taxing, hindered not, but unwittingly suffered themselves and their babes to be betrayed to an irremediable butchery. 4. "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, Lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted." All the synonymas of sadness were little enough to express this great weeping, when fourteen thousand mothers in one day saw their pretty babes pouring forth their blood into that bosom, whence not long before they had sucked milk; and instead of those pretty smiles which use to entertain the fancy and dear affections of their mothers, nothing but affrighting shrieks, and then ghastly looks. The mourning was great, like "the mourning in the valley of Hinnom3, and there was no comforter;" their sorrow was too big to be cured, till it should lie down alone, and rest with its own weariness. 5. But the malice of Herod went also into the hill country; and hearing that of John, the son of Zachary, great things were spoken, by which he was designed to a great ministry about this young prince, he attempted in him also to rescind the prophecies, and sent a messenger of death towards him; but the mother's care had been early with him, and sent him into desert places, where he continued till the time appointed" of his manifestation unto Israel." But as the children of Bethlehem died in the place of Christ, so did the father of the Baptist die for his child; for Herod "slew Zachary between the temple and the altar," because he refused to betray his son to the fury of that rabid bear. Though some persons, very eminent amongst the stars of the primitive church, report a tradition, that a place being separated in the temple for virgins, Zachary suffered the mother of our Lord to abide there after the birth of her holy Son, affirming her still to be a virgin; and that for this reason, not Herod, but the scribes and pharisees, did kill Zachary. 6. Tertullian reports that the blood of Zachary had so besmeared the stones of the pavement, which was the altar on which the good old priest was sacrificed, that no art or industry could wash the tincture out, the dye and guilt being both indelible; as if, because God did intend to exact of that nation "all the blood of righteous persons from Abel to Zacharias," who was the last of the martyrs of the synagogue, He would leave a character of their guilt in their eyes, to upbraid their irreligion, cruelty, and infidelity. Some there are who affirm these words of our blessed Saviour not to relate to any Zachary who had been already slain, but to be a prophecy of the last of all the martyrs of the Jews, who should be slain immediately before P [See vol. iv. p. 391.] Sic Chrysost. [vid. in Matth. hom. lxxiv. § 2. tom. vii. p. 717.] et Petrus Martyr. episc. Alexandr. [p. 638.] Niceph. [lib. ii. cap. 3. tom. i. p. 135 C.] et Cedren. [tom. vii. p. 149.] Sic aiunt Origen. tract. 26. in Evang. Matt. [tom. iii. p. 846.] S. Basil. homil De humana Christi generatione. § 5. tom. ii. p. 600.] Nyssen. in Natali Christi. [tom. iii. p. 343.] Cyril. [Alex.] adv. Anthropomorph. [cap. 27. tom. vi. p. 397.] In Scorpiace, cap. 8. [p. 493 D.] : the destruction of the last temple, and the dissolution of the nation. Certain it is that such a Zachary the son of Baruch (if we may be lieve Josephus) was slain in the middle of the temple, a little before it was destroyed; and it is agreeable to the nature of the prophecy and reproof here made by our blessed Saviour, that 'from Abel to Zachary' should take in "all the righteous blood" from first to last, till the iniquity was complete; and it is not imaginable that the blood of our blessed Lord, and of St. James their bishop (for whose death many of themselves thought God destroyed their city), should be left out of the account, which yet would certainly be left out, if any other Zachary should be meant than he whom they last slew and in proportion to this, Cyprian de Valera" expounds that which we read in the past tense, to signify the future, 'ye slew,' i. e. 'shall slay;' according to the style often used by prophets, and as the aorist of an uncertain signification will bear. But the first great instance of the divine vengeance for these executions was upon Herod, who in very few years after was smitten of God with so many plagues and tortures, that himself alone seemed like an hospital of the incurabili: for he was tormented with a soft slow fire, like that of burning iron or the cinders of yew, in his body; in his bowels, with intolerable colics and ulcers; in his natural parts, with worms; in his feet, with gout; in his nerves, with convulsions, difficulty of breathing; and out of divers parts of his body issued out so impure and ulcerous a steam, that the loathsomeness, pain, and indignation, made him once to snatch a knife with purpose to have killed himself, but that he was prevented by a nephew of his that stood there in his attendance. 7. But as the flesh of beasts grows callous by stripes and the pressures of the yoke, so did the heart of Herod by the loads of divine vengeance; God began his hell here, and the pains of hell never made any man less impious. For Herod, perceiving that he must now die, first put to death his son Antipater, under pretence that he would have poisoned him; and that the last scene of his life might for pure malice and exalted spite outdo all the rest, because he believed the Jewish nation would rejoice at his death, he assembled all the nobles of the people and put them in prison, giving in charge to his sister Salome that when he was expiring his last all the nobility should be slain, that his death might be lamented with a perfect and universal sorrow. 8. But God, that brings to nought the counsels of wicked princes, turned the design against the intendment of Herod; for when he was dead, and could not call his sister to account for disobeying his most bloody and unrighteous commands, she released all the imprisoned and despairing gentlemen, and made the day of her brother's death a [De bell. Jud., lib. iv. cap. 5. § 4. tom. ii. p. 1185.] u [On Matt. xxiii. 35.] • Δειναὶ γὰρ κοῖται καὶ ἀποιχομένοιο λέοντος. [Plut. in Mario, c. xlv. tom. ii. p. 892.] perfect jubilee, a day of joy, such as was that when the nation was delivered from the violence of Haman in the days of Purim. 9. And all this while God had provided a sanctuary for the holy child Jesus. For God, seeing the secret purposes of blood which Herod had, sent His angel", "who appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and fly into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word; for Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him. Then he arose, and took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt." And they made their first abode in Hermopolis, in the country of Thebais; whither when they first arrived, the child Jesus being by design or providence carried into a temple, all the statues of the idol-gods fell down', like Dagon at the presence of the ark, and suffered their timely and just dissolution and dishonour, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, "Behold the Lord shall come into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence"." And in the life of the prophet Jeremyb written by Epiphanius, it is reported "that he told the Egyptian priests, that then their idols should be broken in pieces, when a holy virgin, with her child, should enter into their country;" which prophecy possibly might be the cause that the Egyptians did, besides their vanities, worship also an infant in a manger, and a virgin in her bed. 10. From Hermopolis to Maturea went these holy pilgrims in pursuance of their safety and provisions; where, it was reported, they dwelt in a garden of balsam, till Joseph being at the end of seven years (as it is commonly believed) ascertained by an angel of the death of Herod, and commanded to return to the land of Israel, he was obedient to the heavenly vision and returned. But hearing that Archelaus did reign in the place of his father, and knowing that the cruelty and ambition of Herod was hereditary, or entailed upon Archelaus, being also warned to turn aside into the parts of Galilee, which was of a distinct jurisdiction, governed indeed by one of Herod's sons, but not by Archelaus, thither he diverted; and there that holy family remained in the city of Nazareth, whence the holy Child had the appellative of a Nazarene. Ad SECTION VI. Considerations upon the death of the Innocents, and the flight of the holy Jesus into Egypt. 1. HEROD, having called the wise men, and received information of their design, and the circumstances of the child, pretended religion y Matt. ii. 13. z Euseb. de Demonstr. [lib. ix. cap. 2.] S. Athanas. lib. de Incarn. Verb. [§ 32. tom. i. p. 74.] Palladius in vita S. Apollon. [Hist. Lausiac., cap. lii. init. p. 977.] a Isa. xix. 1. b Dorotheus in Synopsi. [p. 146 B.] Pallad. in vita S. Apollon. [vid. not. z sup.] too, and desired them to bring him word when they had found the babe," that he might come and worship Him;" meaning to make a sacrifice of Him to whom he should pay his adoration; and instead of investing the young prince with the royal purple, he would have stained His swaddling-bands with His blood. It is ever dangerous when a wicked prince pretends religion; his design is then foulest by how much it needs to put on a fairer outside; but it was an early policy in the world, and it concerned men's interest to seem religious when they thought that to be so was an abatement of great designs. When Jezebel designed the robbing and destroying Naboth, she sent to the elders to proclaim a fast; for the external and visible remonstrances of religion leave in the spirits of men a great reputation of the seeming person, and therefore they will not rush into a furious sentence against his actions, at least not judge them with prejudice against the man towards whom they are so fairly prepared, but do some violence to their own understanding, and either disbelieve their own reason, or excuse the fact, or think it but an error, or a less crime, or the incidences of humanity; or however are so long in decreeing against him whom they think to be religious, that the rumour is abated, or the stream of indignation is diverted by other laborious arts, intervening before our zeal is kindled; and so the person is unjudged, or at least the design secured. 2. But in this, human policy was exceedingly infatuated and though Herod had trusted his design to no keeper but himself, and had pretended fair, having religion for the word, and "called the wise men privately," and intrusted them with no employment but a civil request, an account of the success of their journey, which they had no reason, or desire, to conceal; yet his heart was opened to the eye of heaven, and the sun was not more visible than his dark purpose was to God; and it succeeded accordingly; the child was sent away, the wise men warned not to return, Herod was mocked and enraged; and so his craft became foolish and vain: and so are all counsels intended against God, or any thing of which He himself hath undertaken the protection. For although we understand not the reasons of security, because we see not that admirable concentring of infinite things in the divine providence whereby God brings His purposes to act by ways unlooked for and sometimes contradictory, yet the public and perpetual experience of the world hath given continual demonstrations that all evil counsels have come to nought; that the succeeding of an impious design is no argument that the man is prosperous; that the curse is then surest when his fortune spreads the largest; that the contradictions and impossibilities of deliverance to pious persons are but an opportunity and engagement for God to do wonders, and to glorify His power and to exalt His mercy by the instances of miraculous or extraordinary events. And as the afflictions happening to good men are alleviated by the support of God's good Spirit, and enduring them here are but consignations to an honourable amends hereafter; so the succeeding prosperities of fortunate impiety, when they meet with punishment in the next, or in the third age, or in the deletion of a people five ages after, are the greatest arguments of God's providence, who keeps wrath in store, and forgets not to "do judgment for all them that are oppressed with wrong." It was laid up with God, and was perpetually in His eye, being the matter of a lasting, durable, and unremitted anger. 3. But God had care of the holy Child; He sent His angel to warn Joseph, with the babe and His mother, to fly into Egypt. Joseph and Mary instantly arise; and without enquiry how they shall live there, or when they shall return, or how be secured, or what accommodations they shall have in their journey, at the same hour of the night begin the pilgrimage with the cheerfulness of obedience, and the securities of faith, and the confidence of hope, and the joys of love, knowing themselves to be recompensed for all the trouble they could endure; that they were instruments of the safety of the holy Jesus; that they then were serving God; that they were encircled with the securities of the divine providence; and in these dispositions all places were alike, for every region was a paradise where they were in company with Jesus. And indeed that man wants many degrees of faith and prudence, who is solicitous for the support of his necessities when he is doing the commandment of God. If He commands thee to offer a sacrifice, Himself will provide a lamb, or enable thee to find one; and He would remove thee into a state of separation where thy body needs no supplies of provision, if He meant thou shouldest serve Him without provisions. He will certainly take away thy need, or satisfy itd; He will feed thee Himself, as He did the Israelites; or take away thy hunger, as He did to Moses; or send ravens to feed thee, as He did to Elias; or make charitable people minister to thee, as the widow to Elisha; or give thee His own portion, as He maintained the Levites; or make thine enemies to pity thee, as the Assyrians did the captive Jews. For whatsoever the world hath, and whatsoever can be conveyed by wonder or by providence, all that is thy security for provisions so long as thou doest the work of God. And remember, that the assurance of blessing, and health, and salvation, is not made by doing what we list, or being where we desire, but by doing God's will, and being in the place of His appointment. We inay be safe in Egypt, if we be there in obedience to God; and we may perish among the babes of Bethlehem, if we be there by our own election. 4. Joseph and Mary did not argue against the angel's message, because they had a confidence of their charge, who with the breath of His mouth could have destroyed Herod, though he had been abetted with all the legions marching under the Roman eagles; but φίλους, ἀρίστην μαντικὴν ἔχοι δόμοις. - Eurip. [Hel. 759.] a Heb. xiii. 5, 6. |