said, in his commentary on Isaiah, that the saints should enjoy, during a reign of a thousand years upon earth, every sensual pleasure. He has been charged with criminality in saying, in his Apology for Christianity, that God, having made the earth, left it in the care of the angels, who, having fallen in love with the women, begot children, which are the devils.

Lactantius, with other fathers, has been condemned for having supposed oracles of the sibyls. He asserted that the sibyl Erythrea made four Greek lines, which, rendered literally, are :

"With five loaves and two fishes

He shall feed five thousand men in the desert;
And, gathering up the fragments that remain,
With them he shall fill twelve baskets."

which he gave life to the birds, and they flew away. Another time, a little boy having beaten him, was struck dead on the spot. We have also another gospel of the Infancy, in Arabic, which is much more serious.

We have a gospel of Nicodemus. This one seems more worthy of attention; for we find in it the names of those who accused Jesus before Pilate. They were the principal men of the synagogueAnanias, Caiphas, Sommas, Damat, Gamaliel, Judah, Nephthalim. In this history, there are some things which it is easy to reconcile with the received gospels, and others which are not elsewhere to be found. We here find, that the woman cured of a flux was called Veronica. We also find all that Jesus did in hell when

Then we have the two letters supposed to have been written by Pilate to Tiberius, concerning the execution of Jesus; but their bad Latin plainly shows that they are spurious.

The primitive Christians have been reproached with inventing some acrostiche descended thither. verses on the name JESUS CHRIST, and attributing them to an ancient sibyl. They have also been reproached with forging letters from Jesus Christ to the King of Edessa, dated at a time when there was no king at Edessa;—with having forged To such a length was this false zeal letters of Mary, letters of Seneca to Paul, carried, that various letters were circufalse gospels, false miracles, and a thou-lated, attributed to Jesus Christ. The sand other impostures.

letter is still preserved, which he is said to have written to Abgarus, King of Edessa: but, as already remarked, there had, at that time, ceased to be a king of Edessa.

We have, moreover, the history or gospel of the nativity and marriage of the Virgin Mary; wherein we are told, that she was brought to the temple at three years old, and walked up the stairs by Fifty gospels were fabricated, and were herself. It is related that a dove came afterwards declared apocryphal. St. down from heaven, to give notice that it Luke himself tells us, that many persons was Joseph who was to espouse Mary. had composed gospels. It has been beWe have the proto-gospel of James, bro-lieved, that there was one called the ther of Jesus by Joseph's first wife. It Eternal Gospel, concerning which it is is there said, that when Joseph complained said in the Apocalypse, chap. xiv., “And of Mary's having become pregnant in his I saw another angel fly in the midst of absence, the priests made each of them heaven, having the everlasting gospel." drink the water of jealousy, and they were .... In the thirteenth century, the Corboth declared innocent. deliers, abusing these words, composed an "eternal gospel," by which the reign of the Holy Ghost was to be substituted for that of Jesus Christ. But never, in the early ages of the church, did any book appear with this title.

We have the gospel of the Infancy, attributed to St. Thomas. According to this gospel, Jesus, at five years old, amused himself, like other children of the same age, with moulding clay, and making it, amongst other things, into the form of little birds. He was chid for this; on

Letters of the Virgin were likewise invented, written to Ignatius the martyr,

After this first sitting, it was proposed that Simon and Peter should make a flying-match, and try which could raise himself highest in the air. Simon tried first: Peter made the sign of the cross, and down came Simon and broke his legs. This story was imitated from that which we find in the "Sepher toldos Jeschut,"

to the people of Messina, and others. Abdias, who immediately succeeded the apostles, wrote their history, with which he mixed up such absurd fables, that in time these histories became wholly discredited, although they had at first a great reputation. To Abdias we are indebted for the account of the contest between St. Peter and Simon the magician.where it is said that Jesus himself flew, There was at Rome, in reality, a very skilful mechanic, named Simon, who not only made things fly across the stage, as we still see done, but moreover revived in his own person the prodigy attributed to Dædalus. He made himself wings; he flew; and, like Icarus, he fell. So say Pliny and Suetonius.

and that Judas, who would have done the same, fell headlong.

Nero, vexed that Peter had broken his favourite Simon's legs, had him crucified with his head downwards. Hence the notion of St. Peter's residence at Rome, the manner of his execution, and his sepulchre.

The same Abdias established the belief that St. Thomas went and preached Christianity in India to King Gondafer, and that he went thither as an architect.

The number of books of this sort, written in the early ages of Christianity, is prodigious.

Abdias, who was in Asia, and wrote in Hebrew, tells us that Peter and Simon met at Rome in the reign of Nero. A young man, nearly related to the emperor, died; and the whole court begged that Simon would raise him to life. St. Peter presented himself to perform the same operation. Simon employed all the powers of his art; and he seemed to have succeeded, for the dead man moved his head. "This is not enough," cries Peter; "the dead man must speak: let Simon leave the bed-side, and we shall see whe-cupio." Paul does not write quite so ther the young man is alive." Simon went aside, and the deceased no longer stirred, but Peter brought him to life with a single word.

St. Jerome, and even St. Augustine, tell us, that the letters of Seneca and St. Paul are quite authentic. In the first of these letters, Seneca hopes his brother Paul is well-"Bene te valere, frater,

good Latin as Seneca :" I received
your letters yesterday," says he, "with
joy."—"Litteras tuas hilaris accepi."-
"And I would have answered them im-
mediately, had I had the presence of the
young man whom I would have sent with
"Si præsentiam juvenis habuis-

Simon went and complained to the emperor, that a miserable Galilean had taken upon himself to work greater won-them.". ders than he. Simon was confronted with sem.' Unfortunately, these letters, in Peter, and they made a trial of skill.— } which one would look for instruction, are "Tell me," said Simon to Peter, "what nothing more than compliments. I am thinking of?" "If," returned Peter, "the emperor will give me a barley loaf, thou shalt find whether or not I know what thou hast in thy heart." A loaf was given him: Simon immediately caused two large dogs to appear, and they wanted to devour it. Peter threw them the loaf; and while they were eating it, he said-sirous of hastening its growth. "Well; did I not know thy thoughts? thou wouldst have had thy dogs devour me."

All these falsehoods, forged by ill-informed and mistakenly-zealous Christians, were in no degree prejudicial to the truth of Christianity; they obstructed not its progress; on the contrary, they show us that the Christian society was daily increasing, and that each member was de

The Acts of the Apostles do not tell us that the apostles agreed on a symbol. Indeed, if they had put together the sym

bol, (the creed, as we now call it,) St. the eternal divinity of Jesus; as, for ex Luke could not, in his history, have ample, the following-" My Father an omitted this essential basis of the Christian I are one;" words which their opponent religion. The substance of the creed is interpret as signifying-"My Father an scattered through the gospels; but the I have the same object, the same inten articles were not collected until long after. § tion: I have no other will than that of m In short, our creed is, indisputably, the Father." Alexander, Bishop of Alex belief of the apostles; but it was not andria, and after him Athanasius, were a written by them. Rufinus, a priest of the head of the orthodox; and Eusebius Aquileia, is the first who mentions it; Bishop of Nicomedia, with seventeen othe and a homily attributed to St. Augustin bishops, the priest Arius, and many mor is the first record of the supposed way in priests, led the party opposed to them which this creed was made; Peter say- The quarrel was at first exceedingly bitter ing, when they were assembled, "I be- as St. Alexander treated his opponents a lieve in God the Father Almighty,"so many antichrists. Andrew, "and in Jesus Christ,”—James, "who was conceived by the Holy Ghost;" and so of the rest.

At last, after much disputation, th Holy Ghost decided in the council, b the mouths of two hundred and ninety This formula was called, in Greek, nine bishops, against eighteen, as follows symbolos; and in Latin, collatio. Only" Jesus is the only Son of God; begotte

it must be observed, that the Greek version has it" I believe in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth." In the Latin, maker, former, is rendered by "creatorem." But, afterwards, in trans- { lating the symbol of the first council of Nice, it was rendered by "factorem."

of the Father; light of light; very Go of very God; of one substance with th Father. We believe also in the Hoi Ghost," &c. &c. Such was the decisic of the council; and we perceive, by thi fact, how the bishops carried it over th simple priests. Two thousand person of the latter class were of the opinion o Arius, according to the account of tw patriarchs of Alexandria, who have writte the annals of Alexandria in Arabic. Ari was exiled by Constantine, as was Atha

Constantine assembled at Nice, opposite to Constantinople, the first oecumenical council, over which Ozius presided. The great question touching the divinity of Jesus Christ, which so much agitated the church, was there decided. One partynasius soon after, when Arius was recalle held the opinion of Origen, who says, in his sixth chapter against Celsus, "We offer our prayers to God through Christ, who holds the middle place between natures created and uncreated; who leads us to the grace of his father, and presents our prayers to the great God, in quality { of our high priest." These disputants also rest upon many passages of St. Paul, some of which they quote. They depend particularly upon these words of Jesus Christ-"My father is greater than I;" and they regard Jesus as the first-born of the creation; as a pure emanation of the Supreme Being, but not precisely as

God.

The other side, who were orthodox, produced passages more conformable to

to Constantinople. Upon this event, S Macarius prayed so vehemently to G to terminate the life of Arius, before! could enter the cathedral, that God he his prayer-Arius dying on his way church, in 330. The Emperor Consta tine ended his life in 337. He plac his will in the hands of an Arian pne and died in the arms of the Arian lead Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, not ceiving baptism until on his death-be and leaving a triumphant, but divid church.

The partisans of Athanasius and Eusebius carried on a cruel war; a what is called Arianism was for a lo time established in all the provinces of empire.

Julian the philosopher, surnamed the Apostate, wished to stifle their divisons, but could not succeed.

The second general council was held at Constantinople in 1318. It was there laid down, that the council of Nice had not decided quite correctly in regard to the Holy Ghost; and it added to the Nicene creed, that "the Holy Ghost was the giver of life, and proceeded from the Father, and with the Father and Son is to be worshipped and glorified."

Is was not until towards the ninth century that the Latin church decreed, that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son.

In the year 431, the third councilgeneral, held at Ephesus, decided that Jesus had "two natures and one person." Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, who maintained that the Virgin Mary should be entitled Mother of Christ, was called Judas by the council; and the "two natures" were again confirmed by the council of Chalcedon.

delivered his homily on Pentecost. We here make no account of the feasts of the martyrs, which were of a very inferior order. That of the baptism of Jesus was named the Epiphany, in imitation of the Greeks, who gave that name to the feasts which they held to commemorate the appearance or manifestation of the gods upon earth,-since it was not until after his baptism that Jesus began to preach the gospel.

We know not whether, about the end of the fourth century, this feast was so{lemnized in the Isle of Cyprus, on the 6th of November; but St. Epiphanius mantained that Jesus was born on that day. St. Clement of Alexandria tells us, that the Basilidians held this feast on 15th of the month tybi, while others held it on the 11th of the same month; that is, it was kept by some on the 10th of January, and by others on the 6th: the latter opinion is the one now adopted. As for the nativity, as neither the day nor the month nor the year of it was

I pass lightly over the following cen-known, it was not celebrated. turies, which are sufficiently known. Unhappily, all these disputes led to wars, and the church was uniformly obliged to combat. God, in order to exercise the patience of the faithful, also { allowed, that the Greek and Latin churches should finally separate, in the ninth century. He likewise permitted, in the east, no less than twenty-nine horrible schisms with the see of Rome.

According to the remarks which we find appended to the works of the same father, they who had been the most curious in their researches concerning the day on which Jesus was born, said, some that it was on the 25th of the Egyptian month pachon, answering to the 20th of May; others, that it was the 24th or 25th of pharmuthi, corresponding to the 19th and 20th of April. The learned If there be about six hundred mil- M. de Beausobre says, that these latter lions of men upon earth, as certain were the days of St. Valentine. Be learned persons pretend, the holy Ro- this as it may, Egypt and the east kept man Catholic church possesses scarcely the feast of the birth of Jesus on the 6th sixteen millions of them-about a twenty-of January, the same day as that of his sixth part of the inhabitants of the known world.

CHRISTMAS.

baptism; without its being known (at least, with certainty) when, or for wha reason, this custom commenced.

The opinion and practice of the westEVERY one knows that this is the feastern nations were quite different from of the nativity of Jesus. The most ancient feast kept in the church, after those of Easter and Pentecost, was that of the baptism of Jesus. There were only these three feasts, until St. Chrysostom

those of the east. The centuriators of Magdeburg repeat a passage in Theo philus of Cesarea, which makes the churches of Gaul say:-"Since the birth of Christ is celebrated on the 25th

CHRISTMAS.

of December, on whatever day of the s
week it may fall, so also should the re-
surrection of Jesus be celebrated on the
25th of March, whatever day of the week
it may be, the Lord having risen again on
that day."

If this be true, it must be acknowledged that the bishops of Gaul were very prudent and very reasonable. Being persuaded, as all the ancients were, that Jesus had been crucified on the 23rd of March, and had risen again on the 25th, they commemorated his death on the 23rd, and his resurrection on the 25th, without paying any regard to the observance of the full moon, which was originally a Jewish ceremony, and without confining themselves to the Sunday. Had the church imitated them, she would have avoided the long and scandalous disputes which went near to separate the east from the west, and were not terminated until the first council of Nice.

Some of the learned conjecture, that the Romans chose the winter solstice for holding the birth of Jesus, because the sun then begins again to approach our hemisphere. In Julius Cæsar's time, the civil and political solstice was fixed for the 25th of December. This, at Rome, was a festival in celebration of the returning sun. Pliny tells us, that it was called bruma; and, like Servius, places it on the 8th of the calends of January. This association might have some connection with the choice of the day, but it was not the origin of it. A passage in Josephus (evidently forged) three or four errors of the ancients, and a very mystical explanation of a saying of St. John the Baptist, determined this choice, as Joseph Scaliger is about to inform

us.

entered the temple but once a-year, on Thirdly-as the sovereign sacrificer of the Jewish month rifri, partly anthe day of expiation, which was the 10th swering to the month of September, the ancients supposed that it was the 27th; and that afterwards, on the 23rd or 24th, the feast, Elizabeth, his wife, conceived Zacharias having returned home after John the Baptist; whence the feast of those days. As women ordinarily go the conception of that saint was fixed for {with child for two hundred and seventy or two hundred and seventy-four days, it followed that the nativity of John was fixed for the 24th of June. Such was Christmas-day, which was regulated by the origin of St. John's day, and of

it.

Fourthly-it was supposed that there ception of John the Baptist and that of were six entire months between the conJesus; although the angel simply tells Mary, that Elizabeth was then in the sixth month of her pregnancy; consequently, the conception of Jesus was fixed various suppositions it was concluded, for the 25th of March; and from these that Jesus must have been born on the 25th of December, precisely nine months after his conception.

these arrangements. It is not one of the There are many wonderful things in least worthy of admiration, that the four cardinal points of the year-the equinoxes and the solstices, as they were then fixed

were marked by the conceptions and births of John the Baptist and Jesus. of remark, that the solstice when Jesus But it is yet more marvellous and worthy was born, is that at which the days begin the Baptist came into the world, was the to increase; while that on which John period at which they begin to shorten. The holy forerunner had intimated this in a very mystical manner, when speaking of