Philip king of Macedonia at the spoile thereof had as great a pray as Alexander his sonne had of Babilon or Nabuchodonozer of Ierusalem CHAP. VIII Of sanctuaries allowed to the Hebrewes and of the multitude of sanctuaries among the Gentiles SAnctuaries were priuiledged among all Nations not onely for souldiers that fled from the warres and seruants that fled from their maisters but also for those that by chance kild any man or had committed such capitall crimes without proofe these might bee succoured in sanctuaries vntill the truth were knowne and proued and therefore the Hebrewes had sixe citties of refuge by the lawe of Moses where if any man had slaine vnwittingly or vnwillingly a man he might flee to any of these sixe Cities as to a sanctuary of refuge but they that had killed a man willingly and had committed any capitall crime purposely should not onely be taken away from the sanctuarie but bee pluckt away from the aultar as Ioab was for killing of Abner and Adonias though hee pretended treason before against Salomon yet had hee the priuiledge of the sanctuarie for that fault by Salomon but when hee sought to haue Abizaig to his wife he was pluckt from the Aultar as Ioab was Those that were lawfully succoured by Moses lawe in the sanctuary it was not lawfull for them that fled thither to returne home vnlesse it were at the death of the high Priest which was a shadow of the death of Christ by whose death the regenerate turne to their eternall home The Gentiles imitating the Hebrewes had too many licentious sanctuaries with the like libertie and priuiledge in so much that in continuance of time it grew that Temples Aultars Images of Emperours and Kings and graues of dead men were allowed for sanctuaries as if any that would flye vnto the Temple of Diana at Ephesus and claimed by the right of a sanctuarie to be defended hee was made free and had his libertie graunted vnto him and that continued a sanctuarie from the time of Alexander the great who amplyfied the Temple of Diana the quantitie of a furlong which temple was burnt before by Herostratus vpon the very day that Alexander was borne vntill the time of Augustus Caesar three hundred yeares after Alexander by whom the wickednesse of that sanctuary was was abrogated and quite taken away Cadmus as some write at the building of Thaebes was the first in Greece that gaue any priuiledge to sanctuaries Others thinke that some of the posteritie of Hercules erected vp in Athens the temple of mercie where euery man might flee for succour fearing least they should be punished and plagued for the iniuries that Hercules their predecessor did to others and the Athenians made a decree that none that fled to the aultar of mercie should be pulled away Romulus imitating Cadmus at the building of Rome for the encrease of his citie graunted impunitie to all such wicked men that came to Rome whose example all other Gentiles followed after in so much that kings and kings sonnes fled vnto sanctuaries so great was the priuiledge of sanctuaries that king Pausanias fled to the Temple of Minerua in Sparta and king Cleombrotus fled to the Temple of Neptune in Taenero and Adonias King Dauids sonne fled to the Temple in Ierusalem Likewise a souldier taken in the warre if he had fled from thence to the statue of any King Emperour or great captaine he was to haue his libertie The liberties and abuse of sanctuaries grew so great among all nations that where sanctuaries were allowed chiefly first for those that slew any man by chaunce against their will for captiue souldiers that fled from prison for poore distressed seruants that were abused by their maisters in time it became dens for theeues stewes for wicked men and leawd women that whatsoeuer was done if they came to the Temple of Osiris in Egipt or to the Temple of Diana in Thracia or to the Temple of Venus in Pâ—…hos they were freed might there take their libertie but poore Demosthenes was taken from the Temple of Neptune by the tyrant Archyas and brought to Athens before his onely enemy Antipater Sanctuaries grew so common that not onely souldiers but also any offenders might fleee from theyr liberties especially in Greece to the graues of Achilles Thesius and Aiax in other places to the graue of Hercules In other places the offender if he had fallen downe at the feete of Iupiters Priest of Mars or of Vulcan at the gates of their temples he should goe free Though the old auntient Romanes could not abide a souldier taken in the wars they would neither redeem him nor allow him sanctuarie yet Agesilaus king of the Lacedemonians allowed any temple of their gods to be a sanctuary for souldiers that fled for succour So did Cyrus proclaime sanctuaries for all banished bond men in Greece in all Asia leuied therby a huge army to fight against his brother Artaxerxes So did Sertorius one of Marius sect proclaime sanctuaries to all the Romaine fugitiues in Hispaine in Affrike that he as much harmed Rome being a Romaine borne and now out of his countrey as eyther Sylla or Marius did in their countrey Hauing sufficiently spoken of these kinde of sanctuaries of theyr too much libertie that grew thereby in all kingdomes as among the Hebrewes by Ieroboam in the battell at Mount Zemaraim among the Persians by Cyrus at the battell at Conauxa among the Romanes by Cinna and among the Affricans by Scotorius who all proclaimed sanctuaries and liberties to all fugitiue and banished souldiers we leaue sanctuaries which were appointed as a refuge for those that fled thither for succour and helpe vntill the truth were knowne and speake not of those that abused sanctuaries as a cloake of their tirannie and wickednesse You heard before how Adonias and Ioab were taken from the Aultar for they had abused the sanctuary for the Lord commaunded that his lawes should be seuerely kept and that no part thereof should be broken for King Oza vsurping the Leuites office against the lawe was striken with sudden death for the vnreuerent handling of the Arke which was the Leuites office Ozias the King was striken with leprosie for burning incense against the lawe which was the Priestes office Abihu and Nadab Aarons sonnes for that they both tooke Censors in their hands put fire therevpon and incense therein offered straunge fire before the Lord contrarie to the Lords commaundement fire from heauen destroyed them for the priests were commaunded to take no fire but from the aultar neither might they offer vncleane bread vpon the Lords table nor sowe cockles for corne in the Lords fields for the Lord will be more sanctified in his ministers then others and therfore he spared not Oza for handling the Arke nor Ozias for burning incense though they were both kings for transgressing one iot of his lawes
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
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