of the Mosaic institute; the filthy rites of Bacchus were celebrated instead of the worship of God; and the miserable inhabitants of Judæa, who desired to retain their integrity, were compelled to forsake the common habitations of man, and to hide themselves "in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."

What memorable instances of the fortitude of the Jews occurred in this dreadful persecution?

In this horrible persecution, occurred two A. C 167. instances of invincible fortitude aud fidelity

to the commandments of God, too remarkable to be omitted even in this brief compendium of the history of the Jews. The cruel emissaries of Antiochus seized upon Eleazar, a venerable Jew ninety years of age, of a sacerdotal family, whose example and whose instructions had preserved many of his countrymen from the abandonment of the law. He refused to eat the forbidden flesh to save his life; and breathed his last beneath the strokes of his murderers, exclaiming, "Lord thou knowest that leaving it in my power to avoid death, I suffer in my body the most exquisite pains, but my soul is overjoyed to die for thy religion." There were seven young men, brothers, the support and the joy of their widowed mother. They were brought before the officers of Antiochus. Refusing to abandon their religion for the idolatries and blasphemies of paganism, they successively endured with triumphant constancy the most agonizing and fatal torments. Their mother rising superior to the weakness and timidity of her sex, animated them amidst the struggles of death with the anticipation of the future recompense of God; and when she had seen her children one after the other slaughtered before her eyes, she also gained the victory over her tormentors, by her unconquerable intrepidity, and testified her faith by the shedding of her blood. Happier far were they than the brutal monsters who murdered them! their momentary pains were soon over, and the miseries of martyrdom were soon lost in a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

CHAPTER IX.

FROM THE RISE OF THE ASMONEAN, TO THAT OF THE HERODIAN, FAMILY.

SECTION I.

THE EXPLOITS OF JUDAS MACCABEUS.

WHAT was the condition of Jerusalem under the government of Antiochus Epiphanes?

UNDER the blasting and malignant influence of Antiochus Epiphanes, the condition of Jerusalem was most deplorable; trampled beneath the feet of a haughty and obdurate conqueror, her houses consumed, her lofty edifices subverted, her walls laid in ruins, and the stupendous edifice of her temple solitary, deserted, and polluted, alone remaining, like a melancholy monument of faded prosperity, and departed glory.

Was the cause of true religion on this melancholy emergency forsaken?

In every age of the world, the persecuting violence of the enemies of God, has secured its own defeat, and has ultimately subserved the accomplishment of the designs it was intended to prevent and to destroy. The most insidious, the most infuriate, the most powerful men have never been able to do any thing effectually "against the truth, but for the truth." And when the cause of God has appeared to be completely and for ever crushed, it has risen again with renovated energies, like the fabled Phoenix from its ashes, to appear in more illustrious glories, to gain more ennobled triumphs, proceeding in the brightness of its course to conquer and to save. Not all the malice, nor all the policy, nor all the persecutions, nor all the armies of

Antiochus could effect the extirpation of the Jews, because their national existence was incorporated with the grand designs and dispensations of the King of Kings.

Who was the person who raised the family of the Maccabees to their honourable dignity and renown?

A. C. 167.

In the comprehensive war which was thus waged by Antiochus against the institutions and existence of Judaism, Apelles, one of his officers, came to the town of Modin to compel the inhabitants to obey the king's commands, and to sacrifice to his idols. In this town dwelt Mattathias, of the high sacerdotal family of Joarib, a man equally honourable in his character, and zealous for the law of his God. Five valiant sons trod in the steps of their father, and like him detested the impositions of the barbarous persecutors, and the meanness of the apostate Jews. Apelles, upon his arrival in Modin, collected the people to enforce their obedience to the mandate of the king and aware of the great and justly merited influence of Mattathias and his sons, he addressed himself in the first instance to them, hoping that if they complied with his requisitions, the whole multitude would easily be induced to follow their example. Mattathias sternly declared his resolution never to forsake the law, and never to be driven from his adherence to the sacred institutions of his fathers, by any of the threatenings or denunciations of Antiochus. At this instant, a dastardly Jew presented himself before the altar of an idol, which was there erected, to perform sacrifice; the zeal and indignation of Mattathias were excited; he called to mind the punishment denounced by the law upon so heinous a crime; he killed the recreant Jew upon the spot; Apelles shared his fate; and followed by his family and all who were zealous for the law, Mattathias retired into the desert, and bravely resolved to contend with the oppressors for the emancipation of the enslaved people, and the restoration of the worship of God. A fresh demonstration of the cruelty of the Syrian governors, and of their intention not to reform, but to exterminate, must have proved to him and to his resolute followers that their only alternative was to conquer or to die.

Relate a memorable instance of the constancy of the Jews?

A thousand Jews had taken refuge in an immense cave in the desert which was nearest to Jerusalem, the governor of Judæa environed them with his troops, he offered them a pardon on condition of their obedience to the impious demands of Antiochus, but they declared that they had rather sacrifice their lives for God, than present any sacrifice for idols; their resistance against the royal forces was obstinate, and might have been successful, but their over scrupulous reverence for the sanctity of the Sabbath rendered them, on that day, indifferent to their defence; the enemy burst in upon them, and men, women, and children were slain.

What resolution was adopted by the Jews after this massacre?

This dreadful incident induced Mattathias and his followers to form a wise and necessary resolution. They unanimously concluded, that defence against their cruel and vindictive enemies was no violation of the Sabbath; and this determination, transmitted to all the Jews, became their rule in all the wars which they afterwards waged against their adversaries.

Did the followers of Mattathias increase?

The party of Mattathias soon gathered strength. He was joined by the Chasidim, men who had voluntarily devoted themselves to the most rigid observance of the law, and whose valour and enthusiasm rendered them most useful auxiliaries in war. Continually receiving reinforcements by the arrival of the faithful Jews who contributed to swell his ranks, Mattathias at length came forth from his fastnesses and took the field. His measures were as prudent as they were vigorous. He demolished the pagan altars, he restored the service of the synagogue, he recovered several copies of the sacred books which the enemy had attempted to destroy, he exterminated all the persecutors he captured, and inflicted the punishment of death upon all the apostate Jews who fell into his hands.

What was the death and what was the character of Mattathias?

The great age of Mattathias incapacitated him for the fatigues of war, his strength gave way to his exertions, and he soon entered his rest. Before his death, he called his sons together, he exhorted them valiantly to maintain the cause of God against the enemies of their religion and of their race; and to prevent any jealousies or dissensions, he appointed Judas, his third son, to be their captain, and Simon, his second son, to be their counsellor. Mattathias was one of the most illustrious men who have ever appeared among the Jews; and his pious zeal, his intrepid valour, his lofty magnanimity, and his uncompromising fidelity to the cause of his God, placed him on a level with the most distinguished heroes, whose actions and virtues illuminated the most shining periods of Jewish history.

Relate some of the exploits of Judas Maccabæus.

Judas Maccabæus assumed the command upon the death of Mattathias, and soon justified the selection of his father. Unfolding a banner upon which was inscribed a motto taken from the eleventh verse of the fifteenth chapter of the book of Exodus, "Who is like unto thee among the gods?" (the initial letters of the Hebrew words composing the word Maccabi, from which the heroes called Maccabees derived their names,) Judas, at the head of six thousand men began a series of achievements, which, in connexion with his high and noble principle, elevate him above any of the heroes or patriots who have burst asunder the yoke of the oppressor, or bled for the liberty and the defence of their country. He defeated and killed Apollonius the Syrian general who advanced against him with a considerable army, and the sword of this persecutor of the Jews was ever afterwards wielded by Judas in battle. Seron, the deputy-governor of Colo-Syria, collected a great body of troops to avenge the death of his colleague, but the forces of the Syrians were discomfited with great slaughter, and Seron himself was left dead upon the field. The insurrection of Judas, his valour, and his victories, now threatened