Works

§ 1. Velleius Paterculus.

TIBERIUS keepeth himself still in the Country, but not still at Capreae: for this year he draweth near unto Rome, and haunteth in some places about four miles off, but cometh not at all unto the City. This seemeth to be his first journey towards it, that Suetonius speaketh of when he came by water to the Gardens beside the Nanmachy, or the Pool in Tiber where they used their sportting sea-fights, and returned again, but the cause not known. The first thing mentioned of him under these Consuls, both by Tacitus and Dion, is his marrying forth the Daughter of Drusus, which they name not; and Julia and Drusilla the Daughters of Germanicus; Drusilla to L. Cassius, Julia, to M. Vinicius. This was a Son of that M. Vinicius to whom Paterculus dedicated his short and sweet Roman History. And the nearness of the time would very nearly persuade that this was that very Vinicius himself, but that Paterculus showeth that his Vinicius was Consul when he wrote his book to him; and that (as himself, and Dion agreeing with him showeth) An. V. C. 783. or the next year after our Savior's Baptism; but this Vinicius, Tiberius his Son▪ in Law, (as Tacitus intimateth) was only a Knight, but a Consuls Son. Howsoever, in these times shone forth and flourished the excellent wit, and matchless pen of that Historian, an Author known to all learned men, and admired by all that know him: His Original was from the Campanians, as himself witnesseth not very far from the beginning of his second book, when he cometh to speak of the Italian war in the time of Sylla and Marius. No pen is so fit to draw his pedigree and Character as his own, and therefore take only his own words; Neque ego verecundia, domestici sanguinis gloriae dum verum refero subtraham, &c. Nor will I for modesty derogate anything from the honor of mine own blood, so that I speak no more than truth; for much is to be attributed to the memory of Minatius Magius my great-Grandfathers Father, a man of Asculum; who being Nephew to Decius Magius, a renowned Prince of the Campanians, and a most faithful man, was so trusty to the Romans in this war, that with a Legion which he had banded, Pompey took Herculaneum, together with T. Didius; when L. Sulla besieged, and took in Consa. Of whose virtues both others, but especially and most plainly Q. Hortensius hath made relation in his Annals. Whose Loyalty the people of Rome did fully requite, by enfranchising both him and his, and making two of his Sons Pretors. His Grandfather was C. Velleius, Master of the Engeneers to Cn. Pompey, M. Brutus and Tyro; a man, saith he, second to none in Can • pany, whom I will not defraud of that Testimony which I would give to a stranger: He at the departure of Nero (Tiberius his Father) out of Naples, whose part he had taken for his singular friendship with him, being now unweldy with age and bulk of body, when he could not accompany him any longer, he slew himself. Of his Fathers, and of his own rank and profession, thus speaketh he jointly: At this time (namely, about the time that Augustus adopted Tiberius) after I had been Field-Marshal, I became a Soldier of Tiberius, and being sent with him General of the Horse into Germany, which Office my Father had born before; for nine whole years together, I was either a spectator, or to my poor ability a forwarder of his most celestial designs; being either a Commander, or an Ambassador. And a little after: In this war, (against the Hungarians and Dalmatians, and other Nations revolted) my meanness had the place of an eminent Officer. For having ended my service with the Horse, I was made Questor; and being not yet a Senator, I was equalled with the Senators. And the Tribunes of the people being now designed, I led a part of the. Army delivered to me by Augustus, from the City to his Son. And in my Questorship, the lot of my Province being remitted, I was sent Ambassador from him to him again. Partner in the like employments and honors, he had a brother named Magius Celer Velleianus, that likewise attended Tiberius in the Dalmatian war, and was honored by him in his Triumph, and afterward were his Brother and he made Pretors. When he wrote that abridgement of the Roman History which we now have extant, he had a larger work of the same subject in hand, of which he maketh mention in divers places; which he calleth justum opus, and justa volumina, but so far hath time and fortune denied us so promising and so promised a piece; that this his abstract is come short home and miserably curtailed to our hands. So do Epitomes too commonly devour the Original, and pretending to ease the toil of reading larger Volumes, they bring them into neglect and loss. In the unhappiness of the loss of the other, it was somewhat happy that so much of this is preserved as is; a fragment of as excellent compacture, as any is in the Roman tongue; wherein sweetness and gravity, eloquence and truth, shortness and variety, are so compacted and compounded together, that it findeth few parallels either Roman or other.

§ 2. Troubles in Rome about Usury.

This year there was a great disturbance in the City about Usury, the too common, and the too necessary evil of a Common-wealth. This breed-bate had several times heretofore disturbed that State, though strict and rigorous courses still were taken about it. At the first, the interest of money lent, was proportioned and limited only at the dispsal of the lender, a measure always inconstant, and often unconscionable. Whereupon it was fixed at the last by the twelve Tables to an ounce in the pound, which is proportionable in our English coin, to a penny in the shilling. Afterward by a Tribune Statute it was reduced to half an ounce, and at last the trade was quite forbidden. But such weeds are ever growing again, though weeded out as clean as possible; and so did this: Partly, through the covetousness of the rich, making way for their own pofit; and partly through the necessities of the poor, giving way to it for their own supply.

Gracchus now Pretor, and he to whom the complaint was made at this time, being much perplexed with the matter, referreth it to the Senate as perplexed as himself. He perplexed because of the multitude that were in danger, by breach of the Law; and they, because they were in danger themselves. Here was a prize for the greedy appetite of Tiberius, when so many of the best rank and purses, were fallen into his lurch, and their moneys lent fallen into forfeiture, because of their unlawful lending. The guilty Senate obtain the Emperors pardon, and eighteen months are allowed for bringing in of all men's accounts: In which time the scarcity of money did pinch the more, when every ones debts did come to rifling: and in the nick of that there followed a great disturbance about buying Lands, which before was invented for a remedy against the former complaints. But the Emperor was glad to salve up the matter by lending great sums of money to the people gratis for three years.

§ 3. Tiberius still cruel.

With this one dram of humanity, he mingled many ounces of cruelty and blood-shed. For Considius Proculus as he was celebrating his birth day without fear and with Festivity, is hailed out of his own house, brought to the bar and condemned: and his Sister Sancia interdicted fire and water. Pompeia Ma • rina banished; and her Father and Brother condemned and slew themselves. But this year there is no reckoning of the slaughtered by name, for now their number grew numberless. All that were imprisoned and accused for conspiracy with Sejanus, he causeth to be slain every mothers son. Now, saith mine Author, there lay an infinite massacre of all sexes, ages, conditions, noble and ignoble, either dispersed, or together on heaps. Nor was it permitted to friends or kindred to comfort, bewail, or behold them anymore: but a Guard fet, which for the greater grief abused the putrefied bodies till they were hailed into Tiber, and there left to sink or swim, for none was suffered to touch or bury them. So far was common humanity banished, and pity denied even after death, revenge being unsatisfied when it had revenged, and cruelty extended beyond itself. Nor did the accusers speed better than the accused, for he also caused them to be put to death as well as the other, under that color of justice and retaliation, satisfying his cruelty both ways to the greater extent. It were to be admired, and with admiration never to be satisfied (were it not that the avenging hand of God upon the bloody City is to be acknowledged in it) that ever a people should be so universally bent one against another, seeking the ruin and destruction one of another, and furthering their own misery, when they were most miserable already, in him that sought the ruin of them all. A fitter instrument could not the Tyrant have desired for such a purpose than themselves; nor when he had them so pliable to their own mischief, did he neglect the opportunity, or let them be idle: For as he saw accusations increase, so did he increase his Laws to breed more: insomuch that at the last it grew to be capital, for a servant to have fallen before, or near the image of Augustus, or for any man to carry either coin or ring into the Stews, or house of Office, if it bare upon it the image of Tiberius.

§. 3. A wicked accusation.

Who can resolve whether it were more vexation to suffer upon such foolish accusations, or upon others more solid; but as false as these were foolish? That was the fortune of Sextus Marius an intimate friend of the Emperors; but as it proved, not the Emperor so of his: This was a man of great riches and honor, and in this one action of a strange vain-glory and revenge. Having taken a displeasure at one of his Neighbors, he inviteth him to his house, and there detained him feasting two days together. And on the first day he pulleth his house down to the ground, and on the next he buildeth it up far fairer and larger than before. The honest man when he returned home found what was done, admired at the speed of the work, rejoiced at the change of his house, but could not learn who had done the deed. At the last Marius confessed that he was the agent, and that he had done it with this intent, to show him that he had power to do him a displeasure, or a pleasure, as he should deserve it. Ah blinded Marius, and too indulgent to thine own humors! seest thou not the same power of Tiberius over thee, and thy fortunes pinned upon his pleasure, as thy neighbors upon thine? And so it came to pass that fortune read him the same lecture, that his fancy had done another. For having a young beautiful Daughter, and such a one, as on whom the Emperor had cast an eye, and so plainly, that the Father spied it, he removed her to another place, and kept her there close and at distance, lest she should have been violated by him, who must have no denial. Tiberius imagined as the thing was indeed, and when he seeth that he cannot enjoy his love, and satisfy his lust, he turneth it to hate and revenge. And causeth Marius to be accused of incest with his daughter whom he kept so close, and both Father and Daughter are condemned, and suffer for it both together.

§ 5. A miserable life and death.

In these so fearful and horrid times, when nothing was safe, nothing secure, when silence and innocence were no protection, nor to accuse, no more safeguard than to be accused, but when all things went at the Emperors will, and that will always cruel, what course could any man take not to be entangled, and what way being entangled to extricate himself? The Emperors frowns were death, and his favors little better; to be accused was condemnation, and to accuse was often as much; that now very many found no way to escape death but by dying, nor to avoid the cruelty of others, but by being cruel to themselves. For though self-murder was always held for a Roman valor, yet now was it become a mere necessity; men choosing that miserable exigent to avoid a worse, as they supposed, and a present end, to escape future evils. So did Asinius Gallus at this time for the one, and Nerva the other. This Gallus about three years ago, coming to Tiberius upon an Ambassy, was fairly entertained and royally feasted by him, but in the very interim he writeth letters to the Senate in his accusation. Such was the Tyrants friendship; and so sour sauce had poor Asinius to his dainty fare. A thing both inhumane and unusual, that a man the same day should eat, drink and be merry with the Emperor, and the same day be condemned in the Senate upon the Emperors accusation. An Officer is sent to fetch him away a Prisoner; from whence he had but lately gone Ambassador. The poor man being thus betrayed, thought it vain to beg for life; for that he was sure would be denied him, but he begged that he might presently be put to death, and that was denied also. For the bloody Emperor delighted not in blood and death only, but in anything that would cause other men's misery, though it were their life. So having once committed one of his friends to a most miserable and intolerable imprisonment; and being solicited and earnestly sued unto, that he might be speedily executed and put out of his misery, he flatly denied it, saying, That he was not grown friends with him yet. Such was the penance that he put poor Gallus to: a life far worse than a present death; for he ought him more spite and torture than a sudden execution. The miserable man being imprisoned and straitly looked to, not so much for fear of his escape by flight, as of his escape by death, was denied the sight and conference of any one whosoever, but him only that brought him his pitiful diet, which served only to prolong his wretched life, and not to comfort it; and he was forced to take it, for he must by no means be suffered to dy. Thus lived (if it may be called a life) a man that had been of the honorablest rank and office in the City; lingering and wishing for death, or rather dying for three years together; and now at last he findeth the means to famish himself, and to finish his miserable bondage with as miserable an end; to the sore displeasure of the Emperor, for that he had escaped him, and not come to public execution.

Such an end also chose Nerva one of his near friends and familiars, but not like the other, because of miseries past or present; but because of fear and foresight of such to come. His way that he took to dispatch himself of his life, was by total abstinence and refusal of food; which when Tiberius perceived was his intent, he sits down by him, desires to know his reason, and begs with all earnestness of him, that he would desist from such a design: For what scandal, saith he, will it be to me, to have one of my nearest friends to end his own life, and no cause given why he should so die? But Nerva satisfied him not either in answer or in act, but persisted in his pining of himself, and so died.

§ 6. The miserable ends of Agrippina and Drusus.

To such like ends came also Agrippina and Drusus, the Wife and Son of Germanicus, and Mother and Brother of Gaius, the next Emperor that should succeed. These two, the Daughter in law, and Grandchild of Tiberius himself, had about four years ago been brought into question by his unkind and inhuman accusation, and into hold and custody, until this time. It was the common opinion that the cursed instigation of Sejanus, whom the Emperor had raised purposely for the ruin of Germanicus his house had set such an accusation on foot; and made the man to be so cruel towards his own family; but when the two accursed ones had miserably survived the wicked Sejanus, and yet nothing was remitted of their prosecution, then opinion learned to lay the fault where it deserved, even on the cruelty and spite of Tiberius himself. Drusus is adjudged by him to die by famine, and miserable and woeful wretch that he was, he sustaineth his life for nine days together, by eating the flocks out of his bed, being brought to that lamentable and unheard of diet, through extremity of hunger. Here at last was an end of Drusus his misery, but so was there not of Tiberius his cruelty towards him; for he denied the dead body burial in a fitting place; he reviled and disgraced the memory of him with hideous and feigned scandals and criminations, and shamed not to publish in the open Senate, what words had passed from the pining man against Tiberius himself; when in agony through hunger he craved meat, and was denied it. Oh what a sight and hearing was this to the eyes and ears of the Roman people, to behold him that was a child of their darling and delight Germanicus, to be thus barbarously and inhumanely brought to his end, and to hear his own Grandfather confess the action and and not dissemble it!

Agrippina the woeful Mother, might dolefully conjecture what would become of herself, by this fatal and terrible end of the poor Prince her Son. And it was not long, but she tasted of the very same cup, both of the same kind of death, and of the same kind of disgracing after. For being pined after the same manner, that it might be coloured that she did it of herself (a death very unfitting the greatest Princess then alive,) she was afterward slandered by Tiberius for adultery with Gallus that died so lately, and that she caused her own death for grief of his. She and her Son were denied burial befitting their degree, but hid in some obscure place where no one knew, which was no little distaste and discontentment to the people. The Tyrant thought it a special cause of boasting and extolling his own goodness, that she had not been strangled, nor died the death of common base offenders: And since it was her fortune to die on the very same day that Sejanus had done two years before, viz. Octob. 17. it must be recorded as of special observation, and great thanks given for the matter, and an annual sacrifice instituted to Jupiter on that day.

Gaius her Son, and Brother to poor Drusus took all this very well, or at least seemed so to do, partly glad to be shut of any one that was likely to have any color or likelihood of corrivality with him in his future reign; and partly being brought up in such a School of dissimulation, and grown so perfect a Scholar there, that he wanted little of Tiberius. This year he married Claudia the daughter of M. Silanus, a man that would have advised him to good, if he would have hearkened; but afterward he matched with a mate and stock, more fitting his evil nature, Ennia the Wife of Macro, but for advantage resigned by her Husband Macro, to the adulterating of Gaius, and then to his marriage.

§ 7. Other Massacres.

The death of Agrippina drew on Plancina's, a Woman that never accorded with her in anything, but in Tiberius his displeasure, and in a fatal and miserable end. This Plancina, in the universal mourning of the state for the loss of Germanicus, rejoiced at it, and made that her sport, which was the common sorrow of all the State: How poor Agrippina relished this, being deprived of so rare a Husband, can hardly be thought of without joining with her in her just and mournful indignation. Tiberius having a spleen at the woman for some other respect, had now a fair color to hide his revenge under, to call her to account, and that with some applause. But here his revenge is got into a strait: for if he should put her to death, it may be it would be some content to Agrippina: and therefore not to pleasure her so much, he will not pleasure the other so much neither as with present death, but keepeth her in lingering custody till Agrippina be gone, and then must she follow; but her resoluteness preventeth the Executioner, and to escape another's, she dieth by her own hand.

Let us make up the heap of the slaughtered this year, in the words of Dion, Such a number of Senators, to omit others, perished under Tiberius, that the Governors of Provinces were chosen by lot, and ruled, some three years, some six, because there were not enough to come in their room.

§. 1. Thankless officiousness.

OF the state and occurrences of the Church this instant year, there is neither any particular given by S. Luke, nor any else where to be found in Scripture, save only what may be collected from the words of Paul concerning himself, namely that he is this year either in Arabia or Damascus or both, spending one part of it in the one place, and the other in the other. The Church (now this great persecutor is turned Preacher) enjoined no doubt a great deal of ease in the ceasing of the persecution, and benefit by the earnestness of his Ministry. And so let us leave her to her peace and comfortable times now growing on, and turn our story to the Romans.

Tiberius his reign being now come to the twentieth year, the present Consuls L. Vitellius, and Fabius Priscus, do prorogate or proclaim his rule for ten years longer. A ceremony used by Augustus, whensoever he came to a tenth year of his reign, but by Tiberius there was not the like cause. One would have thought the twenty years past of his inhumane and barbarous reign should have given the City more than enough of such an Emperor: and have caused her to have longed rather for his end then to have prolonged his dominion. But she will make a virtue now or complement rather of necessity, and will get thanks of him for continuing of that which she cannot shake off, and is willing that he shall reign still, because she knew he would do so whether she will or no. It is the forlorn way of currying favor, to please a man in his own humor, when we dare not cross it. The flattering Consuls received a reward befitting such unnecessary officiousness, for they kept the feast, saith Dion, that was used upon such occasions, and were punished. Not with death, for the next year you shall have Vitellius in Judea, but with some other infliction which it may be was pretended for some other reason, but intended and imposed upon a profound policy. For while they thus took on them to confirm his rule they did but shake his title as he conceived, and told him a riddle that he reigned by their courtesy and not by his own interest: but when he punished them that would take on them to confirm this superiority he proved it independent, and not pinned upon their will.

§. 2. Cruelties.

The vein of the City that was opened so long ago, doth bleed still and still as fresh as ever. For Slaughter saith Tacitus was continual, and Dion addeth that none of them that were accused were acquitted, but all condemned: some upon the letters of Tiberius, others upon the impeachment of Macro (of whom hereafter,) and the rest only upon suspicion. Some were ended by the executioner, others ended themselves by their own hands, the Emperor all this while keeping out of the City, and that, as was thought, lest he should be ashamed of such doings there. Among those that perished by their own hands was Pomponius Labeo, and his wife Paxaea, who being accused for corruption in his government of Maesta, cut his own veins and bled to death, and his wife accompanied him in the same fatal end. To the like end, but upon different occasions and accusations came Mamercus Scaurus and his wife Sextia. He some years before having escaped narrowly with life upon a charge of treason, is now involved again in other accusations, as of Adultery with Livilla, magical practices, and (not at the least) for libelling against Tiberius. For having made a Tragedy which he titled Atreus, and in the same, bringing him in, advising one of his subjects in the words of Euripides, That he should bear with the folly of the Prince: Tiberius not so guilty indeed of such a taxation of being a fool, as ready to take on to be guilty, that he might have the better vie against the Author, personated the matter to himself, crying out that Scaurus had made him a bloody Atreus, but that he would make an Ajax of him again: which accordingly came to pass: for the Tragedian to prevent the executioner, acted his own Tragedy, and died by his own hand, his wife being both incourager and companion with him in the same death. But among these lamentable spectacles so fearful and so frequent, it was some contentment to see the accusers still involved in the like miseries with those whom they had accused: for that malady of accusing was grown Epidemical and infectious, sparing none, and as it were catching one of another. The tokens hereof appeared in the banishment of Servilius and Cornelius the accusers of Scaurus, and of Abudius Rufo that had done the like by Lentulus Getulicus. This Getulicus was then commander of the Legions in Germany, and being charged with so much intimacy with Sejanus, as that he intended to have married his daughter to Sejanus his son, he quitted himself by a confident letter to Tiberius. In which he pleadeth that his familiarity and alliance to Sejanus had begun by the Emperors own advice and privacy: and he was so far from crouching, that he profereth terms of partition to Tiberius, namely that he should enjoy the Empire, and himself would enjoy the Province where he was: This it was to have Arms and Armies at his disposal, for, for all this affront, the Emperor is necessarily calm, considering partly his own age, partly the hatred of the people, but chiefly, that he stood in that height and sway and power that he was in rather by the timorous opinion of others than by any strength or firmness of his own.

This year there arose a feigned Drusus in Greece: a man as it seemed, neither led by common policy that might have told him, that so great a Prince of Rome could not possibly have been so long obscured, nor by common opinion which greatly suspected, that Drusus was made away by the Emperors own consent: He found a party as inconsiderate as himself, for he was entertained by the Cities of Greece and Jonia, and furnished with aid, and had like to have come into Syria and surprised the forces there, had he not been descried, taken and sent to Tiberius.

To conclude with some other rarity, besides these of cruelty, there was seen a Phoenix in Egypt this year, as Tacitus hath laid it, (but as Dion two years after) which then exercised the wits of the Philosophical Greeks interpreting the presage either to the State or to the Emperor as their fancy led them: and in after times it exercised the pens of Christians, applying it as an Emblem of the resurrection of Christ.

§. A commotion of the Jews caused by Pilate.

BEsides the tumult mentioned before, caused by Pilate among the Jews about some images of Caesar, Josephus hath also named another raised by the same Spleen and rancor of his, against that people, which because Eusebius hath placed it at this year, be it recommended to the reader upon his Chronology. Pilate a constant enemy to the Nation of which he was Governor, sought and dogged all occasions whereby to provoke them to displeasure, that the displeasure might provoke them to do something that would redound to their own disadvantage. At this time he took in hand a great work of an Aquaeduct, or watercourse, to Jerusalem, to bring the water thither from a place two hundred furlongs or five and twenty miles off, (as Josephus reckoneth it in one place, but in another he crosseth himself, and doubleth the measure to four hundred) and for this purpose he took the money out of their Corban or holy treasure to expend upon this his fancy. The people displeased with what was done, come together by multitudes, some crying out against the work, and others plainly against Pilate. For they of old did know his conditions, that his affection was not so much to the people or to do them good by his Aquaeduct, as it was to tyrannize over their consciences which were nailed to their ancient rights and rites. But he suborning some of his Soldiers in the common garb and garments, and they hiding clubs under their coats disposed themselves so about the multitude that they had them within them. And then, when the people continued still in their outrage and railing, upon a signal given, they fall upon them, and beat without distinction all before them, both those that were seditious and those that were not: so that many died in the place and the rest departed away sore wounded. This is the tenor of the story in Josephus in Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 4. & Bell. Judaic. lib. 2. cap. 14. In the allegation of which History by Baronius, to omit his placing of it in the first year of Pilate about which he showeth himself indifferent, I cannot pass these two things without observing. 1. That he saith that Pilate took the head of his watercourse three hundred furlongs off, whereas in the Greek there is no such sum in either of the places where the story is related, but in the one, two hundred and in the other four. 2. That whereas the Greek readeth the transition to the next story, de Bell. Jud. l. 2. cap. 15. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. At that time Agrippa the accuser of Herod went to Tiberius, &c. His Latin readeth it, Atque ab hoc accusator Herodis Agrippa, &c. losing both scantling of the time which the Author hath given and Eusebius followed, and seeming to bring Agrippa to Rome about this matter of Pilate.

In the twentieth year of Tiberius hath the same Josephus placed the death of Philip the Tetrarch, although he hath named it after the entrance of Vitellius upon the Government of Syria, which was in the next year; but such transpositions are no strange things with him. This Philip was Tetrarch of Trachonitis, Gaulonitis, and Batanaea, he died in the City Julias and was interred with a great deal of funeral pomp. His tetrarchy was added to Syria, but the tributes of it were reserved within itself.

§. 1. Thankless officiousness.

OF the state and occurrences of the Church this instant year, there is neither any particular given by S. Luke, nor any else where to be found in Scripture, save only what may be collected from the words of Paul concerning himself, namely that he is this year either in Arabia or Damascus or both, spending one part of it in the one place, and the other in the other. The Church (now this great persecutor is turned Preacher) enjoined no doubt a great deal of ease in the ceasing of the persecution, and benefit by the earnestness of his Ministry. And so let us leave her to her peace and comfortable times now growing on, and turn our story to the Romans.

Tiberius his reign being now come to the twentieth year, the present Consuls L. Vitellius, and Fabius Priscus, do prorogate or proclaim his rule for ten years longer. A ceremony used by Augustus, whensoever he came to a tenth year of his reign, but by Tiberius there was not the like cause. One would have thought the twenty years past of his inhumane and barbarous reign should have given the City more than enough of such an Emperor: and have caused her to have longed rather for his end then to have prolonged his dominion. But she will make a virtue now or complement rather of necessity, and will get thanks of him for continuing of that which she cannot shake off, and is willing that he shall reign still, because she knew he would do so whether she will or no. It is the forlorn way of currying favor, to please a man in his own humor, when we dare not cross it. The flattering Consuls received a reward befitting such unnecessary officiousness, for they kept the feast, saith Dion, that was used upon such occasions, and were punished. Not with death, for the next year you shall have Vitellius in Judea, but with some other infliction which it may be was pretended for some other reason, but intended and imposed upon a profound policy. For while they thus took on them to confirm his rule they did but shake his title as he conceived, and told him a riddle that he reigned by their courtesy and not by his own interest: but when he punished them that would take on them to confirm this superiority he proved it independent, and not pinned upon their will.

§. 2. Cruelties.

The vein of the City that was opened so long ago, doth bleed still and still as fresh as ever. For Slaughter saith Tacitus was continual, and Dion addeth that none of them that were accused were acquitted, but all condemned: some upon the letters of Tiberius, others upon the impeachment of Macro (of whom hereafter,) and the rest only upon suspicion. Some were ended by the executioner, others ended themselves by their own hands, the Emperor all this while keeping out of the City, and that, as was thought, lest he should be ashamed of such doings there. Among those that perished by their own hands was Pomponius Labeo, and his wife Paxaea, who being accused for corruption in his government of Maesta, cut his own veins and bled to death, and his wife accompanied him in the same fatal end. To the like end, but upon different occasions and accusations came Mamercus Scaurus and his wife Sextia. He some years before having escaped narrowly with life upon a charge of treason, is now involved again in other accusations, as of Adultery with Livilla, magical practices, and (not at the least) for libelling against Tiberius. For having made a Tragedy which he titled Atreus, and in the same, bringing him in, advising one of his subjects in the words of Euripides, That he should bear with the folly of the Prince: Tiberius not so guilty indeed of such a taxation of being a fool, as ready to take on to be guilty, that he might have the better vie against the Author, personated the matter to himself, crying out that Scaurus had made him a bloody Atreus, but that he would make an Ajax of him again: which accordingly came to pass: for the Tragedian to prevent the executioner, acted his own Tragedy, and died by his own hand, his wife being both incourager and companion with him in the same death. But among these lamentable spectacles so fearful and so frequent, it was some contentment to see the accusers still involved in the like miseries with those whom they had accused: for that malady of accusing was grown Epidemical and infectious, sparing none, and as it were catching one of another. The tokens hereof appeared in the banishment of Servilius and Cornelius the accusers of Scaurus, and of Abudius Rufo that had done the like by Lentulus Getulicus. This Getulicus was then commander of the Legions in Germany, and being charged with so much intimacy with Sejanus, as that he intended to have married his daughter to Sejanus his son, he quitted himself by a confident letter to Tiberius. In which he pleadeth that his familiarity and alliance to Sejanus had begun by the Emperors own advice and privacy: and he was so far from crouching, that he profereth terms of partition to Tiberius, namely that he should enjoy the Empire, and himself would enjoy the Province where he was: This it was to have Arms and Armies at his disposal, for, for all this affront, the Emperor is necessarily calm, considering partly his own age, partly the hatred of the people, but chiefly, that he stood in that height and sway and power that he was in rather by the timorous opinion of others than by any strength or firmness of his own.

This year there arose a feigned Drusus in Greece: a man as it seemed, neither led by common policy that might have told him, that so great a Prince of Rome could not possibly have been so long obscured, nor by common opinion which greatly suspected, that Drusus was made away by the Emperors own consent: He found a party as inconsiderate as himself, for he was entertained by the Cities of Greece and Jonia, and furnished with aid, and had like to have come into Syria and surprised the forces there, had he not been descried, taken and sent to Tiberius.

To conclude with some other rarity, besides these of cruelty, there was seen a Phoenix in Egypt this year, as Tacitus hath laid it, (but as Dion two years after) which then exercised the wits of the Philosophical Greeks interpreting the presage either to the State or to the Emperor as their fancy led them: and in after times it exercised the pens of Christians, applying it as an Emblem of the resurrection of Christ.

§. A commotion of the Jews caused by Pilate.

BEsides the tumult mentioned before, caused by Pilate among the Jews about some images of Caesar, Josephus hath also named another raised by the same Spleen and rancor of his, against that people, which because Eusebius hath placed it at this year, be it recommended to the reader upon his Chronology. Pilate a constant enemy to the Nation of which he was Governor, sought and dogged all occasions whereby to provoke them to displeasure, that the displeasure might provoke them to do something that would redound to their own disadvantage. At this time he took in hand a great work of an Aquaeduct, or watercourse, to Jerusalem, to bring the water thither from a place two hundred furlongs or five and twenty miles off, (as Josephus reckoneth it in one place, but in another he crosseth himself, and doubleth the measure to four hundred) and for this purpose he took the money out of their Corban or holy treasure to expend upon this his fancy. The people displeased with what was done, come together by multitudes, some crying out against the work, and others plainly against Pilate. For they of old did know his conditions, that his affection was not so much to the people or to do them good by his Aquaeduct, as it was to tyrannize over their consciences which were nailed to their ancient rights and rites. But he suborning some of his Soldiers in the common garb and garments, and they hiding clubs under their coats disposed themselves so about the multitude that they had them within them. And then, when the people continued still in their outrage and railing, upon a signal given, they fall upon them, and beat without distinction all before them, both those that were seditious and those that were not: so that many died in the place and the rest departed away sore wounded. This is the tenor of the story in Josephus in Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 4. & Bell. Judaic. lib. 2. cap. 14. In the allegation of which History by Baronius, to omit his placing of it in the first year of Pilate about which he showeth himself indifferent, I cannot pass these two things without observing. 1. That he saith that Pilate took the head of his watercourse three hundred furlongs off, whereas in the Greek there is no such sum in either of the places where the story is related, but in the one, two hundred and in the other four. 2. That whereas the Greek readeth the transition to the next story, de Bell. Jud. l. 2. cap. 15. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. At that time Agrippa the accuser of Herod went to Tiberius, &c. His Latin readeth it, Atque ab hoc accusator Herodis Agrippa, &c. losing both scantling of the time which the Author hath given and Eusebius followed, and seeming to bring Agrippa to Rome about this matter of Pilate.

In the twentieth year of Tiberius hath the same Josephus placed the death of Philip the Tetrarch, although he hath named it after the entrance of Vitellius upon the Government of Syria, which was in the next year; but such transpositions are no strange things with him. This Philip was Tetrarch of Trachonitis, Gaulonitis, and Batanaea, he died in the City Julias and was interred with a great deal of funeral pomp. His tetrarchy was added to Syria, but the tributes of it were reserved within itself.

§. Affairs of the Jews, Vitellius their Friend.

VItellius the last years Consul at Rome is sent this year Proconsul into Syria, to govern that and Judea which was incorporated into that Province. A man more Honorable abroad than at his own doors, renowned in his youth, but ignominious in his old age, brave in ruling in foreign parts, but base in officiousness and flattery at Rome. At the time of the Passover, he cometh up to Jerusalem, whether induced by curiosity to see the Festival, or by the opportunity of the concourse, to behold the whole body of his Dominion collected in so small a compass, and to disperse among them his commands, or for what other cause let him keep it to himself: But so well did he like his entertainment, and the people that had given it him, that he remitted to all the inhabitants, the Toll or Impost of all the fruits bought and sold: and he permitted to the Priests the keeping of the High-Priests garments, which of late had been in the custody of the Romans. For Hircanus the first of that name, having built a Tower near unto the Temple, and living in it himself, and after him, some of his successors, he laid up there those holy garments, which they only might wear as in a place most convenient, both where to put them on when they came into the Temple, and to put them off when they went into the City. But Herod in after times seising upon that Tower and repairing it, and naming it Antonia in honor of the great Antony, he seised also upon the custody of those robes, when he found them there, and so also did Archelaus his son. But the Romans deposing of Archelaus and usurping his whole Dominion (if reassuming of that which they had bestowed before, may be called usurpation) they also as he had done, kept these sacred garments under their hands: Laying them up in a room under the seals of the Priests, and the keepers of the Treasury: and the keeper of the Tower set up a Candle there every day. Seven days before any of the Feasts, they were delivered out by the same Keeper, and purified because they came out of heathen hands, and used the first day of the Feast, and restored the second, and laid up as before. Vitellius graciously restored the custody of them to the Priests as had been used of old. But Joseph who was also called Caiaphas who should have first worn them after, was removed by him from the High Priest-hood, and Jonathan the son of Ananus placed in his stead. And thus is one of the unjust Judges of our Savior judged himself, and the next year, and by this same Vitellius we shall have the other judged also.

§. 1. Affairs in the Empire. A rebellion in Parthia, &c.

AT this year hath Eusebius in his Chronicle, placed the Spleen of Sejanus against the Jews, which was some years before: and the spleen of Herod against James and Peter, which was some years after: and Massaeus in his Chronicle, hath placed the assumption of the Virgin Mary, which was nobody knows when. A story first published to the world by revelation, as the common cry went of it, but invented indeed by superstition, backed by ease and love of Holy-days, and grown into credit and entertainment by credulity and custom. As inconstant to itself for time, as her Sex is of whom it is divulged, for there is so great difference about the time when this great wonder was done, that it is no wonder if it be suspected to have been done at no time at all. We will leave to rake into it, till we come to find it in its place, and rubrick in Eusebius, who is the most likely man to follow: and for the present we will divert the Readers eyes to a matter of far more truth and likelihood; Phraates a King of Parthia of old, had given Vonones his eldest son for an Hostage to Augustus: and Augustus upon the request of the Parthians afterward, had given him again unto them for their King. At the first he was well accepted and well affected by them and among them, as he had been desired by them, but afterward he was disliked and displaced by Artabanus whom they had called in for their King in his stead. This Artabanus having been kept in awe by Germanicus whilst he lived, and having been a good while ago quitted and delivered of that awe by Germanicus his death, and having at this present, a fit opportunity for the seisure of the Kingdom of Armenia, by the death of Artaxias their King, he taketh upon him to place Arsaces his own eldest son in that Throne, demanding withal some Treasures that Vonones had left in Syria and Silicia, and challenging the Royalty of Persia and Macedon, and the old possessions of Cyrus and Alexander: This was a proud scorn and defiance to the Romans, and such as was not possible for their victoriousness to digest, nor safe for him to offer, but that he was emboldened to it by considering the Emperors old age. But Sinnaces and Abdus and other Nobles of Parthia, not trusting their lives and liberties to the rashness of Artabanus, come secretly to Rome and commit the matter to Tiberius: He upon their request and glad of opportunity to correct the insolencies of Artabanus giveth them Phraates, another son of Phraates their old King, who also lay for an Hostage at Rome, and dispatcheth him away for his fathers Throne and the Nobles with him. And thus is Artabanus in a fair way of an equal retaliation, to lose his own Kingdom as he had usurped another man's. As they were thus travailing homeward with this design and plot in their minds and hands, Artabanus having intelligence of the matter counterplotteth again: and fairly inviting Abdus under pretence of great amity to a banquet, preventeth his future designs by poison, and stops the haste of Sinnaces by dissimulation and gifts. Phraates the new elected King, the more to ingratiate himself to his Countrymen by complying with them in their manners, forsaketh the Roman garb, customs, and diet, to which he had been so long inured, and betaketh himself to the Parthian, which being too uncouth and hard for him, especially upon a change so sudden, it cost him his life as he was in Syria.

But this unexpected accident, caused not Tiberius to forelet or neglect the opportunity so fairly begun, but to follow it the more earnestly. For choosing Tiridates a man of the same blood, and an enemy to Artabanus, he investeth him in the same right and challenge to the Parthian Crown, and sendeth him away for it. Writing letters withal to Mithradates the King of Iberia to invade Armenia, that the distress and strait of Arsaces there might draw Artabanus thither to his relief and give Tiridates the more easy access to his Country. For the better securing of Mithradates to this employment, he maketh him and his brother Pharasmenes friends, between whom there had been some feud before, and inciteth them both to the same service. This they accordingly perform, and breaking into Armenia, they shortly make the King away by bribing of his servants, and take the City Artaxata with their Army. Artabanus upon these tidings sendeth away Orodes his other son, to relieve and to revenge: But Pharasmanes having joined the Albanes and Sarmatians to his party, and he and the Iberians by this union being masters of the passages, they pour in Sarmatians into Armenia by multitudes through the straits of the Caspian mountains, and deny passage to any that would aid the Parthian. So that Orodes cometh up to Pharasmanes, but can go no further, and they both lie in the field so close together that Pharasmanes biddeth him battle at his own trenches: which being stoutly and strangely fought between so many Nations and so differently barbarous, it fortuned that the two Princes met in the heat of the sight, and Pharasmanes wounded Orodes through the Helmet, but could not second his blow himself being born away by his horse beyond his reach, and the other was suddenly succoured and sheltered by his guard. The rumor of this wound of the King by dispersion grew to a certain report of his death, and that, by as certain an apprehension, grew to the loss of the Parthians day. Nor was the rumor altogether mistaken, for the wound though it were not so suddenly, yet was it so surely deadly, that it brought him to his end. Now it is time for Artabanus to look and stir about him when he hath lost his two sons, and when his two Kingdoms are near upon losing. He mustereth and picketh up all the Forces his Dominions could afford, and those no more neither (if they were enough) than the present necessity and forlorn estate of himself and Kingdoms did require. What would have been the issue, and where the storm of this cloud, and shower of these preparations would have lighted, Vitellius gave not leave and time to be determined, for raising all the Legions of Syria and thereabout, (for Tiberius upon these troubles had made him ruler of all the East) he pretended an invasion of Mesopotamia. But Artabanus suspecting whither that war might bend indeed, and his discontented subjects, upon this conceit of the assistance of the Romans daring to show their revolt against him, which they durst not before, he was forced to flee with some forlorn company into Scythia, hoping that his absence might remove the hatred of the Parthians, which we shall see hereafter came accordingly to pass, and Vitellius without any blow struck, maketh Tiridates King in his stead.

§. 2. Tiberius still cruel and shameless.

He was now got to Antium, so near the City, that in a day or nights space he could have, or give a return to any letters: For all his age which the Parthian King had despised, and for all the troubles that he had caused, yet remitted he nothing of his wonted rigor and savageness. The S • ianians were as eagerly hunted after as ever, and it was no escape nor help to the accused, though the crimes objected were either obsolete or feigned. This caused Fulcinius Trio for that he would not stay for the formal accusations which he perceived were coming against him, to end himself with his own hand, having left most bitter and invective taunts and taxations in his last Will and Testament, against Tiberius and his darling Macro. The Executors durst not publish nor prove the Will for fear of the executioner, but the Emperor, when he heard of the contents of it, caused it to be openly read and divulged, and prided himself in those just reproaches. Nor wanted he more of those reproaches from others also, but he repaid the Authors in cruel discontent, though he seemed to hear his own disgrace with delight. For Sextius Paconianus was strangled in prison for making Verses against him. It may be they were those in Suetonius. Asper & Immitis, breviter his omnia dicam? Dispeream si te mater amare potest, &c.

Granius Martianus, Trebellienus Refus, and Poppaeus Sabinus, were accused for some other offenses, and died by their own hands, and Tatius Gratianus that had once been Praetor was condemned by a Praetorian Law, and escaped his own hands indeed, but he did not escape the executioners.

§. Affairs of the Jews, Vitellius their Friend.

VItellius the last years Consul at Rome is sent this year Proconsul into Syria, to govern that and Judea which was incorporated into that Province. A man more Honorable abroad than at his own doors, renowned in his youth, but ignominious in his old age, brave in ruling in foreign parts, but base in officiousness and flattery at Rome. At the time of the Passover, he cometh up to Jerusalem, whether induced by curiosity to see the Festival, or by the opportunity of the concourse, to behold the whole body of his Dominion collected in so small a compass, and to disperse among them his commands, or for what other cause let him keep it to himself: But so well did he like his entertainment, and the people that had given it him, that he remitted to all the inhabitants, the Toll or Impost of all the fruits bought and sold: and he permitted to the Priests the keeping of the High-Priests garments, which of late had been in the custody of the Romans. For Hircanus the first of that name, having built a Tower near unto the Temple, and living in it himself, and after him, some of his successors, he laid up there those holy garments, which they only might wear as in a place most convenient, both where to put them on when they came into the Temple, and to put them off when they went into the City. But Herod in after times seising upon that Tower and repairing it, and naming it Antonia in honor of the great Antony, he seised also upon the custody of those robes, when he found them there, and so also did Archelaus his son. But the Romans deposing of Archelaus and usurping his whole Dominion (if reassuming of that which they had bestowed before, may be called usurpation) they also as he had done, kept these sacred garments under their hands: Laying them up in a room under the seals of the Priests, and the keepers of the Treasury: and the keeper of the Tower set up a Candle there every day. Seven days before any of the Feasts, they were delivered out by the same Keeper, and purified because they came out of heathen hands, and used the first day of the Feast, and restored the second, and laid up as before. Vitellius graciously restored the custody of them to the Priests as had been used of old. But Joseph who was also called Caiaphas who should have first worn them after, was removed by him from the High Priest-hood, and Jonathan the son of Ananus placed in his stead. And thus is one of the unjust Judges of our Savior judged himself, and the next year, and by this same Vitellius we shall have the other judged also.

§. 1. Affairs in the Empire. A rebellion in Parthia, &c.

AT this year hath Eusebius in his Chronicle, placed the Spleen of Sejanus against the Jews, which was some years before: and the spleen of Herod against James and Peter, which was some years after: and Massaeus in his Chronicle, hath placed the assumption of the Virgin Mary, which was nobody knows when. A story first published to the world by revelation, as the common cry went of it, but invented indeed by superstition, backed by ease and love of Holy-days, and grown into credit and entertainment by credulity and custom. As inconstant to itself for time, as her Sex is of whom it is divulged, for there is so great difference about the time when this great wonder was done, that it is no wonder if it be suspected to have been done at no time at all. We will leave to rake into it, till we come to find it in its place, and rubrick in Eusebius, who is the most likely man to follow: and for the present we will divert the Readers eyes to a matter of far more truth and likelihood; Phraates a King of Parthia of old, had given Vonones his eldest son for an Hostage to Augustus: and Augustus upon the request of the Parthians afterward, had given him again unto them for their King. At the first he was well accepted and well affected by them and among them, as he had been desired by them, but afterward he was disliked and displaced by Artabanus whom they had called in for their King in his stead. This Artabanus having been kept in awe by Germanicus whilst he lived, and having been a good while ago quitted and delivered of that awe by Germanicus his death, and having at this present, a fit opportunity for the seisure of the Kingdom of Armenia, by the death of Artaxias their King, he taketh upon him to place Arsaces his own eldest son in that Throne, demanding withal some Treasures that Vonones had left in Syria and Silicia, and challenging the Royalty of Persia and Macedon, and the old possessions of Cyrus and Alexander: This was a proud scorn and defiance to the Romans, and such as was not possible for their victoriousness to digest, nor safe for him to offer, but that he was emboldened to it by considering the Emperors old age. But Sinnaces and Abdus and other Nobles of Parthia, not trusting their lives and liberties to the rashness of Artabanus, come secretly to Rome and commit the matter to Tiberius: He upon their request and glad of opportunity to correct the insolencies of Artabanus giveth them Phraates, another son of Phraates their old King, who also lay for an Hostage at Rome, and dispatcheth him away for his fathers Throne and the Nobles with him. And thus is Artabanus in a fair way of an equal retaliation, to lose his own Kingdom as he had usurped another man's. As they were thus travailing homeward with this design and plot in their minds and hands, Artabanus having intelligence of the matter counterplotteth again: and fairly inviting Abdus under pretence of great amity to a banquet, preventeth his future designs by poison, and stops the haste of Sinnaces by dissimulation and gifts. Phraates the new elected King, the more to ingratiate himself to his Countrymen by complying with them in their manners, forsaketh the Roman garb, customs, and diet, to which he had been so long inured, and betaketh himself to the Parthian, which being too uncouth and hard for him, especially upon a change so sudden, it cost him his life as he was in Syria.

But this unexpected accident, caused not Tiberius to forelet or neglect the opportunity so fairly begun, but to follow it the more earnestly. For choosing Tiridates a man of the same blood, and an enemy to Artabanus, he investeth him in the same right and challenge to the Parthian Crown, and sendeth him away for it. Writing letters withal to Mithradates the King of Iberia to invade Armenia, that the distress and strait of Arsaces there might draw Artabanus thither to his relief and give Tiridates the more easy access to his Country. For the better securing of Mithradates to this employment, he maketh him and his brother Pharasmenes friends, between whom there had been some feud before, and inciteth them both to the same service. This they accordingly perform, and breaking into Armenia, they shortly make the King away by bribing of his servants, and take the City Artaxata with their Army. Artabanus upon these tidings sendeth away Orodes his other son, to relieve and to revenge: But Pharasmanes having joined the Albanes and Sarmatians to his party, and he and the Iberians by this union being masters of the passages, they pour in Sarmatians into Armenia by multitudes through the straits of the Caspian mountains, and deny passage to any that would aid the Parthian. So that Orodes cometh up to Pharasmanes, but can go no further, and they both lie in the field so close together that Pharasmanes biddeth him battle at his own trenches: which being stoutly and strangely fought between so many Nations and so differently barbarous, it fortuned that the two Princes met in the heat of the sight, and Pharasmanes wounded Orodes through the Helmet, but could not second his blow himself being born away by his horse beyond his reach, and the other was suddenly succoured and sheltered by his guard. The rumor of this wound of the King by dispersion grew to a certain report of his death, and that, by as certain an apprehension, grew to the loss of the Parthians day. Nor was the rumor altogether mistaken, for the wound though it were not so suddenly, yet was it so surely deadly, that it brought him to his end. Now it is time for Artabanus to look and stir about him when he hath lost his two sons, and when his two Kingdoms are near upon losing. He mustereth and picketh up all the Forces his Dominions could afford, and those no more neither (if they were enough) than the present necessity and forlorn estate of himself and Kingdoms did require. What would have been the issue, and where the storm of this cloud, and shower of these preparations would have lighted, Vitellius gave not leave and time to be determined, for raising all the Legions of Syria and thereabout, (for Tiberius upon these troubles had made him ruler of all the East) he pretended an invasion of Mesopotamia. But Artabanus suspecting whither that war might bend indeed, and his discontented subjects, upon this conceit of the assistance of the Romans daring to show their revolt against him, which they durst not before, he was forced to flee with some forlorn company into Scythia, hoping that his absence might remove the hatred of the Parthians, which we shall see hereafter came accordingly to pass, and Vitellius without any blow struck, maketh Tiridates King in his stead.

§. 2. Tiberius still cruel and shameless.

He was now got to Antium, so near the City, that in a day or nights space he could have, or give a return to any letters: For all his age which the Parthian King had despised, and for all the troubles that he had caused, yet remitted he nothing of his wonted rigor and savageness. The S • ianians were as eagerly hunted after as ever, and it was no escape nor help to the accused, though the crimes objected were either obsolete or feigned. This caused Fulcinius Trio for that he would not stay for the formal accusations which he perceived were coming against him, to end himself with his own hand, having left most bitter and invective taunts and taxations in his last Will and Testament, against Tiberius and his darling Macro. The Executors durst not publish nor prove the Will for fear of the executioner, but the Emperor, when he heard of the contents of it, caused it to be openly read and divulged, and prided himself in those just reproaches. Nor wanted he more of those reproaches from others also, but he repaid the Authors in cruel discontent, though he seemed to hear his own disgrace with delight. For Sextius Paconianus was strangled in prison for making Verses against him. It may be they were those in Suetonius. Asper & Immitis, breviter his omnia dicam? Dispeream si te mater amare potest, &c.

Granius Martianus, Trebellienus Refus, and Poppaeus Sabinus, were accused for some other offenses, and died by their own hands, and Tatius Gratianus that had once been Praetor was condemned by a Praetorian Law, and escaped his own hands indeed, but he did not escape the executioners.

§. Account of the Chronology.

THE conversion of Paul we observed ere while, and proved to be in the year next after our Savior's ascension or Anno Christi 34. Now Paul himself testifieth that three years after his conversion he went up to Jerusalem, Gal. 1. 18. That space of time he spent in Damascus, in Arabia and in Damascus again. For so himself testifieth in the verse before. But how long time he took up in these several abodes in these places, it is not determinable nor indeed is it material to inquire, since we have the whole time of all his abodes summed up in that account of three years: Now whereas there is no mention in Luke's relation of his journey into Arabia, but he maketh him (as one would think) to come up to Jerusalem, at his first departure from Damascus, we have shown elsewhere that it is no uncouth thing with this and the other Evangelists, to make such brief transitions, sometimes in stories of a large distance: and Paul himself plainly showeth us in the place alleged, how to make the brief story of Luke full and complete, and to speak it out: Namely that Paul upon his coming after his conversion into Damascus, began there to preach, and increased more and more in strength, and confounded the Jews that dwelt at Damascus, proving that Jesus was the very Christ: And having preached a while in Damascus, he goeth into Arabia, which Country was now under the same Government with Damascus, (namely under King Aretas ) and after a while he returned into Damascus again. And then do the Jews there seek to kill him, and they incense the Governor of the City under Aretas against him, so that he setteth a watch to take him, but he escapeth over the wall by night in a Basket, Acts 9. 25. 2 Cor. 11. 33. We shall see by and by, that there were preparations for war this year, betwixt Aretas the King of Arabia, and Herod the Tetrarch, and it is not improbable that the Jews in those times of commotion did accuse Paul to the Governor of Damascus under Aretas for a spy or for a man that was an enemy to the Kings cause, and so they interest the Governor in a quarrel against him: And this very thing being considered may help somewhat to confirm this for the year of Paul's coming from Damascus for fear of his life to Jerusalem, if his own accounting the years did not make it plain enough.

His errand to Jerusalem, as himself testifieth, was to see Peter, Gal. 1. 18. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : not for any homage to his primacy (as is strongly pleaded by the Popish crew) for he maketh no distinction betwixt him and James and John in point of dignity, Gal. 2. 9. nay is so far from homaging him that he rebuketh and reproveth him, Gal. 2. 11. But his journey to Peter at this time was, that he might have acquaintance with him and some knowledge of him, for so the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 more properly signifieth, and that he desired the rather, because then Peter was the minister of the Circumcision, as he himself was to be of the uncircumcision, Gal. 2. 8. and because there had been some kind of remarkable parallel betwixt them in their recovery, the one from denying and forswearing Christ himself, and the other from persecuting of Christ in his members.

§. But they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a Disciple.

This very thing hath caused some to conceive that Paul had a journey to Jerusalem a little after his conversion, and before ever he went into Arabia: because they cannot conceive how it should be possible, that he should have been a convert and a Preacher of the Gospel three years together, and yet his conversion and his present qualities should be unknown to the Church at Jerusalem: and the rather because he himself saith that the wonder of his conversion was not done in a corner, Acts 26. 26.

Answ. But these two or three considerations may help to resolve the scruple. 1. The distance betwixt Damascus and Jerusalem, which was exceeding great. 2. The quarrels betwixt Herod and Aretas, which were a means to hinder intercourse betwixt those two places. 3. The persecution that continued still upon the Church of Judea, which would keep Disciples of Damascus from going thither. And 4. the just fear that might possess the Disciples at Jerusalem, in the very time of persecution: For though it was said before, the Church at Jerusalem and of Judea enjoyed a great deal of rest and tranquility after the conversion of Paul their great persecutor, in comparison of what they had done before, yet was not the persecution of the Church utterly extinct to the very time of Paul's coming up to Jerusalem, but continued still, and therefore it is the less wonder if the Disciples there, be the more fearful and cautelous.

How Barnabas came acquainted with the certainty of Paul's conversion, better than the other Disciples, is not easy to resolve: It is like that he being abroad for fear of the persecution, as the other of the Preachers were, (all but the Apostles) went in his travails towards Damascus or Arabia, and so had heard and learned the certainty of the matter: However it is pregnant to our observation, that he that was afterwards to be fellow traveler and laborer with Paul in the Gospel to the Gentiles is now made the instrument and means of his first admission to the society of the Apostles. It is possible that there had been some acquaintance betwixt these two men in former times, they being both Grecizing Jews, the one of Cyprus, the other of Silicia, and both in all probability brought up and educated at Jerusalem; but whether it were so or no the hand of God is to be looked after in this passage, when Paul's future partner in the ministry to the Gentiles, is now his first intertainer into the society of the Church at Jerusalem.

§. And brought him to the Apostles.

That is, to Peter and James the less: for other of the Apostles, he himself relateth that he saw none, Gal. 1. 18. What was become of the rest of the twelve, is not determinable: it is more than probable they were not now at Jerusalem, otherwise it is hardly possible for Paul not to have seen them in fifteen days abode there: It is likely they were preaching and settling Churches up and down the Country, and Peter and James the two most peculiar Ministers of the Circumcision, abode at Jerusalem, to take care of the Church there: For that these were so, and in what particular, the dispensation of their Ministry differed, we shall take occasion to show afterward; only here we cannot omit to take notice of that temper as I may so call it, which the Text holdeth out against the Primacy and Prelacy that is held by some to have been among the Apostles: For whereas some conceive James to have been Bishop of Jerusalem, this Text sets Peter in the same form and equality with him in that place: and whereas it is conceived again, that Peter was Prince of the Apostles, this Text hath equalled James with him.

• 1. And thus that persecution that began about Stephen had lasted till this very same time of Paul's coming to Jerusalem, for so it is apparent, both by the fear and suspitiousness of the Disciples at Jerusalem, as also by the very clausure of the Text, Vers. 31. Then had the Churches rest.
• 2. The length of this persecution by computation of the times as they have been cast up before, seemeth to have been about three years and an half, the renowned number, and time so oft mentioned and hinted in Scripture.
• 3. The company of Disciples or believers continued still at Jerusalem, for all the persecution, as to the generality of them; as was said before: only the Ministers or Preachers were scattered abroad, all of them except the twelve Apostles.
• 4. Some of those Preachers were by this time returned back again, the heat of the persecution abating, as it is apparent▪ by Barnabas now being at Jerusalem: and of some such men, is it properest to understand the word Disciples, Vers. 26. Saul assayed to join himself to the Disciples.
• 5. Therefore the absence of the ten Apostles from Jerusalem was not for fear of the persecution, but for the dispersion of the Gospel and settling of the Churches.

§. And declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way.

This is most properly to be understood of Barnabas, that he declared these things to the Apostles, though there be, that think it is meant of Paul's declaring them: and they read it thus, And Barnabas brought him to the Apostles, and he, that is, Paul, declared unto them.

That is, conversing with them, as Beza hath well rendered it: A phrase usual among the Hebrews, as 1 Sam. 18. 13. Act. 1. 21. &c. And the time of this his converse, Paul himself hath told us to have been fifteen days, Gal. 1. 18. where also he hath interpreted this Phrase of coming in and going out, by the term of abiding with, I abode with him fifteen days.

Gr. Against the Hellenists: which very place helpeth again to confirm the interpretation and gloss we set upon this word before, namely, that it meaneth not, Greeks converted to the Jews Religion, but Jews conversing and cohabiting among the Greek Nation. For, 1. There can be none or small reason given, why converted Greeks should be so furiously Jewish as to go about to kill Paul for preaching against Judaism, and we hear not the Jews stirring against him for it. 2. What reason can be given why Paul should bend his disputations against converted Greeks more than against Jews? Certainly the Jews had more need of confutation in their Judaism than the other had. And 3. It is very questionable, how converted Greeks, which were strangers and sojourners at Jerusalem and among the Jews, durst go about to kill a Jew in the midst of the Jews, and there being not a Jew that had anything to say against him. It is therefore more than probable, that these Hellenists were Jews that had lived among the Greeks, or of the Grecian dispersion, and that they used the Greek Tongue: and that Paul chose to dispute with them, partly for that they living among the Gentiles, were by a kind of an Antiperistasis more zealously Jewish, and partly, because of their language, the Greek Tongue, which was the very language Paul had learned from a child.

The times of the stories next succeeding when the Text hath done with the story of Paul, are somewhat unfixed, and uncertain, in what year they came to pass: namely of Peters raising of Aeneas from sickness, Dorcas from death, and bringing in Cornelius to the Gospel: But the best conjecture that can be given of the times of these stories, is by easting and computing the history backward: And so we find, 1. That the famine prophesied of by Agabus, was in the second of Claudius, as was shown before. 2. We may then conceive that this prophecy of Agabus was in Claudius his first, and that was the year or some part of the year that Paul and Barnabas spent at Antioch, Act. 11. 26. 3. The last year of Gaius we may hold to be the year of Antiochs first receiving the Gospel, of Barnabas his coming thither, and of his journey to Tarsus to seek Saul, Act. 11. 20, 21, 22, 23 24, 25. And 4. the third year of Gaius which was his last year but one, we may suppose accordingly to have been the year of Peters actions with Aeneas, Dorcas and Cornelius, and to that year shall we refer the handling of the Texts that concern those actions, and we will carry on the Roman and Jewish Story, as they fall in time, till we come thither.

§. 1. The Parthian war not yet composed.

TIridates seated in his Throne, as was related before, but as it proved, neither sure in it, nor in the hearts of all his people, (the first of these being caused by the latter) he taketh in, certain Parthian Towns, and that by the Parthians own consent and aid. For his Roman education compared with the Scythian carriage of Artabanus made the people to hope accordingly of his demeanour, and to entertain him with present applause and future expectation. The day of his Coronation being appointed, letters from Phraates and Hiero, two of the chiefest commanders in the State, desire that it might be deferred for a certain space, which accordingly was done in regard of the greatness of the men. The King in the mean time goeth up to Ctesiphon the Imperial City, attending the coming of these two Nobles, who when they put it off from day today, Surena, in the presence and by the approval of very many, Crowneth him on their Country manner. These two Nobles and many others that were absent from this solemnity, some for fear of the Kings displeasure, some for hatred of Abdageses, his favorite, and some no doubt upon a plot premeditated, betake themselves to Artabanus their old King again. Him they find in Hyrcania hunting in the woods with his bow for his food, rusty and dirty in habit and attire, and overgrown with filth and neglect of himself. At his first sight of them it is no wonder if he were stricken with amazement, but their errand being related, it converted that passion into equal joy. For they complain of Tridates his youth, and effeminacy, of the Diadems translation out of the blood, of the potency of Abdageses, and the loss of their old King, whom they now are come to desire again. Artabanus believeth them and consenteth, and raising speedily what Scythians he could, marcheth away towards his Kingdom again. But his Royal apparel he wore not with him, but the poor and rugged garb of his misery and exile, thereby to move the more to pity: and used all his wits and policy to make himself a party strong on his side all the way as he went. But he needed not all this cautelousness and preparation, for Tiridates but hearing of his approaching towards Seleucia, under color of going to raise up forces, departed into Syria, and parted with his new Kingdom with as much facility as he had obtained it.

§. 2. Artabanus giveth hostages to Rome.

When the power and policy of Tiberius, and his agent Vitellius that had served to get Artabanus out of his Kingdom, would not serve the turn to keep him thence; they send to treat of friendship with him, suspecting what trouble such a spirit might procure, should it bend itself against the Roman Empire. The King wearied with the • oils of War, and knowing without a prompter, what it was to defy the Romans, condescendeth readily to the motion, and Vitellius and he meeting upon a bridge made over Euphrates for that purpose, each, with a guard about him; conclude upon Articles of agreement, and Herod the Tetrarch entertaineth them both, in a pavilion curiously seated in the midst of the stream. Not long after this Artabanus sendeth Darius his son for an hostage to Tiberius; and withal he sendeth Eleazar a Jew, of seven cubits high, for a present; and many other gifts.

§. 3. A Commotion in Cappadocia.

Whilst matters went thus unquietly in Parthia, the Calitae a Nation of Cappadocia, grew discontented about paying tribute to the Romans, and so departed into the mountain Taurus, and there fortify, resolving as they never had used to pay such taxations, so never to learn, nor to use to do so. Archelaus was now King, but not now King of them; for the strength of the mountains, and the desperateness of their resolution, do animate them to withstand him and to rebel against the Romans. When tidings of this was brought to Vitellius into Syria, he dispatcheth away M. Trebellius with four thousand legionary Soldiers, and some other Forces raised otherways, to bring the Rebels to obedience or to ruin. Trebellius invironeth with Works and Men, two hills, Cadra and Davara, where they were the most strongly trenched, and those that were so hardy as to come forth, he subdueth with the sword, and the rest with famishing.

§. 4. Bloodshed at Rome.

These diseases of the Roman body were far from the heart, and yet was the heart, the City itself but little the better; for though some veins were opened in these wars which one would have thought should have turned the blood another way, yet did the City through the cruelty of the Emperor bleed inwardly still. For L. Aurelius and some others died by the hand of the Executioner, and C. Galba, two of the Blesii, and the Lady Aemylia Lepida by their own hands. But the example of the greatest terror was Vibulenus Agrippa a Knight, who being at the bar, when he had heard what his accusers could say against him, and despairing to escape, he took poison out of his bosom in the face of the Court ( Dion saith he sucked it out of his Ring) and swallowed it and sank down and was ready to die, yet was he hailed away to prison and there strangled.

§. 5. Mishaps.

Besides this deluge of blood, which overflowed the City continually, there was also this year a deluge of water. For Tiber rose so high and violently into the Town, that many Streets became navigable, and where men had walked lately on their feet, they might have passed now up and down in ships. And a greater misfortune happened this year likewise by the contrary element: for a terrible fire consumed the buildings of the mount▪ Aventine and that part of the Circus that lay betwixt that and the Palace; For the repair of all which again, Tiberius out of his own Treasure gave a great sum of money: Tacitus saith Millies Sestertium, which according to the value and reckoning of our English coin amounted to eight hundred thousand pounds, within nineteen thousand. A sum not strange in an Emperors coffer at Rome, where the vastness of the Empire brought in vast revenues, but somewhat strange out of the purse of Tiberius for so good a purpose, whose covetousness was larger than those whole revenues. And therefore as I cannot but observe the difference of Dion about this liberality of the Emperor from Tacitus, and the difference of his translator from his Text; so can I not but conceive his computation and account to be the more probable in regard of the niggardise of the Emperor. For whereas the sum of Tacitus is eight hundred thousand within nineteen, he hath so far come short of such a reckoning, that he maketh nineteen thousand pounds to be the whole account. For Tiberius, saith he, gave 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , two thousand and five hundred thousand, meaning 2500 sestertia, and each sestertium containing a thousand Sestertios, this accreweth to about the sum last named, of 19000 l. and yet hath his translator forsaken his Greek, and followed Tacitus Latin, to so vast a difference.

§. 1. A commotion in Samaria. Pilate out of office.

A Great space of time is past since we heard any news of Pontius Pilate, and news it is indeed that his malicious and stirring spirit hath not entertained us with some bloody Tragedy or other, of all this while. His Government draweth now near its expiration, for he is going upon the tenth year of it, and it is a kind of miracle if so mischievous an agent, should part without acting some mischief before his exit, and this at last he did which put him out of office. There was a certain Impostor among the Samaritans ( Simon Magus as like as any) that would persuade the people, that in mount Gerizim he could show them, holy vessels which Moses had hid and laid up there with his own hand. The credulous vulgar meet by multitudes at a certain Village called Tirathaba intending when their company was full, to go see these sacred relics. But Pilate beforehand takes the passages with his Horse and Foot, and falling upon those that were thus assembled, some he slew, others he took captive and the rest fled. Of those that he captived, he caused the noblest and most principal to be put to death. For this fact the chief men of Samaria, accuse him to Vitellius, who commands him to Rome, there to answer before the Emperor what should be objected against him; and in his stead he made Marcellus a friend of his own, the Governor of Judea: but before Pilate came to Rome, Tiberius was dead. Yet hath Eusebius put off the testimony that Pilate is said to have given to Tiberius concerning the death and resurrection of Christ, and concerning the wonders wrought by him, till the next year following. A relation doubtful in itself, but more than doubtful in the issue. For first, though it be granted that Pilate bare witness to the works and wonders done by Christ, and gave testimony to his Resurrection, which yet to believe requireth a better evidence than I can find any: Yet secondly, the Epistle that is pretended for this his certificate by Hegesippus, cannot be that original one that Tertullian, and out of him Eusebius do mention, because it is indorsed to Claudius, and not to Tiberius. Thirdly, though both these were confessed and agreed unto, that Pilate wrote a Letter to Tiberius to such a purpose, and that this was the Letter, or some other that Tertullian had seen; yet can I never find the Emperor of so good a nature, and respective a disposition, as to give the desert of goodness its due, be it never so eminent and conspicuous, or be it in what kind soever. Fourthly, and lastly, that which maketh all the rest of the story to be doubted of, and which may justly hinder the entertainment of it, is, what is added in the common relation of the story. That Tiberius referring this matter to the Senate, with his vote, that Christ should be numbered among the God's, and Christianity among their holy things; the Senate crossed him in it with flat contrariety, because Pilate had written of it to him, and not to them. Now in the Stories that have been related before concerning the state and affairs of Rome, and by other stories that might be produced in other years, it is but too miserably evident, that the Senate was in too great a fear and slavery to the Tyrant, than to dare to affront him so palpably and plainly. Pilate after this, as Eusebius alledgeth out of the Roman Historians, falling into many miseries, ended himself with his own hand, the common and desperate Roman remedy against distress. Cassiodorus hath placed his death under the Consulship of Publicola and Nerva: And the common report hath given it in, that the place was Vienna.

§. 2. Agrippa his journey to Rome.

This Agrippa was the son of Aristobulus (who died by the cruelty of his father Herod ) and he was a man that had sufficiently tried the vicissitudes of fortune heretofore, but never so much as he is about to do now. A good while ago he had lived in Rome, and in the familiarity of Drusus the son of Tiberius: That great acquaintance caused great expenses; partly in his own port and pomp, and partly in gifts and beneficence bestowed upon others. When Drusus died, then Agrippa's estate is not only dead, but his hopes also: so that he is forced to flee from Rome into Judea for debt and poverty; and thence into a certain Tower in Idumea for shame and discontent. His wife Cyprus by solicitation and suing to Herodias, obtaineth Herod's favor so far, that he was removed to Tiberius, made a chief Governor or Officer of the City, and allowance given him for his Diet. But this lasted not long ere Herod and he fell out; whereupon he removed away, and betook himself to Flaccus the then Governor of Syria, who had been his old acquaintance at Rome: Long he had not continued there neither, but Aristobulus his brother wrought him out of his favor and abode there. From thence he went to Ptolomais, intending to have set from thence for Italy, but was forced to stay till he had borrowed some monies before: Being now furnished and shipped, he was again stopped by Herennius Capito, the Governor of Jamnia, for some money that he ought to the Treasury of Tiberius. And what must he do now? He must not go till he have paid the sum, and when he hath paid it, then he cannot go for want of more. He taketh on him to obey the arrest while it was day, but at might he cut cables, and set away for Alexandria: There he reneweth his borrowing again of Alexander Alabarcha and obtaineth of him five talents for his viaticum: and now this year (namely as Josephus noteth it, the year before Tiberius his death) he setteth away for Italy again. This Alabarcha is not the proper Name of any man, but the title of men that bare Rule over the Jews in Alexandria. For I observe that as Josephus in one place, calleth it Alabarcha, and Alabarchus, so in another he calleth it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , fixing it thereby▪ as a title rather to any man that bare such an Office, than as a proper name to any man at all. And if conjecture may read its denotation and Etymology, it seemeth to be compounded of the Arabic Article Al, which they fix before all their Nouns, and the Egyptian word Abrech which in that language importeth dignity and honor (as we have observed elsewhere) as may be collected from the proclamation before Joseph, Gen. 41. 43.

Agrippa being arrived at Puteoli, sendeth to the Emperor to Capreae to certify him of his coming, and of his desire to wait upon him there. Tiberius giveth him admission and entertainment according to his mind: till Letters from Herennius Capito spoiled that cheer: For the Emperor understanding by them how he had slipped the collar at Jamnia, from his Officer, and from his own debt, he doth flatly forbid him anymore access unto him till the money be paid. Now is Agrippa in a worse case than ever: for there is no paltering with Tiberius, though there were with Capito; and no shifting from Capreae, though he had found such an opportunity at Jamnia. Nor is there any such thought to be entertained. For now his life and fortunes, and all lay in the hand of Tiberius; and when he findeth him inclinable to use him kindly, there is no losing that favor, for want of paying such a sum: Of Antonia the mother of Germanieus, and the old friend and favourer of Bernice the mother of Agrippa, he borroweth the money, and getting out of the Emperors debt, he getteth into his favor again. Insomuch that he commendeth him to the converse, acquaintance, and attendance of Gaius his Grandchild that was to succeed him.

§. 3. His Imprisonment.

Happy might now Agrippa think himself, if he can but hold so: For he hath obtained the inward friendship of Gaius, and with it retained the outward favor of Tiberius. Antonia and Claudius a future Emperor and all favor him, but he becomes an enemy to himself. Whether it were in love or flattery to Gaius, or to himself and his own hopes, he casteth himself into a present danger upon a future expectation. For Gaius and he being very intimate and private together, whether more affectionately, or undiscreetly, he himself best felt; he brake out into this dangerous wish, That Tiberius might soon die, and Gaius as soon come to rule in his stead. These words were heard by Eutychus his servant, and a while concealed; but when Agrippa prosecuted him for stealing some of his clothes, which he had stolen indeed, he then brake forth and revealed all: for fleeing for his theft, and caught and brought before Piso the Sheriff of the City, and demanded the reason of his flight, he answered that he had a great secret to impart to Caesar, which concerned his life. Piso therefore sent him bound to Tiberius, who also kept him bound and unexamined a certain season: Now began Agrippa to hasten and spur on his own misery and vexation: Whether having forgotten the words that he had spoken, or not remembering the presence of his servant, at the speech; or not suspecting that his tale to Caesar would be against himself; or which was likeliest, thinking to make his cause the better by his confidence, he solliciteth his old friend Antonia, to urge the Emperor for a trial of his servant. Tiberius declineth it, though he suspected the matter; not so much belike for Agrippa's sake, as for Gaius sake, whom the familiarity that was betwixt them made him suspect to be accessory, if anything should prove otherwise than well. But being still importuned by Antonia, at last when he had uttered these words, Let the gods witness O Antonia, that what I shall do, I do not of my own mind, but by thy solicitation: He commanded Eutychus to be brought forth, who being examined, confessed readily that such words were spoken by Agrippa to Gaius, himself being present, adding others no less dangerous, that were spoken about young Tiberius. The Emperor as readily believed the matter; and presently called out to Macro to bind him. Macro not understanding that he meant Agrippa, prepared to bind Eutychus more strictly for examination: but Tiberius having walked about the place, and coming to Agrippa, it is this man saith he, that I commanded to be bound. And when Macro asked him again who? Why, saith he, Agrippa. Then did Agrippa begin to find how he had forwarded his own mishap, but it was too late. And then did he begin to pray him now, whom he lately prayed against, but that was too late also. For Tiberius was not half so averse to have tried his servant, as he is now to forgive the Master: and he cannot be much blamed, for he had wished his mischief, and procured his own. Well, Agrippa is tied in bands, and led away to prison as he was, in his purple robes, a garment very incompatible with chains, unless of Gold. Being exceeding thirsty with heat and sorrow, as he went towards the prison, he spied one Thaumastus a servant of Gaius, carrying a Tankard of water, and he desired some to drink; which when the servant freely and readily gave him, If ever, saith he, I escape and get out of these bonds, I will not fail to obtain thy freedom, who hast not refused to minister to me in my misery and chains, as well as thou didst in my prosperity and pomp. And this his promise he afterward performed.

§. 4. The death of Thrasyllus the Mathematician.

This man Thrasyllus had endeared himself to Tiberius, by his skill in Astrology long ago, even while he lived in Rhodes, before the death of Augustus, but with the imminent hazard and peril of his own life. For Tiberius being very much given to those Chaldean and curious arts, and having got leisure and retiredness in Rhodes for the learning and practice of them, he partly called, and partly had offered to him, those that professed to be skillful in that trade and mystery. His way to try their skill was desperate and terrible, but such an one as best befitted such as would take upon them to foresee things to come, and it was this: when he consulted of any business, saith Tacitus, he used the top of his house, and the privacy of one only servant, a man utterly unlearned, and of a strong bulk of body: when he had a mind to try any man's skill, this Lubber was to go before him over craggy, steep and dangerous Rocks that hung over the Sea, and over which his house stood: and as they returned again, if there were any suspicion that the Prognosticator had given an answer fraudulent or lying, he flung him into the Sea, lest he should reveal the secret that he had been questioned upon. Thraysillus at his first coming, being brought to this dangerous trial, and having presaged Tiberius should be Emperor, and having foretold other things to come, he was asked by him whether he could calculate his own nativity; which when he went about to do, and had set a figure, upon the sight and study upon it, he was first in a muse and then in a fear, and the more he viewed it, the more he feared: and at last cried out that some strange and sudden danger was near and ready to seize upon him. Then Tiberius embracing him commended his skill, secured him against the danger, and retained him ever after for his intimate familiar. This year (as Dion doth place it) befell this great Wizards death, and as it proved, a forerunner of the Emperors: With whom he did more good with one lie, near his latter end, than he had done with all his Astrological truths (if he ever told any) all his life long. For assuring him by his skill, that he should yet live ten years longer, though in his heart he thought no such thing, he caused him to be slack and remiss in putting divers men to death, whose end he had hastened, had he known the haste of his own, and so they escaped.

§. 5. War betwixt Aretas and Herod.

There had been a long grudge betwixt Aretas the King of Arabia Petraea, and Herod the Tetrarch, and a field had been fought between them before this. For Herod having put away his wife which was Aretas daughter, and having taken Herodias (the wife of his own brother Philip and he yet living) in her stead, it is no wonder if Aretas dogged him for revenge for this indignity to his Daughter and himself. Wherefore he beginneth to quarrel with him and to seek occasion of war, by challenge of a territory controvertible, and they come to a pitched battle, in which Herod's Army is utterly overthrown, by means of some treachery wrought by some fugitives from his brother Philip's Tetrarchy which had taken up Arms to fight under his colors: And here, as Josephus hath observed, It was the observation of divers that this his Army utterly perished through God's just punishment upon him for the murder of John the Baptist. And it is worth the marking, that this overthrow took beginning from men of that Country whence Herodias the causer of that murder, and of the present disquietness had come. Herod upon this defeat, doubtful of better success at another time, for it may be his conscience told him this was but deserved, betaketh himself by letters to Tiberius, certifying him of the accident, and it is likely, not without much aggravation. The Emperor either displeased at the fortune of Aretas in his victory, or at his audaciousness in stirring so within the Empire, or at both together, sendeth angry letters to Vitellius the Governor of Syria, charging him to undertake the war, and either to bring the rebellious King prisoner alive, or to send his head to Rome. But before the design came to maturity, Tiberius that had thus threatened another man's life had lost his own, as will appear hereafter: when this first battle was that was so fatal to Herod, it shall not be insisted on to question, but that this brewing towards a new war, befell in this year, is apparent sufficiently by the sequel.

§. Account of the Chronology.

THE conversion of Paul we observed ere while, and proved to be in the year next after our Savior's ascension or Anno Christi 34. Now Paul himself testifieth that three years after his conversion he went up to Jerusalem, Gal. 1. 18. That space of time he spent in Damascus, in Arabia and in Damascus again. For so himself testifieth in the verse before. But how long time he took up in these several abodes in these places, it is not determinable nor indeed is it material to inquire, since we have the whole time of all his abodes summed up in that account of three years: Now whereas there is no mention in Luke's relation of his journey into Arabia, but he maketh him (as one would think) to come up to Jerusalem, at his first departure from Damascus, we have shown elsewhere that it is no uncouth thing with this and the other Evangelists, to make such brief transitions, sometimes in stories of a large distance: and Paul himself plainly showeth us in the place alleged, how to make the brief story of Luke full and complete, and to speak it out: Namely that Paul upon his coming after his conversion into Damascus, began there to preach, and increased more and more in strength, and confounded the Jews that dwelt at Damascus, proving that Jesus was the very Christ: And having preached a while in Damascus, he goeth into Arabia, which Country was now under the same Government with Damascus, (namely under King Aretas ) and after a while he returned into Damascus again. And then do the Jews there seek to kill him, and they incense the Governor of the City under Aretas against him, so that he setteth a watch to take him, but he escapeth over the wall by night in a Basket, Acts 9. 25. 2 Cor. 11. 33. We shall see by and by, that there were preparations for war this year, betwixt Aretas the King of Arabia, and Herod the Tetrarch, and it is not improbable that the Jews in those times of commotion did accuse Paul to the Governor of Damascus under Aretas for a spy or for a man that was an enemy to the Kings cause, and so they interest the Governor in a quarrel against him: And this very thing being considered may help somewhat to confirm this for the year of Paul's coming from Damascus for fear of his life to Jerusalem, if his own accounting the years did not make it plain enough.

His errand to Jerusalem, as himself testifieth, was to see Peter, Gal. 1. 18. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : not for any homage to his primacy (as is strongly pleaded by the Popish crew) for he maketh no distinction betwixt him and James and John in point of dignity, Gal. 2. 9. nay is so far from homaging him that he rebuketh and reproveth him, Gal. 2. 11. But his journey to Peter at this time was, that he might have acquaintance with him and some knowledge of him, for so the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 more properly signifieth, and that he desired the rather, because then Peter was the minister of the Circumcision, as he himself was to be of the uncircumcision, Gal. 2. 8. and because there had been some kind of remarkable parallel betwixt them in their recovery, the one from denying and forswearing Christ himself, and the other from persecuting of Christ in his members.

§. But they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a Disciple.

This very thing hath caused some to conceive that Paul had a journey to Jerusalem a little after his conversion, and before ever he went into Arabia: because they cannot conceive how it should be possible, that he should have been a convert and a Preacher of the Gospel three years together, and yet his conversion and his present qualities should be unknown to the Church at Jerusalem: and the rather because he himself saith that the wonder of his conversion was not done in a corner, Acts 26. 26.

Answ. But these two or three considerations may help to resolve the scruple. 1. The distance betwixt Damascus and Jerusalem, which was exceeding great. 2. The quarrels betwixt Herod and Aretas, which were a means to hinder intercourse betwixt those two places. 3. The persecution that continued still upon the Church of Judea, which would keep Disciples of Damascus from going thither. And 4. the just fear that might possess the Disciples at Jerusalem, in the very time of persecution: For though it was said before, the Church at Jerusalem and of Judea enjoyed a great deal of rest and tranquility after the conversion of Paul their great persecutor, in comparison of what they had done before, yet was not the persecution of the Church utterly extinct to the very time of Paul's coming up to Jerusalem, but continued still, and therefore it is the less wonder if the Disciples there, be the more fearful and cautelous.

How Barnabas came acquainted with the certainty of Paul's conversion, better than the other Disciples, is not easy to resolve: It is like that he being abroad for fear of the persecution, as the other of the Preachers were, (all but the Apostles) went in his travails towards Damascus or Arabia, and so had heard and learned the certainty of the matter: However it is pregnant to our observation, that he that was afterwards to be fellow traveler and laborer with Paul in the Gospel to the Gentiles is now made the instrument and means of his first admission to the society of the Apostles. It is possible that there had been some acquaintance betwixt these two men in former times, they being both Grecizing Jews, the one of Cyprus, the other of Silicia, and both in all probability brought up and educated at Jerusalem; but whether it were so or no the hand of God is to be looked after in this passage, when Paul's future partner in the ministry to the Gentiles, is now his first intertainer into the society of the Church at Jerusalem.

§. And brought him to the Apostles.

That is, to Peter and James the less: for other of the Apostles, he himself relateth that he saw none, Gal. 1. 18. What was become of the rest of the twelve, is not determinable: it is more than probable they were not now at Jerusalem, otherwise it is hardly possible for Paul not to have seen them in fifteen days abode there: It is likely they were preaching and settling Churches up and down the Country, and Peter and James the two most peculiar Ministers of the Circumcision, abode at Jerusalem, to take care of the Church there: For that these were so, and in what particular, the dispensation of their Ministry differed, we shall take occasion to show afterward; only here we cannot omit to take notice of that temper as I may so call it, which the Text holdeth out against the Primacy and Prelacy that is held by some to have been among the Apostles: For whereas some conceive James to have been Bishop of Jerusalem, this Text sets Peter in the same form and equality with him in that place: and whereas it is conceived again, that Peter was Prince of the Apostles, this Text hath equalled James with him.

• 1. And thus that persecution that began about Stephen had lasted till this very same time of Paul's coming to Jerusalem, for so it is apparent, both by the fear and suspitiousness of the Disciples at Jerusalem, as also by the very clausure of the Text, Vers. 31. Then had the Churches rest.
• 2. The length of this persecution by computation of the times as they have been cast up before, seemeth to have been about three years and an half, the renowned number, and time so oft mentioned and hinted in Scripture.
• 3. The company of Disciples or believers continued still at Jerusalem, for all the persecution, as to the generality of them; as was said before: only the Ministers or Preachers were scattered abroad, all of them except the twelve Apostles.
• 4. Some of those Preachers were by this time returned back again, the heat of the persecution abating, as it is apparent▪ by Barnabas now being at Jerusalem: and of some such men, is it properest to understand the word Disciples, Vers. 26. Saul assayed to join himself to the Disciples.
• 5. Therefore the absence of the ten Apostles from Jerusalem was not for fear of the persecution, but for the dispersion of the Gospel and settling of the Churches.

§. And declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way.

This is most properly to be understood of Barnabas, that he declared these things to the Apostles, though there be, that think it is meant of Paul's declaring them: and they read it thus, And Barnabas brought him to the Apostles, and he, that is, Paul, declared unto them.

That is, conversing with them, as Beza hath well rendered it: A phrase usual among the Hebrews, as 1 Sam. 18. 13. Act. 1. 21. &c. And the time of this his converse, Paul himself hath told us to have been fifteen days, Gal. 1. 18. where also he hath interpreted this Phrase of coming in and going out, by the term of abiding with, I abode with him fifteen days.

Gr. Against the Hellenists: which very place helpeth again to confirm the interpretation and gloss we set upon this word before, namely, that it meaneth not, Greeks converted to the Jews Religion, but Jews conversing and cohabiting among the Greek Nation. For, 1. There can be none or small reason given, why converted Greeks should be so furiously Jewish as to go about to kill Paul for preaching against Judaism, and we hear not the Jews stirring against him for it. 2. What reason can be given why Paul should bend his disputations against converted Greeks more than against Jews? Certainly the Jews had more need of confutation in their Judaism than the other had. And 3. It is very questionable, how converted Greeks, which were strangers and sojourners at Jerusalem and among the Jews, durst go about to kill a Jew in the midst of the Jews, and there being not a Jew that had anything to say against him. It is therefore more than probable, that these Hellenists were Jews that had lived among the Greeks, or of the Grecian dispersion, and that they used the Greek Tongue: and that Paul chose to dispute with them, partly for that they living among the Gentiles, were by a kind of an Antiperistasis more zealously Jewish, and partly, because of their language, the Greek Tongue, which was the very language Paul had learned from a child.

The times of the stories next succeeding when the Text hath done with the story of Paul, are somewhat unfixed, and uncertain, in what year they came to pass: namely of Peters raising of Aeneas from sickness, Dorcas from death, and bringing in Cornelius to the Gospel: But the best conjecture that can be given of the times of these stories, is by easting and computing the history backward: And so we find, 1. That the famine prophesied of by Agabus, was in the second of Claudius, as was shown before. 2. We may then conceive that this prophecy of Agabus was in Claudius his first, and that was the year or some part of the year that Paul and Barnabas spent at Antioch, Act. 11. 26. 3. The last year of Gaius we may hold to be the year of Antiochs first receiving the Gospel, of Barnabas his coming thither, and of his journey to Tarsus to seek Saul, Act. 11. 20, 21, 22, 23 24, 25. And 4. the third year of Gaius which was his last year but one, we may suppose accordingly to have been the year of Peters actions with Aeneas, Dorcas and Cornelius, and to that year shall we refer the handling of the Texts that concern those actions, and we will carry on the Roman and Jewish Story, as they fall in time, till we come thither.