1 destined to work that caused Jesus to add a poignancy to his rebuke of St. Peter, who shared in it, above the common, and when, after the Lord had declared that "He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things, and be killed;" and that Apostle had petulantly replied, "Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee;" Jesus turned on him and said, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me;" for though it is not here expressly recorded that in the previous communication Jesus had told his disciples by what death He should die, yet we may conjecture that He had imparted to them the particular manner of it, from the wording of the reflection which follows, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow me." It is probable that the clamour with which the Jews denounced the Crucifixion of the Messiah as a scandal, was one cause why the Christians adopted the Cross on all occasions, and with the most persevering boldness, for their badge and symbol. So far from being ashamed of it, so far from qualifying the reproach of it, they hoisted it as the standard under which they fought, and by which they would conquer. They impressed it on their furniture, on their clothes, on their persons. In the Rubric of the administration of Baptism, according to the earliest forms, the priest signs the forehead of the catechumen with the sign of the Cross; and I have sometimes thought that the "marks" οι στίγματα, which St. Paul describes himself as bearing in his body, have an allusion to this figure, which had been inscribed on him in that Sacrament. Certain it is, he had just before been speaking of circumcision, then,of the Cross, in connection with it, and then of the new creature. τὸ μέτωπον. 1 Matthew xvi. 21, 22, 23. 2 3 Galatians vi. 17. 3 "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross 1 C. 86, ap. Clem. Alex. op. ii. p. 988. 242 CHAPTER VIII. Hostility of the Gentiles to the Christians.-Excited against them by the exclusive Character of the Gospel.-The Social System of the World affected by it.-Prejudices against the Christians. — All Calamities imputed to them.-Nero's sanguinary Edicts.Not repealed.-Effect of Private Malignity and the Ferocity of the Mob.—Tests of Christianity.-Evils of Persecution not unmixed. WE are considering the principal obstacles which the Gospel had in the first instance to encounter, and the foremost of these which I have named is, the bitter hostility of the Jews; that of the Gentiles, to which I would now direct attention, is a second, no less formidable, for though the hatred of the Gentiles might be less intense than that of the Jews, the number of the enemy was greater, and its means of doing mischief more serious. The great powers of the world had not as yet found time to array themselves against Christianity. The force within it had not as yet expanded itself so as to excite uneasiness or alarm amongst the heathen authorities. advanced for a considerable period unobserved, or at least unresisted. So far as they at least were concerned, its smooth course was not hindered. Even compunction with respect to it, a feeling in its favour, touched the leading agents of the crucifixion. Pilate, who had some misgivings during the trial of Jesus, and would willingly have released Him,-a Christian indeed at heart, according to Tertullian,'-became involved in troubles, not per1 Apol. § 26. It haps exclusively political, and is said to have destroyed himself, possibly remembering, not without self-reproach, the caveat of his wife, "have thou nothing to do with the blood of that just man." 1 At any rate, his nation in general were hitherto, at the very least, indifferent to the progress of the Gospel. Up to the time of Nero, no movement from high quarters is recorded against it. Tiberius, indeed, is even reported to have made a proposal to the Senate, that Christ should be admitted amongst the gods of their country; such was the impression made on him by the mysterious communications he had received from Pilate, his officer in Judæa. And though the proposal was rejected-rather, however, on a point of form than on its own merits-the Emperor retained his own opinion, and still had a favour for the Christians.3 2 The centurions of the Roman armies, who would probably reflect the feeling of the middle classes, wherever they are mentioned in the Gospels and Acts in relation to the Christians, are represented as well disposed towards them. Cornelius, a centurion, was the first Gentile convert. It was a centurion who besought Jesus to heal his servant, acknowledging Him as one who had the same authority over the evil spirits which he himself possessed over the soldiers of his company." 4 It was a centurion who, when he saw what came to pass at the crucifixion, glorified God, saying of Jesus, "Certainly this was a righteous man.” 5 It was to a centurion that St. Paul had recourse when he sought aid against the Jews, who had secretly banded themselves together against him. The centurion Julius courteously entreated St. Paul on his voyage to Rome, and when the soldiers would have killed the prisoners, the same man interposed, "willing to save 1 Euseb. Eccl. Hist. ii. c. 7. 2 Ibid. ii. c. 2. 3 Ibid. 6 4 Matthew viii. 5. 6 Acts xxiii. 17. Paul." 1 Gallio, the Roman deputy of Achaia, did not go so far as these in showing kindness to the Christians-the upper class of Romans, probably, at that time, not actuated by the same sympathies towards the Christians as those of a lower rank, who had not as yet discovered that it was destined for a time to work great troubles amongst them; but he would not join in any persecution of them. On the contrary, when the Jews would have persuaded him to take part with them against St. Paul, he refused, and "drave them from the judgment seat."2 The incident of St. Stephen's death, and the circumstances attending it, offer no contradiction to the view of the temper of the Roman Government. That whole proceeding the animosity and the guilt of it-rested with the Jews altogether. The Romans, no doubt, had the supreme authority at Jerusalem, and that authority they did not exert for the protection of the martyr; but that was according to their custom. Mr. Biscoe, indeed, in his History of the Acts of the Apostles, has an elaborate argument to show that the Jews were never deprived of the power of inflicting capital punishment according to their own law; and he even advances the case of St. Stephen, amongst other matters, in support of his assertion, considering his martyrdom, not a tumultuous act of violence, but the dispatch of a judicial sentence by the executioner: the stoning of the prisoner, and the hands of the witnesses first upon him-both of them regulations in accordance with the Mosaic Law-intimating as much. On the other side, it is objected, how, then, are we to account for the declaration made by the Jews on the occasion of our Lord's crucifixion, that "it was not lawful for them to put any man to death?" Would it not rather appear from this, it is said, that the scene of St. Stephen's 3 Biscoe on the Acts, p. 151. 1 Acts xxvii. 43. 2 Ibid. xviii. 14, 15, 16. 3 |