equitable law, the philosophers accused them of atheism and impiety, and even charged them with renewing the horrible rites of the feast of Thyestes. No sooner were the emperors convinced of the falsity and malice of these accusations, than they ordered all measures of severity against them to be laid aside. An admirable defence of Christianity was drawn up by Justin Martyr, and presented to the emperor, which completely satisfied him, and procured a respite to the Christians from their sufferings. Another was presented to the governor of Carthage, which produced the same happy effect. But succeeding emperors and governors were unacquainted with these apologies; and when the former accusations were renewed, the old measures of severity were adopted, till Justin Martyr himself, and most of his contemporaries, who were the ornaments both of learning and religion, fell in the indiscrimi nate massacres.-No emperor ever was more celebrated for the love of justice, and regard to the interests of his subjects, than Marcus Aurelius; and yet under no Heathen emperor did the Christians suffer so much severity, especially in those countries where his colleague Verus had the chief management of affairs. Soon after the death of his profligate companion, the persecution was brought to a close, and terminated in such a way as could not fail to make a deep impression in favour of the Christians.†

Mosh. v. I. b. 2.

+ The immediate occasion of this persecution being stopped is so remarkable, and carries in it so clear an attestation to the truth of Christianity, that it may not be improper to subjoin a short account of it.—When Aurelius was fighting with the Marcomanni, he had nearly lost the whole of his army by thirst. The enemy, pretending to be worsted, fled to the mountains, where the Romans followed them, till, by the reflection of the rays of the sun from the rocks and mountains between which they were pent up, they became so exhausted by the heat and an excessive thirst, as to be unable to continue the pursuit, or even to retreat. The emperor rode from one part of the line to another, trying to keep up the sinking spirits of his soldiers, and commanding the customary sacrifices to be offered to the gods. It was here, however, as in the case of the worshippers of Baal; 'There was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded,' 1 Kings xviii. 29. The Marcomanni were not inattentive; they saw the Romans upon those grounds where they knew they could fight them to advantage, and therefore returned full of the hope of victory to the charge. At this critical moment, the 12th legion, which was composed almost wholly of Christians, as if it had been previously cons

Both Antoninus Pius and Aurelius were celebrated for their love of equity and the soundness of their political maxims. The reign of the one was twenty-three years, and that of the other nineteen. If we except the severities practised upon the Christians, the Roman empire was never ruled with greater equity, tempered with mildness in the administration, than during this period of forty-two years. It is a period, therefore, which, with the exception just mentioned, might be symbolized by a balance. But as it does not appear to be the immediate design of the figure to symbolize equity of rule, but a scarcity of the means of subsistence approaching to famine, it is necessary that we examine the civil as well as the ecclesiastical history of this period, to see if the prophecy, in this view of it, has not also met with the most literal fulfilment.

The Romans were frequently visited with the scourge of famine; but in no period of their history does the evil seem to have been more general, or to have recurred more frequently after short intervals, than in the reigns of the two last-men

certed among themselves, or some common signal had been given them, fell down upon their knees, and called upon their God. The prayer was heard in heaven, and immediately answered by a plentiful shower of rain, which they catched with their helmets, and drank till they were refreshed: this shower was followed by a terrible storm of hail, accompanied with peals of thunder and vivid flashes of lightning, in the direction of the enemy, which threw them into such confusion, that they became an easy conquest to the Romans.-Different modern writers have laboured hard to set aside the evidence, arising from this miracle, in favour of Christianity; but the fact itself is so well attested by Heathen as well as by Christian writers, that few of them have ventured flatly to deny the truth of it. The memory of it was long preserved on the famous pillar of Antoninus; where, together with the other exploits of Aurelius in the Marcomannic war, the soldiers were represented holding up their helmets to catch the rain as it descended.-The only point in controversy then is, Whether this shower was understood to be sent in answer to the sacrifices of the emperor, or to the prayers of the Christians? If it was in answer to the former, the following queries will merit attention. Whence was it that the 12th legion ever after was called the Thundering Legion?-In what manner will any explain the connexion between this fact and the orders of the emperor, that all proceedings against the Christians should instantly cease?—Or how will they account for the favourable terms in which the emperor wrote to the senate respecting the Christians ?—These things appear to be inexplicable, but in the way of admitting, that if there was any miracle in the case, it was judged even by Heathens to have been wrought in answer to the prayers of the Christians.See the leading arguments on both sides of the question in Witsii Diss. de Legione Fulminatrice; and a fuller account of the fact, Anc. Univ. Hist. v. XV. b. 3. chap. 21, Ech. Rom. His, v. II. b. 2. chap. 2.

tioned emperors, and in the reign of Commodus, the successor of Aurelius. In this period, Rome itself often felt the severity of famine. The population of Italy, and especially of Rome, increased in proportion as the empire was extended; emigrants flocked thither from all regions, till the fields of Italy were totally insufficient to provide for this crowded population. A very considerable part of their supplies, therefore, was brought from a distant country. Egypt and the other African countries were the principal granaries of the Romans; and when the intercourse with them was interrupted, the city of Rome soon felt all the calamities of famine. The refractory state of these provinces proved numerous occasions of famine in Italy, as it prevented a ready commercial intercourse with them. But in the period to which we have referred this prophecy, there was hardly such a thing as a civil broil in any part of the empire; all the provinces enjoyed the most profound tranquillity, and all classes of the subjects, except the Christians, were protected, and seemed to be happy under the rule of their governors. The evil of famine was, nevertheless, felt with all that severity which might have been dreaded, supposing the whole African continent had been embroiled in civil war. The hand of God was therefore the more visible in the calamity, as nothing of the hand of man was to be seen in it: accordingly the fulfilment of this prophecy is the more remarkable.

In the year 155, multitudes were known to have perished through absolute want. The emperor did every thing that a public-spirited magistrate could perform for the relief of his subjects, by the importation of grain, and by a generous distribution, both of corn and wine, from his own private stores. But the scarcity was so general, that there was no surplus in any part of the empire: accordingly, what was taken from one country to make up for the deficiencies of another, only nourished one part of the empire at the expense of starving the inhabitants of that country from which it was brought.*

Ech. Rom. Hist. v. II. b. 2.

VOL. II.

K

About nine years after, the scarcity was even more severe; the Italian fields and the African provinces were scorched with drought, while other parts of the empire were deluged with rains and inundations. What added to the afflictions of this melancholy period, was the breaking out of a pestilence in the army of Verus, which cut off the greater part of the soldiers, and proved equally fatal to multitudes of the inhabitants of the provinces through which they were marched. In the year 168 there was another famine, which was also accompanied with the pestilence, and was more destructive to human lives than any of the two former. If we carry forward the history to the time of Commodus, we will find both famine and pestilence raging in the year 187. This famine lasted about three years; and was so severe, that, in the city of Rome, for a considerable time, the deaths amounted to about two thousand every day. In short, history does not furnish more numerous instances of famine, or such as were more severe, within the limits of an equal number of years, than in the reign of these three emperors. The Roman people had to eat their bread by weight, and to drink their water by measure; their condition might, therefore, be fitly symbolized by the emblems employed in this prophecy.

I shall conclude these remarks with taking notice only of another fact, in order to illustrate the prohibition contained in the close of ver. 6, Hurt not the wine and the oil. The dependence of the city of Rome upon the distant provinces for

Nothing could exceed the miserable state of the empire after the return of Verus-A raging pestilence spreading terror and desolation through all the parts of the western world; earthquakes, famines, and inundations, such as had never before happened; the products of the earth throughout all Italy devoured by locusts; all the barbarous nations surrounding the empire, and making their irrup tions even into Italy itself. The priests doing all they could to put a stop to the miseries of the state, by attempting to appease the gods, vowing and offering num berless sacrifices; celebrating all the sacred rites that had ever been known in Rome, and exhibiting the solemnity called Lectisternia seven days together. To crown the whole, they ascribed the distresses of the state to the impieties of the Christians alone, so that a violent persecution raged in all parts of the empire; in which Justin Martyr, Polycarp bishop of Smyrna, and an infinite number of others, suffered martyrdom.'-Gold. Rom. Hist. v. II. chap. 18.

+ Anc. Univ. Hist. v. xv. p. 265.

supplies, and its liability to suffer the calamity of famine when the intercourse was interrupted, could not fail to attract the notice of all those magistrates who had the welfare of the subjects at heart. Accordingly many salutary laws were enacted, and regulations prescribed, to prevent the recurrence of famine. Domitian prohibited the cultivation of the vine altogether in Italy, and restricted it in other provinces to half the extent to which it had been formerly planted. The intention of this law was, that the fields which had been covered with vines might be sown with corn, and that the inhabitants of Rome might not be dependent upon distant countries for their supplies. This law was renewed and enforced both by Antoninus and Aurelius; but Providence had said, as in this text, Hurt not the wine and the oil. The Romans were become too fond of the juice of the grape, and too licentious in their manners, to submit to any restrictions of this kind. Little or no benefit ever resulted from this law; it remained a dead letter on the statute-book; and the yine was cultivated with the same degree of attention as formerly.

OBSERV. 1st, The gifts bestowed by the Head of the church upon her ministers, are always suited to the circumstances in which they are placed. When Christianity was a novelty among Gentiles, miracles were wrought both to fix attention, and to produce a conviction of its truth; when it afterwards came to be opposed by the learning and sophistry of philosophers, ministers were then peculiarly fitted to defend it by argument. The nearer we approach to what has been called the Cyprianic age, the more we find the ministers of Christianity distinguished by their attainments in the fields of human literature. Science then held her proper place in the schools; she was the handmaid, not the mistress, of religion; and was often employed with great success, to detect the misrepresentations of adversaries, to place the arguments for Christianity in the clearest and most convincing light, and to bring down the great subjects of this religion as near the level of human capacities as the poverty of language and the subli