The hatred of the Pharisees towards Christ and his apostles, was marked by its extraordinary virulence. From some incorrect interpretations of the prophecies, they had figured to themselves the Messiah as a mighty deliverer, who was to rescue the israelitish nation from the oppression of the Roman yoke, and subject the whole world to the institutions and the authority of .Moses. Our Saviour was not the deliverer whom they expected : he appeared without the pomp and splendour of royalty ; without armies or attendants ; and he declared, in the plainest manner, that his kingdom was not of this world. The pride of the nation was offended, and the opposi tion of the Pharisees was roused in all its bitterness and malignity. After repeated and fruitless attempts to inl volve Jesus in some charge which might affect his life, they succeeded in gaining over one of his immediate followers, and by the well-known treachery of Judas Iscariot, he was given up to their fury. It was the im petuous zeal of the Pharisees that urged the Roman procurator to put our Saviour to death. It was the Pharisees who sealed the stone which covered the mouth of the sepulchre ; and it was the same active and perseVering party that bribed the soldiers who Avatched the grave, and instructed them to publish the false account of the resurrection. They were the chief agents in the martyrdom of Stephen. They granted to Saul the commission which authorised him to bring the Christians of every description bound to Jerusalem. And by their ill-supported expositions of the sacred books, and the delusive hopes with which they flatter ed and amused the people, they urged on the destiny, and precipitated the destruction of their country. Groan ing under the severetics of a foreign administration, se verities rendered necessary by the factious disposition and impatient spirit of the Jews, this unhappy people at length broke out into open rebellion ; and still dream ing that the era of deliverance was at hand, they rashly and foolishly set the Roman power at defiance. The war raged throughout Asia Minor and a great part of the East. The armies of the empire, under the or ders of Titus, marched into the sacred territory. The chief city of the Jews was besieged, and for six long months its devoted inhabitants were subjected to all that extremity of suffering with which offended hea ven is wont to chastise the aggravated disobedience of man. The Romans assailed them from without, while famine and discord, with the delusions of hope, and the determination of despair, destroyed them within the walls. At length, in the 70th year of the Christian era, Jerusalem was taken by storm, and its temple re duced to ashes. And the prophecy of Jesus was lite rally accomplished, that of this lofty and splendid edi fice, the pride of Palestine, not one stone should be left upon another which should not be thrown down. Eleven thousand of the Jews perished in the siege and in the assault ; an incredible multitude of them were car ried away to be sold as slaves ; and the markets became at last so glutted, that no purchasers were to be found. The altar of God was thrown from its place, and broken in pieces ; the sacrifice and the oblation ceased, and the smoking ruins proclaimed " that the glory was depart ed." Amidst these calamities, the followers of Jesus, who had increased to a considerable number under the mi nistry of Petor and John, availed themselves of a fa vourable opportunity; and in compliance with our Sa viour's instructions, withdrew from the city and the hor rors of the siege. They retired to Pella, a small town beyond the river Jordan, and continued for a while uni ted among themselves, and undisturbed in the exercise of their religion.
Among the Gentiles the progress of Christianity was distinguished at once by its extraordinary rapidity, and the apparent inadequacy of the means employed to pub lish it. In an article of this kind, it is impossible to slim at any great length in what respects the different systems of philosophy which prevailed in the ancient world, were at variance with the doctrines and precepts of our religion. But there is one observation which we feel ourselves constrained to make, and it is this : that whatever might be the philosophical systems of anti quity, and however wide the distinctions which sepa rated them from one another, the patrons of all those systems, the masters of all the schools, agreed in sup porting, with the whole weight of their authority, and the whole effect of their example, the religion acknow ledged by the state. Whether with the Epicureans, a refined atheism was maintained, and pleasure was court ed for its own sake, or whether with the Stoics it was believed that happiness consisted in a repulsive and un tractable virtue; whether truth was supposed to be at tainable by human endeavours, or all was pronounced to be uncertain, fluctuating, and momenta•y,—it was universally held to be the part of a wise and patriotic man, to comply with the religion established in the country to which we belong. Even Socrates, who seems to have expressed himself more openly than others with regard to the Paganism of his time, is known to have sacrificed a cock to tEsculapius, a very short time pre vious to his death. Indeed it appears to have been an opinion by no means uncommon among the different sects of philosophers, that all the forms of religion were equally useful in governing the people, and equally destitute of a foundation in truth. To interfere with the acknowledged religion, therefore, was regarded not only as unnecessary, but as imprudent and pernicious ; and he who should attempt to overturn it altogether, and to substitute another religion in its place, was repre sented as an innovator, whom it was incumbent on the magistrate to resist and to punish. The opinion, as we have mentioned, was general ; and the practical conse quence was, that the philosophers of Greece and Rome were sometimes found among the keenest opposers of Christianity, and the most cruel persecutors of its minis ters. Besides, there was nothing in the religion of Je sus which was calculated to fill the imagination of the statesman, to excite his ambition, or to reward his ac tivity. It was not associated in the mind with ideas of political glory, or recommended by any connections, real or imaginary, with military success. The founder
of the new system belonged to a hated nation, and he had suffered a public and a disgraceful death : the apos tles and evangelists were poor men ; they could make no promises of wealth or distinction ; they had no re wards to allure the covetous, and no honours to bestow on the vain. " Silver and gold have I none," says St Peter to the cripple whom he was about to cure, " but such as I have give I to thee.—In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." The case was very different with the popular supersti tion. The prosperity of the state was intimately asso ciated with its religious institutions, and the glory of its military commanders with that of the gods tinder whose auspices they had fought. Among the Romans, in particular, the same individual was at once the pro genitor of the nation, and an object of their religious worship. The standard under which this victorious people had subdued the world, was the bird sacred to Jupiter ; the capitol, the great object of their rever ence, and the sight of which never failed to awaken and to elevate their patriotism, was consecrated to the same divinity ; the national history was filled with in stances of oracular warning, or of protecting care ; and, in one word, all that could engage the attention, and ri vet the attachment, of the politician or the citizen, was identified with the existence and the honour of the gods. Nor was this the whole matter. The Pagan supersti tion had its intrinsic and peculiar attractions. Many of its observances were such as recommended them selves, in the strongest manner, to the most powerful tendencies and passions of our nature. In the worship of Venus, prostitution was an acknowledged part ; the festivals of Bacchus were scenes of intoxication and riot ; and the very father of gods and men himself, to whom there was none equal or second in authority or in place, was, in many particulars of his history, a notable exam ple of cruelty and debauchery. Religion is the imitation of the gods which are worshipped. The people were not reluctant or slow to comply. A system which al lowed of such indulgencies, and afforded such exam ples, was not likely to be speedily abandoned. It had enlisted the ruling passions on its side; it had fixed its dominion in the heart, and there seemed to be no power on earth which was equal to the task of driving it from its place. It was the ancient religion, it was sanction ed by the learned and the wise, it was patronised by the rich and supported by the great, it was closely as sociated in the minds of men with the national glory, and it had captivated and enslaved the people by its splendid rites and licentious indulgencies. What, then, must have been the opposition which Christianity was doomed to encounter ! And how great must have been the 'labours and the patience of those who were corn missioned to preach its doctrine, and to establish it in the world ! The labours and the patience of the apostles were undoubtedly very great ; but it is not to these alone that we must ascribe the rapid progress of Christianity. While we give all credit to the early teachers of our religion for their unextinguishable zeal and unwearied activity, we must not forget that their apparent means were few in number, and limited in their operation. They had no arms in their hands, like Mahomet and his warlike followers ; it was not at the head of a devoted soldiery that they preached the gospel; they were ut terly destitute of wealth or influence ; and, except in the case of the apostle Paul, they had no pretensions to learning. The current of popular opinion and of popu lar feeling ran strong against them; and they knew very well, that they were "hated of all men" on account of the religion which they professed. It is to other and higher causes, to a mightier machinery, and to a power more than human, that we must ascribe the extraordi nary rapidity with which Christianity was propagated. The apostles and evangelists were endowed with miracu lous gifts : they healed the sick, they cleansed the lepers, they restored the dead to life. And what fitted them, in a remarkable degree, for the important work which they had undertaken, they spoke to every nation which they visited in its own language, proclaiming the glad tidings of reconciliation and of peace, and supporting and com forting their disciples amidst the sufferings to which they were exposed. " There was in their very words," says a respectable writer, " an incredible energy, an amazing power of sending light into the understanding, and con viction into the heart. To this were added the command ing influence of stupendous miracles, the foretelling of future events, the power of discerning the secret thoughts and intentions of the heart, a magnanimity superior to all difficulties, a contempt of riches and honours, a se rene tranquillity in the face of death, and an invincible patience under torments still more dreadful than death itself; and all this accompanied with lives free from every stain, and adorned by the constant practice of the sublimcst virtue." They were enabled likewise to com municate the same extraordinary powers to others, of which they were themselves possessed. The evidences of their commission were multiplied on every side; the temples of idolatry began speedily to be forsaken, the slumber of ages was broken and dissipated, the eye was filled with the prospect of immortality, and the world, awakened and active, pressed forward to everlasting life. Churches were quickly established in almost every por tion of the Roman empire ; in Phrygia and Galatia, pro vinces of Asia Minor, and in Ethiopia ; at Corinth, at Philippi, at Thcssalonica, and in the capital itself. In a short time, nations and cities more remote, heard of Jesus and of his doctrine. The Gauls received the know ledge of Christianity from the immediate successors of the apostles; and during the course of the second cen tury, the Germans, the Spaniards, and the Britons, were added to the multitudes in other places, who made open profession of the Christian faith.