who was capable of breaking his Fortune and letting himself be dazled with his great Successes was not born to overcome the Romans From that time Rome made great Enterprises every day and Hannibal as couragious and victorious as he was could not hold up against her 'T is easy to judge by that single event to whom at last all the Advantage was likely to come Hannibal swollen with his mighty Successes thought the taking of Rome was very easy and therefore gave himself some intermission Rome in the midst of all her Calamities neither lost her Courage nor her Confidence and undertook greater things than ever It was presently after the Defeat at Cannae that she besieged Syracuse and Capua the one unfaithful to Treaties and the other rebellious Syracuse could not defend her self neither by her Fortifications nor by the inventions of Archimedes The victorious Army of Hannibal came in vain to the help of Capua But the Romans forced that Captain to raise the Siege at Nola. A while after the Carthaginians defeated and slew in Spain the two Scipio's In all that War nothing fell out more sensible nor more fatal to the Romans Their loss obliged them to make their last efforts Young Scipio the Son of one of those Generals being not satisfied with his having relieved the Affairs of Rome in Spain went and waged War with the Carthaginians in their own City and gave the last blow to their Empire The state of that City did not permit Scipio to find there the same resistance as Hannibal found from Rome and you will be enough convinced of that if you do but a little look into the constitution of those two Cities Rome was in her strength Polyb. 1 3â—.6.49 c. and Carthage which was beginning to fall was kept up only by Hannibal Rome had her Senate united and that was exactly the time when that Concert was which is so much commended in the Book of the Maccabees The Senate of Carthage was divided by old irreconcileable Factions and the loss of Hannibal had been the rejoicing of the most considerable part of the great Lords Rome although poor and engaged in Agriculture yet bred up an admirable Militia which only aimed at glory and to aggrandize the Roman name Carthage enriched by her trading beheld all her Citizens set upon their wealth and not at all dâ—sciplin'd in War whereas the Roman Armies were almost all made up of Citizens Carthage on the contrary held it for a Maxime not to have any but strange Troops oft-times as much to be feared by those that pay them as by those that they are imployed against These defects came partly from the first Institutiâ—n of the Common-wealth of Carthage and partly were introduced by time Carthage always loved wealth Arist Pol. 2.2 And Aristotle accuses her for so much being set upon it as to suffer the Citizens to prefer it to Vertue By that means a Republick wholly made for War as the same Aristotle observes at last neglected the exercise of it That Philosopher does not blame her for having only strange Militias and therefore it is believed that it fell not into that defect till a long while after But Riches brought thither naturally a Merchandizing Republick they loved to enjoy their wealth and thought to find every thing in their Mony Carthage fancied her self strong because she had a great many Soldiers and never could be brought to understand by all the Revolts she had seen befallen her in the latter times that there is nothing more unhappy than a State which could only be supported by strangers wherein there can be found neither Zeal nor Security nor Obedience Polyb. 11.17 'T is true the great Genius of Hannibal seemed to have supplied and remedied the defects of his Republick It is looked on as a Prodigy that in a strange Country and for full sixteen years there should never be seen I do not say any Sedition but so much as a murmur in an Army all made up of divers people who without understanding one another agreed so well in understanding the orders of their General But Hannibal's ability could not support Carthage when being attacked within her Walls by such a General as Scipio she was found without Forces Then was Hannibal to be recalled but he had with him only such Troops as were weakened more by their own Victories than by those of the Romans and which compleated their own ruine by the length of the Voyage Thus Hannibal was beaten and Carthage formerly the Mistress of all Afric of the Mediterranean Sea and of all the Commerce of the World was forced to undergo the Yoke that Sâ—ipio put upon her This was the glorious fruit of the Roman patience People who hardened and fortified themselves by their unhappinesses had good reason to believe they might save all provided they did not lose their hopes And Polybiâ—s hath very rightly concluded That Carthage would at last be obedient to Rome by the very nature of the two Republicks And if the Romans made use of those great Politick and Military Qualities only to preserve their State in Peace or to protect their opprest Allies as they made such a pretension to do we must as much commend their Equity as their Valour and their Prudence But when they had tasted the sweetness of Victory they then resolved to make every thing yield to them and pretended to nothing less than to put first their Neighbours and afterwards all the World under their Laws To attain that end they perfectly knew how to preserve their Allies to unite them among themselves to throw division and jealousie among their Enemies to penetrate into their Councils to discover their Intelligences and to prevent their Undertakings They not only observed the marches of their Enemies but also all the Progresses of their Neighbours and they were above all things curious either in dividing or in Counter-balancing by some other way the powers that became too formidable or which put too great obstacles to their Conquests Therefore the Greeks were to blame for imagining in the time of Polybius Polyb. 1.63 that Rome aggrandized her self rather by hazard than by conduct they were too fond of their own Nation and too jealous of those People they saw raised above them Or peradventure that seeing at a distance the Roman Empire to advance so quickly without penetrating into the Councils which ordered the motions of that great Body they attributed to chance as the custom of Men is the Effects of which the Causes were not known to them But Polybius whose strict familiarity with the Romans made him get so far into the secret of Affairs and nearly to observe the Roman Polity during the Punick Wars hath been more just and equitable than the other Greeks and hath seen that the Conquests of Rome were the consequence of a well form'd and understood design For he saw the Romans in the midst of the Mediterranean Sea to have their Eyes
were caused sometimes by the express orders of the Emperors and by the particular hatred of the Magistrates sometimes by the Insurrections of the People and sometimes the Decrees authentically pronounced in the Senate upon the Rescripts of Princes or in their Presence Then the Persecution was most universal and bloody and so the hatred of the Infidels still resolute to destroy the Church still grew on from time to time to new furies and outrages And it was by these Renewals of their violences and cruelties that the Ecclesiastical Writers counted the ten Persecutions under the ten Emperors Yet under such long and tedious Sufferings did not the Christians ever make the least Sedition Among all the faithful the Bishops still had the most vigorous assaults Among all the Churches the Church of Rome was persecuted with the most of violence and Thirty Popes confirmed by their blood the Gospel which they taught to all the Earth Domitian is killed The Empire begins to respire and breath again under Nerva His great age did not permit Years of J. C. 96 him to re-settle and establish affairs but yet as much as in him lay to lengthen out and continue the Repose of the Public he elected Trajan for his Successor The Empire Years of J. C. 97 at quiet within and triumphing without did Years of J. C. 98 not fail to admire so good a Prince for this he held for a constant Maxim that he ought so to let his Citizens find him as he would have been willing to have found the Emperor if he had been a simple Citizen This Years of J. C. 102 Prince subdued the Dacii and Decebalus their Years of J. C. 106 King extended his Conquests into the East Years of J. C. 115 gave to the Parthians a King and made Years of J. C. 116 them stand in awful fear of the insuperable power of Rome Oh happy Man whom Drunkenness and his infamous Loves such deplorable vices in so great a Prince never Years of J. C. 117 made to attempt any thing against Justice To these advantageous times for the Common-weal succeeded those of Adrian equally compounded of good and bad This Prince kept up the Military Discipline lived himself a military Life and with abundance of frugality supported the Provinces made the Arts to flourish and Greece which was Years of J. C. 120 the Mother of them The Barbarians were Years of J. C. 123 kept in awe by his arms and his Authority Years of J. C. 127 He rebuilt Jerusalem to which he gave his Years of J. C. 126 Name and from thence it is that the Name Years of J. C. 130 of Aelia happened to it but he banished the Jews out of it who were always rebellious to the Empire and those being obstinate found him an unrelenting Avenger By his Years of J. C. 135 Cruelties and Monstrous Loves he dishonoured a Reign which otherwise would have been very glorious and his infamous Antinous Years of J. C. 131 of whom he made a God was a most reproachful blot to his whole Life The Emperor seemed to repair his defects and to re-establish that glory and renown which he had so much defaced by adopting Antoninus Years of J. C. 138 the Pious who adopted Marcus Aurelius Years of J. C. 136 the Sage and the Philosopher In these two Years of J. C. 161 Princes appeared two lovely and beautiful Characters The Father always in Peace yet is always ready upon occasion to ingage in War the Son is always Warring and yet always ready to give Peace both to his Enemies and to the Empire His Father Antoninus had taught him that the saving of one single Citizen was much to be preferr'd to the defeating and getting the victory over a Years of J. C. 162 thousand Enemies The Parthians and the Marcomanni felt the valour of Marcus Aurelius The latter were somewhat Germans whom this Emperor had just subdued a little before his death By the vertue of the Years of J. C. 180 two Antoninus's that name became the delight of the Romans And the Glory of so indear'd a Name was not effaced either by the softness and effeminacy of Iucius Verus Brother to Marcus Aurelius and his Collegue in the Empire or by the Brutalities of Commodus his Son and Successor This latter unworthy to be the Off-spring of such a Father forgot both the Instructions and Examples of him the Senate and the People abhorred him his most fawning and assiduous Years of J. C. 162 Minions and his Mistress were the Cause of Years of J. C. 193 his death His Successor Pertinax a vigorous Asserter of the Military Discipline saw him sacrificed to the fury of licentious Soldiers that but a little before had raised him whether he would or no to the Soveraign Power The Empire being put to an Outcry by the Army soon found a Purchaser The Lawyer Didius Julianus adventured upon that bold bargain though it cost him his Life Severus Africanus made him to be killed Years of J. C. 194 revenged Pertinax passed from East to Years of J. C. 195 West triumphed in Syria in Gaul and in Years of J. C. 198 Great Britain c. The hasty Conqueror equal'd Caesar by his Victories but he did not imitate Years of J. C. 207 him in Clemency He could not make Years of J. C. 209 Peace between his Children Bassian or Caracalla Years of J. C. 208 his eldest Son a mock Imitator of Alexander Years of J. C. 211 immediately after the death of 〈◊〉 Years of J. C. 212 Father kill'd his Brother Geta an En◠〈◊〉 as well as himself even in the bosom 〈◊〉 â—â—lia their common Mother spent his Lifâ— in Cruelty and Slaughters and at length drew upon himself a Tragical Death Severâ—s had got for him the heart of the Soldiers and Years of J. C. 218 People by giving him the Name of Antoninus but he knew not how to keep up that honour The Syrian Heliogabalus or rather Alagabalus his Son or at least reputed for such tho' the Name of Antoninus had at first procured him the hearts of the Soldiers and the victory over Macrinus soon after by his Infamies became the horror of Mankind and Years of J. C. 222 he was his own destroyer Alexander Severus the Son of Mameus his Kinsman and Successor lived too little a while for the happiness of the world He complained that he was more put to it to keep his Soldiers in good order than he was to conquer his Enemies Years of J. C. 235 His Mother who governed him was Years of J. C. 233 the cause of his Ruin as she had also been that of his glory and renown Under him Artaxerxes the Persian slew his Master Artabanus the last King of the Parthians and re-established the Empire of the Persians in the East About these times the Church as yet but in its Minority Tertull. adv Jud. 7. Apolog 37. run over the whole Earth and not only in the East where it took
event puts us above all the nice Punctualities of the Chronologâ—sts and the total Subversion of the Jews which so closely followed the Death of our Lord is sufficient to convince the most willfully blind that the Prophecy is accomplished There remains nothing more now but to observe to you one Circumstance of it Daniel discovers a new Mystery to us The Oracle of Jacob had told us that the Kingdom of Juda was to cease at the coming of the Messiah But it does not say that that Death should be the cause of the Downfal of that Kingdom God revealed that most necessary Secret to Daniel and he declared to him as you see that the Ruine of the Jews should be the Consequence of the death of Christ and of their Ingratitude If you observe the place the Course of Events will quickly make you an excellent Commentary You see what God shewed to the Prophet Daniel a little before the Conquests of Carus and the Re-building of the Temple In the time of the building of it he raised up the Prophets Haggai and Zachariah And presently after he sent Malachi who was to conclude the Prophecies of the antient People What was it that Zachariah did not see One could almost say that the very Book of God's Decrees was laid open to that Prophet and that there he read the whole History of the People of God from the time of the Captivity The Persecutions of the Kings of Syria and the Wars which they made upon Judah are all of them discovered to him in their very particulars Zach. 14.1 2 3 4 c. He saw Jerusalem taken and sack'd a dreadful Pillage and infinite Disorders the Peoples Flight into the Desart uncertain of their Condition whether Life or Death and at the very Vigil of its last Desolation there does all of a sudden a new Light appear to him The Enemies are vanquished the Idols are thrown down in all the Holy Land There is nothing but Peace and Plenty seen both in City and Country and the Temple is revered in all the East One remarkable Circumstance of those Wars is revealed to the Prophet and that is that Jerusalem shall be betrayed by her own Children Zach. 14.13 14 and that among her Enemies there shall a great many Jews be found Sometimes he sees a long Succession of Prosperity Judah is full of Strength the Kingdoms that oppressed it are humbled the Neighbours that were continually tormenting it Pâ—â—l 9.10.6 Zâ—â—â— 9.1.2.3 â— â— 6 7 8. are punished some are converted and incorporated into the People of God The Prophet sees that People blessed with divine Favours amongst which he relates to them the Triumph as modest as it was glorious Rejoice greatly O Daughter of Zion Ibid. 9. shout O Daughter of Jerusalem behold thy King cometh unto thee He is just and having Salvation lowly and riding upon an Ass and upon a Colt the Foal of an Ass After he had recounted their Prosperities he summs up from the beginning all the course of their Afflictions He sees all of a sudden Fire in the Temple all the Country in desolation with the capital City Murders Violences Zach. 11.1 2 c. and a King who countenances and encourages them But God hath pity on his forsaken People he becomes himself their Shepherd and his Protection sustains them At length he kindles civil Wars amongst them Ibid. 11.8 9. and the Face of things looks dismal The time of that Change is designed by a certain Character and three Princes degraded in one Month denote the beginning of their Troubles In the midst of these Calamities there appears yet another greater than all the rest A while after those Divisions and at the time of their Ruine God is prized at thirty pieces of Silver by his ungrateful People and the Prophet sees all Ibid. 12 13 c even to the Potters field about which that Money was employed From that time arise great Disorders among the Shepherds of the People at last they become Blind and their Power is destroyed What shall I say of the marvellous Vision of Zacharia who sees the Shepherd smitten and the Sheep scattered What shall I say of the regard which the People had for the God whom they have pierced Zach. 13.7.12.10 and of their mourning for him as one mourneth for his only Son and of their bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his First-born Zacharia saw all these things but that sight which is still greater is the promise of God's Presence and Love He that toucheth you toucheth the Apple of mine Eye Zach. 2.8 9 10 11 12 13. Sing and rejoyce O Daughter of Zion for lo I come and I will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord and many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my People and I will dwell in the midst of Thee c. Haggai says less things but what he says is very surprising Whilst the second Temple was building and the old men who had seen the Glories of the first were weeping and lamenting in comparing the Poorness of this last Building with the Magnificence of the other the Prophet who sees farther publishes the Glory of the second Temple Hag. 2.7 8 9. and prefers it to the first I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this House with Glory saith the Lord of Hosts The Glory of this latter shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of Hosts He explains from whence shall come the Glory of this new House in this that the desire of all Nations shall come That Messiah who was promised two thousand years before and from the beginning of the World as the Saviour of the Gentiles shall appear in this new Temple Peace shall be establis â— there all the astonished World shall bear Witness of the coming of this their Redeemer there was but a little while to wait and the times assigned for this waiting are in their last period At length the Temple was finished the Sacrifices were offered in it But the Covetous Jews prophaned it and brought thither that which was torn and the lawe and the sick so that the Offering was defective Malachi who reprov'd them for it was raised to a higher Consideration and upon the occasion of the unclean Sacrifices of the Jews he sees an Offering always pure and never sullied which shall be presented to God Mal. 2.11 13. no more so as it was in the Temple of Jerusalâ—m heretofore but from the rising of the Sun even to the going down of the same no more by the Jews but by the Gentiles among whom he prophesied that the name of God should be great He sees also like Haggai the Glory of the second Temple and the Messiah who honours it with his Presence But he sees at the same time that the Messiah is the God to whom
violent than ever yet it had been You saw that Nero in his last years attempted the destruction of the Christians and caused St. Peter and St. Paul to be put to death That Persecution which was stirred up by the Jealousies and Violences of the Jews hastened their Ruine but it did not as yet point out the particular time The coming of false Christs and false Prophets seemed to be a nearer step to their last ruine for the ordinary destiny of those who refused to lend an Ear to the Truth was to be drawn on to their ruine by the deceiving Prophets Jesus Christ did not hide this from his Apostles that this should be the Calamity that should befall the Jews for he said that many false Prophets should rise and should deceive many Matth. 24.11.23 24. Mark 13.22 23. Luke 21.8 they should shew great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect. But take you heed behold I have foretold you all things It ought not to be said that this was an easie thing for any one to divine that knew the humour and complexion of the Nation for to the contrary I have shewn that the Jews being wearied by these Seducers who had so often been the cause of their ruine and especially of Zedekiah were so throughly disabused at last that they left off further hearkening to them For above five hundred years not a false Prophet was to be seen in Israel But Hell it self which gave them inspiration raised them up again at the coming of Jesus Christ and God who restrained those deceiving Spirits according to his own wise pleasure did then let loose the Reins that so he might send at that very time that Punishment on the Jews and that Trial to his faithful Ones Never did there appear so many false Prophets as then presently after the death of our Saviour especially about the time of the Jewish War and under the Reâ—gn of Nero who began it Joseph of the Antiquity of the Jews lib. 20. cap. 6. Josephus tells us there were a world of those Impostors who persuaded the common People to follow them into the Desart by their vain Inchantments and tricks of Magick promising them a sudden and a miraculous deliverance Therefore for this very reason was it that the Desart is pointed at in the Predictions of our Lord as one of the places where those false Saviours and Deliverers should hide themselves who afterwards you have seen so to bewitch the Common People to their utter ruine and destruction You need not doubt but that the Name of Christ Matth. 24.16 without which there was no perfect Deliverance to be expected by the Jews was made use of in those imaginary and delusory Promises and you will see in what follows enough to convince you of it Judea was not the only Province which was exposed to those Illusions They were common throughout all the Empire There was no time wherein all the Historians discover to us a greater number of those Impostors who made their brags of foretelling things to come and so deceived the People by their Inchantments Simon the Magician Elyâ—as the Sorcerer Apollonius Tyanâ—â—s and an infinite number of other Magicians described both in the Sacred and Prophane Histories rose up in that Age wherein Hell seem'd to lay out its last Efforts to support its shaken Empire Wherefore Jesus Christ observed at that time chiefly among the Jews there would be that prodigious number of false Prophets Who will please narrowly to consider his words will see that they were to be multiplyed both before and after the destruction of Jerusalem but still it was to be about that time and that then the Seduction being strengthened by false Miracles and false Doctrines should be so subtile and so powerful as if it were possible even the very Elect should be deceived by them I do not say but that at the end of the World there is to be somewhat like this and that which will prove more dangerous for we have already taken notice that what was to befal Jerusalem was a manifest Type of those last Times But this is certain that Jesus Christ gave that Seduction to us as one of the most sensible Effects of the Wrath of God upon the Jews and as one sign of their Ruine The Event hath justified his Prophecy Every thing was here attested by irreproachable Evidences We read the prediction of their Errors in the Gospel We have seen the accomplishment of them in their Histories and especially in that of Josephus After that Jesus Christ had foretold those things from the design he had to deliver those that were his from the Miseries wherewith Jerusalem was threatned he came to those nearer Signs that should quickly be followed with the last Desolation of that City God doth not always give to his Elect such marks In those terrible Chastisements which make whole Nations to be astonished at his Power he oft-times strikes the Righteous with the Guilty For he hath better ways to separate and divide them than those that are obvious to our Senses The same Blow that breaks the Chaffe separates the good Grain Aug. 1. de Civit Dâ—â— c. 8. Gold is tryed in the same Fire wherein the Chaffe is consumed and under the same Punishments by which the Wicked are cut off the Faithful are purified But in the Destruction of Jerusalem that so the Image of the last Judgment might be the more lively expressed and the divine Vengeance be more remarkable on the Unbelievers he would not have the Jews who had received the Gospel be confounded with the others and therefore our blessed Saviour gave his Disciples certain Signs by which they might know when it should be time for them to get out of that reprobated City He grounded himself according as his manner was upon the antient Prophecies of which he was both the Interpreter and the End and reflecting on the Place where the last Ruine of Jerusalem was so clearly shewn to Daniel he says thus Matt. 24.15 Mark 13.14 When ye therefore shall see the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet stand in the holy Place whoso readeth let him understand or as it is in St. Mark standing where it ought not then let them that be in Judea flee to the Mountains St. Luke relates the same thing in other Words And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with Armies Luke 21.20 21. then know that the Desolation thereof is nigh Then let them that be in Judea flee to the Mountains One Evangelist explains another and in comparing those Passages together it is easy to understand that that Abomination foretold by Daniel was the same thing with the Armies round about Jerusalem Orig. tr 29. in Matt. Aug. Ep. 80. ad Hesych The holy Fathers have thus understood it and the Reason convinces us of it The Word Abomination as the holy Language uses it
signifies an Idol and who does not know that the Roman Armies bore in their Ensigns the Images of their Gods and of their Caesars who were had in greater Reverence than all their Gods Those Ensigns were to the Souldiers an Object of worship and because Idols according to God's Decrees were never to appear in the holy Land the Roman Ensigns were banished from thence Also we see in Histories that whilst among the Romans there remained any tho' never so little Consideration for the Jews the Roman Ensigns were never seen in Judea Therefore it was that Vitellius when he went into that Province to carry the War into Arabia caused his Troops to march without any Colours for the Jewish Religion was at that time had in Reverence Joseph l. 18. c. 7. and they would not force that People to indure things that were so contrary to their Law But in the time of the last Jewish War it is very much to be believed that the Romans did not any whit spare a People whom they were resolved utterly to destroy So that when Jerusalem was besieged it was surrounded with as many Idols as there were Roman Ensigns in the Army and the Abomination did never appear so great standing where it ought not that is to say in the holy Land and round about the Temple Was this then may some say that great Sign that Jesus Christ was to give Was it then high time to fly when Titus besieged Jerusalem and when he so closely blâ—cked up the Avenues that there was no place left for them to make their escape at This was the Marvel of the Prophecy Jeruâ—alem was besieged twice in those times The first by Cestius the Governor of Syria in the sixty eighth Year of our Saviour the second by Titus four Years after that is to say in the Year seventy two Joseph 2. de beâ— Jud. c. 23 24. Ibid. l. 6 7. In the last Siege there was no possible Means of saving themselves Titus made that War with so much heat and violence he surprized all the Nation being then in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles and not one made their escape and that formidable Circumvallation which he made round the City put its Inhabitants out of all manner of Hopes But there was no such thing in the Siege of Cestius who was incamped fifty Furlongs that is to say six Miles from Jerusalem His Army was dispersed all round it but without making any Intrenchments Joseph lib. 2. c. 23 24. and he managed the War so negligently that he slipt the Opportunity of taking the City tho' their Terror Seditions and even their Intelligences open'd the Gates to him At that time so far was their Retreat from being impossible Joseph Ibid. that the History expresly takes notice that many of the Jews did retire into the Towers and other Places of Safety and Defence Then it was that they ought to have made their Flight That was the Signal which the Son of God gave to his own People So likewise did he most exactly distinguish the two Sieges The one was When their Enemies should cast a Tren h about them and compass them round Luke 19.23.21.20 21. and keep them in on every side then nothing but Death was to be expected by those who should be shut up in the City The other was when it should be only compassed with Armies and rather Invested than really Besieged then was it that they were to flee and retire unto the Mountains The Christians obeyed the Command of theâ—r Messias Tho' there were many Thousands of them both in Jerusalem and in Judea we do not read either in Josephus Euseb 3. Hist Ecâ—les c. 5. Epiph. Haer. 7. Nazar lib. de ponâ— mensur or in the other Histories that one of them was found in the City when it was taken On the contrary it is positively affirmed in the Eâ—clesiastical Histories and in all the Monuments of our Ancestors that they did withdraw into a little City call'd Pella in a mountainous Country near to the Desart towards the Confines of Judea and Arabia We may be by that satisfied how exactly they were forewarned of it and there is nothing more remarkable than that separation of the incredulous Jews from those Jews who were converted to Christianity the one remaining in Jerusalem to undergo the Punishment of their Infidelity and the others being retired as Lot was from Sodom to a small City where with trembling they considered of the Effects of the divine Vengeance from which Almighty God had been pleased to rescue and preserve them Besides the Predictions of Jesus Christ there were likewise several others from many of his Disciples and among the rest those of St. Peter and St. Paul As they were dâ—agging to their Deaths those two faithful Witnesses of Jesus Christ's being risen they declared openly to the Jews who should deliver them to the Gentiles their approaching Ruine telling them That Jerusalem was utterly to be destroyed Lact. divin Instit l. 4. c. 21. that they should dye with Famine and Despaire that they should be for ever banished from the Land of their Fathers and sent into Captivity thro' all the World that the time was nigh at Hand and all those Miseries should come upon them for having with so many cruel Reproaches insulted over the well-beloved Son of God who had declared himself to them by so many Miracles Pious Antiquity has preserved to us this Prediction of the Apostles which was to be attended with so close and sudden an Accomplishment St. Peter had given them several others either from a particular Inspiration Phleg. l. 13 14. Chron. apud Orig l. 2. cont Cels or from his explaining the Words of his Master And Phlegon a Heathen Author whose Testimony Origen produces hath written that all this Apostle had foretold was to a tittle accomplished uppon them So that nothing befel the Jews but what was before hand prophesied of them The Cause of their Ruine is clearly painted out to us in the Contempt they cast upon Jesus Christ and his Disciples The time of Grace was past and their Destruction was ineviâ—able Your Highness may see therefore that it was in vain for Titus to attempt to save Jerusalem and the Temple The Decree was gone out from on high there was not to be one Stone left upon another And if one Roman Emperor vainly attempted to hinder the Ruine of the Temple another Roman Emperor did yet more vainly attempt to rebuild it Julian the Apostate after he had declared War against Jesus Christ thought himself powerful enough to frustrate his Predictions In the design he had of raising up on all sides Enemies to the Christians he stooped so low as to seek to the Jews who were the Refuse and Off-scowring of the World He excited them to build their Temple he gave them vast sums of Mony and assisted them with all the Power of the Empire But hearken to
another Chappel which we will translate from the latin Word Lararium a private Chappel of less Dignity than the former wherein were set up the Image of Achilles and some other great Men but Jesus Christ was placed in the 〈◊〉 Rank It was a Heathen who wrote it and he cites for his Witness an Author that lived in Alexander's time Here then are two Witnesses of this same Fact and you shall have another no less surprizing Porph. 1. of Phil. by Orac. Euseb dem Ev. 3.8 Aug. de Civit. Dei 19. c. 23. Though Porphyry in abjuring Christianity had declared himself an Enemy to it yet he forbears not in his Book entituled Philosophy by Oracles to affirm that some of them were very favourable to the Holiness of Jesus Christ God forbid that we may not learn by the deceitful Oracles the Glory of the Son of God who silenc'd them at his Birth Those Oracles cited by Porphyry are pure Inventions But it is good to know what the Heathen made their Gods to say of our Lord. Porphyry then assures that there were Oracles where Jesus Christ was called a Man Pious and worthy of Immortality and on the contrary the Christians were impure and seduced People He afterwards recites the Oracle of the Goddess Hecate where she speaks of Jesus Christ as of a Man illustrioâ—s by his Piety whose Body indeed submitted to Torments but whose Soul is in Heaven with the Souls of the Blessed That Soul said Porphyry's Goddess by a kind of Fatality inspired Error into those Minds wherein Destiny has not confirmed the Gifts of the Gods and the Knowledg of the great Jupiter which makes them Enemies of the Gods But be very careful how you blame him goes she on in speaking of Jesus Christ and be sure only to accuse the Error of those whose unhappy destiny I have related to you Very pompous and magnificent Words and absolutely void of all Sence but however they shew that the Glory and Honour of our Lord forced his very Enemies to give him Praises But besides the Innocency and Holiness of our blessed Saviour there is yet a third Point which is of no less Moment and Importance and that is his Miracles It is certain that the Jews never denyed them and we find in their Talmud some of those which his Disciples wrought in his Name Only Tr. de Idololat Com. in Eccl Tr. de Sabb. c. 12. l. generat Jesu seu Hist Jesu Deut. 13.1 2. the more to obscure and hide them they said that he had done them by the Enchantments he had learnt in Egypt or rather by the name of God that unknown and ineffable Name whose Virtue can do all thing as the Jews themselves acknowledge and that Jesus Christ had discovered they know not how in the Sanctuary or else because he was one of those Prophets taken notice of by Moses whose deceitful Miracles were to seduce the People to Idolatry Jesus Christ the Abolisher of Idols whose Gospel preached up the acknowledging of one only God throughout all the World stands in no need of being justified from that Reproach the true Prophets have no less preached up his Divinity than he hath done himself and that which is the Result of the Jewish Testimony is that Jesus Christ wrought Miracles to justify his Mission Now when they calumniously said that he wrought them by Magick they would do well to consider that Moses was accused of the same Crime 'T was the antient Opinion of the Egyptians who being astonished at the wondrous things that God had done in their Country by that great Man ranked him in the number of the principal Magicians We may likewise see this Opinion in Pliny and Apuleius where Moses was found named with Jannes and Jambres those famous Inchanters of Egypt of whom St. Paul speaks and whom Mâ—ses had confounded by his Miracles Plin. 30.1 Apul. Apol. 2. Zim 3.8 But the Answer of the Jews was easy The Illusions of the Magicians never have a lasting Effect neither do they tend to establish as Moses did the Worship of the true God and holiness of Life To which we may also add that God knows very well how to make himself Master by doing such Works as the Power of the Enemy cannot imitate The same Reasons placed Jesus Christ above so vain an Accusation which as we have already observed was only iâ—strumental to justify that his Miracles are incontestable They were in effect so powerful that the Gentiles could never disprove them no more than the Jews Celsâ—s that great Enemy of the Christians and who attack'd them in the earliest Days with all imaginable Address and Subtlety seeking with a most industrious Scrutiny whatsoever might turn to their Prejudice has not been so hardy as to deny all the Miracles of our Lord He was for shifting them off by saying with the Jews that Jesus Christ had learnt the Secrets of the Egyptians that is to say Magick Orig. cont Cels 1. 2. and so would fain attribute the Divinity to himself by the Miracles which he wrought by vertue of that damnable Art Orig. ibid. in Act. Mart. passim Jul. ap Cyr. lib. 6 â—p Aug. tom 2. Ep. 3.4 And for the same Reason also were the Christians look'd on as Magicians and we have a Passage of Julian the Apostate who laughed at the Miracles of our Lord but who for all that did not bring them into Question Volusian in his Epistle to St. Austin has done the same and that Discourse was grown common among the Heathen Therefore we need not be astonished that they who were so used to make Gods of all Men in whom there appeared any thing particular and extraordinary would set up Jesus Christ too among their Divinities Tiberius upon the Relations were sent to him from Judea proposed to the Senate to give divine Honours unto Jesus Christ This was not a Fancy in the Air Tertull. Apolog. 5. Euseb Hist Eccles 2.2 for Tertullian reports it as a thing publick and nâ—torious in his Apologetick which he presented to the Senate in the name of the Church who to be sure would not have contributed any thing to the weakening of so good a Cause as his by Stories which might have been confuted with so much ease and evidence If we would have the Testimony of a Heathen Author Lampridius will tell us that Adrian had erected Temples to Jesus Christ which were then to be seen at the time when he wrote and that Alexander Severus after he had done him Reverence in particular was resolved publickly to prepare him Altars and to put him in the number of the Gods It is certainly a great piece of Injustice not to be willing to believe any thing concerning Jesus Christ but what those write of him that were none of his Disciples This is to seek for Faith among the Incredulous or Care and Exactness among those who having their Heads full of other Matters look upon
who holding all things in the hollow of his Hand was able by himself alone both to begin and carry on a design wherein all Ages are comprehended We need therefore no longer wonder as we commonly do why God proposes to us to believe so many things so worthy of him and yet at the same time so impenetrable to Humane Understanding But we should rather wonder that he having established the Faith upon so firm and manifest an Authority there should yet be any in the World blind and incredulous Our disorderly Passions our being bewitched to our Senses and our incurable Pride are the cause of it We choose rather to venture all than to put a constraint upon our selves we choose rather to continue in our Ignorance than to confess it and are pleased rather with a vain Curiosity and indulging our unruly Spirits in the liberty of thinking whatsoever delights 'em than to yield to the yoke of Divine Authority From thence it is that there are so many Unbelievers and God suffers it to be so for the instruction of his Children Unless we had the Blind the Savage and the Infidel and that in the very Bosom too of Christianity we should not be sensible enough of the Corruption of our Nature nor of that Abyss of Misery from whence Jesus Christ hath delivered us If his holy Truth was not contradicted we should not see the Miracle which hath constantly carried it through so many Contradictions and we should forget at last that we are saved by Grace Now the Incredulity of the one does humble the rest and those Rebels that oppose God's Decrees make that Power conspicuous by which indepently from all things else he accomplishes the Promises he hath made to his Church What therefore is it that we look for now to make us humble and submiss do we look that God should still work new Miracles that he should make them useless by his continuing of them that he should accustom our eyes to them as he does to the Course of the Sun and to all the other Marvels of Nature or else do we ever expect that the wicked and the opinionative man should be silent that good and vertuous men and dissolute Libertines should bear an equal Testimony to the Truth that all the World by one common consent should prefer it to their Passions and that false Knowledge which only the Novelty of it causes to be admired should cease its usual way of surprising men Is it not enough that we see it is impossible for men to combate with Religion but they must at the same time shew by prodigious wandrings that their Senses are perverted and that they only defend themselves either by Presumption or ignorance Cannot the Church which hath been victorious both over Ages and Errours I say cannot that overcome in our Minds those weak and miserable Reasonings which are opposed to her and cannot the Divine Promises which we see every day are accomplishing elevate and raise us above our Senses Now let us not say that these Promises are still kept in suspence and as they are to hold out to the end of the World so it will not be until the end of the World that we can boast we have seen the accomplishment of them For on the contrary that which is already past assures us of the future so many ancient Predictions so visibly fulfilled make us satisfied that there will be nothing but what shall be accomplished and that the Church against which according as the Son of God hath promised us even the Gates of Hell shall never prevail will be always subsisting until the consummation of all things for that Jesus Christ who is true in all hath prescribed no other bounds to its duration The same Promises do likewise assure us of a future Life God who hath shewn himself so faithful in accomplishing what respects the present Age will be no less faithful in accomplishing that which respects the Future of which all that we see is but a preparation and the Church will be always unshaken and invincible on the Earth until that her Children being gathered together she be entirely conveyed to her which is her only true Mansion As for those who shall be excluded from that heavenly City an eternal Vengeance is reserved for them and after they have lost by their Sin and Folly a blessed Eternity there will be left for them no other place but a Hell of Eternal woe and misery Thus the Decrees of God are to terminate by an immutable state his Promises and his Threatnings are equally certain and what he executes in time assures us of what he hath commanded us either to expect or fear in Eternity You now see what may be learned from the continual progress of Religion as it is in short presented to your Eyes By time it conducts you to Eternity You see a constant order in all God's Decrees and a visible Mark of his Power in the perpetual duration of his People You cannot but confess that the Church hath a Branch always subsisting which cannot be separated from it without destroying it and that those who being united to this Root do perform such Works as are worthy of their Faith and secure to themselves eternal Life Your Highness is therefore to study but to study with attention this uninterrupted Course of the Church which so clearly assures to you all the Promises of God Whatsoever breaks this Chain whatsoever goes out of this Course whatsoever advances it self and does not come by virtue of the Promises made to the Church from the beginning of the World you are to have in horrour Imploy all your power to recall into this Unity whatsoever is stragled out of the way of it and to make it hearken to the Church by which the Holy Spirit of God pronounces its Oracles The Glory of your Ancestors is not only that they never forsook it but that they always supported it and thereby deserved to be called the Eldest Sons which is certainly the most glorious of all their Titles 'T is needless for me to mention to you Clovis Charlemaine or St. Louis Consider only the time you live in and from what Father God hath given you your Birth A King so great in every thing yet is more to be distinguished by his Faith than by all his other admirable Qualities He protects Religion not only within but out of his Kingdom and even to the last Extremities of the World His Laws are one of the firmest Rampiers of the Church His Authority revered as much by the Merit of his Person as by the Majesty of his Scepter never supports it self so well as when it defends the Cause of God We hear no more Blasphemies Impiety trembles before him this is the King taken notice of by Solomon Prov. 20.26 that in his Wisdom scattereth the Wicked and bringeth the Wheel over them If he attacks Heresie by such means and that more too than ever did any of
divided Cities and Commonwealths by a Kingdom little indeed of it self but united and where the Royal Power was absolute that at last partly by Stratagem and partly by force he made himself the most puissant of Greece and obliged all the Grecians to march under his Standards against the Common Enemy He was slain in those Conjunctures but Alexander his Son succeeded to his Kingdom and to his Designs He found the Macedonians not only trained up to Martial discipline but also triumphant and become by so many successes almost as much superiour to the other Grecians in Valour and Discipline as the other Grecians were above the Persians and such like sort of People Darius who reigned in Persia in his time was just valiant generous beloved of his People and wanted neither Wit nor Courage to execute his Designs But if you compare him with Alexander his Wit with that piercing and sublime Genius His Valour with that haughtiness and steadiness of that invincible Courage which was the more animated by the Obstacles that he met with with that unmeasurable Ambition of encreasing daily his Name which made him prefer the least advance of Honour to all manner of Dangers Labours and to a thousand Deaths In a word with that Confidence that made him think verily and from his Heart that all ought to submit to him as to one whom his Destiny rendred superiour to all others a Confidence which he inspired not only into his Chiefs but also into the least of his Soldiers whom he raised by that means above difficulties and even above themselves You will quickly judg to whom of them two the Victory belonged And if you add to these things the advantages which the Greeks and the Macedonians had above their Enemies you will confess that Persia being attacked by such an Hero and by such Arms could no longer hold out from changing Masters Thus will you discover at the same time what ruined the Persian Empire and what raised up that of Alexander To make his Victory the more easy it happened that Persia lost the only General that could oppose the Greeks it was Memnon the Rhodian Diod. 17. Sect. 1. When Alexander had vanquished so famous and renowned a Captain he might boast that he had overcome an Enemy that was worthy of him Instead of hazarding against the Greeks a general Battle Memnon would needs dispute all the passages with them would cut off all their Victuals would go and attack them among themselves and by a vigorous onset would force them to come and defend their Country Alexander had prepared for them and the Troops he had committed to Antipater were enough to keep Greece But his good Fortune did on the sudden deliver him from that Embarrass At the beginning of a Diversion which already disturbed all Greece Memnon dyed and Alexander brought all under his Feet That Prince made his Entrance into Babylon with so glorious a shew that surpassed all that ever yet the World had seen and after he had revenged Greece after he with an increâ—â—dible Expedition had brought under all the Lands of the Persian Domination to secure his new Empire on all sides or rather to gratify his Ambition and make his name more famous than that of Bacchus he went into India where he extended his Conquests farther than that renowned Conqueror But him that Desarts Rivers and Mountains were not able to stop was constrained to yield to his tyred Soldiers who desired thâ—n some repose Being forced to content himself with the proud Monuments he left upon the Borders of Araspes he brought back his Army by another way than that he had gone and subdued all the Countries which he found in his Passage He came back to Babylon feared and respected not as Conqueror but as a God But that formidable Empire he had conquered lasted no longer than his Life which was very short too When he was but three and thirty Years of Age in the midst of the vastest Designs that ever Man had conceived and with the justest hopes of a most happy Success he died before he had the opportunity solidly to settle his affairs leaving a weak Brother and Children very young behind him incapable of supporting so great a weight But what was most fatal both to his House and to his Empire was that he left behind him Captains whom he had taught to breath out nothing but Ambition and War He saw to what excesses they would rise when he should be taken out of the World He to retain them and for fear he should be contradicted durst neither name his Successor nor who should be the Tutor of his Children He only foretold them that his Friends would celebrate his Funerals with bloody Battles and so he expired in the flower of his Age full of sad Images and Ideas of the Confusion which would attend his Death In fine you have seen the partage of his Empire and the frightful ruin of his House Macedonia his antient Kingdom enjoyed by his Ancestors for so many Ages was invaded on all sides as a vacant Succession and after it had been long the Prey of the strongest it went at last to another Family Thus that great Conquerour the most renowned and most illustrious that ever was was likewise the last of his Race If he had continued peaceable and quiet in Macedonia the greatness of his Empire would not have been a temptation to his Captains and he might have left to his Children the Kingdom of his Fathers But because he had been so very powerful he was the cause of the loss of all his own and thus you see what was the glorious fruit of so many Conquests His Death was the only cause of that great revolution For this must be said to his eternal Honour that if ever Man was capable of maintaining so vast an Empire although newly conquered without doubt it was Alexander for the strength of his Mind was equal to his Courage It ow'd not therefore to his faults tho' he had very great ones the fall of his Family but only to Mortality unless we will say that a Man of his Humour and whose ambition engaged him still to new undertakings could never be at leisure to settle things well Be it how it will we learn by his Example that besides the Faults which Men might correct that is to say those they are guilty of thro' heat of Transport or thro' Ignorance there is an irrecoverable Weakness inseparably annexed to humane Designs and that is Mortality Every thing may fall in a Moment by that way That which forces us to confess that as the most inherent Vice if it may be allowed me to speak so and the most inseparable from humane things is their own Frailty He who knows how to preserve and strengthen a State hath found out a higher point of Wisdom than he that can conquer and gain Battles It is needless to tell you in particular what destroyed those Kingdoms that were formed
out of the Ruins of Alexander's Empire that is to say that of Syria that of Macedonia and that of Egypt The common cause of their Ruine was that they were forced to submit to a greater Power which was the Roman If however we will consider the last Estate of those Monarchies we shall easily find the immediate Causes of their Fall and see among other things that the most puissant of all that is to say that of Syria after it had been shaken by the soft Effeminacy and Luxury of the Nation at last received the mortal Stab by the Division of her Princes WE are at last brought to the great Empire which hath swallowed up all the Empires of the World The Roman Empire from whence hath sprung the greatest Kingdoms of the Earth where we dwell whole Laws we still respect and which consequently we ought to undestand better than all other Empires Your Highness very well knows I speak of the Roman Empire You have seen the long and memorable History of it in all its Course But to make you perfectly acquainted with the causes of Rome's Advancement and those of the great Changes that have happened in that Common-Wealth You are seriously with the Manners and Customs of the Romans to consider also the times on which all the Motions of that vast Empire do depend Of all People in the World the most fierce and hardy but likewise the most regular in their Councils the most constant in their Maxims the most laborious and withal the most patient have been the People of Rome From all that was formed the best Militia and the most discerning Polity the strongest and most followed that ever was The Principle of a Roman was the Love of his Liberty and of his Country One of those things made him to love the other For because he loved his Liberty he loved also his Country as a Mother that fed him with Sentiments equally generous and free Under that Name of Liberty the Romans framed to themselves a Government like the Greeks where none should be subject but only to the Law and where the Law should be more powerful than Man But though Rome was born under a Royal Government yet had she also under her Kings a Liberty which was not very much consistent with a regulated Monarchy For besides that Kings were Elective and that such Elections were made by all the People it was also in the People assembled together to confirm the Laws and to resolve on Peace and War There were also some particular Cases wherein the Kings admitted the People to have the soveraign Judgment Witness Tullus Hostilius who not daring either to condemn or acquit Horace loaded at once both with Honour for having overcome the Curatii and with Shame and Infamy for having killed his Sister made it be determined by the People Therefore Kings had properly but the Command of the Armies and the Authority of calling lawful Assemblies propounding Businesses to them maintaining the Laws and executing the publick Decrees When Servius Tullius framed that Design you have seen of bringing Rome into a Common-Wealth he increased in the People already so free still a greater Desire of Liberty and from that you may judg how mighty jealous the Romans were of it when they had experimented it entirely under their Consuls One would even tremble to read in Histories the dreadful Constancy and Resolution of the Consul Brutus when he caused his two Children to be slain before his Eyes who had suffered themselves to be drawn over to the dull Practices which the Tarquins used in Rome to re-establish their Domination there How much were that People confirmed in the love of Liberty when they could see that severe Consul sacrifice his own Family to Liberty We need no longer wonder if the Efforts of the neighbouring People were despised in Rome who undertook to re-establish the banished Tarquins In vain did King Porsenna take them into his Protection The Romans almost starved made him however to know Dion Halic Lib. 5. Tit. Liv. 2.13 15. by their undaunted Resolution that they would at last die free The People were more resolute than the Senate and all Rome caused it to be told to that puissant King that came to reduce her to Extremity that he might desist interceding for the Tarquins since being resolved to hazard all for her Liberty she would rather receive her Enemies than her Tyrants Porsenna being astonished at the undauntedness of that People and at the more than human daringness of some private Persons resolved to let the Romans quietly enjoy a Liberty which they knew so well how to defend Liberty therefore was to them a Treasure which they preferred before all the Riches of the Universe You have seen also how in their Beginning and likewise forwarder on in ther Progress they looked not on their Poverty as an Evil But contrariwise they looked on it as a means to preserve their Liberty more entire there being nothing more free and independent than a Man that knows how to live on a little and who Without Expectance of any thing from the Protection or Liberality of another grounds his Subsistence only on his own Industry and Labour This did the Romans To feed hardly to labour in the Earth to deprive themselves of all they could to live with great Frugality and painful Travel This was their kind of Life by this way they kept their Families and brought them up to such like Labours Titus Livius was in the right in saying there never was any People among whom Frugality or Thriftiness or Poverty were had so long in Honour The most illustrious Senators take them as to their outward appearance differed very little from Peasants and carried no Shew or Majesty but in Publick and in the Senate At other times they were seen busie at their Tillage and the other Cares of a Country Life when they were sought for to command their Armies These Examples are frequent in the Roman History Curius and Fabricius those great Captains that conquered Pyrrhus so rich a King had only an earthen Vessel and the former to whom the Samnites offered one of Gold and Silver answered that he took no Delight in having them but in commanding those who enjoyed them After their Triumphs were over and they had inriched the Republick with the Spoils of her Enemies they had not wherewithal to inter themselves That Moderation also continued during the Punick Wars Tit. Liv. Eâ— lib. 18. In the first we find Regulus the General of the Roman Armies begging Leave of the Senate to go and cultivate his Farm which had lain wast during his Absence After the Ruine of Carthage there are also to be seen great Examples of the first Simplicity Aemilius Paulus who increased the publick Treasure by the rich Treasure of the Kings of Macedonia lived up to the Rules of the antient Frugality and died poor Mummius in ruining of Corinth got only for the publick use
the Command of the Armies under the name of Emperor and exercised an absolute Power Rome under the Caesars being more careful to preserve than to enlarge her self hardly made any more Conquests than to drive away the Barbarians who would fain have got into the Empire At the Death of Caligula the Senate then upon the point or re-establishing Liberty and the Consular Power were prevented by the Souldiers who would have a perpetual Head and that their Head should be the Master In the Revolts occasioned by the Violences of Nero every Army chose an Emperor and the Souldiers knew that they were Masters to dispose of the Empire They carried it so that they offered to sell it publickly to him that would give most for 't and they use to shake the Yoke With Obedience the Discipline was lost The good Princes indeavoured but in vain to preserve it and their Zeal to maintain the antient Order of the Roman Militia served only to expose them to the Fury of the Souldiers In the Changes of Emperors every Army labouring to prefer their own occasioned civil Wars and horrid Massacres Thus grew the Empire weak thro' the neglect of the Discipline and was utterly destroyed by the many intestine Wars In the midst of those manifold great Disorders the Fear and the Majesty of the Roman Name waxed less and less The Parthians ofen times overcome became formidable on the East side under the old Name of Persians which they again assumed The Northern Nations who inhabited the cold and uncultivated Lands drawn by the Beauty and Riches of that of the Empire attempted always to make their Entry into it One single Man was not sufficient any longer to sustain the weight of the Empire which was so vast and withal so strongly attacked The prodigious multitude of Wars and the humor of the Souldiers who were resolved to have Emperors and Caesars to conduct them obliged 'em to multiply them The Empire it self being looked on as an hereditary good the Emperors were naturally multiplied thro' the multitude of their Princes Children Marcus Aurelius associated his Brother to the Empire Severus made his two Sons Emperors The necessity of Affairs obliged Dioclesian to share the East and the West between him and Maximian Each of them being overcharged relieved themselves by electing two Caesars Thro' this multitude of Emperors and Caesars the Estate was ruined thro' the excessive Expence the Body of the Empire was disunited and the civil Wars were multiplied Constantine the Son of the Emperor Constantius Chlorus divided the Empire as an Heritage among his Children Posterity followed those Examples and there was scarce ever after seen one Empire The Softness of Honorius and that of Valentinian III. Emperors of the West brought the Ruine of all Italy and Rome it self were diverse times sacked and became the Prey of the Barbarians All the West was in Common Asrick was possessed by the Vandalls Spain by the Visigoths Gauls by the Franks Great Britain by the Saxons Rome and Italy too by the Heruli and afterwards by the Ostrogoths The Roman Emperors shut themselves up in the East and left the rest even Rome and Italy The Empire resumes some Strength under Justinian by the Valour of Belisarius and Narsus Rome often taken and retaken fell at last to the Emperors The Saracens become powerful by thee division of their Neighbours and by the carelesness of the Emperors took from them the greatest part of the East and so tormented them on that side that they no longer took care of Italy The Lombards there possessed themselves of the richest and most beautiful Provinces Rome reduced to Extremity by their continual attacks and having no defence from their Emperors were forced to throw themselves into the hands of the French Pepin King of France passes the Mountains and subdues the Lombards Charlemain after he had brought the Government under caused himself to be Crowned King where his alone Moderation preserved some small Remains to the Successors of the Caesars and in the Year eight Hundred of our Lord being chose Emperor by the Romans he founds the new Empire 'T is easy for you now to know the causes of the Rise and fall of Rome You see that that Kingdom founded upon War and thereby naturally disposed to trespass upon her Neighbours hath put all the World under her Yoke to carry Politic and the Military Art up to the highest Degreeâ— You see the causes of the divisions of the Republick and finally of its fall thro' the Jealousies of the Citizens and through the love of Liberty pushed on even to an insupportable excess and nicety It is likewise as easy for you to distinguish all the times of Rome whether you please to consider her in her self or whether you look upon her in relation to other People you see the Changes which were to follow the disposition of affairs in each time In her self you see her at the beginning in a Monarchical State established according to her primitive Laws afterwards in Liberty and at last subjected once again to the Monarchic Government but by force and violence 'T is easy for you to conceive after what manner the popular Estate was formed from the beginnings it had in the times of Royalty and with as plain an Evidence will you see how in the time of Liberty the foundations of the new Monarchy were by small footsteps raised and Established For in the like manner as you have seen the Project of a Republick laid in the Monarchy by Servius Tullius who gave as it were the first rellish of liberty to the People of Rome so have you also observed that Sylla's Tyranny though it was but very transitory and short discovered that Rome notwithwithstanding her fierceness was as much capable of bearing the Yoke as those People whom she kept under Servitude To know what operation that furious Jealousie between the Orders successively had you need only to distinguish the two times which I have expresly marked out to you The one when the People were retained within certain bounds by the dangers they were in on very side and the other when having nothing more to fear from without they absolutely without any reserve gave themselves up to their Passions The essential Character of each of those two times is that in the one the love of their Country and of their Laws swayed their Minds and that in the other all was decided by interest and force From thence it happened also that at the first of those two times the Men of Command who aspired after honours by lawful ways kept the Soldiers in and fast to the Republick Whereas in the other time when violence ruled all they only thought how to manage them to get them into their Designs in spight of the Authority of the Senate By that last Government War of necessity was brought into Rome and because in War when Laws can signify little force only makes the Decision it follows then that
wise goes staggering reeling and as it were besotted because the Lord hath shed the Spirit of Dizziness and Confusion in all her Councils She no longer knows what she does she is lost to her self But that Men may not herein be deceived God repaireth when he seeth good the stragling Senses and he that insulted over the Blindness of others falls himself into more Egyptian Darkness and often times without any thing else to confound his Sence and Understanding than his too long Prosperities Thus it is that God Reigneth over all People Let us no longer talk of Chance or Fortune or speak of it only as a Name wherewith we conceal our Ignorance That which is Chance in respect of our uncertain Councils is a concerted Design in a higher Council that is to say in that eternal Council which circumscribes all Causes and all Effects in one and the same Order Thus all concurs to the same end and it is for want of understanding the all that we find of Chance or of Irregularity in particular Accidents and Emergencies By that is verified the Saying of the Apostle 1 Tim. 6.15 that God is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Blessed whose Repose is unalterable who seeth every thing to change without changing himself and who makes all Changes by an Immutable Council who gives and who takes away Power who transfers it from one Man to another from one House to another from one People to another to shew that they have it only by way of Loan and that it is he alone in whom it naturally resides Wherefore all Governors find themselves the Subjects of a greater Power They aâ—t more or less than they think for and their Councils have ever more had unforeseen Effects They neither are Masters of the Dispositions which Ages past have made in their Affairs nor can they foresee what Coâ—rse the times to come will take so far are they from being able to force it He alone holds all things in his Hands who knows the Name of that which is and that which is not yet who presides at all times and anticipates all Councils Alexander little thought he laboured for his Captains nor that he ruined his House when he gained his Conquest When Brutus animated the Romans with such an excessive Love of Liberty he as little thought he was casting into their Minds the Principle of that unbridled and masterless Licence by which the Tyranny he designed to destroy was one day to be re-established with greater Severity than under the Tarquins When the Caesars flattered the Souldiers they had no designs of giving Masters to their Successors and to the Empire In a word there is no humane Power but what do what it can serves for other Designs than it aims at at present God alone knows how to bring about all things according to his own Will Wherefore every thing is surprising if we only look to particular Causes and yet nevertheless every thing goes on in an orderly manner This Discourse makes you see it clearly and not to speak of other Empires you see by how many unforeseen Councils but yet always connected in themselves the Fortune of Rome hath been carried on from Romulus down to Charlemain Your Highness might perhaps have thought I should have told you somewhat more of your own Country and of Charlemain who was the Founder of the new Empire But besides that his History makes a part of that of France which you your self have wrote and which you have already so far proceeded in I reserve to make you another Discourse of that wherein I shall be necessarily obliged to speak to you of France and of that great Conqueror who being equal in Valour to those which Antiquity hath the most boasted of doth yet exceed them in Piety in Wisdom and Justice That some Discourse shall discover to you the Causes of the prodigious Successes of Mahomet and this Successors That Empire which began two hundred Years before Charlemain may find its place in that Discourse but I though it would be much better to shew you in one continued Series its beginning and its declension So that I have no more to tell you in this first Part of my Universal History You will discover all the Secrets of it and you will have nothing to do but to observe in it all the Progress of Religion and that of the great Empires down to Charlemain Whilest you will see almost all fall of themselves and Religion only support it self by its own Strength you will easily then discern what is solid Grandeur and where a wise and considerate Man is to place all his Hopes A TABLE TO THE FIRST PART OF THIS DISCOURSE I. EPocha Adam or the Creation First Age of the World Pag. 1. II. Epocha Noah or the Deluge Second Age of the World Pag. 4. III. Epocha The Call of Abraham Third Age of the World Pag. 7. IV. Epocha Moses or the written Law Pag. 11. V. Epocha The taking of Troy Fourth Age of the World Pag. 15. VI. Epocha Solomon or the Temple finished Fifth Age of the World Pag. 17. VII Epocha Romulus or Rome founded Pag. 25. VIII Epocha Cyrus or the Jews re-established Sixth Age of the World Pag. 43. IX Epocha Scipio or Carthage Conquered Pag. 71. X. Epocha The Birth of Jesus Christ Seventh and last Age of the World Pag. 89. XI Epocha Constantine or the Peace of the Church Pag. 110. XII Epocha Charlemain or the re-establishment of the new Empire Pag. 149. A Table to the Second Part. THE Course of Religion Pag. 155. I. The Creation and the first Times ibid. II. Abraham and the Patriarchs Pag. 178. III. Moses the Law written and the bringing of the People into the promisid Land Pag. 189. IV. David the Kings and the Prophets Pag. 209. V. The times of the second Temple Pag. 247. VI. Jesus Christ and his Doctrine Pag. 267. VII The Descent of the Holy Ghost the Establishment of the Church the Judgments of God both on the Jews and on the Gentiles Pag. 298. VIII Particular Reflections upon the Punishment of the Jews and upon the Predictions of Jesus Christ who had taken Notice of it Pag. 316. IX Two memorable Predictions of our blessed Saviour are explained and their Accomplishment justified by History Pag. 330. X. The Progress of the Jewish Errors and the manner how they explain the Prophecies Pag. 345. XI Particular Reflections on the Conversion of the Gentiles The profound Councils of God which resolved to convert them by the Cross of Jesus Christ The Arguing of St. Paul upon this manner of their Conversion Pag. 366. XII Divers ways of Idolatry Sense Interest Ignorance a false respect of Antiquity Policy Philosophy and Heresies came to its Succor but the Church triumphs over all Pag. 376. XIII General Reflection on the Progress of Religion and the Relation there is between the Books of the Scriptures Pag. 401. A Table to the Third Part. THE Empires Pag. 437. I. That the Revolutions of Empires are regulated by Providence and serve to humble Princes Ibid. II. The Revolutions of Empires have particular Causes which Princes ought to study Pag. 445. III. The Scythians the Ethiopians and the Egyptians Pag. 447. IV. The Assyrians both antient and new the Medes and Cyrus Pag. 475. V. The Persians the Grecians and Alexander Pag. 48â— VI. The Roman Empire Pag. 505. VII The Successive Changes of Rome Explained Pag. 543. FINIS