author of the first book of

of this last cited passage we may see experienced after the wars of Alexander, and of his successors with the Maccabees; partly, in that great place which Herod of Ashkelon held amongst the Jewish nation; partly, in the Philistines, proselytes, who were admitted as communicants with the sons of Abraham in their sacraments and sacrifices; partly, in the admission of the Jews as free denizens into the cities of Palestina, and in such quiet cohabitation of the Philistines and these modern Jews as had been between the Jebusites and their ancestors. Every part of this observation might be concludently proved out of unpartial historians, heathenish or Jewish, which wrote before our Lord and Saviour was born. Divers parts of it are abundantly proved out of the Maccabees, chap. x. 88, 89: Now when king Alexander heard these things, (to wit, the victory over Azotus, and the submission of Ashkelon upon the ransack of it,) he honoured Jonathan yet more, and sent him a buckle of gold, as the use is to be given to such as are of the 843 king's blood: he gave him also Accaron with the borders thereof in possession. Chap. xi. 60, 61: Then Jonathan went forth, and passed through the cities beyond the water, and all the forces of Syria gathered themselves unto him for to help him: and when he came to Ascalon, they of the city met him honourably. From whence he went to Gaza, but they of Gaza shut him out; wherefore he laid siege unto it, and burned the suburbs thereof with fire, and spoiled them. Chap. xiii. 33-52: Then Simon built up the strong holds in Judæa, and fenced them about with high towers, and great walls, and gates, and bars, and laid up victuals therein. Moreover Simon chose men, and sent to king Demetrius, to the end he should give the land an immunity, because all that Tryphon did was to spoil.

Unto whom king Demetrius answered and wrote after this manner: King Demetrius unto Simon the high priest, and friend of kings, as also unto the elders and nation of the Jews, sendeth greeting: The golden crown, and the scarlet robe, which ye sent unto us, we have received: and we are ready to make a steadfast peace with you, yea, and to write unto our officers, to confirm the immunities which we have granted. And whatsoever covenants we have made with you shall stand; and the strong holds, which ye have builded, shall be your own. As for any oversight or fault committed unto this day, we forgive it, and the crown tax also, which ye owe us: and if there were any other tribute paid in Jerusalem, it shall no more be paid. And look who are meet among you to be in our court, let them be enrolled, and let there be peace betwixt us. Thus the yoke of the heathen was taken away from Israel in the hundred and seventieth year. Then the people of Israel began to write in their instruments and contracts, In the first year of Simon the high priest, the governor and leader of the Jews. In those days Simon camped against Gaza, and besieged it round about; he made also an engine of war, and set it by the city, and battered a certain tower, and took it. And they that were in the engine leapt into the city; whereupon there was a great uproar in the city: insomuch as the people of the city rent their clothes, and climbed upon the walls with their wives and children, and cried with a loud voice, beseeching Simon to grant them peace. And they said, Deal not with us according to our wickedness, but according to thy mercy. So Simon was appeased toward them, and fought no more against them, but put them out of the city, and cleansed the houses wherein the idols were, and so entered into it with

songs and thanksgiving. Yea, he put all uncleanness out of it, and placed such men there as would keep the law, and made it stronger than it was before, and built therein a dwelling-place for himself. They also of the tower in Jerusalem were kept so strait, that they could neither come forth, nor go into the country, nor buy, nor sell: wherefore they were in great distress for want of victuals, and a great number of them perished through famine. Then cried they to Simon, beseeching him to be at one with them: which thing he granted them; and when he had put them out from thence, he cleansed the tower from pollutions: and entered into it the three and twentieth day of the second month, in the hundred seventy and first year, with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees, and with harps, and cymbals, and with viols, and hymns, and songs: because there was destroyed a great enemy out of Israel. He ordained also that that day should be kept every year with gladness. Moreover the hill of the temple that was by the tower he made stronger than it was, and there he dwelt himself with his company. He that will compare these, and many other passages in 844 this grave writer, with the ninth of the prophet Zechariah, will perceive there may be good use of books not canonical, for the right understanding of sacred writings most canonical; and that this book, though apocryphal, did not deserve to be left out in the new impressions, or binding up of our Bibles. But to return unto the prophecy of Zechariah.

5. The manifest accomplishment of all the strange alterations foretold by him in this ninth chapter might well occasion the Jews to expect the coming of their promised King shortly after. And amongst all the signs, which the times intercurrent between Alexan

der's conquest of Syria, Tyre, and Palestina, and our Saviour's death, did exhibit, this to me is most remarkable, that after so many terrible blasts of God's wrath, thus overturning every castle and strong hold about Jerusalem, sweeping most cities of their ancient inhabitants as the whirlwind doth their streets of dust, the temple of Jerusalem should all this while hold up her head; that temple, whose foundation and superstructions had been accused of sedition and rebellion, whose demolition had been solemnly vowed by such tyrants as had power given them over the city and strong holds of Jerusalem, power to practise all kind and manner of savage cruelties on the citizens' bodies, and to expose their carcasses to the birds of the air. The consideration hereof doth plainly testify such a powerful arm and watchful eye of the Almighty to defend his house, as in the eighth verse of this chapter is literally charactered: And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen with mine eyes. He that could rightly spell the several passages in the forementioned authors, and the disposition of Divine Providence overruling the projects of Alexander and his successors in all these wars, according to the literal predictions of the prophet Zechariah, and put them right together, could not suspect that which Josephus hath registered in the latter end of the eleventh book of Jewish Antiquities, concerning Alexander's reconciliation to Jaddah the high priest of the Jews, and the extraordinary favours done unto that nation, which not long before had mightily offended him.

6. But this prediction of God's special providence, in protecting his temple against such as pretended

mischief unto it, was literally fulfilled, not only in the times of Alexander, but in the attempts made against it by Nicanor, Antiochus, and other of its professed enemies, though not fully to be accomplished until the glory of this temple came. For the temple built by Zerubbabel, sub auspiciis of Jeshue the high priest, did continue and flourish until Jesus the High Priest of the covenant, into whose body the life and spirit of it was to be transfused, did visit and cleanse it. It must be granted that Herod the Great did take down the temple built by Zerubbabel, not with purpose to demolish it, but to make it more glorious to human view than Solomon's temple had been. And this friendly dissolution of it, with purpose to reedify it, did prefigure the dissolution of Christ's body and soul, and their reunition in glory and immortality. And I could willingly yield my assent unto Rupertus and Ribera, that the first verses of this chapter were truly fulfilled in that victorious passage of the gospel throughout the cities of Syria and Palestina before mentioned; so they or their followers would grant 845 me, that the swift victory of the gospel was as well

occasioned as portended by Alexander's speedy conquest of these regions. For God did plague these neighbour nations before the desire of all nations came unto this temple, that Jerusalem might take warning by them, and repent her of her sins: I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant. I said, Surely thou (Jerusalem) wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings. Zephaniah iii. 6, 7. That this prophecy, unto what