2. Policy of Rome in Respect to Religion.—The policy of the emperors and the senate, so far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious part of their subjects. The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful. And this toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord. * * * Avarice and taste very frequently despoiled the vanquished nations of the elegant statues of their gods and the rich ornaments of their temples; but in the exercise of the religion which they derived from their ancestors, they uniformly experienced the indulgence, and even protection of the Roman conquerors. The province of Gaul seems, and indeed only seems, an exception to this universal toleration. Under the specious pretext of abolishing human sacrifices, the emperors Tiberius and Claudius suppressed the dangerous power of the Druids; but the priests themselves, their gods and their altars, subsisted in peaceful obscurity till the final fall of paganism. * * * Rome gradually became the common temple of her subjects; and the freedom of the city was bestowed on all the gods of mankind.—Gibbon.
3. Mysteries of the Pagan Religion.—It has been maintained that the design of at least some of these mysteries was to inculcate the grand principles of natural religion, such as the unity of God, the immortality of the soul, the importance of virtue, etc., and to explain the vulgar polytheism as symbolical of these great truths. But this certainly needs better proof. It is more probable that the later pagan philosophers, who lived after the light of Christianity had exposed the abominations of polytheism, were the principal authors of this moral interpretation of the vulgar religion, which they falsely pretended was taught in the mysteries, while in reality, those mysteries were probably mere supplements to the vulgar mythology and worship, and of the same general character and spirit.—Murdock.
4. State of Religion in Rome.—A modern writer describing the religious state of Rome at the time of Julius Caesar—it could not have been much changed at the birth of Messiah, sixty years later—says: "Religion, once the foundation of the laws and rule of personal conduct, had subsided into opinion. The educated in their hearts disbelieved it. Temples were still built with increasing splendor; the established forms were scrupulously observed. Public men spoke conventionally of Providence, that they might throw on their opponents the odium of impiety; but of genuine belief that life had any serious meaning, there was none remaining beyond the circle of the silent, patient, ignorant multitude. The whole spiritual atmosphere was saturated with cant—cant moral, cant political, cant religious; an affectation of high principle which had ceased to touch the conduct, and flowed on in an increasing volume of insincere and unreal speech. The truest thinkers were those who, like Lucretius, spoke frankly out their real convictions, declared Providence was a dream, and that man and the world he lived in were material phenomena, generated by natural forces out of cosmic atoms, and into atoms to be again resolved."—Froude.
5. Policy of Augustus as to Conquests.—Inclined to peace by his temper and situation, it was easy for him to discover that Rome, in her present exalted situation, had much less to hope than to fear from the chance of arms; and that, in the prosecution of remote wars, the undertaking every day became more difficult, the event more doubtful and the possession more precarious and less beneficial. The experience of Augustus added weight to these salutary reflections, and eventually convinced him that by prudent vigor of his counsels, it would be easy to secure every concession which the safety or the dignity of Rome might require from the most formidable barbarians * * * On the death of the emperor, his testament was publicly read in the senate. He bequeathed, as a valuable legacy to his successors, the advice of confining the empire within those limits which nature seemed to have placed as its permanent bulwarks and foundations; on the west the Atlantic ocean; the Rhine and Danube on the north; the Euphrates on the east; and towards the south the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa.—Gibbon, "Decline and Fall", vol. i, chap. 1.
6. Mission and Character of the Roman Empire.—As the soil must be prepared before the wheat can be sown, so before the kingdom of heaven could throw up its shoots there was needed a kingdom of this world, where the nations were neither torn to pieces by violence nor were rushing after false ideals [as to governments] and spurious ambitions. Such a kingdom was the empire of the Caesars—a kingdom where peaceful men could work, think and speak as they pleased, and travel freely among provinces ruled for the most part by Gallios who protected life and property, and forbade fanatics to tear each other to pieces for their religious opinions. "It is not lawful for us to put a man to death," was the complaint of the Jewish priests to the Roman governor. Had Europe and Asia been covered with independent nations, each with a local religion represented in its ruling powers, Christianity must have been stifled in its cradle. If St. Paul had escaped the Sanhedrim of Jerusalem, he would have been torn to pieces by the silversmiths at Ephesus. The appeal to Caesar's judgment seat was the shield of his mission, and alone made possible his success.—Froude.
7. The Sanhedrin of the Jews.—"The council" of the Jewish church and people was a theocratic oligarchy, which after the return from the captivity (536 BC,) ruled the new settlement, being in all causes and over all persons, ecclesiastical and civil, supreme. It is supposed to be suggested by the old institution of seventy-two Elders (six from each tribe,) appointed by Moses, at Jethro's [Jeth-ro] suggestion, to relieve him in the administration of justice (Ex. xviii:14; Num. xi:16.) Having died out in the age succeeding Joshua, and being superceded under the monarchy, it was revived either by Ezra, or after the Macedonian ascendancy. It consisted of an equal number of priests, scribes and elders all of whom must be married, above thirty years of age, well instructed in the law, and of good report among the people. This constituted the Supreme Court of judicature and administrative council, taking cognizance of false doctrine and teaching, as well as breaches of the Mosaic Law, and regulating both civil and religious observances peculiar to the Jewish nation. The power of life and death had been taken from it by the Roman government which otherwise covenanted to respect its decrees. The council usually met in the hall Gazith, within the Temple precincts, though special meetings were sometimes held in the house of the high priest, who was generally (though not necessarily) the president. There were also two vice-presidents, and two scribes—clerks—or "heralds," one registering the votes of acquittal (or nos), and the other those of convictions (or ayes), and a body of lictors or attendants. The assembly set in the form of a semi-circle, the president occupying the center of the arc, the prisoner that of the center of the chord, while the two "heralds" sat a little in advance of the president, on his right and his left.—"Oxford Teacher's Bible"—Addenda.
REVIEW.
1. State the religious condition of the world at Messiah's birth.
2. What was the cause of heathen religious toleration?
3. What was the policy of Rome in respect to religion? (Note 2.)
4. What was the nature of the heathen gods?
5. Describe the character of heathen worship.
6. What can you say of pagan mysteries? (Note 3.)
7. Give the substance of Paul's arraignment of the pagan world.
8. What was the political state of the world at Messiah's birth?
9. Describe the general character of the Roman government.
10. Enumerate the advantages the Roman government gave to the world.
11. How did these advantages affect the work of the Christ?
12. What was the state of the nations outside of the Roman empire?
13. Who was the king of the Jews at Messiah's birth?
14. What was the political