religion in the same country, among the same people, and in the same age, could not but be attended with danger. Suetonius, a writer contemporary with Tacitus, describing the transactions of the same reign, uses these words: "Affecti suppliciis Christiani, genus hominum superstitionis novæ et malificæ." "2 "The Christians, a set of men of a new and mischievous (or magical) superstition, were punished." Since it is not mentioned here that the burning of the city was the pretence of the punishment of the Christians, or that they were the Christians of Rome who alone suffered, it is probable that Suetonius refers to some more general persecution than the short and occasional one which Tacitus describes. Juvenal, a writer of the same age with the two former, and intending, it should seem, to commemorate the cruelties exercised under Nero's government, has the following lines: 3"Pone Tigellinum; tædâ lucebis in illâ, Quâ stantes ardent, qui fixo gutture fumant, "Describe Tigellinus" (a creature of Nero); "and you shall suffer the same punishment with Suet. Nero, cap. 16. Sat. i. ver. 155. Perhaps, "deducis." those who stand burning in their own flame and smoke, their head being held up by a stake fixed to their chin, till they make a long stream of blood and melted sulphur on the ground." If this passage were considered by itself, the subject of allusion might be doubtful; but, when connected with the testimony of Suetonius, as to the actual punishment of the Christians by Nero, and with the account given by Tacitus of the species of punishment which they were made to undergo, I think it sufficiently probable, that these were the executions to which the poet refers. These things, as has already been observed, took place within thirty-one years after Christ's death; that is, according to the course of nature, in the lifetime, probably, of some of the Apostles; and certainly in the lifetime of those who were converted by the Apostles, or who were converted in their time. If, then, the Founder of the religion was put to death in the execution of His design; if the first race of converts to the religion, many of them, suffered the greatest extremities for their profession, it is hardly credible, that those who came between the two, who were companions of the Author of the institution during His life, and the teachers and propagators of the institution after His death, could go about their undertaking with ease and safety. The testimony of the younger Pliny belongs to a later period; for although he was contemporary with Tacitus and Suetonius, yet his account does not, like theirs, go back to the transactions of Nero's reign, but is confined to the affairs of his own time. His celebrated letter to Trajan was written about seventy years after Christ's death; and the information to be drawn from it, so far as it is connected with our argument, relates principally to two points; first to the number of Christians in Bithynia and Pontus, which was so considerable as to induce the governor of these provinces to speak of them in the following terms: "Multi, omnis ætatis, utriusque sexûs etiam;-neque enim civitates tantùm, sed vicos etiam et agros, superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est." "There are many of every age and of both sexes ; nor has the contagion of the superstition seized cities only, but smaller towns also, and the open country." Great exertions must have been used by the preachers of Christianity, to produce this state of things within this time. Secondly, to a point which has been already noticed, and which I think of importance to be observed, namely, the sufferings to which Chris tians were exposed without any public persecution being denounced against them by sovereign authority. For, from Pliny's doubt how he was to act, his silence concerning any subsisting law on the subject, his requesting the emperor's rescript, and the emperor, agreeably to his request, propounding a rule for his direction, without reference to any prior rule, it may be inferred, that there was, at that time, no public edict in force against the Christians. Yet from this same epistle of Pliny, it appears that "accusations, trials, and examinations were, and had been, going on against them, in the provinces over which he presided; that schedules were delivered by anonymous informers, containing the names of persons who were pected of holding, or of favouring, the religion; that in consequence of these informations, many had been apprehended, of whom some boldly avowed their profession, and died in the cause; others denied that they were Christians; others, acknowledging that they had once been Christians, declared that they had long ceased to be such." All which demonstrates, that the profession of Christianity was at that time (in that country at least) attended with fear and danger : and yet this took place without any edict from the Roman sovereign, commanding or autho sus rizing the persecution of Christians. This observation is further confirmed by a rescript of Adrian to Minucius Fundanus, the proconsul of Asia; from which rescript it appears, that the custom of the people of Asia was to proceed against the Christians with tumult and uproar. This disorderly practice, I say, is recognized in the edict, because the emperor enjoins that, for the future, if the Christians were guilty, they should be legally brought to trial, and not be pursued by importunity and clamour. Martial wrote a few years before the younger Pliny, and, as his manner was, made the sufferings of the Christians the subject of his ridicule. Nothing, however, could show the notoriety of the fact with more certainty than this does. Martial's testimony, as well indeed as Pliny's, goes also to another point, namely, that the deaths of these men were martyrdoms in the strictest sense, that is to say, were so voluntary, that it was in their power, at the time of pronouncing the sentence, to have averted the execution, by consenting to join in heathen sacrifices. 5 Lardner, Heath. Test., vol. ii. p. 110. Mucius, imposuit qui sua membra focis, |