sacred obligations, enunciating all in the same breath, and with the same solemnity. I cannot think that Jesus intended any separation. In fact,

Lovefeasts, during the first three centuries, were held in the church without scandal (?) or offence; but, in aftertimes, the heathens began to tax them with impurity. This gave occasion to a reformation of these Agapæ. The kiss of charity, with which the ceremony used to end, was no longer given between different sexes; and it was expressly forbidden to have any beds or couches for the convenience of those who should be disposed to eat more at their ease. (?) Notwithstanding these precautions, the abuses committed in them became so notorious that the holding of them (in churches at least) was solemnly condemned at the Council of Carthage, in the year 307." Under the following word, the same writer further says,-" Agapeta, or virgins and widows who attended on ecclesiastics, who were made perhaps deaconesses, and who took up their abode with the ministers, and assisted them in their religious functions. In primitive times, there was nothing scandalous (?) in their societies, but they afterwards degenerated into libertinism, insomuch that St. Jerome asks with indignation-Unde Agapetorum pestis in ecclesias introiit? This gave occasion to Councils to suppress them. St. Anathius mentions a priest who, to remove all occasion of suspicion, offered to mutilate himself to preserve his beloved companion." Avoiding any remarks on these insinuating, but guarded extracts, it may be added here that the 35th Canon of the Council of Iliberis provides against the scandal which too often polluted the vigils of the Church, and disgraced the Christian name. Upon the whole, it is impossible, from the mass of evidence already adduced, to avoid the conclusion that the early Christians, in their Agapæ, were really guilty of the execrable vices with which they were so often charged, and for which they were sentenced to death. This once admitted, a reasonable and adequate cause can be assigned for the severe persecutions of the Christians by the Roman Government,-a Government which applied precisely the same laws and modes of persecution and punishment to them as to the votaries of the Bacchanalian and Eleusinian mysteries, well known to have been accustomed to offer human sacrifices, and indulge in the most obscene lasciviousness in their secret assemblies;-and a Government which tolerated all kinds of religions, except those which encouraged practices dangerous to human life, or pernicious to the morals of the subjects. Nor can the facts already advanced fail to show clearly that the Christian Agape were of a Pagan origin-were identically the same as those Pagan feasts which existed simultaneously with them. We have seen that both the Christian Agape and these Pagan feasts were held at night;-that at both solemn oaths were taken not to divulge secrets ;-that the internal practices of both were called mysteries;-that both were accused of secret murders, of burning cities, and of giving false evidence; that both had human sacrifices and wine ;-that both practised revolting sexual obscenities ;-that the Roman Government, consequently, dealt the same with both, proclaiming their prohibition, offering rewards for the detection of their votaries, and punishing those convicted with death. There could be enumerated a great many other points of such close resemblance as must fully establish their identity to any one who will take the pains thoroughly and impartially to investigate the subject.

This conclusion is further strengthened by the following facts which show the Pagan origin of Christianity in its entirety. It is quite certain that the monkish institution, which we have seen to be of a Pagan origin, had existed in Egypt long before the Christian era. In the time of Pliny the elder (Hist. Nat. v. 15.) who died A.D. 79, it had long been established in the neighbourhood of Engaddi and Massada, near the Red Sea.Mosheim, citing authorities, assures us that the Essenes and Therapeuts, or healers, had their rise in Egypt, where, principally they dwelt, long before the Christian era. (Eccles. Hist. cent. II. chap. iii. sec. 14.) Their existence at this early date is a fact which alone disproves the supposed origin of Christianity, both as to doctrines and discipline, when they are compared with the doctrines and discipline of the Essenes or Therapeuts, in whose profession the arts of curing diseases and of teaching theology were combined.Accordingly, we find the most valuable manuscripts of the Christian Scriptures have emanated from Alexandria, in Egypt, where there was a Pagan College for teaching both medicine and divinity, and the largest library in the world. At this Pagan University almost all the Fathers of the Christian church-most of them originally Pagans-were educated. Further: Adrian's letter to Servianus, written in 134, and preserved by Vospiscus, shows that the worshippers of the god Serapis in Egypt were Christians, who called themselves the bishops of Christ. (Illi qui Serapim colunt, Christiani sunt; et

when a rich young man asked of him what he should do that he might inherit eternal life, and pleaded that he had kept the commandments, but

devoti sunt Serapi, qui se Christi episcopos dicunt.) He appears further to say that to worship Serapis and Christ meant the same thing; and to add that all worshipped but one and the same God. (Ipse ille patriarcha quum in Egyptum venerit ab aliis Serapidem adorare, ab aliis cogitur Christum....... Unus illis Deus est hunc Judæi, hunc omnes venerantur et gentis.) We learn also that Constantine had his Christianity, as well as the sign of the cross, from pagan Egypt. After he had murdered his son, Crispus, his wife, Fausta, and his brother-in-law and colleague-the brave Lucinus, whom he had solemnly sworn to protect; but before he had murdered the pagan priest-Sopater, to whom he applied for some mode of purification from these crimes, and who told him that such enormous moral defilement admitted of no purification, he turned, on being thus refused consolation from this sect, to the Pagan Christians of Egypt—the worshippers of the god Serapis; and having met one of their bishops coming from Iberia, he was told by this dignitary that the Christian faith could purge any sin however great. Consequently, this holy Emperor—the real founder of the present Christianity, from this creditable motive became a Christian-one of the Pagan Christians of Egypt-the worshippers of Serapis. Vid. Zosimus Vit. Const. Pagi Ann. 324. Socrat. Scholast. lib. iii. c. 40, 41. Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. c. 3-5. The three last make efforts to defend their Emperor, but there are much more disinterested and stronger testimonies against them. The sign of the cross which, it is asserted, Constantine received from heaven on his conversion, for a banner, (Euseb. Vit. Const. lib. i. c. 28-31. Sozom. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. c. 3, 4. Socrat. Hist. lib. i. c. 2.) is clearly a heathen relic. It was in the temple of Serapis long before the time of Constantine, or even the commencement of the Christian era. In Egypt, Serapis, whose devotees, we have seen, were called Christians, had been worshipped from the earliest date. It had a great number of temples, the principal one of which was at Alexandria, whence, as already intimated, both the early Fathers and the Christian Scriptures have emanated. In the worship of this god were practised obscene mysteries-mysteries so abominable that, when Antonius Pius, A.D. 146, introduced them to Rome, the senate was obliged to suppress the worship of the god. (Tacit. Hist. lib. iv. c. 83. Strab. 17. Pausan. lib. i, c. 18; lib. ii. c. 34.) Plato, who wrote upwards of 350 years before the Christian era, states that the Egyptian priests pointed out to him symbolical hieroglyphics of a religion which had existed among them upwards of ten thousand years. Now, among these people, and in one of these Egyptian temples -that of the god Serapis, in Alexandria,—was found the sign of the cross, when that magnificent edifice was destroyed by order of Theodosius in the fourth century. Socrates (Hist. Eccles. lib. v. c. 16, 17. Scholast. lib. v. c. 16.) relates that in the sanguinary resistance of the Pagan priests, some of them, and many more of the Christians were killed-that the images were broken and molten down-that the tokens of the sanguinary heathen mysteries were exposed to public view-that when the temple of Serapis was laid bare, there were found in it, engraven on stone, certain hieroglyphics in the form of crosses, which both Pagans and Christians claimed as symbols of their respective religionsthat when a contention on this point had arisen, certain heathen converts to Christianity, who well knew the heathen signification of the symbol, declared that it denoted life to come-and that they thought this symbol had, for ages and generations, stood as a Pagan prediction of Christ. Sozomen, (Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. c. 16.) in describing how this Pagan temple was converted into a church, says, that in it were found stones on which were engraven hieroglyphics in the form of a cross, which, on being submitted to the learned, were interpreted to signify the life to come. How, then, came the sign of the cross -the very insignia of Constantine-which is said to have been received by him from heaven (Socr. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. c. 2.)—to have been struck on his coin, and to have been represented in pictures seen on garments, and even in the skies; (Sozom. lib. i. c. 8; lib. iv. c. 5.)--how came this, it is demanded, to have been in the heathen temple of Serapis, hundreds, perhaps thousands of years before the Christian era? Evidently, because it was a Pagan symbol. The Nile was worshipped as a God by those whose lands were fertilised by its inundations. Along its banks were placed crosses, or transverse beams, to indicate the height of the water, and thereby the probable fertility of the ensuing year. These crosses, therefore, would soon share the worship of that river god.Accordingly, one of these crosses (elli) was brought every year, with much religious pomp, into the temple of the god Serapis, who was believed to cause the river Nile to

felt that insufficient Jesus said unto him-' If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven;' so that the duty was not contingent upon the peculiarity of a man possessing apostolic gifts, but was with Jesus the normal path for all overflow, and be the means of national prosperity. (Socrat. Schol. lib. i. c. 14.) Sozomen (lib. i. c. 8.) unblushingly tells us that, among the Egyptians, the measure used to indicate the increase of the waters of the Nile was no longer borne into Grecian temples but into Christian churches. The pious Mr. Skelton (Appeal to Common Sense, p. 45.) says that while the fact that the Egyptians, Arabians, and Indians, before Christ, paid particular veneration to the sign of the cross is well known, the manner in which this came to take place is to him unknown; and he adds that, in Egypt, it stood for the signification of eternal life. The sign of the cross, however, for ages prior to the Christian era, was in common use among the Pagana. It was the most sacred symbol of Egyptian idolatry. It is on most of the Egyptian obelisks; and was believed to possess all the enchanting powers which have been ascribed to it by Christians. The monogram or symbol of the god Saturn was the sign of the cross, together with a ram's horn, in indication of the Lamb of God. Jupiter also bore a cross, with a horn; Venus, a cross with a circle. The famous cruz ansanta is to be seen in all the buildings of Egypt; and the most celebrated temples of the idol Chrishna, in India, like our Gothic cathedrals, were built in the form of crosses. On the Phoenician medal found in the ruins of Citium, engraved in Dr. Clarke's Travels, and proved by him to be Phoenician, are inscribed, not only the cross, but the rosary or string of beads attached to it, together with the identical Lamb of God. (Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 188-189.) The Egyptian priests, even to this day, continue the practice of throwing into the Nile some beads or bits of a cross, thinking that thereby they sanctify its waters to the mystical washing away of sin, just as the Protestant priest, in reading the baptismal service of the Church of England to this day, says similar words, as he sprinkles the sanctified water on the child's face, and makes the sign of the cross on its forehead, accompanied with the words "We do sign him with the sign of the cross," &c. Thus all that belongs to Christianity, when closely examined, turns out to be of a Pagan derivation. Sozomen informs us that, in Paneades, a Phoenician city, there was a celebrated statue of Christ, erected by a woman in commemoration of a cure at his hand of a flow of blood; and that it was dragged about the city and torn by the Pagans; but that the Christians took it into a church. Notwithstanding the fabulous tales related about this statue, still there must have been some cause for them. Probably there was a statue of Christ in the place; but it is most unlikely that any of the followers of the Prophet of Nazareth, at this early period, should have built a statue of him. There is every reason to believe that this was a Pagan statue, built by the Phoenicians or Egyptians in honour of their God of Medicine-their healer, salver, saviour, anointer. (Sozom. lib. v. c. 21.) Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. c. 19.) has a long tale about the miraculous effects of this statue which he professes to have seen. He admits it was erected by the Gentiles, and does not produce a single proof that it was ever intended for the son of Joseph and Mary. The holy Father, Minutius Felix, in his Octavius, written about the year 211, as cited by Reeve, (Apologies of the Fathers, &c. vol. i. p. 139.) is very indignant at the supposition that the sign of the cross should be considered exclusively the symbol of Christianity; and, in the person of a Christian advocate, urges against his infidel antagonist, that it was not Christians who worshipped crosses, but Pagans whose gods were wood, whose ensigns, flags, and standards, were beautifully gilded crosses, whose victorious trophies not only represented a simple cross, but a cross with a man upon it;—that almost every thing was after the sign of a cross;-that when a pure worshipper adored God, with extended hands he made the sign of a cross;—that the sign of the cross had, consequently, some foundation either in nature or in the Pagan religion, and therefore ought not to be taken as a ground of objection against the Christians. Indeed, the grand argument-the invariable theme of all the early Apologists for the Christians-is, that Christianity and Paganism are identically the same. Let the following solitary instance, however, conclude the present long note. Melito, bishop of Sardis, about A.D. 160, in his Apology to Marcus Antonius, says "The philosophy which we profess, flourished aforetime among the barbarous nations; but having been transplanted in the great reign of thy ancestor, Augustus, it proved to be of all things ominous of good fortune to thy kingdom."-Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. c. 26. Christianity, in its present state, is positively nothing more than Paganism modified and refined.

who desired perfection. When the young man went away sorrowing, Jesus moralised on it, saying, 'How hardly shall a rich man enter into the kingdom of heaven;' which again shows that an abrupt renunciation of wealth was to be the general and ordinary method of entering the kingdom. Hereupon, when the disciples asked; Lo! we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?' Jesus, instead of rebuking their self-righteousness, promised them, as a reward, that they should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. A precept thus systematically enforced is illustrated by the practice, not only of the twelve, but apparently of the seventy, and what is stronger still, by the five thousand disciples after the celebrated days of the first Pentecost. There was no longer a Jesus on earth to itinerate with, yet the disciples, in the fervour of first love, obeyed his precept; the rich sold their possessions and laid the price at the apostles' feet. The mischiefs inherent in such a precept rapidly showed themselves, and good sense corrected the error. But this very fact proves most emphatically that the precept was pre-apostolic, and came from the genuine Jesus; otherwise it could never have found its way into the Gospels. It is undeniable, that the first disciples, by whose tradi. tion alone we have any record of what Jesus taught, understood him to deliver this precept to all who desired to enter into the kingdom of heaven, -all who desired to be perfect: why then are we to refuse belief, and remould the precepts of Jesus till they please our own morality? This is not the way to learn historical fact. That to inculcate religious beggary, as the only form and mode of spiritual perfection, is fanatical and mischievous, even the Church of Rome will admit. Protestants universally reject it as a deplorable absurdity,-not merely wealthy bishops, squires and merchants, but the poorest curate also. A man could not preach such doctrine in a Protestant pulpit without incurring deep reprobation and contempt; but when preached by Jesus, it is extolled as divine wisdom,-and disobeyed. Now I cannot look on this as a pure intellectual error, consistent with moral perfection. A deep mistake as to the nature of such perfection seems to me inherent in the precept itself; a mistake which indicates a moral unsoundness. The conduct of Jesus to the rich young man appears to me a melancholy exhibition of perverse doctrine under an ostentation of superior wisdom.”

A great number of passages could be cited from the Gospels, in addition to the foregoing pointed out by Mr. Newman, where Christ inculcates the duty of selling all in order to follow him. Indeed the whole tenour of his doctrines is to this effect. All objects in the present world were to be despised in order to follow him,-houses, lands, parents, children, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, and friends were to be renounced. Accordingly, we read that he sent the twelve apostles to preach that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and told them to take with them neither gold, silver, nor brass,-neither bread, scrip, staves, shoes, nor two coats; but, as the workman was worthy of his meat, they were to enter any house worthy of them, and remain there, eating and drinking such things as would be given to them. But if any person refused to receive them or hear their words, they were to depart, shaking off the dust of their feet as they went;

* Phases of Faith, pp. 155-156. Fourth Edition.

and it was to be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that house.* Their work was to cry that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out devils,-none of which things have we any account they did during the lifetime of Jesus. It is, however, clear that the apostles were initiated by Christ into the doctrine of teaching people to sell their possessions when they became converts to Christianity. For we find this practice universal among the Christians of the first century. Hence, by the preaching of the near approach of the end of the world, the working of what are called miracles, and the ample funds placed at the disposal of the apostles, considerable success, naturally, followed the first promulgation of the new religion,-thousands of people, from fear, became converts to it, in order, not only to avoid being destroyed in the general conflagration of the globe, but to obtain eternal life in the kingdom of heaven, together with all the felicity that the new religion held forth.

SECTION V.

-THE BARLY SUCCESS OF CHRISTIANITY NOT NEARLY SO GREAT AS THAT OF MORMONISM, AND THEREFORE NO PROOF OF ITS DIVINE ORIGIN.

That great success, therefore, should have followed the first preaching of Christianity, is but what we can reasonably expect to have been the case entirely on natural grounds. Admitting the accounts we have of this success not to have been exaggerated, it is not greater than that which would follow the promulgation of any other religion of a similar character preached under similar circumstances. As similar causes always produce similar effects, this success is by no means without a parallel. To say nothing of Mahomedanism, which very rapidly spread, and which predominates over a far greater part of the earth and of its inhabitants than Christianity does, with its innumerable sects, each of which hates one another, let us confine ourselves to a new religion of the present age, and take a glance at Mormonism which we have seen rising before our eyes, let us compare the success of this religion with that of Christianity in its early days. In order that it may not possibly be said that,, in instituting this comparison, the case has been overstated, or that facts have been tortured with the view of showing a parallel to Christianity, the following extracts have been made from a Tract, of 32 pages, published among others, by Messrs. W. and R. Chambers, called the History of the Mormons, in which there appears not the least intention to overstate their case. These extracts are made the more copiously because they clearly show how a religion may be established and embraced by thousands, when —as in the case of Mormonism-it will be admitted by all, except its own deluded devotees, nothing akin to supernatural causes has promoted its

Matth. x. Luke ix. They were to go on their journey precisely in the same manner as Josephus tells us the Essenes went. The description of the Jewish historian and the instructions of Jesus are so much alike, that they fully prove the latter to be an Ascetic. Jewish Antiq. lib. ii. c. 8.