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
Figure of Future Time the Ark wherein God discovered himself to be present by his Oracles and in which the Tables of the Law were kept the Advancement of Aaron the Brother of Moses the High-Priest the Ceremonies of their Consecration and the Form of their mysterious Habits the Priests Functions the Sons of Aaron those of the Levites with the other Observances of Religion and that which is most beautiful and decent the Rules of good Manners the Policy and Government of his chosen People of whom he would be himself the Legislator This is what is observable in the Epocha of the Written Law Afterwards we see the Journey continued in the Wilderness the Revolts the Idolatries the Punishments and Consolations of the People of God whom this Almighty Legislator reduced by these means by degrees the Anointing of Eleazor Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1452 the High-Priest and the Death of his Years of the World 2552 Father Aaron the Zeal of Phineas the Son of Eleazor and the Priesthood secured to his Posterity by a particular Promise During this time the Aegyptians continued the Establishment of their Colonies in divers Places chiefly in Greece where Danaus the Aâ—gyptian was made King of Argos and dispossess'd the Ancient Kings that came Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1451 from Inachus Towards the end of the Israelites Years of the World 2553 Journying in the Wilderness we see the Beginnings of Wars which are rendred successful through the Prayers of Moses But he dies and leaves to the Israelites their whole History which he had carefully digested from the beginning of the World even to the time of his Death This History is continued by the command of Josuah and his Successors This afterwards was divided into several Books and hence it is that we have the Book of Josuah the Book of Judges and the Four Books of Kings The History which Moses wrote and in which all the Law was included was also divided into Five Books which are called the Pentateuch and which are the Ground of Religion After the Death of that Man of God we read of the Wars of Josuah Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1445 the Conquest and Division of the Holy Land Years of the World 2559 and the Rebellions of the People punished and re-established at divers times There Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1405 are likewise the Victories of Othoniel the Son Years of the World 2599 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1325 of Kenaz the Brother of Caleb who delivered Years of the World 2679 him from the Tyranny of Chausan-Rishathaim King of Mesopotamia and Eighty years after That of Ehud the Son of Gera Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1322 over Eglon King of Moab About this Years of the World 3682 time Pelops the Phrygian the Son of Tantalus reigned in Peloponnesus and called that famous Country by his Name Bel the King of the Chaldeans received from those People Divine Honours The ungrateful Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1305 murmuring Israelites fall again into Servitude Years of the World 1699 Jabin King of Chanaan subjecteth Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1285 them but Deborah the Prophetess who Years of the World 2719 judged the People and Baruc the Son of Ahinoam overcame Sisera the General of Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1245 that Kings Army Thirty years after this Years of the World 2759 Gideon that mighty Man of Valour even without fighting pursues and overcomes the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1236 Medianites Abimelech his Son usurped the Years of the World 2768 Authority by the Murther of his Brethren exercised it after a Tyrannical manner and Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1187 at last loseth it and his Life together Jephtha Years of the World 2817 makes his Victory bloody by a Sacrifice that was not to be excused but by a secret Order and Dispensation from Heaven concerning which it hath not pleased him to reveal any thing to us In this Age there hapned very remarkable things among the Gentiles Herod l. 1. c. 26. For according to Herodotus his Account which seems to be the most exact Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1267 we are to reckon for that time 514. years Years of the World 2737 before Rome Gen. x. 11. and from the time of Deborah Ninus the Son of Bel and the Foundation of the first Empire of the Assyrians The Court was established at Nineveh an Ancient City and then pretty Famous but it was made more Splendid and Glorious by Ninus Those who ascribe 1300 years to the first Assyrians have their Foundation from the Ancientness of the City and Herodotus who allows them but 500 speaks only of the Empires Duration since its beginning under Ninus the Son of Bel to extend it self into the Upper Asia A little after and in that Conqueror's Reign Jos xix 20. Joseph Antiq 8.2 we are to fix the Foundation or the Renewal of the ancient City of Tyre whose Navigation and whose Colonies rendred it so Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1252 considerable At last a little after Abimelech's Years of the World 2752 time we meet with the memorable Combates of Hercules the Son of Amphitryon and those of Theseus King of Athens who made but one great City of the twelve Towns of Cecrops and instituted a better Form of Government among the Atheninians During Jephtha's time whilst Semiramis who came from Ninus and was the Governess of Ninyas inlarged the Assyrian Empire by her Victories The Famous City of Troy already taken once by the Greeks under Laomedon its third King was Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1184 utterly reduced again by the Greeks under Years of the World 2820 Priam the Son of Laomedon after a Siege of ten years V. Epocha The Taking of Troy The fourth Age of the World This Epocha of the Ruin of Troy which hapned about the year 308. after the Departure out of Aegypt and 1164 years after the Deluge is very considerable as well because of the Importance of so great an Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1184 Event celebrated by two of the greatest Years of the World 2820 Poets of Greece and Italy as because that every thing may be brought to this Date which was most remarkable in those called the Fabulous or Hâ—roick Times the Fabulous by reason of the Fables in which the Histories of those Times are wrapt and Heroick by reason of those whom the Poets have called the Sons of the Gods and Heroes Their Lives were not far from this Overthrow For in the time of Laomedon the Father of Priam were all the Heroes of the Golden Fleece Jason Hercules Orpheus Castor and Pollux and all the others that are known to you and in the time of Priam likewise during the last Siege of Troy there were Achilles Agamemnon Menelaus Vlysses Hector Sarâ—edon the Son of Jupiter Aeneas the Son of Venus whom the Romans acknowledged for their Founder and several others from whom the most Illustrious Families and even
whole Nations boast that they descend This Epocha therefore is proper to recollect whatsoever the Fabulous Times had that was most certain and most eminent But what is seen in the Sacred History is in all Points most remarkable Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1177 the prodigious Strength of Samson Years of the World 2887 and likewise his marvellous Weakness Eli Years of the World 1176 the High-Priest Venerable by his Piety Years of the World 2888 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1095 and unhappy by the Guilt of his Sons Samuel Years of the World 2909 an irreproachable Judge and a Prophet chosen by God to anoint Kings Saul the first King of Gods People his Victories his presumption to Sacrifice without the Priests his Disobedience pitifully excused under the pretence of Religion his Reprobation his fatal Fall About this time Codrus King of Athens gave up himself to death for the safety of his People and by his Death they got the Victory His Sons Medon and Nileus dispute for the Kingdom Upon this occasion the Athenians abolish all Regality and declare that Jupiter was their only King They created Governours or perpetual Presidents but they were subject to render an account of their Administration These Magistrates were called Archontes Medon the Son of Codrus was the first who exercised this Magistracy and it continued a long while in his Family The Athenians extended their Colonies into that part of Lesser Asia which was called Ionia The Aeolick Colonies were set up much-what about the same time and all the Lesser Asia was filled with Greek Towns Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1055 After Saul came David that admirable Years of the World 2949 Shepherd the Conqueror of the fierce Goliah and of all the Enemies of the People of God a great King a great Conqueror and a great Prophet worthy to sing out the Praises and wonderful Works of his great Creator in a word a Man after God's Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1034 own Heart as he himself stiles him and Years of the World 2970 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1014 who by his Repentance did even turn his Years of the World 2990 Offences to the Glory of his Maker To this Pious Warriour succeded his Son Solomon Wise Just Peaceful whose Hands Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1012 undefiled with Blood were accounted worthy Years of the World 2992 to build the Temple of God VI. Epocha Solomon or the Temple finished 5. Age of the World This was about the year 3000. of the World the year 488. since the Departure out of Aegypt and to adjust the Times of Sacred History with those of the Profane 180 years after the taking of Troy 250 years before the Founding of Rome and 1000 years before Jesus Christ when Solomon Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1004 finished that stupendious Edifice He Years of the World 3000 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1003 celebrated the Dedication of it with an extraordinary Years of the World 3001 Piety and Magnificence And this famous Action was followed with several other Wonders of the Reign of Solomon which ended in shameful Weaknesses He gave up himself to the Love of Women which debased his Mind made his Heart grow wavering so that at last his Piety degenerated into Idolatry God tho' justly provoked yet spares him for the sake of David his Servant however he would not suffer his Ingratitude utterly to go unpunished he divides his Kingdom after his death under his Son Rehoboam The Brutish Pride of that young Prince causes Ten of his Years be ∣ fore J. C. 975 Tribes to be cut off from him which Jeroboam Years of the World 3029 separated from their God and from their King For fear lest they should return to the Kings of Judah he forbids them going to Sacrifice at the Temple of Jerusalem and he sets up his Golden Calves to which he ascribes the Name of the God of Israel that so the Innovation might appear less strange The same Reason made him retain the Law of Moses which he interpreted according to his own Will and Pleasure but almost all the Politie of it he caused to be observed as well the Civil as Religious so that the Pentateuch remained still in veneration among the separated Tribes Thus was the Kingdom of Israel set up against the Kingdom of Judah In that of Israel Impiety and Idolatry reigned and triumphed But Religion tho' it was several times clouded in that of Judah yet it was always preserved there About this Years be ∣ fore J. C. 971 time the Kings of Aegypt were very powerful Years of the World 3033 The Four Kingdoms had been re-united under that of Thebes It is believed that Sesostris that famous Conqueror of the Aegyptians is that Sesac King of Aegypt whom God made use of to chastise the Impiety of Rehoboam In the Reign of Abijah the Son of Rehoboam is observable that great and mighty Victory which the Piety of that Prince gained him over the Schismatical Tribes Hâ—s Son Asa whose Piety is commended Years be ∣ fore J. C. 917 in Scripture is taken notice of there Years of the World 3087 to be a Man who in his Sicknesses relied more upon the Humane Help of Medicines than of the Goodness and Power of God Years be ∣ fore J. C. 924 In his time Amri King of Israel built Samaria Years of the World 3080 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 914 where he established the Seat of his Years of the World 3090 Kingdom This Time is followed with the admirable Reign of Jehosaphat wherein flourished Piety Justice Navigation and the Military Art Whilst he appeared in the Kingdom of Judah another David Ahab and his Wife Jezabel who then reigned in Israel joyned to Jeroboam's Idolatry all the Impieties Years be ∣ fore J. C. 899 of the Gentiles They perished both of Years of the World 3105 them miserably God who had bore with their Idolatries was resolved to revenge upon them the Blood of Naboth whom they had caused to be slain because he had refused as the Law of Moses required to sell them the Fee of his Paternal Inheritance Their Sentence was pronounced by the Mouth of the Prophet Elijah Ahab was killeâ— some time after notwithstanding all Years be ∣ fore J. C. 987 his â—ircumspection to save himself About Years of the World 3107 this time we are to râ—ckon the Foundation of Carthage which Dido wâ—o was come from Tyre built in a Place after the Example of Tyre which was very convenient for Traffick as it was likewise for becoming Mistress of the Sea It is somewhat hard to assign the Time when it formed it self into a Republick but the mixing of the Tyrians and Africans made it become equally Warlike and Trafficking The ancient Hâ—sâ—orians who place its Origine before the Ruine of Troy seem to fancy that Dido rather enlarged and fortified it than that ever Years be ∣ fore J. C. 888 she laid the Foundations of it Affairs began
they began to extend themselves beyond the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 124 Alpes and Sextius a Conqueror of the Gaules Years of Rome 630 called Salii established in the Town of Aix a Colony which bears its Name to this day The Gauls defended themselves but ill Fabius subdued the Allobroges and all the Neighbouring People And the same Years be ∣ fore J. C. 123 Year that Grypus made his Mother to drink Years of Rome 631 the Poison which she had prepared for him Years be ∣ fore J. C. 121 Gallia Narbonesus was reduced to a Province Years of Rome 633 and received the Name of the Roman Province Thus the Roman Empire was greatned and by little and little possest it self of all Lands and Seas of the known World Yet the Face of the Commonwealth did not look so fair and beautiful abroad by her Conquests but that it was full out as much disfigured by the outragious Ambition of her Citizens and hy her civil and intestine Wars The most Illustrious of the Romans became the most Pernitious to the publick Weal The two Gracchi by their Flatteries to the People began the Divisions which never ended but with the Republick Caius the Brother of Tiberius could not indure the Thoughts that they had caused so great a Man to be killed in so sad and tragical a Manner And being animated with Revenge by the Motions which he fancied the Ghost of Tiberius inspired him wâ—th he put all the Citizens into Arms one against another and just upon the Point of destroying all he was cut off by a Death resembling that he was resolved to revenge Money did all things at Rome Jugurtha Years of Rome 635 King of Numidia stained with the Murther Years of Rome 640 of his Brothers whom the Roman People Years of Rome 641 protected defended himself much longer by his Gifts than by his Arms And Marius Years be ∣ fore J. C. 106 who at last absolutely Conquered him Years of Rome 648 could not for all that come to the Command Years be ∣ fore J. C. 103 but by his stirring up the People against Years of Rome 651 the Nobless The Slaves once more armed themselves in Sicily and their second Revolt cost the Romans as much Blood as the first Marius beat the Teutons the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 102 Cymbrians and the other People of the Years of Rome 652 North who got themselves into Gallia Years be ∣ fore J. C. 100 Spain and Italy The Victories he obtained Years of Rome 654 were an Occasion of proposing new Partages and Divisions of Land Metellus who opposed it was yet notwithstanding forced to give way to Time and the Divisions Years be ∣ fore J. C. 94 had not ended but by the Blood of Saturnus Years of Rome 660 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 88 a Tribune of the People Whilest Years of Rome 666 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 86 Rome protected Cappadocia against Mithridates Years of Rome 668 King of Pontuâ— and so great an Enemy Years be ∣ fore J. C. 91 submitted to the Roman Forces with Greece Years of Rome 663 which had then fell into the same Interests Italy continually engaged in Arms by so many Wars kept up either against the Romans or with them did put their Empire into great Danger by an universal Revolt Rome at the same time felt her self torn by the Fury of Marius and Sylla one of whom had made both the South and North to tremble and the other was the Conqueror Years of Rome 666 both of Greece and Asia Sylla Sirnamed Years of Rome 667 the Happy seq was too much so against his Country which his Tyrannical Dictatorship Years be ∣ fore J. C. 82 put into Slavery He could willingly Years of Rome 672 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 79 resign the Soveraign Power bâ—t he could Years of Rome 675 not prevent the Effect and Consequence of a bad Example Every one would Rule Years be ∣ fore J. C. 74 and Govern Sertorius a zealous Associate Years of Rome 680 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 73 of Marius cantoned himself in Spain and Years of Rome 681 there made a League with Mithridates Against so great a Captain Force was in Vain and Pompey could no ways reduce that Party but by sowing the Seeds of Division among them So that there was not a Man even down to Spartacus the Gladiator but who thought he might aspire to the Command Years be ∣ fore J. C. 71 of the whole This Slave was as Years of Rome 683 great a Trouble to the Pâ—etors and the Consuls as Mithridates was to Lucullus The War of the Gladiators became a Dread to the Roman Power Crassus could hardly end it and he was forced to send against them Years be ∣ fore J. C. 68 Pompey the Great Lucullus got the better Years of Rome 686 in the East The Romans past the Euâ—hrates But their Invincible General against the Enemy could not keep his own Souldiers within their Duty Mithridates who tho' often beaten yet never lost his Courage rallied and the Happiness of Pompey seemed necessary to determine that War Years be ∣ fore J. C. 67 He had newly purged the Sea of the Pyrats Years of Rome 687 that infested them from Syria even to Hercules his Pillars when he was sent against Mithridates His Glory seemed then to be raised to the height He brought that Valiant Years be ∣ fore J. C. 65 King into an absolute Submission Armenia Years of Rome 689 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 63 whither he was gone for Refuge Iberia Years of Rome 691 and Albania which sustained him Syria torn by his Factions Judea or the Division of the Asmonians did not leave to Hyrcanus II. Son of Alexander Janneus but a Shadow of Power and at last all the East But he had not had wherewithal to triumph over so many Enemies without the Consul Cicero who saved the City from the Fire which Catiline followed with most of the greatest Roman Nobless prepared for it That terrible Party was ruined by the Eloquence of Cicero rather than by the Arms of C. Antigonus his Collegue The Liberty of the People of Rome was in no greater Security Pompey Reigned in the Senate and his great Name made him absolute Master Years of Rome 696 of all Deliberations Julius Caesar by subduing the Gaules seq brought to his Country the most advantagious Conquest that ever it had had So great a Service put him into a Condition of Establishing his Dominion in his Country He was resolved first to equal and then to out-doe Pompey The immense Riches of Crassus made him believe that he might share the Glory of those two great Men as he did share their Authority He rashly engaged in the War against the Parthians which was fatal to himself and Years be ∣ fore J. C. 54 to his Country The Arsacidae proving Years of Rome 700 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 53 Conquerors by their cruel Railleries insulted
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
After a long War Childebert and Clothaire the Sons of Clovis conquered the Kingdom of Burgâ—ndy and at the same time sacrificed to their Ambition the younger Sons of their Brother Clodomir whose Kingdom they divided between themselves Some time after and whilest Belisarius was so vigorously attacking the Ostrogoths what they had in the Country of the Gaules was left to the French France extended it self then a good way beyond the Rhine but the Partages of Princes which made up so many Kingdoms kept it from being re-united under one and the same Dominion It s chief parts were Neustria that is to say Western France and Austrasia Years of J. C. 553 that is to say Eastern France The same year that Rome was re-taken by Narses Justinian caused the fifth general Council to be held at Constantinople which confirmed those that went before it and condemned some Writings that seemed favourable to Nestorius That is what we call the three Chapters because of the three Authors long since dead whereof they then treated It condemn the Memory and the Writings of Theodorus Bishop of Mopsueste a Letter of Ibas Bishop of Edessa and among Theodoret his Writings those he had drawn up against St. Cyrill The Books of Origen which pestered all the East for one whole Age were also reprobated This Council which began with but ill designs yet had a happy Conclusion and was received by the Holy See which at first had opposed it Years of J. C. 555 Two years after the Council Narses who had taken Italy from the Goths defended it against the French and obtained an absolute Victory over Bucelin General of the Troops of Austrasia Yet notwithstanding all these Advantages Italy did not long remain under the Government of Emperors Under Justin II. Nephew of Justinian and Years of J. C. 568 after the Death of Narses the Kingdom of Lombardy was founded by Alboün He took Milan and Pavia Rome and Ravenna were scarce safe from his Hands and the Lombards put the Romans to extream sufferings Years of J. C. 570. 571. and calamities Rome was but poorly assisted Years of J. C. 574 by her Emperors whom the Covetous Nations Scythia the Saracens a People of Arabia and the Persians more than all the other grievously tormented on all sides in the East Justin who only believed himself and his Passions was always beaten by the Persians and by their King Chosroes His resentment of so many Losses put him into a Years of J. C. 579 Phrensie so that his Wife Sophia governed the Empire This unhappy Prince too late recovered into his good Senses and confessed as he was dying the Malice of his Flatterers After him Tiberius II. whom he had named Emperor repressed the Enemies comforted the People and enriched Years of J. C. 580 himself by their Alms. The Victories of Years of J. C. 581 Mauritius the Cappadocian General of his Armies broke the heart of the proud Years of J. C. 583 Chosroes Those were recompenced by the Empire which Tiberius gave him at his death with his Daughter Constantina At that time the Ambitious Fredegunda Wife to King Chilperick the first put all France into a Combustion and engaged all the French King in most bloudy and cruel Wars In the midst of the Miseries of Italy and whilst Rome was visited with a most Years of J. C. 590 dreadful Pestilence St. Gregory the Great was advanced maugre all his resistance to the See of St. Peter That great Pope stayed the Plague by his devout Prayers instructed Emperors and did absolutely make a just Obedience to be paid to them comforted Africa and fortified it confirmed in Spain the Visigoths converted from Arianisme and Ricardes the Catholic who was just got in again into the Bosom of the Church converted England reformed the Discipline in France whose Kings being always Orthodox he exalted above all Kings in the World He overcame the Lombards saved Rome and Italy which the Emperors could give no assistance to suppressed the growing Pride of the Patriarchs of Constantinople illuminated the Church by his Doctrin governed both the East and the West with as much resolution as humility and gave unto the World a perfect Model of Ecclesiastical Government The History of the Church hath nothing more glorious than the Monk St. Austin's Years of J. C. 597 Entrance into the Kingdom of Kent with forty of his Companions Beda l. 1. who going before the Holy Cross and the Image of the Great King our Lord Jesus Christ made solemn Vows for the conversion of England S. Gregory who had sent them instructed them by Letters truly Apostolical Greg. lib. 9. Ep. 58. ind 4. and taught S. Austin to tremble amidst the continual Miracles which God wrought by his Ministry Bertha a Princess of France brought King Edhilbert her Husband over to Christianity The Kings of France and Queen Brunehault protected the new Mission The Bishops of France did also engage in this Work and it was they who by the Order of Du Paga consecrated St. Austin The Supply which St. Gregory sent to the new Bishop was productive of new Years of J. C. 601 Fruits and the English Church assumed its Years of J. C. 604 Form The Emperor Mauritius having tryed the fidelity of the Holy Pontiff was corrected by his advice and received from him that commendation so worthy of a Christian Prince as the Heretics durst not open their mouths in his time However that pious Emperor was guilty of a great Fault A Years of J. C. 601 vast number of Romans were destroyed by the hands of the Barbarians for want of being ransomed by a Crown per head Immediately afterwards the good Emperor testifyed his remorse and he poured out a Prayer to God to punish him in this World rather than in the other and then was the revolt Years of J. C. 602 of Phocas who before his eyes cut the throats of all his Family Mauritius being the last that was killed amidst all this sad Scene of calamities was heard to say nothing but only that verse of the Psalmist Psal 119. I know O Lord that thy Judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me Phocas being advanced to the Empire by so horrid and Years of J. C. 606 detestable a crime endeavoured to gain the Years of J. C. 610 People in honouring the Holy See whose priviledges he confirmed But his Sentence was pronounced Heraclius proclaimed Emperor by the African Army marched against him Then Phocas found that oft-times debauches do more ruin Princes than Cruelties and Photin whose Wife he had vitiated betrayed him to Heraclius who caused him to be killed France a while after beheld a much Years of J. C. 614 stranger Tragedy Queen Brunchault being delivered up to Clothaire II. was sacrificed to the ambition of that Prince her Memory was quite effaced and her virtue so much extolled by Pope S. Gregory was scarce able to be defended The Empire in the mean time was
of Age. A little while after the Lombards Years of J. C. 739. 740. re-assumed their Arms and in the Calamities which they made the People of Rome to suffer they were only kept in by the Authority of Charles Martel whose Assistance Pope Gregory II. had implored The new Kingdom of Spain called at first the Kingdom of Oriedo grew greater by the Victories and the Conduct of Alphonsus Son-in-Law to Pelagius who following the Example of Recaredes from whom he was Years of J. C. 741 descended took upon him the Name of Catholic Leo died and left the Empire as well as the Church in a great Fermentation Artabaces Pretor of Armenia caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor instead of Constantine Copronimus the Son of Leo and set up Images again After the death of Charles Martel Luitprand threatned Rome anew The Exarch of Ravenna was in danger and Italy owed its Safety to the Prudence of Pope Zachary Constantine being Years of J. C. 742 embraced in the East thought only of setting Years of J. C. 743 up himself he beat Artabazus took Constantinople and filled it with instances of his Revenge The two Sons of Charles Martel Years of J. C. 747 Carlomane and Pepin had succeded to the Power of their Father but Carlomane disgusted with the Age in the midst of his Greatness and his Victories embraced a monastick Life By this means his Brother Pepin reunited all the Power into his own Person He knew how to keep it by a great desert and formed his Design to raise himself Years of J. C. 752 up to the Kingdom Childerick the most miserable of all Princes opened him the way to it and added to the quality of a lumpish Tool that of Madman The French being sick of their dull heavy Princes and accustomed so long to the House of Charles Martel ever abounding with great Men were only troubled at the Oath they had taken to Childerick Upon the Answer of Pope Zachary they thought themselves free and so much the more disengaged from the Oaths they had taken to their King as that he and his Predecessors seemed for these two Hundred Years to have renounced all Right to command over them in intailing as it were the whole Power of ruling to the office of the great Minister of the Palace So that Pepin was set up on the Throne and the Name of King was annexed to the Authority Years of J. C. 753 Pope Stephen III. found in the new King the same Zeal that Charles Martel had testified for the Holy See against the Lombards After he had in vain implored the Assistance of the Emperor he threw himself Years of J. C. 754 into the Arms of the French The King received him in France with respect and would be consecrated and crowned with his Hand At the same time he passed the Alps delivered Rome and the Exarchy of Ravenna and reduced Astolphus King of the Lombards to an equitable Peace In the mean while the Emperor made work with the Images Conc. Nic. 11. act 6. To strengthen himself with the Ecclesiastick Authority he assembled a numerous Council at Constantinople However there was not seen as was wont Ibid. defin Pseudosyn C. P. to appear either the Legates of the Holy See or the Bishops or the Legates of the other Patriarchal Sees In that Council they did not only condemn as Idolatrous all Honour paid to Images in remembrance of their Originals but also the very Sculptures and Pictures of them as of detestable Arts. It was the Opinion of the Saracens whose Councels it was said Leo had followed when he broke down the Images But yet there appeared nothing against Reliques The Council of Copronymus did not forbid Honour to be paid to them Ibid. Pseudosyn C. P. Can. 9. 11. he thundered out his Anathemaes against those who refused to have recourse to the Prayers of the Holy Virgin and of Saints The Catholics persecuted for the Honour they gave to Images answered the Emperor that they had rather indure all manner of Extremities than not honour Jesus Christ even in his Shadow In the mean time Pepin repassed the Alps and chastised the Infidel Astolphus for denying to execute the Treaty of Peace The Church of Rome never received a more noble Gift than that which the Pious Prince then made her He gave her the Towns Years of J. C. 755 recovered from the Lombards and laughed at Copronymus who re-demanded them he that could however never defend them Since that time the Emperors were very slenderly acknowledged in Rome they became there contemptible by their weakness and odious by their Errors Pepin was looked upon there as the Protector of the People and of the Church of Rome This Quality seemed as hereditary to his House and to the Kings of France Charlemain the Son of Pepin maintained it with a Courage Years of J. C. 772 equal to his Piety Pope Adrian had recourse to him against Didier King of the Lombards who had taken several Cities Years of J. C. 773. 774. and threatned all Italy Charlemain passed the Alps. Every thing bowed Dydier was delivered the Lombard Kings Enemies both of Rome and of Popes were destroyed Charlemain made himself to be crowned King of Italy and took upon him the Title of King of the French and of the Lombards At the same time he exercised in Rome the same soveraign Authority in the Quality of a Patricius and confirmed to the Holy See the Donations of the King his Father The Emperors with great Difficulty resisted the Bulgari and vainly supported the dispossessed Lombards against Charlemain The Quarrel of Images still was kept on Foot Leo IV. Son of Copronymus seemed at first to be pretty quiet but he renewed the Persecution Years of J. C. 780 so soon as ever he thought himself to be master He died quickly after His Son about ten Years old succeeded to him and reigned under the Tutelage of the Empress Years of J. C. 784 Irene his Mother Then things began to appear with a new Face Paul the Patriarch of Constantinople declared towards the latter end of his Life that he had opposed Images against his Conscience and retired into a Monastery where in the presence of the Empress he deplored the Mischief of the Church of Constantinople separated from the four Patriarchal Sees and proposed to her the Celebration of an universal Council as the only Remedy proper for the healing of so dangerous a Distemper Tarassus his Successor maintained that the Question had not been judged orderly because it began by a Decree of the Emperor and that a Council held against all due form had followed whereas in matters of Religion it belongs to the Council to begin and then the Emperors to strengthen the Judgment of the Church Grounded upon this Reason he accepted of the Patriarchate Conc. Nic. 2. Act. 7. but upon condition Years of J. C. 787 that an universal Council should be held It was begun at
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
of his People hath also caused them to foretel the Succession of the Empires You have seen the places where Nebuchadnezzar hath been pointed out as he that was to come and punish the proud People and particularly the Jews so ungrateful against their Author You have heard Cyrus named two hundred Years before he was bâ—â—n as he that was to set up again the People of God and to punish the Pride of Babylon The Ruine of Nineveh was as clearly foretold Daniel in his admirable Visions hath caused to go before your Eyes in a moment the Empire of Babylon that of the Medes and Persians that of Alexander and the Grecians The Blasphemies and the Cruelties of Antiochus the Illustrious were there foretold as well as the miraculous Victories of the People of God over so violent a Persecutor We see there those famous Empires to fall one after another and the new Empire which Jesus Christ was to set up is there so expresly described by its proper Characters that there is no way to mistake it 'T is the Empire of the Saints of the most high the Empire of the Son of Man an Empire which was to subsist in the midst of the Ruine of all the rest and to which alone Eternity is promised The Judgments of God upon the greatest of all the Empires of this World that is to lay upon the Roman Empire have not been kept hid from us You have just now had it from the mouth of St. John Rome her self hath felt the Hand of God and hath been like others an Example of his Justice But its fate was happier yet than that of others for being purged by her Punishments from the remaining dreggs of Idolatry she now no longer subsists but by that Christianity which she declares to all the World Thus have all the great Empires which we have seen upon the Earth concured by several ways and means to the weal of Religion and the glory of God as God himself hath declared it by his Prophets When you read so often in their Writings that Kings in troops shall enter into the Church and be the Protectors and Nursing Fathers of it those words presently put into your mind the Emperours and other Christian Princes and as the Kings your Ancestors have more than any other signalized themselves in protecting and enlarging the Church of God I shall not be afraid to assure you that it is they who of all the Kings are most clearly foretold in those eminently remarkable Prophecies God therefore who was resolved to make use of divers Empires either to chastise or exercise or to enlarge or protect his People willing to make himself known for the Author of so admirable a Councel revealed the Secret of it to his Prophets and hath caused them to foretel what he had resolved to execute Wherefore as the Empires began the order of Gods Decrees on the People whom he had chosen so the fortune of those Empires were found declared by the same Oracles of the Holy Ghost which foretold the Succession of the faithful People The more you accustome your self to follow great things and to recal them to their Principles the more will you stand in admiration of those Councels of Providence It behoves you to take the Ideas of them betimes which will clear up every day more and more in your Minds and you will be the better able to refer humane things to the order of that eternal Wisdom on which they depend God doth not every day declare his Will by his Prophets concerning Kings and Monarchies that he sets up or destroys But having done it so often as to those Empires whereof we have been speaking he shews us by those famous Examples what he does in all others and he teaches Kings these two fundamental Truths First That it is he who forms Kingdoms to give them to whom he pleaseth And Secondly That he knoweth how to make them serve in the time and order which he hath decreed to the Designs he hath on his People This may it please your Highness ought to keep all Princes in an intire Dependance and to make them always careful of the Orders of God that so they may lend their Hand to what he purposes for his own Glory upon all Occasions that he offers them But this Succession of Empires if we will consider it more humanly hath very great Advantages especially for Princes seeing that Arrogance the ordinary Companion of so exalted a Condition is so very much quelled by such a Spectacle For if Men learn to moderate themselves by seeing Kings die how much more will they be struck by seeing Kingdoms themselves to perish and from whence can they receive a more plain Lesson of the Vanity of humane Greatness Thus when you behold as in an instant before your Eyes the Death and Downfal I do not say of Kings and Emperors but of those mighty Empires that have made the whole Universe to tremble when you behold both the antient and the new Assyrians the Medes the Persians the Grecians and the Romans all before you successively and all to fall as I may say one upon another this dreadfull Destruction presently makes you sensible that there is nothing solid among Men and that Inconstancy and Agitation is the proper Partage and Portion of humane things BUT that which will render to your Highness this Spectacle both more advantagious a more agreeable II. The Revolutions of Empires have particular Causes which Princes ought to study will be the Reflection you shall make not only on the Rise and Fall of Empires but also on the Causes of their Progress and on those of their Ruine For Sir that same God who hath made the Chain of the Universe and who as he is Almighty by himself hath resolved for the establishing of Order that the Parts of so great an All should depend one upon another that same God hath also decreed that the course of humane things should have its Issues and its Proportions I mean that Men and Nations have had Qualities commensurate to the Advancements to which they have been designed and that expecting some certain extraordinary Strokes wherein God hath been willing to manifest his own Hand in particular there are no very great Changes happen but what may deduce their Causes from precedent Ages And as in all Affairs there is that which prepares them that which determines to undertake them and lastly that which makes them have Success So the true Science of History is to observe in every time those secret Dispositions which have prepared and made way for great Changes and the important Conjunctures which have brought them to pass Indeed it is not sufficient to look only just before one that is to say to consider those great Events which all on a sudden do decide the fortune of Empires He that would reach to the Bottom of humane things ought to take them at their first Head and Spring and he must observe
Years of the World 3116 to change Figure in the Kingdom of Judah Athaliah the Daughter of Ahab and Jezabel carried Impiety along with her into the House of Jehosaphat Jehoram the Son of so pious a Prince chose rather to imitate his Father-in-Law than his own Father Years be ∣ fore J. C. 885 The Hand of God was upon him His Years of the World 3119 Reign was short and his End dreadful In the midst of his Chastisements God wrought unheard-of Prodigies even in favour of the Israelites whom he would now recaâ—l to Repentance They saâ— without ever being converted the Wonders of Elijah and Elisha who prophesied during the Reign of Ahab Mâ—rrâ— Aâ—â—na and five of his Successors At this time Hâ—mer flourished as Hesiod had done Thirty years before The Ancient Manners aâ—d Customs which they represent to us and the Vestigia that they still keep with much Grandeur and with the ancient Simplicity does not a little serve to let us understand the Antiquities that are a great deal more remote and the Divine Simplicity Years be ∣ fore J. C. 884 of the Scripture There had been terrible Years of the World 3120 Spectacles in the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel Jezabâ—l was thrown down out of a Tower-window by the command of Jehu who valued not the painting her Face and tyring her Head but fulfilled the Word of the Lord in causing his Horses to tread her under their Feet He killed Jehoram King of Israel the Son of Ahab even all the House of Ahab was destroyed and it wanted but a little of drawing that of the Kings of Judah into its own Ruine King Ahazia the Son of Joram King of Judah and of Athaliah was slain in Samaria with his Brethren as an Ally and Friend to the Children of Ahab As soon as this News was brought to Jerusalem Athaliah resolved to cut off all that remained of the Seed-Royal without sparing her own Children and so to reign and govern by the loss of her own Only Jehoash the Son of Ahaziah a Child that then hung at the Breast was stole away from her Fury by Jehosheba his Aunt Jehosheba the Sister of Ahaziah and Wife of Jehoiada the High-Priest hid him in the House of the Lord and saved that only precious Remainder of the House of David Athaliah who thought him dead with the rest lived without fear Plat. de Repâ—◠〈…〉 Arist â—olit l. 2. c. 9. Lycurgus prescribed Laws to the Lacedemonians He is rebuked for having made them all Martial after the Example of Minos whose Institutions he had followed and for having but little provided for the Womens Modesty for that so he might make all his Men Soldiers he obliged them to a very laborious and temperate Life Nothing was stirring in Judah against Athaliah and therefore she thought her self established during a six years Reign But God raised her up an Years be ∣ fore J. C. 678 Avenger in the holy Sanctuary of his Temple Years of the World 3326 When he was come to be seven years old Jehoiada made him known to some of the Rulers over Hundreds with the Captains of the Guard and the Royal Army whom he had carefully managed and being assisted with the Priests he anointed the young King in the Temple Easily were the People persuaded to acknowledge the Heir of Davâ—d and of Jehosaphat At the noise whereof Athaliah ran to dissipate the Conspiracy but being forced without the Ranges of the Temple she there received the Reward of her Crimes As long as Jehoiada lived Joash reigneth well keeping to the Law of Moses After the Death of this holy Man of God corrupted by the Flatteries of his Courtiers he falls in with them to downright Idolatry The High-Priest Years be ∣ fore J. C. 840 Zacharias the Son of Jehoiada was resolved Years of the World 3164 to reprove him for it but Jehoash without ever being mindful of what he owed to his Father caused him to be stoned But Vengeance followed close at the heels of Years be ∣ fore J. C. 839 this for the next year Jehoash being beaten Years of the World 3165 by the Syrians and fallen into contempt was assassinated by his own Subjects and Amaziah his Son a better Man than himself was set upon the Throne Years be ∣ fore J. C. 825 The Kingdom of Israel being wasted and Years of the World 3179 depressed by the Victories of the Kings of Syria and by Civil Wars re-assumed its Forces under Jeroboam II. who was more pious than his Predecessors Hoziah otherwise called Azariah the Son of Amaziah also governed the Kingdom of Judah with no less Honour and Glory This is that Years be ∣ fore J. C. 810 Famous Hoziah that was smitten with Leprosie Years of the World 3194 and often reproved in Scripture for having towards his latter days presumed to take upon him the Priestly Office and against the Prohibition of the Law had himself offered up Incense upon the Altar of Perfumes He was to be set aside though he was a King according to the Law of Moses and Jotham his Son who was afterwards his Successor did wisely govern the Kingdom Under the Reign of Hoziah the Holy Prophets the Chief of whom at that time were Hosea and Isaiah began to publish their Prophecies in Writing and in particular Books the Originals of which they deposited in the Temple to serve as a Monument to Posterity The Lesser Prophecies which were given only vivâ voce were as was usual registred in the Rolls of the Temple with the History of the time The Years be ∣ fore J. C. 776 Olympic Games instituted by Hercules and Years of the World 3228 long discontinued were re-established and from that re-establishment came the Olympiades by which the Grecians counted their Years Aboâ—â— this time ended that which Varro calls thâ— Fabulous because the profane Histories then were full of confusion and falsities and the Historical times began wherein the affairs of the World were reported with more exactness and fidelity The first Olympiad is marked out by the victory of Corebus They were renewed every five years and after four years Revolution There in the Assembly of all Greece at Pisa first and afterwards at Elida those famous Combats were celebrated where the Conquerors were crowned with incredible Applauses The Exercises likewise were in great honour and Greece every day became more strong and more cultivated Italy as yet was almost all over savage The Latin Kings of Aeneas's Race reigned at Alba. Phul was King of Assyria 'T was believ'd he was the Father of Sardanapalus called according to the Eastern Custom Sardan Pul that is to say Sardan the Son of Phul. 'T was also thought that this Phul or Pul had been King Years be ∣ fore J. C. 771 of â—ineveh who joined with his People in Years of the World 3233 Repentance at the Preaching of Jonas That Prince invited by the Confusions of the Kingdom of Israel went to invade it but
being come to an Agreement with Manahem he established him in the Throne that he went to Usurp by Violence and received by way of acknowledgment the Tribute of a thousand Talents Under his Son Sardanapalus and after Alcmaeon the last perpetual Archon of the Athenians that People whom his humour led insensibly to affect a popular Estate lessened the Power of their Magistrates and in ten years wholly overthrew the Archontick Administration The first of this way was Charops Romulus and Remus sprung from the antient Kings of Alba by their Mother Ilia re-established in the Kingdom of Alba their Grandfather Numitor of which his Brother Amilius had dispossest him and presently after they founded Rome whilst Jotham Reigned in Judah VII Epocha Romulus or Rome founded That City which was to be the Mistress of the World and in futurity the chief Seat of the Romish Religion was founded toward the end of the third year of the sixth Years be ∣ fore J. C. 754 Olympiad 430 years after the taking Years of the World 3250 of Troy from whence the Romans believed their Ancestors to be sprung and 753 years before Jesus Christ Romulus being bred up hardly with Shepherds and always Years of Rome 1 engaged in Warlike Exercises consecrated this City to the God of War who he Years be ∣ fore J. C. 748 said was his Father About the time of Years of Rome 6 Rome's Birth through the effeminate Luxury of Sardanapalus happened the Fall of the first Empire of the Assyrians The Medes a warlike People animated by the Discourses of Arbaces their Governour set an Example to all his Subjects of contemning and scorning him All were up in a general revolt against him and at length he perished in his chief City where he saw himself constrained to fling himself into the Fire with his Concubines his Eunuchs and his Riches Out of the Ruins of this Empire were seen to come three great Kingdoms Arbaces or Orbaces whom some call Pharnaces freed the Medes who after a very long Anarchy had three most puissant Kings Moreover presently after Sardanapalus there appeared a second Kingdom of the Assyrians Years be ∣ fore J. C. 747 of which Nineveh was the chief City Years of Rome 7 and a Kingdom of Babylon These two last Kingdoms are not unknown to prophane Authors and are much celebrated in the sacred History The second Kingdom of Nineveh is founded by Tilgath of Tiglath the Son of Phalaser called for this reason Tiglathphalesar to whom was also given the name of Ninus the younger Baladan whom the Greeks called Belasis established the Kingdom of Babylon which is known by the name of Nabonassar From thence the Aera of Nabonassar famous with Ptolomy and the antient Astronomers who reckoned their years by the Reign of that Prince It is fit to explain here the signification of this word Aera which is a number of Years began at a certain point of Time which some extraordinary Accident makes remarkable Wicked Years be ∣ fore J. C. 740 and Sinful Ahaz King of Judah oppressed Years of Rome 14 by Rezin King of Syria and by Pekah the Son of Remaliah King of Israel instead of having recourse to God who stirred him up those Enemies to punish him called Tiglathphalesar the first King of Assyria or Nineveh who brought the Kingdom of Israel to its last extremity and utterly destroyed that of Syria and at the same time he ravaged that of Judah which had desired his Assistance Thus the Kings of Assyria took Years be ∣ fore J. C. 721 the way to the Holy Land and resolved Years of Rome 33 upon the Conquest of it They began with the Kingdom of Israel which Salmanasser the Son and Successor of Tilgath Pilneser utterly destroyed Osee King of Israel relied upon the succour of Sabacon otherwise called Sua or Soü◠King of Aethiopia who had invaded Aegypt But that mighty Conqueror could not get it out of the hands of Salmanassar The ten Tribes with whom the Worship of God was quite worn off were transported to Nineveh and being dispersed among the Gentiles they so lost themselves there that no farther tracing of them can be discovered There remained some of them who were mixed among the Jews and made a small part of the Kingdom Years be ∣ fore J. C. 715 of Judah At this time happened the Years of Rome 39 Death of Romulus He was always fighting and always victorious but in the midst of his Wars he notwithstanding laid the Foundation of Religion and Laws A Years be ∣ fore J. C. 714 long Peace gave Numa his Successor a good opportunity to finish that Work He formed Years of Rome 40 Religion and qualified the wild and extravagant Manners of the Romans In his time the Colonies that came from Corinth and several other Towns of Greece founded Syracuse in Sicily Crotona Tarentum and perhaps some other Towns in that part of Italy to which the most antient Greek Colonies which were spread over all the Country had already given the name of Great Greece In the mean time Hezekiah the most Pious and the justest of all the Kings Years be ∣ fore J. C. 710 ever since David reigned in Judah Sennacherib the Son and Successor of Salmanassar Years of Rome 44 besieged him in Jerusalem with a vast and prodigious Army which was in one night destroyed by the Hand of an Angel which went out and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five Thousand Hezekiah being delivered in so wonderful a manner served God with all his People more faithfully than ever But Years be ∣ fore J. C. 698 after that Prince his Death under his Son Years of Rome 56 Manasseh the ungrateful forgat their God and so disorders and calamities were multiplied Years be ∣ fore J. C. 687 upon them A popular State or commonwealth Years of Rome 67 was then formed among the Athenians and they began to elect annual Archontes or Governours the first of whom was Creon Whilst wickedness increased in the Kingdom of Judah the Power of the Kings of Assyria which were to be their avengers grew daily stronger under Esarhaddon Years be ∣ fore J. C. 681 the Son of Sennacherib He re-united the Years of Rome 73 Kingdom of Babylon to that of Nineveh and equalled in Great Asia the Power of the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 677 first Assyrians 2 Kings xvii 24. 1 Esd iv 2. In his Reign the Cuthians Years of Rome 77 People of Assyria since called Samaritans were placed in the City of Samaria instead of the Children of Israel These joined to that of Idolatry the Worship of God and obtained of Esarhaddon an Israelitish Priest who taught them the manner of the God of the Land that is to observe the Law of Moses God resolving not to have his Name utterly abolished in a Land that he had given to his People he left there his Law as an earnest and testimony 2 Kings xvii 27
respective Language Those so antient Histories whereof there is left now but a very few good Memorials are by this means become in all Probability so very dark and imperfect The confusion of names hath no doubt contributed very much both to the things as well as persons of them and from hence proceeds our Trouble rightly to situate in the Greek History those Kings who have had the Name of Ahasuerus as much unheard of to the Greeks as it was well known to the Eastern Countries VVho would indeed believe that Cyagorus was the same name as Ahasuerus made up of the word Ky that is to say Sir or Lord and from the word Axare which manifestly returns to Axuerus or Assuerus and so Ahasuerus Three or Four Princes have gone under this Name though they had others besides If we do not know that Nebuchodonozor Nebucodrosor and Nebocolassar were only one and the same Name or the Name of but one Person it would be difficult for us to believe it and yet the thing is most certain Sargon is Sennacherib Ozias is Azarias Sedechias is Mathanias Joachas is also called Sellum Asarhaddon which is indifferently pronounced Esarhaddon 2 Esdr iv 2 10. or Asarhaddon is called Asenephar by those of Cutha and by an odd bizar kind of unaccountableness of which we can find no ground or Origine Sardanapalus is by the Greeks called Tonos Concoleros We could present you with a long List of Eastern Persons to whom in Histories several different Names have been given but it is sufficient in general to understand this custom It is not unknown to the Latins among whom Titles and Adoptions have multiplyed Names in so many kinds Thus the Title of Augustus and that of Africanus became the Sir-Names of Caesar Octavianus and the Scipio's and in like manner the Neros have been Caesars The thing is not to be doubted and a longer discussion of a matter so apparently manifest would be needless to you I will not now offer to trouble your Highness any further with the knotty difficulties of Chronology which are as little necessary as useful for you This was of too great importance not to be cleared up in this place and after we have said what we think is sufficient for our purpose we will return to the train of our Epochas It was then 218 years after the foundation of Rome 536 years before Jesus Christ VIII Epocha Cyrus or the Jews re-establish'd 6. Age of the World after the 70 years of Babylons Captivity and the same year that Cyrus founded the Persian Empire That this Prince elected by God to be the deliverer of his People and the restorer of his Temple set about this great work Forthwith after the publication of his Decree Zerubabel accompanied with Jesus Years be ∣ fore J. C. 536 the Son of Joseâ—ec the High-Priest brought Years of Rome 218 back the Captives who rebuilt the Altar and laid the foundations of the second Temple Years be ∣ fore J. C. 535 The Samaritans being jealous of their Years of Rome 219 glory were resolved to go shares with them in this great Work and under the pretence of worshipping the God of Israel 1 Esdr iv 2.3 tho' they joined with it their Idolatries to their own false Gods yet they besought Zerubabel to give them leave to assist him in the Building of that Temple But the Children of Judah who detested their corrupted Worship rejected their Proposition The provoked Samaritans therefore crossed and perplexed their Design by all the ways of Artifice and Violence imaginable About the same time Servius Tullius after he had agrandized the City of Rome was contriving in his Head how to reduce it to a Commonwealth But Years be ∣ fore J. C. 533 he perished in the midst of those his Designs Years of Rome 221 by the Counsels of his Daughter and by the Command of the proud Tarquin his Son-in-Law This Tyrant invaded the Kingdom and for a long series of time exercised all manner of Cruelties and Outrages In the mean while the Persian Empire was growing up Besides those vast Provinces of the greater Asia all the greater Continent of the Lesser Asia became obedient to Years be ∣ fore J. C. 525 it The Syrians and Arabians were subjected Years of Rome 229 and Egypt which was so jealous of its own Laws yet received theirs This Years be ∣ fore J. C. 522 Conquest was got by Cambyses the Son of Years of Rome 232 Cyrus But that fierce Man did not long survive his Brother Smerdis whom an ambiguous Dream caused privately to be put to Death The Mage or chief Smerdis ruled for some time under the name of Years be ∣ fore J. C. 521 Smerdis the Brother of Cambyses but this Years of Rome 233 cheat was soon discovered The seven principal Lords conspired against him and one of them was set upon the Throne This was Darius the Son of Hystaspes Herod l. 4. c. 159. who in his Inscriptions stiled himself the Best and the handsomest of all Men. There are many remarkable things that make us know him to be the Ahasuerus spoken of in the Book of Hester tho' some there are of another Opinion At the beginning of his Reign 1 Esdr v. vi the Temple was finished after several interruptions occasioned by the Samaritans There was an irreconcileable hatred between two People so that nothing was more opposite than Jerusalem and Samaria It was in the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 513 time of Darius when the Liberty of Rome Years of Rome 241 and Athens and the great Glory of Greece began Hermodius and Aristogiton Athenians rescued their Country from Hipparchus the Son of Pisistratus and are killed by his Guards Hippias the Brother of Hipparchus endeavours but in vain to support himself for he is repulsed The Tyranny of the Pisistratus's is absolutely extinguished The rescued Athenians erect Statues to their Saviours and re-establish the popular State Hippias throws himself into the Arms of Darius whom he already found disposed to attempt the Conquest of Greece so that all his hope was in his Protection At the same time when he was repulsed Rome also was delivered of her Tyrants Tarquin the Proud by his violent Outrages had made Years be ∣ fore J. C. 509 Royalty odious The incontinency of Sextus Years of Rome 245 his Son was the complement of its destruction Lucretia ravished made her to become her own Murdress her Blood together with the harangues of Brutus animated and inspirited the Romans The Kings were banished and the Consulary Empire was established according to the model and projection of Servius Tullius but it was soon weakned by the Jealousies of the People For in the very first Consulate P. Valerius the Consul memorable for his Victories became suspected by his Citizens so that to please and satisfy them he was obliged to establish the Law of Appeals to the People from the Senate and Consuls in all causes wherein the
Greece Pericles an Athenian began the Peloponnesian Years be ∣ fore J. C. 431 VVar during which Theramenes Thrasybulus Years of Rome 323 and Alcibiades Athenians made themselves famous and considerable Brasydas and Mindarus Lacedemonians dyed there in fighting for their Country This VVar lasted seven and twenty years and ended to the advantage of the Lacedemonians who had brought on their side Darius sirnamed the Bastard the Son and Successor of Artaxerxes Years be ∣ fore J. C. 404 Lysander General of the Lacedemonians Years of Rome 350 Fleet took Athens anc chang'd it's Government But Persia soon was sensible that it had made the Lacedemonians too powerful and therefore the Persians upheld the young Cyrus in his Revolt against Artaxerxes Years be ∣ fore J. C. 401 his eldest Brother called Mnemon because of Years of Rome 353 his great and admirable memory the Son and Successor of Darius This young Person being delivered both from prison and death by his Mother Parysatis resolves upon revenge gains the Noblemen to him by his infinitely obliging carriage traverses Asia the less and goes and offers battle to the King his Brother even in the heart of his Empire wounds him with his own hand and believing himself too soon a Conqueror he perished by his own rashness The ten thousand Greeks that served him make that astonishing retreat where at last commanded Xenophon that great Philosopher and great Captain who hath written the History of it The Lacedemonians continued their attacques Years be ∣ fore J. C. 396 upon the Persian Empire which Agesilaus the Years of Rome 358 King of Sparta made to tremble in the lesser Asia but the Divisions of Greece called him back into his own Country About this time the City of the Veji which almost equalled the glory of Rome after a ten years siege and a great many good Successes was taken by the Romans under the Conduct of Camillus His generosity gained him yet another Conquest Years be ∣ fore J. C. 394 The Falisci whom he besieged rendred Years of Rome 360 themselves to him being touched at what he had done in sending them back their Children whom a School-Master had delivered to him but Rome would not conquer by Treacheries nor take advantages from the perfidiousness of a wretch that turned the Obedience of an innocent Age into such an Abuse A little after the Gauls Senonians came into Italy and besieged Clusium Years be ∣ fore J. C. 391 and the Romans lost against them the famous Years of Rome 363 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 390 battle of Allia Their City was taken and Years of Rome 364 burnt And whilst they were defending themselves in the Capitol their Affairs were re-established by Camillus whom they had banished Polyb. l. 1. c. 6. l. 2. c. 18 22. The Gauls continued seven months Masters of Rome and being called away by other affairs they drew off but it was not without carrying away with them good store of Years be ∣ fore J. C. 371 spoil During the Commotions of Greece Years of Rome 383 Epaminondas a Theban made himself signal by his equity moderation and temper as much as by his Victories It was observed he held this for a constant Rule never to tell a Lye so much as in jest His Actions became dazling and illustrious in the last years of Mnemon and in the first of Ochus Under this so great a Captain the Thebans were victorious and the Power of Lacedemonia abated Years be ∣ fore J. C. 359 and grew less That of the Macedonian Years of Rome 395 Kings began with Philip the Father of Alexander the Great And notwithstanding all the oppositions of Ochus and Arses his Son Kings of Persia and the greater difficulties still which the Eloquence of Demosthenes that mighty Defender of Liberty raised against him in Athens the victorious Prince for twenty years together kept all Greece in Years be ∣ fore J. C. 338 subjection where the Battle of Cheronea Years of Rome 416 which he gained over the Athenians and their Allies gave him a most absolute Power At this famous Field whilst he was breaking the Athenians he had the joy and happiness to see Alexander at eighteen years of age rushing in upon the Theban Troops and among others upon that which they called The Sacred Troop of Friends which they look'd on as Invincible Thus being Master of Greece and supported by a Son of such great hopes his Designs must needs be high and he resolved on nothing less than the absolute Ruine of the Persians against whom he had declared himself Generalissmo But this was reserved for Alexander For in Years be ∣ fore J. C. 337 the midst of the Solemnities of a new Marriage Years of Rome 417 Philip was assassinated by Pausanias Years be ∣ fore J. C. 336 a young Man of a good Family to whom Years of Rome 418 he had not done Justice The Eunuch Bagoas the same year killed Arses King of Persia and caused Darius the Son of Arsames sirnamed Codomannus to succeed him in the Kingdom He deserves bv his Valour to be ranked according to the otherwise most probable Opinion which gives him his Extraction from the Royal Family So that there were two Couragious and Magnanimous Kings began their Reigns together Darius the Son of Arsames and Alexander the Son of Philip. They looked upon each other with Eyes of Jealousie and they seem as born to dispute the Empire of the World betwixt them But Alexander resolved to strengthen himself well before he would engage with his Rival He revenged the Death of his Father reduced those Rebellious People that Years be ∣ fore J. C. 335 contemned his Youth he overcame the Years of Rome 419 Greeks that vainly attempted to shake off their Yoke and ruined Thebes where he spared none but the House and descendant Issue of Pindarus whose Odes were the Admiration of Greece Mighty and Victorious Years be ∣ fore J. C. 334 he marched after these famous Exploits Years of Rome 420 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 333 at the Head of the Greeks against Years of Rome 421 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 331 Darius whom he overthrew in three several Years of Rome 423 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 330 Battels in Array enters triumphantly Years of Rome 424 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 327 into Babylon and Susa destroys Persepolis Years of Rome 427 an ancient Seat and Palace of the Kings of Persia pushes on his Conquests as far as Years be ∣ fore J. C. 324 the Indies and at last returns to die at Babylon Years of Rome 430 being but Three and thirty years of age In his time Manasses the Brother of Jaddus Years be ∣ fore J. C. 333 the High Priest raised Commotions Years of Rome 421 among the Jews He had married the Daughter of Sanballat the Samaritan whom Darius had made a Nobleman of that Country Rather than he would repudiate that beautiful Stranger to which the Council of Jerusalem and
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
began to appear among the Greeks Those People being civilly treated by the Kings of Syria lived in tranquillity and Peace according to their Laws Antiochus the God Grandson of Seleucus sent them up and down into the lesser Asia Joseph Ant. 12.3 from whence they got themselves into Greece and every where enjoyed the same Rights Priviledges and Liberty as the other Citizens Ptolomee the Son of Lagus had already setled them in Egypt Years be ∣ fore J. C. 277 Under his Son Ptolomee Philadelphus their Years of Rome 477 Scriptures were turned into Greek and then came out that excellent Version called the Septuagint Version This was done by those Learned old Men whom Eleazer the High-Priest sent to the King who desired them Some would have only had the five Books of Moses translated Joseph l. 1. Antiq. c. 1. l. 12. c. 2. and the rest of the sacred Books might afterwards be turned into Greek for the use of the Jews that were scattered all over Egypt and Greece and who had forgot not only their own ancient Language which was the Hebrew but also the Chaldee which the Captivity had taught them They made themselves a Greek Mixture which they called the Hellenistick Tongue The Septuagint and all the New-Testament is written in this Tongue And during this dispersion of the Jews their Temple was made famous over all the Land and all the Kings of the East presented there their offerings The West was intent on the War Years be ∣ fore J. C. 275 of Rome and Pyrrhus In short this King Years of Rome 479 was defeated by the Consul Curius and so went back to Epirus But he was not there long at quiet but he resolved to make Macedonia recompence him for the ill successes Years be ∣ fore J. C. 274 he met with from Italy Antigonus Gonatus Years of Rome 480 was blocked up in Thessalonica and forced to leave to Pyrrhus all the rest of the Kingdom Years be ∣ fore J. C. 272 But he took heart again whilst that Years of Rome 482 the restless and ambitious Pyrrhus was making War upon the Lacedemonians and those of Argos The two hostile Kings were brought into Argos at one and the same time by two contrary Caballs and at two several Gates There was a mighty Combat in that City and a certain Mother who saw her Son pursued by Pyrrhus whom he had wounded knocked that Prince on the Head with a Stone Antigonus thus being defeated of his Enemy re-enters Macedonia who after some changes and Revolutions was at Peace with his Family The Confederacy of the Achaians kept him from growing Great It was the last Rampier of the Grecian Liberty and it was that which produced the last Heroes of it with Aratus and Philopoemen The Tarentines whom Pyrrhus fed with hopes called in the Carthaginians after his Death But that succour did them very little good for they were beaten with the Brutians and the Samnites their Allies These after seventy and two years continual Wars were forced to submit to the Roman Yoak Tarentum followed at the heels and the Neighbouring People could not hold out and so all the antient People of Italy were subjugated The Gauls often beaten durst not stir Polyb. lib. 1 2.1 And after 480 Years Warring the Romans saw themselves Masters of Italy and began to consider the affairs abroad They were not a little jealous of the Carthaginians who were grown very powerful in their Neighbourhood by the Conquests they had made in Sicily from whence they were coming to fall upon them and Italy in the Relief of the Tarentines The Republic of Carthage had two sides of the Mediteranean Sea Besides that of Africa which she almost entirely possessed she extended her self towards Spain by the Straights Being thus Mistress of the Sea and of Commerce she had invaded the Isles of Corsa and Sardinia Sicily could scarce defend it self and Italy was too nearly threatned not to be concerned with some apprehension From thence proceeded the Punic Wars notwithstanding the Treaties Years be ∣ fore J. C. 264 which were ill observ'd on both sides Years be ∣ fore J. C. 490 The first taught the Romans to fight at Sea and they were presently Masters of an Art which before they knew little or nothing Years be ∣ fore J. C. 260 of and the Consul Duilius who was the Years of Rome 494 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 259 first that gave Battle at Sea gained it Regulus Years of Rome 495 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 256 got the like Reputation and landed in Years of Rome 498 Africa where he was forced to fight with that Prodigious Serpent which obliged him to employ all his Army against it But every thing yielded and Carthage being reduced Years be ∣ fore J. C. 255 to her last Extremity did just make a shift Years of Rome 499 to save herself by the assistance and seasonable Relief of Xantippus the Lacedâ—monian The Roman General is beaten and taken but his Prison renders him more great and illustrious than his Victories For being upon his Parole sent back to treat about the exchange of Prisoners he told the Senate the conditions which was all hopes and Grace to them that would voluntarily surrender themselves and so returned to a most certain Death Two dreadful Shipwracks forced the Romans to leave their new Empire of the Sea to the Carthaginians And the Victory hung a long while in dubious suspence between the two People and the Romans were just upon the point of yielding Years be ∣ fore J. C. 241 but they repaired their Fleet and one single Years of Rome 513 Battle decided the Business and the Consul Lutatius concluded the War Carthage was obliged to pay Tribute and to quit with Sicily all the Isles that were between Sicily and Italy The Romans got that Island entirely saving only what Hieron King of Syracusa their Ally kept of it After the War was ended the Carthaginians thought now only of Destruction by the rising of their Army They had according to their Custom made it up of Strangers who revolted to them for their pay Polyb. lib i. c. 62.63 lib. ii â— 1. Their cruel and severe Government forced them to join to those mutinous Troops almost all the Cities of the Empire and Carthage being closely besieged had utterly been lost if it had not been for Hamilcar sirnamed Barcas He alone maintain'd the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 238 last War And the Citizens are indebted Years of Rome 516 to him for the Victory Poly. lib. i. 79. â—3 â—3 which they got over the Rebels But it cost them Sarainia which the Revolt of their Garrison opened to the Romans And for fear of engaging with them in a new War Carthage was forced to surrender up that Island which was of such importance and also to inlarge her Tribute she designed in Spain to re-establish her Empire which had been so much shaken by this Revolt Hamilcar went
for him and so he became a Prisoner to the Parthians Tryphon who then thought himself safe by the Calamity of that Prince found of a sudden that he Years be ∣ fore J. C. 140 was abandoned by his own People They Years of Rome 614 could no longer bear with his insulting Pride During the Imprisonment of Demetrius their legitimate King they submitted themselves to his Wife Cleopatra and to his Children But however they were obliged to look out for one that might be a Guardian and Defender to those Princes being yet but young and under Age. That Care did naturally belong to Antiâ—châ—s Sidetes the Brother of Demetrius Cleopatra made him to be owned throughout all the Kingdom she also went further Phraates the Brother and Successor of Mithridates treated Nicator as a King and gave him his Daughter Roâ—ogâ—na in Marriage And in hatred to this Rival Cleopatra from whom she took away the Crown with her Husband married Antiochus Sidettes and was resolved to Reign tho by all the Crimes imaginable The new King set Years be ∣ fore J. C. 139 upon Tryphon Simon joyned with him in Years of Rome 615 that Assault and the Tyrant being in all places subdued met with that Fate in his Years of Rome 619 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 135 End which he justly deserved Antiochus now Master of the Kingdom soon forgat the Services that Simon had done him in that War and caused him to be killed Whilst he was collecting against the Jews all the Forces of Syria Johannes Hyrcanus the Son of Simon succeeded to the Pontificat of his Father and all the People yielded to him He sustained the Siege in Jerusalem with a great deal of Valour and the War which Antiochus was designing against the Parthians for the Delivery of his Captive Brother made him agree with the Jews upon very easy and supportable Terms At the same time that this Peace was concluding the Romans who began to grow mighty rich met with Enemies that were not a little to be feared in the vast Multitude of their Slaves Eâ—nus a Slave got them to make their first Insurrection in Sicily and to reduce them no less than the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 133 whole Power of Rome was employed A Years of Rome 621 while after the Succession of Attalus King of Pergamus who by his last Will made the Roman People his Heir put the City into an unhappy Division The Troubles of the Gracchi began The Seditious Tribunalship of Tiberius Gracchus one of the primier Citâ—zens of Rome became his Destruction For the whole Senate killed him by the hand of Scipio Nasica and they saw no other means whereby to prevent the dangerous distribution of Mony wherewith that Eloquent Tribune flattered the People Scipio Aemilianus re-established the Military Discipline and that great Man who had destroyed Carthage ruined Numantia in Spain the second Terror of the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 132 Romans The Parthians found themselves Years of Rome 622 weak against Sidetes His Troops though they were corrupted by a prodigious Luxury yet had most surprizing Successes Johannes Hyâ—canus who had attended him with his Jews in that War made there his Valour signally Famous and the Jewish Religion to be had in regard stopt a little to give himself the leisure to celebrate the * â—â—ur â—e â—â—â—e Sabbath-day Every one submitted and Pâ—raates saw his Empire reduced to its antient Bounds and Limits But yet he was so far from despaâ—ring at these disastrous Circumstances that he verily believed his Prisoner would be a means to set 'em right again and enable him to invade Syâ—ia Whilst things were in this pâ—sture Demetriis met with a very odd Adventure and Fate He was several times released and as often retained according to the Ascendant of his Father in Laws Hopes and Fears At last a happy Moment wherein Phraates found no other Refource than in the Divertion which he resolved to make in Syria by his means set him at absolute Liberty At this Crisis there was a new turn Years before J. C. â—3â— of things Siâ—etâ—s who could no longer Years of Rome 624 keep up his prodigious Expences but by Rapines insupportable was on a sudden overwhelmed by a general Rising of the People and he fell with that Army which he had found so oft Victorious In vain now did Phraates seek to o'retake â—emetrius that time was past and the Prince was got into his Kingdom His Wife Cleopatra who was resolved to reign did soon return with him and Roâ—oguna was as soon forgot Hyâ—â—nâ—â—s made use of his time He took Sicâ—em from the Samaritans and utteâ—ly destroyed the Temple of â—erazim two hundred Years after is had been built by Sanballat It s Ruine hindred not the Samaritans from continuing their Worship upon that Mountain and the two People remained irreconcileable The Year after all Years be ∣ fore J. C. 129 Idumea united by the Victories of Hyrcanus Years of Rome 625 to the Kingdom of Judea received Moses's Law with Circumcision The Romans continued their Protection to Hyrcanus and caused a Surrender of the Towns to him which the Syrians had dispossessed him of The Pride and the Violences of Demetrius Years be ∣ fore J. C. 128 Nicator left not Syria long in Repose The Years of Rome 626 People revolted And to keep up their Revolt the Enemy Aegypt gave them a King Years be ∣ fore J. C. 125 It was Alexander Zebina the Son of Balas Years of Rome 629 Demetrius was beaten and Cleopatra who thought to Reign more absolutely under her Children than under her Husband caused Years be ∣ fore J. C. 124 him to be taken out of the way And she Years of Rome 630 gave no better a Treatment to her eldest Son Seleucus who would needs Reign in spight Years be ∣ fore J. C. 121 of her Her second Son Antiochus called Years of Rome 633 Grypus had defeated the Rebels and was returned Victorious Cleopatra presented to him in Ceremony the poisoned Cup which her Son being advertised of her pernicious Designs made her to drink At her Death she left an eternal Seed of Divisions among her Children which she had had by the two Brothers Demetrius Nicator and Antiochus Sidetes Syria thus in Convulsions was not long in Condition to trouble the Jews Years be ∣ fore J. C. 109 Jâ—hannes Hyrcanus took Samaria tho' he Years of Rome 645 could not convert the Samaritans Five Years after he dyed Judea continued quiet under her two Children Aristobulus and Alexander Janeus who both Reigned one after the other without any Disturbance Years of Rome 650 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 104 from the Kings of Syria The Romans left Years of Rome 651 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 103 that rich Kingdom to waste and consume by it self and were content with inlarging themselves Years be ∣ fore J. C. 115 forwards to the West During the Years of Rome 629 Wars of Demetrius Nicator and of Zebina
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
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
were caused sometimes by the express orders of the Emperors and by the particular hatred of the Magistrates sometimes by the Insurrections of the People and sometimes the Decrees authentically pronounced in the Senate upon the Rescripts of Princes or in their Presence Then the Persecution was most universal and bloody and so the hatred of the Infidels still resolute to destroy the Church still grew on from time to time to new furies and outrages And it was by these Renewals of their violences and cruelties that the Ecclesiastical Writers counted the ten Persecutions under the ten Emperors Yet under such long and tedious Sufferings did not the Christians ever make the least Sedition Among all the faithful the Bishops still had the most vigorous assaults Among all the Churches the Church of Rome was persecuted with the most of violence and Thirty Popes confirmed by their blood the Gospel which they taught to all the Earth Domitian is killed The Empire begins to respire and breath again under Nerva His great age did not permit Years of J. C. 96 him to re-settle and establish affairs but yet as much as in him lay to lengthen out and continue the Repose of the Public he elected Trajan for his Successor The Empire Years of J. C. 97 at quiet within and triumphing without did Years of J. C. 98 not fail to admire so good a Prince for this he held for a constant Maxim that he ought so to let his Citizens find him as he would have been willing to have found the Emperor if he had been a simple Citizen This Years of J. C. 102 Prince subdued the Dacii and Decebalus their Years of J. C. 106 King extended his Conquests into the East Years of J. C. 115 gave to the Parthians a King and made Years of J. C. 116 them stand in awful fear of the insuperable power of Rome Oh happy Man whom Drunkenness and his infamous Loves such deplorable vices in so great a Prince never Years of J. C. 117 made to attempt any thing against Justice To these advantageous times for the Common-weal succeeded those of Adrian equally compounded of good and bad This Prince kept up the Military Discipline lived himself a military Life and with abundance of frugality supported the Provinces made the Arts to flourish and Greece which was Years of J. C. 120 the Mother of them The Barbarians were Years of J. C. 123 kept in awe by his arms and his Authority Years of J. C. 127 He rebuilt Jerusalem to which he gave his Years of J. C. 126 Name and from thence it is that the Name Years of J. C. 130 of Aelia happened to it but he banished the Jews out of it who were always rebellious to the Empire and those being obstinate found him an unrelenting Avenger By his Years of J. C. 135 Cruelties and Monstrous Loves he dishonoured a Reign which otherwise would have been very glorious and his infamous Antinous Years of J. C. 131 of whom he made a God was a most reproachful blot to his whole Life The Emperor seemed to repair his defects and to re-establish that glory and renown which he had so much defaced by adopting Antoninus Years of J. C. 138 the Pious who adopted Marcus Aurelius Years of J. C. 136 the Sage and the Philosopher In these two Years of J. C. 161 Princes appeared two lovely and beautiful Characters The Father always in Peace yet is always ready upon occasion to ingage in War the Son is always Warring and yet always ready to give Peace both to his Enemies and to the Empire His Father Antoninus had taught him that the saving of one single Citizen was much to be preferr'd to the defeating and getting the victory over a Years of J. C. 162 thousand Enemies The Parthians and the Marcomanni felt the valour of Marcus Aurelius The latter were somewhat Germans whom this Emperor had just subdued a little before his death By the vertue of the Years of J. C. 180 two Antoninus's that name became the delight of the Romans And the Glory of so indear'd a Name was not effaced either by the softness and effeminacy of Iucius Verus Brother to Marcus Aurelius and his Collegue in the Empire or by the Brutalities of Commodus his Son and Successor This latter unworthy to be the Off-spring of such a Father forgot both the Instructions and Examples of him the Senate and the People abhorred him his most fawning and assiduous Years of J. C. 162 Minions and his Mistress were the Cause of Years of J. C. 193 his death His Successor Pertinax a vigorous Asserter of the Military Discipline saw him sacrificed to the fury of licentious Soldiers that but a little before had raised him whether he would or no to the Soveraign Power The Empire being put to an Outcry by the Army soon found a Purchaser The Lawyer Didius Julianus adventured upon that bold bargain though it cost him his Life Severus Africanus made him to be killed Years of J. C. 194 revenged Pertinax passed from East to Years of J. C. 195 West triumphed in Syria in Gaul and in Years of J. C. 198 Great Britain c. The hasty Conqueror equal'd Caesar by his Victories but he did not imitate Years of J. C. 207 him in Clemency He could not make Years of J. C. 209 Peace between his Children Bassian or Caracalla Years of J. C. 208 his eldest Son a mock Imitator of Alexander Years of J. C. 211 immediately after the death of 〈◊〉 Years of J. C. 212 Father kill'd his Brother Geta an En◠〈◊〉 as well as himself even in the bosom 〈◊〉 â—â—lia their common Mother spent his Lifâ— in Cruelty and Slaughters and at length drew upon himself a Tragical Death Severâ—s had got for him the heart of the Soldiers and Years of J. C. 218 People by giving him the Name of Antoninus but he knew not how to keep up that honour The Syrian Heliogabalus or rather Alagabalus his Son or at least reputed for such tho' the Name of Antoninus had at first procured him the hearts of the Soldiers and the victory over Macrinus soon after by his Infamies became the horror of Mankind and Years of J. C. 222 he was his own destroyer Alexander Severus the Son of Mameus his Kinsman and Successor lived too little a while for the happiness of the world He complained that he was more put to it to keep his Soldiers in good order than he was to conquer his Enemies Years of J. C. 235 His Mother who governed him was Years of J. C. 233 the cause of his Ruin as she had also been that of his glory and renown Under him Artaxerxes the Persian slew his Master Artabanus the last King of the Parthians and re-established the Empire of the Persians in the East About these times the Church as yet but in its Minority Tertull. adv Jud. 7. Apolog 37. run over the whole Earth and not only in the East where it took
its first Rise that is to say Palestine Syria Aegypt lesser Asia and Greece but also in the West besides Italy the several Nations of the Gaules all the Spanish Provinces Africa Germany Great Britain in those Places that were impenetrable to the Roman Arms and also out of the Empire Armenia Persia the Indies the greatest Barbarians the Sarmatians the Dacians the Scythians the Moores the Getulians and even to the most unknown Islands The Blood of the Martyrs rendered it fruitful Under Trajan Saint Ignatius the Bishop Years of J. C. 107 of Antiochus was exposed to wild Beasts Marcus Aurelius unhappily prepossessed with the Calumnies wherewith Christianity was charged caused to be put to Death Saint Years of J. C. 163 Justin the Philosopher and the Apologist Years of J. C. 167 for the Christian Religion St. Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna St. John's Disciple about fourscore Years of Age was condemned to the Flames under the same Prince The holy Martyrs of Lyon and Vienna suffered unheard of Punishments following the Example of St. Photin their Bishop of ninety Years of J. C. 177 Years of Age. The Gallican Churâ—h fill'd all the World with its Fame and Glory Years of J. C. 202 St. Ireneus the Disciple of St. Polycarpus and St. Photin's Successor imitated his Predeccessor and dyed a Martyr under Severus with a great Number of the Fideles Faithful of his Church sometimes the Years of J. C. 174 Persecution a little slackened At a time when there was an extream want of Water which Marcus Aurelius suffered in Germany there was a Christian Legion obtained such a Showre as was enough to quench the Thirst of all his Army and it was so followed with Thunder that it frightned all his Enemies The name of Thunderstriking was given or rather confirmed to that Legion by this Miracle The Emperor was so concern'd at it that he writ to the Senate in Favour of the Christians At last the Southsayers Persuasions were to attribute to their Gods and to their Prayers a Miracle which the Heathens never thought so much as to desire Other Causes suspended or slackened the Persecution for a little while but Superstition a Vice which Marcus Aurelius had not the Power to resist the common Hatred and the Calumnies that were cast upon the Christians quickly prevailed again The Fury and Rage of the Heathens was re-kindled and the whole Empire did as it were swim in the Blood of Martyrs Still their Doctrine went on and attended their Sufferings In Severus his time and some while after Tertullian Priest of Carthage illuminated the Church by his Writings defended it by a most admirable Apologism and left it at last being blinded by an haughty Severity and seduced by the Visions of the false Prophet Montanus Some time but not long after Clemens Alexandrinus indeavoured to pull up the Antiquities of Heathenism by the Roots that so he might utterly put an end to them Origen the Son of the Holy Martyr Leonidas made himself famous throughout all the Church even from his most tender Years and taught great Truths though they were mixt with several Errors The Philosopher Ammonius joined the Platonick Philosophy to Religion and gained to himself the Respect of the Heathens In the mean while the Valentinians the Gnosticks and the other impious Sects set up their false Traditions against the Gospel Iren. lib. iii. 1. 2 3. De prasc adv Har. c. 36. St. Ireneus opposed the Tradition and the Authority of the Apostolick Churches to theirs especially that of Rome founded upon the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul Tertullian did the same The Church is not shaken neither by Heresies nor by Schisms nor by the Fall of our most eminent Doctors The Holiness of her Conduct is so clear and perspicuous that she forces even her Enemies to break forth into Praises of her The Affairs of the Empire are imbroyled Years of J. C. 235 in a terrible manner After the Death of Alexander the Tyrant Maximinus that had killed him made himself Master though he was of Gothick Race The Senate set up four Emperors against him who died all within less than two Years Among them Years of J. C. 236 were the two Gordians the Father and Son Years of J. C. 237 the Darlings of the Roman People The Years of J. C. 238 young Gordian their Son although he was extreamly young yet shewed the Wisdom of a gained Experience and defended with great Difficulty against the Persians the Empire weakned by those manifold Divisions He had regained from them several very important Places But Philip Arabius killed Years of J. C. 242 this good Prince and for fear lest he Years of J. C. 244 should be utterly undone by the two Emperors Years of J. C. 245 whom the Senate chose one after the other he clapt up a dishonourable Peace with Sapor King of Persia He was the first of the Romans that had by Treaty parted with any Lands of the Empire 'T is said He embraced the Christian Religion and at such a time when on the sudden he had got the better and indeed he was favourable to the Christians In hatred to this Emperor Euseb l. 6. c. 39. Decius who slew him renewed the Persecution with more of Violence than ever The Church increased on all sides principally among Years of J. C. 249 the Gaules and the Empire soon lost Decius Greg. Tur. l. 1. Hist. franc 28. who with gret Resolution and Vigour Years of J. C. 251 defended it Gallus and Volusian went Years of J. C. 254 quickly after and Emilius was but just seen as it were The Soveraign Power was given to Valerianus and that Venerable old Man ascended to it through all the Dignities He was only Cruel to the Christians Under Years of J. C. 257 him Pope St. Stephen and St. Cyprian Years of J. C. 258 Bishop of Carthage notwithstanding all their Disputes which yet broke not off their Correspondence received both of them the same Crown St. Cyprian's Error which rejected Baptism given by the Hereticks neither hurt him nor the Church The Tradition of the Holy See supported it self by its own Force against the specious Arguments and against the Authority of so great a Man although there were other very great Men that defended the same Doctrine Another Dispute did more Mischief Sabellius Years of J. C. 257 confounded together the three Persons in the Divinity and acknowledged in God but one single Person under three Names This Novelty astonished the Church Euseb Hist. Eccl. l. 7. c. 6. and St. Denys Bishop of Alexandria discovered to Pope Sixtus II. the Errors of this arch-Heretick This Pope Years of J. C. 259 quickly followed the Martyr St. Stephen his Predecessor He was beheaded and left a very great Contest to be maintained by his Deacon St. Laurence Then was it that the Years of J. C. 258. 259. Iâ—undation of the Barbarians began to appear Years of J. C. 260 The Burguignions and the
other People of Germany the Goths formerly called the Geti and other People that inhabited toward the Euxine Sea and beyond the Danube came into Europe The East was invaded by the Scythians Asiaticks and the Persians These overcame Valerianus whom they afterwards took by a piece of Treachery and after they had let him linger out his Life in a painful Slavery they flea'd him to make his torn-off-Skin serve them for a Monument of their Victory Gallian his Son and Collegue quite lost all Years of J. C. 261 by his Effeminacy Thirty Tyrants share Years of J. C. 264 and divide the Empire Odenat King of Palmyra an antient City whose Founder was Solomon was the most illustrious of them all He rescued the Eastern Provinces from the Hands of the Barbarians and made himself be owned and dreaded His Wife Zenobia marched with him at the head of the Armies which she commanded singly after his Death and rendered her self Famous over all that part of the World for having joined Chastity to Beauty and Wisdom and Knowledg to Valour Claudius II. Years of J. C. 268 and Aurelianus after him re-established the Years of J. C. 270 Affairs of the Empire Whilst they were defeating the Goths with the Germans by their signal Victories Zenobia was keeping to her Children the Conquests of their Father Euseb Hist. Eccl. 7. c. 27. seq Athan. ad Solit. Theod. l. 2. haer fab 8. Niceph. lib. 6. c. 27. This Princess was leaning much to Judaism To gain her absolutely Paul of Samosates Bishop of Antiochus a vain and a restless Man taught his Judaical Opinion concerning the Persâ—n of Jesus Christ whom he made to be but a meer Man After a long Dissimulation of this so new a Doctrine he was convinced and condemned to the Council of Antiochus The Queen Zenohia maintained the War against Aurelianus who thought it no disdain to him to triumph over a Woman so eminently famous as she was Amidst his perpetual Combats he knew how to make his Souldiers keep the Roman Discipline and he shewed that in following the antient Orders and the antient Frugality great Armes might be managed both within and without Hist. Aug Aâ—â—rel c. 7. Flor. c. 2. Prob. c. 11 12. firm c. c. 13. with very little Charge to the Empire The Francks began then to make themselves considerable and to be somewhat feared It was a Combination of the German People who dwelt along the Rhine Their Name shews that they were united through a Love to their Liberty Aurelianus had beaten them being distinct and by themselves and kept them in fear being Emperor But such a Prince as he was made himself to be hated Years of J. C. 275 by his bloody Actions His too violent Choler which was dreaded by all was the cause of his Death Those that thought themselves to be in danger were resolved to prevent it and his Secretary being threatned put himself at the head of this Confederacy The Army which beheld him slain by the conspiracy of so many Chiefs refused to elect an Emperor for fear lest they should set upon the Throne one of the Assasinates of Aurelianus and so the Senate re-established tn its antient Right chose Tacitus This new Prince was venerable by his Age by his Virtue but he became odious by the Violences of a Kinsman to whom he gave the Command of the Army and he died with him in a Sedition the sixth Month of his Reign Thus his Elevation made only way to precipitate the Course of his Life His Brother Florianus pretended Years of J. C. 276 to the Empire by right of Succession as the nearest Heir That Right was disallowed of Florianus was killed and Probus forced by the Souldiers to receive the Empire although he threatened that he would make them live in order Every thing yielded to so great a Captain The Germans and the Years of J. C. 277. 278. Francks who attempted to enter into the Years of J. C. 280 Country of the Gaules were driven back and in the East as well as the West all the Barbarians did homage to the Roman Arms. This Warrior so much dreaded yet aspired Years of J. C. 282 after Peace and made the Empire to hope that there would be no more need of Souldiers The Army revenged themselves on him for such Words and so were released from the severe Rule and Discipline which this Emperor made them to observe Soon after being ashamed of the Violence they used to so great a Prince they honoured his Memory and gave him for a Successor Carus who was no less zealous than he for the Discipline This valiant Years of J. C. 283 Prince revenged his Predecessor and overcame the Barbarians to whom the Death of Probus had given Courage He went into the East to fight the Persians with Numerian his second Son and set against the Enemies of the North side his eldest Son Carinus whom he nominated Cesar That was the highest Dignity next to his own and the nearest Step to come to the Empire All the East trembled before Carus Mesopotamia submits to him The divided Persians were not able to resist him So that whilst all things yielded to him Heaven strikes him with a Thunder-clap By too much weeping for the loss of this Father Numerian had e'en like to have lost his Eyes But what will not the desire of reigning prompt Years of J. C. 284 the Heart unto Far from being troubled at these Calamities his Father-in-Law Aper kills him But Dioclesian revenged his Death and at last came to the Empire which with Years of J. C. 285 so much earnestness he had before longed for Carinus awakened himself notwithstanding his Effeminacy and beat Dioclesian but in pursuing those that fled he was slain by one of his own Servant whose Wife he had abused Thus the Empire was as it were at once rid of the most violent and the most dissolute of all Men. Dioclesian governed vigorously but yet with such a Years of J. C. 286 Vanity as was insupportable To resist so many Enemies that rose against him on all sides both within and without he nominated Maximian Emperor with him but yet nevertheless he knew how to keep to himself Years of J. C. 291 the chief Authority Every Emperor made a Caesar Constantius Chlorus and Galerius were raised to this high Honour The four Princes did scarce bear up the Burthen of so many Wars Dioclesian fled from Rome which he found to be too free and established himself at Nicomedia where he made himself to be adored after the Eastern manner In the mean time the Persians being overcome by Galerius left great Provinces and more Kingdoms to the Romans After Years of J. C. 297 these very great Successes Galerius would no longer be subject and disdained the Name of Cesar He began to fright Maximian A grievous and a long Sickness had brought down the haughty Spirit of Dioclesian Euseb Hist. l. 8.13 Orat. Const.
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
and he filled all the World with the noise of his Holiness and his Miracles during his life and after his death Valentinian dyed after a most fierce and violent Harangue which he made to the Enemies of the Empire his passionate Impetuosity which made him so much feared by others proved fatal to himself His Successor Gratianus without any Invidiousness of the exaltation of his young Brother Valentinian II. who was made Emperour tho' he was but nine years of age His Mother Justina the Protectress of the Arrians had the Government during his Minority There Years of J. C. 377 happened in a few years very strange and Years of J. C. 378 wonderful Accidents the Revolt of the Goths against Valentius that Prince forsaking the Persians to repress the Rebels Gratianus running to him after he had got a signal Victory over the Germans Valentius resolving to conquer singly hastened the fight where he was killed near to Adrianople the Goths being victorious burn him in a Town whither he had retired Gratianus being oppressed with the weight of Affairs associated the Great Theodosius to the Empire and left the East to his Conduct The Goths are overcome Years of J. C. 379 all the Barbarians are kept in awe and that which Theodosius looked upon as no less the Macedonian Heretics who denyed the Divinity of the Holy Ghost were condemned Years of J. C. 881 at the Council of Constantinople And now there was only the Greek Church the consent of all the West and of Pope Damasus made him to call the Second General Council Whilst Theodosius governed with so much Power and Success Gratianus who Years of J. C. 383 was not inferior to him valour nor Piety abandoned by his Troops all made up of Strangers became a Sacrifice to the Tyrant Maximus The Church and the Empire bewailed Years of J. C. 386 387 the fate of that good Prince The Tyrant reigned over the Gauls and seemed to be satisfyed in that division The Empress Justina under her Son's Name set forth Proclamations in favour of Arrianism St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan opposed it with his holy Doctrin Prayers and Patience and knew that by such Arms he should not only preserve to the Church the * Basiliques Royal Palaces which the Heretics would fain have possessed but also that he should bring over the young Emperor to him In the mean while Maximus was in action and Justina found nothing more faithful than the Bishop whom she treated notwithstanding as a Rebel She sent him to the Tyrant whom his Discourses could not bend The young Valentinian is forced to betake himself to flight with his Mother Maximus is Master at Rome where he sets up again the Sacrifices unto false Gods in complaisance for the Senate as yet almost all Pagan After he had got possession of all Years of J. C. 388 the West and at that time when he thought himself most in Peace Theodosius aided by the Franks overcame him in Pannonia besieged him in Aquileia and suffered him to be killed by his Soldiers And now being absolute Master of both Empires he gave that of the West to Valentinian tho he did not enjoy it very long That young Prince raised and degraded Arbogastus too fast who was a Captain of the Franks valiant disinterested and one that by all manner of crimes was able Years of J. C. 392 to keep the Power he had acquired over the Troops He raised the Tyrant Eugenius who was only good at Discourse and killed Valentinian who would no longer have the proud Frank for his Master That detestable Fact was committed near Vienna in the Country of the Gauls St. Ambrose whom the young Emperor had sent for to receive Baptism from his hand lamented his loss and had very good hopes of his Salvation His death not long remain unpunished A very manifest Miracle gave to Theodosius the Years of J. C. 394 Victory over Eugenius and over the false Gods whose worship he had anew set up Eugenius was taken and must be sacrificed to the Public Vengeance that so the Rebellion might be quashed by his death The fierce and resolute Arbogastus became his own Murtherer rather than he would seek to the clemency of the Conqueror which all the other Rebels came to embrace Theodosius now sole Emperor was the joy and admiration of all the Universe He confirmed Religion put to silence Heretics abolished the corrupt and impure Sacrifice of the Heathen corrected vitious effeminacies and Years of J. C. 390 repressed all superfluous expences He humbly acknowledge his faults and repented of them he hearkened to St. Ambrose the famous Doctor of the Church who reproved him for his passion the only Vice of that great Prince Tho' always victorious yet he never made War but when forced to it by necessity He made the People happy Years of J. C. 395 and dyed in Peace more illustrious by Years of J. C. 386. 387. his Faith than by all his Conquests In his time St. Jerom the Priest being retired into the sacred solitary of Bethlehem put himself to vast labour and pains to explain the Scriptures read all the Interpreters of them searched into all Histories both Sacred and Profane which might give him any Light and out of the Original Hebrew composed that Version of the Bible which the Church in general hath received under the name of Vulgar The Empire which seemed to be invincible under Theodosius changed on the suddain under his two Sons Arcadius had the East and Honorius the West both of them governed by their Ministers they made their Power to serve their own particular Interests Eufinus and Eutropius successively favoured by Arcadius and each as wicked Years of J. C. 395 as the other were soon cut off and Affairs Years of J. C. 399 went no better under a weak Prince His Years of J. C. 403 Wife Eudoxa made him to persecute S. John Years of J. C. 404 Chrysostom the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Light of the East Pope S. Innocentius and all the West kept up that great Bishop against Theophilus the Patriarch of Alexandria and Minister of the Empress's cruelties The West was troubled with the Inundation of the Barbarians Radagasus a Years of J. C. 406 Goth and Heathen ravaged Italy c. The Vandals a Gothic and Arrian Nation seized on one part of Gallia and so spread themselves in Spain Alaricus King of the Visigoths an Arrian People forced Honorius to resign those great Provinces to him which were already possessed by the Vandals Stilicon â—mbarassed with so many Barbarians beat them managed them held secret Intelligences and broke with them sacrificed all to his Interest and notwithstanding kept the Empire which he was resolved to usurp In the mean Years of J. C. 408 time Arcadius dyed and thought the East so stript of good Subjects that he left his Son Theodosius of about eight years old to the Guardianship of Isdegerdus King of Persia But Pulcheria the
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
from being pillaged But it was quickly after exposed by the Debauches of its Emperor Valentinian Maximus Years of J. C. 454. 455. whose Wife he had violated found a way to destroy him by dissembling his Griefs and thereby insinuating himself into his good Affections By his deceitful Councels the blinded Emperour caused Aëtius the only Bullwark of the Empire to be put to death Maximus the Author of this Murder stirs up Aëtius his Friends to revenge it and so the Emperor came to be killed By these Steps he got to the Throne and forces the Empress Eudoxia the Daughter of Theodosius the Younger to marry him To deliver herself out of his Hands she was not afraid to run into those of Genseric Rome now became a Prey to Barbary It was only S. Leo that prevented all there from being put to Fire and Sword The People tore Maximus to pieces and only received that sad Consolation in all their Miseries All is out of Order in the West several Emperors are set up there and pull'd down again almost at one and the same time Years of J. C. 456. 457. Majorianus made himself the most Considerable Avitus very scurvily preserved his Reputation and saved himself by a Bishoprick The Gaules were no longer to be defended against Merovius nor against Childerick his Son But the latter had like Years of J. C. 458 to have dyed through his Debaucheries If Years of J. C. 462 his Subjects banished him one faithful Friend in reserve made him be recalled His Valour gave a Dread and Terror to his Enemies and his Conquests reached very far into the Country of the Gaules The Eastern Years of J. C. 475 Empire was at Peace under Leo the Thracian Years of J. C. 476 Marcian 's Successor and under Zeno Leo's Son-in-Law and Successor The Revolt of Basiliscus which was soon quasht gave but a short disturbance to this Empire But the Western Empire went to decay irrecoverably Augustus who was called Augustulus the Son of Orestes was the last Emperor owned at Rome and immediately after he was deposed by Odoacres King of the Heruleans These were People come from the Euxine Sea whose Government was but of a short duration In the East the Emperor Zeno attempted to signalize himself in an unheard of manner He was the first of all the Emperors who concern'd himself in regulating the Questions of Faith Whilst the Demi-Eutychians opposed the Council of Years of J. C. 482 Chalcedon he published against the Council his Henotick that is to say his Decree of Union detested by the Catholics and condemned by Pope Felix the III. The Heruleans Years of J. C. 483 were quickly driven from Rome by Years of J. C. 490 Theodorick King of the Ostrogoths that is to Years of J. C. 491 say the Eastern Goths who founded the Kingdom of Italy and left though an Arian a pretty free Exercise to the Catholic Religion The Emperor Anastasius was some trouble to it in the East He followed the Years of J. C. 492 Steps of Zeno his Predecessor and heartened Years of J. C. 493 the Heretics By which means he lost the Peoples Affections which could never be retrieved no not by casing them of heavy and oppressive Taxes Italy was all obedient to Theodorick Odoacres pressed into Ravenna indeavoured to save himself by a Treaty which Theodorick did not at all regard and the Heruleans were forced to resign up all Theodorick besides Italy did likewise keep Provence In his time St. Bennet being in Italy retired into a Desart Years of J. C. 494 began from his most early years to put in Practice those Holy Maximes of which he afterwards composed that excellent Rule which all the Western Monks received with the same respect and deference which those of the East do pay to that of St. Basil The Romans compleated the Ruin of the Gauls by the Victories of Clovis the Son of Chilperick Years of J. C. 495 He gained also over the Germans the Battle of Tolbiac by the Vow he made of embracing the Christian Religion to which his Wife Clotilda never ceased her Persuasions She was of the House of the Kings of Buâ—gundy and a most Catholic Zelot tho' her Family and Nation were Arrian Clovis instructed by St. Vaast was baptized at Reims with his Franks by St. Remy Bishop of that antient Metropolis Of all the Princes of the Years of J. C. 506 World he alone maintained the Catholic Years of J. C. 507 Faith and deserved the Title of most Christian to be derived to all his Successors By the Battle in which with his own Hand he killed Alarick King of the Visigoths Tholoâ—se and Aquitain were joined to his Kingdome But the Victory of the Ostrogoths Years of J. C. 508 kept him from pretending to it all even up to the Pyrenees and the end of his Reign defaced somewhat the Glory of his great beginnings His four Sons divided the Kingdom Years of J. C. 510 and yet were continually making Inroads one upon another Anastasius dyed Years of J. C. 518 by the stroke of a Thunderbolt Justin of mean Extract but a Man of parts and a great Catholic was made Emperor by the Senate He and all his People submitted to the Decrees of Pope St. Hormisdas and so put an end to the Troubles of the Eastern Churches In his time Bâ—ëtius a Man famous for his Learning as well as his Birth Years of J. C. 526 and Symmachus his Father-in-Law both advanced to the highest Offices of Government were sacrificed to the Jealousy of Theodorick who groundlessly suspected them for conspiring against the State The King being afterwards troubled in his mind for this bloudy Fact he had done thought he saw the Head of Symmachus in a Dish which was brought up to his Table and soon after dyed Amalasonta his Daughter Mother of Alâ—ricus who succeeded to the Kingdom by the death of his Grandfather was hindered by the Goths from bringing up this young Prince in the Instructions which his Birth both challenged and deserved and being forced to abandon him to Persons of his own Age she foresaw his Ruin without being able to do any thing to prevent it The Year after Years of J. C. 527 Justin dyed after he had associated to the Empire his Nephew Justinian whose long Reign is celebrated by the Labours of Tribonianus the compiler of the Roman Law and by the Exploits of Belisarius and Years of J. C. 529 of the Eunuch Narses Those two famous Years of J. C. 530 c. Captains subdued the Persians defeated the Years of J. C. 533 Ostrogoths and the Vandals and rendered to Years of J. C. 534 their Master Africk Italy and Rome but Years of J. C. 552 the Emperor jealous of their Glory without Years of J. C. 553 ever being desirous to share with them Years of J. C. 532 their Labours every day studied how to embarass and intangle them more than ever he afforded them Assistance The Kingdom of France increased
easy because he would have his Life as commodious as it should be innocent But Man kept not this Command tho' it was of so easy an Observance he hearkens to the tempting Spirit and he hearkens to himself also instead of fixing his attention on God only So that his Ruine was inevitable But here we must consider it in its original State as well as in its after-circumstances God in the beginning had made his Angels Spirits pure and separate from all matter He that made nothing but what was good had created them all in Holiness and they might have secured their Felicity by giving themselves up voluntarily to their Creator But whatsoever is derived out of nothing is defective One part of these Angels suffered themselves to be seduced by their own self-Love Unhappy Creatures who would be pleased in themselves and not in God They lost in a Moment all that He had given them Strange effect of Sin Those Holy Creatures of Light became Spirits of Darkness They ceased any longer to have any Light in them but what turned it self into malicious Craftiness An Envious Malignity possessed them in the room of their former Lovingness and Charity Their natural Greatness was nothing but Pride Their Felicity was changed into that consolation of getting to themselves Companions in their Misery and their most delightful Exercises were to be miserably imployed in tempting Men. The most perfect of them all who had also been the most proud found himself the greatest evil doer as he was the most miserable Man Psal 8.5 whom God had made but little lower than the Angels in uniting him to a Body became a Spirit so perfect as if he had been an Object of Jealousy he was resolved to ensnare him in his Rebellion afterwards to envelop him in his Ruine We will take notice how he speaks to him and search into the bottom of his Artifices He addresses himself to Eve as to the weaker Vessel but in the person of Eve he speaks to her Husband as well as to her Gen. 3.1 Why hath God made you this severe Prohibition If he hath made you reasonable you ought to know the reason of all things This Fruit is not Poison neither shall you die Gen. 3.4 Thus that revolted Spirit began with her She then argued upon the Command and her Obedienâ—e began to stagger You shall be as Gods free and independent happy in your selves wise by your selves Gen. 3.5 knowing good and evil nothing shall be impenetrable to you By â—hese Artifices of persuasion did this wicked Spirit set up himself against the order of the Creator and made himself superior to the Rule Eve being half brought over wishfully looked upon the Fruit whose Beauty promised a pleasant taste Considering that God had united in-Man Soul and Body she thought that in favour to Man he might also have given to Plants supernatural Vertues and intellectual gifts to sensible Objects After she had eaten of that Fruit which was so pleasant to the Eye and so much to be desired to make one wise v. 6. she presented some of it to her Husband and 't was a very dangerous assault upon him Example and Complaisance fortified the Temptation he was beguiled into the Sentiments of the Tempter being so well seconded a deceitful Curiosity a flattering thought of Pride the secret Pleasure of acting by himself and according to the pulse of his own Inclinations drew him in and miserably was he cheated He resolved to make a dangerous tryal of his Liberty and he tasted with the Fruit forbidden him the fatal Sweetness and Pleasure of contenting his Fancy The Senses too mingled their attractions to this new Charm he follows them he submits himself to them and he who before was the Master of is now become a Captive to them At the same time he finds a change in every thing The Earth no longer smiles upon him as before it will yield nothing but by an industrious Labour The Heaven is without that Serenity of Air the Beasts which were all subject to him even the most odious and most wâ—ld and pleased him with an innocent Divertisement now appear to him in dreadful Forms God who had made all things for his Happiness in a moment turned all things to his miserable punishment He was become a Torment to himself he that before so much loved himself The Rebellion of his Senses makes him see somewhat in himself he knows not what that is very vile and despicable 'T is now no longer that first work of the Creator wherein every thing was beautiful Sin has formed a new work which he would fain conceal if possible Man could no longer support his Shame but wished he had been able to cover it even with his own Eyes But God was still much more unsupportable to him That great God who had made him after his own Image and Likeness and who had indued him with Understanding as a necessary relief to his Mind was pleased to discover himself to him under a sensible Form Ibid. 8. He sought out the most recluse places of the Garden to hide himself from him who before was all his Joy and all his Happiness His Conscience accuses him before ever God speaks a word and his miserable frivolous Excuses do but serve the more absolutely to confound him He must die the remedy of an immortal State is taken away from him and a most dreadful Death which is that of the Soul is typisyed to him by that Corporeal to which he is condemned And behold here was our Sentence pronounced inclusively in his God who had resolved to reward his Obedience in all his descendent Posterity as soon as he had revolted and fell from him condemns him and strikes him not only in his own Person but likewise in all his Seed as in the most quick and tenderest part of himself We were all accursed in our first Parent our Birth is depraved and corrupted in its very Source We shall not here examine those terrible Rules of the divine Justice by which the whole Race of Mankind was accursed in its first Original Let us adore the Judgments of God who regards all men as one single man in him from whom he would have all men to proceed Let us also look upon our selves as degraded in our rebellious Father as for ever made miserable by the Sentence which condemned him as being banished with him and excluded out of Paradise where we might have all been born The Rules of humane Justice may help us a little to enter into the profoundness of the divine Justice whereof they are but a Shadow but they cannot discover to us the depth of that Abyss Let us believe that the Justice as well as the Mercy of God will not be measured by the poor scantling Rules of Men and that the Effects of them both are much more extensive and much more secret But though the Severities of God upon Mankind are dreadful
those two great Men had given to the World so lively and fair an Image of the voluntary Oblation of Jesus Christ and in their Souls had tasted if the bitternesses of his Cross they were esteemed truly worthy of being his Ancestors Gen. 22.28 Abraham's faithfulness made God confirm to him all his promises and blessed anew not only his Family but also in his Family all the Nations of the World In effect he continued his protection to Isaac his Son and to Jacob his Grand-child They were his imitators and adhered as he did to the Antient Faith to the Antient manner of living which was the Pastoral to the Antient Government of Mankind where every Father of a Family was a Prince in his own House Thus in the Changes and Revolutions continually made among Men the Holy Antiquity revived in the Religion and in the conduct of Abraham and of his Children God did also repeat to Isaac and to Jacob the same Promises which he had made to Abraham Gen. 25.11.26.4.28.14 and as he called himself the God Abraham so he took upon him the name of the God of Isaac and of the God of Jacob. Under his protection those three great Men began to dwell in the Land of Caanan but as strangers and without possessing there a foot of ground until the Famine brought Jacob into Aegypt where his Children being multiplied became soon after a great People Acts 7.5 as God had promised him But tho' this People whom God made to be born in his Covenant were to be enlarged by Generation and that the Blessing was to follow the Blood yet this great God failed not mark out to them the Election of his Grace For after he had chosen Abraham from among the Nations out of the Children of Abraham he chose Isaac and from the two Twins of Isaac he chose Jacob to whom afterwards he gave the name of Israel Jacob had twelve Sons who were the twelve Patriarchs heads of the twelve Tribes All were entred into the Covenant but Judah was chosen from amidst all his Brethren to be the Father of the Kings of Israel and the Father of the Messiah so much promised to his Ancestors The time was come that the ten Tribes being cut off from the People of God for their Infidelity the Posterity of Abrahâ—m lost its Antient Blessing that is to say the Religion the Land of Canaan and the hopes of the Messiah but only in the Tribe of Judah which was to give the name to the rest of the Israelites who were called Jews and to all the Country which was called Judea Thus the Divine Election appeared still even in that carnal people which was to be preserved by ordinary propagation Gen. 49.10 Jacob in his Spirit saw the Mystery of this Election just before he dyed when his Sons stood round about his Bed to receive the blessing of so good a Father God discovered to him the Estate of the twelve Tribes when they should be come to the promised Land he reveals it to them in a few words and those few words include innumerable Meysteries Though all that he spoke of Judah's Brethren be expressed with an extraordinary magnificence and shews the man transported out of himself by the Spirit of God when he comes to Judah he is carried out yet higher Judah saith he thou art He whom thy Brethren shall praise Gen. 49.8 9 10. thine hand shall be on the neck of thine Enemies thy Fathers Children shall bow down before Thee Judah is a Lyons Whelp From the prey my Son thou art gone up He stooped down he couched as a Lyon and as an old Lyon who shall rouse him up The Scepter that is to say the Authority shall not depart from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be The rest of the Prophecy is about the Countrey which the Tribe of Judah shall posses in the Holy Land But the last words as we have seen them howsoever we take them signifies nothing but him who was to be the Ambassador of God the Minister and Interpreter of his Will the Accomplishment of his Promises and the King of the new People that is to say the Messiah or the Anointed of the Lord. Jacob speaks expresly to none but to Judah from whom that Messiah was to come In the destiny of Judah alone he comprehends the destiny of all the Nation which after its dispersion was to see the rest of the other Tribes re-united under the Standards of Judah All the Terms of the Prophecy are clear there is only the word Scepter which the common use of out Tongue might make us take for the only Royalty whereas in the Sacred Language it signifies in general Power Authourity and Magistracy That use of the word Scepter runs through all the pages of the Scripture It plainly appears also in the Prophecy of Jacob and the Patriarch means that in the days of the Messiah all Authority shall be put to an end in the House of Judah which imports the total ruine of a State Thus the times of the Messiah are noted out to us here by a double change By the former the Kingdom of Judah and of the Jews is threatned with its last ruine By the latter there was a new Kingdom to be set up not of one single People but of all People over whom the Messiah was to be the head and hope In the Style of Holy Writ the Jews are called in the singular number and by way of eminence Isa 65. c. Rom. 10.21 Isa 2.2 3.49.6.18.51.4 5. The People or the people of God And when we find it used the plural those who are versed in the Scriptures understand the other people who we see also are promised to the Messiah in the Prophecy of Jacob. This great Prophecy comprehends in a few words all the History of the Jewish People and of Christ our Saviour who was promised to them It points out to us all the course of the people of God and it effectually continues to this day Therefore I pretend not to make a Commentary of it to You there is no need for You to have one since by barely observing their course You will easily see the sence of the Oracle unvailed of it self and that the very events themselves will be their own Interpreters After Jacob's death III. Moses the written Law and the bringing of the People into the promised Land the People of God abode in Aegypt unto the time of the Mission of Moses that is to say about two hundred years So that it was four hundred and thirty years before God gave his people the Land which he had promised them He was resolved to accustom his Elect to rely upon his Promise being assured that it should be fulfilled either sooner or later and always at the exact time appointed by his Eternal Providence The Iniquities of the Amorites both
barbarously hung by all the weight of his Body his Garments parted among them and how they cast lots upon his Vesture giving him gall and vinegar to drink his Enemies gnashing their Teeth at him and glutting themselves with his Blood And at the same time too he saw the glorious effects of his Humiliations All the ends of the World shall remember the Lord which they had for so many Ages forgot and the Poor shall come the first to the Table of the Messiah and afterwards they that be fat upon Earth shall worship and bless him He presiding in the great and numerous Church that is to say in the Assembly of the converted Nations and declaring his righteousness unto a People that shall be born that he hath done this David who saw these things confessed in the seeing of them that the Kingdom of his Son was not of this World He made no wonder of it for he knew this World was transient and passed away and a Prince that was always so humble upon the Throne saw very well that a Throne was not a Good on which all his hopes were to be terminated The other Prophets have no less seen the Mystery of the Messiah There is nothing that is great or glorious but they have said of his Reign â—ic 5.2 One sees Bethlehem the least among the thousands of Judah made famous by his Birth and at the same time raised up higher he sees another Birth whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting from the Bosom of his Father Another sees the Virginity of his Mother Isaiah 7.14.6.9 Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his Name Emmanuel a God with us shall come from this Virginal Womb and a Child whose Name shall be called Wonderful he calls God He beholds him entring into his Temple the other sees him glorious in his Grave where Death was overcome Mal. 3.1 Isai 11.10.53.9 Zach. 11.12 13. In publishing thus his Greatnesses they do not forget to declare his Reproaches too They have seen him sold to the People at a price and knew the number as well as the service of the thirty pieces of Silver for which he was bought At the same time that they beheld him great and exalted they saw him likewise despised and rejected of men Isai 59.13 a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as the off-scouring of the World as well as the wonder of it both by his low as well as his high estate the meanest of Mankind Ibid. 4.5 6 7 8 9. that had born our Griefs being wounded for our Transgressions he was our most merciful Benefactor and yet we despised him he was bruised for our Iniquities and yet with his stripes we were to be healed he was treated like a Malefactor brought to his punishment with the wicked and delivered himself up like a Lamb that was Innocent without a murmur to his death a long Posterity by that means was to be born of him Dan. 9.26 and vengeance shall come upon all the incredulous People To the end that nothing might be wanting to the Prophecy they have foretold the very years even to his coming and unless one resolves to be obstinately blind it is impossible now to be ignorant of it And not only the Prophets saw Jesus Christ but they were also the Type and Figure of him and represented his Mysteries especially that of the Cross Almost all of them suffered Persecution for Righteousness sake and have represented to us in their Sufferings the persecuted Innocency and Truth in our Blessed Lord. Elijah and Elisha how were they continually threatned How often was Isaiah made the scorn and derision both of the People and the Kings who at last as the positive Tradition of the Jews affirm sacrificed him to their Fury Zachariah the Son of Jehoiadah was stoned Ezekiel was always under Affliction the Calamities of Jeremiah were continual and inexplicable Daniel was seen twice in the midst of the Den of Lions Not one of them but who were contradicted opposed and ill treated and they all discover to us by their Example that if the weakness of the ancient People in the general required to be supported by Temporal Blessings yet notwithstanding the strong ones of Israel and the men of an extraordinary Sanctity were then fed with the Bread of Affliction and drank before-hand for their Sanctification of the Cup that was prepared for the Son of God A Cup so much the more full of Bitterness as the Person of Jesus Christ was more Sacred and Holy But that which the Prophets saw most clearly and which they also declared in the most magnificent terms was the blessing bestowed upon the Gentiles by the Messiah That Root of Jesse and of David appeared to the holy Prophet Isaiah Isai 40.10 as an Ensign given of God to the People to whom the Gentiles should seek The Man of grief whose stripes were to be our healing was chosen to wash the Gentiles by a holy sprinkling Ibid. 52.15 which they acknowledged in his Blood and in Baptism Kings seized with an awful respect in his Presence should shut their Mouths and â—e silent For that which had not been told them shall they see and that which they had not heard shall they consider Isa 55.4.5 He was given for a Witness to the People a Leader and Commander to the Gentiles Vnder him a Nation unknown shall be joined to the People of God and the Gentiles should run unto him on all sides Ibid. 62.1 2. He was the Righteousness of Zion that should go forth as Brightness and the Salvation thereof as a Lamp that burneth And the Gentiles should see his Righteousness and all Kings his Glory who was so celebrated in the Prophecies of Zion But yet let us see him better described Isai 42.1 2 3 4 5 6. and with a more particular Character A Man of an admirable sweetness and temper especially being the Elect in whom Gods Soul delighted should bring forth Judgment to the Gentiles the Isles should wait for his Law Thus the Hebrews called Europe and the distant Countries He shall not crie nor lift up nâ—r cause his voice to be heard in the Street Scarce shall they hear him he will be so meek and quiet A bruised Reed shall he not break and the smoaking Flax shall he not quench So far will he be from confounding the Weak and the Sinners that his charitable Voice will call them and his gracious Hand will sustain them He will open the eyes of the Blind and bring out the Prisoners from the Prison and them that sit in darkness out of the Prison-house His power shall be equal to his goodness Esai 42.7 His essential Character is to joyn together Bounty and Kindness with efficacy And this is the reason why that so still voice shall in a moment go from one end of the Earth to the other and without
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
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
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