Yet now they fright me: There is one within,
Besides the Things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts most horrid Sights seen by the Watch.
A Lioness hath whelped in the Streets;
And Graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their Dead:
Fierce fiery Warriours fight upon the Clouds,
(In Ranks and Squadrons, and right Forms of War)
Which drizzled Blood upon the_ Capitol.
_The Noise of Battle hurried in the Air,
Horses did neigh, and dying Men did groan,
And Ghosts did shriek, and squeal about the Streets.
O_ Cæsar! _These Things are beyond all Use,
And I do fear them_.

The Poet, tho' he has adorned this Description by his Art, has been careful
to collect its Substance from the Historians. Every Particular is preserved
to us by the _Heathen_ Writers; and not a _Heathen_, that we know of, did
ever dispute the Truth of it. The Love and Esteem which the Generality bore
to the Person of _Cæsar_, the Reverence which they paid to the Dignity of
his Character, and the important Services which he had done the
Commonwealth, contributed not only to convince them of these Prodigies, but
to make some effort, that the Gods had received him into their Number.

The Use, which I intended from this Subject, is, that as _Christians_, who
have more invaluable Obligations to remember, we should suffer our Faith
and Gratitude to extend as least as far as the _Pagans_ did. There was a
dread Time (for the Commemoration whereof a Day is annually set a-part)
_when the Sun was eclipsed, and Darkness was over all the Land; when the
Vail of the Temple was rent asunder from the Top to the Bottom; when the
Earth quaked, and Rocks were split; when the Graves were opened, and the