people after them in multitndes into solitudes and deserts, to see the signs and miracles which they promised to show by the power of God.” Several names, more- over, are expressly mentioned, of such persons as Dositheus, Simon Magus, Theudas, Barchochab ; but it is objected that somé of these were too early, and others too late, in point of time. In like manner it may be objected to the staternent of the Apostle John, that, while it is so distinct in relation to the fact, it is indefinite with respect to the element of time. But if some were too early and others too late, it is not likely that the intervening period had the good fortune of being freed from their presence; while, from the statements of St. John on the one hand and Josephus on the other, we may rightly conclude a succession of pretenders, and quite a number of them all along, as true coin is seldom for long without its counterfeits. The second sign had its verification in the violent deaths of no less than four Roman emperors—Nero, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius—within a year and a half, and the scenes of tumult and bloodshed consequent thereon ; while the Jews were assailed with three threats of wars by Cali- gula, Claudius, and Nero respectively. There were other rumours of wars, in consequence of Bardanes, and subsequently Volageses, declaring, but not carrying out, war against the Jews; as also by Vitellius, Governor of Syria, declaring war against the Arabian king, Aretas. These two signs were among the more remote, for, as we have seen, it is added, “ The end is not yet; ” that is, the end of the Jewish polity at the destruction of Jerusalem was not to follow immediately. This caution was subjoined to prevent that state of excitement and alarm which the Apostle Paul, at a subsequent period, found it necessary to allay among the Thessalonians. The ¢hird sign may be illustrated by the general character of the period, which the Roman historian Tacitus describes as “rich in calamities, horrible with battles, rent with seditions, savage even in peace itself ;” as also by particular catastrophes, as the conflict between the Syrians and Jews at Caesarea, in which twenty thousand of the latter perished; another at Seleucia, in which fifty thousand Jews lost their lives; with others similar at Joppa, Scythopolis, Ascalon, and Tyre, recorded by Jusephus in his ‘ Wars of the Jews,’ a title of itself significant of the state of the times; while Philo makes mention of a serious outbreak between Jews and Greeks in Alexandria, though at a much earlier period. The fourth sign consisted of tremors of the earth, by which towns and cities were often shaken and ruined. ‘hese earthquakes were to occur in divers places. Never perhaps, in an equal period of time in the history of our earth, did so many of these fearful convulsions occur, as in the interval between the Crucifixion and fall of Jerusalem. Seneca, in a some- what rhetorical passage in one of his Epistles, mentions a surprising number of such casualties having occurred in many different quarters, and with the usual disastrous results; in his list of places where earthquakes had taken place are proconsular Asia, Achaia, Syria, Macedonia, Cyprus, and Paphus. Tacitus makes mention of several in different localities—in Crete; in Italy, one at Rome and another in Campania; in Phrygia, at Apamea, and Laodicea. Josephus speaks of one in Judea; and several others are recorded about the same time. Of the fifth sign, or famines, we have the record in the Acts (xi. 28), where Agabus foretold “ that there should be great dearth throvghout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Cxsar;” and the testimony of Tacitus, Suetonius, and Josephus to similar effect. The whole time of the reign of Claudius appears to have been one of scarcity; that in the ninth year of his reign appears to have been particularly severe. Three other famines occurred in his reign. During this period, Rome, Syria, and Greece suffered most painfully. From the famines we might naturally infer the existence of the siath sign, or pestilences, evea if we had no historical record of their occurrence, according to the old proverb, that “after famine comes pestilence,” so neatly expressed in the Greek pera Aimdy Aoyds, And yet disasters of this kind are recorded—one in Babylonia, by Josephus; one in Rome, which swept away thirty thousand persons in one autumn, by Tacitus and Suetonius. The New Testament itself furnishes proof enough, and more than enough, of the persecutions which were the seventh sign. In Acts iv. 3—7 we read of the Aposties Peter and John being arrested, thrown into prison, and brought before the Sanhedrim ; in Acts v.18 we read that they “laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison,” and at the twenty-seventh verse of the same chapter that they “ brought them and set them before the council;” in Acts xvi. 23, 24, that they “laid many stripes upon them [Paul and Ailagl. and cast them into prison,” where the
om. xu, 1—37.] THE GUSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 219