As the Christians were at first confounded with the Jews, the administrators of the Roman law, for upwards of thirty years after our Lord’s death, conceded to them the religious toleration enjoyed by the seed of Abraham.  But, from the beginning, “the sect of the Nazarenes” enjoyed very little of the favour of the heathen multitude.  Paganism had set its mark upon all the relations of life, and had erected an idol wherever the eye could turn.  It had a god of War, and a god of Peace; a god of the Sea, and a god of the Wind; a god of the River, and a god of the Fountain; a god of the Field, and a god of the Barn Floor; a god of the Hearth, a god of the Threshold, a god of the Door, and a god of the Hinges. [166:1] When we consider its power and prevalence in the apostolic age, we need not wonder at the declaration of Paul—­“All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” [166:2] Whether the believer entered into any social circle, or made his appearance in any place of public concourse, he was constrained in some way to protest against dominant errors; and almost exactly in proportion to his consistency and conscientiousness, he was sure to incur the dislike of the more zealous votaries of idolatry.  Hence it was that the members of the Church were so soon regarded by the pagans as a morose generation instinct with hatred to the human race.  In A.D. 64, when Nero, in a fit of recklessness, set fire to his capital, he soon discovered that he had, to a dangerous extent, provoked the wrath of the Roman citizens; and he attempted, in consequence, to divert the torrent of public indignation from himself, by imputing the mischief to the Christians.  They were already odious as the propagators of what was considered “a pernicious superstition,” and the tyrant, no doubt, reckoned that the mob of the metropolis were prepared to believe any report to the discredit of these sectaries.  But even the pagan historian who records the commencement of this first imperial persecution, and who was deeply prejudiced against the disciples of our Lord, bears testimony to the falsehood of the accusation.  Nero, says Tacitus, “found wretches who were induced to confess themselves guilty; and, on their evidence, a great multitude of Christians were convicted, not indeed on clear proof of their having set the city on fire, but rather on account of their hatred of the human race. [167:1] They were put to death amidst insults and derision.  Some were covered with the skins of wild beasts, and left to be torn to pieces by dogs; others were nailed to the cross; and some, covered over with inflammable matter, were lighted up, when the day declined, to serve as torches during the night.  The Emperor lent his own gardens for the exhibition.  He added the sports of the circus, and assisted in person, sometimes driving a curricle, and occasionally mixing with the rubble in his coachman’s dress.  At length these proceedings excited a feeling of compassion, as it was evident that the