727

27

24

22

730

732

734

20

739

15

742

12

747

7

A. R. B. C. able to preserve it, kills herself after Antony: Rome stretches out her arms to Cesar, who, under the name of Augustus, and title of emperor, remains sole master of the empire. He subdues, towards the Pyrenees, the revolted Cantabrians and Asturians: Ethiopia sues for peace: the Parthians, in fear, send him back the standards taken from Crassus, with all the Roman prisoners: the Indies court his alliance: the Rheti, or Grisons, feel the force of his arms; from which their mountains cannot defend them: Pannonia acknowledges him: Germany dreads him; and the Weser receives his laws. Victorious by sea and land, he shuts. the temple of Janus. The whole earth lives in peace under his power, and JESUS CHRIST comes into the world.

753

754

A. D.

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the world.

X. Epoch. The Birth of Jesus Christ.

WE are at length arrived at the times, so much desired by our fathers, those of the coming of the Messiah. This name signifies the CHRIST, or the Lord's anointed; and JESUS CHRIST deserves it as priest, as and last age of king, and as prophet. It is not agreed in what precise year he came into the world; but it is allowed, that his true birth some years precedes our vulgar era, which, however, we shall follow, with all others, for the sake of convenience. Without disputing further about the year of our Lord's birth, it is sufficient that we know it happened about the 4000th year of the world.

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Some place it a little before, some a little A. D. after, and others precisely in that year; a diversity which proceeds as much from the uncertainty of the years of the world, as of that of the birth of our Lord. Be that as it may, it was about this time, 1000 years after the dedication of the temple, and the 754th year of Rome, that JESUS CHRIST, the eternal son of God, and temporal son of Abraham and David, was born of a virgin.

This Epoch is the most considerable of all, not only for the importance of so great an event, but also because it is that from which Christians have, for many ages, began the computation of their years. It has besides this remarkable in it, that it pretty nearly coincides with the time, in which Rome returns to a state of monarchy, under the peaceful empire of Augustus. All the arts flourished in his time, and Latin poetry was carried to its highest perfection by Virgil and Horace, whom that prince encouraged, not only by his favours, but also by granting them a free access to his person. The birth of JESUS CHRIST was quickly followed by the death of Herod. His kingdom was divided amongst his children; but the principal share was not long before it fell into the hands of the Romans. Augustus ended his reign with great glory. Tiberius, whom he had adopted, succeeded him without opposition; and the empire was acknowledged hereditary in the house of the Cesars. Rome had much to endure from the cruel policy of Tiberius: the rest

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16

17

19

28

30

A. D. of the empire was tolerably quiet. Ger manicus, nephew of Tiberius, pacified the rebel armies, refused the empire, beat the proud Arminius, pushed his conquests as far as the Elbe, and having attracted, with the love of those people, the jealousy of his uncle, that barbarian occasioned his death, either by grief or poison. In the fifteenth year of Tiberius, St. John Baptist appears: JESUS CHRIST receives baptism from this divine forerunner: the eternal Father acknowledges his well-beloved Son by a voice from heaven: the Holy Ghost descends upon the Saviour, under the peaceful emblem of a dove: the whole Trinity manifests itself. There begins, with the seventieth week of Daniel*, the preaching of JESUS CHRIST. This last week was the most important, and the most noted. Daniel had distinguished it from the rest, as the week, wherein the covenant was to be confirmed, and in the middle of which the ancient sacrifices were to lose their efficacy. We may call it the week of mysteries. In it JESUS CHRIST established his mission and doctrine, by numberless miracles, and afterwards by his death. This happened in the fourth year of his ministry, which was also the fourth year of the last week of Daniel; and after this manner is that great week found exactly intersected by the death of our Saviour.

Thus the computation of the weeks is easy to make, or rather is made already.

* Dan. ix. 27.

50

We have only to add to 453 years, which A. D. will be found from the 300th year of Rome, and 20th of Artaxerxes, to the beginning of the vulgar era, the 30 years of that era which we see come down to the 15th year of Tiberius, and the baptism of our Lord; these two sums will make 483 years of the seven years which yet remain to complete 490, the fourth which makes the middle one, is that in which Jesus Christ died: and all that Daniel prophesied, is evidently_contained within the term he set down. There would even have been no necessity for so much exactness, nor does any thing oblige us to take in so strict a sense the middle marked by Daniel. The most difficult would be contented with finding it in some point between the two extremes. This I take notice of, that those, who may think they have reason to place a little higher, or a little lower, the beginning of Artaxerxes's reign, or the death of our Lord, may not straiten themselves in their calculation, and that those who would attempt to embarrass a thing clear, by the quibbles of chronology, may lay aside their fruitless subtlety.

The darkness which covered the whole face of the earth at noon-day, and at the moment of JESUS CHRIST's crucifixion*, is taken for an ordinary eclipse by heathen writers, who have mentioned that memorable event. But the primitive Christians,.

Matth. xxvii. 45. Phleg. 13. Olymp. Thal. Hist. 3. Tertull. Apol. 21. Orig. 2. cont. Cels. & Tr. 35. in Matth, Euseb. & Hieron, in Coron. Jul. Afric. ibid.

30

A. D. who spoke of it to the Romans as a prodigy recorded, not only by their own authors, but even by the public registers, have shown, that neither at the time of the full moon, when JESUS CHRIST died, nor in the whole year, in which that eclipse was observed, could any one have happened, that was not supernatural. We have the very words of Phlegon, Hadrian's freedman, quoted at a time, when his book was in every body's hands; as well as the Syriac histories of Thallus, who followed him; and the fourth year of the 202d Olympiad, marked in Phlegon's annals, is that of the death of our Lord.

To complete the mysteries, JESUS CHRIST rises from the grave the third day; he appears to his disciples; he ascends into heaven in their presence; he sends them the Holy Ghost; the church is formed; persecution commences; St Stephen is stoned; St. Paul is converted. A little after Tiberius dies. Caligula his grand-nephew, his son by adoption, and his successor, astonishes the world with his cruel and brutal folly he causes himself to be worshipped, and commands his statue to be set up in the temple of Jerusalem. Chereas rids the world of this monster. Claudius reigns, notwithstanding his stupidity. He is dishonoured by Messalina his wife, whom he demands back, after causing her to be put to death. He is next married to Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus. The Apostles hold the council of Jerusalem*, in which

* Acts xv. 6.