with young by such an one; as the daughter of Inachus fancied, according to Herodotus. Æneas was a bastard, and begotten upon some fair harlot, called for her beauty Venus, and was therefore the child of lust, which is Venus. Romulus was nursed by a wolf, which was Lupa, or Lupina, for the courtesans in those days were called wolfs, quæ nunc,' (saith Halicarnassæus,) honestiori vocabulo amicæ appellantur;' which are now by an honester name called friends. It is also written, that Romulus was in the end of his life taken up into heaven, or rather out of the world, by his father Mars, in a great storm of thunder and lightening. So was it said that Æneas vanished away by the river Numicus; but thereof Livy speaketh modestly; for he rehearseth the other opinion, that the storm was the fury of the senators, but seemeth to adhere partially to this taking up; and many authors agree that there was an unnatural darkness, both at his birth and at his death; and that he might be slain by thunder and lightening, it is not unlikely. For the emperor Anastasius was slain with lightning; so was Strabo, the father of Pompey, slain with a thunderbolt; so Carus the emperor, (who succeeded Probus,) whilst he lodged with his army upon the river Tigris, was there slain with lightening. But a Mars of the same kind might end him that begat him; for he was begotten by a man of war, and by violence destroyed. And that he died by violence, (which destiny followed most of the Roman emperors,) it appeareth by Tarquinius Superbus, who was the seventh king after him; who, when he had murdered his father-inlaw, commanded that he should not be buried, for, (said he,) Romulus himself died, and was not buried. But let Halicarnassæus end this dispute; whose words are these: They, (saith he,) who draw nearest to the truth, say that he was slain by his ⚫ own citizens; and that his cruelty in punishments of offenders, together with his arrogancy, were the

'cause of his slaughter. For it is reported, that both when his mother was ravished, whether by some man, or by a God, the whole body of the sun was eclipsed, and all the earth covered with darkness like unto night, and that the same did happen • at his death.'

Such were the birth and death of Romulus; whose life, historified by Plutarch, doth contain, (besides what is here already spoken of him,) the conquest of a few miles, which had soon been forgotten, if the Roman greatness, built upon that foundation, had not given it memory in all ages following, even unto this day. A valiant man he was, very strong of body, patient of travail, and temperate in diet, as forbearing the use of wine and delicacies; but his raging ambition he knew not how to temper, which caused him to slay his brother, and neglect to revenge the death of Tatius his companion in the kingdom, that he himself might be lord alone in those narrow territories. He reigned seven and thirty years, first alone, then with Tatius, and after his death single, till he was slain, as is already shewed; after which time the sovereignty fell into the hands of Numa, a man to him unknown, and more priest-like than king-like; wherein Rome itself in her latter times hath somewhat resembled this king. For having long been sole governess, till Constantinople shared with her, afterwards, when as the Greek emperor was crushed by foreign enemies, and the Latins despoiled of imperial power, she fell into the subjection of a prelate, swelling by degrees from the sheep-hook to the sword, and therewith victorious to excessive magnificence, from whence by the same degrees it fell, being driven from luxury to defensive arms; and therein having been unfortunate, at length betakes herself again to the crosier's staff.

And thus much of Rome in this place, by occa sion of the story of the times of king Ahaz, during

whose reign in Jewry, the foundation of this famous city were laid.

CHAP XXV.

OF HEZEKIAH, AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.

SECT. I.

Of the beginning of Hezekiah, and of the agreeing of Ptolemy's, Nabonassar, Nabopolassar, and Mardocempadus, with the history of the Bible.

A

S the first year of Ahaz's reign was confounded with the last of his father Jotham, so was the latter end of his sixteen years taken up in the three first of Hezekiah his son. This appears by the reign of Hosea over Israel, which began in the twelfth of Ahaz, and therefore the third thereof was concurrent with Ahaz's fourteenth. But the third of Hosea was the first of Hezekiah; so it follows, that Hezekiah began to reign in his father's fourteenth year. Like enough it is, that the third year of Hosea, the same being the fourteenth of Ahaz, was almost spent when Hezekiah began, and so the fifteenth year of Ahaz may have been concurrent, for the most part, with the first of Hezekiah.

But supposing that Hosea began his kingdom when the twelfth year of Ahaz was almost complete, some would find the means how to disjoin the first of Hezekiah from the fifteenth of Ahaz, placing him yet one year later, of which year Ahaz may perhaps have lived not many days. But seeing that the

fourteenth and fifteenth years of Hezekiah may not be removed out of their places, it is vain labour to alter the first year.

In the fourteenth of Hezekiah', Sennacherib invading Judah, and the countries adjoining, lost his army by a miraculous stroke from heaven, fled home, and was slain. The year following it was that God added fifteen years to the life of Hezekiah, when he had already reigned fourteen of his nine and twenty; and the same year was that miracle seen of the sun's going back; of which wonder, (as I hear,) one Bartholomew Scultet, who is much commended for his skill in astronomy, hath by calculation found the very day, which answered unto the twenty-fifth of April, in the Julian year, being then Thursday. I have not seen any works of Scultet, but surely to find a motion so irregular and miraculous, it is necessary that he produce some record of observation made at such a time. Howsoever it be, the fifteenth year of Hezekiah is agreed upon; and therefore we may not alter the first. As for that saying, which is usual in the like cases, that Ahaz slept with his fathers, and 'Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead',' it doth no more prove that Hezekiah reigned not with his father, than the like saying doth infer the like at the death of Jehoshaphat, and succession of Jehoram; whereof, as concerning the beginning of the son to reign whilst his father lived, we have already said enough.

Of this godly king Hezekiah, we find, that his very beginning testified his devotion and zeal. For whether it were so, that his unfortunate and gracious father, (who had out-worn his reputation,) gave way to his son's proceedings, which perhaps it lay not in him to hinder; or whether, (as I rather think,) the first year and first month of his reign, wherein Hezekiah 3 opened the doors of the temple,-were to be understood as the beginning of his sole government; we plainly find it to have been his first work, that he

1 2 Kings xix. 35.

2 2 Chron. xxviii. 97.

8 2 Chron. xxix. 8.

4

opened the doors of the house of the Lord which Ahaz had shut up, cleansed the city and kingdom of the idols, restored the priests to their offices and estates, commanded the sacrifices to be offered which had been for many years neglected, and broke down the brasen serpent of Moses', because the people burnt incense before it, and he called it Nehushtan, which signifieth a lump of brass. He did also celebrate the passover with great magnificence, inviting thereunto the Israelites of the ten tribes; many there were, even out of those tribes, that came up to Jerusalem to this feast. But the general multitude of Israel did laugh the messengers of Hezekiah to scorn.

It was not long ere they that scorned to solemnize the memorial of their deliverance out of the Egyptian servitude, fell into a new servitude, out of which they never were delivered. For in the fourth of Hezekiah's reign, Salmanassar the son of Tiglath, the son of Belochus, hearing that Hosea king of Israel had practised with Soe king of Egypt, against him, invaded Israel, besieged Samaria, and in the third year, (after the inhabitants had endured all sorts of miseries,) forced it, and carried thence the ten idolatrous tribes into Assyria and Media; among whom Tobias and his son of the same name, and Anna his wife, were sent to Nineveh; in whose seats and places the Assyrians sent strangers of other nations; and among them many of the ancient enemies of the

Israelites, as those of Cutha, Ana, Hamah, and Sphernaim, besides Babylonians; whose places and nations I have formerly described in the treatise of the Holy Land.

These latter Assyrian kings, and the Persians which followed them, are the first of whom we find mention made both in profane and sacred books. These, therefore, serve most aptly to join the times of the old world, (whereof none but the prophets have written otherwise than fabulously,) with the ages follow