3

A.M. 3596. A.C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A.M. 5070. A. C. 341. 1 MAC. i—vi. 7. 2 MAC. iii-x. JOS. HIST. b. xi. c. 7—b. xii. c. 14order, he had the temple dedicated again, with as much | successful as he expected: for, being informed that solemnity as the present state of affairs would permit, Elymais, a city in that country, was an opulent place, and in commemoration hereof, appointed a festival of wherein stood the temple of Diana, where immense eight days' continuance, which began on the fifth of the riches were to be found, he marched his army thither, month Chisleu, much about the twentieth of our Novem- with an intent to plunder both it and the temple: but ber, to be annually observed. the country round about, taking the alarm, joined with the inhabitants in the defence of the city and temple, and having beat him off, they obliged him to return to Ecbatan in Media, where, with shame and confusion, having received news of the ill success of his arms in Judea, and how the Jews had pulled down the images and altars that he had erected, recovered their temple at Jerusalem, and restored that place to its former worship, he made all the haste home he possibly could,

But though the temple was recovered and restored to its former use, yet Apollonius, at his taking Jerusalem, had erected a fortress on mount Acra, which commanding the mountain of the temple, and being still in the hands of the enemy, gave him the advantage of annoying all those who went up to the temple to worship. To remedy this inconvenience, Judas at first blocked up the fortress; but finding that he could not conveniently spare such a number of men as were neces-threatening, as he went along, utterly to destroy the sary for that purpose, he caused the mountain of the temple to be fortified with strong walls and high towers, and placed therein a sufficient garrison, both to defend it, and protect those who went up to worship.

whole nation, and make Jerusalem the common place of sepulpture to all the Jews. But while these proud words were in his mouth, the judgments of God overtook him; for he was instantly seized with a pain in his bowels, and a grievous torment in his inward parts, which no remedy could assuage. Being resolute however in his revenge, he ordered his charioteer to double his speed; but in the rapid motion, the chariot was overturned, and he thrown to the ground with such violence, as sorely bruised his whole body, and mashed, as it were, bis limbs with the fall; so that being able to travel no far

When the neighbouring nations came to understand that the Jews had recovered the city and temple of Jerusalem, and again restored the worship of God in that place, 'they were moved with such envy and hatred against them, that they proposed to join with Antiochus in the extirpation of the whole nation; and accordingly had put all to death whom they found sojourning among them but Judas having first fortified Bethzura, to be ather, he was forced to put in at Tabæ, a little town in barrier against the Idumæans, who, at this time, were bitter enemies to the Jews, made war against them, and all the other nations that had confederated against him, in such a manner, and with such success, as shall hereafter be related.

the confines of Persia and Babylonia, where he suffered most exquisite torments both of body and mind. In his body, a filthy ulcer broke out in his privy parts, wherein were bred an innumerable quantity of vermin, continually flowing from it, and such a stench proceeding

Antiochus, in his expedition into Persia, was not so from thence, as neither those that attended him, nor even

1 Mac. iv. 60; Jewish Antiq. b. xii. c. 11.
1 Mac. v. 1, &c.

he himself could well bear: and in this condition he lay, languishing and rotting, till he died. In his mind, his torments were no less, by reason of the several spectres and apparitions of evil spirits which he imagined were continually about him, reproaching and stinging his conscience with accusations of the evil deeds which he had been guilty of. Being made sensible at length by his

1 Mac. vi. 1, &c.

42 Mac. ix. 5, &c.

a This festival is commemorated in the gospel, (John ii. 23.) and our blessed Saviour, we are told, came up to Jerusalem on purpose to bear a part in the solemnizing of it. Some indeed are of opinion, that it was another dedication-feast, which Christ thus honoured with his presence: but besides that the dedications both of Solomon's and Zerubbabel's temples, who, though they were very solemnly celebrated at the first erection of these temples, had never any anniversary feast afterwards kept in commemoration of them, the very history of the gospel, which tells us that c Other authors agree with the account in the first book of it was kept in winter, confines us to this dedication of Judas Maccabees, that the temple of Elymais was prodigiously rich; only. That of Solomon was on the seventh month, which fell and both Polybius and Diodorus Siculus (as they are cited by about the time of the autumnal equinox: and that of Zerubbabel St Jerome, on Dan. xi.) mention this attempt of the king of Syria was on the twelfth month, which fell in the beginning of the to plunder it. But the manner in which he came to be disapspring; but that of Judas Maccabeus was on the twenty-fifth day pointed, is related quite differently in the second book of Maccaof the ninth month, which fell in the middle of winter. So that bees. For therein we are told, that when Antiochus, pretending the feast of the dedication which Christ was present at in Jeru- that he would marry the goddess of the temple, whose name salem, was no other than that which was instituted by Judas, in was Nanea, that thereby he might have the better title to the commemoration of his dedication of the temple anew, after that riches of it, by way of dowry, was let into the temple, to take it had been cleansed from idolatrous pollutions; and from hence possession of them, the priests opened a secret door that was in Grotius, in his commentary on the gospel of St John, (ch. x. 22.) the ceiling, and from thence threw upon him and his attendants very justly observes, that festival days, in memory of public such a shower of stones as quite overwhelmed them, and so cut blessings, may be piously instituted by persons in authority, off their heads, and cast them out, (2 Mac. i. 13, &c.); but without a divine command.-Prideaux's Connection, anno 166. who the goddess Nanea, who had this temple at Elymais, was, The word Acra, which is of Greek original, signifies in the conjectures of the learned are various, since some will have general a citadel, in which sense the Syrians and Chaldeans used her to be Venus, and others Cybele the mother of the gods, beit; but when Antiochus gave orders for the building of a citadel cause the word in the Persian language signifies mother, though on the north side of the temple upon an eminence, that command- the most common opinion is, that she was Diana, or the moon, ed it, the hill itself was called by the name of Acra; which, ac- the same that Strabo calls Anais, or Anaitis: for that she was cording to Josephus, (b. xii. c. 7, and 14.) was in the form of a held to be a virgin goddess is plain, because Antiochus pretended semicircle. John Maccabæus took it out of the hands of the to espouse her, and that she was a chaste goddess, Plutarch Syrians, who there kept a garrison, and pulled down its fortifica- (de Artaxerxes) seems to intimate, when he tells us, that Artations, and in their room were afterwards built the palace of xerxes took the beautiful Aspasia, with whom he himself was Helena, and that of Agrippa, a place where the public records in love, from his son Dar us, and devoted her to a perpetual virwere kept, and another where the magistrates of Jerusalem as-ginity, in the service of Anais, the goddess of Ecbatan.—Calsembled.-Calmet's Dictionary under the word.

met's Commentary on 1 Mac. vi. 1.

1

A. M. 3596. A. C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C. 341. 1 MAC. i—vi. 7. 2 MAC. iii-x. JOS. HIST. b. xi. c. 7-b. xii, c. 14, afflictions, that all his sufferings were from the hand of | brained creature as this, had seldom any serious thought God, for his plundering and profanation of his temple at of establishing an uniformity in religion, though that Jerusalem, and for his hatred and cruelties to his ser- religion, by the bye, was impious, in his dominions; but vants, who worshipped there, he made an ample ac- that, to justify the depredations that he made upon the knowledgment of this before he died, and many vows Jews, and to revenge the defeats which they had so freand solemn promises of a full reparation, in case he re- quently given to his armies, these were the true reasons covered. But his repentance a came too late: and there- of his exasperation against them; because it is not confore, after having languished out a while in this miserable ceivable, how he could have any sober sense of religion, condition, and under these horrid torments of body and who, to satisfy his greedy avarice, was not afraid to rob mind, at length, being half consumed with the rottenness the temple of Diana. of his ulcer, he gave up the ghost, and died, after he had reigned eleven years.

CHAP. II.—Objections answered.

9

This robbing of temples, in the opinion of all sober heathens, was accounted a crime of so heinous a nature as justly deserved the vengeance of heaven; and therefore Polybius, as well as the author of the Maccabees, informs us, that Antiochus, before he died, was scared with visions, and apparitions of evil spirits; but then be supposes, that it was the goddess Diana, that thus haunted him, for his attempting to pillage her temple at Elymais; whereas he himself, in the presence of all his friends, openly declares, that these troubles were come upon him, because he had taken all the vessels of gold and silver that were in Jerusalem,' and had destroyed 'the inhabitants of Judea without a cause.'

10

The sacrilege at Elymais was only intended, not executed : but that at Jerusalem was committed, with horrid

Or what weight and authority both the history of the Maccabees, and that of the Jews by Josephus ought to be accounted, we shall have occasion to inquire in the two following chapters, and need only here observe, that what the Maccabean history has recorded of Antiochus Epiphanes is, in a great measure confirmed by the testimony of Polybius, an exact historian, who was contemporary with him, and could not therefore be at a loss for proper instructions in what he wrote, Epiphanes, ac-impiety against God, and as horrid cruelty against all cording to him, was a man of great expense, and squandered away vast sums in the gratification of his lusts and amours, in the gifts he bestowed upon his favourites, and the entertainments he made for the people: but then Athenæus informs us," that all these expenses were made, partly out of the gifts which his friends sent him, partly out of the prey which he took from Ptolemy king of Egypt, when he was a minor; but chiefly out of the spoils of the many temples which he sacrilegiously robbed."

7

6

those that served him there. But even if the former had been committed, it was only against a false deity; whereas the latter was against the true God, the great and almighty Creator of heaven and earth: and therefore we need less wonder, that the marks of a divine infliction were so visible in the nature of his disease. Appian" and Polybius, 22 as well as Josephus, and the author of the books of Maccabees, have informed us, that he died with ulcers, and putrefying sores in his secret parts; and, upon this occasion, we cannot forbear remarking, that most of the great persecutors of the church of God have been smitten in the like manner; that thus died Herod, the great persecutor of Christ, and the infants at Bethlehem; thus Galerius Maximianus, the author of the tenth, and greatest, persecution against the Christians; and thus Philip the second, king of Spain, who was as infamous for the cruelty of his persecution, and the numbers destroyed by it, as any of the other three. "It is no small confirmation therefore of what the Jewish writers relate concerning the judgments of God upon Antiochus, that these heathen authors, whose credit is thought indubitable, do agree with them as to the matter of fact, though they differ from them, in assigning a

I was bountiful, and beloved in my power, and I have done great benefits,' both public and private, to the Jews. These were the vain boasts of the dying tyrant: but since the same Polybius tells us, that his distemper so far grew upon him, as to come to a constant delirium, or state of madness, these expressions, we may suppose, came from him, when he was in that condition. For we know no instance of his kindness, but many of his cruelty to the people of God; and, as to his bounty, as he calls it, this he usually committed in his drunken frolics, in which he spent a great part of his revenues, and used often to go out into the streets, and to scatter his money in handfuls among the rabble. We may therefore reasonably suppose, that such a wild, crack-wrong cause for it.

13

**If you will walk in my statutes, and keep my com

1 1 Mac. vi. 12, 13; 2 Mac. ix. 11, 18; Joseph. Antiq. b. xii. mandments, and do them, ye shall chase your enemies,

c. 13.

2 Deipnosoph. b. vi.

1 Mac. vi. 11.

3 Apud Athenæum, b. v.
52 Mac. ix. 26.

7 Calmet's Commentary.

6 In the Extracts of Valesius.
8 Athenæus, b. x.

a This wicked king is an example of all hardened sinners, and false penitents, whose only motive of turning to God, is their fear, or feeling of punishment. The Maccabean martyrs had threatened, or rather foretold, that through the judgment of God, he should receive a just punishment for his pride,' (2 Mac. vii. 36.), and, therefore, when he called, God would not answer;' but, as the royal penman expressed, laughed at his calamity, and mocked when his distress and anguish came upon him,' Prov. i. 26, 27.

and they shall fall before you: five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.' This is the promise which God made to of Canaan; and, in virtue of this promise, we find that the children of Israel, upon their entrance into the land their leader Joshua was so very successful, that, after be had relieved the city of Gibeon, destroyed twelve kings,

A. M. 3596. A.C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C. 341. 1 MAC. i-vi. 7. 2 MAC. iii-x. JOS. HIST. b. xi. c. 7—b. xii. c. 14. and made himself master of their dominions, in one fore imagine, that there never were any such things, campaign only, it is said of him, that he returned, and because very good reasons may be given why God should all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal;' and there- exhibit them: and, as to the phenomena that are now fore we need less wonder, that the Jews, who at this under consideration, they certainly have all the marks time were under the conditions of God's promise, nay, of credibility in them that we can well desire. For they under a state of persecution upon the account of their are related by an author that was contemporary, or very religion, and were consequently the proper objects near contemporary, with them. They were seen, not of his more immediate care and compassion, should transiently, and by a few weak superstitious people; come off victorious, even though they were but poorly but, for forty days together, they appeared to the view armed, and sometimes without the loss of one man, hav- of a whole city, wherein were above an hundred thousand ing the Lord of hosts on their side, both to inject terror inhabitants, most of sound intellects, and some of them into their enemies, and to cover their heads in the day of so little superstition, as to abandon the laws and of battle; but, even without this supposition of a divine customs of their country for fear of persecution. interposal, might there not be some remarkable difference in the soldiers and generals themselves?

Judas Maccabæus, an excellent commander, bold and enterprising, with a small body of men, but all determined to conquer or die, attacks one of no capacity, with a much larger army indeed, but made up chiefly of raw men, and forces levied in haste. He attacks him, I say, and defeats him; and are not miracles of this kind very common? Do not both ancient and modern history furnish us with victories in great abundance of this sort, and much more surprising than any obtained by the Maccabees? The contempt of a weak enemy, whose forces are so disproportionate to the numerous army which comes against them, is one of the greatest errors, as well as dangers, that can happen in war; because in this case people are less upon their guard, not thinking the enemy capable of daring to undertake any thing against them, until they are surprised in their security; and an army surprised in their camp, we know, is an army half conquered.

Though therefore the Jews, under the command of the gallant Judas, were always fewest in number, yet, considering the boldness of their undertakings, and the prudence of their conduct, their skill in the military art, and the providence of God, which attended and prospered their arms, the wonder is not much, that they were, in a manner, always superior to their enemies.

a

There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars,' that is, in the heavens, where they move, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity' these were the presages, which our Saviour foretold; and, accordingly Josephus 3 informs us, that, before the last siege of Jerusalem, there were seen in the air, a little before sunset, for some days together, chariots and armed men, passing along the clouds, round about the city; "which I would hardly venture to report," says he, “but that I can produce sundry eyewitnesses, that are still alive, to confirm the truth of it." Several accounts of this kind we have in Livy and Suetonius and though it must be owned, that too great a credulity in some historians may possibly have enlarged, or multiplied these prodigies, yet we must not there1 Josh. x. 43. 2 Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Bethzur.

3 On the Jewish Wars, b. vii. c. 12.

a It is indeed surprising, that Polybius, an historian, in other things so punctual, and so well acquainted with the affairs of Asia, should make no mention of the Maccabees, nor of the wars which they maintained with so much glory against Antiochus, and his successors, especially since he describes the wars of the same Antiochus, in other respects, with all the care and exactness that can be desired.-Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Modin.

5

The Jews have a tradition, founded upon what we read in the second book of the Maccabees, namely, that, some time before the Babylonish captivity, the prophet Jeremiah received instructions from God to hide the ark of the covenant in a cave in Mount Nebo, which accordingly he did, and at the same time declared that the place should not be discovered until the people's return from their captivity; that, after the people's return, in the time of Nehemiah, this ark was found out, and replaced in the sanctuary of the temple; that when Pompey entered the sanctuary, he saw an ark and cherubim, like those which Moses had made; and that, some time after, the same ark was carried before Vespasian, when, from the Jewish wars, he returned to Rome in triumph.

6

Now, upon the supposition that there is any truth in this tradition, and the ark of the covenant was in fact replaced in the second temple, the history of Uzzah will inform us of what sacred account, in the esteem of God, this repository of the divine covenant was, and how severely God, in his case, was pleased to avenge the least violation of it. For, if the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah,' so that he smote him dead upon the spot for his rashness in taking hold of the ark,' even because he was no priest, no descendant of the house of Aaron; why should it be thought a strange thing, that God should show some tokens of his displeasure against an heathen prince, intruding into the place which he had consecrated for his own presence and inhabitation? Or, if we suppose, that the shekinah, or presence of God, was not resident in the second temple; yet still the holy of holies was reserved for the entrance of none but the high priest; and therefore it is no more than what might be expected, that he, who, in contempt of the divine command, and the remonstrances of all about him, would intrude into it, should meet with some severe rebuke, that thereby he might be convinced of the power of the God of Israel, and of the divine institution of their religion. And, though it be acknowledged that Pompey met with no remarkable judgment, in the instant when he was guilty of the like profanation, yet our learned connector of the sacred and profane history has observed, that after this act he never prospered; that this put an end to all the last of his victories. So mindful has God all along his successes; insomuch, that this, over the Jews, was been, not to suffer the profaners of his sanctuary to go unpunished!

A. M. 3596. A. C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C. 341. 1 MAC i-vi. 7. 2 MAC. iii-x, JOS. HIST. b. xi. c. 7—b. xii. c. 14

1

2

3

The intended destruction of all the Egyptian Jews at | back, heading the Jewish army, protecting the JewAlexandria, in the barbarous manner wherein the author ish general, and a defending the sacred treasures of the of the second book of the Maccabees has related it, can temple; but as we esteem these books of the Maccabees hardly be thought an incredible thing to those who have no part of divine writ, we leave the proper defence of read in Philo, the like, if not worse, cruelties, which the them to those who have received them as canonical, and same people underwent in the same town, in the reign shall only add, with the learned Huetius, upon this of Caligula, and under the administration of Flaccus.- subject,-That, how improbable soever these accounts That they were not only driven from their habitations, may be thought by some, they are not destitute of plundered of their goods, and cooped up in a narrow examples of the like nature in several heathen histories; corner of the city in order to be starved; but that, if that, in the battle which the Romans had with the Latins, any attempting to make their escape were apprehended, at the lake Regillus, Castor and Pollux were seen they were either knocked on the head, torn limb from mounted on horseback in the Roman army, and, when limb, or tortured to death, and their dead bodies dragged the victory was wavering, they restored the fight, and through the streets; and, if any pretended to lament gained the field, and carried the news thereof to Rome them, they were immediately seized, whipped without that very evening; that, when the Romans invaded the ́mercy, and having suffered all the torments that cruelty Lucani and Brutii, Mars, the great founder of their could invent, were condemned at last to be crucified :-nation, led their forces to the onset, and assisted them That, without any regard to sex or condition, without | not a little in taking and destroying great numbers of any respect to the aged, or compassion to the young, their enemies; and, to name no more, that, at the battle not only whole families were burned together, but some, of Marathon, Pan appeared on the side of the Athenians, being tied to stakes, had fires of green wood kindled made great slaughter among the enemy's army, and round them, in order to prolong their torments, and that injected such a terror into them all, as, from that time, the spectators might have the horrid pleasure of seeing it has obtained the name of a panic fear. the poor creatures suffocated in the smoke.-That, on the very festival of the emperor's birth-day, which generally lasted for some time, thirty-eight of their council, persons of the most distinguished note among them were bound like criminals, some with chains, and so dragged through the market-place to the theatre, and were whipped so unmercifully, that some of them did not long survive it.-Nay, that at this time more especially, it was a usual thing with the people, when they came to the theatre, first to entertain themselves with scourging, racking, and torturing the poor Jews at their pleasure, and then, to call for their dancers and players, and other diversions in use among the Romans: whoever has read, I say, the account of these cruelties, as Philo has related them, need not much wonder to find an exasperated prince, as Ptolemy was, intending the total destruction of a people he imagined had offend ed him; when a bare Roman prefect, as Flaccus was no more, without any provocation that we hear of, was not afraid to treat the same people in this inhuman

manner.

But then, as to the former case, if we will allow the providence of God, and its interposition in the occurrences of this world, we need not want a reason, why he should turn the elephants, which were designed to destroy the innocent, upon the spectators, who could not be so; because both his justice and mercy seem to plead for the deliverance of those, whose only crime was their profession of his true religion, and for the punishment of such as came to glut their eyes with the hellish pleasure of seeing their fellow creatures trampled to pieces. In this sense, there seems to be a necessary call for a divine interposition; but, abstracted from this consideration, the wonder is not great, that creatures intoxicated, as these elephants are said to have been, should mistake their objects, and fall foul upon those that they were least of all intended to destroy.

There is something, we confess, more wonderful, in the appearances of angels mounted, as it were, on horse

Vol. ii. p. 525, &c. ex edit. Mangeana.

Now, though there might be a good deal of fiction in these instances, yet since we find some of the best Roman historians relating them, and so grave an author as Tully, even in some of his most serious pieces, making mention of the first of these as a matter of just credibility, we cannot but suppose, that the common tradition at this time was, that, to the victorious army, especially when it was much inferior in numbers, some celestial and superior beings were always assistant; and, consequently, that the author of the book of the Maccabees, in this respect, wrote nothing but what at that time was the common sense of mankind; nothing, indeed, but what the sense of the royal psalmist, in military matters, authorized him to write: for let them be turned back,' says he, ‘and brought to confusion, that imagine mischief against me; let them be as the dust before the wind, and the angel of the Lord scattering them.'

CHAP. III. Of the Jewish Sanhedrim.

A. M. 3596. A. C. 408; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 5070. A. C.341. 1 MAC. i—vi. 7. 2 M AC. iii-x. JOS. HIST. b. xi. c. 7--b. xii. c. 14. them the law from Mount Sinai, when the noise and to establish in the country, for the security of the state thunderings in which it was delivered were so very ter- and administration of justice. rible, that the people requested of him not to speak any more to them himself, but to make use of the ministry of Moses as his interpreter.

In

On this footing Joshua left the civil administration; and thus it stood, till the people revolted from the service of God, and then all things ran to confusion. what manner the state was governed, and justice dispensed during the long succession of judges, it is difficult to determine: but, towards the conclusion of that form of government, we find Samuel 10 going, from year to year, in a circuit round the country, to judge Israel,' and when himself grew impotent and unable to travel," mak

tration occasioned an alteration in the government.

Thus Moses, by the people's own election, was appointed to the administration of all public affairs; and, in this important office, as the author of the Hebrews testifies of him, acquitted himself with much faithfulness but, in a short time, he found, that he had undertaken a work of too much labour and fatigue for any single person to sustain; and therefore, in pursuance of his father-ing his sons judges in his stead; but their mal-adminisin-law's advice, he made choice of some of the most prudent and understanding men in every tribe, divided them into several classes, and gave them names according to the authority wherewith he invested them, or the number of the persons over whom they were to preside; he made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among the tribes.'

3

4

But this establishment lasted not long, or at least received some change or addition to it. For, as soon as the Israelites were arrived at Kibroth-Hattaavah, or the 'graves of lust,' as the place is called, but three days' journey from Mount Sinai, God appointed a body of seventy elders, to whom he communicated his Spirit, to assist Moses in bearing the burden of the people; and from hence it is that the defenders of the antiquity of the sanhedrim date the first institution of that great council. But, however this be, it is certain, that this council continued among them all the while that they sojourned in the wilderness; and was, indeed,' an institution proper enough for a people in their circumstances, who, being all of one community, could assemble together with ease, and, having no great matters in possession, could have but few processes, and, consequently, might dispense with a lesser number of judges. Moses, however, foreseeing that this institution would not be sufficient, when once the people were settled in the land of promise, 6 left it as an injunction behind him, that, whoever had the government of the nation should appoint judges and magistrates in every city, to determine the controversies that came before them; but that, when any thing of great moment, or of difficult discussion, should happen, the contending parties should carry their cause 7to the place which the Lord had chosen,' propose it to the priests, and to the judge, that should be in their days;' and, upon pain of death, acquiesce in their decision.

8

Moses was succeeded by Joshua; but his time was spent in making a conquest of the land of Canaan, and, till he had done that, he could not put the order which his predecessor had left him in execution. However, at his first accession to the government, we find that all the people promised the same obedience to him that they had paid to Moses; and that, when himself grew old, ' he called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers,' that is, all the judges and magistrates which Moses had enjoined him

9

The institution of regal power dissolved that polity which Moses had settled: but though he both foreknew and foretold this change in the constitution, yet we nowhere find him giving any particular directions how kings were to conduct themselves in the administration of the state, and the dispensation of justice; 12 whether it was that God did not vouchsafe to communicate any fresh discovery to him upon that subject, or whether he might think that the rules which he had already prescribed were not incompatible with the authority and government of kings.

Saul seems to have concerned himself with nothing but military affairs, leaving the priests and judges the same jurisdiction that they had before; but David, when he came into a peaceable possession of the kingdom, " did himself, in causes of great consequence at least, administer justice to the people. The famous decision between the two mothers, 14 who both laid their claim to the living child, is a plain proof, that, in pèrplexed and intricate cases, Solomon himself did sometimes the office of a judge; and when we read of this prince, that he came to 15 Gibeon, with the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the judges, and the chief of the fathers,' we may learn from hence, that magistrates of the same kind that Moses had ordained were at this time existing in the kingdom of Israel.

By the revolt of the ten tribes from the house of David to that of Jeroboam, the civil constitution of the Jews suffered very much; because the avowed purpose of that prince was, to change the religion, and reverse the orders which Moses had instituted: and, therefore, from henceforward, we must look only into the kingdom of Judah for the succession of the true discipline and form of ancient government of the Jews.

17

When Jehoshaphat formed the design of introducing a reformation both in church and state, he pursued the rule which Moses had given him; for 16 he set judges in the land, through all the fenced cities,' and in Jerusalem the capital, erected two tribunals; one composed of priests and Levites, to hear appeals from lesser courts relating to religious matters; and the other, composed of the chief of the fathers of Israel,' to hear such as related to civil. Nor is their conjecture much amiss, who suppose, that the seventy men, whom 18 Ezekiel saw in a vision, burning incense to idols,' and the five and twenty,' who, 19 between the porch and the altar, were

7 Deut. xvii. 9.

8 Josh. i. 16, 17.

9 Chap. xxiv. 1.