Y

which of the two contending monarchs is victorious. To confirm thefe propofitions, let us confider with how much eafe Egypt has always been fubdued. This kingdom, governed at firft by wife and equitable laws, grew in wealth and power; but aiming at foreign conquefts, the increased her ftanding army, and loft her liberty. Sefoftris extended the bounds of his vaft empire, and raised it to the highest pitch of glory; but after the people had been depreffed, difpirited, and difarmed, the country was ravaged by Sennacherib, and conquered first by Nebuchadnezzar, then by Cambyfes, after whose death it revoltedy and was reduced to a state of more abject subjection by Xerxes, in the beginning of his reign. Affifted powerfully by Athens, the Egyp↳ tians caft off the foreign yoke, but were foon compelled by Artaxerxes to submit to it again after his death the Perfians were driven out, but at the end of fix years returned, and established themselves in Egypt for a time. The Perfians were again expelled, and Egypt was governed by

U 3

by her own defpotic fovereigns till the reign of Ochus, one of the laft Perfian monarchs, who determined to reduce Egypt, and exterminate the royal family. This purpose he accomplished with no great difficulty, for Nectanebis, who was depofed by him, was the laft king of the Egyptian race; fince whom it has continued under a foreign yoke, according to the prediction of Ezekiel *. When Alexander with his Macedonians entered Egypt, he met with no refiftance; the people every where flocked to him as to a deliverer; the gates of Memphis were thrown open, and thus did he poffefs himfelf of all Egypt, without fhedding blood; fo indifferent was it to the Egyptians who should be their fovereign. At the death of Alexander, his empire being divided, Egypt was the lot of Ptolemy, while Seleuchus poffeffed himself of Afia. Between the fucceffors of these princes there arofe a conteft, which foon terminated in the eafy conqueft of the

* Ezekiel xxix. 14, 15. Rollin Ant. Hift. vol. 6,

greatest

greatest part of Egypt; for Antiochus was received with open arms by a wretched people, who knew not where to look for protection; not finding it in him, they fought it from the Romans. The final conqueft of this kingdom for the Romans, was made by Octavius Cæfar, by the defeat of Anthony and Cleopatra; at whofe death Egypt was reduced into a province, and continued under the dominion of the Roman and Grecian emperors, till it fell into the hands of Omar, the fecond Caliph after Mahomet; fince which it has been fubdued by the Mammalukes, and lastly by the Turks. Egypt, the richest country in the world, has almoft from the earliest records been inhabited by slaves; and the confequence has been, that no country has been more fubject to revolutions : whereas Carthage, bleffed with a free government, refifted the power of Rome for upwards of a century, and was actually engaged in war five and forty years before fhe could be fubdued, and then loft her existence together with her liberty. U 4

In

In the establishment of the Babylonish empire, no country refifted the conquerors with fo much obftinacy as Tyre; this city endured a fiege of thirteen years, during which " every head was made bald, and every fhoulder was peeled *.” Rather than fubmit at laft to lofe their liberty, the Tyrians left their city. That this was a free city, we may judge by the government of Carthage, which was a daughter of Tyre. The Perfians found little difficulty in overturning the Affyrian Empire, because this was only a contest between the fovereigns: when they invaded Greece with their innumerable hofts, they were oppofed by men who fought for liberty, and therefore they could make no impreffion; but, after the strongest efforts, were obliged to retire, and for ever to give up the thoughts of conqueft. With lefs difficulty did the Macedonians poffefs themfelves of the Perfian empire; the conquests of Alexander were fo rapid, that he hardly

Ezek. xxix. 18, 19.

feemed

1

feemed to touch the ground f. It cost Philip more time and trouble to fubdue one of the ftates of Greece, than Alexander took to overturn the vaft empire of the Perfians; nor would Philip ever have fucceeded by the mere force of arms; he knew a fafer and more certain way of fubduing a free people, than meeting them in the field of battle.

The experience of the Romans confirms my propofitions. The contest between Rome and Carthage was obstinate and bloody. None but a free city could have furvived the battle of Cannæ; none but a free city could have made fuch efforts as Carthage made, after delivering

up her arms but what will not the love of freedom do? After the fall of Carthage, the Romans met with little oppofition in their progrefs to univerfal empire. It cannot escape the observation of any one converfant in hiftory, that the Persian, Macedonian, and Roman empires were founded in wisdom and moderation. Infinite pains had been taken in the educa+ Dan. viii. 5.

tion