to have been born blind. These and his other miracles he performed when surrounded by mul titudes, among whom were his enemies; and we have reason to believe, that he wrought all his wonderful cures with a tender, tranquil, and serene mind, without ostentation or tumult*. He simply in the name of, and with the authority of God, gave his command; and the effect, or the cure of the patient, instantly followed.

Tacitus ascribes to Vespasian the same cures, marked by similar circumstances; and he enforces the belief of them by saying, that the blind man was known to have had defluxion in his eyes; that the prince complied with the petition of the supplicants in the presence of a mul titude, eager to know the event†.

* When our Lord healed the multitude, he charged them not to make him public: and the evangelist adds, "That it might be fulfilled what is spoken by the prophet, And I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall announce victory to the Gentiles; nor will he contend, nor cry, nor shall any hear his voice in the streets." Matt. xii. 16.

+ Oculorum tabe NOTUS-erecta, quæ astabat, multitudine. The two miracles to which these of Vespasian are more directly opposed, occur in John ix. and Mark iii. 5. In the first of these miracles, the patient is brought forward, as known by neighbours and others to have been born blind, yer, 8; and Jesus moreover is represented as putting spittle and clay on his eyes. In the second it is related, And Jesus

Though it is not my immediate object to examine the writings of Tacitus, I think it advis able to produce from him such passages as are connected with the subject of the present volume. In his annals, we meet with the following paragraph. "In the same year, the lust of the women was restrained by a severe decree of the senate, which prohibited any from living by prostitution, whose grandfather, father, or husband was a Roman knight: for Vistilia, born of a noble family, had divulged among the ædiles the licentiousness of her conduct. But they did not punish her, thinking that a sufficient punishment was inflicted on the unchaste by the very nature of the prostitution they profess. It was, however, demanded of Titidius Labeo, the husband of Vistilia, why he did not avail himself of the vengeance of the law against his wife, manifestly detected of such flagitiousness. And while he pretended that the sixty days allowed him for enquiring into her conduct, were not yet expired, they decreed that the enquiry already made, furnished sufficient evidence of her crime, and she absconded, having fled to the island of Seriphos.

said to the man, Stretch forth thy hand, and he stretched it, and it became whole." To this the very language of Tacitus bears a close resemblance. Jussa exsequitur, statim conversa ad usum manus, cæco reluxit dies.

A motion was also made for the expulsion of the Jewish and Egyptian rites, by which it was decreed that four thousand of that slavish race, should be conveyed to the island of Sardinia, there to be restrained from robberies; where, if they perished through the severity of the climate, the loss would not be great; that the rest of them should leave Italy, unless within an appointed time they would relinquish their profane rites*."

We have already examined the account which Josephus has given of the transactions, here alluded to by the Roman historian; and it has been proved, I presume, by arguments no longer to be questioned, that the Jews, who thus suffered, were believers in Jesus. From the Jewish historian, we learn, that the wicked Jew, in pretending to teach the gospel at Rome, or, as Josephus calls it, the wisdom of the Mosaic laws, associated with the Egyptian priests, and this unnatural union was the cause of the Egyptians and Jews becoming objects of resentment to the Roman senate. Tacitus expressly asserts, that the design of the government, in banishing the Jews and Egyptians, was the abolition of their rites. This act of severity was a direct violation

Tacit. Annal. lib. 2. ad finem.

of the policy usually shewn by the Romans; and the cause of this extraordinary change is only to be found in the prevailing genius of christianity, in the inflexible zeal of its first propagators, and in the menacing aspect which, at first, it assumed in respect to the Roman power, and to the Gentile superstition.

Tacitus insinuates, that the Jews were all robbers, and that they were sent to Sardinia to be restrained from the crimes of which they were thus guilty. In Josephus, however, we learn a far more probable tale, namely, that the Jews were thus treated for the wickedness of four men, who were agents in propagating the new religion, and who disgraced it by their immoralities.

The women, whose licentiousness the senate endeavoured to correct by a new law, were Roman matrons of rank and family, who had received the gospel on its first introduction in Rome, and who frequented the temple of Isis, where some of them, it is to be feared, were guilty of the enormities which Tacitus imputes to Vistilia. But he is too prejudiced a writer to be believed without evidence. The charge, as told by him, bears the clearest marks of malice and contradiction. The senate, it seems, were so tender of the honour of Titidius Labeo, as to demand the punishment of his wife. He, on the other hand, endeavours to evade the accusation;

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which clearly proves his conviction of her innocence. The accusers would not at first punish her, as thinking that a sufficient punishment is inflicted on the unchaste by the very nature of the prostitution they professed. They then altered their minds, and threatened to punish the husband, for not punishing a wife, whom he loved and protected, and who was probably entitled to his love and protection: and finding him unwilling to proceed against her, they decreed that any farther enquiry was unnecessary!! So absurd and incoherent is intolerance, when determined to calumniate and oppress innocence.

Of another lady, who at this time, or soon after, became a convert to christianity, Tacitus speaks with more candour.

"And Pomponia Græcina, a lady of eminent quality, married to Plautius, who, on his return from Britain, had the honour of an innovation, being accused of practising a foreign superstition, was referred to the cognizance of her husband. And he, according to ancient institution, in the presence of the family, sat in judgment upon the life and reputation of his wife, and pronounced her innocent. Pomponia lived to a great age, and in perpetual sorrow, after the death of Julia, daughter of Drusus, procured by the intrigues of Massalina. For the space of forty years she wore no habit but that of mourning, nor