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viously done before Felix and his wife Drusilla.' He was, as Josephus styles him," a most wonderful and amiable man ;" and "who," as St. Paul says, was expert in all the customs and questions of the Jews:" no wonder therefore that he was " almost persuaded to be a Christian." He continued his reign, while Festus, Albinus, and Florus, were Governours under the Emperour Nero; but they, as the Jews allege, having treated their nation and people with greater rigour than any of their predecessors, had sown the seeds of that disaffection, which at length burst out into an open revolt against the Roman power; and thus began that war, which terminated, after the most obstinate defence and unparalleled sufferings on the part of the Jews, with the total destruction of their City and Temple by Titus, son of Vespasian, then Emperour of Rome: who, as he bears a conspicuous part in the History now under .. consideration, the notice he demands may reasonably be thought to authorize a brief delineation of his character, as far as it is connected with the Jewish affairs. 1

He was the first Prince who ascended the Roman Throne by hereditary succession; of a warm disposition and active temper of mind, he gave too free a scope, in the earlier period of his life, to the indulgencies of both but if we may regard the flattering testimonies of his Historians, he is said in his maturer age to have conciliated the affections, and gained the hearts of his people; to which they have added this encomium, that his private considerations were so greatly sacrificed to the administration and pursuit of public measures, that he was celebrated for the declaration he ever after suited

(1) Acts xxiv. 24. (2) Contra Apion i. 9. (3) Acts xxvi. 3. (4) Acts xxvi. 28.

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suited to his actions, of considering that day lost, in which the benefit of his subjects was not, by his exertions, augmented or improved. At the com- ' mencement of his reign " he made it his study," says Tacitus," to shew himself superior to the fortuitous **+ "advantages of his station; active in the field, and elegant in his manners, he endeavoured to merit "esteem by affability, and a strict discharge of his duty. He attended the works, he marched in the "ranks, and mixed with the common soldiers without impairing the dignity of his character:" "He was I by nature," says Suetonius, "extremely benevolent, " and treated in particular the whole body of the people "with the greatest kindness. Amidst any disinal calamity, he not only discovered all the concern that i might be expected from a Prince, but a paternal af-! "fection for his people; at length he was taken off by ` an untimely death, more to the loss of mankind than "to himself." It should here be observed that too great a preponderance in the scale of merit is given to Titus, a failure into which Josephus has fallen by his indiscriminate approbation of what, he perhaps thought his dependence and gratitude should pay as tributes, due :

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(1) Privatis utriusque rebus militiæ clarus, majore tum vi famæque agebat certantibus Provinciarum et Exercitium studiis, atque ipse, ut super fortunam crederetur, decorum se promtumque in armis ostendebat, comitate et adloquis officia provocans: ac plerumque in opere, in agmine, gregario militi mixtus, incurrupto ducis honore." Tacit. Hist. v. 1.

(2) Natura autem benevolentissimus. Populum inprimis universum tanta per omnes occasiones comitate tractavit. In his tot adversis ac talibus, non modo principis solicitudinem, sed et parentis affectum unicum præstitit, Inter hæc morte preventus est, majore hominum damno, quam suo. Suet. in vit. Tit.

Titus died in the autumn of 834, A. U. C. in the forty-first year of his age, after a reign of two years and two months.

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to the protection and patronage he experienced under this Prince. If, however, the circumstances and conduct of his life be impartially considered, with regard to the people and nation he governed, in general; and to the Jews and other tributary Powers, in particular; there will appear some grounds for discrediting, in part, what the partiality or prejudice of his Historians have asserted indeed the same tyranny which his predecessors exerted over the vanquished, was not lessened by that generosity of character and sympathy, which Josephus so liberally ascribes to him; the same exultation over the fallen which the Roman satyrist' censures, may be applied, with peculiar force to him, who carried this spirit so far, as to delight in offering thousands of his captives to the sport and fury of wild beasts, for his own diversion, and that of others not less barbarous.

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(1) Bellorum exuviæ, truncis affixa trophæis
Lorica, et fractâ de cuspide buccula pendens,
Et curtum temone jugum, victæque triremis
Aplustre, et summo tristis captivus in arcu,
Humanis majora bonis creduntur.

Juv. Sat. x. 1. 133, 137. (2) This wanton cruelty he is said to have exercised IN HONOUR of the birthday of his brother Domitian, who afterwards, when Emperour, took every means to shew his abhorrence of the Jews by expelling them the city to the suburbs of Rome, and by levying a tribute (as it is generally supposed) for the service of the Temple consecrated to Jupiter Capitolinus, in lieu of that, formerly paid to their own. (Vide Suet. in vitâ Dom. c. 12.) He commanded also that no Jew should appear in the streets of Rome without carrying a basket and some hay, as a mark of servility, and of the contempt in which they were held. To this Juvenal alludes in the following lines:Nunc sacri fontis nemus et delubra locantur Judæis: quorum COPHINUS FÆNUMQUE supellex.

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That he possessed those qualifications and virtues, both as a soldier and a magistrate, which recommended him to the approbation of his subjects, there is every reason to believe; but as to a man endued with disinterested affection for those who equally claimed his protection and humanity, it is impossible to grant any portion of general esteem; at least, not from us, who have been taught that love of our neighbour and of our enemy, which was exemplified in the conduct of him, whom we proudly acknowledge to be the Captain of our Salvation!

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CHAPTER II.

THE HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF JERUSALEM AND

THE TEMPLE.

HAVING briefly shewn by what concurrence of events the Jews were made tributary to the Romans, and under what circumstances they continued so to the time of Titus, I proceed to give a short description of their famous City and Temple; before I relate that fatal destruction, which overthrew their civil and religious polity, and reduced the people to a state of abject slavery. This subject will claim additional interest from the reflection that the Holy City was a figure or type of that heavenly Jerusalem, so nobly described in the book of Revelation.'

The City of Jerusalem once so holy and revered, the spot consecrated by God for his chosen people, and situated on high above the mountains; the center of nations and the glory of the earth, was founded, as some suppose, by Melchisedeck, about 2023 years before Christ, and by him designated Salem, or the City of Peace.

(1) Chap. xxi.

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Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generations following. Psalm xlviii. 12, 13.

(2) God is my King of old, working salvation in the MIDST OF THE EARTH.-Psalm lxxiv. 12. Thus saith the Lord God; this is Jerusalem:

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