with each other; and that where the angel of light prevails, there good reigns; and that where the angel of darkness prevails, there evil takes place; that this ftruggle fhall continue to the end of the world; that then there fhall be a general refurrection and a day of judgment, wherein all fhall receive a juft retribution according to their works. After which the angel of darknefs and his difciples fhall go into a world of their own, where they fhall fuffer in everlasting darkness the punishments of their evil deeds; and the angel of light and his difciples fhall also go into a world of their own, where they fhall receive in everlasting light the reward due unto their good deeds; that after this they fhall remain feparated for ever, and light and darknefs be no more mixed together to all eternity. And all this the remainder of that fect, which is now in Perfia and India, do, without any variation after fo many ages, ftill hold even to this day.

It is needlefs to inform the reader, that almost all these articles, though altered in many circumftances, do in general agree with the doctrine of the holy fcriptures; with which it plainly appears the two Zoroafters were well acquainted, it being eafy for both of them to have had an intercourfe or per fonal acquaintance with the people of God; the firft of them in Syria, where the Ifraelites had been long fettled; the latter at Babylon, to which place the fame people were carried captive, and where Zoroafter might confer with Daniel himself, who was in very great power and credit in the Perfian court.

Another reformation, made by Zoroafter in the ancient Magian religion, was, that he caufed temples to be built, wherein their facred fires were carefully and conftantly preferved; and efpecially that which he pretended himfelf to have brought down from heaven. Over this the priests kept a perpetual watch night and day to prevent its being extinguifhed.

Whatever relates to the fect or religion of the Magians, the reader will find very largely and learnedly treated in Dean Prideaux's Connexion of the Old and New Teftament, &c. from whence I have taken this fhort extract.

Their MARRIAGES, and the manner of burying the DEAD.

Having faid fo much of the religion of the eastern nations, which is an article I thought my felf obliged to enlarge upon, because I look upon it as an effential part of their hiftory, I fhall be forced to treat of their other cuftoms with the greater brevity. Amongst which their marriages and burials are too material to be omitted.

There

(4) There is nothing more horrible, or that gives us a greater idea of the profound darkness into which idolatry had plunged mankind, than the publick proftitution of women at Babylon, which was not only authorized by law, but even com manded by the religion of the country, upon a certain festival of the year, celebrated in honour of the goddess Venus, under the name of Mylitta, whofe temple, by means of this infamous ceremony, became a brothel, or place of debauchery. (r) This wicked cuffom was ftill in being when the Ifraelites were carried captive to that criminal city; for which reason the prophet Jeremiah thought fit to caution and admonish them against fo abominable a fcandal.

Nor had the Perfians any better notion of the dignity and fanctity of the matrimonial inftitution, than the Babylonians. (s) I do not mean only with regard to that incredible multitude of wives and concubines, with which their kings filled their feraglio's, and of which they were as jealous, as if they had had but one wife, keeping them all fhut up in feparate apart. ments, under a ftrict guard of eunuchs, without fuffering them to have any communication with one another, much lefs with perfons without doors. (†) It strikes one with horror to read how far they neglected the most common laws of nature. Even inceft with a fifter was allowed amongst them by their laws, or at least authorized by their Magi, thofe pretended. fages of Perfia, as we have feen in the hiftory of Cambyfes. Nor did even a father refpect his own daughter, or a mother the fon of her own body. (u) We read in Plutarch, that Paryfatis, the mother of Artaxerxes Mnemon, who ftrove in all things to pleafe the king her fon, perceiving that he had conceived a violent paffion for one of his own daughters, called Atoffa, was fo far from oppofing his unlawful defire, that the herfelf advifed him to marry her, and make her his lawful wife, and laughed at the maxims and laws of the Grecians, which taught the contrary. For, fays fhe to him, carrying her fattery to a monstrous excefs, Are not you yourself set up by God over the Perfians, as the only law and rule of what is becoming or unbe coming, virtuous or vicious?

This deteftable cuftom continued till the time of Alexander the Great, who, being become mafter of Perfia, by the overthrow and death of Darius, made an exprefs law to fupprefs it. Thefe enormities may ferve to teach us from what an abyfs the gospel has delivered us; and how weak a barrier human wisdom

(4) Herod. 1. i. c. 199.

1352

P. 6.

(r) Baruch vi. 42, 43..

(3) Herod. 1.1, (t) Philo, lib. de Special..leg. p. 778. Diog. Laer, in Promm. (u) In Artax.... 1023•

wifdom is of itself against the most extravagant and abominable crimes.

I shall finish this article by faying a word or two upon their manner of burying the dead. (w) It was not the custom of the eastern nations, and especially of the Perfians, to erect funeral piles for the dead, and to confume their bodies in the fames. (*) Accordingly we find that Cyrus, when he was at the point of death, took care to charge his children to inter his body, and to restore it to the earth; that is the expreffion he makes ufe of; by which he feems to declare, that he looked upon the earth as the original parent, from whence he fprung, and to which he ought to return. () And when Cambyfes had offered a thousand indignities to the dead body of Amafis, king of Egypt, he thought he crowned all by caufing it to be burnt, which was equally contrary to the Egyptian and Perfian manner of treating the dead. It was the custom of the latter to wrap up their dead in wax, in order to keep them the longer from corruption.

I thought proper to give the larger account in this place of the manners and cuftoms of the Perfians, because the hiftory of that people will take up a great part of this work, and because I shall say no more on that fubject in the fequel. The treatife of Barnabus Briffon, prefident of the parliament of Paris, upon the government of the Perfians, has been of great ufe to me. Such collections as thefe, when they are made by able hands, fave a writer a great deal of pains, and furnish him with matter of erudition, and costs him little, and yet often does him great honour.

ARTICLE V.

The caufe of the declenfion of the PERSIAN EMPIRE, and of the change that happened in their manners.

HEN we compare the Perfians, as they were before

wards in the reigns of his fucceffors, we can hardly believe they were the fame people; and we see a fenfible illuftration of this

truth,

(w) Herod. 1. iii. e. 16, (x) Cyrop. I. viii. p. 238. (J) Herod.

1. iii. c. 16.

Ac mihi quidem antiquiffimum fepulturæ genus id fuiffe videtur, quo apud Xenophontem Cyrus utitur. Redditur enim terræ corpus, & i'a locatum ac fitum quafi operimento matris obducitur. Cic. lib. i. de Leg. 8.56.

Condiunt Egyptił mortuos, &

truth, that the declenfion of manners in any state is always attended with that of empire and dominion.

Among many other caufes that brought about the declenfion of the Perfian empire, the four following may be looked upon as the principal: Their exceffive magnificence and luxury; the abject fubjection and flavery of the people; the bad edu cation of their prince, which was the fource of all their irregularities; and their want of faith in the execution of their treaties, oaths and engagements.

SECT. I. Luxury and magnificence.

WHAT made the Perfian troops in Cyrus's time to he looked upon as invincible, was the temperate and hard life to which they were accustomed from their infancy, having nothing but water for their ordinary drink, bread and roots for their food, the ground, or fomething as hard, to lie upon, inuring themfelves to the most painful exercifes and labours, and efteeming the greateft dangers as nothing. The tempera"ture of the country where they were born, which was rough, mountainous and woody, might fomewhat contribute to their hardinefs; for which reafon Cyrus () would never consent to the project of tranfplanting them into a more mild and agreeable climate. The excellent manner of educating the ancient Perfians, of which we have already given a fufficient account, and which was not left to the humours and fancies of parents, but was fubject to the authority and direction of the magistrates, and regulated upon principles of the publick good; this excellent education prepared them for obferving, in all places and at all times, a mioft exact and fevere difcipline. Add to this the influence of the prince's example, who made it his ambition to furpafs all his fubjects in regularity, was the moft abftemious and fober in his manner of life, the plaineft in his dress, the moft inured and accustomed to hardships and fatigues, as well as the bravest and most intrepid in the time of action. What might not be expected from foldiers fo formed and fo trained up? By them therefore we find Cyrus conquered a great part of the world.

After all his victories he continued to exhort his army and people not to degenerate from their ancient virtue, that they might not eclipfe the glory they had acquired, but carefully preferve that fimplicity, fobriety, temperance, and love of la bour, which were the means by which they had obtained it. But I do not know, whether Cyrus himfelf did not at that very time fow the first feeds of that luxury, which foon overspread

(x) Plut, in Apopth. p. 172.

and

And corrupted the whole nation. In that auguft ceremony, which we have already defcribed at large, and on which he first fhewed himself in publick to his new-conquered fubjects, he thought proper, in order to heighten the fplendor of his regal dignity, to make a pompous difplay of all the magnificence and fhew, that could be contrived to dazzle the eyes of the people. Among other things he changed his own apparel, as alfo that of his officers, giving them all garments made after the fashion of the Medes, richly fhining with gold and purple, instead of their Perfian cloaths, which were very plain and fimple.

This prince feemed to forget how much the contagious example of a court, the natural inclination all men have to value and efteem what pleases the eye and makes a fine fhew, how glad they are to diftinguish themselves above others by a falfe merit eafily attained in proportion to the degrees of wealth and vanity a man has above his neighbours; he forgot how capable all this together was of corrupting the purity of ancient manners, and of introducing by degrees a general, predominant taste for extravagance and luxury.

(a) This luxury and extravagance rofe in time to fuch an excefs, as was little better than downright madnefs. The prince carried all his wives along with him to the wars; and what an equipage fuch a troop must be attended with is easy to judge. All his generals and officers followed his example, each in proportion to his rank and ability. Their pretext for fo doing was, that the fight of what they held most dear and precious in the world, would encourage them to fight with the greater refolution; but the true reafon was the love of pleasure, by which they were overcome and enslaved, before they came to engage with the enemy.

Another inftance of their folly was, that they carried their luxury and extravagance in the army, with respect to their tents, chariots, and tables, to a greater excefs, if poffible, than they did in their cities. (b) The most exquifite meats, the rareft birds, and the costlieft dainties muft needs be found for the prince in what part of the world foever he was encamped. They had their veffels of gold and filver without number; * inftruments of luxury, fays a certain hiftorian, not of victory, proper to allure and enrich an enemy, but not to repel or defeat him.

I do

(a) Xenoph. Cyróp. 1. iv. p. 91-99., (8) Senec.l. iii. de Ira, c. 20. * Non belli fed luxuriæ appara- | ander, prædam, non arma geftantem. tum-Aciem Perfarum auro purpu 2. Curt. raque fulgentem intueri jubebat Alex