A DISCOURSE ON THE HISTORY Of the whole WORLD, Dedicated to his Royal Highness the Dauphin.  
AND Explicating the Continuance of Religion with the Changes of States and Empires; from the Creation till the Reign of Charles the Great.  
Written Originally in French by JAMES BENIGN BOSSVET, sometimes Bishop of Condom, and now of Meaux, Counsellor of State to the most Christian King, heretofore Tutor to the Dauphin, and now Chief Almoner to the Dauphiness.  
Faithfully Englished.  
LONDON, Printed for Matthew Turner at the Lamb in High-Hollorn, MDCLXXXVI.   


TO THE Dauphin. The General Design of this Work.  
THough History were little significant to other Men, yet it ought to be read by Princes. There is no better way to discover to them the various effects and consequences of Passions and Interests, Times and Conjunctures, good and evil Councils. Histories are only composed and made up of such actions as they are engaged in, and in them every thing seems to be done for their Use. If experience be necessary for them to obtain that prudence which may enable them to Reign well, there can be nothing of greater advantage to their instruction, than to join to the examples of former Ages, their own daily experiences: Whereas otherwise they most an end learn only to judge of the dangerous affairs that occur to them, at the expense of both their own Subjects and Glory. But by this Relief of History, without hazarding any thing, they inform their judgements by past Events. When they see even into the most secret Vices of Princes, notwithstanding all the deceitful Flatteries given them in their Lives, exposed to the Eyes of all Men, they blush at the vain Joys and Pleasures, which such adulation raises in them, and sensibly find that there can be no true honour, but where there is a just merit.  
Besides it would be a shame, I do not say to a Prince alone, but in general to any Man of sense and worth, to be ignorant of humane kind, and of the memorable Changes that have happened in the World, through all the Succession of Time. If we do not learn from History how to distinguish Times, we shall represent Men under the Law of Nature, or under the Written Law, to be such as are under the Evangelic Law; we shall speak of Persians conquered by Alexander, as of those victorius Persians under Cyrus; we shall make Greece as free in the time of Philip, as in that of Themistocles, or Miltiades; the Roman People as fierce under the Emperors as under the Consuls; the Church in as great Tranquillity under Dioclesian, as under Constantine; and France labouring under the Convulsions of their Civil Wars in the time of Charles the Ninth, and Henry the Third, as puissant as in the time of Lewis the Fourteenth, which, being reunited under so great a Monarch, by itself triumphs over almost all Europe.  
Now, Sir, it was to avoid these inconveniences, that you have read so many Histories both Ancient and Modern. It was requisite in the first place to make you acquainted with the Sacred Pages, and therein to read the History of the People of God, which serves as a good Foundation to Religion. Nor have you been suffered to be ignorant in the Greek, or Roman History; and which was most important to you, you have been carefully instructed in the History of this great Kingdom, which you are obliged to render happy. But lest these Histories, and those you are yet to learn, should work any confusion in your mind, there is nothing more necessary, than distinctly to represent to you, but as contractedly as we can, all the whole Series of Ages.  
This way of Universal History is, in regard to the Histories of every Country and People, what a general Map is to the particular ones. In the latter you see only the whole description one Kingdom, or Province by itself; but in the Universal Map you learn how to situate those parts of the World in the whole: You see what Paris, or the Isle of France is in the Kingdom, what the Kingdom is in Europe, and what Europe is in the Universe.  
So likewise particular Histories represent to you what things have happened to such or such a People, with all their Circumstances: but to understand the whole clearly, you must know what relation every History can have to others, which is done by such a way as this is, in short, where at one glance of your Eye, as it were, you may see all the order of time.  
Such an Abridgement, Sir, gives you a very great sight. You see all precedent Ages laid, as I may say, before you in a few hours: You see how Empires have succeeded one the other, and how Religion in i●s different Estates hath equally balanced and supported itself, even from the beginning of the World to this present time.  
'Tis the effect of these two things, I mean, that of Religion, and that of Empires, which ought to be deeply imprinted in your memory; and as Religion and Political Government are the two hinges on which all humane Affairs do turn, to see what concerns these things in a small abridged Volume, and to discover by this means the exact order and event thereof, is to comprehend in his thoughts whatsoever is great and glorious among Men, and to hold, as I may say, the thread of all the Affairs of the World.  
And as, when you look upon an Universal Map, you may presently go off from your own native Country, and from the place which bounds you, and run through all the habitable Earth with all its Seas and Countries, which may give a great entertainment to your thoughts: so by looking upon such a Chronological Abridgement, you may go away from the narrow confinements of your own time, and extend yourself into all Ages.  
But as, to help one's memory in the knowledge of places, we must keep in our minds certain chief Towns and Cities, round which we are to place all the rest, according to their several distances; so in the order of Ages we must remember certain Times Memorable for some great event and action, to which we are to bring all the other.  
This we call an Epocha, from a Greek word that signifies to pause upon, because we stay ourselves there to consider, as at a place of rest, whatsoever hath happened both before and since, and by that means do avoid the Anachronisms, that is to say, that sort of Error which makes the confusion of time.  
We must first fix but upon a small number of Epocha's, such as, in the times of ancient History, are Adam, or the Creation; Noah, or the Deluge; the calling of Abraham, or the beginning of God's Alliance with Man; Moses, or the written Laws; the taking of Troy; Solomon, or the building of the Temple; Romulus, or the founding of Rome; Cyrus, or the People of God delivered from the Captivity Babylon; Scipio, or Carthage overcome; the nativity of our blessed Saviour; Constantine, or the peace of the Church; Charlemagne, or the Establishment of the new Empire.  
I make this Establishment of the new Empire under Charlemagne, as the end of the ancient History, because it is there that you will find the ancient Roman Empire wholly to conclude and end. And therefore I stay and fix you at so considerable a point of the Universal History. The continuance shall be presented to you in a Second Part, which I design shall bring you to the Age, which the Immortal actions of your Father make illustrious, and to which, the ardour you show of following so great an Example, makes us, yet to hope a new lustre may be added.  
The Design of this first Discourse is divided into Three Parts.  
After this general Explication of the design of this Work, I find there are three things necessary for me to do, to draw all the profit I hope for from it.  
First of all, I must attend you through all the Epocha's which I have laid down, and if you please to observe with me in this Brevity the principal Events which I shall fix to every one of them, I shall habituate your mind to put these Events in their place, without any other regard than to the order of Time. But as my main design is to make you observe in this efflux of time, that of Religion, and that of great Empires: After I have showed you, according to the course of years, how these things have gone on together, I shall particularly betake myself with some necessary reflections, to consider first of those which give us to understand the perpetual duration of Religion, and then come to the other which discover to us the causes of the great Changes and Revolutions which have happened in Empires.  
After this is done, you will find that what part of ancient History soever you read, all will turn to profit and advantage. There will not any action or matter pass you, but you will perceive the effects of it. You will admire the Consequences of the Councils of God in the Affairs of Religion: You will also see the chain of humane Affairs, and by that will know with how much of reflection and prudent foresight they ought to be governed.   

THE FIRST PART OF THE DISCOURSE.  

Epocha. ●dam, or ●e Creati●  THE First Epocha will immediately present you with a most wonderful Sight. God, who created the Heavens and the Earth by the Word of his Power, 
Age of World.  and made Man after his own Image. It is with this, Moses gins, the most ancient of Historians, the most sublime of Philosophers, and the wisest of Legislators.  
He makes this the Foundation as well of 
Years before J. C. ●004  his History, as of his Doctrine, and Laws. Years of the World. 1 Afterwards he shows us how all Men were shut up in one, and even his Wife to proceed from himself; then he comes to the Concord of Marriages, and the Society of Mankind established upon this Foundation; the Perfection and Power of Man, how much he bo●e of the Image of God in his whole Man; his Empire over all Creatures; his Innocency, together with his Felicity in the Garden of Eden, whose Memory is conserved in the Golden Age of the Poets; the Divine Precept given to our first Parents; the Malice of the Tempting Spirit, and his Appearance under the Form of a Serpent; the Fall of Adam and Eve, most dismal to all their Posterity; the first Man justly punished in all his Children, and Mankind cursed by God; the first Promise of Redemption, and the future Victory of Men over the Devil who had destroyed them.  
Years before J. C. 3875 
Gen. v. 3.4.  The Earth began to fill, and Crimes increased. Years of the World. 129 Cain, the firstborn of Adam and Eve, showed to the early World the first Tragical Action; and Virtue began then to be persecuted by Vice. There appeared the contrary Tempers of the two Brothers; the Innocence of Abel, his Pastoral Life, and his acceptable Sacrifices; those of Cain rejected, his Avarice, Impiety, Parricide, and Jealousy, the Parent of Murders; the Punishment of that Crime; the Conscience of the Parricide disturbed with continual Fears; the first Town built by this wicked Man, who fought out for himself an Asylum against the Hatred and Horror of Mankind; the Invention of Arts by his Children; the Tyranny of Passions, and the prodigious Malignity of Man's Heart always carried out to Evil; the Posterity of Seth faithful to God, notwithstanding this Depravation: Years before J. C. 3017 Pious Enoch miraculously taken Years of the World. 987 out of the World, that was not worthy to enjoy him; the distinction of the Children of God from the Children of Men, that is to say, of those who lived according to the Spirit, from them who lived after the Flesh; their Commixture, and the universal Corruption of the World; the Ruin of Men Years before J. C. 2468 resolved by a just Judgement from God; his Years of the World. 1536 Wrath declared to Sinners by his Servant Noah; their Impenitence, and their Obduracy Years before J. C. 2348 at last punished by the Deluge; Noah Years of the World. 1656 and his Family preserved for the repairing of Mankind.  
This is what fell out in 1656 Years. Such is the Beginning of all Histories, in which is manifested the Almightiness, Wisdom, and Goodness of God; the happy Innocence under his Protection; his Justice in revenging Crimes; and at the same time his Patience, and waiting to be gracious, in staying for the Conversion of Sinners; the Greatness and Dignity of Man in his first Institution; 
Gen. two. ●5. iii. 17, ●8, 19 iv. ●. 〈◊〉 Ib. iv. 2.  the Genius of Mankind since it was corrupted; the Nature of Jealousy, and the secret Causes of Violences and Wars, 
Ib. iii. 21. ●cros. Chald. Hist. Chald. Hie●on. Egypt. ●hoen.  that is to say, all the Foundations of Religion and Morality.  
With Mankind Noah preserved the Arts, as well those which served for the Subsistence of Humane Life, and which Men knew from their first being, as those they had since invented. Those first Arts which Men learned ab origine, and apparently from their Creator, are 
a ●ist. Mnas. Nic. Da●asc. l. 96. abid. de Med. & Assyr.  Agriculture, the 
b Ap. Jos. Antiq. l. 1. ●. 4. & l. 1. ●ont. Apion, & Euseb. L. IX.  Pastoral Art, that 
c Praep. Eu. ●. 11, 12. Plut. opusc. Pl●sne So●ert. terr. an ●●quat. Lucian. de 〈◊〉 Syr.  of Clothing themselves, and it may be too that of Building, and making Lodgings for their Security. And we do not see the beginning of these Arts in the East, in those Places whither Mankind is since scattered.  
The Tradition of the Universal Deluge has gone thorough all the Earth. The Ark in which Noah and his Family were preserved hath been ever celebrated in the East, and chief in those Places where it stayed after the Flood. There are divers other Circumstances of this most excellent History taken particular notice of in the Annals and Traditions of the Ancient People: all the Particularities of Time, and every thing else concurring as much as possibly can be expected in so remote and distant an Antiquity.  

II. Epocha. Noah, or the Deluge. 2. Age of the World.  After the Flood is observable the shortening of Man's Life, and a change and alteration of the way of Living, and a New Nourishment substituted in stead of the Years before J. C. 2348 Fruits of the Earth; some Precepts given Years of the World. 1656 Years before J. C. 2347 to Noah only viva voce, the Confusion of Years of the World. 1657 Years before J. C. 2247 Tongues at the Tower of Babel, the first Years of the World. 1757 Monument, and men's Weakness, the Division of Noah's three Sons, and the first Distribution of Lands.  
The Memory of the three first Authors of Nations and People is preserved among Men. Japhet, who Peopled the greatest part of the West, continues there in great veneration under the Name of Japhet. Cham and his Son Canaan have been no less known among the Egyptians and Phoenicians; and the Remembrance of Shem has been always held Sacred among the Hebrews, who came from him.  
A little after this first Division of Mankind, Nimrod, a Wild Man, became by his violent Humour the first of Conquerors; and this was the Origine of all Conquests. He established his Kingdom in Babylon, 
Gen. x. 9, 10, 18.  in the same Place where the Tower was begun, and had been carried up to a strange height, but yet it seems not up to that stature the Vanity of Man intended or desired it. Round about it, much-what at the same time, Niniveh was built, and some other ancient Kingdoms settled. They were but small in those first and early Times, and there was even in Egypt itself Four Dynasties or Principalities; that of Thebes, that of Tine, that of Memphis, and that of Tanis, which was the Chief of Lower Egypt. To much about this time may be referred the beginning of the Laws and Policies of the Egyptians, that of their Pyramids which remain to this day, and that of the Astronomical Observations of as well those People, Years before J. C. 2233 as of the Chaldeans. We may likewise Years of the World. 1771 bring up to about this time, and no higher, the Observations which the Chaldeans (for they were without dispute the first Observers of the Stars) gave in Babylon to calisthenes for Aristotle. 
Porphyr. ap. Simp. l. two. de Caelo.   
Every thing gins: There is no ancient History wherein there appears, not only in these first times, but a long time after, some manifest Vestigia of the newness of the World. We see Laws were to be made and established, Manners to be amended, and Empires to be form. Mankind coming out by degrees from Ignorance; Experience instructs them, and Arts are either invented or perfected. Accordingly as Men multiplied, the Land was populated, and Inhabitants came to live nearer to one another. Mountains and Precipices were passed over; Rivers crossed, and at last the Seas; and Men established new Habitations. The Earth, which in the Beginning was but a wild Forest, now took another Form; the grub'd-up Trees gave way to Fields, Pasturages, Hamlets, Burroughs, and at length to Cities. They began then to have the Art and Cunning of taking some kind of Beasts, of tarning others, and bringing them up to Labour and Service. At first they were used to engage and fight with wild Beasts. The first Heroes made themselves signal in these sort of Exercises. 
Gen. x. 9  This gave occasion to the inventing of Arms, which afterwards Men turned one against another: Nimrod, the first Warrior and first Conqueror, is called in Scripture a mighty Hunter. But Man's Skill lay not only in Beasts, he knew also how to bring up Plants, and ripen Fruits. He likewise reduced Metals to his use, and by degrees made them serviceable to all Mankind. And as it was but natural, that time should invent and find out a great many things, so likewise time made several other things be forgot, at least to most Men. Those first Arts which Noah had preserved, and which are always kept up in some Countries, where ●ver there is a first Establishment of Mankind, that is to say, in new Plantations, are lost proportionably, as they are distant from that Country. For either they must be learned over again with time, or else those who had preserved them, must carry them over to those others. Wherefore we see all things, to come from Lands that have been always inhabited, where the Grounds and Foundations of Arts remain in their Perfection, and there also is to be learned every day things very considerable. The Knowledge of God, and the Remembrance of the Creation was preserved there; but it did daily degenerate, and grew weaker and weaker. The Ancient Traditions were either quite forgot, or at least obscure and dim: The Fables and Stories that have succeeded them, retained only the gross Ideas of them: False Deities multiplied and became more numerous, and that gave occasion to the calling of Abraham.  

III. Epocha. The Call of Abraham. 3. Age of the World.  Four hundred twenty six Years after the Deluge, as every Body walked after their own ways, and never were mindful of that God that made them, this great Creator, to hinder the Progress of so abominable a Years before J. C. 1921 Wickedness, in the midst of their Sins, began Years of the World. 2083 to set apart to himself a chosen People. Abraham was elected to be the Father of the Faithful: God called him in the Land of Canaan, where he resolved to establish his Worship, and to settle the Children of that blessed Patriarch whom he said he would multiply as the Stars of Heaven, and as the Sand on the Seashore. To the promise that he made of giving this Land to his posterity, he joined another far more great and illustrious, and that was that mighty blessing, which was to extend to all the people of the World in Jesus Christ coming forth from his offspring. 
Heb. seven. 1. 2, 3, etc.  This was that Jesus Christ whom Abraham honoured, in the Person of the great Highpriest Melchisedeck, unto whom he gave the tent of the Spoils, which he had got, returning from the slaughter of Kings, and by whom he was blest. In the midst of these vast Riches, and of a Power commensurate to that of Kings, Abraham still kept to his old ways and customs, he ever led a plain, simple, and pastoral Life, which yet had its due Magnificence, and the Patriarch made it principally appear in his generous Hospitality to all People. Heaven Years before J. C. 1856 at last was pleased to send him Guests; Years of the World. 2148 the Angels revealed to him the Counsels of God; he believed them, and appeared in all things full of Faith and Piety.  
In his time Inachus, the most ancient of all Kings known by the Grecians, founded the Kingdom of Argos. After Abraham, there was Isaac his Son, and Jacob Grandson, the Imitators and followers of his Faith and Simplicity in the same pastoral Life. God did also to them reiterate the same Promises he had made to Abraham their Father, Years before J. C. 1759 and as he had done him, he conducted them Years of the World. 2245 in all things. Isaac blessed Jacob, to the prejudice as well as grief of Esau his elder Brother; and deceived in appearance, in effect and reality he executes the Counsels and Determinations of God. Jacob, whom God protected, was in all things to be preferred to Esau. An Angel, with whom he mysteriously fought, gave unto him the Name of Israel, from whence his Posterity were called Israelites. From his Loins came the Twelve Patriarches, Fathers to the Twelve Tribes of the Hebrew People; among others Levi, from whence issued the Ministers of Sacred things; Judah, from whom came CHRIST, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; and Joseph, whom Jacob loved above all the rest of his Children. In him were made manifest some new Secrets of Providence: But above all things was seen the Innocence and Wisdom of young Joseph, who was always an utter Enemy to Wickedness and Vice, and careful to repress and hinder it in his Brethren; his Mysterious and Prophetic Dreams; his Brethren jealous, and Jealousy twice the Years before J. C. 1728 Cause of a Parricide; the selling of this Years of the World. 2276 their Great Brother; his Fidelity to his Master, and his most admirable Chastity; the dangerous Calamities it brought upon him; Years before J. C. 1717 his Prison, and his Constancy; his Predictions; Years of the World. 2287 his miraculous Deliverance; that Years before J. C. 1715 Famous Interpretation of Pharaoh's Dreams; Years of the World. 2289 the Desert of so Great a Man required; his Genius elevated and fitted for his Place; and God's Protection, which made him to Rule Years before J. C. 1706 wherever he was; his Foresight; his wise Years of the World. 2298 Counsels, and his absolute Power in the Kingdom of the Lower Egypt: By this means here was the Safety of his Father Jacob and his Family. This Family, cherished by God, was thus settled and established in that part of Egypt whereof Tanis was the Capital, and of which the Kings took Years before J. C. 1689 the Name of Pharaoh. Jacob dies, and a Years of the World. 2315 little before his Death he delivers this most celebrated Prophecy, where discovering to his Sons the Patriarches the State of their Posterity, he particularly points out to Judah the time of the Messiahs coming into the World, who was to proceed from his Race. This Patriarch's Household became a very great People in a little time; and this prodigious increase and multiplying raised the Egyptians Jealousy: The Hebrews are unjustly hated, and without any pity persecuted: God raises up Moses their Years before J. C. 1571 Deliverer, whom he preserved from the Years of the World. 2433 River Nilus, and made him fall into the Hands of Pharaoh's Daughter: She brought him up as her own Child, and instructed him in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians. At that time the People of Egypt settled themselves in several Places of Greece. The Years before J. C. 1556 Colony that Cecrops brought out of Egypt Years of the World. 2448 founded twelve Cities, or rather Towns, of which he made the Kingdom of Athens, and where he established with the Laws of his Country, the Gods that were to be worshipped there. 
Marm. Arund. seu Aera Att.  A little after happened the Deucalion-Flood in Thessaly, confounded by the Greeks with the Universal Deluge. Helen the Son of Deucalion reigned in Phtie, a Country in Thessaly, and gave his Name to Greece. The People, which before were called Greeks, ever since have born the Name of Helleneses, tho' the Latins have called them by their old Name. Moreover, about this time Cadmus the Son of Agenor transported into Greece a Colony of Phoenicians, and founded the City of Thebes in Boeotia. The Syrian and Phoenician Gods came along with him into Greece. In the mean while Years before J. C. 1531 Moses grew up in years, and about the Fortieth Years of the World. 2473 of his Age he despised the Riches of the Court of Egypt; and touched with the Wickedness of his Brethren the Israelites, to appease and moderate them, he ventured his own Life. But these Men were so far from receiving any Benefit by his Zeal and Courage, that they exposed him to the Fury of Pharaoh, who was resolved on his Ruin. Moses flies out of Egypt into Arabia, to the Land of Midian, where his Virtue, which was always ready to relieve the Oppressed, made him find a safe Retreat. Years before J. C. 1491 This Great Man, without any hopes of delivering Years of the World. 2513 his People, or expectation of better Times, had spent Forty years in keeping the Flock of Jethro his Father-in-Law, when he saw in the Desert a Burning Bush, and heard the Voice of the God of his Fathers, who sent him back into Egypt, to bring forth his Brethren the Children of Israel out of Captivity. There appeared the Humility, Courage, and Miracles of that Divine Legislator; the Hardness of Pharaoh's Heart, and the terrible Plagues which God sent upon him; the Passover, and the next day the Passing over the Red Sea: Pharaoh and the Egyptians drowned in those Waters, and the absolute Deliverance of the Israelites.  

iv Epocha. Moses, or the Written Law.  The Time of the Written Law now gins. It was given to Moses Four hundred and thirty years after the Calling of Abraham, Eight hundred fifty six years after the Flood, and the same year that the Hebrew Years before J. C. 1491 People came out of Egypt. This Date is Years of the World. 2513 very observable, because it is very useful for designating the whole time that has elapsed ever since Moses unto Jesus Christ. All this Time is called the Time of the Written Law, to distinguish it from the precedent Time, which is called the Time of the Law of Nature, wherein Men had only for their Guide and Rule of Governance, Natural Reason, and the Traditions of their Ancestors. God then having freed his People from the Tyranny of the Egyptians, and brought them into the Land where he designed to be served and worshipped; before ever he established it there, he proposed to him the Law according to which he was to live. He wrote with his own Hand upon two Tables of Stone, which he delivered to Moses upon the top of Mount Sinai, the Foundation of this Law, that is to say, the Decalogue, or the Ten Commandments, which contain the First Principles how God is to be worshipped, and Humane Society preserved. He dictated to the same Moses the other Precepts, by which he established the Tabernacle, 
Heh. ix. 9, 23.  the Figure of Future Time; the Ark, wherein God discovered himself to be present by his Oracles, and in which the Tables of the Law were kept; the Advancement of Aaron the Brother of Moses; the Highpriest, the Ceremonies of their Consecration, and the Form of their mysterious Habits; the Priests Functions, the Sons of Aaron; those of the Levites, with the other Observances of Religion; and that which is most beautiful and decent, the Rules of good Manners, the Policy and Government of his chosen People, of whom he would be himself the Legislator. This is what is observable in the Epocha of the Written Law. Afterwards, we see the Journey continued in the Wilderness; the Revolts, the Idolatries, the Punishments and Consolations of the People of God, whom this Almighty Legislator reduced by these means by degrees: the Anointing of Eleazor Years before J. C. 1452 the Highpriest, and the Death of his Years of the World. 2552 Father Aaron: the Zeal of Phineas the Son of Eleazor, and the Priesthood secured to his Posterity by a particular Promise. During this time the Egyptians continued the Establishment of their Colonies in divers Places, chief in Greece, where Danaus' the Egyptian was made King of Argos, and dispossessed the Ancient Kings that came Years before J. C. 1451 from Inachus. Towards the end of the Israelites Years of the World. 2553 Journeying in the Wilderness, we see the Beginnings of Wars, which are rendered successful through the Prayers of Moses. But he dies, and leaves to the Israelites their whole History, which he had carefully digested from the beginning of the World even to the time of his Death. This History is continued by the command of Josuah, and his Successors. This afterwards was divided into several Books; and hence it is that we have the Book of Josuah, the Book of Judges, and the Four Books of Kings. The History which Moses wrote, and in which all the Law was included, was also divided into Five Books, which are called the Pentateuch, and which are the Ground of Religion. After the Death of that Man of God, we read of the Wars of Josuah, Years before J. C. 1445 the Conquest and Division of the Holy Land, Years of the World. 2559 and the Rebellions of the People, punished and reestablished at divers times. There Years before J. C. 1405 are likewise the Victories of Othoniel the Son Years of the World. 2599 Years before J. C. 1325 of Kenaz, the Brother of Caleb, who delivered Years of the World. 2679 him from the Tyranny of Chausan-Rishathaim King of Mesopotamia; and Eighty years after That, of Ehud the Son of Gera, Years before J. C. 1322 over Eglon King of Moab. About this Years of the World. 3682 time Pelops the Phrygian, the Son of Tantalus, reigned in Peloponnesus, and called that famous Country by his Name. Bel the King of the Chaldeans received from those People Divine Honours. The ungrateful, Years before J. C. 1305 murmuring Israelites fall again into Servitude. Years of the World. 1699 Jabin King of Chanaan subjecteth Years before J. C. 1285 them; but Deborah the Prophetess who Years of the World. 2719 judged the People, and Baruc the Son of Ahinoam, overcame Sisera the General of Years before J. C. 1245 that King's Army. Thirty years after this, Years of the World. 2759 Gideon that mighty Man of Valour, even without fight pursues and overcomes the Years before J. C. 1236 Medianites. Abimelech his Son usurped the Years of the World. 2768 Authority by the Murder of his Brethren, exercised it after a Tyrannical manner, and Years before J. C. 1187 at last loseth it and his Life together. Jephtha Years of the World. 2817 makes his Victory bloody by a Sacrifice that was not to be excused but by a secret Order and Dispensation from Heaven, concerning which it hath not pleased him to reveal any thing to us. In this Age there happened very remarkable things among the Gentiles. 
Herod. l. 1. c. 26.  For, according to Herodotus his Account, which seems to be the most exact, Years before J. C. 1267 we are to reckon for that time 514. years' Years of the World. 2737 before Rome, 
Gen. x. 11.  and from the time of Deborah, Ninus the Son of Bel, and the Foundation of the first Empire of the Assyrians. The Court was established at Nineveh, an Ancient City, and then pretty Famous; but it was made more Splendid and Glorious by Ninus. Those who ascribe 1300 years to the first Assyrians, have their Foundation from the Ancientness of the City: and Herodotus, who allows them but 500, speaks only of the Empire's Duration since its beginning under Ninus the Son of Bel to extend itself into the Upper Asia. A little after, and in that Conqueror's Reign, 
Jos. nineteen. 20. Joseph. Antiq. 8.2.  we are to fix the Foundation, or the Renewal of the ancient City of Tyre, whose Navigation, and whose Colonies rendered it so Years before J. C. 1252 considerable. At last, a little after Abimelech's Years of the World. 2752 time, we meet with the memorable Combats of Hercules the Son of Amphitryon, and those of Theseus' King of Athens, who made but one great City of the twelve Towns of Cecrops, and instituted a better Form of Government among the Atheninians. During Jephtha's time, whilst Semiramis, who came from Ninus, and was the Governess of Ninyas, enlarged the Assyrian Empire by her Victories. The Famous City of Troy, already taken once by the Greeks under Laomedon its third King, was Years before J. C. 1184 utterly reduced again by the Greeks, under Years of the World. 2820 Priam the Son of Laomedon, after a Siege of ten years.  

V Epocha. The Taking of Troy. The fourth Age of the World.  This Epocha of the Ruin of Troy, which happened about the year 308. after the Departure out of Egypt, and 1164 years after the Deluge, is very considerable, as well because of the Importance of so great an Years before J. C. 1184 Event, celebrated by two of the greatest Years of the World. 2820 Poets of Greece and Italy; as because that every thing may be brought to this Date which was most remarkable in those called the Fabulous, or Heroic Times; the Fabulous, by reason of the Fables in which the Histories of those Times are wrapped, and Heroick, by reason of those whom the Poets have called the Sons of the Gods, and Heroes. Their Lives were not far from this Overthrow: For in the time of Laomedon the Father of Priam, were all the Heroes of the Golden Fleece, Jason, Hercules, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, and all the others that are known to you; and in the time of Priam likewise, during the last Siege of Troy, there were Achilles, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Ulysses, Hector, Sar●edon the Son of Jupiter, Aeneas the Son of Venus, whom the Romans acknowledged for their Founder, and several others, from whom the most Illustrious Families, and even whole Nations boast that they descend. This Epocha therefore is proper to recollect whatsoever the Fabulous Times had that was most certain, and most eminent. But what is seen in the Sacred History, is in all Points most remarkable; Years before J. C. 1177 the prodigious Strength of Samson, Years of the World. 2887 and likewise his marvellous Weakness; Eli Years of the World. 1176 the Highpriest, Venerable by his Piety, Years of the World. 2888 Years before J. C. 1095 and unhappy by the Gild of his Sons; Samuel Years of the World. 2909 an irreproachable Judge, and a Prophet chosen by God to anoint Kings; Saul, the first King of God's People, his Victories, his presumption to Sacrifice without the Priests; his Disobedience pitifully excused under the pretence of Religion; his Reprobation, his fatal Fall. About this time Codrus King of Athens gave up himself to death for the safety of his People, and by his Death they got the Victory. His Sons Medon and Nileus dispute for the Kingdom. Upon this occasion the Athenians abolish all Regality, and declare that Jupiter was their only King. They created Governors, or perpetual Precedents; but they were subject to render an account of their Administration. These Magistrates were called Archontes. Medon, the Son of Codrus, was the first who exercised this Magistracy; and it continued a long while in his Family. The Athenians extended their Colonies into that part of Lesser Asia which was called jonia. The Aeolic Colonies were set up much-what about the same time, and all the Lesser Asia was filled with Greek Towns.  
Years before J. C. 1055 After Saul came David, that admirable Years of the World. 2949 Shepherd, the Conqueror of the fierce Goliath, and of all the Enemies of the People of God; a great King, a great Conqueror, and a great Prophet, worthy to sing out the Praises and wonderful Works of his great Creator: in a word, a Man after God's Years before J. C. 1034 own Heart, as he himself styles him, and Years of the World. 2970 Years before J. C. 1014 who by his Repentance did even turn his Years of the World. 2990 Offences to the Glory of his Maker. To this Pious Warrior succeeded his Son Solomon, Wise, Just, Peaceful, whose Hands Years before J. C. 1012 undefiled with Blood, were accounted worthy Years of the World. 2992 to build the Temple of God.  

VI Epocha. Solomon, or the Temple finished. 5. Age of the World.  This was about the year 3000. of the World, the year 488. since the Departure out of Egypt, and, to adjust the Times of Sacred History with those of the Profane, 180 years after the taking of Troy, 250 years before the Founding of Rome, and 1000 years before Jesus Christ, when Solomon Years before J. C. 1004 finished that stupendious Edifice. He Years of the World. 3000 Years before J. C. 1003 celebrated the Dedication of it with an extraordinary Years of the World. 3001 Piety and Magnificence: And this famous Action was followed with several other Wonders of the Reign of Solomon, which ended in shameful Weaknesses. He gave up himself to the Love of Women, which debased his Mind, made his Heart grow wavering, so that at last his Piety degenerated into Idolatry. God tho' justly provoked, yet spares him for the sake of David his Servant; however he would not suffer his Ingratitude utterly to go unpunished: he divides his Kingdom after his death, under his Son Rehoboam. The Brutish Pride of that young Prince causes Ten of his Years before J. C. 975 Tribes to be cut off from him, which Jeroboam Years of the World. 3029 separated from their God, and from their King. For fear lest they should return to the Kings of Judah, he forbids them going to Sacrifice at the Temple of Jerusalem, and he sets up his Golden Calves, to which he ascribes the Name of the God of Israel, that so the Innovation might appear less strange. The same Reason made him retain the Law of Moses, which he interpreted according to his own Will and Pleasure: but almost all the Polity of it he caused to be observed, as well the Civil as Religious; so that the Pentateuch remained still in veneration among the separated Tribes.  
Thus was the Kingdom of Israel set up against the Kingdom of Judah. In that of Israel Impiety and Idolatry reigned and triumphed. But Religion, tho' it was several times clouded in that of Judah, yet it was always preserved there. About this Years before J. C. 971 time the Kings of Egypt were very powerful. Years of the World. 3033 The Four Kingdoms had been reunited under that of Thebes. It is believed that Sesostris, that famous Conqueror of the Egyptians, is that Sesac King of Egypt, whom God made use of to chastise the Impiety of Rehoboam. In the Reign of Abijah the Son of Rehoboam is observable that great and mighty Victory, which the Piety of that Prince gained him over the Schismatical Tribes. H●s Son Asa, whose Piety is commended Years before J. C. 917 in Scripture, is taken notice of there Years of the World. 3087 to be a Man who in his Sicknesses relied more upon the Humane Help of Medicines, than of the Goodness and Power of God. Years before J. C. 924 In his time Amri King of Israel built Samaria, Years of the World. 3080 Years before J. C. 914 where he established the Seat of his Years of the World. 3090 Kingdom.  
This Time is followed with the admirable Reign of Jehosaphat, wherein flourished Piety, Justice, Navigation, and the Military Art. Whilst he appeared in the Kingdom of Judah another David, Ahab and his Wife Jezabel, who then reigned in Israel, joined to Jeroboam's Idolatry all the Impieties Years before J. C. 899 of the Gentiles. They perished both of Years of the World. 3105 them miserably. God, who had boar with their Idolatries, was resolved to revenge upon them the Blood of Naboth, whom they had caused to be slain, because he had refused, as the Law of Moses required, to sell them the Fee of his Paternal Inheritance. Their Sentence was pronounced by the Mouth of the Prophet Elijah. Ahab was kille● some time after, notwithstanding all Years before J. C. 987 his circumspection to save himself. About Years of the World. 3107 this time we are to r●ckon the Foundation of Carthage, which Dido, who was come from Tyre, built in a Place, after the Example of Tyre, which was very convenient for Traffic, as it was likewise for becoming Mistress of the Sea. It is somewhat hard to assign the Time when it form itself into a Republic; but the mixing of the Tyrians and Africans made it become equally Warlike and Trafficking. The ancient H●s●orians, who place its Origine before the Ruin of Troy, seem to fancy that Dido rather enlarged and fortified it, than that ever Years before J. C. 888 she laid the Foundations of it. Affairs began Years of the World. 3116 to change Figure in the Kingdom of Judah. Athaliah the Daughter of Ahab and Jezabel carried Impiety along with her into the House of Jehosaphat. Jehoram, the Son of so pious a Prince, chose rather to imitate his Father-in-Law than his own Father. Years before J. C. 885 The Hand of God was upon him. His Years of the World. 3119 Reign was short, and his End dreadful. In the midst of his Chastisements God wrought unheard-of Prodigies, even in favour of the Israelites, whom he would now recall to Repentance. They sa●, without ever being converted, the Wonders of Elijah and Elisha, who prophesied during the Reign of Ahab, 
M●rr●. A●●na.  and five of his Successors. At this time H●mer flourished; as Hesiod had done Thirty years before. The Ancient Manners a●d Customs which they represent to us, and the Vestigia that they still keep, with much Grandeur, and with the ancient Simplicity, does not a little serve to let us understand the Antiquities that are a great deal more remote, and the Divine Simplicity Years before J. C. 884 of the Scripture. There had been terrible Years of the World. 3120 Spectacles in the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Jezabel was thrown down out of a Tower-window by the command of Jehu, who valued not the painting her Face, and tiring her Head, but fulfilled the Word of the Lord, in causing his Horses to tread her under their Feet. He killed Jehoram King of Israel, the Son of Ahab: even all the House of Ahab was destroyed; and it wanted but a little of drawing that of the Kings of Judah into its own Ruin. King Ahazia the Son of Joram King of Judah and of Athaliah, was slain in Samaria with his Brethren, as an Ally and Friend to the Children of Ahab. As soon as this News was brought to Jerusalem, Athaliah resolved to cut off all that remained of the Seed-Royal, without sparing her own Children, and so to reign and govern by the loss of her own. Only Jehoash the Son of Ahaziah, a Child that then hung at the Breast, was stole away from her Fury by Jehosheba his Aunt. Jehosheba the Sister of Ahaziah, and Wife of Jehoiada the Highpriest, hide him in the House of the Lord, and saved that only precious Remainder of the House of David. Athaliah, who thought him dead with the rest, lived without fear. 
Plat. de Rep●● 〈…〉 Arist. ●olit. l. 2. c. 9  Lycurgus' prescribed Laws to the Lacedæmonians. He is rebuked for having made them all Martial, after the Example of Minos, whose Institutions he had followed; and for having but little provided for the women's Modesty: for, that so he might make all his Men Soldiers, he obliged them to a very laborious and temperate Life. Nothing was stirring in Judah against Athaliah, and therefore she thought herself established during a six years' Reign: But God raised her up an Years before J. C. 678 Avenger in the holy Sanctuary of his Temple. Years of the World. 3326 When he was come to be seven years old, Jehoiada made him known to some of the Rulers over Hundreds, with the Captains of the Guard and the Royal Army, whom he had carefully managed; and being assisted with the Priests, he anointed the young King in the Temple. Easily were the People persuaded to acknowledge the Heir of Dav●d, and of Jehosaphat. At the noise whereof Athaliah ran to dissipate the Conspiracy; but being forced without the Ranges of the Temple, she there received the Reward of her Crimes. As long as Jehoiada lived, Joash reigneth well, keeping to the Law of Moses. After the Death of this holy Man of God, corrupted by the Flatteries of his Courtiers, he falls in with them to downright Idolatry. The Highpriest Years before J. C. 840 Zacharias, the Son of Jehoiada, was resolved Years of the World. 3164 to reprove him for it; but Jehoash, without ever being mindful of what he owed to his Father, caused him to be stoned. But Vengeance followed close at the heels of Years before J. C. 839 this: for the next year Jehoash being beaten Years of the World. 3165 by the Syrians, and fallen into contempt, was assassinated by his own Subjects; and Amaziah his Son, a better Man than himself, was set upon the Throne.  
Years before J. C. 825 The Kingdom of Israel being wasted and Years of the World. 3179 depressed by the Victories of the Kings of Syria, and by Civil Wars, re-assumed its Forces under Jeroboam II. who was more pious than his Predecessors. Hoziah, otherwise called Azariah, the Son of Amaziah, also governed the Kingdom of Judah with no less Honour and Glory. This is that Years before J. C. 810 Famous Hoziah that was smitten with Leprosy, Years of the World. 3194 and often reproved in Scripture, for having towards his latter days presumed to take upon him the Priestly Office, and against the Prohibition of the Law, had himself offered up Incense upon the Altar of Perfumes. He was to be set aside, though he was a King, according to the Law of Moses; and Jotham his Son, who was afterwards his Successor, did wisely govern the Kingdom. Under the Reign of Hoziah, the Holy Prophets, the Chief of whom at that time were Hosea and Isaiah, began to publish their Prophecies in Writing, and in particular Books, the Originals of which they deposited in the Temple, to serve as a Monument to Posterity. The Lesser Prophecies which were given only viuâ voce, were, as was usual, registered in the Rolls of the Temple, with the History of the time. The Years before J. C. 776 Olympic Games, instituted by Hercules, and Years of the World. 3228 long discontinued, were reestablished, and from that re-establishment came the Olympiades', by which the Grecians counted their Years. Abo●● this time ended that which Varro calls th● Fabulous, because the profane Histories than were full of confusion and falsities, and the Historical times began, wherein the affairs of the World were reported with more exactness and fidelity. The first Olympiad is marked out by the victory of Corebus. They were renewed every five years, and after four years' Revolution. There in the Assembly of all Greece, at Pisa first, and afterwards at Elida, those famous Combats were celebrated, where the Conquerors were crowned with incredible Applauses. The Exercises likewise were in great honour, and Greece every day became more strong, and more cultivated. Italy as yet was almost all over savage. The Latin Kings of Aeneas' Race reigned at Alba. Phul was King of Assyria. 'Twas believed he was the Father of Sardanapalus, called according to the Eastern Custom Sardan Pull, that is to say, Sardan the Son of Phul. 'Twas also thought, that this Phul, or Pull, had been King Years before J. C. 771 of nineveh, who joined with his People in Years of the World. 3233 Repentance at the Preaching of Ionas. That Prince, invited by the Confusions of the Kingdom of Israel, went to invade it; but being come to an Agreement with Manahem, he established him in the Throne that he went to Usurp by Violence, and received by way of acknowledgement, the Tribute of a thousand Talents. Under his Son Sardanapalus, and after Alcmaeon the last perpetual Archon of the Athenians, that People whom his humour led insensibly to affect a popular Estate, lessened the Power of their Magistrates, and in ten years wholly overthrew the Archontick Administration. The first of this way was Charops. Romulus and Remus sprung from the ancient Kings of Alba, by their Mother Ilia, reestablished in the Kingdom of Alba their Grandfather Numitor, of which his Brother Amilius had dispossessed him; and presently after they founded Rome, whilst Jotham Reigned in Judah.  

VII. Epocha. Romulus, or Rome founded.  That City, which was to be the Mistress of the World, and in futurity the chief Seat of the Romish Religion, was founded toward the end of the third year of the sixth Years before J. C. 754 Olympiad, 430 years after the taking Years of the World. 3250 of Troy, from whence the Romans believed their Ancestors to be sprung, and 753 years before Jesus Christ. Romulus' being bred up hardly with Shepherds, and always Years of Rome. 1 engaged in Warlike Exercises, consecrated this City to the God of War, who he Years before J. C. 748 said was his Father. About the time of Years of Rome. 6 Rome's Birth, through the effeminate Luxury of Sardanapalus, happened the Fall of the first Empire of the Assyrians. The Medes, a warlike People, animated by the Discourses of Arbaces their Governor, set an Example to all his Subjects of contemning and scorning him: All were up in a general revolt against him, and at length he perished in his chief City, where he saw himself constrained to fling himself into the Fire with his Concubines, his Eunuches, and his Riches. Out of the Ruins of this Empire, were seen to come three great Kingdoms. Arbaces, or Orbaces, whom some call Pharnaces, freed the Medes, who after a very long Anarchy, had three most puissant Kings. Moreover, presently after Sardanapalus there appeared a second Kingdom of the Assyrians, Years before J. C. 747 of which Nineveh was the chief City, Years of Rome. 7 and a Kingdom of Babylon. These two last Kingdoms are not unknown to profane Authors, and are much celebrated in the sacred History. The second Kingdom of Nineveh is founded by Tilgath, of Tiglath the Son of Phalaser called for this reason Tiglathphalesar, to whom was also given the name of Ninus the younger. Baladan, whom the Greeks called Belasis, established the Kingdom of Babylon, which is known by the name of Nabonassar. From thence the Aera of Nabonassar, famous with Ptolemy, and the ancient Astronomers, who reckoned their years by the Reign of that Prince. It is fit to explain here the signification of this word Aera, which is a number of Years began at a certain point of Time, which some extraordinary Accident makes remarkable. Wicked Years before J. C. 740 and Sinful Ahaz King of Judah, oppressed Years of Rome. 14 by Rezin King of Syria, and by Pekah the Son of Remaliah King of Israel, instead of having recourse to God who stirred him up those Enemies to punish him, called Tiglathphalesar the first King of Assyria or Nineveh, who brought the Kingdom of Israel to its last extremity, and utterly destroyed that of Syria, and at the same time he ravaged that of Judah which had desired his Assistance. Thus the Kings of Assyria took Years before J. C. 721 the way to the Holy Land, and resolved Years of Rome. 33 upon the Conquest of it. They began with the Kingdom of Israel, which Salmanasser the Son and Successor of Tilgath Pilneser utterly destroyed. Osee, King of Israel, relied upon the succour of Sabacon, otherwise called Sua, or Soü●, King of Aethiopia, who had invaded Egypt. But that mighty Conqueror could not get it out of the hands of Salmanassar. The ten Tribes, with whom the Worship of God was quite worn off, were transported to Nineveh, and being dispersed among the Gentiles, they so lost themselves there, that no farther tracing of them can be discovered. There remained some of them, who were mixed among the Jews, and made a small part of the Kingdom Years before J. C. 715 of Judah. At this time happened the Years of Rome. 39 Death of Romulus. He was always fight, and always victorious; but in the midst of his Wars, he notwithstanding laid the Foundation of Religion and Laws. A Years before J. C. 714 long Peace gave Numa his Successor a good opportunity to finish that Work. He form Years of Rome. 40 Religion, and qualified the wild and extravagant Manners of the Romans. In his time the Colonies that came from Corinth, and several other Towns of Greece, founded Syracuse in Sicily, Crotona, Tarentum, and perhaps some other Towns in that part of Italy, to which the most ancient Greek Colonies, which were spread over all the Country, had already given the name of Great Greece. In the mean time Hezekiah, the most Pious, and the justest of all the King's Years before J. C. 710 ever since David, reigned in Judah. Sennacherib, the Son and Successor of Salmanassar, Years of Rome. 44 besieged him in Jerusalem with a vast and prodigious Army; which was in one night destroyed by the Hand of an Angel, which went out, and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians, an hundred fourscore and five Thousand. Hezekiah being delivered in so wonderful a manner, served God with all his People more faithfully than ever. But Years before J. C. 698 after that Prince his Death, under his Son Years of Rome. 56 Manasseh, the ungrateful forgot their God, and so disorders and calamities were multiplied Years before J. C. 687 upon them. A popular State or commonwealth Years of Rome. 67 was then form among the Athenians, and they began to elect annual Archontes or Governors, the first of whom was Creon. Whilst wickedness increased in the Kingdom of Judah, the Power of the Kings of Assyria, which were to be their avengers, grew daily stronger under Esarhaddon Years before J. C. 681 the Son of Sennacherib. He reunited the Years of Rome. 73 Kingdom of Babylon to that of Nineveh, and equalled in Great Asia, the Power of the Years before J. C. 677 first Assyrians. 
2 Kings xvii. 24. 1 Esd. iv. 2.  In his Reign, the Cuthians, Years of Rome. 77 People of Assyria, since called Samaritans, were placed in the City of Samaria, instead of the Children of Israel. These joined to that of Idolatry, the Worship of God, and obtained of Esarhaddon, an Israelitish Priest, who taught them the manner of the God of the Land, that is, to observe the Law of Moses. God resolving not to have his Name utterly abolished, in a Land that he had given to his People, he left there his Law as an earnest and testimony. 
2 Kings xvii. 27, 28, etc.  But their Priest gave them only the Books of Moses, which the revolted ten Tribes had retained, during the time of their Schism. The Scriptures composed by the Prophets, who sacrificed in the Temple, were by them detested; and therefore the Samaritans have received no other than the Pentateuch even down to this day.  
Whilst Esarhaddon and the Assyrians so firmly were settling themselves in greater Asia, the Medes likewise began to be considerable. Dejoces their first King, named Arphaxad in Scripture, founded the Great City Ecbatana, and laid the Foundations of a great Empire. They had set him on the Throne to reward his virtues, and to put an end to the disorders, which Anarchy had caused among them. Conducted by so great a King, 
Herod. l. 1. c. 27.  they supported themselves against their Neighbours, but they did not enlarge their Years before J. C. 671 Dominions. Rome daily grew, but it was weakly. Under Tullus Hostilius the Third Years of Rome. 83 King, and by the famous Battle between the Horatij and the Curatii, Alba was conquered and ruined: Its Citizens incorporated in that victorious Ville did mightily greaten and fortify it. Romulus was the first who took that way to make it more flourishing, where he received the Sabins, and other vanquished People. And they forgot their Overthrow, and became most Faithful and Affectionate Subjects. Rome in extending its Conquests regulated its Militia, and it was under Tullus Hostilius, that it began to learn that Noble Discipline, which made it to be at last the Years before J. C. 670 Mistress of the Universe. The Kingdom Years of Rome. 84 of Egyyt weakened by its long Divisions, was reestablished under Psammeticus. That Prince, who owed his Safety to the jonians and Carians, established them in Egypt then shut to Strangers. About this time the Egyptians began to commerce with the Greeks, and since that time also the History of Egypt down to the mingling of pompous Fables by the Artifice of the Priests, began, as Years before J. C. 657 Herodotus tells us, 
Herod. l. 2. c. 95.  to have some certainty. In the mean time the Kings of Assyria became more and more terrible to all the East. Years of Rome. 97 Saosduchin, the Son of Esarhaddon, called Nebuchadonosor in the Book of Judith, in battle array defeated Arphaxad, King the Medes. Years before J. C. 656 Flushed with this Success, he attempted to Years of Rome. 98 conquer all the Land. To compass this his design, he passed the Euphrates, and ravaged all as far as Judah. The Jews had provoked God, and given themselves up to Idolatry, after the Example of Manass●h; but they had repent with that Prince, and God took them into his Protection. The Conquests of Nebuchodonosor and Holofernes his General were upon a sudden stopped by the hand of a Woman. Dejoces, although he was beaten by the Assyrians, left his Kingdom in a condition of growing greater under his Successors. Whilst Phraortes his Son, and Cyagorus the Son of Phraortes subdued Years before J. C. 643 Persia, and pushed on their Conquests to lesser Years of Rome. 111 Years of Rome. 641 Asia, even to the borders of Halys, Judah Years of Rome. 113 endured the detestable Reign of Amon, the Son of Manasseh; and Josiah the Son of Amon, wise and prudent from his Childhood, endeavoured to repair the Disorders that were caused by the wickedness and impiety of his Predecessor-Kings. Rome, when Ancus Martius was King, brought some Latins under its subjection and government, and continuing to make Citizens of her Enemies, she shut them up within her Walls. The Veienses, already weakened by Romulus, Years before J. C. 626 suffered new Losses. Ancus pushed on his Years of Rome. 128 Conquests as far as to the Neighbouring Sea, and built the City of Ostia at the Mouth of the River Tiber. At this time the Kingdom of Babylon was invaded by Nabopolassar. That Traitor, whom Chinaladan, otherwise called Sarac, had made General of his Armies against Cyagorus King of the Medes, joined himself with Astyages the Son of Cyagorus; took Chinaladan in Nineveh, destroyed that great City, so long a time the Mistress of the East, and set himself upon the Throne of his Master. Under this ambitious Prince Babylon grew in Pride and haughtiness. Judah, whose Impiety waxed more Years before J. C. 624 and more, had every thing to fear. The pious Years of Rome. 130 King Josiah for some small time by his great humility suspended the punishment, which his people had deserved; but the evil increased under his children's Reign. Nebuchadonosor Years before J. C. 610 II. more terrible than his Father Years of Rome. 144 Nebuchadonosor, succeeded him. This Years before J. C. 607 Prince bred up in Pride, and always engaged Years of Rome. 147 in War, made prodigious Conquests both in the East and West; and Babylon threatened to bring all the Land into subjection and vassalage. His Menaces had soon their effect upon the People of God. Jerusalem was left wholly to this proud and mighty Conqueror, who took it three times. The first at the beginning of his Reign, and in the fourth year of the Reign of Joachim, from whence gins the 70 years of Babylon's Captivity, taken notice of by the Prophet Jeremiah; the second under Jechonias, or Joachin the Son of Joachim; 
Jer. xxv. 11, 12. c. xxix. 10.  and the last under Ze●ekiah, when the City was utterly destroyed, the Temple burned, and the King Years before J. C. 599 carried Captive to Babylon with Serajah the Years of Rome. 155 Years before J. C. 598 Highpriest, and the b●t part of the people. Years of Rome. 156 The most eminent of those Captives were the Prophets Ezekiel and Daniel, with them also are reckoned the Three Children whom Nabuchadnezzar could not make to worship his Golden Image, nor consume by his Fiery Furnace. Greece was flourishing, and its Seven Wise Men made themselves illustrious. Years before J. C. 594 Some time before the last desolation of Jerusalem, Years of Rome 160 Solon. one of the Sev●● prescribed Laws to the Athenians, and established Liberty Years before J. C. 578 upon Justice: The Phocians of jonia Years of Rome. 176 brought their first Colony to Marseilles. Tarquin the Ancient King of Rome, after he had conquered a part of Tuscany, and adorned the City of Rome with his Pompous and Magnificent Works, finished his Reign. In his time the Gauls, led on by Bellovesus, possessed in Italy all the Suburbs round about Years before J. C. 566 Po, whilst that Seg●vesus his Brother, Years of Rome. 188 carried far up into Germany another swarm of the Nation. Servius Tullius, Tarquin's successor, established the Census, or the List of Citizens that were distributed into certain Classes, whereby that great City was regulated and ordered as a private Family. Nabuchadnezzar beautified Babylon, which was mightily enriched by the Spoils of Jerusalem, and the Eastern Country: But it did not enjoy them long: For that King who had illustrated it with such magnificence, when he was dying, saw the approaching ruin of that famous City. His Son Evilmerodac, Years before J. C. 562 whose Debauches had rendered him odious, Years of Rome. 192 Years before J. C. 560 lived not long, for he was killed by Neriglissor Years of Rome. 194 his Brother-in-Law, 
abid. apud Euseb. l. 9 Praep. Eu. c. ult.  who usurped the Kingdom. Pisistratus also in Athens usurped the Sovereign Authority, which he understood very well how to keep for thirty years amidst several vicissitudes, and afterwards left it to his Children. Neriglissor could not bear with the power of the Medes, which grew very great in the East, and therefore declared war against them. Whilst Astyages the Son of Cyagorus I. was preparing to resist him, he died, and left the War to be maintained by his Son Cyagorus II. called in Daniel, Darius the Mede. He appointed for the General of his Army, Cyr●s the Son of Mandana his Sister, and of Cambyses King of Persia, who was subject to the Empire of the Medes. The Reputation of Cyrus, which had been signalised in divers Wars under Astyages his Grandfather, reunited most of the Eastern Kings under the Standards of Cyagorus. He Years before J. C. 548 took in his Capital City Croesus' King of Lydia, Years of Rome. 206 and possessed himself with his vast Estate and Riches; he brought down the other Allies Years before J. C. 543 of the Kings of Babylon; and extended Years of Rome. 211 his Dominion not only over Syria, but also very far in the lesser Asia. At last he marches Years before J. C. 538 against Babylon, takes it, and submits it to Years of Rome. 216 Cyagorus his Uncle, who being no less affected with his Fidelity than his great Exploits, gave him his only Daughter and Heiress in Years before J. C. 537 Marriage. In the Reign of Cyagorus, Daniel Years of Rome. 217 already honoured under the precedent Reigns with several Visions from Heaven, in which he saw pass before him in such plain and manifest Figures so many Kings and Empires, learned by a New Revelation, those Seventy famous Weeks, by which, the Time of Jesus Christ, and the Destiny of the Jewish People are explained. It was the Weeks of Years, and contained 490 Years; and this way of computation was ordinary and familiar among the Jews, who observed the Seventh Year, as well as the Seventh Day with a Religious repose. Years before J. C. 536 Some time after this Vision, Cyagorus died, Years of Rome. 218 as well as Cambyses the Father of Cyrus; and this great Man, who succeeded them, joined the Kingdom of Persia, till then obscure, unto the Kingdom of the Medes so mightily greatn'd by its Conquests. Thus was He the quiet and peaceable Master of all the East, and founded the greatest Empire that ever was in the World. But that which is most remarkable for the continuance of our Epochas, is, that this great Conqueror in the first Year of his Reign, gave his Decree for the Re-establishing of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, and the Jews in Judea.  
Here we ought a little to make a stop, because it is the most entangled place of all the Ancient Chronology, by reason of the difficulty in conciliating the Profane History with the Sacred. No question but your Highness hath already observed, that this account I have given you of Cyrus is much different from what you have read of him in Justin that he speaks nothing of the second Kingdom of the Assyrians, nor of those famous Kings of Assyria and Babylon, so memorable in the Sacred History; and in short, this Relation of mine is very incongruous to that which is reported by the Author of the three first Monarchies; of that of the Assyrians, ended in the Person of Sardanapal●s; that of the Medes ended in Astyages, the Grandfather of Cyrus, and this of the Persians began by Cyrus, and destroyed by Alexander.  
Your Highness may be pleased to add to Justin, Diodorus, with most of the Greek and Latin Authors whose Writings are yet extant, who give you these Histories after quite another manner than this I have followed.  
As to what belongs to Cyrus, 
Hieron in Dan.  the Profane Authors are in no agreement among themselves about his History; but I thought it best to follow rather Xenophon with St. Jerome, than Ctesias a fabulous Author, whom most of the Grecians have copied, and written after, as Justin and the Latins have followed the Grecians; and I have preferred him even to Herodotus himself, tho' he is a most excellent and judicious Reporter. And that which hath determined me to this choice, is, that Xenophon's History the most probable and likely in itself, hath also this great advantage, that it is the most conformable to the Scriptures, which, by reason of its antiquity, and the Relation of the Jewish Affairs to those of the Eastern People, deserves to be esteemed beyond all the other Greek Histories, tho' one did not know that it had been dictated by the Holy Spirit.  

Plat. in Tim.  As to the three first Monarchies, what most of the Greek Authors have written of them, seems very doubtful to the Sages of Greece. Plato in general shows us, that under the name of Egyptian Priests, the Greeks were extremely ignorant of Antiquities: and Aristotle hath ranged among the fabulous Reporters, 
Arist. ●olit. v. 10.  those that have written of the Assyrians.  
The Greeks have written very negligently, and because they had a mind to please and divert by their Historical relating of their Antiquities, Greece which was ever very curious about them; they have taken up Reports upon confused and dark Memorandums, and so satisfied themselves with putting them into an agreeable and delightful order, without being at any great pains or care to search whether they were true, or not.  
And certainly, the way which was commonly taken to rank the three first Monarchies is most apparently fabulous. For after the downfall of the Empire of Assyria under Sardanapalus, next appear the Medes, and after them the Persians; as if the Medes had been Successors to the mighty Power of the Assyrians, and the Persians had established themselves upon the ruin of the Medes.  
Whereas, on the contrary, it is most certain, that when Arbaces abandoned the Medes against Sardanapalus, he did only deliver them, without any submitting of the Assyrian Empire to them. Herodotus, 
Herod. l. 1. c. 26, 27.  followed herein by the most approved Chronologers, mentions nothing of their first King Dejoces, until 50. years after their revolt; and it is the more to be credited, because of the concurrent Testimony both of this great Historian and of Xenophon (not to trouble you now with any others) that during the time that is allotted to the Empire of the Medes, 
Herod. 1. Xenoph. Cyrop. ●, vi, etc.  there were in Assyria such mighty puissant Kings, as all the East stood in awe of, and it was Cyrus that crushed the Empire by his taking of Babylon.  
If therefore the generality of the Greeks and Latins that have followed them, make no mention of those Babylonian Kings; if they have given no place to that great Kingdom among the first Monarchies, whose continuance and after-accidents they relate; in a word, if we can scarce find any thing in all their works of those famous King's Tiglath-Pilesar, Salmanasar, Sennacherib, Nabuchadnezzar, and several others so renowned in Scripture, and in the Eastern Histories, we may then surely attribute it, either to the Ignorance of the Greeks, who were more Eloquent in their Reports, than studious and industrious in their Searches, or else to the loss we have had of what was more exact and faithful in their Histories.  
Indeed Herodotus had promised a particular History of the Assyrians, 
Herod. l. 1. c. 28, 47.  which we have not, either by our sad misfortune of its being lost, or of his not having had time to do it, and we cannot imagine that ever so judicious and Historian would have forgotten the Kings 
Herod. l. 2. c. 91.  of the second Empire of the Assyrians, especially since even Sennacherib, who was one of them, we find mentioned in the Books that we now have of this great Author, as being King both of the Assyrians and Arabians.  

tSrabo, li●. 15.  Strabo, who lived in the time of Augustus, reports what Megastenes, an Ancient Author, near the time of Alexander, had left in Writing concerning the mighty Conquests of Nabuchadnezzar King of the Chaldees, whom he makes to run through Europe, enter into Spain, and extend his Arms as far as the Colonies of Hercules. Aelian calls Tilgamus King of Assyria, 
Aelian. li●. 12. Hist. Anim. c. 21.  that is to say, Tilgath, or Tiglath, which we find in the Holy Scriptures; and in Ptolemy we meet with an Enumeration of the Princes of great Empires, among whom there is a long succession of the Kings of Assyria, who were unknown to the Greeks, and whom it is easy to reconcile to the Sacred History.  
If I would bring in the Accounts of the Syrian Annals, Berosus, Abydenus, Nicolas of Damascus; 
Joseph. Antiq. l. 9 ult. & 10. c. 11. l. 1. cont. Ap. Euseb. Prap. Eu. 9  I could be too tedious even for a longwinded Reader. Josephus and Eusebius of Caesarea have preserved the precious fragments of all those Authors, and indeed of an infinite many more, which they had entire and perfect in those times, whose Testimony is a confirmation to us of what we read in the Holy Scripture concerning the Eastern Antiquities, and especially concerning the Assyrian Histories.  
As to the Monarchy of the Medes, which has the second Preference among the great Empires by most of the profane Historians, as separated from the Empire of Persia, certain it is, that the Scripture ever unites them both together. And your Highness sees, that besides the Authority of the sacred pages, the bare order of Matters of Fact, shows us, that it is that we are still to look at.  
The Medes before Cyrus, though they were very powerful and considerable, yet were much lessened by the greatness of the Kings of Babylon. But Cyrus having Conquered their Kingdom by the collected Forces both of Medes and Persians, of which he afterwards became the Master, by a Legitimate Succession, as we have observed from Zenophon; it seems most probable, that the great Empire, of which he was the Founder, as it ought indeed, did take his Name to both Nations, so that That of the Medes and Persians are but one and the same thing, tho' the glory of Cyrus made the name of the Persians to be the more prevailing.  
It may be also thought, that before the War of Babylon, the Kings of the Medes having extended their Conquests to the Greek Colonies in lesser Asia, were by that means famous among the Greeks, who attributed the Empire of greater Asia to them, because they were only acquainted with them of all the Kings of the East. And yet the Kings of Nineveh and Babylon, who were greater and more puissant, but more unknown to the Greeks, have been near quite forgotten in those B●oks that are remaining to us concerning the Grecian Histories; and all the time from Sardanapalus down to Cyrus, have been only given to the Medes.  
And therefore we need not to trouble our heads so much in reconciling as to this point the profane to the sacred History. For as to what respects the first Kingdom of the Assyrians, the Scripture gives us but a very slight touch by the Buy, and neither mentions Ninus, who was the Founder of that Empire, nor, excepting Phul, any other of its Successors: because their History was no way interfering with that of the People of God. As for the second Kingdom of the Assyrians, most of the Greeks are either quite ignorant of them, or else because they have not throughly known them as they ought, they have confounded them with the former.  
When therefore those of the Greek Authors s●all be objected to us, who, according to their own Caprice and Fancy, range the three first Monarchies, and make the Medes Successors to the ancient Empire of Assyria, without speaking a word concerning what the Scripture seems to be so strong in; there is only this answer to be made, that they were unacquainted with this part of the History; and they are no less contrary to the more curious, and best informed Authors of their own Nation, than they are to the Holy Scriptures.  
And that which in one word answers all the difficulty; the sacred Authors, who are nearer to the times and places of the Eastern Kingdoms, writing moreover the History of a People, whose affairs were so intermixed with those of these great Empires, though they had no other advantage besides this, it were enough to put the Greeks and Latins to Silence, who followed them.  
But if, notwithstanding, the obstinacy should go on still to maintain this celebrated order of the three first Monarchies, and that to keep entirely to the Medes the second rank which is ascribed to them, any are wilfully resolved to make the Kings of Babylon subject to them, in affirming still that after an hundred Years Subjection, these at last should deliver themselves by a Revolt; yet in some manner it doth save the Continuance of the sacred History; but it doth very little agree with the best profane Historians, to whom the sacred History is more favourable in that it ever unites the Empire of the Medes to that of the Persians.  
There is yet remaining to be discovered one of the Causes of the obscurity and darkness of these ancient Histories. And it is this, that as the Eastern Kings took up several names, or if you please, several titles, which in some length of time they espoused as their own Name, and which the People either translated, or pronounced variously, according to the several particular Idioms of each respective Language; Those so ancient Histories, whereof there is left now but a very few good Memorials, are by this means become in all Probability so very dark and imperfect. The confusion of names hath no doubt contributed very much both to the things as well as persons of them; and from hence proceeds our Trouble, rightly to situate in the Greek History those Kings, who have had the Name of Ahasuerus, as much unheard of to the Greeks, as it was well known to the Eastern Countries.  
Who would indeed believe that Cyagorus was the same name as Ahasuerus, made up of the word Kine, that is to say, Sir, or Lord, and from the word Axare, which manifestly returns to Axuerus, or Assuerus, and so Ahasuerus? Three or Four Princes have gone under this Name, though they had others besides. If we do not know that Nebuchodonozor, Nebucodrosor, and Nebocolassar were only one and the same Name, or the Name of but one Person, it would be difficult for us to believe it; and yet the thing is most certain. Sargon is Sennacherib; Ozias is Azarias; Sedechias is Mathanias, Joachas is also called Sellum. Asarhaddon, which is indifferently pronounced Esarhaddon, 
2 Esdr. iv. 2, 10.  or Asarhaddon, is called Asenephar by those of Cutha: and by an odd bizar kind of unaccountableness, of which we can find no ground, or Origine; Sardanapalus is by the Greeks called Tonos Concoleros. We could present you with a long List of Eastern Persons, to whom in Histories several different Names have been given; but it is sufficient in general to understand this custom. It is not unknown to the Latins, among whom Titles and Adoptions have multiplied Names in so many kinds. Thus the Title of Augustus, and that of Africanus became the Surnames of Caesar Octavianus and the Scipio's; and in like manner the Neros have been Caesar's. The thing is not to be doubted, and a longer discussion of a matter so apparently manifest, would be needless to you.  
I will not now offer to trouble your Highness any further with the knotty difficulties of Chronology, which are as little necessary as useful for you. This was of too great importance not to be cleared up in this place; and after we have said what we think is sufficient for our purpose, we will return to the train of our Epochas.  
It was then 218 years after the foundation of Rome, 536 years before Jesus Christ, 
VIII. Epocha. Cyrus, or the Jews re-established 6. Age of the World.  after the 70 years of Babylon's Captivity, and the same year that Cyrus founded the Persian Empire; That this Prince, elected by God, to be the deliverer of his People, and the restorer of his Temple, set about this great work. Forthwith after the publication of his Decree, Zerubabel, accompanied with Jesus Years before J. C. 536 the Son of Jose●ec, the Highpriest, brought Years of Rome. 218 back the Captives, who rebuilt the Altar, and laid the foundations of the second Temple. Years before J. C. 535 The Samaritans being jealous of their Years of Rome. 219 glory, were resolved to go shares with them in this great Work, and under the pretence of worshipping the God of Israel, 
1 Esdr. iv. 2.3.  tho' they joined with it their Idolatries to their own false Gods, yet they besought Zerubabel to give them leave to assist him in the Building of that Temple. But the Children of Judah who detested their corrupted Worship, rejected their Proposition. The provoked Samaritans therefore crossed and perplexed their Design by all the ways of Artifice and Violence imaginable. About the same time, Servius Tullius, after he had agrandized the City of Rome, was contriving in his Head, how to reduce it to a Commonwealth. But Years before J. C. 533 he perished in the midst of those his Designs, Years of Rome. 221 by the Counsels of his Daughter, and by the Command of the proud Tarquin, his Son-in-Law. This Tyrant invaded the Kingdom, and for a long series of time exercised all manner of Cruelties and Outrages. In the mean while the Persian Empire was growing up: Besides those vast Provinces of the greater Asia, all the greater Continent of the Lesser Asia, became obedient to Years before J. C. 525 it. The Syrians and Arabians were subjected; Years of Rome. 229 and Egypt, which was so jealous of its own Laws, yet received theirs. This Years before J. C. 522 Conquest was got by Cambyses, the Son of Years of Rome. 232 Cyrus. But that fierce Man did not long survive his Brother Smerdis, whom an ambiguous Dream caused privately to be put to Death. The Mage, or chief Smerdis ruled for some time under the name of Years before J. C. 521 Smerdis, the Brother of Cambyses; but this Years of Rome. 233 cheat was soon discovered. The seven principal Lords conspired against him, and one of them was set upon the Throne. This was Darius the Son of Hystaspes, 
Herod. l. 4. c. 159.  who in his Inscriptions styled himself the Best, and the handsomest of all Men. There are many remarkable things that make us know him to be the Ahasuerus spoken of in the Book of Hester, tho' some there are of another Opinion. At the beginning of his Reign, 
1 Esdr. v. vi.  the Temple was finished, after several interruptions occasioned by the Samaritans. There was an irreconcilable hatred between two People, so that nothing was more opposite than Jerusalem and Samaria. It was in the Years before J. C. 513 time of Darius, when the Liberty of Rome Years of Rome. 241 and Athens, and the great Glory of Greece began. Hermodius and Aristogiton, Athenians, rescued their Country from Hipparchus the Son of Pisistratus, and are killed by his Guards. Hippias the Brother of Hipparchus endeavours, but in vain, to support himself: for he is repulsed: The Tyranny of the Pisistratus' is absolutely extinguished: The rescued Athenians erect Statues to their Saviour's, and re-establish the popular State. Hippias throws himself into the Arms of Darius, whom he already found disposed to attempt the Conquest of Greece, so that all his hope was in his Protection. At the same time when he was repulsed, Rome also was delivered of her Tyrants. Tarquin the Proud by his violent Outrages had made Years before J. C. 509 Royalty odious: The incontinency of Sextus Years of Rome. 245 his Son was the compliment of its destruction. Lucretia ravished made her to become her own Murderess: her Blood, together with the harangues of Brutus, animated and inspirited the Romans. The Kings were banished, and the Consulary Empire was established according to the model and projection of Servius Tullius; but it was soon weakened by the Jealousies of the People. For in the very first Consulate, P. Valerius the Consul, memorable for his Victories, became suspected by his Citizens; so that to please and satisfy them, he was obliged to establish the Law of Appeals to the People from the Senate and Consuls in all causes wherein the punishing of a Citizen was concerned. The expelled Tarquin's found Defenders; for the Neighbouring Kings looked upon their Banishment as an injury done to all Crowned Heads in general; Years before J. C. 507 and Porsenna, King of the Clusians, Years of Rome. 247 a People of Etruria, took up Arms against Rome. And being now reduced to its last extremity, and almost conquered and taken, it received its Salvation from Horatius Cocles. The Romans did prodigious things to secure their dear beloved Liberty, and Scevola a young Citizen, burnt off that Hand which had not reached Porsenna. Clelia, a young Lady, made that Prince astonished at her Courage and Bravery; and Porsenna left Rome in Peace, and the Tarquins remained now without any hopes of Years before J. C. 500 Succour. But Hippias, for whom Dari●s declared, Years of Rome. 254 had better hopes. All Persia was up in his Favour and Athens had a great threatening Years before J. C. 493 Cloud of War hanging over it. Whilst Years of Rome. 261 that Darius was making his Preparations for it, Rome, which was so well fortified against Strangers, had even like to have been destroyed within itself: Jealousy began to reinforce and take head again, among the Patricians and the People: and the Consulary Power, altho' it had been already moderated by the Law of P. Valerius, did yet seem somewhat too great to that People, who were now grown very fearful of their Liberty; so that he retreated to Mount Aventin●; and the Counsels which were violent, were likewise unsuccessful: The People could not be reduced, but by the peaceable Remonstrances of Menenius Agrippa: and they were forced to find out a sweetening kind of temperament, and to give to the People, Tribunes that might be able to defend them against the Consuls. The Law which established this new sort of Magistracy, was called the sacred Law, and hence was the rise and origine of the Tribunes of the People. Darius had at last declared against Greece. His Son-in-Law, Mardonius, after he had gone through Asia, thought to overthrow the Grecians with the number of Years before J. C. 490 his Soldiers; but Miltiades defeated that Years of Rome. 264 vast Army, in the Plain of Marathon, with ten thousand Athenians. Rome grew victorious over all her Enemies round about, and seemed to be apprehensive of none but those within her own Bowels. Coriolanus a zealous Patrician, and the greatest of his Captains, notwithstanding all his Services, being banished, by the popular Faction, conspired the destruction of his Country, Years before J. C. 489 brought the Volsci against her, reduced her Years of Rome. 265 Years before J. C. 488 to the greatest Extremity, and could not be Years of Rome. 266 moderated, but by the Influence of his Mother. Greece did not long enjoy the repose which the Battle of Marathon had given it: Years before J. C. 480 for to revenge the affront of Persia, and Years of Rome. 274 Darius; Xerxes his Son and Successor, and the Grandson of Cyrus by his Mother Atossa, assaulted the Grecians with eleven hundred thousand Fight Men, (some stick not to say seventeen hundred Thousand) not to reckon his Forces at Sea of twelve Hundred great Ships. But Leonidas, King of Sparta, who had no more than three hundred Men, slew of them twenty thousand, at the straits of Thermopylae, and fell with his own. By the Counsels of Themistocles the Athenian, the Sea-forces of Xerxes were the Years before J. C. 479 same Year defeated and beaten, near Salamina. Years of Rome. 275 That Prince repassed the Hellespont in fear; and a year after, his Land-Army which was commanded by Mardonius, was utterly hewed to pieces near Platea, by Pausanias' King of Lacedemonia, and by Aristides the Athenian, surnamed the Just. The Battle began in the Morning; and by the Evening of that memorable Day, the Grecians of jonia, who had shaken off the Persian Yoke, killed of them Thirty thousand in the Battle of Mycala, under the Conduct and Command of Leotychides. That General, to put courage into his Soldiers, told them, That Mardonius was now overcome in Greece. The News proved true, either by a prodigious effect of Fame, or rather by a happy accident; and all the Greeks of the Lesser Asia were restored to their Liberty. This Nation every where got very considerable advantages; and a little before, the Carthaginians, then mighty powerful and great, were beaten in Sicily, where they were going to extend their Dominions at the instance and importunity of the Persians. However, notwithstanding all this bad success, they would not leave off their new designs upon an Island which was so commodious to secure them the Empire of the Sea, which their Commonwealth greatly desired. Greece had it then, but she only regarded the East, and the Persians. But Pausanias came to set free the Isle of Cyprus from their Yoke, Years before J. C. 477 as soon as he had framed the project of enthralling Years of Rome. 277 Years before J. C. 476 his Country. Yet all his Designs Years of Rome. 278 were fruitless, tho' Xerxes promised him all things: the Traitor was betrayed by him whom most he loved, and his infamous Years before J. C. 474 Love cost him his Life. The same Year Years of Rome. 280 Xerxes was killed by Artabanus his Captain of the Guards, 
Arist. Polit. v. 10.  whether that perfidious wretch designed to possess the Throne of his Master, or that he seared the severities of a Prince, whose cruel Orders he had not so punctually executed. Artaxerxes, who had formerly been his Son, began his Kingdom and Government, and not long Years before J. C. 473 after received from Themistocles a Letter, Years of Rome. 281 who, being proscribed by his own Citizens, made him an offer of his Services against Greece. He very well understood what esteem he ought to have for so great and renowned a Captain, and therefore made a Years before J. C. 467 firm establishment of Friendship with him, Years of Rome. 287 maugre all the Jealousies of his Nobles. 
1 Esdr. seven, viij.  It was this brave and magnanimous Prince that was the Protector of the Jewish People, and in his twentieth year, which is memorable by his glorious Deeds, he permitted Years before J. C. 454 Nehemiah to re-establish Jerusalem with her Years of Rome. 300 Walls. But this Decree of Artaxerxes did differ from that of Cyrus; for Cyrus' only was in respect to the Temple, 
2 Esdr. two. 1.  This of Artaxerxes was made for the whole City. From this Decree, foreseen by Daniel, and set down in his Prophecy, the Four hundred and ninety Years of his Weeks begin. This important date hath very solid foundations. The Banishment of Themistocles is placed in Eusebius his Chronology, as in the last year of the Seventy six. The Olympiad, which comes back to the Two hundred and eighty of Rome. The other Chronologists put it a little lower: but the difference is very little, and the Circumstances of time do much assure the Date of Eusebius. They are likewise pretty agreeing with Thucydides, a most exact Historian; 
Thucyd. l. 1.  and that grave Author, almost a Contemporary, as well as a fellow Citizen of Themistocles, makes him to write his Letter about the beginning of Artaxerxes his Reign. 
Cornel. Nep. in Themisto.  Cornelius Nepos, an Ancient and Judicious, as well as an Elegant Author, will not have us question this Date, after the Authority of Thucydides: and it is so much a stronger Argument, because another more Ancient Author than Thucydides was, agrees with him. 'Tis Charon of Lampsacus cited by Plutarch; 
Plut. in Them.  and Plutarch adds himself, That the Annals, this is to say, those of Persia, concur with those two Authors. But however he does not follow them, tho' he gives us no reason for it; and those Historians who begin the Reign of Artaxerxes eight or nine years later, agree neither in time, nor are they of so great an Authority. Therefore, beyond all dispute, we ought to reckon the beginning of it toward the end of the seventy six Olympiad, and near the 280 year of Rome, and so the twentieth year of this Prince will come to be about the end of the eighty first Olympiad, and near the 300 year of Rome. Whereas those, who, to conciliate Authors, reject this, and make the beginning of Artaxerxes his Reign to fall out lower, are forced to conjecture, that his Father had at least associated him to the Kingdom when Themistocles wrote his Letter: but which way soever it be, our account is secure. This Foundation being settled and granted, the rest of the Account is easy to be made, and the Consequence will render it plain and evident. After Artaxerxes had made his Decree, The Jews laboured mightily to rebuild their City and the Walls thereof as Daniel had prophesied. 
Dan. ix. 25 Nehem. two. 17, 18, 19  Nehemiah managed and ordered the work with a great deal of Prudence and Courage in defiance to all the oppositions of the Samaritans, Arabians, and the Ammonites. The People sat about the Work, and Eliashib the Highpriest encouraged them by his Example. In the mean while the new Magistrates which were set over the People of Rome, increased the Divisions of that City; and Rome brought under a Monarchy did want those Laws which were necessary for the good Constitution of a Common-weal. The Reputation of Greece, which had made herself more famous by her Government than Years before J. C. 452 by her Victories, excited the Romans to Years of Rome. 302 follow her Example; so that they sent Deputies to search into the Laws of Greece, and especially into those of Athens, which were more agreeable to the State of their Years before J. C. 451 Republic. According to this Model, ten Years of Rome. 303 absolute Magistrates which they created the next Year after, under the Name of the Decemviri, digested and set down the Laws of the Twelve Tables, which are the Years before J. C. 450 Ground and Foundation of the Roman Law. Years of Rome. 304 The People, overjoyed at the Equity wherewith they were made, suffered them to usurp the supreme power; which they used Years before J. C. 449 with Tyranny enough. So that there were very Years of Rome. 305 great Convulsions by the Intemperance of Appius Clodius, one of the Decemviri, and by the Murder of Virginia, whom her Father had rather have slain with his own Hand, than have abandoned her to be a Sacrifice to the Passion and Lust of Appius. The Blood of this Second Lucretia awakened the Romans, so that the Decemviri were quite thrust out. But whilst the Laws were framing under these ten Magistrates, Esdras, a Doctor of the Law, and Nehemiah the Governor of the Jewish People newly reestablished in Judah, were reforming the Abuses, and bringing in the Law of Moses, so that they began to be observed in the first place. One of the main points of their Reformation was to oblige all the People, 
2 Esdr. xiii. Deut. xxiii. 3.  and particularly the Priests, to leave their strange Wives, whom they had married contrary to the express Letter of the Law. Esdras put the Holy Books in order, and made a very exact review of them, and collected the Ancient Memoires of the Jews, to compile out of them the two Books of Paralipomena, or Chronicles, to which he added the History of his own Time, which Nehemiah finished. By those Books is that long and tedious History, which Moses had begun, ended; and which the following Authors continued without interruption till the re-building of Jerusalem. The rest of the Sacred History is not writ in the same train. Whilst Esdras and Nehemiah were making the last part of this great Work, Herodotus, whom the Profane Authors call the Father of History itself, began to write. So that the last Authors of the Holy History met with the first Author of the Greek History; and when this began, That of the Jews, only to take it from Abraham, already had made up five Ages. Herodotus never thought to speak of the Jews in that History he hath left us; and the Greeks would not inform themselves of any, but such People whom War, Commerce, or a great Fame had made notorious and considerable. Judah, that with great difficulty began to raise itself from the Ashes of its Ruin, never in the least attracted their regards. And it was in this miserable and calamitous time that the Hebrew Language ceased to be common. During the Captivity, and afterwards by the commerce that happened between them and the Chaldeans, the Jews learned the Chaldee Tongue, which very much bordered upon their own, and had almost the same Idiom and Genius. This reason induced them to change the ancient Figure of Hebrew Letters, and so they writ Hebrew in the Chaldee Characters which were most in use among them, and easier to be made. This alteration was almost insensible between the two Neighbouring Languages, whose Letters were of the same value and efficacy, only differing somewhat in their formation. From that time the Holy Scripture was only to be found among the Jews in the Chaldee Letters; But the Samaritans still kept their old way of Writing. Their Posterity have persevered in the same Custom, even down to our days, and by that means have preserved the Pentateuch, which they call the Samaritan, in ancient Hebrew Characters, such as they found them in Medals, and in all the Monuments of past Ages.  
The Jews lived very peaceably and quietly under the Authority of Artaxerxes. That Prince being forced by Cymon the Son of Miltiades, General of the Athenians, to make a shameful peace, utterly despaired of overcoming the Greeks by force, and so only thought of making his advantage by their feuds and divisions. There happened very great Convulsions between the Athenians and Lacedæmonians. Those two people, being jealous each of other, shared all Greece. Pericles an Athenian began the Peloponnesian Years before J. C. 431 War, during which Theramenes, Thrasybulus Years of Rome. 323 and Alcibiades, Athenians, made themselves famous and considerable. Brasydas and Mindarus, Lacedæmonians, died there in fight for their Country. This War lasted seven and twenty years, and ended to the advantage of the Lacedæmonians, who had brought on their side Darius, surnamed the Bastard, the Son and Successor of Artaxerxes. Years before J. C. 404 Lysander, General of the Lacedæmonians Years of Rome. 350 Fleet, took Athens, anc changed its Government. But Persia soon was sensible that it had made the Lacedæmonians too powerful, and therefore the Persians upheld the young Cyrus in his Revolt against Artaxerxes Years before J. C. 401 his eldest Brother, called Mnemon, because of Years of Rome. 353 his great and admirable memory, the Son and Successor of Darius. This young Person, being delivered both from prison and death by his Mother Parysatis, resolves upon revenge, gains the Noblemen to him by his infinitely obliging carriage, traverses Asia the less, and goes and offers battle to the King his Brother, even in the heart of his Empire, wounds him with his own hand, and believing himself too soon a Conqueror, he perished by his own rashness. The ten thousand Greeks that served him, make that astonishing retreat, where at last commanded Xenophon that great Philosopher, and great Captain, who hath written the History of it. The Lacedæmonians continued their attacques Years before J. C. 396 upon the Persian Empire, which Agesilaus the Years of Rome. 358 King of Sparta made to tremble in the lesser Asia; but the Divisions of Greece called him back into his own Country. About this time the City of the Veji, which almost equalled the glory of Rome, after a ten years' siege, and a great many good Successes, was taken by the Romans under the Conduct of Camillus. His generosity gained him yet another Conquest. Years before J. C. 394 The Falisci, whom he besieged, rendered Years of Rome. 360 themselves to him, being touched at what he had done, in sending them back their Children, whom a Schoolmaster had delivered to him; but Rome would not conquer by Treacheries, nor take advantages from the perfidiousness of a wretch, that turned the Obedience of an innocent Age into such an Abuse. A little after, the Gauls Senonians came into Italy, and besieged Clusium, Years before J. C. 391 and the Romans lost against them the famous Years of Rome. 363 Years before J. C. 390 battle of Allia. Their City was taken and Years of Rome. 364 burnt. And whilst they were defending themselves in the Capitol, their Affairs were reestablished by Camillus whom they had banished. 
Polyb. l. 1. c. 6. l. 2. c. 18, 22.  The Gauls continued seven months' Masters of Rome, and being called away by other affairs, they drew off, but it was not without carrying away with them good store of Years before J. C. 371 spoil. During the Commotions of Greece, Years of Rome. 383 Epaminondas a Theban made himself signal by his equity, moderation and temper, as much as by his Victories. It was observed he held this for a constant Rule, never to tell a Lie, so much as in jest. His Actions became dazzling and illustrious in the last years of Mnemon, and in the first of Ochus. Under this so great a Captain, the Thebans were victorious, and the Power of Lacedemonia abated, Years before J. C. 359 and grew less. That of the Macedonian Years of Rome. 395 Kings began with Philip, the Father of Alexander the Great. And notwithstanding all the oppositions of Ochus and Arses his Son, Kings of Persia, and the greater difficulties still which the Eloquence of Demosthenes, that mighty Defender of Liberty, raised against him in Athens; the victorious Prince for twenty years together kept all Greece in Years before J. C. 338 subjection, where the Battle of Cheronea, Years of Rome. 416 which he gained over the Athenians and their Allies, gave him a most absolute Power. At this famous Field, whilst he was breaking the Athenians, he had the joy and happiness to see Alexander at eighteen years of age rushing in upon the Theban Troops, and among others, upon that which they called The Sacred Troop of Friends, which they looked on as Invincible. Thus being Master of Greece, and supported by a Son of such great hopes, his Designs must needs be high, and he resolved on nothing less than the absolute Ruin of the Persians, against whom he had declared himself Generalissmo. But this was reserved for Alexander: For in Years before J. C. 337 the midst of the Solemnities of a new Marriage, Years of Rome. 417 Philip was assassinated by Pausanias, Years before J. C. 336 a young Man of a good Family to whom Years of Rome. 418 he had not done Justice. The Eunuch Bagoas the same year killed Arses King of Persia, and caused Darius the Son of Arsames, surnamed Codomannus, to succeed him in the Kingdom. He deserves bv his Valour to be ranked, according to the (otherwise) most probable Opinion, which gives him his Extraction from the Royal Family. So that there were two Courageous and Magnanimous Kings began their Reigns together, Darius the Son of Arsames, and Alexander the Son of Philip. They looked upon each other with Eyes of Jealousy, and they seem as born to dispute the Empire of the World betwixt them. But Alexander resolved to strengthen himself well, before he would engage with his Rival. He revenged the Death of his Father, reduced those Rebellious People that Years before J. C. 335 contemned his Youth; he overcame the Years of Rome. 419 Greeks that vainly attempted to shake off their Yoke; and ruined Thebes, where he spared none but the House and descendant Issue of Pindarus, whose Odes were the Admiration of Greece. Mighty and Victorious, Years before J. C. 334 he marched, after these famous Exploits, Years of Rome. 420 Years before J. C. 333 at the Head of the Greeks, against Years of Rome. 421 Years before J. C. 331 Darius, whom he overthrew in three several Years of Rome. 423 Years before J. C. 330 Battles in Array, enters triumphantly Years of Rome. 424 Years before J. C. 327 into Babylon and Susa, destroys Persepolis, Years of Rome. 427 an ancient Seat and Palace of the Kings of Persia, bushes on his Conquests as far as Years before J. C. 324 the Indies, and at last returns to die at Babylon, Years of Rome. 430 being, but Three and thirty years of age.  
In his time Manasses, the Brother of Jaddus Years before J. C. 333 the High Priest, raised Commotions Years of Rome. 421 among the Jews. He had married the Daughter of Sanballat the Samaritan, whom Darius had made a Nobleman of that Country. Rather than he would repudiate that beautiful Stranger, to which the Council of Jerusalem, and his Brother Jaddus would fain have obliged him, he embraced the Schism of the Samaritans. And several of the Jews, to shun the like Censures, joined themselves to him. He was resolved at that time to build a Temple near Samaria, upon Mount Gerizim, which the Samaritans believed was blest, and so to make himself the Highpriest of it. His Father-in-Law, a most intimate Friend of Darius, assured him of this Prince's Protection, and the effect and Consequence was so much the more favourable to him; for Years before J. C. 332 Alexander raised himself, Sanballat deserted Years of Rome. 422 his Master, and brought his Troops over to the Victorious, at the Siege of Tyre. Thus he obtained whatsoever he desired, the Temple of Gerizim was built, and the Ambition of Manasses was satisfied. The Jews in the mean time, being ever faithful to the Persians, refused to give Alexander the succour he demanded of them. He went to Jerusalem, full of Resolution to take his Revenge; but his Mind was altered when he beheld the Highpriest coming out to meet him, with the other Priests that offered Sacrifices, all clothed with their proper Vestments for Ceremony, and in Procession before the People in White. They shown to him the Prophecies that foretold his Victories, out of Daniel. So that he granted to the Jews all their Requests, and they kept with him the same Fidelity as they had always done before to the Kings of Persia.  
In the midst of these his Conquest, Rome Years of Rome. 428 was engaged with her Neighbours the Samnites, Years of Rome. 429 and were extremely put to't to reduce Years of Rome. 430 them, notwithstanding the Valour and Conduct of Papyrius Cursor, the most famous of her Generals. After the Death of Alexander, his Empire was divided. Perdiccas, Ptolomee the Son of Lagus, Antigonus, Sileu●us, Lysimachus, Antipater, and his Son Years before J. C. 324 Cassan●e●; in a word, all his Captains that Years of Rome. 430 were bred up in War, under so great and mighty a Conqueror, designed to make themselves Masters of it, by their Arms: They sacrificed to their Ambition all the Family of Alexander, his Brother, Years of Rome. 430 Years of Rome. 436 Years of Rome. 438 Years of Rome. 443 Years of Rome. 445 his Mother, his Wives, his Children, and even his Sisters; so that there was nothing to be seen but Fields of Blood, and dreadful Revolutions. In the midst of so many disorders, several of the People of lesser Asia, and thereabouts freed themselves, and form the Kingdoms of Pontus, Bythinia, and Pergamus. The Goodness of the Country made them afterwards Rich and Powerful. Armenia likewise at the same time shook off the Macedonian Yoke, and became a very great Kingdom. The two Mithridates, Father and Son, founded that of Cappadocia. Years before J. C. 323 But the two most puissant Monarchies Years of Rome. 431 Years before J. C. 312 that were then raised, were that of Egypt, Years of Rome. 442 founded by Ptolomee, the Son of Lagus, from whence came the Lagides, and that of Asia or Syria, founded by Seleucus, from whence proceeded the Seleucides. This latter comprised, besides Syria, those vast and rich Provinces of higher Asia, which made up the Persian Empire: so all the East owned Greece, and learned the Language of it. Nay, even Greece itself fell under oppression by the Captains of Alexander. And Macedonia, his ancient Kingdom, which gave Laws as well as Masters to the East, was left a Prey to the first Comer. Cassander's Children drive each the other out of that Kingdom. Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, who had possessed one part of it, was driven out Years before J. C. 296 by Demetrius Poliorcetes the Son of Antigonus, Years of Rome. 458 Years before J. C. 294 whom also he expelled in his turn: Years of Rome. 460 Years before J. C. 289 This is he who was likewise once forced out Years of Rome. 465 Years before J. C. 286 by Lysimachus, and Lysimachus by Seleucus, Years of Rome. 468 Years before J. C. 281 whom Ptolomee Ceraunus, driven out of Egypt Years of Rome. 468 Years before J. C. 280 by his Father, Ptolomee the first killed like Years of Rome. 473 a Traitor, notwithstanding all his Kindnesses. Years of Rome. 474 That perfidious Man had no sooner invaded Macedonia, but he was attacked Years before J. C. 279 by the Gauls, and was slain in a Fight he had with them. During these troubles in Years of Rome. 475 the East, They came into lesser Asia, led on by their King Brennus, and settled themselves Gallo-Greece, or Galatia, called so from their own Name, from whence they went to Macedonia, which they ravaged, and so made all Greece to tremble. But their Army was destroyed in the Sacrilegious attempts on the Temple of Delphos. This Nation was active, and yet in every thing Years before J. C. 278 unfortunate: some years before the business Years of Rome. 476 Years before J. C. 283 of Delphos, the Gauls of Italy, whose continual Years of Rome. 471 Wars, 
Polyb. l. 2. 20.  and frequent Victories had made them the dread and terror of the Romans, were animated against them by the Samnites, the Brutians, and Etrurians. At first they returned back with a new Victory, but the Glory of it was quickly sullied by slaying the Ambassadors. The Romans being enraged, marched against them, defeated them, entered into their Territories, Years before J. C. 282 where they founded a Colony, beat them also Years of Rome. 472 a second time, by subjecting one part of them, and forcing the other to demand Peace. After that the Gauls of the East had been driven out of Greece, Antigonus Gonatas, Years before J. C. 277 the Son of Demetrius Poliorceters', who Years of Rome. 477 reigned about twelve years before in Greece, but very unquietly, without any difficulty invaded Years before J. C. 280 Macedonia. Pyrrhus was otherwise engaged Years of Rome. 474 for being forced out of that Kingdom he was in good hopes to satisfy his Ambition with the Conquest of Italy, whither he was called by the Tarentines. The Battle which the Romans came to get over them and the Samnites, afforded them only this Ressource, Years before J. C. 279 that he carried away from the Romans those Years of Rome. 475 Victories which would be his ruin. Py●rhus his Elephants affrighted them; but the Years before J. C. 278 Consul Fabricius made the Romans soon see that Pyrrhus was not unconquerable. The Years of Rome. 476 King and the Consul seemed to dispute between the glory of Generosity, rather than that of Arms: Pyrrhus rendered to the Consul all his Prisoners without a Ransom, saying, It became him to make War with the Sword, and not with Money; and Fabricius sent back to the King, his treacherous Physician, who had offered to poison his Master for him. About these time's Religion, and the Jewish Nation began to appear among the Greeks. Those People being civilly treated by the Kings of Syria, lived in tranquillity and Peace according to their Laws. Antiochus the God, Grandson of Seleucus, sent them up and down into the lesser Asia, 
Joseph. Ant. 12.3.  from whence they got themselves into Greece, and every where enjoyed the same Rights, Privileges, and Liberty, as the other Citizens. Ptolomee the Son of Lagus, had already settled them in Egypt. Years before J. C. 277 Under his Son Ptolomee Philadelphus, their Years of Rome. 477 Scriptures were turned into Greek, and then came out that excellent Version, called the Septuagint Version. This was done by those Learned old Men, whom Eleazar the Highpriest sent to the King, who desired them. Some would have only had the five Books of Moses translated, 
Joseph. l. 1. Antiq. c. 1. l. 12. c. 2.  and the rest of the sacred Books might afterwards be turned into Greek for the use of the Jews that were scattered all over Egypt and Greece, and who had forgot not only their own ancient Language, which was the Hebrew, but also the Chaldee, which the Captivity had taught them. They made themselves a Greek Mixture, which they called the Hellenistick Tongue: The Septuagint, and all the New-Testament is written in this Tongue. And during this dispersion of the Jews, their Temple was made famous over all the Land, and all the Kings of the East presented there their offerings. The West was intent on the War Years before J. C. 275 of Rome, and Pyrrhus. In short, this King Years of Rome. 479 was defeated by the Consul Curius, and so went back to Epirus. But he was not there long at quiet, but he resolved to make Macedonia recompense him for the ill successes Years before J. C. 274 he met with from Italy. Antigonus Gonatus Years of Rome. 480 was blocked up in Thessalonica, and forced to leave to Pyrrhus all the rest of the Kingdom. Years before J. C. 272 But he took heart again, whilst that Years of Rome. 482 the restless and ambitious Pyrrhus was making War upon the Lacedæmonians, and those of Argos. The two hostile Kings were brought into Argos at one and the same time, by two contrary Cabals, and at two several Gates. There was a mighty Combat in that City: and a certain Mother who saw her Son pursued by Pyrrhus, whom he had wounded, knocked that Prince on the Head with a Stone. Antigonus, thus being defeated of his Enemy, reenters Macedonia, who, after some changes and Revolutions, was at Peace with his Family. The Confederacy of the Achaians kept him from growing Great. It was the last Rampire of the Grecian Liberty, and it was that which produced the last Heroes of it with Aratus, and Philopoemen. The Tarentines, whom Pyrrhus fed with hopes, called in the Carthaginians after his Death. But that succour did them very little good; for they were beaten with the Brutians and the Samnites their Allies. These, after seventy and two years continual Wars, were forced to submit to the Roman Yoke. Tarentum followed at the heels, and the Neighbouring People could not hold out, and so all the ancient People of Italy were subjugated. The Gauls often beaten, durst not stir. 
Polyb. lib. 1, 2.1.  And after 480 Years Warring, the Romans saw themselves Masters of Italy, and began to consider the affairs abroad: They were not a little jealous of the Carthaginians, who were grown very powerful in their Neighbourhood, by the Conquests they had made in Sicily, from whence they were coming to fall upon them, and Italy, in the Relief of the Tarentines. The Republic of Carthage had two sides of the Mediterranean Sea. Besides that of Africa, which she almost entirely possessed, she extended herself towards Spain, by the straits. Being thus Mistress of the Sea, and of Commerce, she had invaded the Isles of Corsa and Sardinia. Sicily could scarce defend itself, and Italy was too nearly threatened, not to be concerned with some apprehension. From thence proceeded the Punic Wars, notwithstanding the Treaties Years before J. C. 264 which were ill observed on both sides. Years before J. C. 490 The first taught the Romans to fight at Sea, and they were presently Masters of an Art, which before they knew little, or nothing Years before J. C. 260 of; and the Consul Duilius, who was the Years of Rome. 494 Years before J. C. 259 first that gave Battle at Sea, gained it. Regulus Years of Rome. 495 Years before J. C. 256 got the like Reputation, and landed in Years of Rome. 498 Africa, where he was forced to fight with that Prodigious Serpent, which obliged him to employ all his Army against it. But every thing yielded; and Carthage, being reduced Years before J. C. 255 to her last Extremity, did just make a shift Years of Rome. 499 to save herself by the assistance and seasonable Relief of Xantippus the Lacedaemonian. The Roman General is beaten, and taken; but his Prison renders him more great and illustrious than his Victories. For being upon his Parole sent back to treat about the exchange of Prisoners, he told the Senate the conditions, which was all hopes and Grace to them that would voluntarily surrender themselves; and so returned to a most certain Death. Two dreadful Shipwrecks forced the Romans to leave their new Empire of the Sea to the Carthaginians. And the Victory hung a long while in dubious suspense between the two People, and the Romans were just upon the point of yielding: Years before J. C. 241 but they repaired their Fleet; and one single Years of Rome. 513 Battle decided the Business, and the Consul Lutatius concluded the War. Carthage was obliged to pay Tribute, and to quit with Sicily all the Isles that were between Sicily and Italy. The Romans got that Island entirely, saving only what Hieron King of Syracuse, their Ally, kept of it. After the War was ended, the Carthaginians thought now only of Destruction by the rising of their Army. They had, according to their Custom, made it up of Strangers, who revolted to them for their pay. 
Polyb. lib i. c. 62.63. lib. two. ●. 1.  Their cruel and severe Government forced them to join to those mutinous Troops, almost all the Cities of the Empire, and Carthage being closely besieged, had utterly been lost, if it had not been for Hamilcar, surnamed Barcas. He alone maintained the Years before J. C. 238 last War: And the Citizens are indebted Years of Rome. 516 to him for the Victory, 
Poly. lib. i. 79. ●3. ●3.  which they got over the Rebels. But it cost them Sarainia, which the Revolt of their Garrison opened to the Romans. And for fear of engaging with them in a new War, Carthage was forced to surrender up that Island, which was of such importance; and also to enlarge her Tribute, she designed in Spain to re-establish her Empire, which had been so much shaken by this Revolt: Hamilcar went into that Province with his Son Hannibal of but Years before J. C. 230 nine years of Age, and there died in a Battle. Years of Rome. 524 And during the nine Years, in which he managed the War, with as much Address as Valour, his Son was made a Warrior under this so brave a Champion, and took all at once, an implacable hatred against the Romans. Asdrubal his Ally was made his Father's Successor; who governed his Province with a great deal of Prudence, and in it built New Carthage, which kept Spain under Subjection. The Roman: were taken up in the War against Teuta, Queen of Illyria, who exercised Piracy unpunished over all the Coast. Flushed with the Spoil she made upon the Greeks, and those of ●●ir s, she despised the Romans, and slew their Ambassador: But she was soon t●ken down: for the Romans left her but a very small part of Years before J. C. 229 Illyria, and got from her the Isle of Corsmi●on, Years of Rome. 525 Years before J. C. 228 which that Queen had usurped. They Years of Rome. 526 then made themselves to be respected in Greece, by a solemn Embassage, and this was the first time that they acknowledged their Power there. 
Polyb. lib. two. 12.22.  The great Successes of As●●r d●al made them wonderful jealous; but the Gauls of Italy kept them from m●●ling with the affairs of Spain. 
Li. ●●l. lib. 21.  They continued quiet five and forty Years. And the Youth that were bred up in that time, ne'er thought of past l●stes, but began again to m●●ace 〈◊〉.  
The Romans, that they might with security attack such turbulem Neighbours, made themselves sure of the Carthaginians. The Treaty was concluded with Asd●u●al, who promised not to pass beyond the Heber. Years before J. C. 224 The War between the Romans and Years of Rome. 530 the Ga●●s went suriously on on both sides: The Tra●salsims joined with the ●isalsin s; and all were beaten. Con●olitanus, one of the King of the ●a●ls, was taken in the fight: A●●r●estus, another Kin●, was his own Murderer: the Victorious Romans at the first time passed the River Po, being resolved to take from the Gauls at the adjacent places to that River, of which, for so many Ages since, they had been in possession: Victory was their attendant wheresoever they went: Milan was taken; and almost all the Country was brought into subjection. About that time Asdrubal died; and Hannibal, though he was not five and twenty years old, was put in his Years before J. C. 220 place. From that time War was foreseen. Years of Rome. 534 The new Governor openly set himself to subdue Spain, without any respect to Terms. Rome then harkened to the complaints Years before J. C. 219 of Sagonius, her Ally. And the Years of Rome. 535 Roman Ambassadors went to Carthage. The reestablished Carthaginians were now no longer in a humour of yielding. Sicily ravished out of their Hands, Sardinia unjustly forced from them, and Tribute enhanced, stuck shrewdly in their Stomaches. So that the Faction which would have Hannibal abandoned, proved very weak. That General designed to have at all. By secret Embassies they were assured ot the gaul's of Italy, who being not longer able to attempt any thing by their own Forces, took this opportunity to relieve themselves. Hannibal traverses all Heber, the Pyrenees, all Gallia Transalpine, the Alps, and upon a sudden falls upon Italy. The Gauls neglected not to fortify their Army, and made Years before J. C. 218 the last effort for their Liberty. Four lost Years of Rome. 536 Years before J. C. 217 Battles made them believe, that Rome was Years of Rome. 537 Years before J. C. 216 very near her mine, Sicily sides with the Years of Rome. 538 Years before J. C. 215 Conqueror. Hieronymus King of Syracuse Years of Rome. 539 Years before J. C. 212 declares himself against the Romans; almost Years of Rome. 542 all Italy abandons them; and the last Ressource of that Republic seemed to give up itself in Spain with the two Scipio's. Amidst these extremities, Rome was indebted for her Salvation to three great Men. The constancy of Fabiva Maximus, who putting himself above Popular Rumours, made War by retreating, and was a Rampire to his Country. Marcellus, who Years before J. C. 214 raised the Siege of Nola, and took Syracuse, Years of Rome. 540 Years before J. C. 212 by those Actions put Courage and Vigour Years of Rome. 542 into the Soldiers. But Rome, which admired those two wonderful Persons, thought they saw in the young Scipio something more strange and surprising. The astonishing successes of his Counsels confirmed the Opinion they had of him, that he came of Race Divine, and conversed with the Gods. At twenty four years of Age he engaged to go into Spain, where his Father Years before J. C. 211 and Uncle had but newly been slain: He Years of Rome. 543 Years before J. C. 210 attacked New Carthage, as if he had been Years of Rome. 544 actuated by Inspiration and his Soldiers quickly got the Field. All that saw him turned strait to the Roman side: The Carthaginians yield up Spain to him; at his coming into Africa, Kings because his Homagers: Carthage itself trembled in her turn, and saw her Arms defeated: Victorious Hami●al after sixteen years is in vain called back, and cannot defend his Country: F●r Scipio gives Laws unto it: The Years before J. C. 202 Surname of Africanus is his recompense: so Years of Rome. 552 that the Romans having conquered the Gauls and Africans law themselves then beyond further apprehension, and fought afterwards secure without hazard.  
Years before J. C. 250 About the middle of the first Punic War, 
Years of Rome. 5●4.  Theodotus Governor of Bactria headed a thousand Cities against Antiochus, surnamed the God, the Son of Antiochus Soter, King of Syria. Almost all the East followed this Example. The Parthians revolted under the Conduct o● A●aces, who was Chief of the House of the A●●●●id●, & ●ounder of an Empire, ●hich, by degrees extended i●se●● into al● the upper Asia.  
— The Kings of Syria, and those of Egypt, f●●shed one against the other, meditated on ●●●hin● but mutual ruin, either by force, o● fraud. Damasks, and hi● T●rritory, whi●● was called Coelo-Syria, and which was a Confine to the two Kingdoms, was the Subject of their Wars; and the Affairs of Asia were absolutely distinct and separate from those of E rope.  
During all those sad times, Philosophy flourished in Greece; the Sect of the Italian Philosophers, and that of the Eniques, filled it with great Men, among whom there were mixed several extravagant Persons, to whom Critical Greece would no● vouchsafe to ●ive the name ●f Philosopher's. In the time of ●●r●s and Ca●●●●s●●, Pythagoras' 〈◊〉 the It l ck Sect in the Upper Greece, a●● about Naples. And very ●●ar the same 〈◊〉 Th●●es the Miles●an fo●med that of the triquetrum ●r●m th●n●● proceeded th' se great 〈…〉, He●aclitu●, D●m●crit ●, Empe●●cles, P●●●●ni●●●, Ana●●goras, who, a little 〈◊〉 the P●lop●●●sian War, discovered the World t● be made by an Eternal Spi●●●. S●●r t s in a short time after reduced Philosophy to the study of good manners, and was the Father of Moral Philosophy; Plato, his Disciple, chief of the Academy; Aristotle Plato's Disciple, and Master of Al●xander, chief of the P ripatetick; under the Successors of Alexander, Z●n● surnamed Citian, from a Town in the Isle of Cyprus, where he was born, chief of the Stoics; and Epicurus the Athenian, chief of those Philosophers that bear his name; if likewise we may count those Philosophers who openly deny a Providence, and who, being ignorant what duty was, defined Virtue by Pleasure. We may also reckon among the greatest Philosophers Hypocrates the Father of Physic, who was eminently famous amongst others in those happy times of Greece. The Romans had at the same time another sort of Philosophy, which did not consist in Disputes, nor in Discourses, but in Frugality, in Poverty, in the labours of a Country life; and in those of War, wherein they made their Glory to consist; in that of their Country, and of the Roman Name: which made them at last the Masters both of Italy and Carthage.  

IX. Epocha. Scipio, or Carthage conquered.  In the Year 552. from the Foundation of Rome, about 250 Years after the Foundation of the Persian Monarchy, and 202 Years before Jesus Christ, Carthage was made subject to the Romans. Hannibal never Years before J. C. 202 ceased underhand to stir them up Enemy's Years of Rome. 552 wheresoever he could: but he only ensnared all his old and new Friends in the ruin of their Country, and his own too. By the Victories of the Consul Flaminius, Years before J. C. 198 Philip King of Macedonia, an Ally of the Years of Rome. 556 Years before J. C. 196 Carthaginians, was overcome; the Kings of Years of Rome. 558 Macedonia brought to great straits; and Greece freed from their Yoke. The Romans attempted to destroy H●●●nibal, whom they found to be still feared, notwithstanding his losses. That Great Captain forced to Years before J. C. 15 save himself from his Country, stirred up the East against them, and brought their Years of Rome. 559 Years before J. C. 193 Arms into Asia. By his powerful Arguments Years of Rome. 561 and Persuasions, Antioch●s, surnamed the Great King of Syria, became Jealous of their Forces, and made War with them, but, in doing so, he followed not the Counsels of Hannibal, who had engaged him in it. Beaten both by Sea and Land, he received the Law which the Consul Lucius Scipio, the Brother of Scipio Africanus, imposed upon him, and he was shut up in Mount Years before J. C. 182 Taurus. Hannibal fled for refuge to Prusias Years of Rome. 572 King of Bythinia, escaped the Romans by Poison. They are feared by all People, and will not suffer any other Power besides their own. Kings were obliged to give them their Children, as Hostages of their Faith. Antiochus, since called the Illustrious or Epiphanius, the second Son of Antiochus, the great King of Syria, continued a long while at Rome in that Quality, but about the Years before J. C. 176 end of the Reign of Seleucus Philopater, Years of Rome. 578 his elder Brother, he was restored; and the Romans would have in his Room Demetrius Years before J. C. 175 Soter, the King's Son, then about ten years of Years of Rome. 579 Age. In this time of Convulsion Sele●cus died; and Antiochus usurped the Kingdom over his Nephew. The Romans were taken up in the affairs of the Macedonians, where Perseus was troubling his Neighbours, and would no longer keep to those Conditions that were imposed upon King Philip his Father.  
Then began the Persecutions of God's People. Antiochus, the Mighty, reigned Years before J. C. 173 like one enraged: all his Fury was bend Years of Rome. 581 against the Jews; he endeavoured to destroy the Temple, the Mosaic Law, and indeed Years before J. C. 171 all the Nation. The Roman Power kept Years of Rome. 583 him from making himself Master of Egypt. They entered into a War with Perseus, who, Years before J. C. 168 being more ready to attempt than to execute, Years of Rome. 586 lost his Allies by his Covetousness, and his Armies by his Baseness. And being conquered by the Consul Paulus Aemilius, he was forced to fling himself into his Arms. Gentius King of Illyria his Ally, being utterly routed in thirty days by the Praetor Anicius, had just then met with the same Fate. The Kingdom of Macedonia, which had continued for seven hundred years, and for near two hundred of them had not only given Masters to Greece, but also to all the East, was now no more than a bare Roman Province. The outrageous Furies of Antiochus daily increased against the Jews. Then appeared the Resistance of Mattathias Years before J. C. 167 the Highpriest, of the Race of Phineas, Years of Rome. 587 Years before J. C. 166 and an Imitator of his Zeal; his dying Years of Rome. 588 Orders for the Salvation of his People; the Victories of Judas the Maccabee his Son, notwithstanding the infinite number of his Enemies; the Advance of the Family Years before J. C. 165 of the Asmonians, or Maccabees; the new Years of Rome. 589 Years before J. C. 164 Dedication of the Temple, which the Gentiles Years of Rome. 590 had profaned; the Prelacy of Judas, and the Greatness of the Priesthood reestablished; the Death of Antiochus suitable to his Impiety and his Pride; his pretended Coversion during his last Sickness, and the fierceness of Divine Vengeance upon that I solent King. His Son Antiochus Eupator, tho' much under Age, succeeded him, under the Guardianship of Lysias his Governor. During this his Minority, Demetrius Soter, who was under Hostage at Rome, thought he might have been able to re-establish himself; but he could not obtain of the Senate to be sent back into his own Kingdom: The ●●man Polity rather chose to have a young Infant. Under this Antiochus Years before J. C. 163 Eupator, the Persecution of the Jews, and the Years of Rome. 591 Victories of Judas the Macca●ee continued. Years before J. C. 162 A Division was set asoot in the Kingdom Years of Rome. 592 of Syria. Demetrius escapes from Rome, is acknow edged by the People, and the young Antiochus is slain with Lysias his Tutor. But the Jews are n● better treated under Demerius, than they were under his Predecessors: He takes the same Course; his Generals are beaten by Judas the Maccabee; and the Hand of the proud Nicanor, whose Temple he had so often threatened, is joined with Years before J. C. 161 him. But a little after, Ju●as overwhelmed Years of Rome. 593 by the Multitude, was killed as he was fight with an astonishing Courage. His Brother Jonathan succeeded to his Charge, and supported his Reputation. Being reduced to extremity, his Courage left him not. The Romans overjoyed in their humbling of the Kings of Syria, granted to the Jews their Protection; and the Alliance which Judas had sent to demand of him, was granted; but yet it was without any S●ccour: But the Glory of the Roman Name was however a considerable Support to the afflicted People. The Troubles of Syria dai●y grew greater and greater. Alexander Balasus, who boasted himself to be the Son Years before J. C. 154 of the Illustrious Antiochus, was set upon Years of Rome. 600 the Throne by Antiochus his Party. The Kings of Egypt, who were the perpetual Enemies of S●ria, interessed themselves in those Divisions, to make their own Advantages Years before J. C. 150 by them. Ptolomee Philometor upheld Years of Rome. 604 Balasus. The War was bloody. Demetrius Soter was slain in it, and to revenge his Death left none but two young Princes, a great deal under his Age, Demetrius Nicator, and Antiochus Sidetes. So that the Usurper continued in peace, and the King of Egypt gave him his Daughter Cleopotra in Marriage. Balasus, who thought himself above all things, plunged himself into Debaucheries, and brought thereby upon himself the Years before J. C. 150 slight and scorn all his Subjects. About Years of Rome. 604 this time Phil●m●tor judged that famous Cause which the Samaritans had with the Jews. 
2. Maccab. vi. 2. Jos. Ant. xii. 7.  Those Schismatics who were ever opposite to God's peculiar People, did not fail to join with their Enemies; and to Years before J. C. 167 please the Illustrious Antiochus their Persecutor, Years of Rome. 597 they had consecrated their Temple of Gerazim to Jupiter Hospitalis. Notwithstanding this Profanation, these wicked Wretches desisted not from maintaining sometime after, at Alexandria, before Ptolomeus Philometer, that That Temple ought to be preferred to that of Jerusalem. The Parties disputed in the Presence of the King, and both of them to the hazard of their Lives engaged to justify their Pretensions by the Terms of the Law of Moses. The Jews gained their Cause, 
Josph. Ant. lib. 13. c. 6. Ibid.  and the Samaritans were punished with Death according to their Covenant. The same King permitted Onias, of the Sacerdotal Race, to build in Egypt the Temple of Heliopolis, after the Model of that of Jerusalem: An Enterprise condemned by all the Jewish Council, and adjudged contrary to the Law. In the mean while Carthage began to stir again, being very uneasy in bearing with the Laws which Scipio Africanus had imposed upon her. The Romans resolved on no less than her total Overthrow, and therefore to that end was the third Punic War undertaken. Years before J. C. 148 The young Demetrius Nicator now having Years of Rome. 606 past over his Minority, was contriving how to re-establish himself upon the Throne of his Ancestors; the Softness and Effeminacy of the Usurper made him to hope every Years before J. C. 146 thing. At his approach Balasus was troubled: Years of Rome. 608 his Father-in-Law Philometor declared against him, because Balasus would not let him take his Kingdom: The Ambitious Cleopatra his Queen left him to marry his Enemy, and he was slain at last by the hand of one of his own Creatures, after the loss of a Battle. Philometer died a few days after the Wounds he received in it, and Syria was delivered of two Enemies. At the same time were two great Cities seen to fall. Carthage was taken, and reduced to Ashes by Scipio Aemylianus, who by that Victory confirmed the Name of Africanus to his Posterity, and shown himself the worthy Inheritor of the Great Scipio his Grandfather. Corinth had the same Destiny, and the Republic of Achaia was destroyed with it. The Consul Mummius did utterly ruin that City, the most voluptuous, and the most beautiful of all Greece. He transported to Rome their incomparable Statues, without ever knowing the Value of them. The Romans being ignorant of the Arts of Greece, contented tnemselves with the knowledge of War, Polity, and Agriculture. During the Troubles of Syria the Jews fortified themselves: Jonathan saw himself sought after by both Parties, and Victorious Nicator treated him as a Brother: He was quickly requited for Years before J. C. 144 it. In a Sedition, The Jews all in a Body Years of Rome. 610 took him by force from the Hands of the Rebels. Jonathan was overwhelmed with Honours; but when the King thought himself most secure, he took up also the Designs of his Ancestors, and the Jews were as bad tormented as before. The Troubles of Syria began again: Diodotus surnamed Tryphon, raised up a Son Balasus, whom he called Antiochus the God, and made himself his Tut r during his Infancy. The Years before J. C. 143 Pride of Demetrius flushed the People; all Years of Rome. 611 Syria was as it were on fire. Jonathan knew how to take Advantage of this Conjuncture, and renewed the Alliance with the Romans. Every thing was prosperous to him, when Tryphon by a breach of Promise caused him to be slain with his Children. His Brother Simon, the most prudent and happy of the Maccabees, succeeded him: and the Romans favoured him, as they did his Predecessors. Typhon was not less unfaithful to his Pupil Anti●chus, than he had been to Jonathan. He caused that Child to be made away by the means of the Physicians, under pretence of having him to be cut of the Stone, which he had nothing of, and so made himself Master of one part of the Kingdom. Simon joined himself with Demetrius Nicator, the Legitimate King; and after he had obtained of him the Freedom of his Country; he maintained and kept it by Arms against the Rebel Tryphon. Years of Rome. 612 Years before J. C. 142 The Syrians were driven out of the Citadel which they kept in Jerusalem, and a while after out of all the places of Judea. Thus the Jews being freed from the Yoke of the Gentiles by the Valour of Simon, they yielded the Kingly Rights to him and to his Family; Demetrius, and Nicator consented to that new Establishment. There began the new Kingdom of God's People, and the Principality of the Asmonians ever joined to the Sovereign Priesthood. About this time the Parthian Empire extended itself over the Bactrians and Indians, by the Years before J. C. 141 Victories of Mithridates the valiantest of all Years of Rome. 613 the Arsacidaes. Whilst He was advancing towards Euphrates, Demetrus Nicator, called by the People of that Country, which Mithridates had newly brought into Subjection, was in hopes of reducing the Parthians to Obedience, whom the Syrians had always treated as Rebels. He was happy in several Victories; and near to retun into Syria to give Tryphon his absolute Overthrow there, but unluckily sell into a Snare, which one of Mithrid●tes his Generals had laid for him; and so he became a Prisoner to the Parthians. Tryphon, who then thought himself safe by the Calamity of that Prince, found, of a sudden, that he Years before J. C. 140 was abandoned by his own People. They Years of Rome. 614 could no longer bear with his insulting Pride. During the Imprisonment of Demetrius their legitimate King, they submitted themselves to his Wife Cleopatra, and to his Children: But however they were obliged to look out for one that might be a Guardian and Defender to those Princes, being yet but young and under Age. That Care did naturally belong to Anti●ch●s Sidetes, the Brother of Demetrius: Cleopatra made him to be owned throughout all the Kingdom: she also went further: Phraates, the Brother and Successor of Mithridates, treated Nicator as a King, and gave him his Daughter Ro●og●na in Marriage. And in hatred to this Rival, Cleopatra, from whom she took away the Crown with her Husband, married Antiochus Sidettes, and was resolved to Reign, though by all the Crimes imaginable. The new King set Years before J. C. 139 upon Tryphon: Simon joined with him in Years of Rome. 615 that Assault, and the Tyrant, being in all places subdued, met with that Fate in his Years of Rome. 619 Years before J. C. 135 End which he justly deserved. Antiochus, now Master of the Kingdom, soon forgot the Services that Simon had done him in that War, and caused him to be killed. Whilst he was collecting, against the Jews, all the Forces of Syria, Johannes Hyrcanus, the Son of Simon, succeeded to the Pontificat of his Father, and all the People yielded to him: He sustained the Siege in Jerusalem with a great deal of Valour, and the War which Antiochus was designing against the Parthians, for the Delivery of his Captive Brother, made him agree with the Jews upon very easy and supportable Terms. At the same time that this Peace was concluding; the Romans, who began to grow mighty rich, met with Enemies that were not a little to be feared in the vast Multitude of their Slaves. E●nus, a Slave, got them to make their first Insurrection in Sicily; and to reduce them, no less than the Years before J. C. 133 whole Power of Rome was employed. A Years of Rome. 621 while after, the Succession of Attalus King of Pergamus, who by his last Will made the Roman People his Heir, put the City into an unhappy Division. The Troubles of the Gracchis began. The Seditious Tribunalship of Tiberius Gracchus, one of the premier Citizens' of Rome, became his Destruction: For the whole Senate killed him by the hand of Scipio Nasica, and they saw no other means whereby to prevent the dangerous distribution of Money, wherewith that Eloquent Tribune flattered the People. Scipio Aemilianus reestablished the Military Discipline, and that great Man, who had destroyed Carthage, ruined Numantia in Spain, the second Terror of the Years before J. C. 132 Romans. The Parthians found themselves Years of Rome. 622 weak against Sidetes: His Troops, though they were corrupted by a prodigious Luxury, yet had most surprising Successes. Johannes Hy●canus, who had attended him with his Jews in that War, made there his Valour signally Famous, and the Jewish Religion to be had in regard, stopped a little, to give himself the leisure to celebrate the 
* ●●ur ●e ●●●e.  Sabbath-day. Every one submitted, and P●raates saw his Empire reduced to its ancient Bounds and Limits: But yet he was so far from despairing at these disastrous Circumstances, that he verily believed his Prisoner would be a means to set 'em right again, and enable him to invade Sy●ia. Whilst things were in this p●sture, Demetriis met with a very odd Adventure and Fate. He was several times released, and as often retained, according to the Ascendant of his Father in Laws Hopes and Fears: At last a happy Moment, wherein Phraates found no other Refource than in the Divertion which he resolved to make in Syria by his means, set him at absolute. Liberty. At this Crisis there was a new turn 
Years before J. C. ●3●.  of things: Si●et●s, who could no longer Years of Rome. 624 keep up his prodigious Expenses, but by Rapines insupportable, was on a sudden overwhelmed by a general Rising of the People, and he fell with that Army which he had found so oft Victorious. In vain now did Phraates seek to o'ertake ●emetrius, that time was past, and the Prince was got into his Kingdom. His Wife Cleopatra, who was resolved to reign, did soon return with him, and Ro●oguna was as soon forgot. Hy●●n●●s made use of his time: He took Sic●em from the Samaritans, and utterly destroyed the Temple of ●erazim, two hundred Years after is had been built by Sanballat. It's Ruin hindered not the Samaritans from continuing their Worship upon that Mountain, and the two People remained irreconcilable. The Year after all Years before J. C. 129 Idumea, united by the Victories of Hyrcanus' Years of Rome. 625 to the Kingdom of Judea, received Moses' Law with Circumcision. The Romans continued their Protection to Hyrcanus, and caused a Surrender of the Towns to him, which the Syrians had dispossessed him of. The Pride and the Violences of Demetrius Years before J. C. 128 Nicator left not Syria long in Repose. The Years of Rome. 626 People revolted. And to keep up their Revolt, the Enemy Egypt gave them a King. Years before J. C. 125 It was Alexander Zebina, the Son of Balas. Years of Rome 629 Demetrius. was beaten, and Cleopatra, who thought to Reign more absolutely under her Children, than under her Husband, caused Years before J. C. 124 him to be taken out of the way: And she Years of Rome. 630 gave no better a Treatment to her eldest Son Seleucus, who would needs Reign in spite Years before J. C. 121 of her. Her second Son, Antiochus, called Years of Rome. 633 Grypus, had defeated the Rebels, and was returned Victorious: Cleopatra presented to him in Ceremony the poisoned Cup, which her Son, being advertised of her pernicious Designs, made her to drink. At her Death she left an eternal Seed of Divisions among her Children, which she had had by the two Brothers, Demetrius Nicator, and Antiochus Sidetes. Syria thus in Convulsions was not long in Condition to trouble the Jews. Years before J. C. 109 J●hannes Hyrcanus took Samaria, tho' he Years of Rome. 645 could not convert the Samaritans. Five Years after he died: Judea continued quiet under her two Children Aristobulus and Alexander Janeus, who both Reigned one after the other, without any Disturbance Years of Rome. 650 Years before J. C. 104 from the Kings of Syria. The Romans left Years of Rome. 651 Years before J. C. 103 that rich Kingdom to waste and consume by itself, and were content with enlarging themselves Years before J. C. 115 forwards to the West. During the Years of Rome. 629 Wars of Demetrius Nicator, and of Zebina, they began to extend themselves beyond the Years before J. C. 124 Alps, and Sextius a Conqueror of the Gauls, Years of Rome. 630 called Salii, established in the Town of Aix a Colony, which bears its Name to this day. The Gauls defended themselves but ill. Fabius' subdued the Allobroges, and all the Neighbouring People: And the same Years before J. C. 123 Year that Grypus made his Mother to drink Years of Rome. 631 the Poison which she had prepared for him, Years before J. C. 121 Gallia Narbonesus was reduced to a Province, Years of Rome. 633 and received the Name of the Roman Province. Thus the Roman Empire was greatned, and by little and little possessed itself of all Lands and Seas of the known World: Yet the Face of the Commonwealth did not look so fair and beautiful abroad by her Conquests, but that it was full out as much disfigured by the outrageous Ambition of her Citizens, and hy her civil and intestine Wars. The most Illustrious of the Romans became the most Pernicious to the public Weal. The two Gracchis, by their Flatteries to the People, began the Divisions, which never ended but with the Republic. Caius the Brother of Tiberius could not endure the Thoughts that they had caused so great a Man to be killed in so sad and tragical a Manner: And being animated with Revenge, by the Motions which he fancied, the Ghost of Tiberius inspired him w●th, he put all the Citizens into Arms one against another; and just upon the Point of destroying all, he was cut off by a Death, resembling that he was resolved to revenge. Money did all things at Rome. Jugurtha Years of Rome. 635 King of Numidia, stained with the Murder Years of Rome. 640 of his Brothers, whom the Roman People Years of Rome. 641 protected, defended himself much longer by his Gifts than by his Arms: And Marius, Years before J. C. 106 who at last absolutely Conquered him, Years of Rome. 648 could not for all that come to the Command, Years before J. C. 103 but by his stirring up the People against Years of Rome. 651 the Nobless. The Slaves once more armed themselves in Sicily, and their second Revolt cost the Romans as much Blood as the first. Marius beat the Teutons, the Years before J. C. 102 Cymbrians, and the other People of the Years of Rome. 652 North, who got themselves into Gallia, Years before J. C. 100 Spain, and Italy. The Victories he obtained Years of Rome. 654 were an Occasion of proposing new Partages and Divisions of Land: Metellus, who opposed it, was yet notwithstanding forced to give way to Time, and the Divisions Years before J. C. 94 had not ended but by the Blood of Saturnus, Years of Rome. 660 Years before J. C. 88 a Tribune of the People. Whilst Years of Rome. 666 Years before J. C. 86 Rome protected Cappadocia against Mithridates' Years of Rome. 668 King of Pontu●, and so great an Enemy Years before J. C. 91 submitted to the Roman Forces with Greece, Years of Rome. 663 which had then fell into the same Interests: Italy continually engaged in Arms, by so many Wars kept up either against the Romans, or with them, did put their Empire into great Danger by an universal Revolt. Rome at the same time felt herself torn by the Fury of Marius and Sylla, one of whom had made both the South and North to tremble, and the other was the Conqueror Years of Rome. 666 both of Greece and Asia. Sylla, Surnamed Years of Rome. 667 the Happy, 
& seq.  was too much so against his Country, which his Tyrannical Dictatorship Years before J. C. 82 put into Slavery. He could willingly Years of Rome. 672 Years before J. C. 79 resign the Sovereign Power; b●t he could Years of Rome. 675 not prevent the Effect and Consequence of a bad Example. Every one would Rule Years before J. C. 74 and Govern. Sertorius, a zealous Associate Years of Rome. 680 Years before J. C. 73 of Marius, cantoned himself in Spain, and Years of Rome. 681 there made a League with Mithridates. Against so great a Captain, Force was in Vain; and Pompey could no ways reduce that Party, but by sowing the Seeds of Division among them: So that there was not a Man, even down to Spartacus the Gladiator, but who thought he might aspire to the Command Years before J. C. 71 of the whole. This Slave was as Years of Rome. 683 great a Trouble to the Praetors and the Consuls, as Mithridates was to Lucullus. The War of the Gladiators became a Dread to the Roman Power: Crassus could hardly end it, and he was forced to send against them Years before J. C. 68 Pompey the Great. Lucullus got the better Years of Rome. 686 in the East. The Romans past the Eu●hrates. But their Invincible General against the Enemy, could not keep his own Soldiers within their Duty. Mithridates, who, tho' often beaten, yet never lost his Courage, rallied; and the Happiness of Pompey seemed necessary to determine that War. Years before J. C. 67 He had newly purged the Sea of the Pirates Years of Rome. 687 that infested them from Syria even to Hercules his Pillars, when he was sent against Mithridates. His Glory seemed then to be raised to the height. He brought that Valiant Years before J. C. 65 King into an absolute Submission, Armenia Years of Rome. 689 Years before J. C. 63 whither he was gone for Refuge, Iberia Years of Rome. 691 and Albania, which sustained him, Syria torn by his Factions, Judea, or the Division of the Asmonians, did not leave to Hyrcanus' II. Son of Alexander Janneus but a Shadow of Power, and at last all the East: But he had not had wherewithal to triumph over so many Enemies, without the Consul Cicero, who saved the City from the Fire which Catiline, followed with most of the greatest Roman Nobless, prepared for it. That terrible Party was ruined by the Eloquence of Cicero, rather than by the Arms of C. Antigonus his Colleague. The Liberty of the People of Rome was in no greater Security. Pompey Reigned in the Senate, and his great Name made him absolute Master Years of Rome. 696 of all Deliberations. Julius Caesar, by subduing the Gauls, 
& seq.  brought to his Country the most advantageous Conquest that ever it had had. So great a Service put him into a Condition of Establishing his Dominion in his Country. He was resolved first to equal, and then to outdo Pompey. The immense Riches of Crassus made him believe that he might share the Glory of those two great Men, as he did share their Authority. He rashly engaged in the War against the Parthians, which was fatal to himself, and Years before J. C. 54 to his Country. The Arsacidaes proving Years of Rome. 700 Years before J. C. 53 Conquerors, by their cruel Railleries, insulted Years of Rome. 701 over the Ambition of the Romans, and the insatiable Avarice of their General. But the Shame of the Roman Name was not the worst Effect of the Defeat of Crassus. His Power counterballanced that of Pompey and Caesar, whom he kept united notwithstanding all their Aversion. By his Death, the League which hold them was broken. The Years of Rome. 705 Years before J. C. 49 two Rivals, who had in their Hands all the Forces of the Commonwealth, decided their Quarrel at Pharsalia by a bloody Battle: Years before J. C. 48 Cesar being Conqueror, appeared presently Years of Rome. 706 Years before J. C. 47 over all Europe, in Egypt, in Asia, Years of Rome. 707 Years before J. C. 46 in Mauritania, in Spain, Victor on all sides; Years of Rome. 708 Years before J. C. 45 he was acknowledged as Master at Rome, and Years of Rome. 709 Years before J. C. 44 in all the Empire. Brutus and Cassius thought Years of Rome. 710 Years before J. C. 43 to free their Citizens, by slaying him as a Years of Rome. 711 Tyrant, notwithstanding his Moderation and Clemency. Rome fell again into the Hands of Mark Antony, Lepidus, and young Cesar Octavianus, 
* Petit Neven.  Grandson to Julius Cesar, and his Son by Adoption, three insupportable Tyrants, of whom the Triumvirate, and the Proscriptions do to this day Years before J. C. 42 cause a Horror to read them. But they were Years of Rome. 712 too violent to be of long continuance. Those three Men divided the Empire. C●sar guarded Italy, and of a sudden changing his former Cruelties into Mildness and Gentleness, he made them believe he was induced to it by his Colleagues. The Remains Years before J. C. 36 of the Commonwealth perished with Years of Rome. 718 Years before J. C. 32 Brutus and Cassius. Antony and Cesar, after Years of Rome. 722 Years before J. C. 31 they had ruined Lepidus, turned themselves Years of Rome. 723 one against another. All the Power of Rome was put to Sea. Cesar gained the Actiack Battle: The Egyptian and Eastern Forces, which Antony brought along with him dissipated and scattered: He abandoned by all his Friends, and at last by Cleopatra, Years before J. C. 30 for whose Sake he lost all. Herod the Idumean, who owed him all things, was forced Years of Rome. 724 to surrender himself to the Conqueror, and by that means kept himself in the Possession of the Kingdom of Judea, which the weakness of old Hyrcanus had caused to be absolutely lost to the Asmonians. All things gave way to Cesar's Fortune: Alexandria opened her Gates to him: Egypt became a Roman Province: Cleopatra, who thought she should not be able to preserve herself, was her own self-Murtherer after Anthony: Rome stretches out her Arms to Cesar, who remained, under the Name of Augustus, and under the Title of Emperor, sole Master of the whole Empire: He subdued near the Pyrenees the revolted Canta●rians and Asturians: Years before J. C. 24 Aethiopia desired Peace of him; the Years of Rome. 730 Years before J. C. 22 frighted Parthians sent him back the Standards Years of Rome. 732 Years before J. C. 20 taken from Crassus, with all the Roman Years of Rome. 734 Years before J. C. 15 Prisoners: The Indians sought his Alliance: Years of Rome. 739 Years before J. C. 12 His Arms extended even to the Rhetians Years of Rome. 742 Years before J. C. 7 or Grisons, whom their very Mountains Years of Rome. 747 could not defend: Pannonia paid their Acknowledgements to him: Germany dreaded him, and Veser received his Laws. Victorious thus both by Sea and Land, he shuts up the Temple of Janus. All the World Years of Rome. 753 Years before J. C. 1 lived in Peace under his Power, and then Years of Rome. 754 came Jesus Christ into the World.  
AND now we are come to those times, 
X. Epocha. The Birth of Jesus Christ. 7, and last Age of the World.  so much desired by our Fathers, of the Advent of the Messiah. That name signifies the Christ, or the Lord's Anointed; and Jesus Christ deserves it in a threefold Respect, viz. as a Prophet, as a Priest, 
Years of J. C.  and as a King. It is not fully agreed, the precise year of his coming into the World, but this is assented to, that his true Birth doth some years precede our common Aera, or account, which yet nevertheless we follow with all others, for a greater Ease and Conveniency. But without any further dispute about the year of our Lord and Saviour's Birth, let it be sufficient, that we know it happened about the Year 4000 of the World. Some attribute it to a little before, there are others will have it a little after, and others again will needs have this to be the precise Year; and there are others that make as much uncertainty about the Years of the World, as about this of the Birth of our Lord. But whenever it was, 'tis sure 'twas much about this time, 1000 Years after the Dedication of the Temple, and the 754 year of Rome, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God in Eternity, the Son of Abraham and David in time was born of a Virgin. This of all is the most considerable Epocha, not only for the importance of so great an Event, but also because it is that from whence there are many Ages that Christians begin to count their Years. It has this likewise remarkable in it, that it agrees within a very little with the time when Rome returned to the State of Monarchy, under the peaceable Empire of Augustus. All the Arts flourished in his time, and the Latin Poetry was brought to its last Perfection by Virgil and Horace, whom that Prince did not only excite by his Kindnesses and Liberalities, but likewise by giving them a free and easy access to his Presence. The Birth of Jesus Christ was quickly attended with the Death of Herod. His Kingdom was divided between Years of J. C. 8 his Children, and the chiefest partage Years of J. C. 14 of it soon fell into the Hands of the Romans.  
Augustus' ended his Reign with great honour and glory. Tiberius, whom he had adopted, succeeded him without any repulse or contradiction, and the Empire was acknowledged to be hereditary in the Family of the Caesars. Rome had much to suffer from the cruel Politics of Tiberius; but the rest of the Empire was quiet enough. Germanicus, Nephew to Tiberius, appeased the Rebellious Armies, refused the Empire, Years of J. C. 16 beat the fierce Arminius, extended his Conquests even to the Elbe; and having got to himself the Love of those People, the Jealousy of his barbarous Uncle caused him to be taken off either by 
* Chagrin.  Melancholy Years of J. C. 17 and Vexation, or by Poison. In the Years of J. C. 19 fifteenth year of Tiberius, St. John Baptist Years of J. C. 28 appeared: Jesus Christ made himself to be Years of J. C. 30 Baptised by that divine Forerunner: The Eternal Father acknowledged his wellbeloved Son by a voice that came from Heaven: The Holy Ghost descended upon our Saviour under the pacific Figure of a Dove: all the Trinity manifested themselves. There began with the seventy weeks of Daniel, the Preaching of Jesus Christ. This last Week was the most important, and the most observable. Daniel had divided it from the rest, as the Week or Alliance was to be confirmed, 
Daniel iv. 37.  and in the midst of which the ancient Sacrifices were to lose their efficacy and virtue. It may be called the week of Mysteries. Jesus Christ established his Mission and his Doctrine then by innumerable Miracles, and at last by his Death. It Years of J. C. 33 happened in the fourth year of his Ministry, which was also the fourth Year of Daniel's last Week, and this great Week was in this manner justly cut in the midst by his Death.  
Thus it is easy to make up the Computation of the Weeks, or rather it is already made up. There remains nothing now but to add to the 453 Years, which we shall find from the 300th. year of Rome, and the twentieth of Artaxerxes down to the beginning of the common Aera, the thirty Years of that Aera, which we see comes down to the fifteenth year of Tiberius, and to the Baptism of our Lord: These two Sums will make up 483 years; the seven Years still remain to complete the 490. The fourth, which makes the middle, is that in which Jesus Christ died: and all that Daniel hath prophesied, is visibly shut up within the prescribed term. There is no extraordinary necessity for such an exact punctilio of Justness, and nothing obliges us to take in this extreme rigour the Middle observed by Daniel. The most difficult will content themselves in finding it, in what point soever it be, between the two Extremities: what I say is, that so those who shall think they have good reason to place either a little higher, or a little lower, the beginning of Artaxerxes, or the death of our Lord, might not rack and torment themselves in their calculation, and that those who would endeavour to embarass and perplex a thing that is clear, with tricks of Chronology, might be delivered from their unprofitable and impertinent subtleties.  

Matth. 25.45. Phleg. 13. Olymp. Thal. Hist. 3. Tertullian Apol. 21. Orig. 2. cont. Cells. & Tr. 35. in Matth. Euseb. & Hieron. in Chron. Jul. Afric. Ibid.  The Darkness which covered the whole face of the earth at noonday, and at the instant when Jesus Christ was crucified, is taken for an ordinary Eclipse by the Pagan Authors, who have made their remarks upon that memorable Event. But the first Christians, that spoke of it to the Romans, as of a Prodigy taken notice of, not only by their Authors, but also by the public Registers, have shown, that neither at the time of the full Moon, when Jesus Christ died, nor in all the year when this Eclipse was observed, was it possible for any to fall out, but what must be supernatural. We have the very words of Phlegon, Adrian's Freedman, cited at a time when his Book was every where public and extant, as well as the Syriac Histories of Thallus who followed him; and the fourth year of the 202. Olympiad observed in the Annals of Phlegon, is that of the death of our Lord.  
To accomplish the Mysteries, Jesus Christ arose from his Grave on the Third day; he appeared to his Disciples; he ascended up into to heaven in their presence; he sent them down the Holy Spirit; the Church is form; Persecution gins; St. Stephen is stoned; St. Paul is converted. A little after Tiberius dies. Calig●la his Grandson, and Son by adoption, Years of J. C. 37 and his Successor, astonishes the whole world by his cruel and brutish Folly; he causes himself to be adored, and commands Years of J. C. 40 his Statue to be placed in the Temple of Jerusalem. Cher●as frees the world from this Monster Claudius reigns notwithstanding his Stupidity. He is dishonoured by Messalina Years of J. C. 41 his Wife, whom he redemands after he has Years of J. C. 48 caused her to be killed. He is married to Agrippina, Years of J. C. 49 the Daughter of Germanicus. 
Acts 15.50.  The Apostles keep the Council of Jerusalem, where St. Peter speaks first as he does every where else. The converted Gentiles are there freed from the Ceremonies of the Law. The Sentence of it is pronounced in the name of the Holy Ghost, and the Church of St. Paul, 
Acts ●6. 4.  and St. Barnabas carry the Decree of the Council to the Churches, and teach the faithful to submit to them. Such was the way of the first Council. The stupid Emperor disinherits his Son Britannicus, and adopts Nero the Son of Agrippina. In requital she poisons this too Years of J. C. 54 easy and credulous Husband. But the Empire of her Son was no less fatal to herself, than to all the rest of the Commonwealth. Years of J. C. 58 Corbulo got all the Honour of that Reign by Years of J. C. 60 the Victories he gained over the Parthians Years of J. C. 62 and Armenians. Nero at the same time began Years of J. C. 63 his War against the Jews, and the Persecution against the Christians. 
etc.  This was the first Years of J. C. 66 Emperor that had persecuted the Church. He caused St. Peter and St. Paul to die at Rome. But as at the same time he persecuted Years of J. C. 67 all Mankind, so he found all sides to revolt Years of J. C. 68 against him; he understood that the Senate had condemned him, and so he killed himself. Years of J. C. 69 Every Army made an Emperor: The Quarrel was decided near Rome, and in Rome itself, by dreadful and terrible combats Galba, Otho and Vitellius perished in them: The afflicted Empire came a little to itself under Years of J. C. 70 Vespasian, and enjoyed some rest. But the Jews were put to extremities. Jerusalem was taken and burnt. Titus, the Son and Successor of Vespasian gave to the world but a Years of J. C. 79 short satisfaction. And his days, which he thought lost, when they were not signalised by some kindness and benefit, came upon the heels of each other with a too swift Succession. Nero was seen to be revived in the Person of Domitian. The Years of J. C. 93 Persecution was renewed. St. John coming out of hot boiling Oil, was banished into the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote his Revelations. A little after he wrote his Gospel, at about 90 years of Age, and joined the Quality of an Evangelist to that of being both Years of J. C. 95 an Apostle and a Prophet. From that time the Christians were continually persecuted, as well under the good, as under the evil Emperors. These Persecutions were caused, sometimes by the express orders of the Emperors, and by the particular hatred of the Magistrates, sometimes by the Insurrections of the People, and sometimes the Decrees authentically pronounced in the Senate upon the Rescripts of Princes, or in their Presence. Then the Persecution was most universal and bloody; and so the hatred of the Infidels still resolute to destroy the Church, still grew on from time to time to new furies and outrages. And it was by these Renewals of their violences and cruelties, that the Ecclesiastical Writers counted the ten Persecutions under the ten Emperors. Yet under such long and tedious Sufferings did not the Christians ever make the least Sedition. Among all the faithful, the Bishops still had the most vigorous assaults. Among all the Churches, the Church of Rome was persecuted with the most of violence; and Thirty Popes confirmed by their blood the Gospel which they taught to all the Earth. Domitian is killed: The Empire gins to respire and breathe again under Nerva. His great age did not permit Years of J. C. 96 him to re-settle and establish affairs, but yet as much as in him lay to lengthen out and continue the Repose of the Public, he elected Trajan for his Successor. The Empire Years of J. C. 97 at quiet within, and triumphing without, did Years of J. C. 98 not fail to admire so good a Prince; for this he held for a constant Maxim, that he ought so to let his Citizens find him, as he would have been willing to have found the Emperor, if he had been a simple Citizen. This Years of J. C. 102 Prince subdued the Dacii, and Decebalus their Years of J. C. 106 King: extended his Conquests into the East; Years of J. C. 115 gave to the Parthians a King and made Years of J. C. 116 them stand in awful fear of the insuperable power of Rome. Oh happy Man, whom Drunkenness and his infamous Loves, such deplorable vices in so great a Prince, never Years of J. C. 117 made to attempt any thing against Justice. To these advantageous times for the Common-weal succeeded those of Adrian, equally compounded of good and bad. This Prince kept up the Military Discipline, lived himself a military Life, and with abundance of frugality, supported the Provinces, made the Arts to flourish, and Greece which was Years of J. C. 120 the Mother of them. The Barbarians were Years of J. C. 123 kept in awe by his arms, and his Authority. Years of J. C. 127 He rebuilt Jerusalem, to which he gave his Years of J. C. 126 Name, and from thence it is that the Name Years of J. C. 130 of Aelia happened to it: but he banished the Jews out of it, who were always rebellious to the Empire; and those being obstinate found him an unrelenting Avenger. By his Years of J. C. 135 Cruelties and Monstrous Loves he dishonoured a Reign, which otherwise would have been very glorious; and his infamous Antinous, Years of J. C. 131 of whom he made a God, was a most reproachful blot to his whole Life. The Emperor seemed to repair his defects, and to re-establish that glory and renown, which he had so much defaced, by adopting Antoninus' Years of J. C. 138 the Pious, who adopted Marcus Aurelius Years of J. C. 136 the Sage and the Philosopher. In these two Years of J. C. 161 Princes appeared two lovely and beautiful Characters. The Father always in Peace, yet is always ready upon occasion to engage in War; the Son is always Warring, and yet always ready to give Peace, both to his Enemies and to the Empire. His Father Antoninus had taught him, that the saving of one single Citizen was much to be preferred to the defeating and getting the victory over a Years of J. C. 162 thousand Enemies. The Parthians and the Marcomanni felt the valour of Marcus Aurelius. The latter were somewhat Germane, whom this Emperor had just subdued a little before his death. By the virtue of the Years of J. C. 180 two Antoninus', that name became the delight of the Romans. And the Glory of so endeared a Name was not effaced, either by the softness and effeminacy of jucius Verus, Brother to Marcus Aurelius, and his Colleague in the Empire, or by the Brutalities of Commodus his Son, and Successor. This latter unworthy to be the Offspring of such a Father, forgot both the Instructions and Examples of him; the Senate and the People abhorred him; his most fawning and assiduous Years of J. C. 162 Minions, and his Mistress, were the Cause of Years of J. C. 193 his death. His Successor Pertinax, a vigorous Asserter of the Military Discipline, saw him sacrificed to the fury of licentious Soldiers, that but a little before had raised him, whether he would or no, to the Sovereign Power. The Empire being put to an Outcry by the Army, soon found a Purchaser. The Lawyer Didius Julianus adventured upon that bold bargain, though it cost him his Life; Severus Africanus made him to be killed, Years of J. C. 194 revenged Pertinax, passed from East to Years of J. C. 195 West, triumphed in Syria, in Gaul and in Years of J. C. 198 Great Britain. 
etc.  The hasty Conqueror equalled Caesar by his Victories; but he did not imitate Years of J. C. 207 him in Clemency. He could not make Years of J. C. 209 Peace between his Children; Bassian, or Caracalla, Years of J. C. 208 his eldest Son, a mock Imitator of Alexander, Years of J. C. 211 immediately after the death of 〈◊〉 Years of J. C. 212 Father killed his Brother Geta, an En● 〈◊〉 as well as himself, even in the bosom 〈◊〉 ●●lia, their common Mother, spent his Lif● in Cruelty and Slaughters, and at length drew upon himself a Tragical Death. Sever●s had got for him the heart of the Soldiers and Years of J. C. 218 People, by giving him the Name of Antoninus, but he knew not how to keep up that honour. The Syrian Heliogabalus, or rather Alagabalus his Son, or at least reputed for such (tho' the Name of Antoninus had at first procured him the hearts of the Soldiers, and the victory over Macrinus) soon after by his Infamies became the horror of Mankind, and Years of J. C. 222 he was his own destroyer. Alexander Severus, the Son of Mameus, his Kinsman and Successor, lived too little a while for the happiness of the world. He complained that he was more put to it to keep his Soldiers in good order, than he was to conquer his Enemies. Years of J. C. 235 His Mother who governed him was Years of J. C. 233 the cause of his Ruin, as she had also been that of his glory and renown. Under him Artaxerxes the Persian slew his Master Artabanus, the last King of the Parthians, and reestablished the Empire of the Persians in the East.  
About these times the Church, as yet but in its Minority, 
Tertull. adv. Jud. 7. Apolog. 37.  run over the whole Earth, and not only in the East, where it took its first Rise, that is to say, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, lesser Asia, and Greece; but also in the West, besides Italy, the several Nations of the Gauls, all the Spanish Provinces, Africa, Germany, Great Britain, in those Places, that were impenetrable to the Roman Arms; and also out of the Empire, Armenia, Persia, the Indies, the greatest Barbarians, the Sarmatians, the Dacians, the Scythians, the Moors, the Getulians, and even to the most unknown Islands. The Blood of the Martyrs rendered it fruitful. Under Trajan, Saint Ignatius the Bishop Years of J. C. 107 of Antiochus was exposed to wild Beasts. Marcus Aurelius unhappily prepossessed with the Calumnies wherewith Christianity was charged, caused to be put to Death Saint Years of J. C. 163 Justin the Philosopher, and the Apologist Years of J. C. 167 for the Christian Religion. St. Polycarpus, Bishop of Smyrna, St. John's Disciple, about fourscore Years of Age, was condemned to the Flames under the same Prince. The holy Martyrs of Lion and Vienna suffered unheard of Punishments, following the Example of St. Photin their Bishop, of ninety Years of J. C. 177 Years of Age. The Gallican Church filled all the World with its Fame and Glory. Years of J. C. 202 St. Ireneus the Disciple of St. Polycarpus, and St. Photin's Successor, imitated his Predeccessor, and died a Martyr under Severus, with a great Number of the Fideles) Faithful of his Church; sometimes the Years of J. C. 174 Persecution a little slackened. At a time when there was an extreme want of Water, which Marcus Aurelius suffered in Germany, there was a Christian Legion obtained such a Shower as was enough to quench the Thirst of all his Army, and it was so followed with Thunder, that it frighted all his Enemies. The name of Thunderstriking was given, or rather confirmed to that Legion by this Miracle. The Emperor was so concerned at it, that he writ to the Senate in Favour of the Christians. At last the Soothsayers Persuasions were to attribute to their Gods, and to their Prayers, a Miracle which the Heathens never thought so much as to desire. Other Causes suspended or slackened the Persecution for a little while; but Superstition, a Vice, which Marcus Aurelius had not the Power to resist, the common Hatred, and the Calumnies that were cast upon the Christians, quickly prevailed again. The Fury and Rage of the Heathens was rekindled, and the whole Empire did as it were swim in the Blood of Martyrs. Still their Doctrine went on and attended their Sufferings. In Severus his time, and some while after, Tertullian Priest of Carthage, illuminated the Church by his Writings, defended it by a most admirable Apologism, and left it at last, being blinded by an haughty Severity, and seduced by the Visions of the false Prophet Montanus. Some time, but not long after, Clemens Alexandrinus endeavoured to pull up the Antiquities of Heathenism by the Roots, that so he might utterly put an end to them. Origen, the Son of the Holy Martyr Leonidas, made himself famous throughout all the Church, even from his most tender Years, and taught great Truths, though they were mixed with several Errors. The Philosopher Ammonius joined the Platonic Philosophy to Religion, and gained to himself the Respect of the Heathens. In the mean while the Valentinians, the Gnostics, and the other impious Sects, set up their false Traditions against the Gospel: 
Iren. lib. iii. 1. 2, 3. De prasc. adv. Har. c. 36.  St. Ireneus opposed the Tradition and the Authority of the Apostolic Churches to theirs, especially that of Rome, founded upon the Apostles St. Peter, and St. Paul. Tertullian did the same. The Church is not shaken, neither by Heresies, nor by Schisms, nor by the Fall of our most eminent Doctors. The Holiness of her Conduct is so clear and perspicuous, that she forces even her Enemies to break forth into Praises of her.  
The Affairs of the Empire are embroiled Years of J. C. 235 in a terrible manner. After the Death of Alexander, the Tyrant Maximinus that had killed him, made himself Master, though he was of Gothick Race. The Senate set up four Emperors against him, who died all within less than two Years. Among them Years of J. C. 236 were the two Gordians, the Father and Son, Years of J. C. 237 the Darlings of the Roman People. The Years of J. C. 238 young Gordian their Son, although he was extremely young, yet shown the Wisdom of a gained Experience, and defended with great Difficulty against the Persians, the Empire weakened by those manifold Divisions. He had regained from them several very important Places. But Philip Arabius killed Years of J. C. 242 this good Prince, and for fear lest he Years of J. C. 244 should be utterly undone by the two Emperors Years of J. C. 245 whom the Senate chose one after the other, he clapped up a dishonourable Peace with Sapor King of Persia. He was the first of the Romans that had by Treaty parted with any Lands of the Empire. 'Tis said He embraced the Christian Religion, and at such a time, when on the sudden he had got the better, and indeed he was favourable to the Christians. In hatred to this Emperor, 
Euseb. l. 6. c. 39  Decius, who slew him, renewed the Persecution with more of Violence than ever. The Church increased on all sides, principally among Years of J. C. 249 the Gauls, and the Empire soon lost Decius, 
Greg. Tur. l. 1. Hist. franc. 28.  who with great Resolution and Vigour Years of J. C. 251 defended it. Gallus and Volusian went Years of J. C. 254 quickly after; and Emilius was but just seen as it were: The Sovereign Power was given to Valerianus, and that Venerable old Man ascended to it through all the Dignities. He was only Cruel to the Christians. Under Years of J. C. 257 him Pope St. Stephen, and St. Cyprian Years of J. C. 258 Bishop of Carthage, notwithstanding all their Disputes, which yet broke not off their Correspondence, received both of them the same Crown. St. Cyprian's Error, which rejected Baptism, given by the Heretics, neither hurt him, nor the Church. The Tradition of the Holy See supported itself by its own Force against the specious Arguments, and against the Authority of so great a Man, although there were other very great Men that defended the same Doctrine. Another Dispute did more Mischief. Sabellius Years of J. C. 257 confounded together the three Persons in the Divinity, and acknowledged in God but one single Person under three Names. This Novelty astonished the Church, 
Euseb. Hist. Eccl. l. 7. c. 6.  and St. Denys, Bishop of Alexandria, discovered to Pope Sixtus II. the Errors of this arch-Heretick. This Pope Years of J. C. 259 quickly followed the Martyr St. Stephen, his Predecessor: He was beheaded, and left a very great Contest to be maintained by his Deacon St. Laurence. Then was it that the Years of J. C. 258. 259. Inundation of the Barbarians began to appear. Years of J. C. 260 The Burguignions', and the other People of Germany, the Goths formerly called the Geti, and other People that inhabited toward the Euxine Sea, and beyond the Danube, came into Europe: The East was invaded by the Scythians, asiatics, and the Persians. These overcame Valerianus, whom they afterwards took by a piece of Treachery, and after they had let him linger out his Life in a painful Slavery, they flayed him, to make his torn-off-Skin serve them for a Monument of their Victory. Gallian his Son and Colleague, quite lost all Years of J. C. 261 by his Effeminacy. Thirty Tyrant's share Years of J. C. 264 and divide the Empire. Odenat King of Palmyra, an ancient City, whose Founder was Solomon, was the most illustrious of them all. He rescued the Eastern Provinces from the Hands of the Barbarians, and made himself be owned and dreaded. His Wife Zenobia marched with him at the head of the Armies, which she commanded singly after his Death, and rendered herself Famous over all that part of the World for having joined Chastity to Beauty, and Wisdom and Knowledge to Valour. Claudius' II. Years of J. C. 268 and Aurelianus after him reestablished the Years of J. C. 270 Affairs of the Empire. Whilst they were defeating the Goths, with the Germans, by their signal Victories, Zenobia was keeping to her Children the Conquests of their Father. 
Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 7. c. 27. & seq. Athan. ad Solit. Theod. l. 2. haer. fab. 8. Niceph. lib. 6. c. 27.  This Princess was leaning much to Judaisme. To gain her absolutely, Paul of Samosates Bishop of Antiochus, a vain and a restless Man, taught his Judaical Opinion concerning the Pers●n of Jesus Christ, whom he made to be but a mere Man. After a long Dissimulation of this so new a Doctrine, he was convinced, and condemned to the Council of Antiochus. The Queen Zenohia maintained the War against Aurelianus, who thought it no disdain to him to triumph over a Woman, so eminently famous as she was. Amidst his perpetual Combats, he knew how to make his Soldiers keep the Roman Discipline, and he shown, that in following the ancient Orders, and the ancient Frugality, great Arms might be managed both within and without, 
Hist. Aug Averel. c. 7. Flor. c. 2. Prob. c. 11, 12. firm. etc. c. 13.  with very little Charge to the Empire. The Francs began then to make themselves considerable, and to be somewhat feared. It was a Combination of the Germane People who dwelled along the Rhine. Their Name shows that they were united through a Love to their Liberty. Aurelianus had beaten them, being distinct and by themselves, and kept them in fear, being Emperor. But such a Prince as he was, made himself to be hated Years of J. C. 275 by his bloody Actions. His too violent Choler, which was dreaded by all, was the cause of his Death. Those that thought themselves to be in danger, were resolved to prevent it, and his Secretary being threatened, put himself at the head of this Confederacy. The Army, which beheld him slain by the conspiracy of so many Chiefs, refused to elect an Emperor, for fear lest they should set upon the Throne one of the Assassinate's of Aurelianus; and so the Senate reestablished tn its ancient Right, chose Tacitus. This new Prince was venerable by his Age, by his Virtue; but he became odious by the Violences of a Kinsman, to whom he gave the Command of the Army, and he died with him in a Sedition the sixth Month of his Reign. Thus his Elevation made only way to precipitate the Course of his Life. His Brother Florianus pretended Years of J. C. 276 to the Empire by right of Succession, as the nearest Heir. That Right was disallowed of: Florianus was killed, and Probus forced by the Soldiers to receive the Empire, although he threatened that he would make them live in order. Every thing yielded to so great a Captain: The Germans and the Years of J. C. 277. 278. Francs, who attempted to enter into the Years of J. C. 280 Country of the Gauls, were driven back; and in the East, as well as the West, all the Barbarians did homage to the Roman Arms. This Warrior, so much dreaded, yet aspired Years of J. C. 282 after Peace, and made the Empire to hope that there would be no more need of Soldiers. The Army revenged themselves on him for such Words, and so were released from the severe Rule and Discipline which this Emperor made them to observe. Soon after, being ashamed of the Violence they used to so great a Prince, they honoured his Memory, and gave him for a Successor Carus, who was no less zealous than he for the Discipline. This valiant Years of J. C. 283 Prince revenged his Predecessor, and overcame the Barbarians, to whom the Death of Probus had given Courage. He went into the East, to fight the Persians, with Numerian his second Son, and set against the Enemies of the North side his eldest Son Carinus, whom he nominated Cesar. That was the highest Dignity next to his own, and the nearest Step to come to the Empire: All the East trembled before Carus: Mesopotamia submits to him: The divided Persians were not able to resist him. So that whilst all things yielded to him, Heaven strikes him with a Thunderclap. By too much weeping for the loss of this Father, Numerian had even like to have lost his Eyes. But what will not the desire of reigning prompt Years of J. C. 284 the Heart unto? Far from being troubled at these Calamities his Father-in-Law Aper kills him: But Dioclesian revenged his Death, and at last came to the Empire, which, with Years of J. C. 285 so much earnestness, he had before longed for. Carinus' awakened himself, notwithstanding his Effeminacy, and beat Dioclesian; but in pursuing those that fled, he was slain by one of his own Servant, whose Wife he had abused. Thus the Empire was, as it were, at once rid of the most violent and the most dissolute of all Men. Dioclesian governed vigorously, but yet with such a Years of J. C. 286 Vanity as was insupportable. To resist so many Enemies that risen against him on all sides, both within and without, he nominated Maximian Emperor with him, but yet nevertheless he knew how to keep to himself Years of J. C. 291 the chief Authority. Every Emperor made a Caesar. Constantius Chlorus, and Galerius, were raised to this high Honour. The four Princes did scarce bear up the Burden of so many Wars. Dioclesian fled from Rome, which he found to be too free, and established himself at Nicomedia, where he made himself to be adored after the Eastern manner. In the mean time the Persians being overcome by Galerius, left great Provinces and more Kingdoms to the Romans. After Years of J. C. 297 these very great Successes, Galerius would no longer be subject, and disdained the Name of Cesar. He began to fright Maximian. A grievous and a long Sickness had brought down the haughty Spirit of Dioclesian, 
Euseb. Hist. l. 8.13. Orat. Const. ad Sanct. cat. 25. Lact. de mort. persec. c. 17.18.  and Galerius, although he was his Son-in-Law, forced him to abondon the Empire. It was neccessary for Maximian to follow his Example. Thus the Empire came to be managed between Constantius Chlorus, and Galerius; and two new Caesar's, Severus and Maximin, were created in their Placcs by the Emperors, who deposed themselves. The Years of J. C. 304 Gauls, Spain, and Great Britain were happy, but it was but for a very little while, under Constanius Chlorus, an Enemy to Exactions, and therefore being accused for ruining the Treasury, he shown that he had immense Treasures in the Affections of his Subjects. The rest of the Empire suffered much under so many Emperors and Caesar's. Officers grew numerous with the Princes: Expenses and Exactions were infinite. Young Constantine, 
Lact. ibid. 24.  the Son of Constantius Chlorus, made himself famous: But he found himself in the hands of Galerius. Every day that Emperor being jealous of his growing Glory, exposed him to new Perils. He was in a way of Sport to fight with wild Beats; but yet they wre not so much to be feared as Galerius. Constantine getting safe out of his Hands, found his Father just expiring. About that Years of J. C. 306 time Maxentius the Son of Maximian, and Galerius his Son-in-Law, made himself Emperor, notwithstanding the Opposition of his Father-in-Law, and Intestine Divisions were accumulated to the other Evils of State. The Image of Constantine, who was now come to be his Father's Successor, being carried according to the old Custom to Rome, was there rejected by the Orders of Maxentius. 
Lact. de mort. perfec. c. 26, 27.  The Reception of Images was the usual manner of acknowledging new Princes. On all sides Preparations were made for War. Cesar Severus, whom Galerius sent against Maxentius, made him even in Rome to tremble. To be a comfort Years of J. C. 307 and support to him in this his Fright, he recalls his Father Maximian. The ambitious old Man quitted his retreat, whither to his great Grief he was gone, and in vain did labour to force Dioclesian, his Colleague, out of the Garden which he had cultivated at Salone. At the Name of Maximian the Emperor, the Soldiers of Severus the second time abandoned him. The old Emperor caused him to be killed; and at the same time to fortify himself against Galerius; he gave his Daughter Fausta to Constantine in Marriage. 
Lact. ibid. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32.  Galerius also stood in need of a Support after the death of Severus; which made him resolve to name Licinius Emperor; but that choice did grievously vex Maximin, who being in the Quality of a Cesar, thought himself nearer to the supreme Honour. There was nothing could persuade him to submit himself to Licinius, so that he became independent in the East. There was scarce any thing remaining to Galerius but Illyria, whither he had made his Retreat, after he had been driven out of Italy. The rest of the West was obedient to Maximian, to his Son Maxentius, and to his Son-in-Law Constantine. But he would no longer have his Sons to be his Companions in the Empire, but strangers. He endeavoured to banish his Son Maxentius from Rome, who banished himself from thence. And Constantine, that received him among the Gauls, found him no less perfidious. After divers Years of J. C. 310 Attempts, Maximian made one (and it was the last) Conspiracy, in which he thought he had engaged his Daughter Fausta against her Husband: but she deceived him; and Maximian, who did really believe he had killed Constantine, when he had only killed the Eunuch, whom she had caused to lie in his Bed, was forced in his own defence to be a felo de se. Here was a new War kindled, 
Lact. ib. 42. 43.  Years of J. C. 312 and Maxentius, under pretence of revenging his Father, declared against Constantine, who was marching with his Troops to Rome. At the same time he caused the Status of Maximian to be thrown down: Those of Dioclesian, which were joined to them, had the same Fate. The Repose of Dioclesian was disturbed at this contempt, and he died a little while after, as much through Vexation as through old Age.  
About this time Rome, always an Enemy to Christianity, made the last effort to stifle it quite, and he did indeed establish it. 
Euseb. 8. Hist. Eccl. 16. de vit. Constant. l. 57 Lact. de mort. persec. 9 & seq.  Galerius taken notice of by the Historians for the Author of the last Persecution, two years before he had obliged Dioclesian to leave the Empire, forced him to make that bloody Edict, which commanded the Christians to be persecuted more violently than ever. Maximian who hated them, and had never left tormenting them, stirred up the Magistrates Years of J. C. 302 and Executioners to be severe against them: But his violence, as extreme as it was, did not equal That of Maximin and Galerius. Every day new Punishments were invented. The modesty of the Christian Virgins were no less assaulted than their Faith. They sought for the Bibles with an extraordinary care, that so they might blot out the memory of them; and the Christians durst not have them in their houses, nor indeed read them. Thus after three hundred Years of Persecution, the hatred of the Persecutors became more sharp and rigorous. The Christians wearied them by their Patience. The People affected with the holiness of their Lives, turned Converts in great numbers. Galerius depsaired of ever being able to quash them utterly. Being struck with Years of J. C. 311 an extreme fit of Sickness, he revoked his Edicts, and died of Antiochus his Death, and with as false a Repentance. Maximin continued the Persecution; but Constantine the Years of J. C. 312 Great, a Wise and Victorious Prince, publicly embraced Christianity.  

XI. Epocha. Constantine, or the Peace of the Church.  THis celebrated Declaration of Constantine happened to be in the 312. year of our Lord. Whilst he was besieging Maxentius in Rome, a flaming Cross was seen in the Air by all the People, with an Inscription that promised him the Victory: He had it also confirmed to him by a Dream. The next day he got that memorable Battle which defeated Rome of a Tyrant, and the Church of a Persecutor. The Years of J. C. 313 Cross was born in all their Colours, as the defence of the Roman People, and of all the Empire. A little after Maximin was conquered by Lycinius, who came to an Accommodation with Constantine, and he agreed on much like the same Terms with Galerius. Peace was given to the Church. Constantine loaded it with honours and munificences. Success and victory attended him every where, and the Barbarians were repressed both by him, and by his Children. In the mean while Licinius breaks with him, and so renews the Persecution. But being beaten both by Sea and Land, he was forced to leave the Empire, and at last he lost his Life. About this time Constantine assembled at Nice in Years of J. C. 315 Bythinia the first General Council, where Years of J. C. 324 318 Bishops, who represented all the Church, Years of J. C. 325 condemned the Priest Arius, that was an utter Enemy to the Divinity of Christ, and there they made the Creed, where the Consubstantiality of the Father and the Son was established. The Priests of the Roman Church sent by Pope St. Sylvester preceded all the Bishops of that Assembly; and an Ancient Greek Author mentions among the Legates of the Holy See, 
Gel. Cyric. Hist. Conc. Nic. lib. two. 6. 27.  the Famous Osi●s Bishop of Cordoüa, who was Precedent of that Council. Constantine took his Seat there, and received their Decisions as an Oracle from Heaven. The Arians concealed their Errors, and by their dissimulations recovered his good Favour. Whilst that his valour kept the Empire in Sovereign Tranquillity, Years of J. C. 320 the Quiet of his Family was disturbed by the Artifices of Fausta his Wife Crispus the Son of Constantine, but by another marriage, being accused by this his Stepmother, for offering to violate her, had the misfortune was to find his Father inflexible. But his death was quickly revenged. Fausta convicted was suffocated in the Bath. But Constantine, though he was dishonoured by the malice of his Wife, yet at the same time received a great deal of Honour, by the Piety of his Mother. She discovered among the Ruins of the Old Jerusalem the True Cross that has been so fruitful in working of Miracles. The Holy Sepulchre was likewise found. The New City of Jerusalem which Adrian had caused to be built. The place where our Saviour of the World was born, and all the other holy Places were adorned with stately Temples by Helena and Constantine. Four Years of J. C. 330 years after, the Emperor rebuilt Bysantium, which he called Constantinople, and made it to be the second Seat of the Empire. The peaceable Church under Constantine was miserably afflicted in Persia. An infinite number of Years of J. C. 336 Martyrs there did signalise their Faith. The Emperor in vain endeavoured to qualify Sapor, and to bring him over to Christianity. Constantine's Protection gave to the persecuted Christians a very favourable retreat. Years of J. C. 337 That Prince blessed by all the Church departed this Life full of Joy and hope, after he had shared the Empire amongst his three Sons, Constantine, Constantius and Constans. But that Agreement was quickly troubled. Constantine died in the War he had with his Brother Constance for the Limits of the Years of J. C. 340 Empire. Constantius and Constance were not much longer united. Constance held the Nicene Faith, which Constantius opposed. Then the Church admired the long and wonderful Sufferings of St. Athanasius the Patriarch of Alexandria, and the defender of the Nicene Council. Being driven from his See by Years of J. C. 341 Constantius, 
Soc. Hist. Eccl. two. 15. Sozom. iii. 8.  he was canonically re-invested by Pope St. Julius the first, whose Decree Constance ratifyed and confirmed. That good Prince lived not long. The Tyrant Magnentius traitorously killed him; but Years of J. C. 350 soon after conquered by Constantius, he killed Years of J. C. 351 himself. In the Battle where his Affairs were utterly quashed and ruined, Valenti●s the Arrian Bishop secretly being advertised Years of J. C. 353 by his Friends, assured Constantius that the Tyrant's Army was upon its flight, and made the weak Emperor to believe that this he knew by Revelation. Upon this false Report Constantius delivers himself to the Arrians. The Orthodox Bishops are banished from their Sees; the whole Church is filled with confusion and trouble; the constancy of Pop Liberius is overcome by the vexations of the exile; torments force the Aged Osius Years of J. C. 357 to faint, who was before the support and bulwark of the Church: The Council of Rimini so strong at first, no longer could hold out, but yields by surprise and violence: Nothing is done according to order and method. The Emperor's Authority is now the only Law: But the Arrians who did all by that means, could not agree amongst themselves, but were every day changing their Creed: That of Nice continued: St. Athanasius, and St. Hilary Bishop of Poitiers, it's chief Defenders made themselves famous over all the Earth, whilst the Emperor Constantius was so wholly taken up about the affairs of Arianism, that he was careless and negligent of those of the Empire, the Persians got very considerable Advantages. The Years of J. C. 357. 358. Germans and the Francs attempted on all Years of J. C. 359 parts to bring in the Gauls. Julian, one of the Emperor's Kinsmen hindered them and beat them. The Emperor himself defeated the Samatü, and went against the Persians. There began the Revolt of Julian against the Emperor, his Apostasy, the Death of Years of J. C. 360 Constantius, the Reign of Julian, his equitable Years of J. C. 361 Government, and the new kind of Persecution which he brought upon the Church. He made divisions in it; he excluded the Christians, not only from all manner of Honours, but even from their Studies; and in imitation of the Holy Discipline of the Church, he thought to turn his own Arms against it. Punishments were managed, and appointed under other Pretences Years of J. C. 363 than that of Religion. The Christians remained faithful to the Emperor, but the Glory which he too earnestly sought, destroyed him: He was slain in Persia, where he had too rashly and precipitately engaged himself. Jovianus his Successor, a zealous Christian sound things very sad and desperate, and only lived to conclude a shameful Years of J. C. 364 and dishonourable Peace. After him Valentinian made War like a mighty Captain he brought up his Son Gratianus to it very young, kept up the Military Discipline, beat the Barbanians, fortified the Fronners of the Empire, and protected the Nicene Faith in the West. Valentius his Brother, whom he made his Colleague, persecuted it in the East; and not being able to gain over, nor to crush St. Basil, and St. Gregory of Nazianzen, he despaired of ever being able to conquer it. There were some Arrians that joined new Errors to the ancient. D●gmata and precepts of their Sect. Aë●●us an Arrian Priest, is taken notice of in the Writings of the Fathers, as the Author of a new Heresy, 
Epiph. har. 75. Aug. haer. 53.  for having equalised the Priesthood to the Episcopacy; and for adjudging the Prayers and Oblations which the whole Church used to put up for the Dead, to be unavailable and insignificant. A third Error of this Grand Heretic, was his reckoning among the Servitudes of the Law, the keeping of certain appointed Fasts, and for this being of opinion, that Fasts should be always free and voluntary. He lived when St. Epiphanius made himself so famous by his History of Heresies, where he among the rest is refuted. St. Martin Years of J. C. 375 was made Bishop of Tours, and he filled all the World with the noise of his Holiness and his Miracles, during his life, and after his death Valentinian died, after a most fierce and violent Harangue which he made to the Enemies of the Empire; his passionate Impetuosity which made him so much feared by others, proved fatal to himself. His Successor Gratianus without any Invidiousness of the exaltation of his young Brother Valentinian II. who was made Emperor tho' he was but nine years of age. His Mother Justina, the Protectress of the Arrians, had the Government during his Minority. There Years of J. C. 377 happened in a few years very strange and Years of J. C. 378 wonderful Accidents; the Revolt of the Goths against Valentius; that Prince forsaking the Persians to repress the Rebels Gratianus running to him after he had got a signal Victory over the Germans. Valentius, resolving to conquer singly, hastened the fight, where he was killed near to Adrianople; the Goths being victorious, burn him in a Town whither he had retired. Gratianus being oppressed with the weight of Affairs associated the Great Theodosius to the Empire, and left the East to his Conduct. The Goths are overcome; Years of J. C. 379 all the Barbarians are kept in awe; and that which Theodosius looked upon as no less, the Macedonian Heretics, who denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, were condemned Years of J. C. 881 at the Council of Constantinople. And now there was only the Greek Church: the consent of all the West, and of Pope Damasus, made him to call the Second General Council. Whilst Theodosius governed with so much Power and Success, Gratianus who Years of J. C. 383 was not inferior to him valour, nor Piety, abandoned by his Troops, all made up of Strangers became a Sacrifice to the Tyrant Maximus. The Church and the Empire bewailed Years of J. C. 386, 387 the fate of that good Prince. The Tyrant reigned over the Gauls, and seemed to be satisfied in that division. The Empress Justina under her Son's Name set forth Proclamations in favour of Arrianism. St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan opposed it with his holy Doctrine, Prayers and Patience; and knew that by such Arms he should not only preserve to the Church the 
* Basiliques.  Royal Palaces, which the Heretics would fain have possessed, but also that he should bring over the young Emperor to him. In the mean while Maximus was in action, and Justina found nothing more faithful than the Bishop whom she treated notwithstanding as a Rebel: She sent him to the Tyrant, whom his Discourses could not bend. The young Valentinian is forced to betake himself to flight with his Mother. Maximus is Master at Rome, where he sets up again the Sacrifices unto false Gods in complaisance for the Senate, as yet almost all Pagan. After he had got possession of all Years of J. C. 388 the West, and at that time when he thought himself most in Peace, Theodosius, aided by the Franks overcame him in Pannonia, besieged him in Aquileia, and suffered him to be killed by his Soldiers. And now being absolute Master of both Empires, he gave that of the West to Valentinian, though he did not enjoy it very long. That young Prince raised and degraded Arbogastus too fast, who was a Captain of the Franks, valiant, disinterested, and one that by all manner of crimes was able Years of J. C. 392 to keep the Power he had acquired over the Troops. He raised the Tyrant Eugenius, who was only good at Discourse, and killed Valentinian, who would no longer have the proud Frank for his Master. That detestable Fact was committed near Vienna in the Country of the Gauls. St. Ambrose, whom the young Emperor had sent for to receive Baptism from his hand, lamented his loss, and had very good hopes of his Salvation. His death not long remain unpunished. A very manifest Miracle gave to Theodosius the Years of J. C. 394 Victory over Eugenius, and over the false Gods, whose worship he had anew set up. Eugenius was taken, and must be sacrificed to the Public Vengeance, that so the Rebellion might be quashed by his death. The fierce and resolute Arbogastus became his own Murderer, rather than he would seek to the clemency of the Conqueror, which all the other Rebels came to embrace. Theodosius now sole Emperor was the joy and admiration of all the Universe. He confirmed Religion; put to silence Heretics; abolished the corrupt and impure Sacrifice of the Heathen; corrected vicious effeminacies, and Years of J. C. 390 repressed all superfluous expenses. He humbly acknowledge his faults, and repent of them; he harkened to St. Ambrose, the famous Doctor of the Church, who reproved him for his passion, the only Vice of that great Prince. Tho' always victorious, yet he never made War, but when forced to it by necessity. He made the People happy, Years of J. C. 395 and died in Peace more illustrious by Years of J. C. 386. 387. his Faith than by all his Conquests. In his time St. Jerom, the Priest, being retired into the sacred solitary of Bethlehem, put himself to vast labour and pains to explain the Scriptures, read all the Interpreters of them, searched into all Histories both Sacred and Profane, which might give him any Light, and out of the Original Hebrew composed that Version of the Bible which the Church in general hath received under the name of Vulgar. The Empire which seemed to be invincible under Theodosius, changed on the sudden under his two Sons. Arcadius had the East, and Honorius the West; both of them governed by their Ministers, they made their Power to serve their own particular Interests. Eufinus and Eutropius successively favoured by Arcadius, and each as wicked Years of J. C. 395 as the other, were soon cut off, and Affairs Years of J. C. 399 went no better under a weak Prince. His Years of J. C. 403 Wife Eudoxa made him to persecute S. John Years of J. C. 404 Chrysostom, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Light of the East. Pope S. Innocentius, and all the West, kept up that great Bishop against Theophilus, the Patriarch of Alexandria, and Minister of the Empress' cruelties. The West was troubled with the Inundation of the Barbarians. Radagasus a Years of J. C. 406 Goth and Heathen ravaged Italy. 
etc.  The Vandals a Gothic and Arrian Nation, seized on one part of Gallia, and so spread themselves in Spain. Alaricus King of the Visigoths an Arrian People forced Honorius to resign those great Provinces to him, which were already possessed by the Vandals. Stilicon, embarrassed with so many Barbarians, beat them, managed them, held secret Intelligences, and broke with them, sacrificed all to his Interest, and notwithstanding kept the Empire, which he was resolved to usurp. In the mean Years of J. C. 408 time Arcadius died, and thought the East so stripped of good Subjects, that he left his Son Theodosius of about eight years old, to the Guardianship of Isdegerdus King of Persia. But Pulcheria, the young Emperor's Sister, did believe she was capable of very great Affairs. The Empire of Theodosius upheld itself by the prudence and piety of this Princess. That of Honorius seemed to be near its last ruin; He caused Stilicon to be put to death, and then knew not where to fill the place with so great and able a Minister. The Years of J. C. 409 Revolt of Constantine, the absolute loss of Years of J. C. 410 Gallia and Spain, the taking and sacking of Rome by the Arms of Allaricus, and the Visigoths were the attendances upon Stilicon's death. Ataulphus, more furious than Alaricus pillaged Rome anew, and resolved on nothing less than utterly abolishing the Roman name: But for the happiness of the Empire, he took Placidia, the Sister of the Emperor. Years of J. C. 413 The Goths treated with the Romans, Years of J. C. 414 and settled themselves in Spain, and reserved Years of J. C. 415 among the Gauls the Provinces which drew toward the Pyrenees. Their King Vallia wisely managed those great designs. Spain shown her constancy; and her Faith changed not under the domination of the Arians. In the mean while the Burgundians, a Germane People were got all about the Rhine, from whe●● by degrees they gained that Country that still bears their Name. The Franks did not forget themselves; being resolved to Years of J. C. 420 make new efforts to open Gallia to them, they raised Pharamont the Son of Marcomir to the Regality; and the Monarchy of France, being the most Ancient and Noble of any in the World, began under him. The Years of J. C. 423 Unfortunate Honorius died without any Issue, and left the Empire to itself without providing for it. Theodosius named Emperor his Cousin Valentinian III. Son of Placidia and Constance her Second Husband, and put him during his Minority under the Tutelage of his Mother, to whom he gave the Title of Empress. In those times Celestius and Years of J. C. 412 Pelagius denied Original Sin, and the Grace Years of J. C. 413 by which we are Christians. And notwithstanding Years of J. C. 416 their dissimulations, the Councils of Years of J. C. 417 Africa condemned them. The Popes, St. Innocentius and St. Zozimus, whom Pope St. Celestin followed afterwards, authorised the condemnation, and extended it through all the Universe. St. Austin confounded those dangerous Heretics, and gave a Light to all the Church by his admirable Writings. The same Father seconded by St. Prosper his Disciple, stopped the mouths of the Demi-Pelagians, who attributed the beginning of Justification and Faith to the peculiar power of . An Age so unhappy to the Empire, and wherein so many Heresies sprang up, yet was not unhappy to Christianity. No trouble shockt it, no heresy corrupted it. The Church, fruitful in great men, confounded all their Errors. After the Persecutions, God was pleased to make the Glory of his Martyrs to shine forth conspicuously: all Histories and all Writings are full of the Miracles which their implored Succour and their honoured Tombs and Sepulchers wrought all the earth over. Vigilantius who opposed and Years of J. C. 426 contradicted such received Opinions, 
Hier. count. Vigil. Gen. Deser. Ecc.  refuted by St. Jerom, was alone without a Follower. The Christian Faith gathered Strength, and enlargement every day. But the Western Empire could no longer hold out. Being attacked by so many Enemies, it was also weakened by the Jealousies of its Generals. Years of J. C. 427 By the Artifices of Aëtius, Boniface the Count of Africa became suspected by Placidia. The Count being ill-treated caused Genseric and the Vandals, whom the Gauls had driven away to come out of Spain, and repent his calling of them, when it was too late. Africa was taken from the Empire. The Church suffered very great evils by the violence and cruelty of the Arians, and saw a World of Years of J. C. 429 Martyrs crowned. Two furious Heresies risen up: Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople divided the Person of Jesus Christ; and twenty years after, Eutyches the Abbot confounded the two Natures of them. St. Cyril the Patriarch Years of J. C. 430 of Alexandria opposed Nestorius, who was condemned by Pope St. Celestin. The third General Council of Ephesus, in execution of this Sentence, deposed Nestorius, and confirmed Years of J. C. 430 the Decree of St. Celestin, whom the Years of J. C. 431 Bishops of the Council called their Father in their definition. 
Part. 2. Conc. Eph. act. 1. Sent. Depos. Nestor.  The holy Virgin was acknowledged for the Mother of God, and the Doctrine of St. Cyril was celebrated throughout the earth; Theodosius, after some Embarassments, submitted himself to the Council, and banished Nestorius; Eutyches, who could not otherwise combat this Heresy, than by running himself into another excess, Years of J. C. 448 was as violently rejected. Pope St. Leo the Great condemned him, and wholly refuted him by a Letter which was greatly revered Years of J. C. 451 by all people. The fourth General Council of Chalcedon, where this Great Pope held the first place as well by his Learning, as by the Authority of his See, anathematised Eutyches, and Dioscorus the Patriarch of Alexandria his Protector. The Council's Letter to S. Leo shown that that Pope presided there by his Legates, as the head over its Members. The Emperor Marcian was himself present at this great Assembly, 
Relat. S. Syn. calc. ad Leo. Conc. Part. 3.  following the Example of Constantine, and received the Decisions of it with the same Respect. A little before Pulcheria had advanced him to the Empire by marrying him. She was owned as Empress after the death of her Brother, who left never a Son. But it was necessary for the Empire to have a Master, and the Virtue of Marcian procured him that Honour. During the time of these two Councils, Theodoret, Bishop of Cyr made himself famous; and his Doctrine was without spot, if the violent Writings which he published against St. Cyrill, had not too much needed Illustrations. He gave them sincerely, and was reckoned among the Orthodox Bishops. The Gauls began to acknowledge the Francs. Aëtius had defended them against Pharamont, and against Clodion the Hairy: But Meroveus was more happy, and made there a more solid Establishment, near about the same time as the English Saxons got the possession of Great Britain. They gave their Name to it, and found there several Royalties. In the mean time the Huns, a People of Pannonia, desolated all the World with an immense Army, under the Conduct of Attila their King, the most dreadful and terrible of all Men. Aëtius, who got the better of him in Gallia, could not prevent his ravaging of Italy. The Isles of the Adriatic Sea served as a Retreat to Years of J. C. 452 several against his Fury. Venice raised itself up out of the midst of the Waters. Pope St. Leo, who was more puissant than Aëtius, and the Roman Armies, made that barbarous King and Heathen to respect him, and saved Rome from being pillaged: But it was quickly after exposed by the Debauches of its Emperor Valentinian. Maximus, Years of J. C. 454. 455. whose Wife he had violated, found a way to destroy him, by dissembling his Griefs, and thereby insinuating himself into his good Affections. By his deceitful Counsels, the blinded Emperor caused Aëtius, the only Bulwark of the Empire, to be put to death. Maximus, the Author of this Murder, stirs up Aëtius his Friends to revenge it, and so the Emperor came to be killed. By these Steps he got to the Throne, and forces the Empress Eudoxia, the Daughter of Theodosius the Younger, to marry him. To deliver herself out of his Hands, she was not afraid to run into those of Genseric. Rome now became a Prey to Barbary; It was only S. Leo that prevented all there from being put to Fire and Sword: The People tore Maximus to pieces, and only received that sad Consolation in all their Miseries. All is out of Order in the West, several Emperors are set up there, and pulled down again almost at one and the same time. Years of J. C. 456. 457. Majorianus made himself the most Considerable. Avitus very scurvily preserved his Reputation, and saved himself by a Bishopric. The Gauls were no longer to be defended against Merovius, nor against Childerick his Son. But the latter had like Years of J. C. 458 to have died through his Debaucheries. If Years of J. C. 462 his Subjects banished him, one faithful Friend in reserve made him be recalled. His Valour gave a Dread and Terror to his Enemies, and his Conquests reached very far into the Country of the Gauls. The Eastern Years of J. C. 475 Empire was at Peace under Leo the Thracian, Years of J. C. 476 Marcian 's Successor, and under Zeno, Leo's. Son-in-Law and Successor. The Revolt of Basiliscus, which was soon quashed, gave but a short disturbance to this Empire: But the Western Empire went to decay irrecoverably. Augustus, who was called Augustulus, the Son of Orestes, was the last Emperor owned at Rome, and immediately after he was deposed by Odoacres King of the Heruleans. These were People come from the Euxine Sea, whose Government was but of a short duration. In the East, the Emperor Zeno attempted to signalise himself in an unheard of manner. He was the first of all the Emperors who concerned himself in regulating the Questions of Faith. Whilst the Demi-Eutychians opposed the Council of Years of J. C. 482 Chalcedon, he published against the Council his Henotick, that is to say, his Decree of Union detested by the Catholics, and condemned by Pope Felix the III. The Heruleans Years of J. C. 483 were quickly driven from Rome by Years of J. C. 490 Theodorick King of the Ostrogoths, that is to Years of J. C. 491 say, the Eastern Goths, who founded the Kingdom of Italy, and left, though an Arian, a pretty free Exercise to the Catholic Religion. The Emperor Anastasius was some trouble to it in the East. He followed the Years of J. C. 492 Steps of Zeno his Predecessor, and heartened Years of J. C. 493 the Heretics. By which means he lost the People's Affections, which could never be retrieved, no, not by casing them of heavy and oppressive Taxes. Italy was all obedient to Theodorick. Odoacres pressed into Ravenna, endeavoured to save himself by a Treaty, which Theodorick did not at all regard, and the Heruleans were forced to resign up all. Theodorick, besides Italy, did likewise keep Provence. In his time St. Bennet, being in Italy, retired into a Desert, Years of J. C. 494 begins, from his most early years, to put in Practice those Holy Maxims, of which he afterwards composed that excellent Rule, which all the Western Monks received with the same respect and deference which those of the East do pay to that of St. Basil. The Romans completed the Ruin of the Gauls by the Victories of Clovis the Son of Chilperick. Years of J. C. 495 He gained also over the Germans the Battle of Tolbiac, by the Vow he made of embracing the Christian Religion, to which his Wife Clotilda never ceased her Persuasions. She was of the House of the Kings of Bu●gundy, and a most Catholic Zealot, tho' her Family and Nation were Arrian. Clovis instructed by St. Vaast, was baptised at Reims, with his Franks, by St. Remy Bishop of that ancient Metropolis. Of all the Princes of the Years of J. C. 506 World, he alone maintained the Catholic Years of J. C. 507 Faith, and deserved the Title of most Christian to be derived to all his Successors. By the Battle in which with his own Hand he killed Alarick King of the Visigoths, Tholo●se and Aquitain were joined to his Kingdom. But the Victory of the Ostrogoths Years of J. C. 508 kept him from pretending to it all, even up to the Pyrenees, and the end of his Reign defaced somewhat the Glory of his great beginnings. His four Sons divided the Kingdom, Years of J. C. 510 and yet were continually making Inroads one upon another. Anastasius died Years of J. C. 518 by the stroke of a Thunderbolt. Justin, of mean Extract, but a Man of parts, and a great Catholic, was made Emperor by the Senate. He and all his People submitted to the Decrees of Pope St. Hormisdas, and so put an end to the Troubles of the Eastern Churches. In his time B●ëtius, a Man famous for his Learning, as well as his Birth, Years of J. C. 526 and Symmachus his Father-in-Law, both advanced to the highest Offices of Government, were sacrificed to the Jealousy of Theodorick, who groundlessly suspected them for conspiring against the State. The King being afterwards troubled in his mind for this bloody Fact he had done, thought he saw the Head of Symmachus in a Dish, which was brought up to his Table, and soon after died. Amalasonta his Daughter, Mother of Al●ricus, who succeeded to the Kingdom by the death of his Grandfather, was hindered by the Goths from bringing up this young Prince in the Instructions which his Birth both challenged and deserved; and being forced to abandon him to Persons of his own Age, she foresaw his Ruin, without being able to do any thing to prevent it. The Year after Years of J. C. 527 Justin died, after he had associated to the Empire his Nephew Justinian, whose long Reign is celebrated by the Labours of Tribonianus, the compiler of the Roman Law, and by the Exploits of Belisarius, and Years of J. C. 529 of the Eunuch Narses. Those two famous Years of J. C. 530, etc. Captains subdued the Persians, defeated the Years of J. C. 533 Ostrogoths and the Vandals; and rendered to Years of J. C. 534 their Master, afric, Italy, and Rome; but Years of J. C. 552 the Emperor jealous of their Glory, without Years of J. C. 553 ever being desirous to share with them Years of J. C. 532 their Labours, every day studied how to embarass and entangle them more than ever he afforded them Assistance. The Kingdom of France increased. After a long War Childebert and Clothaire, the Sons of Clovis, conquered the Kingdom of Burg●ndy, and at the same time sacrificed to their Ambition the younger Sons of their Brother Clodomir, whose Kingdom they divided between themselves. Some time after, and whilst Belisarius was so vigorously attacking the Ostrogoths, what they had in the Country of the Gauls, was left to the French. France extended itself then a good way beyond the Rhine; but the Partages of Princes, which made up so many Kingdoms, kept it from being reunited under one and the same Dominion. It's chief parts were Neustria, that is to say Western France; and Austrasia, Years of J. C. 553 that is to say Eastern France. The same year that Rome was retaken by Narses, Justinian caused the fifth general Council to be held at Constantinople, which confirmed those that went before it, and condemned some Writings that seemed favourable to Nestorius. That is what we call the three Chapters, because of the three Authors long since dead, whereof they then treated. It condemn the Memory and the Writings of Theodorus Bishop of Mopsueste, a Letter of Ibas Bishop of Edessa, and among Theodoret his Writings, those he had drawn up against St. Cyrill. The Books of Origen which pestered all the East for one whole Age, were also reprobated. This Council which began with but ill designs, yet had a happy Conclusion, and was received by the Holy See, which at first had opposed it. Years of J. C. 555 Two years after the Council, Narses, who had taken Italy from the Goths, defended it against the French, and obtained an absolute Victory over Bucelin General of the Troops of Austrasia. Yet notwithstanding all these Advantages. Italy did not long remain under the Government of Emperors. Under Justin II. Nephew of Justinian, and Years of J. C. 568 after the Death of Narses, the Kingdom of Lombardy was founded by Alboün: He took Milan and Pavia; Rome and Ravenna were scarce safe from his Hands, and the Lombard's put the Romans to extreme sufferings Years of J. C. 570. 571. and calamities. Rome was but poorly assisted Years of J. C. 574 by her Emperors, whom the Covetous Nations, Scythia, the Saracens, a People of Arabia, and the Persians more than all the other grievously tormented on all sides in the East. Justin, who only believed himself and his Passions, was always beaten by the Persians, and by their King Chosroes. His resentment of so many Losses put him into a Years of J. C. 579 Frenzy, so that his Wife Sophia governed the Empire. This unhappy Prince too late recovered into his good Senses, and confessed, as he was dying, the Malice of his Flatterers. After him, Tiberius II. whom he had named Emperor, repressed the Enemies, comforted the People, and enriched Years of J. C. 580 himself by their Alms. The Victories of Years of J. C. 581 Mauritius the Cappadocian, General of his Armies, broke the heart of the proud Years of J. C. 583 Chosroes. Those were recompensed by the Empire which Tiberius gave him at his death with his Daughter Constantina. At that time the Ambitious Fredegunda, Wife to King Chilperick the first, put all France into a Combustion; and engaged all the French King in most bloody and cruel Wars: In the midst of the Miseries of Italy, and whilst Rome was visited with a most Years of J. C. 590 dreadful Pestilence, St. Gregory the Great was advanced, maugre all his resistance, to the See of St. Peter: That great Pope stayed the Plague by his devout Prayers, instructed Emperors, and did absolutely make a just Obedience to be paid to them; comforted Africa, and fortified it; confirmed in Spain the Visigoths converted from Arianisme, and Ricardes the Catholic, who was just got in again into the Bosom of the Church; converted England, reform the Discipline in France, whose Kings being always Orthodox, he exalted above all Kings in the World. He overcame the Lombard's; saved Rome and Italy, which the Emperors could give no assistance to, suppressed the growing Pride of the Patriarches of Constantinople; illuminated the Church by his Doctrine; governed both the East and the West with as much resolution as humility; and gave unto the World a perfect Model of Ecclesiastical Government. The History of the Church hath nothing more glorious than the Monk St. Austin's Years of J. C. 597 Entrance into the Kingdom of Kent with forty of his Companions, 
Beda l. 1.  who going before the Holy Cross and the Image of the Great King our Lord Jesus Christ, made solemn Vows for the conversion of England. S. Gregory, who had sent them, instructed them by Letters truly Apostolical, 
Greg. lib. 9 Ep. 58. ind. 4.  and taught S. Austin to tremble amidst the continual Miracles, which God wrought by his Ministry. Bertha a Princess of France brought King Edhilbert her Husband over to Christianity. The Kings of France and Queen Brunehault protected the new Mission. The Bishops of France did also engage in this Work, and it was they who by the Order of Du Paga consecrated St. Austin. The Supply which St. Gregory sent to the new Bishop, was productive of new Years of J. C. 601 Fruits, and the English Church assumed its Years of J. C. 604 Form. The Emperor Mauritius having tried the fidelity of the Holy Pontiff, was corrected by his advice, and received from him that commendation so worthy of a Christian Prince, as the Heretics durst not open their mouths in his time. However that pious Emperor was guilty of a great Fault. A Years of J. C. 601 vast number of Romans were destroyed by the hands of the Barbarians, for want of being ransomed by a Crown per head. Immediately afterwards the good Emperor testified his remorse; and he poured out a Prayer to God to punish him in this World rather than in the other; and then was the revolt Years of J. C. 602 of Phocas, who before his eyes cut the throats of all his Family; Mauritius being the last that was killed, amidst all this sad Scene of calamities was heard to say nothing but only that verse of the Psalmist, 
Psal. 119.  I know, O Lord, that thy Judgements are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. Phocas being advanced to the Empire by so horrid and Years of J. C. 606 detestable a crime, endeavoured to gain the Years of J. C. 610 People, in honouring the Holy See, whose privileges he confirmed. But his Sentence was pronounced. Heraclius proclaimed Emperor by the African Army, marched against him. Then Phocas found, that ofttimes debauches do more ruin Princes than Cruelties, and Photin whose Wife he had vitiated, betrayed him to Heraclius, who caused him to be killed. France a while after beheld a much Years of J. C. 614 stranger Tragedy. Queen Brunchault being delivered up to Clothaire II. was sacrificed to the ambition of that Prince; her Memory was quite effaced, and her virtue so much extolled by Pope S. Gregory, was scarce able to be defended. The Empire in the mean time was desolate without a Governor. The King of Persia Chosroes II. under pretence of revenging Mauritius, had attempted to destroy Phocas. He pushed on his Conquests under Heraclius. There was seen the Emperor beaten, and the true Cross carried away Years of J. C. 620, 621. by the Infidels; after, by admirable return, Years of J. C. 622, 623, H raclius five times a Conqueror; Persia overrun Years of J. C. 625, 626. by the Romans, Chosroes killed by his Son, and the Holy Cross retaken. Whilst the Power of the Persians was so sharply repressed, a worse mischief risen up both against the Empire, and indeed against all Christianity. Mahomet set himself up for a Prophet among the Saracens: He was driven out from Mecha by his own People, with his Flight commenced that memorable Hegyra, from whence Years of J. C. 622 the Mahometans compute their Years. This false Prophet gave his Conquests for all the sign of his mission. In nine years he brought all Arabia under Subjection, either on their own accord, or by force, and laid the Foundations of the Empire of the Caliphi. To these Years of J. C. 629 Afflictions was superadded the Heresy of the Monothelites, who, through an almost inconceivable Blindness, in owning two Natures in our Lord and Saviour, would own that there was but one Will in him. Man, according to their Doctrine, had nothing of Will in him, and there was nothing in Jesus Christ, but the sole Will of the Word. These Heretics concealed their Venom under ambiguous terms: A false Love of Peace made them propose that there should be no speaking either of one or of two Wills. By these Artifices they imposed upon Pope Years of J. C. 633 Honorius the First, who entered with them into a very dangerous Menage, and consented to that Silence, whereby the Lie and the Truth were both equally suppressed. And for the compliment of all Afflictions, some time after the Emperor Heraclius undertook Years of J. C. 639 to decide the Question by his Authority, and proposed his Ecthesis, or favourable Explication to the Monothelites; but the Artifices of the Heretics were at length discovered. Pope John iv condemned the Ecthesis. Constance, the Grandchild of Heraclius, Years of J. C. 640 maintained the Edict of his Grandfather by his own, called the Type. The Years of J. C. 648 Holy See and Pope Theodoret opposed that Years of J. C. 649 attempt: Pope St. Martin I. assembled the Council of Lateran, where he sentenced the Type, and the Chiefs of the Monothelites to the Anathema. St. Maximus, celebrated over all the East for his Piety and his Learning, leaves the Court, which was infected with this new Heresy, openly reproves the Emperors, who had dared so to pronounce upon the Questions of Faith, and suffers a world of Afflictions for the Catholic Years of J. C. 650. 654. Faith. The Pope dragged from one Exile to another, and always rudely treated by the Emperor, at length dies in the midst of his Sufferings without complaining, nor remitting any thing he owed to the Function of his Ministry. In the mean while, the new English Church, strengthened by the industrious Cares of the Popes, Boniface V and Honorius, grew very famous over all the World. Miracles abounded there with the Virtues, as in the times of the Apostles; and nothing was more splendid than the Years of J. C. 627 Sanctity of its Kings. Edwin, with all his Years of J. C. 634 Subjects, embraced the Faith which had given him the Victory over his Enemies, and converted his Neighbours. Oswald served as an Interpreter to the Preachers of the Gospel; and renowned by his Conquests, he preferred the Glory of being a Christian to Years of J. C. 655 them all. The Mercians were converted by the King of Northumberland Oswin: Their Neighbours and their Successors, followed their Steps; and their good Works were infinite. Every thing went to wrack in the East, whilst the Emperors were destroying each other in Disputes about Religion, and Years of J. C. 634 in inventing of Heresies; the Saracens run Years of J. C. 635 through the Empire; possessed themselves of Years of J. C. 636 Syria and Palestine; the Holy City was subjected Years of J. C. 637 to them; and Persia lay open to their Power by its Divisions, so that they took that great Kingdom without any Resistance. They entered into Africa, in a posture of Years of J. C. 647 making it in a very little time one of their Years of J. C. 648 Provinces; the Isle of Cyprus paid them Obedience; and in less than thirty years they joined all these Conquests to those of Mahomet. Italy, always unfortunate and forsaken, groaned under the Arms of the Lombard's. Constance despairing of his ever driving them out, was resolved to ravage what he could no longer defend, and was more cruel than the Lombard's themselves. He came not to Years of J. C. 663 Rome but to pillage the Treasures of it; the Churches escaped not free from him: He ruined Sardinia and Sicily; and made himself odious to all the World, and at last fell by the Hands of his own Servants. Under Years of J. C. 668 his Son Constantine Pogonat, that is to say, Years of J. C. 671 the Bearded, the Saracens possessed themselves Years of J. C. 672 of Cilicia and Lycia. Constantinople Years of J. C. 678 was besieged, and was saved even by a Miracle. The Bulgari, People that came from the mouth of Volga, joined with all those potent Enemies wherewith the Empire was infested, and got themselves Masters of that part of Thrace, called since Bulgaria, which was the Ancient Mysia. The English Church was the Mother that brought forth new Churches; and St. Wilfrid Bishop of York, being expelled from his See, converted Frieseland. The whole Church received a new Light by the sixth general Council of 
* Alsted. Chron.  Years of J. C. 696 Constantinople, where Pope St. Agatho presided by his Legates, and explained the Years of J. C. 680 Catholic Faith by a most admirable Letter. That Council anathematised one Bishop famous for his Learning, one Patriarch of Alexandria, four Patriarches of Constantinople, that is to say, all the Authors of the Sect of the Monothelites; without sparing Pope Honorius himself, who had abetted and countenanced them. After the Death of Agatho, which happened during that Council, Pope St. Leo II. confirmed their Decisions, and received all their anathemas. Constantine Pogonat, an imitator of the great Constantine, and of Marcian, entered into the Council, after their Example; and as he paid them the same Submissions, they honoured him with the same Titles of Orthodox, Religious, and peaceful Emperor, and the Restorer of Religion. His Son Years of J. C. 585 Justinian II. succeeded to him then an Infant. From his time the Faith increased, and spread itself gloriously towards the North. Years of J. C. 586 St. Kylian sent by Pope Conon, preached the Years of J. C. 589 Gospel in Franconia. In the time of Pope Sergius, Ceadwalla, one of the Kings of England, came in Person to acknowledge it was from the Roman Church that the Faith came into his Isle; and after he had received Baptism by the Hands of the Pope, he died even according as he himself had wished. The House of Clovis was fallen into a most deplorable Weakness: Frequent Minorities had degenerated the Princes into such softnesses as they could not get out of when they were come to age: From thence proceeded a long Succession of droning Kings, that only knew how to be content with the Name of King, and delegated all their Power to the great Ministers of the Crown. Under this Title Pepin Heristel governed all, Years of J. C. 693 and raised up his House to the most exalted Years of J. C. 695 Hopes. By his Authority, and after the Martyrdom of St. Vigibert, the Faith was established in Frieseland, which France had then just added to her Conquests. St. Swibert, St. Willebord, and other Apostolic Men, spread abroad the Gospel in the neighbouring Provinces. In the mean while the Minority of Justinian was happily got over; the Victories of Leontius had brought down the Saracens, and reestablished the Glory of the Empire in the East. But that Years of J. C. 694 valiant Captain unjustly arrested, and unfortunately Years of J. C. 696 released, cut his Master's Nose, and drive him out. That Rebel suffered a like treatment from Tiberius, named Absimarus, who himself did not long continue. Justinian reestablished, was ungrateful to his Friends, and in taking Revenge of his Enemies, he raised himself up those that were more to be feared, for they killed him. The Images of Philippicus, his Successor, were Years of J. C. 702. 711. not received in Rome, because he was a Favourer of the Monothelites, and a declared Enemy to the sixth general Council. At Constantinople they chose Anastasius II. a Years of J. C. 713 Catholic Prince, and they pulled out Philippicus his Eyes. At that time the Debauches of King Rodericus, or Rodrigue, caused Spain to be delivered up to the Moors: So they called the Saracens of Africa. Count Julian, to be revenged for his Daughter, whom Rodrigue had abused, called those Infidels. They came with vast Troops. That King was ruined, Spain submitted, and the Empire of the Goths was brought to an end by it. The Church of Spain was then put upon a new Proof and Trial: But as it had preserved itself under the Arians, the Mahometans could not prevail over it. They left it at first with Liberty enough; but in the following Ages it endured great Combats; and Chastity had its Martyrs, as well as Faith, under the Tyranny of a Nation as brutal as it was infidel. The Emperor Years of J. C. 715 Anastasius continued not long. The Army forced Theodosius III. to take up the Purple. He was put upon fight, the new Emperor got the day, and poor Anastasius was clapped into a Monastery. The Moors being Masters of Spain, hoped e'er long to enlarge themselves beyond the Pyrenees: But Charles Martel destined to suppress them, was raised in France, and had succeeded, tho' a Bastard, to the Power of his Father Pepin Heristel, who left Austrasia to his House as a piece of sovereign Principality, and the Command in Neustria by the charge of Grand Minister of the Crown. Charles reunited all by his valour. The Affairs of the East were embroiled. Years of J. C. 716 Leo Isaurien, Perfect of the East, did not own Theodosius, who, without Resistance, quitted the Empire, which he had not accepted of, but as it had been forced upon him; and retired to Ephesus: he spent the rest of his time about things that were truly great. The Saracens received several cruel Shocks during the Empire of Leo. They shamefully raised the Siege at Years of J. C. 718. 719. Constantinople. Pelagius, who was cantoned in the Mountains of Asturia, with the remains of those that were resolute among the Goths, after a signalised Victory, set up a new Kingdom in opposition to those Infidels, whereby one day they were to be driven out of Spain. Notwithstanding all the Efforts, and the vast Army of Alderames their General, Charles Martel gained over them the famous Battle of Toures. There were killed there an infinite number of those Years of J. C. 725 Infidels; and Abderames himself abode there upon the place. This Victory was attended with other Advantages, by which Charles put a stop to the Moors, and extended the Kingdom even to the Pyrenees. Then the Gauls scarce enjoyed any thing which was not in Obedience to the French; and all acknowledged Charles Martel. Powerful in Peace and in War, and absolute Master of the Kingdom, he reigned under several Kings, with whom he fought, and whom he conquered at his Pleasure, but yet he durst never take upon him that great Title. The Jealousy of the French Lords would have been thus deceived. The Religion was established in Germany. The Priest St. Boniface Years of J. C. 723 converted those People, and was made Bishop thereof by Pope Gregory II. who had sent him thither. The Empire was at that time pretty quiet: But Leo began a trouble in it, which lasted long before it ended. He attempted to pull down, as Idols, the Images Years of J. C. 726 of Jesus Christ, and of his Saints. But tho' he could not come up to the Sentiments of St. German, Patriarch of Constantinople, he acted with his Authority, and after a Decree of the Senate, they saw him presently breaking an Image of our Saviour which was set up on the great Porch of the Church of Constantinople. This began the Violences of the Iconoclasts, that is to say, of the breakers of Images. Other Images which the Emperors, the Bishops, and all the Faithful had erected since the Peace of the Church both in public and in private places, went likewise all to wrack. This Spectacle set the People into Motion. The Statues of the Emperor were broke down in several places. He looked upon himself as being affronted in his Person; and he was reproached for committing the like Affront upon Jesus Christ, & his Saints; and that by his own Confession, the Injury done to the Image, reflected upon the Original: Italy still went further; the Impiety of the Emperor was the occasion that the common Taxes and Assessments were refused. Luitprand King of the Lombard's, made use of the same Pretence to take Ravenna, the Residence of the Exarches. So they called the Governors whom the Emperors sent into Italy. Pope Gregory II. opposed the pulling down of Images; but at the same time he opposed the Enemies of the Empire, and endeavoured to retain the People Years of J. C. 730 in their Obedience. Peace was made with the Lombard's, and the Emperor executed his Decree against Images more fiercely than ever. But the famous John of Damas' declared to him that in matters of Religion, he knew no Decrees but those of the Church, and he suffered much. The Emperor removed from his Seat the Patriarch St. German, who died in Exile being ninety years of Age. A little while after the Lombard's Years of J. C. 739. 740. re-assumed their Arms, and in the Calamities which they made the People of Rome to suffer, they were only kept in by the Authority of Charles Martel, whose Assistance Pope Gregory II. had implored. The new Kingdom of Spain, called at first the Kingdom of Oriedo, grew greater by the Victories, and the Conduct of Alphonsus Son-in-Law to Pelagius, who, following the Example of Recaredes, from whom he was Years of J. C. 741 descended, took upon him the Name of Catholic. Leo died, and left the Empire, as well as the Church, in a great Fermentation. Artabaces Praetor of Armenia, caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor instead of Constantine Copronimus the Son of Leo, and set up Images again. After the death of Charles Martel, Luitprand threatened Rome anew: The Exarch of Ravenna was in danger, and Italy owed its Safety to the Prudence of Pope Zachary. Constantine being Years of J. C. 742 embraced in the East, thought only of setting Years of J. C. 743 up himself; he beat Artabazus, took Constantinople, and filled it with instances of his Revenge. The two Sons of Charles Martel, Years of J. C. 747 Carlomane and Pepin, had succeeded to the Power of their Father; but Carlomane disgusted with the Age, in the midst of his Greatness and his Victories embraced a monastic Life. By this means his Brother Pepin reunited all the Power into his own Person. He knew how to keep it by a great desert, and form his Design to raise himself Years of J. C. 752 up to the Kingdom. Childerick the most miserable of all Princes, opened him the way to it, and added to the quality of a lumpish Tool that of Madman. The French being sick of their dull heavy Princes, and accustomed so long to the House of Charles Martel, ever abounding with great Men, were only troubled at the Oath they had taken to Childerick. Upon the Answer of Pope Zachary, they thought themselves free, and so much the more disengaged from the Oaths they had taken to their King, as that he and his Predecessors seemed for these two Hundred Years to have renounced all Right to command over them, in intailing as it were the whole Power of ruling to the office of the great Minister of the Palace. So that Pepin was set up on the Throne, and the Name of King was annexed to the Authority. Years of J. C. 753 Pope Stephen III. found in the new King the same Zeal that Charles Martel had testified for the Holy See against the Lombard's. After he had in vain implored the Assistance of the Emperor, he threw himself Years of J. C. 754 into the Arms of the French. The King received him in France with respect, and would be consecrated and crowned with his Hand. At the same time he passed the Alps, delivered Rome, and the Exarchy of Ravenna, and reduced Astolphus King of the Lombard's to an equitable Peace. In the mean while the Emperor made work with the Images. 
Conc. Nic. 11. act. 6.  To strengthen himself with the Ecclesiastic Authority, he assembled a numerous Council at Constantinople. However there was not seen, as was wont, 
Ibid. defin. Pseudosyn. C. P.  to appear either the Legates of the Holy See, or the Bishops, or the Legates of the other Patriarchal Sees. In that Council they did not only condemn, as Idolatrous, all Honour paid to Images in remembrance of their Originals, but also the very Sculptures and Pictures of them, as of detestable Arts. It was the Opinion of the Saracens, whose Counsels, it was said, Leo had followed, when he broke down the Images. But yet there appeared nothing against Relics. The Council of Copronymus did not forbid Honour to be paid to them, 
Ibid. Pseudosyn. C. P. Can. 9 & 11.  & he thundered out his Anathemaes against those who refused to have recourse to the Prayers of the Holy Virgin and of Saints. The Catholics persecuted for the Honour they gave to Images, answered the Emperor that they had rather endure all manner of Extremities, than not honour Jesus Christ even in his Shadow. In the mean time Pepin repassed the Alps, and chastised the Infidel Astolphus for denying to execute the Treaty of Peace. The Church of Rome never received a more noble Gift than that which the Pious Prince than made her. He gave her the Towns Years of J. C. 755 recovered from the Lombard's, and laughed at Copronymus who redemanded them, he that could, however, never defend them. Since that time the Emperors were very slenderly acknowledged in Rome; they became there contemptible by their weakness, and odious by their Errors. Pepin was looked upon there as the Protector of the People and of the Church of Rome. This Quality seemed as hereditary to his House, and to the Kings of France. Charlemagne the Son of Pepin maintained it with a Courage Years of J. C. 772 equal to his Piety. Pope Adrian had recourse to him against Didier King of the Lombard's, who had taken several Cities, Years of J. C. 773. 774. and threatened all Italy. Charlemagne passed the Alps. Every thing bowed; Dydier was delivered; the Lombard Kings, Enemies both of Rome and of Popes, were destroyed; Charlemagne made himself to be crowned King of Italy, and took upon him the Title of King of the French and of the Lombard's. At the same time he exercised in Rome the same sovereign Authority in the Quality of a Patricius, and confirmed to the Holy See the Donations of the King his Father. The Emperors with great Difficulty resisted the Bulgari, and vainly supported the dispossessed Lombard's against Charlemagne. The Quarrel of Images still was kept on Foot. Leo IU. Son of Copronymus, seemed at first to be pretty quiet, but he renewed the Persecution Years of J. C. 780 so soon as ever he thought himself to be master. He died quickly after. His Son about ten Years old succeeded to him, and reigned under the Tutelage of the Empress' Years of J. C. 784 Irene his Mother. Then things began to appear with a new Face. Paul the Patriarch of Constantinople declared towards the latter end of his Life, that he had opposed Images against his Conscience, and retired into a Monastery, where, in the presence of the Empress he deplored the Mischief of the Church of Constantinople separated from the four Patriarchal Sees, and proposed to her the Celebration of an universal Council, as the only Remedy proper for the healing of so dangerous a Distemper. Tarassus' his Successor maintained that the Question had not been judged orderly, because it began by a Decree of the Emperor, and that a Council held against all due form had followed; whereas in matters of Religion, it belongs to the Council to begin, and then the Emperors to strengthen the Judgement of the Church. Grounded upon this Reason, he accepted of the Patriarchate, 
Conc. Nic. 2. Act. 7.  but upon condition Years of J. C. 787 that an universal Council should be held: It was begun at Constantinople, and continued at Nice. The Pope sent his Legates thither: The Council of the Iconoclasts was condemned: They are detested a Persons, who, led by the Example of the Saracens, accused the Christians of Idolatry. It was decreed that Images should be worshipped in Remembrance, and for the Love of those whom they represented, which is called in the Council, a relative Worship, and an honorary Adoration and Salutation, opposed to the supreme worship and Adoration of Latria, or entire Subjection, which the Council reserved to God alone. Besides the Legates of the Holy See, and the presence of the Patriarch of Constantinople, there appeared there the Legates of other Patriarchal Sees, which were then oppressed by the Infidels. Some disputed their Mission with them; but that which was not at all contested, was, that far from disavowing them; all the Sees accepted of the Council without showing any Contradiction, and it was received by all the Church. The French encompassed with Idolaters, or new Christians, whose Ideas they were afraid to meddle with, and on the other hand, being harrassed with the equivocal Term of Adoration, hesitated a long while. Amongst all the Images they would only pay an Honour to that of the Cross, absolutely different from the Figures which the Heathen believed were full of the Divinity. They kept, however, in an honourable place, and also in their Churches, the other Images, and hated the Iconoclasts. What other Difference there was, it made no Schism. The French owned at last that the Nicene Fathers required to Images but the same kind of Worship, all Proportions observed, as they themselves paid to Relics, to the Book of the Gospel, and to the Cross; and that Council was honoured by all professing Christianity under the Name of the seventh general Council. Thus have we seen the seven general Councils, which the East and the West, the Greek and the Latin Churches received with an equal Reverence. The Emperors convoked those great Assemblies by the Sovereign Authority they had over all the Bishops, or at least over the Chief, on whom the rest depended, and who were then Subject of the Empire. The public Carriages were provided by the Order of the Princes. They assembled the Councils in the East, where they made their Residence, and they commonly sent thither their Commissaries to keep the Peace. The Bishops so assembled, brought with them the Authority of the Holy Ghost, and the Tradition of the Churches. From the beginning of Christianity there were three principal Sees, which had the precedency of all others; that of Rome, that of Alexandria, and that of Antioch. 
Conc. Nic. Can. 7. Conc. C. P. 1. Can. 3. Conc. Chalced. Can. 21.  The Nicene Council allowed the Bishop of the Holy City to have the first place. The second, and the fourth Council raised the See of Constantinople, and would have that the second. So that there were five Sees, which afterwards were called Patriarchal. The Precedency was given to them in the Council. Among those Sees, the See of Rome was always looked on as the first, and the Council of Nice regulated the others upon that. 
Conc. Nic. Can. 6.  There were also Metropolitan Bishops, who were the Chiefs of the Provinces, and who went before the other Bishops. It was very late ere they began to be called Archbishops; but their Authority was never the less. When the Council was form, the Holy Scriptures were propounded; the Passages of the ancient Fathers, Witnesses of Tradition, were read: It was Tradition which interpreted Scripture: They believed its true Sense was that which the past Ages had owned it to be, and none thought they ought to explain it otherwise. Those who refused to submit to the Decisions of the Council, were cursed with the Anathema. After they had explained the Faith, they regulated the Ecclesiastical Discipline, and made Canons, that is to say, the Rules of the Church. They thought the Faith did never change, and tho' the Discipline might receive several Changes according to difference of Times and Places, yet as much as possibly we can we ought to labour after a perfect imitation of Antiquity. But the Popes were only there by their Legates in the first general Councils; but they did however expressly approve of the Doctrine, and there was but one Faith in the Church.  
Constantine and Irene religiously executed Years of J. C. 787 the Decrees of the VII. Council; but the rest of their Conduct was intolerable. The young Prince, whom his Mother had persuaded to marry a Lady he could by no means love, gave up himself to reproachful Applications; and being weary of paying any longer a blind Obedience to the Imperiousness of his Mother, he endeavoured to remove her from the Affairs which hitherto she had managed in spite of him. Alphonso Years of J. C. 793 the Chaste reigned in Spain. The perpetual Continence of that Prince, deservedly conferred on him that famous Surname, and rendered him worthy to release Spain from that infamous Tax of a hundred Maids, which his Uncle Mauregate had granted to the Moors. Seventy thousand of those Infidels slain in a Battle, with Mugait their General, signalised the Valour of Alphonsus. Constantine did also endeavour to make himself famous against the Bulgari; but the Success did by no means answer his Expectations. He at last brought down all Irene's Power, and being unable to govern himself, as much as to suffer the Empire of another, he repudiated his Wife Maria, to marry Theodote who Years of J. C. 795 was one of her Maids of Honour. His Years of J. C. 796 incensed Mother heightened the Troubles Years of J. C. 797 which were caused by so great a Scandal. Constantine fell by her Artifices. She gained the People again to her by lessening their Taxes, and brought the Monks and the Clergy into her Interest by a show of a visible Piety. At length she was proclaimed sole Empress. The Romans scorned her Government, and so went over to Charlemain, who subdued the Saxons, repressed the Saracens, destroyed the Heresies, protected the Popes, drew over the Infidel Nations to Christianity, reestablished the Sciences, and Ecclesiastical Discipline, assembled famous Councils, wherein his profound Learning was admired, and the effects of his Piety and Justice was not only felt in France and Italy; but it extended itself into Spain, England, and Germany; and indeed where not?  
To conclude, in the DCCC. 
XII. Epoeha. Charlemain, Or the re-establishment of the new Empire.  Year of our Lord, that great Protector of Rome, and of Italy, or to speak more properly, of all the Church, and of all Christendom, was chosen Emperor by the Romans, without his ever dreaming of it, and Crowned by Pope Leo III. who had engaged the People of Rome to that Choice, became the Founder of the New Empire, and of the temporal Greatness of the Holy See.  
The End of the first Part.   

TO THE Dauphin.  
YOUR Highness sees the twelve Epocha's which I have followed in this Abridgement: I have chained to each of them the principal matters that are dependent thereon. You may now without any great difficulty dispose of, according to the order of Time, the great accidents of the Ancient History, and range them (as I may so speak) each under its proper Standard.  
I have not in this Abstract forgot that celebrated distinction which the Chronologists make of the continuance of the World in 7. Ages. The beginning of every one of them serves us for an Epocha: If I have mixed any others with them, it is that so things may be more distinct, and that the order of time may be opened to You with less confusion.  
When I speak to You of the order of Time, I do not pretend, My Lord, that You should scrupulously charge Your memory with all the dates; much less that You should concern Yourself with all the nice disputes of the Chronologists, where most an end they differ but in a very few years. There is no question but that this contentious Chronology which scrupulously is taken up about those small matters hath its use; but that is not Your object, and is of very little service to enlighten the mind of a great Prince. I would not be too refined upon this discussion of Time, but in the calculations I have already made, I have still followed that which has appeared to me the most probable, without troubling myself to be Guarranty for it.  
In the supputation of years which is made since the time of the Creation down to Abraham, we had best join with the LXX. which makes the World older, whereas the Hebrew makes it younger by many Ages: Although the Authority of the Original Hebrew seems as if it ought to carry it, yet it is a thing so indifferent in itself, that the Church, which hath with St. Jerom, followed the supputation of the Hebrew in our Vulgar Translation, hath left that of the LXX. in its Martyrology. In effect, what matter is it for History either to diminish, or to multiply void Age, where also there is nothing to give an account of? Is it not enough that the times, where the dates are important, have their fixed Characters, and the distribution of them be supported on certain foundations? And tho' even in those times there should be a dispute about some years, it should scarce ever make us perplexed and uneasy. As for instance, if we should put it some years sooner or later when Rome was founded, or our blessed Saviour born, You must own that such a diversity makes nothing to the course of Histories, nor to the accomplishing of the Councils of God. You must be careful to shun the Anachronisms which ruffle and embroil the order of Affairs, and leave the others to the disputes of the Learned.  
I will not further oppress Your memory with the account of the Olympiads, tho' the Grecians, who make use of that, render them very necessary for the fixing of Times. It is fit You should know it, that You may, when there is occasion, have recourse to it: But it will be sufficient to keep to the dates which I propose to You, as being the mos● simple, and the most followed, which are those of the World to Rome, those from Rome to Jesus Christ, and those from Jesus Christ to all succeeding Generations.  
But the true design of this Abridgement is not to explain to You the order of Time, tho' it be absolutely necessary in the reading of all Histories, and in showing how they relate to one another. I have told You, My Lord, That my principal Object is to make you consider in the order of time, the course of the people of God, and that of great Empires.  
These two things roll together in this great Movement of Ages, where they have, as I may say, one and the same course. But it is needful, to understand them truly, to detach them sometimes one from the other, and to consider whatsoever hath relation to each of them.   

THE SECOND PART OF THIS DISCOURSE.  
ABove all, Religion, and the course of the people of God, considered in this manner, is the greatest, and most useful of all the objects that can be proposed to men. It is pretty to have before our Eyes the different States of God's People under the Law of Nature, and under the Patriarches; 
The Course of Religion. I. The Creation, and the first Times.  under Moses, and the Written Law; under David, and the Prophets; since the Return of the Captivity until Jesus Christ; and in sum, under Jesus Christ himself, that is to say, under the Law of Grace, and under the Gospel; in the Ages which waited for the Advent of the Messiah, and in thos● in which he appeared; in those where the Worship of God was confined to one Angle People, and in those were conformable to the ancient Prophecies, it was spread abroad over all the face of the Earth; in those, at last, wherein Mankind still clogged with Infirmities, and gross Ideas, has had need to be supported by Temporal Rewards and Punishments, and in those wherein the Faithful, that are the most instructed, ought now only to live by Faith, setting to minds upon Celestial good things, which will yield them Eternal pleasure and satisfaction, and suffering, through the hopes at last of coming to enjoy them, all the evils and miseries of this World which can exercise their Patience.  
Certainly, my Lord, nothing can come into the heart of man to conceive more worthy of God, than that he should first of all choose to himself a people, which should be a most manifest Example of his Eternal Providence; a people whose good or evil depends on Piety, and whose condition bears evidence to the Wisdom and Justice of him who governs them. Here it was where God began, and this he fully discovered in the people of the Jews. But after he had by so many sensible manifestations established this immutable foundation, whereby he alone after the pleasure of his own Will did manage all the events of the present life, it was time to exalt men to higher thoughts, and to send Jesus Christ, to whom it was reserved to discover to a new people collected out of all the people of the World, the Secrets and Mysteries of a life to come.  
You may easily follow the History of these two sorts of people, and observe, as Jesus Christ doth, the Union of them both, since that whether looked for or given, it was ever the Consolation and the Hope of the Sons of God.  
Thus then Religion was always uniform, or rather always the same from the beginning of the World; they always acknowledged the same One God, as the Author, and the same Jesus Christ, as the Saviour of Mankind.  
Thus You will see there was nothing more ancient among men than the Religion which You profess, and it is not without reason that your Ancestors have accounted it their greatest glory to be the Protectors of it.  
What Testimony is this of its truth, to see that in the times wherein the profane Histories have nothing in them but what is fabulous, or, at most, things that are confused, and half forgotten, the Holy Scripture, that is to say, (without controversy) the most ancient Book in the World, brings us back by so many curious but precise accidents, and by the same thread of things, to their true principle, that is to say, to God, the Maker of all things; and does point out to us so distinctly the Creation of the Universe, that of man in particular, the happiness of his first Estate, the causes of his miseries and frailties; the Corruption of the World, and the Deluge; the beginning of Arts, and those of Nations; the distribution of Countries: in a word, the propagation of Mankind, and other matters of the same importance, whereof humane Histories speak but confusedly, and oblige us elsewhere to seek for the certain sources of them.  
And if the Antiquity of Religion gives it so much Authority, its continued course without interruption, and without alteration for so many successive Ages, and notwithstanding all its manifold surprising obstacles, does manifestly discover to us, that it is the hand of God alone that sustains it.  
What is there more marvellous than to behold it always subsisting upon the same foundations of the beginnings of the World, and neither the Idolatry and Impiety which surround it on every side, nor the Tyrants that have persecuted it, nor the Heretics and Infidels who have endeavoured to corrupt it, nor the Cowardly that have betrayed it, nor the unworthy Schismatics who have dishonoured it by their Crimes; nor, to conclude, the length of time, which alone was sufficient to wear away all humane things; neither of these, I say, have been capable, not only not to extinguish, but so much as to alter it.  
If we now shall consider what Idea this Religion, for whose Antiquity we have so great a Reverence, gives us of its object, that is to say, of the first Being, we shall confess that it is superior to all humane apprehensions, and deserving to be regarded as coming from God himself.  
That God whom the Hebrews and the Christians have always served and worshipped, hath nothing in common with those Divinities full of Imperfection, and even of Vice, which the rest of the World adored. Our God is One, Infinite, Perfect, only worthy to revenge Wickedness and Vice, and to Crown Virtue, because that He alone is Holiness itself.  
He is infinitely above that first Cause, and of that first Mover, which the Philosophers of old have acknowledged, but yet have not adored. Those of them that have been the most remote, have proposed to us one God, who finding a matter Eternal, and existing by itself as well as He, hath put it into frame, and fashioned it as a common Artificer, constrained in his work by that matter, and by those dispositions which he did not make, without ever being able to comprehend, that if the matter were of itself, it could not stay to have its perfection from a strange hand, and that if God be infinite and perfect, he hath not to do whatsoever he pleaseth, but only of himself, and of his omnipotent Will. But the God of our Fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of whom Moses hath delivered wonders to us, hath not only ranged this World, but he hath done it all entire in its matter, and in its form. Before he had given it a Being, nothing had it but himself. He is represented to us as that God that made all things, and that by his word, as well because he did all by the most excellent reason, as because he did it without the least of difficulty, and that to make such a most glorious work as this World, he was only at the expense of one word, that is to say, it cost him no more than his bare will and pleasure.  
And to follow the History of the Creation, since we have begun it, Moses hath taught us, That that mighty Architect, to whom things cost so little, was pleased to make them at several times, and by returns from thence where he had before given over, and to create the World in six days, to show that he acted not through an impulse of necessity, or through a blind impetuosity, as some Philosophers have vainly imagined. The Sun emits at once (without any reserve) the power of all its rays; but God, who acts by intelligence, and with a Sovereign liberty applies his Virtue and Power to what he pleaseth, and just to so much too as he pleaseth: And as in making the World by his word, he discovers that nothing can trouble or withhold him, by making it at several resumptions, it is sufficiently plain and evident to us that he is the Master of his Matter, of his Action, of all his Enterprises, and that he hath not in any of his proceed any other Rule but his Will, which is always right by itself.  
This Conduct of Almighty God doth likewise show to us, that every thing cometh immediately out of his hand. The People and the Philosophers who have believed that the Earth mingled with Water, and assisted (forsooth) with the warm beams of the Sun, had produced of itself, through its own fecundity, Plants and Animals, were most grossly mistaken. The Scriptures have made us to understand that the Elements are barren, if the word of God makes 'em not fruitful. Neither the Earth, nor the Water, nor the Air would ever have had Plants, or Animals, which we now see in them, if God, who had made and prepared the matter of them, had not also form them by Almighty Will, and had not given to every thing the proper Seeds whereby to multiply in all the succeeding Ages.  
Those who see the Plants to take their birth and their increase by the heat of the Sun, might think that that is the Creator of them: but the Scripture hath plainly made it out to us, that the Earth was clothed with Grass, and all sorts of Plants, before ever the Sun was made; that so we might be satisfied that on God alone was all dependence.  
It pleased that great Workmaster to create Light, before he had put it into the form which he hath given it in the Sun and the Stars, because he would inform and convince us, that these great and magnificent Luminaries, which we would so willingly make Divinities, had by themselves neither that curious and shining Matter, whereof they are now composed, nor that admirable form to which we see them now reduced.  
In a word, the account of the Creation, such as Moses has given us of it, discovers to us that great Mystery of the true Philosophy, that in God alone resides absolute Fullness and Power. Happy, Wise, Almighty, alone sufficient in himself, he acts without necessity as he acts without need, never straitened nor constrained, nor puzzled with his matter wherewith he doth whatsoever he will, because he hath by his alone Will given to it the foundation of its Being. By this Sovereign right he turns it, he fashions it, he moves it without pain or uneasiness, all things depend immediately on him, and according to the order established in Nature, one thing depends on another: for instance, the birth and increase of Plants, on the heat of the Sun, it is because that that same God who hath made all the parts of the Universe, was pleased to link them one to another, and so to make his Wisdom the more conspicuous and visible by that marvellous train of Causes.  
But whatsoever the Holy Scripture teaches us about the Creation of the World, it is nothing comparatively to what it says concerning Man.  
Hitherto God had done every thing by his Command: 
Gen. 1.  Let there be light; Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters; and let the waters be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear, and let it bring forth grass; and let there be lights in the firmament of Heaven, to divide the day from the night; let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life; and let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind: But when he comes to make man, Moses gives him then a new Language, Let us make man, says he, in our Image, after our likeness. It is no longer that imperious and commanding word; it is a word more mild, but yet no whit less powerful and efficacious. God held a Council within himself; He excites himself, as it were, to show us that the work he was going then to make, exceeded all the other part of the Creation, which he had already finished.  
Let us make man. God speaks within himself; he speaks to some one who doth as himself; to some some one whose Creature and Image man is; he speaks to another that is his second self; he speaks to him by whom all things were made, to him who says in the Gospel, 
John 5. v. 19  Whatsoever the Father doth, these also doth the Son likewise. In speaking to his Son, or with his Son, he speaks at the same time with the Holy Ghost, All-complying, Equal, and Coeternal one to the other.  
'Tis an unheard of thing in all the language of the Sacred Scriptures, that any other than God should speak of himself in the plural number; let us make. God himself in the Scripture speaks thus but two or three times, and this extraordinary language began to appear when he was engaged in making Man.  
When God changes his way of speaking, and in some sort of conduct too, it is not to be supposed that he changes in himself; but he demonstrates to us that he is going to begin, according to his Eternal Council, a new order of things.  
Thus Man, so highly exalted above all other Creatures, whose Generation Moses has described to us, is form in a manner as altogether new, and different from them. The Trinity gins to declare itself, in the making a reasonable Creature, whose Intellectual Operations are an imperfect Image of those Eternal Operations, by which God is fruitful in himself.  
The word of Council which God makes use of, points to us, that the Creature which was going to be made, was the only One here below capable of acting by Council and Intelligence. All the rest is no less extraordinary. Hitherto we have not seen in the History of Genesis, the finger of God applied to a corruptible matter. To frame and fashion Man's Body, He himself takes up some of the dust of the ground, 
Gen. 2. v. 7.  and that dust being managed by such a hand, receives the most beautiful form that ever yet was seen in the World.  
This particular attention, which was visible in God, when he made Man, shows us that he hath a particular regard for him, tho' otherwise every thing is conducted immediately by his infinite Wisdom.  
But the manner how he form the Soul, is still much more marvellous and astonishing; he derives not that from Matter; he inspires it from on high; it is the breath of life which proceeds from himself.  
When he created the Beasts, he said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly every moving Creature; 
Gen. 1.20.24.  and in this manner he created the Sea-Monsters, and every living and moving Soul which was to fill the Waters: He saith also, Let the Earth bring forth the living Creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the Earth after his kind.  
Thus had those living Souls of a brutal and bestial Life their Being, to which God gives for all their Actions nothing but Motions dependent on the Body. God takes them out of the Womb of the Waters and of the Earth; but this Soul, whose Life ought to be an Imitation of his own, which was to live as himself, by Reason and Intelligence; which was to be united to him in Contemplation and in Love, and which for this reason was to be made after his own Image and Likeness: This Soul, I say, was incapable of being derived from matter. God in making matter can easily form a beautiful and curious Body; but in whatsoever sort he turns and fashions it, he will never find his Image and Resemblance in it. The Soul, made after his Image, and which can be happy in possessing him, must be produced by a new Creation; it must come from above, and this is that breath of life, 
Gen. 2.7.  which God breathed from his own Mouth.  
Let us always remember that Moses speaks to carnal Men by sensible Images of the most pure and intellectual Truths. But let us not imagine that God breathes after the manner of Animals; let us not suppose our Souls to be a subtle Air, nor a flitting Vapour. The Breath which God inspires, and which bears in itself the Image of himself, is neither Air nor Vapour. Let us not believe that our Souls are a portion of the divine. Nature, as some Philosophers have vainly dreamed. God is not a Whole to be divided. Tho' there should be parts in God, yet they should not be made. For the Creator, the uncreated Being should not be composed of Creatures. The Soul is made, and so made, that it is no part of the divine Nature, but only a thing made after the Image and Resemblance of the divine Nature, a thing which is always to be united to him that form it; this is what is understood by that divine Breath, it represents to us that Spirit of Life.  
Thus you see how Man was form. God also out of him form a Companion that he designed to give him. All Mankind is born by one single Marriage, that so how dispersed and multiplied soever they have been, they may be for ever one single and the same Family.  
Our first Parents thus form, were placed in that delicious Garden, which was called Paradise. God was only obliged to himself for rendering his Image happy.  
He gave to Man a precept, to make him sensible that he had a Master; a precept joined to a thing that was sensible, because Man was made with Senses: A Precept that was easy, because he would have his Life as commodious as it should be innocent.  
But Man kept not this Command tho' it was of so easy an Observance; he hearkens to the tempting Spirit, and he hearkens to himself also, instead of fixing his attention on God only: So that his Ruin was inevitable: But here we must consider it in its original State as well as in its after-circumstances.  
God in the beginning had made his Angels, Spirits pure and separate from all matter. He that made nothing but what was good, had created them all in Holiness, and they might have secured their Felicity, by giving themselves up voluntarily to their Creator. But whatsoever is derived out of nothing is defective. One part of these Angels suffered themselves to be seduced by their own self-Love. Unhappy Creatures, who would be pleased in themselves, and not in God. They lost in a Moment all that He had given them. Strange effect of Sin! Those Holy Creatures of Light became Spirits of Darkness: They ceased any longer to have any Light in them but what turned itself into malicious Craftiness. An Envious Malignity possessed them in the room of their former Lovingness and Charity: Their natural Greatness was nothing but Pride: Their Felicity was changed into that consolation of getting to themselves Companions in their Misery, and their most delightful Exercises were to be miserably employed in tempting Men. The most perfect of them all, who had also been the most proud, found himself the greatest evil doer, as he was the most miserable: Man, 
Psal. 8.5.  whom God had made but little lower than the Angels, in uniting him to a Body, became a Spirit so perfect as if he had been an Object of Jealousy; he was resolved to ensnare him in his Rebellion, afterwards to envelop him in his Ruin. We will take notice how he speaks to him, and search into the bottom of his Artifices. He addresses himself to Eve, as to the weaker Vessel; but in the person of Eve he speaks to her Husband as well as to her, 
Gen. 3.1.  Why hath God made you this severe Prohibition? If he hath made you reasonable, you ought to know the reason of all things: This Fruit is not Poison; neither shall you die. 
Gen. 3.4.  Thus that revolted Spirit began with her. She then argued upon the Command, and her Obedience began to stagger; You shall be as Gods, free and independent, happy in yourselves, wise by yourselves; 
Gen. 3.5.  knowing good and evil; nothing shall be impenetrable to you. By ●hese Artifices of persuasion, did this wicked Spirit set up himself against the order of the Creator, and made himself superior to the Rule. Eve being half brought over, wishfully looked upon the Fruit, whose Beauty promised a pleasant taste: Considering that God had united in-Man Soul and Body, she thought that in favour to Man, he might also have given to Plants supernatural Virtues, and intellectual gifts to sensible Objects. After she had eaten of that Fruit which was so pleasant to the Eye, and so much to be desired to make one wise, 
v. 6.  she presented some of it to her Husband, and 'twas a very dangerous assault upon him. Example and Complaisance fortified the Temptation; he was beguiled into the Sentiments of the Tempter, being so well seconded; a deceitful Curiosity, a flattering thought of Pride, the secret Pleasure of acting by himself, and according to the pulse of his own Inclinations, drew him in, and miserably was he cheated: He resolved to make a dangerous trial of his Liberty, and he tasted, with the Fruit forbidden him, the fatal Sweetness and Pleasure of contenting his Fancy: The Senses too mingled their attractions to this new Charm; he follows them; he submits himself to them, and he who before was the Master of, is now become a Captive to them.  
At the same time he finds a change in every thing. The Earth no longer smiles upon him as before; it will yield nothing but by an industrious Labour: The Heaven is without that Serenity of Air; the Beasts which were all subject to him, even the most odious and most w●ld, and pleased him with an innocent Divertisement, now appear to him in dreadful Forms. God who had made all things for his Happiness, in a moment turned all things to his miserable punishment. He was become a Torment to himself, he that before so much loved himself. The Rebellion of his Senses makes him see somewhat in himself (he knows not what) that is very vile and despicable. 'Tis now no longer that first work of the Creator, wherein every thing was beautiful; Sin has form a new work which he would fain conceal, if possible. Man could no longer support his Shame, but wished he had been able to cover it even with his own Eyes. But God was still much more unsupportable to him. That great God who had made him after his own Image and Likeness, and who had endued him with Understanding as a necessary relief to his Mind, was pleased to discover himself to him under a sensible Form. 
Ibid. 8.  He sought out the most recluse places of the Garden to hid himself from him, who before was all his Joy and all his Happiness. His Conscience accuses him before ever God speaks a word, and his miserable frivolous Excuses do but serve the more absolutely to confound him. He must die; the remedy of an immortal State is taken away from him, and a most dreadful Death, which is that of the Soul, is typisyed to him by that Corporeal to which he is condemned.  
And behold here was our Sentence pronounced inclusively in his. God, who had resolved to reward his Obedience in all his descendent Posterity, as soon as he had revolted and fell from him, condemns him, and strikes him, not only in his own Person, but likewise in all his Seed, as in the most quick and tenderest part of himself: We were all accursed in our first Parent; our Birth is depraved and corrupted in its very Source.  
We shall not here examine those terrible Rules of the divine Justice, by which the whole Race of Mankind was accursed in its first Original. Let us adore the Judgements of God, who regards all men as one single man in him from whom he would have all men to proceed. Let us also look upon ourselves, as degraded in our rebellious Father, as for ever made miserable by the Sentence which condemned him, as being banished with him, and excluded out of Paradise, where we might have all been born.  
The Rules of humane Justice may help us a little to enter into the profoundness of the divine Justice, whereof they are but a Shadow, but they cannot discover to us the depth of that Abyss. Let us believe that the Justice, as well as the Mercy of God, will not be measured by the poor scantling Rules of Men, and that the Effects of them both are much more extensive, and much more secret.  
But though the Severities of God upon Mankind are dreadful and terrible to us, yet let us admire how presently he turns our Eyes to an Object far more pleasant and delightful. Under the Figure of the Serpent, whose crooked turn and creepings on its Belly, were a lively Image of the dangerous Insinuations, and deceitful Artifices of the evil Spirit, God shows to our Mother Eve her Enemy conquered, 
Gen. 3.14, 15.  and discovers to her that blessed Seed by which her Conqueror shall have his bruised Head, that is to say, shall see his Pride taken down, and his Empire destroyed over the whole Earth.  
That blessed Seed was Jesus Christ, the Son of a Virgin; that Jesus Christ in whom the alone Adam had not sinned, because he was to come from Adam in a Divine manner, conceived not by Man, but by the Holy Ghost.  
But before we were to have this Saviour given us, Mankind was obliged to know, through a long Experience, the need there was of such a Help and Succour. Man was therefore left to himself, his Inclinations were vitiated, his Riots excessive, and Iniquity spread itself over all the Earth.  
Then did God set himself to execute his Vengeance upon them, and he was resolved it should be such an one as the Memory of Man should never forget: It was that of the universal Deluge, the remembrance of which does effectually still continue in all Nations, as well as that of their Wickedness which brought it.  
Let not Men henceforward think that the World was of itself, and that what hath been, shall always be as of itself. God, who made all things, and by whom all things subsist, w● going to drown both Man and Beast, that is to say, he was going to destroy the fairest part of the Creation.  
There was no need of any but himself, to destroy what he had made by a word of his Mouth; but he found it most worthy of himself to make his Creatures serve as an Instrument to his Vengeance, and he therefore calls the Waters to commit their Violences on the Earth, which was already full of Wickedness.  
However he found one Man just among them. God, before he saved him from the Deluge of the Waters, had preserved him, by his Grace, from the Deluge of Iniquity. His Family was reserved to repeople the Earth, which was then but an immense Solitude. By the provident Care of that righteous Man, God saved the Animals, that so Man might understand that they were made for him, and subjected to his Empire by their Creator.  
The World seemed to have a new Frame again, and the Earth came once more from the Bosom of the Waters; but in this Renovation, there remains an eternal Impression of the Divine Justice. Unto the Deluge all Nature was more strong and vigorous: By that vast quantity of Waters which God sent upon the Earth, and by the long abode it made there, the Sapp, which was enclosed in it, was altered, the Air, full of an excessive Humidity, fortified the principles and seeds of Corruption; and the first Constitution of the Universe finding itself weak and languishing, Man's Life, which held out to almost a thousand years, began to diminish by little and little; neither Herbs nor Fruits had any longer their first Strength and Efficacy, and therefore Man was to have given him a more substantial Nourishment in the Flesh of Beasts.  
Thus by degrees the remains of the first Institution began to wear off and to be effaced; and changed Nature advertised Man that God was no more the same for him, since he had been so highly provoked by his manifold and great Transgressions.  
Now that extreme long Life of the first Men, 
Maneth. Beros. Hestiae. Nic. Damas'. & al. apud Joseph. of't. l. 4. Hesiod. Op. & al.  observed in the Annals of the People of God, hath not been unknown to other People, and their ancient Traditions have preserved the Memory of them. Death which now came on, made Men to feel a more ready Vengeance: And as they still every day did more and more plunge themselves in Wickedness, it was just that they should be also, as I may so speak, every day more and more overwhelmed in their Punishments.  
The bare change of their Diet might demonstrate to them how much their estate was impaired, since that in being grown weaker, they became at the same time more voracious and more sanguinary.  
Before the time of the Deluge, the Food which Men lived on without violence in the Fruits that fell of themselves, and in the Herbs which also withered so quickly, was doubtless some remains of the first Innocence, and of the Pleasure to which we were form. But now, to feed us, we must shed Blood, notwithstanding the Horror wherewith it naturally shocks us: And all the Delicacies we now use about our Tables, can scarcely conceal from us the nauseous Carcases which we are forced to eat to satisfy us.  
And yet this is but the least part of our Miseries. Our already shortened Lives are still more abridged by the Violences committed on one another. Man, who in the Infancy of Time was seen to be very tender of the Lives of Beasts, by a vicious custom, makes nothing now of taking away the Life of his own Resemblance, and fellow Creature. It was in vain that God forbade the shedding of Blood presently after the Deluge; 
Gen. 9.4, 5.  in vain, to save some Vestigia of the first sweetness of our Nature, by permitting us to eat of the Flesh of Beasts: in vain, I say, did he reserve the Blood thereof. Murders are multiplied without measure. 'Tis true, 
Gen. 4.8.  before the Deluge Cain had sacrificed his Brother to his Jealousy. Lamech, who came from the Loins of Cain, 
Ibid. 23.  committed the second Murder: and one may very well believe there were several others after those two damnable Examples. But Wars were not yet found out. It was after the Deluge that those Ravagers of Provinces appeared, who were called Conquerors, who being pushed on by the Glory of commanding, have slain so much innocent Blood. Accursed Nimrod, the Offspring, as accursed Cham by his Father, 
Gen. 10.9.  began to make War, merely to establish an Empire to himself. Since than Ambition tramples on the Lives of Men, without any Bounds; they are come to that pass now, as to kill one another in cool Blood without any Hatred: The perfection of Honour, and the bravest of all Arts, has been for the Sparks to boast they have killed their Men.  
Such were the beginnings of the World, as the History of Moses represents them to us: Beginnings, happy at first, but afterwards full of infinite Evils and Mischiefs, in relation to that God who made all things, always admirable; such, in fine, as we conceive in revolving them in our Minds, by considering the Universe, and Mankind, always under the hand of the Creator, brought out of nothing by his Word, preserved by his Goodness, governed by his Wisdom, punished by his Justice, delivered by his Mercy, and always subject to his Power.  
The World is no such thing as the Philosophers apprehended, form, according to some, by a fortuitous Concourse of first Bodies, or which, according to the wisest of them, hath fitted its Matter to its Author, who by consequence depends not on it, neither in the ground of his being, nor in his first Estate, and who ties it up to certain Laws which he himself cannot violate.  
Moses, and our ancient Fathers, from whom Moses has recollected the Traditions, give us other Thoughts. The God, whom he hath shown unto us, hath far another kind of Power: He can do, and undo, what, and howsoever, he pleaseth: He prescribeth Laws to Nature, and destroys them again when ere it pleaseth him.  
If, to make himself known in times, when the Gross of Mankind had forgot him, he hath wrought astonishing Miracles, and hath forced Nature to start from its most constant Laws, he thereby still hath continued to show, that he was the absolute Master of them, and that his Will is the only Chain that preserves the Order of the World.  
'Tis exactly what Men had forgot: The stability of so curious an Order, served now to persuade them that that Order had been always, and that he was from himself; whereby they were induced to adore either the World in general, or the Stars, the Elements, and in short, all those great Bodies which compose it. God therefore hath testified to Mankind a Goodness worthy of himself, in reversing upon some most extraordinary and particular Occasions, that Order, which not only had little effect upon them, because they were used to them, but which brought them (so far were they deluded by their Blindness) to imagine there was an Eternity and Independence in somewhat besides God.  
The History of the People of God, attested by its own Course, and by the Religion, as well of those who have writ of it, as of those who have preserved it with so much care, hath kept, as in a faithful Register, the Memory of those Miracles, and by that means gives us the true Idea of the supreme Empire of God, the Almighty Master of his Creatures, either to hold them in subjection to those general Laws which he hath established, or to give them others from them, when he judges it necessary, by some surprising stroke to awaken and rouse up sleeping Mankind.  
This is the God whom Moses hath declared to us in his Writings, as the only one whom we ought to serve; this is the God whom the Patriarches worshipped before Moses; in one word, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, to whom our Father Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only Son, whose Highpriest was Melchisedech, the Type of Jesus Christ, to whom our Father Noah sacrificed when he came out of the Ark, whom Righteous Abel acknowledged in his offering to him that which was most dear and precious to him, whom Seth (given to Adam in the room of his slain Abel) made known to his Children, being called also the Sons of God; whom Adam himself had shown to his Posterity, as that great Being, out of whose Hands he had been so lately come, and who alone could put an end to the Calamities of his wretched Posterity.  
Most excellent Philosophy that, which gives us such pure Ideas of the Author of our Being! Admirable Tradition, which preserves to us the Remembrance of his so magnificent Works! How holy have the People of God been, since that by an uninterrupted Course from the beginning of the World even down to our days, they have all along preserved so holy a Tradition and Philosophy.  

II. Abraham, and the Patriarchy.  Now, as the People of God, under the Patriarch Abraham, took up a more regulated Form, it is, my Lord necessary, to stay you a while upon the Contemplation of that great Man.  
He was born about three hundred and fifty years after the Deluge, at a time when Man's Life, though reduced to much straighter Limits, was yet very long. Noah was but newly dead, Shem his eldest Son was then living, and Abraham might with him pass almost all his Life.  
Represent then to yourself the World as New, and also, if I may be admitted to say so, all wet still with the Waters of the Deluge, when Men so near to the beginning of things, only needed to know the Unity of God, and the Service which was due to him from Tradition, which was preserved from Adam, and from Noah. A Tradition, besides, so conformable to the illuminations of Reason, as it seemed that a Truth so clear and important might never be clouded, nor forgotten by Mankind. Such was the first Estate of Religion, which continued down to Abraham, where to know the Greatness of God, Men were only to consult their Reason and their Memory.  
But Reason was weak and corrupted, and proportionably as Men were at further distance from the beginning of things, they confounded the Ideas which they had received from their Ancestors. The stupid and ill-instructed Youth, would no longer believe their old decrepit Grandfathers, whom they scarcely knew after so many Generations; and humane Sense grown brutish, could then no longer raise itself up to intellectual things, and Men resolving only to worship what they could see, Idolatry thus spread itself over all the Face of the Earth.  
The Spirit that had deceived the first Man, tasted then all the Fruit of his Seduction, & beheld the entire effect of that Word, You shall be as Gods. From the moment that he spoke it, he designed to confound in Man the Idea of God with that of the Creature, and to divide a Name, whose Majesty consists in being incommunicable. His Project succeeded. Men buried in Flesh and Blood, had however retained an obscure Idea of the divine Power, which kept itself up by its own Force and Energy; but yet, which was so confused with the Images that came into their own Heads and Fancies, that it made them to fall down and worship every thing wherein appeared any Activity or any Power. Thus the Sun and the Stars, which are seen at so vast a distance, the Fire and the Elements, whose Effects were so universal, were the first Objects of the public Adoration. Great Kings and mighty Conquerors, who could do any thing they pleased on the Earth, the Authors of Inventions, which were profitable to humane Life, had soon after divine Honours paid to them. 
15●.  Men were at the pains of submitting themselves to their Senses; their Senses decided all things, and in spite of their Reason made all the Gods which they worshipped here below.  
How distant then did man appear from his first Institution, and how sadly was the Image of God defaced in him! Can God have made him with his perverse Inclinations, which every day declared themselves more openly? And that prodigious propensity he had to subject himself to every thing else but to his natural Lord, did it not too apparently show the strange hand by which the Workmanship of God had been so lamentably altered in the mind of Man, that scarce was there any Footstep of it to be found in him? Pushed on by that blind Impression which absolutely swayed him, he plunged himself into Idolatry, and nothing could stay him. So great a Mischief made a very strange Progress. For fear lest all Mankind might be infected, and the knowledge of God be utterly extinguished, that great God, called from on high his Servant Abraham, in whose Family he resolved to establish his Worship, and preserve the ancient Faith, as well of the Creation of the World, as of the particular Providence with which humane things are governed.  
Abraham hath always been celebrated in the East, and it was not only the Hebrews that looked on him as their Father. The Idumeans boasted of their Extract from him. Ishmael the Son of Abraham is known among the Arabians as the Parent from whom they came. 
Gen. 16.17. Gen. 17.25. Joseph. Ant. l. 13.  Circumcision still is used among them as the mark of their Original, and they have received it at all times, not only on the eighth day, after the manner of the Jews, but at thirteen years of Age, as the Scripture informs us it was given to their Father Ishmael; a Custom which continues still among the Mahometans. There are other Arabian People who yet remember Abraham and Ketura, 
Alex. Polyb. apud Joseph, ant. l. 16.  and they are the same that the Scripture makes to come from that Marriage. That Patriarch was a Chaldean, and those People famous for their Astronomical Observations, have reckoned Abraham for one of their most learned Observators. 
Beros. Hecar. Eup. Alex. Polyb. & al. apud Joseph. of't. l. 8. & Eus. praep. Eu. 9.16, 17, 18, 19, 20. & 13.11. Nic. Damas'. lib. 4. Hist. univ. in excerpt. Vales. p. 491. & ap. Jos. of't. l. 8. & Eus. praep. Eu. 9.16. Gen. 13. etc.  The Historians of Syria have made him King of Damascus, though a Stranger, and come from the Borders of Babylon, and they report that he left the Kingdom of Damascus, to settle himself in the Country of the Canaanites, since called Judea. But it will be best for us to observe what the sacred History relates to us of this great Man. We have seen that Abraham followed that way of living which was led by his Ancestors, before that all the World was reduced into Kingdoms. He reigned in his Family, with which he embraced the pastoral Life, so much renowned for its simplicity and Innocence; rich in his Flocks, in his Slaves, and in his Silver; but without Lands and Demeans; and yet he lived in a strange Kingdom, but was respected, and independent as a Prince. His Piety and his Uprightness, protected by God, attracted that respect to him. He treated as an Equal with Kings, who sought his Alliance, and it was from thence came that ancient Opinion, that he made himself a King. But tho' his life was simple and peaceable, yet understood he the Arts of War, but than it was only to defend his oppressed Allies. 
Gen. 14.  He defended them, and revenged them by a most signal Victory: He restored to them all their Riches retaken from their Enemies, without reserving any thing but the Tithe, which he offered up to God, and the Quota which belonged to the Auxiliary Troops which he had brought along with him to the Battle. But after so great a service, he refused the Presents of the Kings with an unparallelled Magnanimity, and could not endure that any man should boast he had enriched Abraham. He would be indebted to none but to his God, who had protected him, and whom he solely followed with a most perfect Faith and Obedience.  
Guided by that Faith, he had forsaken his Native Country, to come to a Land which God had shown him. God who had called him, and made him worthy of his Alliance, Articled it upon these Conditions.  
He declared to him that he would be his God, 
Gen. 12.17.  and the God of his Posterity, that is to say, he would be their Protector, and that they should serve him as the only God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.  
He promised him a Land ('twas that of Canaan) to serve for a fixed habitation to his Posterity, 
Ibid.  and for a place for his Religion.  
He had no Children, and his Wife Sarah was barren. God swore to him by Himself, and by his Eternal Veracity, 
Gen. 12. 2.1●.4, 5.17.19.  that from him, and from his Wife should come a Race, that for number should equal the Stars in the Firmament, and the Sand on the Seashore.  
But the most remarkable Article of all of the Divine Promise was this, All the People should presently fall into Idolatry. God promised to this Holy Patriarch, that in him, and in his Seed should all those blind Nations that had forgotten their Creator, be blessed, that is to say, re-called to the knowledge of him, 
Gen. 12.3.18.18.  wherein the true Benediction is to be found.  
By that promise was Abraham made the Father of all the faithful, and his Posterity was chosen to be the source from whence the Blessing was to go upon all the Earth.  
In that Promise was included the Advent of the Messiah so often foretold to our Fathers, but always foretold as Him who was to be the Saviour of all the Gentiles, and of all the people of the World.  
Thus that blessed Branch, promised to Eve, became also the Branch and Cion of Abraham.  
This was the foundation of the Covenant; and these the Conditions of it. 
Gen. 17.  Abraham received the sign of it in Circumcision, a Ceremony whose proper effect was to show that that Holy Man belonged to God, with all his Family.  
Abraham was childless when God began to bless his Race: And God left him for several years without giving him any: Afterwards he had Ishmael, who was to be the Father of a great People, 
Gen. 12.15.2.16.3, 4, 17.20.21.13.  but not of that chosen People so much promised to Abraham. The Father of the chosen People was to proceed from him, and from his wife Sarah, 
Gen. 21.2.  who then was barren. At length when Ishmael was thirteen years old, came this so much desired Son; he was called Isaac, that is to say, Laughter, a Son of Joy, a Son of Miracle, a Son of Promise, who shown by his Birth, that the true Children of God are born of Grace.  
He, this Child of blessing, was grown to some considerle statute, and of an age from which his Father might hope to have other Children of him, when of a sudden God commands him to offer him up as a Sacrifice. 
Gen. 22.   
To what a trial is Faith exposed! Abraham carries Isaac to the Mountain which God had shown him, and he went to sacrifice that Son in whom alone God promised to make him the Father both of his People, and of the Messiah. Isaac presented his naked Bosom to the Sword, which his Father held out ready to strike him. God being satisfied with the obedience both of Father and Son, demanded no further of them. After those two great Men had given to the World so lively and fair an Image of the voluntary Oblation of Jesus Christ, and in their Souls had tasted if the bitternesses of his Cross, they were esteemed truly worthy of being his Ancestors. 
Gen. 22.28.  Abraham's faithfulness made God confirm to him all his promises, and blessed anew, not only his Family, but also in his Family all the Nations of the World.  
In effect, he continued his protection to Isaac his Son, and to Jacob his Grandchild. They were his imitators, and adhered as he did, to the Ancient Faith, to the Ancient manner of living, which was the Pastoral; to the Ancient Government of Mankind, where every Father of a Family was a Prince in his own House.  
Thus in the Changes and Revolutions continually made among Men, the Holy Antiquity revived in the Religion, and in the conduct of Abraham, and of his Children.  
God did also repeat to Isaac, and to Jacob the same Promises which he had made to Abraham; 
Gen. 25.11.26.4.28.14.  and as he called himself the God Abraham, so he took upon him the name of the God of Isaac, and of the God of Jacob.  
Under his protection those three great Men began to dwell in the Land of Caanan, but as strangers, and without possessing there a foot of ground, until the Famine brought Jacob into Egypt, where his Children being multiplied became soon after a great People, 
Acts 7.5.  as God had promised him.  
But tho' this People, whom God made to be born in his Covenant, were to be enlarged by Generation, and that the Blessing was to follow the Blood, yet this great God failed not mark out to them the Election of his Grace: For after he had chosen Abraham from among the Nations, out of the Children of Abraham he chose Isaac, and from the two Twins of Isaac he chose Jacob, to whom afterwards he gave the name of Israel.  
Jacob had twelve Sons, who were the twelve Patriarches, heads of the twelve Tribes. All were entered into the Covenant; but Judah was chosen from amidst all his Brethren to be the Father of the Kings of Israel, and the Father of the Messiah, so much promised to his Ancestors.  
The time was come that the ten Tribes being cut off from the People of God for their Infidelity, the Posterity of Abrah●m lost its Ancient Blessing, that is to say, the Religion, the Land of Canaan, and the hopes of the Messiah, but only in the Tribe of Judah, which was to give the name to the rest of the Israelites, who were called Jews, and to all the Country, which was called Judea.  
Thus the Divine Election appeared still even in that carnal people, which was to be preserved by ordinary propagation.  

Gen. 49.10.  Jacob in his Spirit saw the Mystery of this Election just before he died, when his Sons stood round about his Bed to receive the blessing of so good a Father. God discovered to him the Estate of the twelve Tribes, when they should be come to the promised Land; he reveals it to them in a few words, and those few words include innumerable Meysteries.  
Though all that he spoke of Judah's Brethren be expressed with an extraordinary magnificence, and shows the man transported out of himself by the Spirit of God, when he comes to Judah, he is carried out yet higher: Judah, saith he, thou art He whom thy Brethren shall praise: 
Gen. 49.8, 9, 10.  thine hand shall be on the neck of thine Enemies; thy Father's Children shall bow down before Thee. Judah is a Lion's Whelp: From the prey, my Son, thou art gone up: He stooped down, he couched as a Lion, and as an old Lion, who shall rouse him up? The Sceptre (that is to say, the Authority) shall not departed from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come: and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.  
The rest of the Prophecy is about the Country which the Tribe of Judah shall possess in the Holy Land. But the last words, as we have seen them, (howsoever we take them) signifies nothing but him who was to be the Ambassador of God, the Minister and Interpreter of his Will, the Accomplishment of his Promises, and the King of the new People, that is to say, the Messiah, or the Anointed of the Lord.  
Jacob speaks expressly to none but to Judah, from whom that Messiah was to come: In the destiny of Judah alone he comprehends the destiny of all the Nation, which after its dispersion was to see the rest of the other Tribes reunited under the Standards of Judah.  
All the Terms of the Prophecy are clear: there is only the word Sceptre, which the common use of out Tongue might make us take for the only Royalty; whereas in the Sacred Language it signifies in general, Power, Authourity, and Magistracy. That use of the word Sceptre runs through all the pages of the Scripture: It plainly appears also in the Prophecy of Jacob, and the Patriarch means, that in the days of the Messiah all Authority shall be put to an end in the House of Judah, which imports the total ruin of a State.  
Thus the times of the Messiah are noted out to us here by a double change. By the former, the Kingdom of Judah and of the Jews is threatened with its last ruin: By the latter, there was a new Kingdom to be set up, not of one single People, but of all People, over whom the Messiah was to be the head and hope.  
In the Style of Holy Writ, the Jews are called in the singular number, and by way of eminence, 
Isa. 65. etc. Rom. 10.21. Isa. 2.2, 3.49.6.18.51.4, 5.  The People, or the people of God: And when we find it used the plural, those who are versed in the Scriptures, understand the other people, who, we see also are promised to the Messiah in the Prophecy of Jacob.  
This great Prophecy comprehends in a few words all the History of the Jewish People, and of Christ our Saviour, who was promised to them. It points out to us all the course of the people of God, and it effectually continues to this day.  
Therefore I pretend not to make a Commentary of it to You; there is no need for You to have one, since by barely observing their course, You will easily see the sense of the Oracle unvailed of itself, and that the very events themselves will be their own Interpreters.  
After Jacob's death, 
III. Moses, the written Law, and the bringing of the People into the promised Land.  the People of God abode in Egypt, unto the time of the Mission of Moses, that is to say, about two hundred years.  
So that it was four hundred and thirty years before God gave his people the Land which he had promised them.  
He was resolved to accustom his Elect to rely upon his Promise, being assured that it should be fulfilled either sooner or later, and always at the exact time appointed by his Eternal Providence.  
The Iniquities of the Amorites, both whose Land and Spoils he was resolved to bestow on them, were not yet full, as he declared to Abraham, 
Gen. 15.16.  so as he knew they would be when he should deliver them to that hard and unpitiable vengeance, which he would bring upon than by the hands of his chosen People.  
There was time to be given for this People to multiply, that so they might be able to fill the Land which was designed them, and to possess it by force, 
Ibid.  in rooting out those Inhabitants who were accursed by God.  
He was willing to have them undergo in Egypt a hard and insupportable Captivity, that so being delivered by unheard of Prodigies, they might be in love with their Rescuer, and eternally celebrate his Mercies.  
This was the order of the Councils of God, so as himself has revealed them to us, to teach us to fear him, to adore him, to love him, and to wait with Faith and Patience.  
The time being come, he hearkens to the cries of his People, who were cruelly afflicted by the Egyptians, and he sends Moses to deliver his Children from thdr Tyranny.  
He makes himself known to that great Man, more than ever yet he had done to any Man living. He appears to him in a manner equally magnificent and comforting: he declares to him that He is that He is. All that is before him is but a shadow. I am, 
Exod. 3.14.  saith he, that I am. Being and Perfection belongs to me alone. He takes up a new Name, which designates Being and Life in him as in their Source, and it is that great name of God, Terrible, Mysterious, and Incommunicable, by which he will for the time to come be served.  
I will not in retail give you an account of the Plagues of Egypt, nor of the hardness of Pharaoh's heart, nor of the passing over the red Sea, not of the Smoke, nor Lightnings, the Trumpet sounding, and the dreadful Thundering and Noise that the People heard on Mount Sinai. God there engraved with his own hand upon two Tables of Stone the fundamental Precepts of Religion and Society. He dictated the rest to Moses with a loud Voice. To preserve this Law in its strength and vigour he was ordered to convene a venerable Assembly of seventy Elders, 
Exod. 24.1. Numb. 11.16.  who were to be called the Senate of the People of God, and the perpetual Council of the Nation. God made his public appearance, and caused his Law to published in his presence with an astonishing demonstration of his Majesty and Power.  
Till than God had given nothing by writing, which might serve as a Rule for Mankind. The Children of Abraham only had Circumcision, and the Ceremonies that accompanied it, for a Token of the Covenant which God hath contracted with that Elect Race. They were separated by that sign from the other People, who worshipped false Gods: Now they kept themselves in the Covenant of God by the remembrance they had of the Promises made to their Fathers, and they were known as a People who served the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. God was so strangely forgotten, that it was necessary to make him discernible by the name of those who had been his worshippers, and of whom he was also the declared Protector.  
This great God was resolved no longer to leave to the hare memory of Mankind the Mystery of Religion, and of his Covenant. It was time to give stronger bars to Idolatry, which overwhelmed the World, and was even like to extinguish the remains of natural Light in Men.  
Ignorance and blindness was most prodigiously increased since Abraham's time. In his time, and a little after, the knowledge of God extended itself into Palestine and Egypt, 
Gen. 14.18, 19  Melchisedeck King of Salem was the Priest of the most High God, possessor of Heaven and Earth. Abimelech King of Gerar, and his Successor of the same name, feared God, swore in his Name, and admired his Power. The Threaten of that great God were dreadful to Pharaoh King of Egypt, 
Gen. 21.22, 23.26.28, 29. Gen. 12.17, 18. Exod. 5.1.23.9.1. &c, Exod. 8.26.  But in the time of Moses, those Nations were perverted. The true God was no longer known in Egypt as the God of all the People of the World, but as The God of the Hebrews. They then worshipped Beasts, and even creeping things of the Earth. Every thing was God, excepting God himself, and the World which God had made for the manifestation of his Power, seemed now to be become a Temple of Idols. Mankind straggled so far as to adore its very Vices, and its Passions, and there is nothing to be wondered at in all this. There was no Power more Inevitable and Tyrannical than their own. Man accustomed to believe every thing divine that was powerful, as he felt himself dragged on to a vice by a force that was invincible, he easily thought that that same force was somewhat out of himself, and so presently made a God of it! 'Twas thence that unchaste Love had so many Altars erected to it, and some impurities which are horrible even to name, 
Levit. 20.23.  began to be mixed with their Sacrifices.  
Cruelty got into them too at the same time: Guilty Man, who was troubled at the sense of his own wickedness, and looked on God as his Enemy, supposed he could no ways better appease and reconcile him than by extraordinary Sacrifices. He must shed Man's Blood an mix it with that of Beasts: a blind fear pushed on Fathers to immolate their own Children, and to burn them to their Gods instead of Incense. Those Sacrifices were common in the times of Moses, and were but one part of those horrid Iniquities of the Amorites, whose vengeance God doth commit to the Children of Israel.  
But they were not only peculiar to those people. 'Tis known, 
Herod. l. 2. Caes. de bell. Gall. 6. Diod. l. 1.5. Plin. l. 30. Athen. l. 13. Proph. de abst. l. 2. Jorn. de ●eb. Get. etc.  that among all the people of the world, not excepting one, Men have sacrificed their own resemblances; and there had been no place on the Earth, where those sad and frightful Divinities were not worshipped, whose implacable hatred to Mankind did not require of them such Sacrifices.  
Amidst so great an Ignorance, Man came to fall down and worship even the work of his own hands. He believed himself able to shut up the Divine Spirit in his Statues, and so miserably had he forgot 'twas God that made him, that he thought in his turn he was able to make a God. Who could believe it, if Experience did not show us that so stupid and brutish an Error was not only the most universal, but also the most riveted and incorrigible among men? Thus it must be confessed, to the confusion of Mankind, that the first of Truths, that which the world preaches, that whose Impression is the most powerful, was the most remote from men's ●ight. The Tradition which preserved it in their minds, tho' it was clear enough, and sufficiently present, if we would have been attentive to it, was just ready to vanish and be gone. Prodigious Fables, and such also as were as full of Impiety as Extravagance, took their place. The time was come where Truth but ill kept in the memory of men, could no longer keep itself with being written, and God having besides resolved to form his people to Virtue by Laws more express, and in a greater number, he was pleased at the same time to give them in writing.  
Moses was summoned to this work. That great Man recollected the History of past Ages; That of Adam that of Noah, that of Abraham, that of Isaac, that of Jacob; that of Joseph, or rather that of God himself, and of his admirable Works.  
He was not to search far for the tradition of his Ancestors. He was born a hundred Years after the Death of Jacob. The old Men of his time might have conversed several Years with that Holy Patriarch: The memory of Joseph, and the Miracles which God had wrought by that great Minister of the Kings of Egypt were yet fresh in their Minds. The Lives of three or four Men reached up even to Noah, who had seen the Sons of Adam, and, as I may so say, had touched the beginning of time and things.  
Thus the ancient traditions of Mankind, and those of the Family of Abraham were not hard to be collected; the Memory of them was still alive; and we need not wonder if Moses in his Genesis speaks of things that happened in the first Ages, as things certain, whose memorable Monuments are still to be seen both in the neighbouring People, and in the Land of Canaan.  
In the time when Abraham, Isaac and Jacob inhabited that Land, they had in several places erected the monuments of things which had happened to them. There is yet shown there the places where the lived, the Wells they had dug and sunk in those dry and sterile Countries to find their Families and their Flocks Water; the Mountains whereon they Sacrificed to Almighty God, and where he manifested himself to them; the Stones which they had laid on Heaps to serve as a memorial to Posterity; the Tombs wherein their blessed Ashes are deposited: The memory of those great Men were fresh, not only in all the Country, but likewise in all the East, where many of those famous Nations have still remembered that they have come from their Race.  
So when the Hebrews entered into the promised Land, every place there did celebrate their Ancestors; both the Towns and the Mountains, and the very Stones themselves did there speak of those marvellous Men, and of those astonishing Visions, by which God had confirmed them in the ancient and true belief.  
Those who are ever so little conversant in Antiquities, do know how curious the first times were, to erect and to preserve such Monuments, and how industriously careful Posterity has been since to retain the occasions of their setting of them up. 'Twas one of the ways of their writing History; the Stones have since been better fashioned and polished; and Statues have succeeded after Pillars to great and solid Masses, which the first times erected.  
'Tis also very rational to believe that in the lineage, wherein was preserved the knowledge of God, were also preserved by writing the remembrances of ancient times. For Men have never been without that care. At least this is most certain, that they made Songs, which the Fathers taught their Children; Songs which were sung at their Festivals and in their Assemblies, gave a perpetuity to the remembrance of the most remarkable actions of the past Ages.  
From hence came Poetry, which was afterwards changed into various forms and modes, the most ancient whereof is still preserved in Odes, and those heroic ways, used by all the Ancients, and still to this day by those People who have not the use of Letters, in Praising God and great Men.  
The stile of those Songs is bold, extraordinary, natural always in what it is fit, to represent Nature in all its Transports, which for that reason is forced by the most lively and impetuous Sallies, disengaged from these ordinary Bonds that are requisite in an united Discourse, confined besides to just Numbers and Cadences, which advances their force, surprises the Ear, seizes the Imagination, gives an Emotion to the Heart, and with more ease imprints itself in the Memory.  
Among all the People of the World, none have so much used these kind of Songs as have the People of God. Moses takes notice of a great many of them, which he denotes by the first Verses, because the People knew the rest. 
Numb. xxi. v. 14.17.18.27 etc. Exod. xv. 1.  He himself hath made two of this Nature. The first is his Song for their triumphant passing over the Red Sea, and the Enemies of the People of God, some already drowned, the rest half conquered by the dread and terror of it. By the second, 
Deut. xxxii. v. 1.  Moses confounds the People's ingratitude, by setting forth God's Mercy and Vengeance. Following Ages imitated him. 'Twas God and his marvellous Works were the Subject of those Odes which they composed; God himself inspired them, and it was only to the People of God that Poetry came truly by Enthusiasm.  
Jacob declared in that mystical Language the Oracles which contained the Destiny of his twelve Sons, that so every Tribe might the more easily keep in Mind what particularly related to it, and learn to praise him, who was no less magnificent in his Predictions than faithful in performing them.  
Thus you see the means made use of by God to preserve, even down to Moses, the remembrance of past transactions. That great Man instructed by all those means, and raised upon high by the Holy Ghost, hath written the Works of God with an exactness and simplicity which attracts belief and admiration, not only to himself, but even to Almighty God.  
He hath joined to past actions, which contained the original and ancient Traditions of the People of God, the wonders which God actually wrought for their deliverance. Of that he produces to the Israelites no other Witnesses than their own Eyes. Moses tells them not of things which were done in impenetrable retreats, and in profound Caves; he speaks not in the Air; he particularizes and circumstantiates every thing, as a Man that fears not to be caught in an untruth. He grounds all their Laws, and their whole Republic on the wonders which they themselves have seen. Those wonders were nothing else but Nature changed all on a sudden on different occasions for their deliverance, and the punishment of their Enemies; the Sea divided itself in two, the Earth opened herself, heavenly Food, abundance of Water gushing out of Rocks, by a stroke of the Rod, and the Heaven which gave them a visible sign to direct their March, and such like Miracles which they themselves had seen for forty Years.  
The People of Israel were no more intelligent, nor more subtle than other People, who being given up to their Senses, could not have any conceptions of an Invisible God. On the contrary, they were stupid and rebellious as much, if not more than any other People. But that invisible God in his nature, made himself so sensible by his continual Miracles, and Moses inculcated them with so much force, that at length that sensual People were overcome by the pure Idea of a God who made all things by his word, of a God who who was only Spirit, Reason, and Intelligence.  
So that, whilst Idolatry, so mightily increased since Abraham's time, was spread over all the Face of the Earth, the only Posterity of that Patriarch was free from it. Their Enemies bore that Testimony of them; and the People, where the truth of Tradition was not yet utterly abolished and worn out, declared with astonishment, that there was not seen an Idol in Jacob, neither any superstitious Presages, nor Divinations, nor Witchcrafts; but they were a People who trusted in the Lord their God, whose Power was invincible.  
To fix and imprint in their minds the Unity of God, and the perfect Uniformity which he requires in his worship, Moses often repeats, that in the promised Land this only God would choose out a place, in which alone the Feasts and Sacrifices, 
Numb. xii. xiv, xv, xuj, xvii, etc.  and all the public Service should be performed. Whilst they were waiting for this desired place, during the time the People wandered in the wilderness, Moses built the Tabernacle, the Temple which was carried about, where the Children of Israel offered up their Prayers to God, who had made heaven and earth, and who did not disdain (with reverence may I say it) to travel with them and to be their Guide.  
Upon this Principle of Religion, upon this Sacred Foundation was built all the Law; a Law holy, just, beneficent, honest, wise, provident, and simple, which bond the Society of men among themselves by the holy Society of Man with God.  
To this Holy Institution he added Majestical Ceremonies, Feasts that recalled to mind the Remembrances of the Miracles, whereby the People of Israel had been delivered; 
Deut. xxvii. xxviii. etc.  and what no other Legislator ever durst do, particular Assurances that all things should be prosperous with them so long as they lived in subjection to the Law: whereas their Disobedience should be pursued with a manifest and inevitable vengeance. He must needs be very much assured by God to be able to give such a Foundation to his Laws, and the event hath justified that Moses had not spoke of his own head.  
As to the numerous observances which he laid upon the Hebrews, tho' now they seem superfluous to us, they were in those days requisite and necessary to separate the people of God from the rest of Mankind, and served as a Barrier to Idolatry, lest it should bewitch and ensnare the people of God into Compliances with their ways of worship.  
To maintain the Religion and all the Traditions of the People of God among the twelve Tribes, one Tribe was chosen to which God gives in share with the Tithes and Oblations, the care of Sacred things. Levi and his Children are themselves consecrated to God as the Tenth of all his People. In Levi Aaron is chosen to be the High Priest, and the Priesthood is made hereditary in his Family.  
Thus the Altars had their Ministers; the Law her particular Defenders; and the course of the People of God is justified by the Succession of its Priests, who came without Interruption from Aaron the first of them all.  
But what was still more lovely in this Law, was that it prepared the way for a Law more August and Noble, less clogged with Ceremonies, and more fruitful in Divine Virtues.  
Moses, to keep the People in expectation of that Law, confirmed to them the coming of that great Prophet who was to proceed from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
Deut. 18.15, 18.  The Lord thy God, saith he, will raise up unto thee, a Prophet from the midst of Thee, of thy Brethren, like unto me, unto him Ye shall hearken. That Prophet like unto Moses, a Legislator as he was, who could he be unless the Messiah, whose Doctrine was one day to influence and sanctify all the World?  
And there arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, 
Deut. 34.10.  whom the Lord knew face to face, and who gave Laws to his People. So even unto the time of the Messiah, the People in all times and under all difficulties, rested themselves only upon Moses. As Rome paid Reverence to the Laws of Romulus, Numa, and the twelve Tables; as Athens had recourse to those of Solon; as Lacedemonia preserved and respected those of Lycurgus; So the Hebrews were continually alleging those of Moses. Now the Legislator had so well adjusted all things in it, that never was there an occasion to change any thing. Wherefore the Body of the Jewish Law is not a Recollection of divers Laws made at several times and upon different occasions. Moses being illuminated by the Spirit of God, had foreseen all things. We do see none of the Ordinances of David, or of Solomon, or of Jehosaphat, or of Hezekiah, though they were all very zealous for Justice; The good Princes only observed the Law of Moses, 
1 Kings 2.3. Deut. 4.2.12.32.  and were contented to recommend the observance of it to their Successors. Either to add to it, or to diminish one Tittle from it, was an attempt which the People looked upon with horror. There was a continual need of the Law to regulate not only their Feasts, their Sacrifices, and their Ceremonies, but also all their other public and private Actions, Judgements, Concracts, Marriages, Successions, Funerals, the very form of their Clothes, and in general whatsoever respected manners. There was no other Book wherein the Precepts of good living were studied. They were to examine and meditate on it night day, and to remember the Sentences, and to have them always before their Eyes. That the Children learned to read: The only Rule of Education which was given to their Parents to teach them, and to inculcate into them, and to make them observe that holy Law which alone was able to make them wise from their Childhood. So likewise was it to be in the hands of all the World. Besides the constant daily readily which every one was obliged to in private, there was a public reading of it at the end of every Seven years, 
Deut. 31.10. 2 Esdras 8.17, 18.  in the Solemnity of the year of Release, and it was as a new publication at the Feast of Tabernacles, where all the People were assembled for eight days. Moses caused the Original of Deuteronomy, 
Deut. 31.26.  which was an abstract of the whole Law, to be put in the side of the Ark of the Covenant. But for fear lest in futurity of time it might be altered by the malice or negligence of men. Besides the Copies which ran among the People, there were made Authentic Precedents, which being carefully reviewed and kept by the Priests and Levites, were esteemed as Originals and Records. The Kings for Moses had wisely foreseen that these People would at last have Kings as well as other Nations) The Kings, I say, were obliged by an express law in Deuteronomy to receive from the hands of the Priests and Levites one of these Precedents which were so religiously corrected, 
Deut. 17.18.  that they might transcribe and read it all their lives. The Precedents thus reviewed by public Authority, were held by all People in singular Veneration: they looked on them as being immediately derived from the hands of Moses, as pure and entire as God had dictated them to him. An ancient Volume of this severe and religious Correction having been found in the House of the Lord, 
2 Kings 22.8. etc. 2 Chron. 34.14. etc.  in the Reign of Josiah, and peradventure was that very Original which Moses had caused to be put in the side of the Ark of the Covenant, stirred up the Piety of that holy King, and thereby was the occasion of bringing that People to Repentance. The great effects which all along the public reading of that Law wrought are innumerable. In a word, it was a perfect Book, which being joined by Moses to the History of the People of God, it taught them their Origine their Religion, Polity, Manners, Philosophy, and whatsoever conduced to the regulation of Life, whatsoever united and form Society, the good and the bad Examples; The Reward of the one, and the rigorous Punishments which had attended the other.  
By that admirable Discipline, a People brought out of Slavery and Bondage, and kept forty years in the Wilderness, came all fitted to the Land which they were to possess. Moses brings them to the Entrance, and being informed of his approaching end, he commits the remains of what was yet to be done to Joshua. 
Deut. 31.14. etc.  But before he died, he composed that long and most excellent Song which gins with these words. Give ear, O ye Heavens, 
Deut. 32.1.  and I will speak; and hear, O Earth, the words of my mouth. In that Silence of all nature, he speaks first to the People with a source that was inimitable, and foreseeing their Infidelities; he discovers to them the dreadfulness of it. All of a sudden he goes out of himself, as if he found all Humane Discourse below so great a Subject; he reporteth what God saith, and it makes him speak with so much elevation and so much sweetness, that we know not which inspired him most, whether Fear and Confusion, or Love and Confidence.  
All the People learned by heart that Divine Song by the order of God, 
Deut. 31.19, 22.  and of Moses. That great Man after that died content, as a Man that had forgot nothing which might preserve in the Memory of his People the Benefits and Precepts of God. He leaves his Children in the midst of their Citizens without any distinction, and without any extraordinary establishment. He hath been admired not only by his People, but by all the People of the World, and never had any Legislator so great a name as He among all Mankind. 'Tis believed that he writ the Book of Job. The Sublimity of the Thoughts, and the Majesty of the Style, make that History worthy of Moses. For fear lest the Hebrews should be puffed up by attributing the Grace of God to themselves alone; it was necessary to make them to understand that that great God had his chosen ones, even in the Race of Esau. And what Doctrine was more important? and what more profitable Consolation could Moses give to the People afflicted in the Wilderness, than that of the Patience of Job, who, being delivered into the hands of Satan, to be exercised by all manner of Miseries, saw himself deprived of his Wealth, his Children, and all the Comforts of this World; presently after, struck with a horrible Disease, and moved within by the Temptation of Blasphemy and Despair▪ yet he, remaining firm and resolute in his Integrity, made it evident, that a faithful devout Soul, supported by the Divine Relief, in the midst of the fiercest and most frightful Trials, and in spite of all the blackest thoughts which the Evil Spirit could suggest to it, knew not only how to maintain an invincible Trust and Confidence, 
Job 13.15.14.14.15.16.21.19.25. etc.  but also to raise up itself by his own greatest Afflictions to the highest Contemplation, and to acknowledge in the Sufferings it endures with the Vanity and Nothingness of Man, the Supreme Empire of God; and his Infinite Wisdom. This is what the Book of Job instructs us in. To keep up the Character of Time here is seen the Faith of the holy Man crowned by Temporal Prosperities; but yet the People of God are hereby taught to know what is the virtue of Sufferings, and to have a fore-taste of the Grace which was one day to be fastened to the Cross.  
Moses had tasted it when he preferred the Sufferings and Ignominy which he was to undergo with the People of God, to the Delicacies and Abundance in the House of the King of Egypt. From that time God made him to taste of the Reproaches of Jesus Christ. He tasted them also again in his precipitated Flight, and in his Exile of forty years. 
Heb. 11.24, 25, 26.  But he drunk even to the bottom of Christ his Cup, when being chosen to save that People, 
Numb. 14.10. etc.  he was forced to undergo their continual Revolting, wherein he ran the hazard of his life. He learned what it would cost him to save the People of God, and shown at a distance what a higher deliverance 'twas one day to cost the Saviour of the World.  
That great Man had not so much as the consolation of entering into the promised Land: he only saw it from the top of a Mountain, 
Numb. 20.12, 13.27.14. Deut. 32.50, 51.  and was not ashamed to confess that he was excluded from it by a sin, which tho' it seemed but little, yet deserved to be punished so severely in a man whose Grace was so particularly eminent. Moses served for an example to the severe Jealousy of God, and to the Judgements which he executed with so terrible an exactness on those whom his Bounty and Kindness obliged to a more perfect Fidelity.  
But still a higher Mystery is shown us in this Exclusion of Moses. That wise Legislator, who by so many Miracles did only lead the Children of God in the Neighbourhood of their Land, serves himself to us for an Evidence, 
Heb. 7.19.  that his Law made nothing perfect, and that without being able to give us the accomplishment of the Promises, it makes us only (as it were) to salute them at a distance, or leads us at most but to the gate of our Inheritance. It was a Joshua, a Jesus, for it was the true name of Joshua, who by that name, and by his office represented the Saviour of the World: it was that Man so much below Moses in all things, and superior only to him by his name; it was He, I say, who was to bring the People of God into the holy Land.  
By the Victories of that great Man, before whom Jordan was driven back, the Walls of Jericho fell down of themselves, and the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven; God established his Children in the Land of Canaan, out of which by the same means he drove the abominable People. By the hatred which his faithful ones had against them, he inspired them with an extreme indignation of their wickedness and impiety, and the punishment which was inflicted by their Ministry, filled them themselves with fear of the Divine Justice, of which they executed the Decrees. One part of those People whom Joshua drove out ot their Land, 
Procop. lib. 2. de bell. Vand.  went and planted themselves in Africa, where was found a long time after in an ancient Inscription, the Monument of their Flight, and the Victories of Joshua. After those miraculous Victories had put the Israelites in the possession of the greatest part of the Land which was promised to their Fathers; Joshua, and Eleazar the High Priest, 
Jos. 13, 14. & seq. Numb. 26.53.34.17. Jos. 14, 15.  with the Heads of the twelve Tribes, divided it among them according to the Law of Moses, and assigned to the Tribe Judah time the first and the greatest Lot. From the time of Moses, it was set above the others in Number, in Courage, and in Dignity. Joshua died, and the People continued the Conquest of the Holy Land. God would have the Tribe of Judah to march at the Head, 
Numb. 2.3.9.7.12.10.14. 1 Chron. 5.2. Judge 1.1, 2.4.8.  and declared that he had delivered the Country into their hands. In fine, it overcame die Canaanites, and took Jerusalem, which was to be the holy City, and the capital City of the People of God: it was the ancient Salem, where Melchisedek had reigned in Abraham's time; Melchisedek, that King of Righteousness, 
Heb. 7.2.  (for that is the meaning of his Name) and at the same time too, King of Peace, for that is King of Salem; whom Abraham had owned for the greatest Highpriest in the World, as if Jerusalem had then been destined for a holy City, and the head of Religion. That City was at first given to the Children of Benjamin, who, being weak and few in number, could not drive out the Jebusites the ancient Inhabitants of Jerusalem, but they dwelled among them. 
Judg. 1.21.  Under the Judges the People of God were variously treated, according as they did well or ill. After the death of the old men who had seen Miracles from the hand of God, the remembrance of those mighty Works decayed, and the universal inclination and bent of Mankind warped the People to Idolatry. As often as they fell into it, they were punished; and as often as they repent, they were delivered. The Faith of Providence, and the Truth of the Promise, and the Threaten of Moses, was confirmed more and more in the hearts of the true Believers. But God prepared also greater Examples of them. The People demanded a King, and God gave them Saul: quickly reproved for his sins: he at last resolved to establish a Royal Family, from which e Messiah should come, and he chose it in Judah. David, 
1 Sam. 16.11.12. etc.  a young Shepherd sprung out of that Tribe, the youngest of the Sons of Jesse, whose merit neither his Father, nor his Family knew, but yet whom God found to be after his own heart, was anointed by Samuel in Bethlehem, which was his own Country.  
Here the People of God, 
iv David, the Kings and the Prophets.  to take up a Form more August and Magnificent, the Kingdom was settled in the House of David. That House began by two Kings of different Characters, but both were admirable. David a warlike and conquering Prince subdued the Enemies of the People of God, whose Arms were dreaded over all the East; and Solomon famous for his Wisdom both at home and abroad, made that People happy by a profound Peace. But the Progress of Religion does here require some particular Remarks upon the Lives of those two great King●  
David reigned at first over Judah, mighty and victorious, and afterwards he was owned over all Israel. 
2 Sam. 5.6, 7, 8, 9 1 Chron. 11.6, 7, 8. 1 Chron 2.16.  He took from the Jebusites the strong Hold of Zion, which was the Citadel of Jerusalem. Being Master of that Fortress, he established there, by the order of God, the Sea of the Kingdom and that of Religion; and there he lived: He built round about it, and called it The City of David; Joab his Sister's built the rest of the City; and Jerusalem took up a new form. Those of Judah possessed all the Country, and Benjamin being few in number, dwelled together with them.  
The Ark of the Covenant built by Moses, where God dwelleth between the Cherubims, and where the two Tables of the Decalogue were kept, had then not fixed place. David brought it in Triumph, 
2 Sam. 6.2, 16, 17. etc.  with shouting and with the sound of the Trumpet, into Zion, which he had conquered by the Almighty help of God, that so God might reign in Zion, and that he might be acknowledged there as the Protectors of David, 
1 Chro. 16.39.21.29.  of Jerusalem, and of all the Kingdom. But the Tabernacle wherein the People had worshipped God in the Wilderness, was yet, at Gibeon; and there it was where they offered their Sacrifices upon the Altar which Moses had built. It was but in expectation that there would be a Temple, where the Altar should be reunited with the Ark, and where should be performed all the Service. When David had conquered all his Enemies, and had extended his Victories even to Euphrates; being at quiet, and a mighty Conqueror, he at all his thought upon the establishing of the Divine Worship, and on the same Mountain where Abraham went to Sacrifice his only Son, 
2 Sam. 8.11. 1 Chron. 18. 2 Sam. 24.25. 1 Chron. 21.22. & seq. Jos. of't. 7.10.  and was stopped by the hand of an Angel, he designed by the appointment of God, the place of the Temple.  
He said down all his Designs; he amassed mighty no● and precious Materials for it; he dedicated all the Spoils of his conquered Kings and People to it. But that Temple which was so designed by the Conqueror, was not to be built but by his Son and Successor, the peaceable Solomon. He built it after the Model of the Tabernacle. The Altar of the Holocausts, 
1 Kings 6,7, 8. 2 Chron. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.  the Altar of Incense, the golden Candlestick, the Tables of Show Bread, and all the other consecrated Movables of the Temple, were taken from the like Pieces which Moses had caused to be made in the Wilderness. Solomon only added magnificence and grandeur to them. The Ark which the Man of God had built was placed in the Holy of Holys, a place i●●cessible, a Symbol of the impe●●●rable Majesty of God, and of Heaven, forbidden to Men until Jesus Christ had opened them an Entrance into it by the shedding of his stood. On the Day of the Dedication of the Temple, God appeared there in his Majesty. He chose that place, to establish his Name and his Worship there. He forbade them there to Sacrifice in any other place. The unity of God was demonstrated of the Unity of his Temple Jerusalem became a holy City, the image of the Church 〈◊〉 God was to inhabit, as in his true Temple, and of Heaven, where he will make us eternally happy by the manifestation of his glory.  
After that Solomon had built the Temple, he built also the Palace of the Kings, the Architecture of which was worthy so great a Prince. His Countryhouse, which was called The Forest of Lebanon, 
1 Kings 7.2. & 10.  was equally magnificent and delicate. The Palace which he made for the Queen was a new Ornament to Jerusalem. Every thing was great and splendid in those Buildings; The Potches, the Galleries, the Walks, the King's Throne, and the Tribunal where he sat to judge, Cedar was the only Wood he made use of in all those costly Works. All things shined there of Gold and rich Stones. The Citizens and the Strangers admired the Majesties of the Kings of Israel. The rest was correspondent to this Magnificence; 
1 Kings 10. 2 Chron. 8, 9  The Towns, the Arsenals, the Horses, the Chariots, the Prince's Guard, the Commerce, the Navigation, and the good Order with a profound Peace, had made Jerusalem the richest City of the East. The Kingdom was at rest and abounded with all things; every thing there represented the heavenly glory: In the Wars of David were seen the wearisome Toils by which they were to deserve it; and in the reign of Solomon how peaceable and quiet the Enjoyment of it was.  
But the raising of these two great Kings, and of the Royal Family, was th'effect of a particular Election. David himself celebrates the Marvel of it in these words: 
1 Chron. 28.4. & 5.  The Lord God of Israel chose 〈◊〉 before all the House of my Father to be King over Israel for ever: for he hath chosen Judah to be the Ruler; and of the House of Judah, the House of my Father; and among the Sons of my Father he liked me, to make me King over all Israel; and he said to me, Solomon thy Son shall build my House and my Courts: for I have chosen hi● to be my Son, and I will be his Father.  
This Divine Election had a higher object than what at first appeared. That Messiah so often promised as the Son of Abraham, was also to be the Son of David, and of all the Kings of Judah. It was upon the prospect of the Messiah, and of his Eternal Reign, that God promised to David that his Throne should be maintained for ever. Solomon chosen to be his Successor was designated to represent the Person of the Messiah. Wherefore God saith of him, 
2 Sam. 7.14.  I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son: a thing which he never said with that energy and force, of any King, nor of any Man.  
Also in the time of David, 
1 Chron. 22.10.  and under the Kings his Sons, the Mystery of the Messiah was declared more than ever by the wonderful Prophecies which were clearer than the Sum at Noonday.  
David perceived it afar off, and sung of it in his Psalms with a grandcur that nothing will ever be equal to it. Oft-times he only thought of celebrating the glory of his Son Solomon; and of a sudden being transported beyond himself, and carried far away, 
Matth. 6.29.12.42. Psal. 72.5.11.17.  he saw him who was greater than Solomon both in glory and wisdom. The Messiah appeared to him sitting upon a Throne more lasting than the Moon. He saw at his feet all the Nations overcome, and blessed in him, agreeable to the Promise made to Abraham. He raised his sight higher still, and said 〈◊〉 saw him in the light of his Saints, 
Psal. 110.  and before the Morning, coming from all Eternity out of the Bosom of his Father, the Eternal High Priest, and without a Successor, neither succeeding himself to any One, created extraordinarily, not according to the order of A●r●●, but after the order of Melchised●●, a new order which the Law knew nothing of. He beheld him sitting on the right hand of God, and seeing from the highest Heavens his Enemies his Footstool. He is astonished at so great and wonderful a Spectacle, and ravished with the glory of his Son, he calleth him, His Lord.  
He saw him God, that God had anointed him to make him over all the Earth, 
Psal. 45.3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. etc.  by his Meekness, Truth, and Righteousness. He was in Spirit assisting to the Council of God, and heard from the very Mouth of the Eternal Father that Word which he addressed to his only Son, 
Psal. 2.7, 8.  This day have I begotten Thee, whereto God joined the Promise of a perpetual Empire. Ask of me, and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of Ir●n, th●● shalt dash them in pieces like a Potter's Vessel. Why do the Heathen rage, and the People imagine a vain thing, the Kings of the Earth set themselves, and the Rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their B●nds asunder, and cast away their Cords from us. He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision for their foolish Projects, and in spite of all their ridiculous opposition, he will establish the Empire of his Christ. Be wise therefore, 
Psal. 2.10.  O ye Kings, be instructed ye Judge's of the Earth. He establishes him upon themselves, and they must be the first Subjects of that Christ, whose Yoke they would have so fain shook off. And tho' the Kingdom of that great Messiah be often foretold in the Scriptures under the most pompous and magnificent Ideas, yet God did not hid from David the Igonominies of that blessed Fruit of his Loins. This Instruction was necessary for the People of God. If that People, as yet but weak, had need of being drawn on by Temporal Promises, yet it was not f●t to let them only have regard to these Humane things as their utmost and most sovereign Felicity, and as their only Recompense: wherefore God shows them afar off that Messiah so much promised, and so much desired, the Model of Perfection; the Object of their Complaisances and Delight swallowed up with Grief. The Cross appeared to David as the true Throne of that new King. He saw his hands and his feet pierced, and that all his bones might be told, 
Psal. 22.16, 17, 18, 19  they looked and stared upon him, being most barbarously hung by all the weight of his Body, his Garments parted among them, and how they cast lots upon his Vesture, giving him gall and vinegar to drink, his Enemies gnashing their Teeth at him, and glutting themselves with his Blood. And at the same time too he saw the glorious effects of his Humiliations. All the ends of the World shall remember the Lord, which they had for so many Ages forgot, and the Poor shall come the first to the Table of the Messiah, and afterwards they that be fat upon Earth shall worship and bless him; He presiding in the great and numerous Church, that is to say, in the Assembly of the converted Nations, and declaring his righteousness unto a People that shall be born, that he hath done this. David, who saw these things, confessed in the seeing of them, that the Kingdom of his Son was not of this World. He made no wonder of it, for he knew this World was transient and passed away; and a Prince that was always so humble upon the Throne, saw very well that a Throne was not a Good on which all his hopes were to be terminated.  
The other Prophets have no less seen the Mystery of the Messiah. There is nothing that is great or glorious but they have said of his Reign. 
●ic. 5.2.  One sees Bethlehem the least among the thousands of Judah, made famous by his Birth, and at the same time raised up higher, he sees another Birth, whose go forth have been from of old, from everlasting, from the Bosom of his Father: Another sees the Virginity of his Mother, 
Isaiah 7.14.6.9.  Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his Name Emmanuel, a God with us shall come from this Virginal Womb, and a Child whose Name shall be called Wonderful, he calls God. He beholds him entering into his Temple, the other sees him glorious in his Grave, where Death was overcome. 
Mal. 3.1. Isai. 11.10.53.9. Zach. 11.12, 13.  In publishing thus his Greatnesses, they do not forget to declare his Reproaches too. They have seen him sold to the People at a price, and knew the number as well as the service of the thirty pieces of Silver for which he was bought. At the same time that they beheld him great and exalted, they saw him likewise despised and rejected of men, 
Isai. 59.13.  a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as the offscouring of the World, as well as the wonder of it, both by his low as well as his high estate; the meanest of Mankind, 
Ibid. 4.5, 6, 7, 8, 9  that had born our Griefs, being wounded for our Transgressions; he was our most merciful Benefactor, and yet we despised him; he was bruised for our Iniquities, and yet with his stripes we were to be healed, he was treated like a Malefactor, brought to his punishment with the wicked, and delivered himself up like a Lamb, that was Innocent, without a murmur to his death, a long Posterity by that means was to be born of him, 
Dan. 9.26.  and vengeance shall come upon all the incredulous People. To the end that nothing might be wanting to the Prophecy, they have foretold the very years even to his coming, and unless one resolves to be obstinately blind, it is impossible now to be ignorant of it.  
And not only the Prophets saw Jesus Christ, but they were also the Type and Figure of him, and represented his Mysteries, especially that of the Cross. Almost all of them suffered Persecution for Righteousness sake, and have represented to us in their Sufferings the persecuted Innocency and Truth in our Blessed Lord. Elijah and Elisha, how were they continually threatened? How often was Isaiah made the scorn and derision both of the People and the Kings, who at last, as the positive Tradition of the Jews affirm, sacrificed him to their Fury? Zachariah the Son of Jehoiadah was stoned: Ezekiel was always under Affliction; the Calamities of Jeremiah were continual and inexplicable: Daniel was seen twice in the midst of the Den of Lions: Not one of them but who were contradicted, opposed, and ill treated; and they all discover to us by their Example, that if the weakness of the ancient People in the general required to be supported by Temporal Blessings, yet notwithstanding the strong ones of Israel, and the men of an extraordinary Sanctity were then fed with the Bread of Affliction, and drank beforehand for their Sanctification, of the Cup that was prepared for the Son of God; A Cup so much the more full of Bitterness, as the Person of Jesus Christ was more Sacred and Holy.  
But that which the Prophets saw most clearly, and which they also declared in the most magnificent terms, was the blessing bestowed upon the Gentiles by the Messiah. That Root of Jesse, and of David, appeared to the holy Prophet Isaiah, 
Isai. 40.10.  as an Ensign given of God to the People, to whom the Gentiles should seek. The Man of grief, whose stripes were to be our healing, was chosen to wash the Gentiles by a holy sprinkling, 
Ibid. 52.15.  which they acknowledged in his Blood and in Baptism. Kings seized with an awful respect in his Presence, should shut their Mouths, and ●e silent, For that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard, shall they consider. 
Isa. 55.4.5.  He was given for a Witness to the People, a Leader and Commander to the Gentiles. Under him, a Nation unknown, shall be joined to the People of God, and the Gentiles should run unto him on all sides. 
Ibid. 62.1, 2.  He was the Righteousness of Zion that should go forth as Brightness, and the Salvation thereof as a Lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles should see his Righteousness, and all Kings his Glory, who was so celebrated in the Prophecies of Zion.  
But yet let us see him better described, 
Isai. 42.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.  and with a more particular Character. A Man of an admirable sweetness and temper, especially being the Elect in whom God's Soul delighted, should bring forth Judgement to the Gentiles, the Isles should wait for his Law. Thus the Hebrews called Europe, and the distant Countries. He shall not cry, nor lift up, n●r cause his voice to be heard in the Street: Scarce shall they hear him, he will be so meek and quiet. A bruised Reed shall he not break, and the smoking Flax shall he not quench. So far will he be from confounding the Weak and the Sinners, that his charitable Voice will call them, and his gracious Hand will sustain them. He will open the eyes of the Blind, and bring out the Prisoners from the Prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the Prisonhouse. His power shall be equal to his goodness: 
Esai. 42.7.  His essential Character is to join together Bounty and Kindness with efficacy: And this is the reason why that so still voice shall in a moment go from one end of the Earth to the other, and without stirring up the least Sedition among Men, it will excite all the Earth. He is neither violent nor impetuous, and he, who was hardly known when in Judea, shall not be only the Foundation of the People's Covenant, but also the Light of all the Gentiles. 
Ibid. 6.  Under his admirable Reign, the Assyrians and the Egyptians shall be no longer but one and the same People of God with the Israelites. Blessed be Egypt my People, and Assyria the work of my Hands, 
Esai. 10.25.  and Israel mine Inheritance. All shall become Israel, 
Ibid. 60.1, 2.3, 4, 11.61.1, 2.3, 11.62.1, 2.65.1, 2, 15, 16.66.19, 20, 21. Malach. 3.10. Psal. 110.2.  all shall become holy. Jerusalem is no more particular private City: It is the Image of a new Society, where all the People are gathered together: Europe, Africa, and Asia, received Preachers in whom God had put his Sign, that they might discover his Glory to the Gentiles. The Elect, till then, called by the Name of Israel, shall be called by a new Name, which shall signify the fulfilling of the Promises, and an happy Amen. The Priests and the Levites, who till then came from Aaron shall (for the time to come) come from the midst of the Heathens, that is, the Gentiles. A new Sacrifice more pure and agreeable than the old, shall be substituted in its place, and then shall be known the reason why David had consecrated a Highpriest of a new Order. The Just shall descend from Heaven as the Dew, the Earth shall bring forth her But, and it shall be the Saviour with whom Righteousness shall be seen to arise. Heaven and Earth shall join to bring forth, as by a common Delivery, him that shall be both Heavenly and Earthly together: New Ideas of Virtues shall appear in the World in his Examples, and in his Doctrine; and the Grace which he will shed abroad, will imprint them in their Hearts. Every thing will be changed by his coming, and God hath sworn by himself, and the word is gone out of his Mouth in Righteousness, and shall not return, 
Isai. 45.23.  that unto him every knee shall how, and every tongue shall swear, and acknowledge his sovereign Power.  
This is one part of the marvellous things which God hath shown to the Prophets, under the Kings, the Sons of David, and to David before all others. All have written beforehand the History of the Son of God, who was also to be made the Son of Abraham and of David. And thus every thing hath fell out in the Order of the divine Counsels. This Messiah shown afar off, as the Son of Abraham, is yet shown more near as the Son of David. An eternal Empire is promised to him: The Knowledge of God is spread abroad throughout the World, is set to us as the certain sign, and as the fruit of his coming. The Conversion of the Gentiles, and the Blessing of all the People of the World, so long since promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, is anew confirmed, and all the People of God lived in that expectation.  
In the mean time God governed them after a most admirable manner. He made a new Covenant with David, and obliged himself to protect him, and the Kings his Successors, if they would walk in the Commandments which he had given them by Moses; 
2 Sam. 7, 8, 9, 10, etc. 1 King. 9.4, 5. 2 Chron. 7.17. etc. 2 Sam. 11, 12, etc.  if not, he pronounced against them very severe Punishments. David, who had forgot himself for a little while, was the first who felt them; but having somewhat recovered himself by his unfeigned Repentance, he has a confluence of Wealth poured upon him, and is proposed as the model of an accomplished King. The Throne is established in his House. 
1. Kings 11.  Whilst Solomon walked in the Steps of his Father's Piety, he was happy; but in his old Age he was drawn aside, and God who spared him for the Love of his Servant David, declared he would punish him in the person of his Son. Thus he lets Parents to know, that according to the secret Decree of his Judgements, he makes their Punishments to continu● after their Death, and he keeps them in submission to his Laws by that Interest, which is the dearest that is, the Interest of their Family. In the Execution of his Decrees, the foolishly wilful Rehoboam is given up to an extravagant Council; his Kingdom is lessened, and ten of the tribes revolt from him. 
1 Kings 12.16, 17, etc.  Whilst those ten Rebellious and Schismatical Tribes were departed from their God and their King, the Children of Judah, who were faithful to God, and to David whom he had chosen, continued in the Covenant and in the Faith of Abraham. The Levites and the Tribe of Benjamin joined with them; the Kingdom of the People of God, subsisted by their union under the name of the Kingdom of Judah; and the Law of Moses was strictly observed. In spite of the lamentable Idolatries and Corruption of the ten separated Tribes, God remembered his Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, his Law was not quite extinct amidst those rebellious People; he was continually calling them back to Repentance by innumerable Miracles, and by the constant warnings he sent them by his Prophets. Hardened in their Wickedness at such a rate, he could no longer bear with them, 
2 Kings 17.7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, etc.  but he drove them out of the Land of Promise, without hopes of ever suffering them to settle there again.  
The History also of Tobit happened at the same time, and during the beginnings of the Captivity of the Israelites, it discovers to us the Conduct of the Elect of God, who still remained in the separated Tribes. That Holy Man, 
Tob. 1.5, 6, 7. etc.  dwelling among them before the Captivity, knew not only how to keep himself Pure from the Idolatries of his Brethren, but also how to put the Law in Practice, and to worship God publicly in the Temple of Jerusalem, without ever being drawn aside by their ill examples, or persuaded to a Compliance through servile fear. 
Id. 19, 20, 21.  When he was a Captive, and persecuted at Nineveh, he and his Family still retained their Piety; and that admirable manner, with which both he and his Son Tobias had their Faith rewarded, even here upon Earth, shows, that notwithstanding Captivity and Persecution, God had secret ways of making his Servants sensible of the Blessings of the Law, in raising them evermore by the afflictions they were to suffer, to higher and more exalted thoughts. By the Examples of Tobit, and his Holy Admonitions, those of Israel were stirred up to acknowledge, at least under the Rod, the hand of God which chastised them; but yet they almost all continued in obstinacy: those of Judah, so far were they from taking warning by Israel's Chastisements, that they followed their ill examples. God did not cease admonishing them by his Prophets, whom he sent one after another, rising up betimes, and sending them, as he saith himself, 
2 Chron. 36.15, 16. Jer. 25.15.29.19.35.15.  to show his Paternal care and tenderness. But being wearied with their Ingratitude, he was moved against them, and threatened to deal with them, as he had done with their rebellious Brethren.  
There is nothing more observable in the History of the People of God, than this Ministry of the Prophets. They beheld men separated from the rest of the People by a retired Life, and by a particular Habit: they had Habitations where they were seen to live in a kind of Community, 
1 Sam. 28.14. 1 Kings 19.19. Isai. 20.2. Zach. 13.5.  under a Superior whom God had given them. Their poor and penitent life was the very figure of Mortification, which was to be pronounced under the Gospel. God communicated himself to them in a particular manner, and made that wonderful Communication appear to all the People; 
1 Sam. 10.10.19.19, 26. 1 Kings 18. 2 Kings 11.3, 15, 18, 19.25. 2 Kings 4.10.38.6.1, 2.  but it never was so conspicuous, as in the times of that disorder wherein Idolatry had gone very near to abolish the Law of God. During those unhappy times the Prophets proclaimed on all sides loudly, both by Preaching and writings, the threaten of Almighty God, and the Testimony they bore to his Truth. The writings they composed were in the Hands of all the People, and carefully kept in perpetual remembrance to future Ages. Those People who continued faithful to God, joined with them; and we see also part in Israel, where Idolatry so much prevailed, 
Exod. 17.14. Isa. 30.8.34.16. Jer. 22.30.26.2.12.36.15. 2 Chron. 36.22, 23. 1 Esd. 1.1. Dan. 9.3. 2 Kings 4.23.21.16.  yet those that were faithful did with the Prophets celebrate the Sabbaths, and the Feasts established by the Law of Moses. 'Twas those that encouraged the good People to continue firm in the Covenant. Many of them suffered Death; and we have seen that after their example in the worst of times, that is to say, in the very Reign of Manasseh, a world of Believers to lay down their Lives for the Truth, so that it hath never been one moment without a Testimony.  
Thus the Society of the People of God subsisted always, the Prophets continued in it: a great number of the Faithful persisted boldly in the Law of God with them, and with the Priests, the Levites, 
Ezekiel 54.15.  the Sons of Zadoc, who, as Ezekiel says, kept the Charge of God's Sanctuary, when the Children of Israel went astray from him.  
And yet, notwithstanding the Prophets, nor the faithful Priests, nor the People joined with them in the observance of the Law, that Idolatry which had destroyed Israel, did ofttimes lead away even in Judah itself, both the Princes and the People. Tho' the Kings had forgotten the God of their Fathers, yet he a long time bore with their Iniquities for the sake of his Servant David, who was always present to his Eyes. When the Kings the Children of David followed the good Examples of their Father, God wrought wondrous Miracles for them: but when they degenerated, they felt the invincible Strength of his Arm, which was very heavy upon them. The Kings of Egypt, the Kings of Syria, and especially the Kings of Assyria and Babylon served as the Instruments of his Vengeance. Impiety grew more and more, and God raised up in the East a King more proud, and to be feared than all that ever had been heard of before: 'twas Nabuchadnezzar King of Babylon, the most terrible of all Conquerors. 
Jerem. 25, etc. Ezek. 26.7, 8. etc. 2 Kings 24.1,2. 2 Chron. 36.6.7.  He was shown long before both to the People and to their Kings as the Avenger that was designed to punish them. He approaches, and fear and dread do march before him. At once takes Jerusalem, and transports part of its Inhabitants unto Babylon. But neither those who remained in the City, nor th●se who were carried away Captive; tho' the one were forewarned by Jeremiah, and the other by Ezekiel, shown any marks of Repentance. They preferred to those Holy Prophets, 
Jer. 14.14.  the Prophets that prophesied Lies, whom God never sent, nor never commanded, nor spak● to, but they prophesied unto them a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the Deceit of their Heart, and flattered them in their Wickednesses. The Revenger returned into Judea, and the voke of Jerusalem was laid more heavy upon them; but yet the People were not utterly destroyed. At last their Iniquities being arrived to the full height; 
2 Kings 25.6.7. etc.  pride increased with their weakness; and Nabuchadnezzar, with the Captain of his Guard, burns the Temple of the Lord, and the King's Palace, and turns all the City into Ashes.  
God spared not his Sanctuary; that beautiful. Temple, the Ornament of the World, (which would have been eternal, if the Children of Israel had persevered in their Piety) was consumed, and lay with the common Rubbish of the rest of the City, by the Fire of the Assyrians. 'Twas in vain, the lying words which the Jews made use of, 
Jer. 7.4.5.  The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord, is in the midst of us; as if that Sacred Temple would of itself protect them. God had resolved to let them see that he was not fixed to a building of Stone, but he would have his habitation in the Hearts of Believers. So he destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem, and delivered the Treasure of it to the Spoil: so that abundance of costly rich Vessels consecrated to holy Uses by the Piety of former Kings, was now abandoned and given up to One that was Impious.  
But the fall of God's People was to be for the Instruction of all the World. We see in the person of that wicked King, tho' he was victorious, what we ought to expect from conquerors, and what they are. For the most part they are but Instruments of the Divine Vengeance, God executes his Judgements by them, and afterwards he executes his Justice upon them. Nabuchadnezzar invested with a Divine Power, and by that Ministry become invincible, punishes all the Enemies of the People of God. He ravages the Idumeans, the Ammonites, and the Moabites; he overthrows the Kings of Syria: Egypt, under whose Power Judea had oftentimes groaned, was the Prey of that proud King, and became Tributary to him: his Power was no less fatal to Judea itself, which would not turn unto the Lord, tho' he gave them so long a space of Repentance. Every thing fell every thing was destroyed by the Divine Justice, and Nabuchadnezzar was made the Minister of it: but we shall see him fall in his turn; and God who made use of the hand of that Prince to chastise his Children, and to vanquish his Enemies, reserves him to fall by his own Almighty Arm.  
He hath not left his Children ignorant of the destiny of that King who punished them; and of that Empire of the Chaldees under which they were led captive. For fear lest they should be surprised at the glory of the Wicked, and of their proud Reign, the Prophets have sufficiently told them of their short continuance. Isaiah, who saw the glory of Nabuchadnezzar, and his mad pride long before he was born, 
Isai. 13, 14, 21, 45, 46, 47, 48.  has foretold his sudden fall, together with that of the Empire. Babylon was scarce any thing, when that Prophet saw its Power, and a little while after, its Ruin. Thus the Revolutions of the Cities and Kingdoms which tormented the People of God, or gained advantage by their destruction, were written in his Prophecies. Those Oracles were followed with a hasty Execution; and the Jews, tho' so severely punished, yet saw to fall before them, or with them, or quickly after (according to the Predictions of their Prophets) not only Samaria, Idumea, Gaza, Ascalon, Damascus, the Cities of the Ammonites and the Moabites, their perpetual Enemies; but the chiefest of the great Empires, Tyre the Mistress of the Sea, Tanais, Memphis, Thebes with its hundred Gates and all the Riches of its Sesostri●, Nineveh also the Seat of the Kings of Assyria, their cruel Persecutors, and the proud and mighty Babylon, victorious over all the rest, and rich with their Spoils.  
'Tis true, Jerusalem by her sins was destroyed at the same time: but yet God did not leave her without hope. Isaiah, 
Isai. 44, 45.  who had foretold her Ruin, had likewise seen her glorious re-establishment, and had also named him Cyrus, who was to be her deliverer, tho' it was two hundred years before he was born. Jeremiah, 
Jer. 25.11, 12. etc. 29.10.  whose Predictions had been so exactly particular in pointing out that ungrateful People's certain destruction, had promised them a most sure Return after they had endured seventy years' Captivity. During all that time those vanquished People were respected by the Prophets: and those Captives foretold both the Kings and the People their terrible Destinies. Nabuchadnezzar, who would fain be worshipped, 
Dan. 11.46, 47 4.1. & 26.  himself worships Daniel, being astonished at the Divine Secrets which he had discovered to him; he understood from him the Decree that was gone out against him, and which was soon after executed upon him. That victorious Prince triumphed in Babylon, the City whereof he made the greatest, strongest, and most beautiful that ever the eye of the Sun beheld. 'Twas there that God heard him thundering out his pride. Tho' he's happy, and invulnerable, if I may be allowed the phrase, at the head of his Armies, and throughout all the course of his Conquests, yet he was to fall in his own House according to the Oracle of Ezekiel. 
Ezek. 31.3, 4, 5, 6, 7. etc.  Whilst he was standing in admiration of his greatness, and the beauty of Babylon, and raising himself above Humanity, 
Dan. 4.30, 31.  saying, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the House of the Kingdom by the might of my Power, and for the honour of my Majesty? God strikes him, deprives him of his understanding, drives him from men, and gives him his dwelling with the Beasts of the Field. 
Ibid. 34.  At the time assigned by Daniel, his understanding returned unto him, and he blessed the most High, and praised, and honoured him who liveth for ever, whose Dominion is an everlasting Dominion, and whose Kingdom is from Generation to Generation, in acknowledgement of his Almighty Power; but his Successors received no benefit by his Example. The Affairs of Babylon were embroiled, and the time set forth by the Prophecies for the re-establishing of Judah happened amidst all those Troubles. Cyrus' appeared at the Head of the Medes and Persians; all things yield and bow to that dreadful Conqueror. 
Herod. li●. 1. Xenoph. l. 2, 3. ●5●. ●ali●. Jer. 41.46. 〈◊〉. l. 7. ●ad●g.  He made but slow advances to the Chaldeans, and besides his march was often interrupted. The news of his coming was spread from one end of the Earth to the other, as Jeremiah had foretold: at last it was determined. Babylon, which was often threatened by the Prophets, and always proud and impenitent, at last came to see her Conqueror whom she despises. Her Riches, her high Walls, her People that were not to be numbered, 
Ibid.  her prodigious Extent (which included a very great Country, as all the Ancients do testify) and her infinite Provisions do swell her up with pride. Having felt a very long and sharp Siege without any great Inconvenience, she made a scorn and derision of her Enemies, and at the Entrenchment which Cyrus made round about her: Nothing was heard in her but Feasts and rejoicings. The King Belshazzar, who was Nebuchadnezzar's Grandchild, and as proud as he too, but not so full of address, 
Dan. 5.1. etc.  made a great Feast to a thousand of his Lords, and drank Wine before the thousand. That Feast was celebrated with unheard of Excesses. Belhazzar sent for the Golden and Silver Vessels which Nabuchadnezzar had taken out of the Temple of Jerusalem, and so intermixes Profaneness with his Luxury. The wrath of God thereupon was declared; and at the same time came forth fingers of a man's hand, 
Ibid. 5.  and wrote over against the Candlestick upon the plaster of the Wall of the King's Palace, where the Feast was celebrated, terrible words; and the King saw the part of the hand that wrote. Daniel interprets the meaning of it; and that Prophet who had foretold the direful fall of the Grandfather, makes also the Grandchild to see the Thunderclap that was coming to fall upon him for his overthrow. In the execution of God's Decree, Cyrus on a sudden makes an onset on Babylon. Euphrates being turned off into the Trenches which he had so long before prepared, discovers to him its vast Channel, through which unforeseen passage he makes his Entry, 
Isai. 13.17.21.2.45, 46, 47.  and so that proud Babylon, as the Prophets had foretold, was delivered as a prey to the Medes, and to the Persians, and to Cyrus. So perished with her the Kingdom of the Chaldeans, which had destroyed so many other Kingdoms, 
Jer. 50.23.  so was the Hammer of the whole Earth cut asunder, and broken. Jeremiah had plainly foretold it. The Lord breaketh the Rod wherewith he had broken to pieces so many Nations. Isaiah foresaw it. The People, accustomed to the Yoke of the Chaldean Kings, 
Jer. 51.20.  saw it themselves when they were under the Yoke. Art thou also, say they, 
Isai. 14.10, 13, 14.  become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thou that saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God, I will ascend above the heights of the Clouds, I will be like the most High. What the same Isaiah had likewise declared, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, That great Babylon, 
Id. 21.9.  and all her graven Images are broken to the ground. Bell boweth down, and Nebo, her great God, from whence Kings do take their names, stoopeth, and is fallen upon the ground: 
Id. 46.1.  for the Persians, their Enemies, the worship's of the Sun, would not suffer their Idols, nor their Kings whom they had made Gods. But how did that Babylon perish? even just as the Prophets had foretold. 
Jer. 50.38.51.36.  A drought is upon her Waters, and they shall be dried up, for it is the Land of Graven Images, and they are mad upon their Idols, as was the prediction of Jeremiah, 
Jer. 50.24.51.39, 57  to give way to her Conqueror, I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not ware. And in their heat I will make their Feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not make, saith the Lord. And again, I will make drunk her Princes, and her Wisemen, her Captains, and her Rulers, and her mighty Men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of Hosts. 
Isa. 13.15, 16, 17, 18.  Every one that is found shall be thrust through, and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the Sword: for the Medes, her conquerors, as Isaiah saith, shall not regard Silver, and as for Gold, they shall not delight in it: but Vengeance, for to give their Hatred a full satisfaction by the loss of a cruel People, whose Pride made them the Enemy of all the People of the World. 
Jer. 50.35, 36, 37, 42.  A Sword is upon the Chaldeans, and upon the Inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her Princes, and upon her Wisemen. A Sword is upon the Liars, and they shall dote; a Sword is upon her mighty Men, and they shall be dismayed. A Sword is upon their Horses, and upon their Chariots, and upon all the mingled People that are in the midst of her, and they shall become as Women: a Sword is upon her Treasures, and they shall be rob. They shall hold the Bow and the Lance: they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice shall roar like the Sea, and they shall ride upon Horses, every one put in array; like a man to the Battle, against Thee, O Daughter of Babylon. And saith Jeremiah, One Post shall run to meet another, 
Jer. 51.31.  and one Messenger to meet another, to show the King of Babylon that his City is taken at one end. So Jeremiah had observed. Stand now with thine Enchantments, and with the multitude of thy Sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayst prevail. 
Isai. 47.12, 13, 14, 15.  Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy Counsels: let now the Astrologers, the Stargazers, the monthly Prognosticators stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble, the fire shall burn them, they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a Coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee, with whom thou hast laboured, even thy Merchants from thy youth, they shall wander every one to his quarter: 
Jer. 50.36. Isa. 48.20. jer. 50.8, 28.51.6, 11, 49, etc.  none shall save thee. And both Isaiah and Jeremiah, as with one consent, declare the same thing. In that miserable slaughter, the Jews being advertised long before, shall alone escape the Sword of the mighty Conqueror. Cyrus' being by that Conquest become Master of all the East, confessed there was somewhat in that People (so often vanquished) of Divinity, tho' he could not understand it. Ravished with the Oracles that had foretold his Victories, he confessed he owed his Empire to the God of Heaven, 
2 Chron. 36.23. 1 Esdr. 1.2.  whom the Jews worshipped, and he signalises the first year of his Reign by the re-establishment both of his Temple and People.  
Who can but admire here the Providence of God so manifestly declared upon the Jews and the Chaldeans, upon Jerusalem and Babylon? God was resolved to punish them both; and that so they might not be ignorant that it was He alone who did it, he was pleased to foretell it by a hundred Prophecies. Jerusalem and Babylon, both threatened at the same time, and by the same Prophets, fall one after another according to the appointed time. But God doth here discover the great Mystery of the two Chastisements he makes use of: the one is of Rigour upon the Chaldeans, the other is that of a Father upon the Jews who were his Children. The Pride of the Chaldeans (it was the Character of that Nation, and the very spirit and pulse of all that Empire) was brought down beyond the possibility of a retrieve. 
Jer. 50.31, 32. Isai. 13.19, 20, 21, 22.  And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his Cities, and it shall devour all ro●nd about him, says Jeremiah, and the Prophet Isaiah before him, That Babylon, the glory of Kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha; it shall nev●r be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelled in from Generation to Generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch Tent there, neither shall the Shepherds make their Fold there. But wild Beasts of the Desert shall lie there, and their Houses shall be full of doleful Creatures, and Owls shall dwell there, and Satyrs shall dance there; and the wild Beasts of the Islands shall cry in their desolate Houses, and Dragons in their pleasant Places: and her time is a near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged. But it was not so to the Jews: God chastised them as disobedient Children, whom he would turn to their Duty by the Affliction, and afterwards being touched by their penitent Tears, he would forget their Crimes. Fear thou not, 
Jer. 46.28.  O Jacob my Servant, saith the Lord, for I am with thee, for I will make a full end of all the Nations whither I have driven thee, but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure, yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished. Wherefore Babylon, for ever taken away from the Chaldeans, was delivered to another People; and Jerusalem, being reestablished by a very marvellous Change, beheld her Children from all parts returning to her.  
It was Zerubbabel, of the Tribe of Juda, and of the Blood of the Kings, who brought them back from Captivity. Those of Juda came in Multitudes. The ten dispersed Tribes were lost among the Gentiles, saving only those who under the name of Juda, and being reunited under its Standards, came again into the Land of their Fathers.  
In the mean time the Altar was set up again, the Temple rebuilt, the Walls of Jerusalem repaired. The Jealousy of the neighbouring People was suppressed by the Kings of Persia, who were become the Protectors of the People of God. The Highpriest re-entered into his former Exercise, with all the other Priests who proved their Descents by the public Registers: The others were rejected Esdras, a Priest himself, and Doctor of the Law, and Nehemiah the Governor, reform all the Abuses which the Captivity had brought in, 
1 Esdr. 2.  and caused the Law to be observed in its Purity. The People bewailed, with them, the Transgressions which had brought down upon them those severe and dreadful Punishments, and confess that Moses had foretold them of them. 
2 Esdr. 1.8.9.  They do all together read in the Sacred Oracles, the Threaten of the Man of God; they likewise saw the fullfilling of them upon themselves. The Oracle of Jeremiah, and the so much promised Return after the Seventy Years of Captivity, both astonish them, and comfort them; they adore the Judgements of God, and being reconciled to him, they live in Peace and Quiet.  
God who brings all things to pass in his own due time, had chosen this, to cause his extraordinary ways to cease, that is to say, the Prophecies, in his People sufficiently instructed for the future. He rested about five hundred Years, even to the days of the Messiah. God gave to the Majesty of his Son, his Prophets to be silent for all that time, to keep his People in expectation of him who was to be the fulfilling of all their Oracles.  
But toward the end of those times, in which God had resolved to put an end to Prophecies, he seemed to be willing to shed abroad all his Illuminations, and to reveal all the Counsels of his Providence; so clearly did he express the Secrets of the Times to come.  
During the Captivity, and especially towards the time of its expiring, Daniel, reverenced for his Piety, even by Infidel Kings, and employed for his Prudence in the greatest and most important Affairs of their Estate, 
Dan. 2.3, 5, 8.  saw in order at divers times, and under different Figures and Resemblances, four Monarchies under which the Israelites were to live. He takes notice of them by their proper Characters. 
Ibid. 2.7, 8, 10, 11.  The Empire of a Grecian King is seen to pass away like a Torrent: It was that of Alexander. By its fall he beheld another Empire set up, less than the former, and much weakened by its Divisions. This was that of his Successors, among whom there were four pointed out in the Prophecy; Antipater, Seleucus, Ptolemy, and Antigonus, are visibly designed. 'Tis affirmed by the History that they were more powerful than the others, 
Ibid. 7.6, 8, 21, 22.  and only their Power should go to their Children. He foresaw their Wars, 
Ibid. 11.6.  their Jealousies, and their broken Agreements; the continuance and the Ambition of the Kings of Syria; 
Dan. 2.44, 45, 7.13, 14, 27.  the Pride, and the other Signs which evidently pointed out the illustrious Antiochus, the implacable Enemy of the People of God: The shortness of his Reign, and the sudden Punishment of his Excesses. He beheld at last toward the end, and as it were, in the Bosom of those Monarchies, the Kingdom of the Son of Man. At this name you presently do acknowledge Jesus Christ; but this Kingdom of the Son of Man is also called the Kingdom of the Saints of the most High. All the People paid Submission to that great and peaceable Kingdom, Eternity is promised to it, and he was to be the only one, whose Power should not go over to another Empire. And there was given him Dominion and Glory, and a Kingdom, that all People, Nations in Languages should serve him: his Dominions is an everlasting Dominion, which shall not pass away; and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.  
When that Son of Man should come, that Christ who was so much desired, and how he should accomplish the Work committed to him, that is to say, the Redemption of Mankind, God manifestly discovers it to Daniel, whilst he was taken up about the Captivity of his People in Babylon, and about the Seventy Years which God was resolved to determine upon the People, 
Dan. 9.23, etc.  and upon the Holy City, to finish the Transgression, etc. In the midst of his Supplications which he made for the Deliverance of his Brethren, he is on a sudden raised up to more transcendent Mysteries. He sees another Number of Years, and another Deliverance of much greater Importance. Instead of the Seventy Years foretold by Jeremiah, he sees Seventy Weeks, to commence from the time of the Decree given by Artaxerxes of old, in the twentieth year of his Reign, 
Ibid. 24.  for the Re-building the City of Jerusalem. There is pointed out in particular Words, at the end of those Weeks, that they were to make an end of Sins, and to make reconciliation for Iniquity, and to bring in everlasting Righteousness, and to seal up the Vision and Prophecy, and to anoint th● most Holy. The Christ was to make his Charge, and to appear as the Conductor of the People after sixty nine Weeks. 
Ib. 25, 26, 27.  After sixty nine Weeks (for the Prophet repeats it again) The Christ is to be put to death, he is to suffer a violent Death; he shall be cut off, but not for himself, he shall be sacrificed to fulfil the Mysteries. One Week is pointed out amongst the rest, and it is the last, and the seventieth, wherein Christ is to be Sacrificed, wherein he shall confirm the Covenant with many for one Week, and in the midst of the Week he shall cause the Sacrifice and the Oblation to cease; without doubt, by the death of Christ, for it is after the death of Christ that this Change is pointed out to us. There was nothing more to be seen but Horror and Confusion; the Ruin of the Holy City, and the Sanctuary; a People and a Captain who comes to destroy all; the Abomination in the Temple; the last and irremediable Desolation of an ungrateful People toward their Saviour. We have seen that these Weeks being reduced into Weeks of Years, according as the manner of the Scripture is, make four hundred and ninety Years, and bring us exactly from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes to the last week; a week full of Mysteries, where the sacrificed and ever-blessed Jesus puts an end by his Death to the Sacrifices of the Law, and accomplishes the Figures and Representations of them.  
The Learned differ in their Computations to make that time exactly agree. That which I have proposed to you is without any Trouble. 'Tis so far from making the Historical Course of the Kings of Persia obscure, that it clears it up; tho' there should be nothing in it more surprising, admit some Uncertainty should be found in the Dates of those Princes, eight or nine years at most, which might be disputed in an account of four hundred and ninety Years, will never make any extraordinary Question. But what need we discourse further of it? God hath removed the Difficulty, if there was any, by a Decision that cannot be replied to. A manifest event puts us above all the nice Punctualities of the Chronolog●sts; and the total Subversion of the Jews, which so closely followed the Death of our Lord, is sufficient to convince the most wilfully blind, that the Prophecy is accomplished.  
There remains nothing more now, but to observe to you one Circumstance of it. Daniel discovers a new Mystery to us. The Oracle of Jacob had told us that the Kingdom of Juda was to cease at the coming of the Messiah: But it does not say that that Death should be the cause of the Downfall of that Kingdom. God revealed that most necessary Secret to Daniel, and he declared to him, as you see, that the Ruin of the Jews should be the Consequence of the death of Christ, and of their Ingratitude. If you observe the place, the Course of Events will quickly make you an excellent Commentary.  
You see what God shown to the Prophet Daniel a little before the Conquests of Carus, and the Re-building of the Temple. In the time of the building of it, he raised up the Prophets Haggai and Zachariah: And presently after he sent Malachi, who was to conclude the Prophecies of the ancient People.  
What was it that Zachariah did not see? One could almost say that the very Book of God's Decrees was laid open to that Prophet, and that there he read the whole History of the People of God from the time of the Captivity.  
The Persecutions of the Kings of Syria, and the Wars which they made upon Judah, are all of them discovered to him in their very particulars. 
Zach. 14.1, 2, 3, 4, etc.  He saw Jerusalem taken, and sacked; a dreadful Pillage, and infinite Disorders; the People's Flight into the Desert, uncertain of their Condition, whether Life or Death; and at the very Vigil of its last Desolation, there does, all of a sudden, a new Light appear to him. The Enemies are vanquished; the Idols are thrown down in all the Holy Land. There is nothing but Peace and Plenty seen both in City and Country, and the Temple is revered in all the East.  
One remarkable Circumstance of those Wars is revealed to the Prophet; and that is, that Jerusalem shall be betrayed by her own Children, 
Zach. 14.13, 14, &.  and that among her Enemies there shall a great many Jews be found.  
Sometimes he sees a long Succession of Prosperity: Judah is full of Strength; the Kingdoms that oppressed it, are humbled; the Neighbours that were continually tormenting it, 
P●●l. 9.10.6. Z●●●. 9.1.2.3 ●. ●. 6 7 8.  are punished; some are converted, and incorporated into the People of God. The Prophet sees that People blessed with divine Favours, amongst which he relates to them the Triumph as modest as it was glorious, Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion, 
Ibid. 9  shout, O Daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having Salvation, lowly, and riding upon an Ass, and upon a Colt, the Foal of an Ass.  
After he had recounted their Prosperities, he sums up from the beginning all the course of their Afflictions. He sees all of a sudden Fire in the Temple, all the Country in desolation with the capital City; Murders, Violences, 
Zach. 11.1, 2, etc.  and a King who countenances and encourages them. But God hath pity on his forsaken People; he becomes himself their Shepherd, and his Protection sustains them. At length he kindles civil Wars amongst them, 
Ibid. 11.8, 9  and the Face of things looks dismal. The time of that Change is designed by a certain Character, and three Princes degraded in one Month, denote the beginning of their Troubles.  
In the midst of these Calamities there appears yet another, greater than all the rest. A while after those Divisions, and at the time of their Ruin, God is prized at thirty pieces of Silver by his ungrateful People, and the Prophet sees all, 
Ibid. 12, 13, &c  even to the Potter's field, about which that Money was employed. From that time arise great Disorders among the Shepherds of the People; at last they become Blind, and their Power is destroyed. What shall I say of the marvellous Vision of Zacharia, who sees the Shepherd smitten, and the Sheep scattered? What shall I say of the regard which the People had for the God whom they have pierced, 
Zach. 13.7.12.10.  and of their mourning for him as one mourneth for his only Son, and of their bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his Firstborn? Zacharia saw all these things; but that sight which is still greater, is the promise of God's Presence and Love. He that toucheth you toucheth the Apple of mine Eye. 
Zach. 2.8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.  Sing and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion; for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord, and many Nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my People: and I will dwell in the midst of Thee, etc.  
Haggai says less things, but what he says is very surprising. Whilst the second Temple was building, and the old men, who had seen the Glories of the first, were weeping and lamenting, in comparing the Poorness of this last Building with the Magnificence of the other, the Prophet, who sees farther, publishes the Glory of the second Temple, 
Hag. 2.7, 8, 9  and prefers it to the first. I will shake all Nations, and the desire of all Nations shall come, and I will fill this House with Glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. The Glory of this latter shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts. He explains from whence shall come the Glory of this new House, in this, that the desire of all Nations shall come. That Messiah, who was promised two thousand years before, and from the beginning of the World, as the Saviour of the Gentiles, shall appear in this new Temple. Peace shall be establis ● there; all the astonished World shall bear Witness of the coming of this their Redeemer; there was but a little while to wait, and the times assigned for this waiting are in their last period.  
At length the Temple was finished; the Sacrifices were offered in it: But the Covetous Jews profaned it, and brought thither that which was torn, and the law, and the sick, so that the Offering was defective. Malachi, who reproved them for it, was raised to a higher Consideration; and upon the occasion of the unclean Sacrifices of the Jews, he sees an Offering always pure, and never sullied, which shall be presented to God, 
Mal. 2.11, 13.  no more so as it was in the Temple of Jerusal●m heretofore, but from the rising of the Sun even to the going down of the same; no more by the Jews, but by the Gentiles, among whom he prophesied that the name of God should be great.  
He sees also, like Haggai, the Glory of the second Temple, and the Messiah who honours it with his Presence: But he sees at the same time that the Messiah is the God to whom that Temple is dedicated. Behold, 
Mal. 3.1.  I will send my Messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his Temple; ev●n the Messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in; behold he shall come, saith the Lord of Hosts.  
A Messenger is an Envoy: But behold here is an Envoy of a very wonderful Dignity; an Envoy who hath a Temple; an Envoy who is no less than God, and who enters into the Temple as into his own House; an Envoy in whom all the People delight, who cometh to make a new Covenant, and who for that reason is called the Messenger of the Covenant.  
'Twas therefore in the second Temple that God sent from God was to appear: 
Mal. 3.1.4.5, 6.  But another Messenger comes before him to prepare his way for him. There we see the Messiah preceded by his Forerunner. The Character of that Forerunner is also discovered to the Prophet. That was to be a new Elijah, remarkable for his Holiness, for the Austerity of his Life, for his Authority, and for his Zeal.  
Thus the last Prophet of the ancient People, shows the first Prophet who was to come after him, that is to say, that Elijah, the Forerunner of the Lord who was to appear. Until that time the People of God were to expect no more Prophets: The Law of Moses was to be sufficient for them, and therefore does Malachi shut up all with these words, Remember ye the Law of Moses my Servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb. for all Israel, 
Mal. 4.4, 6, 6.  with the Statutes and Judgements. Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet, and he shall turn the Heart of the Fathers to the Children, who will show to them what they are to expect.  
To this Law of Moses God had joined the Prophets, who had spoken in conformity; and the History of the People of God made by the same Prophets, in which were confirmed, by visible experiences, the Promises and Threaten of the Law. Every thing was very carefully and distinctly writ; every thing digested by the order of particular times; and this was what God left for the Instruction of his People, when he caused the Prophecies to cease.  
Those Instructions wrought a wondrous change in the Manners of the Israelites. 
V The Times of the second Temple.  They had no more need of either Apparitions, or manifest Predictions, nor of those unheard of Prodigies which God wrought so often for their Deliverance and Salvation. The Testimonies they had already received satisfied them, and their Incredulity, not only convinced by the event of things, but also so frequently punished, had at last rendered them tractable and orderly.  
Wherefore from that time they were no more seen to return to Idolatry, to which they were so strangely inclined before. They were mightily ashamed that they had rejected the God of their Fathers. They were ever mindful of Nabuchadnezzar, and their own Ruin so often foretold in all its circumstances, and which had always fallen upon 'em sooner than they believed it would. They no less stood in admiration of their re-establishment wrought contrary to all appearance at the time, and by him who had been pointed out to them. They never beheld the second Temple but they remembered what was the reason for which the first was destroyed, and how this had been rebuilt: thus they confirmed themselves in the Faith of their Scriptures to which every circumstance of their Condition bore witness.  
There was no more seen amongst them any false Prophets. They were absolutely driven off from the inclination they formerly had to believe them, and from that affection too they did bear then to Idolatry. Zach●riah had prophesied by one and the same Oracle, that those two things should happen to them. His Prophecy had a most plain and manifest accomplishment. 
Z●●●. 13.2, 3, 4, 5.  And it shall come to pass, saith the Lord of Hosts, that I will cut off the names of the Idols out of the Land: and also I will cause the Prophets, and the unclean Spirit to pass out of the Land. And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophecy, than his Father and his Mother that begat him, shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord: and his Father and his Mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Prophets shall be ashamed every one of his Vision, when he hath prophesied: neither shall they wear a rough Garment to deceive. The false Prophets shall cease under the second Temple: the People disabused of their former Error shall no longer hearken to them. 
Is●i. 41.11, 12, 13. 4● 18, 19.49 ●8, 19, 2●, 21.52.1, 2, 7.54, 55, etc. 6●. 15.16 etc. Ez●k. ●6. 38.11, 12 13, 14. Jer. 46.27.  The true Prophets of God were read and read again without ceasing: there was no need of any Comment; for the things which happened every day in the execution of their Prophecies were but the too faithful Interpreters of them.  
All their Prophets had effectually promised them a most profound Peace. They read also with joy the curious Descriptions which both Isaiah and Ezekiel made of those happy Times which should follow the Captivity of Babylon. All the Ruins are repaired, the Cities and the Villages are magnificently rebuilt, the People are innumerable, the Enemies are defeated, Plenty and Abundance are in their Cities and in their Fields; There is seen Joy, Rest, and Quietness, and at last all the Fruits of a sweet and lasting Peace. God promises to keep his People in a durable and perfect Tranquillity. They enjoyed it under the Kings of Persia. As long as that Empire lasted, the favourable Decrees of Cyrus, who was the founder thereof, secured the repose of the Jews. Though they had been threatened with their final Ruin under Ahasuerus, howsoever it was, God being moved by their tears, on a sudden changed the heart of that King, and drew on a most remarkable Vengeance on Haman their mortal Enemy. 
Esth. 4, 5, 7, 8, 9  Excepting that very Conjuncture, which was quickly over, they were always without fear. Instructed by their Prophets to be obedient to Kings, to whom God had submitted them, their Fidelity was inviolable. 
Jer. 27.12, 17.40.9.  So likewise were they evermore kindly treated. By the favour of a very small Tax which they paid to their Sovereigns, who were their Protectors rather than their Masters, they lived after their own Laws: The Sacerdotal Power was absolutely preserved, The Chief Priests conducted the People: The public Council established first by Moses, had all its Authority; and they exercised among themselves the power of Life and Death, and no Body meddled with them about it. The Kings did so ordain it. The mine of the Persian, Empire brought no change to their Affairs. Alexander respected their Temple, admired their Prophecies, and increased their Privileges. 
Joseph. of't. 11.8.2 Cont. Ap.  They suffered a little under their first Successors. Ptolemy, the Son of Lagus, surprised Jerusalem, and brought from thence into Egypt a hundred thousand Captives: But he soon left off his hatred to them. He himself made them Citizens of Alexandria, the Capital City of his Kingdom; or rather he confirmed to them the right which Alexander had already invested them with; and not finding any in all his Empire more faithful than the Jews, he filled his Armies with them, and conferred upon them the most important Places and Offices of Trust. If the Lagides regarded them, 
Id. ant. 12.3.2. Cont. Ap.  yet they were better treated by the Seleucides, under whose Empire they lived. Seleucus Nicanor, chief of that Family, established them in Antioch; And Antiochus the God, his Grandson, having caused them to be received in all the Cities of the Lesser Asia, we have seen them spread themselves over all Greece, living there according to their Law, and enjoying there the same Rights as the other Citizens, as they did in Alexandria and Antioch. In the mean while their Law was turned into Greek by the care of Ptolomeus Philadelphus' King of Egypt. 
Joseph. Praef. ant. & lib. 12. 2. & 2. Cont. Ap.  The Jewish Religion was known among the Gentiles, the Temple of Jerusalem was enriched by the Gifts of both Kings and People: the Jews lived in Peace and in Liberty under the power of the Kings of Syria, and they never had been sensible of such a Tranquillity under their own Kings.  
It seemed as if it would have been eternal, but that they themselves did break it by their own Dissensions. For no less than three hundred years did they enjoy that Peace so much foretold by their Prophets, when Ambition, and the Jealousies which were spread amongst them were going to destroy them. Some of the most powerful of them betrayed their People for a Compliment and piece of Flattery to the Kings; they would fain make themselves famous after the manner of the Grecians, 
1 Maccab. 1.12, 13, etc. 2 Maccab. 3, 4.1. etc. 14, 15, 16. etc.  and preferred that vain Pomp to the solid Glory which the observance of the Laws of their Ancestors would have given them among their Citizens. They celebrated Places as the Gentiles did. That Novelty dazzled the Eyes of the People, and Idolatry clothed with that splendour and magnificence, appeared very lovely to a great many Jews. To these Changes were superadded the Disputes for the Sovereign Priesthood, which was the principal Dignity of the Nation. Those that were ambitious stuck to the Interests of the Kings of Syria, hoping by that means to obtain it, and so that Sacred Dignity was the reward of the Flattery of those Court Minions. Private Piques and Jealousies too did precipitately bring on, as is very usual, great Calamities upon all People. Antiochus the illustrious King of Syria, 
Dan. 7.8, 11, 24, 25.8.9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25. Polyb. l. 26. & 31. in excerp. & ap. Ath. l. 10.  was projecting how to cut off that distracted People, and so to make himself Master of their Wealth. That Prince appeared then with all the Characters which Daniel had described him in; Ambitious, Covetous, full of intrigue, cruel, insolent, wicked, furious, puffed up with his Victories, and afterwards, enraged at his losses. He enters into Jerusalem in a posture of attempting all things: the Factions of the Jews, and not his own Forces, harden him to it: and Daniel had so foreseen it. He exercises unheard of Cruelties: his Pride transports him to the last and most violent Excesses, and he vomits forth Blasphemies against the most High, as the same Prophet had foretold. In the executing of those Prophecies, and because of the sins of the People, power is given unto him against the perpetual Sacrifice. He profaned the Temple of God; which had been reverenced by the Kings his Ancestors; he pillaged it, and by the Riches he found there, 
1 Macc. 1.43.46, 57 etc. 2 Macc. 6.1, 2.  he repaired his own decayed sunk Exchequer. Under the pretext of bringing into conformity the Manners of his Subjects, and effectually to satiate his Avarice in pillaging all Judea, he commanded the Jews to worship the same Gods with the Greeks: above all, he would have them to pay adoration to Jupiter Olympius, whose Idol he had set up in the very Temple: and being far more wicked than Nabuchadnezzar, he labours to destroy the Holy Feasts, the Law of Moses, the Sacrifices, the Religion, and indeed all the People. But that Prince his Successes had their just Limits set out by the Prophecies. Mattathias opposed his Violences, and reunited the holy People. Judas Maccabeus his Son, with a handful of persons, performed brave and unheard of Exploits, and purified the Temple of God three years and a half after its Profanation, as Daniel had foretold. 
Dan. 7.25.12.7, 11. Joseph. prol. lib. de bell. Jud. & lib. 1.1.6.11. Isai. 63. 1 Macc. 4.15.5.3.26, 28, 36, 54. Dan. 8.14.26. 1 Macc. 6.2.9.  He pursued the Idumeans and all the other Gentiles who had joined themselves to Antiochus; and having taken their best Places from them, he returned victorious and humble, just as Isaiah had seen him, singing forth the Praises of God who had delivered into his hands the Enemies of his People, and his Garments were still red with their blood. He continued his Victories, notwithstanding the prodigious great Armies of the Captains of Antiochus. Daniel had given that wicked King but six years to torment the People of God; and behold just at the prefixed stated term he acquainted Ecbatane with the Heroic Deeds of Judas. He fell into a profound Melancholy, and died, as the holy Prophet had foretold, miserable, but not by the hand of Man, after he had acknowledged, tho' it was too late, the Power of the God of Israel.  
I need not tell you in what manner his Successors pursued the War against Judea, nor say any thing of the death of Judas its Deliverer, nor of the Victories of his two Brethren, Jonathan and Simon, successively High-Priests, whose Valour reestablished the ancient Glory of the People of God. Those three great Men saw the Kings of Syria, and all the neighbouring People conspired against them; and what was most deplorable of all, was, that they saw at several times those of Judah itself armed against their own Country, and against Jerusalem: An unheard of thing till then, but expressly taken notice of by the Prophets. In the midst of so many Calamities, the Confidence they had in God made them undaunted and invincible. The People were always happy under their Conduct; 
Zach. 14.4. 1 Macc. 1.12.9.11.20, 21, 22.16. 2 Macc. 4.22, 23, etc.  and at last in Simon's time, being freed from the Yoke of the Gentiles, they submitted themselves unto him and his Children, by and with the Consent of the Kings of Syria.  
But the Act by which the People of God transferred all the public Power to Simon, and granted to him all the Royal Prerogative, 
1 Macc. 14.41.  is remarkable. 'Tis thus expressed, That the Jews and the Priests were well pleased that Simon should be their Governor and Highpriest for ever, until there should arise a faithful Prophet.  
The People used from the beginning to a Theocracy, or divine Government, and knowing that since the time of David's being set upon the Throne by the order and appointment of God, the Soveragain Power belonged to his House, to whom it was to be at last surrendered at the time of the Messiah, puts expressly this Restriction to the Power which he had given to his High-Priests, and continued to live under them in the hopes and expectation of that Christ which had been so often promised.  
Thus did that Kingdom, which was absolutely free, make use of its Prerogative, and provided for its Government. The Posterity of Jacob, by the Tribe of Judah, and by the rest who were ranged under its Standards, preserved themselves like a Body of a State, and independently and quietly enjoyed the Land which had been assigned to them.  
By virtue of the People's Decree which we now have been speaking of, John Hyrcan, the Son of Simon, succeeded to his Father. Under him the Jews grew very great by their considerable Conquests. They subdued Samaria (as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold) they conquered the Idumeans, the Philistines, 
Ezek. 16.55, 56, 58, 61. Jer. 31.5. 1 Macc. 10.30. Joseph. of't. 13.8, 17, 18. Zach. 9.1, 2, etc.  the Ammonites, who were their perpetual Enemies, and those People embraced their Religion (as Zachariah had observed.) At length, in spite of all the Hatred and Jealousy of the People, who were round about them, under the Authority of their High-Priests, who afterwards became their Kings, they founded the new Kingdom of the Asmoneans, or the Mascabees, more large and extensive than ever, excepting only th● times of David and Solomon.  
Thus you see in what manner the People of God subsisted always amidst all this variety of Changes; and that People who were sometimes chastised, and again sometimes comforted under their Afflictions and Grievances, by the different Treatments they received according as they deserved, bears a sufficient public Testimony to that Providence which governs the World.  
But in what Condition soever they were, they lived still in the expectation of the Messiah, which was in the fullness of time to come, wherein they looked for new Graces, and much greater than any of those they had yet received; and there are none but see that this Faith of the Messiah, and of his Miracles, which continues still to this day among the Jews, is descended to them from their Patriarches and their Prophets, from the beginning of their Nation. 
Joseph. 1. cont. Apion.  For in that long succession of Years, where they themselves did confess that, by a Council of Providence, there was not any other Prophet risen up among them, and that God made them no new Predictions, nor new Promises; this Faith of the Messiah which was to come, was more sprightly, active, and vigorous than ever. It was found so firmly established, when the second Temple was built, that there was no need of a Prophet to confirm the People in it. They were supported by the Faith of the ancient Prophecies, which they had seen so exactly fulfiled before their Eyes, in so many chief Points: The ●est, from that time, never was in the least questioned by them, and it was not at all difficult for them to believe that God, who was so faithful in every thing, should not also accomplish in its due time that which concerned the Messiah, that is to say, the very main of all his Promises, and the Ground and Foundation of all the rest.  
In effect, all their History, all that daily happened to them, was but (as it were) one perpetual opening Scene of those Oracles which the Holy Ghost had left with them. Being so settled again in their Land after the Captivity, they enjoyed for three hundred years a most profound Peace; if their Temple was reverenced, and their Religion honoured over all the East; if at last their Peace was ruffled and shaken by their Dissensions; if that proud King of Syria made unheard of attempts to destroy them; if he sometime prevailed, if he were a little after punished; if the Jewish Religion, and all the People of God were restored with a more marvellous glory than ever before, and the Kingdom of Judah grew greater toward the end of the time by new Conquests: you have seen all this was no more than what was found written in their Prophets. Yes, every thing was particularly taken notice of there, even to the time that the Persecutions were to last; even to the places where the Battles were to be fought, and even to the Lands which were to be conquered.  
I have in the gross related something to you of those Prophecies: the Particulars would be matter of a longer Discourse. I will here only give you the first Tincture of those important Truths, which is so much the more acknowledged as we shall enter forward into the Particulars. I shall only observe here that the Prophecies of the People of God have had, during all those times, 
Porph. de Abst. lib. 4. Id. Porphyr. & Jul. apud Cyr. l. 5. & 6. in Jul.  so plain and manifest an accomplishment, that since, when the Heathen themselves, when a Porphyrius, when a Julian the Apostate, otherwise Enemies of the Sacred Scriptures, would at any time give Example of Prophetic Predictions, they have been forced to seek them among the Jews.  
And I may also tell you for a truth, that if during five hundred years the People of God were without a Prophet, all the estate of those times was prophetical: The work of God went on, and the ways were preparing insensibly for the full accomplishment of those ancient Oracles.  
The Return from the Captivity of Babylon was only a shadow of the Liberty both more great and more necessary, which the Messiah was to bring to men that were Captives unto sin. The People dispersed in several places in Upper Asia, in Lesser Asia, in Egypt, and even in Greece, began to make the Name and the Glory of the God of Israel shine forth more conspicuously among the Gentiles. The Scriptures, which were one day to be the Light of the World, were put into the most known Language of the World: their Antiquity is confessed. Whilst the Temple was had in reverence, and the Scriptures given to the Gentiles, God shows some representation to their future Conversion, and lays a great way off the foundations of it.  
What also happened among the Grecians was a kind of preparation to the knowledge and understanding of the Truth. Their Philosophers confessed that the World was governed by a God far different from those whom the common sort of People worshipped, and whom they also served with the common People. The Greek Histories believe that this excellent Philosophy came from the East, and from those places where the Jews had been dispersed: but from whence soever it came, a Truth so important spread among the Gentiles, however it was opposed, and how ill soever it was followed, even by those who taught it, began again to awaken Mankind, and by way of anticipation furnished them with certain Proofs, who were one day to deliver them from their Ignorance.  
As always the Conversion of the Gentiles was a work reserved for the Messiah, and the proper Character of his coming, Error and Impiety prevailed every where. The most illuminated and wisest Nations, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, were the most ignorant and the most blind concerning Religion: so true is it that we are to be advanced to it by a particular Grace, and by a Wisdom more than Humane. Who should presume to relate the Ceremonies of the Immortal Gods, and their impure Mysteries? their Loves, their Cruelties, their Jealousies, and all their other Excesses were the Subject of their Feasts, their Sacrifices, and the Hymns which were sang to them, and of the Pictures which were consecrated in their Temples. So that wickedness was worshipped, and confessed as necessary to the Service of the Gods. The gravest of their Philosophers forbade drinking to Excess, 
Plato de Leg. 6.  unless it were in the Feasts of Bacchus, and to the honour of the Gods. Another, 
Aristot. 7. Politic.  after he had severely condemned all immodest Pictures, yet excepted those of the Gods who would be honoured by those Infamies. We can't read but with astonishment, what honours they were obliged to pay to Venus, and the prostitutions they framed for worshipping her. Greece, as learned and as wise as she was, had yet received those abominable Rites and Mysteries. 
Barach 6.10, 42, 43. Herod. lib. 1. Strabo, lib. 1●. Athen. lib. 13.  In the most important Emergencies both private Persons, and the Republic too vowed Courtesans to Venus, and Greece never blushed to attribute her safety to the Intercessions which they made to their fair Goddess. After the defeat of Xerxes, and his formidable Armies, there was a Table set up in the Temple, where were inserted their Vows, and their Processions, with this Inscription of Simonides the famous Poet; These have prayed to the Goddess Venus, who for their sakes hath saved Greece.  
If Love be to be adored, it ought at least to be that which is honest; but here it was not so. Solon (who could believe, and indeed who could expect from so great a name so great a reproach? Solon, I say) set up at Athens the Temple of Venus the Prostitute, 
Ibid.  or of illicite Love. All Greece was full of Temples Consecrated to that Deity, and Conjugal Love had not one erected in all the Country.  
But yet they abominated Adultery both in Men and Women: Conjugal Society was held Sacred among them. But when they applied themselves to Religion, they seemed as if they were possessed with a strange Spirit, and their Natural Light forsook 'em.  
The Roman Gravity treated Religion with no more seriousness, since it consecrated to the honour of the Gods the Impurities of the Theatre, and the bloody Spectacles of the Gladiators, that is to say, whatsoever could be imagined that was most corrupt and barbarous.  
But I know not if the ridiculous Follies which were mingled in their Religion, were not also more pernicious to them, for it made them very contemptible. Can any respect which is due to Divine things be kept up, amidst the Impertinencies of (as we say) old Wives Tales, the Representation or Remembrance whereof makes up so great a part of the Divine Worship? All the Public Service was nothing else but a continual Profanation, or rather a Derision of the Name of God; and there must needs be some Power that is an Enemy to that Sacred Name, which having undertaken to revile it, should push on men to make use of it in such contemptible things, and even to make riot of it upon such unworthy Subjects.  
'Tis true, the Philosophers at last were brought to confess that there was another God than those which the common People worshipped; but then they durst not publicly avow it. On the contrary, 
Xenoph. mem. l. 1. Pl. de leg. 5.  Socrates laid it down for a Maxim, That every one ought to follow the Religion of his Country. Plato, his Disciple, who saw Greece, and all the Countries of the World filled with a mad and scandalous Worship, forbore not to settle as a Foundation of his Commonwealth, That one ought never to change any thing in Religion which one finds established, and a man must be lost to all common Sense that ever thinks to do it. Such grave Philosophers, who have otherwise said such excellent things about the Divine Nature, yet durst never presume to contradict the Public Error, and have despaired of ever being able to conquer it. 
Apol. Socr. apud Pl●ton. & Xenophon. Ep. 2. ad Dionys.  When Socrates was accused for denying the Gods whom the People adored, he defended himself from it, as from a Crime: and Plato, in speaking of the God that had form the World, says, That it is hard to find him, and that it is forbid to declare him to the People. He protests that he never speaks of him but in the dark, for fear of exposing so great a Truth to Mockery.  
In what an Abyss of blindness was Mankind, who was not able to comprehend the least Idea of the true God? Athens, the most learned and knowing of all the Cities in Greece, 
Diog. Laert. l. 2. Soc. 3. Plat. Id. lib. 2. Stilp.  took those for Atheists who spoke of things Intellectual; and that is one of the reasons for which Socrates was condemned. If any of the Philosophers should offer to teach, That the Statues were not Gods, as the common People apprehended them, they saw themselves forced to retract it; and besides, after that they were banished for their Impiety by the Sentence of the Areopagus. All the Earth was bewitched with the same Error: for the Truth durst not then appear. That great God, the Creator of the World, had neither a Temple, nor any worship paid him, but in Jerusalem. When the Gentiles sent thither their Offerings, they gave no other honour to the God of Israel, but to join him with the other Gods. Only Judea knew his holy and severe Jealousy, and knew consequently that to divide Religion between him and the other Gods, was to destroy it.  
And yet towards the latter end, the Jews themselves who confessed him, and who were the Guardians of Religion, began; so much do men labour always to weaken Truth, not only to forget the God of their Fathers, but to mingle in their Religion strange Superstitions which were unworthy of him. 
Joseph. Antiq. 13.9.  Under the Reign of the Asmoneans, and from the time of Jonathan, the Sect of the Pharisees began among the Jews. 
Ibid. 18.  At the first they gained a mighty Credit by the Purity of their Doctrines; considering likewise their Conduct was meek and gentle, tho' very regular, and they lived among themselves in an extreme Union. The Rewards and Punishments of a future Life which they zealously asserted, brought them very great honour. At last Ambition got in amongst them. They had a mind to govern, 
Id. lib. 2. de Bell. Jud. 7.  and indeed they ascribed to themselves an absolute Power over the People: they made themselves the Arbiters of Learning and Religion, which they insensibly turned to superstitious Practices, advantageous for their Interest, and the Dominion they would fain have set up over men's Consciences; and the true life and spirit of the Law was almost lost.  
To these Evils an●ther was added much greater to wit, Pride and Presumption; but such a Presumption as endeavoured to attribute to themselves the Gift of God. The Jews accustomed to his Benefits, and having been so many Ages since illuminated with his knowledge, forgot that his bounty alone had separated them from all other People, and so looked on his Grace as a Debt. A chosen Race, and always blessed for two thousand years, they judged themselves only to be worthy to know God, and believed themselves to be of a different Species from other Men whom they saw deprived of his knowledge. Upon this ground, they looked on the Gentiles with a disdain that was insupportable. To be come from Abraham according to the Flesh, seemed to them such a Distinction as raised them naturally above all others; and being puffed up with so fine an Original, they reckoned themselves Saints by Nature, and not by Grace: An Error which continues still among them. These were the Pharisees, who, seeking to glorify themselves by their own Light, and by the exact observance of the Ceremonies of the Law, brought in this Opinion towards the latter end of the times. As they only thought of distinguishing themselves from other men, they multiplied outward Ceremonies and Practices without any measure, and they gave out all their fanciful Notions, how contrary soever they were to the Law of God, as Authentic Traditions.  
Although those Sentiments had not by any Public Decree passed into the Dogmas of the Synagogue, yet they insensibly instilled them into the People, which made them unquiet, turbulent, and seditions. At last the Divisions, which were to be according to their Prophets the beginning of their ruin and downfall, broke out upon occasion of the Disorders that happened in the House of the Asmoneans. There were scarce sixty years unto Jesus Christ, 
Zach. 11.6, 7, 8. etc.  when Hyrcan and Aristo●ulus the Sons of Alexander Janneus fell out about the Priesthood, to which the Royalty was annexed. Here was the fatal Moment which the History takes notice of as the first cause of the Destruction of the Jews. 
Joseph. of't. 14.8.20.8.1. Bell. Jud. 4.5. Appian. bell. Syr. Mithrid. & Liv. lib. 5. Zach. 11.8.  Pompey, whom the two Brothers called to regulate them, subjected them both, at the same time when he dispossessed Antiochus, Surnamed the Asiatic, the last King of Syria. Those three Princes degraded together, and as it were, at one effort, were the Signal of the Destruction so exactly described by the Prophet Zachariah. 'Tis certain by the History, that that change of the Affairs of Syria and Judea was made at the same time by Pompey, when after he had ended the War with Mithridates, ready to return to Rome, he adjusted the Affairs of the East. The Prophet only observed what made towards the Ruin of the Jews, who, of the two Brothers whom they had seen Kings, saw, the one a Prisoner serving at Pompey's Triumph, and the other (the weak Hyrcan) from whom the same Pompey took, together with the Diadem, a great part of his Dominion, keeping only a vain Title of Authority, which likewise he lost quickly after. 'Twas then that the Jews were made the Tributaries of the Romans; and the Ruin of Syria brought on theirs, because that great Kingdom reduced into a Province in their Neighbourhood, augmented so much the Roman Power there, that there was Safety but only in obeying them. The Governors of Syria made continual Attempts on Judea: The Romans made themselves absolute Masters of them, and weakened their Government in several things. By them at last the Kingdom of Juda. passed out of the Hands of the Asmoneans, to whom it had been subject, into those of Herod a stranger, and an Idumean. The cruel and ambitious Polity of that King, who only in show professed the Jewish Religion, changed soon the Maxims of the ancient Government. The Jews were no longer Masters of their Fate under the vast Empire of the Persians, and the first Seleucides, where they lived only in an undisturbed Peace. Herod, who holds them in almost an absolute Slavery to his Power, embroils all things, confounds, a●ter his own Humour, the Succession of the High-Priests; weakens the Pontificate whi●h he makes Arbitrary; enervates the Authority of the Council of the Nation, whi●h can no longer do any thing: All the public Power goes through the Hands of Herod, and of the Romans, whose Slave he is, and he shakes the Foundations of the Jewish Commonwealth.  
The Pharisees, and the People who only harkened to their Opinions, bore this Condition very impatiently. The more they thought themselves oppressed with the Yoke of the Gentiles, the greater Hatred and Disdain they had for them. They would no longer have a Messiah who should not be a Warrior, and dreadful to the Powers that captivated them. Thus, forgetting so many Prophecies, which so plainly and expressly spoke of their being humbled, they had no long Eyes nor Ears but for those which proclaimed Triumphs to them, though very different from such as they wished.  
In the declension of the Religion, 
VI Jesus Christ, and his Doctrine.  and the Affairs of the Jews, at the end of King Herod's Reign, and then when the Pharisees were bringing in so many Abuses, Jesus Christ was sent upon the Earth to re-establish the Kingdom in the House of David, after a more exalted manner than ever the carnal Jews understood it, and to preach that Doctrine and good Tidings of Salvation which God was resolved all the World should be acquainted with. This wonderful Son, whom Isaiah calls the mighty God, 
Isai. 9.6.  the everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace, was born of a Virgin at Bethlehem, and there he came to own the first Original of his Race: Conceived by the Holy Ghost, holy by his Birth, being alone worthy to repair the wickedness of ours, he was called Jesus, 
Matth. 1.21.  because he was to save us from our Sins. Immediately after his Birth, a new Star, a Type of that Light he was to bring to the Gentiles, was seen in the East, and brought to our Saviour thus an Infant, the First-fruits of the converted Gentiles. A little after, that Lord, so much desired, came to his holy Temple, where Simeon sees him, not only the Glory of the people Israel, 
Luke 2.32.  but also as a Light to lighten the Gentiles. When the time of preaching his Gospel drew near, St. John the Baptist, who was to prepare th● Way before him, called all Sinners to Repentance, and made the whole Desert to ring again with his Cries, whilst he spent the first Years of his Life in it with an Innocence equal to the greatness of his Austerity. The People, who for five hundred Years had been without any Prophets, acknowledged this new Elijah, and were ready to take him for the Saviour of the World, so great and extraordinary did his Holiness appear to be: But then he himself did show unto the People him whose Shoes latchet he was not worthy to unloose. 
John 1.27.  At length, Jesus Christ began to preach his Gospel, and to reveal what he had seen from all Eternity in the Bosom of his Father. He lays the Foundation of his Church by the calling of twelve Sinners, 
Matt. 10.2. Mark 3.16. Luke 6.14. Act. 1.13. Matt. 16.18.  and he puts St. Peter at the head of them, with so opened and declared a Prerogative, that the Evangelists, who in their numbering up of their Apostles, do not observe any certain Order, yet do all agree in this one thing, of naming St. Peter before all the others, as being the first and chief of them. Jesus Christ goes through all Judea, which he fills with his Kindnesses; healing of the Sick, being merciful to Sinners, whose true Physician he shows himself to be by the access he gives them to himself, making Men to feel an Authority, and yet a pleasing Meekness, as never yet appeared in any but in his Person. He declares high Mysteries; but he confirms them by as great Miracles: He commands great Virtues; but at the same time he gives great Illuminations of them, great Examples, and great Graces. 'Tis by that also that he appears full of Grace and Truth, 
●ohn 1.14, 15, 16.  and that we have all received of his Fullness.  
All things are sustained in his Person; his Life, his Doctrine, his Miracles. The same Truth shines there throughout: Every thing concurs to make him seem the Master of Mankind, and the Model of all Perfection.  
He alone, living in the midst of his Enemies, and in the sight of all the World, was able to say, without fear of being caught in an Untruth, 
John. 8.26.12.29.  Which of you will convince me of Sin? And again, I am the Light of the World; my Meat is to do the Will of him that sent me, and to finish his Work; and he that sent me, is with me: the Father hath not left me alone: for I always do those things that please him.  
His Miracles are of a peculiar Order, and of a new Character. They are not Signs in the Heaven, 
Matt. 16.1.  such as the Jews desired him that he would show them. He wrought them almost all upon the Men themselves, healing their Infirmities. All those Miracles were more the Instances of his Goodness than of his Power, and did not so much surprise the Beholders, as they touched them at the bottom of their Hearts. He did them with Authority: The Devils and the Diseases obeyed him: At his Word, those who were born blind, received their Sight; the Dead were raised from their Graves, and Sins were pardoned. The principle of all this was in himself: They ran from the Source: I find, saith he, there is Virtue gone out of me: 
Luke 6.19.8.46.  And there never was any that wrought either such great Miracles as he did, or so many, even almost on all that came to him: And yet for all that, he promises that his Disciples shall do greater Works in his Name; so fruitful and inexhaustible was that Virtue he had in himself. 
John 14 12.   
Who cannot but admire the Condescension with which he tempers the excellency of his Doctrine? It is Milk for Babes, and yet too at the same time it is Meat for the Strong. He is seen full of the Secrets of God, but he is not seen to be astonished at it, as other men were to whom God communicated himself: he speaks naturally of them, as one that was born in that Mystery and Glory; 
John 3.34.  and what God had given him without measure, he distributed (viz. the Spirit) with measure, that so our weakness might be able to bear it.  
Although he was sent in general to all the World, yet at first he addressed himself only to the lost Sheep of the House of Israel, to which indeed he was principally sent: But he prepared the way for the Conversion of the Samaritans and Gentiles. A Woman of Samaria acknowledges him for THE CHRIST whom her Nation waited for, 
John 4.21, 25.  as well as that of the Jews, and she learns of him the mystery of the new Worship, which should be no longer fixed to any one certain place. A Woman of Canaan, and an Idolatress, if I may be permitted so to say, although she was reprehended, forces from him by a passionate violence the healing of her Daughter. 
Matth. 15.22, 23, 24. etc. Matt. 8.10, 11.  He confesses that in several places the Children of Abraham were to be found among the Gentiles, and he speaks of his Doctrine as being preached before, contradicted, and received by all the Earth. The World had never seen any thing like it, and his Apostles were astonished at it. He conceals not from his own the sad Trials through which they should pass. He discovers to them the Violences and the Seduction that would be made use of against them, the Persecutions, the false Doctrines, the false Brethren, and the Wars both within and without, and the Faith that was to be purified, by all those Trials; towards the last days, the weakening of that Faith, and the coldness of Charity among his Disciples, but yet in the midst of all those Perils, nothing, not even the Gates of Hell should be able to prevail against the Church and the Truth. 
Matth. 16.18.   
Here you see now a new manner of Conduct, and a new face and order of things: there is no more promising of Temporal Rewards to the Children of God: Jesus Christ shows unto them a future Life, and keeping them in suspense upon that Expectation, he teaches them to draw off their Minds from all these lower sensible Enjoyments. The Cross, and patience under it, was to be the portion of tneir Cup here upon Earth, and Heaven was proposed to them as before, to be taken by violence. Jesus Christ, 
Matth. 11.12.  who showed to men this new way, was the first to enter in at it. He preached pure Truths, which amazed the dull and ignorant, and yet the almost only men that were proud and supercilious: He discovers the latent pride and hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Doctors of the Law, who corrupted it by their false and strained Interpretations. In the midst of those Reproaches he honours their Ministry, and Moses' Seat wherein the Scribes and Pharisees did sit. 
Matth. 23.2.  He was often in the Temple, and made the Holiness of that place to be respected, and sent the Lepers whom he healed unto the Priests. Thereby he taught men how they ought to repress and correct abuses, without ever being prejudiced at the Ministry established by God himself, and shown that the Body of the Synagogue subsisted, notwithstanding the Corruption of some of its private Members. But it did apparently incline to ruin. The High-Priests, and the Pharisees stirred up the People of the Jews against Christ, for their Religion was almost quite turned into Superstition. They could not endure the Saviour of the World who called them to substantial, tho' difficult Practices. The most holy and the best of all men, nay even holiness and goodness itself, became the most envied and the most hated. But that did not discourage him, for he ceased not doing good to his Citizens: but he saw their ingratitude; he foretold their punishment even weeping, and denounced to Jerusalem her hasty destruction. He also prophesied that the Jews, who were Enemies to the Truth which he declared, should be delivered up to Error, and become the Mockery of the false Prophets. In the mean time the jealousy of the Pharisees and the Priests brings him to a most infamous and accursed death: his Disciples forsake him; one of them betrays him; the first and the most zealous of all den●es him thrice. Being accused before the Council, he honours even to the last the Ministry of the Priests, and answers the Highpriest particularly to the Questions he interrogated him in a Judicial way. But the hour was come, that the Synagogue was to be reproved. The Highpriest and all the Council condemn Jesus Christ, because he called himself The Christ, the Son of God. He was delivered up to Pontius Pilate the Roman Precedent: his Innocence was confessed by his Judge, whom yet Polity and Interest made to act against the convictions of his own Conscience: The just One is condemned to death: the greatest of all Crimes gives place to the most perfect Obedience that ever was: Jesus, the Master of his own life, and of all things else, gives up himself voluntarily to the fury of the wicked Multitude, and offers the Sacrifice which was to be the expiation of Mankind. On the Cross he sees in the Prophecies what yet remained to be done: and he fulfils it, and then says, It is finished. At that word, every thing in the World was changed: the Law ceased, 
John 19.30.  the Types were over, its Sacrifices were abolished by a more perfect Oblation. That done, Jesus Christ expires with a loud groan: all Nature was moved: the Centurion, who watched him, being greatly astonished at such a Death, cried out and said, 
Matth. 27.50, 54.  Truly this was the Son of God; and those that had beheld it returned to their own homes smiting their Breasts. On the third day he arose again from the dead; appeared to his Disciples who had forsaken him, and who could by no means believe his Resurrection. They saw him, spoke with him, touched and handled him, and were convinced. To confirm the Faith of his Resurrection, he shown himself at divers times, and in divers circumstances. His Disciples saw him in private, and likewise saw him all together: He appeared to above five hundred Brethren at once. 
1 Cor. 15.6.  An Apostle who wrote of it, assures us that the greater part were then alive at the writing of his Epistle. Jesus Christ being risen, giveth to his Apostles what time they required throughly to consider of him, and after he had put himself into their hands all the ways they could desire, so that not the least scruple of a Doubt could possibly remain in them, he commanded them to bear witness of what they had seen, of what they had heard, and of what their hands had handled. And that none might doubt of the credit of their Evidence, any more than of their Persuasion, he obliged them to seal their Testimony with their Blood. Thus their preaching was not to be shaken; the foundation of it was a positive fact, unanimously attested by those that saw it. Their sincerity was justified by the strongest proof and trial imaginable, which was that of torments, and of death itself. Those were the Instructions which the Apostles received. Upon that foundation did twelve Fishermen undertake to convert all the World, which they saw so set against the Laws that they were commissionated to prescribe to them, and the Truths they had to declare. They were ordered to begin at Jerusalem, 
Luke 24.47.  and from thence to scatter themselves throughout all the Earth, 
Acts 1.8. Matth. 28.19, 20.  instructing all Nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ promises them to be with them always, even to the end of the World; and by that very word assures them of the perpetual Continuance of the Ecclesiastical Ministry. And when he had said that, he ascends into Heaven in their sight.  
The Promises were accomplished: the Prophecies had then their Scene fully opened. The Gentiles were called to the Knowledge of God by the Command of Jesus Christ that was risen from the dead: a new Ceremony was instituted for the Regeneration of the new People; and the Faithful are taught that the true God, the God of Israel, that one and indivisible God to whom they are consecrated in Baptism, is together in himself Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  
There are then propounded to us the incomprehensible Depths of the Divine Being, and the ineffable Greatness of his Unity, and the infinite Riches of that Nature, more fruitful yet within than without, able to communicate himself without any manner of Division to three equal Persons.  
There are explained the Mysteries which were folded, and as it were sealed up in the ancient Writings. We understand the meaning of that saying, 
Gen. 1.26.  Let us make Man in our Image; and tne Trinity set forth in Man's Creation, is expressly declared in his Regeneration.  
We learn by it what that Wisdom was, which was conceived before all times in the Bosom of God, as Solomon speaks: 
Prov. 8.22.23, 24, 25, 26, 27.  That Wisdom, which made up all his Delight; and by which all his Works were made. We know who he was that David saw in the 
Psal. 110.3.  Beauties of Holiness, from the Womb of the Morning; and the New Testament informs us that it was the Word, the inward Word of God, and his eternal Thought, who is always in his Bosom, and by whom all things were made. By that we can answer that mysterious Question which is put to us in the Proverbs: 
Prov. 30.4.  Who hath ascended up into Heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the Wind in his Fists? Who hath bound the Waters in a Garment? Who hath established all the ends of the Earth? What is his Name, and what is his Son's Name, if thou canst tell? For we know that that so mysterious and so hidden name of God, is the name of the Father understood in that profound Sense which made him to be conceived from all Eternity, the Father of a Son equal to himself, and that the Name of his Son is the name of the Word; the Word which he begot eternally in the Contemplation of himself, which is the perfect expression of his Truth, his Image, his only Son, being the brightness of his Glory, 
Heb. 1.3.  and the express Image of his Person.  
With the Father and the Son we know also the Holy Ghost, the Love of both, and their eternal Union. 'Twas that Spirit which made the Prophets, and which was in them to discover to them the Councils of God, and the Secrets of Futurity; the Spirit of whom it is written, 
Isai. 48.16.  The Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me, which is distinguished from the Lord, and which is also the Lord himself, since that he sent the Prophets, and discovered to them things to come. That Spirit which spoke to the Prophets, and which spoke by the Prophets was united to the Father and the Son, and interposed with them in the Consecration of the new Man.  
Thus the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, one single God in three Persons, shown more darkly to our Fathers, was clearly revealed in the new Covenant. Being instructed in so high a Mystery, and astonished at its incomprehensible Depth, we cover our Faces before God with the Cherubims whom Isaiah saw, and with them we adore him who is Holy, holy, holy, the Lord of Hosts, 
Isai. 6.3.  whose Glory is the fullness of the whole Earth.  
It belonged to the only Son, 
John 1.18.  who was in the Bosom of his Father, and who without ever coming from thence, came down to us; to him, I say, it belonged fully to discover to us those admirable Secrets of the Divine Nature, which Moses and the Prophets had but lightly touched upon.  
It belonged to him to make us understand, how it was, that the Messiah promised as a Man who was to save all men, was at the same time shown as God in the singular Number, and absolutely after the same manner as the Creator himself was shown to us; and this is also that which he hath done, in teaching us, that though he was the Son of Abraham, 
John 8.58.  yet he was before ever Abraham was born, and that he came down from Heaven, and that he always is in Heaven: 
Id. 3.13.  that he was God, the Son of God; and yet he was Man, the Son of Man; the true Emanuel; God with us: in a word, the Word made Flesh, uniting in his Person Humane Nature with the Divine, that so he might reconcile all things unto himself.  
Thus are revealed to us the two great and principal Mysteries, that of the Trinity, and that of the Incarnation. But he who hath revealed them to us, makes us to find the Image thereof in ourselves, that so they might be always present to us, and that we might acknowledge the Dignity of our Nature.  
In short, if we would impose Silence on our Senses, and would for a little while look into ourselves, into the bottom of our Souls, that is to say, into that part where the truth comes to be understood, we should find there some Image of the Trinity we adore. The thought which we feel to spring up as the Bud of our Mind, as the Son of our Understanding, gives us some Idea of the Son of God eternally conceived in the mind of the heavenly Father. Wherefore that Son of God assumes the name of Word, to make us understand that he sprang up in the Bosom of the Father, 
Greg. Naz. Orat. 26. Aug. de Trin. 9.4. etc. & in Johan. Evang. Tr. 1. etc. de Civ. 11.26, 27, 28.  not as Bodies do, but as that inward Word arises in our Mind, which we feel in it when we contemplate on the Truth.  
But the fruitfulness of our Mind is not terminated on that inward Word, that intellectual Thought, that image of Truth which is form in us. We love both that inward Word, and the Mind in which it arises, and in that love we feel somewhat in us which we value as highly as our very mind and thought, which is the Fruit of both, which unites them; an● is united to them, and which makes up but one Life with us.  
So far as there can be found any relation between God and Man; so far, I say, is produced in God the eternal Love which comes from the Fat●er who thinks, and from the Son who is his Thought, to make up with him and his Thought one and the same nature equally happy and perfect.  
In a word, God is perfect, and his Word the living Image of an infinite Truth, is no less perfect than him; and his Love, which, proceeding from the inexhaustible Fountain of Good, hath all the fullness of it, cannot but have an infinite Perfection: And since that we have no other Idea of God but that of Perfection, each of those three things considered apart, deserves to be called God: But because those three things do necessarily agree with one and the same Nature, those three things therefore make up but one God.  
We ought then to have no unequal nor separate Conceptions of this Adorable Trinity; and how incomprehensible soever the Equality be, our Soul, if we will but hearken to it, will tell us something of it.  
It is, and when it knows perfectly what it is, its Intelligence corresponds to the truth of its being: 
Aug. loc. citat.  And when it loves its being with its understanding as much as it deserves to be beloved, its Love equals the perfection of both. Those three things are never divided, the one is confined by other, and the third by both: We understand that we are, and that we love, and we love to be, and to understand. Who can deny it, if he understand himself? and not only is not one of those better than another, but three altogether are not better than is one of them by itself, since that each of them do bind the whole, do conclude the whole, and that in those three consists the Felicity and Dignity of the reasonable Nature. Thus is the Trinity which we worship, and to which we are consecrated by our Baptism; thus, I say, and infinitely more is it perfect, unseparable, one in its Essence, and in short, equal in every sense.  
But we ourselves, who are the Image of the Trinity, we, in another respect, are also the Image of the Incarnation.  
A Soul of a spiritual and incorruptible Nature, hath a corruptible Body which is united to it: 
Aug. Ep. 3. ad Volusc. c. 3. de Civ. 10.29. Cyr. Ep. ad. Valerian. p. 3. Con●. Eph. etc. Symb. Ath. etc.  And from the Union of them both results a Whole, which is Man, Mind and Body together, incorruptible, intelligent, and purely brutish. These Attributes agree with the whole, by relation to each of its two parts; So the divine Word, whose Virtue sustains the whole, by relation to each of its two parts; so the divine Word, whose Virtue sustains the whole, is united in a particular manner, or rather it becomes himself, by a perfect Union, that Jesus Christ the Son of Mary, that which makes him to be the Son of God and Man both together, begotten from all Eternity, and yet begotten in time, always living in the Bosom of his Father, and yet dead upon the Cross for our Salvation.  
But where God finds himself mixed, Comparisons drawn from humane things are never but imperfect. Our Soul is not before our Body, and something fails it when ever it is separated from it. The Word perfect in itself from all Eternity, is only united to our Nature for its Honour. That Soul which presides over the Body, and makes several Changes in it, itself suffers from it in its turn. If the Body be moved at the command, and according to the Will of the Soul, the Soul is troubled, the Soul is afflicted, and influenced a thousand ways, either tormenting or pleasing, according to the Dispositions of the Body; so that as the Soul raises up the Body to itself in the governing part, so it is cast down below it by what it suffers from the Body. But in Jesus Christ, the word presides over all, it keeps all under its Dominion. So Man is raised, and the Word is not cast down by any thing: Immutable and unalterable it rules and governs Nature which is united to it in all things throughout.  
From thence it comes, that in Jesus Christ, Man, absolutely submissive to the inward direction of the Word which raises it up to itself, has only divine Thoughts and Motions. All that he thinks, all that he wills, all that he says, all that he conceals within, all that he shows outwardly, is animated and inspired by the Word, led by the Word, worthy of Word, that is to say, worthy of Reason itself, of Wisdom itself, and of Truth itself. Wherefore every thing is Light in Jesus Christ: His Conduct is a Rule; his Miracles are Instructions, his Words are Spirit and Life.  
It is not given to all to understand these sublime Truths, nor perfectly to see in himself that marvellous Image of divine things, which St. Austin and the other Fathers have thought so certain. Our Senses govern us too much, and our Imagination which will be concerned in all our Thoughts, does not suffer us always to stay upon so pure a Light. We do not know ourselves; we are ignorant what vast Riches we constantly carry about with us, because we search not to the bottom of our Natures; and only the most inwardly discerning Eyes can perceive them. But as little as we do pry into that Secret, and observe in ourselves the Image of the two Mysteries, which make up the Foundation of our Faith, that is sufficient to raise us up above all, and nothing of Mortality can affect us any more.  
Also Jesus Christ calls us to an immortal Glory, and it is the Fruit of the Faith we have for the Mysteries.  
That God-Man, that incarnate Truth and Wisdom, which makes us to believe such great things upon its single Authority, promises to us the clear and happy Vision of it in Eternity, as the certain Recompense of our Faith.  
In this way, is the Mission of Jesus Christ infinitely advanced above that of Moses.  
Moses was sent to rouse up sensual and brutish Men by temporal Rewards. Since that they were become all Body and all Flesh, it was necessary for him at first to captivate them by their Senses, and by that means to inculcate into them the Knowledge of God, and the horror of Idolatry, to which Mankind had so prodigious an Inclination.  
That was the Ministry of Moses: But to inspire Man with more exalted Thoughts, and by a full Evidence to convince him of the Dignity, Immortality, and eternal Happiness of his Soul, this was reserved to be the Work of Jesus Christ.  
In the times of Ignorance, that is to say, those which were before our blessed Saviour's days, what the Soul knew of its Dignity and Immortality, led it for the most part to Error. The worshipping of dead Men did almost make up all their Idolatry: Almost all Men sacrificed to the Manes, that is, to the Souls of the Dead. Those ancient Errors do discover to us indeed how great was the ancient Belief of the Souls Immortality, and shows us that we ought to place it among the first Traditions of Mankind. But Man who spoiled all things, had strangely abused it, since the Soul carried him out to sacrifice to the Dead. Nay they went at last to that excess, as to sacrifice living Men to them; they killed their Slaves, and even their Women, to make them go and serve them in the other World. The Gauls did so with many other People: And the Indians, observed by the Heathen Authors among the first Defenders of the Souls Immortality; 
Cas. de hell. Gall. 6.  have also been the first Introducers of those abominable Murders in the World, under the pretence of Religion. The same Indians used to kill themselves to forward the Happiness of the future Life; and that deplorable Blindness continues still to this day among those People; so dangerous is it to teach the Truth in any other way or manner than what God hath instituted, and clearly to explain to Man all that he is before he knew God perfectly.  
'Twas the want of knowing God, which made most of the Philosophers not to believe the Immortality of the Soul, without believing it at the same time a Portion of the Divinity, nay a Divinity itself, an eternal Being, uncreated as well as incorruptible, and which had neither beginning not end. What shall I say of those who believed the Transmigration of Souls; who made them skip from Heaven to Earth, and then from Earth to Heaven again; from Beasts into Men, and from Men into Beasts; from Happiness to Misery, and from Misery to Happiness; and those Revolutions never to have any end, nor any certain order? How sadly was the Divine Justice, Providence, and Goodness, darkened amidst so many fuliginous Errors! And how necessary was it to know God, and the Rules of his Wisdom, before he knows the Soul, and its immortal Nature!  
Wherefore the Law of Moses gave only to Man the first Notion of the nature of the Soul, and its Felicity. We saw the Soul at first made by the Power of God, as well as the rest of the Creatures; but with this particular Character and Distinction, that it was made after his Image, and by his Breath; that it might understand to whom it was obliged by its being, and also that it might never fancy itself to be of the same nature with the Body, not form by its order and concurrence. But the Consequences of this Doctrine, and the Marvels of the future Life, were not then universally unfolded; This great Light and Discovery was not to be till the coming of the Messiah.  
God had scattered some few Sparks of it in the Old Testament. Solomon said, that the Dust should return to the Earth as it was; 
Eccles. 12.7.  and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it. The Patriarches, and the Prophets lived in that Hope, and Daniel had foretold that there should a time come, 
Dan. 12.1, 2, 4.  that those who slept in the Dust of the Earth, should awake; some to everlarting Life; and some to shame and everlasting Contempt. But at the same time that those things were revealed to him, he was commanded to seal up the Book, even to the time of the End, to let us understand that the full discovery of these Truths was reserved for another Season, and another Age.  
But though the Jews had in their Scriptures some Promises of eternal Happiness, and that towards the time of the Messiahs coming, in which they were to be declared, they spoke much more of them, as appears by the Books of Wisdom, and the Maccabees; yet however, this Truth gained so little Reputation among the ancient People, that the Saducees, without ever knowing it, not only were admitted into the Synagogue, but also were advanced to the Priesthood. It was one of the Characters of the new People, to lay down as a Foundation of Religion, the faith of a future Life, and that was to be the Fruit of the coming of the Messiah.  
Wherefore not being satisfied with telling us, that a Life eternally happy was reserved for the Children of God, he hath told us wherein it consists. The happy Life is to be with him in the glory of God his Father; 
John 17.  the Life of happiness is to see the glory which he hath in the bosom of the Father from the beginning of the World: the Life of happiness is, that Jesus Christ is in us in his Members, and that the eternal Love which the Father hath for his Son, extendeth itself to us, he fills us full of the same Gifts: In a word, the Life of happiness is to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent; but to know him in that manner which we call a clear sight, 
1 Cor. 13.9, 12. 2 ●p. 3.2.  face to face, the sight which reforms in us, and perfects there the Image of God, that according as St. John says, We shall be like unto him, because we shall see him as he is.  
That sight shall be followed with an Immense Love, and unexpressible Joy, and a Trump that shall have no end. 
Rev. 7.12.19.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.  An eternal Alleluja, and an eternal Amen shall be heard to resound through all the heavenly Jerusalem, and all Calamities shall be done away, and all Desires shall be satisfied, there shall be nothing else to do, but to sing, Salvation, and Glory, and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God, and to fall down and worship him who sits on the Throne for ever and ever.  
With these new Rewards, it was but necessary that Jesus Christ should propose to us new Ideas of Virtue; more perfect and purified Practices. The End of Religion, the Soul of Virtues, and the Abridgement of the Law, is Charity. But until Jesus Christ was come into the World, we may say, that the perfection, and the effects of that Virtue were not throughly known. It was truly and properly our blessed Saviour that taught us to place our Satisfaction in God alone. To set up the Kingdom of Charity, and to reveal to us all the Duties of it, he lays before us the Love of God, even to the hating of ourselves, and continually persecuting that Principle of Corruption which we all carry about with us in our hearts. He propounds to us the Love of our Neighbour, even to the extending that beneficent Inclination to all men, including therein even those that hate and persecute us: he proposes to us the moderating of our sensual Desires, even to the absolute cutting off our own Members, that is to say, that which gives us the most lively and sensible impressions: He proposes also to us submission to the Will of God, even to the rejoicing at the Sufferings he lays upon us; as also Humility, and that too to the loving of Reproaches for God's sake, and to the believing that no Indignities, how injurious soever, can make us so vile in the eyes of men, as we truly are in God's sight by our shameful and abominable sins. Upon this foundation of Charity it is, that all the conditions of Humane Life are perfected. It is by that, that Marriage is reduced to its primitive form: the Conjugal Affection is now no more divided; so holy a Society is only terminated by Death; and Children do not now see their Mothers cast out for entertaining of a Stepdame in their places. Celibacy is set forth as an Imitation of the life of Angels, which is wholly and entirely taken with God, and with the chaste delights of his Love. Superiors do learn that they are the Servants of others, and devoted to their Good; and Inferiors do acknowledge the wise order of God in their lawful Powers, although they abuse their Authority: this very thought sweetens to us the hardships of Subjection, and under the most troublesome Master's Obedience is not at all troublesome to the true Christian.  
To these Precepts he superadds Councils of eminent perfection; to renounce all pleasures; to live in the Body as if we without the Body; to forsake all things; to give all we have to the Poor, that we may possess nothing but God; to live upon a little, yea almost upon nothing; and to expect that little too from Divine Providence.  
But that Law which is most proper to the Gospel, is that of bearing his Cross. The Cross is the true Trial of Faith, the true Foundation of Hope, the perfect purifier of Charity; in a word, the true way to Heaven. Jesus Christ died on the Cross; he bore his Cross all the while he lived; 'tis by the Cross that he would have us to follow him, and he hath promised to reward it with Eternal Life. The first to whom he particularly made this Promise of Everlasting Rest, was a Companion of his Cross: This day, saith he, 
Luke 22.48.  thou shalt be with me in Paradise. Immediately after his Expiration on the Cross, the Veil which covered the Sanctuary was rend from the top to the bottom, and the Heaven was opened to holy Souls. It was after he came from the Cross, and from the horrors of his Punishment, that he appeared to his Apostles, glorious, and a Conqueror over Death, that they might thereby learn and understand that it was by the Cross they were to enter into his Glory, and that he would show no other way to his Children.  
Thus in the Person of Jesus Christ was given to the World the lively Image of an accomplished Virtue, who had nothing, nor did expect nothing here in this World; who received from men only continual Persecutions, yet he never ceased doing of them good, and for all that on whom his very kindnesses brought the worst of punishments. Jesus Christ died without finding any Gratitude in those whom he obliged, nor Fidelity from his Friends, nor Equity in his Judges. His Innocence, although it was acknowledged, did not save him; his Father himself, in whom alone he had put his trust and hope, withdrew all the Marks of his Protection: the Just is delivered up to his Enemies, and he died forsaken both of God and Men.  
But every good and holy man will see, that in those his greatest Extremities, he neither stood in need of any Humane Consolation, nor even any visible and sensible Sign of the Divine Succour: for it was God he only loved, and in whom he only trusted, and he was sure that He thought on him, though there were not any outward signs of it, and that an everlasting Happiness was reserved for him.  

Soc. apud Plat. Dial. 11. de Rep.  The wisest of the Philosophers, in his researches after an Idea of Virtue, found out, that as of all wicked men, he would be the most flagitious, who knew how most artificially to hid his Malice, that he might be taken for a good man, and by that means enjoy all the credit that Virtue was able to give him: so the most virtuous man without doubt was he, whose perfective Virtue gained him the envy and jealousy of all men, so that he had only the integrity of his own unreprovable Conscience on his side, though he saw himself exposed to all manner of Injuries, even to be nailed on the Cross, his Virtue not being able to afford him that poor Succour of freeing him from such a Punishment. Certainly God did put this marvellous Idea of Virtue in the mind of a Philosopher, to render it effective in the Person of his Son, and to show that the Just man had another Glory, another Repose, and in a word another Happiness than he could have here upon Earth.  
To make clear this truth, and to show it fulfilled so visibly in himself at the expense of his own Life, was the greatest work that a man could do; and God found it so great, that he reserved it for this so much promised Messiah, for this Man whom he made the same Person with his only Son.  
Indeed what greater thing could be reserved for a God that was to come down upon the Earth? and what could he do here more worthy of himself, than to show Virtue in all its purity, and the eternal Happiness to which we are led by those Sufferings which this World looks on as the most grievous and reproachful?  
But if we will consider what yet there was of a higher and more perfective Excellency in the Mystery of the Cross, what Human Understanding can fathom it? There are discovered to us such Virtues as none but the God-Man could practise. Who else could, like him, put himself in the stead of all the old Sacrifices, and abolish them in substituting to them a Victim of infinite Dignity and Merit, and to order for the future that none besides himself should be offered up to God? such was the act of Religion, that Jesus Christ performed on the Cross. The Eternal Father, could he find either among Men, or Angels, an Obedience equal to that which his Wellbeloved Son paid him, as when nothing was able to take his Life out of his hands, he voluntarily laid it down to please him? What shall I say of the perfect Union of all his Desires with the Divine Will, and of the Love whereby God was in him, 
2 Cor. 5.19.  reconciling the World unto himself. In that incomprehensible Union he embraced all Mankind, he pacified Heaven and Earth, he plunged himself with an immense ardour into that Deluge of Blood with which he was to be baptised with all his faithful Followers, 
Luke 12.50.  and he made to come out of his Wounds the fire of Divine Love which was to burn up all the Earth. But that which passes all understanding is, to behold the Justice used by that God-Man, who was suffered to be condemned by the World, to the end that the World might remain eternally condemned through the enormous Iniquity of that Judgement. 
John 12.31.  Now is the Judgement of this World; now shall the Prince of this World be cast out, as our Saviour Christ himself declares. Hell, which had undone the World, was now going to destroy him: in attacking the Innocent, it will be forced to remit the Guilty whom it held Captive: the miserable Obligation whereby we were delivered up to the Rebellious Angels was canceled: And you being dead in your sins, 
Coloss. 2.13, 14, 15.  and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances, that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his Cross: and having spoiled Principalities, and Powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Hell being spoiled and defeated, groaned; the Cross was a place of triumph and rejoicing to our Saviour, and the Powers that were Enemies, tremblingly followed the Chariot of the Conqueror. But a greater Triumph yet was laid before our Eyes; the Divine Justice was itself vanquished; the Sinner, who was due to it as its Victim, was snatched out of its hands. He found a Surety was able to pay for him an infinite price. Jesus Christ was eternally united to the Elect for whom he gave himself; they became his Members and his Body: the Eternal Father could no longer look upon them but in him their Head: therefore he likewise extended towards them the infinite Love which he had for his Son. 'Twas this Son himself that begged it of him: he would not be separated from those men whom he had bought and redeemed with his most precious Blood. Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me, 
John 17.24, 25, 26.  be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the World. O righteous Father, the World hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy Name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them: they shall be filled with my Spirit; they shall enjoy my glory; they shall partake with me, 
Rev. 3.21.  even to the sitting on my Throne.  
After so great a Benefit, what can there be more than Cries of Joy and Thanks whereby to be able to express our Acknowledgements? O miracles, 
Justin. Epist. ad Diognet.  cries out a great Philosopher and a great Martyr! O incomprehensible exchanged, and surprising artifice of the Divine Wisdom! One single One is smitten, and all are delivered. God smites his Innocent Son for the sake of Guilty men, and he pardons Guilty men for the sake of his Innocent Son. The Just paid what he never owed, and acquits the Sinners of their debt; for what could better cover our Sins, than his Righteousness? What better way could the Rebellion of Servants be expiated, than by the obedience of the Son? The iniquity of many is hid in one just One, and the justice of One alone makes it that many are justified. What then are we not to pretend to? God commendeth has love towards us, 
Rom. 5.8, 9  in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by his Blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. All was for us by Jesus Christ; Grace, holiness, life, glory, blessedness: the Kingdom of the Son of God is our Inheritance, there is nothing above us, provided only that we do not degenerate and make ourselves vile.  
Whilst Jesus Christ was filling up our desires, and surpassing our hopes, he finished the work of God which was begun under the Patriarches, and in the Law of Moses.  
Then God resolved to make himself known by sensible Experiences: he shown himself very magnificent in Temporal Promises, good in heaping upon his Children such Blessings as flattered the Senses, powerful in delivering them from the hands of their Enemies, faithful in leading them into the Land of Promise to their Fathers, just by the Rewards and Punishments which he openly sent them according to their works.  
All his marvellous Works prepared the way for the Truths which Jesus Christ came to teach. If God be so good as to bestow on us what is agreeable to our Senses, how much rather shall he give unto us what is agreeable to our Souls which were made after his own Image? If he be so tender and beneficent towards his Children, shall he shut up his love and his bounty in those few years which make up our life? Will he give to those whom he loves only a shadow of Felicity, a fertile Land in Corn and Oil? Will there not be a heavenly Country wherein he will abundantly recompense us with true and everlasting good things?  
There will be one without all peradventure, and Jesus Christ will come to show it us. For indeed the Almighty would do works very unworthy of himself, if all his magnificence should terminate in Grandeurs that were only exposed to our weak and infirm Senses. Whatsoever is not eternal, is neither correspondent to the Majesty of an Eternal God, nor does it answer the hopes of man, to whom he hath made known his eternity; and that unchangeable fidelity which he bears to his Servants will never have an Object proportionable to it, until it be extended to something that is immortally permanent.  
Therefore will Jesus Christ at last come and open the Heavens to us, to disocover there to our Faith that abiding City, 
Heb. 11.8.9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16.  which hath Foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God, where we are to be gathered together after this life. He shows us, that if God make Eternal to be one of his Titles, the Name of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, it is because those holy men are always living before him. 
Matth. 22.32. Luke 20.38.  For God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. It is below him to do only as men, accompany his friends to the Grave, without giving them any hope beyond; and it would be (if I may speak with reverence) reproachable for him to call himself with so much of force and energy the God of Abraham, if he had not founded in the Heavens an Eternal City, wherein Abraham and his Children may be happy throughout all Generations.  
'Tis thus therefore that these Truths of a Futurity were unfolded to us by Jesus Christ. 
Heb. 11.14, 15, 16.  He shown them to us, even under the Law. the true Land of Promise was the heavenly Kingdom. 'Twas that blessed Country that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob desired. Palestine did not deserve to be the Boundary of their fervent Vows, nor to be the sole object of so long an expectation of our Fathers.  
Egypt, from whence we were to come out, the Wilderness through which we were to pass, Babylon, whose Prison-walls we were to break to enter, or to return into our Country, that was this World with all its delights and vanities; for here it was that we were truly Captives, and Pilgrims, led astray by Sin, and Concupiscence; we were to shake off this Yoke to find in Jerusalem, and in the City of our God true liberty, and an House or Sanctuary not made with hands, 
2 Cor. 5.1.  eternal in the Heavens, where the Glory of the God of Israel should be manifested to us.  
By this Doctrine of Jesus Christ the Mystery of God was laid open to us, the Law was all Spiritual, its Promises were introductive of those of the Gospel, and served as a Foundation to them. One and the same light was visible throughout: it arose under the Patriarches; under Moses and the Prophets it increased; Jesus Christ who was greater than the Patriarches, who came with more Authority than Moses, and who was more illuminated than all the Prophets, discovered this unto us in his fullness.  
To this Christ, to this God-Man, to this Man who held upon Earth, as St. Austin speaks, the place of The Truth, and discovers it to be personally resident amongst us; to him, I say, it was reserved to show us all Truth, that is to say, so much of the Mysteries, of the Virtues, and of the Rewards, as God had designed for those whom he really loved.  
These were the Grandeurs which the Jews ought to have looked for in their Messiah. There is nothing so great and glorious, as to carry in itself, and to discover unto men Truth in its fullness and perfection, which seeds them and directs them, and clears up their eyes so as to make 'em capable of seeing God.  
Now in this time when the Truth was to be discovered to men with that fullness, it was also commanded to be promulged throughout all the Earth, and at all times. God gave to Moses but one single People, and one determined time: but all Ages, and all the People of the World, were given to Jesus Christ: he hath his Elect every where, and his Church extensive as the Universe shall never leave off her bringing them forth; Go, saith he, therefore, and teach all Nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father, 
Matth. 28.19, 20.  and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the World. Amen.  

VII. The Descent of the Holy Ghost: the Establishment of the Church: The Judgements of God on the Jews, and on the Gentiles.  To disperse into all Places, and in all Ages, such eminent Truths, and to put such pure and admirable Practices in force amidst such Corruption, there was need of a Virtue more than Humane. Wherefore Jesus Christ promised to send the Holy Ghost to fortify his Apostles, and eternally to inspire and invigorate the Body of the Church.  
This power of the Holy Ghost, to declare itself the more, was to appear in weakness. Behold, I send, saith Jesus Christ to his Apostles, 
Luke 24.49.  the promise of my Father upon you, that is to say, the Holy Ghost: in the mean time, tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem, be quiet, do not concern yourself about any thing, until ye be endued with power from on high.  
And to show their submission and conformity to that Order, they continued shut up for forty days: at the prefixed time the Holy Ghost descended; 
Acts 2.3.  cloven Tongues, like as of fire, falling upon the Disciples of our blessed Saviour, do show the efficacy of their preaching; and so being filled with the Holy Ghost, 
Id. 4.  they began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance; the Apostles bore witness of Jesus Christ; they were all ready to suffer for the Testimony, that they had seen him rise from the dead. Miracles followed upon their preaching: At two of St. Peter's Sermons eight thousand Jews were converted, and bewailing their Error and Blindness, they were w●shed in the Blood which they had spilt.  
Thus was the Church founded in Jerusalem, and amongst the Jews, and notwithstanding the perverse incredulity of the Gross of the Nation, yet the Disciples of Jesus Christ made known unto the World a Charity, a Power, but tempered with so much sweetness and condescension, as never had been seen in any Society before. Persecution arose; the Faith increased; the Children of God began more and more to aspire towards Heaven: the Jews, by their obstinate and inveterate Malice, drew upon themselves the just Vengeance of God, and hastened on them the sad Calamities and Desolation wherewith they had been threatened; their Estates and their Affairs grew worse and worse. Whilst God was setting apart a great number of them whom he placed among his Elect, St. Peter was sent to baptise Cornelius a Roman Centurion. He learned first of all by a Heavenly Vision, and afterwards by Experience, that the Gentiles were called to the Knowledge of God. Jesus Christ, who was willing to have them converted, speaks from on high to St. Paul, who was to be their Doctor; and by a Miracle till then unheard of, from a Persecutor he is made not only a Defender, but a zealous Preacher of the Faith: The profound Secret of the Calling of the Gentiles by the Reprobation of the ungrateful Jews, who were still made more and more unworthy of the Gospel, was discovered to him. St. Paul reached forth his hands to the Geniiles; and treated upon those important Questions with a wonderful force and power, that Christ should suffer, 
Acts 26.23.  and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show unto the People, and to the Gentiles: He proved the Affirmative by Moses, and the Prophets, and called Idolaters to the Knowledge of God, in the Name of Jesus Christ that was risen. They were converted by Multitudes. St. Paul shown that their Calling was an effect of Grace, which made no distinction betwixt either Jew or Gentile. Fury and Jealousy transported the Jews, so as they laid terrible Plots against St. Paul, being chief incensed that he preached up the Gentiles, and brought them to the true God: At last he was delivered to the Romans, as they had before delivered up Jesus Christ to them. All the Empire was in commotion against the rising Church, and Nero, the Persecutor of all Mankind, was the first Persecutor of the Faithful. That Tyrant put both St. Peter and St. Paul to death. Rome was consecrated by their Blood; and the Martyrdom of St. Peter, chief of the Apostles, established in the Capital City of the Empire the Principal See of Religion. In the mean time, the time drew on when the Divine Vengeance was to fall upon the Impenitent Jews; Disorders grew up amongst them; a false Zeal blinded them, and made them odious to all men; their false Prophets infatuated them by the Promises of an imaginary Kingdom. Thus being seduced by their deceitful tricks and artifices, they could no longer endure any legitimate Empire, and so they were unlimited in their attempts. God gave them up to a reprobate Sense. They revolted against the Romans who overthrew them. Titus himself that destroyed them, confessed he only lent his hand to that God that was provoked against them. Adrian made a full end of them. 
Philost. vit. Apoll. Tyan. lib. 6. Joseph de bell. Jud. lib. 7.16.  They were cut off with all the marks of the Divine Vengeance: driven out of their own Land, and made Slaves to all the World; they no longer had either Temple, or Altar, or Sacrifice, or Country; and there was seen in Judah not so much as a form of People.  
But God had notwithstanding provided for the Eternity of his Government: The Eyes of the Gentiles were opened, and they were united in Spirit to the converted Jews. By that means they were joined to the Race and Stock of Abraham, and became his Children by Faith, and so inherited the promises which had been made to him. A new People were form, and the new Sacrifice so much celebrated by the Prophets, began to be offered throughout all the World.  
Thus was that ancient Oracle or Jacob fulfilled to a tittle: Judah from the beginning was multiplied more than all his Brethren; and having always kept a certain Pre-eminence, he at last received the Kingdom as Hereditary to him. Afterwards the People of God were reduced to his single Race, and shut up in his Tribe, they were called by his Name. In Judah were continued that great People, who were promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; in him the other promises were perpetuated, the worship of God, the Temple, the Sacrifices, the possession of the promised Land, which was only called Judah. Notwithstanding all their several States, the Jews continued always in a body of a regulated People and Kingdom, making use of their Laws. There were always seen to arise either Kings, or Magistrates and Judges, even till the Advent of the Messiah; he came, and the Kingdom of Judah quickly fell to ruin. It was utterly destroyed, and the Jewish People were driven without hope from the Land of their Fathers. The Messiah was the expectation of the Nations, and he reigned over a new People.  
But to keep the Succession and the Perpetuity, it was necessary to have this new people engrafted, as I may so say, upon the former, and as St. Paul speaks, if thou being a wild Olive tree were grafted in amongst then, 
Rom. 11.17.  and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the Olive-tree. So it happened that the Church, which was first established among the Jews, at length received the Gentiles to make up one and the same Tree with them, one and the same Body, one and the same People, and to make them partakers of her Graces and Promises.  
What happened after that to the incredulous Jews under Vespasian and Titres, hath no relation to the Progress of the People of God It was a chastising of the Rebels, who by their infidelity against the Seed which was promised to Abraham and David, were no more Jews, nor the Sons of Abraham, but according to the Flesh; for they renounced the Promise by which the Nations were to be blessed.  
Thus that last and dreadful desolation of the Jews was no more a transmigration, like that of Babylon; it was not a suspension of the Government, and of the Estate of the People of God, nor of the solemn service of Religion, the new People already form and continued with the old in Jesus Christ, were not transported; they extended and spread themselves without interruption from Jerusalem, where they were first to arise, even to the utmost parts of the Earth. The Gentiles joined to the Jews became thenceforward the real Jews, the true Kingdom of Judah set in opposition to that Schismatical Israel which was cut off from the People of God, the true Kingdom of David, by the Obedience they paid to the Laws, and to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of David.  
After the Establishment of that new Kingdom, it is not to be wondered at, if all things went to wrack in Judea. The second Temple signified no longer any thing, since that the Messiah had fulfilled in it what was foretold by the Prophets. That Temple had had the glory which was promised to it, when the desire of all Nations was come. The visible Jerusalem had done what was remaining to be accomplished, since the Church had its Birth there, and that from thence it daily spread forth its Branches over all the Earth. Judea was of no longer Service either to God, or to Religion, no more than were the Jews, and it was just, that in punishing the hardness of their hearts, their ruins should be dispersed over the face of the Earth.  
'Twas what was to happen to them in the time of the Messiah occording to Jacob, to Daniel, 
Hosea 3, 4, 5. Isai. 49.20, 21 Rom. 11.11, 12, etc.  to Zachariah, and to all their Prophets: but as they were to return one day to that Messiah of whom they were ignorant, and that the God of Abraham had not as yet exhausted his Mercies to the faithless race of that Patriarch, he found a way, whereof in the whole World there was but that one example, to preserve the Jews, tho' banished their Country, and lying under their desolation, longer by far than did those People who had conquered them. There is not now seen any remainders either of the ancient Assyrians, or the ancient Medes, or the ancient Persians, or the ancient Greeks, or even the ancient Romans. The Footsteps of them are lost, and they are confounded among other People. The Jews, who were the Prey of those ancient Nations, so much spoken of in Histories, have outlived them, and God in preserving them, keeps us in expectation of what he will be pleased to do hereafter in his own due time, with the unhappy remainders of a People that were formerly so dear in his Favour. In the mean time their hardness serves for the Salvation of the Gentiles, and gives them this advantage to find in unsuspected hands the Scriptures which foretold Jesus Christ, and his mysteries. Among other things, we find in those Scriptures, 
Isai. 6.42, 43, 55. Dan. 9 Mat 13. Jo. 12. Act. 28. Rom. 11. etc.  both the blindness and the unhappiness of the Jews, who yet notwithstanding keep them so carefully. Thus their Reproach contributes to our benefit: their Infidelity makes up one of the Foundations of our Faith; they teach us to fear God, and are an eternal Spectacle to us of the Judgements which he executes upon his rebellious ungrateful Children, that so we might learn not to glory in those graces bestowed on our Fathers.  
A Mystery so marvellous and so advantageous to the instruction of Mankind, deserves very well to be considered. But we want no Humane Discourse to make us understand it. The Holy Ghost has taken care to explain it to us by the mouth of St. Paul, 
Rom. 11.1, 2. etc.  and I beseech you hearken to what that Apostle hath written of it to the Romans.  
After he had spoken of the small number of the Jews who had received the Gospel, and of the blindness of the rest, he falls into a profound consideration to think what that People ought to be who were honoured with so many favours, and at last he discovers to us the benefit we should reap by their fall, and the fruits which their Conversion should one day produce. The Jews, have they stumbled, says he, that they should fall? 
Rom. 11.11, 12.  God forbidden. But rather through their fall Salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to Jealousy. To make them look into themselves. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the World, of the Gentiles who were in such great numbers converted, how much more their fullness? for if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the World, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? for if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou being a wild Olive-tree wert graffed in amongst them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the Olive-tree, boast not against the branches: but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well: because of Unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural Branches, take heed lest he also spare not Thee.  
Who would not tremble at the hearing of these words of the Apostle? Are w● able to stand unshaken at the dreadful Vengeance that has been for so many Ages so remarkably severe upon the Jews, when St. Paul assures us, and that from God himself, that our Ingratitude will bring upon us too no less a Punishment? But let us hear out the whole of this great Mystery. The Apostle continues his Address to the converted Gentiles. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity: but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the Olive-tree which is wild by Nature, and wert graffed contrary to Nature into a good Olive-tree: 
Id. 22, 23, 24.  how much shall these which be the natural Branches, be graffed into their own Olive-tree? Here the Apostle seems to be transported beyond what he was at first a speaking, and entering into the depths of the Counsels of God, he thus pursues his Discourse. For I would not, Brethren, 
Id. 25, 26, 27.  that ye should be ignorant of his Mystery, (lest ye should be wise in your own conceits) that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 
Isa. 59.20.  For this is my Covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.  
That passage of Isaiah, which St. Paul citys here, according to the Septuagint, which he used to follow, because their Version was known all over the World, comes up more strongly in the Original; For the Prophet foretold there before all things, the Conversion of the Gentiles by those words: So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West, 
Isai. 59.19, 20, 21.  and his glory from the rising of the Sun. Afterwards under the Type and Figure of a rapid flood driven by an impetuous wind, Isaiah saw afar off the Persecutions which should make the Church increase. At length the Holy Ghost told him what should happen to the Jews, and declared to him, That the Redeemer shall come out of Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob. As for me, this is my Covenant with them, saith the Lord; My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not departed out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy Seed, nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth, and for ever.  
He hath made it plain therefore, that after the Conversion of the Gentiles, the Redeemer which Zion had mistaken, and the Children of Jacob had rejected, should turn again to them, blot out their sins, and should restore unto them the understanding of the Prophecies, which they should have utterly lost for a long time, to go down successively, and from hand to hand through all Posterity, never to be forgotten.  
Thus should the Jews one day return, and so as never to go astray again; but they should not return until after the East and the West, that is to say, all the World, should be filled with the fear and the knowledge of God.  
The Holy Ghost made St. Paul see, that that happy return of the Jews should be the effect of that Love which God had had for their Fathers; wherefore he thus concludes his Discourse: As concerning the Gospel, says he, which we now preach to you, they, the Jews, are enemies for your sake: if God hath cast them away, it hath been, O Gentiles, that he might call you: but as touching the Election, by which they were chosen from the time of the Covenant which was made and sworn to Abraha● they are beloved for the Father's sake: For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, God having been pleased to choose you in their stead, Even so have these also, the Jews, now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy; for God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all, and that so they might all confess the need they have of his grace and mercy. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Judgements, and his ways past finding out! Fo● who hath known the mind of the Lord; or who hath been his Counsellor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him again? for of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory for ever, Amen.  
This is what St. Paul hath said concerning the Election of the Jews, their Fall, their Return, and at last concerning the Conversion of the Gentiles, who were called to fill up their place, and to bring them back in the fullness of time to the blessing that was promised to their Fathers, that is to say, to that Christ whom they had denied. This great Apostle hath discovered to us the Grace which goes from one People to another to keep them all in fear lest they should lose it; and hath also manifested its invincible force and power, in that after it had converted Idolaters, it should reserve itself for its last work, the convincing the Jews of their hardness and contumacious perfidiousness.  
By this profound Counsel of God the Jews remain still among all Nations, whither they were dispersed and carried captive: but they remain likewise with the branded Character of their Reprobation, being visibly fallen by their Infidelity of the Promises which were made to their Fathers, banished from the Land of Promise, having not any Land to cultivate, but are Slaves in all Countries wherever they are, without honour without liberty, and without any form of being a People.  
They fell into this deplorable estate eight and thirty years after they had crucified Jesus Christ, and after they had, in persecuting his Disciples, misspent the time which had been given them to come to the knowledge of themselves. But whilst the ancient People were under a state of Reprobation for their Infidelity, the new People were daily increasing among the Gentiles: the Covenant formerly made with Abraham reached, according to the Promise, to all the People of the World that had forgot God: the Christian Church called all men to her, and being in tranquillity for several Ages, amid unheard of Persecutions, she plainly convinced them that they were not to expect their happiness here in this World.  
This was the most worthy Fruit of the knowledge of God, and the effect of that great Blessing which the World was to look for by Jesus Christ. It was still daily more and more hung up in every Family, and all People were to have it: Men opened their eyes more and more, confessing the blindness into which they had been plunged by Idolatry; and notwithstanding all the Rom●● Power, Christians were seen, without revolting, without making any disturbance, and only by patiented suffering all sorts of Inhumanities', to make a new World as it were, in dispersing themselves throughout the Un-verse.  
The unheard of suddenness with which that great Change was made, was a visible Miracle. Jesus Christ had foretold that his Gospel should soon be preached over all the Earth: and that Wonder was to fall out presently after his Death, and he had said, that after he was lifted up from the Earth, 
John 8.28.12.32.  that is to say, after they had nailed him to the Cross, he would draw all men unto him. His Apostles had not yet finished their course, but St. Paul said then to the Romans, that he thanked God through Jesus Christ, 
Rom. 1.8.  that their Faith was spoken of throughout the whole World. He told the Colossians, 
Coll. 1.5, 6, 23.  that the Gospel was heard and preached to every Creature under Heaven, that he was made a Minister of it, and that it brought forth fruit, and was come to all the World. A Positive Tradition hath instructed us that St. Thomas carried it to the Indies, 
Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 25.  and the rest of them to the other distant Regions of the Earth. But there is no need to have recourse to Histories for the confirmation of this Truth: the effect declares it; and it is sufficiently seen with what reason St. Paul applies that passage of the Psalmist to the Apostles. The words of the Psalmist are these, 
Psal. 19.4.  viz. Their line is gone out through all the Earth, and their words to the end of the World: in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun: and the Apostles words are, Have they not heard? 
Rom. 10.18.  yes verily, their sound went into all the Earth, and their words unto the ends of the World. Under their Disciples, there was scarce any nook of habitable Land, how remote or unknown soever, but the Gospel one way or other was brought thither. A hundred years after the death of Christ, St. Justin then reckoned among the Faithful a great part of the wild and savage Nations, 
J●●●. Apol. 2. & Adu. Tryph.  even to those vagabond People that wandered up and down, and had no fixed places of abode to dwell in. And it was no vain amplification of the matter, but a manifest and notorious fact, that he openly declared in the presence of Emperors, and in the face of all the World. St. Ireneus comes a little after him, 
Iren. 1, 2, 3.  and we see then the Number of the Churches which he gave was considerably increased. Their agreement was admirable: what was believed among the Gauls, in Spain, and Germany, was likewise believed in Egypt, and in the East, and as there was but one and the same Sun in all the World, so was there seen in all the Church, from one end of the World unto the other, but one and the same Light of Truth.  
If we advance but a very little further, we shall stand amazed at the progress it made. In the midst of the third Age, 
Tertull. adv. Jud. 7. Ap. 37. Orig. tr. 28. in Matt. hom. 4. in Ez●ch.  Tertullian and Origen make us see in the Church whole Countries and People which but a little befor● were not to be admitted into it. Those whom Origen excepted against, who were most remote from the known World, were a while after approved of by Arno●ius. 
Arn. l. 2.  What could the World have seen that it should so readily surrender itself to Jesus Christ? If it had been Miracles, God had visibly concerned himself in that work; and if it could possibly be that it had seen none, would not this have been a new Miracle, greater and more incredible than those which would not be believed, 
Aug. 21. de Civ. 22.5.  of having converted the World without a Miracle, of having instructed so many ignorant Persons in such exalted Mysteries, and inspired so many learned Ones with such an humble Submission, as also of having convinced the Incredulous of so many things incredible.  
But the Miracle of Miracles, if I may so speak, is this, that with the belief of the Mysteries, the most eminent Virtues, and the most difficult and painful Practices were exercised almost all the World over. The Disciples of Jesus Christ followed him in his most rugged ways. To suffer all for the Truth, was a common thing with his Children; and to be Imitators of their dear and blessed Saviour, they ran to their Torments with more zeal and eagerness than others did to their greatest Pleasures and Delights. Innumerable are the Examples of the Rich, who have in a manner beggared themselves to supply the Necessities of the Poor; and so likewise of the Poor who have preferred penury and want to Riches; of Virgins who have here upon Earth imitated the life of Angels; and of the charitable Pastors and Shepherds who became all things to all men, and always were ready to give to their Flock not only their Vigils and their Labours, but to lay down their very Lives for their sakes. What shall I say concerning Repentance and Mortification? the very Judges never executed their Sentences more severely upon Criminals, than the penitent Sinners have inflicted Punishments on their own selves. Nay more, the most Innocent have with an incredible Severity punished in themselves that prodigious inclination which is in us all to sin. The life of St. John Baptist, which seemed so much to astonish the Jews, was usual among the Faithful: Deserts have been populated with his Imitators: and there were in those days so many that sought out places of Retirement, that the most perfect of them have been forced to find out Retreats of a more profound Solitude to perform the Austerities of their Piety and Devotion; so much did they shun the World, and so delightful was the life of Contemplation to them.  
These were the precious Fruits the Gospel was to be productive of. The Church abounded no less in Examples than in her Precepts, and her Doctrine appeared holy, by the infinite Number of her Saints. God Almighty, who knew that the most generous and eminent Virtues would arise from Sufferings, founded her by Martyrdom, and kept her for three hundred years in that Condition, without giving her one moments quiet or repose. After that he had by so long an Experience fully shown that he stood in no need of any Humane Succour, nor of the Powers upon Earth to establish his Church, he then called Emperors into it, and made of the Great Constantine a declared Protector of Christianity. From that time Kings have run from all parts into the Church; and all that was writ in the Prophecies concerning its future glory, has been accomplished in the sight of all the Earth.  
And if she hath been Invincible against the Efforts without, she hath been no less so against all intestine Divisions. Those Heresies so often foretold by Jesus Christ and his Apostles, have come to pass, and the Faith that was persecuted by the Emperors, did at the same time suffer a more dangerous Persecution from the Heretics. But that Persecution was never more violent than in the time that the Heathen Persecution was seen to cease. Then Hell made its utmost Efforts to destroy by itself that Church which the Assaults of its declared Enemies had strengthened and confirmed. Scarce did she begin to respire by the Peace which Constantine gave her, but behold Arrius, that unhappy Priest, raised her up greater Troubles than ever she had suffered before. Constantius the Son of Constantine, seduced by the Arrians, whose Dogmata he authorised, tormented the Catholics on all sides, became a new Persecutor of Christianity, and was so much the more formidable, as that under the Name of Jesus Christ he made war with Jesus Christ himself. For the Compliment of all her Miseries, the Church thus divided falls into the hands of Julian the Apostate, who laboured all he could to destroy Christianity, and found no better way than to foment Factions wherewith it was torn. To him succeeded a Valens as much an Arrian as Constantius, but more violent. Other Emperors protected other Heresies with as equal heat and fury. The Church learned by all these Experiences, that she was likely to suffer no less under Christian Emperors than she had done under those that were Infidel, and that she was to shed her Blood not only for the defence of all the Body of her Doctrine, but of every particular Article of it. Indeed, there was not any but what she saw assaulted by her own Children. A thousand Sects and Heresies that had come out of her Bosom were risen up against her. But if, according as Jesus Christ had foretold, she saw them rise against her, she likewise saw them fall before her according to his Promises, though they were ofttimes supported by Emperors and Kings. Her true Sons, as St. Paul says, were known by this proof; Truth, the more it was confessed, was thereby so much the more confirmed, and the Church remained, like the Building whose Foundation was on a Rock, unshaken.  

VIII. Particular Reflections upon the punishment of the Jews, and upon the Predictions of Jesus Christ, who had taken notice of it.  Whilst I have been endeavouring to show you in an uninterrupted thread of Discourse the Progress of the Counsels of God, in the Perpetuity of his People, I have hastily passed over many things which deserved very profound Reflections. Let me now have your permission to return again to them, th●t I may not leave you in a loss of such great and important matters.  
And first, I would beg of your Highness to consider with a more particular attention, the fall of the Jews, all the Circumstances whereof bear Testimony to the Gospel. Those Circumstances are unfolded to us by Infidel Authors, by Jews, and by Heathens, who without understanding the course of the Counsels and Decrees of God, have reported to us the weighty matters of Fact, by which he was pleased to declare it.  
We have Josephus, a Jewish Author, a very faithful Historian, and well versed in the affairs of his Nation, the Antiquities of which, he hath illustrated by an admirable Work. He hath written the last War, whereby it was destroyed, after he had been present at all, and had himself served his Country in it with a very considerable Command.  
The Jews do also furnish us with other very ancient Authors, whose Testimonies you will see. They have ancient Commentaries upon the Books of the Scripture, and among others, the Chaldee Paraphrases which they Print with their Bibles. They have their Book called the Talmud, that is to say, Doctrine, which they have as high a reverence for, as for the Scripture itself. 'Tis a Collection of the Treatises and Sentences of their ancient Masters; and tho' the parts whereof that great work is composed, be not all of the same antiquity, yet the last Authors who are cited there, lived in the first Ages of the Church. There, among a multitude of impertinent Stories which seem for the most part to begin after the time of our Blessed Saviour, we find very fair remains of the ancient Traditions of the Jewish People, and Proofs sufficient to convince them.  
And first of all it is certain by the Confession of the Jews themselves, that the Divine Vengeance was never more terribly, nor more manifestly declared, than it was in their last desolation.  
'Twas a positive tradition attested in their Talmud, and confirmed by all the Rabbis, that forty Years before the Destruction of Jer●salem, which came pretty near to the time of the Death of Jesus Christ, there were continually seen in the Temple strange things. Every day some new Prodigies appeared there, 
R. Johan. the Son of Zachai. Tr. de fest expiate.  so that one day a famous Rabbi cried out: O Temple, O Temple, what is that which moves thee, and why art thou afraid of thyself?  
What was more observable than that frightful noise which was heard by the Priests in the Sanctuary, on the day of Pentecost, and that audible voice that came from the inmost part of that sacred place, which said, Let us departed hence, let us departed hence? The Holy Angels which were the Protectors of the Temple did loudly declare that they were leaving it, because that God, who had made his abode in it for so many Ages, had then reprobated it.  
Josephus and Tacitus have also recounted that Prodigy to us. It was only perceived by the Priests. But there was another Prodigy which startled the Eyes of all People; and never had any other People seen the like before. 
Joseph lib. 6. de bell. Jud. c. 12. Tacit. Hist. lib. 5. c. 13.  Four years before the War was declared, a Countryman, says Josephus, cried out, A voice is gone out from the East, a voice is gone out from the West, a voice is gone on from the four Winds; a voice against Jerusalem and the Temple; a voice against Men and Women that are newly Married: a voice against all this People. And from that time neither Night nor Day did he leave crying, Woe, woe to Jerusalem. He redoubled his Cries on Feast-days. Not any other word was heard to come out of his Mouth: Those who complained of him, those who cursed him, those who gave him meat, never heard any thing else come from him, beside that terrible voice, Woe, woe to Jerusalem. He was taken, interrogated, and condemned to be scourged by the Magistrates; to every demand, and at every blow, he answered, without complaining, Woe to Jerusalem. Being let go as a Madman, he run up and down all the Country, continually repeating that heavy Prophecy. And so he held on crying for seven years, and his voice never waxed hoarse nor weary. Till at the time of the last Siege of Jerusalem, he shut himself up in the City, and upon the Walls thereof with a loud Voice, he uncessantly cried out, Woe, Woe to the City, woe to the Temple, woe to all the People; and lastly he added, Woe also to myself, which words were no sooner uttered, but a Stone slung out of an Engine, carried him away.  
Might not one almost say, may it please your Highness, that the divine Vengeance became visible in that Man, who only subsisted to pronounce its Decrees, that it had filled him with its Power, that so he might equal the Calamities of the People by his Cries; and that at last he should be destroyed by an effect of that Vengeance, which he had for so long a time before declared, to make it thereby the more sensible and the more present, when he was to be not only the Prophet and the witness of it, but also to fall a Sacrifice to it.  
That Prophet of the woes of Jerusalem was called Jesus, and was the Son of Anan●s. It seems, the Name of Jesus, a Name of Salvation and Peace, was turned to the Jews, who despised it in the person of our Saviour, to a fatal presage; and those ungrateful wretches having rejected one JESUS, who preached up to them grace, mercy and life, God sent them another JESUS, who was only to pronounce to them woes irrecoverable and remediless, and the inevitable decree of their approaching Ruin.  
Let us search a little farther into the Judgements of God, under the Conduct of the Scriptures. Jerusalem and the Temple thereof were twice destroyed; once by Nebuchadnezzer, and the other time by Titu●. But in each of those times, the Justice of God was made manifest by the same ways, though it was more conspicuous in the latter.  
For the better understanding the order of the Counsels of God, let us first lay down this Truth so often established in the sacred Oracles; that one of the most terrible effects of Divine Vengeance, is when in the Punishment of our precedent Sins, it delivers us up to a reprobate Mind, so as that we are deaf to all wise and wholesome Admonitions, blind to the ways of Salvation, which are shown to us, ready to believe every thing that ruins us, provided it does but flatter us, and bold and daring to undertake any thing without ever measuring our own Strength with that of our Enemies whom we provoke.  
Thus Jerusalem and its Princes were destroyed the first time under the hand of Nabuchadnezzar King of Babylon. Weak, and always beaten by that victorious King, they often found they made but vain Efforts against him, and were obliged to swear Fidelity to him. The Prophet Jeremiah declared to them from God, that God himself had delivered them up to that Prince, and there was no Safety for them but in submitting to the Yoke. He told to Zedekiah King of Juda, and to all his People, saying, I spoke also to Zedekiah King of Juda according to all these Words, saying, 
2 Chron. 36.12.13. Jer. 27.12, 17.  Bring your Necks under the Yoke of the King of Babylon, and serve him, and his People, and live, for why will ye die, wherefore should this City be laid waste? But they believed not his Word. Whilst Nabuchadnezzar kept them straight shut up by the prodigious Intrenchments he had made round about the City, they suffered themselves to be deceived and bewitched by their false Prophets, who puffed up their Minds with imaginary Victories, and told them in the Name of the Lord, although the Lord had not sent them: 
Jer. 28.2, 3. 2 Kings 25.  I have broken the Yoke of the King of Babylon, within two full Years will I bring again into this place a●l the Vessels of the Lords House, that Nabuchadnezzar King of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon. The People being seduced by these Promises, suffered Famine, and the hardest Extremities imaginable, and attempted so much by their audacious Madness, that there was no room left to show them Mercy. The City was overthrown, the Temple was consumed by Fire, and all things were destroyed.  
With these Marks the Jews confessed that the Hand of God was upon them. But that the divine Vengeance might be as plain and manifest to them in the last Destruction of Jerusalem, as it had been in the former, there was seen in them both, the same Seduction, the same Temerity, and the same Hardness and Obduracy.  
Tho' their Rebellion had brought upon them the Roman Arms, and they had rashly shaken off a Yoke under which all the World then bowed, Titus would not destroy it: But on the contrary, he made them several offers of Pardon, not only at the beginning of the War, but also then, when they could no longer escape his Hand. He had already raised round about Jerusalem, a long and vast Wall fortified with Towers and Redoubts as strong as the City itself, when he sent to them Josephus their fellow Citizen, one of their Captains, one of their Priests who had been taken in that War in the defence of his Country. What did he not say to them to move them to accept of Caesar's Terms? What powerful Arguments did he make use of to invite them to return to their Obedience? He made them see that both Heaven and Earth conspired against them; and their Ruin, if they resisted, was inevitable, and that their absolute Safety was in the Mercy and Clemency of Titus. Save, said he to them, the Holy City, save yourselves; save this Temple, 
Joseph. 7. de bell. Jud. c. 4.  the Wonder of the World, which the Romans pay Reverence to, and which Titus will not see destroyed but with Regret and Sorrow. But what way was there to save People that were so obstinate on their own Ruin? Being led away by their false Prophets, they would not hearken to such wise and salutary Discourses. They were reduced to Extremity: Famine destroyed greater Numbers of them than the Sword, and Mothers slew, and then dressed and eat up their own Children. Titus' touched with their sad Calamities, called his Gods to witness, that he was not the cause of their Ruin. During these miserable Times they still gave Faith to the false Predictions which promised them the Empire of the World. Nay more, the City was taken; the Fire was already blazing on all sides: And yet those mad People still believed their false Prophets who assured them that the Day of Salvation was come, that so they might still resist, and there be no hopes of Mercy left for them. In fine, they were all massacred, the City was utterly overthrown, and saving some Remains of Towers which Titus reserved to serve as a Monument to Posterity, there was not one Stone left upon another.  
Your Highness sees then that the same Vengeance broke out now upon Jerusalem, as did befall it under Zedekiah. Titus was no less sent by God than Nabuchadnezzar: The Jews were destroyed in the same manner. There was seen in Jerusalem the same Rebellion, the same Famine, the same Extremities, the same ways of Salvation opened, the same Seduction, the same Obduracy, the same Fall, and in a word, that every Circumstance was like the other: The second Temple was burnt under Titus the same Month, and the same day of it, as the first was under Nebuchadnezz●r: 
Ibid. c. 9, 10.  Every thing was remarkable, and the People could not doubt but that the Vengeance was from Heaven.  
However there is between these two Destructions of Jerusalem, and of the Jews very memorable Differences, but which all tend to make us see in this latter, a Justice more declared and rigorous. Nebuchad●●zzar commanded that Fire should be set to the Temple; Titus forgot no Arguments to save it, tho' his Counsellors represented to him, that so long as it should stand, the Jews, who were resolved to destroy them i● they could, would never leave off their Rebellions. But the fatal Day was come, which was the tenth of August, which had once before seen the Temple of Solomo● burned down to the Ground. Notwithstanding all the Prohibitions of Titus openly declared before the Romans and the Jews and notwithstanding the natural Inclination of the Soldiers to pillage rather than to consume so much Wealth and Riches, a Soldier moved, as Josephus says, with some divine Fury, was lifted up by his Fellows to a Window with a flaming Firebrand in his Hand, and cast it into the golden Gate, and so presently set fire on the Temple. Titus at the News hereof runs in haste, commanding his Soldiers to quench the growing Flames, but it took hold of all in an Instant, and so that admirable Building was burnt to Ashes.  
Now if the Jews hardness of Heart under King Zedekiah was the most terrible effect, and the most sure Sign of the Divine Vengeance, what shall we say of the Blindness which was so apparent in the time of Titus? In the first Ruin of Jerusalem the Jews did take part, and joined one with another: in the latter, Jerusalem being besieged by the Romans was torn to pieces by three Factions, Enemies. If the Hatred they all had against the Romans went out even to Fury; they were no less bloody and cruel against one another; the Battles without were less expensive of Jewish Blood than those that were within: Presently after the Assaults maintained against the Stranger, the Citizens fell together by the Ears among themselves. Violence and Thievery was every where prevailing in the City. It was destroyed, and became but an open Field of dead Bodies, and the Chiefs of the several Factions disputed only for the Empire of it. Was not this a Representation of Hell, where the Damned do no less hate one another than they hate the Devils that are their common Enemies, and where every place is full of Pride, Confusion, and Rage?  
Your Highness must confess then that the Justice which God brought on the Jews by Nabuchadnezzar was but a Shadow of that whereof Titus was the Minister. What City ever saw destroyed eleven hundred thousand Men in seven months' time, and in one only Siege? And yet this the Jews beheld in the last Siege of Jerusalem. The Chaldeans had never made them suffer the like: Their Captivity under the Chaldeans lasted but seventy Years; but it is sixteen hundred Years since they were made Slaves all over the World, and as yet they do not find any mitigation of their Slavery.  
It is not to be wondered at, if Victorious Titus, after the taking of Jerusalem, would not receive the Congratulations of the neighbouring People, nor the Crowns which they sent him in honour of his Conquest. So many memorable Circumstances, the Wrath of God, which was so manifest, and his Hand which he then saw was present, kept him in a profound Astonishment, and that made him say what you have already heard, that he was not the Conqueror, he was only a weak Instrument of the Divine Vengeance.  
But he knew not all the Mystery of it: The Hour was not yet come that the Emperors were to confess Jesus Christ. It was the time of the Humiliations and Persecutions of the Church. Wherefore Titus, tho' he was illuminated enough to understand that Juda was destroyed by a manifest effect of God's Justice, yet he did not know what the Crime was that made God resolved so terribly to punish her. But it was the greatest of all Crimes, a Crime till then unheard of, that is to say the Deicide, which also brought down such a Vengeance as never before the World had seen any Example of.  
But if we will a little open our eyes, and consider the course of things, we shall see that neither that Sin of the Jews, nor their Punishment, could be concealed from us.  
Let us remember only what Jesus Christ had foretold them. He had prophesied the absolute destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Temple: when he said, 
Matth. 24.1, 2. Mark 13.1, 2. Luke 21.5, 6.  Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.  
He had foretold the manner how that ungrateful City should be besieged, and that dreadful Circumvallation which should begird it: he likewise foretold the dismal Famine which was to fall upon her Citizens, and had not forgot to speak of the false Prophets, by whom they should be seduced. He had admonished the Jews that the time of their Misery was nigh at hand: he had given certain particular signs which were to point out the precise moment of it: he unfolded to them the long Chain of their Sins, which would draw upon them so heavy and woeful a Punishment. In a word, he had related the whole History of the Siege, and of the Desolation of Jerusalem.  
Your Highness may likewise be pleased to observe, that he made them these Predictions but a little before his Passion, that so they might the better understand the cause of all their Miseries. His Passion was very near when he told them, Behold, 
Matth. 23. 3●, 35, 36, 37.  I send unto yo● Prophets, and Wisemen, and Scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall you scourge in your Synagogues, and persecute them from City to City: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the Earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, Son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the Temple and the Alt●r: Verily I say unto yo●, all these things shall come upon this Generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them who are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy Children together, even as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings, and ye would not? behold, your House is left un●o you desolate.  
Thus you have the History of the Jews. They persecuted their Messiah, both in his own Person, and in that of his Disciples and Followers: they stirred up all the World against his Disciples, and would not let them enjoy any quiet in any City: they armed the Romans and Emperors against the growing Church: they stoned St. Stephen, killed the two S. James', whose holiness made them become venerable even among themselves, sacrificed St. Peter and St. Paul by the Sword and by the hands of the Gentiles. So that they must needs be destroyed; for so much Blood mixed with that of the Prophets whom they had massacred, cried aloud to Heaven for vengeance: Their Houses and their City was to be desolate; their destruction should be no less than their Crime: Jesus Christ advertised them of it: the time was very nigh: 
Matth. 24.34. Mark 13 30. Luke 19.42.  that Generation should not pass, till all these things were fulfilled; that is to say, that those men who were then alive should be Witnesses of it.  
But let us go on, and hear out the rest of our blessed Saviour's Prophecies to them. As he was making his Entrance into Jerusal●m some days before his Crucifixion, being touched with a sense of the Calamities which his Death would bring upon that wretched City, he beheld it with sorrowful and weeping eyes; Ah, said he, Thou unhappy City, if thou hadst known, even thou, 
Luk. 19.41, 42  at least in this thy day, which is yet given thee for repentance, the things which belong unto thy Peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine Enemies shall cast a Trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy Children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knowest not the time of thy Visitation.  
This was a plain and sufficient setting forth both of the manner of the Siege, and of the last effects of Wrath and Vengeance: But Jesus could not yet go to his Cross without declaring to Jerusalem the heavy Punishment that was one day to fall on her for that unworthy Treatment he had received among them. As he went to Mount Calvarie, bearing his Cross on his Shoulders, There followed him a great Company of People, and of Women, who also bewailed and lamented him; he stood still, and turning about to them, he breaks forth into these passionate Expressions, Daughters of Jerusalem, 
Luke 23.27, 28, 29.  weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your Children: For behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the Barren, and the Wombs that never bore, and the Paps which never gave suck. Thee shall they begin to say to the Mountains, fall on us, and to the Hills, cover us. For if they do these things in a green Tree, what shall be done in the dry? If the Innocent, if the Just must suffer so severe a Punishment, what may then the Guilty expect?  
Did Jeremiah ever more bitterly deplore the destruction of the Jews? what more powerful and efficacious words could our Saviour speak to make them understand their Misery and Despair, and that horrible Famine, so fatal to the Children, so fatal to their Mothers, who should behold their Breasts dried up, and they to have nothing left them but their Tears to feed their crying staring Children with, and then who at last should be forced themselves to eat up the Fruit of their Wombs to abate the extremity of their own Hunger.  

IX. Two memorable Predictions of our blessed Saviour are explained, and their accomplishment justified by History.  These were the Predictions he openly declared to all the People. Those he gave in private to his Disciples deserve a more particular attention still. They are comprised in that long and admirable Discourse where he joins together the Ruin of Jerusalem with that of the Universe. That Unity was mysterious, and this the design of it.  
Jerusalem, that happy City which our Lord had chosen, as long as it kept in the Covenant, and in the Faith of the Promises, was the Type of the Church, and the Figure of Heaven, where God discovers himself to his Children. That is the reason we ofttimes see the Prophets to join in the Thread of the same Discourse, 
Matth. 24. Mark 13. Luke 21.  what respects Jerusalem to that which regards the Church and the Celestial Glory. 'Tis one of the Secrets of the Prophecies, and one of the Keys which opens the Understanding of them: But Jerusalem, as it was reprobate and ungrateful towards her Saviour, was to be the Type and Image of Hell. Her perfidious Citizens were to represent the damned; and the terrible Judgement which Jesus Christ was to execute upon them, was to be the Figure of that which he was to bring on all the World when he should come at the end of all things in his glorious Majesty to judge the quick and the dead. 'Tis the way of the Scripture, and one of the methods it makes use of for the imprinting of Mysteries into our minds, to mingle for our Instruction Types and Truth together. Thus our Lord hath intermingled the History of desolated Jerusalem with that of the end of the World; and this has been plainly visible in all our Discourse of it.  
But however, let us not imagine that these things were so confounded that we could not discern what belonged to each of them. Jesus Christ has distinguished them by certain Characters, which I could easily make out if there were any question about them. But I will content myself with giving you to understand what relates to the Desolation of Jerusalem and the Jews.  
The Apostles (for it was then at the time of the Passion) being got together round about their Master, shown him the Temple, and the delicacy of the Buildings: they admired the Stones thereof, 
Matth. 24.1, 2. Mark 13.1 2. Luke 21.5, 6.  their disposition, their Beauty, and their strength; and he said to them, See you these great and goodly Buildings? verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one Stone upon another. Being astonished at his words, they asked him when would come the time of so terrible a Destruction; and he, who would have them by no means surprised in Jerusalem when it should be sacked, (for he had a mind there should be in the sacking of that City a Type and Image of the last Separation of the Good from the Bad) began to relate to them all the sad Calamities, as they were to fall out one upon the heels of the other.  

Matth. 24.7. Mark 13.3. Luke 21.8, 9  First, he observes to them that there should be Plagues, Famines, and Earthquakes in divers places; and the Histories do bear testimony, that those things had never been more frequent nor more remarkable than they were during those times. He added, that there should be all the World over, Troubles, rumours of Wars, bloody and dreadful Wars, for Nation should rise against Nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom; and all the Earth should be in an uproar and confusion. Can he better represent to us the last years of Nero, when all the Roman Empire, that is to say all the World, so quiet and peaceful since the Victory of Augustus, and under the power of the Emperors, began to be shaken, and the Gauls, the Spaniards, and all the Kingdoms of which the Empire was made up, were in tumult all of a sudden; four Emperors to rise up almost at the same punctuality of time against Nero, and each against the other; the Praetorian Cohorts, the Armies of Syria, Germany, and all the others that were dispersed both in the East and West, to shock and traverse one another under the Conduct of their Emperors from one end of the World to the other to decide their quarrels by bloody Battles? All these things were to come to pass, said the Son of God, but the end would not be yet. The Jews should suffer like the rest in that Universal Commotion of the World; but there should come upon them quickly after more particular Calamities, and th●se to be but the beginning of Sorrows too.  
He adds, that his Church which had been evermore afflicted from its f●rst establishment, should see Persecution kindling against her, 
Matth. 24.9. Mark 13.9. Luke 21.12.  more terrible and violent than ever yet it had been. You saw that Nero in his last years attempted the destruction of the Christians, and caused St. Peter and St. Paul to be put to death. That Persecution which was stirred up by the Jealousies and Violences of the Jews hastened their Ruin, but it did not as yet point out the particular time.  
The coming of false Christ's and false Prophets seemed to be a nearer step to their last ruin: for the ordinary destiny of those who refused to lend an Ear to the Truth, was to be drawn on to their ruin by the deceiving Prophets. Jesus Christ did not hid this from his Apostles, that this should be the Calamity that should befall the Jews; for he said, that many false Prophets should rise, and should deceive many, 
Matth. 24.11.23, 24. Mark 13.22, 23. Luke 21.8.  they should show great signs and wonders, insomuch that (if it were possible) they should deceive the very Elect. But take you heed, behold I have foretold you all things.  
It ought not to be said that this was an easy thing for any one to divine that knew the humour and complexion of the Nation: for to the contrary I have shown, that the Jews being wearied by these Seducers, who had so often been the cause of their ruin, and especially of Zedekiah, were so throughly disabused at last, that they left off further harkening to them. For above five hundred years not a false Prophet was to be seen in Israel. But Hell itself, which gave them inspiration, raised them up again at the coming of Jesus Christ, and God who restrained those deceiving Spirits according to his own wise pleasure, did then let lose the Reins, that so he might send at that very time that Punishment on the Jews, and that Trial to his faithful Ones. Never did there appear so many false Prophets as then presently after the death of our Saviour, especially about the time of the Jewish War, and under the Reign of Nero who began it. 
Joseph. of the Antiquity of the Jews, lib. 20. cap. 6.  Josephus tells us there were a world of those Impostors, who persuaded the common People to follow them into the Desert by their vain Enchantments and tricks of Magic, promising them a sudden and a miraculous deliverance. Therefore for this very reason was it that the Desert is pointed at in the Predictions of our Lord, as one of the places where those false Saviour's and Deliverers should hid themselves, who afterwards you have seen so to bewitch the Common People to their utter ruin and destruction. You need not doubt but that the Name of Christ, 
Matth. 24.16.  without which there was no perfect Deliverance to be expected by the Jews, was made use of in those imaginary and delusory Promises, and you will see in what follows enough to convince you of it.  
Judea was not the only Province which was exposed to those Illusions. They were common throughout all the Empire. There was no time wherein all the Historians discover to us a greater number of those Impostors, who made their brags of foretelling things to come, and so deceived the People by their Enchantments. Simon the Magician, Ely●as the Sorcerer, Apollonius Tyan●●s, and an infinite number of other Magicians, described both in the Sacred and Profane Histories, risen up in that Age, wherein Hell seemed to lay out its last Efforts to support its shaken Empire. Wherefore Jesus Christ observed at that time, chief among the Jews, there would be that prodigious number of false Prophets. Who will please narrowly to consider his words, will see that they were to be multiplied both before and after the destruction of Jerusalem, but still it was to be about that time; and that then the Seduction being strengthened by false Miracles and false Doctrines, should be so subtle and so powerful, as if it were possible, even the very Elect should be deceived by them.  
I do not say but that at the end of the World, there is to be somewhat like this, and that which will prove more dangerous, for we have already taken notice that what was to befall Jerusalem, was a manifest Type of those last Times: But this is certain that Jesus Christ gave that Seduction to us, as one of the most sensible Effects of the Wrath of God upon the Jews, and as one sign of their Ruin. The Event hath justified his Prophecy: Every thing was here attested by irreproachable Evidences. We read the prediction of their Errors in the Gospel: We have seen the accomplishment of them in their Histories, and especially in that of Josephus.  
After that Jesus Christ had foretold those things, from the design he had to deliver those that were his from the Miseries wherewith Jerusalem was threatened, he came to those nearer Signs that should quickly be followed with the last Desolation of that City.  
God doth not always give to his Elect such marks. In those terrible Chastisements which make whole Nations to be astonished at his Power, he ofttimes strikes the Righteous with the Guilty: For he hath better ways to separate and divide them than those that are obvious to our Senses. The same Blow that breaks the Chaff, separates the good Grain: 
Aug. 1. de Civit. D●●. c. 8.  Gold is tried in the same Fire wherein the Chaff is consumed; and under the same Punishments by which the Wicked are cut off, the Faithful are purified. But in the Destruction of Jerusalem, that so the Image of the last Judgement might be the more lively expressed, and the divine Vengeance be more remarkable on the Unbelievers; he would not have the Jews who had received the Gospel, be confounded with the others; and therefore our blessed Saviour gave his Disciples certain Signs by which they might know when it should be time for them to get out of that reprobated City. He grounded himself, according as his manner was, upon the ancient Prophecies, of which he was both the Interpreter and the End; and reflecting on the Place where the last Ruin of Jerusalem was so clearly shown to Daniel; he says thus, 
Matt. 24.15. Mark 13.14.  When ye therefore shall see the Abomination of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, stand in the holy Place (whoso readeth, let him understand.) or as it is in St. Mark, standing where it ought not; then let them that be in Judea, flee to the Mountains. St. Luke relates the same thing in other Words: And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with Armies, 
Luke 21.20, 21.  then know that the Desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them that be in Judea, flee to the Mountains.  
One Evangelist explains another, and in comparing those Passages together, it is easy to understand that that Abomination foretold by Daniel was the same thing with the Armies round about Jerusalem. 
Orig. tr. 29. in Matt. Aug. Ep. 80. ad Hesych.  The holy Fathers have thus understood it, and the Reason convinces us of it.  
The Word Abomination, as the holy Language uses it, signifies an Idol; and who does not know that the Roman Armies bore in their Ensigns the Images of their Gods, and of their Caesars, who were had in greater Reverence than all their Gods? Those Ensigns were to the Soldiers an Object of worship; and because Idols, according to God's Decrees, were never to appear in the holy Land, the Roman Ensigns were banished from thence. Also we see in Histories, that whilst among the Romans there remained any, tho' never so little Consideration for the Jews, the Roman Ensigns were never seen in Judea. Therefore it was that Vitellius, when he went into that Province to carry the War into Arabia, caused his Troops to march without any Colours; for the Jewish Religion was at that time had in Reverence, 
Joseph. l. 18. c. 7.  and they would not force that People to endure things that were so contrary to their Law. But in the time of the last Jewish War, it is very much to be believed that the Romans did not any whit spare a People whom they were resolved utterly to destroy. So that when Jerusalem was besieged, it was surrounded with as many Idols as there were Roman Ensigns in the Army, and the Abomination did never appear so great, standing where it ought not, that is to say, in the holy Land, and round about the Temple.  
Was this then, may some say, that great Sign that Jesus Christ was to give? Was it then high time to fly when Titus besieged Jerusalem, and when he so closely bl●cked up the Avenues, that there was no place left for them to make their escape at? This was the Marvel of the Prophecy. Jeru●alem was besieged twice in those times: The first by Cestius the Governor of Syria, in the sixty eighth Year of our Saviour; the second, by Titus four Years after, that is to say, in the Year seventy two. 
Joseph. 2. de be●. Jud. c. 23, 24. Ibid. l. 6, 7.  In the last Siege there was no possible Means of saving themselves, Titus made that War with so much heat and violence; he surprised all the Nation, being then in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles, and not one made their escape; and that formidable Circumvallation which he made round the City, put its Inhabitants out of all manner of Hopes. But there was no such thing in the Siege of Cestius, who was encamped fifty Furlongs, that is to say, six Miles from Jerusalem. His Army was dispersed all round it, but without making any Intrenchments, 
Joseph. lib. 2. c. 23, 24.  and he managed the War so negligently, that he slipped the Opportunity of taking the City, tho' their Terror, Seditions, and even their Intelligences opened the Gates to him. At that time, so far was their Retreat from being impossible, 
Joseph. Ibid.  that the History expressly takes notice that many of the Jews did retire into the Towers, and other Places of Safety and Defence. Then it was that they ought to have made their Flight: That was the Signal which the Son of God gave to his own People. So likewise did he most exactly distinguish the two Sieges: The one was, When their Enemies should cast a Trench about them and compass them round, 
Luke 19.23.21.20, 21.  and keep them in on every side; then nothing but Death was to be expected by those who should be shut up in the City: The other was, when it should be only compassed with Armies, and rather Invested than really Besieged, then was it that they were to flee, and retire unto the Mountains.  
The Christians obeyed the Command of the●r Messiah. Tho' there were many Thousands of them both in Jerusalem and in Judea, we do not read either in Josephus, 
Euseb. 3. Hist. Ec●les. c. 5. Epiph. Haer. 7. Nazar. & lib. de pon●. & mensur.  or in the other Histories, that one of them was found in the City when it was taken. On the contrary, it is positively affirmed in the Ecclesiastical Histories, and in all the Monuments of our Ancestors, that they did withdraw into a little City called Pella, in a mountainous Country, near to the Desert, towards the Confines of Judea and Arabia.  
We may be by that satisfied how exactly they were forewarned of it; and there is nothing more remarkable than that separation of the incredulous Jews from those Jews who were converted to Christianity; the one remaining in Jerusalem to undergo the Punishment of their Infidelity, and the others being retired, as Lot was from Sodom, to a small City, where with trembling they considered of the Effects of the divine Vengeance, from which Almighty God had been pleased to rescue and preserve them.  
Besides the Predictions of Jesus Christ, there were likewise several others from many of his Disciples; and among the rest those of St. Peter and St. Paul. As they were dragging to their Deaths, those two faithful Witnesses of Jesus Christ's being risen, they declared openly to the Jews who should deliver them to the Gentiles, their approaching Ruin: telling them, That Jerusalem was utterly to be destroyed, 
Lact. divin. Instit. l. 4. c. 21.  that they should die with Famine and Despair; that they should be for ever banished from the Land of their Fathers, and sent into Captivity through all the World; that the time was nigh at Hand, and all those Miseries should come upon them for having with so many cruel Reproaches insulted over the wellbeloved Son of God, who had declared himself to them by so many Miracles.  
Pious Antiquity has preserved to us this Prediction of the Apostles, which was to be attended with so close and sudden an Accomplishment, St. Peter had given them several others, either from a particular Inspiration, 
Phleg. l. 13, 14. Chron. apud Orig. l. 2. cont. Cells.  or from his explaining the Words of his Master: And Phlegon, a Heathen Author, whose Testimony Origen produces, hath written, that all this Apostle had foretold, was to a tittle accomplished upon them.  
So that nothing befell the Jews but what was before hand prophesied of them. The Cause of their Ruin is clearly painted out to us in the Contempt they cast upon Jesus Christ and his Disciples. The time of Grace was past, and their Destruction was inevitable.  
Your Highness may see therefore that it was in vain for Titus to attempt to save Jerusalem and the Temple. The Decree was gone out from on high, there was not to be one Stone left upon another. And if one Roman Emperor vainly attempted to hinder the Ruin of the Temple, another Roman Emperor did yet more vainly attempt to rebuild it. Julian the Apostate, after he had declared War against Jesus Christ, thought himself powerful enough to frustrate his Predictions. In the design he had of raising up on all sides Enemies to the Christians, he stooped so low as to seek to the Jews, who were the Refuse and Off-scowring of the World. He excited them to build their Temple; he gave them vast sums of Money, and assisted them with all the Power of the Empire. But harken to the event, and you will find how God confounded the proud Princes. The holy Fathers, and the Ecclesiastical Historians, do with one common consent report it, and justify it by Monuments which remain still from their time. But the matter ought to be attested by Heathens themselves. 
Amm. Marcel. l. 23. init.  Ammianus Marcellinus, a Gentile in his Religion, and a zealous defender of Julian, hath recorded it in these Terms, Whilst Alipius, being assisted by the Governor of the Province, was advancing the Work with all the Might he could, terrible Globes of Fire broke forth from the very Foundations which they before had shaken by violent Assaults; the Workmen, who several times essayed to begin the Work anew, were many times burnt; the place became inaccessible, and so the undertaking fell.  
The Ecclesiastical Authors, who are more exact in representing so memorable an Event, do join with that of the Earth, the Fire of Heaven too. But after all, the Word of Jesus Christ abides firm and sure. St. John chrysostom cries out: 
Orat. in Judaeos.  He hath built his Church on the Rock, nothing shall be able to overthrow it; the Temple nothing shall be able to build up again: None can pull down what God erects, nor can any build up again, what God pulls down.  
Let us now make an end of our Discourse on Jerusalem and the Temple, and cast our Eyes a little on the People themselves, heretofore the living Temple of the Lord of Hosts, and now the Object of his ●●arred. The Jews are more leveled than their Temple and their City. The Spirit of Truth is no longer among them; Prophecy is quite at an end with them; the Promises on which the stress of their Hopes depends, are vanished; all things are topsy turvy with that People, and there is not one Stone left upon another.  
And do but observe how far they are delivered up to Error, Jesus Christ told it them, I am come in my Father's Name, 
John 5.43.  and ye receive me not; if another shall come in his own Name, him ye will receive. From that time, the Spirit of Seduction hath been so predominant among them, that they are ready still, at every moment, to let themselves be carried away by it. It was not enough that the false Prophets should deliver Jerusalem into the Hands of Titus; the Jews were not as yet banished Judea, and the Love they had for Jerusalem, had obliged several of them to choose their Place of Abode among its Ruins. Behold a false Christ arose up, who was absolutely to complete their Destruction. Fifty Years after the taking of Jerusalem, in the Age of the Death of our Lord, the famous Barchochebas, a Robber, a wicked Wretch, because his Name signified the Son of the Star, impiously called himself the Star of Jacob foretold in the Book of Numbers, and pretended he was the Christ. Akibas, 
Numb. 24.17. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 4.6, 8.  a Man of greatest Authority among the Rabbis, after whose Example all those whom the Jews call their Sages, came over to his Party, tho' the Impostor gave than no other sign of his Mission, but that Akibas told them the Christ could not be very far off. The Jews revolted throughout all the Roman Empire, under the Conduct of Barchochebas, 
●alm. Hier. de jeju●. ●5 in ver. Comm. sup. Lam. Jerem. Maimonid. li. de jur. Reg. c. 12.  who promised them the Empire of the World. Adrian killed six hundred thousand of them: The Yoke of those miserable Wretches was very heavy, and they were for ever banished Judea.  
Who is there but sees that the Spirit of Seduction had seized their hearts? Because they received not the love of the Truth, that they might be saved, 
2 Thess. 2.10, 11, 12.  for that cause God sent them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. There is no Imposture so gross but what deceives them. In our days an Impostor called himself Christ in the East; and all the Jews began to run in Flocks about him: we have seen them in Italy, in Holland, in Germany, and at Metz, ready to leave all for the sake of following him. They imagined already that they were becoming the Masters of the World, when they learned that their Christ was made a Turk, and had forsaken the Law of Moses.  
We need not to wonder if they be fallen into such Dispersions, 
X. The Progress of the Jewish Errors, and the manner how they explain the Prophecies.  nor if the Tempest has scattered them, after they had forsaken their own way. That way was pointed out to them in their Prophecies, especially in those which designated the time of our Saviour Christ. But they let slip those precious Opportunities without any whit benefitting themselves by them; wherefore we have seen them afterwards given up to believe a lie, and they never knew since what course to take.  
Give me leave a little to recount to you the course and progress of their Errors, and all the Methods they have taken to sink themselves into this Abyss. The ways by which we come to wander, tend always to the broad Road; and by considering where our wand'ring hath begun, we may more securely go on in the right way.  
Your Highness hath seen, that two Prophecies have set forth to the Jews the time of Christ's coming, that of Jacob, and that of Daniel. They both did foretell the ruin of the Kingdom of Judah at the time of our Saviour's Advent. But Daniel revealed how that a total Destruction should come upon that Kingdom after the death of Christ: and Jacob said plainly, that in the Declension of the Kingdom of Judah, that Christ which should then come should be the Expectation of the People; that is to say, that he should be the Deliverer of them, and that he should erect to himself a new Kingdom, not only framed out of one single People, but out of all the People of the World. The words of the Prophecy can admit of no other sense, and it was the constant positive Tradition of the Jews that they were thus to understand it.  
From thence that Opinion which was spread abroad by the ancient Rabbis, and which is yet to be seen in their Talmud, 
Gem. tr. Sanhed. c. 11.  that at the time that Christ was to come, there should be no more Magistracy: so that there was nothing more necessary to make them know the time of their Messiah, than only to observe when they were falling into that woeful Condition.  
In fine, they had begun well, and if they had not had their minds prepossessed with the worldly Grandeurs which they hoped to find in their Messiah, and which they thought to have a share of under his Empire, they could never have been mistaken in Jesus Christ. The Foundation they had laid was certain: for as soon as the Tyranny of the first Herod, and the change of the Jewish Commonwealth which happened in his time, had discovered to them the punctuality of the Declension set forth in the Prophecy, they doubted not but that Christ was coming, and they should see that new Kingdom in which all People were to be reunited.  
One thing which they took notice of, was, that the power of life and death was taken from them. 
Talm. Hierosol. tr. Sanhed. Dan. 13.  That was a great change, since they had ever enjoyed that great privilege till then, to what Dominion soever they were subjected, nay, even in Babylon during their Captivity. The History of Susanna plain enough shows that, and it was a most certain Tradition among them. The Kings of Persia, who reestablished them, 
1 Esdr. 7.23, 24, 25, 26.  left them that power by an express Decree, which has been already observed in its proper place; and we have also seen that the first Seleucides had rather enlarged than straitened their Privileges. I need not here to repeat any thing of the Reign of the Maccabees, where they were not only enfranchised, but became mighty and formidable to their Enemies. Pompey, who weakened them, as we have already likewise seen, being content with the Tribute he had laid upon them, and with putting them in such a condition that the People of Rome might dispose of them upon occasion, left them their Prince, with all his Jurisdiction. It is sufficiently known that they received such usage from the Romans; and that they never meddled with their Government among themselves in those Countries where they suffered them to have their Natural Kings.  
In fine, the Jews were resolved to lose that power they had of life and death, but forty years before the Destruction of the second Temple; and it is to be questioned whether this was not the first Herod that ever attempted to make this breach on their Liberty. For since, 
Joseph. of't. 14. 17.  as well to be revenged of the Sanhedrim, where he had himself been obliged to appear before he was made King, as afterwards to gain over to himself the absolute Authority, he had attacked that Assembly which was as the Senate founded by Moses, and the perpetual Council of the Nation, that exercised the Supreme Jurisdiction; by little and little that great Body lost its power, and but very little of it did remain at the time when Christ came into the World. Affairs grew worse and worse under Herod's Sons, when the Kingdom of Archelaus, whereof Jerusalem was the Capital City, being reduced into a Roman Province, was governed by Precedents whom the Emperors sent thither. In that wretched and pitiable estate the Jews had so small a share of the power of life and death, that to get Jesus Christ to be put to death, whom notwithstanding they were resolved to crucify whatsoever it should cost them, they were fain to have recourse to Pilate, and that weak Governor having told them that they should judge him to Death by their own Law, they presently answered him, that it was not lawful for them to put any man to death. 
John 18, 31. Acts 12.1, 2, 3.  And so likewise by the hands of Herod they caused St. James, the Brother of St. John, to be beheaded, and clapped St. Peter into Prison. When they had resolved on the death of St. Paul, they delivered him into the hands of the Romans, as they had already done Jesus Christ; 
Acts 24.  and the Sacrilegious Vow of their false Zelots, who had sworn neither to eat or drink before they had killed that holy Apostle, sufficiently discovered that they were sensible they had lost their power of taking away his life in a Judicial Course of Proceeding. If they stoned indeed St. Stephen, that was done tumultuously by the Rabble, and by an effect of those Seditious Transports which the Romans could not always suppress in those who called themselves at that time the Devout. 
Acts 7.57, 58.  This is held for certain then, as well by those Histories, as by the consent of the Jews, and by the posture of their Affairs, that towards the time of our Saviour, and especially in that when he began the Exercise of his Ministry, they absolutely lost their Temporal Authority. They could not behold that their loss, without remembering that ancient Oracle of Jacob, which had foretold them, that in the time of the Messiah there should be no longer among them either Power, Authority, or Magistracy. One of their most ancient Authors takes notice of it, and it is but reason in him to acknowledge that the Sceptre was not then in Judah, nor any Authority among the Heads of the People, seeing that the public Power was taken from them, 
Tract. voc. magn. Gen. seu come. in Gen.  and the Sanhedrim being degraded, the Members of that great Body were no more looked on as Judges, but as bare simple Doctors. Therefore according to their own reckoning, it was much about the time that Christ was to appear. And as they saw then that certain Sign of this new King's coming to be very near at hand, whose Empire was to extend itself over all People, they did effectually believe that he would appear. The noise thereof spread itself round about, and all the East were fully persuaded that it would not be long before they saw come out of Judah those who should Reign over all the Earth.  
Tacitus and Suetonius report this Story as being established by a positive Opinion, and by an ancient Oracle which was found in the Sacred Books of the Jews. 
Suet. Vespas. Tacit. l. 5. hist. c. 13. Joseph. de bell. Jud. 7.12. Hegisip. de Excid. Jer. v. 44.  Josephus relates that Prophecy in the same terms, and says as they did, that it was found in the holy Scriptures. The Authority of those Books, whose Predictions were seen so visibly accomplished in so many Instances, was very great in all the Eastern Country; and the Jews more attentive than any other in observing the several Conjunctures which were chief written for their Instruction, acknowledged the time of the Messiah which Jacob had pointed out in their declension. Thus the Reflections they made upon their Condition were very just; and without being deceived about the time of Christ's Advent, they confessed he was to come just in that very point of time he did. But, O the weakness of Humane Understanding, and the Vanity which is the inevitable Source of Blindness! the Humility of their Saviour concealed from those proud Souls the true Grandeurs which they were to look for in their Messiah. They would have had him to have been a King like to the other Kings of this World; which was the reason that the Flatterers of the first Herod, dazzled with the Greatness and Magnificence of that Prince, who, as much a Tyrant as he was, yet forgot not to enrich Judea, 
Epiph. lib. 1. haer. 20. Herodian.  said that he himself was that King so much promised. 'Twas that also which gave way to the Sect of the Herodians, by whom he was so much spoken of in the Gospel, and whom the Heathen confessed; 
Matth. 22.16. Mark 3.6.12.13. Pers. & Vet. Scholar Sat. v. 11. 180. Joseph. de bell. Jud. 3.14.  for Persius and his Scholiast informs us, that even in the time of Nero, the Birth of King Herod was celebrated by his Followers with the same Solemnity as the Sabbath. Josephus stumbles into the like Error. That Man, being instructed, as he says himself, in the holy Books of the Prophets, and himself a Priest as his Parents ●ere, acknowledged that indeed the coming of that King, so much promised by Jacob, exactly agreed with the time of Herod, where he shows us himself with that industrious care a manifest beginning of the ruin of the Jews: but as he saw nothing in his own Nation which filled up those ambitious Ideas that it had conceived of its Christ; he went on somewhat further before the time of the Prophecy, 
Lib. 3. the bell. Jud. 14.7.12.  and applying himself to Vespasian, he assured that the Oracle of the Scripture signified that Prince the delared Emperor in Judea.  
Thus did he wrest the holy Scriptures to authorise his Flattery; and being miserably blind, he bestowed upon Strangers the hopes of Jacob and Judah; he sought in Vespasian the Son of Abraham and of David; and to an Idolatrous Prince attributed the Title of him whose light was to draw off the Gentiles from Idolatry.  
That conjuncture of time favoured it much. But whilst he was attributing to Vespasian what Jacob had spoken of Christ, the Zealots who defended Jerusalem, attributed it to themselves. And it was upon that only Foundation that they promised themselves the Empire of the World, 
Joseph. de bell. Jud. lib. 7.  as Josephus relates it; more reasonable than himself, in that a● lest they went not out of the Nation 〈◊〉 seek for the accomplishment of the Promis●● made to their Forefathers.  
How blind were they to that great advantage which the preaching of the Gospel th●● made among the Gentiles, and to that n●● Empire which Jesus Christ was setting up over all the Earth? What was more glorious and beautiful than an Empire in which Piety was to reign, the true God to triumph over Idolatry, Eternal Life to be published and declared to Infidel Nations, and was not even the Empire of the Caesars a piece of pompous vanity in comparison with this? But however that Empire seemed not illustrious enough to charm the Eyes of the World.  
How ought we to be disabused from these earthly Grandeurs before we can come to any true knowledge of Jesus Christ! the Jews understood the time: the Jews saw the People called to the God of Abraham according to Jacob's Prophecy by Jesus Christ and his Disciples; and yet for all that they mistook even that Jesus who was signalised to them by so many signs. And altho' throughout the whole course of his life, and after his death, he confirmed his Mission by so many extraordinary Miracles, yet those besotted and infatuated Wretches rejected him, because they could see nothing in him but a solid Grandeur which was void of all that splendid Decoration which strikes the Senses, and because he seemed rather come to condemn than to reward their vain Ambition.  
And yet however, forced by the Conjunctures and Circumstances of time, in spite of their blindness and obduracy, they sometimes seemed to veil to their Prepossessions. Every thing at the time of our Lord was so exactly fitted to the Manifestation of the Messiah, that they were in great suspicion lest St. John the Baptist might be he. 
Luke 3.15. 1 John 19.20.  His manner of life, which was austere, extraordinary, and very surprising, touched them sensibly; and tho' the Grandeurs of the World was wanting, yet they appeared at first as if they were willing to be satisfied with the lustre of so amazing and prodigious a life. The simple and common life of our Jesus Christ was offensive to those gross, as well as proud Spirits, who were only capable of being taken by their Senses, and who otherwise being far enough from a sincere Conversion, would admire nothing but what they looked on as inimitable. So that St. John the Baptist, who they thought deserved to be the Christ, was not believed when he declared to them the true Christ: and Jesus Christ, whom they must have imitated as soon as they had believed on him, appeared to the Jews too humble and meek for them to follow him.  
But yet the Impression that was made upon them, that Christ must appear about that time, was so strong and powerful, that they could not wear it off for almost a whole Age. They thought the fulfilling of the Prophecies might have a certain extent; and was not still wholly determined to a precise particular point of time; so that for almost an hundred years they talked of nothing but of false Christ's that got themselves to be followed, and of false Prophets who declared them. The foregoing had never seen any thing like it; and the Jews made no such brags of the Name of Christ, neither when Judas Maccabeus gained so many Victories over their Tyrant, nor when his Brother Simon freed them from the Yoke o● the Gentiles, nor yet when the first Hyr●● got so many Conquests. The time, and the other signs did not then agree to it, and it was only in that Age of Jesus Christ that they began to speak of all those Messiahs. The Samaritans, who read the Prophecy of Jacob in the Pentateuch, made themselves Christ's as well as the Jews, and a little after Jesus Christ they called to mind their Dosithe●. 
Orig. Tract. 27. in Matt. Tom. 14. in Joh. 1. cant. Cells. Iren. 1. 20, 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. John 4.25.  Simon the Magician of the same Country, boasted also that he was the Son of God, and Menander his Disciple called himself the Saviour of the World. Whilst Christ was living and amongst them the Samaritans believed the Messiah was near coming: so generally was it expected in the Nation, and among all those who read the ancient Oracle of Jacob, that Christ was to appear in those days.  
When the time was so past that there was no further expectation of him, and that the Jews had seen by Experience that all the Messiahs whom they had followed, were so far from delivering them from their Evils, that they had but the more emerged them in 'em; it was then a good while e'er was seen among them any more new Messiahs; and Barchochebas was the last whom they owned as such in those first and early times of Christianity. But the old Impression could not yet utterly be done away. In stead of believing that Christ had appeared, as they had done in the time of Adrian; under the Antonines his Successors, they thought upon ●his, to say that Christ was in the World, ●ho ' he did not then make himself visible, because he tarried for the Prophet Elias, who was to come to consecrate him. This was a common Discourse amongst them in the ●ime of St. Justin; 
Just in. adv. Tryph.  and we also find in their Talmud the Doctrine of one of their ancientest Masters, who said, that Christ was come according as he was declared in the Prophets; 
R. Juda filius Levi. Gem. San. 11.  but he kept himself secret somewhere at Rome among the poor Mendicants.  
But such an Opinion as this (so wild and extravagant) could not sink into their minds; therefore the Jews, being at last forced to confess that the Messiah was not come in the time they had reason to expect him according to their ancient Prophecies, fell into another extreme as bad as the former. But a little more, and they had renounced their Messiah who failed them in time; and several of them followed a famous Rabbi, 
R. Hillel. Ibid. Is. Abran. de C. fidei.  whose words are likewise found preserved in the Talmud. He seeing how far the time of his coming was gone and passed, concluded, That the Israelites were to look for their Messiah no longer, because he had been given to them in the Person of Ezekiah.  
Indeed this Opinion too was so far from obtaining amongst them, that they did quite detest it. But as they could not tell what further to make of the times pointed out to them by the Prophecies, and knew not which way in the world to extricate themselves from this Labyrinth, they then made an Article of Faith of this which we read in the Talmud, 
Gem. San. c. 11. Moses Maimon. in Epit. Talm. Is. Abran. de cap. fidei.  All the times which were designated for the coming of the Messiah were passed; and with an universal consent they cried out, Cursed be those who reckon the times of the Messiah: Just as we see in a Tempest that has driven the Vessel far off from the way it was steering, the Pilot is mad and desperate when forced to forsake his Compass, and submit himself to the pleasure of the outrageous winds and waves that carry him where they list.  
From that time all their endeavours have been to elude the Prophecies in which the time of Christ was set out to them: they mattered not how they o'erthrew all the Traditions of their Forefathers, provided they could but deprive the Christians of those admirable Prophecies; and they went at last so far as to say, that that of Jacob did not respect Christ.  
But their ancient Books betray them. That Prophecy is understood of the Messiah in the Talmud, 
Gem. Tr. sane. c. 11. Paraph. Onkelos. Johanan. & Jero ol. v. Polyg. Ang.  and the manner as we explain it is found in their Paraphrases, that is to say in those Commentaries that are the most Authentic, and the most valued among them.  
We find in them in express words, that the House and Kingdom of Judah, to which all the Posterity of Jacob, and all the People of Israel, were one day to be reduced, would continually bring forth Judges and Magistrates, until the coming of the Messiah, under whom a Kingdom should be form, made up of all People.  
This was the Testimony that their most famous and most received Doctors gave also to the Jews the first times of Christianity. The ancient Tradition which was so firmly established, could not be abolished all at once; and though the Jews had not applied the Prophecy of Jacob unto Jesus Christ, yet they durst not deny that it did belong to the Messiah. They arrived not to that height and excess till a long while after; and when they have been pressed by the Christians at any time, they hive still found their own Tradition to be against them.  
As for Daniel's Prophecy, wherein the coming of Christ was confined within the term of 490 years, counting from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus: As that term came down to the end of the fourth Millenary of the World; so was it a most ancient Opinion among the Jews, that the Messiah should appear toward the end of that fourth Millenary, and about two thousand years after Abraham. One Elias, whose name was great among the Jews, although it be not the Prophet, had so declared before the Birth of Jesus Christ; and the Tradition of it is preserved in the Book of the Talmud. 
Gen. Tr. San. c. 11.  You have seen this term accomplished in the coming of our Lord, for he did indeed appear about two thousand years after Abraham, and towards the four thousand of the World. However the Jews did not know him; and being frustrated of their expectation, they said that their Sins had kept off the Messiah who was to come. But yet our Dates are ascertained by their own confession, and it is a very great blindness to make a term which God hath so particularly set forh i● Dani●l to depend on Men.  
And this is likewise 〈◊〉 great Perplexity to them to consider that that Prophet should make the time of Christ to go before that of the Ruin of Jerusalem; so that that latter Period being accomplished, that which preceded it must needs be so to.  

Antiq. 1●. c. ult. de Bell. Jud. 7. 4.  Josephus is here most mightily deceived. He justly reckoned the Weeks which were to be followed with the Desolation of the Jewish People; and seeing them accomplished in the time when Titus laid Siege before Jerusalem, he questioned not but the very moment of the Destruction of that City was then come. But he never considered that that Desolation was to be preceded by the Coming of Christ and of his Death; so that he understood but half the Prophecy.  
The Jews that came after him would fain have supplied this Defect. They have forged to us an Agrippa descended from Herod, whom the Romans, they said, did put to death a little before the Destruction of Jerusalem: And they would needs have that Agrippa, Christ by his Title of King, to be the Christ which is spoken of in Daniel: a new Proof of their Blindness indeed! For besides that that Agrippa could neither be the Just, nor the Saint of Saints, nor the end of the Prophecies, so as the Christ whom Daniel describes in that place was to be; besides that the Murder of that Agrippa, whereof the Jews were innocent, could not be the cause of their Desolation; as the Death of Daniel's Death was to be; which here the Jews say was a Fable. Agrippa descended from Herod, was ever a Party of the Romans, ever civilly treated by their Emperors, 
Joseph. l. 7. de bell. Jud Jus. Tiber. Biblioth. Phot. cod. 33.  and reigned in a Canton of Judea long after the taking of Jerusalem, as Josephus, and oter Contemporaries do testify.  
Thus every thing which they Jews invented to elude die Prophecies, served only to confound them. They themselves did not believe those Fictions, they were so gross, and their best Defence was in that Law they enacted, not to reckon any longer the days of the Messiah. By that means they wilfully shut their Eyes against the Truth, and renounced those Prophecies in which the holy Ghost himself hath computed the Years: But whilst they renounced them, they fulfilled them, and shown the Truth of what they said both as to their Blindness and their Fall.  
Let them answer the Prophecies as they would; the Desolation which they foretold came upon them just at the appointed time; the Event was of more Efficacy and Force than all their Subtleties; and if Christ did not come just upon that fatal Conjuncture, the Prophets in whom they trusted very much ●eceived them.  
And for the Compliment of their Conviction, please to observe two Circumstances which accompanied their Fall, and the Advent of the Saviour of the World: The one is, that the Succession of the High-Priests which was perpetual and unalterable since Aaron, then came to an end: The other, that the Distinction of the Tribes and Families always kept up till that time, was then no more by their own Confession.  
That Distinction was necessary till the coming of Messiah. From Levi were to be born the Ministers of sacred Things: From Aaron were to come the Priests and the Pontiffs: From Juda the Messiah himself. If the distinction of Families had not continued till the Destruction of Jerusalem, and the coming of Christ, the Jewish Sacrifices would have ceased before the time, and David had been frustrated of the Glory of being known for the Father of the Messiah. Was the Messiah come? Was the new Priesthood, according to the Order of Melchizedech begun in his Person? And the new Kingdom, which was not of this World, did that too appear? Then was there no longer need of Aaron, nor of Levi, nor of Juda, nor of David, nor of their Families. Aaron was no more necessary then, when the Sacrifices were to cease as Daniel had foretold. The House of David and Juda had accomplished their purpose when that the Christ of God was come out from thence: 
Dan. 9.27.  And as if the Jew; themselves had renounced their own Hopes, they particularly at that time forgot the Succession of Families, until then so carefully and so religiously kept up.  
Let us not omit one of the Signs of the Messiahs coming, and peradventure the chiefest, if we can tell how to understand it aright, tho' it be to the Scandal as well as Horror of the Jews. 'Tis the Remission of Sins declared in the name of a suffering Saviour, 
Dan. 9.26, 27.  of a Saviour humble and obedient even to the Death. Daniel had observed among his Weeks, the mysterious Week which here we take notice of, wherein Christ was to be sacrificed, wherein the Covenant was to be confirmed by his Death, and the ancient Sacrifices were to lose their Power and Virtue. Let us join Isaiah to Dan●el, and there we shall find all the depth of that so great a Mystery, we shall see there the Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with Grief, 
Isai. 53.3, 5.  who was wounded for our Transgressions, bruised for our Iniquities: The Chastisement of our Peace was upon him, and with his Stripes we were healed. Open your Eyes, ye Incredulous, and look about you, is it not true that the Remission of Sins was preached to you in the Name of Jesus Christ Crucified? Was ever so great a Mystery throughly considered? Did ever any other than Jesus Christ, either before, or after him, loudly proclaim that he was come to wash away Sins by his Blood? Should he have an express Order to be Crucified only to acquire a vain and empty Honour, and to fulfil in himself so bloody a Prophecy? 'Tis duty here to be silent, and adore a Doctrine that is in the Gospel, which could not so much as enter into any Man's Conception, if it had not been true.  
The Jews are extremely perplexed and put to it in this point: They find in their Scriptures too many Passages describing the Humiliations of their Messiah. What then will become of those that speak of his Glory and Triumphs? Why their natural Resolution is, that he will come to his Triumphs by the Victories he gains, and to Glory by his Sufferings. What an incredible thing is this! the Jews had rather have two Messiahs: We see in their Talmud, 
Tr. Succa. & Comm. sive parraph. sup. Cant. c. 7. v. 3.  and other Books of like Antiquity, that they look for a suffering Messiah, and a Messiah full of Glory; the one dead and risen; the other always happy, and always a Conqueror: The one, to whom all the Passages do agree that relate to his weakness; the other, to whom all those agree, which speak of his Greatness; the one indeed makes him the Son of Joseph, for they could not deny him one of the Characters of Jesus Christ who was the reputed Son of Joseph; and the other the Son of David; without ever being willing to consider or allow what that Messiah the Son of David was to do, according as the Royal Prophet had foreshewn, drink of the Brook the way, before he should lift up his Head; 
Ps. 110. v. ult.  that is to say, he should be afflicted before he triumphed, as the very Son of David says himself, O Fools, and slow of Heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken? 
Luk. 24. v. 25, 26.  Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his Glory?  
But, if we do understand that great Passage of the Messiah, wherein Isaiah doth so lively represent to us the Man of Sorrows, wounded for our Transgressions, 
Isai. 53.  and bruised for our Iniquities, and disfigured as one that was Leprous, we are likewise justified in this Explication as well as in all the other, by the ancient Tradition of the Jews; and in spite of all their Preventions, the Chapter so often cited in their Talmud teaches us that that Leper who should be stricken for the Transgression of the People, 
Gem. Tr. Sanhed. l. 11. Ibid.  should be the Messiah. The Afflictions which the Messiah should feel for our Sins are celebrated in the same place, and in several other of the Jewish Writings. They often speak of his Entrance as humble as it was glorious, which he was to make in Jerusalem when riding upon an Ass, and that famous Prophecy of Zachariah was applied to him. What reason to have the Jews to complain? Every thing was pointed out to them in express Terms among their Prophets; their ancient Tradition had preserved the natural Explication of those admired Prophecies; and there was nothing more just than that Reproach which the Saviour of the World made to them saving, O ye Hypocrites, ye can discern the Face of the Sky, 
Matt. 16.2, 3, 4. Luke 12.56.  but can ye not discern the Signs of the Times? For ye say, when it is Evening, it will be fair Wether, for the Sky is red; and in the Morning, it will be foul Wether to day, for the Sky is red and lowering. Therefore we may very well conclude that the Jews had all the reason in the World to confess, that all the signs and times of the coming of the Messiah were passed. Juda was no longer a Kingdom, nor indeed a people: Other People acknowledged the Messiah which was to be sent; Jesus Christ was shown to the Gentiles: At that sign they had recourse to the God of Abraham, and the Blessing of that Patriarch was of equal extent with the Earth. The Man of Sorrows was preached, and the Remission of Sins was declared by his Death. All the Weeks were run out; the Desolation of the People, and of the Sanctuary, a just Punishment of Christ's Death, had its last Accomplishment; in fine, Christ appeared with all the Characters which was then acknowledged by the Tradition of the Jews, and therefore there was no excuse for their Incredulity.  
Also we see since that time indisputable Marks of their Reprobation. After Christ's Ascension they only more and more plunged themselves in Ignorance and Misery, from whence the verv Extremity of their Afflictions and Calamities, and the Shame of having been so often begulled into Error will deliver them, or rather the Goodness of God, when the time, settled by his Providence for the Correction of their Ingratitude, and the tameing of their Pride, shall be fulfilled.  
In the mean while they remain the Scorn and Derision of the People, as well as the Object of their Aversion; and so long a Captivity as they have been under has not given them a Sense of coming to themselves, tho' it ought to be sufficient to convince them. 
Hier. Ep. ad Dar. Tom. 3. Epist.  For truly, as St. Jerome saith to them: What look you for, O incredulous Jew? You have been guilty of many Crimes during the times of the Judges; Your Idolatry hath enslaved you to all the Neighbour Nations, but God hath had great Compassion for you, and hath not failed sending of Saviour's to you. You have multiplied your Idolatries under the Kings; and yet the Abominations into which you fell under Ahaz and Manasseh have not been punished but by Seventy Years of Captivity. Cyrus came, and restored you your Country, your Temple; and your Sacrifices: At the last, you were overwhelmed by Vespasian and Titus fifty Years after, Adrian completed your Destruction, and it is now four hundred Years that you have lain under Oppression. Thus spoke St. Jerome; the Argument has been strengthened since, for twelve hundred Years have been added to the Desolation of the Jewish People. We will therefore tell them instead of four hundred Years, that sixteen Ages have seen their Captivity to continue, without ever having their Yoke any whit lighter. What have you done, O ungrateful People? Slaves in all Countries, and to all Princes, you do not serve strange Gods. How hath God, who chose you, now forgot you, and what are become of his ancient Mercies? What Crime, what Attempt, even greater than Idolatry, makes you feel a Punishment which never yet before did all your grievous Idolatries bring down upon you? Are you silent? Cannot you understand what makes God inexorable to you? 
Matt. 27.25, 26. John 19.15, 21.  Remember those Words of your Forefathers, his Blood be on us, and on our Children: And so likewise, that we have no King but Caesar. The Messiah will not be your King; keep therefore to what you have chosen; continue Slaves to Caesar, and to Kings, until the Fullness of the Gentiles be accomplished, and at last all Israel be saved.  

XI. Particular Reflections on the Conversion of the Gentiles. The profound Councils of God, which resolved to convert them by the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Arguing of St. Paul upon this manner of their Conversion.  THIS Conversion of the Gentiles was the second thing which was to come to pass at the time of the Messiah, and the most assured sign of his coming. We have seen how the Prophets had clearly foretold it, and their Promise was verified in the times of our Lord. 'Tis certain that then only, and neither sooner nor later, what the Philosophers never durst attempt; what the Prophets, nor the Jewish People when they were the most protected and the most Faithful could not do, that twelve Preachers sent by Jesus Christ, and the Witnesses of his Resurrection, accomplished. So that the Conversion of the World was to be neither the Work of Philosophers, nor of Prophets, but it was reserved alone to Christ, and was the Fruit of his Cross.  
Indeed it was necessary that this Christ and his Apostles should come out of the Jews, and that the preaching of the Gospel should begin at Jerusalem. 
Isaiah 2.2.  It shall come to pass in the l●st Days, that the Mountain of the Lords House shall be established in the top of the Mountains, and shall be exalted above the Hills; and all Nations shall flow unto it, as Isaiah elegantly expresses it: That was the Christian Church. 
Ibid. 2.  And many People shall go and say come ye, and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his Ways, and we will walk in his Paths: 
Ibid. 17, 18.  The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, and the Idols he shall utterly abolish. But Isaiah, who saw those things, saw also at the same time that that Law which to judge among the Nations, 
Ibid. 3, 4.  and to rebuke many People, was to come out of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Which made our Saviour say, 
John 4.22.  that Salvation is of the Jews. And it was very convenient that the new Light which was one day to enlighten the People plunged in Idolatry, should spread itself over all the World, from that place where it had always been. It was in Jesus Christ the Son of David and of Abraham, that all the Nations were to be blessed and Sanctified. We have often observed it, but have not yet observed the Cause for which that suffering Jesus, that crucified and despised Jesus, was to be the only Author of the Conversion of the Gentiles, and the alone vanquisher of Idolatry.  
St. Paul hath unfolded to us that great Mystery in the first Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, and it is worth our while to consider that admirable Place with the following words. Christ, saith he, sent me to preach the Gospel, 
1 Cor. 1.17, 18, 19, 20. Isaiah 29.14, 33.18.  not with wisdom of Words, lest the Cross should be made of none effect; for the preaching of the Cross is to them that Perish, foolishness; but unto us who are Saved, it is the Power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise, and will bring to nothing the Understanding of the Prudent. Where is the Wise? where is the Scribe? where is the disputer of this World? hath not God made foolish the Wisdom of this World? Doubtless, since it was not able to deliver Men from their Ignorance. But see what reason St. Paul gives of it. 'Tis after that in the Wisdom of God, the World by Wisdom knew not God, by the works of his Wisdom, that is to say by the Creatures which he had so wisely ordained, he took another way, it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe: 
1 Cor. 1.21.  that is to say, by the Mystery of the Cross, which the Wisdom of this World cannot understand.  
A new and admirable design of the divine Providence! God had brought man into the World, where on what side soever he turned his Eyes, the Wisdom of the Creator was illustriously eminent in the greatness, richness, and disposition of so excellent work. Yet Blind and Ignorant, he mistook him; the Creatures which presented themselves to raise up our Minds higher, fixed them here below; blind and brutish Man fell down to them, and not content to adore only the Works of God's Hand, they fell adoring the work of their own. Even more extravagantly ridiculous fables, than those which old Women please Children with, constituted their Religion: Reason they had forgot, and God was resolved to make them forget it in another manner. One work, the Wisdom of which they understood, wrought no impression in them, and another work was presented to them, where their reason was lost, and every thing appeared foolishness to them that was the Cross of Jesus Christ. It is not by reasoning that this Mystery is understood; it is in casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, 
2 Cor 10.4, 5.  and bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.  
In fine, how are we to understand this Mystery, where the Lord of Life and Glory is loaded with reproaches; where the Wisdom of God is accounted foolishness; where he, who being in himself assured of his natural Greatness, thought he attributed nothing to himself when he said he was equal with God, and yet took upon him the form of a Servant, and was made in the likeness of Men; 
Phil. 11.7, 8.  and being found in fashion as a Man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto Death, even the death of the Cross? all our thoughts are here confounded; and as St. Paul said, there is nothing which appears more extravagant and unreasonable to those that are not enlightened from above.  
Such was the Remedy which God prepared for Idolatry. He knew the Spirit of Man, and knew that it was not by reason that an error must be destroyed which had not its Establishment from Reason. There are some Errors we fall into by reason; for ofttimes Man does embroil and entangle himself by disputation and argument: But Idolatry came in by an extreme quite different and opposite; by stifling all reason, and by giving the Dominion to Sense which loves to cover every thing over with such qualities as touch that with the most agreeable delight and pleasure. 'Twas by that the Divinity became visible and gross. Men attributed their own figures to it, and that which was yet more shameful and abominable, their very Vices and Passions. Reason bore no part in this so brutish an Error. 'Twas the overthrow of all good Sense, a mere delirium, a Frenzy. Reason, or argue with one that is Phrenitick, and dispute against a Man, whom the violence of a Fever has made Lightheaded; you only incense him, and make the Distemper more incurable. We ought to go to the cause, to correct the Temper, and calm the Humours that cause by their extravagance such strange transports: And so it must not be reason that cures the delirium of Idolatry. What have the Philosophers got with all their pompous Discourses, with the sublimity of their Style, and with their Arguments so artfully managed? Plato with his Eloquence, which was thought to have somewhat divine in it, what one single Altar has it thrown down, where those monstrous divinities were adored? On the contrary, both he, and his Disciples, and all the Sages of the Age Sacrificed to a lie: because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their Imaginations, 
Rom. 1.21.22.25.  and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became Fools: For contrary to their own light of Understanding they worshipped and served the Creature.  
Was it not therefore with great reason that St. Paul broke out with that passage, where is the Wise? where is the Scribe? 
1 Cor. 1.20.  where is the disputer of this World? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this World? Have they ever been able by themselves to destroy the Fables of Idolatry? did it so much as ever come into their thoughts, that they ought openly to set themselves against so many Blasphemies, and suffer, I do not say, the heaviest Punishments, but the least affront or injury from the Truth? So far were they from this, that they have held the truth in unrighteousness, 
Rom. 1.18.  and have laid down for a maxim, that in matters of Religion, one ought to follow the People: the People whom they despised and scorned so much, was their rule in the most important matter of all, and where their illuminations seemed to be most necessary. What service then, O Philosophy, hast thou done? hath not God made foolish the Wisdom of this World, as St. Paul tell us? 
1 Cor. 1.19, 20.  and hath not he destroyed the Wisdom of the Wise, and brought to nothing the Understanding of the Prudent?  
Thus hath God shown by experience, that the destruction of Idolatry could not be alone the work of Humane Reason. He was so far from committing the Cure of such a Malady to that, that God hath perfectly confounded it by the Mystery of the Cross, and he hath at once brought the Remedy even to the Source and Root of the Distemper.  
Idolatry, if we understand it aright, derived its Birth from that profound Love and Inclination we had to ourselves. 'Twas that made us to invent Gods after our own Image: Gods who effectually were but Men subject to the like Passions, Weaknesses, and Vices with ourselves; so that under the name of false Divinities, 'twas in effect, their own Imaginations, Pleasures, and Fancies, which the Gentiles worshipped.  
Jesus Christ makes us to enter by other ways. His Poverty, his Ignominies, and his Cross make him appear an Object horrible to our Senses. We must come out of ourselves, renounce all, and crucify all to follow him. Man rooted out of himself, and from every thing which his Corruption made him in love with, became capable to adore God, and his Eternal Truth, whose Rules he is willing for the future to obey.  
Thus all the Idols were destroyed and vanished, both those which were worshipped upon the Altars, and they which were adored in each man's private Breast. These had erected others. Venus was worshipped, because they attributed to her a Dominion over Love, and they were charmed with her Power. Bacchus, the most wanton of all the Gods, had his Altars, because men gave up themselves to his Caresses, and sacrificed, I may venture to say, to the joy of the Senses, more pleasant and drunken, than the Wine itself. But Jesus Christ by the Mystery of his Cross came to impress into their hearts the Love of Sufferings in the room of Pleasures. The Idols which they outwardly adored were destroyed, because those which they inwardly worshipped, subsisted no longer: the purified heart, as Jesus Christ himself hath said, 
Matth. 5.8.  became capable of seeing God; and then Man was so far from making God like to himself, that he rather strove, as much as his Infirmity would suffer him, to become like unto God.  
The Mystery of Jesus Christ hath discovered to us, how the Divinity, without impairing itself, may be united to our Nature, and be clothed with our Weaknesses. The Word was made Flesh; He that had the form and nature of God, without losing any thing that he was, took upon him the form of a Servant. Inalterable in himself, he yet appropriates to himself a stranger Nature. O ye Men, you would need have Gods that were indeed but Men, and those too that were vicious! Was not that a great blindness? But here is a new Object of Adoration proposed to you; 'tis God and Man both together, but such a Man that hath lost nothing of what he was, in taking upon him to be as we are. The Divinity remains , and without a possibility of being degraded; that cannot but raise up what it unites.  
But let us consider, What is it that God hath taken from us? are they our Vices, and our Sins? God forbidden: he only took from Man what he made in him, and it is most certain that he neither made Sin nor Vice in him. Nature was made, and that he took. We may say that he made Mortality and Infirmity to accompany it, because although it was not in the first design, it was the just punishment of Sin, and in that respect it was the work of the Divine Justice. So God has not disdained to take it; and in taking upon him the punishment of Sin without the Sin itself, he shown that he was not a Guilty one that was punished, but the Just that died to expiate the Sins of the world.  
So that instead of the Vices which men put into their Gods, all the Virtues appeared in that God-Man; and that they might appear in him in the last Trials, they were seen to attend him in the midst of the most dreadful Torments. Let us not therefore look for any other visible God after him; he alone is worthy to abolish all Idols; and the Victory he was to gain over them was fastened to his Cross.  
That is to say, it was fastened to a most apparent folly. 
1 Cor. 1.22, 23, 24, & 25.  For the Jews, as St. Paul goes on, require a sign, whereby God, in putting even the whole Frame of Nature into a Convulsion, as he did at the Israèlites coming out of Egypt, set them visibly above their Enemies, and the Greeks or the Gentiles seek after wisdom and laboured discourses, as those of Plato and Socrates were; but we, continues the Apostle, preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and not a Miracle, and unto the Greeks foolishness, and not wisdom: but unto them who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God: because the foolishness of God is wiser than all the wisdom of Men, and the weakness of God is stronger than the mightiest of Humane Power. This, this was to be the last blow (as I may say) to be given to our proud Ignorance. The wisdom to which that brings us is so sublime and lofty, that it appears foolishness to our wisdom, and the Rules of it are so high and eminent, that every thing in it seems to us a Wilderness wherein we are lost.  
But tho' that Divine Wisdom was in itself impenetrable to us, yet it sufficiently declared itself by its effects. A virtue comes out of the Cross, and all the Idols are shaken. We see them fall flat on the ground, although they were kept up and maintained by all the Roman Power. 'Twas not the Wise, nor the Noble, nor the Mighty that wrought so great a Miracle. The work of God was followed, and what he had begun by the Humiliation of Jesus Christ, he perfected and completed by the Humiliation of his Disciples. Ye see your Calling, Brethren, goes St. Paul on with that admirable Discourse of his, the calling of which that victorious Church of the World was framed and composed, 
1 Cor. 1.26, 27, 28, 29.  how that not many wise men after the flesh, whom the World has in admiration, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise: and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen; yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in his Presence. The Apostles, and their Disciples, the Off-scouring of the World, and even Nothing itself, in beholding them with Humane Eyes, have prevailed over all the Emperors, and all Empire. Men had forgot the Creation, and God renewed it, by bringing out of that Nothing his Church, which he hath made all powerful against what Error soever. With the Idols hath he confounded all the Humane Greatness which was engaged in their Defence; and he hath wrought as great a Work, as he did when he made the World, by the alone power of his word.  

XII. Divers ways of Idolatry, Sense, Interest, Ignorance, a false respect of Antiquity, Policy, Philosophy, and Heresies came to its Succour: but the Church triumphs over all.  Idolatry now appears to us to be weakness itself, and we can scarce tell how to imagine there should ever need so much power to destroy it. But however its extravagance shows what a difficulty there was to vanquish it, and so great an Immersement of right Sense and Understanding sufficiently discovers how much the first Principles of Mankind were wasted. The World was grown old in Idolatry; and being enchanted by its Idols, it became deaf to the voice of Nature which cried out against them. What power did it require to retrieve into Man's mind the true God who was so totally (as it were) forgot, and to recover Mankind from so deep and prodigious a besottedness and lethargy?  
All the Senses, Passions, and Interests stood up for Idolatry. It was contrived for Pleasure: Diversions, fine Spectacles, and downright Libertinism constituted one part of that Divine Worship. Their Feasts were only Sports; and there was no Scene of Humane Life from whence modesty was more industriously banished, than it was from the Mysteries of Religion. How to accustom minds so corrupted to the Regularity of the true, chaste, severe, Religion, which was an Enemy of the Senses, and only set upon invisible good things? St. Paul spoke to Felix, Governor of Judea, 
Acts 24.25.  of Righteousness, Temperance, and Judgement to come, and he trembling, answered, Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will call for thee. 'Twas a Discourse to be rejected, or put off by him that was resolved to enjoy, whatever came on't, the Blessings of this World with full swinge.  
Will you see Interest moved, that powerful Resort and Spring which gives motions to all Humane things? In that great cry against Idolatry, which the preaching of St. Paul began to cause over all Asia, the Craftsmen (who got their living by making Silver Shrines for Diana of Ephesus) were called together by Demetrius a Silver-Smith, and he being of greatest credit, harranged to them how their Mystery was like to signify nothing: Nay, says he, 
Acts 19.27.  not only this our Craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also the Temple of the great Goddess Diana is like to be despised, and her Magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the World worshipped.  
How powerful is Interest, and how bold and daring is Man when he can but cloak himself under the pretence of Religion! There was nothing more needful to open the Mouths of those that were of like Occupation with him. They ran out all together full of Wrath, crying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians, and dragging Paul's Companions in Travel into the Theatre, where the whole City was met in Confusion. Then they redoubled their cries, and for two whole hours the Public Hall sounded nothing but, Great was Diana of the Ephesians: and St. Paul and his Companions were with great difficulty delivered from the hands of the People by the Magistrates, who were afraid lest greater disorders might happen from that Tumult. Add now to the Interest of private Men the Interest of the Priests, who were also like to fall with their Gods: and to all that, superadd the Interest of Cities which were eminently famous by their false Religion, as the City of Ephesus, which owed her Privileges to her Temple, and the great Conflux of Strangers, whereby she grew rich in Wealth: what a Tempest was like to be raised against this newborn Church, and is there any need to wonder that we see the Apostles so often beaten, stoned, and left for dead among the Populace? But a greater Interest was to move a greater Machine; the Interest of the State was to stir up the Senate, the Romans, and the Emperors.  
For a long time before the Decrees of the Senate had defended the strange Religions, and the Emperors were entered into the same Policy; and in that great Consultation about reforming the Abuses of the Government, 
Liv. lib. 39 etc. Orat. Maecen. ap. Dion. 52. Tertul. Apolog. 5. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 2.2.  one of the principal Regulations that Maecenas proposed to Augustus, was to prevent Novelties in Religion which were always sure to cause dangerous Commotions in States. The Maxim was true; for what is there that more violently stirs up men's minds, and carries them out to more strange Excesses? But God was resolved to make us see that the establishing of the true Religion did not create such Troubles, and that was one great Token that he was interessed in that work. For who can choose but wonder, when he considers that for three hundred years together, whilst the Church was suffering all the Cruelties that the Rage of Persecutors were able to invent, amidst so many Seditions, so many Wars, and so many Conspiracies against the Persons of Emperors, 
Tertul. Apol. 35, 36, etc.  there should never be found so much as one single Christian, either good or bad? The Christians challenged their greatest Enemies to name one; but they could not find one out: so great a Veneration for those in Public Power and Authority did the Doctrine of Christianity inspire them with, and so deep an Impression did that Saying of our Saviour make in their minds, 
Matth. 22.21.  Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are Gods.  
That beautiful distinction filled their minds with so clear a light, that never did Christians fail in their respect to the Image of God in Princes, tho' they were Persecutors of the Truth. That Character of Submission so shone in all their Apologies, that they do to this day inspire those that read them with a Love of Public Order, and do show that they expect only from God the establishment of Christianity. Men so determined to death, that they filled the whole Empire, and were in all the Armies, never made once an Escape, 
Tertul. Apol. 37.  during those several Ages of Persecution: they forbade among themselves not only Seditious Actions, but even Murmur and Complaints. The finger of God was in that work, and no other hand than his could have preserved those that were driven to the last Extremities by so many Injustices.  
Indeed it was hard for them to be treated as Public Enemies, and as Enemies to Emperors; Those, I may say, who breathed nothing but Obedience, and whose most devout and servant Prayers were still for the safety of their Princes, and the happiness of the State. But the Roman Polity thought themselves attacked in their Foundation, seeing they despised their Gods. Rome boasted of her being a holy City by her Foundation, consecrated from her first beginning by Divine Auspexes, and dedicated by her Author to the God of War. She scarce believed but that Jupiter was more present in the Capitol than in the Heavens. She fancied she owed her Victories to her Religion, and by that had subdued both Nations and their Gods, for so at that time was their reasoning: so that the Roman Gods were to be superior to all other, the Romans were Masters of other men. 
Cic. Orat. pro Flac. Orat. Sym. ad Imp. Val. Theodos. & Arc. ap. Amb. tom. 5. l. 5. Ep. 30. Zozym. hist. lib. 3, 4, etc.  Rome, in subjecting Judea, reckoned the God of the Jews among those other Gods she had vanquished: The desire of reigning, was the overthrow or the Foundations of the Empire; the hating of the Victories and Power of the People of Rome. Thus the Christians, who were Enemies of their Gods, were at the same time looked upon as Enemies of the Republic. The Emperors took more care to exterminate them, than to drive out the Parthians, the Marcomans, and the Dacians. Christianity beaten down appeared in their Inscriptions with as great pomp and triumph, as the Samaritans defeated. But they were out in their Boastings, that they had destroyed a Religion which grew (tho' insensibly) greater under its Persecution of Fire and the Sword. Calumnies in vain were added to Cruelty. Men who were virtuous in their Practices even above Mankind, were yet condemned as being guilty of those Vices which are a shock and horror to Humane Nature. Those were reproached for incestuous Persons who made Chastity to be the glory of their Lives; and others were accused of eating up their own Children, who were kind and beneficent to their very Persecutors. But notwithstanding all that public hatred, the force and power of truth drew from the mouths of their most violent Enemies very favourable Testimonies of them. 
Plin. l. 10. Ep. 97.  Every one knows what Pliny the younger writ to Trajan concerning the Behaviour of the Christians. They were justified, but yet they were not exempted from the severest Punishments: for thus it behoved them to undergo this worst of treatment to effect in them the Image of their crucified Jesus, and they ought, as he did, to go to their Cross with a public declaration of their spotlese Innocence.  
Idolatry did not put all its force to the last violence. Although its Foundation was a brutish Ignorance, and an entire deprivation of Humane Sense, yet it was willing to set it off with the colour of some Reason. How often has it endeavoured to be in disguise and mask? and in how many ways has it been transformed, that so the shame of it may be concealed? Sometimes it was for paying all imaginable respect to the Divinity; saying whatsoever was Divine, must needs be unknown: For only the Divinity can understand itself. 'Tis not for such grovelling Dust as we to discover things so high and elevated; wherefore it becomes us to believe the Ancients; and every one ought to follow the Religion he finds by Law established in his Country. And by these Maxims, those gross, as well as impious Errors, which had speed themselves over all the habitable World, were remediless, and the voice of Nature, which declared the true God, was stifled, and not allowed to speak.  
There was then great ground to think that the weakness of our strayed Reason had need of an Authority to call it back to its first Principle; and that it ought from Antiquity to learn the true Religion. Thus have you seen the continued constant course and progress of it from the very beginning of the World. But from what Antiquity can Paganism boast itself, which can't read its own History, but in them must find the Original not only of its Religion, but also of its Gods? 
De nature. Deorum. lib. 1. & 3.  Varro and Cicero, not to mention other Authors, have sufficiently made this plain. Or shall we have recourse to those numberless Thousands of Years which were filled up by the Egyptians with confused and impertinent Fables, for the establishing of that Antiquity, of which they boasted so much? There we shall still see in them the Rise and Fall, the Birth and Death of the Gods of Egypt; and that People cannot pretend to their Antientness, but they must at the same time show us the beginning of their Gods.  
But let us see another Form and Manner of Idolatry, that directed every one that went by us to be looked on as Divine. The Roman Polity, which so severely interdicted strange Religions, yet permitted Adoration to be given to the Gods of the Barbarians, so that it had adopted tliem. Thus it endeavoured to appear equitable as well towards all Gods as towards all Men. Sometimes it offered Incense to the God of the Jews together with all the rest. 
Jul. Ep. ad comm. Judaeor.  And we find a Letter of Julian the Apostate, whereby he promises the Jews to rebuild the Holy City, and with them to sacrifice to God the Creator of the Universe. 'Twas a common Error. We have seen the Heathen willing to worship the true God, tho' not to worship him alone; and the Emperors did not stick even to give Jesus Christ himself, whose Disciples they persecuted, some Altars among the Romans.  
What then? Can the Romans ever imagine they should honour him as God, whom their Magistrates had condemned to the cruelest, as well as the vilest of Punishments, and whom several of their Authors have loaded with very reproachful Calumnies? And yet we need not wonder at it, for the thing is beyond all Controversy.  
First let us distinguish what in general a blind Hatred says, from positive Facts the Proofs whereof are alleged. 'Tis certain that the Romans, though they condemned Jesus Christ, yet never reproached him for any Crime in particular: So Pilate condemned him with Repugnance, being violently carried away by the Clamours and Menaces of the Jews. But that which is more to be wondered at, is, the Jews themselves, at whose Importunities he was crucified, have not preserved in any other of their ancient Books, the Remembrance of any one single Action which might cast a Blemish upon his Life; so far have they been from observing any that might make him to deserve so severe a Punishment as his Crucifixion; whereby is confirmed in a most plain and manifest manner what we read in the Gospel, that all the Crime of our Lord was, for calling himself Christ, the Son of God.  
Indeed Tacitus tells us of the Punishment of our blessed Saviour under Pontius Pilate, and during the Empire of Tiberius, but says not a word of any Crime that might make him worthy of Death, but only that of being the Author of a Sect convicted for hating Mankind, or at least for being odious to it. Such was the Crime of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Christians; and their greatest Enemies could never accuse them but in dubious terms, for they were never able to allege one positive Fact as could fairly be imputed to them.  
'Tis true, in the last Persecution, and three hundred Years after Christ, the Heathen who were at a loss how then to lay any Reproach either upon him or his Disciples, published some ●●w. Acts of Pilate, by which they pretended th' y saw the Crimes for which he had been crucified. But as not a word of those Acts were ever heard spoke of in all the precedent Ages, and that neither under Nero, nor under Domitian, who reigned in the beginning of Christianity, how great Enemies soever they were of it, there is nothing at all sound concerning them; it is very probable they were made out of their own Fancy; and among the Romans there are found so few constant Proofs of Jesus Christ, that his Enemies have been forced to fly to their Inventions to make some.  
Here then is one and the first thing to be considered of, the Innocence of our Blessed Saviour irreproachable. Let us now subjoin a second, the Holiness of his Life, and his known and exemplary Doctrine. One of the greatest Roman Emperors, to wit, 
Lamprid. in Alex. Seu. c. 45.51.  Alexander Severus, admired our Lord, and caused to be written in the public Works as well as in his Palace, some Sentences of his Gospel. The same Emperor commended, and proposed for an Example, the holy Precautions wherewith the Christians ordained the Ministers of Sacred things. That was not all neither: There was seen in his Palace a kind of Chapel, where he sacrificed in the Morning. 
Ibid. c. 29.31.  He had consecrated the Images of Holy Souls, among which he placed with Orpheus, Jesus Christ and Abraham. He had another Chapel, which we will translate from the latin Word Lararium, a private Chapel, of less Dignity than the former, wherein were set up the Image of Achilles, and some other great Men; but Jesus Christ was placed in the 〈◊〉 Rank. It was a Heathen who wrote it, and he citys for his Witness an Author that lived in Alexander's time. Here then are two Witnesses of this same Fact, and you shall have another no less surprising.  

Porph. 1. of Phil. by Orac. Euseb. dem. Eu. 3.8. Aug. de Civit. Dei 19 c. 23.  Though Porphyry, in abjuring Christianity, had declared himself an Enemy to it, yet he forbears not in his Book entitled, Philosophy by Oracles, to affirm, that some of them were very favourable to the Holiness of Jesus Christ.  
God forbidden that we may not learn by the deceitful Oracles, the Glory of the Son of God, who silenced them at his Birth. Those Oracles cited by Porphyry are pure Inventions: But it is good to know what the Heathen made their Gods to say of our Lord. Porphyry then assures that there were Oracles, where Jesus Christ was called a Man Pious, and worthy of Immortality; and on the contrary, the Christians were impure and seduced People. He afterwards recites the Oracle of the Goddess Hecate, where she speaks of Jesus Christ, as of a Man illustrious by his Piety, whose Body indeed submitted to Torments, but whose Soul is in Heaven with the Souls of the Blessed. That Soul, said Porphyry's Goddess, by a kind of Fatality inspired Error into those Minds wherein Destiny has not confirmed the Gifts of the Gods, and the Knowledge of the great Jupiter; which makes them Enemies of the Gods. But be very careful how you blame him, goes she on in speaking of Jesus Christ, and be sure only to accuse the Error of those whose unhappy destiny I have related to you. Very pompous and magnificent Words, and absolutely void of all Sense, but however they show that the Glory and Honour of our Lord forced his very Enemies to give him Praises.  
But besides the Innocency and Holiness of our blessed Saviour, there is yet a third Point which is of no less Moment and Importance, and that is his Miracles. It is certain that the Jews never denied them; and we find in their Talmud some of those which his Disciples wrought in his Name. Only, 
Tr. de Idololat. & Com. in Eccl. Tr. de Sabb. c. 12. l. generat. Jesus seu Hist. Jesus. Deut. 13.1, 2.  the more to obscure and hid them, they said that he had done them by the Enchantments he had learned in Egypt; or rather by the name of God, that unknown and ineffable Name, whose Virtue can do all thing, as the Jews themselves acknowledge, and that Jesus Christ had discovered they know not how, in the Sanctuary; or else, because he was one of those Prophets taken notice of by Moses, whose deceitful Miracles were to seduce the People to Idolatry. Jesus Christ, the Abolisher of Idols, whose Gospel preached up the acknowledging of one only God throughout all the World, stands in no need of being justified from that Reproach; the true Prophets have no less preached up his Divinity than he hath done himself; and that which is the Result of the Jewish Testimony, is that Jesus Christ wrought Miracles to justify his Mission.  
Now when they calumniously said that he wrought them by Magic, they would do well to consider that Moses was accused of the same Crime. 'Twas the ancient Opinion of the Egyptians, who being astonished at the wondrous things that God had done in their Country by that great Man, ranked him in the number of the principal Magicians.  
We may likewise see this Opinion in Pliny and Apuleius, where Moses was found named with Jannes and Jambres, those famous Enchanters of Egypt, of whom St. Paul speaks, and whom M●ses had confounded by his Miracles. 
Plin. 30.1. Apul. Apol. 2. Zim. 3.8.  But the Answer of the Jews was easy. The Illusions of the Magicians never have a lasting Effect, neither do they tend to establish, as Moses did, the Worship of the true God, and holiness of Life: To which we may also add that God knows very well how to make himself Master, by doing such Works as the Power of the Enemy cannot imitate. The same Reasons placed Jesus Christ above so vain an Accusation, which, as we have already observed, was only instrumental to justify that his Miracles are incontestable.  
They were in effect so powerful, that the Gentiles could never disprove them no more than the Jews. Cels●s, that great Enemy of the Christians, and who attacked them in the earliest Days with all imaginable Address and Subtlety, seeking with a most industrious Scrutiny whatsoever might turn to their Prejudice, has not been so hardy as to deny all the Miracles of our Lord: He was for shifting them off, by saying with the Jews that Jesus Christ had learned the Secrets of the Egyptians, that is to say, Magic, 
Orig. cont. Cells. 1. 2.  and so would fain attribute the Divinity to himself, by the Miracles which he wrought by virtue of that damnable Art. 
Orig. ibid. & in Act. Mart. passim. Jul. ap. Cyr. lib. 6. ●p. Aug. tom. 2. Ep. 3.4.  And for the same Reason also were the Christians looked on as Magicians; and we have a Passage of Julian the Apostate, who laughed at the Miracles of our Lord, but who for all that did not bring them into Question. Volusian, in his Epistle to St. Austin, has done the same, and that Discourse was grown common among the Heathen.  
Therefore we need not be astonished, that they who were so used to make Gods of all Men in whom there appeared any thing particular and extraordinary, would set up Jesus Christ too among their Divinities. Tiberius, upon the Relations were sent to him from Judea, proposed to the Senate to give divine Honours unto Jesus Christ. This was not a Fancy in the Air, 
Tertull. Apolog. 5. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 2.2.  for Tertullian reports it as a thing public and notorious in his Apologetic which he presented to the Senate in the name of the Church, who to be sure would not have contributed any thing to the weakening of so good a Cause as his, by Stories which might have been confuted with so much ease and evidence. If we would have the Testimony of a Heathen Author, Lampridius will tell us that Adrian had erected Temples to Jesus Christ, which were then to be seen at the time when he wrote; and that Alexander Severus, after he had done him Reverence in particular, was resolved publicly to prepare him Altars, and to put him in the number of the Gods.  
It is certainly a great piece of Injustice not to be willing to believe any thing concerning Jesus Christ, but what those writ of him that were none of his Disciples: This is to seek for Faith among the Incredulous, or Care and Exactness among those who, having their Heads full of other Matters, look upon Religion as a thing indifferent. But for all that it is most certain that the Glory of Jesus Christ shone with so great and dazzling a Brightness, that the World was never able to desist giving him some Testimonies; and I know not how to relate to you any more Authentic than that of so many Emperors.  
I confess however, they had still another design. There was a mixture of Polity in all the Honours they paid to our Saviour, they gave insinuatingly out that at length Religions would be united, and that the Gods of all Sexes would be joined in common. The Christians nevertheless would not acknowledge this Hotchpotch way of Worship, and they did no less despise the Condescensions than the Severities of the Roman Polity. But God was resolved that the Heathens from another Principle should reject the Temples which the Emperors had set apart to Jesus Christ. The Priests of the Idols, according to the Relation of that Heathen Author already so often cited, declared to the Emperor Adrian, 
Ibid.  that if be consecrated those Temples built for the use and Service of the Christians, all the other Temples would utterly be forsaken, and all the World would embrace the Christian Religion. Idolatry itself felt such a victorious force and energy in our Religion, as that the false Gods would never be able to stand up against it, and of it justified of its own accord the truth of that Saving of the Apostle, 
2 Cor. 6.15, 16.  what Concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an Infidel? and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols.  
Thus by the Power of the Cross did the Heathen Religion, confounded by itself, fall to ruin: and the Unity of G●d was so established, that at length Idolatry was at no great distance from it. 
Macrob. 1. Sat. 17. ● seq. Apul. de Deo Soc. Aug. de Civ. 4. 10, 11.  It said that the divine Nature was so great and extensive that it could not be expressed either by one single name, or under one single form; but that Jupiter, and Mars, and Juno, and the other Gods were at the Bottom but one and the same God, whose infinite Virtues were explained and represented by so many differe t words. When afterwards they were driven to the Impure Histories of their Gods, to their infamous Genealogies, to their immodest Loves, and to their Feasts and Mysteries which were built upon no other Foundation, than those prodigious Fables and Romances, than all Religion was turned in-Allegories: The World or the Sun they found then out to be this only God; it was the Stars, the Air, the Fire, the Water, and the Earth, and their several Conjunctions that were hid under the Names of the Gods, and in their Armours. A weak and miserable Refuge; for besides their Fables being all scandalous, and all their Allegations cold and forced, what found they out at last, but that that only God was the Universe with all its parts, so that the bottom of Religion was Nature, and always the Creature adored instead of the Creator?  

O 〈…〉. C●●. li●. ●, 6, etc.  The weak excuses of Idolatry, tho' drawn from the Philosophy of the Stoics, yet did not satisfy and please enough the Philosophers. Celsus and Porphyry sought for new succours in the Doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras, and you shall see how they conciliated the Unity of God, with the multiplicity of the vulgar Gods. That was, they said, 
Plat. Conu. Tim. etc. Porphyr. l. 2. de abstin. Apul. de Deo Socr. Aug. de Civ. 8.14. & seq. 18.21, 22.9.3.6, etc.  but one Sovereign God: but he was so great, that he did not concern himself with trivial matters. Being pleased that he had made the Heaven and the Stars, he had not at all given his assistance to the making of this lower World, but had left it to be fashioned by its secundary causes; and Man, tho' born to know and to confess him, yet because he was Mortal, was not a work any ways becoming or worthy his hands. He was likewise inaccessible to our Nature, he was lodged too high for us, the heavenly Spirits that had made us, were to be as Mediators to him for us, and therefore were we to worship and adore them.  
It is not worth ones while to refute these opinions, 
Aug. Ep. 3. ad Volus. etc.  and fanciful dream of the Platonists; which indeed do fall of themselves. The Mystery of Jesus Christ, tore them up by the roots. That Mystery taught Men, that God, who had made them after his own Image, had no thoughts of despising them, that if they stood in need of a Mediator, it was not by reason of their Nature, which God had made like unto all others, but by reason of their Sin, of which they themselves were the only Authors: but since their Nature had not put them at a very ●reat distance from God, God disdained not to unite himself to them, by making himself Man, and he gave unto them for a Mediator, not those Heavenly Spirits which the Philosophers called Demons, and the Scripture Angels; but a Man, who superadding the Power of a God to our infirm Nature, made himself a Sovereign Remedy for all our weakness.  
But if the Pride of the Platonists could not be brought down to the Humiliations of the Word made Flesh, might they not at least be brought to understand that Man, for being but little lower than the Angels, was as capable of possessing God as they, so that he was rather their Brother than their Subject, and therefore he ought not to adore them, but to adore with them in the Spirit of Society, him who had made them both after his own Image and resemblance? 'Twas then not only too mean a thing, but too ungrateful for Mankind, to sacrifice to any other than to God, and nothing was so blind as Paganism, which instead of reserving Supreme Worship to itself, so freely gave it to so many Demons, or Idols.  
Here it was that Idolatry, which seemed to be at a full Stand, did entirely discover its Weakness. Toward the end of the Persecution, Porphyry being pressed by the Christians, was forced to confess that the Sacrifice was not the Supreme Worship; and do but mind how far he pushed on his Extravagance. That most high God, said he, did not receive Sacrifice; 
Porphyr. lib. 2. de abstinen. Aug. de Civ. 10.  for whatsoever has matter is impure to him, and cannot be offered to him. The Word itself is not to be employed in his Worship, because the voice is a thing that is corporal; we are to adore him in silence, and by simple thoughts; all other Worship is unworthy of so high a Majesty.  
Thus God was too great to be be praised. It was a Crime to express, as well as we are able, what we think of his Greatness. Sacrifice, tho' it be only a way of declaring our absolute dependence on, and an acknowledgement of his Sovereignty, yet is not fit to be paid to him. Porphyry said so expressly, and what is that else but to abolish all Religion, and to leave him wholly without Worship whom however we acknowledge to be the God of Gods?  
But what then were those Sacrifices which the Gentiles offered in all the Temples? Porphyry had found out the secret of them: There were, 
Porphyr. 2. de abstin. Lab. aapud Aug. 8. de Civ. 13.  says he, impure Spirits, Deceivers, Evil doers, who through an extravagant Pride would needs be accounted as Gods, and would make themselves be worshipped by men. It was convenient to gratify them for fear they should do us any hurt. Some more gay and jolly, were wrought upon by Spe●tacles and Plays; the more melancholy and reserved Humours of others were pleased with fat Odours, and delighted in bloody Sacrifices. What does it signify to refuse these Absurdities? there was so much that the Christians gained their cause. This was certain, that all the Gods to whom the Gentiles offered up Sacrifices, were Evil Spirits, whose Pride attributed the Godhead to themselves: so that Idolatry, to look upon it in itself, seemed only to be the effect of a brutish Ignorance; but to come up to the Source and Original of it, it was a work brought from far, driven on to the last Excesses by malicious Spirits. 'Twas what the Christians had always pretended, what the Gospel had taught, and what the Psalmist so truly sang in these words, 
Psal 96.5.  for all the Gods of the Nations are Idols, but the Lord made in Heavens.  
And beh●ld here the strange blindness of Mankind! Idolatry, tho' it was reduced to extremity, and confounded by itself, yet it was kept up in the World. It was only to  it with some probability, and explain it in words which carried a sound with them that charmed the ear, and was enough to captivate the mind. Porphyry was admired. Jamblicus his follower was esteemed as a man divine, because he had the art of wrapping up the Sentiments of his Master in terms that were seemingly very mysterious, tho' in truth they were of no weight at all. Julian the Apostate, as cunning as he was, was taken by those appearances, which the Heathens themselves relate. Enchantments, whether true or false, which the Philosophers boasted of, their ill-understood Austerity, their ridiculous Abstinence which even made it a crime to eat living Creatures, 
Ennap. Maxim. Oribas. Chrysanth. Ep. Jul. ad Jamb. Am. Marcell. l. 21, 23, 25.  their superstitious Purifications, in a word, their Contemplation which evaporated itself in vain thoughts and Chimaeras, and their words as little weighty as they seemed pompous and swelling, put the cheat upon the World. But yet I do not speak the bottom of all. The holiness of the Christians behaviour, the contempt of the Pleasures that it commanded, and what is yet more than all, the Humility which made up (as it were) the whole of the Christian Life, these things offended Mankind; and if we can comprehend it, Pride, Sensuality, and Libertinism were the only Guards and Defences of Idolatry.  
The Church was every day pulling it up by the Roots by her Doctrine, but yet more by her Patience. Yet those wicked Spirits who were never weary of deceiving men, and who had plunged them into Idolatry, were not now forgetful of their Malice. They started up those Heresies in the Church which you have heard of. The curious and inquisitive men, and by that means vain and fickle, and lovers of novelty, would fain get to themselves a name among the faithful, and could not be contented with that sober and temperate Wisdom which the Apostle had so much recommended to the Christians. They launched too deep into those Mysteries which they pretended to measure out to our weak conceptions: New Philosophers that mingled Humane Reasonings with Faith, and undertook to lessen the difficulties of Christianity, being able to digest all that folly which the World found in the Gospel. Thus successively, and with a kind of Method, were all the Articles of our Faith assaulted: the Creation, the Law of Moses a necessary Foundation of ours, the Divinity of Jesus Christ, his Incarnation, his Grace, his Sacraments, in short every thing occasioned matters for those scandalous Divisions. 
Orig. lib. 5. cont. Cells.  Celsus and others reproached us for them. Idolatry seemed to ride in triumph. It looked on Christianity as a new Sect of Philosophy which had the fate of all others, and like them dwindled away of itself into several other Sects. The Church seemed to them but a Humane Work that was ready to fall of itself. And they concluded that it was not necessary in matters of Religion to refine more than our Ancestors, nor to attempt to change the World.  
In this Confusion of Sects which boasted themselves to be Christians, God wanted not his Church. He knew how to preserve to it a Character of Authority which Heresies were not able to master. It was Catholic and Universal: it continued throughout all times, and extended itself on all sides. 
Jer. 3.1, 2, 3, 4. Tertul. de Carn. Ch. 2. the praescrip. 20, 21, 32. 36.  It was Apostolic, the Progress, Succession, the Chair of Unity, and Primitive Authority belonged to it. All those who had forsaken it, first had acknowledged it, and could not efface the Character of their Novelty, nor that of their Rebellion. The Heathens themselves looked on it as that which was the Stem, the whole from whence all the parcels were detached, the everliving Trunk which the lo●● off Branches however left entire. Celsus, who reproached the Christians for their divisions into so many Schismatical Churches which he saw rise up, yet observed one Church distinct from all the rest, and always stronger, which he also called for that reason the great Church. There are some, 
Orig. lib. 1.  says he, among the Christians who do not acknowledge the Creator, nor the Traditions of the Jews, meaning the Marcionites, but, goes he on, the great Church receives them. In the trouble which Paul of Samosata stirred up, the Emperor Aurelian easily known which was the true Christian Church, to which belonged the House of the Church, 
Euseb. Hist. Eccl. l. 7. c. 30.  either because it was the place of Prayer, or else the House of the Bishop. He adjudged it to those who were in Communion with the Bishops of Italy, and that of Rome, because he always saw the Gross of Christians in that Communion. When the Emperor Constance embroiled all in the Church, the Confusion he made in it by protecting the Arrians, could not keep Ammianus Marcellinus, as much a Heathen as he was, from confessing that that Emperor strayed out of the right way of the Christian Religion, 
Am. Marcel. l. 21.  simple and particular by itself, both in his Dogmata and Conduct. And it was because the true Church had a Majesty and a Right, which the Heresies could neither imitate, nor obscure: but on the contrary, they bore testimony to the Catholic Church, tho' at the same time they never thought they did so. Constance, who persecuted St. Athanasius, the Defender of the Ancient Faith, ardently desired, says Ammianus Marcellinus, 
Id. lib. 15.  to get him condemned by the Authority which the Bishop of Rome had over the others. By seeking to support himself with that Authority, he made the Heathens themselves sensible of what was wanting to his Sect, and honoured the Church from which the Arrians had departed; thus the Gentiles themselves acknowledged the Catholic Church. If any one asked them where they kept their Assemblies, and who were their Bishops, they never deceived them. As for Heresies, whatsoever they made, they could never get rid of the name of then Authors. The Sabellians, the Paulianists, the Arrians, the Pelagians, and the rest, were scandalised in vain at the title of the Faction which was given to them. The World, whatsoever they could do, would speak naturally, and designed every Sect by him from whom it first sprung. As for the great Church, the Catholic and Apostolic Church, it was always impossible to affix any other Author to it than Jesus Christ himself, nor to assign to it the first of its Pastors without going up as high as to the very Apostles, nor to give it any other name than what it had before taken. So that what Heretics soever were made, they could not conceal it from the Heathens. She opened to them her Bosom all ●he World over; and they ran to her in troops. Some of them were possibly lost in the by-Paths, but the Catholic Church was the great way wherein entered always most of those who sought after Jesus Christ; and Experience has sufficiently discovered, that to her it was given to bring in the fullness of the Gentiles. Her also it was whom the unbelieving Emperors attacked with all their power and force. 
Orig. cont. Cells. 7. Just. Apol. 2.  Origen tells us that few of the Heretics were sufferers for the Faith. St. Justin, more ancient than he, hath observed that the Persecution spared the Marcionites, and the other Heretics. The Heathens only persecuted that Church which they saw spread herself over the face of the whole Earth, and only acknowledged herself for the Church of Jesus Christ. What matters it to pull off some of the Branches? her good Sap was not lost for all that: she went into other places, and the cutting down the superfluous Wood served but to make the Fruit come better. In fine, if we consider the History of the Church, we shall always find that when ever one Heresy impaired it, she recovered her losses, both by enlarging outwardly, and increasing inwardly light and piety, whilst she beheld in some distant Corners the cut off Branches to dry and whither. The work of man was perished, notwithstanding the power of Hell to support it; the work of God has continued; and the Church hath triumphed over Idolatry, and all Errors whatsoever.  
THIS Church, so always attacked, 
XIII. General Reflections on the Progress of Religion, and the relation there is between the Books of the Scripture.  yet never overcome, is a perpetual Miracle, and a clear and shining Testimony of the Immutability of the Divine Councils. In the midst of the agitation of Humane Affairs she still supported herself with an invincible force, so that by an uninterrupted course for near these seventeen hundred years, do we see her come up even to Jesus Christ, in whom she hath collected the Succession of the ancient People, and was found reunited to the Prophets and Patriarches.  
And so many astonishing Miracles which the Hebrews of old saw with their eyes, do still serve at this day to confirm our Faith. That great God who wrought them for a Testimony of his Unity and his Almightiness, what could he do more authentic to preserve the memory of them, than to leave in the hands of so great a People the Acts which punctually attest them in order of time? this is what we now have in the Books of the Old Testament; that is to say, in the most ancient Books that are in the World, in those Books which are the only ones of Antiquity, where the knowledge of the true God is taught, and his service ordained; in those Books which the Jews have always so religiously kept. 'Tis certain that they were the only People who originally knew God the Creator of Heaven and Earth; and consequently the only People to whom the Divine Secrets were to be committed. They also kept them with a most religious care. Those Books which the Egyptians and the other People called Divine, are lost long since, and there scarce remains so much as any confused Remembrance of them in ancient Histories. The sacred Books of the Romans, wherein Numa the Author of their Religion had written the Mysteries of them, are perished even by the hands of the Romans themselves, and the Senate commanded them to be burnt, as tending to the overthrow of Religion. And those same Romans at last suffered likewise the Books of the Sibyls, 
Tit. Liv. li. 40. c. 29. Varr. l. de Cult. Dear ap. Aug. de Civ. 12. 34.  to be destroyed which were for so long time reverenced by them as Prophetical, and wherein they would make the World believe that they found the Decrees of the Immortal Gods concerning their Empire, and yet notwithstanding they never published, I do not say one single Volume, but so much as one single Oracle. It has been only the Jews who have had the Sacred Scriptures in so much the greater Veneration, as they were the more known. Of all the ancient People, these alone preserved the Primitive Monuments of their Religion, albeit they so fully gave testimony of their Infidelity, with that of their Ancestors. And at this very day do this People still remain upon the Earth, to carry into all Nations where they are dispersed, together with the course and progress of their Religion, the Miracles and Predictions which render it .  
When Jesus Christ was come, and sent by his Father to accomplish the Promises of the Law, he confirmed his Mission, and that of his Disciples by new Miracles, which have been also written with the same exactness. The Acts of them have been published all the World over; the Circumstances of Time, Persons, and Places have made the Examen easy to all that have been careful of their Salvation. The World was informed, the World has believed, and if we have but ever so little considered the ancient Monuments of the Church, we must avow that never has any thing been determined with more of reflection and knowledge.  
But as to the Relation which the Books of the two Testaments have to one another, there is one difference to be considered, that is, that the Books of the ancient People were composed at divers times. Some are the times of Moses; others those of Joshua and the Judges; and others of the Kings; some are those when the People were brought out of Egypt, and received the Law; others those when they obtained the promised Land; and others those when they were reestablished by visible Miracles. To convince the incredulity of a People who were wholly devoted to their Senses, God took a long extent of Ages in which he distributed his Miracles and his Prophets, that so he might often renew the sensible Testimonies by which he attested his holy Truths. In the New Testament he tooks another conduct. He would no more reveal any thing anew to his Church after Jesus Christ. In him was perfection and fullness; and all the Divine Books that have been composed in the New Testament, were made in the times of the Apostles.  
That is to say, that the Testimony of Jesus Christ, and of those whom Jesus Christ hath been pleased to choose for the Witnesses of his Resurrection hath been sufficient for the Christian Church. All that has come since has edified it, but it has not been looked upon as purely inspired by God, but what the Apostles have written, or what they have confirmed by their Authority.  
But in that difference which is found between the Books of the two Testaments, God hath always observed that admirable order, of making things to be written just at the times when they happened, or at least when the memory of them was very fresh. And so those that knew them, wrote them: those that knew them received the Books which bore witness of them: and both the one and the other have left them to their Posterity as a most precious and invaluable Inheritance; and they most carefully and piously have preserved them.  
And thus was form the Body of the Holy Scriptures, as well the Old as the New Testament: Scriptures, which from their Original have been regarded as true in the whole, as given by God himself, and which have been also kept with that great Religion, that it was thought none could dare to alter the least Letter of it without a strange Impiety.  
And thus it was that they came down to us, always holy, always sacred, always inviolable; the one kept by the constant Tradition of the Jews, and the other by the Tradition of the Christians, so much the more certain as it was confirmed by the Blood and Martyrdom, as well of those who wrote those Divine Books, as of them that received 'em.  
St. Austin and the other Father's demand upon whose Faith we attribute the profane Books to certain Times and Authors. 
Aug. count. Faust. 11. 2. 32. 21. 33. 6.  Every one readily answers, that the Books are distinguished by the different Relations they have to the Laws, Customs, and Histories of a certain Time, by the Style itself, which bears impressed the Character of particular Ages and Authors; and more than all that, 
Iren. 1.2.17. Tertul. adv. Marc. 4. l. 4, 5. Aug. de utilit. ced. 3. 17. cont. Faust. Manich. 22. 79. 28. 4. 32. 33. Cont. adv. leg. & Porph. 1. 20. etc.  by the public Faith, and by a constant Tradition. All these things concur to the establishment of the Divine Books, to distinguish the Times, and to mark out the Authors of them; and the more Religion there was in preserving them entire, the more indisputable is the Tradition which preserved them for us.  
Thus hat it been always acknowledged, not only by the Orthodox, but also by Heretics, and even by Infidels. Moses has ever passed in all the East, and afterwards in all the World, for the Legislator of the Jews, and for being the Author of those Books that are attributed to him. The Samaritans, who had received them from the ten separated Tribes, have as religiously kept them as the Jews. You have seen their Tradition and their History.  
Two People so opposite took them not one from the other, but both received them from their Common Original in the Times of Solomon and David. The ancient Hebrew Characters, which the Samaritans still retain, do sufficiently show that they have not followed Esdras, who changed them. Thus the Pentateuch of the Samaritans, and that of the Jews, are two complete Originals, independent one on the other. The perfect conformity that is seen in the substance of the Texts, justifies the Sincerity of both those People. They are faithful Witnesses that agree without understanding one another, or to speak better, who agree together notwithstanding all their Enmities, 
V sup. 1. part. p. 24, 25, 34, 49, 59, 63, 80, 86, 87.  and which only Immemorial Tradition of both Parties hath united in the same mind.  
Those therefore who say, tho' without any reason, that those Books being lost, or having never been, were set up, or composed a new, or altered by Esdras; besides their being contradicted by Esdras himself, as may very well be observed in the course of his History, are likewise so by the Pentateuch, which is even now at this day to be seen in the hands of the Samaritans, so as it had been read in the first Agas by Eusebius of Cesaria, St. Jerome, and the other Ecclesiastical Author; so as those People had kept it in their Original: and a Sect so weak as that seems not to continue so long, but to bear this Testimony to the Antiquity of Moses.  
The Authors that wrote the four Evangelists received no less assured Testimony from the unanimous consent of the Faithful, the Heathens, and the Heretics. That great Number of various People who received and translated those Divine Books as soon as they were made, agree in their date and in their Authors. The Heathens have not contradicted this Tradition. Nor Colsus, who attacked those Sacred Books even in the first beginning of Christianity; nor Julian the Apostate, tho' he was neither ignorant of any thing, nor omitted any thing that might descredit them; nor has any other Heathen ever suspected them to be supposititious; but on the contrary, they have all given them the same Authors as the Christians. The Heretics, although they were confounded by the Authority of those Books, yet durst not say that they were not of the Disciples of our Lord. Nay some of those Heretics saw the beginnings of the Church, and before whose eyes were written the Books of the Gospel. So that fraud, if there could possibly be any, would have appeared too near to have been successful. 'Tis true, after the time of the Apostles, and when the Church was already spread over the face of the Earth, Martion and Man's always the most rash, and the most ignorant of all the Heretics, notwithstanding the Tradition coming from the Apostles, continued by their Disciples, and by the Bishops to whom they had left their Chair and the Conduct of the People, and unanimously received by all the Christian Church, were so bold as to say that there Evangelists were supposititious, and that that of St. Luke, which they preferred to all the others, they knew not why since it came by no other way, had been falsified. But what proofs gave they of this? nothing but mere Visions, no positive Matters of Fact. All the reason they gave was, that what was contrary to their Sentiments, must necessarily have been invented by others than by the Apostles, and, for all their proof, they alleged the very Opinions which were in Controversy: Opinions otherwise so extravagant, and so manifestly mad, that it is not to be imagined how they could ever enter into the mind of man to conceive. But certainly to accuse the Sincerity of the Church, one must have in ones hands Originals quite different from those of hers, or some demonstrative proof. But they and their Disciples being called upon to produce some, they are struck dumb, and have left by their Silence an undoubted proof, that in the second Age of Christianity in which they wrote, there was not only an Index and manifest signification of Falsity in them, 
Iren. Tertul. Aug. loc. cit.  but there was not the least Conjecture that could be opposed to the Tradition of the Church.  
What shall I say of the Consent and Harmony that is to be found in the Books of the Scripture, and of that admirable Testimony which all the Times of the People of God gave one to the other? The Times of the Second Temple presuppose those of the First, and carry us back to Solomon. Peace was only established by Combats and Fightings, and the Conquests of God's People return us to the Times of the Judges, to Joshuah, and to the Children of Israel's coming out of Egypt. In reflecting upon an entire People's coming out of a Kingdom where they were Strangers, we shall remember how they got in thither. The twelve Patriarches appeared immediately, and a People that were never looked upon but as one single Family, leads us naturally up to Abraham, who was the Main-stock of it. Were those People more wise, and less addicted to Idolatry after their return out of Babylon? It was the natural effect of a severe Chastisement, which their own past Offences had drawn upon them. If that People boasted that they had several Ages seen Miracles which never other People had seen, they might also boast that they had had the knowledge of God which no other People had. What would any have Circumcision, the Feast of Tabernacles, the Passover, and the other celebrated Feasts in the Nation Time out of mind to signify, if not the things we find taken notice of in the Books of Moses? that a People distinguished from all others, by a Religion, and by a Carriage so very peculiar, who had kept from its Original upon the Foundation of Creation, and upon the Faith of Providence, a Doctrine so followed and elevated, a so lively Remembrance of a long Succession of Facts so necessarily chained together, Ceremonies so regulated, and Customs so universal, should be without a History to recount their Origine, and without a Law to prescribe Customs to them for a thousand years whilst it continued in that Estate, and that Esdras should all on the sudden begin to give them under the Name of Moses, with a History of their Antiquities, the Law that should form their Manners, when that People who were then made Captives beheld their ancient Monarchy utterly thrown down; what more incredible Romance could any one ever invent? And is it possible for any one to give Credit to it, with joining at the same time Ignorance to Blasphemy?  
To lose such a Law, after one has received it, either a People ought to be quite exterminated, or else, through divers Changes, be brought to such a pass that they have nothing but a confused Idea of their Original, Religion, and Customs. If that Misery happened to the Jews, and that the Law so well known under Zedekiah should be totally lost sixty Years after, notwithstanding all the industrious Care of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Baruch, and Daniel, without reckoning up the rest, and in the time too when this Law had its Martyrs, as the Persecution of Dan●el and the three Children do plainly demonstrate; If, I say, that holy Law was lost in so short a time, and was so profoundly forgot till Esdras was permitted to re-establish it according to his own Fancy, that was not the only Book which ought to be made them: For he ought at the same time to compose all the Prophets both old and new, that is to say, those who had written both before and during the Captivity; those that the People had seen write, as well as those which they very well remembered; not only the Prophets, but also the Books of Solomon, and the Psalms of Dav●d, and all the Books of History, since, in that whole History there can scarce be found one single considerable matter of Fact, and in all those other Books so much as one Chapter, which being taken out of the Books of Moses, such as we have 'em, can subsist one Moment. Everything there speaks of Moses, every thing there is sounded upon Moses; and indeed every thing ought to be so, for that Moses and his Law, and the History which he wrote was effectually in the Jews all the Foundation both of their public and private Conduct. Indeed it was a very marvellous Enterprise in Esdras, and very novel in the World, to make at the same time so many Men to speak with Moses of a different Character and Style, and yet every one in a manner uniform, and always like to itself: And on a sudden to make so great and entire a People, (as they were) to believe that those were the ancient Books which they had always had in Reverence, and the new which they had seen made, as if they had never heard any thing spoke of, and that the Knowledge of the present time, as well as that of the time past, was utterly defaced. Such are the Prodigies we must believe, if we will disbelieve the Miracles of the Almighty, and refuse to receive the Testimony, by which it was evident that they had told so great a People, they had seen them with their Eyes.  
But if that People were returned from Babylon unto the Land of their Fathers, so new and so ignorant that they could scarce remember they had ever been, so that without the least Examination they had received all that Esdras was pleased to give them: How then is it that we see in the Book which Esdras wrote, 
1 Esdr. 3.7.9. 2 Esdr. 5.8.9.12, 13.  and in that of Nehemiah his Contemporary, whatsoever was there said of the divine Books? With what Front durst Esdras and Nehemiah speak of the Law of Moses in so many places, and that publicly, as of a thing known to all the World, and which all the World had in their Hands? How were all the People seen to act naturally in Obedience to that Law, as having had it always present with them? But how was it said at the same time, and at the People's Return, that all that People admired the Accomplishment of the Oracle of Jeremiah concerning the seventy Weeks Captivity? That Jeremiah which Esdras had been forging with all the other Prophets, how had he on a sudden found Credit? By what new Artifice were they able to persuade a whole Nation, even the old Men who had seen that Prophet, and had always looked for that miraculous Deliverance which he had foretold them of: Esdras and Nehemiah could not have written the History of their Time; some other must have done it in their Name, and those who have made all the other Books of the old Testament would have been so esteemed by Posterity, that the other Falsifyers would have gained little Credit to their Imposture.  
No doubt but they would have been ashamed of so many Extravagancies, and instead of saying that Esdras had of a sudden brought to light so many Books so different one from the other, by the Characters both of Style and Time, one must affirm that he might have inserted into them the Miracles and Predictions which made them to pass for Divine: An Error more gross still than the former, since that those Miracles and those Predictions are so interspersed in all those Books, so often inculcated and repeated, with such different turns, and so great a variety of powerful Figures; in a word, they have so constituted the whole Body of them, that if we have ever but so much as opened those holy Books, we must see, that it was a great deal more easy perfectly to make a new Model of them, than to insert in them those things which the Incredulous are so much puzzled to find there. And tho' it should be granted them whatsoever they ask, yet the miraculous and divine Parts are so much the Foundation of those Books, that they must be yet acknowledged whatsoever Aversion any may have to them. And admit that Esdras might have added afterwards the Predictions of those things that had already happened in his time; yet those which were fulfilled since, which you have seen in so great a number, who should superadd them? God, it is possible, might have bestowed on Esdras the gift of Prophecy, that so the Imposture of Esdras might seem the more probable; and they might rather have a false one to be a Prophet than Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Daniel: Or else every Age might have had a prosperous Counterfeit, who might impose upon the Faith of a whole Nation; and that new Impostors, through an admirable Zeal of Religion, might have continually been adding to the divine Books, after that the Canon might have been closed, that they might be spread abroad with the Jews over all the Earth, and translated into so many strange Languages. Would not this have been (out of eagerness of Desire to establish the Religion) the way utterly to destroy it? Would a whole Nation so easily suffer a Change of what they verily believed to be Divine, whether through Conviction of Reason, or through the power of Error. Can any one hope to persuade Christians, nay or Turks, to add but one single Chapter, either to the Gospel, or to the Alcoran? But perhaps the Jews might be more docile than other People, or not so Religious as to preserve their holy Books? What Monsters of Opinions must come into their Minds, to make then willing to shake off the Yoke of divine Authority, and not to regulate their Sentiments, no more than their Manners, but by their distorted Reason?  
Let none say that the discussion of these Matters is perplexing and troublesome: For if it should be so, they must either lay the Charge of it on the Authority of the Church, and the Tradition of so many Ages, or else push on the Examination to the utmost Extremity, and never believe they can be rid of it, but say they require still more time than will be given to their Salvation. But certainly, not to turn over the Books of both the Testaments with an endless Labour, we need only read the Book of Psalms, where are collected so many ancient Songs of God's People, to see there in the most divine Poetry that ever was, the immortal Monuments of the History of Moses, of that of the Judges and Kings, imprinted by Song and Measure in Men's Minds. And for the new Testament: The bare Epistles of St. Paul so Lively, and Original, so strong as to time both of the Affairs and Motions which then were, and in short, of so pointing a Character; those Epistles, I say, received by the Churches to which they were addressed, and from thence communicated to other Churches, will be sufficient to convince all honest Minds, that every thing in the Scriptures which the Apostles have left us, is according to the Original.  
So likewise do they support one another with an invincible Force. The Acts of the Apostles are but a continuation of the Gospel, their Epistles suppose it necessary; but that all may agree together, both the Acts, and the Epistles, and Gospels, do every where own the ancient Books of the Jews. St. Paul and the other Apostles are continually alleging what Moses hath said, 
Act. 3.22.7.31, 32, etc. Rom. 10.5.19.  what the Prophets have said and writ after Moses, Jesus Christ calls to witness the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, as Witnesses who all depose the same Truth. When he hath a mind to explain his Mysteries, 
Ibid. 27. John 5.46, 47.  he gins at Moses and all the Prophets, and when he tells the Jews that Moses wrote of him, he lays down for a Foundation what was most certainly believed among them, and brings them back to the very Spring Head of their own Traditions.  
But however we will see what can be opposed to this so acknowledged an Authority, and to the Consent of so many Ages: For since in our days Men have been so presumptuous and daring as to print in all sort of Languages Books against the Scriptures, we ought not to dissemble or conceal what they allege for the decrying its Antiquities. Therefore what say they to justify the Pentateuch's being supposititious, and what can be objected to a Tradition of three thousand Years standing, upheld by its own Power, and by the course of things? Nothing of Consequence, nothing that is positive, nothing that is of weight and substance. Some little Chicaneries and Quarrels they have at Numbers, Places, and Names; and such Observations, that in all other matters are reckoned at most but as vain Curiosities uncapable of reaching the stress of the Case, are here allege to us by way of Decision of an Affair, the most serious that ever was.  
There are, say they, Difficulties in the History of the Scripture. No Question to be made on't, which yet there would not be, we●e the Books less ancient, or had they been supposititious, and made (as they are so bold to say) by a cunning and industrious Man: If they had not been so Religious as to give it us as they found it, but had taken the liberty to correct it where it did not please them. There are Difficulties which arise by length of time, when places have changed their Name or Condition; when Dates are forgot; when Genealogies are no further known; when there is no remedy for the Faults which a Copy, tho' never so little mistaken, so easily introduces in such things, or that matters of Fact, which have slipped out of men's Memories, do leave a Darkness upon some part of the History. But than is this Obscurity in the Issue itself, or in the stress of this Affair? By no means: All there is followed; and that which is obscure serves only to let us see a more venerable Antiquity in those holy Books.  
But there are Alterations in the Text: The ancient Versions do not agree together; the Hebrew in several Places is different from itself; and the Text of the Samaritans, beside the Word which they accuse them of for changing it expressly in favour of the Temple of Gerizim, differs also in many other places from that of the Jews. And from thence what do they conclude? That the Jews, or else Esdras, had contrived the Pentateuch at the return of the Captivity? 'Tis just the contrary that they should conclude. The Differences of the Samaritane serve only to confirm what we have already established, that their Text is independent from that of the Jews. So far can we be from imagining that those Schismatics took any thing from the Jews and Esdras, that we have seen exactly to the contrary, that it was in spite to the Jews and Esdras, and in hatred of both the first and the second Temple that they invented their Chimaera of Gerizim. 
V sup. 1. p. 49. & Seq. 57 63.  Who therefore does not see it plain, that they would rather have accused the Imposhires of the Jews than followed them? Those Rebels who scorned both Esdras and all the Prophets of the Jews, with their Temple, and Solomon that built it, as well as David who had assigned the place of it: what did they regard in their Pentateuch, if not an Antiquity superior, not only to that of Esdras and the Prophets, but also to that of Solomon and David; in a word, the Antiquity of Moses, wherein they both agreed? How indisputable then is Moses his Authority, and that of the Pentateuch, that all the Objections tend only to the affirmation of it.  
But then from whence come those varieties of Texts and Versions? From whence indeed, unless from the Antiquity of the Book itself which hath gone through the Hands of so many Transcribes for so many Ages, that the Language in which it was written is almost now worn out? But let us leave these vain Disputes, and in one word pluck up the Difficulty by the Roots. Let any one say if it be not evident, that in all the Versions, and Texts that are, there are still to be found the same Laws, the same Miracles, the same Predictions, the same train of History, the same Body of Doctrine, and in short the same Substance. Wherein then after all this do the varieties of Texts hurt? What do we need further than this unalterable Fond of the sacred Books, and what can we demand more of the divine Providence? And as for the Versions, is that a sign of Forgery or Novelty, that the Language of the Scriptures is so ancient that the Delicacies of it now are lost, and we find ourselves puzzled to give it all its Elegance, and to express it in its full sense and Power of meaning? Is not that rather a Proof of its greater antiquity? and if one would stand upon little trifling matters, let any one tell me, if in those several places wherein they have found themselves perplexed, any one of them has been settled by reason or by conjecture. We have followed the Faith of Examples; and as tradition never permitted the sound Doctrine to be altered, so we thought that the other faults, it there were any, served only to prove that none hath innovated any thing here by the dictate of their own Spirit.  
But now here is at last the main stress of the Objection. Are there not some things added in Moses' Text, and how comes it to pass, that we find his Death at the end of the Book that is attributed to him? What Marvel is this? that those who continued his History, should have added his happy end to the rest of his Actions, and so to make one and the same Body of the whole? for the other additions let us see what they are. Is there any new Law, or any new Ceremony, any Dogma, any Miracle, or any Prediction? they have not so much as dreamt of any such thing, there is not the least suspicion of it, nor the least Sign: That had been to add to the work of God: the Law had forbid it, and the scandal it would have occasioned, would have been very horrible. What then? 
Deut. 4.12.12.5. supra 2. part. p. 220.  why they may have continued, perhaps, a Genealogy that he had begun, or possibly may have explained the name of a Town changed by time, upon occasion of the Manna, wherewith the People were fed for forty Years; they may have particularised the time when that Heavenly Nourishment ceased, and that Fact written since in another Book shall be made a Remark, 
Jos. 5.12. Exod. 16.35.  upon that of Moses, as a manifest and public Fact of which all the People were Witnesses; and four or five Remarks of this Nature made by Josuah, or Samuel, or some other Prophet of a like Antiquity; because they had only regard to notorious Facts, and where there was apparently no difficulty, may have naturally passed into the Text, and the same tradition may have brought them down to us with all the rest; shall presently all be lost? Shall Esdras be accused, through the samaritan, where those Remarks are found? show us, that they have an Antiquity not only above Esdras, but above the Schism of the ten Tribes. It matters not, all must fall upon Esdras. If those remarks came higher, the Pentateuch would be then more ancient than it ought; and we could not pay reverence enough to the antiquity of a Book, the very Notes whereof would be of so great an Age. Esdras therefore may have done all; Esdras may have forgot when he would make Moses to speak, and may have made him to write so grossly as you see, what things did happen after his time. Shall a whole work be convicted of forgery by this only place? the Authority of so many Ages, and the public Faith will then be of no further stead to him: as if on the contrary we did not see that those remarks which they so much boast of, are a new proof of Sincerity and Integrity, not only in those that made them, but also in those that transcribed them. Has there ever Judgement passed on the authority, I do not say of a Divine Book, but of any Book whatsoever, upon such slight and trivial reasons? But it seems the Scripture is a Book that is an Enemy to Mankind; it would oblige Men to submit their Minds to God, to suppress their disorderly passions: but Man is bend upon his own destruction, and let the reward be what it will, he will make himself a Sacrifice to Libertinism.  
Now can you believe that impiety did not lead them without any necessity in the World into all these Absurdities you have seen? if against the testimony of Mankind, and against all the Rules of good Sense, it strives to take away from the Pentateuch and the Prophecies, their constantly avowed Authors, & to dispute their dates with them. For the dates are all in all as to this matter, for two reasons; First, because Books that were full of so many miraculous deeds, which are seen in them, attended with the most particular Circumstances, and advanced not only as public, but as present, if they had been capable of being false; would have carried their own Condemnation with them; and instead of keeping themselves up by their own weight, they wou●d long ago have fell of themselves. Secondly, because their dates being once fixed, we can no more efface the Infallible mark of divine Inspiration, which they bear impressed in the great number, and the long course of memorable Predictions which we find them filled withal.  
'Tis to shift off these Miracles and these Predictions that the wicked have run themselves into all these Absurdities that have surprised you. But let them not think they shall escape God. He hath reserved for his Scriptures such a mark of Divinity, as can never suffer any prejudice. 'Tis the relation there is between the two Testaments. They do not dispute at least that all the old Testament was written before the new; here there is no new Esdras which can persuade the Jews to invent, or to falsify their Scripture in favour of the Christians, whom they Persecuted. There needs no more. By the relation of the two Testaments we prove that both are Divine. They have both the same design, and the same Consequence. The one prepares the way to that Perfection which the other shows openly to all the World; the one lays the Foundation, the other finishes the Building; in a word, the one foretells what the other shows us accomplished.  
Thus all the times are united together, and the eternal design of divine Providence is revealed to us. The tradition of the Jews, and that of the Christians make together but one and the same Progress of Religion; and the Scriptures of both Testaments, are but one and the same Body, and one and the same Book.  
And because the discussion of the particular Predictions, tho' in itself it be full of Light, depends on many Deeds, which all the World cannot equally understand; God hath therefore chosen some of them, which he hath made plain to the most Ignorant. Those illustrious, those bright and conspicuous Facts, of which all the World is a witness, are those Facts which I have here endeavoured to make your Highness comprehend, that is to say, the desolation of the Jews, and the Conversion of the Gentiles happening together, and both precisely at the same time as the Gospel was Preached, and Jesus Christ appeared.  
These three things united in order of time, were yet much more so in the order of God's Decrees. You have seen them go together in the old Prophecies: but Jesus Christ, the faithful Interpreter of the Prophecies, and of the Will of his Father, hath still better explained unto us that Bond of Unity in his Gospel. He does it in the Parable of the Vine-yard so familiar in the Prophets. The Father of the Family had planted this Vine, that is to say, the true Religion founded upon his Covenant, and had let it out to Husbandmen, that is to say, to the Jews. 
Matt. 21.38.  And that he might receive the fruits of it, he sent several times his Servants who are the Prophets. But these unfaithful Husbandmen cause some to be put to death; his goodness leads him to send them his Son; and yet him they treat worse than they did his Servants.  
At last he takes away his Vineyard from them, and gives it unto other Husbandmen; he takes away from them the Grace of his Alliance, to bestow it on the Gentiles.  
These three things ought therefore to concur together, the sending of the Son of God, the Reprobation of the Jews, and the Calling of the Gentiles. There needs no further a Commentary upon the Parable which the event has itself interpreted.  
You have seen the Jews confess that the Kingdom of Judah, and the State of their Commonwealth began to fall in the time of Herod, and when Jesus Christ came into the World. But if the Alterations which they made to the Law of God, have brought upon them so visible a Diminution of their Power, their last Desolation which yet continues, must be the Punishment of a fat greater Crime.  
That Crime is plainly their Ingratitude against their Messiah, who came to instruct them, and to make them free. And it is from that time too that an Iron yoke has been over their heads; and they have been long ago crushed with it, but that God keeps them to acknowledge one day, and to serve that Messiah whom they have crucified.  
You then already see one averred and public Fact: that is, the total Ruin of the State of the Jews at the time of Jesus Christ. The Conversion of the Gentiles, which was to happen at the same time, is no less averred neither. At the same time when the ancient Worship was destroyed in Jerusalem with the Temple, Idolatry was attacked on all sides; and the People, who for so many thousands of years had forgot their Creator, were now wakened from so long a seeming death of sleep.  
And that all things might accord, the Spiritual Promises are displayed by the Preaching of the Gospel, in the Time when the Jews, who had only received the Temporal ones, being openly reproved for their Incredulity, and made Captives over all the face of the Earth, had no longer any worldly Grandeur to expect. Then was Heaven promised to those who suffered Persecution for Righteousness sake; the Secrets of the Future Life were preached; and the true Blessedness was shown for from that abode where Death reigns, where Sin and all manner of Evils do abound.  
If we do not discover here a design always kept up, and always followed; it we see not here one and the same order of the Counsels of God, who prepared from the beginning of the World what he finished in the fullness of time, and who under different Estates, but with a Succession still constant, perpetuated to the eyes of all the World that holy Society by whom he would be served; we deserve to see nothing, and to be delivered up to our own hardness, as to the most just and rigorous of all Punishments.  
And that this Course of God's People might be conspicuous to the most undiscerning, God made it sensible and palpable by Matters of Fact which none could be ignorant of, unless he purposely shut his eyes against the Truth. The Messiah expected by the Hebrews; he came, and he called the Gentiles as it had been foretold. The People that owned him as come, were incorporated with those that looked for him, and there was not between them one moment's Interruption; that People were dispersed over all the Earth, the Gentiles ceased not to gather together; and that Church which Jesus Christ hath built upon a Rock, not all the Powers of Hell have ever been able to overthrow.  
O what Consolation is this to the Children of God But what Conviction is here of the Truth, when they see that Pope Innocent the Eleventh, who now most deservedly fills the first See of the Church we are continually ascending without any interruption even to St. Peter, made by Jesus Christ the Chief of the Apostles: from whence, by running back to the Priests that served under the Law, we go up even to Aaron and Moses: from them to the Patriarches, and so to the beginning of the World! what Course, what Tradition, what marvellous Connexion and Chain is here! If our Minds, which are naturally uncertain, and by their doubtfulness become the Shuttlecock of their own Reasonings, have need in the Questions which concern our Salvation, to be fixed and determined by some certain Authority, what greater Authority is there than this of the Catholic Church, which reunites in herself all the Authority of passed Ages, and the ancient Traditions of Mankind to its first Original.  
Thus the Society, which Jesus Christ looked for during all past Ages, at last founded upon the Rock, and where St. Peter and his Successors were to preside by his Orders, justified itself by its own Course, and bore in its eternal duration the Character of the Hand of God.  
'Tis also this Succession, that no Heresy, no Sect, no other Society than only the Church of God, was able to give to itself. The false Religions could imitate the Church in many things, and especially in saying as she did, that God founded them: but that Discourse in their Mouth was only a Discourse in the Air. For if God hath created Mankind, and if in creating him after his own Image, he hath never disdained to instruct him how to serve and please him; Every Sect that doth not show its Succession from the beginning of the World, is not of God.  
Here fall prostrate at the feet of the Church all the Societies and all the Sects that men have set up both within and without Christianity. As for Example; The false Prophet of the Arabians had the cunning to say that he was sent from God; and after he had deceived the People most grossly ignorant, he knew how to make his advantage of the Divisions of his Neighbourhood, to extend into it by force of Arms, a Religion that was wholly Sensual; but neither has he dared to suppose that he was the Saviour expected, nor could he in short, give, either to his Person or to his Religion, any real or apparent Unity with past Ages. The expedient he found to free himself from that was new. For fear lest they should search into the Scriptures of the Christians for Testimonies of his Mission, like to those which Jesus Christ found in the Scriptures of the Jews, he pretended that both the Christians and the Jews had falsified all their Books. His ignorant Followers believed him on his own word six hundred years after Jesus Christ; and he declared himself, not only without any precedent witness, but also without any attempt either of supposing, or of promising any one sensible Miracle which might authorise his Mission, either by himself or any of his Followers. So likewise the Heresiarches, who have founded new Sects among the Christians, have had the Art to make the Faith more easy by denying the Mysteries which passed our Senses. They were able to dazzle men by their Eloquence, and by a seeming show of Piety, to move them by their Passions, to engage them by their Interests, to gain 'em over by Novelty and Libertinism, either by that of the Mind, or else by that of their Senses: In a word, they could easily, either deceive themselves, or deceive others, for there is nothing more Humane; but besides that they could never boast they had done any Miracle in Public, nor reduce their Religion to positive Facts whereof their Followers were Witnesses, there was always a most unhappy mischief attended them, which they could never conceal, and that was their Novelty. It will always be visible to the eyes of the whole World, that they and their Sect which they have established, will be detached from that great Body, and from that ancient Church which Jesus Christ has founded, where St. Peter and his Successors have kept the Primacy, in which all Sects have found themselves established. The moment of the Separation will be always so apparent, that the Heretics themselves can never be able to deny it, and they will never dare so much as to attempt to make themselves to come from the Source by an uninterrupted Succession. This is the inevitable weakness of all the Sects which Mankind has set up. None can change the Ages past, nor give themselves Predecessors, nor ever make them to be found in possession. The only Catholic Church fills up all precedent Ages, by a Course of Succession that can never be disputed with her. The Law came before the Gospel; the Succession of Moses and the Patriarches makes but one and the same with that of Jesus Christ: to be looked for, to come, to be acknowledged by a Posterity which is to last as long as the World; this is the Character of the Messiah in whom we believe. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, 
Heb. 13.8.  and to day, and for ever.  
Thus besides the advantage which the Church of Jesus Christ hath, of being alone founded on miraculous and divine Facts which they have written for all to see, without any fear of being falsified as to the time in which they happened; there is likewise in favour of those who lived not in those Times, one Miracle that always is subsisting, which confirms the truth of all the rest; that is the Course of Religion which hath been always victorious over the Errors that have crept in, which endeavour to destroy it. You may add to this also another Chain, and that is the visible uninterruptedness of a continual Punishment upon the Jews, who have not yet received Christ so long ago promised to their Fathers.  
They nevertheless expect him still; and this their expectation, which is always frustrated, is one part of their Punishment. They expect him, and discover in their Expectation that he hath always been expected. Condemned therefore by their own Books, they confirm the truth of Religion; they, as I may say, do carry all the Course of it written on their Foreheads: and at one view we see what they have been, why they are as we see them, and for what they are reserved.  
Thus four or five Authentic Facts, and those more clear than the light of the Sun, do discover our Religion to be as old as the World. And consequently they discover that it hath no other Author than He who made the World, who holding all things in the hollow of his Hand, was able by himself alone both to begin and carry on a design wherein all Ages are comprehended.  
We need therefore no longer wonder, as we commonly do, why God proposes to us to believe so many things so worthy of him, and yet at the same time so impenetrable to Humane Understanding. But we should rather wonder, that he having established the Faith upon so firm and manifest an Authority, there should yet be any in the World blind and incredulous.  
Our disorderly Passions, our being bewitched to our Senses, and our incurable Pride are the cause of it. We choose rather to venture all, than to put a constraint upon ourselves; we choose rather to continue in our Ignorance, than to confess it, and are pleased rather with a vain Curiosity, and indulging our unruly Spirits in the liberty of thinking whatsoever delights 'em, than to yield to the yoke of Divine Authority.  
From thence it is that there are so many Unbelievers, and God suffers it to be so for the instruction of his Children. Unless we had the Blind, the Savage, and the Infidel, and that in the very Bosom too of Christianity, we should not be sensible enough of the Corruption of our Nature, nor of that Abyss of Misery from whence Jesus Christ hath delivered us. If his holy Truth was not contradicted, we should not see the Miracle which hath constantly carried it through so many Contradictions, and we should forget at last that we are saved by Grace. Now the Incredulity of the one does humble the rest; and those Rebels that oppose God's Decrees, make that Power conspicuous by which indepently from all things else, he accomplishes the Promises he hath made to his Church.  
What therefore is it that we look for now to make us humble and submiss? do we look that God should still work new Miracles; that he should make them useless by his continuing of them, that he should accustom our eyes to them as he does to the Course of the Sun, and to all the other Marvels of Nature? or else do we ever expect that the wicked and the opinionative man should be silent? that good and virtuous men and dissolute Libertines should bear an equal Testimony to the Truth? that all the World by one common consent should prefer it to their Passions; and that false Knowledge, which only the Novelty of it causes to be admired, should cease its usual way of surprising men? Is it not enough that we see it is impossible for men to combat with Religion, but they must at the same time show by prodigious wander, that their Senses are perverted, and that they only defend themselves either by Presumption or ignorance? Cannot the Church, which hath been victorious both over Ages and Errors, I say, cannot that overcome in our Minds those weak and miserable Reasonings which are opposed to her; and cannot the Divine Promises, which we see every day are accomplishing, elevate and raise us above our Senses?  
Now let us not say that these Promises are still kept in suspense, and as they are to hold out to the end of the World, so it will not be until the end of the World, that we can boast we have seen the accomplishment of them. For on the contrary, that which is already past assures us of the future: so many ancient Predictions so visibly fulfilled, make us satisfied that there will be nothing but what shall be accomplished: and that the Church, against which, according as the Son of God hath promised us, even the Gates of Hell shall never prevail, will be always subsisting until the consummation of all things, for that Jesus Christ, who is true in all, hath prescribed no other bounds to its duration.  
The same Promises do likewise assure us of a future Life. God, who hath shown himself so faithful, in accomplishing what respects the present Age, will be no less faithful in accomplishing that which respects the Future, of which all that we see is but a preparation, and the Church will be always unshaken and invincible on the Earth, until that her Children being gathered together, she be entirely conveyed to her, which is her only true Mansion.  
As for those who shall be excluded from that heavenly City, an eternal Vengeance is reserved for them; and after they have lost by their Sin and Folly a blessed Eternity, there will be left for them no other place but a Hell of Eternal woe and misery.  
Thus the Decrees of God are to terminate by an immutable state; his Promises and his Threaten are equally certain; and what he executes in time, assures us of what he hath commanded us either to expect or fear in Eternity.  
You now see what may be learned from the continual progress of Religion as it is in short presented to your Eyes. By time it conducts you to Eternity. You see a constant order in all God's Decrees, and a visible Mark of his Power in the perpetual duration of his People. You cannot but confess that the Church hath a Branch always subsisting, which cannot be separated from it without destroying it, and that those, who, being united to this Root, do perform such Works as are worthy of their Faith, and secure to themselves eternal Life.  
Your Highness is therefore to study, but to study with attention this uninterrupted Course of the Church, which so clearly assures to you all the Promises of God. Whatsoever breaks this Chain, whatsoever goes out of this Course, whatsoever advances itself, and does not come by virtue of the Promises made to the Church from the beginning of the World, you are to have in horror. Employ all your power to recall into this Unity whatsoever is straggled out of the way of it, and to make it hearken to the Church by which the Holy Spirit of God pronounces its Oracles.  
The Glory of your Ancestors is not only that they never forsook it, but that they always supported it; and thereby deserved to be called the Eldest Sons, which is certainly the most glorious of all their Titles.  
'Tis needless for me to mention to you Clovis, Charlemagne, or St. Lovis. Consider only the time you live in, and from what Father God hath given you your Birth. A King so great in every thing, yet is more to be distinguished by his Faith than by all his other admirable Qualities. He protects Religion not only within, but out of his Kingdom, and even to the last Extremities of the World. His Laws are one of the firmest Rampires of the Church. His Authority revered as much by the Merit of his Person, as by the Majesty of his Sceptre, never supports itself so well as when it defends the Cause of God. We hear no more Blasphemies; Impiety trembles before him: this is the King taken notice of by Solomon, 
Prov. 20.26.  that in his Wisdom scattereth the Wicked, and bringeth the Wheel over them. If he attacks Heresy by such means, and that more too than ever did any of his Predecessors, it is not that he is fearful for his Throne; for all lies quiet at his Feet, and his Arms are dreaded over all the Earth; but it is because he loves his People, and being sensible that he is advanced by the Hand of God to a Power that nothing can equal in the Universe, he knoweth not what better use to make of it, but to employ it to the Healing of the Wounds of the Church.  
May your Highness imitate so glorious an Example, and leave it to your Descendant Posterity. Recommend to them the Churches Care to be sure, more than that Great Empire which your Ancestors have governed for so many Ages. May your Illustrious House, the first in Dignity to any in the World, be the first in defending the Rights of God, and in extending over all the World the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, who makes it to reign with so much Glory.  
The End of the second Part.   

THE THIRD PART OF THIS DISCOURSE. THE Empires.  
ALTHOUGH there be nothing comparable to this uninterrupted Course of the true Church which I have represented to you, 
I. That the Revolutions of Empires are regulated by Providence, and serve to humble Princes.  yet the Succession of Empires which I am now going to set before you, will not be of much less Advantage to such great Princes as your Highness is.  
First, Those Empires have for the most part a necessary Connexion to the History of the People of God. God was served by the Assyrians and the Babylonians to chastise that People; by the Persians, to re-establish them; by Alexander and his first Successors, to protect them; by Antiochus the Illustrious and his Successors, to exercise them; by the Romans, to maintain their Liberty against the Kings of Syria, who made it their whole business to destroy them. The Jews continued unto Jesus Christ under the Power of those very Romans. When they had ungratefully Crucified him, those same Romans lent their hands, without ever thinking that they did so, to the divine Vengeance, and rooted out that ungrateful People. God who had resolved at th● same time to gather to himself a new People, out of all Nations, did first reunite both the Land and Sea under that same Empire. The Commerce of so many different People, otherwise Strangers one to the other, and afterwards reunited under the Roman Dominion, was one of the most powerful and effectual Means that Providence made use of for the spreading of the Gospel. If the same Roman Empire persecuted for two hundred Years this new People which rise up on all sides within its Walls, that Persecution hath confirmed the Christian Church, and hath made its Glory the more bright and conspicuous by its Faith and Patience. At last the Roman Empire yielded; and having found something more invincible than it, it quietly received into its Bosom that Church against which it had made so long and so cruel a War of Resistance. The Emperors have laid out all their Power to make the Church be obeyed, and Rome hath been the Spiritual Empire that Jesus Christ would extend over all the Earth.  
When the time was come that the Roman Power was to fall, and that that great Empire had vainly promised an Eternity to it self, was to undergo the Fate of all others, Rome became the Prey of the Barbarians, yet by its Religion kept up its ancient Majesty. The Nations that invaded the Roman Empire, by little and little learned their Christian Piety, which tempered their Barbarism; and their Kings, in placing themselves each in their Nation in the room of Emperors, found not any of their Titles more glorious than that of being Protectors of the Church.  
But here I must discover to you the secret Judgements of God upon the Roman Empire, and even upon Rome herself: A Mystery which the Holy Ghost revealed to St. John, and which that great Man, Apostle, Evangelist, and Prophet, hath explained in the Revelations. Rome that was grown old in the Worship of Idols, found it extremely difficult to get rid of it even under Christian Emperors; and the Senate counted it an Honour to defend the Gods of Romulus, to whom they attributed all the Victories of the old Commonwealth.  
The Emperors were wearied out with the Deputations of that great Body which required the Re-establishment of its Idols, 
●orym. 4. Orat. Symm. ap. Amb. Tom. 5. l. 5. Ep. 30. Aug. de Civit. Dei, l. 1. etc.  and which thought that to correct Rome of her old Superstitions, was to do an Injury to the Roman Name. Thus that Company which was made up of the chiefest Grandees the Empire had, and an immense number of People, in which were well near all the most famous and signalised Persons of Rome, could not be drawn from their Errors, neither by the preaching of the Gospel, nor by so plain and visible an accomplishment of the ancient Prophecies, nor by the Conversion of almost all the rest of the Empire, nor to conclude, by that of the Princes all whose Decrees were in favour of Christianity. On the contrary, they continued most opprobriously to charge the Church of Jesus Christ which they accused also, after the Example of their Forefathers, of all the Mischiefs and Calamities of the Empire, always ready to renew the ancient Persecutions, if they had not been suppressed by the Emperors. Things were in this Condition at the fourth Age of the Church, and a hundred Years after Constantine, when God at last called again to mind the many bloody Decrees of the Senate against his faithful People, and at the same time rememb'red the furious Outcries of all the People of Rome, whose greediness after Christian Blood had so often made the Amphitheatres to resound. He therefore delivered to the Barbarians that City, 
Apocalyps. 17.6.  drunken with the Blood of the Saints, and with the Blood of Jesus, as St. John speaks. God renewed upon her the terrible Chastisements he had exercised upon Babylon; so that Rome itself was called by that Name. That new Babylon, the follower of the old, as she was fleshed and swelled with her Victories, triumphing in her Delicacies and her Riches, polluted with her Idolatries, and a persecutor of the People of God, fell also as she did, and her Fall was great, 
Revelat. 17.18.  as St. John sings her Ruin. The Glory of her Conquests, which she attributed to her Gods, is taken away from her: She is made a Prey to the Barbarians, taken three or four times, pillaged, sacked, destroyed. The Sword of the Barbarians only spares the Christians. Another Rome entirely Christian arises out of the Ashes of that former, and it was only after the Inundation of the Barbarians that the Victory of Jesus Christ was perfectly obtained over the Roman Gods which were seen than not only destroyed, but quite forgotten.  
Thus the Empires of the world have ministered to Religion, and the Preservation of the People of God? Wherefore this same God who hath caused his Prophets to foretell the several Estates of his People, hath also caused them to foretell the Succession of the Empires. You have seen the places where Nabuchadnezzar hath been pointed out as he that was to come and punish the proud People, and particularly the Jews so ungrateful against their Author. You have heard Cyrus named two hundred Years before he was b●●n, as he that was to set up again the People of God, and to punish the Pride of Babylon. The Ruin of Nineveh was as clearly foretold. Daniel, in his admirable Visions, hath caused to go before your Eyes in a moment the Empire of Babylon, that of the Medes and Persians, that of Alexander, and the Grecians. The Blasphemies and the Cruelties of Antiochus the Illustrious were there foretold, as well as the miraculous Victories of the People of God over so violent a Persecutor. We see there those famous Empires to fall one after another; and the new Empire which Jesus Christ was to set up, is there so expressly described by its proper Characters, that there is no way to mistake it. 'Tis the Empire of the Saints of the most high; the Empire of the Son of Man; an Empire which was to subsist in the midst of the Ruin of all the rest, and to which alone Eternity is promised.  
The Judgements of God upon the greatest of all the Empires of this World, that is to lay, upon the Roman Empire, have not been kept hid from us. You have just now had it from the mouth of St. John. Rome herself hath felt the Hand of God, and hath been like others an Example of his Justice. But its fate was happier yet than that of others; for being purged by her Punishments from the remaining dregs of Idolatry, she now no longer subsists but by that Christianity which she declares to all the World.  
Thus have all the great Empires which we have seen upon the Earth, concured by several ways and means to the weal of Religion, and the glory of God, as God himself hath declared it by his Prophets.  
When you read so often in their Writings that Kings in troops shall enter into the Church, and be the Protectors and Nursing Fathers of it, those words presently put into your mind the Emperors, and other Christian Princes: and as the Kings your Ancestors, have more than any other, signalised themselves in protecting and enlarging the Church of God, I shall not be afraid to assure you, that it is they, who of all the Kings are most clearly foretold in those eminently remarkable Prophecies.  
God therefore, who was resolved to make use of divers Empires, either to chastise, or exercise, or to enlarge or protect his People, willing to make himself known for the Author of so admirable a Council, revealed the Secret of it to his Prophets, and hath caused them to foretell what he had resolved to execute. Wherefore as the Empires began the order of God's Decrees on the People whom he had chosen, so the fortune of those Empires were found declared by the same Oracles of the Holy Ghost which foretold the Succession of the faithful People.  
The more you accustom yourself to follow great things, and to recall them to their Principles, the more will you stand in admiration of those Counsels of Providence. It behoves you to take the Ideas of them betimes, which will clear up every day more and more in your Minds, and you will be the better able to refer humane things to the order of that eternal Wisdom on which they depend.  
God doth not every day declare his Will by his Prophets concerning Kings and Monarchies, that he sets up or destroys. But having done it so often, as to those Empires whereof we have been speaking, he shows us by those famous Examples what he does in all others, and he teaches Kings these two fundamental Truths: First, That it is he who forms Kingdoms to give them to whom he pleaseth: And Secondly, That he knoweth how to make them serve, in the time and order which he hath decreed, to the Designs he hath on his People,  
This, may it please your Highness, aught to keep all Princes in an entire Dependence, and to make them always careful of the Orders of God, that so they may lend their Hand to what he purposes for his own Glory upon all Occasions that he offers them.  
But this Succession of Empires, if we will consider it more humanly, hath very great Advantages, especially for Princes, seeing that Arrogance, the ordinary Companion of so exalted a Condition, is so very much quelled by such a Spectacle. For if Men learn to moderate themselves by seeing Kings die, how much more will they be struck by seeing Kingdoms themselves to perish; and from whence can they receive a more plain Lesson of the Vanity of humane Greatness?  
Thus when you behold as in an instant before your Eyes, the Death and Downfall, I do not say, of Kings and Emperors, but of those mighty Empires that have made the whole Universe to tremble; when you behold both the ancient and the new Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, the Grecians, and the Romans, all before you successively, and all to fall, as I may say, one upon another; this dreadful Destruction presently makes you sensible that there is nothing solid among Men, and that Inconstancy and Agitation is the proper Partage and Portion of humane things.  
BUT that which will render to your Highness this Spectacle both more advantageous a more agreeable, 
II. The Revolutions of Empires have particular Causes which Princes ought to study.  will be the Reflection you shall make not only on the Rise and Fall of Empires, but also on the Causes of their Progress, and on those of their Ruin.  
For, Sir, that same God who hath made the Chain of the Universe, and who, as he is Almighty by himself, hath resolved, for the establishing of Order, that the Parts of so great an All should depend one upon another; that same God hath also decreed that the course of humane things should have its Issues and its Proportions; I mean, that Men and Nations have had Qualities commensurate to the Advancements to which they have been designed; and that expecting some certain extraordinary Strokes, wherein God hath been willing to manifest his own Hand in particular, there are no very great Changes happen but what may deduce their Causes from precedent Ages.  
And as in all Affairs there is that which prepares them, that which determines to undertake them, and lastly, that which makes them have Success: So the true Science of History is to observe in every time those secret Dispositions which have prepared and made way for great Changes, and the important Conjunctures which have brought them to pass.  
Indeed, it is not sufficient to look only just before one, that is to say, to consider those great Events which all on a sudden do decide the fortune of Empires. He that would reach to the Bottom of humane things, aught to take them at their first Head and Spring; and he must observe the Inclinations, and the Tempers; or, to speak all in one word, the Character, as well of the People Governing in general, as of the Princes in particular, and in a word, of all extraordinary Men, who by the Importance of the Part they have had in the World, have contributed, either well or ill, to the change of States, and to the public Fortune.  
I have endeavoured to prepare you to these necessary Reflections in the first part of this Discourse; you may be able there to observe the Genius of the People, and that of those great Men that lead them. The Events that have succeeded in the sequel have been shown; and that I might keep your Mind intent upon the Chain of the great affairs of the World, which principally I would have you to understand, I have purposely omitted several particular Facts, whose Consequences have not been so considerable. But because by our fixing so much upon the End proposed, we have too slightly passed over several things, ever to be able to make the just Reflections on them they deserve, you may be pleased now to set yourself about it with a more particular attention, and to accustom your Mind to seek out the Effects in their most distant and remote Causes.  
Thereby, Sir, you will learn what is so necessary to be known, that although, if we only have regard to particular accidents, Fortune seems alone to decide the establishment and the ruin of Empires; yet perfectly to understand the whole, it happens just as it does at Play, where the most agile and dextrous carry it against the stronger Hand.  
In fine, in this tragical and bloody game, where People are in dispute about Empire and Power, he that hath forecasted at the greatest distance, that hath most applied himself, that hath continued longest in the most difficult Labours, and in a word, he that hath the greatest Skill, either in pushing on, or in improving a begun Encounter, at last hath had the advantage, and hath made even fortune herself assisting to his Designs.  
Therefore it behoves you not to be weary of enquiring into the causes of great Changes, since that nothing can be more serviceable to instruct you than that; but especially seek till you find them in the Event of great Empires, where the greatness of the Accidents makes them more plain and palpable.  
I shall not here reckon among the great Empires that of Bacchus, 
III. The Scythians, the Ethiopians, and Egyptians.  nor that of Hercules, those famous Conquerors of the Indies and the East. Their Histories have nothing certain, their Conquests have nothing of connection in them: we will leave them to be celebrated by the Poets, who have made them the greatest Subject of their Fables.  
Neither shall I speak any more of the Empire which the Madyes of Herodotus, 
Herod. l. 1. Strab. lib. 15. Justin. 1. l.  that very much resembles the Judathyses of Megasthenes, and the Tanais of Justin, raised up for a little while in Asia Maj●r. The Scythians, whom that Prince carried to the War, did rather make incursions than Conquests. It was only in Rencounters, and by repulsing the Cimmerians, that they entered into Media, beat the Medes, and took that part of Asia from them, where they had established their Dominion. Those new Conquerors reigned but eight and twenty Years, their Impiety, their Avarice, and their Brutality made them quickly lose it; and Cyaxares the Son of Phraortes, from whom they had Conquered it, drove them out of it again. 'Twas rather got by address and trick, than by force. Being driven to a corner of his Kingdom, which the Conquerors had either neglected, or which perhaps they were not able to force, he waited with Patience till those Brutish Conquerors had stirred up the public hatred, and so ruined and destroyed themselves by the disorder of their Government.  

Lib 15.  And we find yet in Strabo, who hath taken it from the same Megasthenes, one Tearco● King of Ethiopia: this aught to be Tirkahah mentioned in the Scripture, whose Arms were feared in the time of Sennacherib, 
2 Kings 19.9. Is. 32.2.  King of Assyria. That Prince went even to the Colonies of Hercules, very probably all along the Coast of afric, and came unto the Borders of Europe. But what should I say of a Man that I can find but very little mention of among the Historians, and whose Government had no continua●●●?  
The Ethiopians whereof he was King, we●e if we will believe Herodotus, 
Herod. lib. 3.  the handsomest and most delicate shapen Men in the World. Their wit was quick and strong, but they took no care to cultivate it, ●l●●ing their Confidence in their robust Bodies, and nervous Arms. Their Kings were Elective, and they gave the Throne to the greatest and the strongest. We may judge● their Humour by an action which Herodotus relates. When Ca●byses sent to them by way of surprise, Ambassadors, and Presents, such as the Persians gave them, of Purple, Bracelets of Gold, and Compositions of perfu●e, they laughed at those Prese●●s in which they could find nothing that was profitable to Life, as well as at their Ambassadors, whom they took for spies, as they were. But their King was also resolveth to make a Present after his manner to the King of Persia: and taking into his H●nd a Bow, which a Persian could scarce hold, so far was he from being able to draw i●, he bent it in the Presence of the Ambassadors, bidding them hearken to the Council w●●ch the King of Ethiopia gave to the King of Persia. When the Persians are able, as eas●●y as I am, to make use of a Bow of this greatness and Strength, let them come and attack the Ethiopians, but let them bring with th●● more Forces than yet Cambyses has. In the mean time let them thank the Gods, who have ●n p●● into th● Hearts of the Ethiopians, the ambitious desire of spreading themselves out of their own Country. When he had ended this Sentence, he loosened his Bow, and gave it to the Ambassadors. We cannot say what would be the event of the War. Cambyses being enraged at this Answer, set forth against Ethiopia like a Madman, without any Order, without Convoy, without Discipline; and saw his Army destroyed for want of Victuals, in the midst of the Sand, before ever he came near the Enemy.  
However those People of Ethiopia were not so just as they proudly pretended to be, nor so shut up within their own Country. Their Neighbours, the Egyptians, had several times felt their Power. There is nothing of continuedness in the Councils of those savage and ill-cultivated Nations: If Nature did at any time begin in them any good Sentiments, she never finished them. So that we find but very little to be learned or imitated from them. Therefore we will speak no more of them, but now come to a more polished People.  
The Egyptians are the first from whom we have learned any Rules of Government. This being a grave and serious Nation, first understood the true end of Polity, which is to render Life commodious, and the People happy. The temperature of the Country being always uniform, made their Judgements more solid and constant. As Virtue is the Foundation of all Society, so they carefully cultivated and improved it. Their chief Virtue was Gratitude. The Honour that was given to them for being the most generous and grateful, 
Diod. lib. 1. Sect. 2.  shows they were likewise the most sociable. Kindnesses are the Bond both of public and private Concord. He that acknowledges Favours, loves to Bestow them; and in banishing Ingratitude, the pleasure of doing Good remains so pure, that there is no way for one to be insensible of it. Their Laws were Simple, full of Equity, and proper to unite Citizens to one another. He who being able to rescue a man assaulted, did not do it, was punished with as severe a Death as the Assassin himself. 
Ibid.  If we could not help the unfortunate, at least we ought to impeach the Author of the Violence, and there were punishments established on purpose for those that were failing in this duty. Thus were the Citizens a Guard each to other, and all the Body of the State was joined against the wicked doer. It was not permitted for any one to be unprofitable to the State; The Law assigned to every one their Business, which was perpetuated from Father to Son. 
Ibid.  They were not to have two, nor could they change their Profession; but then all Professions were honoured. But it was necessary there should be some, both Employments and Persons, more considerable than others, as it is but fit that Eyes should be in the Body. Their Luster will not make the Feet and lower Parts to be ever the less despised. So among the Egyptians, the Priests and the Soldiers had their particular Marks of Honour: but all the Traders, even to the least, were had in esteem: and it was believed a Criminal Matter to despise and scorn the Citizens, whose Labours, whatsoever they were, contributed to the weal Public. By this means all Arts came to their Perfection: the Honour which cherished them was in every thing concerned: they made greater Improvements in what they had always seen done, and to what in particular they had been brought up from their very Infancy.  
But there was one Occupation which all men were to be concerned in; and that was the study of Laws and Wisdom. Ignorance of the Religion and Polity of ones Country was not where excusable in any Government. Now every Profession had its Canton to which it was particularly assigned.  
There fell out no Inconvenience by it in a Country whose Extent was not very great, and in so curious and exact an order. Those that had a mind to be Idle, knew not where to hid themselves.  
Amidst these many good Laws, that which was the best of 'em, was, that all People were brought up to observe them. 
Hierod. l. 2. Diod. l. 1. §. 2. Plat. delegib. 2.  A new Custom was a Prodigy in Egypt: Every one did there always the same; and the punctual Care they had to observe small things, maintained the great. So that never was there any People that had longer preserved their Customs and Laws. The order of the Judgements contributed to the upholding of that Genius. Thirty judges were chosen out of the principal Cities to make up that Commission to Judge the whole Kingdom. They were accustomed to see in those high places only the most grave men of their Country, and such as were of the clearest Integrity. The Prince gave them certain Salaries, that so they being freed from Domestic Entanglements, might bestow the gross of their time in making the Laws to be the better observed. They received no Advantage by Suits of Law, for as yet they had never thought of making a Trade of Justice. To avoid surprises, the matters were debated in those Assembly by Arguments in writing. They were afraid there of false Eloquence, which might dazzle the Understanding, and stir up the Passions. Truth could not be told there in too plain a manner. The Precedent of the Senate wore a Collar of Gold and precious Stones, from whence hung a Figure without any Eyes, which they called Truth. When he took it, that was the Signal to begin the Court. He bowed it to the Party that was to gain his Cause, and that was the form of pronouncing the Sentences. One of the bravest Artifices of the Egyptians to make their ancient Maxims be preserved, was to invest them with certain Ceremonies that imprinted them in their Minds. These Ceremonies were observed with reflection; and the serious Humour of the Egyptians did not suffer that they should be turned into simple Formula's. Those who had no Affairs, but their Lives were Innocent, might avoid the Examen of that severe Tribunal. But they had in Egypt one kind of Judgement which was very extraordinary, which none escaped. It was a Consolation at the time of Death of leaving their Names in esteem among all men, and of all humane goods it is the only one that Death cannot ravish from us. But it was not suffered in Egypt to commend all the Dead indifferently: That was an Honour to be had by a Public Judgement. As soon as a man was dead, they brought him unto Judgement. The public Accuser was heard. If he proved that the Conduct of the Deceased had been bad, than the Memory of him was condemned, and he was deprived of Sepulture. The People admired the power of their Laws, which reached them even after death, and every one being touched by the Example, was afraid to dishonour his Memory and his Family. But if the Defunct was not convicted of any Crime, than he had an honourable Interment: they made his Panegyric, but they meddled not at all with his Birth. All Egypt was noble, and beside they received no further Commendations than what they had got by their own Merit.  
Every one knows how curious the Egyptians were in preserving dead Bodies. Their Mummies are to be seen at this day. Thus their Gratitude to their Kindred was Immortal: Children by seeing the Bodies of their Ancestors, called to mind their Virtues which the Public had paid such Acknowledgements to, and they were incited to love those Laws which had so recommended them to them.  
To prevent Borrowing, which was the Parent of Idleness, Frauds and Branglings, the Decree of King Asychis did not suffer any to borrow, 
Herod. lib. 2. Diod. 1. Sect.  but upon condition that he pledged the Body of his Father to him of whom he borrowed. And it was both an Impiety and an Infamy together, not to redeem, as soon as ever one could, so precious a Pledge; and he that died before he had acquitted himself of that duty, was denied Burial.  
The Kingdom was Hereditary; but the Kings were obliged more than all others, to live according to these Laws. 
Ibid.  Some there were more particular that a King had digested, and which made one part of the Sacred Books. Not that they had disputed any thing against Kings, or that any one had a right to constrain them; but on the contrary, they were looked upon as Gods, but an ancient Custom had regulated them all, and they resolved to live no otherwise than their Ancestors. So that they patiently suffered themselves, not only to be regulated in their manner of Victuals and Drink (for it was an ordinary thing in Egypt, where all People were sober, and where the Air of the Country was a friend to Frugality) but they were content that their very hours should be set them. In waking at break of day. 
Herod. 2. Diod. §. 2.  when their Minds were most refined, and their Thoughts most clear, they read their Instructions, that they might have a more exact and true Idea of the Matters they were to decide. As soon as they were dressed, they went to Sacrifice in the Temple. There, being encompassed by all their Court, and the Victimes at the Altar, they assisted at a Prayer full of Instructions, where the Chief Priest prayed to the Gods to confer on the Prince all Royal Virtues, so that he might be religious to the Gods, placid towards Men, moderate, just, magnanimous, sincere, and far from falsehood, liberal, a Master of himself, punishing below, but rewarding above desert. The Chief Priest afterwards spoke of the faults that Kings might commit, but he always supposed they fell into them by surprise, or ignorance, charging with Imprecations the Ministers that gave them evil Counsels, and concealed the Truth from them. This was the manner of instructing Kings. 
Ibid.  They thought Reproaches did only sour their Spirits, and that the most effectual way of inspiring Virtue into them, was to point out to them their Duty in Praises conformable to the Laws, and gravely delivered before their Gods. After Prayer and Sacrifice, they read to the King in the Sacred Books, the Counsels and the Actions of great Men, that so he might govern his Kingdom by their Maxims, and maintain the Laws which had made his Predecessors happy as well as their Subjects.  
That which shows that these Remonstrances were made and harkened to seriously, was that they had their effect. Among the Thebans, that is to say in the chief Dynasty, that where the Laws were in force, and which came at last to be the Mistress of all the rest, the greatest men were Kings. The two Mercuries, Authors of Sciences, and of all the Institutions of the Egyptians, the one near the time of the Deluge, and the other, whom they called Trismegistus, or Te● maximus, a Contemporary of Moses, were both Kings of Theb●s. All Egypt profited by their light, 
Herod. l. 2.  and Thebes owes to their Instructions their having had very few bad Princes. Those were spared during their lives; the Public Repose would have it so; 
Diog. 1. §. 2.  but they were not exempt from the Judgement they were to undergo after death. 
Ibid.  Some have been denied Burial, but there are few Examples of them, but on the contrary, most of the Kings have been so much made of by the People, that every one have bewailed their Death, as much as that of their Parents or Children.  
This Custom of judging Kings after their Death seemed so holy to the People of God, that they have always practised it. We read in the Scriptures that wicked Kings have been deprived of the Burial of their Ancestors, 
Ant. 13.23.  and we learn from Josephus that that Custom lasted even to the time of the Asmon●ans. That gave Kings to understand, that if their Majesty put them above Humane Judgements in this Life, they were not above them when Death equalled them with other men.  
The Egyptians had an inventive Genin●, and they turned it to things that were profitable. Their Mercuries have filled Egypt with wonderful Inventions, and scarce have left it ignorant of any thing that might make Life tranquil and commodious. I cannot give to the Egyptians the honour they have conferred on their Osiris, 
Diod. l. 1. § 1. Plut. de Isid. & Osir.  for having invented Tillage, because it was found at all times in the neighbouring Countries of the World, where Mankind was spread, and questionless it was known ever since the World began. The Egyptians themselves likewise give so great an Antiquity to Osiris, that it is plainly seen they have confounded his time with that of the beginning of the World, and they would fain attribute some things to him whose Original was long before all times known in their History. But if the Egyptians were not the first Inventors of Agriculture, nor of the other Arts which we see before the Deluge, they have yet brought them to such perfection, and have taken so great a Care to establish them among the People, where Barbarism had made them forget, that their Honour comes very little short of those that were the first Inventors.  
Indeed there are some things of great usefulness, the Invention whereof cannot be disputed with them. 
Plat. Epin. Diod. 1. § 2. Herod. l. 2.  For as their Country was united, and their Heaven always clear and uncloudy, they were the first that observed the Course of the Stars: and they were the first also that regulated the year. Those Observations threw them naturally into Arithmetic; and if it be true what Plato says, 
Plat. in Tim.  That the Sun and the Moon taught men the knowledge of Numbers; that is to say, that they began the Accounts regulated by that of Days, Mouths, and Years, than the Egyptians werethe first who harkened to those marvellous Instructers. The Planets and other Stars were no less known to them, and they found out that great Year which brings back all the Heaven to its first point. To know their own Lands every year covered over by the overflowing of Nile, they were forced to betake themselves to Surveying, which quickly taught them Geometry. They were great Observers of Nature, which in an Air so serene, and under a Sun so burning, was very strong in its Products amongst them. 'Twas that which made them find out, or perfect Physic. Thus all Sciences were in great esteem with them. The first Inventors of useful things received, 
Diod. 1. §. 2. Herod. 3. init.  both whilst they lived, and after their deaths, rewards worthy of their labour. 'Twas that consecrated the Books of their two Mercuries, and made them to be looked on as Divine Books. 
Diod. l. 1. § 2.  The first People of all that had Libraries, were those of Egypt. The title that was given them made them very desirous to peruse them, and to search into the Secrets of them; they were called, The Treasure of the Remedies of the Soul. Thereby it was cured of the most dangerous Ignorance of its Maladies, and the Source of all the others.  
One thing which made the greatest impression on the Minds of the Egyptians, was the esteem and love of their Country. It was; they said, the Mansion-House of the Gods, they had reigned there for many Millions of years. 
Plat. in Tim. Diod. 1. § 1.  It was the Mother of both Men and Beasts, which the Land of Egypt watered with the River Nilus, had brought forth, whilst all Nature besides was barren. The Priests that composed the History of Egypt out of that vast continuance of Ages, which they only filled with the Fables and Genealogies of their Gods, did it ●o imprint into the minds of the People the Antiquity and Nobleness of their Country. But their real History was circumscribed within reasonable Bounds, and yet they found so much as to lose themselves in an infinite Abyss of Time which seemed to bring them near to Eternity.  
But yet their love to their Country had more solid Foundations. Egypt was in fine the most beautiful Country in the World, the most plentiful by Nature, the best cultivated by Art, the richest, the most commodious, and the most adorned by the care and magnificence of her Kings.  
There was nothing but what was very great in their Designs and in their Work. What they made in Nilus is incredible. It reigned very seldom in Egypt: but that River which watered it all by its orderly Flow, brought to it the Rains and the Snows of other countries'. For the multiplying of so beneficial a River, 
Herod. 2. Diod. 1. §. 2.  Egypt was Traversed with an infinite number of Channels of an incredible length and largeness. Nilus' carried fruitfulness every where with its wholesome Waters, united Towns to one another, and the great Sea to the red Sea, kept up Commerce both within and our of the Kingdom, and fortified it against the Enemy: so that it was altogether both the Nourisher and the Defender of Egypt. The Fields were swallowed up with it; but the Towns that were set above by vast pains and labour, and raised as Islands in the midst of the Waters, joyful at such their advancements, they beheld all the Plain overflown; and at the same time made fruitful by the Nile. When it swollen itself above Measure, there were great Lakes cut hollow by the Kings that opened their Bosoms to the poured our Waters. They have their discharges prepared; great Sluices opened or shut them up as there was occasion; and the Waters having thus their retreat, tarried no longer on the Earth than just what was necessary to Marle, and make 'em fertile.  
Such was the use of this great Lake, which was called the Lake of Myris, or of Moeris: 
Herod. 10. Diod. ibid.  It was the name of the King that had caused it to be made. One would be astonished to read what notwithstanding is very certain, that the Compass of it round, was about a hundred and fourscore of our Leagues. That too much of the good Land might not be lost by the cutting it hollow, they extended it chief towards the Coast of Libya. The Fishery was worth to the King vast Sums of Money; and so when the Land did not produce any thing it yielded Treasures by being covered with the Waters. Two Pyramids, each of which bore upon a Throne two Colossus-like Statues, the one of Myris, the other of his Wife, were raised three hundred Foot high in the midst of the Lake, and were of an equal Depth under the Water: So that they shown that they were built before the Hollow was filled, and that a Lake of that vast Extent was made by Man's Hand under one single Prince.  
Those who do not know to what degree the Earth may be improved, take for a Romance what is related of the number of the Towns in Egypt. 
Herod. 2. Diod. 1. 2.  The Richness of them is no less incredible. There was not one of them that had not magnificent Temples, and most stately and august Palaces. Architecture discovered there in all things such a noble Simplicity and Greatness, that it took up the whole Imagination. 
Diod. Ibid.  The long Galleries exposed to every ones View such Sculptures in them as Greece took for Models. Thebes was able to dispute it with the finest Cities of the Universe. Her hundred Gates, which Homer sung of, are known to all the World. She was as full of People as she was vast, 
Pomp. Mel. 1. 9  and it was said she could at one time draw out ten thousand Combatants through each of her Gates.  
Let there be, if you please, a little stretch in that Number, yet it is most certain that her People were not to be numbered. The Greeks and the Romans have celebrated their Magnificence and their Grandeur, though they had only seen the Ruins of her; 
Strab. 17. Tac. Ann. 2. 6.  so extremely splendid were her Remains.  
If our Travellers had got so far as where this City was built, they would, no doubt, have yet found something incomparable in her Ruins: For the Works of the Egyptians were made to hold out against the destruction of time. Their Statues were Colossuses; 
Herod. & Diod. loc. citat.  their Pillars vast; Egypt aimed at Grandeur, and to strike the Eyes at a distance, but always to content by the Justice of the Proportions. There were discovered in Sand, or Salid (you know very well that that is the name of Thebais) Temples and Palaces almost yet entire, 
Voyag. pr. by M. Thevenot.  where those Pillars and Statues are innumerable. One Palace is admired there above all, the Remains of which seem only to continue to efface the Glory of all, even the greatest Works. Four Galleries, whose Prospect lost our Sight, bounded on each side by Sphinxes of as curious a Substance as their Greatness is remrkable, serve as Avenues to four Porticoes of such a height as were an Astonishment to the Eyes. What Magnificence and Extent was there! As yet, those that have described to us this prodigious Building, have not had time of going round it; nay, and are not very sure they have seen above half of it, but however, all they have seen was very surprising. A Hall, which seems to be placed in the middle of that stately Palace, was supported by six score Pillars of thirty Foot in Compass, proportionably high, and intermixed with Obelisques, which so many Ages have never been able yet to demolish. Even the Colours, that is to say, that which rather tried the Power of time, are still preserved among the Ruins of that admirable Edifice; ay, and preserved in their Strength and Vivacity: So skilled was Egypt in imprinting the Characters of Immortality on all her Works. Now that the Name of the King is gone through all the unknown Parts of the World, and that that Prince likewise extends his Researches as far as he hath caused to be made the most beautiful Works of Nature and of Art, would it not be an Object worthy of so noble a Curiosity, to discover the Beauties which Thebais locks up in her Deserts, and to enrich our Architecture with the Inventions of Egypt? What Power and what Art was it, that could make such a Country to be the Wonder of the Universe? And what Beauties might there not be found if we come yet unto this Royal City, since that at so great a Distance from it, such Marvels are discovered?  
But it is Egypt's Glory alone to erect Monuments for Posterity. Her Obelisques, even at this day, as well by their Beauty as their height, do make up the chief Ornaments of Rome; and the Roman Power despairing of ever equalling the Egyptian, thought it would pretty well contribute to their Greatness by borrowing the Monuments of their Kings.  
Egypt had not yet seen any great Buildings besides the Tower of Babel, when she invented her Pyramids, which as well by their Figures as by their Grandeur triumphed over Time and Barbarians. The good Judgement of the Egyptians made them then to be in love only with things truly Solid and Regular. Whether Nature of herself, brought it to that simple Air to which it is so hard to return, when the Judgement was vitiated by Novelties and extravagant attempts however it be, the Egyptian have only loved regular attempts: they have only aimed to be new and surprising in the infinite variety of Nature, and boasted that they only, like the Gods, had made Immortal Works. The Inscriptions of the Pyramids, were no less noble than the work itself. They spoke to the Beholders. One of those Pyramids built with Brick, by its Title admonished all lookers on, how they did compare her with the rest, saying, that she was as much above all the other Pyramids, as Jupiter was above all the other Gods.  
But whatsoever the efforts of Men were, there nothing was visible in every thing. Those Pyramids were only Tombs; and yet the Kings who built them, 
Herod. ibid. Diod. 1 Sect. 2.  have not been able to get an Internment in them, and they have not enjoyed their Sepulchre.  
I should not speak of that Beautiful Palace, called the Labyrinth, if Herodotus, who saw it, did not assure us that it was more surprising than the Pyramids. 
Herod. ibid. Diod. 1 Sect. 2.  It was built on the side of the Lake of Myris, and a prospect was given to it proportionably to the Grandeur of it. Otherwise, it was not so much one single Palace, as a Magnificent Pile of twelve Palaces regularly disposed, and which had as it were, one Communication. Fifteen hundred Chambers joined to Terass Walks, were all ranged round a dozen Halls, and all those that came to visit them, were at a loss how to find their way out again. The Building was as large under ground. Those lower Fabrics were designed for the Sepulchre of Kings, and (who can mention it without gr●ef and Shame, and deep deploring the Blindness of Mankind?) yet withal to nourish consecrated Crocodiles, which were the Gods of a Nation in all things else so great and wise.  
You would be astonished to see so much Magnificence in the Sepulchers of Egypt. For besides that they erected them as sacred Monuments to bear to future Ages, the Memory of those great Princes, they looked upon them over and above as Eternal Habitations. The Houses were called Inns, where we were only to be en passant, and for a Life too short to finish our designs in, 
Diod. ibid.  but the true Houses were the Tombs which we were to dwell in to infinite Ages.  
But Egypt laid not out its utmost efforts on inanimate things. Her more noble works, and her most delicate art lay in forming the Manners of Men. Greece was so convinced of it, that her greatest Men, such as Homer, Pythagoras, Plato, Lycurgus also, and Solon, those two great Legislators, and others needless here to mention, went to learn Wisdom in Egypt. God would even that Moses should be learned in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians: 
Act. 7.20, 21, 22.  and by that came he to be Mighty in Words and in Deeds. True Wisdom makes use of every thing, and God will not have those whom he inspires, to neglect humane means, which do also in their way come from him.  
Those Sages of Egypt had studied Rule and Government, which made their Minds solid, their Bodies robust, their Wives fruitful, and their Children strong and vigorous. By which means the People increased in number and in Force. The Country was naturally healthful, but Philosophy had taught them that Nature required Assistance. There is an art in forming Bodies as well as Minds. This Art, which by Negligence we have lost, was very well known to the Ancients, and Egypt had found it. 
Diod. 1. Sect. 1.  It principally made use of Frugality and Exercises for a good Design. In a great Field of War which Herodotus saw, 
Herod 3.  the Sculls of the Persians easy to be pierced, and those of the Egyptians more hard than the Stones, with which they were mingled, plainly showed the softness of the one, and the robust Constitution, which a frugal Diet, and vigorous Exercises gave to the other. Courses on Foot, Races on Horseback and in Chariots were much practised in Egypt, and with an admirable Address, and there were not in all the World better Horsemen than the Egyptians. When Diodorus tells us, 
Lu. Diod 1. Sect. 2.  they despised the Lute as an Exercise which had a dangerous Strength, and was but of a short Continuance, he would be understood of the Lute, broken by the Wrestlers, which Greece herself, who Crowned it in her Games, had Condemned, as but very little agreeable to free Persons; but with a certain moderation, it was very well becoming Gentlemen, and Diodorus himself informs us, that the Mercury of the Egyptians had invented the Rules of it, as well as the Art of forming Bodies. The same must be understood also in what that Author says concerning Music. That which he makes the Egyptians; to despise, 
Id. Sect. 2.  as being apt to soften and debase the Courage, was doubtless that soft and Effeminate Music, which only provoked them to Pleasures, and to a false and Womanish tenderness. For as for that generous Music, whose noble Concord's raise the Mind and Heart, the Egyptians never slighted that, seeing, as Diodorus himself tells us, their Mercury had invented it, 
Id. 1. Sect. 1.  and had also invented the gravest sorts of Musical Instruments. In the solemn Procession of the Egyptians, where the Books of Trismegistus were carried in Pomp, there was seen the Chanter at the Head, holding in his Hand a Symbol of Music (I know not what it was) and the Book of the sacred Hymns. 
Clem. Alex Strom. lib. 6.  In short, Egypt forget nothing that might polish Mind, ennoble the Heart, and fortify the Body. Four hundred Thousand Soldiers, which she maintained, were those of her Citizens, which she exercised with the exactest Care. The Laws of the Militia were easily kept, and as it were by themselves, because the Parents instructed their Children in them: for the Profession of War went from Father to Son, as other Professions did; and next to the Priestly Families, those that were accounted the most Illustrious, were as among us the Families designed for Arms. But yet I will not say that Egypt hath been very Martial. She hath had a great many Troops well disciplined and kept; she hath often exercised them for a Show in Military Services, and as it were, had the Images and resemblances of Combats; but it is only War and downright Fight, that makes Men Warriors. Egypt loved Peace, because she loved Justice, and had only Soldiers for her Defence. Being contented with her own Country, which had plenty of all things, she never thought of enlarging it by Conquests. She did it after another way, by sending her Colonies all the World over, and with them politeness and Laws. The most celebrated Cities came to learn in Egypt their Antiquities, 
Plat. in Tim.  and the first beginning of their most excellent Institutions. They consulted her on all sides in the Rules of Wisdom. When those of Elis had set up the Olympic Games, the most famous of all Greece, they sought by a Solemn Embassy the approbation of the Egyptians, and learned from them new ways of encouraging the Combatants. Egypt reigned by her Counsels, and that Government of Understanding appeared to her more noble and glorious than that she established by her Arms. Although the Kings of Thebes were incomparably the most puissant of all the Kings of Egypt, yet they never attempted upon the neighbouring Dynasties which they only enjoyed when they had been invaded by the Arabians: so that to speak truly, they rather chose to get from Strangers, than were willing to Lord it over their own natural Countrymen. But when they concerned themselves with being Conquerors, they surpassed all others. I do not speak of Osiris the Conqueror of the Indians; probably that was Bacchus, or some other Hero as fabulous. 
Diod. l. 1. §. 2.  The Father of Sesostris (the Learned will have him Amenophis, otherwise Memnon) either through instinct or humour, or as the Egyptians say, by the Authority of an Oracle, first thought of making his Son a Conqueror. He followed the way of the Egyptians in it, that is to say, with great deliberation. All Children that were born the same day as Sesostris, were brought to Court by the King's Command. He bred them up as if they were his own, and with the same care as Sesostris, near whom they were bred. He could not give him either more faithful Ministers, or more zealous Companions for his Battles. When he was somewhat grown up, he made him serve his Apprenticeship in a War against the Arabians. That young Prince there learned to be patiented of Hunger and Thirst, and brought that Nation into Submission, which till then was untameable. Being accustomed to Warlike labours by that Conquest, his Father made him turn to the East of Egypt; he attacked Libya, and a great part of that vast Region was subjugated. About this time his Father died, leaving him in a condition of undertaking all things. He form no less a Design than that of the Conquest of the World: but before he went out of his Kingdom, he provided for his own security in it, in gaining the affections of all his People by his Liberality and Justice, 
Diod. ibid.  and also so by regulating the Government with an extreme Prudence. In the mean while he was making his Preparations, he levied Soldiers, and gave than for their Captai●s those young men which his Father had caused to be bred up with him. There were sevente●n hundred of them, able to inspire into all the Army Courage, Discipline, and the Love of their Prince. That done, he entered into Ethiopia, which he made Tributary to him. He went on with his Victories in Asia. Jerusalem was the first that felt the force of his Arms. Rash and violent Rehoboam could not resist him, so that Sesostris carried away the Riches of Solomon. God, by a just Judgement, had delivered them into his hands. He traveled into the Indies further than Hercules, or Bacchus, 
Ibid.  and further than ever was done since Alexander, for he subjugated the Country beyond Ganges. You may therefore judge if the more neighbouring Countries withstood him. The Scythians obeyed him even to Tanais: Armenia and Cappadocia became his Subjects. He left a Colony in the ancient Kingdom of Colchos, where the Customs of Egypt have always continued since. Herodotus hath seen in lesser Asia, from one Sea to the other, the Monuments of his Victories, with the proud Inscriptions of Sesostris, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. There were some of them even in Thrace, and he extended his Empire from Ganges to the Danube. The difficulty of getting Victuals, kept him from entering any further into Europe. He returned after nine years loaden with the Spoils of all the conquered People. Some of them had very courageously defended their liberty; others yielded without resistance. Sesostris took care to mark out in his Monuments the difference of those in Hieroglyphic Figures; after the manner of the Egyptians. To describe his Empire, he found out Geographical Cards. A hundred famous Temples erected to the honour of the Tutelary Go●s of all the Towns, were the first as well as the most beautiful Tokens of his Conquests, and he was very careful to publish in the Inscriptions, that those great Works had been accomplished without any fatigue to his Subjects. 
Herod. 10. Diod. ib.  He made it his glory to govern them discreetly, and not to make any but his Captives to assist at the Monuments of his Victories. Solomon had given him the Example of it. 
2 Chron. 8.9.  That wise Prince employed only his Tributary People in the great Works which rendered his Reign Immortal. The Citizens were engaged in more noble Exercises: they were men of War, and chief of his Captains. Sesostris could not regulate himself by a more perfect Model. He reigned thirty three years, and a long time enjoyed his Triumphs, 
Diod. 1. §. 2.  much more worthy of Honour and Glory, if his Vanity had not made him to be drawn in his Chariot by vanquished Kings. It seems he scorned to meet Death as other men; for being become blind in his old Age, he was his own Executioner in giving himself death, and so leaving Egypt rich for ever. His Empire however did not exceed the fourth Generation. But there remained yet in the time of T●●erius, very magnificent Monuments, which sufficiently shown the Extent of it, as well as the Quantity of his Tributes. Egypt soon returned to her own peaceful Humour. 
Ticit. Ann. 2.  It has been writ that Sesostris was the first, that after his Conquests softened the Tempers of the Egyptians, into the fear of Revolting. If we may believe so, it could only be a Precaution he took up for his Successors; 
Nymphod. l. 12. rer. barb. post Herod.  wise, and absolute as he was, what could be seen that might make him fearful of his Subjects who adored him? Besides, such a Thought as that was unworthy so great a Prince, and it was an ill Provision for the Security of his Conquests, to suffer the Courage of his Subjects to be weakened and dejected. It is true likewise that that great Empire did not last long. It was to fall some way or other. A Division was made in Egypt. Under Anysis the blind, the Ethiopian Sabacon invaded the Kingdom. He treated the People of it as well, and did there as great things as any of the natural Kings. Never was there see a Moderation like to that of his, since that after sixty years of a happy reign, he returned into Ethiopia to obey the Advertisements which he believed came from Heaven. The Kingdom thus left, fell into the hands of Sethon Priest of Vulcan, a Religious Prince after his way, but a small Warrior, and who absolutely enervated the Militia, by his ill treating of his Soldiers. From that time Egypt maintained herself only by strange Forces. There was found in her a kind of Anarchy: for there were twelve Kings chosen by the People, who shared among them the Government of the Kingdom. 'Twas those who built the twelve Palaces that make up the Labyrinth. Tho' Egypt could not forget her Magnificences, yet she was weakened and divided under those twelve Princes. One of them (to wit Psammeticus) made himself the Master by the assistance of Strangers. Egypt was reestablished, and remained pretty powerful for five or six Reigns. At length that ancient Kingdom, after it had continued about sixteen hundred Years, weakened by the Kings of Babylon and by Cyrus, became a Prey to Cambyses, the most violent and outrageous of all Princes.  
Those who very well understood the Humour of Egypt, 
Strab. l. 17.  have confessed that she was not given to War: You have heard the Reasons of it. She lived in Peace about thirteen hundred Years, when she brought forth her first Warrior, who was Sesostris. Also notwithstanding her Militia so carefully disciplined and kept up, yet we see at last, that her greatest Force consisted in strange Troops, which is one of the most deplorable Defects that a State can have. But no humane things are perfect, and it is no easy thing to have in Perfection both the Arts of Peace and the Advantages of War. 'Tis a long Continuance to have subsisted for sixteen hundred Years. Some Ethiopians Reigned at Thebes in that Interval, among others, Sabacon, and as we may believe, Taraca. But Egypt gained this Benefit from the excellent Constitution of her State, that the Strangers who conquered her, rather took up her Customs than introduced any of their own there: Thus changing of Masters she made no change of Government. She could very hardly endure the Persians, whose Yoke she would often shake. But she was not martial enough to support herself by her own Force, against so great a Power, and the Grecians, who defended her, being engaged by other Diversions, were forced to leave her: So that she fell back again always to her first Masters, but however she was resolutely tenacious of her old Customs, and incapable of being brought off from the Maxims of her first Kings. And altho' she retained many of them under the Ptolomy's, yet the mixture of the Grecian and Asiatic Fashion was so great in her, that she could scarce be any longer known for old Egypt.  
We must not forget that the times of the ancient Kings of Egypt are very uncertain, 
Diod. 1. Sect. 2.  even in the History of the Egyptians. We hardly know where to place Osymanduas, tho' we see so many magnificent Monuments of him in Diodorus, and such glorious Signs of his Combats. It seems the Egyptians knew not who was Sesostris his Father, for neither Herodotus nor Diodorus have named him. His Power, however, is more remarkable by the Monuments he has left in all the Earth, than by the Memoires of his Country; and those Reasons do show us that we are not to believe, as some do, that what Egypt hath published of her Antiquities, have been always so exact and punctual as she hath boasted, seeing that she herself is so uncertain of the most signal time of her Monarchy.  
THE great Empire of the Egyptians was, as it were, detached from all others, 
iv The Assyrians both ancient and modern, the Medes and Cyrus.  and as you have seen, had not a very long Continuance. That which we have now to say, is more supported, and hath more particular Dates.  
Nevertheless we have yet very few things certain concerning the first Empire of the Assyrians: But let us place the beginning of it at what time we will, according to the different Opinions of the Historians, you will see, that when the World was divided into several petty States, which the Princes rather thought how to preserve than to enlarge; Ninus, who was more forward and undertaking, 
Diod. lib. 2. Just. 1.  and withal, more puissant than his Neighbours, subdued them one after another, and went on with his Conquests far up in the East. His Wife Semiramis, who together with the Ambition that is common enough to her Sex, joined a Courage, and a continued Series of Counsels, which is but very seldom found in it, kept up the vast Designs of her Husband, and finished the forming of that Monarchy.  
It was doubtless very great, and the greatness of Nineveh, 
Strabo 16.  which was set above that of Babylon, 
Herod. 1. Dion. H●l. 1. App. init. op.  sufficiently shows it. But as the most judicious Historians do not make this Monarchy so ancient as others represent it to us, 
Gen. 14.1, 2. Jud. 3.8. Plat. de l●g. 3.  so neither do they report it to be so great. We have seen a very long Duration of the petty Kingdoms of which he must have composed it, if it be as ancient and as large, as the fabulous Ctesias, and those who have taken it upon his Word, describe it to us. 'Tis true Plato, a curious Observer of Antiquities, makes the Kingdom of Troy in the time of Priam, a Dependence of the Assyrian Empire. But there is no notice taken of it in Homer, who, in the Design he had to advance the Glory of Greece, would not have forgot such a Circumstance; and we may think that the Assyrians were little known towards the West, seeing so learned and so curious a Poet in adorning his Poem with every thing that was pertinent to his Subject, has not any where made them to appear there.  
Yet, according to the Computation we have judged most reasonable, the time of the Siege of Troy was the finest time of all the Assyrians had, for it was that in which Semiramis made her Conquests: But she only extended them Eastward. Those who are the greatest Flatterers, make her turn her Arms on that side. She had had too great a Share in the Counsels and Victories of Ninus, not to follow his Designs, otherwise so agreeable to the Situation of her Empire, and I do not believe it can be doubted but that Ninus kept close to the East, because Justin himself, who favours him as much as is possible, makes him to end his Enterprises on the West side, at the Frontiers of Libya.  
Therefore I know not at what time Nineveh could extend her Conquests even to Troy, because we see so little likelihood that Ninus and Semiramis had undertaken any such thing; and that all their Successors, to begin from their Son Ninyas, have lived in such an effeminate Softness, and with so little Action, that scarce their Names have reached to our Ears, and we might much rather wonder how their Empire was able to subsist so long, than believe it could be so enlarged.  
It was, questionless, much diminished by the Conquests of Sesostris; but as they were of a short Continuance, and but poorly kept up by his Successors, we may easily believe that the Countries which they took from the Assyrians, being used a long time to their Domination, would naturally turn to them again: So that that Empire kept itself in great Puissance, and in great Peace, until that Arbaces having discovered the softness of their Kings, so long concealed in the Secrets of their Palaces, Sardanapulus celebrated by his Infamies, became not only contemptible, but also insupportable to his Subjects.  
You have seen the Kingdoms that came from the Ruins of that first Empire of the Assyrians, among others, that of Nineveh, and that of Babylon. The Kings of Niniveh retained the Name of Kings of Assyria, and were the most puissant. Their Pride quickly raised them above all Bounds by the Conquests they obtained, among which is accounted that of the Kingdom of the Israelites, or of Samaria. It could be nothing less than the Hand of God, and a visible Miracle, that kept them from overwhelming Judea under Hezekiah; and it was unknown what Bounds could be given to their Power, when they were seen a little while after in their Neighbourhood to invade the Kingdom of Babylon, where the Royal Family was decayed.  
Babylon seemed to be born to command all the World. 
Xen. Cyr. 2.1.5  Her People were full of Spirit and Courage. Always Philosophy reigned among them, and the generous Arts, and the East had not much better Soldiers than the Chaldeans. Antiquity admired the rich Harvests of a Country which the negligence of its Inhabitants now leaves without Culture: 
Herod. 1.  and its Abundance made the ancient Kings of Persia look on it as a third part of so great an Empire. Thus the Kings of Assyria, swollen with an Increase which added to their Monarchy so opulent a City, form new Designs. Nabuchadnezzar the first thought his Empire unworthy of him, unless he could add the whole Universe to it. Nabuchadnezzar the second, prouder than all the Kings his Predecessors, after his unheard of Successes, and astonishing Conquests, rather chose to make himself be adored as a God, than to command as a King. What works did not he undertake in Babylon? What Walls, what Towers, what Gates, and what Circumvallations were there seen? It seemed as if the old Tower of Babel was going to be renewed in the prodigious height of the Temple of Bel, and that Nabuchadnezzar had resolved to storm Heaven anew. His Pride, although brought down by the hand of God, did not cease to spring up again in his Successors. They could not induce any Domination about them; and resolving to bring all under the Yoke, they became insupportable to the neighbouring People. That Jealousy reunited against them together, with the Kings of Media and the Kings of Persia, a great part of the Eastern People. 
Xen. Cyr. 3.4.  Pride is easily turned into Cruelty. As the Kings of Babylon did inhumanely treat their Subjects, whole Countries, as well as the Chief Lords of their Empire joined with Cyrus and the Medes. Babylon, too much used to Command and Conquer, to fear so many Enemies that were all languid against her, whilst she thought herself invincible, became Captive to the Medes whom she pretended to subdue, and her Pride at last proved her utter ruin and destruction.  
The Fate of this great City was strange, seeing she fell by her own Inventions. Euphrates had almost in her vast Plains the same effect as Nilus had in those of Egypt: but to make it more commodious, there was required more of Art and Labour than Egypt used for the Nile. 
Herod. 1.  Euphrates was direct in its Course, and never overflowed. They were forced to make throughout all the Country an infinite number of Channels, that so it might water their Grounds, whose fruitfulness by that means became incomparable. To break the violence of its too impetuous Waters, it was necessary to make it run through a thousand Turn, and to hollow it with great Lakes, which a wise Queen filled up again with an incredible magnificence. Nitocris, the Mother of Labynithes, otherwise called Nabonides, or Belshazzar, the last King of Babylon, did those great Works. But that Queen undertook a Business much more surprising and marvellous: It was to build a Stone Bridge over Euphrates, that so the two Quarters of the City, which the vast largeness of that River separated at two great a distance, might communicate together. It was necessary therefore first to dry up so raped and so deep a River, by turning those Waters into a most huge and unmeasurable Lake which yet that Queen caused to be digged. At the same time they built the Bridge, the solid Materials whereof were prepared before, and they bricked up the two sides of the River to a most astonishing height, making Descents from it likewise of Brick, and of as good Work as the Walls of the City. The Diligence that was used herein equalled he Grandeur of it. But a Queen so discerning as she was, yet never thought that she instructed her Enemies how to take her City. 
Herod. ibid.  It was into that same Lake which she had hollowed that Cyrus turned Euphrates, when despairing of his reducing Babylon, either by Force or Famine, he opened into it from the two sides of the City that Passage which we have seen so much pointed at by the Prophets.  
If Babylon could have but believed she had been perishable as all other humane things, and an extravagant confidence had not thrown her into downright blindness: 
Ibid.  she might not only have been able to foresee what Cyrus did, seeing that the remembrance of such a Work as that was very fresh; but also by guarding all the Descents she had overthrown the Persians in the Channel of the River where they passed. But they thought of nothing but their Pleasures and Entertainments: they had neither order nor any regular command in them. And so are destroyed not only the strongest Places, but also the greatest Empires. Dread and astonishment filled every place; the Impious King was killed, and Xenophon, who gives that Title to the last King of Babylon, 
Xenoph. 7.  seems by that word to aim at the Sacrileges of Belshazzar, which Daniel makes us to see punished by so surprising a fall.  
The Medes, who had destroyed the first and chiefest Empire of the Assyrians, destroyed also the second, as if that Nation had been designated to be fatal to the Assyrian Grandeur. But at this last time the valour and great name of Cyrus made the Persians his Subjects to have the honour of this Conquest. And indeed, it was entirely owing to this Hero, 
Xenoph. Cyr. 1.  who having been bred up under a severe and regular Discipline, according to the Custom of the Persians, a People also then as moderate, as since they have been voluptuous, was enured from his Infancy to a sober and military Life. The Medes heretofore so laborious and martial, but at length being softened through their Plenty and Abundance, as it always happens, had great need of such a General. Cyrus' made use of their Riches and of their Name, always respected in the East: 
Pol. 5.44.10 24. Xenoph. Cyr. 4.5.  but he placed his hopes of Success in the Troops he had brought from Persia. At the first Battle the King of Babylon was killed, and the Egyptians routed. The Conqueror sent a Challenge to the new King; and by showing his Courage, he gave himself the reputation of a merciful Prince who spares the Blood of his Subjects. To his Valour he joined Policy; For fear of ruining so fine a Country, which he already looked on as his Conquest, he resolved to have the Labourers saved on both sides. He knew how to awaken the Jealousy of the neighbouring People against the proud and haughty Puissance of Babylon, that was for Invading all; and at length the Glory that he gained, as much by his Generosity and Justice, as by the Happiness of his Arms, having reunited them all under his Standards, with such great Assistances he subdued that vast extent of Land whereof he made his Empire.  
Thus was this Monarchy raised. Cyrus' made it so Puissant, that it could not very much fail of aggrandizing itself under its Successors. But to understand how it came to be destroyed, we need only to compare the Persians and the Successors of Cyrus, with the Greeks and their Generals, especially with Alexander.  
CAMBYSES the Son of Cyrus was he who corrupted the Manners of the Persians. His Father, 
V The Persians, the Grecians, and Alexander.  who was so well brought up in all the Arts and Cares of War, took not care enough to give to the Successor of so great an Empire an Education suitable to his own: and by the common Fate of humane things too much greatness destroys Virtue. Darius' the Son of Hystaspes, 
Plat. de leg. 3.  who from a private Life was raised unto the Throne, brought better dispositions to the Sovereign Power, and made some efforts to repair the Disorders. But the Corruption was already too universal: Abundance had introduced great Irregularities into their Manners; and Darius had not himself observed so just a strictness as to be able on the sudden to redress others. Every thing degenerated under his Successors, and the Luxury of the Persians was not circumscribed by any Bounds or Measure.  
But although those People, then become powerful, had lost very much of their ancicient Virtue, by giving themselves up to their Pleasures, they had yet always kept up something that was great and noble. What is there to be seen more noble than the horror they had for lying, which was always accounted by them a most base and shameful Vice? 
Plat. Alcib. 1. Herod. lib. 1.  What they looked upon as very unworthy next to lying, was to live upon borrowing. Such a Life as that seemed to them to be idle, shameful, servile, and so much the more contemptible, as it led on to lying. By a Generosity that was natural to their Nation, 
Herod. 3.  they always treated vanquished Kings with great Civility. If the Children of those Princes were not able to be assistant to the Conquerors, they left them to Command in their own Countries with almost all the Marks of their ancient Grandeur. The Persians were Courteous, Civil, Liberal to Strangers, and they knew how to make use of them. Persons of Merit were considered by them, and they spared for nothing to gain them. 'Tis true, they were not arrived at the perfect knowledge of that Wisdom which instructed how to govern well. The great Empire was always ruled with some confusion. They could never find out that curious Art so well practised since by the Romans, of uniting all the Parts of a great Estate, and making but one perfect whole of them. So likewise were they scarce ever without some considerable Revolts. Yet they had their Polity among them. The Rules of Justice they understood, and they have had great Kings which have made them be observed with an admirable exactness. Crimes were severely punished, but with that moderation, that in easily pardoning the first Faults, 
Herod. 1.  they corrected the after Relapses with rigorous Chastisements. They had a great many good Laws, 
Plat. de leg. 3. Esth. 1.13.  almost all came from Cyrus, and from Darius the Son of Hystaspes. They had Maxims of Government, Councils ordered for the maintaining them, and a great Subordination in all Employments. When they said that the Great men who made up the Council, 
Xenoph. Cyr. 8.  were the Eyes and the Ears of the Prince; they meant all together with the Prince: that he had his Ministers as we have the Organs of our Senses, not for him to be idle, but to act by their means; and the Ministers, that they were not to act for themselves, but for the Prince who was their Chief, and for all the Body of the State. Those Ministers were to be instructed in the ancient Maxims of the Monarchy. The Register which they kept of past Occurrences, served as Rules to Posterity. 
Esth. 1.13. Ibid. 6.  There were put down the Services which every one had done, for fear lest to the shame of the Prince, and the great unhappiness of the State, they should continue unrewarded, It was one good way to engage particular men to the Public Weal, 
Herod. 1.  to tell them that they never were to Sacrifice for themselves alone, but for the King, and for all the State, in which every one was concerned with the other. One of the chiefest cares of the Prince was to see Agriculture flourish: and those Noblemen whose Government was the best cultivated, had the greatest part of the Thanks. As there were Offices set up for the Conduct of Arms, so there were likewise some established to inspect into the Country Labours: So that they were two Charges alike, one of which was to take care to preserve the Country, and the other to cultivate it. The Price protected them with almost an equal affection, and made them to concur to the Weal-public. Next to those who had brought some advantages from the War, they were most honoured who had bred up a great many Children. The respect wherewith the Persians were inspired from their Infancy for Regal Authority was grown to that excess, that they mingled Adoration with it, and appeared rather Slaves than Subjects, brought by reason to pay their Submission to a legitimate Empire: This was the Eastern Humour, and peradventure the brisk and violent Nature of those People required a Government that was more firm and more absolute.  
The manner how they bred up the Children of Kings is admired by Plato, and proposed to the Grecians as the model of a perfect Education. 
Plat. Alcib. 1.  At seven Years of Age, they are taken from the hands of the Eunuches to teach them how to ride on Horseback, and to follow the Chase. At fourteen, when the Mind gins to form itself, there are given them to their Instructors, four Men, who are the most Virtuous and Wise that can be found out in the Kingdom. The first, says Plato, teaches them Magic, that is to say in their Language, the Worship of the Gods, according to the ancient Maxims, and according to the Laws of Zoroastres the Son of Oromases. The second instructed them how to speak the Truth, and how to do Justice. The third taught them how they should not suffer themselves to be overcome by their Pleasures, that so they might be always free and truly Kings, Masters of themselves, and of their desires. The fourth fortified their Courage against Fear, which had made slaves of them, and had rob them of that Confidence, which was so necessary for Command. The young Lords were bred up at the Gate of the King with his Children, 
Xenoph. de exped. Cyri. Jun. lib. 1.  there was particular Care taken that they should neither see nor hear any thing that was unbecoming, they gave the King an account of their Conduct. And that account which was given of them; was by his Order attended with suitable Punishments or Rewards. The Youth who saw them, did early with their Virtue, learn the knowledge of both, how to obey and command. And with such an Institution, what might not be hoped for from the Kings of Persia, and their Nobles, if as great a Care had been taken to direct them well in the Progress of their Age, as there always was to instruct them in their Infancy? But the corrupted Manners of the Nation drew them quickly into their Enchanted Pleasures, against which no Education can Fence. Yet it must be confessed, that notwithstanding the Effeminacy of the Persians, and notwithstanding the Care they had of their Beauty, and of their Dress, they wanted not Valour. They stood always much on that, and they have given very signal marks of it. The Military Art with them had the preference it deserved, as that under the Covert, whereof all others might be exercised in quiet. 
Xenoph.  But they never understood the bottom of it, nor knew what an Army could do that used Severity, Discipline, ranking of their Troops, the order of Marches and Incampments; and to conclude, a certain Conduct, which made those great Bodies to move without Confusion, and in the best manner. They thought they had done all, when they had collected together a huge number of People without any choice, to go to the War with Bravery and Courage, but without Order, and who found themselves Embarassed with an infinite multitude of unnecessary Persons, whom the King and the great Men drew after them only for their Pleasures. For their Effeminacy was so great, that they would find in the Army the same Magnificence and delicacies as in those places where the Court made its ordinary Commoration and Stay, so that the Kings marched with their Wives, their Concubines, their Eunuches, and whatsoever else might contribute to their Pleasures. Their Gold and Silver Vessels, and the best sort of movable Household Goods followed in a most prodigious abundance; and in short, all the train that such a Life requires. An Army made up of this manner, and already encumbered with the excessive Multitude of its Soldiers, was overcharged by the unaccountable number of those who did not Fight. In this Confusion, it was impossible to move in any Regularity, and by consent; the Orders never came in time, and in any action all went as they could, and no body could make any Provision or Forecast. And withal they must make but a short work of it, and come rapidly like a Torrent into a Country: for such a vast Body, and greedy not only of what was necessary for Life, but also what was Serviceable for their Pleasure, consumed all in a little time, and one can scarce imagine where they could get all their substance.  
And yet with this great Pomp and Ceremony did the Persians astonish the People that understood the trade of War no better than themselves. And those who did understand it, found themselves either weakened by their own divisions, or overpowred by the Multitude of their Enemies; and by that means it was that Egypt, a proud as she seemed to be both of her Antiquity, and of her wise Institutions, and of the Conquests of her Sesostris, became subjected to the Persians. It was no hard matter for them to conquer the lesser Asia, and also the Greek Colonies, which the softness of Asia had Corrupted. But when they came to Greece itself, they found what they had never seen, a regulated Militia, well bred Commanders, Soldiers used to live sparingly, Bodies hardened to Travel, which the Lute, and other Exercises common in that Country, had made dexterous and nimble; Armies very small indeed, but yet were like to those vigorous Bodies that seem to be all nervous, and where all is made up of Life and Spirit; and withal so well commanded, and so compliant to the orders of their Generals, that one would think that the Soldiers had all but one and the same Soul, such an exact harmony of agreement was seen in all their Motions.  
But what Greece had still, that was more great, was a firm and Provident Polity, that understood how to abandon, hazard and defend what was necessary, and what was greater yet, a Courage, which the love of Liberty, and that of its Country made invincible.  
The Greeks naturally full of Spirit and Courage had been early cultivated by Kings and Colonies come from Egypt, which establishing themselves at the first in divers parts of the Country, had every where discovered that excellent Polity of the Egyptians. From thence they learned the Exercises of the Body, the Lute, Foot-races, running on Horseback, and in Chariots, and the other Exercises which they put in Perfection by the glorious Crowns of the Olympic Games. But the best thing of all which the Egyptians had taught them was Docility, and how they should form themselves by Laws for the public Weal. This was not in particular relating only to their own private affairs, nor only minding the Evils of the State, so far as they themselves suffered by them, or the quiet of their Families were disturbed and troubled. The Greeks were taught how to look after themselves, and also to have a regard for their Families, as they were part of a greater Body, which was the Body of the State. Parents educated their Children in this Principle; and the Children learned from their Cradles to look upon their Country as a common Mother, to whom they belonged even more than to their Parents. The word Civility did not only signify among the Greeks Humanity, Kindness, and mutual deference, which made Men Sociable: a Civil Man was nothing else but a good Citizen, who always considered himself as a Member of the State, which submitted to be governed by Laws, and with them. Conspired to the public good, without making invasions upon any Man's right and property. The ancient Kings whom the Greeks had had in divers Countries, as Minos, Cecrops, 
Plat. de leg. 3.  Theseus, Codrus Temenes, Cresphontus, Eurysthenes, Patroclus, and such as these, had infused this Principle into all the Nation. They were all popular, not at all in flattering the People, but in procuring their welfare, and in making the Laws to be observed.  
What shall I say of the gravity of their Judgements? What graver Tribunal was there ever than that of the Areopagus so much had in reverence throughout all Greece, as that it was said the Gods appeared there? It has been famous from the earliest of time; and Cecrops probably founded it after the model of the Tribunals in Egypt. Not any Society has so long kept up the reputation of its ancient Gravity; for all manner of deceitful Rhetoric was ever banished from it.  
The Greeks thus polished by little and little, thought they were able to govern themselves, and most of the Cities form themselves into Commonwealths. But the wise Legislators, who were set up in every Country, Thales, Pythagoras, Pittacus, Lycurgus, Solon, Philolas, and as many others, as Histories inform us of, took care that Liberty should not degenerate into Licentiousness. Laws simply writ, and few in number, kept the People in their Duty, and made them all concur to the public Weal of the Country.  
The Idea of Liberty which such a Conduct inspired, was admirable: For the Liberty which the Greeks figured to themselves, was a Liberty subject to the Law, that is to say, to Reason itself acknowledged by all the People. They would not have Men to have Power among them. The Magistrates who were feared during the time of their Ministry, became private Men, who had only so much Authority as their Experience gave them. The Law was looked on as the Mistress; It was that which set up Magistrates, regulated their Power, and in a word, which punished their Maladministration.  
It is not here necessary to examine whether those Ideas were as solid as they were specious. In short, Greece was charmed with them, and preferred the Inconveniencies of Liberty to those of lawful Subjection, tho' in reality much less. But as every form of Government has its Advantages, that which Greece got from her own, was, that the Citizens were so much the more in Love with their own Country, as the all contributed to its Administration and Government, and as every private Man might come up to the highest Honours.  
How far Philosophy helped to preserve the State of Greece is incredible. The more those People were free, the more necessary was it to establish among them Rules of good Manners, and of Society. Pythagoras, Thales, Anaxagoras, Socrates, Archytas, Plato, Xenophon, Aristotle, and a world of others, filled Greece with those excellent Precept▪ There were some extravagant Men that assumed the Name of Philosophers, but those who were followed were such as taught them to sacrifice their private Interest, and even their own Lives, for the general Interest and Safety of the State: And it was the most common Maxim of the Philosophers, that Men ought either to withdraw from public Affairs, or else only have respect to the public Weal.  
But why do we speak of the Philosophers? The very Poets themselves, who were in the Hands of all the People, instruct them much more than they divert them. The most famous of Conquerors look on Homer as a Master that taught to reign well. That great Poet no less instructed how to obey well, and to be a good Citizen; He and a many others, whose Works are equally grave as they are pleasant, celebrate only those Arts that are useful to human Life, recommend only the public Weal, their Country, Society, and that admirable Civility which we have here displayed.  
When Greece was thus refined, she looked on the asiatics with their Delicacy, their starched Dress●s, and Beauty like that of their Women, and had them in greatest Contempt. But their form of Government which was only regulated by the Will and Command of their Prince, which was the Mistress of all, even their most sacred Laws, wrought an absolute Abhorrence in them: And the most odious Object that all Greece had, were the Barbarians.  
The Grecians conceived this hatred from the very beginning, and it was become as their second Nature. 
Isoc. Paneg.  One thing that made Homer's Poetry be beloved, was because he sang the Victories and Advantages of Greece over Asia. On the part of Asia was Venus, that is to say, Pleasures, foolish Loves and Softnesses; and on that of Greece was Jum, and that is as much as Gravity joined with Conjugal Affection, Mercury with Eloquence, Jupiter and Politic Wisdom. On the side of Asia was Mars impetuous and brutish, that is to say, War made with Fury; on the Graecian side was Pallas, that is to say, the Military Art, and Valour led on by the Conduct of the Mind. Greece had always from that time believed that Understanding and true Courage was her natural Lot and Portion. She could by no means suffer Asia to think of subduing her; for in undergoing that Yoke, she knew she must subject Virtue to Pleasure, the Mind to the Body, and true Courage to a mad extravagant Force, which consists only in the Multitude.  
Greece was full of those Sentiments, when she was attacked by Darius the Son of Hystaspes, and by Xerxes, with Armies whose greatness seems fabulous, because it was so excessive. Immediately each are prepared to defend their Liberty. Although all the Cities of Greece were as so many Commonwealths, yet their common Interest reunited them, and there were no Disputes among them, but to show who should do most for the Public Weal. It cost the Athenians nothing to leave their City to be pillaged and burnt: and after they had saved their old Men and their Wives with their Children, they put into Ships all that were capable of bearing Arms. To put a stop for some days to the Persian Army at a straight and difficult Passage; and to make it sensible what Greece was, a handful of Lacedæmonians ran with their King to an assured Death, being contented that in so dying they had sacrificed to their Country an infinite number of those Barbarians, and had left to their Compatriots the brave Example of an unheard of Boldness and Gallantry. Against such Armies and such a Conduct Persia found herself weak, and oftentimes found to her loss, what Discipline could do against Multitude and Confusion, and what Valour was able to effect, that was conducted with Art against a blind Impetuosity.  
Persia that was so many times overcome, had nothing left to do but to make division among the Greeks: and the condition in which they found themselves by their Victories, made that an easy Enterprise. As Fear kept them united, so Victory and Confidence broke that Union. 
Plat. de Leg. 3.  Being used to fight and to conquer, when they thought they had nothing more to fear from the power of the Persians, they fell then one upon another. But that State of the Greeks, and the Secret of the Persian Polity wants a little further Explication.  
Among all the Republics, of which Greece was made up, Athens and Lacedemonia were incomparatively the Chief. There could not be more Wit than was to be had at Athens, nor more force and strength than what Lacedemonia afforded. Athens was set upon Pleasure; the Lacedaemonian life was hard and laborious. They both loved Glory and Liberty: but at Athens Liberty naturally tended to Licentiousness; and Lacedemonia being held in by her severe Laws, the more she was suppressed within, the more did she endeavour to enlarge her Dominion abroad. Athens was desirous all of Rule, but it was from another Principle. Interest and Honour went together. Her Citizens were excellent in the Art of Navigation; and the Sea o'er which she reigned had enriched her. To make herself sole Mistress of all Commerce, there was nothing she could not attempt to subject; and her Riches which had filled her with that desire, furnished her with ways and means how to satisfy it. On the contrary, the Lacedæmonians had Money in Contempt. As all her Laws tended to make her a Martial Republic, the glory of Arms was the only Charm wherewith the Minds of her Citizens were possessed. From thence naturally she was ambitious of Domination, and the more she was above Interest, the more she gave herself up to Ambition.  
Lacedemonia by her regular Life was firm in her Maxims and Designs. Athens was more quick and Spiritual, and the People there were too much Masters. Philosophy and the Laws indeed wrought very good Effects in such exquisete Natures, but Reason by itself was not able to retain them. 
Plat. de Leg. 3.  A wise Athenian, and one who admirably well understood the temper and Complexion of his Country informs us, that Fear was absolutely necessary for Minds that were so sprightly and so free, and that there was no longer any governing of them, when the Victory of Salamine had secured them against the Persians.  
Then two things destroyed them, the glory of their famous Actions, and the Security, in which they thought they were. The Magistrates were no longer obeyed, and as Persia was afflicted through an excessive Subjection, so Athens, Plato says; felt the Calamities of an excessive Liberty.  
Those two great Commonwealths, so contrary in their Tempers and Conduct, yet embraced each other in the design they had to reduce all Greece; so that they were always Enemies, and they were more so from the contrariety of their Interests, than from the incompatibility of their Humours.  
The Cities of Greece desired no Domination over either of them: for besides that, every one wished to be able to preserve their own Liberty, they found the Empire of those too Republics too troublesome. That of Lacedemonia was fierce. There was in her People, an I know not what of a wild Barbarity. A Government too rigid, and a Life too laborious, 
Arist. Pol. 8.4.  made their Spirits too fierce, too austere, and too imperious: add to this likewise, that one must resolve never to be in Peace under the Empire of a City, that being form for War, could not preserve itself, 
Id. 7. 14. Xenoph. de rep. Lac. Plat. de rep. 8.  but by an uninterrupted continuance of it. Thus the Lacedæmonians resolved to Command, and all the World was afraid lest they should Command. The Athenians were naturally more mild and agreeable. There was nothing to be seen more delightful than their City, where their Feasts and their Plays were perpetual; where wit, where liberty, the Passions afforded every day new Spectacles. But their unequal Conduct was displeasing to their Allies, and was yet more insupportable to their Subjects. It was therefore necessary to shake off the Fantastry of a flattered People, that is, to say, according to Plato, something more dangerous than that of a Prince corrupted by Flattery.  
Those two Cities never suffered Greece to be at quiet. You have seen the Peloponesian War, and the others always caused or kept up by the Jealousies of Lacedemonia and Athens: But those Jealousies, which troubled Greece, did also in some sort support it, and prevented it from becoming a dependence on one of those two Republics.  
The Persians soon perceived this Estate of Greece. Therefore all the Secret of their Polity, was to keep up those Jealousies, and to foment those Divisions. Lacedemonia, which was the most ambitious, was the first to engage them in the Quarrels of the Greeks. They espoused them, with a design of making themselves Masters of all the Nation; and being careful to weaken the Grecians the one by the other, they only watched for the good Hour, when to overthrow them all together. The Cities of Greece did already in their Wars, 
Plat. de Leg. 3.  look only on the King of Persia, whom they called their great King, or the King by way of Excellence, as if they already accounted themselves his Subjects: but it was impossible for the old Spirit and Genius of Greece not to awaken when they were upon the Brink of falling into Servitude, and becoming a Prey to the Barbarians. The Petty Kings of Greece attempted to oppose that great King, and to ruin his Empire. With a small Army, but bred up in the Discipline we have already seen Agesilaus, King of Lacedemonia, 
Polyb. dib. 3. c. 6.  made the Persians in lesser Asia to tremble, and shown that it was possible to defeat them. The Divisions of Greece were the only thing that put a stop to his Conquests: But it happened at a time when young Cyrus, the Brother of Artaxerxes revolted against him. He had ten Thousand Grecians in his Troops, which alone could not be broken in the Universal rout of his Army. He was killed in the Battle, and as it is reported, by the hand of Artaxerxes. Our Greeks were found without a Protector; in the midst of the Persians, and round about Babylon. Yet victorious Artaxerxes could neither oblige them voluntarily to lay down their Arms, nor force them to it. They attempted the bold Design of going through all his Empire in an armed Body, and so return into their own Country, which they accordingly accomplished. All Greece saw then more than ever, that she trained up an invincible Militia, to which every thing was to yield, and that only her own Divisions could subject her to an Enemy, who would yet be too weak to resist her when she was united. Philip, King of Macedon, equal able and Valiant, so well improved the advantages which were given him against so many divided Cities and Commonwealths by a Kingdom, little indeed of itself, but united, and where the Royal Power was absolute, that at last partly by Stratagem, and partly by force, he made himself the most puissant of Greece, and obliged all the Grecians to march under his Standards against the Common Enemy. He was slain in those Conjunctures: but Alexander his Son succeeded to his Kingdom, and to his Designs.  
He found the Macedonians not only trained up to Martial discipline, but also triumphant, and become by so many successes almost as much superior to the other Grecians in Valour and Discipline, as the other Grecians were above the Persians, and such like sort of People.  
Darius, who reigned in Persia, in his time, was just, valiant, generous, beloved of his People, and wanted neither Wit nor Courage to execute his Designs. But if you compare him with Alexander; his Wit with that piercing and sublime Genius: His Valour with that haughtiness and steadiness of that invincible Courage, which was the more animated by the Obstacles that he met with; with that unmeasurable Ambition of increasing daily his Name, which made him prefer the least advance of Honour to all manner of Dangers, Labours, and to a thousand Deaths: In a word, with that Confidence that made him think verily and from his Heart, that all aught to submit to him, as to one whom his Destiny rendered superior to all others; a Confidence which he inspired not only into his Chiefs, but also into the least of his Soldiers, whom he raised by that means, above difficulties, and even above themselves. You will quickly judge to whom of them two the Victory belonged. And if you add to these things the advantages which the Greeks and the Macedonians had above their Enemies, you will confess that Persia being attacked by such an Hero, and by such Arms, could no longer hold out from changing Masters. Thus will you discover at the same time what ruined the Persian Empire, and what raised up that of Alexander.  
To make his Victory the more easy, it happened that Persia lost the only General that could oppose the Greeks; it was Memnon the Rhodian. 
Diod. 17. Sect. 1.  When Alexander had vanquished so famous and renowned a Captain, he might boast that he had overcome an Enemy that was worthy of him. Instead of hazarding against the Greeks a general Battle, Memnon would needs dispute all the passages with them, would cut off all their Victuals, would go and attack them among themselves, and by a vigorous onset would force them to come and defend their Country. Alexander had prepared for them, and the Troops he had committed to Antipater, were enough to keep Greece. But his good Fortune did on the sudden deliver him from that Embarrass. At the beginning of a Diversion, which already disturbed all Greece, Memnon died, and Alexander brought all under his Feet.  
That Prince made his Entrance into Babylon, with so glorious a show, that surpassed all that ever yet the World had seen, and after he had revenged Greece, after he with an incre●●dible Expedition had brought under all the Lands of the Persian Domination, to secure his new Empire on all sides, or rather to gratify his Ambition, and make his name more famous than that of Bacchus, he went into India, where he extended his Conquests farther than that renowned Conqueror. But him that Deserts, Rivers, and Mountains were not able to stop, was constrained to yield to his tired Soldiers, who desired th●n some repose. Being forced to content himself with the proud Monuments he left upon the Borders of Araspes, he brought back his Army, by another way than that he had gone, and subdued all the Countries which he found in his Passage.  
He came back to Babylon, feared and respected not as Conqueror, but as a God. But that formidable Empire he had conquered, lasted no longer than his Life, which was very short too. When he was but three and thirty Years of Age, in the midst of the vastest Designs that ever Man had conceived, and with the justest hopes of a most happy Success, he died before he had the opportunity solidly to settle his affairs, leaving a weak Brother, and Children very young behind him, incapable of supporting so great a weight. But what was most fatal both to his House, and to his Empire, was, that he left behind him Captains, whom he had taught to breath out nothing but Ambition and War. He saw to what excesses they would rise when he should be taken out of the World. He, to retain them, and for fear he should be contradicted, durst neither name his Successor, nor who should be the Tutor of his Children. He only foretold them, that his Friends would celebrate his Funerals with bloody Battles, and so he expired in the flower of his Age, full of sad Images and Ideas of the Confusion which would attend his Death.  
In fine, you have seen the partage of his Empire, and the frightful ruin of his House. Macedonia, his ancient Kingdom, enjoyed by his Ancestors for so many Ages, was invaded on all sides as a vacant Succession, and after it had been long the Prey of the strongest, it went at last to another Family. Thus that great Conqueror, the most renowned, and most illustrious that ever was, was likewise the last of his Race. If he had continued peaceable and quiet in Macedonia, the greatness of his Empire would not have been a temptation to his Captains, and he might have left to his Children the Kingdom of his Fathers. But because he had been so very powerful, he was the cause of the loss of all his own; and thus you see what was the glorious fruit of so many Conquests.  
His Death was the only cause of that great revolution. For this must be said to his eternal Honour, that if ever Man was capable of maintaining so vast an Empire, although newly conquered, without doubt it was Alexander; for the strength of his Mind was equal to his Courage. It owed not therefore to his faults, tho' he had very great ones, the fall of his Family, but only to Mortality; unless we will say that a Man of his Humour, and whose ambition engaged him still to new undertake, could never be at leisure to settle things well.  
Be it how it will, we learn by his Example, that besides the Faults which Men might correct, that is to say, those they are guilty of through heat of Transport, or through Ignorance, there is an irrecoverable Weakness inseparably annexed to humane Designs, and that is Mortality. Every thing may fall in a Moment by that way: That which forces us to confess that as the most inherent Vice, if it may be allowed me to speak so, and the most inseparable from humane things, is their own Frailty: He who knows how to preserve and strengthen a State, hath found out a higher point of Wisdom than he that can conquer and gain Battles.  
It is needless to tell you in particular what destroyed those Kingdoms that were form out of the Ruins of Alexander's Empire, that is to say, that of Syria, that of Macedonia, and that of Egypt. The common cause of their Ruin was, that they were forced to submit to a greater Power, which was the Roman. If however we will consider the last Estate of those Monarchies, we shall easily find the immediate Causes of their Fall; and see among other things, that the most puissant of all, that is to say, that of Syria, after it had been shaken by the soft Effeminacy and Luxury of the Nation, at last received the mortal Stab by the Division of her Princes.  
WE are at last brought to the great Empire which hath swallowed up all the Empires of the World, 
The Roman Empire.  from whence hath sprung the greatest Kingdoms of the Earth where we dwell, whole Laws we still respect, and which consequently we ought to undestand better than all other Empires. Your Highness very well knows, I speak of the Roman Empire. You have seen the long and memorable History of it in all its Course. But to make you perfectly acquainted with the causes of Rome's Advancement, and those of the great Changes that have happened in that Commonwealth; You are seriously, with the Manners and Customs of the Romans, to consider also the times on which all the Motions of that vast Empire do depend.  
Of all People in the World, the most fierce and hardy, but likewise the most regular in their Councils, the most constant in their Maxims, the most laborious, and withal the most patiented, have been the People of Rome.  
From all that, was form the best Militia, and the most discerning Polity, the strongest and most followed that ever was.  
The Principle of a Roman was the Love of his Liberty and of his Country. One of those things made him to love the other: For because he loved his Liberty, he loved also his Country as a Mother that fed him with Sentiments equally generous and free.  
Under that Name of Liberty, the Romans framed to themselves a Government like the Greeks, where none should be subject but only to the Law, and where the Law should be more powerful than Man.  
But though Rome was born under a Royal Government, yet had she also under her Kings a Liberty which was not very much consistent with a regulated Monarchy. For besides that Kings were Elective, and that such Elections were made by all the People, it was also in the People assembled together to confirm the Laws, and to resolve on Peace and War. There were also some particular Cases wherein the Kings admitted the People to have the sovereign Judgement: Witness Tullus Hostilius, who not daring either to condemn or acquit Horace, loaded at once both with Honour for having overcome the Curatii, and with Shame and Infamy for having killed his Sister, made it be determined by the People. Therefore Kings had properly but the Command of the Armies, and the Authority of calling lawful Assemblies, propounding Businesses to them, maintaining the Laws, and executing the public Decrees.  
When Servius Tullius framed that Design you have seen of bringing Rome into a Commonwealth, he increased, in the People already so free, still a greater Desire of Liberty; and from that you may judge how mighty jealous the Romans were of it, when they had experimented it entirely under their Consuls.  
One would even tremble to read in Histories the dreadful Constancy and Resolution of the Consul Brutus, when he caused his two Children to be slain before his Eyes, who had suffered themselves to be drawn over to the dull Practices which the Tarquins used in Rome to re-establish their Domination there. How much were that People confirmed in the love of Liberty when they could see that severe Consul sacrifice his own Family to Liberty! We need no longer wonder if the Efforts of the neighbouring People were despised in Rome, who undertook to re-establish the banished Tarquins. In vain did King Porsenna take them into his Protection. The Romans almost starved, made him however to know, 
Dion. Halic. Lib. 5. Tit. Liv. 2.13, 15.  by their undaunted Resolution, that they would at last die free. The People were more resolute than the Senate; and all Rome caused it to be told to that puissant King that came to reduce her to Extremity, that he might desist interceding for the Tarquins, since being resolved to hazard all for her Liberty, she would rather receive her Enemies than her Tyrants. Porsenna being astonished at the undauntedness of that People, and at the more than human daringness of some private Persons, resolved to let the Romans quietly enjoy a Liberty which they knew so well how to defend.  
Liberty therefore was to them a Treasure which they preferred before all the Riches of the Universe. You have seen also how in their Beginning, and likewise forwarder on in their Progress, they looked not on their Poverty as an Evil: But contrariwise, they looked on it as a means to preserve their Liberty more entire; there being nothing more free and independent than a Man that knows how to live on a little, and who Without Expectance of any thing from the Protection or Liberality of another, grounds his Subsistence only on his own Industry and Labour.  
This did the Romans. To feed hardly, to labour in the Earth, to deprive themselves of all they could, to live with great Frugality and painful Travel: This was their kind of Life; by this way they kept their Families, and brought them up to such like Labours.  
Titus Livius was in the right in saying there never was any People among whom Frugality, or Thriftiness, or Poverty, were had so long in Honour. The most illustrious Senators, take them as to their outward appearance, differed very little from Peasants, and carried no Show or Majesty but in Public and in the Senate. At other times they were seen busy at their Tillage, and the other Cares of a Country Life, when they were sought for to command their Armies. These Examples are frequent in the Roman History. Curius and Fabricius, those great Captains that conquered Pyrrhus, so rich a King, had only an earthen Vessel; and the former, to whom the Samnites offered one of Gold and Silver, answered, that he took no Delight in having them, but in commanding those who enjoyed them. After their Triumphs were over, and they had enriched the Republic with the Spoils of her Enemies, they had not wherewithal to inter themselves. That Moderation also continued during the Punic Wars. 
Tit. Liv. E●. lib. 18.  In the first we find Regulus the General of the Roman Armies begging Leave of the Senate to go and cultivate his Farm which had lain waist during his Absence. After the Ruin of Carthage, there are also to be seen great Examples of the first Simplicity. Aemilius Paulus, who increased the public Treasure by the rich Treasure of the Kings of Macedonia, lived up to the Rules of the ancient Frugality, and died poor. Mummius, in ruining of Corinth, got only for the public use the Riches of that opulent and voluptuous City. So much were Riches then despised: 
Cic. Offic. l. 2.  The Moderation and the Innocence of the Roman Generals filled the conquered People with Admiration.  
And yet notwithstanding that great Love of Poverty, the Romans never spared for any thing that could contribute to the Grandeur and Beauty of their City. From the very beginning their public Works were such, that Rome hath not yet blushed to see them, tho' at the same time she beheld herself Mistress of the World. 
Tit. Liv. 1.53, 55, 56. C. 5. Dion. Hal. 3.4. Tac. Hist. 3.72. Plin. 36.15.  The Capitol built by Tarquin the proud, and the Temple he erected to Jupiter in that Fortress, were worthy then of the Majesty of the greatest of the Gods, and of the future Glory of the Roman People. Every thing else was answerable to that Greatness. The principal Temples, the Markets, the Baths, the public Places, the great Ways, the Aqueducts, the very common Shores, and the Kennels of the City had a Magnificence that seems almost incredible, but that all Historians do testify it, and the Remains we now see of it do so plainly confirm it. What shall I say of the Pomp of their Triumphs, 
Dion. Hal. 7.  of the Ceremonies of Religion, of Plays and Spectacles, which they gave to the People? In a Word, whatsoever could be of any Service to the Public, and whatsoever could give the People a great Idea of their common Country, was done with Profuseness as much as the time would permit it. Thrift and good Husbandry was only to be seen in private Houses. He who increased his Revenues, and made his Lands most Fertile by his Industry and great Labour, who was the best Governor and took the greatest Share on himself, was accounted the most Free, the most Powerful, and the most Happy.  
There was nothing at a greater distance from this kind of Living than Effeminacy. Every thing rather tended to excess on the other hand, I mean, to Hardship. Also the Manners of the Romans had naturally something in 'em, which was not only harsh and rigid, but savage and cruel. But they forgot nothing that might bring them under the Power of good Laws; and they were a People the most jealous of their Liberty the World ever saw, and yet at the same time they were the most submissive to their Magistrates and lawful Powers.  
The Militia of such a People could not but be very admirable, seeing there was so ready and so exact an Obedience joined to resolute Courages, and as vigorous Bodies.  
The Laws of that Militia were hard, but necessary. The Victory was dangerous, and ofttimes mortal to those who gained it contrary to their Orders. It was a capital Crime, not only flying, throwing down their Arms, and going from their Ranks; but also stirring, as I may say, and moving, tho' never so little, without the Command of their General. He that laid down his Arms before the Enemy, that chose rather to be taken, than to die gloriously for his Country, was adjudged unworthy of all manner of Assistance. Generally Prisoners were not reckoned any thing by the Citizens, but they were left to the Enemy as Members cut off from the Commonwealth. You have seen in Florus and in Cicero the History of Regulus, 
Cic. de Offic. 3. Flor. 2. 2.  who persuaded the Senate, at the expense of his own Life to leave the Prisoners to the Carthaginians. 
Polyb. 6. 56. Tit. Liv. 22. 57, 58.  In Hannibal's War, and after the loss of the Battle at Cannae, that is to say, at a time when Rome was drained by her so many Losses, and wanted Soldiers most, the Senate chose rather against their Custom to arm eight thousand Slaves, than to redeem eight thousand Romans, which would not have cost them more than what the new Militia stood them in which was to be raised. But in that necessity of Affairs they asserted more than ever, 
Cic. Off. 3.  as a Law inviolable, that a Roman Soldier either aught to conquer or to die.  
By which Maxim the Roman Armies, tho' defeated and broken, fought and rallied even to the last Extremity: And as Sallust observes, there were found among the Romans more Persons punished for having fought without first receiving Orders, 
Sallust. de Bell. Catil. 9  than for having lost Ground and quit their Post: So that their Courage stood more in need of being suppressed, than their fear of being excited.  
To their Valour they joined Address and Invention; and besides their being of themselves Subtle and Ingenious, they admirably well understood how to take Advantage of every thing they saw in other People that was useful any ways either for Encampments, for the ordering of their Battles, for the sorting of their Arms; in a Word, for facilitating as well the Attack as the Defence. You have seen in Sallust and in other Authors, what the Romans have learned of their Neighbours, and of their very Enemies. Who knows not that they have learned from the Carthaginians the Invention of Galleys, by which they have beat them; and in short, that they have taken from all Nations they have known, those things by which they have subdued them?  
In fine, 'tis certain by their own Acknowledgement, that the Gauls exceeded them in strength of Body, and yielded not to them neither in Courage. 
Polib. 2. etc.  Polybius shows us that in one decisive Rencounter the Gauls, besides their being stronger in number, shown more Stoutness than the Romans, how resolute soever they were; and yet we see in that very Rencounter, those Romans inferior in all other things, to get the better of the Gauls, because they knew how to choose better Arms, to rank themselves in better order, and to make a better use of their time in the Fight. This you may be able one day to see more exactly in Polybius; and you have ofttimes observed yourself in Caesar's Commentaries, that the Romans commanded by that great Man, have subdued the Gauls, but more yet by their Addresses and Stratagems in the Military Art, than by their Valour.  
The Macedonians, who were so jealous of keeping up the ancient Order of their Militia form by Philip and Alexander, thought their Phalanx invincible, and they could not be persuaded that human Wit was capable of finding any thing out that was more firm and strong. And yet the same Polybius, 
Polyb. 17. in excerp. c. 24, & seq. Tit. Liv. 9 19 31. 39, etc.  and Titus Livius altar him have demonstrated, that only by considering the nature of the Roman Armies, and those of the Macedonians, the latter could not fail of being beaten at the last, because the Macedonian Phalanx, which was but a great four square Battalion, very thick every where, could not move but all of a piece, whereas the Roman Army, divided into several little Bodies, was more ready, active, and disposed for all sorts of Motions.  
The Romans therefore found, or else quickly learned the Art of dividing their Armies into many Battalions, and Squadrons, and of forming Bodies of Reserve, whose Motion was so proper for either pushing on, or supporting what Side soever they saw to fail. Make the Macedonian Phalanx to march against the Troops that were so disposed and ordered; that heavy gross Machine 'tis true, would be terrible to any Army on which it should fall with all its weight; but as Polybius speaks, it can never long preserve its natural Propriety, that is to say, its Solidity and Consistence, because it will want proper Places, and as I may say, manifest Achievements, and for want of finding them, it will confound itself, or rather break by its own Motion. Add likewise that being once rushed in upon, it can never rally more: Whereas the Roman Army being divided into such little Bodies, can make use of all places, and get their Advantages by them They unite, or separate as they please; then unrank easily, and come together again without any trouble. They are ready for detachments, for rallying, for all manner of turn and changes as they see are necessary to be made, either in their whole Body, or any part of it. In a word, they have more diversity of Motions, and consequently more of action and force than the Phalanx. Therefore we may conclude with Polybius, that the Phalanx must needs yield to the Roman Army, and that the Macedonian must be overcome.  
It is very delightful, to discourse with your Highness of those things you have been so well instructed in by excellent Masters, and which you see practised under the orders of Lovis the Great, in so admirable a manner, that I know not whether the Roman Militia ever had any thing more fine and perfect. But not to dispute it here with the French Militia, I shall content myself with showing you, that the Militia of Rome, whether you look on the Science itself of taking its advantages, or seriously consider the extreme Severity, in making all the orders and rules to be observed; I say it hath by much surpassed all that ever has been seen in the Precedent Ages.  
After Macedonia, 'tis needless to speak any more of Greece: You have seen that Macedonia prevailed over it, and that may teach you to judge of the rest. Athens hath produced nothing more since Alexander's time. The Etolians, who had signalised themselves in several Wars, were rather ignorant than free, and rather brutal than valiant. Lacedemonia had made her last effort for War, in producing Cleomenes; and the league of the Achaians, in producing Philopaemen. Rome fought not the against those two great Captains; but the latter, who lived in the time of Hannibal and Scipio, 
Plut. in Philop.  by seeing the actions of the Romans in Macedonia, judged very rightly that the Liberty of Greece was then upon the point of expiring, and that he had nothing more to do, but to retreat just at the time of its falling. Thus the most warlike People were forced to yield to the Romans. The Romans triumphed by their Courage among the Gauls, and by art over the Greeks, and with all that, supported by the most refined Conduct, in triumphing over Hannibal; so that nothing could ever equal the glory of their Militia.  
So likewise in all their Government did they never boast of any thing so much, as of their Military Discipline. They always loo●ed on it as the Foundation of their Empire. The Military Discipline was that which was first seen in their State, and the last that was lost in it: so closely was it fixed to the Constitution of their Republic.  
One of the bravest things in the Roman Militia was, that false Valour was never commended in it. The Maxims of false Honour, which have killed such a world of People among us were not only known in a Nation so covetous of Glory. It is observed of Scipio, 
Polix. 9.13.  and Caesar's, the two greatest Men of War, and the most valiant that ever were among the Romans, that they never exposed themselves but with all the Precaution imaginable, and when the most pressing necessity called for it. There was no good expected from a General that did not understand the care he ought to have of preserving his own Person, and to reserve the actions of an extraordinary Courage, 
Ibid. 29.  for the most considerable Service. The Romans would have no Battles hazarded unadvisedly, nor desired Victories at the Expense of too much Blood: so that in short, there was nothing more bold and daring, nor altogether better managed and disciplined than were the Roman Armies.  
But as it is not enough to understand War, unless there be a very wise Council to undertake it with most advantage, and to keep all the rest of the State in good Order, it is convenient you should understand the profound Polity of the Roman Senate. To take it in the best times of the Republic, there never was any Assembly, wherein business was more maturely treated of, not with greater Secrecy, nor with a deeper foresight, nor with a more general concurrence, or lastly with a greater Zeal, for the Service of the public.  
The Holy Ghost hath not disdained taking notice of this in the Book of Maccabees, nor commending the high Prudence, 
1 Maccab. 8.15, 16.  and the vigorous Councils of that wise Company, where none gave them any authority but by reason, and all the Members whereof conspired to the public benefit without impartiality, and without Jealousy.  

Tit. Liv. 42.14.  As for secrecy Titus Livius gives us a very eminent Example. Whilst they were consulting about the War with Perseus, Eumenes King of Pergamus, that Prince's Enemy came to Rome to join in League against him with the Senate. He made there his propositions in the full Assembly, and the matter was resolved on by the suffrages of a Company, consisting of three hundred Men. Who should imagine that the secret could be kept, and that nothing of that consultation should be known till four years afterwards, when the War was ended? But what is more surprising still is that Perseus had at Rome his Ambassadors to observe Eumenes. All the Cities of Greece and Asia, which feared to be enveloped in that Quarrel, had also sent theirs, and every one of them endeavoured to discover a Business of so great a Consequence. And yet in the midst of so many able and subtle Agents the Senate was impenetrable. To have a secret kept, there was no need of punishments, nor of forbidding commerce with Strangers under severe and rigorous Penalties, the Secret commended itself alone, and by its own weight and Importance.  
'Twas a surprising thing in the conduct of Rome, to see there the People almost always to look on the Senate with great Jealousy, and yet nevertheless to refer all things to them upon great occasions, and especially in times of great Danger. Then all the People were seen to turn their Eyes upon that wise Company, and to hearken to their Resolutions, as to so many Oracles.  
A long Experience had taught the Romans that from thence came forth all the Councils that had saved the State. It was in the Senate that lodged were the ancient Maxims, and the Wit and Spirit, as I may say, of the Republic. There were the designs form, which were seen to support themselves by their own Strength; and that which was greater in the Senate still, was, that they never took more vigorous resolutions, than in the times of the greatest Excremities.  
It was in the worst estate of the Republic, 
Dion. Halic. 8. Tit. Liv. 2.39.  when weak yet, and in its Birth she saw herself absolutely both divided within by the Tribunes, and pressed hard without by the Volsci, whom incensed Coriolanus, brought against his Country. Those People always beaten by the Romans, hoped to revenge themselves, having the greatest Man of Rome at their Head, the most understanding and expert in War, the most liberal, and the most incompatible with Injustice; but the most obdurate, exasperated and untreatable. They resolved to make themselves Citizens by force; and after great Conquests, and making themselves Masters of the Campaign, and of the Country, they threatened to destroy every thing if they would not comply with their Demands. Rome had neither Army, nor Men to Head them, and yet notwithstanding in this sad Estate, and whilst all things were to be feared, was there seen on a sudden, to issue out that bold decree of the Senate, that they would rather all be cut off, than yield any thing to the Armed Enemy, and that they would grant him very reasonable Conditions, after he had withdrawn his Arms from them.  
The Mother of Coriolanus, who was sent to make him flexible, among other reasons, used this to him: Don't you know the Romans? done't you know, Son, that you will have nothing of them, but by Prayers, and that you will neither obtain much or little from them by force? 
Dion. Halic. 8.  The severe Coriolanus was hereby overcome: it cost him his Life, and the Volsci chose other Generals; but the Senate continued firm in those Maxims, and the Decree they made of granting nothing by force, 
Polyb. 6.56. Excerpt. de Legat. 69. Dion. Hal. 8.  passed for a fundamental Law of the Roman Polity, whereof there was not one single instance that ever the Romans departed from it, 
Plut. in Philop.  during all the time of their Republic. Among them, even in their worst Conditions never were the weaker Councils only harkened to. They were always more treatable when victorious, than when conquered, so well did the Senate know how to maintain the ancient Maxims of the Commonwealth, and so well also did they know how to confirm the rest of the Citizens in them.  
From the same Spirit likewise were those Resolutions taken in the Senate, of overcoming their Enemies by open Force, without using Tricks or Stratagems, even those that were permitted in War: Which the Senate did not out of a false Point of Honour, nor because they were ignorant of the Laws of War; but because they deemed nothing of more Efficacy to quell a proud Enemy, than to take from them all the vain Thoughts they might have of their Forces, that so being never so much overcome, they might expect no Salvation but from the Clemency of the Conqueror.  
Thus was that high Opinion of the Roman Arms established throughout all the World. The Belief that was spread far and near that nothing could resist them, made their Enemies to lay down their Arms, and gave an invincible Succour to their Allies. You have seen what the same Opinion of the French Arms does all over Europe; and the World standing amazed at the Exploits of your Royal Father and Sovereign, confesses that it only belongs to him to set Bounds to his Conquests.  
The Conduct of the Roman Senate, so mighty and prevalent over their Enemies, was no less admirable in their Conduct of the State within. Those wise Senators had sometimes a just Condescension for the People; as when in an extreme Necessity they not only taxed themselv●s higher than others, which was usual with them, but also when they discharged the meaner People from all manner of Import, adding that the Poor paid a Tribute great enough to the Commonwealth, in bringing up their Children. 
Tit. Liv. 2.9.   
The Senate shown by that Ordinance that they understood wherein the true Riches of a State consisted; and so generous a Sentiment joined to the Testimonies of a paternal Goodness, wrought such an impression in the Breasts of the People, that they became capable of sustaining the very last Extremities for the Safety of their Country.  
But when the People deserved Blame, the Senate gave it them likewise with a Gravity and Courage worthy of so wise a Company; as it happened in the Controversy between the Ardeates and Aricines. The History of it is very memorable, and deserves here to be told you. Those two People were in War for Lands which each Party made Pretensions to; 
Tit. Liv. 3.71.4.7, 9, 10.  at last being weary of fight they agreed to refer themselves to the Judgement of the People of Rome, whose Equity was had in Reverence by all their Neighbours. The Tribes were assembled, and the People being made acquainted that those Lands pretended to by others, of right belonged to them, adjudged them for themselves. The Senate, altho' they were convinced that the People had in the main made a right Judgement, yet they could not endure that the Romans should derogate from their natural Generosity, nor that they should basely have deceived the Hopes of their Neighbours who had submitted to their Award. There was nothing left unattempted that could be done to hinder a Judgement of so pernicious an Example, where the Judges took for themselves the Lands that were in dispute between the said Parties. After that the Sentence had been given, the Ardeates, whose Right was most apparent, being incensed at so wicked a Judgement, were ready to revenge themselves by Arms. The Senate, without any more ado, publicly declared to them that they were as sensible as themselves of the Injury which had been done them, but in truth they could not quash a Decree made by the People; but that if after that Offence they would be willing to rely upon their Company for Reparation, which they had great reason to expect, the Senate would take that Care to satisfy them, that they should have no cause of further Complaint. The Ardeates relied on their word. It was such an Affair that had like utterly to have ruined their City. But they received so immediate a Relief by the Orders of the Senate, that they reckoned themselves very well paid for the Land which had been taken away from them, and they were then studying how to pay their Acknowledgements to such faithful Friends. But the Senate was not satisfied, until by their making the Land be restored which the People of Rome had adjudged for themselves, they abolished the Memory of so infamous a Judgement.  
I do not undertake here to tell you how the Senate had likewise done several such Actions; 
Pal. Tit. Liv. Cic. de Off. 3. etc.  how often they have delivered to their Enemy's perjured Citizens that would not keep their word with them, or that played Tricks with their Oaths; how often they condemned evil Councils, although they had met with happy Successes; I shall only tell you that that august Company inspired nothing but what was great into the Roman People, and upon all Occasions gave a very high Idea of their Councils, being persuaded that the Reputation was strongest which was strengthened by the States.  
'Tis easy to be believed that by a People so wisely directed, Rewards and Punishments were assigned with great Consideration: Besides that the Service and Zeal for the Weal public, were the surest means to raise them up to the first Offices in it: The Military Actions had a thousand Recompenses which cost the Public nothing, and which were extremely esteemed by private Persons; because thereby they had conferred upon them that Honour which was so dear to that martial and warlike People. A Crown of very fine Gold, and most commonly a Crown of Oak Leaves, or of Laurel, or some Herb or other that is viler yet, was of inestimable Price among Soldiers that knew no marks more glorious than those of Virtue, nor no Distinction more noble than that which came from Heroic Actions.  
The Senate, whose Approbation was the same thing as Reward, understood very well how to commend and how to blame when there was occasion. Immediately after Fight, the Consuls and the other Generals publicly gave to the Soldiers and to the Officers, the Praise or the Blame as they deserved: But for themselves they doubtfully waited for the Judgement of the Senate, which judged by the Wisdom of their Councils, and not suffered themselves to be dazzled by the Happiness of Events. Their Commendations were highly valued, because they were given with Understanding: Their Reprimands went to the Hearts of the Free and Generous, and kept the more Weak in their Duty. The Chastisements which followed ill Actions, kept the Soldiers in fear, while in the mean time, Rewards and Honours well dispensed raised them above themselves.  
Those who can inspire into People's Minds Glory, patience of Labours, the Grandeur of the Nation, and the Love of their Country, may truly boast they have found out the most proper Constitution of State to produce great Men. 'Tis without doubt great Men that make the Power of an Empire. Nature doth never fail to bring forth in all Nations exalted Minds and Courages, but yet they want the Assistance of being better form and cultivated. That which forms them, and that which completes 'em, are strong Sentiments and noble Impressions, which are scattered in all Minds, and insensibly pass from one to the other. What is it makes our Nobles so bold in fight, and so daring in their enterprises? 'Tis an Opinion received at their Infancy, and established by the unanimous sentiment of the Nation, that a Cowardly Gentleman degrades himself, and is not worthy to enjoy the common Air. All the Romans were bred up in that Opinion, and the People disputed with the Nobles who should be the briskest Actors upon those vigorous Maxims. Whilst Rome was at Peace, the very Infancy was exercised in hardships; there was nothing else heard discoursed of but the greatness of the Roman Name. They were obliged to go to the War whenever the Republic required it, and there to work perpetually, to Camp Winter and Summer, to Obey without Resistance, to Die or Conquer. Those Fathers who brought not up their Children in those Maxims, and as they ought, to make them capable of serving the State, were Summoned to Justice, by the Magistrates, and judged guilty of an attempt against the Public. When this way was first begun to be taken, the great Men helped to make one another so: And if Rome hath bred more of them than any other City whatsoever of greater Antiquity, it hath not been by accident; but because the Roman State, being constituted so as we have seen it, was, as I may say, of a Temperament likely to be most fruitful in Hero's.  
A Government that finds itself thus form, finds itself at the same time of an incomparable strength, and never fancies itself without Recruit. That shows us that they never despaired of Success, neither when Porsenna King of Etr●ria famished them up in their Walls; nor when the Gauls, after they had burnt their City, overwhelmed all their Country, and kept them locked up in the Capitol; nor when Pyrrhus' King of Epirus, as full of Address and Subtlety as Bold in his Undertake, frighted them by his Elephants, and defeated all their Armies; nor when Hannibal, who had been already so often a Conqueror, killed also above fifty thousand Men of them, and their best Militia at the 〈…〉  
'Twas then that the Consul Terentius Varro, who was but just come from losing, through his own Fault, so great a Battle, was received at Rome as if he had been Victorious, because only even in that very great Unhappiness he did not despair of the Affairs of the Republic. The Senate gave him their public Thanks for it, and then they resolved, according to their old Maxims, not in that sad deplorable Estate to hearken to any Proposition of Peace. The Enemy was astonished; the People took Heart afresh, and believed they ●ad new Recruits which the Senate knew of by their prudence.  
In fine, the constancy of the Senate, amidst so many mischiefs that happened one on the heels of another, proceeded not only from an obstinate resolution that they would never yield to Fortune, but from a profound knowledge of the Roman Forces, and of those of their Enemies. Rome knew by her Census, that is to say, by the Roll of her Citizens evermore exactly continued from the time of Servius Tullius; she knew, I say, all her number of Citizens that were capable of bearing Arms, and what her expectations could be of the Youth which were growing up every day. Thus she managed her Forces against an Enemy that came from the Borders of Africa; that time would destroy every Man of them in a strange Country, where Succours were so tardy; and to whom their very Victories, which cost them so much Blood, were fatal. Wherefore, what ever loss happened, the Senate always being informed what good Soldiers remained, as also who protracted their time; and never suffered them to be discomfited. When by the defeat at Canna, and by the Revolts that followed, they saw the Forces of the Commonwealth so weakened, that they could have scarce defended themselves if the Enemy had pressed them, they kept themselves up by their Courage, and without being troubled for their losses, they set themselves to watch the motions of the Conqueror. As soon as ever they perceived that Hanniba● instead of pursuing his Victory, for some time only thought how he might enjoy it, the Senate were secure, for they fully saw that an Enemy who was capable of breaking his Fortune, and letting himself be dazzled with his great Successes, was not born to overcome the Romans. From that time Rome made great Enterprises every day; and Hannibal as courageous and victorious as he was, could not hold up against her.  
'Tis easy to judge by that single event to whom at last all the Advantage was likely to come. Hannibal swollen with his mighty Successes, thought the taking of Rome was very easy, and therefore gave himself some intermission. Rome in the midst of all her Calamities, neither lost her Courage nor her Confidence, and undertook greater things than ever. It was presently after the Defeat at Cannae, that she besieged Syracuse and Capua, the one unfaithful to Treaties, and the other rebellious. Syracuse could not defend herself, neither by her Fortifications, nor by the inventions of Archimedes. The victorious Army of Hannibal came in vain to the help of Capua. But the Romans forced that Captain to raise the Siege at Nola. A while after the Carthaginians defeated and slew in Spain the two Scipio's. In all that War, nothing fell out more sensible, nor more fatal to the Romans. Their loss obliged them to make their last efforts: Young Scipio, the Son of one of those Generals, being not satisfied with his having relieved the Affairs of Rome in Spain, went and waged War with the Carthaginians in their own City, and gave the last blow to their Empire.  
The state of that City did not permit Scipio to find there the same resistance as Hannibal found from Rome, and you will be enough convinced of that, if you do but a little look into the constitution of those two Cities.  
Rome was in her strength, 
Polyb. 1. 3●.6.49. etc.  and Carthage which was beginning to fall, was kept up only by Hannibal. Rome had her Senate united, and that was exactly the time when that Concert was, which is so much commended in the Book of the Maccabees. The Senate of Carthage was divided by old irreconcilable Factions; and the loss of Hannibal had been the rejoicing of the most considerable part of the great Lords. Rome although poor, and engaged in Agriculture, yet bred up an admirable Militia, which only aimed at glory, and to aggrandise the Roman name. Carthage enriched by her trading beheld all her Citizens set upon their wealth, and not at all disciplined in War; whereas the Roman Armies were almost all made up of Citizens: Carthage on the contrary held it for a Maxim not to have any but strange Troops, ofttimes as much to be feared by those that pay them, as by those that they are employed against.  
These defects came partly from the first Institution of the Commonwealth of Carthage, and partly were introduced by time. Carthage always loved wealth: 
Arist. Pol. 2.2.  And Aristotle accuses her for so much being set upon it, as to suffer the Citizens to prefer it to Virtue. By that means a Republic wholly made for War, as the same Aristotle observes, at last neglected the exercise of it. That Philosopher does not blame her for having only strange Militias; and therefore it is believed that it fell not into that defect till a long while after. But Riches brought thither naturally a Merchandizing Republic; they loved to enjoy their wealth, and thought to find every thing in their Mony. Carthage fancied herself strong, because she had a great many Soldiers, and never could be brought to understand by all the Revolts she had seen befallen her in the latter times, that there is nothing more unhappy than a State which could only be supported by strangers, wherein there can be found neither Zeal, nor Security, nor Obedience.  

Polyb. 11.17.  'Tis true, the great Genius of Hannibal seemed to have supplied and remedied the defects of his Republic. It is looked on as a Prodigy, that in a strange Country, and for full sixteen years, there should never be seen, I do not say any Sedition, but so much as a murmur in an Army all made up of divers people, who without understanding one another agreed so well in understanding the orders of their General. But Hannibal's ability could not support Carthage, when being attacked within her Walls by such a General as Scipio, she was found without Forces. Then was Hannibal to be recalled, but he had with him only such Troops as were weakened more by their own Victories, than by those of the Romans, and which completed their own ruin by the length of the Voyage. Thus Hannibal was beaten, and Carthage, formerly the Mistress of all Afric, of the Mediterranean Sea, and of all the Commerce of the World, was forced to undergo the Yoke that S●ipio put upon her.  
This was the glorious fruit of the Roman patience: People who hardened and fortified themselves by their unhappinesses, had good reason to believe they might save all, provided they did not lose their hopes: And Polybi●s hath very rightly concluded, That Carthage would at last be obedient to Rome by the very nature of the two Republics.  
And if the Romans made use of those great Politic and Military Qualities, only to preserve their State in Peace, or to protect their oppressed Allies, as they made such a pretention to do, we must as much commend their Equity, as their Valour and their Prudence. But when they had tasted the sweetness of Victory, they then resolved to make every thing yield to them, and pretended to nothing less than to put first their Neighbours, and afterwards all the World under their Laws.  
To attain that end, they perfectly knew how to preserve their Allies, to unite them among themselves, to throw division and jealousy among their Enemies, to penetrate into their Councils, to discover their Intelligences, and to prevent their Undertake.  
They not only observed the marches of their Enemies, but also all the Progresses of their Neighbours; and they were above all things curious either in dividing, or in Counter-balancing by some other way the powers that became too formidable, or which put too great obstacles to their Conquests.  
Therefore the Greeks were to blame for imagining in the time of Polybius, 
Polyb. 1.63.  that Rome aggrandized herself rather by hazard than by conduct: they were too fond of their own Nation, and too jealous of those People they saw raised above them: Or peradventure that seeing at a distance the Roman Empire to advance so quickly, without penetrating into the Councils which ordered the motions of that great Body, they attributed to chance, as the custom of Men is, the Effects of which the Causes were not known to them. But Polybius whose strict familiarity with the Romans made him get so far into the secret of Affairs, and nearly to observe the Roman Polity during the Punic Wars, hath been more just and equitable than the other Greeks, and hath seen that the Conquests of Rome were the consequence of a well formed and understood design. For he saw the Romans in the midst of the Mediterranean Sea, to have their Eyes every where round, even into Spain and Syria, to observe all that passed there, to advance regularly, and nearer and nearer; to strengthen themselves before they enlarged themselves; not to be clogged with too many Affairs; to dissemble for some time, and at a convenient opportunity to declare themselves; to wait till Hannibal was conquered to disarm Philip King of Macedon, who had favoured him; after they had begun a business, never to be weary, nor contented till every thing was ended; not to leave the Macedonians a Moment.  
And when they had overcome 'em, by a public Decree to restore to Greece which had been so long Captivated, that Liberty which they never dreamed of; by that means to scatter on one hand Terror, and on the other a Veneration for their Name: All these are enough for any one to conclude, That the Romans never got the Conquest of the World by hazard but by conduct.  
This is what Polybius saw in the time of Rome's progresses. 
Dion. Halic. Ant. Rom. 1.2.  Dion Halicarnasseus who wrote after the establishment of the Empire, and in the time of Augustus, hath concluded the same thing, in resuming from the first Origine the ancient Institutions of the Roman Commonwealth, so fit in their very nature to form a People Invincible, and only to Command. You have seen enough of this to enter into the sentiments of those wise Historians, 
Plut. lib. de fort. Alex. & de fort. Rom.  and to condemn Plutarch, who being always too great a lover of the Greeks, attributed alone to Fortune the Roman greatness, and alone to Virtue that of Alexander.  
But the more of design those Historians discover in the Conquests of Rome, the more Injustice do they show in them. That is a vice inseparable from the desire of Dominion, which also for that reason is justly condemned by the Rules of the Gospel. But Philosophy alone is sufficient to make us understand that force is given us to keep our own Goods, but not to usurp those of other Men. 
Cic. de Off. 3.  Cicero hath confessed it, and the rules which he hath given for making War are a manifest condemnation of the Roman's conduct.  
'Tis true, they appeared pretty equitable at the beginning of their Republic. It seemed as if they themselves were willing to moderate their warring humour by circumscribing it within the bounds which Equity assigned. What is there more Noble, and more Holy than the College of the Feciales, 
Dion. Halicar. 2. Ant. Rom. Tit. Liv. 1.32.  whether Numa was the Founder of it, as Dion Halicarnasseus affirms, or Ancus Martius, as Titus Livius will have it? That Council was set up to judge whether a War was just or no: Before the Senate proposed it, or the People resolved on it, that Examen of Equity always preceded. When the Justice of the War was known, the Senate consulted about the measures how they were to have it undertaken: But first of all they sent to the Usurper in all Formalities to redemand of him the things he had unjustly ravished, and they never went to extremities, till after they had tried all the ways of Gentleness, and Candour. A holy Institution this, if ever there was one, and which may shame Christians, in whom God-man that came into the World to pacify all things, hath not been able to inspire Charity and Peace. But what do signify the best Institutions, when at last they degenerate into pure Ceremonies? The charms of Conquering, and of absolute Commanding did soon corrupt in the Romans that right which natural Equity had given them. The deliberations of the Faeciales were only a useless Formality among them; and though they used towards their greatest Enemies acts of extraordinary moderation and clemency, yet ambition did not suffer Justice to prevail in their Councils.  
But their Injustices were so much the more dangerous, as they knew better how to cover them under the specious pretext of Equity, and as they insensibly brought Kings and Nations under their Yoke, under colour of protecting and defending them.  
Let us add also, that they were cruel to those who resisted them: Another quality pretty natural to Conquerors, who knows that fear makes more than half to Conquests. But is Dominion to be had at that rate, and to Command is that so pleasing to make Men purchase it by such inhuman actions? The Romans, to make every place afraid of them, affected to leave in their conquered Towns terrible Spectacles of Cruelty, and to appear unmerciful to those who would be forced, without so much as sparing Kings, 
Polyb. 10.15.  whom they inhumanely caused to be put to death, after they had carried them in Triumph loaden with Irons, and dragged by Chariots as Slaves.  
But if they were cruel and unjust for conquering, yet they governed the subdued Nati●ns with moderation. They endeavoured to make the subjected People sensible of their Government, and they believed that that was their best means to secure them their Conquests. The Senate kept short the Governors, and did Justice to the People. That Company was looked on as the Asylum of the oppressed; also the concussions and violences were not known among the Romans but in the last times of the Republic, and the retention of their Magistrates was the admiration of the World.  
It was not therefore of those brutal and avaricious Conquerors, who were only greedy of Pillage, or who established their Domination upon the ruin of vanquished Countries. The Romans made all those whom they took, better by causing Justice to flourish in them, Agriculture, Commerce, and even Arts and Sciences too, after they had once been made sensible of them.  
'Twas that which gave them the most flourishing, and the best established as well as the most extensive Empire that ever was. From Euphrates and Tanaus even to Hercules his Pillars, and the Atlantic Sea, all Lands and Seas obeyed them: From the middle, and as it were the Centre of the Mediterranean Sea, they had all the extent of that Sea, penetrating into both the length and breadth of all the Kingdoms round thereabouts, and keeping it between two to make the Communication of their Empire. It is enough still to astonish one when he considers that the Nations which at this day make such great and redoubted Kingdoms, all the Gauls, all Spain, Great Britain almost entirely, Illyricum even to the Danube, Germany to the Elbe, afric to its frightful and impenetrable Deserts, Greece, Thracia, Syria, Egypt, all the Kingdoms of Lesser Asia, and those which are shut up between the Euxine and the Caspian Sea, and the rest which possibly I may forget, or am not willing to mention, have been for many Ages but Roman Provinces. All the People of our World, even to the most Barbarous, have respected their Power, and the Romans established in them almost every where with their Empire their Laws and their Polity.  
'Tis a kind of a Prodigv, that in so vast an Empire, which reached over so many Nations and Kingdoms, the People should be so obedient, and that Revolts should be so seldom. The Roman Polity had taken care of it by divers ways, which it will not be amiss briefly to explain to your Highness.  
The Roman Colonies established on all sides in the Empire, wrought two admirable effects: the One was to discharge the City of a great number of Citizens, and the most part of them poor; the other, to keep the principal Posts, and by degrees to accustom strange People to the Roman Manners.  
Those Colonies which carried with them their Privileges, remained always attached to the Body of the Republic, and populated all the Roman Empire.  
But besides Colonies, a great many Cities obtained for their Citizens the privilege of Roman Citizens; and being by their Interest united to the commanding People, they kept the neighbouring Cities in their duty.  
It happened at last that all the Subjects of the Empires believed themselves Romans. The Honours of the Victorious People by little and little were communicated to the conquered People, the Senate was open to them, and they could aspire even to the Empire. Thus by the Roman Clemency, all the Nations were but as one single Nation, and Rome was looked on as the common Country.  
What Facility did not that marvellous union of all the People of the World, under one and the same Empire, bring to Navigation and Commerce. The Roman Society embraced all, and excepting some Frontiers now and then disturbed by their Neighbours, all the rest of the Universe enjoyed a most profound Peace. Neither Greece nor lesser Asia, nor Syria, nor Egypt, nor to conclude, scarce were any of the other Provinces ever without War, but under the Roman Empire, and it is easy to conceive that so pleasant a Commerce of the Nations held to keep throughout the whole Body of the Empire Concord and Obedience.  
The Legions divided for the Guard of the Frontiers, by defending those without, strengthened those that were within. 'Twas not the Custom of the Romans to have Citadels in their Holds, nor to fortify their frontiers, and I scarce find when that Care began, but in Valentinian the first's time. Before then the Strength and Security of the Empire was solely placed in the Troops, which they disposed in that manner, that they mutually assisted each other Now as it was ordered that they should be always encamped, the Cities were not incommoded by it; and the Discipline did not suffer any of the Soldiers to disperse themselves into the open Fields. By that means the Roman Armies neither troubled commerce nor tillage. Their Camps were to them in the nature of Cities, which differed little from others, but because they were there in continual Exercises, their Discipline more severe, and their Command more resolute. They were always ready for the least Motion, and it was sufficient to keep the People in their Duty, to show them only in the Vicinage that invincible Militia.  
But nothing so much maintained the Peace of the Empire, as the order of Justice. The ancient Republic had established it; the Emperors and the Sages had explained it upon the same Foundations: all the People, even the most Barbarous, looked on them with admiration; and by that principally the Romans were judged worthy to be the Masters of the World. Now if the Roman Laws have appeared so sacred, that their Majesty continues still, notwithstanding the ruin of the Empire; it was because their good Sense, which is the Mistress of humane Life, was seen every where in them, and there was no where seen a more delicate and fairer application of the Principles of natural Equity.  
But notwithstanding all that greatness of the Roman Name, notwithstanding her profound Polity, and all the fine Instititutions of that famous Republic, she yet carried in her own Breast the cause of her ruin, in the perpetual Jealousy of the People against the Senate, or rather of the Plebeians against the Patricii. Romulus had set up that distinction. It was necessary for Kings to have persons distinguished whom they should engage to their Person by particular Bonds, and by whom they should govern the rest of the People. 
Dion. Hal. 2.  Therefore did Romulus choose the Fathers, of whom he form the Body of the Senate. They called them so, by reason of their Dignity, and their Age. And from them afterwards sprung the Patrician Families. Now whatsoever Authority Romulus had reserved to the People, he had put the Plebeians in divers respects in a dependence on the Patricii; and that subordination necessary to Royalty had been preserved not only under Kings; but also in the Republic. It was always from the Patricii that the Senators were made. To the Patricii belonged the Employments, Commands, Dignities, and even that of the Priesthood and the Fathers, who had been the Authors of Liberty, did not quit their Prerogatives. But Jealousy was quickly put between those two orders. For I need not here speak of the Roman Knights, a third order as being in common between the Patricii and the simple People, who espoused sometimes one side and sometimes another. It was therefore between those two orders that Jealousy a●ose: It was provoked upon divers occasions, but the chief cause of all which kept it up, was their love of Liberty.  
The fundamental Maxim of the Republic, was to look upon Liberty as a thing inseparable from the Roman Name. A People bred up in that Mind; nay more, a People who thought themselves born for commanding other People, and whom Virgil for that reason so nobly calls a Kinglike People, would receive no Laws but from their own selves.  
The Authority of the Senate was judged necessary for the moderating of public Councils, which without that temperature would have been too tumultuous. But at the bottom it was the People's Province to give commands, to make Laws, to decide Peace and War. A People that enjoyed the most essential Rights of Royalty, in some manner were of the Temper of Kings. They were willing to receive grave advices, but they would not be forced by the Senate. Whatsoever seemed too imperious, every thing that was too highly advanced: in a word, whatsoever wounded or was likely to wound that Equality which a free State required, gave suspicion to so nice and delicate a People. The love of Liberty, that of Glory and Conquests, made such Spirits very difficult to be managed, and that daring audacity, which made them attempt all things abroad, could not fail to cause divisions at home among themselves.  
Thus Rome that was so Jealous of her Liberty, through that Love of Liberty which was the Foundation of her Government, saw divisions spread through all the orders, of which she was Composed. From thence arose those furious Jealousies between the Senate and People; between the Patricii and the Plebeians, the one alleging always that excess of Liberty would at last destroy itself; and the others fearing just the contrary, that Authority, which in its own nature was always for increasing, would at last degenerate into Tyranny.  
Between those two Extremities, a People otherwise so grave and wise could find ●o Medium. The private Interests which made both Parties proceed a great deal farther than they ought in whatever they began for the public good, suffered neither of them to be conducted by moderate Counsels. The Ambitions, and turbulent Spirits, were still stirring up Jealousies to make their own advantages by them; and those Jealousies sometimes more concealed, and otherwhile more declared, according to the times, but always strong and violent at the Root, was at last the cause of that great Change that happened in the time of Caesar, and the others that succeeded.  
IT will be very easy to show to your Highness all the causes of it, 
VII. The Successive Changes of Rome explained.  if after you have throughly understood the humour of the Romans, and the Constitution of their Republic, you take care to observe some certain principal accidents; which although they happened at several distant times, yet have a manifest chain of Connexion in them. I will give you a collected Series of them for your greater Ease.  
Romulus' bred up in War, and reputed the Son of Mars, built Rome, which he populated with an amassed Company of Shepherds, Slaves, Robbers, who came to seek for freedom and impunity in the Isle he had laid open for all Comers; and some also came that were better qualified, and more Civilised.  
He bred up that People wild in their Nature, to undertake all things by force, and by that means they got themselves Wives, whom they Married.  
By Degrees he established order, 
Dion. Hal. 2.  and restrained luxurious Minds by most sacred Laws, he began by Religion, which he looked on as the Foundation of all States. He made it as serious, as grave, and as modest as the Darknesses of Idolatry could then permit him. Strange Religions and Sacrifices, which were not established by the Roman Customs were forbidden. Afterwards that Law was dispensed; but the intention of. Romulus was, that it should be kept, and something of it was always retained.  
He chose out of all that number of People, the better sort, to form the public Council, which he called the Senate: He made it to consist of two hundred Senators, whose number was likewise afterwards augmented; and from them came the noble Families that were called the Patricii.  
The Senate was to examine and propose all matters; some of them it regulated Sovereignly with the King; but the most general were referred to the People, who decided them.  
Rom●lus, in an assembly which he had called of all the People upon the Plain, at the Marsh Capri, where upon a sudden there arose a great Tempest; was cut to pieces by the Senators, who judged him too imperious; and the desire of Independance began then to appear in that Order.  
To appease the People who loved their Prince, and to give a great Idea of the Founder of that City, the Senators proclaimed that the Gods had snatched him up to Heaven, and caused Altars to be erected to him.  
Numa Pompilius the second King, in a long and profound Peace, completed the formation of their Manners, and the regulating of Religion upon the same foundations which Romulus had laid.  
Tullus Hostilius by severe Rules Established the Military Discipline, and the orders of War, which his Successor An●us Martius accompanied with sacred Ceremonies, thereby to render the Militia Holy and Religious.  
After him Tarquin the Ancient, to make Creatures to himself, increased the number of the Senators to three Hundred, where they stuck fixed for some Ages, and began the great Works which were to conduce to the Public weal.  
Servius Tullius projected the setting up a Republic under the command of two annual Magistrates, which should be chosen by the People.  
In hatred to Tarquin the proud, the Royalty was abolished with horrible Execrations against all those who should go about to re-establish it, and Brutus made the People to swear to keep themselves eternally in their Liberty.  
The Memoires of Servius Tullius were followed in that Change. The Consuls chosen by the People among the Patricii, were equalled to Kings, excepting that they were two who had between them a regular turn of Commanding, and they changed every Year.  
Collatinus being named Consul, which Brutus, as having been with him the Author of their Liberty; tho' he was the Husband of Lucretia, whose Death had been the cause of the Change, and he being interessed more than all others to revenge the outrage which she received, because he was of the Royal Family, became suspected, and was expelled.  
Valerius substituted in his place, at his return from an Expedition, where he had delivered his Country from the Veientes and the Etrurians, was suspected by the People to affect Tyranny by reason of a House he had caused to be built on an Eminence. He not on●y ceased from Building, but he became wholly popular, altho' a Patrician, and made the Law which permitted Appeals to the People, and attributed in some Cases to them Judgement of the last Resort.  
By that new Law, the Consular Power was weakened in its Origine, and the People enlarged their Rights.  
By reason of the Violences executed for Debt by the Rich upon the Poor, the People that rise up against the Power of the Consuls and Senate, made that famous Retreat at the Mount Aventinus.  
There was nothing but Liberty spoke of in those Assemblies, and the People of Rome did not believe themselves to be free, 
Dion. Hal. 2.  if they had not lawful Ways of resisting the Senate. They were forced to allow them particular Magistrates called the Tribunes of the People, which might assemble them, and help them against the Authority of the Consuls, either by Opposition or Appeal.  
Those Magistrates, to keep up their own Authority, were continually buzzing of Jealousies, and creating Divisions between those two Orders, and always were flattering the People, by proposing that the Lands of the Conquered Countries, or the Price that would be the product of their Sale, should be divided among the Citizens.  
The Senate with great Zeal and Earnestness perpetually opposed those Laws that would be so ruinous to the State, and would have the Price of those Lands adjudged to be put into the public Treasury.  
The People suffered themselves to be conducted by their seditious Magistrates, and yet had notwithstanding so much Reason and Equity as to admire the Virtue of the great Men that resisted them.  
Against those domestic Dissensions, the Senate found no better Remedy than to be continually raising Occasions for foreign Wars. They prevented those Divisions from being pushed on to Extremity, and reunited those Orders in the Defence of their Country.  
Whilst Wars succeeded, and Conquests increased, Jealousies were still kept awake.  
The two Parties wearied by the many Divisions which threatened the Ruin of the State, agreed to the making of such Laws as might be for the quiet of them both, and to establish the Equality which ought to be in a free City.  
Each of the Orders pretended that the establishment of those Laws belonged to them.  
Jealousy increased by those Pretensions, made them to resolve by common Consent to send an Embassy into Greece to search  the Institutions of the Cities of that Country, and especially for the Laws of Solon, which were the most popular. The Laws of the twelve Tables were established, and the Decemviri, who digested them, were deprived of the Power which they abused.  
Whilst every thing appeared placid and tranquil, and that such equitable Laws seemed eternally to establish the public Repose, Dissensions started up again by new Pretensions of the People who aspired to Honours and to the Consulate which till then were reserved only to the first Order.  
The Law to admit them to them was propounded. Rather than to have the Consulate pulled down, the Fathers consented to the Creation of three new Magistrates, who should have the Authority of Consuls under the Name of Military Tribunes, and the People were admitted to that Honour.  
Being contented to have their Right established, they used moderately their Victory, and continued sometimes in giving the Command to the Patricii only.  
After long and various Disputes they returned to the Consulate, and by degrees the Honours became common between the two Orders, tho' the Patricii were always the most considered in the Elections.  
The Wars continued, and the Romans subjected after five hundred Years the Gauls Cisalpines, 
App. praef. Ep.  their principal Enemies, and all Italy.  
There began to Punic Wars; and things went on so forward, that each of those two jealous People believed they could not subsist but by the Ruin of the other.  
Rome, ready to fall, was chief kept up during her Misfortunes by the Constancy and Wisdom of the Senate.  
At last the Roman Patience got the better; Hannibal was overcome, and Carthage subjugated by Scipio Africanus.  
Victorious Rome enlarged herself prodigiously for two hundred Years both by Sea and by Land, and reduced all the World under her Power.  
In those times, and since the Ruin of Carthage, the Offices, whose Dignity as well as Profit, increased with the Empire, were underhand furiously laboured for. The Ambitious Pretenders took care only to flatter the People, and the concord of the Orders held up by the Business of the Punic Wars was troubled more than ever. The Gracchis put all things into Confusion, and their seditious Propositions were the beginning of all the Civil Wars.  
Then began they to bear Arms, and by open Force to act in the Assemblies of the Roman People, where before every one desired only to carry it by lawful Ways, and with Liberty of Opinions.  
The wise Conduct of the Senate, and the great Wars happening, moderated their Disorders.  
Marius the Plebeian, a great Man of War, with his military Eloquence, and his seditious Harangues, wherewith he was continually attacking the Pride of the Nobles, awakened the People's Jealousies, and by that means raised himself to the greatest Honours.  
Sylla a Patrician, put himself at the Head of the contrary Party, and became the Object of Marius his Jealousy.  
Factions and Corruptions could do all things in Rome. The Love of their Country, and deference to their Laws, were quite extinguished there.  
And to complete their Miseries, the Wars of Asia taught the Romans Luxury, and increased their Avarice.  
Then the Generals began to join themselves to their Soldiers, who till that time saw nothing but the Character of public Authority in them.  
Sylla, in the War against Mithridates, let his Soldiers enrich themselves the better to gain them.  
Marius, on his side, proposed to his Associates the Shares of both Money and Lands.  
By that means being Masters of their Troops, the one under pretence of supporting the Senate, and the other under the name of the People, they made a most furious War even in tne Heart of the City.  
The Party of Marius and of the People were utterly beaten, and Sylla made himself a Sovereign under the Name of Dictator.  
He made most dreadful Slaughters, and treated the People with Severity both in Deeds and Words, even in their lawful Assemblies.  
Being more Puissant and better established than ever, he retreated to a private Life, but it was after he had shown that the Romans could endure a Master.  
Pompey, whom Sylla had raised, succeeded to a great part of his Power. He flattered sometimes the People, and sometimes the Senate to get himself established: But his Inclination and Interest at length fixed him to the latter.  
Being a Conqueror of the Pirates of Spain and all the East, he became very puissant in the Republic, and in the Senate.  
Caesar, who was resolved at least to be his Equal, turned to the People's side, and imitating in his Consulate the most seditious Tribunes, he proposed with the Divisions of the Land, the most popular Laws he could invent.  
The Conquest of the Gauls brought the Glory and Power of Caesar to the highest Pitch.  
Pompey and he were united through Interest, and afterwards broke again through Jealousy. The Civil War began to kindle. Pompey thought that his Name alone would carry all, and so neglected himself. Caesar active and discerning obtained the Victory, and got the Mastery of him.  
He made several Attempts to see whether the Romans could be brought to use the name of King. But they only served to make him odious. To increase the public Hatred, the Senate decreed him Honours until then unheard of in ●o●e; so that he was slain in the full Senate as a Tyrant.  
Anthony his Creature, who was Co●sul at the time of his Death, stirred up the People against those who had killed him, and endeavoured to take his Advantage of those Commotions, to usurp the sovereign Authority. Lepidus who had also a great Command under Caesar, endeavoured to keep it. At last young Caesar, ●bout nineteen Years of age, undertook to revenge the Death of his Father, and so sought an Occasion to succeed to his Power.  
He knew how, for his own Interest, to make use of the Enemies of his House, and even of his Competitors.  
His Father's Troops went over to him being touched with the name of Caesar, and the prodigious Rewards which he promised them.  
The Senate signified nothing any longer: All things were done by Force, and Soldiers, who were at their Service that would give 'em most.  
In that fatal Conjuncture the Triumvirate destroyed all those whom Rome had bred up, that were of greatest Courage and most opposite to Tyranny. Caesar and Anthony defeated Brutus and Cassius: Liberty expired with them. The Conquerors, after they had got rid of feeble Lepidus, made divers Accords and divers Partages where Caesar, as being the more Cunning found always the way how to get the better part, and so put Rome into his Interests, and overtopped him. Anthony in vain undertook to relieve himself, and the Battle of Actium brought the whole Empire under the Power of Augustus Caesar.  
Rome being weary and exhausted by so many civil Wars, to get some Repose, was forced to renounce her Liberty.  
The House of the Caesars fixed the Command of the Armies under the name of Emperor, and exercised an absolute Power.  
Rome under the Caesars being more careful to preserve than to enlarge herself, hardly made any more Conquests than to drive away the Barbarians, who would fain have got into the Empire.  
At the Death of Caligula, the Senate then upon the point or re-establishing Liberty, and the Consular Power, were prevented by the Soldiers, who would have a perpetual Head, and that their Head should be the Master.  
In the Revolts occasioned by the Violences of Nero, every Army chose an Emperor, and the Soldiers knew that they were Masters to dispose of the Empire.  
They carried it so that they offered to sell it publicly to him that would give most for't, and they use to shake the Yoke. With Obedience the Discipline was lost. The good Princes endeavoured, but in vain, to preserve it, and their Zeal to maintain the ancient Order of the Roman Militia, served only to expose them to the Fury of the Soldiers.  
In the Changes of Emperors, every Army labouring to prefer their own, occasioned civil Wars, and horrid Massacres.  
Thus grew the Empire weak through the neglect of the Discipline, and was utterly destroyed by the many intestine Wars.  
In the midst of those manifold great Disorders, the Fear and the Majesty of the Roman Name waxed less and less. The Parthians often times overcome became formidable on the East side under the old Name of Persians, which they again assumed. The Northern Nations, who inhabited the cold and uncultivated Lands, drawn by the Beauty and Riches of that of the Empire, attempted always to make their Entry into it.  
One single Man was not sufficient any longer to sustain the weight of the Empire which was so vast, and withal so strongly attacked.  
The prodigious multitude of Wars, and the humour of the Soldiers, who were resolved to have Emperors and Caesars to conduct them, obliged 'em to multiply them.  
The Empire itself being looked on as an hereditary good, the Emperors were naturally multiplied through the multitude of their Prince's Children.  
Marcus Aurelius associated his Brother to the Empire. Severus made his two Sons Emperors. The necessity of Affairs obliged Dioclesian to share the East and the West between him and Maximian: Each of them being overcharged, relieved themselves by electing two Caesars.  
Through this multitude of Emperors and Caesars, the Estate was ruined through the excessive Expense, the Body of the Empire was disunited, and the civil Wars were multiplied.  
Constantine, the Son of the Emperor Constantius Chlorus, divided the Empire as an Heritage among his Children: Posterity followed those Examples, and there was scarce ever after seen one Empire.  
The Softness of Honorius, and that of Valentinian III. Emperors of the West, brought the Ruin of all.  
Italy and Rome itself were divers times sacked and became the Prey of the Barbarians.  
All the West was in Common. Asrick was possessed by the Vandals, Spain, by the Visigoths, Gauls, by the Franks, Great Britain by the Saxons, Rome and Italy too, by the Heruli, and afterwards by the Ostrogoths. The Roman Emperors shut themselves up in the East, and left the rest, even Rome and Italy.  
The Empire resumes some Strength under Justinian by the Valour of Belisarius and Narsus. Rome often taken and retaken, fell at last to the Emperors. The Saracens, become powerful by thee division of their Neighbours, and by the carelessness of the Emperors, took from them the greatest part of the East, and so tormented them on that side, that they no longer took care of Italy. The Lombard's there possessed themselves of the richest and most beautiful Provinces. Rome reduced to Extremity by their continual attacks, and having no defence from their Emperors, were forced to throw themselves into the hands of the French. Pepin, King of France, passes the Mountains, and subdues the Lombard's. Charlemagne, after he had brought the Government under, caused himself to be Crowned King, where his alone Moderation preserved some small Remains to the Successors of the Caesars: and in the Year eight Hundred of our Lord, being chose Emperor by the Romans, he found'st the new Empire.  
'Tis easy for you now to know the causes of the Rise and fall of Rome.  
You see that that Kingdom founded upon War, and thereby naturally disposed to trespass upon her Neighbours, hath put all the World under her Yoke, to carry Politic and the Military Art up to the highest Degree●.  
You see the causes of the divisions of the Republic, and finally of its fall through the Jealousies of the Citizens, and through the love of Liberty pushed on even to an insupportable excess and nicety.  
It is likewise as easy for you to distinguish all the times of Rome, whether you please to consider her in herself, or whether you look upon her in relation to other People; you see the Changes which were to follow the disposition of affairs in each time.  
In herself you see her at the beginning in a Monarchical State, established according to her primitive Laws, afterwards in Liberty, and at last subjected once again to the Monarchic Government, but by force and violence.  
'Tis easy for you to conceive after what manner the popular Estate was form, from the beginnings it had in the times of Royalty, and with as plain an Evidence will you see how in the time of Liberty the foundations of the new Monarchy, were by small footsteps raised and Established.  
For in the like manner, as you have seen the Project of a Republic laid in the Monarchy, by Servius Tullius, who gave as it were the first relish of liberty to the People of Rome, so have you also observed, that Sylla's Tyranny, though it was but very transitory, and short, discovered that Rome, notwithwithstanding her fierceness, was as much capable of bearing the Yoke, as those People whom she kept under Servitude.  
To know what operation that furious Jealousy between the Orders successively had, you need only to distinguish the two times, which I have expressly marked out to you: The one, when the People were retained within certain bounds, by the dangers they were in on very side; and the other when having nothing more to fear from without, they absolutely, without, any reserve, gave themselves up to their Passions.  
The essential Character of each of those two times, is, that in the one the love of their Country, and of their Laws, swayed their Minds; and that in the other, all was decided by interest and force.  
From thence it happened also, that at the first of those two times the Men of Command who aspired after honours by lawful ways, kept the Soldiers in, and fast to the Republic: Whereas in the other time, when violence ruled all, they only thought how to manage them to get them into their Designs, in spite of the Authority of the Senate.  
By that last Government, War of necessity was brought into Rome: and because in War, when Laws can signify little, force only makes the Decision, it follows then, that the strongest must be the Master, and by Consequence that the Empire must return into the Power of one single Magistrate.  
And every thing so disposed itself for it of their own accord, that Polybius, who lived in the most flourishing time of the Republic, foresaw by the disposition only of affairs, 
Polyb. 7. & seq. 41. & seq.  that the Estate of Rome would at length return into Monarchy.  
The reason of that change was because the Division between the Orders could not be quelled by the Romans, but by the Authority of an absolute Master, and on the other hand liberty was a thing too much doted on ever voluntarily to be abandoned. It was necessary therefore by little and little to weaken it upon specious Pretexts, and so by that means make it capable of being ruined by open force.  
Craft and Delusion, as Aristotle has observed, must begin by flattering the People, and must naturally be followed by Violence.  
But from thence they must fall into another Inconvenience by the Power of the Soldiers, a Mischief inevitable to that State.  
In fine, that Monarchy which the Caesars form, being raised by Arms, it was necessary it should be all Military; and therefore it was established under the name of Emperor, a proper Title, and natural for commanding of Armies.  
Hereby you may see, that as the Republic had its inevitable weak side, that is to say, Jealousy between the People and the Senate: So likewise had the Monarchy of the Caesars its Foible; and that was the Licentiousness of the Soldiers, who had made them.  
For it was impossible that the Soldiers who had changed the Government, and set up Emperors, should be long before they perceived that it was effectually they who disposed of the Empire.  
You may now add to the times that you have already observed, those which point out to you the State and Change of the Militia: That when it was subjected and fixed to the Senate, and People of Rome; that when it was only fixed to the Generals; that when it was raised to the absolute Power under the Military Title of Emperors; that, when being in a manner the Mistress of her own Emperors, which she created, she made them and unmade them as she had a Mind. And from thence happened the outrageous Seditions, the Disorders, and the Wars which you have seen; from thence in a word, came the ruin of the Militia, with that of the Empire.  
Such were the remarkable times, which the changes of the State of Rome considered in herself, observed to us. Those which discover it to us in reference to other People, are as easily discernible.  
There was a time when she fought against her Equals, and when she was in danger. It lasted a little above five Hundred Years, and ended with the ruin of the Gauls in Italy, and of the Empire of the Carthaginians.  
That when she fought, was always more strong, and without danger, how great soever the Wars were that she undertook. It lasted two Hundred Years, and came down as far as the Establishment of the Empire of the Caesars.  
That when she kept up her Empire and Majesty. It lasted four Hundred Years, and ended in the Reign of Theodosius the Great.  
And in a word that when the Empire being wounded on all Parts, fell away by little and little. That Estate which lasted also three Hundred Years, began in the Children of the Theodosius, and ended at last in Charlemagne.  
I am not ignorant that your Highness might add to the causes of the ruin of Rome, many particular Accidents. The Severities of the Creditors towards their Debtors, stirred up very great and frequent Revolts. The prodigious number of Gladiators and Slaves, wherewith Rome and Italy were overcharged, caused many horrible Violences, and also Bloody Wars. Rome being quite spent with so many Civil, and strange Wars, made so many new Citizens, either out of Faction, or in Justice, that she could scarce know herself amidst that vast number of Strangers, which she had naturallized. The Senate was filled with Barbarians. The Roman Blood was mingled: the love of their Country, by which Rome was raised above all the People in the World, was not natural to those Citizens that came from abroad, and the rest were spoiled by the Mixture. Patialities were multiplied with that prodigious Multiplicity of new Citizens, and the turbulent Spirits there found out new ways to embroil and ruin her.  
In the mean while the number of the Poor increased without end, through the Luxury, Debauches, and Idleness that was encouraged. Those who saw themselves ruined, had no refuge but in Seditions, and in every case, they were little concerned that all should be destroyed with them. You know what caused Cataline's Conspiracy. The Grandees who are ambitious, and the miserable, who had nothing to lose, always took delight in Change. Those two sorts of Citizens prevailed in Rome; and the Coparcened State, which alone holds all in Balance in popular Estates, being the weakest, the Republic must of necessity fall.  
To that also may be added the particular Humour and Genius of those who were the cause of those great Commotions: I mean the Gracchis, Marius, Sylla, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Anthony, and Augustus. I have observed something of them, but I applied myself chief to dicover to you the universal causes and the true root of the Evil, that is to say, that Jealousy between the two Orders, of which it was very requisite you should consider all the consequences.  
But your Highness may please to remember that that long Chain of particular Causes which make and unmake Empires, depend upon the secret Orders and Decrees of the Divine Providence. God that sitteth in the highest Heavens holds the Reins of all the Kingdoms. He hath all Hearts in his Hands; sometimes, he restrains the Passions; sometimes again he lets them lose at full rage, and by that he stirs up all Mankind. Is he pleased to make Conquerors? He causes a Dread to march before them, and at the same time inspires them and their Soldiers with an invincible Boldness. Is he pleased to make Legislators? He sends them his Spirit of Wisdom and Foresight, he causes them to prevent the Evils which threaten the States, and to lay the Foundations of public Tranquillity. He knows that humane Wisdom is always short in some place; he enlightens it, he opens the Eyes of the Understanding, and afterwards he abandons them to their own Ignorances', he blinds the Judgement, he precipitates it, and confounds it with itself: Humane Wisdom is perplexed and embarassed in its own Subtleties; and it's own Precautions are as so many Snares to it. God by this means exercises his fearful Judgements, according to the Rules of his Justice which are always infallible. 'Tis he that prepares Effects in the most distant Causes, and who strikes those fatal Blows of which the counter-blows reaches so far. When he is pleased to let go the latter, and to overturn Empires, every thing is weak and irregular in their Councils. Egypt, formerly so wise, goes staggering, reeling, and as it were besotted, because the Lord hath shed the Spirit of Dizziness and Confusion in all her Councils: She no longer knows what she does, she is lost to herself. But that Men may not herein be deceived, God repaireth when he seethe good, the straggling Senses, and he that insulted over the Blindness of others, falls himself into more Egyptian Darkness, and often times without any thing else to confound his Sense and Understanding, than his too long Prosperities.  
Thus it is that God Reigneth over all People. Let us no longer talk of Chance or Fortune, or speak of it only as a Name wherewith we conceal our Ignorance. That which is Chance in respect of our uncertain Councils, is a concerted Design in a higher Council, that is to say, in that eternal Council, which circumscribes all Causes and all Effects in one and the same Order. Thus all concurs to the same end, and it is for want of understanding the all that we find of Chance or of Irregularity in particular Accidents and Emergencies.  
By that is verified the Saying of the Apostle, 
1 Tim. 6.15.  that God is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Blessed, whose Repose is unalterable, who seethe every thing to change without changing himself, and who makes all Changes by an Immutable Council; who gives and who takes away Power, who transfers it from one Man to another, from one House to another, from one People to another, to show that they have it only by way of Loan, and that it is he alone in whom it naturally resides.  
Wherefore all Governors find themselves the Subjects of a greater Power. They a●t more or less than they think for, and their Councils have ever more had unforeseen Effects.  
They neither are Masters of the Dispositions which Ages past have made in their Affairs, nor can they foresee what Co●rse the times to come will take, so far are they from being able to force it. He alone holds all things in his Hands, who knows the Name of that which is, and that which is not yet, who presides at all times, and anticipates all Councils.  
Alexander little thought he laboured for his Captains, nor that he ruined his House when he gained his Conquest. When Brutus animated the Romans with such an excessive Love of Liberty, he as little thought he was casting into their Minds the Principle of that unbridled and masterless Licence, by which the Tyranny he designed to destroy, was one day to be reestablished with greater Severity than under the Tarquins. When the Caesars flattered the Soldiers, they had no designs of giving Masters to their Successors and to the Empire. In a word, there is no humane Power but what, do what it can, serves for other Designs than it aims at at present. God alone knows how to bring about all things according to his own Will. Wherefore every thing is surprising if we only look to particular Causes, and yet nevertheless every thing goes on in an orderly manner. This Discourse makes you see it clearly, and not to speak of other Empires, you see by how many unforeseen Councils, but yet always connected in themselves, the Fortune of Rome hath been carried on from Romulus down to Charlemagne.  
Your Highness might perhaps have thought I should have told you somewhat more of your own Country, and of Charlemagne, who was the Founder of the new Empire. But besides that his History makes a part of that of France, which you yourself have wrote, and which you have already so far proceeded in, I reserve to make you another Discourse of that, wherein I shall be necessarily obliged to speak to you of France, and of that great Conqueror, who being equal in Valour to those which Antiquity hath the most boasted of, doth yet exceed them in Piety, in Wisdom, and Justice.  
That some Discourse shall discover to you the Causes of the prodigious Successes of Mahomet and this Successors. That Empire which began two hundred Years before Charlemagne, may find its place in that Discourse; but I though it would be much better to show you in one continued Series its beginning and its declension.  
So that I have no more to tell you in this first Part of my Universal History. You will discover all the Secrets of it, and you will have nothing to do but to observe in it all the Progress of Religion, and that of the great Empires down to Charlemagne.  
Whilst you will see almost all fall of themselves, and Religion only support itself by its own Strength, you will easily then discern what is solid Grandeur, and where a wise and considerate Man is to place all his Hopes.    


A TABLE TO THE FIRST PART OF THIS DISCOURSE.  
I. EPocha. Adam, or the Creation. First Age of the World. Pag. 1.  
II. Epocha. Noah, or the Deluge. Second Age of the World. Pag. 4.  
III. Epocha. The Call of Abraham. Third Age of the World. Pag. 7.  
iv Epocha. Moses, or the written Law. Pag. 11.  
V Epocha. The taking of Troy. Fourth Age of the World. Pag. 15.  
VI Epocha. Solomon, or the Temple finished. Fifth Age of the World. Pag. 17.  
VII. Epocha. Romulus, or Rome founded. Pag. 25.  
VIII. Epocha. Cyrus, or the Jews reestablished. Sixth Age of the World. Pag. 43.  
IX. Epocha. Scipio, or Carthage Conquered. Pag. 71.  
X. Epocha. The Birth of Jesus Christ. Seventh and last Age of the World. Pag. 89.  
XI. Epocha. Constantine, or the Peace of the Church. Pag. 110.  
XII. Epocha. Charlemagne, or the re-establishment of the new Empire. Pag. 149.   

A Table to the Second Part.  
THE Course of Religion. Pag. 155.  
I. The Creation, and the first Times. ibid.  
II. Abraham, and the Patriarches. Pag. 178.  
III. Moses, the Law written, and the bringing of the People into the promised Land. Pag. 189.  
iv David, the Kings and the Prophets. Pag. 209.  
V The times of the second Temple. Pag. 247.  
VI Jesus Christ, and his Doctrine. Pag. 267.  
VII. The Descent of the Holy Ghost; the Establishment of the Church, the Judgements of God both on the Jews and on the Gentiles. Pag. 298.  
VIII. Particular Reflections upon the Punishment of the Jews, and upon the Predictions of Jesus Christ, who had taken Notice of it. Pag. 316.  
IX. Two memorable Predictions of our blessed Saviour are explained, and their Accomplishment justified by History. Pag. 330.  
X. The Progress of the Jewish Errors, and the manner how they explain the Prophecies. Pag. 345.  
XI. Particular Reflections on the Conversion of the Gentiles. The profound Councils of God, which resolved to convert them by the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Arguing of St. Paul upon this manner of their Conversion. Pag. 366.  
XII. Divers ways of Idolatry. Sense, Interest, Ignorance, a false respect of Antiquity, Policy, Philosophy, and Heresies, came to its Succour, but the Church triumphs over all. Pag. 376.  
XIII. General Reflection on the Progress of Religion, and the Relation there is between the Books of the Scriptures. Pag. 401.   

A Table to the Third Part.  
THE Empires. Pag. 437.  
I. That the Revolutions of Empires are regulated by Providence, and serve to humble Princes. Ibid.  
II. The Revolutions of Empires have particular Causes which Princes ought to study. Pag. 445.  
III. The Scythians, the Ethiopians, and the Egyptians. Pag. 447.  
iv The Assyrians both ancient and new, the Medes, and Cyrus. Pag. 475.  
V The Persians, the Grecians, and Alexander. Pag. 48●.  
VI The Roman Empire. Pag. 505.  
VII. The Successive Changes of Rome Explained. Pag. 543.   
FINIS.