At the time Chrift came, he was earneftly wifhed, and confidently expected by the nation of the Jews. And that expectation was fo much divulged abroad, that two Heathen hiftorians, Suetonius and Tacitus, have inferted it in their writings, as a thing worthy of remark. 66 Many," fays Tacitus, "had a perfuafion that it was contained in the ancient writings of the priefts, that at that very time the caft fhould prevail, and that fome defcendant from Judah fhould obtain the univerfal government*." "An old and conftant opinion," fays Suetonius, "commonly prevailed through all the east, that it was in the fates, that fome one should rife out of Judea who fhould obtain the government of the world t." I fuppofe Tacitus means, by the ancient writings of the priests, the writings and prophecies of the Old Teftament: and the "Eaft" is one of the names given the Meffiah, and which we render the Branch 1.

And Suetonius tells us farther, that the belief and expectation of this among the Jews was fo great at that time, that it caufed them to rebel against the Romans. And this expectation, which was fo general, fired Herod with fuch jealoufy and rage, upon the wife men's coming from the caft, and inquiring, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? that he attempted to deftroy the heavenly babe, at the expence of the lives of fo many infants.------When Chrift appeared, he fet up a kingdom fpiritual in its nature, equitable in its laws, unexampled in its privileges, happy in its fubjects, wide in its extent, and perpetual in its duration.

The three grand monarchies of the world, the Affyrian, the Perfian, and the Grecian, were fubfided; and the fourth, which was the Roman, and greater than all the reft, fucceeded, and, under Auguftus Cæfar, was arrived at the fummit of its ftrength and glory. The Roman empire, after exifting for feveral hundred years as a commonwealth, was reduced to a monarchy. Pompey, Craffus, and Julius Cæfar, three of the greatest men in Rome, had agreed to fupport each other, and

*Tacit. Hift. c. 5, p. 62. + Suet. in Vefp. c. 4. Zach. vi. 12.

to divide the government of the empire among themfelves. As long as Craffus lived, he balanced the power between the other two; but, at his demife, they began to rival each other, and neither of them would be fatisfied with lefs than the whole. Pompey could not bear an equal, nor Cæfar a fuperior; and, therefore, they raifed a civil war, in which Pompey was conquered by Julius Cæfar, at Pharfalia. Pompey went into Egypt, where he was bafely put to death by the officers of the young Ptolemy, the last king of Égypt, A. M. 3956, ante A. D. 48.

Julius Cæfar was a man of boundless ambition, and of an artful addrefs; and had, by his valour abroad, and generofity and infinuating manners at home, gained the esteem of almost all defcriptions of men. He first afpired to the confular dignity, and then to the dictatorship, or fupreme power, which, though he was fuccessful in gaining, he did not long hold; for, after three years and a half, fome leading men among the Romans, who refented his enflaving a free people, stabbed him publicly in the fenate house.

Octavius Cæfar fucceeded him in the empire. He was the fon of Accia, the fifter of Julius Cæfar, who, by his will, had made him his adopted fon. After various ftruggles and sharp contests, more particularly with Mark Antony, he obtained the fupreme power; which he held for upwards of forty years: and, upon the whole, behaved like a good prince; confidering the abfolute power of which he was poffeffed, and the great corruption and wickednefs of the times*. Octavius had told the fenate, that he never intended to hold the fovereign authority, nor had received it with any other view than to revenge the murder of Cæfart, and to deliver Rome from the continual calamities to which it was expofed. A civil war, which lafted thirty years, had occafioned great miferies, and much reduced the number of the citizens of Rome: they afterwards increased, by feveral laws, particularly the Julian law for

* Benson's Hiftory of the First Planting of Chriftianity, v. 1, p. 183, 184. + Cafar was a name common to the emperors, as Pharaoh, and afterwards Ptolemy, to the Egyptians.

the encouragement of matrimony*. Ten days before he obtained the name of Auguftus, the fenate had given him the title of Prince, and, with it, the government of the Republic for ten years. Many before him had been called Princes of the Senate, but no perfon had ever been styled Prince, as if he alone were Prince of the Republic and the Roman People. He received the furname of Auguftus the 17th of January, in the year of Rome 727; fome time previous to which, he had made an offer of refigning the government to the fenate. The name Auguftus was given him, to exprefs his grandeur, majefty, and reverence; and that by the advice of Munatius Plancus; when others would have had him called Romulus, as if he were the founder of the city of Romet.

The Jews had loft their liberty, and, for feveral years, been in fubjection to the Romans. This fubjection originated in a quarrel which happened in the

VIRGIL, at the end of the first book of the Georgics, clofes with a fupplication to the gods, (according to the heathen mythology,) for the fafety of Auguftus, and the prefervation of Rome.

Ye home-born deities, of mortal birth!
Thou father Romulus, and mother Earth,
Goddess unmov'd! whofe guardian arms extend

O'er Thufcan Tiber's Courfe, and Roman tow'rs defend;
With youthful Cafar your joint pow'rs engage,
Nor hinder him to fave a finking age.

O! let the blood already fpilt, atone

For the paft crimes of curft Laomedon!

Heav'n wants thee there; and long the gods, we know,
Have grudg'd thee, Cafar, to the world below:

Where fraud and rapine, right and wrong confound;

Where impious arms from every part refound,
And monftrous crimes in ev'ry fhape are crown'd.
The peaceful peasant to the wars

preft;

The fields lie fallow in inglorious reft:
The plain no pasture to the flock affords,

The crooked fcythes are fraighten'd into fwords:
And there Euphrates her foft offspring arms,
And here the Rhine rebellows with alarms;
The neighb'ring cities range on fev'ral fides,
Perfidious Mars long plighted leagues divides,
And o'er the wafted world in triumph rides.
So four fierce courfers ftarting to the race,
Scour through the plain, and lengthen ev'ry pace:
Nor reins, nor curbs, nor threat'ning cries they fear,
But force along the trembling charioteer.

Dryden's Virgil

Sanadon's Notes on Horace's Carmen 2, ad Auguftum.

Afmonean family*. Queen Alexandra, by gratifying the Pharifees, governed that kingdom peaceably nine years, from the death of her husband to the end of her own life; when her eldeft fon, Hyrcanus, who was of an indolent and quiet temper, fucceeded to the crown. At the end of only three months, Ariftobulus, his younger brother, wrested it from him. Antipater, the Idumean, and father of Herod the Great, availed himfelf of this, to raise new difturbances and commotions among the Jews. Alexander Jannæus, the late king of the Jews, had advanced, to the government of Idumea, the father of Antipater; who himself, having been bred in the court of Alexander Jannæus, and that of queen Alexandra, had ingratiated himself into the favour of Hyrcanus, in expectation of being advanced by him, when he should come to the crown.

On the depofition of Hyrcanus, Antipater incited. him firft to apply to Aretas, king of Arabia, to restore him to the kingdom; and afterwards to the Romans, to whofe decifion Ariftobulus at firft agreed to refer the matter. They both pleaded their caufe before Pompey, who was at that time at Damafcus; and, on his being inclined to favour Hyrcanus, Ariftobulus retired, and put Jerufalem in a pofture of defence. This fo incenfed Pompey, that he feized Ariftobulus, and having laid him in chains, befieged Jerufalem.

The party of Hyrcanus opening the gates of the city to him, he laid fiege to the Temple, whither the other party had retired, and after three months took it, and the caftle Baris alfot, which was afterwards called

ASMONEANS, was a name given to the Maccabees, defcendants of Mattathias, who, according to Jofephus, Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 8, was the fon of John, the grandfon of Simon, and great grandfon of Afmoneus. The family of the Af moneans became very illuftrious in the later times of the Hebrew commonwealth; it was the fupport of the religion and liberty of the Jews; and poffeffed the fupreme authority, from Mattathias to Herod the Great. The Afmoneans were of the courfe of Joarib, which was the first clafs of the fons of Aaron; and, therefore, on failure of the former pontifical family (which had now happened by the flight of Onias, the fon of Onias, into Egypt) they had the best right to fucceed to that ftation. And, under this right, Jonathan took the office, when nominated to it by the then reigning king in Syria; being alfo elected thereto, by the general fuffrage of the people. Prid. Connect. &c. p. 2. book 4.

This tower or fortrefs, was originally built by the Afmonean princes, who called it Baris; but Herod the Great, having repaired it, changed its name, in

the tower of Antonia. And having put to death the chiefs of Ariftobulus's faction, and demolished the walls of Jerufalem, he made Hyrcanus both high-priest and prince of the Jews; but reduced his dominions to narrower bounds, and made the kingdom tributary to the Romans. This was in the year 63 before the Chriftian æra, about the time of our Midfummer. Jofephus, the celebrated Jewish hiftorian, always dates the lofs of their liberty from that time.

The religion of the Jews was in a deplorable state, fcarcely any veftiges of its purity being left. They were divided into three fects, Pharifees, Sadducees, and Effenes. The Pharifees had their name from the Hebrew verb pharah, to divide or feparate, because they feparated themselves from commerce with other people, from the customs and manners of the world, gave themselves to the ftudy of the Law, and affected extraordinary 'fanctity of life. This fect was one of the moft ancient and confiderable among the Jews; but its origin is not well known. Jerome places the beginning of the Pharifees rather late, faying, they proceeded from the two famous fchools of Hillel and Shammai. It is known from Jofephus*, that Shammai, or Samæus, lived in the time of Herod the Great; confequently not long before our Saviour. The Rabbins alfo acknowledge Hillel, if not the founder of the fect of the Pharifees, at least as the chief ornament of it. But probably Calmet is far more accurate, who places the rife of this fect about A. M. 3820, ante A. D. 184.

The Pharifees held the writings of Mofes and the Prophets to be divine. Their principal doctrines were thefe: 1. That the kingdom of the Meffiah was an earthly one. 2. That the keeping of the Moral Law con

honour of his friend M. Antony. It was fituated towards the weft angle of the temple, upon an eminence cut fteep on all fides, and enclosed with a wall three hundred cubits high-It was built in the form of a large fquare, having within the magnificence of a palace, and the conveniencies of a city; and without, feveral fortifications, and a tower at each corner to ftrengthen and defend it. So that, confidering its form and fituation, we may be allowed to fay, that it was a citadel to the temple, even as the temple was, in fome fort, a citadel Calmet's Dictionary; and Fleury's Ecclefiaftical Hiftory.

to the town.