cal year were
newly set free, he said, _If ye continue in my word, the truth shall make
you free_. Which the _Jews_ understanding literally with respect to the
present manumission of servants, answered, _We be _Abraham_'s seed, and
were never in bondage to any man: how sayeth thou, ye shall be made free?_
John viii. They assert their freedom by a double argument: first, because
they were the seed of _Abraham_, and therefore newly made free, had they
been ever in bondage; and then, because they never were in bondage. In the
last Passover, when _Herod_ led his army thro' _Judea_ against _Aretas_
King of _Arabia_, because _Aretas_ was aggressor and the stronger in
military forces, as appeared by the event; _Christ_ alluding to that state
of things, composed the parable of a weaker King leading his army against a
stronger who made war upon him, _Luke_ xiv. 31. And I doubt not but divers
other parables were formed upon other occasions, the history of which we
have not.

[2] Joseph. Antiq. lib. 3. c. 10.

* * * * *

CHAP. XII.

_Of the Prophecy of the Scripture of Truth._

The kingdoms represented by the second and third Beasts, or the Bear and
Leopard, are again described by _Daniel_ in his last Prophecy written in
the third year of _Cyrus_ over _Babylon_, the year in which he conquered
_Persia_. For this Prophecy is a commentary upon the Vision of the Ram and
He-Goat.

_Behold_, saith [1] he, _there shall stand up yet three kings in _Persia__,
[_Cyrus_, _Cambyses_, and _Darius Hystaspes_] _and the fourth_ [_Xerxes_]
_shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength thro' his riches he
shall stir up all against the realm of _Grecia_. And a mighty king_
[_Alexander_ the great] _shall stand up, that shall rule with great
dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his
kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided towards the four winds of
heaven; and not to his posterity_ [but after their death,] _nor according
to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be pluckt up, even
for others besides those_. _Alexander_ the great having conquered all the
_Persian_ Empire, and some part of _India_, died at _Babylon_ a month
before the summer Solstice, in the year of _Nabonassar_ 425: and his
captains gave the monarchy to his bastard brother _Philip Aridaeus_, a man
disturbed in his understanding; and made _Perdiccas_ administrator of the
kingdom. _Perdiccas_ w