ere never made a subject of punishment, or
even of inquiry; and that, as the idea of their sufferings was for
a long time connected with the idea of cruelty and injustice, the
moderation of succeeding princes inclined them to spare a sect,
oppressed by a tyrant, whose rage had been usually directed against
virtue and innocence.

[Footnote 35: Sueton. in Nerone, c. 16. The epithet of malefica, which
some sagacious commentators have translated magical, is considered
by the more rational Mosheim as only synonymous to the exitiabilis of
Tacitus.]

[Footnote 36: The passage concerning Jesus Christ, which was inserted
into the text of Josephus, between the time of Origen and that
of Eusebius, may furnish an example of no vulgar forgery. The
accomplishment of the prophecies, the virtues, miracles, and
resurrection of Jesus, are distinctly related. Josephus acknowledges
that he was the Messiah, and hesitates whether he should call him a man.
If any doubt can still remain concerning this celebrated passage, the
reader may examine the pointed objections of Le Fevre, (Havercamp.
Joseph. tom. ii. p. 267-273), the labored answers of Daubuz, (p. 187-232,
and the masterly reply (Bibliotheque Ancienne et Moderne, tom. vii. p.
237-288) of an anonymous critic, whom I believe to have been the learned
Abbe de Longuerue. * Note: The modern editor of Eusebius, Heinichen, has
adopted, and ably supported, a notion, which had before suggested
itself to the editor, that this passage is not altogether a forgery, but
interpolated with many additional clauses. Heinichen has endeavored
to disengage the original text from the foreign and more recent
matter.--M.]

[Footnote 37: See the lives of Tacitus by Lipsius and the Abbe de
la Bleterie, Dictionnaire de Bayle a l'article Particle Tacite, and
Fabricius, Biblioth. Latin tem. Latin. tom. ii. p. 386, edit. Ernest.
Ernst.]

[Footnote 38: Principatum Divi Nervae, et imperium Trajani, uberiorem,
securioremque materiam senectuti seposui. Tacit. Hist. i.]

[Footnote 39: See Tacit. Annal. ii. 61, iv. 4. * Note: The perusal of
this passage of Tacitus alone is sufficient, as I have already said, to
show that the Christian sect was not so obscure as not already to have
been repressed, (repressa,) and that it did not pass for innocent in the
eyes of the Romans.--G.]

[Footnote 40: The player's name was Aliturus. Through the same channel,
Josephus, (de vita sua, c. 2,) about two years before, had obtaine