mighty puissant Kings as all the East stood in awe of and it was Cyrus that crushed the Empire by his taking of Babylon If therefore the generality of the Greeks and Latins that have followed them make no mention of those Babylonian Kings if they have given no place to that great Kingdom among the first Monarchies whose continuance and after-accidents they relate in a word if we can scarce find any thing in all their works of those famous Kings Tiglath-Pilesar Salmanasar Sennacherib Nebuchadnezzar and several others so renown'd in Scripture and in the Eastern Histories we may then surely attribute it either to the Ignorance of the Greeks who were more Eloquent in their Reports than studious and industrious in their Searches or else to the loss we have had of what was more exact and faithful in their Histories Indeed Herodotus had promised a particular History of the Assyrians Herod l. 1. c. 28 47. which we have not either by our sad misfortune of its being lost or of his not having had time to do it and we cannot imagine that ever so judicious and Historian would have forgotten the Kings Herod l. 2. c. 91. of the second Empire of the Assyrians especially since even Sennacherib who was one of them we find mentioned in the Books that we now have of this great Author as being King both of the Assyrians and Arabians tSrabo liâ— 15. Strabo who lived in the time of Augustus reports what Megastenes an Ancient Author near the time of Alexander had left in Writing concerning the mighty Conquests of Nebuchadnezzar King of the Chaldees whom he makes to run through Europe enter into Spain and extend his Arms as far as the Colonies of Hercules Aelian calls Tilgamus King of Assyria Aelian liâ— 12. Hist Anim. c. 21. that is to say Tilgath or Tiglath which we find in the Holy Scriptures and in Ptolomy we meet with an Enumeration of the Princes of great Empires among whom there is a long succession of the Kings of Assyria who were unknown to the Greeks and whom it is easie to reconcile to the Sacred Hystory If I would bring in the Accounts of the Syrian Annals Berosus Abydenus Nicolas of Damascus Joseph Antiq l. 9. ult 10. c. 11. l. 1. cont Ap. Euseb Prap. Ev. 9. I could be too tedious even for a long-winded Reader Josephus and Eusebius of Caesarea have preserved the pretious fragments of all those Authors and indeed of an infinite many more which they had entire and perfect in those times whose Testimony is a confirmation to us of what we read in the Holy Scripture concerning the Eastern Antiquities and especially concerning the Assyrian Histories As to the Monarchy of the Medes which has the second Preference among the great Empires by most of the prophane Historians as separated from the Empire of Persia certain it is that the Scripture ever unites them both together And your Highness sees that besides the Authority of the sacred pages the bare order of Matters of Fact shews us that it is that we are still to look at The Medes before Cyrus though they were very powerful and considerable yet were much lessened by the greatness of the Kings of Babylon But Cyrus having Conquered their Kingdom by the collected Forces both of Medes and Persians of which he afterwards became the Master by a Legitimate Succession as we have observed from Zenophon it seems most probable that the great Empire of which he was the Founder as it ought indeed did take his Name to both Nations so that That of the Medes and Persians are but one and the same thing tho' the glory of Cyrus made the name of the Persians to be the more prevailing It may be also thought that before the VVar of Babylon the Kings of the Medes having extended their Conquests to the Greek Colonies in lesser Asia were by that means famous among the Greeks who attributed the Empire of greater Asia to them because they were only acquainted with them of all the Kings of the East And yet the Kings of Nineveh and Babylon who were greater and more puissant but more unknown to the Greeks have been near quite forgotten in those Bâ—oks that are remaining to us concerning the Grecian Histories and all the time from Sardanapalus down to Cyrus have been only given to the Medes And therefore we need not to trouble our heads so much in reconciling as to this point the prophane to the sacred History For as to what respects the first Kingdom of the Assyrians the Scripture gives us but a very slight touch by the Bye and neither mentions Ninus who was the Founder of that Empire nor excepting Phul any other of its Successors because their History was no way interfering with that of the People of God As for the second Kingdom of the Assyrians most of the Greeks are either quite ignorant of them or else because they have not throughly known them as they ought they have confounded them with the former VVhen therefore those of the Greek Authors sâ—all be objected to us who according to their own Caprice and Fancy range the three first Monarchies and make the Medes Successors to the antient Empire of Assyria without speaking a word concerning what the Scripture seems to be so strong in there is only this answer to be made that they were unacquainted with this part of the History and they are no less contrary to the more curious and best informed Authors of their own Nation than they are to the Holy Scriptures And that which in one word answers all the difficulty the sacred Authors who are nearer to the times and places of the Eastern Kingdoms writing moreover the History of a People whose affairs were so intermixed with those of these great Empires though they had no other advantage besides this it were enough to put the Greeks and Latins to Silence who followed them But if notwithstanding the obstinacy should go on still to maintain this celebrated order of the three first Monarchies and that to keep entirely to the Medes the second rank which is ascribed to them any are wilfully resolved to make the Kings of Babylon subject to them in affirming still that after an hundred Years Subjection these at last should deliver themselves by a Revolt yet in some manner it doth save the Câ—ntinuance of the sacred History but it doth very little agree with the best prophane Historians to whom the sacred History is more favourable in that it ever unites the Empire of the Medes to that of the Persians There is yet remaining to be discovered one of the Causes of the obscurity and darkness of these antient Histories And it is this that as the Eastern Kings took up several names or if you please several titles which in some length of time they espoused as their own Name and which the People either translated or pronounced variously according to the several particular Idioms of each
fatal presage and those ungrateful wretches having rejected one JESUS who preached up to them grace mercy and life God sent them another JESUS who was only to pronounce to them woes irrecoverable and remediless and the inevitable decree of their approaching Ruine Let us search a little farther into the Judgments of God under the Conduct of the Scriptures Jerusalem and the Temple thereof were twice destroyed once by Nebuchadnezzer and the other time by Tituâ— But in each of those times the Justice of God was made manifest by the same ways though it was more conspicuous in the latter For the better understanding the order of the Councells of God let us first lay down this Truth so often established in the sacred Oracles that one of the most terrible effects of Divine Vengeance is when in the Punishment of our precedent Sins it delivers us up to a reprobate Mind so as that we are deaf to all wise and wâ—olesome Admonitions blind to the ways of Salvation which are shewn to us ready to believe every thing that ruins us provided it does but flatter us and bold and daring to undertake any thing without ever measuring our own Strength with that of our Enemies whom we provoke Thus Jerusalem and its Princes were destroyed the first time under the hand of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon Weak and always beaten by that victorious King they often found they made but vain Efforts against him and were obliged to swear Fidelity to him The Prophet Jeremiah declared to them from God that God himself had delivered them up to that Prince and there was no Safety for them but in submitting to the Yoke He told to Zedekiah King of Juda and to all his People saying I spake also to Zedekiah King of Juda according to all these Words saying 2 Chron. 36.12.13 Jer. 27.12 17. Bring your Necks under the Yoke of the King of Babylon and serve him and his People and live for why will ye die wherefore should this City be laid waste But they believed not his Word Whilst Nebuchadnezzar kept them strait shut up by the prodigious Intrenchments he had made round about the City they suffered themselves to be deceived and bewitched by their false Prophets who puffed up their Minds with imaginary Victories and told them in the Name of the Lord although the Lord had not sent them Jer. 28.2 3. 2 Kings 25. I have broken the Yoke of the King of Babylon within two full Years will I bring again into this place aâ—l the Vessels of the Lords House that Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon took away from this place and carried them to Babylon The People being seduced by these Promises suffered Famine and the hardâ—st Extremities imaginable and attempted so much by their audacious Madness that there was no room left to shew them Mercy The City was overthrown the Temple was consumed by Fire and all things were destroyed With these Marks the Jews confessed that the Hand of God was upon them But that the divine Vengeance might be as plain and manifest to them in the last Destruction of Jerusalem as it had been in the former there was seen in them both the same Seduction the same Temerity and the same Hardness and Obduracy Tho' their Rebellion had brought upon them the Roman Arms and they had rashly shook off a Yoke under which all the World then bowed Titus would not destroy it But on the contrary he made them several offers of Pardon not only at the beginning of the War but also then when they could no longer escape his Hand He had already raised round about Jerusalem a long and vast Wall fortified with Towers and Redoubts as strong as the City it self when he sent to them Josephus their fellow Citizen one of their Captains one of their Priests who had been taken in that War in the defence of his Country What did he not say to them to move them to accept of Caesar's Terms What powerful Arguments did he make use of to invite them to return to their Obedience He made them see that both Heaven and Earth conspired against them and their Ruine if they resisted was inevitable and that their absolute Safety was in the Mercy and Clemency of Titus Save said he to them the Holy City save your selves save this Temple Joseph 7. de bel Jud. c. 4. the Wonder of the World which the Romans pay Reverence to and which Titus will not see destroyed but with Regret and Sorrow But what way was there to save People that were so obstinate on their own Ruine Being led away by their false Prophets they would not hearken to such wise and salutary Discourses They were reduced to Extremity Famine destroyed greater Numbers of them than the Sword and Mothers slew and then dressed and eat up their own Children Titus touched with their sad Calamities called his Gods to witness that he was not the cause of their Ruine During these miserable Times they still gave Faith to the false Predictions which promised them the Empire of the World Nay more the City was taken the Fire was already blasing on all sides And yet those mad People still believed their false Prophets who assured them that the Day of Salvation was come that so they might still resist and there be no hopes of Mercy left for them In fine they were all massacred the City was utterly overthrown and saving some Remains of Towers which Titus reserved to serve as a Monument to Posterity there was not one Stone left upon another Your Highness sees then that the same Vengeance broke out now upon Jerusalem as did befal it under Zedekiah Titus was no less sent by God than Nebuchadnezzar The Jews were destroyed in the same manner There was seen in Jerusalem the same Rebellion the same Famine the same Extremities the same ways of Salvation opened the same Seduction the same Obduracy the same Fall and in a word that every Circumstance was like the other The second Temple was burnt under Titus the same Month and the same day of it as the first was under Nebuchadnezzâ—r Ibid. c. 9 10. Every thing was remarkable and the People could not doubt but that the Vengeance was from Heaven However there is between these two Destructions of Jerusalem and of the Jews very memorable Differences but which all tend to make us see in this latter a Justice more declared and rigorous Nebuchadâ—â—zzar commanded that Fire should be set to the Temple Titus forgot no Arguments to save it tho' his Counsellors represented to him that so long as it should stand the Jews who were resolved to destroy them iâ— they could would never leave off their Rebellions But the fatal Day was come which was the tenth of August which had once before seen the Temple of Solomoâ— burnt down to the Ground Notwithstanding all the Prohibitions of Titus openly declared before the Romans and the Jews and notwithstanding the natural Inclination of the
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
Extremities a People otherwise so grave and wise could find â—o Medium The private Interests which made both Parties proceed a great deal farther than they ought in whatever they began for the publick good suffered neither of them to be conducted by moderate Counsells The Ambitions and turbulent Spirits were still stirring up Jealousies to make their own advantages by them and those Jealousies sometimes more concealed and otherwhile more declared according to the times but always strong and violent at the Root was at last the cause of that great Change that happened in the time of Caesar and the others that succeded IT will be very easy to shew to your Highness all the causes of it VII The Successive Changes of Rome explained if after you have throughly understood the humour of the Romans and the Constitution of their Republick you take care to observe some certain principal accidents which although they happened at several distant times yet have a manifest chain of Connexion in them I will give you a collected Series of them for your greater Ease Romulus bred up in War and reputed the Son of Mars built Rome which he populated with an amassed Company of Shepherds Slaves Robbers who came to seek for freedom and impunity in the Isle he had laid open for all Comers and some also came that were better qualified and more Civilized He bred up that People wild in their Nature to undertake all things by force and by that means they got themselves Wives whom they Married By Degrees he established order Dion Hal. 2. and restrained luxurious Minds by most sacred Laws he began by Religion which he looked on as the Foundation of all States He made it as serious as grave and as modest as the Darknesses of Idolatry could then permit him Strange Religions and Sacrifices which were not established by the Roman Customs were forbidden Afterwards that Law was dispensed but the intention of Romulus was that it should be kept and something of it was always retained He chose out of all that number of People the better sort to form the publick Council which he called the Senate He made it to consist of two hundred Senators whose number was likewise afterwards augmented and from them came the noble Families that were called the Patricii The Senate was to examine and propose all matters some of them it regulated Soveraignly with the King but the most general were referred to the People who decided them Româ—lus in an assembly which he had called of all the People upon the Plain at the Marsh Capreae where upon a sudden there arose a great Tempest was cut to pieces by the Senators who judged him too imperious and the desire of Independance began then to appear in that Order To appease the People who loved their Prince and to give a great Idea of the Founder of that City the Senators proclaimed that the Gods had snatched him up to Heaven and caused Altars to be erected to him Numa Pompilius the second King in a long and profound Peace compleated the formation of their Manners and the regulating of Religion upon the same foundations which Romulus had laid Tullus Hostilius by severe Rules Established the Military Discipline and the orders of War which his Successor Anâ—us Martius accompanied with sacred Ceremonies thereby to render the Militia Holy and Religious After him Tarquin the Antient to make Creatures to himself encreased the number of the Senators to three Hundred where they stuck fixed for some Ages and began the great Works which were to conduce to the Publick weal. Servius Tullius projected the setting up a Republick under the command of two annual Magistrates which should be chosen by the People In hatred to Tarquin the proud the Royalty was abolished with horrible Execrations against all those who should go about to re-establish it and Brutus made the People to swear to keep themselves eternally in their Liberty The Memoires of Servius Tullius were followed in that Change The Consuls chosen by the People among the Patricii were equalled to Kings excepting that they were two who had between them a regular turn of Commanding and they changed every Year Collatinus being named Consul which Brutus as having been with him the Author of their Liberty tho' he was the Husband of Lucretia whose Death had been the cause of the Change and he being interessed more than all others to revenge the outrage which she received because he was of the Royal Family became suspected and was expelled Valerius substituted in his place at his return from an Expedition where he had delivered his Country from the Veientes and the Etrurians was suspected by the People to affect Tyranny by reason of a House he had caused to be built on an Eminence He not onâ—y ceased from Building but he became wholly popular altho' a Patrician and made the Law which permitted Appeals to the People and attributed in some Cases to them Judgment of the last Ressort By that new Law the Consular Power was weakened in its Origine and the People enlarged their Rights By reason of the Violences executed for Debt by the Rich upon the Poor the People that rise up against the Power of the Consuls and Senate made that famous Retreat at the Mount Aventinus There was nothing but Liberty spoke of in those Assemblies and the People of Rome did not believe themselves to be free Dion Hal. 2. if they had not lawful Ways of resisting the Senate They were forced to allow them particular Magistrates called the Tribunes of the People which might assemble them and help them against the Authority of the Consuls either by Opposition or Appeal Those Magistrates to keep up their own Authority were continually buzzing of Jealousies and creating Divisions between those two Orders and always were flattering the People by proposing that the Lands of the Conquered Countries or the Price that would be the product of their Sale should be divided among the Citizens The Senate with great Zeal and Earnestness perpetually opposed those Laws that would be so ruinous to the State and would have the Price of those Lands adjudged to be put into the publick Treasury The People suffered themselves to be conducted by their seditious Magistrates and yet had notwithstanding so much Reason and Equity as to admire the Vertue of the great Men that resisted them Against those domestick Dissensions the Senate found no better Remedy than to be continually raising Occasions for foreign Wars They prevented those Divisions from being pushed on to Extremity and reunited those Orders in the Defence of their Country Whilest Wars succeeded and Conquests increased Jealousies were still kept awake The two Parties wearied by the many Divisions which threatned the Ruine of the State agreed to the making of such Laws as might be for the quiet of them both and to establish the Equality which ought to be in a free City Each of the Orders pretended that the establishment
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
fighting with an astonishing Courage His Brother Jonathan succeeded to his Charge and supported his Reputation Being reduced to extremity his Courage left him not The Romans overjoyed in their humbling of the Kings of Syria granted to the Jews their Protection and the Alliance which Judas had sent to demand of him was granted but yet it was without any Sâ—ccour But the Glory of the Roman Name was however a considerable Support to the afflicted People The Troubles of Syria daiâ—y grew greater and greater Alexander Balasus who boasted himself to be the Son Years be ∣ fore J. C. 154 of the Illustrious Antiochus was set upon Years of Rome 600 the Throne by Antiochus his Party The Kings of Aegypt who were the perpetual Enemies of Sâ—ria interessed themselves in those Divisions to make their own Advantages Years be ∣ fore J. C. 150 by them Ptolomee Philometor upheld Years of Rome 604 Balasus The War was bloody Demetrius Soter was slain in it and to revenge his Death left none but two young Princes a great deal under his Age Demetrius Nicator and Antiochus Sidetes So that the Usurper continued in peace and the King of Aegypt gave him his Daughter Cleopotra in Marriage Balasus who thought himself above all things plunged himself into Debaucheries and brought thereby upon himself the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 150 slight and scorn all his Subjects About Years of Rome 604 this time Philâ—mâ—tor judged that famous Cause which the Samaritans had with the Jews 2. Maccab. vi 2. Jos Ant. xii 7. Those Schismaticks who were ever opposite to God's peculiar People did not fail to joyn with their Enemies and to Years be ∣ fore J. C. 167 please the Illustrious Antiochus their Persecutor Years of Rome 597 they had consecrated their Temple of Gerazim to Jupiter Hospitalis Notwithstanding this Profanation these wicked Wretches desisted not from maintaining sometime after at Alexandria before Ptolomeus Philometer that That Temple ought to be preferred to that of Jerusalem The Parties disputed in the Presence of the King and both of them to the hazard of their Lives engaged to justifie their Pretensions by the Terms of the Law of Moses The Jews gain'd their Cause Josph Ant. lib. 13. c. 6. Ibid. and the Samaritans were punished with Death according to their Covenant The same King permitted Onias of the Sacerdotal Race to build in Aegypt the Temple of Heliopolis after the Model of that of Jerusalem An Enterprise condemned by all the Jewish Council and adjudged contrary to the Law In the mean while Carthage began to stir again being very uneasie in bearing with the Laws which Scipio Africanus had imposed upon her The Romans resolved on no less than her total Overthrow and therefore to that end was the third Punick War undertaken Years be ∣ fore J. C. 148 The young Demetrius Nicator now having Years of Rome 606 past over his Minority was contriving how to re-establish himself upon the Throne of his Ancestors the Softness and Effeminacy of the Usurper made him to hope every Years be ∣ fore J. C. 146 thing At his approach Balasus was troubled Years of Rome 608 his Father-in-Law Philometor declared against him because Balasus would not let him take his Kingdom The Ambitious Cleopatra his Queen left him to marry his Enemy and he was slain at last by the hand of one of his own Creatures after the loss of a Battle Philometer dyed a few days after the Wounds he received in it and Syria was delivered of two Enemies At the same time were two great Cities seen to fall Carthage was taken and reduced to Ashes by Scipio Aemylianus who by that Victory confirmed the Name of Africanus to his Posterity and shewed himself the worthy Inheritor of the Great Scipio his Grandfather Corinth had the same Destiny and the Republique of Achaia was destroyed with it The Consul Mummius did utterly ruine that City the most voluptuous and the most beautiful of all Greece He transported to Rome their incomparable Statues without ever knowing the Value of them The Romans being ignorant of the Arts of Greece contented tnemselves with the knowledge of War Politie and Agriculture During the Troubles of Syria the Jews fortifyed themselves Jonathan saw himself sought after by both Parties and Victorious Nicator treated him as a Brother He was quickly requited for Years be ∣ fore J. C. 144 it In a Sedition The Jews all in a Body Years of Rome 610 took him by force from the Hands of the Rebels Jonathan was overwhelmed with Honours but when the King thought himself most secure he took up also the Designs of his Ancestors and the Jews were as bad tormented as before The Troubles of Syria began again Diodotus sirnamed Tryphon raised up a Son Balasus whom he called Antiochus the God and made himself his Tut r during his Infancy The Years be ∣ fore J. C. 143 Pride of Demetrius flushed the People all Years of Rome 611 Syria was as it were on fire Jonathan knew how to take Advantage of this Conjuncture and renewed the Alliance with the Romans Every thing was prosperous to him when Tryphon by a breach of Promise caused him to be slain with his Children His Brother Simon the most prudent and happy of the Macâ—abees succeeded him and the Romans favoured him as they did his Predecessors Typhon was not less unfaithful to his Pupil Antiâ—chus than he had been to Jonathan He caused that Child to be made away by the meanes of the Physicians under pretence of having him to be cut of the Stone which he had nothing of and so made himself Master of one part of the Kingdom Simon joyned himself with Demetrius Nicator the Legitimate King and after he had obtained of him the Freedom of his Country he maintained and kept it by Arms against the Rebel Tryphon Years of Rome 612 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 142 The Syrians were driven out of the Cittadel which they kept in Jerusalem and a while after out of all the places of Judea Thus the Jews being freed from the Yoke of the Gentiles by the Valour of Simon they yielded the Kingly Rights to him and to his Family Demetrius and Nicator consented to that new Establishment There began the new Kingdom of God's People and the Principality of the Asmonians ever joyned to the Soveraign Priesthood About this time the Parthian Empire extended it self over the Bactrians and Indians by the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 141 Victories of Mithridates the valiantest of all Years of Rome 613 the Arsacidae Whilst He was advancing towards Euphrates Demetrus Nicator called by the People of that Country which Mithridates had newly brought into Subjection was in hopes of reducing the Parthians to Obedience whom the Syrians had always treated as Rebels He was happy in several Victories and near to retun into Syria to give Tryphon his absolute Overthrow there but unluckily sell into a Snare which one of Mithridâ—tes his Generals had laid
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
likewise their Conduct was meek and gentle tho' very regular and they lived among themselves in an extream Union The Rewards and Punishments of a future Life which they zealously asserted brought them very great honour At last Ambition got in amongst them They had a mind to govern Id. lib. 2. de Bell. Jud. 7. and indeed they ascribed to themselves an absolute Power over the People they made themselves the Arbiters of Learning and Religion which they insensibly turned to superstitious Practices advantagious for their Interest and the Dominion they would fain have set up over mens Consciences and the true life and spirit of the Law was almost lost To these Evils anâ—ther was added much greater to wit Pride and Presumption but such a Presumption as indeavoured to attribute to themselves the Gift of God The Jews accustomed to his Benefits and having been so many Ages since illuminated with his knowledge forgat that his bounty alone had separated them from all other People and so looked on his Grace as a Debt A chosen Race and always blessed for two thousand years they judged themselves only to be worthy to know God and believed themselves to be of a different Species from other Men whom they saw deprived of his knowledge Upon this ground they looked on the Gentiles with a disdain that was insupportable To be come from Abraham according to the Flesh seemed to them such a Distinction as raised them naturally above all others and being puffed up with so fine an Original they reckoned themselves Saints by Nature and not by Grace An Errour which continues still among them These were the Pharisees who seeking to glorifie themselves by their own Light and by the exact observance of the Ceremonies of the Law brought in this Opinion towards the latter end of the times As they only thought of distinguishing themselves from other men they multiplyed outward Ceremonies and Practices without any measure and they gave out all their fanciful Notions how contrary soever they were to the Law of God as Authentick Traditions Although those Sentiments had not by any Publick Decree passed into the Dogma's of the Synagogue yet they insensibly instilled them into the People which made them unquiet turbulent and seditions At last the Divisions which were to be according to their Prophets the beginning of their ruine and downfal broke out upon occasion of the Disorders that happened in the House of the Asmoneans There were scarce sixty years unto Jesus Christ Zach. 11.6 7 8. c. when Hyrcan and Aristoâ—ulus the Sons of Alexander Janneus fell out about the Priesthood to which the Royalty was annexed Here was the fatal Moment which the History takes notice of as the first cause of the Destruction of the Jews Joseph an t 14.8.20.8.1 Bell. Jud. 4.5 Appian bell Syr. Mithrid Liv. lib. 5. Zach. 11.8 Pompey whom the two Brothers called to regulate them subjected them both at the same time when he dispossessed Antiochus Sirnamed the Asiatick the last King of Syria Those three Princes degraded together and as it were at one effort were the Signal of the Destruction so exactly described by the Prophet Zachariah 'T is certain by the History that that change of the Affairs of Syria and Judea was made at the same time by Pompey when after he had ended the War with Mithridates ready to return to Rome he adjusted the Affairs of the East The Prophet only observed what made towards the Ruine of the Jews who of the two Brothers whom they had seen Kings saw the one a Prisoner serving at Pompey's Triumph and the other the weak Hyrcan from whom the same Pompey took together with the Diadem a great part of his Dominion keeping only a vain Title of Authority which likewise he lost quickly after 'T was then that the Jews were made the Tributaries of the Romans and the Ruine of Syria brought on theirs because that great Kingdom reduced into a Province in their Neighbourhood augmented so much the Roman Power there that there was Safety but only in obeying them The Governours of Syria made continual Attempts on Judea The Romans made themselves absolute Masters of them and weakened their Government in several things By them at last the Kingdom of Juda. passed out of the Hands of the Asmoneans to whom it had been subject into those of Herod a stranger and an Idumean The cruel and ambitious Politie of that King who only in shew professed the Jewish Religion changed soon the Maxims of the antient Government The Jews were no longer Masters of their Fate under the vast Empire of the Persians and the first Seleucides where they lived only in an undisturbed Peace Herod who holds them in almost an absolute Slavery to his Power embroils all things confounds aâ—ter his own Humor the Succession of the High-Priests weakens the Pontificate whiâ—h he makes Arbitrary enervates the Authority of the Council of the Nation whiâ—h can no longer do any thing All the publick Power goes through the Hands of Herod and of the Romans whose Slave he is and he shakes the Foundations of the Jewish Commonwealth The Pharisees and the People who only hearkened to their Opinions bore this Condition very impatiently The more they thought themselves oppressed with the Yoke of the Gentiles the greater Hatred and Disdain they had for them They would no longer have a Messiah who should not be a Warrior and dreadful to the Powers that captivated them Thus forgetting so many Prophecies which so plainly and expresly spoke of their being humbled they had no long Eyes nor Ears but for those which proclaimed Triumphs to them though very different from such as they wished In the declension of the Religion VI. Jesus Christ and his Doctrine and the Affairs of the Jews at the end of King Herod's Reign and then when the Pharisees were bringing in so many Abuses Jesus Christ was sent upon the Earth to re-establish the Kingdom in the House of David after a more exalted manner than ever the carnal Jews understood it and to preach that Doctrine and good Tydings of Salvation which God was resolved all the World should be acquainted with This wonderful Son whom Isaiah calls the mighty God Isai 9.6 the everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace was born of a Virgin at Bethlehem and there he came to own the first Original of his Race Conceived by the Holy Ghost holy by his Birth being alone worthy to repair the wickedness of ours he was called Jesus Matth. 1.21 because he was to save us from our Sins Immediately after his Birth a new Star a Type of that Light he was to bring to the Gentiles was seen in the East and brought to our Saviour thus an Infant the First-fruits of the converted Gentiles A little after that Lord so much desired came to his holy Temple where Simeon sees him not only the Glory of the Poeple Israel Luke 2.32 but also as
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
of his People hath also caused them to foretel the Succession of the Empires You have seen the places where Nebuchadnezzar hath been pointed out as he that was to come and punish the proud People and particularly the Jews so ungrateful against their Author You have heard Cyrus named two hundred Years before he was bâ—â—n as he that was to set up again the People of God and to punish the Pride of Babylon The Ruine of Nineveh was as clearly foretold Daniel in his admirable Visions hath caused to go before your Eyes in a moment the Empire of Babylon that of the Medes and Persians that of Alexander and the Grecians The Blasphemies and the Cruelties of Antiochus the Illustrious were there foretold as well as the miraculous Victories of the People of God over so violent a Persecutor We see there those famous Empires to fall one after another and the new Empire which Jesus Christ was to set up is there so expresly described by its proper Characters that there is no way to mistake it 'T is the Empire of the Saints of the most high the Empire of the Son of Man an Empire which was to subsist in the midst of the Ruine of all the rest and to which alone Eternity is promised The Judgments of God upon the greatest of all the Empires of this World that is to lay upon the Roman Empire have not been kept hid from us You have just now had it from the mouth of St. John Rome her self hath felt the Hand of God and hath been like others an Example of his Justice But its fate was happier yet than that of others for being purged by her Punishments from the remaining dreggs of Idolatry she now no longer subsists but by that Christianity which she declares to all the World Thus have all the great Empires which we have seen upon the Earth concured by several ways and means to the weal of Religion and the glory of God as God himself hath declared it by his Prophets When you read so often in their Writings that Kings in troops shall enter into the Church and be the Protectors and Nursing Fathers of it those words presently put into your mind the Emperours and other Christian Princes and as the Kings your Ancestors have more than any other signalized themselves in protecting and enlarging the Church of God I shall not be afraid to assure you that it is they who of all the Kings are most clearly foretold in those eminently remarkable Prophecies God therefore who was resolved to make use of divers Empires either to chastise or exercise or to enlarge or protect his People willing to make himself known for the Author of so admirable a Councel revealed the Secret of it to his Prophets and hath caused them to foretel what he had resolved to execute Wherefore as the Empires began the order of Gods Decrees on the People whom he had chosen so the fortune of those Empires were found declared by the same Oracles of the Holy Ghost which foretold the Succession of the faithful People The more you accustome your self to follow great things and to recal them to their Principles the more will you stand in admiration of those Councels of Providence It behoves you to take the Ideas of them betimes which will clear up every day more and more in your Minds and you will be the better able to refer humane things to the order of that eternal Wisdom on which they depend God doth not every day declare his Will by his Prophets concerning Kings and Monarchies that he sets up or destroys But having done it so often as to those Empires whereof we have been speaking he shews us by those famous Examples what he does in all others and he teaches Kings these two fundamental Truths First That it is he who forms Kingdoms to give them to whom he pleaseth And Secondly That he knoweth how to make them serve in the time and order which he hath decreed to the Designs he hath on his People This may it please your Highness ought to keep all Princes in an intire Dependance and to make them always careful of the Orders of God that so they may lend their Hand to what he purposes for his own Glory upon all Occasions that he offers them But this Succession of Empires if we will consider it more humanly hath very great Advantages especially for Princes seeing that Arrogance the ordinary Companion of so exalted a Condition is so very much quelled by such a Spectacle For if Men learn to moderate themselves by seeing Kings die how much more will they be struck by seeing Kingdoms themselves to perish and from whence can they receive a more plain Lesson of the Vanity of humane Greatness Thus when you behold as in an instant before your Eyes the Death and Downfal I do not say of Kings and Emperors but of those mighty Empires that have made the whole Universe to tremble when you behold both the antient and the new Assyrians the Medes the Persians the Grecians and the Romans all before you successively and all to fall as I may say one upon another this dreadfull Destruction presently makes you sensible that there is nothing solid among Men and that Inconstancy and Agitation is the proper Partage and Portion of humane things BUT that which will render to your Highness this Spectacle both more advantagious a more agreeable II. The Revolutions of Empires have particular Causes which Princes ought to study will be the Reflection you shall make not only on the Rise and Fall of Empires but also on the Causes of their Progress and on those of their Ruine For Sir that same God who hath made the Chain of the Universe and who as he is Almighty by himself hath resolved for the establishing of Order that the Parts of so great an All should depend one upon another that same God hath also decreed that the course of humane things should have its Issues and its Proportions I mean that Men and Nations have had Qualities commensurate to the Advancements to which they have been designed and that expecting some certain extraordinary Strokes wherein God hath been willing to manifest his own Hand in particular there are no very great Changes happen but what may deduce their Causes from precedent Ages And as in all Affairs there is that which prepares them that which determines to undertake them and lastly that which makes them have Success So the true Science of History is to observe in every time those secret Dispositions which have prepared and made way for great Changes and the important Conjunctures which have brought them to pass Indeed it is not sufficient to look only just before one that is to say to consider those great Events which all on a sudden do decide the fortune of Empires He that would reach to the Bottom of humane things ought to take them at their first Head and Spring and he must observe