left the final disposal of his dominions to Augustus The emperor ratified this will in all its material points, and suffered the countries, over which Herod had reigned, to be divided among his three sons. Archelaus succeeded to the largest share, namely, to Judæa Propria, Samaria, and Idumæa. Herod Antipas, called Herod the tetrarch, who afterwards beheaded John the Baptist, succeeded to Galilee and Peræa, and Philip to Trachonitis and to the neighbouring region of Ituræa. The sons of Herod the Great were not suffered to take the title of king; they were only called ethnarchs or tetrarchs. Besides the countries already mentioned, Abilene, which had belonged to Herod during the latter part of his life, and of which Lysanias is mentioned by St. Luke (o) as tetrarch, and some cities, were given to Salome, the sister of Herod the A. D. 7. Great. Archelaus acted with great cruelty and injustice; and in the tenth year of his government, upon a regular complaint being made against him by the Jews, Augustus banished him to Vienne, in Gaul, where he died.

After the banishment of Archelaus, Augustus sent Publius Sulpitius Quirinius (who, according to the Greek way of writing that name, is by St. Luke called Cyrenius (p), president of Syria, to reduce the countries, over which Archelaus had reigned, to the form of

(o) Luke, c. 3. v. 1.

(p) Three years before the birth of Christ, Augustus issued a decree for the making a general survey of the whole Roman empire, including every dependent state, with the design of raising a general tax. Sentius Saturninus, being then president of Syria, was charged with the execution of this decree in Judæa, and it was to render an account of their property that Joseph and Mary went up to Bethlehem with a multitude of other people; but the tax was not laid or levied till Judæa became a Roman province, subject to Cyrenius, the president of Syria.-Vide Prideaux, part 2. book 9.

a Roman province; and appointed Coponius, a Roman of the equestrian order, to be governor, under the title of procurator of Judæa, but subordinate to the president of Syria. The power of life and death was now taken out of the hands of the Jews, and taxes were from this time paid immediately to the Roman emperor. Justice was administered in the name and by the laws of Rome; though in what concerned their religion, their own laws, and the power of the high priest, and Sanhedrim, or great council, were continued to them; and they were allowed to examine witnesses, and exercise an inferior jurisdiction in other causes, subject to the control of the Romans, to whom their tetrarchs or kings were also subject; and it may be remarked, that "at this very period of time our Saviour (who was now in the twelfth year of his age) being at Jerusalem with Joseph and Mary, upon occasion of the Passover, appeared first in the temple in his prophetic office, and in the business of his Father, on which he was sent, sitting among the doctors of the temple, and declaring the truth of God to them (q).” After Coponius, Ambivius, Annius Rufus, Valerius Gratus, and Pontius Pilate, were successively procurators; and this was the species of government to which Judea and Samaria were subject during the ministry of our Saviour. Herod Antipas was still tetrarch of Galilee, and it was he to whom our Saviour was sent by Pontius Pilate. Lardner is of opinion that there was no procurator in Judæa after Pontius Pilate, who was removed A. D. 36, but that it was governed for a few years by the presidents of Syria, who occasionally sent officers into Judæa. Philip continued tetrarch of Trachonitis thirty-seven years, and died in the twentieth year of the reign of Tiberius. (q) Home, vol. 1. p. 254.

+37.

Caligula gave his tetrarchy to Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, with the title of king; and afterwards he added the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas, whom he deposed and banished after 40. he had been tetrarch forty-three years. The emperor Claudius gave him Judæa, Samaria, the southern parts of Idumæa, and Abilene; and thus at last the dominions of Herod Agrippa became nearly the same as those of his grandfather, Herod the Great. It was this Agrippa, called also Herod Agrippa, and by St. Luke (r) Herod only, who put to death James, the brother of John, and imprisoned Peter. He died in the seventh year of his reign, and left a son, called also Agrippa, then seventeen years old; and Claudius, thinking him too young to govern his father's extensive dominions, made Cuspus Fadus governor of Judæa. Fadus was soon succeeded by Tiberius, and he was followed by Alexander Cumanus, Felix, and Festus ; but Claudius afterwards gave Trachonitis and Abilene to Agrippa, and Nero added a part of Galilee and some other cities. It was this younger Agrippa, who was also called king, before whom Paul pleaded at Cæsarea, which was at that time the place of residence of the governor of Judæa. Several of the Roman governors severely oppressed and persecuted the Jews; and at length, in the reign of Nero, and in the government of Florus, who had treated them with greater cruelty than any of his predecessors, they openly revolted from the Romans. Then began the Jewish war, which was terminated, after an obstinate defence and unparalleled sufferings on the part of the Jews, by the total destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem (s), by the overthrow of their civil Acts, c. 12. v. 1, &c.

70.

By Titus, son of Vespasian, emperor of Rome.

and religious polity, and the reduction of the people to a state of the most abject slavery: for though, in the reign of Adrian, numbers of them collected together, in different parts of Judæa, it is to be observed, they were then considered and treated as rebellious slaves; and these commotions were made a pretence for the general slaughter of those who were taken, and tended to complete the work of their dispersion into all countries under heaven. Since that time the Jews have nowhere subsisted as a nation.

Briefly as I have endeavoured to relate the history of the Jews, the period which commences with the close of the antient Scriptures is so little known, that it may be useful to collect the principal facts under one point of view, for the purpose of showing more clearly the connection between the Old and New Testaments; and as the nature of the Jewish government appears to be very frequently misunderstood, I shall take this opportunity of adding a few observations upon that subject, and shall also subjoin a short account of the land of Canaan, both of which may serve to throw some light upon Scripture history.

The Jews had many revolutions of peace and war, and some changes in the mode of their government, from the time of their return from the Babylonian captivity, to their complete subjection to the Romans; but their sacerdotal government, as it is sometimes called, continued with but little interruption through this whole space of about 600 years. Having returned into their own country, under the sanction and by the authority of Cyrus, they acknowledged the sovereignty of the kings of Persia, till that empire was overturned by Alexander the Great; they then became subject to his successors, first in Egypt, and afterwards in Syria,

till, having been deprived of their religious and civil liberties for three years and a half by Antiochus Epiphanes, they were restored, both to the exercise of their religion and to their antient independence, by the piety and bravery of Mattathias and his descendants. Under these Maccabæan princes they became an entirely free state, supported by good troops, strong garrisons, and alliances not only with neighbouring powers, but with remote kingdoms, even Rome itself. This glory of the Jews was but of short duration; for though the decline of the kingdoms of Egypt and Syria prevented their interference in the affairs of other states, yet the entire ruin of these two kingdoms, by the great accession of power which it brought to the Romans, paved the way for the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth. Pompey compelled the Jews to submit to the arms of Rome, and from that time their country was tributary to the Romans, although it was still governed by Maccabæan princes. The last of that family was conquered and deposed by Herod the Great, an Idumæan by birth, but of the Jewish religion, who had been appointed king of the Jews by the Romans, and enjoyed a long reign over the whole of Palestine, in the course of which he greatly diminished the civil power of the high priest. He was succeeded in the government of the greater part of Palestine by his son, Archelaus, whose misconduct caused Augustus to banish him, and to reduce his dominions into the form of a Roman province; and thus it appears that with the exception of the short predicted tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, the kingdom of Judah, for some time independent, but generally tributary, continued to enjoy its own religion, and the form of its civil government, till after the birth of the Messiah. During our Saviour's ministry