* Jerome, in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, says, that “The Church of Christ was not gathered from the Academy, or the Lyceum, but from the lowest of the people.” [Vili Plebecula.] And Coecilius, in Minutius Felix, says, that the Christian assemblies were made up “de ultima faece collectis, imperitioribus, et mulieribus credulis sexus suae facilitate labentibus,” i. e. “that they consisted of the lowest of the mob, simple and unlearned, men, and credulous women.”

The president of a province is introduced, by Prudentius as thus addressing a martyr:—­“Tu qui Doctor, ait, seris novellum Commenti genus, ut Leves Puellae, Lucos destituunt, Jovem relinquant; Damnes, si sapias, anile dogma.”

The Christian Fathers confess, and glory in it, that the greater part of their congregations consisted of women and children, slaves, beggars, and vagabonds.

The Jewish Christians were, as appears evidently from the New Testament, exceedingly poor, and therefore there is frequent mention made of contributions for “the poor Saints at Jerusalem.”  From thence it was that the Jewish Christians got the name of Ebionites, i. e.  Poor.  The Jewish Christian Church consisted of the dregs of the Jewish people, simple and ignorant men, Samaritans, &c.  No person in Judea of eminence, or learning, appears to have joined the sect of the Nazarenes, except Paul; after the destruction of Jerusalem they gradually dwindled in number, and became extinct.—­E.

* I will here lay before the reader the arguments advanced by the Mahometans in behalf of the miracles of their prophet, extracted from the learned Reland’s account of Mehometanism.  They say that—­“the miracles of Mahomet and his followers have been recorded in innumerable volumes of the most famous, learned, pious, and subtle Doctors of the Mahometan Faith, who let nothing pass without the strictest and severest examination, and whose tradition, therefore, is unexceptionable among them; that they were known throughout all the regions of Arabia, and transmitted by common and universal tradition from father to son, from generation to generation.  That the books of Interpreters and Commentators on the Koran, the books of Historians, especially such as give an account of Mahomet’s life and actions, the books of annalists and lawyers, the books of mathematicians and philosophers, and, last of all, the books of both Jews and Christians concerning Mahomet, are full of his miracles.  That if the authority of so many great and wise doctors be denied, then, for their part, they cannot see but that a universal scepticism as to all other accounts of miracles must obtain among people of all persuasions.  For authority being the only proof of facts done out of our time, or out of our sight, if that be denied, there is no way to come to the certainty of any such, without immediate inspiration; and all accounts of matters recorded in history, must be doubtful and precarious.”