some Egyptians like himself, affected to believe and to teach christianity, while by their behaviour they brought upon it the greatest disgrace. The Egyptians were noted for their devotion to festivals, which they celebrated frequently and with great pomp in honour of their gods. The disciples of Jesus too had a simple institution, which they frequented in honour of their master: and it was written of them, before they were yet debased by foreign luxury, that "they continued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart." But the Egyptians, on receiving the faith, taught as it must as yet have been by men, who neither understood its doctrines nor had imbibed its spirit, carried with them, we may well suppose, into the christian church most of their former customs and habits. And among these were the feasts to which they were so fondly devoted, and which offered an easy coalition with the institution of the Lord's support. From this unhappy union the plain and simple supper of our Lord degenerated in some instances into a riotous banquet. These banquets were known in ancient times under the name of agape, or lovefeasts, which were not, I think, institutions distinct from the eucharist, but the eucharist corrupted by pagan luxury.

Josephus has recorded one instance of the enormities committed on those occasions. Fulvia, a woman of rank, whose husband was in habits of friendship with the emperor, was brought over by these teachers to profess the new faith; and the very men who pretended to convert her, proved her disgrace and ruin. For by their solicitations she went into the temple by night, where after the festival was over, and the candles put out, she surrendered her chastity to a Roman knight, who lay concealed for her, but whom she supposed to be the god Anubis. This crime, when made known, roused the indignation of Tiberius, and was the immediate cause of the calamities which befel the Jews and Egyptians in Italy. With propriety, therefore, the apostle puts the question, "Dost thou glory in the law, and by the transgression of the law dishonour God? For the name of God is evil spoken of through you among the Gentiles *."

* The impostors, by corrupting the native purity of the gospel, greatly obstructed its divine influence; while their vices laid the foundation of those calumnies, which the enemies of Jesus indiscriminately extended to all his followers. To the unhappy tendency which the character of the false teachers had to retard christianity, the apostle alludes in the following verse: "And severe punishment is denounced from heaven against all ungodly and unrighteous men, who hinder the truth by their wickedness." Rom. i. 17.

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The impostors adopted the pernicious maxim of telling falsehoods to promote the truth. They forged certain oracles respecting Christ, which they ascribed to the Sibyl, under pretence of deceiving Satan, a phrase which, divested of its symbolical signification, simply meant, the leading men into a belief of the gospel, in consequence evading, by false representations, those unreasonable objections which the mistaken notions, and the evil principles of the world, threw in the way of its progress. Now it is observable that, if we pass over the words in the parenthesis, and consider the subsequent with the preceding part of the sentence, this will appear to be the pretence for their specious impostures. "And by their oracles and festivals, they deceive the hearts will quickly of the simple--but the God of peace bruise Satan under your feet." As though the apostle had said, "These men propagate their falsehoods under the pretext of deceiving Satan, but in reality they deceive only those, who, unlike themselves, possess innocent and guileless hearts. And as to Satan, the great adversary that retards the gospel, the Almighty, instead of imposing upon him by lies, or opposing him by violence and contention, will speedily bruise him under your feet; and this he will do by means consistent with gentleness, peace, and truth." If we consider the tumults and distress,

which these impostors occasioned at Rome, the phrase God of Peace, which the apostle here uses, will appear to have a peculiar propriety. Our Lord, wishing to prevent his apostles from adopting the conduct, which he foresaw would be pursued by the Gnostics, among many other excellent directions, solemnly delivered to them the following: "Be ye wise as the serpent, and harmless as the dove." This maxim, though dictated in opposition to them, the deceivers perverted into a justification of their own falsehoods; interpreting it thus, and omitting the last clause. "As the serpent or Satan employed his wisdom to deceive the mother of mankind, so may you, after his example, employ the same means to deceive the serpent, and thus defeat him with his own weapons." In order to rectify this wicked perversion of his master's precept, St. Paul exhorts his brethren, "I wish you to be wise unto goodness, but unto evil to be harmless:" as though he had said, "My desire is, that the end you have in view should be ever laudable, and that you should pursue it by methods consistent with truth and virtue. It were better that you possess no wisdom at all, than that you pervert it to sinister purposes. In all that is evil, therefore, shew yourselves as though you were entirely des titute of sagacity and skill; but in whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy display all the know

ledge, and all the prudence, which it is possible for man to acquire.”

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We have already seen that a belief, derived from the prophets, prevailed not only among Jews, but among other nations, that some great prince would soon appear in the east, who, like the sun in its meridian, ascending the throne of universal empire, would by the lustre of his benign countenance disperse the shade of superstition and error, loosen the chains of slavery and oppression, and raise the human race to freedom, virtue, and happiness. In consequence partly of this expectation, the christian doctrine on its first promulgation in Rome, was embraced by multitudes of Jews, Egyptians, and Greeks. The dispute, which it occasioned, threw the city into confusion. The emperor, mistaking for a while the claims of the Messiah, and the nature of his religion, was filled with alarm; and in order to check its progress, he adopted every method, however cruel, which policy could suggest or power execute. Upon the converts he exercised unusual severities. Such of the Jewish youths as were capable of bearing arms, the senate pressed into the military service; punished with death those who had the magnanimity to refuse enlisting; and banished the rest into islands, the severity of whose climates was likely to prove fatal to their constitution. Nor was this all; that