“ In this persecution it is observed from Tacitus, that persons, who "made profession of this new religion were treated with all the instances of scorn and cruelty; that some were wrapped up in the skins of wild beasts, to be worried and devoured by dogs; others were crucified; others burnt alive, clad in paper coats smeared with pitch or wax, or some combustible matter; that when day-light failed they might serve for torches and illuminations in the night." Even these spectacles were exhibited in the emperor's own gardens. Thus barbarously were the Christians treated at Rome ”

“ John despaired of life in this barren and desolate spot, his own liberation is first assured to him, that, aged as he was, he should "prophesy before many people, and nations, and tongues, and kings." ”

“ Paul's being shipwrecked at Melita, it is generally supposed that Matthew suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, being slain with a halbert.—But we have to notice the death of the apostle James, at Jerusalem, in the year preceding Paul's discharge out of custody, by a violent insurrection of the Jews, through which means he closed his life by martyrdom, in the interval between the death of the governor Festus and the succession of Albinus. About this time, also, the death of Matthias is generally placed by means of stoning, though we have less account of him than of most of the other apostles. ”

“ The malignant spirit of the Jews was ever predominant, and the apostles, as their Master before them, were on all occasions, and in every place where that spirit could shew itself, violently persecuted. The apostle Paul was by this means, driven from Antioch to Iconium; yet there were the apostles opposed by Jews and Gentiles, until they found it expedient to escape to Lycaonia. At Lystra, notwithstanding the partiality of the Gentiles for them, on account of curing the impotent man, the Jews to such a degree prevailed, that Paul was even stoned by them. ”

“ The violent death which the emperor soon after suffered, by means of conspirators whom he himself had marked for destruction, gave a new face to the affairs of the Christians.—Both they and the dispersed Jews, who had either been banished from Rome and other cities during the last reign, to become voluntary exiles to escape his fury, were immediately recalled by his successor ”

“ He was a good prince; yet, during his short reign of little more than two years, Linus, Bishop of Rome, successor to St. Peter or St. Paul, as bishops of the Jewish or Gentile converts, is now said to have suffered martyrdom, about five years after the death of St. Luke. The professors of the gospel lived peaceably for several years afterwards, excepting the disturbances which were fomented or occasioned by heretics, of whom indeed there was but too prolific a produce, though they were in some degree kept under by the vigilance of the apostle St. ”

“ At Ephesus, to which he came afterwards, a strong party, as in other places, opposed him, yet it only obliged him to change the scene of his labors, and in the public lecture—room of Tyrannus, to secure free admission of the Gentiles. The sons of a certain Jewish priest attempted indeed to imitate St. Paul's miracles there; but he paid rather dearly for his rash adventure, and this proved an occasion of many converts, and the destruction of great numbers of improper books. ”

“ Nerva's mild reign was, nevertheless, a short one, into more than sixteen months; but his successor Trajan, though otherwise a good prince, was excessively zealous for Paganism and all its superstitions, insomuch that St. Clement, if we are to credit Metaphrastes, was banished from Rome in the first year of his reign to the mines in Taullea Chersonesu; for having converted Theodora, a noble Roman lady and others to the profession of the gospel. The rigidness of Trajan for Paganism gave occasion to his subjects to persecute Christians, though no edict was issued against them. ”