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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Next to Jerusalem , Aatioca was the place where the apostles laboured mast successfully m planting the spiritual system of Juda * istiiK Accordingly Jpsephus ( JL W . B « vii . 3 . 3 . ) has given us this
interesting , but brief account :- — << The Jews at Antioch were continually bringing over a great multitude of Greeks to their religion , whom in a measure they macte a
part of themsej ves . " Their success of course kindled against the converts ^ and their teachers ^ the fury of the refractory not only among the Greeks , but also among the Jews , of which Josephus has re . corded the following instance : —
u Then a certain man , named Antiochus , a ruler / of the Jews , greatly esteemed for the virtues of his father , having assembled the people of Antioch in the theatre , accused his father and the other Jews of the determination of
setting fire to the whole city in one flight ; and he delivered up to them certain foreign Jews as confederates in this design /' . . Ike foreign Jews whom Antio * chus delivered up to the
exasperated , populace , were no doubt the teachers of the gospel from Judea ; and the pretence which he had for the cruel accusation , though not specified by Josephus , was probably the following . Jesus had foretold the destruction of
Jerusalem , or in more general terms , that of Antichrist . The believers had no doubt of the truth of our Lord ' s prediction before they saw it accomplished . But it appears that some of them
interpreted his language ityith an undue latitude , as ijnplyirig the destruction by fire not only of Jerusalem , fciut also of Home and | 2 ka otter great cities of the em-
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pire . « The Sibyl , " says £ a < r tantius , Lib * vii ; 15 , <* expressly declares that Rome is to perish—Hydaspes also has recorded his wonderful dream in vrhich is ^
represented a youth predicting that the Roman empire and the Roman name would be erased from the world . ** This opinion was held from the time in which pur Lord predicted the fall of the Jewish state ; and the actual
accomplishment of that event gave it fresh , strength and prevalence . The mistaken hopes of some among the believers led them to propagate it at Antioch i and it was probably the circumstance
which gave birth to the villainous accusation of Antiochus , not only against his innocent countrymen ^ hut even his own father , whose virtues had procured him consequence and esteem . This is a
remarkable instance of the great enmity which the stubborn Jews cherished" against such as embraced the religion of Jesus ., ami strikingly illustrates the truth of his words , € C That he came tp divide the father against the son ^ and the son against the father , "
While this dreadful tragedy was acted at Antioch , the same cause U few years after occasioned it to be repeated at Home * Nero , it
is well known , ^ et . fire to the cijy » charged the Christians as the authors , and exposed them for their supposed guilt , to the . most cruel tortures . That monster could not
have been ignorant that the de ~ struction of Rome by fire was % noti 6 n fondly cherished by nakriy of the Christians ; and that frj
some of them a ^ j > rtfphecy calculating the conflagration of the ca * pital ; was forged ttridT circulated under the authority of th * Siby l *
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34 Z * rly Chritians called ' Jews .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1811, page 34, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2412/page/34/
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