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ed to wear a plate upon his breast, signifying that he was a usurer, or to quit the realm. In 1282, all their synagogues were ordered to be destroyed. Five years after this time, all the Jews in England were apprehended in one day, their goods and chattels confiscated to the king, and they, to the number of 15,660, were banished the realm, having only sustenance money allowed them, and remained exiles for 364 years, till the time of Oliver Cromwell, who restored them. In 1317, à general massacre of the Jews took place at Verdun by the peasants, who conceived from a pretended prophecy, that the Jews were to recover the Holy Land from the infidels. Five hundred of these persecuted people took shelter in a castle, and defend ed themselves to the last extremity, when for want of weapons, they threw their children at the enemy, and then killed each other. They were driven out of France in 1394. Half a million were driven out of Spain, and 150,000 from Portugal in the year 1492. In antient times, all their goods belonged to the chief lord where they lived; and he had such an absolute property in them, that he might sell them; for they had not liberty to remove to another lord without leave.

However cruelly persecuted the Jews may have been in former times, there can be no cause of complaint now ;--for, wherever they choose to fix their residence among civilized nations, they enjoy the rights of men and of citizens, and may practise, unmolested, their peculiar form of worship, with all its attendant rites and ceremonies. These ought to be conformable to the law of Moses; the ritual however, enjoined by their antient laws, is by no means observed it is encumbered with a multitude of modern absurdities.

We cannot contemplate without strong emotion, the history of this nation, scattered by the storm of adversity, over the face of the habitable globe, unfortunate,-persecuted,—but faithfully adhering to the religion of its ancestors, in spite of tortures, and of sufferings. This is a striking phenomenon, incomprehensible to human reason, unless we admit, what is so repeatedly inculcated in propcecy, that their concerns are under the special superintendance of God's providence. For what purpose can we suppose them to be thus preserved distinct, among all the

nations of the earth, except for that which is no less repeatedly declared in prophecy; namely, their conversion and restoration? The time will, assuredly, arrive, when they shall be gathered out of all the countries of their dispersion, and brought to the saving knowledge of the gos pel;-when Jews and Gentiles shall jointly form only one Bock; and when the hallowed name of Jesus the Messiah, shall be great even to the very ends of the earth.

Though the Jews have been so widely scattered, their number is very considerable. According to the return made to Buonaparte, by the Jewish Sanhedrin, which was assembled by him in 1807, for political purposes, there were in the Turkish empire one million; in Persia, China, and India, on the east and west of the Ganges, three hun dred thousand; and in the west of Europe, Africa, and America, one million seven hundred thousand; making an aggregate population of three millions, one third part of which number, is already under the dominion of the French empire.

Select Books on Jewish History.

The Historical Books of the Old and New Testaments. The Historical Works of Josephus, (in Whiston's Translation) particularly his account of the destruction of Jerusalem; which is a perpetual commentary on the predictions contained in the New Testament. Shuckford's and Prideaux's Connections of Sacred and Profane History, each in 4 vols. 8vo. Howell's History of the Bible, 3 vols. 12mo, or 8vo.

SECT. II.-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.

At the head of the Assyrian kings who reigned at Babylon, is placed Belus, its reputed founder, and who is supposed to have been the Nimrod of the Bible. After Belus the principal kings were:

1. Ninus, who built Nineveh, and removed thither the seat of empire. He was the first who made war solely for the purpose of dominion. Having reduced Asia, he conquered the Bactrians with their king Zoroaster. After this he espoused Semiramis, by whom he had a son, named Ninyas.

2. Semiramis was a queen of an heroic mind; disguising her sex, she took possession of the kingdom, instead

of her son; enlarged Babylon, and surrounded it with a wall, which was 480 furlongs in extent.

3. Ninyas, having slain his mother, took possession of the kingdom, which had been greatly improved by his parents. He was a very slothful sovereign, but rarely seen, and grew old in the company of his concubines.

4. Sardanapalus, the last of the Assyrian monarchs, was effeminate in the extreme. When Arbaces, governor of Media, beheld him sitting in the midst of his women, twirling the distaff, and spinning the purple, he was moved with indignation. He waged war against him, and reduced him to such distresses, that he burnt himself and his riches in a fit of despair, and, both perished together in the flames.

After the death of Sardanapalus, the Assyrian empire was divided into three kingdoms; the Median, Assyrian, and Babylonian. The first king of the Median dynasty was Arbaces. This kingdom continued till the time of Astyages, who was subdued by Cyrus. Ecbatana was the metropolis of the Median, as Nineveh was of the Assyrian empire; the first king was Phul, succeeded by Tiglathpileser, Salmanassar, Sennacherib, and at last by Esarhaddon, who took possession of the kingdom of Babylon; but after his death, the Assyrian kingdom was subjected to the Medes and Babylonians, who destroyed Nineveh. The principal city of the Babylonian kingdom was Babylon. Here also the royal residence was fixed. The most celebrated of the kings of Babylon was Nebuchadnezzar; who subdued almost the whole of the east. The last king was Darius the Mede; but, he being conquered by Cyrus, king of Persia, the Babylonians submitted to the Persians. Thus, in the time of Cyrus, there arose a new monarchy, called the Persian.

Among the kingdoms most worthy of notice, in this period, Egypt claims the first rank; whether we consider the multitude of its inhabitants and cities, its cultivation of the arts, the fertility of the land, or its stupendous edifices. Egypt, according to Diodorus Siculus, contained 18,000 cities; of which, Heliopolis, or the City of the Sun, (called Thebes, by the Greeks, was the chief. This city, which boasts Busiris for its founder, was remarkable for its hundred gates, the buildings, the statues, and the obe

lisks, with which it was adorned. All the other Egyptian labours, must, however, yield the palm of wonder to the pyramids. The whole area of the first pyramid covers a space of more than eleven acres. The north side measures 693 feet: the perpendicular height is 493 feet; the real ascent is equal to the latitude of the base, or 693 feet. It is said that 360,000 men were employed in this work, which they scarcely completed in 20 years.

The Phenicians were the most celebrated, next to the Egyptians. They were the most expert in maritime affairs. Their chief city was Tyre, at that time the emporium of the world. The most noted of their kings was Pygmalion, whose sister Dido built Carthage.

The kingdom of the Lydians flourished chiefly in the time of Croesus, whose dominion extended over the greater part of Asia. He was esteemed the richest king of his

time.

Nineveh, the metropolis of Assyria, is said to have been built by Assur, or Ninus, on the banks of the Tigris. The height of its walls was 100 feet, the breadth sufficient for three chariots to pass at the same time. It was 480 furlongs in compass, and was destroyed under Sardanapalus, by Arbacesor Arbactus.

Babylon was built by Belus, or Semiramis, but so much improved by Nabuchodonosor, as to become one of the seven wonders of the world. It was built on both sides of the Euphrates, surrounded by a wall, on which were many towers, so extensive, that six chariots might pass abreast; the height was 350 feet. There were 100 gates, all of brass, with doors and hinges, in the circuit. The city was filled with houses of three and four stories. Near the citadel were the horti pensiles, or hanging gardens: vaulted arches were raised from the ground, one above another, increasing in grandeur as in height, and thus supporting the vast weight of the whole garden.

Select Book on Assyrian History.

Rollin's Antient History, 7 vols. 8vo. or 10 vols. 12mo.

SECT. III-PERSIAN EMPIRE.

This monarchy continued for more thon 200 years, from Cyrus, whose reign began A. M. 3468, to Darius Codo

mannus; who being conquered by Alexander, the empire was transferred to the Greeks, A. M. 3674.

1. Cyrus, founder of the empire, was a prince who merited the highest applause. He procured the return of the Jews into their own country. Having made war with the Massagetæ, a people of Scythia, he was defeated and slain. Others report, that he died happily, and was buried with magnificence at Babylon.

2. Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, subdued Egypt. He succeeded to his father's kingdom, but not to his virtues; for he filled every place with blood and slaughter. He, at length received, accidentally, a mortal wound from his own sword, which happened to be without the scabbard.

3. Smerdis.-Cambyses had a brother of this name, whom he killed a little before his own death. One of the magi pretended to be this person, and ruled in his name as successor to Cambyses; the fraud, however, being detected, seven of the Persian nobles entered into a confederacy, and slew him.

4. Darius Hystaspes, The magus being slain, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, and one of the seven conspirators, obtained the kingdom, by artifice. He destroyed the famous city of Babylon, and not long after, undertook an expedition into Scythia, in which he was unsuccessful. the battle of Marathon, his whole army was cut off by the Athenians, under the command of Miltiades.

In

5. Xerxes, a son of Darius, by Atossa, daughter of Cyrus, succeeded his father. To avenge the slaughter made by the Athenians, he marched into Greece with a prodigious army, consisting of 1,700,000 foot, and 80,000 horse; but, being vanquished by Themistocles, the Athenian general, at the battle of Salamis, he was terrified, and escaped in a small fishing boat, leaving 300,000 soldiers, under the command of Mardonius, to subdue Greece. This army was entirely destroyed by the Spartan general Pausanias, at the battle of Platea. Xerxes returning from this unhappy expedition, was despised by his own people, and at last slain by Artabanus, one of his own guards.

6. Artaxerxes Longimanus, who made war against the Egyptians, at that time in a state of rebellion: supported by the Athenian powers, he subjected them to his sway, in consequence of which, the Grecian cities that were in les ser Asia, obtained their freedom.

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