ands, to vex certain of the church."

In the conclusion of the same chapter, Herod's death is represented to
have taken place soon after this persecution. The accuracy of our
historian, or, rather, the unmeditated coincidence which truth of its
own accord produces, is in this instance remarkable. There was no
portion of time for thirty years before, nor ever afterwards, in which
there was a king at Jerusalem, a person exercising that authority in
Judea, or to whom that title could be applied, except the last three
years of this Herod's life, within which period the transaction recorded
in the Acts is stated to have taken place. This prince was the grandson
of Herod the Great. In the Acts he appears under his family-name of
Herod; by Josephus he was called Agrippa. For proof that he was a king,
properly so called, we have the testimony of Josephus, in full and
direct terms:--"Sending for him to his palace, Caligula put a crown upon
his head, and appointed him king of the tetrarchie of Philip, intending
also to give him the tetrarchie of Lysanias." (Antiq. xviii. c. 7, sect.
10.) And that Judea was at last, but not until the last, included in his
dominions, appears by a subsequent passage of the same Josephus, wherein
he tells us that Claudius, by a decree, confirmed to Agrippa the
dominion which Caligula had given him; adding also Judea and Samaria, in
the utmost extent, as possessed by his grandfather Herod (Antiq. xix. c.
5, sect. 1.).

V. [p. 32.] Acts xii. 19--23. "And he (Herod) went down from Judea to
Cesarea, and there abode. And on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal
apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them: and the
people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man;
and immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God
the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost."

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xix. c. 8, sect. 2. "He went to the city of Cesarea.
Here he celebrated shows in honour of Caesar. On the second day of the
shows, early in the morning, he came into the theatre, dressed in a robe
of silver, of most curious workmanship. The rays of the rising sun,
reflected from such a splendid garb, gave him a majestic and awful
appearance. They called him a god; and intreated him to be propitious to
them, saying, Hitherto we have respected you as a man; but now we
acknowledge you to be more than mortal. The king neither reproved these
persons, nor rejected