THE MANNERS OF THE Israelites, IN THREE PARTS.  
1 Of the Patriarches.  
2. Of the Israelites after their coming out of Egypt until the Captivity of Babylon.  
3 Of the Jews after their Return from the Captivity until the Preaching of the Gospel.  
SHOWING Their Customs Secular and Religious, their Generous Contempt of Earthly Grandeur. And the great Benefit and Advantage of a plain Laborious, Frugal, and Contented Life.  I am a Stranger with thee, and a Sojourner as all my Fathers were. Psal. 39 12. 
London Printed for William Freeman over against the Devil-Tavern near Temple Bar in Fleetstreet. 1683.   

THE INTRODUCTION.  
THe People, 
The Design of this Treatise.  whom God chose to preserve the true Religion until the preaching of the Gospel, may serve for an Excellent Model of a Man's Life, most conformable to Nature. We see in their manners the most Rational ways of Subsisting, of employing our time, and of living in Society; and we are capable of Learning from 'em not only Morality but also Oeconomy and Policy.  
Yet those manners are so different from ours, that they offend us at the first blush. We see among the Israelites neither those Titles of Nobility, nor that Multitude of Offices, nor that Diversity of Conditions, which is found among us: There are none amongst them but Labourers and Husbandmen; all working with their Hands, all married, and counting the multitude of Children for a great Happiness. The Distinction of Meats and living Creatures Clean and Unclean, & their frequent Purifications seem to us odd and Capricious Ceremonies, and their bloody Sacrifices give us a disgust. Moreover, we see, that this People were very Inclinable to Idolatry; that the Scripture upon that account ofte● reproaches them with their Indocili●ty and hardness of Heart; and tha● the Fathers treat them as Gross and Carnal. All this, joined to a Confused Prepossession, that what is most Ancient is always most Imperfect, does easily persuade us▪ that those men were brutal and ignorant, and that their Manner● rather deserved contempt tha● Admiration,  
From whence it proceeds i● part, that the Holy Scriptures, especially those of the old Testa●ment, are so little read or wit● so little Profit. The good Christian, who has not yet rid himself of those Prepossessions, is disgusted with is Scene of strange Manners. He attributes all without Distinction to the Imperfection of the old Law, or believes, that under that veil are concealed Mysteries, which he does not understand. Those who have not sufficient faith and uprightness of Heart are tempted upon these appearances to despise Scripture itself, which seems to 'em filled with low things, or from thence to draw such ill consequences, as may in some measure Authorize their vices. But when we compare the manners of the Israelites with those of the Romans, Grecians, Egyptians and other People of antiquity whom we most esteem, those Prejudices immediately vanish. Visible it is, that there was in them a noble simplicity better than all the Refinements in the world; that the Israelites had all that was good in the manners of the other People of their time; that they were exempt from most of their Defects; and that they had beyond others the incomparable advantage of Knowing, whither was to be referred all the Conduct of Life: since they were acquainted with the true Religion, which is the foundation of Morality.  
We learn then to distinguish amidst what their manners have of Offensive, and That which is Really unblamable; That which proceeds only from the distance of Times and Places, being of itself indifferent; and that which being good in itself displeases us solely through the corruption of our Manners. For a great part of the difference between them and us, does not proceed from our being more enlightened by Christianity; but the reason is, we are less Rational. 'Tis not Christianity, has introduced that great inequality of conditions, that contempt of Labour, that love of Sports, that Authority of women and young Persons, that aversion of a plain and frugal Life, which renders us so different from the Ancients. Those shepherds and Ploughmen, whom we meet withal in their Histories, and amongst whom money was of so little use, and great Fortunes so rare, might more easily have been made good Christians, than our Courtiers, Lawyers, Tradesmen, and many People who spend their lives in an idle, inglorious and uneasy Poverty.  
For the rest, I do not pretend here to make a Panegyric but a very plain Relation, such as those of Treavellers, who have seen very distant Countries. I shall set down for good, what is good; for Evil, what is Evil; for Indifferent, what is Indifferent. I only demand, that the Reader may lay aside all manner of Prepossessions, that he may judge of these manners only by right reason and good sense. I desire him to quit the Particular Ideas of his Country, and his Age to consider, the Israelites in the times and places, wherein they lived, to compare 'em with the adjacent Nations, and by those means to understand their ways and Maxims. For 'tis to be altogether Ignorant of History not to see the great difference, which the Distance of Times and Places produce in manners. The French inhabit the same Country, that was Inhabited by the Galls and afterwards by the Romans. How far are the French now from either of their ways of Living; and how different from their own Countrymen, who lived three or four hundred years ago? And in this very age what coherence is there between our manners and those of the Turks, Indians or Chineses? So that if we join those two kinds of distance● we shall not need to wonder, that the men who lived in Palestine had manners different from ours; we shall rather admire at what we find conformable.  
We must not however Imagine, that those changes are Regular, and always go in an equal Progress. Oftentimes very neighbouring Countries are very different through the Diversity of Religions and Governments; as at present Spain and Africa, which under the Roman empire were much united. On the contrary, a near Relation there is between Spain and Germany, which had none in the time of the Romans. 'Tis the same thing by Proportion in the difference of times. Those who know not History, having heard say, that the men of former ages were more plain than us, suppose the World to refine daily more and more, and that the farther we look back into Antiquity, the more gross and Ignorant we shall find the Wretches to have been. Yet it is not so in those Countries, that have been inhabited successively by divers Nations: The Revolutions there happening, have from time to time brought Misery and Ignorance into them after Prosperity and Politeness. Thus Italy is in a much better condition than it was eight Hundred years ago: but eight hundred years before under the first Caesar's it was more happy and more magnificent, than it is now. And truly to mount up eight hundred years higher, towards the time of the foundation of Rome, we shall find the same Italy very poor and savage. Nations have their age in Proportion as well as men: the most flourishing Estate of the Grecians was under Alexander; of the Romans under Augustus, of the Israelites under Solomon.  
We must therefore distinguish in each People their beginning, their greatest Prosperity and their Fall from it. We will thus consider the Israelites in all the extent of time wherein they have subsisted from the call of Abraham to the last ruin of Jerusalem. 'Tis a space of above two thousand years which I divide into three parts according to the three very different Estates of that Nation. The first of the Patriarches; the Second of the Israelites after their coming out of Egypt until the Captivity of Babylon; the third of the Jews after their Return from the Captivity, until the Preaching of the Gospel.   
THE MANNERS OF THE Israelites.  

PART I. Of the Patriarches.  

CAP. I. Their Nobility.  
THe Patriarches lived nobly in much Liberty and great Abundance: and yet their Life was plain and laborious. Abraham knew all the order of his Ancestors, and did not alter his Nobility, seeing he married in his own Family. He took great care to give a wife of the same Race to those Sons, whom God had promised him: and Isaac caused Jacob to observe the same law.  
The Long lives of the Fathers furnished them the means of well educating their Children, and of rendering 'em betimes solid and serious Abraham had lived above an age with Sem, and might learn from him the State of the World before the Deluge. He all along lived with his father Thara, and was at least Seventy years old, when he lost him. Isaac was Seventy five, when Abraham died, nor did he ever quit him that we know of. And it is the same in Proportion with the other Patriarches. Living so long a time with their Fathers, they took advantage of their Experience and their Inventions; they pursued their Designs and confirmed themselves in their Maxims; they remained constant and equal in their conduct. For it was not easy to change, what had been well established by men who were still living: and the old men kept up their Authority not only over the young people, but also over those old men, who were not so far advanced in Age as themselves.  
The memory of past things might easily be preserved by the Tradition only of Old men, who naturally love to tell Stories, and had so much leisure to do so. Thus they had no great need of writing, and the truth is, we see no mention of writing before Moses. However it seems difficult, that so many numbers he tells us of should be kept in the memory of man, 
Gen. 5. 7. 11. 8. 13. 6. 15. 4. 22.  as the Age of all the Patriarches since Adam; the exact dates of the beginning and end of the Deluge; and the measures of the Ark. I see not here any necessity of having recourse to Miracle and divine Inspiration. 'Tis More probable, that writing was found out before the Flood as well as Instruments of Music, that were not so necessary.  
Moreover the Patriarches were careful to preserve the memory of the most considerable things which happened to 'em, by Altars, setting up of Stones and other solid Monuments. Thus Abraham raised Altars in divers places, where God had appeared to him. 
Gen. 12. 8. 13. 18. 28. 18.  Jacob consecrated the Stone, which he made use of for a Pillow during the mysterious dream of the Ladder, and called that heap of Stones Galeed, 
31. 48. 26. 18. etc.  which was the sign of his▪ Alliance with Laban. Of this kind was the Sepulchre of Rachel, the Well called Shebah, and all the others, which the History of Isaac makes mention of. Sometimes they contented themselves with giving new names to places without making any change in them. The Greeks and Romans say as much of their Hero's, of whom the most Ancient come near the time of the Patriarches: All Greece was full of their Monuments, and Aeneas alone did give names to sundry places in Sicily and Italy.  
The names of the Patriarches were also a kind of more plain and familiar Monuments. They all signified something, and usually showed some Particular circumstance of their birth, or some blessing of God. Thus it was as an abridged History; for they took care to explain to their Children the Reason of those names, so as they could not afterwards pronounce them without refreshing their memory. This care of Posterity, and this foresight of the future shows great and noble Spirits.  
The Patriarches were perfectly free, 
Family.  and their Family was a State, whereof the Father was King. For what did Abraham want of that which makes up a Sovereign, but vain Titles and troublesome Ceremonies? To no body he was subject: Kings made allyances with him; and when he pleased, he made War and Peace. Princes did court the Alliance of Isaac: 
Gen. 26. 28.  and Ishmael Jacob and Esau were preserved in the same Independency. Wherefore words must not impose upon us; nor must we look upon Abraham as Inferior to Amraphel or Abimelech, because the Scripture does not call him King as well as them. He was surely of as great Estimation as one of those four Kings which he defeated with his Domestical troops, and the help of his three Allies. The greatest difference is, he did not confine himself like them within walls, and his State followed him, wherever he was pleased to Encamp. All the Histories we have that are worthy of credit, show us in those times but very small Kingdoms in the East itself: And in other Countries we shall find 'em much smaller a long time afterwards.   

CAP. II. Their Estates and Occupations.  
THe riches of the Patriarches consisted principally in Cattle, whereof Abraham must have had a vast Stock, when he was obliged to part from his Nephew Lot, by reason that the Land could not contain them together. 
Gen. 136. 32. 14. etc.  Jacob had likewise a great number, when he returned from Mesopotamia; since the Present that he made to his Brother Esau was of five hundred and ninety head of Cattle; and the Scripture shows what sort of Cattle they were, which they bred, Goats, Sheep, Camels, Kine, and Asses. There were neither Horses nor Hogs. It was that great number of Herds and Flocks, which made them so much esteem Wells and Cysterns in a Country that has no other River than that of Jordan, and where it reins but very seldom. They had Slaves too, of whom Abraham must needs have had an huge number; seeing of those who were born in his own house, and whom he himself had exercised, he armed three hundred and Eighteen. 
Gen. 14. 14. 13. 2. 24. 22▪ 16.  Thus there must have been proportionably bought Children old men Women and Slaves. 'Tis said, when that he returned from Egypt, he was Rich in Gold and in Silver. The Bracelets and Pendants, which his Servant Eliezer gave on his behalf to Rebecca, were of six ounces of Gold: And they had at that time coined money, as is manifest by the Purchase of his Sepulchre. We see, they used Perfumes and precious Raiment by those of Esau, which Jacob made use of at the reception of his Father's Blessing. 
27. 27.   
With all these Riches, very Laborious they were in their Husbandry. They lodged always in the Field, in Tents, changing their abode according to the conveniency of their Pasturage: And by consequence were frequently employed in Camping and decamping; for they could make but small Days Journeys with so great and cumbersome a Train. Not but that they might have built houses as well as the other Inhabitants of the same Country, but they preferred that manner of Life. Which is undoubtedly the most Ancient, since it is more easy to set up Tents than to build houses: And has ever past for the most perfect, as fixing men lest to the Earth. It does likewise better show the state of the Patriarches, who only Inhabited that land as Travellers in expectation of God's Promises, which were not to be fulfilled till after their Deaths. The first Cities, whereof mention is made, were built by the most profligately wicked Cain and Nimrod. 
Gen. 4. 17. 10. 10.  They were the first, who shut themselves up in walls, and used fortifications to avoid the punishment of their crimes, and to commit new ones with Impunity. But the good and honest people lived openly and without any Fear.  
The principal occupation of the Patriarches was the care of their Herds and Flocks; which is apparent through all their History, and by the express Declaration, the Children of Israel made thereof to the King of Egypt. 
Gen. 47. ver. 3.  How innocent soever Agriculture may be, the Pastoral life is the most perfect; the first was the share of Cain and the other of Abel. It has something more plain and more noble: 'Tis less painful; ties men less to the Earth, and yet is the most profitable. Old Cato placed the Breeding of Cattle before tilling of the ground; which yet he preferred before the other ways of growing rich. The just reproaches, which Jacob makes to Laban, show, that the Patriarches took that Employment upon 'em, and managed it with the greatest and most serious Industry; and that they spared their pains on no occasions. 
Gen. 31. 40. 41.  Thus was I in the day the draught consumed me, and the Frost by Night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. 
24. 15.  Thus have I been twenty years in thy house, etc. We may judge of the pains the men took by what the Women did▪ Rebecca went a great way to fetch water and carried it upon her Shoulders. 
29. 9  And Rachel herself kept her Father's flock, neither their Beauty nor their Nobility rendering them the more nice and delicate. The Grecians, whose politeness w● with so much reason Esteem, di● for a long while retain that ancient Simplicity. Whereof Homer furnishes us with examples on all occasions: And upon this foundation it is, that all Pastoral Poems are grounded. And verily in Syria, Greece and Sicily there was above Fifteen hundred years after the Patriarches People of good quality, who made it their business to breed Cattle and who in the greatest leisure of that kind of life, and the fine humour, which those Countries inspire, made Songs mighty natural and pleasant.   

CAP. III. Their Frugality.  
AS for their food and the other necessaries of Life, the Patriarches were not at all nice. The pottage, which Jacob had prepared and which was so tempting to Esau▪ may make us judge of their ordinary Diet: 
Gen. 25. 29.  But we have an Example of a magnificent Repast in that which Abraham made to the three Angels. 
18. 6. etc.  He set before them a Calf, new cakes, but baked upon the Hearth, 
27. 9  together with butter and milk. They had, it seems, some kind of Ragousts by that which Rebecca made to Isaac; but his great age may excuse that Delicacy. This same toothsome and Savoury meat was composed of two Kids; and Abraham set before the Angels a whole Calf with a loaf of three measures of Meal, which is more than two Bushels, and near Fifty six pound in weight. From whence we may conclude, they were great eaters; and indeed they used much exercise, and were perhaps much taller and bigger than we are, as well as longer lived. The Greeks were of opinion, that the men of the Heroical times were much greater and Homer makes 'em great Eaters▪ When Eumaeus receives Ulysses, 
Odyss. 14.  he prepares a great Hog of five years old for five persons.  
The Heroes of Homer serve themselves on the ordinary occasions of Life; and we see the same done by the Patriarches. Abraham who had so many Menial Servants, and who was near an hundred years old, 
Gen. 18. 14.  did himself fetch water to wash the feet of his Divine Guests, goes and hastens his wife to make them Bread▪ ran himself to fetch meat for 'em, and returned to serve them Standing▪ I grant, he might on such an occasion be animated through his zeal to exercise hospitality: but all the rest of their lives were answerable to this. Their Servants served to help 'em, not to dispense them from Labour. And truly what could oblige Jacob going into Mesopotamia to take a journey of above an hundred and Fifty Leagues alone on foot with a Staff in his hand, 
32. 10.  were it not his Laudable Simplicity and love to Labour? which made him likewise take a Lodging on the ground, where the Night surprised him, and put a stone under his head to supply the place of a Pillow. Thus though he had a tender love for Joseph, yet he sent this favourite of his at the age of sixteen all alone from Hebron to seek out his Brethren in Sichem, 
37. 15.  which was a long days journey; and the young Stripling having not found 'em there, continues his Journey a day longer as far as into Dothan.  
I no less admire their moderation in regard of women, when I consider their Liberty of having several, and their desire of a numerous posterity. 
August. de civ. 16. 25.  Abraham, to whom God had promised, that he should be father of an innumerable progeny, though he had a barren wife, yet entertained no thoughts of taking another, and was resolutely bend to have left his Estate to the Principal of his Domestics. 
Gen. 15. 2. 16. 15.  Only from the hand of his wife it was, that he took a Second, and that at the age of fourscore and six years. We must not say, he was still young in proportion to his life, which was of an hundred and Seventy five years; fo● that thirteen years afterwards, he and Sarah, 
18. 11.  who was ten years younger, are named Old, and when God promised them a Son, She laughed as at an Incredible Wonder. How old soever Abraham was, and how desirous soever he might be to se● the Children of Isaac, yet he did not Marry him, till he was forty years old: And though Rebecca was twenty years barren, and then brought forth two Children at a Birth, which were All She ever had yet Isaac never had any other wife. True, that Jacob had at the same time two Wives and two concubines but 'tis fit we should see how. He remained Seventy Seven years with his Father, waiting for that blessing, which was due to him by the Promise of God and by the concession of his Brother. 
Gen. 29.  At that age began he to entertain thoughts of Marrying. He courted Rachel, but could not obtain her till after Seven years' Service. Thus was he at length married at Fourscore and four years old. Leah is given him against his will: Her he kept, that he might not leave her dishonoured: But as there was no law, which prohibited the having of several wives, or the marrying of two Sisters, he likewise took her, whom he had promised to marry. As she was found to be barren, She presented her Husband with a Slave, that he might have Children. This was a kind of Adoption, practised in those days; and her Sister did the same for the increase of their family. From all which St. Augustin draws this Inference: We do not read, that Jacob demanded more than one Wife, or that he made use of several, but as he kept exactly the laws of Conjugal Fidelity: 
Civit. 18. 38.  and we must not think, he had any other wife before for why should only the last be mad● mention of?  
Notwithstanding which, I do no● pretend to justify all the Patriarch● in this matter: 
Gen. 38.  The History o● Judah and of his Sons affords bu● too many examples to the Contrary. I aimed only at showing, tha● we ought not to accuse those o● Lewdness, and Incontinency, whom the Scripture points out as Th● Friends of God. For (in short,) sure I am, that men were very much corrupted about that time▪ Such was then in general the first Estate of the People of God. A●● immense Liberty without other Government than that of a Father who exercised an Absolute Monarchy in his Family; a Life very natural and very commodious in a great abundance of necessary, and a grea● contempt of superfluous things and an honest labour attended with care and industry, without disquiet and without Ambition. Proceed we now to the Second Estate, which is that of the Israelites after their coming out of Egypt until the Cap-Captivity of Babylon. It lasted above nine hundred years; and the greatest part of the Holy Scriptures do refer thereto.    

PART. II. Of the Israelites.  

CAP. I. Their Nobility.  
Tho' the People was already numerous, yet still were they called the Children of Israel, as being still but one Family: And the same was said of the Children of Edom, the Children of Moab, and so of others. And indeed all that people was not yet mingled; every one knew his Original, and took a pride to preserve the name of his Author. From whence it come●, the name of Children was taken a-among the Ancients for a Nation or a certain kind of People. H●mer very often says, the Children o● the Greeks and the Children of th● Trojans. The Grecians would say the Children of Physicians and Grammarians. Among the Hebrews th● Children of the East were the Eastern People, the Children of Beli●● were the wicked: And in the Gospel we frequently find the Childre● of the Bridegroom, meaning thos● who are invited to the Nuptials▪ and the Children of Darkness and 〈◊〉 Light.  
The Children of Israel were divided into twelve Tribes. 
Gen. 25. ●6.  In like manner were there twelve Tribes of th● Ismaelites, 
Xenoph. Cyrop.  and of the Persians. For Tribes at first comprehended all th● Inhabitants of Athens: Who we●● afterwards divided into ten, 〈◊〉 whom were given the names of 〈◊〉 ten Heroes, 
Demos. Te nocr. Leptin●● & ibi Ulian.  who were for that re●●son styled the Eponymi, and who● Statues were erected in the publi●● Market place. The People 〈◊〉 Rome was likewise distributed at 〈◊〉 into three or four Tribes: 〈◊〉 these were in process of ti mea●● augmented to the number of thirty five, whose names we are now acquainted withal. But those tribes of Athens and Rome were composed of Families gathered together to keep good order in Assemblies and in suffrages; whereas those of the Israelites were distinguished Naturally, and were but twelve Families descended from twelve Brethren, that is to say Relatives, according to the Language of the Eastern People, and truly noble, if ever any men upon Earth were noble. They had preserved in its purity the nobless of the Patriarches; the Law having renewed the Prohibition of Marrying Strangers: And if in some encounter this was not observed, 
Mat. 1. 5  they took care to mark out those Marriages as Irregular, which we may see in the Genealogy of JESUS CHRIST. Their families were very settled and bound by the law to certain Lands, where they of necessity remained during the nine hundred years, we speak of. Now we should (methinks) Esteem a Family very noble, that could show so long a Train of Generations with-without mis-allyance, and without change of abode. Few great men there are in Europe, who can prove so much.  
That which deceives us, is, we do not see among the Israelites Titles like to those of our Nobility. Each man was called plainly by his own name: But their names signified great things as well as those of the Patriarches. They often added the name of the Father either to make distinction or for Honour's sake, to show that the Father was a man of Reputation. 
Ib. 10. v. 68  We see in Homer the Grecians took it likewise for a mark of honour. Sometimes they gave for Surname the name of the mother, as when the Father had sundry wives, or when the mother was more illustrious. Thus Joab and his Brethren are ever called the Children of Zerviah, who was David's Sister. They also distinguished 'emselves sometimes by the top of their Particular Branch, by their City, or their Country, or by their Nation, if they were Originally Strangers; as Vriah the Hittite, and Ornan the Jebusite. Neither had the Greeks any other Surnames than those they drew from their Father or their Country. The Romans had Family-names, to which they only added the marks of some great Office or of some Illustrious Victory: But in the Public acts they evermore put their Father's name. Several Nations of Europe still do the same: And a great part of our Surnames come from the proper names of Fathers, which have continued to the Children. As for Titles of Lordships, they are but of about seven hundred years' Antiquity as well as the Lordships themselves. We must not then wonder to see in the Scripture David the son of Jess, and Solomon the son of David, no more than to see Alexander the son of Philip, and Ptolemy the son of Lagus in Greek or Latin Authors.  
The principal distinction, which Birth made among the Israelites was that of the Priests and Levites. All the tribe of Levi was consecrated to God, and had no other share than the Tenths and the first fruits, which it received from the other Tribes. Amongst all the Levites none but the Descendants of Aaron were Priests or Sacrificers; the rest, who were only Levites, were employed in the other Functions of Religion, in the Singing of Psalms, in looking to the Tabernacle or the Temple and in instructing of the People. The most illustrious was always that of Judah; and it was the most numerous of all too: and from thence Kings and the Messiah himself was to come, 
Gen. 49. 10  according to the Prophecy of Jacob. That of Ephraim held the second rank by reason of Joseph. Moreover, in each tribe the eldest Branches and the heads of each Family were considered; and all this made Saul say, being surprised at the honours he received from Samuel; Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the Tribes of Israel? 
1 Sam. 9 21.  and my Family the least of all the Family of the tribe of Benjamin?  
Age did likewise make a great Distinction, and the name of Old men in Scripture ordinarily signifies Dignity. And indeed nothing but Age and experiences could distinguish men, who were equally Noble and almost equally Rich, of the same Profession, and brought up after the same Manner.   

CAP. II. Their Occupations. Agriculture:  
FOr among the Israelites there were no distinct Professions. From the head of the tribe of Judah to the youngest of that of Benjamin, they all were Husbandmen and Shepherds, 
Judg. 19 16.  going themselves to plow, and looking after their own flocks. The old man of Gibeah, who lodged the Levite, whose Wife was violated, was returning in the Evening from his Labour out of the Field, 
Judg. 19 11.  when he invited him to come to his house. Gideon was himself thrashing his corn when an Angel told him, that he should deliver the People. Ruth found favour in the sight of Boaz by gleaning after his Reapers. When Saul received news of the danger, the City of Jabish Gilead was in, he was coming after the herd out of the field notwithstanding his being a King. 
1 Sam. 11. 5.  'Tis well known, David was keeping sheep, when Samuel sent to seek him out for the anointing of him King: 
16. 11.  And he returned to his flock after his having been called to play upon his Harp before Saul. 
2 Sam. 13.  After he was King, his Sons made a great Feast, when they sheared their sheep. 
1 Kings 19 19  Elisha was called to prophecy, as he was driving one of his Fathers twelve Ploughs. The Scripture being crowded with such examples.  
Without doubt 'tis this which most of all palls those, who are not acquainted with Antiquity, and only esteem our Manners. When we talk to 'em of Ploughman and Shepherds, they figure to themselves, such Peasants and Country Fellows as ours, leading a gloomy and painful life in Poverty and contempt, without Valour, wit or education. They do not consider, that what renders our Peasants so miserable is their being as the Servants of all other men; not only labouring for their own Subsistance, but for the furnishing of things necessary to all those, whom are looked upon to be above them in the World. For the Countryman it is, who nourisheth the Citizen, the Officer of Justice, the Gentleman & the Ecclesiastic; and what means soever are made use of to convert money into commodities or commodities into money, they must all still have relation to the Fruits of the Earth, and the living Creatures which it nourishes. Yet when we compare together all those different degrees of conditions, we place in the lowest Form those who till the ground and look to Cattle, and have more Esteem for gross and useless Citizens, without vigour of body, without industry, without any merit; because having more money, they lead a more easy and more pleasurable life. But if we fancy a Country, where the difference of Conditions was not so great; and where doing nothing was not to live Nobly, but to preserve carefully ones Liberty, that is, to be subject only to the Laws and the Public Power, standing on one's own Bottom without dependence on any body, and contenting one's self with a little rather than doing any low paltry base thing to grow rich; a Country, where they despised Idleness, Effeminacy, and the Ignorance of things necessary for Life, and where they had a less value for Pleasure than for Health and Strength of Body: In such a Country it would be much more Decent and Gentile to Plough or keep a Flock (let the words sound never so oddly) than to play and sport away a man's whole life. Now we need not have recourse to the Common wealth of Plato to find men of this quality and condition; since thus it was, that the greatest part of the world lived, during near Four thousand years.  
To begin with what we are best acquainted, such were the Maxims of the Greeks and Romans. In Homer we see every where, Kings and Princes living upon the Fruits of their Lands and their Flocks, and labouring with their own hands. Hesiod has made a Poem on purpose to recommend the Country-life and toil, as the only honest means of subsisting and growing rich. And he blames his Brother, to whom he addresses it, for living at the expense of others by pleading causes and soliciting Affairs. That employment he brands with the name of Laziness, which among us is the calling of so many People. And we may see by the Economics of Xenophon, that the Grecians had diminished nothing of that Esteem for Agriculture, even in the time of their greatest Politeness.  
We ought not therefore to attribute the Assiduities of the Ancient Romans in the improvement of their lands, to their Barbarity and grossness in learning: 'Tis rather a sign of their good sense. As all men are born with arms and bodies proper for Labour, they believed that all were obliged to make use of them, and that they could not employ 'em better, than in drawing from the Earth a certain subsistence, and so growing Innocently rich. Nevertheless it was not Avarice which engaged them in that way of living, seeing they (as 'tis well known) despised Gold, and the Presents of Foreigners. Neither did this hinder them from being a brave and a Warlike People; in regard it was at the same time, that they subdued all Italy, and acquired those immense Forces, which they employed afterward in the conquest of the World. On the contrary, a painful and frugal Country-life was the Principal cause of their great Strength, making their Bodies robust, & hardened to Labour, and accustoming them to svere Discipline. Whoso knows the life of Cato the Censor cannot suspect him guilty of baseness of heart or of Lowness of Spirit. Yet that great man, who had passed through all the Offices of the Republic, when it was in its greatest Force, who had governed Provinces and commanded Armies; a great Orator; a great Lawyer, and great Politician; This great man did not disdain to write a Treatise concerning all the ways, that are necessary for the emproving of Lands and Vineyards, and how Stables and Houses were to be built for the several sorts of Cattle, and how a Press was to be made for Wine or Oil; and all these to the most minute Circumstances: Insomuch as we may see, that he was perfectly acquainted with them, and that he wrote for Use and not for Ostentation.  
Let us then confess seriously, that the contempt we have for the Country toil and labour, is not founded upon any solid reason; seeing that Labour perfectly well suits with courage, with all the Virtues of War and Peace, and likewise with true Policy. But from whence comes this Contempt? 'Tis requisite to discover its true source. It only proceeds from the Customs and ancient Manners of (our) Nation. The Franks and other Germane People lived in Countries covered with Woods; where they had neither Corn nor Wine nor good Fruits. Thus they were forced to live on Hunting, as the Savages of the Northern parts of America do at this Day. But having passed the Rhine and settled themselves in better Territories, they were willing to take advantage of the conveniencies of Agriculture Arts and Commerce; but they were loath to take the pains necessary thereunto. They left those Occupations to the Romans, whom they for their own parts had subdued, and remained in their primitive Ignorance, which at length they took a pride in, and fixed to it an Idea of Nobility, which (we) can hardly rid ourselves of. But as much as they debased Agriculture, so much they extolled Hunting, which the Ancients had a much less Value for. They have made a great Art of it, and improved it with all manner of artifice; they have neither spared pains nor Cost in it, and have made it one of the most general Professions of their Nobility Yet, to consider things in themselves, The labour, which tends to the Cultivating of Lands and to the breeding of Domestic Animals, is assuredly as much to be valued, as that which only makes to the taking of wild Beasts, of ten times at the expense of cultivated Lands. The moderate exercise of a man, who looks to a great Farm, is without question as beneficial as the violent and uneven exercise of the Hunter, and Oxen and Sheep are Creatures at least as useful to life as Dogs and Horses. So that we may doubt, if our manners be more Rational in this point than those of the Ancients.  
Besides not only the Greeks and Romans honoured Agriculture as well as the Hebrews; The Carthaginians too (Phoenicians originally) made a mighty study of it, as appears by the Eight and twenty Books, 
Vanon Pr●f,  which Magon wrote upon that Argument. The Egyptians honoured it to that degree, 
Xenoph. Oecon  as to adore those living Creatures, which were made use of in the Management of this Affair. In the greatest Power of the Persians, they had in each province Superintendants to look to the Tillage of Lands; and Cyrus the younger took delight to planting and cultivating a Garden with his own hands. As for the Chaldeans we cannot doubt, but they were great Husbandmen, 
He●od. 1.  if we consider the fertility of the Plains of Babylon, which brought forth two or three hundred Grains for one. In Short, the History of China tells us, that Agriculture was there likewise very much in vogue in their best and most Ancient times. It was only the Conquests of the Northern People, which have caused the Country Labourer to be slighted through the whole World.  
Let us then lay aside those low and scurvy Ideas, which we have taken up from our Infancy. Instead of our Villages, where we see on one side Halls and Houses of Pleasure, and on the other Miserable Cottages, let us figure to ourselves those great Farms, which the Romans called Villas, that comprehended the Master's house, the outward Court, the Barns, the Stables, and the Lodgings for Slaves; all these in symmetry well built, well looked after, and very neat. Descriptions hereof may be seen in Varro and Columella. Those Slaves were for the most part much more happy than (our) Peasants; well fed, well clothed, without any care of their Wives and Children. The Masters, notwithstanding they were Farmers, Lived more at their ease than our Gentlemen. 
Xenoph. O●●●n.  In Xenophon you see a Citizen of Athens early in the Morning a walking in his Lands and visiting his workmen, Labouring the same time for his health by the Exercise of his Body, and for the increase of his Estate by his Industry in its improvement: Insomuch as he was rich enough to contribute to his Religion, to the Service of the State, and to his Friends. Cicero speaks of Several Husbandmen in Sicily so rich and so Magnificent, 
Lib. 4. in Verr. sign.  that their Houses were adorned with Statues of great price, and they made use of Vessels of Silver and Gold curiously wrought.  
Finally, we must acknowledge, that as long as the most rich of each Country have not disdained this Profession, which of all is the most Ancient, their lives were much more happy, because they were more Natural. They lived much Longer and in better Health; they had Bodies more adapted to the Fatigues of War and of Voyages; and their Wits were more solid and more serious. Being less idle, the time was less irksome to 'em; and they did not make it so much their cue to taste of Pleasures; Labour rendering them sensible of the least divertisement. They thought less of what is evil, and had less Interest to do it: For their plain and frugal life gave no occasion for great Expenses or great Debts. And consequently there were not so many Law suits nor Destructions of Families; not so many frauds and violences; nor so much of every Crime, that imaginary or real Beggary causes those to commit, who neither can nor will Work. The worst is, the Examples of the Rich and Noble hurries away all others, and is the occasion, that all those, who fancy 'emselves situated above the dregs of the People, are ashamed to work, especially in Lands. This is the cause of so many efforts to subsist by industry; this is what makes us daily invent new artifices for the passage of money from one Purse to another. How innocent all these same forced ways of Living are, God knows: For the most part they are at least very brittle and uncertain; whereas the Earth will ever nourish those, who cultivate it, if others deprive them not, of what it bestows. The Israelites only sought their subsistence in the most natural Goods, Lands and Cattle, from whence all must necessarily be drawn that makes men rich by the Manufactures of Merchandise, the Rents or Commerce of money.   

CAP. III. The quality of the Holy Land, and its Fruitfulness.  
THeir Land was that Land promised to the Patriarches, whereof the Scripture so often says, that it Flowed with Milk and Honey, to denote its great Fertility. This Country, which is so hot in comparison of ours, is very far in the Temperate Zone between the 31 and the 33 degree of Latitude. It is bounded on the South by great Mountains, which put a stop to the burning air of the Deserts of Arabia, and they continue very far to the East as well as those Deserts. The Mediterranean Sea, which bounds it on the West, sends thither refreshing breezes: And mount Libanus seems to have been placed more towards the North to make the Colder blasts keep their due distance. The Midland Sea it is, what the Scripture usually calls the great Sea; for the Hebrews were little acquainted with the Ocean, and so they gave the name of Sea to Lakes and to any large conflux of waters. The Inner part of the Country is diversified with Mountains and Hills, advantageous for Vines, Fruit-trees and small Cattle: And the frequent Valleys gave way to a number of Torrents very necessary to water the Country, which had no other River besides Jordan. The Rains there fall very seldom, but are very Regular; coming in the Spring and Autumn; which the Scripture calls the Rain of the Morning and the Evening, considering the year as a Day. In Summer the abundant dews supply the rarity of the Showers. There are Plains proper for Husbandry and Pasture; and that variety of the Earth in a little space does form Landscapes very agreeable to the View, especially when a Country is well inhabited and well cultivated.  
For we must not judge of the Holy Land by the State we see it in at this Day. Since the time o● the Croisadoes, it was ravaged by continual Wars, until it fell under the Dominion of the Turks. Thus it is almost desert: nothing to be seen but baleful Villages▪ ruins, unmanured and abandoned Lands. The Turks neglect it, a● they neglect all their Provinces and several families of Arabia Bedovins may encamp and pillage there with impunity. Wherefor● to know, what it was formerly 'tis necessary, to consult ancient Authors, as Strabo, Pliny, Josephus, and above all the Holy Scripture. See but the relation th● Spies of Moses gave thereof and the prodigious cluster of Grapes which they brought. 
Numb. 13. 24.  Which tha● you may not wonder at; compa●● the Grapes of France with those o● Italy, which is a cold Country i● proportion to Palestine. 'Tis th● same thing with most of our European Fruits. The greatest part o● their Names still show that they cam● to us from Asia and Africa; but wit● their names they have not conserved their bigness and natural savour▪  
The Israelites gathered a great quantity of Wheat and Barley; and the pure Breadcorn is counted for the chief Merchandise, which they carried to Tyre. Oil they had and honey in abundance. 
Ezech. 27. 17.  The Mountains of Juda and of Ephraim were places of great Vineyards: Round about Jericho there were Palmtrees of vast Revenue, through their sudden springing up, after they were lopped or felled: and it was the only part of the World where true Balm was to be found.  
This Fruitfulness of the Country and the care which they took to cultivate it, may make us conceive, how that being so little it could nourish so great a number of men: For it will at first require Faith to believe all that the Scripture says in this case. When the People entered first into that Country, there were above six hundred thousand men bearing arms, from twenty years old to Sixty. In the War of Gibeah the only Tribe of Benjamin, 
Jud. 20. 51. 17.  the least of all, had an Army of twenty six thousand men: And that of the rest of the People mounted to four hundred thousand. Saul had two hundred and ten thousand men against the Amalekites, when he extirpated them. David kept continually on foot twelve Bodies of twenty four thousand apiece, who served by months, which was in all two hundred and Fourscore thousand men. And in the Numbering of the People, which brought the anger of God upon him, there were found thirteen hundred thousand able men. 
2 Sam. 24. 9  Jehoshaphat went much farther in proportion; for albeit he had but little more than the third part of David's Kingdom, he had several Bodies of very good Troops, which altogether made up Eleven hundred and Sixty thousand men effectively, all under his hand, without reckoning the Garrisons of his Holds.  
In all this there is nothing incredible: We see the like examples in Profane Histories. 
Tacit. Annal. 2.  The great Thebes of Egypt furnished Seven hundred thousand brave Soldiers of it's own Inhabitants alone. 
Liv. 1. c. 24  At Rome in the first year of Servins Tullus, being the hundred and eighty eight of its Foundation, there were counted Fourscore thousand Citizens capable of bearing Arms. Yet they could only subsist by the lands in the Vicinage of Rome, and whereof the most part is now barren and uninhabited: For their Domination extended no farther than eight or ten Leagues. Herein the Ancients laid the principal foundation of their Policy. They relied much less upon Cunning than upon downright force. Instead of applying themselves to maintain correspondence among their Neighbours, Instead of fomenting Divisions amongst them, and Procuring to 'emselves a Reputation by false reports, they endeavoured to people and manure their Country, and to improve it as much as they could, whether it was little or great. They studied to render Marriages happy, and life easy, to procure Health and Abundance, and to draw from their Land all that it could produce. They exercised their Citizens by labour, inspired them with a love of their Country, of union between themselves and submission to the Laws. This is what they called Policy. These Maxims, perchance some one will say, are very pretty: But let us come to particulars, and show how 'tis possible, so small a Country as Palestin should nourish so great a number of men. Which to make appear, we must have the Patience to calculate and undertake the work by Retail: Tho it may seem a low thing and be offensive to nice Readers.  
An Acre of good Land brings●forth 
† Comes to about five Quarters, a Comb, & a Bushel of corn London measure.  un muid de bled, measure d● Paris; which would easily nourish four men: For a man consume but 
* Contains about three Bushels.  un minot a month, giving him two pound and six ounces o● Bread every Day. This is the but three 
† twelve Bushels over or under.  Septiers a year. But a● our Israelites were great Eaters, will allow them double the nourishment, that is to say, four poun● twelve ounces of Bread a day▪ Thus an Acre will be sufficient 〈◊〉 feed two men, and by this accounts we shall have land still remaining▪ For a League square makes fi● thousand six hundred and twenty five Acres, by reckoning 3000 Geometrical Paces in a League, five Foot in a Pace, twenty Feet in a Rod, and a hundred Roods in an Acre. The Kingdom of Judea was at least thirty Leagues in length, above twenty in breadth, 
See Frag●. of 〈◊〉 Hecat. in Josephus  counting the length from East to West, which was six hundred Leagues, 
1 Cont. Ap. 8.  and by consequence three Millions three hundred and sixty five thousand Acres, which according to my Calculation might nourish twice as many men; that is, six millions Seven hundred and Fifty thousand. But half of the Lands I deduct for those, that may prove barren, for the Rocks, Sands, and little Deserts here and there intermingled, for Yineyards and Pastures, and for the repose, which the Land requires at least every Seventh year. There remains enough to nourish a number of men equal to the Sum total of the Acres, that is to say, three millions three hundred threescore & five thousand. So it was easy to Appoint twelve hundred thousand Swordmen in a Country Country, where all people bore arms; and still to have Corn to sell to Strangers towards the purchase of Cattle: For we may doubt, if the nourishment, that Country produced, did sufficiently furnish 'em with wool and eatables of Flesh. Yet otherwise the Tributary Strangers brought them many Cattle. Jehoshaphat beside the Tribute of Moneys, which he exacted from the Philistines, received from the Arabians seven thousand five hundred Rams and as many Goats; and there are other examples of the like Tributes. Add to this, that the Israelites lived plainly, and that all the good land they had, was carefully cultivated; since there were few woods, they had neither Parks for hunting, nor avenues nor bowling-greens and grass-plats. We see by the Canticles of Solomon, their Gardens were full of Fruit-trees and aromatic plants. And they must needs be in less pain to provide Lodging than nourishment, for as much as not only half an Acre of Land but a Quarter, is more than sufficient to lodge at large not only a man, but a whole Family.   

CAP. VII. The Estates of the Israelites.  
THus each Israelite had his field to cultivate, being the same that had been allotted to his Ancestors in the time of Josuah. They could neither change Place, nor ruin themselves, nor grow too rich. The Law of the Jubilee had provided against such like encounters, revoking every fifty years all such alienations, and annulling all obligations. By these means Disquiet and Ambition were retrenched: Every individual person applied himself with affection to the improvement of his Inheritance, knowing, it would never go out of his Family. 
1 King. 21. 3.  This Application was likewise a Religious Duty, founded upon the Law of God: And from hence came the generous Resistance of Naboth, when King Ahab would have persuaded him to have sold the Inheritance of his Fathers. Moreover the Law says, that they were but the Usufructuaries of their Lands, 
Levit. 25. 23.  God being the true Proprietor. For this reason, they were charged with no other payment than the tenths and first fruits. Thus all the Israelites were almost equal in their estates as well as in Nobility: And if the multiplying of a Family obliged 'em to share the Lands into more portions, the Cattle might supply the want of Lands.  
Thus Cattle and other movables were that which mainly occasioned the inequality of estates. That was all the substance of the Levites, seeing they had no Lands, and had preserved the Pastoral life so much esteemed of by the Patriarches. They bred the same kinds of animals and ever more Females than Males: Other wise it would have redounded to their damage, 
Levit. 22. 24.  the Law prohibiting to cut them. They had no horses, neither are they of great use in mountainous places: Their Kings were supplied from Egypt, when they had occasion for 'em. Asses were most commonly used, as they are still through all the Levant: But they are there much finer and stronger than in our cold Countries. To give a great Idea of Jair, one of the Judges, who ruled the People, 
Jud. 10. 4.  the Scripture says, that he had thirty Sons mounted on thirty asses, and they were Heads of thirty Cities. 'Tis said of Abdon, another of the Judges, that he had forty Sons and thirty Grandsons, mounted upon sixty and ten Asses. 
12. 14.  It does not appear that they had any great number of Slaves: Nor indeed had they any great occasion for them, being themselves so laborious and so numerous in so small a Country. They chose rather to set their Children to work, whom they were obliged to maintain, and they were the better served by them. The Romans at length found themselves highly incommoded by that infinite multitude of Slaves of all Nations, whom Luxury and effeminacy had brought amongst them: And it was one of the pirncipal causes of that Empire's ruin. Ready money could not be very common among the Israelites▪ it was of no great use in a Country, where immovable Goods could not be Alienated, nor debts contracted but only for a time, 
Levit. 25. 8.  commonly very short, 
Deut. 15. 1. 3.  and never longer than fifty years, and where there was little Traffic. 
Levit. 25. 36. etc.  Usury was forbidden amongst the Israelites, but permitted with Strangers. 
Deut. 23. 19  But according to the Law 'twas not easy to have commerce with those without, and there tarried none in the Country but who were Proselytes, that is to say, Circumcised and incorporated with the People of God. Thus their estates (as I have said) consisted chief in Lands and in Cattle.   

CAP. VIII. Of the Arts and Trades of the Israelites.  
I Know no people, who addicted themselves more entirely to Agriculture than the Israelites. The Egyptians and Syrians joined Manufacture thereunto, as also Navigation and commerce; Especially the Phoenicians, who finding themselves too closely cooped up on the coasts, since that the Israelites had driven them from the Inlands, were forced to live by their industry, and to be as the carrier's and Factor's of all other nations. The Greeks imitated them, and particularly excelled in Arts and Sciences. On the contrary, the Romans had these in no great value, but addicted themselves very much to commerce. As for the Israelites their Land was sufficient to nourish them, 
Jos. 1. cont. App. 4.  and the seacoasts were for the most part possessed by the Philistines and Canaanites, who are the Phoenicians. There was only the Tribe of Zebulon, whose share being upon the Sea, invited 'em to traffic, which methinks is shown in the blessings of Jacob and Moses. 
Gen. 49. 13.  Neither do I see, that they applied themselves to Manufacture. 
Deut. 33. 19  Not but that those Arts were invented, the greatest part of 'em, being more ancient than the Deluge; and it appearing also, that the Israelites did not want excellent work men even in the time of Moses. Besaleel and Oholiab, 
Exod. 31. 4 5. 36. 37. etc.  who made the Tabernacle and all that was necessary for the service of God, are an Illustrious example hereof: 'Tis astonishing, how many very different and most difficult arts they understood. They knew how to cast and work up metals; they knew, how to cut and engrave precious Stones: They were Joiner's, Embroiderers, Tapestry-makers and Perfumers. Among those Arts, two there are, which I principally admire; The cutting of Stones, and the casting of Figures, such as were the CheCherubins of the Ark and the Golden Calf, 
Exod. 3● 4.  which was made much about the same time. Those, who have but the least knowledge in Arts, know how much Artifice and how many Machine's are required for works of that nature. If from that time they were found out, they had already very much refined them, and such arts too, as only serve for ornament, and if they had some secret to do things more easily and with less clutter, it was undoubtedly a great perfection. Let this be said by the by, for to show, that Antiquity at so monstrous a distance, was not gross and ignorant, as some fond imagine: And truly the World was now above two thousand five hundred years old in the time of Moses.  
But whether those two famous Workmen had been instructed by the Egyptians, or their knowledge was miraculous and inspired by God, as the Scripture seems to intimate; it does not appear, that they had Successors, nor that, even in the time of their Kiugs, there were a midst the Israelites any Artificers by Profession, who wrought for the Public. When Solomon undertook the building of the Temple, 
1 Kings 5. 6.  he demanded workmen of the King of Tyre. You know, said he to him, that I have no body amongst my people, who knows how to work in wood like the Sydonians: and he sent for an excellent founder of Metals, Hiram by name, to make the sacred Vessals. 
7. 13.  In the beginning of Saul's Reign 'tis shown, that there was not any workman, 
1 Sam. 13. 19  who knew how to forge Iron through all the Land of Israel; and that they were forced to go down to the Philistines to refit their instruments of Husbandry. The truth is, this was an effect of the Philistines oppression to hinder them from making of arms. But several years after, David was constrained in his flight to take Goliah's sword, which must have been somewhat heavy for him, and that out of the Tabernacle of the Lord, where it was hung up as an eternal Monument of his Victory. This makes me believe, there were no Arms to be bought. It is also probable, that they sold no Bread, since on the same occasion, the Priest Abimelech was reduced to give David of the hallowed Bread: Which also shows, they kept little bread in their Houses, peradventure by reason of the violent heat of the Country. 
1 Sam. 28. 24.  In like manner the Witch, whom Saul addressed himself to, made Bread on purpose to give him to eat, that she might recover him from his weakness. At Rome there were no Bakers till the year five hundred and eighty of its Foundation. 
Plin. 17. 11.   
Entering into the particulars of Trades, we should know, that most were of no use at all to them. Their plain way of Living, and the sweetness of their Climate exempted them from that great train of Conveniences, which, we believe, we cannot well be without, and wherewith our womanish vanities rather than any real Hardstraits do trouble and perplex us. And as to things in their own nature necessary, there were very few, but which they knew how to make ' emselves. Whatsoever served for nourishment, was prepared in their houses. The women made and prepared Bread to eat; they Spun, they made Stuffs and clothes: 
Odies. 14.  The men did the rest. Homer describes the good man Eumeus amaking his own shoes, and says, he had built for his Herds very gallant and magnificent Stables. 
Odies. 23.  Ulysses himself built his own house, and made that bed with great art, the structure whereof served to make him known to his Lady. When he departed from Calypso's house, 
Od. 5.  it was he alone that built and rigged out his own ship. By which we may see the wit & humou of those ancient times. 'Twas an honour for every one to know, how to do every thing himself, that was useful to life, and not to depend on another: And this is, what Homer, mostly calls Knowledge and wisdom. Now the Authority of Homer seems to me very great in all this. 
Marm. Arundel.  He lived in the time of the Prophet Elias towards the coast of Asia minor: And what ever he sets down of the Principles and Manners of the Greeks and Trojans has a marvellous coherence, with what the Scripture tells us of the Hebrews and other Oriental nations: were it not, that the Grecians being of a later date, were likewise less Polite.  
After Solomon and the division of the Kingdoms, when Luxury was patronised and increased, very credible it is, that there were then more Artificers. And indeed mention is sometimes made of them in those latter times. I see in the Genealogy of the Tribe of Judah a place called the Valley of Craftsmen: because says the Scripture, Serviah begat Joab, 
1 Chron. 4. 14. 21. 23.  the father of the valley of Carasim, for they were Craftsmen. I see there a Family of workmen of fine linen, and another of Potters, who wrought for the King, and dwelled in his Garden. All this shows the honour that was paid to arts, and the care which was taken to preserve the memory of such Persons, who applied themselves that way. 
Isai. 3. 3.  The Prophet Isaiah in his menaces against Jerusalem foretells that God would take away her Artificers: And when that City was taken, 'tis said several times, that the Enemy carried away all the Craftsmen. 
2 Kings 24. 14.  But for a proof, that they had never any great Manufactures, is that of the Prophet Ezechiel, who describing the affluence of the Merchandises, which came to Tyre, makes nothing to be brought thither from the Land of Judah and Israel, 
Ezech. 27.  than pure Wheat, Oil, Grapes, and Balm, all Merchandises, which the Earth itself produces.  
Such were the Occupations of the Israelites and their Manner of Subsistance. Let us now go on to something more particular, and describe as far as possible their Habits, their Lodgings, their Movables, their Food, and all their way of Living. They rose betimes in the morning▪ as the Scripture shows in an infinite number of Places, that is to say, as often as mention is made of any important action. From whence it proceeds, that in its style. To rise betimes, signifies to do a thing with care and with affection: 
2 Chorn. 36. 15.  And thus it says frequently, 
Jerem. 7. 13.  that God rose betimes to send Prophets to his People, to exhort them unto Repentance. 
11. 7. 35. 14.  This is a consequence of a Country life: and the Greeks and Romans followed the same custom. They rose early, and Laboured till the Evening: About five aclock they bathed, went afterwards to Supper, and then betimes to bed.   

CAP. IX. Their Apparel.  
AS to the Habits of the Israelites we cannot know exactly the form of them. They made no figures, and we cannot be well instructed of such things but only by the eyes. But we may guests at them by the Images we have left us of the Greeks and other Ancients. As for the modern Pictures, most of them serve only to give us false IIdeas I do not only speak of those Gothick Pictures, wherein all persons of what time and Country soever are clothed like those, whom the Painter was used to see, that is, French and Almains two or three hundred years ago: I speak of the works of the greatest Painters, except Rafael, Poussin, with some few others, who have studied Antiquity and the manners of all ages. The rest of the Painters understood no other Artifice than just to paint the Levantines, such, as they saw them at Venice, and other Ports of Italy, and the Histories of the Jews in the new Testament in the garb of their own Country. However as most part of the figures of the holy History are copied from these kinds of originals, they have filled us with impressions from our infancy, and we are accustomed to represent the Patriarches to ourselves with Turbans and Beards down to their girdle, and the Pharisees in the Gospel with Bonnets and Pouches. In all this there's no great harm to be mistaken: but 'tis much better not to be deceived. The Ancients usually wore long habits, as most people in the world do still at this day, & as they in France did but two hundred years ago. It is much easier and sooner done to cover ourselves at one bout, than to clothe each part of the body, one after another: And those long Vestments have more dignity in 'em and more real beauty. In hot Countries they have ever worn their habits large, and have been in little pain to cover their arms or legs, or to wear any other sort of shoes than Buskins tied after different ways. Thus their clothes hardly had any fashion; being only pieces of Stuff, that were made according to the Largeness and figure, which the habit was to have, where there was nothing to cut, and little to sow. They did not alter their modes, as at this day they do not change them throughout all the Levant. Besides, women and young People, who usually invent Modes, had there very little Authority. From thence it comes, that they kept such great Magazines of clothes, and that it was so common to make presents of them. 
Horat. l 1. Epist. 6.  In the wardrobe of Lucullus there were found five thousand Chlamydes, which were a kind of warlike cloaks. And hereby we may judge of the rest. They usually gave two changes of Raiment, that they might have wherewith to vary, and might wear one, while the other was washing, being in this like our Shifts.  
Their Stuffs were for the most part made of wool. In Egypt and Syria they wore linen and cotton: But silk was still unknown in the time of the Israelites: The use of which did not become common on this side the Indies, until above five hundred years after JESUS CHRIST. The beauty of clothes consisted in the colour or fineness of the Stuffs. The white, the Purple-red, and the Violet were most esteemed; and it seems, that white was the most ordinary colour among the Israelites as well as the Romans; 
Eccl. 9 8.  since Solomon says, Let thy Garments be always white, that is, be always neat. And in-indeed nothing is more plain and simple, than to make u●e of wool or linen, such as nature produces without dying. The youngmen and maids wore striped garments of divers colours. 
Gen. 37. 23  Such was the Robe of Joseph, which his Brethren stripped him of, when they resolved to sell him; and such were the Robes of the King's Daughters in the time of David. 
2 Sam. 19 18.  The ornaments of clothes were fringes and borders of Purple or Embroidery, with some Clasps of Gold or Jewels in places where they were necessary. Their magnificence consisted in often changing, and in wearing none, but what were very neat and whole. Besides we shall not doubt, but the Israelites were clothed very plainly, if we consider, how plain the Garments were of the Greeks and Romans even in the time of their greatest Luxury. We may see the Antique Statues, the Trajan Column, and other Bas-reliefs.  
The Habits, which the Scripture usually mentions, are the Tunick and the Cloak. In these two the Grecian and Roman Habit did only consist. The Tunick was large; but when they were to walk or be in action, they made use of a Girdle. Hence comes that Phrase so frequent in Scripture, Arise, Gird up thy Loins, and do this. The Hebrews had their heads covered with a kind of a round and wreathed ornament as well as the Persians and Chaldeans; for it was a token of mourning to go bareheaded: And they wore their hair; since to shave the head was another mark of mourning. As for the Beard 'tis very certain, they wore it long, by the example of the Ambassadors, 
2 Sam. 10.  whom David sent to the King of the Ammonites, and whom that ill-advised King caused to be shaved by way of affront: Insomuch as they were compelled to remain some time at Jericho to let their beards grow, before they durst show their faces. He also caused their Garments to be half cut off after a manner, which makes it appear, they wore 'em long. They bathed often, as People still do in hot Countries, and washed their feet oftener than they bathed: for that wearing only Sandals, they could not walk without gathering up dust. And upon this account the Scripture frequently speaks of their washing of their feet, when they came into a House, or went to eat or to sleep▪ Now as water dries the skin and hair, they anointed themselves either with plain Oil or aromatic Unguents, which we may call Essences or Pomatums, and which they still make great use of in the Indies.  
We see in several places of the Scripture, how the women dressed and decked themselves. God reproaching Jerusalem with its Infidelities under the figure of a Husband, 
Ezech. 16. 9  who has drawn his wife from the utmost misery to heap favours upon her, says by the prophet Ezechiel, that he had given her very fine stuffs and those of divers colours, a girdle of fine linen, 
Pictâ Lupa barbara mitrâ. Juv. Sat▪ 3.  purple shoes, bracelets, necklaces, pendants, and a crown or rather a mitre, such as the Syrian women wore a long time after; and that he had adorned her with Gold, Silver, and fine Linen. When Judith decked herself to go find out Holofernes, 'tis said, she washed and anointed herself; she put her hair in order, 
Jud. 10. 3. etc.  and a crown upon her head; she took her habit of joy, put on Sandals, and loaded herself with bracelets, pendants, and rings. In short, a more particular account we cannot desire of these ornaments of women than that which we read in Isaiah, 
Isai. 3. 16.  when he reproaches the Daughters of Zion with their Luxury and vanity. And indeed Corruption was then mounted to it's highest point.   

CHAP. X. Of their Movables and their Houses.  
THere is less need of moveables in hot Countries than in ours, and the simplicity of the Israelites in all the rest gives us occasion to believe, that they had but very few. The Law speaks much of wooden and earthern vessels: And the latter was very common with the Greeks and Romans, before that Luxury had obtained among them. Mention is made thereof, when the refreshments are specified, that were brought to David during the war of Absolom. 
1 Sam. 17. 20.  We see the mova●bles, that were looked upon as most necessary, in those words of the Sunamite who lodged the prophet Elisha: 
2 Kings 4. 18.  let us make I pray thee, said she to her Husband, a little chamber on the wall, and let us set for him there a bed, and a Table, and a stool, and a candlestick. Their Beds were only Couches without hangings or curtains, except slight Pavilions, which the Greeks called Canopies, because they served to keep off flies and gnats. The most magnificent had beds of Ivory, 
Am. 6. 4.  as the prophet Amos reproaches the rich of his time; and the most nice made their beds of Down, garnished 'em with precious Stuffs, and sprinkled them with sweet-scented waters. 
Prov. 7 16.  They also set their beds against thew alls. It is said, that King Ezechias having heard the menaces of his approaching death turned towards the Wall to weep▪ 
1 King. 21. 4.  And the same is said of Ahab in regret, that Naboth had refused him his Vine-yard.  
The Candlestick, which we find in the inventory of Elisha's moveables, was apparently one of those great Candlesticks, that were placed on the ground to hold one or more Lamps. Till then and a long time afterwards, that is to say, in the time of the Romans, nothing was burnt but Oil to give light. And for this reason we meet so frequently in Scripture with the expression of Lamp, for all, that enlightens the body or mind, that conducts, and that makes men to rejoice. There's no likelihood, they had Tapestries in their houses: None such are used in any of the hot Countries, in regard naked Walls are much cooler. 
Ezech. 27. 2▪  They only made use of Foot-carpets to sit or lie down on; and the use of them is shown in Ezechiel amidst the Merchandizes, which the Arabians brought to Tyre. Mention is likewise made of Carpets among the Refreshments, that were carried to David: Which gives us reason to believe, the 〈◊〉 made use of them in the 〈◊〉 for in their houses they had seats.  
Their houses were different from ours, in all that we still see in hot Countries. Their roofs are terrassed; their windows only shut with Lattcies or with curtains: there are no Chimneys: They lie as low as possible. That the roofs were flat in the Land of Israel and in the Countries round about, many proofs there are in Scripture Rahab concealed the spies of Joshua upon the roof of her house. 
Jos. 2. 6.  When Samuel declared to Saul, 
1 Sam. 9 25.  that God had chosen him for King, he made him lie all night upon the roof, a thing still usual in hot Countries. David was walking upon the roof of his Palace, when he saw Bathsheba washing herself. 
2 Sam. 11. 2.  Absolom caused a Tent to be pitched on the roof of the same Palace, when he abused his father's Concubines, 
2 Sam. 16. 22.  that no body might be ignorant of that action, which was as the taking possession of the Kingdom. They went upon the roofs in great Alarms, as we may see by a couple of passages in Isaih. 
Isai. 15. 3. 22. 1.  All this does show the reason of that Law, which ordered a Wall to be made round about the roofs for leaning, lest that some might be killed by falling down, and also does explain that expression in the Gospel, What has been told you in the ear, publish it on the Housetops. Each House was a Scaffold ready set up for any that had a mind to make themselves heard afar of.  
The bars of the Windows are shown in the Proverbs and Canticles of Solomon, 
Prov. 7. 6.  and in the History of the death of Ahaziah King of Israel. 
Cant. 2. 9  When King Johachim burned the book, 
2 King. 1. 2.  which Jeremiah had written by command Divine, 
Jerem. 36. 22.  he was in his winter apartment, seated before a fire of a Pan of coals: From whence we may conclude, they had no Chimneys, which truly are the inventions of cold Countries. In hot ones they content themselves, in case they have Furnaces for the Kitchin. They built very much with Stone, and knew how to cut it into large portions. In the Edifices of Solomon, we have mention made of Stones of eight and ten cubits, which are twelve and Fifteen Feet, 
1 Kings 7. 9 10.  and by what is there named costly Stones, unquestionably is meant a certain sort of Marble. The beauty of their Buildings consisted less in ornaments placed in some parts than in the entire form of the whole in the cut and joining of the Stones. They took care, that all should be well united and in good proportion to the lead square and compass. Thus Homer speaks of the Buildings, which he commends; and we still admire this kind of beauty in the structures of the Ancient Egyptians. 
1 Kings 6 18. 7. 2 3▪ etc.  The Israelites made use of sweet scented-woods, as Cedar and Cyprus to wainscot the buildings of the Wealthy, 
Cant. 3. 6.  in their making of Pillars and Columns. 
2 Sam. 7. 2.  Which we see by the Temple and the Palaces of Solomon: And David says, he dwelled in an house of Cedar, to import, that he was lodged magnificently.   

CAP. XI. Their Food.  
AS for what concerns their Table, they ate sitting, as the Greeks in the days of Homer: And 'tis necessary to observe it for the distinction of times. For afterwards it is said, since the Reign of the Persians, 
Esth 1. 6, 7, 8.  that they did eat lying upon beds like the Persians and the Eastern people, from whom the Greeks and Romans borrowed likewise that custom. The Regular people did eat after having wrought, 
Eccl. 10. 16.  and that very late. For this cause to eat and drink in the morning denotes Disorder and Debauchery. 
Isai. 5. 11.  Very plain was their Food: For the most part they talked only of eating bread and drinking water. From whence it comes, that the word Bread is usually taken in Scripture for all manner of meats. They broke their bread without cutting it, because they only made little long or thin loaves, as is still done in several Countries. The first favour, 
Ruth 2. 9 14.  Boaz granted to Ruth, was to drink of the same water with his People, to come eat with him and to dip her bread in vinegar: And we see by the Compliments she made him, that this favour was no small one. 
1 Sam. 25. 18.  We may judge of their most ordinary Victuals by the entertainments, 
2 Sam. 16.  which David received on sundry occasions form Abigail, 
2 Sam. 19  from Ziba and from Barzillai, and by the Provisions those people brought, who came to him in Hebron. The different kinds shown there, are bread and wine, wheat and barley, flower of them both, beans and lentels, 
1 Chron: 12. V.  dried Pease, Grapes and Figs, Honey, 
●mlen. Al. 2 Paedag. 1 in.  Butter, Oil, Sheep, Oxen, and fatted Calves. Among these particulars were several sorts of grain and pulse; which were indeed the most ordinary food of the Ancient Egyptians: And the Romans in the best times, and when they most of all applied themselves to Agriculture, did scarcely live on any thing else. 'Tis well known, from whence comes the illustrious names of Fabius, Piso, Cicero, and Lentulus. We see the use, that the Israelites made of Milk by the counsel (and command) of the wiseman: 
Prov. 27. 27.  Thou shalt have Goat's Milk enough for thy food and for the maintenance of thy Household. Tho it was permitted them to eat fish, I don't see, there is mention made of their doing so, but in the latter times. 'Tis believed, that the Ancients despised it as a sustenance too light and delicate ●or robust and hearty men: nor is there indeed any report made thereof in Homer, or in any Grecian Writer of the Heroitick times. 
Plat. Rep. 3.  Neither do we find among the Hebrews any Sauces or Ragousts: Their feasts were composed of fat and solid meats. They reckoned Milk and Honey for the greatest Delicacies imaginable. And truly, before that Sugar was brought from the Indies, nothing was known more pleasing to the taste than honey. 
Levit. 24. 5. etc.  The Offerings commanded by the Law, show that in the days of Moses they had divers sorts of Pastries, some mingled with and others fried in Oil.  
Here is now an occasion to speak of the distinction of meats allowed or prohibited by the Law. It was not peculiar to the Hebrews to abstain from certain living Creatures out of a Principle of Religion: The people round about 'em did the same. The Syrians did eat no flesh; and some have been of Opinion, 
Herod. 2.  that it was likewise out of Superstition, that the Greeks did abstain from it. The Egyptians of Thebes ate no mutton, because they adored Amnon under the ●igure of a Ram. Besides they abstained from Goats, 
Porphyr. Abstin. 4.  and Sacrificed sheep. The Egyptian Priests abstained from all meats and drinks, that were fetched from abroad: And as to what the Country produced, they abstained from Creatures, whose Feet were round or divided into several toes or claws, or which had no horns; as also from Birds of Prey. Several ate nothing, that had life: And in their times of Purification they abstained likewise from Eggs. 
Herod. ●.  In Egypt Swine's flesh was held for unclean. Whosoever had touched an Hog but as he passed by, went presently to wash himself and his clothes. Socrates forbade the breeding of them in his Republic, as creatures rendering no Service, and of no farther use than for the Table. All the World knows, that still at this Day the Indian Bramins neither eat nor kill any kind of Living thing: And 'tis certain, they have continued this Humour for above two thousand years.  
Therefore the Law of Moses had nothing new or extraordinary in this point: But it was necessary to restrain the people within reasonable bounds, to hinder them from imitating the Superstitions of their neighbours, without giving them on the other side an entire Liberty which they might have abused. For this abstinence from certain meats was useful both for Health and for Manners. It served not only to quell their unruly Spirits, that God had imposed upon 'em that Yoke, but likewise to divert them from things hurtful. They were forbidden to eat of blood or of Fat; both being difficult to digest. Swine's flesh is also very heavy upon the Stomach. The same holds good with those Fish, that have no scales, whose Flesh is oily and fat, whether it be delicate as that of Eels, or it be hard as that of Tunnies, Whales and other Fishes of that kind. 
Paedag. 2. 1.  Thus we might render natural reasons for the greatest part of these Prohibitions, as Clemens Alexandrinus has well observed. As to the moral reasons, the Ingenious have ever counted Gluttony for a Vice, that was first to be subdued, 
Caffin. Instit 5.  as being the source of most others. The Socratic Philosophers preached up Sobriety so very much, that Plato did not believe, 
Plat. 〈◊〉. 7. init.  that any thing was to be done in Sicily towards the correction of manners, as long as people ate there two great Meals aday. And it is observed, that the aim of Pythagoras his abstinence was to render men Just and Disinteressed, by accustoming them to live on a little. Now one of the chief branches of Gluttony is the desire of Variety of Meats. A too great quantity does very soon disgust: But as the diversity is Infinite, the desire of 'em is Insatiable.   

CAP. XII. Purifications.  
THe Purifications commanded by the Law had the same grounds with the Distinction of Meats. Neighbouring Nations practised them or such like others; and they were useful for Health and for Manners. The cleanness and neatness of the Body is a Symbol of the purity of the Soul, and is a pretty natural consequence of it: since that nastiness does commonly proceed from Sloth, from a contempt of others, and a lowness of Heart.  
The external purification is in Scripture called Sanctification; because it makes men sensible of the Interiour purity, wherewith we ought to approach holy things. Neatness is otherwise necessary to maintain Health and prevent Diseases especially in hot Countries. And indeed men naturally are there more cleanly: The heat inviting them to strip themselves to bathe, and change their clothes often: Whereas in cold Climates People dread the Water and Air, and prove more dull and Lazy. Certain it is, that the Sluttishness, wherein most of our common people live, especially the poorer sort, and those within Cities, does cause and keep on foot many and many Diseases. What would it be in hot Countries, where the air is more easily corrupted, and where water is more scarce? Moreover the Ancients made little use of Linen, and Woollen is not so easily to be cleansed.  
Let us admire herein the Wisdom and goodness of God, who had given his People Laws so many ways profitable: Since they served at once to accustom them to Obedience, to restrain them from Superstition, to regulate their manners, and to preserve their Health. It is thus, that in the Structure of Animals and Plants we see so many parts, which serve for several uses. Now it was important, that the precepts of neatness should make a part of Religion: For that considering the inner Corners of Houses, and the most secret actions of life, there was nothing but the fear of God, could cause them to be observed. However by these sensible things God form their Conscience, and wont them to acknowledge that nothing was concealed from him, and that it was not sufficient to be pure only in the eyes of men.  
This is the foundation of those Laws, 
Levit. 11. 3. 22.  which commanded bathing and washing of clothes, 
Numb. 3. 24.  after the having touched a dead body or, 
Leu. 14. 35.  an unclean Creature, 
Leu. 13.  and in several the like encounters. Hence proceeds the Purifications of Vessels by Water or by Fire; 
August. 2. Quest.  of Houses, where there appeared any corruption of Women after their lyings in; 
Evang. 40.  and the Separation of Lepers: Tho the white Leper, which the Scripture only mentions, is rather a Deformity than a Disease.  
The Separation from Strangers was a necessary consequence of these Laws. For although most of the adjoining People had likewise their Rules for the choice of Meats and for their Purifying, they were not the same. So that an Israelite had always a right to presume, that the Stranger he met withal, had eaten of Swine's flesh, or of meats offered to Idols, or had touched some unclean Beast. And therefore he was not permitted to eat with Aliens, nor to enter into their houses. And this separation was likewise useful for manners; serving as a Barrier against their being too much with strangers, which is ever pernicious to the Commonalty, and which was much more so in those conjunctures of time by reason of Idolatry. The Egyptians were extremely addicted to this Maxim: the Scripture showing that they would not eat with the Hebrews; 
Gen. 43. 32.  and Herodotus testifying, 
Herod. 2.  that they would neither Kiss a Greek, nor make use of his Knife or his Vessel. Several such like practices the Mahometans have still at this day: But those, who have most of 'em, and are tied to them with the greatest Superstition, are the Indians.  
Yet the Israelites did not equally shun all manner of Strangers; though they comprehended them all alike under the name of Gojim or Gentiles. All Idolaters they abhorred, particularly the Uncircumcised. For they were not the only people, who practised Circumcision; it was in use among the Egyptians, and among all the Descendants of Abraham, as the (Ishmaelites) the Medianites, and the Idumeans. As to the uncircumcised, who worshipped the true God, they suffered them to live in the Holy Land, with this Proviso, that they observed the Law of Nature, and Abstinence from Blood. But if they Circumcised themselves, 
Selden de jure nat.  they were reputed the Children of Abraham, and consequently obliged to keep all the Law of Moses. These last the Rabbis called the Proselytes of Righteousness: And the uncircumcised Faithful they called the Proselytes of Habitation, whom they otherwise termed Noachidians, as being only obliged by the Precepts, which God delivered to Noah at his coming out of the Ark.   

CAP. XIII. Marriages. Women.  
AFter that way the Israelites lived, Marriage was no great trouble to 'em: it was rather an ease according to its Institution. Laborious were the Women as well as the men, and worked within Doors, while their Husbands were employed in the Field. The Women dressed the meat, and served it up to the Table; which is seen in Homer and several parts of Scripture. When Samuel represented the manners of Kings to the people: 
1 Sam. 8. 13.  The Kings, said he, will take your daughters and make them Confectionaries, Cooks and Bakers. The Pretext, which Amnon the son of David used to get his Sister Tamor to his House, when he would vitiate her, was to take broths from her hands, which she indeed had prepared herself, though she was the Daughter of a King.  
It was the Women, that made clothes. And their ordinary occupation was to wove Stuffs, as they work now adays in Linen and Tapestry. 
Theocr. Idyl. 15.  In Homer we see the Examples of Penelope, 
Ter. Heautont.  Calypso, Circe; we see the same in Theocritus, 
Sueton. Aug. 73.  Terence, and in all Authors: And what seems to me the more remarkable, is, that this Custom did still continue at Rome among the greatest Ladies in a very corrupt age, Augustus usually wearing clothes made by his Sister and his Daughters. If we would have proofs hereof out of Scripture, 
1 Sam. 2. 19  'tis said, the Mother of Samuel made him a little coat, 
Prov. 31. 13. 19 etc.  which she brought him on solemn days; and we see the virtuous wife of Solomon industriously aplying her Linen and woollen, a turning the wheel and spinning, and giving two Suits of clothes to all her Domestics.  
All these works are done privately in the house, and do not require any great strength of body. Wherefore the Ancients did not fancy them worthy to employ men; and very kindly left 'em to women, naturally more neat, more sedentary, 
Jud. 8. 5.  and more addicted to Little businesses. They lived apart from the men and much retired, principally the Widows. Judith remained thus shut up with her Women in an high apartment, like the Penelope of Homer.  
The Marriages of the Israelites were not accompanied with any Ceremony of Religion, that I know of, unless it were the Prayers of the Father of the Family, and of the assistance for drawing the blessing of God upon the Bride. We have examples hereof in the marriages of Rebecca with Isaac, 
Gen. 4. 60.  of Ruth with Boaz, 
Ruth. 4. 11.  of Sarah with Tobias. 
Tob. 7. 15.  I do not see, they offered Sacrifices upon this occasion, or went to the Temple, or sent for Priests: All passed amidst their Friends or Relations; nor was it other than a civil contract. As for the Circumcision of Children, that was in truth an Act of Religion, and very necessary, when any one was to enter into the alliance of Abraham: But it was likewise performed within doors by Relations, without the ministry of any public person. In all these Ceremonies take care we must, not to let ourselves be deceived by modern Pictures, as I have already said of Apparel.  
Far from fearing the Multitude of Children, the Israelites did hugely desire it. Besides their natural Inclination, the Law gives great motives to it. They knew, that God in creating the World, and in repairing it after the Deluge, had said to mankind: Increase and Multiply, and fill the earth. They knew, that to Abraham he had Promised an innumerable posterity; and finally that amidst them was to be born the SAVIOUR of the World. And by those sordid Interests they were not pressed, which in this age make people look upon the blessing of Marriage as a great misfortune. Their frugal way of living was the occasion, that as long as their Children were little, they cost 'em little to feed, and yet less to clothe; for in hot Countries they often let 'em go naked: And when they were bigger, they helped them in their Labour, and spared them Slaves and hired Servants. Wherefore they had few slaves in proportion. 
2 Sam. 9 10.  Ziba the Servant of Saul cultivated the Patrimony of Mephibosheth with his Fifteen Sons and twenty slaves. They were not in pain to provide for their Children; since there was no Fortune to be made amongst them, and all their ambition was to leave to their Sons the Inheritance, they had received from their Progenitors, better cultivated, if possible, and with some Herds more. 
Numb. 27. 8.  And their Daughters, as they did not succeed in defect of Males, were accordingly married rather for alliance than for estate.  
Thus it was a Conveniency to have many Children; as it was an honour too. They deemed that man happy, who saw himself Father of a large Family, and environed with a great number of Children and grandchildren, always ready to receive his Instructions, and to execute his orders: and they did not fear his name would be Forgotten as long as his Posterity subsisted. Thus when the Scripture sets down the number of Children, 'tis usually for to commend the Fathers: as those two Judges of Israel, 
Judg. 10. 4. 12: 14.  of whom one had thirty sons, 
2 Chron. 11. 21.  the other forty with thirty Grandsons; as David, 
Ibid. 13. 21  of whom it reckons nineteen sons, bating those by Concubines; as Rehoboham, who had twenty eight sons and sixty Daughters; and Abijah, who had two and twenty Sons and sixteen Daughters. Thus did the Poets crack of the fifty Children of Priam: for the Greeks had fecundity in no less esteem. As Virginity was not yet known for a virtue, in this State they only considered the mischief of Barrenness: and they thought those maids unhappy, who died without being married. 
Jud. 11. 38.  Electra complains expressly hereof in Sophocles, and it was the subject of the Regrets of Jephtha's Daughter. Wherefore it was a shame for a married woman to be barren; as we see in the mother of Samuel and many others; and this misfortune they looked upon as a curse of God.  
This care of Posterity and preserving the memory of the Dead was the foundation of that Law, which commands the Brother to marry his Brother's widow, in case he died without Children. This right was established in the time of the Patriarches, as appears by the History of Thamar, 
Gen. 38. 8.  and they looked upon it as a pious duty, 
Deut. 25. 6.  that the name of the deceased might not fall into oblivion. So the Children were attributed to him by a kind of adoption. From thence come the two Genealogies of JESUS CHRIST according to St. Matthew and St. Luke▪ 
Mat. 1.  For thus it was that Joseph had two Fathers; 
Luke 3. 23.  the one by Birth, and the other by this Adoption of the Law. Besides, this same marriage with a Sister-in-law was not contrary to the first natural right, which allowed even the marrying one's own Sister, before God had forbidden it.  
The desire it was of having a great number of Children, which moved the Israelites to take several wives at a time: although they were reserved enough as to the use of marriage. From it they abstained not only during the big-bellies and the other unfitness of their wives, but during all the time they were nurses, that is to say, most commonly during three years: And we do not see, they could dispense themselves from nursing their own Children. Wherefore we ought not to think it strange, that God tolerated Polygamy, 
Jud. 4. 19  which had been introduced before the Deluge, though it was contrary to the first institution of marriage. For when it was instituted in the Terrestrial Paradise, there was not yet any Concupiscence: And since that by the new law it was raised to the dignity of a Sacrament, 
As the Papists▪ hold.  'tis accompanied with very Strong graces; but in the interval when grace was much less, and that sin reigned, it was the goodness of God to use a greater Indulgence. Wherefore 'tis with Polygamy as with divorce, of which JESUS CHRIST told the Jews, 
Mat. 19 8.  that in them it was suffered for the hardness of their hearts. Besides their Wives they were allowed to have Concubines, who usually were Slaves. Above them the Legitimate wives had nothing more than the dignity, which rendered their Children heirs. So that the name of Concubinage did not signify Incontinency as among us: it was only a less solemn marriage.  
Furthermore, this Liberty was so far from making Wedlock more commodious, that the Yoke was the more heavy. An husband could not so equally share his heart amidst several wives, as to give 'em all contentment. He was fain to govern them with an absolute authority, as the Levantins do still at this day. In marriage there was no longer an equality of Friendship and of Society. It was yet more difficult, that Rivals could agree among themselves. There must needs have been continual Divisions, Cabals, and Domestic Wars. All the Children of one woman had as many Stepmother's, as the Father had other wives. Each one espoused his mother's Interests and looked upon the Children of other Women as Strangers or enemies. Hence comes that manner of Speaking so frequent in Scripture: He is my Brother and the son of my Mother. We see examples of these divisions in the Family of David, and still much worse in that of Herod. As to the Liberty of Parting by Divorce, it had likewise ill consequences. They more lightly engaged and ventured 'emselves the less for one another; and the multiplicity of marriages might rise to such an excess, as to become a Palliated Debauch. 'Tis well known, what a disturbance it occasioned at Rome after the fall of the commonwealth; whereas that as long as good manners were kept up there, 
Gell. 4. 3.  no Divorce was seen until the year 523: Notwithstanding the Laws permitted it. The Children also suffered very much by it; they remained Orphans in their Parent's life-time: And hard it was for 'em to prevent the becoming odious to one of the two, and the not siding with the one or other.   

CAP. XIV. Education of Children. Exercises. Studies.  
THe Education of Children seems to have been much the same among the Israelites, as among the Egyptians and the most ancient Greeks. They form their bodies by Labour and Exercises, and their minds by Learning and Music. A great value they had for strength of Body; and 'tis the most usual commendation, that the Scripture gives to warlike men; 
2 Sam. 2 3.  as to David's brave and stout Soldiers. 
Ejusd. 18. 27.  Foot-races must have been one of their principal exercises, since they knew people by seeing them run afar off, as those who brought the news of Absolom's defeat: Most surely they must have seen them run often. 'Tis also said of Asahal Joab's Brother, 
2. 18. Zach. 12. 3.  that he ran like a wild Roe. The Prophet Zachariah speaks of an heavy stone, which St. Jerome takes for one of those Stones that served to try the Strength of men, by essaying who should raise it highest. So that we may believe, they had too that kind of exercise. 
1 Sam. 20.  The example of Jonathan shows, they used archery. But bodily exercises they never made an important Occupation, as the Grecians, who reduced it to an art, which they termed Gymnastick: because they exercised themselves all naked, and they sought the utmost perfection in it. At great charges they built places very spacious and magnificent for exercises: They had masters, and under them a great number of men for the teaching young People. In short, there were among them Athletae by profession, taking up all their life-time with those exercises. To fall into those curiosities the Hebrews were too serious: And it was an odious novelty, when under the most renowned Antiochus they built a Gymnasium after the Grecian mode in Jerusalem. 
1 Mat. 1. 15.  They contented themselves with the Labour of a Country-life, 
2 Mac. 4▪ 91. 2.  and with some military exercises, as did likewise the Romans.  
Neither had they need of great Study to form their wits, if by Study we understand the knowledge of Sundry Languages, and the reading of many Books, as we commonly understand it. Their Mother-tongue was sufficient for them, and that was the Hebrew, such as we see it in the Scripture. Foreign Histories and Poems were of no use to 'em, 
Psal. 16. 4.  since these were full of the names of the False Gods, which they were not so much as to utter. So that all their Grammar consisted, as that of the ancient Greeks, in speaking their own tongue well, in reading and writing correctly, with this difference, it did not appear, that they had reduced it into Art, or learned it by Rules. Their Letters were those, we now call Samaritan, for that the Samaritans have preserved them. And as they are neither smooth nor easy to form, we may question, whether the art of writing was very common among the Israelites; so much the more in that the Learned are called in Scripture Sopherim i.e. Scribes according to the most ancient Translations. And indeed a people given to Husbandry have less need of writing than Merchants and men of business. 
Deut. 66. 7. etc.  But 'tis credible, the most part knew how to read; 
Jos. 2. contr. App. 6.  since to all it was recommended to learn the Law of God, and to meditate on it day and night; 
Orig. cont. Celsum. lib. 4.  and this Study was their sole Occupation on the Sabbath-day.  
That book was sufficient to instruct them perfectly. In it they saw the History of the World till their establishment in the Land of Promise, the Origine of all nations, that were known to 'em, and more peculiarly of those, whom they had most occasion to know, the Descendants of Lot, Abraham, Ishmael, and Esau. In it they saw all their Religion, the Tenets, Ceremonies, and Precepts of Morality: It contained also their Civil Laws. Thus that Book alone, which is the Pentateuch or the five Books of Moses, included all they were to know.  
Not but they had many other Books. For, that I may not speak of the Books of Joshuah, of the Judges, of Samuel, and of other Sacred Writings, which were made afterwards. In the time of Moses mention is made of a Book of the Wars of the Lord, 
Numb. 21. 14.  as also of a Book of Jasher. The Books of Samuel and Kings do often refer to the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 
Josh. 10. 13.  Solomon wrote three thousand Parables, and five thousand Canticles: He made Treatises of all Animals and Plants: And he himself complains of the Infinite number of Books, that were composed. All those Books, 
Ecc●●ls 12. 12.  and perhaps many others we know not of, are lost, as well as those of the Egyptians, Syrians and other Eastern people. The only Books, which remain of that antiquity, are those which God himself dictated to his Prophets, and which he had preserved by a Particular Providence.  
The other part of Studies was Music, I judge thereof by the Greeks, who from the Orientals had taken all their Studies and all their Politeness. Now certain it is, that the Greeks had all their Children taught to sing and play upon Instruments: This study is the most ancient of all. Before ever Letters were used, the memory of great things was preserved by Songs. The Gauls and Germans had that Custom in the time of the Romans: And the same Custom is still kept up by the wild Inhabitants of America. Although the Hebrews had Letters, they knew, that words in measure and put into a Song are always easilier remembered; and from thence the great care arose, which they took to compose Canticles upon any thing considerable that happened to them; such are the two, 
Exod. 15.  which Moses made, 
Deut. 32.  the one at the passage of the Red-sea, 
Jud. 5.  and the other, when he lay adying, 
1 Sam. 2.  to recommend the observation of the Law. Such is the Song of Deborah, that of Samuel's Mother, and many others; and especially the Psalms of David. These Poems are of a wondrous Instruction, full of God's Practices, of the Memory of his Benefits, of Moral Precepts, and all the Sentiments which a good man ought to have in all the different States of Life. So that the most important Truths, and the most exact thoughts agreeably entered into the minds of Children with Tunes and Words.  
If we may judge of the goodness of their Tunes by that of their Words, they must have been altogether excellent, grave and solid, but touching and various. If we judge of 'em by the effects Scripture seems to attribute to 'em, such as were supernatural. We see their Music charmed evil Spirits, by the example of Saul, who found himself better, when David played upon the Harp. We see that the sound of Instruments did help the Spirit of God, which moved the Prophets, by the example of those, 
1 Sam. 10. 5.  whom Saul met with according to the Prediction of Samuel, and with whom he himself entered into Heavenly transports of Joy; and by the example of Elisha, 
2 Kings. 3. 15.  who called for a Ministrel, that he might Prophecy. This shows, that Music appeased the motions of the Spirits and humours, which the Devil had raised in those Persons, God had permitted him to possess; and that on the contrary meeting with calm and deseate hearts, it raised them up to God, and inflamed 'em with Devotion, disposing them thus for the better receiving the powerful impressions of his Spirit. In like manner the Greeks relate to us the prodigious effects of their Music for exciting or for calming Passions: And we must either give all Histories the Lie, or confess, the Music of the Ancients was much more charming than ours.  
Not that it was rare amongst them; they were all Musicians: And to confine myself to the Hebrews, and not to speak of those who were Musicians by profession, there were in David's time Four thousand Levites destined to that employ only, under the conduct of 288 Masters; the chief of whom were Asaph, 
1 Chr. 23. 5. 25. 7.  Heman and Jeditshun, so often named in the Inscriptions of the Psalms. David himself was a great Poet and a great Musician: And 'tis well known, how much the inclination of Kings serves to the advancement of Arts. A great Diversity they had of wind and other Instruments, whereof some had eight or ten Strings, and their Tunes were accompanied with dances: for this is the meaning of the word Chorus, which the Latins have taken from the Greeks, and which amongst them signified a company of Dancers, dressed and clothed in one and the same manner. They Sang together, and danced a kind of Brawls. They were coupled according to their age and sex, young men, Maids, Women, Old-men, without intermixture with one another. Now 'tis improbable, that the dances of the Hebrews offended the Rules of Modesty. There is mention made of Choirs at the Procession, which David made to transfer the Ark into Zion, and on several occasions of victories, when the Maids went out of the City Dancing and Singing.  
But the greatest part of their studies did not consist in Reading & Regular Lessons, but in the Discourses of their Fathers and of their old men. Who were obliged to inform their Children of the great things, God had done for them and their Forefathers: And it is for this reason, that the Law commanded them so often to explain to their Children the Reasons of the Feasts and the other Ceremonies of their Religion. 
Deut. 6. 7. 20.  Wherefore those Instructions applied to sensible Objects, being so frequently repeated, could not fail of being sound and solid. They likewise taught them all that concerned Agriculture, joining to their Lessons a perpetual Practice: And we shall not doubt, but they were very knowing therein, if we consider, that during so many ages they made it their sole occupation. Now although this art be exercised among us by people of gross and unthinking Souls, yet it contains a vast extent of Knowledge much more useful to mankind, than these Notions of the greater part of Speculative men, who are esteemed Learned. And though for knowledge we should reckon only what is written in Books, the Ancients and Moderns have written enough of this to give us a good opinion of it. Thus an Israelite, who by the Tradition of his Fore fathers, by his own experience, and some reading had informed himself of his Religion, the Laws which were to regulate his life, and the History of his Nation; who knew, how to procure to himself all things necessary; who perfectly understood the several qualities of Earth, and of Plants proper to each; what course was to be taken with 'em, and in what Season; what precautiong were to be used against the divers Accidents which cause the Fruits of the Earth to perish, how they were to be gathered and preserved; who knew the nature of Cattle, their Food, their Diseases, their Remedies, and so many other the like things, which most of those are ignorant of, who among us go for well-bred and learned men: This honest Israelite, methinks, is as much to be valued, as a man brought up either in Law or the Disputes of our Schools.  
But nevertheless there were some Israelites, who more particularly set themselves to Study, and who may have the appellation of Learned, even according to our Ideas. 'Tis said, 
1 Chron. 12. 32.  that in the time of David there were in the Tribe of Essachar Learned men, who had understanding of the times, what Israel was to do. And by these words Interpreters understand men, that observed the Stars, and regulated the Feasts, and all the order of the year. The Prophet Malachi says of the Priests in general, That their Lips should keep Knowledge, 
Mal. 2. 7.  and that they should seek the Law at his mouth. So that one of the Principal Functions of the Priests was to teach the People: As also the Prophets applied themselves that way. It was they alone, who took upon them to write and especially Histories. For among the Hebrews as well as other Orientals, Private persons were not suffered to have that Liberty, 
Joseph. cont. App. 1. 2.  which the Greeks allowed them. None but the Doctors deputed by public order, or the Prophets inspired by God were permitted to write. Thus the most ancient Histories of the Romans were the Annals of the Pontifices. We see by the works of those Hebrew Authors, how much they excelled in Eloquence and Poetry. For I here term Eloquence the Art of Writing well on all manner of Subjects, Histories, Laws, Precepts, Exhortations.  
In point of History they do no more than relate matter of Fact, as clearly as is possible, without mixture of Reasoning or Reflection. But when we examine the business well, we shall find, that they have with a marvellous Judgement chosen the Deeds, which serve for their Design: By which means their Histories are very short; though in places of Importance they come to the least Particular, setting the Action before the eye, and making their Personages speak directly, which renders their Narration very lively. We see, that they on purpose retrench all Reflections and aggravations, in that they know very well how to employ them in discourses, where they would raise emotions. Thus in Deuteronomy does Moses with the greatest and strongest figures rise and amplify, what he had related very plainly in the foregoing Books. Thus does the Prophet Isaiah barely rehearse the Defeat of Sennacherib, after having exaggerated it by foretelling it in a Style that amounts even to Poetry.  
The Laws are written with clearness and brevity; the Maxims of Morality are contained in short Sentences, adorned with fit Figures, and expressed with a measured Style. All which does likewise serve to make them be remembered. In short, their Poetry is sublime, the Descriptions lively, the Metaphors bold, noble the Expressions, and the figures miraculously diversified. But whole Volumes it would require to speak worthily of their Eloquence and their Poetry. Tho they wrote by divine Inspiration, I don't believe it necessary to attribute all their Eloquence to that supernatural Cause. The difference of Styles, shows, that the Holy Ghost did make use of their natural expression to explain the truths, which to them he dictated. And what moreover shows this style to be natural is, that the most Ancient of Profane Authors come very near it. Homer, Herodotus, Hypocrates speak after the same manner. We see in Pindar and in the Choruses of Tragedies the boldness and variety of Songs. The more Ancient the Grecian Authors are, the more they resemble the Hebrews, in the difference of Styles according to the nature of Works, and in the brevity and propriety of Expression.  
You may, if you please, believe, that the Hebrews wrote after this manner by the sole force of their Genius and their exact judgement, which made them reject all that was not for the design of each work, and employ what was proper to instruct or to move. For my part, seeing they so constantly observed the Distinction of Styles, and so much to the purpose employed all the ornaments of true eloquence, I choose rather to believe, that they had then some rules drawn from the experience of their Fathers, whether they were written, or delivered dow● only by Tradition among the Learned. Let us not fancy the Greeks invented Eloquence, and Poety. At most they did but invent the names of Figures, and that Art of the Grammarians and Rhetoricians, which never made Orator or Poet. Long before them were found out the grounds of that Art. And indeed the World was then pretty old. It had lasted three thousand years before Solomon; and it has continued as long since within a little more than three hundred years. Until that time the Life of man was long; and there had not yet been any Deluges of Barbarous Nations in those Countries, where Arts and Sciences did begin.   

CAP. XV. The Politeness of the Israelites.  
TO return to the Hebrews in general, being so well instructed and so well born, that is, in a Country, where men are naturally endowed with Wit, they could not want Politeness. For you must not imagine, that it is incompatible with a Country-life and with the Labour of the Body: The example of the Greeks does but too well evince the contrary. But the Greeks, living for the most part in Commonwealths, were so jealous of their Liberty, that they all carried themselves as equals; and their Compliments only tended to the testifying Esteem and Friendship, wherein they were imitated by the Romans. The Civility of the Orientals suited more with ours, and showed more Respect. Those they treated as Lords whom they had a mind to honour, made them Protestations of Service, and bowed before 'em even to the prostrating themselves on the Earth, which the Scripture calls Worshipping. The Hebrew did the like, even before they had Kings, and in the days of the Patriarches: Which did apparently proceed from the Manners of th● People round about, who had long time been subjected to Master● To Kiss, was common in thei● Salutations. Whereas we uncover our heads out of respect, the put off their Shoes to go into Holy Places; it being a sign of mourning to have the head uncovere●●  
We see examples of their compliments in those of Ruth, 
Ruth. 2. 11. 13.  of Abigael, 
1 Sam. 25. 23. 41.  of that Woman of Tekoah, whom Joab employed to recall Absolom, 
2 Sam. 14. 17.  and lastly of Judith. All these examples are of Women, 
Judith 11. 5. 6.  usually more Flattering than men. Willingly and with delight they made use of Parables and ingenious aenigmas or riddles in their discourses. Their language was very modest, and conformable to bashfulness, though after a manner different from ours. For they used Far fetched Circumlocutions for things, which we bluntly speak of and with less caution. As when they said, The water of the Feet, meaning urine; To open one's Feet, meaning, to go to Stool; and when they name the Thighs for the neighbouring part, which is not to be named. On the contrary they have expressions, which sound to us very harsh. They speak often of certain secret Infirmities in Men and Women, that we should not dare to name; and without scruple name some things, the names of which we very carefully avoid. All these differences do only proceed from the distance of times and places. The greatest part of words, which are uncivil according to the present use of our Tongue, were formerly civil, having other sorts of Ideas annexed to 'em: And at this day the Levantines, especially the Mahometans have ridiculous niceties for certain beastly things, which do nought concern manners, while they give themselves all manner of Liberty in the most infamous Pleasures. But to come to the Israelites, 'tis likewise observable, that they spoke more freely of what concerns the meterial of Marriage, in regard none among 'em renounced it, and those who wrote were very Serious men, and generally advanced in years.   

CAP. XVI. Of their Pleasures.  
THeir mild and quiet life joined to the beauty of the Country did incline them to Pleasures. But their Pleasures were sensible and easy; having few others, but those of good Cheer and Music. Their Feasts, as I have said, were of plain Meats, which they took at home, and their Music cost them less, most of 'em being Skilled in playing upon Instruments. The good old Barzillai only reckoned these two Pleasures, 
2 Sam. 19 25.  when he said, he was too old to Relish Life; and the Son of Syrach compares that entertainment to a Carbuncle set in Gold. 
Eccles. 32. 78:  Thus Ulysses did frankly vow amongst the Phaeaces, that he knew no other felicity than a Feast accompanied with Music. The same pleasures we see in the Rebukes which the Prophets gave to those Persons, 
Amos 6.  who misused them. But they added thereto the excess of Wines, 
Isai. 5. 11. 12.  Crowns of Flowers, and perfumes, 
Isa. 28.  as we see was practised by the Greeks and Romans. We see the particulars of their Perfumes in the Canticles, and other parts of Scripture: But chiefly in the Law, 
Exod. 30. 29.  where it prescribes the composition of two sorts, which were to be offered to God, the one dry, the other Liquid; and those drugs were the most Odoriferous that were known, before the finding out of Musk and Amber. They took delight to eat in Gardens under Trees and Arbours. For 'tis natural in hot Countries to seek out Air, and love the Fresco. So that, when Scripture would show a time of Prosperity, it says, Every one did eat and drink under his own Vine and own Figtree; which are Fruit-trees, whose Leaves are largest.  
Their application to Husbandry did not permit them to make Feasts every day, and every day to take their pleasures, as most part of our wealthy People do now: But it served to make 'em relish them the better. Thus they had times of Rejoicing, their Sabbath-days; and all the other Feasts set down by the Law, Marriage, sharing of booty after the Victory, Sheepshearing, the Harvest and the Vintages in each particular Territory, 
Isai. 9 3. 16. 10.  where the Neighbours assembled to help one another. Well known it is, that the Festivals of Bacchus▪ and Ceres had their rise among the Grecians from such occasions of Joy whereof there are Traces still seen in Countries where Vine-yards are. The Israelites had no profane sights. They contented themselves with the Ceremonies of Religion and the preparation of Sacrifices; which must needs have been very magnificent; since the Temple was the most stately building in all the Country, and there were above thirty two thousand Levites destined to serve therein.  
I do not see, they used either Gaming or Hunting, which we reckon among our greatest. divertisement As for Gaming, it seems, they were absolutely ignorant of it, the very name being not so much as found in all the Scripture. Not but that the Indians had already invented Games, 
Herod. 1  if, what we are told of them, be true: But still at this day the Arabians and other Oriental Nations do not Play at any Games of Hazard. As for Hunting or Fowling, they were not unknown to the Israelites: But they applied themselves that way less for pleasure than for the advantage of furnishing their Tables, and the saving and preserving their Corn and their Vineyards. For of Traps and Snares they speak often; and we do not find, that even their Kings were provided of Dogs and other equipages for that Sport. Undoubtedly they would have rendered themselves very odious, should they have rid or run over their tilled Lands, or kept any creature, that might have done mischief. The great chases are placed in the vast Forests and uncultivated Lands of cold Countries.   

CAP. XVII. Their Mourning for the Dead▪  
AFter their rejoicings, let us speak of Mourning, and the marks of Affliction. The Ancients went not into Mourning only for the death of their Relations, but as often as any misfortune happened to them: And their Mourning did not solely consist in changing clothes. The causes of Mourning were either public Calamities, as a Mortality, a general Famine, or an invasion of enemies, or particular Misfortunes, the death of a Relation or a Friend; if he was dangerously sick, or in Captivity; or if one was accused of an heinous crime. The signs of Mourning among the Iraelites were to rend their Garments, as soon as they heard of Ill-news, or when they happened to be present at some great evil, as a Blasphemy or any other sin against God; to beat the Breast, to put their hands upon their head, to uncover it, and to cast dust and ashes thereon instead of Perfumes, which they used on occasions of Joy; and lastly to shave the Beard and Head. On the other side, the Romans, who were wont to shave, let their hair grow in time of Mourning. As long as that lasted, they were neither to anoint or wash themselves, but to wear sordid and torn apparel, or Sackcloth, that is to say, a strait and narrow suit, without foldings, and by Consequence disagreeable. They called them Cilices, because they were made of corpse Camlet, or of some such like coarse and heavy Stuff. They had their feet bare as well as their heads, but their Faces covered. Their Mourning was attended with fasting: That is, 
Ezech. 24. 17.  as long as it continued, they either did eat nothing at all, or they did not eat till after the Sun's setting, and then very common Meats and some Pulse, and drank nothing but Water. They remained shut up, sitting on the Ground, or lying on ashes; kept a profound silence; never opened their mouths, unless to lament, or Sing Doleful Songs. The Mourning for the Deceased generally lasted seven days, and seldom any longer. But Widows there were, who continued their Mourning all their days, as Judith and Anna the Prophetess.  
Thus their Mourning was not as ours, a mere Ceremony, of which only People of Quality do regularly acquit themselves. It contained all the natural Consequences of a real Grief; for men in great afflictions take no care to deck or keep themselves neat; hardly ever speak, without it be in Plaints; do not show themselves openly, but eat all Divertisements. I believe indeed there were amongst them, who only as it were mimicked Mourning & did all these things without being much concerned. But at least those that were really so, might freely satisfy themselves. Now in general both the Israelites and all the Ancients were more natural, than we are in these matters, and constrained themselves much less as to the exterior Demonstrations of their passions. They Sang, they Danced on occasions of Joy: On those of grief they wept, they groaned aloud. When they were in fear, they ingenuously confessed they were so: When they were in choler, they vented it in reproaches. Homer and the Tragic Poets afford us examples hereof on all occasions. Philosophy and Christianity have since very much corrected that outside in all those, who have had Education and Politeness: They are exercised from their Youths to speak like Heroes or like Saints: But the most part are never the better at the Bottom but only dissemble their Passions without striving against them.  
Funerals will suit well with Mourning. All the Ancients took a particular care of them; and looked upon it as a great Misfortune, when the Bodies of Persons, who had been near and dear to them, remained exposed to be torn and devoured by Beasts or Birds, or to be corrupted openly, and infect the Living. Whereas the Greeks burn● the corpse to keep the ashes, the Hebrews interred the common People, and embalmed the most considerable Personages to put them into Sepulchers. They embalmed much after the same fashion as the Egyptians, surrounding the corpse with a great quantity of drying drugs: Then put them into Tombs, which were little Caves or Closets cut out in Rocks, whereof each had a Table of the same Stone, on which they laid the Body. Several of those Sepulchers still remain, whereof we may see descriptions in the Relations of Travellers. Although Funerals were a pious Duty, yet they were not attended with any Ceremony of Religion: On the contrary, it was a pro●ane action, which rendered all those unclean, who had any share therein, until they were purified: Which proceeds from that Dead Bodies are either in a state of Corruption, or in a Disposition approaching thereto. Wherefore so far were they from having occasion for Priests at their Funerals, that thy were forbidden to assist at them, were it not at those of their near Kinsfolk. 
Levit. 21. 23.  When Josias fell to abolishing Idolatry, he caused the Bones of the False Priests to be burnt upon the Altars; 
2 Chron. 34. 5.  to the intent, those Altars might be had in the greater Detestation.   

CAP. XVIII. Religion.  
THis is, what concerns the Private life of the Israelites. Let us now proceed to their Religion and their State Politic. As to Religion I shall not enlarge much in explaining their Belief. We ought to know it, since 'tis comprehended in ours. I shall only show, that certain truths were clearly revealed to them, while others were still obscure, though they were already revealed. What they knew, 
Vide J●seph cont.  was, That there was but one God, who Created Heaven and Earth: 
App. l. 2. c. 8.  that he governs all things by his Providence; that we ought to put no trust, 
Deut. 4. 39 6. 4.  save in him, 
Ps. 104. 127.  nor hope for any good but from him; that he sees all things even the very secrets of our hearts; 
Ps. 62. 71.  that he moves our wills within, 
Is. 36.  and turns them which way he pleases; 
Jerem. 17.  that all men are born in sin, 
Psal. 93. 138.  and naturally prone to evil; 
1 Kings 8. 39  that, notwithstanding, they may do well with the help of God; 
1 Sam. 10. 26.  that they are free, 
Prov. 21. 1▪  and have the choice to do good or evil; 
Ps. 51. 7.  that God is very just, 
Gen. 6. 5.  and punishes or rewards according to merit; 
Ps. 52. 4.  that he is merciful, 
Deut. 30. 6.  and pardons those, 
Ezech. 36. 27  who have a sincere regret for their sins past; 
Deut. 30. 19, 20.  that he judges all the actions of men after Death: 
Ps. 18. 9 62 13.  From whence it follows, 
Ex. 34. 6.  that the Soul is immortal, 
Deut. 30. 1. 2.  and that there is another Life. They knew, however, that God out of his mere goodness had chosen them amongst all men to be his faithful People; 
Ps. 73. 17.  that among them, 
Eccl. 8. 11. 9 2. 11. 9 12. 14.  of the Tribe of Judah and of the race of David was a SAVIOUR to be born, 
Wisd. 2. 13▪  who should deliver them from all their Sufferings, 
Deut. 7. 6. 7, 8.  and draw all Nations to the knowledge of the true God. 
Ibid. 9 5. 6.  This is, 
Gen. 49. 10.  what they distinctly knew, 
2 Sam. 7. 12.  and was the most ordinary Subject of their meditations and their prayers. 
Ps. 22. 28.  This is that high and most glorious Wisdom, 
Psal. 72. 11.  which distinguished them 
Is. 11. 1. 10.  
Ezech. 34. 23.  
Deut. 4. 6.  
Vid. Orig. contra. ●els. 5. et Jos. 2. in Ap. 6.  from all the Nations of the whole Earth. For whereas among the rest of the World none there were but the wise men, who knew any of these great Truths, and that too very imperfectly, and with a great Diversity of Opinions; All the Israelites were taught these Doctrines, even the very Women and Slaves. All had the same Sentiments.  
The Truths, 
Gen. 1. 26.  which were taught them more obscurely, 
Ps. 33. 6.  were that in God there are three Persons, 
Prov. 30. 4.  Father, 
Isai. 48. 16.  Son, 
Ps. 3. 7.  and Holy Ghost; that the Saviour, 
Ps. 110. 3.  whom they expected, 
Ps. 45. 78.  should be God, and the Son of God; 
Gen. 22. 18.  that he should be both God and man; 
Is. 53. 11.  that God gave to men his grace and necessary help for the accomplishing his Law, 
Ibid. 5. 6. etc.  only, 
Ps. 60. 19 64. 4.  by that Saviour and in view, of his merits; 
Tob. 13. 21 etc.  that he should suffer death to expiate the Sins of Mankind. 
Job. 19 26.  That his Kingdom should be wholly Spiritual; 
Dan. 12. 2.  that all men should rise again; 
Wisd. 30. 10. etc. 5. 1. etc.  that in the other life shall be the true Recompense of the good and Punishment of the Wicked. 
Tob. 2. 18. 4. 23.  All this is taught in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, (and in the Apocrypha;) but not so clearly, as that all the People knew it. Nor indeed were men yet capable of receiving such elevated truths.  
But according to my Design, I must only explain, what their external practices of Religion had most different from our Principles and Manners. They had but one Temple and one Altar, where it was permitted them to offer Sacrifices to God; which was a sensible mark of God's Unity: And for the representing likewise his Sovereign Majesty, that Building was the most magnificent in all that Country. The Temple within the Veil was on the inside adorned with Sculptures, and all overlaid with Plates of Gold. True, it was not very large: But the Courts, Galleries and divers Apartments, which belonged to it, for the Lodging of Priests and Levites, for the keeping Treasures and sacred Vessels; the Magazines of Oblations, the Kitchens, the Rooms to eat in, and the rest; all this together made a great mass of buildings, which being formed in symmetry and rare Architecture gave a mighty Idea of that great King, who was served in that sacred Palace. And to render its Sanctity the more sensilbe, none but those who were pure, were allowed to go upon the mount of the Temple. The Women had their place apart: The Gentiles were only in the outward Court: The Israelites were placed in one more advanced. That, where the Altar was, was only for the Priests: They did not go into the Temple within the Veil, but only to offer Incense and Loaves, and to kindle the Lamps: But none, save the Highpriest entered into the most Holy Place, and that too but once a year.  
We are offended at the Bloody Sacrifices, which made the Temple a Slaugher-house and Kitchen: But the same thing was done by all Nations. Besides, the proper functions of the Priests were only to sprinkle the Blood, kindle the Fire, and put those portions upon it, which were to be offered up. It was the parties, that killed the Sacrifices, who prepared them, cut 'em to pieces, and caused them to be broiled: 
Levit. 15. 11. etc.  Which we see in the Law and in the History of the Sons of Heli. 
1 Sam. 12. 13.  However the Priests did the same functions at the public Sacrifices, 
Jerem. 1. 13.  that were offered for all the People. Hence come those Figures, 
Ezech. 24. 3, 4. etc.  which might seem to us low and mean in Jeremy and Ezechiel, to whom God represents Jerusalem by the Image of a Pot. Those two Prophets were Priests, and accustomed to see the Sanctify'd Meats made ready. Now whatsoever served to the worship of God and the execution of his Law, they esteemed great and noble: And besides it was ordinary for the best sort of people to work with their own hands, and for themselves to do, as I have said, the things necessary for life. So in Homer the great King Agamemnon killed the Lambs himself, 
Iliad. 3.  the blood of which were the seal of the Treaty, he made with the Trojans. So King Nestor Sacrificing to Minerva, 
Odyss. 2. in fin.  his Sons killed the Victim, cut it to pieces, and broiled them, Homer is full of the like examples.  
Moreover, all that is prescribed in the Law touching the quality; and form of Sacrifices, did tend more to hinder Superstition and reduce the Israelites to so small a number of Ceremonies, than to introduce new ones. The Idolaters Sacrificed many more sorts of Living Creatures and in many more places; since they had Temples and Altars every where, and each Family had its Domestic Gods and particular Superstitions. Thus God a long while beforehand prepared his People to abolish those bloody Sacrifices, often telling them at the same time by his Prophets, that they were not necessary nor essential to Religion, 
1 Sam. 15. 22.  and that the worship, 
Ps. 50. 8. etc.  most pleasing to him, lay in praises and the conversion of the Hearts.  
It was necessary, that the Priests should be married, (if it were only upon this account;) since the Priesthood was established in the Family of Aaron: But they were parted from their Wives, during the time of their Service. We do not see, that any function of civil life was interdicted them; and they bore arms as well as others. 
Deut. 20.  They performed the very Office of Trumpeters both in the Army and every where else. 
2 Chron. 13. 12.  For they made use of Silver Trumpets to give notice of the Feasts, 
Numb. 10.  and to call the People to public prayers: 
Jos. Bel. 5. 9  And the name of Jubily comes from a Rams-horn which was sounded to make known the opening of that Feast. The Ancient Monks of Egypt kept up this Custom of Sounding the Trumpet, to show the hours of Prayer: For the use of Bells is of a later Date.  
The Feasts of the Israelites were the Sabbath of each week, 
Levit. 23.  the first day of each month, 
Numb. 28. 29.  called with us the Calends or Nehomenis, because they reckoned their months at least in the later times from the day the Moon began to appear. They had likewise three Solemn days, the Passeover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, established in memory of three great blessings, which they had received from God, their going forth out of Egypt, the Publication of the Law, and their establishment in the Land of promise. The Sacrifices were multiplied on Feast-days: But they offered every day two Lambs for an Holocaust both Morning and Evening: 
Ta●●d. Ent●lechesmos Jug. Sacrif.  And this is, what they called the perpetual Sacrifice. Their year consisted of twelve months, of thirty days each, much like to ours. It was thus regulated ever since Noah, as appears by the dates of the Deluge; but 'tis credible, that it than began at the Autumnal Equinox. Moses was commanded to begin it in the Spring in the Month Abib, which was that of the Passeover: And with reference it is to that Month, that the others are computed, which are only named by their number. They correspond much with our Roman Months, the names whereof come from the Ancient year, which began in the Month of March. Thus the eight Month is October at least in part, the ninth is November, and so of others.   

CAP. XIX. Fast. Vow.  
THe Fasts of the Israelites were attended with all I have set down, when I spoke of their Mourning: for Fasting and Mourning were the same thing. So that it did not consist in only eating later, but in afflicting themselves all manner of ways. The wholeday they spent without drinking or eating until night: And this is not only still practised by the Jews, but both they and the primitive CHRISTIANS have been imitated herein by the Mahometans. 
Isa. 58. 5:  They remained silent in Sackcloth and as●es, and did all the rest of what I have said about Mourning. 
1 King 21. 12.  By sound of Trumpet the Public Fasts as well as Feasts were proclaimed. 
Joel. 2. 15. 16. etc.  All the People assembled in the Temple of Jerusalem; at other Cities in the Public place. Lectures of the Law were held there, and the most venerable Elders exhorted the People to confess their Sins and repent. On those days were kept no Weddings, and even Husbands abstained from their Wives. The Law had commanded but one day alone for Fasting, 
Levit. 16. and 27.  the Tenth of the seventh Month, 
Zach. 8. 19  which was the Feast of Expiation: But in and from the time of the Prophet Zechariah they reckoned two others, one in the fifth Month and the other in the Tenth. They had several extraordinary ones, some in the public calamities, as was the Famine Joel speaks of; others in particular afflictions, as the Fasts of David for the sickness of the Child, 
2 Sam. 12. 16.  that issue of his crime, 
2 Sam. 3. 35:  and for the Death of Abner, and on many other occasions, which he mentions in the Psalms. 
Ps. 35, 12. 13.  In short, there were Fasts, that were kept out of mere Devotion for the performing of some Vow. 
Ps. 69. 21. 12.   
They were very Religious in observing their Vows and their Oaths. As for their Vows, 
Jud. 11. 35.  the example of Jephta is but too strong; 
Jos. 9 29.  and for their Oaths, Joshua kept the promise he had made to the Gibconites, though it was founded upon a manifest deceit, because he had Sworn to 'em in the name of the lord 
1 Sam. 24. 17.  Saul would have put his Son Jonathan to death for having violated the prohibition, he had made with an Oath; though Jonathan only sinned out of Ignorance. We find among them several other the like examples. Very seriously they made those Solemn Promises, and gave themselves no Liberty to interpret them. To swear by the name of God was an act of Religion; since that Oath distinguished, 
Deut. 6. 13. 10. 20.  the Israelites from those, who swore by the name of false Gods. 
Ps. 63. 11.  Which must be understood of Lawful and necessary Oaths. 
Levit. 27.   
Their vows did ordinarily consist in offering to God some part of their estates, whether to serve for Sacrifices, or to be kept in reserve. Hence came those vast treasures in the Temple of Solomon, 
1 Chron. 26. 28.  which besides the offerings of David contained those of Solomon, Saul, Abner, and Joab. For those oblations principally consisted of Spoils, taken from their enemies. The like did the Pagans in the Temples of their Gods, whether after Victories or on other occasions: Whereof I will give no other example than the Temple of Delphos, and the riches, which Croesus sent thither to make the Oracle favour him. The most considerable Vow was that of the Nazarites, 
Herod. 1.  which for a time obliged its votaries neither to drink Wine, 
Numb. 6.  nor any thing that inebriates, nor to cut their hair; and to keep themselves very charily from all Legal Impurities, particularly from the approach of Dead Bodies. The rule of the Recabites seems to have had its foundation from such kind of Vows. 
2 Kings 10. 15.  The Author of that Rule was Jonadab the Son of Rachab, who lived in the time of Jehu King of Israel and of Elisha the Prophet. 
Jerem. 35. 6.  He forbade his Children to drink Wine, to build houses, to sow, or have Lands or Vineyards. So that they dwelled in Tents; in all probability employing themselves as the Levites did in breeding Cattle, and in perfectly imitating the Pastoral life of the Patriarches. They were married, and inviolably kept that Rule in their Family during at least an hundred years; for we do not find what became of them after the Captivity.   

CAP. XX. Prophets.  
ANother kind of the Religious, and much more considerable were the Propmets. There was a great number of them in the time of Samuel, 
1 Sam. 20▪ 5.  witness that company, which Saul met with, 
Ibid. 19 20.  who prophesied at the sound of Instruments, being Transported with the Spirit of God; and that other troop, which prophesied in the presence of Samuel, and which seems to have been of his Disciples. But it does not appear, there were ever so many as from the time of Elias and Elishah until the Captivity of Babylon. They lived sequestered from the World, distinguished by their apparel, and their way of Life. 
2 Kings 4. 10.  They dwelled upon Mountains, as Elias and Elisha on Mount Carmel and in Galgal. The rich woman, who took Elisha into her house, when he went to Stunam, as I have said, made a Chamber to be built and furnished for him, where he lived so retired, that he did not so much as speak with his Hostess, but gave her to understand, what he had to say, by his Servant Gehazi; and when that Woman desired him to raise her Son from the Dead, 
Ibid. ●. 27.  Gehazi would have hindered her from touching the feet of the Prophet. 
2 King. 10.  When Nahaman General of the armies of Syria came to him to be cured of his Leprosy, he sent him his Orders without showing himself. 
Ibid. 4. 10.  Two other Miracles of that Prophet show, that his Disciples lived in Society, that of the Pottage of herbs, when he took away its bitterness, and that of the Barly-loaves, which he multiplied; wherein we may likewise see the Frugality of their diet. There were even an Hundred Prophets, who lived in that Community and Fellowship. They worked with their own hands: For finding themselves too much crowded in their Lodgings, they went themselves and cut wood to build withal, and they were so poor, that one of them was fain to Borrow an Ax.  
The apparel of the Prophets was Sackcloth, the habit of Mourning, to notify, they did penance for the sins of all the People. So in the Description of Elijah 'tis said, He was an hairy man, 
2 Kings 1. 8.  and girt with a girdle of Leather about his Loins. 
Isai. 20. 2.  So when God commands Isaiah to strip himself, he order him to lose his Sackcloth from off his Loins. The two great Prophets mentioned in the Revelations, appeared clothed in Sackcloth. 
Rev. 11. 3.  The Prophets, at least some of them, were married; and that widow, 
2 King 4. 1.  whose oil Elisha multiplied, was the widow of a Prophet. It seems also their Children followed the same Profession: For the Prophets are often called the Sons of the Prophets; which made Amos say, I was no Prophet, 
Amos. 7. 14.  neither was I a Prophet's Son, but I was a Herdsman; for to show, he did not Prophecy by profession, but by an extraordinary call. For although most commonly God made use of those, who led a Prophetical Life, to make his will known; yet he did not impose upon himself a Law of not making Revelations to others. In the mean while they only accounted those for Prophets, who lead their kind of life: From whence it comes, that the Books of David, Solomon and Daniel are not placed in the rank of Prophecies; by reason, the two former were Kings living in great delights and splendour, and the Latter was a Potentate Living likewise at Court and amidst great People.  
These were the men, who after the Patriarches preserved the purest Tradition of the true Religion. They spent their time in meditating on the Law of God, in praying to him several times day and night for themselves and others, and exercised 'emselves in the Practice of all Virtues. They instructed their Disciples, discovered to them the meaning of the Law, and explained the divine sense, which concerned the State of the Church after the coming of the Messias either upon Earth or in Heaven, couched under Allegories of sensible things, and low in appearance. They also instructed the people, who came to them on Sabbath-days and other Feasts. 
2 Kings 2. 23.  They chid them for their Sins, and exhorted 'em to Repentance, and often in the name of God foretold what should befall them. This Liberty of speaking the harshest truths, even to Kings, made them odious, and cost several of them their Lives. However there were many Impostors, who counterfeited the outside of true Prophets, wore Sackcloth as well as they, and spoke in the same Style, saying of themselves likewise, that they were inspired by God: 
Zech. 13. 4.  But they took care not to make any Predictions, but such as were acceptable to the Prince and his People. The false Gods had also their Prophets, as the 850, 
1 Kings 18. 19  whom Elijah caused to be put to death. Of the same Leven were those soothsayers among the Grecians, whom they called Manties, as Calchas and Tiresias in the Heroical Times. Such were those, who uttered Oracles, or who spread them abroad, and the Poets, who pretended to be in-blown by the Gods. For they did not say it in a Poetical sense, but to have it really believed: And indeed those false Prophets, whether by the Operation of the Devil, or by artifice, entered into a fury and spoke in an extraordinary Style, to emulate the sensible effects, which the Spirit of God made in the true Prophets. Now the temptation was great to the Israelites, so weak in virtue, to consult those soothsayers and false Oracles; and it was a Branch of that Idolatry, whereto they were very subject, during all the time we speak of.   

CAP. XXI. Idolatry.  
THis Crooked inclination to Idolatry appears to us very strange and very absurd in the Manners of the Israelites: and it is that, which does most of all persuade us, they were a gross and brutish People. We scarcely see now any Idolaters: We only hear say, that there remain some in the Indies and other far distant Countries: But all the People, who surround us, Jews, Mahometans, Heretics, and Papists, profess the Unity of an Almighty God: The meanest sort of Women, the most ignorant and heavy Louts, know distinctly this truth; so that we conclude, those, who believed several Gods, and worshipped Stocks and Stones, aught to be placed in the lowest form of the most ignorant, dunsical, and barbarous men. Nevertheless Barbarous we cannot term the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Syrians, and the other people of Antiquity; all whose Arts, Sciences and Politeness are derived down to us, and for which we are much beholden to them: And we cannot deny, but that Idolatry domineered among them with an absolute Empire at a time, when as to other things they were most ingenious and polite. Wherefore we must pause a little here, and dive into the Source and Fond of this Evil.  
The Wit of man is so much darkened since the Fall, that he remains in the state of corrupted nature. He does not apply himself to any Spiritual Idea: He only thinks of Body and Matter, and reckons all that does not fall under his senses, for nothing. Nought appears solid to him, but what strikes his grossest Senses, the Taste and Feeling. We see it but too plainly in Children and men, who follow their Passions: They have no value but for what is Visible and Sensible: All other things seem to 'em mere Castles in the Air. And yet these men are brought up in the true Religion; in the knowledge of one God, of the Souls Immortality, and of a Future life. What then could those Ancient Gentiles think, who had never heard a Syllable of these things, and to whom their great Sages only presented sensible and material Objects? Read Homer, as long as you please, that great Divine and great Prophet of the Grecians; and you will not find the least tittle therein to conjecture, that he thought of any thing Spiritual or Incorporeal.  
And truly all their Wisdom applied itself to what concerns the body and the senses. The Gymnastick exercises of the body, which they made so much their business did only aim at preserving and augmenting Health, Strength, Dexterity, and Beauty, and they brought that Art to the highest pitch of Accomplishment. Sculpture, Painting▪ and Architecture regard the pleasure of the Eye; and such great Masters were they in those Arts, that their Houses, their Cities and all their Countries, were full of agreeable Objects, as we may see by the Descriptions of Pausanias. They also excelled in Music; and though Poetry seems to reach further than the Senses, it is stinted to the Imagination, which has the same Objects and produces the same Effects. Their most Ancient Laws, and their Rules of Morality do all likewise refer to bodily things, that each particular Person should have wherewith to live handsomely; that men should marry sound and fruitful Women; that the Children should be brought up to have stout Bodies, and that chiefly for War; that every one might be in security in respect of Strangers or Ill-Citizens.  
They thought so little of the Soul and ' its Spiritual Goods, that they did it a great deal of harm for the prefectionating of the Body. It is evidently against modesty, that the Youngmen should appear all naked in public to exercise themselves in the Eyes of all the World: This was reputed nothing; and the Women too in Lacedaemon exercised themselves in that manner. Very dangerous also it was to expose Statues and Pictures every where of all kind of Nudities, even the most infamous; and the danger was very great, especially for Painters and Carvers, who work to the Life: However they were obliged to content the pleasure of the Sight. Thus we know, to what point of Dissoluteness and Lubricity the Greeks attained by those means. Among them the most abominable Wantonness was not only in use but in Honour. Music and Poetry, besides their fomenting of those Vices, did likewise excite and maintain Jealousies and mortal hatred among the Poets, the Actors and the Spectators: And particular persons were often branded, Lampooned, and exposed by Forgeries and cruel Raileries. But they were not much nettled or scandalised, provided they had fine Songs and agreeable Sights.  
It was the same, as to their Religion: It only consisted in sensible Ceremonies, and was injurious instead of being advantageous to good manners. And the source of all these mischiefs was, that man had forgot himself, and his immaterial substance. There was kept up among all people a constant Tradition, that there was a more excellent Being than man, capable of doing him good or evil. Knowing nothing but Body, they would needs have that Being, h. e. the Deity, to be also Corporeal, and by consequence, that there were several Gods; to the intent there might be some of them in each part of nature; that each Nation, each Town, each Family might have their peculiar Deities. They imagined them like immortal men; and to make 'em happy, they attributed to them all the pleasures, without which they fancied no happiness, and that even to the most shameful Debaucheries: Which afterwards served to authorise their Passions by the example of their Gods. It was not enough to imagine them either in Heaven or upon Earth; they would see and touch them: Wherefore they honoured their Idols as the Gods themselves, being persuaded they were thereto fixed and therein incorporated: And they reverenced those Statues so much the more, as they were more fine or more Ancient, or had some other Singularity, which made them the more Recommendable.  
Their Worship was conformable to their Belief. It wholly turned upon two Passions, the Love of Pleasure, and the fear of sensible Ill Their Sacrifices were evermore followed by Feasts and accompanied with Music and Dances. Comedy and Tragedy began at their rejoicings in the time of Vintage, sacred to the honour of Bacchus. 
Ter●ul. de Spect. August. de Civ. Dei 2.  The Olympic Games, and those other so much celebrated Combats were made in honour of the Gods: in short, all the Shows of Greece were Acts of Religion; and according to them it was an high piece of Devotion to assist at the most Lewd Plays of Aristophanes. And indeed their greatest business in time of Peace was to take care of sacred Combats and stageplays; and frequently in time of War they applied themselves more, and were in greater expense for those things than for the War itself. Thus their Religion was not a Doctrine of Morality, 
Demosth. Philip. Aug de verâ Rel.  as the true Religion was. In case some Justice was observed, Oaths, Hospitality and Asyles were not violated. In case men acquitted themselves faithfully of their vows, and they were at expense for Sights and Sacrifices, they were then Religious enough of Conscivence. Debauchery was so far from being condemned by their Religion, that it was in some measure commanded. 'Twas necessary to be drunk for the righteous celebrating of the Bacchanals; and Women prostituted themselves in honour of Venus, 
Clem. Alex. Prom. in  particularly in Corinth. Almost every one knows, what was the God of Gardens, and what were the Mysteries of Ceres and Cybele.  
Thus it was that they honoured the Gods, whom they esteemed favourers of Mankind and doers of good. But as to the Infernal, Deities, Hecate, the Eumenideses, Destinies and others, of whom their Fables made them afraid, they were to be appeased by Nocturnal Sacrifices and the most horrible and inhuman Ceremonies. Some there were, who buried men alive: Others offered up Children, and sometimes their own, as those Adorers of Moloch did, so much detested in Scripture. 'Tis to that fear and dread, we must refer all their cruel and troublesome Superstitions, as to let out their own blood with lancets or to cut themselves with Knives, as did the false Prophets of and the Priests of Cybele, and to fast, to bathe in cold water, and the like. Thereby they thought to divert the private mischiefs or public calamities, with which they were threatened by Oracles, Dreams or Prodigies according to the explication of their Divines. They believed them to be Remedies against Diseases, the Pestilence, Hail, and Famine. Now in those matters they chose rather to do useless things, than to omit what are useful. All their Lustration or Expiation of Sins lay in that kind of painful Ceremonies: It consisted in purifying the Body by Water or by Fire, and in making certain Sacrifices: But there was no talk of Repentance or Conversion.  
Perhaps it will seem strange, that a people so enlightened as the Greeks, should fall into such gross Superstitions, and should suffer themselves to be so easily amused by Astrologers, Augurs and so many other sorts of Fortune-tellers. But we must consider, that until the time of Alexander and the reign of the Macedonians, they had not made any great progress in those Sciences, which might cure Superstition. They had improved the Arts very much; they had very good Laws: in a word, they had brought to an high perfection, whatever renders Life commodious and agreeable. But they had not so much applied themselves to Speculative Sciences as Astronomy, Geometry, and Physics. The Anatomy of Animals and Vegetables, the Search of Minerals and Meteors, the Figure of the Earth, the course of the Stars, and the whole Systeme of the World were still very obscure Mysteries. The Chaldeans and Egyptians, who only now knew something of 'em, made them a great Secret, and only spoke of them in Riddles, and blended an infinite number of Superstitions and Fables with them.  
As those Sciences principally depend on the Experiments of the Phaenomena, the following Ages do always add to them; and they are at present in a greater Perfection, than they have ever been. They are taught publicly to all, that will apply themselves that way, and they suit mighty well with our holy Religion, which condemns all Superstition, Divination and Magic. And yet we find too many who listen to Astrologers and that kind of Impostors. I do not only speak of Peasants and Idiots, the Dregs of the People, but of Women, who pretend to a large State of Wit, Politeness and Knowledge, and of men brought up in the light of the best Education, who in other points show themselves great & daring wits, and will not yield to the Authority of the true Religion. What was it then, when all these Fooleries composed a great part of Religion? when soothsayers really passed for Divine men? when Astrology, Pyromancy, Necromancy and the rest were Divine Sciences? How could people resist the Authority of Priests and False Prophets, who very seriously related a great number of former Trials in confirmation of their Doctrine, and whom whole Nations so blindly followed? They must needs give credit to them, seeing they knew not, how things could naturally come so to pass, and though any one should have had that knowledge, he must be very bold, that durst have contradicted them.  
Thus this Inclination to Idolatry was not peculiar to the Israelites; it was an Universal evil: And that hardness of heart, for which the Scripture so often rebukes them, does not consist in their being more addicted to sensible things than other Nations, but in their being as much as they were, after having received particular favours from God, and having seen great Miracles. Most assuredly it was requisite to have a strong force of mind to resist the ill example of all other Nations. When an Israelite was out of his own Country among Infidels, they seeing him neither offer Sacrifices nor worship Idols, accused him of having no Religion at all; and when he spoke to them of his God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, they had him in derision and asked, from whence he came. These reproaches were hard to be supported: David himself does testify, 
Ps. 42▪ ●3  that during his Exile, his Tears were his meat day and night, while they continually said unto him, where is thy God? Weak Spirits were staggered by these Attacks, and often could not cope with them. The Propensity we have to pleasure, augmented the Temptation: For the Feasts of the Pagans were both magnificent and frequent. Curiosity easily carries away young People, especially Maidens, to go see Pomps and Processions, the order and tricking of the Victims, the dances and Choirs of Music, and the ornaments of the Temples. There still was found some officious Stranger or other, who engaged them to take place in the Feast, and to eat of the meats offered to Idols, or to come and jodge in his House. This gave occasion to acquaintance and Amours, which terminated either in a mere Debauch or in a Marriage against the Law. Thus did Idolatry insinuate itself; the ordinary Charms whereof were good Victuals and bad Women. Thus in the time of Moses the Daugters of the Medianites engaged the Israelites in those detestabl Mysteries of Belphegor. 
Fumb. 29.  And thus Strange Women perverted Solomon.  
Furthermore, the Law of God might seem to them too Severe. It did not Permit them to Sacrifice but in one place by the hands of the Priests, and according to certain very strict rules: And there were but three great Feasts through the whole Year, the Passeover, the Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. This was but a small thing for People, who lived in Abundance, and in a Climate that inspires Pleasures. However, dwelling in the Country, and being employed in Husbandry, they could not assemble conveniently but at Feasts. Wherefore they must either borrow from Strangers, or invent new ones. We, who believe ourselves so Spiritually given, and who without doubt ought to be so, if we were really Christians, do not we often prefer the Possession of sensible benefits before the hopes of eternal good? and do not we strive to reconcile with the Gospel sundry Divertisements, which all Antiquity has judged incompatible therewith, and against which our Instructors never cease to declaim? True, we abhor Idolatry; but we do not see it any where (without it be among the Papists,) it having been entirely decried for above a thousand years. We must not therefore believe, the Israelites were more stupid than other People, because the repeated favours, which they received from God, did not cure them of Idolatry: But we must acknowledge, that the wound of Original sin was very deep, since such holy Instructions and such great wonders were not sufficient to elevate men above sensible things. And Besides, we see, that other People the most illuminated in other things, as the Greeks and Egyptians, were also without Comparison more blinded herein.   

CAP. XXII. State Politic Liberty Domstick Power.  
AFter the Religion, we must say a word or two of the Politic State of the Israelites. They were perfectly a free People, and chiefly before they had Kings. In their Country were neither Homages, nor Censives, nor constraints for Hunting or Fishing, nor any of those different sorts of Subjection, which among us are so usual, that great men themselves are not exempt from them; since we see Sovereigns, who are Vassals, and even Officers of other Sovereigns, as in Germany and Italy. Thus they enjoyed that Liberty so much cherished by the Greeks and Romans; and it was their own fault, that they did not always preserve, and enjoy it. It was the intention of God, as appears by the reproaches Samuel made them on his behalf, 
1 Sim. 10. 18.  when they demanded a King. Gideon was well informed of this; for that when they would have made him King, and settled the Kingdom on his Posterity, 
Jud. 8. 23.  he generously returned Answer: I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you. So that their State was neither Monarchical nor Aristocratical, nor Demccratical; 
2 Contr. App. 6.  but (as Josephus calls it) a Theocracy, that is to say, God himself governed them immediately by the Law he had given them. So long as they were faithful in observing it, they lived in safety and in Liberty. As soon as they broke it to follow their particular Inclinations, they fell into Anarchy and Confusion. 
Jud. 17. 6. 21. 25.  This is, what the Scripture shows, when it sets it down for the Cause of the greatest crimes: In those days there was no King in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. This Anarchy divided and weakened them, and gave them up a Prey to their Enemies, until that returning to themselves, they had recourse to God, who sent 'em deliverers. 
Jud. 2. 11. 12. etc.  Thus it was that they lived under the Judges, falling from time to time into Idolatry and Disobedience to the Law of God, and by those means into confusion and slavery, still recovering themselves from time to time. In short, they chose rather to have a Master, than to remain in Liberty by faithfully keeping the Law of God.  
Their Liberty, being reduced to its just bounds, consisted in being able to do all that the Law of God did not prohibit, and in not being obliged to do but what it commanded, without being subject to the Will of any Particular man. But the Domestical Power of the Fathers of Families was very great over their Slaves and their Children. Some Hebrews were slaves to their Brethren, and the Law set down two causes, which might bring 'em into that condition, Poverty, which constrained them to sell themselves, 
Levit. 25. 39  or the Trespass of a Thief, 
Exod. 22. 3.  who had not wherewith to make Restitution. It seems, this latter cause does extend to other Debts by the example of that Widow, 
2 Kings 4. 1.  whose Oil Elisha Multiplied, to the end she might have wherewith to pay her Creditors, and keep her Children from bondage; nevertheless those Hebrew slaves might become free after six years, 
Exod. 21. 2  to wit, in the Sabbatical year: 
Levit. 25. 40.  And if they would not make use of that Privilege, they had that of the Jubilee, to be free after fifty years, and to preserve their children's freedom. It was recommended to treat them gently, and rather to make use of foreign slaves.  
The Israelites might kill their slaves with impunity; 
Instit. de Fur Pers. 3. §. 3.  and that right was then common to all Nations. For Slavery proceeded from the right of War, when instead of kill Enemies, they chose rather to spare their lives, that they might have their Service. So they supposed, that the Conqueror had always a right of taking away their lives, if they rendered themselves unworthy of them; that he acquired the same right over their Children in regard they could not have been born, if he had not preserved the Father; and that he transmitted that right, when he alienated his Slave. This is the foundation of the Absolute Power of Masters, and it was seldom, that they misused it: For their own Interest obliged them to preserve their Slaves, 
Exod. 21. 20. 21.  who made part of their estate. This is the reason of that Law of God for not punishing him, who had struck his Slave after such a manner that he died thereof some days after. He is his money, said the Law; meaning his own Loss did sufficiently punish him. But if he kills him downright upon the Spot, it declares him culpable. Wherein it is more Humane than the Laws of other People, who made not that distinction. 
Instit. de his qni sui. v. al. 1.  The Romans had during above five hundred years the Right of putting their Slaves to Death and their Debtors into Irons in default of Payment, 
Instit. quib. mod. jus▪ pat. § 6.  and of selling their own Children even thrice, before they went out of their Power, and all this by virtue of those wise Laws of the Twelve Tables, which they brought from Greece at the same time, when the Jews reestablished themselves at their Return from the Captivity, that is to say, about a thousand years after Moses.  
As to the Paternal Power of the Hebrews, 
Exod. 21. 7.  the Law permitted 'em to sell their Daughters: But that sail was a kind of Marriage, and if a Son was disobedient and debauched the Elders of the City condemned him to die, 
Deut. 21.  and he was accordingly stoned to death. 
Heliod. 1.  That very Law was practised at Athens, but at Rome the Fathers had a long time the Power of life and Death over their Children as well as over their Slaves. This so rigorous right was grounded upon the Child's holding their Lives from their Parents, and they supposed there would be none found so unnatural, as to cause their Children to perish, if they did not commit the most horrible Crimes. However that fear was very useful to keep Children in an entire submission. The Romans Law was really excessive in giving to the Fathers of Families that power of life and Death by their private Authority without participation of the Magistrate or of the Public. But fallen we are to the opposite extremity, suffering that Paternal Power to sink to nothing. How young soever a Son be, as soon as he is Married, or has means of subsistence without his Father presently he pretends he owes him nothing more than a little Respect. From thence comes the infinite Multiplication of Little Families, and of People, who live alone, or in Places, where all are equally Masters. Those young independent People, if they be poor, become Vagabonds, and unaccomptable persons, capable of all manner of Crimes; if they be rich, they plunge themselves into riotous vices, and are ruined. Besides the corruption of Manners this Independence may also cause great Mischiefs in the State: It being much more difficult to govern such a multitude of Separate and unruly men, than a small number of Heads of Families, each of whom did answer for a great Number of men, and was usually an old man instructed in the Laws.   

CAP. XXIII. The Authority of the Old men.  
NOt only the Fathers, but all the old men had a great Authority among the Israelites, and among all the People of Antiquity. In every Country of the World, they chose at first Judges for private Affairs, and Counsellors for the Public from among the most aged men. Hence came the names of Senate and Fathers at Rome, 
Gell. 2. c. 5.  and that great Respect for Elders which they had taken from the Lacedæmonians. Nothing is more conformable to nature: Youth is only proper for Motion and Action; Old age knows how to instruct, counsel, and command. It rarely happens, that in a Young man Study or force of Mind supplies Experience; and an old man, provided he has good natural Sense, is knowing only by his Experience. All Histories do bear, that the best governed States have been those, where old men have had the Principal Authority, and that the Reigns of Princes too young have been the most unfortunate. It is, what the Wiseman says, 
Eccle. 16. 16.  Woe unto thee, O Land, when thy King is a Child; and it is this Misfortune, which God threatens the Jews withal, when he lets 'em know by Isaiah, 
Isa. 3. 4.  that he will give them Children to be their Princes. And indeed Youth has neither patience nor foresight: 'Tis an enemy to Rule, and seeks only Pleasure and Change.  
As soon as the Israelites began to form themselves into a People, they were governed by Old men. When Moses came into Egypt to promise them Liberty on God's behalf, 
Ex. 4. 29.  he assembled the Elders, 
18. 12.  and in their presence did Miracles, which were the proofs of his Mission. All the Elders of Israel came to the Feast, which he made for Jethro his Father in Law. When God was pleased to appoint him a Council for the easing him in the management of that great People; Choose out, 
Numb. 11. 16.  said he to him, Seaventy men, whom thou knowest to be the Elders of the People, and Officers over them. So that already they were in Authority, before the Law was given, or the State had received its form. In all the sequel of Scripture, every time, that mention is made of Assemblies and of Public affairs, the Elders are placed in the first rank, and sometimes they only are named. From whence the expression comes in the Psalm, 
Ps. 107. 31.  which exhorts to Praise God in the congregation of the People, and in the Seats of the Elders, that is, in the Public Council. These two parts composed all the ancient Republics; The Assembly, which the Greeks Styled Ecclesia, and the Latins Conscio, and the Senate. The name of Elders did afterwards pass into Titles of dignity: From the Greek word comes the name of Priest, and from the Latin one by Contraction the name of Sir. We may judge of the Age, whereat the Hebrews thought fit to reckon a man in the number of those that were Aged, by that passage in Scripture, where those are termed Young men, whose Councils Rehoboam followed. 
1 King. 12. 8.  For it is said, they were brought up with him, and we may conclude thence, 
2 Chron. 12. 13.  that they were about his age, and he was then Forty years old.   

CAP. XXIV. Administration of Justice.  
JUstice was administered by two sorts of Officers Shophetim and Shoterim, 
Deut. 16. 18.  established in each City by the order, 
Magistri.  which Moses had given at God's command. 
Prafecti.  'Tis certain, 
Deuces.  the word Shophetim signifies Judges: 
Praeones.  But Shoterim is variously translated in the Vulgar, 
Jos. 3. 2.  yet the Tradition of the Jews explains it of Ministers of Justice, 
Deut. 3 3. 10. 1 Chron. 26. 29. 23. 4.  Doorkeepers, Sergeants, 
2 Chron 19 5.  Attendants to Courts, and the like. Those Offices were given to Levites, 
Ibid. 8.  of whom 6000 were that way employed in the time of David. 
Deut. 178.  These Judges were the same, 
〈◊〉 Sanhedr. 〈◊〉 1 § 6. § 4. §. 1. etc.  whom Jehoshaphat reestablished in each City, and to whom he gave such excellent Instructions. The Scripture adds, that at Jerusalem he established a company of Levites, Priests, and Heads of Families for the judging great Causes. It is that Council of Seventy Elders erected in the days of Moses, wherein the high-Priest presided, and to which all questions were brought, that were too difficult to be decided by the Judges of Lesser Cities. The Tradition of the Jews is, that these Judges of particular Cities were to the number of twenty three; that they were all to be assembled in Capital Causes; and that three were sufficient for Matters Pecuniary, and for other Affairs of less Consequence. The chief Judge was the King, according to those words of the People to Samuel; 
1 Sam. 8. 6.  Give Give us a King to Judge us.  
The place where those Judges kept their Court, was the Gate of the City For as the Israelites were all Husbandmen, who went out in the Morning to go to their Work, the City-gate was the place where they most commonly met. And we ought not to wonder, that they Worked in the Fields and dwelled in Cities. They were not such Cities as the Metropolises of our Countries, that can hardly subsist upon what twenty or thirty Miles round about do furnish them withal. They were Habitations for as many Labourers as were necessary to cultivate the Lands, that lay nearest them; from whence it came, that the Country being well peopled, those towns were very numerous. The Tribe of Judah alone counted 115 for its share, 
Jos. 15. ●7 etc.  when it entered into possession, besides what was afterwards built, and each one had Villages in its dependence. So that they must needs have been small and near one another, like great Villages walled and well built, having also what ever is to be had in the Country, 
1 Chron. 21. 19  since in Jerusalem itself there were Barns where Corn was thrashed, as that of Ornan the Jebusite, which David bought for the building of the Temple. In like manner among the Greeks and Romans the Rendezvous for all affairs was the Marketplace, by reason they were all Merchants. In the time of the Ancient Francs, the Vassals of each Lord assembled in the Court of his Castle, and hence are derived the Courts of Princes. In the Levant as the Princes live more Retired, Affairs are dispatched at the Gate of their Seraglio: And that Custom of making a Court at the Palace-gate, was in use in the days of the Ancient Kings of Persia, 
Esth. 2. 19 21. 3. 2. 3.  as we may see more than once in the Book of Esther.  
The City-gate was the Place, where all Public and Private Business was canvased in the time of the Patriarches. Abraham made the acquisition of his Sepulchre in the Presence of all those, 
Gen 23. 10. 18.  who en●tred into the Gate of the City of Hebron. When Hamor and his Son Sichem, who had carried away Dina, proposed to make an Alliance with the Israelites, 
Gen. 34 20  it was at the City-gate, they spoke thereof to the People. The form of those Public Acts we see well particularised in the History of Ruth. Boaz being desirous to Marry her, 
Ruth. 4.  caused her to be yielded up to him by the Person, who had a right to do so, as her nearest Relation. For that purpose he sat down at the Gate of Bethlehem, and seeing that Kinsman pass by, he stayed him. Then he took ten of the Elders of the City, and after they were all seated, he expressed his Pretention, and obtained of her Kinsman the Declaration he demanded, in the form set down by the Law. To which he took not only the Elders but all the People to witness; which shows, a great number of Spectators were assembled. 'Tis also highly probable, that Curiosity stopped all passengers: They had seldom very pressing business; they all knew one another, and were all akin, and they must needs have had an Interest in one another's concerns.  
Perhaps those Acts were reduced into Writing: 
Jerem. 31. 10.  Scripture makes no mention of their being so, 
Tob. 1. 19 7. 16. 8. 24.  but in Jeremiah a little before the Destruction of Jerusalem. In Tobit we read of a promise for money lent, of a Contract of Marriage, and of a Donation in favour of the Match: 
Deut. 24. 1.  In Jeremiah 'tis a Contract of Purchase. Moses his Law only orders Writing in an act of Divorce: But though they should not have written im● the Primitive times, their Contracts notwithstanding would have been very sure and steady, being made in so Public a manner. If the Relative of Boaz should have Gainsayed the Concession, which he had made all the Inhabitants of Bethlehem would have convicted him of Deceit: Some had been there present, and others had learned it immediately. The Romans were a long while writing the proceedings betwixt particular Persons, as appears by the obligatory force of Words, which they called Stipulation. They did not fear, that an Act should want proof, when they had uttered certain solemn Words in the Marketplace in the midst of all the People, and they had called some Citizens to witness in particular, who were of an Honest, i.e. honourable Condition, and of an untainted Reputation. Those Acts were also as public, as those which pass at present in private Houses before a Notary, who often knows not the Persons, or before a Justice of Peace with a couple of Knights o' the Post for Evidences.  
We may say, that among the Hebrews the Gate was the same thing with the Exchange or the Forum amongst the Romans. The Market for Commodities was held at the City-Gate. 
2 King. 7. 1.  Which we see by the Prophecy of Elisha, who soretold, that on the Morrow Victuals should be at a low rate at the Gate of Samaria. That Gate had a place, which must have been spacious, since King Ahaeh assembled there four hundred false Prophets. 
2 King. 22. 10.  I believe, it was the same with orher Cities; and those Gates had some building where were seats for the Judges and Elders. For it is said, that Boaz went up to the Gate, and sat down there; 
2 Sam. 18. 33.  and when David had learned the Death of Absolom, he went up to the Chamber over the Gate to weep. That Chamber might be the place of Privy Council, and secret Deliberations. After all these examples we need not wonder, that the Scripture Idiom has the Gate so often for the Judgement-seat or the Public Council of each City, or for the City or State itself; and that in the Gospel the Gates of Hell signify the Kingdom or Power of the Devil.  
As the Law of God regulated both Temporal and Religious Matters there was no distinction of Tribunals: The same Judges decided cases of Conscience, and determined Civil or Criminal Processes. So that their Officers were few in comparison of those at this day in France, where 'tis a shameful thing to be a mere private Person, and to have no other employ than of improving one's Estate and governing one's Family. Every body would be in a Public Capacity, would have honours, prerogatives, and privileges: And Offices are considered either as Trades, which maintain men, or as Titles, that distinguish them. But if we would only eye, what is Essential in 'em, that is, the Public Functions real and necessary; we should see, they, might be officiated by a small number of Persons, leaving them also time to bestow on their Private Affairs. This was the Practice of all People of Antiquity, and Principally of the Hebrews, among whom I find no other public Officers than the Elders, 
Nasim Rasim  the Princes of Tribes, the Heads of Families, and the Judges, and those that looked to the execution of Justice. 
Ex. 18. 25▪  For as for the rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties; and rulers of ten, whom Moses had established by the Council of Jethro they only were in the Armies, after the Journey through the Wilderness.   

CAP. XXV. War.  
AFter the Administration of Justice, we must speak of War, no Israelite was there, but bore Arms, even to the Priests and Levites. The Priest Benajah Son of Jehoiada was one of the most illustrious of David's valiant men. 
2 Sam 1. 3 20.  Thus they reckoned for men of War all those, who were at the age of bearing Arms; and that age was fixed from twenty years old, 
Numb 1. 3 2●. etc.  and upwards: Being like the trained Bands of some Countries, ever ready to assemble at the first order. The difference is, that among us the use of Weapons is forbidden to all such as are consecrated to God, and that we have an infinite number of People useless for War, Lawyers, Physicians, Citizens, Merchants, and Handicraftmen: Whereas they were all Husbandmen and Shepherds, accustomed to Fatigue from their youth up. It likewise appears they exercised themselves in handling their Arms, atleast since the time of Solomon. For he made no use of Israelites, when he built those prodigious Structures, whether for the Defence, or the Ornament of his Kingdom. He employed therein those Canaanites, that were left, whom he caused to pay him Tribute. As for the Israelites they were men of war (says the Scripture) Officers and Captains in his Troops. 
2 Chron. 8. 5.  So at Rome all the Citizens of such an age were obliged to serve a number of Campaignes', when they were commanded: Wherefore they did not say, to raise Forces, but to choose them, 
Delectum habere.  because there were always many left behind. It was no hard matter for the Israelites to procure subsistence for their Armies: The Country was so small, and the enemy so near, that they often returned to quarter in their own Houses, or had but the March of a Day or two.  
Their Arms were much the same with those of the Greeks and Romans; Swords, Bows and Arrows, Darts and Lances. Their Swords were of broad and short blades, hanging upon their Thighs. They likewise made use of Slings, witness the Inhabitants of Gibeah in Benjamin, 
Exod. 32. 27.  who could even hit an Hair; and those same Gibeonites would have equally fought with both Hands. 
Ps. 45. 4.  Saul held usually a Javelin in his hand, 
Cant. 3. 8.  as Homer makes his Heroes do, 
Jud. 20. 16.  and as the Romans dealt with Quirinus and the other Gods. 
● Sam. 18. 11. 22. 16.  Besides they did not wear Arms but upon occasion, no not so much as a Sword. When Da-vid commanded his men to March against Nabal, 
1 Sam. 25. 13.  he bid them first to take their Swords, though they were in a State of continual Alarms. The custom of wearing always a Sword by one's side was peculiar to the Gauls and Germans. As for Defensive Arms, they wore the Shield, Buckler, Headpiece and Cuirasses. We view the Example of a complete armour in that of Goliath: 
1 Sam. 17. 5. 6. etc.  But those Arms (it seems) were rare among the Israelites at that time, 
Ibid. 18.  in regard King Saul would have lent his to David. 
2 Chron. 26. 14.  They afterwards became very common: 
Ibid. 15.  and Vzziah had sufficient wherewith to arm all his forces that were above three hundred thousand men. The same King set Engines on the Towers and Bulwarks of Jerusalem to shoot Arrows and great Stones withal; and several Cities were fortified by him as well as most of the other Kings. Thus War was made then much after the same manner, as it was made until the latter times, ere Fire-arms were found out.  
The Israelites had none but Infantry, as mostly the Inhabitants of hot Country have, where they always March on dry foot. Horses are of no use there, particularly in Mountainous Countries. They are rather necessary in cold ones to pass through bad ways, and to make great Marches in barren and almost desolated Lands, as in Poland and T●rtary. 'Tis manifest; the Israelites had no horses in David's time, 
2 Sam. 18. 9▪  since Absolom having lost the battle, wherein he perished, mounted on a Mule to make his escape. And indeed the Country did not produce them: But Solomon, who could furnish himself at great expense, had 'em from Egypt, and kept above forty thousand with twelve thousand Chariots. Those Chariots of War apparently resembled those of the Grecians, that is, 
2 Chron. 9 25.  they were small with two Wheels, carrying a man or two, standing or leaning forwards. The subsequent Kings could not keep up to that high expense of Solomon, but from time to time sent for Succours from Egypt: And upon those occasion's mention is evermore made of Horses.  
The Scripture teaches us nothing particular touching the Evolutions and the form of Batalions, and the general order of Battles. But for the Art of encamping and Marching in due order, the Journey through the Desert under the 
Numb. 12. etc.  Conduct of Moses is a most glorious Example. By exact rules they knew the number of that prodigious Army. Each one was ranged in his Tribe in its Quarter, under one of the four Principals, according to the Brithright of the Patriarches, and the Quality of their Mothers. 
Numb. 5. 12. etc.  They Marched at the sound of Trumpets, always following the same order; and they had their Standards in the same Situation round the Tabernacle of the Congregation, which was the Centre of the camp. They provided for the neatness of their Tents, which was so necessary in so hot a Country, 
Deut. 23. 10. 11. etc.  and so difficult in so great a Multitude. In fine, we see, that the order of the Greeks and Romans Encamp was taken as well as all the rest from these ancient Models of the Orientals. The Hebrews set a great value upon Spoils and Booty with the other Ancients, they being marks of Honour.  
From the time of Joshua unto the Kings, the command of the Armies belonged to those, whom the People elected, or whom God raised up in an extraordinary way, as Othoniel, Barak, Gideon: But they were only obeyed by that part of the People, who had chosen them, or to whom God had given 'em for Deliverance. The rest of the People abusing their Liberty were frequently exposed to the Insults of their Enemies. 
1 Sam. 8. 20.  This made them desire a King,, not only to administer Justice▪ but also to have the general conduct of their Armies, and to wage War for them. And truly from that time they were in greater security: The King assembled the People, when he judged fit, and kept always on foot a certain number of troops. 
1 Sam. 13. 2.  'Tis set down in the beginning of Saul's reign, 
1 Chron. 27.  he kept three thousand men. David had twelve bodies consisting of four and twenty thousand, 
2 Chron. 17. 14.  who by months served all in their turns. Jehosophat had but the third part of David's kingdom, and yet he had eleven hundred and sixty thousand mighty men of valour under his hand without reckoning his Garrisons.   

CAP. XXVI. Of Kings and their Power.  
THe King had power of Life and Death, and might put Criminals to Death without the formality of Justice. David made use of that Right against the Person, 
2 Sam. 1. 15.  who had killed Saul, and against them, who had assassinated Ishbosbeth. 
Ibid. 4. 12,  The Roman Emperors had also that power. The power of the Israelitish Kings was in other cases very much limited: They were obliged to observe the Law as much as Private Persons; they could neither derogate from, nor add to it: And there is no example specified of any one of them, 
1 Sam. 8. 13.  that made a new Law. Their Domestic life was very plain; 
2 Sam. 4. 3.  as we see in the Description, that Samuel makes in the Manners of Kings, lest they should disgust the People. He allows them only Women to serve them; and when Ishbosheth was Murdered, there was none but a Maid to guard his Gate, who was fallen asleep, as she was winnowing Corn. Those Kings lived on Husbandry as well as private Persons: All the difference is, they had more Lands and more Herds. In the account of David's Riches, there are indeed reckoned Treasures of Gold and Silver; 
1 Chron. 17.  but there are likewise reckoned Tilled Lands and Vine-yards, Magazines of Wine and Oil, Plaits of Olive and Figtrees, Herds, Oxen, Camels, Asses and Sheep. 'Tis in this way, 
Odies. 14.  that Homer Characterizes the Wealth of Ulysses. He gives on the Continent twelve great Droves of each kind of Cattle, besides what he had in his Islands. From this great Husbandry they had all that was necessary for House-keeping. 
1 Kings. 4. 7.  In the days of Solomon twelve Intendants were distributed into all the Coasts of Israel, who sent by turns, each during his Month, Provision for th● Kings household, amounting 〈◊〉 one day to thirty three Measure of ●ine Flower, 
Ibid. 22.  thirty Beefs, and an hundred sheep; which is sufficient to feed at least five thousand men.  
As this Maintenance was made in the kinds, which the same Country afforded, nothing needed to be bought, and there was no occasion either for Purveyors, or Treasurers, or Comptrollers, and that vast number of Officers, which consume great Lordships: Insomuch as Gold and Silver were kept in reserve, or served to their most natural use, either for Plate or Ornament. 
1 Chron. 29.  From hence came the great Riches of David, and Solomon. David prepared what ever was necessary for the Building of the Temple, the Charges of which amounted to three thousand Millions of Gold. Moreover he laid up great Treasures, and caused much likewise to be shut up in his Sepulchre. Solomon built several Palaces, fortified divers Cities, and made a great number of Public Works. All his Vessels and the Movables of his House of Lebanon were of pure Gold, 
1 King. 10. 14.  not to count his two hundred Targets of Gold, six hundred shekels of Gold going to one Target. His Revenues were likewise great. Commerce and Traffic alone brought him every year six hundred sixty six Talents of Gold, which make above Eleven Millions. He made all Strangers under his Obedience to pay him Tribute, the Hivites, the Amorites, and the other primitive Inhabitants of the Land of Israel, the Idumeans, a great part of Arabia, and all Syria. For his Empire extended from the entrance into Egypt as far as Euphrates: And from all those Rich Countries they sent him every year Vessels of Gold and of Silver, Stuffs, Arms, Perfumes, Horses, and Mules, these Reflections may make us Comprehend, from whence came the Riches of Croesus in a State much of the same extent with that of Solomon. Gold and Silver were not yet so common in the World: There was but little of those Metals in Greece, none in Italy, nor in the rest of Europe, except in Spain, where there were Mines  
'Tis fit, we should spend a little time in considering this prosperity of Solomon; the Survey whereof is extremely delightful. Let us peruse all Histories, and we shall not find so perfect an Assembly of all the Blessings, that can be enjoyed on this side the Stars. A Young Prince in the Flower of his Age, of a Godlike presence, and most amiable in his Person, of mighty Parts, very Learned, and very Active; Master of great Dominions in a profound Peace; of so great a Reputation, that it caused a Queen to take a long and tedious Journey to come and see him; inhabiting the finest Country in the World, Magnificently Lodged, well served, crowned with Riches, and Swimming in Pleasures; 
Eccl. 2. 4. etc.  respsing himself nothing as he himself confesses, and applying all that great Wit to the contentment of his desires: This is he, whom we should call an Happy man according to our natural Ideas; yet certain it is, he was not so, since he was not contented. 'Tis he himself that says it: Then I looked on all the works that my Hands had wrought, and on the Labour, 
Ibid. 2. 11.  that I had Laboured to do: And behold all was vanity and vexation of Spirit, and there was no profit under the Sun.  
In this Prosperity of Solomon and of his People, God has at the same time given to Mankind two Important Instructions. First, he hath shown his Veracity in accomplishing his promises, so Liberally giving to the Israelites all the Blessings, which he had promised to their Forefathers in the possession of that Land, to the intent no body might thenceforward doubt of his well recompensing those, who applied themselves to him, and observed his Commandments. Men being entirely mu●●led up in the darkness of Sensible things, had an hint from this Pledge to believe one day the Invisible favours, and rewards of another life. But moreover in granting to the Israelites the possession of those sensible goods, and in profusely heaping upon them whatever might compose the felicity of this Life, God has given to all mankind the means of being disabused, and of conceiving much more Elevated hopes. For who can pretend to be happy under the Sun if Solomon was not so? Who can question, but all that passes here, is vanity after the Assertion he has made? Does not this Example make us sufficiently see, that Temporal goods are not only vain but dangerous, not only unfit to fill the heart of man, but proper to corrupt it? What reason have we to flatter ourselves, that we shall make a better use of them, than that People so cherished by God, and so well instructed, who seem to have more right to those kind of Blessings, since they were proposed to 'em for a Reward? What a madness would it be in us to believe ourselves stronger, than the wise Solomon? He abandoned himself so to the Love of Women, that he had to the number of a Thousand, contrary to the Prohibition of God's Law: 
Deut. 17. 17.  And the Complaisance, he had for 'em, carried him even to Idolatry. His Subjects followed so great an Example, and from this time the Manners of the Israelites fell more and more into Corruption.  
The Division of the two Kingdoms of Israel and Judah did still Augment the Mischief. The corruption was much greater in Israel, where Idolatry reigned, the source of all manner of Sins: Revolts and Teasons were frequent there. In Judah the Sceptre departed not from the Family of David: There were sundry pious Kings, Priests, and Levites, who retired thither, and kept up there the Observation of the Law much purer, with the Tradition of the true Religion. In those Later times, when the Law was contemned, Commerce and Intercourse with Strangers became very frequent, and chiefly to procure Succours in War; which is the foundation of the manifold Reproaches, that the Prophets made 'em of the little Confidence, they had in God. The Strangers, they most sought to, were the Assyrians and the Egyptians, two the most powerful Nations at that time. And to please them, they imitated their Manners and their Idolatry; and the ruin of the Israelites followed the fortune of those Nations, when Egypt fell, and Assyria got the uppermost.    

PART. III. Captivity.  

CAP. I. Of the Jews.  
THis is, what seemed to me most Remarkable in the Principles and Manners of the Israelites, as long as they lived with full Liberty in their own Country, without being mingled among Aliens, or being the Subjects of Infidels. Let us now take a prospect of their last estate from the Captivity of Babylon until their last Dispersion. Tho they were still the same People, and had still the same Maxims and Manners at the bottom, yet we shall find considerable Differences.  
And First they were only called Jews in those latter times, for that indeed none but the Kingdom of Judah did then subsist. Samaria was ruined, and Salmanasser had carried away the ten Tribes, to whom was given the name of Israel, above an Age before the Destruction of Jerusalem. And although the Kingdom of Judah did likewise include the entire Tribes of Benjamin and Levi with several particular Families of all the Rest, whom Zeal for Religion had brought thither; after the Schism of Jeroboam, all were jumbled together and confounded in the name of Judea and the Jews.  
After the death of Josias as that Kingdom did evidently tend to its ruin, a great number of the Jews dispersed themselves on all side, and were harboured among the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Idumeans, and other Neighbouring People. 
Jerem. 40. ●1.  Of them, who stayed at Jerusalem when it was taken, the Chaldeans carried the most considerable away Captive, and left only the poorer sort to Manure and till the Lands; and yet those that were left, 
Ibid. 4. 3  were hurried away into Egypt a little while after.  
As to those, who were carried to Babylon, they were Slaves to the King and to his Sons, 
2 Chron. 36. 20.  as we find in Scripture. For such was then the Law of War. All that were taken in Arms, all the Inhabitants of a City forced or rendered upon Discretion: and of the open Country dependant thereon, were Slaves to the Conqueror, and appertained to the Public or the private Person, who had taken them, according to the Laws settled in every Country for the Acquisition, and the Dividend of the Booty. So at the Sacking of Troy all that remained alive, were made Slaves, even Queen Hecuba and the Princesses her Daughters. The Grecian and Roman Histories are Stuffed with the like examples. The Romans put Irons on the Kings, who had obstinately resisted them, and Slew them, after they had shown 'em in Triumph. They sold the People by Inch of Candle, and distributed the Lands among their Citizens, whom they sent thither to settle Colonies; which was undoubtedly a means to secure their Conquests. Nor the Jews nor the Israelites were so hardly treated by the Assyrians: 
Tob. 1. 13▪  Some had a great liberty, as Tobit under King Enemessar; and ●ome were very Rich, as Tobit himself, his kinsman Raguel, and his friend Gabael, and at Babylon Joacim Susannas Husband. It appears also by the History of Susanna, that the Jews, though Captives, had the exercise of their Law even to the establishing of Judges, who sat upon life and Death.  
However it was impossible, but that their being thus intermingled with Strangers should cause a great change in their Manners, and Principles: Whereof one of the most fundamental was to be separate from Strangers. Several were prevailed with to worship Idols, to eat forbidden Meats, to Marry strange Women; and they all conformed themselves to their Masters in Indifferent things, as is the Language. Thus during the seventy years of the Captivity, they forgot Hebrew; so that none but the Learned understood it: And their vulgar Tongue was Syriack or Chaldee, such as we meet withal in Daniel, and in the Paraphrases on the Scripture, which were afterwards made, that the People might understand it. They changed also their Letters: Instead of the Ancient ones, which the Samaritans have preserved, they took those of the Chaldeans, which we call Hebrew.   

CAP. TWO▪ The Return of the Jews and their State under the Persians.  
WHen Cyrus had given them their Liberty with a Permission to return into Judea, and to rebuild the Temple, they did not all return, nor all those that did, at one time. A great number of 'em still remained at Babylon and other places, where they found themselves settled. Those who returned, were not all Jews: Some few of the ten Tribes were joined to them; and yet taken all together, they made up but a small company. The first, whom Zorobabel conducted, 
1 Esdr. 2. 64.  did not amount to Fifty thousand, including Slaves; and we may Guess at their Poverty by the small parcel of their Slaves and their Cattle. What comparison of Fifty thousand souls with what there must have been in the time of Jehoshaphat to make up twelve hundred thousand Fighting-men? There likewise came back about fifteen hundred, 
Ibid. 8.  and we may judge, there were several other Troops.  
Under the first Kings of Persia they were very Feeble; hated by Strangers their Neighbours, chiefly by the Samaritans, exposed to their affronts and Calumnies, and ready to have their throats cut by their Enemies upon the least order of the great King, as we see by that cruel Edict, which Haman obtained against them, 
Esth. 3. 12.  and from the direful Effects whereof they were preserved by Esther. Unable were they to finish the building of the Temple until twenty years after their first Return; and it took 'em up above sixty years more to complete the Walls of Jerusalem, which was thus fourscore years in Re-establishing. They did what they could to find out their ancient Inheritances, and to keep up the old divisions of their Families. For that purpose Esdras gathers all the Genealogies, that are in the beginning of the Chronicles, where he principally enlarges upon the three Tribes of Judah, Levi and Benjamin, and very carefully and warily sets down their Habitations. 
1 Esdr. 11. 3.  For the peopling Jerusalem, they received all such as were willing to dwell there; which without doubt distracted the order of the Partages: Yet it was just, that those present should possess the Lands of those, who would not return, or who were no more to be found. So in the later times Joseph resided at Nazareth in Galilee, though his Family was originally of Bethlehem. Anna the Prophetess, though of the Tribe of Aser dwelled at Jerusalem; but they still knew, of what Tribe they were; they had preserved their Genealogies, as we may see by that of Joseph, who was but a poor Artisan. The Priests especially were very careful to alley themselves only to Women of their own Tribe; 
1 Contr. App. 2.  and Josephus shows the precautions, they used therein even in his time. To return to their Reestablishment, the Country must needs have been very poor, since Herodotus, who lived at the same time, comprizes Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, and the Isle of Cyprus under one Government, which paid to Darius no more than three hundred and fifty Talents Tribute, as one of the lesser Provinces, whereas that of Babylon alone did pay a thousand.  
By little and little the Jews Reestablished themselves, and in the rest of the Persian Monarchy they lived very peaceably in a kind of Republic, governed by the High Priest and the Council of Seventy one Elders. They had never been so faithful to the true God; and since their Return from the Captivity, there was no more talk of Idolatry amongst them. So sensible had they been made by that severe punishment, and the accomplishment of so many Prophecies. 'Tis true, the Apostates had the Liberty to continue among the Infidels; yet thus there appeared no Jews, but such as were really so.  
The Greeks began then to be acquainted with the Jews in Egypt and Syria, whither they often traveled, and they gained much by this commerce, if we may believe the most ancient Christian Authors, as Justin Martyr and Clemens Alexandrinus. For they assure us, that the Greek Poets, Legislators and Philosophers learned their best Doctrines of the Jews. And indeed Solon made a Voyage into Egypt; and the Laws, which he gave the Athenians, had a great coherence with the Laws of Moses. Pythagoras was a long time in EEgypt, and went to Babylon in Cambyses' time; so that he had seen the Jews, and might have conversed with them. Plato studied several years in Egypt, and he makes Socrates speak so many excellent things, founded upon the Principles, which Moses taught, that we may conjecture, he had a knowledge of them. The Jews did really practise, what he proposes best in his Commonwealth and in his Laws; every one to live by his own Labour, without Luxury and Ambition, without being liable to be ruined, and growing too Rich, Counting Justice for the greatest good, avoiding all change and novelty. In the Persons of Moses, David, and Solomon we find examples of that Wiseman, whom he wished for the Government of a State, and the rendering it happy, and whom he durst not hope for in the Train of all Ages. In divers places he relates certain Traditions, without supporting 'em with any proof, the Authority of which he Reverences, and which manifestly are parts of the true Doctrine, touching the Judging of men after their Death, and the State of another Life. If Plato and the other Grecians had not learned those great truths immediately from the Jews, they had learned them at least from the other Orientals, who being much nearer the source of Mankind, and having writings much more Ancient than the Greeks, had preserved many Traditions more of the first men, though involved in many Fables.   

CAP. III. The State of the Jews under the Macedonians.  
THe Conquest of Alexander made the Jews much more known to the Greeks, whose Subjects they became. Josephus brings Proofs thereof from the Testimonies of Clearchus the Disciple of Aristotle, and of Hecateus the Abderite. They continued to live according to their Laws under the Protection of the Macedonian Princes, as they had done under the Persian. But as they were betwixt the Kings of Syria and of Egypt, 
Jos. 1. contr. Ap. 8.  sometimes they obeyed the one, 
2 Cont. Ap.  and sometimes the other●, according as those Kings were strongest: They were well or ill used according to the humour or interest of the Kings, and the credit of their Enemies. Alexander the Great being satisfied of their Affection and Fidelity, gave them Samaria, and exempted 'em from Tribute: And when he built Alexandria, he settled Jews there with the other Citizens, insomuch as they went likewise under the name of Macedonians. Indeed, 
Josep. 12. Antiq.  the first of the Ptolomys having taken Jerusalem by surprise, carried away a great number of the Jews Captive into Egypt, and scattered them as far as into the Country of Cyrene. But afterwards knowing how Religious and faithful they were to their Oaths, he put 'em into his Garrisons, and treated them so kindly that he engaged several others to come into his service. His Son Philadelphus set all the Jews free, who were Slaves in his Dominions, 
Ibid. 12.  and sent great Presents to Jerusalem in favour of the Translation, 
Antiq. 2.  which he caused to be made of their Law.  
They were likewise favoured by several Kings of Syria, Seleucus Nicanor gave them the right of Citizens in the Towns he built in the Lesser Asia and the lower Syria, even in Antioch his Capital City, with privileges, which were perpetuated under the Romans. Antiochus the great, having received many services from the Jews, granted Immunities and a very gracious Charter to the City of Jerusalem: And for to secure Lydia and Phrygia, which were not firm enough in their Obedience to him, there he established Colonies of Jews; granting 'em places to build in, and Lands to Cultivate. The first Privilege, which the Jews ever craved on those occasions, was the liberty of exercising their Religion, and observing their Law. But otherwise they could not exempt themselves from being much tainted with the Manners of the Greeks, as they had been with those of the Chaldeans, and others: especially they were obliged to speak the Greek Tongue, which then became the Universal one through the East, and did always obtain as long as the Roman Empire subsisted there. From whence it proceeds, that several took Grecian names, as Aristobulus, Philo, Andrew, Philip, or disguised with Greek the Hebrew names, as Jason for Jesus, Simon for Simeon, Hierosolyma for Jerusalem.  
I believe, it was about that time, that the Jews passed the Seas, and settled in Europe. For those, who could speak Greek, and were already accustomed to live with the Grecians in Asia, Syria and Egypt, might easily dwell in all the Countries of the Grecian Empire, even in Macedonia and Achaia, according as they found most Convenience and liberty. We see likewise, that St. Paul met with a vast number in all the Cities of Grecce, when he went to Preach the Gospel there, near two hundred and fifty years after the time of Antiochus the Great. These Half Grecian Jews were those, whom the Orientals called Hellenists: And to the Gentiles they applied the name of Hellenes, which properly signifies Grecians: So that with St. Paul Greek and Gentile are the same things.  
The Jews could not thus be intermixed with the Greeks, but the Grecians, being then very curious, would pry into their Religion and their Laws, and chiefly, since the sacred Books were Translated. The Sages and the true Philosophers admired them, as we may judge by what Strabo has written thereof a longtime after: 
Strab. lib. 16.  But most of the greeks of that Age, were uncapable of relishing the Manners and Maxims of the Jews. These were too Grave and serious for them, who were effeminated by the Asiatic Luxury, 
Ut primum positisnuga ri Greciabel lis Horat. 2. Epist. 1.  and who no longer employed their time but in Gimcracks and trifles. The truth is, they had a vast Multitude of Philosophers; but most of 'em conten●ed themselves with barely discoursing of Virtue, and heating themselves in Dispute. All the Rest of the Grecians were taken up with the curiosity and love of fine Art▪ and they had a peculiar Knac● that way. Some set themselves to Rhetoric, others to Poetry or Music. The Painters, Engravers and Architects were thought very considerable and lofty People. Others gave themselves wholly over to gymnastics for the forming their Bodies, lest they should be worsted in wrestling. Others pitched upon Geometry, Astronomy and natural Philosophy. There were none but Scholars, and fine Wits, such as were curious and Idle, of all sorts.  
The Manners and Principles, of the Romans were then much more solid. 
Romae dulce diu fuit & solenne reculsa mane domo, etc.  They only applied themselves to Agriculture, to the Study of the Law, and to Tactics, and willingly relinquished the Gloty of excelling in the Politer Arts and curious Sciences to the Grecians, 
Horat. Ibid. excudent alii spirantia mollius ra. An. v. 847.  for to Govern Kingdoms, and ●ut Chains on the necks of Con●●er'd Nations, 
Jos. cont. App. l. 1. c. 4. & l. 2. c. 6.  making that (as ●irgil says) their prime business. The serious humour of the Jews proceeded much farther, 
Orig. cont. Cells. l. 5.  since they placed their Principal Study in Morality and in the service of God. 
Judeorum mos tristis absurdusque Tacit. 5. Hist. init.  Whereof we have a rare example in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, written at that time. Yet it was for this very reason, that the Greeks termed them Ignorant, seeing they only aimed at the knowledge of their own Law. They called them Barbarians, a name which they gave to all those, that were not Greeks, and despised them more than other Strangers, by reason of their Religion, which seemed to them morose and absurd. They saw the Jews abstain from Debauchery, not out of Oeconomy and Policy, but a Principle of Conscience. To them this seemed too severe; and above all they were offended at the repose of the Sabbath, at their feasts, and the distinction of Meats.  
Add to this, that the horror of Idolatry made the Jews reject Sculpture and Painting, and kept them from listening to the Fable of the Poets, and reading of their Writings. What an indignation would it raise in a Grammarion or a Rapsodist to see a Jew trample upon Homer, and term him a false Prophet and an Impostors show the Lewd and absurd things in the Genealogies of the Gods, in their Metamorphoses, & their Amours. How could it be endured, that he should detest the Infamies of the Stage, and the Abominations in the Ceremonies of Bacchus and Venus▪ In short that he should maintain, that there was no God but his, who was the true God, and that they were the only People upon Earth, who knew the truth as to Religion and the conduct of Manners? The Jews were so much the less harkened to, in that they were not skilled in making excellent Harangues, or in forming and Figuring of Arguments; and that for a proof of those great truths, they only alleged matters of Fact, i.e. the mighty Miracles that God had done in the sight of their Forefathers: Now the commonalty of the Greeks did not distinguish those Miracles from the Prodigies, they also related in their Fables: And the Philosophers believed them impossible, because they did not argue but from the Rules and methods of nature, which they held necessary of an absolute Necessity.  
The Greeks being thus disposed, 
See the two whole Books of Josephus against Appion.  very willingly opened their Ears to the Calumnies of the Phoenicians, Egyptians, and other Enemies of the Jews. And from hence without question came those silly and impertinent Fables, which Tacitus so seriously tells us, when he would unfold the Origine of the Jews, 
5 Hist.  and act the learned Historian, and which we likewise see in Justin, who had been also doused in the same Spring.  
But beside those lies, which might easily be slighted, the Greeks went on to Violence and Persecution. Thus Ptolomee Philopater after having lost the battle of Raphia discharged his choler against them, and his Son Epiphanes irritated at his having been hindered from entering into the Sanctuary, would needs expose them to Elephants Under Seleucus Philopater King of Syria, 
2 Macc. 3. 7. etc.  Heliodorus came to pillage the sacred Treasures, and was only let from doing so by a Miracle. In a word, under Antiochus his Successors began the greatest Persecution, 
1 Mac. 1. 43. etc.  they ever suffered, which may at least be equalled with any the Christians afterwards underwent. And indeed among the Jews were the first Martyrs, that we know of, for the cause of God and his holy Law, to Wit, the three Companions of Daniel, 
Dan. 3. 16. 616. 14. 30  who were put into the Furnace; and himself, when exposed to the Lions, had the merit of Martyrdom, but God performed Miracles in their Preservation: 
2 Macc. 6. 18. 2.  Eleazar, the Seven Brethren, and others, whom the History of the Maccabees does mention, gave up their Lives for God and for the Law of their Forefathers; and 'tis the first example, that I meet withal, in all Story of that kind of Virtue. We can see no infidels before that time, nor even Philosophers, who chose rather to suffer Death by the most cruel Punishments, than to violate their Religion, and the Laws of their Country.  
True, there were Jews, who gave way to the Persecution, but such as had so entirely renounced their Religion and Laws, as to make use of Artifices to hide their Circumcision; so that they were no longer counted Jews. And those, who continued faithful, were so Zealous for their Law and Liberty, that at last they took up Arms to defend it against the Kings of Syria, who openly violated all the Privileges, which the Persian Kings had granted them, and which had been allowed 'em by Alexander and the other Macedonian Kings.   

CAP. XXX. The Reign of the Asmonians.  
THus are we come to the time of the Maccabees, when the Jewish nation did recover itself, and appear with a new Lustre. They were no longer those poor People, who only thought of Living in peace under the conduct of their Highpriest and Elders; very happy in having the Liberty to cultivate their Lands, and serve the God of Heaven after their own Mode. A State it was wholly Independent, and supported itself by good Troops, Strong Places▪ and Allyances not only with the Neighbouring Princes, but with far distant States, and with Rome itself. The Egyptian and Syria● Kings, who had treated 'em so ill●were afterwards constrained to Court their Friendship. 
Joseph. Antiq. 13, 17.  The Jews made great Conquests. John Hyrcan took Sichem and Gerizem, and ruin'd the Temple of the Samaritans: So absolute was he in all the Land of Israel. He extended his Conquests into Syria, where he took many Cities after the Death of Antiochus Sidetes, and into Idumea, which he so entirely subdued, as to oblige the Idumeans to Circumcise themselves, and to observe the Mosaical Law, as being incorporated with the Nation of the Jews. His Son Aristobulus added the marks of Royalty to the real Power, taking the Diadem, and the title of Kings, 
Ibid. 13. 20 21. 22.  and Alexander Jaddaeus made likewise sundry Conquests  
But this glory of the Jews was of a short continuance. Whereas the weakening of the Kingdoms of Syria and Egypt had made very much for their Elevation, the total ruin of those two Kingdoms drew theirs along with it through the immense increase of the Romans power. And their Domestic divisions also much contributed thereto by the perpetual Misunderstanding of the two Sons of A●●xander Jannaeus, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. In short, they enjoyed their Liberty but eighty years since Simon had been declared Head of the Nation, 
1 Mac. 14. 41.  after having cast off the Yoke of the Grecians, until that Pompey's being called in by Hircanus took Jerusalem, entered into the Temple, and made the Jews tributary. They were afterwards above twenty years in a miserable condition, divided by the Parties of the two Brothers, and pillaged by the Romans, who carried away above 700 Millions at several times. 
Jos. Antiq. 14. 12.  After the defeat of Brutus and Cassius, the Parthians taking advantage of the weakness of Mark, Anthony, who governed the East rendered 'emselves Masters of Syria and Palestine, and carried way Hyrcanus. In all that time of the Roman Civil Wars, and the Odds which the Parthians got of them Palestine was exposed to great Desolations by the Passages of so many Armies of divers Nations, an● by the Incursions of the Neighbouring People, particularly of th● Arabians. 
Ib. l. 15.   
'Tis true, it recruited itself little under Herod. He brought thither Peace and Abundance: He was Powerful, Rich, and Magnificent. But we cannot say, the Jews were a free People in his time. He was not free himself, but wholly depended on the Roman Emperors. He was a Stranger, Originally an Idumean: He had no Religion, and only kept up an outside of it, as an Instrument of his Policy. He utterly pulled down the Succession of High-Priests, making one Hananeel to come from Babylon, a contemptible Wretch, though of the Sacerdotal Race. Since which time there were no High-Priests, but whom and as long as the King pleased.  
After the Death of Herod, we must no longer reckon any Power in Judea: His Children only conserved parts of his Kingdom, nor did they keep 'em long. Judea itself had Roman Governors, depending on the Proconsul of Syria. In a word, the Jews were banished from thence, and reduced to the State they are in at this day. So this is the last Posture, we must consider them in, since their Liberty under Simon and the Asmonians, until their ruin under Vespasian. Which is a space of 200 years, comprehending the greatest part of the History of the Maccabees, and all that of the New Testament, wherein the Manners of the Jews are different, from what they were in former times.   

CAP. XXXI. Manners of the Jews in the later times.  
WIth several Nations were the Jews intermingled. Some of 'em were settled in every nation under Heaven, as the Scripture says; of whom divers came to dwell in Judea, 
Act. 2. 5.  or at least took thither some Journey of Devotion, to Sacrifice in the Temple, where it was only permitted them so to do. Moreover, there were always from time to time some Gentiles, who were converted, and became Proselytes. So that the Jews were no longer (properly speaking) one sole People, using the same Tongue and the same Manners, but several Nations, who began to reassemble under the same Religion: However they considered one another as Brethren, and helped one another, in whatsoever part of the World they were dispersed. They exercised Hospitality towards all Travellers their Countrymen, and assisted the poor of all Provinces, but chiefly of Judea. As those, who lived afar off, could not pay the Tenths and first Fruits in their Kind, nor come to the Temple to make their oblations at all the Feasts, they converted into Money all that was God's due: And all those Contributions being gathered together made a considerable Tribute, which each Province sent every year to Jerusalem for the Charge of Sacrifices, 
Jos. 14.  the Maintenance of the Priests and the poor. 
Ant. 12.  This is that Judaic Gold which Tully speaks of. 
Pro flacco.   
In Judea the Jews were governed (as before) by the council of 71 old men which they called the Sanhedrim, from a corrupted Greek word: And these were the Elders of the People, mentioned in the Gospel. There were likewise (as has been said) three and twenty Judges in each City. 'Tis to that time we must principally refer all that the Talmud says of the Form of Judgements, 
C Sanhedr. Maccoth.  and the Execution of Justice.  
The Jews of Judea were ever much addicted to Husbandry, to the breeding of Cattle, and to the Management of a Country-Farm. There are some Medals yet remaining of the Time of the Maccabees, wherein we see Ears of Corn and Measures, to show the Fertility of the Country, and the honour they set upon cultivating it. Most of the Parables in the Gospel are drawn from a Country-life; The Sour, the good Corn, the Tares, the Vine, the good Tree, the Fruitless-tree, the strayed Sheep, the good Shepherd; and all this oft spoken in Cities, and Jerusalem itself. The old bottom and groundwork of Principles and Manners do never change in any Nation. There are still Husbandmen of good Quality in Sicily and Italy: and there will evermore be Hunkers among the Germans.  
Several Parables show, that the Traffic of money was very common amongst the Jews, and that they had Bankers and Usurers by Profession. Several turned Publicans, that is, Farmers of Tributes and Impositions; though that Employ brought a Public Odium upon them. 
Joseph. 12.  We have a famous Example hereof in that Joseph Son of Tobias, 
Antiqu. 4.  who under Ptolomee Epiphanes got to be chief Commissioner of the Tributes of all Syria and ●henicia, and became extraordinary Rich. There were also divers Handicraftmen amongst the Jews, whereof the Apostles and JESUS CHRIST himself are illustrious Examples. But what is most remarkable, is, that St. Paul, though brought up in Learning knew a Trade too: And the Jews relate the same thing of their most famous Rabbins.   

CAP. XXXII. Sects and Superstitions.  
THen it was, that the difference of Sects came into play. A little after the Death of Judas Macchabaeus and under his Brother Jonathas, 
Jos. 12. Antiq. 9 18.  they began to talk of Pharisees and Sadducees. To the Text of the Law the Pharisees joined the Traditions of their Fathers, 
2 War. 12.  which had been preserved without writing; and though at the bottom they maintained sound Doctrine, they huddled in it many Superstitions. The Sadducees took the Scripture literally, and pretended, it did not oblige 'em to believe the Resurrection or the Immortality of the Soul; or that there were Angels or Spirits. So that they only served God for Temporal Rewards, and gave scope to the Pleasures of sense. Most part of the Grandees and the Rich men were saducees, and several among the Priests. The Populace was more favourable to the Pharisees for their external show of Piety; and Queen Alexandra gave them a great power during the Minority of her Children.  
There was a third Sect that of the Essens, 
See. Jos. 2.  whose Doctrine we don't see was different from the Pharisees, 
H. War. 12.  but their Manners were more pure. In good earnest they applied themselves to the Study and Practice of Virtue, they lived very retired, far from Cities: Their Estates were in common, their Food very plain. They spent much time in prayer, and the Meditation of the Law. Their way of Living did much resemble that of the Prophets and Rechabites▪ Some of them abstained from Women, and led a life wholly Contemplative, so perfect, that several of the Fathers have taken 'em for Christians. Being the same, that Philo has described under the name of Therapeutae.  
The Pharisees lived in the Commerce of the World: Most part addicted to their interests, Ambitious, Stingy. They pretended to an extreme exactness in the outwar●d Practice of the Law. The Tenths they gave not only of greater Fruits but of Lesser Herbs, Cummin, 
Mat. 23. 23  Mint, and Annis. They took mighty Care to wash themselves; 
Mar. 7. 4.  and to purify their Cups; their Vessels, and all their Movables. They kept the Sabbath with so much Scruple, that they took it ill, if People should rub Ears of Corn as they passed by. 
Mat. 12.  They fasted often, 
Luk. 18. 12  and many of 'em twice aweek, Monday and Thursdays. On their Forehead and their left Arm they wore Writings, wherein were some Passages of the Law: For it was thus, that according to the letter they took the Commandment of having always the Law of God before their Eyes and in their Hands; and they wore those Scrolls much bigger than the other Jews. At the Borders of their Vestments also they wore Fringes of different Colours, to satisfy another Commandment, and they wore them much larger than others did, 
Numb. 15. 38.  that their Devotion might be known to the People. They gave Alms in public, 
Mat. 6. 2. 5. 16.  they prayed in the Market Places and they coloured their face with yellow, that they might seem to fast the more. They thought it a great Injury to be touched by an Impure Wretch, and they held for such not only the Gentiles and the Notorious Sinners, but all those that exercised odious Professions. In short, all their Devotion was only Pride and Interest: They seduced Ignorant People by their fine Discourses, and bigoted Women, who threw away their Estates, 
Mat. 23. 14.  to enrich them: and under the Pretence, they were the People of God, and the Depositors of his Law, they despised the Greeks and Romans, and all the Nations of the Earth.  
In the Jewish Books we see still those Traditions of the Pharisees whereof they made then so horrible a Mystery, and which were written about an Hundred years after the Resurrection of JESUS CHRIST. 'Tis impossible for those, that have been brought up in other Maxims to imagine the frivolous and impertinent Questions, wherewith those Books are stuffed, viz. Whether it be permitted on the Sabbath day to mount on an Ass to carry him to Water, or whether you must hold him by the Neck; whether one might walk the same day Lands newly sowed, since he runs a hazard of carrying away some Grains with his feet, and consequently of sowing them. Concerning the Purification of old Leven before the Passeover; whether it be necessary to renew the purifying of an House, when you have seen a Mouse pass in it with a Crum of Bread; whether it be Lawful to keep pasted Paper, or a Plaster, wherein there is any Flower; whether after the old Leaven is burnt, it be permitted to eat, what has been baked with the coals, which remains thereof. And a million of other cases of Conscience of the like force, which the Talmud is full of with its Commentaries.  
Thus the Jews forgot the noble Grandeur of the Law of God, to apply themselves to low and pitiful things: And they were found very gross and very ignorant in Comparison of the Greeks, who in their Schools treated of more useful and more elevated Questions, or in Physics or Morality, and who had at least a sweet Politeness, if they had not Virtue. Not but that there were always some Jews more curious than others to speak Greek well, who read the Books of the Grecians, and imbibed their Learning in Grammar, Rhetoric and Philosophy. Such was Aristobulus a Peripatetic Philosopher and Preceptor of Ptolomee Philometor. Such were Eupolemus, Demetrius, and the two Philo's. There were Historians also, who wrote in Greek, and after the Grecian manner, as Jason the Cyrenean and the Author of the Second Book of Maccabees, 
2 Mac. 2. 24.  who has abridged it, and as Josephus. It was at Alexandria, where most of those Jews were, who Studied the learning of the Greeks. The other Jews contented themselves with speaking Greek, to be understood, that is, grossly, and keeping the natural turn of their own Tongue. And 'tis in that Barbarous Greek the New Testament is written. The Apostles and Evangelists contented themselves with a clearness and brevity of Style, despising all the Ornaments of Language, and making use of what words were the most proper to be understood by the Common People of their nation: Insomuch as for the well apprehending their Greek, 'tis requisite to know Hebrew and Syriack.  
The Jews of these latter times were much exercised in reading of the Law and the holy Scripture. They thought it not enough to explain it literally: They found out therein several figurative senses by Allegories and divers Appropriations. We see it not only in the new Testament and the Writings of the most Ancient Fathers, who have disputed against them, 
V Justin. in Tryph. Beresith. rabba. etc.  but in the Talmud, and the oldest Hebrew Commentaries on the Law, which they call the great Genesis, the great Exodus, and so of others. Those Figurative senses they held by Traditions from their Fathers.  
But in short, the Manners of those Jews were very bad and very much corrupted. They were sillily proud of being of the Race of Abraham, & puffed up with the promises of the Messias his Reign, which they knew to be at hand, and which they form to themselves all full of Vanquishments and Temporal Prosperity. They were interessed, avaricious and sordid, especially the Pharisees, the greatest Hypocrites. They were unfaithful and inconstant, always ready for Sedition and Revolt, under pretence of casting off the Yoke of the Gentiles. In a word, they were violent, Boisterous and cruel, as we see by what they made JESUS CHRIST and his Apostles suffer, and by the unheard of Mischiefs they did to one another, both during all the Civil Wars and the last Siege of Jerusalem.   

CAP. XXXIII. The true Israelites.  
IT was however among that People, the Tradition of virtue as well as that of Doctrine and Religion was preserved. In those later times they had still very rare Examples of Godliness; Zacharias, old Simeon, the Learned Gamaliel, and many others set down in the History of the New Testament. All those holy Personages, and generally all Spiritual Jews, circumcised in Heart as well as Body, were Children of Abraham, much rather by imitation of his Faith than by their own Extraction. With a most steady Faith they believed in the Prophecies and Promises of God: They waited impatienly for the Redemption of Israel, and the coming of the Messias, after which they longed and sighed. But they were sensible, that it behooved them not to confine their Hopes to this life; they belived the Resurrection, and the Kingdom of Heaven. So that the Blessing of the Gospel coming upon such holy Dispositions, it was easy to make perfect Christians of those true Israelites.  
FINIS.    

Some Books Printed for and Sold by W. Freeman over against the Devil-Tavern by Temple-Bar in Fleetstreet.  
SCarrons Novels. viz. The Fruitless Precaution. The Hypocrites. The Innocent Adultery. The Judge in his own Cause. The ●●ival Brothers. The Invisible ●●istriss. The Chastisement of ●●varice. The unexpected Choice. ●●endred into English with some additions. By John Davis of Kid●elly. In Oct. 1683.  
The Clarks Manual, or an Exact Collection of the most approved Forms of Declarations, Pleas, general Issues, Judgements, Demurrers, and most kind of Writs now used in the Court of King's Bench. With necessary Instructions to all Clerks, Attorneys and Solicitors in the use of the same. The second Edition in Octau. 1682.  
An Infallible way to Contentment in the midst of Public or Personal Calamities. Together with the Christians Courage and Encouragement against evil Tidings, and the fear of Death. In 12.  
The Court of the Gentiles, Part 4, of Reformed Philosophy Book 3, of Divine predetermination; wherein the nature of Divine Predetermination is fully Explicated and Demonstrated, both in the general, as also more Particularly as to the substrate matter or Entitative Act of Sin: With a Vindication of Calvinists and others from that Blasphemous Imputation of making God the Author of Sin. By Theophilus Gale in Quart● 1682.