fancy, and for that wicked end slew the male children at Bethlehem. The miseries which befel this inhuman tyrant and his family are recorded by Josephas, and his calamitous death, and long and grievous sufferings before it, by a burning fever, a voracious appetite, a difficulty of breathing, swellings in his limbs, loathsome ulcers within and without, breeding lice and worms; violent torments and convulsions; so that he endeavoured to kill himself, but was restrained by his friends, The Jews thought these evils to be divine judgments upon him for his wickedness.

He left a numerous family of children and grandchildren, though he had put some to death, which in the space of about an hundred years was extinct.

Herod Antipas, who beheaded John the Baptist, and treated Christ contemptuously, when he was brought before him, was defeated by Aretas an Arabian king, and afterwards had his dominions taken from him, and was sent into banishment, along with his infamous wife Herodias, by the Emperor Caius.

"Of [Salome] the daughter of Herodias, it is related, that she going over the ice in the winter, the “ice brake, and she slipt in up to the head, which at "last was severed from her body by the sharpness of "the ice; idque non sine Dei numine, God requiring "her head for that of the Baptist's she desired; which, if true, was a wonderful providence.” Whitby on Matt. xiv.

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Whitby did well to say, if true; for the story hath the air of a legend, was unknown to the ancients, cant boast no better vouchers than Nicephorus and Metaphrastes,

*

As to this Compiler, we cannot help observing that he was not used according to his deserts by his contemporaries. The man's name

taphrastes, and is not adopted even by Tillemont, H. E. i. 101.

Of all the actors in tragedy, Salome may seem to have been the least guilty, as she was a girl of fourteen years, and acted under the command of her profligate mother.

Pontius Pilate, who condemned Christ to death, was not long afterwards deposed and banished, and died by his own hands. "Nor ought it to be passed "over in silence, that Pilate himself, who condemned "our Saviour to death, fell into so great calamities, "in the reign of Caius, that he became his own exe

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cutioner, the divine vengeance overtaking him* "not long after his crime. This we learn from the "Greek historians." Eusebius ii. 7. and Orosius vii. 5.

The High-Priest Caiaphas was deposed by Vitellius three years after the death of Christ, which gave no offence to the Jews, who loved him not. Thus this wicked man, who condemned Christ for fear of disobliging the Romans, was ignominiously turned out of his office by the Roman governor. Josephus Ant.

xviii. 4.

To these we may add Flaccus, the governor of Egypt, who persecuted, though not the Christians, yet the Jews in a most cruel manner, A. D. 38. "The "wrath of God overtook Flaccus. Bassus a centu"rion, giving the signal to his soldiers, came upon "him and forced him away from his own table. His effects were seized, and he would have been sent to

was Symeon, and they surnamed him Metaphrastes; but they ought to have called him Symeon Pseustes, or Symeon the Liar.

sx eis μaxçar, non longo post tempore; which is wanting in the version of Valesius.

Gyarus, the most barren of all the islands in the Ægean sea, if Lepidus had not intreated for him "that he might be banished to Andros. They say "that one night lifting up his eyes to heaven, he "cried out, O King of gods and men, thou art then "a favourer of the Jews, and they do not falsely "boast of being under thy protection! When Caius "had ordered all the exiles of rank and reputation to "be destroyed, and had particularly named Flaccus, "assassins were sent to dispatch him. When they " landed at Andros, Flaccus guessed for what pur

pose they were come, and getting into an unfre"quented path, he fled to conceal himself: but they "overtook him, and immediately some of them digg"ed a pit in the ground, others dragged him into it, "as he was struggling and screaming, and stabbed "him the more cruelly for his making resistance." Philo. See S. Basnage Ann. i. 493.

Catullus, governor of Libya, was also a cruel persecutor of the Jews, and died miserably, about A. D.

73.

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"Such was the lenity of the emperors towards Catullus, that their disapprobation was all the punish"ment which he then underwent; but not long after"wards he fell into a complicated and incurable disease, and died wretchedly; sorely tormented in "his body, and worse in his mind. He was dreadfully terrified, and continually crying out "that he was haunted by the ghosts of those whom he had slain and not being able to contain him"self, he leaped out of the bed, as if he were tor"tured with fire, and put to the rack. His distemper "increased, till his entrails were all corrupted, and "came out of his body, and thus he perished, as

:.

"signal

signal an example as ever was known of the divine "Justice rendering to the wicked according to their "deeds." Josephus B. Jud. vii. 11.

The wicked and mad emperor Caius did not perse cute the Christians, whom he knew not, but was determined to destroy the Jews with whom they were mixed, and blasphemed the God of the Jews and Christians, and wanted to set up his own image in the temple at Jerusalem, to be worshipped by all the nation. He was cut off by a conspiracy, and Petronius, governor of Syria, saved his life by it, for Caius would have put him to death, because he had delayed to execute those frantic orders. See Tillemont H. des Emp. i. p. 446, &c.

Herod Agrippa killed Jaines the brother of John, and put Peter in prison: and the angel of the Lord smote him, and he was eaten with worms, and gave up the ghost. Acts xii. where Whitby says;

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Examples of the like exits of the persecutors of the "Christian faith, we have many in Church History. "Thus Tertullian saith of one Claudius Heminianus, one of their persecutors, that, cum vivus vermibus ebullisset, when worms broke forth from him whilst he was alive, he said, Let no man know it, lest the "Christians should rejoice. Eusebius saith of Maxi"mian, that sudden ulcers arose in his fundament "and secret parts, from which sprang an incredible "multitude of worms. And of the uncle of Julian "the apostate, whe persecuted the Christians, and tramp"led upon the sacred vessels, Theodoret and Chrysostom inform us, that he perished by this disease, for his "scrotum corrupted and bred worms.

An instance like to this we have in Pherecydes Syrus, eaten up of lice, for boasting of his great wis

"dom

dom and his pleasant life, though he sacrificed to no "God at all, saith Elian, Var. Hist. iv. 28. Diog. Laert. i. p. 75. 77. See Bochart Hiorez. p. 2. L. “iv. 23. p. 620, 621. So also was it under the Jewish state: for of Antiochus Epiphanes we read, that "worms sprang out of the body of this wicked man. "2 Macc. ix. 8, 9. &c.

Add to these the story of Pheretimé, from Herodo

tus :

"Nor did this wicked woman come to an happy "end; for as soon as she had returned from Lybia "to Egypt, after having taken revenge on the Bar"cæans, she perished miserably, being eaten up of "worms. Thus immoderate revenge brings down the displeasure of the gods upon cruel persons." Herodotus iv. 205.

Ananias, the high-priest, persecuted St Paul, and insolently ordered the bystanders to smite him on the mouth. And Paul said, God shall smite thee, &c.

Chrysostom and Augustin are of opinion that St Paul (though perhaps he had no such design) spake thus prophetically; for Ananias, after having contributed to the ruin of his country by a powerful faction which he had raised, and which produced many calamities, was slain, after the revolt of the Jews, A. D. 66. with his brother, and fell, not by the arms of the Romans, but by another faction of the Jews, which was headed by his own son. Tillemont, H. E. i. p. 274.

Ananus, the high-priest, slew St James the lesser, A. D. 62. for which, and for other outrages, he was deposed soon after by king Agrippa the younger, and probably