תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

the temple-a voice against bridegrooms and brides-a voice against the whole people!" These words he incessantly

proclaimed aloud both day and night, through all the streets of Jerusalem, for seven years and five months together, commencing at a time (A. D. 62) when the city was in a state of peace and overflowing with prosperity, and terminating amidst the horrors of the siege. This disturber, having excited the attention of the magistracy, was brought before Albinus, the Roman governor, who commanded that he should be scourged. But the severest stripes drew from him neither tears nor supplications. As he never thanked those who relieved, so neither did he complain of the injustice of those who struck him. And no other answer could the governor obtain to his interrogatories, but his usual denunciation of "Wo, wo to Jerusalem!" which he still continued to proclaim through the city, but especially during the festivals, when his man

ner became more earnest, and the tone of his voice louder. At length, on the commencement of the siege, he ascended the walls, and, in a more powerful voice than ever, exclaimed, "Wo, wo to this city, this temple, and this people!" And then, with a presentiment of his own death, added, "Wo, wo to myself!" He had scarcely uttered these words, when a stone from one of the Roman engines killed him on the spot.

Such are the prodigies related by Josephus, and which, excepting the first, he places in the year immediately preceding the Jewish war. Several of them are recorded also by Tacitus. Nevertheless, it ought to be observed, that they are received by christian writers cautiously, and with various degrees of credit. Those, however, who are most sceptical, and who resolve them into natural causes, allow the "superintendance of God ta awaken his people by some of these

means.” Whatever the fact, in this respect, may be, it is clear that they corresponded to our Lord's prediction of "fearful sights, and great signs from heaven;" and ought to be deemed a sufficient answer to the objector, who demands, whether any such appearances are respectably recorded.

The next prediction of our Lord related to the persecutions of his disciples: "They shall lay their hands on you," said he, "and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake*;" "and they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues ye shall be beatent," "and some of you shall they cause to be put to death." In the very infancy of the christian church, these unmerited and unprovoked cruelties began to be inflicted. Our Lord, and his forerunner John the Baptist, had already * Luke xxi. 12. † Mark xiii. 9.

Luke xxi. 16.

been put to death; the apostles Peter and John were first imprisoned, and then, together with the other apostles, were scourged before the Jewish council; Stephen, after confounding the Sanhedrim with his irresistible eloquence, was stoned to death; Herod Agrippa "stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church," beheaded James the brother of Jolin, and again imprisoned Peter, designing to put him to death also; St. Paul pleaded before the Jewish council at Jerusalem, and before Felix, the Roman governor, who trembled on the judgment seat, while the intrepid prisoner "reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come!" Two years afterwards, he was brought before the tribunal of Festus (who had succeeded Felix in the government), king Agrippa the younger being present, who, while the governor scoffed, ingenuously acknowledged the force of the apostle's eloquence, and, half convinced, exclaimed, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a

christian." Lastly, he pleaded before the emperor Nero at Rome; he was also brought with Silas before the rulers at Philippi, where both of them were scourged and imprisoned. Paul was likewise imprisoned two years in Judea, and afterwards twice at Rome, each time for the space of two years. He was scourged by the Jews five times, thrice beaten with rods, and once stoned; nay, he himself, before his conversion, was an instrument of fulfilling these predictions. St. Luke relates of him, that " he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, committed them to prison; when they were put to death, he gave his voice against them; he punished them oft in every synagogue, and persecuted them even into strange cities;" and to this agree his own declarations*. At length, about two years before the Jewish war, the first general persecution commenced at the instigation of the emperor Nero, "who,"

* Vide Acts xxvi. 10, 11. Gal. i. 23.

[ocr errors]
« הקודםהמשך »