IV. The works of Philo, being numerous, and published at different times, and some of them in different places, serve greatly to illustrate each other. Thus, the account which he gives of the sufferings of the Jews at Alexandria, unfolds the circumstances on which are founded the books concerning the followers of Jesus. On the

nuous efforts to maintain the honour of Venus, against the impious virgin, who refused to burn incense on her altars. Their violence, however, was commonly disappointed; and the seasonable interposition of some miraculous power preserved the chaste spouse of Christ from the dishonour even of an involuntary defeat. We should not, indeed, neglect to remark, that the more ancient, as well as authentic memorials of the church, are seldom polluted with these extravagant and indecent fictions." If the impurity of this author's imagination had not far exceeded the measure of his faith, be would have spared himself the pains, and his readers the disgust of this passage. It has been observed by Professor Porson, with no less severity than truth, that Gibbon's humanity slumbered, when women were ravished, and christians persecuted; and that the rage for indecency which pervades his history reminded him of a debauchee, who having from age, or excess, or accident, lost the vigour of the passions, still indulged in the luxury of speculation. If we divest the above indecent fictions, as this historian calls them, of the colouring which he has given to make them so, they will be found not to exceed in atrociousness and imprcbability those, which Philo attests in the above passage, one of the most ancient and authentic memorials of the christian church.

other hand, the books concerning the followers of Jesus, under the name of Esseans or Therapeuta, prove with absolute certainty, that the Jews who suffered under Flaccus were, for the most part, believers in Christ. It is not, indeed, to be supposed, that the teachers of the gospel in Egypt, however enlightened, had at this early period just views respecting the messiahship of Jesus, or the nature of his kingdom, but must have been led by their early prejudices to hope, that, though ascended to heaven, he would again soon return, to deliver Israel. The people of Egypt, therefore, considered the teachers of the new faith, as no other than the preachers of treason and rebellion; as men, who endeavoured to dethrone Cæsar, and to raise a prince of their own to the throne of the universe. This apprehension, there is reason to believe, was too well founded; and the fatal mistake, on the part of the Jews, was the principal cause of all the tumults which they raised, and of all the calamities which they endured, in Rome, Alexandria, and the other great cities of the empire.

The suspicion generally entertained, that the Jews meditated a revolt from Cæsar, under the pretext of believing in Jesus, caused the governors of the provinces to watch them with the greatest vigilance, and often to ascribe to them crimes and intentions, of which they were per

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fectly innocent. An instance of this kind occurred at Alexandria. Flaccus suspected, or affected to suspect, that the Jews had arms secreted in their houses: he therefore dispatched a body of the soldiers to go, and without any previous notice enter their abodes. The consternation which this unexpected domiciliary visit excited among them, exceeded all conception, the chambers of the women being forced open, and ruffians having entered, whose very name they regarded with horror. On this rude treatment Philo dwells with his accustomed force and eloquence. He boldly asserts it to be founded in calumny; and proves it to be so, by the fact, that not a single weapon of destruction was found, after the most diligent search, in the possession of the Jews.

The Jews professed to believe in Jesus, as a Prince sent of God to emancipate them from servitude, and to erect among them the standard of universal freedom. This profession was, no doubt, considered by their enemies as a vain and insulting boast, who, in their turn, with more bitterness and poignancy, reminded them of their actual subjugation; and sometimes treated them as captives subject to the will of their conquerors, or as slaves at the disposal of their masters. The charge of being subject to the Romans, with which their adversaries stigmatized the Jews,

could not be denied; and the necessity of explaining the nature of the freedom in which they gloried, appears to be the real circumstance, which occasioned the two important publications of Philo, in behalf of the Jewish and Egyptian believers. He retorts upon their persecutors the imputation of slavery; and shews, that they were the worst of all slaves, by being the slaves of sin; and maintains, that the virtuous amongst the Jews, enjoyed the noblest and most perfect freedom, in consequence of being endued by the Son of God with the freedom of the soul. He asserts, that the man, whether Jew or Greek, whose mind is superior to the love of the world, and to the fear of death, and who by tortures could not be brought to commit a dishonourable deed, was free in the highest and most important sense, though a thousand despots might claim him as their slave*.

These refined and lofty sentiments did not originate with Philo. It formed a leading and fun

Εξ ὧν εναργεςατα παρίςαται, το μήτε τινα των σπουδαίων δουλον είναι, καν μύριοι τα δεσποτων συμβολα προφέροντες επανατεινωνται. He adds, that no wicked man could be free, though he possessed the wealth or power of Crœsus or of Midas-μητε των αφρονων ελευθερον, καν Κροίσος, η Μίδας, η ὁ μέγας βασιλευς ων τυγχανη,

P. 885.

damental principle in the christian system. It was a saying of Jesus himself," If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." The great apostle of the Gentiles reminds his brethren, that they have been called into liberty, and exhorts them to stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has made us free: and for this reason the gospel is emphatically called the " perfect law of liberty."

Philo, as we have seen, asserts in his book against Flaccus, that the præfect published several edicts, to expel the Jews as strangers and intruders. To these edicts he seemingly alludes in the book, which he published in behalf of the christians; and the allusion shews, that in the same edicts they were proposed to be sold as slaves to the highest bidder. "The writings," says he, "entitled the Sale, are beneath ridicule and contempt, and sink under the magnanimity of the men against whom they are published, like blank waste paper, which age, or moth, or stain destroys*." In a subsequent page he adds,

Γελως ουν αν είη και φλυαρια πολλη τα κατα τας λεγομένας ωνας γραμματα, επειδαν καθ ̓ ὧν γραφεται παρευημερήθη σθενερωτερα δυναμει χαρτιδίων αγραφων ακυρωτέρα, ύπο σητων, η χρονων, η ευρωτός ἅπαν διαφθαρησομενα.