among Mankind, which is the most effectual Means to spread a Wholfome, as well as a Peftilential Contagion. And fince Commerce and Traffick was not fo general in those Days, as it is now, there was no fuch ready way to do this, as by Force of Arms, which united a great many Kingdoms and Nations into one; which, befides all other Advantages, conveyed the Knowledge of all Memorable Actions, into all Parts of the Empire.

Now in the Beginning of thefe Great Empires, (for tho' the Affyrian Monar 2. Dan. 38. chy began long before, yet Nebuchadnezzar was the Golden Head of that Image, which reprefented the Four Monarchies ;) God carried Judab Captive into Babylon, and thereby made himself known to be the Supreme and Sovereign Lord of the World, over all the Babylonish Empire.

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The firft Occafion God took to make himself known in Babylon, was Nebuchadnezzar's Dream, which he had forgot; and none of the Magicians, or Aftrologers, or Sorcerers, or Chaldaans, could fhew the King his Dream, much lefs tell him the Interpretation of it; but Daziel did both; which made Nebuchadnezzar acknowledge to Daniel, Of a truth it is, that God is a God of Gods, and a Lord of Kings, and a revealer of fecrets, fince thou could' ft reveal this fecret, 2. Dan. 47. And this advanced Daniel to great Authority; for the King made bim Ruler over the whole Province of Babylon, and chief of the Governors over all the wife Men of Babylon. And we need not doubt but he ufed his Authority, especially among the Wife Men of Babylon; who had the greatest Influence upon others, to

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propagate the Knowledge of the One Supreme God among them.

In the Reign of the fame King, God magnified his Power in the Prefervation of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, from the Fiery Furnace; which occafioned a Decree, that gave great Advantage to the Jews, and difpofed all Men to think very honourably of their God; That every People, Nation, and Language, which Speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their boufes fhall be made a dunghill; because there is no other God, that can deliver after this fort, 3. Dan. 28, 29. And that Experience Nebuchadnezzar had of the Power and Juftice of God, in his own Perfon, extorted from him as devout Praifes of God, and as Orthodox a Confeffion of his Faith in him, as any Jew could have made, 4. Dan.

Thus in the Reign of Belshazzar, who, with his Princes, his Wives, and Concubines, drank Wine out of the Golden Veffels of the Temple, God gave a Glorious Teftimony to himfelf, by a Hand-Writing on the Wall; which, as Daniel expounded it, and the Event that very Night confirmed, foretold the immediate Överthrow of his Empire, by the Medes and Perfums. This was a very fudden Vengeance, for their Idolatrous Revels, and the Prophanation of the Holy Veffels of the Temple; as Daniel very freely acquainted the King, 5. Dan. And tho' his Advancement by Belshazzar, who made him the Third Ruler in the Kingdom, was but of a very fhort Continuance, the King being flain that Night; yet it fo recommended him to Darius, who began the Second Monar chy of the Medes and Perfians, that he advanced Bb Dani

Daniel to the fame, or greater Honour and Power; he being made the firft of the Three Prefidents, who had the Government of the Hundred and Twenty Princes, whom Darius fet over the whole Kingdom.

In the Beginning of this New Monarchy, God gave a fresh Demonftration of his Power, in delivering Daniel from the Lions Den ; for which Reason, Darius made a Decree, That in every dominion of his Kingdom, Men fear and tremble before the God of Daniel, 6. Dan. 25, 26, 27. So that by the Captivity of Judah, God made himself known over all the Babylonian and Perfian Monarchy; and this difpofed Cyrus, the Seventy Years of their Captivity being accomplished, to give them Liberty to return into their own Countrey, and to publish a Decree, for the Rebuilding the City and Temple of FeruSalem.

But still to preserve the Knowledge of God among them, the Divine Providence fo ordered it, that when all had Liberty to return, great Numbers ftay'd behind in Babylon, where they freely profeffed, and exercifed their Religion; which, together with the Civil Dependance of the Jewish State on the Perfian Monarchy, preferved a conftant Correfpondence and Intercourfe between them; and that preserved the Knowledge of the Jews, and of their God.

The Grecian Empire, which put an End to the Perfian, made the God of the Jews ftill more known to the World. Alexander the Great came to Jerufalem, treated the Jews with great Kindness, confulted the Records of their Prophets, offered Sacrifices to God, and not only confirmed their old, but granted new Privileges to them. And thus God became known,

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not only to the Babylonian and Perfian, but to the Grecian Monarchy. And when after Alexander's Death, the Empire was divided, this caused a new Difperfion of the Jews, especially into Syria and Egypt; Ptolomy, the King of Egypt, having furprized Jerufalem, carried great Numbers of them into Egypt, and having entertained a kind Opinion of them there, employed them in his Armies and Garifons, and made them Citizens of Alexandria. His Son, Ptolomy Philadelphus, procured the Translation of their Law into Greek, which was a new Publication of their Religion: And after this, Onias built a Temple in Egypt, in all Things like to that of Jerufalem; where they worshipped God according to the Rites of the Jewish Law; that God was now as much known in Egypt, as he was in Judea.

And to let pafs a great many other Things, which contributed very much to propagate the Knowledge of the God of Ifrael in the World; to compleat all, the Power and Oppreffions of the Affyrian Monarchs, forced the Jews to pray the Alliance and Affiftance of the Romans; which ended, as fuch powerful Alliances very often do, in their Subjection to the Roman Powers; who first governed them by Kings and Tetrarchs, and at last reduced them into a Roman Province. And thus the Jews, and their God, and their Religion, became known over all the Roman Empire. These Four fucceffive Monarchies, did gradually increase, and spread the Knowledge of One Supreme God, over all the World, and thereby prepared the way for the Kingdom of the Meffias; that Kingdom, which the Prophet Daniel tells us, the God Bb 2

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of Heaven would set up, which should never be deftroyed, 2. Dan. 44.

For the better to understand this, we must obferve, that though the Knowledge of God made no publick Reformation of the Pagan Idolatries, yet it greatly difpofed Men to re-. ceive the Gofpel, when it fhould be preached to them: It visibly reformed their Philofophy, and gave them the Notion of One Supreme Being, as is evident from the Poets and Philofophers of thofe Ages, tho' they ftill worshipped their Country-Gods; it gave them fome obfcure Knowledge of the Jewish Prophecies, concerning the Kingdom-of the Meffias, and raised an Expectation even among the Romans, of fome Great Prince, who was to rife in the East, as Tacitus obferves. And tho' the Knowledge of the God of Ifrael did not reform Nations, yet we have Reason to believe, that it made a great many private Converts, who fecretly forfook the Idolatries of their Countries, and worshipped the only True God. It is reasonable to think it fhould do fo; and we must confefs, it was wifely defigned by God for that purpose ; and fome few Examples of this Kind, which we know, may fatisfy us that there were many

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On the Famous Day of Pentecoft, when the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles, in a vifible Appearance of cloven tongues like as of fire, there were at Jerufalem great Numbers, not only of Jews, but of Profelytes out of every Nation Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mefopotamia, and in Judæa, and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Afia, Phrygia and Pamphilia, in Egypt, and in the Parts of Lybia, about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome; Jews and Profe

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