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ST. MATTHEW. 43 16. Then Herod perceiving that he was deceived by the Magi, was exceedingly wroth; and sending, he killed all the men-children that were in Bethlehem, and in all its borders, from two years and under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the Magi.

17. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, when he saith:

18. “A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning: Rachel bewailing her children, and she would not be comforted, because they are not.”

shadowed in the history of their ancestors; and so they were prepared for the application which the sacred writers make of the prophecies. As the evangelist was inspired by the Holy Ghost in his use of the ancient testimonies, as well as in all other respects, we cannot doubt that this secondary and allegorical meaning was originally designed by Him. Lit. Sported with, disappointed. writer of the fifth century, who relates that Augustus, on hearing that the son of. Herod himself was not spared in the general slaughter of the infants, observed that he had rather be Herod's pig than his son. Saturnal, l. ii, c. iv. There is no reason to believe that he borrowed the fact from Christian authors. Celeus, against whom Origen defended Christianity, puts the event forward as an admitted fact. Contra Celsum, 1. i. n. 58. St. Justin mentions it in his dialogue with Tryphon, the Jew. N. 78, 79. The silence of Josephus and Philo cannot outweigh positive testimony. ¹ The Greek term may be used of a child just entering on its second year. not limit himself to that space. In order not to fail in his object, he ex- tended his order much further. It cannot thence be inferred that much time had elapsed since the Magi first saw the star. St. Chrysostom thinks that it had appeared to them before the birth of our Lord, so as to leave them time for their journey. also be understood of any high place. Rachel, grandmother of Ephraim, is represented as mourning over her children, as they passed by her tomb into captivity. They exist no longer for her, because they are far away from the land of their fathers. The words are applied by the evangelist, under divine illustration, to the slaughtered innocents, over whom Rachel, whose tomb was in Bethle- bem, seemed to mourn. Digitized by Google
 * This credible act of cruelty is mentioned by Macrobius, a pagan
 * He kept in view the time at which they had seen the star, but he did
 * A city on the confines of Benjamin, not far from Bethlehem. It may
 * Jer. xxxi. 15. The prophet spoke of the captivity of the Israelites.