THE LIFE DEATH OF Nebuchadnezzar THE GREAT The first founder of the Babylonian Empire Represented by the Golden Head of that Image Dan. 2. 32. and by the Lion with Eagles Wings Dan. 7. 4. As also of CYRUS the GREAT The first founder of the Empire of the Medes and Persians Represented by the Breast and Arms of Silver in that Image Dan. 2. 32. And by a Bear Dan. 7. 5. And by a Ram with two Horns Dan. 8. 3 20. He was the deliverer of Gods Israel out of Babylon the seventy years of their Captivity being Expired By both of these much light is given to many of the Prophesies of Isay Jeremy Esekiel and Daniel By Sa. Clarke sometime Minister in St Bennet Fink London LONDON Printed for William Miller at the Gilded Acorn in St Pauls Church-yard near the little North Door 1664. Licensed to be Printed Roger L'Estrange THE LIFE DEATH OF Nebuchadnezzar THE GREAT The first Emperor of the CHALDEANS Who was represented by the Golden Head of that Image Dan. 2. 32. and by the Lion with Eagles Wings Dan. 7. 4. Whereby much light is given to many of the Prophesies of Isay Jeremy Esekiel and Daniel By Sa. Clarke sometime Minister in St Bennet Fink London LONDON Printed for William Miller at the Gilded Acorn in St Pauls Church-yard near the little North Door 1664. THE LIFE DEATH OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE GREAT First Emperor of the CHALDEANS NEbuchadonazar or Nebuchadnezzar was the Son of Nebuchadonazar or Nabopolaser of Babylon who was made General of the Army by Saraco King of Assyria and Chaldea after whose death Nabopolaser took into his hands the Kingdom of Chaldaea which he held by the space of one and twenty years At the same time Astyages was made Governour of Media by Cyaxares his Father and the better to strengthen themselves they entred into Affinity by Astyages his giving his Daughter Amytis to Nebuchadnezzar the Son of Nabopolaser and thereupon joyning their Forces together they took Ninive together with Saraco the King thereof placing a Vice-Roy in his stead Shortly after the Governour of Coelosyria and Poenicia revolting from Nabopolaser he sent against him his Son Nebuchadnezzar having first associated him with himself in the Kingdom of Babylon with a great Army which was in the latter end of the third and the beginning of the fourth year of Jehoiakim King of Juda as appears Dan. 1. 1. compared with Jer. 25. 1. Nebuchadnezzar was no sooner thus associated with his Father in the Kingdom but the things which he was to act were presently revealed to the Prophet Jeremy the first whereof was the overthrow of the Egyptians First at the River Euphrates then in their own Country Jer. 46. The first of these came to pass presently Neco's Forces which he left at Carchemish being cut off by Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth year of Jehoiakim Jer. 46. 2. The second was not till after the taking of Tyre in the seventeenth year of the Captivity of Jechonia Ezek. 29. 17 18 19. In the third year of Jehoiakim Nebuchadnezzar the second his Father being yet alive entred Judaea with a great Army who besieging and forcing Jerusalem made Jehoiakim his Vassal in despight of Pharaoh Necho who had made him King and took with him to Babylon for Pledges Daniel who was yet a child with Ananias Misael and Azarias He took also part of the Treasures belonging to the Temple but stayed not to search thorowly for all For Necho hasted with his Army to the relief of Jehoiakim hoping to find Nebuchadnezzar in Judaea But this great Babylonian had no mind to hazard himself and his Army against the Egyptian Judaea being so ill affected towards him and himself far from all succour or sure place of retreat If he had as may be supposed any great strength of Scythian Horsemen it was wisely done of him to fall back out of that rough Mountanous and hot Country into places that were more even and temperate And besides these reasons the Death of his Father happening at the same time gave him just occasion to return home and take possession of his own Kingdom before he proceeded in the second care of adding more unto it And this he did at reasonable good leasure For the Egyptian was not provided to follow him so far and to bid him Battel until the new year came in which was the fourth of Jehoiakim the first of Nebuchadnezzar and the last of Necho In this year the Babylonian lying upon the Banks of Euphrates his own Territories bounding it on the North-side attended the coming of Necho there after a cruel Battel fought betwixt them Necho was slain and his Army forced to save it self by a violent retreat wherein it suffered great loss This Victory was so well pursued by Nebuchadnezzar that he recovered all Syria and whatsoever the Egyptians held out of their proper Territories towards the North. The Egyptians being thus beaten and altogether for the present discouraged Jehoiakim held himself quiet as being in heart a Friend to the Egyptians yet having made his peace with the Chaldeans the year before and Nebuchadnezzar was contented with such profit as he could there readily make he had forborn to lay any Tribute upon the Jews But this cool reservedness of Jehoiakim was on both sides taken in ill part Whereupon the Egyptian King Psamnis who succeeded Necho began to think of restoring Jehoahaz who had been taken prisoner by his Father and carried into Egypt and of setting him up as a Domestical enemy against his ungrateful Brother But to anticipate all such accidents the Judean had put in practice the usual remedy which his Fore-fathers used For he had made his own Son Jechonia King with him long before in the second year of his own Raign when the Boy was but eight years old As for this rumor of Jehoahaz his return the Prophet Jeremy foretold that it should prove a vain attempt saying He shall not return thither But he shall die in the place whither they have led him Captive and shall see this Land no more Jer. 12. 11 12. The Egyptians having lost all their Mercenary Forces and received that heavy blow at Carchemish had more Gold than sharp Steel remaining which is of small force without the others help Besides the Valour of Necho was not in Psamnis Apries who raigning after Psamnis did indeed once adventure to shew his face in Syria but after a big look he was glad to retire without adventuring the hazard of a Battel Wherefore this declining Nation fought only with brave words telling such frivolous tales as men that mean to do nothing use boasting of their former glorious acts against Josias and Jehoahaz And truly in such a time and case it was easie for Jehoiakim to give them satisfaction by letting them understand the sincerity of his affections towards them which appeared in time following But Nebuchadnezzar went more roundly to
the misery that should come upon them It appears not with which of them he first began but it seems that Moab was the last that felt his heavy hand For so many interpret that Prophesie of Isay threatning Moab with destruction after three years as having reference to the third year following the destruction of Jerusalem the next year after it being spent in the Egyptian expedition This is evident that all the principal Towns in these Countries were burnt and the people either slain or made captives few excepted who saved themselves by flight and had not the courage to return to their habitations too hastily much less to attempt any thing against Nebuchadnezzar but lived as miserable out laws untill the end of the seventy years which God had appointed for the desolation of their Countries as well as of the Land of Judaea When by a long course of Victory Nebuchadnezzar had brought into Subjection all the Nations of Syria and the bordering Arabians in such wise as that no enemy to himself or Friend to the Egyptian was left at his back that might either impede his proceedings or take advantage of any misfortune that might befall him then did he forthwith apply himself to the Conquest of Egypt upon which those other Nations had formerly been dependants Of this expedition and the Victorious issue thereof the three great Prophets Isay Jeremy and Esekiel have written so plainly that it s altogether needless to seek after any other authority to confirm the same Long before it was prophesied by Isay that the King of Assyria or Babylon should lead away the Egyptians Prisoners and the Ethiopians Captives young and old naked and barefoot even with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt Isa. 20. 4. But Esekiel and Jeremy as their prophesies were neerer to the time of execution so they handled this Argument more plainly and precisely For Esekiel tells us cleerly that Egypt should be given to Nebuchadnezzar as wages for his great service which he had done against Tyre Esek 29. 18 19 20. He recounteth also in particular all the chief Citys in Egypt saying that these by name should be destroyed and go into Captivity yea and that Pharaoh and all his Army should be slain by the Sword Esek 30. 4 10 c. Chap. 32 2 c. And the Prophet Jeremy saith thus Behold I will visit the common people of Noe and Pharaoh and Egypt with their Gods and their Kings even Pharaoh and all that trust in him and I will deliver them into the hands of those that seek their lives and into the hand of Nebuchadnezar King of Babel and into the hands of his Servants Jer. 46. 25 26. Josephus accordingly saith that Nebuchadnezzar in the three and twentieth year of his Raign and in the fifteenth year after the destruction of Jerusalem did Conquer Egypt and kill the King thereof appointing a Vice-Roy to Govern it And it is evident that his Victories which followed his Conquest of Syria were such as did more enlarge his Dominions than all his former Wars had done For Esekiel in his 30th Chapter reckoneth up besides the whole Country of Egypt Phut and Lud with other Nations that may seem to have reached as far as into Mauritania which were conquered by him and added to his Empire And truly it is worth observation how Pharaoh King of Egypt was infatuated by God who thought himself most safe in his own Country by reason of the well-defenced situation thereof and therefore very unwisely suffered his enemies to make a cleer way to his own doors by the Conquest of all his Friends and Allyes in Syria For as the labour of this business did more harden then weary the Chaldean Army so the confidence and vain security of the Egyptians relying upon the difficulty of the passages which the enemy was to make through the Arabian Desarts and the great advantage which the River Nilus afforded did little avail them when the War came on Yea it did much astonish them as may justly be thought in the time of execution It being usually seen that the hearts of men fail when those helps deceive them in which they bad reposed more confidence than in their own Virtue and Valour Untill this time the Kingdom of Egypt had flourished under the Rule and Government of the Pharaohs for above the space of one thousand four hundred and eighty years But from this time forward it remained forty years without a King under the subjection of the Babylonians and then at length it began to recover by little and little the former greatness Yet so that it was never dreadfull unto others as it had been God having said of that people At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the People whither they were scattered and I will bring again the Captivity of Egypt and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros into the land of their habitation and they shall be yet a base Kingdom It shall be the basest of the Kingdoms neither shall it exalt it self any more above the Nations Fâ—â— I will diminish them that they shall no more rule over the Nations and it shall be no more the confidence of the House of Israel Esek 29 13 14 15 16. For whereas it had been said of Pharaoh I am the Son of the wise the Son of ancient Kings Isa. 19. 11. and whereas they had Vaunted the River is mine and I have made it Esek 29. 9. The Princes of Egypt now became fools the River failed them the King himself was now taken and slain and that ancient Linage was quite extinguished Of any Wars made by Nebuchadnezzar after such time as he returned from the Conquest of Egypt we read not except that against Ninive the destruction whereof was forefold by the Prophet Ninive indeed had been taken long before by Merodoch and together with the rest of Assyria made subject to Babylon Yet was it left under a peculiar King who rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar as Jehoiachim and Zedechias Tributary Kings of Judah had done was made partaker also of the same ruine That the destruction of Ninive followed the Conquest of Egypt is clear by the comparison which Nahum the Prophet made between this City that was to fall and the City of Noe in Egypt which was fallen already Nahum 3. 8 c. Art thou better than populous Noe that was situate amongst the Rivers that had the waters round about it whose Rampire was the Sea and her wall was from the Sea Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength and it was infinite Put and Lubin were her helpers Yet was she carried away she went into Captivity Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets and they cast lots for her honourable men and all her great men were bound in chains Thou also shalt be drunken thou shalt be hid thou also shalt seek strength because of the
Treasure spent in the quarrell of the Babylonians yet did he Conquer Aeolis Doris and Jonia Provinces possessed by the Greeks in Asia the less adjoyning to his Kingdom of Lydia He gave Laws also to the Phrygians Bithynians Carians Mysians Paephlagonians and other Nations He also enforced the Ephesians to acknowledge him for their Lord He also obtained a signall Victory against the Sacaeans a Nation of the Scythians All which he performed in fourteen years And being now confident by reason of his good successes and withall envious at Cyrus his Fame and prosperity doubting also that his great Victories might in the end grow perilous to himself he consulted with the Oracle of Apollo whom he presented with marvellous rich Gifts what success he might hope for in his undertakings against Cyrus from whom he received this ambiguous answer Craesus Halym penetrans magnam pervertes opum vim Craesus passing over the River Halys shall dissolve a great Dominion For the Devil being doubtfull of his success gave him this Riddle which might be construed either way to the ruine of Persia or of his own Lydia Hereupon Craesus interpreting it as he most desired resolved to stop the course of Cyrus his progress and therefore despised all the Arguments used by Sandanes to the contrary who desired him to consider afore-hand that he provoked a Nation inhabiting a barren Mountanous Region a People not covered with the soft silk of Worms but with the hard skins of Beasts not fed with meat to their Fansies but content with what they found Drinkers of Water and not of Wine and in a word a Nation Warlike Patient Valiant and Porsperous over whom if he became Victorious he could thereby enrich himself in nothing but Fame in which he already excelled and if by them he should be beaten and subdued so great would his loss appear of all things which the world makes account of that the same could neither be hastily recounted nor easily conceived Notwithstanding this solid and seasonable Counsel Craesus having prepared a powerfull Army advanced with the same toward Media but in his passage he was retarded at Pterium a City in Cappadocia of great strength which whilst he attempted both by power and policy to take and Conquer Cyrus came on and found the Lydians encamped before it Neither of these Champions were inferior to other either in strength or opinion For out of doubt Craesus as he excelled any Prince of that age in Riches and ability so was he not inferior unto any in Territories and Fame that then lived But Kingdoms and Commonwealths have their increase and Periods from Divine Ordinance This time was the Winter of Craesus his prosperity the leaves of his flourishing estate being ready to fall and that of Cyrus but in the first Spring and Flower the God of all Power had given a date to the one and a beginning of Glory to the other When these two Armies were in view each of other after divers skirmishes had passed between them the Persians and Lydians began to joyn together and to encounter each other in grose Bodies and as either of them began to retreat fresh supplies were sent in from both their Kings And as the Persians had somewhat the better of the Day so when the dark vail of night had hidden each Army from the others view Craesus doubting what success the rising Sun might bring with it quitted the Field to Cyrus and withall speed possible retreated towards his own Country and taking the next way thither he recovered Sardis the first City of Lydia and his Regal Seat without any pursuit made by Cyrus to retard him where being arrived and nothing suspecting Cyrus his approach or any other War for that Winter he dismised his Army and sent the Troops of his sundry Nations to their own Provinces appointing them to re-assemble at the end of five Moneths acquainting his Commanders with his intent of renewing the War at the time appointed The morning being come Cyrus finding that the Lydians were departed put his Army in order to pursue after them yet not so hastily and at their heels as to be discovered But getting good intelligence of Craesus his proceedings he so ordered the matter that he presented not himself before Sardis till such time as Craesus had disposed of his Army and sent them to their Winter Quarters His coming being altogether unlooked for and unfeared he had opportunity enough to surround Sardis with his Army wherein Craesus had no other Companies than the Citizens and his ordinary Guards insomuch as after fourteen days Seige Cyrus took the City by Storm and put all to the Sword that made resistance Craesus now having neither Arms to Fight nor Wings to fly in this common calamity he throst himself into the heap and multitude of his miserable Subjects and had undergone the same lot with the rest of the vanquished persons had not a Son of his who had been dumb all his Life before by the extremity of Passion and Fear cryed out to a common Souldier who was with a drawn Sword pursuing his Father that he should not kill Craesus Hereupon he was taken and imprisoned and despoiled of all things but onely the expectation of Death Shortly after he was bound with Fetters and Placed upon a large and high pile of Wood to be burnt to ashes thereon To which when Fire was set and kindled Craesus remembring the discourse which long before he had with Solon the Athenian Lawgiver he thrice cryed out O Solon Solon Solon and being demanded what he meant by the invocation of Solon he at first used silence But being urged again he told them that now he found that true which wise Solon had long since told him That many men in the race and course of their lives might well be accounted Fortunate but no man could discern himself to be happy indeed till his end Of this his answer Cyrus being speedily informed and thereby being put in mind of the mutability of Fortune and of his own mortality he commanded his Ministers of Justice speedily to withdraw the Fire and to save Craesus and bring him to his presence which being done Cyrus demanded of him who it was that had perswaded him or what reason had instigated him to invade his Territories and to make him of a Friend an Enemy To which Craesus thus answered It was thy prosperous and my unprosperous destiny the Grecian Gods with all flattering my Ambition that were the inventers and conducters of Craesus War against Cyrus Cyrus being much affected w th this answer of Craesus and bewailing his estate though he was victorious over him did not only spare his life but intertained him ever after as a King and his companion Thus Heroditus relates it But Xenophon saith that Cyrus did entertain Craesus friendly at the first sight and makes no mention of any such cruell intent of burning him alive
hast thou not Glorified Then was the part of the hand sent from him and this writing was written Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin Whereof this is the Interpretation Mene God hath numbred thy Kingdom and finished it Tekel Thou art weighted in the ballanees and art found wanting Peres Thy Kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians The very evening or Night of this Day wherein Belshazzar thus Feasted and wherein these things were done Cyrus either by his Espeials or being inspired by God himself whose Ensign he followed in these Wars finding the time and opportunity fit for him even whilst the Kings Head and the Heads of his Nobility were no less distempered with the vapours of Wine than their hearts were with the fear of Gods Judgements he caused all the Banks and Heads of his Trenches to be opened and cut down with all speed and diligence whereby that great River Euphrates was quickly drawn dry and himself with his Army passing through the Channell which was now dry without any opposition they easily made their entrance into the City finding none to disturb them Invadunt urbem somno Vinoque sepultam All the Town lay buried in Wine and Sleep and such as came in the Persians way were put to the Sword unless they saved themselves by flight as some did who ran away crying and filled the Streets with an uncertain tumult Such of the Assyrian Lords as had formerly revolted from Belshazzar to Cyrus did now conduct a Selected company to the Kings Pallace which being easily forced by them they rushed strait into the Chamber where the King and his Princes were Banquetting and there slew both him and them without mercy who strove in vain to keep those lives which God had newly threatened to take away Now was that prophesie fulfilled Jer. 51. 30 31 32. The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight they have remained in their Holds their might hath failed they became as women they have burnt their dwelling places Her barrs are broken One Post shall run to meet another and one messenger to meet another to shew the King of Babylon that his City is taken at one end And that the passages are stopped viz. of the River Euphrates and the Reeds they have burnt with fire and the men of War are affrighted The Prophet Isay also two hundred years before this subversion of Babylon in his forty seventh Chapter and elsewhere describeth this destruction so feelingly and lively as if he had been present both at the terrible slaughter there committed and had seen the great and unseared change and calamity of this great Empire Yea and had also heard the sorrows and bewallings of every surviving Soul thereunto subject which Prophesie he begins with these words Come down and sit in the dust O Virgin daughter of Babylon sit on the Ground there is no Throne O daughter of the Chaldeans For thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate c. And though it cannot be doubted that God used Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans as his Instruments to punish the Idolatry and wickedness of the Jews yet did he not forget that in the Execution of Gods Judgements they had used much rigour and extremity as we see Isay 47. 6. I was wroth with my People I have polluted mine Inheritance and given them into thine hand Thou didst shew them no mercy Vpon the Ancient hast thou very heavily laid the Yoke and again I will rise up against them saith the Lord of Hosts and will cut off from Babel the Name and the remnant and the Son and the Nephew Meaning Evilmerodach and Belshazzar And again Isay 13. 15 c. Every one that is found shall be thrust thorow and every one that is joyned to them shall be slain with the Sword their Children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes their Houses shall be spoiled and their Wives ravished Behold I will stir up the Medes against them which shall not regard Silver and as for Gold they shall not delight in it their Bowes also shall dâ—sh the young men to pieces and they shall have no pitty on the fruit of the Womb their eye shall not spare children And Babylon the Glory of Kingdoms and beauty of the Chaldees excellency shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah c. Read also Chapter fourteenth No Historian that was either present at this Victory of Cyrus or that received the report from others truly as it was could better describe and leave the same to posterity after it was acted than Isay hath done in many parts of his Prophesie which were written two hundred years before any of these things were attempted The Greatness and Magnificence of Babylon were it not by divers grave Authours recorded might seem altogether Fabulous For it is reported for truth that one part of the City knew not that the other was taken three days after which is not impossible if we consider the vast Circumference of it Diodorus Siculus saith that it was in compass three hundred and sixty Furlongs which make forty five Miles The Walls were so thick that six Chariots might pass in front thereon and they were three hundred sixty and five Foot high and were adorned and beautified with one hundred and fifty Towers Strabo gives a greater circuit adding twenty five Forlongs more to the former compass reckoning it at three hundred eighty five Furlongs which makes forty eight Miles and one Furlong Herodotus finds the compass yet to be greater namely four hundred and eightty Furlongs in circuit the thickness of the Wall he measures at fifty Cubits and the height at two hundred of the same Regall Cubits For entrance it had a hundred Gates of Brass with Posts and Hooks to hang them on of the same Mettall and therefore did the Prophet Isay rightly intitle Babylon The Princess and Glory of Kingdoms Isay 47. 5. 13. 19. But when Cyrus had won her he stript her out of her Princely Robes and made her a slave dividing not onely her goodly Houses and her whole Territory with all the Riches therein contained amongst his Souldiers but also bestowed the Inhabitants themselves as Bondslaves upon those that had taken possession of their goods Cyrus having obtained this great and Signall Victory the glory of which was a reward for his service done for him who was the Authour of it and of all goodness and thereby translated the Empire of the Chaldeans to himself according to the Prophesies which went afore of him in this first year of his Empire he made a Decree that the Captive Jews should return again into their own Country of Judea and that they should build again the House of God in Jerusalem having now endured and finished the seventy years Captivity foretold by the Prophet Jeremy The tenour of which Decree was thus Thus saith Cyrus King of Persin The Lord God of Heaven hath given me all
Gods goodness and a willing advancer of his Kingdom upon earth which must last for ever Cyrus had Issue two Sons Cambyses and Smerdis and three Daughters Atossa Meroe and Artistoua At his Death he bequeathed his Empire to his Eldest Son Cambyses appointing Smerdis his younger Son to be Satrapa or Leiutenant of Media Armenia and Cadusia He reigned about one and thirty years and died aged The Greek Historians wholly ascribe the Conquest of Babylon to Cyrus because that he commanded the Army in Chief yet the Scriptures attribute it to Darius King of the Medes whose General Cyrus was For when Babylon was taken and Belshazzar slain It s said Dan. 5. 31. that Darius the Median took the Kingdom being about sixty two years old It was Darius also that placed Officers over the severall Provinces thereof as we read Dan. 6. 1 2. It pleased Darius to set over the Kingdom a hundred and twenty Princes which should be over the whole Kingdom and over these three Presidents of whom Daniel was the first c. And thus was it Prophesied by Isay long before Behold I will stir up the Medes against them c. and by the Prophet Jeremy The Lord hath raised up the Spirit of the King of the Medes for his device is against Babylon c. Jer. 55. 11. And again verse 28. Prepare against her the Nations with the Kings of the Medes the Captains thereof and all the Rulers thereof and all the Land of his Dominion But certain it is that the Honour of that great Victory over Babylon was wholly given to Cyrus who was the Instrument preordained and forenamed by God himself not onely for this Action but also for the delivery of his Church Yet Daniel makes it plain that himself not onely lived a great Officer under King Darius but that he continued in that estate to the first year of Cyrus which was not long after which also was the year of Daniels Death As for the age of Cyrus we are beholding to Tully for it who in his first Book de Divinatione Cites it out of one Dionysius a Persian Writer in this manner The Sun saith Dionysius appeared unto Cyrus in his sleep standing at his feet which when Cyrus thrice endeavoured to take in his hands the Sun still turned aside and went away and the Magi who were the most learned men amongst the Persians said that by his thrice offering to take hold of the Sun was portended to him that he should raign thirty years which came to pass accordingly For he lived to the Age of seventy years and began not to raign till he was forty In the first year of Belshazzar Daniel had the Vision shewed him of the four Beasts signifying the four Monarchies and of God delivering over all power and Sovereignty to the Son of man Dan. 7. In the third year of Belshazzar the Vision of the Ram and Goat foreshewing the destruction of the Persian Monarchy by Alexander the Great and the great misery which Antiochus should bring upon the People of God was shewed to Daniel living then at Susa in the Province of Elam upon the bank of the River Vlai which environed the Castle of Susa and parted the Provinces of Susa and Elemais Dan. 8. whence we may collect that at that time the Province of Susa was not in the hands of the Medes and Persians but of the Babylonians under whom Daniel then lived Darius the Mede son of Cyaxares or Ahasuerus the Son of Adyages took upon him the Kingdom which was delivered over to him by Cyrus the Conquerer Dan. 5. 31. 9. 1. The Angel in this first year of his Raign is said to have confirmed and strengthened him in his Kingdom Dan. 11. 1. After which he raigned two years Towards the end of the first year of Darius the Mede the seventy years of the Babylonish Captivity expired which began under Jehoiakim in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar at which time God promised that they should return into their own Country Jer. 29. 10. Thus saith the Lord that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good Word towards you in causing you to return to this place Upon consideration of which very time now so neer approaching it was that Daniel powred out that most fervent Prayer for the Remission of his own sins and of his Peoples and for that promised deliverance out of their Captivity Whereupon the Angel Gabriel brought him an answer not onely concerning this but also for the spiritual deliverance of the Church to be wrought at last by the Death of the Messias uttering that most famous and memorable Prophesie of the seventy Weeks Dan. 9. 12 c. The Samaritans by the means of some Courtiers about Cyrus whom they had bribed for that purpose distributed the Jews in their building of the Temple Ezra 4. 5. Whence proceeded that three weeks mourning of the Prophet Daniel which Fast he begun about the third Day of the first Moneth in the third year of Cyrus Dan. 10. 1. 4. After which upon the four and twentieth Day of the first Moneth that vision of the Kings of Persia of Alexander the Great and his Successours and their Kingdoms was shewed and revealed unto Daniel as he stood upon the bank of Hiddikel or Tygris All which is contained in the three last Chapters of Daniel which as may be collected out of the close thereof was the last Vision that ever he had and that but a little before his Death FINIS Courteous Reader be pleased to take notice that these Books following are Printed for and sold by William Miller at the Gilded Acorn in St Pauls Church-yard near the little North Door Hickâ—s Revelation Revealed Folio Clares Martyrology Compleat with the Persecutions of England to the end of Queen Maries Reign Folio Lives of ten Eminent Divines some being as follow Bishop Vsher Dr Gouge Dr Harris Mr Gataker Mr Whittaker c. and some other famous Christians Life of Christ 4º Life of Herod the Great 4º A Prospect of Hungary and Transylvania together with an account of the qualities of the Inhabitants the Commodities of the Countries the Chiefest Cities Towns and Strong-holds Rivers and Mountains with an Historycal Narration of the Wars amongst themselves and with the Turks continued to this year 1664. As also a Brief Description of Bohemia Austria Bavaria Steirirark Croatia Dalmatia Moravia and other Adjacent Countries contained in a Map joyned therewith by which Map you may know which Places are in the Power of the Turk and which Christians have 4º Ctadocks KNOWLEDGE and PRACTICE Or a Plain Discourse of the Chief Things necessary to be KNOWN BELIEVED and PRACTISED in Order to SALVATION 4º Ford of Baptism 8º Cottâ—n on the Covenant of Grace 8º Culverwell of Assurance 8º Records Urinal of Physick 8º Ravius Oriental Grammar 12º Peacocks Visitation 12º Dr Tuckney's Good Day well Improved 12º Death Disarmed 12º Balm of Gilead
enemy c. This Great Monarch having thus spent his younger days in inlarging his Dominions he betook himself to rest that he might reap the fruit of his former labours and the first thing that he applyed himself to was to beautifie his Imperiall City of Babylon adding a new City to the Old which he compassed about with three Walls and made in them stately Gates And neer the former Pallace he built a New one more stately than it wherein he raised stone-works like unto Mountains which he planted with all manner of Trees He made also Pensile Gardens one of the Worlds wonders born upon Arches foursquare each square being four hundred Foot long filled above with Earth whereon grew all sorts of Trees and Plants The Arches were built one above another in a convenient heigth still increasing as they ascended The highest which did bear the Walls on the top were fifty Cubits high so that they equalized the highest Mountains He made also Aquaeducts for the watering of this Garden which seemed to hang in the air This most sumptuous frame which out-lasted all the remainder of the Assyrian and all the Persian Empire is said to have been reared and finished in fifteen Days He erected also an Image of Gold in the Plain of Dura sixty Cubits high and six broad commanding all his Servants and Subjects to fall down and Worship it Dan. 3. 1 c. But of all this and other his Magnficence we find little else recorded save that which indeed is most profitable for us to consider to wit his overvalewing of his own greatness which abased him to a condition inferior to the poorest of men For whereas God had honoured him not only with many great and glorious Victories and much happiness in his own life but with a rare discovery of things that were to come after him yea and had manifested the certainty of his Dreams by the miraculous reducing of it into his Memory and given him the interpretation thereof by the Prophet Daniel He notwithstanding became so forgetfull of God whose wonderfull power he had seen and acknowledged that he caused that Golden Image to be set uâ— and Worshipped appointing a cruell Death for them that should dare to disobey him which was utterly unlawfull and repugnant to the Law of him that is King of Kings And thus he who so lately had Worshipped Daniel the servant of God as if he had been God himself now commanded a Statue to be erected unto himself wherein himself might be worshipped as God From this impiety it pleased God to recall and reclaim him by the wonderful and miraculous delivery of those three blessed Saints out of the fiery Furnace who being thrown bound into the midst of it for refusing to commit that abominable Idolatry were preserved from all hurt of the fire loosned from their Bonds accompanied by an Angel and at last called out by the King and restored to their former honour Nebuchadnezzar being amazed at the Miracle mad a Decre tending to the honour of God whom by the erection of his Image he had dishonoured Yet was not this devotion so rooted in him that it could bring forth fruit answerable to his hasty zeal Therefore was he forewarned of God in a Dream of a terrible Judgement which hung over his Head which Daniel expounding withall counselled him to break off his sin by righteousness and his iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor that there might be a lengthening of his tranquillity Dan. 4. 27. whence it seems that injustice and cruelty were his faults for which he was thus threatened But neither did the Dream nor advice of Daniel so prevail For probably he believed it not but looked upon it as an idle Dream for that it seemed altogether unlikely that so great a Monarch should be driven from amongst men yea compelled to dwell with the Beasts of the Field and made to eat Grass as the Oxen this was altogether incredible in mans Judgement and therefore giving so little heed to it it s no marvell that he had forgotten it by the years end One whole year was given to this haughty Prince wherein to repent which respiting of the execution may seem to have bred in him forgetfulness of Gods sentence For at the end of twelve Moneths as he was walking in his Royall Pallace in Babel he was so overjoyed and transported with a vain contemplation of his own seeming happiness that without all fear of Gods heavy Judgement pronounced against him he uttered these proud words 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 But his proud speeches were not fully ended when a voice from Heaven told him that his Kingdom was departed from him c. And the same hour the thing was fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and did eat grass as Oxen and his Body was wet with the dew of Heaven till his hair was grown like Eagles Feathers and his hails like Birds Claws Dan. 4. 33 c. This his punishment was singular and unexpected For he ran amongst beasts in the fields and woods where for seven years he lived not only as a salvage man but as a salvage Beast for a Beast he thought himself to be therefore fed himself in the same manner and with the same food that Beasts do Not that he was changed in his externall shape from a man to a Beast For as St Jerome well expounds it when he saith vers 34. that his understanding was restored unto him he shewed that he had not lost his Humane shape but his understanding being stricken with a Frenzy or deep Melancholly which made him think himself a Beast Seven years being expired Nebuchadnezzar was restored both to his understanding to his Kingdom and saith he I blessed the most High and I praised honoured him that liveth for ever whose Dominion is an everlasting Dominion and his Kingdom is from Generation to Generation And all the Inhabitants of the Earth are reputed as nothing and he doth according to his Will in the Army of Heaven and amongst the Inhabitants of the Earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him What dost thou At the same time my reason returned unto me and for the Glory of my Kingdom mine honour and brightness returned unto me and my Counsellers and my Lords sought unto me and I was established in my Kingdom and excellent Majesty was added unto me Now therefore I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extoll and honour the King of Heaven all whose works are truth and his way is Judgement and those that walk in Pride he is able to abase Dan. 4. 34 35 36 37. How long helived after this is uncertain but all agree that he raigned about twenty moneths copartner with his Father in the Kingdom and about three
and forty years by himself alone Whilst Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon raged in Judea God prepared a worm which in due time should eat out this spreading Tree by reason of the cry of his poor People which entred into his ears According to that of the Psalmist Psal. 137. 8 9. O Daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed Happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones For in this very year was Cyrus the Perso-Median born whose Father was a Persian and his Mother a Mede of whom this very Nebuchadnezzar at the hour of his Death uttered this Prophesie There shall come a Persian Mule who shall make use of your Devils as his fellow-Souldiers to bring you into Bondage He calls Cyrus a Mule because he was to be born of a Father and Mother of two divers Nations FINIS THE LIFE DEATH OF CYRUS the Great THE FIRST FOUNDER of the EMPIRE OF THE MEDES PERSIANS Represented by the Breast and Arms of Silver in that Image Dan. 2. 32. and by a Bear Dan. 7. 5. and by a Ram with two Horns Dan. 8. 3 20. And the deliverer of the Israelites out of Babylon the seventy years of their Captivity being Expired Whereby much light is given to many of the Prophesies of Isay Jeremy Esekiel and Daniel By Sa. Clarke sometime Minister in St Bennet Fink London LONDON Printed for William Miller at the Gilded Acorn in St Pauls Church-yard near the little North Door 1664. THE LIFE DEATH OF CYRUS the Great The first Founder of the PERSIAN EMPIRE CYRVS was the Son of Cambyses King of Persia by Mandanes the daughter of Astyages King of Media He was so named by the Prophet Isay almost two hundred years before he was born Isay 45. 1 4. Thus saith the Lord unto Cyrus his annointed c. Cyrus his first Education was under his Father Cambyses with whom he lived till he was twelve years old and somewhat more at which time he was sent for together with his Mother Mandanes by his Gandfather Astyages into Media In Media he served Astyages first as one of his Halberdiers and then as one of his Armour-bearers till he was called home into Persia by his Father Cambyses when as yet he had one year to spend at School and when he had spent seventeen years at School amongst Boys he spent ten years more amongst youths When Cyrus was now almost sixteen years old Evilmerodach the King of Assyria being about to marry a wife called Nicotris made an in-rode with a great Army of Horse and Foot into the borders of Media there to take his pleasure in hunting and harrassing of the Country against whom Astyages and Cyaxares his Son and Cyrus his Grand child who then first began to bear Arms being but about fifteen or sixteen years old marched out met with him and in a great Battel overthrew him and drave him out his borders Indeed the Death of Nebuchadnezzar the Father of Evilmerodach gave courage to those that had found him a troublesome neighbour to stand upon prouder tearms with the Babylonians than in his flourishing estate they durst have used But Evilmerodach being too proud to digest this loss which he had received by the Medes and their Allies the Persians under Cyrus he drew unto his party the Lydians and all the People of the lesser Asia with great gifts and strong perswasions hoping by their assistance to overwhelm his enemies with a strong invasion whom in vain he had sought to weary out by a lingring War The issue of these great preparations made by Evilmâ—râ—â—ach against the Medes was such as opened the way to the fulfilling divers Prophesics which were many years before uttered against Babel by Isay and Jeremy For the Babylonians and their Confederates who trusting in their numbers thought to have buried the Medes and Persians under their thick showers of Arrow and Darts were encountered with an Army of stout and well trained men weightily Armed for close fight by whom they were beaten in a great Battel wherein Evilmerodach was slain After which that great Empire that was raised and upheld by Nebuchadnezzar was grievously shaken and enfeibled under his unprosperous Son and left to be sustained by his Grand-child Belshazzar a man more like to have overthrown it when it was greatest and strongest than to repair it when it was in a way of falling Xenophon relates the matter thus When the Babylonian had enlarged his Empire with many Victories and was become Lord of all Syria and many other Countries he began to hope that if the Medes could be brought under his Subjection there would not then be left any Nation adjoyning able to make head against him For the King of the Medes was able to bring into the Field sixty thousand Foot and ten thousand Horse to which the Forces of Persia being joyned made an exceeding great Army Considering therefore the strength of such a neighbour he invited Craesus King of Lydia a Prince very mighty both in men and Treasure and with him other Lords of Asia the less to his assistance alleadging that those Eastern Nations were very powerfull and so firmly conjoyned by League and many Alliances that it would not be easie no nor possible for any one Nation to resist them With these suggestions backed with rich Presents he drew to himself so many adherents as he compounded an Army of two hundred Thousand Foot and sixty thousand Horse Of which ten thousand Horse and forty thousand Foot were brought by Craesus who had great cause of enmity against the Medes for that they had made great Wars against his Father Allyattes Whereupon Cyrus was by his Father Cambyses and the Council of the Kingdom made Generall of the Persian Army and sent away into Media with thirty Thousand Souldiers and one Thousand Commanders all of equall Authority under him and when he came thither he was also made by his Uncle Cyaxares who had sent for him Generall of the Median Forces and the management of the War against the Babylonian was wholly comitted to him With this Army he marched against Evilmerodach and his associates and in a very bloody Bartell overthrew them In which defeat Evilmerodach King of Babylon being slain so many of his Subjects revolted that Babylon it self could no longer be secured but by the help of Mercenaties waged with great sums of money out of Asia the less Egypt and other Countries which new leavied Forces were also defeated and scattered by Cyrus who following his advantage possessed himself of a great part of the lesser Asia Those Persians which followed Cyrus and were by him levied are reckoned to be thirty thousand Foot of which one thousand were Armed Gentlemen the rest of the common sort were Archers and such as used the Dart or Sling Craesus notwithstanding the men lost and the