b vernment on this revolution, and was confulted with in all the measures taken herein. On which occafion, he fo well approved himself, that afterwards, on the fettling of the government of the whole en pire, he was made firft fuperintendant, or prime minifter of ftate, over all the provinces of it, as hath been already fhewn: and when Cyrus returned from his Syrian expedition again to Babylon, he found a new addition to his fame, from his miraculous deliverance from the lions den. All which put together gave fufficient reafon for that wife and excellent prince to have him in the tigheft effeem; and therefore it is faid, that he profpered under him, as he did under Darius the Median, with whon, it appears, he was in the higheft favour and efteem. And fince he had been fo carneft with God in prayer for the restoration of his people, as we find in the 9th chapter of Daniel, it is not to be thought, that i e was backward in his interceffions for it with the king, efpecia.ly when he was in fo great favour, and of fo great authority with him. And, to induce him the readier to grant his requeft, he fhewed him the prophecies of the prophet Ifaiah, which fpake of him by name 150 years before he was born, as one whom God had defigned to be a great conqueror, and king over many nations, and the reftorer of his people, in caufing the temple to be built, and the land of Judah and the city of Jerufalem to be again dwelt in by its former inhabitants, That Cyrus had feen and read thefe prophecies, Jofephus tell us; and it is plain from fcripture that he did fo; for they are recited in his decree in Ezra for the rebuilding of the temple. And who was there that fhould thew them unto him, but Daniel, who, in the flation that he was in, had conftant access unto him, and of all men living had it moft at heart to fee thefe prophecies fulfilled, in the restoration of Sion? Befides Cyrus, in his late expedition into Syria and Paleftine, having feen fo large and good a country as that of Judea lie wholly defolate, might juftly be moved with a defire of having it again inhabited; for the ftrength and riches of every empire being chiefly in the number of its fubjects, no wife prince would ever defire that any part of his dominions fhould lie unpeopled. And who could. be more proper again to plant the defolated country of Judea than its former inhabitants? They were firft carried out of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar to people and ftrengthen Babylon; and perchance under this government of the Perfians, to which the Babylonians were never well affected, the weakening and difpeopling of Babylon might be as ftrong a reafon for their a Dan. i. 21. & vi. 28. b. xliv. 28. & xlv. 1. c Lib. 11. c. I. d Ezra i. 2. being being fent back again into their own country. But whatfoever fecond caufes worked to it, God's over-ruling power, which turneth the hearts of princes which way he pleaseth, brought it to pafs, that, in the first year of Cyrus's monarchy over the Eaft, he iffued out his royal decree for the rebuilding of the temple at Jerufalem, and the return of the Jews again into their own country. And hereon the state of Judah and Jerufalem began to be reftored; of which an account will be given in the next book. THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT CONNECTED, IN THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS AND NEIGHBOURING NATIONS, FROM The Declenfion of the Kingdoms of ISRAEL and JUDAH, BOOK III. An. 536. Cyrus 1. YRUS having iffued out his decree for the refloring of CYRUS the Jews unto their own land, and the rebuilding of the temple at Jerufalem, they gathered together out of the feveral parts of the kingdom of Babylon, to the number of 42,360 perfons, with their fervants, which amounted to 7337 more. d Their chief leaders were b Zerubbabel, the fon of Salathiel, the fon of Jehoiachin, or Jeconias, king of Judah, and Jeshua, the fon of Jozadak, the high prieft. Zerubbabel (whose Babylonifa name was Shehbazzar) was made governor of the land, under the title of Tirfhatha, by commiflion from Cyrus. But Jefhua was high priest by lineal defcent from the pontifical family; for he was the fon of Jozadak, who was the fon of Seraiah, * Ezra i. & ii. b Ezra ir. 2. * Ezra i. 8. 11. d Ezra v. 14. с 1 Chron. vi. 14. 15. b raiah, that was high priest when Jerufalem was destroyed, and the temple burnt by the Chaldeans. Seraiah, being then taken prifoner by Nebuzaradan, and carried to Nebuchadnezzar to Kiblah in Syria, was a then put to death by him: but Jozadak, his fon being fpared as to his life, was only with the rest led captive to Babylon, where he died before the decree of restoration came forth; and therefore the office of high priest was then in Joshua his fon, and under that title he is named, next Zerubbabel, among the first of those that returned. The reft wered Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaia, Mordecai, Bilfham, Mifpar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah, who were the prime leaders. of the people, and the chief affiftants to Zerubbabel, in the refettling of them again in their own land, and are by the Jewish writers reckoned the chief men of the great fynagogue; fo they call the convention of elders which, they fay, fat at Jerufalem af-ter the return of the Jews, and did there again re-establish all their affairs both as to church and ftate, of which they speak great things, as fhall hereafter be fhewn. But it is to be obferved, that the Nehemiah and Mordecai above mentioned, were not the Nehemiah and Mordecai of whom there is fo much faid in the books of Nehemiah and Efther, but quite different perfons who bore the fame name. At the fame time that Cyrus iffued out his decree for the rebuilding of the temple at Jerufalem, he ordered all the veffels to be restored which had been taken from thence. Nebuchadnezzar, on the burning of the former temple, had brought them to Babylon, and placed them there in the temple of Bel his god. From thence they were, according to Cyrus's order, by Mithredath, the king's treasurer, delivered to Zerubbabel, who carried them back again to Jerufalem. All the veffels of gold and filver that were at this time reftored were 5400; the remainder was brought back by Ezra, in the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, many years after. And not only thofe of Judah and Benjamin, but feveral also of the other tribes, took the benefit of this decree to return again into their own land: for f fome of them who were carried away by Tiglath-Pilefer, Salmanezer, and Efarhaddon, ftill retained the true worship of God in a strange land, and did not go into the idolatrous ufages and impieties of the heathens, among whom they were difperfed, but joined themfelves to the Jews, when, by a like captivity, they were brought into the fame parts: b parts; and some, after all the Affyrian captivities, were fill left in the land. For we find fame of them ftill there in the time of Jofiah, and they fuffered the Babylonish captivity, as well as the Jews, till at length they were wholly carried away in the last of them by Nebuzaradan, in the 23d year of Nebu chadnezzar. And many of them had long before left their tribes for their religion, and, incorporating themfelves with their brethren of Judah and Benjamin, dwelt in their cities, and there fell into the fame calamity with them in their captivity under the Babylonians. And of all thefe a great number took the advantage of this decree again to return and dwell in their own cities; for both Cyrus's decree, as well as that of Artaxerxes, extended to all the houfe of Ifrael. The decree of Artaxerxes is, by the name, to all the people of Ifrael, and that of Cyrus is to all the people of the God of Ifrael, that is, as appears by the text, to all thofe that worshipped God at Jerufalem, which must be understood of the people of Ifrael, as well as of Judah; for that temple was built for both; and both had an equal right to worship God there. And therefore Ezra, when he returned, in the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus, f fent a copy of the king's decree, whereby that favour was granted him through all Media, where the ten tribes were in captivity, as well as through all Chaldea and Affyria, where the Jews were in captivity; which plainly implies, that both of them were included in that decree, and that being a renewal of the decree of Cyrus, both must be underflood of the fame extent. And we are told in fcripture, that, after the captivity, & fome of the children of Ephraim and Manaffeh dwelt in Jerufalem, as well as thofe of Judah and Benjamin. And it appears from feveral places in the New Teftament, that fome of all the tribes were still in being among the Jews, even to the time of their last dispersion on the destruction of Jerufalem by the Romans, though then all were com prehended under the name of Jews, which, after the Babylo nish captivity, became the general name of the whole nation, as that of Ifraelites was before. And this being premised, it folves the difficulty which arifeth from the difference that is between the general number, and the particulars of those that returned upon Cyrus's decree. For the general number, both in Ezra and Nehemiah, is faid to be 42,360; but the particulars, as |