wisdom and goodness of the Almighty, which made even the crimes and the sinful passions of mankind the instruments of unimpeachable evidence to the truth of HIS HOLY WORD.' 130 In the review of this period, it may not be uninteresting to observe that the inspired records of divine wisdom, previous to the incarnation, received their seal and completion when the boasted philosophies of the Persians and the Greeks were either in their infancy, or, as yet, unborn. The age of Zerdusht, or Zoroaster, was that of Darius Hystaspis. Socrates was born in the sixteenth year of Xerxes; Plato, in the thirty-fifth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus; and Aristotle, in the twenty-first year of Artaxerxes Mnemon. 130 See the History of the Hebrew and Samaritan texts in Horne's Introduction, vol. ii. pp. 33-45, 7th ed. Lond. 1834. CHAPTER II. THE GRECIAN MONARCHY TO ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES. COMPREHENDING ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS, FROM THE RISE OF ALEXANDER, B. V £. 334, TO THE PROFANATION OF THE TEMPLE, AND THE SUBSEQUENT CRUELTIES AGAINST THE FAITHFUL, B. V. E. 167. -- I. Vision of the ram and the goat. Alexander. Battle of the Granicus. II. Progress of Alexander, and operations of the Persian army under Memnon. III. Battle of the Issus. IV. Passage through Syria and Phoenicia to invade Egypt. Siege of Tyre. - Gaza taken by storm. - Advance upon Jerusalem.Interview with the high priest Jaddua. — Foundation of Alexandria. — Subsequent events to the battle of Arbela. - Alexander dies at Babylon. The great horn of the goat broken. V. Dark and difficult period of history. - Distribution of Alexander's empire. - Perdiccas, administrator. Antipater, the same. New division. Polysperchon. Death of Philip Aridæus, and of Olympias. VI. Cassander marries the daughter of Philip Amyntas, and aspires to the throne of Macedon. Antigonus. - Terms offered by Alexander's other generals rejected. - War between Antigonus and them.- Short-lived peace and its conditions. Death of the young Alexander and his mother Roxana. With the death of Hercules, the son of Alexander by Barsine, the race of the conqueror extinct. VII. Rise of the four conspicuous horns, or kingdoms. — Antigonus proclaims himself and his son Demetrius kings. — Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Cassander, do the same.- - Battle of Ipsus, and Antigonus slain. - Demetrius, a soldier of fortune. - The empire of Alexander thus reduced to four potent kingdoms. VIII. Ptolemy Soter gets possession of Jerusalem, in the pontificate of Onias, the son of Jaddua. Onias succeeded by Simon the Just. - Character of him by Jesus, the son of Sirach. — Canon of Scripture settled. Accession of Ptolemy Philadelphus. - Demetrius Phalareus.- Museum at Alexandria begun. Embassy to the high priest Eleazar for a copy of the Hebrew Scriptures.Greek translation. - Reflections on that event. IX. Temporal condition of the Church prosperous. · Onias II. Civil power of the high priesthood began with Jaddua. — Death of Ptolemy Euergetes. — Subsequent degeneracy of the Lagidæ. X. The Seleucida, the Asian horn. Era of the Seleucidæ, or Syro-Macedonians, called by Jews and Arabs the Era of Contracts. Different dates of its commencement. - Foundation of Seleucia hastens the downfall of Babylon. — Antiochus Soter succeeds Seleucus. - His son, Antiochus II., poisoned by Laodice. -She murders Berenice and her son. - Question whether these events were foretold in Dan. xi. - Laodice put to death by Ptolemy Euergetes. - Seleucus Callini cus. High-sounding but empty titles. Seleucus Ceraunus. - Antiochus the Great. - Sacrilege of Plotemy Philopator. It predisposes the Jews towards Antiochus. They declare for him, and receive him in Jerusalem. XI. Seleucus, his son, the first oppressor of the Jews. Heliodorus sent to plunder the temple. -This "vile person" murdered his master and seized the crown.- Antiochus Epiphanes. His character. - His sister Cleopatra ruled Egypt. On her death, war broke out between her son, Ptolemy Philometor, and Antiochus. -- He invests Alexandria, but is checked by the Romans. — Turns his rage upon the Jews. XII. The Jewish history from the sacrilege of Heliodorus. — Onias III. — Antio. chus Epiphanes the first heathen monarch who bartered sacerdotal functions for money, and changed the succession in God's Church. --The causes traced higher. -The high priesthood connected on the mother's side with the family of David. --The union of temporal with spiritual power vitiates the priestly character. — Jason and Menelaus. XIII. History of Antiochus continued. His outrages at Jerusalem. Great numbers sacrifice to idols. Temple polluted. — Cruelties of the king. The aged Eleazar, and the woman with her seven sons. -- - Faith in the resurrection. - Antiochus dies. The forerunner of Antichrist. I. A. J. P. 4161. B. V. E. 553. IFTEEN years before the fall of Babylon, and about 220 years before its accomplishment, a vision was seen by the prophet Daniel, of most terrific and astonishing import. He had been sent, upon the king's business, to Susa, or Shushan, which, long afterwards, became the winter residence of the Persian kings. It stood on the further bank of the river Ulai, otherwise called the Eulaus, and the Kho-asp. Its waters were carried wherever the Persian monarchs were; for they would drink of no other. Susa is now in ruins; but the river still rolls its current, discharging itself, by many mouths, into the Persian Gulf; and now, from a modern place on its banks, bearing the name of Karun. On that bank of this river, Daniel saw standing a magnificent ram, with two high horns, but one higher than the other, though it sprang the latest from his forehead. With these horns he pushed westward, and southward, and northward, subduing all the beasts around him, until he became exceeding powerful. But, suddenly, a goat was seen coming from the west, which cleared the river at a bound, and rushed with fury upon him. In the midst of the goat's forehead was one great horn, which smote and brake in pieces both the horns of the ram, overturned his body in the dust, Nothing could resist his power; but when he became strong, the great horn was suddenly broken, and stamped upon it. 'D'Anville Geog. Anc. Persis. and, in its stead, came up four smaller, but all of them conspicuous horns, toward the four winds of heaven. One of these horns produced another, small at first, but growing so immeasurably that it reached and cast down even the stars of heaven. While the prophet was gazing with perplexity, he heard the voice, as it were, of a man, between the banks of Ulai, commanding the angel Gabriel to explain the vision. The ram was the Medo-Persian empire; the goat, the empire of the Greeks. The one great horn was Alexander the Great; and when, by his death, it was suddenly broken, there sprang up in its stead four conspicuous horns, the four kingdoms into which the Grecian dominion became divided. To the commencement of this third empire our history has now arrived. Alexander, the son of Philip of Macedon, was chosen general-in-chief of the Greeks at the age of twenty. His youth, and the jealousy of the Lacedæmonians especially, prevented the immediate acknowledgment of this appointment; but in the third year of the one hundred and eleventh Olympiad, having subdued or terrified all his Grecian enemies, he crossed the Hellespont, now called the Dardanelles, early in the spring, and landed on the Troad, with about 30,000 infantry, and 5000 horse, leaving in Europe, as a body, or reserve, under the command of Antipater, only 12,000 of the one, and 1500 of the other.2 With this inconsiderable force he undertook the war against the innumerable hosts of Persia. A. J. P. 4380. B. V. E. 334. A. J. P. 4381. From the celebrated Mount Ida, but on the opposite side to the Simois and the Scamander, flows a torrent into the Sea of Marmora, now known by the name of Ousvola, and supposed by D'Anville to have been the Granicus. Its channel, being unequally worn, was in some places deep, and in others fordable; and its banks were steep, rough, and uneven. 2 There is some difference, as to numbers, in the accounts of Diodorus Siculus and Arrian; but I follow the latter, as having derived his account from the nar 3 Alexander was not far distant from this stream, when his scouts informed him that a numerous Persian army was drawn up in order of battle on its eastern bank. The historians differ as to the amount of their force. Arrian says there were 20,000 horse, and about as many foot-soldiers, who were foreign mercenaries.1 Diodorus Siculus, on the contrary, states that the cavalry were more than 10,000, and the whole number of infantry not less than 100,000.5 The infantry were posted on the heights above the cavalry, who lined the bank. Both armies surveyed each other in silence. Parmenio advised Alexander to refresh his troops before he attempted to cross. "I have crossed the Hellespont," he replied, "and I should be ashamed to be stopped by a rivulet." So saying, he leaped upon his horse, and plunged into the stream, calling upon his companions, as brave men, to follow him. He himself led the right wing, with the clang of trumpets, and the Macedonian war-cry. The Persians also raised loud shouts; and the infantry discharged their arrows with such effect that many a horse and many a rider were wounded in the river. By the strength of the current, they crossed obliquely, and thus discovered the fordable places for the infantry. A terrible struggle ensued upon the bank, which was muddy and slippery. The Macedonians were at first pushed back into the water; but Alexander rushed forward, conspicuous by his plumed helmet, and gained the shore. Here he was attacked by two noble Persians, and owed his life to his faithful follower, Clitus. But, notwithstanding the advantage of their position, and the fearful disparity of numbers, the Persian army was completely routed. The loss on the Persian side is variously stated from 1000 to 2000 horse; and, according to Diodorus, more than 10,000 infantry were left dead on the field, and 20,000 were made prisoners. Of the Macedonians, twenty-five only were killed at the first Arrian, de Exped. Alex. lib. i. ed. H. Steph. p. 14. 5 Diod. Sic. lib. xvii. 19. Ed. Wesseling, tom. ii. p. 174. |