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of no mean capacity for effecting his purpose, was most strenuous in this work". But the disgraceful term of "traitors," imposed by the Christians themselves on those of their timid brethren who betrayed the sacred deposit of the word of God, diffused greater terror than the threat of martyrdom denounced by the Pagan prince, and his object was defeated'.

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The order of the three kinds of persecution to which Christianity was subjected by this Emperor is accurately arranged by Joseph Scaliger. "Nam edictum Diocletiani "de tradendis codicibus prius est ecclesiarum eversione. "Eversio ecclesiarum prior cæde martyrum. Felix Africanus episcopus et socii ejus supplicio in Campaniâ affecti ❝ideo, quod CODICES DEIFICOS, id est Sacram Scripturam, "tradere noluissent." The first persecution of this reign was raised for guarding the sacred books. Gibbon allows that at the time of this persecution (which may be assumed as occurring A.D. 301,)" The copies as well as the ver"sions of Scripture were so multiplied in the empire, that "the most severe inquisition could no longer be attended "with any fatal consequences t.'

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"Id quidem certissimum est, a Diocletiano sacros "libros Novi Testamenti studiose conquisitos et combustos "fuisse, adeo ut qui libros tradere negarent martyrio affice

Scaligeri de Emendatione Temporum Proleg. p. xviii.
Vol. ii. p. 616.

Now whoever considers how many noble writings of antiquity have been irrecoverably lost in the mere lapse of time, and amidst the revolutions of the world, and observes further, that in addition to these natural causes, still operative, the most active malice of man, aided by unbounded power, has not been able to effect any material change in the sacred writings, much less to destroy them, but that they remain as they first fell from the hands of their authors, cannot, I should think, but perceive the finger of God in a preservation so unexampled.

It is clear, then, that the Gospel according to St. Matthew was written by him whose name it bears, and that it has descended to our hands essentially as it left his; for we can trace its identity down the stream of time from the era of its publication to the present period. You have heard what was

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rentur,qui vero traderent traditores à primis Christianis "dicerentur *; sed quo magis tyrannus in sacras paginas "grassabatur, eo sanctius eædem a Christianis servaban"tur t."

* Augustinus, lib. vii. de Bapt. contra Donat. c. 2.

† Pritii Introductio, cap. xii. edit. Hoffman.

the original occupation of the writer, and may readily conjecture what were his natural means of acquiring knowledge. I turn to the work of this publican, and there I find a discourse attributed by him to a mysterious and holy person on the resurrection of the dead, and on a day of judgment and final retribution in a future world. I read the following words:

"When the Son of Man shall come in "His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne "of His glory, and before Him shall be ga

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thered all nations: and He shall separate "them one from another, as a shepherd di"videth his sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but "the goats on the left. Then shall the

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King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit "the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then shall He say "also unto them on the left hand, Depart "from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,

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prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall go away into everlasting

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punishment, but the righteous into life eternal *."

What sages and philosophers, then, had never been able to discover, or to evince with certainty, however they might suspect the fact, I find here declared in the writings of an humble collector of taxes, born and living in an obscure nook of the Roman empire. Whence hath this man this knowledge, I naturally ask, but from above? My conscience tells me that I am a responsible being, that I am accountable for my actions; and in this man's brief but important work I have the day of account announced and described. But conscience may deceive, and enthusiasm may rave, of what will never take place. I refer, therefore, to another passage in the same work, and I find a prediction uttered, and the accomplishment following.

Attend to this passage: "And Jesus went "out and departed from the temple; and "His disciples came to Him to show Him "the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said

k St. Matt. xxv. 31 46.

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"unto them. See ye not all these things? verily, I say unto you, there shall not be " left here one stone upon another, that shall "not be thrown down." "O Jerusalem, "Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, "and stonest them which are sent unto thee, "how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her "chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold house is left unto you desolate "."

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This prophecy was consigned to writing, and left behind him by St. Matthew, whilst the city of Jerusalem was still flourishing, and the temple, as you have heard, of such grandeur and magnificence as to excite the pride of the Hebrews; for neither this evangelist nor his Divine Master lived to see the prophecy fulfilled. But did the accomplishment really follow the prediction when both He who uttered it and he who consigned it to writing had been for years dead? I refer to a native writer, contemporary with the fall of Jerusalem, and I read in his work such an

St. Matt. xxiv. 1, 2.

m St. Matt. xxiii. 37, 38.

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