to doubt, whether this was Philip the Tetrarch, or another Herod, that had also the name of Philip'. This historian represents Philip as a meek, just, and peaceable prince; and therefore JESUS CHRIST WAS wont to retire into his dominions, in order to secure himself against the insults and attacks of the Jews". He also built or beautified and enlarged some cities, as Paneas for instance, to which he gave the name of Cæsarea", (and which is commonly called Cæsarea Philippi, that it may thereby be distinguished from another Cæsarea or Turris Stratonis, which lay on the sea-coast ;) Bethsaida was likewise enlarged by him, and named Julias. He reigned thirty-seven years; and as he died without issue, Tiberius annexed his dominions to Syria. It remains now to give some account of the grandsons of Herod the Great, as far as it is requisite for the understanding of some parts of the New Testament.

Aristobulus, who was put to death by his father's orders, left behind him two sons, of whom of the grandmention is made in the Acts of the Apostles sons of Herod and the history of Josephus. The first of the Great. them was Agrippa, surnamed the Great, the son of Mariamne, a princess of the Asmonean race: to him Caligula gave the kingdom of Judea, Idumæa, and Samaria, with the Tetrarchy of Antipas, which was approved of and confirmed by the emperor Claudius, who moreover added to his dominions the territories which had belonged to Philip". This is the same Agrippa who in the Acts is named Herod the king', and who, to please the Jews, killed James the son of Zebedee with the sword, and cast St. Peter into prison. Like his grandfather he was cruel, effeminate, and impious; and he met also with the same unhappy end, for he was smitten by the hand of God for his crimes". After his

(1) Joseph. Antiq. 1. xviii. c. 6. (m) Id. Ibid. (n) Joseph. Antiq. 1. xviii. c. 3. (0) Matth. xvi. 13. (p) Joseph. Antiq. 1. xviii. c. 9. et de Bell. Jud. 1. ii. c. 8. (q) Acts xii. 1. (r) Ibid. c. 23.

death, which occasioned great joy to all his people, Judea became again a province to the Roman empire, and was governed by Cuspidius Fadus; the son of Agrippa being then too young to be entrusted with the government of a kingdom. The other son of Aristobulus was Herod king of Chalcis, commonly known bý the name of Claudius's favourite; from whom he obtained the privilege of choosing and deposing the high-priests, together with the charge of the temple, and the holy treasure; though in other respects, he had no manner of authority or power in Judea. We find no mention at all of him in scripture.

After the decease of Herod king of Chalcis, Agrippa the Younger, the son of Agrippa the Great, was put in possession of that little kingdom; the situation whereof, historians are not well agreed about. The most probable opinion is, that it lay between Libanus and Antilibanus. To this prince was likewise committed the keeping of the temple, the holy treasure, and the priestly garments. Before this Agrippa it was, that St. Paul made that noble defence for himself which we read in the 26th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles; where he is always styled king, either upon the account of his being king of Chalcis, as he actually was, or else because he had a great power in Judea, though he was not invested with the supreme authority, since we find that it was in the hands of governors appointed by the Romans, as Festus, Felix, Albinus, and Gessius Florus". The last of whom was the occasion of those grievous disturbances and troubles in that province, which in the end proved the cause of its total ruin and destruction. Agrippa is well known in history by his criminal, or, at least, his too free conversation with Berenice, the daughter of Agrippa the Great, and consequently his own sister, which before had been the wife of Herod king of Chalcis, his uncle, and was after married to Polemo king of (t) Id. Ibid. 1. xx. c. 1. (u) Id.

(s) Joseph. Antiq. 1. xix. c. 7. Ibid. 1. xx. c. 8, 9.

Cilicia", whom she soon forsook, being drawn away by her immoderate and excessive lust. This is the same with him in the Acts of the Apostles". Agrippa was the last king of Herod's race. In what year he died is uncertain; some imagine that he lived till the time of Trajan. This much we know, that he survived his country, and endeavoured to prevent the fall of it by his wise councils, and prudent administration. But the time appointed for the destruction of that impenitent people was come; they were now become their own enemies, contriving, as they did, their own ruin, by repeated seditions and continual revolts.

Thus have we brought down the history of Herod and his posterity, to the downfall of the Jewish commonwealth, which happened in the 70th year of the Christian æra, and 40 years after it had been foretold by JESUS CHRIST.

persed in se

To finish the account of the state of the Jewish nation, as far as it relates to the New Testa- Of thoseJews ment, it will be necessary to speak of the who were disJews that were dispersed in several parts of veral parts of the earth. There were great numbers of the world. them in Greece, and all the other parts of the Roman Empire, which had at that time no other bounds, but those of the then known world. It is of the Jews dispersed among the Gentiles, that the Jews of Jerusalem speak, in the seventh chapter of St. John's gospel". JESUS CHRIST likewise seems to allude to them, when he saith, he hath yet other sheep'; without excluding nevertheless the Gentiles, who were also to enter into his sheep-fold, or to be admitted into his church. Let this be as it will, some of the dispersed Jews were met together from all parts of the world at Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, after our Saviour's ascension'. It was then the critical time, in which the Jews openly professed they were in expectation of the coming of the

(x) Joseph. Ant. c. 5. (y) Aets xxv. 13. (z) Joseph. de Bello Jud. 1. ii. p. 17 and 24. (a) John vii. 35. (b) Id. x. 16. (c) Acts ii. 5, &c.

Messiah. God moreover ordered it so, (that they should now be at Jerusalem) to the intent that the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost might be made known to all nations, in order to convince them of the divine mission of JESUS CHRIST, and the truth of the Christian religion.

To these dispersed Jews it was that St. James and St. Peter wrote their epistles; the former to those of the twelve tribes which were scattered throughout the world; the latter to those in particular that were in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. We may judge of the prodigious number of them by what king Agrippa the Elder wrote to the emperor Caligula, to dissuade him from setting up the statue of Jupiter in Jerusalem, and from ordering that he himself should be worshipped there as a God. "Jerusalem, saith he, "is the metropolis, not only of Judea, but of many other colonies that have been planted from thence. In the neighbouring parts there are abundance of them, as in Egypt, Phoenicia, Upper and Lower Syria; Pamphylia, Cilicia, and several parts of Asia, as far as Bithynia and Pontus. And so in Europe, Thessaly, Boeotia, Macedonia, Etolia, Athens, Argos, Corinth, and the better part of Peloponnesus. And not only the continent, but the islands also of most eminent note, are filled with Jewish plantations; as Euboea, Cyprus, Crete to say nothing of those beyond the Euphrates.'

These words of Philo give a great light to the second chapter of the Acts. And that the case was the same even in the time of Josephus, appears from the speech which Agrippa the Younger made to the Jews, with a design to persuade them not to engage in a war against the Romans; where, among other arguments, he offers this, that "the Jews, who were scattered over the face of the whole earth, would be involved in their ruin." These dispersions of the Jews were owing to

(d) Vid. Philonis Legationem ad Caium, p. 16. (e) Joseph. de Bello Jud. 1. ii. c. 16.

particular occasions and causes, but they were undoubtedly the effect of the wonderful wisdom of God, who thereby gave the Apostles an opportunity of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, because the Jews, who were mixed with, and resided among them, professed to be in expectation of the Messiah. It cannot moreover be questioned, but that this dispersion did very much contribute towards the preserving the body of the Jewish nation, as a lasting monument of the truth of Christianity; since very few of them survived their country, and, such as then remained, were almost entirely destroyed and cut off by the emperor Adrian afterwards.

Having given an account of the Jewish nation, properly so called, it will not be amiss to give

Concerning an abstract of the history of the Samaritans, the Samariwho were a branch of the Jews, and of whom tans.

mention is often made in the New Testament. The Samaritans were so called from Samarias, which formerly was the capital of a country of the same name, as it was also of the kingdom of the ten tribes. Omri king of Israel, by whom it was built, gave it that name, because he bought the hill, on which it stood, of one Semer or Samar". One would be apt to think, by what Josephus says, that Samaria and Sichem were one and the same city, since that historian places Sichem on mount Gerizim, and calls it the capital of the Samaritans'. But the most exact geographers make Samaria and Sichem to have been two different cities. This being of little moment, we shall spend no time in examining it. What is certain is this, that Sichem is the same with Sichar in the gospel*; the alteration of the name being occasioned, either by changing the letter M into an R, agreeable to the different dialects of the Jews and Samaritans, as the learned have observed; or else

(f) You may see an account of the several dispersions of the Jews, and the causes and occasions of them, in the famous Mr. Basnage's history of the Jews. (g) 1 Kings xvi. 24. and 2 Kings xxiii. 19. The Hebrew name of it is Schomeron. (k) John iv. 5.

(h) 1 Kings, ubi supra.

(i) Joseph. Antiq. 1. 11. sub finem.

E