is alleged that the dispersion of the Jewish race is a penalty
incurred for the commission of a great crime: namely, the crucifixion
of our blessed Lord in the form of a Jewish prince, by the Romans, at
Jerusalem, and at the instigation of some Jews, in the reign of Tiberius
Augustus Caesar. Upon this, it may be observed, that the allegation is
neither historically true nor dogmatically sound.

I. _Not historically true_. It is not historically true, because at the
time of the advent of our Lord, the Jewish race was as much dispersed
throughout the world as at this present time, and had been so for many
centuries. Europe, with the exception of those shores which are bathed
by the midland sea, was then a primeval forest, but in every city of the
great Eastern monarchies and in every province of the Roman empire, the
Jews had been long settled. We have not precise authority for saying
that at the advent there were more Jews established in Egypt than in
Palestine, but it may unquestionably be asserted that at that period
there were more Jews living, and that too in great prosperity and
honour, at Alexandria than at Jerusalem. It is evident from various
Roman authors, that the Jewish race formed no inconsiderable portion
of the multitude that filled Rome itself, and that the Mosaic religion,
undisturbed by the state, even made proselytes. But it is unnecessary to
enter into any curious researches on this head, though the authorities
are neither scant nor uninteresting. We are furnished with evidence
the most complete and unanswerable of the pre-dispersion by the sacred
writings themselves. Not two months after the crucifixion, when the
Third Person of the Holy Trinity first descended on Jerusalem, it being
the time of the great festivals, when the Jews, according to the custom
of the Arabian tribes pursued to this day in the pilgrimage to Mecca,
repaired from all quarters to the central sacred place, the holy
writings inform us that there were gathered together in Jerusalem 'Jews,
devout men, out of every nation under heaven.' And that this expression,
so general but so precise, should not be mistaken, we are shortly
afterwards, though incidentally, informed, that there were Parthians,
Medes, and Persians at Jerusalem, professing the Mosaic faith; Jews from
Mesopotamia and Syria, from the countries of the lesser and the greater
Asia; Egyptian, Libyan, Greek, and Arabian Jews; and, especially, Jews
from Rome itself, some of