Agrippa was a king, but not of Judea; for he came to salute Festus, who at this time administered the government of that country at Cesarea.

Now, how does the history of the age correspond with this account? The Agrippa here spoken of, was the son of Herod Agrippa, mentioned in the last article; but that he did not succeed to his father's kingdom, nor ever recovered Judea, which had been a part of it, we learn by the information of Josephus, who relates of him that, when his father was dead, Claudius intended at first, to have put him immediately in possession of his father's dominions; but that, Agrippa being then but seventeen years of age, the emperor was persuaded to alter his mind, and appointed Cuspius Fadus prefect of Judea and the whole kingdom* which Fadus was succeeded by Tiberius Alexander, Cumanus, Felix, Festus. But that, though disappointed of his father's kingdom, in which was included Judea, he was nevertheless rightly styled King Agrippa, and that he was in possession of considerable territories bordering upon Judea, we gather from the same authority; for, after several successive donations of country, "6 Claudius, at the same time that he sent Felix to be procurator of Judea, promoted Agrippa from Chalcis to a greater kingdom, giving to him the tetrarchie which had been Philip's; and he added moreover the kingdom of Lysanias, and the province that had belonged to Varus."

Saint Paul addresses this person as a Jew :"King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest." As the son of Herod Agrippa, who is described by Josephus to have been a zealous Jew, it is reasonable to suppose that he maintained the same profession. But what is more material to remark, because it is more close and circumstantial, is, that Saint Luke speaking of the father, (Acts xii. 1-3.) calls him Herod the king, and gives an example of the exercise of his authority at Jerusalem: speaking of the son, (xxv. 13.) he calls him king, but not of Judea; which distinction agrees correctly with the history.

Antiq. xix, c. 9. ao. fin.

Ib. xx. De Bell. lib. i
De Bell. lib. ii. c. 12. ad fin.

VIII. [p. 51.] Acts xiii. 6. " And when they had gone through the isle (Cyprus) to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus, which was the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man."

The word, which is here translated deputy, signifies proconsul, and upon this word our observation is founded. The provinces of the Roman empire were of two kinds; those belonging to the emperor; in which the governor was called proprætor; and those belonging to the senate, in which the governor was called proconsul. And this was a regular distinction. Now it appears from Dio Cassius,* that the province of Cyprus, which in the original distribution was assigned to the emperor, had been transferred to the senate, in exchange for some others; and that, after this exchange, the appropriate title of the Roman governor was proconsul.

Ib. xviii. 12. [p. 55.] And when Gallio was deputy (proconsul) of Achaia."

The propriety of the title "proconsul" is in this passage still more critical. For the province of Achaia, after passing from the senate to the empe ror, had been restored again by the emperor Claudius to the senate (and consequently its government had becsme proconsular) only six or seven years before the time in which this transaction is said to have taken place. And what confines with strictness the appellation to the time is, that Achaia under the following reign ceased to be a Roman province at all.

IX. [p. 152.] It appears, as well from the general constitution of a Roman province, as from what Josephus delivers concerning the state of Judea in particular, that the power of life and death resided exclusively in the Roman governor; but that the Jews, nevertheless, had magistrates and a council, invested with a subordinate and municipal authority. This economy is discerned in every part of the Gospel narrative of our Saviour's crucifixion.

X. [p. 203.] Acts. ix. 31. "Then had the church

* De Bell. lib. liv. ad. A. U. 732
Saet. in Claed. c. 25. Dio, lib. lxi.
Antiq. lib. xx. c. 8. sect. 5. c. l. sect 2.

es rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Sa

maria."

This rest synchronizes with the attempt of Caligula to place his statue in the temple of Jerusalem; the threat of which outrage produced amongst the Jews a consternation that, for a season, diverted their attention from every other object.*

XI. [p. 218.] Acts. xxi. 30. And they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple; and forthwith the doors were shut. And as they went about to kill him, tidings came to the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains, and demanded who he was, and what he had done; and some cried one thing, and some another, among the multitude: and, when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle. And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people."

In this quotation, we have the band of Roman soldiers at Jerusalem, their office, (to suppress tumults,) the castle, the stairs, both, as it should seem, adjoining to the temple. Let us inquire whether we can find these particulars in any other record of that age and place.

"Antonia Joseph. de Bell. lib. v. c. 5. sect. 8. was situated at the angle of the western and northern porticoes of the outer temple. It was built upon a rock fifty cubits high, steep on all sides.On that side where it joined to the porticoes of the temple, there were stairs reaching to each portico, by which the guard descended; for there was always lodged here a Roman legion, and posting themselves in their armour in several places in the porticoes, thy kept a watch on the people on the feast-days to prevent all disorders; for as the temple was a guard to the city, so was Antonia to the temple."

XII. [p. 224.] And iv. 1. "And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them." Here

Joseph. de Bell. lib. xi. c. 13. sect. 1. 3, 4.

we have a public officer, under the title of captain of the temple, and he probably a Jew, as he accompanied the priests and Sadducees in apprehending the apostles.

Joseph. de Bell. lib. ii. c. 17. sect. 2.

"And at

the temple, Eleazar, the son of Ananias, the highpriest, a young man of a bold and resolute disposition, then captain, persuaded those who performed the sacred ministrations not to receive the gift or sacrifice of any stranger."

XIII. [p. 225.] Acts xxv. 12. "Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Cæsar ? unto Cæsar shalt thou go." That it was usual for the Roman presidents to have a council, consisting of their friends and other chief Romans in the province, appears expressly in the following passage of Cicero's oration against Verres ;-"Illud negare posses, aut nunc negabis, te, concilio tuo dimisso, viris primariis, qui in consilio C. Sacerdotis fuerant, tibique esse volebant, remotis, de re judicata judicasse ?"

XIV. [p. 235.] Acts xvi. 13. " And (at Philippi) on the sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made," or where a portux, oratory, or place of prayer was allowed. The particularity to be remarked, is the situation of the place where prayer was wont to be made, viz. by a river-side.

Philo, describing the conduct of the Jews of Alexandria, on a certain public occasion, relates of them, that "early in the morning, flocking out of the gates of the city, they go to the neighbouring shores, (for the poreux were destroyed,) and, standing in a most pure place, they lift up their voices with one accord."*"

Josephus gives us a decree of the city of Halicarnassus, permitting the Jews to build oratories; a part of which decree runs thus :-"We ordain that the Jews who are willing, men and women, do observe the sabbaths, and perform sacred rites ac cording to the Jewish laws, and build oratories by the sea-side."t

Philo in Flacc. p. 382.

↑ Joseph, Antiq. lib. xiv. c. 10. sect. 24.

Tertullian, among other Jewish rites and customs, such as feasts, sabbaths, fasts, and unleavened bread, mentions "orationes litorales;" that is, prayers by the river-side.t

XV. [p. 255.] Acts xxvi. 5. "After the most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee." Joseph. de Bell. lib. I. c. 5. sect. 2. "The Pharisees were reckoned the most religious of any of the Jews, and to be the most exact and skilful in explaining the laws."

In the original, there is an agreement not only in the sense, but in the expression, it being the same Greek adjective, which is rendered "strait" in the Acts, and "exact" in Josephus.

XVI. [p. 255.] Mark vii. 3. 4. "The Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders; and many other things there be which they have received to hold."

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiii. c. 10. sect. 5. "The Pharisees have delivered to the people 'many institutions, as received from the fathers, which are not written in the law of Moses."

XVII. [p. 259.] Acts xxiii. 8. "For the Saddu- cees say, that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both."

Joseph. de Bell. lib. ii. c. 8. sect. 14. "They (the Pharisees) believe every soul to be immortal, but that the soul of the good only passes into another body, and that the soul of the wicked is punished with eternal punishment." On the other "It is the hand, (Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 1. sect. 4. opinion of the Sadducees, that souls perish with the bodies." XVIII. [p. 268.] Acts v. 17. "Then the highpriest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation." Saint Luke here intimates, that the high-priest was a Sadducee; which is a character one would not have expected to meet with in that station. The circumstance, remarkable as it is, was not however without examples.

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xiii. c. 10. sect. 6, 7." John Hyrcanus, high-priest of the Jews, forsook the

*Tertull. ad Nat lib, i. c. 13,