whole time of the Reign of these Persian Kings was 130 Years from the time of the Decree to rebuild Ierusalem Upon the Death of Darius the last Persian Monarch Alexander the Great succeeded in the Monarchy and reigned six Years After whose Death reigned the Ptolomees or Lagidae in Egypt for I will trace the remaining Years by this Line and not by that of the Kings of Syria or Macedon these being more intricate in this order Ptolomaeus Lagi Forty Years Ptolomaeus Philadelphus Thirty four Ptolomaeus Euergetes Twenty five Ptolomaeus Philapator Sixteen Ptolomaeus Epiphanes Twenty four Ptolomaeus Philometor Thirty five Ptolomaeus Eurgetes Twenty nine Ptolomaeus Physcon Seventeen another Ptolomee Ten another called Soter Eight Ptolom Dionysius Thirty Cleopatra Twenty two at which time the Greek Monarchy ended after it had held out 296 Years After her Death Augustus who was properly the first Emperor of Rome and began the Roman Monarchy reigned 43 Years whom succeeded Tiberius in whose Eighteenth Year our Blessed Lord suffered which two Numbers viz. Eighteen and Forty three put together make Sixty one Years Now then reckon all these Summs viz. 130 Years of the Persian Kings Reigns 296 Years of the Successors of Alexander 61 Years of Augustus and Tiberius and you will find that they amount to 487 Years which wants Three Years of the Compleat Summ viz. 490 Years or Seventy Weeks Wherefore to supply this we must remember that Christ suffered as the Prophesie expresly saith in the midst of the last Week and so by adding Three Years we shall make the 490 Years compleat I cannot say this Calculation of the Years of the Kings is Exact nor can any Man say that any other is for there is no little Obscurity in the History relating to those Monarchs and the right Order and Succession the true Number and Names of them and the time of their Reign Wherefore the Accompt must be taken and fixed with some Latitude and we must be content with this because we can attain to no other But from what I have offered we are as to the main certain of the Truth of this Prophesie and we cannot doubt of the Evidence of the Accompt in general It is most plain that the Seventy Weeks are to be reckoned from the Twentieth Year of the Reign of King Artaxerxes Loâ—gimanus in which Year and not before the Royal Decree came forth to restore and build the City and to finish the Temple which Zerobabel had begun and it is as plain that these Seventy Weeks had their Expiration about the time of our Saviour's Passion and Death Or if we exactly and precisely make the Computation we must say that his Death fell in the middle of the last Week After all this I must freely declare that we need not be Dogmatical and Punctual in the Interpreting this Prophesie Though I offer that Calculation before specified as the most Probable yet this is certain that if you take the Beginning of the Seventy Weeks according to some of those other Opinions and fix them to their respective Endings you will find that they do not fall much amiss they do not considerably come short of Seventy Weeks of Years nor are they much redundant Which truly is as much as we can rationally expect in the Present Case considering that the Chronology of that time is Difficult and Intricate and Historians hugely differ in the Account of the Years of those Monarchs Therefore * Hiâ—ronym in loc Augustin de Civ Dei l. 18. some of the Antient Fathers shun the Question about the Beginning and Ending of the Seventy Weeks and hold it too Difficult to solve Yea a Modern Father of the Protestant Churches abroad declares that here is place only for ‖ Coâ—jectuâ—â utendum eâ—t Calvin Conjecture and accordingly he propounds his But this is too Loose and Lavish And much more is that of another †Reinold Praelect 1â—8 Writer who absurdly imagines that the Seventy Weeks are to be taken indefinitely as if a certain Number were here put for an Uncertain one This no Man of deliberate Thoughts can swallow down because this great Number is afterwards divided into lesser and more distinct Portions as much as to assure us that a Determinate Number was meant for if the parts of the Number be definite and determined if they be fixed for such particular Transactions then it must undeniably follow that the whole Number is definite and fixed also But yet it must be acknowledged that it is very Difficult to determine the Exact Beginning and Punctual Ending of these Prophetick Weeks I have after the Attempts of many others propounded that way which seems to me most probable and I submit it to the Censure and Judgment of the Reader Some take the beginning of the Calculation from one thing and others from another but the general Reason of them all is the same for at that Time they think the word went forth for the Restauration of Ierusalem But I having fixed the going forth of the word i. e. The Royal Commandment or Decree I having by unquestionable Arguments determined this I hope there is no farther occasion of disputing about the True Beginning or Epoche of the Seventy Weeks And having gained this Point we have secured the next also for the End of these Weeks depends upon their Beginning and must be regulated and determined by it when we know one we are not to seek for the other However though some place the End of this Computation at one time and some at another yet they all agree in the Main that is they all confess that the Seventy Weeks are placed in some Period between the Return from Babylon and the last Overthrow of Ierusalem And consequently they agree in this that these Seventy Weeks are long since past and gone And that our Saviour is meant by Messiah in this Prophesie no Man can have any reason to doubt in the least for who can these Descriptions and Characters which you meet with here agree to but to Christ The Messiah was to be cut off for the sins of others which can be understood only of Christ Iesus who was the Lamb of God that came to take away the sins of the World So likewise the making of Reconciliation for Iniquity is the alone Office of Christ our Messias And therefore the Old Jews used to say the Messias should be Ish caphar a Man of Propitiation a Man that should make Atonement and Satisfaction for Sin To Christ alone belong the bringing in and confirming the Covenant the New Law and Religion of the Gospel And the causing the Sacrifices to cease i. e. The Abolishing of all the Mosaick Rites and Ceremonies can be meant of none but Him Particularly as to the last of these it is plain that Christ was to come whilst the Iewish Temple stood and whilst Sacrifices were offered for he could not make them to cease unless they were in being Now then the Sacrifices being
this we are to note that the departing of the Scepter was by degrees it began some time before our Saviour's Birth and was in a short time compleated I say before Christ's coming in the Flesh the departing of the Jewish Government had its Beginning For it is evident from unquestionable Writers that Antipater an Idumaean was set over the Iews by Iulius Caesar and Antigonus who was the last of the Jewish Kings and of Jewish Race was deposed Now it might be said that the Scepter departed from Judah viz. when a Person not by Birth a Jew but a mere Alien was forced upon them and usurped the Jewish Government Till this time their Governours were always Iews but now ever afterwards all the rest were Strangers and Gentiles This was the first step of the Total Departure of the Scepter but it more signally and eminently departed quite from that Nation when Herod the Son of this Antipater was set over them For he upon the Death of Caesar hastened to Rome aâ—d by complaining to the Roman Senate and by Anthony's means whom he had bribed was made King of Iudea Whereupon at his return he indeavoured to exâ—iâ—pate all the Blood Royal he put to death 〈◊〉 and Hircanus the right Heirs of the Crown he kill'd all of the Tribe of Iudah and of the Family of the Asmonaei whom he fear'd might contend with him for the Kingdom and he reigned at Ierusalem as King of Iudea but without the Iews consent He was a considerable time a great Scourge and Plague to the Iews who would by no means acknowledge a Stranger for their King But he to oblige and win them embraced their Religion and rebuilt their Temple which had this Effect upon them that at last they voluntarily resigned the Right of the Kingdom to him and owned him for their King and swore Fealty to him This was in the two and thirtieth Year of his Reign in which Year likewise Christ was born So that the Prophesie was exactly fulfilled when the Jewish Kingdom had changed its True Owner and the Scepter was actually departed from Iudah and that with the Consent of the Iews which never was before then Christ came This was in the Two and fortieth Year of Augustus when Cyrenius was the Prefect of Syria Luke 2. 2. And that it may appear that the Scepter was 〈◊〉 from Judah it is signally recorded that Augustus taxed Iudea 1 3 4 Verses of that Chapter Herod paid Tribute to Caesar the whole Land was subject to the Empire and the Iews had no Dominion of their own Thus till this Herod the Great 's time the Kingly Government continued in the Tribe of Iudah and the Royal Scepter did not depart till this Stranger reigned over them for he was the first Jewish King of strange Blood and Descent It is unreasonable to attend to what ‖ Scaliger Casaubon some alledge that he was not an Alien but one of the Israelitish Nation and a Iew by Birth Which mistake they have run into because they read that Herod was a Iew and was circumcised which was only to please the Iews and to settle himself in the Kingdom but this proves not that he was a Iew by Birth The contrary appears from the best ‖ St. Ierom Eusebius Epiphanius and other Fathers Records Yea Iosephus the Iew tells us expresly that he was by his Father an Idumean and by his Mother an Arabian Africanus and others derive his Pedegre otherwise but all make him a Foreigner and Stranger And they all agree that the Iews owned him for their King and that he was the first Stranger whom they admitted to sway the Scepter over them and consequently that in Him this Divine Oracle began to be fulfilled viz. That the Scepter should depart from Judah And when our Saviour conversed here on Earth this Prophesie was still accomplished more and more For we find that the Iewish Sanhedrim had lost their Judicial Power of Life and Death and in all things truckled to the Roman Governours that were set over them And at last at the Destruction of Ierusalem their whole Power was quite Extinct and the Scepter and Law-giver totally and finally departed from them Then the Government of every sort the Priesthood and the Magistracy the Making of Laws and the Executing them the State and Religion the Commonwealth and the Church were destroyed together and so this Sacred Prediction was compleatly fulfilled You see then that there were Degrees of it and therefore 't is Vain and Idle to interpret this Prophesie of a Moment of time A punctual Designation of a certain Minute Season is unreasonable for the Government and Authority of the Iews decayed gradually till there was at length a final departing of them This then is the Grand thing represented in this Prophesie that at or about Christ's Coming the Scepter departed from the Nation of the Iews Which is as much as we desire to prove the Real Fulfilling of this Antient Prediction and from thence the Truth of Christianity For thus we argue the Jewish Scepter was to depart when Christ came It is manifest and undeniable that that Scepter is departed therefore Christ is come The Overthrow of the Jewish Polity Magistracy and Government is a certain Sign Proof and Demonstration that our Iesus is the Christ and that this Christ is come It is true there was heretofore an Interruption of the Scepter but the Iews returned to their Land and Rule again But now for above Sixteen hundred Years there hath been no shew at all of a Scepter and Kingdom which is an undeniable Argument that the Scepter is quite departed Therefore the Talmud often saith that this Prediction refers to the Particular Case of the Iews so that when Magistracy ceased in Ierusalâ—m and the Kingdom and Jurisdiction were cast off they ought presently to expect the Messiah And those are Remarkable words of R. David Kimchi on Hos. 3. 4 The Children of Israel shall abide many days without a King and without a Prince and without a Sacrifice c. These saith he are the times of Exile in which we are at this day we have neither a King nor a Prince of the Stock of Israel but we are under the Power of the Gentiles and under the Power of the Kings and Princes of the Gentiles Which is as much as to confess that this Prophesie which I have been commenting upon is accomplished That the Scepter is departed from Judah and that the Messias who is the Blessed Iesus the True Shiloh the Saviour the Peace-maker the Prosperer is come The second Text enquired into viz. Exod. XXVIII 30. Thou shalt put in the Breast-plate of Iudgment the Urim and the Thummim THis Renowned Oracle of the Iews hath employed the Thoughts and Studies of many Learned Persons both Iews and Christians but the Result of their Enquiries hath been very different For some after all their Searches have brought in an Ignoramus Thus R. David Kimchi expresly averreth
for building the Temple only and no more And it is said expresly That Artaxerxes in his seventh Year gave leave to the Jews to take care of whatsoever was needful for the House of their God Ezra 7. 20. There is not a word in these three Commissions concerning the building of the City the Street and the Wall Therfore I infer that the last Commission is meant here which was expresly for rebuilding the City and the Walls and Gates Accordingly Nehemiah to whom the Commission was given raised the Walls and set up Gates and so finished the Building of the City which was in the twentieth Year of Artaxerxes This hath not been taken notice of by several Learned Men and hath caused them to mistake the True Aera of this Prophesie But certainly this is a very useful and necessary Key for the opening of the Text. You see plainly that the Prohesie begins from that time when Nehemiah was sent to effect this and not before for there was not before this Time any License or Power given to the Jews to restore and build the City Artaxerxes and he only was the Prince that did this he gave order in the Twentieth Year of his Reign for the Restoring and Re-edifying of Ierusalem and setting up the very Walls of it which was the last thing to be done Therefore in the Twentieth Year of this Artaxerxes was the Beginning of the Seventy Weeks of Daniel I think this matter is very evident in it self And besides as to the forementioned Edicts the first of them viz. That of Cyrus cannot be the beginning of the Seventy Weeks because there are above 560 Years from Cyrus to Christ's Death for Cyrus's Edict was about the Sixtieth Oâ—ympiad and Christ's Death was about 202 Olympiad And the three other Epoches are also too much backward to be thought to be the times when the Seventy Weeks began There are * Isaac Vossius De la Haye some that hold they commenced from the Compleating and Finishing of the Building of Ierusalem which was in the Three and twentieth Year of the Reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus when Nehemiah made a Feast of Dedication of the New City Neâ—em 12. 27 c. which is called the Sacrifice of Dedication and of Finishing the Temple 2 Macc. 2. 9. That this was in the Three and twentieth Year of Artaxerxes may be gathered also from Iosephus in his * Lib. 11. c. â— Antiquities At that time all was compleated the Work was at an end and to this purpose the Authors of this Opinion understand the going forth of the Commandment in a Sense far different from what was represented in the foregoing Opinions They maintain that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 25. is the going out or ending of the word and accordingly is translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Septuagint and by the Vulgar Latin Exitus and so signifieth the Fulfilling and Accomplishing of the Commandment or Edict concerning Building Ierusalem Or this Motza dâ—bar is Exitus rei the finishing of the Thing for a word instead of a thing is an usual Idiom in the Hebrew and in other Oriental Languages and so the meaning is that from the Actual and Real Compleating of the Building of the City unto the Messias shall be Seventy Weeks therefore from that time the Weeks begin But this is but a Critical Notiâ—n and hath no considerable weight in it especially if you remember that this Phrase the going forth of the Commandment was used once or twice before in this Chapter I ask then the Authors of this Opinion whether it is to be understood so then as well as now If they say not then they must give a reason why it should be understood so here and not before which I believe they are not able to give an account of neither did they think of this when they espoused the former Notion But if it be understood here as before then there is this palpable Absurdity to be granted that the thing was finished in the Twentieth Year of Artaxerxes's Reign and yet that it was not finished till the Twenty third Year of his Reign whereas there can be but one finishing To which I add That it is evident from other places of Scripture that Motza dabar is no other than the Promulgation of the Command or Decree for so this going forth signifies in Dan. 2. 13. and Esther 1. 19. When the Edict is published and made known then 't is said to go forth Wherefore the foresaid Opinion is a mere straining and perverting of the Hebrew Phrase So much for the Beginning of Daniel's Seventy Weeks It is most clear and evident that they began from the Decree of Artaxerxes Longimanus in the Twentieth Year of his Reign For this must be rembred That the Edict here spoken of is meant of the rebuilding of Jerusalem the Streets and the Walls but mentions not the rebuilding of the Temple I grant that the City was begun to be built before this Edict came forth as may be gathered from Ezra 4. 12. but there was no Royal Command and Authority for this only the Jews were necessitated to build some part of the City that they might have a Habitation and Shelter to be in whilst they were erecting the Temple But afterwards Nehemiah came with Authority from Artaxerxes and with a particular Order and Express Command to build what was wanting in Ierusalem to erect the Walls and effectually to finish the whole Work There was no Edict for doing this but this Particular one in the Twentieth Year of Artaxerxes's Reign In the next place I am to speak of the End and Period of these Weeks Hippolytus the Maâ—tyr placed it in the Birth of Christ others in his Bapâ—ism and some in his Preaching but * Asriâ—anas Bede Lâ—râ— Burgâ—nsis Mâ—rcator Funccius Bucboltzâ—r Lansbâ—rgius Pererius Beroaldus â—acob Lud. Capellus Eroughton Willâ—t Lightfoot most terminate the Seventy Weeks in his Death for then those things were fulfilled which the Prophesie mentions viz. Finishing the Transgression making Reconciliation for Iniquity c. These were the proper Fruits of the Passion and Death of Christ and therefore it is most reasonable to believe that the Seventy Weeks or Four hundred and ninety Years expired with our Saviour on the Cross. But though this in the Latitude of speaking be very true yet if we would be Exact we must say that the Four hundred and ninety Years ended not just at Christ's Death but Three Years and a half or thereabouts after it This I will make evident to you thus The Angel expresly saith That after the Threescore and two Weeks joynâ—d to the Seven mentioned immediately before which together make Threescore and nine Weeks shall Messiah be cut off Whence it is plain that Christ's Death falls within the Seventieth Week for if it be after the Threescore and nine Weeks it must necessarily be in the Seventieth Week when there are no more reckoned beyond that as is
the present case This Seventieth or last Week may be divided into three parts and we have ground for this Division in the Prophesie it self which mentions the midst of the Week If there be a Middle there is also a Beginning and an End In the beginning of this Prophetick Week which you know consists of Seven Years the Messias confirmed the Covenant i. e. The New Testament by his Holy Doctrine Life Laws and Miracles and now his Apostles preached the Covenant of the Gospel The Week began with his Baptism Three Years and a half before his Passion in the fifteenth Year of Tiberius at which time Sixty nine Weeks or Four hundred and eighty three Years were accomplished and the Seventieth Week succeeded The Beginning or Former part of this Week consisted of above Three Years and it is distinguished into four Passovers The first Passover of Christ's Publick Ministry is mentioned in Iohn 2. 13. from whence begins the first Year of the Seventieth and last Hebdomade of Daniel The second Passover you find in Iohn 5. 1. compared with Iohn 4. 35. Here begins the second Year of the Seventieth Week The third Passover whence the third Year of Daniel's last Week takes its Rise is in Iohn 6. 4. The fourth Passover when Christ our Passover was slain about three Years and a half after his Baptism produced the fourth Year of the last of Daniel's Weeks This is that which is called the Midst of the Week as you have heard in the midst of the week he shall cause the Sacrifices and Oblations to cease This was verified when the Messias by his Death abolished the Old Law and Covenant when the Sacrifices ceased by this High Priests making an Oblation of himself on the Altar of the Cross. Though the Middle in the Stile of Scripture be not always properly and exactly taken yet here in this Prophesie it is to be understood in the Strict and most Proper Sense for Christ Suffered and Died in the fourth Year of this Prophetick Week which is the very Middle of Seven yea in the Middle of that fourth Year which is yet more Exact and Precise Now if Christ was put to Death in the Middle of the last Week as the Angel foretold then the Seventy Weeks cannot be terminated in Christ's Death because there were but Sixty nine Weeks and a half compleated at that time And if there was half a Week behind for the Middle part of the Week was but short Christ's Death taking up but little time then the Latter part or End of the Week must contain in it Three Years and a half or thereabouts and consequently the Seventy Weeks or Four hundred and ninety Years ended not just at our Saviour's Death but about Three Years and a half after it which was the thing to be proved This is the most Exact Account that I can offer to you I know there are * Trâ—ullian Chrysostom Sulpâ—tius Seâ—â—ruâ— Drusius Scâ—liger Calvisius Learned Writers and Chronologers who extend the Period of the Seventy Weeks to the Destruction of Ierusalem by Titus Vespasian but they were unwarily drawn into this Opinion by fixing their Minds on those words in the Prophesie The People of the Prince that shall come shall destâ—oy the City and Sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a Flood and unto the end of the War Desolations are determined And again For the overspreading of Abominations he shall make it desolate Which without doubt are a Prediction of the Overthrow of the Temple and City of Ierusalem by the Roman Armies And because this is joyned with the Seventy Weeks those Persons think that the Weeks end at this time But this is no necessary Consequence because here is only mentioned what shall follow upon the expiring of the Seventy Weeks the direful Recompense of the Jews cutting off the Messias is foretold This horrible Devastation shall happen not long after the 490 Years are compleated but you cannot conclude thence that these Years were just fulfilled at the Devastation and Ruin of Ierusalem in the second Year of Vespasian It remains now that I give you the Particular and Distinct Computation of these 490 Years which yet it is something difficult to do by reason of the Uncertainty in Chronology as must be confessed by all Persons that have consulted variety of Authors and those that have not done so are no Competent Judges here but the Disagreement among these Writers is not so great as wholly to discourage us I have laid their Calculations together and have duly compared them and upon an impartial ballancing of the whole difference among Chronologers in computing these Years I settle the Accompt thus The Twentieth Year of Artaxerxes's Reign was in the Year of the Worlds Creation 3497 at the end of the 81 Olympiad and the time of Christ's Passion was in the Year of the World 3983 at the beginning of the 203 Olympiad and consequently the fourth Year after Christ's Passion was A. M. 3987 and the beginning of 204 Olympiad This Calculation is indifferently fixed and will be agreed to by all Parties that are moderate Now if you reckon the Years that were between these two Periods viz. between 3497 and 3987 you will satisfie your selves that they were just 490 Years and no more which is the very Number that the Seventy Weeks amount to and consequently from the Twentieth Year of Artaxerxes to the time of our Saviour's Passion were no more nor no less than 490 Years This might be particularly made good from the Distinct Aera's between these Great Periods and which are of note among Chronologers but I think it is superfluous to undertake this seeing in Helvicus and other Chronological Tables they are very plain But I will go another way to work for the satisfaction of the Reader I will trace these 490 Years through the several Reigns of the Kings that were in those times and thence I will demonstrate that from the Twentieth Year of Artaxerxes's Reign at which time the Decree came forth for the Rebuilding of Ierusalem as hath been sufficiently proved to our Saviour's Passion were 490 Years or according to Daniel's Sacred Arithmetick Seventy Weeks Take it thus Artaxerxes reigned Twenty Years after his sending Nehemiah to build the City and Walls Then succeeded Xerxes and Sogdianus two Brethren Artaxerxes his Sons but it seems they were of no account at all and are therefore omitted by some Historians but others own them and say they reigned a very short time We may allow them as Writers generally do a Year After these Darius Nothus sat on the Throne Twenty three Years then Artaxerxes Mnemon reigned fifty Years Some say more but I imbrace their Opinion who say he reigned but fifty because I have before exceeded some Mens Accompt when I set down Twenty three Years for Darius Nothus whereas some assign him but Nineteen Then reigned Darius Ochus Twenty six Years Arses or Arsanes Four and Darius Codomannus Six So that the
by these latter Talisman * Selden de Dis Syr. 1. Syntag. made at a certain time when they knew such Stars and Constellations were most active The Diabolick Spirits entred at such a time into these Images these Teraphim and possessed them as they used to take possession of Humane Bodies and by them and in them they spoke and moved and acted and did strange Feats and gave Answers to those that enquired of them so that they may be said to be the Devil's Oracles These Images were very early in the World if we may credit the †Zoar c. Jewish Writers who tell us that they were used by the profligate Sinners that lived about the time of the Flood and afterwards by the Babel-builders But this we are sure of that these Magical Instruments were made use of by the King of Babylon and that they were consulted by him in the way of Divination under which Notion I have considered them at present Thirdly He looked into the Liver or the Heart for the word Cabed signifies both and thence this sort of Augur is stiled Roeh baccabed by the Jewish Masters an Inspector into those parts of Animals whereby we are to understand that common kind of Divination used by all the Pagans especially the Romans who perhaps had it from the Chaldeans viz. the looking into the Entrails of Beasts that were to be sacrificed and from that Critical Inspection guessing at what should come to pass These were the three sorts of Divination which Nebuchadnezzar applied himself to upon so great an Emergency and besides these there was an incredible number more which the Pagan Nations i. e. almost all the World addicted themselves to But indeed the Divination by the Fowls of the Air was of the greatest account for it was believ'd by the Vulgar that * Nam Dîs ut proxima quaeque Nunc pennâ veros nunc datis ore sonos Ovid. Fast. l. 5. these were well acquainted with the Gods and knew their Minds better than other Creatures by reason of their greater nearness to them I will produce some particular Instances of this their Superstition which consisted in Auguries and Auspicies i. e. taking those words strictly divining by Birds foretelling by the flying or sitting or feeding or by the Voices of these Creatures things that should happen afterwards Thus * Homer 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Calchas from the number of Sparrows which he saw foretold how many Years the Trojan War was to last The Swallows that were seen by Darius when he was in his Expedition against the Scythians were look'd upon as an Unlucky Auspice and presaged his Death Alexander the Great was assured by his Augur of a Victory before the Battel from the flight of an Eagle †Varro Ennius Vectius a famous Augur from the Vultures that appeared to Romulus gathered that the Roman Empire should last twelve hundred Years ‖ Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 21. The crowing of Cocks was Auspicious and presaged Victory to the Boetii against the Lacedemonians So likewise Themistocles's Army were assured of Conquest by the fortunate Crowing of those Animals But the fightings of Cocks it seems were an ill Omen and * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Artemidor l. 3. c. 5. foretold Seditions and Civil Wars The Bees that were seen on the Altar before the Fight at Pharsalia were reckon'd Unfortunate and portended Pompey's fatal Overthrow Several other Signs and Omens Good and Bad as they accounted them and verily believed them to be were frequent among the Heathens and they were strangely affrighted or encouraged by them both in their Journeys and at Home Augustus Caesar was a Great Observer of these as a †Sueâ—on in Oâ—tavio cap. 92. Credible Author informs us and therefore I will mention one pretty Passage that concerns him ‖ Idem cap. 96. When he was upon his March to Actium and prepar'd to engage the Enemy there met him an Ass with the Owner of it the Name of the former for it seems Asses had their Names then was Nicon which signified a Conqueror and the latter's Name was Eutychus the import of which was Fortunate Hereupon the Emperor took the Omen to be good and promis'd himself Victory and after the Victory he call'd the Place Nicopolis and the Image of an Ass was set up in the Temple there in remembrance of the Happy Omen I might add that Sneezing was accounted a Sacred Sign and was call'd so by some of the * Hom. Odyss 6. Aristot. de Hist. Nat. Plutarch vit Homeri best Pagan Writers and that it was held one of the Greatest Omens either for Good or Evil according to its Circumstances by the generality of the deluded World Thus forsooth Sneezing †Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 28. c. 2. in the Morning was held Unlucky but at Noon or afterwards it was thought to be of another Nature If it was heard from the left hand it was doom'd Unfortunate but not so on the Right wherefore from this latter it was that Themistocles and Xenophon two great Warriors took their Omen of Success the ‖ Plut. in vitaâ Themistoel one was encouraged by it to fight the Enemy the * Xenoph. Hist. l. 6. other was chosen Commander of the Army by it To speak more generally viz. of the whole Set of Pagan Divinations and Auguries they were look'd upon as Certain and Undoubted Prognosticks of Future Occurrences Whenever they busied themselves about the flight and chattering and the pecking of Birds and made inquiry into the Intrails of slain Beasts or used any other way of Divining they were so besotted as to think that they could thence infallibly foretel Futurities To which purpose there was a particular Office and College of Augurs who though their Name be from one Species only were skilful in the whole Art of Divination and interpreted all the Signs of the Gods as they call'd them So great Reverence was paid to this Art that * Nè quid inauguratò faciunto Lex Papir Auspiciis hanc urbem conditam esse auspiciis bello ac pace domi militiaeque omnia geri quis est qui ignoret Liv. lib. 6. c. 41. nothing was done at Home or Abroad without it The old Romans could neither create Magistrates nor make Laws without the Presence and Approbation of the Augurs as is clear from Tully's Books of Laws Ave sinistrâ populi magister esto was a Law of the Twelve Tables by virtue of which all Offices and Places were disposed by Augury Hence we are told that some †A. Gell. l. 13. c. 14. Magistrates were reputed and stiled Greater and some Lesser because the one was created with Greater and the other with Lesser Auguries We read likewise that the Lacedemonian Kings admitted Augurs into their Councils and constantly advised with them Yea among the Persians and Parthians of old their Kings and Greatest Princes were skill'd in Augury for they thought