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
at last arrived to that height that your enemies can complain of nothing but your greatness As I pray for the perpetuity of this Union whereby you are so happily advanced so when I consider your wisdom which hath shined forth in the greatest Tryals I am very confident the same will last as all good men would have it and remain for ever Yet I confess we are not so secure but that sometimes we reflect our thoughts upon the examples of former Ages Many of your subjects are already gone into sides and oppose each other with contrary opinions since here sprung up amongst them some unprofitable controversies about mysteries of Religion not understood by the most part of the people The multitude are carried severall wayes by their affections and every day the flame encreases Your selves understand most illustrious Lords how much it concerns you to apply and you do apply seasonable remedies to this distemper lest your flourishing affairs receive some detriment by this intestine malady more pernicious than forein War than Famine than Pestilence 'T is vain for me to speak more when I can propose nothing to you out of my deepest consideration which is not obvious to your own judgement Only my Petition to your Highness is that you would vouchsafe an intentive eye to this Common-wealth which I have here describ'd the most sacred and the best that ever was Here you shall find some things which Kings and Princes and the Moderators of publick affairs may select and lay up for their use And truly I was the more easily moved to offer these to you in contemplation of some excellent men sitting in your Senate whose learning is so exact that if I have brought any thing for the illustration of antiquity and of the best Authors they are able to pass a right judgement on it ERRATA PAge 17. l. 3. for two r. too p. 21. l. 7. for their r. there p. 122. l. 17. for mystery r. ministry p. 137. l. 3. for carried r. carved p. 150. l. 6. for good r. God p. 136. l. 23. for Susa â— Susac p. 137. l. 13. r. Salmanassar OF THE COMMON-WEALTH Of The HEBREWS CHAP. I. The Institution of the Hebrew Commonwealth Legislation The Vain-glory of the Grecians The seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah The design of Moses in his Laws and Ordinances IN this work we shall not be over curious in our method nor make any accurate search after materials but lay hold upon such things as freely and familiarly offer themselves to our consideration and as they come into our mind set down our discourses upon them all The Common-wealth of the Hebrews was founded by that excellent Man of God Moses the first Man that undertook a business of the greatest consequence in the World For amongst all the Actions of old which Fame hath left upon record this in my judgement is the most noble the constitution of Common-wealths and the ordering of humane Societies by good Laws Nothing is more acceptable to God the Almighty Governour of this Universe As the honour hereof is very great so many Nations have laid claim unto it The Grecians among the rest of the benefits wherewith they boast themselves to have obliged other Nations put Legislation in the Head of the Account Lycurgus Draco Solon and other Antients are names they glory in Their Glory is but vain For all the Brags of this blown and arrogant Nation are silenc'd by the Jew Flavius Josephus whose Apology extant against Apion an enemy to the Jews and a Man so famous for his eloquence that he was called Cymbalum Mundi is full of admirable learning Plin. praf There he shews that the Greek Legislators compar'd to Moses are but of yesterday for at what time their Father Homer liv'd they knew not the name of Laws nor is it extant in all his Poems Onely the people had in their mouth certain common sayings and sentences whereby they were govern'd to supply the defects whereof the unwritten Edicts of Princes were upon occasion added The truth is which Flavius hath well observed Moses Homer's Senior by many ages is the onely Man to whom this honour appertains which so many afterward were ambitious of He was the first writer and publisher of Laws teaching the people what was right or wrong just or unjust and by what Decrees that Common-wealth was to be established which the most high God had commanded to settle in Palestin Before the time of Moses no written Laws were known in the World for although mankind liv'd not altogether without Laws before yet were not those Laws consecrated and kept in any publick records or monuments Of this sort were those seven Precepts which the Talmudists say were given to the Sons of Noah concerning certain Rules of righteousness necessary for the life of Man Wherefore they were of so large extent that whosoever knew them not those the Israelites were commanded to destroy by War and deprive them of all Communion with mankind And justly For they that had received no Law seemed worse than beasts and as Aristotle hath divinely spoken injustice strengthened with Arms and Power is most cruell and intolerable Now the Arms wherewith nature hath surnished Man are Reason and Prudence things enabling him abundantly for mischief if they be not restrained and regulated by Laws But let us return to Moses In his institution of that Common-wealth the most holy upon earth he assigned the Supreme Power to God and when others find other names as the matter requires calling the Government Monarchy Oligarchy or Democracy he conceived none of these appellations suitable to the nature of so great an Empire Wherefore he ordained such a kind of Government which Flavius saith may very significantly be stil'd Theocracy that is a Common-wealth whose Ruler and President is God alone For he professed all affairs were managed by divine judgement and Authority And of this he gave an evident demonstration in as much as although he saw all matters depending upon him and had all the people at his devotion yet upon so fair an invitation he sought no power no wealth no honour for himself A thing whereby he shew'd himself more than Man For in all Men there is implanted a desire of Rule a desire inveterate more flagrant and eager than all other affections whatsoever Which I believe Moses had never been able to expectorate and extinguish had he not seen God himself present and president in all affairs with whom to seek a Partnership in the Government had been an extreme degree of madness Moreover He ordered that the Magistrates should not be Lords and Masters but Keepers of the Laws and Ministers An excellent Constitution for seeing even the best Men are sometimes transported by passion the Laws alone are they that alwaies speak with all persons in one and the same impartiall voice Which I conceive to be the meaning of that fine saying of Aristotle The Law is a Mind without Affection Lastly we
fall of one City it hath changed and perverted all things and brought to ruin the Common-wealth of the greatest people in the world Concerning other Towns of Judaea nothing memorable comes into our mind but that God appointed some of them for Cities of refuge that such as had unwittingly slain a man might find safety and protection there There did they endure a gentle banishment till the High-Priest dyed whose death set them all at liberty so that if happy any had deceased before yet their bones might then be carried into the Sepulchers of their Fathers These towns were six and three more shall be added to them say the Talmud-writers when the greatest of Kings Messias shall come upon the earth to which they refer that of Mâ—ses not spoken surely in vain When the Lord your God shall enlarge your borders Besides the six Cities the same privilege was granted to the two and forty towns of Levits but that the same writers deny those places to have been safe for them that understood not the benefit of the Law Other things which may be said of the Right of these Cities together with what the Jews comment upon some other towns we will therefore let pass because we cannot polish nor grace them by our handling CHAP. VIII What Palestin had above other Countries The Hebrew Common-wealth could not bee translated into other places Of the Babylonian Jews and their power Of the Scepter against Mâ—imon The Jâ—ws Common-wealth bound to Palestin No Temple to be built elsewhere THe Common-wealth of the Hebrews had it beginning then when the holy people was brought into the happy land of 〈◊〉 Before which time though in the Arabian deserts most wholesome Laws both ceremoniall and judiciall were given by Moses the man of God yet all their force pertained to that Country wherein as the severall Tribes should have severall Towns so there should be one City singularly appointed to be the Chamber of the Empire and sent of sacred rites In the last part of the Pentateuch the most wise Legislator repeating what he had given in charge before hath to our purpose added these express words again and again These are the precepts the Statutes and judgements which ye shall observe in the Land which is given you for an inheritance to possess Truly Palestin had this excellency above other Countries that the holy Nation and Common-wealth was affixed unto it alone Had any one led that people out of their proper seat and established the same Common-wealth by the same Laws neither would the Common-wealth have retained its sanctimony nor the people their Majesty Pertinent here and fit to be consider'd on our way is that saying of * Lib. 14. Mâ—sn in Hal. Mel. cap. 5. Maimonides As it is not lawfull for the Jews to move their seats out of Palestin so neither may they pass out of Babylon into other Countries Without the explication of this whosoever read the writings of the Hebrew Masters will meet with rubs The truth is Maimonides speaks not of all the Jews but of them only who were carryed away by the enemy beyond Euphrates and dwelt at Babylon and thereabout Some of these after 70. years returned into Palestin the rest moved by the beneficence of the Kings under whom they lived continued at Babylon and fixed their colonies there The multitude of them was very great and at last grew up into a Nation 'T is incredible what strength these exiles had for they did almost ofter both the Miter and the Diadem that is the Priesthood and the Kingdom to Hircanus hâ—stening out of Partâ—â—â— unto Hâ—rod and to them were committed the Arcanâ— of the Babylonian Empire which â—n Hebrew Priest kept in a greaâ— strong Tower at Eâ—bâ—tan of the Mâ—des These Jews were joyned in a very close alliance with those of Palâ—stâ—â— The same institutions the same course of life the same language was common to both sorts all things were the same Wherefore as God permitted them to dwell at Babylon far from their Country because they were free there from the contagion of any forein customs so were they denyed to proceed any farther and to go to any other habitation This is the meaning of Maimonides where he interprets that of Jeremy they shall be carried into Bâ—bylon and remain there There is no more question to be made of this matter That is very glorious which some wise men of the higher form approved and followed by Mâ—imonâ—â—i have conceived of these Babylonians Their opinion is after the fatall relapse and decay of the affairs and state of Jerusalem these Babylonian Jews are the only people upon whom was transfer'd the Imperiall dignity promised in that famous Oracle Gen. 49.10 The Scepter shall not depart from Juda nor a Law giver from between his feet untill Shiloh come We who reverence the excellent virtues of Maimonides make no scruple to reprehend his errours Certainly that most considering Author in this opinion whilst he too much favours his Country-mens conceits forsook his own judgement I am not ignorant that the Babylonian Jews had a Common-wealth among themselves and administred Justice to the â—est of their own Nation that were without Palestin Nor do we forget that some Peers descended from the house of David alwaies held the principality there Yet therefore follows not that which Rabbi Ben Maimon would have For the Scepter whereof the Oracle was is nothing else but the Jewish Common-wealth that is that Priestly Kingdom whereunto the Religions and Ceremonies were not an accession or prop but the very soul and spirit Besides the custody of Ceremonies and sacred Rites did not belong to every City but one wherein was the sanctuary the peculiar seat and habitation of the Deity That City first was Shiloh afterward Jerusalem in the midst of Palâ—stin If any schismatical Jew built a Temple or Altar in other Lands they offended against the Rights and inviolable Laws of the Common-wealth There is extant among the monuments of history the Epistle of Onias to Ptolomy and Cleopatra wherein he accuseth his Countrvmen because they had built sanctuaries in the Phenician Cities and elsewhere contrary to the Law being himself guilty of no less fault having built a Temple at Heliopolis pretending the Authority of the Prophet Isaiah to countenance his ambitions enterprize This could not be done without violation of the Ceremâ—nies It was amongst the decrees of the most antient Jews which Rabbi Moses Egyptius delivers thus L. 8. in Hal. Biath c. ult If one hath transgressed the Law and built an other house beside the sanctuary at Jerusalem it is not indeed to be accounted a temple of I dols but yet the Priest that hath served there can never sacrifice at the sanctuary of God which is at Jerusalem Yea the vessels which he hath used no man shall apply to the Ministries of the true sanctuary but they must be â—id CHAP. IX Criminall causes judged only in Palestin not by the Babylonian