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husband, to let the soldiers in upon them and slay them the moment he was dead; alleging, that by this means, he should ensure the mourning of all the families of Judah in spite of themselves; and thus adjuring his sister and her husband with his dying breath to accomplish this detestable project, he expired in horrible pain and torment, smitten of God in a signal and grievous manner, for his many enormous iniquities.*

* Prid. ii. 756. Matt. ii. 19-23. Not long before his decease he attempted to stab himself. -Jos. iii. 27. "I cannot forbear here remarking that most of the great persecutors have died the like death, by being smitten of God in like manner in the secret parts. Thus died Antiochus Epiphanes; thus died Herod, the great persecutor of Christ and the infants at Bethlehem; thus died Galerius Maximianus, the author and great persecutor of the tenth and greatest persecution against the primitive Christians; and thus also died Philip II, king of Spain, as infamous for the cruelty of his persecutions, and the numbers destroyed by it, as either of the others." Prid. ii. 242–245. 757. where see the authorities collected. See also Watson's Life of Philip II. vol. iii. 333. But as all former persecutions were infinitely exceeded by the monstrosities of the Parisian massacre, perpetrated by Charles IX, his mother Catherine of Medicis, the Guises, and other popish princes and nobles, on the eve of St. Bartholemew, 1572; so not only the stings of conscience, but the visible inflictions of an offended and insulted God, were perhaps most conspicuous in the visitations of that inhuman monarch. "Charles fell mortally sick in the wood of Vincennes, the blood issuing from every aperture of his body; so that it was conjectured he had been poisoned. Whatever was the cause (if we may be permitted to judge of kings, who are amenable to the Almighty) it was a divine punishment for his blasphemies, and perhaps on account of the torrents of blood he had caused to be shed."-Perefixe. "His agonies were poignant in the extreme, and the blood oozed from all the pores of his flesh."-SULLY. "Charles IX. expired in his blood at the castle of Vincennes, on the 30th of May 1574. His body was opened, but neither abscess nor gangrene was apparent; it was, however, full of wounds, the cause of which the surgeons could never ascertain.-Even the infidel Voltaire could not avoid

ascribing the visitation of this wretched sovereign, to the immediate appointment of that God, in whose existence he himself affected to disbelieve.

Dieu déployant sur lui sa vengeance sévére,
Marqua ce roi mourant, du sceau de sa colére.
Omniscience against him displayed vengeance dire,
For this monarch in death bore the stamp of his ire."

Parisian Massacre, by Comber, Passim. Mem. of Henry the Great, vol. i. 169, 170. 180. 182.

And we may add with the prophet-" God is jealous, and Jehovah revengeth; Jehovah revengeth, and is furious; Jehovah will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. Jehovah is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked; Jehovah hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet; he rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers. Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. Jehovah is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. Nahum, i. 2-8.

The Pedigree of the Idumæan family, so far as relates to the New Testament history, may be thus exhibited. Compare Prid. ii. 758. with Basnage, p. 27. &c.; and see Whiston's note, post p. 487. and Adam Clarke, on Matt. ii. 1. xiv. 1. Watson's Theo. Dic. sub vocis Herod, Agrippa, and Philip.

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481

THE TETRARCHATE.

UPON the decease of this wretched man,* his extensive territories were divided amongst three of his sons; Archelaus, one of his sons by Malthace, being made tetrarch of Judea, Idumæa, and Samaria; Herod-Antipas, another of his sons by the same wife, tetrarch of Galilee and Peræa; and Philip, his son by Cleopatra of Jerusalem, tetrarch of Trachonitis, Paneas, and Batanea, or Ituræa.+

Joseph being warned by an angel in a dream, arose, and took the young child and his mother, and returned out of Egypt into the land of Israel; and there he, and Mary his wife, settled again at Nazareth, in Galilee, the place of their former habitation; and there Jesus grew up, and dwelt with them till the time that he entered on his public ministration.‡

A curious incident is mentioned by some of the Roman historians, of the contempt in which the religion of the Jews was held by that people ;§ and which is so far material as sufficiently to account for the trifling mention which is made

* Bishop Clayton is of opinion that Jonathan Ben Uzziel, who was bred in the school of Hillel, composed his famous Targum during the reign of Herod the Great. Impartial Inquiry-Second Letter to an eminent Jew, p. 10.

† Crevier, i. 286. Prid. ii. 758.

Prid. ii. 758.

According to the maxims of universal toleration, the Romans protected a superstition which they despised. Gibb. ii. 268. Quis est, Judices, qui hoc vere non laudare possit? exportari aurum non oportere, cum sæpe antea senatus, tum me consule, gravissime judicavit. Huic autem barbara superstitioni resistere, severitatis: multitudinem Judæorum, flagrantem nonnunquam in concionibus, pro republica contemnere, gravitatis summæ fuit. Cic. pro Flacco. cap. 28. Neither the violence of Antiochus, nor the arts of Herod, could ever persuade the Jews to associate with the institutions of Moses the elegant mythology of the Greeks!! Gibb. ii. 268.

of it by them, and of the errors which that trifle contains. Caius Cæsar, the grandson of Augustus, travelling through Judea, in his way from Egypt to Armenia, abstained from offering any sacrifice there, expressly intending thereby to shew his contempt for their religion; an action which Augustus himself is said to have highly approved ;* an extraordinary exemplification of the enmity of the human heart against God, being one of a thousand instances to be seen in all ages, of wonderful liberality being extended to all sorts of errors and superstitions, whilst the most pointed malice is constantly exhibited towards vital godliness, and the religion of the true God.†

Archelaus acted with so much tyranny and cruelty, that after he had reigned about ten years, he was summoned to appear before Augustus, at Rome, to answer charges brought against him, as well by the Jews, as by the Samaritans; and, being found guilty, he was deposed from his principality, had all his goods condemned to be confiscated, and himself banished to Vienne, in France, situated on the Rhone.‡

And now it was that the great prophecy of Jacob, concerning the Messiah, was accomplished: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come."§ And, accordingly, Jesus being now twelve years old, his parents went to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast of the passover. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried

* Prid. ii. 759.

+ Ex gratiâ, Dr. Lushington, Sir James Scarlett, &c. are vastly liberal towards Socinians and Papists, but are fearfully bitter and venomous against Wesleyan methodists, and pious clergymen and dissenters. In truth, liberality is now a secret cover and cloak for infidelity.

Prid. ii. 760. Crevier. i. 287.

§ Gen. xlix. 10. Kidder. Gill, 30. Harris, 97. Bishop Clayton's Second Letter, S3.

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