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
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
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
the â—â—iâ—â—e â—râ—m thâ—nâ—â— proceeded th se great 〈…〉 Heâ—aclituâ— Dâ—mâ—crit â— Empeâ—â—cles Pâ—â—â—â—niâ—â—â— Anaâ—â—goras who a little 〈◊〉 the Pâ—lopâ—â—â—sian War discover'd the World tâ— be made by an Eternal Spiâ—â—â— Sâ—â—r t s in a short time after reduced Pâ—ilosoâ—hy to the study of good manners and was the Father of Moral Philosophy Plato his Disciple chief of the Academy Aristotle Plato's Disâ—iple and Master of Alâ—xander chief of the P ripatetick under the Successors of Alexander Zâ—nâ— sirnamed Citian from a Town in the Isle of Cyprus where he was born chief of the Stoicks and Epicurus the Athenian chief of those Philosophers that bear his name if likewise we may count those Philsophers who openly deny a Providence and who being ignorant what duty was defined Vertue by Pleasure We may also reckon among the greatest Philosophers Hippocrates the Father of Physick who was eminently famous amongst others in those happy times of Greece The Romans had at the same time another sort of Philosophy which did not consist in Disputes nor in Discourses but in Frugality in Poverty in the labours of a Countrey life and in those of War wherein they made their Glory to consist in that of their Countrey and of the Roman Name which made them at last the Masters both of Italy and Carthage IX Epocha Scipio or Carthage conquâ—â—ed In the Year 552. from the Foundation of Rome about 250 Years after the Foundation of the Persian Monarchy and 202 Years before Jesus Christ Carthage was made subject to the Romans Hannibal never Years be ∣ fore J. C. 202 ceased underhand to stir them up Enemies Years of Rome 552 wheresoever he could but he only ensnared all his old and new Friends in the ruine of their Countrey and his own too By the Victories of the Consul Flaminius Years be ∣ fore J. C. 198 Philip King of Macedonia an Ally of the Years of Rome 556 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 196 Carâ—haginians was overcome the Kings of Years of Rome 558 Macedonia brought to great straits and Greece freed from their Yoke The Romans attempted to destroy Hâ—â—â—nibal whom they found to be still feared notwithstanding his losses That Great Captain forced to Years be ∣ fore J. C. 15 save himself from his Countrey stirred up the East against them and brought their Years of Rome 559 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 193 Arms into Asia By his powerful Arguments Years of Rome 561 and Perswasions Antiochâ—s sirnamed the Great King of Syria became Jealous of their Forces and made War with them but in doing so he followed not the Counsels of Hannibal who had engaged him in it Beaten both by Sea and Land he receiv'd the Law which the Consul Lucius Scipio the Brother of Scipio Africanus imposed upon him and he was shut up in Mount Years be ∣ fore J. C. 182 Taurus Hannibal fled for refuge to Prusias Years of Rome 572 King of Bythinia escaped the Romans by Poyson They are feared by all People and will not suffer any other Power besides their own Kings were obliged to give them their Children as Hostages of their Faith Antiochus since called the Illustrious or Epiphanius the second Son of Antiochus the great King of Syria continued a long while at Rome in that Quality but about the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 176 end of the Reign of Seleucus Philopater Years of Rome 578 his elder Brother he was restored and the Romans would have in his Room Demetrius Years be ∣ fore J. C. 175 Soter the Kings Son then about ten years of Years of Rome 579 Age. In this time of Convulsion Seleâ—cus died and Antiochus usurped the Kingdom over his Nephew The Romans were taken up in the affairs of the Macedonians where Perseus was troubling his Neighbours and would no longer keep to those Conditions that were imposed upon King Philip his Father Then began the Persecutions of Gods People Antiochus the Mighty reigned Years be ∣ fore J. C. 173 like one inraged all his Fury was bent Years of Rome 581 against the Jews he endeavoured to destroy the Temple the Mosaick Law and indeed Years be ∣ fore J. C. 171 all the Nation The Roman Power kept Years of Rome 583 him from making himself Master of Aegypt They entred into a War with Perseus who Years be ∣ fore J. C. 168 being more ready to attempt than to execute Years of Rome 586 lost his Allies by his Covetousness and his Armies by his Baseness And being conquered by the Consul Paulus Aemilius he was forced to fling himself into his Arms. Gentius King of Illyria his Ally being utterly routed in thirty days by the Praetor Anicius had just then met with the same Fate The Kingdom of Macedonia which had continued for seven hundred years and for near two hundred of them had not only given Masters to Greece but also to all the East was now no more than a bare Roman Province The outragious Furies of Antiochus daily incrâ—ased against the Jews Then appeared the Resistance of Mattathias Years be ∣ fore J. C. 167 the High-Priest of the Race of Phineas Years of Rome 587 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 166 and an Imitator of his Zeal his dying Years of Rome 588 Orders for the Salvation of his People the Victories of Judas the Maccabee his Son notwithstanding the infinite number of his Enemies the Advance of the Family Years be ∣ fore J. C. 165 of the Asmonians or Maccabees the new Years of Rome 589 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 164 Dedication of the Temple which the Gentiles Years of Rome 590 had profaned the Prelacy of Judas and the Greatness of the Priesthood re-established the Death of Antiochus suitable to his Impiety and his Pride his pretended Coversion during his last Sickness and the fierceness of Divine Vengeance upon that I solent King His Son Antiochus Eupator tho' much under Age succeeded him under the Guardianship of Lysias his Governour During this his Minority Demetrius Soter who was under Hostage at Rome thought he might have been able to re-establish himself but he could not obtain of the Senate to be sent back into his own Kingdom The â—â—man Polity rather chose to have a young Infant Under this Antiochus Years be ∣ fore J. C. 163 Eupator the Persecution of the Jews and the Years of Rome 591 Victories of Judas the Maccaâ—ee continued Years be ∣ fore J. C. 162 A Division was set asoot in the Kingdom Years of Rome 592 of Syria Demetrius escapes from Rome is acknow edged by the People and the young Antiochus is slain with Lysias his Tutor But the Jews are nâ— better trâ—ated under Demerius than they were under his Predâ—cessors He takes the same Course his Generals are beaten by Judas the Maccabee and the Hand of the proud Nicanor whose Temple he had so often threatned is joyned with Years be ∣ fore J. C. 161 him But a little after Juâ—as overwhelmed Years of Rome 593 by the Multitude was killed as he was
into his former Exercise with all the other Priests who proved their Descents by the publick Registers The others were rejected Esdras a Priest himself and Doctor of the Law and Nehemiah the Governor reformed all the Abuses which the Captivity had brought in 1 Esdr 2. and caused the Law to be observed in its Purity The People bewailed with them the Transgressions which had brought down upon them those severe and dreadful Punishments and confess that Moses had foretold them of them 2 Esdr 1.8.9 They do all together read in the Sacred Oracles the Threatnings of the Man of God they likewise saw the fullfilling of them upon themselves The Oracle of Jeremiah and the so much promised Return after the Seventy Years of Captivity both astonish them and comfort them they adore the Judgments of God and being reconciled to him they live in Peace and Quiet God who brings all things to pass in his own due time had chosen this to cause his extraordinary ways to cease that is to say the Prophecies in his People sufficiently instructed for the future He rested about five hundred Years even to the days of the Messiah God gave to the Majesty of his Son his Prophets to be silent for all that time to keep his People in expectation of him who was to be the fulfilling of all their Oracles But toward the end of those times in which God had resolved to put an end to Prophecies he seemed to be willing to shed abroad all his Illuminations and to reveal all the Councels of his Providence so clearly did he express the Secrets of the Times to come During the Captivity and especially towards the time of its expiring Daniel reverenced for his Piety even by Infidel Kings and employed for his Prudence in the greatest and most important Affairs of their Estate Dan. 2.3 5 8. saw in order at divers times and under different Figures and Resemblances four Monarchies under which the Israelites were to live He takes notice of them by their proper Characters Ibid. 2.7 8 10 11. The Empire of a Grecian King is seen to pass away like a Torrent It was that of Alexander By its fall he beheld another Empire set up less than the former and much weakened by its Divisions This was that of his Successors among whom there were four pointed out in the Prophecy Antipater Seleucus Ptolomy and Antigonus are visibly designed 'T is affirmed by the History that they were more powerful than the others Ibid. 7.6 8 21 22. and only their Power should go to their Children He foresaw their Wars Ibid. 11.6 their Jealousies and their broken Agreements the continuance and the Ambition of the Kings of Syria Dan. 2.44 45 7.13 14 27. the Pride and the other Signs which evidently pointed out the illustrious Antiochus the implacable Enemy of the People of God The shortness of his Reign and the sudden Punishment of his Excesses He beheld at last toward the end and as it were in the Bosom of those Monarchies the Kingdom of the Son of Man At this name you presently do acknowledg Jesus Christ but this Kingdom of the Son of Man is also called the Kingdom of the Saints of the most High All the People paid Submission to that great and peaceable Kingdom Eternity is promised to it and he was to be the only one whose Power should not go over to another Empire And there was given him Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations in Languages should serve him his Dominions is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed When that Son of Man should come that Christ who was so much desired and how he should accomplish the Work committed to him that is to say the Redemption of Mankind God manifestly discovers it to Daniel whilst he was taken up about the Captivity of his People in Babylon and about the Seventy Years which God was resolved to determine upon the People Dan. 9.23 c. and upon the Holy City to finish the Transgression c. In the midst of his Supplications which he made for the Deliverance of his Brethren he is on a sudden raised up to more transcendent Mysteries He sees another Number of Years and another Deliverance of much greater Importance Instead of the Seventy Years foretold by Jeremiah he sees Seventy Weeks to commence from the time of the Decree given by Artaxerxes of old in the twentieth year of his Reign Ibid. 24. for the Re-building the City of Jerusalem There is pointed out in particular Words at the end of those Weeks that they were to make an end of Sins and to make reconciliation for Iniquity and to bring in everlasting Righteousness and to seal up the Vision and Prophecy and to anoint thâ— most Holy The Christ was to make his Charge and to appear as the Conductor of the People after sixty nine Weeks Ib. 25 26 27. After sixty nine Weeks for the Prophet repeats it again The Christ is to be put to death he is to suffer a violent Death he shall be cut off but not for himself he shall be sacrificed to fulfil the Mysteries One Week is pointed out amongst the rest and it is the last and the seventieth wherein Christ is to be Sacrificed whereiâ— he shall confirm the Covenant with many for one Week and in the midst of the Week he shall cause the Sacrifice and the Oblation to cease without doubt by the death of Christ for it is after the death of Christ that this Change is pointed out to us There was nothing more to be seen but Horror and Confusion the Ruine of the Holy City and the Sanctuary a People and a Captain who comes to destroy all the Abomination in the Temple the last and irremediable Desolation of an ungrateful People toward their Saviour We have seen that these Weeks being reduced into Weeks of Years according as the manner of the Scripture is make four hundred and ninety Years and bring us exactly from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes to the last week a week full of Mysteries where the sacrificed and ever-blessed Jesus puts an end by his Death to the Sacrifices of the Law and accomplishes the Figures and Representations of them The Learned differ in their Computations to make that time exactly agree That which I have proposed to you is without any Trouble 'T is so far from making the Historical Course of the Kings of Persia obscure that it clears it up tho' there should be nothing in it more surprising admit some Uncertainty should be found in the Dates of those Princes eight or nine years at most which might be disputed in an account of four hundred and ninety Years will never make any extraordinary Question But what need we discourse further of it God hath removed the Difficulty if there was any by a Decision that cannot be reply'd to A manifest
mighty puissant Kings as all the East stood in awe of and it was Cyrus that crushed the Empire by his taking of Babylon If therefore the generality of the Greeks and Latins that have followed them make no mention of those Babylonian Kings if they have given no place to that great Kingdom among the first Monarchies whose continuance and after-accidents they relate in a word if we can scarce find any thing in all their works of those famous Kings Tiglath-Pilesar Salmanasar Sennacherib Nebuchadnezzar and several others so renown'd in Scripture and in the Eastern Histories we may then surely attribute it either to the Ignorance of the Greeks who were more Eloquent in their Reports than studious and industrious in their Searches or else to the loss we have had of what was more exact and faithful in their Histories Indeed Herodotus had promised a particular History of the Assyrians Herod l. 1. c. 28 47. which we have not either by our sad misfortune of its being lost or of his not having had time to do it and we cannot imagine that ever so judicious and Historian would have forgotten the Kings Herod l. 2. c. 91. of the second Empire of the Assyrians especially since even Sennacherib who was one of them we find mentioned in the Books that we now have of this great Author as being King both of the Assyrians and Arabians tSrabo liâ— 15. Strabo who lived in the time of Augustus reports what Megastenes an Ancient Author near the time of Alexander had left in Writing concerning the mighty Conquests of Nebuchadnezzar King of the Chaldees whom he makes to run through Europe enter into Spain and extend his Arms as far as the Colonies of Hercules Aelian calls Tilgamus King of Assyria Aelian liâ— 12. Hist Anim. c. 21. that is to say Tilgath or Tiglath which we find in the Holy Scriptures and in Ptolomy we meet with an Enumeration of the Princes of great Empires among whom there is a long succession of the Kings of Assyria who were unknown to the Greeks and whom it is easie to reconcile to the Sacred Hystory If I would bring in the Accounts of the Syrian Annals Berosus Abydenus Nicolas of Damascus Joseph Antiq l. 9. ult 10. c. 11. l. 1. cont Ap. Euseb Prap. Ev. 9. I could be too tedious even for a long-winded Reader Josephus and Eusebius of Caesarea have preserved the pretious fragments of all those Authors and indeed of an infinite many more which they had entire and perfect in those times whose Testimony is a confirmation to us of what we read in the Holy Scripture concerning the Eastern Antiquities and especially concerning the Assyrian Histories As to the Monarchy of the Medes which has the second Preference among the great Empires by most of the prophane Historians as separated from the Empire of Persia certain it is that the Scripture ever unites them both together And your Highness sees that besides the Authority of the sacred pages the bare order of Matters of Fact shews us that it is that we are still to look at The Medes before Cyrus though they were very powerful and considerable yet were much lessened by the greatness of the Kings of Babylon But Cyrus having Conquered their Kingdom by the collected Forces both of Medes and Persians of which he afterwards became the Master by a Legitimate Succession as we have observed from Zenophon it seems most probable that the great Empire of which he was the Founder as it ought indeed did take his Name to both Nations so that That of the Medes and Persians are but one and the same thing tho' the glory of Cyrus made the name of the Persians to be the more prevailing It may be also thought that before the VVar of Babylon the Kings of the Medes having extended their Conquests to the Greek Colonies in lesser Asia were by that means famous among the Greeks who attributed the Empire of greater Asia to them because they were only acquainted with them of all the Kings of the East And yet the Kings of Nineveh and Babylon who were greater and more puissant but more unknown to the Greeks have been near quite forgotten in those Bâ—oks that are remaining to us concerning the Grecian Histories and all the time from Sardanapalus down to Cyrus have been only given to the Medes And therefore we need not to trouble our heads so much in reconciling as to this point the prophane to the sacred History For as to what respects the first Kingdom of the Assyrians the Scripture gives us but a very slight touch by the Bye and neither mentions Ninus who was the Founder of that Empire nor excepting Phul any other of its Successors because their History was no way interfering with that of the People of God As for the second Kingdom of the Assyrians most of the Greeks are either quite ignorant of them or else because they have not throughly known them as they ought they have confounded them with the former VVhen therefore those of the Greek Authors sâ—all be objected to us who according to their own Caprice and Fancy range the three first Monarchies and make the Medes Successors to the antient Empire of Assyria without speaking a word concerning what the Scripture seems to be so strong in there is only this answer to be made that they were unacquainted with this part of the History and they are no less contrary to the more curious and best informed Authors of their own Nation than they are to the Holy Scriptures And that which in one word answers all the difficulty the sacred Authors who are nearer to the times and places of the Eastern Kingdoms writing moreover the History of a People whose affairs were so intermixed with those of these great Empires though they had no other advantage besides this it were enough to put the Greeks and Latins to Silence who followed them But if notwithstanding the obstinacy should go on still to maintain this celebrated order of the three first Monarchies and that to keep entirely to the Medes the second rank which is ascribed to them any are wilfully resolved to make the Kings of Babylon subject to them in affirming still that after an hundred Years Subjection these at last should deliver themselves by a Revolt yet in some manner it doth save the Câ—ntinuance of the sacred History but it doth very little agree with the best prophane Historians to whom the sacred History is more favourable in that it ever unites the Empire of the Medes to that of the Persians There is yet remaining to be discovered one of the Causes of the obscurity and darkness of these antient Histories And it is this that as the Eastern Kings took up several names or if you please several titles which in some length of time they espoused as their own Name and which the People either translated or pronounced variously according to the several particular Idioms of each
into that Province with his Son Hannibal of but Years be ∣ fore J. C. 230 nine years of Age and there dyed in a Battle Years of Rome 524 And during the nine Years in which he managed the War with as much Address as Valour his Son was made a Warrior under this so brave a Champion and took all at once an implacable hatred against the Romans Asdrubal his Ally was made his Father's Successor who governed his Province with a great deal of Prudence and in it built New Carthage which kept Spain under Subjection The Roman were taken up in the War against Teuta Queen of Illyria who exercised Piracy unpunished over all the Coast Flushed with the Spoil she made upon the Greeks and those of â—â—ir s she despised the Romans and slew their Ambassador But she was soon tâ—ken down for the Romans left her but a very small part of Years be ∣ fore J. C. 229 Illyria and got from her the Isle of Corsmiâ—on Years of Rome 525 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 228 which that Queen had usurped They Years of Rome 526 then made themselves to be respected in Greece by a solemn Embassage and this was the first time that they acknowledged their Power there Polyb. lib. ii 12.22 The great Successes of Asâ—â—r dâ—al made them wonderful jealous but the Gauls of Italy kept them from mâ—â—ling with the affairs of Spain Li. â—â—l lib. 21. They continued quiet five and forty Years And the Youth that were bred up in that time ne're thought of past lâ—stes but began again to mâ—â—ace 〈◊〉 The Romans that they might with security attack such turbulem Neighbours made themselves sure of the Carthaginians The Treaty was concluded with Asdâ—uâ—al who promised not to pass beyond the Heber Years be ∣ fore J. C. 224 The War between the Romans and Years of Rome 530 the Gaâ—â—s went suriously on on both sides The Traâ—salsims joined with the â—isalsin s and all were beaten Conâ—olitanus one of the King of the â—aâ—ls was taken in the fight Aâ—â—râ—estus another Kinâ— was his own Murtherer the Victorious Râ—mans at the first time passed the River Po being resolved to take from the Gauls at the adjacent places to that River of which for so many Ages since they had been in possession Victory was their attendant wheresoever they went Milan was taken and almost all the Couâ—try was brought into subjection About that time Asdrubal died and Hanibal though he was not five and twenty years old was put in his Years be ∣ fore J. C. 220 place From that time War was foreseen Years of Rome 534 The new Governour openly set himself to subdue Spain without any respect to Terms Rome then hearkened to the complaints Years be ∣ fore J. C. 219 of Sagonius her Ally And the Years of Rome 535 Roman Ambassadours went to Carthage The re-established Carthaginians were now no longer in a humour of yielding Sicily ravished out of their Hands Sardinia unjustly forced from them and Tribute enhanced stuck shrewdly in their Stâ—machs So that the Faction which would have Hannibal abandoned proved very weak That General designed to have at all By secret Embassies they were assured ot the Gauls of Italy who being not longer able to attempt any thing by their own Forces took this opportunity to relieve themselves Hannibal traverses all Heber the Pyrenees all Gallia Transalpine the Alpes and upon a sudden falls upon Italy The Gauls neglected not to fortify their Army and made Years be ∣ fore J. C. 218 the last effort for their Liberty Four lost Years of Rome 536 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 217 Battles made them believe that Rome was Years of Rome 537 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 216 very near her mine Sicily sides with the Years of Rome 538 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 215 Conquerour Hieronymus King of Syracusa Years of Rome 539 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 212 declares himself against the Romans almost Years of Rome 542 all Italy abandons them and the last Ressource of that Republick seemed to give up it self in Spain with the two Scipio's Amidst these extremities Rome was indebted for her Salvation to three great Men. The constancy of Fabiua Maximus who putting himself above Popular Rumours made War by retreating and was a Rampier to his Countrey Marcellus who Years be ∣ fore J. C. 214 raised the Siege of Nola and took Syracusa Years of Rome 540 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 212 by those Actions put Courage and Vigour Years of Rome 542 into the Souldiers But Rome which admired those two wonderful Persons thought they saw in the young Scipio something more strange and surprizing The astonishing successes of his Counsels confirmed the Opinion they had of him that he came of Race Divine and conversed with the Gods At twenty four years of Age he engaged to go into Spain where his Father Years be ∣ fore J. C. 211 and Uncle had but newly been slain He Years of Rome 543 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 210 attacked New Carthage as if he had been Years of Rome 544 actuated by Inspiration and his Souldiers quickly got the Field All that saw him turned straight to the Roman side The Carthaginians yield up Spain to him at his coming into Africa Kings because his Homagers Carthage it self trembled in her turn and saw her Arms defeated Victorious Hamiâ—al after sixteen years is in vain called back and cannot defend his Countrey Fâ—r Scipio gives Laws unto it The Years be ∣ fore J. C. 202 Sirname of Africanus is his recompence so Years of Rome 552 that the Romans having conquered the Gauls and Africans law themselves then beyond further apprehension and fought afterwards secure without hazard Years be ∣ fore J. C. 250 About the middle of the first Punick War Years of Rome 5â—4 Theodotus Governour of Bactria headed a thousand Cities against Antiochus sirnamed the God the Son of Antiochus Soter King of Syria Almost all the East followed this Example The Paâ—thiaâ—s revolted under the Conduct oâ— Aâ—aces who was Chief of the House of the Aâ—â—â—â—idâ— â—ounder of an Empire â—hich by degrees extended iâ—seâ—â— into alâ— the upper Asia The Kings of Syria and those of Aegypt fâ—â—shed one against the other meditated on â—â—â—hinâ— but mâ—tual ruine either by force oâ— fraud Damasâ—s and hiâ— Tâ—rritory whiâ—â— was called Coelo-Syria and which was a Confine to the two Kingdoms was the Sâ—bjâ—â—t of their Wars and the Affairs of Asia were absolutely distinct and separate from those of E rope During all those sad times Philosophy flourished in Greece the Sect of the Italian Philosophers and that of the Eniques filled it with great Men among whom there were mixed several extravagant Persons to whom Critical Greece would noâ— vouchâ—â—â—e to â—ive the name â—f Philosophâ—rs In the time of â—â—râ—s and Caâ—â—â—â—sâ—â— Pythagoras 〈◊〉 the It l ck Sect in the Upper Greece aâ—â— about Naples And very â—â—ar the same 〈◊〉 Thâ—â—es the Milesâ—an foâ—med that of
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
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
Footstep of it to be found in him Pushed on by that blind Impression which absolutely swayed him he plunged himself into Idolatry and nothing could stay him So great a Mischief made a very strange Progress For fear lest all Mankind might be infected and the knowledg of God be utterly extinguished that great God called from on high his Servant Abraham in whose Family he resolved to establish his Worship and preserve the antient Faith as well of the Creation of the World as of the particular Providence with which humane things are governed Abraham hath always been celebrated in the East and it was not only the Hebrews that looked on him as their Father The Idumeans boasted of their Extract from him Ishmael the Son of Abraham is known among the Arabians as the Parent from whom they came Gen. 16.17 Gen. 17.25 Joseph Ant. l. 13. Circumcision still is used among them as the mark of their Original and they have received it at all times not only on the eighth day after the manner of the Jews but at thirteen years of Age as the Scripture informs us it was given to their Father Ishmael a Custom which continues still among the Mahometans There are other Arabian People who yet remember Abraham and Ketura Alex. Polyb. apud Joseph ant l. 16. and they are the same that the Scripture makes to come from that Marriage That Patriarch was a Chaldean and those People famous for their Astronomical Observations have reckoned Abraham for one of their most learned Observators Beros Hecar Eup. Alex. Polyb al. apud Joseph an t l. 8. Eus praep Ev. 9.16 17 18 19 20. 13.11 Nic. Damas lib. 4. Hist univ in excerpt Vales p. 491. ap Jos an t l. 8. Eus praep Ev. 9.16 Gen. 13. c. The Historians of Syria have made him King of Damascus though a Stranger and come from the Borders of Babylon and they report that he left the Kingdom of Damascus to settle himself in the Country of the Canaanites since called Judea But it will be best for us to observe what the sacred History relates to us of this great Man We have seen that Abraham followed that way of living which was led by his Ancestors before that all the World was reduced into Kingdoms He reigned in his Family with which he embraced the pastoral Life so much renowned for its simplicity and Innocence rich in his Flocks in his Slaves and in his Silver but without Lands and Demeans and yet he lived in a strange Kingdom but was respected and independent as a Prince His Piety and his Uprightness protected by God attracted that respect to him He treated as an Equal with Kings who sought his Alliance and it was from thence came that antient Opinion that he made himself a King But tho' his life was simple and peaceable yet understood he the Arts of War but then it was only to defend his opprest Allies Gen. 14. He defended them and revenged them by a most signal Victory He restored to them all their Riches re-taken from their Enemies without reserving any thing but the Tythe which he offered up to God and the Quota which belonged to the Auxiliary Troops which he had brought along with him to the Battle But after so great a service he refused the Presents of the Kings with an unparallel'd Magnanimity and could not indure that any man should boast he had inriched Abraham He would be indebted to none but to his God who had protected him and whom he solely followed with a most perfect Faith and Obedience Guided by that Faith he had forsaken his Native Countrey to come to a Land which God had shewn him God who had called him and made him worthy of his Alliance Articled it upon these Conditions He declared to him that he would be his God Gen. 12.17 and the God of his Posterity that is to say he would be their Protector and that they should serve him as the only God the Creator of Heaven and Earth He promised him a Land 't was that of Canaan to serve for a fixed habitation to his Posterity Ibid. and for a place for his Religion He had no Children and his Wife Sarah was barren God swore to him by Himself and by his Eternal Veracity Gen. 12 2.1â—.4 5.17.19 that from him and from his Wife should come a Race that for number should equal the Stars in the Firmament and the Sand on the Sea-shore But the most remarkable Article of all of the Divine Promise was this All the People should presently fall into Idolatry God promised to this Holy Patriarch that in him and in his Seed should all those blind Nations that had forgotten their Creator be blessed that is to say re-called to the knowledge of him Gen. 12.3.18.18 wherein the true Benediction is to be found By that promise was Abraham made the Father of all the faithful and his Posterity was chosen to be the source from whence the Blessing was to go upon all the Earth In that Promise was included the Advent of the Messiah so often foretold to our Fathers but always foretold as Him who was to be the Saviour of all the Gentiles and of all the people of the World Thus that blessed Branch promised to Eve became also the Branch and Cion of Abraham This was the foundation of the Covenant and these the Conditions of it Gen. 17. Abraham received the sign of it in Circumcision a Ceremony whose proper effect was to shew that that Holy Man belonged to God with all his Family Abraham was childless when God began to bless his Race And God left him for several years without giving him any Afterwards he had Ishmael who was to be the Father of a great People Gen. 12.15.2.16.3 4 17.20.21.13 but not of that chosen People so much promised to Abraham The Father of the chosen People was to proceed from him and from his wife Sarah Gen. 21.2 who then was barren At length when Ishmael was thirteen years old came this so much desired Son he was called Isaac that is to say Laughter a Son of Joy a Son of Miracle a Son of Promise who shewed by his Birth that the true Children of God are born of Grace He this Child of blessing was grown to some considerle statute and of an age from which his Father might hope to have other Children of him when of a sudden God commands him to offer him up as a Sacrifice Gen. 22. To what a tryal is Faith exposed Abraham carrys Isaac to the Mountain which God had shewn him and he went to sacrifice that Son in whom alone God promised to make him the Father both of his People and of the Messiah Isaac presented his naked Bosom to the Sword which his Father held out ready to strike him God being satisfied with the obedience both of Father and Son demanded no further of them After
the World it was that Man so much below Moses in all things and superiour only to him by his name it was He I say who was to bring the People of God into the holy Land By the Victories of that great Man before whom Jordan was driven back the Walls of Jericho fell down of themselves and the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven God established his Children in the Land of Canaan out of which by the same means he drove the abominable People By the hatred which his faithful ones had against them he inspired them with an extreme indignation of their wickedness and impiety and the punishment which was inflicted by their Ministry filled them themselves with fear of the Divine Justice of which they executed the Decrees One part of those People whom Joshua drove out ot their Land Procop. lib. 2. de bel Vand. went and planted themselves in Africa where was found a long time after in an ancient Inscription the Monument of their Flight and the Victories of Joshua After those miraculous Victories had put the Israelites in the possession of the greatest part of the Land which was promised to their Fathers Joshua and Eleazar the High Priest Jos 13 14. seq Numb 26.53.34.17 Jos 14 15. with the Heads of the twelve Tribes divided it among them according to the Law of Moses and assigned to the Tribe Judah time the first and the greatest Lot From the time of Moses it was set above the others in Number in Courage and in Dignity Joshua dyed and the People continued the Conquest of the Holy Land God would have the Tribe of Judah to march at the Head Numb 2.3.9.7.12.10.14 1 Chron. 5.2 Judg 1.1 2.4.8 and declared that he had delivered the Countrey into their hands In fine it overcame die Canaanites and took Jerusalem which was to be the holy City and the capital City of the People of God it was the ancient Salem where Melchisedek had reigned in Abraham's time Melchisedek that King of Righteousness Heb. 7.2 for that is the meaning of his Name and at the same time too King of Peace for that is King of Salem whom Abraham had owned for the greatest High-Priest in the World as if Jerusalem had then been destined for a holy City and the head of Religion That City was at first given to the Children of Benjamin who being weak and few in number could not drive out the Jebusites the ancient Inhabitants of Jerusalem but they dwelt among them Judg. 1.21 Under the Judges the People of God were variously treated according as they did well or ill After the death of the old men who had seen Miracles from the hand of God the remembrance of those mighty Works decayed and the universal inclination and bent of Mankind warp'd the People to Idolatry As often as they fell into it they were punish'd and as often as they repented they were delivered The Faith of Providence and the Truth of the Promise and the Threatnings of Moses was confirmed more and more in the hearts of the true Believers But God prepared also greater Examples of them The People demanded a King and God gave them Saul quickly reproved for his sins he at last resolved to establish a Royal Family from which e Messiah should come and he chose it in Judah David 1 Sam. 16.11.12 c. a young Shepherd sprung out of that Tribe the youngest of the Sons of Jesse whose merit neither his Father nor his Family knew but yet whom God found to be after his own heart was anointed by Samuel in Bethlehem which was his own Country Here the People of God IV. David the Kings and the Prophets to take up a Form more August and Magnificent the Kingdom was setled in the House of David That House began by two Kings of different Characters but both were admirable David a warlike and conquering Prince subdued the Enemies of the People of God whose Arms were dreaded over all the East and Solomon famous for his Wisdom both at home and abroad made that People happy by a profound Peace But the Progress of Religion does here require some particular Remarks upon the Lives of those two great Kingâ— David reigned at first over Judah mighty and victorious and afterwards he was owned over all Israel 2 Sam. 5.6 7 8 9. 1 Chron. 11.6 7 8. 1 Chron 2.16 He took from the Jebâ—sites the strong Hold of Zion which was the Citadel of Jerusalem Being Master of that Fortress he established there by the order of God the Sea of the Kingdom and that of Religâ—on and there he lived He built round about it and called it The City of David Joab his Sister 's built the rest of the City and Jerusalem took up a new form Those of Judah possessed all the Country and Benjamin being few in number dwelt together with them The Ark of the Covenant built by Moses where God dwelleth between the Cherubims and where the two Tables of the Decalogue were kept had then no fixed place David brought it in Triumph 2 Sam. 6.2 16 17. c. with shouting and with the sound of the Trumpet into Zion which he had conquered by the Almighty help of God that so God might reign in Zion and that he might be acknowledged there as the Protectors of David 1 Chro. 16.39.21.29 of Jerusalem and of all the Kingdom But the Tabernacle wherein the People had worshipped God in the Wilderness was yet at Gibeon and there it was where they offered their Sacrifices upon the Altar which Moses had built It was but in expectation that there would be a Temple where the Altar should be re-united with the Ark and where should be performed all the Service When David had conquered all his Enemies and had extended his Victories even to Euphrates being at quiet and a mighty Conquerour he at all his thought upon the establishing of the Divine Worship and on the same Mountain where Abraham went to Sacrifice his only Son 2 Sam. 8.11 1 Chron. 18. 2 Sam. 24.25 1 Chron. 21.22 seq Jos an t 7.10 and was stopped by the hand of an Angel he designed by the appointment of God the place of the Temple He said down all his Designs he amassed mighty noâ— and precious Materials for it he dedicated all the Spoils of his conquered Kings and People to it But that Temple which was so designed by the Conquerour was not to be built but by his Son and Successor the peaceable Solomon He built it after the Model of the Tabernacle The Altar of the Holocausts 1 Kings 6,7 8. 2 Chron. 3 4 5 6 7. the Altar of Incense the golden Candlestick the Tables of Shew Bread and all the other consecrated Moveables of the Temple were taken from the like Pieces which Moses had caused to be made in the Wilderness Solomon only added magnificence and grandeur to them The Ark which the Man of God
had built was placed in the Holy of Holys a place iâ—â—cessible a Symbol of the impeâ—â—â—rable Majesty of God and of Heaven forbidden to Men until Jesus Christ had opened them an Entrance into it by the shedding of his â—tood On the Day of the Dedication of the Temple God appeared there in his Majesty He chose that place to establish his Name and his Worship there He forbad them there to Sacrifice in any other place The unity of God was demonstrated of the Unity of his Temple Jerusalem became a holy City the image of the Church 〈◊〉 God was to inhabit as in his true Temple and of Heaven where he will make us eternally happy by the manifestation of his glory After that Solomon had built the Temple he built also the Palace of the Kings the Architecture of which was worthy so great a Prince His Country-house which was called The Forest of Lebanon 1 Kings 7.2 10. was equally magnificent and delicate The Palace which he made for the Queen was a new Ornament to Jerusalem Every thing was great and splendid in those Buildings The Potches the Galleries the Walks the King's Throne and the Tribunal where he sate to judge Cedar was the only Wood he made use of in all those costly Works All things shined there of Gold and rich Stones The Citizens and the Strangers admired the Majesties of the Kings of Israel The rest was correspondent to this Magnificence 1 Kings 10. 2 Chron. 8 9. The Towns the Arsenals the Horses the Chariots the Prince's Guard the Commerce the Navigation and the good Order with a profound Peace had made Jerusalem the richest City of the East The Kingdom was at rest and abounded with all things every thing there represented the heavenly glory In the Wars of David were seen the wearisome Toils by which they were to deserve it and in the reign of Solomon how peaceable and quiet the Enjoyment of it was But the raising of these two great Kings and of the Royal Family was th' effect of a particular Election David himself celebrates the Marvel of it in these words 1 Chron. 28.4 5. The Lord God of Israel chose 〈◊〉 before all the House of my Father to be King over Israel for ever for he hath chosen Judah to be the Ruler and of the House of Judah the House of my Father and among the Sons of my Father he liked me to make me King over all Israel and he said to me Solomon thy Son shall build my House and my Courts for I have chosen hiâ— to be my Son and I will be his Father This Divine Election had a higher object than what at first appeared That Messiah so often promised as the Son of Abraham was also to be the Son of David and of all the Kings of Judah It was upon the prospect of the Messiah and of his Eternal Reign that God promised to David that his Throne should be maintained for ever Solomon chosen to be his Successor was designated to represent the Person of the Messiah Wherefore God saith of him 2 Sam. 7.14 I will be his Father and he shall be my Son a thing which he never said with that energy and force of any King nor of any Man Also in the time of David 1 Chron. 22.10 and under the Kings his Sons the Mystery of the Messiah was declared more than ever by the wonderful Prophecies which were clearer than the Sum at Noon-day David perceived it afar off and sung of it in his Psalms with a grandcur that nothing will ever be equal to it Oft-times he only thought of celebrating the glory of his Son Solomon and of a sudden being transported beyond himself and carried far away Matth. 6.29.12.42 Psal 72.5.11.17 he saw him who was greater than Solomon both in glory and wisdom The Messiah appeared to him sitting upon a Throne more lasting than the Moon He saw at his feet all the Nations overcome and blessed in him agreeable to the Promise made to Abraham He raised his sight higher still and said 〈◊〉 saw him in the light of his Saints Psal 110. and before the Morning coming from all Eternity out of the Bosome of his Father the Eternal High Priest and without a Successor neither succeeding himself to any One created extraordinarily not according to the order of Aâ—râ—â— but after the order of Melchisedâ—â— a new order which the Law knew nothing of He beheld him sitting on the right hand of God and seeing from the highest Heavens his Enemies his Footstool He is astonished at so great and wonderful a Spectacle and ravished with the glory of his Son he calleth him His Lord. He saw him God that God had anointed him to make him over all the Earth Psal 45.3 4 5 6 7 8. c. by his Meekness Truth and Righteousness He was in Spirit assisting to the Council of God and heard from the very Mouth of the Eteâ—nal Father that Word which he addressed to his only Son Psal 2.7 8. This day have I begotten Thee whereto God joyned the Promise of a perpetual Empire Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession Thou shalt break them with a rod of Irâ—n thâ—â— shalt dash them in pieces like a Pâ—tter'â— Vessel Why do the Heathen rage and the People imagine a vain thing the Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying Let us break their Bâ—nds asunder and cast away their Cords from us He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derisiâ—n for their foolish Projects and in spight of all their ridiculous opposition he will establish the Empire of his Christ Be wise therefore Psal 2.10 O ye Kings be instructed ye Jâ—dges of the Earth He establishes him upon themselves and they must be the first Subjects of that Christ whose Yoke they would have so fain shook off And tho' the Kingdom of that great Messiah be often foretold in the Scriptures under the most pompous and magnificent Idea's yet God did not hide from David the Igonominies of that blessed Fruit of his Loinâ— This Instruction was necessary for the People of God If that People as yet but weak had need of being drawn on by Temporal Promises yet it was not fâ—t to let them only have regard to these Humane things as their utmost and most soveraign Felicity and as their only Recompence wherefore God shews them afar off that Messiah so much promised and so much desired the Model of Perfection the Object of their Complaisances and Delight swallowed up with Grief The Cross appeared to David as the true Throne of that new King He saw his hands and his feet pierced and that all his bones might be told Psal 22.16 17 18 19. they looked and stared upon him being most
stirring up the least Sedition among Men it will excite all the Earth He is neither violent nor impetuous and he who was hardly known when in Judea shall not be only the Foundation of the Peoples Covenant but also the Light of all the Gentiles Ibid. 6. Under his admirable Reign the Assyrians and the Egyptians shall be no longer but one and the same People of God with the Israelites Blessed be Egypt my People and Assyria the work of my Hands Esai 10.25 and Israel mine Inheritance All shall become Israel Ibid. 60.1 2.3 4 11.61.1 2.3 11.62.1 2.65.1 2 15 16.66.19 20 21. Malach. 3.10 Psal 110.2 all shall become holy Jerusalem is no more particular private City It is the Image of a new Society where all the People are gathered together Europe Africa and Asia received Preachers in whom God had put his Sign that they might discover his Glory to the Gentiles The Elect till then called by the Name of Israel shall be called by a new Name which shall signify the fulfilling of the Promises and an happy Amen The Priests and the Levites who till then came from Aaron shall for the time to come come from the midst of the Heathens that is the Gentiles A new Sacrifice more pure and agreeable than the old shall be substituted in its place and then shall be known the reason why David had consecrated a High-Priest of a new Order The Just shall descend from Heaven as the Dew the Earth shall bring forth her But and it shall be the Saviour with whom Righteousness shall be seen to arise Heaven and Earth shall joyn to bring forth as by a common Delivery him that shall be both Heavenly and Earthly together New Ideas of Virtues shall appear in the World in his Examples and in his Doctrine and the Grace which he will shed abroad will imprint them in their Hearts Every thing will be changed by his coming and God hath sworn by himself and the word is gone out of his Mouth in Righteousness and shall not return Isai 45.23 that unto him every knee shall how and every tongue shall swear and acknowledg his soveraign Power This is one part of the marvellous things which God hath shewn to the Prophets under the Kings the Sons of David and to David before all others All have written beforehand the History of the Son of God who was also to be made the Son of Abraham and of David And thus every thing hath fell out in the Order of the divine Counsels This Messiah shewn afar off as the Son of Abraham is yet shewn more near as the Son of David An eternal Empire is promised to him The Knowledg of God is spread abroad throughout the World is set to us as the certain sign and as the fruit of his coming The Conversion of the Gentiles and the Blessing of all the People of the World so long since promised to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob is anew confirmed and all the People of God lived in that expectation In the mean time God governed them after a most admirable manner He made a new Covenant with David and obliged himself to protect him and the Kings his Successors if they would walk in the Commandments which he had given them by Moses 2 Sam. 7 8 9 10 c. 1 King 9.4 5. 2 Chron. 7.17 c. 2 Sam. 11 12 c. if not he pronounced against them very severe Punishments David who had forgot himself for a little while was the first who felt them but having somewhat recovered himself by his unfeigned Repentance he has a confluence of Wealth poured upon him and is proposed as the model of an accomplished King The Throne is established in his House 1. Kings 11. Whilst Solomon walked in the Steps of his Father's Piety he was happy but in his old Age he was drawn aside and God who spared him for the Love of his Servant David declared he would punish him in the person of his Son Thus he lets Parents to know that according to the secret Decree of his Judgments he makes their Punishments to continuâ— after their Death and he keeps them in submission to his Laws by that Interest which is the dearest that is the Interest of their Family In the Execution of his Decrees the foolishly wilfull Rehoboam is given up to an extravagant Council his Kingdom is lessened and ten of the tribes revolt from him 1 Kings 12.16 17 c. Whilst those ten Rebellious and Schismaticall Tribes were departed from their God and their King the Children of Judah who were faithful to God and to David whom he had chosen continued in the Covenant and in the Faith of Abraham The Levites and the Tribe of Benjamin joined with them the Kingdom of the People of God subsisted by their union under the name of the Kingdom of Judah and the Law of Moses was strictly observed In spight of the lamentable Idolatries and Corruption of the ten separated Tribes God remembred his Covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob his Law was not quite extinct amidst those rebellious People he was continually calling them back to Repentance by innumerable Miracles and by the constant warnings he sent them by his Prophets Hardned in their Wickedness at such a rate he could no longer bear with them 2 Kings 17.7 8 9 10 11 12 c. but he drove them out of the Land of Promise without hopes of ever suffering them to settle there again The History also of Tobit happened at the same time and during the beginnings of the Captivity of the Israelites it discovers to us the Conduct of the Elect of God who still remained in the separated Tribes That Holy Man Tob. 1.5 6 7. c. dwelling among them before the Captivity knew not only how to keep himself Pure from the Idolatries of his Brethren but also how to put the Law in Practice and to worship God publickly in the Temple of Jerusalem without ever being drawn aside by their ill examples or perswaded to a Compliance through servile fear Id. 19 20 21. When he was a Captive and persecuted at Nineveh he and his Family still retained their Piety and that admirable manner with which both he and his Son Tobias had their Faith rewarded even here upon Earth shews that notwithstanding Captivity and Persecution God had secret ways of making his Servants sensible of the Blessings of the Law in raising them evermore by the afflictions they were to suffer to higher and more exalted thoughts By the Examples of Tobit and his Holy Admonitions those of Israel were stirred up to acknowledge at least under the Rod the hand of God which chastised them but yet they almost all continued in obstinacy those of Judah so far were they from taking warning by Israel's Chastisements that they followed their ill examples God did not cease admonishing them by his Prophets whom he sent one after
to him all the Royal Prerogative 1 Macc. 14.41 is remarkable 'T is thus expressed That the Jews and the Priests were well pleased that Simon should be their Governor and High-Priest for ever until there should arise a faithful Prophet The People used from the beginning to a Theocracy or divine Government and knowing that since the time of David's being set upon the Throne by the order and appointment of God the Soveragain Power belonged to his House to whom it was to be at last surrend'red at the time of the Messiah puts expresly this Restriction to the Power which he had given to his High-Priests and continued to live under them in the hopes and expectation of that Christ which had been so often promised Thus did that Kingdom which was absolutely free make use of its Prerogative and provided for its Government The Posterity of Jacob by the Tribe of Judah and by the rest who were ranged under its Standards preserved themselves like a Body of a State and independently and quietly enjoyed the Land which had been assigned to them By virtue of the Peoples Decree which we now have been speaking of John Hyrcan the Son of Simon succeeded to his Father Under him the Jews grew very great by their considerable Conquests They subdued Samaria as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold they conquered the Idumeans the Philistins Ezek. 16.55 56 58 61. Jer. 31.5 1 Macc. 10.30 Joseph an t 13.8 17 18. Zach. 9.1 2 c. the Ammonites who were their perpetual Enemies and those People embraced their Religion as Zachariah had observed At length in spight of all the Hatred and Jealousy of the People who were round about them under the Authority of their High-Priests who afterwards became their Kings they founded the new Kingdom of the Asmoneans or the Mascabees more large and extensive than ever excepting only thâ— times of David and Solomon Thus you see in what manner the People of God subsisted always amidst all this variety of Changes and that People who were sometimes chastised and again sometimes comforted under their Afflictions and Grievances by the different Treatments they received according as they deserved bears a sufficient publick Testimony to that Providence which governs the World But in what Condition soever they were they lived still in the expectation of the Messiah which was in the fullness of time to come wherein they looked for new Graces and much greater than any of those they had yet received and there are none but see that this Faith of the Messiah and of his Miracles which continues still to this day among the Jews is descended to them from their Patriarchs and their Prophets from the beginning of their Nation Joseph 1. cont Apion For in that long succession of Years where they themselves did confess that by a Council of Providence there was not any other Prophet risen up among them and that God made them no new Predictions nor new Promises this Faith of the Messiah which was to come was more sprightly active and vigorous than ever It was found so firmly established when the second Temple was built that there was no need of a Prophet to confirm the People in it They were supported by the Faith of the antient Prophecies which they had seen so exactly fullfilled before their Eyes in so many chief Points The â—est from that time never was in the least question'd by them and it was not at all difficult for them to believe that God who was so faithful in every thing should not also accomplish in its due time that which concern'd the Messiah that is to say the very main of all his Promises and the Ground and Foundation of all the rest In effect all their History all that daily happened to them was but as it were one perpetual opening Scene of those Oracles which the Holy Ghost had left with them Being so settled again in their Land after the Captivity they enjoyed for three hundred years a most profound Peace if their Temple was reverenced and their Religion honoured over all the East if at last their Peace was ruffled and shaken by their Dissentions if that proud King of Syria made unheard of attempts to destroy them if he sometime prevailed if he were a little after punished if the Jewish Religion and all the People of God were restored with a more marvellous glory than ever before and the Kingdom of Judah grew greater toward the end of the time by new Conquests you have seen all this was no more than what was found written in their Prophets Yes every thing was particularly taken notice of there even to the time that the Persecutions were to last even to the places where the Battels were to be fought and even to the Lands which were to be conquered I have in the gross related something to you of those Prophecies the Particulars would be matter of a longer Discourse I will here only give you the first Tincture of those important Truths which is so much the more acknowledged as we shall enter forward into the Particulars I shall only observe here that the Prophecies of the People of God have had during all those times Porph. de Abst lib. 4. Id. Porphyr Jul. apud Cyr. l. 5. 6. in Jul. so plain and manifest an accomplishment that since when the Heathen themselves when a Porphyrius when a Julian the Apostate otherwise Enemies of the Sacred Scriptures would at any time give Example of Prophetick Predictions they have been forced to seek them among the Jews And I may also tell you for a truth that if during five hundred years the People of God were without a Prophet all the estate of those times was prophetical The work of God went on and the ways were preparing insensibly for the full accomplishment of those ancient Oracles The Return from the Captivity of Babylon was only a shadow of the Liberty both more great and more necessary which the Messiah was to bring to men that were Captives unto sin The People dispersed in several places in Vpper Asia in Lesser Asia in Egypt and even in Greece began to make the Name and the Glory of the God of Israel shine forth more conspicuously among the Gentiles The Scriptures which were one day to be the Light of the World were put into the most known Language of the World their Antiquity is confessed Whilst the Temple was had in reverence and the Scriptures given to the Gentiles God shews some representation to their future Conversion and lays a great way off the foundations of it What also happened among the Grecians was a kind of preparation to the knowledge and understanding of the Truth Their Philosophers confessed that the World was governed by a God far different from those whom the common sort of People worshipped and whom they also served with the common People The Greek Histories believe that this excellent Philosophy came from the East and from those
likewise their Conduct was meek and gentle tho' very regular and they lived among themselves in an extream Union The Rewards and Punishments of a future Life which they zealously asserted brought them very great honour At last Ambition got in amongst them They had a mind to govern Id. lib. 2. de Bell. Jud. 7. and indeed they ascribed to themselves an absolute Power over the People they made themselves the Arbiters of Learning and Religion which they insensibly turned to superstitious Practices advantagious for their Interest and the Dominion they would fain have set up over mens Consciences and the true life and spirit of the Law was almost lost To these Evils anâ—ther was added much greater to wit Pride and Presumption but such a Presumption as indeavoured to attribute to themselves the Gift of God The Jews accustomed to his Benefits and having been so many Ages since illuminated with his knowledge forgat that his bounty alone had separated them from all other People and so looked on his Grace as a Debt A chosen Race and always blessed for two thousand years they judged themselves only to be worthy to know God and believed themselves to be of a different Species from other Men whom they saw deprived of his knowledge Upon this ground they looked on the Gentiles with a disdain that was insupportable To be come from Abraham according to the Flesh seemed to them such a Distinction as raised them naturally above all others and being puffed up with so fine an Original they reckoned themselves Saints by Nature and not by Grace An Errour which continues still among them These were the Pharisees who seeking to glorifie themselves by their own Light and by the exact observance of the Ceremonies of the Law brought in this Opinion towards the latter end of the times As they only thought of distinguishing themselves from other men they multiplyed outward Ceremonies and Practices without any measure and they gave out all their fanciful Notions how contrary soever they were to the Law of God as Authentick Traditions Although those Sentiments had not by any Publick Decree passed into the Dogma's of the Synagogue yet they insensibly instilled them into the People which made them unquiet turbulent and seditions At last the Divisions which were to be according to their Prophets the beginning of their ruine and downfal broke out upon occasion of the Disorders that happened in the House of the Asmoneans There were scarce sixty years unto Jesus Christ Zach. 11.6 7 8. c. when Hyrcan and Aristoâ—ulus the Sons of Alexander Janneus fell out about the Priesthood to which the Royalty was annexed Here was the fatal Moment which the History takes notice of as the first cause of the Destruction of the Jews Joseph an t 14.8.20.8.1 Bell. Jud. 4.5 Appian bell Syr. Mithrid Liv. lib. 5. Zach. 11.8 Pompey whom the two Brothers called to regulate them subjected them both at the same time when he dispossessed Antiochus Sirnamed the Asiatick the last King of Syria Those three Princes degraded together and as it were at one effort were the Signal of the Destruction so exactly described by the Prophet Zachariah 'T is certain by the History that that change of the Affairs of Syria and Judea was made at the same time by Pompey when after he had ended the War with Mithridates ready to return to Rome he adjusted the Affairs of the East The Prophet only observed what made towards the Ruine of the Jews who of the two Brothers whom they had seen Kings saw the one a Prisoner serving at Pompey's Triumph and the other the weak Hyrcan from whom the same Pompey took together with the Diadem a great part of his Dominion keeping only a vain Title of Authority which likewise he lost quickly after 'T was then that the Jews were made the Tributaries of the Romans and the Ruine of Syria brought on theirs because that great Kingdom reduced into a Province in their Neighbourhood augmented so much the Roman Power there that there was Safety but only in obeying them The Governours of Syria made continual Attempts on Judea The Romans made themselves absolute Masters of them and weakened their Government in several things By them at last the Kingdom of Juda. passed out of the Hands of the Asmoneans to whom it had been subject into those of Herod a stranger and an Idumean The cruel and ambitious Politie of that King who only in shew professed the Jewish Religion changed soon the Maxims of the antient Government The Jews were no longer Masters of their Fate under the vast Empire of the Persians and the first Seleucides where they lived only in an undisturbed Peace Herod who holds them in almost an absolute Slavery to his Power embroils all things confounds aâ—ter his own Humor the Succession of the High-Priests weakens the Pontificate whiâ—h he makes Arbitrary enervates the Authority of the Council of the Nation whiâ—h can no longer do any thing All the publick Power goes through the Hands of Herod and of the Romans whose Slave he is and he shakes the Foundations of the Jewish Commonwealth The Pharisees and the People who only hearkened to their Opinions bore this Condition very impatiently The more they thought themselves oppressed with the Yoke of the Gentiles the greater Hatred and Disdain they had for them They would no longer have a Messiah who should not be a Warrior and dreadful to the Powers that captivated them Thus forgetting so many Prophecies which so plainly and expresly spoke of their being humbled they had no long Eyes nor Ears but for those which proclaimed Triumphs to them though very different from such as they wished In the declension of the Religion VI. Jesus Christ and his Doctrine and the Affairs of the Jews at the end of King Herod's Reign and then when the Pharisees were bringing in so many Abuses Jesus Christ was sent upon the Earth to re-establish the Kingdom in the House of David after a more exalted manner than ever the carnal Jews understood it and to preach that Doctrine and good Tydings of Salvation which God was resolved all the World should be acquainted with This wonderful Son whom Isaiah calls the mighty God Isai 9.6 the everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace was born of a Virgin at Bethlehem and there he came to own the first Original of his Race Conceived by the Holy Ghost holy by his Birth being alone worthy to repair the wickedness of ours he was called Jesus Matth. 1.21 because he was to save us from our Sins Immediately after his Birth a new Star a Type of that Light he was to bring to the Gentiles was seen in the East and brought to our Saviour thus an Infant the First-fruits of the converted Gentiles A little after that Lord so much desired came to his holy Temple where Simeon sees him not only the Glory of the Poeple Israel Luke 2.32 but also as
Ghost to fortifie his Apostles and eternally to inspire and invigorate the Body of the Church This power of the Holy Ghost to declare it self the more was to appear in weakness Behold I send saith Jesus Christ to his Apostles Luke 24.49 the promise of my Father upon you that is to say the Holy Ghost in the mean time tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem be quiet do not concern your self about any thing until ye be indued with power from on high And to shew their submission and conformity to that Order they continued shut up for forty days at the prefixed time the Holy Ghost descended Acts 2.3 cloven Tongues like as of fire falling upon the Disciples of our blessed Saviour do shew the efficacy of their preaching and so being filled with the Holy Ghost Id. 4. they began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance the Apostles bore witness of Jesus Christ they were all ready to suffer for the Testimony that they had seen him rise from the dead Miracles followed upon their preaching At two of St. Peter's Sermons eight thousand Jews were converted and bewailing their Errour and Blindness they were wâ—shed in the Blood which they had spilt Thus was the Church founded in Jerusalem and amongst the Jews and notwithstanding the perverse incredulity of the Gross of the Nation yet the Disciples of Jesus Christ made known unto the World a Charity a Power but tempered with so much sweetness and condescension as never had been seen in any Society before Persecution arose the Faith increased the Children of God began more and more to aspire towards Heaven the Jews by their obstinate and inveterate Malice drew upon themselves the just Vengeance of God and hastened on them the sad Calamities and Desolation wherewith they had been threatned their Estates and their Affairs grew worse and worse Whilst God was setting apart a great number of them whom he placed among his Elect St. Peter was sent to baptize Cornelius a Roman Centurion He learned first of all by a Heavenly Vision and afterwards by Experience that the Gentiles were called to the Knowledge of God Jesus Christ who was willing to have them converted speaks from on high to St. Paul who was to be their Doctor and by a Miracle till then unheard of from a Persecutor he is made not only a Defender but a zealous Preacher of the Faith The profound Secret of the Calling of the Gentiles by the Reprobation of the ungratefull Jews who were still made more and more unworthy of the Gospel was discovered to him St. Paul reached forth his hands to the Geniiles and treated upon those important Questions with a wonderful force and power that Christ should suffer Acts 26.23 and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should shew unto the People and to the Gentiles He proved the Affirmative by Moses and the Prophets and called Idolaters to the Knowledge of God in the Name of Jesus Christ that was risen They were converted by Multitudes St. Paul shewed that their Calling was an effect of Grace which made no distinction betwixt either Jew or Gentile Fury and Jealousie transported the Jews so as they laid terrible Plots against St. Paul being chiefly incensed that he preached up the Gentiles and brought them to the true God At last he was delivered to the Romans as they had before delivered up Jesus Christ to them All the Empire was in commotion against the rising Church and Nero the Persecutor of all Mankind was the first Persecutor of the Faithful That Tyrant put both St. Peter and St. Paul to death Rome was consecrated by their Blood and the Martyrdom of St. Peter chief of the Apostles established in the Capital City of the Empire the Principal See of Religion In the mean time the time drew on when the Divine Vengeance was to fall upon the Impenitent Jews Disorders grew up amongst them a false Zeal blinded them and made them odious to all men their false Prophets infatuated them by the Promâ—ses of an imaginary Kingdom Thus being seduced by their deceitful tricks and artifices they could no longer endure any legitimate Empire and so they were unlimited in their attempts God gave them up to a reprobate Sence They revolted against the Romans who overthrew them Titus himself that destroyed them confessed he only lent his hand to that God that was provoked against them Adrian made a full end of them Philost vit Apoll Tyan lib. 6. Joseph de bell Jud. lib. 7.16 They were cut off with all the marks of the Divine Vengeance driven out of their own Land and made Slaves to all the World they no longer had either Temple or Altar or Sacrifice or Country and there was seen in Judah not so much as a form of People But God had notwithstanding provided for the Eternity of his Government The Eyes of the Gentiles were opened and they were united in Spirit to the converted Jews By that means they were joined to the Race and Stock of Abraham and became his Children by Faith and so inherited the promises which had been made to him A new People were formed and the new Sacrifice so much celebrated by the Prophets began to be offered throughout all the World Thus was that antient Oracle or Jacob fulfilled to a tittle Judah from the beginning was multiplied more than all his Brethren and having always kept a certain Preheminence he at last received the Kingdom as Hereditary to him Afterwards the People of God were reduced to his single Race and shut up in his Tribe they were called by his Name In Judah were continued that great People who were promised to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob in him the other promises were perpetuated the worship of God the Temple the Sacrifices the possession of the promised Land which was only called Judah Notwithstanding all their several States the Jews continued always in a body of a regulated People and Kingdom making use of their Laws There were always seen to arise either Kings or Magistrates and Judges even till the Advent of the Messiah he came and the Kingdom of Judah quickly fell to ruin It was utterly destroyed and the Jewish People were driven without hope from the Land of their Fathers The Messiah was the expectation of the Nations and he reigned over a new People But to keep the Succession and the Perpetuity it was necessary to have this new people engrafted as I may so say upon the former and as St. Paul speaks if thou being a wild Olive tree were grafted in amongst then Rom. 11.17 and with them partakest of the root and fatnâ—â—s of the Olive-tree So it happened that the Church which was first established among the Jews at length received the Gentiles to make up one and the same Tree with them one and the same Body one and the same People and to make them partakers of her Graces and Promises What
who holding all things in the hollow of his Hand was able by himself alone both to begin and carry on a design wherein all Ages are comprehended We need therefore no longer wonder as we commonly do why God proposes to us to believe so many things so worthy of him and yet at the same time so impenetrable to Humane Understanding But we should rather wonder that he having established the Faith upon so firm and manifest an Authority there should yet be any in the World blind and incredulous Our disorderly Passions our being bewitched to our Senses and our incurable Pride are the cause of it We choose rather to venture all than to put a constraint upon our selves we choose rather to continue in our Ignorance than to confess it and are pleased rather with a vain Curiosity and indulging our unruly Spirits in the liberty of thinking whatsoever delights 'em than to yield to the yoke of Divine Authority From thence it is that there are so many Unbelievers and God suffers it to be so for the instruction of his Children Unless we had the Blind the Savage and the Infidel and that in the very Bosom too of Christianity we should not be sensible enough of the Corruption of our Nature nor of that Abyss of Misery from whence Jesus Christ hath delivered us If his holy Truth was not contradicted we should not see the Miracle which hath constantly carried it through so many Contradictions and we should forget at last that we are saved by Grace Now the Incredulity of the one does humble the rest and those Rebels that oppose God's Decrees make that Power conspicuous by which indepently from all things else he accomplishes the Promises he hath made to his Church What therefore is it that we look for now to make us humble and submiss do we look that God should still work new Miracles that he should make them useless by his continuing of them that he should accustom our eyes to them as he does to the Course of the Sun and to all the other Marvels of Nature or else do we ever expect that the wicked and the opinionative man should be silent that good and vertuous men and dissolute Libertines should bear an equal Testimony to the Truth that all the World by one common consent should prefer it to their Passions and that false Knowledge which only the Novelty of it causes to be admired should cease its usual way of surprising men Is it not enough that we see it is impossible for men to combate with Religion but they must at the same time shew by prodigious wandrings that their Senses are perverted and that they only defend themselves either by Presumption or ignorance Cannot the Church which hath been victorious both over Ages and Errours I say cannot that overcome in our Minds those weak and miserable Reasonings which are opposed to her and cannot the Divine Promises which we see every day are accomplishing elevate and raise us above our Senses Now let us not say that these Promises are still kept in suspence and as they are to hold out to the end of the World so it will not be until the end of the World that we can boast we have seen the accomplishment of them For on the contrary that which is already past assures us of the future so many ancient Predictions so visibly fulfilled make us satisfied that there will be nothing but what shall be accomplished and that the Church against which according as the Son of God hath promised us even the Gates of Hell shall never prevail will be always subsisting until the consummation of all things for that Jesus Christ who is true in all hath prescribed no other bounds to its duration The same Promises do likewise assure us of a future Life God who hath shewn himself so faithful in accomplishing what respects the present Age will be no less faithful in accomplishing that which respects the Future of which all that we see is but a preparation and the Church will be always unshaken and invincible on the Earth until that her Children being gathered together she be entirely conveyed to her which is her only true Mansion As for those who shall be excluded from that heavenly City an eternal Vengeance is reserved for them and after they have lost by their Sin and Folly a blessed Eternity there will be left for them no other place but a Hell of Eternal woe and misery Thus the Decrees of God are to terminate by an immutable state his Promises and his Threatnings are equally certain and what he executes in time assures us of what he hath commanded us either to expect or fear in Eternity You now see what may be learned from the continual progress of Religion as it is in short presented to your Eyes By time it conducts you to Eternity You see a constant order in all God's Decrees and a visible Mark of his Power in the perpetual duration of his People You cannot but confess that the Church hath a Branch always subsisting which cannot be separated from it without destroying it and that those who being united to this Root do perform such Works as are worthy of their Faith and secure to themselves eternal Life Your Highness is therefore to study but to study with attention this uninterrupted Course of the Church which so clearly assures to you all the Promises of God Whatsoever breaks this Chain whatsoever goes out of this Course whatsoever advances it self and does not come by virtue of the Promises made to the Church from the beginning of the World you are to have in horrour Imploy all your power to recall into this Unity whatsoever is stragled out of the way of it and to make it hearken to the Church by which the Holy Spirit of God pronounces its Oracles The Glory of your Ancestors is not only that they never forsook it but that they always supported it and thereby deserved to be called the Eldest Sons which is certainly the most glorious of all their Titles 'T is needless for me to mention to you Clovis Charlemaine or St. Louis Consider only the time you live in and from what Father God hath given you your Birth A King so great in every thing yet is more to be distinguished by his Faith than by all his other admirable Qualities He protects Religion not only within but out of his Kingdom and even to the last Extremities of the World His Laws are one of the firmest Rampiers of the Church His Authority revered as much by the Merit of his Person as by the Majesty of his Scepter never supports it self so well as when it defends the Cause of God We hear no more Blasphemies Impiety trembles before him this is the King taken notice of by Solomon Prov. 20.26 that in his Wisdom scattereth the Wicked and bringeth the Wheel over them If he attacks Heresie by such means and that more too than ever did any of
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
Not that they had disputed any thing against Kings or that any one had a right to constrain them but on the contrary they were looked upon as Gods but an ancient Custom had regulated them all and they resolved to live no otherwise than their Ancestors So that they patiently suffered themselves not only to be regulated in their manner of Victuals and Drink for it was an ordinary thing in Egypt where all People were sober and where the Air of the Country was a friend to Frugality but they were content that their very hours should be set them In waking at break of day Herod 2. Diod. §. 2. when their Minds were most refined and their Thoughts most clear they read their Instructions that they might have a more exact and true Idea of the Matters they were to decide As soon as they were drest they went to Sacrifice in the Temple There being incompassed by all their Court and the Victimes at the Altar they assisted at a Prayer full of Instructions where the Chief Priest prayed to the Gods to confer on the Prince all Royal Vertues so that he might be religious to the Gods placid towards Men moderate just magnanimous sincere and far from falshood liberal a Master of himself punishing below but rewarding above desert The Chief Priest afterwards spake of the faults that Kings might commit but he always supposed they fell into them by surprize or ignorance charging with Imprecations the Ministers that gave them evil Counsels and concealed the Truth from them This was the manner of instructing Kings Ibid. They thought Reproaches did only sower their Spirits and that the most effectual way of inspiring Vertue into them was to point out to them their Duty in Praises conformable to the Laws and gravely delivered before their Gods After Prayer and Sacrifice they read to the King in the Sacred Books the Counsels and the Actions of great Men that so he might govern his Kingdom by their Maxims and maintain the Laws which had made his Predecessors happy as well as their Subjects That which shews that these Remonstrances were made and hearkened to seriously was that they had their effect Among the Thebans that is to say in the chief Dynasty that where the Laws were in force and which came at last to be the Mistress of all the rest the greatest men were Kings The two Mercurys Authors of Sciences and of all the Institutions of the Egyptians the one near the time of the Deluge and the other whom they called Trismegistus or Teâ— maximus a Contemporary of Moses were both Kings of Thebâ—s All Egypt profited by their light Herod l. 2. and Thebes owes to their Instructions their having had very few bad Princes Those were spared during their lives the Publick Repose would have it so Diog. 1. §. 2. but they were not exempt from the Judgment they were to undergo after death Ibid. Some have been denied Burial but there are few Examples of them but on the contrary most of the Kings have been so much made of by the People that every one have bewailed their Death as much as that of their Parents or Children This Custom of judging Kings after their Death seemed so holy to the People of God that they have always practised it We read in the Scriptures that wicked Kings have been deprived of the Burial of their Ancestors Ant. 13.23 and we learn from Josephus that that Custom lasted even to the time of the Asmonâ—ans That gave Kings to understand that if their Majesty put them above Humane Judgments in this Life they were not above them when Death equalled them with other men The Egyptians had an inventive Geninâ— and they turned it to things that were profitable Their Mercuries have filled Egypt with wonderful Inventions and scarce have left it ignorant of any thing that might make Life tranquil and commodious I cannot give to the Egyptians the honour they have conferred on their Osyris Diod. l. 1. § 1. Plut. de Isid Osir for having invented Tillage because it was found at all times in the neighbouring Countries of the World where Mankind was spread and questionless it was known ever since the World began The Egyptians themselves likewise give so great an Antiquity to Osiris that it is plainly seen they have confounded his time with that of the beginning of the World and they would fain attribute some things to him whose Original was long before all times known in their History But if the Egyptians were not the first Inventors of Agriculture nor of the other Arts which we see before the Deluge they have yet brought them to such perfection and have taken so great a Care to establish them among the People where Barbarism had made them forget that their Honour comes very little short of those that were the first Inventors Indeed there are some things of great usefulness the Invention whereof cannot be disputed with them Plat. Epin Diod. 1. § 2. Herod l. 2. For as their Country was united and their Heaven always clear and uncloudy they were the first that observed the Course of the Stars and they were the first also that regulated the year Those Observations threw them naturally into Arithmetick and if it be true what Plato says Plat. in Tim. That the Sun and the Moon taught men the knowledge of Numbers that is to say that they began the Accounts regulated by that of Days Mouths and Years then the Egyptians werethe first who hearken'd to those marvellous Instructers The Planets and other Stars were no less known to them and they found out that great Year which brings back all the Heaven to its first point To know their own Lands every year covered over by the over-flowing of Nile they were forced to betake themselves to Surveying which quickly taught them Geometry They were great Observers of Nature which in an Air so serene and under a Sun so burning was very strong in its Products amongst them 'T was that which made them find out or perfect Physick Thus all Sciences were in great esteem with them The first Inventors of usefull things received Diod. 1. §. 2. Herod 3. init both whilst they lived and after their deaths rewards worthy of their labour 'T was that consecrated the Books of their two Mercuries and made them to be looked on as Divine Books Diod. l. 1. § 2. The first People of all that had Libraries were those of Egypt The title that was given them made them very desirous to peruse them and to search into the Secrets of them they were called The Treasure of the Remedies of the Soul Thereby it was cured of the most dangerous Ignorance of its Maladies and the Source of all the others One thing which made the greatest impression on the Minds of the Egyptians was the esteem and love of their Country It was they said the Mansion-House of the Gods they had reigned there
dejected It is true likewise that that great Empire did not last long It was to fall some way or other A Divisioâ— was made in Egypt Under Anysis the blind the Ethiopian Sabacon invaded the Kingdom He treated the People of it as well and did there as great things as any of the natural Kings Never was there see a Moderation like to that of his since that after sixty years of a happy reign he returned into Ethiopia to obey the Advertisements which he believed came from Heaven The Kingdom thus left fell into the hands of Sethon Priest of Vulcan a Religious Prince after his way but a small Warriour and who absolutely enervated the Militia by his ill treating of his Soldiers From that time Egypt maintained her self only by strange Forces There was found in her a kind of Anarchy for there were twelve Kings chosen by the People who shared among them the Government of the Kingdom 'T was those who built the twelve Palaces that make up the Labyrinth Tho' Egypt could not forget her Magnificences yet she was weakned and divided under those twelve Princes One of them to wit Psammeticus made himself the Master by the assistance of Strangers Egypt was re-established and remained pretty powerful for five or six Reigns At length that antient Kingdom after it had continued about sixteen hundred Years weakened by the Kings of Babylon and by Cyrus became a Prey to Cambyses the most violent and outragious of all Princes Those who very well understood the Humor of Egypt Strab. l. 17. have confessed that she was not given to War You have heard the Reasons of it She lived in Peace about thirteen hundred Years when she brought forth her first Warrior who was Sesostris Also notwithstanding her Militia so carefully disciplin'd and kept up yet we see at last that her greatest Force consisted in strange Troops which is one of the most deplorable Defects that a State can have But no humane things are perfect and it is no easy thing to have in Perfection both the Arts of Peace and the Advantages of War 'T is a long Continuance to have subsisted for sixteen hundred Years Some Ethiopians Reigned at Thebes in that Interval among others Sabacon and as we may believe Taraca But Egypt gained this Benefit from the excellent Constitution of her State that the Strangers who conquered her rather took up her Customs than introduced any of their own there Thus changing of Masters she made no change of Government She could very hardly indure the Persians whose Yoke she would often shake But she was not martial enough to support her self by her own Force against so great a Power and the Grecians who defended her being engaged by other Diversions were forced to leave her So that she fell back again always to her first Masters but however she was resolutely tenacious of her old Customs and incapable of being brought off from the Maxims of her first Kings And altho' she retained many of them under the Ptolomy's yet the mixture of the Grecian and Asiatick Fashion was so great in her that she could scarce be any longer known for old Egypt We must not forget that the times of the antient Kings of Egypt are very uncertain Diod. 1. Sect. 2. even in the History of the Egyptians We hardly know where to place Osymanduas tho' we see so many magnificent Monuments of him in Diodorus and such glorious Signs of his Combats It seems the Egyptians knew not who was Sesostris his Father for neither Herodotus nor Diodorus have named him His Power however is more remarkable by the Monuments he has left in all the Earth than by the Memoires of his Country and those Reasons do shew us that we are not to believe as some do that what Egypt hath published of her Antiquities have been always so exact and punctual as she hath boasted seeing that she her self is so uncertain of the most signal time of her Monarchy THE great Empire of the Egyptians was as it were detached from all others IV. The Assyrianâ— both antient and modern the Medes and Cyrus and as you have seen had not a very long Continuance That which we have now to say is more supported and hath more particular Dates Nevertheless we have yet very few things certain concerning the first Empire of the Assyrians But let us place the beginning of it at what time we will according to the different Opinions of the Historians you will see that when the World was divided into several petty States which the Princes rather thought how to preserve than to enlarge Ninus who was more forward and undertaking Diod. lib. 2. Just 1. and withal more puissant than his Neighbours subdued them one after another and went on with his Conquests far up in the East His Wife Semiramis who together with the Ambition that is common enough to her Sex joined a Courage and a continued Series of Councels which is but very seldom found in it kept up the vast Designs of her Husband and finished the forming of that Monarchy It was doubtless very great and the greatness of Nineveh Strabo 16. which was set above that of Babylon Herod 1. Dion Hâ—l 1. App. init op sufficiently shews it But as the most judicious Historians do not make this Monarchie so antient as others represent it to us Gen. 14.1 2. Jud. 3.8 Plat. de lâ—g 3. so neither do they report it to be so great We have seen a very long Duration of the petty Kingdoms of which he must have composed it if it be as antient and as large as the fabulous Ctesias and those who have taken it upon his Word describe it to us 'T is true Plato a curious Observer of Antiquities makes the Kingdom of Troy in the time of Priam a Dependence of the Assyrian Empire But there is no notice taken of it in Homer who in the Design he had to advance the Glory of Greece would not have forgot such a Circumstance and we may think that the Assyrians were little known towards the West seeing so learned and so curious a Poet in adorning his Poem with every thing that was pertinent to his Subject has not any where made them to appear there Yet according to the Computation we have judged most reasonable the time of the Siege of Troy was the finest time of all the Assyrians had for it was that in which Semiramis made her Conquests But she only extended them Eastward Those who are the greatest Flatterers make her turn her Arms on that side She had had too great a Share in the Councels and Victories of Ninus not to follow his Designs otherwise so agreeable to the Situation of her Empire and I do not believe it can be doubted but that Ninus kept close to the East because Justin himself who favours him as much as is possible makes him to end his Enterprises on the West side at the Frontiers of
Libya Therefore I know not at what time Nineveh could extend her Conquests even to Troy because we see so little likelyhood that Ninus and Semiramis had undertook any such thing and that all their Successors to begin from their Son Ninyas have lived in such an effeminate Softness and with so little Action that scarce their Names have reached to our Ears and we might much rather wonder how their Empire was able to subsist so long than believe it could be so enlarged It was questionless much diminished by the Conquests of Sesostris but as they were of a short Continuance and but poorly kept up by his Successors we may easily believe that the Countries which they took from the Assyrians being used a long time to their Domination would naturally turn to them again So that that Empire kept it self in great Puissance and in great Peace until that Arbaces having discovered the softness of their Kings so long concealed in the Secrets of their Palaces Sardanapulus celebrated by his Infamies became not only contemptible but also insupportable to his Subjects You have seen the Kingdoms that came from the Ruines of that first Empire of the Assyrians among others that of Nineveh and that of Babylon The Kings of Niniveh retained the Name of Kings of Assyria and were the most puissant Their Pride quickly raised them above all Bounds by the Conquests they obtained among which is accounted that of the Kingdom of the Israelites or of Samaria It could be nothing less than the Hand of God and a visible Miracle that kept them from overwhelming Judea under Hezekiah and it was unknown what Bounds could be given to their Power when they were seen a little while after in their Neighbourhood to invade the Kingdom of Babylon where the Royal Family was decay'd Babylon seemed to be born to command all the World Xen. Cyr. 2.1.5 Her People were full of Spirit and Courage Always Philosophy reigned among them and the generous Arts and the East had not much better Soldiers than the Chaldeans Antiquity admired the rich Harvests of a Country which the negligence of its Inhabitants now leaves without Culture Herod 1. and its Abundance made the ancient Kings of Persia look on it as a third part of so great an Empire Thus the Kings of Assyria swoln with an Increase which added to their Monarchy so opulent a City formed new Designs Nebuchadnezzar the first thought his Empire unworthy of him unless he could add the whole Universe to it Nebuchadnezzar the second prouder than all the Kings his Predecessors after his unheard of Successes and astonishing Conquests rather chose to make himself be adored as a God than to command as a King What works did not he undertake in Babylon What Walls what Towers what Gates and what Circumvallations were there seen It seemed as if the old Tower of Babel was going to be renewed in the prodigious height of the Temple of Bel and that Nebuchadnezzar had resolved to storm Heaven anew His Pride although brought down by the hand of God did not cease to spring up again in his Successors They could not induce any Domination about them and resolving to bring all under the Yoke they became insupportable to the neighbouring People That Jealousie reunited against them together with the Kings of Media and the Kings of Persia a great part of the Eastern People Xen. Cyr. 3.4 Pride is easily turned into Cruelty As the Kings of Babylon did inhumanely treat their Subjects whole Countries as well as the Chief Lords of their Empire joyned with Cyrus and the Medes Babylon too much used to Command and Conquer to fear so many Enemies that were all languid against her whilst she thought her self invincible became Captive to the Medes whom she pretended to subdue and her Pride at last proved her utter ruine and destruction The Fate of this great City was strange seeing she fell by her own Inventions Euphrates had almost in her vast Plains the same effect as Nilus had in those of Egypt but to make it more commodious there was required more of Art and Labour than Egypt used for the Nile Herod 1. Euphrates was direct in its Course and never overflowed They were forced to make throughout all the Country an infinite number of Chanels that so it might water their Grounds whose fruitfulness by that means became incomparable To break the violence of its too impetuous Waters it was necessary to make it run thro' a thousand Turnings and to hollow it with great Lakes which a wise Queen filled up again with an incredible magnificence Nitocris the Mother of Labynithes otherwise called Nabonides or Belshazzar the last King of Babylon did those great Works But that Queen undertook a Business much more surprising and marvellous It was to build a Stone Bridge over Euphrates that so the two Quarters of the City which the vast largeness of that River separated at two great a distance might communicate together It was necessary therefore first to dry up so rap'd and so deep a River by turning those Waters into a most huge and unmeasurable Lake which yet that Queen caused to be digged At the same time they built the Bridge the solid Materials whereof were prepared before and they bricked up the two sides of the River to a most astonishing heighth making Descents from it likewise of Brick and of as good Work as the Walls of the City The Diligence that was used herein equalled he Grandeur of it But a Queen so discerning as she was yet never thought that she instructed her Enemies how to take her City Herod ibid. It was into that same Lake which she had hollowed that Cyrus turned Euphrates when despairing of his reducing Babylon either by Force or Famine he opened into it from the two sides of the City that Passage which we have seen so much pointed at by the Prophets If Babylon could have but believed she had been perishable as all other humane things and an extravagant confidence had not thrown her into downright blindness Ibid. she might not only have been able to foresee what Cyrus did seeing that the remembrance of such a Work as that was very fresh but also by guarding all the Descents she had overthrown the Persians in the Chanel of the River where they passed But they thought of nothing but their Pleasures and Entertainments they had neither order nor any regular command in them And so are destroyed not only the strongest Places but also the greatest Empires Dread and astonishment filled every place the Impious King was killed and Xenophon who gives that Title to the last King of Babylon Xenoph. 7. seems by that word to aim at the Sacriledges of Belshazzar which Daniel makes us to see punished by so surprising a fall The Medes who had destroyed the first and chiefest Empire of the Assyrians destroyed also the second as if that Nation had been designated to be fatal to the
of the Ancient People all the Particularities of Time and every thing else concurring as much as possibly can be expected in so remote and distant an Antiquity II. Epocha Noah or the Deluge 2. Age of the World After the Flood is observable the shortning of Man's Life and a change and alteration of the way of Living and a New Nourishment substituted in stead of the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 2348 Fruits of the Earth some Precepts given Years of the World 1656 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 2347 to Noah only viva voce the Confusion of Years of the World 1657 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 2247 Tongues at the Tower of Babel the first Years of the World 1757 Monument and Mens Weakness the Division of Noah's three Sons and the first Distribution of Lands The Memory of the three first Authors of Nations and People is preserved among Men. Japhet who Peopled the greatest part of the West continues there in great veneration under the Name of Japhet Cham and his Son Canaan have been no less known among the Aegyptians and Phoenicians and the Remembrance of Shem has been always held Sacred among the Hebrews who came from him A little after this first Division of Mankind Nimrod a Wild Man became by his violent Humour the first of Conquerors and this was the Origine of all Conquests He established his Kingdom in Babylon Gen. x. 9 10 18. in the same Place where the Tower was begun and had been carried up to a strange height but yet it seems not up to that stature the Vanity of Man intended or desired it Round about it much-what at the same time Niniveh was built and some other ancient Kingdoms setled They were but small in those first and early Times and there was even in Aegypt it self Four Dynasties or Principalities that of Thebes that of Tine that of Memphis and that of Tanis which was the Chief of Lower Aegypt To much about this time may be referred the beginning of the Laws and Policies of the Aegyptians that of their Pyramids which remain to this day and that of the Astronomical Observations of as well those People Years be ∣ fore J. C. 2233 as of the Chaldeans We may likewise Years of the World 1771 bring up to about this time and no higher the Observations which the Chaldeans for they were without dispute the first Observers of the Stars gave in Babylon to Callisthenes for Aristotle Porphyr ap Simp. l. ii de Caelo Every thing begins There is no antient History wherein there appears not only in these first times but a long time after some manifest Vestigia of the newness of the World We see Laws were to be made and established Manners to be amended and Empires to be formed Mankind coming out by degrees from Ignorance Experience instructs them and Arts are either invented or perfected Accordingly as Men multiplyed the Land was populated and Inhabitants came to live nearer to one another Mountains and Precipices were passed over Rivers crost and at last the Seas and Men established new Habitations The Earth which in the Beginning was but a wild Forest now took another Form the grub'd-up Trees gave way to Fields Pasturages Hamlets Burroughs and at length to Cities They began then to have the Art and Cunning of taking some kind of Beasts of tarning others and bringing them up to Labour and Service At first they were used to ingage and fight with wild Beasts The first Heroes made themselves signal in these sort of Exercises Gen. x. 9. This gave occasion to the inventing of Arms which afterwards Men turned one against another Nimrod the first Warrior and first Conqueror is called in Scripture a mighty Hunter But Man's Skill lay not only in Beasts he knew also how to bring up Plants and ripen Fruits He likewise reduced Metals to his use and by degrees made them serviceable to all Mankind And as it was but natural that time should invent and find out a great many things so likewise time made several other things be forgot at least to most Men. Those first Arts which Noah had preserved and which are always kept up in some Countries where â—ver there is a first Establishment of Mankind that is to say in new Plantations are lost proportionably as they are distant from that Country For either they must be learned over again with time or else those who had preserved them must carry them over to those others Wherefore we see all things to come from Lands that have been always inhabited where the Grounds and Foundations of Arts remain in their Perfection and there also is to be learned every day things very considerable The Knowledge of God and the Remembrance of the Creation was preserved there but it did daily degenerate and grew weaker and weaker The Ancient Traditions were either quite forgot or at least obscure and dim The Fables and Stories that have succeeded them retain'd only the gross Ideas of them False Deities multiplied and became more numerous and that gave occasion to the calling of Abraham III. Epocha The Call of Abraham 3. Age of the World Four hundred twenty six Years after the Deluge as every Body walked after their own ways and never were mindful of that God that made them this great Creator to hinder the Progress of so abominable a Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1921 Wickedness in the midst of their Sins began Years of the World 2083 to set apart to himself a chosen People Abraham was elected to be the Father of the Faithful God called him in the Land of Canaan where he resolved to establish his Worship and to settle the Children of that blessed Patriarch whom he said he would multiply as the Stars of Heaven and as the Sand on the Sea-shore To the promise that he made of giving this Land to his posterity he joyn'd another far more great and illustrious and that was that mighty blessing which was to extend to all the people of the World in Jesus Christ coming forth from his off-spring Heb. vii 1. 2 3 c. This was that Jesus Christ whom Abraham honoured in the Person of the great High-Priest Melchisedeck unto whom he gave the tent of the Spoils which he had got returning from the slaughter of Kings and by whom he was blest In the midst of these vast Riches and of a Power commensurate to that of Kings Abraham still kept to his old ways and customs he ever led a plain simple and pastoral Life which yet had its due Magnificence and the Patriarch made it principally appear in his generous Hospitality to all People Heaven Years be ∣ fore J. C. 1856 at last was pleased to send him Guests Years of the World 2148 the Angels revealed to him the Counsels of God he believed them and appeared in all things full of Faith and Piety In his time Inachus the most antient of all Kings known by the Grecians founded
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
many times overcome had nothing left to do but to make division among the Greeks and the condition in which they found themselves by their Victories made that an easie Enterprise As Fear kept them united so Victory and Confidence broke that Union Plat. de Leg. 3. Being used to fight and to conquer when they thought they had nothing more to fear from the power of the Persians they fell then one upon another But that State of the Greeks and the Secret of the Persian Polity wants a little further Explication Among all the Republicks of which Greece was made up Athens and Lacedemonia were incomparatively the Chief There could not be more Wit than was to be had at Athens nor more force and strength than what Lacedemonia afforded Athens was set upon Pleasure the Lacedemonian life was hard and laborious They both loved Glory and Liberty but at Athens Liberty naturally tended to Licentiousness and Lacedemonia being held in by her severe Laws the more she was suppressed within the more did she indeavour to enlarge her Dominion abroad Athens was desirous all of Rule but it was from another Principle Interest and Honour went together Her Citizens were excellent in the Art of Navigation and the Sea o're which she reigned had enriched her To make her self sole Mistress of all Commerce there was nothing she could not attempt to subject and her Riches which had filled her with that desire furnished her with ways and means how to satisfie it On the contrary the Lacedemonians had Money in Coâ—tempt As all her Laws tended to make her a Martial Republic the glory of Arms was the only Charm wherewith the Minds of her Citizens were possessed From thence naturally she was ambitious of Domination and the more she was above Interest the more she gave her self up to Ambition Lacedemonia by her regular Life was firm in her Maxims and Designs Athens was more quick and Spiritual and the People there were too much Masters Philosophy and the Laws indeed wrought very good Effects in such exquisete Natures but Reason by it self was not able to retain them Plat. de Leg. 3. A wise Athenian and one who admirably well understood the temper and Complexion of his Country informs us that Fear was absolutely necessary for Minds that were so sprightly and so free and that there was no longer any governing of them when the Victory of Salamine had secured them against the Persians Then two things destroyed them the glory of their famous Actions and the Security in which they thought they were The Magistrates were no longer obeyed and as Persia was afflicted through an excessive Subjection so Athens Plato says felt the Calamities of an excessive Liberty Those two great Commonwealths so contrary in their Tempers and Conduct yet embraced each other in the design they had to reduce all Greece so that they were always Enemies and they were more so from the contrariety of their Interests than from the incompatibility of their Humours The Cities of Greece desired no Domination over either of them for besides that every one wished to be able to preserve their own Liberty they found the Empire of those too Republicks too troublesome That of Lacedemonia was fierce There was in her People an I know not what of a wild Barbarity A Government too rigid and a Life too laborious Arist Pol. 8.4 made their Spirits too fierce too austere and too imperious add to this likewise that one must resolve never to be in Peace under the Empire of a City that being formed for War could not preserve it self Id. 7. 14. Xenoph. de rep Lac. Plat. de rep 8. but by an uninterrupted continuance of it Thus the Lacedemonians resolved to Command and all the World was afraid lest they should Command The Athenians were naturally more mild and agreeable There was nothing to be seen more delightful than their City where their Feasts and their Plays were perpetual where wit where liberty the Passions afforded every day new Spectacles But their unequal Conduct was displeasing to their Allies and was yet more insupportable to their Subjects It was therefore necessary to shake off the Fantastry of a flattered People that is to say according to Plato something more dangerous than that of a Prince corrupted by Flattery Those two Cities never suffered Greece to be at quiet You have seen the Peloponesian War and the others always caused or kept up by the Jealousies of Lacedemonia and Athens But those Jealousies which troubled Greece did also in some sort support it and prevented it from becoming a dependance on one of those two Republicks The Persians soon perceived this Estate of Greece Therefore all the Secret of their Politie was to keep up those Jealousies and to foment those Divisions Lacedemonia which was the most ambitious was the first to engage them in the Quarrels of the Greeks They espoused them with a design of making themselves Masters of all the Nation and being careful to weaken the Grecians the one by the other they only watched for the good Hour when to overthow them all together The Cities of Greece did already in their Wars Plat. de Leg. 3. look only on the King of Persia whom they called their great King or the King by way of Excellence as if they already accounted themselves his Subjects but it was impossible for the old Spirit and Genius of Greece not to awaken when they were upon the Brink of falling into Servitude and becoming a Prey to the Barbarians The Petty Kings of Greece attempted to oppose that great King and to ruine his Empire With a small Army but bred up in the Discipline we have already seen Agesilaus King of Lacedemonia Polyb. dib 3. c. 6. made the Persians in lesser Asia to tremble and shewed that it was possible to defeat them The Divisions of Greece were the only thing that put a stop to his Conquests But it happened at a time when young Cyrus the Brother of Artaxerxes revolted against him He had ten Thousand Grecians in his Troops which alone could not be broken in the Universal rout of his Army He was killed in the Battle and as it is reported by the hand of Artaxerxes Our Greeks were found without a Protector in the midst of the Persians and round about Babylon Yet victorious Artaxerxes could neither oblige them voluntarily to lay down their Arms nor force them to it They attempted the bold Design of going through all his Empire in an armed Body and so return into their own Country which they accordingly accomplished All Greece saw then more than ever that she trained up an invincible Militia to which every thing was to yield and that only her own Divisions could subject her to an Enemy who would yet be too weak to resist her when she was united Philip King of Macedon equall able and Valiant so well improved the advantages which were given him against so many
divided Cities and Commonwealths by a Kingdom little indeed of it self but united and where the Royal Power was absolute that at last partly by Stratagem and partly by force he made himself the most puissant of Greece and obliged all the Grecians to march under his Standards against the Common Enemy He was slain in those Conjunctures but Alexander his Son succeeded to his Kingdom and to his Designs He found the Macedonians not only trained up to Martial discipline but also triumphant and become by so many successes almost as much superiour to the other Grecians in Valour and Discipline as the other Grecians were above the Persians and such like sort of People Darius who reigned in Persia in his time was just valiant generous beloved of his People and wanted neither Wit nor Courage to execute his Designs But if you compare him with Alexander his Wit with that piercing and sublime Genius His Valour with that haughtiness and steadiness of that invincible Courage which was the more animated by the Obstacles that he met with with that unmeasurable Ambition of encreasing daily his Name which made him prefer the least advance of Honour to all manner of Dangers Labours and to a thousand Deaths In a word with that Confidence that made him think verily and from his Heart that all ought to submit to him as to one whom his Destiny rendred superiour to all others a Confidence which he inspired not only into his Chiefs but also into the least of his Soldiers whom he raised by that means above difficulties and even above themselves You will quickly judg to whom of them two the Victory belonged And if you add to these things the advantages which the Greeks and the Macedonians had above their Enemies you will confess that Persia being attacked by such an Hero and by such Arms could no longer hold out from changing Masters Thus will you discover at the same time what ruined the Persian Empire and what raised up that of Alexander To make his Victory the more easy it happened that Persia lost the only General that could oppose the Greeks it was Memnon the Rhodian Diod. 17. Sect. 1. When Alexander had vanquished so famous and renowned a Captain he might boast that he had overcome an Enemy that was worthy of him Instead of hazarding against the Greeks a general Battle Memnon would needs dispute all the passages with them would cut off all their Victuals would go and attack them among themselves and by a vigorous onset would force them to come and defend their Country Alexander had prepared for them and the Troops he had committed to Antipater were enough to keep Greece But his good Fortune did on the sudden deliver him from that Embarrass At the beginning of a Diversion which already disturbed all Greece Memnon dyed and Alexander brought all under his Feet That Prince made his Entrance into Babylon with so glorious a shew that surpassed all that ever yet the World had seen and after he had revenged Greece after he with an increâ—â—dible Expedition had brought under all the Lands of the Persian Domination to secure his new Empire on all sides or rather to gratify his Ambition and make his name more famous than that of Bacchus he went into India where he extended his Conquests farther than that renowned Conqueror But him that Desarts Rivers and Mountains were not able to stop was constrained to yield to his tyred Soldiers who desired thâ—n some repose Being forced to content himself with the proud Monuments he left upon the Borders of Araspes he brought back his Army by another way than that he had gone and subdued all the Countries which he found in his Passage He came back to Babylon feared and respected not as Conqueror but as a God But that formidable Empire he had conquered lasted no longer than his Life which was very short too When he was but three and thirty Years of Age in the midst of the vastest Designs that ever Man had conceived and with the justest hopes of a most happy Success he died before he had the opportunity solidly to settle his affairs leaving a weak Brother and Children very young behind him incapable of supporting so great a weight But what was most fatal both to his House and to his Empire was that he left behind him Captains whom he had taught to breath out nothing but Ambition and War He saw to what excesses they would rise when he should be taken out of the World He to retain them and for fear he should be contradicted durst neither name his Successor nor who should be the Tutor of his Children He only foretold them that his Friends would celebrate his Funerals with bloody Battles and so he expired in the flower of his Age full of sad Images and Ideas of the Confusion which would attend his Death In fine you have seen the partage of his Empire and the frightful ruin of his House Macedonia his antient Kingdom enjoyed by his Ancestors for so many Ages was invaded on all sides as a vacant Succession and after it had been long the Prey of the strongest it went at last to another Family Thus that great Conquerour the most renowned and most illustrious that ever was was likewise the last of his Race If he had continued peaceable and quiet in Macedonia the greatness of his Empire would not have been a temptation to his Captains and he might have left to his Children the Kingdom of his Fathers But because he had been so very powerful he was the cause of the loss of all his own and thus you see what was the glorious fruit of so many Conquests His Death was the only cause of that great revolution For this must be said to his eternal Honour that if ever Man was capable of maintaining so vast an Empire although newly conquered without doubt it was Alexander for the strength of his Mind was equal to his Courage It ow'd not therefore to his faults tho' he had very great ones the fall of his Family but only to Mortality unless we will say that a Man of his Humour and whose ambition engaged him still to new undertakings could never be at leisure to settle things well Be it how it will we learn by his Example that besides the Faults which Men might correct that is to say those they are guilty of thro' heat of Transport or thro' Ignorance there is an irrecoverable Weakness inseparably annexed to humane Designs and that is Mortality Every thing may fall in a Moment by that way That which forces us to confess that as the most inherent Vice if it may be allowed me to speak so and the most inseparable from humane things is their own Frailty He who knows how to preserve and strengthen a State hath found out a higher point of Wisdom than he that can conquer and gain Battles It is needless to tell you in particular what destroyed those Kingdoms that were formed