could bee as though he were their true and lawfull king but being brought to Rome before Caesar who found by the hardnesse of his hands and rudenesse of his behauiour that hee was not brought vp like a Kings sonne and therefore Caesar hauing found his falshood bound him all his life time as a galley slaue and commaunded all his counsellors and conspirators to bee killed with the sword This house continued vntill the last destruction of Ierusalem So that the Iewes after Christ his death beeing euery where afflicted and oppressed from Babilon were forced to flie to Zeleucia the chiefe Citie in all Syria which Zeleucus Nicanor builded a Towne where Greekes Macedonians and Syrians dwelt together there also the Greekes and the Syrians conspired together against the Iewes that there dwelt and slew trecherously of them to the number of 50000. So sedition also began between the Iewes in Alexandria and the Aegiptians in Samaria betweene the Samaritans and the Iewes and all the Iewes which dwelt in Rome in Sardinia other places of the Romaine Empire were from thence banished These Iewes had not so much as a place to rest vpon the earth but were scattered like rogues vagabounds euery where without credit or loue without Prince Priest law or religion the iust iudgement of the Lord for their blasphemy against the sonne of God saying his bloud be vpon vs and our children Thus the Iewes whom Moses Aaron brought out of Egipt to the number of six hundred thousand died all in the wildernesse for their rebellious mutinie Moses and Eleazer after Aarons death numbred the people in the wildernesse where all the other died and they found sixe hundred thousand seuenteen hundred and thirtie able and sufficient men for the warres and yet not one of them which Moses Aaron numbred in the desart of Sinai after they came out of Egipt sauing Ioshua Caleb but died in the wildernesse for disobedience and stubbernesse euer preferring the cucumbers melons oynions garlicks of Egipt before Māna quailes and sweete water which they had from euery rocke in the wildernesse where neither their cloathes were worne nor their shooes spent for fortie yeares yet Egipt which should be a hel to them was their paradice The tenne Tribes of Israel raigned in Samaria 240. yeares seuen moneths and seuen daies during which time they neither obeyed the lawes of the Lord nor heard the Prophets that forewarned them of these calamities which were to come and therfore the Lord gaue them ouer they were taken prisoners their last king Osea brought captiues by Salmanasser vnto Niniuie So the kingdome of Iudah and the house of Dauid was likewise taken by Nabuchodonozer in the eleuenth yeare of Zedechiah the last king of Iudah who was taken captiue his noble men his children slaine in his sight before his eyes were pluckt out and after led in a chaine vnto Babilon where he died in prison 133. yeares after the kingdome of Israel was destroyed by Salmanasser that was the cause of his miserable end for the contempt he had to the Prophet Ieremy disdaining either to hear him or to read his booke for before any king raigned in Israel Iudges by the Lord appointed ruled 370. yeares the kings of Iudah after Solomons death raigned 395. yeares which agreeth well with Iosephus account And so of the continuance of the Bishops or high Priests euen from the building of the temple of Solomon Sadoc being their first high Priest or Bishop were seuēteene high Priests or Bishops in Ierusalem by succession of the children after their fathers The end of the second booke The third Booke of the Stratagems of Ierusalem CHAP. I. Of the care and diligence which Kingdomes and Countries tooke in military discipline to exercise their souldiers THe Romanes most carefull in all military discipline in no wise trusted strangers but euery Romaine souldier should take a military oath by the Colonell The Persiās also were in this point like the Romains for not admitting of mercenary souldiers seldome is found any constancie or soundnesse in mercenary souldiers as by too many examples the Romanes and others found Iugurth by trechery of fewe Thracians that serued the Romanes in Affrike in the night time betraied the Romanes to Iugurth and made a great slaughter of them In like sort the Thessalians were trecherous to the Athenians whom they trusted but they forsooke the Athenians at the battel of Tanagra wherby through their falsehood and trecherie to the Athenians the victorie fell to the Lacedemonians therefore neither the Romanes nor the Persians trusted any mercenary souldiers for mercenary souldiers and strangers are not to be trusted for they doo not onely forsake their friends in any danger but ioyne with the enemy for any aduantage So did the Gaules in the warres of Carthage slew the watch of the Romanes and fled to Haniball The lawe of armes in euery countrey should holde and maintain the crowne dignity of the prince by the sword so most necessary it is that subiects should be looked vnto with great care and prouision to maintain the willing forward and good souldiers due punishmēts and sharpe corrections for euill leaud wicked disposed men carelesse of their countries good How carefull euery common-wealth hath bene of this you shall read first of euery kingdome country seueral punishments by law appointed after of the rewards honor dignities of good souldiers of which Plato saith Omnis respub paena Praemio continetur Agesilaus therefore appointed gifts and rewards to draw and encourage his souldiers to shoote to throwe the dart the sling to ride to runne and with diligence and care to keepe them seuerely from faults offences and to exercise them in martiall feates which kinde of exercise among the Greekes was most commonly vsed called Pentatlon in the games of Olympia Isthmia to honor Hercules and Thesius two protectors and principall captaines that loued souldiers Alexander the great was so seuere in martiall lawes towards his souldiers that if any souldier or captain shuld lye or be any way proued a lyer hee should be depriued frō his office and place of seruice banished from his camp for so was Antigenes though a valiant captaine otherwise yet was both casseerd banished for making of a lye Alexander after he had banished all bakers cookes brewers and such like frō his campe said that marching in their armour in the night they should prouide them a dinner a stomacke to eate theyr dinner against the next morning as for a supper he said they should not looke for wine nor flesh to sleepe after it but for bread and hee would prouide for water which is the onely foode of a souldier and the most necessary care of a generall Hereby his souldiers being brought vp by Philip king of Macedonia his father were hardned with continuall paine
this bloudie Emperour Valerianus left no place vnsought to persecute the remnant of the Christians which his predecessors could not find with sword and fire vntil he himself was taken his army ouerthrown by Sapor King of Persia who tooke him and kept him in prison all his life time in bondage and slauery vsing him as a blocke to mount on horsebacke things hard and straunge to the Romanes to haue their Emperour in such slauish seruice to become a vassal and a blocke for Sapor King of Persia to lay his foote vpon his necke to goe on horse And was not the great Turke Pazaites ouerthrown and his Army slaine at Mount Stella by Tamberlane a rude and barbarous Scithian and himselfe taken and kept in a cage vnder his table and carried him in that cage in all his warres during Tamberlanes life so that the great Emperour of Rome died as a blocke for King Sapor in Persia and Pazaites the great Turke died in Tamberlanes cage as a captiue in Scythia So Pharao in diuers battels was ouerthrowne by Moses and vsed as a blocke and at last drawne as it were by a corde like a dogge by Moses from Egipt into the redde sea and there to dye as you shall read in the two next plagues that followe CHAP. Of the ninth and tenth plagues of the Egiptians compared with the ninth and tenth persecutions of the Christians MOses is sent from the Lord to Pharao and commanded to hold out his hand vnto heauen that there was darknesse vpon all the land of Egipt such palpable darknesse that neither fire candle torch or any light might giue thē light it was such palpable darknesse that the Egiptians might feele it and this darknesse continued three daies long that one might not see an other Yet Pharaos heart was so hardned that now in his furie and rage he commaunds Moses and Aaron to goe out of his sight threatning them with death if they came any more before him though in the last plague he requested Moses and Aaron to pray for him and to forgiue him his sinnes but then were his words full of dissimulation and his repentance full of hypocrisie hee could say I haue sinned but he could not say I haue repented and beforie for his sinnes The ninth persecution vnder Aurelianus in Rome may throughly bee likened to the ninth plague vnder Pharao in Egipt The like threatnings of speech and the like words that Pharao vsed to Moses and Aaron in Egipt the like vsed Aurelianus against the Christians in Rome but it contiued not long for he was slaine as others his predecessors were And as for the great palpable darknesse in Egipt so was it in Rome when their minde was more darke then darknesse it selfe The Egiptians hated not the Hebrews so much as the Romanes hated the Christians For Pilate the Romane presidēt in Ierusalem which gaue sentence on Christ to die and sawe many myracles done by him sent Letters to his maister Tiberius the Emperor and to the Senators recyting the myracles that Christ had done before he died saying hee was worthy to bee canonized placed among the Romane goddes which all the Senators with one consent denied though Caesar requested them first and threatned them after yet Christ was not allowed to be a Romane God Tiberius without effect of his good motion died so did that wicked Emperor Aurelianus in the midst of his cruel persecutions After whō succeeded a good valiant Emperor Flam. Claudius so valiāt that he vanquished the Gothes the Illyrians and Macedonians whereby in Rome he was so honoured that the Senators sent to him a goldē Target which afterward was set vp in the shew-place and a golden statue to stand in the Capitoll but he died too timely of a sicknesse at Sirmium After him succeeded his brother Aurel. Quintilius a good moderate Emperour equall or rather to be preferred before his brother but he was slaine within 18. daies after hee was elected Emperour by the souldiers These good Emperors onely I name for that persecutions were euer executed by cruel Kings and Emperors But these cruell Emperours as they cruelly destroyed others so cruelly were they destroyed after as some of them were killed by theyr owne handes as Nero some murthered by their owne seruants as Domitianus some suddenly slaine riding by the high way as Decius some banished died in straunge Countreys as Seuerus others died captiues in bondage and slauerie as Valerianus did in Persia others eaten with cankers wormes as Maximinius others murthered one after an other as Aurel. Tacit. and Florianus Thus were those Emperours slaine and murthered that cruelly persecuted the Christians The Lorde beeing determined now to finish his plague in Egipt and to bring his people away willed euery man and euery woman to borrow of their neighbours Iewels of gold and siluer for Moses was verie great in the land of Egipt with Pharao and with the people for before this Pharao had appointed Moses Generall of the Egiptians against the king of Aethiopia which I wrote in the Historie of Moses Yet said the Lord I will bring one plague more vpon Pharao and vpon Egipt and after that he will let you goe hence for all the first borne of the land of Egipt shall die euen from the first borne of Pharao that sitteth on his seate vntill the first borne of the maide seruant that sitteth in the mill The Lord knew at that time how to saue the Hebrewes in Gosen from all the plagues in Egipt and to saue Noah from the geneall deluge in the Arke to saue Lot from fire and brimstone in Zodome and to saue the Christians from the destruction of Ierusalem in Pella As this tenth plague was the greatest and the heauiest so the tenth persecution was the greatest and the longest vnder Dioclesian in the East parts and vnder Maximianus in the West either of them persecuting and afflicting with such slaughters of martyred Christians that for the space of tenne yeares for so long continued the tenth persecution there was nothing but the wonted bloudie persecution sword and fire by the commaundements of both these Emperours with most extremitie to bee executed and as vnder Nero the first persecution began so vnder Dioclesian it ended For the Church of God so flourished the Christians so encreased and the godly martyrs so multiplyed that these tyrants were wearie to persecute them any longer At that very time when persecution ended vnder Dioclesian then heresie began to spring vnder Sathan for when one stratagem of Sathan faileth he practiseth an other Now Arius marcheth with his Antitrinitary crew and set themselues in battell against the Lord with horrible and blasphemous weapons and as the Poets faine the Gyants set themselues in battell against the Sun the Moone and the Stars so this crew of heretikes set themselues to fight against God the Father the Sonne and the holy
from mount Ephraim and now followed the enemies vnto Bethauen the victory was great which Saul got ouer the Philistines Saul in this battel did binde the souldiers by oath not to eate till euening and cursed him that would eate any foode till night for Ionathan tasted a little hony with the end of his rod and Saul his father would haue put him to death sauing that the souldiers rescued and deliuered him for the Lord had giuen a great victory by Ionathan ouer the Philistines CHAP. XX. Of the victorie of Saul at Iabesh Gilead and after how he was ouerthrowne by the Philistines and slew himselfe in mount Gilboa and of the reward of diuers treasons AFter the battel at Michmash Saul had an other victorie ouer the Ammonites where the Ammonites were slain at Iabesh Gilead the Lord prospered Saul and endued him with such vertues as were meete for a K. yet Saul disobeyed the Lord being commanded to destroy the Amalekites and sley both man and woman both infant and suckling both oxe and sheepe both camel and asse yet he spared Agag king of the Amalekites and the fat beasts and the lambes the sheepe and the oxen that were good against the commaundement of the Lord and therefore Samuel reproued him and tolde him that the Lord had reiected him and that his kingdome should bee giuen to an other and vpon Sauls disobedience Samuel was commaunded to annoint Dauid king ouer Israel so Saul wonne the victory but lost his kingdome and his life in the next battell Saul being forsaken of the Lord for his disobedience the Philistines preuailed against him in diuers battels for Saul was more desirous to kill Dauid the seruant of the Lord then to destroy the Philistines the enemies of the Lord. But Dauid was reserued and ordained to fight the battels of the Lord to destroy the Amalekites the Philistines the rest of the Lords enemies whom Saul spared being commanded to the contrary therfore the Lord gaue Saul to the hands of the Philistins at the battell in mount Gilboa that the Israelites fled and fell before the Philistines and the three sonnes of Saul were flaine and Saul himselfe sore wounded Such was his cruell life seeking to kill Dauid that he had a desperate death for he slew himself with his owne sword seeing the battell so sore against him his sonnes slaine his souldiers killed and all the rest of his army fled This was the end of Saul the first K. of Israel like the end of Zedechia the last king of Israel And whē the Philistins came to the spoyle of them that were slaine they found the body of Saul and his three sonnes in mount Gilboah slaine in the battel and they cut off Sauls head and stripped him out of his armour and they laid vp his armour in the Temple of their god Astaroth and hanged vp his body on the wall of Bethshan in token of victorie and triumph and they sent the head of Saul vnto the land of the Philistines that they might shew it in their cities and publish it in the Temples of their Idols among the people and after to set vp Sauls head in the Temple of Dagon This was the end of Saul whom the Lord raised from keeping his fathers asses to be a king ouer his people for not obeying the commaundement of the Lord thus euer the Lord punished disobedience in Saul in Rehoboam Achab Manasses and Zedechiah that the Lord deliuered Ierusalem and the kingdome of Iudah to the hands of Nabuchodonozer king of Babilon Saul being now slaine in mount Gilboa the Amalekite which brought to Dauid Sauls crowne and his bracelets and tolde Dauid that hee himselfe slew Saul which was a lye for Saul slew himselfe thought to haue a great reward for such good newes but Dauid commanded him to be slaine The like reward had Rechab and Banah that brought Isbosheths head vnto Dauid who disguised themselues as Marchants to buy wheate and went to Isbosheths house who slept on his bed at noone and they slew him tooke his head with them and presented it vnto Dauid at Hebron supposing they should bee better rewarded then the Amalekite was but Dauid rewarded them in this sort that their hands and their feete were cut off hanged vp ouer the poole in Hebron The recompence of such treacherous seruants were euer so rewarded as Bessus the onely chiefe captaine vnder Darius who after he fled from the battell at Arbela was slaine by Bessus and his head cut off and brought vnto Alexander who thought to be aduanced for his trecherous seruice but Alexander commaunded that he should be tyed to the tops of two young trees bending to the ground that he by the swinge and lifting vp of the trees might be torne in peeces So Septimius and Achillas commaunded by Ptolomeus king of Egipt to kill Pompey and to present his head vnto Caesar from him though Pompey before time had restored Ptolomeu his father to his kingdome in Egipt and Septimius had beene Pompey his souldier in diuers warres yet they slew him most trecherously in his boate at Pellusium and cut off his head to please Caesar but they were rewarded of Caesar as Bessus was of Alexander for the king was slaine and his kingdome giuen to Cleopatra his sister When Antigonus sawe Pirrhus head presented vnto him by his sonne though they were both enemies and in the field in armor one against an other yet he couered Pirrhus head with his hat discommending the crueltie of his sonne with such a reward that he made his bloud run about his eares saying how durst thou like a sauage beast bring Pirrhus head from his body being dead whom no prince or captaine in Asia or in Europe durst in the face meet in the field aliue Yet most men think that trecherie is allowed though traitors be not accepted I do not thinke but the head of Darius brought to Alexander by Bessus and the head of Pompey to Caesar were as gratefull as Ciceroes head was to Marc. Antonius brought by Popilius or as Marc. Crassus head sent by Surena to Horodes for thereby had Alexander the kingdome of Persia Caesar the Empire of Rome treason hath better successe then traitors haue To this effect spake Iezabell to Iehu Had Zimri peace which slew his maister Elah as though she should say can traitors haue good successe but she was rewarded by Iehu for that Naboth was stoned to death by her meanes for his vineyard as the rest were Euen cruel Sylla the Romane the enemie of Marius and all his well-willers and especiall of Sulpitius Syllas mortall foe Yet when Sulpitius seruant would haue betrayed Sulpitius his maister vnto Sylla Sylla caused him to bee throwne headlong downe from the rocke Tarpeia So much the olde Romanes hated traitors and treasons that when Viriatus an other Haniball and a great enemie of the Romanes for 14.
and famine an hundred thousand solde publikely as slaues and sixteene thousand were sent to Rome to beautifie his fathers triumph as Iosephus an eye-witnesse doth report The Iewes looked not for their destruction so nigh at hand they obserued by tradition of some of their Rabines that their Messias should come about the time of Augustus as a magnificent mighty king not as a poore man the sonne of a Carpenter whom the Iewes whipt and scourged for that he tooke vpō him to be the sonne of God made himself Messias the Iewes litle thought that he was the Messas when they cryed to Pilate to haue him crucified in Golgotha saying his bloud be vpon vs and vpon our children The greedie desire and expectation of the people was such that many tooke vpon them to call themselues the Messias as Iudas Galileus and an other called Atonges a shepheard but aboue them all one Barcozba had diuers followers was receiued for their Messas thirtie yeares but when they saw that he could not defend them from the Romanes they would no longer accept him for their Messias but slew him Titus proceedeth forward to destroy the Iewes but especially the Priests the Scribes Pharisies on whom he had no mercie saying that they chiefly ought to dye with the sword sithence the temple was burnt with fire they onely being rebellious and seditious and the cause of the destruction of the citie Titus spared none of the stocke of Herod In this warres of Titus were ten of the learned Rabbines slaine whose names I thought good to write as I found them written in Genebrardus Chronicles Rabbi Simeon ben Gamaliel Rabbi Ismael ben Elizei Rabbi Hanina ben Tedarion Rabbi Husiphith Rabbi Eleazer ben Samaa Rabbi Iuda ben Dama Rabbi Isbak Scribam Rabbi Iuda ben Hachinas Rabbi Iuda ben Baba Rabbi Askiba These tenne Rabbines were slaine by Titus which the Iewes record in theyr latter Talmud for tenne martyrs and after Ierusalem was thus destroied Titus appointed Rabbi Iohanan ben Zachai gouernour ouer the remnant of the Iewes in Ahua Byther Oza other pla◅es as Nabuchodonozer did appoint Godoliah gouernor of the rest of the Iewes when he destroyed Ierusalem in the time of Zedechia the king Titus also left Bonia a younger brother of Fla. Iosephus to gouerne other places in Iudah and he returned with his prisoners and captiues which he brought with him to Rome to beautifie his fathers triumphes and his This was the fift and last ouerthrow of the Iewes destruction of Ierusalem First by Shesac King of Egipt in the time of Rehoboam secondly by Nabuchodonozer in the time of Zedechias the last King of Iudah thirdly by Antiochus fourthly by Pompey the great and fiftly and last by Titus and Vespasian Thus the Iewes that subdued all natiōs before them and conquered all the Kings about them that in the time of Ioshua Dauid all the earth trembled at the naming of the Iewes whose gouernment continued from Abraham to Vespasian two thousand yeares and more though for a time while they were in Egipt 430. yeares litle spoken of vntil the Lord raised them so strengthned thē vnder Moses and Ioshua that first they ouerthrew Pharao and his kingdome after subdued the Canaanites Edomites Moabites Ammonites Philistines and the Syrians which of the Hebrewes were called Aromites the strongest nation vpon the earth at that time which were subdued notwithstanding by Dauid Thus the Iewes which were as famous and feared as much in those dayes as the Romanes were in the time of their Consuls are now so destroyed and their country subdued like wandring banished mē without king lawe or countrey The cause wherof was the sinne of Ierusalem which would neuer acknowledge the goodnesse of God towards them nor his myracles and his mercy wrought amongst them they refused his grace offered and persecuted him most violently to death Yet Dionisius Areopagita and his fellow Appollonius in the citie of Eliopolis in Egipt they both obserued by the Eclipse of the Sun at the verie houre the sonne of God suffered more then the rebellious Iewes did for all the blessings and mercies which they had receiued they cried out still vnto Pilate crucifie him his blood be vpon vs and vpon our children These learned Heathens openly confessed in Egipt that either the sonne of God did suffer death or else the frame of the whole worlde should be dissolued these two Heathens confessed and named him to bee the sonne of God but the vngratefull Iewes called and named him the sonne of Ioseph the Carpenter in contempt of him and therefore it is conuenient to set forth the great goodnesse of the Lorde in a briefe and a short catalogue what the Lord hath done to Israel since he brought them out of the furnace of Egipt where they were bond-slaues vnder Pharao 430. yeares euen from the first comming of Abraham into Egipt vntill Moses brought them out of Egipt For after Esau Iacob had diuided their fathers possession Esau went to dwell in Edumea and Iacob tooke for his part Canaan where he dwelt and his childrē vntil Iacob went to Egipt with all his family to his sonne Ioseph which was 215. yeares after the being of Abraham in Egipt and 215. yeares before Moses brought the childrē of Israel out of Egipt into the land of Canaan at what time the law was written giuen to Moses in mount Sinai to gouern the people and after the lawe was giuen the Tabernacle was commaunded by Moses to be made in the wildernesse which should stand to them for a Temple to serue the Lord and after the Tabernacle the Arke was made where the tables of the lawe were commaunded by Moses at his death to be kept where Moses gouerned the whole army of the Hebrues fortie yeares before they went ouer Iorden And Moyses before he died he deliuered the army of the Hebrewes into the hands of Ioshua with a charge from the Lord vnder whom they passed into the lande of Canaan after whose death they began to be rebellious seditious Yet the Lord fauoured thē sent thē stout and wise gouernors as Iudah Ehud Barac Iephtha Gedeō and Sampson yet stil rebelled they like Idolatrous people against the Lord that they were weary of that gouernment and reiected Samuel his gouernmēt and would haue a king the Lord denied them nothing and they had kings to rule them during which time of kings Idolatry presently crept in that the lord his lawes were forsaken and Baal with his prophets priests accepted Hence grew ciuil warres between the 12. Tribes ten against two that of one kingdom they made two so that there was nothing but slaughter and blood betweene the house of Israel the house of Iudah and that straight after Solomons death 500. thousand were slain in mount Zemaraim of the king of Israels side by the king of Iudah Againe such a slaughter of