Deir brethren in Judea.' Tacitus and Eusebius refer o another in the same reign; and Suetonius in his life of Claudius, makes a pointed reference to it, when he says, "that Cæsar, during the scarcity, made use of every "possible means to supply the city with provisions, 974 even in the worst seasons."

-That the Jewish Nation was likewise afflicted with pestilence, we learn from Josephus; who says, " In the "sixth year, a pestilence fell upon the city of Babylon, "causing the Jewish inhabitants to remove their dwellings to the city of Selucia." "This occasioned," says Archbishop Newcome, "a dreadful commotion: "for the Greeks and Syrians combined against the "Jews, and slew about five myriads of them. Josephus "mentions this calamity of his nation in strong terms: "and says that the greatness of the slaughter was unparalleled in their former history."-This happened A. D. 40.

There was a very great mortality at Rome in the sixty-fifth year of the Christian æra; and Suetonius in his life of Nero, speaks of a “plague, by which in one "autumn there died no less than thirty thousand per

sons,

(1) Acts, xi. 29. Then the Disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the Brethren which dwelt in Judea.

(2) Frugum quoque egestas et orta ex eo fames in prodigium accipiebatur. Ann. xii. 43.

(3) Fames facta in Græcia-Magna fames Romæ.-Chr. p. 160. (4) Nihil non excogitavit ad invehendos etiam in tempore hiberno commeatus. Suet. in vitâ Claud. xix. Arctiore autem annona propter assiduas sterilitates. Ibid. xviii. Vide also Bell. Jud. 4, i. 7.-Tacit. xiv. 38. and Suet. xlv.

(5) Obs. on the conduct of our Lord, p. 213.

sons, as appeared by the registers of the Temple of "Libitina." And Tacitus, about the same time, presents us with a picture of distress, at which humanity shudders. "To the blood and horrour, that made this year for ever memorable, we may add the vengeance "of Heaven, declared by storms and tempests, and "epidemic disorders. A violent hurricane made the country of Campania a scene of desolation; whole vil'lages were overthrown, plantations were torn up by "the roots, and the hopes of the year destroyed. The fury of the storm was felt in the neighbourhood of "Rome, where, without any apparent cause in the " atmosphere, a contagious distemper broke out, and swept 60 away a vast number of inhabitants. The houses "were filled with dead bodies, and the streets with "funeral processions. Neither sex nor age escaped. "Slaves, and men of gentle birth were carried off with"out distinction, amidst the shrieks and lamentations "of their wives and children. Numbers, while they "assisted their expiring friends, or bewailed their loss, were suddenly seized by the infection, and were burnt upon the same funeral pile."

2

Josephus

(1) Pestilentia unius Autumni, quâ triginta funerum millia in rationem Libitinæ venerunt. In vitâ Neros, xxxix.

AND I WILL BRING A SWORD UPON YOU, THAT SHALL AVENGE THE QUARREL OF MY COVENANT: AND WHEN YE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER WITHIN YOUR CITIES, I WILL SEND MY PESTILENCE AMONG YOU: AND YE SHALL BE DELIVERED INTO THE HAND OF THE ENEMY. Levit. xxvi. 25,

(2) Tot facinoribus fædum annum etiam Dii tempestatibus et morbis insignivere. Vastata Campania turbine ventorum qui villas, arbusta, fruges passim disjecit: pertulitque violentiam ad vicina urbi: in qua omne mortalium genus vis pestilentiæ depopulabatur, nulla cæli intemperie quæ occurreret oculis. Sed domus corporibus exanimis, itinera funeribus com

plebantur

1

Josephus also mentions, that a person whose name was "Niger, being put to death by the seditious Jews, "imprecated pestilence upon them; which happened a short time after"—and," that being assembled together from all parts, to the feast of unleavened "bread; a sudden plague fell amongst them from the closeness of the place,

Josephus makes no other mention of earthquakes, than, that "when the Idumæans would have entered "into the city, there was a horrible tempest, violent "winds and rain, frequent lightnings, terrible thun

ders, and mighty roarings of the quaking of the earth; "insomuch that it seemed as if the state and frame of "the world had been disturbed."

"')

:

Suetonius speaks of an earthquake, and Tacitus mentions another at Rome;* and a third at Apamea, in the reign of Claudius; which was so destructive, that the Emperour remitted the tribute of the city, for five years also another at Laodicea, in the reign of Nero. Eusebius, in his Chronicle, affirms, "that three "cities

plebantur. Non sexus, non ætas periculo vacua. Servitia perinde ac ingenua plebes raptim extingui, inter conjugium et liberorum lamenta, qui 'dum assident, dum deffent, sæpe eodem rogo cremabantur.-Ann. xvi. 18. (2) Bell. Jud. 7. xvii. 1. ́ ́ ́ ́)

(1) Bell. Jud. 5. i. 1.

སྙ་ ་་་འི་སཎྜསྙན ཎྜ【1 (3) Bell. Jud. 4. xvii. 5.** «!?!

(4) Multa eo anno prodigia evenere. Infessum diris avibus Capitolium: crebis terræ motibus prorutæ domus.—Ann. xii. 43.

(5) Tributumque Apamiensibus terra motu convulsis in quinquennium remissum.-Ann. xii. 58.

· ́(6) Eodem anno ex illustribus Asiæ urbibus Laodicea TREMORE PROLAPSA, nullo a nobis remedio, propriis viribus revaluit.-Ann. xiv. 27.

2

7

"cities of Asia were overthrown by an earthquake" at the same time. In the sixty-second year of the Christian æra, there was a great earthquake in Campania, which destroyed the City of Pompeia, mentioned also by Tacitus, but more fully described by Seneca; together with the ruin of Herculaneum, and the injury sustained in the city of Naples; both as to the smaller, though public loss to the citizens; and the greater, but private injury sustained by the individuals of the sur rounding country, from the destruction of their cattle.

The predictions therefore referring to these three distinct kinds of calamities, appear to have been fully verified.

III. Again it was predicted that the Gospel should be

pub

(1) In Asia tres urbes terræ motu conciderunt Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colossa. Chr. p. 161:

(2) EX MOTU TERRE celebre Campania oppidum Pompeii magna ex parte proruit.-Ann. xv. 22,

Hi autem terræ motus a Christo prædicti partim in Claudii partim in Neronis, tempora inciderunt. Gravis terræ motus qui in Creta accidit, Claudio imperante, meminit Philostratus in vita Apolloni; item terræ motuum Smyrna Mileti, Chii, Sami paulò ante tempora exisæ urbis Hieros. Grotius in Matt. xxiv. 7..

(3) Pompeios, celebrem Campaniæ urbem-desedisse TERRÆ MOTU, vexatis quacunque adjacentibus regionibus, Lucili virorum optime, audivimus: et quidem in diebus hibernis, quos vacare a tali periculo majores nostri solebant promittere. Nonis Febr. fuit motus hic, Regulo et Virginio Consulibus, qui Campaniam nunquam securam hujus mali, idemnem tamen, et totiens defunctam metu, magna strage vastavit. Nam et Herculanensis oppidi pars ruit, dubieque stant etiam quæ relicta sunt. Et Nucirinorum colonia, ut sine clade, ita non sine querela est. Neapolis quoque privatim multa, publice nihil amisit, leviter ingenti malo perstricta. Villæ vero præruptæ passim sine injuria tremuere. Adjiciunt his sexcentarum ovium gregem exanimatum, et divisas statuas.

Senec. Not. Qu. l. 6. c. 1..

R.

published to all nations, and be preached in all the world.'

Tacitus bears witness and speaks largely of the introduction of the Christian Religion to the Roman Empire; which including the nations immediately surrounding was at that time considered as the whole of the world. He remarks in particular, that the Christian Religion which arose in Judea, spread over many parts of the world, and extended to Rome itself; where the professors of it, as early as the time of Nero, amounted to a vast multitude.

2

St. Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, himself preached the Gospel to the greater part of the known world."He went," says Clemens in his Epistle to the Corinthians, "to the utmost bounds of East and West." When therefore we survey the tract of his travels, for the promulgation and establishment of Christianity, to all the nations whose inhabitants were strangers to Judea; and consider also the intercourse subsisting between the Jews and the Medes, Parthians, Elamites, Meso

(1) AND THIS GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM SHALL BE PREACHED IN ALL THE WORLD, FOR A WITNESS UNTO ALL NATIONS.-Matt. xxiv. 14.

AND THE GOSPEL MUST FIRST BE PUBLISHED AMONG ALL NATIONS

Mark, xiii. 10.

So that from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ.-Rom. xv. 19.

(2) Ann xv. 44.

"It is by an effect of the same Providence," says Rollin," which prepared from far the ways of the Gospel; that when the Messiah revealed himself in the flesh, God had united together a great number of Nations, by the Latin and Greek Tongues: and had subjected to one Monarch, from the Ocean to the Euphrates, all the People not united by Language, in order to give a more free course to the preaching of the Apostles."

Preface to Ancient Hist.