CHAP. IV.]

ENGLISH RITUAL.

45

with the depth of devotion. If we fairly examine it, the search will be delightful, the reward abundant. Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following."

CHAPTER V.

OPPOSITION. PERSECUTION. ALBAN.

The establishment of Christianity in this land, is not to be supposed to have been an easy and light work. Wherever the Gospel was proclaimed, it met with opposition: the heart of man is naturally averse to its holy precepts, and therefore strives against it. Probably there was little, if any, active persecution, on the part of the original inhabitants; there was from them a cold and unwilling sufferance, but there are no accounts handed down to us, of their proceeding to acts of violence against the followers of Christ. Gildas says, These rays of light were received with lukewarm minds by the inhabitants, but they nevertheless took root in some of them, to a greater or less degree." It was very different with the Romans; they had established their dominion far and wide, had penetrated with their armies to this distant land; and to this day, we have many interesting monuments, shewing where were their principal camps and settlements. It was a remarkable feature of Roman paganism, to be very

66

CHAP. V.]

PERSECUTION.

47

tolerant of all other pagan religions. When any foreign country was subdued by the power of their arms, they not only permitted the conquered people to continue the worship to which they had been accustomed; but they sometimes added the gods of the conquered nation, to the number of the gods of Rome. It has been recorded, that this was proposed even in the case of Christianity, and that, in their senate, mention was made of enrolling the name of Christ among the gods of Rome. Whether this was seriously entertained or not, a little thought might soon have shewn, that such a mixture could not exist. The purity and holiness of the Gospel, are so at variance with the impurity of all systems of idolatry, that there could be no concord between. them; as St. Paul says, What concord hath

Christ with Belial." And when the real character of the Christian faith was seen by those idolaters, they were stirred up to shew their hatred of it by deeds of violence and blood. In other countries, this was carried to a great extent, and we shall see that our own was not exempt. The early persecutions from the time of Nero, had been short in their duration, or had been confined to some particular parts of the Roman Empire. But at length, in the time of Diocletian, it pleased God to permit the cause of His truth, for the space of ten

years, to undergo the most severe trial which the world had ever known. Gildas, the earliest British historian, tells us, that at this time, "the churches, throughout the world, were levelled with the ground: all the copies of the Scriptures that could be found any where, were burned in the public streets; and the Priests and Bishops of the Lord's flock slaughtered, together with their charge, so that, in some places, not a trace of Christianity remained. What disgraceful flights then took place-what slaughter and death inflicted, by way of punishment, in divers shapes-what dreadful apostacies from religion; and on the contrary, what glorious crowns of martyrdom were then won -what raving fury was displayed by the persecutors, and patience on the part of the suffering saints, Ecclesiastical history informs us; for the whole Church were crowding in a body to leave behind them the dark things of this world, and to make the best of their way to the happy mansions of heaven, as if to their proper home." Ancient letters, carved on stone, were found many ages afterwards in Spain, which were inscriptions set up by the persecutors in memory of what they called the destruction of the Christian superstition," and the extinction of the Christian name." In Britain, the persecution was less severe than

CHAP. V.]

CONSTANTIUS.

49

in other parts of the empire; Constantius the father of the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, having the government of some of the Western provinces, and residing chiefly there. Constantius was a heathen, but an enemy to persecution; his authority, however, was not independent of the Emperor's, and he was obliged to comply so far, as to order that the Christian churches should be pulled down. When, after two years, he received a share of the empire, he commanded a restoration of the buildings. But in the mean time there were many Roman officers and magistrates, and many of the pagan people, who were ready to take advantage of the Emperor's edict, to carry the Christians to prison and to death. Where Constantius himself resided, at Eboracum, or York, we hear of none who suffered, but at many other places, the British Church was found worthy to supply its Martyrs to the cause of truth; and many of both sexes, died confessing the faith with constancy and courage. Gildas says, "God, who wishes all men to be saved, and who calls sinners, no less than those who think themselves righteous, magnified His mercy towards us; and as we know, during the above named persecution, that Britain might not be totally enveloped in the dark shades of night, He, of His own free gift, kindled up among