Years of Rome 701 over the Ambition of the Romans and the insatiable Avarice of their General But the Shame of the Roman Name was not the worst Effect of the Defeat of Crassus His Power counterballanced that of Pompey and Caesar whom he kept united notwithstanding all their Aversion By his Death the League which hold them was broken The Years of Rome 705 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 49 two Rivals who had in their Hands all the Forces of the Common-Wealth decided their Quarrel at Pharsalia by a bloody Battle Years be ∣ fore J. C. 48 Cesar being Conqueror appeared presently Years of Rome 706 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 47 over all Europe in Aegypt in Asia Years of Rome 707 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 46 in Mauritania in Spain Victor on all sides Years of Rome 708 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 45 he was acknowledged as Master at Rome and Years of Rome 709 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 44 in all the Empire Brutus and Cassius thought Years of Rome 710 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 43 to free their Citizens by slaying him as a Years of Rome 711 Tyrant notwithstanding his Moderation and Clemency Rome fell again into the Hands of Mark Antony Lepidus and young Cesar Octavianus * Petit Neven Grandson to Julius Cesar and his Son by Adoption three insupportable Tyrants of whom the Triumvirate and the Proscriptions do to this day Years be ∣ fore J. C. 42 cause a Horror to read them But they were Years of Rome 712 too violent to be of long continuance Those three Men divided the Empire Câ—sar guarded Italy and of a sudden changing his former Cruelties into Mildness and Gentleness he made them believe he was induced to it by his Collegues The Remains Years be ∣ fore J. C. 36 of the Commonwealth perished with Years of Rome 718 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 32 Brutus and Cassius Antony and Cesar after Years of Rome 722 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 31 they had ruined Lepidus turned themselves Years of Rome 723 one against another All the Power of Rome was put to Sea Cesar gained the Actiack Battle The Aegyptian and Eastern Forces which Antony brought along with him dissipated and scattered He abandoned by all his Friends and at last by Cleopatra Years be ∣ fore J. C. 30 for whose Sake he lost all Herod the Idumean who owed him all things was forced Years of Rome 724 to surrender himself to the Conqueror and by that means kept himself in the Possession of the Kingdom of Judea which the weakness of old Hyrcanus had caused to be absolutely lost to the Asmonians All things gave way to Cesar's Fortune Alexandria opened her Gates to him Aegypt became a Roman Province Cleopatra who thought she should not be able to preserve herself was her own self-Murtherer after Anthony Rome stretches out her Arms to Cesar who remained under the Name of Augustus and under the Title of Emperor sole Master of the whole Empire He subdued near the Pyrenees the revolted Cantaâ—rians and Asturians Years be ∣ fore J. C. 24 Aethiopia desired Peace of him the Years of Rome 730 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 22 frighted Parthians sent him back the Standards Years of Rome 732 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 20 taken from Crassus with all the Roman Years of Rome 734 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 15 Prisoners The Indians sought his Alliance Years of Rome 739 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 12 His Arms extended even to the Rhetians Years of Rome 742 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 7 or Grisons whom their very Mountains Years of Rome 747 could not defend Pannonia payd their Acknowledgments to him Germany dreaded him and Veser received his Laws Victorious thus both by Sea and Land he shuts up the Temple of Janus All the World Years of Rome 753 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1 lived in Peace under his Power and then Years of Rome 754 came Jesus Christ into the World AND now we are come to those times X. Epocha The Birth of Jesus Christ. 7 and last Age of the World so much desired by our Fathers of the Advent of the Messiah That name signifies the Christ or the Lord 's Anointed and Jesus Christ deserves it in a threefold Respect viz. as a Prophet as a Priest Years of J. C. and as a King It is not fully agreed the precise year of his coming into the World but this is assented to that his true Birth doth some years precede our common Aera or account which yet nevertheless we follow with all others for a greater Ease and Conveniency But without any further dispute about the year of our Lord and Saviour's Birth let it be sufficient that we know it happened about the Year 4000. of the World Some attribute it to a little before there are others will have it a little after and others again will needs have this to be the precise Year and there are others that make as much uncertainty about the Years of the World as about this of the Birth of our Lord. But whenever it was 't is sure 't was much about this time 1000. Years after the Dedication of the Temple and the 754 year of Rome that Jesus Christ the Son of God in Eternity the Son of Abraham and David in time was born of a Virgin This of all is the most considerable Epocha not only for the importance of so great an Event but also because it is that from whence there are many Ages that Christians begin to count their Years It has this likewise remarkable in it that it agrees within a very little with the time when Rome returned to the State of Monarchy under the peaceable Empire of Augustus All the Arts flourished in his time and the Latin Poetry was brought to its last Perfection by Virgil and Horace whom that Prince did not only excite by his Kindnesses and Liberalities but likewise by giving them a free and easy access to his Presence The Birth of Jesus Christ was quickly attended with the Death of Herod His Kingdom was divided between Years of J. C. 8 his Children and the chiefest partage Years of J. C. 14 of it soon fell into the Hands of the Romans Augustus ended his Reign with great honour and glory Tiberius whom he had adopted succeeded him without any repulse or contradiction and the Empire was acknowledged to be hereditary in the Family of the Caesars Rome had much to suffer from the cruel Politiques of Tiberius but the rest of the Empire was quiet enough Germanicus Nephew to Tiberius appeased the Rebellious Armies refused the Empire Years of J. C. 16 beat the fierce Arminius extended his Conquests even to the Elbe and having got to himself the Love of those People the Jealousie of his barbarous Uncle caused him to be taken off either by * Chagrin Melancholy Years of J. C. 17 and Vexation or by Poison In the Years of J. C. 19 fifteenth year of Tiberius
were kind and beneficent to their very Persecutors But notwithstanding all that publick hatred the force and power of truth drew from the mouths of their most violent Enemies very favourable Testimonies of them Plin. l. 10. Ep. 97. Every one knows what Pliny the younger writ to Trajan concerning the Behaviour of the Christians They were justified but yet they were not exempted from the severest Punishments for thus it behoved them to undergo this worst of treatment to effect in them the Image of their crucified Jesus and they ought as he did to go to their Cross with a publick declaration of their spotlese Innocence Idolatry did not put all its force to the last violence Although its Foundation was a brutish Ignorance and an entire deprivation of Humane Sense yet it was willing to set it off with the colour of some Reason How often has it endeavoured to be in disguise and masque and in how many ways has it been transformed that so the shame of it may be concealed Sometimes it was for paying all imaginable respect to the Divinity saying whatsoever was Divine must needs be unknown For only the Divinity can understand it self 'T is not for such groveling Dust as we to discover things so high and elevated wherefore it becomes us to believe the Antients and every one ought to follow the Religion he finds by Law established in his Countrey And by these Maxims those gross as well as impious Errors which had spead themselves over all the habitable World were remediless and the voice of Nature which declared the true God was stifled and not allowed to speak There was then great ground to think that the weakness of our strayed Reason had need of an Authority to call it back to its first Principle and that it ought from Antiquity to learn the true Religion Thus have you seen the continued constant course and proâ—ress of it from the very beginning of the World But from what Antiquity can Paganism boast it self which can't read its own Historie but in them must find the Original not only of its Religion but also of its Gods De natur Deorum lib. 1. 3. Varro and Cicero not to mention other Authors have sufficiently made this plain Or shall we have recourse to those numberless Thousands of Years which were filled up by the Egyptians with confused and impertinent Fables for the establishing of that Antiquity of which they boasted so much There we shall still see in them the Rise and Fall the Birth and Death of the Gods of Egypt and that People cannot pretend to their Antientness but they must at the same time shew us the beginning of their Gods But let us see another Form and Manner of Idolatry that directed every one that went by us to be look'd on as Divine The Roman Polity which so severely interdicted strange Religions yet permitted Adoration to be given to the Gods of the Barbarians so that it had adopted tliem Thus it endeavoured to appear equitable as well towards all Gods as towards all Men. Sometimes it offered Incense to the God of the Jews together with all the rest Jul. Ep. ad comm Judaeor And we find a Letter of Julian the Apostate whereby he promises the Jews to re-build the Holy City and with them to sacrifice to God the Creator of the Universe 'T was a common Error We have seen the Heathen willing to worship the true God tho' not to worship him alone and the Emperors did not stick even to give Jesus Christ himself whose Disciples they persecuted some Altars among the Romans What then Could the Romans ever imagine they should honour him as God whom their Magistrates had condemned to the cruellest as well as the vilest of Punishments and whom several of their Authors have loaded with very reproachful Calumnies And yet we need not wonder at it for the thing is beyond all Controversy First let us distinguish what in general a blind Hatred says from positive Facts the Proofs whereof are alledged 'T is certain that the Romans though they condemned Jesus Christ yet never reproached him for any Crime in particular So Pilate condemned him with Repugnance being violently carried away by the Clamors and Menaces of the Jews But that which is more to be wondered at is the Jews themselves at whose Importunities he was crucified have not preserved in any other of their antient Books the Remembrance of any one single Action which might cast a Blemish upon his Life so far have they been from observing any that might make him to deserve so severe a Punishment as his Crucifixion whereby is confirmed in a most plain and manifest manner what we read in the Gospel that all the Crime of our Lord was for calling himself Christ the Son of God Indeed Tacitus tells us of the Punishment of our blessed Saviour under Pontius Pilate and during the Empire of Tiberius but says not a word of any Crime that might make him worthy of Death but only that of being the Author of a Sect convicted for hating Mankind or at least for being odious to it Such was the Crime of our Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Christians and their greatest Enemies could never accuse them but in dubious terms for they were never able to alledge one positive Fact as could fairly be imputed to them 'T is true in the last Persecution and three hundred Years after Christ the Heathen who were at a loss how then to lay any Reproach either upon him or his Disciples published some â—â—w Acts of Pilate by which they pretended th y saw the Crimes for which he had been crucified But as not a word of those Acts were ever heard spoke of in all the precedent Ages and that neither under Nero nor under Domitian who reigned in the beginning of Christianity how great Enemies soever they were of it there is nothing at all sound concerning them it is very probable they were made out of their own Fancy and among the Romans there are found so few constant Proofs of Jesus Christ that his Enemies have been forced to fly to their Inventions to make some Here then is one and the first thing to be considered of the Innocence of our Blessed Saviour irreproachable Let us now subjoin a second the Holiness of his Life and his known and exemplary Doctrine One of the greatest Roman Emperors to wit Lamprid. in Alex. Sev. c. 45.51 Alexander Severus admired our Lord and caused to be written in the publick Works as well as in his Palace some Sentences of his Gospel The same Emperor commended and proposed for an Example the holy Precautions wherewith the Christians ordained the Ministers of Sacred things That was not all neither There was seen in his Palace a kind of Chappel where he sacrificed in the Morning Ibid. c. 29.31 He had consecrated the Images of Holy Souls among which he placed with Orpheus Jesus Christ and Abraham He had
the Kingdom of Argos After Abraham there was Isaac his Son and Jacob Grandson the Imitators and followers of his Faith and Simplicity in the same pastoral Life God did also to them reiterate the same Promises he had made to Abraham their Father Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1759 and as he had done him he conducted them Years of the World 2245 in all things Isaac blessed Jacob to the prejudice as well as grief of Esau his elder Brother and deceived in appearance in effect and reality he executes the Counsels and Determinations of God Jacob whom God protected was in all things to be preferred to Esau An Angel with whom he mysteriously fought gave unto him the Name of Israel from whence his Posterity were called Israelites From his Loins came the Twelve Patriarchs Fathers to the Twelve Tribes of the Hebrew People among others Levi from whence issued the Ministers of Sacred things Judah from whom came CHRIST the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and Joseph whom Jacob loved above all the rest of his Children In him were made manifest some new Secrets of Providence But above all things was seen the Innocence and Wisdom of young Joseph who was always an utter Enemy to Wickedness and Vice and careful to repress and hinder it in his Brethren his Mysterious and Prophetick Dreams his Brethren jealous and Jealousie twice the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1728 Cause of a Parricide the selling of this Years of the World 2276 their Great Brother his Fidelity to his Master and his most admirable Chastity the dangerous Calamities it brought upon him Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1717 his Prison and his Constancy his Predictions Years of the World 2287 his miraculous Deliverance that Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1715 Famous Interpretation of Pharaoh's Dreams Years of the World 2289 the Desert of so Great a Man required his Genius elevated and fitted for his Place and God's Protection which made him to Rule Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1706 where-ever he was his Foresight his wise Years of the World 2298 Counsels and his absolute Power in the Kingdome of the Lower Aegypt By this means here was the Safety of his Father Jacob and his Family This Family cherished by God was thus setled and established in that part of Aegypt whereof Tanis was the Capital and of which the Kings took Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1689 the Name of Pharaoh Jacob dies and a Years of the World 2315 little before his Death he delivers this most celebrated Prophecy where discovering to his Sons the Patriarchs the State of their Posterity he particularly points out to Judah the time of the Messiah's coming into the World who was to proceed from his Race This Patriarch's Houshold became a very great People in a little time and this prodigious increase and multiplying raised the Aegyptians Jealousie The Hebrews are unjustly hated and without any pity persecuted God raises up Moses their Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1571 Deliverer whom he preserved from the Years of the World 2433 River Nilus and made him fall into the Hands of Pharaoh's Daughter She brought him up as her own Child and instructed him in all the Wisdom of the Aegyptians At that time the People of Aegypt setled themselves in several Places of Greece The Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1556 Colony that Cecrops brought out of Aegypt Years of the World 2448 founded twelve Cities or rather Towns of which he made the Kingdom of Athens and where he established with the Laws of his Country the Gods that were to be worshipped there Marm. Arund seu Aera Att. A little after hapned the Deucalion-Flood in Thessaly confounded by the Greeks with the Universal Deluge Hellen the Son of Deucalion reigned in Phtie a Country in Thessaly and gave his Name to Greece The People which before were called Greeks ever since have born the Name of Helleneses tho' the Latins have called them by their old Name Moreover about this time Cadmus the Son of Agenor transported into Greece a Colony of Phoenicians and founded the City of Thebes in Boeotia The Syrian and Phoenician Gods came along with him into Greece In the mean while Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1531 Moses grew up in years and about the Fortieth Years of the World 2473 of his Age he despised the Riches of the Court of Aegypt and touched with the Wickedness of his Brethren the Israelites to appease and moderate them he ventured his own Life But these Men were so far from receiving any Benefit by his Zeal and Courage that they exposed him to the Fury of Pharaoh who was resolved on his Ruine Moses flies out of Aegypt into Arabia to the Land of Midian where his Virtue which was always ready to relieve the Oppressed made him find a safe Retreat Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1491 This Great Man without any hopes of delivering Years of the World 2513 his People or expectation of better Times had spent Forty years in keeping the Flock of Jethro his Father-in-Law when he saw in the Desart a Burning Bush and heard the Voice of the God of his Fathers who sent him back into Aegypt to bring forth his Brethren the Children of Israel out of Captivity There appeared the Humility Courage and Miracles of that Divine Legislator the Hardness of Pharaoh's Heart and the terrible Plagues which God sent upon him the Passover and the next day the Passing over the Red Sea Pharaoh and the Aegyptians drowned in those Waters and the absolute Deliverance of the Israelites IV. Epocha Moses or the Written Law The Time of the Written Law now begins It was given to Moses Four hundred and thirty years after the Calling of Abraham Eight hundred fifty six years after the Flood and the same year that the Hebrew Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1491 People came out of Aegypt This Date is Years of the World 2513 very observable because it is very useful for designating the whole time that has elapsed ever since Moses unto Jesus Christ All this Time is called the Time of the Written Law to distinguish it from the precedent Time which is called the Time of the Law of Nature wherein Men had only for their Guide and Rule of Governance Natural Reason and the Traditions of their Ancestors God then having freed his People from the Tyranny of the Aegyptians and brought them into the Land where he designed to be served and worshipped before ever he established it there he proposed to him the Law according to which he was to live He wrote with his own Hand upon two Tables of Stone which he delivered to Moses upon the top of Mount Sinai the Foundation of this Law that is to say the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments which contain the First Principles how God is to be worshipped and Humane Society preserved He dictated to the same Moses the other Precepts by which he established the Tabernacle Heh ix 9 23. the
his Brother Jaddus would fain have obliged him he embraced the Schism of the Samaritans And several of the Jews to shun the like Censures joined themselves to him He was resolv'd at that time to build a Temple near Samaria upon Mount Gerizim which the Samaritans believed was blest and so to make himself the High-Priest of it His Father-in-Law a most intimate Friend of Darius assured him of this Prince's Protection and the effect and Consequence was so much the more favourable to him for Years be ∣ fore J. C. 332 Alexander raised himself Sanballat deserted Years of Rome 422 his Master and brought his Troops over to the Victorious at the Siege of Tyre Thus he obtained whatsoever he desired the Temple of Gerizim was built and the Ambition of Manasses was satisfied The Jews in the mean time being ever faithful to the Persians refused to give Alexander the succour he demanded of them He went to Jerusalem full of Resolution to take his Revenge but his Mind was alter'd when he beheld the High-Priest coming out to meet him with the other Priests that offered Sacrifices all cloathed with their proper Vestments for Ceremony and in Procession before the People in White They shewed to him the Prophecies that foretold his Victories out of Daniel So that he granted to the Jews all their Requests and they kept with him the same Fidelity as they had always done before to the Kings of Persia In the midst of these his Conquest Rome Years of Rome 428 was engaged with her Neighbours the Samnites Years of Rome 429 and were extremely put to 't to reduce Years of Rome 430 them notwithstanding the Valour and Conduct of Papyrius Cursor the most famous of her Generals After the Death of Alexander his Empire was divided Perdiccas Ptolomee the Son of Lagus Antigonus Sileuâ—us Lysimachus Antipater and his Son Years be ∣ fore J. C. 324 Cassanâ—eâ— in a word all his Captains that Years of Rome 430 were bred up in War under so great and mighty a Conqueror designed to make themselves Masters of it by their Arms They sacrificed to their Ambition all the Family of Alexander his Brother Years of Rome 430 Years of Rome 436 Years of Rome 438 Years of Rome 443 Years of Rome 445 his Mother his Wives his Children and even his Sisters so that there was nothing to be seen but Fields of Blood and dreadful Revolutions In the midst of so many disorders several of the People of lesser Asia and thereabouts freed themselves and formed the Kingdoms of Pontus Bithynia and Pergamus The Goodness of the Country made them afterwards Rich and Powerful Armenia likewise at the same time shook off the Macedonian Yoak and became a very great Kingdom The two Mithridates's Father and Son founded that of Cappadocia Years be ∣ fore J. C. 323 But the two most puissant Monarchies Years of Rome 431 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 312 that were then raised were that of Egypt Years of Rome 442 founded by Ptolomee the Son of Lagus from whence came the Lagides and that of Asia or Syria founded by Seleucus from whence proceeded the Seleucides This latter comprised besides Syria those vast and rich Provinces of higher Asia which made up the Persian Empire so all the East owned Greece and learned the Language of it Nay even Greece it self fell under oppression by the Captains of Alexander And Macedonia his antient Kingdom which gave Laws as well as Masters to the East was left a Prey to the first Comer Cassander's Children drive each the other out of that Kingdom Pyrrhus King of Epirus who had possessed one part of it was driven out Years be ∣ fore J. C. 296 by Demetrius Poliorcetes the Son of Antigonus Years of Rome 458 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 294 whom also he expelled in his turn Years of Rome 460 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 289 This is he who was likewise once forced out Years of Rome 465 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 286 by Lysimachus and Lysimachus by Seleucus Years of Rome 468 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 281 whom Ptolomee Ceraunus driven out of Egypt Years of Rome 468 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 280 by his Father Ptolomee the first killed like Years of Rome 473 a Traytor notwithstanding all his Kindnesses Years of Rome 474 That perfidious Man had no sooner invaded Macedonia but he was attacqued Years be ∣ fore J. C. 279 by the Gauls and was slain in a Fight he had with them During these troubles in Years of Rome 475 the East They came into lesser Asia led on by their King Brennus and setled themselves Gallo-Greece or Galatia called so from their own Name from whence they went to Macedonia which they ravaged and so made all Greece to tremble But their Army was destroyed in the Sacrilegious attempts on the Temple of Delphos This Nation was active and yet in every thing Years be ∣ fore J. C. 278 unfortunate some years before the business Years of Rome 476 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 283 of Delphos the Gauls of Italy whose continual Years of Rome 471 Wars Polyb. l. 2. 20. and frequent Victories had made them the dread and terrour of the Romans were animated against them by the Samnites the Brutians and Etrurians At first they returned back with a new Victory but the Glory of it was quickly sullied by slaying the Ambassadors The Romans being inraged marched against them defeated them entred into their Territories Years be ∣ fore J. C. 282 where they founded a Colony beat them also Years of Rome 472 a second time by subjecting one part of them and forcing the other to demand Peace After that the Gauls of the East had been driven out of Greece Antigonus Gonatas Years be ∣ fore J. C. 277 the Son of Demetrius Poliorceters who Years of Rome 477 reigned about twelve years before in Greece but very unquietly without any difficulty invaded Years be ∣ fore J. C. 280 Macedonia Pyrrhus was otherwise engaged Years of Rome 474 for being forced out of that Kingdom he was in good hopes to satisfie his Ambition with the Conquest of Italy whither he was called by the Tarentines The Battle which the Romans came to get over them and the Samnites afforded them only this Ressource Years be ∣ fore J. C. 279 that he carried away from the Romans those Years of Rome 475 Victories which would be his ruin Pyâ—rhus his Elephants affrighted them but the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 278 Consul Fabricius made the Romans soon see that Pyrrhus was not unconquerable The Years of Rome 476 King and the Consul seemed to dispute between the glory of Generosity rather than that of Arms Pyrrhus rendred to the Consul all his Prisoners without a Ransom saying It became him to make War with the Sword and not with Money and Fabricius sent back to the King his treacherous Physician who had offered to poison his Master for him About these times Religion and the Jewish Nation
fighting with an astonishing Courage His Brother Jonathan succeeded to his Charge and supported his Reputation Being reduced to extremity his Courage left him not The Romans overjoyed in their humbling of the Kings of Syria granted to the Jews their Protection and the Alliance which Judas had sent to demand of him was granted but yet it was without any Sâ—ccour But the Glory of the Roman Name was however a considerable Support to the afflicted People The Troubles of Syria daiâ—y grew greater and greater Alexander Balasus who boasted himself to be the Son Years be ∣ fore J. C. 154 of the Illustrious Antiochus was set upon Years of Rome 600 the Throne by Antiochus his Party The Kings of Aegypt who were the perpetual Enemies of Sâ—ria interessed themselves in those Divisions to make their own Advantages Years be ∣ fore J. C. 150 by them Ptolomee Philometor upheld Years of Rome 604 Balasus The War was bloody Demetrius Soter was slain in it and to revenge his Death left none but two young Princes a great deal under his Age Demetrius Nicator and Antiochus Sidetes So that the Usurper continued in peace and the King of Aegypt gave him his Daughter Cleopotra in Marriage Balasus who thought himself above all things plunged himself into Debaucheries and brought thereby upon himself the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 150 slight and scorn all his Subjects About Years of Rome 604 this time Philâ—mâ—tor judged that famous Cause which the Samaritans had with the Jews 2. Maccab. vi 2. Jos Ant. xii 7. Those Schismaticks who were ever opposite to God's peculiar People did not fail to joyn with their Enemies and to Years be ∣ fore J. C. 167 please the Illustrious Antiochus their Persecutor Years of Rome 597 they had consecrated their Temple of Gerazim to Jupiter Hospitalis Notwithstanding this Profanation these wicked Wretches desisted not from maintaining sometime after at Alexandria before Ptolomeus Philometer that That Temple ought to be preferred to that of Jerusalem The Parties disputed in the Presence of the King and both of them to the hazard of their Lives engaged to justifie their Pretensions by the Terms of the Law of Moses The Jews gain'd their Cause Josph Ant. lib. 13. c. 6. Ibid. and the Samaritans were punished with Death according to their Covenant The same King permitted Onias of the Sacerdotal Race to build in Aegypt the Temple of Heliopolis after the Model of that of Jerusalem An Enterprise condemned by all the Jewish Council and adjudged contrary to the Law In the mean while Carthage began to stir again being very uneasie in bearing with the Laws which Scipio Africanus had imposed upon her The Romans resolved on no less than her total Overthrow and therefore to that end was the third Punick War undertaken Years be ∣ fore J. C. 148 The young Demetrius Nicator now having Years of Rome 606 past over his Minority was contriving how to re-establish himself upon the Throne of his Ancestors the Softness and Effeminacy of the Usurper made him to hope every Years be ∣ fore J. C. 146 thing At his approach Balasus was troubled Years of Rome 608 his Father-in-Law Philometor declared against him because Balasus would not let him take his Kingdom The Ambitious Cleopatra his Queen left him to marry his Enemy and he was slain at last by the hand of one of his own Creatures after the loss of a Battle Philometer dyed a few days after the Wounds he received in it and Syria was delivered of two Enemies At the same time were two great Cities seen to fall Carthage was taken and reduced to Ashes by Scipio Aemylianus who by that Victory confirmed the Name of Africanus to his Posterity and shewed himself the worthy Inheritor of the Great Scipio his Grandfather Corinth had the same Destiny and the Republique of Achaia was destroyed with it The Consul Mummius did utterly ruine that City the most voluptuous and the most beautiful of all Greece He transported to Rome their incomparable Statues without ever knowing the Value of them The Romans being ignorant of the Arts of Greece contented tnemselves with the knowledge of War Politie and Agriculture During the Troubles of Syria the Jews fortifyed themselves Jonathan saw himself sought after by both Parties and Victorious Nicator treated him as a Brother He was quickly requited for Years be ∣ fore J. C. 144 it In a Sedition The Jews all in a Body Years of Rome 610 took him by force from the Hands of the Rebels Jonathan was overwhelmed with Honours but when the King thought himself most secure he took up also the Designs of his Ancestors and the Jews were as bad tormented as before The Troubles of Syria began again Diodotus sirnamed Tryphon raised up a Son Balasus whom he called Antiochus the God and made himself his Tut r during his Infancy The Years be ∣ fore J. C. 143 Pride of Demetrius flushed the People all Years of Rome 611 Syria was as it were on fire Jonathan knew how to take Advantage of this Conjuncture and renewed the Alliance with the Romans Every thing was prosperous to him when Tryphon by a breach of Promise caused him to be slain with his Children His Brother Simon the most prudent and happy of the Macâ—abees succeeded him and the Romans favoured him as they did his Predecessors Typhon was not less unfaithful to his Pupil Antiâ—chus than he had been to Jonathan He caused that Child to be made away by the meanes of the Physicians under pretence of having him to be cut of the Stone which he had nothing of and so made himself Master of one part of the Kingdom Simon joyned himself with Demetrius Nicator the Legitimate King and after he had obtained of him the Freedom of his Country he maintained and kept it by Arms against the Rebel Tryphon Years of Rome 612 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 142 The Syrians were driven out of the Cittadel which they kept in Jerusalem and a while after out of all the places of Judea Thus the Jews being freed from the Yoke of the Gentiles by the Valour of Simon they yielded the Kingly Rights to him and to his Family Demetrius and Nicator consented to that new Establishment There began the new Kingdom of God's People and the Principality of the Asmonians ever joyned to the Soveraign Priesthood About this time the Parthian Empire extended it self over the Bactrians and Indians by the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 141 Victories of Mithridates the valiantest of all Years of Rome 613 the Arsacidae Whilst He was advancing towards Euphrates Demetrus Nicator called by the People of that Country which Mithridates had newly brought into Subjection was in hopes of reducing the Parthians to Obedience whom the Syrians had always treated as Rebels He was happy in several Victories and near to retun into Syria to give Tryphon his absolute Overthrow there but unluckily sell into a Snare which one of Mithridâ—tes his Generals had laid
St. John Baptist Years of J. C. 28 appeared Jesus Christ made himself to be Years of J. C. 30 Baptised by that divine Fore-runner The Eternal Father acknowledged his well-beloved Son by a voice that came from Heaven The Holy Ghost descended upon our Saviour under the pacifick Figure of a Dove all the Trinity manifested themselves There began with the seventy weeks of Daniel the Preaching of Jesus Christ This last Week was the most important and the most observable Daniel had divided it from the rest as the Week or Alliance was to be confirmed Daniel iv 37. and in the midst of which the ancient Sacrifices were to lose their efficacy and virtue It may be called the week of Mysteries Jesus Christ established his Mission and his Doctrine then by innumerable Miracles and at last by his Death It Years of J. C. 33 happened in the fourth year of his Ministry which was also the fourth Year of Daniel's last Week and this great Week was in this manner justly cut in the midst by his Death Thus it is easy to make up the Computation of the VVeeks or rather it is already made up There remains nothing now but to add to the 453 Years which we shall find from the 300th year of Rome and the twentieth of Artaxerxes down to the beginning of the common Aera the thirty Years of that Aera which we see comes down to the fifteenth year of Tiberius and to the Baptism of our Lord These two Summs will make up 483 years the seven Years still remain to compleat the 490. The fourth which makes the middle is that in which Jesus Christ died and all that Daniel hath prophesied is visibly shut up within the prescribed term There is no extraordinary necessity for such an exact punctilio of Justness and nothing obliges us to take in this extream rigour the Middle observed by Daniel The most difficult will content themselves in finding it in what point soever it be between the two Extremities what I say is that so those who shall think they have good reason to place either a little higher or a little lower the beginning of Artaxerxes or the death of our Lord might not rack and torment themselves in their calculation and that those who would endeavour to embarass and perplex a thing that is clear with tricks of Chronology might be delivered from their unprofitable and impertinent subtilties Matth. 25.45 Phleg. 13. Olymp Thal. Hist. 3. Tertullian Apol 21. Orig. 2. cont Cels Tr. 35. in Matth. Euseb Hieron in Chron. Jul. Afric Ibid. The Darkness which covered the whole face of the earth at noon-day and at the instant when Jesus Christ was crucifyed is taken for an ordinary Eclipse by the Pagan Authors who have made their remarks upon that memorable Event But the first Christians that spake of it to the Romans as of a Prodigy taken notice of not only by their Authors but also by the public Registers have shewn that neither at the time of the full Moon when Jesus Christ dyed nor in all the year when this Eclipse was observed was it possible for any to fall out but what must be supernatural We have the very words of Phlegon Adrian's Freed-man cited at a time when his Book was every where public and extant as well as the Syriac Histories of Thallus who followed him and the fourth year of the 202. Olympiad observed in the Annals of Phlegon is that of the death of our Lord. To accomplish the Mysteries Jesus Christ arose from his Grave on the Third day he appeared to his Disciples he ascended up into to heaven in their presence he sent them down the Holy Spirit the Church is formed Persecution begins St. Stephen is stoned St. Paul is converted A little after Tiberius dies Caligâ—la his Grand-son and Son by adoption Years of J. C. 37 and his Successor astonishes the whole world by his cruel and brutish Folly he causes himself to be adored and commands Years of J. C. 40 his Statue to be placed in the Temple of Jerusalem Cherâ—as frees the world from this Monster Claudius reigns notwithstanding his Stupidity He is dishonoured by Messalina Years of J. C. 41 his Wife whom he re-demands after he has Years of J. C. 48 caused her to be killed He is married to Agrippina Years of J. C. 49 the Daughter of Germanicus Acts 15.50 The Apostles keep the Council of Jerusalem where St. Peter speaks first as he does every where else The converted Gentiles are there freed from the Ceremonies of the Law The Sentence of it is pronounced in the name of the Holy Ghost and the Church of St. Paul Acts â—6 4 and St. Barnabas carry the Decree of the Council to the Churches and teach the faithful to submit to them Such was the way of the first Council The stupid Emperor disinherits his Son Britannicus and adopts Nero the Son of Agrippina In requital she poisons this too Years of J. C. 54 easie and credulous Husband But the Empire of her Son was no less fatal to her self than to all the rest of the Commonwealth Years of J. C. 58 Corbulo got all the Honour of that Reign by Years of J. C. 60 the Victories he gained over the Parthians Years of J. C. 62 and Armenians Nero at the same time began Years of J. C. 63 his War against the Jews and the Persecution against the Christians c. This was the first Years of J. C. 66 Emperor that had persecuted the Church He caused St. Peter and St. Paul to dye at Rome But as at the same time he persecuted Years of J. C. 67 all Mankind so he found all sides to revolt Years of J. C. 68 against him he understood that the Senate had condemned him and so he killed himself Years of J. C. 69 Every Army made an Emperor The Quarrel was decided near Rome and in Rome it self by dreadful and terrible combats Galba Otho and Vitellius perished in them The afflicted Empire came a little to it self under Years of J. C. 70 Vespasian and enjoyed some rest But the Jews were put to extremities Jerusalem was taken and burnt Titus the Son and Successor of Vespasian gave to the world but a Years of J. C. 79 short satisfaction And his days which he thought lost when they were not signalized by some kindness and benefit came upon the heels of each other with a too swift Succession Nero was seen to be revived in the Person of Domitian The Years of J. C. 93 Persecution was renewed St. John coming out of hot boyling Oyl was banished into the Isle of Patmos where he wrote his Revelations A little after he wrote his Gospel at about 90 years of Age and joyned the Quality of an Evangelist to that of being both Years of J. C. 95 an Apostle and a Prophet From that time the Christians were continually persecuted as well under the good as under the evil Emperors These Persecutions
ad Sanct. cat 25. Lact. de mort persec c. 17.18 and Galerius although he was his Son-in-Law forced him to abondon the Empire It was neccessary for Maximian to follow his Example Thus the Empire came to be managed between Constantius Chlorus and Galerius and two new Cesars Severus and Maximin were created in their Placcs by the Emperors who deposed themselves The Years of J. C. 304 Gauls Spain and Great Britain were happy but it was but for a very little while under Constanius Chlorus an Enemy to Exactions and therefore being accused for ruining the Treasury he shewed that he had immense Treasures in the Affections of his Subjects The rest of the Empire suffered much under so many Emperors and Cesars Officers grew numerous with the Princes Expences and Exactions were infinite Young Constantine Lact. ibid. 24. the Son of Constantius Chlorus made himself famous But he found himself in the hands of Galerius Every day that Emperor being jealous of his growing Glory exposed him to new Perils He was in a way of Sport to fight with wild Beats but yet they wre not so much to be feared as Galerius Constantine getting safe out of his Hands found his Father just expiring About that Years of J. C. 306 time Maxentius the Son of Maximian and Galerius his Son-in-Law made himself Emperor notwithstanding the Opposition of his Father-in-Law and Intestine Divisions were accumulated to the other Evils of State The Image of Constantine who was now come to be his Father's Successor being carried according to the old Custome to Rome was there rejected by the Orders of Maxentius Lact. de mort perfec c. 26 27. The Reception of Images was the usual manner of acknowledging new Princes On all sides Preparations were made for War Cesar Severus whom Galerius sent against Maxentius made him even in Rome to tremble To be a comfort Years of J. C. 307 and support to him in this his Fright he recalls his Father Maximian The ambitious old Man quitted his retreat whither to his great Grief he was gone and in vain did labour to force Dioclesian his Collegue out of the Garden which he had cultivated at Salone At the Name of Maximian the Emperor the Souldiers of Severus the second time abandoned him The old Emperor caused him to be killed and at the same time to fortify himself against Galerius he gave his Daughter Fausta to Constantine in Marriage Lact. ibid. 28 29 30 31 32. Galerius also stood in need of a Support after the death of Severus which made him resolve to name Licinius Emperor but that choice did grievously vex Maximin who being in the Quality of a Cesar thought himself nearer to the supreme Honour There was nothing could persuade him to submit himself to Licinius so that he became independent in the East There was scarce any thing remaining to Galerius but Illyria whither he had made his Retreat after he had been driven out of Italy The rest of the West was obedient to Maximian to his Son Maxentius and to his Son-in-Law Constantine But he would no longer have his Sons to be his Companions in the Empire but strangers He endeavoured to banish his Son Maxentius from Rome who banished himself from thence And Constantine that received him among the Gaules found him no less perfidious After diverse Years of J. C. 310 Attempts Maximian made one and it was the last Conspiracy in which he thought he had engaged his Daughter Fausta against her Husband but she deceived him and Maximian who did really believe he had killed Constantine when he had only killed the Eunuch whom she had caused to lye in his Bed was forced in his own defence to be a felo de se Here was a new War kindled Lact. ib. 42. 43. Years of J. C. 312 and Maxentius under pretence of revenging his Father declared against Constantine who was marching with his Troops to Rome At the same time he caused the Status of Maximian to be thrown down Those of Dioclesian which were joined to them had the same Fate The Repose of Dioclesian was disturbed at this contempt and he died a little while after as much through Vexation as through old Age. About this time Rome always an Enemy to Christianity made the last effort to stifle it quite and he did indeed establish it Euseb 8. Hist. Eccl. 16. de vit Constant. l. 57. Lact. de mort persec 9. seq Galerius taken notice of by the Historians for the Author of the last Persecution two years before he had obliged Dioclesian to leave the Empire forced him to make that bloody Edict which commanded the Christians to be persecuted more violently than ever Maximian who hated them and had never left tormenting them stirred up the Magistrates Years of J. C. 302 and Executioners to be severe against them But his violence as extreme as it was did not equal That of Maximin and Galerius Every day new Punishmentes were invented The modesty of the Christian Virgins were no less assaulted than their Faith They sought for the Bibles with an extraordinary care that so they might blot out the memory of them and the Christians durst not have them in their houses nor indeed read them Thus after three hundred Years of Persecution the hatred of the Persecutors became more sharp and rigorous The Christians wearied them by their Patience The People affected with the holiness of their Lives turned Converts in great numbers Galerius depsaired of ever being able to quash them utterly Being struck with Years of J. C. 311 an extream fit of Sickness he revoked his Edicts and died of Antiochus his Death and with as false a Repentance Maximin continued the Persecution but Constantine the Years of J. C. 312 Great a Wise and Victorious Prince publickly embraced Christianity XI Epocha Constantine or the Peace of the Church THis celebrated Declaration of Constantine happened to be in the 312. year of our Lord. Whilst he was besieging Maxentius in Rome a flaming Cross was seen in the Air by all the People with an Inscription that promised him the Victory He had it also confirmed to him by a Dream The next day he got that memorable Battle which defeated Rome of a Tyrant and the Church of a Persecutor The Years of J. C. 313 Cross was born in all their Colours as the defence of the Roman People and of all the Empire A little after Maximin was conquered by Lycinius who came to an Accommodation with Constantine and he agreed on much like the same Terms with Galerius Peace was given to the Church Constantine loaded it with honours and munificences Success and victory attended him every where and the Barbarians were repressed both by him and by his Children In the mean while Licinius breaks with him and so renews the Persecution But being beaten both by Sea and Land he was forc'd to leave the Empire and at last he lost his Life About this time
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
young Emperor's Sister did believe she was capable of very great Affairs The Empire of Theodosius upheld it self by the prudence and piety of this Princess That of Honorius seemed to be near its last ruin He caused Stilicon to be put to death and then knew not where to fill the place with so great and able a Minister The Years of J. C. 409 Revolt of Constantine the absolute loss of Years of J. C. 410 Gallia and Spain the taking and sacking of Rome by the Arms of Allaricus and the Visigoths were the attendances upon Stilicon's death Ataulphus more furious than Alaricus pillaged Rome anew and resolved on nothing less than utterly abolishing the Roman name But for the happiness of the Empire he took Placidia the Sister of the Emperor Years of J. C. 413 The Goths treated with the Romans Years of J. C. 414 and settled themselves in Spain and reserved Years of J. C. 415 among the Gauls the Provinces which drew toward the Pyrenees Their King Vallia wisely managed those great designs Spain shewed her constancy and her Faith changed not under the domination of the Arians In the mean while the Burgundians a German People were got all about the Rhine from wheâ—â— by degrees they gained that Country that still bears their Name The Franks did not forget themselves being resolved to Years of J. C. 420 make new efforts to open Gallia to them they raised Pharamond the Son of Marcomir to the Regality and the Monarchy of France being the most Antient and Noble of any in the World began under him The Years of J. C. 423 Unfortunate Honorius dyed without any Issue and left the Empire to it self without providing for it Theodosius named Emperor his Cousin Valentinian III. Son of Placidia and Constance her Second Husband and put him during his Minority under the Tutelage of his Mother to whom he gave the Title of Empress In those times Celestius and Years of J. C. 412 Pelagius denyed Original Sin and the Grace Years of J. C. 413 by which we are Christians And notwithstanding Years of J. C. 416 their dissimulations the Councils of Years of J. C. 417 Africa condemned them The Popes St. Innocentius and St. Zozimus whom Pope St. Celestin followed afterwards authorized the condemnation and extended it through all the Universe St. Austin confounded those dangerous Heretics and gave a Light to all the Church by his admirable Writings The same Father seconded by St. Prosper his Disciple stopt the mouths of the Demi-Pelagians who attributed the beginning of Justification and Faith to the peculiar power of Free-will An Age so unhappy to the Empire and wherein so many Heresies sprang up yet was not unhappy to Christianity No trouble shockt it no heresy corrupted it The Church fruitful in great men confounded all their Errors After the Persecutions God was pleased to make the Glory of his Martyrs to shine forth conspicuously all Histories and all Writings are full of the Miracles which their implored Succour and their honoured Tombs and Sepulchres wrought all the earth over Vigilantius who opposed and Years of J. C. 426 contradicted such received Opinions Hier. cont Vigil Gen. Deser Ecc. refuted by St. Jerom was alone without a Follower The Christian Faith gathered Strength and inlargement every day But the Western Empire could no longer hold out Being attacqued by so many Enemies it was also weakened by the Jealousies of its Generals Years of J. C. 427 By the Artifices of Aëtius Boniface the Count of Africa became suspected by Placidia The Count being ill-treated caused Genseric and the Vandals whom the Gauls had driven away to come out of Spain and repented his calling of them when it was too late Africa was taken from the Empire The Church suffered very great evils by the violence and cruelty of the Arians and saw a World of Years of J. C. 429 Martyrs crowned Two furious Heresies rose up Nestorius the Patriarch of Constantinople divided the Person of Jesus Christ and twenty years after Eutyches the Abbot confounded the two Natures of them St. Cyril the Patriarch Years of J. C. 430 of Alexandria opposed Nestorius who was condemned by Pope St. Celestin The third General Council of Ephesus in execution of this Sentence deposed Nestorius and confirmed Years of J. C. 430 the Decree of St. Celestin whom the Years of J. C. 431 Bishops of the Council called their Father in their definition Part. 2. Conc. Eph. act 1. Sent. Depos Nestor The holy Virgin was acknowledged for the Mother of God and the Doctrin of St. Cyril was celebrated throughout the earth Theodosius after some Embarassments submitted himself to the Council and banished Nestorius Eutyches who could not otherwise combat this Heresie than by running himself into another excess Years of J. C. 448 was as violently rejected Pope St. Leo the Great condemned him and wholely refuted him by a Letter which was greatly revered Years of J. C. 451 by all people The fourth General Council of Chalcedon where this Great Pope held the first place as well by his Learning as by the Authority of his See anathematized Eutyches and Dioscorus the Patriarch of Alexandria his Protector The Council's Letter to S. Leo shewed that that Pope presided there by his Legats as the head over its Members The Emperor Marcian was himself present at this great Assembly Relat. S. Syn. calc ad Leo. Conc. Part. 3. following the Example of Constantine and received the Decisions of it with the same Respect A little before Pulcheria had advanced him to the Empire by marrying him She was owned as Empress after the death of her Brother who left never a Son But it was necessary for the Empire to have a Master and the Vertue of Marcian procured him that Honour During the time of these two Councils Theodoret Bishop of Cyr made himself famous and his Doctrine was without spot if the violent Writings which he published against St. Cyrill had not too much needed Illustrations He gave them sincerely and was reckoned among the Orthodox Bishops The Gauls began to acknowledge the Francs Aëtius had defended them against Pharamond and against Clodion the Hairy But Meroveus was more happy and made there a more solid Establishment near about the same time as the English Saxons got the possession of Great Brittain They gave their Name to it and found there several Royalties In the mean time the Huns a People of Pannonia desolated all the World with an immense Army under the Conduct of Attila their King the most dreadful and terrible of all Men. Aëtius who got the better of him in Gallia could not prevent his ravaging of Italy The Isles of the Adriatick Sea served as a Retreat to Years of J. C. 452 several against his Fury Venice raised it self up out of the midst of the Waters Pope St. Leo who was more puissant than Aëtius and the Roman Armies made that barbarous King and Heathen to respect him and saved Rome
desolate without a Governor The King of Persia Chosroes II. under pretence of revenging Mauritius had attempted to destroy Phocas He push'd on his Conquests under Heraclius There was seen the Emperor beaten and the true Cross carryed away Years of J. C. 620 621. by the Infidels after by admirable return Years of J. C. 622 623 H raclius five times a Conqueror Persia over-run Years of J. C. 625 626. by the Romans Chosroes killed by his Son and the Holy Cross re-taken Whilst the Power of the Persians was so sharply repressed a worse mischief rose up both against the Empire and indeed against all Christianity Mahomet set himself up for a Prophet among the Saracens He was driven out from Mecha by his own People with his Flight commenced that memorable Hegyra from whence Years of J. C. 622 the Mahometans compute their Years This false Prophet gave his Conquests for all the sign of his mission In nine years he brought all Arabia under Subjection either on their own accord or by force and laid the Foundations of the Empire of the Caliphi To these Years of J. C. 629 Afflictions was superadded the Heresie of the Monothelites who through an almost inconceivable Blindness in owning two Natures in our Lord and Saviour would own that there was but one Will in him Man according to their Doctrine had nothing of Will in him and there was nothing in Jesus Christ but the sole Will of the Word These Hereticks concealed their Venom under ambiguous terms A false Love of Peace made them propose that there should be no speaking either of one or of two Wills By these Artifices they imposed upon Pope Years of J. C. 633 Honorius the First who entered with them into a very dangerous Menage and consented to that Silence whereby the Lye and the Truth were both equally suppressed And for the complement of all Afflictions some time after the Emperor Heraclius undertook Years of J. C. 639 to decide the Question by his Authority and proposed his Ecthesis or favourable Explication to the Monothelites but the Artifices of the Hereticks were at length discovered Pope John IV. condemned the Ecthesis Constance the Grandchild of Heraclius Years of J. C. 640 maintained the Edict of his Grandfather by his own called the Type The Years of J. C. 648 Holy See and Pope Theodoret opposed that Years of J. C. 649 attempt Pope St. Martyn I. assembled the Council of Lateran where he sentenced the Type and the Chiefs of the Monothelites to the Anathema St. Maximus celebrated over all the East for his Piety and his Learning leaves the Court which was infected with this new Heresie openly reproves the Emperors who had dared so to pronounce upon the Questions of Faith and suffers a world of Afflictions for the Catholic Years of J. C. 650. 654. Faith The Pope dragged from one Exile to another and always rudely treated by the Emperor at length dyes in the midst of his Sufferings without complaining nor remitting any thing he owed to the Function of his Ministery In the mean while the new English Church strengthened by the industrious Cares of the Popes Boniface V. and Honorius grew very famous over all the World Miracles abounded there with the Vertues as in the times of the Apostles and nothing was more splendid than the Years of J. C. 627 Sanctity of its Kings Edwin with all his Years of J. C. 634 Subjects embraced the Faith which had given him the Victory over his Enemies and converted his Neighbours Oswald served as an Interpreter to the Preachers of the Gospel and renowned by his Conquests he preferred the Glory of being a Christian to Years of J. C. 655 them all The Mercians were converted by the King of Northumberland Oswin Their Neighbours and their Successors followed their Steps and their good Works were infinite Every thing went to wrack in the East whilst the Emperors were destroying each other in Disputes about Religion and Years of J. C. 634 in inventing of Heresies the Saracens run Years of J. C. 635 through the Empire possessed themselves of Years of J. C. 636 Syria and Palestine the Holy City was subjected Years of J. C. 637 to them and Persia lay open to their Power by its Divisions so that they took that great Kingdom without any Resistance They entered into Africa in a posture of Years of J. C. 647 making it in a very little time one of their Years of J. C. 648 Provinces the Isle of Cyprus paid them Obedience and in less than thirty years they joyned all these Conquests to those of Mahomet Italy always unfortunate and forsaken groan'd under the Arms of the Lombards Constance despairing of his ever driving them out was resolved to ravage what he could no longer defend and was more cruel than the Lombards themselves He came not to Years of J. C. 663 Rome but to pillage the Treasures of it the Churches escaped not free from him He ruined Sardinia and Sicily and made himself odious to all the World and at last fell by the Hands of his own Servants Under Years of J. C. 668 his Son Constantine Pogonat that is to say Years of J. C. 671 the Bearded the Saracens possessed themselves Years of J. C. 672 of Cilicia and Lycia Constantinople Years of J. C. 678 was besieged and was saved even by a Miracle The Bulgari People that came from the mouth of Volga joyned with all those potent Enemies wherewith the Empire was infested and got themselves Masters of that part of Thrace called since Bulgaria which was the Antient Mysia The English Church was the Mother that brought forth new Churches and St. Wilfrid Bishop of York being expelled from his See converted Frieseland The whole Church received a new Light by the sixth general Council of * Alsted Chron. Years of J. C. 696 Constantinople where Pope St. Agatho presided by his Legats and explained the Years of J. C. 680 Catholic Faith by a most admirable Letter That Council anathematized one Bishop famous for his Learning one Patriarch of Alexandria four Patriarchs of Constantinople that is to say all the Authors of the Sect of the Monothelites without sparing Pope Honorius himself who had abetted and countenanced them After the Death of Agatho which happened during that Council Pope St. Leo II. confirmed their Decisions and received all their Anathema's Constantine Pogonat an imitator of the great Constantine and of Marcian entered into the Council after their Example and as he paid them the same Submissions they honoured him with the same Titles of Orthodox Religious and peaceful Emperor and the Restorer of Religion His Son Years of J. C. 585 Justinian II. succeeded to him then an Infant From his time the Faith increased and spread it self gloriously towards the North. Years of J. C. 586 St. Kylian sent by Pope Conon preached the Years of J. C. 589 Gospel in Franconia In the time of Pope Sergius Ceadwalla one of the Kings of England
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
t 11.8.2 Cont. Ap. They suffered a little under their first Successors Ptolomy the Son of Lagus surprized Jerusalem and brought from thence into Egypt a hundred thousand Captives But he soon left off his hatred to them He himself made them Citizens of Alexandria the Capital City of his Kingdom or rather he confirmed to them the right which Alexander had already invested them with and not finding any in all his Empire more faithful than the Jews he filled his Armies with them and conferred upon them the most important Places and Offices of Trust If the Lagides regarded them Id. ant 12.3.2 Cont. Ap. yet they were better treated by the Seleucides under whose Empire they lived Seleucus Nicanor chief of that Family established them in Antioch And Antiochus the God his Grandson having caused them to be received in all the Cities of the Lesser Asia we have seen them spread themselves over all Greece living there according to their Law and enjoying there the same Rights as the other Citizens as they did in Alexandria and Antioch In the mean while their Law was turned into Greek by the care of Ptolomeus Philadelphus King of Egypt Joseph Praef. ant lib. 12. 2. 2. Cont. Ap. The Jewish Religion was known among the Gentiles the Temple of Jerusalem was enriched by the Gifts of both Kings and People the Jews lived in Peace and in Liberty under the power of the Kings of Syria and they never had been sensible of such a Tranquillity under their own Kings It seemed as if it would have been eternal but that they themselves did break it by their own Dissentions For no less than three hundred years did they enjoy that Peace so much foretold by their Prophets when Ambition and the Jealousies which were spread amongst them were going to destroy them Some of the most powerful of them betrayed their People for a Complement and piece of Flattery to the Kings they would fain make themselves famous after the manner of the Grecians 1 Maccab. 1.12 13 c. 2 Maccab. 3 4.1 c. 14 15 16. c. and preferred that vain Pomp to the solid Glory which the observance of the Laws of their Ancestors would have given them among their Citizens They celebrated Places as the Gentiles did That Novelty dazled the Eyes of the People and Idolatry cloathed with that splendour and magnificence appeared very lovely to a great many Jews To these Changes were supeâ—added the Disputes for the Soveraign Priesthood which was the principal Dignity of the Nation Those that were ambitious stuck to the Interests of the Kings of Syria hoping by that means to obtain it and so that Sacred Dignity was the reward of the Flattery of those Court Minions Private Piques and Jealousies too did precipitately bring on as is very usual great Calamities upon all People Antiochus the illustrious King of Syria Dan. 7.8 11 24 25.8.9 10 11 12 13 14 23 24 25. Polyb. l. 26. 31. in excerp ap Ath. l. 10. was projecting how to cut off that distracted People and so to make himself Master of their Wealth That Prince appeared then with all the Characters which Daniel had described him in Ambitious Covetous full of intrigue cruel insolent wicked furious puffed up with his Victories and afterwards enraged at his losses He enters into Jerusalem in a posture of attempting all things the Factions of the Jews and not his own Forces harden him to it and Daniel had so foreseen it He exercises unheard of Cruelties his Pride transports him to the last and most violent Excesses and he vomits forth Blasphemies against the most High as the same Prophet had foretold In the executing of those Prophecies and because of the sins of the People power is given unto him against the perpetual Sacrifice He prophaned the Temple of God which had been reverenced by the Kings his Ancestors he pillaged it and by the Riches he found there 1 Macc. 1.43.46 57. c. 2 Macc. 6.1 2. he repaired his own decayed sunk Exchequer Under the pretext of bringing into conformity the Manners of his Subjects and effectually to satiate his Avarice in pillaging all Judea he commanded the Jews to worship the same Gods with the Greeks above all he would have them to pay adoration to Jupiter Olympius whose Idol he had set up in the very Temple and being far more wicked than Nebuchadnezzar he labours to destroy the Holy Feasts the Law of Moses the Sacrifices the Religion and indeed all the People But that Prince his Successes had their just Limits set out by the Prophecies Mattathias opposed his Violences and re-united the holy People Judas Maccabeus his Son with a handful of persons perform'd brave and unheard of Exploits and purified the Temple of God three years and a half after its Prophanation as Daniel had foretold Dan. 7.25.12.7 11. Joseph prol lib. de bell Jud. lib. 1.1.6.11 Isai 63. 1 Macc. 4.15.5.3.26 28 36 54. Dan. 8.14.26 1 Macc. 6.2.9 He pursued the Idumeans and all the other Gentiles who had joyned themselves to Antiochus and having taken their best Places from them he returned victorious and humble just as Isaiah had seen him singing forth the Praises of God who had delivered into his hands the Enemies of his People and his Garments were still red with their blood He continued his Victories notwithstanding the prodigious great Armies of the Captains of Antiochus Daniel had given that wicked King but six years to torment the People of God and behold just at the prefixed stated term he acquainted Ecbatane with the Heroick Deeds of Judas He fell into a profound Melancholy and dyed as the holy Prophet had foretold miserable but not by the hand of Man after he had acknowledged tho' it was too late the Power of the God of Israel I need not tell you in what manner his Successors pursued the War against Judea nor say any thing of the death of Judas its Deliverer nor of the Victories of his two Brethren Jonathan and Simon successively High-Priests whose Valour re-established the antient Glory of the People of God Those three great Men saw the Kings of Syria and all the neighbouring People conspired against them and what was most deplorable of all was that they saw at several times those of Judah it self armed against their own Country and against Jerusalem An unheard of thing till then but expresly taken notice of by the Prophets In the midst of so many Calamities the Confidence they had in God made them undaunted and invincible The People were always happy under their Conduct Zach. 14.4 1 Macc. 1.12.9.11.20 21 22.16 2 Macc. 4.22 23 c. and at last in Simon 's time being freed from the Yoke of the Gentiles they submitted themselves unto him and his Children by and with the Consent of the Kings of Syria But the Act by which the People of God transferred all the publick Power to Simon and granted
Temple and made the Holiness of that place to be respected and sent the Lepers whom he healed unto the Priests Thereby he taught men how they ought to repress and correct abuses without ever being prejudiced at the Ministry established by God himself and shewed that the Body of the Synagogue subsisted notwithstanding the Corruption of some of its private Members But it did apparently incline to ruine The High-Priests and the Pharisees stirred up the People of the Jews against Christ for their Religion was almost quite turned into Superstition They could not indure the Saviour of the World who called them to substantial tho' difficult Practices The most holy and the best of all men nay even holiness and goodness it self became the most envied and the most hated But that did not discourage him for he ceased not doing good to his Citizens but he saw their ingratitude he foretold their punishment even weeping and denounced to Jerusalem her hasty destruction He also prophesied that the Jews who were Enemies to the Truth which he declared should be delivered up to Errour and become the Mockery of the false Prophets In the mean time the jealousie of the Pharisees and the Priests brings him to a most infamous and accursed death his Disciples forsake him one of them betrays him the first and the most zealous of all denâ—es him thrice Being accused before the Council he honours even to the last the Ministry of the Priests and answers the High-Priest particularly to the Questions he interrogated him in a Judicial way But the hour was come that the Synagogue was to be reproved The High-Priest and all the Council condemn Jesus Christ because he called himself The Christ the Son of God He was delivered up to Pontius Pilate the Roman President his Innocence was confessed by his Judge whom yet Polity and Interest made to act against the convictions of his own Conscience The just One is condemned to death the greatest of all Crimes gives place to the most perfect Obedience that ever was Jesus the Master of his own life and of all things else gives up himself voluntarily to the fury of the wicked Multitude and offers the Sacrifice which was to be the expiation of Mankind On the Cross he sees in the Prophecies what yet remained to be done and he fulfils it and then says It is finished At that word every thing in the World was changed the Law ceased John 19.30 the Types were over its Sacrifices were abolished by a more perfect Oblation That done Jesus Christ expires with a loud groan all Nature was moved the Centurion who watched him being greatly astonished at such a Death cried out and said Matth. 27.50 54. Truly this was the Son of God and those that had beheld it returned to their own homes smiting their Breasts On the third day he arose again from the dead appeared to his Disciples who had forsaken him and who could by no means believe his Resurrection They saw him spake with him touched and handled him and were convinced To confirm the Faith of his Resurrection he shewed himself at divers times and in divers circumstances His Disciples saw him in private and likewise saw him all together He appeared to above five hundred Brethren at once 1 Cor. 15.6 An Apostle who wrote of it assures us that the greater part were then alive at the writing of his Epistle Jesus Christ being risen giveth to his Apostles what time they required throughly to consider of him and after he had put himself into their hands all the ways they could desire so that not the least scruple of a Doubt could possibly remain in them he commanded them to bear witness of what they had seen of what they had heard and of what their hands had handled And that none might doubt of the credit of their Evidence any more than of their Persuasion he obliged them to seal their Testimony with their Blood Thus their preaching was not to be shaken the foundation of it was a positive fact unanimously attested by those that saw it Their sincerity was justified by the strongest proof and trial imaginable which was that of torments and of death it self Those were the Instructions which the Apostles received Upon that foundation did twelve Fishermen undertake to convert all the World which they saw so set against the Laws that they were commissionated to prescribe to them and the Truths they had to declare They were ordered to begin at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 and from thence to scatter themselves throughout all the Earth Acts 1.8 Matth. 28.19 20. instructing all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Jesus Christ promises them to be with them alway even to the end of the World and by that very word assures them of the perpetual Continuance of the Ecclesiastical Ministry And when he had said that he ascends into Heaven in their sight The Promises were accomplished the Prophecies had then their Scene fully opened The Gentiles were called to the Knowledge of God by the Command of Jesus Christ that was risen from the dead a new Ceremony was instituted for the Regeneration of the new People and the Faithful are taught that the true God the God of Israel that one and indivisible God to whom they are consecrated in Baptism is together in himself Father Son and Holy Ghost There are then propounded to us the incomprehensible Depths of the Divine Being and the ineffable Greatness of his Unity and the infinite Riches of that Nature more fruitful yet within than without able to communicate himself without any manner of Division to three equal Persons There are explained the Mysteries which were folded and as it were sealed up in the antient Writings We understand the meaning of that saying Gen. 1.26 Let us make Man in our Image and tne Trinity set forth in Man's Creation is expresly declared in his Regeneration We learn by it what that Wisdom was which was conceived before all times in the Bosom of God as Solomon speaks Prov. 8.22.23 24 25 26 27. That Wisdom which made up all his Delight and by which all his Works were made We know who he was that David saw in the Psal 110.3 Beauties of Holiness from the Womb of the Morning and the New Testament informs us that it was the Word the inward Word of God and his eternal Thought who is always in his Bosom and by whom all things were made By that we can answer that mysterious Question which is put to us in the Proverbs Prov. 30.4 Wâ—o hath ascended up into Heaven or descended Who hath gathered the Wind in his Fists Who hath bound the Waters in a Garment Who hath established all the ends of the Earth What is his Name and what is his Son's Name if thou canst tell For we know that that so mysterious and so hidden name of God is the name of
made a Minister of it and that it brought forth fruit and was come to all the World A Positive Tradition hath instructed us that St. Thomas carried it to the Indies Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 25. and the rest of them to the other distant Regions of the Earth But there is no need to have recourse to Histories for the confirmation of this Truth the effect declares it and it is sufficiently seen with what reason St. Paul applies that passage of the Psalmist to the Apostles The words of the Psalmist are these Psal 19.4 viz. Their line is gone out through all the Earth and their words to the end of the World in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun and the Apostles words are Have they not heard Rom. 10.18 yes verily their sound went into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World Under their Disciples there was scarce any nook of habitable Land how remote or unknown soever but the Gospel one way or other was brought thither A hundred years after the death of Christ St. Justin then reckoned among the Faithful a great part of the wild and savage Nations Jâ—â—â— Apol. 2. Adv. Tryph. even to those vagabond People that wandered up and down and had no fixed places of abode to dwell in And it was no vain amplification of the matter but a manifest and notorious fact that he openly declared in the presence of Emperours and in the face of all the World St. Ireneus comes a little after him Iren. 1 2 3. and we see then the Number of the Churches which he gave was considerably increased Their agreement was admirable what was believed among the Gauls in Spain and Germany was likewise believed in Egypt and in the East and as there was but one and the same Sun in all the World so was there seen in all the Church from one end of the World unto the other but one and the same Light of Truth If we advance but a very little further we shall stand amazed at the progress it made In the midst of the third Age Tertull. adv Jud. 7. Ap. 37. Orig. tr 28. in Matt. hom 4. in Ezâ—ch Tertullian and Origen make us see in the Church whole Countries and People which but a little beforâ— were not to be admitted into it Those whom Origen excepted against who were most remote from the known World were a while after approv'd of by Arnoâ—ius Arn. l. 2. What could the World have seen that it should so readily surrender it self to Jesus Christ If it had been Miracles God had visibly concerned himself in that work and if it could possibly be that it had seen none would not this have been a new Miracle greater and more incredible than those which would not be believed Aug. 21. de Civ 22.5 of having converted the World without a Miracle of having instructed so many ignorant Persons in such exalted Mysteries and inspired so many learned Ones with such an humble Submission as also of having convinced the Incredulous of so many things incredible But the Miracle of Miracles if I may so speak is this that with the belief of the Mysteries the most eminent Vertues and the most difficult and painful Practices were exercised almost all the World over The Disciples of Jesus Christ followed him in his most rugged ways To suffer all for the Truth was a common thing with his Children and to be Imitators of their dear and blessed Saviour they ran to their Torments with more zeal and eagerness than others did to their greatest Pleasures and Delights Innumerable are the Examples of the Rich who have in a manner beggered themselves to supply the Necessities of the Poor and so likewise of the Poor who have preferred penury and want to Riches of Virgins who have here upon Earth imitated the life of Angels and of the charitable Pastors and Shepherds who became all things to all men and always were ready to give to their Flock not only their Vigils and their Labours but to lay down their very Lives for their sakes What shall I say concerning Repentance and Mortification the very Judges never executed their Sentences more severely upon Criminals than the penitent Sinners have inflicted Punishments on their own selves Nay more the most Innocâ—nt have with an incredible Severity punished in themselves that prodigious inclination which is in us all to sin The life of St. John Baptist which seemed so much to astonish the Jews was usual among the Faithful Desarts have been populated with his Imitators and there were in those days so many that sought out places of Retirement that the most perfect of them have been forced to find out Retreats of a more profound Solitude to perform the Austerities of their Piety and Devotion so much did they shun the World and so delightful was the life of Contemplation to them These were the precious Fruits the Gospel was to be productive of The Church abounded no less in Examples than in her Precepts and her Doctrine appeared holy by the infinite Number of her Saints God Almighty who knew that the most generous and eminent Vertues would arise from Sufferings founded her by Martyrdom and kept her for three hundred years in that Condition without giving her one moments quiet or repose After that he had by so long an Experience fully shewn that he stood in no need of any Humane Succour nor of the Powers upon Earth to establish his Church he then called Emperours into it and made of the Great Constantine a declared Protector of Christianity From that time Kings have run from all parts into the Church and all that was writ in the Prophecies concerning its future glory has been accomplished in the sight of all the Earth And if she hath been Invincible against the Efforts without she hath been no less so against all intestine Divisions Those Heresies so often foretold by Jesus Christ and his Apostles have come to pass and the Faith that was persecuted by the Emperours did at the same time suffer a more dangerous Persecution from the Hereticks But that Persecution was never more violent than in the time that the Heathen Persecution was seen to cease Then Hell made its utmost Efforts to destroy by it self that Church which the Assaults of its declared Enemies had strengthened and confirmed Scarce did she begin to respire by the Peace which Constantine gave her but behold Arrius that unhappy Priest raised her up greater Troubles than ever she had suffered before Constantius the Son of Constantine seduced by the Arrians whose Dogmata he authorized tormented the Catholicks on all sides became a new Persecutor of Christianity and was so much the more formidable as that under the Name of Jesus Christ he made war with Jesus Christ himself For the Complement of all her Miseries the Church thus divided falls into the hands of Julian the Apostate who laboured all he could
in his time had discovered to them the punctuality of the Declension set forth in the Prophecy they doubted not but that Christ was coming and they should see that new Kingdom in which all People were to be reunited One thing which they took notice of was that the power of life and death was taken from them Talm. Hierosol tr Sanhed Dan. 13. That was a great change since they had ever enjoyed that great priviledge till then to what Dominion soever they were subjected nay even in Babylon during their Captivity The History of Susanna plain enough shews that and it was a most certain Tradition among them The Kings of Persia who re-established them 1 Esdr 7.23 24 25 26. left them that power by an express Decree which has been already observed in its proper place and we have also seen that the first Seleucides had rather enlarged than straitned their Priviledges I need not here to repeat any thing of the Reign of the Maccabees where they were not only enfranchised but became mighty and formidable to their Enemies Pompey who weakened them as we have already likewise seen being content with the Tribute he had laid upon them and with putting them in such a condition that the People of Rome might dispose of them upon occasion left them their Prince with all his Jurisdiction It is sufficiently known that they received such usage from the Romans and that they never medled with their Government among themselves in those Countreys where they suffered them to have their Natural Kings In fine the Jews were resolved to lose that power they had of life and death but forty years before the Destruction of the second Temple and it is to be questioned whether this was not the first Herod that ever attempted to make this breach on their Liberty For since Joseph an t 14. 17. as well to be revenged of the Sanhedrim where he had himself been obliged to appear before he was made King as afterwards to gain over to himself the absolute Authority he had attacqued that Assembly which was as the Senate founded by Moses and the perpetual Council of the Nation that exercised the Supreme Jurisdiction by little and little that great Body lost its power and but very little of it did remain at the time when Christ came into the World Affâ—irs grew worse and worse under Herod's Sons when the Kingdom of Archelaus whereof Jerusalem was the Capital City being reduced into a Roman Province was governed by Presidents whom the Emperours sent thither In that wretched and pitiable estate the Jews had so small a share of the power of life and death that to get Jesus Christ to be put to death whom notwithstanding they were resolved to crucifie whatsoever it should cost them they were fain to have recourse to Pilate and that weak Governour having told them that they should judge him to Death by their own Law they presently answered him that it was not lawful for them to put any man to death John 18 31. Acts 12.1 2 3. And so likewise by the hands of Herod they caused St. James the Brother of St. John to be beheaded and clapt St. Peter into Prison When they had resolved on the death of St. Paul they delivered him into the hands of the Romans as they had already done Jesus Christ Acts 24. and the Sacrilegious Vow of their false Zelots who had sworn neither to eat or drink before they had killed that holy Apostle sufficiently discovered that they were sensible they had lost their power of taking away his life in a Judicial Course of Proceeding If they stoned indeed St. Stephen that was done tumultuously by the Rabble and by an effect of those Seditious Transports which the Romans could not always suppress in those who called themselves at that time the Devout Acts 7.57 58. This is held for certain then as well by those Histories as by the consent of the Jews and by the posture of their Affairs that towards the time of our Saviour and especially in that when he began the Exercise of his Ministry they absolutely lost their Temporal Authority They could not behold that their loss without remembring that ancient Oracle of Jacob which had foretold them that in the time of the Messiah there should be no longer among them either Power Authority or Magistracy One of their most ancient Authors takes notice of it and it is but reason in him to acknowledge that the Scepter was not then in Judah nor any Authority among the Heads of the People seeing that the publick Power was taken from them Tract voc magn Gen. seu com in Gen. and the Sanhedrim being degraded the Members of that great Body were no more looked on as Judges but as bare simple Doctors Therefore according to their own reckoning it was much about the time that Christ was to appear And as they saw then that certain Sign of this new King 's coming to be very near at hand whose Empire was to extend it self over all People they did effectually believe that he would appear The noise thereof spread it self round about and all the East were fully persuaded that it would not be long before they saw come out of Judah those who should Reign over all the Earth Tacitus and Suetonius report this Story as being established by a positive Opinion and by an ancient Oracle which was found in the Sacred Books of the Jews Suet. Vespas Tacit. l. 5. hist c. 13. Joseph de bell Jud. 7.12 Hegisip de Excid Jer. v. 44. Josephus relates that Prophecy in the same terms and says as they did that it was found in the holy Scriptures The Authority of those Books whose Predictions were seen so visibly accomplished in so many Instances was very great in all the Eastern Country and the Jews more attentive than any other in observing the several Conjunctures which were chiefly written for their Instruction acknowledged the time of the Messiah which Jacob had pointed out in their declension Thus the Reflections they made upon their Condition were very just and without being deceived about the time of Christ's Advent they confessed he was to come just in that very point of time he did But O the weakness of Humane Understanding and the Vanity which is the inevitable Source of Blindness the Humility of their Saviour concealed from those proud Souls the true Grandeurs which they were to look for in their Messiah They would have had him to have been a King like to the other Kings of this World which was the reason that the Flatterers of the first Herod dazled with the Greatness and Magnifâ—cence of that Prince who as much a Tyrant as he was yet forgot not to inrich Judea Epiph. lib. 1. haer 20. Herodian said that he himself was that King so much promised 'T was that also which gave way to the Sect of the Herodians by whom he was so much
holy Ghost himself hath computed the Years But whilst they renounced them they fulfilled them and shewed the Truth of what they said both as to their Blindness and their Fall Let them answer the Prophecies as they would the Desolation which they foretold came upon them just at the appointed time the Event was of more Efficacy and Force than all their Subtilties and if Christ did not come just upon that fatal Conjuncture the Prophets in whom they trusted very much â—eceived them And for the Complement of their Conviction please to observe two Circumstances which accompained their Fall and the Advent of the Saviour of the World The one is that the Succession of the High-Priests which was perpetual and unalterable since Aaron then came to an end The other that the Distinction of the Tribes and Families allways kept up till that time was then no more by their own Confession That Distinction was necessary till the coming of Messiah From Levi were to be born the Ministers of sacred Things From Aaron were to come the Priests and the Pontifs From Juda the Messiah himself If the distinction of Families had not continued till the Destruction of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ the Jewish Sacrifices would have ceased before the time and David had been frustrated of the Glory of being known for the Father of the Messiah Was the Messiah come Was the new Priesthood according to the Order of Melchizedech begun in his Person And the new Kingdom which was not of this World did that too appear Then was there no longer need of Aaron nor of Levi nor of Juda nor of David nor of their Families Aaron was no more necessary then when the Sacrifices were to cease as Daniel had foretold The House of David and Juda had accomplished their purpose when that the Christ of God was come out from thence Dan. 9.27 And as if the Jew themselves had renounced their own Hopes they particularly at that time forgot the Succession of Families until then so carefully and so religiously kept up Let us not omit one of the Signs of the Messiah's coming and peradventure the chiefest if we can tell how to understand it aright tho' it be to the Scandal as well as Horror of the Jews 'T is the Remission of Sins declared in the name of a suffering Saviour Dan. 9.26 27. of a Saviour humble and obedient even to the Death Daniel had observed among his Weeks the mysterious Week which here we take notice of wherein Christ was to be sacrificed wherein the Covenant was to be confirmed by his Death and the antient Sacrifices were to lose their Power and Vertue Let us joyn Isaiah to Danâ—el and there we shall find all the depth of that so great a Mystery we shall see there the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief Isai 53.3 5. who was wounded for our Transgressions bruised for our Iniquities The Chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we were healed Open your Eyes ye Incredulous and look about you is it not true that the Remission of Sins was preached to you in the Name of Jesus Christ Crucified Was ever so great a Mystery throughly considered Did ever any other than Jesus Christ either before or after him loudly proclaim that he was come to wash away Sins by his Blood Should he have an express Order to be Crucified only to acquire a vain and empty Honour and to fullfil in himself so bloody a Prophecy 'T is duty here to be silent and adore a Doctrine that is in the Gospel which could not so much as enter into any Man's Conception if it had not been true The Jews are extreamly perplexed and put to it in this point They find in their Scriptures too many Passages describing the Humiliations of their Messiah What then will become of those that speak of his Glory and Triumphs Why their natural Resolution is that he will come to his Triumphs by the Victories he gains and to Glory by his Sufferings What an incredible thing is this the Jews had rather have two Messiah's We see in their Talmud Tr. Succa Comm. sive parraph sup Cant. c. 7. v. 3. and other Books of like Antiquity that they look for a suffering Messiah and a Messiah full of Glory the one dead and risen the other always happy and always a Conqueror The one to whom all the Passages do agree that relate to his weakness the other to whom all those agree which speak of his Greatness the one indeed makes him the Son of Joseph for they could not deny him one of the Characters of Jesus Christ who was the reputed Son of Joseph and the other the Son of David without ever being willing to consider or allow what that Messiah the Son of David was to do according as the Royal Prophet had foreshewn drink of the Brook the way before he should lift up his Head Ps 110. v. ult that is to say he should be afflicted before he triumphed as the very Son of David says himself O Fools and slow of Heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luk. 24. v. 25 26. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and so to enter into his Glory But if we do understand that great Passage of the Messiah wherein Isaiah doth so lively represent to us the Man of Sorrows wounded for our Transgressions Isai 53. and brâ—ised for our Iniquities and disfigured as one that was Leprous we are likewise justified in this Explication as well as in all the other by the antient Tradition of the Jews and in spight of all their Preventions the Chapter so often cited in their Talmud teaches us that that Leper who should be stricken for the Transgression of the People Gem. Tr. Sanhed l. 11. Ibid. should be the Messiah The Afflictions which the Messiah should feel for our Sins are celebrated in the same place and in several other of the Jewish Writings They often speak of his Entrance as humble as it was glorious which he was to make in Jerusalem when riding upon an Ass and that famous Prophecy of Zachariah was applied to him What reason to have the Jews to complain Every thing was pointed out to them in express Terms among their Prophets their antient Tradition had preserved the natural Explication of those admired Prophecies and there was nothing more just than that Reproach which the Saviour of the World made to them saving O ye Hypocrites ye can discern the Face of the Skie Matt. 16.2 3 4. Luke 12.56 but can ye not discern the Signs of the Times For ye say when it is Evening it will be fair Weather for the Skie is red and in the Morning it will be foul Weather to day for the Skie is red and lowring Therefore we may very well conclude that the Jews had all the reason in the World to confess that all the signs and times of
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