Book ^^U.. CX)PYRIGHT DEPOSIT A GENERAL I HISTORY OF THE WORLD, BRIEFLY SKETCHED, UPON SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. BBtl)cleo. Cfartl), D.SI., OF WIRTEMBERO. REVISED BY D, P. KIDDER, PUBLISHED BY LANE & TIPPETT, rOR THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 200 MULBERRT-STKEET. JOSEPH LONGKING, PRINTER. 1847 Qlft Judga and Mrs. I. R. Hitt June 23 1 j36 EDITOR'S PREFACE. This work is a brief universal history, sketched upon Scriptural principles. It was written by the Rev. Dr. Barth, of Wirtemburg, n the German language, and translated into :]nglish by Rev. R. F. Walker, A. M., for the use f the Rehgious Tract Society of London. By lat institution the work has been extensively circulated in Great Britain, and even pub- lished in other languages. The want of such a book has been felt in this country, and we take pleasure in offering to the pubUc a carefully revised edition. It is designed to serve two important pur- poses connected with the reading and study of history. 1. It will answer for beginners, as a useful introduction to more detailed and voluminous works. 2. It will scarcely be found less valuable as a summary of histori- cal events, to which the extensive reader of 6 editor's preface. history may resort for a review of his studies, and for a well-digested analysis of the leading events which have transpired in our world. The importance of historical knowledge is universally admitted, and the time has come when we may reasonably expect it to be more extensively cultivated among sabbath- school scholars and teachers. To contribute to this end is the special object of the present issue, while it will be found equally valuable for every other appropriate use. New- York, 1847. CONTENTS. Introduction Pftga 11 First Period. — From the Creation to the DHuge. B. C. 4004 to 2348, Usher. B. C. 5411 to 3155, Hales. 1. The creation 15 2. The fall of man 16 3. The deluge 21 Second Period. — From the Deluge to the Time of Nebu- chadnezzar. B. C. 2348 to 588, Usher. B. C 3155 to 586, Hales. 1. The sons of Noah 23 2. The building of Babel 26 3. The dispersion of mankind 29 4. Earliest notices of Babylon, Nineveh, Phenicia and Egypt 30 5. Israel and the kingdom of God. a. Abraham and his family ......... ,., , ............ 34 b. The exodus, or departure from Egypt 40 c. The period of the Judges , . ., 42 d. Israel at their most flourishing period ..^ 45 e. Israel in their decline 50 6. Traces of the earliest cultivation , 54 Third Period. — From Nebuchadnezzar to Augustus. B. C. 588 to 227. 1. The Babylonian empire 58 2. The Medo-Persian empire. a. History of Cyrus 63 b. E»d of the Babylonish captivity 65 CONTENTS. c. History of the Greeks Pag6 68 d. Conflict of Greece with Persia 75 e. Macedon and Alexander the Great 78 3. The Grecian empire. a. Alexander's conquests and death 85 b. Alexander's successors 87 c. Syria and Egypt - - --.. 89 d. The age of the Maccabees 91 c. Condition of the East and West 94 4. The Roman empire. a. Rome's earliest history 95 b. Rome under the consuls ...... 100 c. The Punic wars 106 d. Gradual introduction of the imperial monarchy 112 5. Retrospect of ancient history .. i . i .....-- i .* 117 Fourth Period. — From the Time of Augustus to the Irruptions of the Northern Nations. B. C. 27 to A. D. 375, 1. The birth and history of Christ 122 2. The first promulgation of Christianity...... 127 3. Reign of Augustus and his successors, to the time of Ves- pasian 129 4. The destruction of Jerusalem, and persecution of the Christians 131 5. The Roman emperors from Vespasian to Constantino 138 Fifth Period.— From the Irruptions of the Northern Barbarians to the Age of Charlemagne. A. D. 306 to 798. 1. Constantine and the Christian chui-ch 139 2. The further decline of the Roman empire .., 143 3. The irniptions of the northern barbai-ians. a. The fall of the Roman empire 143 b. Settlement and position of the nations at this period. . 149 c. The Eastern empire 150 d. The Feudal system 152 e. Christianity among the Germanic nations 154 4. The Eastern Church 155 5. Mohammedanism - .^.~ -.^ 156 6. External and spiritual state of the nations at the close of this period 160 CONTENTS. 9 Sixth Period. — From Charlemagne to the Reformation. A. D. 798 to 1517. 1. Account of the Carlovingian dynasty Page 163 2. Germany under Conrad I. and the Saxon emperors 172 3. Conrad II. and Heiu-y III 176 4. Other countries of Europe 177 5. Henry IV. and the Papacy 178 6. The Feudal and Hanse system 184 7. State of cultivation and letters 186 8. The Crusades. a. Their origin and design 188 b. The first Crusade 192 c. Chivalry • 193 9. House of Hohenstaufen. a. Conrad III 197 b. The second Crusade - 198 c. Frederic I. and the third Crusade 199 d. Henry VI. and Frederic II 203 e. Conrad IV. and Conradin 205 /. Literature, and the church 206 10. Termination and issue of the Ciiisades 209 11. History of independent govex-nments at this period 213 12. The house of Hapsburg. a. From Rudolph of Hapsburg to Albert 1 220 h. The Helvetic Confederation 224 c. From Heniy VII. to Sigismund 227 d. Contentions for the Papal chair — Council of Constance 232 e. The Bohemian Brethren and the Hussites 234 /. From Albert II. to Maximilian 1 237 13. England, France, Spain, and other countries 240 14. Important changes at this period. a. The invention of gunpow^der 249 b. Discovery of America 250 c. Invention of printing 256 d. Important changes in political government 259 Seventh Period. — From the Reformation to our own Times. A. D. 1517 to 1839. 1. History of the Reformation. a. Its commencement in Geniiany 261 b. The emperor Charles V 263 10 CONTENTS. e. Progress and difficulties of the Reformation in Ger- many Page 266 d. Ferdinand I. and Maximilian II 278 c. The Hugonots in France * 279 /. The Refonnation in England and Scotland 283 g. Portugal, Spain, Italy, and other countries, at the Reformation 287 h. Reflections upon this period 29-6 i. Progress of letters 298 2. The thirty years' war 299 3. Religious state of Gennany at this period 311 4. Britain, and tlie Netherlands 314 5. The new political system, and Louis XIV. of France 317 6. Leopold L and Joseph I. of Germany 327 7. Britain and North America 328 8. Conflict of Sweden with Russia 330 9. The emperor Charles VI. and the province of Branden- burg 334 10. The Papal i^ower at this period 336 11. Religious state of Europe 338 12. Frederic IL of Prussia, and Maria Theresa 340 13. Russia 346 14. The emperor Joseph II 347 15. War of independence in North America 350 16. France, and the progress of infidelity 351 17. The French Revolution 353 18. Napoleon, emperor of the French 359 19. War of independence in Europe 362 20. Change to the px-esent state of things in Europe, A. D. 1839 367 Conclusion 370 GENERAL HISTORY, BRIEFLY SKETCHED, UPON SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. INTRODUCTION. The province of general history is to view the human race as one large family, and to trace it through all its stages of development, from the ear- liest to the latest times. It enters into detail respect- ing particular nations, only so far as they have borne an essential or a material part in the concerns of the family at large ; for which reason also it may be sometimes more occupied with the memoirs of some renowned individual than with those of a whole uncivilized nation, and may properly estimate the inventor of printing more than all the warriors of the world. But as we cannot assure a traveler of his having taken the right road, until we know whither he is destined ; so we must feel bewildered with unaccountable things in general history, till we have received some information concerning the great " end of all things, the glory of God." Nor can this "end" be guessed at by observing the course of any one particular nation only ; every such course being nothing more than a single tri- butary rivulet, that is added to the swelling river and the mighty ocean. Neither can we learn it by contemplating the state of the world at any one par- 12 INTRODUCTION. ticular period of its history ; every such period being only, as it were, a stage in the transition to some further development ; and the history of man so often appearing to take a retrograde movement, or at least a different com'se from that to which it is ultimately bound. Were mankind the arbiters of the rise and fall of nations, then might it be possible for the events of every passing age to declare to us what would be the grand general result. But as the current of events is under the influence of man's Lord and Ruler, who prescribes the courses of na- tions and of individuals, so that all shall concur to the fulfillment of his will, the ultimate result can be learned only by communications from himself. Di- vine INSTRUCTION, therefore^ is requisite to all pro- per understanding of human history. The greater number of our historians, though they have so far honored the Bible as to give it the credit of being an authentic record of antiquity, yet have too commonly treated it as a mere human book, which they allow may be consulted with advantage in the absence of other documents ; while they have failed to notice, as of prime importance, that it con- tains the solution of all historical mystery ; that it gives, as it were, a voice to the dead letter of visible nature, and exhibits that perfect and complete out- line of Providence, which all the apparent confusion arising from man's free agency is only filling up according to a divinely preconcerted and settled plan. Men's ordinary way of consideration dis- covers to them, as it were, but the outside of events ; like a stranger outside a city, who, ignorant of the order of its interior, mistakes for its centre one of the more prominent buildings observed by him from INTRODUCTION. 13 his Station without the walls ; whereas the centre is some humble fountain in the market-place, which of course he is unable to descry. Very different are the views of one who makes use of the word of God as vantage ground, whence to cast his eye over the whole plan of general history, its multifarious ramifications, their variety of instruction, their mu- tual connection, and their uniform tendency to demonstrate the wisdom and goodness of the su- preme Ruler and Governor of the world. The only key^ then, to a sound and comprehensive knowledge of history^ is the sacred volume of divine revelation. But this sacred volume is like a sealed book to the unconverted. For " the natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." One part is too high for him — he cannot " understand what he reads ;" another is too low and insignificant — it ap- pears to him as " foolishness." What was intended to be taken literally, he mistakes as figurative ; and what was to be regarded as deep and holy mystery, he regards as common-place. Real prophecy is treated by him as historical narrative ; predictions concerning yet distant futurity are, in his account, already fulfilled; and the counsel of God is con- sidered as human device, or is retained merely to grace the annals of human achievement. None but the Holy Spirit himself can instruct us how to re- gard the ways of God, or enlighten us in the true import of his own words, and point out their due proportion in reference to single or collective events. He who by such teaching understands the sacred record, can easily understand general history. Here, then, let it be noticed, once for all, that both the one and the other can be comprehended only by those 14 INTRODUCTION. loho surrender themselves to the guidance of the Spirit of God. The infallible key of history is the recognition of the Lord Jesus Christ as its central point. The whole system of the divine government revolves around him. Historical works, in general, have hardly taken notice of this ; and the manifestation of God in the flesh finds a place therein to little purpose, beyond that of chronological reference to the Christian era. Rarely, indeed, have historians looked at events in any subordination to this gi-eat and principal one : either because infidelity denies or stumbles at the fact, that Christ, who was " with God," and " was God," condescended to assume our nature ; or because it is easier to relate things in their simple historical order, than to trace directly or indirectly their connection with that great deed of infinite love. If the history of man be no for- tuitous series of changes, but a regular system of events proceeding upon a divine plan, then must the moment when God himself came personally into this world in our nature be regarded as the most eventful in human history. Everything that pre- ceded it must have been designed as preparatory to the ushering in of this mighty deed of God ; and everything subsequent to it must have been equally foreordained to the setting forth of its intent and application. Christ is the centre of universal his- tory ; ivithout lohich centre the records of the ivorld must ever present themselves as a mass of confusion. This is a most important truth, to the elucidation of which the following pages are mainly devoted. GENERAL HISTORY. FIRST PERIOD. FROM THE CREATION TO THE DELUGE, B. C. 4004, Usher, ) . < 2348, Usher. 5411, Hales, S \ 3155, Hales. I.— THE CREATION. /As man could not have been an eye witness of the manner in which creation began and proceeded, we should have possessed no knowledge of the subject had not God himself condescended to reveal it. There can be no doubt that he imparted all requisite information of the kind to our first father, and that a faithful tradition of the same was handed down from Adam to Moses. /in the inspired record we are taught, that " in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." We are next told of the creation of light, and the preparation of the earth for the abode of man. JMun, as the crowning ornament of this lower world, then came forth on the sixth day from the hands of his Maker, in the divine image and likeness. God, having already manifested himself in heaven as Lord of all, ordained and fitted man to represent him in that respect upon earth. He appointed the inferior creatures to render homage to this his representative, and they did so, not from compulsion or dread, much less from being trained to it by art, but from instinctive disposition, or of their own natural inclination. The Lord God planted, in the regions we call the East, a garden, or paradise of innocent delight, for man's primi- 16 THE FALL OF MAN. tive residence. The names of the four rivers that issued from it point rather at Armenia than India. Although the earth's surface must subsequently have been much altered by the universal deluge, which would particularly affect the course of streams and rivers, yet it is natural to suppose that such rivers as could subsequently be recog- nized, still bore, after the flood, their antediluvian names. The first pair having been expelled from paradise, they and their descendants were prohibited from any attempt to return thither, and indeed from all curious inquiries, by a fiery guard of cherubim appointed over against it : and the deluge in Noah's time must have destroyed every trace of it ; unless we may say, with some, that the Cas- pian Sea is the memorial of its site, even as the Dead Sea was once the beautiful vale of Sodom and GomorrhV. But we must not pronounce our maps of Asia defective because they contain no trace of the situation of Eden. With respect to language, v/e consider the faculty of it as having been conferred on man simultaneously ^vith his other original endowments, and that he could never have been himself its investor. This also may be inferred with sufii- cient clearness from Scripture testimony. God, who con- versed with him face to face, and probably in human form, " as a father with the son in whom he delighteth," declares, in the book of Exodus, iv, 11, with express reference to speech and eloquence, that he had made man's mouth. And we learn from Gen. ii, 19, that he brought to Adam, before Eve was formed, every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, to see what he would call them : and that, upon this occasion, Adam gave names to all cattle, and to every fowl of the air, and beast of the field. II.— THE FALL OF MAN. That our first parents came forth "good," from the hand of the Creator, is a truth which, even if it had not been recorded in Scripture, might have been inferred from THE FALL OF MAN. 17 the consideration, that God cannot be the author of evil. Their condition was, doubtless, one of such intimate love to God as admitted of their having no other will but his ; from which, indeed, we can hardly imagine it possible for them to deviate. What higher degree of felicity they might have reached, had they continued innocent, we know not; but we know, that God saw it best, on the whole, to place them in a state of probation, by laying upon them an injunction not to eat of the fruit of a certain tree, known by the name of " the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." But the invisible enemy of mankind, who himself had apostatized from innocence, and who looked with envy upon their felicity, contrived a plot to effect their ruin. For this purpose he took possession of the serpent, " the most subtil of all the beasts of the field," and, by the instrumentality of this animal, insinuated into the mind of Eve those false representations by which Adam was likewise beguiled to a distrust and disbelief of God. Thus becoming discontented with their present condition, they were instigated to raise themselves to a higher one, suggested to them by Satan. They, therefore, by his advice, partook together of the forbidden fruit, whereupon the word of the Lord God was immediately fulfilled : " In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Thus they lost at once the divine life which had been originally bestowed upon them : their disobedience having excluded them from communion with their Creator, their condition was now no other than that of spiritual death, of which the death of the body was one result. After they had heard from the Most High several additional announcements, relative to temporal punishment for their sin, they were finally ejected from their earthly paradise, and hence precluded from partaking of that " tree of life " which had been the visible pledge of their immor- tality. Had permission to eat of this tree been continued to them, it would have implied a permission of their living for ever in irremediable coiTuption and hopeless ruin. 18 THE FALL OP MAN. How long their state of innocence lasted is uncer- tain. The threatened spiritual death thus realized was soon found to be accompanied by a train of temporal evils. The physical condition of the earth appears to have been from that time remarkably altered; and the ground, having been cursed for man's sake, produced now its "thorns and thistles," in more senses than one, for the chastening of man. He had been sentenced to obtain his bread by the sweat of his brow, and, the soil no longer spontaneously yielding its fruits, " weariness and painful- ness " had become part of his allotment, and requisite to his subsistence in this life. This, with the consciousness of havmg brought all this evil upon himself, might have proved intolerable to him, had he not been supported by that hope of redemption and deliverance which Jehovah graciously provided. God might in holy indignation have annihilated the very name of man, or have given him up to the ruin he had incurred. But, instead of this, his infi- nite mercy contrived a plan of restoration ; and his infinite loving-kindness at once announced it, to preserve his guilty creatures from utter despair. Thus, at the very moment when the justly offended Deity ratified the punishment of original sin, he permitted man to hear of redeeming love. For nothing less than redeeming love was imbodied in those words of vengeance against our great adversary : *' I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and be- tween thy seed and her Seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is in reality a promise concerning our divine Messiah, by whom the power of the enemy was to be broken, as also concerning a per- petual conflict to be maintained between the children of God and the children of the wicked one. All the tempta- tions, sufferings, and persecutions, which have come upon holy persons ever since, may be regarded as so many bruises on the heel of the woman's promised Seed, THE FALL OF MAN. 19 inflicted by " the old serpent ;" and, in like manner, every triumph of faith, and every victory over sin, obtained by the children of God, is a kind of treading upon the serpent's head. That our first parents understood this prediction as containing a promise of the future Redeemer, though they knew not the time of its special fulfillment, and that they received from God some further information about him, though it be not recorded, appear from that remarkable saying of Eve at the birth of her first-born, " I have gotten the man Jehovah ;" on which account she also gave him the name of Cain, which signifies gain or acquisition. Thus it must have been divinely intimated from the beginning, that the promised Redeemer would himself be Jehovah. The expectation formed by Eve, as to the coming of the Messiah, the promised Seed, was premature ; and Cain, of whom she anticipated such great things, proved to be an " evil worker," and a murderer. So early had our first parents to learn, by woful expe- rience, what an abyss of misery their sin had opened. Adam's descendants in general were begotten, as the Scripture expressly informs us, " in his own image, after his own likeness ;" that is, they were by nature spiritually dead in Adam, under the dominion of indwelling sin, and hable to all its evil consequences. See Romans v, 21. Nevertheless, from the very first, a gracious process of recovery from this wretched condition began to manifest itself ; and hence, as an anticipated fulfillment of the pro- mise above-mentioned, the human race soon became divided into two distinct parties — the one consisting of Cain's descendants, and the other of the posterity of Seth, who was the righteous person " appointed " (as his name sig- nifies) to supply the place of murdered Abel. The latter appear to have been those who are designated in Scripture " the sons of God ;" because from Seth, their progenitor, the knowledge and holy fear of God had continued among them: whereas those who are called "the daughters of 20 THE PALL OF MAK. men " seem to have been the lineal descendants of Cain ; who, we may suppose, exhibited without restraint the effects of human corruption. Cain is the first who is recorded to have built a city ; and this was intended by him, perhaps, both as a refuge from human vengeance, and to prevent the dispersion of his posterity. The Scriptures frequently, as in the present instance, relate a simple fact without accounting for it. But if our minds are not prejudiced by the wrong notions of modern pre- tenders to wisdom above what is written, we shall often be able to deduce a train of valuable inferences from a single and slight notice in holy writ. Devout familiarity with the Scriptures, faithfulness to their instructions, and acquaintance with the human heart, will be found to strengthen this faculty of discernment. There is every probability that the knowledge of God soon became extinct among Cain's descendants. Hence, " going in the way of Cain," was proverbial of flagrant wickedness. Jude 11. Those who live in the present age of invention and refinement should not forget that Jubal, the inventor of musical instruments, and Tubal-cain, the inventor of copper and iron works, were sons of that La^ mech who introduced polygamy, and who, like Cain his progenitor, was also a murderer. From the express men- tion likewise of the sister of Tubal-cain, and from her name, Naamah, which signifies beautiful, we may well conjecture, that with her commenced that seduction,* by which, in process of time, the posterity of Seth became mingled with that of Cain, and adopted its impiety. From this per- nicious connection sprang a powerful and tyrannical race, * It should seem that heathen mythology has boiTowed from the names of Tubal-cain (pronounced, in Hebrew, Tuval-cain) and Naamali, those of its Vulcan and Venus ; retaining the meaning of the latter {Venus as venusta) and the chief sound of the former ( Valcain ;) and converting the brother and sister into a husband and wife. — Trans. THE DELUGE. 21 which aimed at the subjugation and oppression of the rest of mankind ; and as in those times there was no Bible, nor the civil order we at present enjoy, every one taking an unbridled liberty to do according to his will, the licentious- ness of the world became more and more outrageous. In those its youthful days, the human powers being fresh and vigorous, and men commonly living to nearly a thousand years, the violent had sufficient time to accomplish their giant plans of mischief, and to consolidate their union for the purpose. Their only remaining check, the inward re- buke of the Spirit of God in the conscience, becoming daily less and less felt and recognized after that the sons of God had allied themselves with the daughters of men, and had entered into full communion with reprobates, was now to be withdrawn entirely. The single family that still heeded the voice of God, and lamented the growth of general cor- ruption, had lost all mfluence over their godless feUow-men, and was exposed to their hatred and contempt. " All flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth." III.— THE DELUGE. Had the enormities of the world been permitted to take their course, the moral condition of our race might have sunk past recovery. But God had purposed for it a re- deeming plan, which nothing should be allowed to frustrate. Hence there remained but one expedient; namely, to destroy that corrupt generation from the earth, and to commence a new race from the above-mentioned single and less-infected family of Adam's descendants, the family of Noah. For the once goodly field of human nature had now become as a wild desert, overrun with pestiferous weeds. It required to be wholly broken up, in order to be sown with a new and godly seed. Divine forbearance, however, still granted it the respite of one hundred and twenty years, and meanwhile vouchsafed that repentance and righteousness should be preached abroad by Noah. 22 THE DELUGE. But the world regarded him not. " They did eat, they drank, they married and were given in marriage ; they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded." They pre- sumed upon the usual longevity, and thought that as the course of nature had all along continued the same, it was never likely to suffer any change, much less such a change as Noah in his preaching predicted. That holy man, how- ever, by divine direction, had in the mean time constructed an ark, as an asylum for the representatives of the animal world, and especially for his own family, who, as the seed- corn of our present human race, were to be preserved from the coming deluge. At a set time, and by divine appointment, all the animals which God had directed to be preserved, and Noah with his wife, his three sons and their wives, entered into the ark, and " the Lord shut them in." And now " the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the cataracts of heaven were opened," until the earth was covered with a universal deluge, and all its inhabitants were drowned in the mighty waters. Even to this day there are traces everywhere to be found, attesting what a change was wrought by that great event, which gave another form to the earth's surface. Extensive beds of elephants' remains have recently been discovered in the wilds of Siberia, where, from the rigor of the climate, none of the larger quadrupeds, much less the elephant, or any animal of tropical countries, can live in a wild condition, and where only the blue fox and the white bear can roam at large. In high northern latitudes are imbedded trunks of palm-trees, metamorphosed to coal, whereas it is well known that the palm-tree can live only in warm climates. On the High Alps, and in the slate pits of Gennany, are found in a petrified state large beds of muscles, shoals of sea fish, and layers of marine plants ; while many of our roads are made and repaired with innumerable fragments of cornuammonis and other petrified animals, which once played in antediluvian seas, but which are now dug up as THE SONS OF NOAH. 23 stone images from the depths of our mountain quarries. Such well-known facts clearly testify that whole regions, which at present form part of the continent, and are over- run with chains of steep and rugged hills, composed in former ages the bed of the ocean. To this we may add, that of all the nations wherever travelers have penetrated, whether in the old world or in the new, there is scarcely one, however bai'barous, that does not retain some tradition of the deluge, and some story of the man who was saved from it in a vessel constructed for the purpose, although none of these nations had ever seen or heard of the Scrip- tures. God has even converted the stubborn rock into a depository of his truth, and into a record of his righteous judgments. Thus in the very substance of a school-boy's slate, on which the child writes out passages from the sa- cred narrative of the deluge, may sometimes be seen the skeleton form of some small animal that perished in the general overthrow. SECOND PERIOD. FROM THE DELUGE TO THE TIME OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR. B. C. 2348, Usher, ) , ( 588, Usher. 3155, Hales, ( ^^ I 586, Hales. I.— THE SONS OF NOAH. When the fiat of the Almighty had gathered back the waters of the deluge from off the face of the ground, and the ark now rested upon the mountains of Ararat, Noah, with his family, came forth, and settled probably in the country of Armenia. From hence were his offspring, as a new race of mankind, to overspread all the regions of the earth. It was at this time that God appointed the rainbow, to be a token and pledge that he would never again destroy the world with a flood. This natural and beautiful phe- 24 THE SONS OF NOAH. nomenon in the clouds is supposed by some to have then first existed, by means of a supervening change in the atmosphere. Some new arrangements were now appointed, to prevent the return of such gigantic corruption as had " filled" the antediluvian earth. The ordinary life of man was henceforth rapidly shortened to about one-tenth of its former duration. To this eiFect the divine permission of animal sustenance, of which we read nothing previously, may have perhaps in some degree contributed. Oppor- tunities for accumulating so large a measure of iniquity as heretofore were thus curtailed; men's natural powers were also considerably restricted, and other external limits to unbridled self-will, such as laws, magistracy, and civil regulations, now gradually arose. The knowledge and fear of God, which, through so many centuries, had been transmitted from Adam, and faithfully fostered by Noah, were to be communicated by him to the new race of men, as their most sacred trust. But what God had promised concerning the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, the everlasting distmction between the children of God and the children of men, soon began to reappear in Noah's immediate descendants. Hence, in the spirit of prophecy, did that patriarch announce to them the oppo- site conditions of their remoter posterity. His predictions have ever since been fulfilling in the history of all nations unto this day, and their fulfillment is likely to continue in some respects for a length of time to come. The predic- tions we refer to are as follows : — " Cursed be Canaan ! A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Blessed be Jehovah the God of Shem ! And Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth : And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem : And Canaan shall be his servant." It is remarkable that the name of Canaan U inserted in THE SONS OF NOAH. 25 the curse, instead of that of Ham, his father. Whether this is on account of his having personally taken part in his father's impiety, we are not mformed. History, how- ever, shows that not Canaan's posterity alone have par- taken of that curse, but that the other descendants of Ham have been bearing it likewise to the present hour. The nations of unhappy Africa are all descended from Ham ; and how many of these nations have for ages been strug- gling with adversity, or groaning under the yoke of slavery, while the oppressions they have been suffering have all along more and more plainly fulfilled the prophecy of Noah ! Yet the curse is expressed in general terms ; and as it evidently relates to a temporal rather than a spiritual condition, so it does not preclude individuals of the race of Ham from enjoying even temporal freedom. The hereditary bondage of that race makes, indeed, its conver- sion to the true God, and its consequent prosperity, the more unj^romising to human effort ; yet the curse of slavery may have been overruled to be the means of vast numbers of individuals approaching nearer to the light, and this has already been experienced by African negroes in the West Indies. Shem is the progenitor of the swarming eastern world in general, and of the nation of Israel in particular : that wonderful people, who for ages bore the distinction of the chosen seed, and on whose special account it is that Jeho- vah is here emphatically called, " The Lord God of Shem." This people, moreover, of whom we shall presently take more particular notice, are still, " as touching the election, beloved for the fathers' sakes." Rom. xi, 28. Their re- jection is now, we hope, very near to the close of its appointed period ; for they are not cast off for ever. Japheth is the forefather of the European West, and of a large portion of Asia. In him is accomplished that pre- diction of Noah, " God shall enlarge Japheth ;" that is, shall spread his descendants very extensively abroad. 26 THE BUILDING OF BABEL. They have settled in the tents of Shem, and have become proprietors of all those countries which are part of Shem's allotment, and which, in the future prosperity of the Israelites, will virtually be restored to his dominion. As to where the immediate children of these three pa- triarchs respectively fixed themselves, the Scripture inti- mates but occasionally, by mentioning some of the heads of their families and nations ; as it records only the great leading events, and those which characterize a whole age or a whole people. It passes, with a very slight notice, over centuries that were requisite to the early development of the human race, or what may be called its juvenile formation, just as it passes over the early years of our Saviour's life ; or as our modern biographical memoirs give but a slight sketch of a person's younger days, or record concerning them merely what is most remarkable. One very remarkable event in the earlier history of man appears suddenly in the midst of a vacant space of nearly three centuries ; a period respecting which we have else nothing beyond a list of names. That event is the building of Babel. IL— THE BUILDING OF BABEL. From the mountainous regions of Armenia, where Noah with his descendants had settled, the increase of the human family took a south-east direction toward the plains of Shinar, a proverbially fertile country, situated between those famed rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, and thence called by the Hebrews, Aram Naharaiam, (or Syria of the two rivers,) and by the Greeks, Mesopotamia. But as in process of time the limits even of this country were found too narrow for the increasing population, and as men perceived that a large portion of their number would soon have to seek out remoter settlements, whereby the human family was likely to become scattered, they resolved to build a great city and tower, as well for their own reputa- THE BUILDING OP BABEL. 27 tion and glory, as for establishing a metropolitan centre of union. Now, in this enterprise they did not first ask counsel of God, neither did they intend the building for the honor of his holy name, but simply for their own re- nown : so soon was the bulk of mankind again estranged from their Maker. And, indeed, it is a fact of daily expe- rience, that the further men decline from the true God, the more is it their aim and endeavor to exalt themselves, and thus to usurp his authority. Hence do men still combine together and form associations, with no other design than to increase their power of self-gratification. They have learned that union is strength ; and this lesson, which admits of such excellent use, is often misapplied to the very worst of purposes. Such was the case also at that period, when mankind had but one common language, a circumstance that made it the easier to accomplish what- ever they concerted. Their undertaking amounted to a conspiracy against God himself; for, in immediate oppo- sition to his counsel and command, they had virtually agreed to refrain from replenishing the distant regions of the earth. See Gen. ix, 1. They had also rejected God, and chosen for themselves another centre of unity ; they had formed a plan for setting up an impious independence, which they intended should command the admiration of posterity. How morally ruinous would have been the consequences, had Babel been established according to the intention of its builders ! It would have been the rendezvous of every evil from every country ; so that from thence mischief would have gone forth, in tenfold variety and strength, to consummate the corruption of all the ftimilies of the earth. God, therefore, " came down to visit the city and the tower which the children of men had builded ;" he so confounded their language that they no longer understood one another. Hence, they not only desisted from their enterprise, but became divided into distinct nations, according to their 28 THE BUILDING OF BABEL. several dialects or languages, ' and went forth to stations more or less remote the one from the other. This was no other than a disposal of divine goodness and mercy ; and, without it, the wickedness of mankind might soon have emulated theirs who were swept away by the deluge. But now their former general sameness of condition no longer existed ; each nation learned to pursue its own independent aims and interests ; and though they were " all gone out of the way" of real prosperity, insomuch as they lived without God in the world, and sought not the divine bless- ing on their proceedings, still the power of evil could not "now be so great and general, nor its increasing infection so rapid, nor the ruin of any distinct people so precipitate ; and though one nation might fall, another would stand, and perhaps learn, by the fate of its neighbors, such expe- rience and prudence as M^ould serve to procrastinate its own downfall. Even the overthrow of any one nation would not necessarily annihilate it; but its humiliation, under the dominion of another, might prove so salutary to it, as to leave its recovery still possible ; whereas, had mankind remained as one people, their utter corruption |i,nd ruin might soon have been, humanly speaking, una- voidable. Yet the world has all along mistaken God's beneficial intentions in this separation of mankind, and nearly every age has witnessed the repeated attempt to reunite the nations under one temporal head, and to subject as much of the whole world as possible to the will of one "man. Thus it was in the times of the Assyrian, the Baby- lonian, and the Persian empires ; as also in the time of Alexander. Rome, in like manner, first by its imperial ^nd afterward by its Papal power, and Napoleon, at a later day, endeavored to accomplish such a design ; but no attempt of the kind has ever completely succeeded, because God himself is Ruler of the world, and it would be con- trary to his plan that such attempts should be successful. THE DISPERSION OF MANKIXD. ^^ III.— THE DISPERSION OF MANKIND. The building of Babel occurred in tbe days of Peleg, who lived B. C. 2247, according to Usher, or 2754, ac- cording to Hales. The tenth chapter of Genesis informs us, verse 25, that "in his days was the earth divided." Whether by this is likewise to be understood the severing of the American continent from Europe or Asia, as some think, after one division of the people dispersed from Babel had settled in America, we know not ; but it is evident that the words refer to that division and dispersion of man- kind which we have already noticed, and of which we are here to give some further account. The posterity of Ham was distributed into four great branches. The descendants of his son Cush peopled the south-east of Asia, as India, China, and Japan. Mizraim settled in Egypt and Lybia, and spread northward into Philistia, and southward into Abyssinia, and probably also into Caffreland. Phut filled western Africa with a great many petty nations ; and Canaan was the forefather of the Phenicians, the earliest mercantile nation of antiquity : he was also the ancestor of the heathen tribes of Palestine, including those of the vale of Siddim. From Japheth are descended all those nations which possess the whole north and south of Europe, and all that part of Asia which lies north of the Black Sea and the Caspian. The Germanic nations also, probably, are descended from his son Gomer. Offsets from Japheth have likewise spread toward the south of Asia. The race of Shem remained nearest to the original settlement of man, and replenished principally the countries between the Euphrates and the Tigris, as Assy- ria and Chaldea ; but, in after ages, the descendants of his great-grandson Heber (whence the name of the Hebrews) expelled the Canaanites, and possessed their land. Of course, the confines of these three principal divisions of 30 EARLIEST NOTICES OF BABYLON, mankind, after their dispersion and settlement, were not 80 definite as to obviate such partial admixtures as effaced, in many countries, the original characteristics of lineage ; but differences of complexion, acquired by variety of cli- mate, as also differences of proportions in the human frame and language, have so clearly preserved the gi'and distinc- tions to this day, that there are persons who even dispute the origination of mankind from a single pan*, notwith- standing God's word most evidently shows it, and ex- pressly says that he "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the whole earth." Acts xvii, 26. But it is not yet satisfactorily discovered from which of the three branches the aborigines of America descended, though it is most probable that they belong to that of Shem ; and if so, this is a further accomplishment of the prophecy of Noah, Gen. ix, 27, " God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem." IV.—EARLIEST NOTICES OF BABYLON, NINEVEH, PHENICIA, AND EGYPT. The rapidity with wliich the earth became peopled after the flood is indicated by the very early establishment of monarchy in the land of Shinar, under Nimrod, the grand- son of Ham. He is called in Scripture " a mighty one in the earth," and " a mighty hunter before the Lord." The dominion he acquired was the foundation of the Assyro- Babylonian empire. Assur, a son of Shem, who had pre- viously settled in that country, being supplanted by Nim- rod's superior force, afterward built further north, and on the banks of the Tigris, the city of Nineveh, which was the commencement of the Assyrian state. Babylon itself subsequently came under the dominion of the Chaldean race ; for, still later, we find the Chaldeans distinguished by precedency among the inhabitants of Babylon. But of the earliest history of these states, and of the probably NINEVEH, PHENICIA, AND EGYPT. 31 fabulous names of tlieir princes, as Ninus, Semiramis, Sar- danapalus, etc., we have no further particulars that can be depended on. Their historical importance commences where we find them beginning to influence the destinies of surrounding nations. While the endeavor was making in Babylon to restrain private freedom by imperial and despotic power, and to found a government which, prescribing to itself no limits, was continually acquiring central consolidation, the de- scendants of Canaan, who had settled at the foot of Mount Lebanon, sought their prosperity by commerce, and real- ized all those results of a great mercantile system which have so often been repeated in subsequent ages ; namely, abundant riches, wanton luxury, unbridled levity, grievous sins, and sudden downfall. The descendants of Mizraim, in Egypt, developed their character in quite another manner. Men having now lost the knowledge of God, and with it that of their real wel- fare, each nation endeavored to realize in a way of its own the idea it had conceived of a happy and honorable condi- tion. This was remarkably the case with the Egyptians ; who, having first settled in the regions watered by the sources of the Nile, propagated their government of priests, from ancient Meroe and the mountains of Ethiopia, down as far as Thebes, thence to Memphis, and afterward to the Delta. The strange ideas fostered by their idolatrous priesthood, and the elaborate products of their speculative human wisdom, not merely as disclosed to the initiated, but as displayed openly to the world, constitute them one of the most mysterious of all the nations of antiquity : and, as if a vivid remembrance of Babel's magnificence had been specially preserved among them, we behold at this day, still towering upon their plains, those stupendous edi- fices, the pyramids and obelisks ; and the colossal remains of their idol temples, which are yet standing after the lapse of thirty or forty centuries, show how diligently this people 32 EARLIEST NOTICES OF BABYLON, applied themselves to architecture, and what wonderful advancements they made in it. Earlier, and more evi- dently than any other nation mentioned in history, did Egypt prove how soon the knowledge of the true God was lost after the deluge ; notwithstanding Noah survived that event three hundred and fifty years, as did Shem five hun- dred, and, doubtless, continued to call upon the name of the Lord, and to proclaim it unintermittingly. But al- though men forgot and abandoned the true God, they could never rid themselves of a sense of their dependence upon some superior Being. They felt the need of having a God at hand to aid them in their necessities ; but then they wished that such a God might hinder, as little as possible, the gratification of their lusts and selfish desires. Thus they devised the expedient of adoring a host of natu- ral objects, and of making for themselves gods at pleasure out of carved images. Though at first they merely in* tended to regard such things as representatives of the in- visible God, and thus to make it the easier for their fleshly mind to ascend to what is invisible, by shortening the vast distance between the creature and the Creator ; yet even this vain intention of idolatry was soon forgotten, and the visible object alone became regarded. Such was the com- mencement of idolatry, which appears to have been a thing unknown to the antediluvian world ; for before the flood man's self-sufficiency had <;hosen to have no God at all. Now was " the glory of the incorruptible God changed into an image like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." Kbm. i, 19, etc. Pre-eminently is this true of Egypt, where animals of all kinds were held sacred and were worshiped, and where the madness of idolatry was exhibited in every stage of the disease. The history of that country has but too evi- dently shown, how easily compatible with the utmost re- finement of mere earthly intellect, and with scientific cul- NINEVEH, PHENICIA, AND EGYPT. 33 tivation of every sort, is the utmost obscuration and de- basement of all the nobler faculties of the human mind. While the remains of Egyptian architecture, and its other works of art, serve to testify, that in very early ages as- tonishing progress was made in mechanics, geometry, and astronomy ; they shov/, at the same time, that in respect to the knowledge of the true God, the Egyptians were upon a level with the wildest savages : indeed, it may truly be said, that the worship of the Great Spirit among the North American Indians is even better than all the com- plex idolatry of ancient Egypt. Are we to suppose that its priesthood had any purer knowledge of God, and that they only kept the people in ignorance for the purpose of rendering them the more abjectly instrumental to their craft ? If so, what real worth can possibly be attributed to their purer notions, when these could permit them to de- bar their fellow-men from obtaining the dearest treasure of this life, a behef in the one living and true God ! Their case, however, suggests an important remark ; namely, that the neologians, and others of our own days, have no cause to boast of their own cultivation and refinement, as long as their religion shows itself to be nothing better than the more refined idolatry of the Egyptian priests ; that is, as long as they do not cordially own and serve the true God, who was manifest in the flesh in the person of our Saviour Jesus Christ. The least offensive form of idolatry was that of Shem's posterity, m Chaldea and Persia, where the sun, stars, and fire were worshiped as emblems of the invisible God. But this species of worship is of somewhat later date; for, even in Jacob's time, we find that Laban, who was a de- scendant of Shem, had idols in his possession. The na- tions of southern Asia, especially of India, went to the very opposite extreme of gross idolatry, in which they have persisted to this day, and have disclosed all its abomi- nations and horrors to the full, in their professed worship 2* 34 ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. of devils ; but the earliest accounts of those countries are enveloped in fable. It is in comparatively modern times that we descry among them a beam of that light which sprung up in Palestine, and gi'adually found its way to distant countries. v.— ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. (a.) Abraham and his Family. At about the middle period between the creation and the birth of Christ, was born, in Ur, of the Chaldees, Abra- ham, the son of Terah, of the posterity of Shem. He was one of the remaining few who retained the knowledge of the true God, which was continued from Noah by indi- vidual descendants. It is very probable that Abraham's family resided in the near neighborhood of Noah's own settlement ; and that the time of Noah's death, which was in Abraham's sixtieth year, was the very season in which the Lord appeared unto Abraham, " and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and fi'om thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee." Acts vii, 3. Abraham accordingly went, with his wife, his father Te- rah, and his nephew Lot, into the land of Haran, where he abode until Terah's death. Hereupon a fresh command appears to have been given to him, to emigrate further, that is, into Canaan ; and a promise was added that God would make him a great nation. Gen. xii, 1. Then went Abraham forth, not knowing whither he went ; but, having faith in the divine word, he obeyed ; and his eyes were always open to observe the leadings of God's providence, or the least intimation of his will. Herein consisted that pre-eminence which is given him even in the New Testa- ment ; a pre-eminence which will ever belong to him, on account of his remarkable faith in God. Abraham be- lieved God ; he staggered not at the promise, but against hope believed in hope. The great reason assigned, 1 Pet. ISRAEL AND THE KINGtDOM OE GOD. 36 iii, 20, for the severe punishment of the antedihivian -world is, that they believed not ; that men were so sunk in things visible, that they totally disregarded the invisible things of God. This infidelity, though it were not, as it com- monly is, united with peculiarly evil practices, is sufficient of itself to blight every bud of human happiness, and to render us obnoxious to divine wrath ; whereas, real faith in God contains within itself the very germ of blessedness, and will ever bring forth its fruit in its season. There- fore it is written of Abraham that his faith was counted unto him for righteousness. Rom. iv, 3. For faith obeys the truth, as it is in Jesus ; renounces self; and being also the most beautiful work of God in the inner man, no won- der it is so well-pleasing in his sight. True rehgion became, after Noah's death, limited to a very few. Hence it was necessary that it should be guarded and cherished by extraordinary divine superin- tendence, to prevent its utter extinction. God therefore provided for its preservation in one branch of mankind, until Christ himself, the Light of the world, should come. For this purpose he appointed Abraham to be the fore- father of a nation which, as his peculiar people, it please€l him to keep separate from other nations, so as to fence out from them the world's unbelief and idolatiy. He committed to them the knowledge of the truth as unalien- able property ; that, in the very midst of all the idolatrous and apostate nations, one place at least might be found, from which, after a lapse of ages, at the period of redemp- tion, divine light and truth might shine forth upon the rest of mankind. He condescended to take this people under his special protection and discipline, that they might ulti- mately prove a blessing to the whole world. Thus he gave them his law, his ordinances, his worship, and a cer- tain acquaintance with that plan of salvation which in due time was to be disclosed to all nations, for " obedience to the faith." This information was to serve as a check to 3G ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. tlie general coiTuption '• for the time tlien present," and to make way for a better and more permanent state of things* Here, then, we are required to take notice of a king- dom which God has formed for himself in the midst of the kingdoms of tliis Avorld, which have ever sought their wel- fare either in military achievements, or in the arts and sciences, or in manufactures and commerce, and ndt in the divine favor and blessing. This kingdom of God is to be regarded as twofold ; namely, as consisting of an ex- terior form, and of an internal substance. As to its exte- rior form, God fashions it by laws, ordinances, and his own peculiar guardianship, into a firm barrier against the general inundation of idolatrous rites and infidel apostasy. He propagates by its institutions a pure knowledge and worship ; he defends the true worshipers within it in their conscientious performance of his will, and causes its light to shine also far and wide into the surrounding moral dark- ness. With respect to its internal substance, it consists of all those who, far from being satisfied with their own out- ward acknowledgment of the truth, admit it also to the government of their affections and lives, walk by lively faith in God and his promises, and make it their chief business to diffuse the light of the gospel in the v/orld. These persons, whose number is not to be reckoned and determined, are emphatically, in all ages, the pillars of the earth, and the sustainere of its inhabitants. For their sakes, and in answer to their prayers and intercessions, does God still bear with an apostate world. They are the lively, healthful, and ever-renewing flower of his dominion here on earth, whose exterior constitution would soon fade and fall off without it, like fruit twice dead at the core. These observations equally apply to the church of God under the Old Testament. As the conduct and condition of every nation cannot but have a nearer or more distant relation to this kinsrdom of ISRAEL AND TUE KINGDOM OF GOD. 37 God, so all things bear a collective reference to Christ as their centre. The whole ritual of its ordinances under the former dispensation, all the sacrifices, festivals, and sacred observances, pointed, either figuratively or ex- pressly, at the promised Messiah, and foreshowed the do- minion he was to have over the earth. The kingdom of God under the New Testament is named by the very name of Christ ; it is called Chi-ist's kingdom. It leans for its support upon the recorded and stupendous parts of Christ's history, and proclaims his imperishable word. As all the vital members of the kingdom of God, before the birth of Christ, testified their faith principally by trusting in the word of promise concerning the Messiah that was to come ; so all the spiritual members of the same king- dom, under the New Testament, possess true and inward life in exact proportion as Christ lives within them, and is formed within them the " hope of glory." Christ is the centre of the kingdom of God, and hence of all mankind. The very time of his appearing was the middle period of history since the flood; and even the country where he was manifested in the flesh, where the kingdom of God was first propagated, and where it will at length be earliest glorified with the glory of the latter days, is in the centre of the world's population. The shortest distance from all parts of the world, as known to the an- cients, may be found in the Holy Land, as a common centre for the compass of Europe, Asia, and Africa ; and this very situation of a country the most important to all nations is of no small account. Into this land did God conduct Abraham, and promised to give it to him and to his seed for an everlasting possession, as we read in the book of Genesis, where his history is minutely recorded. It required the steady eye of an eminent believer to look for the fulfillment of such a promise ; for, when this pro- mise was made, the land was as yet, and for a long time to come, in the hands of its ancient possessors, the heathen 88 ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OE GOD. descendants of Ham: and when Abraham wanted in it only a small "parcel of ground," for a burial place, he was obliged to give a price for it to the sons of Heth. But harder trials of his faith still awaited him, especially the giving up of his Isaac, the very child of promise. This trial, however, he endured, and came off with honor; so that he obtained the title of " father of all them that believe." The Scriptures show us the example of his modesty. Gen. xxiii ; his devoted and self-denying courage, chap, xiv ; his peaceable disposition, chap, xiii ; his disin- terestedness, chap, xiv, 21-23; his spiritual piety, chap, xii, 7, 8 ; xiii, 18 ; his humility, chap, xviii, 27 ; his zeal for the truth, chap, xiii, 4 ; xxi, 33.* But what nation among the heathen can show us such qualities in any of their ancient heroes ? Yet Abraham, w^ith all this, led the laborious life of a nomadic wanderer: for his large pos- sessions of cattle obliged him to remove from place to place for pasturage ; and when drought prevented his find- ing a sufficiency of it in the land of Canaan, he was con- strained even to go down into Egypt, and seek a place for his flocks and herds in the rich pastures of the Nile. Moreover, he always dwelt in tents ; a mode of life which could not but be attended with many inconveniences and privations. He built no city, because he looked for a bet- ter country, that is, a heavenly, whose builder and maker is God. Abraham, by divine appointment, received the sign of circumcision as a token of the covenant which God made with him ; and this sign is still retained, not only by the chosen people descended from Abraham by his son Isaac, but likewise by the other numerous posterities of Abra- ham, as the Ishmaelites, who descend from him by Hagar, and by the Midianites, who descend from him by Keturah, * 111 these two last cited passages we find the expression, "Call on the name of the Lord ;" which is by Luther, whose version the author follows, ti-auslated, " Preach the name of the Lord." ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 39 and who are called at this day by the common name of Arabs and Bedoweens. From the country of Ishmael proceeded the religion of the impostor Mohammed, and that country is still its strong-hold: its inhabitants, also, continue to revere Ibrahim (Abraham) as their great progenitor. Isaac and Jacob lived, like Abraham, a life of faith, as sojourners in Canaan. They built altars to the honor of Almighty God; they preached of his name among their heathen neighbors ; * were honored by him with special revelations, and consoled themselves with the divine pro- mise, the fulfillment of which they " saw afar off." They sought a country and a home ; but they " declared plainly " that it was a heavenly country for which they looked : and this is what chiefly distinguishes them, and others like them, from the rest of the world, who " mind earthly things," and seek for nothing better and beyond. And as they main- tained this heavenly-mindedness in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, therefore God put upon them the great honor of recording their names together with his own, by calling himself " the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob." This is a distinction which casts all human glory and renown into the shade. How difficult it must have been for them, surrounded as they were with such corrupt heathen neighbors, to exercise and maintain this simple faith, several incidents of their history very plainly inti- mate. We need only call to remembrance those descend- ants of Ham who once peopled Sodom and Gomon-ha, Ad- mah and Zeboiim, in the vale of Siddim, who carried their enormous wickedness to such a height, that even the for- bearance and long-suffering of God were superseded by hot displeasure, which miraculously overthrew them by " brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven." The Dead Sea covers that once beautiful and fruitful vale, * See the note on page 38. 40 ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. which was the theatre of their sins and of their punishment^ with dull and cheerless waters. But even among these patriarchs and their immediate descendants is perceived the distinction, already noticed, between the interior and exterior of God's kingdom upon earth. Witness the distinction between Isaac and Abra- ham's other children, and the opposite characters of many others who possessed similar outward advantages. By the marvelous leadings of providence in the instance of Joseph, the people, whom God had appointed to become the supporters of his kingdom, were removed to Egypt, where, even at that time, the kingdom of Thebes existed. All kingdoms of the world are obliged to do God service, and are made use of by him as his instruments. Thus he was pleased to use Egypt, at that period, to minister to the temporal necessities of his people. (b.) The Exodus, or Departure from Egypt. When Israel emigrated to Egypt, the pecuhar people and kingdom of God consisted of a single family. Whether, among other nations, there were many individuals who worshiped the true God, is uncertain. How important, then, was it, that this family should be sustained ! and how admirable were the extraordinary measures which God ordained for that purpose ! i\fter Joseph's death, when his services to Egypt were forgotten, and Abraham's race had become exceedingly multiplied, the Egyptians began to oppress this part of it with the greatest injustice and rigor. There is every probability, however, that this op- pression was the very means of preventing Israel's utter apostasy from the true God. Certainly it induced them to cry unto the Lord for deliverance. He heard their prayer ; and sent, as their deliverer and conductor, his servant Moses, who, during forty years' retirement among the pastoral people of Midian, had become prepared for this great office. With almighty hand and outstretched arm ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 41 God liberated them from their oppressors, and led them through the depths of the Red Sea, as on dry land, into the wilderness of Sinai. There, amid mighty thunderings on the mount burning with miraculous fire, he gave them his law from heaven, the constitution and ordinances of which were calculated to prevent their mixing with heathen na- tions around them, and to perpetuate among themselves the knowledge and worship of the one living and true God. It also contained enough of what was visible and symbolical, not only to content a people familiar with didactic appeals to the senses, and fond of visible demonstrations, but also to rivet their attention. But although their knowledge of the truth during their hard service in Egypt was never totally extinct, their long sojourn and familiarity with Egyptian heathenism had blunted their feeling for the truth ; and even God's miraculously conducting them out of Egypt, his majestic manifestations and revelations on Mount Sinai, and their marvelous sustenance by bread and flesh from above, did not leave upon them that im- pression which might reasonably have been looked for. God therefore suffered that whole generation, amounting to between two and three hundi'ed thousand souls, all of whom, when they left Egypt, were twenty years old and upward, to die during the forty years' march through the wilderness ; and only the next generation, which had grown up with God's miracles before their eyes, and had been all along educated in his law, were conducted by him into the promised land. To them it was commanded utterly to extirpate the nations descended from Ham, who hitherto had been possessors of that country ; and this they were to do, not only that room might be made for the people of God, but because those nations had now filled up the measure of their iniquities, and had thereby incurred the sentence of utter destruction. To what a mass of enormity their guilt had by this time amounted, may be conjectured from the account which the Scripture gives of the inhabitants 42 ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. of the vale of Siddim, who, even several centuries before, had become ripe for the vengeance of Heaven. The Israelites, however, did not entirely fulfill this commission, but suffer- ed several of those nations, especially the Philistines in the south-west part of the country, and upon the coast of the Mediterranean, to live ; and thus reserved the scourge of chastisement for their own future disobedience. (c.) The Period of the Judges. The people of Israel formed twelve tribes, among whom the land of Canaan was now partitioned, and each of them took possession of its lot. Then was put into fulfillment the promise which God had made to Abraham, nearly five centuries before : " Unto thy seed will I give this land." For a considerable period after the death of Joshua the elders of the tribes conducted the government ; and the fresh remembrance of the miracles and signs by which God had brought them into the land, upheld among them at this period the worship of the one true God. But Israel had not hearkened to the divine injunction, to extirpate utterly the heathen inhabitants ; they had even suffered a portion of them to remain in the very bosom of the country; and thus were seduced by these bad neighbors into idolatry itself, insomuch that very many of them worshiped the Phenician gods, Baalim and Ashtaroth. Had Jehovah the Gcodi of Israel suffered this to pass with impunity, the whole nation would by little and little have utterly declined to idolatry, and the light of the knowledge of his glory, which he had committed to their trust, would have become totally extinguished. But it was impossible that there should be an end of the kingdom of God, and the promise of salvation and blessedness to all the families of the earth. God therefore delivered his people, from time to time, into the hands of their heathen neighbors, those very nations whose dead gods Israel had chosen in preference to their own living and true God. Thereupon were the people ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 43 brought again to their right mind, and returned in peni- tence to their Maker, who forthwith delivered them out of the hand of their enemies round about, by the instrumen- tality of those heroic believers whom he raised up among them ; and who, generally with small means, achieved wonderful deeds by the power of simple faith. Such champions of Israel usually continued, during the remain- der of their lives, to judge and conduct, or to be honored as judges and leaders among the people ; and it was their business to take care that the help of God should not be forgotten. At a subsequent period, " there was no judge in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Thus the whole nation relapsed again and again into idola- try, for which, on each occasion, they were " sold into the hand of" a heathen neighbor; but on their repenting, were again restored to prosperity by means of some divinely commissioned deliverer. This state of things lasted from their settlement in Canaan to the reign of Saul ; or during a period of about three centuries and a half. Certain as it is that, in those early times, a variety of sins, and especially such as always have prevailed in immediate connection with idolatry, were peculiarly seductive to the IsraeUtes ; yet, that a nation should, for so long a time, have gone on well, and have enjoyed peace at home and abroad, without a king, without military or political ascendency, and without any of the usual forms of govern- ment, and should have been kept in check by the mere respect in which the heads of families were held ; or, in weightier matters, by oracles delivered through the high priest, immediately from God, is certainly a very remark- able, and well nigh unexampled, phenomenon. That period was not only the age of Israel's heroes, but also a period when piety, simplicity, and good morals, must still have subsisted to a considerable extent among the people at 44 ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. large ; though it is also true that the sins which occasion- ally broke out betrayed strong natural corruption, of a wild and very unsubdued kind, as is seen in the instances of Samson and of the Benjamites. At the close of this period, we find the office of the judges in the hands of the prophet Samuel, a man full of faith and power, a destroyer of idolatry in Israel, and the persevering teacher of Jehovah's law. He went upon circuits from tribe to tribe, held public sessions, adjusted private differences, and founded, there is reason to believe, those schools of the prophets, in which priests and teachers of the law were afterward educated for the propagation of pure doctrine, and the prevention of idolatry. Under the administration of Samuel, the Philistines also were sub- dued and humbled ; and the whole country enjoyed such a tranquil and well-ordered condition as it I ad not realized for a length of time, and had only to wish that, if possible, such a state of things might continue. But Samuel was now old ; " his sons walked not in his ways ;" and sooner or later the national confusion was likely, as they feared, to return. This induced them to imagine, that if they were formed into a kingdom, like the nations around them, such changes and disorders, as in the days of the judges had so often shattered their prosperity, were not likely to return. God himself, however, had long ago provided for that exi- gence ; and, even in the wilderness, (Deut. xvii, 14, etc.,) had intimated as much ; but, though he had intended they should have a human king, he was justly displeased that, in hastily desiring one, they had " rejected himself from being king over them." Had they observed and followed his will, they would have found that the regal constitution and government they had now preferred was the very one he had appointed for them. Lideed he himself would still have remained their invisible King, and he, though a God that hidetii himself, would have politically directed them : and hereby were the people of God to have been distinguished ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 45 firom all other people. He had shown himself able, as they very well knew, to protect and defend them against all their enemies; and, during the long period of the judges, not one of the heathen nations ventured to assault them, except when they had sinned agamst him by their idolatry. Whenever any doubtful matter occurred, con- cerning which the will of their supreme Governor needed to be known, the high priest had only to put on the ephod and inquire of the Lord : and how blessed above all other nations would Israel have been, if they had remained con- tented with such a government as this ! But it required faith to regard an invisible God as " a God at hand," and as " a king among them ;" and it demanded very devout obedience, on their part, to secure uninterrupted prosperity from Him, who, from time to time, had evinced what great power he had to chastise them. Whether the uncongeni- ality and inaptitude of man's sinful heart to live and abide in communion with an invisible and holy Being, did not very materially contribute to make them desire a visible king, we shall not here stay to discuss ; but this portion of the sacred history may well be regarded as a proof of the deep mterest which God liimself takes in all the concerns of this visible world, and how intimate and vital is the intercourse which he maintains with it ; as also, how little the whole bearing of things sublunary is understood by those who regard it as a self-working macliinery, that moves without the divine interposition. (d.) Israel at their most flourishing' Period. When Samuel had predicted to the people what they had to expect from the king that should reign over them, what claims he would exact upon their property and their services ; and when, notwithstanding tliis, they persisted in their design, that prophet, by divine direction, appointed Saul to be their king, and inaugurated him with the holy unction. This man was of an obscure family in the tribe 46 ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. of Benjamin, and his reign was spent in repeated wars with the Philistines ; so that not till under David, his successor, were the Israelites enabled to effect their subjugation. Durmg the reign of David, and that of his son Solomon, the dominions of Israel were extended far beyond their former boundaries. They stretched northward as far as Riblah ; north-eastward, they had the Euphrates for their boundary ; from thence their confines reached beyond the countries of Ammon, Moab, and Edom, to the eastern arm of the Red Sea. Westward, the coast of the Mediter- ranean was their limit ; Philistia was under their yoke ; and Phenicia their willing and serviceable ally. David was distinguished both as a man and as a ruler. His pious heroism had been early displayed in his combat with Goliath ; toward Saul he had conducted himself as a faithful and conscientious subject ; and to Jonathan he had been a real and tenderly affectionate friend ; noble, also, and magnanimous was his behavior toward Saul's de- scendants. Even in reviewing his faults and crimes, we cannot overlook the humiliation of spirit with which he comes forward, and openly before the world acknowledges and bewails them; a conduct which, however lightly re- garded by many, is in the siglit of God of great price, and infinitely more pleasing to him than the self-complacency of those, who, tliough they live reputably, are strangers to true humility, brokenness of spirit, Christian meekness, and charity. Of his sincere piety, dee]) devotional feeling, and rich acquaintance with the things of God, we have manifold and undoubted testimony in his inimitable Psalms. As Israel's ruler, his aim was the happiness of his subjects ; and, notwithstanding the many wars he was necessitated to carry on, the nation was contented and prosperous under his government. He appointed proper ofhcers over the people ; he instituted wise arrangements in every depart- ment of government ; and he restored and reformed the ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OP GOD. 47 Levitical ministrations, after having caused the ark of the covenant to be removed to Jerusalem. He constituted that city his metropolis. Its greatest ornament was the temple ; for the building of which he had amassed prepai^ations, and whicli Solomon reared and adorned. This was the most important and most august edifice upon earth, and was dedicated with sacrifices of twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. Hitherto the sanctuary of the people of God, the ark of the covenant, with its furniture and appurtenances, had abode in a taber- nacle or tent of curtains and skins ; but it was now trans- ferred to a magnificent building, for which there had been no sparing of ornamental gold, the most sumptuous tapestry, and the most valuable furniture of every kind. Indeed, the riches of Solomon were so great, that silver in his days was little accounted of ; for it appeared plentiful " as the stones of the street." The Scriptures speak expressly of his having been greater in wealth and wisdom than all the kings of the earth, and that every one desired to see him and to hear his wisdom. Thus the people of Israel had their flourishing period, not only as other nations, but far exceUing them. Other nations enjoyed but some single, though pre-eminent worldly advantage, as power and dominion, riches and splendor, commerce and navigation, or the arts and sciences ; whereby such nations discovered their natural character, and gratified their ambition for some particular kind of renown : but Israel, in the age of Solomon, possessed all these advantages at once. They were " great among the nations," none daring to molest them. Their recent prowess overawed, or a considerable standmg army kept down, every unfriendly neighbor. Their wealth, with its abund- ance of luxuries, was unlimited. Compare 1 Kings x. Their ships sailed to different parts of the earth, and they brought home the valuable productions of the countries they visited. The arts, especially architecture, which they '^ ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OP GOD. learned in part from the Phenicians, had made wonder- ful advances among them. In moral and natural phi- losophy, political economy, and the science of government, as well as in poetry and natural history, Solomon excelled all his contemporaries ; for he had understanding, wisdom, and various knowledge, as the sand upon the seashore. 1 Kings iv, 29. Thus his name was celebrated in all the surrounding countries, and is so even to this day. But as every distinguished nation has had the experience that those terrestrial advantages, in which they have sought their welfare and glory, have not only been inadequate to afford them any true and lasting felicity, but could not even prevent their declining and coming to nothing ; nay, as such nations, one after another, when they had attained the meridian of their glory, have gradually sunk into their former night of barbarism or subjection ; so was it in the experience of Israel. That people were ready enough, no doubt, to envy their heathen neighbors, whose military glory, wealth, flourishing commerce, and quiet enjoy- ment of the good things of this life, gave them the appear- ance of a happy and highly favored people ; and it was natural for them to desire that their own privileges, as God's favored nation, should be signalized by a superior abundance of similar gifts of Providence. God gave them their desire ; he allowed them to make an experiment of earthly felicity, and thus to learn that fallen and sinful man cannot derive true happiness from anything sublunary; that all possible blessings of this world can bear no com- parison with the least of the things that accompany salva- tion, and belong to our eternal peace ; and, moreover, that this peace and salvation must be hoped for from nothing else but communion of spirit with God himself, through him, and him alone, who is the promised Seed, the Son of God, the divine Messiah. This all-important truth is most strikingly illustrated in Solomon's personal history. Pre-eminently as God had ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 49 favored him with every imaginable advantage of a tem- poral nature, and had, in this respect, raised him far above the rest of mortals, all was insufficient to preserve him from folly and guilt. He took to himself "outlandish women," wives and concubines, from among the most idolatrous heathen, and even from among the Canaanitefs themselves. He suffered such women to seduce him to the service of their idols, and thus fell away from the Lord Jehovah his God. Hence, immediately after his death, the nation became miserably rent into two kingdoms : the larger part of it having contracted a total disaffection to the house of David, which now retained but the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, whose kings were thenceforth called kings of Judah; they retained, however, the con- quered provinces : the other ten tribes were denominated the kingdom of Israel, the seat of whose government was first at Shechem, and afterward Samaria. As every di- vision of what naturally is but one body, is a proof, and at the same time a cause, of intestine weakness, so also was it in the case before us. The kingdom of Israel was inces- santly distracted with insurrections, and one king was successively deposed by another; and as to its foreign relations, it was in an almost perpetual struggle, either with the Syrians or with the kingdom of Judah. More- over, the idolatrous worship that had been introduced by its fii'st king, Jeroboam, and which Ahab raised to general predominance, consumed the very vitality of the nation ; till the whole ten tribes, having become excessively corrupt, were at length swept away into captivity by the kings of Assyria. Even the line of David's direct descendants, the kings of Judah, consisted more of ungodly and idolatrous, than of pious and holy persons. And though the Lord had raised up in Judah, as also among the ten tribes, a succession of prophets, who from time to time "showed unto the people their transgi-essions, and to Israel their sins," and exhorted them with the most awful warnings, and pathetic 3 50 ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. entreaties, to " return" to the living God; nevertheless it came to pass, that in Judah, whose was the temple, and the law, and the covenants, and a national sanctuary of divine institution still abiding among them, the book of the law was for a long period so much forgotten and lost, that when that sacred volume was found and brought to light in the reign of good Josiah, the contemporary of Zoroaster, the reading of it occasioned unusual alarm, and a partial reformation. During that dark period of national estrange- ment from divine truth, the number of the true Israelites had become so reduced, that neither were their voices publicly heard, nor their teachers at all distinguished. Happy would it have been for the Christian church, if, in the middle ages, something very like this had not again been witnessed ; for then, in like manner, was the word of God nearly buried in the darkness of monasteries, and remained so till it was brought forth to open day, at the glorious Reformation. The fall of the kingdom of Judah soon followed that of Israel ; for it had, in like manner, become at length fully ripe for those divine judgments, of which the power of Babylon was commissioned to be the instrument. (e.) Israel in their Decline. The great Assyro-Babylonian empire had, meanwhile, after a succession of centuries, fallen to pieces by its own weight ; and out of its ruins had arisen thi*ee new king- doms ; that which was called the New-Assyrian empire, the independent kingdom of Babylon, and the kingdom of the Medes. Of those successive kings of the New- Assyrian dynasty, which are noticed in sacred history by the names of Pul, 2 Kings xv, 19 ; Tilgath-pileser, 1 Chron. v, 6 ; Shalmaneser, 2 Kings xvii, 3 ; Sennacherib, 2 Kmgs xix, 36; and Esarhaddon, 2 Kings xix, 37; Shalmaneser is he who, in the seven hundred and twenty-second year before the Christian era, invaded the kingdom of Israel, destroyed ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 51 Samaria, and removed the ten tribes to Ai*menia and Media, a few years after the building of Syracuse and Rome. The depopulated country, in which but a "/ei^** of the men of Israel were suffered to remain, was newly peopled by him with heathen settlers, who brought with them their respective idolatrous religions. For at that period every heathen country had its provincial or national god, in which character it was also respected by neighbor- ing states ; and proportionably to the confidence with which the prosperous condition of any country was ascribed to such provincial or national god, was the superadded respect wherewith the idol was honored by the neighboring coun- tries. Still it was the general pagan notion, that the power of every such deity was local, or limited to the country where it was immediately worshiped ; in other words, that every country had its own distinct tutelary deity. Hence, those heathen colonists, from various provinces, that re- peopled the land of the ten tribes, regarded Jehovah as no more than one of the many gods of the nations, and as having no authority beyond the limits of the land of Israel, though as one who was to be feared within it. Therefore it came to pass that this new heathen population obtained Jewish priests to instruct them in Jehovah's ritual, and thus they paid their adorations to the true God as one placed by the side of the imported gods. Thus, from the motley mixture of those settlers with such Israelites as had been left in the land sprung the people who were called Samari- tans ; whose religion was a compound of Judaism and heathenism. Some years after this, an attempt was made by Senna- cherib, the successor of Shalmaneser, to seize in like man- ner the kingdom of Judah ; but its pious sovereign, Heze- kiah, humbled himself before God, and obtained a respite of punishment to his guilty country ; so that Judah did not utterly fall under the divine judgments till about thirty- three years later, in the five hundred and eighty-seventb 52 ISRAEL AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. year before the Christian era; when this kingdom also was summarily rebuked for its apostasy. Jerusalem, with its temple, was now pillaged and destroyed by Nebuchad- nezzar ; the sacred vessels, and the apostate people of Ju- dea, were carried away together into Babylon; and, to mere human observation, it seemed as if the kingdom of God upon earth was come to an end, and as if its few re- maining members had been sM^ept away by an imperial and idolatrous power. y The whole history of the children of Israel, down to \ this period of their great humiliation, proclaims aloud the i important verity, that to a nation ruined by their sins no I external advantages can be of any avail; for such ruin I always commences with internal and spiritual corruption, / so that its evil consequences will necessarily appear, let outward circumstances be what they may. The oppres- sion which Israel endured in Egypt produced in them no salutary humiliation ; the wonders which God wrought for them in the wilderness served only to make them more in- solent and refractory ; his establishment of them in Canaan called for their gratitude in vaui ; and their security and abundance in the age of Solomon did not render them a truly prosperous people. Had the glory of our blessed Redeemer consisted only in being a great teacher, and in his disseminating a more correct kind of knowledge, as some unbelievers at present imagine, then might the Jew- ish nation be said to have needed no New Testament Mes- siah at all ; inasmuch as the Old Testament had already furnished them with knowledge more than sufficient to leave them without excuse. They had possessed a Mo- ses, who spake with God face to face, as a man talketh with his friend ; and a Solomon, who understood all mys- teries and all knowledge ; and they had witnessed a suc- cession of prophets, who knew the ways of God, and who proclaimed his truth. But as the recovery of fallen man can be effected only by the influences of the Holy Spirit, ISRAEL AND THE KINODOM OV GOD. 53 which are special blessings of the New Testament dispen- sation, they were not to be expected in their full extent till the coming of Messiah. Therefore all the Old Testa- ment prophets, while they called men to immediate re- pentance and conversion, pointed them also to the day of Christ, as the day of redemption and salvation ; and all the trying experiences, through which God conducted his people, were intended to stir up and strengthen in them a desire for that promised Redeemer, and for liis kingdom of peace. Thus the kingdom of God, under the Old Testament, was only the beginning of what it was afterward to be- come ; and the Old Testament itself was but a preparatory institution, designed for preserving a purer knowledge of God among his chosen people, and for sustaining in them the hope of spiritual and eternal redemption. And shut out, as they were by such divine arrangements, from com- munion with the darkness of this world, a beam of the light of Israel did, from time to time, shed a sort of twilight over the surrounding nations, which served as a pledge that God would, by and by, vouchsafe a better knowledge of himself to the Gentiles also, according as they should be able to bear it. Thus was " the queen of the south" made acquainted with the true God by her visit to Solo- mon, (1 Kings X, 9,) and brought back a reverence for his name among her heathen countrymen; and the king of Tyre, by his intercourse with David and Solomon, learned to present his homage to the God of Israel. 1 Kings v, 7. To the Assyrians of Nineveh, God even sent one of his prophets, and caused repentance to be successfully preached by him among them ; and in Babylon itself, through the transplanting of the Jews into that kingdom, the name of Jehovah, as " the God of heaven," became not only known far abroad, but also highly extolled on various occasions. From the light of that purer knowledge which, by such means, was diffused tliroughout the Babylonian empire, 54 TRACES OF EARLIEST CULTIVATION. some single rays still lingered even down to the period when the promised Messiah personally appeared in our nature upon earth. Matt, ii, 1, etc. VI.— TRACES OF EARLIEST CULTIVATION. Respecting Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt, at this period, we have little certain information beyond what the Scrip- tures report of them in their connection with the holy peo- ple; and as for the rest of the nations, their history is enveloped in still greater obscurity. Some of them having flourished for a season, were subverted by the righteous judgments of God, as the people of Sodom and Gomorrha, and the Canaanitish nations: others enjoyed very early cultivation, and their chronicles refer to an age very re- mote ; but what they relate is mixed with fable concerning deified heroes, whose term of life consisted of centuries ; and all their pretended records, whether historical or astro- nomical, are enigmatical and inexplicable. This is the case with the history of the Hindoos, and, in part, with that of the Chinese. Other nations lay quite out of the compass of history, and remain so to this day ; as the un- civilized tribes of Africa, and the Scythian nations in the north. Allied to these are the unsettled hordes of Tar- tars and Mongolians, which now and then flashed on the page of history like scorching and desolating meteors, but whose special distinction in the affairs of the world was yet future. We look in vain at those early ages for any record of the Germanic tribes, which, shortly after the first cen- tury of the Christian era, form new ground for secular and ecclesiastical history; whereas, the domestic annals of several nations which were soon successively to distin- guish themselves in the great theatre of the world, had long ago commenced ; and the manner of the earliest de- velopment of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, had al- ready intimated what a growth of power each of those nations would at length attain. The most ancient of par- TRACES OF EARLIEST CULTIVATION. 65 ticular and complete records are the sacred Scriptures, and their history of the Jewish people. These records we owe to the special providence of God, and to one pe- culiar provision of that providence, namely, the early prac- tice of the art of writing. This art, however, does not appear to have been in use among the very first genera- tions of mankind. Since man's eai-liest ideas must have been formed from sensible objects, as we may see by the manner in which uncultivated nations still express their thoughts, there is some reason for supposing that the oldest records may have been made by means of pictures, or hieroglyphics, such as are found on Egyptian monuments. Out of these may have originated those signs which express whole words at once, a mode of writing which continues among the Chi- nese ; next we have the characters which express merely syllables, as in Ethiopic ; and lastly, alphabetical writing, which was familiar to the Hebrews and the Greeks at a very early period ; for Moses himself used it, see Exodus xvii, 14; and the ten commandments were written with the finger of God on tables of stone. Writmg on vellum may not have been quite so ancient, though, in the pas- sage last cited, writing in a book is referred to. The science of astronomy likewise commenced in very early times ; so early that we know not whether the first obser- vations of the starry heavens were put together by con- templative shepherds on the mountain pastures of Armenia, or by Phenician navigators. The Chaldean magi were very great observers of the stains, though chiefly for astro- logical purposes ; and hereby they became distinguished as a peculiar and privileged caste. The periodical inunda- tions of the Euphrates and Tigris in Babylonia, and of the Nile in Egypt, made it requisite to form large canal banks, and other arrangements. This served to stir up the in- vention of many for geometry, engineering, and great me- chanical contrivances. 56 TRACES OF EARLIEST CULTIVATION. Social settlement in great cities, like those of Nineveh and Babylon, was soon attended with its natural conse- quence, a variety of luxuries ; and the means for these were furnished by the traffic of Phenicia, Avhich had be- come a general mart for the productions of all countries. While that nation was also distinguishing itself by the in- vention of glass, and the celebrated purple dye. Babylonia was no less celebrated for its improvements in the manu- facture of leather, wool, and linen, and especially for its varieties of carpeting and tapestry, and its highly finished works in wood and ivory, metal, and precious stones. With this rising condition of arts and manufactures was connected an increased spread of commerce, which ex- tended southward as far as India, westward to Phenicia, northward to Assyria and Armenia, and eastward into the mountainous districts of Asia. Thus everything conspired to render Babylon the mistress of kingdoms. Architecture likewise had attained great perfection at this period of the world, and its productions bore the cha- racters of magnificence on a gigantic scale, even as did empire, warfare, and wickedness itself, at the same period : whereas the more predominant characteristics of the suc- ceeding age were those of taste and elegance ; for govern- ments had then become more concerned about domestic improvements, and the advancement of knowledge. Nine- veh was a city of three days' journey in circumference, with walls of extraordinary height and breadth. Babylon, though built only of brick, was above sixty or seventy miles in circuit; its walls were three hundred and fifty feet high, and seventy-five feet broad, with two hundred and fifty towers, and one hundred gates ; and in the centre of the city stood the temple of Belus with its lofty tower. The wonderful buildings of ancient Egypt are well known ; its pyramids, obeHsks, temples, columns, and sepulchral monuments command still, even in their ruins, the admi- ration and the astonishment of travelers; although the TRACE* OF EARLIEST CULTIVATION. 57 lapse of four thousand years has half buried these vast relics in the sand. They however, for the most part, con- sist of granite and marble; and where to look for the buildings upon which the Israelites in their long servitude were employed, as makers of bricks, is not sufficiently known. Similar to those of Egypt, and perhaps equally ancient, are the great Indian temples in Salsette and El- lore, which are hewn out of the native rock. All these works of architecture bespeak the character of those earlier times when colossal bulk and extent were considered the expression of greatness ; but men had now begun to aim likewise at combining utility, convenience, and beauty with such great undertakings. The Israelites were attentive to arts and manufactures ; and many a recorded instance of their skill and ability would be found difficult of imitation, even at the present day. The works which Bezaleel and Aholiab (Exod. XXXV, 30-35) executed in the wilderness, attest their great skill and knowledge. And the temple of Solomon, in taste and sumptuousness, vied with every building of its time. Thus, if we closely examine, we shall find that, even in such things, Israel was the first of the nations; for al- though, at a period when measure or bulk was everything, this nation was of insignificant size, yet it contained the glory of what is intellectual and spiritual ; it had the pro- mise of rising to something far greater and without end, and thus lived as it were above its time. 3* 58 THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. THIRD PERIOD. FROM NEBUCHADNEZZAR TO AUGUSTUS. B. C. 588 to 27. I.— THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. The jealousy wliich had prevailed between the New- Assyrian and the Babylonian empires at length broke out into open war. Media was confederate with Babylon; and the Assyrians had leagued with themselves the mari- time states of Phenicia, Philistia, and Egypt, which feared being swallowed up if the power of Assyria were over- thrown. A great battle between the Babylonians and the Egyptians, on the banks of the Euphrates, in the year 608 before Christ, in which the Egyptians sustained a total defeat, decided the fate of Assyria, and left Babylon the first power in the world. A year afterward Nineveh was taken, the prophecy of Nahum fulfilled, and Assyria divided between the kingdoms of Media and Babylon. About this time Nebuchadnezzar came to the throne, a mighty king, of energetic character, with all the pride of an Asiatic conqueror and despot. The kingdom of Judea had long been enabled to maintain a peaceful contempo- rary existence, having either stood in alliance with the Babylonian monarch, or chosen neutral ground. But zealously as did the prophet Jeremiah warn them against perfidiously leaning on Egypt, the last kings of Judah ceased not, by infatuated confederations with that country, to provoke the powerful king of Babylon, till at length he took and destroyed Jerusalem, carried away captive the nations at large, and transplanted them into his own immediate provinces. The Jews, however, were not governed there with rigor, nor treated as slaves. Their new situation was tolerable, and even comfortable, as far THE BABTLONIAN EMPIRE. 59 as foreign bread in the mouth of a captive can be without a bitter taste. Some of them, who were of royal or princely family, Nebuchadnezzar caused to be brought up in his own court. It is not probable that this was merely a political measure, for the sake of having them under his eye, and rendering any intrigues impossible to them ; for we may well suppose that, with consciousness of his ex- tensive power, he was superior to all apprehensions of this sort. Neither was it at first in his contemplation to raise those distinguished Jews, whose names are well known, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, to such a height of pre-eminence as to intrust them with provincial govern- ment in his own great empire. God, however, had selected this mighty ruler to show forth in him his own greater power and might ; and, by a few simple circumstances, he led him to perceive and acknowledge, that all the power and wis- dom of Babylon, and of its king, were not to be compared for a moment with the endowments of a single servant of Jehovah. A dream, in which God symbolically repre- sented to him the history of the future empires of the world, the whole import, however, of which, except the general deep impression of it, had eluded his recollection, he required his magi and astrologers to recover and ex- plain to him. In such a requirement itself, as also in the horrible threats he added for its exaction, w^e behold the despotic ruler, accustomed to see his commands and desires implicitly obeyed : and who, in the moment of passionate displeasure, is wont, at the least opposition or hinderance to his will, to do what he has afterward to regret. Had not the lives of the magi been preserved by the interven- tion of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar had certainly put them all to death, and probably would have bitterly repented of it upon occasions when he should feel the need of their coun- sel and advice. Here is one instance of that implicit obe- dience, by which a Nebuchadnezzar's single will kept the bulk of his stupendous empire in order. It is also to be 60 THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. observed, with respect to the great image that was shown him in his dream, as symboUcal of the empires of the world, that its head of gold did not symbolize the Baby- lonian power so as to include Nebuchadnezzar's successors, but represented this king himself, the period of his single reign, which was stamped as so illustrious by the personal weight of his own name. " Thou art this head of gold," said Daniel, in his interpretation of the dream. This preference ascribed to Nebuchadnezzar above the imperial powers that arose after hun, appears to have been in some measure owing to his recognition of the true God. He acknowledged to Daniel, " Of a truth is it that your God is a God above all gods, and a Lord above all kings, who can thus reveal hidden matters." It is to be lamented, that this good confession was overclouded, and seemingly forgotten, when he (who, after the oriental pagan custom, retained, with a respect for Jehovah, a reverence at the same time for his own national idol, Bel) desired the Jewish governors of his province to pay the same honor to the image of his god which he had conceded to their God; because, according to his ideas, a plurality of gods might well consist together. But then, it ought not to be overlooked, that, after he had seen the striking proof of the miraculous deliverance of those three men by their God, he again expressed his acknowledgment of Jehovah as the mightiest of all gods, and most strictly enjoined his subjects to reve- rence the same. Elam, or Susa, south-east of Babylon, was already in Nebuchadnezzar's power ; and, after taking Jerusalem, he sought to extend his dominion to the south-west. Sidon, with its territory, fell into his hands, as did likewise, after a long struggle, the strong-hold of Tyre. The countries of Moab, Amnion, and Edom, could not resist this powerful conqueror. Egypt, also, shared at length the same fate as Judea ; its colossal cities were occupied by the troops of Nebuchadnezzar, and its wealthiest inhal)itant? wei'e trans- THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. 61 planted to Babylon. Upon this enlargement of his dominion, which rendered him the mightiest monarch of the age, his heart became inflated with presumptuous and very impious pride, so that he not only forgot that God who had raised him to tliis greatness, but even arrogated all imaginable glory to himself. On looking down upon the great city which he had enriched and adorned with the spoils of his conquests, musing upon his vast empire, and his resistless power, he exclaimed, " Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty !" Such self- exaltation in a man whom God had once taken under his own special instruction, and to whom he had made his almighty power known, could not pass without divine rebuke. As the people of Jehovah now resided in Babylon, this country had become the theatre of his miraculous government, to which, therefore, Nebuchadnezzar himself must yield. God punished him with temporary insanity, so that, like the beasts, he dwelt in the open field, and there lay down under the dew of heaven, till seven times, or years, had passed over him. All his opposition to the power of the living God, and to the impressions of the same upon his mind and disposition, was now felt to be in vain : the " Stronger than he " overcame him, and finally reduced him, by severe discipline, to the public and firm acknow- ledgment, that Jehovah is the Supreme, that his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion enduring for ever and ever. He also confessed that all his doings are in truth, and his ways judgment ; moreover, that " those who walk in pride, he is able to abase." Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar, is the first of the four great empires : this was followed by the Medo-Persian ; after which arose the Macedonian or Greek empire ; and, lastly, that of the Romans. Babylon stood as the head of gold in Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the great image; in the pursuits of life, it set the fashion to nations : and the 62 THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE. succeeding empires inherited from it their many earnest endeavors after universal dominion and consolidation. Thus was Babylon their head and commencement. And, indeed, it was gold in comparison with the succeeding empires ; for these never so substantially realized their desire of universal dominion. In the composition and coherence of its several parts and elements, there was less frangibility or disruption, more unity and solidity, more constitutional strength, grandeur, and vigor, than in the rest. It had the majestic nobleness of the lion, and the high soaring aspect of the eagle. Its wants were more simple, the life of its citizens was more quiet and serene, its prosperity was greater. The revelation of God in the midst of it was more immediate, plain, and striking ; the knowledge of him, though obscurely, yet in a variety of ways, broke forth among the people, and was again and again brought home to them. The imperfect accounts of history do not indeed expressly relate this last par- ticular ; but we may conclude from the infalHble word of God, that the Babylonian empire was more golden, and distinguished by such privileges, than the empires which arose after it; at the same time it must always be pre- mised, that the aim of worldly power, as such, to draw all things to itself, is adverse to the kingdom of God, and that, therefore, it is in the way of comparison, and not of approbation, that this preference is adjudged to the Baby- lonian empire. After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned forty- thi'ee years, his son Evil-merodach succeeded to the em- pire, and was followed by his brother-in-law Belshazzar, (otherwise called Neriglissor, or Labynith II.,) a profligate and effeminate prince, not at all adapted to the vigorous management of so great an empire. When he had reigned four years, the young Persian king, Cyrus, assisted by an army of the Medes, took Babylon in the five hundred and thirty-eighth year before Christ, and this put an end to THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. 63 the Babylonian dominion. The city itself, with the sur- rounding country, became, in long process of time, a de- sert ; and thus was the prediction of Jeremiah (chap.li, 37) literally accomplished. It remains to this day a vast heap of rubbish, without a human inhabitant ; it is seldom visited by any traveler ; and it is a solitude of astonishment and dread. Jeremiah had prophesied of Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon, Jer. 1, 44 ; and, still earlier, had Isaiah propheti- cally mentioned him by name, chap, xliv, 28 ; xlv, 1, etc. ; as an evidence that God holds in his hand the destinies, not only of his own chosen people, but likewise of all other nations; and that they are made to perform his pleasure, though without either intending or being con- scious of it. IL— THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. (a.) History of Cyrus- Media, wliich was a provincial nation, westward of the Tigris, had, by the dismemberment of the old Assyro- Babylonian empire, become a separate kingdom ; and had grown powerful by the partition of the New- Assyrian em- pire. Even the provincial nation of Persia, southward of Media, became its tributary. Astyages, who was king of the Medes, and father-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar, had given his daughter in marriage to Cambyses, prince of Persia, and Cyrus was the son of this marriage. Bel- shazzar, king of Babylon, had formed an alliance with Croesus, king of Lydia, and with other princes, for the purpose of dethroning Cyaxares II., (Darius,) king of the Medes, to whose assistance came his young nephew Cyrus, with a valiant band of Persian mountain wai'riors, and de- feated the allied forces of Lydia and Babylonia. The Lydians fled back to their own country. The kingdom of Lydia had attained to great prosperity and extent under 64 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. the government of Croesus, whose wealth became prover- bial. In this kingdom was comprised a large part of Asia Minor: and, as a mercantile state, its central situation, with respect to Europe, Asia, and Africa, was a most con- venient one. Its metropolis was Sardis ; the same Sardis which is mentioned in the New Testament. But as riches beget luxury, and luxury brings on weakness and effemi- nacy, so the liydians had become unable to withstand the fierce mountain troops of Cyrus. They were totally de- feated ; Sardis was taken ; Croesus was made prisoner, but treated with mildness ; and Cyrus now hastened back to- ward Babylon, to chastise it in like manner. He diverted the course of the Euphrates, which hitherto had flowed through the midst of the city ; and, by this manoeuvre, his warriors were enabled to march into it by surprise, on the shallow bed of the river. Thus, like a sudden tempest, he fell upon the king and his courtiers, at the time they were holding a great banquet, the mirth of which had in- deed, just before, been awfully interrupted by the miracu- lous hand-writing upon the wall, and by Daniel's interpre- tation of the same. Belshazzar was slain in the conflict, and Cyrus handed over the lordship of Babylon to his uncle Cyaxares II., (Darius,) and marched back into Persia. Under the government of Cyaxares, who divided his great empire into one hundred and twenty provinces, the prophet Daniel held an important civil station ; and was, by the marvelous interposition of God, preserved from the insidious machinations of envious heathen opponents, who had circumvented the weak monarch. This miraculous deliverance of Daniel induced Cyaxares to repeat, in the face of all his subjects, the same humble acknowledgment of the God of Israel which had been before expressed by Nebuchadnezzar. It was in the beginning of the reign of this Medo-Persian king, that Daniel received the import- ant disclosure concerning the seventy weeks ; even as, in THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. 65 the time of Belshazzar, he had foreseen the destinies of the four gi'eat empires, (and the near approaching fate of the Persian in particular,) in the symbolical vision of various beasts of prey. Dan. vii. Cyaxares, after a reign of seven- teen years, retired into private life ; and Cyrus, who mean- while had become his son-in-law, by marrying his daugh- ter, succeeded to the government of the united empire of Media, Persia, and Babylonia. To all the countries which had been subjected to the sceptre of Nebuchadnezzar, were now added, under Cyrus, those of Media, Persia, and the Lesser Asia. The vanquished nations were treated for- bearingly by Cyrus; but their princes were detlironed, and replaced by satraps, or provincial governors, specially chosen and appointed by himself. Though such appoint- ments served for awhile to keep the whole empire more together under the will and law of a single ruler, yet they tended ultimately to the production of many discontents and partial revolts, which gave, however, not so much trouble to Cyrus himself as to his successors ; for he, through his personal influence, and the respect in which he was held for his heroic deeds, remained in undisturbed possession of the countries of which he had become master; and, during his whole reign, he found leisure to concert means for establishing his dominion, and especially by strengthening and multiplying the bands of commercial intercourse. He died in his own palace, at Persepolis ; though some historians assert that he was slain in an ex- pedition against the Massagette. (b.) End of the Bahylonisli Captivity. Cyrus, likewise, though the heathen historians give no account of it, did not omit to make an acknowledgment of the true God. Probably he had learned from Daniel the miraculous demonstrations of Jehovah's power, which were given to Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius. It is also probable that he had heard of Jeremiah's prophecy, 66 THE MEDO-PEKSIAN EMPIRE. that the captivity of the Jews in Babylon should termi- nate after its continuance for seventy years ; for, in the very first year of his autocracy, he issued throughout his dominions the following edict : — " The Lord God of hea- ven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth ; and he hath charged me to build liim a house at Jerusalem. Who is there among you of all his people ? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God." At the same time he required all his subjects to help the de- parting Israelites with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides the other things which they might give as a free-will offering for the temple of God that is m Jerusalem. He himself gave up the five thousand four hundred golden and silver vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought away from Jerusalem, and placed in the house of his gods ; and he gave the Jews the requisite cedar timber from Mount Lebanon. But the greater part of the Israelites had become so domesti- cated in Assyria and Babylon, that they had no heart to exchange their prosperous and comfortable situation for the laborious and hazardous enterprise of removal to a far distant territory, or for the inconveniences of settlement in a desolated country. Only forty-two thousand families, and these prmcipally of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, availed themselves of the king's edict, and set out on a march to the demolished city, under the conduct of their prince Zerubbabel, and their high priest Joshua, to rebuild in the first place the temple of the God of Israel. What became of the great body of the Israelites that stayed be- hind in the countries of their captivity, and into what parts of the world their descendants dispersed themselves, re- main a mystery to this day. The new temple could not, of course, equal that of Solo- mon in magnificence ; and the old men, who in their youth had seen the former temple, could not refrain from tears THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. 67 and loud lamentations over the inferiority of the latter. There was, moreover, the hostility of the Samaritans, who had officiously proffered their assistance in the building, but had been repulsed on account of their communion with idolatrous heathenism, and who hence sought to impede the work in every possible way, so that it went on slowly. Under Cambyses, (Aliasuerus,) the successor of Cyrus, the building was discontinued by an imperial edict, so that it was not completed until the sixth year of Darius Hys- taspes, five hundi'ed and sixteen years before Chiist, after that Ezra the scribe had brought from Babylon the rest of the vessels of the house of the Lord, and had effected the arrangements of divine service, the priesthood, and civil order. The two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, had faithfully helped to this by their inspired and stirring exhortations and encouragements, and had raised the spirits of the depressed Jews by their prophecies of the coming period of Israel's national glory. And after Nehemiah, who was cupbearer and state minister to the Persian monarch, had arrived as governor at Jerusalem, which during the captivity and till now had been as an unwall- ed village, the dilapidated walls of that city were again raised up. Returning from the history of the Jews to that of the Medo-Persian empire, we observe, that Cyrus was suc- ceeded in the government of the Medo-Persian empire by his son Cambyses, a cruel tyrant, who not only prosecuted his father's conquests, and recovered Egypt from its revolt, but also enterprised the subjugation of Ethiopia and Libya ; in which, however, he was unsuccessful. He died by ac- cidentally falhng upon his own sword, and was succeeded in the empire by Darius the son of Hystaspes, who had married the daughter of Cyrus. This prince extended the Persian dominions as far as the Indus, and northward as far as Greece ; but hereby incurred a conflict with the Greeks, which was continued by them with his successors, 68 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. until Alexander put an end to the Medo-Persian empire. In this manner the theatre of history became transferred from the East to Europe. (c.) History of the Greeks. The country of Greece was peopled at a very early pe- riod. Even about the time of Noah's death, the national family of Ashkenaz, the son of Gomer and grandson of Japheth, emigrated through Lesser Asia to Europe, and settled in the regions which lie south of that great chain of Alps which runs through Europe into Spain : also in Greece there remained traces of their settlement. Soon afterward followed the descendants of Javan, (whose name is still preserved in that of Ionia,) with their four national families, Elisha, Tarshish, Chittim, and Dodanim: these settled principally in the country which is still called Greece. Whether to Tarsliish we may think of tracing Tarsus in Cilicia, or Tartessus in Spain, or to Elisha, Hellas, (Greece,) or theElisoBan Islands, (in the Atlantic,) or to Dodanim, Dodona, is more or less uncertain. The descendants of Tiras, the youngest son of Japheth, settled probably in the north and north-east of Greece, as Thrace, lUyria, &c. We know of no more particulars relative to these earliest settlers of Greece ; even what is recorded of the first founders of its several states, as Cecrops, Danaus, Cadmus, and Pelops, is mixed with fable. This is partly owing to the nature of their religion, according to which they imagined to themselves a kind of human gods ; and had besides these a multitude of demi-gods, or heroes, whom, after their death, they deified on account of immortal deeds ascribed to them. In later ages, it has not been possible to ascertain whether these had ever existed as men, or whether they were creatures of imagination. It is uncertain whence the Greeks derived their idola- trous and mythological religion ; but, probably, it may be traced to the gradual corruption of the primitive patriarchal THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. 69 faith, which acknowledged one God, but became more and more invested with objects of sense, in proportion as the people sunk away into sensualities. As at first they owned but one God, so they called him Zeus, that is, the Living One; who, even in their later polytheism, was always regarded as supreme. As true doctrines gradually dwin- dled and disappeared, by traditions becoming deformed and obscure, all consistency and proportion of religious faith were at length distorted and perverted, in this as in every other nation. Their recognition of dependence on the true God was forgotten : the Deity was now represented as dependent on men, and was expected to approve of all and everything which the sensual and circumscribed ideas of our fallen nature, the extravagance of the imagination, or priestcraft itself, might choose to make of him ; and he was required to tolerate each idol which its inventors and abettors might be pleased to set up by the side of him. Thus new gods were formed after the human image, or after the likeness of inferior creatures. Thus Zeus, or Jupiter, was, after the manner of men, furnished with a wife, named Hir^, or Juno, to whom special functions were attributed. Thus to Zeus and Here at first were severally appropriated a variety of names, indicative of the respective duties which they were supposed to undertake ; but, in process of time, these names were separated from those to whom they were at first given, and distinct gods and god- desses were supposed to exist, discharging the offices im- plied by those names. The more the knowledge of the one living and true God disappeared, the more men's ideas of Deity were modeled after human notions ; and, accord- ing to human weakness and appointment, the more was the being of God notionally divided and subdivided into gods many, and lords many ; till at length it came to this, that every tree, fountain, and grove had its special deities ; and men even built an altar to the unknown god. Acts xvii, 23. All nature was animated with distinct divinities, 70 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. which, according to legendary tradition, frequently appeared visibly to men, and entered into familiar intercourse with them. It is asserted, indeed, that this was all merely poetical. Poetical indeed it was, if by that word is meant imaginary or feigned ; but sacred history, as contained in the Scriptures, presents far more that is truly impressive and sublime than anything which heathen fable supplies. In the sacred narrative we find God actually appearing among men, condescending to become Abraham's guest, and conversing with Moses " as a man talketh with hia friend." In sacred history we find angels all along main- taining intercourse with men, and the Son of God himself at length becoming man. Sacred history, then, has much more of true poetry in it, and is truth itself; not to men- tion, that to the gods of Greece were attributed every passion and gratification of our corrupt nature, yea, even those which are of the coarsest animal kind. Accordingly, the youth of Greece, when initiated in the practices and mysteries of its religion, learned at once to know and to love all manner of sins and vices ; and it is even asserted, that such gods were only sensible representations of im- portant laws of nature and morals. It is possible, indeed, that Greeks of the more reflecting and contemplative class might associate with them such ideas ; it is possible, that some further baseless fabric of meaning was concealed in them ; still, in what light we are to regard the idol super- stition of the Greeks, we may learn from the word of God itself, as it is written in Rom. i, 18. If the wiser indi- viduals among them cherished a glimmering of purer light, (for it is possible that, even among their priests, some purer occult doctrine was originally propagated, which, however, as there is but too abundant proof, must have soon become very much degenerated ;) if traces of such better knowledge were found even on their public monu- ments, as the inscription on the temple of Apollo at Delphi, " Know thyself 1" yet all this is insufficient to alter, in the THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. 71 least degree, our opinion of the whole system. Even the purer doctrine of a Socrates cannot be ascribed to the common national creed ; on the contrary, it stood decidedly opposed to it ; and his own acknowledgment, " I know that I know nothing," was no more than true, though Christians may well be ashamed to say it after him. Compare John xvi, 13 ; Eph. i, 8, 9 ; iii, 9-11, 17-19 ; iv, 13-15 ; Col. i, 25-28 ; ii, 2, 3 ; 1 John ii, 20-27. The most ancient race of Greeks were the Pelasgi. Among them, perhaps, were mingled many of the Canaan- ites, Avho, fleemg from Joshua's mvasion, first thronged the towns on the seacoast of Palestine, until theii' numbers becoming inconvenient, they emigrated to new settlements in the islands of the Grecian Archipelago, and on the coasts of Greece. lonians and Achaeans arrived after them ; and, at the period when the annals of the country are more worthy of credence, the various component parts of the Greek population, belonging to earlier as well as later antiquity, had become so blended, as to be no longer distinguishable by any certam genealogical charac- teristics. The account of the Argonautic expedition, 1281 years B. C, Usher, to the gold country of Colchis, has never yet been properly divested of its fabulous embellishments. There is something more of historical ground in the tra- dition of the ten years' siege and subjugation of Troy, in the country of Troas, (Acts xvi, 8,) which is situate in the \ north-west of Asia Minor, by Grecian heroes, 1194-1184 I B. C, about the time of the birth of David. This supposed \ event, however, owes most of its present celebrity to the epic poems of Homer, the father of Grecian poetry. Fifty years later, arose the state of Thessaly, in the noi-th of Greece ; and that of Boeotia, to the south of Thessaly. At the same period was the Greek peninsula (Peloponnesus) colonized by the Dorians. Here grew up, in process of time, the states of Corinth, Elis, Arcadia, Messene, and \ 72 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. Sparta. Near to Corinth, which was the entrance of the Peloponnesus, and Boeotia, in the north, was the country of Attica, with Athens its metropolis. The character and condition of these states present a totally different appearance from those of the eastern na- tions. Li these we notice the endeavor to unite and con- solidate what is manifold and heterogeneous : in the former, the endeavor to render multiform what is individual or homogeneous. In the latter, everything was done to ren- der the institutions durable and unchanged : in the former, there is the most multifarious change of form and linea- ment. The latter relied upon gi-eat masses and corporeal force : the former, upon the excellence of their interior structure, their intellectual strength, and their moral courage. In the East predominated the character of what is great, gigantic, and astonishing : in Greece, that of the beautiful, the ornamental, the pleasing, the tasteful. Govern- ment, in the East, was despotic ; the will of one man held all together ; the people was but a mass without a will of its own, and put in motion by the beck of its despotic governor. In the Grecian states, the people had a will, and dared to utter it ; they were their own governors : the human mind there developed itself freely and unrestrained ; made the highest attempts in art and science, political wisdom, and the refinements of civil life. Grecian refine- ment and cunning became proverbial ; the fine arts of Greece are admired to this day, as the models for all na- tions. Orpheus, Homer, Pindar, ^schylus, Sophocles, are still renowned among its poets ; Herodotus and Thucydides among its historians ; Isocrates and Demosthenes its orators ; Zeuxis, Parrhasius, and Apelles, its painters ; Phidias and Praxitiles among its sculptors. Greek philosophy, with its Pythagoras, its Plato, and its Aristotle, was the only intellectual leaven that set in motion the inert mass of the dark middle ages. Greek science was the forerunner of our Reformation ; Grecian mind prevails still in our THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. 73 schools of learning, in our whole system of education, and has incalculable influence in forming the spirit of our age and of our habits. But even this attempt to derive the welfare of mankind from the powers of human intellect, no less than that of the East to derive it from mere phy- sical strength, was to be put to shame. For, after all, it was nothing more than the corrupt nature of the animal man, whicli, under the pretext of intellectual culture and elevation, sought to make itself the source of all good, as the moral habits of the Greeks plainly showed : and the great influence which the Grecian character has gained over the formation of man in the West is sufficiently ac- counted for, from the enmity of the natural man against God and against his law ; which enmity, the selfishness we here speak of nourishes and increases. Greece very early acquired considerable influence abroad, by the moral culture and improvement of its co- lonies, planted here and there on the shores of the Medi- terranean. Commerce and manufactures, art and science, civil polity and popular liberty, all of the truly Grecian kind, flourished and extended in every direction. On the western coast of Asia Minor it planted the cities of Smyr- na, Ephesus, and Miletus ; in the south of Italy, the cities of Magna Grgecia ; in Sicily, those of Messene and Syra- cuse ; and in Africa, that of Cyrene. In the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, in Spain and the south-eastern part of Gaul, in Macedonia and Thrace, it also had colonial cities. All these widely dispersed, but component parts of the Greek population, were closely allied with one another, by community of language, religion, and man- ners. The most influential states of Greece were Athens and Sparta; between which was situated the flourishing city of Corinth. In Sparta, (the legislation of Lycurgus being dated at about 900 B. C.,) the welfare of the people was aimed at in the perfecting of physical strength, by habitu- 74 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPrRE. ating them to a hardy and simple manner of life. The early and constant inuring of every individual member of the state to masculine and self-denying exercises was en- acted by law, as the indispensable means of raising and consolidating a national vigor, that should serve as the best defense against all foreign invasion. Corinth, on the other hand, sought its security and prosperity in wealth and commerce; while Athens aimed at an undisturbed national enjoyment, which continually went on toward the highest pitch of refinement. She was not anxious to wrest to herself dominion and predominance by force of arms, but sought intellectual superiority by education, polished manners, taste, and cultivation of the arts ; and this supe- riority she indeed attained. When her political import- ance and lustre had long disappeared, her approbation in the fine arts was anxiously courted, and that even by the tyrant Nero. Her wisely constructed polity was given ""•sf^ her by Solon, about the time that Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, B. C. 587. But however high the degree of human wisdom which the culture of the Greeks attained, still their history showed that the secret main- spring of all their exertions was selfishness ; for the states of Greece were continually at strife with one another, as to which should have pre-eminence and dominion over the rest ; and it was only the invasion of some common ene- my that served to I'cpress for awhile the activity of this mutual jealousy and ambition, Athens was powerful by an excellent maritime force, great wealth, superior cultiva- tion, and artful i)olicy : Sparta, by her hardily trained and experienced military, and by her iron firmness. In Athens nearly the whole population had a voice in the govern- ment : a privilege which stirred in the private individual a spirit of self-confidence and ambition, and a wakeful en- deavor after every personal ability and qualification. In Sparta the whole community became as one man, through rigid obedience to public discipline : for this obedience was THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPlRSJ. 75 not mere mechanical conformity, much less was it the compelled obedience of timid eastern slaves ; but it was the free obedience of principle : inasmuch as every indi- vidual regarded himself as a vital part and parcel of the commonwealth, and his heart beat high with patriotism, valorous pride, and contempt of death. (d.) Conjlict of Greece with Persia. Such were the condition, habits, and manners of the people against whom Darius Hystaspes, king of Persia, ventured to declare war. The people of Athens had pro- voked his displeasure, and Darius was resolved to chastise them. He sent out a large armed force, which invaded the territory of the Athenians before they could sufficiently prepare to resist them. This surprise put them at first to a panic, but they soon rallied ; and, under the conduct of Miltiadcs, they attacked the Persians, compared with whom they were but as a handful of people. But what could be expected of a host, however numerous, when composed of military slaves, who fight because they are compelled to do it, and spend their rage in the first onset ; but who, be- cause no great-minded common interest inspires them, soon lose all courage against a band of freemen, every one of whom knows what he means to do, and that he has to struggle for the very existence of his family and native home, as well as for his own personal honor and life ! The Persians were totally beaten and put to flight, leaving all the immense wealth of their luxurious camp to the plunder of the Greeks. This momentous victory, however, served as an occasion for discovering how easily those who feel no gratitude to God can be ungrateful to human benefac- tors. Miltiades, the successful hero of Marathon, was, not long afterward, for being less successful in a second under- taking, brought to trial as a criminal, and thrown into prison, where he died. This may remind us, that the ut- most civil refinement is no preservative against errors of a 76 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. perverse and deceived heart ; and that the wisest civil constitution, when not based on the law of the living God, can admit of the grossest civil blunders. Before Darius could complete his renewed armament against the Greeks, he died ; leaving his vast dominions to his son Xerxes, who in Scripture history is called Aha- suerus. His sovereignty extended from India to Ethiopia, and consisted of one hundred and twenty-seven provinces. His magnificence and power, his sumptuousness and pride, are brilliantly described in history. But all was rather superficial than solid ; it wanted interior strength and firm- ness. During his reign the Jews in Babylonia, and in the rest of his dominions, were in great danger of utter ex- tinction ; but were preserved by the intervention of Esther, a noble woman of their nation, whom Xerxes had chosen for his queen, and who obtained for Mordecai, her Jewish relative and guardian, the office of prime minister, with license for her nation securely to avenge themselves on all their personal enemies. But respecting any public ac- knowledgment on the part of Xerxes concerning God, the living God, history has recorded nothing. Hence the deep humiliation which he had to undergo. He had in- herited from his father the war with Greece, and he pre- pared an immense host, large enough to vanquish ten times the number of Greeks, had it only been as valiant and well-ordered as it was numerous. It was raised out of fifty-six different nations, and consisted of one million seven hundred thousand men of arms. The march of this vast army across the Hellespont upon two bridges of boats occupied seven whole days. But its vanguard had no sooner reached the narrow pass of Thermopylse, where the Spartan king, Leonidas, with a handful of brave war- riors, sacrificed his life to the welfare of his country, than it sustained considerable loss. In the naval battle near Salamis, in which the Athenian general Themistocles was commander-in-chief of the Greek forces, the host of Xerxes THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. 77 was totally defeated ; and, like Napoleon in modern times, who escaped from Russia on a sledge, did Xerxes, affright- ed at Grecian valor, retreat precipitately from the scene of conflict in a small boat, and escaped to Persia. Only three hundred thousand of his men did he leave behind in Thessaly: but these also were entirely routed by the Spartan general Pausanias in the battle of Plataea ; and, on the selfsame day, another Greek force destroyed the whole Persian fleet on the coasts of Asia Minor. Xerxes was assassinated : and, during the reigns of his successors, Artaxerxes Longimanus, (Artasastha,) Xerxes II., Darius n., Ai'taxerxes II., Artaxerxes III., down to Darius Codo- mannus, who was vanquished by Alexander, the Persian empire was overrun with disorders, insurrections, fratricides, and horrors of every description. The Greeks, and especially the Athenians, having be- come inordinately elated by these victories, to which had been added one more under Cimon the son of Miltiades, who defeated the Persians by sea and land near the river Eurymedon in Asia Minor ; and Athens, under Pericles, about 440 B. C, having attained the summit of her glory and prosperity, her plunge into deep humiliation soon en- sued. For now commenced the Peloponnesian war, which lasted twenty-seven years; in which, after experiencing manifold vicissitudes, Athens was at length conquered and taken by Sparta ; after which she never was able to recover her former power and military glory. Still her intellectual advantages, her pre-eminence in arts and sciences, could not be wrested from her ; for, at that very period, she could in this respect boast of her greatest and most distinguished men, whose renown has been transmit- ted through every age to the present times. Architecture and sculpture, the few and shattered memorials of which are still the admiration of the world, were then in their highest perfection. Her greatest orators, historians, and philosophers, also lived during this period. Pre-eminent 78 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. among the latter was Socrates ; who, in the midst of idola- try, emerged to the clear conviction, which he was bold enough to profess, that only one God governs the world. Plato, also ; who probably, in his extensive travels, had obtained a sight of some of the sacred writings possessed by the people of God, left to his numerous disciples a doc- trine purer than that of heathenism in general, concerning God as the fountain of all good. Sparta stood for awhile at the head of Grecian power ; but was soon recovered from it by the Thebans, under Pelopidas and Epaminondas. Thus did one state in Greece become the oppressor of another, and the internal weakness which this at length produced made it easy for a foreign aggressor to subdue the whole country, and to teach the Greeks, by painful experience, that selfish prin- ciples are the root of all mischief. (e.) Macedon and Alexander the Great. Macedon, in the north of Thessaly, had formed itself into an independent state from the commencement of the ninth century before the Christian era; and its absolute monarch, in the year 360 B. C, was Philip, a man of gi'eat ambition, especially for conquest and the extension of his dominion. He succeeded in adding to it Illyria, Pseonia, Thessaly, and Thrace ; and a similar fate now imminently threatened Greece itself. He lost no opportunity, by adulation and bribery, to mingle himself with its affairs, in order to establish his interests in that country. The cele- brated orator Demosthenes was, indeed, unwearied in most urgently and eloquently warning the Greeks, and especially the Athenians, against all intercourse with him ; for he had clearly perceived the king's ambitious designs ; but the Athenian people were become too thoughtless and fickle to be rallied back to sober and serious consideration. At length Philip poured his disciphned and veteran troops into the Grecian territories, and gained, in the battle of Chseronea, THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. 79 387 years B. C, a complete victory over the united Greeks. There was now no obstacle to prevent his governing them with despotic power ; but he generously permitted them to preserve their own forms of government, and desired only to be chosen general of the Greeks to assail the Persians ; for it was to the conquest of the Persian empire that his ambitious views were mainly directed. But, before he could engage in this vast enterprise, he died by the hand of an assassin. The chastisement of Persia was thus delayed, but only for a short season ; for his son Alexan- der had inherited from his father not only the kingdom, but also his plans and his ambition, and was just the man to execute what his father had begun. With all the accomplishments of a hardy education and training for heroic exj)loits, he had not been neglected with respect to the cultivation of his mind. The celebrated philosopher Aristotle was his preceptor, and the poems of Homer had enraptured his ambitious spirit. Thus, his ardent thirst of renown had increased more and more ; and nothing would satisfy liim but distinction as a mighty conqueror. It is related of him, that upon hearing of any new victory ob- tained by his father, he exclaimed with emotion, " My father will leave me nothing to conquer !" and that, some years after, when he himself had overrun half the world with his victories, he was dejected at the thought that he should soon conquer the remainder, and have nothing to do. Thus was he from his youth instigated by that spirit of Baby- lonian despotism, that would break down every natural partition wall between nation and nation, and unite the whole population of the globe under one head ; though it is not likely that he, any more than others of the world's conquerors, could foresee the unhappy and destructive consequences which must necessarily ensue from such a union of all nations. " God hath set eternity* in man's * ft^S^n' Eccles. iii, 11, Heb. 80 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. heart," saith the Scripture; that Is, there is in the human heart an insatiable longing, that can be allayed by nothing less than a gratification which is everlasting; and what gratification can be such, except that of communion with the everlasting God? But most persons misunderstand this insatiableness of the human soul, and seek to quiet their own with things visible and finite, that is, with something less than God, and therefore apart from God: such as riches, of which they can never amass enough; or sensual enjoyment, which at best only momentarily diverts this craving appetite, but which, so far from satisfying it, serves sooner or later to increase its uneasiness ; or with mere knowledge and science, but this never satisfies it ; or with the honor which cometh from men, and hath an end ; or with the enlargement of power, in pursuing which we always descry a superior. All these various kinds of endeavors are vain, for they cannot fill up the abyss oi the soul's desire. Its thirst still remains secretly unallayed ; and when it passes into the invisible world, where all those earthly means by which it has sought to satisfy or deafen the clamors of its ardent desire are fallen away, then does this desire, as we see in the case of Dives, break out into flaming and tormenting fire. They only who satiate their souls' desires with the infinite excellences of God, with the saving knowledge of divine truth, and with the "meat indeed," and the " drink indeed," of spiritual life, can find that true contentment which renders them happy here and hereafter. Alexander sought to allay the thirst of his inmost soul by being conqueror of the world ; and had to experience, in attempting it, that the immortal spirit suffers want amid an overflow of earthly sustenance. He enterprised with only thirty-four thousand men the overthrow of the great Persian empire. But then his soldiers were practiced and hardy veterans ; all fired with the spirit of their king — the spirit of greediness for worldly glory, and every one of them THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. 81 was a match for every ten of the effeminate and slavish Persians. Darius Codomannus, a good-natured but weak prince, employed all possible means to avert the approach- ing destruction of his empire ; but, in the very first battle, at the river Granicus, in Lesser Asia, his army was de- feated by Alexander; and near the little town of Issus, in Ciiicia, where Darius himself fought in person, he lost a second battle in encountering the heroes of Macedon, and fled into the heart of his empire. Alexander marched his army along the coast of the Mediterranean, and thus gave the king of Persia time to collect re-enforcements; for he had already such confidence in his own prowess and good fortune, that he made sure of becoming master of Persia. Every city he reached on his march surrendered to him ; only the inhabitants of Tyre, whose city, since its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, had been rebuilt, not on its former site, but on an islet at a little distance from it, and which they deemed impregnable, held out against him; but in vain. Alexander was not the man to leave any enterprise unaccomplished: he constructed a causeway from the continent to the island, and by this means he took and razed the city. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy concerning Tyrus, in the twenty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel. The government of Jerusalem had, since the rebuilding of the temple, been in the hands of its successive high priests ; and it does not appear that the descendants of those who had returned from the captivity acted any considerable part in the public affairs of the world at large. They were still but a small and not a strong nation, and had enough to do with attending to themselves. But as the people of God were appointed to stand in a certain con- nection with all the great empires of the world ; with the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Macedo- Grecian, and the Roman ; partly in the way of acting influentially upon them, and partly in the way of being chastened by them ; 4* 82 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. they were not to remain altogether untouched by the vic- torious march of Alexander. And for once at least in hia life was this haughty chieftain to feel the nearness of the glory of the God of Israel, that an occasion might be given him for doing homage to His superior majesty, even as Nebuchadnezzar and the earlier Persian kings had done. The Jewish historian Josephus relates, that Alexander had dispatched a message to Jerusalem, to Jaddua the high priest, inviting him and all his people voluntarily to come over to the Macedonian conqueror. Jaddua returned an- swer, that it would be treachery and ingratitude for him- self and his people, of their own will, to revolt from the Persian government, by which they had been treated with kindness ; and that they could only yield to it by compul- sion. Therefore, after Alexander had taken Gaza, he marched before Jerusalem, in the year 332 B. C, and Jaddua surrendered to him the city when he saw that all opposition was hopeless. According to the liberal custom of the Greeks, who allowed every national god its own rights and privileges, (see Acts xvii, 23,) Alexander brought an offering unto Jehovah, in the temple at Jeru- salem, as the high priest had instructed him ; and the high priest showed him also, in the sacred books, the prediction of the prophet Daniel, which related to the new Grecian empire, at which the king was naturally surprised. But as to any special impression made on the mind and dispo- sition of Alexander by this contact with the sanctuary of Jehovah, history has nothing to relate. His pride was not thereby humbled, but perhaps only the more raised by it. Alexander, however, granted the Jews exemption from tribute every sabbatical year, (Lev. xxv,) and left their peculiar constitution inviolate. From Jerusalem he marched to Egypt, conquered the country, and founded a new maritime town, which he named Alexandria, and which grew at length to a very large and important city of commerce. For this end he THE MEDO-PEHSIAN EMPIRh:. 83 peopled it with the inhabitants of ruined Tyre. After he had further made a strange journey to the temple of Jupi- ter Ammon, in the Libyan desert, he marched from Egypt, for the purpose of giving the final blow to the Persian em- pire, part of whose provinces he had already brought un- der his power. Near Gangamela (Arbela) a general en- gagement ensued. Although Darius had brought into the field a very large and well-armed host, yet victory again declared itself in favor of Alexander and his bold band of warriors : for if God has purposed to overthrow an em- pire, even the greatest hosts are of no avail. Darius him- self escaped with difficulty ; and Alexander, without fur- ther trouble, took the cities of Babylon, Susa, and Per- sepolis. Immense treasure was plundered in these several cities, and it required twenty thousand mules and five thou- sand camels to carry it off. The ruins of the noble palace of Persepolis are to be seen at this day. It was given to the flames, and its relics, still standing, after the lapse of twenty centuries, remain to teach the important verity, that a kingdom not at unity in itself, and that does not rest its pillars upon truth and the fear of God, must fall to pieces. Darius would fain have rallied once more, and have made a final effort for the recovery of his dominions ; but being surprised and pursued by the Macedonians, he ended his days by stabbing himself with a knife borrowed from one of his attendants, and herewith Avas the last spark of the great jMedo-Persian empire quenched for ever. In the prophecy of Daniel, this empire is represented by the symbol of a ravenous bear ; and again by the sym- bol of a strong ram. It is there further represented as the breast and arms of silver in Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the great image of the four successive empires. The interior matter and composition of its mass are not so firm and imposing as the empire of Nebuchadnezzar. The recognition of the true God is no longer so lively ; the ■ working of such sacred leaven was checked by the rapid 84 THE MEDO-PERSIAN EMPIRE. diffusion of the lire doctrine of the Parsees, a sect derived from Zoroaster. Tlie more remotely liistory descends from the first generations of mankind, the more do we find a want of primitive freshness, Uvely simplicity, strength, and solidity. " God made man upright ; but they have sought out many inventions." They have divided and subdi- vided their thoughts and faculties, to confound that which was intended to be simple ; and things having gone thus iar, to pervert pie human powers, men go still further in evil, as by a second nature, as it were by system and law. The sprightly brook, which purls like crystal all aUve, and presently bounds in dashing sheets from the rocky heights, and, forming a beautiful rainbow at various elevations in its clouds of spray, enters at length the broad level below, and, widening into a shallow over the fields, is now no longer clear, by reason of the muddy bed over which it slowly creeps ; but generates stagnant marshes on either side, which it would finally form into one large lake, were not a new channel dug to let it forth. Thus each succes- sive form of universal empire finds its supply of interior vital strength diminished ; so tha,t, in order to stand, it is forced to employ and waste its capital. Hence there is an increase of poverty, a diminution of currency in the pre- cious metal, the gold, and even the silver, so that copper and iron are all that remain. The more the royally atamped coin grows polished and smooth, the more does it discover, as being now only lackered, the inferior quality of its substance ; and this it does, first, as is always the case, in its more elevated spots. Human nature has to be made sensible of its own poverty and needy condition, and to learn that all attempts to construct happiness upon foun- dations merely human, or to heal with simples of earthly growth the mischief which has befallen it, must end in dis- appointment and disgrace. Tiie multitude, who have been used merely as tools by the mighty for attaining the ob- jects of their ambition, ought to sigh lor a Deliverer, and THE GRECIAN EMPIRE. 85 to learn to inquire for a Prince, to whom all souls are pre- cious, and who graciously cares for all. The longing for the Messiah should be stirred up, not only among the peo- ple of God, but also among the people of the kingdoms of this world, and thereby a way and entrance be prepared for him. The more the successive empires of the earth have sought to confirm and enlarge their dominion at the expense of the welfare of their people, the more the vanity of the world has been proved ; and hence men should be more prepared for the reception of Him who is "the Father of the everlasting age," and "the Prince of peace." III.— THE GRECIAN EMPIRE. (a.) Alexander's Conquests and Death. Alexander was driven on more and more by his passion for conquest, and marched to India, where also nothing could resist his power. People and prince, wherever he advanced, either voluntarily submitted to him, or were vanquished by him, and Alexander had already resolved to push forward beyond the Ganges, when his own army renounced their former implicit compliance, declaring they would march no further. They saw that home was be- coming every day more and more out of their reach, and that all prospect of that period of rest, which, after so many and great exertions and hardships, they had se- riously longed for, was but increasingly deferred ; and as Alexander found them determined to abide by their decla- ration, he was obliged to yield to their wishes, and returned to Persia. Inexpressible toils and difficulties awaited their countermarch ; but Alexander shared them with his meanest soldiery, and thus kept up the spirits of his troops. After the half of his army had perished in this expedi- tion, the remainder at length got back to Persia, and then S6 THE GRECIAN EMPIRE!* all their fatigues and hardships were foi-gotten in the revels of eastern luxury. Even Alexander, who had heretofore been a pattern of moderation and self-govern- ment, now gave himself up with his soldiers to the most extravagant oriental indulgence ; he caused all salutations to be made to him with bowing of the knee, and aban- doned himself to debauchery and wine. He gave upon every occasion the preference to the Persians, to their customs, ways of living, and laws ; and hereby disgusted and alienated from him his Macedonian companions in arms. But, with all this, he did not forget his ambition of further conquests. He had already laid plans for the entire subjugation of Africa and India, for the discovery of a passage round Africa, and for uniting all nations un- der his sole dominion, with the intention of making Baby- lon the capital of his universal empire ; but his death in- tervened, and took him off from all his mighty projects, in the thirty-third year of his age, B. C. 323. Here, then, is another instance how God has ordained it for the good of mankind in general, that their years have, since the flood, become shortened, so that their vast plans of mis- chief cannot, for want of time, be carried into effect. Alexander was not suffered even to attain to the ordinary age of man, else he would doubtless have endeavored to realize his idea of uniting all nations under one dominion ; all those who have come after him in a similar career have had to begin again, and not possessing the great and vigor- ous spirit of Alexander, none of them ever arrived at their object ; notwithstanding the same endeavor to do it has been manifested by them all, as God had long before predicted at the building of Babel — Behold, men will not desist from anything which they have imagined to do. Gen. xi, 6. . THE GRECIAN EMPIRE. 87 (b.) Alexauder\ Successors. Alexander left but two sons behind him, and these were infants, and were murdered shortly after his death. His principal captains then contended with one another, during twenty years, for the inheritance of his vast dominions, till at length, as had been foretold in Dan. viii, 22, his empire was divided into four parts, and the prospect of universal monarchy was thus set at a greater distance than ever. One of these parts formed the kingdom of Syria, which included the eastern portion of Alexander's possessions, as Persia, Babylonia, &c. ; another was the kingdom of Egypt, to which also belonged Phenicia, Judea, and a por- tion of Syria Proper ; the third was the kingdom of Lesser Asia ; and the fourth consisted of Macedonia and Thrace. The chiefs who obtained the lordship of these kingdoms were of Grecian families ; their immediate courtiers and attendants were Greeks ; their most flourishing capitals, Alexandria in Egypt, and Antioch in Syria, were Greek colonies. Thus was it that the Greek language, manners, customs, arts, and the spirit of Greece in general, became diiFused throughout the East, and mingled with oriental habits of thinking and acting; while the latter insensibly had increasino; influence in remodelin"r the character of the West. The principal aim of the East had been to establish dominion and prosperity by the power of the fleshly arm : the West, in its predominant Grecian charac- ter, aimed at both the one and the other, by the power of mind : whereas the Greek oriental dynasties desired to unite these opposite means together, which, however, could not be fully effected, till brought to pass by the imperial power that succeeded them. But in contemplating the four great empires one after another, we find it increasingly evident, that the interior substance of each was, after all, nothing more than '' flesh :" hence did each successively foster Vv'ithin itself more and more tlie germ of the apos- 88 THE GRECIAN EMPIRE. tasy, the enmity of the human heart against God ; and, consequently, the elements of penal judgment. By this penal judgment have all the great empires hitherto natu- rally fallen ; and that which shall arise last will not escape it. Of the four kingdoms into which Alexander's conquered dominions were split, that of Thrace, to which belonged the largest part of Lesser Asia, first fell to ruin, partly through the co-operation of a people of Gaulish race, who, marching from the banks of the Danube through Thrace, poured into Lesser Asia, and founded in the north of that country a kingdom of their own, the kingdom of Galatia. Together with it, grew up in Lesser Asia the kingdoms of Pontus and Bithynia. The kingdom of Macedon had much trouble with its restless neighbors, especially with the Greeks. Had Greece sought her strength by intestine unity, it had been easy for her to bid defiance to the power of Macedon ; and, indeed, the establishment of the two popular confederacies of ^tolia and Achaia was for no other object ; but, owing to the narrow selfishness which in Greece had supplanted nearly all public spirit, the crafty policy of the Macedonian kings found it easy to circumvent the Greeks, to incense the two confederacies one against the other, and thereby to weaken them both. Even those two eminent worthies, Aratus and Philopoemen, were unable, with all their efforts, to preserve the inde- pendence of the declining people ; and, like all other great men, in times of gross degeneracy, they stand as conspicu- ous as the scale of high-water mark at low tide, only to show how far beneath them the whole mass of their countrymen had sunk away. At length Macedonia itself was subdued by the Romans, in the year 197 B. C. ; and, forty-nine years after this, it was reduced to a stated Roman province. Likewise, about the same period, was 1 the fate of Greece decided. It was swallowed up in the I same great empire, which from this time stretched itself THE GRECIAN EMPIRE. 89 over all countries ; and with the infamous demolition of ^ Corinth by the Romans, in the year 146 B. C, were buried \ the last relics of Greek political liberty and glory. But \ Greece still retained precedency in the kingdom of intellect, ^ and even her conquerors continued in this respect to pay her the most courtly deference. By her numerous colonies, by the power of the Grecian princes who then ruled the , world, and by the general diffusion and adoption of her ) language, she had secured to herself an unperishing re- \ membrance and a permanent influence. Greek taste | superseded that which was oriental, and even to this day [ is the eastern manner of thought and expression insipid to those who have been trained after the Grecian model. (c.) Syria and Egypt. But the special destinies of the Greek empire turn prin- cipally upon the relative condition of the two great king- doms of Syria and Egypt, which were at perpetual war with each other ; during which, Egypt, under its three first Greek kings of the house of the Ptolemies, had generally the ascendency. The mixture of the Grecian and oriental character evinced itself nowhere more conspicuously than in Egypt. By the demolition of Tyre and the building of Alexandria, Egypt became the general mart of commerce, and exported the productions of Europe, Asia, and Africa. But Alexandria was also the seat of Greek and eastern learning, and contained immense collections of books. Even the Jews, who in the various wars between Syria and Egypt were brought to the latter country, and ob- tained patronage and prosperity there, formed among them a distinct school of learned men, the school of the Alexan- drines, a medley of Scriptural head knowledge and of Greek philosophy. But under her succeeding kings, from the two hundred and twenty-first year before Christ, Egypt had to suffer by the preponderance of Syria ; and as early as 202 B. C. she fell under the protectorship of the 90 THK GRECIAN EMPIRE. Romans, from which period she ceases to have her own independent history. To the Syrian kingdom, under the dynasty of the Se- leucid^e, belonged the heart of the Medo-Persian territory, conquered by Alexander. The countries of the Euphrates and Tigris as far as the Indus, to which were soon added the regions of hither Asia, formed a very considerable do- minion, which, however, needed to be held together by a strong imperial hand, to prevent their falling gradually asunder. But the liistory of its dynasty is a tissue of dis- grace and abominations ; and, among the princes of the world, none has so exclusively as King Antiochus Epiphanes the horrible pre-eminence of being set forth in Scripture as a type of antichrist. It was about the middle of the third century before Christ that Parthia and Bactria, two provinces of the Syrian realm, revolted and formed distinct kingdoms. Under Antiochus the Great, the affairs of Syria stood, for a time, in splendor ; but he began a war with the Romans, was defeated, and compelled to resign a portion of his kingdom to the Roman power, B. C. 190. His son, the before-mentioned Antiochus Epiphanes, who carried on the fifth war of Syria with Egypt, had purposed to make the Greek idolatry the dominant religion of his whole realm, and to impose it by force wherever it should not be voluntarily accepted. This fact, together with his having desecrated the temple of God at Jerusalem, is what principally constituted him a type of antichrist. He died a fearful death. His successors found their power and influence continually diminishing by insurrections at home and incursions abroad : and the melancholy history of their dominion ended in Syria becoming a Roman province, in the year 64 before the birth of Christ. Thus did the Romans completely inherit all the power and glory, which, since the time of Nebuchadnezzar, had been seated in the East during the Medo-Persian, as also during the Macedo- Grecian government. Here, then, is the precise point of THE GRECIAN EMPIRE. 91 time from which we date the transfer of the world's imperial head-quarters from the East to Europe. (d.) The Age of the Maccabees. During the reigns of the first three kings of Egypt, as Alexander's successors in that country, Judea remained subject to their authority, and retained at the same time its own civil and ecclesiastical forms of government, which, in both respects, was conducted by its successive high priests. This state of things, also, continued unchanged even after the Jews had renounced the authority of Egypt, and had willingly subjected themselves to the Syrian king, Antiochus the Great, which they did in the one hundred and ninety-eighth year before Christ. The- Jews in Egypt having suffered oppression durmg the reign of Ptolemy IV., may have chiefly conduced to this their change of masters. Many Jews had also been previously drawn over to settle in Syria, and especially in Antioch. Their more intimate acquaintance with Grecian customs and opinions, which was thus introduced in two ways at once, was* not without its influence on the internal condition of the Jews. About this time was formed the sect of the Sadducees, who mingled the Greek philosophy with the word of God ; and who, though they admitted the books of Moses, yet in other respects became abandoned to a free-thinking infidelity, the prevalence of which may easily account for Antiochus Epiphanes daring so ignominiously to desecrate the Jewish sanctuary. An opposite party, indeed, was at the same time formed to confront them, namely, the sect of the Pha- risees ; who, strictly adhering to the letter of the law, rated also very highly the traditions of the church : but their zeal appears to have been, from the first, more carnal than spiritual ; whence they were not qualified to become a conservative vital force against the inroads made by infi- delity upon the heart of the nation. Antiochus Epiphanes, in the year 169 B. C, defiled 92 THE GRECIAN EMPIRE. and pillaged the temple with armed military, caused the sacred books to be burned, and a multitude of Jews to be put to death who would not be seduced to apostatize from the law of their fathers. He determined to introduce Grecian idolatry and Grecian laws into the whole country ; and now, a second time, even as at the destruction of Je- rusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, only more threatening, was there danger lest the kingdom of God upon earth should be swallowed up by the powers of the world, and lest every point of connection between it and the promised Redeemer should be dissolved and lost. But then did God raise up the heroic race of the Maccabees ; who, by wisdom and valor, wrested again out of the hands of their enemies a kind of independence for the Jewish people ; to which John Hyrcanus, the son of Simon Maccabosus, chiefly con- tributed, by his alliance with the Roman. His son, Aris- tobulus, even assumed the title of king. But, after his death, there arose a civil war in Judea ; and the single parties of the government family were long at strife and conflict with one another, till the Roman general, Pompey, having undertaken the office of umpire, made himself mas- ter of Jerusalem, and appointed Hyrcanus to the high priesthood and princedom of Judea, on condition of his being tributary to the Romans. During the reign of this Hyrcanus, the Idumean Antipater gained more and more influence in that country; and, after many public dis- turbances and contentions, Antipater's son Herod was ap- pointed, by the Romans, king of Judea, in the thirty -ninth year before Christ; and hereby the dependence of the Jews upon the Roman empire became more manifest and decided. The condition of Judea had, during the last centuries previous to the Christian era, been subjected to very many vicissitudes. At some seasons she enjoyed a quiet and festal breathing time, namely, whenever the belligerent parties did not transfer the seat of war within her very THE GRECIAN EMPIRE. 93 borders ; at others she was actually in a state of prosperity, as under the government of the high priest Simon, 1 Mace, xiv ; and, again, she had seasons of the deepest misery, and the most dreadful distraction and dismemberment, as in the reigns of Antiochus Epiphanes and of Alexander Jannseus. The condition of the Jewish people had now become very depressed and insignificant in comparison with their former flourisliing times, so that there remained nothing more than a shadow of their ancient glory. Also the cessation of prophecy, the last communication of which had been given by Malachi, as long ago as B. C. 400 ; and, again, their divisions among themselves into such ran- corous ecclesiastical parties; contributed to raise to the highest pitch the longing expectation of a promised Mes- siah, and to stir up and render very acute the feeling of their need of redemption. And if, among the people of God themselves, who possessed the light of revelation, there were, at the Saviour's actual appearing, but few found to manifest lively, sincere, and spiritual longing for his advent, this could be no other than an additional proof how deep was the depravation of mankind in general, and, consequently, how needful was the coming of a Redeemer. External means, as history had all along taught, could not effect the restoration of fallen human nature. All experi- ments of the kind had failed : the highest culture of the body and intellect in the East and West, the most power- ful empires, the wisest inventions of human policy, the most splendid temporal prosperity, the most severe chas- tisements, all had transpired, and only served to manifest the corruption of the human heart in every respect. Even the law of God which had been revealed from heaven, and his perpetual and immediate intercourse with his chosen nation by their priests and prophets, could not directly help that people to true happiness, and had only the effect of preventing them from sinking with so deep a plunge as the rest of the nations, and of preserving among them a 94 THE GRECIAN EMPIRE. sanctuary of believing hearts, with whom the Messiah, at his coming in the flesh, might connect his new work of mercy. If, then, the very people of God themselves, who had his appointed constitution, his law, and his wisdom from heaven, thus dwindled away, w^hat could be expected of the Grecian imperial government, whose wisdom was of this world, and contained so little of divine and funda- mental truth ? The Grecian empire w^as to come to nothing, and to confess, by its fall, that it had not within itself enough stamina of truth and of divine life to overcome the powers of dissolution and death, and to make good its pro- mises of happiness to the nations. (e.) Condition of the East and West. The fundamental idea of Greece was liberty: that of the East, was imity hy implicit obedience. The history of the eastern empire is a history of attempts to plant and support unity by implicit obedience. The history of Greece exhibits a series of attempts to secure a freedom for every department of intellect and common life. The history of the fourth universal empire, namely, the Roman, is pervaded by a continual struggle between liberty and implicit obedience. lATbereas, as, in the East, every en- deavor was directed to reduce the importance of individu- als to a mere component fraction of the great total, by uniting very large masses, as much as possible, under one general absolute will, — the ruling aim in Greece was to adjudge to every individual a share in the government ; so that, indeed, every subject, and at the same time every ruler, was severally serviceable to the w^hole, though he still remained his own master. The Greeks would neither be governed nor govern by sensible physical strength, but by the power of mind ; and this dominion continued with them when all other power w^as taken aw^ay. But as they extended their dominion, foreign mixture could not be avoided ; and this in turn had its influence upon them- THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 05 selves, tlieir constitution, and their religion. Had the Grecian ideas, which were diffused over nearly the whole civilized world, especially by the victories of Alexander, possessed inherent life, the nations would have been made happy by them, and their empire would have been ren- dered immovable. But thus was it to be made evident, that even by the most refined and exalted education of the human mind, to which it cannot be denied the Greeks at- tained, no power is awakened in man sufficient to restrain the corruption of human nature. Wliether the spirit of inquiry and experiment, which' was stirred by the diffu- sion of Grecian ideas among the nations, served more to further or to hinder the reception of Christian truth, it is not easy to determine ; for often was it the very character of this Grecian philosophy to hate and despise the truth, as we learn from Acts vi, 9, etc.; xvii, 18, etc.; and St. Paul himself declares, in 1 Cor. i, and in other places, what sort of position the word of God had to take against Grecian wisdom. TY.— THE ROMAN EMPIRE. X (n.) Rome's Earliest History. Italy was, probably, at the earliest dispersion of man- kind, peopled by the family of Ashkenaz ; but every fresh eastern movement, which occasioned individual nations or national families to seek out new settlements in the West, brought a fresh mass of settlers into these western coun- tries ; and the genealogy of Italy's earliest periods con- tains such a multitude of various names, that it can no longer be decided which settlers came early or late, or which settled in Upper and which in Lower Italy. Among them we may mention the Etruscans, (or Etrurians,) who appear to have had their period of cultivation in very early times, and long before the existence of the Romans. Be- sides these, the central part of Italy wa" inhabited by the 96 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Latins, the Campanians, the Umbrians, the Samnites, and other petty nations. In Latium, the territory of the La- tins, was buih, about the year 753 B. C, that city in which the empire of the world was for the longest period to have its seat, and which, next to Jerusalem, and yet in a way of contrariety and opposition to it, is to be regarded as the most important city in the world. Rome was at first a small and inconsiderable town, with four thousand inhabitants and a territory of eight square miles ; whereas, at its most renowned period, its dominion extended into the three quarters of the world, over five hundred and twenty thousand square miles, and over more than one hundred millions of men. Whether its founder Romulus was a captain of robbers, or a king's son, is not clearly ascertained ; for on his history, as also on that of his six immediate successors, there still abides some fabulous ob- scurity, from which, however, thus much emerges as cer- tain, that a struggle for aggrandizement, a rude, bold spirit of enterprise, and an immovable firmness, all along, from the very first, distinguished this infant state. The found- ing of the Roman state is coincident with the period when, in Assyria, great commotions were stirred by a new dynasty ; and when, as one consequence of them, an end was put to the kingdom of the ten tribes of Israel. Some outlines of its first constitution, which indeed remained durable long afterward, discover themselves at this early period ; as the establishment of its senate, the distribution of its inhabitants into patricians and plebeians, the intro- duction of a polytheism borrowed in great measure from Greece ; and especially wars, continually waged for con- quest abroad, and perpetual broils of popular contention against the arrogant claims of rulers at home. In time of war, every Roman was a soldier, and martial superiority to their foes was with them the highest and noblest attain- ment ; whence one and the same word in their language signifies both virtue and courage. During intervals of The ROMAN EMPIRE. 97 peace they practiced agriculture; and this, in their best times, was a favorite employment even with their chief men ; whence the people, in general, preserved that hardi- ness of constitution which was required for holding them- selves in readiness, at any time, to engage in warlike ex- peditions. Their laws were rude and severe. The father of every family was uncontrolled lord over his children ; and the instances in which a father, in the capacity of pub- lic judge, has been known to condemn his criminal son to death, are far from being the most revolting of the narra- tives in Roman history. All considerations were com- pelled to yield to those of the commonwealth ; all private interests were sacrificed to those which were considered as belonging to the public at large. The heroic deeds which the earliest history of Rome exhibits, give us to understand what an idea the Romans had of greatness and personal excellence, and how the ex- ercise and strengthening of courage, and the spirit of daring and enduring enterprise, served to form them into a people so invincible. But, willing and ready as they were to make every sacrifice to the welfare of the state, the lustre of which, on the other hand, favored the ambition of the in- dividual, they were no less averse to connive at anything in their king of self-aggrandizement, or to endure any arrogant pretensions from him. This, therefore, soon gave occasion to a change in their form of government, and their monarchy was converted into a republic, in which the governing persons had the command only for a certain term, and were chosen by the people. The most ancient and simple form of government is the monarchical. It took its rise from the patriarchal government of families, in which the father of the house was absolute over his household. A man like Abraham was only the father of a family, and yet a petty prince, who could cope with the great Chedorlaomer, and pursue him even unto the neigh- borhood of Damascus. Just in this wav it mav have come 5 98 THir ROMAN EMPIRE. to pass, that several of them joined themselves to a bold leader, who proved his courage and strength in fight with the wild beasts that had become too prevalent in a thinly peopled region, and hence they would naturally appoint him their lord protector ; which appears the meaning of what the Scriptures relate concerning Nirarod. Thus, when such a mighty hunter began to exercise his prowess upon his own species, he would become a conqueror ; and of this we have likewise the first example in the case of Nimrod, the founder of Babel. Moreover, the monarchical form of government remained prevalent afterward in the East, as the simplest and most tried ; it was also more prevalent than any other in the West : and the history of the Greeks and Romans, who made experiment of every possible form of government, has shown that the political constitution of nations, as it has set out with the monarchical form, so has it always sooner or later returned to that form again. Highly advanced intellectual cultivation, and ele- vated pride, and the prevalence of selfish principles, have stirred both in the Greeks and Romans a struggle for free- dom from all vassalage ; while private men among them had been ever promj^ted, by a feeling of their own strength and importance, to aspire to at least a share in the govern- ment. Even Sparta is no special exception to this remark, though its popular government bore a different constitu- tional stamp from that of Athens ; for its lawgiver, Lycur- gus, when exhorted by another to introduce the popular government, had prudently replied, " Make the experiment first in your own family." But the Spartans, who were governed first by kings, then by epliori, and lastly by the council of the arclions, had freely yielded to this subjection ; because they believed that by no other means could the state be strong and united ; and the self-denial to which it obliged every private individual, was plentifully rewarded by the nurture which it gave to that selfish principle by which, under the name of patriotism, they were all actu- THE ROMAN EMPIRE. ^9 ated as one man. Was the state aggrandized, powerful, and flourishing, or held it the first rank in Greece, every citizen shared in all this; each of them had, by his very self-denial, contributed to produce it. The posperity of the state was considered the prosperity of every private citizen. To see it free from foreign influence, to see it raised above its neighbors, he regarded as so much free- dom and advancement of his own. The sentiment of each private Lacedemonian was the same as that which was expressed by Lewis XIV., of France, respecting himself, " I am the government." But when a nation lias develop- ed all the glory of human wisdom, polity, and bravery; when it has attained and enjoyed all the prosperity that can be attained by these means — then comes a time when this artificial stretch begins to relax ; the nature that had been restrained tears oft' its mask, and then order changes to unbridled licentiousness, public spirit to the basest kind of selfishness, wise eloquence to the most insipid babbling, and firmness of interior strength to a mere vain boast. Thus are all the means for popular institutions exhausted ; there is no longer any counterpoise, the government sinks with the plebeian interest, because both are one and the same thing, and the people fall either under the power of a foreign conqueror, as did the Greeks, or into the hands of a despot rising from the midst of them, as did the Romans. The republics of antiquity have had this experience long ago ; and the same, at present, threatens those in America. Even the history of the republican constitution in Switzer- land is no exception to this remark. The Swiss were pros- perous in it, as long as they retained their ancient honesty and piety, faithfulness and simplicity; and true religion renders even the worst constitution tolerable : but modern events have taught us, how little protection this form of con- stitution, of itself, has afforded against the predominance of daring infidelity, unbridled arbitrariness, and crying injustice. 100 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. (b.) Rome under the Consuls. About the time when the Jews were building the second temple at Jerusalem, and while preparations were making for the wars of the Persians with the Greeks, was Tarquin the Proud, the last king of Rome, driven from his throne and country ; and in his stead were two consuls appointed, whose government was to last but a single year, and then were t^vo new ones to be chosen ; they were selected from among the patricians, but elected by the people. One of the first two was Brutus, who had been the principal means of expelling the royal family. His sons became implicated in a secret conspiracy which had been formed for the pur- pose of restoring the ejected king. Brutus had already provided against this by a law which had rendered it a capital offense for any one to attempt it. The plot was dis- covered, and Brutus caused his two sons to be beheaded in his presence. Such strict justice and unrelenting severity were, in the eyes of the Romans, of great value. Tarquin prevailed with King Porsenna, of Clusium, to come with an army to his assistance ; and Porsenna pushed his march to the very walls of Rome : only the wooden bridge over the Tiber was now between him and the city. After the guards of the bridge had fled, Horatius Codes, with no more than two attendants, made a stand against the whole body of the enemy, pressing into its narrow pass, for a suffi- cient time to allow the portion of the bridge behind him to be cut away. His two comrades escaped upon the last plank, and he plunged into the river, and svram across, under a shower of missiles, into the city. Another young Roman, Mutius Scoevola, soon afterward found his way into the royal tent of the enemy, for the purpose of assassi- nating King Porsenna ; but, as he did not know him, he stabbed his secretary, whom he mistook for the king. He was seized immediately, and declared, without the least dismay, that he had intended to kill the king, and that he THE ROMAN EMPIiUi. 101 had no fear of death : moreover, that many others meant to follow his example, and would renew the attempt. The king threatened him with burning alive, unless he should make further discoveries ; whereupon Mutius composedly held his hand over a pan of burning coals that stood by, till he had totally disabled it ; to show that such threaten- ing could not terrify him. The king, astonished at such firmness, made peace with the Romans, and retired from the city. Such instances serve to evince the " iron " character of the Romans, which was suited to crush and break everything in pieces; as the iron legs, in the symbolical dream of Nebuchadnezzar, were designed to signify. While Rome, whose territory hitherto remained small, had perpetually to contend with her troublesome neighbors, or, like a restless neighbor herself, was ever attacking some petty state in her vicinity, her own component par- ties at home were also in perpetual ferment, and contended with one another about their respective dignities and in- fluence in the commonwealth. The plebeians were hin- dered, by incessant wars, from the cultivation of their lands, and yet had no other means of subsistence ; conse- quently they became loaded with debt, and dependent on the rich patricians, and this dependence often degenerated into the suflfering of harsh treatment. This led to resist- ance, and refusal to serve in war, and, finally, to entire division and separation. The people withdrew to a hill nine miles from Rome, and left the patricians to shift for themselves, who could not do without them for manual labor, and for protection against the foreign aggressor. After tedious negotiations, the people were at length pre- vailed upon to return to the city, and were allowed to choose out of their own body two ofiicers, called tribunes of the people, who were privileged to attend all the ses- sions of the senate, to hear all their resolutions, and to have a veto upon any proposed measure which to them should 10^ THE ROMAN EMPIRE. eeem adverse to the interests of their constituents. This appointment rendered the business of government more confined, intricate, and artificial, and restored indeed a sort of equipoise between the patricians and plebeians, but con- tained materials for never-ending broils and discords : for it was founded on mutual distrust ; and though it served as a bond to hold both parties together, yet it could neither cover nor conceal the rent that had been made between them. As early as in the middle of the fifth century be- fore the Christian era was it however conceded that patricians and plebeians might intermarry ; and in the course of the next century, the plebeians, after a long struggle, obtained as a right that persons gradually pro- moted from their own rank should become as admissible to all the high offices of state as were the patricians by birth. We shall here give but one instance of these con- tentions. Immediately after the appointment of tribunes, a famine ensued ; and, as all the chastisements of God only serve the more to discover the perverseness of any people who regard him not, this famine proved an occasion of rancorous strife between the people and the aristocracy, who imputed the cause of it to each other, because they were alike guiltily ignorant of their common Lord, and of sin as the common cause of their calamity. The senate obtained corn from Sicily, and deliberated whether it should be sold for its value in money, or given gratis. The stern and haughty Coriolanus, a veteran warrior, who had done considerable services to his country, insisted that it should be sold ; being determined to avail himself of this opportunity of humbling the plebeians, and to wrest from them the rights they had so recently obtained. The peo- ple, in resentment, expelled him from the city, and he fled to the neighboring Volscians, who intrusted him with the command of an army, to chastise the Romans. With this force he presently posted himself in a menacing position under the walls of Rome, and all endeavors of the alarmed THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 103 inhabitants to soften him were fruitless. At length, his mother and wife succeeded in persuading him to withdraw. He marched back the army of the Volscians, but had to atone for his clemency with his life, B. C. 488. A great humiliation befell the proud and hitherto suc- cessful Romans, about the year 385 B. C, when a bold host from Gaul, under the conduct of Brennus, invaded their northern territory : a prelude of those awful visita- tions which, after a lapse of centuries, arrived from the same quarter, and put an end to the glory of Rome. The Roman army was totally defeated ; the inhabitants of the city fled ; Rome was taken and burnt. A treaty was en- tered into with the Gauls, and a large sum of money was offered to persuade them to march away ; but just at the critical moment, Camillus, a banished Roman general, made his appearance with an armed force ; he chased the Gauls out of the country, and Rome was rebuilt. Rome had at that time several such heroic men as Camillus, who, from love to his country, forgot the injustice done to himself History relates, that a wide gap had suddenly opened in the forum, by the ground falling in ; and the soothsayers insisted that it never would close up again until Rome should throw into it what she esteemed most valuable to her. Whereupon Marcus Curtius, a bold Roman youth, came forward armed, and mounted on his horse; and having declared that Rome's most precious things were her arms and valor, he spurred his horse, and threw himself into the gulf, which immediately (says the story) closed over him. Whether the whole of the story be true or not, we see from it what it was that the Romans were most proud of and most confided in. In other respects, their manner of life at that period was generally plain, and luxury had not yet supplanted the ancient rude simplicity. Commerce, the usual source of luxury, had not yet with them become maritime. Agri- culture was still their most important business in times of 104 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. peace ; and Cincinnatus had to be fetched from his plough upon being chosen to the dictatorship, an office of absolute sovereignty, which existed only during occasions of great national difficulty : and Curius Dentatus, who was three times consul, was, when visited by the ambassadors of the hostile Samnites with the vain purpose of bribing him, found by them in his cottage, boiling vegetables in an earthen pot, and was fetched by his countrymen from such an humble dwelling to command their armies. Li Sparta, Lycurgus had forbidden the use of gold and silver coin, and allowed only that of iron, with a view to prevent lux- ury ; and it was four hundred years after this before money began to be coined at Rome, and to be called pecunia, (from pecus, cattle,) either because cattle had been hitherto the most common medium of barter and exchange, or be- cause some figure of the kind was stamped upon the coin. At Athens, in the time of Solon, B. C. 590, the price of an ox was five drachmas, (about one dollar,) and that of a sheep was half as much. About two hundred years after this, the standard price of a modiiis (a half bushel, or two pecks) of wheat was one as, (about the third of an English penny, a little less than one cent.) But this is not so much a proof of the real cheapness of commodities, as of the scarcity or high value of money. Even Roman ladies used personally to bake bread for their families. Wine was at that time a very rare thing ; and a reputable citizen has been known to put his own wife to death, because she had privately indulged in excessive drinking. The religion of the Romans, if their superstition may be so called, was carried to a great extent. No enterprise was adventured on without consulting the gods, whose favorable assent was inquired for, by contemplating the flight of birds, by con- sulting the entrails of sacred victims, and the like. It was by means of such superstitions that the priests acquired that important influence which they exercised in all public affairs, Such a religion could not, of course, any more THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 105 than the other superstitions of the heathen world, teach a word concerning love to God, or concerning the love of God to men. The gods of the heathen were objects of dread, whom they sought to propitiate and conciliate ; this shows, however, that at least a belief everywhere prevailed respecting an influence from the Invisible upon the lives and affairs of mankind. Rome had always hitherto very jealous and formidable neighbors, and her territory was not yet much enlarged ; neither was it till about 338 B. C. that she had made her- self entire mistress of Latium. About this period, and still later, her wars with the Samnites were attended with great danger, and often embarrassed and humbled her. But Rome was constitutionally of a persevering and indomitable spirit ; she had such an iron constancy, that no loss or damage could compel her to yield to her enemies, or to accept peace from them upon any dishonorable terms : but she always acted in these respects like a desperate game- ster, impassioned to the utmost risk, whose notion is, " If I now give up play, what I have lost is lost for ever ; but if I go on, I may win it back again, and with immense advan- tage ;" and so he risks his all upon one more adventure. Many a one has, by such policy, been ruined irrecoverably ; but to Rome it was always successful, because God had destined her to be the mistress of the world. Yet how good is it, that men do not know the prosperity that awaits them ! Had the Romans foreseen the power and splendor at which they were destined to arrive, their pride would have been intolerable to the rest of mankind; it was enough that their spirits were not to be broken by mis- fortune. By their subjugation of the Samnites, which was at Rome's heroic period, a way was opened to the conquest of all Italy. If a formidable power here and there op- posed them, yet it stood alone, and so was easily crushed by Rome's continually augmenting strength. Even a 5* 106 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. foreign foe, in the person of Pyrrhns, king of Epirus, could effect nothing against them. It is true, that in con- flict with them he gained several battles, by means of his elephants and Grecian mode of warfare ; but by these his forces became continually more and more reduced, so that he was at last totally defeated, and fled home in precipita- tion. Still more arduous and important in their conse- quences were their wars with Carthage ; for herein they had to exert themselves to their utmost to avert destruc- tion : and, as a rebuke to the injustice and cruelty with which they treated the vanquished, they caught from them the infection of that insidious poison, Avhich slowly but surely wasted their vital strength and prepared their downfall, namely, luxury and looseness of morals, together with a blind confidence in what they thought their un- changeable good fortune. This confidence flattered them to regard themselves as the lords of the world, and so to push and continue their conquests until the empire had grown to such an unnatural bulk that it sunk by its OAvn weight. Meanwhile, their luxury and lax morals gradually robbed them of their constitutional vigor, and so weakened their national spirit, that at last it could no longer bear up and manage its own gigantic body, but gave birth to such an enormous mass of depravity and crying abominations. as necessarily brought down upon it the judgment of dis- solution. (c.) The runic Wars. Mercantile states, such as Tyre, whicli have possessed but a limited home territory, and whose population has become rapidly multiplied by reason of their great pros- perity, have sometimes been obliged to cause a portion of their inhabitants to emigrate to regions beyond and more thinly peopled ; or they have found it politic to get settle- ments established for their emigrant countrymen at places with Avhich they have been most connected in traffic, or THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 107 where they have wished to establish marts for their articles of merchandise. From the one or the other of these mea- sures, when not from both together, originated the colonies of former ages. Thus arose Tartessus (Tarshish) in Spain ; thus, also, Carthage, (New Town,) on the coast of Africa, in the country of modern Tunis, both of which were Tyrian colonies. The latter appears to have been founded about the beginning of the ninth century before the Christian era. Carthage had inherited commerce from the mother state ; but bore, like the effigy of justice, the sword as well as the scales, and subdued to her dominion the whole surrounding country, together with Sardinia, Corsica, and a portion of Sicily. She had, moreover, her own colonies, which were as granddaughters of Tyre, in Spain and Portugal, and on the western coast of Africa. At the period when Rome came into conflict with her, the traffic of the world was no longer at the command of a single power, as it had been in the flourishing times of the Sidonians and Tyrians. Tyre was indeed fallen, but Alexandria had risen in its stead to gi-eat wealth and in- fluence ; Miletus, and other cities of Asia Minor, as also the Greek and Sicilian cities, prosecuted a vigorous com- merce in all directions. Carthage found her men of busi- ness continually multiplying, and that it was of the last importance for her to multiply, as far as possible, her fac- tories, commercial resorts, and stations abroad : she, there- fore, beheld with a very jealous and invidious eye the growing power of Rome ; especially as the latter had now made herself complete mistress of all the south of Italy. When ready combustibles are brought together, a small spark can kindle a conflagration ; and this was the case at present. An insignificant dispute respecting the city of Messina, in Sicily, gave the signal for those wars of Rome with Carthage which continued for above a century, and for the commencement of which the two powers were very unequally fitted ; for the Romans were soldiers by profes- 108 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, sion, whereas the Carthaginians were merchants. Rome had a veteran standing army, already so inured to conquest, that for the present it had no immediate employment ; and Carthage possessed an excellent naval force, against which the Romans could as yet bring only a fleet of pitiful barges. But Rome was not to be dispirited on this account : what she had undertaken she felt it necessary to accomplish ; and what was not possessed might be obtained. A Car- thaginian vessel having been stranded on then- coast, the Romans took this for their model, and by it they soon con- structed a fleet of one hundred and twenty ships of war, with which, upon their first naval encounter with the Car- thaginians, their military experience, which was now put to a new sort of trial, strikingly displayed itself, and they gained a complete victory. The marble columns which they erected, as a memorial of their first grand and suc- cessful naval battle, are still standing at Rome: it took place in the year B. C. 2 GO, and from that time the Ro- mans went to work on the offensive, and deputed an army against Carthage itself. This army, however, was beaten, and Regulus, its commander, taken prisoner. Some years afterward, when the Romans had recovered the ascend- ency, the Carthaginians sent ReguUis to Rome, with a com- mission to treat for peace. He, however, upon his arrival, instead of executing any such commission, boldly advised his fellow-citizens to prosecute the war with all vigor, be- cause he well knew the present weakened condition of Carthage ; and though he equally knew that a horrible and lingering death awaited him upon his return, the most pressing entreaties of his countrymen and friends could not prevail with him to break his promise of returning to Carthage. Here was firmness, which was well worthy of a better cause. Subsequently the fortune of war was turned for awhile. The Carthaginians, however, found themselves at length obliged, by their great losses, to con- THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 109 elude a peace, under very severe and humiliating condi- tions, in the year B. C. 241. The second Punic War, occasioned by the treachery and insolence of Rome, commenced B. C. 218, amid cir- cumstances very diiFerent from those of the first. The Carthaginians had now Hannibal for their general, who gave the Romans a great deal of trouble, and who was an instance how much depends on the enterprise and expe- rience of a single leader. When this remarkable person was scarcely nine years of age, his father, Hamilcar, had made him swear everlasting hatred to the Romans ; and had all Christians kept their vows of devotedness to God as faithfully as Hannibal kept his of hatred to the Ro- mans, what a blessing they would have been to the world ! At the time that the Romans were declaring Avar at Car- thage, Hannibal, with his well-appointed armament, was stationed in Spain, and now pushed his marches across the High Pyrenees, and the steep snow-covered Alps, among innumerable difficulties and dangers, into Upper Italy, in order to attack Rome from the north. He lost more than thirty thousand men in this arduous expedition, and his army amounted to only twenty-six thousand Avhen he en- countered the Romans, for the first time, on the banks of the Po. The latter, however, were completely beaten. A second Roman force was annihilated by him on the banks of the Trebia, and the consequence of this victory was, that he became master of all Upper Italy. A third Roman army was defeated by him near the lake Thra- symenus, and now the consternation at Rome became general. Since the days of Brennus, were the Romans never in such imminent peril, and for a long time had they been unaccustomed to humiliation of this sort. But de- spondency did not enter their mind. When they saw that they could do nothing with Hannibal by force, they had recourse to stratagem ; for Hannibal, fearing to provoke 110 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. them to the bravery of despair, had thought proper not to attack Rome at once, sword in hand, but left it to the right on his march into the south of Italy. A Ro- man army, under the command of Fabius, a skillful and prudent general, followed him: but much as Hannibal continually wished to bring him to a general engagement, Fabius declined it; and hence he got the surname of Cunctator^ or the Delayer. He, however, thus effected the deUverance of his countrymen ; and though they after- ward suffered another dreadful defeat in Lower Italy, yet Hannibal could make no advantage of his victories, be- cause he received no reinforcements from Carthage. His army had become very greatly weakened and diminished by its many battles ; and the mercantile and covetous Car- thaginians at home got tired of the enormous sacrifices they had to make for the support of the state. Mean- while, the Romans had recruited their strength ; they con- quered Sicily, and transported another armament against Carthage. Hereupon Hannibal was recalled with all speed, and attempted a treaty of peace with Scipio, the Roman general ; but the conditions demanded by the Ro- mans were too severe : and the battle of Zama, in which Scipio totally defeated Hannibal, decided the fate of the Carthaginians, who were now obliged to submit to any terms. Thus ended the second Punic War, B. C. 196, and Rome stood with renewed strength, enlarged territory, and greater pride than ever. Hannibal, however, had not forgotten his oath. He fled to the Syrian king, Antiochus the Great, and incited him to war against the Romans. But to what avail? Antiochus himself was defeated by them, and only increased the power of Rome, by being compelled to cede a portion of his dominions. Hannibal, whom tlie Romans greatly desired to make their prisoner, fled a second time, and at length, in Bithynia, put an end to his own life by poison, the same year that his victorious antagonist Scipio THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Ill died, on his own rural estate, whither he had been banished by the ingratitude of his country. Carthage was now recruited, and had recovered its mercantile importance ; this the Romans could not behold without jealousy and alarm. Hence a third Punic War was commenced, by unprovoked hostilities on the part of the Romans, B. C. 149. The Carthaginians desperately defended themselves for two years ; but, in B. C. 1 4G, Carthage was taken by Scipio the Younger, and of her seven hundred thousand inhabitants, fifty thousand only escaped with their lives. The city was burning for seven- teen days, a fearful spectacle, the awfulness of which seemed, to the people of those times, not a little augmented by the appearance, just then, of a great comet with pallid radiance. Hereupon, Scipio, while beholding the conflagration, is said to have expressed a dread presentiment, Avhich was ful- filled long afterward, that a time would come when Rome would be subjected to a similar fate. In that same year, the city of Corinth, with its noble treasuries of the fine arts, was demolished and burned by the Romans, and could never afterward raise itself to its former lustre. Macedonia had two years previously fallen under the Roman yoke. Thus do the judgments of the Almighty come upon great cities and states, w^hen the measure of their sins is full, and the time of the divine long-suftering and forbear- ance is at an end. Tlie abominations of the Phenician idolatiy, the same which had wrought so much desolation in Judea, and against Avhich the prophets of the Lord had so loudly testified, had been brought with them, by the Carthaginian colonists, from their mother country. The wanton luxury, which finds its head-quarters in great com- mercial states, had produced all manner of sins and vices, the torrent of which no political enactments are sufficient to stem. This, together with the enormous population of the great citv, introduced, as is the case with all great 112 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. cities, a very extensive depravation of morals, which at length knew no bounds. Thus Carthage became ripe for judgment, and underwent the fate of all the great states of antiquity, and perished in her sins. (d.) Gradual Introduction of the Imperial Monarchy. Rome had, by her complete conquest, gained an im- portant addition to her territory and strength ; but the vast wealth, which from this period she began to accumulate within her capital, eventually proved her destruction. Thus was she like a certain beautiful fruit, which, when ripe, is punctured by a poisonous insect, and looks even more beautiful in consequence of it, while its whole pulp is gradually changing to dust. The generals of the Ro- man armies, the governors of their conquered provinces, brought home with them much money and many slaves, bought up fields and houses, and converted them into villas, and thus dispossessed the poorer classes of labor and bread. But then these poorer classes were Roman citi- zens, who had a vote upon the filling up of any public office, and who, consequently, gave their vote to such as paid them best for it ; thus bribery rapidly found its way to the seat of emjiire, and hence it came to pass, that not always the most worthy, but often the richest and most liberal in giving, were chosen to the offices of government. These, as soon as they became secure of power, sought to indemnify themselves for their vast largesses, by various acts of oppression, exaction, and injustice. The riches of Carthage, the luxury and licentiousness of the Asiatics, the arts and refinements of Greece, and the rude coarseness of Rome, had now come together ; and together caused the depravation of the people, and the prostration of their strength. Their simplicity of manners had now to give place to pomp and luxury, learned from foreign nations ; and their ancient integrity and cordiality were changed to THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 113 arrogant pretensions, ambition, and haughtiness of man- ners. Their conquests, indeed, still continued ; and their warlike spirit was not yet diminished; they subjugated Numidia ; a large army of the Cimbri and Teutones, who had advanced from the north of Germany, was defeated by Marius, B. C. 101 ; Spain submitted to the Roman yoke; the Eonian general, Pompey, vanquished Mithri- dates, kmg of Pontus, added Syria to the Roman provinces, and thereby secured to the Romans the supremacy in Judea. But, as abroad, so also in Rome itself, there prevailed a con- flict of parties — that of the commons against the patricians ; and that of the rich and influential, among themselves, for power and precedency. The civil constitution of Rome was now declining more and more, from that of a free republic to a despotic monarchy, in proportion as the Romans began to set a value upon other things than the glory of arms, public liberty, and the honor and prosperity of then* country. Already had Marius and Sylla, about B. C. 86, waged bloody war with each other for prece- dency in the state ; and Sylla had forcibly gained to him- self the office of absolute dictatorship for an unlimited time. Twenty-five years afterward, three men confederated toge- ther, and divided among themselves the government of the empire, namely — Pompey, distinguished by his military merits, Coesar by his great talents, and Crassus by his riches. Crassus lost his life in an expedition against the Parthians ; and now the two others stood alone, each heartily wishing to get rid of the other as his rival, because each liked absolute dominion best. Csesar, whose private name be- came the origin of that of a succession of emperors, was a man of good education, distinguished talents, much variety of knowledge, and great industry and perseverance. As a prudent and brave general he has seldom been equaled ; and was alike skillful in the use of the sword and the pen. His celebrated expeditions in Gaul, a country which he entirely subdued, and his exploits in Britain and in 114 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. "Western Germany, which countries he was the first of the Romans to invade, have been excellently described by himself in his " Commentaries." But he had one weakness, which, though it at first served to elevate him, yet, at length, occasioned his overthrow — he could endure no superior, nor any equal ; but he would be lord alone. This same weakness, or disease, has brought many to ruin, either temporally or spiritually. Coesar, at Cadiz, saw a statue of Alexander the Great, and said with tears to his attendants, " Had he lived to my age, he had con- quered the world ; and I have as yet done nothing." On another occasion he was heard to say, that he would rather be the first person in a village than a second person at Rome. From such a man, who so passionately longed for dominion, the liberty of Rome had little good to expect ; and Cassar, as soon as an opportunity permitted, marched with his experienced soldiers, a whole army devoted to him, into Italy, to crush his rival Pompey. Italy soon yielded to his arms ; Pompey was defeated in the battle of Phar- salia, B. C. 48, (in which German soldiers fought among Caesai''s troops,) and he was murdered in Egypt. Caesar, indeed, had still to contend with difficulty against Pompey's adherents in Africa and Spain ; but he remained conqueror, and now the object of his desires was attained. The Roman senate appointed him dictator for ten years, and gave him the title of Imperator, or commander, whence the word emperor. Even the regal crown was offered him ; but he chose rather to possess the real power than the hated title of king, and this power he well knew how to secure. He spared no pains to hush the malcontents, and to make the people amends for their lost liberty. The enormous wealth which he had amassed, in his wars, was distributed by him liberally and extravagantly. Each soldier got a thousand dollars, and every Roman citizen received twenty. Oil and corn were bestowed by him in abundance ; great theatrical shows, as fights of wild beasts, THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 115 etc., were given for the entertainment of the multitude. On one occasion, all the inhabitants of Rome were feasted in twenty-two thousand rooms, at his own expense ; and in every room was set two butts of wine. General luxury, wantonness, and debauch were at a great height in Rome, at this period. The rich lived in Asiatic pomp and effemi- nacy: their houses were of marble, and decorated with ivory, silver, and gold. The sumptuous delicacies of all countries were collected together at their repasts. A single supper, for a few friends, cost ten thousand dollars : and a spendthrift, wlio had run through all his property except two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, committed suicide, because he foresaw that what he had remaining would serve him for only a single year. While, on the one hand, the highest refinements of sen- suality unnerved the Romans — and in order to meet such extravagance, they practiced injustice, oppressions, and exactions of all kinds, especially in their conquered pro- vinces — there increased, on the other hand, among the people in general, by natural connection and consequence, indolence, rudeness, and dissoluteness, in a restless and disturbing manner ; and the example of the great and rich failed not of its intiuence upon the very dregs of the peo- ple, who now, in their own way, gave free course to the incitements of the corrupt heart, and developed all manner of gross sins and vices. A few valuable individuals, such as the stern Cato, and the distinguished orator and states- man, Cicero, who also gave his mind to philosophical pur- suits, could do nothing to stem the torrent of corruption, and were even themselves in part assimilated to tlie per- verse notions of their loose contemporaries. Rome, however, still contained a goodly number of her better citizens, who beheld with sorrow the long preserved liberty of their country fallen under the yoke of a single despot ; and though they did not take the right method for its deliverance, namely, that which God approves or 116 THE ROMAN EMPIRE. commends, yet some allowance must be made for the times and cii'cumstances in which they lived, as also for their defective knowledge, by reason of which, their aim, though noble in itself, took a very wrong direction. The arbitrary despotism wdth which Csesar managed the people, and op- pressed their liberties, gave occasion to these men to form a secret conspiracy against him ; and under the conduct of Brutus, a descendant of the ancient Brutus, who put an end to the monarchy, they undertook to assassinate him. He fell, pierced v/ith daggers, while presiding in the senate, B. C. 44; a warning example to all who evince much bravery in the conquest of others, and none in the denial of themselves. But the Romans were no longer worthy of a free con- stitution of govermnent ; that is, they had become ripe for the severer discipline and monarchy of a despotic ruler. Brutus raised an army, but was beaten, and fell upon his own sword. Octavianus and Antony united to avenge Cassar's death, and then jointly governed Rome. But they soon disagreed, and came to open war, in which Antony fell at the battle of Actium, B. C. 31 ; and Octavianus, Csesar's adopted son, quickly brought matters to such a crisis, that he got the whole power into his own hands, and dared to assume the name of Augustus, or the Illustrious. With Augustus, the Roman empire had already at- tained its summit of glory ; and, after his time, it gradually declined. The Roman empire was now the empire of the world, the centre about which all profane history turns, and to which all events recorded in it bear some relation. It was the centre of all nations, at least of all which were within its knowledge or influence. A powder consolidated at home, and respected abroad, had been formerly the modest aim and ambition of the Roman people ; but now, like a youth who turns some particular emergency to an assurance respecting his future destination in life, so Rome, from the period of the Punic Wars, came to an assurance RETKOSPECT OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 117 of her being destined to become the mistress of the world ; and, from that period, she labored with a zeal which never lost sight of the attainment of this object. And as before this time, so now still more than ever, was the iron charac^ ter of this power, as "stamping everything to pieces," made manifest ; and the nations had severely to feel its seliish hardness, and its inflexible pride. It was the fourth beast in Daniel's vision, Dan. vii, 7, " dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly ; and it had great iron teeth : it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it." Thus was Carthage trodden down, and thus Jerusalem. \ v.— RETROSPECT OF ANCIENT HISTORY. Thus have the great empires of the world been, one after another, presented on the theatre of profane history ; and each of them has, in its own way, summoned every efifort to make its power the only valid and durable one, to shape the world after its own liking, and to establish the felicity of the human race by human wisdom. But from one such successive empire to another, and indeed from one century to another, it has been continually more and more evident that all the glory of the world passeth away, and that the real welfare of man is not to be expected from this world. At the very time when Rome had concen- trated in herself, and brought to the highest perfection of enjoyment, all the advantages and privileges of preceding empires, {.great military power, general commerce, activity and skiU in every trade and profession, refinement and splendor of luxury and pomp, with education m arts and sciences ; and when, from the union of power abroad with the rise and development of all the intellectual powers at home, the greatest things might have been expected for the deliverance and welfare of the nations, and more im- mediately of the Romans themselves ; at that very period, the decline of the ancient order of things, and of the ancient 118 RETROSPECT OF ANCIENT HISTORY. nations, was beginning j and at the trunk of the great tree, that stretched its verdant branches into all lands, a cor- rotling rottenness had already commenced. /Except in the little country of Judea, there reigned in all lands idolatry in its various forms, and with it were almost everywhere inseparably connected the grossest sins. Inasmuch, then, as the heathen, in the very places where encouragement and strength for what is good ought to have been attained, namely, in the temples of their gods, were only the more incited and privileged to sin; we cannot wonder that all the bands of discipline and self-government became loosened, and that the shamelessness of vice in- creased with every succeeding eentury./ Rather we must wonder that this did not happen sooner, more precipitately, and more widely ; and that among a people in whom the foundation of morals was so undermined, there should still be found men who opposed the influence of the general corruption, and kept themselves comparatively clean in the midst of defilement, and by their faithfulness to their little knowledge, by their strong courage and remarkable self-denial, put to shame many Christians of our own times. This striking phenomenon can only be explained by the fact, that God, though he " suffered all nations to Avalk in their own ways, yet left not himself without witness among them." Such "witness" of his among the heathen was manifold; but was comprehended only by the thinking, and the lovers of truth. The manifestation of God in their conscience, by the sight of his works, was perverted to idolatry ; which was a distortion and disfiguration of that original true knowledge, which was derived from early times, and from traditions of God's revelations to mankind. That God did much good to the heathen nations, giving them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, and filling their hearts with food and gladness, (Acts xiv, 17,) was a fact that should lead an ingenuous and observing mind to the recognition of his greatness and goodness ; and even RETROSPECT OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 119 his judgments, which from time to time he suffered to fall upon a corrupt member or portion of the human race, ought to have brought such a mind into humble subjection to his power. Such seasons of judgment were those which came upon Sodom, Egypt, Tyre, Babylon, Carthage, and Jerusalem. Among the millions who were ruined by the conquering wars of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, flnd Julius Caesar, there may have been many a soul who, ill the hour of severe trial, directed a sighing, supplicating look upward to the unknown God. Fire and hail, storm and inundation, famine and drought, earthquake and tem- pest, executed, from time to time, the message of God to men ; and certainly this message was understood by one and another at various times. How often has God, by pestilence, given the nations witness of his dissatisfaction with them ! This was of frequent occuri'ence in the Jewish history. On one occasion, seventy thousand men died in a few hours, 2 Sam. xxiv, 15 ; Assyria lost one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in one night ; in the time of Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, the pestilence carried off the greatest part of the Roman people ; about the time when Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, in the second year of the Peloponnesian War, B. C. 430, the pestilence extended over Ethiopia, Libya, Egypt, Ju- dea, Phenicia, Syria, the whole Persian and Roman em- pire, Greece and the neighboring countries, and raged for fifteen years together. From the putrefaction of the ruins of Carthage, a pestilential sickness ran through all North Africa, and destroyed in Numidia alone eight hundred thousand persons. This pestilence was so dreadful, that in one day, in one city, and through one gate, more than fifteen hundred human carcasses were borne to the pit ; and, in the same city, within a few days, above two hun- dred thousand persons died. Two years before tlie birth of Christ, the pestilence pervaded all Italy, and left but few persons to cultivate the ground. Who can suppose 120 RETROSPECT OF ANCIENT IIISTORV. that all these visitations of God were utterly in vain ! that some, at least, did not become sobered by them, and awakened to submit themselves to God ! There were also, besides, found here and there indi- viduals in whom a special efficacy of the Spirit of God became visible in the midst of pagan darkness, and who were not without influence upon those around them. Let us think only of Socrates, the Greek pliilosopher, who, in the very focus of blinding heathen idolatry, found his way to the knowledge that there can be only one true God ; and who expressly asserted that a guardian spirit stood by liim, to assist him in obtaining this purer knowledge. Let us think of his disciple Plato, who has received into his philosophy so many traces and lineaments of truth. At the same time we cannot overlook the certainly not incon- siderable influence v.hich the dispersion of the Israelites, and hereby the diffusion of their purer knowledge of God, had upon the ideas of the heathen with whom they came in contact. This dispersion of the Israelites was not con- fined to Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt, where they dwelt in greater numbers, and, as it were, in mass ; a whole circle of other countries are mentioned in the Acts of the Apos- tles, (chap, ii, 9-11,) as places of their dispersion. How could the heathen, with all this various intercourse which the Jews had among them, have failed to become acquainted with their God and religion, their history and their laws ? Indeed, there was, even in the temple of Jerusalem, a special quarter reserved for the heathen themselves, which was called " the court of the Gentiles," where those Gen- tiles worshiped the God of Israel who had become ac- quainted with him through their Israelitish neighbors. Meanwhile God's purpose, to stir up by the leadings of his providence a desire among the nations for a mighty De- liverer, was in some measure answered ; and the severe oppression, which had only continued to increase by the ever frustrated attempt of the great successive empires to RETROSPECT OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 121 better the condition of the world, so sensibly burdened the spirits of men, that the longing for a deliverance sought everywhere to give itself vent. The obscure predictions which were propagated either in the esoteric or secret doctrine of philosophers, or among the popular legends of the vulgar, and which were found preserved either in the enigmatical sayings of their ancient writers, or in deeply studied chronological computations, all marvelously coin- cided respecting that one and the same period, the period of the Messiah's birth. About the time when Augustus, the emperor of the Romans, was born, " a prophet of their own" (see Tit. i, 12) announced that the period was come } for the birth of Him who should be Lord and King over |^ all. Similar predictions were at that time brought to light, '•' / ^ and circulated in Italy and other countries ; and not only^^ /V was the journey of the eastern magi to Jerusalem very \ u remarkable, but also there was a great stir among the then *) inhabitants of North Germany, who had been put in com- motion by the eastern rumors. In general, the remarkable vJ commotion which had already commenced among the hordes of western Asia, and which subsequently broke out in their gi-eat national emigrations, seems only to be ex- plained by that expectation of a change in the state of the world which pervaded all nations at the period above- mentioned. This change of the world was, however, of quite another kind from what the nations expected, and was to be looked for rather in its gradual consequences I and effects, than in its external commencement and cha- racter. It set out from a little point ; it began its work from within, herein differing altogether from preceding 4 empires of the world ; and the great King and universal \ Renovator, " the Desire of all nations," was bom into the i world in the stable of an inn in Bethlehem of Judea. * 6 122 BIRTH AND HISTORY OF CHRIST. FOURTH PERIOD. FROM THE TIME OF AUGUSTUS TO THE IRRUPTION OF THE NORTHERN NATIONS. B. C. 27. A. D. 375. I.— THE BIRTH AND HISTORY OF CHRIST. In the year 39 B. C, Herod the Idumean, also named the Great, was appointed king of Jiidea by the Roman senate. Two years after this, he took Jerusalem, extir- pated all who remained of the Maccabean dynasty, and maintained his tenure of the crown chiefly by becommg an early adherent of Augustus. As he was of heathen de- scent, he resolved to prove the sincerity of his attachment to his adopted rehgion by repairing and beautifying at great expense the temple of Jerusalem, which had suffered much damage under the Syrian government. This repa- ration and gi'eat addition to the temple, wliich was con- tinued by the Jews after his death, was not completed till A. D. 64. In the latter period of the work eighteen thou- sand men were employed about it. But Herod was, never- theless, hated for his tyranny ; and this tended to increase and strengthen more and more among the people of Israel, who for a long time had seen nothing of good days, their longing after the final accomplishment of the ancient pro- phecies. Yet is it at the same time to be observed, that the greatest part of the people had already become so de- based by tyranny and oppression, and so obdurate by wickedness, that the news of the appearance of a new-bom king of Judea excited terror among them instead of joy ; and only a few, that were " quiet in the land," sighed for the coming of the promised Messiah. Yet to keep alive, by all means, and to strengthen, even in these few, such BIRTH AND HISTORY OF CHRIST. 123 an earnest longing, was a thing sufficiently important. It is true, that all the Jews still expected a Messiah, but of quite another kind. They would have a deliverer from the Roman yoke; a king, who should again make them the first, the most important, and the most prosperous na- tion upon earth, and bring the dominion of the world, which was now in the hands of the Romans, into the hands of the Jewish nation. How the Jews came to indulge these expectations it is very easy to understand. In the writings of their ancient prophets they found actual pro- mises, which encouraged them to look forward to prosper- ous days. But the Jews in general could not, with their earthly and fleshly mind, comprehend the spiritual part of those prophecies ; and hence they formed their notion of a Messiah out of the imagination and wishes of their own corrupt heart. Li Bethlehem, a little town lying south of Jerusalem, and celebrated as the birth-place of King David, was Christ (the Messiah, or Anointed) born, of a virgin af- fianced to Joseph, a carpenter, of Nazareth ; and the vir- gin's name was Mary. To her it had been announced, by the appearing of an angel, that, through the power of the Holy Ghost, she should beai* the Son of the Highest, the Desire of all nations. Mary was of the royal line of Da- vid, which had now sunk into obscurity ; and thus was fulfilled the prediction which God had given him. 2 Sara, vii. Wonderful appearances of angels at his birth, con- firmatory testimonies from the mouth of pious Israelites on the occasion of his being presented in the temple, the arrival of the magi from Chaldea, who desired to do hom- age to the new-born King, and had seen his star in the East, the preservation of the child from the bloody perse- cution of Herod, — all this was to Mary and Joseph a strengthening of their faith, and an encouragement to bring up the child committed to their trust as carefully as their humble condition would admit. After this, the child 124 BIRTH AND HISTORY OF CHRIST. continued in quiet retirement ; and of his childhood and youth we have but one single account preserved, namely, of his going up to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover when he was twelve years old. His preparation for his great public ministry was quite opposite to the ordinary manner. Whenever, at that period, a Greek or a Roman would prepare himself to become an orator or teacher, he used to repair to the schools of celebrated orators and phi- losophers, and read the writings of the ancient sages. The Romans went to Greece for their education ; the Greeks had, long before, resorted in Hke manner to Egypt, to study the occult wisdom of the priests. The Jews sat at the feet of some noted scribe or doctor of the law, (such as was Gamaliel in our Saviour's time,) and thus obtained instruction in the law and their traditions. The Lord Je- sus Christ never went through any such school of educa- tion ; therefore the Jews exclaimed, with astonishment, when he stood up to teach in their streets and synagogues, " Whence hath this man tliis wisdom, seeing that he hath never learned?" John vii, 15. He needed not to go to the turbid streams which run out of the conduits of human science and opinion ; for in " liim are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Though " God over all, blessed for ever," yet as man, and appearing as a child, he " increased in wisdom and stature." Even his enemies were constrained to admire his wisdom and excellences. It was not, however, till the thirtieth year of his age that he came forth from his concealment ; and then, upon oc- casion of his baptism, administered to him in the river Jor- dan, by John, the great prophet and preacher of repent- ance, he was solemnly declared, by a voice from heaven, to be the Son of God. Immediately after this event, having abode forty days in the wilderness, and endured various temptations from Satan, the prince of this world, he went into Galilee, and gathered to himself a small com- pany of disciples, from among fishermen, publicans, and BIRTH AND HISTORY OF CHRIST. 125 other persons without education and without influence, whom he admitted from that time into constant intercourse with himself. These he led, at every opportunity, to such a consideration of the world, mankind, and futurity, as contauied little in it in common Avith men's ordinary no- tions. In his addresses to the people assembled to hear him, and who were attracted to him in great multitudes by Ids powerful words and matchless miracles, he taught them without any acconmiodation to their prejudices and erro- neous expectations. Like John the Baptist, he preached, " Repent ; for the heavenly kingdom is amved." At an- other time he said to the Pharisees, " Behold, the kmgdom of Gk)d is among you." Luke xvii, 21. Hitherto the great empires which successively prevailed had been " of this world ;" but now was set up in the / earth a kingdom of God, a heavenly kingdom ; inward, V invisible, and therefore not acknowledged nor discerned ! by the Jews. Preparations for tliis kingdom there had / been under the Old Testament dispensation ; but now the kingdom was itself arrived. And though it began in little- ness and obscurity, yet it gradually extended itself, so that its exterior setting up changed all the forms of the govern- ments of the world and of human life ; and its essence, namely, the communion of God's childi-en, though external- ly unperceived, unacknowledged, despised, and persecuted, yet, by its inward and vital power, exercised the most de- cided influence upon the affairs and history of all the world. But as that saying of Jesus, that " his kingdom," the king- dom of Messiah, " cometh not with observation," was con- tradictory to the expectations of the Jews, and therefore offensive to them, so still more offensive was the implied declaration, that they, in their present state of mind, were unfit for that kingdom. And as he publicly reproved the Pharisees and scribes in particular, for their unrighteous- ness, hypocrisy, and willful ignorance, so they made use of their great influence over the people in opposing Jesus of 126 BIRTH AND HISTORY OP CHRIST. Nazareth. It is true, that Jesus, by his many beneficent miracles, secured to himself the good will and esteem of the people ; but the Jews were a fickle and versatile race, and, with few exceptions, had no love for the truth. Therefore they were offended at his sayings, when he de- clared that God was his Father, that he came down from heaven, that he was before Abraham, and that he should return to heaven. At length things came to such a crisis that the priests and teachers of the people, who could not but fear they should lose their influence through that of Jesus, contrived so to infuse their enmity into the multi- tude, as to alter the disposition of the majority, and per- suade them to demand the death of Jesus. Pilate, the Roman procurator, wltliout whose consent no public exe- cution could take place, was weak enough to yield to their impetuous demands against his better judgment, and per- mitted Jesus to be sacrificed by crucifixion, a Roman mode of punishment inflicted only upon slaves. This he did under the pretext that Christ had attempted to set himself up as king of the Jews, and was consequently to be re- garded as a rebel against the Roman government. Thus was the great plan of God, in making his Son a propitia- tion for sin, brought to pass by men ; and. without know- ing or intending it, they were thus led to fulfill the divine counsel and purposes. The fact, that even God's chosen people had become so depraved, as rancorously to put to death the Son of God when he appeared as their greatest Benefactor and Deliverer, was an evident proof to what a high pitch of wickedness the world had come. By his Bpotless obedience in the most trying temptations, both temporal and spiritual, and by the depth of his humiliation, even the death of the cross, which he underwent for the sins of the world, he gave proof to heaven and earth that he was " able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him." And because men were not only deficient in knowledge of the truth, but corrupted in their whole na- FIRST PROMULGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 127 ture by sin, he sent the Holy Spii'it, to renew, enliven, and sanctify theii' souls. God raised Christ from the sepulchre, and exalted him to his own right hand in the tlu-one of heaven, which was a proof that his sacrifice was accepted ; and there he carries on the great work of restoring man's fallen race. For tliis end God has delivered to him, in liis mediatorial character, the unlimited government of the whole world, of nature, providence, and gi'ace. From that act in heaven a new period of government began. Christ now sits upon the throne of the Majesty on high, and ac- complishes the divine will in the world after a new man- ner. The effects of this government become gradually visible on earth to those who have been taught concerning the plan of salvation. The kingdom of God is spreading itself among all nations, and is pervading the human mass as a slowly but surely working leaven : the world is ac- quiring another form, and in many individuals the blessed Redeemer is daily accomplishing the great work of pre- paring them for and bringing them to heaven. II.— THE FIRST PROMULGATION OF CHRIS- TIANITY. That this plan of God's government may become known, he has provided the Holy Scriptures of the New Testa- ment, written by inspired disciples of Jesus, and which connectedly comprise the history of his life on earth, the first extension of his church, and the counsel of God con- cerning the world at large. The writers were fitted for their task by that Holy Spirit of Christ which, after his ascension, he poured out upon them at the Pentecost, and which thoroughly qualified them to fulfill the commission he had given them. They were also endowed with mira- culous powers. They, and others similarly qualified, were commanded to go forth among all nations, and to carry the good tidings to every creature, informing them that a new period had now arisen upon the world, that the Saviour 128 FIRST PROMULGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. of his people had visited it, had made atonement by his death for the sins of the whole world, and that whosoever henceforth by faith turned to hun, should be delivered by his power from the bondage of sin and Satan, and pass from death to life. "Whoever believed, "through their word," that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the Mes- siah, the anointed of God, the long-promised and expected Saviour of the world, every such person was consecrated by baptism as a follower of Jesus, and was added to the fellowship of his beheving people. This fellowship, , or communion, is called the church. At first it was regarded as a modified branch of the Jewish church, but when the temple at Jerusalem was destroyed, it still remained, and it became manifest that it had a foundation of its own. Its fii'st members were Jews ; and when the apostles be- gan to go forth into other lands, they first addressed them- selves to the Jews scattered everywhere, and then began to address the Gentiles after the Jews had rejected their message. Thus came the doctrine of Christ to the large commercial cities of Lesser Asia, siich as Smyrna, Ephe- sus, and Miletus ; then to Macedonia, whence the third great monarchy of the world arose ; then to Athens, still the seat of education and the school of taste ; and to Co- rinth, which had recovered in some measure from its great humiliation. How little the spirit of Grecian wisdom and worldly education stood related to the wisdom and truth of God, was evinced at their first meeting together. The excellent address of the apostle Paul at Athens was heard, with proud contempt or scornful levity ; and we are in- formed of only a few who received the word of truth into their hearts. The kingdom of God came not among men with that observation and display of importance with which the em- pires of the world were set up: in littleness, quietness, and comparative obscurity, joining in with but few of the external circumstances already subsisting among the Jews^ AUGUSTUS AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 129 avoiding only all communion wdth idolatry and sin, it nevertheless made regulai* and successful progress. Its distinguished apostle, Paul, worked as a tentmaker, and also dictated inspired epistles, replete with profound and heavenly wisdom : and while he was a prisoner at Rome it never occurred to its luxurious citizens that a kingdom had already commenced which should be the first to give to their empire a totally different form, and then utterly to dissolve it. III.— REIGN OF AUGUSTUS AND HIS SUCCESSORS, TO THE TIME OF VESPASIAN. Meanwhile the long reign of Augustus had come to its end. If the Romans reflected on his entry into Rome with Antony and Lepidus, in the year 43 B. C, on which oc- casion three hundred senators, two thousand knights, a great multitude of other citizens, and among them the ora- tor Cicero, were massacred, they could not have hoped for much good from his rule : things, however, went on better in his reign than was expected. He was a lenient prince, enacted good laws, loved justice, and was an enemy to luxury ; in short, the Romans felt themselves happy under his government. The Roman empire was at that time more extended than any of the preceding great empires had ever been : it embraced Italy, with the neighboring islands, Helvetia, (Switzerland,) Belgium, Britain, Portu- gal, Spain, France, the whole northern coast of Africa, Egypt, Upper Asia as far as the Caspian Sea and beyond the Euphrates and Tigris, Asia Minor, Greece, the pre- sent European Turkey, and the southern portion of Ger- many as far as the Danube. But in the north of Ger- many the Romans never could obtain firm footing ; and a fine Roman army under Varus was cut to pieces in the Teutonian Forest, between the Rhine and the Weser, (in the county of Lippe,) by the German general Hermann, (Arminius.) 6* 130 AUGXTSTUS AND HIS SUCCESSORS. In the Augustan age the arts and sciences were in the highest state of cultivation ; the former were generally promoted by the Greeks, and the latter had, at least, their origin from the schools of Greece. Sallust, Tacitus, and Livy, as historians, and Virgil and Horace, as poets, will bear comparison with the Greeks themselves, not to men- tion other celebrated writers of that age. But it is a re- mark of portentous consideration, that the most flourishmg periods of art and science among the Greeks and Romans were also the periods of their greatest luxury ; and that from those periods, respectively, their prosperity began rapidly to decline. Augustus found but little enjoyment in the great public good fortune, as it is called, which had befallen him. He had no peace in his own family ; his empress was a scan- dalous woman ; and from his children he experienced only heartbreaking sorrow. He had to learn upon a minor scale, what nations in all ages have to learn upon a larger one, that all the prosperity, power, and riches of this world cannot render man happy while he wants true peace and a right state of heart. His adopted son, Tiberius, suc- ceeded him in the throne, A. D. 14, in whose reign Christ was crucified at Jerusalem. He was a tyrant, who spent his imperial life in monstrous cruelties and infamous lusts, and found horrible gratification in seeing men murdered in his presence. Yet his successor Caligula was more de- praved, an impotent slave to his unbridled passions, who wished that the Roman people had but one neck that he might decapitate them at a blow. For the relief of the world, his reign was terminated in four years ; and he, like his predecessor, was assassinated. After him reigned Claudius, A. D. 41-54, or rather, reigned not ; for he was a man too weak and unlit for empire, the business of which he committed to his scandalous women Messalina and Agrippina ; and the latter got rid of him by poison. The next turn was that of Nero, who had been strictly DESTRUCTION OP JERUSALEM. 131 educated by the philosophic Seneca, whose pains he re- warded by causing him to be put to death ; he also put to death his own mother. If his predecessors did badly, he surpassed them in frantic cruelty and monstrous inhumanity. He caused the city of Rome to be set on fire, and threw the odium of it upon the Christians, who lived quietly in Rome, and who had some adherents among his own im- perial household : hence they were tortured and executed in the most barbarous manner. In his reign the apostle Paul was beheaded at Rome. Wlien vengeance began to threaten Nero for his enormities he put an end to his life, A. D. 68. Of his three successive followers in the im- perial throne, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, there is nothing to say, except that they were invested with the purple by the power of the military; a distinction of which they were by no means worthy, and from which they also almost immediately fell by the hands of vengeance. IV.— THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, AND PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS. Rome once again experienced a better period, under a succession of more respectable rulers, which commenced with Vespasian. Had the corrupt and rotten mass suffered itself to be made fresh by the salt of Christianity, a new life would have been diffused throughout the empire : but the humility of a Christian spirit was revolting to Roman pride ; and wherever the one came in contact with the other, there it was evident that enmity against the truth formed a fundamental part of the Roman character. Ves- pasian, for a heathen, was a noble prince ; he removed abuses which had invaded all classes, and restored a better order of things. He was, as a private man, temperate; as a judge, upright ; and, as a general, successful. The great coliseum at Rome, a huge amphitheatre, with seats for the accommodation of sixty thousand persons, and which still remains, was built by him. He had been sent 132 DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, AND in Nero's reign with an army to Syria, to quell and chas- tise the insurgent Jews, who, however, defended themselves against him with inflexible obstinacy. Just at the time when he was besieging Jerusalem itself, he was called away to assume the reins of empire, and left the pro- secution of the siege to his son Titus. As an immense multitude of persons were now collected within the city, Titus considered it the safest measure to shut them up in it by a circumvallation, and thus starve the inhabitants to a surrender. Previously to this, the Christians who dwelt there, regarding Christ's admonitory prophecy, had fled chiefly to Pella, a little town near the Jordan, and thereby escaped the horrors of the siege. The famine within the city became dreadful. People endeavored to gain a short respite from death by the most unnatural means ; besides which there was a most sanguinary and desperate conten- tion raging between opposite parties within the walls. Still the Jews surrendered not ; and Titus had to take, by storm, one portion of the city after another. Even the beautiful temple, one of the then architectural wonders of the world, and which Titus sincerely desired to spare, was set on fire contrary to liis express orders, and, together with the city, was reduced to a heap of ruins and ashes. An immense multitude perished, and the remainder were led away captive, and gradually dispersed into all coun- tries ; but no longer as that salt to the earth, and light to the world, which Israel had proved to be in former desola- tions ; for they were now like salt that had lost its savor, an obdurate mass that had unhappily become impenetrable to the renovating and enlightening power of Christianity. Titus obtained and celebrated at Rome a trimnph, which many captive Jews were obliged to grace, and at which the sacred vessels of the temple, as the golden candlestick, etc, were publicly exhibited in the procession. The great triumphal arch which v/as built for this solemn pomp of victory is yet standing ; and some of the medals that were PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS. 133 struck in commemoration of the event are to be seen in cabinets of ancient coins. They represent " the daughter of Zion" sitting in a weeping posture under a palm-tree, and are inscribed with the words, " Judea Capta," (Ju- dea captured.) Thus did Christianity lose its earliest residence, where it had passed its minority beneath the harsh guardianship of the Jewish church, and had now to seek for itself a new home in the West. Thus, " through the fall of the Jews, salvation is come unto the Gentiles ;" and it is these that St. Peter now addresses in his First Epistle, chap, ii, 9, 10, " Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people ; that ye should show forth the excellences of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light : who in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God : who had not ob- tained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." It is easy to comprehend how the haughty Romans found no pleasure in such a doctrine as this, which could attribute precedency to any "nation" except their own. Titus was a good public governor, and had amiable qualities as a private man, which obtained him the title of "The delight of the human race." He endeavored to mark every day with some act of beneficence, and regarded a day as lost in which nothing of the kind had been done. But happy as the Romans accounted themselves during his reign, it was distinguished by some unavoidable mis- fortunes ; as if God had intended to give that people to understand that their sins had deserved nothing else but rebuke and wrath. A great part of Rome was destroyed by an accidental conflagration ; famine and pestilence ravaged the whole of Italy ; and, lastly, two cities in Lower Italy, namely, Herculaneum and Pompeii, were buried in ashes by an extraordinary eruption of Mount Vesuvius, A. D. 79. There must have been great and crying sins prevalent in these cities, though not in them alone, (see 134 DESTRUCTION OP JERUSALEM, AND Luke xiii, 1-5,) that God should thus have visited them with Sodom's judgment.* Their ruins began to be dis- interred about a century ago, and the excavations have recently been renewed. Everything discovered therein was to be seen just in the situation that belonged to it at the moment when these cities were overwhelmed, only most of such things are blackened or half consumed by the burning ashes. All sorts of household furniture were found in their places ; fruits and provisions were lying on the tables ; human skeletons in every variety of place and posture, just as the persons had each been overtaken by "sudden destruction," were discovered, some standing, others sitting, whichever way the visitors turned. But of the thousands who yearly visit these disinterred cities, how few, it is to be feared, think of the judgments of God which desolated those places for their crying sins ; although among the pictures and other antique relics many a silent but speaking witness is still found, to tell in what habitual sins those cities had already buried themselves, before the burning ashes were rained upon them by the divine judgments. During the reigns of Vespasian and Titus, the Christian churches, of which there were many, and one even at Rome, had rest and peace, and were edified and spread abroad. Not that there was any express or enacted tolera- tion of them, but they were let alone and not inquired after. Is it not possible that Titus, in his expedition against Jerusalem, had an opportunity of learning to esteem and respect the Christians ? Surely his mere natural in- tegrity of disposition could not have prevented him from hating them. His natural disposition would not be a suffi- cient security to Christians, for Trajan and Hadrian, who were as upright as himself, yet persecuted them. Very unlike him was his own brother and successor Domitian, * It was an overthrow, which, though not miraculous like that of Sodom and Gomorrlia, in some respects resembled it. — Trans. PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS. 135 who was the only really bad emperor within the space of a whole century. He resembled Tiberius in cowardice and cruelty, and in being a slave to avarice and debauchery. During his reign, and in a persecution of the Christians which he instituted, the apostle John was banished to the isle of Patmos, in the Greek Archipelago, where he wrote the Apocalypse. Domitian's successor, Nerva, who set the apostle at liberty, A. D. 96-98, was a mild and beneficent prince, who, in the short period of his reign, devised many prudent measures for the benefit of his subjects. Like- minded, but more powerful, was his successor Trajan, who also allowed the Romans as much liberty as they could bear, added Dacia (now Moldavia and Wallachia) to the Roman provinces, subdued the Parthians, and conquered part of Arabia. He was condescending, kind, frugal, and beneficent : his popularity is attested by the lofty pillar erected to his memory, which is still standing at Rome. He was not a friend to the Christians, and even permitted them to be persecuted and put to death. Probably he never knew their real character ; and yet he heard Igna- tius, bishop of Antioch, as a witness of the truth, address him at Rome ; but he ordered him to be thrown to the wild beasts in the theatre. Equally averse to them was his successor Hadrian, who in other respects was a good governor, fond of peace, and so concerned for the welfare of his subjects, that he traveled on foot through a large part of his empire, reformed abuses, and made beneficial regulations. His persecuting the Christians may, perhaps, be principally attributed to the then prevailing notion that they were nothing more than a Jewish sect ; and the Jews had provoked the emperor's displeasure by a very formi- dable rebellion which they had commenced in the East, under their leader, Barcochab, who pretended to be the Messiah, and which it took a great deal of trouble to sup- press. From that time no Jew was permitted to be seen at Jerusalem ; Hadrian sent a Roman colony thither, and 136 DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, AND gave a new name to the city, calling it ^lia Capitolina, a name which it retained tiU the reign of Constantine. He dedicated it to the heathen gods, and did what he could to remove every vestige of Judaism and of Christianity, which two religions he always confounded with each other. Had not God graciously formed a bulwark about the Christians, stronger than the fortress of St. Angelo, as it is now called, which Hadrian built at Rome, and which is yet standing, the kingdom of God might in his reign have been utterly destroyed from the earth. During the twenty-three years' reign of Antoninus Pius, A. D. 138-161, the Roman em- pire and the church enjoyed peaceful times ; but no sooner had his successor, Marcus Aurelius, come to the throne, together with his partner in the empire, Lucius Verus, than sanguinary wars commenced against those nations which bordered upon the north-east frontier, that were the harbingers of that long and fatal struggle which was by and by brought on by the northern irruptions. Marcus Au- relius was a man of much knowledge and experience, and his reign was distinguished by a mild and excellent ad- ministration. Yet he was only another instance, how little the spirit of Greek philosophy, which was his guide in everything, was compatible with Christianity. The bloody persecutions which befell the infant churches in France, as at Lyons and Vienne, A. D. 177, and the oppression of the Christians in Asia Minor, where Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, died as a martyr in the flames, A. D. 169, took place in the reign of this emperor. From that period, the empire began visibly to decline. Of all its succeeding rulers, who were mostly chosen by the military, and the greater number of whom were either tyrants or profligates, Alexander Severus was almost the only manly character, A. D. 222-235. Morals had be- come excessively corrupt, and abominable vices were exhibited without a blush, and in open day. Extreme luxury and extreme poverty dwelt as close neighbors ; and PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS. 137 tke constitution of the state was more and more unsettled and distracted, by violence, bribery, and corruption. The nations of northern barbarians became every year more formidable to the empire : the Marcomanni, the Franks, the Caledonians, the Goths, were troublesome upon the frontiers, and were no sooner repulsed than they always returned in greater numbers. No plan of settling the em- pire was carried into effect, because it was so constantly changing its governors, no two of whom were successively of the same mind ; and yet some such plan was now abso- lutely necessary, to hold together an empire of so vast an extent. The Christians had at this period but few days of quiet ; persecution, however, assailed in general only single provinces at a time, and it was set on foot partly by the respective governors of such provinces, and partly by the pagan superstition of the multitude, who were ready enough to attribute every national misfortune, and every calamity of a province, to the existence of the Christians among them. It became more general under the emperor Decius, A. D. 249-251, who had determined to restore the ancient Roman customs, to raise paganism to new lustre, and utterly to extirpate Christianity. He issued a decree to that effect as soon as he came to the throne, and thousands died the death of martyrs. Heathenism once more rallied all its powers, and made the most desperate struggle to crush that religion, which, amid all the persecutions it had under- gone, only bloomed afresh, and continued to spread itself more and more abroad. What could not be effected by violence was now attempted by other means. The idolatry of the East was united to that of the West ; all manner of exterior pomp on the one hand, and every incentive to private superstitious observance on the other, were alike made use of in accommodation to the most opposite tastes, in order to countervail the prevalence of Christianity; and to these was added the seduction of a more spiritually 138 EMPERORS — VESPASIAN TO CONSTANTINE. pretending philosophy, that of the New Platonists, which, aping the truth, was radically infidel. But though the safety of the church was threatened by these temptations from without, as also by controversies and divisions from within, Christianity had taken too deep root to be extirpated, and continued to spread under the succeeding emperors ; notwithstanding that several of these, as Vale- rian, Dioclesian, and his colleague Maximianus, were ene- mies of the Christians. It dwelt, indeed, like Abraham and the patriarchs, in tents and in a strange land, and gained " no certain dwelling place " on earth till the time of Constantine ; but as in the age of the patriarchs there was more piety, more spiritual life, and more intimate communion with God, than in the subsequent times of the people of Israel, and of their temporal prosperity, so was this period of pilgrimage and estrangement much more bene- ficial to the church of Christ, and to the furtherance of its spiritual growth, than the succeeding age, which gave it exterior security and advancement. v.— THE ROMAN EMPERORS FROM VESPASIAN TO CONSTANTINE. Still was the fall of the Roman empire arrested from time to time by vigorous rulers, who, through successful deeds of arms abroad, or by wise policy at home, con- trived to add fresh supports to the crazy and tottering structure. Aurelian was successful in opposing the in- creasingly oppressive invasions of the Alemans and Goths, and made himself master of Palmyra, a magnificent city founded by Solomon, where Zenobia had roused the jea- lousy of this Roman emperor by assuming the title of Empress of the East, A. D. 273. Probus had in like manner to defend himself against the Goths, Vandals, and Burgundi, in Spain and Sicily, Parthia, and Egypt ; and to this day are to be seen, in the south-west of Germany, the traces of tumuli and roads, which he constructed, and CONSTANTINE AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 139 even of towns which he planned and built. Dioclesian successfully encountered the Normanni, the Saxons, and the Alemanni, in Blyria, and on the banks of the Danube, and availed himself of the interval of conquered peace for settling and strengthening the interior of the empire. In the latter years of his reign, A. D. 303, he set on foot a general persecution of his Christian subjects, from which those only who resided in France, Spain, and Britain, the provinces of Constantius Chlorus, were protected. Con- stantine, who was the son of this last-mentioned benevolent prince, who died at York, A. D. 306, acquired for himself the sole dominion of the whole Roman empire, whereas hitherto several Ccesars had reigned at the same time in different parts of it. Thus we see, once more, a brief revival of the ancient power and glory of the Roman empire, which, however, was soon to go down and be no more! FIFTH PERIOD. FROM THE IRRUPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS TO THE AGE OF CHARLEMAGNE. A. D. 306 to 798. I._CONSTANTINE AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Whether Constantine was induced to become the protector of the Christian church, solely by an impression he had of the great power of Christ, or merely by the prudent consideration, that Christianity had a great num- ber of adherents in the Roman empire, whom he might thus gain over to his cause, we are not disposed to deter- mine; probably he was influenced by both. With him commences the succession of Christian emperors, and, at the same time, a new form of administration to the empire itself and to the Christian church. Constantine removed the seat of government to the ancient city Byzantium, at 140 CONSTANTINE AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. the entrance to the Black Sea; he rebuilt this city, and gave it the name of Constantinople. Christianity, from being a persecuted and oppressed religion, was constituted by him the dominant religion of the empire ; and the in- fluence of the military, which they had hitfierto exercised in choosing the emperors and in governing the state, began from his time gradually to pass into the hands of the clergy, whom he and his son Constantius raised to great temporal dignity and power. Thus the Christians, from having hith- erto, even in places where they formed the majority of the population, been only tolerated at best, and often misrepre- sented and abused, according to the humor and opinion of the emperor, or of some provincial governor, were now everywhere invested with the precedency, while the pagans became in their turn oppressed and persecuted. And whereas the church assemblies of the Christians had hitherto in many places been held in secret and quiet, and even their simple oratories, or houses of prayer, had been generally constructed of slight materials over the graves of their martyrs, their meetings now assumed the imposing aspect of public solemnities ; their oratories were converted into sumptuous temples, and the heathen temples fell into contemj)t and ruin, or were razed to the ground at once. Christian mmisters were invested with honor and import- ance, and some new arrangements made in their diflferent orders and degrees ; public worship was made splendid and imposing, and more alluring to the senses. But as the rose, in a rich soil, and under the careful nursing of the gardener, exhausts all its strength in double flowers, and forms no more blossoms into fruit, so it was in a great measure with Christianity. The more it tended to unfold itself in exterior formalities and coloring, the less power and life remained within it ; and whereas, in the wintry times of oppression and persecution, its life was ever driven back again within itself, it lost, m the season of worldly prosperity and security, more and more of its essential CONSTANTINE AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 141 qualities, as they were allowed to dwindle into external forms. The distinction between reality and appearance, life and formality, true and nommal Christians, became more and more necessary to be observed ; and the rise of the hermit and monastic life is to be regarded as an attempt, though not altogether a successful one, to express this distinction to the senses. Those Christians who took offense at the outward condition of the church, as remain- ing not wholly free from mixture of heathenism, and at its increasing corruption of morals, withdrew from the midst of its worldly din, and desired to serve their God more purely in the quietness of solitude, and to redeem the precious jewel of faith from temporal defilement. But a life of solitude has its temptations no less than a life spent in the very midst of the world ; and leaven kept apart in the chest can never answer the purpose for which it was intended, namely, that of leavening the whole mass of mankind. And even though the inhabitants of the cloister had not carried with them their own naturally corrupt hearts, still it was impossible for them to prevent themselves from being invaded by the increasing corruption of the world around them; inasmuch as their own numbers had ever to be filled up by persons coming to them from such a world. The kingdom of God should have been developed from within, by the conviction and regeneration of its individual members ; its more immediate intent, appoint- ment, or constitution, was not for nations or states in the gross, but for persons, for human souls ; and it was designed, as thus commencing with individuals, to gain the ascendency over mankind in no other way than this of degrees, by communicating itself from one to another. It was to rule in human nature, rather than by any external influence at once over a whole mass of men. Instead of which, how- ever, from the time of Constantine, it was regarded and made use of as a new form of worship, which might be imposed upon all nations like the ordinary laws of govern- 142 CONSTANTINE AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. ment. The heartfelt conviction, the free and unconstrained assent and consent of harmonious individuals with respect to its fundamental verities, was henceforth less strenuously insisted on. Externals took place of the soul's renovation and holiness ; and God's great hospital for the spiritually sick was converted into a general dwelling-house, into which multitudes came to lodge who had not yet become conscious of their disease. The renewing power of Christ being no longer wholly looked to as the source of all health and salvation, and the people wanting patience to be ever intent upon the Lord's gradual but effectual deliverance, human power and external arrangements were called in to help his cause, and depended on ; so that " the old man," having clothed itself m a new dress, imagined that all things were become new. The word of God was now not enough regarded as the only source of all truth and wisdom, nor valued as the instrument of all life and renewal ; hea- then philosophy was considered as necessary to supply its deficiencies ; heathen laws and ordinances were retained ; and, above all, the Scripture doctrine of faith became dis- figured and adulterated by human additions. Thus it came to pass, that Christians never came to understand how to recognize fully and entirely the original intent of the Scriptures, namely, as having been given by inspiration of God for the purpose of regulating, pervading, and sanc- tifying all our knowledge, and every relation and concern- ment of hfe. Christianity has thus all along remained too much mingled with heathenism, and has never been as yet generally made use of as the only foundation of the world's reform and of human happiness. Between the kingdom of God, as it formed itself in the time of the apostles, and the heathen world as utterly without Christ, there hence arose a third party, namely, the external church. And it has been ever since necessary quite as carefully to distin- guish from it the communion of true Christians, as not to confound the heathen nations with it. FURTHER DECLINE OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 143 II.— THE FURTHER DECLINE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. After the death of Constantine, A. D. 337, his empire, though continuing still as a whole, was distributed among his three sons, of whom Constantius, after the death of his two brothers, kept his ground as sole emperor. The do- minion which the Christian church had exercised under his government was interrupted for a time, namely, during the reign of his successor, Julian, A. D. 360-363; for he had grown up in the spirit of the Greek philosophy, and he hated, or at least despised, Christianity, though he did not persecute the Christians. After his short reign, the ecclesiastical power rose again. Valentinian and Valens, A. D. 364-378, had many conflicts to maintain against the irruption of the Germanic nations, the Alemanni, the Franks, the Burgundi, and the Saxons ; and it was not till the reign of Theodosius, A. D. 378-395, who again united the Roman empire under himself as its sole head, that, by his exertions and superiority in war, some respite was ob- tained from their incursions. But, by the distribution of the empire between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, its weakening and the fall of the ancient Roman glory were decided ; for there was now a western empire, with Rome for its capital, and an eastern, whose capital was Constantinople. From this period, which commences with the northern emigrations, the theatre of history is removed ; and though the elements of a new universal empire had already been formed at Rome, yet this was rather of a spiritual than a temporal kind. III.— THE IRRUPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. (a.) The Fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman people, and the nations under their do- minion, had gradually become ripe for overthrow or sub- 144 IRRUPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. jugation. Unbounded luxury, united with the light spirit of Greek education, had rendered the Romans effeminate and feeble ; while gross idolatry, and unbridled sins of every kind, had wasted the vital strength of the empire. Christianity, with its new enlivening power, had indeed come to their relief, but it could evince that power in indi- viduals only ; and the spirit of heathenism, that shrunk with horror from real regeneration, only made for itself, out of Christianity, a new covering, wherein it hoped still longer to support itself under another form. In such a ^rank, exhausted, and weedy soil, the noble plant of the gospel could not thrive and grow. That which was newly broken up, fresh and vigorous, namely, the soil of bar- barous nations, suited it better ; and such a soil it found in the Germanic swarms that were encamped on the northern frontiers of the vast and overgrown Roman empire, from the source to the estuary of the Danube. The face of Germany was at that time very different from what it is at present : it was overrun with forests and morasses, and, therefore, a much colder and less fertile country than it now is. Agriculture, in oats and barley, was little attended to ; numerous flocks and herds supplied the Germans with provisions ; war, with business ; and hunting, with amuse- ment and recreation. Might took precedency of right, manners were rude, but truth in keeping promises was a thing specifically regarded. Gods they had many ; whose temples were retired open spaces in the forest, and whose names are still remembered in those of our week days. The daring and warlike spirit of the tall and robust Ger- manic tribes was a terror even to the Romans, who first became more particularly acquainted with them when the Cimbri and Teutones, B. C. 112, forced their way toward Italy, whom, however, Marius subdued. Fifty years after this, the Suevi, under Ariovistus, were defeated by Csesar ; who did not, however, venture to push further into Ger- many itself. The disagreements of the Germanic tribes IRRUPTIONS OP THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. 145 among themselves were favorable circumstances for the Romans, and prevented the defeat of Varus, in the time of Augustus, from producing greater advantages. At a subsequent period, the Alemans, Franks, and Goths, be- came formidable enemies to the empire, and were inces- santly attacking it. These Germanic tribes had, from a very early period, planted themselves on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube, and looked with longing eyes across these frontiers upon the beautiful and fruitful coun- try of the Romans, of which they watched every oppor- tunity to become masters. The Romans kept these hungry strangers at bay as long as they were able ; but the in- creasing enervation into which they were gradually sinking, through luxury and effeminacy, could not escape the notice of the Germans, who were thus inspirited more and more to prosecute their enterprise. At length an opportunity, which they had long waited for, presented itself, of making a descent into the warm southern regions. About the year A. D. 375 there started up from the high mountain- ous country of central Asia, from what occasion is not known, a people, whose manner of life and of warfare re- sembled most nearly that of the modern Cossacks, only they are recorded to have been much more rude and inhuman. These were the Huns. At that time there dwelt along the North Sea, the Saxons, the Friesi, and the Angles ; on the Upper Rhine, the Alemans or Suevi (Suabians ;) on the West Danube, the Bavarians ; in Hungary, Transylvania, and South Russia, the Ostrogoths and Visigoths ; and the Alani, beyond the Don. These were carried along by the torrent of the Huns, and poured with them into the settlements of the Goths. The Visi- goths now sought for themselves new settlements in the regions of the eastern empire ; while the Huns, Alans, and Ostrogoths shared the vacated country, and quietly retained their station there for some time. But the period for unmolested encampment and settlement was not yet ar- 7 146 IRRUPTIONS OP THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. rived ; and as there had been, for some centuries, a per- ceptibly gradual movement and pressing of these nations from east to west, and occasionally from north to south, so this continued to proceed for a time. The Visigoths, about A. D. 380, obtained settlements in Thrace, on condition that they should embrace Christianity. Bishop Ulfilas, himself a Goth, and who translated the Bible into Gothic, successfully labored for their conversion. But their re- pose was not of long duration, and their king, Alaric, was encouraged by the eastern emperor himself to try his for- tune in Italy, where Honorius ruled under the influence of a Germanic guardian, the Vandal Stilico, who, in A. D. 403, defeated the Goths, and drove them back to Pan- nonia. Still, having already tasted the sweets of Italy, they had set their affections too much upon it not to return a second time, and a third time, till at length they con- quered and obtained possession of Rome, where, however, they spared the Christians, because they themselves had already learned to profess Christianity. While Stilico had to employ all his energies against the Goths, the frontiers of Gaul, as yet a Roman province, where, along the Rhine, the cities of Mayence, Treves, Cologne, and others stood, were dismantled of troops ; and the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi, took occasion from this to overrun Gaul. This country had been entered also by the Franks, whence its modern name of France. The Franks thronged to the north ; but the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi turned toward Spain ; yet even here they were again disturbed, when, in A. D. 412, the Visigoths abandoned Italy, and pushed through France into Spain, where they set up the kingdom of the Visigoths, which extended on either side of the Pyrenees, and had Toulouse for its capital. They spread so far in all directions, that it was only in the north part of France that the Franks could keep their ground ; while, from the same cause, the Burgundians had to be content with the eastern part and with Switzerland ; and the Alans IRRUPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. 147 and Suevi, with the west of Spain and with Portugal. But the Vandals (Wanderers) were driven out of Spain entirely, and passed over into North Africa, where they took pos- session of all the region of ancient Carthage. The same causes that had opened Gaul to foreign invasions, gave likewise occasion to great revolutions in Britain. The Roman military were wanted in Italy, and the aborigines of the island, the Britons, could no longer stand against their less civilized invaders, the Picts and Scots ; hence they called over the Anglo-Saxons from Germany to their assistance, who drove back the Picts and Scots, but by and by expelled the Britons also from theii* native territory, in order to possess the whole, which from them is now called England, (Angle-land.) The Britons partly took refuge in the mountains of Wales, and partly emigrated to the northern coast of France, which from them is still called Brittany. The countless swarms of the Huns had, however, in the mean while, if not settled, yet left the West in repose ; but now, A. D. 447, they swept like a tempest up the Danube, carrying along with them the G^epides, the Heruli, and the Ostrogoths, and forced their way across the Ehine into France. The Romans, who still possessed one tract of province in France, provided the combined hosts of the Franks, Visigoths, and Burgundians, v^ith a competent leader, named Aetius ; and the Huns, in a bloody contest near Chalons, were compelled to retreat, A. D. 451. They then turned their course to Italy, plundered and destroyed cities and villages, and, after the death of their leader, Attila, they became lost to public notice, like a spent shower. Rome was at this time also spared, but its entire fall was now very near, inasmuch as only lour years after- ward Genseric, at the head of his Vandals, came over from Africa, and treated Rome as barbarously as the Romans had long ago treated Carthage. The western emperors wei'e at this period weak and contemptible, and 3 48 IRRUPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. not one of them was a match for the stormy invaders of his time. The last of them, Eomulus Augustulus, who bore the name of the first king, and also, though diminu- tively, the name of the first emperor of Rome, did not attain the prosperity of either; but was dethroned by Odoacer, king of the Heruli, who afterward reigned four- teen years as king of Italy. Thus ended the great western Roman empire, A. D. 476, after it had lasted one thousand two hundred and thirty years, at the middle of which long period it had at- tained its highest degree of power and grandeur, having overthrown the Grecian empire, and taken its place as the fourth mistress of the world. It is the fourth beast in Daniel's vision, and is mentioned by that prophet (Dan. vii, 7) as " diverse from all the beasts that were before it ;" as it was also the inferior or iron part of the great image of Nebuchadnezzar's vision. Dan. ii, ol, etc. Its struggle for universal dominion was more evident and avowed, as well as more severe and oppressive ; and in it the recog- nition of " the God of heaven," which, though in some measure acknovrledged by the three preceding empires, became in them all along less and less discernible, and was eclipsed entirely in the ominous splendor of this fourth empire. In luxury and corruption of morals, it surpassed all that had been before it: some of its emperors were monsters of mankind, and allowed religious sacrifices to be offered, not only to themselves, but to their effigies. It opposed with rancor and with rigor the introduction of the light of Chi'istianity, and put to death immense numbers of Christian martyrs. It united in itself all the principal features of the preceding empires, all the powers of the natural man ; but it surpassed them all in wickedness, and in having lost all recognition of the true God ; and when at last it began to recover this, it was too late to prevent its total overthrow. It had now become partitioned into ten kingdoms; the iron of the genuine original Roman IRRUPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. 149 character became mingled with the plastic clay of the Ger- manic and other northern nations ; a Roman spirit, Ro- man laws, and the Roman language, passed into the civil constitution, habits, and religion of the Germanic nations, and were operative in their formation and development ; and though the Roman empire became extinct as to its ancient form, yet the idea of universal dominion was still propagated in Rome through the Papacy. But as iron and clay cannot be mixed so as organically to incorporate, in like manner the coherence of what is essentially Roman and essentially Germanic was rather mechanical and forced than natural. A cause of perpetual disunion ex- isted in the very nature of the materials, and manifested itself in the incessant contentions between the Germanic imperial power and the Papacy ; as also, subsequently, in the Reformation. (b.) Settlement and Position of the Nations at this Period. What was once the ancient Roman empire had now re- ceived quite another form. The countries about the Archi- pelago and the Black Sea still constituted the eastern Roman empire, which subsisted a thousand years longer than the western, and had its seat at Constantinople. The northern coast of Africa, together with Sardinia and Cor- sica, was occupied by the Vandals. In Italy, Odoacer ruled a medley of various nations. The Burgundi were planted on both sides of the Rhine ; the Alemanni, on the Neckar and in the Black Forest, with the Bavarians on their right ; the Thuringians had settled northward of the Maine ; the Slavonians, on the Oder and the Vistula ; and the Friesi and Saxons in the Netherlands. The Franks had possessed themselves of the north of France, and the Visigoths occupied the south, with part of Spain across the Pyrenees. The Suevi inhabited Portugal and the rest of Spain. But now the Ostrogoths, who hitherto had kept pretty quiet in the north of the Greek-Roman empire, be- 150 IRRUPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. gan to move, and at length forced their way, like a torrent, into Italy. Odoacer, its king, was beaten in three battles, and at last assassinated. Theodoric, (Dieterich,) king of the Ostrogoths, hereby became master of Italy, and go- verned it with prudence, clemency, and diligence: he en- deavored to revive and re-establish the arts and sciences, but in vain, for it was a period of barbarism ; but public quiet and private security were more effectually established by him than they had been for a long time in Italy. At the same time Clovis, king of the Franks, extended his dominion in several directions. After he had anni- hilated the last relics of Roman government in France, he compelled the Thuringians to acknowledge his power, and, in A. D. 496, he overcame the Alemanni in the battle of Zuelpich. Christianity also was at that period introduced among the Franks, as it had been earlier received by the Visigoths, Ostragoths, Vandals, and Burgundians ; that is, too much as a mere form of religion, with which much heathen superstition was made compatible. Indeed, among the inhabitants of Italy itself, much heathen superstition was still to be met with as late as the beginning of the sixth century. Clovis likewise put an end to the dominion of the Visigoths in France, and raised the Frankish power to a height at which it long remained, though it was more immediately linked with his own personal valor and pru- dence ; for his successors were weak and effeminate men : and hence it was that the government, by and by, passed from the Merovingian to the Carlovingian dynastv. (c.) The Easter7i Empire. The eastern or Greek-Roman empire was less affected by the violent agitations under which all Europe trembled; for, finding itself too weak for warlike resistance, it con- trived to keep the hungry nations from its borders by pre- sents of money. But the emperor Justinian, A. D. 527- 565, determined to reunite to his dominions the kingdom IRRUPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. 151 of Italy, now in the possession of the Ostrogoths, and sent for this purpose his general Belisarius to Carthage, to put an end to the Vandal dominion. The Vandal king, Geli- mer, was taken prisoner, and his kingdom was converted into a Greek province. Belisarius then turned toward Italy, A. D. 536, pushed his victorious marches as far as Rome, and made himself master of Ravenna, the capital of the Goths ; but, in the very flush of triumph, he was recalled by the jealousy of the emperor. What he had begun was accomplished by Narses, another Greek gene- ral, who put an end to the dominion of the Ostrogoths, and reduced Italy to a Greek province, A. D. 554. But this country was now horribly devastated by incessant warfare ; its towns and villages were plundered and destroyed; its fields lay bare and uncultivated, and immense numbers of its population perished by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. God's rebuking judgments had passed over its wanton and luxurious cities in full measure. Christendom was torn by unhappy divisions and factions, which arose from differences partly in religious opinions and partly about church ceremonies ; and the chief seat of these controversies was Constantinople itself, where the emperor Justinian had trouble enough, amid the perpetual feuds which were decided by fire and sword, to keep up even a little appearance of order. It is a remarkable cir- cumstance, that at the very period when justice was least regarded, and disorders of every kind had gained the up- per hand, the study of jurisprudence was prosecuted with the greatest zeal. Such was the case at Rome during the last period of the Roman emperors ; such it was during the reign of Justinian, who originated and got completed that code of the Roman laws which is called the Justinian Code, and which is to this day the foundation of civil law in many countries of Europe. In like manner have men ever sought remedial help from externals, when spiritual life and strength have begun to sink. 152 IRRUPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. (d.) The Feudal Systeyn. The seat of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths was Verona ; the Greek emperor's procurator set it up at Ravenna ; but soon another city, Pavia, became the centre of dominion over Italy, when the Longobards, or Lombai'ds, another Germanic nation, who had turned their course from North Germany to the abandoned seats of the Ostrogoths in Pan- iionia, afterward gained possession of the former distracted and ravaged country. The eastern coasts of Middle Italy, with Rome and the greatest portion of Lower Italy, still remained indeed under Greek pre-eminence ; but all the rest was obtained and possessed by the Lombards, whose kingdom continued for two centuries, and whose dominion is still remembered in Upper Italy, which retains the name of Lombardy. They mtroduced into Italy the feudal sys- tem, which had taken root in the whole expanse of Ger- manic national government, and the branches of which we find extending through the whole history of the middle ages. Each Germanic nation was composed of freemen and bondmen, and the freemen were again divided into nobles and serving men. The nobles were the more rich and powerful ; the serving men willingly adhered to them, and were their ready followers in war. When a country was conquered, the victors distributed it among themselves ; and the chief also, who, by the greatest number of his fol- lowers and retainers, had most contributed to the conquest, obtained the largest share of the conquered lands ; but the noble, who had but few or no serving men, was as independ- ent upon his own little estate as any of the greater chiefs. The rich nobles made over a portion of their large posses- sions to each of their free serving men, to be enjoyed by the latter as long as they continued in the service of the former: these possessions were called fiefs; those who conferred them were styled lords of fief, or feudal lords ; and the receivers of them were called fiefmen, feudals, or IRRUPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. 153 vassals. But the cultivation of such estates was the busi- ness of the third class, called bondmen, villains, or serfs, who were made over to the possessor with the lands as attacMs to the soil, and who consisted chiefly of the origi- nal and conquered inhabitants of the country. Whenever war arose, the king proclaimed the arrierehan : and every freeman was then obliged to appear at the head of his vassals. The bondmen were governed with rigor, and no better accounted of than the dogs and horses. Wherever mere valor is regarded as the only virtue, and war as the only business, human feeUngs become blunted, morals are at a low ebb, and manners are rude and cruel. Society had no middle class, but consisted of fierce lords and abject slaves ; neither the one nor the other according with the spirit of Christianity ; and, indeed, the Christianity of that time was, among those nations, little more than a set of unmeaning ceremonies, mixed up with solemnities which were not understood by the people in general ; and the real import of which was strange to them, just in the same proportion as the Holy Scriptures were to them a sealed book. The clergy had degenerated into semi-barbarism ; establishments for instruction there were none throughout the West, and the public worship was generally in Latin, that is, in an unknown tongue. Laxity of morals increased in proportion as the idea became diffused everywhere, that external penance, and gifts to churches and monasteries, could make amends for the guilt of sin. The bishop of Rome, after frequent embroihng contests with the bishop of Constantinople about supremacy, had at length brought it to pass, that he was acknowledged as the first bishop in Christendom ; and he carried on his endeavors to enlarge his influence and dominion, by using the utmost diligence for the conversion of the heathenish nations, in which re- spects his selfish zeal could not fail of producing some good effects. 7* 154 IBRUPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS. (e.) Chrhtianlty among the Germanic Nations. Christianity had at an early period been propagated in England, and had spread very considerably in the reign of Constantius Chlonis, and that of his son Constantine the Great ; it had likewise found its way to Ireland, by the preaching of Patricius, (St. Patrick.) But when the heathen tribes of the Anglo-Saxons became possessors of England, its Christianity was driven into the mountains of Wales, and the conversion of those tribes gave the church new work, in which Bishop Gregory the Great, of Rome, took a deep interest. In the year 596, Ethelred, the most powerful of the Saxon heptarchy, received baptism ; after which the conversion of the people at large proceeded more rapidly. Even before this time had Christian preach- ers come over from Ireland to Germany, where in quiet- ness and simplicity they had begun the work of conversion among its pagan inhabitants. Of the number of such preachers w^ere Fridolin among the Alemanns in the Upper Rhine, and Gall and Columban near the Lake of Constance, and the latter also among the Lombards ; to these were afterward added Kilian in Franconia, Willi- brord among the Friselanders, and Winfried (Bonifacius) among various Germanic tribes. Still later were also the Slavonians in the north-east of Germany, and the Nor- mans in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, brought by Ansgarius and others to profess Christianity. Most of this was indeed nothing but outward form, mixed up with much ignorance and superstition ; nevertheless a beginning was thus made toward uprooting i\\Q horrible idolatry which hitherto had full sw\ay among the heathen Germans, and for extending the protection of the external church to those who really wished to serve God from the heart. France was, after the death of Ciovis, partitioned into three kingdoms — Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy. These were perpetually at war with one another, and moreover THE EASTERN CHURCH. 155 disquieted by unhappy broils between the reigning famiUes. Pepin of Heristal, who w^as mayor of the palace, or prime minister of the Frankish government, taking advantage of these circumstances, especially as the princes were all of them weak and profligate characters, got the whole power of government into his hands, A. D. 687, and made his dignity hereditary in his family. He conquered the Ale- manns and Bavarians, and made the Friselanders his tributaries. Equally powerful was his son Charles Mar- tell ; and his grandson Pepin le Bref contrived, Avith the assistance of the bishop of Rome, who already possessed great political influence, to dethrone Childeric, the last of the Merovingian dynasty, and to get into his own hands the sole srovernment of France. His son was Charlemao;ne. IV.— THE ExiSTERN CHURCH. Immediately after the death of Justinian, the eastern empire fell away into great weakness ; it was oppressed on one side by the Persians, on another by the Avarians of the Lovrer Danube, and was obliged, in the year GIG, to cede even to Persia the whole of Syria, Avith Jerusalem, Alexandria, Carthage, and a part of Lesser Asia. Never- theless, the emperor Heraclius, in the year 622, marched victoriously through Ai'menia and Syria, and in 628 he again set up the cross in Jerusalem ; on which account the Roman Catholics to the present time keep their annual feast of the erection of the cross, on the 14th of September. But the triumph was short ; for the rebuke of divine judg- ments, which had been appointed for the eastern church, Avas novv^ at the door. Petty but vehement controversies, upon various points of doctrine and notions of faith, had rent this church for more than two centuries, and by its intimate connection with the state, it shared in all those disgraceful deeds wdiich were perpetrated without bounds under the ofovernmont of wenk. intriGcuinsr. nnd arbitrarv 156 MOHAMMEDANISM. monarclis ; indeed a great part of such evils proceeded from the church itself. Luxury, effeminacy, and riotous living, insurrection, and murder, prevailed and ruled, not only in Constantinople, but also in the other great cities of the empire; as, for instance, in iUexandria: image or picture worship had already become very extensively prevalent. In a word, if we read the description of the abominations which reigned in the eastern empire at this period, we no longer wonder that God suffered one part of it to perish for a warning to the other part, but are sur- prised that his patience could permit that other part to continue so long, especially when the warning was without effect. v.— MOHAMMEDANISM. Arabia, the native country of the impostor Mohammed, who founded a new religion of empire, was peopled prin- cipally by the posterity of Ishmael and the descendants of Joktan, Genesis x, 25, 26 ; xxv, 2 ; the latter chiefly as a settled mercantile people in towns and ports of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; the former as wandering Be- doweens, who supported themselves by pasturage, hunting, and plunder, and led a nomadic life in the wilds of Ara- bia Petrtea, as a nation that had never been conquered. Mohammed was born at Mecca, near the Red Sea, about the year 570, was brought up as a merchant, and, by long journeys of traffic to foreign countries, and having a con- templative mind, he acquired a variety of knowledge and experience. He was acquainted with the Jewish and the Christian religions ; for he not only came in contact witli Jews and Christians abroad, but must have met with not a few of them in Arabia itself. He was satisfied, however, with neither of these religions; either because he had become acquainted with Christianity in only its outward forms, which forms were at that time already very much disiigured; or, which is more probable, because it was MOHAMMEDANISM. 157 more congenial to the pride of his heart to become the founder of a new religion, than to submit to the doctrine of Christ. That he was acquainted with the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is evident from the book of his religion, the Koran, which he began to publish in the same year that Heraclius again set up the cross at Jerusalem. The best parts of his book, the moral pre- cepts, he borrowed with some alterations from the sacred writings. His grand maxim is, " There is but one God, and Mohanuned is his prophet." By this he does not mean to deny that Moses and Christ were also sent of God, but he regards them as merely making a preparation, which, without the completion introduced by himself, was insufficient. Thus he sets his doctrine in the same relation to Christianity which Christianity bears to Judaism. He accommodated the knowledge of the better sort with the doctrine of one God, he flattered the sensuality of his adherents with the promises of a carnal paradise, he trained their dispositions to cool-headed soberness, by prohibiting wine, and by other ordinances and religious rights, and taught contempt of death by his doctrine concerning unal- terable fatality. Also the deep apostasy of the eastern churches, and the military violence with which he advanced the imposture, must be duly considered. In viewing the amazingly rapid spread of Mohammedanism, we must also take into account the influence of the invisible power of darkness; for to this the Holy Scriptures themselves direct our attention. As Mohammed's new doctrine at the outset found no reception among his fellow-citizens at Mecca, even those of his own tribe and family becoming his persecutors on its account, he thought it expedient to try his schemes in another city, and therefore fled to Medina, the same year that the Greek emperor Heraclius rose up to reconquer from the Persians the lost provinces of his empire, A. D. 622. From this flight his followers have ever since dated 158 MOHAMMEDANISM. their chronological reckoning. Mohammed found many adherents at Medina, gathered troops, and by force of arms took Mecca and subdued all Arabia. He died in 630, after he had raised up many disciples of his new religion, who called themselves Moslemin, or believers, whence the name of Mussulmans. After Mohammed's death, Abube- ker was chosen caliph, or successor of the prophet, and united in his own person both political and spiritual power. He conquered the Arabian kingdom of Hira toward the Euphrates, and the kingdom of the Cassanides south-east of Damascus. The caliph Omar was still more successful in his conquests : he subjected to his yoke all Syria and Phenicia, Persia, Egypt, and the north coast of Africa. After his death, which was by assassmation, the caliphs pushed their conquests further eastward, took the islands of Cyprus and Rhodes, subdued Armenia, and, notwith- standing their intestine dissensions, they overran the Greek islands as far as before Constantinople, and extended their dominion in North Africa to the shores of the Atlantic. While the Greek empire was threatened with utter ex- tinction by this new enemy, against Avhom il; held out only by its excellent naval armament, it had also to v/ithstand hostile invasions from the north by the Avarians, (Hun- garians,) the Bulgarians, and Chazarians. At this period the Slavonian tribes established their independence in Bohemia, Moravia, Servia, Bosnia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, and Croatia; wliereas hitherto they had been partially under the influence of the Greek empire. The emperor Leo HI., the Isaurian, made a stand against the Arabians by his valor ; but a new danger threatened his empire, by reason of their attempting to advance from the west of Europe, and to attack Constantinople by land. In the reign of the caliph Omar, four thousand Christian churches in the conquered countries had been destroyed. The whole coast of North Africa, which had contained many Christian churches, was in this respect laid in ruins ; and MOHAMMEDANISM. 159 the churches of the West were now menaced with the heavy Mohammedan yoke. The Arabians crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into Spain. The kingdom of the Visi- goths had subsisted there till now, and had kept under their yoke the Suevi in Portugal, but its safety had be- come undermined through the feudal system, which had now forced its way even into the government of the church. For discontented vassals offered their hand to the Ara- bians, and these invaded the Visigoths with a great army. A battle which continued eight days left the Arabians masters of the field. The whole of Spain, except its inac- cessible mountainous regions, fell into their hands; and thus inspirited, they pushed across the Pyrenees into the south of France, destroyed everything in the way of their march, and put the Christians in great terror. Charles Martell, the high steward of France, was called to resist these foes, and a decisive battle took place near Poitiers, A. D. 732. The Arabians were commanded by the valiant warrior Abderrahman ; and his hitherto victorious forces, amounting to four hundred thousand, who rushed to battle with enthusiastic contempt of death, would undoubtedly have been victorious on this occasion also, as they had been over the heroic Visigoths, if God had not said, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further. And here shall thy proud weaves be stayed !" Charles Martell's vic- tory was complete ; and Abderrahman, after losing the greatest part of his army, was obliged to retreat into Spain. There, however, he formed for himself from this time an Arabian kingdom, wiiich was not forced entirely to yield to Christianity till seven hundred years afterward. Chris- tianity, notwithstanding its corruption in the East, and its barbarous condition in the West, contained in it, as the salt of the earth, an inward power, by which Christendom in those days was saved from being entirely overpowered by Mohammedanism. 160 EXTERNAL AND SPIRITUAL VL— EXTERNAL AND SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE NATIONS AT THE CLOSE OF THIS PERIOD. How totally different a form had those nations which make up the subject of history assumed since the com- mencement of the period now under consideration ! The great Roman empire, which at that time subsisted in its wide extent, though its strength was gone, and which had so long comprised within itself the whole dominion of the more cultivated part of mankind, had now disappeared from the theatre of the world ; and its last branch, the Greek empire, was almost wholly confined to Greece itself and to Asia Minor. The scene of history was shifted from Rome, where the countries about the Mediterranean had formed its boundaries, into the narrower circle of the Ger- manic nations, which gradually became the focus of civili- zation, culture, and novel ecclesiastical regimen. In the countries where the church of Christ had once her most flourishing fields of labor, all her glory was now annihi- lated by the sudden and rapidly comprehensive grasj) of a new false religion ; and the crescent took the place of the cross. Hitherto had history always but one ostensible middle point about which the whole turned, even the whole power of the world ; but now two independent and oppo- site powers appeared; a power professedly Christian in the West, and a Mohammedan one in the East ; and these in the following period were almost always in conflict with each other. Nations, which hitherto had lain beyond the circle of history, were now drawn within its vortex, and almost entirely composed its material, namelj^, the Ger- manic nations in the AYest, and the Arabian nations in the East. The history of the Avorld now resembled a pair of balances, in one scale of which lay Christianity, and in the other Mohammedanism ; the one rising, and the other sinking. Again, as in the East there was a special mutual rela- STATE OF THE NATIONS. 161 tion between the empire of the caliphs and the Greek em- pire, so was there to be perceived in the "West the contra- riety between the temporal and the spiritual power ; and as the empire of the caliphs oscillated between the oppo- site parties, the Ommiades and the Abassides, so likewise did the temporal power in the West exhibit a scene of in- testine ruptm-e and disunion. Moreover this new world, in wliich the form of Christianity has all along occupied the ascendent station, never yet came to understand that true greatness is a thing which begins with the state of the mind and heart; that the success and welfare of nations must begin from within, and are of a spiritual origin. In- stead of this, nominal Christians have sought, and still seek, the very same things which they had ever sought in their heathen profession, though under another form, namely, exterior enlargement, the delights of sense, and the display of temporal grandeur. Indeed they have ever sought to mix up these things with Christianity ; and have still to learn that the glory of the flesh certainly cannot save us, because it contains within itself the seeds of cor- ruption and dissolution. Yet for many centuries they evinced, no less than the heathen world, a disposition to struggle for empire, and for concentrating all temporal power in one point: but the thing can never succeed; "it shall not prosper;" the elements of discord and division are interwoven in its very nature. Even the civil arrangements of the world, at the time we are now contemplating, tended to produce such an effect. The prince distributed his lands among his vas- sals, the king his among the dukes, and the dukes theirs among the earls. This was an arrangement suited to establish and to enlarge power and empire ; and it often happened that the fee, which had been granted only at the time of serving at court or in war, w^as made hereditary ; and particularly whenever the landlord himself happened to be a weak character. Even civil and ecclesiastical 162 STATE OF THE NATIONS. offices became hereditary fiefs ; and this served to beget a mean and selfish dependence on the part of state ministers, as well as ignorance and immorality in the clergy. The administration of justice also was based upon a weak foundation, for punishments were awarded according to the rank of the complainant. Thus the murder of a prince, an earl, or an ecclesiastic, was more severely punished than the murder of a vassal or humbler serf; and in many cases it was deemed necessary to prove the guilt of the accused by the trial of the ordeal of fire, water, etc., which was foolishly regarded as an appeal to " the judgment of God." The bishop of Rome, having hitherto contended against the Greek patriarchs for the supremacy, against the Greek emperors for independence, and against the princes of Ger- manic descent, as, for instance, against the king of the Visigoths, for the casting voice in all ecclesiastical matters, had become at the close of this period almost universally acknowledged as the supreme head of the western church. The appointment of the Germanic princes, which seems to have been expressly ordained by Providence to counteract his ever-growing influence, had not yet manifested itself; but the struggle of his power to spread itself into universal empire, and to continue playing on, in a spiritual garb, the part of the Roman empire which had now fallen into de- cay, had begun to be discovered in a variety of instances ; a struggle which m the following age was most decidedly put forth in all directions. The bishop of Rome had ex- tended his influence in the West as far as Britain. The gospel had been early introduced into that island, probably in the first century, and seems to have been more pure where it was professed, than after the arrival of the monk Augustin, A. D. 597, brought the pope's authority into England — a nation, which, in after ages, was to be the firmest and most determined of the opponents to false doctrines and domination of the Papacy. ACCOUNT OF THE CARLO VINGIAN DYNASTY. 163 SIXTH PERIOD. FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO THE REFORMATION. A. D. 768 to 1517. I.— ACCOUNT OF THE CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY. When Charlemagne,* in the year 768, ascended the throne of the Franks, there were as yet no indications that the countries under his sway would one day become the seats of liberal education. He himself had never been taught even to write, and had to learn it in after life. His reign consisted of an uninterrupted succession of wars, and may be regarded, if not as a designed, yet a pretty suc- cessful attempt to unite all nations of the Germanic tongue under one autocrat, which had at least this beneficial effect, that the hitherto continual feuds among the German tribes were allayed for a season. His first war, which was also the longest, was against the Saxons, A. D. 772-803, the east-bordering neighbors of the Franks, and with whom his father had been troubled. In the first campaign he pushed his victorious march to the banks of the Weser, and destroyed on his way a heathen temple : for he under- took, at the same time, to bring over the Saxons to Chris- tianity ; because he thought, that they could become inured to peace and civilization by no other means. Having con- cluded a peace, and received promises from the Saxons, he was, in the following year, invited by the bishop of Rome to assist him against the Lombards, who had invaded the ten-itory of the latter. The city of Rome, with its ex- archate, (or neighboring territory,) had, since Justinian's time, been nominally at least a part of the Greek Roman empire ; but Pepin le Bref, wiio had the real power of it, presented to the Roman bishop that city, and also Ravenna, * Signifying Charles the Groat. 164 ACCOUNT OF THE CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY. with their respective territories, out of gratitude for the support he had received from him in his election to the throne ; and thus the pope became an independent tem- poral prince, A. D. 756. For though the Frankish king remained his feudal lord, yet this was a relation as to which there might be many changes through circumstances or design. Pepin, at the same time, humbled the Lombards ; and their king, Desiderius, acted very imprudently in pro- voking against himself the powerful Charles, for it led to the loss of his throne, after vrhich he retired into a convent, and his kingdom became a part of that of the Franks. This was the occasion of Charles's first visit to Rome, where he confirmed the grant of Pepin to the bishop, and was honored by him with the title of Protector of the Roman Church. Fresh inroads from the Saxons recalled him to his own immediate territory, lie chastised them ; they sued for peace ; but broke it again that same year. In 778 Charles marched into Spain, to the assistance of an Arab prince, and then extended his own territory to the banks of the Ebro. He had again to contend with the Saxons upon his return, and as they immediately after this invaded his country a second time, his wrath against them overstepped the usual bounds, and he caused four thou- sand five hundred Saxons to be beheaded at once. Thus, as the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, so it does not even stay to consider w^hat is wise and prudent in the sight of men. The Saxons were enraged beyond measure, and from this time defended themselves with desperation. Nevertheless, Charles, by the year 785, so prevailed over them, that their redoubted leader, Wit- tekind, came of his own accord into his presence, and allowed himself to be baptized ; and his influential exam- ple was followed by many others of the Saxon nation. In succeeding years, Charles was absent in Italy, Bavaria, and Brandenburg, contending against the Wilzians ; and in Hungary, against the Avari. New insurrections of the ACCOUNT OF THE CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY. 165 Saxons were the consequence. In the year 800 he was proclaimed, at Rome, western emperor, or emperor of the Romans : and this dignity, which had been extinct for more than three centuries, and certainly was become merely titular, was uniformly handed down, such as it was, to his successors. What would a real Cermitted to enjoy liberty of conscience. (f.) The Reformation in England and Scotland. In England Henry VIII. had introduced the Reforma- ^ tion ; but the immediate sequel showed how much a good work is weakened when the great and powerful them- selves are not attached to it with their whole heart. Had he been a pious man, who from conscientious motives had taken part in the Reformation, then might that great work in England have spread most flourishingly under his pro^ tection, especially as Wiclif had long before prepared the way for it among the mass of the people. Whereas, the main occasion of his separating from the pope was his dis- \ satisfaction with him for refusing to sanction the divorce : of his queen, when he desired to marry another. Hereupon \ Henry resolved to become entirely independent of Papal au- thority, the enormities of which he now proclaimed. He declared himself head of the Anglican Church ; he alloAved no more money to be sent from England to Rome, nor any mandates from Rome to be received in England ; he dis- solved the monasteries and ecclesiastical houses, which had, for the most part, become dens of corruption, and against which the nation cried aloud ; and he caused an English translation of the Scriptures to be printed. Yet he would not acknowledge the principles of the German Reformation; and he caused books of doctrine to be set forth, which were not entirely in accordance with Scrip- tural truth. He caused alike both the Papists, who per- sisted in adhering to the authority of the pope against his own, and the Reformed, who wished to reject all the doc- trinal errors of Popery, to be publicly put to death. This was not the way to recommend and gain a general accept- ance for the Reformation : yet, withal, an important opening and prepai-ation were made for it; the Papal power in 284 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. England was broken, and during the short reign of hie young son and successor, Edward VI., A. D. 1547-1553, that pious and hopeful youth, who might be compared to King Josiah, Archbishop Cranmer, who held much con- fidential intercourse respecting his proceedings with the German and other reformers, was enabled to carry on a more effectual amendment of the English Church. But the heaviest trials often remain to be undergone, when we are apt to think we have surmounted the worst. When the newly scattered seed had not only sprung up, but risen to something more than the young green blade, a violent storm blew over it, upon the succession of Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII. by his first marriage, to the throne. She was a gloomy adherent to the Popish super- stitions, and her marriage with the bigoted PhiHp 11. of Spain served to confirm and strengthen her in her san- guinary notions and proceedings. During her reign, from looo to 1558, the Papal authority was restored in Eng- land ; all sincere Protestants were obliged to flee or conceal themselves, and many of them were cruelly executed; \ among whom were Archbishop Cranmer, and Bishops Rid- : ley and Latimer, who died martyrs at the stake : nearly three hundred of various ranks were burned alive in three years. ■^ For the relief of England, Mary was soon removed by a natural death, and the crown devolved upon Elizabeth, another daughter of Henry VIII., who had all along fa- vored the Reformation, and who, immediately upon her accession to the throne, abolished the pope's authority and the Roman Catholic worship. Under her government the present Anglican Episcopal Church was settled, which agrees, in the main, with the doctrines of the Reformation on the continent ; but in its formularies and ecclesiastical arrangements coincides with neither of the two continental reformed branches, and retains some ceremonies which part of the ecclesiastical body in England disapproved of; and hence arose the Puritans. HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. 285 How far Queen Elizabeth herself was mfluenced by personal piety is not for us to determine : her reign, how- ever, was a period of prosperity and splendor in England. Manufactures, commerce, and every sort of national wealth, increased under her government; several voyages wero made round the globe, and great treasure was obtained as booty by the way. The immense naval armament, called the invincible armada, of Philip II. of Spain, was dispersed by the aid of a tempest, and most of it destroyed, A. D. 1588, when both the queen and her subjects gave God the glory for this deliverance. In Scotland, the youthful Patrick Hamilton preached the doctrines of the Reformation, and was burned alive for it in 1528. Others followed him in the same track of martyrdom: nevertheless, such cruelties did not in the least suppress the desire of reformation which was felt by the people at large, and especially by many of the nobility. What could not be effected by remonstrance and petition, they sought to accomplish by other means, in self-defense ; and things proceeded with such decision, that, by the year 1547, John Knox, a friend and fellow disciple of Calvin at Geneva, was able to preach the gospel to his own countrymen with little molestation. The Church of Scotland owes her religious liberty chiefly to the undaunt- ed courage and inflexibility of this eminent man. The then queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart, who for a short time had been queen of France, as consort of Francis II., was very much attached to the Romish Church ; but the power of her Protestant-minded nobility had become too gi'eat for her to resist ; and she herself had so weakened her influence, by her levity and notorious offenses against the dignity of royalty, and by her breaches of human and divine law, that she had no power to check the prevailing cause of the Reformation. As early as the year 1560, the Confession of Faith, and the Presbyterian form of government, which in the Church 286 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. of Scotland retain in substance their validity to the present day, were introduced into that country. Mary had to hear strong remonstrances personally uttered to her by Knox ; and, had she heeded such foithful and plain dealing, she might have been spared many an infliction still more severe. After she had suffered herself to stand in several connec- tions of a very suspicious nature, and had been even accused, and not without reason, of having been implicated in the murder of Lord Darnley, her second husband, she was obliged at length to resign the government, and impru- dently fled into the territory of her cousin. Queen Eliza- beth of England, who was not upon good tenns with her, from her having claimed the throne of England, and who caused her to be detained. Conspiracies were set on foot in favor of this unhappy queen, and to restore Popery, which threatened the life of Elizabeth ; and these were the cause, after long deliberation, of Mary's being beheaded. That Mary was really connected with these conspiracies, the most recent inquiries do not permit us to doubt; never- theless her execution was, to say the least, a very question- able measure. Elizabeth died in the year 1 603, after a reign of forty- five years. Her general character was a strange compound of feminine weakness and masculine firmness ; but the lat- ter decidedly prevailed. If, in one and the same public character, we may distinguish the good qualities of the ruler from those of the person, then we may say, that Elizabeth possessed the former in a far greater degree than the latter. As she lived unmarried, her successor was James, king of Scotland, the son of Mary Stuart ; a man of a pedantic character, who knew not how to gain the affection of his subjects. The Romanists of England had set great hopes upon him, for he himself was not un- favorable in his heart to some doctrines of Romanism ; but his own natural vacillation, and the prudent fear of oppo- sition from the powerful Protestant party, restrained him HISTORY OF THE EEFOKMATION. 287 from taking any decisive steps in favor of the former. The Romish party, however, became bitterly incensed against him and his parliament : and the well-known gun- powder plot, which was attributed to the Jesuits, was in- tended to get rid of both him and them in one day ; but was providentially discovered just in time to save the realm, A. D. 1605. In his reign Scotland was united to England, though for a long time it continued to have a parliament and laws of its own. In no country did the Reformation obtain so sure and permanent a footing as in Britain, which country has remained the chief upholder of evangelical truth. (g.) Portugal, Spain, Italy, and other countries at the Reformatiov. Portugal, through her discovery of the passage to India, her possession of Brazil, and the brisk commerce which thence arose, and which made Lisbon for a time the first commercial city in Europe, had become rich and powerful, and had her most flourishing period in the first half of the sixteenth century. But the influence of the Je- suits soon brought her down from her eminence ; and, in the year 1581, she even came under the dominion of Spain, from which she was not liberated till the year 1640. . Spain, at this period, was at the zenith of her power. Charles V., and his son Philip II., could say, w^hat the queen of England may now say, that the sun never set in their dominions ; but, at the same time, they used all their exertions that the sun of true knowledge should never rise in them. Naples and Sicily, Burgundy and the Nether- lands, Milan and Sardinia, the Canaries and the richest West India islands, Mexico and Peru, Chili and the Philip- pines, Spain and Portugal, were under the sceptre of Philip II. ; and if power and wealth could make a country happy, then Spain would have experienced no want of happiness. Gold and silver came to her in abundance from 288 HISTORY OP THE REFORMATION. America. But with all this there was no prosperity, for there was no divine blessing. Philip was a bigoted, gloomy man, and allowed the Inquisition to rage without restraint in his country, for the purpose of extinguishing that light of the gospel which had entered it. The num- ber of the evangelically minded had so increased in many of the cities and towns of Spain, about the middle of the sixteenth century, that the Inquisition had enough to do to stop the further spread of the Lutheran doctrine, and a multitude of its adherents were publicly burned alive. Philip, however, on the other hand, had to undergo all sorts of calamities. The united Netherlands revolted from his government ; his own son, Don Carlos, rebelled against him,* and died in prison ; his invincible armada, which he sent against England, was dispersed in a storm, and nearly annihilated. The guilt of the blood of many thousands of innocent and barbarously murdered Protest- ants allowed him no repose, and lay also as a heavy bur- den upon his nation, which, at the end of his reign, was sunk away from its former eminence to a state of degra- dation, from which his son Philip III., who reigned 1598 to 1621, strove in vain to recover it. In Philip II. we may also witness one striking instance of the true remark, that it is not gold, but the blessing of the Lord, that maketh rich. With all this monarch's abundant trea- sure that was brought him from America, he had, at last, a debt amounting to more than eight hundred millions of florins, or more than three hunded millions of dollars ; and was obliged to get money collected for him from house to house. In Italy, the once free cities of Milan, Genoa, Venice, etc., had become the hereditary dominions of single power- ful families within them. The quarrels of these families * According to other accounts he was falsely accused of doing so, and was executed by his father's command. HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 289 with one another, as also with the cities themselves, together with their sharing in the struggles maintained against the pope by the great princes of Germany, France, and Spain, formed an unpleasing and involved tissue of history, wherein selfishness shows itself accompanied with all kinds of intrigues and vices. The flourishing state of the arts and sciences, which marks this period of Italian history, proved no remedy whatever against the evils of which we complain ; and which were too deeply rooted to be removed by any such means. The stir that was made in various parts of that country in favor of the Reforma- tion, which had been cherished by such worthies as Oc- chino, Curio, Vergerius, and Palearius, and others, and had found its way even to Naples, was soon extinguished by Papal vigilance, and the murderous activity of the Inquisition. The readiness with which the principles of the Reformation were received in Italy and Spain shows how extensive was the influence of this great reli- gious movement, and what a dissatisfaction generally prevailed respecting the Papacy. It could not but show itself in the very precincts of the Roman Catholic Church. While Charles V. was consolidating a vast portion of the West under his imperial authority, and thus recalling to men's minds the old universal empire, there was ex- hibited in the East, in the Turkish suhan, Soliman II., who came to the throne at the same time with Charles, a simi- lar endeavor to obtain the monarchy of the world. Hap- pily, however, the ambition of these great princes so obstructed each other, that one could not fail to force back the other within his proper limits. The sultan, Sclim I., A. D. 1512-1519, had established and extended the Ottoman empire, and Soliman II., A. D. 1519-1566, proceeded in the same career. He was a spirited warrior and an ex- perienced politician, but a man of violent temper, and who sometimes practiced cruelty. He took Belgrade, which was the kev to Europe ; he expelled the knights of St. 13 290 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. John, in 1522, from the island of Rhodes, which they had possessed for two hundred and twelve years ; he defeated the Hungarians in the same year that the Protestants in Germany concluded the league of Torgau ; and in the year 1529, when they protested at the diet of Spires, he besieged Vienna, and attacked it by storm for twenty days together. But God had set him a boundary, so that, after he had lost eighty thousand men in the attempt, he was obliged to raise tlie siege. Yet scarcely had he rested for a season, when he renewed his attack upon his old enemies, the knights of St. John, to whom Charles V. had granted the island of Malta, after their loss of Rhodes, and who have thence been called the knights of Malta. Here, however, La Valette's firm and steady conduct frustrated all Soliman's en- deavors, who, at the same time, suffered aloss in Persia. The old lion, inflamed with rage, shook his mane once more, and arose to devour his prey which had heretofore escaped him, the city of Vienna. But the heroic defense of the Hungarian fortress of Szigeth, maintained by the high- spirited Zriny, checked his course ; and his vexation, on account of it, cost him his life, in the year 1566. Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Arabia, many islands of the Mediter- ranean, Greece, Moldavia, Wallachia, and part of Hungary, belonged at that time to the Turkish empire, and its do- minions extended from the Euphrates to the African Mountains of the Moon. But now the time of its brightest lustre was past ; for, after this, it was but once more that Europe had cause to tremble at the Turks. Into Hungary and Transylvania the gospel had an early entrance ; for in these countries were found Bohemian Brethren and Waldenses, who had received it with joy ; and Hungarian youths, who had been educated in the high schools of Germany, brought back to their native country, at the same time, the first tidings and writings of the Reformation. Matthias Devay, a disciple of Luther and Martin Cyriaci, preached the pure doctrine in Hungary j HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 29^1 John Honter did the same in Transylvania ; and, notwith- standing serious persecution, there were, in the year 1530, many Protestant churches ; and soon the greater part of Transylvania, and a considerable part of Hungary, were brought over to the Reformation. The resolution, passed at the diet of Pesth, to burn all Lutherans, and that of the diet of Presburg, to tolerate no religion but the Roman Catholic, had come too late ; the Reformation having al- ready spread too extensively to be suppressed. Subse- quently the Protestants even obtained an acknowledgment of their rights and liberties ; but they lived under Roman Catholic rulers, on whose favorable disposition it depended whether they should enjoy them unmolested ; and at no period were they exempt from injuries and oppressions. It is not improbable, that the great troubles occasioned in Hungary by the Turkish invasion, just at the time of the Reformation, were all helpful to the reception of evan- gelical truth. The anxiety that burdened many a mind was likely to be a good preparation for the comfort of the word of God, as making men acquainted with the true Deliverer, and with the prospects held out by an eternal redemption. The vigorous Hungarian king, Matthias Corvinus, was succeeded by the weak Ladislaus ; and the latter by Louis H., A. D. 1.516-1526. The last was de- feated by the Turks in the battle of Mohacz, A. D. 1526; from whose hands, endeavoring to escape by flight, he sunk in a morass, and w^as lost. After his death, Ferdinand of Austria, and Zapolya of Transylvania, contended for the crown of Hungary, the latter under the protection of the sultan, Soliman. The struggle continued till 1546, and Hungary Avas left to the possession of Austria, though amidst manifold contentions with the Transylvanian princes, and in perpetual hostility with Turkey. In Russia, after the deliverance of that country from the Mogul yoke, the grand duke Wassilji received the title of czar of all Russia. He and his son,Iwan, A. D. 1534- 292 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 1584, warred with Poland, Sweden, the Moguls, and Tar- tars; and the latter prince conquered Astrachan and Siberia. But, after this, there came again a period of decline, till, in 1613, the sovereignty devolved to the house of Romanov, in the person of Michael Fedorowitsch. In Poland, under the Jagellonian sovereigns, Alexander, Sigismund, and Augustus, who reigned in succession from 1501 to 1572, there was formed an aristocracy, that exer- cised its influence not only downward upon the subject, but also upward upon the king himself The whole popu- lation consisted of a very numerous nobility, and of poor serfs ; exactly after the manner of the middle ages. There was no middle rank of free, trading, and industrious citi- zens, but the services of such a class were gradually undertaken by Jews ; who, nevertheless, were unable to gain for themselves an independent condition. This state of society, which has undergone little alteration down to our own times, is the real source of the manifold troubles with which that country has been distracted, and of the sad afflictions which, even recently, it has experienced. Upon the extinction of the race of Jagellon, in 1572, Henry of Anjou was chosen king. He, however, only two years afterward, returned to France to take possession of the French crown, which he valued more, and which had de- volved on him by the death of his brother, Charles IX. After Stephen Bathory, of Transylvania, had possessed the throne of Poland, in 1586, Sigismund, king of Sweden, was elected to it; and, reigning till 1632, was nearly the whole time engaged in defensive war against Sweden. The Reformation quickly found its way into Poland. The Bohemian Brethren, who had been driven from Bo- hemia and Moravia, had settled there in great numbers, and they formed the first shelter there for the new Chris- tian church. As early as about the year 1520 books and ministers, both Lutheran and Reformed, had arrived in Poland, and gained considerable bodies of adherents. John, HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 293 of Lasco, is distinguished among the Polish reformers. But even had they not had to encounter there the secret opposition of the Jesuits, the diiference of views which pre- vailed among the opposers of the Romish communion themselves, and which prevented their acting together as one body, -was of itself a great hinderance to the flourish- ing spread of Protestant truth in that country. In addition to the Lutheran, the Reformed, and the Bohemian Bre- thren, it contained many not yet united members of the Greek Church, Unitarians, Anabaptists, and other sects, all active in every direction to promote their own separate interests. Moreover, the Sendomir compact, which took place in the year 1570, and which comprised the common confession of faith of the Lutheran, the Reformed, and the Bohemian Brethren, proved insufficient entirely to remove disunion among them : and of this failure the Romanists continually availed themselves to abridge the rights of the Protestants, and even to persecute them ; notwithstanding that, by the general diet of 1573, equal rights and privi- leges were adjudged to all parties. In Sweden 2i dissatisfaction had long existed with the government of its Danish kings ; and when the crown, of Denmark came to the house of Oldenburg, in Christiern I., the Swedes elected their supreme rulers from among them- selves, and these carried on the government for fifty years ; namely, from 1470 to 1520. But, at this time, a party of their malcontents invited Christiern II., of Denmark, into Sweden, who thus obtained possession of the sovereignty ; and, by his tyranny and cruelty, brought the whole country into rebellion. Hence, Gustavus Vasa, who was a de- scendant of the ancient Swedish monarchs, put himself at the head of the populace, drove out the Danes, and, in 1523, was chosen king of Sweden. He was strongly attached to the principles of the Reformation, and endeavored from the very first to promote them in his country. Laurentius, Olaus Petri, and Lawrence Anderson, who had already, in 294 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 1523, translated the Scriptures into the Swedish language, helped him in this enterprise ; so that, at the diet of Westeras, in 1527, the foundation was laid for extending the Reformation throughout the whole country ; and, at the diet of 1544, Popery was superseded, and the estab- lished church of Sweden from that time adopted the Lu- theran communion. Church reform and amendment were advanced in this country ; and it is to be regarded as a fruit of its influence upon the political state of that country, that, in 1527, the commons, consisting of the mercantile and agricultural classes, became numbered among the estates of the realm, to whose counsels the welfare of the country was committed ; and this upon the same footing as the nobles and the clergy. The attempts of their king, John, A. D. 1569-1592, to make Romanism again pre- dominant, were frustrated by the enlightened and well- principled attachment with which the people in general held fast the liberty of their belief. The election of their king, Charles IX., to the exclusion of the Romish Sigis- mund, who had the sovereignty of Poland, occasioned that long war between the Poles and the Swedes, which ended not till the reign, and by the exertions, of Gusta\Tis Adolphus, A. D. 1611-1632. In Denmai'k, the house of Oldenburg having come to the throne, in 1448, conflicted long with Sweden, till the Swedes, at last, gained their independence of that family. But the same cause that rendered Christiern II. so hated in Sweden, namely, his intolerance toward the nobility and clergy, together with his meanness and barbarous cruelty, made him also a burden to the Danes themselves ; so that, in the year 1523, he was deposed from the government by the estates of the realm ; and Frederic I., the duke of Schleswick and Holstein, was chosen, and reigned as his successor from 1523 to 1533. This prince, in 1526, per- sonally gave himself to church reformation ; which, since 1521, had been begun under much opposition, by John HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 295 Taussan, a disciple of Luther. He at once declared him- self a member of the Lutheran communion ; and, at the diet of Odensee, in 1527, general freedom was effected for all confessions in Denmark. Still many hinderances remained in the way, especially Such as were occasioned by the bishops; nor was it till the reign of Christiern III., in 1536, that the cause of Protestantism gained stability in ,that country. After this the far greater part of the Danes came over to it, and the Reformation was thence propa- gated to Norway and Iceland. The Netherlands had become the property of the house of Hapsburg, by the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to the emperor Maximilian, and as such they passed into the hands of Charles V. They then consisted of seventeen flourishing provinces. A most vigorous commerce in the pro- ductions of the East and West had made their cities wealthy, and their burgesses opulent ; and Antwerp was at that time one of the most important commercial places in the world. This, in connection with their special immunities and privi- leges, had infused a public spirit and a love of liberty among the people at large, and had promoted education very greatly among them, so that the liberal principles of the Reformation soon found entrance, and obtained a foot- ing in many places, notwithstanding the opposition of Charles V. The Lutheran version of the New Testament was published in a Dutch retranslation as early as 1523. But Philip II. of Spain, to whom the sovereignty of the Netherlands descended from his father, was a declared foe to the Reformation : for as he had determined to be an absolute despot in his extensive and various dominions, so he could not brook that any one of his subjects should have a will or a religious belief that differed from his own ; he therefore resolved to annihilate, in a summary manner, not only the political privileges, but also the religious liberty, of the Netherlanders ; and for this purpose he introduced among them the Inquisition, and oppressed them in various 296 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. ways. The first instrument of his tyranny was Cardinal Granvella ; and afterward the duke of Alva, who was as bigoted and gloomy a tyrant as his master. Alva brought to the block some of the most eminent personages in the country, as Count Egmont, Hoorn, etc. ; and, after the year 1566, eighteen thousand persons perished, by his order, un- der the hands of the public executioner. But the Nether- landers, though they were too prudent and Christian- minded to rise against their merciless governors without necessity, had nevertheless been too little inured to slavery to endure it without resistance; and, in 1568, ten of the seventeen provinces, headed by the pious and prudent William of Orange, declared their independence. The necessities of commerce had already accustomed them to sea-fighting ; and while the Spaniards labored in vain to wrest back from them the lost dominion, the Netherlanders seized the colonies, which had belonged at first to the Por- tuguese, but afterward, from the year 1581, to Spain; they also took possession of Java, Ceylon, and the Moluc- cas, and with these the whole of the spice trade. The fierce struggle, by which the religious liberty of the north- eastern provinces of the Netherlands was obtained, end- ed not till the year 1609, when there was an armistice of twelve years. But the ten liberated provinces, which maintained their independence by the name of The United Netherlands, never came again under the Spanish yoke. (li.) Reflections upon this Period. Thus the Reformation, as militating directly against the political tactics of the age, had almost everywhere to make its way amid the opposition of temporal princes, as well as of that dominant church which saw her pillars one after another falling to the ground. While human policy every- where aimed at confirming its ascendency by force of num- bers, by standing armies, and profusion of gold, that is, by HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 297 national power in general, the Reformation everywhere put the weight of intellectual and spiritual greatness into the scale, and tendered to the sickly nations the medicine of the soul. The temporal princes thought to bring more order and tranquillity into the affairs of political govern- ment by making additions to their dominions, by consoli- dating their ruling influence, and by contracting within still narrov/er limits the liberties that stood in their way ; but the new spirit of the age, which found vent and room for itself in the Reformation, sought to effect the same ob- ject by inward purification, and the healing of the corrupted elements by the improvement of the mind and soul. The observation of things as they came to pass at that period, viewed by the help of the word of God, teaches us that things could not possibly go on longer in the same way that they had done at the period immediately preceding the Reformation, except by the entire destruction of the few witnesses of the truth that still remained ; that is, ex- cept by the entire overthrow of the true church of Christ, which had been all along persecuted by the dominant worldly church. This dominant church, not only by su- perstition and vice, but also by infidelity itself, needed a thorough renovation, in order not to become a prey to entire rottenness. But a natural hatred of the light, while other causes account for the opposition made by the princes and the Romish clergy, Avas the real cause that so many of the common people, Avho evidently would have been gainers by the Reformation, were nevertheless its bitterest enemies. TT'f^ It is a remarkable fact, that, just at the time of the ^Reformation, several nations of Europe were at the height of their power and prosperity. Thus it was with England under Elizabeth, the Netherlands under William and Mau- rice of Orange, Spain under Charles V. and Philip II., and Turkey under Soliman II. It was, therefore, a re- markable epoch of great developments in the political 13* 298 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. world ; and the Reformation is closely connected with the same, partly as exercising an influence over it, and partly as having been favorably or injuriously affected by it. As in the first ages of Christianity the Roman empire was at the height of its power, and yet was overcome by the spii'itual energy of our holy religion, so had the flourisliing kingdoms of Europe, at the Reformation, to experience that the spiritual force of truth is greater than military and political strength, and that the highest degree of earthly prosperity, of worldly honor and might, is insufficient to satisfy the vast desires of the human soul. And if the victory gained by the Reformation over Popery was not so signal and complete as was the primitive victory of Chris- tianity over heathenism, we must remember, that to the true Christian faith at the Reformation was opposed not merely heathen unbelief and heathen superstition, but a superstition which for centuries had been given out and received under the name of Christianity ; and that it was not mere error that now contended with Christian truth, but error which bore the appearance of Christian truth, and offered to men's minds at least a pretended satisfaction. (i.) Progress of Leiiers. Even out of the geographical limits of the Reformation, a great stir during this period was observable in all the provinces of human knowledge, and for the advancement of the arts and sciences. The study of classical literature was so supported and encouraged by the newly formed uni- versities, libraries, and high schools, that it increased more and more ; and the works of Reuchlin, (Capnio,) Erasmus, and others, tended to promote the Reformation. The various branches of philosophy, especially that of astrono- my,* as well as political science, poetry, painting, mathe- matics, history, and other departments of knowledge and * N. Copernicus died in 1543; 'lycho Brahe. in 1601; Galileo Galilei, in 1642. THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 299 of the arts, were diligently cultivated. Painting and poetry in particular attained, through individuals named in the note below,* to such a height of improvement, that to this day it has never been surpassed. Many a production also of those times has, with all the advances that have since been made, never been surpassed; as, for instance, the Lutheran version of the Scriptures. But how far exer- tions in literature and science served as helps or impedi- ments to the kingdom of God, would be an inquiry too ex- tensive for our present limits. As long as the sciences are not employed in the service of God, or, at least, not in obedience to his word, and under its direction, though they cannot injure the truth itself, they can injure the persons who by such things allow themselves to be absorbed, or led away from the pure fountain of all wisdom and truth, and so become strangers to the only right rule for proving all things, and holding fast that which is good. Mean- while, whatever we obtain in the various paths of intellect- ual cultivation and taste, does often, of necessity, however foreign to our own intention, become subservient to the cause of God ; and the Christian man of science enjoys the sweet fruit of the stately tree of knowledge, while the enemies of divine truth only suck in death from its poison- ous rind. IL— THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. The unhappy strife of religious party feeling in Ger- many was at length cut short by war, which, like many other important events in the world's history, proceeded not from any deliberate human plan laid to produce it, but * Ariosto died in 1533; Tas.so, in 1595; Cervantes, oa the 23d of April, 161G, and Shakspeare on the same day: Camoeus in 1579; Hans Sachs, in 1576 ; Leonardo da Vinci, in 1519 ; Michael Angelo, in 1564; Raphael, in 1520; Titian, in 1576; Corregio, in 1534; Albei't Durer, in 1528 ; Luke Cranach, in 1533 ; and Hans Holbein, in 1554; Bacon, born 1561 ; Milton, born 1603. '300 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. was occasioned by an event quite unforeseen, and appa- rently accidental. The Utraquists, in Bohemia, who were so called because they received the Lord's supper {sub utraque) in both kinds, had, in 1609, by letters patent from the emperor Rudolph II., obtained permission for the free exercise of their rehgion, and the right to build new schools and churches. Two cases occurred in which their right was contested, and their complaint thereupon to the emperor Matthias met with no friendly reception. In conse- quence of this, several of the nobility, who were exaspe- rated at the emperor's severe answer, applied to the go- vernment at Prague, to bring to examination certain im- perial counselors in that city, whom they suspected of exercising hostile influence. As the persons who were thus questioned gave only harsh and unsatisfactory replies, they WQVQ, thrown out at the window, according to the rude usages of the Bohemians in those days, A. D. 1618. Such violent proceedings could not, of course, be allowed to pass unnoticed or unresented by the emperor ; but though the Bohemian nobility, to secure themselves from punishment, imprisoned thirty imperial magistrates, expelled the Jesu- its, and formed leagues with Protestants of other coun- tries, yet the emperor preferred pacific negotiations, which were continued to the time of his death, in 1619. The election of the new emperor, Fei*dinand II., duke of Steyermark, was not likely to put the Bohemians upon other measures, or upon a safer plan ; for he was, if pos- sible, more dangerous to them than his predecessor: he liad been educated by Jesuits, and was a bigoted adherent of Romanism, who had learned to consider it his sacred duty, and highly meritorious in the sight of God, to root out heretics. They, therefore, refused to acknowledge his succession to the throne of Bohemia, to which he had an hereditary claim : and they chose, instead of him, the elec- tor Frederic of the Palatinate, who wa.s at that time at the THE THIRTY YEARs' WAR. 801 head of the Protestant Union m Germany. Because he was of the Reformed communion, the electorate of Saxony, in blind zeal for the Lutheran Church, had declined to join the Union, and now even went so far as to declare against him, and for the emperor. Here is a striking proof how dangerous to the position of the Protestants must have been tliis division and dispute between the Lu- therans and the Reformed. The Roman Catholic League, with the duke Maximilian of Bavaria at its head, sided, as did also Spain, with the new emperor. The Bohemian Count Von Thurn, who had already carried on secret ne- gotiations with the Hungarians, and with Bethlen Gabor, the prince of Transylvania, even marched before Vienna, and bombarded the imperial castle ; but the steadiness of Ferdinand compelled him to retreat, and, in a short time, the tide of success in war was quite turned against him. On the 8th of November, 1620, King Frederic was de- feated by Maximilian of Bavaria, in the battle of the White Mountain, near Prague, and fled with all precipitation to Holland. The Palatinate, with its electoral dignity, was now conferred on Maximilian. The emperor Ferdinand marched triumphantly into Prague, cut to pieces the letters patent with his own hands, expelled the Protestant clergy, reinstated the Jesuits, arrested a great many of the nobility, and dis- posed of some of them by the scaffold, and of others by banishment. About fifty thousand Protestant famiUes were compelled to emigrate, and they settled in Saxony, Prussia, and Brandenburg. The Protestant Union was now dissolved ; and only in- dividual princes, such as the count of Mansfeld, Christian, duke of Brunswick, and George Frederic, the margrave of Baden-Durlach, continued, upon their own account, the struggle with the Roman Catholic potentates. Mansfeld, a practiced and courageous freebooter, raised a considerable force, and, marching with lire and sword through several pro- vinces, especially through Alsace, was pursued by the Ba- 302 THE THIRTf YEARS* WAR, varian general Tilly, but seldom overtaken, and never dis- pirited. Yet the decision of the cause was not granted by Providence through him, but the struggle only protracted ; and the result of his expeditions bore no proportion to the enormous sacrifices which they required. Equally unsuccessful was the margrave of Baden, who was defeated by Tilly, in the battle of Wimpfen, on the 6th of May, 1622, and who, being disheartened by his de- feat, retired immediately into private life. In this battle four hundred citizens of Pforzheim fought with manly courage against Tilly, and every one of them was slain in the heat of the conflict. Likewise Duke Christian of Brunswick was twice defeated by Tilly, without having achieved anything of consequence to the Protestant cause. And now Christiern IV. of Denmark, in the capacity of chief of the circle of Lower Saxony, stood up to oppose the Romanists, and drew Count Mansfeld and the duke of Brunswick into his service. But he also was defeated by Tilly, at the battle of Lutter on the Barenberg, and was driven back into Denmark. Meanwhile General Wallen- stein, an expert warrior, whom the emperor had created duke of Friedland, and who himself had raised for him a large military force, was sent by him to relieve Tilly, the general of the league, imd to take the chief command. Count Mansfeld met him for battle near Dessau, but was defeated and fled, and pursued by Wallenstein into Tran- sylvania, to Bethlen Gabor. Here, for want of money, he was reduced to the necessity of disbanding his troops, and went to Venice, where death soon overtook him. Wallen- stein marched back into Germany, devastated Schleswick and Jutland, and permitted liis soldiers to make dreadful ravages. After this he drove out of their dominions the dukes of Mecklenburg, who had assisted the kmg of Den- mark, and got himself appointed by the emperor to that dukedom, and with it the dignity of electoral prince of the THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. '303 empire. After besieging the city of Salstund without suc- cess, he suddenly, in 1629, concluded a peace with Den- mark, and tranquillity seemed to be restored to all Ger- many. But the emperor, being elated to insolence by his victo- rious position, knew no bounds of moderation ; and, at the instigation of the Jesuits, he issued what was called the Restitution Edict, which required the Protestants to restore all church property in their possession, and commanded all of the Lutheran persuasion to return under the do- minion of Romanism. The cause of the Protestants now appeared to be threatened with imminent ruin, for they were not united among themselves ; they had neither mo- ney nor troops, and Wallenstein stood with his powerful army in their neighborhood, ready at any moment to give them battle. God, however, sent them deliverance by Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, who had proved him- self a fit champion for the purpose, having commanded in the war with Poland. The French minister, Cardinal Richelieu, having, according to the old policy of his nation, in its endeavor to weaken the house of Hapsburg, effected a peace between Poland and Sweden, left Gustavus at liberty to aid the German Protestants, whose support he had very much at heart. He landed on tlie Pomeranian coast, with a small veteran army, on the 21st of June, 1630, exactly a century after the presentation of the Augs- burg Confession, drove the imperial troops out of Pome- rania and Mecklenburg, reinstated the expelled dukes of Mecklenburg in their dominions, and pushed forward on his march to Saxony. But his negotiations with the elec- tor of Saxony, who long hesitated to join him. considerably retarded his advance, which he meant to ]m\e been very rapid ; and, meanwhile, Magdeburg was taken, plundered, and burnt, by General Tilly, on the 10th of May, 1631. But divine rebuke soon visited this unfeeling incendiary's 304 THE THIRTY YeAKs' WAR. horrid treatment of the inhabitants of Magdeburg ; for, on the 7th of the following September, he was totally defeated by Gustavus, in the battle of Leipsic. Germany was now open on every side to the king of Sweden, from Avhom the emperor had hitherto entertained but little apprehension. Tilly had been defeated, and therefore entire confidence could no longer be placed in his generalship : and Wallenstein had been displaced, because from all quarters, and especially from the Roman Catholic princes themselves, loud complaints had been made of his haughtiness and arrogance toward them, of his cruelties and exactions toward their subjects, and of his disobedience to the emperor's orders. The Saxons pushed into Bohemia ; Gustavus turned his march toward the Rhine, and from thence to Bavaria, where he forced the passage of the Lech, on which occasion, Tilly, who had been victorious in thirty-six engagements, was killed by a shot from the Swedish miiitaryo Munich, Augsburg, and Landshut were forced to open their gates to the conqueror ; the road to Vienna was undefended before him, and the em- peror trembled in his castle. The only expedient left, was for him to entreat the oiFended Wallenstein to raise a new- army, and take the command of it. The latter consented, but upon severe conditions ; for what could be refused him in such circumstances ! Meanwhile, it was the pleasure of his vindictive spirit to leave still longer in anxiety the elector, Maximilian of Bavaria, avIio had been forward to urge his dismissal ; and, therefore, it Avas only by slow marches that he advanced toward the Swedish army. From his fortified camp, near Nuremberg, he looked down with proud security upon the brave Swedes, who attacked it by storm, and retreated with severe loss ; but, as soon as Gustavus had marched away from the place, Wallenstein hastened with his force toward Saxony, to chastise that impoverished country for the revolt of its prince. Gustavus, being called by the elector to his help, THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 305 advanced by forced marches, and found his powerful foe near Liitzen, in the vicinity of Leipsic. On the 16th of November, 1632, a general engagement ensued; in the very heat of which the king was struck by a ball, and died on the field of battle. But his Swedes, as soon as apprised of this event, were only the more fired with re- sentment, and fought on with irresistible bravery, so that they stood their ground against the greatly superior num- bers of Wallenstein, and remained masters of the field. If no one can be called great who is not superior to selfishness, nor able to subdue his passions as well as his enemies, then "Wallenstein was far from great ; for he suf- fered the passions of avarice, pride, and revenge, to rule over him with violence ; whereas, Gustavus Adolphus may well deserve the appellation of Great, for he was an open- heai'ted, upright, magnanimous, and heroic commander; who forgave offenses, and never availed himself of the most inviting opportunities of revenge, as may be seen in his conduct with respect to Bavaria and Saxony. But the difference between these two remarkable persons was of a still deeper description. Wallenstein had no faith in God beyond mere superstition ; and the only God he sincerely worshiped was self. Gustavus Adolphus, on the contrary, was a sincerely pious man, who trusted in the living God ; therefore, he allowed no soldier in his army to live disorderly, nor to practice any ill conduct or cruelty in a conquered country. Public worship, and singing of pious hymns, distinguished his troops above all others; and no battle was begun by them without prayer. Every sincere Protestant in Germany gratefully cherishes his memory ; for though he defended the cause of German Protestantism during little more than two years, yet he, in that short time, gave quite a new turn to its affairs, and laid the foundation for the restoration of religious liberty, by the sacrifice of his ease, his kingdom, and his life. Wallenstein, instead of renewing his attack upon the 306 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. Swedish army, after they had lost theu* leader, retreated quietly toward Bohemia, and attempted a negotiation with the Swedes and Saxons, who, however, felt no more con- fidence in him, than the emperor himself. The latter ap- prehended that he would declare his independence, and take the crown of Bohemia ; and as he thought so danger- ous a man was not to be approached with open force, he got rid of him by procuring his assassination, at Eger, in 1634, and gave to his own son, the archduke Ferdinand, the command of the army. The Swedes, after their great king's death, were com- manded by Bernard, the brave duke of Saxe-Weimai* ; while the home administration of their country was con- ducted by the wise chancelor, Oxenstiern. But the same unhappy cause that had wrested victory from the Protest- ant princes when they encountered Charles V., near Ingol- stadt, the want of union among themselves, proved alike detrimental to the Swedish army, when, on the 7th of September, 1634, they faced the imperialists nearNordhn- gen. The excellent general Horn wished to refrain from engaging the enemy ; but the fiery duke Bernard outvoted him. The Swedes were defeated, and Horn himself was taken prisoner. Saxony now fell away from the Swedes, and concluded a separate peace with the emperor; but Oxenstiern sought help from the French government, whose self-interested policy easily induced them to grant it, for they hoped they should now have an opportunity of uniting Alsace to France. The German princes, since the peace of Saxony, had gradually, one after the other, come over to the emperor, and had deserted the Swedes. But the Swedes were again successful in a bloody victory gained near Wittstock, on the 24th of September, 1636, over the Saxons and Aus- trians, under the command of General Banner. In 1638, Duke Bernard defeated the Austrians near Rheinfelde, and then turned his march for the conquest of Alsace. THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 307 which had been promised him in a treaty with France. But as he could not consent to deliver up to the French the fortress of Breisach, that key of Germany, which, in 1639, he had taken, after a long siege, his death was brought about in a sudden manner, probably by poison, at the in- stance of the French minister, Richelieu. The emperor, Ferdinand II., had died about two years previously, his sixteen years' reign having been without a single interval of peace ; and his son, Ferdinand III., was elected emperor, whose disposition was more mild ; so that his government was more inclined to pacific measures. General Banner, who conducted the Swedes after Duke Bernard's death, was one of the most valuable men of the military followers of Gustavus Adolphus; but he also died, in 1641, and left the command to General Torstensohn, a paralytic man, who had to be carried about in a chair, but who united with quick and keen sightedness, courageous decision and rapid execution. The infirm general flew, as on eagles' wings, at the head of his army, from one end of Germany to an- other, seized Glogau and Schweidnitz, and pushed forward with precipitation into Moravia. The imperial territories had hitherto been spared the vexations of war ; and the Swedish soldiers, who had marched into the heart of Ger- many, through provinces quite impoverished and exhausted, had long eagerly desired to visit for once the rich and flourishing regions of Austria, and to refresh themselves there from their fatigues and hardships. People had already begun to tremble in Vienna itself; but the empe- ror's general, Piccolomini, drove the Swedes back to Saxony. Torstensohn there turned about, and faced the imperialists, upon the same field of battle which had become renowned by the victory that Gustavus Adolphus gained over Tilly ; and there, on the 2d of November, 1 642, he, in like man- ner, gained a complete victory. In the following year he again poured his troops into Bohemia and Moravia, and sent his cavalry forward to the very gates of Vienna. 308 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. In the year 1644 he defeated the imperial general, Gallas ; and, in 1645, the generals, Hatzfeld and Goetz: so that now there was no imperial army in readiness to protect Vienna, upon which Torstensohn menaced an attack. Sickness, which had diminished the Swedish army by one half, and Torstensohn's own bad state of health, proved the saving of the emperor, by obliging Torstensohn to retreat into Bohemia, and to resign the command to General Wrangel. Saxony, which had been dreadfully desolated by friend and foe, and had dearly paid for the inconstancy of its electoral prince, was at length compelled, in 1 645, to conclude an armistice, and to remain neutral in future. The elector of Bavaria was compelled to do the same, in 1647, in consequence of the ravages which the French and Swedes had made in his dominions ; and when he infringed the articles of neutrality, these desolations were renewed by Turenne and Wrangel. At the same time, 25th July, 1648, the Swedish general Konigsmark had made liimself master of part of the city of Prague, and was just about to storm the citadel, when dispatches arrived informing him that peace was concluded. For twelve years past conditions of peace had been agitated ; for all the belligerent powers had become quite weary of this devastating war, which had crippled agricul- ture and commerce, drained every country of its produce, and destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives ; and they longed for tranquillity and repose, in order to be healed of the wounds with which the nations were bleeding. But neither party would be the first to sheath the sword ; be- cause each was resolved to gain advantages by the peace, or at least to obtain indemnification for the many losses it had sustained ; and desired, by the one or the other alter- native, to come off with advantage as much as possible, at the termination of hostilities, in order to be enabled to assert still further claims. At length, however, they suc- ceeded in adjusting interests so very different and opposite ; THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 309 and the peace, which has generally been called the peace of Westphalia, was concluded with the Swedes at Osna- briick, and with the French at Miinster. By this treaty, so important in the affairs of the German empire, and in the history of the Reformation, France obtained Sundgau and the greater part of Alsace ; Sweden, live millions of dollars, (nearly seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling,) together with the island of Riigen, the citadel of Stettin, Hither Pomerania, Wismar, Bremen, and Yerden, and a sitting and vote in the Germanic diet. The Pala- tinate of the Rhine was restored to the son of the elector, Frederic ; and other princes were indemnified in other ways. The United Netherlands and Switzerland were acknowledged as free and independent states ; civil and poli- tical equality, and the unrestricted exercise of their religion, were accorded to all the various parties ; and possession of the appropriated ecclesiastical lands and establishments was to continue as it had been in the year 1624. Other countries of Germany, whose princes had been driven out from them by the war, as Wiirtemberg, Baden, Nassau, &c., were given back to their rightful governors. Sovereignty was secured to the German princes and estates in their respective territories, together with the right of contracting with foreign powers, as long as it did not militate against the empire and its ruler. The more, in this way, the influence of the emperor vras lessened, which was also further limited by the diet, the more did the immediate estates of the empire gain thereby, and the more was at the same time lost by those cities which had hitherto possessed such great immunities ; and, of all the Ilanseatic towns, only Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck re- mained confederate with one another, and in possession of their independence. The bond, that in earlier times had kept together the imperial sovereign and his empire, had been all along gradually relaxing, and the partition of the several German countries from one another had been in 310 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. proportion becoming more and more distinct and decided. Much as all this tended to weaken the power of Germany in reference to foreign nations, and to undermine its politi- cal importance, it was, on the other hand, beneficial as to the development of science, and all the advantages of civil society, through the mutual emulation for which it made way between these different countries; it helped also to insure a balance of power, and a protection to the church of Christ. What we have said already upon the several states of Europe itself, as to the advantages of their sepa- ration from under one general head, is equally applicable to this partition of the German empire. About two-thirds of the German empire had, during the thirty years' war, perished by the sword, or by sickness, or famine, or outrage. Most of the cities and towns were demolished or impoverished ; arable land was everywhere covered with w^eeds ; many villages had become totally depopulated, and others so utterly annihilated that their place could no more be found. Thus, in Wiirtemberg, the population, which had amounted to three hundred and forty thousand at the beginning of the war, had sunk down to forty-eight thousand : and vineyards to the amount of forty thousand acres, corn lands and vegetable gardens to the amount of two hundred and forty-eight thousand acres, and pasture land to the amount of twenty -four thousand acres?, remained utterly neglected ; eight towns were destroyed ; thirty-six thousand houses burnt to the ground ; and, in twenty-two years, landed property had suffered a loss to the amount of one hundred and eighteen millions of florins, or ten millions one hundred and sixty-three thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven pounds sterling. Although this war immediately concerned only Ger- many, yet nearly all countries at the same period were undergoing great commotions, while new kingdoms were forming, or new dynasties coming to their thrones. Eng- land, however, as was before remarked, though the throne RELIGIOUS STATE OF GERMANY. 311 had passed from the Tudors to the Stuarts, had, during a part of the time, been peacefully making progress m literature, the arts, naval achievements, commerce, and in wealth;. and was thus preparing the way for her future greatness. In 1589 the house of Bourbon became in- vested with the sovereignty of France ; that of Braganza first possessed the throne of Portugal in 1640; that of Romanov first held the empire of Russia in 1613 ; and the family of Steyermark, the crown of Bohemia in 1618. Likewise, in the East, about this time, great changes took place ; the Mandshu Tartars obtained the empire of China in 1610 ; and in Persia arose the powerful dynasty of the Abbassides, who made extensive conquests. Also in Abys- sinia, Tunis, and Morocco, similar changes occurred. If by faith we '• see that which is invisible," and consider the wickedness of man's heart, we shall probably- find it easier to account for commotions of one and the same description in human history, arising in countries and circumstances so different and remote from each other. in.— RELIGIOUS STATE OF GERMANY AT THIS PERIOD. The opposition made to blind Papal superstition in the way of head knowledge, that is, by intelligent argumenta- tion from the truths of Scri^^ture, had soon become more popular in the Protestant Church, than that equally intelli- gent, and still more important opposition, which vital faith makes against Papal errors. Instead of drawing every answer from the rich treasures of the word of God ; and instead of making these treasures their own in life and conversation ; the Protestant clergy were far more occu- pied in defining, distinguishing, and systematizing the various points of church doctrine ; and spent their diligence much more in the refutation of errors, than in the positive recognition of divine truth, or in holding forth the word of 312 RELIGIOUS STATE OF GERMANY. life. The Lutheran divines did not rest merely in endea- vors to prove the Scriptural correctness of their confession of faith, in opposition to the Papists and Reformed, but, even in the bosom of their own churches, there arose about their common confession a considerable variety of conflict- ing opinions, to which too great importance was attached, and in the discussion and maintenance of whicli too much time and toil were spent, especially as these controversies could seldom be conducted with the calmness, moderation, and love of peace which such things always require. AYhile the controversies among the Reformed ran chiefly upon the doctrines of election and free-will, the Lutherans con- troverted various errors warmly with one another, and especially such views as seemed to imply that man, by good works, can contribute anything to his own salvation. There was formed by degrees a cold, lifeless orthodoxy, which consisted in mere notions, and which came very far short of vital Christianit}'. The Protestant Church, about the time when the thirty years' war broke out, very much needed a revival ; and God, as if to show that his kingdom cannot be destroyed by war, did in that very season raise up such worthies as the church stood in need of; men, who insisted more upon living in the Spirit of Christ, with heartfelt piety and genuine conversion to God, than upon accurate definitions of Scriptural subjects ; and who, amidst the pressures and difliculties arising from the state of the times, and the un- numbered troubles of war, were enabled to render the desired consolations of the word of God accessible to the broken spirits of the oppressed. Such were John Arndt, John Gerard, Stephen Pretorius, Henry Miiller, Christian Scriver, John Valentine Andreas, and others. How needful such men's labors were, to oppose the dead, ideal theology of the times, may be gathered from the fact, that the writings of Arndt, whose " True Christianity " has, by the divine blessing, been made useful to thousands of AT THIS PERIOD. 313 souls, were declared by the orthodox, Luke Osiander, to be pestilential, Papistical, and evil ; and that Arndt, on account of them, was even charged by him with blas- pheming against the Holy Ghost. Philip James Spener, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, followed up the train of those excellent men, and testified in the same spirit against the dry scholastic kind of theology which had so long prevailed ; and as he had no prospect of being able to compass the whole church, by reason of its internal differences and divisions, he invited all real Christians to unite in more practically acknowledged communion with one another, and to aim at mutual edification, in the sim- plicity of devout reflection upon the word of God. The chief business of the Reformation at its commencement was separation from Popery, the rectifying of abuses and erroneous doctrines, the free possession of the word of God, and the diligent preaching and reading of the same. Upon all these things men could become enlightened and convinced, without being really converted to God; and hence the Protestant Church exhibited Utile more than a new medley of persons of various opinions, who were kept together by one and the same general Scriptural profession of faith. The general character of the Protestant Church did not amount to the character of a communion of true believers in Jesus, and the spirit of it could just as easily remain cold and dead, with an evangelical confession of faith, as with a Popish one. And yet Spener's aim was, of course, not to obtain such a communion of saints as should have no tares at all mixed with it, the Lord himself having already, in Matt, xiii, 24—30, assured him that this, under the present dispensation, is out of the question ; but only a communion of Christians, whose consciences should have become awakened to that certain verity, that nothing but heartfelt conversion and our being born again can fit us for the kingdom of God ; that no public confession of faith, be it ever so Scriptural and orthodox, can suffice for U 314 BRITAIN, AND THE NETHERLANDS. such a purpose. This distinction, which was the one upon which Spener insisted, together with the effect it was instru- mental in producing, must not, in any attempt to contem- plate this world's history on Scriptural principles, be over- looked or disregarded; inasmuch as the great religious revivals, so remarkable at the beginning of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and which have been even at- tended with considerable influence on the political world, are intimately connected with this vital distinction in spiritual matters. IV.— BRITAIN, AND THE NETHERLANDS. While the thirty years' war was raging in Germany, England also was visited with troubles of another sort, which indeed bore, in like manner, an ecclesiastical charac- ter, though political interest was their mainspring, as was religious profession that of the German commotions. From the year 1625 the sovereignty of Great Britain was in the hands of Charles I., a rash man, of arbitrary character, not deficient in many good qualities, but greatly so in discre- tion and right decision. By keeping his parliament dis- solved for eleven years together, and by his endeavor to impose uniformity in religion upon all his subjects, agree- ably to some innovations of his own, he provoked a very general indignation against himself, and thus occasioned, especially by the cause last mentioned, no inconsiderable emigrations of the English Puritans to North America, where they founded the first British American colonies. The Scots, who were determined to oppose his arbitrary proceedings, entered into a solemn league and covenant with one another, for the protection and defense of their religious liberty. Charles hereupon invaded them with his troops, which they defeated and repulsed from their borders. The English obliged him, in 1 640, to call a new parliament, which sat for eight years without molestation, and heuce BRITAIN, AND THE NETHERLANDS. 315 was called the Long Parliament. The parliamentary mea- sures that were carried, one after another, and which, collectively aimed at humbling the sovereign, he found it no longer in his power to prevent or defeat. The issue of this was a civil war, that continued for four years ; and in which the party that favored Romanism, together with the prelates and most of the nobility, was opposed to the commons and the Puritans. This war raised to distinction the parliamentary general, Oliver Cromwell, a man of re- spectable parentage, but who had spent his time at the university rather in the levities of idle students than in literary occupations. He joined himself to the most zea- lous of the Puritans, and soon went to an enthusiastical extreme in his adoption of their views. Not only did he signalize himself in arms, but also, by his religious repre- sentations, he gathered to himself a party having civil and religious equality for their main object, rejectmg all the gradations of rank and dignity in the church, exemplified in episcopac}-. or even in Presbyterianism. The king's party became weaker and weaker; and the unhappy monarch found himself, at length, so deserted, that he threw himself into the arms of the Scots, who, however, de- livered him up to the English parliament. Cromwell, whose spirit felt the stirrings of ambition, began to meditate getting rid of the king ; and for this end he drove out, by his military, from the Long Parliament, all whom he con- sidered obnoxious members, and left in it only the shadow of its former authority. And now he could easily effect that the king should be brought to trial, and be condemned to death, without a dissentient voice. The sentence of death w^as accordingly passed, and was executed on the .30th of January, 1649. Few will now be found who at- tempt to excuse or defend this act. An attempt, that was begun in Scotland, to place the king's son upon the throne, met with such unfavorable reception, that by two battles, in which Cromwell was victorious, it was totally defeated. 316 BRITAIN, AND THE NETHERLANDS. Cromwell having, in 1653, expelled the Long Parliament, soon ruled all England with unlimited regal power, though he chose to bear merely the title of Protector. The United Netherlands had, meanwhile, brought their maritime commerce to a very flourishing state ; they had crippled the commercial interests of Spain and Portugal ; they had formed trading companies for the East and West Indies; they had planted many colonies, (as that of the Cape of Good Hope in 1653,) and had defended them by renowned admirals, such as Van Tromp and De Ruyter. But Cromwell put an end to all this glory, by the naval expeditions which he sent out in his war with the Dutch, and thus England became a maritime power of the first rank. He took Jamaica and Dunkirk from the Spaniards, and set on foot many wise regulations for the political m- terests of his country. Nevertheless, he had but little personal enjoyment of the power that had come into his possession. The evident uneasiness of his conscience, his sense of blood-guiltiness, and especially of the unjust con- demnation of his sovereign, appear to have disturbed him, so that he found no peace of mind. The dread of an avenging hand by assassination continually haunted him, and the terrors of God imbittered his retired moments. He died a natural death, in the year 1658 ; and was suc- ceeded in the protectorate by his son Richard ; who, having found a reign of one year to be more than enough for his political incapacity, willingly slirunk into private life and retirement: and the Scottish general, Monk, now placed Charles H., the son of the murdered king, upon the throne. THE NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM. 817 v.— THE NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM, AND LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE. The nearer the stream of history descends to our own times, the more does it part off into numerous ramifications ; and this renders it the less easy to command even a per- spective view of the whole. Or, comparing it to a tree, we may add, that as long as its few original branches are seen as yet not far raised above the main stem, or running up with it, as it were, in parallel lines, the historian's work is not difficult ; but when we are obliged to look beyond the stem, to where the eye commands only a complication and confusion of branch and foliage, we have then to notice the form and relative proportions of every principal part. Human history, at its earliest periods, shows chiefly the origin and broad outlines of the successive great empires ; and thus the description we have to make is more simple. And even in the middle ages, the European powers, as being but a continuation of the Roman, serve as a natural centre. In England, Denmark, and Norway, and in Sweden, Poland, Russia, Hungary, and Bohemia, in Italy, in Naples and Sicily, in the popedom, in France, Spain, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, we behold, sooner or later, more or less, the reins of government in the hands of Ger- manic princes. But, by the thirty years' war, the German empire lost much of its lustre ; the power of Germany abroad was broken; the kingdoms became severed from one another by a new line of policy. The crooked arti- fices of this new policy, which originated chiefly in France* are perceptible in single instances at an earlier period ; but it was not till now that they were regularly adopted as leading principles of government. Germany, that had not sufficiently seen through these subtilties of the French policy, still less was able, her interests being too much di- vided, successfully to act against such cabinet intrigue. 818 THE NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM, France and Sweden had become the dictating and dis- posing powers that set the other nations to work, and formed the nucleus of history. This cabinet policy had so much the more free play, since the private subject could no longer, as in the middle ages, take a personal part in the decision of public matters. His right of suffrage was now limited by his prince, and wars were henceforth prosecuted by means of standing armies. Other interests, partly of an humbler and partly of a loftier kind than those of nationality, or of participation in the government of their country, now began to occupy men's minds. Some had sought and found their indemnification in religion ; others learned to forget state affairs in the cultivation of rising and enriched sciences and arts ; others were wholly en- gaged in the acquisition of wealth ; and the bulk of the people had enough to do to earn their bread by their daily toil. As one proof of the unconcern of the common people about matters of government, we may instance the first publication of newspapers, about the year 1563,* as these at that time furnished active statesmen with a means of concealing their own designs; while, on the other hand, the increase of post-officest is an evidence of the increasing complexity of political, as well as of civil relations. The new policy was organized originally by Cardinal Bichelieu, the prime minister of France, who was at the helm of the government during the minority and childish manhood of Louis XIII., from 1610 to 1643. The secret mainspring of that government was selfishness ; mere self- interest. It was quite a stranger to moral principles, the principles of common equity and humanity. One and the same line of proceeding could be pursued or abandoned by it at pleasure, as the question was not how equitable, but how advantageous, any purpose might be. Success was * The first German newspaper was published in the year 1615. t These were first introduced into Germany by Counts Von Thurn and Taxis, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. AND LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE. 319 regarded as a proof of political wisdom, and such wisdom passed for honesty and law ! Richelieu did not rest till he had extorted from the French Protestants their last place of refuge, Rochelle; and yet, immediately after this, he rendered powerful assistance to the Protestants of Ger- many ; not because of any alteration of his own opinions, but because it was French policy to seize every opportu- nity of working detriment and humiliation to the house of Hapsburg. His great object was to raise the power of the state to its highest degree, partly by acquisitions abroad, and partly by lowering and contracting the rights and privileges which were possessed by powerful individual subjects at home. The ascendency of government was to become continually greater ; that is, more extensive and absolute. Formerly the notion of the people had been, that they needed a prince to conduct them in war, and decide causes for them in peace ; in a word, to be the conservator of public order and safety. But now the notion had begun to prevail that the people were one of the requisites of the prince, for his enjoyment of sovereign power ; that territory was another, for supplying his reve- nues ; and an army another, for the accomplishment of his will; and the next king, Louis XIV., made no secret of this notion, when he said, " I am the state." The only right and Scriptural principle, that rulers are " God's ministers," and that " the powers that be " are " ordained of God," as his instruments for diffusing his blessings among the nations, or for promulgating his displeasure against the sins of men, was thus more and more forgotten both by princes and people. Upon the death of Richelieu, in 1644, his political principles continued to be acted upon by Cardinal Mazarin, who managed the affairs of the government during the minority of Louis XIV., but who, by his reckless oppression of the people, provoked such opposition as broke out at length into a civil war. After Mazarin's death, in 1661, S20 THE NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM, Louis had in everything more decidedly his own way ; he soon, however, showed that he was a most tractable scholar of the new political system. He felt a passion for universal empire ; and though he never could attain his object, his long reign of seventy-two years was one of perpetual war for the purpose. He was a man not gifted with any one remarkable endowment; pride, ambition, selfishness, and cunning, were his most conspicuous qualities ; but he had the good fortune to have distinguished statesmen and generals, who achieved great things in his name, and were prudent enough to permit the whole credit to redound to himself Colbert, his minister of the interior, by his encouragement of trade, industry, planning and cutting of canals, estab- lishment of colonies in Western Africa and in the West Indies, as also by his introduction of new manufactures, and his advancement of the maritime power of France, put great life into commerce, while he likewise patronized and much furthered the interests of agriculture, and did his utmost to alleviate the burdens of taxation. But while Colbert's administration was thus tending to promote the prosperity of France, that prosperity was proportionably countervailed and undermined by its incessant and aggressive wars ; for though Louis was, for the most part, successful in them, and hereby increased his territory, yet were they prosecuted with so many acts of glaring injustice, that no real benefit, nothing that bore the semblance of a divine blessing, could result from them ; so that when this king died he left a burden of debt to the amount of one thousand millions of florins, or about two hundred and fifty millions of dollars. His generals, Catinat, Turenne, Conde, Vauban, and the Marshal of Luxembourg, greatly signalized themselves in the wars which Louis waged from ambition of conquest. In the first Spanish war, A. D. 1667, Louis desired to seize the Spanish Netherlands, and had made considerable progress in his enterprise, when an alliance, between Eng- AND LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE. 321 land, Holland, and Sweden, obliged him to conclude a peace, at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1668. Four years afterward, he attempted to revenge himself upon the Dutch, and fell upon them with a powerful army. But Holland having declared William of Orange their hereditary stadtholder, this undaunted and wise champion of their cause, by an alliance with the emperor Leopold I. and Spain, and with the aid of Admiral De Ruyter's naval victories, reduced the French king to the necessity of concluding the peace of Nymwegen, A. D. 1678. Louis, however, could not long be contented to remain quiet; but, in 1681, lie took Strasburg and other German districts by surprise, under the pretext that formerly they had belonged to Alsace, which had been ceded to France by the peace of West- phalia. In the year 1688 he seized the Palatinate, its inheritance having lapsed by the demise of the electoral prince, Charles, and to which he thought he could maintain the claim. The Palatinate and the upper provinces of the Rhine were then most cruelly devastated by the French : Heidelberg, Mannheim, Spires, Worms, and a number of other cities, were burned to the ground ; and depopulation and plunder, such as had been carried on by the Huns in the time of Attila, converted the beautiful vale of the Rhine into a dreary wilderness. The German emperor formed an alliance with England, Holland, Spain, and Savoy, against the French ; and though the latter gained the battle of Fleurus in 1690, and that of Neerwinden in 1693, yet their fleet w^as destroyed by the Enghsh in 1692. At length was concluded the peace of Byswick, in 1697, by which Louis was obliged to give back the provinces he had so iniquitously seized, on the left bank of the Rhine. A new struggle commenced in 1701, in consequence of the death of Charles II. of Spain, who died without issue, and whose kingdom was claimed both by Louis and by the emperor Leopold I. Louis had still some valuable generals, as Villars and Vendome ; but they were no match 14* 322 THE NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM, against such distinguished commtinders among the allies as were Prince Eugene of Savoy, Louis the margrave of Baden, and England's captain, the duke of Marlborough. Li the battles of Hochstadt or Blenheim, Ramillies, Turin, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet, the French were beaten : and Louis would have found it necessary to sub- mit to the hardest terms, had not the death of the emperor Joseph and the recall of Marlborough intervened for his relief. By the peace of Utrecht in 1713, and that of Rastatt in 1714, he still gained very favorable conditions: Philip of Anjou obtained the crown of Spain with its colo- nies ; to Austria, Belgium, Milan, Naples, and Sardinia were assigned ; and the English were allowed to hold Gibraltar and some important West India Islands. Louis patronized the arts and sciences ; chiefly, perhaps, because in so doing he gratified his vanity, and advanced his fame. France, during his reign, was furnished with eminent writers, as Bossuet, Racine, Corneille, Moliere, Boileau, Montesquieu, Lafontaine ; and with accomplished artists, as Le Brun, Poussin, and Claude Lorraine. And though there were not wanting noble-spirited and pious men, as Pascal and Fenelon ; yet, at the same time, France gave birth to Rousseau and Voltaire, by whose writings chiefly it was that the spirit of infidelity and apostasy from Christ became diflfused throughout Europe, and by which the minds of so many still remain seduced and debased. Paris was considered, in the reign of Louis XIV., as not only the centre of politics, but also the metropolis of education and politeness in the western world. Its language, which in correspondence and general use had superseded the Latin, became the common lan- guage of European courts, and of the upper classes in neighboring nations ; its refined education set the tone everywhere ; its manners and fashions gained the ascend- ency, and were everywhere imitated. As Athens, in the AND LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE. 323 flourishing period of Greece, was referred to upon all matters of taste, so was Paris in the eighteenth century. But, together with this, became diffused the spirit of French levity, libertinism, indifference to and derision of holy things ; so that even then were sown abundantly the seeds of that revolutionary mischief, which, in a few years, leavened not only France, but more or less every country of Europe. The two principal means of its furtherance were absolute monarchy strained to tyranny, and a general recklessness about morality and religion, those pillars of national i)rosperity, and of all good government. Splendid as at times was the reign of Lewis XIV., it ended in having drained France of its essential and vital strength. The profligacy of the royal household and of the court, the monarch's own senseless extravagance, the standing armies, and the numerous wars, had introduced oppressive taxation ; and, after the death of the minister Colbert, the common people became so burdened with ex- orbitant imposts that they often had scarcely bread to eat, at the very time when the grossest luxury prevailed at court, and while the nobility Avere excused from the pay- ment of taxes. The whole country, which, besides its natural fertility, the ever-active Colbert had brought to a high degree of culture and prosperity, had become, at the time of Lewis's death, quite impoverished and exhausted, Lewis XIY., after the reign of seventy-two years, includ- ing his minority, sunk into his grave amid the indignant curses of his subjects. But the evil did not die with him. The systematic and flagrant injustice which marked his whole despotic reign, the unfeeling levity with which his minister Louvois could advise and determine upon a war, and cause unoffending countries to be devastated with Vandal barbarity, for the diversion of his master, could never exalt a nation, nor bring upon it the blessing of Heaven. The perfidy and inhuman cruelties with which 324 THE NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM, Louis drove his Protestant subjects to death, or to per- petual banishment from their native land, could only entail a curse. And here let it be observed, that violent persecutions, on account of religion, have not been practiced only by ignorant pagans ; even the highest culture and most pol- ished manners are no preservatives against committing the most coarse and cruel abominations of fanatical bigotry ; because the spirit of the world, under every form, is equally averse to the dominion of Christ and his rehgion. That Louis XIV. consented, as he did, in 1685, to revoke the edict of Nantes, which had been granted by Henry IV., and which guarantied to the Protestants the free exercise of their religion, is an everlasting reproach to a prince whose reign is boasted to have been a new era of light. It was, in a man who was by some considered to have in- troduced to the world a new generation of illuminati, either a sign of his enmity against the truth, if the cruelty origi- nated with himself, or a proof of his weakness and want of character, if he suffered himself to be persuaded to it by Louvois, Maintenon, and the Jesuits. It is evident that the latter had very great influence over him ; and it is even asserted that, shortly before his death, he secretly became a member of their order, thinking thereby to alle- viate his wretched state of mind, as his conscience tor- mented him about the impieties and abominations of his past life. The revocation of the edict of Nantes intro- duced the attempt to dragoon the French Protestants back to Romanism; and the horrible oppressions, injuries, and tortures that were practiced upon them, brought back to France the period of the Albigenses. They v/ere forbid- den to emigrate ; nevertheless, more than fifty thousand families, leaving their property behind them, fled into Germany, and found a hospitable refuge in various Pro- testant countries, especially in Brandenburg ; and recom- pensed the kind reception they met with by the great com-* AND LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE. 325 mercial activity and new branches of employment which they introduced. Many also took refuge in England and in Holland. During the reign of Louis XIV. there arose no small stir among the French Romanists themselves, through the controversies between the Jesuits and the Jansenists. The latter were greatly attached to the writings of Augustine, respecting the doctrine of original sin, free grace, and per- sonal election ; whereas the Jesuits, who defended the pe- culiar tenets of Romanism, departed upon those points as much from the Scriptures as from Augustine himself. The Jansenists, in opposition to the Jesuits, insisted much upon the maintenance of rigid moral principles, as also upon the circulation of the Scriptures, and the education of the people ; they refused to acknowledge the pope's in- fallibility, and yet were equally far from approving of Protestantism. The pope, however, condemned them, and Louis XIV. persecuted them, so that they were constrained to take refuge in the Netherlands, where they founded an independent church. Also, the controversies with the Quietists, who made the essence of religion to consist rather in inward feelings and elevation of the soul to God, than in outward profession and activity agreeable to it in com- mon life, took place at this period ; for Fenelon had joined the Quietists. These persons may be considered as ex- emplifying mysticism in practice, its theory having been set forth by Jacob Behmen, a shoemaker of Gorlitz, A. D. 1575-1624, in his profoundly speculative writings. The French Benedictines, on the other hand, entering less into religious controversies, chiefly concerned themselves about the instruction of youth, and scientific researches ; which have proved, even to tliis day, of no small service to the learned. Louis XIV. got embarrassed in a remarkable struggle between his own bigoted Romanism and his pride as a prince, in consequence of the pope's claiming the right of control over the interior regulations of the Gallican Church. 326 THE NEW POLITICAL SYSTEM. The kings of France had long exercised tlie right of al- lowing to be managed, in their own name, the revenues of every vacant see, till it should be filled up ; as also the right of absolutely appointing to all offices of the inferior clergy. Louis wished to extend the exercise of this right to his conquered provinces ; and the pope, of course, would not sanction the measure. Louis, not without the influence of the Jesuits, wdio were also then at variance with the pope, and washed to see the power of the latter restricted, held a synod in Paris, A. D. 1682, at which four principles were established, as the pillars of Gallican Church liberty. By these principles the power of the pope w^as to be con- sidered as belonging only to spiritual, and not to temporal matters, and especially was no pope to be acknowledged as having the right of deposing princes, in any manner, or upon any pretence. Moreover, the popes were not to overrule, but only to have a voice in ecclesiastical assem- blies ; hence, to that voice was to be attributed no infalli- bility, except with the consent of the whole church. Fi- nally the exercise of Papal jurisdiction w^as, in all matters of right, to be regulated by the ancient French ecclesias- tical laws. Evident as it is, that these principles arose more out of civil policy than any interest for the Romish Church, yet they might have conduced in a very import- ant degree to the definite settlement of ecclesiastical mat- ters in France. But the popes refused to yield, in a single point, to anything of the kind ; and their determined resistance at length triumphed, in the reign of Lmocent XIL, A. D. 1691-1700. These principles, however, con- tinued to be cherished with great regard in France itself. Two things are hereby clearly evinced, namely, that men's notions of Papal authority had now become altered, and that the power of the pope had gradually declined even in the still bigoted Romish Church itself; also, that Papal policy remained unaltered, in not relinquishing any of its aUedged prerogatives. LEOPOLD I. AND JOSEPH I. OJb GERMANY. 327 VI.— LEOPOLD L AND JOSEPH L OF GERMANY. On the death of Ferdinand III., in 1657, Leopold L was elected his successor in the empire of Germany ; he, however, was also under the influence of the Jesuits. In his reign, the "• Germanic Diet" was made a standing rep- resentative body, which afterward held its sittings at Ra- tisbon, from A. D. 1G63 to A. D. 1806. Leopold's first struggle was with the Turks, who, in 1662, had penetrated into Moravia, but were driven back by the imperial gene- ral Montecuculi. A second war with Turkey took place at the time when Louis XIV. invaded Germany, for the purpose of seizing the districts which had formerly belonged to Alsace ; and when Louvois, his minister of war, caused the Palatinate to be laid waste. Leopold was unable to repel these unjust aggressions, because he was then so fully occupied with the Turks. The Ottoman grand vizier, Kara Mustapha, advanced through Hungary, with two hundred thousand men, as far as Vienna, and besieged the city in 1682. But its inhabitants stood bravely on the defensive, till John Sobieski, king of Poland, with some of the German princes, came to their relief, and rejiulsed the Turks. The war was now transferred to Hungary : the electoral prince of Bavaria took Belgrade in 1688; and after Prince Eugene of Savoy had totally defeated the Turks, near Zenta, in 1697, Hungary, Transylvania, and Slavonia, came into the possession of Austria. Leo- pold I. died in 1705, at the time when the war, in which he took a special part, was being carried on respecting the Spanish succession ; and his successor, Joseph L, who prosecuted it with vigor, did not live to its termination. His brother, Charles VL, who was emperor A. D. 1711- 1740, concluded a treaty with France in 1714, and by this treaty he exchanged Sardinia for Sicily, which had been obtained at the same treaty by the duke of Savoy. In a 328 BRITAIN AND NORTH AMERICA. war that soon after broke out again with the Turks, Prince Eugene gained over them near Peterwardein, in 1716, and near Belgrade in 1717, such decided victories that they were obHged to cede Bosnia, Servia, and part of "Wallachia, to Austria. On the other hand, they got back the Morea, which till then had been retained by the Ve- netians. VII.— BRITAIN AND NORTH AMERICA. In England, after the abdication of Richard Cromwell, Charles II., of the house of Stuart, had returned from exile, and come to the throne. He reigned from 1660 to 1685, v/ithout, however, having learned, by the misfor- tunes of his father, the wisdom which he so much needed. If the English put up with his arbitrary and inconsiderate conduct, it was, on the whole, because they were aware of the manifold miseries of revolution. He united himself with the policy of France, and hereby made the Dutch his enemies, to whom his terror at De Ruyter's appear- ance on the Thames induced him to cede the colony of Surinam. The parliament, finding that his partiality to Popery endangered the peace of the realm, pi^evailed with him to sign the Test Act, which they had carried through both houses in 1673, to prevent Papists from exercising power ; as also the Habeas Corpus Act, which was carried in 1679, for securing the personal liberty of the subject. His successor was James IL, from 1685 to 1689, who, be- ing himself a Papist, openly attempted to restore the as- cendency of the Romish Church. The struggle between the Tory party, who favored the stretch of royal preroga- tive, and the Whigs, who were their opponents, ended in the latter inviting to their assistance William III., prince of Orange, son-in-law to James, and stadtholder of the Netherlands, in pursuance of which he speedily arrived with an army of the Dutch. James II. fled to France ; the English and Scots declared the crown abdicated, and BRITAIN AND NORTH AMERICA. 329 William was chosen as his successor, to reign jointly with his wife, Queen Mary. Ireland, which had refused to acknowledge AYilliam, because he was a Protestant, was reduced to obedience by force of arms. William restored the English Protestant constitution, and provided for England's prosperity and power by the measures of his government. His successor, Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1714, took a decided part in the war of the Spanish succession, by her distinguished general Marlbo- rough. After her death, the house of Stuart endeavored in vain to become reinstated in their forfeited rights ; and with George I., the elector of Hanover, the house of Brunswick, the present English royal family, came to the throne. The first English settlement in North America had been planted as early as 1585, and was named Virginia, but was of no continuance. A new settlement on the coast of New-England, in the year 1606, owed its origin to com- merce with the aboriginal Indians ; from this were peopled the settlements in Nova-Scotia and Canada. Disabilities and hardships in England, on account of religious differ- ences, soon contributed, with other causes, to promote the emigration of the English to North America; and thus commenced the cultivation of the provinces on the middle eastern coast. Hereupon many, from various parts of Europe, who had been sufferers on account of their reli- gion, took refuge in North America, where they could en- joy, without molestation, the opinions which they held for conscience' sake. Thus did Hugonots, Puritans, Qua- kers, and other religious sects, settle there together. Many Quakers emigrated with William Penn to the province named, from him, Pennsylvania, and built the city of Philadelphia. These emigrations increased every year, especially from Germany and England; and the Indian aborigines were continually forced further back westward. Their removal at first was by voluntary agreement, and 330 CONFLICT OF SWEDEN WITH RUSSIA. for a reasonable indemnification ; afterward, occasion- ally, by war and defeat ; and, at last, by compulsory trea- ties, which, though adjudging them payment for evacuated tracts of territory, left them no option to remain or remove. Little concern was manifested about carrying to the poor Indians the true riches of the gospel, as an amends for the loss of their hereditary possessions, and only a few indi- viduals and primitive worthies, such as Eliot and Brainerd, and the Moravian missionaries, went among them with the spirit of apostles, and devoted their lives to this noble work of faith and labor of love. But the Europeans, in general, carried to them the sms and diseases of Europe, together with its specific poison, ardent spirits, and the numbers of the Indian tribes rapidly diminished. VIIL— CONFLICT OF SWEDEN WITH RUSSIA. While the wars of Louis XIV. occupied all the nations in the south and west of Europe, commotions of the same kind disturbed also the north-east, as if the thirty years' war had not given men enough of bloodshed. Christina, the daughter and successor of the great Gustavus Adol- phus, took more delight in scientific than political pursuits, and resigned the crown in the year 1654. But it was strange, indeed, that the daughter of the heroic champion of the Protestants, who sacrificed his life in defense of the evangelical faith, could offer such a reproach to the me- mory of her illustrious father as to go over to Popery, and spend the remainder of her life at Rome, where she died in the year 1689 ! She was succeeded in the throne by her relative, Charles Gustavus of Deuxponts, a turbulent, war- like prince, who subdued Poland, and prosecuted wars with Russia, Denmark, and Brandenburg, to the day of his death, which took place in 1660. He was succeeded by his son, Charles XL, who reigned till 1697. The ruler of Brandenburg was, at that time, the great electoi CONFLICT OF SWEDEN WITH RUSSIA. 331 Frederic "William. Albert, the grand master of the Teu- tonic Knights, had appropriated to himself East Prussia as an hereditary dukedom, which, however, still remained as a fief of the Polish crown ; and the Teutonic Order had removed their seat to Mergentheim. But when Albert's family became extinct, Prussia devolved to John Sigis- mund, elector of Brandenburg, in 1618, whose grandson, Frederic William, who reigned from A. D. 1640 to 1688, was distinguished by the name of the great elector. By the peace of Westphalia he acquired Hither Pomerania, Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Cammin, and Minden. By the treaty of Welau, in 1657, he obtained from the Poles the independence of the Prussian dukedom. While, in the war of France with the Dutch, he was absent on his march for the relief of the Netherlands, the French, by their Swedish all'cs, invaded Brandenburg ; but Frederic William gained a celebrated victory over the latter in 1675, near Fehrbellin, and nothing but another victory, gamed by the French themselves, preserved the Swedes from the loss of all their possessions in Germany. Even in the present instance, they were obliged to cede a por- tion of Pomerania to Brandenburg. Charles XI., of Swe- den, had, according to the policy of his time, been laboring to strengthen monarchy at the expense of the nobility ; and thus was liis son, Charles XII., the more absolute and independent upon his accession to the throne, A. D. 1697, in the fifteenth year of his age ; so that in the very earli- est years of his reign he involved himself in a war with Russia, Poland, and Denmark, w^hich occupied him to the end of his life. Russia had hitherto stood in no political relation to the other states of Europe ; its manners, customs, and mode of government had been more Asiatic than European, and it had not yet been touched by the culture of the West. This interposition was reserved for Romanov's grandson, the czar Peter, who reigned from 1682 to 1725 ; and was S32 CONFLICT OF SWEDEN WITH RUSSIA. the instrument of Russia's becoming not only great and powerful, but also politically metamorphosed. The Rus- sians were by his means brought within the compass of European nations. Peter left home as a rude, unpolished personage, of half-civilized manners ; but he had an ardent thirst for knowledge, and longed not only to be educated himself, but also to have his subjects educated, and to mul- tiply the means of increasing the prosperity of his domin- ions ; and, for these purposes, he traveled through several countries of Europe, got everything shown him that was worth seeing, and made very particular inquiries wherever he went, with the view of introducing into Russia, and imitating there, whatever was useful and available. He was especially anxious to further among his people the advantages of trade and commerce ; and, for this end, he spared no pains to construct a sea-port : for up to this time Russia had no properly maritime coast. Peter had taken, indeed, Azov from the Turks, and wished to have extend- ed his dominion to the Baltic, in its foreign trade, in order to employ Russian merchant vessels ; but the coasts of the Baltic in those regions belonged to Sweden, Peter now formed a coalition with Poland and Denmark, which na- tions were jealous, with himself, of the great power of Sweden, against the young Charles XII., a man of extra- ordinary abilities and intrepidity. The Swedish monarch first attacked Denmark, that he might be free from an enemy nearer home ; and, by his sudden appearance before Copenhagen, he put the Danish king, Frederic IV., in such terror that he was glad immediately to make peace. Charles lost no time in marching into Livonia against the Russians ; and, with only eight thousand Swedes, he put to the rout a Russian force of ten times the number. A third enemy, Augustus II., king of Poland, and elector of Saxony, still remained to be attacked. This prince, to ob- tain the crown of Poland, had made no scruple of aposta- tizing to the Romanists ; and a divine rebuke of his un- CONFLICT OF SWEDEN WITH RUSSIA. 333 faithfulness was now to overtake him. Charles subdued Lithuania and Poland, set Stanislaus Leszinski on the Polish throne, and then pursued Augustus into his Saxon territories; where, in 1706, a treaty was concluded, by which Augustus abdicated the crown of Poland. Charles remained in Saxony till the following year, and prepared for further wars ; he also obtained, by his mediation with the emperor of Germany, for the Protestants in Silesia, greater freedom in the exercise of their religion. Mean- while the czar Peter had wrested Ingria from the Swedes, and founded the city of Petersburg, which he intended for his capital, and for his imperial residence. Charles ad- vanced triumphantly into Russia, but imprudently suffered himself to be diverted toward the Ukraine, where, near Pultowa, he was, A. D. 1709, so totally defeated by Peter, who had already annihilated another Swedish army com- manded by General Lowenhaupt, that he was compelled to seek his safety by flight into Turkey. The dethroned Polish king, Augustus IL, thought this a good opportunity to break his treaty with Charles ; therefore he invaded and reconquered Poland. Denmark also renewed the war with Sweden; and Peter now made liimself master of Livonia, Esthonia, and part of Finland. Charles was honorably received by the Turks, and contrived, after much solicitation, to stir them up even to a war with Rus- sia. Peter, as soon as the tidings of it reached him, ad- vanced into Moldavia, and was so surrounded by the Turks, on the banks of the Pruth, and lost so many of his troops, that his ruin seemed decided ; but his deliverance was effected by bribery, and Charles had notliing but his own powerless indignation to oppose to the treachery of the Turkish vizier. The Ottoman emperor, however, steadfastly refused to give up the king of Sweden into the hands of Peter upon any terms ; though the latter made him great offers for that purpose. Charles abode some years in Turkey, as if he had forgotten his native country. 334 CHARLES VI., AND THE At length lie all at once recollected that he still possessed a kingdom at home ; so he mounted his horse, left Turkey with the utmost speed, and, reaching Stralsund, sailed from that port to Sweden, in 1714, where, finding that his old enemies had reunited agamst him, he endeavored to make peace with Russia; but, meanwhile, as his active mind would not suffer him to be quiet, he turned to the conquest of Norway; and there, under the fortifications of Fredericshall, to which port he was laying siege, he was killed by the shot of an assassin, in the year 1718. His country was afterward obliged to submit to great losses in the several treaties of peace which it had to make with Hanover, Prussia, Denmark, and Russia. It lost its possessions in Germany; it resigned Livonia, Esthonia, IngTia, and other portions of its territory to Russia ; and, as it had now become impoverished at home, by so many wars, it sunk down from its political elevation, as every country must, that, with so few interior resources, has only risen to greatness by the personal prowess of individual sovereigns. May we not say, It was good for Sweden to have been obliged to seek its welfare not thus precariously abroad, but in its own internal consolidation and develop- ment? IX.— THE EMPEROR CHARLES VI., AND THE PROVINCE OF BRANDENBURG. No sooner was the spmt of war damped at one end of Europe than it again broke forth at another. For, imme- diately after the ratification of peace in the north, a Spanish fleet took Sardinia and Sicily, but was defeated by a fleet of the English, in 1718; and a quadruple alliance having been formed between England, France, Austria, and Hol- land, the above-mentioned exchange of Sardinia for Sicily, and the elevation of the duke of Savoy as king of Sardinia, (in exchange for Sicily,) were hereby effected, A. D. 1720. But the death of Augustus, king of Poland, which took PROVINCE OF BRANDENBURG. 335 place in 1733, gave occasion to renewed war, which arose as follows. The electing nobility of Poland were not unanimous in their choice of a new sovereign ; some pre- ferring Augustus II., the elector of Saxony ; and others, Stanislaus Leszinski. His son-in-law, the French king, Louis XV., interested himself for the latter ; but a Russian army compelled him to throw himself into Dantzic ; and upon the approach of the Russians to that port, which they seized in 1734, he was obliged to hasten on board one of his own vessels, and make his escape to France. Mean- while the Spaniards had gained advantages by their arms in Italy, whereby Austria, that had also declared for Stanislaus, found it necessary at once to treat for peace ; which, however, was not fully concluded till 1738. In the artful terms and adjustments of this peace, the policy of the French minister was very characteristic; for this treaty obliged the emperor, Charles VI., to make important sacri- fices for the sake of his domestic policy ; as, having no male heir, he had drawn up a settlement of inheritance, which received the name of the Pragmatic Sanction, the acknow- ledging of which by the other states of Europe was what he wished to obtain at all events. This settlement or- dained, that all the Austrian territories should pass to the next heir by primogeniture, consequently, to his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, at his decease; and in return for the sanction of it, he engaged to accept the other articles of the treaty. By these articles the elector of Saxony retained the crown of Poland ; Stanislaus also retained the title of king, and had Lorraine given him in lieu of Poland ; the duke of Lorraine received instead of it the grand dukedom of Tuscany, the house of Medici having become extinct in 1737 ; and Lorraine, after the demise of Stanislaus, was to escheat to France. To Prince Charles of Spain the emperor gave up Naples and Sicily, and received in return the duchies of Parma and Placentia. While Austria was a loser in this respect, it had also, after od6 THE PAPAL POWER AT THIS PERIOD. its unsuccessful war with the Turks, which lasted from 1735 to 1738, to resign to them Belgrade, Servia, and part of Wallachia. Brandenburg, under the great elector, rose from an insignificant German province to such eminence as was soon to become a focus of European history. By his hos- pitable reception of the fugitive Hugonots, and by other wise measures, he promoted agriculture and manufacturing establishments in his country, and hereby so aggrandized it, that his son, Frederic III., could undertake the obtain- ing of regal dignity to his family. Thus, in 1701, Prussia was ranked among kingdoms. Frederic William L, the son of Frederic III., who reigned from 1713 to 1740, a prince of firm and resolute character, sometimes harsh, but of strict integrity, and rather a soldier than a scholar, secured to the new kingdom its place among the powers of Europe, by his military establishments and his well- disciplined and effective army. Prussia was also, in his reign, the asylum of the Salzburg Protestants, who fled from the persecution moved against them by the bishop of that country, in 1731. X.— THE PAPAL POWER AT THIS PERIOD. The popes had all along endeavored to uphold their claims in Germany, but without much effect. Thus Clement XL, A. D. 1700-1721, still sought to exercise the prerogatives which the Papacy had been suffered to enjoy in the dark middle ages ; but now another age had arrived, that was not so easily to be imposed upon ; this, however, Clement either did not or would not see. He offended the emperor, Joseph I. The earlier emperors exercised the right of precedency in recommending to all vacant benefices ; but the pope was pleased to dispute this as an imperial right with Joseph L, and to consider it as a mere personal matter of Papal favor. Upon this, however, THE PAPAL POWER AT THIS PERIOD. 337 he was obliged, in substance, to yield to the firmness of the emperor, though he took care, as usual with Papal policy, to have his own claims acknowledged, at least in form. The pope had again the disadvantage in another quarrel with Joseph I. The conquest of Parma having been provoked by the conduct of the clergy^ the emperor taxed them with part of the war expenses ; hut the pope, insisting that Parma was a Papal fief, disputed his right to do this, and threatened him with excommunication for con- tumacy in maintaining it. He was compelled to come to terms with the emperor, and to relinquish his protestations ; upon which occasion he was brought, likewise, to renounce the connection which he had formed with France against the imperial interest. In a contest about ecclesiastical rights in Sicily he was likewise obliged to yield. Against the elevation of Prussia into a kingdom, Clement XL protested with all his might, as if he had anticipated that this country would become as a strong wall of protection to Protestantism ; but his opposition was fruitless. Benedict XIII., his next successor but one, A. D. 1724-1730, was involved in a quarrel with Portugal, which ended with a renunciation of the pope's authority on the part of that country, in 1739 ; and he endeavored in vain to effect the canonization of Gregory VII., because the consent of the European princes to such a measure would have impHed their approbation of Gre- gory's principles of Papal government. The Romish Church, on the other hand, sought to make good its loss of territory and influence in Europe, by new acquisitions in other quarters of the world ; and herein the Jesuits were specially helpful to its aims. As Popery retained its pre- ponderance in the south of Europe, while the north decidedly inclined to Protestant liberty ; so also in South America did Popery gain the upper hand ; while in North America Protestantism was paramount. In the Portuguese settle- ments in the East Indies not only did the Romish Church in general, but the Inquisition in particular, as at Goa, ob- 15 338 RELIGIOUS STATE OP EUROPE. tain firm footing. And in China, and the countries bor- dering upon it, the Jesuits, under the cloak of science, introduced a Romish Christianity, in some respects assimi- lated to heathenism; which, amid many a bloody persecu- tion, has been retained by a small number to this day, and which, even in its Papal deformity, was not without some instances of individual pious missionaries and converts. On the other hand, in Japan, where the Jesuit missionaries interfered with political concerns, they were compelled entirely to withdraw ; and the Japanese have ever since been inexorably averse to Christianity, and to all free communication with the western world. XL— RELIGIOUS STATE OF EUROPE. The attempts that were made in the Protestant Church to unite its divided parties had proved unavailing ; the dis- tinction between Lutherans and the Reformed remained as wide as ever ; and as the synod of Dort, in 1618, gave the church of the Reformed in the Netherlands a definitive ex- terior form of its own, so was a perpetual system of doctrine and discipline molded in the Swiss Reformed Church, in 1675, by its formula consensus, (formulary of agreement.) The case of the Protestant churches was that of a tree, which, the more it grows and gains a stronger trunk, the more lofty is its show of leaves and fruit ; and yet, the larger it becomes, the more woody is it within among the branches, so that, by little and little, it fails of its fruitful- ness. Then the gardener takes a fresh young scion, and plants it in a separate place in the garden, that it may also become a tree. Now, as the trees of Protestantism — for so we may call the various Protestant communions — were thus grown more and more woody, God provided that new communions should grow up in fresh and youthful life and power. Such was the revival he brought about by Spener, ■who, at a period of deplorable lukewarmness, introduced RELIGIOUS STATE OF EUROPE. 339 into evangelical Christendom more life and vigor, by in- sisting, with pious fervor and judicious zeal, on the distinc- tion between external dead orthodoxy, and real heartfelt conversion to God ; by setting before men, in a convincing manner, the difference between dead and living members of the church, and by endeavoring to bring this home to the consciences of its professed members ; a thing he could not effect without great opposition. Such, also, were the revivals God effected by Zinzendorf, who gathered about him the remains of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, and, in the year 1722, sought the building of primitive communities on the plan of their ancient tried and approved doctrine and discipline. Such was, also, what God wrought in England by Venn, Wesley, Whitefield, Romaine, and others, who broke away from the deathly cold and stiff formality of their day, and labored with great success to plant, in England and America, a renewed and vital Chris- tianity, despising persecution and opprobrious names. We are not to be surprised if there be seen growing, by little and little, even upon these fresh plants, a superfluity of unfruitful wood and bark, and unhealthy incrustations, for this is the nature of human things. The vitality of these Christians has been shown, especially in zealous labors for the conversion of the heathen, in which the}^ have dis- played at once quite different notions from those which inspired the converting methods of the middle ages, and the missions of the Romish Church, in that they have looked, not to the number, but to the excellence of their converts, and have used no other means of conversion than the power of the word of God. As early as in the year 1697 had been formed in Eng- land the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Fo- reign Parts ; and, at the commencement of the eighteenth century, was established the Danish Missionary Society. In the year 1733 the church of the United Brethren be- gan their labors among the heathen ; and some time after 340 FREDERIC II. OF PRUSSIA, this, the Methodists entered upon their endeavors for the conversion of the negro slaves in the West Indies. A fresh breeze of spiritual life, about this time, passed over the Protestant Christian Church ; and though the various forms which the general revival assumed were molded either after the respective forms of church govern- ment among which they arose, or by the personal charac- ters of the men from whom they proceeded, or by other circumstances, yet it everywhere appeared that men were dissatisfied with the old stiff and cold religious formality, and were longing for a vernal season of spiritual life. Even in the Papal communion something of this descrip- tion was perceivable, among the Mystics, Quietists, PietistSy and some other classes of Roman Catholics ; and in the Greek Church, those who were called the people of the ancient faith were a contrast to the dominant system. The opposition, and, in some instances, the persecution, which those parties had to experience from the dominant churches, preserved them from lukewarmness and inaction. And there was a beneficial reaction which they imper- ceptibly wrought upon the parties that opposed them; and whether in arousing to emulation those from whom they were shut out, or by working like leaven among those in whose external connection they remained, its importance was still the same, and preserved the visible church from more general and fatal laxity. XII.— FREDERIC IT. OF PRUSSIA, AND MARIA THERESA. In the year 1740 the male line of the house of Haps- burg, having given to Germany sixteen successive em- perors, had become extinct. The throne of Prussia was filled by Frederic II., who raised his kingdom to become the second German power, and put all Europe in motion by his wars ; while, by his patronage of French education, he laid Germany open to a flood of infidelity. In the AND MARIA THERESA. 341 same year the throne of the apostate western church was mounted by Benedict XIV., the first pope who, of his own accord, began to see that the period for unlimited Papal dominion over crowns and consciences was gone by ; a fact to which his successors have become willfully blmd. Superstition had long passed its meridian, and the darkness of infidelity had succeeded it to a very considerable extent. Wlienever superstition and bigotry shall regain ascend- ency, and become allied with infidelity, then will there, indeed, be suffering days for Christendom. Charles VI. had purchased, at a dear rate, the recog- nition of the Pragmatic Sanction : but the policy of this period no longer partook of the simpler and more honest principles of former ages ; it was now governed by mere self-interest. That emperor had no sooner departed this life, on the 20th of October, 1740, than ambition was dis- played in all quarters to obtain a share of his dominions. Frederic II., who had substantial claims to some Silesian principalities, invaded Silesia before the end of that year ; for his thrifty father had left him an army of seventy thou- sand well-disciplined men, and plenty of money. He de- feated the Austrians near MoUwitz ; and as Bavaria, Saxony, Spain, and France, had joined him with the same ambitious views, a large part of Austria, together with Bohemia, was reduced to their dominion, and the partition of Austria among themselves was now resolved on. The elector of Bavaria was made king of Bohemia, and even emperor of Germany, in 1745, with the title of Charles VII. Maria Theresa, the daughter and heiress of the late em- peror, Charles VI., applied to her faithful Hungarians, and, with their aid, she expelled the allied enemy from Austria and Bohemia. Moreover, George II., of England, brought an army to her assistance, drove the French out of Germany, and induced Frederic II. to make peace. The Austrian troops marched into Bavaria, and occupied the whole country : the emperor, Charles VII., fled to 342 FREDERIC II. OF PRUSSIA, Frankfort, and died in that same year, 1745, at Munich. His son was obliged to recognize the Pragmatic Sanction ; and Francis, of Lorraine, who had married Maria Theresa, was chosen emperor, by the name of Francis I. Mean- while, Frederic II. had invaded Bohemia a second time, and had gained one victory after another ; likewise, a French army, under Marshal Saxe, had successfully op- posed the power of Austria in the Netherlands. Peace, however, was effected with Frederic, in 1745, at Dresden ; and even France acceded, in 1748, to the peace of Aix-la- Chapelle, after the empress, Elizabeth of Russia, had sent a Russian force into Germany to the assistance of Maria Theresa. Silesia was, by this treaty, given up to Prussia ; and Parma and Placentia to Spain. Thus terminated the war about the Austrian succession. How changeable politics at that time were, is evident from the seven years' war that not long afterward broke out. Maria Theresa, who employed the interval of peace in effecting wise and beneficial arrangements for the do- mestic government of her states, had still looked all along with no little dissatisfaction at the wresting of Silesia from her dominions, and had watched for an opportunity of re- covering it. Eight years had hardly passed since the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, when preparations were again on foot for another war. In the former contest for Silesia, the king of England had rendered her important help ; but now he became her enemy, by taking part with Prussia. The former hostile aUiance had been designed for the partition of Austria itself; but now Austria, Russia, Saxony, and France, united for the partition of Prussia. England had a quarrel with France respecting the North American colo- nies; as also the design of obtaining a protection for Hanover, which belonged to her king, against France. Brunswick, likewise, and Hesse, took the side of Frederic. The latter did not wait till he should be attacked, but marched his troops into Saxony by surprise, took Dresden, and made AND MARIA THERESA. 343 the Saxon army prisoners, A. D. 1756. This brought a declaration of war against him from the electoral princes themselves, and Frederic was now menaced with danger on every side. Victory and defeat went on, alternating on both sides during the succeeding years, in which Fred- eric lost the hard-fought battle of Kunnersdorf, 1759, and his condition was by every one considered desperate, till he was again successful in the battles of Liegnitz and Tor- gau. Frederic's entire self-possession, his wise improve- ment of circumstances that were overlooked by others, and his quickness of discernment and penetration, allowed him not to despond in the most critical situations, but always prompted him to some means of relief. Indeed, it was God who upheld and prospered him : had Prussia fallen, the main support of Protestantism in Geraaany had fallen with it ; and this monarch was destined to bear a conspicu- ous part in the great political movements of Europe during many years to come. After the unexpected death of the Russian empress, Elizabeth, in 1762, circumstances changed very considerably in favor of Prussia. Her successor, Peter III., immediately made peace ; and the other powers, being weary of the impoverishing war, followed his exam- ple. Unimportant as appeared the first occasion of the war, nearly all Europe had become more or less involved in it ; and it was one consequence of the new politics, that nearly every war affected all Europe ; a consequence to which the undue concern to preserve the balance of power had not a little contributed. While in Germany, Austrian, Russian, and French armies were conflicting with the Prussians and the English, France and England were also prosecuting the war in their American colonies, and like- wise in India, Africa, and wherever these two nations had colonies or ships. Thus the seven years' war, as formerly that of the thirty years', extended to most parts of the globe. The French had lost nearly all their transmarine posses- sions, and were obliged to relinquish them to England, at 344 FREDERIC II. OF PRUSSIA, the peace of Versailles, in 1763 ; but at the peace of Hu- bertsburg, which in the same month was concluded between Austria and Prussia, all on the continent was restored to its former footing, and Maria Theresa was obliged to re- sign Silesia to the Prussians, which it had been so much her object to gain. Frederic II., having, in the first half of his forty-six years' reign, shown himself to be the greatest general in Europe, enjoyed considerable repose during the remainder of his days, and was thus enabled, without molestation, to engage in improving the interior government of his country; but, once more, at nearly the close of his life, a contest arose between him and the emperor, Joseph II., concerning the claims which the latter made to a portion of Bavaria. This contest is, therefore, called the war of the Bavarian succession ; but it never openly broke out, and a treaty in 1779 put an end to it without a single battle. Prussia had suffered exceedingly in the seven years' war, and it re- quired much time and attention to heal its many and severe wounds. Frederic applied himself in a fatherly maimer, and with powerful effect, to that purpose ; and though he did not please his subjects by the introduction of toll and excise, and the monopoly of tobacco, yet they could not but be convinced, by his other regulations, by the many proofs he gave of his love of justice, by his laboriousness and con- descending conduct, that he had their prosperity at heart. On the other hand, the partition of Poland, a work which was concerted and executed by Frederic IL, in conjunction with Russia and Austria, remains altogether inexcusable. What these three powers still left of Poland continued in powerless dependence, till some years afterward this also was entirely dismembered. It is true, the condition of that country was so bad, that, sooner or later, such must have been its fate. Its king had no authority ; the numerous nobility did as they pleased ; and the agricultural population, who were mere serfs, were grievously oppressed. While AND MARIA THERESA. 345 everywhere, in the middle and west of Europe, a more free and liberal condition of the community, and legal constitu- tions far more effectually based, had become developed, and especially by the influence of the Reformation, the Poles still were held in the trammels of the middle ages, without any abatement ; and the consequence of this back- wardness to follow the march of the times was either to feel the violence of neighboring nations, or, which was equally destructive, to burst into change at once, and to spurn, with maddened impatience, all intermediate grada- tions of development. Both these effects were experienced by Poland. The former was from the three great powers, Prussia, Austria, and Russia ; the latter was from the infi- del and revolutionary spirit of France, which spread much more rapidly in Poland than in other countries, and the matured fruits of which our own times have so lately wit- nessed throughout the continent of Europe. Frederic IL, as a man and a king, deserved beyond many others the name of " the Great." His presence of mind and his spirit of prompt decision, his unshaken firmness and inexhaustible fertility of expedients in war, his unwearied diligence, his love of order and justice in peace, were exemplary. But, to Christian discernment, his character, in other respects, appears lamentable. His education had represented Christianity to him in a very unfavorable hght, and his strong prejudices in favor of French manners and French literature, together with the dry and formal manner in which learning was then prose- cuted in Germany, were the means of his becoming allured into intimacy with the fearfully increasing infidelity of France, and with those self-styled free thinkers, who rejected the inspired v/ord of God, and substituted their own notions in its stead. Among these stood pre-eminent the wretched blasphemer Voltaire ; and though Frederic clearly discerned his low, dishonest, and vulgar character, as the slave of avarice and of other vices, yet he idolized his 15* 346 RUSSIA. wit and acuteness, and overlooked the badness of the man for the sake of his great but disgracefully misapplied talents. Thus was this originally plain-mmded, and once well-inclined king seduced, so that he refused to concede to God and his word, to Christ and his disciples, that jus- tice which he so conscientiously accorded to his fellow-men in general. Or, more properly speaking, Frederic II. had a mind remarkably open to what is beautiful and great ; he was a person of magnanimity and sympathy, of equity and firmness ; but for that which is of the highest value, and of the utmost importance, for the truth revealed to mankind by God in Christ, he had no mind ; he was what the world calls a great man, but he was not a Christian. XIII.— RUSSIA. Peter the Great had endeavored to raise his people from barbarism, and by his encouragement of navigation, com- merce, and manufactures, had introduced a new epoch in the history of his country. But all endeavors of this sort are found to fail of the desired effect, unless the Christian education of the people, by the establishment of schools and by the diffusion of the word of God, go with them hand in hand. Moreover, the trammels of the Greek Church, and the great influence of its ignorant clergy, put insurmountable obstacles in the way, and thus hindered their advancement into more civilized life, so that education was almost entirely restricted to the higher ranks. Nor was any remarkable progress of the kind made under Peter's immediate successors, Catharine I., 1725-1727, Peter IL, 1727-1730, Anna, 1730-1740, Iwan III., 1740, Elizabeth, 1741-1762, and Peter III., 1762. Court intrigue, and the dominion of favorites, with quarrels about the right of succession, and dethronements by violence, pro- duced much general disquietude. More vigorous and important was the reign of the empress Catharine IL, THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. 347 1762-1796, who by successful wars, especially against the Turks, enlarged her dominions, was a patroness of learn- ing, planned wise arrangements for the interior, and exer- cised no inconsiderable influence in the national affairs of Europe. Since her days, Russia has taken an active part in all the political movements of the world. But Catharine also was an instance of one called great by the world, while really wretched and miserable, from being under the dominion of infidelity and sinful lusts. XIV.— THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. In Austria, the German empress Maria Theresa reigned till the year 1 780. Her wars with Frederic II. have been already noticed ; and she was equally zealous and more successful in her endeavors to rule her subjects with pa- rental care. Her great activity and beneficence, her love of equity, her tolerance toward those of a different creed, and her enlightened views, to which Austria owes the removal of that instrument of torture, the rack, and the Inquisition; also her zeal in establishing and improving schools for general instruction, acquired for her the affection of her subjects, and made her memory valued by posterity. Her son, Joseph II., trod in her steps, and lost no time in en- deavoring to get rid of remaining abuses in church and state, as if he had anticipated the shortness of his reign. But, as he had not sufficient patience to wait till these amendments should be willingly received through the diffu- sion of more enlightened ideas, he put them forth at once by his own imperial authority ; and as he did not live long enough to habituate his subjects gradually to such new arrangements, they fell to the ground after his decease. He abolished the law which restricted the freedom of the press from making any remarks on the proceedings of government ; and he thus availed himself of public opinion, as a means of learning what change or amendment might 348 THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. be made for the general good. In criminal punishments and judicial awards he showed no respect of persons ; but the richest and greatest were amenable to the same penal- ties as the lowest ranks. He was also as accessible to the latter as to the former, and refused audience to none who had any complaint to bring before him. He was not fond of any remarkable expressions of homage, and labored with all his might to banish luxury. If these things made some men his enemies, his innovations in ecclesiastical matters made him still more ; for upon these the bigoted Romish clergy, both openly and secretly, did everything in their power to thwart him. Benedict XIV., who attained the Papal dignity in the year 1740, was an educated and scientific man, who was determined to think for himself; and he perceived that the Romish Church could not keep her influential position un- less she kept pace with the times, and this especially by improving the education of her clergy. For this reason he made it his chief care to effect a sort of reformation in the Romish Church, and he even meditated lessening the number of its holy days — a thing which, however, from the great opposition it met with, he was constrained to post- pone. He endeavored to keep peace with the princes of Europe, and succeeded in restoring a good understanding with Portugal. From pursuing a still more important un- dertaking, the abolition of the order of the Jesuits, his death alone prevented him, in the year 1758. His suc- cessor, Clement XIII., was elected through Jesuit influ- ence, and being entirely of the old Papal principles, he issued a bull for the protection of that order, but could not prevent the expulsion of its members from Portugal, and was obliged to let a German bishop go unpunished who liad written in strong language against the Papacy. Nei- ther could he do anything to humble the duke of Parma, who had curtailed the privileges of the clergy in his do- minions, although he tried against him the old and worn- THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. 349 out weapon of excommunication. For the Bourbon princes sided with the duke, and made use of the more effectual weapons of temporal power, from which nothing but death delivered him, in the year 1769. The succeeding pope, Clement XIV., {GanganelU, 1769-1774,) pursued the policy of Benedict XIV., and, after wise preparations, abolished the order of the Jesuits, in 1773 ;* therefore it is no wonder that he was taken off by poison in the follow- ing year. The history of the popes, since the year 1740, shows clearly that the period of humiliation to the pope- dom had arrived. The emperor, Joseph II., labored to render the Roman Catholics in his dominions independent of the pope. For this purpose he suffered no Papal rescript to be published without his own approval ; he abolished appeals to Rome, put the monastic orders under subjection to the bishops, and aimed at restoring to the latter their original diocesan independence. Neither ecclesiastical acknowledgments in money, nor ecclesiastics themselves, were permitted any longer officially to travel to Rome. Convents of friars and of nuns, unless some useful employments could be proved as belonging to them, were abolished, and new parishes were endowed out of their revenues. In vain were all the pope's remonstrances ; in vain his visit to Vienna; the emperor treated him courteously, but took care that he should be closely watched, and that he should in due time return without effecting anything. Similar efforts for ecclesiastical reform in the grand dukedom of Tuscany, and in the German electoral archbishoprics, were only frustrated in consequence of this emperor's death, which took place in 1790, and because his successor, Leo- pold II., did not inherit the same state of mind. But, after a time, the Papacy arose with its former strength, and its determined opposition to the best interests of man- kind. * Its restoration is uieutioned afterward. 350 WAR OF INDEPENDENCE IN NORTH AMERICA, XV.— WAR OF INDEPENDENCE IN NORTH AMERICA. In the history of England, from the succession of the house of Hanover under George I. to the time of George III., besides the prominent part, ah-eady spoken of, which this country took in the contentions between Austria and Prussia, three events of great importance are principally to be noticed : the naval war which was carried on between Eng- land and France, on account of the North American posses- sions, and which began in 1756 ; the conquest of Bengal at the same period, together with the establishment of the power of the English East India Company, which has gTeatly ex- tended the commerce and power of England ; and, lastly, the war with the North American colonies, which ended in their independence. The English had laid taxes upon them, and had injured their trade by restrictions : to these the Americans were resolved not to submit, and thus pro- voked the English to adopt still severer measures. At length, in 1776, thirteen provinces declared themselves independent of the mother country ; this produced an open war, in which the American general, Washington, by his prudence and courage, and with the help of France and Spain, got the better of the English in 1781. Two years afterward, England found it necessary, at the peace of Paris, to acknowledge the independence of the thirteen United States, which immediately proceeded to settle their own constitution of government. The congress is their supreme council, which consists of two chambers, the sena- torial and the representative. Its president, who is elected every four years, and whose office was first filled by Wash- ington himself, is the general director of affairs. Every degree of personal liberty is guarantied by this constitution, beyond what has ever yet been done in any other civilized country ; hence it is to be regarded as a new attempt to bring about the welfare of mankind, and FRANCE AND THE PROGRESS OF INFIDELITY. 351 that happy state of things which men in general have so long and so ardently desired. Full liberty is allowed to all of whatever creed : every religious fraternity is pro- tected in its own civil right to worship God after its own way ; but it must also find its own means of support. In this manner have the most opposite religious parties settled together in the United States, and have had more or fewer adherents. Many such parties have been counted, most of whom are of the Protestant profession. Notwithstanding all that is promised by the republican institutions of the United States, there are serious indica- tions that they will be severely tried ere long ; for they are not only threatened with great dangers from private and personal selfishness, but from the opposite interests of the several states. Tlie continuance of slavery in some of the states of America is a gi'eat evil and reproach, aggra- vated by their pretensions to be lovers of liberty. XVI.— FRANCE AND THE PROGRESS OF INFIDELITY. Louis XIV. was succeeded by his great-grandson, Louis XV., 1715-1774, during whose minority, continuing till 1723, the kingdom was governed by the duke of Orleans. Unbridled licentiousness rose to an enormous height in the French court, and its example had the most injurious in- fluence upon public morals. Nor did things become better when Louis XV. personally assumed the government; for he was a man of no principle or character, but cared only for the gratification of his passions, and suffered himself and his people to be governed by unprincij)led ministers and vile mistresses. Thus France became involved in wars that were attended with the loss of her military glory and of her colonies, and with an enormous increase of the national debt. The disagreements between the court and the parliaments proceeded to a degi-ee of rancor that un- settled the whole nation ; and, meanwhile, the writings of 352 FRANCE AND THE PROGRESS OF INFIDELITT. the French infidel philosophers, which were widely circu- lated, and read with avidity, were supplanting, in the hearts of the people, all moral and religious principle, and consequently all civil obedience. There had ever, from time to time, been seen existing in Christendom individu- als, and indeed whole sects, who had been wont to raise doubts respecting some one or more of the articles of the true Christian faith; and especially since the days of Arius, who lived about the year 325, there had been skep- tics upon the doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity. The deep apostasy of the Romish Church, at about the period of the Reformation, produced this among other conse- quences, that, in Italy in particular, there were many such people to be found ; as that also in Transylvania there was an organized ecclesiastical body of Unitarians. These after- ward were joined by the Socinians, who likewise originated from Italy : they still longer enjoyed unmolested religious Hberty in Poland, and subsequently found a refuge in Eng- land and America. Beyond these went the so-called Free- tkmlcers, the Deists, and the NataraUsts, who became con- spicuous in England and France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; and in Germany they had individual adherents and imitators. While English and French free- thinkers erected for themselves, upon mere human philoso- phy, a distinct and specious system of pretended truth, and utterly rejected divine revelation, those in Germany aimed at uniting their own invented notions with the truths of Scripture, by wresting, deforming, and diluting the latter ; or they labored to disprove the authenticity of important texts ; or they set up their own reason in judgment upon the word of God, and received, as truth, only so much of the latter as the former approved of. But most success attended the diligence of those enemies of truth, the French philosophers, as they called themselves, who were not satis- fied with the rejection of particular points of Christian doc- trine, but meditated the entire overthrow of revealed reli- THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 353 gion. These men, such as Voltaire, Maupertuis, D' Argens, La Mettrie, and others, assailed the Christian religion and its ministers with sparkling wit, raillery, and malignity ; and these ingredients, together with their fascinating and elegant style of writing, made way for the introduction of their books, by means of translations, among the fashion- able and educated circles of Europe, and hence among the people at large, not only throughout France, but Germany also, and other countries. Henceforth some affected to regard the institutions of religion as nothing but engines of state, intended to keep the ignorant in order. And peo- ple the jnore readily fell in with these new notions of infi- delity, because they were notions that favored the lusts of the depraved human heart ; for they had their very origin in the immorality and levity of the French nation. XVIL— THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. With the French apostasy from the living God was necessarily connected the dissolution of political society ; for, under every government which is not held together by absolute despotism, obedience can be insured only by a sense of religion. Rousseau, D'Alembert, Diderot, and others, had not only labored in their writings to overthrow Christianity, but also sought to overturn all existing go- vernments ; and the disgraceful inefficiency of the French government, with the miserable management of the reve- nue, served to increase the people's desire for a change. Little regard was paid by them to the facts and experience of past times, or to rights of however long standing ; in- deed, the government itself, by its faithless and unprinci- pled policy, under a long succession of monarchs, had set a bad example, and corrupted the moral sense of the peo- ple ; and a great part of the existing rights, if they may be so called, were in fact oppressions upon the mass of the people, in favor of what were called the privileged orders. All these evils working together produced, at 354 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. length, that dreadful revolution in France, which, by its violent shocks, convulsed and changed the countries of Europe. Louis XVL, who, since the year 1774, had been on the throne of France, required no ordinary firmness and wis- dom to meet the critical condition of the country, and the violent fermentation of all parties, to maintain his own au- thority, and to remedy the mighty mischief. Although he would have been an estimable man in private life, having many good qualities, yet he had not the wisdom, the firm- ness of character, and the prompt decision which such a time demanded. The disposition whieh, in more peaceful times, would have rendered him a beloved and prosperous governor, facilitated his overthrow. By the ancient law of France, the nobility and priests were entirely exempt from government imposts and taxes : these were borne by the mercantile and middle classes, and by the peasantry ; and, at such a time as the present, when the load of na- tional debt was so great, and extravagance so profuse, these burdens had become intolerably oppressive. That the middle classes would no longer endure this with pa- tience is the less to be wondered at ; because the people felt that this wide distinction of ranks, and the luxuries of the one at the expense of the other, were unnatural and un- reasonable. Louis was, at length, prevailed upon to call together the States General, which had never been con- vened since the year 1626. This assembly consisted of six hundred deputed clergy and nobility, and the same num- ber of commons ; and they met on the 15th of May, 1789. But they soon disagreed among themselves, and the com- mons separated from the rest, and called themselves the Constituent National Assembly. These were immediately joined by many of the nobility and clergy, who voluntarily laid aside their high titles and privileges. The populace, stirred up by the duke of Orleans, and by other enemies of the king, began to commit great disorders, demolished THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 355 the state prison in Paris, which was called the Bastile, and even menaced the safety of the royal family. In August, 1789, the National Convention abolished all the privileges of rank, and proclaimed the liberty and equality of all French citizens. Most of the court, and a large part of the nobility, having left France, the king himself attempted to do the same, on the 20th of June, 1791, but was stopped on the road, and brought back to Paris. In the new con- stitution, which the constituent assembly published on the 3d of September, 1791, Louis was allowed to remain king, but with little more than the shadow of authority ; and the new assembly, the National Convention, the majority of which consisted of enemies of royalty, called Jacobins, de- clared, on September 21st, of the next year, all kingly authority abolished, and constituted France a republic. Previously to tliit, an Austrian and Prussian army had in vain attempted to restore the absolute authoi'ity of the king, by invading France: the royal family were im- prisoned; and, by the month of September, 1792, some of the leading revolutionary demagogues had committed dreadful massacres in the metropolis. But the king's ene- mies were not content with having despoiled him of his crown, they determined to put him to death. He was ar- raigned before the convention, and although half of its members, indeed all but five, wished to save his life, yet he was publicly beheaded, by the guillotine, on the 21st of January, 1793 ; his queen, Marie Antoinette, a prin- cess of the house of Austria, whose conduct had long be- fore made her an object of great dislike, shared the same cruel fate on the 1 6th of the following October. In proportion as the revolutionary mania increased in France, it became more infectious in other countries. As the volcanic shocks, which forty years before destroyed Lisbon, extended also through Asia, and beyond, namely, across the ocean as far as Peru, so did the revolutionary spirit pass through various countries of the earth. In St. 356 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Domingo, in the West Indies, there were proceedings as tumultuous as those in Paris. The National Convention, by setting up the principle that all kings must be extir- pated, virtually summoned all nations to rebellion. Many estimable persons in Germany were seized with the revo- lutionary mania, and advocated it for awhile, until its greatest horrors had come to their maturity. And their having done so was not without influence, in producing that unhappy sequel, which ensued after the attacks made upon France by the European powers, led on by England. The French armies, conducted by experienced generals, fought most vigorously ; and, among the armies brought against them, many a hand was slackened by the notion, that the French were only fighting in the cause of the op- pressed. The French soon made themselves masters of all the German possessions beyond the Rh'ne, together with Belgium and Holland. But while, by theii- splendid victo- ries, they were recovering the military glory which they had lost in the seven years' war, the condition of Paris, under the mad misrule of the Jacobins, Marat, Danton, Robes- pierre, and others, was the bitterest satire upon the loudly extolled liberty of the French people. France presented at this time a most shocking scene of barbarities. Politi- cal parties persecuted and crushed one another in rapid succession. Blood was shed like water ; and no persons were secure of life against whom could be raised the slight- est suspicion of discontent with the new misrule, or who had incurred the private resentment of any one in au- thority. The pretended liberty consisted only in the cir- cumstance, that the strongest who happened to preside at the helm for awhile, had it in his power to commit the most dreadful acts of injustice, without being immediately called to account. The infatuated rage of the nation was not satisfied with having no longer a king ; it would not even endure the thought of God as above itself. The antichristian character of this revolution could not be con- THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 357 cealed. On the ISth of November, 1793, the cathedral of Paris was converted into a temple of reason, and a wo- man of ill fame was carried about in procession as the goddess of reason, when it had been publicly declared that there was no God in heaven. Withm a few days after this, two thousand Popish churches in France, whose priests had been driven away, were converted into temples of reason and banqueting houses ; and the sabbath, which had long been openly profaned, as is generally the case in Popish countries, was abolished. When this raging mad- ness had cooled a little, a public declaration was issued, on the 4th of May, 1794, that the French nation acknowledged the Supreme Being, and the immortality of the soul, and a festival was ordered for the Supreme Being. At length when Robespierre, who had ruled with uncontrolled des- potism, had breathed out his dark soul at the guillotine, 1794, and the French had begun to be weary of their in- testine scenes of blood and tyrannical oppressions, the Na- tional Convention was dissolved, on the 26th of October, 1795, and a new government was formed under the name of the Directory, consisting of two chambers, the council of ancients, and the council oifive hundred, and an executive of five directors. The wars which were carried on by France, in Upper Italy, and in the Upper and Lower Rhenish provinces, as well as the commotions in other countries connected with the same, occasioned such perpetual alterations in the sys- tem of state partition, that the most recent maps of Europe were almost useless. A second partition of Poland took place in 1793, and a third in 1795 ; the Austrian Nether- lands, Savoy, and Nice, were conquered and consigned to other hands. Mantua and Milan fell, and the Rhine was made the boundary of France. Prussia, Sweden, Spain, and Tuscany, made peace with France in 1795 ; Austria, in 1797 ; and in this same year was opened the congress of Rastadt. 358 THE FRENCH REYOLUTION. England, for the most part, was quietly enjoying the blessings of internal peace, while the continent was being rent by revolution and war. At the same time that im- provements were being made in the affairs of the kingdom at home. Lord Cornwallis had subdued Tippo Saib, and had compelled him to pay a large sum of money, and to cede a great part of his dominions to England. Pope Pius VI. had from the beginning shown himself opposed to the principles of the revolution, on account of its threatening the entire subversion of his church, and had pronounced his anathema against it ; but such ecclesi- astical weapons had now become blunted and harmless. The French carried him off as a prisoner to France, where, however, he persisted in asserting his dignity with inflexi- ble firmness, and died in the year 1799. Meanwhile, Napoleon Bonaparte, a bold French gene- ral, (who was born in Corsica, 15th August, 1769,) having signalized himself in the campaigns of Upper Italy, had undertaken an adventurous expedition to Egypt, for the purpose of oj)ening an overland communication with India, in order to wrest the commerce of the East out of the hands of the English. In the year 1798 he seized Malta; and, after a successful battle near the Pyramids, he ob- tained possession of all Egypt; but the British admiral, Nelson, destroyed the French fleet in the bay of Aboukir; as he had before destroyed the French flotilla designed for a descent on England. A new war being now declared against France by Austria, Russia, England, and Turkey; together with the perplexed and inefficient state of the French government ; Bonaparte was compelled to return to Europe, in 1799. He hurried back with all speed to Paris, and put down tJie Directory ; whereupon came to be tried, under the name of the Consulate, a fourth experi- ment for the government of France. Three consuls, as- sisted by several inferior bodies of directors, were appointed to hold authority for ten years ; and Bonaparte, as first NAPOLEON, EMPEROK OF THE FRENCH. 359 consul, henceforth made it his prime object to bring back France (which had suffered several losses of late) to the height of triumph. And, indeed, with the aid of General Moreau, he became in a short time so successful, that every government, between the years 1801 and 1803, made peace with France. This peace, however, was not of long continuance. XVIIL— NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH. As the consulate of ancient Rome merged into imperial power, so, in a very little time, did the consulate of France ; and to this the political constitution tended by degrees. Out of the five directors came three consuls, and out of the three consuls came one consul for life, (Bonaparte,) in the year 1802 ; and only two years after this, on the 18th of May, 1804, was the single consul elected emperor of the French, by the name of Napoleon I. Henceforth he was distinguished by his carrying the selfish principle to its highest pitch, by his making everything subservient merely to his own interests, by his total disregard of rights and persons, and by his openly aiming at universal empire. Thus France again stood at the head of European policy, from which it had been degraded by Prussia, after the death of Louis XIV.; and all the countries of Europe, England excepted, had to endure, under this second Attila, this " scourge of God," Napoleon, a season of humiliation, which might be regarded, at least by Germany, as a right- eous rebuke from Heaven, for the open apostasy of so many from the holy and everlasting gospel. During the war, which again broke out in 1803, Austria, (by the battles of Ulm and AusterUtz, in 1805,) Prussia, (by the battles of Jena and Auerstadt, in 1806,) and Russia, (by the battles of Eylau and Friedland, in 1807,) were made to feel the humbling hand of God, by the arms of Napo- leon. Austria was forced to give up Venice, the Tyrol, 360 NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH. and its western dominions ; the Germanic-Roman empire (which, under the title of Roman, had lasted eighteen hun- dred years,) ceased in 1807 ; and the emperor Francis II., the successor of Leopold IL, was now only emperor of Austria. Prussia lost its possessions between the Rhine and the Elbe, and its portion of Poland. England, which had frustrated Napoleon's attempt on Acre, and had driven the French from Egypt, at the battle of Trafalgar, by her Admiral Nelson, had destroyed the maritime power of France, and taken possession of most of the French and Dutch colonies in ditferent parts of the world, lost Hanover. Against England, Napoleon formed the Confederation of the Rhine, and assumed the title of its " Protector." Ba- varia, Wirtemberg, and Saxony were raised to kingdoms. Hesse, Brunswick, Hanover, and the portion of territory which had been taken from Prussia, were formed into the new kingdom of Westphalia, and given to Jerome, a bro- ther of Napoleon. To Joseph, another brother, Napoleon gave the kingdom of Naples, and to his brother Louis the kingdom of Holland. Italy had previously become a king- dom, which Napoleon took into his own possession. In all countries of the middle and south of Europe territorial pos- session had undergone, within the last few years, frequent changes, which still continued through succeeding years. The royal house of Braganza in Portugal was, in the year 1807, driven to Brazil. The king of Spain was com- pelled by the base treachery of Napoleon, in 1808, to ab- dicate, and Napoleon's brother, Joseph, was removed from the throne of Naples to that of Spain. The crown of Naples was conferred on Napoleon's brother-in-law, Murat. King Louis of Holland resigned his sovereignty, because he found it impossible to comply with Napoleon's restric- tions upon Dutch commerce with England ; and thus Hol- land was added to the French territory, in 1810. Eng- land had taken possession of the Danish fleet, that it might not be turned against her. A fresh war of France with NAPOLEON, EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH. 361 Austria, in 1809, ended with another loss of territory to the latter country ; by which it was cut off from the Me- diterranean. In the same year the Swedish royal family, of the house of Vasa, was dethroned by a revolution ; and soon afterward the French general, Bernadotte, was cho- sen king of Sweden. At Rome, Pius VII. had been elected to the popedom, in the year 1800 ; and though, by the concordat of 1801, he restored a good understanding with France; yet he soon found himself in a contest with the revolutionary leaders. Unfavorable as were the circumstances of the times to the Papal power, he persisted, like his predeces- sor, with iron firmness, in its piinciples and claims, and lost none of his spirit amid the political storms that over- whelmed him. He had, indeed, yielded, in 1804, to anoint Napoleon emperor of the French ; but remaining immova- ble against all further demands of this military despot, he hereby brought upon himself the humiliating seizure of the land of the church, by Napoleon, in 1809, who was not to be deterred by the Papal ban. Napoleon added Rome to the French territory, made the pope his prisoner, and brought him to Fontainbleau. Still Pius VII. would concede nothing; and it appeared that the time for the total annihilation of the Papacy was not yet arrived. Meanwhile, in Spain and Portugal violent opposition was kindled against the French. The hereditary royal families had been driven from those countries ; but the people at large were far from being satisfied with their foreign rulers, and rose in mass against them as oppressors. England came to the assistance of the Portuguese and Spaniards; and, after four years of obstinate fighting, Wellington, the English general, it will be seen, drove the French out of Spain. 16 362 "WAR OP INDEPENDENCE IN EUROPE. XIX.— WAR OF INDEPENDENCE IN EUROPE. Napoleon, in 1810, had come into more peaceful con- nection with Austria, by his marriage of Maria Louisa, the daughter of the emperor Francis II. ; and even Prussia had joined him ; when, in 1812, he determined to fall upon Russia with a war of extermination. He crossed the Russian frontier with an immense army, to which nearly every country of Europe, except England and Sweden, had furnished its contingent. At the commencement of this campaign he was victorious in several battles, and en- tered Moscow, the ancient capital of the Russian empire. Here God had set a bound for him. This large city was set on fire in every part of it, and was burned to the ground : thus the invaders were deprived of spoil and of shelter ; provisions failed ; the Russian army, still not dis- pirited, was on the advance, and Napoleon found himself compelled to attempt a retreat at the most unfavorable season of the year, at the beginning of a Russian winter. All the best calculated expedients, all military talent and skill, were now useless. The cold of a northern winter, to which the French had never been inured, and especially the extraordinary cold of that winter, of 1812, the want of the common supports of life, which was the more felt m consequence of such severe weather, and the Russian army mercilessly pursuing them, swept away hundreds of thousands of them. All order in their retreat was gone ; none could think of anytliing but self-preservation ; and, after the dreadful loss which the passage of the Beresina occasioned, there were only a few masses of the grand army left, and these endeavored with the utmost precipi- tation to escape into Germany. The most insensible could hardly help acknowledging that God had specially inter- posed to effect this deliverance of Europe ; and a hope be- gan to be indulged by the nations that the time was come for breaking in pieces the yoke of the oppressor. The WAR OF INDEPENDENCE IN EUROPE. 363 war was now no longer a matter of political adjustments, but of self-security ; a war of liberation from a military despot, who had resolved to rule over all. The successes of the English army, under Wellington, in the Spanish peninsula, were also signal. He drove the French from Oporto, compelled them to give up their other acquisitions in Portugal, entered Spain, and obtained a brilliant vic- tory at Talavera. The Spanish authorities, however, were so jealous of the superior skill of a foreigner, that they would not support Wellington, and in consequence he did not advance far into Spain, but the English acquired credit for valor, and Wellington for skill as a general. The success of the British in Portugal was justly deemed the principal impediment to the tranquillity of the French in Spain ; and Napoleon, therefore, sent Massena with overwhelming forces to drive the British entirely out of the peninsula. The extent of Massena's forces made it necessary for Wellington to be resolute in his determina- tion to act on the defensive. As Massena approached he retreated before the enemy, leisurely and in order, until attacked at Busaco, when he turned on his pursuers and thoroughly defeated them. Wellington still saw reason for retreating, his numbers being small in comparison with Massena's. He fell back on the impregnable lines of Torres Vedras, where he resolved to remain till famine should compel Massena to retire. The French were astounded at Wellington's having halted at Torres Vedras. The marshal, Massena, supposed that the British were hastening to their ships, according to the words of Napo- leon, who, in a contemptuous manner, had threatened to compel them to flee thither as their only safety. Massena knew that it were madness to attack his enemy, and there- fore had no option but to retire, or to sit down and watch the English position. Wellington was not mistaken. Hunger and disease were making worse havoc than the sword could have done, and WAR OF INDEPENDENCE IN EUROPE. Massena's only escape from destruction was an instant re- treat. The retreat was marked by every species of wanton cruelty and revengeful rapine. Wellington followed closely on his rear, and the British were, almost without exception, successful in their attacks. Massena was recalled, and Marmont was appointed as Wellington's opponent. The success of the British had no doubt been far more signal, but for the glaring ignorance or mismanagement of the Spanish generals. Wellington besieged and took Ciudad Rodrigo and Ba- dajoz, and Marmont proved more unsuccessful than Mas- sena in opposing him, and by an injudicious movement gave Wellington an opportunity, which he instantly seized, of totally routing the French. The British general availed himself of his successes, and pushed his way to Madrid, where he was received with enthusiasm ; but Spanish jea- lousy again operated, and made it imprudent for him to remain there. These successes gave the more favorable opportunity for the northern nations to unite against the French auto- crat. The Prussians were the first to fall away from Napoleon : they rose against him as one man, under the command of General Bliicher ; and though Napoleon, having reinforced himself with fresh troops, gained the battles of Liitzen and Bautzen, in May, 1813, yet he was worsted in other encounters. lYhen Austria likewise de- clared against him, and had proposed the general emanci- pation of Germany, he was so totally defeated in the great national battle of Leipsic, on the 18th of October, 1813, that he fled with the utmost speed to France. The three sovereigns, Frederic William III., of Prussia, the emperor, Francis II., of Austria, and the emperor, Alexander, of Russia, gave God the glory, and publicly offered thanks for this wonderful help and deliverance. Napoleon's bro- ther, Joseph, had already been driven from Spain, through the utter defeat of the French army at Vittoria, by Wei- WAR OF INDEPENDENCE IN EUEOPE. 365 liiigton ; for the Spanish Cortes, by many painful lessons, having been taught the folly of the jealousy of their gen- erals, gave the command of their armies to Lord Welling- ton. By a series of splendid operations, he drove the French from their positions on the Ebro and the Douro, and compelled them to leave the country, or fight a pitched battle to preserve their conquests ; and Joseph adopted the latter alternative, in which he was completely de- feated, with the loss of his artillery, baggage, and military chest. After the battle of Leipsic, the allied armies advanced across the Rhine, and, after Napoleon had thrown many a serious obstacle in their way, and occasioned them many a loss, they took possession of Paris, on the 31st of March, 1814. In the mean time Wellington had more than once defeated Soult, had taken Bordeaux and Toulouse, and thus had opened his way into France. Napoleon, who by his despotic government had also given dissatisfaction to a considerable part of the French nation, was now dethroned, and banished to the isle of Elba. The Bourbon family was restored, with Louis XVIIL, the brother of the mur- dered Louis XVI., to the throne of France ; and the na- tion was obliged to give up all the territory which, since the year 1792, it had takpn from other countries. A congress of the allied sovereigns met at Vienna, on the first of November, 1814, to deliberate on a settlement of the present afl:airs of Europe. But as yet all was not suffered to be quiet. Most unexpectedly, on the first of March, 1815, Napoleon again appeared in France, was received by the French with great demonstrations of joy, and had, by the time he reached Paris, again mustered an army around him. The Bourbons were obliged to flee, and the European powers had to renew the war. In the great battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras, and Waterloo, which began on the 16th, and terminated on the 18th of June, the desti- nies of Europe were again decided, by the firmness with 366 "WAR OP INDEPENDENCE IN EUROPE. which the English troops maintained their ground under Wellington, against Napoleon at the head of his chosen troops. Thus Napoleon was defeated by the English and Prussian armies, the former commanded by the duke of Wellington, and the latter by Marshal Bliicher ; and soon after he abdicated the crown. The English, to whom he sur- rendered, when he found he could not hope to escape by sea to America, placed him in the island of St. Helena, where he was allowed personal liberty, but closely guarded, and cut off from all further intercourse with Europe. By the time that the news of his death, by an hereditary disease, arrived, in 1821, a new period and a new order of things had commenced. France, though compelled to indemnify the allies for a very considerable amount in the expenses of the war, yet was, upon the whole, very gently handled, as if the entire blame had been suffered to rest on the head of her banished chief. She was again restricted within her boundaries of the year 1790, had to give up to Prussia a portion of the left bank of the Rhine, to restore Upper Italy to Austria, and to surrender several of her colonial possessions to England. Russia now obtained the greatest part of Poland ; another part of that country, with the province of Saxony, was allotted to Prussia. Belgium and Holland were united into one kingdom of the Netherlands, and assigned to the house of Orange. Hanover, Savoy, Naples, Spain, and Portugal, were restored to their rightful sovereigns. In Germany there was formed, by articles agreed to on the 8th of June, 1815, the alliance of the German states, at their meeting for that purpose in Frankfort, which contains thirty-eight greater and lesser sovereign states. CHANGE TO THE PRESENT STATE IN EUROPE. 367 XX.— CHANGE TO THE PRESENT STATE OF THINGS IN EUROPE, A. D. 1839. On the 26th of September, 1815, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, formed what was called " the holy alliance ;" to which nearly all the European powers, except England and the pope, acceded. State policy, as grounded hitherto upon a mere physical equilibrium, had now proved its own nothingness; and these powers professed henceforth to make religion the groundwork of all policy, and to subject national affairs, both foreign and domestic, to the princi- ples of religion. But the question must be asked, What did these powers mean by religion ? We much fear, not that of the New Testament. Yet open and avowed in- fidelity was thus brought more and more into contempt. Some desire for the support of religious principles was evinced by men in various countries ; this appeared by the jubilee of the Reformation in 1817, and by the Bible and other societies, and the increasing number of living wit- nesses to the truth in the pulpits : neither was it any longer regarded as a mark of polite education to despise or slight the gospel. But, as has been the case hitherto in every age of the Christian church, the number of real disciples has continued to be vastly the minority, and the multitude at large have looked for their welfare in the improvement of their temporal condition, not in a spiritual life and conversation, and in serious and entire conversion and obedience to God. The gospel had now gained in general estimation ; but the nations of Europe, notwith- standing some of their eminent princes have nobly come forward with the acknowledgment, have not gone so far as to admit the principles of the gospel as their rule in all mutual relations. It has been too generally thought, that sufficient respect is paid it, by giving it a place collaterally with other sources of knowledge and rules of life, instead 368 CHANGE TO THE PRESENT STATE IN EUftO^E. of exalting it above all others. The attention of men in general has been chiefly turned to the reforming of politi- cal constitutions, and they have been expecting all kinds of good from the restoration of a representative system, which indeed has been effected in several German states, but has proved no radical cure for national evil; and why? Because such a cure requires that Christ, before all things, should govern those representative bodies themselves from which the amendments and improvements have been looked for. But the distrust which this sort of constitution implies, with respect to princes as such, could not fail to increase, by reason of those disappointed expectations in the people which had been raised : and with such a distrust we find intimately connected that lawless revolutionary spirit, which has never entirely been got rid of; and this is a spirit of antichristianity, which works in opposition to all order and subordination. This spirit of individual self-will has received a mani- fest increase from another quarter, namely, from the Papacy; which, ever since its restoration, has boldly grasped, as with the arms of a polypus, whatever seemed likely to be profitable in the new state of things. Pius VII., having, in 1814, regained his liberty and ecclesiasti- cal patrimony, at once set about reviving the old principles of Popery. For this purpose, in 1814, he reinstated the order of the Jesuits in their former privileges and efficiency, and labored to the utmost to recover his influence over Germany, where the ecclesiastical princes had lost all their spiritual power. His successor also, Leo XII., 1823-1829, labored in the same spirit ; he anathematized, as Pius VTI. had done in 1816, the Bible Societies, rebuilt the prisons of the Inquisition, and solemnized a Papal jubilee in 1835. On the one hand, indeed, and corres- pondently to the return to the Christian faith on the part of Protestant Germany, there had appeared in the Roman Catholic countries a revival of attachment to the Popish CHANGE TO THE PRESENT STATE IN EUROPE. 369 Church ; but, on the other hand, a multitude of revolution- ary ideas and projects had become rife, in consequence of the unsettled state of things during the war. The Papacy, while it sought to suppress this spii'it, and to bring not only civil but religious liberty once more into bondage and im- plicit submission, hereby stirred up that active opposition which has labored to vent itself in the commotions of Spain, since 1820 until now ; as it also did in Italy, Portugal, Naples, and Piedmont, during the years 1820 and 1821. But in the most striking manner of all was shown, by the revolution in France, in 1830, how much the Papal system of oppression had been really helpful to the plans of the movement party, which had all along been secretly increasing. Charles X., who, in 1824, had suc- ceeded his brother, Louis XVIII., in the government, and upon whom the warnings of the revolutionary period had been expended in vain, had made it his endeavor to sup- press the new constitution of France, and thus provoked the people to a most violent resistance, which ended only with liis dethronement and banishment, and with the eleva- tion of Louis Philippe of Orleans to the government of the French. This event ran like electricity to other countries, and occasioned new revolutionary exertions abroad. The Belgians tore themselves away from Holland, and chose Leopold of Saxe Coburg as a king of their own. The Poles endeavored, by a powerful insurrection, to regain their long lost independence ; but, after an indignant struggle, they again succumbed to the superior strength of Russia. The spirit of insurrection broke loose likewise in the German states ; but showed itself more in secret con- spiracies than in open rebellion. Already had the Spanish provinces in America, as Mexico, Guatimala, Colombia, Peru, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, since the year 1810, and after long and sanguinary conflicts, obtained their inde- pendence. The Greeks, with the aid of the European powers, freed themselves from the Turkish yoke; and 16* 370 CONCLUSION. afterward obtained Otlio of Bavaria as their king. And in Portugal and Spain, since 1831, have the principles of a more liberal form of government found acceptance with many, and have introduced a greatly altered state of things. The Papacy has suffered considerable losses by all these movements and changes ; but without resigning, on that account, any one of its claims or hopes. England, which alone of all the nations of Europe had remained all along spared from hostile invasion, sought, by some changes in her constitution, to provide against violent revolution, for which, even in that country, there was no want of materials and desires ; and in this she has reaped the reward of her having more steadfastly adhered to the doctrines of the word of God, of her having openly declared her reverence for things sacred, and of her manifold labors (though these indeed have been rather the work of private individuals than of the nation) to extend the divine blessing to Chris- tian as well as heathen countries, by means of Bible, Mis- sionary, Tract Societies, and other Christian benevolent institutions. CONCLUSION. The history of mankind has, according to the chronology of some, already completed a course of about six thousand years ; and has all along hitherto come short of its grand object. All the powers of man have, in their course, either successively or together, been put forth in the attempt to bring about the happiness of the world. Power and liberty, great empires and petty states, the luxury of wealth, the simplicity of rustic life, and the arts and sciences, all in their turn have been proposed and applied, as means for gecuring the welfare of mankind, and yet have not fur- nished the remedy. The Son of God himself has come from heaven, and by his sufferings, death, and resurrection, has become the Redeemer of our race ; a Deliverer, who in his own body and blood has opened the spring of a new CONCLUSION. 371 life and of a complete restoration. But individuals only have hitherto been effectually liberated thereby ; the fami- lies of mankind at large are still in the bondage of inward corruption, and in a pitiable outward condition conformable to it. As long as all swords are not beaten into plough- shares, and all idols of the world not cast into the holes and caves of the earth, to the moles and to the bats, the kingdom of God cannot be said to prevail among men. The present policy of nations has indeed, in some measure, directed itself to bring about a peaceful order of things, and is endeavoring, with consummate skill, to unravel the knots which have been formed by manifold entanglements in all directions ; but success to its plans is another thing, which lies quite beyond its command ; and lasting peace on earth is not to be expected by mere human policy, but only by the power and grace of God. The political condition of Europe is at present upon an artificial stretch, whose breaking might happen in an in- stant, if we consider the mistrustful mutual vigilance and sensitiveness of the respective governments ; and this is only prevented by the divine power, working through the instrumentality of men. It has appeared to depend mainly on the diplomatic prudence and management of the several governments, and not without strenuous exertion on their part for that purpose. England and Russia are as the two opposite poles, in this system of policy. To the former, adhere France, Holland, and Belgium, and repre- sent with it the liberal constitution ; to the latter, adhere Prussia and Austria, the supports of the monarchical prin- ciple. The guaranty of popular freedom consists, with the former, in the balance maintained between each govern- ment and the popular will as expressed by parliaments ; with the latter, it rests solely on the personal character of the respective monarchs, and in the firmness with which they maintain their principles. The knot of their political difficulties is found in the entangled affairs of the Eastj 872 CONCLUSIOK. and in this respect it is sought to preserve the balance of power against Russia, by supporting the Turkish empire, which of late has become much endangered, and of whose approaching extinction, warning appears to be given in the words of prophecy ; while there is jealousy at Russia's increasing maritime strength, at its influence in Turkey and Persia, and at its attempts to obtain a share in the commerce of India. The exertions of the pasha of Egypt to extend his dominion, and to render himself independent, form an important part in this entanglement. The condition of the United States of North America is still more and more developing itself, as its population and culture are continuing rapidly to increase ; proving an asylum for the oppressed of Europe, and offering a home to wanderers from every land. Upon this great and growing nation the hopes of the world, as connected with tlie cause of civil and religious liberty, to a great extent depend. The re- publics in Central and South America remain in a state of ferment ; and as they want the solidity of a reli- gious basis, little good is at present to be expected from them. Of Asia, the inhospitable north is under Russian do- minion, and its nomadic population is hardly above the lowest degree of civilization. "Western Asia is suffering under disquietudes, which the approaching fall of Moham- medanism brings with it. And the vast empire of China, which comprises nearly a third of the population of the globe, has, till the year 1843, kept itself in its political and religious exclusiveness, and for many centuries has stood at one and the same degree of culture. What the present openings may have to do in the development of human history can be known only by posterity. Africa is bordered on all sides with European colonies ; but the interior, with its dense population, is, for the most part, an unknown region ; and it is only by the horrible annual exports of slaves that it has contributed its CONCLUSION. 373 contingent to the history of human cultivation and de- velopment. It is reserved for coming years to raise its multitude of nations into historical importance ; but that this is to be done by the influence of Christianity, rather than by any human policy, is what we are taught to expect by the word of God. The same may be said of all the greater and lesser tribes of Austral Asia and Polynesia. The isles of the Pacific, indeed, already present a more general reception of Christianity than any other of the lands of the heathen. Meanwhile, we see the individual states of Europe zealously endeavoring to attain to the highest degree of outward prosperity, by pushing in every direction the occu-> pations and improvements of their national powers. Steam navigation, canals, railways, manufactures, mercantile companies, and many other enterprises of the kind, are accomplished with surprising celerity. If such things have, on the one hand, the salutary effect of drawing off men's thoughts from revolution, they are, however, partly to be regarded, on the other, as a novel way of error, by which the nations are led to lose sight of the only satis- fying source of real welfare, and become confirmed in the notion that human evil is to be remedied from beneath, rather than from above. Besides this, there is but too much reason for apprehending, that the very means which are now affording such facilities to commerce may prove fearfully instrumental in the spread of evil, and in the quicker execution of plans of extensive mischief; but still they present increased facilities for good, and evidently form a leading feature in the rapidly accelerating develop- ment of the vast plans of divine Providence. While, however, we contemplate the Christian world in general, as more and more led away after merely human expedients, and trusting in " the things that are seen" for their recovery of true happiness, we still can say, that the power of divine truth is showing itself as anything but a 374 ' CONCLUSION. . f'?^^ spirit of slumber; and inconsiderable ^[S'-tfiig flock of Christ's real disciples may yet appear, in comparison with the population of the earth, it is evident that God has of late, from one period of ten years to another, given them no insignificant triumphs, and multiplied his blessing on their labors. Through Missionary Societies, Religious Tract Societies, and Bible Societies, which have arisen both before the beginning of the present century and subsequently, in England, Germany, North America, and France, incalculable benefits have, under the divine blessing, been spread abroad, both in Europe and in heathen lands ; and the faith of the evangelical church of God, much as it has been assailed by anti-evangelical persons, or rather by covert infidels bearing the Chris- tian name, who have labored both in preaching and writing to wrest or explain away the marvelous truths of divine revelation, has, nevertheless, weathered every storm, and gained a general respect at the present period. Moreover, the humanly invented systems of unsound philosophy are found melting away one after another, before the light of gospel truth. Many have begun to see their folly, and are renewing their homage to Christ, as at the foot of the cross ; the doctrines of which are daily gaining increased acceptance, and evincing by their power, that Messiah rules in the midst of his THE END. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 1 Oxide 200? Neutralizing agent iMaonesium Oxide Treatment Date MAr PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER (N PAPER PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 160S6 (724) 779-2111