ORIGIN OP MONACHISM. 



phyfics, aftronomy, and poetry, after the principles 

 laid down by Pythagoras. 



The chriftian religion was brought into JEgypt by 

 the evangelift Mark. He (owed the feed of his gofpel 

 in Alexandria, where it yielded aegyptian fruit. That 

 mankind fhould live ufefully to each other in fbciety 

 Was the gtand purpofe of Jefus in his divine religion ; 

 the way to the fummit of moral perfection lay accord- 

 ing to his doctrine, in a faithful perfeverance in focjal 

 virtue. But this feemed infufficient to the chriftians 

 of JEgypt. Determined in all things to go farther 

 than Chrifl:, they looked down with difdain on his 

 fovereign ideal of moral perfection, and refolved to fur- 

 pafs it. They are even accufed by an eminent hiflorian 

 of the church, with glorying in nothing fo much, as 

 m having found out the art of enriching a religion, 

 which they even held for divine, with inventions o£ 

 their own, and in riling fuperior to the precepts it en- 

 joined; that accordingly they ftruck into a path, which 

 by new and rugged turnings* carried them far from 

 the high-road of vice, and therefore led them more 

 furely to their aim than the path pointed but by that 

 delegate of God. They forgot all the duties towards 

 human fociety ; the inftitutions of the Creator were 

 overthrown, and the bounties of he'aven ungratefully 

 defpifed. From the whole fpirit of thofe times, from 

 the prevalent way of thinking, and from all the con- 

 temporary hifiorians, it is plainly apparent that the 

 Egyptian chrifdans thought themf elves wifer than the 

 godlike founder of the religion they profeffed. 



So much the more approbation did they find among 

 the mafs of this indolent and atrabilious race, who had 



vol. it* M _ already 



