CHAP. XV.
of the posterity of Abraham, who should have paid the
same homage to the Jupiter of the capitol, would have
been an object of abhorrence to himself and to his
brethren. But the moderation of the conquerors was
insufficient to appease the jealous prejudices of their
subjects, who were alarmed and scandalized at the ensigns of paganism, which necessarily introduced themselves into a Roman province[1]. The mad attempt of
Caligula to place his own statue in the temple of Jeru-
salem, was defeated by the unanimous resolution of a
people who dreaded death much less than such an
idolatrous profanation[2]. Their attachment to the law
of Moses was equal to their detestation of foreign religions. The current of zeal and devotion, as it was
contracted into a narrow channel, ran with the strength,
and sometimes with the fury, of a torrent.
Its gradual increase. This inflexible perseverance, which appeared so odious or so ridiculous to the ancient world, assumes a more awful character, since providence has deigned to reveal to us the mysterious history of the chosen people. But the devout and even scrupulous attach- ment to the Mosaic religion, so conspicuous among the jews who lived under the second temple, becomes still more surprising, if it is compared with the stubborn incredulity of their forefathers. When the law was given in thunder from mount Sinai ; when the tides of the ocean and the course of the planets were sus- pended for the convenience of the Israelites ; and when temporal rewards and punishments were the immediate consequences of their piety or disobedience ; they per- petually relapsed into rebellion against the visible ma-
- ↑ See, in particular, Joseph. Antiquitat. xvii. 6. xviii. 3. and de Bel. Judaic, i. 33. and ii. 9. edit. Havercamp.
- ↑ Jussi a Caio Cajsare erfigiem ejus in teniplo locare, arma potius sump- sere. Tacit. Hist. V. 9. Philo and Josephus gave a very circumstantial, but a very rhetorical, account of this transaction, which excedingly perplexed the governor of Syria. At the first mention of this idolatrous proposal, king Agrippa fainted away, and did not recover his senses till the third day.
fice. Yet he approved of the neglect which his grandson Caius expressed towards the temple of Jerusalem. See Sueton. in August, c. 93. and Casaubon's notes on that passage.
