proposed to the senate that Christ should be made a God, with his own vote in his favour. The senate, moved with indignation that it had not been, as was usual, proposed to them to determine respecting the reception of his religion, rejected his deification, and decreed by an edict, that the Christians should be banished from the city, especially as Sejanus, præfect of Tiberius, most obstinately resisted the reception of their faith. Yet Tiberius threatened with death the accusers of the Christians by an edict."

The persons here called Christians were Jews who believed in Christ. Tertullian and Orosius, to answer their own purpose, have antedated the name: for the term was not yet in existence. Philo and Josephus notice the transaction, and of course they call the sufferers Jews. The narrative of Tertullian implies, and that of Orosius more distinctly asserts, that the emperor protected the followers of Jesus by an edict. Improbable as this may appear, Philo, who lived at the time, not only asserts the same thing, but has copied at least the substance of that edict. It is to this effect: "All nations, though prejudiced against the Jews, have been careful not to abolish the Jewish rites; and the same caution was taken in the reign of Tiberius; though indeed the Jews in Italy have been distressed by the machinations of Sejanus. For after his death the emperor became sensible that the accusations alleged against the Jews in Italy were lying calumnies, the mere inventions of Sejanus, who was eager to devour a nation that alone or chiefly would, he knew, be likely to oppose his impious designs and measures. And to the constituted authorities in every place, Tiberius sent orders not to molest, in their respective cities, the men of that nation, excepting the guilty only, who were few, and not to suppress any of their institutions, but to regard as a trust committed to their care, both the people themselves, and

their laws, which like oil on troubled water dispose them to order and stability." Philo, vol. ii. B. 569.

Here it is placed, beyond contradiction, that Tiberius did actually publish an edict in favour of the Christian Jews. The emperor was at first hostile to this people, and Philo in the above passage accounts for the extraordinary change. The followers of Jesus, hating the character, and penetrating the designs of Sejanus to usurp the empire, were in the number of those who opposed and unmasked him. He therefore, with the usual adroitness of wicked ministers, charged on them the treason of which he was himself guilty. Tiberius at first believed the calumnies against them, and hence becoming their enemy, concurred with the senate in distressing the Jews. But the mask soon fell from the face of Sejanus; and the emperor finding their hostility against the traitor not only well founded, but even a pledge of their fidelity to himself, naturally changes side, and becomes their friend and protector.

If it were true that Tiberius proposed the deification of Jesus, he must have been induced to do this by some persons, who had the requisite influence over him. This emperor, though a fatalist, was greatly addicted to magic; and a herd of Chaldean, Egyptian and Jewish astrologers always surrounded his person. Had those magicians then any knowledge of Jesus? and did they prevail on Tiberius to place him with the gods of Rome? The author of the whole will appear to be the very man, who taught the Gnostic system in the metropolis of the empire, and who doubtless was commissioned for this. purpose by the base authors of that system in Jerusalem. It pleased providence that the historian who to future ages develops this fact, should be Josephus. His account is to this effect: "And at this time existed Jesus, a wise man, if indeed he might be called a man; for he was the author of wonderful works, and the teacher of

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such men as delighted in the truth. He attached to himself many Jews, and many among the Gentiles. This was the Christ: and though at the instigation of our principal men Pilate sentenced him to crucifixion, yet those who loved him from the first did not cease loving him for he appeared to them the third day again alive, the divine prophets having foretold these and thousand other things concerning him. ..... There was at Rome also a Jew who, having been accused of transgressing the laws, fled from his country to avoid the punishment which threatened him. During his residence there, he pretended to teach the philosophy of the laws of Moses, in conjunction with three other men, who in every respect resembled himself. With these associated Fulvia, a lady of rank, now become a convert to the Jewish religion, and whom they prevailed upon to send, for the temple of Jerusalem, presents of purple and gold. These they received and appropriated to their own use, which indeed was their motive at first in making the request. Tiberius (informed of this by his friend Saturninus the husband of Fulvia, at her request,) commanded all the Jews to be expelled from the city. The Jewish youths, to the amount of four thousand, were forced into the army by a decree of the senate, and sent to the island of Sardinia. But most of them, being determined to preserve their laws inviolate, refused to enlist, and were put to death." A. J. 18. 3. 5.

The treatment which, on account of these four wicked men, the Jews and Egyptians experienced is briefly noticed both by Tacitus and Suetonius. The former thus writes, An. 2. 85.: "In the same year was brought before the senate a motion for abolishing the Jewish and Egyptian rites; and it was decreed that four thousand of that slavish race, infected with their superstition, should be conveyed into the island of Sardian, there to be restrained from robberies; where if they perished, through the severity of the climate, the loss would not

be great; and that the rest of them should leave Italy, unless within an appointed time they relinquished their profane rites." The words of Suetonius are the following: "Tiberius suppressed the Jewish and Egyptian rites, and compelled those who were fettered with that superstition to burn their sacred vestments and utensils. The Jewish youths he distributed, under the obligation of a military oath, into provinces of a severe climate; while the rest of that nation, with others of a similar profession, he removed from the city under the penalty of perpetual slavery, unless they obeyed. He moreover expelled the magicians, but granted pardon to those who recanted and abandoned their arts." Suet. in Vita Tiberii, c. 36.

Sejanus, who was yet alive, and who had unbounded sway with the senate, was the primary mover of these cruelties; but it is clear that they were inflicted on the sufferers by the sanction of Tiberius. However, after the death of that minister, says Philo, "the emperor became sensible that the accusations alleged against the Jews were lying calumnies, the mere inventions of Sejanus." When the favourite fell, Tiberius changed his conduct; and the edict, sent to the provinces in favour of the Jewish Christians, was the immediate consequence.

Josephus here calls the refined judaism taught by our Lord "the wisdom" or "philosophy of the laws of Moses." Of this the Jew branded by him pretended to be a teacher; we might therefore safely infer that he was one of the Gnostics, and probably an emissary of the Pharisees, commissioned to teach the divinity of Christ, and get him, if possible, ranked with the gods of Rome. The associates of this impostor were certain devotees of Anubis: and the coalition, thus formed between this abandoned Jew and the Egyptian priests, will account for the Jewish and Egyptian nations having suffered together on this occasion. The profession of these men as magicians recommended them to the notice of Tibe

rius; and in fact we find that they were intimate in the family of Saturninus, whom Josephus calls the friend of Tiberius. This being the case, we cannot be surprised at the following passage of Plutarch:

mar.

"Concerning the death of these demons, I have received an account from a man by no means destitute of wisdom and modesty, I mean Æmilianus the rhetorician, son of Epitherses, my fellow citizen and master in gramThis person related, that a ship was once sailing for Italy, richly stored with merchandize, and also having many passengers on board. One evening, when this ship was near the Echinades, the wind subsided, and in consequence she was hauled towards the shore of the Island Paxus. Many of the passengers were drinking after supper, but the greater part of them were watching, when on a sudden a voice was heard from the island, calling aloud for Thaumas, which filled them with wonder. This Thaumas was an Egyptian, and the pilot, and not known by name to many in the ship. Though called twice, he continued silent; but the third time he paid attention to the voice, which with great force commanded him thus: When you have arrived at the Palodes, say that the Great Pan is dead. On hearing this, Epitherses said that they were all astonished, and reasoned with themselves, whether or not it were better to do what was ordered, or to leave it unnoticed. But Thaumas determined that, if there should be wind, he would pass by the Palodes in silence; but if it proved calm in that place, he would announce what he heard. Having arrived at the island, there was neither wind nor tide. Thaumas therefore, placing himself at the stern, with his face to the land, announced, as he had heard, that the Great Pan was dead. As soon as he had ended, immediately were groans uttered mixed with astonishment not of one but of a multitude. And as there were many more present, the report of this was propagated throughout Rome; so that Tiberius Cæsar sent

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