Page:Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus, 1842.djvu/68

36 Micah, announcing that it would be in Bethlehem, in a single edict he orders the male infants from two years and below to be slain, both in Bethlehem and all its parts, according to the time that he had accurately ascertained from the Magi; thinking at all events, as seemed very probable, that he would carry off Jesus also, in the same destruction with those of his own age. The child, however, anticipated the snare, being carried into Egypt by his parents, who had been informed by the appearance of an angel of what was about to happen. These same facts are also stated in the sacred text of the gospel.

It is also worth while to observe the reward which Herod received for his criminal audacity against Christ and the infants; how, without the least delay, the Divine justice immediately overtook him; and even before his death, exhibited the prelude to those punishments that awaited him after death. It is not possible for me here, to relate in what ways he tarnished what was supposed to be the felicity of his reign, by the successive calamities of his family, the slaughter of his wife and children, and the rest of his kindred, allied to him in the closest and most tender bonds. The whole subject of these particulars, which casts all the representations of tragedy into the shade, has been handled to its full extent in the histories written by Josephus. But to understand in what manner also, the chastisement of Heaven scourged him onwards to the period of death, it may not be less proper to hear the words of the same author, describing the end of his life, in the seventeenth book of his Antiquities, as follows: " But the disease of Herod became daily more virulent, God inflicting punishment for his crimes. For it was a slow fire, not only exhibiting to those who touched him a heat in proportion to the internal wasting of his body, but there was also an excessive desire and craving after food, whilst no one dared to refuse. This was attended with swellings of the intestines, and especially excessive pains of the colon. A moist and transparent humour also covered his feet. Similar also was the disease about the ventricle, so that the corruption causing worms in the lower part of the abdomen, there was an increased violence of breathing, which of itself was very offensive; both on account of the disagreeable