The sentences which allude to the severest of all trials, that of being "reviled, and spoken evil of falsely," and encourage Christians to suffer such a trial patiently, display a similar foresight of the peculiar lot which awaited them. Professing, beyond others, the zealous service of God, they were accused of atheism; and renouncing beyond others the profligate habits which generally prevailed, their characters were aspersed with the foulest calumnies. From all the early accounts respecting the treatment of Christians, and the opinions which were current concerning them, we learn that there was no crime of which they were not accused; nor any virtue which was not construed into a crime when it belonged to them. They were called useless members of society, because they did not struggle for temporal advancement. In the persecution under Domitian, among others whose names have been neglected by history, Flavius Clemens was put to death, a relative of the emperor. The historian who relates the fact, accuses Clemens of the most despicable in

dolence; probably, because he had shown an indifference to worldly honours, though his two sons had been destined to succeed to the throne of the Cæsars. The reasonable and philosophical Pliny, though he could not find any subject of animadversion against the Christians in his province, had no hesitation in punishing their inflexible obstinacy. The stoic Marcus characterizes in the same manner their readiness to die for their religion'; and thus gave just cause for the complaint of their apologist, that the patience and resolution which were admired in Regulus, were condemned in a Christian. The historians of that age, who speak of them, betray a malevolence of hatred which must have required all the encouragement that a prophetic warning was calculated to supply 3. Public mis

9 Suet. Domit. ch. xv. On this accusation, see Tertull. Apol. c. 42.

10 Plin. Ep. p. 725. Varior.

1 Lib. ii. s. 3.

2 Tertull. 40.

3 "Per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat. Exitiabilis superstitio."-Tacitus. "Christiani, genus hominum superstitionis novæ et maleficæ."-Suetonius. "Superstitio prava et immodica.”—Pliny.

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fortunes were attributed to them in the light of judgments. The most nefarious practices were said to take place at their private meetings, a constant subject of remonstrance with the writers who defend their cause 5. Pliny mentions with evident surprise the description which he obtained of their assemblies, as being attended with no worse evil than an engagement to abstain from sin°.

4 Tertul. Apol. 20.

5 Justin Martyr, Apol. 1.; which led Antoninus Pius to denounce capital punishment against false accusers of Christians an edict which wonderfully illustrates and confirms. Matt. v. 11.

6 "Christians have been called superstitious, and yet they have been called atheists; when particulars come to be examined, the superstition appears to be professing a religion very different from that of their ancestors; and the atheism, despising all the heathen gods, and holding no communion with their worshippers, as such. Christians have been called low, and illiterate, and mean, and yet they have been called wise, versed in magic and necromancy: on examination, their vulgarity seems to have been nothing more than plainness and industry in useful occupations; their powers of magic, miraculous powers. Lastly, Christians have been called lazy and indolent, and yet they have been called restless and busy; their indolence was a want of the common endeavours to get money; so that they had nothing to give the gods; their restlessness, a great assiduity in doing good, in succouring their distressed brethren; and perhaps in converting their acquaintance to Christianity."-Hey's Lectures, B. I. ch. xviii. s. xi.

Traces of the same unreasonable enmity, whenever Christianity becomes an operative principle, may be discovered throughout the whole history of the Church. When the Reformers first began to awaken the Christian world from its long continued lethargy, calumnies bore an important part among the various weapons by which they were opposed. And even in happier and more enlightened times, no persons are treated with so little candour and indulgence as those who come remarkably forward in religion. With a large portion of the community, their zeal meets with less favour, than the actual vices of other men. Their motives are misrepresented, their faults exaggerated; they are condemned for those feelings in religion, which in any other case would be considered honourable; the very titles by which as Christians they are characterized in their own Scriptures, are alleged against them as a reproach. All this, to us, is matter of experience; but how came it to be to Jesus a subject of prophecy? How came he to foresee that his followers should be treated in a way in

which no other men are treated, simply because they are his followers, and, in obedience to his precepts, "take up their cross daily, and deny themselves?"

II. Another prediction of the same nature, equally improbable at a distance, and equally verified by the result, is that which foretold the divisions and dissensions that should accompany the propagation of the Gospel. "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, nay; but rather division. For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-inlaw." "And a man's foes shall be they of his

own household "."

7 Luke, xii. 51. Matt. x. 36.