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THE GENEALOGY OF

HEROD THE GREAT,

According to Josephus.

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This Symbol & is used to signify the Marriage between those whose Names it separates.

GRAND CHILDREN

GREAT GRAND CHILDREN

6.Wilkins, in et delin.

Thomson & Hall, saupt

century, the shoots, sprigs, and branches of a tree, large and vigourous, but productive of complicated evil.

Thus far an outline has been traced of the History of Judea, from the time it became tributary to the Romans, to the death of Christ; a period comprehending rather less than an hundred years. From that time Herod-Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, was made by Caius, Tetrarch of Trachonitis and Abilene, in which he was afterwards confirmed by Claudius, who also added Judea and Samaria to his Kingdom. He was the second persecutor of the Christians, and slew James the Apostle, and imprisoned Peter. 1 After six years reign, he was himself smitten by an angel, with a disease which shortly terminated his life, for having blasphemously suffered himself to be styled a God, 2 At his death the persecution of the Christians ceased, and the Church flourished; Judea was again made a Roman province, and Cuspus Fadus deputed by Claudius, Governour.

The Apostles of Christ began to disperse themselves, and to execute their Master's injunction of preaching to the whole world. In the mean time Cuspus Fadus is succeeded by Tiberias, Alexander, Cumanus, and Felix; in the Procuratorship of the latter of these, Agrippa the younger, son of Herod-Agrippa, obtains from Claudius the Kingdom of his uncle Philip, together with other parts of the country; in consequence of which he is styled King Agrippa, before whom, his sister and Festus, Paul pleaded at Cæsarea, as he had previously

3

4

A Acts xii. 1, 2. 2 Acts xii. 20, 23. 3 Acts xxv. 10. 4 Acts xxv. xxvi,

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viously done before Felix and his wife Drusilla. 1 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 :" 3 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.

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.

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 commencement 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."

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"He was

by nature," says Suetonius, "extremely benevolent, "and treated in particular the whole body of the people "with the greatest kindness. Amidst any dismal calamity, he not only discovered all the concern that 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." 2 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 his dependence and gratitude, paid as tributes, due to the protection and patronage

1 Privatis utriusque rebus militiæ clarus, majore tum vi famæque agebat certantibus Provinciarum et Exercitium studiis, atque ipse, ut super fortunam crederetur, decorum se promptumque 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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