more extraordinary passage. St. Peter himself, speaking of the Old Testament, expresses himself thus

"The written law contains certain false things against the law of God, the Creator of heaven and earth: the devil has done this, for good reasons; it has also come to pass through the judgments of God, in order to discover such as would listen with pleasure to what is written against him," &c. &c.

In the sixth homily, St. Clement meets with Appian, the same who had written against the Jews in the time of Tiberius. He tells Appian that he is in love with an Egyptian woman, and begs that he will write a letter in his name to his pretended mistress, to convince her, by the example of all the gods, that love is a duty. Appian writes the letter, and St. Clement answers it in the name of his pretended mistress; after which they dispute on the nature of the gods.

XXV.

Two Epistles of St. Clement to the Corinthians. It hardly seems just to have ranked these epistles among the apocryphal writings. Some of the learned may have declined to recognise them because they speak of "the Phoenix of Arabia, which lives five hundred years, and burns itself in Egypt in the city of Heliopolis." But there is nothing extraordinary in St. Clement's having believed this fable which so many others believed, nor in his having written letters to the Corinthians.

It is known that there was at that time a great dispute between the church of Corinth and that of Rome. The church of Corinth, which declared itself to have been founded the first, was governed in common: there was scarcely any distinction between the priests and the seculars, still less between the priests and the bishop; all alike had a deliberative voice; so, at least, several of the learned assert. St. Clement says to the Corinthians in his first epistle-"You have laid the first foundations of sedition; be subject to your priests, correct yourselves by penance, bend the knees of your

hearts, learn to obey." It is not at all astonishing that a bishop of Rome should use these expressions.

In the second Epistle, we again find that answer of Jesus Christ, on being asked when his kingdom of heaven should come-"When two shall make one, when that which is without shall be within, when the male shall be female, when there shall be neither male nor female."

XXVI.

Letter from St. Ignatius the Martyr to the Virgin Mary, and the Virgin's Answer to St. Ignatius:"To Mary the Mother of Christ, her devoted Ignatius. "You should console me, a neophyte, and a disciple of your John. I have heard several wonderful things of your Jesus, at which I have been much astonished. I desire with all my heart to be informed of them by you, who always lived in familiarity with him, and knew all his secrets. Fare you well. Comfort the neophytes, who are with me from you and through you. Amen."

"The Holy Virgin's Answer to her dear Disciple Ignatius.

"The humble servant of Jesus Christ.

"All the things which you have learned from John are true believe in them; persevere in your belief; keep your vow of Christianity. I will come and see you with John, you and those who are with you. Be firm in the faith: act like a man; let not severity and persecution disturb you; but let your spirit be strengthened and exalted in God your Saviour. Amen."

It is asserted that these letters were written in the year 116 of the Christian era, but they are not therefore the less false and absurd. They would even have been an insult to our holy religion, had they not been written in a spirit of simplicity, which renders every thing pardonable.

XXVII.

Fragments of the Apostles.-We find in them this passage" Paul, a man of short stature, with an aquiline nose and an angelic face, instructed in

heaven, said to Plantilla, of Rome, before he died, 'Adieu, Plantilla, thou little plant of eternal salvation; know thy own nobility; thou art whiter than snow; thou art registered among the soldiers of Christ; thou art an heiress to the kingdom of heaven."" This was not worthy to be refuted.

XXVIII.

Eleven Apocalypses, which are attributed to the patriarchs and prophets, to St. Peter, Cerinthus, St. Thomas, St. Stephen the first martyr, two to St. John, differing from the canonical one, and three to St. Paul. All these apocalypses have been eclipsed by that of St. John.

XXIX.

The Visions, Precepts, and Similitudes of Hermas. Hermas seems to have lived about the close of the first century. They who regard his book as apocryphal, are nevertheless obliged to do justice to his morality. He begins by saying, that his foster-father had sold a young woman at Rome. Hermas recognised this young woman after the lapse of several years, and loved her, he says, as if she had been his sister. He one day saw her bathing in the Tiber: he stretched forth his hand, drew her out of the river, and said in his heart, "How happy should I be, if I had a wife like her in beauty and in manners." Immediately the heavens opened; and he all at once beheld this same wife, who made him a curtsey from above, and said, "Good morning, Hermas."

This wife was the Christian Church; she gave him much good advice.

A year after, the spirit transported him to the same place where he had seen this beauty, who nevertheless was old; but she was fresh in her age, and was old only because she had been created from the beginning of the world, and the world had been made for her. The Book of Precepts contains fewer allegories; but that of similitudes contains many.

"One day," says Hermas, "when I was fasting and was seated on a hill, giving thanks to God for all that he had done for me, a shepherd came, sat down beside

6

me, and said, 'Why have you come here so early?" Because, I am going through the stations,' answered I. What is a station?' asked the shepherd. It is a fast.'—' And what is this fast?' It is my custom.'— "Ah!' replied the shepherd, you know not what it is to fast; all this is of no avail before God. I will teach you that which is true fasting and pleasing to the Divinity. Your fasting has nothing to do with justice and virtue. Serve God with a pure heart; keep his commandments: admit into your heart no guilty desires. If you have always the fear of God before your eyes--if you abstain from all evil, that will be true fasting, that will be the great fast which is acceptable to God.'"

*

-

This philosophical and sublime piety is one of the most singular monuments of the first century. But it is somewhat strange that, at the end of the similitudes, the shepherd gives him very good-natured maidens valde affabiles, to take care of his house, and declares to him that he cannot fulfil God's commandments without these maidens, who, it is plain, typify the virtues.

This list would become immense if we were to enter into every detail. We will carry it no further, but conclude with the Sibyls.

XXX.

The Sibyls. What is most apocryphal in the primitive church is, the prodigious number of verses in favour of the Christian religion attributed to the ancient sibyls. Diodorus Siculust knew of only one, who was taken at Thebes by the Epigoni, and placed at Delphos before the Trojan war. Ten sibyls-that is, ten prophetesses, were soon made from this one. She of Cuma had most credit among the Romans, and the sibyl Erythrea among the Greeks.

As all oracles were delivered in verse, none of the sibyls could fail to make verses; and to give them greater authority, they sometimes made them acrostics also. Several Christians, who had not a zeal according

* Book iii. parable 5.

+ Diodorus, book iv.

to knowledge, not only misinterpreted the ancient verses supposed to have been written by the sibyls, but also made some themselves,—and, which is worse, in acrostics, not dreaming that this difficult artifice of acrosticising had no resemblance whatever to the inspiration and enthusiasm of a prophetess. They resolved to support the best of causes by the most awkward fraud. They accordingly made bad Greek verses, the initials of which signified in Greek-JESUS, CHRIST, SON, SAVIOUR; and these verses said, that with five loaves, and two fishes, he should feed five thousand men in the desart, and that with the fragments that remained he should fill twelve baskets.

The millenium, and the New Jerusalem, which Justin had seen in the air for forty nights, were, of course, foretold by the sibyls.

In the fourth century, Lactantius collected almost all the verses attributed to the sibyls, and considered them as convincing proofs. This opinion was so well authorised and so long held, that we still sing hymns, in which the testimony of the sibyls is joined with the predictions of David:

Solvet sæclum in favillà,

Testè David cum Sibylla.

This catalogue of errors and frauds has been carried far enough. A hundred might be repeated-so constantly has the world been composed of deceivers, and of people fond of being deceived. But let us pursue no further so dangerous a research. The elucidation of one great truth is worth more than the discovery of a thousand falsehoods.

Not all these errors-not all the crowd of apocryphal books, have been sufficient to injure the Christian religion, because, as we all know, it is founded upon immutable truths. These truths are supported by a church militant and triumphant, to which God has given the power of teaching and of repressing. several countries, it unites temporal with spiritual authority. Prudence, strength, wealth, are its attributes; and, although it is divided, and its divisions have sometimes stained it with blood, it may be compared

In