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TABLE III. Continued.

A. M. JA.U.C. A.D.

4073 822 4074 823

69 The Batavians, under Civilis, revolt from the Romans, over whom they obtain two great victories. 70 Vespasian orders the capitol to be rebuilt, the first stone of which was laid on the 21st of June. Titus, son of Vespasian, sent by the emperor to besiege Jerusalem.

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The Jewish temple burnt, notwithstanding the endeavours of Titus to preserve it.
Jerusalem taken Sept. 7, and destroyed by Titus, which ends the Jewish war. Josephus reckons
that not less than eleven hundred thousand persons perished in this siege, by fire, sword, misery,
and famine. If to this number be added all that were killed in the several battles fought out of
Jerusalem, and in the taking of the several towns which the Romans stormed, it will be found
that the Jews lost in the whole course of the war, one million three hundred and fifty-seven
thousand six hundred and sixty men. The number of prisoners during the war, according to the
same historian, amounted to ninety-seven thousand! See on Matt. xxiv. 31.
Magnificent triumph of Vespasian for his victories over the Jews.

Peace being re-established in the world, the temple of Janus is shut. This is the sixth time of its
being shut according to Orosius.

72 Commagena is made a Roman province.

Vologeses, king of Parthia, molested by the Alans, a Scythian people, who over-run Media and Armenia. 73 Rhodes, Samos, and the neighbouring islands, formed into a province, under the name of the Cyclades, or island province.

74 Vespasian, who had made his son Titus his colleague in the censorship, celebrates with him the ceremony of closing the lustrum; and of numbering the Roman citizens.

75

Dedication of the Temple of Peace. Vespasian places in it the golden vessels belonging to the temple of Jerusalem, and a great number of the finest performances of the best painters and sculptors. Nero's colossus, erected by his order at the entrance of the golden palace, is dedicated to Apollo, or the sun, by Vespasian. .

76 Three cities in the island of Cyprus, destroyed by an earthquake.

4080 829 4081 830 4082 831 4083

77

832

Dreadful plague in Rome, through which ten thousand persons are said to have died in one day!
Agricola appointed governor of Britain.

79 Vespasian dies, after a reign of nine years, eleven months, and twenty-four days, and is succeeded in
the Roman empire by his son Titus.

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Dreadful eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which devastated a considerable part of Campania.

Death of the elder Pliny, who was suffocated by the smoke and ashes from the mountain, while employed in examining this dreadful phænomenon.

Dreadful pestilence.

Terrible fire at Rome, which raged with great violence for three days and three nights. Many of the public buildings were destroyed, among which were the pantheon, the Octavian library, and the capitol, which had not been long rebuilt.

Dedication of the amphitheatre begun by Vespasian, and finished by Titus.

Titus dies on Sept. 13, after a reign of two years, two months and twenty days; and is succeeded in the Roman empire by his brother Domitian.

Domitian's expedition against the Catti, a people of Germany. The emperor returns without having seen the enemy, and causes triumphal honours to be decreed him. It is supposed that about this time he received the surname of Germanicus.

Sabinus is made colleague with Domitian in the consulate his prænomen is not known; but he is supposed to be the same with Oppius Sabinus, who lost his life soon after in the Dacian war. The Caledonians defeated by Agricola, with the loss of 10,000 men. The ornaments of triumph are decreed the victor.

The fleet of Agricola sailed round Great Britain: before this circumnavigation was made, the Romans were not sure that Britain was an island.

Domitian orders the nativity of all the great men in Rome to be cast; and such as were said to be born for empire, he destroyed.

Philosophers banished from Rome by Domitian.

The Nasamonians revolt from the Romans, but are subdued by Flaccus.

A. M. JA.U.C. A.D.

TABLE III. Concluded.

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86

4092 841

88

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89

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90

388

4095 844

91

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92

Fulvius is made colleague with the emperor this year in the consulate: his prænomen is not known. This Fulvius is supposed to be either T. Aurelius Fulvius, or Fulvius, the grand-father of the emperor Titus Antoninus.

Institution of the Capitoline games.

The Dacian war began this year, according to Eusebius.

The Dacians enter the Roman provinces, and make great depredations; but are at last completely
overthrown by Julianus.

The secular games celebrated at Rome this year, not because it was the termination of an even cen-
tury, from the building of the city; but through the mere caprice of the emperor.
Domitian banished the astrologers from Rome.

The Marcomans, &c. having defeated the emperor, the latter makes peace with Decebalus, king of
the Dacians, and allow him a yearly pension, which is never demanded. He assumes the sur-
name of Dacicus.

Domitian changes the names of the months of September and October, and calls them Germanicus and Domitianus; which continued only during his life.

About this time the temple of Janus is again shut.

Cornelia, chief of the vestals, accused by the emperor of incontinence, is buried alive.

About this time happened the revolt of L. Antonius, who commanded on the Upper Rhine. He is defeated and killed.

The kingdom of Chalcis united to the Roman empire.

93 Death of Agricola, the governor of Britain, on the 23d of August, in the year when Collega and Priscus were consuls.

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The Sarmatians revolt, but are soon quelled by Domitian; in consequence of which he carries a
laurel crown to the capitol, and consecrates it to Jupiter.

Philosophers and scientific men banished Rome by an order of the senate. Epictetus, the famous
stoic philosopher, was among the number of the exiles.
Commencement of the second persecution against the Christians.

About this time, St. John was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil, near the Latin gate at Rome;
but, being miraculously preserved, is afterwards banished to Patmos, where he is supposed to
have written his Revelation some time in the course of this or the following year.
Acilius Glabrio, who had been consul A. U. C. 844, is put to death by order of the emperor.
Domitian killed in his palace by some of his freedmen, after a tyrannical reign of fifteen years and five
days. He was the last of the twelve Cæsars, and is succeeded in the empire by Nerva.
Death of Virginius, the consul, in the 83d year of his age. Tacitus, who was at this time consul by
subrogation, pronounces his funeral oration.

Trajan, who commanded the army in Lower Germany, adopted by Nerva.

Nerva dies, Jan. 21, after having reigned one year, four months, and eight days, and is succeeded in
the empire by Trajan, a Spaniard.

The Chamavians and Angrivarians defeat the Bructerians, with the loss of 60,000 men.
Trajan, who was in Germany when he was proclaimed emperor, enters Rome without the least parade.
Adrian, afterwards emperor, married to Sabina, daughter of Trajan's nephew.

The death of St. John, the apostle and evangelist, is generally supposed to have happened about this time.

PREFACE

TO THE

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

THAT St. PAUL was the author of this Epistle, and that it possesses every evidence of authenticity that any work of the kind can possess; or that even the most fastidious scepticism can require; have been most amply proved by Dr. W. Paley, Archdeacon of Carlisle, in his work entitled "Hora Paulina; or, the Truth of the Scripture History of St. Paul evinced, by a comparison of the Epistles which bear his name, with the Acts of the Apostles, and with one another."

Of this Apostle I have spoken at large in the notes on the preceding Book; and especially in the observations at the close of the ninth chapter; to which I beg leave to refer the Reader. It will be sufficient to state here, that Saul, (afterwards called Paul,) was born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, of Jewish parents, who possessed the right of Roman citizens: (see the note on Acts xxii. 28.) that when young, he was sent to Jerusalem for the purpose of receiving a Jewish education; that he was there put under the tuition of the famous Rabbi Gamahiel, and was incorporated with the sect of the Pharisees, of whose system he imbibed all the pride, self-confidence, and intolerance; and distinguished himself as one of the most inveterate enemies of the Christian cause; but, being converted by a most singular interposition of Divine Providence and grace, he became one of the most zealous promoters and successful defenders of the cause, which he had before so inveterately persecuted. '

Though this Epistle is directed to the Romans, yet we are not to suppose that Romans, in the proper sense of the word, are meant ; but rather those who dwelt at Rome, and composed the Christian church in that city: that there were among these, Romans properly such, that is, heathens who had been converted to the Christian faith, there can be no doubt: but the principal part of the church in that city, seems to have been formed from Jews, sojourners at Rome; and from such as were proselytes to the Jewish religion. When, or by whom the Gospel was first preached at Rome, cannot be ascertained. Those who assert that St. Peter was its founder, can produce no solid reason for the support of their opinion. Had this Apostle first preached the Gospel in that city; it is not likely that such an event would have been unnoticed in the Acts of the Apostles; where the labours of St. Peter are particularly detailed with those of St. Paul, which indeed form the chief subject of this Book. Nor is it likely that the author of this Epistle should have made no reference to this circumstance, had it been true. Those who say that this church was founded by these two Apostles conjointly, have still less reason on their side; for it is evident from chap. i. 8, &c. that St. Paul had never been at Rome, previously to his writing this Epistle. It is most likely that no apostle was employed in this important work ; and that the Gospel was first preached there by some of those persons who were converted at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost; for, we find from Acts ii. 10. that there were then at Jerusalem, strangers of Rome, Jews, and proselytes; and these, on their return, would naturally declare the wonders they had witnessed; and proclaim

ii

PREFACE TO THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

that truth by which they themselves had received salvation. Of ROME itself, then the metropolis of the world, a particular account has been given in the note on Acts, chap. xxviii. 16. to which the Reader is requested

to refer.

The occasion of writing this Epistle, may be easily collected from the Epistle itself. It appears that St. Paul had been made acquainted with all the circumstances of the Christians at Rome, by Aquila and Priscilla, (see chap. xvi. 3.) and by other Jews who had been expelled from Rome, by the decree of Claudius, (mentioned Acts xviii. 2.) and finding that it was composed partly of heathens, converted to Christianity; and partly of Jews, who had, with many remaining prejudices, believed in Jesus as the true Messiah; and that many contentions arose from the claims of the Gentile converts to equal privileges with the Jews; and, from the absolute refusal of the Jews to admit these claims, unless the Gentile converts became circumcised, he wrote to adjust and settle these differences.

Dr. Paley, with his usual perspicuity, has shewn that the principal object of the argumentative part of the Epistle, is, "To place the Gentile convert upon a parity of situation with the Jewish, in respect of his religious condition, and his rank in the Divine favour." The Epistle supports this point by a variety of arguments; such as, that no man, of either description, was justified by the works of the law-for this plain reason, that no man had performed them; that it became therefore necessary to appoint another medium, or condition of justification, in which new medium the Jewish peculiarity was merged and lost; that Abraham's own justification was antecedent to the law, and independent of it; that the Jewish converts were to consider the law as now dead, and themselves as married to another; that what the law in truth could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God had done by sending his Son; that God had rejected the unbelieving Jews, and had substituted in their place, a society of believers in Christ; collected indifferently from Jews and Gentiles.-Therefore, in an Epistle directed to Roman believers, the point to be endeavoured after by St. Paul, was to reconcile the Jewish converts to the opinion that the Gentiles were admitted by God to a parity of religious situation with themselves; and that, without their being obliged to keep the law of Moses. In this Epistle, though directed to the Roman church in general, it is in truth, a Jew writing to Jews. Accordingly, as often as his argument leads him to say any thing derogatory from the Jewish institution; he constantly follows it by a softening clause. Having, chap. ii. 28, 29. pronounced "that he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; nor that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh," he adds immediately, "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there in circumcision? Much every way." Having, in the third chap. ver. 28. brought his argument to this formal conclusion, "that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law," he presently subjoins, ver. 31. "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! Yea, we establish the law.". In the seventh chap. when in ver. 6. he had advanced the bold assertion, "that now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held ;" in the next verse he comes in with this healing question, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid! Nay, I had not known sin but by the law." Having, in the following words more than insinuated the inefficacy of the Jewish law, chap. viii. 3. ❝for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh;" after a digression indeed, but that sort of a digression, which he could never resist, a rapturous contemplation of his Christian hope, and which occupies the latter part of this chapter: we find him in the next, as if sensible that he had said something which would give offence, returning to his Jewish brethren in terms of the warmest affection and respect; "I say the truth in Christ Jesus, I lie not: my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart; for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers; and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came." When in the 31st and 32d verses of the ninth chapter, he represented to the Jews the error of even the best of their nation, by telling them that "Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, had not attained to the law of righteousness, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the

PREFACE TO THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

iii

law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone;" he takes care to annex to this declaration, these conciliating expressions; "Brethren, my heart's desire, and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved; for I bear them record, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." Lastly, having, chap. x. 20, 21. by the application of a passage in Isaiah, insinuated the most ungrateful of all propositions to a Jewish ear, the rejection of the Jewish nation as God's peculiar people; he hastens, as it were, to qualify the intelligence of their fall by this interesting exposition: "I say then, hath God cast away his people, (i. e. wholly and entirely) God forbid! for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew ;" and follows this thought throughout the whole of the eleventh chapter, in a series of reflections calculated to soothe the Jewish converts, as well as to procure from their Gentile brethren, respect to the Jewish institution. Dr. Paley, drawing an argument from this manner of writing in behalf of the genuineness of this Epistle, adds, "Now, all this is perfectly natural. In a real St. Paul, writing to real converts, it is, what anxiety to bring them over to his persuasion, would naturally produce; but there is an earnestness and a personality, if I may so call it, in the manner, which a cold forgery, I apprehend, would neither have conceived nor supported." Hora Paulinæ, p. 49, &c.

From a proper consideration of the design of the Apostle in writing this Epistle; and from the nature and circumstances of the persons to whom it was directed; much light may be derived for a proper understanding of the Epistle itself. When the Reader considers that the church at Rome was composed of heathens and Jews, that the latter were taught to consider themselves the only people on earth, to whom the Divine favour extended that these alone had a right to all the blessings of the Messiah's kingdom; that the giving them the law and the prophets, which had not been given to any other people, was the fullest proof that these privileges did not extend to the nations of the earth; and, that though it was possible for the Gentiles to be saved, yet it must be in consequence of their becoming circumcised, and taking on them the yoke of the law.-When, on the other hand, the Reader considers the Roman Gentiles, who formed the other part of the church at Rome, as educated in the most perfect contempt of Judaism, and of the Jews, who were deemed to be haters of all mankind, and egraded with the silliest superstitions; and now evidently rejected and abandoned by that God, in whom they professed to trust; it is no wonder if, from these causes, many contentions and scandals arose ; especially at a time when the spirit of Christianity was but little understood; and among a people too who do not appear to have had any apostolic authority established among them, to compose feuds, and settle religious differences.

That the Apostle had these things particularly in his eye, is evident from the Epistle itself. His first object is to confound the pride both of the Jews and the Gentiles; and this he does by shewing the former that they had broken their own law, and consequently forfeited all the privileges which the obedient had a right to expect :he shews the latter, that however they might boast of eminent men, who had been an honour to their country; nevertheless, the Gentiles as a people, were degraded by the basest of crimes, and the lowest idolatry :-that, in a word, the Gentiles had as little cause to boast in their philosophers as the Jews had to boast in the faith and piety of their ancestors; for all had sinned, and come short of the glory of God. This subject is particularly handled in the five first chapters; and often referred to in other places.

Concerning the time in which this Epistle was written, there is not much difference of opinion: it is most likely that it was written about A. D. 58. when Paul was at Corinth, see chap. xvi. 23. conferred with 1 Cor. i. 14. and Rom. xvi. 1. conferred with 2 Tim. iv. 20. It appears from chap. xvi. 22. that Paul did not write this Epistle with his own hand, but used a person called Tertius, as his amanuensis; and that it was sent by the hands of Phoebe, a deaconess, (ovσav dianovor,) of the church of Cenchrea, which was the eastern Port, on the Isthmus of Corinth.

From internal evidence, Dr. Paley has demonstrated the authenticity of this Epistle, and its existence in the ancient Antehieronymian versions, and the Syriac, as well as its being mentioned by the Apostolic Fathers Barnabas, chap. xii. 13. Clemens Romanus, Ep. i. c. i. 30, 32, 35, 46. Ignatius, Epist. ad Ephes. 20. ad Smyrn. 1. ad Trall. 8. and Polycarp. 3 and 6. and by all succeeding writers, put it beyond all dispute.

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