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THE PERIOD OF PERSECUTION EXTENDS FROM THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSA

LEM, A. D. 70, TO THE REIGN OF CONSTANTINE, A. D. 306.

1. The accession of Vespasian to the imperial dignity, A. D. 70, was an event singularly auspicious to the Roman empire, as it was connected with the restoration of peace and tranquillity to its distracted millions; and equally joyful to the Church, as, during his reign, she enjoyed a respite from the calamities of persecution.

2. The event which most signalized the reign of Vespasian, was the utter destruction of the city of Jerusalem by his son Titus, A. D. 70, according to the predictions of Christ, (Matt. xxiii.); in consequence of which, the Jewish Church and state were dissolved. Before this event, it is worthy of special notice, the followers of Christ had left the city, having been previously warned of its approach; nor is it recorded, that a single Christian suffered during this revolution.

As the destruction of Jerusalem contributed in various ways to the success of the. Gospel, we shall here give a brief account of the causes which preceded, and of the circumstances which attended, this revolution, the most awful in all the religious dispensations of God.

From the time of Herod Agrippa, whose death has already been noticed, (Period II. Sec. 19,) Judea had been the theatre of many cruelties, rapines, and oppressions, arising from contentions between the Jewish priests, the robberies of numerous bands of banditti, which infested the country; but, more than all, from the rapacious and flagi tious conduct of the Roman governors.

The last of these governors, was Gessius Florus, whom Josephus represents as a mon

ster in wickedness and cruelty, and whom the Jews regarded rather as a bloody execu tioner, sent to torture, than, as a magistrate, to govern them.

During the government of Felix, his predecessor, a dispute arising between the Jews and Syrians, about the city of Cæsarea, their respective claims were referred to the Emperor Nero, at Rome. The decision being in favor of the Syrians, the Jews immediately took arms to avenge their cause. Florus, regarding the growing insurrection with inhuman pleasure, took only inefficient measures to quell it.

In this state of things, Nero gave orders to Vespasian to march into Judea with a powerful army. Accordingly, accompanied by his son Titus, at the head of sixty thousand well disciplined troops, he passed into Galilee, the conquest of which country was not long after achieved.

While Vespasian was thus spreading the victories of the Roman arms, and was preparing more effectually to curb the still unbroken spirit of the Jews, intelligence arrived successively of the deaths of Nero, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, and of his own election to the throne. Departing, therefore, for Rome, he left the best of his troops with his son, ordering him to besiege Jerusalem, and utterly to destroy it.

Titus lost no time in carrying into effect his father's injunctions; and accordingly, putting his army in motion, he advanced upon the city. Jerusalem was strongly fortified, both by nature and art. Three walls surrounded it, which were considered impregnable; besides which, it had numerous towers surmounting these walls, lofty, firm, and strong. The circumference of the city was nearly four English miles.

Desirous of saving the city, Titus repeatedly sent offers of peace to the inhabitants but they were indignantly rejected. At length, finding all efforts at treaty ineffectual, he entered upon the siege, determined not to leave it, till he had razed the city to its foundation.

The internal state of the city soon became horrible. The inhabitants being divided in their counsels, fought with one another, and the streets were often deluged with blood, shed by the hands of kindred. In the mean time, famine spread its horrors abroad, and pestilence its ravages. Thousands died daily, and were carried out of the gates, to be buried at the public expense; until, being unable to hurry to the grave the wretched victims, so fast as they fell, they filled whole houses with them, and shut them up.

During the prevalence of the famine, the house of a certain lady, by the name of Miriam, was repeatedly plundered of such provisions as she had been able to procure. So extreme did her suffering become, that she entreated, and sometimes attempted to provoke such as plundered her, to put an end to her miserable existence. At length, frantic with fury and despair, she snatched her infant from her bosom, cut its throat, and boiled it; and having satiated her present hunger, concealed the rest. The smell of it soon drew the voracious human tigers to her house; they threatened her with the most excruciating tortures, if she did not discover her provisions to them. Thus being compelled, she set before them the relics of her mangled babe. At the sight of this horrid spectacle, inhuman as they were, they stood aghast, petrified with horror, and, at length, rushed precipitately from the house.

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When the report of this spread through the city, the horror and consternation were as universal as they were inexpressible. The people now, for the first time, began to think themselves forsaken of God. In the mind of Titus, the recital awakened the deepest horror and indignation. "Soon," said he, "shall the sun never more dart his beams on a city, where mothers feed on the flesh of their children; and where fathers, no less guilty than themselves, choose to drive them to such extremities, rather than lay down their arms."

Under this determination, the Roman general now pushed the siege with still greater vigor, aiming particularly, in the first place, to obtain possession of the temple. The preservation of this noble edifice was strongly desired by him; but one of the Roman soldiers, being exasperated by the Jews, or, as Josephus thinks, pushed on by the hand of Providence, seized a blazing firebrand, and getting on his comrade's shoulders, threw it through a window into one of the apartments that surrounded the sanctuary, and instantly set the whole north side in a flame up to the third story.

Titus, who was asleep in his pavilion, awaked by the noise, immediately gave orders to extinguish the fire. But the exasperated soldiery, obstinately bent on destroying the city, and all it contained, either did not hear or did not regard him. The flames

continued to spread, until this consecrated edifice, the glory of the nation, the admiration of the priest and prophet of God, became one mingled heap of ruins. To this a horrid massacre succeeded, in which thousands perished, some by the flames, others oy falling from the battlements; and a greater number still, by the enemy's sword, which spared neither age, nor sex, nor rank. Next to the temple, were consumed the trea. sury houses of the palace, though they were full of the richest furniture, vestments, plate, and other valuable articles. At length, the city was abandoned to the fury of the soldiers, who spread rapine, and murder, and fire through every street. The number who perished during the siege, has been estimated as little short of a million and a half. The conquest of the city being achieved, Titus proceeded to demolish its noble structures, its fortifications, its palaces, its towers, and walls. So literally and fully were the predictions of the Savior accomplished, respecting its destruction, that scarcely any thing remained, which could serve as an index that the ground had ever been inhabited. Thus, after a siege of six months, was swept from the earth a city which God had honored more than any other; a temple, in which his glory had been seen, and his praises sung, by priest and prophet, for a succession of ages; an altar was gone, which had smoked with the blood of many a victim; a dispensation was ended, which had existd for ages; a nation, as a nation, was blotted from being, which had outlived some of the proudest monuments of antiquity.

Such were the consequences to the Jewish nation of rejecting and crucifying the Son of God. From the day in which the Roman general led his triumphant legions from the spot, the Jews have been "without a king, without a prince, and without a sacrifice; without an altar, without an ephod, and without divine manifestations." Dispersed through the world,-despised and hated by all,-persecuted and yet upheld, -lost, as it were, among the nations of the earth, and yet distinct,-they live, they live as the monuments of the truth of Christianity,-and convey to the world the solemn lesson, that no nation can reject the Son of God with impunity.

Following the destruction of Jerusalem, Vespasian caused coins or medals to be made at Rome, commemorative of this great event. Some of these are still in exis tence. The following represents the two faces of the coin, in which Vespasian, the emperor, is seen standing with a javelin in his hand, while a Jewish captain is sitting, weeping beneath a palm tree.

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3. On the death of Vespasian, his son Titus was declared emperor, during whose short reign of two years and nearly eleven months, the Churches enjoyed a state of outward peace, and the Gospel was every where crowned with success.

The death of Titus was an occasion of inexpressible grief to his subjects, and cause of deep regret to the friends of true piety; for although he did not espouse Christianity, he neither persecuted it himself, nor suffered others to persecute it. It was an exclamation of this prince, worthy even of a Christian, upon recollecting, one evening, that he had done no beneficent act during the day, "My friends! I have lost a day." 4. To Titus succeeded Domitian, A. D. 81, having opened his way to the throne, as was suspected, by poisoning his brother. In his temper

and disposition, he inherited the savage cruelty of the monster Nero. Yet he spared the Christians in a considerable degree, until about the beginning of the year 95, when he commenced the second general persecution; in which several were put to death, and others were banished, both in Rome and the provinces.

Among those put to death by Domitian, was Flavius Clemens, his cousin; and among the banished were the wife and niece of the latter, both named Flavia Domatilla. The crime alleged against the Christians at this period, and which drew down upon them the cruel hand of persecution, was that of atheism; by which is to be understood, that they refused to offer incense on the altars of the heathen deities.

During this persecution, the apostle John was banished by order of the emperor to Patmos, a solitary island in the Archipelago. Before his banishment, Tertullian tells us, that he was cast into a caldron of boiling oil, from which he came out uninjured. The miracle, however, softened not the obdurate heart of Domitian, who probably ascribed the safety of the apostle to magic. In Patmos, John wrote the Book of Revelation. After Domitian's death, he returned, and presided over the Asiatic Churches.

Several interesting stories are related of this beloved disciple, which have, however, been doubted by some ecclesiastical historians. After his return from banishment, it was his practice to visit the neighboring Churches, partly to ordain pastors, and partly to regulate the congregations. At one place in his tour, observing a youth of a remarkably interesting countenance, he warmly recommended him to the care of a particular pastor. The youth was baptized, and, for a time, comported himself like a Christian. At length, however, being corrupted by company, he became idle and intemperate, and fled to a band of robbers, of which he became the captain.

Some time after, John took occasion to inquire concerning the young man, and finding, to his inexpressible grief, that he lived with his associates upon a mountain, he repaired to the place, and exposed himself to be taken by the robbers.

When seized, the apostle said, "Bring me to your captain." The young robber, beholding him coming, and, being struck with shame, immediately fled. Upon this, the holy man pursued him, crying, "My son, why fliest thou from thy father, unarmed and old? Fear not; as yet there remaineth hope of salvation. Believe me, Christ hath sent me." Hearing this, the young man stood still, trembled, and wept bitterly. At the earnest entreaty of John, he returned to the society of his Christian friends, nor would the apostle leave him, till he judged him fully restored by divine grace.

It may be added, concerning this apostle, that, after his return from Patmos, his life was prolonged for three or four years, having outlived all the other disciples, and been preserved to the age of almost an hundred years.

5. The second general persecution ended with the death of Domitian, who was assassinated, A. D. 96, at the instigation of his wife, whom the trant was designing to destroy. The senate elected an old man by the name of Nerva as his successor, who, being of a gentle and humane disposition, put an end, for the present, to the calamities of the Church.

Nerva pardoned such as had been imprisoned for treason; recalled the Christian exiles, and others who had been banished; restored to them their sequestered estates, and granted a full toleration to the Church. According to Dio Cassius, he forbade the persecution of any person, either for Judaism or for impiety; by which is to be understood Christianity; for so the heathen regarded the latter, on account of its being hostile to their worship, and because the Christians, having neither altars no sacrifices, were generally considered by them to be also without religion.

6. After a short and brilliant reign of sixteen months, Nerva died, A. D. 98; and was succeeded by Trajan, during whose reign the boundaries of the Roman empire were greatly enlarged, while literature and the arts were magnificently patronized. In respect to Christianity, however, Trajan greatly sullied the glory of his reign, for soon after his accession, the third general persecution was begun, and continued nineteen years, till he was succeeded by Adrian.

On ascending the throne, Trajan conferred the government of the province of Bythinia upon the celebrated Pliny. In this province, the edicts which had been issued by former emperors seem still to have been in force, and accordingly Christians were often brought before the proconsul. Hesitating to carry these edicts into execution, on account of their great severity, Pliny addressed the following letter to Trajan on the subject. The letter seems to have been written in the year 106, or 107.

"C. PLINY, to the EMPEROR TRAJAN, wishes health.

"SIRE! It is customary with me to consult you upon every doubtful occasion; for where my own judgment hesitates, who is more competent to direct me than yourself, or to instruct me where uninformed? I never had occasion to be present at any examination of the Christians before I came into this province; I am therefore ignorant to what extent it is usual to inflict punishment, or urge prosecution.

"I have also hesitated whether there should not be some distinction made between the young and the old, the tender and the robust; whether pardon should not be offered to penitence, or whether the guilt of an avowed profession of Christianity can be expiated by the most unequivocal retraction-whether the profession itself is to be regarded as a crime, however innocent in other respects the professor may be; or whether the crimes attached to name, must be proved before they are made liable to punishment.

"In the mean time, the method I have hitherto observed with the Christians, who have been accused as such, has been as follows. I interrogated them-Are you Christians? If they avowed it, I put the same question a second, and a third time, threatening them with the punishment decreed by the law: if they still persisted, I ordered them to be immediately executed; for of this I had no doubt, whatever was the nature of their religion, that such perverseness and inflexible obstinacy certainly deserved punishment. Some that were infected with this madness, on account of their privileges as Roman citizens, I reserved to be sent to Rome, to be referred to your tribunal.

"In the discussion of this matter, accusations multiplying, a diversity of cases occurred. A schedule of names was sent me by an unknown accuser, but when I cited the persons before me, many denied the fact that they were or ever had been Christians; and they repeated after me an invocation of the gods, and of your image, which for this purpose I had ordered to be brought with the statues of the other deities. They performed sacred rites with wine and frankincense, and execrated Christ, none of which things, I am assured, a real Christian can ever be compelled to do. These, therefore, I thought proper to discharge.

"Others, named by an informer, at first acknowledged themselves Christians, and then denied it, declaring that though they had been Christians, they had renounced their profession, some three years ago, others still longer, and some even twenty years ago. All these worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and at the same time execrated Christ.

"And this was the account which they gave me of the nature of the religion they once had professed, whether it deserves the name of crime or error; namely, that they were accustomed on a stated day to assemble before sunrise, and to join together in singing hymns to Christ, as to a deity; binding themselves as with a solemn oath not to commit any kind of wickedness; to be guilty neither of theft, robbery, nor adultery; never to break a promise, or to keep back a deposit when called upon. "Their worship being concluded, it was their custom to separate, and meet together again for a repast, promiscuous indeed, and without any distinction of rank or sex, but perfectly harmless; and even from this they desisted, since the publication of my edict, in which, agreeably to your orders, I forbade any societies of that sort.

"For further information, I thought it necessary, in order to come at the truth, to put to the torture two females who were called deaconesses. But I could extort from them nothing except the acknowledgment of an excessive and depraved superstition; and therefore, desisting from further investigation, I determined to consult you, for the number of culprits is so great as to call for the most serious deliberation. Informations are pouring in against multitudes of every age, of all orders, and of both sexes; and more will be impeached; for the contagion of this superstition hath spread, not only through cities, but villages also, and even reached the farmhouses.

"I am of opinion, nevertheless, that it may be checked, and the success of my endea vors hitherto forbids despondency; for the temples, once almost desolate, begin to be

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