chains," Acts xxi. 33. Whether St. Paul continued to be bound with two chains so long as he was kept in Judea I cannot say; because, though the word bands be used generally afterwards in the plural number, yet the words is of a general meaning, and may imply no more than confinement with one or more chains. However, it is certain he was bound with but one chain whilst he was at Rome: for it is said, that " Paul was suffered to dwell with a soldier that kept him," ch. xxviii. 16. And he tells "the chief of the Jews," whom he had sent for there," that for the hope of Israel he was bound with this chain." And in another place he says, (though the text is generally thought not to relate to this confinement,)" The Lord give inercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain," 2 Tim. i. 16.

The way of chaining prisoners was in this manner. There was an iron chain of a convenient length, which was fastened at one end to the hand of the prisoner, and at the other to the arm of the soldier. When a person was committed to the care of one soldier, which was a very common way, and consequently there was but one chain, the chain was fastened to the right arm of the prisoner, and to the left arm of the soldier. This is evident from a passage of "Seneca. It is easy to conclude, that when a second soldier and another chain was appointed, the prisoner must wear the other chain on his left hand, and the soldier on his right.

It is likely, that this method of confinement obtained very much all over the Roman empire. St. Peter was bound thus at Jerusalem by Herod Agrippa then king of Judea. "The same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the keepers before the door kept the prison," Acts xii. 6.

It is observable, that when Lysias brought Paul before the council," that he might know wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his bands," ch. xxii. 30. But it is somewhat doubtful, whether St. Paul had not this chain on when he appeared before Agrippa; for he says, "I would to God that all that hear me this day were altogether such as I am, except these bonds." Perhaps St.

T8TWV.

L

* Ελυσεν αυτόν απο των δεσμων. Act. xxii. 30. Παρεκτος των δεσμών Act. xxvi. 29. Την αλυσιν ταυτην περίκειμαι. Aliorum aurea catena est, et laxa-sed quid refert? eâdem custodia universos circumdedit. Alligatique sunt etiam qui alligaverunt. Nisi tu forte leviorem. in sinistrâ catenam putas. Seneca de Tranquil. cap. 10. Quemadmodum eadem catena et custodiam et militem copulat, sic ista, quæ tam dissimilia sunt, pariter incedunt. Id. Epist. 5.

Paul means no more hereby than this state of imprisonment. I think indeed, that it was not a generous treatment of his prisoner, nor very decent upon other accounts, for Festus to set Paul before Agrippa and Bernice with his chains on. However, there was a Roman of considerable quality, who was accused, and made his defence before the senate of Rome in the reign of Tiberius, with his chains upon him.

St. Paul seems to have been under a military custody. I need not remind the reader of any particulars for a proof of this, it runs through the whole account. There were however several changes of the manner of his confinement. At first he was carried into the Castle of Antonia at Jerusalem, chained undoubtedly to a soldier or soldiers, for that must be supposed all along, ch. xxi. 37. xxii. 24. When he was sent to Cæsarea, "Felix commanded that he should be kept in Herod's judgment-hall." ch. xxiii. 35. But there was some alteration made, after that Felix bad heard Paul and the high priest and others that came down from Jerusalem. "And he" [Felix]" commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister, or come unto him," Acts xxiv. 23. These are certainly new orders; the former straitness must have been hereupon abated; and perhaps the place of confinement was changed. I am inclined to think, that St. Paul was now removed from "Herod's judgment-hall" to the centurion's own habitation, or to that part of the city where the soldiers had their quarters.

But the most gentle, easy confinement of all was that which St. Paul had at Rome. There" he was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him,—in his lodging,-in his own hired house," ch. xxviii. 16, 23, 30. This must have been owing very much to the honourable testimonial which Porcius Festus transmitted with him; and in part, it is likely, to the account given in by the centurion. who had conducted Paul and the other prisoners from Caesarea into Italy; as also in part, and perhaps chiefly, to the goodness of Burrhus, then præfect of the prætorium, or captain of the guard to Nero.

There were several methods of* keeping prisoners made

▾ Iisdem consulibus miseriarum ac sævitiæ exemplum atrox, reus pater, accusator filius, (nomen utrique Vibius Serenus) in senatum inducti sunt. Ab exilio retractus, et tum Catena vinctus, perorante filio.-At contra reus, nihil infracto animo, obversus in filium, quatere vincula, vocare ultores Deos, &c Tacit. Ann. lib. iv. c. 28.

Tacit. Ann. lib. xiv. c. 15 et 51. Dio. lib. lxii. p. 706. E. * Vid. Lipsii et Mureti notas ad Tacit.

Ann. l. iii. c. 22. et Lipsii Excurs. R.

6

use of in the city and in the provinces. Ulpian says, 'That the proconsul is wont to judge, whether the person ought to be put into the prison, or delivered to a soldier to keep, " or whether he should be committed to sureties, or even to himself;' (that is, to the accused person himself;) ' And herein, usually, regard is had to the nature of the crime charged upon any one, and to the preservation of his 'honour, as also to the wealth or substance, seeming inno'cence or dignity, of the party accused.'

6

It is very easy to perceive what was chiefly regarded by those Roman officers who treated St. Paul so mildly; not his wealth, nor his dignity, but his innocence.

There is no one single instance that I know of, that will so much illustrate the whole story of St. Paul's imprisonment, as that of Herod Agrippa; who was imprisoned by Tiberius in the latter end of his reign, and afterwards came to be king of all Judea, as has been shown already.

Agrippa had said some improper things of Tiberius, in the hearing of one of his own servants; who, having some time after taken a disgust at his master,' went and informed Tiberius against him. Agrippa went one day, as others did, to wait on Tiberius. Tiberius crediting what the servant had said, and bearing likewise some grudge against Agrippa, ordered Macro the præfect of the prætorium to bind him. Whereupon the officers took him and bound him in his purple dress which he was then in.-But Anto'nia was extremely afflicted at this misfortune of Agrippa, and yet she judged it very difficult to say any thing to 'Tiberius in his favour; and that, indeed, it would be to no purpose. She therefore went to Macro, and desired 'that he would take care that the soldiers which kept guard ' upon him should be civil, good-natured fellows, and that the centurion who presided over the guard, and the sol'dier to whom Agrippa was bound, might be men of the 'same character, and that his freedmen and friends might have access to him; and in a word, that he might want nothing necessary for his health. These therefore went to 'him, his friend Silas, and his freedmen Marsyas and

Proconsul æstimare solet, utrum in carcerem recipienda sit persona, an militi tradenda, vel fidejussoribus committenda, vel etiam sibi: hac autem vel pro criminis, quod objicitur, qualitate, vel propter honorem, aut propter amplissimas facultates, vel pro innocentiâ personæ, vel pro dignitate ejus, qui accusatur, facere solet. L. i. ff. de custod. et exhib. reor.

2 Joseph. Ant. Lib. xviii. c. 7. sect. 5. p. 810.

a

Widow of Drusus, Tiberius's brother, a lady of great virtue, and at good terms with Tiberius. Vid. Joseph. p. 812.

b Και συνδέτε εσομεν.

'Stochus, who brought him the provisions he chose to have. They brought in likewise bed-clothes, and such like things, as if they were for sale, which they accommodated him with at night; the soldiers themselves joining with them in these services, in obedience to Macro's orders. Thus things went with Agrippa for six months.'

When Tiberius was dead, there came two letters to Rome from Caius [Caligula]; one to the senate, notifying 'the death of Tiberius, and his own accession to the empire; and another to Piso, the præfect of the city, containing the same things, and also ordering that Agrippa should be removed from the prætorium to the house in which • he had lived before he was bound. Here indeed he was in custody, but however he had more liberty, and was at In a short time Caius came to Rome,-and in a few days after sent for Agrippa to his palace, ordered him to be shaved, and changed his garments; and then put a diadem on his head,-and made him also a present of a gold chain, of the same weight with the iron one with which he had been bound. This chain Agrippa afterwards laid up in the temple of Jerusalem, as a monument that God 'can bring down those things that are great, and raise up those things which are fallen.'

' ease.

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I take it, that Agrippa's first confinement was of the same kind with that which was allotted St. Paul by Felix after the first hearing at Cæsarea; with this difference however, that a good deal of Agrippa's kind usage was given him by stealth, it not being by the orders of Tiberius, by whom he was committed: whereas the centurion who kept St. Paul had express orders from Felix, the chief officer in the province, "to let him have liberty, and to forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him;" which must have been a considerable advantage. And I reckon that Agrippa's confinement at last, when he was removed to the house he had lived in before he was bound,' was of the same kind with St. Paul's custody, when he dwelt at "Rome in his own hired house."

X. Our taking in at once the whole story of St. Paul's imprisonment, has obliged us to pass by a particular or two, which the reader will perhaps think it worth while to look back for.

I think it not needful to inquire, what St. Paul's right of appeal was founded in, whether in his citizenship or not, Acts xxv. 10, 11. I shall only observe that he does not

Ibid. p. 814, 815. f Id. lib. xix. c. 6. in.

d

Απο τρατοπεδε

e Ibid.
p. 818.

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insist upon that expressly, but only his innocence. Some learned men have indeed, upon the occasion of this appeal, cited the words of Pliny; in which he tells Trajan, that he had noted down some of those who were infected with christianity to be sent to Rome, because they were citi'zens.' But I cannot perceive to what purpose these words are alleged here. For if Pliny sent those persons to Rome, not for some special reason, but because his power extended only to the lives of provincials, and not of Roman citizens, then his power was not at that time equal to that of the Roman governors in Judea. It is plain from St. Luke, Acts xxv. 11, 24, 25, that Paul was prosecuted by the Jews for his life, after he was known to be a Roman. And it is as plain from Josephus, that the Roman governors of Judea had power over the lives of Romans. Cumanus put to death a Roman soldier in Judea. And when Josephusi complains of Florus's crucifying some Jews who were Roman knights, he would have complained of somewhat else beside the manner of their death, if Florus had had no right to pronounce a capital sentence upon any Roman whatever. And thus I have by the by given the evidence of a very material circumstance in this history, namely, that Felix and Festus had power of trying a Roman for life.

Upon Paul's appeal to Cæsar he was in fact sent to Rome; causes were therefore by appeal removed out of the provinces to Rome. Suetonius says, that Augustus appointed a number of consular persons at Rome to receive the appeals of provincial people, namely, one person to preside over the affairs of each province.k

St. Luke says also, Acts xxvii. 1. "And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners, unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus' band." It was very common to send persons from Judea to be tried at Rome. Quintilius Varus sent to Rome divers of those that had made disturbances in Judea, in the interval between Herod's death and Archelaus's taking possession of the government. Ummidius Quadratus, president of Syria, sentm Annas the high priest and other Jews to Claudius, to answer for themselves 8 Fucrunt alii similis amentiæ; quos, quia cives Romani erant, annotavi in urbem remittendos. Lib. x. ep. 97.

h De Bell. lib. ii. c. 12. sect. 2.

See above, p. 236.

* Appellationes quotannis urbanorum quidem litigatorum prætori delegavit; ac provincialium consularibus viris quos singulos cujusque provinciæ negotiis præposuisset. Vit. August. c. 33.

Joseph. de B. J. 1. ii. c. 5. sect. 3.

sect. 6. et Ant. 1. xx. c. 5. sect. 2.

Ibid. c. 12.