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them in the obedience, sufferings, and blessings of his heavenly kingdom. And when all their apprehensions of danger were realized, and they were called to suffer death on account of their testimony, they held fast their integrity, and rejoiced to suffer and die in the discharge of their embassy. How richly they were fitted for their high office, and how abundantly the Lord gave testimony to them in the performance of its onerous and unparalleled duties, all perceive, who carefully peruse the Acts of the Apostles and the sacred Epistles.

Paul was the only one of the chief ministers of Christ who appears to have been distinguished by splendid natural talents and literary acquirements. He resolutely avoided the use of every thing suggested or supplied by human wisdom, which had a tendency either to obscure the gospel or conceal its power to save men. Nevertheless, the twelve apostles not only wrought miracles greater in number, and perhaps in many cases more striking, than those performed by Christ, but also were called to confer miraculous powers on many, by the laying on of their hands. But these powers they were careful to ascribe wholly to the presence of Christ; they did nothing in their own name, for they confessed that without him they could do nothing: and, like him, all their works were open to the inspection and investigation of all men. Nor did they desire secresy; on the contrary, they selected the most public places, and the most enlightened communities, for their principal spheres of service; and urged on all to examine their testimony, their conduct and doings. To their ministrations may truly be applied the language of Paul, in relation to the events in his Lord's life, "these things were not done in a corner." In every place visited by the apostles, God recommended them, as his inspired servants, to the confidence of all the people by many signs and wonders, and divers miracles. To these they ap pealed to justify themselves in demanding those to whom they ministered to receive their message and instructions, as the expression of the mind of God. They never used their wonderful endowments to promote their own or their friends' worldly interest; such a thought was most abhorrent to their minds. They lived to magnify the Lord, to call all men to repentance, and to confirm and establish the belief and hope in Christ of all who received their testimony concerning him, not as the word of man, but as the word of the liv ing God.

VOL. III.

5

These alone were acknowledged by the Apostles to be the legitimate subjects of the kingdom. They formed these into distinct communities, exclusively for the purpose of observing the religious institutions which they by the Spirit, declared necessary for the honour of the Lord, and the prosperity, enlargement, and permanence of his righteous government in the world. Christian societies thus constituted interfered not with any worldly communities or human institutions. The great object of their establishment was the propagation and maintenance of divine truth among men. They were loyal and peaceable subjects under any government, and obeyed every statute of man which restricted not their obedience to the supreme authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The number of Christian societies rapidly increased; and each of these received, under the direction of the twelve Apostles, as many rulers, teachers, and servants as were requisite for their instruction, peace and good order. The inferiority of these ministers to the Apostles was manifest by the fact that, in their official teaching, rule, and work, they were exclusively guided by the revelations which were immediately communicated to them by the Apostles, or which were sanctioned by them as divine, and consequently infallible truth. Thus in the kingdom of God, or Christian Church, the only judges acknowledged unerring, in their official character as the chief ministers, were the twelve apostles, appointed by Christ to sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes, or entire nation of the true Israel; and thus that nation is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone. It follows, that from the time of the decease of the apostles, all ministers and members of the Christian Church could only hope to please the Lord in proportion as each one ascertained and submitted to his mind, recorded in the scriptures, which were written by holy men, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The sacred record is the exclusive judge of all religious controversy, and the infallible instructor into all the will of God. By the hands or ministry of the apostles, it seems probable that supernatural gifts were bestowed on some individuals in every Christian community. The most conspicuous, and perhaps the most common of these were the gifts of speaking various languages, healing diseases, and predicting future events. We have no instance in

the New Testament of such miraculous powers being possessed by any Christians who had not received the gospel direct from one or other of the apostles; and it may hence be concluded that to their age was confined the power of working miracles.

CHAPTER II.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE TRIUMPHANT.

Or all who had apparent claims to succeed Augustus, Tiberius, who actually ascended the throne, was perhaps the most appropriate instrument to sway the sceptre of that empire, whose proper emblem was the nameless wild beast that had great iron teeth, capable of devouring, breaking in pieces, and stamping the residue with his feet. He owed his honours and power to a series of calamitous events in the royal family, far beyond the prescience of man to have anticipated. He was the oldest, and the least esteemed by the emperor, the senate, army, and people, of almost all who were deemed at any time heirs of Augustus. These were chiefly Marcellus, Tiberius, and his brother Drusus and his children, Agrippa and his family.

Drusus was younger than Tiberius, but, from his earliest years, far more amiable, and his equal, if not superior, in intellectual talents, and military acquirements. Beloved by Augustus, they were appointed to important offices several years before the age fixed by law. They were distinguished as leaders of the armies which defended the northern frontiers of the empire. Drusus was not more admired as a soldier than loved as a man and a patriot. Truth regulated all his words and deeds; his general character was unblemished, and his political principles and views were those common to the Romans in their best age. While he maintained firm fidelity to his father-in-law, he was a sincere republican. His highest ambition was to advance the glory of the Roman name, and the welfare of all ranks. About B. c. 14, Italy sufered much from a horde of barbarians who laid waste its rich lands, and spared no one who fell into their hands. As a proof of their inhumanity, it is said that, when they found among their prisoners a pregnant female, she was instantly killed, if their augurs, whom they consulted, declared that she carried a male child. Against these fierce and cruel warriors, Dru

sus was sent at the head of an army. He speedily overthrew them, with great slaughter. Those who escaped joined another race of their native country, Germany, and proposed to invade Gaul. That Drusus might be able to oppose them, Tiberius was ordered to join him; and under them the Romans successively repelled and subdued three of the most barbarous of the German races. Roman colonies were stationed to overawe them; and several cities were built; particularly Drusomagus and Augusta, the modern Meningen and Augsburg. A few years later, Drusus had the happiness of preventing a general revolt in Gaul; for he no sooner learned that the inhabitants were resolved to cast off the Roman yoke, in consequence of taxes imposed on them, than "he summoned all the chiefs to assist at the solemn ceremony of consecrating a temple which the Lugdunenses had built in honour of Julius Cesar. When they were all assembled, Drusus, by his address and engaging behaviour, won their affections to such a degree, that they not only dropped the design they had formed of shaking off the Roman yoke, but agreed to erect an altar to Augustus, and to pay him, even in his lifetime, divine honours. Sixty different nations concurred in this design, each of them contributing their quota, and sending a statue to adorn the new altar, which was consecrated with great solemnity on the first day of August, and became soon very famous all over Gaul, as is plain from the writings of almost all the ancients. Games were instituted in honour of the new deity, much of the same nature with the Nemean and Isthmian games.'

Having quitted Gaul, he led a powerful army into Germany, and reduced the nations on the Rhine, and triumphantly proceeded to the Northern Ocean. On his return, a vast multitude of the natives attempted, by an ambuscade, to destroy his army. Having discovered their treachery, he suddenly attacked and overcame them. In honour of his triumphs in Germany, he was named Germanicus, an honourable appellation retained by his family. His last campaign brought under the Roman yoke all the nations from the Rhine to the Elbe, on whose banks he erected several trophies. On returning to the Rhine, he was seized by a violent fever, which quickly cut him off, in his thirtieth year. He left three children, Drusus Germanicus, Livilla, and Claudius, by his wife Antonia, a daughter of M. Antony and Octavia, the admired sister of Augustus. His body was carried by the magistrates and officers from one Roman colony or city to another, till

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