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
if they had any Lands or Vineyards or Houses they were forced to Mortgage or Paun them till the year of Jubilee Lastly in case of a still greater necessity which sometimes happened as it did in Nehemiahs days by reason of the Famine and the Kings Tribute notwithstanding the Tirshatha's allowance were not exacted then they sold themselves or else their Sons and their Daughters into bondage by virtue of that absolute power and Authority which they had over them the Men till the Seventh year and the Women till that of Jubilee the reasons of which difference have been already explained If you ask to what degree this Usury was exacted the Text of Nehemiah tells you expresly it was the Hundreth part of the Money and of the Corn the Wine and the Oyl Hebr. Meath hacheseph Vehadagan c. but the Seventy have Translated it to another sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense of which is that Nehemias not only exhorted the Creditors to restore the Lands and Vineyards and Houses which they had in Mortgage but also out of their own Pockets to furnish their necessitous Neighbours and Kindsmen for it was they who were the first Mortgagers in all these cases with whatsoever was necessary for their present support wherefore the Seventy instead of Meath read it Meeth with a very little alteration but I confess I prefer the Masorethical reading before it not only because the condition might seem too hard to be submitted to that they should restore the Principle and forgive the Use and furnish them de suo with large contributions for their support into the bargain but also because the Romans who as I have said as to the case of Usury received all their customs from the Jews did exact it in the same proportion in which Nehemiah affirms the Creditors among the Jews in his time to have done as shall be shown more largely by and by And to begin with Names before we pass to other particular circumstances of the matter in question there are two names in Latin by which the Principle and two by which the Usury of it was exprest The Principle was either caput or sors and the advantage redounding from it was either Faenus or Vsura all which are plainly and unquestionably Hebrew or at least Oriental Names Caput is manifestly the Hebrew Gabhouth by which any sort of Eminence or Hill or Top of any thing was aptly signified so that nothing can answer more exactly either in word or signification then the Hebrew does to the Latin and thence the Capitol was called not a Capite Toli as the Roman Etymologists who did not understand their own Language ignorantly tell us but it was as much as Gabhouth el or Gabhouth al more broadly according to the manner of the Chaldees whose a is as broad as the Dorique and does almost answer the pronunciation of o as much as to say the Hill of God or the Hill where God was anciently Worshiped as it was the custom all over the East from whence I make no question but the Romans were a Colony to Worship God in Hills and High places whence Ramah and Gibeon and Gilboah had their names as being such Eminences or High places as it seems set apart anciently for the Worship of God And such another account as this is to be given of several other of those famous seven Hills upon which the old Rome was afterwards built the Mons Palatinus is not à balandò as the Roman Grammarians would needs have it to signifie but it is from the Hebrew Phillel from whence with an Heemantique is the noun Tephillah which being rejected as not belonging to the root mons Palatinus is the Mountain of Prayer so also the Vatican Mountain is as much as har Hahatik the Old Mountain where the first Planters of the Colony seem to have Worshipped God by changing the hajin into an Aeolique Digamma which answers to the Latin v consonant and f of which I shall give more instances very suddenly for that it is not à vatibus according to the Latin Analogy is clear from this that the Syllable ti in vatibus is short but in vaticanus long according to that of Martial Et vaticanis condita musta cadis Though I deny not but vatis it self if it be not à fando as the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well be supposed to be from the Hebrew Hatik because the Seers and Prophets of Old time were generally old Men and from vatis is vaticinium that is Hatikinium an old Saying or an ancient Prophecy so that these things do naturally strengthen and confirm one another Again the esquiliae or the mons esquilinus had its name from the Thickets or Groves that grow upon it for that is the signification of Eshel in Hebrew whence was the Latin Asilum and as the name so the thing it self was derived from the Cities of Refuge among the Jews as well as the pomeria among the Latins which was nothing else but aliquid extra intra muros vacui at humano cultu soli for the Cities of the Levites and consequently those of Refuge were to have a Suburb of a thousand Cubits round about this was their pomaerium and at the farthest boundary of this the jus asylorum took its beginning and because where such shady Groves are used to be found there are usually Medows and Watercourses adjoyning therefore Eshel seems in differently to signifie all these and accordingly it is usually rendered by the Seventy by the general name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies properly any arable Land though neither the pomaeria of the Romans nor the Suburbs of the Levites were ever Plowed upon any occasion whatsoever and from hence Asilus in Latin is a certain flye or Gadbreeze troublesome to Cattel which breeds in such Meadowy or Woody places which the Latins call otherwise Tabanus and the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virgil Est lucos silari circà Ilicibusque virentem Plurimus Alburnum volitans cui nomen Asilo Romanum est aestrum Graii vertere vocantes Acer acerba sonans quo tota exterita sylvis Diffugiunt armenta fugit mugitibus aether Concussus sylvaeque sicci ripa Tanagri Lastly as from Eshel is the esquiliae and the mons Esquilinus and the asylum and asilus so from Ethel which is the same in Chalday that Eshel is in Hebrew is the Latin Italia by reason of its Fruitfulness and pleasant situation as one of part of it was called Campania and the Metropolis of that Province Capua from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so widely are they deceived who would have Italy derive its name from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a fabulous and foolish reason or rather for no reason at all but only the resemblance in sound But enough of this I could show the same of the rest of
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
Priesthood which consisted in sprinkling of the blood and making an atonement for the Souls either of themselves or others belonged only to the Priests properly and strictly so called this being the most sacred and essential Character of the Priesthood and therefore was not common to all the Levites who were dispersed through the whole Land and had in a greater latitude the charge of the holy things but was peculiar to the Sons of Aaron who had always their constant residence at Jerusalem and were bound to give their daily attendance upon the Altar so that the Priesthood of Jeroboam being not barely a Levitical but a more strict and sacrificial Priesthood such as was peculiar to the Sons of Aaron by the Law of Moses and the only places of Sacrifice set up by Jeroboam being the two Altars erected at Dan and Bethel it follows plainly from the nature of his Priesthood compared with the places where it could only be exercised that these two were the only places where his Priests resided An Eleventh consideration by which the distinction of the Mosaic Priesthood from that of Jeroboam will appear may be taken from the different solemnity of their respective consecration to the Priestly Office as it is described Levit. 8. and 2 Chron. 13. in the words of Abijah so often appealed to A Twelfth argument shall be taken from the difference of the Feasts which were observed by the one Priesthood and the other for Jeroboam to make the greater distinction and the wider breach between the two nations of Israel and Judah had altered the time of the solemn Feasts that the people might not be tempted to go up to Jerusalem and do sacrifice at the same solemn and stated times when those of Benjamin and Judah repaired thither 1 Kings 12. 32. And Jeroboam ordained a Feast in the Eighth Month on the fifteenth day of the Month like unto the Feast that is in Judah it was like the Feast in Judah but it was not in the same Month in which that Feast was kept for it follows v. 33. so he offered upon the Altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the Eighth Month even in the Month which he had devised of his own heart and ordained a Feast which had not been ordained before at that time unto the Children of Israel and he offered upon the Altar and burnt incense If you ask me what Feast in Judah that was which was resembled by this I Answer it was the Feast of the Passover and the reason I give of my opinion is this Epiphanius in his Haeresies mentions among the Samaritans a Sect called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sebuaei who had their name from sheba which signifies Seven because they observed the Passover in the Seventh Month that is in Tisri whereas by the Law of Moses it was to be observed in Abib or Nisan that is in the first Month and their name put into Greek is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have elsewhere observed against Joseph Scaliger Now Seven and Eight in these cases are the same as Grotius hath observed before me and therefore Josephus saith of the Passover somtimes that it was a Feast of Seven and sometimes of Eight Days continuance in the first account excluding that day in which the Passover was killed which did not belong to the Feast of the Passover properly so called and in the latter including it And so here if you take in the Terminus à quo which is the Month before Nisan then Tisri is the Eighth Month but if you consider the Months only inclusivè beginning at Nisan or Abib then it is the Seventh which is a plain way of reconciling this seeming disagreement betwixt Epiphanius and the writer of the Book of Kings And to shew still more plainly that both writers are to be understood of the same Feasts it is to be considered that the Samaritanes received their Religion from the Israelitish Priests which were sent among them to instruct them as appears by the Seventeenth Chapter of the Second Book of Kings where the story of Salmanesers deportation is related and these Priests were subjects of that Kingdom and Priests of that Order and Institution of which Jeroboam was the Founder so that I think there can be no doubt that the same Feast is understood by Epiphanius with that which is mentioned in the Book of Kings but Epiphanius his Feast is expresly said to have been the Passover therefore it follows that in the Book of Kings we are also to expound and interpret it of the same and as Epiphanius explains the sacred story so on the other hand the inspired Writer returns Epiphanius his kindness back again by giving authority and credit to his relation And if we consider that Epiphanius did not understand Hebrew which it is easie to prove that he did not and I think I have done it in some other papers the name it self does sufficiently vouch the credibility of the story since its signification is so well accommodated to the practice of the sect it self which he describes I do therefore disown and recant those reasons which I have given of the Samaritan practice as to this particular in the papers I have mentioned which being already finished from the press though not yet published cannot be recalled since it appears so plainly that it is wholly owing to the perverse institution of Jeroboam which was devised by him on set purpose to make the breach wider and the enmity more irreconcileable betwixt the two Kingdoms of Israel and Judah And it is further to be noted that he did not only institute a new Feast or which is the same thing an old Feast at a new time but also that he did sacrifice in his own person by that means invading the Priestly Office a sin so grievous in the sight of God that for this very thing for offering sacrifice of himself before Samuel came into the camp the Kingdom was rent from Saul and his posterity and Azariah or Vzziah only for burning Incense upon the Altar of Incense though in all other respects a very good and a very pious King was smitten with the Leprosie all his life-time after But in the thirteenth and last place it appears beyond all possibility all colour of contradiction that the Priests of Jeroboam were not dispersed in the Levitical Cities all over the Land of Israel as the Levites themselves were but only in Dan and Bethel from the express words of the text it self 1 Kings 12. 32. And he placed in Bethel the Priests of the high places which he had made and there being the same sacredness of Dan as of Bethel the same kind of Priests belonging to them both and the same sacrifices and ceremonies to be performed at both places there is no question but it is to be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them both that Dan as well
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
all Flesh therefore it was used by way of expiation God being graciously pleased to accept the life of the sacrifice instead of that of the Offender himself and to eat Bulls Flesh and drink the Blood of Goats when he might in Justice have exacted the life of men and might have enacted without any wrong to any of his attributes that he that had sinned should die in his own person and I appeal to all the World of what Credit or Authority his expositions or determinations ought to be who hath either never had or hath lost that Symbolical Key by which alone the Law of Moses can be opened and instead of that hath substituted another in its stead which is so flat a contradiction to the express words of Scripture and to the Laws it pretends to explain a Key that may break the Lock and it self but can never fairly open the door a Key so very unfit for what it pretends to do that a pick-lock is a much more hopeful way of letting us into the sacred Temple of Truth than all the bunch of Keys that make so learned and so loud a noise at the girdle of a Rabbi And is not this exceeding fine when the Law of God enjoyns expresly this Abstinence from Blood and sets down expresly the particular Reasons upon which this Abstinence was founded because it was an Atonement for the Soul and because it was the life of all flesh yet the Rabbins think much to pay Obedience to this Law for the Reason upon which it was made and upon which alone God expected an Obedience from them but they will needs do it for a Reason of their own because the Zabians a certain sort of people that no body knows where or who they are were used to feed upon the Sacrificial Blood therefore and therefore only they think it fit to abstain as much as to say They will indeed obey the Law of God but not out of a Principle of Obedience to him but out of a Spirit of opposition to their Neighbours if indeed these Zabii were so near Neighbours to the Jews as is pretended and are not rather to be looked for in Lucian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in Hevelius his learned Mapps of the Bedlam World in the Moon Or is not this exactly the Picture of our Sectarian Malecontents whose chief Scruple against Obedience is because good Subjects practise it and the Laws command it and the only way to make them good Christians or tolerable Subjects is to enjoyn Separation and Faction by a Law The second thing in which the Rabbins pretend to have received great light from the Customs of the Zabii for the clearer understanding of the Law of Moses concerns the Prohibition of seething of a Kid in the Milk of its Dam Exod. 23. 19. The first of the first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the House of the Lord thy God Thou shalt not seethe a Kid in his Mothers Milk and why not a Question very luckily ask'd just as Don Isaac Abrabanel comes by and very spruce he is in his Jom tob Attire a Plush Jacket and a Lace-band but neither Point de Venice nor Colbertine nor any other sort of Point whatsoever for the Rabbins hate Points though they made 'em themselves and therefore since it is our good Fortune to meet so luckily with this great Rabboni let us ask his opinion of the Reason of this Law Pray Sir you that are a Master in Israel you that were privy to all the Conserences of Moses upon Sinai you that writ down all the Traditions as they were delivered and took the Thunder and the Lightning of the Mount in short-hand Pardon me I beseech you mighty Sir if I the vilest of the Gojim the veriest Heretick of all the Minim the most contemptible and unworthy of all the Children of Cuth approach the awful and venerable presence of your Hagaon Raphshippe not the Ass of Issachar in a Lyon's skin but the very Lyon it self of the Tribe of Judah with an important Question fit only to be resolved by a Master of Assemblies this Gentleman and I and please your Lordship have laid a small Wager concerning the meaning of that place of Exodus c. 23. 19. Thou shalt not seethe a Kid in his Mothers milk and we were agreed to be determin'd by the next famous Rabbin that came by Abrab Hajother nirreh Bazeh shehajah mimahaseh hobdei habodath Elilim Je n' entende pas de mots Hebreux parlez vous Anglois Monseignieur A. Oues Monsieur je parle Anglois Francoise Escosse Espagniol Italien Allemagn Ebreu Grec Latin Arabien Ethiopien Sclavonien Grand Mogor Prestre Jean toutes les Langues B. En veritè Monseignieur vos estès le plus admirable de tout le monde Parlez donc un peu d' Anglois sil vous plaist Monseignieur Abrab Why then in short Sir thus for I am in great haste we are about returning to the Land of Promise and have a great deal of Business to dispatch and Lumber to remove It seems most probable that this Command True Notion p. 13. was occasioned from a custom among the idolatrous Heathens that at the time of their gathering in of Fruits they were wont to boil a Kid in the Dam's Milk thinking that by this means they were made acceptable to their Gods and did procure a Blessing by it And so having told his Tale away goes he in smoaking haste without staying to answer Scruples and Objections to pack up his Awls for Jerusalem and the Land of Promise where he designs to be no less than King and is full of Projects and Expeditions against the Turk and Tartar and Persian and I know not who besides But however since he is gone let him go and though it be scarce civil to object against a man behind his back yet since it is necessary for the discovery of the truth I hope we shall at least be excused and I desire it may be considered to the advantage of our Cause that his flying for the same is a plain Argument that he cannot answer what shall be objected And does it then seem most probable that this Command was occasioned from a Custom among the idolatrous Heathens but I pray why does it seem so have you this upon the credit of any good Historian then it does more than seem so and we have the same reason to believe it with any other matter of Fact whatsoever which our own Eyes did not see but if you have it not upon any credible Testimony then why does it seem so at all or may not any thing else that which is flatly contradictory to this seeming and incompatible with it seem so as well 'T is a fine Trade indeed when men shall first make Stories and then believe 'em themselves and say it seems so and then impose 'em upon the World as if they were really true But it seems to confirm this gloss he tells us of a
respective Species he is much more to be supposed to forbid the same in men themselves because the hairs of their heads are all numbred that is he takes a more solicitous care of the Welfare of man who is placed over the rest of the Creatures as God is over him and he is in some sense the God of this lower World though with respect to his Maker he is but the Priest of this magnificent Temple to thank and praise God for himself and for and in behalf of all those Creatures that are not able to do it for themselves he is Lord of the Earth but a Servant to Heaven he is like Eleazer who was a Servant to Abraham though he ruled over all his house and was the Master over all besides or like Melchisedech the King of Salem to whom though Abraham payed Tithes yet he himself was but the Priest of the most High God the God of Gods and Lord of Lords God over all blessed for ever Another thing to be considered upon occasion of these words Thou shalt not let thy Cattle gender with a divers Kind is this That Cattle very seldom or never do gender with any Kind but their own and those few Instances of this kind that are it is perhaps impossible to prevent unless we shall suppose the Jews obliged by this Precept to sit up day and night to watch by their Cattle for fear of any such Heterogeneous Conjunctions which I hope no man will be so extremely credulous and silly as to believe From whence it follows plainly that there are but two things that can be inferred from this negative Law the first is this There were then as well as now a certain sort of Creatures called Mules that were of a mixt or Hybridian kind engendred betwixt Horses and Asses in Conjunction together of which the first mention is made Gen. 36. 24. This was that Anah that found the Mules in the Wilderness as he fed the Asses of Zibeon his Father And these as being very fit for service and for burthen were industriously propagated by the Husbandry of those times but because they were of a mixt and Heterogeneous Nature because they proceeded from such unnatural Copulations as were so detestable in the sight of God because they could not propagate their Kind by Generation and because all such miscellaneous and Heterogeneous things had a Levitical or Symbolical Uncleanness they were forbidden by the Law of Moses Secondly when that is forbidden to Beasts which is so unnatural to them that they scarce ever use it and which so much as they do it is scarce humanly possible to prevent this is rather to be interpreted in such a Sense as if it were only a more modest and a more cleanly way of Prohibiting the same abominable Practises in men as much as to say Do not you by any means defile your selves though the Amorites and other Nations whom I have destroyed have done it with those detestable Instances of the most degenerate and filthy Lust which are a Disgrace and Scandal to the Beasts themselves But then in the last place when to this Prohibition Thou shalt not let thy Cattle gender with a divers Kind it is immediately added Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled Seed neither shall a Garment mingled of Linen and Wollen come upon thee It is very foolish and absurd to imagine that things in their own nature perfectly indifferent things that have no natural Pravity or Desilement in them should be equally forbidden with the greatest Villanies that Wickedness it self can either devise or perpetrate if it were not upon account of a Symbolical Uncleanness though they have none of their own and since there cannot be a more natural Symbol of Heterogeneous Copulations in Animals than the sowing of a field or a Vineyard with divers seeds or then the wearing a Garment of divers sorts of Stuff and since these are joyned in the Context with the other I think for my part that nothing can be more plain than that the same thing is over and over Symbolically forbidden and these Prohibitions being again inculcated Deut. 22. 9 10 11. and under so great a Sanction which is to be added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all those Laws That it may be well with thee and that thou mayst prolong thy days This is to show us how solicitous the Divine Goodness is for the Welfare of Mankind in which all these Prohibitions are manifestly founded and it ought to fill us with an equal solicitude to please so merciful and so gracious a Being who hath thus linked our Duty and our Interest together and expects no instance of Obedience from us but what is for our own Advantage as well as it is an Act of Homage and Allegiance to him But yet I do not so wholly confine my self to this Interpretation of the Mosaic Laws which have been last recited as to affirm they had no other for though that be certainly one meaning which I have assigned yet this hinders not but other very probable interpretations may be admitted as being equally connected in the Symbolical way to the types and shadows contained in the words of those Laws and therefore when the Jews were prohibited to Plow with an Ox and an Ass or wear Linsey Wolsey or to sow a Field or Vineyard with two sorts of Seeds another meaning of these Figurative Precepts may very well be supposed to be one of these two things or indeed both of them together First They were forbidden under these Types and Figures all manner of Hypocrisie and Dissimulation they were not to have an heart and an heart as the Hebrew Idiom excellently expresses it but their Actions and Pretences were to be of the same Grain and Colour with one another and their outward Appearances were to be but Copies of the original Realities within Secondly by the same Prohibitions they were aenigmatically forwarned against all kind of lukewarmness and indifference they were to be true Blew not parti-colour'd men or of a faint and Yellow dye not Phy'lemorts not halters between two parties and different opinions for syncerity and heartiness in every thing we do is so much for the benefit of the world and for the interest of mankind and so like to God who is the fountain of truth and is what he is to the utmost of himself that though the sacrifice of the wicked be an abomination to him yet open wickedness it self is an acceptable sacrifice in comparison of coldness and indifference and dissimulation Another Law which I shall mention to shew that the Zabians do not keep the Key of the Cabinet of Moses but that the true Method of finding out the meaning and design of all his Institutions is to search for it in the Symbolick or Hieroglyphick way shall be that of Levit. 19. 23 24 25. concerning the Fruits of Trees And when ye shall come into the Land and shall have Planted all manner of Trees for
observed at first but yet this equality could not be preserved in a place where Usury was so excessively practised as it was among the Romans among whom many of the publick disturbances and commotions that happened were occasioned by this sort of oppression as may be seen up and down in many places in Livy And how could it possibly be otherwise where Usury was publickly allowed and extortion privately practised where Lands when they were sold were sold out-right without any Year of Jubile in which they were to return to the old possessour again but that a difference as there will always be between one man and another in industry Frugality Ingenuity Craft Ambition and the like must very soon make the industry of one encroach upon the sloath the frugality of one upon the profuseness the ingenuity of one upon the dullness the Ambition of one upon the Indifference and the Knavery of one upon the honest and undesigning temper of another From whence it came to pass in the compass of not many years that the disproportion was so great that it began to be complained of as a grievance by the poorer Liv. l. 6. sort which occasioned that Law of Licinius Stolo ne quis plus quingenta agri Jugera possideret which Law was afterwards broken by himself and he severely sined ib. l. 7. quod mille Jugerum agri cùm silio possideret emancipandoque filium fraudem legi fecisset Another uncontroulable testimony to the truth of this as to matter of fact besides the natural evidence of the thing it self shall be taken from the Book and Story of Nehemiah c. 5. whose words I will here transcribe at large from v. 1. to 12. inclusively 1. And there was a great cry of the People and of their Wives against their Brethren the Jews 2. For there were that said We our Sons and our Daughters are many therefore we take up Corn for them that we may eat and live 3. Some also there were that said We have Mortgaged our Lands Vineyards and Houses that we might buy Corn because of the dearth 4. There were also that said We have borrowed money for the Kings tribute and that upon our Lands and Vineyards 5. Yet now our Flesh is as the Flesh of our Brethren our Children as their Children and lo we bring into bondage our Sons and our Daughters to be Servants and some of our Daughters are brought into bondage already neither is it in our power to redeem them for other men have our Lands and Vineyards 6. And I Nehemiah was very angry when I heard their cry and these words 7. Then I consulted with my self and I rebuked the Nobles and the Rulers and said unto them Ye exact Vsury every one of his Brother And I set a great assembly against them 8. And I said unto them We after our ability have redeemed our Brethren the Jews which were sold unto the Heathen and will you even sell your Brethren or shall they be sold unto us then held they their peace and found nothing to answer 9. Also I said It is not good that ye do ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the Heathen our Enemies 10. I likewise and my Brethren and my Servants might exact of them money and Corn I pray you let us leave off this Vsury 11. Restore I pray you to them even this day their Lands their Vineyards their Olive-yards and their Houses also the hundredth part of the money and of the Corn the Wine and the Oyl that ye exact of them 12. Then said they we will restore them and will require nothing of them so will we do as thou sayest Then I called the Priests and took an Oath of them that they should do according to this promise Upon which words that I may descant with the greater clearness it is first to be observed that this happened just upon the return from the Captivity in which state while the Jews continued being utterly dispossessed and ejected out of their respective inheritances they had no way to subsist but by trade so that they could not subsist without usury or at least not without making a gain by the exchange of the Commodities which they sold which was one sort of usury prohibited by the Deut. 23. 19. Law of Moses and comes under that general term of encrease of Victuals or usury upon any thing that was lent upon usury which the Law forbad as well as encrease of money and though this were only prohibited them with respect to one another â—b v. 20. but permitted upon the alien or the stranger yet in the Captivity it was impossible but it must be exercised mutually upon each other likewise for they had no subsistance but by trade and to trade without making some advantage by the exchange when they had no other way to live and were at a constant charge for the maintenance of themselves and Familes would in a very small time bring a Noble to Nine-pence and was as we are used to Phrase it to buy and sell and live by the loss From whence it is easie to perceive according to the different industry or ingenuity of men according to their greater or lesser opportunities of advancing themselves in the way of traffick and commerce according to their greater or lesser charge by reason of the number of their own Families or the incidental and external necessities of their relations according to the greater or lesser degrees of Thrift and Parsimony of one man compared with another and lastly according to the different honesty or Capacity of those they had to do with but this must needs make very great inequalities among the Jews themselves one must be excessive rich and another poorer than beggery it self one rather than give would lend at usury out of hopes to make an advantage that way and another must be forced to borrow at any rate and be a slave to the lender And these hard circumstances instead of being abated or redressed by their return from the Captivity were rather increased by it for in the first place it is to be considered how they were interrupted in the building of the Temple and City in the Reign of Artaxerxes the successor of Cyrus Joseph Antiq. l. XI c. 2. 5. whom Josephus calleth Cambyses as that other Artaxerxes who succeeded Darius is by that Author called Xerxes by the Artifices of Rehum and Shimshai called by Josephus after the Apocryphal writer of Esdras for the greater softness of the Joseph Antiq. l. XI c. 2. 1 Esdr c. 2. sound Rathymus and Semellius and this could not but be accompanied with a proportionable oppression because the reason why they were forced to desist was because they were represented as a Rebellious and Seditious people which oppression though it were soon after taken off in the Reign of Darius the Son of Hystaspes for that of Artaxerxes or Cambyses