in the truth. These great facts, thus explicitly attested by the Jewish historian, are the chief points on which the Apostles insisted in preaching the Gospel; and they form the peculiar and distinguishing doctrines of Christianity *.

* The learned Daubuz has composed a whole volume to show that one egg is not more like to another than the style of this paragraph is to that of Josephus. I will here point out one coincidence, not only between the words but the ideas and sentiments of Josephus. He says of Jesus, that he attracted to himself many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. The verb is sanyaysto. Now in speaking of the converts which the Apostles made at Antioch, he used the same verb ayw in the middle voice combined with gos instead of 7. They were continually attracting to their own worship a great multitude of the Greeks." When Josephus says that Jesus attracted many tó himself, he explains the cause to be the wisdom, the love of truth, which he displayed, and the wonderful works which he performed. The miracles which had been done by our Lord, and those which at the time were done by the preachers, were also the real cause of the attraction at Antioch. Every thing also connected with them was repulsive in the extreme, as they were vilified and persecuted not only as heretics, but even as incendiaries. The writer of the Acts briefly says, that "the hand of the Lord was with them," yet Josephus is silent respecting the miraculous power that thus gave them success, though the notice of it was necessary to render his narrative intelligible and rational. The improper use which the Heathens, to whom Josephus addressed his writings, made of the miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles, is the true cause of the reserve which the Jewish historian maintains respecting them; and this is well illustrated by a signal example in modern days. I allude to the celebrated convert to Unitarianism in India. The Hindoos were disqualified by their erroneous notions of God and the laws of nature, to draw the proper inference from the miracles of Christ. RAMMOHUN ROy, therefore, in order to bring his countrymen over to Christianity, addresses to them a work in which he passes over the miracles of Jesus, and dwells on his precepts as the guide to peace and happiness.

CHAPTER VII.

Antichrist taught at Rome by a Jew and certain Egyptian Priests.-The Emperor prevailed upon by these Men to propose to the Senate the Deification of Jesus.-The same stigmatized as Impostors by Josephus.-The Notice taken of them by Paul in his Epistle to the Romans.

My object in this and the two succeeding chapters is to show, that the antichristian system described in the third was introduced into the several churches established by the apostle Paul. If this should appear to be the case, two consequences will obviously follow; namely, that the authors of that system at Jerusalem employed emissaries in disseminating it, with the view of counteracting the labours of the Apostles; and that the success which the impostors met with, was the principal means in the hands of providence in calling forth the letters which Paul addressed to the converts whose name they bear. This inquiry is an object of high importance, as it cannot fail to throw new light upon many obscure parts of these writings, settle the question respecting certain dogmas imputed to the author by the advocates of the orthodox faith, and enable us to meet and refute the allegation, that Paul taught a religion different from that of Christ and his other apostles.

I begin with the introduction of Gnosticism into the church at Rome: and here a celebrated passage of Tertullian already quoted, claims our attention. Therein he says that Tiberius, apprized of the works of Jesus, proposed his deification to the senate, with his own vote in his favour, but that the senate rejected the proposal, because the emperor had himself declined that honour. Eusebius and Orosius state the same fact. The words of the latter are to this effect, Oros. lib. 7. c. 4. "Tiberius

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

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