fluence so far as prudence permits. I do not affirm that all acts of persection are equal in atrocity; but since it is the motive which gives its color to our deeds, so the scoffer is no less amenable to the charge of persecution than the inquisitor. They differ rather in degree than nature; in power than in spirit. each as far as he dares, on account of diversity of opinion. Arm the scoffer with power, he becomes an inquisitor; wrest from the inquisitor his instruments of torture, he sinks into that common-place character— the social calumniator. 6 They both inflict evil, One of the most insidious enemies of Christianity, the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' has intimated that the spirit of Heathenism at Rome, was one of universal toleration'.* I can account for the mistake only on the supposition, that his hatred of the Gospel had blinded his mind to facts in history, which are of undoubted authority, and stand out in bold relief; or pre-disposed him to pass over all that he could, which was of a nature to benefit, and to exaggerate so far as safe, every thing likely to disparage Christianity. In truth, Paganism in general, whether under the form of religion, or of philosophy, was tolerant only in cases where the spirit of bigotry was not roused. At Rome, so long as the changes which took place went only to add another kindred deity to the national calendar, the evil passions of the heart being rather gratified than provoked, remained in tranquil acquiescence; but the moment a rival claimant made his appearance,—the moment that a system which emphatically claimed the attribute of truth aimed to supplant a system of popular superstition, and philosophical indifferentism, then, at once, the idle acquiescence of the people being disturbed, the national honour offended, the craft of the priesthood being jeopardised, and * Chap. II. the policy of the statesman embarrassed, and his tenure of office threatened, the calm was at an end; interest and prejudice conspired with animosity, armed themselves with the powers of the state, and spared no effort, whether right or wrong, to crush the rising competitor. But as it is an important circumstance, that Christianity, with all its corruptions, was not the aggressor, nor the originator of persecution, I shall not content myself with general statements, but bring forward unquestionable historical facts, bearing on the point. And my allegation is, that the most cultivated nations of ancient times, were all, more or less, guilty of persecution. Egypt, probably, was the cradle of civilization. Different parts of the country had their different objects of worship, and the animal that was adored in this place, was slaughtered and eaten in another. Hence sprang mutual reproaches of impiety, which led to quarrels, hatred, and cruelty. The extent to which these animosities were carried, has been described, as well by the pen of history, as that of satire; and he who has read the frightful and sickening account which Juvenal has given of a religious discord in Egypt, will need no other evidence of the existence of a persecuting spirit in that land, nor think that the poet has overdrawn the picture in the following words 'Between two neighbouring towns, a deadly hate, Juvenal, Satire xv. Gifford's Translation. From Egypt go to Persia. The Magii were philosophers as well as religionists. With what severity did they bring their power to bear against the encroachments which Christianity, in the first ages, laboured to make on their superstitious empire. And long before Christ appeared in the world when its monarchs brought down their innumerable hordes, in order to sweep Greece out of social existence, they were aided in levying their vast forces by the spirit of bigotry, and impelled, by the same spirit, to direct the storm of their wrath in a special manner against the temples and the religion of the land. And in Greece itself, Greece-the fosterparent of philosophy and the school of the arts which embellish life and refine the heart; in Athens, the eye and the soul of Greece, was there a law, which, according to the authority of Josephus, expressly forbade on pain of death, the introduction of the worship of a strange divinity. Nay, Xenophon himself has given us the very words in which the virtuous Socrates was arraigned, and they are to the effect that he was worthy of death for neglecting the national gods and introducing new objects of worship.* The consequences of the accusation are generally known; he whom the oracle of Apollo-the most celebrated in Greece, had pronounced the wisest of men, and who was not only the wisest but the best of all the uninspired benefactors of the world, who spent the better part of his days in efforts of self-denying and disinterested benevolence, and became thereby an object of tender regard to men whose writings have shed light over the whole civilized world, was first shamefully ridiculed on the public stage, and afterwards put to death in prison, though he had gone to the very limits of propriety in a care not to wound the prejudices of the people, nor excite the jealous alarm of the priest, the philosopher, or the statesman. His is not a solitary case. Athens was scarcely less unjust to her instructors, than she was ungrateful to her patriots. The judicial murder of Socrates took place at Athens, in the time of its highest democratic liberty, and of its most flourishing civilisation; and during the same period, between Pericles and Alexander, we can even now trace, but too clearly, the * Xen, Mem, cap. 1 footsteps of persecution. It required the tears, the public tears of Pericles, of the dictator of the state, of its then most distinguished conqueror, of him who had so often decided in peace and war, to save a feeble woman, Aspasia, who was suspected of novelties of opinion. But all the eloquence of Pericles could not save his master and friend, Anaxagoras; Anaxagoras was condemned to a prison, which he exchanged in his old age only for perpetual exile. What was his crime? He taught the unity of God. Even Aristotle himself, the father of Natural History, the father of Logic and of systematic Metaphysics, preserved his life with difficulty; he had only time to escape from his home by a secret way, and he took refuge in a distant land, in order, as he said, to save the Athenians another crime against intellectual freedom. And what was his end? The balance of the evidence is, that age and persecution impelled him to poison himself in his place of exile.* I have only too many other examples-but I must hasten to Rome. And can it, in the face of history, be for a moment maintained, that the government of Rome was guiltless of persecution? Did not the fundamental the Twelve Tables, bear laws of the State, the laws of these words-Let no one, apart from the authority of the Commonwealth, acknowledge any gods; nor in his private capacity worship any but those which bave the public sanction, whether new or foreign'?+ Was not the temple which Egyptian superstition had erected at Rome, more than once, demolished by an express decree of the Senate? And were not the Jewish residents at Rome objects of its persecuting wrath, before it burst forth against the followers of Christ? And surely all that history has recorded of the cruelties practised against Christians from the middle of the first century onwards till the time of Constantine, is neither fable nor exaggeration. Even Gibbon himself, strive as he may to diminish the number Cousin, Cours de Philosophie, vol. 1. + Cicero de Legibus. * of the martyrs, and mitigate the account of their sufferings, cannot conceal the glaring fact, that thousands had a fiery trial to endure at the hands of Roman Paganism, and is compelled to allow, that its persecution was carried on under the sanction both of law and philosophy. Let the ensuing quotation suffice: The religious policy of the ancient world seems to have assumed a more stern and intolerant character, to oppose the progress of Christianity. About four score years after the death of Christ, his innocent disciples were punished with death by the sentence of a Pro-Consul of the most amiable and philosophic character, and according to the laws of an emperor, distinguished by the wisdom and justice of his general administration. The apologies which were repeatedly addressed to the successors of Trajan are filled with the most pathetic complaints, that the Christians, who obeyed the dictates and solicited the liberty of conscience, were alone, among all the subjects of the Roman Empire, excluded from the common benefits of their auspicious government.' But not only were the numerous and diversified cruelties which the Christians underwent, inflicted by the magistrates and sanctioned by the laws of Rome, not only did they proceed from the priest, the philosopher, and the populace, but they were defended and justified by the historian. Even the profound and sagacious Tacitus, while recording the infamy of Nero in making his own crime of setting the city on fire, bring disaster on the harmless disciples of Jesus, declares that they deserved the sufferings which were inflicted on them without a cause; and a later writer, Hierocles, employs arguments in favor of the persecution of the Christians, which the arch-inquisitor himself might not disdain to own. A bitter persecutor himself, he thus attempts to give even philosophy a title to persecute: 'It is the duty of philosophy to apply a remedy to the errors of men, and to call them back to the true way, that is, the worship of the gods by whose |