not conform strictly to the law of Moses; such were Naaman the Syrian, and Cornelius the centurion. They were admitted into the temple to worship God, but came no further than into the outer court, which was hence called the court of the Gentiles. The others observed the whole Jewish law. They were initiated by baptism, sacrifice and circumcision, and were admitted to all the privileges of the Jews. Such did the Edomites become.

Hyrcanus was succeeded by his son Aristobulus. He as. sumed the title of king. He was the first Jewish ruler, who, af. ter the Babylonian captivity, wore a crown. He was a prince and High Priest of great cruelty. He put to death his own mother and brother, and at the close of one year, died in great horror of conscience, for his crimes. During his reign, the Itureans were vanquished, and compelled, as was the custom to. wards all captives, to receive circumcision, and be engrafted into the Jewish state.

Alexander Jannæus, his brother, ascended the throne upon the death of Aristobulus. He was a martial prince, and fought many successful battles with the surrounding nations. But he had a more terrible enemy at home than abroad. This was the sect of the Pharisees, which had occasioned much trouble to John Hyrcanus, but which now came out in open war against this sovereign, and endeavored to drive him from the throne. They hired foreign troops, and compelled him once to flee to the mountains alone. At length, however, he gained a decisive victory over them, took 800 of them captive and caused them all to be crucified in one day. This rebellion lasted six years, and cost the lives of above 50,000 of the faction. He reigned twenty-six years, and left the throne to his wife, 79 B. C.

This woman committed the government entirely to the Pharisees, by which she acquired great popularity. But having the power in their hands, they immediately commenced a violent persecution of the Sadducees, a rival sect, who had been the supporters of Alexander. This was followed with much shed. ding of blood until they were placed for security, at their own request, in the several garrisons. Alexandra died in the ninth year of her reign.

Her son Hyrcanus had been made High Priest and immedi. ately ascended the throne on the death of his mother. But he was driven from it in a short time, by Aristobulus, a younger brother. Antipater, governor of Idumea, and father of Herod, took the part of Hyrcanus. The two contending parties appeal. ed to Pompey, the Roman general, and made him arbitrator be

CHAP. 9.

JERUSALEM TAKEN BY THE ROMANS.

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tween them. The shrewd Roman heard them with apparent impartiality, but deferred a decision of the controversy. Aristobulus, jealous of his rival, prepared for war. The Roman general immediately caused him to be imprisoned, and marched his army against Jerusalem. The party of Hyrcanus received him with open arms, and the faction of Aristobulus, who had thrown themselves into the Temple, were but for about three months able to hold out against so powerful an enemy. Twelve thousand Jews were killed by the Romans, and many destroyed themselves. When the Temple was finally taken, the priests moved not from the altars, but suffered themselves to be butchered without resistance, by the soldiery, to the astonishment of Pompey.

Thus did the holy city and Temple fall into the hands of the Romans, 63 B. C. and on the very day which the Jews kept as a solemn fast, for the capture of Jerusalem and the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Pompey wished to see the interior of the Temple. But the Jews protested against it as an awful profanation. With his superior officers, however, he pressed in, lifted the veil, and looked within the Holy of holies. The whole he treated with great respect. All the treasures he left untouched; and he ordered the priests to offer sacrifice as directed by the law of Moses.

But, according to the prediction of Jacob, the sceptre was not to depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh should come. We therefore find the Romans leaving the Jews still to govern themselves. Hyrcanus was continued in the High-priesthood with the appellation of prince, but the walls of Jerusalem were demolished, the Jewish territory was reduced, and the nation was compelled to pay a disgraceful tribute. Aristobulus and his sons were carried to Rome, to adorn Pompey's triumph. It was however but a short period before this disturber of the public peace obtained his liberty, and Judea was again thrown into desolating dissentions.

Pompey was overpowered by the partisans of Julius Cæsar;. who, at the death of that renowned warrior, usurped the supreme authority at Rome. Antipater had assisted him in his wars in Egypt, and was rewarded by the office of lieutenant of Judea, 48 B. C. He soon obtained important posts for his two sons,the government of Jerusalem for Phasael, and of Galilee for Herod. Cæsar confirmed Hyrcanus in the Priesthood, and conferred such favors upon the Jewish nation, that it could hardly be perceived that they were in bondage to any people.

There was nothing stable, however, among this people, nor

even in the thrones of the mighty. Julius Cæsar, one of the most splendid men that adorns the page of civil history, was assassinated in the senate-house; and Hyrcanus was ejected from his rank and station, by Antigonus, the son of his great rival. His vengeance fell also upon the governors of Jerusalem and Galilee. But Herod fled into Egypt, and from thence to Rome; where he put himself under the protection of Mark Antony, who was then in power. Antony gave him the kingdom of Judea. He collected an army; and after a long and distressing war, took the holy city, 37 B. C. Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, was put to death. He was the last of the Asmonean family. They had reigned in Judea for one hundred and twenty-nine years.

The sceptre now passed, for the first time, into the hands of a foreign prince, but still the Jews continued to be governed by their own laws, and their Sanhedrim was the general court of judicature. We feel, however, when we behold so great an event as this, that the coming of Shiloh is near.

Herod was a monster of cruelty. He was ever filled with jealousy, and all his real and supposed enemies he put, as far as lay in his power, to most cruel deaths. The adherents of Antigonus first felt his rage. Their blood flowed freely, and their estates filled his empty coffers. Only two were spared from the Sanhedrim. Disqualified himself for the priesthood, he made Ananel, an inferior and obscure priest, High-Priest; but he soon displaced him, and gave the office to Aristobulus, the brother of his wife Mariamne; but him however he in a short period caused to be drowned in a bath. To give himself authority and power with the Jewish nation, he married Mariamne, a beautiful and accomplished woman of the Asmonean family, the grand-daughter of Hyrcanus; but though he loved her passionately, she, for his murder of her brother, as bitterly hated him; and in his fury for it, he put her to death. He condemned also her mother, and three of his own sons to the loss of life, and exhausted the treasure and spirit of the nation, by his cruel oppressions.

As might naturally be expected, this monster in wickedness. despised the Jewish religion and laws. The High Priest he set up and removed, without any regard to hereditary right. He made it continually the great object of his reign, to introduce Roman luxury, and the worship of heathen gods. He built Grecian temples, and set up idols for worship, and established theatres and games in honor of Augustus the Roman Emperor. Having reigned in this manner fourteen years, and amassed

СНАР. 9.

HEROD REPAIRS THE TEMPLE.

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great treasures, the people became exceedingly disgusted with him; wherefore, to gain their favor, he resolved, 17 B. C. to rebuild the Temple. For about nine years, he employed upon it 18,000 men. He made it considerably larger than the Temple which was built by Solomon. Its length and breadth were now one hundred cubits. It was built of immense stones of white marble, which were covered with large plates of pure gold. - Its enclosure was about a furlong square. This was surrounded by a high wall, on the inside of which were erected three galleries, the narrowest about thirty feet wide, and fifty high, but the largest was forty-five feet wide, one hundred high. These galleries were supported by 162 pillars of marble, each about twenty-seven feet in circumference. The wall of this enclosure, had four gates towards the west and one on each of the other sides. The Temple was encompassed with beautiful porches, which were paved with marble. Solomon's porch was at the east gate of the Temple, called beautiful. The women had their separate court, and entered by the east gate, which was overlaid with Corinthian brass. A golden eagle, the arms of the Roman empire, was placed over each gate. And when the Temple was finished, it was with great solemnity dedicated to God. As the whole was executed as a repair of the Temple built by Zerubbabel, it was called the second Temple, into which "the desire of all nations should come." And as it was continually receiving additions for many years after, the Jews might say in the time of our Saviour, with propriety, "Forty and six years was the Temple in building."

Finding that the sceptre had now about departed from Judah, the pious in Jerusalem were earnestly looking for the coming of Shiloh. They accurately computed also the 70 weeks in Daniel's prophecy, of the coming of Christ, and found that they were about completed. Devout people waited day and night in the Temple for the consolation of Israel; and they who had no special wish for the Messiah in his true character, were looking forward to him as a deliverer from the Roman yoke. So much expectation of the promised king, could not but be viewed by such a man as Herod with the deepest jealousy. And when the long looked for moment arrived, when the promised seed was born, when the glorious Saviour of men entered our world, to set up that kingdom which should break and destroy all kingdoms, immediately this worst of tyrants resolved to destroy him. But by the overruling providence of God he was delivered out of his hands, and in the following year this in

human tyrant died of a most loathsome disease and in great tortures, having reigned thirty-seven years.

He carried his brutality to the last. For to prevent the nation from rejoicing at his death, he convened all the distinguished men, shut them up in a castle, and ordered their instant death the moment he should expire. But the order was not executed. Such was the man into whose hands the Church had fallen, when her promised deliverer arose. He was called great, but he was chiefly great in crime, and was detestable as he was wicked and base. He left his dominion to three sons ;-his kingdom to Archelaus; Gaulonites, Trachonites and Batanea, to Philip; Galilee and Parea, to Herod Antipas.

As this family were intimately connected with the rising Christian Church, some account of them will be both interesting and instructive.

Archelaus interred his father with great pomp. At the commencement of his reign, the Jews, indignant at the profanation of the Temple, pulled down the Roman eagle, which Herod had placed over each of the gates. This occasioned great contentions, and much shedding of blood. His brother Herod contended with him at the Roman court for the crown, but he held it about seven years. His reign was one of such violence and tyranny, that the people brought against him accusations to the emperor; and he was banished to Vienne in France, where he died. Such was the cruelty of his temper, that when Joseph and Mary heard that he reigned in the room of his father Herod, they were afraid to return into Judea with the holy child Jesus. He was succeeded by Roman governors, one of whom was Pontius Pilate. Of Philip, tetrarch of lturea and Trachonites, little mention is made in the evangelical history.

Herod Antipater, tetrarch of Galilee, was early engaged in war with the Arabs, because he divorced his wife the daughter of Aretas, their king, that he might marry Herodias the wife of his brother Philip, who was still living. For this connexion, John Baptist reproved him, and lost his life. Soon after John's death, Herod was sent into exile, and he and his wife and Salama all came to a miserable end.

There was another Herod, called Herod Agrippa, who reigned in Judea during the life of the Apostles. He was grandson of Herod the great. He murdered James and apprehended Peter. While at Cesarea, celebrating some games in honor of Claudius, the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon sent deputies to him to solicit his favor. Splendidly dressed, he made an oration, and the people shouted It is the voice of a god.' He was