acquisitions which lay beyond the frontiers of C I; 51 P

the Roman empire.

Euphrates to the Ionian sea, were the principal t

the place where the believers first received the -
appellation of Christians! It must not, however,
be dissembled, that, in another passage, Chry-
sostom, to whom we are indebted for this useful
information, computes the multitude of the faith-
ful as even fuperior to that of the Jews and Pa-
gans "". But the solution of this apparent diffi-
culty is easy and obvious. The eloquent preacher
draws a parallel between the civil and the eccle-
siastical constitution of Antioch ; between the list
of Christians who had acquired Heaven by bap-
tism, and the list of citizens who had a right to
share the public liberality. SlaVes, strangers,
and infants Were comprised in the former; they

were excluded from the latter. =
The extensive commerce of Alexandria, and
its proximity to Palestine, gave an easy entrance
to the new religion. It was at first embraced by
reat numbers of. the Therapeutaz, or Essenians
of the lake Mareotis, a Jewish sect which had
abated much of its reverence for the Mosaic
ceremonies. The austere life of the Essenians,
their falls and excommunications, the community
of goods, the love of celibacy, their zeal for
martyrdom, and the warmth though not the
purity of their faith, already offered a very lively
image of the primitive disciplinem. It was in
' the