was clear enough and sufficiently present if we would have been attentive to it was just ready to vanish and be gone Prodigious Fables and such also as were as full of Impiety as Extravagance took their place The time was come where Truth but ill kept in the memory of men could no longer keep it self with being written and God having besides resolved to form his people to Virtue by Laws more express and in a greater number he was pleased at the same time to give them in writing Moses was summoned to this work That great Man recollected the History of past Ages That of Adam that of Noah that of Abraham that of Isaac that of Jacob that of Joseph or rather that of God himself and of his admirable Works He was not to search far for the tradition of his Ancestors He was born a hundred Years after the Death of Jacob. The old Men of his time might have conversed several Years with that Holy Patriarch The memory of Joseph and the Miracles which God had wrought by that great Minister of the Kings of Egypt were yet fresh in their Minds The Lives of three or four Men reached up even to Noah who had seen the Sons of Adam and as I may so say had touched the beginning of time and things Thus the antient traditions of Mankind and those of the Family of Abraham were not hard to be collected the Memory of them was still alive and we need not wonder if Moses in his Genesis speaks of things that happened in the first Ages as things certain whose memorable Monuments are still to be seen both in the neighbouring People and in the Land of Canaan In the time when Abraham Isaac and Jacob inhabited that Land they had in several places erected the monuments of things which had happened to them There is yet shewn there the places where the lived the Wells they had dug and sunk in those dry and sterile Countries to find their Families and their Flocks Water the Mountains whereon they Sacrificed to Almighty God and where he manifested himself to them the Stones which they had laid on Heaps to serve as a memorial to Posterity the Tombs wherein their blessed Ashes are deposited The memory of those great Men were fresh not only in all the Country but likewise in all the East where many of those famous Nations have still remembred that they have come from their Race So when the Hebrews entred into the promised Land every place there did celebrate their Ancestors both the Towns and the Mountains and the very Stones themselves did there speak of those marvellous Men and of those astonishing Visions by which God had confirmed them in the antient and true belief Those who are ever so little conversant in Antiquities do know how curious the first times were to erect and to preserve such Monuments and how industriously careful Posterity has been since to retain the occasions of their setting of them up 'T was one of the ways of their writing History the Stones have since been better fashioned and polished and Statues have succeeded after Pillars to great and solid Masses which the first times erected 'T is also very rational to believe that in the lineage wherein was preserved the knowledg of God were also preserved by writing the remembrances of antient times For Men have never been without that care At least this is most certain that they made Songs which the Fathers taught their Children Songs which were sung at their Festivals and in their Assemblies gave a perpetuity to the remembrance of the most remarkable actions of the past Ages From hence came Poetry which was afterwards changed into various forms and modes the most antient whereof is still preserved in Odes and those heroick ways used by all the Antients and still to this day by those People who have not the use of Letters in Praising God and great Men. The stile of those Songs is bold extraordinary natural always in what it is fit to represent Nature in all its Transports which for that reason is forced by the most lively and impetuous Sallies disengaged from these ordinary Bonds that are requisite in an united Discourse confined besides to just Numbers and Cadences which advances their force surprizes the Ear seizes the Imagination gives an Emotion to the Heart and with more ease imprints it self in the Memory Among all the People of the World none have so much used these kind of Songs as have the People of God Moses takes notice of a great many of them which he denotes by the first Verses because the People knew the rest Numb xxi v. 14.17.18.27 c. Exod. xv 1. He himself hath made two of this Nature The first is his Song for their triumphant passing over the Red Sea and the Enemies of the People of God some already drowned the rest half conquered by the dread and terror of it By the second Deut. xxxii v. 1. Moses confounds the Peoples ingratitude by setting forth Gods Mercyâ— and Vengeance Following Ages imitated him 'T was God and his marvellous Works were the Subject of those Odes which they composed God himself inspired them and it was only to the People of God that Poetry came truly by Enthusiasm Jacob declared in that mystical Language the Oracles which contained the Destiny of his twelve Sons that so every Tribe might the more easily keep in Mind what particularly related to it and learn to praise him who was no less magnificent in his Predictions than faithful in performing them Thus you see the means made use of by God to preserve even down to Moses the remembrance of past transactions That great Man instructed by all those means and raised upon high by the Holy Ghost hath written the Works of God with an exactness and simplicity which attracts belief and admiration not only to himself but even to Almighty God He hath joined to past actions which contained the original and antient Traditions of the People of God the wonders which God actually wrought for their deliverance Of that he produces to the Israelites no other Witnesses than their own Eyes Moses tells them not of things which were done in impenetrable retreats and in profound Caves he speaks not in the Air he particularizes and circumstantiates every thing as a Man that fears not to be caught in an untruth He grounds all their Laws and their whole Republick on the wonders which they themselves have seen Those wonders were nothing else but Nature changed all on a sudden on different occasions for their deliverance and the punishment of their Enemies the Sea divided it self in two the Earth opened herself heavenly Food abundance of Water gushing out of Rocks by a stroke of the Rod and the Heaven which gave them a visible sign to direct their March and such like Miracles which they themselves had seen for forty Years The People of Israel were no more intelligent nor more subtil than other
that Egypt hath been very Martial She hath had a great many Troops well disciplined and kept she hath often exercised them for a Shew in Military Services and as it were had the Images and resemblances of Combats but it is only War and downright Fighting that makes Men Warriors Egypt loved Peace because she loved Justice and had only Soldiers for her Defence Beiâ—g contented with her own Country which had plenty of all things she never thought of enlarging it by Conquests She did it after another way by sending her Colonies all the World over and with them politeness and Laws The most celebrated Cities came to learn in Egypt their Antiquities Plat. in Tim. and the first beginning of their most excellent Institutions They consulted her on all sides in the Rules of Wisdom When those of Elis had set up the Olympick Games the most famous of all Greece they sought by a Solemn Embassy the approbation of the Egyptians and learnt from them new ways of incouraging the Combatants Egypt reigned by her Councels and that Government of Understanding appeared to her more noble and glorious than that she established by her Arms. Although the Kings of Thebes were incomparably the most puissant of all the Kings of Egypt yet they never attempted upon the neighbouring Dynasties which they only enjoyed when they had been invaded by the Arabians so that to speak truly they rather chose to get from Strangers than were willing to Lord it over their own natural Country-men But when they concerned themselves with being Conquerours they surpassed all others I do not speak of Osiris the Conqueror of the Indians probably that was Bacchus or some other Hero as fabulous Diod. l. 1. §. 2. The Father of Sesostris the Learned will have him Amenophis otherwise Memnon either through instinct or humour or as the Egyptians say by the Authority of an Oracle first thought of making his Son a Conquerour He followed the way of the Egyptians in it that is to say with great deliberation All Children that were born the same day as Sesostris were brought to Court by the King's Command He bred them up as if they were his own and with the same care as Sesostris near whom they were bred He could not give him either more faithful Ministers or more zealous Companions for his Battels When he was somewhat grown up he made him serve his Apprenticeship in a War against the Arabians That young Prince there learnt to be patient of Hunger and Thirst and brought that Nation into Submission which till then was untameable Being accustomed to Warlike labours by that Conquest his Father made him turn to the East of Egypt he attacked Libya and a great part of that vast Region was subjugated About this time his Father dyed leaving him in a condition of undertaking all things He formed no less a Design than that of the Conquest of the World but before he went out of his Kingdom he provided for his own security in it in gaining the affections of all his People by his Liberalâ—ty and Justice Diod. ibid. and also so by regulating the Government with an extream Prudence In the mean while he was making his Preparations he levied Soldiers and gave than for their Captaiâ—s those young men which his Father had caused to be bred up with him There were seventeâ—n hundred of them able to inspâ—re into all the Army Courage Discipline and the Love of their Prince That done he entred into Ethiopia which he made Tributary to him He went on with his Victories in Asia Jerusalem was the first that felt the force of his Arms. Rash and violent Rehoboam could not resist him so that Sesostris carried away the Riches of Solomon God by a just Judgment had delivered them into his hands He travelled into the Indies further than Hercules or Bacchus Ibid. and further than ever was done since Alexander for he subjugated the Country beyond Ganges You may therefore judge if the more neighbouring Countries withstood him The Scythians obeyed him even to Tanais Armenia and Cappadocia became his Subjects He left a Colony in the ancient Kingdom of Colchos where the Customs of Egypt have always continued since Herodotus hath seen in lesser Asia from one Sea to the other the Monuments of his Victories with the proud Inscriptions of Sesostris King of Kings and Lord of Lords There were some of them even in Thrace and he extended his Empire from Ganges to the Danube The difficulty of getting Victuals kept him from entring any further into Europe He returned after nine years loaden with the Spoils of all the conquered People Some of them had very couragiously defended their liberty others yielded without resistance Sesostris took care to mark out in his Monuments the difference of those in Hieroglyphick Figures after the manner of the Egyptians To describe his Empire he found out Geographical Cards A hundred famous Temples erected to the honour of the Tutelary Goâ—s of all the Towns were the first as well as the most beautiful Tokens of his Conquests and he was very careful to publish in the Inscriptions that those great Works had been accomplished without any fatigue to his Subjects Herod 10. Diod. ib. He made it his glory to govern them discreetly and not to make any but his Captives to assist at the Monuments of his Victories Solomon had given him the Example of it 2 Chron. 8.9 That wise Prince imployed only his Tributary People in the great Works which rendred his Reign Immortal The Citizens were ingaged in more noble Exercises they were men of War and chief of his Captains Sesostris could not regulate himself by a more perfect Model He reigned thirty three years and a long time enjoyed his Triumphs Diod. 1. §. 2. much more worthy of Honour and Glory if his Vanity had not made him to be drawn in his Chariot by vanquished Kings It seems he scorned to meet Death as other men for being become blind in his old Age he was his own Executioner in giving himself death and so leaving Egypt rich for ever His Empire however did not exceed the fourth Generation But there remained yet in the time of Tâ—â—erius very magnificent Monuments which sufficiently shewed the Extent of it as well as the Quantity of his Tributes Egypt soon returned to her own peaceful Humour Ticit Ann. 2. It has been writ that Sesostris was the first that after his Conquests softened the Tempers of the Egyptians into the fear of Revolting If we may believe so it could only be a Precaution he took up for his Successors Nymphod l. 12. rer barb post Herod wise and absolute as he was what could be seen that might make him fearful of his Subjects who adored him Besides such a Thought as that was unworthy so great a Prince and it was an ill Provision for the Security of his Conquests to suffer the Courage of his Subjects to be weakned and
Constantine assembled at Nice in Years of J. C. 315 Bythinia the first General Council where Years of J. C. 324 318 Bishops who represented all the Church Years of J. C. 325 condemned the Priest Arius that was an utter Enemy to the Divinity of Christ and there they made the Creed where the Consubstantiality of the Father and the Son was established The Priests of the Roman Church sent by Pope St. Sylvester preceded all the Bishops of that Assembly and an Antient Greek Author mentions among the Legates of the Holy See Gel. Cyric Hist. Conc. Nic. lib. ii 6. 27. the Famous Osiâ—s Bishop of Cordoüa who was President of that Council Constantine took his Seat there and received their Decisions as an Oracle from Heaven The Arians concealed their Errors and by their dissimulations recovered his good Favour Whilst that his valour kept the Empire in Soveraign Tranquillity Years of J. C. 320 the Quiet of his Family was disturbed by the Artifices of Fausta his Wife Crispus the Son of Constantine but by another marriage being accused by this his Step-mother for offering to violate her had the misfortune was to find his Father inflexible But his death was quickly revenged Fausta convicted was suffocated in the Bath But Constantine though he was dishonoured by the malice of his Wife yet at the same time received a great deal of Honour by the Piety of his Mother She discovered among the Ruins of the Old Jerusalem the True Cross that has been so fruitful in working of Miracles The Holy Sepulchre was likewise found The New City of Jerusalem which Adrian had caused to be built The place where our Saviour of the World was born and all the other holy Places were adorned with stately Temples by Helena and Constantine Four Years of J. C. 330 years after the Emperor rebuilt Bysantium which he called Constantinople and made it to be the second Seat of the Empire The peaceable Church under Constantine was miserably afflicted in Persia An infinite number of Years of J. C. 336 Martyrs there did signalize their Faith The Emperor in vain endeavoured to qualify Sapor and to bring him over to Christianity Constantine's Protection gave to the persecuted Christians a very favourable retreat Years of J. C. 337 That Prince blessed by all the Church departed this Life full of Joy and hope after he had shared the Empire amongst his three Sons Constantine Constantius and Constans But that Agreement was quickly troubled Constantine dyed in the War he had with his Brother Constance for the Limits of the Years of J. C. 340 Empire Constantius and Constance were not much longer united Constance held the Nicene Faith which Constantius opposed Then the Church admired the long and wonderful Sufferings of St. Athanasius the Patriarch of Alexandria and the defender of the Nicene Council Being driven from his See by Years of J. C. 341 Constantius Soc. Hist. Eccl. ii 15. Sozom. iii. 8. he was canonically re-invested by Pope St. Julius the first whose Decree Constance ratifyed and confirmed That good Prince lived not long The Tyrant Magnentius traiterously killed him but Years of J. C. 350 soon after conquered by Constantius he killed Years of J. C. 351 himself In the Battle where his Affairs were utterly quashed and ruined Valentiâ—s the Arrian Bishop secretly being advertised Years of J. C. 353 by his Friends assured Constantius that the Tyrant's Army was upon it's flight and made the weak Emperor to believe that this he knew by Revelation Upon this false Report Constantius delivers himself to the Arrians The Orthodox Bishops are banished from their Sees the whole Church is filled with confusion and trouble the constancy of Pop Liberius is overcome by the vexations of the exile torments force the Aged Osius Years of J. C. 357 to faint who was before the support and bulwark of the Church The Council of Rimini so strong at first no longer could hold out but yields by surprise and violence Nothing is done according to order and method The Emperor's Authority is now the only Law But the Arrians who did all by that means could not agree amongst themselves but were every day changing their Creed That of Nice continued St. Athanasius and St. Hilary Bishop of Poictiers it 's chief Defenders made themselves famous over all the Earth whilst the Emperor Constantius was so wholly taken up about the affairs of Arianism that he was carelâ—ss and negligent of those of the Empire the Persians got very considerable Advantages The Years of J. C. 357. 358. Germans and the Francs attempted on all Years of J. C. 359 parts to bring in the Gauls Julian one of the Emperâ—rs Kinsmen hindred them and beat them The Emperor himself defeated the Samatü and went against the Persians There began the Revolt of Julian against the Emperor his Apostasy the Death of Years of J. C. 360 Constantius the Reign of Julian his equitable Years of J. C. 361 Government and the new kind of Persecution which he brought upon the Church He made divisions in it he excluded the Christians not only from all manner of Honours but even from their Studies and in imitation of the Holy Discipline of the Church he thought to turn his own Arms against it Punishments were managed and appointed under other Pretences Years of J. C. 363 than that of Religion The Christians remained faithful to the Emperor but the Glory which he too earnestly sought destroyed him He was slain in Persia where he had too rashly and precipitately engaged himself Jovianus his Successor a zealous Christian sound things very sad and desperate and only lived to conclude a shameful Years of J. C. 364 and dishonourable Peace After him Valentinian made War like a mighty Captain he brought up his Son Gratianus to it very young kept up the Military Discipline beat the Barbanians fortified the Fronners of the Empire and protected the Nicene Faith in the West Valentius his Brother whom he made his Collegue persecuted it in the East and not being able to gain over nor to crush St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzen he despaired of ever being able to conquer it There were some Arrians that joyned new Errors to the antient Dâ—gmata and precepts of their Sect. Aëâ—â—us an Arrian Priest is taken notice of in the Writings of the Fathers as the Author of a new Heresie Epiph. har 75. Aug. haer 53. for having equalized the Priesthood to the Episcopacy and for adjudging the Prayers and Oblations which the whole Church used to put up for the Dead to be unavailable and insignificant A third Error of this Grand Heretic was his reckoning among the Servitudes of the Law the keeping of certain appointed Fasts and for this being of opinion that Fasts should be always free and voluntary He lived when St. Epiphanius made himself so famous by his History of Heresies where he among the rest is refuted St. Martin Years of J. C. 375 was made Bishop of Tours
the World it was that Man so much below Moses in all things and superiour only to him by his name it was He I say who was to bring the People of God into the holy Land By the Victories of that great Man before whom Jordan was driven back the Walls of Jericho fell down of themselves and the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven God established his Children in the Land of Canaan out of which by the same means he drove the abominable People By the hatred which his faithful ones had against them he inspired them with an extreme indignation of their wickedness and impiety and the punishment which was inflicted by their Ministry filled them themselves with fear of the Divine Justice of which they executed the Decrees One part of those People whom Joshua drove out ot their Land Procop. lib. 2. de bel Vand. went and planted themselves in Africa where was found a long time after in an ancient Inscription the Monument of their Flight and the Victories of Joshua After those miraculous Victories had put the Israelites in the possession of the greatest part of the Land which was promised to their Fathers Joshua and Eleazar the High Priest Jos 13 14. seq Numb 26.53.34.17 Jos 14 15. with the Heads of the twelve Tribes divided it among them according to the Law of Moses and assigned to the Tribe Judah time the first and the greatest Lot From the time of Moses it was set above the others in Number in Courage and in Dignity Joshua dyed and the People continued the Conquest of the Holy Land God would have the Tribe of Judah to march at the Head Numb 2.3.9.7.12.10.14 1 Chron. 5.2 Judg 1.1 2.4.8 and declared that he had delivered the Countrey into their hands In fine it overcame die Canaanites and took Jerusalem which was to be the holy City and the capital City of the People of God it was the ancient Salem where Melchisedek had reigned in Abraham's time Melchisedek that King of Righteousness Heb. 7.2 for that is the meaning of his Name and at the same time too King of Peace for that is King of Salem whom Abraham had owned for the greatest High-Priest in the World as if Jerusalem had then been destined for a holy City and the head of Religion That City was at first given to the Children of Benjamin who being weak and few in number could not drive out the Jebusites the ancient Inhabitants of Jerusalem but they dwelt among them Judg. 1.21 Under the Judges the People of God were variously treated according as they did well or ill After the death of the old men who had seen Miracles from the hand of God the remembrance of those mighty Works decayed and the universal inclination and bent of Mankind warp'd the People to Idolatry As often as they fell into it they were punish'd and as often as they repented they were delivered The Faith of Providence and the Truth of the Promise and the Threatnings of Moses was confirmed more and more in the hearts of the true Believers But God prepared also greater Examples of them The People demanded a King and God gave them Saul quickly reproved for his sins he at last resolved to establish a Royal Family from which e Messiah should come and he chose it in Judah David 1 Sam. 16.11.12 c. a young Shepherd sprung out of that Tribe the youngest of the Sons of Jesse whose merit neither his Father nor his Family knew but yet whom God found to be after his own heart was anointed by Samuel in Bethlehem which was his own Country Here the People of God IV. David the Kings and the Prophets to take up a Form more August and Magnificent the Kingdom was setled in the House of David That House began by two Kings of different Characters but both were admirable David a warlike and conquering Prince subdued the Enemies of the People of God whose Arms were dreaded over all the East and Solomon famous for his Wisdom both at home and abroad made that People happy by a profound Peace But the Progress of Religion does here require some particular Remarks upon the Lives of those two great Kingâ— David reigned at first over Judah mighty and victorious and afterwards he was owned over all Israel 2 Sam. 5.6 7 8 9. 1 Chron. 11.6 7 8. 1 Chron 2.16 He took from the Jebâ—sites the strong Hold of Zion which was the Citadel of Jerusalem Being Master of that Fortress he established there by the order of God the Sea of the Kingdom and that of Religâ—on and there he lived He built round about it and called it The City of David Joab his Sister 's built the rest of the City and Jerusalem took up a new form Those of Judah possessed all the Country and Benjamin being few in number dwelt together with them The Ark of the Covenant built by Moses where God dwelleth between the Cherubims and where the two Tables of the Decalogue were kept had then no fixed place David brought it in Triumph 2 Sam. 6.2 16 17. c. with shouting and with the sound of the Trumpet into Zion which he had conquered by the Almighty help of God that so God might reign in Zion and that he might be acknowledged there as the Protectors of David 1 Chro. 16.39.21.29 of Jerusalem and of all the Kingdom But the Tabernacle wherein the People had worshipped God in the Wilderness was yet at Gibeon and there it was where they offered their Sacrifices upon the Altar which Moses had built It was but in expectation that there would be a Temple where the Altar should be re-united with the Ark and where should be performed all the Service When David had conquered all his Enemies and had extended his Victories even to Euphrates being at quiet and a mighty Conquerour he at all his thought upon the establishing of the Divine Worship and on the same Mountain where Abraham went to Sacrifice his only Son 2 Sam. 8.11 1 Chron. 18. 2 Sam. 24.25 1 Chron. 21.22 seq Jos an t 7.10 and was stopped by the hand of an Angel he designed by the appointment of God the place of the Temple He said down all his Designs he amassed mighty noâ— and precious Materials for it he dedicated all the Spoils of his conquered Kings and People to it But that Temple which was so designed by the Conquerour was not to be built but by his Son and Successor the peaceable Solomon He built it after the Model of the Tabernacle The Altar of the Holocausts 1 Kings 6,7 8. 2 Chron. 3 4 5 6 7. the Altar of Incense the golden Candlestick the Tables of Shew Bread and all the other consecrated Moveables of the Temple were taken from the like Pieces which Moses had caused to be made in the Wilderness Solomon only added magnificence and grandeur to them The Ark which the Man of God
stirring up the least Sedition among Men it will excite all the Earth He is neither violent nor impetuous and he who was hardly known when in Judea shall not be only the Foundation of the Peoples Covenant but also the Light of all the Gentiles Ibid. 6. Under his admirable Reign the Assyrians and the Egyptians shall be no longer but one and the same People of God with the Israelites Blessed be Egypt my People and Assyria the work of my Hands Esai 10.25 and Israel mine Inheritance All shall become Israel Ibid. 60.1 2.3 4 11.61.1 2.3 11.62.1 2.65.1 2 15 16.66.19 20 21. Malach. 3.10 Psal 110.2 all shall become holy Jerusalem is no more particular private City It is the Image of a new Society where all the People are gathered together Europe Africa and Asia received Preachers in whom God had put his Sign that they might discover his Glory to the Gentiles The Elect till then called by the Name of Israel shall be called by a new Name which shall signify the fulfilling of the Promises and an happy Amen The Priests and the Levites who till then came from Aaron shall for the time to come come from the midst of the Heathens that is the Gentiles A new Sacrifice more pure and agreeable than the old shall be substituted in its place and then shall be known the reason why David had consecrated a High-Priest of a new Order The Just shall descend from Heaven as the Dew the Earth shall bring forth her But and it shall be the Saviour with whom Righteousness shall be seen to arise Heaven and Earth shall joyn to bring forth as by a common Delivery him that shall be both Heavenly and Earthly together New Ideas of Virtues shall appear in the World in his Examples and in his Doctrine and the Grace which he will shed abroad will imprint them in their Hearts Every thing will be changed by his coming and God hath sworn by himself and the word is gone out of his Mouth in Righteousness and shall not return Isai 45.23 that unto him every knee shall how and every tongue shall swear and acknowledg his soveraign Power This is one part of the marvellous things which God hath shewn to the Prophets under the Kings the Sons of David and to David before all others All have written beforehand the History of the Son of God who was also to be made the Son of Abraham and of David And thus every thing hath fell out in the Order of the divine Counsels This Messiah shewn afar off as the Son of Abraham is yet shewn more near as the Son of David An eternal Empire is promised to him The Knowledg of God is spread abroad throughout the World is set to us as the certain sign and as the fruit of his coming The Conversion of the Gentiles and the Blessing of all the People of the World so long since promised to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob is anew confirmed and all the People of God lived in that expectation In the mean time God governed them after a most admirable manner He made a new Covenant with David and obliged himself to protect him and the Kings his Successors if they would walk in the Commandments which he had given them by Moses 2 Sam. 7 8 9 10 c. 1 King 9.4 5. 2 Chron. 7.17 c. 2 Sam. 11 12 c. if not he pronounced against them very severe Punishments David who had forgot himself for a little while was the first who felt them but having somewhat recovered himself by his unfeigned Repentance he has a confluence of Wealth poured upon him and is proposed as the model of an accomplished King The Throne is established in his House 1. Kings 11. Whilst Solomon walked in the Steps of his Father's Piety he was happy but in his old Age he was drawn aside and God who spared him for the Love of his Servant David declared he would punish him in the person of his Son Thus he lets Parents to know that according to the secret Decree of his Judgments he makes their Punishments to continuâ— after their Death and he keeps them in submission to his Laws by that Interest which is the dearest that is the Interest of their Family In the Execution of his Decrees the foolishly wilfull Rehoboam is given up to an extravagant Council his Kingdom is lessened and ten of the tribes revolt from him 1 Kings 12.16 17 c. Whilst those ten Rebellious and Schismaticall Tribes were departed from their God and their King the Children of Judah who were faithful to God and to David whom he had chosen continued in the Covenant and in the Faith of Abraham The Levites and the Tribe of Benjamin joined with them the Kingdom of the People of God subsisted by their union under the name of the Kingdom of Judah and the Law of Moses was strictly observed In spight of the lamentable Idolatries and Corruption of the ten separated Tribes God remembred his Covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob his Law was not quite extinct amidst those rebellious People he was continually calling them back to Repentance by innumerable Miracles and by the constant warnings he sent them by his Prophets Hardned in their Wickedness at such a rate he could no longer bear with them 2 Kings 17.7 8 9 10 11 12 c. but he drove them out of the Land of Promise without hopes of ever suffering them to settle there again The History also of Tobit happened at the same time and during the beginnings of the Captivity of the Israelites it discovers to us the Conduct of the Elect of God who still remained in the separated Tribes That Holy Man Tob. 1.5 6 7. c. dwelling among them before the Captivity knew not only how to keep himself Pure from the Idolatries of his Brethren but also how to put the Law in Practice and to worship God publickly in the Temple of Jerusalem without ever being drawn aside by their ill examples or perswaded to a Compliance through servile fear Id. 19 20 21. When he was a Captive and persecuted at Nineveh he and his Family still retained their Piety and that admirable manner with which both he and his Son Tobias had their Faith rewarded even here upon Earth shews that notwithstanding Captivity and Persecution God had secret ways of making his Servants sensible of the Blessings of the Law in raising them evermore by the afflictions they were to suffer to higher and more exalted thoughts By the Examples of Tobit and his Holy Admonitions those of Israel were stirred up to acknowledge at least under the Rod the hand of God which chastised them but yet they almost all continued in obstinacy those of Judah so far were they from taking warning by Israel's Chastisements that they followed their ill examples God did not cease admonishing them by his Prophets whom he sent one after
the event and you will find how God confounded the proud Princes The holy Fathers and the Ecclesiastical Historians do with one common consent report it and justify it by Monuments which remain still from their time But the matter ought to be attested by Heathens themselves Amm. Marcel l. 23. init Ammianus Marcellinus a Gentile in his Religion and a zealous defender of Julian hath recorded it in these Terms Whilst Alipius being assisted by the Governor of the Province was advancing the Work with all the Might he could terrible Globes of Fire broke forth from the very Foundations which they before had shaken by violent Assaults the Workmen who several times essayed to begin the Work anew were many times burnt the place became inaccessible and so the undertaking fell The Ecclesiastical Authors who are more exact in representing so memorable an Event do joyn with that of the Earth the Fire of Heaven too But after all the Word of Jesus Christ abides firm and sure St. John Chrysostome cryes out Orat. in Judaeos He hath built his Church on the Rock nothing shall be able to overthrow it the Temple nothing shall be able to build up again None can pull down what God erects nor can any build up again what God pulls down Let us now make an end of our Discourse on Jerusalem and the Temple and cast our Eyes a little on the People themselves heretofore the living Temple of the Lord of Hosts and now the Object of his â—â—arred The Jews are more levelled than their Temple and their City The Spirit of Truth is no longer among them Prophecy is quite at an end with them the Promises on which the stress of their Hopes depends are vanished all things are topsy turvy with that People and there is not one Stone left upon another And do but observe how far they are delivered up to Error Jesus Christ told it them I am come in my Fathers Name John 5.43 and ye receive me not if another shall come in his own Name him ye will receive From that time the Spirit of Seduction hath been so predominant among them that they are ready still at every moment to let themselves be carried away by it It was not enough that the false Prophets should deliver Jerusalem into the Hands of Titus the Jews were not as yet banished Judea and the Love they had for Jerusalem had obliged several of them to choose their Place of Abode among its Ruines Behold a false Christ arose up who was absolutely to compleat their Destruction Fifty Years after the taking of Jerusalem in the Age of the Death of our Lord the famous Barchochebas a Robber a wicked Wretch because his Name signified the Son of the Star impiously called himself the Star of Jacob foretold in the Book of Numbers and pretended he was the Christ Akibas Numb 24.17 Euseb Hist Eccles 4.6 8. a Man of greatest Authority among the Rabbi's after whose Example all those whom the Jews call their Sages came over to his Party tho' the Impostor gave than no other sign of his Mission but that Akibas told them the Christ could not be very far off The Jews revolted throughout all the Roman Empire under the Conduct of Barchochebas â—alm Hier. de jejuâ— â—5 in ver Comm. sup Lam. Jerem. Maimonid li. de jur Reg. c. 12. who promised them the Empire of the World Adrian killed six hundred thousand of them The Yoke of those miserable Wretches was very heavy and they were for ever banished Judea Who is there but sees that the Spirit of Seduction had seized their hearts Because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved 2 Thess 2.10 11 12. for that cause God sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness There is no Imposture so gross but what deceives them In our days an Impostor called himself Christ in the East and all the Jews began to run in Flocks about him we have seen them in Italy in Holland in Germany and at Metz ready to leave all for the sake of following him They imagined already that they were becoming the Masters of the World when they learnt that their Christ was made a Turk and had forsook the Law of Moses We need not to wonder if they be fallen into such Dispersions X. The Progress of the Jewish Errours and the manner how they explain the Prophecies nor if the Tempest has scattered them after they had forsaken their own way That way was pointed out to them in their Prophecies especially in those which designated the time of our Saviour Christ But they let slip those precious Opportunities without any whit benefitting themselves by them wherefore we have seen them afterwards given up to believe a lye and they never knew since what course to take Give me leave a little to recount to you the course and progress of their Errors and all the Methods they have taken to sink themselves into this Abyss The ways by which we come to wander tend always to the broad Road and by considering where our wandring hath begun we may more securely go on in the right way Your Highness hath seen that two Prophecies have set forth to the Jews the time of Christ's coming that of Jacob and that of Daniel They both did foretell the ruine of the Kingdom of Judah at the time of our Saviour's Advent But Daniel revealed how that a total Destruction should come upon that Kingdom after the death of Christ and Jacob said plainly that in the Declension of the Kingdom of Judah that Christ which should then come should be the Expectation of the People that is to say that he should be the Deliverer of them and that he should erect to himself a new Kingdom not only framed out of one single People but out of all the People of the World The words of the Prophecy can admit of no other sense and it was the constant positive Tradition of the Jews that they were thus to understand it From thence that Opinion which was spread abroad by the ancient Rabbies and which is yet to be seen in their Talmud Gem. tr Sanhed c. 11. that at the time that Christ was to come there should be no more Magistracy so that there was nothing more necessary to make them know the time of their Messias than only to observe when they were falling into that woful Condition In fine they had begun well and if they had not had their minds prepossessed with the worldly Grandeurs which they hoped to find in their Messias and which they thought to have a share of under his Empire they could never have been mistaken in Jesus Christ The Foundation they had laid was certain for as soon as the Tyranny of the first Herod and the change of the Jewish Commonwealth which happened
divided Cities and Commonwealths by a Kingdom little indeed of it self but united and where the Royal Power was absolute that at last partly by Stratagem and partly by force he made himself the most puissant of Greece and obliged all the Grecians to march under his Standards against the Common Enemy He was slain in those Conjunctures but Alexander his Son succeeded to his Kingdom and to his Designs He found the Macedonians not only trained up to Martial discipline but also triumphant and become by so many successes almost as much superiour to the other Grecians in Valour and Discipline as the other Grecians were above the Persians and such like sort of People Darius who reigned in Persia in his time was just valiant generous beloved of his People and wanted neither Wit nor Courage to execute his Designs But if you compare him with Alexander his Wit with that piercing and sublime Genius His Valour with that haughtiness and steadiness of that invincible Courage which was the more animated by the Obstacles that he met with with that unmeasurable Ambition of encreasing daily his Name which made him prefer the least advance of Honour to all manner of Dangers Labours and to a thousand Deaths In a word with that Confidence that made him think verily and from his Heart that all ought to submit to him as to one whom his Destiny rendred superiour to all others a Confidence which he inspired not only into his Chiefs but also into the least of his Soldiers whom he raised by that means above difficulties and even above themselves You will quickly judg to whom of them two the Victory belonged And if you add to these things the advantages which the Greeks and the Macedonians had above their Enemies you will confess that Persia being attacked by such an Hero and by such Arms could no longer hold out from changing Masters Thus will you discover at the same time what ruined the Persian Empire and what raised up that of Alexander To make his Victory the more easy it happened that Persia lost the only General that could oppose the Greeks it was Memnon the Rhodian Diod. 17. Sect. 1. When Alexander had vanquished so famous and renowned a Captain he might boast that he had overcome an Enemy that was worthy of him Instead of hazarding against the Greeks a general Battle Memnon would needs dispute all the passages with them would cut off all their Victuals would go and attack them among themselves and by a vigorous onset would force them to come and defend their Country Alexander had prepared for them and the Troops he had committed to Antipater were enough to keep Greece But his good Fortune did on the sudden deliver him from that Embarrass At the beginning of a Diversion which already disturbed all Greece Memnon dyed and Alexander brought all under his Feet That Prince made his Entrance into Babylon with so glorious a shew that surpassed all that ever yet the World had seen and after he had revenged Greece after he with an increâ—â—dible Expedition had brought under all the Lands of the Persian Domination to secure his new Empire on all sides or rather to gratify his Ambition and make his name more famous than that of Bacchus he went into India where he extended his Conquests farther than that renowned Conqueror But him that Desarts Rivers and Mountains were not able to stop was constrained to yield to his tyred Soldiers who desired thâ—n some repose Being forced to content himself with the proud Monuments he left upon the Borders of Araspes he brought back his Army by another way than that he had gone and subdued all the Countries which he found in his Passage He came back to Babylon feared and respected not as Conqueror but as a God But that formidable Empire he had conquered lasted no longer than his Life which was very short too When he was but three and thirty Years of Age in the midst of the vastest Designs that ever Man had conceived and with the justest hopes of a most happy Success he died before he had the opportunity solidly to settle his affairs leaving a weak Brother and Children very young behind him incapable of supporting so great a weight But what was most fatal both to his House and to his Empire was that he left behind him Captains whom he had taught to breath out nothing but Ambition and War He saw to what excesses they would rise when he should be taken out of the World He to retain them and for fear he should be contradicted durst neither name his Successor nor who should be the Tutor of his Children He only foretold them that his Friends would celebrate his Funerals with bloody Battles and so he expired in the flower of his Age full of sad Images and Ideas of the Confusion which would attend his Death In fine you have seen the partage of his Empire and the frightful ruin of his House Macedonia his antient Kingdom enjoyed by his Ancestors for so many Ages was invaded on all sides as a vacant Succession and after it had been long the Prey of the strongest it went at last to another Family Thus that great Conquerour the most renowned and most illustrious that ever was was likewise the last of his Race If he had continued peaceable and quiet in Macedonia the greatness of his Empire would not have been a temptation to his Captains and he might have left to his Children the Kingdom of his Fathers But because he had been so very powerful he was the cause of the loss of all his own and thus you see what was the glorious fruit of so many Conquests His Death was the only cause of that great revolution For this must be said to his eternal Honour that if ever Man was capable of maintaining so vast an Empire although newly conquered without doubt it was Alexander for the strength of his Mind was equal to his Courage It ow'd not therefore to his faults tho' he had very great ones the fall of his Family but only to Mortality unless we will say that a Man of his Humour and whose ambition engaged him still to new undertakings could never be at leisure to settle things well Be it how it will we learn by his Example that besides the Faults which Men might correct that is to say those they are guilty of thro' heat of Transport or thro' Ignorance there is an irrecoverable Weakness inseparably annexed to humane Designs and that is Mortality Every thing may fall in a Moment by that way That which forces us to confess that as the most inherent Vice if it may be allowed me to speak so and the most inseparable from humane things is their own Frailty He who knows how to preserve and strengthen a State hath found out a higher point of Wisdom than he that can conquer and gain Battles It is needless to tell you in particular what destroyed those Kingdoms that were formed
of those Laws belonged to them Jealousie increased by those Pretensions made them to resolve by common Consent to send an Embassy into Greece to search therefor the Institutions of the Cities of that Country and especially for the Laws of Solon which were the most popular The Laws of the twelve Tables were established and the Decemviri who digested them were deprived of the Power which they abused Whilest every thing appeared placid and tranquil and that such equitable Laws seem'd eternally to establish the publick Repose Dissentions started up again by new Pretensions of the People who aspired to Honours and to the Consulate which till then were reserved only to the first Order The Law to admit them to them was propounded Rather than to have the Consulate pulled down the Fathers consented to the Creation of three new Magistrates who should have the Authority of Consuls under the Name of Military Tribunes and the People were admitted to that Honour Being contented to have their Right established they used moderately their Victory and continued sometimes in giving the Command to the Patricii only After long and various Disputes they returned to the Consulate and by degrees the Honours became common between the two Orders tho' the Patricii were always the most considered in the Elections The Wars continued and the Romans subjected after five hundred Years the Gaules Cisalpines App. praef Ep. their principal Enemies and all Italy There began to Punick Wars and things went on so forward that each of those two jealous People believed they could not subsist but by the Ruine of the other Rome ready to fall was chiefly kept up during her Misfortunes by the Constancy and Wisdom of the Senate At last the Roman Patience got the better Hannibal was overcome and Carthage subjugated by Scipio Africanus Victorious Rome enlarged her self prodigiously for two hundred Years both by Sea and by Land and reduced all the World under her Power In those times and since the Ruine of Carthage the Offices whose Dignity as well as Profit increased with the Empire were underhand furiously laboured for The Ambitious Pretenders took care only to flatter the People and the concord of the Orders held up by the Business of the Punick Wars was troubled more than ever The Gracchi put all things into Confusion and their seditious Propositions were the begâ—nning of all the Civil Wars Then began they to bear Arms and by open Force to act in the Assemblies of the Roman People where before every one desired only to carry it by lawful Ways and with Liberty of Opinions The wise Conduct of the Senate and the great Wars happening moderated their Disorders Marius the Plebeian a great Man of War with his military Eloquence and his seditious Harangues wherewith he was continually attacking the Pride of the Nobles awakened the Peoples Jealousies and by that means raised himself to the greatest Honours Sylla a Patrician put himself at the Head of the contrary Party and became the Object of Marius his Jealousie Factions and Corruptions could do all things in Rome The Love of their Country and deference to their Laws were quite extinguished there And to compleat their Miseries the Wars of Asia taught the Romans Luxury and increased their Avaâ—ice Then the Generals began to joyn themselves to their Souldiers who till that time saw nothing but the Character of publick Authority in them Sylla in the War against Mithridates let his Souldiers enrich themselves the better to gain them Marius on his side proposed to his Associates the Shares of both Money and Lands By that means being Masters of their Troops the one under pretence of supporting the Senate and the other under the name of the People they made a most furious War even in tne Heart of the City The Party of Marius and of the People were utterly beaten and Sylla made himself a Soveraign under the Name of Dictator He made most dreadful Slaughters and treated the People with Severity both in Deeds and Words even in their lawful Assemblies Being more Puissant and better established than ever he retreated to a private Life but it was after he had shewn that the Romans could indure a Master Pompey whom Sylla had raised succeded to a great part of his Power He flattered sometimes the People and sometimes the Senate to get himself established But his Inclination and Interest at length fixed him to the latter Being a Conqueror of the Pyrates of Spain and all the East he became very puissant in the Republick and in the Senate Caesar who was resolved at least to be his Equal turned to the People's side and imitating in his Consulate the most seditious Tribunes he proposed with the Divisions of the Land the most popular Laws he could invent The Conquest of the Gaules brought the Glory and Power of Caesar to the highest Pitch Pompey and he were united thro' Interest and afterwards broke again thro' Jealousie The Civil War began to kindle Pompey thought that his Name alone would carry all and so neglected himself Caesar active and discerning obtained the Victory and got the Mastery of him He made several Attempts to see whether the Romans could be brought to use the name of King But they only served to make him odious To increase the publick Hatred the Senate decreed him Honours until then unheard of in â—oâ—e so that he was slain in the full Senate as a Tyrant Anthony his Creature who was Coâ—sul at the time of his Death stirred up the People against those who had killed him and indeavoured to take his Advantage of those Commotions to usurp the soveraign Authority Lepidus who had also a great Command under Caesar indeavoured to keep it At last young Caesar â—bout nineteen Years of age undertook to revenge the Death of his Father and so sought an Occasion to succeed to his Power He knew how for his own Interest to make use of the Enemies of his House and even of his Competitors His Father's Troops went over to him being touched with the name of Caesar and the prodigious Rewards which he promised them The Senate signified nothing any longer All things were done by Force and Souldiers who were at their Service that would give 'em most In that fatal Conjuncture the Triumvirate destroyed all those whom Rome had bred up that were of greatest Courage and most opposite to Tyranny Caesar and Anthony defeated Brutus and Cassius Liberty expired with them The Conquerors after they had got rid of feeble Lepidus made divers Accords and divers Partages where Caesar as being the more Cunning found always the way how to get the better part and so put Rome into his Interests and overtopped him Anthony in vain undertook to relieve himself and the Battle of Actium brought the whole Empire under the Power of Augustus Caesar Rome being weary and exhausted by so many civil Wars to get some Repose was forced to renounce her Liberty The House of the Caesars fixed