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ited for the entertainment of the brutish multitude. When Judea was completely reduced, Vespasian reserved it to himself, and ordered the land to be sold, and, as its superior, he demanded all the Jews of the empire to remit to him the halfshekel or didrachm, which they had formerly paid annually for the temple at Jerusalem. He planted several colonies in the conquered country, one at Emmaus, which he named Nicopolis, the city of victory, and another at Cesarea, called Eluviana Prima, to denote that it was the first in dignity of the cities of Palestine, the Roman name for the whole country of the Jews. Samaria was also probably colonised, for it was named Neapolis. Agrippa retired from his kingdom with Titus, and resided at Rome with his sister Bernice.

It has been calculated that the total number of individuals who perished from first to last in this war with the Romans, amounted to the awful sum of about one million and a half.

The spirit of revolt was not subdued in the Jews by their loss of country and power. They still continued to expect the promised conqueror, spoken of by their prophets, and were ever prepared to listen to the flattering and delusive hopes which any dexterous and bold impostor held out to them. But everywhere they were hated, crushed, despised, and contemptuously used. Nor have we any reason to conclude that they shall ever rise, as a people, to dignity and honour, till they return to Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and acknowledge the just claims of Jesus, the Son, heir, and Lord of David, their most exalted king. How truly and accurately have the predictions of Moses been accomplished in past ages! The Jews have been dispersed over the whole earth, and are witnesses of the truth of the terrible prediction, "Thou shalt become," as the Spirit testified, "an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee: and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life; in the morning thou shalt say, Would to God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would to God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see."

The melancholy conclusion of the Jewish revolt and war was, doubtless, an auspicious event in its relation to the Fifth

Empire. That it was a strong confirmation of the truth of Christianity has been ably proved by its most enlightened advocates, in as much as it was indisputably the fulfilment of the most remarkable predictions of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the ancient prophets, from Moses to Malachi, respecting the unbelieving and impenitent part of that people. From that time the covenant made with the Jews at Sinai was manifestly abolished; their forfeiture of its peculiar privileges every intelligent and candid inquirer after truth may easily perceive. Instead of the Jews, their temple and land being the special objects of the Divine favour, they were wholly given up to the scorn and contempt of all nations. The observance of the most important and characteristic institutes and rites of Moses was no more practicable; and those who unhappily continued to believe that adherence to these was still necessary in order to obtain the approbation of God, have to this day been without "a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an ephod, and without an image, and without teraphim.” They have been every where despised and contumeliously treated; the divine vengeance has pursued them into all lands. Truly they have experienced the truth of the denunciation, "Therefore will I number you to the slaughter; because when I called, ye did no answer; when I spake ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry : behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen : for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name."

If one reflects on the circumstances of Christians when Jerusalem was destroyed, in comparison to their previous history, the path of conquest may be said to have been laid open before them. Their most implacable enemies were laid prostrate, and their most mighty opponents had disappeared. Poppæa and Nero were numbered with the most dishonoured of the dead; and the word of survivors was no more heard. That the faithful followers of Christ have been, and always will be persecuted in various ways, the scriptures testify; but while the Jews were respected in the empire, they were the principal and most active opposers of the confession of Christ,

and of the extension of his dominion. Their hatred of the apostles and first ministers of Christ were almost incredibly intense, burning like a furnace. The announcement that the blessings of Messiah's kingdom were common to every one, of any nation, who submitted to his government, roused the fierce and malignant passion of every Jew who believed not that Jesus was the Messiah, more, perhaps, than any other principle or fact has ever awakened the evil propensities of any individual or race of mankind. Had preference been given them in the kingdom of God, and all others been admitted to an inferior place, they would have hailed the apostles as ambassadors from heaven; but when all men were indiscriminately invited to receive deliverance and eternal life, through belief in Christ, they strained every nerve to move heaven, earth, and hell, to subvert the dominion of the anointed Saviour of man. Of this proud, insolent, and wicked conduct of theirs, Paul thus speaks in his letter to the Thessalonians; "For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway; for the wrath is come upon them to the utter

most."

Was not the tremendous judgment of Heaven on the unbelieving most seasonably inflicted? The Divine forbearance and riches of goodness had been amply shown towards them. Moral principle had almost ceased to operate in them; they were past feeling the evidence of truth, and even the guilt of immorality. Their national prejudices and religious pride seared their consciences, and they rioted in evil passions and wicked deeds. The Holy Land was the most polluted of all lands, and fit to be delivered over to desolation, to be trodden down by the disobedient nations. On the other hand, Christians were now deprived of their most heroic leaders, if we except John the Apostle. They were also better known, and, by consequence, about to be opposed by all classes of unbelievers and false professors with hitherto unexampled violence. It was, therefore, a merciful interposition of Heaven in behalf of the rising empire of Christ to remove their Jewish enemies, so that their trials might not be greater than they

The state of the em

might be able to endure and overcome. pire too, as we shall see, tended to lessen the number and severity of their trials, and allow them to prosecute their labours and to advance the interests of truth and righteousness with comparative safety for many years.

17*

CHAPTER V.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE TRIUMPHANT-CONTINUED.

THE exultation of the Romans over the grave of Nero was transitory. They beheld the throne occupied, during the short period of about eighteen months, by three successive emperors, each of whom perished tragically, after being the instruments or causes of extreme sufferings to their wretched subjects, especially to the citizens of Rome and inhabitants of Italy, for the provinces were comparatively unaffected by the few events which then transpired. The army and the citizens of Rome entertained, high hopes from the accession of Galba; and when they were disappointed, they became incontrollable, and wreaked their vengeance on one idol that they might erect another far more worthless. Galba was of illustrious rank, familiar with the sciences and literature of his age and had long distinguished himself as a militaryTM leader and a civil governor. By the patronage of Livia, he was raised before the legal age to the first office of the state. He refused the hand of Agrippina, who solicited him to accept it, after the death of her husband Domitius, the father of Nero. Caligula appointed him to command the legions in Germany, where he gained great fame by restoring the ancient discipline in the army, and compelling the Germans to acknowledge the Roman power. Such was his popularity at the time of the death of Caligula, that many persons of great authority and power wished him to seize the empire. He, however, retained his fidelity, and almost forced the troops to take the usual oaths to Claudius, who immediately numbered him among his most esteemed friends. For two years he governed the Roman provinces in Africa with a higher reputation than his most honoured predecessors. During one half of the days of Nero, Galba lived in retirement; but he had been one of the governors of Spain eight years at the time that he assumed the title of emperor. He was now in his seventy-second year, and was labouring un

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