CHAPTER XIX. :497 righteous Judge of men : but without any encouragement from scripture, they offered sacrifices and prayers for the pardon of the dead ; 2 Maccab. xii. 34-45. Note,. It is from thisplace in the second book of the Mecca.. bees that the papistsborrow their prayers for the dead . IS. Q. Where was Antiochus, the king, all this while? A. He was gone toPersia not only to receive his tribute as I Maccab. iii. 31. but to plunder the temple of Diana, who among the Persians is called Zaretis, which temple stood at Elymas, and had incredible riches of gold and silver, and golden armour, which were laid up there. 19. Q. Did he succeed in this enterprize ? A. Thepeo- ple of the country having notice of his design, joined together in defence of that idol's temple, and beat him off with shame. 20. Q. How did he receive the news of the defeat of his generals and armies in Judea ? A. With utmost rage and indignation, as well as grief of mind, but he resolved to make haste thither, and threatened to make the city of Jeru- salem as one grave for the Jews, where he would bury the whole nation. 21. Q. What followed upon this insolent speeeh of An- tiochus the king ? A. He was immediately smitten with an incurable plague in the midst of his journey, his bowels were seized with grievous torment, his chariot was overthrown, and he was sorely bruised, and forced to be confined to his bed in a little town on the road, wherehe lay languishing under foul ulcers of body and sharp terror of mind till he died. Note, It bath been observed by historians, that such a sort of death by foul ulcers bath befallen many persecutors in elder and later times. 22. Q. Hadhe any regret upon his conscience, particularly for his cruelty and wickedness practised upon the Jews ? A. Both Jews and heathens give us an account of the dreadful an- guish of mind which he then suffered ; and though the heathen historian attributes it to the intended sacrilege and robbery de- signed upon the temple of Diana, yet the Jewish historians as quaint us, that Antiochus himself imputed his calamities to the horrid impieties and cruelties that he had been guilty of against the God of Israel and his people, and bitterly repented of there with inward horror on his death-bed. Note, This Antiochos Epiphanes having been a great op.. pressor of the Jewish church, and the type of antichrist, there is a larger account of him in Daniel's prophecy than of any other prince. The eleventh chapter; Verse 11 -45. relates wholly to him, as well as some passages in the eight and twelfth chap. ters ; the explication and accomplishment of which may be read in Doctor Prideaux's Connexion, Part II. Book 3. .Amid the ac- apmplishtnent is so exact, that Porphyry, a learned heathen in
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