among all the Descendants of Abraham as the Ishmaelites the Medianites and the Idumeans As to the uncircumcised who worshipped the true God they suffer'd them to live in the Holy Land with this Proviso that they observ'd the Law of Nature and Abstinence from Blood But if they Circumcised themselves they were reputed the Children of Abraham and consequently obliged to keep all the Law of Moses These last the Rabies called the Proselytes of Righteousness And the uncircumcised Faithful they call'd the Proselytes of Habitation whom they otherwise termed Noachidians as being only obliged by the Precepts which God deliver'd to Noah at his coming out of the Ark. CAP. XIII Marriages Women AFter that way the Israelites liv'd Marriage was no great trouble to 'em it was rather an ease according to it's Institution Laborious were the Women as well as the men and work't within Doors while their Husbands were imployed in the Field The Women dress'd the meat and served it up to the Table which is seen in Homer and several parts of Scripture When Samuel represented the manners of Kings to the people The Kings said he will take your daughters and make them Confectionaries Cooks and Bakers The Pretext which Amnon the son of David us'd to get his Sister Tamor to his House when he would viciate her was to take broths from her hands which she indeed had prepared her self tho she was the Daughter of a King It was the Women that made cloaths And their ordinary occupation was to weave Stuffs as they work now adays in Linnen and Tapestry In Homer we see the Examples of Penelope Calypso Circe we see the same in Theocritus Terence and in all Authors And what seems to me the more remarkable is that this Custome did still continue at Rome among the greatest Ladies in a very corrupt age Augustus usually wearing Cloaths made by his Sister and his Daughters If we would have proofs hereof out of Scripture 't is said the Mother of Samuel made him a little coat which she brought him on solemn days and we see the virtuous wife of Solomon industriously aplying her Linnen and woollen a turning the wheel and spinning and giving two Suits of Cloaths to all her Domesticks All these works are done privately in the house and do not require any great strength of body Wherefore the Ancients did not fancy them worthy to employ men and very kindly left 'em to women naturally more neat more sedentary and more addicted to Little businesses They lived apart from the men and much retired principally the Widows Judith remained thus shut up with her Women in an high apartment like the Penelope of Homer The Marriages of the Israelites were not accompanied with any Ceremony of Religion that I know of unless it were the Prayers of the Father of the Family and of the assistance for drawing the blessing of God upon the Bride We have examples hereof in the marriages of Rebecca with Isaac of Ruth with Boaz of Sarah with Tobias I do not see they offer'd Sacrifices upon this occasion or went to the Temple or sent for Priests All passed amidst their Friends or Relations nor was it other than a civil contract As for the Circumcision of Children that was in truth an Act of Religion and very necessary when any one was to enter into the allyance of Abraham But it was likewise performed within doors by Relations without the ministry of any publick person In all these Ceremonies take care we must not to let our selves be deceiv'd by modern Pictures as I have already said of Apparel Far from fearing the Multitude of Children the Israelites did hugely desire it Besides their natural Inclination the Law gives great motives to it They knew that God in creating the World and in repairing it after the Deluge had said to mankind Encrease and Multiply and fill the earth They knew that to Abraham he had Promised an innumerable posterity and finally that amidst them was to be born the SAVIOUR of the World And by those sordid Interests they were not press'd which in this age make people look upon the blessing of Marriage as a great misfortune Their frugal way of living was the occasion that as long as their Children were little they cost 'em little to feed and yet less to cloath for in hot Countries they often let 'em go naked And when they were bigger they helped them in their Labour and spared them Slaves and hired Servants Wherefore they had few slaves in proportion Ziba the Servant of Saul cultivated the Patrimony of Mephibosheth with his Fifteen Sons and twenty slaves They were not in pain to provide for their Children since there was no Fortune to be made amongst them and all their ambition was to leave to their Sons the Inheritance they had received from their Progenitors better cultivated if possible and with some Herds more And their Daughters as they did not succeed in defect of Males were accordingly marryed rather for allyance than for estate Thus it was a Conveniency to have many Children as it was an honour too They deem'd that man happy who saw himself Father of a large Family and environed with a great number of Children and Grand-children always ready to receive his Instructions and to execute his orders and they did not fear his name would be Forgotten as long as his Posterity subsisted Thus when the Scripture sets down the number of Children 't is usually for to commend the Fathers as those two Judges of Israel of whom one had thirty sons the other forty with thirty Grand-sons as David of whom it reckons nineteen sons bating those by Concubines as Rehoboham who had twenty eight sons and sixty Daughters and Abijah who had two and twenty Sons and sixteen Daughters Thus did the Poets crack of the fifty Children of Priam for the Greeks had â—ecundity in no less esteem As Virginity was not yet known for a virtue in this State they only considered the mischief of Barrenness and they thought those maids unhappy who dyed without being marryed Electra complains expresly hereof in Sophocles and it was the subject of the Regrets of Jephtha's Daughter Wherefore it was a shame for a marry'd woman to be barren as we see in the mother of Samuel and many others and this misfortune they looked upon as a curse of God This care of Posterity and preserving the memory of the Dead was the foundation of that Law which commands the Brother to marry his Brother's widow in case he dyed without Children This right was established in the time of the Patriarchs as appears by the History of Thamar and they look'd upon it as a pious duty that the name of the deceased might not fall into oblivion So the Children were attributed to him by a kind of adoption From thence come the two Genealogies of JESUS CHRIST according to St. Matthew and
St. Luke For thus it was that Joseph had two Fathers the one by Birth and the other by this Adoption of the Law Besides this same marriage with a Sister-in-law was not contrary to the first natural right which allowed even the marrying one's own Sister before God had forbidden it The desire it was of having a great number of Children which moved the Israelites to take several wives at a time altho they were reserv'd enough as to the use of marriage From it they abstained not only during the big-bellies and the other unfitness of their wives but during all the time they were nurses that is to say most commonly during three years And we do not see they could dispence themselves from nursing their own Children Wherefore we ought not to think it strange that God tolerated Poligamy which had been introduc'd before the Deluge tho it was contrary to the first institution of marriage For when it was instituted in the Terrestrial Paradice there was not yet any Concupiscence And since that by the new law it was raised to the dignity of a Sacrament 't is accompany'd with very Strong graces but in the interval when grace was much less and that sin reigned it was the goodness of God to use a greater Indulgence Wherefore 't is with Polygamy as with divorce of which JESUS CHRIST told the Jews that in them it was suffer'd for the hardness of their hearts Besides their Wives they were allow'd to have Concubines who usually were Slaves Above them the Legitimate wives had nothing more than the dignity which rendred their Children heirs So that the name of Concubinage did not signify Incontinency as among us it was only a less solemn marriage Furthermore this Liberty was so far from making Wed-lock more commodious that the Yoke was the more heavy An husband could not so equally share his heart amidst several wives as to give 'em all contentment He was fain to govern them with an absolute authority as the Levantins do still at this day In marriage there was no longer an equality of Friendship and of Society It was yet more difficult that Rivals could agree among themselves There must needs have been continual Divisions Cabals and Domestick Wars All the Children of one woman had as many Step-mothers as the Father had other wives Each one espoused his mother's Interests and look'd upon the Children of other Women as Strangers or enemies Hence comes that manner of Speaking so frequent in Scripture He is my Brother and the son of my Mother We see examples of these divisions in the Family of David and still much worse in that of Herod As to the Liberty of Parting by Divorce it had likewise ill consequences They more lightly engaged and venturd ' emselves the less for one another and the multiplicity of marriages might rise to such an excess as to become a Palliated Debauch 'T is well known what a disturbance it occasion'd at Rome after the fall of the common-wealth whereas that as long as good manners were kept up there no Divorce was seen untill the year 523 Notwithstanding the Laws permitted it The Children also suffer'd very much by it they remained Orphans in their Parents life-time And hard it was for 'em to prevent the becoming odious to one of the two and the not siding with the one or other CAP. XIV Education of Children Exercises Studies THe Education of Children seems to have been much the same among the Israelites as among the Egyptians and the most ancient Greeks They formed their bodies by Labour and Exercises and their minds by Learning and Musick A great value they had for strength of Body and 't is the most usual commendation that the Scripture gives to warlike men as to David's brave and stout Souldiers Foot-races must have been one of their principal exercises since they knew people by seeing them run afar off as those who brought the news of Absolom's defeat Most surely they must have seen them run often 'T is also said of Asahal Joab's Brother that he ran like a wild Roe The Prophet Zachariah speaks of an heavy stone which St. Jerome takes for one of those Stones that served to try the Strength of men by essaying who should raise it highest So that we may believe they had too that kind of exercise The example of Jonathan shews they used archery But bodily exercises they never made an important Occupation as the Grecians who reduc'd it to an art which they term'd Gymnastick because they exercised themselves all naked and they sought the utmost perfection in it At great charges they built places very spacious and magnificent for exercises They had masters and under them a great number of men for the teaching young People In short there were among them Athletae by profession taking up all their life-time with those exercises To fall into those curiosities the Hebrews were too serious And it was an odious novelty when under the most renown'd Antiochus they built a Gymnasium after the Grecian mode in Jerusalem They contented themselves with the Labour of a Country-life and with some military exercises as did likewise the Romans Neither had they need of great Study to form their wits if by Study we understand the knowledge of Sundry Languages and the reading of many Books as we commonly understand it Their Mother-tongue was sufficient for them and that was the Hebrew such as we see it in the Scripture Forreign Histories and Poems were of no use to 'em since these were full of the names of the False Gods which they were not so much as to utter So that all their Grammar consisted as that of the ancient Greeks in speaking their own tongue well in reading and writing correctly with this difference it did not appear that they had reduced it into Art or learnt it by Rules Their Letters were those we now call Samaritan for that the Samaritans have preserved them And as they are neither smooth nor easy to form we may question whether the art of writing was very common among the Israelites so much the more in that the Learned are called in Scripture Sopherim i.e. Scribes according to the most ancient Translations And indeed a people given to Husbandry have less need of writing than Merchants and men of business But 't is credible the most part knew how to read since to all it was recommended to learn the Law of God and to meditate on it day and night and this Study was their sole Occupation on the Sabbath-day That book was sufficient to instruct them perfectly In it they saw the History of the World till their establishment in the Land of Promise the Origine of all nations that were known to 'em and more peculiarly of those whom they had most occasion to know the Descendants of Lot Abraham Ishmael and Esau In it they saw all their Religion the Tenets
I believe indeed there were amongst them who only as it were mimicked Mourning did all these things without being much concern'd But at least those that were really so might freely satisfy themselves Now in general both the Israelites and all the Ancients were more natural than we are in these matters and constrained themselves much less as to the exteriour Demonstrations of their passions They Sang they Danc'd on occasions of Joy On those of grief they wept they groaned aloud When they were in fear they ingenuously confest they were so When they were in choler they vented it in reproaches Homer and the Tragick Poets afford us examples hereof on all occasions Philosophy and Christianity have since very much corrected that outside in all those who have had Education and Politeness They are exercised from their Youths to speak like Heroes or like Saints But the most part are never the better at the Bottom but only dissemble their Passions without striving against them Funerals will suit well with Mourning All the Ancients took a particular care of them and lookt upon it as a great Misfortune when the Bodies of Persons who had been near and dear to them remain'd expos'd to be torn and devour'd by Beasts or Birds or to be corrupted openly and infect the Living Whereas the Greeks burnâ— the corps to keep the ashes the Hebrews interred the common People and embalmed the most considerable Personages to put them into Sepulchers They embalmed much after the same fashion as the Egyptians surrounding the corps with a great quantity of drying drugs Then put them into Tombs which were little Caves or Closets cut out in Rocks whereof each had a Table of the same Stone on which they laid the Body Several of those Sepulchers still remain whereof we may see descriptions in the Relations of Travellers Altho Funerals were a pious Duty yet they were not attended with any Ceremony of Religion On the contrary it was a proâ—ane action which rendred all those unclean who had any share therein untill they were purify'd Which proceeds from that Dead Bodies are either in a state of Corruption or in a Disposition approaching thereto Wherefore so far were they from having occasion for Priests at their Funerals that thy were forbidden to assist at them were it not at those of their near Kinsfolk When Josias fell to abolishing Idolatry he caus'd the Bones of the False Priests to be burnt upon the Altars to the intent those Altars might be had in the greater Detestation CAP. XVIII Religion THis is what concerns the Private life of the Israelites Let us now proceed to their Religion and their State Politick As to Religion I shall not enlarge much in explaining their Belief We ought to know it since 't is comprehended in ours I shall only shew that certain truths were clearly reveal'd to them while others were still obscure tho they were already revealed What they knew was That there was but one God who Created Heaven and Earth that he governs all things by his Providence that we ought to put no trust save in him nor hope for any good but from him that he sees all things even the very secrets of our hearts that he moves our wills within and turns them which way he pleases that all men are born in sin and naturally prone to evil that notwithstanding they may do well with the help of God that they are free and have the choice to do good or evil that God is very just and punishes or rewards according to merit that he is merciful and pardons those who have a sincere regret for their sins past that he judges all the actions of men after Death From whence it follows that the Soul is immortal and that there is another Life They knew however that God out of his meer goodness had chosen them amongst all men to be his faithful People that among them of the Tribe of Judah and of the race of David was a SAVIOUR to be born who should deliver them from all their Sufferings and draw all Nations to the knowledge of the true God This is what they distinctly knew and was the most ordinary Subject of their meditations and their prayers This is that high and most glorious Wisdom which distinguished them from all the Nations of the whole Earth For whereas among the rest of the World none there were but the wise men who knew any of these great Truths and that too very imperfectly and with a great Diversity of Opinions All the Israelites were taught these Doctrines even the very Women and Slaves All had the same Sentiments The Truths which were taught them more obscurely were that in God there are three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost that the Saviour whom they expected should be God and the Son of God that he should be both God and man that God gave to men his grace and necessary help for the accomplishing his Law only by that Saviour and in view of his merits that he should suffer death to expiate the Sins of Mankind That his Kingdom should be wholly Spiritual that all men should rise again that in the other life shall be the true Recompence of the good and Punishment of the Wicked All this is taught in the Scriptures of the Old Testament and in the Apocrypha but not so clearly as that all the People knew it Nor indeed were men yet capable of receiving such elevated truths But according to my Design I must only explain what their external practises of Religion had most different from our Principles and Manners They had but one Temple and one Altar where it was permitted them to offer Sacrifices to God which was a sensible mark of God's Unity And for the representing likewise his Sovereign Majesty that Building was the most magnificent in all that Country The Temple within the Veil was on the in-side adorned with Sculptures and all overlaid with Plates of Gold True it was not very large But the Courts Galleries and diverse Apartments which belong'd to it for the Lodging of Priests and Levites for the keeping Treasures and sacred Vessels the Magazines of Oblations the Kitchins the Rooms to eat in and the rest all this together made a great mass of buildings which being form'd in symmetry and rare Architecture gave a mighty Idea of that great King who was served in that sacred Palace And to render it's Sanctity the more sensilbe none but those who were pure were allowed to go upon the mount of the Temple The Women had their place apart The Gentiles were only in the outward Court The Israelites were plac'd in one more advanced That where the Altar was was only for the Priests They did not go into the
Which must be understood of Lawful and necessary Oaths Their vows did ordinarily consist in offering to God some part of their estates whether to serve for Sacrifices or to be kept in reserve Hence came those vast treasures in the Temple of Solomon which besides the offerings of David contain'd those of Solomon Saul Abner and Joab For those oblations principally consisted of Spoils taken from their enemies The like did the Pagans in the Temples of their Gods whether after Victories or on other occasions Whereof I will give no other example than the Temple of Delphos and the riches which Craesus sent thither to make the Oracle favour him The most considerable Vow was that of the Nazarites which for a time obliged it's votaries neither to drink Wine nor any thing that inebriates nor to cut their hair and to keep themselves very charily from all Legal Impurities particularly from the approach of Dead Bodies The rule of the Recabites seems to have had it's foundation from such kind of Vows The Author of that Rule was Jonadab the Son of Rachab who lived in the time of Jehu King of Israel and of Elisha the Prophet He forbad his Children to drink Wine to build houses to sow or have Lands or Vineyards So that they dwelt in Tents in all probability employing themselves as the Levites did in breeding Cattle and in perfectly imitating the Pastoral life of the Patriarchs They were marryed and inviolably kept that Rule in their Family during at least an hundred years for we do not find what became of them after the Captivity CAP. XX. Prophets ANother kind of the Religious and much more considerable were the Propmets There was a great number of them in the time of Samuel witness that company which Saul met with who prophecy'd at the sound of Instruments being Transported with the Spirit of God and that other troop which prophecy'd in the presence of Samuel and which seems to have been of his Disciples But it does not appear there were ever so many as from the time of Elias and Elishah until the Captivity of Babylon They lived sequestred from the World distinguished by their apparel and their way of Life They dwelt upon Mountains as Elias and Elisha on Mount Carmel and in Galgal The rich woman who took Elisha into her house when he went to Stunam as I have said made a Chamber to be built and furnished for him where he liv'd so retired that he did not so much as speak with his Hostess but gave her to understand what he had to say by his Servant Gehazi and when that Woman desir'd him to raise her Son from the Dead Gehazi would have hindred her from touching the feet of the Prophet When Nahaman General of the armies of Syria came to him to be cured of his Leprosie he sent him his Orders without showing himself Two other Miracles of that Prophet shew that his Disciples lived in Society that of the Pottage of herbs when he took away it's bitterness and that of the Barly-loaves which he multiplyed wherein we may likewise see the Frugality of their diet There were even an Hundred Prophets who lived in that Community and Fellow-ship They workt with their own hands For finding themselves too much crowded in their Lodgings they went themselves and cut wood to build withal and they were so poor that one of them was fain to Borrow an Ax. The apparel of the Prophets was Sack-cloath the habit of Mourning to notify they did penance for the sins of all the People So in the Description of Elijah 't is said He was an hairy man and girt with a girdle of Leather about his Loyns So when God commands Isaiah to strip himself he orders him to loose his Sack-cloth from off his Loyns The two great Prophets mention'd in the Revelations appear'd cloathed in Sackcloth The Prophets at least some of them were marryed and that widow whose oyl Elisha multiplyed was the widow of a Prophet It seems also their Children followed the same Profession For the Prophets are often called the Sons of the Prophets which made Amos say I was no Prophet neither was I a Prophets Son but I was a Herdsman for to show he did not Prophecy by profession but by an extraordinary call For altho most commonly God made use of those who led a Prophetical Life to make his will known yet he did not impose upon himself a Law of not making Revelations to others In the mean while they only accounted those for Prophets who lead their kind of life From whence it comes that the Books of David Solomon and Daniel are not placed in the rank of Prophecies by reason the two former were Kings living in great delights and splendour and the Latter was a Potentate Living likewise at Court and amidst great People These were the men who after the Patriarchs preserved the purest Tradition of the true Religion They spent their time in meditating on the Law of God in praying to him several times day and night for themselves and others and exercised ' emselves in the Practice of all Virtues They instructed their Disciples discovered to them the meaning of the Law and explained the divine sence which concerned the State of the Church after the coming of the Messias either upon Earth or in Heaven couched under Allegories of sensible things and low in appearance They also instructed the people who came to them on Sabbath-days and other Feasts They chid them for their Sins and exhorted 'em to Repentance and often in the name of God foretold what should befall them This Liberty of speaking the harshest truths even to Kings made them odious and cost several of them their Lives However there were many Impostors who counterfeited the out-side of true Prophets wore Sack-cloth as well as they and spoke in the same Style saying of themselves likewise that they were inspired by God But they took care not to make any Predictions but such as were acceptable to the Prince and his People The false Gods had also their Prophets as the 850 whom Elijah caused to be put to death Of the same Leven were those Sooth-sayers among the Grecians whom they call'd Manties as Calchas and Tiresias in the Heroical Times Such were those who uttered Oracles or who spread them abroad and the Poets who pretended to be in-blown by the Gods For they did not say it in a Poetical sense but to have it really believ'd And indeed those false Prophets whether by the Operation of the Devil or by artifice entred into a fury and spoke in an extraordinary Style to emulate the sensible effects which the Spirit of God made in the true Prophets Now the temptation was great to the Israelites so weak in virtue to consult those Sooth-sayers and false Oracles and it was a Branch of that Idolatry whereto they were very subject