by the Phoenicians, they say there are springs that are shown there, at the foot of the mountain called Panius, from which the Jordan rises; and that on a certain festival day there was usually a victim thrown into these, and that this, by the power of the dæmon, in some wonderful manner entirely disappeared. The thing was a famous wonder to all that were there to see it. Astyrius happening to be once present at these rites, and seeing the multitude astonished at the affair, pitied their delusion. Then raising his eyes to heaven, he implored the God over all through Christ, to refute this seducing dæmon, and to restrain the delusion of the people. As soon as he prayed, it is said that the victim floated on the stream, and that thus this miracle vanished, no wonder ever more occurring in this place.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE STATUE ERECTED BY THE WOMAN HAVING AN HEMORRHAGE.

But as we have mentioned this city, I do not think it right to pass by a narrative that deserves to be recorded for posterity. They say that the woman who had an issue of blood, mentioned by the evangelists, and who obtained deliverance from her affliction by our Saviour, was a native of this place, and that her house is shown in the city, and the wonderful monuments of our Saviour's benefit to her are still remaining. At the gates of her house, on an elevated stone, stands a brazen image of a woman on her bended knee, with her hands stretched out before her like one entreating. Opposite to this there is another image of a man, erect, of the same materials, decently clad in a mantle (diλoida,) and stretching out his hand to the woman. Before her feet, and on the same pedestal, there is a certain strange plant growing, which rising as high as the hem of the brazen garment, is a kind of antidote to all kinds of diseases. This statue, they say, is a statue of Jesus Christ, and it has remained even until our times; so that we ourselves

saw it whilst tarrying in that city. Nor is it to be wondered at, that those of the Gentiles who were anciently benefited by our Saviour, should have done these things, since we have also seen representations of the apostles Peter and Paul, and of Christ himself, still preserved in paintings; as it is probable that, according to a practice among the Gentiles, the ancients were accustomed to pay this kind of honour indiscriminately to those who were saviours to them.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE EPISCOPAL SEAT OF JAMES.

JAMES being the first that received the dignity of the episcopate at Jerusalem, from our Saviour himself, as the sacred Scriptures show that he was generally called the brother of Christ; this See, which has been preserved until the present times, has ever been held in veneration by the brethren that have followed in the succession there, in which they have sufficiently shown what reverence both the ancients and those of our own times exhibited, and still exhibit, towards holy men on account of their piety. But enough of this.

CHAPTER XX.

THE EPISTLES OF DIONYSIUS, ON FESTIVALS, IN WHICH HE GIVES THE CANON ON THE PASSOVER.

BESIDES these epistles, the same Dionysius, about this time also composed others, called his Festival Epistles, in which he discourses much in praise of the festival of the Passover. One of these he addressed to Flavius, another to Domitius and Didymus, in which also he gives the canon for eight years, showing that it is not proper to observe the paschal festival before the vernal equinox was past. Beside these, he composed another epistle, addressed to his compresbyters at Alexandria. Also, to several others, and these during the prevalence of the persecution.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE EVENTS THAT OCCURRED AT ALEXANDRIA.

PEACE having been scarcely established, he returned, indeed, to Alexandria; but as sedition and war again broke out, so that it was impossible for him to superintend all the brethren then divided into different parties, he again addressed them by letter at the passover, as if he were still an exile from Alexandria. He also wrote, after this, another paschal letter to Hierax, a bishop of Egypt, in which he makes mention of the sedition then prevailing at Alexandria, as follows: "But what cause of wonder is there, if it be difficult for me also to address epistles to those that are so very remote, when I am at a loss to consult for my own life, or to reason with myself. For, indeed, I have great need to send epistolary addresses to those who are as my own bowels, my associates and dearest brethren and members of the same church. But how I shall send these I cannot devise. For it would be more easy for any one, I would not say to go beyond the limits of the province, but even to travel from east to west, than to go from Alexandria to Alexandria itself. For the very heart of the city is more desolate and impassable than that vast and trackless desert which the Israelites traversed in two generations, and our smooth and tranquil harbours have become like that sea which opened and arose like walls on both sides, enabling them to drive through, and in whose highway the Egyptians were overwhelmed. For often they appear like the Red Sea, from the frequent slaughters committed in them; but the river which washes the city, has sometimes appeared more dry than the parched desert, and more exhausting than that in which Israel was so overcome with thirst on their journey that they exclaimed against Moses, and the water flowed for them from the broken rock, by the power of Him who alone doeth wondrous works. Sometimes, also, it has so overflowed, that it has inun

dated all the country round; the roads and the fields seeming to threaten that flood of waters which happened in the days of Noah. It also flows always polluted with blood and slaughter, and the constant drowning of men, such as it formerly was, when, before Pharaoh, it was changed by Moses into blood and putrid matter. And what other purification could be applied to water, which itself purifies all? Could that vast and impassable ocean ever wash away this bitter sea? or could that great river itself, which flowed from Eden, though it poured the four heads into which it was divided, into one Gihon, wash away this filth? When will this air, corrupted as it is by the noxious exhalations every where rising, become pure and serene? For there are such vapours from the earth, and such storms from the sea-breezes, from the rivers and mists coming from the harbours, that make it appear as if we should have for dew, the gore of those dead bodies that are putrefying in all the elements around us.

"Then, and notwithstanding all this, men wonder, and are at a loss to know whence come the constant plagues; whence these malignant diseases; whence those varied infections; whence all that immense destruction of human lives; and wherefore it is, that this mighty city no longer cherishes within it such a number of inhabitants, from speechless children to the aged and decrepid, as it formerly had of those whom it could pronounce firm and vigorous in years. Those of forty years and up to seventy, were so much the more numerous once, that their number cannot now be made up, if even those from fourteen to eighty were inserted and enrolled among the receivers of the public grain. And those who in appearance are but the youngest, are now as of an age with those formerly the oldest. And yet, though they constantly see the human race diminishing, and constantly wasting away, in the very midst of this increasing destruction, and this annihilation, they are not alarmed."

CHAPTER XXII.

THE PESTILENCE WHICH THEN PREVAILED.

THE pestilence, after these things, succeeding the war, and the festival being at hand, he again addresses the brethren in epistles; in which he shows the great calamities attending this affliction, as follows: "To other men, indeed, the present would not appear a fit season for a festival. Neither is this, nor any other time a festival for them—not to speak of sorrowful times, but even of those which a cheerful person might deem joyous. Now all things are filled with tears, all are mourning, and by reason of the multitudes already dead, and still dying, groans are daily resounding throughout the city. For as it is written respecting the firstborn of Egypt, thus now, also, a great lamentation has arisen, for there is not a house in which there is not one dead. And I wish this were all. Many and horrible calamities have preceded this. First they expelled us from the city, but we in exile and persecuted, still celebrated the festival; and every place, marked by some particular affliction, was still a spot distinguished by our solemnities; the open field, the desert, the ship, the inn, the prison. But the most joyous festival of all was celebrated by those perfect martyrs who are now feasting in the heavens.

"After this, war and famine succeeded, which indeed we endured with the heathen, but beside bearing alone those miseries with which they afflicted us, we also experienced the effects of those which they inflicted on themselves. Again we rejoiced in the peace of Christ, which he gave to us alone, and when both we and they obtained a very short respite, then we were assailed by this pestilence, a calamity more terrific to them than any other terror, and more afflictive than any other affliction, and which, as one of their own historians has said, was of itself alone beyond all hope. To us, however, it

The idea is, that the wicked can never be happy.

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