thing else, which from its enormity wants a name, to say that those men are rich who are most destitute, and in want even of common necessaries; lead a sorrowful and afflicted life; voluntarily submit to famine in the midst of public plenty, and feed on the ethereal breath of virtue, as grasshoppers, they say, feed on air.-To say, on the other hand, that those men are poor who abound with gold, silver, revenues, and a multitude of other possessions; whose abundance supplies not only their own friends and relations, but extending beyond their own families, relieves societies of indigent men, and furnishes even a whole city with such things as are requisite in peace and war." From this extraordinary exertion of benevolence, which, according to Philo, exceeded the power of language to describe, we may perceive the force and justice of Paul's declaration, though poor yet making many rich.

6. The teachers of the new faith soon found, from experience, how difficult it was to convince and to reform those who had grown old in error and in vice. They, therefore, sought to bring up in the belief and virtues of the gospel those in tender years, whose minds had not yet been preoccupied by prejudices, nor hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. The benevolent Jesus had himself directed the attention of his disciples to children, as the best qualified by their innocence

and docility for the kingdom of heaven. In conformity to this admonition the christians found it a more easy and agreeable task to extend the influence of their faith by training up the young than reforming those of confirmed bad habits. Hence Josephus says of them, that, though they despised marriage, they received the children of others, and educated them as their own, while yet tender and susceptible of instruction. Hence too Philo inculcates, as a maxim received among the Esseans, that every one should devote his early years to improvement in virtue and knowledge, because he is then likely, when grown to manhood, to persevere in the same honorable pursuit, and to enjoy the happy fruits of it in old age. The reason which our noble author assigns for this conduct, places in a very strong light, on one hand, the stubborn resistance which men, for a while, made to the evidence and influence of the gospel; and, on the other, the very great and happy change which it produced in their views. and habits, after it had taken a full possession of their minds. "They regretted that they were not converted sooner; for they apprehended, that having not till then begun a life of reason, they did not till then begin to live."

7. Philo, in his account of the Therapeuta, says, that they wished to communicate to the Greeks and to the barbarians the consummate

blessing which themselves enjoyed. This blessing was the life and immortality which Christ brought to light, and which his followers offered to the world, on the simple terms of repentance and amendment. Philo here calls it wisdom; and the communicative nature, which he ascribes to it, is best explained by the language of Jesus, and by the commission, which his apostles received to convert and illumine all mankind without distinction. Our author complains, that many were unwilling to have their ignorance cured, that fatal disorder of the soul, by learning of wise and good men. The personification of wisdom, under the figure of its holy teachers, is bold and animating. Wisdom, as being truly divine, is communicative and beneficent, excluding none from her sanctuary, but receiving with doors open all who seek admission. For these, her guests, she draws copious draughts of pure instruction, and invites them to become inebriated with her sober drink. The very reverse of this description was applicable to the Pagan philosophers. They imparted, what knowledge they had, only to those who had money to purchase it, and they despised the people as unworthy of instruction. Hence they endeavoured to keep them in ignorance, by inculcating vulgar errors or fables as the proper articles of their faith; while they communicated their real sentiments only to their own disciples, or to a favored few. Very

different was the conduct of the wise men of whom Philo speaks. Their common Master invited the weary and the heavy laden to come to him, and receive rest for their souls; he opened a well of water unto everlasting life, of which every one that is thirsty may drink; he made a feast, and sent his servants to the streets and lanes of the city, to invite the poor, the blind, the lame, and the maimed, to come and fill his house.

CHAPTER VIII.

JOSEPHUS AN APOLOGIST OF THE EARLY BELIEVERS.

To his account of the Esseans Josephus has prefixed the following paragraph: "Cyrenius, a senator, arrived with a few others in Syria, being sent there by Cæsar to administer justice to the nation, and to assess their property. With him was sent Coponius, a Roman knight, invested with supreme power over the Jews. And Cyrenius came into Judea, now added to Syria, in order to assess the properties of the Jews, and to dispose of the effects of Archelaus. But they, though dreading the very name of the enrolment, ceased to make farther opposition to it, by the persuasion of Joazarus the high priest. But Judas Gaulonitis, together with one Sadducus, a Pharisee, urged them to rebel; asserting, that the enrolment brought upon them nothing less than entire slavery, and calling upon the nation to maintain their liberty; that, by resisting, they would be successful, and, together with the secure enjoyment of their persons and properties, would