subjects, whose hearts had been alienated by the atrociousness of his conduct, embraced the opportunity of discovering their indignation. Some persons in the city, having heard a report of his death, which proved premature, pulled down the large golden eagle, which he had profanely set up on the portal of the temple. This being done in a tumultuous manner, the soldiers were called out, and many spectators were slain; others were apprehended and suffered death, by the command of Herod, in the most cruel manner, being burnt alive. His disease increasing, Herod sent for physicians from all places, who ordered him to the hot-baths of Callirhoe, on the other side Jordan, where every effort was used to restore him, but all in vain; from thence he removed to Jericho, about twelve miles from Jerusalem; and finding he could not long survive his excruciating pains, he seems to have resolved that the last scene of his life should at least equal in enormity all that had preceded.

To accomplish his purpose, he summoned the nobility and gentry of every city, town, and village in Judea. When they arrived, he commanded his soldiers to shut them up in the Circus. Then, sending for his sister Salome and her husband Alexas, with a few chosen friends, he said, with tears in his eyes, that if they would afford him any consolation in the bitter anguish he endured, they must promise to perform his last request; which they did. He then told them, he knew the hatred in which he was held by the Jews, and that they would rejoice at his removal, but he intended that the mournings and lamentations at his death should

be as great and magnificent as ever any prince had. He then gave orders, that immediately after his dissolution, the soldiers should enter the Circus, put all the persons enclosed to the sword, and then publish. his death, which would cause his exit to be doubly triumphant; first, for the execution of his commands, and, secondly, for the quality and number of his mourners.

Would you believe, George, that the malignancy of this man's temper was such, that the prospect of others' misery for a while suspended his own? In a short time, however, his torments returning with double force, he endeavoured to stab himself, but was prevented by Achiabus, his grandchild.

Upon belief of his death, Antipater, his son, who had been condemned for a conspiracy against him, attempted an escape, but he was not only prevented, but beheaded by his father's orders; who, five days after, died himself, in the seventieth year of his age, and the thirty-seventh of his reign; dividing his dominions, by his last will, between his three sons Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip.

I doubt not but you will be anxious to know whether his brother and sister executed his cruel orders. No; they chose rather to violate the promise which had been extorted from them, being possessed of too much humanity to slaughter so many noble and innocent persons: they accordingly released them all before they published the king's death.

Though Herod conformed to the Jewish religion, and put himself to so much expense and pains in re-constructing and beautifying the temple, with

all the courts and outbuildings; yet at the same time, he introduced many of the pagan customs and games' used at Rome, which must have a tendency to corrupt the people. He likewise changed the high-priest as often as he thought fit, put to death their legal king, and extirpated the whole race of the Maccabees, including some of his most intimate friends and nearest relatives. He likewise destroyed the members of the great sanhedrim, or council of the elders, and substituted others in their places; so that, setting aside some appearances of generosity and greatness, there never was a more complete tyrant.

What improvement, George, should we make of such wicked characters? They are set up in history as so many beacons, that youth may shun their vices; for their ways lead to misery here, and to endless ruin hereafter. May you be warned, by their example, to decline the broad road that leads to destruction, and to choose the narrow path that conducts to everlasting happiness! This, my dear boy, would rejoice all your friends, but none more than Your affectionate aunt.

LETTER X.

MY DEAR GEORGE,

BY Herod's will, and the confirmation of the emperor, the Jewish government, at this time, underwent another change. Palestine, or the Holy Land,

which had for many years formed one government, was now divided into three; though for a time Archelaus was looked upon as king. He made a magnificent funeral for his father, which was scarcely over, when the city tumultuously required, that the young men who had lost their lives for pulling down the golden eagle, should be honoured by a public mourning, and their accusers condemned. The sedition increasing, Archelaus sent a thousand soldiers to quell it: these being repulsed with loss, he sent his whole body of foot, with a party of horse, who put three thousand of the seditious to the sword, and forced the rest to the neighbouring mountains.

Archelaus then repaired to Rome, to procure his settlement in the government by Augustus. In his absence the Jews fell into fresh troubles, occasioned by Sabinus, the emperor's agent in Syria, who entered Jerusalem, seized on Herod's palace, and, by his avarice, oppressed the people. On the feast of Pentecost, when the people were assembled from all parts of the land, they were resolved to be revenged on Sabinus. To effect which, they got possession of the porticoes and cloisters of the temple; but the Roman legion vigorously attacked them; set fire to the buildings, burnt down part of the cloisters, and pillaged the temple of four hundred talents of sacred money. The Jews rallying again, with part of Herod's soldiers, besieged Sabinus in his palace, who sent to Varus, governor of Syria, to come to his relief.

At the same time, the Jews, who had taken too little notice of the birth of the true Messiah, were

punished with several false Messiahs, or pretended kings of the Jews. Simon, one of Herod's servants, remarkable for his shape and stature, was followed by multitudes, ravaging and pillaging the country about Jericho. Athrouges, an obscure shepherd, but of remarkable bulk and strength, was another that aspired to the crown, and wasted all the country about Jerusalem. And in Galilee, Judas, or Theudas, mentioned in Acts v. 36, made incursions into Judea. But these, and many more concerned in similar tumults, were quickly dispersed by some of Herod's party; and the arrival of Varus with all his forces, to relieve Sabinus in Jerusalem, put an end to these seditions.

Archelaus obtained of the emperor half his father's dominions; the other half being divided into two tetrarchies; one of which was given to Herod Antipas, the other to Philip.

About this time, Joseph returned with Mary his wife, and the young child Jesus, into Judea; but hearing that Archelaus reigned in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither; he therefore turned aside to Galilee, and dwelt at Nazareth.

The three brothers for some years governed Palestine without any open sedition or disturbance; each endeavouring to improve his own dominions. by encouraging works of public utility; but Archelaus, being of a cruel and tyrannical disposition, rendered himself odious to the people; and, in the tenth year of his reign, they made a public complaint of him to the emperor Augustus, who, being a generous prince, and detesting all oppression, sent his agent to bring him to Rome, to answer the