epistle to Timothy, a little before that event, renders it hardly probable that he realized his intentions1.

The second epistle to Timothy describes the situation of Paul, as much more afflictive than during his first confinement at Rome. He "suffered trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds2;"

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was confined in the manner in which the most atrocious criminals were secured; very different from his former situation, when he dwelt in his own hired house, and all came to him that pleased. But now he praises it as an extraordinary kindness in Onesiphorus, that he was "not ashamed of his chain;" but that when he was in Rome, he "sought him out diligently, and found him." In some one of the many dungeons of Rome, therefore, few or none of his friends knew where, Paul was at this time immured. He has to complain too of the desertion of his followers; especially he says, that when he was called to make his first defence, most probably at the imperial tribunal, no man stood with me, but all forsook me: I pray God it may not be laid to their charge." So that a panic seems to have seized the flock when their shepherd was threatened. The times indeed began to be very dangerous for the Christians at Rome; and we plainly mark the rise of that public hatred against them, which soon burst forth with such violence. Paul describes his narrow escape at that time, and the rage of his persecutor, by saying, "I was delivered from the mouth of the lion!" When all forsook him, the Lord stood with him, and strengthened him; so that, as he had done before, in the presence of Felix, of Festus, and of Agrippa, he was enabled to make a full statement of the Gospel of Christ, perhaps in the crowded court of the emperor himself3.

This refers to an examination which he had undergone a short time before he wrote to Timothy. He speaks of Luke as being the only person that was then with him; but he expresses a wish for Mark to come to him immediately, as he would be useful to him for the ministry: which latter circumstance, and his wishing Timothy to come also, I think, may afford a proof that the general persecution, which happened before the close of the year, had not yet burst upon the church.

But Paul, though he had escaped at his first answer, is aware of a second appearance at Cesar's tribunal, of the fatal issue of which he seems to have a presentiment: "I am now ready to

be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." We see how well the apostle is prepared for the event, and how glorious a hope animates his mind in the prospect of death!

There is every reason to conclude that it happened to Paul according to his anticipations; that he was adjudged to death on his second appearance, either before the emperor or his delegates. The ancient tradition is, that he was beheaded.

It is also the uniform tradition of antiquity', that Peter also fell by the same hand, and about the same time, as his brother apostle, Paul. No mention is made of Peter in the sacred writings, after the notice of his being at Antioch, in the epistle to the Galatians. The tradition at Antioch was, that Peter had sometime governed their church, and we may perhaps infer from his own epistle, that he had laboured in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

What he means by Babylon, whence he writes his epistle, -"the church which is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you, and so doth Marcus, my son,"-has been the occasion of some dispute. But every one who is acquainted with the ancient Scriptures, and with the Jewish writers, will perceive why that name should be given to Rome: that Rome was here intended, and that the Marcus mentioned, was the writer of the Gospel which bears his name, and whom Paul, as we have seen, a short time before his death, was expecting to come to him at Rome, is the general persuasion of the ancient writers. All this corroborates the opinion, that Peter stood in Paul's place at Rome, shortly after his martyrdom, and was soon united with him in death. The tradition concerning Peter is, that he was crucified; which agrees well with the prediction of our Lord: "When thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not3."

Soon after the martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul, the church of Rome was involved in a general and most cruel persecution. A dreadful fire had laid waste a great part of the city.

See Lardner, Can. vol. iii. chap. 18.

2 See Eusebius, lib. ii. cap. 15. and Lardner, Macknight, &c.
3 John, xxi. 18.

The general character of the emperor, and his foolish conduct on the occasion, gave rise to some suspicions that he was the author of this calamity. He aimed, it was conjectured, at the glory of building a new city, to be called by his name. To divert these suspicions from himself, Nero caused the Christians to be accused as the incendiaries; they, as it appears, being at this time so obnoxious to the public hatred, that such an imputation was likely to be easily credited by the Roman people. The Christians were, accordingly, accused of the crime, and “subjected to the most exquisite torments," to extort confession.

This is the first occasion that the Roman historians, in writing the history of their country, have to note, that there were such a people as the Christians in existence; and it is mournfully interesting to observe, in what light they appeared in their eyes. It affords us an early warning, how little the most candid strangers are to be trusted, in the description of a people whom they know only from the reports of their adversaries, or contemplate through the veil of prejudice and contempt. The celebrated Tacitus gives the following account of the persons suspected on this occasion: "They were commonly called Christians ;"—" they were persons odious for their scandalous vices." "The author of this name," he tells us, "was Christus, who, in the reign of Tiberius, had been executed as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate. The pernicious [or pestilent] superstition, was indeed, for the present, suppressed, but again burst forth, not only throughout Judea, where the evil originated, but throughout the city of Rome also, whither whatever is enormously wicked and shameful, is sure to flow from all parts of the world, and to be received and practised with encouragement. Such as openly avowed themselves were accordingly," he says, " first apprehended, and afterwards an immense multitude, from their testimony: they were convicted, but not so much for setting fire to the city, as of illwill" or " enmity to the human race1. Sport was made of them in putting them to death. They were either covered with the skins of wild beasts, and torn to pieces by dogs, or were fastened to crosses, or wrapped up in combustibles, in order that when daylight should fail, they might be burnt, and serve for nocturnal lamps. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and gave notice for the games of the circus, at which he appeared in the habit of a charioteer, mixing with the crowd, and standing up in his chariot to engage in the race. Hence it happened," continues

"Odio humani generis."

the historian, "that the sufferers, guilty as they were, and deserving of the most severe and exemplary punishments, became the objects of pity, since they were considered as destroyed, not for the public good, but to gratify the savage cruelty of an individual." Such is the account of Tacitus. Suetonius, another Roman historian of eminence, takes notice of this horrid barbarity, in terms which clearly shew, that he had formed the same opinion of the despised sufferers: "The Christians were punished; a kind of men who followed a new and mischievous superstition1."

In the subsequent part of our narrative, we shall sometimes. be held in doubt respecting the real character of some that suffer in the Christian cause; having only the misrepresentations of their accusers, or reason to suspect the partial accounts of injudicious friends. But these are some of the very persons of whom St. Paul, but six years before, speaks, as those "whose faith was spoken of throughout the whole world ;" for whom he could thank God," that they had obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to them ;" and being then "made free from sin, had become the servants of righteousness;" their " obedience had come abroad to all men2.'

Such, then, was the end of them that "were at Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints ;" and such the estimation in which they, whom God approved, were held by their fellowcitizens! So soon did the followers of Jesus experience the truth of their Divine Master's warning: "Marvel not if the world hate you I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves :then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake!" And it should be particularly observed, that it was in the face of this dreadful calamity so soon to befall them, that the Holy Ghost inspires the apostle to say, "he reckoned, that the sufferings of this present time were not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us3." In these circumstances was the glorious challenge put into the mouths of these Roman Christians: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us*." No records, indeed, remain of the last hours and

1 "Malefica."

3 Rom. viii. 18.

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. See Epistle to the Romans.

Rom. viii. 35, &c.

dying sayings of these holy martyrs, nor could such have been easily collected in the tumultuous scenes of that dreadful night; but we may feel assured they found the promise true, and experienced, in the support afforded them in that conflict, that they needed "not fear them that kill the body." Their triumphant souls soon escaped from the riotous uproar of their pitiless persecutors, and found rest in a better world.

The opinion that had been formed of the Christians, and of their religion, is truly striking. They were persons" odious for their scandalous vice; their religion a pestilent or pernicious superstition:" they were reckoned among things "most atrocious and shameful." And this is not the opinion of some vulgar or narrow-minded person, but of a most accomplished, and as would be supposed, well-informed author, to this day highly celebrated as the discriminating historian of men and manners: yet, even Tacitus can write for the information of posterity, that these Christians little was he aware how great that name was one day to become though not satisfactorily convicted of the burning of Rome, were justly convicted of the " hatred of their kind;" and that although the cruelty of their sufferings, or rather the act of tyranny by which they perished, caused them to be pitied, they were "guilty and deserved to be punished." After this early specimen of the hatred and ill-treatment which the followers of the Lamb received from an unbelieving world, we need not wonder at the subsequent persecutions of the church; or at those risings of enmity and prejudice, which, to this day, the contemplation of spiritual religion will sometimes create; and which, though all public persecution has ceased, do still embitter the life of many a child of God in the private intercourse of society.

The same hour was the season of vengeance to the Jewish church and the Jewish people'. The war that ended in the total destruction of the city, broke out this year, through the cruelty and oppression of the Roman governor Florus, on the one hand, and the infatuation of a ruling party among the Jews, on the other. The city was torn to pieces by sedition and factions which were more cruel to each other than the common enemy. The Jewish historian is of opinion, that if the Roman general Cestius, who advanced with an army before Jerusalem, had at this time attacked the city, he might easily have taken it, and put an end to the war at once: "but," he remarks, God, for the wickedness of the people, suffered not the war to come to an