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liberty by the same authority by which he had been confined. And then he went abroad again, preaching the gospel, as he had done before, and visiting and confirming the Christian churches in several places. Afterwards, as we have reason to believe, he came to Rome again. And there, in the year 64 or 65, in the persecution of the Christians, ordered by the same emperor, he suffered martyrdom, being beheaded, as a Roman citizen; so bearing his final testimony to the truth of that doctrine, which he had long preached with great zeal and diligence. I now proceed.

The chamberlain and treasurer of "Candace, queen of the Ethiopians," a Jewish proselyte, "who had come up to Jerusalem to worship." Acts viii. 27. His high station, and the great trust reposed in him, are arguments of his ability and fidelity. His journey to Jerusalem indicates his zeal for the religion which he had embraced: and his reading the Jewish sacred scriptures, as he was returning in his chariot, shews his studiousness to understand them. His discourse with Philip, a disciple of Jesus, who drew near to him, manifests inquisitiveness and openness to conviction, which are laudable dispositions. And his conversion to the faith of Jesus is therefore a testimony to the truth of the Christian religion, which cannot be slighted. "Judas and Silas, chief men among the brethren" at Jerusalem; Acts xv.-xviii. and the latter of them, as it seems, a Roman citizen. Aquila and Priscilla, Jews of Pontus, persons of good understanding, and uncommon piety. Timothy, a young man of good understanding at Lystra, who from his childhood had been instructed in the scriptures of the Old Testament, being the son of a Jewess. 2 Tim. i. His mother Eunice, and his grandmother Lois, also were believers. Acts xii. 12. John Mark, an evangelist, son of Mary, a woman of great zeal and courage in the profession of the Christian religion, an inhabitant of Jerusalem, and nephew to Barnabas. Col. iv. 10. Luke, another evangelist, by some thought to be the same as Lucius of Cyrene; Acts xiii. 1. If so, he was a Jew by birth. If he was not that Lucius, yet very probably he was a Jewish proselyte before he became a Christian. With that Lucius of Cyrene is mentioned, in the place just referred to, "Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrach." A person, undoubtedly, of a liberal education.

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Apollos, a Jew of Alexandria, an eloquent or learned man, and “ mighty in the scriptures of the Old Testament. Acts xviii. Crispus and Sosthenes, rulers in the Jewish synagogue at Corinth; 1 Cor. 1, and Zenas, a Jewish lawyer. Tit. iii. 13.

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All these I have reckoned up briefly and imperfectly among the Jewish believers; designedly omitting converts from among the Gentiles. All these Jews, by their faith and profession, bore a testimony to Jesus, well deserving our regard. For they must have acted under as great discouragements as can be conceived. They underwent the keenest reproaches from the unbelieving Jews, their neighbours, for receiving a person as the Messiah; who, instead of working out a great deliverance for their nation, as was generally expected and earnestly desired, had himself undergone an ignominious death. For my own part, I always think of these early Jewish believers with peculiar respect. I am not able to celebrate all the virtues of their willing and steady faith under the many difficulties which they met with. But I am persuaded, that when the Lord Jesus shall come again, he will bestow marks of distinction upon those who extricated themselves out of the snares, in which their close connections with others had involved them. And as And as "they were not ashamed of him, and his words, but confessed his name in the midst of an adulterous and sinful generation, he will not be ashamed of them, but will confess them," and own them for his, "when he shall come in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels." Mar. viii. 38; Mat. x. 32.

For certain, I apprehend, that the faith of the Jewish believers is of greater importance than the unbelief of other Jews in the time of Jesus and his apostles.

• Μαναήντε Ἡρωδε το τετραρχε συντροφος. 'Herodis tetrarchæ collectaneus.' Vulg. At vocabulum σuvrpoçe latius patet, significatque eum, qui a primâ ætate cum altero educatus est,' Grot. in loc.

I say imperfectly.' For I have not rehearsed all the Jewish believers, who are expressly mentioned, and by name. I have omitted several: as Jason, who was so friendly to St. Paul, at Thessalonica, as related, Acts xvii. 5-9. Sopater of Berea, Acts xx. 4. These two seem to be the same who are mentioned again, Rom. xvi. 21, where they appear to have VOL. III.

been the apostle's kinsmen, and therefore must have been
Jews. Aristarchus, a Thessalonian, Acts xx. 4. who is men-
tioned again in the epistle to the Colossians iv. 10, 11, writ-
ten during the apostle's imprisonment at Rome, or near the
end of it, in the year 62. Where St. Paul calls him "his
fellow prisoner;" and reckons him among those " of the
circumcision, who had been his fellow-workers unto the king-
dom of God. Muason of Cyprus, an old disciple; " Acts
xxi. 16. And there are divers others, who may be observed
by attentive readers of the Acts, and St. Paul's Epistles.
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II. What has been hitherto alleged we know from the books of the New Testament. It will be worth while to attend also to the informations of ecclesiastical history.

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There is good reason to believe, that no Christians were involved in the miseries of the last siege of Jerusalem. They are supposed to have left it before the siege began. Some went to Pella, as mentioned by Eusebius, a city on the other side of Jordan. Others might go elsewhere, into Asia, or other remote countries, where they could get a settlement. St. John, as I suppose, left Judea, and went to Ephesus in the year 66, or thereabout, a short time before the war commenced. Some Jews of Jerusalem, and other parts of Judea, might go with him, or follow him afterwards. And, under his direction and assistance, they might procure a comfortable settlement in some places not far from him.

After the war was over in Judea, it is supposed, that the believers, who had retired into the country beyond Jordan, returned to Jerusalem, and formed a church there.

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James, the Lord's brother, who had presided in the church of Jerusalem, died, as we suppose, in the year of Christ 62; who was succeeded by Simeon. In his ecclesiastical history Eusebius placeth his election after the destruction of Jerusalem; but in his Chronicle it is so expressed, as if it had been done immediately after the death of James. That is no very material circumstance: nor are we able to determine which is right, for want of sufficient evidence. By Hegesippus he is said to have been son of Cleophas, brother of Joseph; and therefore was our Lord's cousin-german. But Eusebius mentions that in a doubtful manner. We should therefore, as I apprehend, be cautious of being too particular in our decisions about it. However, Eusebius justly reckons him among the eye and ear-witnesses of the Lord: and according to Hegesippus, whose ecclesiastical history Eusebius had before him, he suffered martyrdom in Trajan's persecution. We therefore, without hesitation, place his death at the year of our Lord 107; where also it is placed by Eusebius in his chronicle. Simeon was then 120 years old. By order of Atticus, president of Syria, he was crucified: he must therefore have been born several years before our Lord; and, supposing him chosen bishop of Jerusalem in the year 62, he presided in that church more than forty years.

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He was succeeded by Justus, a Jew; and, as Eusebius adds, there were then many believers of the circumcision.' • The times of the ensuing successions of bishops at Jerusalem, Eusebius says, he could never learn: but it was said they had sat in the see for a short time only. This he had learned from ancient writers, that to the war in Adrian's time, (about the year 132) there had been fifteen successions, who were all Hebrews by birth, and had held the genuine doctrine of Christ.' Whose names are all put down by him. In this catalogue of fifteen, Eusebius reckons James the first, Simeon the second; after which there follow thirteen more. Why their times were so short we cannot say; there is no reason to think that any of them were taken off by persecution: but possibly they were all in years, seniority being. esteemed a ground of preference. After their defeat by Adrian, the Jews were forbid to come to Jerusalem: from that time the church there consisted of Gentiles, whose first bishop was named Mark.

That there were Jews who believed in Jesus, we are assured even by Celsus the epicurean, who wrote against the Christians about the middle of the second century. In divers parts of his work he personates a Jew: it is likely that he had conversed with divers unbelievers of that nation. He consulted them, that they might assist him in his argument against the Christians,

H. E. 1. 3. cap. 5. p. 75. A. Vid. et Epiph. H. 29. vii. H. 30. n. ii.

b See The Supplement, in this Vol. ch. ix. sect. iii. and ch. xx. sect. vi.

c Credibile est, Judææ Christianos, non tantum Pellæ, ad ortum Jordanis, commoratos esse, sed et per vicinas, immo et remotiores Romani imperii provincias, in quibus tutiores esse poterant, sparsos esse, &c. Cleric. H. E. an. 71. num. i. d See The Supplement to the Credib. in this Vol. chap. ix. sect. iv. e H. E. L. 3. cap. xi.

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1 Jacobus, frater Domini, quem omnes Justum appellabant, a Judæis lapidibus opprimitur;. in cujus thronum Simeon, qui et Simon, secundus assumitur. Chr. p. 161.

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...Της εν Ιεροσολύμοις επισκοπής τον θρόνον Ιεδαίος τις όνομα Ι85ος, μυρίων όσων εκ περιτομης εις τον Χρισον τηνικαύτα πεπιςευκότων εἷς και αυτος ων διαδέχεται. 1. 3. c. 35, p. 106. m L. 4. cap. v.

n Ib. 1. 4. cap. 6. vid. et Chr. p. 167.

and likewise furnish him with scandal against them if they could.

In this manner,' says

Origen, this personated Jew addresseth those who had believed from among the Jews-What ailed you, fellow-citizens, that forsook the law of your country, to follow him, whom we men⚫tioned just now, by whom you have been miserably deceived, leaving us, and going over to another name, and another way of living?"

And Origen, in his books against Celsus, says, that the Messiah had been foretold so long, and by so many, that the whole nation of the Jews were in earnest expectation of his coming; but since the birth of Jesus they have been divided in their opinion; for many of them have believed that Jesus is the person whom the prophets foretold; but others rejected him, despising him because of the meanness of his outward character.'

Irenæus says, there were many of the circumcision who believed in Jesus, who rose from the dead, hearkening to Moses and the prophets, who beforehand preached the coming of the Son of God.'

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Among these Jewish believers there were different sentiments. Origen says, there were two sorts of Ebionites; some who believed Jesus to have been born of a virgin, as we do; 'some who supposed Jesus to be born as other men are.' Origen speaks of both sorts of these men, as fond of the Jewish observances. Afterwards, in the same book against Celsus, he says, that both sorts of the Ebionites, like the Encratites, rejected St. Paul's epistles; nor did they consider him as a wise or good man.

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Eusebius, in his ecclesiastical history, in a chapter entitled Of the Heresy of the Ebionites, speaks to the like purpose. Some,' says he, who are not to be moved by any means from their respect for the Christ of God, are in some respects very infirm. They are called by the 'ancients Ebionites, because they have but a low opinion of Christ, thinking him to be a mere • man, born of Joseph and Mary, honoured for his advancement in virtue; and esteeming the • ritual ordinances of the law necessary to be observed by them, as if they could not be justified by faith in Christ only. Others of them do not deny, that Jesus was born of a virgin by the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless, they do not acknowledge his pre-existence as God the Word: and, like the others, they are fond of the external observances of the law of Moses. They also reject Paul's epistles, and call him an apostate from the law.'

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These two learned ancient authors speak of two sorts of Ebionites, therein, as may be supposed, including those who are sometimes called Nazarenes, and were the descendants of the Jewish believers at Jerusalem.

It may be also here observed by us, that many learned men are now of opinion, that there never was any man named Ebion, the leader of a sect; but that the Ebionites were so called from their low opinion concerning the person of Christ, and their attachment to the external rites of the law of Moses, and that opinion, as I apprehend, is much countenanced by the passages which have been just quoted.

We cannot deny that there were some believers who supposed Jesus to have been born as other men; but I apprehend that the number of these was very small: nor do I recollect any Christian writing, now extant, where that opinion is maintained.

We must also allow that there were some who rejected the apostle Paul, whilst they received

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Εγκρατηται. Ουκ αν εν οἱ μη χρωμενοι των αποςόλῳ, ὡς panagiw Tivi xai σow. Ib. n. 65. p. 274.

Αλλες δε ὁ πονηρος δαίμων της περι τον Χρισον τ8 Θεα διαθέσεως αδυνατων εκσεισαι, θατεραληπτές εύρων, εσφετερίζετο. Εβιωναίος τετες οικείως επεφημίζον οἱ πρωτοι, πτωχως και ταπείνως τα περι το Χρισε δοξάζοντας λιτον μεν γαρ αυτον και κοινον ήγοντο, κατα προκοπήν ήθος αυτό μόνον ανθρωπον δεδικαιωμενον, εξ ανδρός τε κοινωνίας και της Μαριας γεγενημένον

Αλλοι δε παρα τέτοις της αυτής οντες προσηγορίας, εκ παρθενα και το άγιο πνεύματος μη αρνεμένοι γεγονέναι τον κύριον, 8 μην εθ' ὁμοίως και έτοι προϋπαρχειν αυτον θεον λογον οντα και σοφίαν ὁμολογόντες. κ. λ. L. 3. cap. 27. p. 99.

Et Origines, cum duplices facit Ebionæos in disputatione contra Celsum, Ebionæorum nomine abutens, sub priore illa notâ Nazaræos, ut credibile est, describit. Grot. Prol. in Matt. p. 5.

Nota, quod primi apostoli salvatoris literam Sabbati destruunt adversus Ebionitas, qui quum cæteros recipiant apos

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the other apostles: these likewise I suppose to have been few in number. I know no work of any ancient author now remaining, who speaks disrespectfully of him, excepting only The Recog nitions, or Clementine homilies, of which we formerly took particular notice.

As for the other Ebionites, called also Nazareans, it is allowed, as we have just seen, that they believed Jesus to be born of a virgin, by an especial interposition of the power of God, or by the Holy Ghost. These also received the apostle Paul. The testaments of the twelve patriarchs were written by a Jewish believer of this character in the second century. He plainly received Paul and his epistles, and the acts of the apostles, as was shewn formerly. It is a very curious work. When it came in my way, I enlarged in my extracts of it. Nor do I now repent of that labour.

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That the Nazareans, called also believers from among the Hebrews, received Paul, is apparent from Jerom's commentary upon Is. ix. 1-3, quoted Matt. iv. 15, 16. • The ' Nazareans,' says he, whom I before mentioned, endeavour to explain this text after this 'manner. When Christ came, and began to enlighten the world with his doctrine, the land of ⚫ Zabulon and Naphtali was first delivered from the errors of the Scribes and Pharisees, and 'shook off from their necks the heavy yoke of Jewish traditions. Afterwards, by the preaching of the apostle, Paul, who was the last of all the apostles, the preaching was increased, and even multiplied; and the gospel of Christ shone out among the Gentiles, and by the way of the sea. At length the whole world, that had walked, or sat in darkness,' and had been held in the 'chains of idolatry and death, saw the clear light of the gospel.' So he says that text was explained by the Nazarenes, whom just before he called the Hebrews that believed in Christ.

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That the Nazarenes received all Christ's apostles, is evident from the passage just transcribed. It is also manifest from Jerom's commentary upon Is. xxxi. 6-9. The Nazarenes,' says he, ⚫ understand this place after this manner: Ŏ ye children of Israel, who under the worst direction denied the Son of God, return to him, and to his apostles: for if you do that, you will then 'cast away your idols, which have been a sin to you; and the devil shall fall before you, not by 'your own power, but by the mercy of God; and his young men, who before fought for him, shall be tributary to the church, and all his strength and power shall be subdued.'

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The Ebionites are said to have adhered to the injunctions of the law of Moses, after they had received the gospel of Christ. 'Some of them,' as 'Jerom intimates, were for imposing the legal observances upon all men, as necessary to salvation; but the other Ebionites, (or • Nazarenes) as the same ancient and learned writer owns, observed those appointments themselves, as being of the seed of Israel, without imposing them upon others.' These were evidently of the same opinion with the believers in the church of Jerusalem: see the Acts of the Apostles, ch. xxi. And divers learned moderns are now convinced of this, and readily allow that the Jewish believers, who were called Nazarenes, did not impose the ordinances of the law upon others, though they observed them as descendants of Israel and Abraham.

The Ebionites, or some who went under that denomination, must have received the Acts of the Apostles. For, as we learn from Epiphanius, they said they were called Ebionites, or

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tolos, Paulum, quasi transgressorem legis, repudiant. Hieron. in Matt. xii. 2. T. 4. P. i. p. 46.

See The Credib. P. ii. Vol. i. p. 470, and p. 471. See The Credib. P. ii. Vol. i. p. 463, 464. Hebræi credentes in Christum hunc locum ita edisserunt -Nazaræi, quorum opinionem supra posui, hunc locum ita explicare conantur. Adveniente Christo, ac prædicatione illius coruscante, prima terra Zabulon et terra Nephthali scribarum et Pharisæorum est erroribus liberata, et gravissimam traditionum Judaïcarum jugum excussit de cervicibus suis. Postea autem per evangelium apostoli Pauli, qui novissimus omnium apostolorum omnium fuit, ingravata est, id est, multiplicata prædicatio: et in terminos gentium, et viam universi maris Christi evangelium splenduit. Denique omnis orbis, qui ante ambulabat, vel sedebat in tenebris, et idololatriæ ac mortis vinculis tenebatur, claram evangelii lucem aspexit. In Is. cap. ix. T. 3. p. 83.

d Nazaræi locum istum sic intelligunt. O filii Israël, qui consilio pessimo Dei Filium denegâstis, revertimini ad eum, et ad apostolos ejus. Si enim hoc feceritis, omnia abjicietis

idola, quæ vobis prius fuerant in peccatum: et cadet vobis diabolus, non vestris viribus, sed misericordiâ Dei: et juvenes ejus, qui quondam pro illo pugnaverant, erunt ecclesiæ vectigales, omnisque fortitudo et petra illius pertransibit. In Is. cap. xxxi. T. 3, p. 267.

Simul arat in bove et asino Ebion, dignus pro humilitate sensûs paupertate nominis sui, qui sic recipit evangelium, ut Judaïcarum superstitionum, quæ in umbra et imagine præcesserunt, cæremonias non relinquat. Hieron. in Is. cap. i. T. 3. p. 9.

f Audiant Ebionæi, qui post passionem abolitam legem putant esse servandam. Audiant Ebionitarum socii, qui Judæis tantum, et de stirpe Israëlitici generis hæc custodienda decernunt. Id. in Is. cap. i. T. 3. p. 15.

Ego ad eos accedere non vereor, qui statuunt, Nazaræos, nullos Christianorum, nisi Judæos, et Abrahæ posteros, legi Mosaïca alligare voluisse, &c. Moshem. de reb. Chr. ante C. M. p. 330. 8120

* Αυτοι δε δηθεν σεμνύνονται, ἑαυτες φασκοντες πτωχες, το, φασιν, εν χρόνοις των αποσόλων πωλεῖν τα αυτών ύπαρ

• Poor, because in the times of the apostles, they sold their goods, and laid them at the apostles' ⚫ feet, and by that means they had voluntarily reduced themselves to poverty. For that reason

⚫ men called them poor, but they gloried in the name.' Manifestly referring to the history in the fourth and fifth chapters of the Acts. They who received that book must have received Paul and all the apostles of Jesus, and very probably all their writings which were received by

other Christians.

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I suppose likewise, that all the Jewish believers in general received the gospel of St. Matthew entire, with the genealogy at the beginning. The testimony of Irenæus, as seems to me, without searching for any other authority, is sufficient to put it out of question: The * gospel, according to Matthew,' he says, was written to the Jews; for they earnestly desired a • Messiah of the seed of David: and Matthew having the same desire to a yet greater degree, strove by all means to give them full satisfaction, that Christ was of the seed of David; wherefore he began with his genealogy."

Eusebius in a place above cited, says, 'that even those Ebionites, (or Nazarenes) who believed Jesus to be born of a virgin by the Holy Ghost, did not acknowledge his pre-existence, as God the Word.' Nevertheless, I presume, they did believe Jesus Christ to be the Word, and Wisdom, and Power of God. But they did not believe the pre-existence of the Word as a distinct person, and separate from God the Father; as Eusebius and some Arianizing Christians of his time did. That I take to be the truth, and the ground and reason why Eusebius expresseth himself as he does. And it might be easily shewn, that the Nazarean Christians did not reject St. John's gospel, nor hold any principles that obliged them to reject or dislike it. Finally, we are assured by St. Jerom, that in his time there were many all over the East ⚫ called Nazareans, upon whom the Jews pronounced their curses as heretics. They profess,' says Jerom,that they believe in Christ, the Son of God, born of the virgin Mary, who suffered • under Pontius Pilate, and rose again from the dead, the same in whom we also believe.'

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I shall proceed no farther in this argument, nor go any lower. There were for the first four centuries many Jews who professed faith in Jesus as the Christ, notwithstanding the difficulties and discouragements to which they were exposed; for they were in an especial manner the object of the spite and enmity of the unbelieving part of their nation: and, besides, they were too much slighted and disregarded by the Gentile Christians..

III. I now leave it to my readers to judge, whether the faith of so many Jewish believers, in the early days of the gospel, be not a valuable testimony to the truth of the Christian religion. Some Jews have all along, in every age since, embraced the Christian religion, who have joined themselves to the Gentile believers, and have been incorporated with them. These are not now the subjects of my history.

χοντα, και τίθεται παρα τες πόδας των αποςόλων, και εις πτωχείαν και αποταξίαν μετεληλυθέναι και δια τετο καλείσθαι ύπο πάντων, φασι, πτωχοί. Η. 30. n. xiii. p. 141. A.

" Iren. 147. Mass. and see The Credib. P. 2. Vol. i, p. 366. As many mistakes have been entertained about the Gospel according to the Hebrews, it may not be unseasonable to observe here, that probably it was an Hebrew translation of St. Matthew's original Greek gospel, with additions from the other gospels: to which possibly might be added some few particulars received by tradition from the early Jewish believers. See Credibility, P. 2. ch. v. Vol. i. p. 324, and Vol. i. ch. xxix. p. 474. Epiphanius therefore says, that the Hebrew gospel of Matthew, used by the Nazarenes, was a full gospel. Εχεσι δε το κατα Ματθαιον ευαγγελιον Typesatov Eßpais. H. 29. num. ix. p. 124. The Nazarenes therefore did not reject the authority of the other evan

gelists, but owned and acknowledged it. That St. Matthew wrote in Greek, see The Supplement, in this Vol. p. 165, 166. Says Lampe, Synops. H. E. p. 73. Græcâ vero linguâ omnes, ne Matthæo quidem excepto, usi sunt, ut a Judæis et Gentibus uterentur.

• Vid. Lampe Prol. in Joh. Evang. 1. 2. cap. i. sect. 1, 2, 3, et cap. iii. num. 38-43.

d Usque hodie per totas Orientis synagogas, inter Judæos hæresis est, quæ dicitur minæonem, et a Pharisæis nunc usque damnatur; quos vulgo Nazaræos nuncupant, qui credunt in Christum Filium Dei, natum ex virgine Mariâ, et eum dicunt esse, qui sub Pontio Pilato passus est, et resurrexit, in quem et nos credimus, &c. Hieron. ad August. ep. 74. al. 89.. tom. 4. p. 623.

• See W. Wall in the Preface to his Notes upon the O. T. p. xi. xii.

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