comes forth in hosts, was their god. He who governed LECT. II. them was really in their minds the King of kings and Lord of lords. They might worship a multitude of powers, as they had done before; they might have abundance of religion, and be full of fears about the future and the unseen world. But this was the per- The Manson to whom they looked up; this Man-god was he to whom priests and peoples bowed down. God. D LECTURE III. LECT. III. of the ness. THE SECT AGE OF THE JEWISH COMMONWEALTH. THE Jewish nation, we have seen, was especially Character called out to bear witness against that kind of society Jewish wit- which I described at the end of my last Lecture. I do not mean that it was to declare war upon any great empire of the world; I do not mean, even, that it was always to resist any great tyrant of the earth who made war upon it. Hezekiah fought against Sennacherib, and was delivered out of his hands. But Jeremiah told the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, that their duty was to yield. In fact, Nebuchadnezzar was an instrument of God for delivering them from their miserable and godless native rulers, from the corruption, brutality, anarchy, into which they had fallen. Nevertheless, in the one case as much as in the other, every true Jew who understood the calling of his country was a witness against these governments of mere power, these governments which destroyed old land-marks, a witness for a King who reigned in righteousness, and who ordered the bounds of men's habitations. He was a witness against kings who set themselves up like Lucifer, and called themselves gods. He was a wit ness for One who was ruling over men in meekness LECT. III. and equity, who was stooping to men, who was caring for the poor and the needy. This witness was borne by the true Jew in his lowest estate, as well as in his most prosperous. Perhaps it was never borne more faithfully or with greater effect than by those who were captives in Babylon. Jews in the age of Augustus. National life. We may ask, then, what sort of witness was the Jewish people bearing in the days of Augustus Cæsar, concerning the sort of dominion which he had set up, one which was so like the tyrannies of the Asiatic monarchs, only that it had grown out of a better state of things, not yet altogether subverted. I will endeavour to give you the answer. There had been, Decay of as I said, a series of native princes in Judæa, the Asmonæan princes they were called, who owed their power to the great Maccabæan struggle, but who had none of the spirit of their ancestors, being low, plotting, bad men. It was clear that there was not more of morality or godliness among the Jews than there was among the other people who submitted to the Roman yoke. They fell under it just as naturally as any others did. As far as the body of the people were concerned, it made little difference; they were probably, on the whole, subject to a juster rule than they had been. There was more order in their exactions, though they were imposed by a foreigner. Cneius Pompey had entered their temple; but it was not the manner of the Romans to interfere with the religious rites of the people they conquered. The priests continued as they had been before; sacrifices LECT. III. were offered according to the rules of the law; the Heathen governors were less likely to interfere with such matters than the native. The ldu- Wherein According to the custom of the Romans in many countries, a king was set over their Jewish subjects, who of course was answerable to the ruling state, and might be removed at its pleasure; though it was quite as likely that his son would be permitted to reign after him. The man they appointed was not a Jew but an Idumæan, Herod, who, though he was first promoted by Mark Antony, was clever and supple enough to keep his kingdom under Mark Antony's rival and conqueror, Octavius Cæsar. So when Octavius became Augustus and the emperor of the Roman world, Herod reigned over Judæa, and contrived to get himself called "Great," either while he ruled, or after his death. He was great according to the notions of greatness which men had in that little age. He knew how to get power, and to keep it when he had got it. He was as bad a husband, and father, and prince as there well could be. But the men he governed were worse than himself; they were the kind of men whose motives a man like him could see through, and whose tricks and plots he could overreach by his own. the state of people being stiff-necked and corrupt. the Jews was It is no new thing for us to hear of the chosen Moses and like and un- the prophets are telling us that of them, in every page of the Old Testament. They were essentially now what their fathers had been; but there were many outside differences which are of very great importance like that described in the Old Testament. in themselves, and which led them to think that LECT. III. they would never have done the evils which were charged on former generations. There was no worship of Roman gods now, as there had been of Phoenician or Egyptian gods, in the days gone by. The people hated idolaters, and believed that they hated idols. There was no indifference about the books of the law; they were copied out with the greatest diligence, and commented upon with great learning. The Scribes, the copiers and teachers of Scribes, Elthe law, were as much venerated as any men in the community. Not only the law itself was honoured, but all the sayings of wise men that had been handed down about it, were honoured also. The services which had been so often neglected by their forefathers were acknowledged as divine, and scrupulously observed. Besides the Temple at Jerusalem, synagogues had been established in the different towns of the land, where the divine books were read and expounded. ders, Syna gogues. During the Maccabæan period there had risen up Pharisees. a class of men who felt the importance of adhering strictly to the commands and ordinances of the law themselves, and who were careful in enforcing the observance of them upon others, fearing, no doubt, lest the same bad consequences should come from the indifference to them which the prophets told of. These men, called Pharisees, were now the prevailing and popular teachers of the land. They were more numerous than any other sect, and had far more influence. They were looked upon as the reli |