Antiochus, who made him one of his confidents, and governor of Cœlosyria and Palestine.

Antiochus in the spring invaded Egypt both by sea and land, and gained one advantage after another, till he obliged Ptolemy to submit to him. Antiochus affected to be very careful of the interest of the young king, his nephew, and to regulate his. affairs as his guardian; but when he got possession of the country, he plundered all the places he came to, and enriched himself, as well as his soldiers, with the spoil of the Egyptians.

While the king was in Egypt, a false report of his death spread through Palestine. Jason, taking advantage of this circumstance, exerted himself to recover the office he had lost; to effect which, he marched with about a thousand men to Jerusalem; where, with the assistance of his partisans, he drove out Menelaus; exercising every species of cruelty upon those whom he suspected to be of the opposite party.

When advice of this was brought to Antiochus in Egypt, he, concluding that the Jews had made a general revolt, set forward, without delay, to reduce them to obedience. He was extremely exasperated to hear of the rejoicings which the inhabitants of Jerusalem were said to have made upon the report of his death. Jason left Jerusa-. lem, fearing the effects of Antiochus' displeasure: being universally hated and despised, he wandered from place to place, and, at length, died miserably.

Antiochus took the city, and abandoned it for

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three days to the fury of his soldiers, who inhumanly slew forty thousand of the the World inhabitants, and sold as many more for slaves. This impious monarch entered by force into the temple, and even the Holy of Holies, polluting by his presence that sacred place, whither he was conducted by the traitor Menelaus. He then took away the vessels of gold, and returned to Antioch, laden with the spoils of Judea and Egypt. But to complete the miseries of the Jews, he set over them as governor, a Phrygian, named Philip, a man of great cruelty, and appointed one Andronicus, a man of like disposition, to be governor of Samaria : he also established Menelaus, the most abandoned of the three, in the office of high-priest.

Antiochus, two years after, hearing that Ptolemy Philometer had taken his brother to reign jointly with him, threw off the mask, and declared war against both, professing his determination never to make peace, till the island of Cyprus, with the city of Pelusium, and all the land along the arm of the Nile on which it was situated, were given up to him for ever.

The Egyptians not consenting to these terms, at the time which Antiochus had fixed to receive their final answer, he began hostilities, penetrated as far as Memphis, subjecting the whole country through which he passed, and was marching to Alexandria, with design to besiege that city, the possession of which would make him master of all Egypt, when his career was stopped by the arrival of an embassy from Rome. The ambassadors came up with him about a mile from Alexandria. The king, seeing

Popilius, with whom he had formed a friendship when at Rome, opened his arms to embrace him. The Roman, who, on this occasion, did not consider himself as a private man, but a servant of the public, desired to know, before he received his compliment, whether he spoke to a friend or an enemy of Rome. He then gave him the decree of the senate, bid him read it over, and return him an immediate answer. Antiochus, after perusing it, said, That he would examine the contents with his friends, and give his answer in a short time. Popilius, enraged at the king for talking of delays, drew, with the wand he held in his hand, a circle round Antiochus, and then raising his voice, " Answer the senate (says he), before you stir out of that circle." The king, quite confounded at this haughty mandate, after a moment's reflection, replied, That he would act according to the desire of the senate. Popilius then received his civilities, and treated him in all respects as an old friend.

Thus, George, was Antiochus, who had seduced many by his flatteries, obliged, by this blunt speech and determined conduct of Popilius, at once to relinquish a kingdom, which he considered as already his own. Being forced to leave Egypt in this disgraceful manner, he vented his rage against the Jews, who had done nothing to offend him, and made them feel the whole weight of his wrath, as you will see in my next. I remain,

Your's affectionately.

LETTER IV.

MY DEAR GEORGE,

WHEN we review the records of history, and observe the confusion which has so often distracted empires, and the gross absurdity with which men have acted; were we to consult only the dictates of unenlightened reason, we should, at times, be ready to conclude, that God had renounced the government of the world. But the Almighty permits these things to take place, that his glory may, in the end, be more illustriously displayed, and the exceeding sinfulness and folly of men be more fully exposed. The beloved people of God were at this time on the eve of experiencing the rage of their enemies.

Antiochus, at his return from Egypt, sent an army, under the command of Apollonius, with orders to destroy Jerusalem. Apollonius, at his first coming, disguised his intentions and the orders he had received, waiting for the sabbath to put them in execution. On that day, when the people were in their synagogues, worshipping God, he sent troops among them to kill all the men, and seize the women and children, that they might be sold. The soldiers executed these commands with the utmost rigour, insomuch, that every place streamed with blood. They then set fire to many parts of the city.

In order to awe the whole nation, Apollonius built a strong fort opposite the temple, and placed a garrison of soldiers in it, who, by their continual

excursions, grievously annoyed all that came to worship the true God, and shed their blood in every part of the sanctuary.

Antiochus next published a decree, wherein he declared his determination to secure a uniformity of religion in all the nations he governed. This was aimed chiefly at the Jews, whom he was resolved to extirpate. The Gentiles obeyed without resistance, though some of them were far from being pleased with this innovation in religion.

But the Samaritans outdid all other nations in their ready compliance: they even sent a petition to the king, praying that their temple on mount Gerizzim might be dedicated to the Grecian Jupiter, and be called after his name, declaring themselves not to be Jews.

You remember, George, that the Samaritans did not descend from the Israelites, but were a colony of idolaters settled amongst them by the king of Assyria, after the ruin of the ten tribes. These people blended the worship of the God of Israel with that of their idols, and, on all occasions, discovered an enmity to the Jews, which increased after their return from the Babylonish captivity.

You may recollect that Sanballat obtained leave of Alexander to build a temple like that at Jerusalem, and to appoint Manasseh his son-in-law highpriest. This raised the hatred of the Jews against the Samaritans to its greatest height; the latter, having by their erection of a new temple, openly expressed their contempt of that which God had been pleased most evidently to honour.

The Samaritans were not the only persons who