88

GENERAL TOLERATION.

[CH. XVL The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear, animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthu siasm, are seldom in a proper temper of mind calmly to investigate, or candidly to appreciate, the motives of their enemies, which often escape the impartial and discerning view even of those who are placed at a secure distance from the flames of persecution. A reason has been assigned for the conduct of the emperors towards the primitive Christians, which may appear the more specious and probable, as it is drawn from the acknowledged genius of Polytheism. It has already been observed, that the religious concord of the world was principally supported by the implicit assent and reverence which the nations of antiquity expressed for their respective traditions and ceremonies. It might, there fore, be expected that they would unite with indignation, against any sect of people which should separate itself from the communion of mankind, and claiming the exclusive possession of divine knowledge, should disdain every form of worship except its own, as impious and idolatrous. The rights of toleration were held by mutual indulgence; they were justly forfeited by a refusal of the accustomed tribute. As the payment of this tribute was inflexibly refused by the Jews, and by them alone, the consideration of the treatment which they experienced from the Roman magistrates will serve to explain how far these speculations are justified by facts; and will lead us to discover the true causes of the persecution of Christianity.

Without repeating what has been already mentioned, of the reverence of the Roman princes and governors for the temple of Jerusalem, we shall only observe that the destruction of the temple and city was accompanied and followed by every circumstance that could exasperate the minds of the conquerors, and authorize religious persecution by the most specious arguments of political justice, and the public safety. From the reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Acts of the Apostles, for he has quoted facts from them. He did not consider the transactions there related to be any evidence of a public and general persecution, nor have they been so considered by ecclesiastical historians. M. Guizot alone thinks that proofs are to be found there of the repression of Christianity by imperial mandate and official cruelty, from which it again came forth unsubdued. This note was intended by him, as introductory to some which follow, sud in

[CE.CH. XVI.]

OBSTINACY OF THE JEWS.

89

Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious inassacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives; and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of the legions against a ace of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies, not only of the Roman government, but of human kind. The enthu asm of the Jews was supported by the opinion that it was lawful for them to pay taxes to an idolatrous master; and by the flattering promise which they derived from their ancient oracles, that a conquering Messiah would soon arise, destined to break their fetters, and to invest the favourites of Beaven with the empire of the earth. It was by announcing himself as their long-expected deliverer, and by calling on all the descendants of Abraham to assert the hope of Israel, that the famous Barchochebas collected a formidable army, with which he resisted during two years the power of the emperor Hadrian.‡

Notwithstanding these repeated provocations, the resentment of the Roman princes expired after the victory; nor Tere their apprehensions continued beyond the period of war and danger. By the general indulgence of Polytheism, which it will be seen that he maintains such an opinion.-ED.] In Cyrene they massacred two hundred and twenty thousand Greeks; in Cyprus, two hundred and forty thousand; in Egypt, a Tery great multitude. Many of these unhappy victims were sawed Sunder, according to a precedent to which David had given the sanction of his example. The victorious Jews devoured the flesh, licked up the blood, and twisted the entrails, like a girdle, round their bodies See Dion Cassius, lib. 68, p. 1145. [The comments of Reimarus and others on this passage in Dion Cassius shew it to be their opinion, that the hatred, in which the Romans held the Jews, caused them to exaggerate the atrocities which the latter had perpetrated.-GUIZOT.] [To this must be added, the proneness of the ancients to magnify calamities. Their means of information were too scanty and vague to be curate. Rumour alone supplied them with intelligence, and we know how that grows larger at every step, especially when dealing with numbers.-ED.] Without repeating the well-known narratives of Jost, hus, we may learn from Dion (lib. 69, p. 1162), that in Hadrian's war five hundred and eighty thousand Jews were cut off by the sword, besides an infinite number which perished by famine, by disease, and by For the sect of the Zealots, see Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, lib. 1, c. 17; for the character of the Messiah, according to the Rabbins,

fire.

90

SUBJUGATION OF THE JEWS.

[CH. XVI and by the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jews were restored to their ancient privileges, and once more obtained the permission of circumcising their children, with the easy restraint, that they should never confer on any foreign proselyte that distinguishing mark of the Hebrew race.* The numerous remains of that people, though they were still excluded from the precincts of Jerusalem, were permitted to form and to maintain considerable establishments, both in Italy and in the provinces, to acquire the freedom of Rome, to enjoy municipal honours, and to obtain at the same time an exemption from the burdensome and expensive offices of society. The moderation or the contempt of the. Romans gave a legal sanction to the form of ecclesiastical police which was instituted by the vanquished sect. The patriarch, who had fixed his residence at Tiberias, was empowered to appoint his subordinate ministers and apostles, to exercise a domestic jurisdiction, and to receive from his dispersed brethren an annual contribution. New synagogues were frequently erected in the principal cities of the empire; and the sabbaths, the fasts, and the festivals, which were either commanded by the Mosaic law, or enjoined by the traditions of the rabbins, were celebrated in the most solemn and public manner. Such gentle treatment insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the Jews. Awakened from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour of C peaceable and industrious subjects. Their irreconcileable hatred of mankind, instead of flaming out in acts of blood and violence, evaporated in less dangerous gratifications. They embraced every opportunity of overreaching the idolators in trade; and they pronounced secret and ambiguous imprecations against the haughty kingdom of Edom.§

Since the Jews, who rejected with abhorrence the deities adored by their sovereign and by their fellow-subjects, en

lib. 5, c. 11-13; for the actions of Barchochebas, lib. 7, c. 12. [This war lasted three years and a half, from the spring of 132 to August, 135. See Dio and Jerome, as quoted by Clinton, F. R. 1. 122.—ED.]

* It is to Modestinus, a Roman lawyer (lib. 6, regular.), that we are indebted for a distinct knowledge of the edict of Antoninus. See Casau bon, ad Hist. August. p. 27. + See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1. 3, c. 2, 3. The office of patriarch was suppressed by Theodosius the younger.

We need only remember the Purim, or deliverance of the Jews from the rage of Haman, which, till the reign of Theodosius, was celebrated with insolent triumph and riotous intemperance. Basnage, Hist. deo Juifs, lib. 8. c. 17, lib. 8. c. 6. § According to the false Josephus,

CH. IVI.] CHRISTIANS DISTINGUISHED FROM JEWS.

91

joyed, however, the free exercise of their unsocial religion, there must have existed some other cause which exposed the disciples of Christ to those severities from which the posterity of Abraham was exempt. The difference between them is simple and obvious; but, according to the sentiments of antiquity, it was of the highest importance. The Jews were a nation; the Christians were a sect: and, if it as natural for every community to respect the sacred institutions of their neighbours; it was incumbent on them to persevere in those of their ancestors. The voice of ora les, the precepts of philosophers, and the authority of the laws, unanimously enforced this national obligation. By their lofty claim of superior sanctity, the Jews might provoke the Polytheists to consider them as an odious and pure race. By disdaining the intercourse of other nafons, they might deserve their contempt. The laws of Moses might be for the most part frivolous or absurd; yet, ince they had been received during many ages by a large society, his followers were justified by the example of mankind; and it was universally acknowledged that they had a right to practise what it would have been criminal in them neglect. But this principle, which protected the Jewish nagogue, afforded not any favour or security to the primitive church. By embracing the faith of the gospel, the Chrisfans incurred the supposed guilt of an unnatural and unpar donable offence. They dissolved the sacred ties of custom and education, violated the religious institutions of their country, and presumptuously despised whatever their fathers had believed as true, or had reverenced as sacred. Nor was this apostacy (if we may use the expression) merely of a partial or local kind; since the pious deserter, who withdrew himself from the temples of Egypt or Syria, would equally disdain to seek an asylum in those of Athens or Carthage. Every Christian rejected with contempt the superstitions of his family, his city, and his province. The whole body of Christians unanimously refused to hold any communion with the gods of Rome, of the empire, and of mankind. It was in vain that the oppressed believer asserted the inalienTsepho, the grandson of Esau, conducted into Italy the army of Æneas, king of Carthage. Another colony of Idumæans, flying from the sword of David, took refuge in the dominions of Romulus. For these, or for other reasons of equal weight, the name of Edom was applied by the

02

THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS.

¡CH. XV able rights of conscience and private judgment. Though his situation might excite the pity, his arguments could never reach the understanding, either of the philosophic of of the believing part of the Pagan world. To their appre hensions, it was no less a matter of surprise that any indi viduals should entertain scruples against complying wit the established mode of worship, than if they had conceive a sudden abhorrence to the manners, the dress, or the lan guage, of their native country.*

The surprise of the Pagans was soon succeeded by resent ment; and the most pious of men were exposed to the un just but dangerous imputation of impiety. Malice and pre judice concurred in representing the Christians as a society of atheists, who, by the most daring attack on the religious constitution of the empire, had merited the severest animad version of the civil magistrate. They had separated themselves (they gloried in the confession) from every mode of superstition which was received in any part of the globe by the various temper of Polytheism; but it was not altogether 80 evident what deity, or what form of worship, they had substituted to the gods and temples of antiquity. The pure and sublime idea which they entertained of the Su preme Being escaped the gross conception of the Pagan multitude, who were at a loss to discover a spiritual and solitary God, that was neither represented under any cor poreal figure or visible symbol, nor was adored with the ac customed pomp of libations and festivals, of altars and sacrifices. The sages of Greece and Rome, who bad elevated their minds to the contemplation of the existence and attri butes of the First Cause, were induced by reason or by vanity to reserve for themselves and their chosen disciples the privilege of this philosophical devotion. They were

Jews to the Roman empire. From the arguments of Celsus, as they are represented and refuted by Origen (lib. 5, p. 247—259), ws may clearly discover the distinction that was made between the Jewish, people and the Christian sect. See in the Dialog of Minucius Felix (c. 5, 6) a fair and not inelegant description of the popular sentiments, with regard to the desertion of the established worship. + Cur nullas aras habent? templa nulla? nulla nota simulacra? . . . . . .... Unde autem, vel quis ille, aut ubi, Deus unicus, solitarius, destitutus? (Minu cius Felix, c. 10.) The Pagan interlocutor goes on to make a distino tion in favour of the Jews, who had once a temple, altars, victims, &a

It is difficult (says Plato) to attain, and dangerous to publish, tha