seed of the church. After this bloody tyrant had lived for some time under the horrors of his guilty conscience, being condemned by the senate to be put into the furca, or pillory, there to be scourged to death, after various pusillanimous efforts, in the year 68, with his own hand, he put a period to his iniquitous life.

7. Domitian, whose soul was nearly allied to Nero's in cruelty, about the year 94 renewed the persecution, which, though it was carried on with extreme rigour, was but of short duration, as Domitian himself was put to death the following year by the hands of his own subjects.

8. In this reign it is well known, St. John the apostle was banished to the isle of Patmos, where he was indulged with the most familiar intercourse with his God and Saviour, from whom he received those wonderful Revelations he faithfully recorded, and which close the canon of Scripture.

HERESIES.

IT is a melancholy reflection, that Error, that fearful hydra, soon reared its hundred heads in the church of God Hymenæus and Philetus gave an early proof, in their own example, how liable the mind is to be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. The doctrine of a sinner's justification by the merits of a Redeemer, was soon tainted by the pharisaical leaven of those judaizing teachers, who crept into the church of Galatia, and subverted the faith of many, affirming that a man could not be justified, except he were circumcised, and kept the law of Moses.

2. Antinomians, in these early days, maintained that faith precluded the necessity of good works; and in opposition to their licentious tenet, the Epistle of St. James was evidently written, urging the expediency of personal obedience.

3. The Gospel and Epistles of St John were particularly directed against those hereties, who may be elassed under the general appellation of Gnostics, and who, among many other absurdities, denied the godhead of our blessed Lord and Master. This error, like a ma

lignant germen, finding a luxuriant soil in the human heart, afterwards grew to full maturity, and has been transmitted to our day by Arius and the two Socini.

4. The Gnostics were a sect of supercilious philosophers, who endeavoured to incorporate their vain philosophy with the divine doctrine of Christianity. They assumed the name of Gnostics,* or persons of superior understanding, and proudly arrogated to themselves the possession of all wisdom.

5. According to the opinion of these Oriental sages, the world was created by a malevolent being; and supposing that rational souls were imprisoned, by the power of malignant genii or spirits, in corrupt matter in which all evil resided, rontrary to the will of the Supreme Deity; they expected that he would send a messenger upon earth, invested with Divine authority, to rescue miserable mortals from the chains of these tyrants and usurpers.

6. Perceiving the miracles wrought by Christ and his followers, they concluded that he was the messenger which they expected, and therefore they were induced to embrace Christianity, or rather to corrupt the precepts and doctrines of Christ and his apostles in such a manner as to reconcile them with their own philosophi cal tenets.

7. They denied the divinity of Christ, whom they affirmed to be an æon, or emanation from the Deity, sent from the pleroma, or habitation of the Everlasting Father, to deliver virtuous and heaven-born souls from the evil principle of corrupt matter, and the empire of wicked spirits.

8. They likewise denied that he was clothed with a real body, or that he really suffered, for the sake of mankind, the pains and sorrows, which in the sacred history he is said to have sustained and asserted that these things were only in appearance. From their dislike to matter, they rejected the doctrine of the resurrection; and disowned the authority of the Old Testament, because the account therein given of the creation contradicted the ridiculous fictions of their vain philosophy.

* The name is derived from the Greek word ywwonw, I know.

9. This sect branched itself into many others, who assumed the names of their respective leaders; the most distinguished of whom was Cerinthus, who mixed something of Judaism, and many of his own monstrous opinions, with the doctrine of the Gnostics. And the NicoJaitanes, against whose notions and practices there is such an awful interdict in the book of the Revelation, appear to have been Gnostics, as far as history affords us any light upon the subject, who incorporated with their own heresy the doctrine of polygamy; or a plurality of wives.

10. Simon Magus cannot properly be considered as an heretic, as he renounced the whole of Christianity, and set himself in opposition to Christ, pretending that in his person resided the most powerful of the Divine cons, and that he was the Great Power of God, sent to deliver mankind from the thraldom of matter. Menander has been supposed, by some ancient writers, to have been his disciple, probably because the blasphemous notions he held corresponded with the system of that infamous magician.

DEATH OF THE APOSTLES.

WE know but very little concerning the death of these illustrious inen, who were raised up, by the special grace of God, to give the knowledge of salvation to a guilty world. James the son of Zebedee was beheaded at Jerusalem, in the year 44, by the command of Herod Agrippa; and, in the year 60, James the Just was stoned, under the pontificate of Anauus.

2. There is reason to believe that, under the reign of Nero, Paul and Peter suffered martyrdom; and that St. John, in the year 101, died a natural death at Ephesus, having survived the other apostles, and lived till he was -near a hundred years of age. But where or how the rest of these holy men departed this life it is impossible to say, as their death is covered with a thick veil of impenetrable obscurity.

THE STATE OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE SECOND
CENTURY.

AS it is well known, that at this time the greatest part of the world had been subjugated to the Roman authority, the circumstances of the church of God must consequently have been materially affected by the disposition of the Roman Emperors towards it. It appears, therefore, necessary to take a view of the respective reigns of those persons into whose hands the government of the world bad been committed, by Him who used them at his pleasure to accomplish his own wise and grand designs.

2. At this period, nations, not a few, had submitted themselves to the authority of the Son of God; and though we are incapable accurately of specifying the limits of his dominion, yet it is clear, that the isle of Great Britain had been visited with the gospel of salvation; and that many of the rude inhabitants had acknowledged its invincible energy.

3. The greatest part of the east, together with Spain, Germany, and what we now call France, saw altars erected to Jesus Christ, whom they worshipped as the true God. This century began with the reign of

TRAJAN.

:

THE prospect of the Christians was now particularly favourable. The sanguinary edicts of Nero and Domitian being revoked, and the mild Trajan possessed of the imperial authority, they had much to expect ; but yet, means were devised to manifest the enmity of the human heart against God, by the persecution of his people; and many, at this time, sealed their testimony to the truth of Christianity with their blood!

2. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was sent from Syria to Rome; and condemned by the Emperor to be devoured by wild beasts. That holy magnanimity which Divine grace produces, was expressed by him when death was near at hand, "Let no one," said he, "divert me from or envy my happiness of attaining Christ Jesus.

Let fire and the cross, the assaults of wild beasts, the pulling asunder of bones, the cutting off of members, the stamping in pieces of the whole body, the punishment of the devil come upon me, so that I may obtain Christ Jesus!" Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, aged 120 years, together with many other eminent persons, were also put to death.

3. The rage of this persecution, which principally prevailed through the Roman provinces in the east, was abated by the representations of Pliny, Governor of Bithynia, who, inquiring of the Emperor what was to be done, was answered, that they were not officiously to be sought after; but, if apprehended and convicted, that they should be punished. This is what ecclesiastical history calls The Edict of Trajan.

ADRIAN.

THE heathen priests stirred up the populace to demand of the magistrates the death of the Christians; by which they were awed into compliance; and particu larly in Asia, a great number fell victims to popular clamour. But by the interposition of Serenus Granianus, pro-consul of Asia, the Emperor ordained, That they should not be punished, unless convicted of crimes against the State.

2. In this reign, the ruin of the Jews was completed. Rufus, President of Judea, engaged them, under a mad leader, named Barchochebas, and slew many thousands; not sparing even women and children; and forbade the survivors from coming within sight of Jerusalem; the name of which had been changed, sixteen years before, into that of Elia Capitolina.

ANTONINUS PIUS.

THE law of Adrian was now attempted to be evaded. The Christians were charged as the abettors of atheism and impiety. Justin Martyr, a celebrated philosopher, who had embraced Christianity, became their advocate; and in an apology which he presented to the Emperor, so affectingly represents their case, that a rescript was