4. C. king of the people of God, his victories, his presump

A. M.

tion in sacrificing without priests, his disobedience ill justified by the pretence of religion, his reprobation, his fatal fall. In this period Codrus, king of Athens, laid down his life to save his people, and by his death procured them victory. His sons, Medon and Nileus, dispute the kingdom. On this occasion the Athenians abolished the regal dignity, and declared Jupiter sole king of the people of Athens. They created governors, or perpetual presidents, but liable to give account of their administration. These magistrates were called Archons. Medon, son of Codrus, was the first who exercised this magistracy, and it continued a long time in his family. The Athenians spread their colonies over that part of the lesser Asia which was called Ionia. The Eolian colonies were planted much about the same time, and all the lesser Asia was filled with Grecian cities. After Saul, appears a David, that admirable shepherd, the vanquisher of the proud Goliath, and of all the enemies of the people of God; a great king, a great conqueror, a great prophet, wor thy to sing the wonders of divine omnipotence! a man, in 2070 short, after God's own heart, as he himself terms him, and who, by his penitence, made his very crime turn to his creator's glory. To this pious warrior succeeded his son, the wise, the just, the peaceful Solomon, 1012. Whose hands, undefiled with blood, were judged worthy 2992. to build the temple of God.

1055.

1035.

1014.

VI. E

poch.

temple

2919.

2990.

ABOUT the 3000th year of the world, the 488th 000. Solo- from the departure out of Egypt, and to adjust the the times of sacred history_ with those of profane, 180 years after the taking of Troy, 250 before the foundation of Rome, and 1000 years before Jesus Christ, did age of Solomon finish that stupendous edifice. He solemnized World. the dedication of it with an extraordinary piety and 1001 magnificence. This celebrated action is followed by

ed.

Fifth

the

other wonders of Solomon's reign, which ends with 3001.
shameful weaknesses. He gives up himself to the love
of women; he fails both in head and in heart, and his

A. C. piety degenerates into idolatry. God, though justly A. M. provoked, yet spares him in remembrance of David his servant; but would not suffer his ingratitude wholly to pass unpunished: He divided his kingdom after his $75 death, and under his son Rehoboam. The brutal 3029. haughtiness of this young prince made him lose ten tribes, whom Jeroboam turned aside from their God, and from their king. To prevent their returning to the kings of Judah, he prohibited their going to sacrifice at the temple of Jerusalem, and set up golden calves, to which he gave the name of the God of Israel, that the change might seem the less strange. The same reason made him retain the law of Moses, which he interpreted in his own way; but caused al- xii. 32. most all its polity, as well civil as sacred, to be observed; so that the Pentateuch continued always in veneration among the seceding tribes.

969.

817.

1 Kin.

Thus was the kingdom of Israel set up against the kingdom of Judah. In that of Israel, impiety and idolatry triumphed. Religion, though often overclouded in that of Judah, still kept some footing there. In those days the kings of Egypt were powerful. The four kingdoms were united under that of Thebes. It is thought Sesostris, that famous Egyptian conquer- s035. or, was the Shishak king of Egypt, whom God made the instrument of chastising the impiety of Rehoboam. In the reign of Abijam, son of Rehoboam, we see the famous victory which the piety of that prince obtained over the schismatic tribes.

His son Asa, whose piety is commended in scripture, 3087. is there described as a man, who in his sicknesses, relied more upon the aid of medicine, than upon the 924. goodness of God. In his time Omri king of Israel 3080 built Samaria, where he erected the throne of his 11. kingdom. This period is succeeded by Jehoshaphat's 3000. admirable reign, wherein flourish piety, justice, navigation, and the art of war. Whilst he exhibited another David to the kingdom of Judah, Ahab and his wife Jezebel, who reigned in Israel, to the idolatry of

F

897.

3107.

A.C. Jeroboam added all the impieties of the Gentiles. A. M. 399. They both perished miserably. God, who had bore $105. with their idolatries, resolved to avenge on them the blood of Naboth, whom they had caused to be put to death, because he bad refused, as the law of Moses enjoined him, to sell them the fee of the inheritance of his fathers. Their sentence was pronounced to them by the mouth of the prophet Elijah. Ahab was slain some time after, notwithstanding the precautions he 892. took for his safety. About this time must be placed 3112. the foundation of Carthage, which Tyrian Dido built in a situation, where, after the example of Tyre, she might trade to advantage, and aspire to the empire of the sea. It is not easy to fix the time, when it took the form of a commonwealth; but the mixture of the Tyrians and Africans made it a city at once martial and 383. mercantile. The ancient historians, who put its ori- $116. gin before the destruction of Troy, would make it conjectured, that Dido rather enlarged and fortified it, than that she laid its foundations. The face of affairs changed in the kingdom of Judah. Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, brought impiety along with her into the house of Jehoshaphat. Jehoram, the son of so pious a prince, chose rather to imitate his father-in-law, than his father. The hand of God was upon him. His reign was short, and his end dreadful. In the midst of these chastisements, God wrought unheard of wonders, even in behalf of the Israelites, whom he was willing to call to repentance. They saw, unconverted, the miracles of Elijah and Elisha, who prophesied during the reigns of Ahab and Marm. five of his successors. In this period Homer flourish

Arund.

ed, as did Hesiod thirty years before him. The primitive manners which they represent to us, and the vestiges of the ancient simplicity, which they still with great dignity retain, are of no small use to our understanding antiquities much more remote, and the divine 634. simplicity of scripture. Behold now dreadful scenes $120. in the kingdoms of Judah and Israel! Jezebel, by Je

A. C. bu's order, thrown headlong from the top of a tower! AM. In vain bad she painted her face, and tired her head: Jehu trampled her under his horses feet: he smote Joram king of Israel, the son of Ahab: the whole house of Abab was extirpated, and had well nigh drawn that of the kings of Judah into its destruction. King Ahaziab, son of Jehoram king of Judah, and of Athaliah, was slain in Samaria with his brethren, as being a kinsman and friend to the children of Ahab. As soon as this news was brought to Jerusalem, Athaliah resolved to despatch all that remained of the seed royal, without sparing her own children, and to reign by the destruction of all her family. Only Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, a child yet in the cradle, was stolen from the fury of his grandmother. Jehosheba sister of Ahaziab, and wife of Jehoiada the high-priest, hid him in the house of God, and saved that precious remnant of the house of David. Athaliah, who believed him murdered with the rest, lived without fear. Lycurgus now gave laws to Lacedemon. He is blamed for having Plato calculated them al for war, after the example of Mi- de nos, whose institutions he had followed, and for having viii. de little provided for the modesty of the women while, Arist in order to make soldiers, be obliged the men to so la- lib. i borious and temperate a life. Nothing was stirring in c.9. Judea against Athalia; she thought herself quite secured by a reign of six years. But God was bringing her up an avenger in the sacred sanctuary of his temple." When he had attained his seventh year, Jehoiada 3126. showed him to some of the chief captains of the royalarmy, whom he had carefully prepared for such a discovery; and with the assistance of the Levites, he crowned the young king in the temple. All the people readily acknowledged him the heir of David and of Jehoshaphat. Athaliab, upon hearing the noise, coming up to quell the conspiracy, was dragged without the ranges of the temple, and received the treatment which her crimes deserved. So long as Jehoiada lived, Jehoash caused the law of Moses be kept.

178

Rep. I.

leg.lib.

Polit.

859.

825.

810.

$165.

3194.

AC. But after the death of that good priest, being corrupt- AM. ed by the flatteries of his courtiers, with them he gives 310. himself up to idolatry. The priest Zechariah, son of 3164. Jehoiada, made bold to reprove him; and Jehoash, unmindful of what he owed to his father, commanded him to be stoned. Vengeance quickly overtook him. The year following Jehoash, defeated by the Syrians, and fallen into contempt, was assassinated by his own servants; and Amaziah bis son, a better man than he, 3179. was placed upon the throne. The kingdom of Israel, brought low by the victories of the kings of Syria, and by civil wars, recovered its strength under Jeroboam II. more pious than his predecessors. Uzziah, otherwise called Azariah, son of Amaziah, governed the kingdom of Judah with no less glory. This is that famous Uzziah, who was smitten with leprosy, and so many times reproved in scripture, for having, in his latter days, presumed to invade the priest's office; and for having, contrary to the probibition of the law, offered incense on the altar of perfumes. He was obliged to be separated from the people, king as he was, according to the law of Moses; and Jothamn his son, who was afterwards his successor, governed the kingdom wisely. Under the reign of Uzziah, the holy prophets, the chief of whom at that time were Hosea and Isaiah, began to publish their prophecies in writing, and in particular books, the originals whereof they deposited in the temple, to serve for a monument to posterity. The prophecies of lesser extent, and orally delivered, were registered, according to custom, in the archives of the temple, with the history of their respective times. The Olympic games, instituted by Her- 322 cules, and long discontinued, were revived. From this revival are deduced the Olympiads, whereby the Grecians reckoned their years. At this period ended the times, which Varro calls fabulous, because till this date profane history is full of confusion and fables; and the historical times begin, wherein the affairs of the world are related by more faithful and distinct narra

*76.