of his People hath also caused them to foretel the Succession of the Empires You have seen the places where Nebuchadnezzar hath been pointed out as he that was to come and punish the proud People and particularly the Jews so ungrateful against their Author You have heard Cyrus named two hundred Years before he was bâ—â—n as he that was to set up again the People of God and to punish the Pride of Babylon The Ruine of Nineveh was as clearly foretold Daniel in his admirable Visions hath caused to go before your Eyes in a moment the Empire of Babylon that of the Medes and Persians that of Alexander and the Grecians The Blasphemies and the Cruelties of Antiochus the Illustrious were there foretold as well as the miraculous Victories of the People of God over so violent a Persecutor We see there those famous Empires to fall one after another and the new Empire which Jesus Christ was to set up is there so expresly described by its proper Characters that there is no way to mistake it 'T is the Empire of the Saints of the most high the Empire of the Son of Man an Empire which was to subsist in the midst of the Ruine of all the rest and to which alone Eternity is promised The Judgments of God upon the greatest of all the Empires of this World that is to lay upon the Roman Empire have not been kept hid from us You have just now had it from the mouth of St. John Rome her self hath felt the Hand of God and hath been like others an Example of his Justice But its fate was happier yet than that of others for being purged by her Punishments from the remaining dreggs of Idolatry she now no longer subsists but by that Christianity which she declares to all the World Thus have all the great Empires which we have seen upon the Earth concured by several ways and means to the weal of Religion and the glory of God as God himself hath declared it by his Prophets When you read so often in their Writings that Kings in troops shall enter into the Church and be the Protectors and Nursing Fathers of it those words presently put into your mind the Emperours and other Christian Princes and as the Kings your Ancestors have more than any other signalized themselves in protecting and enlarging the Church of God I shall not be afraid to assure you that it is they who of all the Kings are most clearly foretold in those eminently remarkable Prophecies God therefore who was resolved to make use of divers Empires either to chastise or exercise or to enlarge or protect his People willing to make himself known for the Author of so admirable a Councel revealed the Secret of it to his Prophets and hath caused them to foretel what he had resolved to execute Wherefore as the Empires began the order of Gods Decrees on the People whom he had chosen so the fortune of those Empires were found declared by the same Oracles of the Holy Ghost which foretold the Succession of the faithful People The more you accustome your self to follow great things and to recal them to their Principles the more will you stand in admiration of those Councels of Providence It behoves you to take the Ideas of them betimes which will clear up every day more and more in your Minds and you will be the better able to refer humane things to the order of that eternal Wisdom on which they depend God doth not every day declare his Will by his Prophets concerning Kings and Monarchies that he sets up or destroys But having done it so often as to those Empires whereof we have been speaking he shews us by those famous Examples what he does in all others and he teaches Kings these two fundamental Truths First That it is he who forms Kingdoms to give them to whom he pleaseth And Secondly That he knoweth how to make them serve in the time and order which he hath decreed to the Designs he hath on his People This may it please your Highness ought to keep all Princes in an intire Dependance and to make them always careful of the Orders of God that so they may lend their Hand to what he purposes for his own Glory upon all Occasions that he offers them But this Succession of Empires if we will consider it more humanly hath very great Advantages especially for Princes seeing that Arrogance the ordinary Companion of so exalted a Condition is so very much quelled by such a Spectacle For if Men learn to moderate themselves by seeing Kings die how much more will they be struck by seeing Kingdoms themselves to perish and from whence can they receive a more plain Lesson of the Vanity of humane Greatness Thus when you behold as in an instant before your Eyes the Death and Downfal I do not say of Kings and Emperors but of those mighty Empires that have made the whole Universe to tremble when you behold both the antient and the new Assyrians the Medes the Persians the Grecians and the Romans all before you successively and all to fall as I may say one upon another this dreadfull Destruction presently makes you sensible that there is nothing solid among Men and that Inconstancy and Agitation is the proper Partage and Portion of humane things BUT that which will render to your Highness this Spectacle both more advantagious a more agreeable II. The Revolutions of Empires have particular Causes which Princes ought to study will be the Reflection you shall make not only on the Rise and Fall of Empires but also on the Causes of their Progress and on those of their Ruine For Sir that same God who hath made the Chain of the Universe and who as he is Almighty by himself hath resolved for the establishing of Order that the Parts of so great an All should depend one upon another that same God hath also decreed that the course of humane things should have its Issues and its Proportions I mean that Men and Nations have had Qualities commensurate to the Advancements to which they have been designed and that expecting some certain extraordinary Strokes wherein God hath been willing to manifest his own Hand in particular there are no very great Changes happen but what may deduce their Causes from precedent Ages And as in all Affairs there is that which prepares them that which determines to undertake them and lastly that which makes them have Success So the true Science of History is to observe in every time those secret Dispositions which have prepared and made way for great Changes and the important Conjunctures which have brought them to pass Indeed it is not sufficient to look only just before one that is to say to consider those great Events which all on a sudden do decide the fortune of Empires He that would reach to the Bottom of humane things ought to take them at their first Head and Spring and he must observe
mighty puissant Kings as all the East stood in awe of and it was Cyrus that crushed the Empire by his taking of Babylon If therefore the generality of the Greeks and Latins that have followed them make no mention of those Babylonian Kings if they have given no place to that great Kingdom among the first Monarchies whose continuance and after-accidents they relate in a word if we can scarce find any thing in all their works of those famous Kings Tiglath-Pilesar Salmanasar Sennacherib Nebuchadnezzar and several others so renown'd in Scripture and in the Eastern Histories we may then surely attribute it either to the Ignorance of the Greeks who were more Eloquent in their Reports than studious and industrious in their Searches or else to the loss we have had of what was more exact and faithful in their Histories Indeed Herodotus had promised a particular History of the Assyrians Herod l. 1. c. 28 47. which we have not either by our sad misfortune of its being lost or of his not having had time to do it and we cannot imagine that ever so judicious and Historian would have forgotten the Kings Herod l. 2. c. 91. of the second Empire of the Assyrians especially since even Sennacherib who was one of them we find mentioned in the Books that we now have of this great Author as being King both of the Assyrians and Arabians tSrabo liâ— 15. Strabo who lived in the time of Augustus reports what Megastenes an Ancient Author near the time of Alexander had left in Writing concerning the mighty Conquests of Nebuchadnezzar King of the Chaldees whom he makes to run through Europe enter into Spain and extend his Arms as far as the Colonies of Hercules Aelian calls Tilgamus King of Assyria Aelian liâ— 12. Hist Anim. c. 21. that is to say Tilgath or Tiglath which we find in the Holy Scriptures and in Ptolomy we meet with an Enumeration of the Princes of great Empires among whom there is a long succession of the Kings of Assyria who were unknown to the Greeks and whom it is easie to reconcile to the Sacred Hystory If I would bring in the Accounts of the Syrian Annals Berosus Abydenus Nicolas of Damascus Joseph Antiq l. 9. ult 10. c. 11. l. 1. cont Ap. Euseb Prap. Ev. 9. I could be too tedious even for a long-winded Reader Josephus and Eusebius of Caesarea have preserved the pretious fragments of all those Authors and indeed of an infinite many more which they had entire and perfect in those times whose Testimony is a confirmation to us of what we read in the Holy Scripture concerning the Eastern Antiquities and especially concerning the Assyrian Histories As to the Monarchy of the Medes which has the second Preference among the great Empires by most of the prophane Historians as separated from the Empire of Persia certain it is that the Scripture ever unites them both together And your Highness sees that besides the Authority of the sacred pages the bare order of Matters of Fact shews us that it is that we are still to look at The Medes before Cyrus though they were very powerful and considerable yet were much lessened by the greatness of the Kings of Babylon But Cyrus having Conquered their Kingdom by the collected Forces both of Medes and Persians of which he afterwards became the Master by a Legitimate Succession as we have observed from Zenophon it seems most probable that the great Empire of which he was the Founder as it ought indeed did take his Name to both Nations so that That of the Medes and Persians are but one and the same thing tho' the glory of Cyrus made the name of the Persians to be the more prevailing It may be also thought that before the VVar of Babylon the Kings of the Medes having extended their Conquests to the Greek Colonies in lesser Asia were by that means famous among the Greeks who attributed the Empire of greater Asia to them because they were only acquainted with them of all the Kings of the East And yet the Kings of Nineveh and Babylon who were greater and more puissant but more unknown to the Greeks have been near quite forgotten in those Bâ—oks that are remaining to us concerning the Grecian Histories and all the time from Sardanapalus down to Cyrus have been only given to the Medes And therefore we need not to trouble our heads so much in reconciling as to this point the prophane to the sacred History For as to what respects the first Kingdom of the Assyrians the Scripture gives us but a very slight touch by the Bye and neither mentions Ninus who was the Founder of that Empire nor excepting Phul any other of its Successors because their History was no way interfering with that of the People of God As for the second Kingdom of the Assyrians most of the Greeks are either quite ignorant of them or else because they have not throughly known them as they ought they have confounded them with the former VVhen therefore those of the Greek Authors sâ—all be objected to us who according to their own Caprice and Fancy range the three first Monarchies and make the Medes Successors to the antient Empire of Assyria without speaking a word concerning what the Scripture seems to be so strong in there is only this answer to be made that they were unacquainted with this part of the History and they are no less contrary to the more curious and best informed Authors of their own Nation than they are to the Holy Scriptures And that which in one word answers all the difficulty the sacred Authors who are nearer to the times and places of the Eastern Kingdoms writing moreover the History of a People whose affairs were so intermixed with those of these great Empires though they had no other advantage besides this it were enough to put the Greeks and Latins to Silence who followed them But if notwithstanding the obstinacy should go on still to maintain this celebrated order of the three first Monarchies and that to keep entirely to the Medes the second rank which is ascribed to them any are wilfully resolved to make the Kings of Babylon subject to them in affirming still that after an hundred Years Subjection these at last should deliver themselves by a Revolt yet in some manner it doth save the Câ—ntinuance of the sacred History but it doth very little agree with the best prophane Historians to whom the sacred History is more favourable in that it ever unites the Empire of the Medes to that of the Persians There is yet remaining to be discovered one of the Causes of the obscurity and darkness of these antient Histories And it is this that as the Eastern Kings took up several names or if you please several titles which in some length of time they espoused as their own Name and which the People either translated or pronounced variously according to the several particular Idioms of each
fighting with an astonishing Courage His Brother Jonathan succeeded to his Charge and supported his Reputation Being reduced to extremity his Courage left him not The Romans overjoyed in their humbling of the Kings of Syria granted to the Jews their Protection and the Alliance which Judas had sent to demand of him was granted but yet it was without any Sâ—ccour But the Glory of the Roman Name was however a considerable Support to the afflicted People The Troubles of Syria daiâ—y grew greater and greater Alexander Balasus who boasted himself to be the Son Years be ∣ fore J. C. 154 of the Illustrious Antiochus was set upon Years of Rome 600 the Throne by Antiochus his Party The Kings of Aegypt who were the perpetual Enemies of Sâ—ria interessed themselves in those Divisions to make their own Advantages Years be ∣ fore J. C. 150 by them Ptolomee Philometor upheld Years of Rome 604 Balasus The War was bloody Demetrius Soter was slain in it and to revenge his Death left none but two young Princes a great deal under his Age Demetrius Nicator and Antiochus Sidetes So that the Usurper continued in peace and the King of Aegypt gave him his Daughter Cleopotra in Marriage Balasus who thought himself above all things plunged himself into Debaucheries and brought thereby upon himself the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 150 slight and scorn all his Subjects About Years of Rome 604 this time Philâ—mâ—tor judged that famous Cause which the Samaritans had with the Jews 2. Maccab. vi 2. Jos Ant. xii 7. Those Schismaticks who were ever opposite to God's peculiar People did not fail to joyn with their Enemies and to Years be ∣ fore J. C. 167 please the Illustrious Antiochus their Persecutor Years of Rome 597 they had consecrated their Temple of Gerazim to Jupiter Hospitalis Notwithstanding this Profanation these wicked Wretches desisted not from maintaining sometime after at Alexandria before Ptolomeus Philometer that That Temple ought to be preferred to that of Jerusalem The Parties disputed in the Presence of the King and both of them to the hazard of their Lives engaged to justifie their Pretensions by the Terms of the Law of Moses The Jews gain'd their Cause Josph Ant. lib. 13. c. 6. Ibid. and the Samaritans were punished with Death according to their Covenant The same King permitted Onias of the Sacerdotal Race to build in Aegypt the Temple of Heliopolis after the Model of that of Jerusalem An Enterprise condemned by all the Jewish Council and adjudged contrary to the Law In the mean while Carthage began to stir again being very uneasie in bearing with the Laws which Scipio Africanus had imposed upon her The Romans resolved on no less than her total Overthrow and therefore to that end was the third Punick War undertaken Years be ∣ fore J. C. 148 The young Demetrius Nicator now having Years of Rome 606 past over his Minority was contriving how to re-establish himself upon the Throne of his Ancestors the Softness and Effeminacy of the Usurper made him to hope every Years be ∣ fore J. C. 146 thing At his approach Balasus was troubled Years of Rome 608 his Father-in-Law Philometor declared against him because Balasus would not let him take his Kingdom The Ambitious Cleopatra his Queen left him to marry his Enemy and he was slain at last by the hand of one of his own Creatures after the loss of a Battle Philometer dyed a few days after the Wounds he received in it and Syria was delivered of two Enemies At the same time were two great Cities seen to fall Carthage was taken and reduced to Ashes by Scipio Aemylianus who by that Victory confirmed the Name of Africanus to his Posterity and shewed himself the worthy Inheritor of the Great Scipio his Grandfather Corinth had the same Destiny and the Republique of Achaia was destroyed with it The Consul Mummius did utterly ruine that City the most voluptuous and the most beautiful of all Greece He transported to Rome their incomparable Statues without ever knowing the Value of them The Romans being ignorant of the Arts of Greece contented tnemselves with the knowledge of War Politie and Agriculture During the Troubles of Syria the Jews fortifyed themselves Jonathan saw himself sought after by both Parties and Victorious Nicator treated him as a Brother He was quickly requited for Years be ∣ fore J. C. 144 it In a Sedition The Jews all in a Body Years of Rome 610 took him by force from the Hands of the Rebels Jonathan was overwhelmed with Honours but when the King thought himself most secure he took up also the Designs of his Ancestors and the Jews were as bad tormented as before The Troubles of Syria began again Diodotus sirnamed Tryphon raised up a Son Balasus whom he called Antiochus the God and made himself his Tut r during his Infancy The Years be ∣ fore J. C. 143 Pride of Demetrius flushed the People all Years of Rome 611 Syria was as it were on fire Jonathan knew how to take Advantage of this Conjuncture and renewed the Alliance with the Romans Every thing was prosperous to him when Tryphon by a breach of Promise caused him to be slain with his Children His Brother Simon the most prudent and happy of the Macâ—abees succeeded him and the Romans favoured him as they did his Predecessors Typhon was not less unfaithful to his Pupil Antiâ—chus than he had been to Jonathan He caused that Child to be made away by the meanes of the Physicians under pretence of having him to be cut of the Stone which he had nothing of and so made himself Master of one part of the Kingdom Simon joyned himself with Demetrius Nicator the Legitimate King and after he had obtained of him the Freedom of his Country he maintained and kept it by Arms against the Rebel Tryphon Years of Rome 612 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 142 The Syrians were driven out of the Cittadel which they kept in Jerusalem and a while after out of all the places of Judea Thus the Jews being freed from the Yoke of the Gentiles by the Valour of Simon they yielded the Kingly Rights to him and to his Family Demetrius and Nicator consented to that new Establishment There began the new Kingdom of God's People and the Principality of the Asmonians ever joyned to the Soveraign Priesthood About this time the Parthian Empire extended it self over the Bactrians and Indians by the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 141 Victories of Mithridates the valiantest of all Years of Rome 613 the Arsacidae Whilst He was advancing towards Euphrates Demetrus Nicator called by the People of that Country which Mithridates had newly brought into Subjection was in hopes of reducing the Parthians to Obedience whom the Syrians had always treated as Rebels He was happy in several Victories and near to retun into Syria to give Tryphon his absolute Overthrow there but unluckily sell into a Snare which one of Mithridâ—tes his Generals had laid
were caused sometimes by the express orders of the Emperors and by the particular hatred of the Magistrates sometimes by the Insurrections of the People and sometimes the Decrees authentically pronounced in the Senate upon the Rescripts of Princes or in their Presence Then the Persecution was most universal and bloody and so the hatred of the Infidels still resolute to destroy the Church still grew on from time to time to new furies and outrages And it was by these Renewals of their violences and cruelties that the Ecclesiastical Writers counted the ten Persecutions under the ten Emperors Yet under such long and tedious Sufferings did not the Christians ever make the least Sedition Among all the faithful the Bishops still had the most vigorous assaults Among all the Churches the Church of Rome was persecuted with the most of violence and Thirty Popes confirmed by their blood the Gospel which they taught to all the Earth Domitian is killed The Empire begins to respire and breath again under Nerva His great age did not permit Years of J. C. 96 him to re-settle and establish affairs but yet as much as in him lay to lengthen out and continue the Repose of the Public he elected Trajan for his Successor The Empire Years of J. C. 97 at quiet within and triumphing without did Years of J. C. 98 not fail to admire so good a Prince for this he held for a constant Maxim that he ought so to let his Citizens find him as he would have been willing to have found the Emperor if he had been a simple Citizen This Years of J. C. 102 Prince subdued the Dacii and Decebalus their Years of J. C. 106 King extended his Conquests into the East Years of J. C. 115 gave to the Parthians a King and made Years of J. C. 116 them stand in awful fear of the insuperable power of Rome Oh happy Man whom Drunkenness and his infamous Loves such deplorable vices in so great a Prince never Years of J. C. 117 made to attempt any thing against Justice To these advantageous times for the Common-weal succeeded those of Adrian equally compounded of good and bad This Prince kept up the Military Discipline lived himself a military Life and with abundance of frugality supported the Provinces made the Arts to flourish and Greece which was Years of J. C. 120 the Mother of them The Barbarians were Years of J. C. 123 kept in awe by his arms and his Authority Years of J. C. 127 He rebuilt Jerusalem to which he gave his Years of J. C. 126 Name and from thence it is that the Name Years of J. C. 130 of Aelia happened to it but he banished the Jews out of it who were always rebellious to the Empire and those being obstinate found him an unrelenting Avenger By his Years of J. C. 135 Cruelties and Monstrous Loves he dishonoured a Reign which otherwise would have been very glorious and his infamous Antinous Years of J. C. 131 of whom he made a God was a most reproachful blot to his whole Life The Emperor seemed to repair his defects and to re-establish that glory and renown which he had so much defaced by adopting Antoninus Years of J. C. 138 the Pious who adopted Marcus Aurelius Years of J. C. 136 the Sage and the Philosopher In these two Years of J. C. 161 Princes appeared two lovely and beautiful Characters The Father always in Peace yet is always ready upon occasion to ingage in War the Son is always Warring and yet always ready to give Peace both to his Enemies and to the Empire His Father Antoninus had taught him that the saving of one single Citizen was much to be preferr'd to the defeating and getting the victory over a Years of J. C. 162 thousand Enemies The Parthians and the Marcomanni felt the valour of Marcus Aurelius The latter were somewhat Germans whom this Emperor had just subdued a little before his death By the vertue of the Years of J. C. 180 two Antoninus's that name became the delight of the Romans And the Glory of so indear'd a Name was not effaced either by the softness and effeminacy of Iucius Verus Brother to Marcus Aurelius and his Collegue in the Empire or by the Brutalities of Commodus his Son and Successor This latter unworthy to be the Off-spring of such a Father forgot both the Instructions and Examples of him the Senate and the People abhorred him his most fawning and assiduous Years of J. C. 162 Minions and his Mistress were the Cause of Years of J. C. 193 his death His Successor Pertinax a vigorous Asserter of the Military Discipline saw him sacrificed to the fury of licentious Soldiers that but a little before had raised him whether he would or no to the Soveraign Power The Empire being put to an Outcry by the Army soon found a Purchaser The Lawyer Didius Julianus adventured upon that bold bargain though it cost him his Life Severus Africanus made him to be killed Years of J. C. 194 revenged Pertinax passed from East to Years of J. C. 195 West triumphed in Syria in Gaul and in Years of J. C. 198 Great Britain c. The hasty Conqueror equal'd Caesar by his Victories but he did not imitate Years of J. C. 207 him in Clemency He could not make Years of J. C. 209 Peace between his Children Bassian or Caracalla Years of J. C. 208 his eldest Son a mock Imitator of Alexander Years of J. C. 211 immediately after the death of 〈◊〉 Years of J. C. 212 Father kill'd his Brother Geta an En◠〈◊〉 as well as himself even in the bosom 〈◊〉 â—â—lia their common Mother spent his Lifâ— in Cruelty and Slaughters and at length drew upon himself a Tragical Death Severâ—s had got for him the heart of the Soldiers and Years of J. C. 218 People by giving him the Name of Antoninus but he knew not how to keep up that honour The Syrian Heliogabalus or rather Alagabalus his Son or at least reputed for such tho' the Name of Antoninus had at first procured him the hearts of the Soldiers and the victory over Macrinus soon after by his Infamies became the horror of Mankind and Years of J. C. 222 he was his own destroyer Alexander Severus the Son of Mameus his Kinsman and Successor lived too little a while for the happiness of the world He complained that he was more put to it to keep his Soldiers in good order than he was to conquer his Enemies Years of J. C. 235 His Mother who governed him was Years of J. C. 233 the cause of his Ruin as she had also been that of his glory and renown Under him Artaxerxes the Persian slew his Master Artabanus the last King of the Parthians and re-established the Empire of the Persians in the East About these times the Church as yet but in its Minority Tertull. adv Jud. 7. Apolog 37. run over the whole Earth and not only in the East where it took
who holding all things in the hollow of his Hand was able by himself alone both to begin and carry on a design wherein all Ages are comprehended We need therefore no longer wonder as we commonly do why God proposes to us to believe so many things so worthy of him and yet at the same time so impenetrable to Humane Understanding But we should rather wonder that he having established the Faith upon so firm and manifest an Authority there should yet be any in the World blind and incredulous Our disorderly Passions our being bewitched to our Senses and our incurable Pride are the cause of it We choose rather to venture all than to put a constraint upon our selves we choose rather to continue in our Ignorance than to confess it and are pleased rather with a vain Curiosity and indulging our unruly Spirits in the liberty of thinking whatsoever delights 'em than to yield to the yoke of Divine Authority From thence it is that there are so many Unbelievers and God suffers it to be so for the instruction of his Children Unless we had the Blind the Savage and the Infidel and that in the very Bosom too of Christianity we should not be sensible enough of the Corruption of our Nature nor of that Abyss of Misery from whence Jesus Christ hath delivered us If his holy Truth was not contradicted we should not see the Miracle which hath constantly carried it through so many Contradictions and we should forget at last that we are saved by Grace Now the Incredulity of the one does humble the rest and those Rebels that oppose God's Decrees make that Power conspicuous by which indepently from all things else he accomplishes the Promises he hath made to his Church What therefore is it that we look for now to make us humble and submiss do we look that God should still work new Miracles that he should make them useless by his continuing of them that he should accustom our eyes to them as he does to the Course of the Sun and to all the other Marvels of Nature or else do we ever expect that the wicked and the opinionative man should be silent that good and vertuous men and dissolute Libertines should bear an equal Testimony to the Truth that all the World by one common consent should prefer it to their Passions and that false Knowledge which only the Novelty of it causes to be admired should cease its usual way of surprising men Is it not enough that we see it is impossible for men to combate with Religion but they must at the same time shew by prodigious wandrings that their Senses are perverted and that they only defend themselves either by Presumption or ignorance Cannot the Church which hath been victorious both over Ages and Errours I say cannot that overcome in our Minds those weak and miserable Reasonings which are opposed to her and cannot the Divine Promises which we see every day are accomplishing elevate and raise us above our Senses Now let us not say that these Promises are still kept in suspence and as they are to hold out to the end of the World so it will not be until the end of the World that we can boast we have seen the accomplishment of them For on the contrary that which is already past assures us of the future so many ancient Predictions so visibly fulfilled make us satisfied that there will be nothing but what shall be accomplished and that the Church against which according as the Son of God hath promised us even the Gates of Hell shall never prevail will be always subsisting until the consummation of all things for that Jesus Christ who is true in all hath prescribed no other bounds to its duration The same Promises do likewise assure us of a future Life God who hath shewn himself so faithful in accomplishing what respects the present Age will be no less faithful in accomplishing that which respects the Future of which all that we see is but a preparation and the Church will be always unshaken and invincible on the Earth until that her Children being gathered together she be entirely conveyed to her which is her only true Mansion As for those who shall be excluded from that heavenly City an eternal Vengeance is reserved for them and after they have lost by their Sin and Folly a blessed Eternity there will be left for them no other place but a Hell of Eternal woe and misery Thus the Decrees of God are to terminate by an immutable state his Promises and his Threatnings are equally certain and what he executes in time assures us of what he hath commanded us either to expect or fear in Eternity You now see what may be learned from the continual progress of Religion as it is in short presented to your Eyes By time it conducts you to Eternity You see a constant order in all God's Decrees and a visible Mark of his Power in the perpetual duration of his People You cannot but confess that the Church hath a Branch always subsisting which cannot be separated from it without destroying it and that those who being united to this Root do perform such Works as are worthy of their Faith and secure to themselves eternal Life Your Highness is therefore to study but to study with attention this uninterrupted Course of the Church which so clearly assures to you all the Promises of God Whatsoever breaks this Chain whatsoever goes out of this Course whatsoever advances it self and does not come by virtue of the Promises made to the Church from the beginning of the World you are to have in horrour Imploy all your power to recall into this Unity whatsoever is stragled out of the way of it and to make it hearken to the Church by which the Holy Spirit of God pronounces its Oracles The Glory of your Ancestors is not only that they never forsook it but that they always supported it and thereby deserved to be called the Eldest Sons which is certainly the most glorious of all their Titles 'T is needless for me to mention to you Clovis Charlemaine or St. Louis Consider only the time you live in and from what Father God hath given you your Birth A King so great in every thing yet is more to be distinguished by his Faith than by all his other admirable Qualities He protects Religion not only within but out of his Kingdom and even to the last Extremities of the World His Laws are one of the firmest Rampiers of the Church His Authority revered as much by the Merit of his Person as by the Majesty of his Scepter never supports it self so well as when it defends the Cause of God We hear no more Blasphemies Impiety trembles before him this is the King taken notice of by Solomon Prov. 20.26 that in his Wisdom scattereth the Wicked and bringeth the Wheel over them If he attacks Heresie by such means and that more too than ever did any of
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 accustome strange People to the Roman Manners Those Colonies which carried with them their Priviledges remained always attached to the Body of the Republick and populated all the Roman Empire But besides Colonies a great many Cities obtained for their Citizens the priviledge 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 believ'd 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 strengthned those that were within 'T was not the Custom of the Romans to have Citadells 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 shew 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 Republick 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 Sence 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 Republick she yet carried in her own Breast the cause of her ruine in the perpetual Jealousie 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 formed 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 dependance on the Patricii and that subordination necessary to Royalty had been preserved not only under Kings but also in the Republick 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 aâ—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 Republick 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 publick Councils which without that temperature would have been too tumultuous But at the bottom it was the Peoples 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 alledging always that excess of Liberty would at last destroy it self and the others fearing just the contrary that Authority which in its own nature was always for encreasing would at last degenerate into Tyranny Between those two
respective Language Those so antient Histories whereof there is left now but a very few good Memorials are by this means become in all Probability so very dark and imperfect The confusion of names hath no doubt contributed very much both to the things as well as persons of them and from hence proceeds our Trouble rightly to situate in the Greek History those Kings who have had the Name of Ahasuerus as much unheard of to the Greeks as it was well known to the Eastern Countries VVho would indeed believe that Cyagorus was the same name as Ahasuerus made up of the word Ky that is to say Sir or Lord and from the word Axare which manifestly returns to Axuerus or Assuerus and so Ahasuerus Three or Four Princes have gone under this Name though they had others besides If we do not know that Nebuchodonozor Nebucodrosor and Nebocolassar were only one and the same Name or the Name of but one Person it would be difficult for us to believe it and yet the thing is most certain Sargon is Sennacherib Ozias is Azarias Sedechias is Mathanias Joachas is also called Sellum Asarhaddon which is indifferently pronounced Esarhaddon 2 Esdr iv 2 10. or Asarhaddon is called Asenephar by those of Cutha and by an odd bizar kind of unaccountableness of which we can find no ground or Origine Sardanapalus is by the Greeks called Tonos Concoleros We could present you with a long List of Eastern Persons to whom in Histories several different Names have been given but it is sufficient in general to understand this custom It is not unknown to the Latins among whom Titles and Adoptions have multiplyed Names in so many kinds Thus the Title of Augustus and that of Africanus became the Sir-Names of Caesar Octavianus and the Scipio's and in like manner the Neros have been Caesars The thing is not to be doubted and a longer discussion of a matter so apparently manifest would be needless to you I will not now offer to trouble your Highness any further with the knotty difficulties of Chronology which are as little necessary as useful for you This was of too great importance not to be cleared up in this place and after we have said what we think is sufficient for our purpose we will return to the train of our Epochas It was then 218 years after the foundation of Rome 536 years before Jesus Christ VIII Epocha Cyrus or the Jews re-establish'd 6. Age of the World after the 70 years of Babylons Captivity and the same year that Cyrus founded the Persian Empire That this Prince elected by God to be the deliverer of his People and the restorer of his Temple set about this great work Forthwith after the publication of his Decree Zerubabel accompanied with Jesus Years be ∣ fore J. C. 536 the Son of Joseâ—ec the High-Priest brought Years of Rome 218 back the Captives who rebuilt the Altar and laid the foundations of the second Temple Years be ∣ fore J. C. 535 The Samaritans being jealous of their Years of Rome 219 glory were resolved to go shares with them in this great Work and under the pretence of worshipping the God of Israel 1 Esdr iv 2.3 tho' they joined with it their Idolatries to their own false Gods yet they besought Zerubabel to give them leave to assist him in the Building of that Temple But the Children of Judah who detested their corrupted Worship rejected their Proposition The provoked Samaritans therefore crossed and perplexed their Design by all the ways of Artifice and Violence imaginable About the same time Servius Tullius after he had agrandized the City of Rome was contriving in his Head how to reduce it to a Commonwealth But Years be ∣ fore J. C. 533 he perished in the midst of those his Designs Years of Rome 221 by the Counsels of his Daughter and by the Command of the proud Tarquin his Son-in-Law This Tyrant invaded the Kingdom and for a long series of time exercised all manner of Cruelties and Outrages In the mean while the Persian Empire was growing up Besides those vast Provinces of the greater Asia all the greater Continent of the Lesser Asia became obedient to Years be ∣ fore J. C. 525 it The Syrians and Arabians were subjected Years of Rome 229 and Egypt which was so jealous of its own Laws yet received theirs This Years be ∣ fore J. C. 522 Conquest was got by Cambyses the Son of Years of Rome 232 Cyrus But that fierce Man did not long survive his Brother Smerdis whom an ambiguous Dream caused privately to be put to Death The Mage or chief Smerdis ruled for some time under the name of Years be ∣ fore J. C. 521 Smerdis the Brother of Cambyses but this Years of Rome 233 cheat was soon discovered The seven principal Lords conspired against him and one of them was set upon the Throne This was Darius the Son of Hystaspes Herod l. 4. c. 159. who in his Inscriptions stiled himself the Best and the handsomest of all Men. There are many remarkable things that make us know him to be the Ahasuerus spoken of in the Book of Hester tho' some there are of another Opinion At the beginning of his Reign 1 Esdr v. vi the Temple was finished after several interruptions occasioned by the Samaritans There was an irreconcileable hatred between two People so that nothing was more opposite than Jerusalem and Samaria It was in the Years be ∣ fore J. C. 513 time of Darius when the Liberty of Rome Years of Rome 241 and Athens and the great Glory of Greece began Hermodius and Aristogiton Athenians rescued their Country from Hipparchus the Son of Pisistratus and are killed by his Guards Hippias the Brother of Hipparchus endeavours but in vain to support himself for he is repulsed The Tyranny of the Pisistratus's is absolutely extinguished The rescued Athenians erect Statues to their Saviours and re-establish the popular State Hippias throws himself into the Arms of Darius whom he already found disposed to attempt the Conquest of Greece so that all his hope was in his Protection At the same time when he was repulsed Rome also was delivered of her Tyrants Tarquin the Proud by his violent Outrages had made Years be ∣ fore J. C. 509 Royalty odious The incontinency of Sextus Years of Rome 245 his Son was the complement of its destruction Lucretia ravished made her to become her own Murdress her Blood together with the harangues of Brutus animated and inspirited the Romans The Kings were banished and the Consulary Empire was established according to the model and projection of Servius Tullius but it was soon weakned by the Jealousies of the People For in the very first Consulate P. Valerius the Consul memorable for his Victories became suspected by his Citizens so that to please and satisfy them he was obliged to establish the Law of Appeals to the People from the Senate and Consuls in all causes wherein the
punishing of a Citizen was concerned The expelled Tarquins found Defenders for the Neighbouring Kings looked upon their Banishment as an injury done to all Crowned Heads in general Years be ∣ fore 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 be ∣ fore J. C. 500 Succour But Hippias for whom Dariâ—s declared Years of Rome 254 had better hopes All Persia was up in his Favour and Athens had a great threatning Years be ∣ fore 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 e'en like to have been destroyed within it self Jealousy began to re-inforce 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 Aventinâ— 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 sweetning 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 be ∣ fore 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 seem'd 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 be ∣ fore J. C. 489 brought the Volsci against her reduced her Years of Rome 265 Years be ∣ fore 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 be ∣ fore 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 Fighting 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 Straights of Thermopylae and fell with his own By the Counsels of Themistocles the Athenian the Sea-forces of Xerxes were the Years be ∣ fore 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 hew'd 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 Ionia who had shook 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 Souldiers 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 Yoak Years be ∣ fore J. C. 477 as soon as he had framed the project of enthralling Years of Rome 277 Years be ∣ fore J. C. 476 his Country Yet all his Designs Years of Rome 278 were fruitless tho' Xerxes promised him all things the Traytor was betrayed by him whom most he loved and his infamous Years be ∣ fore 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 be ∣ fore J. C. 473 after receiv'd 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 be ∣ fore J. C. 467 firm establishment of Friendship with him Years of Rome 287 maugre all the Jealousies of his Nobles 1 Esdr vii viii 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 be ∣ fore 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's only was in respect to the Temple 2 Esdr ii 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