CHAPTER THE SEVENTH. PAGE SECTION I.-MATTATHIAS undertakes to relieve Judæa from Syrian Oppression - His example followed by his Sons Judas, Jonathan, and Simon..... SECTION II.--JUDEA free; but the contest which follows SECTION 1.- HEROD THE GREAT.-His Character and Government The Birth of JESUS CHRIST........... 407 SECTION III.-JUDEA a Roman Province. Felix, Festus, THE PERIODS OF HEBREW HISTORY. In the following Table are given the names, terminal dates, and lengths of the periods of Hebrew History, Introduction. The Creation-The Fall of Man-Its Consequences-Cain and AbelTheir Offerings-The Murder of Abel-The Banishment of CainHis Settlement at Enoch-The Origin of useful Arts-The birth of Seth-The death of Adam--The Descendants of Seth-The Descend ants of Cain-Their Intermarriages-The Consequences-The Mis sion of Noah-The Ark-The Flood-The Attempt to build the Tower of Babel-The Dispersion-The final Settlement of the Descendants of Japheth, Shem, and Ham-The Longevity of the Antediluvians. IN contemplating the creation of the world, the reflecting mind is overawed by the vastness of the work, and the facility with which it was executed. Four thousand years before the Christian era, the materials out of which the earth was formed were floating in a chaotic state in the region of undefined space through which it now regularly rolls its annual course. In the brief period of six days, God created not only the globe which we inhabit, but all things, both animate and inanimate, that exist upon its surface, or live within its bosom. Inanimate objects employed Jehovah's mighty power during the first four days of creation, and the remaining two were devoted to the production of things that have life. The seventh day the Creator appropriated as a day of rest, and sanctified it as a Sabbath; and that day, according to the authority of Philo, was thenceforth regularly observed by all the nations of early antiquity as a day of rest and recreation. Adam, the last and most perfect production of Almighty power, was placed, immediately after the creation, with his |