practice there are allusions in Isa. xl. 3, and Matt. iii. 3.

The revenues of the kings arose from various sources, viz. 1. Voluntary offerings, which were made to them, conformably to the oriental custom. (1 Sam. x. 27, xvi. 20.) 2. The Produce of the Royal Flocks, (1 Sam. xxi. 7. 2 Sam. xiii. 23. 2 Chron. xxxii. 28, 29,) and also of the royal demesnes, over which certain officers were appointed. 3. The Tenth Part of all the produce of the fields and vineyards, the collection and management of which seem to have been confided to the officers mention ed in 1 Kings iv. 7, and in 1 Chron. xxvii. 25. It is also probable from 1 Kings x. 14, that the Israelites likewise paid a tax in money. 4. A portion of the spoil of conquered nations, (2 Sam. viii.) upon whom tributes or imposts were also laid; (1 Kings iv. 21. Psal. lxxii. 10, compared with 1 Chron. xxvii. 25-31;) and, lastly, 5. The Customs paid to Solomon, by the foreign merchants who passed through his dominions, (1 Kings x. 15,) afforded a considerable revenue to that monarch: who, as the Mosaic laws did not encourage foreign commerce, carried on a very extensive and lucrative trade, (1 Kings x. 22,) particularly in Egyptian horses, and the byssus, or fine linen of Egypt. (1 Kings x. 28, 29.)

Besides the kings, there were some inferior magistrates, who, though their origin may be traced to the time of Moses, continued to retain some authority, after the establishment of the monarchy. Of this description were, 1. the Heads, or Princes of Tribes, who appear to have watched over the interest of each tribe; they were twelve in number; and, 2. The Heads of Families, who are sometimes called Heads of Houses of Fathers, and sometimes simply heads. These are likewise the same persons who, in Josh. xxiii. 2, and xxiv. 1, are called Elders. (Compare also Deut. xix. 12, and xxi. 1-9.) It does not appear in what manner these heads, or elders of families, were chosen, when any of them died. The princes of tribes do not seem to have ceased with the commencement, at least, of the monarchy: from 1 Chron. xvii. 16-22, it is evident that they subsisted in the time of David; and they must have proved a very considerable restraint upon the power of the king.

V. The kingdom which had been founded by Saul, and

carried to its highest pitch of grandeur and power by David and Solomon, subsisted entire for the space of one hundred and twenty years; until Rehoboam, the son and successor of Solomon, refused to mitigate the burdens of his subjects, when a division of the twelve tribes took place; ten of which, adhering to Jeroboam, formed the kingdom of Israel, while the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, continuing faithful in their allegiance to Rehoboam, constituted the kingdom of Judah. The Kingdom of Israel subsisted under various sovereigns, during a period of 264, or 271 years, according to some chronologers; its metropolis, Samaria, being captured by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, B. c. 717, or 719, after a siege of three years; of the Israelites, whose numbers had been reduced by immense and repeated slaughters, some of the lower sort were suffered to remain in their native country; but the nobles, and all the more opulent persons, were carried into captivity beyond the Euphrates. The Kingdom of Judah continued 388, or according to some chronologers, 404 years; Jerusalem, its capital, being taken, the temple burnt, and its sovereign, Zedekiah, being carried captive to Babylon, by Nebuchadnezzar; the rest of his subjects (with the exception of the poorer classes, who were left in Judæa) were likewise carried into captivity, beyond the Euphrates, where they, and their posterity, remained seventy years, agreeably to the divine predictions.

7

CHAPTER II.

POLITICAL STATE OF THE JEWS, FROM THEIR RETURN FROM THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY, TO THE SUBVERSION OF THEIR CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY.

I. POLITICAL State of the Jews under the Maccabees and the sovereigns of the Herodian Family.

After the return of the Jews from Babylon, they obeyed the High Priests, from whom the supreme authority subsequently passed into the hands of the Maccabean Princes. Mattathias was the first of these princes; and was succeeded by his three valiant sons, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon, the last of whom was succeeded by his son, John Hyrcanus. The name Maccabees is supposed to

have been derived from the four letters, M. C. B. I. which are the initial letters of the Hebrew words Mi Chamoka Baelim Jehovah, that is, who among the gods is like unto thee, O Jehovah? (Exod. xv. 11,) which letters were displayed on their standards. This illustrious house, whose princes united the regal and pontifical dignity in their own persons, administered the affairs of the Jews, during a period of one hundred and twenty-six years; until disputes arising between Hyrcanus II. and his brother, Aristobulus, the latter was defeated by the Romans, under Pompey, who captured Jerusalem, and reduced Judæa to a tributary province of the republic. (B. c. 59.)

Though Pompey continued Hyrcanus in the high priesthood, he bestowed the government of Judæa on Antipater, an Idumæan by birth, who was a Jewish proselyte, and the father of Herod, surnamed the Great, who was subsequently king of the Jews. Antipater divided Judæa between his two sons, Phasael and Herod, giving to the former the government of Jerusalem, and to the latter the province of Galilee; which being at that time greatly infested with robbers, Herod signalized his courage by dispersing them, and shortly after attacked Antigonus, the competitor of Hyrcanus in the priesthood, who was supported by the Tyrians. In the mean time, the Parthians having invaded Judæa, and carried into captivity Hyrcanus, the high priest, and Phasael, the brother of Herod; the latter fled to Rome, where Mark Antony, with the consent of the senate, conferred on him the title of king of Judæa. By the aid of the Roman arms, HEROD, a sanguinary and crafty prince, kept possession of his dignity; and after three years of sanguinary and intestine war with the partizans of Antigonus, he was confirmed in his kingdom by Augustus.

Herod, misnamed the Great, by his will divided his dominions among his three sons, Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Herod Philip.

TO ARCHELAUS he assigned Judæa, Samaria, and Idumæa, with the regal dignity, subject to the approbation of Augustus, who ratified his will as it respected the territorial division, but conferred on Archelaus the title of Ethnarch, or chief of the nation, with a promise of the regal dignity, if he should prove himself worthy of it. His sub

sequent reign was turbulent; and, after repeated complaints against his tyranny and mal-administration, he was deposed and banished by Augustus, and his territories were annexed to the Roman province of Syria.

HEROD ANTIPAS, (or Antipater,) another of Herod's sons, received from his father the district of Galilee and Peræa, with the title of Tetrarch. He is described by Josephus as a crafty and incestuous prince, with which character the narratives of the evangelists coincide; for, having deserted his wife, the daughter of Aretas king of Arabia, he forcibly took away and married Herodias the wife of his brother Herod Philip, a proud and cruel woman, to gratify whom he caused John the Baptist to be beheaded, (Matt. xiv. 3. Mark vi. 17. Luke iii. 19,) who had provoked her vengeance by his faithful reproof of their incestuous nuptials. Some years afterwards, Herod aspiring to the regal dignity in Judæa, was banished together with his wife, first to Lyons, in Gaul, and thence into Spain.

PHILIP, tetrarch of Trachonitis, Gaulonitis, and Batanæa, is mentioned but once in the New Testament, (Luke iii. 1:) on his decease without issue, after a reign of thirtyseven years, his territories were annexed to the province of Syria.

AGRIPPA, or Herod Agrippa, was the son of Aristobulus, and grandson of Herod the Great, and sustained various reverses of fortune previously to his attaining the royal dignity. He governed his dominions much to the satisfaction of his subjects, (for whose gratification he put to death the apostle James, and meditated that of St. Peter, who was miraculously delivered, Acts xii. 2-17 ;) but being inflated with pride on account of his increasing power and grandeur, he was struck with a noisome and painful disease, of which he died at Cæsarea in the manner related by St. Luke. (Acts xii. 21.-23.)

AGRIPPA junior, was the son of the preceding Herod Agrippa being only seventeen years of age at the time of his father's death, he was judged to be unequal to the task of governing the whole of his dominions. These were again placed under the direction of a Roman procurator or governor, and Agrippa was first king of Chalcis, and afterwards of Batanæa, Trachonitis, and Abilene, to which other territories were subsequently added. It was

before this Agrippa and his two sisters, Bernice and Drusilla the wife of the Roman governor Felix, that St. Paul delivered his masterly defence. (Acts xxvi.)

II. Political State of the Jews under the Roman Procurators.

The Jewish kingdom, which the Romans had created in favour of Herod the Great, was of short duration; expiring on his death, by his division of his territories, and by the dominions of Archelaus, (which comprised Samaria, Judæa, and Idumæa,) being reduced to a Roman province, annexed to Syria, and governed by the Roman procurators. These officers not only had the charge of collecting the imperial revenues, but also had the power of life and death in capital causes; and on account of their high dignity they are sometimes called Governors. Though the Jews did not enjoy the power of life and death, yet they continued to possess a large share of civil and religious liberty; and lived pretty much after their own laws. Three of these procurators are mentioned in the New Testament, viz.: Pilate, Felix, and Festus.

1. PONTIUS PILATE was sent to govern Judæa, a. D. 26 or 27. He was a cruel and unjust governor; and dreading the extreme jealousy and suspicion of Tiberius, he delivered up the Redeemer to be crucified, contrary to the conviction of his better judgment, and in the vain hope of conciliating the Jews whom he had oppressed. After he had held his office for ten years, having caused a number of innocent Samaritans to be put to death, that injured people sent an embassy to Vitellius, proconsul of Syria: by whom he was ordered to Rome, to give an account of his mal-administration to the emperor. But Tiberius being dead before he arrived there, his successor, Caligula, banished him to Gaul: where he is said to have committed suicide, about the year of Christ 41.

2. On the death of king Herod Agrippa, Judæa being again reduced to a Roman province, the government of it was confided to ANTONIUS FELIX: he liberated that country from banditti and impostors; (the very worthy deeds alluded to by Tertullus, Acts xxiv. 2;) but he was in other respects a cruel and avaricious governor, incontinent, intemperate, and unjust. So oppressive at length did his administration become, that the Jews accused him