CENTURY II

ADRIAN-CHURCH AT JERUSALEM-BARCHOCHEBAS.

THE persecution carried on by Trajan against the church, continued for some time after his death; for as Adrian his successor did not repeal his decrees condemning all those who professed the Christian faith to be capitally punished, things remained for some time nearly in the same state as in my last story.

But in the midst of its sufferings the church increased in godliness and in numbers, people were not then content to rest in the happiness of knowing the truth themselves; but, anxious that others should hear the glad tidings of salvation, many parted with their possessions and travelled into other lands where the Gospel had not yet been published; the church of Christ was yet a pure church, not such as it afterwards became, no heretic was admitted into the society of a true Christian, the body of true believers were united to each other as members under the one great Head, Jesus Christ, they loved each

other as Brethren, and were not divided by names, or sects, or parties.

Persecution was the means of strengthening and purifying the church, but when God saw fit he checked the rage of men against his people, and gave rest to his church. Adrian was very fond of the Pagan ceremonies and institutions, he could not therefore be a friend to Christianity, but he was moved to pity by the representations that were made to him, especially by the expostulations of one of his own governors, who wrote to him saying that it seemed to him unreasonable that men should be put to death merely to please the people, without trial and without any crime being proved against them. That they were Christians was crime enough in the judgment of Trajan and Pliny, but Adrian decreed that only such should be punished as were found guilty of breaking the laws of the state. This you will say was but common justice; but justice towards Christians was no common thing in those days; you will remember that Christ himself had no justice shown him when he was taken from prison and from judgment."

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Nor did this law of Adrian's entirely free them from persecution; though you might suppose it would bring them total exemption, because no real Christian could be found guilty of wilfully breaking the laws of the state; but the Christians were often forced to bear the punishment of crimes unjustly imputed to them; and very often

could not clear themselves. Sometimes too it occurred very unfortunately for them, that wicke persons bearing the name of Christ, while in fact they were vile heretics, brought reproach upon the name of Christian, and by their wicked actions caused the Pagans to say, and some of them perhaps to believe, that the sect called Christian, was a detestable and wicked superstition.'

But real Christians knew, it was only by a patient continuance in well-doing, they could put to silence the ignorance of foolish men,' and so they were anxious to show, only by the purity of their lives, their innocency, and by their separation from those heretics, their hatred of their practices. Thus by their pure conduct, and watchful lives, they so far overcame the prejudice against them, that the Emperor speaking of the Christian Bishops, seems to think them quite as respectable characters, as the Priests of the Egyptian God Serapis.

After all you have heard of the miseries and dispersion of the Jews, you would think, that having learnt the folly of resisting the power of the Romans, and the determination of God, who had in His wrath, doomed them to these sufferings, they would remain a small and scattered people, in silence and subjection, nor think of again rebelling against the power which they had so lately felt: but what I have now to tell you proves the reverse, and shows the sad infatuation of these devoted people, who seemed eager to augment their miseries, and deepen their destruction.

When Titus took the Holy City, the Christians who were in it had made their escape, as our Lord had desired them to do, when they should see "Jerusalem compassed about with armies." They retired to a little town beyond Jordan, named Pella, which was inhabited by Gentiles. They afterwards left Pella, and returning to Mount Sion, built a few lonely houses, and formed thus a little Church upon the Mount of God.' This church, though small, was pure, for when a relation of the Roman Emperor, having joined them, acted contrary to the character of a sincere and real Christian, he was expelled from it; which shows you how careful the Christians of old were, that none should call themselves by the sacred name of Christ, who were not in all things followers of Him.

This little body of Christians suffered much from the cruelty of the Jews, who, forgetting all they had suffered in the former rebellion against the Romans, took up arms once more, and instigated by a wicked imposter named Barchochebas, proceeded from one act of violence to another. This Barchochebas pretended to be the star spoken of by Balaam; Num. xxii. 17. and consequently to be the Messiah: and these infatuated people, who had rejected the true star, the true Messiah, received the impostor with open arms, and were led by him into every crime and outrage. Among the rest they persecuted the Christian church, and Barchochebas tortured all who refused to blas

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pheme Christ. This insurrection caused the overthrow of the church at Jerusalem, for Adrian, incensed at their resisting his arms for two whole years, treated the Jews with the greatest rigour, and banished them for ever from the place they loved; and finally, as if to remove the remembrance of Jerusalem from the earth, built another city near it, which he named Elia.

Adrian, after a reign of one and twenty years, was succeeded by Antoninus Pius; the time in which he and his brother Marcus Antoninus lived is called the age of the Antonines. Mr. Gibbon, speaking of the Antonines, says, they governed the Roman empire forty-two years with the same invariable spirit of wisdom and virtue.'

Of the elder Antoninus, called Pius, I have not much to say, but what I have is good, for I only speak of persons as they are concerned with the history of the church, and as Antoninus did not persecute, but on the contrary was friendly to the Christians, I am not concerned to deprive him of the virtue historians ascribe to him.

Of Marcus Antoninus I have more to say, and in the history of the church under his reign, I think we shall have occasion again to remark the difference between true and false virtue.

The character of Antoninus Pius seems one amiable in Pagan morality; he understood the principles of justice, and displayed them in his conduct; he was not satisfied with issuing an edict for the cessation of persecution, but finding