" with divers Nations, the Romans inferted this exprefs Condition, That none of them fhould be made Free of the City. And it appears from Plutarch, That the Freedom of the City of Rome was not obtained in Cicero's time, but by great Favour, and with much Difficulty. Foreigners were fometimes expelled. And Auguftus left it in charge to Tiberius and the Senate, not to be too eafie in granting the Freedom of the City. At laft by a conftitution of Caracalla, Freedom was granted to all within the Roman Empire. The Greeks were backward, particularly the Athenians in granting the Freedom of their City. Marriages with Strangers were forbidden by the Athenians, and they had a Tax call'd Meloíniov, to be paid Yearly by all Foreigners, both Men and Women; and they were so severe in exacting it, that those who were unable to pay it, were fold or imprifoned. The Thebans as well as the Athenians, rarely granted to Strangers the Privileges of Citizens, but fometimes expelled all Foreigners. The Corinthians thought it a proper Compliment to make to Alexander the Great, after he had conquered the Eaft, to prefent him with the Freedom of their City, and that he might be fenfible of the high Refpect fhewn him in it, they acquainted him, that none but Himfelf and Hercules had ever been made Free of Corinth. Plutarch relates this Compliment to have been made Alexander by the People of Megara. The Albani made none Free of their City, but the Greeks and Latins: And it seems to have been the general Custom and Practice of Cities, to be very cautious and fparing " Tull. u y pro Balbo. Plut. in Cat. Min. & in Cic. 9 Dio. l. 56. H. Valef. Not. in Excerpt. ex Dion. Ez. Spanh. Orb. Rom. Exerc. 2. c. 4. s Demofth. adv. Aristocr. Adv. Neær. "Adv. Ariftogit. Diog. Laert. in Xenocr.cum Obf. Menag. * Dion. Halic. 1. 2. y Sen. de Benef. 1. 1. c. 13. z Dion. Hal. 1. 3. F in in admitting Strangers to incorporate with them. But the Jewish Government, on the contrary, was fo adapted and contrived for the reception of foreign Nations, that if they would but comply with their Laws, they made little or no diftinction between the Natives and Strangers; and the owning the True God, and profeffing to obey and ferve him, entitled them not only to all the Rights of Humanity and Kindness, but to a more peculiar Care and Providence of God himself. a If the Jews did not always fhew fo much Humanity to Strangers as their Law required, this is to be afcribed wholly to their own fault; and it is not the only Law which they were too prone to disobey. a Maimonides and fome other Rabbins have affirmed, that Profelytes of the Gates were permitted to live in the Land at no other time, but in the Year of Jubilee, and that the Profelytes of Righteoufnefs only were to be received, as perpetual Inhabitants. But this is contrary to the Tenour of the Law, and particularly to Deut. xiv. 21. where Profelytes, or the Strangers dwelling within the Gates, are fuppofed to be conftant Inhabitants, and diftinguish'd both from Profelytes, who had obliged themselves to the Obfervation of the Ceremonial Law, and from Aliens. Indeed, when the Jews became fubject to the Romans, and by that means, had no Power to constrain the Profelytes of the Gates to obferve what they had undertaken, it was determined, that they should hold no Converfation with them yet in the corruptest state of the Jewish Church, the Gentiles had a Court to worship in at the Temple: And the Jews always taught That it was their Duty to relieve the Heathen with their Alms; and that it was lawful to converse with a Maim. de Idolol. c. 10. §. 7. b Vid. Hammond. ad Matth. xxiii. 15. & Selden. de Jure Nat. & Gent. 1. 2. c. 5. • Doctor Lightfoot on A&s 10. 28. and Hebr. and Talmud Exercitat. on Mat. vi. 2. the the Gentiles, if they did not eat with them, nor go into their Houses. And this was the Charge brought against St. Peter, Thou wenteft in to men uncircumcifed, and didft eat with them, Act. xi. 3. But what effect this abundant provision of the Law, for the Conversion of other Nations, had, falls under the next Head. It is more proper to confider, in this place, an Objection which comes in our way; That the Ifraelites were to make no Marriages nor Covenants with the Seven Nations of the Land of Canaan, nor to fhew them any Mercy, but utterly to deftroy them, or drive them out, Exod. xxiii. 31. Deut. vii. 2. To which I Anfwer, That this was a peculiar and excepted Cafe, and therefore fuppofes that they were not thus to deal with any others, except the Nations there exprefly named, but they might enter into Marriages and Covenants with all other Nations: And besides what has been already obferved, of the great Mercy which God vouchfafed to thefe Nations, in fending the Patriarchs to fojourn amongst them; and that wonderful Judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, to bring them to Repentance, and prevent that Destruction which was at last brought upon them: after fo long and great Provocations, thefe Nations were not unavoidably to be extirpated; but the Ifraelites were, in the first place, to profer Peace to them; and if they refused to accept of Peace, then they were to proceed against them in the utmost extremity; which appears from Deut. xx. 10, &c. For after a general Command to offer Terms of Peace to the Cities which they fhould go to fight against; and if they refused it, to fmite every male thereof with the edge of the sword, ver. 13. it is added, ver. 15. Thus fhalt thou do to all the cities that are very far from thee, which are not of the cities of thefe nations. But of the cities of theje people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt fave alive nothing that breatheth; but thou shalt utterly deftroy them, &c. where it is evident, that what F 2 con d concerns their making Proposals of Peace, was to be understood in general of all Nations with whom they fhould at any time have War. But then in their dealings with them upon a Victory, after their refufal of the Peace offered, they were to diftinguish between the Canaanites and other Nations: for the Canaanites were to be utterly destroyed, if they should reject Terms of Peace; but all, except the Males, were to be spared of other Nations, though they were overcome, after they had refufed to make Peace with them: And the Terms of Peace to be propofed, were, That they fhould become Tributaries, and Profelytes, fo far as to own and worship the True God, and then the reafon for their extirpation ceafed; which was, That thefe Idolatrous Nations might not teach the Children of Ifrael to do after all their abominations, which they had done unto their gods, Deut. xx. 18. When the Men of Ifrael tell the Gibeonites, Peradventure ye dwell among us, and how shall we make a league with you? Jofh. ix. 7. this is to be understood of a League with them upon equal Terms, not of a Peace, whereby they might become Tributaries, Deut.xx. II. and therefore the Gibeonites immediately anfwer'd and faid to Joshua, We are thy fervants, Josh. ix. 8. that is, Do with us as you please, at least grant us our Lives, though not upon any other Terms of a League, yet on Conditions of Servitude: and we find the Peace and the League diftinguished, Joh. ix. 15. But this fraudulent way of getting into a League with the Iraelites, if it had not been for the Oath, which fecured their Lives to them, had forfeited that Right which otherwise they might have had to their Lives, by a Peace fairly obtained; and they lost all other Quòd fi pacem abnuerent in Bellis quidem voluntariis, quæ Ifraelite fufcipiebant adverfus reliquas Nationes, omnes gladio perimebantur, exceptis mulieribus & parvulis: at in iis, que gerebantur cum feptem Nationibus, etiam hi occidebantur. Menaff. Een. Ifr. Conciliac. in Deut. Qu. 8. e Advantages of the League, but only the fecuring their Lives. In the Jerufalem Gemara it is written, that Joshua made Three Proposals to the Canaanites, viz. That they might either leave the Country, or be admitted into a League upon Conditions of Peace, or prepare themselves for Battel; and that the Girgafhites being terrify'd by the mighty Works, which God had wrought for the Children of Ifrael, fled into Africk, the Gibeonites making a League with them, ftaid in the Land, and the 31 Kings (Joh. xii. 24.) who would neither fly, nor accept of Terms of Peace, were flain. in Battel. Maimonides fays, that Embaffadors had been fent to the G beonites, as well as to the rest of thofe Nations, and that they had rejected the Propofals of Peace, and upon that account fhould have been deftroy'd; but hearing afterwards of the wonderful Succefs of the Arms of the Ifraelites, and of that Law by which they were devoted to Destruction, because they had not accepted of a Peace upon the Terms propos'd; they contrived to fave themselves by pretending, that they liv'd at a great Distance, and were not of the Number of those Nations, who had had Tenders of Peace made to them. But that the Canaanites, if they had fubmitted, and own'd the God of Ifrael, were not to have been destroy'd, but to have been receiv'd to Mercy, is evident from Joh. xi. 19, 20. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Ifrael, fave the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon; all o-· ther they took in battel: For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Ifrael in battel, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might deftroy them, as the Lord commanded Mofes. Which neceffarily fuppofes, that if God, in his juft Judgment upon them, for their heinous Provocations, had not harden'd their e f Selden. de Jure Natur, & Gent. 1 6. c. 13. Cunæas 1. 2. c. 20. Menaff. Ben. Ifr. conciliat. in Deutr. Qu. 8. F 3 |
