as Bethel was to be the residence and habitation of Jeroboams Priests Quod erat ostendendum And though these reasons are sufficient to prevail with me to retract that opinion which I have elsewhere favoured though I could not positively affirm it that the Levitical Revenues and Demesnes were setled and conferred by Jeroboam upon his new Priests yet as to the matter in question concerning the time when the Mosaical partition ceased and the ancient boundaries of Inheritances were confused it is all one to me whether it be true or no because it is certain upon the banishment of the Levites that these Cities were filled again by new Inhabitants of one sort or other which is sufficient of it self to destroy the old partition of the Tribes when it appears so plainly that one Tribe was totally expelled from their ancient seats and that into the places which were by their departure left empty there were other Tribes and Families that had formerly no claim or pretence to Inhabit there admitted But this is not all neither there is another consideration yet behind which will of it self demonstrate all that I design to prove and that is that the Mosaical partition ceased at the time of the division of the two Kingdoms of Israel and Judah My argument is taken from those words of 2 Chron. 11. 13 16 17. And the Priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their coasts And after them out of all the Tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their Fathers so they strengthened the Kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam the Son of Solomon strong So that here being besides the Levites being one whole Tribe so great a party flocking to Jerusalem out of all the rest of the Tribes as to be so great an accession of strength and power to Rehoboam these following things must unavoidably come to pass First that so many new Families being crouded in so small a compass that the natural growth and product of the Country seems to have been very far from being of it self sufficient to maintain them they found themselves obliged to enter into commerce and traffick with their neighbour nations and to improve their stocks by trade and it being utterly impossible that the trade of a nation should be managed without taking mony up at interest unless people would be so good natured as to lend it for nothing which is not to be expected And again it being equally impossible that Usury should be practised without the destruction of that Mosaical Partition of Inheritances for the preservation of which the Prohibition of Usury was passed into a Law as I have shown more largely in my Discourse concerning the Marriage of Cousin Germans it is a plain case that the old Distribution of Inheritances which was established by Moses and by Joshua must at this time begin to be confounded and the same Causes that first made the breach upon the Mosaical Platform would soon reduce it into such absolute Confusion that the old Partition of the Tribes and Families as to the Lands or Messuages belonging to them would be perfectly destroyed And this Argument would be yet more strong if it were true what is said 1 Kings 12. 20. That there were none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only which seems to have been done in consequence of what God himself had said to Solomon c. 11. 13. Howbeit I will not rend away all the Kingdom but will give one Tribe to thy Son for David my Servant sake and for Jerusalems sake which I have chosen But these things are not by any means to be understood in the utmost Strictness and Propriety of Acceptation for it is indisputably certain That that one Tribe was two and a half and so v. 30. of this Eleventh Chapter Ahijah the Prophet catches hold on the new Garment that was on Jeroboam and rends it into twelve pieces which twelve pieces were intended Symbollically to denote the Twelve Tribes of Israel and v. 31. He said to Jeroboam Take thee ten pieces for thus saith the Lord the God of Israel Behold I will rend the Kingdom out of the Hand of Solomon and will give Ten Tribes to thee From whence it follows plainly that there must be two remaining to the House of David and yet it follows v. 32. But he shall have one Tribe for my servant Davids sake and for Jerusalems sake the City which I have chosen out of all the Tribes of Israel And again v. 36. And unto his Son will I give one Tribe but it is clear That that one Tribe was two for it is said expresly 1 King 12. 21. that when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem he assembled all the House of Judah with the Tribe of Benjamin an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men which were Warriours to fight against the House of Israel to bring the Kingdom again to Rehoboam the Son of Solomon And v. 22 23. the half Tribe of Manasseh is likewise taken into the Account The word of God came unto Shemajah the man of God saying Speak unto Rehoboam the Son of Solomon King of Judah and unto all the House of Judah and Benjamin and to the Remnant of the people saying c. Where it is manifest that by the Remnant of the people which is here plainly distinguished from the Two Tribes of Benjamin and Judah nothing else but the half Tribe of Manasseh can be understood And the true reason why Benjamin sided with Judah in this Conjuncture bating the Business of Religion which might be a Motive to them as well as it was to several of the other Tribes to come and associate themselves with them seems to have been this That Benjamin it self was a Pretender to a Soveraignty over the rest of the Tribes in right of Saul the Son of Kish who was the first King both of Israel and Judah together which was the reason of Shimei's cursing David and of Sheba the Son of Bichri's Rebellion against him both of them being Benjamites and one of the Family of the House of Saul and therefore Enemies to the Family of David and the Royal House of Judah but when Jeroboam an Ephrathite set up for himself they not being strong enough to make a distinct Kingdom by themselves chose rather to consederate with the House of David who had been chosen King by God himself and who was ally'd by Marriage to the House of Saul than to favour the Pretences of an Upstart of the House of Ephraim which had never any just pretence or title to the Crown Another Reason which may be assigned of these Two Tribes and an half confederating together is the convenience of their situation being all of them the very next Neighbours to each other for it is said Josh 10. 11. That the lot of the Tribe of the Children of
Benjamin came up according to their Families and the coast of their Lot came forth between the Children of Judah and the Children of Joseph From whence it is manifest that the Inheritances of Judah Benjamin and Joseph did border and abutt upon each other and the Children of Joseph being divided into the Two Tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh by the Children of Joseph in this place we are not to understand the Tribe of Ephraim of which Tribe Jeroboam himself was and therefore that whole Tribe sided with him but of Manasseh which was divided into Two the one half on the one side of the River Jordan being a part of the Land of Canaan and belonged to the Kingdom of Judah as well for the conveniance of its Situation as upon any other Account and the other half was on the other side of the River together with the Sons of Gad and Reuben and belonged to the Kingdom of Israel Lastly a third Reason which may be assigned why these Two Tribes and an half associated themselves together or rather kept stedfast in their Allegiance to their lawful Prince besides the Duty and the comfort of Loyalty and Integrity considered in themselves may be fetched farther off from the Kindness and good Will of the Progenitors or Patriarchs of these Tribes to one another for Judah saved Joseph from being slain by his Brethren and by consequence was a kind of Father to the Two Tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh who without this had perished before they were born and it is well known what Kindness there was betwixt Benjamin and Joseph both of them the Sons of Rachel the beloved Wife of Jacob and one of them the Fruit of his Fathers old Age the Stay and Support of his declining years after the loss of Joseph whom he gave over for dead and the unexpected Progenitor of so numerous a Tribe But whether the King of Judah were only possessed of that one Tribe which gave denomination to his Kingdom or whether he were also as I have proved he was King over Benjamin and the Remnant of Manasseh likewise yet it is certain when we have taken things in the utmost Latitude that the Truth will bear that after all by the flocking of the whole Tribe of Levi into the Territory of Judah and by the concourse of so many others out of all the rest of the Tribes it must of necessity come to pass That the old Partition of Inheritances must be destroyed and that the Land being too little to afford them all a sedentary Subsistence at home they must be forced to take up Money at use to be employed in a foreign Trade which was forbidden only to preserve the Mosaical Distribution and which being once allowed I have demonstrated Discourse of Marriage of Cosâ—erm elsewhere would as effectually destroy it as if it had never been And to confirm this it is observable That in all those Countries where this equality of Inheritances was observed there for the better Preservation of it the Exercise of Usury was forbidden as Solon of whom Seneca observes as I have taken notice in that other Dissertation which is to follow this That he made all things in the state of Athens to be aequo jure after a sort of Gavel-Kind did likewise forbid Usury by a Law which he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laertius in Solone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Solon first of all introduced that Law among the Athenians which was called Sisachthia that is to say A releasing of the Bodies and Possessions of those that were in Prison or Bondage or had Morgaged their Estates to satisfie their Creditors the Vsurers of those times for men pay'd Vse with their Bodies when they could not do it with their Estates and many were brought into slavery upon that account Solon led the way himself by forgiving Seven Talents which were due to him being parcel of his paternal Estate and exhorted others to follow his Example and this Law was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that this was no other than an Eastern Law brought by him into the Practice of the Athenian Republick appears by an Observation of a Observ in D. Laert Menagius who tells us out of b Biblioth l. 1. Diodorus Siculus That the Egyptians likewise by whom perhaps we are to understand the Jews had such another Constitution among them and that Solon received his from thence or if you will rather understand Diodorus of the Egyptians properly so called this only confirms what I have already asserted more than once that many of those Laws which are to be found up and down in the Code of Moses were also in force both before and under the Mosaic Dispensation among all or most of those Eastern Countries as well as among themselves neither is it any wonder to find this Hebrew or Egyptian Law of Solon when it was transplanted into Greece to be likewise called by a Greek Name as the Canary Vine transplanted into the German Soil partakes of the Nature of the Climate where it grows for so Bochartus In Critiâ— Bochart Geog. Sacr. par 1. l. 1. c. 15. p. 68. expresly tells us out of Plato Necesse habuit Solon cum Egyptia nomina non posset carminibus suis inserere his alia Graeca substituere ejusdem significationis And here if it be true that by the Aegyptians in this place of Diodorus we are to understand that people properly so called as they are distinguished from the Jews we have a very fair occasion to take notice of the great unskilfulness or rather impudence of Maimonides and Moses the In Moreh Nevoch in Deut. â—2 23. Son of Nachman and other of the Jewish Rabbins who pretend to give an account of several of the Laws that are to be met with in the Books of Moses only from this that they were designed to thwart and oppose the customs of the Zabii by whom See Cudworth of the Sacrament p. 35 36. Ed. Fol. 1676. they mean the ancient Chaldaeans Multarum legum saith the Aeyptian Moses rationes causae mihi innotuerunt ex cognitione fidei rituum cultûs Zabiorum but from whence have these Zabii this name of theirs which is unknown to any other Geographer but to the Rabbins themselves and they it is well known are the worst Geographers and Historians in the world v. Constantin L'empereur praef not in Benjam Tudel Buxtorf praefat in lex Talmud Is Voss de 70. interp or rather they are the shameless corrupters and depravers of Geography and History and of all good learning they confound the names of places and persons and the succession of times and they are used either wholly to pass by the truth and to give us nothing but monsters and incredible prodigies in its stead or else so to blind and corrupt it by figments of their own that it is utterly impossible by a Rabbinical light
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
by which he would have been sure to oblige many thousands of his subjects and would have filled his Coffers into the bargain which would upon both accounts have been a very great and considerable accession of strength and power to himself They might have held their Lands by Knights Service as hath been the practice formerly in England and as the Timariots in Turky do at this time Seventhly In the 2 Chron. 13. 9. Abijah the King of Judah son to Rehoboam in whose time the division of the two Kingdoms happened thus expostulates with Jeroboam the King of Israel by whose faithless and rebellious practices that division was occasioned Have ye not cast out the Priests of the Lord the Sons of Aaron and the Levites and have made you Priests after the manner of the nations of other Lands In which words it is plain not only that the Priests of the Lord the Sons of Aaron were cast out but that they are perfectly opposed to the Priests of Jeroboam not only as a new Priesthood but as a Priesthood after another manner and what manner was that why it was the manner of the nations of other Lands which could not be after the Levitical platform because the Levites were set apart from the rest of the Tribes and the First-born of the Children of Israel whose persons they did by this their separation sustain were consecrated and set apart from the rest of their Families for a particular reason in which the Jews themselves and no other nation under Heaven but themselves were concerned But in the Eighth place Abijah goes on and does not only tell us in the words already produced that the Priesthood of Jeroboam was after a distinct manner from that of the Levites but in the very next words he immediately acquaints us what that manner was so that saith he Whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a Young Bullock and seven Rams the same may be a Priest of them that are no Gods It seems therefore that it was at every mans pleasure to be a Priest or no Priest as he pleased himself a lively picture of our late confusions when the Sons of Aaron and the Levites were discarded and instead of them Coblers and Weavers consecrated themselves to the Office of the Priesthood and it was a sufficient call to the Ministry for a Mechanick to be lazy or not to thrive upon his Handicraft Trade The consequence of which is that there being no regular Priesthood but every man being a Priest or no Priest as he pleased himself there could be no regular maintenance neither And indeed what can be more unreasonable than to suppose that there being such a maintenance setled for the Priesthood in general without regard to the persons either as to their quality or number as fast as any man grew lazy or discontented or infirm and unfit for business or opinionative of himself and his qualifications for the Priesthood he should be admitted not only into the number of the Priests but at his own pleasure invest himself in a right of feeding upon the sacrifices and enjoying all the benefits and emoluments of the Priestly-Office how must the Clergy needs swarm at this rate with a pack of lewd scandalous and lazy fellows or who that had not a prospect of very fair advantages would be at any pains or trouble to get his living when such encouragements were proposed to Idleness and Sloth Or what maintenance indeed would be sufficient for such an incredible swarm of sluggards and slow Bellies the Pest and publick Nusance of that miserable state that is So unhappy as to give them entertainment so that this it self would have altered the Levitical constitution without any more adoe because though the Ecclesiastical Revenues and Demesnes had been converted by Jeroboam to the use of his new Priests yet they would not have sufficed so that all things lying in this confusion and the regular constitution of the Priesthood being destroyed which is the only peaceable expedient in all nations to keep the people in Obedience it was necessary as hath been said that the Kingdom of Israel should be governed by a standing Army this being the only way left when the several parts of the Government are not so regularly built as to be able to support themselves to preserve the publick peace And it appears plainly that this was the very case by the several changes that were made in the Kingdom of Israel which did not continue long in the Family of Jeroboam but suffered many alterations and removeals out of one Family into another which is the usual inconvenience of such a standing force as may be seen sufficiently in the History of the late times when the Army without any other warranty than that of the Sword murthered Kings dissolved Parliaments set up and deposed Protectours as they called them at their pleasure And besides the late revolutions in the Muscovian Empire and some few instances in the Turkish story though a people that take a pride in being Slaves and seem to be born for nothing so much as to obey the Roman History whether you consider the horrid Butcheries of Marius and Sulla or after them of Coesar and Pompey before the Empire began or in the Monarchy it self the story of Otho Galba Vitellius and Vespasian all of them Emperors and the three first sacrifices to their own ambition and to the power of their Enemies within little more than the compass of one single year Or if you look still lower into the Reigns and Deaths of those Emperors that succeeded the first Twelve you shall find almost all of them the creatures of military Tumult and Sedition made what they were by the sole Power and Authority of the Sword and cloathed with the Robes of Majesty and all the habiliments of Imperial greatness only to adorn the tragical Scene of blood that was to follow and to make them the more pompous and magnificentsacrifice to the lust and ambition of those that set them up Which things by the way if the difsenters from our Church would seriously consider if they would reflect how impossible it is but a toleration of every mans fancy and opinion in Religious Worship and of his outward practice and behaviour in consequence of that inward fancy and preconceived opinion must of necessity produce a Babel of disagreeing Sects and Parties which can no otherwise be kept in awe but by a standing Army If they would remember the perpetual taxations arbitrary pressures to which this way of Government did so long expose either themselves or their Fathers if they would think a little with themselves to what uncertainty and hazard the estates the persons and the lives of men are exposed by such a military constitution where Power and not Justice gives sentence at the Bar and executes that arbitrary sentence at the Scaffold if they would recollect a little with themselves that Bloody rapacious and arbitrary story of the late Wicked and
expressed because they opened not unto him this shews what divisions and animosities there were at that time in Israel some taking part with Menahem and some with Shallum which factions were so great and boysterous among them that they could not be appeased with the death of one of the contending parties but prevailed so far that Pul King of Assyria made use of this advantage and came against the Land weakened and divided by its own intestine broils which were so great and dangerous that Menahem found himself obliged to make his peace upon the best terms he could with the Assyrian King therefore he gave him a Thousand Talents of Silver that his hand might be with him to confirm the Kingdom in his hand which was the cause of grievous taxations and arbitrary fines levied upon the Subject without any regard to Equity or Justice to the ruine and impoverishment even of the mighty men of Wealth who it seems as they had reason were very loath to part with their mony but it was too late to dispute the power of two Kings together and one of them so potent that he could force an obedience if the thing it self were but possible to whatsoever he Commanded v. 20. And Menahem exacted the mony of Israel even of all the mighty men of Wealth each man Fifty Shekels of Silver to give to the King of Assyria So the King of Assyria well payed for his journey turned back and stayed not there in the Land Menahem Reigned Ten Years and slept with his Fathers and Pekahiah his Son Reigned in his stead but his Reign was but very short he Reigned but Two Years and then Pekah the Son of Remaliah one of the Captains of his host conspired against him and smote him in Samaria in the Palace of the Kings House with Argob and Arieh and with him Fifty men of the Gileadites and he killed him and Reigned in his Room 2 Kings 15. 25. And in his days there being as it is more than probable great divisions among the People of Israel Tiglath Pileser King of Assyria layed hold on the occasion and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maachah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee all the land of Naphtali and carried them Captive to Assyria Neither was this all but Hoshea the Son of Elah likewise took the opportunity of those factions which he found among the people to set up for himself therefore v. 30. he made a conspiracy against Pekah the Son of Remaliah and smote him and slew him and Reigned in his stead in the Twentieth year of Jotham the Son of Uzziah Lastly Hoshea Reigned in Samaria Nine Years and then the great and final Captivity of Shalmaneser happened which put a fatal period to the Kingdom of Israel as it was distinguished from that of Judah 2 Kings c. 17. and thus it was exactly true of the Kings of Israel who very few of them died a natural death Ad generum Cereris sine caede sanguine pauci Descedunt reges siccâ morte Tyranni Having thus given a particular account of the state of affairs in the Kingdom of Israel from the time of its division from Benjamin and Judah till the Captivity of Shalmaneser in which the very name and memory of the Ten Tribes was lost I could now make a no less pleasant than profitable representation of the state of Judah likewise if it would not be a digression but I have done all that I designed already which was only to shew that the Kingdom of Israel after the division of the two Kingdoms from one another was governed altogether by the power of the Sword and that the factions prevailing from time to time in the Israelitish Armies and the power and interest of this or that Commander among the Souldiers were the true causes of those many and great revolutions which happened among them and of the supreme powers being so frequently translated out of one Family into another and that from hence it may seem probable that there being Armies in continual pay and the Levitical Cities being emptyed of their old Inhabitants that they were distributed among the Souldiers as well for the satisfaction of their arrears as that the Souldiery by this means being dispersed through the Land of Israel might be the more serviceable to keep the people in obedience and might be ready at hand in what quarter soever any popular tumult or insurrection should happen But I am not at all sollicitous whether this be so or no only if it be so it will serve my turn to prove that the old partition of inheritances was at this time destroyed and if it be not so yet it is certain that the Levites were expelled and we may be equally confident that these Cities were filled with new inhabitants it being the extremity of folly and dotage to imagine that they were suffered to lie Idle and Useless without any new inhabitants at all and this it self will as effectually destroy the old partition as the other way Another argument by which it will undeniably appear that the Priesthood of Jeroboam was by no means after the manner of the Levitical Priesthood may be drawn from the express words of Abijah immediately subjoyned to those other words of his which I have last produced by which the manners and customs of the one are expressly distinguished from and opposed to the manners rites and usages of the other 2 Chron. 13. v. 10 11. But as for us the Lord is our God and we have not forsaken him and the Priests which minister unto the Lord are the Sons of Aâ—â—on and the Levites wait upon their business and they burn unto the Lord every Morning and every Evening burnt Sacrifice and sweet incense the Shew-bread also set they in order upon the pure table and the Candlestick of Gold with the Lamps thereof to burn every Evening for we keep the charge of the Lord our God but ye have forsoken him A tenth consideration by which it may appear that the Priesthood of Jeroboam was not after the Levitical manner and that they were not placed by him in the Levitical Cities which the Levites themselves had been compelled to relinquish may be drawn from those words of Abijah which have been already insisted upon though not to the same purpose for which I now produce them 2 Chron. 13. 9. So that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a Younog Bullock and Seven Rams the same may be a Priest of them that are no Gods From which words it is plain that Jeroboams Priests were Priests properly and strictly so called they all of them did sacrifice and sprinkled the blood by way of expiation for themselves as well as for others otherwise they did not consecrate themselves as it is here expressly said they did but they were consecrated to the Priestly office by those to whom the performance of this sacrifice in their behalf appertained now it is certain that this part of the
too especially where they grow Customary and habitual in us because these are so many willful tendencies to a dissolution and they are so much the more inexcusable because they are usually more deliberate then most of the instances of self-homicide are and are committed when we have or might have had a free use and exercise of our reason Eighteenthly If self-homicide be so Unlawful as it hath been represented how much more impious and guilty must it needs be to imbrue our Hands in the Blood of our Neighbour whose person is certainly less at our disposal then our own and with whom unless it be in our own just and necessary defence we have nothing more to do then only to help and assist him what we can I shall conclude this business with saying what I am sure is true that no affection of Novelty or love of Paradox drew me into a discourse of this Subject in the following Treatise but that I insensibly light upon it before I was aware and that I should be very sorry if any thing that I have said upon that occasion should give offence to any wise or good Man though I hope in this review of that whole matter which I have endeavoured carefully to consider I have made some amends for what is amiss in the body of the Book if any man shall happen to be displeased at it The other thing which I have in my mind and which I find my self obliged to Recant is concerning the Year of Numa which I was very confident I had discovered but I have made a new discovery since that and that is that I know nothing of it and I conceive at this distance of time it is impossible to be explained however upon the whole matter I hope you will not repent the perusal of this Book nor I that I have written it Farewell THE PRINCIPAL HEADS OF THE Ensuing Treatise OF the great Antiquity of the usage in the Text and of the cause wherein it was warrantably dispensed with From Page 1. to Page 60. Of the reasons upon which it was Originally founded From p. 60. to 79. Two mistakes of Mr. Selden and the Rabbins whom he follows From p. 79. to 83. That the Marriage of Boaz and Ruth was in consequence and pursuance of that Law of Moses whereby the Brother was obliged to raise up Seed to the deceased Brother against Mr. Selden and the Rabbins From p. 83. to 119. Two other mistakes of Mr. Selden and his Rabbins discovered From p. 120. to 124. Of the signification of the word First-born in this controversie From p. 124. to 138. Two objections against what was asserted under the last head concerning the signification of the word First-born proposed and answered From p. 138. to 147. Another Argument to prove that by the First-born the Daughter or Female was not understood in the Law of Moses and in what case a Woman was to inherit From p. 147. to 149 The Heiress obliged to Marry to some of the kindred and to the next of kin if he pleased p. 150 151. The Law of the Leviratus to be understood only of Brethren by the Fathers side and in this Mr. Selden and his Rabbins are in the right From p. 151. to 158. An Answer to an objection against the last position that this Law concerned only the Paternal consanguinity From p. 158. to 161. Two objections remaining against what hath been said the first an Argument of Mr. Seldens to prove that the Marriage of Boaz and Ruth was not in consequence and by vertue of the Leviratical Law which is largly answered From p. 161. to 183. Of the true time when this Custom came to be Antiquâ—ted viz. at the division of the two Kingdoms of Israel and Judah of the nature of Jeroboams Priesthood and of the frequent revolutions that happened in the Kingdom of Israel after its division from that of Judah by reason of its Military Government and for want of a regular and subordinate Clergy From p. 183. to 237. That the Jews did not abstain from any thing meerly because the Zabii or any other nation round about them practised it and that this was no reason of any of their negative Precepts Proved largely against Dr. Cudworth and the Jewish Rabbins whom he follows From p. 237. to 292. Of the practice of Usury among the Jews and other nations and that the Romans borrowed most if not all their usages concerning it out of the East together with an explanation of many things in the Roman and Assyrian or Eastern Antiquities hitherto unknown which is concluded with two observations the First concerning the reason of Tithes being paid to the Priesthood the other concerning the Lawfulness of a moderate Usury in all but such polities as the Jewish was From p. 292. to 27. The whole is concluded with an answer to a second objection against the Paternal consanguity being only concerned in the matter of the Leviratus which is taken from the Account of our Saviours Genealogy as it is or seems to be differently Related by the two Evangelists St. Mathew and St. Luke BOAZ and RVTH Deuteronomy 25. ver 5. If Brethren dwell together and one of them dye and have no Child the Wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger her Husbands Brother shall go in unto her and take her to him to Wife and perform the duty of an Husbands Brother unto her c. THE reason of which is expressed in the next verse viz. That the name of the Brother might not perish For which cause it was that the first Child begotten in such Wedlock was not accounted the offspring of his or her natural Parent but of him whose person he did in this case sustain that is of his Brother or near Kinsman V. 6. And it shall be that the first born which she beareth shall succeed in-the name of his Brother which is dead that his name be not put out of Israel Which in the instance of a near Kinsman tho not of an immediate Brother was afterwards the case of Ruth and Boaz from whose Loins in a few generations K. David and in the fullness of time the Messias himself the Son of David was descended Which Custom tho it was afterwards as we see confirmed by an express Law of God yet it was in it self much ancienter than the delivery of the Law by Moses as is evident from the story of Er Onan and Shelah the Sons of Judah all of them successively married to Tamar for the reason already mentioned as is very plainly intimated I may say expresly asserted Gen. 38. v. 9. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his and it came to pass when he went in unto his Brothers Wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For which fact of his it is said in the next verse And the thing which he did displeased the Lord wherefore he slew him also as he had done his Brother Er for some other wickedness which
to the Sons of Judah in this Chapter since all the Sons of Noah were actually married at one and the same time to several and distinct Wives Since Noah himself is no where taken notice of as the beginner of any such practice or as an example of it it seems most reasonable to go yet further backwards and place the first beginnings of this Ancient usage in the ante-noachioal or ante-diluvian times I will not desend this fact of Tamar from all suspition of guilt when it may seem to be at first sight not only a very unlawful but a very detestable practice and when at this distance of several Thousand Years being in a manner perfectly unacquainted with the usages of those times it is utterly impossible to make such a Judgment of the case as may be reli'd upon for truth in all its parts But thus much I will say she was not by so doing guilty of Adultery though whether she were of Incest or no will require some further consideration for either Shelah the Third Son of Judah was alive or he was dead if he were alive it is true she was engaged to expect the years of his Maturity that he might perform the Husbands part in raising up Seed to his deceased Brother and by not expecting that appointed time she did in effect betray the Bed of her first Husband Er whose person Shelah was in this case to sustain But if after she had staid thus long which was all that she was obliged to do she did then demand him in Marriage according to the contract and agreement formerly made between them if Judah who was to receive all the benefit of this agreement which was the propagating of his own and his Sons name and the continuing the Inheritance in the line of the First born would not stand to the contract into which he had entred for his own advantage by all the Law and all the equity in the World the party to whom no benefit accrews is free of any further obligation which was exactly Thamars case to whom it might be indifferent whether she continued in the same house or married into another and who might perhaps fancy some other person for her Husband more than she did Shelah in which case it is altogether unreasonable she should be under any restraint when the parties on whose side all the advantage lies will not make good their own part of the bargain It is clear then she could not be guilty of Adultery upon supposition that Shelah being alive had himself refused or had by some external force been hindred from performing his part of the condition which it was impossible for him at that time to do without his Fathers consent who had as it seems according to the Ancient practice of the first mortals jus vitae necis an absolute and despotical power over all his family and dependants as appears by the sentence passed upon Tamar without any other Process or Formality of Law but his own Arbitrary decree Gen. 38. 24. bring her forth and let her be burnt Of which despotical power of Parents over their Children and such was Tamar in this case being still considered as the Wife of her first Husband Er the Son of Judah so long as Shelah lived who was when he came to Age to sustain his person and propagate his name we have two known instances in the Ancient Roman story the first is that of him of the surviving Horatii who killed his own Sister for bewailing the Death of her Lover an enemy of Rome who being for this fact arraigned and about to receive sentence of Condemnation from the Duumviri who sat in Judgment upon him was thus defened and interceeded for by the miserable old man his Father who was now in danger of losing all his Children though not many hours before the happy Parent of a numerous and hopeful Offspring Se Filiam jure caesam judicare ni ita esset patrio jure in filium animadversurum fuisse Liv. lib. 1. The Second is of Sp. Cassius in the Second Book of the same Author who being accused of aspiring to be King a name so hated at that time by the Romans among other accounts given of his punishment is said to have been sentenced to Death for it by his Father and executed at home by vertue of that Sentence Livies words are these Sunt qui patrem auctorem ejus Supplicii ferant eum cognitâ domi causâ verberà sse ac necâsse peculiumque filii Cereri consecravisse signum inde factum esse inscriptum EX CASSIA FAMILIA DATVM And not unlike to this and the former instance is that of L. Virginius in the 3d. Book of the same Writer who as it may seem by vertue of this paternal power slew his own Daughter to free her from the Lust of Appius the Decemvir but as for the story of Manlius it being rather an effect of Military Discipline than his Authority as a Father it is not here to be accounted for Neither is it to be doubted but the Romans were beholding for the exercise of this Paternal Right to some other People both more Ancient and more Easterly from whom they were descended both because we have here a plain instance of the same Authority invested in the person of Judah and because in the beginning of things when almost every distinct Family was a little Kingdom by it self of which the Paterfamilias was the Supreme Lord from whose determinations there was no manner of Appeal it must needs be for the keeping this Family in due Order there must be the same distinction of punishments according to the different natures and differing aggravations of Offences as are to be met with in greater Bodies and in truth when matters are examin'd to the bottom it will be found that the Original of all Justice as well as Goverment is from private Families but enough of this From hence it appears that whether Shelah refused to comply himself or whether an outward restraint were laid upon him by his Father the first of which seems to have been the very truth it is the same case and she is either way freed from all manner of obligation and consequently could not be guilty of Adultery by the enjoyment of another Or else Secondly if you suppose Shelah to have been dead before this happened then she seems still to be more excusable in that all the Brothers being dead one after another there was no body now left to raise up Seed to the Eldest therefore he was perfectly dead to all intents and purposes both in himself and in his Proxies and so there was no possibility of committing Adultery with relation either to him or them It is true indeed according to the practice of after days which seem to have taken their Coppy from these and those that went before them in default of a Brother the Widdow of the deceased might challenge the next of Kin as is
thy Fathers Children shall bow down before thee Judah is a Lyons Whelp from the prey my Son thou art gone up he stooped down he couched as a Lyon and as an Old Lyon who shall rouse him up The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his Feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the People be It is clear therefore that the Kingdom or Soveraignty over his Brethren was bestowed upon Judah and as for the Priest-hood it was after appropriated upon another occasion to the Sons of Levi not by the designment of Jacob but of God himself It is likely therefore that as Judah tempered mercy with his hatred and was in the midst of his Envy an Instrument of saving his Brother Josephs Life so Jacob mixed the Kindness of a Father with the Severity of a Judge and depriving him only of a part of what belonged to him as his Birth-right as a punishment for his offence left him the rest entire as being due to him as the Eldest and as the reward of his mercy But yet after all this he passed by not only Dan and Naphtali the Sons of Rachel by her Handmaid Bilhah as also Gad and Asher the Sons of Leah by her handmaid Zilphah but likewise Issachar and Zebulon the Sons of Leah her self all of them Elder than Joseph and all dispossessed of the Birth-right without any reason at all but only the Arbitrary power with which their Father was invested unless it were perhaps upon some Prophetick reasons which neither are or can be at this time known to us as it was in the case of Ephraim and Manasseh Gen. 48. 17 18 19. And when Joseph saw his Father lay his right hand upon the head of Ephraim it displeased him and he held up his Fathers hand to remove it from Ephraims head unto Manassehs head And Joseph said to his Father not so my Father for this is the First-born put thy right hand upon his head And his Father refused and said I know it my Son he also shall become a people and he also shall be great but truly his Younger Brother shall be greater than he and his Seed shall become a multitude of Nations But if no violence were done to the natural succession then the Elder Brother did in right of Primogeniture succeed he Grot. ad Gen. 4. 7. primogeniti per Patris aut mortem aut absentiam paternam quandam aut horitatem in fratres habebant was in his Fathers life time looked upon as Heir apparent to the domestick Crown and in his Fathers absence he was the Supream Lord and his Brethren were as much his Servants as he was his Fathers and how great Homage and obeysance the Younger Brothers of those times were used to pay the Elder will appear from the 33d of Gen. where Jacob meeting his Brother Esau and being fearful he would now take that opportunity to revenge himself for the wrong he had received pays him all the Submission and Duty which belonged to the Elder Brother as well in his own person as in those of his Wives Children and Servants from verse the 12 to the 16 in these words they are so remarkable I will Transcribe them all And Jacob lift up his Eyes and looked and behold Esau came and with him four hundred men and he divided the Children unto Leah and unto Rachel and unto the two handmaids and he put the handmaids and their Children foremost and Leah and her Children after and Rachel and Joseph hindmost and he passed over before them and he bowed himself to the ground seven times till he came near unto his Brother And Esau ran to meet him and they wept and he lift up his Eyes and saw the Women and the Children and said who are these with thee And he said the Children which God hath graciously given thy servant Then the handmaids came near they and their Children and they bowed themselves and Leah also with her Children came near and bowed themselves and after came Joseph near and Rachel and they bowed themselves And he said what meanest thou by all this drove which I met and he said these are to find grace in the sight of my Lord and Esau said I have enough my Brother keep that thou hast unto thy self And Jacob said nay I pray thee if I have found grace in thy fight then receive my Present at my Hand for therefore have I seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God and thou wast pleased with me take I pray thee my blessing that is brought to thee because God hath dealt graciously with me and because I have enough and he urged him and he took it And he said let us take our journey and let us go and I will go before thee and he said unto him my Lord knoweth that the Children are tender and the Flocks and Herds with young are with me and if men should out-drive them one day all the Flock will die let my Lord I pray thee pass over before his Servant and I will lead on softly according as the Cattel which goeth before me and the Children be able to endure until I come unto my Lord in Seir. And Esau said let me now leave with thee some of the Folk that are with me and he said what needeth it let me find grace in the sight of my Lord. But if thus much submission were paid on account of Primogeniture to a Fellow Twin born but just immediately before him an Inhabitant of the same Womb at the same time with himself then it is still the stronger evidence of that vast respect which was used by the Custom of those days to be paid to the same Primogeniture in others whose birth was at a greater distance from the Younger Brothers because in them the reason of this preferment of the First-born before the Younger Children was much more strong than it can be in Twins who are born in a manner together Which reason is assigned by Jacob speaking of his Eldest Son Reuben Gen. 49. 3. Reuben thou art my First-Born and the * Deut. 21. 15 16 17. If a man have two Wives one beloved another hated and if the first-born Son be hers that was hated he may not make the Son of the beloved first-born but he shall acknowledge the Son of the hated for the first-born for he is the beginning of Strength the Right of the first-born is his beginning of my Strength the excellency of Dignity and the excellency of Power he was therefore the excellency of Dignity and the excellency of Power that is he was to have excercised a Soveraign Rule and Dominion over his younger Brethren had he not forfeited this Right of his by uncovering the Nakedness of his Father in the enjoyment of his Concubine Bilhah because he was the beginning of his Strength the Son of his Youth the first and the most lively representation of his Father
Rebellious times which they will not endure to hear from others if they could Summ up what scarce any numbers are capable of reaching the infinite blessings of security and peace the infinite mischiefs cruelties and devastations of War If they would revolve over again within themselves the fatal and frequent revolutions of the late giddy and slippery usurpation which not being supported as it could not be by a stable principle of Duty and Religion was tossed to and fro and staggered like a drunken man with every new Wind of Ambition Enthusiasm or design of private revenge or popular discontent if they would but suffer themselves to discern what is very clear from the nature of the thing which is the measure upon which wise men proceed and from the experience of former times which the proverb tells us is the Mistress of Fools that such an unbounded liberty as a publick toleration of all parties and opinions amounts to cannot otherwise be hindred from having all the ill effects of a perpetual confusion without a standing force to curb the insolence of the contending parties and hinder them from preying upon one another If the same experience of our late troubles be sufficient to instruct us that even this expedient will not do but that the plague of division and sectarian animosity will creep out of the City into the Camp and will rage there so much the more strongly as a malignant Feaver does in a robust and firm than in a less masculine or vigorous constitution If they could but perswade themselves to believe so easie a proposition as this that one good King is better than Ten thousand cruel avaritious and mercenary Tyrants that it is better to have liberty and peace for nothing than to pay Sixty or an Hundred Thousand Pounds a Month for being slaves and vassals to the meanest of the people the very offscowring and refuse of mankind Certainly who ever will give himself the leisure to consider of these things or will but have the patience to hear them when they are told him by another must unavoidably conclude that one of these four things are true either peace and happiness are things perfectly unlawful in themselves and mankind is under a perfect obligation to be at perpetual strife and variance with each other which is not only a very strange Doctrine but I am confident in the midst of all that infinite variety of opinions and factions with which the last Age was infested a very new one too or else in the second place he must be forced to say that the terms of Unity that are established by Law are in themselves unlawful to be submitted to Or else thirdly that the use of the only lawful and absolutely necessary means in order to a Lawful end are in themselves Unlawful or else lastly he will find himself obliged to submit to the present establishment of the Church of England which by the acknowledgment of most of the dissenters themselves enjoyes nothing at all but what would in it self be Lawful if it were not imposed And if the imposition makes it Unlawful it is only for this reason because peace and happiness are so too for so long as men are so subject as they are to fall out about very small matters so long as there are and will always be so many whose consciences are tender to a disease and so many that have no sence of tenderness or of consciance at all so long as it is natural for the pretences of the one to become the scruples and grievances of the other which they always will wherever liberty and toleration is permitted it will be impossible to keep the world in any condition that hath the face of quietness or peace without a publick rule of discipline and obedience which shall be the square and measure of every mans external behaviour in Religious matters But this is only by the by for I do not design in this place to enter the lists with any of our dissenting Brethren to whom ere it be long I shall give another opportunity if they shall think it for the credit of their party or themselves to embrace it to stand up in defence of a no less foolish than wicked separation And so I return to the story of Jeroboam which gave the occasion to this short excursion and I affirm that it would have been morally impossible so many revolutions and changes should have happened as there did in the Israelitish Kingdom in so short a time which was transferred so frequently from one person and family to another but by the means of a standing Army which though for the time it be the natural instrument of a great and uncontrouleable power yet without a miracle of prudence in those that are to govern and of submission and good temper in those that are to obey it cannot be the expedient of a safe and a lasting soveraignty over men It is true indeed that God told Jeroboam by the mouth of Ahijah the Prophet 1 KIngs 14. v. 7 8 9 10 11. For as much as I exalted thee from among the people and made thee Prince over my people Israel And rent the Kingdom away from the House of David and gave it thee and yet thou hast not been as my servant David who kept my commandments and who followed me with all his heart to do that only which was right in mine eyes but hast done evil above all that were before thee for thou hast gone and made thee other Gods and molten Images to provoke me to anger and hast cast me behind thy back Therefore behold I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the Wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will take away the Remnant of the House of Jeroboam as a man taketh away dung till it be all gone him that dyeth of Jeroboam in the City shall the Dogs eat and him that dyeth in the Field shall the Fowls of the air eat for the Lord hath spoken it From which place though I do not deny but it is very clear that the destruction of Jeroboam and his House was the effect of a supernatural Judgment yet for all that it does not follow and it appears 1 Kings 15. 29. de facto that it was so but that this Judgment might be brought about by natural and human means and it being so necessary as it hath been shewn it was to Jeroboams circumstances that he should govern by an Army it is most likely that the ruine of his Family was effected by the ambition or discontent of some who had considerable interest and power in the Souldiery a sort of military and therefore dangerous propularity which is always justly suspected and formidable to Princes Neither can any good reason be given why the Kings of Judah notwithstanding most of them were as wicked and as Idolatrous as those of Israel continued all the
while till the time of the Captivity in the line of David while so many changes and revolutions happened in the Kingdom of Israel but that in the first the Government was more civil or rather Ecclesiastical whose parts were all regularly knit and fastned to each other but in the latter more turbulent and military than the former it being but natural for disobliged or necessitous or designing men with Swords in their hands and a band of resolute Partisans at their heels to carve out their own satisfaction whenever they thirst after greatness or revenge and to endeavor the advancement of themselves though by all the foul Acts and mischevious effects of Treason and Rebellion The first change or alteration that was made in the Kingdom of Israel was in the time of Nadab the immediate Son of Jeroboam himself 1 Kings 15. 27. Baasha the Son of Ahijah of the House of Issachar conspired against him Nadab and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon which belongeth to the Philistines for Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon In which words as it is expressly declared that Baasha the Son of Issachar conspired against him so nothing can be more plain than that this was done by a motus castrensis it was a conspiracy formed in the Leaguer by the power and interest of Baasha in the Army as they lay entrenched before the walls of Gibbethon The next Revolution that fell out after this was in the time of Elah the immediate Son and successor of Baasha by the Treason of Zimri 1 Kings 16. 9 10. His Servant Zimri Captain of half his Chariots conspired against him as he was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the House of Arza Steward of his House in Tirzah and Zimri went in and smote him and killed him in the Twenty and Seventh year of Asa King of Judah and Reigned in his stead Where this Treason being effected by so great a commander the Captain of half his Chariots being done so publickly as he was sitting in the midst of his Friends and in the sight of his very Guards themselves who it is very likely were of the confederacy with Zimri against their Master and Zimri being able not only to perpetrate so black a Treason but also to place himself upon the Throne of Israel in the room of him whom he had with so much baseness and perfidiousness removed from it all these things do sufficiently shew that it was not the wicked rashness of one single man but it was a formed Confederacy in that part of the Army that was at that time in and about Tirzah being appointed as it seems to me for the guard of the Kings person while the rest of the people were still encamped against Gibbethon a siege more tedious than that of Troy or Veii which belonged to the Philistines And they not siding with Zimri in his wickedness but on the contrary being desperately incensed against him and resolved to revenge his perfidiousness to the utmost they immediately quitted the Blockade of Gibbethon and came and sat down before Tirzah where Zimri and his party had ensconced and fortified themselves which siege was pushed on with so much application and vigor that they soon made themselves Masters of the place for Zimri enjoyed his ill gotten dominion no longer then Seven Days 1 Kings 16. 15. and then saw himself reduced to that extremity that there being no middle way but either he must dispatch himself or fall into the hands of an enraged Rabble whose insolence and inhuman barbarity is usually so great that death is a kindness in comparison of those indignities which the living suffer when fallen into such cruel and unmerciful hands he did as became a man that had been worthy to Reign had he not waded to the Throne through the Blood of him that sat upon it he chose to die rather by the same hand that had destroyed his Master than suffer himself to be made a publick spectacle of infamy and disgrace an hissing and a laughing stock to Boys and Beggers And therefore as the Roman Senators and other aged Persons when the Gauls came in and the Young men that were fit for service were all of them retired into the Capitol sat every man ready to receive the satal stroke in his best attire and in the Robes or Habiliments of those honours and offices which he had born in the City that so they might perish like themselves and as became those that had lived like men and understood how to die like such so here Zimri when he saw the City was taken and that there was no hope left that he might perish like a King he went into the Palace of the Kings House and burnt the Kings House over him with fire and died After the same manner that Sardanapalus did who though his life have nothing in it but what was soft and effeminate beyond expression yet being driven to that hard dilemma either to die like a man or undergo the unsupportable reproaches and indignities of a bruitish and inveterat Rabble the beasts of the people as the Psalmist calls them he made a wise choise of that extream which was more suitable to the greatness of his Birth and Fortune and expired in the midst of his Palace and his Concubines with all his luxury and all his vices flaming about his ears so that though it cannot be deny'd that he lived like a fool as every man does who gives himself up to that excess of delicacy and effeminate pleasure yet we may say of his death as David said of Abners Died Sardanapalus as a fool dieth or was it not rather true that a Prince and a great man was fallen that day in Assyria Or was not this better than to be carried about like Bajazet by the Tartarian inhumanity of Tamberlain in a Cage or like one of the Pseudo Philippi in Henry the Sevenths time to be made a drudg or Scullion in a Kitchen or had not Bajazet himself done more like an Emperor and a Gallant Sultan had he tried which was hardest his unfortunate head or the servile grate of that inhumane Cage much sooner than he did I cannot stand now to enter into a nice disquisition of this case of Zimri and to determine how far or in what circumstances it may be Lawful or excuseable for a man to take his leave of a troublesome and uneasie world before the course of nature be expired by committing v. I. Lips manuduc ad Philos Stoic L. 3. dissert 22. 23. Grot. de jur B. P. L. 2. S. 19. 5. 5. some Act of violence upon himself a case that hath been often disputed pro and con by the greatest wits of antiquity and by the learned men of later times only thus much I hope I may presume to say that if in any case it be a Lawful or excusable practice it is in this of Zimri to avoid the insupportable indignities of an incensed croud who will not