stratagem against the Arcadians commaunded secretly in the night time certaine horses to goe round about his campe and in the morning hee shewed his souldiers the steps of the horses saying that it was Castor Pollux that would be readie in the next battell to take their parts and to fight with them against the Arcadians So did Epaminandas he caused the armor which did hang in the temples and were dedicated to their Gods secretly to be taken downe by this stratagem he perswaded his souldiers that the gods promised to be in those armors themselues to fight in the battell Pericles Generall for the Athenians vsed the like policie caused a comely tall man of great stature all in purple to sit on a high stately chariot drawne with goodly white horses standing in a thicke wood consecrated to Pluto where both the armies might behold him vntill the signe of the battell were giuen then he called to Pericles and willed him to goe forwards and said that the gods of Athens were at hand by this stratagem Pericles got a great victory for the enemies fled before the battell began The Gentiles the Heathens beleeued confessed that all victories good successe came to them by seruing of their gods and all their ouerthrowes calamities fell vpon them by offending their gods so much stood the Heathens in awe and feare of their gods And like as Ioshua Iosaphat Dauid returned to giue thankes to the Lord with violls harpes trumpets for their victories so the Lacedemonians with trumpets and flutes crowned with garlands made of all kinde of flowers and with a song to Castor Pollux for any victories which they had obtained The Romanes also and the Grecians not only with building of Temples and Aultars but with the great sacrifice Haecatombae did please their Gods for theyr victories In Hercules Temple in Sparta the Armours that were hanged vp and consecrated to Hercules seemed to make a sound and and a noise and at Thebes in the Temple of the same Hercules the gates of the Temple being shut were suddenly of themselues opened and the shields and the targets that were hanged vp in the roofe of the Temple dedicated to Hercules fel downe were found vpon the ground which foreshewed to the soothsayers the destruction both of Sparta and Thebes Now to the Hebrewes The Lord commaunded that hee that buildeth a new house and had not possessed it a yeare should be spared from warre Hee that planted a vineyard and not receiued the fruites thereof should also be spared from warre And he that betrothed himselfe to a wife and had not married her might in like case be spared from war After the Priest had ended his exhortation to the souldiers the Generall of the Army proclaimed that if any timerous or fainthearted souldier were within the Army hee should returne home least hee through his cowardlinesse should disanimate or discourage the rest of his Army Hence the Gentiles had the first instruction to vse the like long after this time for the lawe of Armes which the Lord gaue vnto his people the Hebrewes in the wildernesse were in all countries of the Gentiles afterwards imitated in all their warres As among the Romaines the Priestes Faeciales in like sort as the Hebrewes exhorted and encouraged the Romanes manfully to fight for their Countrey repeating the lawe of Armes of the Hebrewes So the Athenians before they cōmenced any battel their Priests called Mantes stood before the army made a speech to the souldiers of the iust cause of theyr wars and would bee further instructed by their Oracles to know of their victories The Persians likewise would take no warre nor battell in hand before they had consulted with their soothsayers which were their wise men called Magi. CHAP. X. Of the camp of the Hebrews of their exercise in the wildernesse and of the whole Army deuided vnder foure principal standarts and of placing of the Arke in the midst of the Camp THe Lord commaunded at the setting out of the Army vnto the battell that the Arke should be carried by the Leuites which Ark signified the presence of God the figure of Christ at what time Moses vsed alwaies these words at the lifting vp of the Ark rise vp Lord let thy enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee And when the Arke rested Moses alwaies said these words Returne ô Lord to thee many thousands when the Arke was caried a cloude couered the Arke and where the cloud stayed there the Arke would rest and when the cloud remoued the Arke was also to be remoued for by the remouing of the cloud the Arke was also to be remoued The Lord commanded in the wildernesse of Sinai to Moses and Aaron with the twelue Princes of the Tribes of Israel to take muster to number thē that were able to goe to the wars frō twentie yeares vpward hence frō the Hebrewes the Gentiles tooke their instructions in numbring and mustring their souldiers Moses numbred the people and found six hundred three thousand fiue hundred fiftie able men to go to wars in the camp of the Hebrews beside the Leuites which were appointed to attend the Tabernacle For the Leuites were numbred three seuerall times the first time they were numbred at a moneth old when they were consecrated vnto the Lord The second time at 25. yeares olde when they were appointed to serue in the Tabernacle The third time at 30. yeares old to bear the burthens of the Tabernacle and to serue in the Tabernacle vntill 50. yeares and then to cease from bearing such heauie burthens and painful seruice But after that they should minister in the Tabernacle singing hymnes Psalmes instructing counselling keeping of things in order After that Moses had brought the Hebrews frō Egipt instructed them with military discipline giuen them martiall lawes then the Lord would not haue Moses to bring his people straight way to the land of Canaan but to lead them too and fro in the wildernesse to keep thē in cōtinual exercise to teach them military discipline by the law of Arms appointed for they might within 3. daies as Philo writeth haue passed frō Egipt to the lād of Canaan but that the Lord would haue thē to endure labour to be exercised in martiall discipline to become good souldiers therfore suffred the Amalekites Moabites Edomites the Philistines to be with thē as needles in their eies thornes in their sides being their professed enemies to warre to fight and to keepe them still in practise and exercise of armes The Lord suffered the Camp of the people to wander too and fro in the wildernesse backward forward to learne to endure cold and heate and all kind of hardnesse remouing their campe too and fro 42. mansions before they came to the land of Canaan Cai. Marius perceiuing his
change frō the names of Greeke Princes to bee named oxen of Lucania Bookes are no otherwise for in auntient time when bookes were yet rare they were fellowes and companions with Kings Princes in courts it so seemed by Alexander the great who could not sleepe before he laid Homer with his dagger vnder his pillow and by Scypio Affrican who would not frō Rome to Carthage without either Panetius or Polybius in his company and now bookes being common are so little regarded rather bought for their golden tytles which the Printer giueth them for his sale then for the matter therein by the Author written for the Revder much like to Mithridates sword whose scabbard was farre more precious and richer without then the blade within Of such bookes Plato speaketh Qui subitò vno die nati celerimè pereunt therfore seldome seene in sight are most in request The Ebaine tree which Pompey the great brought in his triumph into Rome was more wondred gazed vpon then all the braue shewes of the triumph besides So fewe wise words out of a wise mans mouth are more esteemed then heapes of wordes out of an vnwise mouth like the Abderites Embassadors more desirous to heare fewe words out of Zeno the Philosophers mouth then of all the Athenians besides and therfore Pau. Aemilius after he had subdued the king and kingdome of Macedonia wrote no more to the Senators but Victus est Perseus Caesar after he had conquered king Pharnaces wrote no more words but Veni vidi vici Like the Lacedemonians whose writings and speeches were so short and briefe that they would answer either Embassadors friends or foes by writing or by mouth in two or three words And so with the like fewe words I referre my selfe to the gentle disposition of the reader rather to excuse my trauell in curtesie then to accuse my goodwill wrongfully Lodowick Lloid The first Booke of the Stratagems of Ierusalem CAAP. I. Of diuers Battels and Combats Of seuerall markes of diuers nations vpon the good and bad Of the calling of Abraham and of his praise and trauell THe whole BIBLE is a Booke of the Battels of the Lord and the whole life of a man a militarie marching to these Battells betweene the seede of the womā the Serpent which Battel was first fought in heauē betweene Michael and his Angels and the Dragon and his angels at what time Satan was ouerthrowne and cast out of heauen with all his angels with him The second Battell was in Paradise fought betweene the seede of the woman and the seede of the Serpent where likewise Sathan was ouerthrowne for then it was promised that the seede of the woman should tread downe the Serpents head thereby perpetuall warre was publikely proclaimed in Paradise to continue betweene the seed of the woman and Sathan and therefore are the battels of the Lord innumerable in respect of number for that euery liuing man must fight in this battell in his owne person for his owne life and inuincible in respect of power and force for all battels and victories are of the Lord yea euen amongst Infidels and Pagans Which if the Hebrewes had so acknowledged it and had marched truly and faithfully in the Lords battels they should haue acknowledged this to haue bin their true Oracle that all victories come from the Lord and not from the arme of man Thē the Hebrewes might haue known that Egipt where they had bene bondmen and slaues 430. yeares was giuen to them for a pray frō the Lord by the hands of Moises and Aron and after Egipt the Canaanites Edomites Moabites Ammonites Philistines and diuers other nations were also giuen into their hands they might haue acknowledged that the ouerthrow of 39. Kings was no small bootie to such simple men as were no souldiers by education but brought vp as shepheards from Abrahams time to Moises But they forgot the great armies and legions of Frogges Flies Grashoppers and such armies which the Lord prouided to fight for them while yet they were bondmen in Egipt where they had ten victories and ten tryumphs some in the midst of the land of Egipt some in the midst of the Court of Pharao and some in the midst of the red sea to the wonder and terrour of the whole world The Hebrues might likewise haue knowne that the Chaldeans were giuē to the hands of the Assyrians the Assyrians to the Persians the Persians to the Macedonians the Macedonians to the Romanes Yet all these miraculous victories which the Lorde gaue the Hebrewes ouer so many Kings and Countries could not make them to acknowledge the author thereof but what victories soeuer the good kings of Iudah got by seruing of the Lord that the euil wicked Kings both of Iuda Israel lost by their Idolatry and contempt of the Lord vntill they themselues were rooted out of their Countrey slain and ouerthrowne and their Kings taken carried captiues the one by Salmanasser to the Assirians the other by Nabuchodonozer into Babilon of whom you shall reade more of them and of their warres hereafter And now I thinke it most conuenient to speake somewhat of diuers seuerall combats which is the strongest and onely battaile for in this battaile euery man must first ouercome himselfe and after be ready armed to fight with Sathan and his souldiers the onely enemie of man against whom all men are bounde by the vow of Cherim to fight the battels of the Lord. We are commanded to be as subtill as Serpents to preuent the subtill stratagems of Sathan with spirituall weapons who from the beginning against the Lord in heauen and against man in Paradise practised his policies this is the old Dragon which Michael threw downe out of heauen this is the serpent which the seed of the woman subdued in Paradise this is that ghostly enemy which practised his stratagem by his seruant Pharo in Egypt not onely by making a lawe and decree first to kill the Hebrewes children and after by a second decree to drowne them in Nilus least he should be deceiued in the first but also with a like stratagem by his seruant Herod to kill to the number of 14000. yong Infants in Bethelem and in Iuda among the which he sought Christ therefore we are commanded to be strong and valiant as the Lord commanded not only Ioshua Dauid and others of his owne seruants but also Nabuchodonozer and Cyrus In these kinde of battels or combats euery man must be armed with such spirituall weapons as is by Paul the Apostle appointed to resist the violence of so great an enemy who doth not only assault vs abroad but in our chambers yea in our beds we must therefore wrestle with this enemy as Iacob wrestled with the Angell for the which he was named Israel as Iob wrestled with Sathan for the which the Lord called him his seruant Iob Or as Dauid did with the Gyant Goliah for the which he was annointed King
Sicilia to Rome and Scypio Affrican was the first that shaued his beard in Rome It is written that Caesar the first Emperor of Rome so hated hairie heads that whersoeuer he met them he caused the hinder part of their head to be shaued that they might seeme bald because hee was bald himselfe Phillip king of Macedon vnderstanding that one of his Captaines died the haire of his head beard disgraded him from his place The like did Archidamus king of Sparta when he sawe one with coloured haire exhorting and animating the people forbad him straight to speake saying he could not haue a true tongue that had a false coloured head yet both Pirrhus and Hannibal in Italy coloured their haires but it was a stratagem to deceiue the enemies that they should not be knowne I come to speake of greater markes the markes of calling of Gods people both of the Iewes and of the Gentiles For as Abraham was the first man of the stocke of the Hebrewes that is called the Father of the faithfull so was he the first man marked amōg the Hebrewes to confesse the name of the Lord to whom the first promise was made who beeing admonished by an Oracle at 75. yeares of age to leaue the Chaldeans remoued to Carres a Citie of Mesopotamia where he buried his olde father Thare from thence Abraham remoued and went to dwell in the land of Canaan where so great a famine began that Abraham with his wife were forced to flie to Egipt where likewise he doubted that the beautie of Sarah should put him into much perill and daunger and therefore hee named her his sister and not his wife for he feared Pharao as he feared Abimelech king of Ierar saying to his wife Sarah I know thou art a faire woman and therefore they will destroy me for thy sake for I know the feare of God is not in these places But the Lorde deliuered Abraham from all this care and feare and vexed both king Pharao and Abimelech for their wicked thoughts and intention against Sarah with such terrour and feare by visions and vexations both of themselues of their people that they were warned by their owne Oracles to reuerence and to honour Abraham as a Prophet after which time Abraham continued in Egipt 3. yeares taught the Egiptians true religion and read Astronomy so long there in the which Science he being instructed in his owne Countrey among the Chaldeans the first learned Nation and Empire of the world Of this Abraham Berosus the Chaldean writer reporteth these words Post diluuium decimae aetate apud Chaldeos erat quidam iusticiae cultor Vir magnus syderalis sciētiae peritus And Damasenus also reporteth that Abraham dwelt in Damascus that at the time of Iosephus not only his name was much spoken of but also his house well knowne where hee dwelt in Damascus and therefore we will speake something of the Hebrewes of whom Abraham was the first Father of the faithful I am not ignorant that Heber was the first of the Hebrewes name before Abraham In those dayes seldom was seene any battel for the first and greatest onely battell among kings that we read of at that time was the battell at Siddim which was fought in the time of Abraham CHAP. II. Of the Battell at Siddim where foure kings were ouerthrowne by Abraham and Lot rescued IN this Battell met nine Kings togither to ioine battel foure against fiue the king of Shinaer the king of Ellasar the king of Elam and the king of the nations against the fiue kings of Pentapolis In this battell were Rephaims Emims and Horims Gyants which liued of theft and robbery in mount Seir and in other places yet in this battell the fiue kings of Pentapolis were ouerthrowne by the foure kings and fled and Lot the Nephew of Abraham was taken prisoner in this battell by the Assirian kings besides they tooke all the wealth and substance of these fiue kinges for a spoyle to the souldiers they were such kings at that time as had the whole Empire of Asia betweene them foure Abraham hearing this hard news of the ouerthrow of these kings his neighbors of Lot his nephew vsed this stratagem made strait after thē in the night time with his onely houshold seruants which were three hundred and eighteene came suddainly and set vpon them fought with them ouerthrew them and chased them to Dan where Abraham gaue them another battell recouered Lot the men the women captiues and all the wealth of the fiue Cities called Pentapolis and deliuered all the wealth to the kings of Zodom and Gomorrah the owners therof and kept no part to him nor to his souldiers This was a battell of the Lord that Abraham being but a priuate man with his houshold seruants ouerthrew foure of the greatest kings of Asia for in these battels of the Lord numbers are not respected As Gedeon marched with three hundred Souldiers against the Madianites and Amalekites who were like Grashoppers in number and like sandes of the sea in multitude yet were they ouerthrowne chased and slaine an infinite number by Gedeon and his three hundred souldiers with the like stratagem as Abraham did the Assirians So Dauid with foure hundred souldiers marched after the Amalekites after they had burned Ziclags and had taken Dauids two wiues with al the rest captiues slue ouerthrew them and rescued his wiues at Bezor with all the men women cattel wealth and all the spoyle which the Amalekites tooke away frō Ziclags But yet Dauid according to his maner wold neuer begin battel before he had consulted with the Lord commanded Abiather the Priest to bring him the Ephod and was assured thereby of the victorie ouer the Amalekites at Bezor as Gedeon was of his victorie ouer the Madianites So Abraham rescued Lot his Nephewe at the battel of Siddim where Melchisedech king of Salē for the victory therof met Abrahā entertained him his soldiers with great liberalitie Melchisedech offered gifts vnto Abrahā and sacrifice vnto the Lord with thanks for the victorie and Abraham gaue Melchisedech tythes of all the spoyles hee had by the victorie and deliuered it to the king of Zodom and the rest of the kings their wiues and all the men and women captiues which the foure kings tooke away and Abraham refused to take the worth of a shoe latchet at the king of Zodoms hand least he should say I haue made Abraham rich So that Abraham was in his own person in the first and greatest battel where nine kings met in battell after this Abraham returned to Canaan and dwelt in Hebron vntill Zodome and the rest of the fiue cities were destroied with fire from heauen in the sight of Abraham who but fewe yeares before defended Zodom from the foure kings of Assyria And at that time Abraham staied the Angels as they went to destroy Sodom vnder the oake of
Mambre where he feasted them and intreated them on the behalfe of Zodome that if ten godly men might be found in it the citie might be saued but none was found there but iust Lot at this verie time vnder the oake of Mambre Isaac was promised to Abraham for so the Lorde named him at that time Sarah his mother being 90. yeares old So Samuel was borne of Anna his mother so Iacob and so Ioseph his sonne were borne of barren women as Isaac was foure also were named before they were borne Ismael the sonne of Abraham by Agar Isaac Solomon and Iosias Now againe to Abraham after Lot was rescued by him Lot dwelt againe in Zodom among reprobates and wicked vngodly men being named iust Lot hard it was for Lot to liue honest or iust among such wicked Zodomites and yet in Zodom Lot saued himself but in Zoar Lot was ouerthrowne Abraham could rescue Lot at the battell at Dan from 4. kings the Angels could saue Lot from the fire brimstone in Zodom yet could not Lot saue himself from drunkennesse in Zoar so fowle a fact by so iust a man may not be much spoken off Hence grew the first beginning of the Moabites and Ammonites enemies vnto God so much may be spoken of Ismael Abrahams sonne by Agar who grew so great so mighty on earth that they would not be called Agareni from Agar the bond-woman their mother from whence they tooke their beginning but they would be called Saraceni as borne of Sarah the true wife of Abrahā as the Ammonites and Moabites were left to plague the Hebrewes as pricks in their sides and needles in their eyes so the Saracens Turkes are now left to plague the Christians with sword and fire Before the battell at Siddim no battels in a manner haue bene fought but what was by Nimrod don who liued within a hundred thirtie yeares of the flood at what time people liued not knowing the name of a king vntill Nimrod grew so mightie and so great that hee brought the people vnder subiection in such feare and awe of him that they rather worshipped him as a God then obeyed him as a king whereof Nimrod waxed so proud that it grew to a prouerbe that if any Monarke or King should waxe too insolent or proud he should be noted named hic alter Nimrod for now Nimrod hauing obtained the Monarchy into his hands without resistance he called the people together to make a Tower frō the earth vnto heauē to reuenge the iniuries of his predecessors and to defend himselfe his Empire and to resist the violence of any further deludge He for want of men to fight withal on earth made a Tower that he might ascend vp to goe fight with the host of heauen So Cyrus imitating Nimrod hauing subdued all nations and kingdomes about him went for want of men to fight against him to fight against women into Scythia Alexander also imitating Cyrus after he had subdued all men and that no king would fight against him he went vnto India to fight with Elephants Leauing Nimrod to build his Towers in the aire Cyrus to fight with women in Scythia and Alexander the great to fight with Elephants in India we come to Ninus who tooke vpon him to be the first Monarch ouer the Assirians 150. yeares after Nimrod who after hee had ioyned his force with Aricus king of Arabia hee went with his army against Babilon subdued it and brought it into Assyria led his army vnto Armenia gaue battell to the Armenians subdued them also tooke their king Barsanes and went conquering all the kingdomes about vntill he came vnto Medea where the king fought with Ninus and the battell was equally fought of both parts but after that in another battell Ninus ouerthrewe the Meades and tooke their King in the battell and hangd him his wife and his seuen children in his owne kingdome So that within seuenteene yeares Ninus subdued all Asia and became so great that if the authors write truth hee had such an armie as none is read to haue the like especially at that time when the world was not populous within 50. yeares after the flood Before Ninus the Greeke nor the Romane writers make no mention of any warre or battell who proceeded forward and marched after he had conquered Arabia Medea and Babilon vnto the Bactrians and fought with Zoroastes their king who is said to haue first found the Art of Astronomy and Magique but this Zoroastes was slain in the field by Ninus and Ninus himselfe slaine with an arrow as Orosius saith others say that hee was slaine by his wife Semyramis It is written of this Zoroastes that when all other Infants weepe at their birth he laught In Ninus time we reade of the first Idolatry in scripture and that by Ninus himselfe who set vp the Image of Belus his father in a Temple which Ninus made dedicated to his father Belus after his death in Niniuie where all the countries and people came to worship and reuerence the name of Belus which grew in such credit in Asia and the East kingdomes that there was no lawe nor religion but what by Baals Priests and Baals Prophets were allowed And at that time that Nabuchodonozer raigned in Babilon a thousand yeares after Ninus Baal was so reuerenced and honored in Babilon that if any man should speake words against Baal or not kneele to him or worship him should die for it So was Sydrach and his fellowes throwne into a hot fierie fornace to be burned So was Daniel throwne into a denne to be deuoured of Lyons but neither Lyons nor fire had power to hurt the seruants of the Lord. This Baal was the onely Idoll in the East countrey vntill Elias found out the shifts of the false Prophets of Baal in the time of Achab King of Israel who first nourished Baals prophets in Israel After Elias Daniel found out in Babilon the falshood of Baals priestes how they cousoned Nabuchodonozer for his great allowance of bread wine and meate Leauing Belus to be the first Idoll and Ninus the first Idolater after whom little mention is made of the most part of the kings of Assyria sauing a catologue of their names though the Greekes as theyr manner is speake more then needs of them for the which Berosus the Chaldean writer doth much reprehend them for it and Plato their owne countrey man called them children for that they are addicted vnto fables and not giuen to learne antiquities but letting the Assirians to sleepe in silence I will returne to the marching of the Hebrewes vnder Moses out of Egipt CHAP. III. Of the calling of Moses and Aaron to lead the children of Israel out of Egipt THe Hebrewes which were 430. years bōdmē slaues vnto Pharao in Egipt vntil they multiplied to be such in number as Pharao doubted either to let them goe
out of Egipt least they ioyned with the Affricans or with the Assirians to warre vpon Egipt or else least the number of the Hebrues should be so multiplied in Egipt as they might ouerthrow Pharao in his owne kingdome and therfore Pharao kept them in slauery and bondage vexing and molesting them and withall decreed a lawe to put himselfe out of doubts and his kingdome out of danger that all the male children of the Hebrues borne in Egipt should be presently murthered after their birth with a great charge giuē that they should bee slaine his feare was such that it did not content Pharao but least hee should be deceiued with killing of them hee made another lawe that they should be drowned in the Riuer Nilus But Pharao determined and God disposed for the Lord reuenged the house of Israel vpon Pharao with ten horrible and terrible plagues and at last Pharao the king his peeres and the most part of the nobles of his land and almost all his kingdom were drowned in the red sea to an infinite number and as Orosius saith more of the Egiptians were drowned then the number of the Hebrewes that came out of Egipt yet there is no iust number written by Iosephus who ought best to know it As the Egiptians were compared to the Romains for their crueltie so were the Hebrewes compared to the Christians for their punishment the Iewish Synagogue to the Christian Church and as the Hebrewes were plagued by the Egiptians 430. yeares in Egipt so were the Christians so long afflicted and persecuted throughout all the Empire of Rome but as Pharao and all Egipt were destroied for their vexations of the Hebrewes so Rome and the Empire of Rome was plagued for their bloudie persecutions against the Christians and therefore euery seuerall plague in Egipt shall be compared to euery seuerall persecution in Rome The Lord now being armed to mannage warre with the Egiptians and to reuenge the wrong of his people the Hebrewes hee appointed his souldiers readie and diuided them into seuerall troupes and bands He hath an armie aboue in the heauens the Sun the Moone and the Starres hee hath another armie in the aire lightning thunder haile-stones and such souldiers another in the waters whales crocodiles serpents and such monstrous creatures in the seas Another in the wildernesse and woods as Lyons Beares Wolues Tygres and the like beasts Yea the Lord hath his armies in ditches lakes as Frogges and Toades and hath also his armie euen out of the dust ashes of the earth Lice Flies and vermines The Captaine that the Lord appointed ouer these armies was Moses which was but a shepheard to dant the courage of Pharao who at the commandement of the Lord marched to Egipt with these legions of souldiers to take his people from the bōdage of Pharao threatening warres vnto Pharao and yet not without conditions of peace according to the lawe of armes if Pharao would let his people peaceably depart out of Egipt with bag and baggage Moses to whome Iehouah appeared in the bush burning was commaunded to take the charge of the Hebrues and lead them from Egipt to the lande of Canaan Moses obeyed the Lords commandemēt yet accused himselfe of some imperfection he had in his speech and therefore had Aaron his brother for his Orator who hauing done the Lords commaundement in Egipt to Pharao their message was reiected and had no audience at Pharaos hand Thē was Moses cōmanded by the Lord to stretch his rod vpon Nilus and vpon all the riuers of Egipt the pooles and standing waters that they might be turned into blood so that the Egiptians were constrained to drinke of that bloodie riuer Nilus the iust iudgement of God vpon Pharao who thirsted for blood to drink blood like so Tomyris Queen of Scythia spake to Cyrus whose head she caused to be cut off being slaine in the field and to bathe it in a great tunne full of blood saying drink Cyrus of that blood which thou didst euer thirst for So Pharao in like sort was forced to drinke of that bloody riuer where before time hee commanded all the male children of the Hebrewes to be drowned and where Moses him selfe being but three months old so long his mother kept him secretly vnknowne vnto Pharao but Amri Moses father much fearing that he his wife family should die for it according to the decree that Pharao made committed him to Gods prouidence in Nilus by whose prouidence Moses was saued to bee a captain ouer his people to lead them out of Egipt to plague Pharao and to reuenge the 430. years calamities miseries of the Hebrues in Egipt vpō Pharao his kingdom with ten such terrible plagues as was neuer heard or read of before like in all points to the ten cruell persecutions which cōtinued in all the Romane Empire during the raigne and gouernmēt of ten Emperors which persecuted the Christians in Rome as Pharao plagued the Hebrues in Egipt This first plague of the Egiptians may be cōpared to the first persecution of the Christians vnder that cruel Emperor Nero at what time there was nothing in Rome nor in Italy but as in Egipt for as Nilus all the riuers of Egipt wer turned into blood so in Rome in euery street was nothing but sheading of christiās blood vnder the tiranny of Nero by whō Paul Peter diuers others of the chief members of the church were most extreamely persecuted some beheaded some hangd some burnt so that beside his vehement persecutiōs to the Christians few escaped the cruelty of Nero otherwise he spared none no not Seneca his maister nor his mother Aggrippina but Nero like his cruell vncle Caligula wished all Rome to haue but one neck that he might with one stroke cut it of for he caused Rome to be set on fire to burn 6. daies to resemble the burning of Troy where he in his tower Maecenatiā beholding the great flames of fire recited merily certain Odes of Homer touching the burning of Troy Thus from one tyrannie to another he passed all men in tirannie that as the fish that was in Nilus and al the riuers of Egipt died stank in the riuers so the Christians were murthered persecuted by Nero whose bodies likewise stanke for want of buriall but as Nero without mercy or respect slue all spared none and at last slue himselfe being proclaimed by the Senators of Rome a traytor to his Countrey thus Nero liued and ended his life with blood and for that he could kill no more hee kild himselfe in whom also ended the whole stocke and familie of Caesar. So Abimelech the base sonne of Gedeon slue his seuentie brethren to vsurpe the gouerment by destroying the lawfull sonnes of Gedeon or like proud Hamon who sought with all meanes possible to destroy Mardocheus and all the Iewes within the hundred and seuen and twentie Prouinces of Persia. So
either the Emperours of Rome which persecuted them or the kings of Syria which tyrannized ouer them could inuēt saying that they wold onely obey the lawes which the Lorde gaue vnto them by Moses and not the commaundement of the king then were the other brethren one after another put to death with the like tortures as their elder brother was in the sight of their mother who spake to her children these words My sonnes I neither gaue you breath nor soule nor life and as you regard not your selues to die for the law es of the Lord so shall the Lord restore vnto you your soules your liues to liue for euer And thus were theyto rtured to death one brother after another and the mother after her sonnes And now I wil returne to Pharao CHAP. VI. Of the seuenth and eight plagues of the Egiptians compared with the seuenth and eight persecutions of the Christians AMd Moses was sent with his seuenth message to Pharao saying How long will it be before thou submit thy self to me saith the Lord But Pharao being marked with Cains marke who could not die though he would faine die or like Esau who would repent could not though he sought it with teares So Pharao though he yeelded victorie to Moses yet could not hee yeeld his heart vnto the Lord but refused the offers of the Lord and despised his mercy and therefore Moses was commaunded to vex Pharao with the seuenth plague which he executed vpon Pharao with thunders haile lightnings fiery soldiers of the Lord this smote the hearbs brake the trees of the field this smote al the land of Egipt both man beast the thunder the raine the haile and the fire mingled together so hurtfull and so greeuous as there was not the like in Egipt since it was a natiō and yet the land of Gosen where the Hebrues dwelt neither hard thunders nor saw fire lightnings nor rain But Pharao stil against his promise staied the Hebrues in extreame bondage in Egipt and yet with terrour and feare of the punishments requested Moses and Aaron to cease the horrible thunders and fierie lightnings which being ceased Pharao ceased not to sinne vpon sin neither gaue he himselfe to seeke the Lord for all the terrors of so many plagues past The Macedonians at any Eclipse of the Moone wold be so frighted and terrified though the naturall cause were opened vnto them of the defects thereof by many of their Captaines yet would they not but against their will at the Eclipse time enter into battell So the old Romanes were so amazed that they tooke the ebbing flowing of the sea to be wrought by some diuine power of the gods So Scipio confessed at the besieging of Carthage and said to his souldier Ducem sequimini Neptunum Though the Romanes and the Macedonians confessed the Eclipse of the Sunne Moone and the ebbing and flowing of the Seas to be the works of God yet Pharao confessed not the wonders which Moses did in Egipt This cruell marching of Pharao against the Hebrues in Egipt resembleth much the cruell persecution vnder Decius Emperour of Rome vnder whom raigned stil persecutiōs of the Christians as vnder others his predecessors But the Lord so plagued the Empire at this time euen from the East vnto the West with plagues and diuers suche sicknesses as not onely the earth was infected but the ayre corrupted with such slaughter of man and beast by sicknesse that there wanted in many places of the Empire men aliue to burie the dead iustly plagued and punished so that betweene the cruell persecutions of Christians in Antioch Caesaria and Alexandria and the multitude of the Romanes that died made the ground of Rome and Italy to stink as Egipt stunk with their bloudie water and dead frogs and as in Pharaos dayes the Hebrewes so multiplied in Egipt for all Pharaos tirany so likewise the Christians encreased in Rome and euery where in the Romane Empire in spite of the Romane Emperours though they sought euery way to deuour them with sword and fire Moses is sent againe to Pharao and to say let my people goe behold to morrowe will I bring grassehoppers into thy land and they shall couer the face of the earth in euery place and quarter of Egipt that the earth cannot be seene and they shall eate the residue which remaineth vnto you and escaped the haile they shall eate all your greene trees vpon the fielde and shall fill your houses and all your seruants houses and these threatnings and cominations of Moses could nothing moue Pharao and yet dissembled like an hypocrite to Moses saying I haue sinned against the Lord and against you forgiue me therefore and pray for me it is to be wondred that Pharao and all Egipt wold suffer such horrible plagues for the Hebrews to them a straunge nation whom they mortally hated and yet stopt and stayed them in Egipt against the lawe of Mena and Bocoris and custome of Egipt and against the custome of all countries The Lacedemonians by Lycurgus lawe would not admit any straunger to stay in Lacedemon In Athens Pericles made a decree that no straunger might dwell in Athens but such as were banished for euer from their Countrey those onely might stay in Athens bringing their gods and their goods with them Likewise the Carthagineans could not abide strangers for those that sailed into Sardinia or to Hercules pillers escaped hardly the Carthagineans handes for that they would suffer no straunger to dwell in their territories So also in India no stranger might stay among them past three daies so straight were strangers looked vnto in all Countries that the Romanes would not admit any mercenarie souldier being a stranger in their warres The Hebrewes suffered no stranger to dwel among them to vse forraine religion therfore it was not lawfull for the Samaritans to come to Ierusalem nor for the Samaritans to conuerse themselues with the Iewes Yet Pharao against the lawes and customes of all countries and against the lawe of his owne country admitted strangers his owne enemies to dwell in Egipt Pharao as I said before had Esaus mark could not yeeld and let these strange Hebrewes goe How fitly this eight Egiptian plague resembleth the eight Romane persecution vnder the Emperor Valerianus who like as Antiochus compelled the Iewes to forsake the Lord their lawes and religion so Valerianus cōstrained the Christians to Idolatrie and forced them to forsake the religion of Christ commanding by his Letters sent to his lieftenants and generalls euery where to burne to kil and to murther all the Christians that professed the name of Christ so odious was the name of the Christians among the Romanes as the name of the Hebrewes among the Egiptians And like as the grasse-hoppers in Egipt did waste spoile and eate all that was left vntouched and vnspoyled by the plague of haile-stones and lightnings before so
Ghost some denying Christ by nature to bee Cod but onely of accidentall participation of diuine properties as Arius Some affirming that Christ tooke his beginning of the Virgin Mary denying the diuine nature of Christ as Samosatenus and Photinus Others imagined that Christ had not a true and natural body borne of the Virgin Mary as the Marcionites and Manichees The Ebionites affirmed Christ to be naturally born of a woman gotten by man I will omit to speake of Simon Magus and his disciple Menander of Cerdon and his disciple Marcion and of Saturninus and a number more of this crewe who denie one Article or other of our Christian faith confounding the diuine nature of the Trinitie These heretikes possessing diuers seates as Arius in Alexandria Saturninus in Antioch Photinus in Lions and so of the rest which beeing the verie blast and breath of Sathan haue brought into their heresie many kings and princes of Asia and Europe but all these heretikes were by generall councell confuted and condemned The Nicene councell condemned Arius and his partners which denied the deitie and diuine nature of Christ this councell held vnder the Emperour Constantine where 318. Bishops met together to confute Arius and his heresie The second councell at Constantinople vnder Gratianus the Emperour against Eudoxius and Macedonius denying the holy Ghost to be God The third councell at Ephesus vnder Theodosius the great against Nestorius affirming two sonnes the one of God the other of man denying the mistery of the incarnation of Christ. The fourth councell at Calcedon vnder Martianus against Eutiches who confounded the natures in Christ for the vnity of the three persons CHAP. VIII Of the marching of the Hebrewes from Egipt vnder Moses and Aaron toward the land of Canaan Of the life of Moses in Egipt and of his victories against the Aethiopians NOw Moses and the Hebrewes beeing discharged out of Egipt where they had bin in bondage and miseries many yeares and were called Hicsos now they march like souldiers of the Lord vnder Moses and Aaron towardes the lande of Canaan but marke the hardnesse of Pharaos heart for while the Hebrewes were in Egipt beeing extreame enemies vnto Pharao yet Pharao endured tenne horrible and terrible plagues before he would let the Hebrewes goe out of Egipt vntill hee was brideled and hooked by the nosthrils as Senacharib was and compelled to let the Hebrewes goe Yet Pharao with his wonted hardened heart with all the power and force of Egipt followed after beeing two hundreth thousand footemen fiftie thousand horsemen sixe hundreth chosen chariots of the kings owne army a sufficient armie against weaponlesse and vnarmed men Notwithstanding he had infinite number of footemen horsemen and chariots out of all parts of Egipt assuring himselfe by this multitude he would make a full end of the Hebrewes hauing this aduantage the sea being before the Hebrues the mountaines on either side them and Pharao with all the force of Egipt at their back a narrower straight as Pharao supposed then the Greeks had against the Persians at Thermopyla and there Pharao thought to ende his long desired tyrannie vpon the Hebrewes It was to be wondred that after ten great victories in Egipt gotten against Pharao by no other weapon then with a rod in Moses hand durst not looke Moses in the face after these victories in Egipt durst follow Moses hauing sixe hundred thousand Hebrewes marching in his campe this was the time appointed of the Lord to do with Pharao that which Pharao thought to do to the Hebrewes for the Lord commaunded Moses to hold vp his rod and to stretch out his hand vpon the sea and to diuide the seas to let the Hebrues goe through on drie ground and to suffer the Egiptians to follow after vntil the Lord commaunded Moses againe to stretch out his hand vpon the sea a diuine straragem of the Lord to let the waters turnevpon the Egiptians ouerwhelme them So the Lord by water saued the Hebrewes his people and by water drowned the Egiptians his enemies Yet Appian most impudently affirmed Moses to haue done what hee did by Magicke whom the common people in Egipt named Tisithes and Ioshuah Peresephes Appian alleageth Manetho and Cheremon two Egiptian writers to proue his fond assertions Pliny also held that opinion that Moses was a great Magician and did many miracles in Egipt through Magick yet it is more lawfull for Pliny that wrote of so many thinges to lie in some thinges then for Manetho a poore schoole-maister in Alexandria or for Cheremon two fabulous writers of the Egiptian history onely The best Magician that helped himselfe at need was Appollonius Thianeus who beeing accused of capitall crimes before Domitianus the Emperour being demanded by the Emperour what helpe hee could do now to himselfe by his Magick nothing said he but this and vanished away out of the Emperours sight so much could not Iamnes and Iambres do to saue themselues from the botches blaines which as they say was done by Moses Magicke in Egipt And therefore I thinke it best to set downe the true history of Moses before yet he was called by the Lord to leade the Hebrewes out of the lande of Egipt into Canaan Moses the sonne of Amri was of the tribe of Leui and the seuenth from Abraham borne in Egipt brought vp by Thermutes king Pharaos daughter and heire in this childe Moses shee delighted so much being brought vp in all the learning and knowledge of the Egiptians that Moses pleased Thermutes so well that she moued her father hauing no male childe but her selfe that it might please the king to make Moses her adopted sonne least Thermutes also should be barren and want an heire to possesse the crowne This being agreed vpon betweene Pharao and his daughter Moses grew great in Egipt fauoured and well beloued amongst all the Aegiptians It happened at that time that the Aethiopians had warre with the king of Egipt hauing wonne two great victories ouer the Egiptians spoyled and wasted Egipt vnto the verie citie of Memphis The Priests of Egipt being instructed by the Oracles of Ammon to choose an Hebrew captaine to lead their armie against the Aethiopians the king being informed of this Oracle spake faire to his daughter Thermuthes through the perswasion of the Priests who vsed the like pollicie to haue Moses slaine among the Aethiopians as Saul vsed to haue Dauid slaine among the Philistines Thermutes perceiuing the daunger of her fathers kingdome which fell vnto her by succession would knowe of Moses secretly his minde therein Moses being therewith contented the kings daughter brought Moses before her father and the Priests to whom Thermutes in this sort spake Is Moyses the man whome before this time you founde by Oracles shoulde destroy Egipt and now you finde by the same Oracles to haue that man to be your captaine to saue Egipt But the Priests forgat
in Athens to lust another to shame They had also straunge kinde of altars in Delos one to Apollo made onely of the right hornes of all kinde of beastes and an other altar made of the ashes of the sacrificed men and beasts like Belesus who raised vp a promontorie in Babilon of the ashes of the citie of Niniuie destroyed to giue light to passengers that sayled by Babilon on Euphrates in the which ashes Belesus carried secretly all the wealth gold siluer and all other rich mettals melted of Niniuie into Babilon Numa Pomp. a verie prophane religious king put vp a temple to Faith another to Terminus and decreed a law for that Terminus was the god of peace and a Iudge of meares and markes betweene neighbours that whosoeuer would plough any of his neighbors markes and meares both hee and his oxen should be sacrificed and slaine to god Terminus vpon the very meare where the offence was done This temple which king Numa builded to Terminus was made vncouered and open aboue as the Greekes did vse to build their temple to Iupiter and to Anfidius which the Greeks called Hypaethra both the Romanes and the Greekes thought it not fit that that these gods should be honored and serued in close couered temples and vpon their altars no sacrifice of blood should be offered but according to Pythagoras lawes fruits cakes hony flowers and such because they were gods of peace Againe the Romanes the Greekes and the Egiptians vsed in olde time to build temples out of the cities to those gods that should watch guard the cities from the enemies And therefore Romulus builded a temple to Vulcan out of the walles of the citie of Rome so his successor king Numa builded two temples the one to Bellona the other to Mars foure miles from the gate Caâ—…ena out of Rome The Athenians to that purpose as the Romains did builded a temple to Hercules out of Athens named Cynosarges Neither would the Egiptians allow the temple of Esculapius to be in any city of theirs neither wold they allow any temple to Saturne or to Serapis within the citie supposing by their watching garding abroad they might liue more safe and sure from the enemies So among other Gentiles temples were builded to the gods of feare of pouertie and of olde age because they might pray to these gods to escape the wants and miserie of pouertie and old age and thus the Gentiles tooke patterne of the Iewes who had so many Synagogues and but one Temple for the Iewes afterwards became so Idolatrous as the Gentiles that as Ieremy said euery citie in Iudah had a god euery where in groues and hils were seuerall altars that mount Oliuet thereby was called the mount of corruption because they had made altars vnder euery groue and vnder euery greene tree to honour their Idols But now let vs returne to the Hebrues vnder Moses in the wildernesse Moses leading the armie of the Hebrewes in the wildernesse from Egipt marched with sixe hundred thousand and hauing diuers battels giuen him by the king of Arabia by Arad king of the Canaanites by Zeon king of the Ammorites and Og the king of Basan after them hauing battel with the king of Madianites and the king of Moabites whom hee conquered before Ioshua had charge of the armie and because the battels of the Lord were most miraculous in Egipt gotten by a white rod by the which Moses obtained ten victories and ten tryumphs ouer the Egiptians in Egipt So Moses in the wildernesse had the like successe not by deuised stratagems of their owne heads but by following the commandements of the Lord which are the onely stratagems of all victories After that Moses had brought the Hebrues out of Egipt into the wildernesse as to a schoole to instruct them in military discipline and to be acquainted with martiall lawes to arme themselues ready souldiers to fight the Lords battels at Ioshuahs commaundement who in the battell at Riphidim was against the Amalekites at what time Moses Aaron and Hur went vp to the top of mount Horeb and Moses held vp the rod of the Lord in his hand and praied for victorie for the battell continued vntill Sun setting and when Moses hand was weary Aaron and Hur held vp Moses hand betweene them and Ioshua preuailed ouerthrew Amelech and all his army wanne a great victorie for Moses praiers and Ioshuahs sword were both meanes by the Lords appointment to obtaine the victory for while Moses hand was vp the Hebrewes preuailed and when hee let downe his hand Amelech preuailed this great victorie was commanded by the Lord to Moses to be written in the booke of the lawe for a remembrance of so great a victorie And all other victories which they had aswell against Pharao before they came out of Egipt and against the Canaanites before they passed ouer Iorden were obtained by stratagems of the Lord in the behalfe of his people which the Lord had determined to place in Canaan King Arad hearing of the great ouerthrow that the Hebrues gaue the Amalekites their friends and neighbours came with a great army and fought against the Hebrues and for that the Hebrues serued not the Lord and were thanklesse for the last victorie king Arad preuailed slue and tooke of them many prisoners When the Hebrues cried vnto the Lord and made a vow to destroy the Canaanites if they might haue the victory the Lord vpon their promise vow deliuered the Canaanites their king Arad their cities and townes and the people vnto the hands of the Hebrues that the Canaanites were slain vtterly destroied this was the battel of the Lord for the Hebrues vanquished king Arad and the Canaanites according to their vowes which they made to the Lord. These were lawfull vowes to destroy the enemies of the Lorde by the vow of Cherim of which vowe the Lord himselfe is the author the Lord himselfe determined and commaunded the Hebrues to destroy the Canaanites as his enemies So the Prophet published a commaundement saying Vow vnto the Lord performe it the same Prophet saith Thy vowes are vpon me ô Lord I will render praise vnto thee hauing that which I required I am bound to pay my vowes of thansgiuing as I promised thee ô Lord. CHAP. XII Of the vowes and feasts of the Gentiles Of espialls sent to the land of Canaan by Ioshua with diuers other Stratagems IN all Countreys of the world as well the Gentiles as the Iewes were wont to make vowes vnto their Gods with praiers and promise to performe those things which they vowed if their gods would graunt victories in warres against their enemies or health to their Kings and Princes or to remooue any plague or sicknes from the people The Persians when they vowed any thing to the Sunne the King with his councel called Magi ascended vpon a high hill or mountaine where
Tarentum against Pirrhus vsed the like stratagem shewing a bloudy sword in his hand saying to his souldiers that it was the bloud of Pirrhus whom he slew with his owne hand thereby to moue the souldiers to greater courage to fight more manfully Souldiers ought not to be terrified with the multitude of enemies with slaughters of their Armies wherby Cities Townes and Countries reuolt to the enemies as at the battell at Canne the report of Varro the Consul of the ouerthrow of the Romanes caused all the citie of Capua to reuolt to Haniball Againe the report in Praeneste of the ouerthrowe of Sylla by Telesinus at the battell of Antemna and of the marching of Telesinus towards Rome with all his whole Army it so affrighted Offella one of Syllas Colonels that he at that time besieging Praeneste thought to raise his siege hearing such hard newes of Sylla the Generall Skilfull Generalls and wise Captaines vsed euer to couer and conceale the multitude of enemies as Milciades Themistocles and other Greeke captaines kept the innumerable multitude of the Persian Armies secret from the souldiers So did Mardonius conceale from Xerxes the great slaughter of the Persians in Greece The Romanes being besieged by the Gaules many of the chiefe Romanes to the number of a thousand fled into their Capitoll The Gaules hauing possessed the Cittie of Rome for seuen moneths expecting the yeelding of the Capitoll the Romanes also within the Capitoll hauing welnigh consumed their victuals vsed this stratagem to throwe loaues of bread in euery place out of the Capitoll in such abundance though at that time they wanted prouision of bread that the Gaules were amazed suspecting they had prouision inough to hold out that they presently fell to composition with the Romanes The Thracians beeing besieged on such a straight hill where their enemies could haue no accesse to come vnto them and readie to die for famine vsed this stratagem to feed certaine beasts with wheate and cheese and to let the beasts goe downe towards their enemies Camp which being takē of the enemies and killed they found wheate and cheese in the bowels of the beastes thinking thereby that the Thracians had bin well victualled and prouided remoued their siege Clearchus the Lacedemonian vnderstanding that the Thracians had caried sufficient prouision of victuals for themselues vp to the mountaines to their Campe the Thracians sent their Embassadors still expecting when Clearchus for want of victuals would remoue his siege Clearchus knowing that the Thracian Embassadors were comming vsed this stratagem commaunded one of the captiues to bee slaine to bee deuided in peeces and to be distributed betweene him and other tenne of his captains in his pauiliō in the very sight of the Thracian Embassadors the sight whereof made the Thracians so astonished and thereby to yeeld thinking that they that could feed on such foode might continue too long for the Thracians to endure it But the Sonne of God gaue himselfe to be slaine for his souldiers to bee their spirituall foode to feed them both in body and soule to wearie Satan which still continueth his siege against Ierusalem I shall haue occasion to write of more stratagems hereafter and therefore I returne to the battels of the Hebrewes against the Canaanites CHAP. XIII Of the great victorie had ouer fiue Kings in the plaine of Moab by Ioshua Of their vnthankfulnesse afterward disobedience and of their marshall punishment therefore A Great battell was fought in the plaine of Moab commaunded by the Lord vnto Moses where fiue Kings of the Madianites were slaine their names you may read in the margeant all their villages and citties burnt with fire all their people slaine with the sword the Hebrewes tooke all the spoile and all the pray both of men and beasts and Moses was angry with the Captains of the host for sparing the women as Samuel was with king Saul for sparing Agag king of the Amalekites and Elizeus with Achab for sparing Benhadad and caused all women that had knowne men carnally to be slaine with the sword and to saue those that were virgins that knew no man which were two and thirtie thousand whereby it appeared that innumerable was the slaughter of men women and children in this battell where two and thirtie thousand virgins were found and reserued to liue whereby also the spoyle and pray was very rich in this battell to the Hebrewes In this battell was not one slaine of Ioshuas souldiers All the Captains and Colonels of the Army came before Moses saying thy seruants haue taken the number of all the men of warre which are vnder our authoritie and there lacketh not a man of vs. This was a stratagem of Ierusalem in the battels of the Lord that not one man died of the army in so great a victory The Lacedemonians reioyced much that Archidamus had obtained a great victorie got great spoile and slew many of his enemies without the loosing of one of his souldiers and therfore called it Bellumsine lachrimis Yet the Hebrewes for their three former victories at Riphidim at Horma and in the plaine of Moab were vnthankfull vnto the Lord and murmured and rebelled against Moses and Aaron and after against Ioshua Caleb as at Taberah where they so murmured against Moses their Generall that the Lord was so displeased with them that he executed martiall lawes vpon them for the fire of the lande burnt them and consumed the vtmost part of theyr Army because of their disobedience Moses sister Myria for that she spake against the Generall and began to rebel in the campe martiall laws were executed vpon her she was not spared for that she was Moses sister nor Moses himselfe when he had offended the Lord at the water of Meribah shee was made leaprous and shut out of the host seuen dayes vntill shee had due punishment for her seditious mutinie and prayers made by Moses before she was receiued into the host Againe Coreh Dathan and Abiron conspired and rebelled against their Generall with two hundred and fiftie souldiers that were famous in the Congregation and men of renowme but the lawe of armes was most terribly executed the ground claue asunder vnderneath them and opened her mouth and swalowed them aliue with all their treasures and wealth and all their families Againe they murmured against Ioshua and Caleb that the whole multitude would haue stoned Ioshua Caleb so seuere was the Lord against his owne people the Hebrewes for their disobedience and murmuring that he vsed martiall lawes vpon them that all they that came out of Egipt sixe hundred thousand for their disobedience against the Lorde and rebellious mutinies from time to time from place to place at Horeb at Taberah at Massa at Riphidim at Meribah died in the wildernesse for the Lord accepteth obedience more then sacrifice And therefore Noah for that he obeyed the Lord in
making the Arke saued himselfe and his family from the deluge Abraham for that he obeyed the Lord and was readie to offer and to sacrifice his sonne Isaac the whole world was blessed in his seed therefore the Lord said to Salomon If thou do all that euer I shall commaund thee thy throne shall be established for euer in Ierusalem The Lord commends the Rechabites for their obedience to Ionadab their father because Ionadab said Non bibetis vinum Mattathias his children answered Antiochus messenger saying Wee had rather obey the lawes of the Lord giuen to Moses and to our fathers then to obey the king So the seuen brethren answered that they had rather die then disobey the lawes of the Lord. The Prophet saith Fire haile snow Ise obey the commaundements of the Lord hee commaunds seas and windes and they obey the Lord he commanded rauens to feede Elias and they obeyed Cyrus King of Persia obeyed the Lorde for Cyrus confest that hee was commaunded to set forwards the Iews to build vp the temple in Ierusalem and as obedience is vnto the Lord most acceptable so is disobedience euen in the least things extreamly punished He that gathered sticks vpon the Sabboth day was stoned to death And the man of God for that he eate bread in Bethel against the Lords commaundement he was deuoured of a lyon and Ionas the Prophet for that he fled from the presence of the Lord he was throwne for his disobedience into the sea and swallowed vp of a whale And Moses the seruant of God with that rod that strooke the rocke that water gushed out with that rod which diuided the red seas that turned all the riuers and waters of Egipt to blood that turned all the dust of Egipt into Lice brought Frogs Flies Grasse-hoppers and wrought so many wonders in Egipt yet for that Moses disobeyed the Lord at the water of Meribah the Lord was so offended with Moses Aaron for their incredulitie and disobedience before the people that the Lord told them that they should not enter into the land of promise and that Moses should die in mount Nebo and Aaron his brother in mount Hor such was the exact iustice of the Lord and his seuere punishment against wilfull and disobedient people that he spared none no not Moses his owne seruant Aaron his owne Priest Ionas his owne Prophet nor Israel his owne people CHAP. XIIII Of the martiall lawes and military discipline of the Gentiles IN all Countries among all Nations where militarie discipline was not obserued there martial lawes were executed As among the Egiptians the Souldier that brake militarie rules to forsake the ranke to goe out of the campe and would disobey the chiefe magistrates officers captaines of the armie and would any waies offend the martiall lawes he should be displaced from his place were he either Serieant Lieutenant or any other officer and be placed in the meanest place of the armie and if he should bewray the counsell of his captaine or speake any thing against the generall he should haue his tongue cut off and sowed vpon his helmet Among the Persians there was a martiall law written that if any cowardly souldier should steale secretly from the campe and become a vagabound or a runnagate frō place to place he should being taken be cloathed in a womans apparell and be chained fast with an Iron manicle vpon his hands sitting with both his legs in a paire of stocks in the midst of the campe to be flouat and scoft at of all the whole armie which in like sort the Thrasians obserued and after hee should be taken for a woman and not for a man The Romanes were somewhat more seuere against disobedient souldiers especially against seditious fugitiue souldiers and against them that forsooke theyr standart and turned their backes to the enemies and from the camp to flee to the enemie these amongst the Romanes were punished with death The law in Sparta was if any soldiers of theirs should in any great and shamefull faultes in the warres offend they should be so noted and defamed that they might not borrow so much as a cup of water or a brand of fire with their next neighbors nor light a candle besides it was not lawfull for any man that met thē in the streets to speak to them These punishmēts far differ from the former punishmēt of the Lord fire frō heauen the opening of the earth the throwing into the feas deuouring by lions such of which I shall speake in another place Now to the marching of Ierusalē vnder Ioshua to whō a charge was giuen of a new army which was borne in the wildernesse after their fathers came out of Egipt to whom the Lord said Moses my seruant is dead as I was with Moses so will I be with thee and will neuer leaue thee nor forsake thee be strong and bold feare not and shewe thy selfe stout and valiant therefore obserue and do according to all the lawes which Moses my seruant commaunded thee What is spoken here to Ioshua was spoken after Ioshua to Iudah and after Iudah to Gedeon to Dauid and others so carefull was the Lord ouer his people that they should not choose them a Generall without the consultatiō of Vrim Thummim to guide and gouerne the armie to fight the battels of the Lord. So among all nations in all ages they were very carefull to haue and to choose wise stout and skilfull Generalls For as the Romane captaine Fabritius said that it was Pirrhus skil that ouercame Leuinus the Consull and not the Epirotes the Romanes and besides the straunge sight of the Elephants which the Romanes neuer sawe before that battell at Heraclea which the Romanes called Boues Lucanias Fabritius thought it a scorne that the Romanes should be ouerthrowne by any nation in the world if they had discreet valiant stout generals The like imaginatiōs the Romanes supposed that they were ouerthrowne at the battels of Trebeia Trasimen Cannes either by the subtill and deceitfull policie of Hannibal or else for that their gods were offended with them and not by the strength of the Carthagineans nor the Affricans But Pirrhus after foure yeares warres with the Romanes was constrained to forsake Italy after his ouerthrow at the battel of Arusina to leaue his Elephants behinde to beautifie Curius Dentalus tryumphe which was the first sight of Elephants in Rome for before nothing could be seene in Rome in former tryumphes but cattels of the Volscians flocks of beasts of the Sabines broken weapons and old armour of the Samnites coaches and couerings of the old Gaules Hannibal the greatest enemy that euer the Romanes had yet after seuenteene yeares warres hee was forced to retire from Italy to Carthage and there in his owne countery to be ouerthrowne at the battell of Zama by Scypio Affrican Hannibal so straightly
the Towne to his father Though the Israelites fell to Idolatrie after Ioshuahs death who during the time of Ioshua serued the Lord and neuer forsooke him yet the Lorde at all times though they alwaies offended him deliuered them frō their enemies when they cryed vnto him for his ayde and helpe So being now vexed with their euemies the Lord sent Ehud as a Iudge and Captaine to leade them and to gouerne them as their Generall beeing a stout and a valiant Captaine who was wont to say to his souldiers follow me went boldly to Eglon king of the Moabites vsed this stratagē told the king that he had some secret from the Lord to tellhim wherevpon the chamber being auoyded and the doore shut hee out with his dagger slew Eglon the king and came out and shut the doore after him and after slew ten thousand Moabites at that time yet Ehud was left-handed and vnable to fight and therefore it was a stratagem of the Lord. Iabin king of Canaan an other enemie of the Israelites sent his generall Cisera a mightie captain with nine hundred chariots of Iron and a huge Army of souldiers to fight against Israel yet the Lord still prouided for his people and deliuered the Canaanites into the hand of Deborah a woman and Barac euen the whole Army of the Canaanites at the battell at Meroz where euen the starres in their courses from heauen fought against Cisera as Deborah confessed in her song of thanksgiuing to the Lord for the victorie For all the battels that the Lord had fought for Israell yet they sinned more and so offended the Lord that they were deliuered seuen yeares into the hands of the Madianites for their wickednesse that Israell made themselues dennes and caues in the Mountaines for feare of the Madianites and Amalekites whose tents were as thicke as Grasse-hoppers in multitude so that they their cattels and their camels were without number Yet the Lord when Israell cryed for helpe raised vp sound Iudges as Othoniel Ehud Barac and Deborah who ouercame their enemies and had many victories ouer them but still Israel offended the Lord and therefore the Lord left Sidonites Canaanites and Philistines to afflict and vex the Israelites for that they still offended the Lorde Hee left these Nations among them with their gods and Idols that should be as snares vnto Israel and as thornes in their sides and needles in their eies to trie them and to force them to call vpon the name of the Lord. The Hebrewes as they offended the Lord so were they punished by the Lord who often gaue them ouer into their enemies hands for their rebellious sedition and disobedience and therefore the Lord made choise of a wise and discreet generall whom he strengthned to rule his people sent his messenger to Gedeon a husbandman threshing his corne to bee their captaine before them who with the three hundred souldiers that laped the water by putting their hāds to their mouthes as the Lord had commaunded him by that signe and had appointed the number for him to take the Lords battel in hand to let the rest which were one and thirtie thousand and seuen hundred returne to their home which were by proclamatiō discharged The generals that the Lord made choise of to rule his people were but shepheards heardmen and husbandmen as Moses Ioshua Gedeon Saul and Dauid and of the like men he made choise for his Prophets Gedeon obeyed the message of the Lord called at the Lords hand for strength and courage to fight his battel and after deuided the three hundred men into three seuerall bands and vsed this stratagem gaue euery man a Trumpet in his hand with an emptie pitcher and lampes within the pitchers signifying by these weake meanes which the Lord vsed that the whole victorie should come from the Lord and not from man So Gedeon their generall comming to the side of the enemies with his threee bands he commaunded all the souldiers at once to sound al the trumpets together to break their pitchers and to shout crie the sword of the Lord and of Gedeon the enemies were so frighted the Lord set euery mans sword vpon his neighbour and caused the Madianites to kill one an other He made the Moabites the Ammonites Edomites in like sort one to destroy an other They tooke in that battell two Princes of the Madianites called Oreb and Zeb whom they slew and brought their heads to Gedeon from beyond Iorden as they fled from the sword of Gedeon The slaughter was an hundred and twentie thousand that were slaine with three hundred men as the Lord had commaunded Obserue the stratagem of Gedeon who commanded his three hūdred souldiers at once to sound al the trumpets together to breake their pitchers and to shout and crie the sword of the Lord and of Gedeon It so amazed the Madianites that the victory was Gedeons Ioshuah in like sort was by the Lord commaunded after he had carried the Arke round about Iericho seuen times vpon the seuenth day that the Priests should blow the rammes hornes and all the souldiers to crie aloude and to shout out all together at once that the walles of Iericho fell With a stratagem also Ioshua deceiued the king of Ai who came out of the Citie to fight with Ioshua who tooke vpon him to flye from the king but hauing laide ambushes vpon the way and about the Towne the Lord gaue both the Towne and the King to Ioshuas hand So did the Israelites deceiue the Beniamites with the like stratagems as Ioshua did who tooke vpon them to flye to draw the Beniamites from the Citie to the high wayes vntill they were compassed round about with the Israelites who destryed 25. thousand and 100. men These are diuine stratagems and to be attributed vnto the Lords doings Pericles generall of the Athenians besieging a certain Citie in Greece who vpon the sudden in the night time caused all the Trumpets to be sounded at once and all the souldiers to shout and cry as loud as they could it so terrified the Citizens within that they ranne from all parts of the Cittie vnto that place where Pericles commanded the trumpets to be sounded and that loud crye to be made thinking thereby that the enemies had entred the Citie Pericles without resistance made an entrie into the Citie in an other place Antiochus vsed the like stratagem against the Ephesians commanded certaine Rhodians which were of his Army to shout out loud and to make a sudden out crie in the dead time of the night their feare and terror was such that all went to defend that place of the Towne and left the other side of the Towne without defence to let Antiochus enter in Luc. Cornelius after he had besieged and taken many Townes in Sardinia he vsed this stratagem to take a populous strong Citie made a great number of
his souldiers to hide themselues in ambush he hauing but fewe souldiers prouoked them of the Towne to come out faining himself to flye the enemie following with great furie after Luc. Cornelius with all his hidden souldiers returned vpon the sudden with such a terrible crye that the enemies turned theyr backes and fled to the Towne and the Romanes followed after them close at the heeles and entred the Towne with them all together So Pompey the Consull Generall for the Romaine Army in Albania perceiuing the enemies both in horsmen and in footemen to be farre more in number then the Romanes practised this stratagem placed his footemen behind the horsemen being in a straight and commaunded his horsemen to couer their helmets least by the sight of the helmets they should be seene of the enemies and to take vpon them to flye to draw the enemies forwards into the midst of the Army of footemen and then the Romane horsemen to turne backe and deuide themselues and to set on both sides of the enemies By this stratagem Pompey got a great victorie ouer the Albanians Iphicrates the Athenian compared an Army in this sort the light horsemen to the hands the men of armes to the feete the battel of footemen to the stomacke and breast the captaine to the head But the Hebrewes for all the victories of Ioshuah of Iudah and of Gedeon were still vnthankful and wrought wickednesse in the sight of the Lord for all the battels that the Lord fought for them they were so well acquainted with the gods of the Gentiles yea they serued the gods of Acron the gods of Sydon the gods of Moab and the gods of the Philistines and forgat the god of Israel they serued straunge gods and attributed victories vnto their Idols and honoured them and gaue no glory vnto the Lord of Israel and therefore the Lord gaue them ouer and solde them to their enemies and were eighteene yeares sore tormented and vexed by the Ammonites and Philistines and the enemies proudly went ouer Iorden to fight against Iudah against Beniamin and against the house of Ephraim but they cryed vnto the Lorde according to theyr custome in extremitie and were aunswered by the Prophet from the Lorde Let the Gods whome you serue saue you and whom you trust vnto defend you for you waigh not me neither will I defend you and then they put away their straunge gods from among them Thus the Israelites did not onely rebell vpon the death of Ioshuah but also vpon the death of Iudah Ehud Deborah and others neither did they esteeme the victories which they got by Deborah a woman and by Gedeon a Husbandman who with three hundred souldiers slew a hundred and twentie thousand but euer forgetfull and vnthankefull to the Lord more willing to returne to Egipt to be slaues vnto Pharao then to stay in Canaan to serue the Lord. The name of Leonidas was famous among the Lacedemonians for his victorie at Thermopyle where Leonidas with three hundred ouerthrew twentie thousand of Xerxes Army being innumerable The Athenians gloried much for theyr great victorie at Marathon by Milciades and Callimachus hauing but 10000. Grecians in their army ouerthrew the generall of king Darius Army and made a great slaughter of the Persians to the number of two hundred thousand The Romanes bragge much of the victorie of Marius with fewe souldiers ouer the Cymbrians at the riuer of Xextas of Sylla ouer Mithridates at the battell of Orchomenon and of Lucullus ouer Tigranes king of Armenia being three great victories with infinite slaughter with the losse of fewe Romanes The very Schythians can boast and bragge of the ouerthrow of Cyrus hauing two hundred thousand in his Army and that by a woman which encreased the fame of the Scythians to the greatest infamy of the Persians All Nations can bragge and boast of theyr victories and be thankfull vnto their Idols and to their gods with sacrifices with vowes with games and playes with rearing of Aultars and building of Temples but the Hebrewes and the people of the Lord who had greatest cause and occasions to remember theyr victories and triumphes that they had ouer so many Kings and so many Nations before they came to the Land of Canaan by fire haile-stones thunder and great stones from heauen and though the Lords presence went before them in the Arke and the Arke among them in the midst of the campe yet were the Israelites stiffe necked people euer offensiue to the Lord seditious against theyr leaders and enuious one towardes an other so the Lord cryed out against them and said I haue nourished and brought vp children and they are fallen away from me the Oxe knoweth his Lord and the Asse his Maisters stall but Israel knoweth not me wicked children sinfull people a froward generation which are ouerladen with blasphemies Nothing could instruct them to obey the Lord neither the Arke of couenant neither the Tabernacle of Moses neither the pillar of fire where the Lord appeared vnto them and after the vse of the Tabernacle neither the Temple of Salomon nor the Prophets to whom the Lord manifested himselfe in Ierusalem yea euen in Samaria among the wicked Samaritans they had the Prophets of the Lord Elias and Elizeus to instruct them CHAP. XVIII Of Iepthas victories ouer the Ammonites and Ephraimites the ciuill warres the tyrannie of Sylla and Marius in Rome Of the slaughter of the Philistians by Sampson the reuenge of pulling out his eyes and of the battell of Saul at Mich-mash NOw after Gedeon the Lord sought out Ieptha beeing fledde and chased by his bretheren from his countrey to the Land of Tob from whence hee was called by the Lord who alwayes appointed a generall ouer Israell while they serued him to leade his people against the Ammonites which the Lord deliuered into Iepthas hand At that time Ieptha made a rash vowe to the Lorde that if hee should haue victorie ouer the Ammonites that which came out of the doores of his house when he returned home in peace shal be the Lords and he wil offer it vp a burnt offering He foolishly performed that which he rashly vowed Though some of the Rabines do excuse Ieptha that his daughter died not but was seperated to dwell by her selfe from common conuersation in a solitary place to bewaile her virginitie according to the custome and manner of the virgins of Israel to liue in prayers and to consecrate her selfe vnto the lord Yet some of 〈◊〉 best diuines as Augustine Ambrose which both were of a cōtrary opiniō that she was sacrificed according to Iepthas vow But the Lord gaue the victory to Ieptha ouer the Amonits with the ouerthrow of twentie cities and with exceeding great slaughter Ieptha againe after his first victory ouer the Ammonites had another victory ouer the Ephraimites who enuied the former victory of Ieptha most ambitiously as they before did vnto
that day the feast of the Lorde was kept the virgins of Siloth came abroad to daunce to sing and to play the Beniamites caught the maides of Siloth to the number of 200. and brought them to the land of Beniamin So the abuse of one woman the Leuites wife by the Beniamite cost sixtie foure thousand mens liues and more in Israel For by the taking away of Viriahs wife by Dauid Israel was plagued with the death of seuentie thousand men and the taking away of Menelaus wife from Greece cost the liues of many millions of men and the warres of tenne yeares betweene the Greekes and the Troians And for that the time of the taking away of Vriahs wife by Dauid agreeth with the historie of the taking away of Menelaus wife by Alexander otherwise called Paris After the death of Dauid and Salomon his sonne the kingdome of Israel was established vpon Rehoboam Salomons sonne he forsooke the law of the Lord and reiected his fathers wise and graue counsellors and followed rash young mens counsell and therefore the Lord raised Shesak king of Egipt against Israel and he came with twelue hundred chariots three score thousand horsemen and his footemen were without number for from Egipt came with him the Lybians the Troglodites and the Aethiopians he tooke the strong cities of Iudah and Ierusalem and all the treasures of the Lords house and all the treasures of the kings house and he carried away two hundred targets and three hundred shields of gold which Salomon made and returned to Egipt with a great spoile because Rehoboam forsooke the Lord and therefore was forsaken of the Lord. The temple that Salomon his father builded was spoiled by the negligence of Rehoboam Salomons sonne This was the first victorie that was had ouer Ierusalem by Shesak king of Israel and here began the first battell of the ciuill warre betweene the kings of Iudah and the kings of Israel and such ciuill warre if you consider the slaughter betweene Iudah and Israel and the continuance of their warres you must needs confesse that in one battell betweene Abiah and Ieroboam were more slaine of the Israelites then among the Romanes in fortie yeares to talke of the Romanes ciuill warres which was fortie yeares betweene Sylla and Marius betweene Caesar and Pompey and last betweene Octauius and Marc. Antonius or the ciuill warres of the Greekes called the Peloponesian warre which endured seuen and twentie yeares it was nothing in respect of the murther and bloud betweene Iudah and Israel for in the ciuill warres of the Romanes histories doo not record aboue the deaths of three hundred thousand Romanes Where in this battell being the first ciuill battell betweene Ieroboam king of Israel against Abiah king of Iudah at what time was slaine in the field fiue hundred thousand of king Ieroboams souldiers in one battell which neither Tamberlane nor Xerxes though they could match them in number yet could they neuer match thē in slaughter For as the Romanes were full fiue hundred yeares in conquering the Sabines the Latines the Vients the Fidenates the Samnites Tarentines Hetruscans others frō Romulus time to Scypio Affrican before the Romanes could be Lords of Italy The like may bee spoken of the Israelites in conquequering the Moabites Ammonites Amalekites Philistines and others from Moses time vnto Dauid welnigh fiue hundred yeares and as the Romans held their Empire so long a time as they were in winning of it frō Scypio Affrican who conquered Haniball and Italy vnto the Emperor Probus which was fiue hundred years at what time the whole Empire fell by degrees to decay So Israel as they subdued their enemies from Moses to Dauid fiue hundred yeares as you read before so after Dauid by ciuill warres of Iudah and Israel vnto Zedechias time which was fiue hundred yeares they lost both the kingdomes Iudah and Israel the one taken captiue by Salmanasser vnto Niniuie the other by Nabuchodonozer vnto Babilon so that now the land of Iudah called the land of milke and honey is become Athisme subiect to Pagans Infidels which continued from Abraham the first father of the faith vntill Titus Vespasian two thousand and odde yeares and al through disobedience and contempt of their Lord and God Euen so the Romanes which were wont to be called lords of the world whose Consuls at that time ruled and gouerned the most kingdomes of the world are now left without King Emperor or Consull and many cities in Italy at this day preferred before Rome now gouerned by the Pope a Bishop as Ierusalem is gouerned by the Turk an Infidel so that in all things the Romanes and the Hebrews may be compared for as the greatest enemie that euer Rome had was Italy and the dangerousest foes that the Romanes had were Italians for the Gaules the Cymbres the Carthaginians and the Affricans vexed not the Romans as the Italians did their own country men and next neighbors So Iudah had no enemies but the house of Israel So Israel had no enemies but Iudah for Ierusalem could not away with Samaria for their two Idols the one at Dan the other in Bethell so Samaria could not brooke Ierusalem for the great solemnitie of Salomons temple CHAP. III. The great battell betweene Abia king of Iudah and Ieroboam king of Israel where 500000. were slaine on Ieroboams side Of the victories of Asa and Iosaphat kings of Iudah ouer Zerah king of Aethiopia ouer the Edomites Ammonites and Maobites AS it seemed by the long oration which Abiah made to Ieroboam and his army vpon mount Zemaraim before the battell ioyned together to disswade them from the battell saying that the Lord had giuen the kingdome ouer Israel to Dauid and to his house but Ieroboam contemned Abiahs counsel and thought by his policie and subtill stratagem to haue ouercome the host of Iudah but he himself was deceiued to the losse of fiue hundred thousand of his souldiers that his power and force failed that he was not able during his life to preuaile against Iudah for Ieroboam had gathered to encrease his army all leaud idle and wicked vnthrifts to fight this battell against Rehoboam the sonne of Salomon like Cinna in Rome that made open proclamation that al bondmē wicked doers and banished men should come to Cinna the Consul they should be restored to their former libertie freedome and thus Cinna gathered al the leaud and wicked men within all Italy he then being Consul taking part with Cai. Marius against his other fellow Consull Octauius which helde with Sylla slaine at that time a number more of the citizens of Rome but between Sylla and Marius one reuenging vpon an other fomi◅g in their countries bloud that all the streetes of Rome anne of bloud These two Marius and Sylla began the first Romane ciuil warres as Ieroboam and Rehoboam did and yet were they both compared to
God mightie in heauē that commands to keep the Sabboth day and I am mightie on earth that comcommaunds the contrary but his head his hands and his blasphemous tongue were cut off and hanged vpon the pinacles in the temple at Ierusalem And so the blasphemy of the Scribes and Pharisies saying that Christ the Lord did not cast out diuels by his owne vertue but by the power of Belzebab but the Lord left not them vnpunished The blasphemy of Benhadad saying that the Lord was the God of the mountaines onely not God of the valleys was not he strangled by Hazael his owne seruant in his owne house and in his owne bed Yet the Syrians prepared such a number for the second battel after they had escaped hardly from the first battell that they filled all the countrie and the children of Israel were like to little flockes of Kids in respect of their number but the Lord sent his Prophet to Achab saying Because the Syrians haue said that the Lord is the God of the mountaines and not God of the valleys behold this great multitude of men and Benhadad the King himselfe withal the two and thirtie Kings besides will I deliuer to thine hand and he shall know that I am the Lord as well of the valleys as the mountaines And so the Lorde brought it to passe that in that battell an hundred thousand footemen were slaine of the Syrians and seuen and twentie thousand that fled from the field to Aphec to saue themselues were killed by the fall of a wall that crushed them to death and Benhadad the King fled to the citie from chamber to chamber and hid himselfe according to the Prophets saying vntill many of his chiefe Princes that escaped hardly from the battell came with sackcloath about their loynes and ropes about their neckes in token of submission to entreate Achab king of Israel for the life of Benhadad which he graunted contrary to that which he was by the Lord commaunded for to do as Saul did by Agag king of the Amalekites so Achab did by Benhadad but it was told Achab by the Prophet that his life should goe for his life and his people for his people This Achab a wicked and Idolatrous King had such two great victories for that the Lord alwayes would haue Israel to forsake their calfe in Bethell and their Idolatry to Baall in Samaria but sinne was written in the table of their hearts and grauen vpon the edges of their Aultars with a penne of Iron and with an Adamant clawe said the Prophet that there was nothing among them more pretious then woods thicke trees groues mountaines hills and fields for altars to serue their Idolatrous woodden goddes so greatly they offended the Lord that he asked the Heathens if any heard such horrible things as his people had done yea the Priests to whom the lawe was committed the Prophets which wanted not the word of the Lorde and the graue wise Senators So that Israel would not be instructed neither take warning by the Prophets before the finall end and suddaine destruction of Ierusalem by Nabuchodonozer king of Babilon though the Lord commaunded the Prophet Amos to strike the lintell of the doore that the postes might shake signifying the threatning of the Lorde against Israel So was Ezechiel commaunded to take a bricke and to purtray the citie of Ierusalem vpon the bricke with a sharpe knife to signifie the destructiō of the people and of the citie and the ◅ame selfe Prophet sheweth the destruction of Ierusalem by Nabuchodonozer king of Babel by a parable of a seething potte and the day was commaunded to be written by the Prophet Ierusalem the the valley of vision so named because of the Prophets which were also called seers The Lorde said that hee would bring such a plague vpon Ierusalem that the eares of them that should heare it should glowe for I wil send many fishers to take them many hunters to hunt thē from all mountaines and hilles and out of the caues of stones saith the Lord. Yet though Ierusalem was so seuerely prophesied by Amos Ezechiel and other Prophets to be destroyed yet they were comforted by the Prophet Ieremy againe that they should returne frō their captiuitie after seuentie yeares and rebuild Ierusalem And as by Ieremy by hiding of his leather girdle by the riuer Perah as the Lord had cōmaunded him signifying that by the rottēnes of the girdle Ierusalē shuld be rebuilded after seuentie yeares And by the selfesame Prophet they were assured by his buying of the field Anothot and by the hiding of his writing of possession thereof in signes and tokens of their libertie againe and that Ierusatem should be builded againe and inhabited this was but the second ouerthrow of Ierusalem by Nabuchodonozer This was like Noah that preached the destruction of the world by a deluge before the deluge and yet married a wife much like to the Prophet Ieremy that preached the destruction of Ierusalem and yet bought lands The Prophets vsed many of these signes as eye-witnesses to confirme their memory better and to expect with more faith the words of the Prophets The Prophet Ieremy proceedeth forward to denounce the ouerthrow of those proud kingdomes that reioyced much at the destructiō of Ierusalem as Egipt and Babilon and all the euill that should come vpon Babilon Ieremy wrote it in a booke sent Sheraiah with his booke to read it and when he had done reading Ieremy commaunded him to binde a stone to the booke and to cast it into the midst of the riuer Euphrates and then to say thus shall Babilon be cōfounded thus the Prophets vsed besides their prophesies to adde some action to make the words the more to be remembred So also the Prophet Ezechiel prophesied against Egipt and against their great cities saying The sword of the Lord shall come to Memphis to Pellusium and to Alexandria I will ouerthrow Memphis saith the Lord I will destroy Pellusium the strength of Egipt and I will make a great slaughter of all the men in Alexandria For as Babilon was taken Maradach ouerthrowne and Bel cōfounded so was the strength of Egipt the arme of Pharao destroyed without any recouery of their Empires againe but so was not Ierusalem Nabuchodonozer in like sort as he ouerthrew Ierusalem and made a conquest of the countrey euen so his great citie of Babilon was caried by Cyrus away into Persia within seuentie yeares after he tooke Zedechiah the last king of Iudah captiue in Babilon so Egipt was taken by the Persians and last by the Romanes But Ierusalem as you heard by Ieremy should not bee so destroyed but should be defended against all her enemies and the Lord shall destroy all nations that come against Ierusalem for the Lord hath deliuered Israel out of the fierie furnace of Egipt and from all the stratagems of the Heathens I will
but these were words to encourage their souldiers but it fel out otherwise that Iugurth was taken by Marius and sent to Rome prisoner from Numidia and Leuinus the Consul ouerthrowne by Pirrhus at the citie Heraclea by the riuer Cyris CHAP. VI. Of military discipline and reward of souldiers among diuers nations IN all nations military discipline was so taught and martiall lawes so obserued that if they deserued by theyr good seruice any preferment though hee were but a meane souldier hee should not loose the honour and dignitie of his aduancement to rise by degrees from the lowest souldier vnto the highest captaine and so in like sort by faults and offences committed they should be disgraded and casseerd from their gouernment and regiment and bee punished further by the lawes military for them therin appointed which I will intreat of when I come to speake of euery seuerall country of their warres battels and victories then you shall finde the seuerall military discipline agreeable to the skilfulnesse of the captaine the greatnesse of the victory and the nature of the place It should seem that all nations of the world had their first instruction from the Hebrewes as well their military discipline as martiall lawes for the Lord commanded Moses first in the wildernes to muster the people frō twentie yeares vpwards and likewise Moses commaunded Ioshuah to muster the Hebrewes to fight against the Moabites for that the Moabites denied them passage through their countrey into the land of Canaan Among the Persians imitating the Hebrewes their youthes from twentie to fiftie should be brought vp in warres and no longer by the Persian lawe might they continue in warres but had their maintenance and preferment after to liue at rest to teach the yong youthes of Persia military discipline hauing after their long seruice golden girdles giuen them by the king to shewe their good seruice to their countrey and their credite with the king of Persia. The like lawe among the Scythians was duly obserued and carefully examined that no souldier past fittie sixe yeares old should be chosen a fit souldier for the warres though both in Persia and in Scythia two nations euer in warres one with the other their captaines and officers were men of knowledge counsell authoritie to instruct the army by whom they should be gouerned So also the later Romanes being Polymarchies and camp-maisters of the world hauing brought all kingdomes countries vnder their gouernment were not ignorant of all forraine externall martiall lawes and military discipline but followed the Persians and the Scythians in instructing of their soldiers making choise of the fittest and yongest men from twentie to fiftie to serue the common-wealth Though Camillus in his warres against the Latines and the Volscians and Alexander the great in his warres against the Grecians and the Persians made choyce of skilfull and olde souldiers which were brought vp in warres before with Philip of Macedon his father to be in his Campe. So likewise did Caesar honour much his old souldiers In later time the kings of Syria vsed to send collers of gold robes of purple and to be called the kings friends to the chiefe captaines of the Iewes so the Iewes were wont to send to the Romanes and to the Lacedemonians targets crownes of gold to be in league fauour with the Romains so that all nations sought fauour and friendship at the Romanes So the Carthagineans sent to the Romans gifts rewards for captains generals The Romane souldiers that were of courage and knowne as Praetorian legionarie or manupular souldiers were rewarded with such gifts and presents as they were in all countries preferred and aduanced from one office to another esteemed extolled with sūdry kinds of gifts rewards as crownes garlands some crowns made of Lawrell some made of mirtle some of Popley some of Oliue and some of Pine some made of Oaken boughes for those that had saued cities or citizens There were in the later time of the Emperours new kinds of crownes inuented by the Emperour Caligula made some like the Sunne others like the starres called Exploratoriae coronae Tribunes and great Captaines had bracelets and golden ringes The Romains wanted no varietie of crownes garlands beside mony lands and other gifts Besides there were certain speciall crownes garlands called Murales coronae made like the walls of a citie for those that scaled walles as Cicinnanus for others that besieged fortes as Corilianus crowns were made of green grasse called Coronae graminea for those that saued cities or by sea fight crowns made like a ship called Coronae nauales wer giuē as to Lu. Varro by Pompey the great in his warres against the Pyrates Such crownes rewards were chiefly by the generall appointed by the law of armes to be giuen to such souldiers that had either scaled walles besieged forts saued cities or by sea fight For euen as the Consuls Generals might claime a tryumph by their victories so might the Collonels Captains and gallant souldiers claime their garlāds military rewards for them for their seruice apointed It was lawful for any Roman knight to come with his horse in his hād before the Cēsors of Rome declaring euery captaine vnder whō he serued what countries he had bin in and hauing declared an account of his victtories and seruice requesting to be dispenst with for going any lōger to the wars according to the custome of the knights of Rome he might with licence of the Censors take his ease according to the law So Lucullus gaue ouer after he had gotten many victories triumphs and much enriched Rome himself tooke his rest quietnesse according to the lawe of the Romans though after he was in scoffe called by Pompey the great the Romain Xerxes for his great fare and idle life in Rome yet he escaped thereby the tragicall ende of Pompey whom Lucullus called the great Agamemnon to requite the name of Xerxes by Pompey giuē vnto him he also escaped the tragical end of Caesar who wold not take his rest before he became Perpetuus Dictator to be slaine in the Senate So also of Crassus who could not stay in Rome being the wealthiest man in Rome and thought no man wealthy but hee that could keepe an army of his owne charge but would goe seek for more wealth into Asia to be slain in Parthia to haue gold melted in his mouth being dead among the Parthians in reproach of his auarice as Cyrus had his head bathed in blood in Scithia in reproach of his tiranny Had Scipio when he had ioyned Numantia vnto Carthage and vanquished Hanibal followed Lucullus in taking his ease after his great victories Had Cicero himselfe after he had quenched Catelines cōspiracy quieted himselfe no doubt his head had not bin brought by Popilius to Mar. Antonius Had M. Crassus bene not moued with the sight
and famine an hundred thousand solde publikely as slaues and sixteene thousand were sent to Rome to beautifie his fathers triumph as Iosephus an eye-witnesse doth report The Iewes looked not for their destruction so nigh at hand they obserued by tradition of some of their Rabines that their Messias should come about the time of Augustus as a magnificent mighty king not as a poore man the sonne of a Carpenter whom the Iewes whipt and scourged for that he tooke vpō him to be the sonne of God made himself Messias the Iewes litle thought that he was the Messas when they cryed to Pilate to haue him crucified in Golgotha saying his bloud be vpon vs and vpon our children The greedie desire and expectation of the people was such that many tooke vpon them to call themselues the Messias as Iudas Galileus and an other called Atonges a shepheard but aboue them all one Barcozba had diuers followers was receiued for their Messas thirtie yeares but when they saw that he could not defend them from the Romanes they would no longer accept him for their Messias but slew him Titus proceedeth forward to destroy the Iewes but especially the Priests the Scribes Pharisies on whom he had no mercie saying that they chiefly ought to dye with the sword sithence the temple was burnt with fire they onely being rebellious and seditious and the cause of the destruction of the citie Titus spared none of the stocke of Herod In this warres of Titus were ten of the learned Rabbines slaine whose names I thought good to write as I found them written in Genebrardus Chronicles Rabbi Simeon ben Gamaliel Rabbi Ismael ben Elizei Rabbi Hanina ben Tedarion Rabbi Husiphith Rabbi Eleazer ben Samaa Rabbi Iuda ben Dama Rabbi Isbak Scribam Rabbi Iuda ben Hachinas Rabbi Iuda ben Baba Rabbi Askiba These tenne Rabbines were slaine by Titus which the Iewes record in theyr latter Talmud for tenne martyrs and after Ierusalem was thus destroied Titus appointed Rabbi Iohanan ben Zachai gouernour ouer the remnant of the Iewes in Ahua Byther Oza other pla◅es as Nabuchodonozer did appoint Godoliah gouernor of the rest of the Iewes when he destroyed Ierusalem in the time of Zedechia the king Titus also left Bonia a younger brother of Fla. Iosephus to gouerne other places in Iudah and he returned with his prisoners and captiues which he brought with him to Rome to beautifie his fathers triumphes and his This was the fift and last ouerthrow of the Iewes destruction of Ierusalem First by Shesac King of Egipt in the time of Rehoboam secondly by Nabuchodonozer in the time of Zedechias the last King of Iudah thirdly by Antiochus fourthly by Pompey the great and fiftly and last by Titus and Vespasian Thus the Iewes that subdued all natiōs before them and conquered all the Kings about them that in the time of Ioshua Dauid all the earth trembled at the naming of the Iewes whose gouernment continued from Abraham to Vespasian two thousand yeares and more though for a time while they were in Egipt 430. yeares litle spoken of vntil the Lord raised them so strengthned thē vnder Moses and Ioshua that first they ouerthrew Pharao and his kingdome after subdued the Canaanites Edomites Moabites Ammonites Philistines and the Syrians which of the Hebrewes were called Aromites the strongest nation vpon the earth at that time which were subdued notwithstanding by Dauid Thus the Iewes which were as famous and feared as much in those dayes as the Romanes were in the time of their Consuls are now so destroyed and their country subdued like wandring banished mē without king lawe or countrey The cause wherof was the sinne of Ierusalem which would neuer acknowledge the goodnesse of God towards them nor his myracles and his mercy wrought amongst them they refused his grace offered and persecuted him most violently to death Yet Dionisius Areopagita and his fellow Appollonius in the citie of Eliopolis in Egipt they both obserued by the Eclipse of the Sun at the verie houre the sonne of God suffered more then the rebellious Iewes did for all the blessings and mercies which they had receiued they cried out still vnto Pilate crucifie him his blood be vpon vs and vpon our children These learned Heathens openly confessed in Egipt that either the sonne of God did suffer death or else the frame of the whole worlde should be dissolued these two Heathens confessed and named him to bee the sonne of God but the vngratefull Iewes called and named him the sonne of Ioseph the Carpenter in contempt of him and therefore it is conuenient to set forth the great goodnesse of the Lorde in a briefe and a short catalogue what the Lord hath done to Israel since he brought them out of the furnace of Egipt where they were bond-slaues vnder Pharao 430. yeares euen from the first comming of Abraham into Egipt vntill Moses brought them out of Egipt For after Esau Iacob had diuided their fathers possession Esau went to dwell in Edumea and Iacob tooke for his part Canaan where he dwelt and his childrē vntil Iacob went to Egipt with all his family to his sonne Ioseph which was 215. yeares after the being of Abraham in Egipt and 215. yeares before Moses brought the childrē of Israel out of Egipt into the land of Canaan at what time the law was written giuen to Moses in mount Sinai to gouern the people and after the lawe was giuen the Tabernacle was commaunded by Moses to be made in the wildernesse which should stand to them for a Temple to serue the Lord and after the Tabernacle the Arke was made where the tables of the lawe were commaunded by Moses at his death to be kept where Moses gouerned the whole army of the Hebrues fortie yeares before they went ouer Iorden And Moyses before he died he deliuered the army of the Hebrewes into the hands of Ioshua with a charge from the Lord vnder whom they passed into the lande of Canaan after whose death they began to be rebellious seditious Yet the Lord fauoured thē sent thē stout and wise gouernors as Iudah Ehud Barac Iephtha Gedeō and Sampson yet stil rebelled they like Idolatrous people against the Lord that they were weary of that gouernment and reiected Samuel his gouernmēt and would haue a king the Lord denied them nothing and they had kings to rule them during which time of kings Idolatry presently crept in that the lord his lawes were forsaken and Baal with his prophets priests accepted Hence grew ciuil warres between the 12. Tribes ten against two that of one kingdom they made two so that there was nothing but slaughter and blood betweene the house of Israel the house of Iudah and that straight after Solomons death 500. thousand were slain in mount Zemaraim of the king of Israels side by the king of Iudah Againe such a slaughter of
the king of Iudahs side by the king of Israel that two hundred thousand of womē and children were taken prisoners in Samaria so that they wasted and spoyled one another in such sort that frō a happy populous people by forsaking their Lord and God they became a most miserable Idolatrous people to serue strange gods For during the time of Dauid which was 40. yeares the kingdome of Israel was the most famous renowned kingdome of the world For so the Lord spake I will make the Princes of Iudah like coales of fire among the wood and like a fire-brand in the sheafe and they shal deuour all people round about them So Dauid brought all the kings nations about subiect tributary vnto Israel whose happie whole gouernment was such that at his death hee left a hundred thousand talents to his sonne Solomon to build a temple to the Lord which he himself had determined to build but that the Prophet Nathā warned him from the Lord that he should not for that he was a man of blood but that Solomon his sonne should build him a house This kingdom of Israel being so happy as you heard in king Dauids time and in Solomons time so glorious a temple builded and so richly furnished vnto the Lord that in Solomons time such plentie was in Ierusalē mony was no more esteemed thē stones in the streets yet presently vpō Solomons death in the time of Rehoboham his sonne the state of Ierusalem was so obscured altered that the citie was sackt and the temple robd with great slaughter of people by Shesac king of Egipt so that the wealth and treasure of Ierusalem and of the temple was carried by Shesac into Egipt Againe the kings of Israel became so Idolatrous that there were no gods among the Heathens but they were as gods worshipped in Israel so that they were far worse then the Grecians or the Romans who would allow no strange gods to raigne neither in Athens nor in Rome and therefore for that they forsooke the Lord the Lord forsooke them and gaue them ouer and their kingdome to the Assirians by the hand of Salmanasser and so Samaria and other townes in Israel were inhabited by strangers So the kings of Iudah after Israel within 133. yeares after were carried captiues into Babilon by Nabuchodonozer yet the Lord gaue them not ouer but brought them within 70. yeares after againe to Ierusalem stirred vp Cyrus Darius and Artaxerxes three great kings of Persia to fauour and to aide them with license to returne to their countrey to inhabit Ierusalem with money and much treasure to build vp the Temple redeliuering vnto them all the rich vessels of gold and siluer which Salomon left in the Temple at his death and which Nabuchodonozer tooke away from the Temple and brought to Babilon After Cyrus and these kings of Persia the Lord stirred vp a great Heathen Prince Alexander the great who when he came to Ierusalem lighted off his horse and came to meet the high Priest and reuerenced him with great obeysance where were read vnto him the prophesies of Daniel where it was found that a Grecian Prince should subdue the Persian kingdome which Alexander acknowledged to be himselfe and therefore went into the temple sacrificed to the God of Israel and not only freely granted to the high Priest whatsoeuer he would aske but commaunded him to aske what he would haue him do the high Priest asked nothing but that the Iewes that dwelt in Babilon in Medea and in other countreys about vnder his gouernment might enioy and liue according to the lawes of their countrey which Alexander graunted besides his great and liberall gifts which he bestowed vpon the Priest the temple Nabuchodonozer vsed himselfe otherwise then Alexander did against Iudah for he commanded Holofernus to spare no people no kingdome saying Non Parcet oculus tuus vlliregno The terror of Holofernus army therby was such that they came out of euery citie crowned with crownes on their heads and lamps in their hands to receiue him with all kind of musicke and with dauncing songs to please him yet could they not mittigate the fiercenesse of his fury After Alexander the Lord stirred vp Pthol Philadelphus so to fauour the Israelits to loue their lawes that he had the lawes of Israel written in the Greeke tongue in Alexandria and released many prisoners and captiues of the Iews to the number of 120000. which Ptol. Lagus his precessor had brought from Iudah to Egipt with as great bountifull rewards gifts as Alexander did So Zeleucus shewed such fauour to the Iewes dwelling in Antioch in Ionia in Ephesus that he graunted to them the liberties lawes of their countrey After Zeleucus the Lord stirred vp Antiochus the great being before a great enemy of the Iewes after Antiochus many of the kings of Asia so to fauour them that all the cities of Asia where the Iewes dwelt should suffer them to liue according to the laws of their country and to enioy the benefites of the same and though many of the Assirian kings troubled and molested them with great warres which ioyned themselues with the Samaritans to subdue the kingdome of Iudah Yet the Lord raised vp the house of Assamonias Mattathias to resist the violence of the Assyrians and after him his sonne Iu. Machabaeus who slew of the enemies Edumeans and Assyrians that sought the ouerthrowe of his countrey two hundred thirtie sixe thousand and seuen hundred in the defence of Ierusalem and after him his other foure bretheren forsooke not the lawes of the Lord for all the tyrannie of the Romane Emperors and the Assyrian Kings But the Iewes from time to time so reuoulted from the Lord that Aristobulus the sonne of Hircanus made himselfe a King 481. yeares after the returne of the captiuitie of the Iewes from Babilon but hee enioyed his kingdome but one yeare after he famished his mother and killed his brother for in Iudah their kings had no better succession then the kings of Rome had though in both the kingdomes they made great meanes to become kings After this Aristobulus there was no king among the Iewes vntill Herod who was made by the Senators of Rome with the consent of Augustus Caesar and Mar. Antonius both Emperours of Rome vnder whom Iudah was a Prouince Yet one false Alexander a Iew most subtilly adopted himselfe being very like to Herod to be of the stock and family of Herod and brother to Aristobulus and thereby claimed to bee king of Iudah saying that he was Herods sonne as false Philip faigned himselfe in Macedonia to be Persius sonne king Philips brother and as the common people there reuerenced false Philippe in Macedonia so likewise in all parts of Iurie was this false Alexander carried in coach from Cittie to Cittie with all the reuerence and honour that
could bee as though he were their true and lawfull king but being brought to Rome before Caesar who found by the hardnesse of his hands and rudenesse of his behauiour that hee was not brought vp like a Kings sonne and therefore Caesar hauing found his falshood bound him all his life time as a galley slaue and commaunded all his counsellors and conspirators to bee killed with the sword This house continued vntill the last destruction of Ierusalem So that the Iewes after Christ his death beeing euery where afflicted and oppressed from Babilon were forced to flie to Zeleucia the chiefe Citie in all Syria which Zeleucus Nicanor builded a Towne where Greekes Macedonians and Syrians dwelt together there also the Greekes and the Syrians conspired together against the Iewes that there dwelt and slew trecherously of them to the number of 50000. So sedition also began between the Iewes in Alexandria and the Aegiptians in Samaria betweene the Samaritans and the Iewes and all the Iewes which dwelt in Rome in Sardinia other places of the Romaine Empire were from thence banished These Iewes had not so much as a place to rest vpon the earth but were scattered like rogues vagabounds euery where without credit or loue without Prince Priest law or religion the iust iudgement of the Lord for their blasphemy against the sonne of God saying his bloud be vpon vs and our children Thus the Iewes whom Moses Aaron brought out of Egipt to the number of six hundred thousand died all in the wildernesse for their rebellious mutinie Moses and Eleazer after Aarons death numbred the people in the wildernesse where all the other died and they found sixe hundred thousand seuenteen hundred and thirtie able and sufficient men for the warres and yet not one of them which Moses Aaron numbred in the desart of Sinai after they came out of Egipt sauing Ioshua Caleb but died in the wildernesse for disobedience and stubbernesse euer preferring the cucumbers melons oynions garlicks of Egipt before Māna quailes and sweete water which they had from euery rocke in the wildernesse where neither their cloathes were worne nor their shooes spent for fortie yeares yet Egipt which should be a hel to them was their paradice The tenne Tribes of Israel raigned in Samaria 240. yeares seuen moneths and seuen daies during which time they neither obeyed the lawes of the Lord nor heard the Prophets that forewarned them of these calamities which were to come and therfore the Lord gaue them ouer they were taken prisoners their last king Osea brought captiues by Salmanasser vnto Niniuie So the kingdome of Iudah and the house of Dauid was likewise taken by Nabuchodonozer in the eleuenth yeare of Zedechiah the last king of Iudah who was taken captiue his noble men his children slaine in his sight before his eyes were pluckt out and after led in a chaine vnto Babilon where he died in prison 133. yeares after the kingdome of Israel was destroyed by Salmanasser that was the cause of his miserable end for the contempt he had to the Prophet Ieremy disdaining either to hear him or to read his booke for before any king raigned in Israel Iudges by the Lord appointed ruled 370. yeares the kings of Iudah after Solomons death raigned 395. yeares which agreeth well with Iosephus account And so of the continuance of the Bishops or high Priests euen from the building of the temple of Solomon Sadoc being their first high Priest or Bishop were seuēteene high Priests or Bishops in Ierusalem by succession of the children after their fathers The end of the second booke The third Booke of the Stratagems of Ierusalem CHAP. I. Of the care and diligence which Kingdomes and Countries tooke in military discipline to exercise their souldiers THe Romanes most carefull in all military discipline in no wise trusted strangers but euery Romaine souldier should take a military oath by the Colonell The Persiās also were in this point like the Romains for not admitting of mercenary souldiers seldome is found any constancie or soundnesse in mercenary souldiers as by too many examples the Romanes and others found Iugurth by trechery of fewe Thracians that serued the Romanes in Affrike in the night time betraied the Romanes to Iugurth and made a great slaughter of them In like sort the Thessalians were trecherous to the Athenians whom they trusted but they forsooke the Athenians at the battel of Tanagra wherby through their falsehood and trecherie to the Athenians the victorie fell to the Lacedemonians therefore neither the Romanes nor the Persians trusted any mercenary souldiers for mercenary souldiers and strangers are not to be trusted for they doo not onely forsake their friends in any danger but ioyne with the enemy for any aduantage So did the Gaules in the warres of Carthage slew the watch of the Romanes and fled to Haniball The lawe of armes in euery countrey should holde and maintain the crowne dignity of the prince by the sword so most necessary it is that subiects should be looked vnto with great care and prouision to maintain the willing forward and good souldiers due punishmēts and sharpe corrections for euill leaud wicked disposed men carelesse of their countries good How carefull euery common-wealth hath bene of this you shall read first of euery kingdome country seueral punishments by law appointed after of the rewards honor dignities of good souldiers of which Plato saith Omnis respub paena Praemio continetur Agesilaus therefore appointed gifts and rewards to draw and encourage his souldiers to shoote to throwe the dart the sling to ride to runne and with diligence and care to keepe them seuerely from faults offences and to exercise them in martiall feates which kinde of exercise among the Greekes was most commonly vsed called Pentatlon in the games of Olympia Isthmia to honor Hercules and Thesius two protectors and principall captaines that loued souldiers Alexander the great was so seuere in martiall lawes towards his souldiers that if any souldier or captain shuld lye or be any way proued a lyer hee should be depriued frō his office and place of seruice banished from his camp for so was Antigenes though a valiant captaine otherwise yet was both casseerd banished for making of a lye Alexander after he had banished all bakers cookes brewers and such like frō his campe said that marching in their armour in the night they should prouide them a dinner a stomacke to eate theyr dinner against the next morning as for a supper he said they should not looke for wine nor flesh to sleepe after it but for bread and hee would prouide for water which is the onely foode of a souldier and the most necessary care of a generall Hereby his souldiers being brought vp by Philip king of Macedonia his father were hardned with continuall paine
the Romanes vpon any conditions to be performed they vowed a vow to their gods and Idols The olde Gaules hauing warres with the Romains their General Aristonicus vowed vnto Mars a rich massie chaine of gold of the spoiles of the Romans if he might win the victorie Flamminius the Consul Generall of the Romane army in the self-same war against Aristonicus vowed likewise if he should haue victory wheras Aristonicus vowed but one chaine vnto Mars Flamminius promised all the chaines that the Gaules had to put vp a trophey and to hang their swords weapons and armors vpon the trophey to honor Mars In like sort Marius Cai. Luctatius Consuls of Rom and Generals in the warres against the Cymbrians lifted vp both their hands to heauen Marius promised and vowed a solemne sacrifice vnto the gods of an hundred oxen and the other Consul Luct vowed to build a temple vnto Fortune if the Romanes might haue victorie ouer the Cymbrians At the last battell of Thrasymen Fabius vowed being Dictator elected against Hanibal and promised to sacrifice all the profits fruits that should fall the next yeare of sheep of sowes of melch kine of goates betweene the Calends of March and the Ides of May in all the mountaines champion countries riuers or meadowes of Italy also vowed to build places of musicke to haue victory ouer Hanibal such were the wicked Idolatrous vowes of the Gentiles that theyneither spared land life nor liuing to please their goddes they would haue no warres no battels without consultations with oracles or conference with sooth sayes for they thought all victories came by performing or not performing of vows The Athenians hearing of the innumerable army of Xerxes comming with such terror vnto Greece they sent to Delphos from whence they were admonished by the oracle of Appollo to erect vp an aultar to Aeolus therevpon to sacrifice with prayers and vowes to please the windes to plague the Persians to scatter and ouerthrow the infinite nauies of Xerxes The Greekes and the Romanes vsed a vowe called Haecatombae in the which they builded an hundred aultars wherevpon they offered to the gods a hundred oxen a hundred sheepe a hundred swine sometimes the Dictators Emperors of Rome the kings generals of Greece added a hundred Lions a hundred Eagles to make their vowes as they supposed of greater effect this was chiefly done for the preseruation of kings and kingdomes Emperours and Empires So Augustus Caesar would needs goe to Delphos to learne of Appollo who should raigne after him in Rome and what should become of the Empire bestowing the liberall sacrifice of Haecatombae was answered by Appollo that an Hebrue child was borne who commanded him to silence and to giue no Oracles but willed the Emperour Augustus to depart with silence from his aultar and to hold with the people his credit So Saul being reiected from the Lord for his disobediēce spake to Samuel yet honor me before the people So rebellious Absolon ro disgrace his father and to please the people wished that he were a Iudge for that the people wanted a lawe to minister vnto them iustice Many such rebellious ambitious mē are in the world which vow many things in their harts much like to Hamilcar who caused his sonne Hanibal being but a boy of eight yeares old to make a vow to take his oath to be an enemy to hold wars with the Romans during life It was the maner among the Romaines when they made choise of their Consuls to goe vp to the Capitoll and after sacrifice done there to vow building of temples of aultars and the decimation of the spoiles gotten by victories So Lucullus did promise and vow to Hercules for his victories at the riuers of Rindacus and Granicus So Pausanias general of the Lacedemonians vowed to Appollo for his victories at Marathon against Mardonius These vowes were so many and so diuers among the Gentiles that the husbandman vowed to Tellus for the seed sowne in the earth and the fruite thereof to Siluanus for their oxen and kine to Hippona for their horses and mares to Castor and Pollux for their shipwrackes for labourers to Tutanus for shepheards to Pa◅ for ◅uellers on long iournies to Hercules for theeues to steale safely to the goddesse Lauerna Thus the Gentiles serued and obeyed their Idols with vowes and sacrifices but as apes do counterfeit to imitate men so Satan would seeme to imitate the Lord. Such fond and foolish vowes were vsed among the Gentiles that if the Athenians would haue victory ouer the Thraciās Erictheus the king must sacrifice his daughter a stratagem of Satan If Agamemnon would haue sound returne from Troy to Greece he must sacrifice Iphigenia his daughter or if Marius would haue triumph ouer the Cymbrians hee mustkil sacrifice his daughter Calfurnia the very drifts and shifts of the diuell the oracles of Satan therefore in many countries they would binde their Idols with chaines and bonds So did they in Carthage binde the Image of Hercules with chaines bonds least when the Romaines made their supplications and prayers to Hercules hee should forsake Carthage and come to Rome In wicked men oftentimes the word of God is in their mouthes when the grace of God is not in theyr hearts as in Balaam who came with his full good will to Balaac to curse Israel but he was commaunded against his will to blesse Israel and therefore that which Philo saith is true of the wicked Dona dei sine deo saepe sunt in impijs for oftentimes false Prophets prophesie the truth as Balaam and Cayphas did Satan stands alwaies among the Angels before the Lord to haue licence with his present seruice to seeke whom he may deuour so that Satan is often a lying spirit in the mouth not onely of false Prophets but against the seruants of God as Iob who though Satan tooke from him his seruants his children his goods yet his malice chiefly was against Iob such stratagems he vsed before against the seruants of the Lord as Abraham Moses Dauid and others There is an other kinde of vow of the Nazarites whose vowes were but for certaine number of dayes of moneths or of yeares these Nazarites should abstaine onely from wine or from any strong drink they should let their haires grow and let no razor come on it they should not violate themselues with any mourning for the dead yet Samuel being a Nazarite mourned for Saul Ieremy being a Nazarite wept for the captiuitie of Iudah and Christ himselfe the true Nazarite wept for the citie of Ierusalem The Monasticall vowes of Monkes Benedics Franciscans and Dominics who would faine be Nazarites but that they loued wine too well and shaued theyr crownes too often for they seperated themselues from the world vowed virginitie yet had bastards vowed many things performed
nothing These were superstitious orders of Franciscans and not the vowes of Nazarites The Ethnicks likewise suffered their haires to grow because they might dedicate it either to Iupiter to Appollo to Mars or to some of their gods So did Thesius dedicate his haire vnto Appollo vpon his father Aegaeus graue So Achilles dedicated his haire vpō the tombe of his deare friend Patroclus So did Orestes consecrate his haire vpon the tombe of his father in lawe Agamemnon after he had killed him with the consent of his wife Clytemnestra So Euripides was of Archelaus king of Macedonia so honoured that hee lamented Euripides death in mourning apparell and with a shauen head and beard After the vowes of Iacob of Dauid of Asa and such godly men after the vowes of the Nazarites and of the Rechabites which was commanded from Ionadab the father vnto his children and to their posteritie was kept vnuiolated three hundred yeares These vowes were of the Lord accepted but for Heathen vowes which wilfully offer sacrifice their seruants their childrē thēselues to Moloch to satisfie the oracles of diuels speaking in dumbe Idols as vnto Curtius that rode sacrificing of a quick man which made Curtius on horseback in armor to ride into an open wide gulfe in Rome and Codrus king of Athens likewise in beggers apparell to sacrifice themselues to satisfie the oracles Yet Heliodorus was better aduised and more to be commended being sent by Seleucus king of Syria to rob and spoile the Temple of Ierusalem after he was scourged on both sides with many stripes by some diuine power hauing recouered his life by the prayer of Onias the high Priest Heliodorus offered sacrifice vnto God and made his vowes vnto the Lord which had graunted to him his life and thanked Onias confessing the name of the Lord to be great in Ierusalem Antiochus after his flight frō Persepolis in Persia thought to reuenge his wrath vpon Ierusalem aduancing himself that he would make Ierusalem a graue of all the Iewes but he was striken of the Lord that hee promised and vowed that whereas hee had spoiled the holy temple before now to garnish it with gifts to encrease the holy ornaments to become a Iew himselfe and to preach the power of the Lord through euery place of the world So Artaxerxes king of Persia so fauoured the Iewes through the goodnesse of the Lord that hee called Esdras the Priest and reader of the lawe of the Lord and willed him with all the Iewes that would goe with him to goe to Ierusalem allowed them golde and siluer and cattell to sacrifice vnto the Lord and to performe the vowes which they vowed vnto the Lord. So Nabuchodonozer Cyrus and Darius were moued by the Lord to fauour his people Israell And therefore olde Homer said that the sacrifices and oblations with all their vowes and ceremonies which the Troians offered to Iupiter were nothing of him accepted for that Iupiter rather esteemed the vowes and sacrifice of Agamemnon and the oblations of the Greckes before king Priamus and his Troians So the oracle of Ammon answered the Athenians that the gods esteemed more the vowes and prayers of the Lacedemonians with the sacrifice of milke honey frankincense cakes and wine according to Pythagoras rule then the rich spoiles and great gifts of the Athenians with the great sacrifice of Haecatombae So the Prophet answered the Iewes from the mouth of the Lord I abhorre your incense I cannot away with your new moones your sabbothes and solemne dayes I detest your ceremonies and fastings I hate although you make many praiers and offer many oblations yet do I neither heare your prayers nor accept your oblations CHAP. VII Of Oracles and soothsayings as well of the Iewes as of the Gentiles THe Lord commaunded in the lawes of Moses that no soothsaying should be among the Israelites yet things conteining of necessary causes are not forbidden for signes were asked of the Israelites and giuen vnto them of victories by the Lord. Ionathas desired a signe of the Lord and he had by the spirit of the Lord a token that if the Philistins would say vnto Ionathas come ye hither vnto vs Ionathas by that signe knew he should haue victorie The like signe was giuen to Gedeon of his victorie by a fleece of wooll that should be so full with deawe that the deawe therof filled a bowle with water and drie vpon all the earth besides Elizeus bad Ioas shoote eastward in token of his good successe in Aphec And againe hee bad Ioas smite the ground and hee smote the ground thrise so many great victories against the Syrians he had Samuel caught the lap of Sauls coate and rent it saying Thus shall God rent the kingdome out of thy hand and giue it to an other So did Ahiah the Prophet take the garment of Ieroboam and rent it into twelue peeces saying So shall the Lord rent the kingdome out of Salomons hand and giue tenne of the twelue Tribes vnto thee These were signes giuen before hand by the Prophets from the Lord. A prophet of Iudah came to Bethel and cried against the Aultar of Bethel and gaue them a signe that Iosias which was borne three hundred yeares after should offer Priests of the hill altars and burne mens bones vpon the altar and this shall be a signe the altar presently shall rent and the ashes that are in it shall fall out The being of Ionas in the Whales belly three dayes was a signe as Christ himselfe saide that the sonne of man should be three dayes in the belly of the earth It was lawfull for the Israelites to call for the Arke which was the presence of God the figure of Christ they would call for the Ephod they would consult with Vrim and Thummim before they tooke any battell in hand The Iewes required a signe the Grecians sought after wisdome but Christ crucified vnto the Iewes was euen a stumbling blocke and vnto the Grecians foolishnesse For the Greekes Persians went for Oracles to Delphos the Egiptians and Affricans to Ammon but the Hebrewes were taught to come to the doore of the Tabernacle and after the vse of the Tabernacle to consult with Vrim and Thummim to come to the Temple of Salomon or to the Prophets and there to be instructed what to doo The Hebrues tooke no warres in hand vnlesse they ◅ame to the Priest first who would stand with his Ephod◅rment ◅rment before the Arke of the Lorde and there to be ◅ught what to do So Ioshuah Generall of the Israelites vsed to stand b◅re Eleazar the Priest to take his instruction by Vrim and Thummim So Iudah the successor of Ioshua was chosen by Vrim and Thummim to be a Generall of the Hebrue army So did Samuel stand before the high Priest to receiue he Oracle of Vrim and Thummim The Hebrewes
Philip king of Macedonia at the spoile thereof had as great a pray as Alexander his sonne had of Babilon or Nabuchodonozer of Ierusalem CHAP. VIII Of sanctuaries allowed to the Hebrewes and of the multitude of sanctuaries among the Gentiles SAnctuaries were priuiledged among all Nations not onely for souldiers that fled from the warres and seruants that fled from their maisters but also for those that by chance kild any man or had committed such capitall crimes without proofe these might bee succoured in sanctuaries vntill the truth were knowne and proued and therefore the Hebrewes had sixe citties of refuge by the lawe of Moses where if any man had slaine vnwittingly or vnwillingly a man he might flee to any of these sixe Cities as to a sanctuary of refuge but they that had killed a man willingly and had committed any capitall crime purposely should not onely be taken away from the sanctuarie but bee pluckt away from the aultar as Ioab was for killing of Abner and Adonias though hee pretended treason before against Salomon yet had hee the priuiledge of the sanctuarie for that fault by Salomon but when hee sought to haue Abizaig to his wife he was pluckt from the Aultar as Ioab was Those that were lawfully succoured by Moses lawe in the sanctuary it was not lawfull for them that fled thither to returne home vnlesse it were at the death of the high Priest which was a shadow of the death of Christ by whose death the regenerate turne to their eternall home The Gentiles imitating the Hebrewes had too many licentious sanctuaries with the like libertie and priuiledge in so much that in continuance of time it grew that Temples Aultars Images of Emperours and Kings and graues of dead men were allowed for sanctuaries as if any that would flye vnto the Temple of Diana at Ephesus and claimed by the right of a sanctuarie to be defended hee was made free and had his libertie graunted vnto him and that continued a sanctuarie from the time of Alexander the great who amplyfied the Temple of Diana the quantitie of a furlong which temple was burnt before by Herostratus vpon the very day that Alexander was borne vntill the time of Augustus Caesar three hundred yeares after Alexander by whom the wickednesse of that sanctuary was was abrogated and quite taken away Cadmus as some write at the building of Thaebes was the first in Greece that gaue any priuiledge to sanctuaries Others thinke that some of the posteritie of Hercules erected vp in Athens the temple of mercie where euery man might flee for succour fearing least they should be punished and plagued for the iniuries that Hercules their predecessor did to others and the Athenians made a decree that none that fled to the aultar of mercie should be pulled away Romulus imitating Cadmus at the building of Rome for the encrease of his citie graunted impunitie to all such wicked men that came to Rome whose example all other Gentiles followed after in so much that kings and kings sonnes fled vnto sanctuaries so great was the priuiledge of sanctuaries that king Pausanias fled to the Temple of Minerua in Sparta and king Cleombrotus fled to the Temple of Neptune in Taenero and Adonias King Dauids sonne fled to the Temple in Ierusalem Likewise a souldier taken in the warre if he had fled from thence to the statue of any King Emperour or great captaine he was to haue his libertie The liberties and abuse of sanctuaries grew so great among all nations that where sanctuaries were allowed chiefly first for those that slew any man by chaunce against their will for captiue souldiers that fled from prison for poore distressed seruants that were abused by their maisters in time it became dens for theeues stewes for wicked men and leawd women that whatsoeuer was done if they came to the Temple of Osiris in Egipt or to the Temple of Diana in Thracia or to the Temple of Venus in Pâ—…hos they were freed might there take their libertie but poore Demosthenes was taken from the Temple of Neptune by the tyrant Archyas and brought to Athens before his onely enemy Antipater Sanctuaries grew so common that not onely souldiers but also any offenders might fleee from theyr liberties especially in Greece to the graues of Achilles Thesius and Aiax in other places to the graue of Hercules In other places the offender if he had fallen downe at the feete of Iupiters Priest of Mars or of Vulcan at the gates of their temples he should goe free Though the old auntient Romanes could not abide a souldier taken in the wars they would neither redeem him nor allow him sanctuarie yet Agesilaus king of the Lacedemonians allowed any temple of their gods to be a sanctuary for souldiers that fled for succour So did Cyrus proclaime sanctuaries for all banished bond men in Greece in all Asia leuied therby a huge army to fight against his brother Artaxerxes So did Sertorius one of Marius sect proclaime sanctuaries to all the Romaine fugitiues in Hispaine in Affrike that he as much harmed Rome being a Romaine borne and now out of his countrey as eyther Sylla or Marius did in their countrey Hauing sufficiently spoken of these kinde of sanctuaries of theyr too much libertie that grew thereby in all kingdomes as among the Hebrewes by Ieroboam in the battell at Mount Zemaraim among the Persians by Cyrus at the battell at Conauxa among the Romanes by Cinna and among the Affricans by Scotorius who all proclaimed sanctuaries and liberties to all fugitiue and banished souldiers we leaue sanctuaries which were appointed as a refuge for those that fled thither for succour and helpe vntill the truth were knowne and speake not of those that abused sanctuaries as a cloake of their tirannie and wickednesse You heard before how Adonias and Ioab were taken from the Aultar for they had abused the sanctuary for the Lord commaunded that his lawes should be seuerely kept and that no part thereof should be broken for King Oza vsurping the Leuites office against the lawe was striken with sudden death for the vnreuerent handling of the Arke which was the Leuites office Ozias the King was striken with leprosie for burning incense against the lawe which was the Priestes office Abihu and Nadab Aarons sonnes for that they both tooke Censors in their hands put fire therevpon and incense therein offered straunge fire before the Lord contrarie to the Lords commaundement fire from heauen destroyed them for the priests were commaunded to take no fire but from the aultar neither might they offer vncleane bread vpon the Lords table nor sowe cockles for corne in the Lords fields for the Lord will be more sanctified in his ministers then others and therfore he spared not Oza for handling the Arke nor Ozias for burning incense though they were both kings for transgressing one iot of his lawes