women and children, and of selling these for slaves; and so confident were they of obtaining their purpose, and others of purchasing, that above a thousand merchants came with the army, with money in their hands, to buy the slaves that should be sold. But God wonderfully stirred up and assisted one Judas, and others his successors, called the Maccabees, who, with a small handful in comparison, vanquished their enemies time after time, and delivered their nation. This also was foretold by Daniel, 11:32. Speaking of Antiochus' persecution, he says, " And such as do wickedly against the covenant, shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits."

God afterwards brought this Antiochus to a fearful, miserable end, by a loathsome disease, under dreadful torments of body and horrors of mind; which was foretold, Dan. 11: 45, in these words, "Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him." After his death there were attempts still to destroy the church; but God baffled them all.

XVII. The next thing is the destruction of the Grecian, and setting up of the Roman empire. This was the fourth revolution in this period. And though it was brought to pass more gradually than the setting up of the Grecian empire, yet it far exceeded that, and was much the greatest and largest temporal monarchy of any age; so that the Roman empire was commonly called all the world; as in Luke, 2: 1. "And there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed:" that is, all the Roman empire.

This empire is spoken of as much the strongest and greatest of the four. Dan. 2:40. "And the

fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: foras much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise." Dan. 7:7, 19, 23. The time when the Romans first conquered and subdued the land of Judea, was between sixty and seventy years before Christ. Soon after this, the Roman empire was established in its greatest extent; and the world continued subject to it henceforward till Christ came, and many hundred years after.

The nations being thus united under one monarchy when Christ came, and when the apostles went forth to preach, greatly prepared the way for the spreading of the Gospel, and the setting up of Christ's kingdom in the world. For the world being thus subject to one government, it opened a general communication, and so opportunity was given for the more swift propagation of the Gospel. There are innumerable difficulties in traveling through nations under different independent governments, which there are not in traveling through different parts of the same realm, or different dominions of the same prince. So the world being under one government, that of the Romans, facilitated the apostles' traveling and the spread of the Gospel.

XVIII. About the same time learning and philosophy were risen to their greatest height in the heathen world. Almost all the famous philosophers among the Heathen were after the captivity into Babylon. Almost all the wise men of Greece and Rome flourished in this time. What these philosophers in general chiefly professed as their business, was to inquire wherein man's chief happiness lay,

and how to obtain it. They seemed earnestly to busy themselves in this inquiry, and wrote multitudes of books about it, many of which are still extant; but they were exceedingly divided, there having been reckoned several hundred different opinions which they had concerning it. Thus they wearied themselves in vain, wandering in the dark, not having the glorious Gospel to guide them. God was pleased to suffer men to do the utmost they could do with human wisdom and to try the utmost extent of their understandings to find out the way to happiness, before the true light came to enlighten the world. God suffered these great philosophers to try what they could do for six hundred years; and then it proved by the events of so long a time that all they could do was in vain; the world not becoming wiser, better, or happier under their instructions, but growing more and more foolish, wicked, and miserable. He suffered this, that it might be seen how far reason and philosophy could go in their highest ascent, that the necessity of a divine teacher might more convincingly appear. God was pleased to make foolish the wisdom of this world-to show men the folly of their best wisdom-by the doctrines of his glorious Gospel, which were above the reach of all their philosophy. 1 Cor. 1: 19–21.

After God had showed the vanity of human learning without the Gospel, he was pleased to make it subservient to the purposes of Christ's kingdom, as a handmaid to divine revelation. An instance of this we have in the apostle Paul, who was famed for his much learning, Acts, 26: 24, being skilled in the learning not only of the Jews, but also of the philosophers. This he improved to subserve the Ĝos

pel; as he did in disputing with the philosophers at Athens. Acts, 17: 22, &c. By his learning he knew how to accommodate himself in his discourses to learned men, having read their writings; and he cites their own poets. Dionysius, a philosopher, was converted by him, and was made a great instrument of promoting the Gospel, and there were many others in that and the following ages, who were eminently useful, by their human learning, in promoting the interests of Christ's kingdom.

XIX. Just before Christ was born the Roman empire was raised to its greatest height, and also settled in peace. About four and twenty years before Christ, Augustus Cæsar, the first Roman emperor, began to rule as emperor of the world. Till then the Roman empire had of a long time been a commonwealth under the government of the senate, but now it became an absolute monarchy. This personage, as he was the first, so he was the greatest of all the Roman emperors; he reigned in the greatest glory. Thus the power of the heathen world, which was Satan's visible kingdom, was raised to its greatest height, after it had been strengthening itself more and more from the days of Solomon, which was about a thousand years. Now the heathen world was in its greatest glory for strength, wealth, and learning.

He

God did two things to prepare the way for Christ's coming, wherein he took a contrary method from that which human wisdom would have taken. brought his own visible people very low, and made them weak; but the Heathen, his enemies, he exalted to the greatest height, for the more glorious triumph of the cross of Christ. With a small num.

ber in their greatest weakness, he conquered his ene mies in their greatest glory. Thus Christ triumphed over principalities and powers in his cross.

Augustus Cæsar had been for many years establishing his empire, and subduing his enemies, till the very year that Christ was born; when, all his enemies being subdued, his dominion over the world seemed to be settled in its greatest glory. All was established in peace; in token whereof the Romans shut the temple of Janus, which was an established symbol among them of there being universal peace throughout the empire. And this universal peace, which was begun that very year in which Christ was born, lasted twelve years, till the year that Christ disputed with the doctors in the temple.

Thus the world, after it had been, as it were, in a continual convulsion for so many hundred years— like the four winds striving together on the tumultuous raging ocean, whence arose those four great monarchies was now established in the greatest height of the fourth and last monarchy, and settled in quietness. Now all things were ready for the birth of Christ. This remarkable universal peace, after so many ages of tumult and war, was a fit 1 prelude for ushering the glorious Prince of Peace into the world.

Thus I have gone through the first grand period of the whole space between the fall of man and the end of the world, and have shown the truth of the first proposition: That from the fall of man to the incarnation of Christ, God was doing those things which were preparatory to Christ's coming, and were forerunners of it.