in some one of those many occasions in which they have mentioned our Saviour's nativity, and the census which accompanied it.

I shall proceed but one step farther to observe, that Eusebius has made no mention of any more than the census performed in Judea, neither in his history, nor in his Chronicle, m

I cannot say that this interpretation is supported by any ancient version. But Bynæus observes, that in an ancient gloss, there is this explanation of it; "[That all the world should be taxed]" or surveyed; not the orb of all the earth, but the orb of Judea, and Syria.

If then the census or description, ordered by the decree of Augustus at the time of our Saviour's nativity, was of the land of Judea only, the silence of ancient historians is no objection at all against St. Luke's account. There must have been many surveys of provinces of the Roman empire in the reign of Augustus, of which there is no notice taken by any of the Roman or Greek authors now in our hands.

The only writer in whom we could expect any mention of it is Josephus. Whether he has spoke of it or not will be considered hereafter. But supposing at present, that there is no notice at all taken of it by him, this is no objection against St. Luke. It is not to be expected we should find in one single historian, all the affairs that were transacted in his country. We have undoubted evidence of this enrolment in the early testimonies of the christian writers. I have already exhibited more than enough of them. Justin Martyr speaks of it in his Apology to the emperor and the senate before the middle of the second century. Tertullian mentions it in several of his pieces. There is scarce any one occasional fact or circumstance relating to the history of Jesus, which was more frequently and more publicly mentioned by the christian writers: and yet it was never contested, that I know of, in all antiquity, not even by the adversaries of the christian religion. Julian speaks of it as a thing universally known. I subjoin his words. The Jesus, says be, whom you extol, was one of Cæsar's sub'jects. If you make a doubt of it, I will prove it by and I Vid. Hist. Ecc. lib. i. c. * Εν τῳ λγ Ηρωδε Κυρήνιος, υπο της συγλητε βελης απεταλμενος εις την Ιεδαίαν, απογραφας εποιήσατο των εσίων και των οιкηторшv. p. 76. vid. et p. 200. Hoc a nemine interpretum, quod quidem ego sciam, animadversum esse, nisi in specimine Glossa Ordinariæ, quod Robertus Stephanus edidit, legimus. Octavius xlii, imperii suo anno, publico decreto edixit, ut universus orbis Judæorum et Syriæ describeretur; et paulo post, [ut censeretur totus orbis] sive describeretur: non quidem orbis terrarum, sed orbis Judæorum et Syriæ. Bynæus, De Natali Jesu Christi. p. 306.

by though it may be as well done now. For you say 'yourselves, that he was enrolled with his father and mother in the time of Cyrenius.'"

I presume I have answered this objection: but it is upon the supposition, that St. Luke speaks of a census or enrolment in Judea only. I have not taken up this interpretation to avoid a difficulty, but because I really think it to be St. Luke's meaning. However, if St. Luke be supposed to speak of a general census of the Roman empire, I own, that the silence of antiquity would be a very great objection. Nor is the difficulty much lessened by supposing this enrolment was of persons only, and not of lands or goods. The numbering the people was far from being the principal design of a census of Roman citizens. But yet, oftentimes, when an historian mentions a census, he gives very little account of any thing relating to it, beside the number of citizens that was found. If ever the number of all the people of the Roman empire had been taken in the reign of Augustus, it would have been a very great curiosity; and historians would have been very fond of gratifying their readers with it. Though we have but few writers of those times, yet it is with me unquestionable, that in some of those we have, there would have been a particular account of so remarkable an event, or at least many references to it t; whereas there are none at all.

II. St. Matthew says, that Jesus was born in the days of Herod. Judea therefore was not at that time a Roman province and there could be no taxing made there by virtue of a decree of Augustus.

This objection has been answered already. For it is evident from what has been alleged from the christian writers, in the reply to the former objection, that there was some census, description, or survey, made in Judea at the time of our Saviour's nativity, by a decree of Augustus. However, that no scruples may remain in the minds of any from a false notion of the state of Judea under Herod, I shall particularly consider the matter of this second objection.

But I would first observe in general, that though we have the word "taxing" in our version," that all the world should be taxed; this taxing was first made;" yet the words used by St. Luke do not import a tax, or laying a tax or duty upon a people. In the margin of our Bibles

• Ο παρ' ύμιν κηρυττόμενος Ιησες εις ην των Καισαρος υπηκόων' ει δε απιστ τείτε, μικρον ύσερον αποδείξω μαλλον δη ηδη λεγέσθω φατε μεν το αυτον απογραψασθαι μετα τε πατρος και της μητρος επι Κυρηνικ. Apud. Cyril. l. vi. p. 213. ed. Spanh.

we have the word "enrolled ;" and in most other translations a word of like signification is used.

I must also premise, that some have thought that this enrolment was to be only of names and persons; and that all Augustus aimed at by this decree, was to know the number of people inhabiting the Roman empire, with their employments and conditions of life. Whitby paraphrases these words thus: That all the world should be taxed:' that is, should have their names and conditions of life set ' down in court rolls, according to their families.'

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Others have thought, that this decree obliged to a registry not only of the names of persons and their conditions of life, but also of their goods and possessions; and that in short, it was a Roman census, which was now made, in order to the people's paying taxes for the future, according to the value of their estates. I own I am inclined to this latter opinion; and that St. Luke speaks only of a census in Judea, as I have already declared.

Having premised these things, that we may find out. what kind of enrolment or registering was now ordered by Augustus; whether a decree of Augustus could be obligatory at this time upon the people of Judea; and whether it is likely there was a Roman census made there at this time; I shall consider these following particulars.

1. I shall explain the nature of a Roman census.

2. I shall consider the force of St. Luke's words.

3. I shall describe in general the state of Judea under Herod.

4. I shall inquire what grounds there are to believe, that a Roman census was made in Judea at this time.

1. I shall explain the nature of a Roman census. A census (as I take it) consisted of these two parts: first, the account which the people gave in of themselves and their estates; and secondly, the value set upon their estates by their censors, who took the account from them. The people did undoubtedly represent in some measure the value of the things they entered; but the censors seem to have had the power of determining and settling the value.

There was indeed another thing which belonged to the office of the censors at Rome, the censure or correction of manners: but, as I suppose, that belonged only to a census of Roman citizens, and that it was no part of a census of all

P Ut describeretur universus orbis. Hæc descriptio prima facta est. Vers. vulg. pour faire un dénombrement-ce dénombrement se fit. Mons. vers. M. Le Clerc, L'Enfant, &c.

the inhabitants of a province, or of a country subject to a dependent prince, I take no notice of it here.

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The Roman census was an institution of Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome. Dionysius of Hallicarnassus gives us this account of it; that he ordered all the citizens of ⚫ Rome to register their estates according to their value in money, taking an oath, in a form he prescribed, to deliver 'a faithful account according to the best of their knowledge, specifying withal the name of their parents, their own age, and the names of their wives and children, adding also 'what quarter of the city, or what town in the country they lived in.'

And after much the same manner do we find a Roman census described in the Fragments of the twelve tables, and in the Roman orators, historians, and " lawyers. From all whom it appears, the people were required to give in an account of their names, their quality, employments, wives, children, servants, and estates.

Beside what the people did, there seems to have been something done by the censors more than the bare taking the account the people gave in: that is, they were to determine the value of each particular of their estates, and the amount of the whole; and from this seems to have been taken the name or title of this office, both in the Latin and in the Greek language. For not only was the compass of ground which any one possessed to be considered, but the nature of it, and the profits it might yield: nor the number only of slaves or servants which any one had, but also the

W

- Εκέλευσεν άπαντας Ρωμαίος αποκραφεσθαι τε και τιμασθαι τας εσίας προς αργυριον ὁμοσαντας τον νόμιμον όρκον, η μην τ' αληθή και απο παντος το βελτισε τετιμησθαι, πατέρων τε ών εισι γράφοντας, και ἡλικιαν ήν εχουσι δηλοντας, γυναικας τε και παιδας ονομαζοντας, και εν τινι κατοικεσιν έκατοι της πόλεως τοπῳ, η παγψ της χώρας, προτίθεντας. Dionys. Hal. Ant. Rom. I. iv. c. 15. p. 212. init. Huds. Edit.

Censores populi civitates, soboles, familias, pecuniasque censento. Cic. de Leg. lib. iii. cap. 3. $ Jam (ut censoriæ tabulæ loquuntur) fabrûm et procûm audeo dicere, non fabrorum et procorum. Cic. Orator. n. 156. Ab hoc (Servio Tullio) populus Romanus relatus in censum.-Summâque regis solertià ita est ordinata respublica, ut omnia patrimonii, dignitatis, ætatis, artium, officiorumque discrimina in tabulas referrentur, ac si maxima civitas minimæ domûs diligentiâ contineretur. Florus, lib. i. cap. 6. vid. Liv. lib. i. cap. 42. et seq.

" Vid. Digesta Tit. de censibus. • In censu habendo potestas omnis æstimationis habendæ, summæque faciundæ, censori permittitur. Cic. in Ver. lib. ii. n. 131.

"Censio æstimatio, unde Censores. Festus de verb. Sign. Censores ab re appellati sunt.

Liv. lib. iv. cap. 8. fin.

x Τιμητης.

work they were employed in, according to which their service was to be valued. And therefore every one reckoned himself worth so much as the censors valued his estate at.

This power, which the censors had of rating or valuing the estates of all persons, gave them an opportunity of committing injustice, in favouring some and oppressing others. For though there were rules, by which they ought to regulate their estimation of every particular; and the supreme censors were wont to issue out precepts to their underofficers, enjoining justice and equity in their posts; yet if the supreme censors were men of ill principles, very great enormities often went unpunished."

That the reader may have a complete idea of the design of these enrolments among the Romans, at least so far as is necessary to our purpose, I shall add here the account which Dionysius has given of the census made by Laertius. the dictator, A. U. 258, before Christ, 496. Being chosen dictator, He immediately ordered that all, according to the 'excellent institution of Servius Tullius, should in their several 'tribes give in an account of their estates, setting down the names of their wives and children, and their own age, and that of their children. All having in a short time offered 'themselves to be assessed, (for the penalty of neglect was no less than forfeiture of estate and citizenship ;) there were found to be one hundred and fifty thousand and seven hundred Romans at man's estate. After this, he separated those who were of military age from the elder; and disposing those into centuries, he formed four bodies of horse and foot.' From this passage it appears, that

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y In servis deferendis observandum est, ut et nationes eorum, et officia, et artificia specialiter deferantur. 1. iv. sect. 5. ff. de censibus.

Censores dicti, quod rem suam quisque tanti æstimare solitus sit quantum illi censuerint. Festus. V. Censores.

• Formâ censuali cavetur, ut agri sic in censum referantur,-arvum quod in decem annos proximos satum erit, quod jugerum sit,-illam æquitatem debet admittere censitor, ut officio ejus congruat, relevari eum, qui in publicis tabulis delato modo frui certis ex causis non possit. Lib. iv. pr. eod.

b Edicis enim, te in decumanum, si plura sustulerit, quam debitum sit, in octuplum judicium daturum esse. Cic. in Verr. 1. iii. n. 26.

Sic census habitus est, te prætore, ut eo censu nullius civitatis respublica posset administrari. Nam locupletissimi cujusque census extenuârant, tenuissimi auxerant. Ibid. lib. ii. n. 138.

4 Το κρατίζον των ύπο Σερεις Τυλλις το δημοτικωτατε βασιλεως καταταθεντων νομίμων, πρωτος επέταξε Ῥωμαίοις άπασι ποιησαι, τιμησεις κατα φυλας των βίων ενεγκείν, προσγράφοντας γυναικών και παιδων ονοματα, και ήλικιας ἑαυτων τι και τεκνων εν ολιγῳ δε χρονῳ παντων τιμησαμένων, δια το μέγεθος της τιμωρίας την τε γαρ εσίαν απολέσαι τις απειθήσαντας εδει, και την πολι