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these means, and having received the desired sum, pursues a different way for subduing the woman who, she saw, would not yield the citadel of her virtue to the force of money. Knowing that she was much devoted to the worship of Isis, she planned this scheme; she goes to some of the priests and discloses the passion of her master, and by her entreaties, (but chiefly by her presents, having given them at the time twentyfive thousand drachmæ, with the promise of an equal amount, when the scheme should succeed), prevails upon them to use all their endeavours to procure him the beloved woman. Captivated with such sums of gold, they pledged their service. The oldest of them repaired to the house of Paulina, and obtained a private interview with her. He came, he said, from the God Anubis, who was enamoured of her beauty. The information gave her pleasure. By the assistance of her associates, she adorned herself in a style worthy the honour done her by Anubis; and acquainted her husband, that she had been invited to his table and his bed. Convinced of her chastity, be permitted her to accept the invitation, and accordingly she went to the holy place. Supper being now over, the time of repose arrived, the doors of the temple fastened, and the lights removed, Mundus, who had there concealed himself, then obtained the enjoyment, which he wished. Supposing him to be the God, she administered throughout the night to his lust. Before those of the priests, who had not been made privy to the fraud, were up, Mundus departed; and Paulina returning in the morning to her husband, told him of the God's appearance; and

to her friends, she boasted of him in ostentatious language. These considering the matter did not in part give her credit, and in part were held in amazement, being unable to disbelieve what she said, because of her known worth and modesty. The third day after this, Mundus met and accosted her, "Thou hast spared me, Paulina, two hundred thousand drachmæ, which thou mightest have added to thine own fortune, yet hast not failed to gratify my desire. For the reproachful names thou hast given Mundus I little care; since I have enjoyed thee under the assumed name of Anubis." Comprehending at length the attrocious deed into which she had been betrayed, she rent her robes, and revealed the crime to her husband, entreating his interference. Accordingly he laid before the emperor the whole affair. Tiberius having minutely examined the priests, ordered them to be crucified, together with Ida, who was the cause of ruin and disgrace to this woman. The temple of Isis he destroyed and threw her shrine into the Tiber. Mundus he only banished, thinking that as he offended through excess of love, he did not merit a severer punishment. Such was the disgrace brought by the priests on the temple of Isis. I now return to relate the misfortune, which at the same time befel the Jews at Rome."

"A Jew resided there who having been accused of transgressing the laws of Moses, fled from his country to avoid the punishment which threatened him. In every respect he was a wicked man. During his residence at Rome, he professed to unfold the wisdom of the Mosaic law, in conjunction with three other men, who

in every view resembled himself. With these associated Fulvia, a woman of rank, who had become a convert to the Jewish religion, and whom they prevailed upon to send for the temple of Jerusalem, presents of purple and gold. These they received and appropriated to their own use, which indeed was their motive at first in making the request. Tiberius when informed of this by Saturninus, the husband of the unjustly accused Fulvia, commanded all the Jews to be expelled from the city. The men to the number of four thousand were forced into the army by order of the Senate, and sent to the island of Sardinia. But the greatestat of them, being determined to preserve their laws unviolated, refused to serve as soldiers. These were put to death: and thus because of the wickedness of four men, the Jews were driven from the city."

"Nor did the Samaritan nation escape disturbance. For they were stirred up by a man who, making no scruple of telling falsehoods, imposed on the multitude by various artifices," A. J.lib. 18.3.

The passage, in which Jose hus speaks of Christ, as well as other parts of his works, proves that he was a decided and undisguised believer in the Gospel. The author hath brought together all the great facts which compose the ministry, and attest the divine mission of Jesus; but he is silent respecting his miraculous birth: and this silence warrants us in concluding that he did not believe the story related of him in the introductory chapters ascribed to Matthew and Luke. If Josephus thought those chapters genuine, or the contents of them worthy of credit, he would not have omitted so extraordinary an event in the character of Christ; especially as it could not fail to recommend him to

the Greeks and Romans, whose prejudices against him, the historian laboured to remove. It is plain, therefore, that he considered the whole story as a fiction which never came from the hands of the Apostles; and as he lived in their days, and was acquainted with all the affairs of the Jews and Christians, he must have known the men with whom it originated, and the circumstances of its fabrication. As soon as the tale of our Lord's supernatural birth was made known to the world, his enemies eagerly seized it as a handle to vilify him, and his mother, and his Apostles. The story especially, on its first formation, appeared absurd and improbable, and threatened to give the whole Gospel the appearance of the grossest imposture. For this reason, Josephus, as a believer in Christ, and as such interested to defend his character and his religion against the imputation of falsehood, traces the supposed miraculous conception of Jesus to its real origin, and holds forth the base authors of it to public infamy.

"About this time," says he, "lived Jesus, a wise inan, if indeed he might be called a man: for he was the author of wonderful works, and the teacher of such men as embrace the truth with delight.-A Jew resided in Rome, who having been accused of transgressing the laws of Moses, fled from his country to avoid the punishment which threatened him. In every respect, he was a wicked man. During his residence at Rome, he professed to unfold the wisdom of the Mosaic law in conjunction with three other men who, in every respect, resembled himself." By the wisdom of the Mosaic law, Josephus meant spiritual

Judaism or the Gospel. The wicked Jew and his associates then were nominal believers in Christ, and pretended to teach his religion. At the same time they disgraced it by crimes, and debased it with falsehoods, of their own invention, which the enemies of Christianity in Rome were eager to impute indiscriminately to the founder, and to his virtuous followers in Judea. To refute this imputation, Josephus distinguishes between them, representing Jesus and his immediate disciples, on one hand, as men who loved the truth, and on the other, the Jew and his companions in Rome as wicked in every respect. What then were the falsehoods, which the impostors taught as parts of the Gospel, but which Josephus intimates were not sanctioned by the disciples of Jesus, being men who loved the truth? The doctrine of his divinity was at this time taught in Rome: and the emperor himself, at the instigation of the magicians around him, proposed his deification to the senate. The wicked Jew and his colleagues, we may well suppose, took a part in this question; and as they taught that he was a God, they taught also, as a natural consequence, that he was not born at all, or not born like other men.

Whether the miraculous birth of Jesus be true or false, Josephus could not but have that doctrine in his mind, when giving an account of his character and miracles. But instead of saying, that Mary, his mother, conceived by the spirit of God, he tells us of a woman, who had communion with one of the Pagan Gods at Rome. What had this woman with her strange conduct to do with Jesus Christ? The story of Mary, ascribed

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