to be causes of terror. The greater part had a firm belief that it was contained in the old sacerdotal books, that at this very time the east would prevail, and that some that came out of Judea should obtain the empire of the world, which obscure oracle foretold Vespasian and Titus; but the generality of the common people, as usual, indulged their own inclinations, and when they had once interpreted all to forebode grandeur to themselves, adversity itself could not persuade them to change their minds, though it were from falsehood to truth*.

We have been informed that the number of the besieged, of every age, and of both sexes, male and female, was six hundred thousandt. There were weapons for all that could carry them, and more than could be expected, for their number were bold enough to do so. The men and the women were equally obstinate; and when they supposed they were to be carried captive, they were more afraid of life than of death.

Against this city and nation Titus Cæsar resolved to fight, by ramparts and ditches, since the situation of the place did not admit of taking it by storm or surprise. He parted the duty among the legions; and there were no farther engagements, until whatever had been invented for the taking of cities by the ancients, or by the ingenuity of the moderns was got ready.

ANNAL. BOOK XV.

NERO, in order to stifle the rumour [as if he had himself set Rome on fire] ascribed it to those people who were hated for their wicked practices, and called by the vulgar Christians: these he punished exquisitely. The author of this name was Christ, who in the reign of Tiberias was brought to punishment by Pontius Pilate the procurator. For the present this pernicious superstition was in part suppressed, but it brake out again, not only over Judea, whence this mischief first sprang, but in the city of Rome also, whither do run from every quarter, and make a noise, all the flagrant and shameful enormities. At first therefore those were seized who confessed, afterward a vast multitude were detected by them, and were convicted, not so much as really guilty of

This interpretation and reflections are in Josephus, Of the War, B. vi. chap. v. sect. 4.

+ The number 600,000 for the besieged is no where in Josephus, but is there for the poor buried at the public charge, Antiq. B. v. chap. xiii. sect. 7, which might be about the number of the besieged, under Cestius Gallus, though they were many more afterward at Titus's siege, as Josephus implies, Of the War, B. vi. chap. ix. sect. 3.

This passage seems to have been directly taken from Josephus famous testimony concerning Christ, and the Christians, Antiq. B. xviii. chap. iii. sect. 3, of which Dissert. 1, before.

VOL. IV.

EE

setting the city on fire, but as hating all mankind; nay, they made a mock of them as they perished, and destroyed them by putting them into the skins of wild beasts, and setting dogs upon them to tear them to pieces: some were nailed to crosses, and others flamed to death; they were also used in the nighttime instead of torches for illumination. Nero had offered his own gardens for this spectacle. He also gave them Circensian games, and dressed himself like a driver of a chariot, sometimes appearing among the common people, sometimes in the circle itself; whence a commiseration arose, though the punishments were leveled at guilty persons, and such as deserved to be made the most flagrant examples, as if these people were destroyed, not for the public advantage, but to satisfy the barbarous humour of one man.

N. B. Since I have set down all the vile calumnies of Tacitus upon the Christians as well as the Jews, it will be proper before I come to my observations, to set down two heathen records in their favour, and those hardly inferior in antiquity, and of much greater authority than Tacitus, I mean Pliny's epistles to Trajan when he was proconsul of Bithynia, with Trajan's answer or receipt to Pliny, cited by Tertullian, Eusebius, and Jerom. These are records of so great esteem with Havercamp, the last editor of Josephus, that he thinks they not only deserve to be read, but almost to be learned by heart also.

PLINY'S EPISTLE TO TRAJAN.-About A. D. 112.

SIR, It is my constant method to apply myself to you for the resolution of all my doubts, for who can better govern my dilatory way of proceeding, or instruct my ignorance? I have never been present at the examination of the Christians [by others], on which account I am unacquainted with what uses to be inquired into, and what, and how far they used to be punished: Nor are my doubts small, whether there be not a distinction to be made between the ages [of the accused], and whether tender youth ought to have the same punishment with strong men? whether there be not room for pardon upon repentance? or whether it may not be an advantage to one that had been a Christian, that he has forsaken Christianity? whether the bare namet, without any crime besides, or the crimes adhering to that name, be to be punished? In

* Till now it seems repentance was not commonly allowed those that had been once Christians, but though they recanted and returned to idolatry, yet were they commonly put to death. This was persecution in perfection!

+ This was the just and heavy complaint of the ancient Christians, that they commonly suffered for that bare name, without the pretence of any crimes they could prove against them, This was also persecution in perfection!

the mean time, I have taken this course about those who have been brought before me as Christians. I asked them, whether they were Christians, or not? If they confessed that they were Christians, I asked them again, and a third time, intermixing threatenings with the questions: if they persevered in their confession, I ordered them to be executed*; for I did not doubt but, let their confession be of any sort whatsoever, this positiveness and inflexible obstinacy deserved to be punished. There have been some of this mad sect whom I took notice of in particular as Roman citizens, that they might be sent to that city. After some time, as is usual in such examinations, the crime spread itself, and many more cases came before me. A libel was sent me, though without an author, containing many names [of persons accused]. These denied that they were Christians now, or ever had been. They called upon the gods, and supplicated to your image+, which I caused to be brought to me for that purpose, with frankincense and wine: they also cursed Christ§: none of which things, as it is said, can any of those that are really Christians be compelled to do: so I thought fit to let them go. Others of them that were named in the libel said they were Christians, but presently denied it again, that indeed they had been Christians, but had ceased to be so, some three years, some many more; and one there was that said, he had not been so these twenty years. All these worshiped your image, and the images of our gods: these also cursed Christ. However, they assured me, that the main of their fault, or of their mistake, was this, that they were wont, on a stated day, to meet together before it was light, and to sing a hymn to Christ, as to a god, alternately; and to oblige themselves by a sacrament [or oath] not to do any thing that was ill, but that they would commit no theft, or pilfering, or adultery; that they would not break their promises, or deny what was deposited with them when it was required back again after which it was their custom to depart, and to meet again at a common but innocent meal, which they had left off upon

Amazing doctrine! that a firm and fixed resolution of keeping a good conscience should be thought without dispute to deserve death, and this by such comparatively excellent heathens as Pliny and Trajan.

+ This was the case of St. Paul, who being a citizen of Rome was allowed to appeal unto Caesar, and was sent to Rome accordingly. Acts xxii. 25 -29, xxv. 25, xxvi. 33, xxvii.

Amazing stupidity! that the emperor's image, even while he was alive, should be allowed capable of divine worship, even by such comparatively excellent heathens as Pliny and Trajan.

Take here a parallel account out of the martyrdom of Polycarp, sect. 9. The proconsul said, “ Reproach Christ.” Polycarp replied, “ Eighty and six years have I now served Christ, and he has never done me the least wrong; how then can I blaspheme my king and my Saviour?"

This must most probably be the feast of charity.

that edict which I published at your command, and wherein I had forbidden any such conventicles. These examinations made me think it necessary to inquire by torments, what the truth was, which I did of two servant maids, which were called deaconesses; but still I discovered no more than that they were addicted to a bad, and to an extravagant superstition. Hereupon I have put off any farther examinations and have recourse to you, for the affair seems to be well worth consultation, especially on account of the number* of those that are in danger; for there are many of every age, of every rank, and of both sexes, which are now and hereafter likely to be called to account, and to be in danger; for this superstition is spread like a contagion, not only into cities and towns, but into country villages also, which yet there is reason to hope may be stopped and corrected. To be sure the temples, which were almost forsaken, begin already to be frequented; and the holy solemnities, which were long intermitted, begin to be revived. The sacrifices begin to sell well every where, of which very few purchasers had of late appeared; whereby it is easy to suppose how great a multitude of men may be amended, if place for repentance be admitted.

TRAJAN'S EPISTLE TO PLINY.

My Pliny, you have taken the method which you ought in examining the causes of those that had been accused as Christians, for indeed no certain and general form of judg ing can be ordained in this case. These people are not to be sought for; but if they be accused and convicted, they are to be punished; but with this caution, that he who denies himself to be a Christian, and makes it plain that he is not so by supplicating to our gods, although he had been so formerly, may be allowed pardon, upon his repentance. As for libels sent without an author, they ought to have no place in any accusation whatsoever; for that would be a thing of very ill example, and not agreeable to my reign.

OBSERVATIONS upon the Passages taken out of TACITUS.

I. WE see here what great regard the best of the Roman historians of that age, Tacitus, had to the history of Josephus, while, though he never names him, as he very rarely names any of those Roman authors whence he derives other parts of his history, yet does it appear that he refers to his

Some of late are very loath to believe that the Christians were numerous in the second century, but this is such an evidence that they were very nume rous at least in Bithynia, even in the beginning of that century, as is wholly

undeniable.

seven books of the Jewish Wars several times in a very few pages, and almost always depends on his accounts of the affairs of the Romans and Parthians, as well as of the Jews, during no fewer than 240 years, to which those books ex

tend.

II. Yet does it appear, that when he now and then followed other historians or reports concerning the Romans, the Parthians, or the Jews, during that long interval, he was commonly mistaken in them, and had better have kept close to Josephus than hearken to any of his other authors or informers.

III. It also appears highly probable that Tacitus had seen the Antiquities of Josephus, and knew that the most part of the accounts he produced of the origin of the Jewish nation entirely contradicted those Antiquities. He also could hardly avoid seeing that those accounts contradicted one another also, and were childish, absurd, and supported by no good evidence whatsoever: as also he could hardly avoid seeing that Josephus's accounts in those Antiquities were authentic, substantial, and thoroughly attested to by the ancient records of that nation, and of the neighbouring nations also; which indeed no one can now avoid seeing that carefully peruses and considers them.

IV. Tacitus therefore, in concealing the greatest part of the true ancient history of the Jewish nation, which lay before him in Josephus, and producing such fabulous, ill grounded, and partial histories, which he had from the heathens, acted a most unfair part: and this procedure of his is here the more gross, in regard he professed such great impartiality, Hist. B. I. chap. i. and is allowed to have observed that impartiality in the Roman affairs also.

V. Tacitus's hatred and contempt of God's peculiar people, the Jews, and his attachment to the grossest idolatry, superstition, and astral fatality of the Romans, were therefore so strong in him as to overbear all restraints of sober reason and equity in the case of those Jews, though he be allowed so exactly to have followed them on other occasions relating to the Romans.

VI. Since therefore Tacitus was so bitter against the Jews, and since he knew that Christ was a Jew himself, and that his apostles and first followers were Jews, and also knew that the Christian religion was derived into the Roman provinces, from Judea; it is no wonder that his hatred and contempt of the Jews extended itself to the Christians also, whom the Romans usually confounded with the Jews; as therefore his hard words of the Jews appear to have been generally groundless, and hurt his own reputation, instead of theirs: so ought