the authority of which they could not but rest with implicit confidence, they contemplated with feelings of peculiar complacency and exultation, the indisputable proofs of a government administered under the immediate sovereignty of God, and regulated upon principles, which discouraged an intermixture with the heathens. Hence even in captivity, which was designed "to mar the pride of "Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem *," they maintained a sullen disposition, a fond attachment to their Country, an ardent desire to return to it, and a confident expectation of the future glory of their nation, to be enjoyed under the universal dominion of a sovereign, of the increase of whose government there was to be no end. The commandments enjoining them to avoid idolatry, and the strong and animated censures pronounced against it, detached the Jews as a nation from all other people, whose different systems of religion were judged compatible with each other. Hence under feelings sometimes carried to excess, they were disposed, even when in the lowest state of depression, to look with sentiments of Jerem. xiii. 9. See also Levit. xxvi. 19. utter hatred and contempt upon their conquerors, to resist with religious fortitude the imperious mandate to worship the images which were set up, to scoff at the rites and ceremonies of superstition which pervaded every scene of public and private life, to imprecate destruction on their adversaries, and to look forward with exultation to "the day "when the Gentiles should come unto their "God from the ends of the earth, and say, "surely our fathers have inherited lies, vani"ties, and things wherein there is no profit *." Many instances of the operation of this spirit might be produced, not only during the captivity in Assyria, where the Jews resisted all attempts to shake their attachment to their institutions, but in later times; since it is recorded that when Herod placed a golden eagle on the temple, it excited an insurrection, in which the eagle was thrown down; and Josephus also relates, that when Pilate introduced some ensigns into Jerusalem, which contained the image of Tiberius, it occasioned a great commotion, and that Pilate was compelled to order them to be carried back to Cæsarea †. Jerem. xvi. 19. Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 4; see also Philo de Legat. ad Caium, When Caligula also sent Petronius with an army into Syria, with orders to set up the emperor's statues in the temple, to put to death all who should resist, and to enslave the nation; he was informed, that if he would persist in his resolution of erecting the images, he must first sacrifice the whole Jewish nation, and that they were ready to submit themselves, with their wives and children, to the slaughter. Philo relates, that when the tidings reached Jerusalem, the people abandoned their cities and villages, and repaired to Petronius, both men and women, young and old, with violent expressions of grief, to entreat his intercession with the emperor, and avert the threatened calamity*. Circumstances, which demonstrate the strong attachment of the Jews to their own institutions, and the final impression effected by the influence of their laws †. The character which the Jews displayed when they flourished under the Divine favour, and the virtues which their repentance drew forth in adversity, often excited the respect of * De Bel. Jud. lib. ii. cap. 10. + See also Horace, lib. i. sat. 4. 1. ult. other nations, and their religion and laws were regarded with reverence *. The aversion, however, which they manifested towards other people, their laws, their ceremonies, and games, provoked resentment; and when they degenerated in later times, and, in consequence of their dissentions and misconduct, became subject to foreign dominion, they experienced a diminution of respect. The rites and ceremonies of their religion, were hastily derided by those who exercised but little enquiry upon the subject: the origin and tendency of these rites were misrepresented, and injurious reports concerning them were received and circulated with eagerness. Hence it was, that when their laws and institutions were respected by the Roman government, their national character and customs were treated with contempt by individuals; and we find in the Heathen writers, not only the exaggeration of the satirist †, and the sarcastic remarks of the orater, but the mis 1 Kings v. and x. Deut. iv. 6. ; xxviii. 1, 10, 13. See books of Esther and Daniel. Juv. Sat. 14. 1. 103, 104. Horat. and comp, with Joseph cont. An $ 29. + Cicer.. cco. Philo says, πραγμα γελώμενο statement of the historian, however philosophical and correct in his general representation *. The influence of the mutual repugnance, which subsisted between the Jews and the Romans, occasioned many serious inconveniences. Josephus, who witnessed its effects, seems to have exerted himself to soften the Jewish feelings with respect to the Heathens, and to conciliate the good-will of the Romans towards his countrymen †. Allowing for the operation of an hostile spirit, not easily to be subdued, we are not surprized to find that the Sacred Writings of the Jews excited less reverence among the Greeks and Romans, particularly in later periods, than among people of higher antiquity, and that they were placed by them nearly on the same ground with the records. of the Pagan nations; most of which nations, indeed, professed to have received revelations, and to have been favoured with intercourse with the gods. When, therefore, we meet with particulars which substantiate the relations of Scripture, we shall in general be disposed to think, that they were derived from tradition, which Tacitus, Hist. lib. v. and vi. |