returned foon after, and even attained to several honours and dignities, notwithstanding the laws which excluded them therefrom 1. Can it be believed, that after the deftruction of Jerusalem, 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 fet 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 wel! 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 sufferings

Ulpianus 1. tit. II. Eis qui judaicam fuperftitionem fequuntur, bonores adipisci permiserent, &c.

of

of a few half-Jews and half-Christians under

Nero t.

+ Tacitus's words are: Quos per flagitia invifos vulgus Chriftianos appellabat.

It is hardly probable that the name of Chriftian was already known in Rome; Tacitus wrote in the reigns of the emperors Vefpafian and Domitian; and he speaks of the Christians in the manner that it was cuftomary in his time. And here I must venture to affert, that the words Odio humani generis convicti, may equally well be rendered agreeable to the file of this writer, Convicted of being hated by mankind, as convicted of hating all

mankind.

And indeed, what was the employment of these first missionaries at Rome? They laboured to gain a few profelytes, by preaching up a pure and fimple moral doctrine; the humility of their hearts, and the modefty of their manners, were equal to the lowliness of their condition and circumstances. Having been fo lately feparated from the Jews, they were hardly known in the world as a different how then could they be hated by, or convict

fect;

ed of hating all mankind, to whom they were in a manner unknown?

The Roman Catholics have been accused as the incendiaries of the city of London in the year 1666, but not till they had firft occafioned civil wars on account of religion; and that several of that faith, though unworthy to be fo, had been legally convicted of the Gunpowder-Plot.

But furely the cafe of the primitive Chriftians in the time of Nero was very different. It is no eafy matter to clear up the obfcurities of history. Even Tacitus himself says nothing that can afford a reason to fufpect Nero of having fet fire to Rome; and we might, with a greater appearance of probability, charge Charles II. with having lighted up the flames that laid London in ashes, in revenge for the blood of his father, that had been fo lately shed upon the scaffold, to fatisfy a rebellious people who thirsted for that blood. Charles had at least some excufe for fuch an action; whereas, Nero had neither excufe, pretence, or intereft for the deed attributed to him. Reports of this kind have been common in every country among

the

the populace, and even our own times have furnished us with fome equally falfe and ridiculous.

Tacitus, who was fo well acquainted with the difpofition of princes, could not have been a ftranger to that of the common people, who are ever vain, inconftant, and violent in the opinions they adopt, incapable of difcerning truth from falfhood, and ready to believe, affert, and forget every thing.

Philo fays, "That Sejanus perfecuted the Jews "under Tiberius, but that after the death of Seja 66 nus, the emperor reinstated them in all their "privileges." One of which was, that of being. denizens of Rome, notwithstanding the contempt they were held in by the Romans. As fuch they had a fhare in the distribution of corn, and whenever fuch diftribution happened to be made on the day that was their fabbath, the portion allotted them was put by till the next day; this indulgence might probably be granted them in favour of the great fums of money with which they furnished the state; for they have purchased toleration in every country at a pretty high rate, though, it must be confeffed, that they have foon found means to reimburse themselves.

This paffage of Philo's clearly explains one in Tacitus, where he fays, "That four thousand. "Jews or Egyptians were banished to Sardinia, where, if they had all perished, through the badness "of the climate, it would have been no great "lofs." Vile damnum.

Before I close this note, I fhall obferve, that Philo fpeaks of Tiberius as a wife and juft prince. I am very ready to believe that he was fo, only where the being fuch was agreeable to his intereft; but the good character given him here by Philo, makes me at the fame time greatly fufpect the truth of those terrible crimes, with which Tacitus and Suetonius reproach him. Nor can I think it likely, that an infirm old man of feventy, would have retired into the island of Caprea, to indulge himself in the uninterrupted exercise of a refined debauchery, which appears to be hardly natural, and was, even in those days of licentiousness, unknown to the most abandoned of the Roman youth. Neither Tacitus nor Suetonius were acquainted with that emperor; but took these stories upon the credit of vulgar reports; Octavius and Tiberius Cæfar, and their fucceffors, had been juftly detested for reigning over a free people without their confent. All hiftorians have taken a delight in befpat-" tering their characters, and the world has taken

them