tion as the moft facred of all the laws of nations?

We are told, that as foon as the Chriftian religion began to make its appearance, its followers were perfecuted by these very Romans who perfecuted no one. This fact, however, appears to me to be evidently false, and I defire no better authority than that of St. Paul himfelf. In the acts of the Apoftles *, we are told, that St. Paul being accused by the Jews of attempting to overturn the Mosaic law by that of Jefus Chrift, St. James proposed to him to fhave his head, and go into the temple with four Jews, and purify himself with them, "That all men may know, says he, that those "things whereof they were informed concern❝ing thee, are nothing, but that thou thyfelf "doft keep the law of Mofes."

Accordingly, we find that St. Paul, though a Christian, submitted to perform these Jewish ceremonies for the space of feven days; but before the expiration of this time, the Jews of Afia, who knew him again, feeing him in the

+ Chap. 21. 221

tem

temple, not only with Jews but Gentiles alfo, cried out, that he had polluted the holy place, and laid hands upon him, drew him out of the temple, and carried him before the governor Felix they afterwards accufed him at the judgment-feat of Feftus, whither the Jews came in crowds demanding his death. But Feftus anfwered them, "It is not the manner of the "Romans to deliver any man to die, before

that he which is accufed have the accusers "face to face, and have licence to answer for << himself +."

These words of the Roman magistrate are more remarkable, as he appears to have been no favourer of St. Paul, but rather to have held him in contempt, for, impofed upon by the falfe lights of his own reason, he took him for a perfon befides himself; nay, he exprefsly fays, to him, "Much learning hath made thee mad §." Feftus then, was entirely guided by the equity of the Roman law, in taking under his protection a stranger, for whom he could have no regard,

+ Acts 25.

§ Ibid, 261

Here

Here then we have the word of God itfelf declaring, that the Romans were a juft people, and no perfecutors. Befides, it was not the Romans who laid violent 'hands on St. Paul, but the Jews. St. James, the brother of Jefus, was ftoned to death by order of a Sadducce Jew, and not by that of a Roman judge: it was the Jews alone who put St. Stephen to death 1; and though St. Paul held the clothes of those who ftoned him, he certainly did not act then as a Roman citizen.

The primitive Chriftians had certainly no caufe of complaint against the Romans; the Jews, from whom they at that time began to

Though the power of life and death in criminal matters had been taken from the Jews after the banishment of Archelaus into the country of the Allobroges, and that Judea had been governed as a province; nevertheless, the Romans frequently winked at the exertion of a judicial power by thefe people on any particular occafion that related merely to thofe of their own fect; fuch as for inftance, when in any fudden tumult, they out of zeal ftoned to death the perfon whom they thought guilty of blafphemy.

Гера

feparate themselves, were their only enemies. Every one knows the implacable hatred all fectaries bare to those who quit their fect. There, doubtlefs, were feveral tumults in the fynagogues at Rome. Suetonius, in his life of Claudius, has these words, Judæos impulfore Chrifto affidue tumultuantes Roma expulit. He is wrong in faying, that it was at the inftigation of Chrift they raifed commotions in Rome; but he could not be acquainted with all the circumstances relating to a people who were held in fuch contempt at Rome as the Jews were; and, however mistaken he may have been in this particular, yet he is right as to the occafion of these commotions. Suetonius wrote in the reign of Adrian in the second century, when the Chriftians were not distinguished from the Jews by the Romans: therefore this paffage of Sueto-, nius is a proof, that the Romans, fo far from oppreffing the primitive Chriftians, chastised the Jews who perfecuted them, being defirous that the Jewish synagogue at Rome should show the fame indulgence to its diffenting brethren, as it received itfelf from the Roman senate: and we find from Dion Caffius and Ulpian, that the Jews who were thus banifhed from Rome,

returned foon after, and even attained to feveral honours and dignities, notwithstanding the laws which excluded them therefrom . Can it be believed, that after the deftruction of Jerufalem, the emperors would have loaded the Jews with their favours, and have perfecuted and put to death the Chriftians, whom they looked upon as a fect of the Jews!

Nero is faid to have been a great perfecutor of the Chriftians. But Tacitus tells us, that they were accufed with having set fire to the city of Rome, and were thereupon given up to the refentment of the populace. But had religion any thing to do in this charge? No, certainly. We might as well fay, that the Chinefe, whom the Dutch murdered a few years ago in Batavia, were flaughtered on account of their religion? And nothing but a ftrong defire to deceive ourselves can poffibly make us attribute to perfecution the fufferings

Ulpianus 1. tit. II. Eis qui judaicam fuperfti tionem fequuntur, honores adipifci permiferent, c.

of