Antiquitates christianæ, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles : in two parts.

SECT. VI. Of the Death of the Holy Innocents, or the Babes of Bethlehem, and the Flight of JESVS into Egypt.

[illustration]

The killing the Infants

S. MAT. 2. 18

In Rama was there a voice heard Lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel wee¦ping for her children and would not be con∣forted because they are not

[illustration]

The flight into Egipt

S. MAT. 2. 14.

When he arose he took the young Child and his mother by night and departed into egipt

1. ALL this while Herod waited for the return of the Wise men, that they might give directions where the Child did lie, and his Sword might find him out with a certain and direct execution. But when he saw that he was mocked of the Wise men, he was exceeding wroth. For it now began to deserve his trouble, when his purposes which were most secret began to be contradicted and diverted with a pre∣vention, as if they were resisted by an all-seeing and almighty Providence. He began to suspect the hand of Heaven was in it, and saw there was nothing for his purposes to be acted, unless he could dissolve the golden chain of Predestination. Herod believed the divine Oracles, foretelling that a King should be born in Bethlehem; and yet his Ambition had made him so stupid, that he attempted to cancel the Decree of Heaven. For if he did not believe the Prophecies, why was he troubled? If he did believe them, how could he possibly hinder that event which God had foretold himself would certain∣ly bring to pass?

2. And therefore since God already had hindered him from the executions of a distin∣guishing sword, he resolved to send a sword of indiscrimination and confusion, hoping that if he killed all the Babes of Bethlehem, this young King's Reign also should soon de∣termine. He therefore sent forth and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 all the children that were in Bethlehem and all the coasts thereof from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the Wise men. For this Execution was in the beginning of the se∣cond* 1.1 year after Christ's Nativity, as in all probability we guess; not at the two years end, as some suppose: because as his malice was subtile, so he intended it should be secure; and though he had been diligent in his inquiry, and was near the time in his computa∣tion, yet he that was never sparing of the lives of others, would now to secure his King∣dom, rather over-act his severity for some moneths, than by doing execution but just to the tittle of his account hazard the escaping of the Messias.

3. This Execution was sad, cruel and universal: no abatements made for the dire shriekings of the Mothers, no tender-hearted souldier was imployed, no hard-hearted person was softned by the weeping eyes and pity-begging looks of those Mothers, that wondred how it was possible any person should hurt their pretty Sucklings; no con∣nivences there, no protections, or friendships, or consideration, or indulgences; but Herod caus'd that his own child which was at nurse in the coasts of Bethlehem should bleed to death: which made Augustus Caesar to say, that in Heroa's house it were better to* 1.2 be a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 than a Child; because the custome of the Nation did secure a Hog from Heroa's knife, but no Religion could secure his Child. The sword being thus made sharp by Herod's commission killed 14000 pretty Babes, as the Greeks in their Calendar, and the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of AEthiopia do commemorate in their offices of Liturgy. For Herod, crafty and malicious, that is perfectly * 1.3 Tyrant, had caused all the Children to be gathered together; which the credulous Mothers (supposing it had been to take account of their age and number in order to some taxing) hindred not, but unwittingly suffered them∣selves and their Babes to be betrayed to an irremediable 〈◊〉〈◊〉.

4. Then was 〈◊〉〈◊〉 that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet, saying, Lamenta∣tion and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted. All the synonyma's of sadness were little enough to express this great weep∣ing, when 14000 Mothers in one day saw their pretty Babes pouring forth their blood into that bosome 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, no∣thing but affrighting shrieks, and then gastly looks. The mourning was great, like the mourning in the valley of Hinnom, 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-countrey, and hearing that of John the son of Zachary great things were spoken, by which he was designed to a great mini∣stery 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 desart places, where he continued till the time appointed of his manife∣station unto 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 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 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Zachary between the Temple and the Altar, * 1.4 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 (a 1.5) report a Tradition, that a place being separated in the Temple for Virgins, Zachary suf∣fered 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 Phari∣sees did kill Zachary.

6. Tertullian * 1.6 reports, that the bloud of Zachary had so 〈◊〉〈◊〉 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 indeleble; as if, because God did intend to exact of that Nation all the bloud 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 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 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 the destruction of the last Temple and the dissolution of the Nation. Certain it is, that such a Zachary the son of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 (if we may believe Josephus) was slain in the middle of the Tem∣ple 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 bloud from first to last, till the iniquity was complete; and it is not imaginable that the bloud of our Blessed Lord and of S. 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 〈◊〉〈◊〉 than he whom they last slew: and in proportion to this, Cyprian de 〈◊〉〈◊〉 expounds that which we read in the past tense, to signifie the future, ye slew, i. e. shall slay; according to the style often used by Prophets, and as the Aorist of an uncertain signifi∣cation

will beat. But the first great instance of the Divine vengeance for these Execu∣tions 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 〈◊〉〈◊〉: 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 Colicks and Ulcers, in his natural parts with Worms, in his feet with Gout, in his nerves with Convulsions, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of breathing; and out of divers parts of his body issued out so impure and ulcerous a steam, that the loathsomness, 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 yoak; 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, * 1.7 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 spight out-do all the rest, because he believed the Jewish nation would rejoyce 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 bloudy and unrighteous commands, she released all the imprisoned and despairing Gentlemen, and made the day of her Brother's death a perfect Jubilee, a day of joy, such as was that when the Nation was delivered from the violence of Haman in the days of 〈◊〉〈◊〉.

9. And all this while God had provided a Sanctuary for the Holy Child Jesus. For God seeing the secret purposes of bloud which Herod had, sent his Angel, who appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young Child and his Mother,* 1.8 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* 1.9 Countrey 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, * 1.10 Behold the Lord shall come into E∣gypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence. And in the Life of the Prophet Jeremy, 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 Countrey:

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) ascertain'd 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 〈◊〉〈◊〉 or in∣tail'd 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.

Notes

• * 1.1

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 dit 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ordinaria: sd Onuphrius in Fastis ait 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉 post Christum natum 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.2

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. lib. 2. cap. 4.
• * 1.3

  〈…〉〈…〉. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.
• * 1.4

  〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. & 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Mar∣tyr 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉 & 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• a 1.5

  〈◊◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊◊〉 23. in Evang. Matth. S. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. homil. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Humana Christi 〈◊〉〈◊〉, 〈◊〉〈◊〉. in 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Christi, Cyril. adv. 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.6

  In 〈◊〉〈◊〉, cap. 8.
• * 1.7

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.8

  〈◊〉〈◊〉. 2. 13.
• * 1.9

  Euseb. 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. c. 20. S. Athanas. lib. 〈◊◊◊〉〈◊◊◊〉. Palladius 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 S. 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.10

  Isa. 19. 1. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. Pal∣lad. in 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉.