than of a Lord and Mafter. All this, I fay, may be had from prophane Writers; but the fecret Principle of all these fhining Qualities, the Spring which puts them into Movement, are to be fought for in Authors of another Character. ISAIAH affords us the Light, and de-c. 45. v. livers himself in Terms expreffive of the Gran-1, 2, 3. deur and Majefty of the God by whom he fpake. He reprefents this God of Armies as holding Cyrus by the Hand, marching before, and conducting him from City to City, from Province to Province, fubduing Nations before him, loofening the Loins of Kings, breaking in Pieces Gates of Brafs, cutting in funder the Bars of Iron, laying Ramparts and Walls proftrate to give him an Entrance into Cities, and to put him in Poffeffion of the Treafures of Darkness, and the hidden Riches of fecret Places. THE Prophet fuffers us not to be ignorant of the Motives of all these astonishing Events. It was to punish Babylon, to deliver Judah from Captivity, to rebuild the holy City and Temple, that Cyrus was thus conducted Step by Step, and profper'd by God in all his Undertakings. I have raised him up in Righ-v. 13, 14. teousness, and I will direct all his Waysfor Jacob my Servant's fake, and Ifrael mine Elect: But this Prince, blind and ungrateful, knew not his Mafter, and forgot his Benefactor. I have firnamed thee, tho' thou hast v. 4, 5. not known me.—I girded thee, tho' thou hast not known me. THE A fine 1 Royalty. THE Scripture not content with exhibit mage of ing to us in the Perfon of Cyrus the Mode of a perfect King and Governour, his Religi on excepted; prefents us with an admirable Image in the Representation of a Tree large Dan. 4. and strong reaching unto Heaven by its Height, V. II, 12 and the Extremities of the Earth by its extended Branches. Its Leaves were fair, and its Fruit much, and it ftood the Ornament and the Happiness of the Fields around it: The Beafts of the Field had Shadow under it, and the Fowls of Heaven dwelt in the Boughs of it, and all Flesh was fed of it. Is there any Painting to be met with more juft, more expreffive of Royalty? Of Royalty, whofe true Grandeur and folid Glory are not plac'd in that Luftre, that Pomp and Magnificence which furround it, nor in those exterior Respects and Homages pay'd, and indeed due to it, from the Subject: But in real Services and Advantages procured to the People, over whom its Nature and Inftitution have placed it as their Support, their Defence, their Security, their Afylum; in one word, as the fruitful Source of all their Enjoyments, more particularly to the Weak and the Helpless, who expect to find under the Shadow of Royalty, a Peace and a Tranquillity which nothing is capable to disturb, whilft the Prince himself facrifices his own Repofe, and fingly fuftains the Storms and Tempefts, which he diverts from falling upon the Heads of others. I FANCY that I fee the Reality of this noble Image, the Execution of this fine Plan in the Govern Government of Cyrus exhibited to us in the admirable Preface of Xenophon to his Hiftory of that Prince. He there gives us a Catalogue of a multitude of Nations separated from one another by a vaft Extent of Countries, and more ftill, by a diversity of Manners, Customs, Language; but all united in the fame Sentiments of Efteem, Refpect, and Love for a Prince, whofe Government they cou'd have wifh'd to have been everlasting, fuch were the Happiness and Tranquillity which they enjoy'd under his Empire 2. Conquerors. To this Government fo amiable, fo bene- 4jft Idea ficial, let us oppose the Idea given us in the of ancient fame Scripture of thofe Empires and those Conquerors fo boafted by Antiquity, who making the publick Happiness no part of their Cares, have only follow'd the private Views of Intereft and Ambition. The Holy Ghoft Dan. c. 7. represents them under the Symbols of Monfters produc'd from the Agitation of the Sea, from Trouble, Confufion and the Dashing of Surges: It reprefents them under the Image of cruel and favage Beasts, which every where fcatter Terror and Defolation, and only fubfift from Blood and Slaughter; Bears, Lions, Tygers, Leopards, what Imagery; what Painting is here! NEVERTHELESS, from thefe frightful Models are the Rules too often taken which are to form the Children of the Great: These Ravagers of the World, these Scourges of a · Ἐδυνήθη ἐπιθυμίαν ἐμβας μη αξιών κυβερνάς, p. 5. Edit. λε τοταύτην τε πάντας αυτῷ Hutchinfon. χαρίζεις, ὥσε ἀεὶ τῇ αυτό γνώ Mankind 3, 7. Mankind are propofed to their Imitation by thus exciting in them the Sentiments of an immoderate Ambition, the Love of a false Ezech. 19. Glory, they grow up to be young Lions, they learn to catch the Prey and to devour Men, to lay wafle Cities, to turn Lands and their Fulnefs into Defolation by the Noife of their Roaring. Such are the Ideas which the Scriptures give us of these great Men grown up to Maturity of Years and Wickednefs. The Noife of their Exploits, the Renown of the Victories of thefe confirm'd Lions are at the Bottom only Roaring, Terror and Defolation. THE Inftances which I have hitherto produc'd taken from the Hiftory of the Egyptians, the Affyrians, the Babylonians, the Perfians, prove fufficiently the fovereign Dominion exercis'd by God over the Empires of the Earth, and the Relation which he has put between his own peculiar People, and thofe of other Nations. The fame Truth appears equally clear when we go forwards to the Kings of Syria and Egypt, Succeffors of Alexander the Great, with whose History, every Man knows that of the People of God was closely connected under the Times of the Maccabees. To all these Facts I cannot forbear adding another, commonly known indeed, but not lefs remarkable than these already related. This was the taking of Jerufalem by Titus. When that Prince enter'd Jerufalem, and confider'd the Fortifications, Pagan as he was, he own'd the all-powerful Arm of the God of Ifrael, and ftruck with Admiration, cry'd "It is evident that God fought on our Jofeph. 1. out, "Sides, and drove the Jews from thefe Tow-3. c. 46. 66 ers, from which no human Strength, no 16 Engines could have forc'd them.' lates bu man E BESIDES this obvious and fenfible Agree-God alment betwixt prophane and facred Hiftory, ways reguthere is another more fecret and remote which refpects the Meffiab, for whofe Coming, God, vents upon who has always his Work before his Eyes, the Reign prepared Men at a great Distance from it, of the Mefby the Ignorance and Disorder in which he fab. fuffer'd Mankind to be plung'd during the Space of four thousand Years. It was to let them fee the Neceffity of a Mediator, that God left the Nations to their own Ways, it without any Poffibility on the Side of Reafon or Philofophy to dispel their Darkness,, or reform their vicious Inclinations. WHEN the Grandeur of Empires, the Majefty of Princes, the fhining Actions of great Men, the Order of well temper'd Societies, the Harmony of their different Members, the Wisdom of Law givers, the Lights of Philofophers, are confider'd, the Earth feems to of fer nothing to our Thoughts but what is great and furprising: But with all these fancied Advantages, it was in the Eyes of God barren and wafte, as at the Inftant of its Creation : It is too little to fay, that it was only corrupt before God, and fill'd with Violence (I speak of the Pagan World) and the Receptacle of Men ungrateful and perfidious, as in the Times of the Deluge. chy foo |