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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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" ¦ Tbfc vmrshipers of &et&pi * n $ rt the Christiana ,, and even the f ^ ntiffa of their religion worship Serapis , There is not a chief of a synagogue tor priest of the Christiana , who is not either sin asteologfcr , soothsayer o # empiric . Even tke patriarch of thtf Jews , when he comes iato Egypt , is constrained to offer incense to Christ
or to Serapis . They are a most inconsiderate , seditious race . The city of Alexandria is rich and powerful , with a great trade producing plenty . Nobody is
idle there . Some blow glass ; others make paper . Many are employed in the linen manufacture and ready-made garments . All follow some trade or other , however infirm in hands or feet , or even blind .
"AH of them , whether Jews , or Christians , acknowledge but one God ; that is , their . interest . I wish to nay goul that this city ( the first in Egypt for its grandeur and riches ) had better inhabitants . " I have granted them all that they desired . ; 1 have restored to them
their ancient privileges , yet they have treated me with contempt in refusing honours to my adopted son Verua , and you know what , they have said of Antoninus . ; All the punishment I wish them , is to feed themselves with the chickens hatched with their own filthy dung / ' &c . &c .
This is a heavy charge brought against the early jChristians of Alex * audria , by so great and sensible a man as the Emperor Adrian , and must have been founded on some known facts , and requires , for the credit of / Chris * . tianity , that this odious accusation should be repelled .
This great . Emperor travelling with great state throughout the whole Rowan Empire , was received with great state ana pomp every where ; sacrifices and divine honours were paid him , and all the pompous rites of Heathen superstition . Alexandria was principally occupied by Jews and Christians , who could
not conscientiously join in these impious ceremonies , nor be present on such occasions . Neither coiilcj they at other times frequent the public theatres , nor attend at thVconsecra . tions ** f images ^ and the imperi al standards . They , therefore , devoted their whole attention to trade and coin ^
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meree , an * t incurring ajiy , gmap expenses in their \ yav of / living , t l ^ y grew I very rich , which often Ijrotignj ; persecution ^ on them , and confiscation of property , as was the case with the Jews in England under o \* r Plantagenet princes .
Adrian , therefore , not , receivings those attentions and divine honours from them , of which he was xery fond * it created a great disgust towards them . r W | fy he calls them worshipers of Serapis is , that the god Serapis had a
most pompous temple dedicated to him in that quarter df the city where it stood , which was called from it , the ^ erapian * Here stood the famous image of that god of the merchants , brought hither ixorn Sinope , one of the greatest commercial cities in the tiriie
of the Ptolemies , one of whom seeing the high respect paid to it , thought the obtaining of this image to adorn his growing city , would be the surest way to promote its wealth and prosperity ; for this deity was esteemed as the
patron of trade and commerce , and had temples erected to him in after times in most of the principal seaports to which the merchants traded * A Very beautiful temple to this deity stands at this time at Puteoli , how PuzzuolL
near Naples , though in rran » . Besides , the military oath was full of Iddlatry , and the worshiping of the standard and ensigns of war , and the attendant pompous sacrificed , were not to be dispensed vvith by the soldiery , which is the reason so few Christians cinild become soldiers *
Those who refused to sacrifice to the Emperor , were by ihe Roman laws forbid to hold any dignity in the state , as appears by the Pandects , and from this Roman law our Test Act is supposed to have been adopted * Herodian , in his history of his own
times , mentions the entrance of the Emperor Caracalla into Alexandria : " As soon as he entered the city with his whole ariBy , he went first to the great Temple , where he sacrificed
many hecatombs , and loaded the altars with incense . Thence he proceeded to Alexander * a » monument , WhJerd 1 he pulled off his purple robe , hi * diamond rings , his belt studded With precious stones , and all his valuable articles , which he offers at the herVs shrine . " The Heathen inhabitants of Alex
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The Emperorddritm' * Letter en the Christians of ^ Alexandria . $ Q $
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1822, page 605, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2517/page/21/
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