their mind Whithersoever they turn themselves their night goes along too and overshadows them nor shall it be dispelled before they have throughly smarted for their ingratitude and their obstinacy and the hardness of their hearts FINIS Imprimatur Edm. Calamy THE Table Alphabeticall A. R. ABraham 155 Acheians 85 Agrarian Law 13 17 40 Agriculture 20 24 Agrippa's offence 50 Alcimus High-Priest 147 His impiety 148 Alexander M. his favour to the Jews 27 Alterations whence 18 Ambition 141 Anointing of Kings 127 Antigonns King 149 Antiochus Epiphanes 146 Apion cymbalum mundi 3 Apollonius Scotus praised 70 Aristobulus King 149 Aristotle 's opinion of the Jews 29 30 Arist cited 5 8 31 119 Arms of nature 15 Artificers none among the Jews 32 Avarice the hurt of it 17 Author 1 70 74 112 114 B. BAbylon enlarged by Nebuch 139 Babylonian Jews 62. Had not the Scepter 69 Balaam's prophecy expounded 154 Beginning of the Heb. Com. 59 Benefit of the Jubily 14 Berosus Annals 139 Bible some parts not to be read by Youth 159. Forbidden the Jews by Trajan 167 Not corrupted by the Jews 168 Buriall of the dead 55 C. CAbala 105 Capitall offenders 110 Casaubons exercit 73. His praise 74. His errour 85 Calendar corrected 112 Captivtty 137 Change of Laws 58 City-life 21 Cities of refuge 58 City what 110 Colonies 12 Commands three to be fulfild in Palestin 115 ommon-wealth founded by Moses 2. When full of enemies 18. The best 31. Affixt to Palestin 61 Consecration of Cities 44 Councils of the Jews 98 108 Country bred gollant men 21 Court of the Temple 125 D. DAvids Scepter 91. Everlasting throne 153 Day of expiation 16 Defection of the ten Tribes 136 Deformity 104 Desolation of Jerusalem 56 93 Dominion secured by change 113 E. EGyptians their idle life 35 Elders 107 Elisab's Sons 142 Ephod 124 Ephorus his errour 29 Equality 12 Eusebius confuted 74 82 Ezekiels obscure prophecy 156 Ezra 157 F. FAthers errour 72. Unskilfull in the Hebrew text 168 Field laid to field 20 Fire on the Altaer 129 Fortification 53 G. GAbinius abates the power of Sanhedrin 113 Gardons and Woods in Babylon 140 God the ruler of the Heb. Com. 6. Why angry at the desire of a King 117 Gospell common to all Nations 161 Grecians Law-givers Their ignorance of the Jews 29 H. HAsmoneans 79 Hebrews why hated by the Egyptians 34 Hecateus praised 10 Herod King 149. His cruelty 150 Herodotus errour 137 High Priest 104 Hillel 101 111. Hircanus 150 Holy of Holies 50 Holy ointment hid and lost with other things 128 Homer hath not the name of Laws 3 Houses in Cities redeemed 47 Husbandmen of Egypt lazy 38 Husbandry praised 22 I. JAcobs prophecy 64 Jarchi 153 Jeroboam 83. His policy 130. Turbulent 134. Idolatry punished 138 Idumaeans 150 Jerusalems sarstity 48. Privilege 54. The head City 55 Her fall 56 Jews had no commerce with other Nations 28. Spred abroad 88. Knew not their Messias 161. Cast off 162 Not without hope 163. Their dignity 164. Their baseness 165. Our relation to them 167. Our debt to them 168 Imperiall dignity 64 Impiety never quiet 147 Imposition of hands 100 Josephus against Apion praised 3. Jos cited 27 50 87 151. His errour 120 Joshua Captain Generall 96 Jubily the benefit of it 14. the 49 year 41. not kept after the captivity 41 Judas Maccabaeus 147 Prince and Priest 149 Juda 's Scepter 77 Judges of Palestin and Babylon 68 Juvenal cited 36 K. KEepers of the Laws 7 Kings 97 King created 116. Qualities of a King 118. Rules for him 120. Presidents of Religion 122. Dignity 123 King and Priest 126. Anointed 127 Kingdom of the Levites 149 Of the Messias 155 L. LAelius his wisdom 19 Law of Jubily 23 Laws none written before Moses 4. Impartiall 8. Stolo 's Law 18 Law-givers their honour 2 The Grecian 3 Levi and Benjamin called Jews 85 Levites portion 46. Office 122 Reign 141 Liberty pretended to enslave 134 M. MAgistrates 106 Majesty of the Empire 76. In the people of Rome 79 Maimonides praised 13. Cited 16 25 41 49 61 64 68 101 102 108 115 155 Manslanghter expiated 111 Manasses High-Priest 144 Matthias the Hasmonean 146 Masorites diligence and fidelity 169 Mem clausum 154 Merchants 30 Messias 93 153. Reign 157 Modesty in opinion 158 Monarchs the Judges and Dictators so stiled 96 Moses the first Law-giver 2 More than man 7. The stability of his Law 8 N. NEbuchadonozor 139 Nero petition'd by the Jews 50 Nilus fruitfull 39 Noahs seven precepts 5 O. ORdinances of the Jews 9 Opificers illiberall 33 Onias High-Priest 145. Renewed his fore-skin 146 P. PAlestin 9. Fruitfulness thereof 11 43. Divided by Joshua 16 Pastorall life 20 Paul interpreted 164. His charity to the Jews 168 Peace of Jerusalem 133 Peace lost by appropriating what was common 12 Personage goodly 119 Persecution of the Jews 167 Pharaohs policy 37 Plebeians single and in conjunction 106 Peoples Majesty 78. Jealous of Superiors 134 Possessions too ample 17 Priestly kingdom 122 Princes made by providence 131 Progress into science 160 Prophecies 92 Prophets not perish out of Jerusalem 105 Q. QUestion of Juda 's scepter discussed 71 Quiet of Common-wealths 132 R. REason and prudence 5 Redemption of Land 15 Of houses 47 Refuge 57 Religion keeps in awe 9. The soul of the Common-wealth 65. The cement 135. Politickly changed 136 Return of the Jews 141 Roman Common-wealth 21 Power 89 Royall Priest-hood 160 Rule the flagrant desire of it 7 S. SAmaria an imperiall seat 135 Sameas 101 150 Samuel 97 118 Sanballets enterprize 144 Sanhedrin 51 78 98 Saul 118 Scaliger mistaken 102 Scepter of Juda. 64 Schismaticall Jews 65 Scipio African 132 Secrets to be admired 159 Sedition brings ruin 135 Semiramis 140 Senators 98 126 Sepulchers 54 Servants released 16 Servitude dwarfs the mind 166 Sesostris 35 Seventh year 26 Shepheards active 36 Solemnity of Jubily 16 Soveraignty 97 State every state breeds diseases 133 Stolo violates his own Law 18 Subjection preferd before Liberty 116 Successoy 118 T. TAlmud quoted 14 25 48 102 154 Temple the voice there 55 Only at Jerusalem 66 Temple in Garizin 145 Ten tribes captive 86 137 Theocracy 6 Territories enlarged 57 Tiberius 166 Times ordered 111 Titus 167 Trade 28. Inherited 35 Translation of Nations 137 Tribute heavy an occasion of rebellion 131 Truth before affection 75 V. VArro cited 21 Vertue lost by want of exercise 20 Vicissitude 133 Urim and Thummim 51 124 W. VVAr 105 Wealth without oppression 13 X. XEnophanes his saying 158 Y. YEar of rest 42. The sixt years fruitfulness 43 Leap-year 111 Z. R. ZAcuth 112 129 167 FINIS
PETRUS CUNAEUS OF THE COMMON-WEALTH OF THE HEBREWS Translated by C. B. Nec omnia nec nihil LONDON Printed by T. W. for William Lee and are to be Sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Turks Head in Fleet-street over against Fetter-Lane 1653. THE AVTHOR'S PREFACE TO The States of Holland and Westfrisia Most illustrious Lords I Offer to your view a Cōmon-wealth the most holy and the most exemplary in the whole World The Rise and Advance whereof it well becomes you perfectly to understand because it had not any mortall man for its Author and Founder but the immortall God that God whose pure veneration and worship You have undertaken and do maintain Here you shall see what it was that conteined the Hebrews so long in an innocent way of life what rais'd up their courage cherished their concord bridled their desires Indeed that people had Rules of Government excelling the precepts of all wise men that ever were Which Rules we have shewed may in good part be collected out of the holy Bible Only of their Military Discipline very little is deliver'd to our memory Yet must every one that considers their victories and atchievements confess that the Hebrews for military vertue were inferiour to none For in the quality of banished men when they were come out of Egypt where they had long sate after a tedious march up and down in the deserts of Arabia for the space of forty years they encountred with mighty and valiant Nations expell'd them and possessed their Country where they built new Towns and dedicated to God a magnificent Temple In this most happy soil where their valour had planted them their mutuall concord made them grow to admiration The Counsels of all provided for the safety of all and the Cities which were many did not every one aim at their own dominion but all used their best endeavours to defend the publick Liberty That the Government might bee compleat and uniform they had the same Laws Magistrates Senators Judges and the same weights measures mony Wherefore all Palestin might be accounted as one City but only that all the Inhabitants were not shut up within the same Walls Such a Community and Conformity there was between them all Yet by the Law there was one City Privileg'd above all the rest not to have dominion over the rest but that all even the remotest dwellers should every year thrice hold their Religious meetings in it A thing so far from breeding any difference among them that it was the strongest bond of union Thus did the twelve Tribes of Israel every one being multiplyed marvellously into the greatness of a Nation overspread a very great and fertile Country The force of enemies the Tempests of Wars and other the like evils nothing prevail'd against them They alwaies rose higher by their overthrows were enriched by their losses and the keeness of their enemies sword put the more courage in them For a long time the Common-wealth of the Hebrews continued in this state till at last after Salomons death having attained the height of prosperity a great alteration happened A certain man Jeroboam all whose hopes consisted in the discord of the people stird up sedition among them and drawing to his party ten whole Tribes constituted a kind of Common-wealth a part to himself the head whereof was Samaria And now there was no longer one but two Common-wealths That of Israel or the ten Tribes lasted but a little while being conquered and carried away into eternall exile The other of the Jews whose imperiall City was Jerusalem although before the times of Vespasian the Emperour it was not wholly ruined yet the power of it was so enfeebled that it could seldom bear up against the enemy Certainly none of all this had come to pass had not they fallen to pieces by their own dissentions who whilst they held together and kept their force united were victorious over so many Nations The discords of the people give the greatest advantage to the enemy This was the cause of the Hebrews ruin and the same hath destroyed the most flourishing Kingdoms other Nations Please you to return into the memory of all former times you shall find scarce any other thing to have given a check to the most high and most mighty States Fortune though envious to such as prosper seldom assisteth any people to the destruction of another unless the people first create trouble to themselves at home knowing neither how to moderate their vices nor govern their own forces It is clear That Politic Nation the Romans who as Tully saith by defending their confederates made themselves Masters of all the world understood exceeding well how the most easy way to subdue confederate people was by their domestic troubles and dissentions Thus while they aided the oppressed party or became Arbitrators of the difference they brought all things into their own power and where they had made a waste they called it peace The Achaians were once terrible to all their Neighbours by means of a confederacy wherein upon fair conditions the Cities of Peloponnesus were united Their Common-wealth was of an excellent frame and very like to yours most illustrious Lords strengthned by their united powers and invincible How often did that Lordly people of Rome knowing Greece was inexpugnable so long as confederated endeavour by art and cunning to dissolve that union The Proconsul Gallus was put upon the business and when he found no success the Spartans by a treacherous device were added to the ligue but upon unequall terms to be a perpetuall cause of difference amongst them This afterward undid the Achaians The Annals are full of such examples but here is no place to make a long relation Rome the Lady of all Nations born for the ruin of the world as Mithridates said groaning under the peoples discord and Senators faction at last gave up her liberty and submitted her proud neck to the yoke of Caesar But to return to the Hebrews I shall mention that in the last place which is the chief of all The formention'd breach after Salomons death had been probably made up again in a short time but that the ambitious Author of it Jeroboam by changing the old true Religion into a vain and senseless superstition obstructed the way of concord and by a smooth oration having obtruded upon the ten Tribes his new invention made them very prone to take armes not so much now for their Estates and Liberty as for their Altars and Idols These things and many more of this sort we have discoursed of in this Treatise and we thought it not unfit to see the light You that are the Fathers of your Country have alwaies had this truth in mind That by concord a small Estate is raised and the greatest is by discord overthrown Your own experience confirms you in it since by divine favour and your own vertue and the conduct of your Invincible Leader your Common-wealth by many degrees is
possession of his House again Thus the Talmudists In the Cities of the Levites it was not so but for their houses they had the benefit of the same Law which was establisht by Moses concerning the Fields and rurall possessions of all the Hebrews as hath been said Wherefore they might redeem them after the year was past and what was not before redeemed the Jubily restored Amongst all the Cities most eminent was Jerusalems sanctity and as the Talmud delivers it remain'd perpetuall ever since the Dedication by the most glorious King Salomon That Ezra consecrated it again was unnecessary for it was not capable to be prophan'd like other Cities by the hands of the Sacrilegious Whence it came to pass as the Talmud-tradition is that it was lawfull to sacrifise at Hierusalem and to feast upon the sacrifices even in the dust and ashes of the destroyed City But how great was the Religion of the place appeared by those Jews whom Hadrian the Emperour permitted once a year to visit the deformed reliques of the holy City and there to lament and deplore the misery of their Nation This City was not assigned by lot unto any one tribe but was common to them all Wherefore the Talmudists free it from that Law which commands the bloud secretly shed in the borders of the Tribes to be expiated by slaving of a Heifer This which follows is not from superstition but from the antient and approved custom of the Nation Maimonides relates if any had an upper room so high that it gave them a prospect to the Holy of Holies they might indeed once a week go up to see all safe but oftner or for other cause they might not Verily King Agrippa much offended his people when from a lofty room in his palace he took a frequent view of the Temple saw from on high what was done within it The Jews thinking this to be an unsufferable thing raised a high wall to cut off the Kings prospect and without delay sent unto Rome ten Legates with Ismael the High-Priest and Eleazar the Treasurer to Petition Nero for a confirmation of that which Religion had compell'd the people to do What Hecâ—taeus of Abdera saith in Flavius that Jerusalem was of 50. furlongs compass inhabited by one hundred twenty thousand persons were not very materiall for us to know but that there is something of singular note concerning the enlargement of their pomaeria which Maimonides hath declared out of the Talmudicall Books And this it is In the enlargement of the City the great Senate Sanhedrin and the King and one Prophet consulted the oracle called Urim and Thummim After that they had agreed among themselves about the interpretation of the divine answer the Senators of the Sanhedrin recited two Verses of thanksgiving and having taken two Loaves of leavened Bread and departing presently with instruments of Musick made a stand at the turning of every Sticet and at all Monuments erected in the City and pronounced these words I will extoll thee O Lord because thou hast lifted me up At last when they were come unto the place designed for consecration because it was to be the bound of their pomaeria they all stayed and there of the two Loaves taken with them after the Verses sung they eat one the other they burnt in the flames These things received from their Ancestors the Talmudicall writers have thus left upon record Nor are they improbable seeing the like and almost the same are exstant in the 12. Chapter of Nehemiahs commentaries Yet in after times the liberty of the Jews being opprest by the Romans this prolation of their pomaeria depended not upon the pleasure of the great Councill but of the Roman people Farther this is also deliver'd by Cornelius Tacitus that the Jews with a great sum of money purchased leave to fortify Whence it appears the Queen of Cities Jerusalem was in the same condition with all towns under the Roman power whose Walls could not be repair'd without the Authority of the Prince or Governour nor any thing joyned to them or set upon them as * L. 9. sect ff de rerum divis Ulpian the Lawyer saith And truly Claudius Caesar when he had received intelligence that they were enclosing Jerusalem with a mighty Wall admonished Agrippa of that new attempt and thereupon the King in obedience to the Emperour left off the work he had undertaken The Talmudicall writers say Jerusalem had this privilege above other Towns of Judaea that no house in the City after one year could be retained by the buyer They say also it was not lawfull to plant Orchards or gardens there affirming that of the whole City which Hecataeus hath written of the circuit of the Temple Dead bodies which were carried any whither were not admitted into that City out of a respect unto the Holiness thereof Only two Sepulchers were there of David and of Olda built they say by the old Prophets Yet were the Levits bound up with a more strict Religion being prohibited to bury the dead in their Cities and in the Field of their Suburbs too Wherefore by divine appointment they received from the other Tribes a parcell of ground without their own borders where they might lay the bones of their dead to rest In other Towns it was not unlawfull to bury provided seven honest men gave assent thereto but when once the Corps was carried forth of the gate it might not be received again within the walls although all the people should desire it Jerusalem as we said above was the head city the seat of Religion and holy rites Wherefore that being overthrown there fell with it the form of the Jewish Common-weal both Civill and sacred Truly what Flavius saith of a voice heard out of the Temple before the destruction of the City Let us go hence seemeth unto me to signifie nothing else but that the Common-weal was to be dissolved and the Scepter to be taken away which of old was given to the holy Nation For within a short time the orders and functions and rites and almost all their Laws ceased and there followed great confusion desolation and distraction First of all the most sacred College of the Hasideans that drew its Originall from the Prophets was now no more because their custom was to goe every day to the Temple and to bestow voluntary charges upon Sacrifices and upon the Porches and Walls of the Sanctuary And whereas Moses imposed upon strangers that should become Proselytes the oblation of some certain gift this upon the dissolution began to be deferred altogether till another time when the third sanctuary which they yet expect shall be built Nor doe they any more marry their Brothers Widows which have no Children And the solennity of the Passeover never since that time hath been rightly celebrated for the Law commanded it should be kept in that place wherein God had chosen the seat of his house Of so much consequence was the
the East is accustomed to the yoke of Kings This being so many have admired why God took it ill that the Soveraign power was transferred from Samuel to a King since he had approved it before and said it should be according to the inclination of the holy people Maimonides answers learnedly that the divine Indignation arose from hence Because they desir'd a King by unfaithfull complaints and seditious murmurings not that they might comply with Gods design in the Law but out of a distast of the most holy Prophet Samuel to whom it was spoken by the voice of God They have not rejected thee but me Verily I am of this opinion and I doubt not to assert it that the Kingdom was given to Saul not out of Gods love and care of the Common-wealth but because he perceived his arrogance and cruelty hee meant to glorify Samuel by this unequall comparison and by such a successor make his vertue the more desirable The qualities seem but light and superficiall but they are of great moment which as the Holy Book in severall places hath it were considered by Samuel in the Kings election a gracefull look talness of body and such like which affect and draw the eyes and minds of all These are the things which the great Prophet in the midst of the Assembly commended when he spake these words 1 Sam. 10.24 Behold whom God hath chosen that there is none equall to him in all the people Wherefore it is not the property of Barbarians only but of the most civill men to think them capable of great atchievements whom nature hath graced with a goodly form and stately countenance No less a man than Aristotle hath pronounced thus If any personages are by nature framed so much more excellent than others as the images of Gods excell the images of men it seemeth meet that the rest should be servants unto such If this be true in the body much more in the soul but the souls form and beauty cannot be so easily discerned To leave this In the Holy Bible is mentioned a certain volume 1 Sam. 10.25 wherein Samuel wrote the sacred rights of the Kingdom and laid it up in the Tabernacle A text not well understood by Josephus who imagined all the evils which God foretold the people they should fear from an unjust King were comprehended in that volume We on the contrary believe there were in that Book the Laws which commanded the King to follow justice and equity and to govern the Common-wealth wisely for the peoples good also not to play the Prince in lusts and riots lastly to retain modesty in the greatness of his fortune a vertue well becomming the best of men and very pleasing unto God The matter is deliver'd in Deuteronomy thus Deut. 17.15 c. Thou shalt set him King over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose One from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy Brother But he shall not multiply horses to himself nor cause the people to return to Egypt For as much as the Lord hath said unto you ye shall henceforth return no more that way Neither shall he multiply Wives to himself that his heart turn not away neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them That his heart be not lifted up above his Brethren These words of the Law are not obscure and they seem to contain the sum of that volume which the great Prophet laid up in the Sanctuary We said * Cap. 8. above the Jews had such a Common-wealth which in the Scripture is called a Priestly Kingdom Whence it follows that their Kings did not only govern in civill affairs and military but were Presidents of Religion and holy Ceremonies For they were sacred persons to whom Gods Commission and the voice of a Prophet gave Empire honour and authority Yet as the Over-sight of Sacred things the Soveraign power and judgment pertained unto them so the mystery and charge of the same things was of right claimed by the Levites that is the High Priest the rest of the Priests and their assistants It was their office to slay the Sacrifices to make expiations to rehearse the divine Laws before the people and to perform other services in the Temple The Talmudicall writers well observe how much the King excelled all both Priests and Prophets which we will relate out of * In Halucha Melachim cap. 2. Maimonides The words are to this effect It was a Statute that the chief Priest should reverence the King and yield him his place to sit in and himself stand when the King came to him But the King standeth not in the presence of the Priest unless when he consults the Urim after the solemn manner And such is the dignity of the King that even the Prophet himself as oft as he comes into his presence bows himself down to the earth as it is written Nathan the Prophet came before the King and to honour him fell upon his face to the ground Yet more David himself whom the Prophet formerly had anointed King so little feared to take upon him the honour of the High Priest that he put upon himself the Ephod and enquired of the Lord whether he should pursue the enemy The place is eminent in the Book of Samuel Cap. 30. v. 7. perverted by the late Interpreters men very learned but here they seem indiligent Let all men judge that have any skill in the originall whether the words translated by them Applicavit sibi Abiathar amiculum Davidis causa signify not the same I have said that David having put on the Ephod of Abiathar consulted the Oracle The English Bible reads it And Abiathar brought thither the Ephod to David Grotius de Imperio c. 6. reads it in this sense Abiathar made the Ephod to come near to David that as he stood before the high Priest which the King only did when he consulted Urim he might see whether the sparkling of the prectous stones would promise him good success Abiathar then had the Ephod upon him not David The Urim answered i. e. God by the Urim vide locum But let us give you some more of our Collections from the Rabbins Herein also consisted an high point of honour Mâ—im c. 2. in Hal. Mâ—l c. 7. Hal. Beth. Habb that the King only and no man else might sit in the Court of the Temple in any place only the King who was of Davids family That Court was divided by
certain spaces one part for the Priests another assigned for the people Yet the Priests cuuld not sit down though within their own prescribed bounds The Senators of Sanhedrin had right to sit Maimon ib. but in the midst of that place which the prophane common people had Never did the more sacred spaces of the Court behold any man sitting but the King this being his Prerogative as if he were nearer to God than the Priests themselves and a greater President of Religion And if we go to other Nations Aristotle saith in the first times the same person for the most part was both King and Priest This was no depraved custom being in use while people followed nature more incorruptly and saw what was right so much better by how much nearer they were to the divine originall But to speak of the Hebrew Kings their sacredness depended much upon their being anointed This was proper to them and the high Priests as the Talmud saith That anointing added a divine Majesty to the Kings and made them sacred and allyed unto God The reason why in those times they ordered or restored Religion was not because they were Prophets that 's a groundless and erroneous opinion for except David and perhaps Saul no one of the rest prophecyed of things to come but Salonion and Jehoshaphat and Ezechiah and Josiah and others exercised power and authority over things divine because the vertue of the sacred Ointment had been communicated to them This Ointment Moses was directed to make of those aromatick ingredients which * In Hal. Cele Hammik c. 1. Maimonides describes And the Talmud saith it was used for initiation and consecration untill the times of Jâ—siah who hid it under ground in the Temple in a secret place prepared carefully long before by Salomon upon notice of the prophecies that the Temple should at last be thrown down by the Assyrians In the same secret place as the Tradition also is the Ark of the Covenant and Aarons red and the stones Urim and Thummim with the residue of Manna were laid up by Josiah and none of them all was restored to the Jews when upon their return from Babylon into their native seat they built the second Temple Wherefore since that time the Kings and Priests received not the same Majesty from the mysterious initiation Nor was the Deity so propitious to their ceremonies and sacred rites as before The Jews have a proverb among them related by * In libro Juchasia Rabbi Zacuth The fire lay upon the Altar as a Dog because the vertue of it was extinct after the five things were wanting in the later temple but in the former that fire was like a Lyon The learned writer plainly saith the five things were wanting which even now we said were so hidden by Josiah that posterity never found them CHAP. XV. Jeroboams policy to get the Kingdom The declination and change of Common-wealths Scipio 's moderation The disposition of common people Samaria an imperiall City Change of Religion a secret of State The division of the ten tribes and the miserable effects of it The Captivity of the I sraelites and of the Jews Babylon enlarged by the spoils of Jerusalem The return of the Jews and the Dominion of the Levites THe unity of the Hebrew nation and the frame of that goodly Empire was cleft in two by Jeroboams policy a man no less ambitious than valiant Being commander of the Tribe of Joseph in the War and put in hope of the Kingdom by the Prophet rightly conceiving Princes are made by Providence He applyed his vast and climing spirit to obtain the Dominion First he attempted the Souldiers faith endeavouring to draw away their affections from Salomon to himself but the Plot being discovered to avoid punishment he left his Country and hid his head in Egypt After the death of Salomon he returned and met with a conjuncture of affairs very favourable to his great designs The heavy tributes the unjust exactions were a fair pretence which he gladly layd hold on to stir up the common people and so brought all into a combustion and became the Author of very great calamities that quickly invaded Palestin Verily so it usually comes to pass that no grear Common-wealth hath a fortune long continuing at one stay The Hebrews were now come to the hight of their prosperity All was safe and quiet incredible was the encrease of riches the Kings and Princes near and far off were friends and no room now was left for their greatness to extend it self Wherefore being uncapable of any farther encrease what remained but that it should according to the Law of fate decrease and which is the most miserable condition of humane affairs decline to the worse Scipio Africanus when he purged the City by Sacrifice being Censor and the Scribe rehearsed to him the solemn prayer that the Gods would advance the Common-wealth of Rome said it was great enough already and desir'd the Gods only to preserve it commanding the prayer in the publick record should be thus corrected The most prudent Roman well knowing that the celestiall bounty doth not so favour its own gifts as to make them alwaies peculiar to any people feared a vicissitude and change of fortune proceeding as he doubtless had in his thoughts not only from a forein Invader but from domestick causes every State breeding within her own bowels diseases to consume and destroy it self Jerusalem is an example The most flourishing City in the world where David and Salomon two most potent and most wise Kings had made a deep and secure peace could not long continue quiet For Salomon being dead although she had no enemy abroad she found one at home Jeroboam of whom I spake a man of a most turbulent spirit arose who in short time with better success effected the rebellious design he had before unprosperously attempted An Assembly being called he accused the publick State and the condition of the times and the Princes doings in the presence of the people whose ears he knew are ever open and glad to hear ill reports of their Superiours Liberty and other specious names hee pretended when his secret thoughts were how to enslave others and get Dominion to himself The people enflamed by his violent words fell presently into seditious ways whereby the most antient Kingdoms and the greatest Common-wealths usually go to ruin or at least are changed Forthwith the Captain of the Rebellion drew off the ten Tribes whom he had prevailed with from the territories of Jerusalem and to secure his dominion and settle it chose Samaria for his Imperiall City That his Government might be more firm he altered many customs of the Nation and devised another worship of the deity a new Religion For setting up calves to be adored he renewed the old superstition and made Religion the cement of Common-wealths a tye upon the people to keep them in his obedience when he could not oblige them by the