voluptuous and effeminate life; to which they fancy they may justly abandon themselves after their past toils, and the long courfe of hardships they have gone through. He thought it incumbent upon him to maintain his reputation by the fame methods he had acquired it, that is, by a prudent conduct, by a laborious and active life, and a continual application to the duties of his high ftation.

At his return

SECT. I. CYRUS takes a journey into PERSIA. from thence to BABYLON, he forms a plan of government for the whole empire. DANIEL's credit and porer.

HEN Cyrus judged he had fufficiently regulated his affairs at Babylon, he thought proper to take a journey into Perfia. In his way thither he went through Media, to vifit his uncle Cyaxares, to whom he carried very magnificent prefents, telling him at the fame time that he would find a noble palace at Babylon, all ready prepared for him, whenever he would pleafe to go thither; and that he was to look upon that city as his own. Indeed Cyrus, as long as his uncle lived, held the empire only in co-partnerthip with him,. though he had entirely conquered and acquired it by his own valour. Nay, fo far did he carry his complaifance, that he let his uncle enjoy the first rank. (d) This is the Cyaxares, which is called in fcripture Darius the Mede; and we fhall find, that under his reign, which lafted but two years, Daniel had several revelations. It appears, that Cyrus, when he returned from Perfia, carried Cyaxares with him to Babylon.

When they were arrived there, they concerted together a fcheme of government for the whole empire. (e) They divided it into an hundred and twenty provinces. (f) And that the prince's orders might be conveyed with the greater expedition, Cyrus caufed poft-houfes to be erected at proper diftances, where the expreffes, that travelled day and night, found horfes always ready, and by that means performed their journeys with incredible difpatch. (g) The government of thefe provinces was given to thofe perfons that had affifted Cyrns most, and rendered him the greateft fervice in the war. (b) Over these governors were appointed three fuper-intendants, who were always to refide at court, and to whom the governors were to give an account from time to time of every thing the paffed in their refpective provinces, and from whom they wer to receive the prince's orders and inftructions; fo that the 1 6

(c) Cyrop. I. viii, p. 227. (d) A. M. 3466. Ant. J. C. 538. Dan. vi. I. (f) Cyrop. 1. viii. p. 232.

(b) Dan, vi. 2, 3o

(g) Ibid. p. 230.

three principal minifters had the fuper-intendency over, and the chief adminiftration of the great affairs of the whole empire. Of these three Daniel was made the chief. He highly deferved fuch a preference, not only on account of his great wisdom, which was celebrated throughout all the east, and had appeared in a diftinguished manner at Baltazar's feast, but likewife on account of his great age, and confummate experience.. For at that time it was full fixty-feven years, from the fourth of Nabuchodonofor, that he had been employed as prime minifter of the kings of Babylon.

() As this diftinction made him the fecond perfon in the empire, and placed him immediately under the king, the other courtiers conceived fo great a jealoufy of him, that they confpired to deftroy him. As there was no hold to be taken of him, unless it were on account of the law of his God, to which they knew him inviolably attached, they obtained an edic from Darius, whereby all perfons were forbidden to ask any thing whatfoever, for the fpace of thirty days, either of any god, or any man, fave of the king; and that upon pain of being caft into the den of lions. Now, as Daniel was faying his ufual prayers, with his face turned towards Jerufalem, he was furprized, accufed, and caft into the den of lions. being miraculously preferved, and coming out fafe and unhurt, his accufers were thrown in, and immediately devoured by thofe animals. This event ftill augmented Daniel's credit and reputation.

But

(k) Towards the end of the fame year, which was reckoned! the firft of Darius the Mede, Daniel, knowing by the computation he made, that the feventy years of Judah's captivity, determined by the prophet Jeremiah, were, drawing towards an end, he prayed earneftly to God, that he would remember his people, rebuild Jerufalem, and look with an eye of mercy upon his holy city, and the fanctuary he had placed therein. Upon which the angel Gabriel affured him in a vifion, not only of the deliverance of the Jews from their temporal captivity, but likewife of another deliverance much more confiderable, namely, a deliverance from the bondage of fin and fatan, which God would procure to his church, and which was to be accomplified at the end of feventy weeks, that were to pafs from the time the order should be given for the rebuilding of Jerufalem, that is, after the fpace of four hundred and ninety years. For taking each day for a year, according to the language fometimes ufed in holy fcripture, thofe feventy weeks of years makeup exactly four hundred and ninety years. Cyrus,

(i) Dan. vi, 4—27

(k) Ibid, ix, 1—27

(7) Cyrus, upon his return to Babylon, had given orders for all his forces to join him there. On the general review made of them, he found they confifted of an hundred and twenty thousand horse, of two thousand chariots armed with fcythes,. and fix hundred thousand foot. When he had furnished the garrifons with as many of them, as were neceffary for the defence of the feveral parts of the empire, he marched with the remainder into, Syria, where he regulated the affairs of that province, and then fubdued all thofe countries,, as far as the Red-fea, and the confines of Æthiopia.

It was probably in this interval of time, that Daniel was cafe into the den of lions, and miraculously delivered from them,. as we have just now related.

Perhaps in the fame interval alfo were thofe famous pieces of gold coined, which are called Darics from the name of Da-rius the Mede, which for their fineness and beauty were for feveral ages preferred to all other money throughout the whole: eaft.

SECT. II. The beginning of the united empire of the PERSIANS. and MEDES. The famous edict of CYRUS. DANIEL'S prov phecies..

HERE, properly speaking, begins the empire of the Per

fians and Medes united under one and the fame authority. This empire, from Cyrus, the first king and founder of it, to Darius Codomannus, who was vanquished by Alexander the Great, lafted for the space of two hundred and fix years,, namely, from the year of the world 3468 to the year 3674.. But in this volume I propofe to fpeak only of the three first kings; and little remains to be faid of the founder of this new empire.

(m) CYRUS.. Cyaxares dying at the end of two years, and Cambyfes likewife ending his days in Perfia, Cyrus returned to Babylon, and took upon him the government of the empire.

(n) The years of Cyrus's reign are, computed differently.. Some make it thirty years, beginning from his first fetting: out from Perfia, at the head of an army, to fuccour his uncle Cyaxares Others make the duration of it to be but feven years, because they date it only from the time, when by the death of Cyaxares and Cambyfes. he became fole monarch of the whole empire.

In the first of these seven years precifely expired the feventieth year of the Babylonish captivity, when Cyrus published

(2) Cyrop. 1. viii. p. 233. (n) Cic, 1, i. de Div. n 46,

the

(m) A. M. 3468. Ant. J. C. 536.

the famous fo) edict, whereby the Jews were permitted to return to Jerufalem. There is no question but this edict was obtained by the care and folicitations of Daniel, who was in great credit and authority at court. That he might the more effectually induce the king to grant him this requeft, he fhewed him undoubtedly the prophecies of Ifaiah, wherein, above two hundred years before his birth, he was marked out by name, as a prince appointed by God to be a great conqueror, and to reduce a multitude of nations under his dominion; and at the fame time to be the deliverer of the captive Jews, by ordering their temple to be rebuilt, and Jerufalem and Judea to be repoffeffed by their ancient inhabitants. I think it may not be improper in this place to infert that edit at length, which is certainly the moft glorious circumftance in the life of Cyrus, and for which it may be prefumed God had endowed him with fo many heroick virtues, and bleft him with fuch an uninterrupted feries of victories and fuccefs.

(p) In the first year of Cyrus, king of the Perfians, that the word of the Lord might be accomplished, that he had promised by the mouth of Jeremy, the Lord raifed up the Spirit of Cyrus the king of the Perfians; and he made proclamation through all his kingdom, and alfo by writing, faying, Thus faith Cyrus, king of the Perfians, the Lord of Ifrael, the most high Lord, bath made-me king of the whole world, and commanded me to build him a boufe at FeruJalem in Jewry. If therefore there be any of you that are of his people, let the Lord, even his Lord be with him, and let him go up to Jerufalem that is in Judea, and build the boufe of the Lord of Ifrael; for be is the Lord, that dwelleth in Jerufalem. Whosoever then dwell in the places about, let them help him (thofe, I say, that are his neighbours) with gold and with filver; with gifts, with borfes, and with cattle, and other things, which have been fet forth by vow for the temple of the Lord at Jerufalem.

Cyrus reftored at the fame time to the Jews all the veffels of the temple of the Lord, which Nabuchodonofor had brought from Jerufalem, and placed in the temple of his god Baal. Shortly after the Jews departed, under the conduct of Zorobabel, to return into their own country.

(2) The Samaritans, who had formerly been the declared enemies of the Jews, did all they poffibly could to hinder the building of the temple; and though they could not alter Cyrus's decree, yet they prevailed by bribes and under-hand dealings with the minifters and other officers concerned therein, to obftruct the execution of it; fo that for feveral years the building went on very flowly.

(r) It feems to have been out of grief to fee the execution of this decree fo long retarded, that in the third year of Cyrus, in the first month of that year, Daniel gave himself up to mourning and fafting for three weeks together. He was then near the river Tigris in Perfia. When this time of fasting was ended, he faw the vifion concerning the fucceffion of the kings of Perfia, the empire of the Macedonians, and the conquests of the Romans. This revelation is related in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth chapters of the prophecies of Daniel, of which I fhall foon speak.

By what we find in the conclufion of the laft chapter, we have reason to conjecture, that he died foon after; and indeed his great age makes it unlikely that he could live much longer; for at this time he must have been at least eighty-five years of age, if we fuppofe him to have been twelve when he was carried to Babylon with the other captives. From that early age. he had given proofs of fomething more than human wisdom, in the judgment of Sufannah. He was ever afterwards very much confidered by all the princes who reigned at Babylon, and was always employed by them with diftinction in the adminiftration of their affairs.

Daniel's wifdom did not only reach to things divine and political, but alfo to arts and fciences, and particularly to that of architecture. (s) Jofephus fpeaks of a famous edifice built by him at + Sufa, in the manner of a castle (which he says still fubfifted in his time) and finifhed with fuch wonderful art, that it then feemed as fresh and beautiful, as if it had been but newly built. Within this palace, the Perfian and Parthian kings were ufually buried; and for the fake of the founder, the keeping of it was committed to one of the Jewish nation, even to his time. It was a common tradition in those parts for many ages, that Daniel died in that I city, and there they fhew his monument even to this day. It is certain, that he ufed to go thither from time to time, and he himself tells us, that (1) be did the king's bufinefs there, that is, was governor for the king of Babylon.

Reflections upon DANIEL's prophecies.

I have hitherto deferred making any reflection upon the pro phecies of Daniel, which certainly to any reasonable mind are