and in addition, therefore, to the ordinary motives which would always lead them to chastise a refractory province, they had, in the case of Judea, many of a new and peculiar nature, and such as would impress them with a fixed determination to repress its insurrections. Vespasian, with his son Titus, had been sent by Nero with a powerful army into Judea, in the year 66; and in the course of a few months all the chief places of Galilee were in the hands of the enemy.* 'But in proportion as the cloud which hung threatening over their nation grew darker, the unfortunate people became more and more the prey of internal disorders. A class of fanatics, who assumed the name of zealots, resisting the advice of the more prudent of their countrymen, took up arms with the professed resolution of opposing the further progress of the Romans. But they had scarcely assembled in sufficient numbers to appear formidable in their own eyes, when they began the work of pillage; and, marching to Jerusalem, took possession of the temple, and conducted themselves with all the insolence and barbarity of tyrants just possessed of power. The attempt which the high priest, Ananus, and others made to repress the fury of these abandoned men only gave rise to fresh and worse outrages. The zealots, finding themselves in danger, called in the Idumeans, by night, to their assistance; and a conflict took place in the very precincts of the temple, at the end of which between 8000 and 9000 persons lay slaughtered under its walls. Encouraged by their success in this attack, the Idumeans immediately proceeded to plunder the city, and slay the few persons of distinction who had not fallen in the previous conflict. The high priest, Ananias, the chief object of their hatred, was killed without delay. The observations which Josephus makes in recording this event are deserving attention. "I should not mistake," he remarks, "if I said that the death of Ananus was the beginning of the destruction of *Josephus, De Bell. lib. iii. c. vii. x. the city; and that from this very day may be dated the overthrow of her walls, and the ruin of her affairs, when they saw their high priest, and the procurer of their preservation, slain in the midst of their city.” After praising the great prudence of this person, and mentioning another, named Jesus, also highly distinguished for similar good qualities, he continues to remark; "I cannot but think it was because God had doomed this city to destruction as a polluted city, and was resolved to purge his sanctuary by fire, that he cut off these their great defenders and wellwishers; while those who a little before had worn the sacred garments, and had presided over the public worship, and been esteemed venerable by those that dwelt on the whole habitable earth, when they came into our city were cast out naked, and seen to be the food of dogs and wild beasts. And I cannot but imagine that virtue itself groaned at these ren's cases, and lamented that she was here so terribly conquered by wickedness.”* The strongest expressions are chosen by the indignant historian to describe the horrible excesses to which the zealots proceeded after they had thus removed the few men who had sufficient courage and authority to stem for a while the torrent of their wickedness. Vespasian was persuaded by the chief officers of his army to proceed at once to Jerusalem, and strike the final blow while the people were in this state of confusion: but prudently observing, that a too hasty attack would only serve to re-unite the several parties, he contented himself with following up the cautious system with which he had commenced the campaign. In the midst, however, of his proceedings, intelligence was brought him of the death of Nero, which was followed by his own election to the imperial throne. As this obliged him to depart immediately for Rome, Titus was left in command of the army, which had shortly before been set in order for commencing its march to * De Bell. lib. iv. c. iii. iv. wards the holy city. The perils which awaited them at this juncture had no other effect on the Jews than that of increasing the licentiousness which raged among them. Those who possessed some degree of prudence and fortitude were overpowered by the zealots on the one side, and by the despairing or too blindly courageous on the other. The enormities daily practised in the streets are too horrible for description, where the subject does not demand it; and when the Roman army took up its position against the devoted city, its population exhibited the melancholy spectacle of a people that seemed to have been simultaneously struck with frenzy. It does not come within our province to follow the course of the siege, or the almost inconceivable miseries endured by the inhabitants of Jerusalem during its continuance. But not a tittle of Christ's prophecy was left unfulfilled. War, plague, and famine were united to execute the judgments of the Almighty. On the 10th of August the temple was set on fire, and on the 8th of September Titus was master of the desolated city.* In answer to the question, what became of the numerous Christians of Jerusalem during these calamitous events, we are informed that by a divine intimation, given shortly before their occurrence, to some of the most holy men among them, they were directed to leave the city, and take up their abode at Pellat, a small town on the other side of the river Jordan. There, it is reported, they continued till the emperor Hadrian built the town of Ælia, on the ancient site of Jerusalem, when they returned to that spot which so many recollections had rendered above all others sacred to the followers of Christ. As no mention is made in history of its struggles dur- A.D. ing the intervening period, it may be supposed that till 95. the latter end of the reign of Domitian the church was suffered to remain unmolested by any serious attack. Suspicion, however, was awake, and both Vespasian and Josephus, De Bell. lib. vi. c. ix. x. Eusebius, lib. iii. c. v.-ix. * Domitian, influenced by reports respecting the Messiah of the Jews, made diligent enquiry after all individuals of that nation who had any pretensions to the honour of a royal descent. The latter of these emperors had the opportunity, in the early part of his reign, of examining some persons who acknowledged themselves descended from David. They are commonly supposed to have been grandsons of Jude the apostle, but their poverty and the unaffected simplicity of their manners convinced Domitian that he had nothing to fear from their pretensions to royalty, and he dismissed them without injury.* Their answers, it is said, inspired him with the utmost contempt; and he is stated to have issued thereupon an order prohibiting the further persecution of the Christians. There is some contradiction in the statements of ancient authors on this point, but it is generally known that, not long after, the barbarities which disgraced the reign of Nero were renewed. Among those who fell in this persecution were many persons of distinction. At the head of the list stands Flavius Clemens, the cousin of Domitian, and whose two infant sons he had himself nominated his successors. Domitilla, the wife of Clement, and also a relation of the emperor, was banished to the Isle of Pandataria, while the niece of Clement was sent to the Isle of Pontia, and lodged in a dungeon. Happily for the church, the reign of Domitian was at its close when he commenced this persecution of the faithful; and his successor Nerva, who ascended the throne in the year 96, was endowed with qualities both of mind and temper which strongly inclined him to the practice of tolerance. One of the first acts of his government was to rescind the edicts which his predecessor had published against the Christians. Those who had been condemned for any supposed religious offence were freed from punishment, and the exiles were restored to their homes. Among the latter was St. John, who had been banished to the Isle of Patmos, and now returned to end his long and useful course * Eusebius, lib. iii. c. xix, xx. among his brethren at Ephesus. General tranquillity was thus, for a season, granted to the church, and the first eventful century of its existence was closed in peace. CHAP. II. INSTITUTION OF RULES OF DISCIPLINE. -RITES OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. — INTRODUCTION OF HERESIES.WORKS OF THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. It is commonly the case with new societies that those who are concerned in their formation institute, at the beginning, a system of rules in order to secure exertion in the proper line of duty, and to impress a deep sense of the importance of the object which it is the purpose of their association to fulfil. This, however, is principally to be considered as the practice of societies formed for a well ascertained and definite purpose. When the object for which a set of persons unite together is less distinct and obvious than the principles, and the internal feeling which dispose them to unite, are strong, the society is for the most part left to depend, in the earlier period of its existence, on the fraternal sentiments, the uninfluenced sense of duty, or the enthusiasm of its members. But as none of these principles of union are unassailable by the world, associations, which have no other security for their permanence, are in most instances dissolved after a brief existence, or are lost to all practical purposes in the mass of general society. In contemplating the union which existed from the first between the disciples of Christ, we see a society formed of men who were evidently drawn together more from community of sentiment, and reverence for the same master, than from the notion that they were to associate in order to labour as a body in |