impostors, and was sure to frustrate their designs, as oft as they appeared.
In the year 55, arose a notable Egyptian impostor, named Felix. Thirty thousand followed him, under the persuasion that from mount Olivet they should see the walls of Jerusalem fall to the ground at his command, for their easy capture of the Roman garrison there; and
their taking possession of Jerusalem. They were attacked by the Roman governor; four hundred were slain, and the rest dispersed. The Egyptian impostor escaped for his life. In the year 60, another pretended Messiah, appealed, engaging to break the Roman yoke, if they
would follow him into the wilderness; but the deceiver and his followers soon fell a sacrifice to the vigilance of Festus, the governor. It would be too unwieldy to mention all the vile impostors of this period. They were a just retribution of righteous Heaven upon the Jews, for having rejected and put to death the true Messiah: and
they fulfilled the warning given by our Lord, of a host of deceivers at that period. How prone are men to court deception. Christ had said to the Jews, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not. If another should come in his own name, him will ye receive." This was fulfilled; and not only then, but in every age to this day. Those who give the best evangelical evidence of their being ambassadors of Christ, many will reject; while the confident and noisy claims of egotists are by them fully allowed. "As in water face answers to face;
so the heart of man to man."
Our Lord proceeds; "And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things shall come to pass; but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation; and kingdom against kingdom; and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; all these are the beginning of sorrows. "
The portentous thunders of wars and rumors of wars may be said to have occupied most of the time from the death of our Savior, to the destruction of Jerusalem. The historic pages, which treat of these times, are stained with blood. A war between Herod and Aretas, king of
Arabia, opened the bloody scene, after a short season of
