the God of the heavens and the earth, the same God whom the Jews
worshipped, and the worship of whom was allowed of all over the Roman
Empire, and established by special edicts and decrees in most, perhaps
in all the places, in which we meet with St. Paul in his travels"
("Credibility," vol. i., pt. I, pp. 406, 407. Ed. 1727). He also quotes
"a remarkable piece of justice done the Jews at Doris, in Syria, by
Petronius, President of that province. The fact is this: Some rash young
fellows of the place got in and set up a statue of the Emperor in the
Jews' synagogue. Agrippa the Great made complaints to Petronius
concerning this injury. Whereupon Petronius issued a very sharp precept
to the magistrates of Doris. He terms this action an offence, not
against the Jews only, but also against the Emperor; says, it is
agreeable to the law of nature that every man should be master of his
own places, according to the decree of the Emperor. I have, says he,
given directions that they who have dared to do these things contrary to
the edict of Augustus, be delivered to the centurion Vitellius Proculus,
that they may be brought to me, and answer for their behaviour. And I
require the chief men in the magistracy to discover the guilty to the
centurion, unless they are willing to have it thought, that this
injustice has been done with their consent; and that they see to it,
that no sedition or tumult happen upon this occasion, which, I perceive,
is what some are aiming at.... I do also require, that for the future,
you seek no pretence for sedition or disturbance, but that all men
worship [God] according to their own customs" (Ibid, pp. 382, 383).
After giving some other facts, Lardner sums up: "These are authentic
testimonies in behalf of the equity of the Roman Government in general,
and of the impartial administration of justice by the Roman
presidents--toward all the people of their provinces, how much soever
they differed from each other in matters of religion" (Ibid, p. 401).