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OLD AND NEW
^n^^iimn
CONNECTED IN THE HIST
JEWS AND NEIGHBOURIiNG NA
FROM THE
Deciensions of the Kingdoins of Israel and Judah
TO THE
grime df etjtcst.
BY HUMPHREY PRIDE AUX, D.D.
11
BEAN OF NORWICH.
TO WHICH IS NOW ADDCB, -^M^
THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
CONTAINING SOME LETTERS WHICH HE WROTE IN DEFENCE AND ILLUS- TRATION OF CERTAIN PARTS OP HIS CONNEXIONS.
ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT NEW MAPS AND PLATES.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
TOL. If.
JfEW-YORK
PUBLISHED BY E. FLISS AND E. WHITE, COLLINS AND HAN-VAY,. EVERT DUYCKINCK, AND J. V. SEAMANT.
•I & J. Harper, Prinlsrs
1 823.
THE
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
CONNECTED, &c.
BOOK VL
HE who succeeded Ezra in the government of Judah and Jerusalem, was Nehemiah,* a very religious and most excellent person ; one that was nothing behind his IXx*^" predecessor, saving his learning and great knowledge in the law of God. He came to Jerusalem in the twentieth jear of Artaxerxes Longimanus, and, by a commission from him, suppressed that of Ezra, and succeeded him in the go- vernment of Judah and Jerusalem.'' And he had in that com- mission, by an express clause therein inserted, full authority given him to repair the walls and set up the gates of Je- rusalem, and to fortify it again in the same manner as it was before it was dismantled and destroyed by the Babylonians. He was a Jew, whose ancestors had formerly been citizens of Jerusalem ; for there, he saith, was the place of his fa- thers' sepulchres.*^ But as to the tribe or family which he was of, no more is said, but only that his father's name was Hachaliah ; who seemeth to have been of those Jews, who having gotten good settlements in the land of their captivity, chose rather to abide in them, than return into their own country, when leave was granted for it. It is most likely, that he was an inhabitant of the city of Shushan ; and that it was his dwelling there that gave his son an opportunity of gaining an advancement in the king's palace : (or he was one of the cup-bearers of king Artaxerxes,*^ which was a place of great honour and advantage in the Persian court, because of the privilege it gave him of being daily in the king's presence, and the opportunity which he had thereby of gain-
a Neh. ii. b Neh. ii. 1 ; v. 14. c jJch. ii. 3.
Vide Brfssoniitm ele Regno Prefixe, lib. 1, sec. 93,
4 CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OF [PART I.
ing his favour, for the obtaining of any petition which he should make to hinri; and that especially since the times of hi» attendance always were, when the king was making his heart merry with the wine which he served up unto him ; for this is the best opportunity with all men, for the obtaining any boon that shall be desired of them, because they are always thea in the best humour of complying. And it was at such a time that he asked the government of Judea, and obtained it.e And by the like advantages of his place, no doubt, it was, that he gained those immense riches which enabled him for so many years, out of his own private purse only, to live in his government with that splendour and expense, as will be hereafter related, without burdening the people at all for it.* And no doubt it was by the favour of queen Esther, as being of the same nation and people with her, that he obtained so honourable and advantageous a preferment in that court. However, neither the honour and advantage of this place, nor the long settlement of his family out of his country, could make him forget his love for it, or lay aside that zeal which he had foi the religion of his forefathers, who had formerly dwelt in it. For though he had been born and bred in a strange land, yet he had a great love for Sion, and an heart thoroughly set for the advancing of the prosperity of it, and was in all things a very religious observer of the law of his God. And therefore when some came from Je- rusalem, and told him of the ill state of that city, how the walls of it were still in many places broken down, and the gates of it in the same demolished state as when burned with fire by the Babylonians, and that, by reason hereof, the rem- nant of the captivity that dwelt there lay open, not only to the incursions and insults of their enemies, but also to the reproach and contempt of their neighbours, as a weak and despicable people ;& and that they were in both these respects in great affliction and grief of heart ; the good man, being suitably moved with this representation, applied himself to fasting and prayer unto the Lord his God, and earnestly supplicated to him for his people of Israel, and the place which he had chosen for his worship among them. And, having thus implored the divine mercy against this evil, he resolved next to make his application to the king for the re- dressing of it, trusting in God for the inclining of his heart thereto ; and therefore when his turn came next to wait in his office, the king observing his countenance to be sad, which at other times used not so to be, and asking the cause (hereof, he took this opportunity to lay before him the distressed state
e Neh. ii. 1. f Neh. v. lA—'i9. s Neh. i-
BOOK VI. J THE OLB AND Ni3W TESTAMfiJSTS. 5
of his country ; and, owning this to be a cause of great grief and sadness unto him, he prayed the king to send him thither to remedy it j*" and by the favour of queen Esther, he had his petition granted unto him : for it being particu- larly remarked in the sacred text/ that the queen was sitting by the king, when Nehemiali obtained this grant, it suffi- ciently intimates that her favour was assisting to him herein. And accordingly a royal decree was issued out for the re- building of the walls and gates of Jerusalem, and Nehemiah was sent thither with it, as governor of the province of Judea, to put it in execution. And, to do him the more honour, the king sent a guard of horse with him, under the command of some of the captains of his army, to conduct him in safety to his government. And he wrote letters to all the gover- nors on this side the river Euphrates, to further him in the work on which he was sent ; and also gave his order to Asaph, the keeper of his forests in those parts, to allow him as much timber out of them as should be needed for the finishing of it. However, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Samaritans, and other neighbouring nations round, did all they could to hinder him from proceeding therein. And to this they were excited, not only by the ancient and bitter enmity which those people bore to the whole Jewish nation, because of the different manners and different religions which they were of, but most especially at this time, because of their lands : for during the time that the Jews were in captivity, these nations, having seized their lands, were forced to restore them on their return.'' For which reason they did all they could to oppose their resettlement ; hoping, that if they could be kept low, they might fmd an opportu- nity, some time or other, of resuming again the prey they had lost. But Nehemiah was not at all discouraged hereat ; for having, on his arrival at Jerusalem, made known to the people the commission with which he was sent, he took a view of the ruins of the old walls, and immediately set about the repairing of them ;' dividing the people into several companies, and assigning to each of them the quarter where they were to work ; but reserving to himself the reviewal and direction of Ihe whole ; in which he laboured so effectu- ally, that all was accomplished by the end of the month Elul," within the compass of fifty-two days, notwithstanding all manner of opposition that was made against him, both from within and from without. For, from within, several false prophets, and other treacherous persons, endeavoured to
h Neb. ii. i Neh. ii. 6.
k Josephus Antiq. lib. 1 1 , c. 4. 1 Neh. iii ; iv.
m Neh. vi.
Vol, ir. :
6 eONNEXlOV OF THE HISTORY OF [PART I.
create him obstructions ; and, from without, Sanballat the Horonite, Tobias the Ammonite, Gcshem the Arabian, and several others, gave him all the disturbance they were able, not onlj by underhand dealings, and treacherous tricks and contrivances, but also by open force : so that while part of the people laboured in carrying on the building, the other part stood to their arms to defend them against the assaults of such as had designs against them. And all had their arms -xt hand, even while they worked, to be ready, at a signal gi- ven, to draw together to any part where the enemy should be discovered to be coming upon them. And by this means they secured themselves against all theattempts and designs of their enemies, till the work was brought to a conclusion. And when they had thus far finished the walls and set up the gates, a public dedication of them was celebrated with great so- lemnity by the priests and Levites, and all the people."
The burden which the people underwent in the carrying on of this work, and the incessant labour which they were forced to undergo to bring it to so speedy a conclusion, being very great, and such as made many of them faint and groan under it, and express a despair of being able to perfect it ;' to revive their drooping spirits, and make them the more easy and ready to proceed in that which was farther to be done, care was taken to relieve them from a much greater burden, the oppression of usurers, which they then in great misery lay under, and had much greater reason to complain of.^ For the rich, taking advantage of the necessities of the meaner sort, had exacted heavy usury of them, making them pay the centesima for all moneys lent them,i that is, one per cent, for every month, which amounted to twelve per cent. for the whole year ; so that they were forced to mortgage their lands, and sell their children into servitude, to have wherewith to buy bread foi- the support of themselves and their families ; whicli being a manifest breach of the law of God given them by Moses (for that forbids all the race of Israel to take usury of any of their brethren,)"^ Nehemiah, on his hearing hereot, resolved forthwith to remove so great an iniquity : in order whereto he called a general assembly of the people ; M'hcre, having sot forth unto them the nature of the offence, how great a breach it was of the divine law, and how h(;avy an oppression upon their brethren, and how much it might provoke the wrath of God against them, he caused it to be enacted, by the general suffrage of that whole assembly, that all should return to their brethren whatsoever
n Neh. xii. o Neli. iv. 10. jj Neh. v.
q Neh. v. 11. Vide Salmasium tie Fcenore Trapezitico. r Exo('., xiii. 25. Levit. xxv. 36, 37. Dent. .^xiii. 19.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 7
had been exacted of them upon usury, and also release all the lands, vineyards, olive)'ards, and houses, which had been taken of them on mortgage upon the account hereof.
And thus far Neheniiah having executed the main end for which he obtained the favour of the king to be sent to Je- rusalem, he appointed Hanani and Hananiah to be governors of the city, and returned again unto him into Persia. For a time had been set him for his return again to court, when he first obtained to be sent from thence oa this commission ;* which, as expressed in the text, plainly imports a short time, and not that of twelve years (after which he again went unto the king,)*^ as some do interpret it. And his having appointed governors of the city as soon as the walls were built, evidently implies, that he then went from thence, and was absent for some time : for, had he still continued at Jerusa- lem, he would not have needed any deputies to govern the place. And, furthermore, the building of the walls of Je- rusalem being all for which he prayed his first commission, when this vTas performed, he seems to have needed a new authority before he could go on to other proceedings which were necessary for the w(;l! settling of the affairs of that country. But, on his coming to the king, and having given him an account how all things stood in the province, and what farther was needful to be done for the well regulating of it, he soon obtained to be sent back again to take care hereof; and the shortness of his absence seems to have been the cause that there is no notice taken of it in the text, though the particulars I have mentioned seem sufficiently to imply it.
Nehemiah being returned from the Persian court with a new commission, forthwith set himself to carry on the reformation of the church and the state of the Jews Anax.^21. which Ezra had begun, and took along with him the advice and direction of that learned and holy scribe in all that he attempted herein. The first thing that he did, was to provide for the security of the city, which he had now fortified, by settling rules for the opening and shutting of the gates, and keeping watch and ward on the towers and walls.
But finding Jerusalem to be but thinly inhabited, and that, to make this burden more easy, there needed more inhabi- tants to bear their share with them in it, he projected the thorough repeopling of the place." In order whereto, he prevailed first with the rulers and great men of the nation to agree to build them houses there, and dwell in them ; and then others, following their example, offered themselves
•? Neh. ii. «. t Neh.siii.6. 11 Neli. vii. 3, 4.
a CONNEXION OF TWE HISTORY OK [PAUT I.
voluntarily to do the same.'^ And of the rest of the people every tenth man was taken by lot, and obliged to coaie to Jerusalem, and there build them houses, and settle them- selves and families in them. And now the city was fortified, and all that had their dwelling in it were there well secured by walls and gates against the insults of their enemies, and the incursions of thieves and robbers, who before molested them, all willingly complied herewith ; by which means the houses, as well as the walls and gates, being again rebuilt, and fully replenished with inhabitants, it soon after this re- covered its ancient lustre, and became again a city of great note in those parts. So that Herodotus, who travelled through Judea a little after this time, doth, in the descrip- tion which he gives us of it,^ compare it to Sardis, the me- tropolis of all the lesser Asia,^ as hath been before observed ; which manifestly proves, that, by the restoring and building of the street and ditch of Jerusalem, mentioned in the pro- phecy of Daniel, could not be meant this rebuilding of the walls and void places of that city ; for what was predicted by that passage was not to be done but in seven weeks of years, that is, forty-nine years. It must be acknowledged, that Herodotus is said by Eusebius* to have publicly read his history at Athens in the last year of the 83d Olympiad, (that is, four hundred and forty-five years before Christ.) and by others,^ to have gone the next year after, (which is this very year, four hundred and forty-four, of which we now treat,) with a colony of Athenians and other Greeks into Italy, to inhabit Thurium.,'^ a city then newly built near the place where formerly Sibaris stood ; and therefore it may be from hence urged against what I have here said, that Herodotus must, he- fore this time, have ended his travels, which he undertook for the makinc of this history, since this his history uas tinished, and publicly read at Athens the year before. To this I reply, that though he had read'the fnst draught of this history at the tim.e when Eusebiussaith, yet he had not completed it till at least thirty-three years after : for therein he makes mention of the Peloponnesian war, and of thing? done in it in the second,'' and also in the nineteenth*^ year of that war; which last was the thirty-third year after that, wherein he is said by Eusebius to have publicly read that history at Athens; and therefore it could not have been fully completed by him till after that year. The truth of the matter appears plain-
X Nch. xi. y Herndol. lib. 3, initio lihri.
z See above, under the year 010. a In Climnico, siil) Olyinpinde 83.
b Dionysins Halicarnas=pus in Vita Lysiic Oraloris. J'liniiis, lilt. xii. c. 4. ^fralio, lib. xiv. p. firjfi. e Died. Sic. lib. xii. p. 7G, 17, 78.
»l Herodot. lib.7. e Herodot. lib. 9.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 9
ly to have been thus. In the year four hundred and forty- five before Christ, which was the last year of the 83d Olympiad, he did read his first draught of this history at Athens, being then thirty-nine years old, but employed all his life after farther to polish and complete it, and did not put his last hand to it till after the nineteenth year of the Peloponnesian war, which was the thirty-third after his first reading it at Athens. The next year after his having read it there, he went thence with the colony to Tburiu'n, that is, in the first year of (he 8itb Olympiad, which was the three hundred and tenth of the building of Rome according to the Varronian account, *^ and twelve years before the beginning of the Peloponnesian war.s And, on his settling in that place, he revised what he had publicly read at Athens, from whence it is that he is said by Pliny there to have made this history. And after his having continued some time at Thu- rium, he travelled from thence into the East, for the farther completing of this history, and also for the gaining of mate- rials for another, which he was then composing of Assyria and Babylon : but this last was never published,'' though he refers to it in his other history now extant ; the reason, it is supposed, was, that he lived not to finish it, though, by the above-mentioned account, it appears he outlived the seventy- second year of his age, and by other particulars in his history,^ it seems most likely that he lived much longer. And, I doubt not, it was in those travels which he undertook from Thurium, that he went through Judea, and there saw Jeru- salem, which he calls Cadytis ; for that the city which he describes under that name, could be none other than Jerusa- lem, I have already shown.
Nehemiah, finding it necessary to have the genealogies of the people well examined into, and clearly stated, betook himself in the next place to inquire into that matter.'^ And this he did, not only for the sake of their civil rights, that all knowing of what tribe and family they were, they might thereby be directed where to take iheir poss^'bSions ; but especially for the sake of the sanctuary, that none might be admitted to officiate there, either as Levites which were not of the tribe of Levi, or as priests which were not of the family of Aaron. And therefore, for the true settling of the matter, search was made for the old registers ; and having among them found a register of the genealogies of those who came up at first from Babylon with Zerubbabel and
f Plinius, lib. 12, c. 4.
g Dionysius Halicarnasseus in Vita Lysiae Oratoris.
h Herodot. lib. 1. i Vide Userii Annales sub anno J. P. 4306,
kNeh.vii.
10 COWEXIOX OF THE HISTORY OF [PART I.
Jeshua, he settled this matter according to it, adding such as afterward came up, and expunging others whose families were extinguished •, and this hatli caused the dilTerence that is between the accounts which we have of these genealogies in Ezra and Nehemiah ; for, in the second chapter of Ezra, we have tiie old register made by Zerubbabel, and in the seventh of Nehemiah, from the sixth verse, to (he end of the chapter, a copy of it as settled by Nehemiah, with the aherations 1 have mentioned.
Ezra, having completed his edition of the law of God, and written it out fairly and correctly in the Chaldean cha- racter,^ did this year, on the feast of trumpets, publicly read it to the people at Jerusalem. This feast was celebrated on the fust of Tisri,"" the seventh month of the Jews' ecclesi- astical year, and the hrst of (heir civil year. Their coming out of Egypt having been in the month of Nisan," from that time the beginning of the year, in all ecclesiastical matters, was reckoned among them from the beginning of that month (which happened about the time of the vernal equinox ;) but, in all civil matters, as in contracts, bargains, and such like, they still con(inned to go by the old form, and began their year from the first of Tisri" (which happened about the time of the autumfial equinox,) as all other nations of the East then did (as halh been afore observed,) and all instruments and writings, relating to contracts, bar- gains, or other civil matters among them, were dated ac- cording to this year ; and all thetr jubilees'' and sabbatical years'^ began with it: and, therefore, it being reckoned their new-year's day, they celebrated it with a festival. And this festival being solemnized by the sounding of trumpets, from the rnori'ing of that day to the end of it, thereby to proclaim and give notice to all of the beginning of the new-year, it hath from hence been called the feast of trumpets. For the celebrating of this feast tb.e people being assembled from all parts of the land at Jerusalem, and understanding that Ezra had finished his revisal of the law, and written out a correct copy of it, they called upon him (o have it read unto them.'' Whereon a scaltoid, or large pulpit, being erected m the largest street of the city, where most might stand to hear, Ezra ascended into it, with thirteen others of the principal elders of the people ; and, having placed six of them on his right-hand, and seven on his left, he s(ood up in (he midst of them, and, having blessed the Lord, t!ie great God, he began
I Neb. viii. in Niimh. xxix. 1. Le\ it. xxiii. 24. n Exod. xii. 2.
o Joseph. Antif|. lib. 1, c. 4. Talmud in Rosh Hashanali.
p Levit. XXV. U.
i| Levit. XXV. 8, *J. Maimonide<^ de Anno SHbbatico. r Neb. viii.
LOOK Yl.] THE OLD AND NKW TE5f AMENTS. 1 I
to read the law out of the Hebrew text. And as he did read it in this language, thirteen others of the Levites, whom he had instructed and appointed for this purpose, rendered it period by period into CJialdee, which v.as then the vul-^ar language of the people, and therein gave them the meaning of every particular part, and made them understand the same. And thus the holy scribe, with these his assistants, continued from morning till noon, to read and explain unto the people the law of God, in such manner as might best make them to know and understand it. But it being a festival day, when the timeof dining approached, Nehemiah. and Ezra, and the rest that were assisting to them in thus instructing the peo- ple, dismissed them for that time to their difiner, to eat and drink, and rejoice before the Lord the remaining part of the day, because it was consecrated to be thus kept holy unto him. But the next morning they assembled again in the same place, and Ezra and his assistants went on farther to read and explain to them the lav/ of God, in the same manner as they had done the day before ; and when they came to the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, wherein is written the law of the feast of tabernacles, and had from thence explained unto them the obligation which was upon them to observe this festival, and shown them, that the fifteenth day of that month was the day appointed for the beginning of it, this excited an eager desire in all the people of fulfilling the law of God in this particular. And therefore proclamation was forthwith made through all Judah to give notice of the festival, and to warn all to be present at Jerusalem on the said fifteenth day of that month, for the observing of it. And accordingly they came thither at the time prescribed, and, as they had been instructed from the law of God, prepared booHis made of the branches of trees, and kept the festival in them through the whole seven days of its continuance, in such solemn manner as had not been observed before from the days of Joshua to that time. Ezra taking the advantage of having the people in so great a number thus assembled together, and so well disposed towards the law of God, and the obser- vance of it, went on with his assistants farther to read and ex- plain it unto them, in the same manner as had been done in the two former days ; and this they did, day by day, from the first day to the last day of the festival, till they had gone through the whole law. By which the people, perceiving in how many things they had transgressed the commands of God, through the ignorancein v/hich they had been kept of them, (for till now the law had never been read to them since their return from Babylon,) expressed great trouble of heart hereat, being much grieved for their sins, and exceedingly terrified with
1.2 CONNKXIOX OF THK HISTORV OF [PART 1,
the fear of God's wrath for the punishment of them. Nehe- miah and Ezra, finding them in so good a temper, appHed themselves to make the best improvement that could be made of it, for the honour of God, and the interest of reli- gion ; and therefore forthwith proclaimed a fast to be held the next day save one after the festival was ernled,'^ that is, on the twenty-fourth day of the same month : to which hav- ing called all the people, while the sense of these things was fresh and warm on their minds, they excited them to make a public and solemn co'ifession before God of all their sins, and also to enter into a solemn vow and covenant with God to avoid them for the future, and strictly hold themselves fast to the observance of God's laws. The observances which they chiefly obliged tlumselves to in this covenant were ; 1st. Not to make intermarriages with the Gentiles, either by giving theirdaughtcrs to them,orby takingany of their daugh- ters to themselves ; 2dly. To observe the sabbaths and sab- baticalyears ; odly. To pay their annual tribute to the tem- ple, for the repairing of it, and the finding of all necessa- ries for the carrying on of the public service in it ; and, 4thly, To pay the tithes and first-fruits to the priests and Levites. Which particulars, thus especially named in this covenant, show unto us what were the laws of God which hitherto they had been most neglectful of since their return from their captivity.
And it being their ignorance of the law of God that had led them into these transgressions against it, and this igno- rance having been occasioned by their not having it read unto them ; for the preventing hereof for the future, they, from this time, got the learnedest of the Levites, and other scribes that were best skilled in the law of God, to read it unto them in every city : whiclj at first they did no doubt in the same manner as Ezra had done, that is, by gathering the people together (o them in some wide street, or other open place of their city, which was of fittest capacity to receive them. But the inconvenience of this being soon felt, espe- cially in the winter and stormy seasons of the year, for the remedy hereof, they erected them houses or tabernacles, wherein to meet for this purpose ; and this was the original of s^'nagogues among them. That they had no synagogues before the Babylonish captivity, is plain, not only from the silence which is of them in all the Scriptures of the Old Testament, but also from several passages therein, which evidently prove there could be none in those days. For, as it is a common saying among the Jews,* that, where there is
s Nehemiah ix.
f l^Iid^;l.s!l Esther 123. 1. Tanciiuma 54.2
BOOK VI.j THE OLD AND NE,W TESTAMENTS. J 3
no book of the law, there can be no synagogue ; so the roasoji of the thing proves it : for the main service of the synagogue being the reading of the Jaw unto the people, where there was no book of the law to be read, there certainly would be no synagogue. But how rare the book of the law was through all Judah before the Ba])ylonish captivity, many texts of Scripture tell us. When Jehoshaphat sent teachers through all Judah to instruct the people in the law of God, they carried a book of the law with tliem," which they need- ed not to have done, if there had been any copies of the law in those cities to which they went ; which certainly there would have been, had there then been any synagogues in them ; it being the same absurdity to suppose a Jewish syna- gogue without a copy of the law, as it would with us to suppose a parish church without a Bible. And, therefore, as this proves the vvant of the law through all Judah in those times, so doth it also the want of synagogues in them. And when Hilkiah found the law in the temple,^ neither he nor king Josiah needed have been so surprised at it, had books of the law been common in those times. Their behaviour on that occasion sufficiently proves, they bad never seen it before, which could not be, had there then been any other copies of it to be found among the people. And if there were no copies of the law at that time among them, there could then be most certainly no synagogues for them to re- sort to, for the hearing of it read unto them. From hence it plainly follows, there could be no synagogues among the Jews till after the Babylonish captivity. And it is most pro- bable, that Ezra's reading to them the law, and the necessity which thereon they peiceivcd there was of having it oftener read among them, for their instruction in it gave them the occasion of erecting them after the captivity, in the manner as I have related 5 and most learned men are of this opinion \^ and some of the Jews themselves say as much.'' Concern- ing these synagogues, I think it proper here to inform the reader, 1st. In what places they were to be erected ; 2dly. What was the service to be performed in them ; 3dly. What were the times of their assembling for this service ; and 4thly. Who were their ministers to perform it.
I. As to the first, their rule was, that a synagogue was to be erected in every place where there were ten Batelnim,*
u 2 Chron. xvii.i). x 2 Kings xxii.
y Spencer de Legibus Heb. lib. i. c. 4, sec. 10. Vitringa de Synagoga Ve- tera, lib. 1, part 1, c. 9 — 12. Relandus in Antiq. Sacr. part I, c. 10.
z Maimonides in Tephillah.
a Megillah, c. 1, sec. 3. Maimonides in Tephillah. Lightfoot in his Har- mony, sec. 17, and in his Talmudical Exercitatioas upon Matt. iv. 23-
Vol. IL r^
]4 CONNLXION OF THE HISTORY OF [I'ART i>.
Hint is, ten persons of full age, and free condition, always at leisure to attend the service of it ; for less than ten such, according to them, did not make a congregation, and, with- out such a congregation present, no part of the synagogue service could be performed ; and therefore, wherever they could always be secure of such a congregation, that is, of ten such persons to be present at the service in ail the stated times in which it was to be performed, there they were to build a synagogue. For where ten such persons might al- ways be had at leisure to attend the synagogue in all their religious assemblies, this they reckoned a great city, and here they would have a synagogue to be built ; but not otherwise : for 1 take the rule above mentioned to be restrictive in the negative sense, as well as obligatory in the affirmative, and to show where a synagogue ought not to be built, as well as where it ought, that is, that no synagogue ought to be built in any place, where there were not such a number of in- habitants, as might give a reasonable presumption, that there would be always ten persons at leisure to be present in every synagogue assembly, and that as well on the week days as on the sabbaths, because, without such a number, they could not go on with the synagogue service. At first these syna- gogues were (tiw, but afterward they became multiplied to a great number, in the same manner as parish churches with us, which they much resemble. So that in our Saviour's time there was no town in Judea, but what had one or more of them. The Jews tell us, that about that time, Tiberias alone,'* which was a city of Galilee, had twelve of them, and Jeru- salem' four hundred and eight}- ; but herein they are supposed to have spoken hyperbolically, and to have expressed an un-' certain large number by a certain. If this were to be under- stood strictly and literally, what is said'' by some of these ten Batelnim, that they were the stationary men of the syna- gogue, hired to be always present to make a congregation, must be understood of many of them : for were their num- ber so multiplied, they could not otherwise in every one of them be always sure of a congregation, especially on the working days of the week, two of which were always solemn synagogue days, as well as the sabbaths. It is Lightfoot's opinion, that these ten Batelnim, were the elders and minis- ters that governed and managed the synagogue service ; but this is said without a sufficient foundation lo support it. II. The service to be performed in these synagogue as-
h Beracliotb, f. 8.
c See Lightfoot's Chorograpbical Century, c. 31'.
d Buxtortii Lexicon Rabbinicum, p, 292
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. J^S
semblies, were prayers, reading the Scriptures, and preach- ing and expounding upon them.
1st. For their prayers, they have liturgies, in which are all the prescribed forms of their synagogue worship. These at first were very few ; but since they are increased into a very large bulk, which makes their synagogue service very long and tedious ; and the rubric, by which they regulate it, is very perplexed and intricate, and encumbered with many rites and ceremonious observances ; in all which, they equal, if not exceed, both the superstition and also the length of the popish service. The most solemn part of their prayers are those which they call Shemoneh Eshreh,^ i. e. The eighteen prayers. These, they say, were composed and in- stituted by Ezra and the great synagogue : and to them Rab- bi Gamaliel, a little before the destruction of Jerusalem, added the nineteenth, against the Christians, who are there- in meant under the names of apostates and heretics. It is certain these prayers are very ancient; for mention is made of them in the Mishnah as old settled forms ^^ and no doubt is to be made, but that they were used in our Saviour's time, and at least most of themj^ if not all the eighteen ; and con- sequently that he joined in them with the rest of the Jews, whenever he went into their synagogues, as he always did every sabbath-day.'^ And from hence two things may be in- ferred for the consideration of our Dissenters: 1st. That our Saviour disliked not set forms of prayer in public wor- ship; and, 2dly. That he was contented to join with the pub- lic in the meanest forms rather than separate from it. For these eighteen prayers, in comparison of those now used in our church, are very jejune and empty forms ; and that the reader may see they are so, I shall here add a translation of them in the same order as they are in the Jewish liturgies, adding the nineteenth prayer to them : which, according to the said order, is the twelfth in number as here recited.
1. Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the great God, powerful and tremendous, the high God : bountifully dispensing benetits ; the Creator and Possessor of the universe, who rememberest the good deeds of our fa- thers, and in thy love sendest a Redeemer to those who are
e Of these see Maimonides in Tephillab.
f III Berachotli, c. 4, sec. 3.
g It must be acknowledged, tliat some of these prayers seem to have been composed after the destruction of Jerusalem, and to have reference to it, especially the tenth, the eleventh, the fourteenth and the seventeenth; tiiough it is possible some of tiie?e might refer to the calamities of the an- cienter times.
h Luke iv. \(y.
16 CONKEXiON or XHE HISTORY OF [PARTi.
descended from them, for thy name's sake, O King, our Helper, our Saviour, and our Shield. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who art the shield of Abraham.
2. Thou, O Lord, art powerful for ever. Thou raisest the dead to life, and art mighty to save : thou scndest dowu the dew, stillest the winds, and makest the rain to come down upon the earth, and sustainest with thy beneficence all that live therein ; and of thy abundant mercy makest the dead a^ain to live. Thou helpest up those that fall ; thou curest the sick ; thou loosest them that are bound, and makest good thy word of truth to those that sleep in the dust. Who is to be compared to thee, O thou Lord of might ? And who is like unto thee, O our king, who killest and makest alive, and makest salvation to spring u]) as the herb out of the field ? Thou art faithful to make the dead to rise again to life. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who raisest the dead again to life.
3. Thou art holy, and thy name is holy, and thy saints do praise thee every day. Selah, For a great King and an holy art thou, O God. Blessed art thou, O Lord God most holy.
4. Thou of thy mercy givest knowledge unto men, and tcachest tliem understanding ; give graciously unto us know- ledge, wisdom, and understanding. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who graciously givest knowledge unto men.
5. Bring us back, O our Father, to the observance of thy law, and make us to adhere to thy precepts ; and do thou, O our King, draw us near to thy worship, and convert us unto thee by perfect repentance in thy presence. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who vouchsafest to receive us by repentance.
G. Be thou merciful unto us, O our Father; for we have sinned ; pardon us, O our King: for we have transgressed against thee. For thou art God, good and leady to pardon. Blessed art thou, O Lord most gracious, who multiplicst thy mercies in the forgiveness of sins.
7. Look, we beseech thee, upon our afflictions. Be thou on our side in all our contentions, and plead thou our cause in all litigations ; and make haste to redeem us with a per- fect redemption, for thy name's sake. For thou art our God, our King, and a strong Redeemer. Blessed art thou, O Lord, the Redeemer of Israel.
0. Heal us, O Lord our God, and we shall be healed. Save us, and we shall be saved ; for thou art our praise. Bring unto us sound health, and a perfect remedy for all our infirmities, and for all our griefs, and for all our wounds. For thou art a (Jlod who healcst, and art merciful. Blessed art thou, O I^ord owv God. who rurcst the diseas.cs of thy people Israel.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 17
9. Bless us, O Lord our God, in every work of our hands, and bless unto us the seasons of the year, and give us the dew and the rain to be a blessing unto us upon the face of all our land; and satiate the world with thy blessings, and send down moisture upon every part of the earth that is habita- ble. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who givest thy blessing to the years.
10. Convocate us together by the sound of the great trumpet, to the enjoyment of our liberty, and lift up thy en- sign to call together all of the captivity from the four quar- ters of the earth into our own land. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who gatherest together the exiles of the people of Israel.
11. Restore unto us our judges as at the first, and our counsellors as at the beginning, and remove far from us afflic- tion and trouble, and do thou only reign over us in benignit}', and in mercy, and in righteousness, and injustice. Blessed art thou, O Lord our King, who lovest righteousness and justice.
12. Let there be no hope to them who apostatize from the true religion ; and let heretics, how many soever they be, all perish as in a moment.' And let the kingdom of pride be speedily rooted out and broken in our days.'' Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, who destroyest the wicked, and bringest down the proud.
13. Upon the pious and the just, and upon tiie proselytes of justice,' and upon the remnant of thy people of the house of Israel, let thy mercies be moved, O Lord our God ; and give a good reward unto all who faithfully put their trust in thy name, and grant us our portion with them, and for ever let us not be ashamed ; for we put our trust in thee. lilessed art thou, O Lord, who art the support and confidence of the just.
14. Dwell thou in the midst of Jerusalem thy city, as thou hast promised, build it with a building to last for ever; and do this speedily, even in our days. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who buildest Jerusalem.
15. Make the offspring of David thy servant speedily to grow up and flourish, and let our horn be exalted in thy sal-
i This is the prayer which was added by Rabbi Gamaliel against the Chris- tians, or, as others say, by Rabbi Samuel the little, who was one of his scholars. k The Roman empire.
1 The proselytes of justice were such as received the whole Jewish law, and conformed in ail things to their religion. Olher proselytes thei-e were, who conformed only to the seven precepts of the sons of Noah ; and these were called the proselytes of the gate, because they worshipped only in the outer court of the temple, and were admitted no farther than the gate leading into the inner courts.
18 CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OF [PART I.
vation : for we hope for thy salvation every day. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who makest the horn of our salvation to flourish.
16. Hear our voice, O Lord our God, most merciful Father, pardon and have mercy upon us, and accept of our prayers with mercy and favour, and send us not away empty from thy presence, O our King; for thou hearest with mercy the prayer of thy people Israel. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hearest prayer.
17. Be thou well pleased, O Lord our God, with thy peo- ple Israel, and have regard unto their prayers : restore thy worship to the inner part of thy house, and make haste with favour and love to accept of the burnt sacrifices of Israel, and their prayers ; and let the worship of Israel thy people be continually well-pleasing unto thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who restores! thy divine presence to Zion.
18. We will give thanks unto thee with praise; for thou art the Lord our God, the God of our Fathers for ever and ever. Thou art our Rock, and the Rock of our life, the Shield of our salvation. To all generations will we give thanks unto thee, and declare thy praise, because of our life which is always in thy hands, and because of our souls, which are ever depending upon thee, and because of thy signs, which are every day with us, and because of thy wonders and marvellous lovingkindnesses, which are morning and evening and night continually before us. Thou art good, for thy mercies are not consumed ; thou art merciful, for thy lovingkindnesses fail not. For ever we hope in thee. And for all these mercies be thy name, O King, blessed, and ex- alted, and lifted up on high for ever and ever : and let all that live give thanks unto thee. Selah, And let them in truth and sincerity praise thy name, O God of our salvation, and our help. Selah. Blessed art thou, O Lord, whose name is good, and whom it is fitting always to give thanks unto thee.
19. Give peace, beneficence, and benediction, grace, be- nignity, and mercy unto us, and to Israel thy people. Bless us, O our Father, even all of us together, as one man, with the light of thy countenance. For in the light of thy coun- tenance hast thou given unto us, O Lord our God, the law of life, and love, and benignity, and righteousness, and blessing, and mercy, and life, and peace. And let it seem good in thine eyes to bless thy people Israel with thy peace at all times, and in every moment. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who blessest thy people Israel with peace. Amen.
Since our Saviour spared not freely to tell the Jews of all the curruptions which they had in his time run into, and on all
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AXi) NEW TEsTA.ME.NTS. 1?
occasions reproached them therewith, had it been contrary to the will of God to use set forms of prayer in his public service, or had it been displeasing to him to be addressed to ia such mean forms, when much better might have been made ; we may be sure he would have told them of both, and joined with them in neither. But he having never found fault with them for using set forms, but, on the contrary, taunht his own disciples a set form to pray by ; nor at any time expressed a dislike of the forms then in use, because of the meanness and emptiness of them, but always joined with them in their sy- nagogues in the forms above recited, this may satisfy our Dissenters, if any thing can satisfy men so perversely bent after their own wajs, that neither our using set forms of prayers in our public worship, nor the using of such which they think not sufficiently editing, can be objpctions sufficient to justify them in their refusal to join with us in them ; for they have the example of Christ in both these thus directly against them. The truth is, whether there be a form or no form, or whether the form be elegantly or meanly composed, nothing of this availeth to the recommending of our prayers unto God. It is the true and sincere devotion of the heart only that can make them acceptable unto him ; for it is this only that gives life and vigour, and true acceptance, to all our religious addresses unto him. Without this how elegantly and moving soever the prayer maybecomposed,and with how much seeming fervour and zeal soever it may be noured out, all is as dead matter and of no validity in the presence of our God. But if we bring this with us to his worship, any form of prayer, provided it be of sound words, may be suffi- cient to make us and our worship acceptable unto him, and obtain mercy, peace, and pardon, from him. For it is not the fineness of speech, or the elegancy of expression, but the sincerity of the mind, and the true devotion of the heart only that God regards in all our prayers which we offer up unto him. It is true, a new jingle of words, and a fervent delivery of them by the minister in prayer, may have some effect upon the auditors, and often raise, in such of them as are affected this way, a devotion which other- wise they would not have. But this being wholly artificial, which all drops again, as soon as the engine is removed that raised it, it is none of that true habitual devotion, which can alone render us acceptable unto our God in any of our ad- dresses unto him. This we ought to bring with us, whenever we come into the house of God to worship before him ; and with this, in any form which is of sound words, we may pray acceptably unto him, and none can ever do so without it. But whether any form of such sound words can be well preserve'l
120 CONNEXION OF THE HISTOUV OF [PART 1.
in those extemporary ciUisions of jiraycr which some delight in, whether this doth not often lead them into indecent, and sometin^es into blasphemous expressions, to the great dis- honour of God, and the damage of religion, it behooves those who are for this way seriously to consider.
But, to return from whence I have digressed ; these nine- teen prayers were enjoined (o be said by all that were of age, of what sex or condition soever, either in public or in pri- vate, three times every day, that is, in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night.*" And they were; of that esteem, and arc so still, among them, that they allow the name of prayer to be proper to the saying of these nineteen prayers only ; looking on it by way of eminence to be much more so than the saying of all the rest. And therefore they are, on every synagogue day, offered up in the most solemn manner, in all (heir public assemblies. But these prayers are, in their orhces, no other than as the Lord's prayer in ours, tliat is, they are the fundamental and principal part: for besides them they have many other prayers, some going be- fore, others interspersed between them, and others following after, wliich all together make their synagogue service very long. Our Saviour found fault with their prayers for being too long in his time." Many additions in their liturgies have made them much more so since.
2. The second part of their synagogue service is the read- ing of the Scriptures, which is of three sorts; 1st. The Kiriath Shema ; 2d. The reading of the law ; and, 3d. The reading of the prophets. Of the two latter I have already spoken ; and therefore 1 shall now treat only of the tirst. — It consists in the reading of three portions of Scripture." The lirst is from the beginning of the fourth verse of the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, to the end of the ninth verse ; the second, from the beginning of the thirteenth verse of the eleventh chapter of Deuteronomy, to the end of the twen- ty-first verse ; and the third, from the begiiming of the thir- ty-seventh verse of the fifteenth chapter of Numbers, to the end of the chapter. And because the first of these portions in the Hebrew Bible begins with the word Shema, that is, hear^ they call all these three together the Shema, and the reading of them Kiriath Shema, that is. The reading of the Shema. This reading of the Shema is accompanied with several prayers and benedictions, both before and after it, and is, next the saying of the nineteen prayers, the most
in Maimonides in Tepliillali. II Matt, xxiii. 14. Mark xii. 14. Luke xx. 47.
o Maimonides in Kiriath Shema. Vitringa de Synagoga Vetcre, lib. 3, part 2, c. 15.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD ANB NEW TESTAMENTS* 21
solemn part of their religious service; and is, in the same man- ner as that, to be performed according to their ritual every day, (that is, either pubHcly in their synagogue assemblies, or else privately out of them, on those days when there are no such assembhes, or when they cannot be present at them,) only with this difference, that, whereas the nineteen prayers are to be said thrice every day, and by every person of age, without any exception, the reading or repeating of the She- ma is only to be twice a day, that is, morning and evening, and the males only which are of free condition, are obliged to it, all women and servants being excused from the duty. They think they are bound to the repeating of this She- ma every morning and evening, because of the words of the law, (Deut. vi. 7,) " And thou shalt talk of them when thou liest down, and when thou risest up :" and also because of the like words, (Deut. xi. 19.) The reading or repeating of this Shema in the manner as is here related, they think, is of great moment for the preserving of religion among them : as most certainly it must be, because thereby they do twice every day make confession of the unity of God, and of the duties which they owe unto him.
3. The third part of the synagogue service, is the ex- pounding of the Scriptures, and preaching to the people from them. The first was performed at the time of the reading of them, and the other after the reading both of the law and the prophets was over. It is plain Christ taught the Jews in their synagogues both these ways. When he came to Na- zareth, his own city, he was called out, as a member of that synagogue, to read the Haphterah, that is, the section or les- son out of the prophets which was to be read that day.P And when he stood up and read it, he sat down and expound- ed it, as was the usage of the Jews in both these cases. For, out of reverence to the law and the prophets, they stood up when they did read any portion out of either, and, in re- gard to themselves as teachers, they sat when they expound- ed. But in all other synagogues, of which he was not a member, when he entered into them (as he always did every sabbath-day wherever he was,)'^ he taught the people in ser- mons, after the reading of the law and tlie prophets was over. And so St. Paul taught the Jews in their synagogue at Anti- och in Pisidia ;"■ for there it is expressly said, in the sacred text, that his preaching was after the reading of the law and the prophets was ended.
in. The times of their synagogue service were three days a week, besides their holidays, whether fasts or festivals f
p Luke iv. 16, 17, &,c. q Luke vi. 16.
r Actsxiii. 15, s Maimonides ia Tephillali.
Vor„ TI. 4
22 CONNEXION OP THE HISTORY OF [PART I^
and thrice on every one of those days, that is, in the mornings and in the afternoon, and at night. Their ordinary syna- gogue days in every week were Monday, Thursday, and Sa- turday. Saturday was their sabbath, the day set apart among them for rchgious exercises by divine appointment, and the other two by the appointment of the elders, that so three days might not pass without the pubhc reading of the law among them. The reason which they gave for this is taken from their mystical interpretation of the law. For whereas we tind it said (Exod. xv. 22,) that the Israelites were in great distress on their travelling three days in the wilder- ness without water, by water they tell us is there mystically meant the law ; and therefore say, that for this reason, they ought not to be three days together without the hearing of it : and consequently, for the avoiding hereof, they have or- dained, that it be publicly read in their synagogues thrice every week. And their manner of doing it is as followeth. The whole law, or five books of Moses, being divided into as many sections or lessons, as there are weeks in the year (as hath been before shown,) on Monday tliey began with that which was proper for tliat week, and read it half way through, and on Thursday proceeded to read the remainder; and on Saturday, which was their solemn sabbath, they did read all over again, from the beginning to the end of the said lesson or section ; and this both morning and evening. On the week days they did read it only in the morning, but on the sabbath they did read it in the evening, as well as in the morning, for the sake of labourers and artificers, who could not leave their work to attend the synagogues on the week days, that so all might hear twice every week the whole sec- tion or lesson of that week read unto them. And when the reading of the prophets was added to that of the law, they observed the same order in it. As the synagogue service was to be on three days every week for the sake of their hear- ing the law ; so it was to be thrice on those days for the sake of their prayers. For it was a constant rule among them, that all were to pray unto God three times every day, that is, in the morning at the time of the morning sacrifice, and in the evening at the time of the evening sacrifice, and at the begitjning of the night, because till then the evening sacrifice was still left burning upon the altar. It is certain, that it was anciently among God's people the steady prac- tice of good and religious persons, to otrer up their prayers to God thrice every day. This we find David, and this we find Daniel did. For the former says, (Psalm Ix. 17,) "Evening, morning, and at noon, will 1 pray." And the latter tells us, that, notwithstanding the king's decree to the contrary, "He
HOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. ,23
kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks unto his God, as he did aforetime." By which it is plainly implied, that he did not only at that time thus pray, but that it was always his constant custom so to do. They having had no synagogues till after the Babylonish cap- tivity, till then they had not any set forms for their prayers ; neither had they any solemn assemblies for their praying to God at all, except at the temple only. That was always the house of prayer; so Isaiah,* and so from him our Saviour calls it;" and to this use Solomon consecrated it; and there the times of prayer were fixed to the times of the morning and evening sacrifice : and the ordinary time of the former was at nine in the morning, and of the latter at three in the afternoon ; but on extraordinary days, as sabbaths, festivals, and fasts, there being additional sacrifices, additions were al- so made to the times of otTering them, and both the morn- ing and the evening service did then begin sooner than on other days. As scon as they did begin, the stationary men v/ere present in the court of Israel, to offer up their prayers for the whole congregation of Israel ;^ and other devout persons, who voluntarily attended, were without in the court, called The court of the women, praying for themselves. But neither of these had any public forms to pray by, nor any public ministers to officiate to them herein, but all prayed in private bj themselves, and all according to their own pri- vate conceptions.^ And therefore our Saviour, in the para- ble of the publican and Pharisee, making them to go up both together into the temple to pray, introduceth them there as each making his own prayer for himsclt.^ For there all thus prayed, and so continued to do all the while the public sa- crifices were offering up both morning and evening. And the offering of incense on the golden altar in the holy place, at every morning and evening service in the temple, was in- stituted on purpose to offer up unto God the prayers of the people, who were then without, praying unto him.* And hence it was, that St. Luke tells us, that, while Zacharias went into the temple to burn incense, " The whole multi- tude of the people were praying without at the time of in- cense.'"' And for the same reason is it, that David prayed, "Let my prayers be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice."'^ And according to this usage is to be explained what we find in
t Isaiah Ivi. 7. u Matt. xxi. 13. Mark xi. 17. Lulce xix. 46.
X See Lightfoot's Temple Service.
y If there were any stated forms for this worship, they were only as helps for those who prayed at the temple, which every one offered up for himseli ■without a public minister. z Luke xviii. 10 — 13.
a See Lightfoot's Temple Service, c. 9.
b Luke i. 9, 10. c Psalm cxli. 2,
24 CO^JJNSXION OF THE HJSTORV Of [fART 1.
the Revelation viii. 3, 4 ; for there it is said, " That an an- gel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should of- fer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the in- cense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God, out of the angel's hand." For the angel here mentioned, is the angel of the covenant, Christ our Lord, who intercedes for us with our God, and, as our Mediator, constantly offers up our prayers unto him. And the manner of his doing this is here set forth by the manner of the typi- cal representation of it in the temple : for as there, at every morning and evening sacritice, the priest, in virtue of that sacritice, entering into the holy place, and presenting l>.m- self at the golden altar, which stood directly before the mer- cy-seat (the throne of God's visible presence among them, during the tabernacle and the first temple,) did burn incense theieon, while the people were at their prayers without ; thereby, as intercessor to God for them, to offer up their prayers to him for his gracious acceptance, and to make them ascend up before him, from out of his hands, as a swetft- smcUing savour in his presence ; so Christ, our true priest, and most powerful intercessor, by virtue of that one sacri- fice of himself once offered for all, being entered into the holy place, the heaven above, is there continually present before the throne of mercy, to be a constant intercessor for us unto our God ; and while we are here in the outer court of his church in this world, offering up our prayers unto our God, he there presents them unto him for us, and through his hands they are accepted as a sweet-smelling savour in his presence. And it being well understood among the Jews, that the offering up of the daily sacrifices, and the burning of incense upon the altar of incense at the time of those sacrifices, was for the rendering of God propitious unto them, and making their prayers to be acceptable in his pre- sence, (hey were very carefiil to make the limes of these of- ferings and the times of their prayers, both at the temple and every where else, to be exactly the same. And therefore, as soon as synagogues were erected among them, the hours of public devotions in them, on iheir synagogue days, were, as to tnoriiitig and evening prayers, the same hours in which the morniiiir and evening sacrifices were off(;red up at the temple. And the same hours were also observed in their pri- vate prayers, wherever performed. Most good and devout persons that were at .Jerusalem, chose on those times to go lip into the temple, and there offer up their prayers unto God. And thus l*eter and John are said to go up into the
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 25
temple at the hour of prayer,*^ being the ninth hour of the day, which was at three in the afternoon, the tinne of the of- fering up of the evening sacrifice ; for the Jews reckoned the hours of the day from six in the morning. Those who were in other places, or being at Jerusalem, had not leisure to go up to the temple, did then their devotions elsewhere, all thinking themselves obliged daily to say their prayers at those times. If it were a syna^rogue day, they went into the synagogue, and there prajed with the congregation ; and, if it were not a synagogue day, they then prayed in private by themselves; and, if they had leisure to go to the synagogue, they chose that for the place to do it in, thinking such at: ho- ly place the properest for such an holy exercise, though per- formed there in their private persons only ; but if they had not leisure to go to such an holy place, then they prayed wherever they were at the hour of prayer, though it were in the street or market-place. And for this it was that our Sa- viour found fault with them, when he told them, that they lo- ved to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets,^ thereby affecting more to be seen of men, than to be accepted of by God. But many of them had upper rooms in their houses, which were as chapels particularly set apart and consecrated for this purpose. In such an one Cor- nelius was praying at the ninth hour of the day,*^ that is, at the time of the evening sacritice, when the angel appear- ed unto him: and such an one Peter went up into to pray about the sixth hour of the day ,6 when he had the vision of the great sheet, that is, half an hour past twelve, or there- about; for then the evening sacritice did begin on great and solemn days ; and such an one it seems hereby that was : and in such an upper room were the holy apostles assembled together in prayer, when the Holy Ghost descended upon them.*"
IV. As to the ministration of the synagogue service, it was not confined to the sacerdotal order. They were conse- crated only to the service of the temple, which was quite of another nature, as consisting only in the offering up of sacri- fices and oblations. At the time indeed, of the morning and evening sacrifices, the Levites and other singers sung psalms of praise unto God before the altar, and. in the conclusion, the priests blessed the people ; which may seem to bear some resemblance to what was done in the synagogue. But in all other particulars the public synagogue service was wholly different from the public service of the temple.' Of what
d Acts iii. 1. e Malt. vi. 5. f Acts x. 3, 30.
gActsx. 9. h Acts i. 13. See Mr. Mede, book 2, tract 1.
i Vide Buxtorfii Synagogam Judaicani, & Vitringam de Synagoga Vetere.
2G CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY Or [PART I.
parts it consisted I have already explained : and any one that by learning was qualified for it, of what tribe soever he were, was admitted to the administration. But, that order might be preserved, there were in every synagogue some fixed ministers to take care of the religions duties to be performed in ii; and these were by imposition of hands, solemnly ad- mitted thereto. The tirst were the eldeis of the synagogue, who governed all the aliairs ofit, and directed all the duties of religion therein to be performed. These are in the Scriptures of tlie iVew Testament,*^ called A^;t"'i""*7'"y<". that is, rulers of the s^juagoguc. How many of these were in every synagogue is nowhere said. But this is certain, they were more than one ; for they are mentioned in Scripture' in the plural num- ber in respect of the same synagogue; and, at Corinth, Cris- pus and Sosthenes are both said to be chief rulers of the syna- gogue," though it is not likely that there was more than one synagogue in that city. Next to them (or perchance one of them,) was the minister of the synagogue, that officiated in oiFering up the public prayers to God for the whole congre- gation, who, because he was the mouth of the congregation delegated from them as iheir representative, messenger, or angel, to speak to God in prayer for them, was therefore, in the Hebrew language, called Sheliah Zibbor, that is, the angel of the church. And hence it is, that the bishops of the seven churches of Asia are, in the Revelation, by a name borrowed from the synagogue, called the angels of those churches. For, as the Shehah Zibbor in the Jewish syna- gogue was the prime minister to offer up the prayers of the people to God ; so also was the bishop the prime minister to offer up the prayers of the people to God in the church of Christ. The bishop indeed did not always officiate in his ministry, because in every church there were presbyters under him, who often discharged this duty in his stead. Neither did the Sheliah Zibbor always discharge his duty in the synagogue in his own proper person. He was the ordina- ry minister appointed to this office ; but often others were ex- traordinarily called out for the discharging of it, provided they were by age, gravity, skill, and piety of conversation, qualified for it. And whosoever was thus appointed to this ministry was the Sheliah Zibbor, that is, the angel of the con- gregation, for that time : for the proper signilication of the word used in the Hebrew language for an angel is a messen- ger. And therefore, as a messenger from God to the people is an angel of God, so a messenger from the people to God is an angel of the people. In the latter sense only was the name
k Mark v. 35—37. Luke viii. 41 ; xiii. 14. Acts xiii. 15.
! Mark v. 22. Acts xiii. 15. m Acts xviii. 8, 17.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 27
of angol given to the minister of the synagogue : but it belongs to the minister of the Christian church in both senses ; for he is not only a messenger of the people to God, in the offering up of the prayers of the congregation to him, but he is also a messenger of God to them, in bringing from him the messages of life, peace, and everlasting salvation unto them. Next to the Sheiiah Zibhor were the deacons, or inferior ministers of the synagogue, in Hebrew called Chazanicn, that is, over- seers, who were also fixed ministers, and, under the rulers of the synagogue, had the charge and oversight of all things in it, kept the sacred books of the law and the prophets, and other holy Scriptures, as also the books of their public li- turgies, and all other utensils belonging to the synagogue, and brought them forth whenever they were to be used in the public service. And particularly they stood by and over- looked them that did read the lessons out of the law and the prophets, and corrected them and set them right when they did read amiss, and took the book of them again when they had done. And thus it is said of our Saviour," when he was called out to read the lesson out of the prophets in the syna- gogue of Nazareth, of which he was a member, that after he had done he gave the book again to the minister, that is, the Chazan or deacon of the synagogue. For there was an- ciently no fixed synagogue minister for the reading of the lessons ; but the rulers of the synagogue, when the time of the reading of those lessons came, called out any member of the congregation for this service that was able to perform it. And it was usually done in this order. A priest was called out first, and next a Levite, if any of these orders were pre- sent in the congregation, and after that any other Israelite, till they made up in all the number of seven. And hence it was anciently, that every section of the law was divided into seven lesser sections, for the sake of these seven readers. And, in soine Hebrew Bibles, these lesser sections are marked in the margin : the first with the word Cohen, i. c. the priest ; the second with the word Levi, i.e. the Levite ^ the third with the word Shelisiii, i. e. IKq third; and so the rest with Hebrew words signifying the numbers foliowing to the seventh ; thereby to show what part was to be read by the priest, what by the Levite, and what by each of the other five, who might be any Israelites of the congregation that were able to read the Hebrew text, of what tribe soever fhey were. The next tixed oflicer of the synagogue, after the Chazanim, was the interpreter. His business was to inter- pret into Chaldce the lessons, as they were read in the He- brew, to the congregation ; for which, learning and skill in
!i I.uke vi. 2.0,
■2ii CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OP [I'ART I.
both languages being requisite, when Ihey found a man fit for the oflice, they retained him by a salary, and admitted him as a standing minister of the synagogue. When the blessing was to be given, if there were a priest present in the congre- gation he always did the ofHce ; but if there were no priest then present, the Slieliah Zibbor, who did read the prayers, gave the blessing also in a form made proper for him. Thus far I have tliought it might be helpful to (he reader for his bet- ter understanding of the Scriptures, to have laid before him a short scheme of the synagogue worship of the Jews, as it was among them in ancient times. That which they at present re- tain is in many particulars ditferent from it. He that would be more fully iriformed of this matter may read Buxtorfs Synagoga Judaica, Vitringa de Si/nagoga Vetere, and, above all, Maimonides, especially in his tracts, Tephillah, Chagigah, and Kiriath Shema.
Those who think synagogues to have been before the Ba- bylonish captivity, allege for it what is said in Psalm Ixxiv. 8, " they have hurried up all the synagogues of God in the land." But in the original the words are Col moadhe El, that is, " all the assemblies of God ;" by which, I acknowledge, must be understood the places where the people did assemble to worship God. But this doth not infer, that those places were synagogues ; and there are none of the ancient versions, excepting that of Aquila, that so render this passage. The chief place where the Israelites assembled for the worship of God was the temple at Jerusalem, and, before that was built, the tabernacle ; and the open court before the altar was that part in both of them where the people assembled to offer up their prayers unlo God. But those that lived at a distance from the tabernacle, while that was in being, and afterward from the temple, when that was built, not beingable at all times to resort thither, they built courts like those in which they prayed at the tabernacle and at the temple, therein to offer up their prayers unto God, whfch in after-times we find called by the name of Proseuchae. Some of the Latin poets'* make mention of them by this name ; and into one of them our Saviour is said to have gone to pray, and to have continued therein a whole niiiht ;'^ and in another of them St. Paul taught the people of Phiiippi."^ They differed from synagogues in several particulars; for, 1st. In synagogues the prayers were offered up in public forms in common for
p Juvenal. Sat. 3.
q Luke vi. 12. For what our English there renders, Jind continued all night in prayer to God, is, in t!)e orii^inal^ kh.i tit hayvKlt^tum sv t« Tlfonw^ tou Qfciu, i.e. .^nd he continued all night in a proseuche of God.
r Acts xvi. For in (hat chapter, ver. 13 h. 16, what we render in our English version by the word prayer, is in the original a proseuche, or place of prayer.
BOOK VI.] THli OLD AND -NEW TESTAMENTS. ♦SD
the whole congregation ; but in the proscuche they prayed, as in the temple, every one apart for himself; and so our Saviour prayed in the proseuche which he went inlo.^ 2dly. The synagogues v,-ere covered houses ; but the proseuche were open courts, built, saith Epiphanius,*^ in the manner of forums, which were open enclosures, where anciently at Rome, and in other cities under democratical governments, the people used to assemble for the transacting of the busi- ness and affairs of the public; and such a proseuche, Epipha- nius tells us," the Samaritans had in his time near Sechem. odly. Synagogues were all built within the cities to which they did belong ; but the proseuchae without, and mostly in high places, and that in which our Saviour prayed was on a mountain,^ which makes it probable that these proseuchae were the same which in the Old Testament are called high places ; for these high places are not always condemned in Scripture, but then only when they were made use of for idolatrous worship or in a schismatical way, by erecting altars in them, in opposition to that which was in the place that God had chosen ; otherwise they were made use of by prophets and good men, as several instances hereof in Scripture do fully prove.y And I am confirmed in this opinion, in that the proseuchae had groves in or about them, in the same manner as the high places had. And no doubt the sanctuary of the Lord in which Joshua did set up his pillar under the oak or oaken grove in Sechem,''- was such a proseuche ; and it is plain from the text that it had a grove of oaks in it.^ And the proseuchae which Philo makes mention of in Alexandria* had such groves in or about them ; and that at Rome'^ in Egeria's grove was of the same sort. And perchance, where the Psalmist makes mention of green olive-trees in the house of God,*^ such a proseuche is there meant. And also such an one anciently was in Mispah,*^ as the author of the first book of the Maccabees tells us. And all these were Moadhe El, and might be understood by that phrase in the Psalmist. It must be acknowledged, that, although some proseuche were still in being in our Saviour's time, yet by that time syna- gogues being made use of for the same purpose as the pro- seuchae were formerly, synagogues were then also called by the same name with the proseuchae : and so Josephus and Philo seem to use the word, though it seems from the latter, that some of the synagogues of the Jews in Alexandria were
s Luke vi. 12. t In Tract, de Messaiianis Haereticis.
u Ibid. X Luke vi. 12. y 1 Sam.ix. 12; x.5, &c. z Josh. xxiv. 26
a For he complains tliat the Alexandrians, in a tumult which they there made against the Jews, did cut down the trees of their proseuchas. In Le- gatione ad Caium Ceesarem. b Juv. Sat. 3.
c Psalm Hi. 8. d 1 Maccab. iii. 46
Vol. II.. 5
30 f.OiWEXlOX OF THE HtSTORV OP [I'ART I»
built allcr the same manner as the ancient proseuchas, willi- out roofs. And it makes this the more probable, that, in Egypt, it never or very seldom raining, they there stood more in need of open air in their public assemblies, and trees to shelter them from the sun in that hot country, than of roofs over them to shelter them from the weather. And these, Philo complains,'' the Alexandrians did cut down, when they there rose in a tumult against the Jews that then dwelt with them in that city. And besides these proseuchse, there were other places to which the Israelites, before the captivity, frequently assembled, upon the account of religion ; for they often resorted to the cities of the Levites, to be taught the ritual and other ceremonies of the Mosaical law, and to the schools of the prophets for all other instructions relating to the things of God ; and to these last, it is plain from Scripture,' that they usually resorted on the sabbaths and new moons; and what end could there be of this resort, but for instruction in their duties to God? And therefore these places also as well as the proseuchcS, were Moadhe El, i. e. places of assembling on the account of religion ; and con- sequently of all these may the Psalmist be understood in the places above mentioned. Whether this psalm, as well as the seventy-ninth, were written prophetically by that Asaph» who lived in the time of David, of the Babylonish captivity, (to which it is plain they both relate.) or else by some other after it, as is most probable,'' I shall not here examine. All that is proper for me here to take notice of is, that nothing which is in either of these psalms can prove, that there were any such things as synagogues, wherein the Scriptures were read, or public prayers offered up unto God, till after the Babylonish captivity.
And if it be examined into, how it came to pass that the Jews were so prone to idolatry before the Babylonish capti- vity, and so strongly and cautiously, even to superstition, fixed rigainst it after that captivity, the true reason hereof will appear to be, that they had the law and the prophets every week constantly read unto them after that captivity, which they had not before. For, before that captivity, they liaving no synagogues for public worship or public instruc- tion, nor any places to resort to for either, unless the temple at Jerusalem, or the cities of the Levites, or to the prophets, when God was pleased to send such among them, for want hereof great ignorance grew among the people ; God was little known among them, and his laws in a manner wholly
e In Legnlione ad (.'aiiim. f 2 Kings iv. 23.
g 1 Cliron. xvi. 5, 7, 37.
ii Virfc BochajtiHierozoic. part 1, lib. 3. c 2f>.
IJOOK VI.] THE OLD ANB NEW TESTAMENTS. 31
forgotten : and therefore, as occasions offered, they were easily drawn into all the superstitions and idolatrous usages of the neighbouring nations that lived round about them, till at length, for the punishment hereof, God gave them up to a dismal destruction in the Babylonish captivity : but after that captivity, and the return of the Jews from it, synagogues ieing erected among them in every city, to which they con- stantly resorted for public worship, and where every week they had the law from the first, and after that, from the time of Antiochus's persecution, the prophets also read unto them, and were, by sermons and exhortations there delivered at least every sabbath, instructed in their duty, and excited to the obedience of it : this kept them in a thorough knowledge of God and his laws. And the threats which they found in the prophets against the breakers of them, after these also came to be read among them, deterred them from transgres- sing against them. So that the law of Moses was never more strictly observed by them, than from the time of Ezra, (when synagogues first came into use among them,) to the time of our Saviour ; and they would have been unblamable herein, had they not overdone it by adding corrupt traditions of their own devising, whereby at length (as our Saviour chargeth them)' they made the law itself of none etfect. And as by this method the Jewish religion was preserved in the times mentioned, so also was it by the same that the Christian was so successfully propagated in the first ages of Ihe church, and hath ever since been preserved among us; for as the Jews had their synagogues, in which the law and the prophets were read unto them every sabbath, so the Christians had their churches, in which, from the beginning, all the doctrines and duties of their religion were every Lord's day taught, inculcated, and explained unto them. And by God's blessing upon this method chiefly was it, that this holy religion still bore up against all oppressions, and notwithstanding the ten persecutions, and all other methods and artifices of cruelty and oppression which hell and heathenism could devise to suppress it, grew up and increas- ed under them ; which Julian the apostate was so sensible of, that when he put all his wits to work, to find out new methods for the restoring of the heathen impiety, he could not thiiik of any more effectual for this purpose, than to employ his philosophers to preach it up every week to the people, in the same manner as the ministers of the gospel did the Christian religion.'' And had it not pleased God to cut him off before he could put this design in execution, it is
i Matt. XV. 6. Mark vii. 13.
k Gregorii Nazianzeni Orat. in Jtilianam Apo?!(atam.
32 ftONNEXiox ev TRE HISTORV Of' [rART I.
to be feared his success herein would in a Tery great measure have answered what he proposed by it. But to Christians above all others, this must be of the greatest benefit : for the doctrines of our holy religion having in them the 3ul)hmest principles of divine knowledge, and the precepts of it contain- ing all the duties of morality in the highest manner improved, nothing can be of greater advantage to us, for the leading of us to the truest happiness we are capable of, as well in this life as in that which is to come, than to have these weekly taught and explained unto us, and weekly put home upon our consciences, for the forming of our lives according to them. And the political state or civil government of every Christian country is no less benelited hereby than the church itself: for as it best conduceth to keep up the spirit of religion among us, and to make every man know his duty to God, his neighbour, and himself; so it may be reckoned of all methods the most conducive to preserve peace and good order in the state ; for hereby subjects are taught to be obe- dient to their prince and his laws, children to be dutiful to their parents, servants to be faithful to their masters, and all to be Just and charitable, and pay all other duties which in every relation they owe to each other. And in the faith- ful discharge of these duties, doth the peace, good order, and happiness of every community consist. And to be weekly instructed in these duties, and to be weekly excited to the obedience of them, is certainly the properest and the most effectual method to induce men hereto. And it may justly be reckoned that the good order which is now maintained in this kingdom, is more ov/ing to this method than to any other now in practice among us for this end ; and that one good minister, by his weekly preaching and daily good example, sets it more forward than any two of the best justices of the peace can by their exact(;st diligence in the execution of the laws which they are intrusted with : for these, by the utmost of their coercions, can go no farther than to restrain the outward acts of wickedness; but the other reforms the heart within, and removes all those evil inclinations of it l>om whence they flow. And it is not to be doubted, but that, if this method were once dropped among us, the generality of the people, whatever else may be done to obviate it, would, in seven years' time, relapse into as bad a state of barbarity as was ever in practice among the worst of our Saxon or Danish ancestors. And therefore, supposing there were no such thing in truth and reality as that holy Christian religion which the ministers of the gos- pel teach (as too many among us arc nov/ permitted with im- Tjunily to say.) yet the service which they do the civil govern-
An. 433. X. 32.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 33
ment, in keeping all men to those duties, in the observance of which its peace, good order, and happiness consist, may very well deserve the maintenance which they receive from it.
Nehemiah, after he had held the government of Judah twelve years,' returned to the Persian court, either recalled thither by the king, or else going ihither to j^'^ solicit for a new commission after the expiration of the former. During all the time that he had heeis in this government, he managed it with great justice.'" and support- ed the dignity of his ottice, through ail these twelve years, with a very expensive and hospitable magnificence. For there sat at his table, every day, one hundred and fifty of the Jews and rulers, besides strangers who came to Jerusa- lem from among the heathen nations that were round about them : for as occasions brought them thither, if they were of any quality, they were always invited to the governor's house, and there hospitably and splendidly entertained. So that there was provided for him, every day, one ox, six choice sheep, and fowls, and wine, and all other things in proportion hereto ; which could not but amount to a great expense. Yet all this he bore through these whole twelve years, out of his own private purse, without burdening the province at all for it, or taking any part of that allowance which before was raised out of it by other governors to support them in their station; which argues his great generosity, as well as his great love and tenderness to the people of his nation, in thus easing them of this burden, and also his vast wealth, in being able so to do. The office which he had been in at court gave him the opportunity of amassing great riches ; and he thought he could liot better expend tl)em than in the service of his country, and by doing all he could to promote the true interest of it both in church and slate; and God pros- pered him in the work, according to the great zeal with which he laboured in it.
About this time flourished Meto,° the famous Athenian as- tronomer, who invented the Enneadecffiteris, or the cycle of the nineteen years, which we call the cycle l"iax1^33 of the moon; the numbers whereof being, by reason of the excellency of their use, written in the ancient calen- dars in golden letters, from hence, in our present almanacs, that number of this cycle, which accords with the year for which the almanac is made, is called the golden number. For it is still of as great use to the Christians, for the finding out of Easter, and also to the Jews for the fixing of their three great festivals, as it was to the ancient Greeks for the
1 Neh. V. 14 ; xiii. 6. m Neh. v. 14, 19.
n Diod. Sic. lib. 12, p. 305. Ptolemrei Magna Synlaxis, lib. 3. c, 2
34 CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OF [PART I,
ascertaining of the times of their festivals. And for this last end was it that Meto invented it. For the Greeks, being directed by an oracle to observe all their solemn sacrifices and festivals," Kecrxr^i'd, that is, according to three; and this being interpreted to mean years, months, and days, and that the years were to be reckoned according to the course of the sun, and the months and days according to that of the moon, they thought themselves obliged hereby to observe all these solemnities at the same seasons of the year, and on the same month, and on the same day of the month. And there- fore endeavours were made to bring all these to meet together, that is, to bring the same months, and all the days of them, to fall as near as possible within the same times of the sun's course, that so the same solemnities might always be celebrated within the same seasons of the year, as well as in the same months, and on the same days of them.P The difficulty lay in this, that, whereas the year, according to the course of the sun (which is commonly called the solar year) is made by that revolution of it which brings it round to the same point in the ecliptic ; and the Greeks reckoned their months by those revolutions of the moon which brought it round to the same conjunction with the sun, that is, from one new moon to another, and twelve of these months made their common year (which is commonl} called the lunar year,) this lunar year fell eleven days short of the solar. And there- fore their oracle could not be observed in keeping their so- lemnities to the same seasons of the year without intercala- tions : for otherwise their solemnities would be anticipated eleven days every year, and, in thirty-three years space, would be carried backward through all the seasons of the year (as is now done in Turkey, where they use this sort of year:) and to intercalate these eleven days every year would make as great a breach upon the other part of the oracle as to the months and days ; for then every year would alter the day, and every three years the month : and, besides, it would make a breach upon the whole scheme of their year: for with them, in the same manner as with the Jews, their months always began with a new moon, and their years were always made up of these lunar months, so as to end exactly with the last day of the last moon, and to begin exactly with the first day of the next moon. It was necessary, there- fore, for the bringing of all to fall right according to the di- rections of the oracle, that the intercalations should be made by months ; and, to titid out such an intercalation of months as would at length biing the solar year and the lunar year
() Geiniii. in Isagogo, c. 6.
p Vide Scaligerum de I'^mendatione Temporum, Petavium de Doctrina Teraporum, aliosque chronologos.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 35
to an exact agreement, so that both should begin from the same point of time, was that which was to be done for this purpose : for thus only could the solemnities be always kept to the same seasons of the year, as well as to the sam.e inoijths and the same days of them, and constantly be made to fall %vithin the compass of one lunar month at most, sooner or later, within the same times of the solar year. And, there- fore, in order hereunto, cycles were to be invented ; and, to find out such a cycle of years, wherein, by the intercalation or addition of one or more months, this might be effected, was the great study and endeavour of the astronomers of those times. The first attempt that was made for this pur- pose was that of the Dieteris, a cycle of two years, wherein an intercalation was made of one month : but, in two years time, the excess of the solar year above the lunar being only twenty-two days, and a lunar month making twenty-nine days and an half, this intercalation, instead of bringing the lunar year to a reconciliation with the solar, overdid it by seven days and an half; which being a fault that was soon perceived, for the mending of it, the Tetraeterls was intro- duced, which was a cycle of four years. Vv herein it was thought, that an intercalation of one month would bring all that to rights which was overdone by the like intercalation of the Dieteris. And this was contrived chiefly with a re- spect to their Olympic games : for they being the chiefest of their solemnities, and celebrated once every four years, care was taken to bring this solemnity every fourth year as near as they could to the same time of the solar year in which it was performed the Olympiad before, which re- gularly ought always to have been begun, according to the original institution of that solemnity, on the first full moon after the summer solstice ; and it was thought that an inter- calation of one month in four years would always bring it to this time. But four solar years exceeding four lunar years forty-three days and an half, the adding one lunar month, or twenty-nine days and an half, (of which it consists,) fell short of curing this defect full fourteen days ; which fault soon discovering itself, for the amending of it, they interca- lated alternatively one four years with one month, and the next four years with two months, which brought it to the Octoeteris, or the cycle of eight years, wherein by interca- lating three months, they thought they brought all to rights : and indeed it came much nearer to it than any of the former cycles ; for, by this intercalation, the eight lunar years were brought so near to eight solar years, that they differed from them only by an excess of one day, fourteen hours, and nine minutes: and therefore this cycle continued much longer in
36 CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OF [PAUT J.
use than any of the rest. But at length the error, by in- creasing every year, grow great enough to be also discovered; wiiich prociuccd the invention of several other cycles for the remedying of it; of which this invented by Meto, of nineteen years, is the perfectest: for it brings the two lumi- naries to come to about the same points within two hours, one minute, and twenty seconds ; so that, after nineteen years, the same new moons and the same full moons do within that space come aboutagain to the same points of lime in eve- ry year of this cycle in which they iiappened in the same year of the former cycle. And to a nearer agreement than this no other cycle can bring them. 'J'his cycle is made up of nineteen lunar years and seven lunar months, by seven intercalations added to them. The years of this cycle in which these interca- lations were made, were the third, sixth, eiglith, eleventh, four- teenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth, according to Petavius; but, according to Mr. Dodwell, they were the third, lifth, eighth, eleventh, thirteenth, sixteenth, and nineteenth. Each of these seven intercalated years consisted of thirteen months, and the rest of twelve. The chief use of this cycle among the Greeks being to settle the times of celebrating their solemnities, and that of their Olympiads being the chiefest of them, and on the fixing of which the fixing of all the rest did depend, it was in the tirst place applied to this purpose ; and the rule of these Olympiads being, that they were to be cele- brated on the first full moon after the summer solstice, in order to settle the time of their celebration, it was necessary, in the first place, to settle the time of the summer solstice; and this Meto observed this year to be on the twenty-first day of the Egyptian month Phamenoth, which, reduced to the Julian year, falls on the twenty-seventh of June. And therefore the Greeks having received this cycle, did from this time forward, celebrate their Olympiads on the fiist full moon after the twenty-seventh day of our June ; and thence- forth also began their year from the new moon preceding; whereas before they began it from the winter solstice : and they calculated both the new moon and the full moon by this cycle ; so that from this time the new moon immediately preceding the first full moon after the summer solstice, was the beginning of their year, and that first full moon after the said solstice in every fifth year, was the time of their Olym- piads. For that year, in the beginning of which this solem- nity was celebrated, was, in their computation of time, called the first year of that Olympiad, reckoning from the new moon preceding ; and in the beginning of the fifth year af- ter they celebrated the next Olympiad, which made the time from one Olympiad to another to be just four years, accord- ing to the measure of the years then used.
BOOK Vl.j THE OLD ANjl» NEW TESTAMENli. 37
But this use of the cycle ceasing with the solemnities of the heathen Greeks after that Christianity had gotten the ascendant in the Roman empire, it thenceforth became ap- plied to another use, and that not only by the Christians, buf: also by the Jews : for by it the Christians, after the council of Nice, settled our Easter ; and from them, some few years after, the Jews learned to make the like use of it for the fixing the time of their passover, and the making of their in- tercalations in order to it. But of the manner how each of them applied it for these purposes, there will be hereafter an occasion fully to treat, in a place more proper for it.
The war between the Athenians and Lacedemonians, called the Peloponnesian war'' (of which Thucydides and Xenophon have written the history,)*" began about ^,„*^g^ the end of the first year of the 87th Olympiad, which lasted twenty-seven years. As soon as they had entered on it, both parties sent their ambassadors to king Artaxerxes to engage him on their side, and pray his aid in the war.^
About the same time, there broke out a most grievous pestilence, which did overrun a great part of the world. It first began in Ethiopia ; from thence it came into Lybia and Egypt ; and from Egypt it invaded Judea, Phoenicia, and Syria ; and from those parts it spread itself through the whole Persian empire ; from whence it passed into Greece, and grievously afflicted the Athenian state, destroying a great number of their people, and among them died Pericles,^ the chiefest and most eminent man of that city, whose wis- dom, while he lived, was the main stay and support of that republic, and of whom only it can be said, that he maintain- ed himself in full credit for forty years together in a popu- lar government. Thucydides hath, in his history," given us a very full account of this disease, having had thorough ex- perience of it ; for he had it himself, and after that, being but of danger of suffering any more by it, he freely visited a great many others that v/ere afflicted with it, and thereby had sufficient opportunity of knowing all the symptoms and calamities that attended it. Lucretius hath also given us a poetical description of it ; and Hippocrates hath written of it as a physician :^ for that great master of the art of physic lived in those times, and was at Athens all the while this distemper raged there. Artaxerxes invited him, with the
q Thucydides, lib. 2.
r Thucydides gives an account of the first twenty-one years of this war, and Xenophon's Hellenics continues the Greek history from thence. s Thucydides, lib. 2. Herodotus, lib. 7.
t PlutarchusinPericle. Thucydides, lib. 2. Diod. Sic. lib. 13, p. 310. u Lib. 2. X Lib. 3, epidem. sec. 3.
Vol. !I.. G
ot) COi\.\^XlON OF ill/!; Hlja'pKV OK [pAKi I.
promise of great rewards, to come into l^ersia during this plague, to cure those who were infected with it in his armies. But his answer was, that he would not leave the Grecians his countrymen in this distress, to give his help to barbarians. There are several epistles still extant at the end of Hippo- crates's works, said to be written by Artaxerxes, and by llystanes his prefect on the Hellespont, and by Hippocrates himself about this matter. Some think them not to be genu- ine, but do not give any reasons suflicient to convict them of it. Many instances in the histories of those times do acquaint us, how fond the Persians were of Greek physi- cians. And Artaxerxes, looking on himself as the greatest of kings, might well enough think he had the best title to have tlie greatest of physicians to attend upon him, and therefore offered the greatest of rewards to draw him to him. But Hippocrates, having a mind above the temptations of gold and silver, returned him the answer 1 have men- tioned ; which provoked him so far, that he sent to Cos, the city of Hippocrates, and where he then was, to command them to deliver unto him Hippocrates, to be punished ac- cording to his perverseness ; threatening them with the de- molition of tlifiir city, and the utter ruin of the whole island in which it stood, if they did not comply with him herein. But the Coans, in their answer, did let him know that no threats should ever induce them to betray so eminent a citizen into his hands. This w^as before Hippocrates went to Athens : for this plague had ravaged through the Persian empire be- fore it came to that city : and it was not till the next year after this, that the Athenians were infested with it, that is, in the second year of the Peloponnesian war, as Thucydides tells us.
Nehemiah, on his return to the Persian court, having tar- ried there about live years in the execution, as it may Ariaf.^i. be supposcd, of his former office, at length obtained of the king to be sent back again to Jerusalem with a new commission. The generality of chronologers, ns well as the commentators upon this part of Scripture, make this his coming back thither to be much sooner. But, consider- ing the many and great corruptions which he tells us, in the thirteenth chapter of his book, the Jews had run into in his absence, it cannot be conceived how, in less than five years time, they could have grown up to such an height among them. He had been twelve years reforming what was amiss among them, and Ezra had been doing the same for thirteen years before him, whereby they had brought their reforma- tion to such a state and stability, that a little time could not Wave been sullicicnt in such a nianritjr ajiain to have uu-
LOOK VI. j THf: 0L1> AND \E\V TESTAMENTS. 35)
hinged it. It is much more hkely,lhat all this was longer than five years doing, than that it should come to pass in so short a time. It is indeed expressed in our English version, that^ Nehemiahcame back again from the Persian court to Jerusa- lem, after cerlain days ;^ but the Hebrew word j/amim, which is there rendered days, signifieth also years, and is in a great many places of the Hebrew Scriptures so used.
About this time, most likely, lived Malachi the prophet. The greatest of the corruptions which hechargeth the Jews with are the same with those which they had run into in the time of Nehemiah's absence ; and therefore it is most pro- bable, that in this time his prophecies were delivered. It is certain the temple was all finished, and every thing restored therein, before his time : for there are passages in his pro- phecies which clearly suppose it ; and he doth not in them charge the Jews with neglecting the restoring of the tem- ple, but their neglecting what appertained to the true wor- ship of God in it. But in what time it was after the resto- ration of the temple that he prophesied, is nowhere said in Scripture ; and therefore we can only make our conjectures about it, and I know not, where any conjecture can place it Avith more probability, than in the time where I have said.
Many things having gone wrong among the Jews during the absence of Nehemiah, as hath been above mentioned, as soon as he was again settled in the government,'' he applied him- himself, with his usual zeal and diligence, to correct and again set to rights whatsoever was amiss. And that which he first took notice of as what, by the flagrancy of the of- fence, as well as by reason of the place where committed, was the most obvious to be resented by so good a man, was a great profanation which had been introduced into the tem- ple for the sake of Tobiah an Ammonite.'' This man, though he had made two alliances with the Jews, (for Joha- nan*^ his son had married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berachiah,*^ who was one of the chief managers of the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem under the direction of the governor, and he himself had married the daughter of Shecaniah the son of Arab, another great man among the Jews ; yet, being an Ammonite,® he bore a national hatred to all that were of the race of Israel ; and therefore envying their prosperity, and being averse to whatsoever might pro- mote it, did the utmost that he could to obstruct Nehemiah in all that he did for the good of that people, and confedera- ted with Sanballat, their greatest enemy, to carry on this
y Nehemiah xiii. 6. a Neh. xiii. b Neb. xiii. 7 — 9.
c Neh. vi, IP. d Neh. jii.4 ft Neh. ii. : iv. ; v}.
40 CO^iNIiXION OV THE HISTOKY OF LPART i,
purpose. However, by reason of the alliances I have men- tioned, he had many correspondents among the Jews, who were favourers of him, and acted insidiously with Nehemi- ah on his account/ But he, being aware of their devices, withstood and baffled them all, as long as he continued at Je- rusalem. But when he went from thence to the Persian court, Eliashib the high-priest^ was prevailed with (as being one of those that was of that confederacy and alliance with Tobiah) to allow and provide for him lodgings within the temple itself: in order whereto he removed " the meat-of- ferings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil, (which was commanded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters,) and the offerings of the priests," out of the chambers where they used to be laid ; and out of them made one large apartment for the reception of this heathen stranger. It is doubted by some, whether this Eliashib were EUashib the high-priest, or only another priest of that name. That which raiseth the doubt is, he is named in the text, where this is related of him, by the title only of priest, and is there said to have the oversight of the chambers of the house of God ; from whence is argued, that he was only chamberlain of the temple, and not the high-priest, who was above such an office. But the oversight of the chambers of the house of God may import the whole government of the temple, which belonged to the high-priest only ; and it is not to be con- ceived, how any one that was less than an absolute govern- or of the whole temple could make so great an innovation in it. Besides, Eliashib the high-priest hath no character in Scripture with which such a procedure can be said to be inconsistent. By what is said in the book of Ezra, (x. 1 8,) it appears the pontificial family was in his time grown very cor- rupt. And no act of his is mentioned either in Ezra or Ne- hemiah, excepting only his putting to his helping hand in the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem. Had he done any thing else worthy of memory in the reforming of what was amiss, either in church or state, in the times either of Ezra or Nchemiah, it may be presumed mention would have been made of it in the books written by them. The silence which is of him in both these books, as to any good act done by him, is a sufficient proof that there was none such to be recorded of him. For the high-priest being the head of the Jewish church, had he borne any part with these two good men, when they laboured so much to reform that church, it is ut- terly improbable, that it could have been passed over in their
f Nfh. v;. 17—19. g Neh. xni. 4.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 41
writings, wherein they gave an account of what was done in, that reformation. What Jeshua his grandfather did in con- currence with Zerubbabel the governor, and Haggai and Ze- chariah the prophets, in the first resettling of the church and state of the Jews, after their return from the Babylonish captivity,'' is all recorded in Scripture ; and had Eliashib done any such thing in concurrence with Ezra and Nehe- miah, we may take it for certain, it would have been record- ed there also. Putting all this together, it appears most likely that it was Eliashib the high-priest who was the au- thor of this great profanation of the house of God. What was done herein, the text tells us, Nehemiah immediately un- derstood, as soon as he came back again to Jerusalem, and he did immediately set himself to reform it. For, overruling what the high-priest had ordered to be done herein, by the authority which he had as governor, he commanded all the household stuff of Tobiah to be cast out, and the chambers to be again cleansed and restored to their former use.
The reading of the law to the people having been settled by Nehemiah,' so as to be constantly carried on at certain stated times, ever since it was begun, under his government, by Ezra (perchance from that very beginning on every sab- bath-day,) when, in the course of their lessons, they came to the twenty-third chapter of Deuteronomy, where it is com- manded, that a Moabite or an Ammonite should not come into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation, for ever ; Nehemiah,'^ taking an handle from hence, separated all the mixed multitude from the rest of the people, that thereby it might be known with whom a true Israelite might lawfully marry. For neither this law nor any other of the like nature is to be understood to exclude any one, of what nation soever he were, from entering into the congregation asa proselyte, and becoming a member of their church, that would be converted thereto. Neither did any of the Jews ever so interpret it : for they freely received all into their religion that would embrace it, and, immediately on their conversion, admitted them to all the rights, parts, and privi- leges of it, and treated them in all respects in the same man- ner as true Israelites, excepting only in the case of marriage. And therefore this phrase in the text,' of not entering into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation, must be understood to include no more than a prohibition not to be married thereinto till then : and thus all the Jewish doctors expound it; for their doctrine as to the case of their marrying
bEzraiii.; iv. ; v. Hag.i.: i«. Zech.iii. i Neh.viii.
k Neh. %w. J . 2, 3 1 Deut ^txiii. 3»
■l'^ CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OF [PART I,
with such as were not of their nation is stated by them in manner as followeth :
None of the house of Israel of either sex were to enter into marriage with any gentiles of what nation soever, unless they were first converted to their religion, and became en- tire proselytes to it". And when they were become thus tho- rough proselytes, they were not all immediately to be admit- ted to this privilege of making intermarriages with them ; for some were barred wholly from it for ever, others only in part, and some only for a limited time. Of the first sort were all of the seven nations of the Canaanites, mentioned in Deut. vii. Of the second sort were the Moabites and the Ammonites, whose males, they hold, were excluded for ever, but not their females : for the Hebrew text naming an Am- monite and a Moabite, in the masculine gender only, they understand it only of the males, and not of the females. — And this exception they make for the sake of Ruth ; tor she, though a Moabitish woman, had been married to two hus- bands of the house of Israel, the last of which was Boaz, of whom David was descended by her. And of the third sort were the Edomites and Egyptians with whom they might not marry till the third generation." With all others, who were not of the three excepted sorts, they might freely make in- termarriages whenever they became thorough proselytes to their religion." But at present,P it being not to be known, who is an Edomite, who an Ammonite, or a Moabite, or who an Egyptian of the race of the Egyptians then mentioned in the text, by reason of the confusions which have since happened of all nations with each other, they hold this pro- hibition to have been long since out of date ; and that now any gentile, as soon as proselyted to their religion, may im- mediately be admitted to make intermarriages with them. In interpreting the exclusion of the Ammonites and Moa- bites in the text to be for ever, they seem to exceed the pro- hibition of the law therein delivered; for there (Deut. xxiii. 3,) it is extended only to the tenth generation. The words are, Even to the tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever. The meaning of which seems plainly to be, that this should be observed as a law for ever, that an Ammonite or a Moabite was not to be admit- ted into the congregation of Israel, so as to be capable of making marriages with them, till the tenth generation after their becoming proselytes to the Jewish religion. But ten
m Maimonides in Issure Biab. n Deut. xxiii. 8.
o A sister of David's married Ithra, an Ishmaelite, by whom she was mo- ''her of Amasa, captain of the host of Israpf f> MaimoniHe« in Issure Blab
liOOK VI. j THE OLD ANU NEW TESTAMENTS. 4'S
generations, and for ever being both in the same text, and within the same prohibiting clause, they interpret the for- mer expression by the latter, and will have it, that so long a prohibition as that of ten generations, signifieth therein tantamount to for ever ; and they ground this chiefly upon the text of Nehemiah, which we are now treating of. For here, in the recital of this law, the prohibition is said to be ybr erer, without the limitation of ten generations. But the words of Nehemiah are plainly an imperfect quotation of what is in the law, and seem to intend no more by that reci- tal, than to send us to the place in the original text of the law where it is to be perfectly found. And, in all laws in the world, the words of the original text are to be depended upon, for the intention of the lawgiver, before any quotations of them, by whomsoever made.
Among other corruptions that grew up during the absence of Nehemiah, one especially to be taken notice of was the neglect of the carrying on of the daily service of the house of God in such manner as it ought.'i For the tithes, which were to maintain the ministers of the temple in their offices and stations, being either embezzled by the high-priest, and other rulers of the temple under him, or else subtracted by the laity, and not paid at all, for want of them the Levites and singers were driven from the temple, every one to his own home, there to seek for a subsistence some other way. This abuse the governor, whose piety led him always to at- tend the public worship, could not be long without taking notice of; and when he had observed it, and thoroughly in- formed himself of the cause, he soon provided very effec- tually for its remedy : for he forthwith made those dues to be again brought into the treasuries of the temple, and forced every man faithfully and fully to pay them ; whereby a maintenance being again provided for those that attended the service of the house of God, all was there again restored to its pristine order. And he also took care that the sabbath should be duly observed, ■" and made many good orders for the preventing of the profanation of it, and caused them all to be effectually put in execution. But, though all these things are mentioned in one chapter, they were not all done at one time ; but the good man brought them about as occa- sions were administered, and as he saw opportunities best served for the successful effecting of them.
In this same year in which we suppose Nehemiah came back again to his government of Judeafrom the Persian court, that is, in the first year of the 8Sth Olympiad,^ was born Plato
q Nehemiah xiii. 10 — 14. Malachi iii.8 — 13.
r Nehemiah xiii. 15 — 23. s Diogenes Laertius in VitaPlatonis
44 CUNNEXION OP THE HISTORY Of [pART 1.
the famous Athenian philosopher, who came nearest to the truth in divine matters of any of the heathens : for he having, in his travels into the East, where he went for his improve- ment in knowledge, conversed with the Jews, and gotten some insight into the writings of Moses, and their other sa- cred books,* he learned many things from them, which others of his profession could not attain unto ; and therefore he is said by Numenius to be none other than Moses speaking Greek ;" and many of the ancient fathers speak of him to the same purpose.*
In the sixth year of the Peloponnesian war, the plague broke out again at Athens, and destroyed great num- Artas.^^^. bers of their people.^ This, with the other plague that happened fouryears before, having much exhaust- ed that city of its inhabitants, for the better replenishing of it again, a new law was made to allow every man there to mar- ry two wives. ^ From the time of Cecrops, who was the first planter of Attica, and the founder of the city of Athens in it, no such thing as polygamy was there ever known, nor was any man allowed to have any more than one wife, both their law and their usage till now being contrary thereto. But from this time it was allowed for the cause which I have mentioned : and Socrates the philosopher was one of the first that made use of the privilege of it, being then forty- three years old : for he was born in the last year of the 77th Olympiad (which was the year 469 before Christ ;) for to Xantippe his former wife, he took another called Myrto; and all the benefit he had by it, was to have two scolds, in- stead of one, to exercise his patience. As long as they dis- agreed, they were continually scolding, brawling, or fight- ing, with each other ;^ and whenever they agreed, they both joined in brawling at him, and often fell on him with their fists as well as with their tongues, and beat him soundly.'^ And this was a very just punishment upon him, for giving countenance, by his practice, to so unnatural and mischievous an usage. For every where more males than females being born into the world, this sufficiently proves, that God and nature never intended any more than one woman for one man ; and they certainly act contrary to the laws of both, that have more than one to wife at the same time. Although the supreme lawgiver dispensed with the children of Israel in this case, this is no rule for others to act by.
t Josephus contra Apionem, lib. 2. Aristobulus apud Eusebiutn de Pre- paratione Evangelica.
u Clem. Alexandr. Strom. 1. Suidas in Ns^m/sc.
X Vide Menagii Observationes ad tertium Librum Diog. Laertii. sCgm. 6. y Thucydides, lib. 3. z Athenseus, lib. 13. Diog. Laert. in Socrate.
<x Diog. Laert. ibrd h Porphyrins apud Theodoretem
B©OK VI.] THE OLD AXD XL\V TKSTAMEXTS.. 45
In the seventh year of the Peloponncsian war, Artaserxea sent an ambassador, called Artapherncs, to the La- cedemonians,'^ with letters written in the Assyrian AMax.^w'. lansfuage ; wherein, amongothcr things, he tells them, that several ambassadors had come to him from them, but with messages so differing, that he could not learn from them what it was that they would have : and that therefore he had sent this Persian to them to let them know, that if they had any thing to propose to him. they should on his return, send ■with him to his court some by vvhom he might clearly under- stand what their mind was. But this ambassador being got on in his way as far as Eion, on the river Strymon in Thracia, lie was there taken prisoner about the end of the year, by one of the admirals of the Athenian fleet, who sent him to Athens ; where the Athenians treated him with much kind- ness and respect, thereby the better to reconcile to them the favour of the Persian king.
And the next year after, as soon as the seas were safely passable, they sent him back in a ship of their own at the public charges, and appointed some of their Anai-^^ii citizens to go with him as ambassadors from them to the king,*^ but when they were landed at Ephesus, in order to this journey, they there understood that Artaxerxes was lately dead ; whereon the ambassadors proceeded no far- ther, but, having there dismissed Artaphernes, returned again to Athens.
Artaxerxes died within three months after the beginning of the forty-first year of his reign, and was succeeded in his kingdom by Xerxes, the only son that he had by liis queen." But by his concubines he had seventeen others, among wiiom were Sogdianus, (by Ctesias called Secundianus) Ochus, and Arsites. Xerxes having made himself drunk at one of their festivals, and thereon being retired to sleep it out in his bed- chamber, Sogdianus took the advantage of it, by the help and treachery of Pharnacyas, one of Xerxes's eunuchs, then to fall upon liim, and slew him, after he had reigned only forty-five days, and succeeded him in the kingdom. And, as soon as he was on the throne, he put to death Bagorazus, the faithfulest of his father's eunuchs. Artaxerxes being dead, and his queen, the mother of Xerxes dying also the same day, Bagorazus undertook the care of their funeral, and carried both their corpses to the accustomed burial- place of the royal family in Persia. But, on his return, Sog- dianus being on the throne, he was very*ill received by him, on the account of some former quarrel that had been between
€ Thucydides, lib. 4. e Ctesias. Diod. Sic. lib. 12, p. 319. 322.
Vol. II. 7
AG CONNEXION" OF THE H16TORV t)V [PART I.
thorn in his father's lifetime; in revenge whereof, a little after, taking pretence from something which he had found A^ult with in the management of his father's funeral, he cau- sed him to be stoned to death ; hj which two murders, that of his brother Xerxes, and this of the faithful eunuch, having made himself very odious to the army, as well as the nobility, he soon found that he sat very unsafe upon the throne which he had so wickedly gotten possession of. Whereon growing jealous and suspicious, lest some of his brothers should serve l)im as he had served Xerxes, and fearing Ochus, whom his father had made governor of Hyrcania, more than all the rest, he sent for him to come to court, with intention to rid himself of him, by putting him to death. But Ochus, per- ceiving what his designs were, under several pretences, from time to time delayed his coming, till at length, having got to- gether a powerful army, he marched against him, for the re- venging (as he declared) the death of his brother Xerxes : whereon many of the nobilit}', and several governors of pro- vinces, who were disgusted with the cruelty and mismanage- inentofSogdianus, revolted from him, and went over to Ochus, and having put the royal tiara upon his head, declared him king. Sogdianus, seeing himself thus deserted, fell into great fear of the power of his brother, and having less courage to defend what he had wickedly done, than he h:.d to commit it, was prevailed upon^ contrary to the advice of the wisest and best of his friends, to come to a treaty with Ochus ; who, having hereby gotten him into liis power cast him into ashes, and there made him die a most cruel death. This was one of the punishments of the Persians, whereby great criminals among them were put to death. "^ The manner of it is described in the thirteenth chapter of the second book of the Maccabees to be thus. A high tower being filled a great way up with ashes, the criminal was, from the top, thrown down headlong into them, and tliere had the ashes, by a wheel, continually stirred up and raised about him, till he was suffocated by them and died. And thus this wicked prince with his life lost his empire, after he had held it only six months and fifteen day.
Sogdianus being tlius despatched, Ochus obtained tiie king- dom ; and as soon as he was settled in it, he ita". Nothusi. changed his name, taking that of Darius instead of Ochus, and is the same whom historians call Da- rius Nothus.s lie reigned nineteen years, and is in Ptole- my's canon placed as the next immediate successor of Artax-
f Concerning the fust in veDlloa of this punisluneiit, see Valcrine Maxi- raus, lib. 9, c. 2. Exter. sect. 6. g Ctesias. Died, Sic. lib, 12, p. 321. Ptol. Can
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 47
erxes Longimanus, according to the method of that canon, which always reckons to the predecesssor the whole last year in which he died, and placeth him as the next successor who was on the throne in the beginning of the year following (as hath been already observed ;) and both the reigns of Xerxes and Sogdianus making but eight months, and these not reach- ing to the end of the year in which Artaxerxes died, their reigns, in that canon, are cast into the last year of Artax- erxes, and Darius is placed next him, as if he had been his immediate successor.
But it not being the usage of the Persian kings, on their accession to the throne, to displace any of the governors of provinces, unless they were such as they had just reason to mistrust, Nehemiah, during all these revolutions in the em- pire, continued still in his government of Judea, and went on with the same zeal and vigour to reform it in all things re- lating either to church or state, and to correct and set all at rights that was amiss in either of them.
Arsites, seeing how Sogdianus had supplanted Xerxes, and Ochus Sogdianus, thought to do the same with Ochus. And therefore, though he was his bro- Di^l'Nwhus's. ther by the same mother, as well as by the same father, rebelled against him, and Artyphius, the son of Me- gabyzus, joined with him in this revolt.'' Ochus, now called Darius, sent against Artyphius, Artasyras, one of his gene- rals, while he with another army marched against Arsites. Artyphius vanquished his adversary in two battles by the help of his Grecian mercenaries. But these being bribed over to Artasyras, he lost the third battle; and thereby be- ing reduced to the utmost difficulty, he surrendered, on hopes given him of mercy, into the hands of Darius, who would im- mediately have put him to death, but that he was dissuaded from it by Parysatis his queen. She was one of the daughters of Ataxerxes his father by another mother, and a very subtle, crafty woman, and whose counsel and advice he chietly de- pended upon in the management of all his affairs. Her ad- vice on the present occasion was to treat Artyphius with all manner of clemency, that by such usage of a rebel servant he might the better encoi:rage his rebel brother to hope for the same Aivour, and cast himself upon his mercy ; and that, if he could this way decoy him into his power, he might then deal with both as he should think tit. Darius following this advice, had that success in it which was proposed : for Arsites being informed with what clemency Artyphius was treated, thought he as a brother might be favoured much more ; and
h Ctesias.
48 COXXKXION OF THE HISTORY OF [PART I.
therefore, coming to lorms with the king, jieltled himself unto him. But, when he had thus got him into Ijis power, he cast both him and Arlyphius into the ashes, and there made them both miserably perish. Darius was much inclined to have spared Arsites ; but he was overruled herein by the advice of Parysatis, who pressed it upon him, that he could no otherwise provide for his own safety, but by the death of this rebel. And the force of this argument prevailed with him, though with great difiiculty, to consent to it. They be- ing both born of the same mother, this was the cause of the tenderness which he had for him.
He also put to death Pharnacyas the eunuch, for the hand Avhich he had in the death of Xerxes ; and Monasthenes, another eunuch, who was the chief conlident of Sogdianus, and also concerned with him in his treachery against his bro- ther, was forced to kill himself, to avoid the punishment of a much severer death which was intended for him. But all these executions did not set Darius at quiet upon his throne For many other troubles v/ere raised against him atler- ward.
The ehiefest and the most dangerous of them was the re- bellion of IMsuthnes, who, being made governor of Ba^^mhus 10. Lytiia* did there set up for himself, and cast oil' his obedience to the king ; to which he was chief- ly encouraged by the confidence which he placed in an army of mercenary Greeks, whom he had got together into his service, under the command of Lycon, an Athenian. Against him Darius sent Tissaphernes with an army to suppress the rebel, and also with a commission to be governor of Lydia in his stead, l^issaphernes, being a very crafty and insidious man,findswaystogetwithin Pisuthnes's Grecian mercenaries, and having, with large gifts and larger promises, corrupted both them and their general to change sides, they deserted Pisuthncs, and went over to Tissaphernes, whereby Pi- suthnes being left too weak any longer to carry on his de- signs, was persuaded, on promises made him of pardon, to trust to them, and surrender himself; but, as soon as he was brought to the king, he caused him to be cast into the ashes, and there perish in the same manner as had been the fate of the other rebels before him. However, this did not put an end to the troubles which he had raised in those parts; for Amorgas liis son stil! continued in arms with the remaining part of his army, and for about two years after infested the maritime provinces of Lesser Asia, till at length being taken
i Clesias.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AXD NEW TESTAMENTS. 49
prisoner by the Peloponnesians at lasus, a city of Ionia, he was delivered to Tissaphernes, and put to death. "^
Tlie next disturbance which Darius had, was from Artoxa- res,thechief of the eunuchs.' He had three eunuchs by whose ministry he governed ail the alFairs of his empire; these were Artoxares, Artibarxanes, and Athous ; and next Pary- satis his queen ; he placed his greatest confidence in them, and trusted to their counsel and advice above ail others, in whatsoever he did, through all the emergencies of the go- vernment. By which height of authority Artoxares being intoxicated, from being chief minister, he at length began to dream of making himself chief governor of the empire, and laid designs of cutting otf Darius, and seizing the throne for himself. And that his being an euiiuch might be no obstacle to him herein, he married a wife, and wore an artificial beard, that he might be thought to be no eunuch. But his wife know- ing the whole plot, and being perchance weary of an husband whom she found to be truly aii eunuch in her bed, whatever he pretended to be out of it, discover' i all to the king ; where- on he was taken into custody, and delivered over into the hands of Parysatis, who caused him to be put to death in such manner as would best satiate her cruelty, in which she exceeded all women living.
But the greatest misfortune that befell Darius during all his reign, was the revolt of Egypt, which happened in the same year with the revolt of Pisuthnes.'^ For although Darius again mastered the latter of these rebellions, he never could the other. But the whole province of Egypt, which never was one of the best of the whole Persian empire, was lost unto him all the remaining part of his reign, as it also was to his successors, till it was again reduced by Ochus, as will be hereafter related. For the Egyptians being wea- ry of the Persian yoke, Amysta^us Saites took the advantage of it, and sallied out of his fens, where he had reigned ever since the suppression of Inarus's revolt, and, being joined |» by the other Egyptians, soon drove the Persians out of the country, and made himself king of all Egypt, and reigned there six years.
About this time happened at Athens the condemnation of Diagoras the Melian. He having settled in that city, and there taught atheism, the Athenians prosecuted him for it." But, by tlying out of that country, he escaped the punish- ment of death, which was intended for him, although not the sentence. For the Athenians, having, in his absence, con-
h Thucydides, lib. 8. 1 Ctesias. m Eusebius in Chronico.
■ Josephus contra Apionem, lib. 2, Aristophanes in Avibns. Hesychius Milesins,
50 CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OF [I'ART I.
demned him for his impious doctrine, did set a price upon hia head, and decreed the reward of a talent to whosoever should kill him, wheresoever he should be found. And about twenty years before, they had proceeded against Protagoras, another philosopher, with the like severity, for oidy tloubting of the being of a God." F'or in the be- ginning of one of his books, he having written thus, (Of the gods I know nothing, mil her thai ihey are, nor that they are 7iot. For there are mani/ things that hinder, the blindness of our ruiderstanding, and the shortness of human life .) The Athe- nians would not endure so much as the raising of a doubt about this matter; but, calling in all his books by the com- mon criers of their city, they caused them all publicly to be burned with infamy, and banished the author out of their territories for ever. Both these had been the scholars of Democritus, the first founder of the atomical philosophy, which is indeed wholly an atheistical scheme. For though it allows the being of a God in name, it takes it away in efTect ; for by denying th.c power of God to create the world, and the providence of God to govern the world, and the justice of God to judge the world, they do the same in effect as if they had denied his being. But this they durst not openly do, even among the heathens, for fear of punishment, the greater shame is it to us, who, in a Christian state, per- mit so many impious wretches to do this thing among us, with a free liberty and absolute impunity.
Eliashib, the high-priest of the Jews, died in the eleventh
year of Darius No hus, after he had held that Dar.Nothus'ii. pontificato forty years, and was succeeded in it
by Joiada, his son.P At this time Tissaphernes was governor of Lydia and
Ionia, and Pharnabazus of the Hellespont for king Dar.^Noihus'i2. Darius ;'' who being men of great craft, and also
of great application for the prosecuting the interest of their prince, were not wanting to make the best advantage they could of the divisions of the Greeks, for the promoting of the welfare of the Persian empire. The Peloponnesian war had now been carried on between the Lacedemonians and (he Athenians to the twentieth year. The policy practised herein by these two Persians was, sometimes to help one, and some- times the other, that the matter being equally balanced be- tween them, neither might, by ?uppressing the other, be at lei- sure to trouble them, who had so long been the common enemy
o Diog. Laert. in Protagora. Josephus contra Apionem, lib 2. Cicero lie Natiira Deornm. lib. 1.
p Neh. xii. Josephus, lib. 11. c. 7- Chronicon Alexandrinum.
q Diod. Sic. lib. 13. Ctesias. Thucydides, lib. 8. Plutarchus in Alcibiad'>.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 51
of both. And therefore, at this time, the Athenians seeming to them to have the ascendant over the other in the fortune of the war, especially on the Asian coasts, and having there much provoked them by the auxiliaries which they had sent under the command of Lycon, for the aiding and supporting of Pisuthnes in his revolt, they entered into an alliance with the Lacedemonians against them. This had been treated of with them by Tissaphernes the former year, but now was, by the consent of both governors, agreed to, whereby the Per- sians were obliged to furnish the Lacedemonians with large subsidies for the payment of their fleet ; and the Lacedemo- nians, in consideration hereof, yielded, that the Persian king should have all those countries and cities which he or his ances- tors had at any time before the date of the treaty been possess- ed of. But when this treaty came to be examined in a full as- sembly of the Lacedemonians, the concessions made in it to the king of Persia were thought too large, as including all the islands of the Egean Sea, and also all those countries which Xerxes had taken possession of on this side the Hellesp(»nt; and therefore the ratification of them was denied. And by this time the Athenians wanting the balance on their side to make them bear even with their adversaries, Tissaphernes and Pharnabazus, upon this provocation, carried over their assistance to them ; and although the next year, on an emen- dation made in the yielding clause by limiting of it to the Asian provinces, the treaty was ratified and confirmed by the Lacedemonians; yet by several underhand and indirect practices, they rather assisted the Athenians than them, es- pecially in defrauding their fleet of the subsidies they pro- mised to pay them, and by sending back Alcibiades again to the Athenians, which turned the whole fate of the war. And thus they continued, either openly or covertly, sometimes to help one, and sometimes to liclp tlie other, in order to weak- en and waste both, till Cyrus came to be chief governor of the Asian provinces.
Amyrtaeus, having settled himself in the kingdom of Egypt, by a total expulsion of the Persians out of that country, made great preparations to follow them Dar. N"o"tbus'i4. into Phoenicia, and had the Arabians in confede- racy with him for this purpose. *■ Of which the king of Persia having received advice, the fleet with which he had stipulated to help the Lacedemonians was recalled to defend his own territories. But the war seems not to have broken out there till the year following.
In the fifteenth year of Darius Nothus. ended the first
r Diodorus Slculus, lib, 13; p, 385.
52 CONNEXION OF THE UISTORY OF [PART I.
seven weeks of the seventy weeks of Daniel's ^arN^tiius 15. prophecy. For then the restoration of the church
and state of the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea was fully finished, in that last act of reformation, which is recorded in Neh. xiii. 23 — 31, just forty-nine years after it had been first begun by Ezra in the seventh year of Ar- taxerxes Longimanus. And this reformation was the re- moval of all unlawful marriages from among the people ; for although the law strictly forbade them to make intermar- riages with any foreign nation, either by giving their daugh- ters to them for wives, or by taking their daughters to them- selves ; yet, since their return from the Babylonish captivi- ty, they had given little regard hereto, but took to them wives of all the nations round about them, with whom God Iiad strictly commanded them not to make any alliances.* It seems most likely, that, while they were mixed with the strange nations of those countries of the East, into which they were carried captive by the Babylonians, they there first made these strange marriages, and from thence brought with them this forbidden usage on their return. Ezra found it spread among them on his first coming to Jerusalem ;*■ and although for a while he had brought it to a thorough reform- ation, yet, by the time that Nehemiah came to succeed him," the corruption was grown up again ; and, although he did then again reform it, and made all the people enter into a covenant with God, and seal it with an oath and a curse upon themselves, strictly to observe the rule of God's law herein for the future, and, a little after his last return to his govern- ment, he had made another reformation herein,^ by sepa- rating from Israel all the mixed multitude, yet this did not wholly root out the evil ; but it grew up again, and at length came to such an height that the pontifical house, which of all others ought to have been kept the clearest from all such impure commixtures, was polluted therewith. ^^ For one of the sons of Joiada the high-priest whom Josephus calls Ma- nasseh, had married the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite f whereby an ill example being given for the breach of the law, by such as were most concerned to see the observance of it, Nehemiah came in with the utmost stretch of his power to remedy this enormity, and forced all who had taken such strange wives forthwith to part with them, or depart the country : whereon Maoasseh, being unwilling to quit his wife, fled to Samaria, and many others, who, being in the same case with him, were also of the same mind, accompanied
s Exod. xxxiv. 16. Deut. vii. 3 t Ezra ix.; x.
u Neh. X 30. x Neh. xiii. 3.
y Neh. xiii. 23—31. z Antiq. lib. 11, c. 7.
IJOOK VI. j THE OLD A.\D AEW TiiSTAi^XEA Is. 5J
him thither, and there settled under the protection of San- ballat, who was the governor of the place.
It nnay be here objected that I put the last reformation of Nehemiah too low, and the fiiarriage of Manasseh too high ; and therefore it will be necessary, before I proceed any far- ther, to clear these two particulars.
As to the first of these, this last act of Nehemiaii's reform- ation, whereby he purged the land of such as would not be obedient to the law of God in the case of their wives, Nehemiah himself tells us, it was while Joiada was high- priest at Jerusalem.'' But according to the Chronicon Alex- andrinum,'' which gives us the truest account of the succes- sion of the high-priests of the Jews, from the captivity of Babylon to the reign of the Seleucian kings'^) Joiada suc- ceeded in the high-pricshood, on the death of Eliashib his father, only four years before this year in which I place this act of reformation. And therefore higher than this, unless in one of these four years, it cannot be placed within the time of Joiada's high-priesthood. And that which deter- mines me to place it in the fifth year of that priesthood, rather than in any of the four preceding, is the prophecy of Daniel's seventy weeks. For, by that prophecy, from the going forth of the decree to restore and build Jerusalem, (that is, to restore and build up again the church and state of the Jews at Jerusalem by a thorough reformation of both,) to the end of that reformation, were to be seven of those weeks, that is, forty-nine years. And these forty-nine years beginning in the seventh year of Artaxerxcs Longimanus, when this decree was granted to Ezra, they must end in the fifteenth year of Darius Nothus his son, which was the fifth year of the high-priesthood of Joiada ; and therefore here this reformation must have had its ending also. And since the expulsion of Manasseh, with such others with him as would not be reformed, is the last act which is mentioned to have been done of this reformation in those very Sciiptures which are professedly written to give us an account of the whole of it, what is more reasonable than to infer, that in this act it had its conclusion? and that therefore this act must be there placed where that reformation ended, that is, forty-nine years after it had its beginning, accordinir to the prophecy of Daniel which I have mentioned. y\nd from the seveoth of Artaxerxes Longimanus to the fifteenth of Darius
a Nehemiah xiii. 28.
b The number of years which (he Chroriiciim Alexandrinnm ascribes to each hij;h-priest brings down the first of Joiada to that year, which is the eleventh of Darius Nothus in the canon of Ptolemy.
c It best agreelh both with the Scripture and the profane history of those times. ,
Vol. ir. 0
64 cONXiiXION OF THE llIaTORV C)K [PART 1.
Nothus were just forty-nine years. If any one shall say, that, in the text of Nehemiah, (xiii. 28,) the word high-priest is put in opposition with Eliashib, and not with Joiada, and that therefore this last act of Nehemiah's reformation was in the hi^h-priesthood of Eliashib, and not in that of Joiada his son ; my answer hereto is, that the Hebrew original can- not bear this interpretation : for it having been the usage of the Jews, as well as of all other nations of the East, for the better distinguishing of persons, to add the name of the fa- ther to that of the son in the same manner as was lately practised by the Welsh, and still is among the Irish, these words in the text, Joiada Ben Eliashib, that is, Joiada the son of Eliashib, all together made but one name of the same person, and therefore the word high-priest, which followeth, can be put in apposition with nothing but the whole of it.
As to the second objection, that I place the marriage of Manasseh too high, my answer is, that I place it where the Scriptures place it, that is, in the high-priesthood of Joiada. Josephus indeed placeth this marriage in the high-priesthood of Jaddua, the grandson of Joiada, and saith, that he who contracted it was the brother of Jaddua, and the son of Jo- hanan. To reconcile this matter, some fancy that there were two Sanballats, the first the Sanballat of the holy Scriptures, and the other the Sanballat of Josephus ; and that there were two marriages contracted by tsvo different persons, sons of two ditferent high-priests of the Jews, with two ditferent women, who were each daughters of two dif- ferent Sanballats, the first the daughter of the Sanballat of the Scriptures, and the other the daughter of the Sanballat of Josephus ; and that he that married (he first of them was a son of Joiada, but that he that mairied the second of thern was the son of Johanan, and brother of Jaddua. But as 1 have shown before that there could be but one Sanballat, and that the Sanballat of Josephus was the same with the Sanballat of the holy Scriptures, but that Josephus, by a mistake in his chronology, placed him in the time of Darius Codomannus, whereas he should have placed him in the time of Darius Nothus ; so it must follow from hence, that he was one and the same high-priest's son that married his daughter : for each who is said to have contracted this mar- riage being the son of a high-priest of the Jews, each marrying the daughter of a Sanballat governor of Samaria, and each being expelled Jerusaletn for it, these three charac- ters sufficiently prove both to be the same person. The Scriptures indeed give him no name; but Josephus calls hirn Manasseh, and therefore 1 call him so too. The question, therefore, being reduced to this, whether this marriage is to
UOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 55
be placed in the high-priesthood of Joiada and the reign of Darius Nothus, where the Scriptures place it, or else in the high-priesthood of Jaddua, and the reign of Darius Codo- mannus, where Josephus placeth it, I liope there will be no difficulty in determining which authority to follow.
The war being carried on between the Egyptians and the Persians, and each contending to enlarge and strengthen their barrier on the borders, it seems mo-t likely that Darius, oq this occasion, came in person into Phoenicia ;'^ and that then it was that Sanballat, attending him, so far insinuated himself into his favour,*' as to obtain from him a grant to build on Mount Gerizim, near Samaria, a temple like that at Jerusa- lem, and to make Manassch his son-in-law high-priest of it ; and that herein all that had its foundation, which Josephus, by mistaking the time, attributes to Darius Codoniannus and Alexander the Great. And perchance this war might some time after produce that siege of Gaza at which Sanballat died ;^ for even at this time he must have been a very old man. Gaza being the common inlet between Egypt and Phoenicia, for the passing of each to other, the possession of it was of great importance on either side. If held by the Egyptians, it would be a gale to let them in to ravage Judea, Phoenicia, and Syria; and if by the Persians, it would be a strong barrier to keep them out, and also to be a like gate for the passage of the Persian forces into Egypt. And therefore, if Amyrteeus had now possessed himself of this important post, it concerned the king of Persia to do his utmost to recover it : for, without it, he could neither defend the territories which he had remaining in those parts, nor pass into Egypt to recover what he had there lost ; for he that was master of this pass could obstruct the passage either way. And therefore Alexander himself, after his victory at Issus, could not pass into Egypt till he had taken it."
Sanballat, having built this temple, and made Manasseh high-priest of it, Samaria thenceforth became the common refuge and asylum of the refractory Jews ;'' so that, if any among them were found guilty of violating the law, as in eating forbidden meats, the breach of the sabbath, or the like, and were called to an account for it, they fled to the Samaritans, and there found reception ; by which means it came to pass, that, after some time, the greatest part of that people were made up of apostate Jews, and their descen- dants. The first of these Samaritans were the Cutheans,
d Diodor. Sic. lib. 13, p. 353. e Josephus, lib. 13, c. 8.
f Josephus, lib. 13, c. 8.
g Q. Curtius, lib. 4, c. 6. Pliilarchns in Alexandre. Arrian, lib. 2, ediU Blancard, p. 150v h Josephus. lib. 11, c. 8.
bC, CONNEXION ©F THE HliTORV OF [PART !•
and such others of the eastern nations as Esarhaddon plant- ed there after the deportation of the Israehtes. But when these apostate Jews flocked to ihem, they became a mongrel sort of people made up of both. But the mixing of so many Jews among them soon made a change in their religion. For whereas they had hitherto worshipped the God of Israel only in conjunction with their other gods, that is, the gods of those nations of the East from whence they came ;' after a temple was built among them, in which the daily service was constantly performed in the same manner as at Jerusalem, and the book of the law of Moses was brought to Samaria, and there publicly read to them, they soon left ofT worshipping their false gods, and conformed themselves wholly to the worship of the true God,"^ according to the rule which was ir) that book prescribed to them, and were more exact in it (as some of the Jewish doctors acknowledge') than the Jews themselves. However, the Jews, looking on them as apostates, hated them above all the nations of the earth, so as to avoid all manner of converse and communi- cation with them."" This hatred first began from the opposi- tion which the Samaritans made against them, on their return from the Babylonish captivity, both in their rebuilding of the temple, and their repairing of the walls of Jerusalem, of which an account hath been above given; audit was afterward much increased by this apostacy of 3Ianasseh, and those who joined with him in it, and by their erecting hereon an altar and a temple, in opposition to theirs at Jerusalem. And all others who at any time after fled from Jerusalem, for the violating of the law, always finding reception among them, this continually farther added to the rancour which the Jews had entertained against them, till at length it grew to that height, that the Jews published a curse and an anathema against them, the bitterest that ever was denounced against any people ; for thereby they forbade all manner of commu- nication with them, declared all the fruits and products of their land, and every thing else of theirs, which was either eaten or drunk among them, to be as swine's flesh, and pro- hibited all of their nation ever to taste thereof, and also ex- cluded all of that people from being ever received as prose- lytes to their religion. And, in the last place, proceeded so far, as even to the barring of them for ever from having any portion in the resurrection of the dead to eternal life, as if this also were in their power. This curse, they say, was
i 2 Kings xvir.
k Epiphanius Hser. 9. Hoftingeri Exercitat. Anti morinian.T, sec. 16. I Maimonides in Tractatum Misnicum Bcrailjittli, t. 8, sec. 8. Obadiah Sartenora in eundem TracJatum, c. 7, sec. 1. m .John iv.i».
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 57
first denounced against them by Zerubbabel and Jcshua, on the opposition which they gave them in the rebuilding of the temple, and by them transmitted to the Jews of Babylon, where it being also ratified and confirmed, it became thereby the act and sentence of the whole Jewish church. This account is given of it in Pirke R. Eiiezer," which is repu- ted one of the ancientest of their bocjks." And, ever since, they say, it hath been renewed, and al>o, by adding curse upon curse, continually aggravated among them. But it is not hkely that this was done by Zerubbabel and Jeshua in the manner as related by R. Eliezer. IC it were done at all it was done afterward, when the hatred of the Jews against them was grown to the utmost height from the causes men- tioned. But thus much is certain, that, for many ages past, the conduct of the Jews towards the Samaritans hath been according to the tenor of this anathema ; they, constantly refusing all manner of converse or communication with them : and so it was even in our Saviour's time : for why else should the woman of Samaria ask our Saviour, How is it that thotc being a Jew askest drink of me^ rvho am a woman of Samaria ? but that it was even then forbidden among the Jews either to eat or drink any thing of that which was (he Samaritans' : and the words immediately foUov.^ing are to this purpose ; for they tell us that the. Jews had no dealings xvith the Samaritans. The common name by which they call these people is that of Cutheans, which is a name of so great infamy among them, that whenever they are provoked to express the utmost of their rancour against any one, they call him Cuthean, in the same manner as we often call those whom we detest, Jews or Turks ; but that of Cuthean imports a much greater de- gree of detestation among them, than either of the other two do among us. And (hat this humour was very ancient among them appears from hence, that when the Jews ex- pressed their utmost aversion to our Saviour, ihey said unto him, Tho7c art a Samaritan, and hast a devil ^ as if to be a Samaritan, and have a devil, were things of equal reproach. And the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus, when he reck- ons up (he nations which were most detestable to the Jews, names the foolish people that dzoell in Sechem, to be those who were chiefly so.*! However, the Samaritans themselves will not own their original from those eastern colonies of Esar- haddon, but claim to be descended from the sons of Joseph, and therefore call Jacob their father ; and so the woman of
n Cap. 38, et vide Aniraadversiones Vorstii ad locum praidictum p. 226 — 230. Lightfoot, vol. 1, p. 599.
o The Jews say this book was writ before the destruction of Jerusalem, but there being mention made therein of the Saracen empire, it must Iiave been written at least six hundred years after.
p John viii. 48. q Ecclesiast. v. 25; 26.
58 CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OF [PART I.
Samaria calls him in her discourse with our Saviour/ But Josephus tells us, they used to do this only when the Jews were in prosperity. ** But if at any time they fell under diffi- culties or oppressions they then disclaimed all relation to them, saying they were of another nation ; as was notorious- ly done by them in the time of Antiochus's persecution/ The particulars in which they and the Jews differ from each other in their religion are these following.
1. The Samaritans receive none other Scriptures than the five books of Moses, rejecting all the other books which are in the Jewish canon." And these five books they still have among tbem, written in the old Hebrew or Phoenician cha- racter, which was in use among them before the Babylonish captivity, and in which both these and all other Scriptures were written, till Ezra transcribed them into that of the Chaldeans. And this hath led many learned men into a mistake, as if the Samaritan copy, because written in the old character, were the true authentic copy, and that Ezra's was only a transcript ; whereas in truth the Samaritan Pen- tateuch is no more that a transcript, copied in another cha- racter from that of Ezra, with some variations, additions, and transpositions made therein. That it was copied from that of Ezra, is manifest from two reasons. For, 1st. It hath all the interpolations that Ezra's copy hath ; and that he was the author of those interpolations is generally acknowledged : and therefore, had it been ancienter than Ezra's copy, it must have been without them. 2dly. There are a great many variations in the Samaritan copy, which are manifestly caused by the mistake of the similar letters in the Hebrew alphabet : which letters having no similitude in the Samari- tan character, this evidently proves those variations were made in transcribing the Samaritan from the Hebrew, and not in transcribing the Hebrew from the Samaritan. It seems from hence to be beyond all doubt, that Manasseh, when he tied to the Samaritans, first brought the law of Mo- ses among them. Esarhaddon indeed sent to his new colony, which he had planted in Samaria, an Israelitish priest, to teach them the way of worshipping God according to the manner of the former inhabitants ;^ but it appears not that he did this by bringing the law of Moses among them, or that they were any otherwise instructed in it, than by tradition, till Manasseh came among them. For had they received the law of Moses from the first, and made that the rule of wor-
r John iv. 12. s Antiq. lib. 9, c. 24, k lib. 11, c. S.
t Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12, c. 7.
u Hieronytnus in Diiilogoadversus Luciferianos. Epipbanius. Haeres.P. Benjaminis Itinerarinrn, p. 38. Eiitych. fcc. x 2Kings xvii.SS.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 59
ship which they paid Ihe God of Israel from the time of the coming of that priest among them, how could they have con- tinued in that gross idolatry of worshipping other gods in conjunction with him, which that law doth so often and so strictly forbid ? And yet in this idolatry, it is agreed on all hands, they continued till the building of the temple on Mount Gerizim ; and therefore it seems clear, that till then they had not a copy of this law, but that when Manasseh, and so many apostate Jews with him, came over to them, and settled in Samaria, they first brouuht it among them ; and because the old Phoenician character was that only which the Samaritans were accustomed to, they caused this law for their sakes to be written out in that character ; and in this they have retained it ever since. This Samaritan Penta- teuch was well known to many of the fathers and ancient Christian writers ; for it is quoted by Origen, Africanus, Eusebius, Jerome, Diodor of Tarsus, Cyril of Alexandria, Procopius Gazaeus, and others. That which made it so fa- miliar to them, was a Greek translation of it then extant, which now is lost : for as there was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures made for the use of the heilenistical Jews, which we call the Septuagint, so also was there a like Greek translation of the Samaritan Scriptures (ihat is, the Pentateuch, which they only allowed for such) made for the use of the heilenistical Samaritans, especially for those of Alexandria, y where the Samaritans dwelt in great numbers, as well as the Jews. Origenindeed, and Jerome, understood the Hebrev/ language ; and therefore might have consulted the Samaritan text, that being none other than Hebrew in another character. But the rest of those mentioned under- standing nothing of it, could no otherwise have an> know- ledge of tliis Samaritan Pentateuch, but from the translation of it. And there is also an old scholiast upon the Septua- gint that makes frequent mention of it. But this, as well as the other ancient books in whicli any mention of this Sama- ritan Pentateuch is to be found, were all written before the end of the sixth century. From that time, for above one thousand years after, it hath lain wholly in the dark, and in an absolute state of oblivion among all Christians both of the West and East, and hath been no more spoken of after that time by any of their writers, till about the beginning of the last century, when Scaliger, having got notice that there was such a Samaritan Pentateuch among those of that sect in the East,^ made heavy complaints, that no one would take care to get a copy of it from thence, and bring it among us
y Josephus Antlq. lib. 12, c. 1, and lib. 13, c. 6. z De Emendatione TeiDporura,lib. 7, p. 669.
60 CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OF [pART /.
into these parts. A little after this, archibishop Usher pro- cured several copies of it out of the East ;* and not long af- ter, Sancius Harley, a priest of the oratory of Paris, and af- terward bishop of St. Malo's in Brittany, brought another copy into Europe, and deposited it in the library belonging to that order in Paris. ^ Fronn which copy Morinus, another priest of the same order, published it in the Paris Poly- glot. This Sancius Harley had been ambassador from the French king at Constantinople, where, having resided in that quality ten years, he made use of the opportunity which he had there of making a good collection of oiiental books, which he brought home with him on his return ; and, having awhile after entered himself among theoratorians at Paris, he did put all these bouks into their library, and among them was this copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch which Mo- rinus published.
The Samaritans, besides the Pentateuch in the original Hebrew language, have also another in the language that was vulgarly spoken among them.*^ For as the Jews, after the Babylonish captivity, degenerated in their language from the Hebrew to the Babylonish dialect ; so the Samaritans did the same. Whether this happened by their bringing this dialect out of Assyria with them, when they first came to plant in Samaria, or that they tirst fell into it by conform- ing themselves to the speech of those Phoenician and Syrian nations who lived next them, and with whom they mostly conversed, or else had it iVom the mixture of those Jews who revolted to them with Manasseh, we have not light enough to determine. But however it came to pass, after it so hap- pened, the vulgar no longer understood what was written in the Hebrew language. And therefore, as the Jews, for the sake of the vulgar among them, who understood nothing but the vulgar language, were forced to make Chaldee versions of the Scriptures, which they call the Targums or Chaldee paraphrases; so the Samaritans were forced, for the same reason, to do the same thing, and to make a version of their Pentateuch into the vulgar Samaritan, which is called the Sa- maritan version. And liiis Samaritan version, as well as the original Samaritan text, Morinus published together in the Polyglot al)Ove mentioned. The Samaritan text he printed from Sancius Hariey's copy, but the Samaritan version he had from Peter a Valle, a gentleman of Rome, who, having many years travelled over the East, brought it thence with him, and communicated it to Morinus. But that work
H Waltonc Prolegoin. xi. ad Bihlia Polyglottn, Lonil. sec. 10. }) Morini Exercitalio prima in Penlatcuclium Satnaritaimm. r I. c ^';-.''» w-..ifnaerQ k Morintiin. ibid.
BOO VI.] THE OLD AMJ AEW TESTAMENTS. 61
being precipitated with too much haste, it had passed the press before such other helps came to him from Perescius, Dr. Comber, dean of Carhsle, and others, as would have enabled him to have made it much more perfect ; but what was wanting therein was afterward rectified in the London Polyglot, in which tlie Samaritan text, and the Samaritaa version, and the i^atin translation of both, are published al- together much more complete and correct than they were before. This Samaritan version is not made, like the Chal- dee among the Jews, by way of paraphrase, but by an ex- act rendering of the text, word for word, for the most part, without any variation. So that Morinus thought one Latin translation might serve for both ; and the London Polyglot hath followed the same method, only where there are any variations, they are marked at the bottom of the page.
As to the variations, additions, and transpositions, whereby the Samaritan copy dilfers from the Hebrew, they are all enumerated in Hottinger's book against Morinus, and in the collation made of both texts in the last volume of the Lon- don Polyglot. It is not so much to be wondered at, that there are these diiferences between these copies, as that there should not have been many more, after those who had ad- hered to the one, and those who had adhered to the other, had not only broken off all manner of communication, but had constantly been in the bitterest variance possible with each other for above two thousand years ; for so long had passed from the apostacy of Manasseh to the time when these copies were first brought into Europe. After the se- ries of so many ages past, many differences might have hap- pened by the errors of the transcribers; and the most that are between these two copies are of this sort. As to'the rest, some are changes designedly made by the Samaritans for the better support of tl)eir cause against the Jews ; of which sort one that is notoriously such will be taken notice of by and by in its proper place. Others are interpolations for the better explication of the text, added either from other parts of Scripture, or else by way of paraphrase upon it, to ex- press explicitly what was thought to be implicitly contain- ed therein. Of the first sort are, 1st. The addition which we find in Exodus xviii. where, between the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth verses, is inserted what we have from the ninth to the fourteenth verse of the first of Deute- ronomy inclusively ; and, 2dly. That which we find in Numbers x, where, between the tenth and eleventh ver- ses, is inserted all that which we read in the sixth, seventh, and eighth verses of the first of Deuteronomy ; both which insertions are wanting in the Hebrew. And, of the other
Vol. II. 9
62 CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OF [I'ART I.
sort, are wliat we find in Genesis iv. 8, and in Exodus xii. 40. In (he first of these, after what is said in the He- brew text, Jnd Cain spake (or said) to Abel his brother, the Samaritan text adds, Let us go into the field : and, in the lat- ter, instead of these words in the Hebrew text, Now the in- habiting of the children of Israel, whereby they inhabited in Egypt, zvere four hundred and thirty years, the Samaritan text hath it, Now the inhabiting of the children of Israel, and their fathers, whereby they inhabited in the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt, were four hundred and thirty years. Both these additions, it is manifest, mend the text, and make it more clear and intelligible, and seem to add nothing to the Hebrew copy, but what must be understood by the reader to make out the sense thereof. As to the other variations, the most considerable of them are those which we find in the ages of the patriarchs before Abraham, in which the Sama- ritan computation comes nearer to theSeptuagint than to the Hebrew, though it ditfers from both. IIow these, or the transpositions of verses, or the other alterations and addi- tions which are found in the Samaritan copy, and the differ- ences which from thence arise between the Hebrew and Sa- maritan Pentateuch, came about, many conjectures have been offered : but no certain judgment being to be made about them, without a better light to direct us herein than we can now have, I will trouble the reader with none of them ; but shall add only this farther upon this head, that none of these differences can infer, that the Samaritan copy which we now have is not truly that which was anciently in use among them : for most, if not all of those passages which were quoted out of it above eleven hundred years since by those writers I have mentioned, as differing from or agreeing with the Hebrew text, and by some of them much earlier, are now to be found in the present Samaritan copies in the same words as quoted by them, and in the same manner differing from or agreeing with that text. There is an old copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch now shown at Shechem (or Na- plous, as they now call it,) the head seat of that sect, which would put this matter beyond all dispute, were that true which is said of it. For they tell us, that therein are writ- ten these words : / Jlbishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the high-priest, have transcribed this copy at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, in the thirteenth year of the children of IsraePs entrance into the holy land.'^ But Dr. Huntington, late bishop of Rapho in Ireland,
d VValtoni Prolegotn. xi. ad Biblia Polyglolta Lond. sec. 17. Hottingeri Exercitationes Anti-Morinianse, sec. 37. Basnage's History of the Jewy, book 2, c. 2, p. 81.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. C3
having, while chaplain to the Turkey company at Aleppo, been at Shechem, and there examined this copy upon the spot, found no such words on the manuscript, nor thought the copy an- cient. Whether the Samaritans, did in ancient times abso- lutely reject all the other Scriptures besides the Pentateuch, some do doubt; because it is certain, from the discourse of the woman of Samaria with our Saviour, that they had the same expectations of a Messiah that the Jews had ; and this they say they could nowhere clearly have but from the pro- phets.® And it cannot be denied, but that there is some force in this argument. Perchance, although they did read the Pentateuch only in their synagogues, yet anciently they might not have been without a due regard to the other sa- cred writings, whatsoever their sentiments may be of them at present.
II. The second point of difiference in religion between the Samaritans and the Jews anciently was, and still is, that the Samaritans reject all traditions, and adhere only to the written word itself, and, in the observance of tliat they are acknowledged by the Jews themselves to be more exact than they are ; and good reason is there for them so to say ; for the Jews often make the law of none effect by their tra- ditions ;'^ whereas the Samaritans always kept themselves strictly to the written word, and never admitted any such corrupt glosses to draw them from it. And because in this they agreed with the Sadducees (for they also denied ail tra- ditions, and adhered to the written letter of the law only,) hence the Jews have taken an handle of calumniating them, as if they agreed in other particulars with tlie Sadducees al- so, and denied with them the resurrection of the dead,° which led Epipharuus'' and St. Gregory' into the error of assert- ing this to be their opinion ; whereas the resurrection of the dead hath always been a doctrine as firmly held and as cer- tainly believed among them as by the Jews themselves.
III. The third point of difference in religion between the Samaritans and the Jews was about the place of their wor- ship. The words of the woman of Samaria, in the gospel of St. John, state this matter exactly right. For, in her discourse with our Saviour, she saith to h\m, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain : hut ye (meaning the Jews,) say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to rcorship. The law given by Moses was, that they should perform all their sacrifices and oblations in (he place that God should choose out of all their tribes to put his name there ; and that
e John iv.25. f Malt. xv. 6. Markvii. 13.
gJosepbus. Albo, sec. 31,serni. 4. h Hcfires. y.
iAIoral. in .lob, lib. 1;C. 15.
64 GONJJEXIOX OF THE HISTORY OF [PART 1.
place was Jerusalem.'^ f^or there the temple, by the direc- tion of God himself, was hiiilt,' and there God consecrated it by the habitation of hi? divine presence therein, and there all the tribes of Israel that adhered to the true worship of God offered up their sacrifices,"" and there the temple was again rebuilt after the Babylonish captivity, and the same service there carried on in an unity and uniformity of worship by all of that nation, till Manassch made the schism that hath been mentioned, and, flyins; to Samaria, did there set up al- tar against altar, and temple against temple : for, after he had built that temple on Mount Gerizim, and therein erected an altar in opposition to that at Jerusalem, the Samaritans and apostate Jews who revolted to them would no longer'al- low Jerusalem to be the place which God had chosen ; but contended, that Mount Gerizim was (hat place, and argued for it in the same manner as the woman of Samaria did unto our Saviour, that is, that their fath.ers worshipped in that mountain ; for they plead, that there Abraham" and Jacob' built altars unto God, and, by their otFering up of sacrifices on them, consecrated that place above all others to his worship ; and that therefore it was appointed by God himself to be the hill of blessing,P on the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt; and that accordingly Joshua, on his entering the land of Canaan, had caused the blessings of God to be de- clared thereon, and also that, on his having passed the river Jordan, he built an altar on it of twelve stones, taken out of that river in his passage, according as God had commanded by Moses :i and this they hold to be the very altar upon which they still sacrifice on that mountain even to this day. But, to make out this last part of the argument, and thereby re- concile the greater veneration to I\Jount Gerizim, and their place of worship thereon, they have been guilty of a very great prevarication in corrupting the text : for whereas the command of God is (Deut. xxvii. 4,) that they should set up the altar upon Mount Ebal, they have there made a sacrile- gious change in the text, and, instead of Mount Ebal, have put Mount Gerizim, the better to serve their cause by it. — This corruption the Jews loudly charge them with, and the Samaritans do as loudly retort it upon them ; and say, that the Jews have corrupted the text in that place, by putting Mount Ebal in their copies, where it should be Mount Geri- zim ; and bring this argument for it, that Mount Gerizim having been the mountain that was appointed whereon to
k Deut. xii. 5, 1 1, 14, 18, 20 ; xv. 20 ; xvi. 2, 6, 7, 15, 16, k.c.
1 1 Chron.xxii. m 1 Kings viii. 10. 2 Chron. vii. 1— 3.
n Gen. xiii. 4, 6, 7. o (ieii. xxxii. 20.
p Peut. sxvii. 12. q Deut. xxvii. 2 — 7.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 63
declare the blessings of God, and Mount Ebal whereon to denounce his curses, the mountain of blessing was very pro- per, and the nnountiain of cursing very improper, for an al- tar of God to be built upon. But, notwithstanding this alle- gation in their behalf, all other copies and translations of the Pentateuch make against them, and prove the corrup- tion to be on their side. And it very much aggravates their guilt herein, that they have not only corrupted the Scrip- tures in this place, but have also interpolated them with this corruption in another, that is, in Exodus xx. where, after the tenth commandment, they have subjoined, by way of an ad- ditional precept thereto, words taken out of Deuteronomy xi. and xxvii. to command the erecting of the altar in Mount Gerizim instead of Mount Ebal, and the offering of sacrifices to God in that place. ■■ And in that they have thus voluntarily made a corrupt alteration in one place, and a corrupt addition in another, merely out of design to serve an ill cause, this gives the less authority to their copy in all other places, where, either by alterations or additions, it differs from that of the Jews.
These two mountains, called Gerizim and Ebal, are in the tribe of Ephraim, near Samaria ; and in the valley between them lieth Shechem, now called Naplous, which hath been the head seat of the Samaritan sect ever since Alexander ex- pelled them out of Samaria for the death of Andromachus. This place the Jews in our Saviour's time, by way of re- proach, called Sichar ; and therefore we have it so named in St. John's gospel.^ It signiSeth the drunken city; and the prophet Isaiah having called the Ephraimites (whose dwell- ing was in those parts) Sicorim,* that is, drunkards, they have this text on their side for the justifying of that name. Near this place was the field which Jacob boasjht of the children of Hamor, and gave unto Joseph his son a little before his
r The words added by tlie Samaritans after the tenth commandment, in Exodus XX. are as follovveth. " And it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee into the land of the Canaanites. whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt set up great stones, ai'.d piaster them with plaster, and thou shalt write upon these stones all the words of this law. And it shall be, when ye are gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in Mount Gerizim, and thou shalt build there an altar unto the Lord thy God. an altar of stones. Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones. And thou shalt there otter burrit-offerings thereon to the Lord thy God, and thou shalt offer peace-offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the Lord thy God. This mountain is on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaan- ites, who dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh, which are over against Shechem."'
' John iv. 5. t Isaiah xxviii. I.
66 CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OF [PART I.
death." Therein Joseph's bones were buried when brought up out of the land of Egypt,^ and within the same plot of ground was the well, called Jacob's well, at which our Saviour sat down, when he discoursed with the woman of Samaria. ^^ But, after all the contest that is made between the Samari- tans and the Jews about these two mountains, Jeronie is positive, that neither of them were the Gerizim and Ebal of the holy Scriptures, but that the two mountains so called in them, and on which the blessings and cursings were pro- claimed by the children of Israel, on their first passing over Jordan into the land of Canaan, were two small mountains or hills lying near Jericho, at a great distance from Shechem.^ And Epiphanius was of the same opinion with Jerome in this matter : and they having been both upon the place, may well be thought the best able to pass a true judgment about it. Their arguments for it arc, 1st. That the Scriptures place these two mountains over against that part of the river Jor- dan where the children of Israel passed into the land of Ca- naan, and near Gilgal ; but Shechem is at a great distance from both : and, 2dly. That the mountains near Shechem, called Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, are at too great a dis- tance from each other for the people from either of them to hear either the blessings or the cursings which were pro- nounced from the other ; but that it would be quite other- wise as to the hills near Jericho, which they conceive to be the hills by the names of Gerizim and Ebal meant in Scripture. But that hill from which Jotham the son of Gideon made his speech to the Shechemites, being called Gerizim,* and that certainly lying just over them (for otherwise they could not have heard him from thence,) this clearly makes against this opinion, and evidently proves the Mount Gerizim of the holy Scriptures to be that very Mount Gerizim on which the temple of the Samaritans was built.
The Jews accuse the Samaritans of two pieces of idolalry, which they say were committed by them in this place. ^ The first, that they there worshipped the image of a dove ; and the other, that they paid divine adoration to certain teraphim, or idol gods, there hid under that mountain. For the first charge they took the handle from the idolatry of the Assyrians : for that people having worshipped one of their deities (Semiramis, saith Diodorus Siculus*^) under
u Gen. xxiii. 19 ; xlviii. 22. Joshua sxiv. 32. X Joshua xxiv. 32. y John iv. 6.
z Vide Scalioeri aniraadversiones in Eusebii Chron. sub. Numero 1681. a Judges ix 7.
b Talmud in Tractatu Ciiolin. vide etiam Waltoni Prolegom. xi. ad Biblla Polyglotta Lend. sec. 7, k. Hottingeri Exercitat. Antiinorinianas, sec. 16, 17. c Lib. 2, p. 66, 76.
BOOK VI.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 67
the image of a dove, they reproached the Samaritans as wor- shippers of the hke image, because descended from them ; and perchance thej were so while they worshipped their other gods with the God of Israel, but never afterward. And as to the second charge, it is true, Jacob having found out that Rachel had stolen her father's teraphim, or idol gods, took them from her, and buried them under the oak in Shechem, which they suppose to have been at the foot of the mountain Gerizim f and, from hence, because the Sama- ritans worshipped God in that mountain, the Jews suggest, that they worshipped there for the sake of these idols, and paid divine adoration unto them. But both these charges were malicious calumnies, falsely imputed to them : for, after the time that Manasseh brought the law of Moses among them, and instructed them in it, the Samaritans became as zealous worshippers of the true God, and as great abhorrers of all manner of idolatry, as the most rigorous of the Jews themselves, and so continue even to this day.
And with this last act of Nehemiah's reformation, and the expulsion of those refractory Jews that would not conform to it, not only the first period of Daniel's 70 weeks, but also the holy Scriptures of the Old Testament ending, I shall here also end this book ; and proceed to relate what after follow- ed from the beginning of the next.
d Gen. xxxv. 2 — 4.
THE
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
CONNECTED, &c.
BOOK Til.
THUS far we have had the light of Scripture to fol- low. Henceforth the books of the Maccabees, Dai^>"othufi6. r'hilo Judaeus, Josephus, and the Greek and Latin writers, are the only guides which we can have to lead us through the future series of this history, till we come to the times of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How long after this Nehemiah lived at Jerusalem is uncertain ; it is most likely, that he continued in his government to the time of his death ; but when that happened is nowhere said ; only it may be observed, that at the time where he ends his book, he could not be much less than seventy years old. After him, there seems not to have been any more govern- ors of Judea ; but that this country, being added to the pre- fecture of Syria, was thenceforth wholly subjected to the go- vernor of that province, and that under him the high-priest had the trust of regulating all affairs therein.
While Darius was making war against the Egyptians and the Arabians, the Modes revolted from him;'' but, being vanquished in battle, they were soon forced again to return to their former allegiance, and for the punishment of their rebellion, submit to an heavier yoke of subjection than they had on them before ; as is always the case of revolting sub- jects when reduced again under the power against which they rebelled.
And the next year after, Darius seems to have had as good success against the Egyptians : for Amyrlseus Dar^NoihuT'n. being dead, (perchance slain in battle,) Herodo- tus tells us, his son Pausiris succeeded him in the kingdom, by the favour of the Persians -^ which argues
a Xenophon Hellenic, lib. 1. Herodotus, lib. 9. h Lib 3.
eOOK VII.] XHE OLD AKD NEW TESTAMENTS. 69
that, before they granted him this, they had reduced Egypt again under them, otherwise Pausiris could not have been made king of it by their favour.
Darius having thus settled his affairs in Media and Egypt, sent Cyrus his younger son to be commander in chief of all the provinces of Lesser Asia, giving him authority para- mount over all the lieutenants and governors afore placed in them.^ He was a very young man to be intrusted with so large an authority ; for having been born after his^^ father's accession to the throne, he could not have been now above sixteen years old. But, being the darling and best beloved son of Parysatis, who had an absolute ascendant over the old king her husband, she obtained this commission for him with an Intention, no doubt, to put him into a capa- city of contending for the crown after his father's death ; and this use he accordingly made of it, to the great damage and disturbance of the whole Persian empire, as will be hereafter related.
On his receiving his commission, he had this chiefly given him in charge by his father, that he should help the Lacede- monians against the Athenians, contrary to the wise measures hitherto observed by Tissaphernes, and the other governors of the Persian provinces in those parts.*^ For their practice hitherto had been, sometimes by helping one side, and sometimes by helping the other, so to balance the matter between both parties, that each being kept up to be a match for the other, both might continue to harass and weak- en each other by carrying on the war, and neither be at leisure to disturb the Persian empire. This order of the king's for a contrary practice soon discovered the weakness of his politics. For the Lacedemonians having by the help which Cyrus gave them, according to his father's instructions, soon overpowered the Athenians, and gained an absolute conquest over them, they were no sooner at leisure from this war, but they sent first Thimbro, and after him, Dercy- lidas, and at last Agesilaus their king, to invade the Persian provinces in Asia ; where they did the Persians a great deal of damage, and might at length have endangered the whole empire, but that the Persians, by distributing vast sums of money among the Grecian cities, and the demagogues that governed them, found means to rekindle the war again in Greece; which necessitated the Lacedemonians to recall their forces for their own defence, just when they were going
c Xenoph. Hellen. lib. 1. Plutarchus in Artaxerxe, et Lysandro. Ctesias Justin, lib. 5, c. 5. Diodorus Siculiis, lib. 13, p. 368.
d Xenoph. ibid. Diodorus Siculus. ibid. Thucydides, lib. 2. Justin, ibid. Plutarchus in Lysandro.
Vol. L 10
70 CONNEXION OV THE HiSTORV Of [I'ART I.
to march into the heart of the empire, and there strike at the very vitals of it. So dangerous a thing is it in neigbour- ing states to break the balance of power which is between them, so as to put any one of them into a capacity of oppres- sing- and overpowering the rest. And this instance also shows, that it is no new thing for the managers of public aflfairs, to barter away their national interest for their private gain, and sell it for money even to those whom they have most reason always to hate, and always to be aware of.
Cyrus at Sardis, having put to death two noble Persians, who were sons to a sister of Darius, for no other DafXth^' 19. reason, but that they did not on their meeting of him, wrap up their hands within their sleeves, as was used to be done among the Persians on their meeting of the king; Darius, on complaint made hereof by the pa- rents of the slain, was grievously offended, not only for the death of his two nephews, but also for the presumption of his son in challenging to himself the honour which was due only to the king ; and therefore not thinking it fit any longer to trust him with that government, recalled him to court, on pretence that he was sick, and therefore desired to see him.* But, before Cyrus did put himself upon this journey,*^ he ordered such large subsidies to Lysander, general of the Lacedemonians, as enabled him to pay his fleet, and strength- en it so far, as to put it in that condition, by virtue where- of he gained that memorable victory over the Athenians at the Goats river in the Hellespont, whereby he absolutely overthew the Athenian state. For, after this, they being no longer able to defend themselves, he took from them all their cities in Asia, and having besieged Athens itself, forced them to a surrender on the very hard conditions of disman- tling their city, and giving up their fleet; which did put an end to the Athenian power, and vested the government of Greece wholly in the Lacedemonians, after they and the Athenians had contended for it in a very bitter war full twenty-seven years. This was called the Peloponnesian war ; and is made very famous by the excellent accounts which are written of it by Thucydides and Xenophon, two of the best historians Greece ever had : tljcir writings have ennobled it in the same manner as Homer's did the war of Troy.
About the time of the ending of this war died Darius No- thus king of Persia, after he had reigned nineteen years.s
e Xenophon Hellenicorum, lib. 2.
f Plutarchus in Lysandro. Xenopli. Hellenic, lib. 2. Diod. Sic. lib. 13. g Plutarch, in Artaxcixc. Diodoius Siculus. lib. 13. .Tustin. lib. 5, c. S 11. etCEias.
BOOK VII.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 71
Before his death Cjrus was come to him, and his mother Parysatis the queen, to whom he was the best beloved of all her children, not being content to have made his peace with his father, whom he had greatly offended by his maladminis- trations in his government, pressed hard upon the old king to have him declared the heir of his crown, upon the same pretence whereby Xerxes had obtained the preference be- fore his elder brothers in the time of Darius Hystaspes, that is, that he was born after his father came to the crown, and the other before. But Darius refusing to comply with her herein, bequeathed to Cyrus only the government of those provinces which he bad before, and left his crown to Arsa- ces his eldest son by the same Parysatis, who, on his ascend- ing the throne, took the name of Artaxerxes, and is the same to whom the Greeks, for his extraordinary memory, gave the name Mnemon, i. e. the rememberer. When his father lay dying, and he was attending on him at his bed-side, he desir- ed to be instructed by him, by what art it was that he had so happily m.anaged the government, and so long preserved himself in it, to the end that he, by following the same rule, might attain the same success ; to which he had this memo- rable answer given him by the dying king, That it zons by doing in all things ihat rohich was just both tozvards God and man ;^^ a saying worthy to be written up in letters of gold in the palaces of princes, that, having it constantly in their view, they might be put in mind to order all their actions according to it.
Cyrus, being discovered to have laid a plot for the mur- dering of Artaxerxes in the temple at Pasargada when he was to come thither according to the ancient ^"ax.'^^t! custom, to be inaugurated king, was taken into cus- tody for the treason, and ordered to be put to death for it.' But his mother Parysatis was so importunate with Artaxerxes for the saving of his life, that at length, by her means, he obtained his pardon, and was sent again into Lesser Asia unto the government left him by his father's will. But carrying thither with him his ambition, and also his resent- ments for the danger of his life which he was put into, he took such courses for the gratifying of these passions, which soon made his brother repent of his clemency towards him.
As soon as Artaxerxes was settled in the throne, Statira his queen, who, for her great beauty, was very much beloved by him, made use of her power with him to be revenged on
h Athenaeus, lib. 12.
i Plutarchus in Artaxerxe. Xenophon de Expeditione Cvri,lib. 1. Juattja. lib. 6. c. 11. Cteslas.
72 CONNEXION OF THK HISTORY OF [PART J^
Udiastcs for the death of her brother Tcritcuchmes.'' The whole matter had its rise in the reign of Darius, and was a comphcation of adultery, incest, and murder, which caused great disturbances in the royal family, and ended very tra- gically upon all that were concerned in it. The lather of Statira was Hidarnes, a noble Persian, and governor of one of the principal provinces o'" the empire- Artaxerxes, the king's eldest son, then called Arsaces, faUing in love with her, took her to wife, and Teriteuchmes her brother, about the same time, married Hamestris, one of the daughters of Da- rius, and sister of Arsaces ; by reason of which marriage, on the death of his father, he succeeded him in his government. But having a sister named Roxana, of as great beauty as Statira, and excellently skilled in archery, and the throwing of the dart, he fell desperately in love with her, and, that he might with the greater freedom have the enjoyment of his lust upon her, he resolved to make away with Hamestris, and rebel against the king. Of which wicked designs Da- rius having noiice, engaged Udiastes, a chief confident of Teriteuclimes, by great rewards and greater promises, to en- deavour to prevent both, by cutting of Teriteuchmes. This Udiastes, to earn the rewards, readily undertook, and, falling upon Teriteuchmes, slew him, and thereon had the govern- ment of his province cont'eried on him for his reward. Milhridates, the son of Udiastes, being one of Teriteuch- mes's guard, and engaged much in friendship and allection to him, on the hearing of this fact of his father's, bitterly impre- cated vengeance upon him for it, and, in abhorrence of what was done, seized the city Zaris, and there, declaring for the son of Teriteuchmes, rebelled against the king. But Darius having soon mastered this revolt, and shut up Milh- ridates within his fortress, got all the family of Hidarnes, excepting the son of Teriteuchmes, whom Mithridates pro- tected, into his pov/er, and delivered ll;cm into the hands of Parysatis, to execute her revenge upon them for the ill usage of her daughter ; who having caused Roxana in the tirst place to be sawn in two, who was the chief cause of all the mischief, ordered all the rest to be put to death; only, at the earnest entrealy and importunate tears of Arsaces, she spared Statira his beloved wife, contrary to the sentiments of Darius, who told her, that she would afterward have reason to repent of it ; and so accordingly it happened. Thus Ihis matter stood at the death of Darius : but Arsaces was no sooner settled on the throne, but Statira prevailed with him to have Udiastes delivered into her hands ; where-
k f'lesinj.
yOOK vn.] THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 73
on she commanded his tongue to be drawn out at his neck, and thus cruelly did put him to death in revenge for the part which he acted in the ruin of her family, and made IVlithri- dates, his son, for the atFection which he expressed to it, go- vernor of the province in his stead. But I'arysati? bitterly resenting this fact, in revenge hereof, poisoned the son of Teriteuchmes, and not long after Statira herself, ii- the man- ner as will be hereafter related. This gives us instances of the bitterness of woman's revenge, and also of the exorbi- tant liberties which such are apt to run into of doing all manner of wickedness, who, being put above all restraint of laws, have nothing but arbitrary will and pleasure to govern themselves by.
Cyrus, designing a war against his brother, employed Clearchus, a Lacedemonian captain, to raise an army of Greeks for his service, which he listed with a pre- ^nax^'^l'. tence of making war with the Thracians ; but they, being maintained by Cyrus's money, were kept on foot for the executing of those designs which he was forming against the king.* Alcibiades the Athenian, finding out the true end for which these levies were made, passed over into the province of Pharnabazus, with purpose to go to the Persian court, there to make known to Artaxerxes what was brewing against him.'" But those who were the partisans of the Lacede- monians at Athens, fearing the great genius of that man, did let them know, that their aflfairs could not long stand unless he were cutoff; whereon tliey sent to Pharnabazus to have him put to death, and he accordingly executed what they desired ; and in his death the Atheriians lost the great hopes they had conceived of speedily again recovering by him their former state : for had he got to the Persian court, he would so far have merited the favour of Artaxerxes by the discovery which he intended to make unto him, as, no doubt, he would have gotten his assistance for the restoration of his country, and, with that assistance, a peison of his valour and other great abilities would have turned the scales, and again set the Athenians as high as ever, and brought the Lacedemo- nians as lov/ as they had brought them ; for the preventing of which the Lacedemonians took the course of having him cutoff in the manner as I have mentioned.
The cities that were under the government of Tissapher- nes revolting from him to Cyrus, this produced a war between them ; and Cyrus, under the pretence of ^^"ax.^*'!! arming against Tissaphernes, went more openly to
1 Plutarchus in Arfaserxe. Xenophon de Exjieditione Cyri, lib. 1. Dio- dor. Sic. lib. 14.
m Plutarchus in Alciblade. Diodor. Sic. & Xenophon. ibid. Corn. Nepo« in Alcibiade.
74 CONNEXION OF THE HISTORY OF [pART I.
work in getting forces together ; and, to blind the matter the more, he wrote letters of heavy complaints to the king af^ainst Tissaphernes, and praved in the humblest manner his favour and protection against him ; by which Artaxerxes be- ingdeceived, thought all the preparations which he was making were against Tissaphernes only, and, not being at all dis- pleased that they should be at variance with each other, took no farther care of the matter, but permitted his brother to go on still to raise more forces, till at length he had got an army on foot, suthcient to put his designs in execution, for the dethrouingof him. and the setting up of himself in his stead." And since he had helped the Lacedemonians against the Athenians, and thereby put them into a capacity of gaining those victories over them, whereby they had made them- selves masters of Greece, in confidence of the friendship which he had merited from them thereby, he communicated his designs unto them, and asked their assistance for the ac- complishing of them ; which they readily granted, and or- dered their fleet to join that under Tamus, Cyrus's admiral, and obey such orders as that prince should give them. But this they did without declaring any thing against Artaxerxes, or pretending to know at all of the designs which Cyrus was carrying on against him. With this caution they thought fit to act while the event of the war was uncertain, that, in case Artaxerxes gained the victory, they might not, by what they did in favour of his enemy, draw on them his resentments for it.
At length Cyrus, having raised all those forces which he thought sufficient for his designs, and mustered them Ariax°*4. a'l together, he marched with them directly against his brother." He was followed in this expedition by thirteen thousand Greeks, under the command of Clearchus (which were the flower and main strength of his army,) and by one hundred thousand of other forces raised from among the barbarians. Artaxerxes, having notice of this from Tis- saphernes, who posted to the Persian court to give him in- formation of it, prepared to meet him with a numerous army. Cyrus's greatest difficulty was to pass the straits of Cilicia, where Siennesis, king of (hat country, was making ready to stop his progress ; and would certainly have eilected it, but that Tamils, and the Lacedemonians with their fleet, coming upon the coasts of that country, diverted him to defend his own territories : for a small guard in those narrow passes might be sufficient to impede the march of the greatest
n Plutarchus, Xenophon, Si. Diodor. ibid.
oXenophon de Expedilione Cyri. Diodor. Sic. lib, 14. Plutarchus ia Artaxerje. Ctesias. Justin, lib, 5, c. 11.
BOOK VII.] THE OLD AliD NEW TESTAMENTS. 75
army. But after Cyrus had by this means got through ihem, he then marched on without any farther difficulty or ob- struction, till he came to the plains of Cunaxa, in the pro- vince of Babylon, where Artaxerxes meeting him with an army of nine hundred thousand men, it there came to a de- cisive battle between them ; in which Cyrus, rashly ventur- ing his person too far into the heat of ilie battle, was unfor- tunatel)' slain, after his auxiliary Greek? had in a manner gotten the victory for him. This put the? c Greeks into a great distress ; for they were now at a great distance from their own homes, in the heart of the Persian empire, and there surrounded with the numerous forces of a conquering army, and had no way to return again into Greece, but by breaking through them, and forcing their retreat thi'ough a vast tract of their enemy's country, which lay between them and home. But their valour and resolution mastered all these difficulties : for the next day after, having, on consul- tation together, resolved to attempt their return by the wa}- of Paphlagonia, they immediately set themselves on their march, and, in spite of all oppositions from a numerous army of Persians, which coasted them all the way, made a retreat of two thousand three hundred and twenty-five miles, all the way through provinces belonging to the enemy, and got sate to the Grecian cities on the Eusine Sea; which was the longest and most memorable retreat that was ever made through an enemy's country. Clearchus tirst commanded in it, but he having in the beginning of it been cut otf by the treachery of Tissaphernes, it was afterward conducted chiefly by Xenophon, to whose valour and wisdom it was princi- pally owing that they at length got safely again into Greece. The same Xenophon having written a largo account of this expedition, the preparations that were made for it, and the retreat of the Greeks from the place of the battle after it was lost, and that book being still extant, and published in the English language, 1 need say no more, than refer the reader to it for a fuller history of all this matter.
Psammitichus, who was descended from the ancient Psam- mitichus, that was king of Egypt some ages before, and of whom 1 have spoken in the first book of this history, reigned over the Egyptians, after Pausiris.P To him fled Tamus, Cyrus's admiral. For, after the death of that prince, Tis- saphernes being sent down into his former government, with an enlargement of power (as having, in reward of the great service which he had done the king in the late war, the same command given him in those parts that Cyrus had.) all the
p Diodorus SiculuS; lib. 14.
76 CONNEXION OF THE HlSTOllY OF [PART J.
governors of those cities and districts, within the verge of his authority, who had espoused the interest of Cyrus, fearing the account which he might call them to for it, sent their agents to make their peace with him on the best terms they could. On!) Tamus, who was the most powerful of them, took another course. He was, by birth, an Egyptian, of the city of Memphis, and, being a person of great valour, and of great skill in maritime atifairs, he was lirst employed by Tissa- pherncs in the Persian fleet, and afterward, under Cyrus, be- came chief commander of it, and also governor of Ionia ; by which means, having amassed great wealth, instead of court- ing the favour of Tissaphernes, or at all trusting to his cle- mency, he put his wife, children, and servants, with all else that he had, on board his ships, and made his retreat into his own country, much confiding in the friendsiiip of Psam- mitichus, which he had merited by many good offices that he had done him while he served the Persians. 13ut the perfidious man, having no regard to former obligations, or the common laws either of humanity or hospitality, as soon as he had received an account of his arrival, and of the great riches which he brought with him, for the sake of them, in- stead of receiving him as a friend, he fell upon him as an enemy, and having slain him, with all his family and follow- ers, made a prey of all that they had. Only Gaus, one of his sons, staying behind in Asia, escaped this massacre, and afterwnrd became admiral of the Persian fleet in the Cypri- an war ; all the rest were barbarously murdered for the sake of what they had. Such horrid wickedness doih the greedy desire of gain too often prompt men to, when they give up their minds to it. But Providence, no doubt, suffered it not to go unpunished, though we have no account of it ; this bar- barous murder being the only act that history hath recorded of this prince.
Statira being very troublesome to Parysatis her mother-in- law, in expressing her resentments and reproaches for the countenance which she gave unto Cyrus her younger son against king Artaxcrxes, to be revenged for this and other grudges formerly conceived against her, she caused her to be poisoned ; which was efiected by this stratagem ; they supping both together, and a certain bird being served up at table, which was a great rarity among the Persians, it was divided between her and herdaughter-in-law by a knife poi- soned on one side only ; that part which was cut oif on the unpoisoned side of the knife was given to Parysatis ; and she having eaten it, this encouraged Statira, without any sus- picion, to the other part which was cut off on the poisoned «ide of the knife; and she died of it within a few hours
BOOK Vll.j THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 77
after.P The loss of this his much-beloved wife greatly afflict- ed Artaxerxes ; and therefore afterward, full discovery having been madehow it came to pass, he banished his mother to Babylon for it, and for some years after never saw her ; but at length, time having mollitied his grief and resent- ments, he permitted her again to return to court, and from that time she made it her chief business to humour him in every thing right or wrong, and no more crossed him in any thing whatsoever it was that he had an inclination to do ; and by this means she regained her interest with him, and held it to her death. She was a most crafty woman, and of great understanding and penetration in all affairs, and of as great wickedness, as what is above related of her doth suf- ficiently show.
Tissaphernes being settled in his government, and with that enlargement of power which I have mentioned, he began to set hard upon the Grecian cities in those ir,ax^, parts : whereon they sent to the Lacedemonians to pray their protection against him : and the}' being now freed from that long war which they had with the Athenians, gladly laid hold of this occasion of again breaking with the Persians, and sent Thimbro into those parts with an army against them ; which being strengthened by the conjunction of those forces to it which Xenophon brought back from Persia, and such others as were raised out of the Grecian cities which he came to protect, he took the field with it against Tissa- phernes, and wore out the time of his government in seve- ral military actions in