ἴσασιν οἱ μεμυημένοι, ‘Το the initiated it is given to know these things.'*

"4. The most important religious privilege of believers is that of partaking of the Eucharist, which has always comprehended a right to participate in all the sacred mysteries, and hence has derived the significant name of xowqvía, communion."

Besides the foregoing, the primitive organism of the church had other peculiarities, which show that it belonged to the category of secret associations.

1. ITS RITES WERE CELEBRATED IN SECRET. Baptism and the Eucharist were administered only in the presence of the initiated. Before the solemn mysteries commenced, one of the deacons made proclamation, as in the ancient Mysteries: Procul, O procul este, profani !—far, far hence, retire ye profane. The doors were closed, and a guard set to protect the believers from profane intrusion.

* De moralibus quotidianum sermonem habuimus, cum vel Patriarcharum gesta, vel proverbiorum legerentur præcepta: ut his informati atque instituti assuesceretis majorum ingredi vias eorumque iter carpere, ac divinis obedire mandatis, quo renovati per baptismum ejus vitæ usum teneretis, quæ ablutos deceret. Nunc de mysteriis dicere admonet atque ipsam sacramentorum rationem edere: quam ante baptismum si putassemus insinuandum nondum initiatis, prodidisse potius quam edidisse, æstimaremur. AMBROS., De his qui mysteriis initientur, c. 1.-Dimissis jam catedhumenis, vos tantum ad audiendum retinuimus: quia, piæter illa, quæ omnes Christianos convenit in commune servare, specialiter de cælestibus mysteriis locuturi sumus, quæ audire non possunt, nisi qui ea donante jam Domino perceperunt. Tanto igitur majore reverentia debetis audire quæ dicimus, quanto majore ista sunt, quæ solis baptizatis et fidelibus auditoribus committuntur, quam illa, quæ etiam catechumeni audire consueverunt. AUGUST., Serm. 1, ad Neoph.Asemos dia tous amuetous peri teon theiem dialeg ometha musterion touton de chorizo menon, saptros tous memuemenous didaskomen.-THEODORET.

2. IT USED A COSTUME OF THE ORDER, OR REGALIA. The candidates for baptism were clothed in white. At the baptism of the younger Theodosius, all the grandees of the court were dressed in white raiment : ut existimaretur multitud esse nive repleta. According to Clemens Alexandrinus, the whole assembly were required to engage even in public worship, in becoming dress.

3. IT HAD SECRET SIGNS OF RECOGNITION. The faithful disciple received at his initiation a new name, or a baptismal name. This was engraved, together with a secret signal or mark upon a white stone,* which the possessor retained as a voucher for his membership, and fidelity among strangers. But the signal the most in use among the Christian brotherhood was the sign of the cross.

There was no feature of their private manners more remarkable than the frequency with which they made use of this sign. With minds filled as theirs were with lively faith in the grand doctrine of redemption, and making it, as they did almost every moment, the subject of their meditations, and the theme of their gratitude, it is not wonderful that they should have devised some concise mode of recalling it to their memories, or of expressing to each other by some mutual token the principles and hopes they held in common. Accordingly, the sign of the cross naturally suggested itself as an appro

*St. John alludes to this custom. Vide Rev. ii. 17.

priate emblem, and so early was its introduction among the daily observances of the Christians, that the most ancient of the Fathers, whose writings have descended to our times, speak of it as in their days a venerable practice, which, though it would be in vain to seek any scriptural authority for its use, tradition had authorized and faith observed. Although, however, we have no authentic account of its introduction, we can guess at its origin. It was a beautiful custom of those who lived while the ministry of Christ was recent, and who were suddenly brought from the depths of despair at his death, to indescribable joy at his resurrection, to break off in the middle of conversation and salute one another with the words, "Christ is risen." The practice was peculiar to the contemporaries of the Saviour; and it is not improbable that when time, by removing them farther from that spiritstirring event, had brought the interesting custom into disuse, his followers in the next age sought to substitute in its place that which, in every variety of time and circumstance, forms the chief subject of interest in the history and religion of Jesus, and on which, as the grand foundation, the whole superstructure of Christian doctrine rests. Accordingly the cross was used by the primitive Christians as an epitome of all that is most interesting and important in their faith; and its sign, where the word. could not be conveniently nor safely uttered, repre

sented their reliance on that event which is at once the most ignominious and the most glorious part of Christianity. It was used by them at all times, and to consecrate the most common actions of lifewhen rising out of bed, or retiring to rest-when sitting at table, lighting a lamp, or dressing themselves on every occasion, as they wished the influence of religion to pervade the whole course of their life, they made the sign of the cross, the visible emblem of their faith. The mode in which this was done was various: the most common was by drawing the hand rapidly across the forehead, or by merely tracing the sign in air; in some cases it was worn close to the bosom, in gold, silver, or bronze medals, suspended by a concealed chain from the neck; in others, it was engraven on the arms or some other part of the body by a colored drawing, made by pricking the skin with a needle, and borne as a perpetual memorial of the love of Christ. In times of persecution it served as the watchword of the Christian party. Hastily described by the finger, it was the secret but well-known signal by which Christians recognised each other in the presence of strangers and enemies, by which the persecuted sought an asylum, or strangers threw themselves on the hospitality of their brethren; and nothing appeared to the pagan observer more strange and inexplicable than the ready and open-hearted manner in which, by these concerted means, foreign Christians were

received by those whom they had never previously seen or heard of, and were welcomed to their homes, and entertained with the kindness usually bestowed only on relations and friends.*

4. IT WAS A CHARITABLE FRATERNITY, AN ORDER OF MUTUAL RELIEF. That the primitive Christians were bound together by a close and intimate friendship, even pagan writers are constrained to confess. A Christian brother seems to have had claims upon his brothers and the fraternity, which were always recognised. Go under any name, travel to the remotest places, among people of foreign manners and unknown tongue, the pilgrims of faith were by their secret tokens able to make themselves known to the faithful, and were certain of finding friends who would cherish them, and watch over them with brotherly solicitude and care.

This fact early excited the suspicions of the heathen, that Christianity was a secret society; but unable to appreciate the lofty and divine sentiments of the gospel, they saw in this mystical friendship and those secret tokens only the indications of a wide-spread conspiracy; especially was this the case when they saw the hand of fellowship given, and the rites of hospitality performed by such people to foreigners, whose person and character had been previously unknown to them. The heathen knew nothing of those inward feelings, that brotherly

* Vid. Jamieson. Manners of Prim. Christ.