Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A81179
|
Petrus Cunæus of the common-wealth of the Hebrews. Translated by C.B.
|
Cunaeus, Petrus.
|
1653
(1653)
|
Wing C7584; Thomason E1311_2; ESTC R209172
|
48,319
|
213
|
These men weary of the present study alterations and stay no longer than they needs must in an unpleasing condition Time was when at Rome the principall men drawing all unto themselves insomuch that one Citizen possessed Land enough for three hundred were confined by Stolo's Law to five hundred Acres a Man But that good order by fraud was quickly broken Stolo himself was the first to violate his own Sanction and was found guilty for holding a thousand Acres making use of his Sons name whom to that end he had emancipated And after by other arts many others eluded the sentence of the Law themselves possessing what was purchased by their Agents This abuse being perceiv'd by the wise Lelius friend to Scipio Africanus he endeavour'd to reinforce the Law but overborn by the adverse faction to prevent contention and discord he desisted So the way was open for licence and possessions were enlarged out of all measure till at last all Italy and the next provinces fell into a few Hands as their proper patrimony whereof it were very easy to allege testimonies but here is needless We touched also another reason of the Agrarian Law namely that Moses would not have the people languish and lose their vertue by want of exercise The most eminent of all their Ancestors having led a pastorall life and been good Husbands in the Field their posterity could not be better secured from the vices and incommodities that follow idleness than by being obliged to the same employments which are not only the means of getting riches but were used by the best Men even from the beginning of the World Indeed those Country employments would soon have been deserted had the Law permitted every one to purchase as much as he would and lay Field to Field Whereby it comes to pass that the Lords of so much Land disdain to perform those honest labours with their own Hands but commit the business of Husbandry to others such as are for the most part strangers hired or servants bought with money The inferiour people having no Heart to bestow their labour on Land that is not their own get out of the Fields into the Cities and their immure themselves and are corrupted with an idle kind of life supported by some soft and illiberall Art Verily after that the Roman Senators and those but few engrossed to themselves the Fields which formerly belong'd to many not the Citizens alone but all free men neglected and forgot the art of tillage The Country that had once seen such brave and gallant men as Curius Fabricius Cato was now fild with the noise of chained labourers and bondmen The magnanimous of-spring of Romulus as Varro complains did no longer exercise themselves in the Corn-Fields and Vineyards but in the Circ and Theater For they had now thrown away the Hook and Plow who of old saith he had so divided the year that every ninth day only they visited the City all the other dayes they attended their Country-affairs Thus did they decline from their Ancestors ways which while they observed they teaped a double benefit their Fields did abound with fruits and their minds with virtue For prevention of the many publick evils that arise from the fore-mentioned neglect Moses a Man excellent both in divine and humane wisdom providently decreed the privileges of Redemption and established the Law of Jubily A Law that had not the least shadow of injustice nor conteined any incommodity at all to the buyers of Land for in the sale an eye was ever cast upon the Jubily with respect unto the nearness or distance of it the price did either rise or fal This is that Lev. 25.14 c. which is at large set down in Leviticus in these words If thou sell ought unto thy Neighbour or buyest ought of thy Neighbours Hand ye shall not oppress or circumvent one another According to the number of years after the Jubily thou shalt buy of thy Neighbour and according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it for according to the number of the years shall he sell unto thee Ye shall not therefore oppress or deceive one another Now if the Seller desired to redeem his Lands before the Jubily it was also with great equity ordained that he should render back the price only retaining so much of the money as the buyer had receiv'd in profits By this means Restitution of Lands was made without any damage at all to either party and Agriculture their old honest employment kept up in esteem and practice amongst all the people What the nature and condition of that people was to whom Moses gave his Ordinances cannot be doubted for among so many Laws which he made as a great number concern Justice and Religion so the rest which pertain to their estates and matter of profit run all upon rules of Husbanry How carefully are the people taught when to give rest to their Land and to intermit their seeding what they must observe at Harvest and Vintage What years it was allowed to gather fruit of the Vine Farther with what severity are they forbidden to sow mingled seed in the same ground to mix divers kinds of Animals in generation or put them together under one Yoke The rest touching the breed of Cattle First Fruits and Tenths are almost infinite They are handled at full in the Talmud where they take up the sixt part of the whole or more Maimonides hath comprehended all in his Book that he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein are admirable secrets CHAP. IV. In what streight every seventh year brought the Jews The benefit granted to this Nation by Alexander the Great for a certain prophecy The Jews had little commerce with other people The Grecians ignorant of their affairs Aristotles opinion of the Jews Who are the best Common-wealths men Of Artificers SUch were the Laws given to the Hebrews all whose wealth lay in the Fields According to the encrease whereof they were in penury or abundance Hence it was that as oft as forein Kings imposed tribute on them every seventh year brought them into so great a streight that they were hardly able to raise the sum For their Law would not permit them to till the ground that year and to gather in the fruits thereof which yeelded all their money Alexander of Macedonia having learned at Jerusalem out of Daniels Book that a Grecian should overthrow the Persian Empire glad with the prophecy bad the Jews ask of him some royall favour They answered no greater benefit could be done them than the remission of the seventh years tribute It was granted The Samaritans when they said much for themselves to obtein the same indulgence were not heard But of all that can be said in this kind nothing is more luculent than that which
consider that which is not the least of all the eternall stability of Moses Laws whereto to adde where from to take ought away was a most high offence So that neither old Laws were abolished nor new brought in but the observation of the first was exacted of all with rigour even in the declination of that Common-wealth Which was not so in other Common wealths being both founded and overthrown by Law-making for as many of the Rulers affecting to bring in somewhat of their own have changed things before well ordered so many good Orders by desuetude more which is worse abolished by contempt gave security to vices This diversity we could never wonder at seeing the Laws of other Nations Inventions of humane Wit are enforced only by penalties that by time or through the sloath of Governours lose their terrour but the Jewish Ordinances being the Decrees of the eternall God not weakned either by continuance of time or softness of the Judges they remain still the same and when the Ax and Scourge are no longer feared Mens minds are nevertheless kept in awe by Religion CHAP. II. The prudence of the Lawgiver concerning Assignation of Lands That they ought not to have been the first Seizer's The Agrarian Law and its inestimable Utility The Redemption of lands The benefit of the Jubily and Solemnity thereof FLavius Josephus often cites Hecataeus of Abdera an Author of great Faith and integrity one that waited upon Alexander the great in his Wars Many Countries he viewed abounding with all kind of fruits but admired none so much as Palestine Of this he wrote a singular Book out of which Iosephus recites many things in favour of the Jews To our purpose he saith the Jews inhabited a very good Country and most fruitful conteining three hundred thousand Acres a seat whereinto as most fit for them the divine goodness transplanted the Hebrews out of Egypt For as formerly they had spent their lives in tillage of the ground and feeding of Cattel so here in a bounteous soil they might still inrich themselves and prosper by the same profession So soon as the holy people had by force of Arms possessed themselves of the promised Land the chief Captain Iosua presently put in execution the commands of Moses The whole Country he divided into twelve portions and gave it to be inhabited by the twelve Tribes Then he numbred the families in every Tribe and according to the number of persons gave to every family a certain proportion of Lands and prescrib'd their bounds By this means all were equally provided for which is the prime care of good Governours in every Common-wealth a care that the most Politick Nations the Greeks and Romans in after-times were not unmindfull of when they carried forth their Colonies Had every one made that his own upon which he first set his foot quarels and commotions among the people must needs have followed for so it usually comes to pass whilst every one seeks to get and appropriate to himself what was common Peace is lost Moreover Moses as it became a wise Man not only to order things at present but for the future ages too brought in a certain Law providing that the wealth of some might not tend to the oppression of the rest nor the people change their course and turn their minds from their innocent labours to any new and strange employment This was the Agrarian Law a Law whereby all possesors of Land were kept from transferring the full right and dominion of it unto any other person by sale or other contract whatsoever For both they that on constraint of poverty had sold their Land had a right granted them to redeem it at any time and they that did not redeem it receiv'd it freely again by this Law at the solemn feast of Jubily There is a great writer Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon he that in his divine work entitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath happily collected all the Talmudicall doctrine except the trifles an Author above our highest commendation the only Man of that Nation who had the good fortune to understand what it is to write seriously and to the purpose We shall often make use of his Authority and now it will help us out in the matter we have in Hand He is much upon the benefit of the Jubily consisting saith he herein that all Lands returned to their antient Lords although they had passed through the Hands of a hundred buyers Neither are excepted by this most learned writer the Lands which came to any one by donation These could no more than other be retained from the first possessor It is a point of the Talmudicall Law and I make no question but 't is very right The same Rabbin from the same fountain declares that Redemption was permitted only to such as were recovered from their poverry and enabled by some gain or commodity that had befallen them The reason 's plain for to borrow money or to sell one piece of Land to redeem another was to frustrate the Law that appointed the unable and their Heirs to wait for the relief of Jubily Yet might the Kinsmen of the necessitous in the mean time buy off for their money what the poor owner without borrowing could not These Jubily-solemnities returned every fiftieth year beginning at the seaventh month Tisri No other time brought with it so much publick joy for besides the repossession of Lands that had been alienated liberty was given unto all servants Yet was nothing done before the tenth of that month a holy Fast and day of Expiation The nine preceding dayes were all spent in publick mirth and feasting like the Roman Saturnalia Hear how Maimonides relates it From the beginning of the year to the day of Expiations neither were the servants dismist nor did they serve their Masters What then The servants did eat and drink and make merry and every one of them set a Crown upon his Head After when the day of Expiations was come the Senators of the Sanhedrin sounded with their trumpets and forthwith the servants went away free and the old Lords took a repossession of their Lands CHAP. III. Again of the Agrarian Law The danger of two ample possessions The Roman Common-wealth Stolo 's Law How the Hebrews maintained themselves The Legislators providence Divine Laws of Agriculture and Pasturage BUt we have more to say of the utility intended by Moses in the Agrarian Law Certainly it was of great concernment to the Common-wealth as before we noted that the avarice of a few should not invade the possessions distributed with so fair equality It is not unusuall with rich men to thrust the poor out of his inheritance and deprive him of necessaries whilst they enlarge their own estate superfluously This produceth often a change of Government For the truth is That Common-wealth is full of enemies wherein the people many of them having lost their antient possessions with restless desires aspire to a better fortune