brought forth,) and he that strengthened her in times. Ver. 6. Human policy is too seldom based in righteousness; and peace, when founded on inhumanity and injustice, often leads to renewed and more desolating wars. As a bond of future union between Syria and Egypt, a matrimonial alliance was concluded between the daughter of the king of the south, and the king of the north. For, as the price of peace, the Syrian monarch divorced his wife Laodice, and married Berenice, the daughter of Ptolemy. Along with her father, and accompanied by a dowry so large, as to confer on him the name of the dowrygiver, the daughter of the king of the south came to the king of the north; and their union was celebrated with a splendour becoming such an agrecment between kings: and the sons of Antiochus Theos, by Laodice, being formally disinherited by a solemn treaty, a lasting union between the kingdoms was devised, and gave the prospect of many years of peace, by the stipulated succession of the children of Berenice, the descendants alike of both the kings, to the throne of Syria.-But she did not retain the power of the arm. Policy giving way to a revived affection, Antiochus recalled his repudiated spouse, and the king of Egypt's daughter was abandoned in her turn. Distrusting the volatile affection of her husband, and bent on securing the kingdom for her son Seleucus Callinicus, Laodice caused Antiochus to be poisoned; and after being besieged in a fortress to which she fled, Berenice also was taken and slain. Her Egyptian attendants, they that brought her, were likewise murdered; and her son was in like manner killed. Ptolemy Philadelphus, who bore towards her the tenderest affection and care, (as an instance of which he caused water from the Nile to be regularly transmitted for her use,) and who had strengthened her in times, was dead

when her troubles and dangers began. Neither did Antiochus retain the kingdom, nor did his son by Berenice, according to the agreement, succeed to it: she was given up together with those that brought her; her son was slain, and her father, who had strengthened her, died.

The family compact, by which the peace and amity of Egypt and Syria was to be cemented, was thus broken and disannulled by the murder of the king of the north, and of the daughter of the king of the south, who had come to make an agreement with him; and a new cause of fiercer animosity brought the two kingdoms again into violent collision. Though her father was dead, her husband, her son, and her attendants slain, the death of Berenice was not unavenged. Ptolemy III. succeeded to his father Philadelphus, and was hastening, with all his forces, to the relief of his sister, when he received the tidings of her murder. His hope of saving her life was changed into a desire and determination of avenging her death. Many cities, whose inhabitants were shocked at the cruelty of Laodice, revolted from her son, Seleucus Callinicus, who, then without a rival, had succeeded to the throne; and the king of Egypt entered them without a combat. He united their troops to his own, and headed a great army. Having slain Laodice, and subjected to his authority, or brought into his alliance, numerous cities of Syria and Gallicia, he passed the Euphrates and the Tigris, and made himself master of Babylon and SeleuWherever he went, Callinicus could not withstand him; and all, throughout the realms of the king of the north, yielded before him, and nothing stayed his progress, till an insurrection in Egypt called him back to the protection, from internal enemies, of his own dominions. But he returned not from the land of Babylon without a spoil. He en

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tered Egypt, on his return, with the abundant booty of 40,000 talents of silver (about six millions), many vessels of silver and gold, and a prize still more highly valued by the idolatrous Egyptians, for which they conferred on him his title of Euergetes, or Benefactor, viz. two thousand five hundred idols, many of which Cambyses in a former age had carried away from Egypt, and which were objects of worship alike to the Egyptians and to the Syrians. Seleucus Callinicus indeed escaped from his hands, but Ptolemy Euergetes survived him several years, and lived to see the death of the king of the north-to secure whom in the kingdom, his sister Berenice and her son had been slain. These facts, like others, need not be compared with it, for they are those of the prophecy.-But out of a branch of her roots shall one (her brother) stand up in his estate (in the place and office of their father) which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal. against them, and shall prevail: and shall also carry captive into Egypt, their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the north. Ver. 7, 8.

But his sons shall be stirred ир, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through: then shall he return and be stirred up, even to his fortress. And the king of the south shall be moved with choler, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north: and he shall set forth a great multitude: but the multitude shall be given into his hand, Ver. 9, 10.-There is no end to the retaliation of wrongs; and the king of Syria had next to be avenged on the king of Egypt. The animosity that subsisted between Ptolemy Euergetes and Seleucus Callinicus, died not with themselves; but was transmitted toge

ther with their kingdoms, of which such a passion was too dear a purchase to their children. The sons of Callinicus were Seleucus and Antiochus. The former succeeded to the throne, or to the remnant of the kingdom of his father; but though named Ceraunus, or the thunderer, he lived not to recover any part of his lost dominions, nor to enter into conflict with the king of Egypt. But one did certainly come-his brother Antiochus succeeded him, whose reign was long, and whose achievements were so splendid that he is known in history by the name of the Great. He did overthrow and pass through. He reduced his own rebellious subjects to submission, traversed CaloSyria; stormed and took the city of Seleucia, in Syria; obtained possession of Tyre and Ptolemais, which Euergetes had wrested from the dominion of his father; and, advancing to the borders of Egypt, meditated an invasion of that kingdom both by sea and land. The country, being at that season overflowed by the Nile, he accepted of a truce for four months, tendered by the Egyptians, and returned in order to secure his sway over the territories he had passed through. The allotted time elapsed in abortive negotiation. And he was stirred up even to his fortress. Again he advanced with his army towards Egyptand having recovered the dominions which his father had lost, he threatened to retaliate on the son of Ptolemy Euergetes, the evils which had been inflicted upon Syria.

The fourth of the Ptolemies, surnamed Philopater, was, till then, the most degenerate of his race." He had not the activity of Euergetes, nor the love of science which also distinguished Philadelphus, nor the humanity of Ptolemy Lagus. But, notwithstanding his general devotedness to luxury and effeminacy, he was yet moved with choler when his hereditary foe, at the head of an army, was on the border of Egypt: and,

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roused at last, he assembled at Pelusium seventy thousand foot, five thousand horse, and above seventy elephants. With these he traversed the desert, and met his adversary at Raphia, not distant from Gaza. The forces of Antiochus were still more numerous; but the multitude was given into the hand of the king of the south. Antiochus at first overthrew the Egyptians whom he encountered; but, while rashly urging on his success, the great body of his army was broken, four thousand were taken prisoners, ten thousand slain, and the whole multitude eventually routed and dispersed ; and Palestine again was in the possession of a Ptolemy. And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up; and he shall cast down ten thousands: but he shall not be strengthened. Ver. 12. Elated with his success, he received the submission of the cities of Syria, entered Jerusalem, and, in defiance of the resistance, and in despite of the wailings of the people, he could scarcely be restrained from forcing his way into the holy of holies. Returning to Egypt, he exercised great cruelties against the Jews, and, as variously stated, either forty or sixty thousand of them were slain. Instead of prosecuting the war which he had so successfully begun, he sunk into his wonted sensuality; his own subjects revolted against him, and he was not strengthened, even though a multitude was given into his hand.

Ver. 13-15. For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years, with a great army and with much riches. And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south; also the robbers (or revolters) of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall. So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities : and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither