SECT. VI.] Reign of Vespasian-Titus-Domitian:

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tion have been dispersed throughout the world; despised and hated by all; subjected, from age to age, to a perpetual succession of persecutions and miseries, yet under all these disadvantages, upheld by divine providence, a distinct people. They have ever since remained "without a king, without a prince, and without a sacrifice: without an altar, without an ephod, and without divine manifestations ;" as monuments every where of the truth of Christianity-yet, with this promise, that "the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days."*

The accession of Vespasian to the imperial dignity, connected with the termination of the Jewish war, by the arms of his son Titus, happily restored tranquillity and peace to the world. He reigned ten years, much to the happiness of his subjects, and was succeeded in the throne by his son, who, though rather unpopular at the commencement of his reign, nevertheless, conducted himself in such a manner as to acquire the greatest reputation of any of the Roman emperors. During all this period the churches enjoyed a state of outward peace, and the gospel was every where crowned with success. To the inexpressible grief of his subjects, however, at the age of forty-one, and after the short reign of two years, two months, and twenty days, Titus was snatched away, having, as was suspected, been poisoned by his own brother Domitian, who succeeded to the throne in the year 81.

DOMITIAN, in his temper and disposition, inherited all the savage cruelty of the monster Nero. Yet he spared the Christians in a considerable degree, until about the year 95, when several were put to death, and others banished, on account of their religion, both in Rome, and throughout all the provinces. Among those put to death,

Hosea iii. 4, 5.

was his own cousin and colleague in the consulship, Fabius Clemens; and, among the banished, the wife and niece of the latter, both named Flaviæ Domitillæ. At this time, the apostle John was banished to the island of Patmos, from whence he wrote his epistles to the seven churches in Asia. He is said to have survived the persecution of Domitian, though it is uncertain how long ; and to have died at Ephesus in the reign of Nerva or Trajan, at which city he was buried. The crime alledged 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 throw a grain of incense on the altars of the heathen deities. The storm, however, was of short duration; for both Eusebius and Tertullian inform us, that Domitian revoked the edict which he had issued against the Christians, and recalled from banishment those who had been driven away. Having caused the earth to groan under his cruelties and excesses, he was at length assassinated, in the sixteenth year of his reign, and succeeded in the empire by

NERVA, a prince of a most gentle and humane disposition, under whom the Romans lived as happy as during the former reign they had been miserable. He pardoned all that were imprisoned for treason, called home such as had been banished, restored the sequestered estates, punished informers, redressed grievances to the utmost of his power, and acted with universal beneficence towards all descriptions of his subjects. According to Dio Cassius, he forbade the persecution of any persons either for Judaism, or for impiety; by which is to be understood Christianity; for so the Heathens termed the latter on account of its being hostile to their worship; and be cause Christians, having neither temples, altars, nor sacrifices were generally considered by them to be also

SECT. VI.]

Reign of Nerva.

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without religion. After a short but brilliant reign of sixteen months and eight days, Nerva died, A. D. 98, and was succeeded by Trajan, whom he had previously nominated as his heir, a man well skilled in martial and cabinet affairs. In his deportment courteous, affable, humane, and just; and, perhaps, not undeservedly esteemed one of the best princes with which Rome had ever been favoured.

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CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH FROM THE CLOSE

OF THE FIRST CENTURY, TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY UNDER CONSTANTINE, A. D. 315.

SECTION I.

The state of the Christian profession under the reign of

Trajan.

A. D. 98 to 117.

THERE is more truth than would at first strike the mind of a superficial observer, in Dr. Jortin's remark, that Christianity was, at the beginning, more likely to prosper under bad than under good emperors; especially if the latter were tenacious of their religious rites and ceremonies. Accordingly, from the death of Christ to the reign of Vespasian, a period of about thirty-seven years, the Romans paid little regard to the progress of the gospel. They were ruled by weak or frantic and vicious emperors; the magistrates and senators, and every worthy man of any note, stood in continual fear for their own lives, and the empire was a scene of confusion, desolation, and misery.*

Gibbon, in one short paragraph, has sketched a tolerably correct picture of the state of the Roman government during the times of which we are now treating, and

* Jortin's Remarks, vol. i. p. $9.

SECT. 1.]

Progress of Christianity.

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the reader cannot be displeased at my transplanting it into these pages.

"The annals of the emperors," says he, "exhibit a strong and various picture of human nature, which we should vainly seek among the mixed and doubtful characters of modern history. In the conduct of these monarchs, we may trace the utmost lines of vice and virtue ; the most exalted perfection, and the meanest degeneracy of our own species. The golden age of Trajan and the Antonines had been preceded by an age of iron. It is almost superfluous to enumerate the unworthy successors of Augustus. Their unparalleled vices, and the splendid theatre on which they were acted, have saved them from oblivion. The dark, unrelenting Tiberius, the furious Caligula, the feeble Claudius, the profligate and cruel Nero, the beastly Vitellius, and the timid, inhuman Domitian, are condemned to everlasting infamy. During fourscore years (excepting only the short and doubtful respite of Vespasian's reign) Rome groaned beneath an unremitting tyranny, which exterminated the antient families, and was fatal to almost every virtue, and every talent that arose in that unhappy period."+

We have already traced the progress of Christianity through our author's age of iron, and are now entering upon what he terms the golden age of Trajan and the Antonines.

"If a man were called to fix," says the same elegant historian," the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the acces

Vitellius consumed in mere eating, at least six millions of our money in about seven months. It is not easy to express his vices with diguity or even decency, Tacitus fairly calls him "a hog.”

↑ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. i. ch,