malice, and a love of power, he says, "Think not that I come to send peace, but a sword, for I am come to set a man at variance with his father, and the daughter against her mother," &c. And again, "I am come to send fire on the earth: and what will I, if it be already kindled? Suppose ye that I am come to send peace on earth? I tell you nay, but rather division." How is it explained by Christ himself? Why in the very next words: "For from henceforth," i. e. upon the publication of my religion and gospel," there shall be fivein one house divided, three against two, and two against three," &c. Can any man need paraphrase and criticism to explain these passages. of any thing but of that persecution, which should befal the preachers and believers of the gospel? or imagine it to be a prophetic description on a fire to be blown up by Christ to consume others, when the whole connexion evidently refers it to a fire, that the opposers of his religion should blow up, to consume himself and followers? Jesus knew it was such a fire, as would first consume himself. "I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?" or, as the words should be translated, "How do I wish it was already kindled? How do I wish it to break out on my own person, that I might glorify God by my sufferings and death?" For as it follows, "I have a baptism to be baptized with," a baptism with my own blood: "and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" After this account of his own sufferings, he foretels the same should befal his followers: "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you nay, but rather division;" i. e. as I myself must suffer to bear witness to the truth, so after my decease, such shall be the unreasonable and furious opposition to my gospel, as shall occasion divisions among the nearest relations, some of whom shall hate and persecute the other for their embracing my religion.*

Agreeably to these predictions of our Saviour, soon after he had himself ascended to Heaven, and while the apostles were yet publishing abroad the doctrine of Christianity, began those furious persecutions by the Romans, which for three hundred years, or to about the time of Constantine, carried thousands and tens of thousands by barbarities the most shocking, and by tortures the most excruciating and terrific, to their graves; thus rendering a profession of the gospel almost a sure passport to suffering and death.

As an account of these perilous days-of the deep rooted malice and blood thirsty spirit of barbarians, urged on by the influence of the powers of darkness, will be found in the former part of the volume, they will not be noticed farther in this place. Yet a natural curiosity may lead us to inquire by what means it happened that the Romans, who were troublesome to no nation, on account of their religion, and who suffered even the Jews to live under their own laws, and to follow their own method of worship, almost immediately, on the promulgation of Christianity, began to persecute its professors.

"One of the principal reasons," says Dr. Mosheim, "of the seve rity with which the Romans persecuted the Christians, seems to have been the abhorrence and contempt, with which the latter regarded the religion of the empire which was so intimately connected with

• Chandler's History of Persecution, ut supra.

the form, and indeed, with the very essence of its political constitution. For, though the Romans gave an unlimited toleration to all religions, which had nothing in their tenets dangerous to the commonwealth, yet they would not permit that of their ancestors, which was established by the laws of the state, to be turned into derision, nor the people to be drawn away from their attachment to it. These, however, were the two things which the Christians were charged with, and that justly, though to their honour. They dared to ridicule the absurdities of the Pagan superstition, and they were ardent and assiduous in gaining proselytes to the truth. Nor did they only attack the religion of Rome, but also all the different shapes and forms, under which superstition appeared in the various countries, where they exercised their ministry. From hence the Romans concluded, that the Christian sect was not only insupportably daring and arrogant, but moreover an enemy to the public tranquillity, and every way proper to excite civil wars and commotions in the empire. It is, probably, on this account, that Tacitus reproaches them with the odious character of haters of mankind, and styles the religion of Jesus a destructive superstition; and that Suetonius speaks of the Christians and their doctrines in terms of the same kind.

"Another circumstance that irritated the Romans against the Christians, was the simplicity of their worship, which resembled in nothing the sacred rites of any other people. The Christians had neither sacrifices, nor temples, nor images, nor oracles, nor sacerdotal orders: and this was sufficient to bring upon them the reproaches of an ig norant multitude, who imagined that there could be no religion without these. Thus they were looked upon as a sort of atheists; and by the Roman laws, those who were chargeable with atheism were declared the pests of human society. But this was not all; the sordid interests of a multitude of lazy and selfish priests, were immediately connected with the ruin and oppression of the Christian cause. The public worship of such an immense number of deities was a source of subsistence, and even of riches, to the whole rabble of priests and augurs, and also to a multitude of merchants and artists. And as the progress of the gospel threatened the ruin of this religious traffic, and the profit it produced, this raised up new enemies to the Christians, and armed the rage of mercenary superstition against their lives and their cause."*

To this explanation given by Mosheim, may be added, in substance, the explanation of Bishop Warburton, which is still more lucid and satisfactory. Intercommunity of worship, according to the latter, was a principle which run through the whole pagan world. Every religion was tolerated, while its advocates claimed for it no exclusive superiority. Hence it was not until after the return of the Jews from captivity, that they were treated by their neighbours, and afterwards by the Greeks and Romans, with hatred and contempt; since they seem not so openly to have claimed that their religion was the only true one in the world. This pretension to superiority and to exclusive divine origin, was the ground cause of the general odium cast upon the Jews by the Pagan world.

* Mosheim, Vol. I. p. 72.

When Christianity arose, though on the foundation of Judaism, it was at first received by Pagan nations with complacency. The gospel was favourably heard, and the superior evidence with which it was enforced, inclined men long habituated to pretended revelations, to receive it into the number of the established. Accordingly we find one Roman emperor introducing it among his closet religions; and another proposing to the Senate to give it a more public entertainment. But when it was found to carry its pretensions higher, and like the Jewish, to claim the title of the only true one, then it was that it began to incur the same hatred and contempt with the Jewish. But when it went still further, and urged the necessity of all men forsaking their own national religions, and embracing the gospel, this so shocked the Pagans, that it soon brought upon itself the bloody storm which followed. Thus you have the true origin of persecution for religion; a persecution not committed, but undergone by the Christian church.*

The Pagan persecutions appeared to have continued until about the time of Constantine, during whose reign the fall of Paganism began to take place, and was nearly consummated in that of Theodosius. This extraordinary revolution, one of the most extraordinary that ever took place on the theatre of this world, their own writers have described as "a dreadful and amazing prodigy, which covered the earth with darkness, and restored the ancient dominion of chaos and night." But the pen of inspiration has depicted the awful catastrophe in strains of much higher sublimity and grandeur, and doubtless upon very different principles. "I beheld," says the writer of the Apocalypse, "when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll, when it is rolled together and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains-and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" The same thing seems to be intended, when the same writer says, "There was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven; and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." In this highly wrought figurative language, we are taught to conceive of the dreadful conflict, which subsisted between the Christian and the heathen professions; the persecution which for three centuries had been inflicted upon the former, with the issue of the whole, in the ultimate overthrow of the Pagan persecuting powers, and the subversion of that idolatrous system in the empire.

• Divine Legation of Moses, Vol. II. 6, 2. § 6, &c.

Having noticed the persecutions which occurred under the reign of Paganism, and assigned the causes which led those nations which were Pagan, so powerfully to enlist themselves against Christianity, we shall next notice the persecutions which were commenced and carried forward under the influence of the Roman Hierarchy. These persecutions, the reader will notice, occupied by far the greater part of the volume. As these persecutions are of a more recent date, as they were conducted by the pretended friends of Christianity, and as the spirit of that system still prevails in nearly every country on the globe, no apology, it is thought, will be necessary, for occupying so large a space in the developement of the spirit and tendency of the papal system.

The rise of such a power is clearly predicted in the scriptures. Even in the days of the apostles, there were not wanting symptoms of the approaching wide spread corruption.

"When the apostle Paul delivered to the elders of the church at Ephesus, a solemn warning to take heed to themselves, and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers, he adds, as the reason of it, for I know this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock; also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.' Acts xx. 29, 30. The jealousy and fear which he entertained relative to the influence of false teachers, is manifest in the following passage. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ: For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ: and no wonder, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light; therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed into ministers of righteousness.' (2 Cor. xi. 3. 13, 14, 15.) The same general caution against the effects which should proceed from false teachers, is very plainly given by the apostle Peter. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.' 2 Pet. ii. 1-3. To these passages, and many others that might be adduced, as calculated to awaken the attention of Christians to the dangers they should be exposed to from corrupt teachers, we may particularly add the following, as it not only foretels, but describes the nature of the apostacy that should take place, and at a period remote from the time when the predictions were delivered. Now the spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their consciences seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them who believe and know the truth.' 1 Tim. iv. 1-3. Again, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for

men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God;-having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." 2 Tim. iii. I-3. But of all the predictions contained in the New Testament, the most particular and express description of the anti-christian power that should arise under the Christian name, is the following: "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled; neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there be a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way; and then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming; even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders; and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." 2 Thess. ii. 1-10.

"In this representation of the apostacy from the purity of the Christian faith and its influence, which terminated in the man of sin sitting in the temple of God, we may notice the following particulars:

"1. That the apostle describes its origin as taking place in his own day. The mystery of iniquity doth already work,' verse 7. The seed was then sown; idolatry was already stealing into the , churches. 1 Cor. x.. 14. A voluntary humility and worshipping of angels. Col. ii. 18. Men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, supposing that gain was godliness, and teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre sake. Men of this class appear to have early abounded, and, as acting not wholly in direct opposition to Christianity, but corrupting it in the way of deceit and hypocrisy. During the whole progress towards the full revelation of the man of sin, there was no direct disavowal of the truth of Christianity; it was a form of godliness without the power of it.

"2. There is an evident intimation in this passage, of an obstacle or hinderance in the way of this power being fully revealed. now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed,' &c. ver. 6, 7. Without going into any minute and critical examination of these verses, it is obvious that the wicked power which is here the subject of the apostle's discourse, and deno.