We are well aware of the obligations we owe to God, our Creator and Lord. We reject the enjoyment of none of his gifts; we seek only to preserve the requisite moderation, and to avoid abuses. We do not live in this world without participating in your markets, your baths, your public houses, your workshops, your auctions, and everything which pertains to the commerce of life. We engage with you in navigation, in military service, in agriculture, in trade. We engage with you in manufactures, and devote our labor to your benefit."

2. OF THEIR DRESS AND FURNITURE.

Nothing may appear more purely a matter of indifference, than the choice of the fashion and color of dress; and yet, in the circumstances of the primitive Christians, articles of that nature did acquire such an importance in their eyes, that they gradually fell into a style of clothing peculiar to themselves. Not that they affected any singu larities in their personal appearance-for their habiliments were made and worn in the ordinary fashion of the time and place, and Christians, whether they were found in the high, the middle, or the lower ranks, were accustomed to equip themselves in a manner suitable to the decencies of the state or profession to which they belonged. But, looking to the moral influence of dress, desirous of avoiding everything that might minister to vanity, or lead the wearer to forget, in attending to the outward man, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, they studiously rejected all finery as unbecoming the humility of their character, and confined themselves to a suit of apparel, remarkable not so much for the plainness of the material, as for the absence of all superfluous ornament. Everything gaudy or sumptuous, that partook of the costly stuffs, or the crimsoned dyes that suited the luxurious taste of the times, was discountenanced by the spiritually minded followers of Christ; and, though many of them were entitled by birth or otherwise to appear in the flowing folds of the graceful toga, yet, even that favorite garb, while it was retained for the valuable privileges it conferred, was looked upon as too gay and splendid for ordinary use, and was by most, if not by all Christians, laid aside for the common pallium or cloak, to which the preference was given on account of the air of greater modesty and gravity that was supposed to belong to it. Moreover, among the Christians of the

East, the custom early prevailed of wearing garments of no other color than white,-in order that they might carry about with them a perpetual memorial of the purity of character that became their profession; and there were others in various parts of the world, who thought it their duty to carry the imitation of Christ to the extent of wearing the meanest and most common attire of one in the form of a servant. But neither of these extravagances met with very general countenance; and the greater part contented themselves with a dress, free from all approach to gaudiness and pomp, betraying no symptoms of an anxious and elaborate decoration of the person, and conspicuous only for its neat and cleanly appearance.

The same simplicity and plainness reigned throughout the domestic establishment of the Christians. Most of the primitive disciples, indeed, were in circumstances that offered no temptations to indulge in the splendor or variety of ornamental furniture. Their inventory of goods embraced only a few simple articles of use, which their personal and family wants required, and it may be supposed, therefore, that there was nothing remarkable in the absence from their houses, of all traces of pomp and elegance, which they neither possessed the means, nor entertained the hope of acquiring. But even those of their number, who were persons of rank and opulence, amply provided with resources to gratify a taste for ornament, chose to content themselves with such things as were recommended by their utility rather than their elegance, and calculated to answer the purposes of necessity and comfort, rather than to gratify the lust of the eye and the pride of life. Seats and cabinets, finished with the costly veneering of tortoise-shell, and couches ornamented with the rich embroideries of Babylon ;-vessels of gold and silver, the numberless statues and other graceful accompaniments, of all sizes and forms, which adorned the chambers, the porticoes, and gardens of the rich, and indicated the epicurean taste that distinguished the age, disappeared from the houses of the Christians as inconsistent with a humble and mortified life; and however refined and exquisite the taste which, through education and the habits of society, any of them had acquired, they learned to subject it to the higher principle of denying themselves to everything that tended too much to captivate the senses, and increase their love to a world, the fashion whereof they thought was soon to pass away. This indiscriminate rejection of the elegancies of life, has frequently exposed the memory of the primitive

Christians to the sneer of the infidel, and the unmeasured indignation of the enthusiastic admirer of the arts; and, perhaps, in some instances, there may be a foundation for the charge, that they manifested an uncalled-for severity in their too great and unqualified contempt of pleasures, which become sinful only when indulged to a criminal excess. But to a people on whose minds the doctrines of Christianity had burst with all the force and vividness of a new and important discovery, and among whom the impression almost universally prevailed, that the years of the world were about to close, it was natural to regard with jealousy and treat with neglect all the forms of earthly pomp and beauty, that tended to supplant their desires for the objects and glories of that better world on which their hearts were fixed. Although the indifference and superiority to the world which Christianity requires, lies solely in the state and affections of the mind, and this spiritual habit may be cultivated in the most opposite circumstances of affluence or poverty, it was natural that the Christians, in the first ardor of their faith and hope, should overlook this distinction, and consider that their safety consisted in the complete abandonment of luxuries and pleasures, the thought of which was so ready to come in competition with concern for their souls.

3. OF THEIR Diet and mode of taking their Meals.

The tables of the primitive Christians were distinguished by the greatest frugality and temperance. Their grand principle was to eat and drink in order to satisfy the cravings of nature, and invigo rate their bodies for a renewal of their necessary labors; and while, on the one hand, they knew nothing of the austere and painful abstinence, which after-ages of ignorance and superstition came to practise and extol as highly meritorious, they were equally careful, on the other hand, to check the indulgence of a nice and fastidious taste in the gratification of the palate. There was nothing, indeed, which they seem to have been more solicitous to avoid than any imitation of the excessive luxury and epicurean habits of their contemporaries; and justly accounting all excess, whether in eating or in drinking, as incompatible with the maintenance of purity, and attention to spiritual duties, they inflexibly adhered to the rule of abstaining from everything that tended to inflame the passions, or to engen

der any hankering after the pleasures of sense. On no species of food did they lay an interdict, except on things strangled, and on blood, according to the council of the apostles, which, for many ages, continued in force among the Christians,-and such high seasoned viands as were heating to the frame. Those of the East, indeed, who, living in a warmer climate, were always distinguished by their habits of austerity and abstinence beyond Christians in other places, preferred the flesh of fish or fowl to the grosser and more succulent flesh of quadrupeds. Many of them even lived wholly on a diet consisting of preparations of milk, or of vegetables, or such light fruit as figs and dates. Wine was freely admitted to the tables of the primitive Christians-their notions of propriety, however, forbidding the use of it to women and young people. But even by the other sex it was drank sparingly; and though chiefly the weak wine of the country, was always, according to the practice of the ancients, diluted with water. To have continued long indulging in such a luxury, or to have been discovered smelling the flavor of the winecup,-to have made sumptuous preparations for the table,-to have betrayed much anxiety about the cookery, or produced a great variety of viands and spicery at their entertainments, would, in those early days of Christianity, have brought discredit, if not ruin, on the religious character of the individual. And yet there were no austerities then in vogue among the Christians. Looking upon all the creatures of God as good for food, they deemed themselves at perfect liberty to make use of them as suited their convenience and their taste, at such times and in such a measure as temper, constitution, or age, required; and they never dreamed of imposing any limits to the enjoyment of the comforts of life, beyond what reason and religion prescribed. But justly accounting an ill regulated and luxurious appetite as the source of innumerable evils, and placing their highest ambition and pleasure in the attainment of spiritual excellence, they practised the greatest abstemiousness, confining themselves to the plainest and simplest fare; in many instances taking only one meal, in none more than two a-day, and then never carrying their indulgence in the pleasures of the table further than that temperate use of them which was necessary to repair the bodily vigor, and which left the mind free and ready, as occasion offered, to engage in prayer or other exercises of religion. The object they proposed to themselves by the practice of such singular moderation

was that of mortifying the senses, and enabling them to wield with a firmer hand the reins of discipline over the motions and appetites of their corrupt nature; and that they entertained not the most distant idea of making a vain and Pharisaic parade of their abstinence, or were accustomed to regard it in no other light than as simply a means of promoting the great end of their moral and religious improvement, is evident from the following, out of innumerable anecdotes, by which we might illustrate this branch of their customs. Among the martyrs that fell during the violent persecution of the Christians at Lyons, was a young man of the name of Alcibiades, distinguished for the exalted piety of his character, and who had for years accustomed himself to a small and sordid diet. When thrown into the dungeons, he continued the same habits of living, which, though long custom had rendered them easy to himself, gave offence, it seems, to several of his fellow-prisoners, who found it impossible to conform to his standard of abstinence. At length one of the confessors, undertaking seriously to remonstrate with him on the impropriety of refusing to enjoy the gifts of a bountiful Providence, and thereby creating jealousy in the minds of others, Alcibiades listened in a christian spirit to the friendly admonition, and from that moment, laying aside all singularity, indiscriminately partook of whatever was provided for himself and his brethren in distress. Thus admirably did the primitive Christians observe the golden mean, by avoiding equally the extremes of sordid penury and luxurious gratification of the senses. Their frugal diet acquired a relish from their previous labors; and while they never denied to themselves any of the good things of life, as far as was consistent with the ends of sobriety and religion, they considered it their duty always to keep within the bounds of that "temperance which is a fruit of the Spirit."

The manner in which they conducted their repasts was itself an effectual preservative of temperance, while, at the same time, it was eminently characteristic of the piety and spirituality of the primitive age. When dinner had been served, and the family had taken their seats at the table, the master of the household, with a grave and solemn voice, and in a prayer of considerable length, acknowledged their dependence on the care of their common Father, expressed their gratitude for the past tokens of his bounty, and invoked him to bless, for their health and comfort, the provisions of which