in them of a contribution made by private persons of their whole property. For we read, Acts iv., 32, ‘Neither said any of them, that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common;' which words plainly enough declare that the produce only of the possessions was common, not the possessions themselves. Further, Peter is said to have addressed Ananias thus Whiles it remained was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it (the money) not in thine own power?' How could Peter truly say it was in the power of Ananias not to sell the land, or to keep to himself the price of the land when sold, if, of necessity, by the laws of the society, all things were to be distributed in common? It is evident, therefore, from this place, that there were individuals among the Christians who had possessions, properly their own, and who retained their property. Besides, mention is made of Mary having a dwelling-house at Jerusalem. Nor had community of property any place in the other Christian societies. No traces of this custom are to be met with in the letters of the Apostles. By the advice of the Apostles money was collected for the use of the poor. Paul exhorts the Corinthians, every one of them on the first day of the week to lay in store something in his own house for the use of the poor. The Corinthians, therefore, retained their property. The same Apostle tells the Thessalonians, to earn their subsistence by hand labour, and places before them his own example for imitation in that he did not desire to obtain subsistence from any person for nothing, but procured it by his own labor. So that the words and they had all things common' are to be understood popularly, and in the same sense as the old proverb in Plato, friends have all things common': that is, as Seneca writes, Whatever my friend has is common to us, but is properly his who

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possesses it; without his consent I cannot make use of it.' By the words in question, therefore, is signified the zealous and pre-eminent practice of beneficence and liberality."-Kuinoel on Acts ii. 44.

NOTE 2.

Page 15 It is an historical fact, that before the end of the first century, its prevalence became an object of earnest solicitude to the Emperors of Rome themselves, and that its professors were subjected to penalties and persecutions at the hands of Roman governors.'

Suetonius, in his life of the Emperor Claudius, who reigned from 41 to 54 A.D., says of him- He banished the Jews from Rome, who were continually making disturbances, Chrestus (Christ) being their leader,' (See Acts xviii., 2.)

In his life of Nero, whose reign began in 54 and ended in 68, the same writer says,- The Christians were punished, a sort of men of a new and magical (miraculous) superstition.'

On account of its full and explicit statements, as well as because it exhibits the spirit and extent of persecution, of which I discourse in the third lecture, I transcribe several parts of Pliny's letter to Trajan. Pliny was born in the year 61, A.D., was Consul in 100, A.D.; and being governor of Pontus and Bithynia, wrote, in the year 106, to the Emperor Trajan, for directions as to the measures he should pursue towards Christians, after, let it be noticed, he had persecuted them.

'I have never been present at any trials of Christians' (trials then had been customary), 'so that I know not well what is the subject matter of punishment, or of inquiry, or what strictness ought to be used in either. Nor have I been a little perplexed to determine whether any difference ought to be made upon account of age, or whether the young and tender, and the full- -grown and robust, ought to be treated all alike: whether re

pentance should entitle to pardon, or whether all who have once been Christians ought to be punished, though they are now no longer so: whether the name itself, although no crimes be detected, or crimes only belonging to the name, ought to be punished.' (It is a fair presumption that all these rigid measures of persecution had been pursued.) In the meantime, I have taken this course ;-I have put the question to them, whether they were Christians. Upon their confessing to me that they were, I repeated the question a second and a third time, threatening, also, to punish them with death. Such as still persisted, I ordered away to be punished, for it was no doubt with me, whatever might be the nature of their opinion, that contumacy and inflexible obstinacy ought to be punished.'

In a short time, the crime spreading itself, divers sorts of people came in my way.' An information was presented to me, without mentioning the author, containing the names of many persons.' 'Others were named by an informer;-some said they had been Christians three years ago, some longer, and a few above twenty years.' 'I have examined, and that by torture, two maid servants, who were called ministers; but I have discovered nothing besides a bad and excessive superstition.' 'Suspending all judicial proceedings, I have recourse to you for advice; for it has appeared to me a matter highly deserving consideration, especially upon account of the great number of persons who are in danger of suffering. For many of all ages and every rank, of both sexes likewise, are accused, and will be accused. Nor has the contagion of this superstition seized cities only, but the lesser towns also, and the open country. Nevertheless, it seems to me that it may be restrained and corrected. It is certain that the temples, which were almost forsaken, begin to be more frequented, and the sacred solemnities, after a long intermission, are revived. Victims likewise are every where bought

up, whereas for some time there were few purchasers.' (The Pagan religion could scarcely have been brought to this condition under half a century, which takes back the origin of Christianity in Asia Minor to within. twenty years after the death of its founder.)

The Emperor answers:— You have acted as you ought to do. If any are brought before you, and are convicted, they must be punished. However, he that denies his being a Christian, and makes it evident in fact, that is, by supplicating our gods, may, on repentance, be pardoned, though suspected to have been a Christian formerly.'

NOTE 3-p. 53.

I subjoin the following authorities on the persecutions of which heathens were guilty.

"The passions which mingle themselves with opinions made the Pagans very often intolerant and persecutors ; witness the Persians, the Egyptians, even the Greeks and Romans.

1st.-THE PERSIANS.-Cambyses, conqueror of the Egyptians, condemned to death the magistrates of Memphis, because they had offered divine honours to their god, Apis he caused the god to be brought before him, struck him with his dagger, commanded the priests to be scourged, and ordered a general massacre of all the Egyptians who should be found celebrating the festival of Apis: he caused all the statues of the gods to be burnt. Not content with this intolerance, he sent an army to reduce the Ammonians to slavery, and to set on fire the temple in which Jupiter delivered his oracles.

2nd. THE EGYPTIANS.-They thought themselves defiled when they had drunk from the same cup, or eaten at the same table, with a man of a different belief from their own.' He who has voluntarily killed any sacred animal is punished with death; but if any one,

even involuntarily, has killed a cat or an ibis, he cannot escape the extreme penalty; the people drag him away, treat him in the most cruel manner, sometimes without waiting for a judicial sentence. Even at the time when king Ptolemy was not yet the acknowledged friend of the Roman people, while the multitude were paying court with all possible attention to the strangers who came from Italy, a Roman having killed a cat, the people rushed to his house, and neither the entreaties of the nobles, whom the king sent to them, nor the terror of the Roman name, were sufficiently powerful to rescue the man from punishment, though he had committed the crime involuntarily."-Diod. Sic. Juvenal, in his 13th Satire, describes the sanguinary conflict between the inhabitants of Ombos and of Tentyra from religious animosity. The fury was carried so far, that the conquerors tore and devoured the quivering limbs of the conquered.

3rd -THE GREEKS.- "Let us not here," says the Abbé Guenée, "refer to the cities of Peloponnesus and their severity against atheism; the Ephesians persecuting Heraclitus for impiety; the Greeks armed one against the other by religious zeal in the Amphictyonic war. Let us say nothing either of the frightful cruelties inflicted by three successors of Alexander upon the Jews, to force them to abandon their religion; nor of Antiochus expelling the philosophers from his state. Let us not seek our proofs of intolerance so far off. Athens, the polite and learned Athens, will supply us with sufficient examples. Every citizen made a public and solemn vow to conform to the religion of his country, to defend it, and to cause it to be respected. An express law severely punished all discourses against the gods; and a rigid decree ordered the denunciation of all who should deny their existence. The practice was in unison with the severity of the law. The proceedings