personal direction; and
the Thebias, as well as certain spots in Arabia, are reported to have
been literally crowded with solitaries. Nearly a hundred thousand of all
classes, it is said, were at one time to be found in Egypt.... Although
the enthusiasm might be at a lower ebb in one country than in another,
it _actually affected the church universal_, so far as the extant
materials of ecclesiastical history enables us to trace its rise and
progress.... The more rigid and heroic of the Christian anchorets
dispensed with all clothing except a rug, or a few palm leaves round the
loins. Most of them abstained from the use of water for ablution; nor
did they usually wash or change the garments they had once put on; thus
_St. Anthony_ [the founder of this order] bequeathed to Athanasius a
skin in which his sacred person had been wrapped for half a century.
They also allowed their beards and nails to grow, and sometimes became
so hirsute, as to be actually mistaken for hyaenas or bears." Hist. of
Romanism, pp. 88, 89. Reader, what was the condition of the so-called
church in A.D. 270 that could make the introduction of such abominations
possible? Although many more historical quotations on this point might
be added, I will conclude with the two following extracts from Joseph
Milner.

"We shall, for the present, leave Anthony propagating the monastic
dispositions, and extending its influence not only into the next
century, but for many ages after, and conclude this view of the state of
the _third century_, with expressing our regret that the faith and love
of the gospel received toward the close of it a dreadful blow from the
encouragement of this unchristian practise." Cen. III, Chap. 20.

"Moral, and philosophical, and monastic instructions will not effect for
men what is to be expected from evangelical doctrine. And if the faith
of Christ was so much declined (and its decayed state _ought to be dated
from about the year 270_), we need not wonder that such scenes as
Eusebius hints at without any circumstantial details took place in the
Christian world." Cent. IV, Chap. 1.

After reading the foregoing statements of historians, the reader will, I
believe, agree with me that the year 270 is a consistent date to mark
the time when the visible external church was wholly given over to the
profane multitude of uncircumcised, idolatrous Gentiles to tread under
foot. Measuring forward the allotted period of twelve hundred and sixty