Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/166

 148 THE DIXLINE AND FALL C H A P. appoint his subordinate ministers and apostles, to exer- '__ cise a domestic jurisdiction, and to receive from his dispersed brethren an annual contribution*. New syn- agogues were frequently erected in the principal cities of the empire ; and the sabbaths, the fasts, and the festivals, which were either commanded by the Mosaic law, or enjoined by the traditions of the rabbis, were celebrated in the most solemn and public manner ^ Such gentle treatment insensibly assuaged the stern temper of the jews. Awakening from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour of peaceable and industrious subjects. Their irreconcil- able hatred of mankind, instead of flaming out in acts of blood and violence, evaporated in less dangerous grati- fications. They embraced every opportunity of over- reaching the idolaters in trade ; and they pronounced secret and ambiguous imprecations against the haughty kingdom of Edom^. 'Jhejevvs Since the jews, who rejected with abhorrence the iTirwhich" tleities adored by their sovereign and by their fellow followed, subjects, enjoyed however the free exercise of their the chris- ., ,. . , , . , , tians a sect unsocial religion ; there must have existed some other which de- gausc, which cxposed the disciples of Christ to those serted, the . . ^ • p * i religion of severities from which the posterity of Abraham was iheirfa- exempt. The diiFerence between them is simple and obvious; but, according to the sentiments of antiquity, it was of the highest importance. The jews were a nation; the christians were a sect: and if it was natural for every community to respect the sacred institutions of their neighbours, it was incumbent on them to per- was suppressed by Theodosius the younger. ' We need only mention the purim, or deliverance of the jews from the rage of Haman, which, till the reign of Theodosius, was celebrated with insolent triumph and riotous intemperance. Basnage, Hist, des Juifs, 1. vi. c. 17. 1. viii. c. 6. f According to the false Josephus, Tsepho, the grandson of Esau, con- ducted into Italy the army of ^neas, king of Carthage. Another colony of Idumeans, flying from the sword of David, took refuge in the dominions of Romulus. For these, or for other reasons of equal weight, the name of Edom was applied by the jews to the Roman empire.
 * See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1. iii. c. 2, 3. The office of patriarch