urelius died a natural death; but, during his
reign, the Empire suffered dreadfully from pestilence and famine; and
war raged, almost incessantly, from its commencement to its close. The
people of Lyons, who now signalised themselves by their cruelty to the
Christians, did not escape a righteous retribution; for about twenty
years after the martyrdom of Pothinus and his brethren, the city was
pillaged and burned. [308:3] Septimius Severus narrowly escaped murder
by the hand of one of his own children. Decius, whose name is associated
with an age of martyrdom, perished in the Gothic war. Valerian, another
oppressor, ended his days in Persia in degrading captivity. The Emperor
Aurelian was assassinated. Diocletian languished for years the victim of
various maladies, and is said to have abruptly terminated his life by
suicide. Galerius, his son-in-law, died of a most horrible distemper;
and Maximin took away his own life by poison. [308:4] The interpretation
of providences is not to be rashly undertaken; but the record of the
fate of persecutors forms a most extraordinary chapter in the history of
man; and the melancholy circumstances under which so many of the enemies
of religion have finished their career, have sometimes impressed those
who have been otherwise slow to acknowledge the finger of the Almighty.

The persecutions of the early Church originated partly in selfishness
and superstition. Idolatry afforded employment to tens of thousands of
artists and artisans--all of whom had thus a direct pecuniary interest
in its conservation; whilst the ignorant rabble, taught to associate
Christianity with misfortune, were prompted to clamour for its
overthrow. Mistaken policy had also some share in the sufferings of the
Christians; for statesmen, fearing that the disciples in their secret
meetings might be hatching treason, viewed them with suspicion and
treated them with severity. But another element of at least equal
strength contributed to promote persecution. The pure and spiritual
religion of the New Testament was distasteful to the human heart, and
its denunciations of wickedness in every form stirred up the malignity
of the licentious and unprincipled. The faithful complained that they
suffered for neglecting the worship of the gods, whilst philosophers,
who derided the services of the established ritual, escaped with
impunity. [309:1] But the sophists were not likely ever to wage an
effective warfare against immoralit