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To the Right Honourable

WILLIAM

Earl of PORTLAND,

Viscount of WOODSTOCK,

Baron of CIRENCESTER,

AND

Knight of the Moft Noble Order of the GARTE R.

My LORD,

Have endeavour'd to fet in a true Light, one of the most difficult Parts of Holy Scripture, following the Footsteps of the Learned Grotius, as far as I find him in the right; but taking the liberty to leave him, where I think him wide of the A 2 Pro

Prophets meaning. The Name of SCRIPTURE, I know, is abundantly Sufficient to recommend this Work to your Lordships perusal, who have a juft Veneration for every Thing that hath any Relation to God, or bears the facred impress of DIVINITY.

But there are two Things, which I hope will contribute not a little to your Lordships Satisfaction, in turning over the enfuing Sheets.

In the firft Part, your Lordship will find the Prophet drawing the Picture, and fore-telling the Fate of an overgrown Tyrant, the Plague of Mankind in his Days.

In the fecond, promifing a great Redeemer, who should fet at Liberty an oppreffed Nation, reftore them to the free Exercife of the Religion of their Ancestors, and the Priviledges they were born to. When your Lordship

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reads of the Affyrian Monarch fetting himfelf above God, it will bring to your Thoughts the prefumptuous Infolence of a Prince, who is not afham'd to be called by the incommunicable Name of God.

When you find Sennacherib Plundering, Burning and Ravaging, the defenceless Dominions of his weak Neighbours, it will bring to your Mind One who has all his Life-time, acted the Same bloody Part, and Sacrificed to his boundless Ambition, Millions of bis Fellow-Creatures: When you read of his over-flowing Judea, reaching even to the Neck, and filling the breadth of the Land with the ftretching out of his Wings, it will call to your remembrance, my Lord, the Danger Europe once was in; how Arbitrary Power, like a mighty Torrent came rolling in upon us, and had prevail'd

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and carry'd all before it, had it not been timely check'd at first and kept within its own Channel, by the Genius of a Young Matchless HERO, fcarce initiated in the Art of War; Your Lordship may eafily guess, I mean our late Glorious Monarch of Bleffed Memory, whom it is impoffible your Lordship should ever forget; yet I think you can scarce read the fecond Part of thefe Prophecies, without having Tour Royal Mafter more immediately in Your Mind. When You read of the Redemption of the Jews by Cyrus, Your Thoughts will naturally carry Tou to another DeHiverance of a Nation far more Confiderable, out of much greater Dangers; So much refemblance there is between the most diftinguishing Action of the Lives of the Perfian and British Monarch. There is indeed fome difference in the Circumftances of the Perfons delivered. The Jews had worn their

Chains for Seventy Years, We had not fo much as felt the weight of ours, but they were ready for our Necks, and wanted nothing but putting on and fastning; and had not our Cyrus ftept in, in a very critical Moment, in all probability we should have groan'd under them much longer than they. Such Thoughts as thefe Haiah will fuggest to your Lordship, and fuch Thoughts I perfwade my felf cannot fail of furnish-ing agreeable Entertainment to Tou

In Confidence of which, I humbly lay this Commentary at Your Feet, prefuming on Tour Lordships Pardon for not complying with a very prevailing Cuftom of Jetting forth the Vertues of the Patron to whom we Dedicate any Work. I know my felf too well to pretend to do fuftice to fuch a Subject; I know fo much of the World, as to be fully fatisfy'd there is no occafion of attempting it; and give me leave to fay

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