Section 91
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 59 CHAPTER X. Herod Agrippa persecuting the Apostles, immediately experienced the divine judgment. • THE consequences, however, of the king's attempts against the apostles, were not long deferred, but the avenging minister of divine justice soon overtook him after his plots against the apos tles. As it is also recorded in the book of Acts, he proceeded to Cesarea, and there on a noted festival, being clad in a splendid and royal dress, he harangued the people from an elevation be fore the tribunal. The whole people applauding him for his harangue, as if it were the voice of a god, and not of man, the Scriptures relate, " that the angel of the Lord immediately smote him, and being consumed by worms, he gave up the ghost." It is wonderful to observe, likewise, in this singular event, the coin cidence of the history given by Josephus, with that of the sacred Scriptures. In this he plainly adds his testimony to the truth, in the nineteenth book of his Antiquities, where he relates the mira cles in the following words : " But he (i. e. Herod) had completed the third year of his reign over all Judea, and he came to the city of Cesarea, which was formerly called the tower of Strato. There he exhibited public shows in honour of Cesar, knowing it to be a kind of festival for his safety. At this festival was collected a great number of those who were the first in power and dignity throughout the province. On the second day of the shows, being clad in a robe all wrought with silver, of a wonderful texture, he pro ceeded to the theatre at the break of day. There, the silver irra diated with the reflection of the earliest sunbeams, wonderfully glit tered, reflecting a terrific and awful brilliancy upon the beholders. Presently the flatterers raised their shouts in different ways ; such, however, as were not for his good, calling him a god, and implor ing his clemency in such language as this : " We have feared thee thus far as a man, but henceforth we confess thee to be superior to the nature of mortals." The king did not either chide them, or disclaim the impious flattery. After a little while, raising him8