writers, particularly to the books of the Maccabees and to
Josephus.

Judea continued subject to Persia until Alexander conquered that
country; it then fell under his dominion and he treated the Jews with
great lenity. After the conqueror's death, Judea became subject to his
successors, till Mattathias, a priest eminent for his piety and
resolution, encouraged the people to shake off the Syrian yoke.
Mattathias died before this was effected, but his son Judas Maccabeus
completed the deliverance of his country, and the government of Judea
remained in his family till the time of Herod the great, who put an end
to the administration of the Maccabees or Armenians, and prevailed upon
the Roman senate to appoint him king of Judea.

It was in the thirty sixth year of the reign of Herod, and while
Augustus was Emperor of Rome that our Saviour Jesus Christ was born,
four years before the common aera.

Herod was a cruel tyrant to his people, and even to his own children:
but to keep the Jews in subjection, and to erect a lasting monument to
his own name, he repaired the temple at Jerusalem, and considerably
enlarged the kingdom of Judea.

At his death, the countries over which he had reigned were divided among
his three sons, but they were not allowed to take the title of kings;
they were called ethnarchs or tetrarchs. Archelaus one of Herod's sons,
acting with great cruelty and injustice, was, by order of Augustus,
banished to Vienne in Gaul, where he died. His dominions were then
reduced to a Roman province, and from this time the Jews possessed but
little civil authority. Justice was administered in the name and by the
laws of Rome, and taxes were paid immediately to the emperor. Several of
the Roman governors severely oppressed and persecuted the Jews, and at
length, in the reign of Nero they openly revolted from the Romans. Then
began the Jewish war, which was terminated after an obstinate defence
and unparalleled suffering, on the part of the Jews, by the total
destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, by Titus son of
Vespasian the Roman emperor. Since that time the Jews have no where
subsisted as a nation.

Though I have endeavoured, my dear, to give you as brief an account as
possible of the Jewish history, yet the subject is so interesting, that
I perceive it has already occupied a much longer time than I at first
intended. The history of our Saviour's ministry and the Acts of the
Apostles we must therefore