Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	child_n	israel_n	pharaoh_n	1,683	5	10.2863	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87137	The prerogative of popular government. A politicall discourse in two books. The former containing the first præliminary of Oceana, inlarged, interpreted, and vindicated from all such mistakes or slanders as have been alledged against it under the notion of objections. The second concerning ordination, against Dr. H. Hamond, Dr. L. Seaman, and the authors they follow. In which two books is contained the whole commonwealth of the Hebrews, or of Israel, senate, people, and magistracy, both as it stood in the institution by Moses, and as it came to be formed after the captivity. As also the different policies introduced into the Church of Christ, during the time of the Apostles. By James Harrington.	Harrington, James, 1611-1677.	1657 (1657)	Wing H820; Thomason E929_7; ESTC R202382	184,546	252

able to give Law without them For to think that he succeeds unto the Senate or that the power of the Senate may serve his Turn is a presumption will fail him The Senate as such hath no power at all but meer Authority of proposing unto the people who are the Makers of their own Laws whence the Decrees of the Senate of Rome are never Laws nor so called but Senatusconsulta It is true that a King comming in the Senate as there it did to his aid and advantage may remain so they propose not as formerly unto the People but now unto him who comes not in upon the right of the Senate but upon that of the People whence saith Justinian Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem quum lege Regia quae de ejus imperio lata est Populus ei in eum omnes imperium suum potestatem concedat Thus the Senatusconsultum Macedonicum with the rest that had place allowed by Justinian in the compilement of the Roman laws were not Laws in that they were Senatusconsulta or proposed by the Senate but in that they were allowed by Justiman or the Prince in whom was now the right of the People Wherefore the Zelot for Monarchy hath made a pas de clerc or foul step in his procession where he argues thus out of Cujacius It was soon agreed that the distinct decrees of the Senate and People should be extended to the nature of laws therefore the distinct decrees of the Senate are laws whether it be so a greed by the people or by the Prince or no. For thus he hath no sooner made his Prince then he kicks him heels over head Seeing where the Decrees of the Senate are Laws without the King that same is as much a King as the Praevaricator a Politician A law is that which was passed by the power of the people or of the King But out of the Light In this place he takes a Welsh bait and looking back makes a Muster of his Victories like the busling Guascon who to shew what he had thrown out of the Windows in his debauchery made a formal repetition of the whole Inventary of the House CHAP. VII Whether the Ten Commandements were proposed by God or Moses and voted by the People of Israel ONe would think the Guascon had done well Is he satisfied No he will now throw the House out of the Windows The principal stones being already taken from the Foundation He hath a bag of certain windes wherewithall to reverse the super structures The first wind he lets go is but a Puff where he tells me that I bring Switz and Holland into the enumeration of the Heathen Commonwealths which if I had done their Liberties in many parts and places being more Antient then the Christian Religion in those Countries as is plain by Tacitus where he speaks of Civilis and of the Customs of the Germans I had neither wronged them nor my self but I doe no such matter for having enumerated the Heathen Commonwealths I add that the proceedings of Holland and Switz though after a more obscure manner are of the like nature The next is a Storm while reproaching me of rudeness he brings in Doctor Ferne and the Clergy by the head and the shoulders who till they undertake the quarrel of Monarchy to the confusion of the Common-wealth of Israel at least so far forth that there be no weight or obligation in such an Example are posted As if for a Christian Commonwealth to make so much use of Israel as the Roman did of Athens whose Laws she transcribed were against the Interest of the Clergy which it seems is so hostile unto Popular power that to say the Laws of Nature though they be the fountains of all Civil Law are not the Civil Law till they be the Civil Law Or thus that thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal though they be in natural Equity yet were not the Laws of Israel or of England till voted by the People of Israel or the Parliament of England is to assert the People into the Mighty liberty of being free from the whole Moral Law and inasmuch as to be the adviser or perswader of a thing is lesse then to be the Author or Commander of it to put an indignity upon God himself In which fopperies the Praevaricator boasting of principles but minding none first confounds Authority and Command or Power and nextforgets that the dignity of the Legislator or which is all one of the Senate succeeding unto his Office as the Sanhedrim unto Moses is the greatest dignity in a Common-wealth and yet that the Laws or Orders of a Common-wealth derive no otherwise whether from the Legislator as Moses Lycurgus Solon c. or the Senate as those of Israel Lacedemon or Athens then from their Authority received and confirmed by the Vote or Command of the People It is true that with Almighty God it is otherwise then with a Mortal Legislator but through another Nature which unto him is peculiar from whom as he is the cause of being or the Creator of Mankind Omnipotent power is inseparable yet so equal is the goodnesse of this Nature unto the greatnesse thereof that as he is the Cause of welbeing by way of Election for Example in his chosen people Israel or of Redemption as in the Christian Church Himself hath prefer'd before his Empire his Authority or Proposition What else is the meaning of these words or of this proceeding of his Now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant ye shall be unto me a Kingdom or I will be your King which Proposition being Voted by the People in the Affirmative God proceeds to propose unto them the Ten Commandements in so dreadful a manner that the People being exceedingly affrighted say unto Moses speak thou with us and we will hear thee that is be thou henceforth our Legislator or Proposer and we will resolve accordingly but let not God speak with us lest we die From whenceforth God proposeth unto the People no otherwise then by Moses whom he instructeth in this manner These are the judgements which thou shalt propose or set before them Wherefore it is said of the book of Deuteronomy containing the Covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the Land of Moab beside the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb Haec est lex quam Moses proposuit this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel Neither did God in this case make use of his Omnipotent power nor Christ in the like who also is King after the same manner in his Church and would have been in Israel where when to this end he might have muster'd up Legions of Angels been victorious with such Armies or Argyraspides as never Prince could shew the like saies no more then O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often

with himself which abating the figure is the same again and so I have nothing to answer but the figure Now for this the Prince himself is no otherwise tall then by being set upon the shoulders of the Nobility and so if they set another upon the same shoulders as in Henry the 4th or the 7th who had no Titles unto the Crown nor could otherwise have measured with the Prince be he never so low he comes to be tall enough in his particular person to measure with the Prince and to be taller too not only by those Old Examples but others that are younger than our selves though such the Nobility having not of late been weighty enough to keep the People under as derive from another Principle that of Popular ballance A Prince therefore preserving his Nobility weighty enough to keep under the people must preserve in them the ballance of that kind of Empire and the ballance containing the riches which are the power and so the Arms of the Nation this being in the Nobility the Nobility when willing must be able to dispose of the King or of the Government Nor under a lesse weight is a Nobility qualified to keep down the people as by an Argument from the contrary Henry the 7th having found the strength of his Nobility that set him in a Throne to which he had no right and fearing that the tide of their favour turning they might do as much for another abated the dependance of their Tenants and cut off their Train of Retainers which deminution of their weight releasing by degrees the People hath caused that Plain or Level into which we live to see the Mountain of that Monarchy now sunck and swallowed wherefore the ballance of the Nobility being such as failing that kind of Monarchy comes to ruine and not failing the Nobility if they joyn may give Law unto the King the inherent disease of Monarchy by a Nobility remains also uncured and uncurable These are points to which I had spoken before but something concerning France and Forraign Guards was mumbled by the Praevaricator in a wrong place while he was speaking of Turkey where there is no such thing This least I be thought to have courted Opposition for nothing shall open a New Scene while I take the occasion in this place to speak first of the Ballance of the French Monarchy and next of the Nature and use of Forraign Guards The whole Territory of France except the Crown Lands which on this account are not considerable consisteth of three shares or parts whereof the Church holdeth one the Nobility another and the Presidents Advocates other Officers of the Parliaments Courts of Justice the Citizens Merchants Tradesmen the Treasurers receivers of the Customes aids taxes impositions Gabells all which together make a vast body hold a Third by how equal portions I am sorry that I do not know nor where to learn but this is the ballance of the French Monarchy unto which the Paisant holding nothing but living though in one of the best Countrys of the world in the meanest and most miserable Condition of a Labourer or Hiend is of no account at all The parties that hold the ballance in a Territory are those of whom the Government doth naturally consist wherefore these are called Estates so the Clergy the Nobility and the Commons are the three Estates of France Though the Third because the Paisant partaking not of the ballance can in relation to Government be of no account is not called the Commons but only the Third Estate whereas the Yeomanry and Gentry in England having weighed as well in the ballance as the Church and the Nobility the three Estates of England while the Monarchy was in vigour were the Clergy the Nobility and the Commons The Consent of Nations evinceth that the Function of the Clergy or Priest except where otherwise determined of by Law appertaineth unto the Magistrate By this right Noah Abraham Job with the rest of the Patriarchs instructed their Families or sacrisiced There seemeth to have been a kind of Commonwealth in Canaan while Melchisedec was both King and Priest Such also was Moses till he consecrated Aaron and confer'd the Priesthood upon the Levites who are expresly said to succeed unto the first born that is unto the Patriarchs who till then exercised that Function Nor was it otherwise with the Gentiles where they who had the Soveraign power or were in eminent Magistracy did also the Priestly Office omnino apud veteres qui rerum potiebantur iidem Auguria tenebant ut enim sapere sic divinare regale ducebant saith Cicero and Virgil Rex Anius Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos You find the Heroes that is Princes in Poets sacrificing The Ethiopian Egyptian Lacedemonian Kings did the like in Athens constantly and in Rome when they had no Kings occasionally they elected a Rex sacrorum or King-Priest So that a free People had thus far power of electing their Priests is not deny'd by any Man This came it should seem to be otherwise Established by the Law in Egypt where the Priests whose Lands Joseph when he bought those of the People did not buy being great Landlords it may be unto the Third of the whole Territory were one of the three Estates of the Realm And it is clear in Scripture that the People till they Sold their Lands became not Servants unto Pharaoh While Agesilaus was in Egypt they deposed their King which implies the recovery of their ballance but so seeing they set up another as withall shews the ballance of the Nobility to have been predominant These particulars seem to come near unto the account of Diodorus Siculus by whom the ballance of Egypt should have stood thus The whole Revenue was divided into three parts whereof the Priests had the first the King had the second and the Nobility had the Third It seems to me that the Priests had theirs by their Antient right and title untouched by Joseph that the Kings had all the rest by the Purchase of Joseph and that in time as is usual in like cases a Nobility came through the bounty of succeeding Kings to share with them in one half But however it came about Egypt by this means is the first Example of a Monarchy upon a Nobility at least distributed into three Estates by means of a Landed Clergy which by consequence came to be the greatest Counsellors of State and fitting Religion unto their uses to bring the people to be the most superstitious in the whole World Where it not for this Example I should have said that the Indowment of a Clergy or Religious Order with Lands and the erecting of them into an Estate of the Realm or Government were no Antienter then the Goths and Vandals who introducing a like Policy which unto this day taketh place throughout the Christian world have been the cause First why the Clergy have been generally great Counsellors unto

Those in England France and Spain introduced by the Gothes Vandals Saxons and Franks which were Aristocratical or such as produced the Government of King Lords and Commons Thirdly those in the East and Turkey introduced by Nimrod and Mahomet or Ottoman which were purely Monarchial Examples of the Ballance introduced by civil Vicissitude alienation or alteration of Propriety under Government are in Florence where the Medices attaining to excessive wealth the ballance altered from Popular to Monarchial In Greece where the Argives being Lovers of equality and liberty reduced the power of their Kings to so small a matter that there remained unto the Children and Successors of Cisus little more than the Title where the ballance altered from Monarchical to Popular In Rome about the time of Crassus the Nobility having eaten the People out of their Lands the ballance alter'd from Popular first unto Aristocratical as in the Triumvirs Caesar Pompey and Crassus and then to Monarchical as when Crassus being dead and Pompey conquer'd the whole came to Caesar In Tarentum not long after the Warre with the Medes the Nobility being wasted and overcome by Iapy●es the ballance and with that the Common wealth changed from Aristocratical to Popular the like of late hath discovered it self in Oceana When a ballance commeth so through civil Vicissitude to be changed that the change cannot be attributed unto humane Providence it is more peculiarly to be ascribed unto the hand of God and so when there happeneth to be an irresistible change of the ballance not the old Government which God hath repealed but the new Government which he dictateth as present Legislator is of Divine right This volubility of the ballance being apparant it belongs unto Legislators to have eyes and to occur with some prudential or legal remedy or prevention and the Lawes that are made in this Case are called Agrarian So an Agrarian is a Law fixing the ballance of a Government in such manner that it cannot alter This may be done divers wayes as by entailing the Lands upon certain Families without power of Alienation in any case as in Israel and Lacedemon or except with leave of the Magistrate as in Spain but this by making some Families too secure as those in possession and others too despairing as those not in possession may make the whole People lesse industrious Wherefore the other way which by the regulation of purchases ordains only that a Mans Land shall not exceed some certain proportion for example two thousand pounds a year or exceeding such a proportion shall divide in descending unto the Children so soon as being more than one they shall be capable of such division or sub-division till the greater share exceed not two thousand pounds a year in Land lying and being within the Native Territory is that which is received and established by the Common wealth of Oceana By Levelling they who use the word seem to understand when a People rising invades the Lands and Estates of the richer sort and divides them equally among themselves as for example No where in the World this being that both in the way and in the end which I have already demonstrated to be impossible Now the words of this Lexicon being thus interpreted Let us hearken what the Praevaricator will say and out it comes in this manner To him that makes propriety and that in Lands the foundation of Empire the establishing of an Agrarian is of absolute necessity that by it the power may be fixed in those hands to whom it was at first committed What need we then proceed any farther while he having no where disproved the ballance in these words gives the whole cause For as to that which he faith of money seeing neither the vast treasure of Henry the 7th altered the ballance of England nor the Revenue of the Indies alters that of Spain this retrait except in the cases excepted is long since barricadoed But he is on and off and any thing to the contrary notwithstanding gives you this for certain The Examples of an Agrarian are so infrequent that Mr. Harrington is constrained to wave all but two Common-wealths and can finde in the whole extent of History only Israel and Lacedemon to fasten upon A man that hath read my Writings or is skilled in History cannot chuse but see how he slurs his Dice nevertheless to make this a little more apparent It hath seemed to some sayes Aristotle the main point of institution in Government to order riches right whence otherwise derives all Civil discord Vpon this ground Phaleas the Calcedonian Legislator made it his first work to introduce equality of goods and Plato in his Lawes allowes not increase unto a possession beyond certain bounds The Argives and the Messenians had each their Agrarian after the manner of Lacedemon If a man shall translate the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 virtus facultas civilis Political virtue or faculty where he findes them in Aristotles Politicks as I make bold and appeal unto the Reader whether too bold to do by the words Politicall ballance understood as I have stated the thing it will give such a light unto the Authour as will go neerer than any thing alleadged as before by this Praevaricator to deprive me of the honour of that invention For Example where Aristotle saith If one man or such a number of men as to the capacity of Government come within the compasse of the Few excel all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ballance or in such manner that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Political faculties or Estates of all the rest be not able to hold weight with him or them they will never condiscend to share equally with the rest in power whom they excell in ballance nor is it to any purpose to give them Lawes who will be as the Gods their own Lawes and answer the People as the Lions are said by Antisthenes to have answer'd the hares when they had concluded that every one ought to have an equall portion For this cause he adds Cities that live under popular power have instituted the Ostracism for the preservation of equality by which if a man increase in riches retinue or popularity above what is safe they can remove him without losse of honour or estate for a time If the Considerer think that I have strained courtesie with Aristotle who indeed is not alwayes of one minde further then is warrantable in relation to the ballance be it as he pleaseth I who must either have the more of Authority or the lesse of Competition in the point shall lose neither way However it is in this place enough that the Ostracism being of like nature was that which supplyde the defect in the Grecian Cities of an Agrarian To proceed then unto Rome that the People there by striving for an Agrarian strove to save their Liberty is apparent in that through the want of such a Law or the non-observance

of it the Common wealth came plainly unto ruine If a Venetian should keep a Table or have his House furnished with retainers he would be obnoxious unto the Council of Ten and if the best of them appear with other state or equipage then is allowed unto the meanest he is obnoxious unto the Officers of the Pomp which two Orders in a Common-wealth where the Gentry have but small Estates in Land are as much as need be in lieu of an Agrarian But the German Republicks have no more to supply the place of this Law then that Estates descending are divided among the Children which sure no man but will say must needs be both just and pious And we ask you no more in Oceana where grant this and you grant the whole Agrarian Thus had I set him all the Common wealths in the World before and so it is no fault of mine that he will throw but at three of them These are Israel Lacedemon Oceana First at Israel Mr. Harrington sayes he thinks not upon the promise of God unto Abraham whence the Israelites derived their right unto the Land of Canaan but considers the division of the Lands as a Politick Constitution upon which the Government was founded though in the whole History of the Bible there be not the least foot-step of such a design What meanes the man The right of an Israelite unto his Land derived from the promise of God unto Abraham therefore the right of an Oceaner unto his Land must derive from the promise of God unto Abraham Or why else should I in speaking of Oceana where Propriety is taken as it was found and not stirred an hair think on the promise to Abraham Nor matters it for the manner of division seeing that was made and this was found made each according unto the Law of the Government But in the whole Bible sayes he there is not the least foot-step that the end of the Israelitish Agrarian was Politicall or that it was intended to be the foundation of the Government The foot-steps of God by the Testimony of David may be seen in the deep waters much more by the consent of the whole Bible in Land or in the foundation of Empire unless we make the foot-steps of God to be one thing and his wayes another which as to Government are these God by the Ballot of Israel more fully described in the next Book divided the Land some respect had unto the Princes and Patriarchs for the rest to every one his inheritance according unto the number of names which were drawn out of the one Urne first and the Lots of Land the measure with the goodness of the same considered drawn afterwards out of the other Urn unto those Names Wherefore God ordaining the Cause and the Cause of Necessity producing the effect God in ordaining this Ballance intended popular Government But when the People admitting of no Nay would have a King God thereupon commanding Samuel to shew them the manner of the King Samuel declared unto the People concerning the manner or policy of the King saying He will take your Fields and your Vineyards and your Olive-yards even the best of them and give unto his servants which kind of proceeding must needs create the ballance of a Nobility Over and above this he will take the tenth of your seed and of your Vineyards and of your sheep by way of tax for the maintenance of his Armies and thus your Daughters shall come to be his Cooks and Confectioners and your Sons to run before his Chariot There is not from the ballance to the superstructures a more perfect description of a Monarchy by a Nobility For the third branch the People of Aegypt in time of the Famine which was very sore come unto Joseph saying Buy us and our Land for bread and we and our Land will be servants unto Pharaoh And Joseph bought all the Land of Aegypt except that of the Priests for Pharaoh So the Land became Pharaohs who lest the remembrance of their former Propriety by lively marks and continual remembrancers should stir them up as the Vandalls in Africa exuted in like manner of their Propriety and yet remaining in their ancient dwellings were stirred up by their Women unto sedition removed the People thus sold or drave them like Cattle even from one End of the borders of Aegypt unto the other end thereof In which you have the ballance of a sole Land-lord or absolute Prince with the miserable and yet necessary consequence of an inslaved people Now the ballance of Governments throughout the Scriptures being of these kindes and no other the Ballance of Oceana is exactly calculated unto the most approved way and the clearest footsteps of God in the whole History of the Bible and whereas the Jubile was a Law instituted for preservation of the Popular ballance from alteration so is the Agrarian in Oceana But says the Praevaricator Hocus Pocus or in the name of wonder how can this Agrarian be the foundation of that Government which had subsisted more than forty five years without it For they were so long after the giving of this Law for the division of the Land before they had the Land to divide Which is as if one should say upon that other law of the like date Judges and Officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates Hocus Pocus or in the name of wonder how should the Children of Israel make them Judges and Officers in in their gates before they had any gates to make them in fine sport to be play'd by an Attorney for the Clergy with Scripture where it is plain enough that the Laws of a Common-wealth were given by Moses unto an Army to be put in Execution when that Army should become a Common-wealth as hapned under Joshua But no saying will serve his turn If this Agrarian were meant as fundamentall to the Government the Provision he will have it was weak and not proper for attaining the end proposed there being nothing in the Nature of the Agrarian to hinder but that the whole Countrey might for the space of near fifty years that is the time between the two Jubilees have come into the hands of One Man and so have destroyed Ballance Agrarian Government and all This they that boast of their Mathematicks might have taken the pains before they had been so confident to have demonstrated possible as how or by what meanes one Lot could come in fifty years to be multiplied six hundred thousand times and that without usury which barre the Israelites being no Merchants was thought sufficient to be given or thus to call the prudence of God by their impracticable Phansyes in question is abominable I would have Divines as this Praevaricator perswades and it should seem hath perswaded some of them to overthrow the Common-wealth of Israel for otherwise I will give them my word they shall never be able to touch that of Oceana which expect in

Wherefore neither doth the Agrarian proposed taking the ballance of Estates as she now finceth them make warre against but confirme the present Customes The onely Objection that can seem in this place to lye is that whereas it hath been the custome of Oceana that the Bulke of the Estate should descend unto the Eldest Sonne by the Agrarian he cannot in case he have more brothers inherit above two thousand pounds a year in Land or an equall share But neither doth this whether you regard the Parents or the Children make warre with custome For putting the case the Father have twenty thousand pounds a year in Land he goes not the lesse in his custome or way of life for the Agrarian because for this he hath no lesse and if he have more or fewer Sonnes to whom this Estate descends by equall or unequall portions neither do they go lesse in their wayes or customes of life for the Agrarian because they never had more But says Aristotle speaking of the Ostracism as it supplyes the defect of an Agrarian this course is as necessary unto Kings as unto Common wealths By this meanes the Monarchyes of Turky and of Spaine preserve their ballance through the neglect of this hath that of the Nobility of Oceana been broken and this is it which the Praevaricator in advising that the Nobility be no farther Levell'd than will serve to keep the people under requires of his Prince So that an Agrarian is necessary to Government be it what it will is on all hands concluded Chap. XII Whether Courses or Rotation be necessary unto a well-ordered Common-wealth In which is contained the courses or Pare●bole of Israel before the Captivivity together with the Epitome of Athens and Venice ONe bout more and we have done this as reason good will be upon wheeles or Rotation for As the Agrarian answereth unto the Equality of the Foundation or Root so doth Rotation unto the Equality of the Superstructures or branches of a Common-wealth Equall Rotation is equall Vicissitude in or Succession unto Magistracy confer'd for equal termes injoyning such equal vacations as cause the Government to take in the body of the People by parts succeeding others through free Election or suffrage of the whole The contrary whereunto is prolongation of Magistracy which trashing the wheel of Rotation destroyes the life or natural motion of a Common wealth The Praevaricator what ever he hath done for himself hath done this for me that it will be out of doubt whether my Principles be capable of greater Obligation or confirmation than by having Objections made against them Nor have I been altogether ingrateful or nice of my labour but gone farre much farther then I needed about that I might return with the more valuable Present unto him that sent me on the Errant I shall not be short of like proceeding upon the present Subject but rather over Rotation in a Common wealth is of the Magistracy of the Senate of the People of the Magistracy and the People of the Magistracy and the Senate or of the Magistracy of the Senate and of the People which in all come unto Six kinds For example of Rotation in the Magistracy you have the Judge of Israel called in Hebrew Shophet the like Magistracy after the Kings Ithobal and Baal came in use with the Tyrians from these with their Posterity the Carthaginians who also called their Supreme Magistrates being in Number two and for their Terme Annuall Shophetim which the Latines by a softer pronunciation render Suffetes The Shophet or Judge of Israel was a Magistrate not that I can finde obliged unto any certain Terme throughout the Book of Judges Nevertheless it is plain that his Election was occasional and but for a time after the manner of a Dictator True it is that Eli and Samuel ruled all their lives but upon this such impatience in the People followed through the corruption of their Sonnes as was the main cause of the succeeding Monarchy The Magistrates in Athens except the Areopagites being a Judicatory were all upon rotation The like for Lacedemon and Rome except the Kings in the former who were indeed hereditary but had no more power than the Duke in Venice where all the rest of the Magistrates except the Procuratori whose Magistracy is but meer Ornament are also upon Rotation For Rotation of the Senate you have Athens the Achaeans Aetolians Lyceans the Amphictionium and the Senate of Lacedemon reproved in that it was for life by Aristotle Modern Examples of like kind are the Diet of Switz but especially the Senate of Venice For the Rotation of the People you have first Israel where the Congregation which the Greeks call Ecclesia the Latines Comitia or Concio having a twofold capacity first that of an Army in which they were the constant Guard of the Countrey and secondly that of a Representative in which they gave the Vote of the People at the Creation of their Lawes or election of their Magistrates was monethly Now the Children of Israel after their Number to wit the chief Fathers and Captains of thousands and hundreds and their Officers that served the King in any matter of the courses which came in and went out moneth by moneth throughout all the moneths of the year every course were twenty and four thousand Such a multitude there was of military age that without inconvenience four and twenty thousand were every moneth in Arms whose Terme expiring others succeeded and so others by which meanes the Rotation of the whole People came about in the space of one year The Tribunes or Commanders of the Tribes in Arms or of the Prerogative for the moneth are named in the following part of the Chapter to the sixteenth Verse where begins the Enumeration of the Princes though God and Ashur for what reason I know not be omitted of the Tribes remaining in their Provinces where they judged the People and as they received Orders were to bring or send such farther enforcement or recruits as occasion required unto the Army after these some other Officers are mentioned There is no question to be made but this Rotation of the People together with their Prerogative or Congregation was preserved by the monethly Election of two thousand Deputies in each of the twelve Tribes which in all came to four and twenty thousand or let any man shew how otherwise it was likely to be done the Nature of their Office being to give the Vote of the People who therefore sure must have chosen them By these the Vote of the People was given to their Lawes and at Elections of their Magistrates Unto their Lawes as where David proposeth the reduction of the Ark. And David consulted with the Captains of thousands and hundreds and with every Leader And David said unto all the Congregation of Israel If it seem good unto you and it be of the Lord God let us send abroad to our Brethren every where the

saying hear the Causes and judge righteously The next Magistrate whose Election comes to be considered is the Dictator or Judge of Israel Where it is said of this people that the Lord raised them up Judges which delivered them out of the hands of those that spoiled them it is to be understood saith Sigonius that God put it into the mind of the people to elect such Magistrates or Captains over them For example when the children of Ammon made war against Israrael God raised up Jephtha whose Election was after this manner the Elders went to fetch Jephtha out of the Land of Tob and when they had brought him unto Mizpeh which in those dayes was the place where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Congregation of Israel usually assembled the people made him Head and Captain over them Now that the Election of the King was as much in the Chirotonia of the people as that of the Judge is past all controversie seeing the Law speaking of the people sayes thus One from among thy brethren shalt thou set King over thee and accordingly when the Government was changed to Monarchy it was not Samuel but the people that would have it so thus Saul was chosen King by the Lot Where the contradiction of Grotius is remarkable who in this place to shew that the Lot is of popular institution quotes Aristotle and yet when he comes to speak of the Lots that were cast at the Election of Mathias says it was that it might appear not whom the multitude but whom God had ordained as if the Magistrate lawfully elected by the people were not Elected by God or that the lot which thus falleth into the lap were not at the disposing of the Lord. But if the League by which the people received David into the throne or the Votes by which first the people of Jerusalem and afterwards the Congregation of Israel as was shewn in the former Book made Solomon King were of the Lord then Election by the people was of the Lord and the Magistrate that was elected by the Chirotonia of the people was elected by the Chirotonia of God for as the Congregation of Israel is called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ecclesia or Congregation of God so the Chirotonia of this Congregation is called by Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chirotonia of God who as I noted before out of Capellus was in this Common-Wealth Political King or Civil Legislator Sans comparison as Solon in Athens and Romulus in Rome that is to propose unto the people Haec est lex quam Moses proposuit and whatever was proposed by God or the lawful Magistrate under him and chirotonized or voted by the people was Law in Israel and no other Nay and the people had not only power to reject any Law that was thus proposed but to repeal any Law that was thus Enacted for if God intending popular Government should have ordained it otherwise he must have contradicted himself wherefore he plainly acknowledgeth unto them this power where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they rejected him whom they had formerly chirotonized or chosen King that he should not reign over them and elected Saul This if God had withstood by his power he must have introduced that kind of Monarchy which he had declared against wherefore he chose rather to abandon this sottish and ingrateful people unto the most inextricable yoke of deserved slavery telling them when he had warn'd them and they would not hear him that they should cry unto him and he would not hear them one tittle of whose words passed not unfulfill'd By this time I have shewn that all the Civil Magistrates in Israel were chosen by the Chirotonia of the People or to follow Josephus by the Chirotonia of God which is all one for the Chirotonia of the President of the Congregation as I have instanced in that of the Proedri of the Thesmothetae of the Consuls of the Tribunes and the Chirotonia of the Congregation is the same thing and of the Congregation of Israel God except onely at the voting of a King was President To come then from the Civil Magistrates unto the Priests and Levites these were chosen in two wayes either by the lot or by the Chirotonia The office and dignity of the High Priest being the greatest in Israel and by the institution to be hereditory caused great Disputes in the Election to this Moses by the command of God had designed Aaron his Brother which designation the command of God being at first either not so obvious as that relation or the ambition of others so blind that they could not or would not see it caused great combustion First through the conspiracy of Korah Dathan and Abiram and next by the murmuring of the Princes of the Tribes all Emulous of this honour Korah being not onely a great man but of the Tribe of Levi could not see why he was not as worthy of the Priesthood consideration had of his Tribe as Aaron and if any other Tribe might pretend to it Dathan and Abiram being descended from Reuben were not only of the Elder House but troubled to see a younger preferr'd before them Wherefore these having gained unto their party three hundred of the most powerful men of the Congregation accused Moses of affecting Tyranny and doing those things which threatned the liberty of the Common-wealth as under pretense of Divination to blind the eyes of the people preferring his Brother unto the Priesthood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the suffrage of the Congregation of which charge Moses acquitting himself in the Congregation tells the people that Aaron was chosen both by God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by their suffrages which Korah being upon this occasion miraculously destroy'd were thereupon once more given by the people Nevertheless the Princes of the Tribes continuing still discontented and full of murmur God decided the controversie by a second miracle the budding of Aarons rod and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being thrice confirmed by the Chirotonia of God he was confirmed in that honour Now that the Chirotonia of God in this place of Iosephus signifies the Chirotonia of the people is plain by that in Scripture where they made Solomon King and Zadock to be Priest After the captivity as in other things so in this power the Sanhedrin came as I conceive to over-reach the people Joshua the Son of Josedech being thus elected High Priest by the Sanhedrim and this honour thenceforth as appears by Maymonides being at the disposing of this Court Nor could any inferior Priest serve at the Altar except he had acquired that right by the lot as is not only delivered by the same Author and by Josephus but in Scripture Now the lot as was shewn giving no prerogative either unto any person or party is as popular an institution as the Chirotonia So in election of Priests the Orders of Israel differed

Christ intended his Doctrine should be preached unto all Nations so he intended his Discipline should be such as might sute with any Government as indeed if the choice of any of these three be lawful it doth exactly is I hope performed For where the Government is popular it is the same with the first where it is Aristocratical or Monarchical it agrees with the last and where it is mixed it is between both and responsible unto the second Of these three in the further exercise of their natural and intended complyance with humane prudence it may be convenient to give some fuller Exemplification That any other Ordination than that of the first kinde for the original Authority or practise of it whether in the Common-wealth of Israel or in the Church of Christ and indeed for the prerogative of the same in nature should have been introduced by the Apostles where it might much less where the nature of the civil Policy would admit of no other is neither propable by Scripture nor Reason whence it is that in the Cities of Lyeaonia and Pisidia the Government of these being then Popular we do not find any mention at all of the Chirothesia the Apostles in these places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chirotonizing Elders in every Congregation To evade this place our Adversaries turn tails to the things and make their whole flight at the words In taking one of them into the disputation I shall take in all for they run all upon the same quotations or with little addition That the word Chirotonizing saith Doctor Hamond in this place signifies no more than Ordaining by the Imposition of Hands is not so generally acknowledged by late Writers but that it may be useful to give some few Testimonies out of those Wtiters which were nearest the times of the Scripture Thus Philo Judaeus of Joseph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was ordained Governour of all Aegypt under the King So again of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was constituted their Ruler So of Aarons sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God constituted them Priests Alexander son of Antiochus Epiphanes writes to Jonathan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we in the regal stile constitute thee High Priest Lucian saies of Hephestion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Alexander made him a God when he was dead Appian which is added out of Grotius whence most of the rest is taken to signifie Election of Magistrates made by the Romane Emperors uses no other word and later Writers speak of some that were chirotonized Emperors by their Fathers For the use of the word among Christian Writers take one place in the Author of the Constitutions for many Clement after the death of Linus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was ordained Bishop of Rome by Peter But what need any more Christs Disciples are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 designed or fore-constituted by God the witnesses of his Resurrection by al which that of Paul Barnabas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but constituting or creating Elders in every Church Wherefore they that have looked so far back to the Original as to think it necessary to render the word to create by suffrages are sure guilty of very impertinent nicety I promise you had this been against one of our Doctors it might have been a rude charge but it is but against Erasmus Beza Diodati and such as took upon them to translate the Switz French Italian Belgicke and till the Episcopal correction the English Bibles And what apparent cause is there of such confidence What necessity is there even in the places alleadged why the word Chirotonia should be understood in the sense imposed The People of Aegypt till having sold their Lands they came to loose their Popular ballance were not servants unto Pharaoh wherefore when Joseph was made Governour over all Aegypt they were sree now that a King should make a Governour of a free People without their consent or some advice as we say of his Parliament is altogether impropable the rather because a Protector in the absence or minority of the King hath been no otherwise made in England nor pretendeth the present Protector unto any other title than the like Chirotonia But that Moses is said by the same Author who affirmed that he introduced the Chirotonia in Israel to have been Chirotonized Ruler of the People can in my judgement be no otherwise than originally and literally taken seeing God himself was no otherwise made King in Israel than by the suffrage of the People That the like must be understood of the Sons of Aaron hath been already shewn The Doctor is the first hath told me that the plural number for the royal stile is so ancient as Epiphanes Sure I am it was not deriv'd from his Macedonian Predecessors for in the Letters to the Athenians and the Thebans recited by Demosthenes Philip of Macedon writes in the singular number But the Letter of Epiphanes to Jonathan must it seems import that he at single hand though the words carry double had Chirotonized an High Priest of the Jews Who can help it Some Princes have not onely given out that their Priests have been chirotonized when they were not but that themselves have been Chirotonized when there was no such matter When a Prince saies that he was Chirotonized or Elected by the People to talk of Rhetorique is to have none Divines in this case commonly understand it to be proper or literally meant for to impose a new sense is to spoil the word and spoil the word spoil the Prince Lucian is a droll and intends a jest but not so good an one as that he of all other should come nearest to help up with an Heirarchy For the Chirotonia or Election of the Roman Magistrates by the suffrage of the People or of the Army every man knows that it is literal Suidas himself interpreting the word by this very example where he affirms it to signifie Election or Ratification by the many The quotation out of the Constitutions with those of Bishop Bilson and others out of the Greek Fathers and out of Councils do not onely imply the word Chirotonia but the thing while they all relate unto that kind of Ordination which being in those Churches yet administred as at the Ordination of Stephen was not conferred without the consent of the People But it is above all that labouring to prove the Chirotonia and the Chirothesia to be the same thing they should rely most upon the place where the Apostles are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have been fore-chirotonized by God as if it were clear in this that God ordained the Apostles by the laying on of Hands for so it must be understood or it makes no more for them than for us Or if they mean it onely to shew that the word Chirotonia or suffrage is used for some Ordination that cannot be taken in our sense so the word Chirothesia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or laying on