in an intire submission The Romans Law was really excessive in giving to the Fathers of Families that power of life and Death by their private Authority without participation of the Magistrate or of the Publick But fallen we are to the opposite extremity suffering that Paternal Power to sink to nothing How young soever a Son be as soon as he is Married or has means of subsistance without his Father presently he pretends he owes him nothing more than a little
I believe indeed there were amongst them who only as it were mimicked Mourning did all these things without being much concern'd But at least those that were really so might freely satisfy themselves Now in general both the Israelites and all the Ancients were more natural than we are in these matters and constrained themselves much less as to the exteriour Demonstrations of their passions They Sang they Danc'd on occasions of Joy On those of grief they wept they groaned aloud When they were in fear they ingenuously confest they were so When they were in choler they vented it in reproaches Homer and the Tragick Poets afford us examples hereof on all occasions Philosophy and Christianity have since very much corrected that outside in all those who have had Education and Politeness They are exercised from their Youths to speak like Heroes or like Saints But the most part are never the better at the Bottom but only dissemble their Passions without striving against them Funerals will suit well with Mourning All the Ancients took a particular care of them and lookt upon it as a great Misfortune when the Bodies of Persons who had been near and dear to them remain'd expos'd to be torn and devour'd by Beasts or Birds or to be corrupted openly and infect the Living Whereas the Greeks burnâ— the corps to keep the ashes the Hebrews interred the common People and embalmed the most considerable Personages to put them into Sepulchers They embalmed much after the same fashion as the Egyptians surrounding the corps with a great quantity of drying drugs Then put them into Tombs which were little Caves or Closets cut out in Rocks whereof each had a Table of the same Stone on which they laid the Body Several of those Sepulchers still remain whereof we may see descriptions in the Relations of Travellers Altho Funerals were a pious Duty yet they were not attended with any Ceremony of Religion On the contrary it was a proâ—ane action which rendred all those unclean who had any share therein untill they were purify'd Which proceeds from that Dead Bodies are either in a state of Corruption or in a Disposition approaching thereto Wherefore so far were they from having occasion for Priests at their Funerals that thy were forbidden to assist at them were it not at those of their near Kinsfolk When Josias fell to abolishing Idolatry he caus'd the Bones of the False Priests to be burnt upon the Altars to the intent those Altars might be had in the greater Detestation CAP. XVIII Religion THis is what concerns the Private life of the Israelites Let us now proceed to their Religion and their State Politick As to Religion I shall not enlarge much in explaining their Belief We ought to know it since 't is comprehended in ours I shall only shew that certain truths were clearly reveal'd to them while others were still obscure tho they were already revealed What they knew was That there was but one God who Created Heaven and Earth that he governs all things by his Providence that we ought to put no trust save in him nor hope for any good but from him that he sees all things even the very secrets of our hearts that he moves our wills within and turns them which way he pleases that all men are born in sin and naturally prone to evil that notwithstanding they may do well with the help of God that they are free and have the choice to do good or evil that God is very just and punishes or rewards according to merit that he is merciful and pardons those who have a sincere regret for their sins past that he judges all the actions of men after Death From whence it follows that the Soul is immortal and that there is another Life They knew however that God out of his meer goodness had chosen them amongst all men to be his faithful People that among them of the Tribe of Judah and of the race of David was a SAVIOUR to be born who should deliver them from all their Sufferings and draw all Nations to the knowledge of the true God This is what they distinctly knew and was the most ordinary Subject of their meditations and their prayers This is that high and most glorious Wisdom which distinguished them from all the Nations of the whole Earth For whereas among the rest of the World none there were but the wise men who knew any of these great Truths and that too very imperfectly and with a great Diversity of Opinions All the Israelites were taught these Doctrines even the very Women and Slaves All had the same Sentiments The Truths which were taught them more obscurely were that in God there are three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost that the Saviour whom they expected should be God and the Son of God that he should be both God and man that God gave to men his grace and necessary help for the accomplishing his Law only by that Saviour and in view of his merits that he should suffer death to expiate the Sins of Mankind That his Kingdom should be wholly Spiritual that all men should rise again that in the other life shall be the true Recompence of the good and Punishment of the Wicked All this is taught in the Scriptures of the Old Testament and in the Apocrypha but not so clearly as that all the People knew it Nor indeed were men yet capable of receiving such elevated truths But according to my Design I must only explain what their external practises of Religion had most different from our Principles and Manners They had but one Temple and one Altar where it was permitted them to offer Sacrifices to God which was a sensible mark of God's Unity And for the representing likewise his Sovereign Majesty that Building was the most magnificent in all that Country The Temple within the Veil was on the in-side adorned with Sculptures and all overlaid with Plates of Gold True it was not very large But the Courts Galleries and diverse Apartments which belong'd to it for the Lodging of Priests and Levites for the keeping Treasures and sacred Vessels the Magazines of Oblations the Kitchins the Rooms to eat in and the rest all this together made a great mass of buildings which being form'd in symmetry and rare Architecture gave a mighty Idea of that great King who was served in that sacred Palace And to render it's Sanctity the more sensilbe none but those who were pure were allowed to go upon the mount of the Temple The Women had their place apart The Gentiles were only in the outward Court The Israelites were plac'd in one more advanced That where the Altar was was only for the Priests They did not go into the
Temple within the Veil but only to offer Incense and Loaves and to kindle the Lamps But none save the High-Priest entred into the most Holy Place and that too but once a year We are offended at the Bloudy Sacrifices which made the Temple a Slaugher-house and Kitchin But the same thing was done by all Nations Besides the proper functions of the Priests were only to sprinkle the Blood kindle the Fire and put those portions upon it which were to be offered up It was the parties that kill'd the Sacrifices who prepared them cut 'em to pieces and caused them to be broil'd Which we see in the Law and in the History of the Sons of Heli. However the Priests did the same functions at the publick Sacrifices that were offer'd for all the People Hence come those Figures which might seem to us low and mean in Jeremy and Ezechiel to whom God represents Jerusalem by the Image of a Pot. Those two Prophets were Priests and accustomed to see the Sanctify'd Meats made ready Now whatsoever served to the worship of God and the execution of his Law they esteemed great and noble And besides it was ordinary for the best sort of people to work with their own hands and for themselves to do as I have said the things necessary for life So in Homer the great King Agamemnon kill'd the Lambs himself the blood of which were the seal of the Treaty he made with the Trojans So King Nestor Sacrificing to Minerva his Sons killed the Victime cut it to pieces and broyl'd them Homer is full of the like examples Moreover all that is prescrib'd in the Law touching the quality and form of Sacrifices did tend more to hinder Superstition and reduce the Israelites to so small a number of Ceremonies than to introduce new ones The Idolaters Sacrific'd many more sorts of Living Creatures and in many more places since they had Temples and Altars every where and each Family had it's Domestick Gods and particular Superstitions Thus God a long while before-hand prepared his People to abolish those bloody Sacrifices often telling them at the same time by his Prophets that they were not necessary nor essential to Religion and that the worship most pleasing to him lay in praises and the conversion of the Hearts It was necessary that the Priests should be marryed if it were only upon this account since the Priest-hood was established in the Family of Aaron But they were parted from their Wives during the time of their Service We do not see that any function of civil life was interdicted them and they bore arms as well as others They performed the very Office of Trumpeters both in the Army and every where else For they made use of Silver Trumpets to give notice of the Feasts and to call the People to publick prayers And the name of Jubily comes from a Rams-horn which was sounded to make known the opening of that Feast The Ancient Monks of Egypt kept up this Custome of Sounding the Trumpet to shew the hours of Prayer For the use of Bells is of a later Date The Feasts of the Israelites were the Sabbath of each week the first day of each month call'd with us the Calends or Nehomenis because they reckoned their moneths at least in the later times from the day the Moon began to appear They had likewise three Solemn days the Passeover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles established in memory of three great blessings which they had received from God their going forth out of Egypt the Publication of the Law and their establishment in the Land of promise The Sacrifices were multiplyed on Feast-days But they offered every day two Lambs for an Holocaust both Morning and Evening And this is what they called the perpeâ—ual Sacrifice Their year consisted of twelve months of thirty days each much like to ours It was thus regulated ever since Noah as appears by the dates of the Deluge but 't is credible that it then began at the Autumnal Equinox Moses was commanded to begin it in the Spring in the Month Abib which was that of the Passeover And with reference it is to that Month that the others are computed which are only named by their number They correspond much with our Roman Months the names whereof come from the Ancient year which began in the Month of March Thus the eight Month is October at least in part the ninth is November and so of others CAP. XIX Fast Vow THe Fasts of the Israelites were attended with all I have set down when I spoke of their Mourning for Fasting and Mourning were the same thing So that it did not consist in only eating later but in afflicting themselves all manner of ways The wholeday they spent without drinking or eating until night And this is not only still practis'd by the Jews but both they and the primitive CHRISTIANS have been imitated herein by the Mahometans They remain'd silent in Sack-cloath and asâ—es and did all the rest of what I have said about Mourning By sound of Trumpet the Publick Fasts as well as Feasts were proclaim'd All the People assembled in the Temple of Jerusalem at other Cities in the Publick place Lectures of the Law were held there and the most venerable Elders exhorted the People to confess their Sins and repent On those days were kept no Weddings and even Husbands abstained from their Wives The Law had commanded but one day alone for Fasting the Tenth of the seventh Month which was the Feast of Expiation But in and from the time of the Prophet Zechariah they reckon'd two others one in the fifth Month and the other in the Tenth They had several extraordinary ones some in the publick calamities as was the Famine Joel speaks of others in particular afflictions as the Fasts of David for the sickness of the Child that issue of his crime and for the Death of Abner and on many other occasions which he mentions in the Psalms In short there were Fasts that were kept out of meer Devotion for the performing of some Vow They were very Religious in observing their Vows and their Oaths As for their Vows the example of Jephta is but too strong and for their Oaths Joshua kept the promise he had made to the Gibconites tho it was founded upon a manifest deceit because he had Sworn to 'em in the name of the Lord. Saul would have put his Son Jonathan to death for having violated the prohibition he had made with an Oath tho Jonathan only sin'd out of Ignorance We find among them several other the like examples Very seriously they made those Solemn Promises and gave themselves no Liberty to interpret them To swear by the name of God was an act of Religion since that Oath distinguished the Israelites from those who swore by the name of false Gods
not only the Gentiles and the Notorious Sinners but all those that exercised odious Professions In short all their Devotion was only Pride and Interest They seduced Ignorant People by their fine Discourses and bigotted Women who threw away their Estates to enrich them and under the Pretence they were the People of God and the Depositors of his Law they despised the Greeks and Romans and all the Nations of the Earth In the Jewish Books we see still those Traditions of the Pharisees whereof they made then so horrible a Mystery and which were written about an Hundred years after the Resurrection of JESUS CHRIST 'T is impossible for those that have been brought up in other Maxims to imagine the frivolous and impertinent Questions wherewith those Books are stuffed viz. Whether it be permitted on the Sabbath day to mount on an Ass to carry him to Water or whether you must hold him by the Neck whether one might walk the same day Lands newly sowed since he runs a hazard of carrying away some Grains with his feet and consequently of sowing them Concerning the Purification of old Leven before the Passeover whether it be necessary to renew the purifying of an House when you have seen a Mouse pass in it with a Crum of Bread whether it be Lawful to keep pasted Paper or a Plaister wherein there is any Flower whether after the old Leaven is burnt it be permitted to eat what has been baked with the coals which remains thereof And a million of other cases of Conscience of the like force which the Talmud is full of with it's Commentaries Thus the Jews forgot the noble Grandeur of the Law of God to apply themselves to low and pitiful things And they were found very gross and very ignorant in Comparison of the Greeks who in their Schools treated of more useful and more elevated Questions or in Physicks or Morality and who had at least a sweet Politeness if they had not Vertue Not but that there were alway some Jews more curious than others to speak Greek well who read the Books of the Grecians and imbibed their Learning in Grammer Rhetorick and Philosophy Such was Aristobulus a Peripatetick Philosopher and Preceptor of Ptolomee Philometor Such were Eupolemus Demetrius and the two Philo's There were Historians also who wrote in Greek and after the Grecian manner as Jason the Cyrenean and the Authour of the Second Book of Maccabees who has abridg'd it and as Josephus It was at Alexandria where most of those Jews were who Studied the learning of the Greeks The other Jews contented themselves with speaking Greek to be understood that is grosly and keeping the natural turn of their own Tongue And 't is in that Barbarous Greek the New Testament is written The Apostles and Evangelists contented themselves with a clearness and brevity of Style despising all the Ornaments of Language and making use of what words were the most proper to be understood by the Common People of their nation Insomuch as for the well apprehending their Greek 't is requisite to know Hebrew and Syriack The Jews of these latter times were much exercis'd in reading of the Law and the holy Scripture They thought it not enough to explain it literally They found out therein several figurative senses by Allegories and divers Appropriations We see it not only in the new Testament and the Writings of the most Ancient Fathers who have disputed against them but in the Talmud and the oldest Hebrew Commentaries on the Law which they call the great Genesis the great Exodus and so of others Those Figurative senses they held by Traditions from their Fathers But in short the Manners of those Jews were very bad and very much corrupted They were sillily proud of being of the Race of Abraham pufft up with the promises of the Messias his Reign which they knew to be at hand and which they formed to themselves all full of Vanquishments and Temporal Prosperity They were interessed avaricious and sordid especially the Pharisees the greatest Hypocrites They were unfaithful and inconstant always ready for Sedition and Revolt under pretence of casting off the Yoak of the Gentiles In a word they were violent Boysterous and cruel as we see by what they made JESUS CHRIST and his Apostles suffer and by the unheard of Mischiefs they did to one another both during all the Civil Wars and the last Siege of Jerusalem CAP. XXXIII The true Israelites IT was however among that People the Tradition of vertue as well as that of Doctrine and Religion was preserved In those later times they had still very rare Examples of Godliness Zacharias old Simeon the Learned Gamaliel and many others set down in the History of the New Testament All those holy Personages and generally all Spiritual Jews circumcised in Heart as well as Body were Children of Abraham much rather by imitation of his Faith than by their own Extraction With a most steady Faith they believed in the Prophesies and Promises of God They waited impatienly for the Redemption of Israel and the coming of the Messias after which they long'd and sighed But they were sensible that it behoov'd them not to confine their Hopes to this life they belived the Resurrection and the Kingdom of Heaven So that the Blessing of the Gospel coming upon such holy Dispositions it was easy to make perfect Christians of those true Israelites FINIS Some Books Printed for and Sold by W. Freeman over against the Devil-Tavern by Temple-Bar in Fleet-street SCarrons Novels viz. The Fruitless Precaution The Hyâ—ocrites The Innocent Adultery The Judge in his own Cause The â—â—ival Brothers The Invisible â—â—istriss The Chastisement of â—â—varice The unexspected Choice â—â—endred into English with some â—dditions By John Davis of Kidâ—elly In Oct. 1683. The Clarks Manual or an Exact Collection of the most approved Forms of Declarations Pleas general Issues Judgments Demurrers and most kind of Writs now used in the Court of Kings Bench. With necessary Instructions to all Clerks Attornies and Sollicitors in the use of the same The second Edition in Octav. 1682. An Infallible way to Contentment in the midst of Publick or Personal Calamities Together with the Christians Courage and Encouragement against evil Tidings and the fear of Death In 12. The Court of the Gentiles Part 4 of Reform'd Philosophy Book 3 of Divine predetermination wherein the nature of Divine Predetermination is fully Explicated and Demonstrated both in the general as also more Particularly as to the substrate matter or Entitative Act of Sin With a Vindication of Calvinists and others from that Blasphemous Imputation of making God the Author of Sin By Theophilus Gale in Quartâ— 1682. The Design of this Treatise Gen. 5. 7. 11. 8. 13. 6. 15. 4. 22. Gen. 12. 8. 13. 18. 28. 18. 31. 48. 26. 18. c. Family Gen. 26. 28. Gen. 136. 32. 14. c. Gen. 14. 14. 13. 2. 24. 22 16. 27. 27. Gen. 4. 17. 10. 10.