chants and traders, with a great deal of money about them to buy slaves; who brought fetters also and manacles with them of all sorts to secure their prisoners." 。

But however Tyrants, for a while, may be permitted to flourish, yet their end is generally marked by the particular displeasure of God. They may, for a time, be allowed to gratify their inordinate and wicked passions, but their end is destruction. This was signally exemplified in Epiphanes; for in the midst of the cruel persecutions, which he carried on against the Jews, he was hastening to ruin: For "tidings out of the East and out of the North shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palaces between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain: yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him" ( v. 44, 45 ).

He did indeed " plant the tabernacles of his palaces between the seas in the glorious holy mountain." For he planted "his absolute regal authority in Jerusalem, which stood in a mountainous situation between the Mediterranean sea and the sea of Sodom; for it was built in the midway betwixt both on the mountains of Judea. P But" tidings out of the East and out of the North shall trouble him: And therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many." "For in the North, Artaxias king of Armenia his tributary had revolted from him; and in Persia which was in the East, his taxes were no more duly paid. For there as well as in other parts of his empire, a failure herein was caused by reason

o Jos. L. 12. c. 11.

P Prid. v. 2. p. 205.

of the dissension and plague, which he had brought upon them by taking away the laws, which had been of old time among thein, out of fond desire of bringing all to an uniformity with the Greeks...And, therefore, for the remedying of this, as well as other inconveniences, which then perplexed his affairs, he resolved to divide his army into two parts, and to leave one of them with Lysias, a nobleman of the Royal family, to subdue the Jews; and with the other to march himself first into Armenia, and afterwards into Persia, for the restoring of his affairs in those countries. And accordingly... He passed over mount Taurus into Armenia, the North-and having vanquished Artaxias, and taken him prisoner, marched thence into Persia-the East-hoping that by taking the tribute of that rich country and the other provinces of the East, for which they were in arrear to him, he should gather money sufficient, wherewith to repair all the deficiences of his treasury, and thereby restore all his other affairs to their former order and prosperity. "q

But still Epiphanes "shall come to his end, and none shall help him." "For on his passing into Persia to gather up the arrears of tribute, which were there due to him, being told that the city of Elymais in that country was greatly renowned for its riches both of gold and silver, and that there was in it a temple of Diana, in which were vast treasures, he marched thither with intent to take the city, and spoil that and the temple in it, in the same manner as he had done at Jerusalem. But the people of the country and inhabitants of the city, beat him off with shame and confusion, and he retired to Ecbatana in Media greatly grieved for this baffle and disappointment. On his arrival

thither news came to him of the defeat of his armics in Judea; which so enraged him that he hastened back with all speed to execute his utmost wrath upon the Jews, and to extirpate them. In his journey he met other Messengers, who informed him how the Jews had defeated Lysias, recovered the temple of Jerusalem; pulled down the images and altars, which he had there erected; and restored that place to its former worship. This so enraged him that he vowed he would make Jerusalem, the sepulture of the Jewish nation, and destroy them to a man. But while these proud words were in his mouth the judgments of God overtook him; for he was immediately smitten with an incurable plague in his bowels and inward parts, which nothing could abate. Still he drove onward most furiously; when, his chariot being overturned, he was cast to the ground with such violence, that he was sorely bruised and hurt in all the members of his body, and was taken to a town called Tabæ, lying in the mountains of Parætacene in the confines of Persia and Babylonia, where he took himself to his bed and suffered horrid torments both in body and mind. For in his body a filthy ulcer broke out in his secret parts, wherein were bred an innumerable quantity of vermin continually flowing from it; and such a stench proceeded from the same, which neither himself nor his attendants could endure; and in this state he lay languishing and rotting till he died. And all this while the torments of his mind were as great as the torments of his body, caused by his remorse for his former conduct... Nor can I forbear here remarking that most of the great Persecutors have died the like death, by being smitten of God in the secret parts. Thus died Herod the great Persecutor of Christ and the infants at Bethlehem; and thus died

Galerius Maximianus the author of the tenth and greatest persecution against the first Christians; and thus also died Philip the second, king of Spain, as infamous for the cruelty of his persecutions, and the numbers destroyed by them, as any of the other three." r

The death of Antiochus Epiphanes, who, as we have shewn, came to his end, without any being able to help him, afforded relief to the Jews: For "at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: And at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book" (xii. 1). The arms of the Jews triumphed under Judas: He followed up the success which he had gained against the forces of Epiphanes, and defeated those of his Son and successor Antiochus Eupator. For though both Epiphanes and Eupator brought vast armies against the Jews, yet they were defeated with disgrace and immense loss. For Judas "hearing how the neighbouring nations of the heathens had confederated to destroy the whole race of Israel, and had already begun it, by cutting off as many of them as were within their power... he marched out with his forces to be revenged on them; and, whereas, the Edomites had been the most forward in this conspiracy, and having joined with Gorgias, who was governor for the king of Syria, in the parts thereabouts, had done them much mischief, he began first with them; and having fallen into that part of their country, which was called Acrabattene, he there slew of them, no fewer than

Prid. v. 2. p. 202. Usher's an. p. 443.

Josep. L. 12. c. 13.

twenty thousand men... After this Judas passed over Jordan, into the land of the Ammonites, where he had many conflicts with the enemies of the Jews, and, having slain great numbers of them, took Jazar, with the villages belonging thereto, and then returned into Judea. The successes obtained by Judas greatly exasperated Lysias, who raised an army of eighty thousand men, with all the horse of the kingdom, and eighty elephants, and marched with all this power to invade Judea, purposing to make Jerusalem an habitation for the Gentiles, and to make a gain of the temple, as of the other temples of the heathens, and to set the High-priesthood to sale; and being entered the country, he begun the war with the siege of Bethsura... But there Judas falling upon him, slew of his army eleven thousand foot, and sixteen hundred horsemen, and put all the rest to flight. Upon this, Lysias made peace with Judas and his people, which peace Eupator ratified... By the terms of this peace, the decree of Epiphanes for the obliging of the Jews to conform to the religion of the Greeks, was wholly rescinded, and liberty was granted them every where to live according to their own laws. And thus were the people delivered, when Michael the great prince of the Jews stood up for their defence and safety. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever (xii. 2, 3): i. e. many of those that are in mean and abject situations, and are reduced to great extremities, by Antiochus' tyranny, shall rise from their oppressed condition: some on account of their adherence

Prid. an. 164, 3.