salem serving to deck the temple of Peace, built by Vespasian at Rome. Thus the Jews were no longer a nation, but were persecuted and driven over the whole face of the earth, becoming outcasts and the objects of oppression and scorn whithersoever they went, and thenceforth have been a standing miracle of the truth of the Christian religion. God, when he thus wreaked his just and threatened vengeance on Jerusalem, had, as we learn from Eusebius, provided for the safety of the Christians of that city, by previously warning them to retire to Pella, where they enjoyed safety and prosperity.

Vespasian reigned about twelve years, and was succeeded by his son Titus, who died after a short reign of two years and two months; whereupon Domitian ascended the throne, and was as remarkable for his vices as his brother Titus had been for his virtues. This monster gave rise to the second persecution against the Christians. St. John had preached the gospel even to the Parthians, to whom his first epistle is said to have been directed, but his usual place of residence was Ephesus, and in the ninth year of Domitian's reign he was banished to the isle of Patmos, in which seclusion he wrote the divine revelations he there received: his gospel

clude from his own words, intimating his intention of so doing, but also from the testimony of other authors, as Theodoret, who affirms, that he not only preached in Spain, but in the isles of the sea, and even in Britain; and, in another passage, he includes the Gauls and Britons in his enumeration of the people, to whom the gospel had been preached by the apostles, especially by the tent-maker, as he calls St. Paul, in allusion to his trade.

In the interval between St. Paul's two imprisonments at Rome, or when he had returned to his second, Peter wrote his second epistle, (in which he appears to be aware of his approaching death,) St. Paul's* being now generally diffused throughout the churches. Some time after was written the epistle of Jude, called

* It is generally agreed that St. Paul wrote his epistle to the Ephesians from Rome, at the same time as that of the Colossians, and that he sent it by the same hands. The two epistles to the Thessalonians were most probably written from Corinth, at least the subscriptions are evidently erroneous. The first epistle to Timothy appears to have been from Macedonia, although it is subscribed from Laodicea, and it must also have been subsequent to St. Paul's first imprisonment. The epistle to Titus also was evidently sent during the same journey, and in all proba bility from Nicopolis of Epirus, there being no place of that name in Macedonia, from which it is subscribed.

tles, and died peaceably at Ephesus, being advanced to a very great age, in the second year of Trajan, and about the 100th of our Lord.

being the reputed brother of Jesus, for he was the son of Joseph, sometimes called Alpheus, by his former wife Escha, the daughter of Aggi, the brother of John the Baptist's father Zecharias, he was chosen president or bishop of the Christian community of that city. All these, like St. Paul and St. Peter, suffered for their firm adherence to that faith, yet whose tenets they so miraculously propagated, I say miraculously, because they had every natural object to contend with, for although those who professed this faith suffered the most dreadful persecutions, with little intervals, until the time of Constantine, yet did the number of converts daily increase, as we not only learn from the early Christian writers, but even from Tacitus and Pliny, whose allusions to the prevalence of this doctrine are to be referred to a very early stage of Christianity. These wonderful effects were caused by the exertions of a few unlettered men of a despised nation, although opposed by the natural prejudices of people in favour of the established religions derived from their ancestors, and if not persecuted at least not upholden by any of the then existing rulers of the world. This, if we do not presuppose the divine origin of the founder, and the miraculous powers of him and his immediate disciples, would be in itself as great a miracle as any of those which the enemies of Christianity impugn, and is fully sufficient to remove all doubts from a reflective mind. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, in all likelihood embraced that faith, on account of the vast diffusion and prevalence of its doctrine.

It is thought, with probability too, that Christianity found its way into Britain in the reign either of Claudius or Nero, for as many Romans had then embraced it, there is just reason to conclude that from the intercourse then existing between Rome and Britain, it would naturally find its way into this country. In fact, from Tacitus may be inferred that Pomponia Græcina, who came over to this island with Plautius, one of Claudius's generals, had been converted to the faith of Christ; she was charged before her husband with following a foreign superstition, superstionis externæ rea, but by him acquitted, and by what Tacitus says of her manners she was most likely a Christian. The first preaching of Christianity in this island has been assigned to various persons, but there is great uncertainty in this matter from the obscure and contradictory accounts of those periods. Monkish traditions give this honour to Joseph of Arimathea, alleging that he came to Britain in the year 63, and founded a church at or near Glastonbury. Some ascribe the first predication of the gospel in this island to Simon Zelotes, some to James, and again others to Paul and Peter respectively. But if, in their peregrinations, any of the apostles did reach this island, the evidences of gospel

province. This Florus acted very oppressively towards the Jews, and so inflamed their naturally seditious and discontented spirit, that, maugre all the persuasions and entreaties of king Agrippa to the contrary, they were fully bent upon having recourse to arms. But, Agrippa having left Jerusalem, a band of mutinous zealots surprised the Roman garrison of the castle of Massadas, a strong and well provided fortress, and put them all to the sword. Also Eleazar, captain of the temple, and son of Ananias the high-priest, being of a resolute and haughty disposition, persuaded the priests not to admit the gifts or sacrifices of strangers, but to offer them up for the Jews alone, thus excluding those they had been accustomed to offer for the Roman emperor and his people.

Advice of these disturbances was forthwith forwarded to Florus, at Cæsarea, and to Agrippa, and troops were requested for their suppression while yet in their infancy. But Florus disregarded the information, and the forces sent by Agrippa only increased the evil, by joining the faction of the chief persons, who held the higher part of the town, the rebels having occupied the lower part and the temple. These two parties spent seven days in constant but ineffectual