and SAVIOUR,- JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, &c. 307 think proper to refrefh and regard the body ; and fome of them out ofan infatia- ble defire of growing in knowledge and virtue, fait many days together. Their diet is plain and fimple, fuflicient only to fatisfy the calls of nature, a little bread, fait, and water, being their confiant bill of fare. Their clothes are as mean as their food, defigned only as prefent fecurity againft cold and nakednefs. Nor is this the cafe only of the men, but alfo of the pious and devout women that live amongft them; who religioufly obferve-every feventh day, and efpecially the preparatory week to the great folemnity, which they keep with all expreffions of fincere devotion, and alfo with revere abftinence." Eufebius affirms, that thefe excellent perfons were Chriftians, converted and brought under fuch admirable rules and inftitutions by St. Mark at his coming hither, accommodating all paffages to the manner and difcipline of the Chriftians ; and is followed by Epiphanius, Jerom, and others. But whoever ferioufly and impartially confiders Philo's- account, will plainly find, that he intends it of the Jews, and profeffors of the Mofaic religion, though what particular fea they were, I Mall not pretend to determine ; perhaps they were Effenes : but however that be, it is plain they were not Chriftians ; for Philo fpeaks of them as an inftitution of force [landing; whereas, the Chriftians had but very lately appeared in the world, efpe- cially in Egypt: befides, many parts of Philo's account does not in feveral parts agree with the fiate and manners of the Chriftians at that time ; as that they with- drew themfelves from public converfation, and all the affairs of civil life, which the Chriftians never did, but when forced to it by violent perfecutions ; for at other times, as Juftin Martyr and Tertullian tell us, they mixed themfelves promifcuoufly with the inhabitants of the country, dwelt in towns and cities, plowed their lands, and followed their refpefive trades and callings like other men. Nor can the books which Philo tells us they had, befides thofe of Mofes and the prophets, be underftood of thofe of the Chriftians ; for the writings of the evangelifts had been very lately publifh- ed, and confequently could not come under the charaéier of ancient authors. Not to mention that force of theirceremonies were fuch as the Chriftians of thofe days were abfolute fit-angers to, not being introduced into the church till feveral years, and force of them not till force ages after Philo wrote his account: nay, force of them were never ufed by the primitive Chriftians, efpecially their religious dances,. which Philo particularly dcfcribes, as ufed by them at their feflival folemnities, efpeci- ally that remarkable one which they ob- ferved at the end of every feven weeks; when their entertainment being ended, . they all rofe up, the men in one company, and the women in another, dancing with various meafures and motions, each com- pany tinging divine hymns and fongs, and having a precentor going before each di- vifion, Pinging alternately ; till, in the con- clufion, they joined in one commonchorus, in imitation of the triumphant fong fang by Mofes and the Ifraelites, after their great deliverance at the Red Sea, from the hof- tile attempts of Pharaoh and his army. From thefe, and feveral other particulars that might be mentioned, it will appear, that thefe could not be Chriftians: it is not indeed to be doubted, but that per- fons educated under fuch excellent rules and methodsof life, were more than ordi- narily prepared for the reception of Chrif tianity, and could not fail ofrendering St. Mark's fuccefs furprifing in thofe parts, and open a path for men to come in mul- titudes tó embrace the doarines- of the gofpel of JESUS CHRIST. This apoftle did not confine himfelf to Alexandria, and the oriental parts ofEgypt, but-removed weftwards to Lybia, palling through the countries of Marmarcia, Pentapolis, and others adjacent, where though the people were both barbarous in their manners and idolatrous in their worfhip,
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