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use of in the city and in the provinces. Ulpian says, ‘That the proconsul is wont to judge, whether the person ought to be put into the prison, or delivered to a soldier to keep, or whether he should be committed to sureties, or even to himself;' (that is, to the accused person himself;) And herein, usually, regard is had to the nature of the crime charged upon any one, and to the preservation of his honour, as also to the wealth or substance, seemingy inno'cence or dignity, of the party accused.'

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It is very easy to perceive what was chiefly regarded by those Roman officers who treated St. Paul so mildly; not his wealth, nor his dignity, but his innocence.

There is no one single instance that I know of, that will so much illustrate the whole story of St. Paul's imprisonment, as that of Herod Agrippa; who was imprisoned by Tiberius in the latter end of his reign, and afterwards came to be king of all Judea, as has been shown already.

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Agrippa had said some improper things of Tiberius, in the hearing of one of his own servants; who, having some time after taken a disgust at his master, went and informed Tiberius against him. Agrippa went one day, as others did, to wait on Tiberius. Tiberius crediting what the servant had said, and bearing likewise some grudge against Agrippa, ordered Macro the præfect of the prætorium to bind him. Whereupon the officers took him and bound him in his purple dress which he was then in.-But Anto'nia was extremely afflicted at this misfortune of Agrippa, and yet she judged it very difficult to say any thing to Tiberius in his favour; and that, indeed, it would be to 6 no purpose. She therefore went to Macro, and desired that he would take care that the soldiers which kept guard ' upon him should be civil, good-natured fellows, and that the centurion who presided over the guard, and the sol'dier to whom Agrippa was bound, might be men of the 'same character, and that his freedmen and friends might have access to him; and in a word, that he might want nothing necessary for his health. These therefore went to him, his friend Silas, and his freedmen Marsyas and

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y Proconsul æstimare solet, utrum in carcerem recipienda sit persona, an militi tradenda, vel fidejussoribus committenda, vel etiam sibi: hac autem vel pro criminis, quod objicitur, qualitate, vel propter honorem, aut propter amplissimas facultates, vel pro innocentiâ personæ, vel pro dignitate ejus, qui accusatur, facere solet. L. i. ff. de custod. et exhib. reor.

a

Joseph. Ant. Lib. xviii. c. 7. sect. 5. p. 810.

Widow of Drusus, Tiberius's brother, a lady of great virtue, and at good terms with Tiberius. Vid. Joseph. p. 812.

b Και συνδετες εσομενε.

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Stachus, who brought him the provisions he chose to have. They brought in likewise bed-clothes, and such like things, as if they were for sale, which they accommodated him with at night; the soldiers themselves joining with them in these services, in obedience to Macro's orders. Thus things went with Agrippa for six months.'c When Tiberius was dead, there came two letters to Rome from Caius [Caligula]; one to the senate, notifying 'the death of Tiberius, and his own accession to the em'pire; and another to Piso, the præfect of the city, containing the same things, and also ordering that Agrippa should be removed from the prætorium to the house in which he had lived before he was bound. Here indeed he was ' in custody, but however he had more liberty, and was at " ease. In a short time Caius came to Rome,-and in a few days after sent for Agrippa to his palace, ordered him to be shaved, and changed his garments; and then put a diadem on his head,-and made him also a present of a gold 'chain, of the same weight with the iron one with which he had been bound. This chain Agrippa afterwards laid up in the temple of Jerusalem, as a monument that God can bring down those things that are great, and raise up 'those things which are fallen.'

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I take it, that Agrippa's first confinement was of the same kind with that which was allotted St. Paul by Felix after the first hearing at Cæsarea; with this difference however, that a good deal of Agrippa's kind usage was given him by stealth, it not being by the orders of Tiberius, by whom he was committed: whereas the centurion who kept St. Paul had express orders from Felix, the chief officer in the province," to let him have liberty, and to forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him;" which must have been a considerable advantage. And I reckon that Agrippa's confinement at last, when he was removed to the house he had lived in before he was bound,' was of the same kind with St. Paul's custody, when he dwelt at "Rome in his own hired house."

X. Our taking in at once the whole story of St. Paul's imprisonment, has obliged us to pass by a particular or two, which the reader will perhaps think it worth while to look back for.

I think it not needful to inquire, what St. Paul's right of appeal was founded in, whether in his citizenship or not, Acts xxv. 10, 11. I shall only observe that he does not

Ibid. p. 814, 815. f Id. lib. xix. c. 6. in.

d

Απο τρατοπεδε

⚫ Ibid. p. 818.

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insist upon that expressly, but only his innocence. Some learned men have indeed, upon the occasion of this appeal, cited the words of Pliny; in which he tells Trajan, that he had noted down some of those who were infected with christianity to be sent to Rome, because they weres citizens.' But I cannot perceive to what purpose these words are alleged here. For if Pliny sent those persons to Rome, not for some special reason, but because his power extended only to the lives of provincials, and not of Roman citizens, then his power was not at that time cqual to that of the Roman governors in Judea. It is plain from St. Luke, Acts xxv. 11, 24, 25, that Paul was prosecuted by the Jews for his life, after he was known to be a Roman. And it is as plain from Josephus, that the Roman governors of Judea had power over the lives of Romans. Cumanus put to death a Roman soldier in Judea. And when Josephusi complains of Florus's crucifying some Jews who were Roman knights, he would have complained of somewhat else beside the manner of their death, if Florus had had no right to pronounce a capital sentence upon any Roman whatever. And thus I have by the by given the evidence of a very material circumstance in this history, namely, that Felix and Festus had power of trying a Roman for life.

Upon Paul's appeal to Cæsar he was in fact sent to Rome; causes were therefore by appeal removed out of the provinces to Rome. Suetonius says, that Augustus appointed a number of consular persons at Rome to receive the appeals of provincial people, namely, one person to preside over the affairs of each province.*

St. Luke says also, Acts xxvii. 1. "And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners, unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus' band." It was very common to send persons from Judea to be tried at Rome. Quintilius Varus sent to Rome divers of those that had made disturb ances in Judea, in the interval between Herod's death and Archelaus's taking possession of the government. Ummidius Quadratus, president of Syria, sentm Annas the high priest and other Jews to Claudius, to answer for themselves 8 Fuerunt alii similis amentiæ; quos, quia cives Romani erant, annotavi in urbem remittendos. Lib. x. ep. 97.

h De Bell. lib. ii. c. 12. sect. 2.

See above, p. 236.

* Appellationes quotannis urbanorum quidem litigatorum prætori delegavit; ac provincialium consularibus viris quos singulos cujusque provinciæ negotiis præposuisset. Vit. August. c. 33.

1 Joseph. de B. J. 1. ii. c. 5. sect. 3.

sect. 6. et Ant. 1. xx. c. 5. sect. 2.

Ibid. c. 12.

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at Rome, as also several of the most considerable of the Samaritans. Josephus says that Felix, for some slight offence, bound and sent to Rome several priests of his acquaintance, and very good and honest men, to answer for 'themselves to" Cæsar.' Felix also sent to Rome Eleazer, captain of a troop of robbers, and several of his men, whom he had taken prisoners.

XI. There remains but one thing more. "And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself, with a soldier that kept him," Acts xxviii. 16. Doubtless Paul was consigned by Felix to the "captain of the guard," as well as the other" prisoners :" but he was suffered to "dwell by himself," the rest were ordered to a more strait confinement. The only thing we have to observe here is, that the captain of the guard often had the custody of prisoners. This appears from the history I have given above of Agrippa. And it seems, that generally the prisoners which were sent from the provinces were transmitted to this officer, and not to the præfect of the city. For so Trajan directs Pliny, when he had written to him for some advice concerning a particular person whom he had with him in the province; That he should send him bound to the præfects of his prætorium:' or in other words, to the captains of the guard; there being two at that time, whereas there was but one when Paul was sent to Rome. Heliodorus the sophist, being in a certain island, fell under a charge of murder. Whereupon,' says Philostratus, he was sent to Rome, to answer for himself be'fore the præfects of the prætorium.'

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* Καθ' όν χρονον Φήλιξ της Ιεδαίας επιτροπευεν, ἱερεῖς τινας συνήθεις εμοι, καλώς καγαθες, δια μικραν και την τυχέσαν αιτίαν δήσας, εις την Ρώμην επεμψεν, λόγον ὑφέξοντας τῳ Καισαρι In Vit. sect. 3.

• De Bell. lib. ii. c. 13. sect. 2.

præfectos prætorii mei debet. Plin. lib. x. ep. 65. 9 About A. D. 223.

r

P Si-vinctus mitti ad

Λαβων δη εν τη νησω φονικήν

αιτιαν, ανεπέμφθη ες την Ρώμην, ως απολογησομενος τοις των τρατοπέδων nyεμoo. Vit. Sophist. 1. 2. num. 32.

CHAP. XI.

THREE REMARKABLE FACTS.

1. The temple forty-six years in building. II. The dearth in the reign of Claudius. III. The Jews banished from Rome by the same emperor.

1. WHEN our Saviour was at Jerusalem, at one of the Jews' passovers, he made a scourge of small cords, and drove them that sold oxen and sheep, and the changers of money, out of the temple,” John ii. 14, 15. This action implied a claim of some particular authority. "Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, what sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou dost these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?" Or in other words: Forty and six years has this ' temple been building, so far as the work is carried on, and many thousand men have been employed upon it all this time. And wilt thou alone rebuild it in three days, if it were pulled down and demolished?' Ver. 18-20.

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It ought to be observed here, that Josephus has informed us, that Herod the Great, in the eighteenth year of his reign, made a proposal to the Jews of rebuilding the temple. In eight or nine years' time he finished what he intended to do to this sacred place. But the people of the Jews were after this, as it seems, continually adorning and improving the buildings of the temple.

It is highly probable, that the term of forty-six years, mentioned here by the Jews in their reply to our Saviour, commences at the time when Herod made his proposal to the Jews, or else at the time, when in pursuance of that proposal, he actually set about repairing the templc.

There being some chronological difficulties attending the period of Herod's reign, as well as our Saviour's ministry, there is between learned men the difference of two or three years about the exact time when these words were spoken by the Jews. But I have no occasion at present to concern myself with any of those difficulties; because it is easy to De Bell. lib. i. cap. 21. Ant. lib. xv. cap. 11.

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