executed, will appear by the following narrative: Two women were discovered in Jerusalem to have circumcised their newborn sons. The officers suspended the children around the necks of their mothers, and then led them through the streets of Jerusalem, until coming to a high part of the wall, they precipitated them from the top, and slew all who had given any assistance in the performance of the sacred rite. With the same cruelty they persecuted all who were found practising any part of their old religion. And to propagate paganism more effectually, chapels for idols were erected in every city, and sacrifices offered to their false deities. The feast of Bacchus was especially celebrated, in which the Jews were forced to join the procession, carrying in their hands branches of ivy.

SECTION XIV.

ASMONEAN FAMILY OF MODIN-CONSTANCY OF MATTATHIAS-HE AND HIS FRIENDS TAKE REFUGE IN THE MOUNTAINS-MARTRYDOM OF ELEAZAR-OF THE MOTHER AND HER SEVEN SONS-ASSIDEANS-ANTIOCHUS AIMS TO DESTROY ALL COPIES OF THE LAW-DEATH OF MATTATHIAS-JUDAS MACCABÆUS-BOOKS OF THE MACCABEES-VICTORIES OF JUDAS-ANTIOCHUS RESOLVES TO DESTROY THE WHOLE JEWISH NATION-WONDERFUL SUCCESS OF JUDAS-OCCUPIES JERUSALEM-CLEANSES AND DEDICATES ANEW THE TEMPLE-PROPHECIES RESPECTING ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES.

WHILE these efforts were making utterly to suppress the Jewish religion, and to introduce the impure rites of heathenism, Apelles, one of the officers who had charge of this matter, came to the town of Modin, where Mattathias, a priest of the course of Joarib, had his residence. He was the son of John, the son of Simon, the son of Asmonæus; from whom the family had the name of Asmoneans. This man was truly zealous for the law of his God; and had five sons, all valiant men, and equally zealous for the law as himself. The names of these young men were, John, surnamed Kaddis, Simon, called Thassi, Judas, surnamed Maccabæus, Eleazar, named Avaran, and Jonathan, whose surname was Apphus.

Apelles having called together the inhabitants of Modin, informed them of the purpose of his visit, and persuaded them to comply with the king's mandate; and especially he addressed himself to Mattathias, as being the principal man of the place; promising, that if by his example he would induce the other inhabitants to obey, he should be advanced to great power and wealth. To which the venerable Mattathias answered with a loud voice, so as to be heard by all the people, that no consideration should induce him or any of his family to forsake the law of their God; but that they would still adhere to the covenant which he had made with their forefathers. When he had made this public declaration of his steadfastness, he saw one of the Jews

coming up to offer sacrifice on the heathen altar; at the sight of which, being transported with zeal, like Phinehas of old, he fell upon the apostate and slew him at the altar. After this, he and his sons put Apelles and all his attendants to the sword, and inviting all who were zealous for the law to follow him, retired to the mountains. Many others, in various places, followed this example; so that the wilderness was filled with the refugees who had escaped from the cruel persecution which raged throughout Judea. Against them Philip the Phrygian, governor of Samaria and Jerusalem, went out with an army. At first he persuaded them quietly to submit to the king's authority; promising a complete amnesty for all that was past. To this they all answered, that they would rather die than forsake the law of their God. On which Philip then laid siege to the cave where they were collected, and knowing their sacred regard to the Sabbath, he waited till the arrival of that day of rest, when he fell upon them, not a hand being raised in their defence, and all the men, women, and children, who were collected in that cave, were butchered.

Mattathias and his friends, who were in another part of the mountain, when they heard of this disaster, and the reason of it, held a solemn consultation; whether, in such circumstances they were bound by the laws of the Sabbath, foreseeing, that on these principles, they must all inevitably perish. The result of their deliberation was, that in such a case the law of God did not bind them to refrain from self-defence. Accordingly, it was resolved, that after this time, when assaulted by their enemies upon the Sabbath, they would fight for their lives. Having ratified this decree by the consent of all the priests and elders who were with them, they sent it to those throughout the land who stood up for the observance of the law; by whom it was received with the like consent; and ever afterwards it was made the rule, in all the wars which the Jews waged against their enemies.

The next year, 167 B. C., Antiochus hearing that his edict met with opposition from the Jews in many places, came himself to see its execution; and to strike terror into the other Jews who adhered to their law, he exercised the greatest cruelties on such as fell into his hands. It was on this occasion, as we read in the second book of Maccabees, that Eleazar suffered martyrdom; and a mother and her seven sons, who bravely encountered death, "not accepting deliverance;" (Heb. xi. 35,) of which transactions Josephus has also given a very particular account.

In the meantime, Mattathias and his company lay concealed in the fastnesses of the mountains, where they were scarcely accessible; and as soon as Antiochus had returned home, great

numbers of the Jews who were zealous for their religion, resorted to Mattathias, to fight for the law of their God, and for their liberties. Among these, there was a company called Assideans, men mighty in valour, and of great zeal for the law, who had voluntarily devoted themselves to a more rigid observance of it than others; whence they obtained the name of Chasidim, or Assideans, that is, the pious. For after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, there were two sets of religious men among them. The first were called Zadikim, the righteous; who were contented with an exact observance of the written law; the others, Chasidim, the pious; who, to the written law, added many observances, which they had received from the tradition of the elders.

The company of Mattathias increased so much, that they began to assume the appearance of a little army. He no longer, therefore, confined himself to his fastnesses, but came boldly forth into the inhabited country, and going from village to village, pulled down the heathen altars, caused the male children to be circumcised, and cut off all apostates and persecutors, wherever he came. He, moreover, re-establised the worship of the true God; and having recovered several copies of the law, restored the worship of the synagogue.

One object at which Antiochus aimed in his persecution, was to destroy all copies of the law. A proclamation was therefore made by him, that every person, who was in possession of a copy, should, upon pain of death, deliver it up to his officers. By this means, all the copies of the law fell into the hands of the persecutors, except such as were carried away by those who fled into the wilderness. And when they did obtain them, they either destroyed them, or polluted them by painting on their margins the images of their gods; so that the Jews could make no further use of them. This work of destruction, however, had relation only to the books of Moses; for these only, had before this time been read in the synagogues. Those Jews, therefore, who still persisted in attending to the worship of God, being destitute of copies of the law, began now to read select portions of the prophets; and this practice has been continued in the synagogues ever since. The law and the prophets are both read every Sabbath day, wherever there is a synagogue of the Jews.

Mattathias, being advanced in years, was soon worn out with this state of perpetual warfare, and died the very next year after he had commenced his resistance to the impious edict of the king, 166 B. C. Before his death, the old man called his five sons together and exhorted them to stand up manfully for the law of their God, and with a steady courage and constancy to fight the battles of Israel, against their present persecutors.

That there might be no contention among them about pre-eminence, he, knowing the character of each, appointed Judas to be their captain, and Simon to be their counsellor. Mattathias was then buried by his sons in Modin, in the sepulchres of his forefathers, and great lamentation was made for him by all the faithful in Israel. But the place of this good patriarch was more than supplied by his son Judas Maccabæus; for as soon as his father's funeral was over, he took on him the chief command of the forces collected, according to his father's will; and his army being continually increased by those resorting to him from all parts, who were zealous for the law, he erected his standard and marched forth to meet the enemies of his God. The inscription on his standard consisted of the initial letters of the words, mi camo-ka baalim Jehovah; the meaning of which motto is, "who is like unto thee among the gods, O Jehovah?" Hence, Judas was called Maccabæus, and all who followed his standard were denominated Maccabees or Maccabeans. Such abbreviations, and names formed from them, are so common among the Jews, that it will be unnecessary to give particular instances. Because Ruffin has called the eldest of the seven brothers who suffered martyrdom, Maccabæus, some have supposed that the name was derived from him; but there can be little doubt that Ruffin called him by that name, because, in this war the chief defenders of the law were so denominated.

The books which have received the title, Maccabees, are four in number. The first and second are contained in the Apocrypha of our Bibles, and are reckoned to be canonical by the Romanists. The third is a book, already mentioned, which contains the history of Ptolemy Philometor's attempt to destroy all the Jews in Egypt by his elephants. The fourth is a history of the martyrdom of Eleazar and the mother and her seven sons, by Josephus the Jewish historian.

Antiochus, the king, having heard that Paulus Emilius, after his victory over Perseus king of Macedon, had celebrated games at Amphipolis, on the river Strymon, proposed to do the same in imitation of him, at Daphne, near Antioch. These games were celebrated with much pomp and at great expense, for several days, during which time, the king gave himself up to his usual impudent folly and vileness, to such a degree, that many decent people left the games in utter disgust, at the indecency of his behaviour. But while Antiochus was thus playing the fool at Daphne, Judas was playing another sort of game in Judea. He went round the cities, as his father had done before, destroying the whole apparatus of idolatry, and slaying all apostates from the true religion; and not only delivered the faithful worshippers of God from their oppressors, but fortified the towns, and rebuilt the fortresses, in which he placed strong

garrisons, that henceforward they might be in a state of security.

Apollonius, who was left governor of those regions, now thought it high time to arrest the alarming progress of a force, which, in the beginning, appeared too despicable to create any apprehensions. But Judas, on the first meeting with this impious foe, who had spilled so much innocent blood in Jerusalem, fell upon his army with such vehemence and determined courage, that they could not stand before him. Apollonius himself was slain in the battle, and a great slaughter was made among his soldiers. Among the spoils taken, was the sword of Apollonius the general, which Judas took to himself, and used ever afterwards, in all his battles.

Seron, deputy governor of some part of Colo-Syria under Macron, on hearing of the overthrow of Apollonius, collected all the forces that were at his command, and marched into Judea, calculating on reaping a rich harvest of renown, by speedily conquering Judas, whose name now began to be terrible.. But on meeting with this valiant captain, with his little army, the event was very different from the expectation of the haughty Syrian: for he met with the same fate as Apollonius, being vanquished and slain in battle by Judas, and a great slaughter made among his men.

When Antiochus heard of these two defeats, his indignation and fury were enkindled to the highest pitch, and he immediately gave orders, that all his forces should be collected, intending to march in person at their head into Judea, and inflict tremendous vengeance on Judas and his associates. Upon examination of his treasury, however, it was found that there was not money sufficient to pay his troops, which rendered it necessary to suspend his design of utterly extirpating the Jews, on which he had resolved.

Antiochus was a king of great profusion and magnificence, dealing out to his followers munificent gifts, so that he obtained the name of the magnanimous and munificent. And thus also his character exactly answered to the description of the prophet, that "he should scatter among his followers the prey, and the spoil and riches." Another prophecy of Daniel was also fulfilled at this time. "Tidings came to him out of the East, and out of the North, that troubled him;" (Dan. xi. 24-44.) For he now received intelligence, that Artaxias, king of Armenia, had revolted against him; this was from the North; and from Persia, in the East, he learned that his taxes, of which he now stood in so much need, were no longer duly paid. This failure was the effect of his laws requiring uniformity in religion, by which the minds of the Persians were disturbed and alienated.