and authentic Copy of it And the same foul play he lets them know he had met with in other places as at Ephesus and at Antioch as he there particularly relates And if they durst do this while he was yet alive and able as he did to right himself what may we think they would do after his death when there were none to controul them And upon this account most of those assertions must especially be discharged wherein Origen is made to contradict himself it being highly improbable as Rufinus f Loc. cit p. 194. well urges that so prudent and learned a person one far enough from being either fool or mad man should write things so contrary and repugnant to one another And that not only in divers but in one and the same Book XXIX I might further observe his constant zeal against Heretics his opposing and refuting of them wherever he came both by word and writing his being sent for into foreign Countries to convince gainsayers his professing to abominate all heretical doctrines and his refusing so much as to communicate in prayer with Paul the Heretic of Antioch though his whole maintenance did depend upon it And methinks it deserves to be considered that Athanasius in all the heat of the Arrian controversies then whom certainly none was ever more diligent to search out heretical persons and opinions or more accurate in examining and refuting the chief of those doctrines that are laid at Origen's door should never charge him upon that account Nay he particularly quotes him g Decret Synod Nic. contr Haeres Arrian p. 277. T. 1. vid. de Blasph in S. S. p. 971. Socr. H E. l. 6. c. 13. p. 320. to to prove our Lords coeternity and coessentiality with the Father exactly according to the decisions of the Nicene Synod dismissing him with the honourable character of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most admirable and infinitely industrious person Nor is there any heterodox opinion of his that I know of once taken notice of in all his works but only that concerning the duration of future torments and that too but h De Com. essent Patr. F. S◠p. 236. T. 1. obliquely mentioned Whence I am apt to conclude either that Origen's writings were not then so notoriously guilty or that this great man and zealous defender of the Churches doctrin who being Bishop of Alexandria could not be ignorant of what Origen had taught or written nay assures us he had read his Books did not look upon those dangerous things that were in them as his sense And indeed so he says expresly that what things he wrote by way of controversie and disputation are not to be looked upon as his own words and sentiments but as those of his contentious adversaries whom he had to deal with which accordingly in the passages he cites he carefully distinguishes from Origen's own words and sense To all which I may add that when the controversie about the condemnation of his Books was driven a Socrat. H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 12. p. 319. on most furiously by Theophilus and Epiphanius Theotimus the good Scythian Bishop plainly told Epiphanius that for his part he would never so much dishonour a person so venerable for his piety and antiquity nor durst he condemn what their Ancestors never rejected especially when there were no ill and mischievous Doctrins in Origen's Works therewithall pulling out a Book of Origen's which he read before the whole Convention and shewed it to contain Expositions agreeable to the Articles of the Church With these two excellent persons let me join the judgment of a Writer of the middle Ages of the Church b Breviar H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 3. p. 108 109. Haymo Bishop of Halberstad who speaking of the things laid to Origen's charge For my part says he saving the faith of the Ancients I affirm of him either that he never wrote these things but that they were wickedly forged by Heretics and fathered upon his name or if he did write them he wrote them not as his own judgment but as the opinion of others And if as some would have it they were his own sentiments we ought rather to deal compassionately with so learned a man who has conveyed so vast a treasury of Learning to us What faults there are in his Writings those orthodox and useful things which they contain are abundantly sufficient to over-ballance XXX THIS and a great deal more is and may be pleaded in Origen's defence And yet after all it must be confessed that he was guilty of great mistakes and rash propositions which the largest charity cannot excuse He had a natural warmth and fervor of mind a comprehensive wit an insatiable thirst after knowledge and a desire to understand the most abstruse and mysterious speculations of Theology which made him give himself an unbounded liberty in inquiring into and discoursing of the nature of things he wrote much and dictated apace and was ingaged in infinite variety of business which seldom gave him leisure to review and correct his writings and to let them pass the censure of second and maturer thoughts he traded greatly in the writings of the Heathens and was infinitely solicitous to make the doctrines of Christianity look as little unlike as might be to their best and beloved notions And certainly what Marcellus a Ap. Euseb contr Marcel l. 1. p. 23. Bishop of Ancyra long since objected against him is unquestionably true notwithstanding what Eusebius has said to salve it that coming fresh out of the philosophic Schools and having been a long time accurately trained up in the principles and books of Plato he applied himself to divine things before he was sufficiently disposed to receive them and fell upon writing concerning them while secular learning had yet the predominancy in his mind and so unwarily mingled philosophic notions with Christian principles further than the analogy of the Christian faith would allow And I doubt not but whoever would paralell his and and the Platonic principles would find that most of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is charged with his master-notions were brought out of the School of Plato as the above mentioned Huetius has in many things particularly observed S. Hierom himself whom the torrent of that time made a severe enemy to Origen could but have so much tenderness for him even in that very Tract b Ad Pammach de error Orig. p. 192. Tom. 2. wherein he passes the deepest censures upon him after he had commended him for his parts zeal and strictness of life Which of us says he is able to read so much as he has written who would not admire the ardent and sprightly temper of his mind towards the holy Scriptures But if any envious Zealot shall object his errours to us let him freely hear what was said of old Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus Horat. de Art Poet. v. 359. p. 815. Verum opere
Vit. Script Euseb and as Valesius conjectures some years after the Council of Nice though when not long before he expresly affirms that History to have been written before the Nicene Synod how he can herein be excused from a palpable contradiction I cannot imagine 'T is true Eusebius takes no notice of that Council but that might be partly because he designed to end in that joyful and prosperous Scene of things which Constantine restored to the Church as he himself plainly intimates in the beginning of his History which he was not willing to discompose with the controversies and contentions of that Synod according to the humour of all Historians who delight to shut up their Histories with some happy and successful period and partly because he intended to give some account of the affairs of that Council in his Book of the Life of Constantine the Great The Materials wherewith he was furnished for this great undertaking which he complains were very small and inconsiderable were besides Hegesippus his Commentaries then extant Africanus his Chronology the Books and Writings of several Fathers the Records of particular Cities Ecclesiastical Epistles written by the Bishops of those Times and kept in the Archives of their several Churches especially that famous Library at Jerusalem erected by Alexander Bishop of that place but chiefly the Acts of the Martyrs which in those Times were taken at large with great care and accuracy These at least a great many of them Eusebius collected into one Volume under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Collection of the Ancient Martyrdoms which he refers to at every turn besides a particular Narrative which he wrote still extant as an Appendage to the Eighth Book of his Ecclesiastical History concerning the Martyrs that suffered in Palestin A great part of these Acts by the negligence and unfaithfulness of succeeding Times were interpolated and corrupted especially in the darker and more undiscerning Ages when Superstition had overspread the Church and when Ignorance and Interest conspired to fill the World with idle and improbable Stories and men took what liberty they pleased in venting the issue of their own Brains insomuch that some of the more wise and moderate even of the Roman Communion have complained not without a just resentment and indignation that Laertius has written the Lives of Philosophers with more truth and chastness then many have done the Lives of the Saints Upon this account a great and general out-cry has been made against Simeon Metaphrastes as the Father of incredible Legends and one that has notoriously imposed upon the World by the most fabulous reports Nay some to reflect the more disgrace upon him have represented him as a petty Schoolmaster A charge in my mind rash and inconsiderate and in a great measure groundless and uncharitable He was a person of very considerable birth and fortunes advanced to the highest Honours and Offices one of the Primier Ministers of State and as is probable Great Chancellor to the Emperour of Constantinople learned and eloquent above the common standard and who by the persuasions not onely of some great ones of that time he flourished under Leo the Wise about the Year DCCCC but principally wrote under the reign of his successor but of the Emperour himself was prevailed with to reduce the Lives of the Saints into order To which end by his own infinite labour and the no less expences of the Emperour he ransacked the Libraries of the Empire till he had amassed a vast heap of Volumes The more ancient Acts he passed without any considerable alteration more then the correcting them by a collation of several Copies and the enlarging some circumstances to render them more plain and easie as appears by comparing some that are extant at this day Where Lives were confused and immethodical or written in a stile rude and barbarous he digested the history into order and clothed it in more polite and elegant language Others that were defective in neither he left as they were and gave them place amongst his own So that I see no reason for so severe a censure unless it were evident that he took his accounts of things not from the Writings of those that had gone before him but forged them of his own head Not to say that things have been made much worse by Translations seldom appearing in any but the dress of the Latine Church and that many Lives are laid at his door of which he never was the Father it being usual with some when they met with the Life of a Saint the Author whereof they knew not presently to fasten it upon Metaphrastes But to return to Eusebius from whom we have digressed His Ecclesiastical History the almost onely remaining Records of the ancient Church deserves a just esteem and veneration without which those very fragments of Antiquity had been lost which by this means have escaped the common Shipwrack And indeed S. Hierom Nicephorus and the rest do not onely build upon his foundation but almost entirely derive their materials from him As for Socrates Sozomen Theodorit and the later Historians they relate to Times without the limits of my present business generally conveying down little more then the History of their own Times the Church History of those more early Ages being either quite neglected or very negligently managed The first that to any purpose broke the ice after the Reformation were the Centuriators of Magdeburg a combination of learned and industrious men the chief of whom were John Wigandus Matth. Judex Basilius Faber Andreas Corvinus but especially Matth. Flaccius Illyricus who was the very soul of the undertaking They set themselves to traverse the Writings of the Fathers and all the ancient Monuments of the Church collecting whatever made to their purpose which with indefatigable pains they digested into an Ecclesiastic History This they divided into Centuries and each Century into fifteen Chapters into each of which as into its proper Classis and Repository they reduced whatever concerned the propagation of Religion the Peace or Persecutions of the Christians the Doctrines of the Church and the Heresies that arose in it the Rites and Ceremonies the Government Schisms Councils Bishops and persons noted either for Religion or Learning Heretics Martyrs Miracles the state of the Jews the Religion of them that were without and the political revolutions of that Age. A method accurate and useful and which administers to a very distinct and particular understanding the affairs of the Church The four first Centuries were finished in the City of Magdeburg the rest elsewhere A work of prodigious diligence and singular use True it is that it labours under some faults and imperfections and is chargeable with considerable errours and mistakes And no wonder for besides that the Persons themselves may be supposed to have been sometimes betraid into an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the heats and contentions of those Times it was the first attempt in this kind and
satisfactory Philosophy The great influence which the patience and fortitude of the Christians had upon his conversion The force of that argument to persuade men His vindication of himself from the charges of the Gentiles His continuance in his Philosophic habit The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what and by whom worn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His coming to Rome and opposing Heretics Marcion who and what his Principles Justin's first Apology to the Emperours and the design of it Antoninus his Letter to the Common-Council of Asia in favour of the Christians This shewed not to be the Edict of Marcus Antoninus Justin's journey into the East and conference with Trypho the Jew Trypho who The malice of the Jews against the Christians Justin's return to Rome His contests with Crescens the Philosopher Crescens his temper and principles Justin's second Apology To whom presented The occasion of it M. Antoninus his temper Justin fore-tells his own fate The Acts of his Martyrdom His arraignment before Rusticus Praefect of Rome Rusticus who the great honours done him by the Emperour Justin's discourse with the Praefect His freedom and courage His sentence and execution The time of his death His great Piety Charity Impartiality c. His natural parts and excellent learning His unskilfulness in the Hebrew Language noted A late Author censured His Writings The Epistle to Diognetus Diognetus who His stile and character The unwarrantable opinions he is charged with His indulgence to Heathens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in what sense used by the ancient Fathers How applied to Christ how to Reason His opinion concerning Chiliasm The concurrence of the Ancients with him herein This by whom first started by whom corrupted Concerning the state of the Soul after this life The doctrine of the Ancients in this matter His assertion concerning Angels maintained by most of the first Fathers The original of it Their opinion concerning Free-will shewed not to be opposed by them to the Grace of God What influence Justin's Philosophic education had upon his opinions His Writings enumerated Pag. 139. The Life of S. IRENAEUS Bishop of Lyons His Countrey enquired into His Philosophical Studies His institution by Papias Papias who His education under S. Polycarp His coming into France and being made Presbyter of Lyons Pothinus who how and by whom sent into France The grievous Persecution there under M. Aurelius The Letters of the Martyrs to the Bishop of Rome Pope Eleutherius guilty of Montanism Irenaeus sent to Rome His writing against Florinus and Blastus The martyrdom of Pothinus Bishop of Lyons and the cruelty exercised towards him Irenaeus succeeds His great diligence in his charge His oppostion of Heretics The Synods said to have been held under him to that purpose The Gnostic Heresies spread in France Their monstrous Villanies His confutation of them by word and writing Variety of Sects and Divisions objected by the Heathens against Christianity This largely answered by Clemens of Alexandria Pope Victor's reviving the controversie about Easter The contests between him and the Asiatics Several Synods to determine this matter Irenaeus his moderate interposal His Synodical Epistle to Victor The Persecution under Severus It s rage about Lyons Irenaeus his Martyrdom and place of Burial His Vertues His industrious and elaborate confutation of the Gnostics His stile and phrase Photius his censure of his Works His errour concerning Christs age Miraculous gifts and powers common in his time His Writings Pag. 161. The Life of S. THEOPHILUS Bishop of Antioch The great obscurity of his Originals His learned and ingenuous Education and natural parts An account of his conversion to Christianity and the reasons inducing him thereunto collected out of his own Writings His scrupling the Doctrine of the Resurrection The great difficulty of entertaining that Principle Synesius his case Theophilus his conquering this objection His great satisfaction in the Christian Religion His election to the Bishoprick of Antioch His desire to convert Autolycus Autolycus who His mighty prejudice against Christianity Theophilus his undertaking him and his free and impartial debating the case with him His excellent menage of the controversie His vigorous opposing the Heresies of those times His Books against Marcion and Hermogenes His death and the time of it S. Hierom's Character of his Works His Writings Pag. 173. The Life of S. MELITO Bishop of Sardis His Countrey and Birth-place His excellent Parts and Learning His being made Bishop of Sardis His coelibaâ—y His Prophetic gifts The Persecution under Marcus Aurelius Melito his Apology for the Christians A fragment of it cited out of Eusebius The great advantages of Christianity to the Empire His endeavour to compose the Paschal Controversie His Book concerning that Subject His journey to Jerusalem to search what Books of the Old Testament were received by that Church The Copy of his Letter to his Brother Onesimus concerning the Canon of the Old Testament What Books admitted by the ancient Church Solomons Proverbs stiled by the Ancients the Book of Wisdom His death and burial The great variety of his Works Vnjustly suspected of dangerous notions An account given of the titles of two of his Books most liable to suspicion His Writings enumerated Pag. 179. The Life of S. PANTAENUS Catechist of Alexandria The various conjectures concerning his Original The probabilities of his Jewish descent what Whether born in Sicily or at Alexandria His first institution The famous Platonic School erected by Ammonius at Alexandria The renown of that place for other parts of Learning Pantaenus addicted to the Sect of the Stoics The Principles of that Sect shewed to agree best with the dictates of Christianity His great emprovements in the Christian Doctrine The Catechetic School at Alexandria with its antiquity Pantaenus made Regent of it When he first entered upon this Office An Embassie from India to the Bishop of Alexandria for some to preach the Christian Faith Pantaenus sent upon this errand This Countrey where situate His arrival in India and converse with the Brachmans Their temper principles and way of life Their agreement with the Stoics Foot-steps of Christianity formerly planted there S. Matthews Hebrew Gospel found among them and brought by Pantaenus to Alexandria How far and by whom Christianity was propagated in India afterwards Pantaenus his return to Alexandria and resuming his Catechetic Office His Death His great Piety and Learning Pag. 185. The Life of S. CLEMENS of Alexandria His Countrey The progress of his Studies His instruction in the Christian doctrin His several Masters His impartial enquiry after truth The elective Sect what It s excellent genius Clemens of this Sect. His succeeding Pantaenus in the Catechetic School He is made Presbyter of Alexandria His Stromata published when Lawfulness of flying in time of Persecution His journey into the East What Tracts he wrote there His going from Jerusalem to Antioch and return to Alexandria His death The Elogia given of him by the Ancients His admirable
learning His Writings His Hypotyposes Photius his account of them corrupted by the Arrians His Books yet extant and the orderly gradation of them His Stromata what the design of it His stile what in this what in his other Books A short Apology for some unwary assertions in his Writings His Writings enumerated Pag. 193. The Life of TERTULLIAN Presbyter of Carthage His names whence His Father who His education in all kinds of Learning His skill in the Roman Laws Different from Tertylian the Lawyer His way of life before his conversion enquired into His married condition His conversion to Christianity when The great cruelty used towards the Christians Severus his kindness to them Tertullians excellent Apology in their behalf His address to Scapula and the tendency of that discourse Severus his violent persecuting the Christians His prohibition of the Heteriae Tertullians Book to the Martyrs and concerning Patience His zeal against Heresies and Writings that way His Book De Pallio when written and upon what occasion His becoming Presbyter when His Book De Corona and what the occasion of it His declining from the Catholic Party Montanus who and whence His principles and practices Tertullians owning them and upon what occasion His morose and stubborn temper How far he complied with the Montanists and acknowledged the Paraclete How he was imposed upon His Writings against the Catholics The severity of the ancient Discipline Episcopus Episcoporum in what sense meant by Tertullian concerning the Bishop of Rome His separate meetings at Carthage His death His Character His singular parts and learning His Books His phrase and stile What contributed to its perplexedness and obscurity His un-orthodox opinions A brief plea for him Pag. 201. The Life of ORIGEN Presbyter Catechist of Alexandria Origen where and when born Several conjectures about the original of his name His Father who His juvenile education and great towardliness in the knowledge of the Scriptures His Philosophical Studies under Clemens Alexandrinus His Institution under Ammonius Ammonius who His fame and excellency confessed by the Gentile Philosophers Another Origen his Contemporary These two heedlesly confounded His Fathers Martyrdom and the confiscation of his Estate Origen's resolute encouragement of his Father His own passionate desire of Martyrdom His maintenance by an honourable Matron of Alexandria His zeal against Heretics His setting up a private School He succeeds Clemens in the Catechetic School at eighteen years of Age. The frequency of his Auditors Many of them Martyrs for the Faith Origen's resolution in attending upon the Martyrs His danger His couragious act at the Temple of Serapis His emasculating himself and the reasons of it The eminent chastity of those Primitive Times Origen's journey to Rome and return to Alexandria His taking in a Colleague into the Catechetic Office He learns the Hebrew Tongue The prudent method of his Teaching Ambrosius converted Who he was His great intimacy with Origen Origen sent for by the Governour of Arabia His journey into Palestin and teaching at Caesarea Remanded by the Bishop of Alexandria Alexander Severus his excellent Vertues and kindness for the Christian Religion Origen sent for by the Empress Mammaea to Antioch He begins to write his Commentaries How many Notaries and Transcribers imployed and by whom maintained Notaries their Original and Office Their use and institution in the Primitive Church His journey into Greece His passage through Palestin and being ordained Presbyter at Caesarea Demetrius of Alexandria his envy and rage against him Origen condemned in two Synods at Alexandria and one at Rome The resignation of his Catechetic School to Heraclas Heraclas who The story of his offering Sacrifice The credit of this story questioned and why His departure from Alexandria and fixing at Caesarea The eminency of his School there Gregorius Thaumaturgus his Scholar His friendship with Firmilian Firmilian who The Persecution under Maximinus Origen's Book written to the Martyrs His retirement whither He compares the Versions of the Bible His Tetrapla Hexapla and Octapla what and how managed A Specimen given of them His second journey to Athens His going to Nicomedia and Letter to Africanus about the History of Susanna His confutation of Beryllus in Arabia His answer to Celsus Celsus who Origens Letters to Philip the Emperour The vanity of making him a Christian Origens journey into Arabia to refute Heresies The Helcesaitae who What their Principles Alexanders miraculous election to the See of Jerusalem His Coadjntorship Government Sufferings and Martyrdom Origens grievous sufferings at Tyre under the Decian Persecution His deliverance out of Prison Age and Death His Character His strict life His mighty zeal abstinence contempt of the World indefatigable diligence and patience noted His natural parts incomparable learning His Books and their several Classes His stile what His unsound opinions The great Out-cry against him in all Ages The Apologies written in his behalf Several things noted out of the Ancients to extenuate the charge His assertions not Dogmatical Not intended for public view Generally such as were not determined by the Church His Books corrupted and by whom His own complaints to that purpose The testimonies of Athanasius and Theotimus and Haymo in his vindication Great errours and mistakes acknowledged What things contributed to them His great kindness for the Platonic Principles S. Hierom's moderate censure of him His repenting of his rash Propositions His Writings enumerated and what now extant Pag. 213. The Life of S. BABYLAS Bishop of Antioch His Originals obscure His education and accomplishments enquired into Made Bishop of Antioch when Antioch taken by the King of Persia Recovered by the Roman Emperour Babylas his fidelity in his charge The Decian Persecution and the grounds of it severely urged by the Emperours Edicts Decius his coming to Antioch His attempt to break into the Christian Congregation Babylas his bold resistance This applied to Numerianus and the ground of the mistake The like reported of Philip the Emperour Decius his bloudy act related by S. Chrysostom His rage against Babylas and his examination of him The Martyrs resolute answer His imprisonment and hard usage The different accounts concerning his death Three Youths his fellow-sufferers in vain attempted by the Emperour Their Martyrdom first and why Babylas beheaded His command that his chains should be buried with him The translation of his body under Constantius The great sweetness and pleasantness of the Daphne Apollo's Temple there S. Babylas his bones translated thither by Gallus Caesar The Oracle immediately rendered dumb In vain consulted by Julian The confession of the Daemon Julian's command for removing Babylas his bones The Martyrs Remains triumphantly carried into the City The credit of this Story sufficiently attested The thing owned by Libanius and Julian Why such honour suffered to be done to the Martyr Julian afraid of an immediate vengeance His Persecution against the Christians at Antioch The sufferings of Theodorus The Temple of Apollo fired from Heaven Pag. 241. The Life of
help or benefit by the gods A great argument as Eusebius well urges of our Saviours Divine authority and the truth of his Doctrine For when says he a little before such numbers of fictitious deities fled at our Lords aprearance who would not with admiration behold it as an uncontroulable demonstration of his truly saving and excellent Religion whereby so many Churches and Oratories through all the world both in Cities and Villages and even in the Desarts and Solitudes of the most barbarous Nations have been erected and consecrated to the great Creator and the only Sovereign of the World when such multitudes of Books have been written containing the most incomparable rules and institutions to form mankind to a life of the most perfect Virtue and Religion precepts accommodate not to men only but to women and children when he shall see that the Oracles and Divinations of the Daemons are ceased and gone and that the Divine and Evangelical virtue of our Saviour no sooner visited mankind but they began to leave off their wild and frantic ways of worship and to abhor those humane sacrifices many times of their dearest relations wherewith they had been wont to propitiate and atone their bloody and merciless Daemons and into which their wisest and greatest men had been bewitched and seduced I add no more but S. Chrysostoms b Orat. III. adv Judaeos p. 420. Tom. 1. challenge Judge now with me O thou incredulous Jew and learn the excellency of the truth what Impostor ever gathered to himself so many Churches throughout the world and propagated his worship from one end of it to the other and subdued so many Subjects to his Crown even when thousands of impediments lay in the way to hinder him certainly no man a plain evidence that Christ was no Impostor but a Saviour and Benefactor and the Author of our life and happiness XII WE have seen with what a mighty success Christianity displayed its banners over the world let us next consider what it was that contributed to so vast an increase and propagation of it And here not to insist upon the blessing of the Divine Providence which did immediately superintend its prosperity and welfare nor upon the intrinsic excellency of the Religion it self which carried essential characters of Divinity upon it sufficient to recommend it to every wise and good man there were five things among others that did especially conduce to make way for it the miraculous powers then resident in the Church the great learning and abilities of its champions and defenders the indefatigable industry used in propagating of it the incomparable lives of its professors and their patience and constancy under sufferings It was not the least means that procured the Christian Religion a just veneration from the world the miraculous attestations that were given to it I shall not here concern my self to shew that miracles truly and publicly wrought are the highest external evidence that can be given to the truth of that Religion which they are brought to confirm the force of the argument is sufficiently pleaded by the Christian Apologists That such miraculous powers were then ordinary in the Church we have the concurrent testimonies of all the first Writers of it Justin Martyr a Apol. I. p. 45. tells the Emperor and the Senate that our Lord was born for the subversion of the Daemons which they might know from the very things done in their sight for that very many who had been vexed and possessed by Daemons throughout the world and in this very City of theirs whom all their exorcists and conjurers were not able to relieve had been cured by several Christians through the name of Jesus that was crucified under Pontius Pilate and that at this very time they still cur'd them disarming and expelling the Daemons out of those whom they had possess'd The same he affirms in his discourse with Trypho b Dial. cum Tryph. p. 24â— p. 302. the Jew more than once that the Devils trembled and stood in awe of the power of Christ and to this day being adjured by the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilat the Procurator of Judaea they were obedient to Christians Irenaeus c Adv. Haeres l. 2. c. 56. p. 215. c. 57. p. 218. assures us that in his time the Christians enabled by the Grace of Christ raised the dead ejected Daemons and unclean spirits the persons so dispossessed coming over to the Church others had Visions and the gift of Prophesie others by Imposition of hands healed the Sick and restored them to perfect health But I am not able says he to reckon up the number of those gifts which the Church throughout the world receiving from God does every day freely exercise in the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate to the benefit of the world Tertullian d Apol. c. 23. p. 22. challenges the Roman Governors to let any possessed person be brought before their own Tribunals and they should see that the spirit being commanded to speak by any Christian should as truly confess himself to be a Devil as at other times he falsly boasted himself to be a God And he tells Scapula e Ad Scap. c. 2. p. 6â— that they rejected disgraced and expelled Daemons every day as most could bear them witness Origen f Contr. Cels l. 2. p. 80. bids Celsus take notice that whatever he might think of the reports which the Gospel makes concerning our Saviour yet that it was the great and magnificent work of Jesus by his name to heal even to this day whom God pleased that he a Ib. l. 3. p. 124. himself had seen many who by having the name of God and Christ called over them had been delivered from the greatest evils frenzy and madness and infinite other distempers which neither men nor devils had been able to cure What influence these miraculous effects had upon the world he lets us know elsewhere The Apostles of our Lord says b Lib. 1. p. 34. he without these miraculous powers would never have been able to have moved their Auditors nor perswaded them to desert the institutions of their Country and to embrace their new Doctrine and having once embraced it to defend it even to death in defiance of the greatest dangers Yea even to this day the foot-steps of that Holy Spirit which appeared in the shape of a Dove are preserved among the Christians they exorcize Daemons perform many cures and according to the will of God foresee and foretel things to come At which though Celsus and his personated Jew may laugh yet I affirm further that many even against their inclinations have been brought over to the Christian Religion their former opposition of it being suddenly changed into a resolute maintaining of it unto death after they have had Visions communicated to them several of which nature we our selves have seen And should we only reckon up those at which we
solemnity into the Imperial Palace Which yet could not be effected for the sturdy Mules that carried the Treasure being come as far as Constantines Baths would not advance one step further And when unreasonably whipped and pricked they spake aloud and told those that conducted them that the Martyr was to be reposed and interred in that place Which was accordingly done and a beautiful Church built there But certainly they that first added this passage to the Story had been at a great loss for invention had not the Story of Balaams Ass been upon record in Scripture I confess * Bar. ad Ann. 439. Tom. 5. p. 681. Baronius seems not over-forward to believe this relation not for the trifling and ridiculous improbabilities of it but onely because he could not well reconcile it with the time of its being first found out by Lucian Indeed my Authors tell us that this was done in the time of Constantine Metrophanes being then Bishop of Constantinople and that it was onely some part of his remains buried again by some devout Christians that was discovered in a Vision to Lucian and that the Empress Pulcheria by the help of her Brother Theodosius procured from the Bishop of Jerusalem the Martyrs right hand which being arrived at Constantinople was with singular reverence and rejoycing brought into the Palace and there laid up and a stately and magnificent Church erected for it set off with all rich and costly ornaments and advantages XXVI a Marcell Chro. Indict VII p. 24. Theodor. Lect. lib. 2. p. 568. AUTHORS mention another remove Ann. CCCCXXXIX and let the curious and inquisitive after these matters reconcile the different accounts of his remains to Constantinople by the Empress Eudocia Wife to Theodosius who having been at Jerusalem upon some pious and charitable designs carried back with her to the Imperial City the remains of S. Stephen which she carefully laid up in the Church of S. Laurence The Roman b Ad VII Maii p. 284. Martyrology says that in the time of Pope Pelagius they were removed from Constantinople to Rome and lodg'd in the Sepulchre of S. Laurence the Martyr in agro Verano where they are honoured with great piety and devotion But I find not any Author near those times mentioning their translation into any of these Western parts except the little parcel which c Vid. Avit Ep. Praef. Ep. Lucian Gennad de script Eccl. in Oros c. 39. p. 53. Marcell Chron. p. 17. Orosius brought from Jerusalem whither he had been sent by S. Augustin to know S. Hieroms sense in the Question about the Original of the Soul which he received from Avitus who had procured it of Lucian and brought it along with him into the West that is into Afric for whether it went any further I find not XXVII AS for the miracles reported to have been done by the remains of this Martyr d Deglor Martyr lib. 1. cap. 33. p. 42. c. Gregory Bishop of Tours and the Writers of the following Ages have furnished the World with abundant instances which I insist not upon Superstition having been the peculiar genius and humour of those middle Ages of the Church and the Christian World miserably over-run with an excessive and immoderate Veneration of the Reliques of departed Saints However I can venture the Readers displeasure for relating one and the rather because 't is so solemnly averred by e Annot. in Martyr Rom. ad Aug. III. p. 474. Baronius himself S. Gaudiosus an African Bishop flying from the Vandalic Persecution brought with him a Glass Vial of S. Stephens blood to Naples in Italy where it was famous especially for one miraculous effect that being set upon the Altar at the time of Mass it was annually wont upon the third of August the day whereon S. Stephens body was first discovered to melt and bubble as if it were but newly shed But the miracle of the miracle lay in this that when Pope Gregory the XIII reformed the Roman Kalendar and made no less then ten days difference from the former the bloud in the Vial ceased to bubble upon the third of August according to the old computation and bubbled upon that that fell according to the new Reformation A great justification I confess as Baronius well observes of the divine Authority of the Gregorian Kalendar and the Popes Constitutions but yet it was ill done to set the Kalendars at variance when both had been equally justified by the miracle But how easie it was to abuse the World with such tricks especially in these later Ages wherein the Artifice of the Priests was arrived to a kind of perfection in these affairs is no difficult matter to imagin XXVIII LET us then look to the more early Ages when Covetousness and Secular Interests had not so generally put men upon Arts of craft and subtlety and we are told both by Lucian and Photius Loc. anâ—e eleat that at the first discovery of the Martyrs body many strange miraculous cures were effected seventy three healed onely by smelling the odor and fragrancy of the body in some Daemons were cast out others cured of Issues of Bloud Tumours Agues Fevers and infinite other distempers that were upon them But that which most sways with me is what S. Augustin reports of these matters who seems to have been inquisitive about matters of Fact De Civ Dâ—i lib. 22. cap. 8. col 1346. c. Tom. 5. as the Argument he managed did require For being to demonstrate against the Gentiles that miracles were not altogether ceased in the Christian Church among several others he produces many instances of Cures miraculously done at the remains of S. Stephen brought thither as before we noted by Orosius from Jerusalem all done thereabouts and some of them in the place where himself lived and of which as he tells us they made Books which were solemnly published and read to the People whereof at the time of his Writing there were no less then seventy written of the Cures done at Hippo the place where he lived though it was not full two years since the memorial of S. Stephens Martyrdom had begun to be celebrated in that place besides many whereof no account had been given in writing To set down all were to tire the Readers patience beyond all recovery a few onely for a specimen shall suffice At the Aquae Tibilitanae Projectus the Bishop bringing the remains of the Martyr in a vast multitude of People a blind woman desiring to be brought to the Bishop and some Flowers which she brought being laid upon them and after applied to her eyes to the wonder of all she instantly received her sight Lucillus Bishop of Synica near Hippo carrying the same remains accompanied with all the people was suddenly freed from a desperate disease under which he had a long time laboured and for which he even then expected the Chirurgeons Knife Eucharius a Spanish Presbyter then dwelling at Calama
he had bitterly quarrelled with Theophilus This notwithstanding he is not affrighted from undertaking him but treats him with all the freedom and ingenuity that became a Friend and a Philosopher tells e Ib. l. 1. p. 70. him that the cause was in himself why he did not discern and embrace the truth that his wickedness and impieties had depraved his mind and darkned his understanding and that men were not to blame the Sun for want of light when themselves were blind and wanted eyes to see it that the rust and soil must be wiped off from the Glass before 't would make a true and clear representation of the object and that God would not discover himself but to purged and prepared minds and such who by innocency and a divine life were become fit and disposed to receive and entertain him Then he explains to him the nature of God and gives him an account of the Origin of the World according to the Christian doctrin disproves and derides the ridiculous deities of the Heathens and particularly answers those black imputations usually laid upon the Christians and because Autolycus had mainly urged the lateness and novelty of the Christian Faith he shews shews at large how much superiour it was in many parts of it in point of Seniority and that by many Ages to any thing which the Heathen Religion could pretend to pressing him at every turn to comply with so excellent a Religion and assuring him the * Lib. 3. p. 127. People whom he invited him to were so far from being such as he represented them that they lived under the Conduct of Modesty and Sobriety Temperance and Chastity banished Injustice and rooted up all Vice and Wickedness loved Righteousness lived under Law and Rule exercised a Divine Religion acknowledged God served the Truth were under the preservation of Grace and Peace directed by a sacred Word taught by Wisdom rewarded by a life immortal and governed by God himself What the issue of his Discourses was we cannot tell but may probably hope they had a desired success especially since we find ⸫ Lib. 2. p. 80. Autolycus after the first conference a little more favourable to the cause abating of his conceived displeasure against Theophilus and desiring of him a further account of his Religion And certainly if Wisdom and Eloquence if strength of Reason and a prudent managing the Controversie were able to do it he could not well fail of reclaiming the man from his Errour and Idolatry V. NOR was he more sollicitous to gain others to the Faith then he was to keep those who already had embraced it from being infected and depraved with Errour For which cause he continually stood upon his guard faithfully gave warning of the approach of Heresie and vigorously set himself against it For notwithstanding the care and vigilance of the good and pious men of those days as a H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 24. p. 146. Eusebius observes envious men crept in and sowed Tares among the sincere Apostolic Doctrine so that the Pastors of the Church were forced to rise up in every place and to set themselves to drive away these wild Beasts from Christs Sheep-fold partly by exhorting and warning the Brethren partly by entering the lists with the Heretics themselves some personally disputing with and confuting them others accurately convincing and refuting their Opinions by the Books which they wrote against them Among whom he tells us was our Theophilus who conflicted with these Heretics and particularly wrote against Marcion who asserted two Deities and that the Soul onely as being the divine and better part and not the Body was capable of the happiness of the other World and this too granted to none but his Followers with many such impious and fond Opinions Another Book he wrote against Hermogenes one better skilled in Painting then drawing Schemes of new Divinity he forsook the Church and fled to the Stoies and being tinctured with their Principles maintained matter to be eternal out of which God created all things and that all evils proceeded out of Matter asserting moreover as Clemens of Alexandria b In excerpt Graec. Theod. ap Cl. Alex. p. 808. D. informs us that our Lords Body was lodged in the Sun ridiculously interpreting that place in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun Nor did our Theophilus neglect the weak and younger part of the charge he had not onely Physic for the Sick and strong meat for them of full age but milk for Babes and such as were yet unskilful in the word of righteousness composing many Catechetic Discourses that contained the first rudiments of the Faith VI. HE sate thirteen years c Niceph. C. P. Chronograph ap Scalig. p. 311. in his Bishoprick XXI says the Patriarch of Alexandria d Eutych Annal p. 359. and died about the second or third year of the Emperour Commodus for that he out-lived M. Antoninus is evident from his mentioning a Ad Autol. l. 3. p. 138. his death and the time of his reign in his Discourses with Autolycus after which he composed those Discourses but what kind of death it was whether natural or violent is to me unknown From the calmness and tranquillity of Commodus his reign as to any Persecution against the Christians we may probably guess it to have been a peaceable and quiet death Books he wrote many whereof b Hieron 〈◊〉 de Script in Theoph. S. Hierom gives this Character that they were elegant Tracts and greatly conducive to the edification of the Church And further adds that he had met with Commentaries upon the Gospel and the Proverbs of Solomon bearing his name but which seemed not to answer his other Writings in the elegancy and politeness of the stile His Writings Extant Ad Autolycum Libri III. Not Extant Contra Haeresin Hermogenis Adversus Marcionem Libri aliquot Catechetici Doubtful Commentarii in Evangelium Commentarii in Proverbia Solomonis The End of S. THEOPHILUS 's Life THE LIFE OF S. MELITO BISHOP of SARDIS M. Burg. sculp S. MELITO His Countrey and Birth-place His excellent Parts and Learning His being made Bishop of Sardis His coelibacy His Prophetic gifts The Persecution under Marcus Aurelius Melito his Apology for the Christians A fragment of it cited out of Eusebius The great advantages of Christianity to the Empire His endeavour to compose the Paschal Controversie His Book concerning that Subject His journey to Jerusalem to search what Books of the Old Testament were received by that Church The Copy of his Letter to his Brother Onesimus concerning the Canon of the Old Testament What Books admitted by the ancient Church Solomons Proverbs stiled by the Ancients the Book of Wisdom His death and burial The great variety of his works Vnjustly suspected of dangerous notions An account given of the titles of two of his Books most liable to suspicion His Writings enumerated I. S MELITO was born in Asia and probably at Sardis
the Metropolis of Lydia a great and ancient City the Seat of the Lydian Kings it was one of the Seven Churches to which S. John wrote Epistles and wherein he takes notice of some that durst own and stand up for God and Religion in that great degeneracy that was come upon it He was a man of admirable parts enriched with the furniture of all useful Learning acute and eloquent but especially conversant in the paths of Divine Knowledge having made deep enquiries into all the more uncommon parts and speculations of the Christian Doctrine He was for his singular eminency and usefulness chosen Bishop of Sardis though we cannot exactly define the time which were I to conjecture I should guess it about the latter end of Antoninus Pius his reign or the begining of his Successors He filled up all the parts of a very excellent Governour and Guide of Souls whose good he was careful to advance both by Word and Writing Which that he might attend with less solicitude and distraction he not onely kept himself within the compass of a single life but was more then ordinarily exemplary for his Chastity and Sobriety his self-denial and contempt of the World upon which account he is by Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus a Ap. Euseb l. 5. c. 24. p. 191. stiled an Eunuch that is in our Saviours explication one of those who make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heavens sake who for the service of Religion and the hopes of a better life are content to deny themselves the comforts of a married state and to renounce even the lawful pleasures of this World And God who delights to multiply his Grace upon pious and holy souls crowned his other Vertues with the gift of Prophesie for so b Ap. Hieron de Script in Melit Tertullian tells us that he was accounted by the Orthodox Christians as a Prophet and Polycrates says c Loc. supr citat of him that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in all things governed and directed by the afflatus and suggestion of the Holy Ghost Accordingly in the Catalogue d Ap Eâ—seb l. 4. c. 26. p. 147. of his Writings we find one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the right way of living and concerning Prophets and another concerning Prophesie II. IT was about the year CLXX and the tenth e Eâ—sâ—b Chron. ad Ann. CLXXI. of M. Antoninus his Brother L. Verus having died the year before of an Apoplexy as he sate in his Chariot when the Persecution grew high against the Christians greedy and malicious men taking occasion from the Imperial Edicts lately published by all the methods of cruelty and rapine to oppress and spoil innocent Christians Whereupon as others so especially f Eâ—seb H. Eccl. loc supr citat S. Melito presents an Apology and humble Supplication in their behalf to the Emperour wherein among other things he thus bespeaks him If these things Sir be done by your Order let them be thought well done For a righteous Prince will not at any time command what is unjust and we shall not think much to undergo the award of such a death This onely request we beg that your self would please first to examine the case of these resolute persons and then impartially determine whether they deserve punishment and death or safety and protection But if this new Edict and Decree which ought not to have been proclaimed against the most barbarous Enemies did not come out with your cognizance and consent we humbly pray and that with the greater importunity that you would not suffer us to be any longer exposed to this public rapine III. AFTER this he put him in mind how much the Empire had prospered since the rise of Christianity and that none but the worst of his Predecessors had entertained an implacable spight against the Christians This new Sect of Philosophy says he which we profess heretofore flourished among the Barbarians by which probably he means the Jews Afterwards under the reign of Augustus your Predecessor it spread it self over the Provinces of your Empire commencing with a happy omen to it since which time the Majesty and Greatness of the Roman Empire hath mightily increased whereof you are the wished-for Heir and Successor and together with your Son shall so continue especially while you protect that Religion which begun with Augustus and grew up together with the Empire and for which your Predecessors had together with other Rites of Worship some kind of reverence and regard And that our Religion which was bred up with the prosperity of the Empire was born for public good there is this great Argument to convince you that since the reign of Augustus there has no considerable mischief happened but on the contrary all things according to every ones desire have fallen out glorious and successful None but Nero and Domitian instigated by cruel and ill-minded men have attempted to reproach and calumniate our Religion whence sprang the common slanders concerning us the injudicious Vulgar greedily entertaining such reports without any strict examination But your Parents of Religious Memory gave a check to this Ignorance and injustice by frequent Rescripts reproving those who made any new attempts in this matter Among whom was your Grandfather Adrian who wrote as to several others so to Fundanus the Proconsul of Asia and your Father at what time your self was Colleague with him in the Empire wrote to several Cities particularly to Larissaea Thessalonica Athens and all the Cities of Greece that they should not create any new disturbance about this affair And for your self who have the same opinion of us which they had and a great deal better more becoming a good man and a Philosopher we promise our selves that you will grant all our Petitions and Requests An Address managed with great prudence and ingenuous freedom and which striking in with other Apologies presented about the same time did not a little contribute to the general quiet and prosperity of Christians IV. NOR was he so wholly swallowed up with care for the general Peace of Christians as to neglect the particular good of his own or neighbour Churches During the Government of Servilius Paulus Proconsul of Asia Sagaris Bishop of Laodicea had suffered Martyrdom in the late persecution a Ipse Milet. ap Euseb l. 4. c. 26. p. 147. at what time the controversie about the Paschal solemnity was hotly ventilated in that Church some strangers probably urging the observation of the Festival according to the Roman usage celebrating it upon the Lords-day contrary to the custom of those Churches who had ever kept it upon the fourteenth day of the Moon according to the manner of the Jews For the quieting of which contention Melito presently wrote two Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the Passover wherein no doubt he treated at large of the celebration of Easter according to the observation of the Asian Churches and therefore Polycrates
in his Letter to Pope Victor particularly reckons b Ap. Euseb l. 5. c. 24. p. 191. Sagaris and Melito among the chief Champions of the Cause This Paschal Book of S. Melito was mentioned also by c Ap. Euseb ubi sâ—pr p. 147. Clemens of Alexandria in a Tract concerning the same subject wherein he confesses that he was moved to that undertaking by the discourse which Melito had published upon that subject V. HOW unwearied is true goodness and a love to souls how willing to digest any difficulties by which anothers happiness may be advanced his brother Onesimus had desired of him to remark such passages of the Old Testament as principally made for the confirmation of the Christian Religion and to let him know how many of those Books were admitted into the holy Canon Wherein that he might at once throughly satisfie both his brother and himself he took a journey on purpose into the East that is I suppose to Jerusalem where he was likeliest to receive full satisfaction in this matter and where having informed himself he gave his Brother at his return an account of it The Letter it self because but short and containing so authentic an evidence what Books of the Old Testament were received by the ancient Church we shall here subjoin Melito to his Brother Onesimus greeting FOR AS MVCH as out of your great love to and delight in the Holy Scriptures you have oft desired me to collect such passages out of the Law and the Prophets as relate to our Saviour and the several parts of our Christian Faith and to be certainly informed of the Books of the Old Testament how many in number and in what order they were written I have endeavoured to comply with your desires in this affair For I know your great zeal and care concerning the Faith and how much you desire to be instructed in matters of Religion and especially out of your love to God how infinitely you prefer these above all other things and are solicitous about your eternal salvation In order hereunto I travelled into the East and being arrived at the place where these things were done and published and having accurately informed myself of the Books of the Old Testament I have sent you the following account The five Books of Moses Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Jesus or Joshua the son of Nun Judges Ruth the four Books of Kings Two Books of Chronicles The Psalms of David The Proverbs of Solomon which is Wisdom Ecclesiastes the Song of Songs Job The Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah the twelve minor Prophets in one Book Daniel Ezekiel Esdras or Ezra Out of all which I have made Collections which I have digested into six Books VI. IN which Catalogue we may observe the Book of Esther is omitted as it is also by b Synops S. Script p. 471. S. Athanasius c Carm. XXXIII p. 98. Toâ— 2. Gregory Natâ—ianzen and d Sect. Act. II. p. 408. Lcontius in their enumeration of the Books of the holy Canon though for what reason is uncertain unless as e Biblioth S. l. 1. p. 5. Sixtus Senensis not improbably conjectures because it was not in those times looked upon as of such unquestionable credit and authority as the rest the spurious additions at the end of it causing the whole Book to be called in question Nor is here any particular mention made of Nehemiah probably because it was anciently comprehended under that of Esdras And by that of Wisdom we see is not meant the Apocryphal Book called the Wisdom of Solomon as f De Script Eccl. in Melit ad Ann. 150. Bellarmine and most Writers of that Church confidently enough assert but his Proverbs of which g Lib. 4. c. 22. p. 143. Eusebius expresly tells us that not onely Hegesippus but Irenaeus and all the Ancients were wont to call the Proverbs of Solomon by the name of Wisdo◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wisdom containing a System of all kind of vertues And indeed that Melito in this place could mean no other the words of his Letter as restored by Valesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Nicephorus his quotation and the faith of all the best and most ancient Manuscrips puts the case beyond all peradventure VII AT last this good man broken with infinite pains and labours and wearied with the inquietudes of a troublesome World retreated to the place of rest The time and manner of his death is unknown this onely we find h Polyâ—rat Fp. ap Euseb ubi p. 191. that he died and lies buried at Sardis waiting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Episcopal Visitation from Heaven when our Lord shall come and raise him up from the dead He was a man besides the piety of his mind and the strictness and innocency of his life of great parts and learning he had elegans declamatorium ingenium as i Apud Hieron de Script in Melit Tertullian said of him a smart elegant Wit able to represent things with their most proper aggravations He wrote Books almost in all kinds of Subjects Divine Moral and Philosophical the Monuments of no less Industry then Learning which are all long since lost some very few fragments onely excepted I know there are that suspected him to have had notions less Orthodox about some of the great principles of Religion which I confess seems to me a most uncharitable and unjust reflection upon so holy and so good a man especially seeing the conjecture is founded upon the meer titles of some of his Books none of the Books themselves being extant and of those titles a fair account might be given to satisfie any sober and impartial man there being but two that can be liable to exception the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Deo not Corporeo however k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod. Quest XX. in Genes Tom. 1. pag. 21. Theodoret and as it seems from Origen understands it but Corporato as Tertullian would express it de Deo corpore induto as Rufinus of old translated it concerning God clothed with a body or the Word made flesh the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most Copies read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Creation and Generation of Christ Where admit it to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Creation he alluded I doubt not to that of Solomon the Lord possessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 created me in the beginning of his way And evident it is that before the rise of the Arrian Controversies the l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constit Apost l. 5. c. 19. col 370. Caterum ne tune quidem solus habebat enim secum quem habebat in semetipsâ— rationem suam scilicet hanâ— Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It aque Sophiam quoque exaudi ut secundam peâ—sonam conditam Primo Dominus creavit me initium viarum in opera sua c. nam ut primum Deus voluit
The issue was that Gallienus his Party prevailed to let in Theodotus and his Army who seized the Tyrant and sent him to the Emperour who caused him to be strangled in Prison XIII HOW stormy and tempestuous is the Region of this Lower World one Wave perpetually pressing upon the neck of another The Persecution was seconded by a Civil War and a cruel Famine and that no sooner over but a terrible Plague followed close at the heels of it one of the most dreadful and amazing Judgments which God sends upon mankind It over-ran City and Country sweeping away what the fury of the late Wars had left there not having been known saith the Historian a Zosim Histoâ— l. 1. p. 347. in any Age so great a destruction of mankind This Pestilence which some say b Pomp. Lâ—t in vit Galli p.m. 1235. â—utrop H. Rom. l 9. p. 1924. came first out of Aethiopia began in the reign of Gallus and Volusian and ever since more or less straggled over most parts of the Roman Empire and now kept its fatal residence at Alexandria where by an impartial severity it mowed down both Gentiles and Christians and turned the Paschal solemnity it being then the time c Dionys ib. c. 22. p. 268. of Easter into days of weeping and mourning all places were filled with dying groans and sorrows either for friends already dead or those that were ready to depart it being now as formerly under that great Egyptian Plague and something worse there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not an house where there was not only one but many dead In this sad and miserable time how vastly different was the carriage of the Christians and the Heathens The Christians out of the superabundance of their kindness and charity without any regard to their own health and life boldly ventured into the thickest dangers dayly visiting assisting and ministring to their sick and infected brethren chearfully taking their pains and distempers upon them and themselves expiring with them And when many of those whom they thus attended recovered and lived they died themselves as if by a prodigious and unheard of charity they had willingly taken their diseases upon them and died to save them from death And these the most considerable both of Clergy and People chearfully embracing a death that deserved a title little less then that of Martyrdom They embraced the bodies of the dead closed their eyes laid them out washed and dressed them up in their funeral weeds took them upon their shoulders and carried them to their Graves it not being long before others did the same offices for them The Gentiles on the contrary put off all sense of humanity when any began to fall sick they presently cast them out ran from their dearest friends and relations and either left them half dead in the high-ways or threw them out as soon as they were dead dreading to fall under the same infection which yet with all their care and diligence they could not avoid XIV NOR were these the onely troubles the good man was exercised with he had contests of another nature that swallowed up his time and care Sabellius a Libyan born at Ptolemais a City of Pentapolis had lately started d Dion Epist ad Sex ib. c. 6. p. 252. Niâ—â—pb l. 6. c. 26. p 419. dangerous notions and opinions about the doctrin of the holy Trinity affirming the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be but one subsistence one person under three several names which in the time of the Old Testament gave the Law under the notion of the Father in the New was made man in the capacity of the Son and descended afterwards upon the Apostles in the quality of the Holy Ghost Dionysius as became a vigilant Pastor of his Flock presently undertakes the man and while he managed the cause with too much eagerness and fervency of disputation he bent the stick too much the other way asserting not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Basil ad Mâ—gâ— Phiâ—â—â— Epist XLI p 60. a distinction of Persons but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a difference of Essence and an inequality of Power and Glory For which he is severely censured by S. Basil and some of the Ancients as one of those that mainly opened the gap to those Arrian impieties that after broke in upon the World Though S. Ubi sâ—pr Basil could not but so far do him right as to say that it was not any ill meaning but onely an over-vehement desire to oppose his adversary that betrayed him into those unwary and inconsiderate assertions Some Bishops of Pentapolis immediately took hold of this and going over to Rome represented his dangerous errours where the case was discussed in a Synod and Letters written to Dionysius about it who in a set Apology answered for himself and declared his sense more explicitly in this controversie as may be seen at large in a De Sentent Dionys Tom. 1. p. 548. c. vid Phot. Cod. CCXXXII col 901. Athanasius who has with infinite pains vindicated our Dionysius his Predecessor as a man sound and orthodox and who was never condemned by the Governours of the Church for impious opinions or that he held those abominable tenets which Arrius broached afterwards And certainly S. Basil might and would have passed a milder censure had he either perused all Dionysius his Writings or remembred how much he concerned himself to clear S. Gregory of Neocaesarea Dionysius his contemporary from the very same charge for which he could not but confess he had given too just occasion XV. NO sooner was this controversie a little over but he was engaged in another b Euseb ibid. c. 24. p. 270. Nepos an Egyptian Bishop lately dead a man eminent for his constancy in the Faith his industry and skill in the holy Scriptures the many Psalms and Hymns he had composed which the Brethren sung in their public Meetings had not long since fallen into the errour of the Millenaries and had published Books to shew that the promises made in the Scriptures to good men were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the sense and opinion of the Jews to be literally understood and that there was to be a thousand years State upon Earth wherein they were to enjoy sensual pleasures and delights Endeavouring to make good his assertions from some passages in S. John's Revelation stiling his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Confutation of Allegorical Expositors This Book was greedily caught up and read by many and advanced into that esteem and reputation that Law and Prophets and the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles were neglected and thrown aside and the doctrine of this Book cried up as containing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great and extraordinary mystery concealed before from the World the more Simple and Unwary being taught to disband all sublime and magnificent thoughts of our Lords glorious coming the Resurrection and final
yet afterwards he changed his mind and gave ear to those who traduced them as an impious and infamous generation a people that designed nothing but Treason and Rebellion against the State Whereupon he not only suffered his Ministers and Governours of Provinces to treat them with all imaginable cruelty but he himself gave out Edicts forbidding any under the most terrible penalties to profess either the Jewish or Christian Religion which were executed with that rigor and inhumanity that the Christians of those days verily believed that the times of Antichrist did then take place Martyrs of note whom this Persecution sent to heaven were Victor Bishop of Rome Leonidas Origen's Father beheaded at Alexandria Serenus Heraclides Heron another Serenus and Herais a Catechumen all Origen's Scholars Potamiaena an illustrius Virgin and her Mother Marcella after various torments committed to the flames and Basilides one of the Officers that had led them to execution Faelicitas and Perpetua two noble Ladies at Tuburbis in Mauritania the one brought to bed but the day before the other at that time a Nurse Speratus and his companions beheaded at Carthage by the command of Saturninus the Proconsul Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons and many thousands of his people martyred with him whose names and sufferings though unknown to us are honourably written in the Book of life XXV THE next that created any disturbance to the Christians was Maximinus by birth a Thracian a man of base and obscure originals of a mean and sordid education he had been first a Shepherd then a High-way man and last of all a Souldier He was of strength and stature beyond the ordinary size and standard and his manners were as robust and boisterous as his constitution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod lib. 〈◊〉 in Maxim p. 253. and savoured wholly of the rudeness of his Education Never did a more cruel Beast says the Historian a Capitol in vit Maxim c. 9. p. 609. tread upon the earth relying altogether upon his strength and upon that account reckoning himself almost immortal He seiz'd upon whatever came in his way plundering and destroying without any difference without any Process or form of Law his strength was the law of justice and his will the measure of his actions He spared none but especially killed all that knew any thing of his mean descent that none might reproach him with the obscurity of his birth Having slain his Master Alexander Mammaeus that excellent and incomparable Prince he usurped the Government and manag'd it suitable to his own maxim that the Empire could not be maintained but by cruelty The SEVENTH PERSECUTION was raised by him Indeed Sulpitius Severus admits not this into the number and therefore makes no more than nine Pagan Persecutions reserving the tenth for the times of Antichrist But Eusebius b H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 38 p. 228. expresly affirms that Maximinus stirr'd up a Persecution against the Christians and that out of hatred to his Predecessor in whose Family many Christians had found shelter and patronage but that it was almost wholly levelled against the Bishops and Ministers of Religion as the prime authors and propagators of Christianity Whence Firmilian Bishop of Cappadocia in his Letter to S. Cyprian c Inter Epist â—â—pr p. 14â— says of it that it was not a general but a local Persecution that rag'd in some particular places and especially in that Province where he liv'd Serenianus the President driving the Christians out of all those Countries He adds that many dreadful Earthquakes happening in those parts whereby Towns and Cities were overturned and swallowed up added life and vigor to the Persecution it being usual with the Gentiles if a Famine or Pestilence an Earthquake or Inundation happened presently to fall foul upon the Christians and conclude them the causes of all those evils and mischiefs that came upon the world And this Origen d 〈…〉 meant when he tells us that he knew some places overturned with earthquakes the cause whereof the Heathens cast upon the Christians for which their Churches were persecuted and burnt to the ground and that not only the common people but the wiser sort among them did not stick openly to affirm that these things came for the sake of the Christians Hereupon he wrote his Book De Martyrio for the comfort and support of those that suffered in this evil time XXVI AFTER Maximinus reign'd Pupienus and Balbinus to them succeeded Gordian and to him Philip all which time for at least ten years together the Church enjoy'd a competent calmness and tranquillity when Decius was in a manner forced in his own defence to take the Empire upon him A man of great activity and resolution a stout Commander a wise and prudent Governour so universally acceptable for his modest and excellent carriage that by the Sentence of the Senate he was voted not inferiour to Trajan and had the Title of Optimus adjudged to him But he was a bitter and implacable enemy to Christians against whom he rais'd the EIGHTH PERSECUTION which proved though the shortest the hottest of all the Persecutions that had hitherto afflicted and oppressed the Church The Ecclesiastic a Euseb H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 39. p. 234. Chron. ad Ann. CCLII Oros l. 7. c. 21. fol. 310. Niceph. l. 5. c. 27. p. 377. Historians generally put it upon the account of Decius his hatred to his Predecessor Philip for being a Christian whereas it is more truly to be ascribed to his zeal for the cause of declining Paganism which he saw fatally undermin'd by Christianity and that therefore there was no way to support the one but by the ruine of the other We have more than once taken notice of it in some of the following Lives and therefore shall say the less here Decius reigned somewhat above two years during which time the storm was very black and violent and no place but felt the dreadful effects of it They were every where driven from their houses spoil'd in their estates tormented in their bodies whips and prisons fires and wild beasts scalding pitch and melted wax sharp stakes and burning pincers were but some of the methods of their treatment and when the old ones were run over new were daily invented and contriv'd The laws of nature and humanity were broken down friend betray'd his friend and the nearest relative his own Father or Brother Every one was ambitious to promote the Imperial Edicts and thought it meritorious to bring a Christian to the stake This Persecution swept away at Alexandria Julian Chronion Epimachus Alexander Ammon Zeno Ptolomy Ammonaria Mercuria Isidore and many others mentioned by Dionysius Bishop of that Church at Carthage Mappalicus Bassus Fortunio Paulus Donatus Martialis c. it crown'd Babylas Bishop of Antioch Alexander of Jerusalem Fabian Bishop of Rome Victoria Anatolia Parthenius Marcellianus and thousands more Nicephorus affirming it to be easier to count the Sands of the shore than
the Prophet meant it of himself or another desired S. Philip to explain it who being courteously taken up into his Chariot shewed him that all this was meant of and had been accomplished in the Holy Jesus taking occasion thence to discourse to him of his Nativity his Actions and Miracles his Sufferings and Resurrection from the dead and his Ascension into Heaven declaring to him the whole system of the Christian Faith His discourse wanted not its desired effect the Eunuch was fully satisfied in the Messiaship and Divine Authority of our Saviour and wanted nothing but the solemn Rite of Initiation to make him a Christian Proselyte Being come to a place where there was conveniency of Water he desired that he might be baptized and having professed his Faith in the Son of God and his hearty embracing the Christian Religion they both went down into the Water where Philip baptized him and washed this Aethiopian white XI The place where this Eunuch was baptized a Annot. in Act. 8.36 Beza by a very wide mistake makes to be the River Eleutherus which ran near the Foot of Mount Lebanon in the most Northern Borders of Palestine quite at the other end of the Countrey b Descript Terr Sanct. p. m. 330. Brocard places it near Nehel Escol or the Torrent of the Grape the place whence the Spies fetched the bunch of Grapes on the left side of which Valley about half a League runs a Brook not far from Sicelech in which this Eunuch was baptized But c Euseh de loc Hebr. in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 66. Eusebius and d Hieron de loc Hebr. in voc Besur S. Hierom followed herein by e Ad. Martyr VIII Idus Jun. Ado the Martyrologist more probably place it near Bethsoron where we are told f Cotovic Itin. l. 2. c. 9. p. 247. it is still to be seen at this day a Village 20 miles distant from Jerusalem in the way between it and Hebron near to which there was a Spring bubling up at the foot of a Hill S. Hierom adds that it was again swallowed up in the same ground that produced it and that here it was that Philip baptized the Ethiopian Which was no sooner done but Heaven set an extraordinary seal to his Conversion and Admission into the Christian Faith especially if it be true what some very ancient Manuscripts add to the passage V. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—od Alexand. in Bibl. Reg. Angl. aliique plures Codd MSs. that being baptized the Holy Ghost fell upon him furnishing him with miraculous gifts and powers and that Philip was immediately snatched away from him XII Though the Eunuch had lost his Tutor yet he rejoiced that he had found so great a treasure the knowledge of Christ and of the true way to Heaven and he went on his journey with infinite Peace and Tranquillity of mind satisfied with the happiness that had befallen him Being returned into his Country he preached and propagated the Christian Faith and spread abroad the glad tidings of a Saviour in which respect g Com. in Esai 53. T. 5. p. 195. S. Hierom stiles him the Apostle of the Ethiopians and the h Euseb H. Eccl. l. 2. c. p. 40 Cyril Catech. XVII p. 457. Psal 68.31 Ancients generally make that prediction of David fulfilled in him Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands unto God and hence the Ethiopians are wont to glory as appears by the i Apud Brov. ubi supr vid. Godigâ— de rebus Acyssin 1. c. 18 p. 113. Confession made by the Ahyssin Embassador that by means of this Eunuch they received Baptism almost the first of any Christians in the World Indeed they have a constant tradition that for many Ages they had the knowledge of the true God of Israel from the time of the Queen of Sheba and Seba being the name of this Countrey as we noted before makes it probable she might govern here her name they tell us was Maqueda who having learnt from Solomon the knowledge of the Jewish Law and received the Books of their Religion taught them her Subjects and sent her Son Meilech to Solomon to be instructed and educated by him the Story whereof may be read in that Confession more at large I add no more concerning the Eunuch then what k Synops ubi supr vid. etiam Sophr. ap Hier. in Cresâ— Dorotheus and others relate that he is reported to have suffered Martyrdom and to have been honourably buried and that diseases were cured and other miracles done at his Tomb even in his time The Traditions of the Countrey more particularly tell us that the Eunuch being returned home first converted his Mistress Candace to the l Ap. Godign loc â—itat p. 117. Christian Faith and afterwards by her leave propagated it throughout Aethiopia till meeting with S. Matthew the Apostle by their joint-endeavours they expelled Idolatry out of all those parts Which done he crossed the Red Sea and preached the Christian Religion in Arabia Persia India and many other of those Eastern Nations till at length in the Island Taprobana since called Ceilon he sealed his Doctrine with his blood XIII GOD who always affords what is sufficient is not wont to multiply means farther then is necessary Philip having done the errand upon which he was sent was immediately caught and carried away no doubt by the ministry of an Angel and landed at Azotus anciently Ashdod a Philistin City in the borders of the Tribe of Dan famous of old for the Temple and residence in it of the Idol Dagon and the captivity of the Ark kept for some time in this place and now enlightned with S. Philips preaching who went up and down publishing the Gospel in all the parts hereabouts till he arrived at Caesarea This City was heretofore called Turris Stratonis and afterwards rebuilt and enlarged by Herod the Great and in honour of Augustus Caesar to whom he was greatly obliged by him called Caesarea for whose sake also he erected in it a stately palace of Marble called Herods Judgment Hall wherein his Nephew ambitious of greater honours and acclamations then became him had that fatal execution served upon him It was a place remarkable for many devout and pious men here dwelt Cornelius who together with his Family being baptized by Peter was in that respect the first fruits of the Gentile World hither came Agabus the Prophet who foretold S. Paul his imprisonment and martyrdom here S. Paul himself was kept prisoner and made those brave and generous Apologies for himself first before Felix as afterwards before Fesius and Agrippa Here also our S. Philip had his House and Family to which probably he now retired and where he spent the remainder of his life for here many years after we find S. Paul and his company Act. 21 8 9. coming from Ptolemais in their journey to Jerusalem entering into the house of Philip the Evangelist
of his diet he had weakned his appetite and rendred his stomach unfit to serve the ends of nature Insomuch that S. Paul was forced to impose it as a kind of law upon him 1 Tim. 5.23 that he should no longer drink water but use a little wine for his stomachs sake and his often infirmities And yet in the midst of this weak tottering carcase there dwelt a vigorous and sprightly mind a soul acted by a mighty zeal and inspired with a true love to God he thought no difficulties great no dangers formidable that he might be serviceable to the purposes of Religion and the interest of souls he flew from place to place with a quicker speed and a more unwearied resolution then could have been expected from a stronger and a healthier person now to Ephesus then to Corinth oft into Macedonia then to Italy crossing Sea and Land and surmounting a thousand hazards and oppositions in all which as a Loc. citat pag. 7. Chrysostoms words are the weakness of his body did not prejudice the divine Philosophy of his mind so strangely active and powerful is Zeal for God so nimbly does it wing the soul with the swiftest flight And certainly as he adds as a great and robust body is little better for its health which has nothing but a dull and a heavy soul to inform it so bodily weakness is no great impediment where there is a quick and a generous mind to animate and enliven it X. THESE excellent Vertues infinitely endeared him to S. Paul who seems to have had a very passionate kindness for him never mentioning him without great tenderness and titles of reverence and respect sometimes styling him his son 1 Thess 3.2 his brother his fellow-labourer Timotheus our brother and Minister of God and our fellow-labourer in the Gospel of Christ sometimes with additions of a particular affection and honourable regard 2 Tim. 1.2 Timothy my dearly beloved son Timotheus who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord and to the Church at Philippi more expresly I trust to send Timotheus shortly to you Philip. 2.19 20 c. for I have no man like-minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equally dear to me as my self who will naturally care for your state for all seek their own not the things that are Jesus Christs but ye know the proof of him that as a son with the father he hath served with me in the Gospel And because he knew that he was a young man and of a temper easily capable of harsh and unkind impressions he entered a particular caution on his behalf with the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 16.10 11. If Timotheus come see that he may be with you without fear for he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do let no man therefore despise him but conduct him forth in peace that he may come unto me Instances of a great care and tenderness and which plainly suppose Timothy to have been an extraordinary person His very calling him his dearly beloved son b Homil. 1. in 2 Tim. p. 1626. Chrysostom thinks a sufficient argument of his Vertue For such affection not being founded in Nature can flow from nothing but Vertue and Goodness the lovely and essential ornaments of a divine and a holy soul We love our children not onely because witty or handsom kind and dutiful but because they are ours and very often for no other reason nor can we do otherwise so long as we are subject to the Impressions and the Laws of Nature Whereas true Goodness and Vertue have no other Arts but their own naked worth and beauty to recommend them nor can by any other argument challenge regard and veneration from us XI SOME dispute there has been among the Writers of the Church of Rome whether our S. Timothy was the same with him to whom Dionysius the Areopagite dedicates the books said to be written by him and troops of arguments are mustered on either side But the foundation of the controversie is quite taken away with us who are sufficiently assured that those Books were written some hundreds of years after S. Denys his head was laid in the dust However it may not be improper to remarque that besides ours Bishop of Ephesus we are a Pet. de Natal Hist SS l. 1.24 Naucler Chron. vol. 2. gener 6. confer Adon. Martyr ad XII Kal. Jul. vid. Usser de primord c. 3. p. 31. told of another S. Timothy Disciple also to S. Paul the son of Pudens and Priscilla who is said to have lived unto a great Age till the times of Antoninus the Emperour and Pius Bishop of Rome and that he came over into Britain converted and baptized Lucius King of this Island the first King that ever embraced the Christian Faith Pius Bishop of Rome in a b Concil Tom. 1. col 576. Letter to Justus Bishop of Vienna which though suspected by most is yet owned by c Bar. ad Ann. 166. n. 1.2 Baronius reckons him among the Presbyters that had been educated by the Apostles and had come to Rome and tells us that he had suffered martyrdom accordingly the d Martyrol Rom. ad Mart. 24. p. 190. Roman Martyrology informs us that he obtained the Crown of Martyrdom under Antoninus the Emperour A Story which as I cannot confute so I am not over-forward to believe nor is it of moment enough to my purpose more particularly to enquire about it The End of S. TIMOTHY's Life THE LIFE OF S. TITUS BISHOP of CRETE MICHAEL BURGHERS DIELINE ET SCULP S. Titus His Country enquired into The report of his noble extract His education and conversion to Christianity His acquaintance with and accompanying S. Paul to the Synod at Jerusalem S. Pauls refusing to circumcise him and why His attending S. Paul in his travels Their arrival in Crete Titus constituted by him Bishop of that Island The testimonies of the Ancients to that purpose The intimations of it in S. Pauls Epistle to him S. Pauls censure of the People of Crete justified by the account which Gentile Writers give of their evil manners A short view of the Epistle it self The directions concerning Ecclesiastic persons His charge to exhort and convince gain-sayers Crete abounding with Heretical Teachers Jewish Fables and Genealogies what and whence derived The Aeones and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the ancient Gnostics borrowed from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Heathen Poets This shewn by particular instances Titus commanded to attend S. Paul at Nicopolis His coming to him into Macedonia His following S. Paul to Rome and departure into Dalmatia The Story of Pliny the Youngers being converted by him in Crete censured His age and death The Church erected to his memory I. THE ancient Writers of the Church make little mention of this holy man who and whence he was is not known but by uncertain probabilities a Hâ—riâ— 1. in Tit pag 1693. S. Chrysostom
either because 't was their humor to lay their own children at other mens doors or to decline the censure which the notions they published were likely to expose them to or principally to conciliate the greater esteem and value for them by thrusting them forth under the name of those for whom the World has a just regard and veneration As for Monsieur Dailles conjecture De Script Dionys c. 39. p. 221. that the reason why several learned Volumes were written and fastned upon the Fathers of the ancient Church was to vindicate them from that common imputation of the Gentiles who were wont to charge the Christians for being a rude and illiterate generation whose Books were stuffed with nothing but plain simple Doctrines and who were strangers to all kind of Learning and Eloquence that to obviate this objection several took upon them to compose Books full of Learning and Philosophy which they published under the names of the first preachers and propagaters of the Christian Faith and that this particularly was the case of the Recognitions ascribed to Clemens and the Writings attributed to Dionysius The first I grant very likely and rational the Recognitions being probably written about the second Century when as appears from Celsus his Book against the Christians this objection was most rife and when few learned discourses had been published by them But can by no means allow it as to the second Dionysius his Works being written long after the Learning and Eloquence of the Christians had sufficiently approved it self to the World to the shame and conviction the envy and admiration of its greatest Enemies And there was far less need of them for this purpose if it be true what Daille himself so confidently asserts and so earnestly contends for that they were not written till the beginning of the sixth Century about the year DXX when there were few learned Gentiles left to make this objection Heathenism being almost wholly banished out of the civilized World XVI BUT whoever was their genuine Parent or upon what account soever he wrote them it is plain that he laid the foundation of a mystical and unintelligible Divinity among Christians and that hence proceeded all those wild Rosicrucean notions which some men are so fond of and the life and practice whereof they cry up as the very soul and perfection of the Christian State And that this Author does immediately minister to this design let the Reader judge by one instance and I assure him 't is none of the most obscure and intricate passages in these Books I have set it down in its own Language as well as ours not being confident of my own version though expressed word for word for I pretend to no great faculty in translating what I do not understand Thus then he discourses concerning the knowledge of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys de Divin Nomin cap. 7. p. 238. God saith he is known in all things and without all things he is known by knowledge and by ignorance there is both a cogitation of him and a word and a science and a touch and a sense and an opinion and an imagination and a name and all other things and yet he is neither thought nor spoken nor named He is not any thing of those things that are nor is he known in any of the things that are he is both all things in all and nothing in nothing out of all things he is known to all and out of nothing to nothing These are the things which we rightly discourse concerning God And this again is the most divine knowledge of God that which is known by ignorance according to the union that is above understanding when the mind getting at a distance from all things that are and having dismissed it self is united to those super-illustrious Beams from whence and where it is enlightned in the unfathomable depth of wisdom More of this and the like stuff is plentifully scattered up and down these Books And if this be not mystical and profound enough I know not what is and which certainly any man but one well versed in this sort of Theology would look upon as a strange Jargon of non sense and contradiction And yet this is the height of devotion and piety which some men earnestly press after and wherein they glory As if a man could not truly understand the mysteries of Religion till he had resigned his reason nor be a Christian without first becoming an Enthusiast nor be able to speak sense unless in a Language which none can understand Writings falsly attributed to him De Coelesti Hierarchia Lib. I. De Divinis Nominibus I. De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia I. De Mystica Theologia I. Epistolae ad Caium IV. Ad Dorotheum I. Ad Sosipatrum Epistola I. Ad Polycarpum I. Ad Demophilum I. Ad Titum I. Ad Joannem Evangelistam I. Ad Apollophanem I. The End of S. DIONYSIUS's Life THE LIFE OF S. CLEMENS BISHOP of ROME Michael Burghers delineavit et sculpsit S. CLEMENS ROMANUS His birth-place His Parents Kindred Education and Conversion to Christianity noted out of the Books extant under his name His relation to the Imperial Family shewed to be a mistake His being made Bishop of Rome The great confusion about the first Bishops of that See A probable account endeavoured concerning the order of S. Clemens his succession and the reconciling it with the times of the other Bishops What account given of him in the ancient Epistle to S. James Clemens his appointing Notaries to write the Acts of the Martyrs and dispatching Messengers to propagate the Gospel The Schism in the Church of Corinth and Clemens his Epistle to that Church An enquiry into the time when that Epistle was written The Persecution under Trajan His proceeding against the Heteriae A short relation of S. Clemens his troubles out of Simeon Metaphrastes His banishment to Cherson Damnatio ad Metalla what The great success of his Ministry in the place of his exile S. Clemens his Martyrdom and the kind of it The anniversary miracle reported on the day of his solemnity The time of his Martyrdom His genuine Writings His Epistle to the Corinthians the commendations given of it by the Ancients It s Stile and Character The great modesty and humility that appears in it The fragment of his second Epistle Supposititious Writings The Recognitions their several titles and different editions Their Antiquity what A conjecture concerning the Author of them The censures of the Ancients concerning the corrupting of them considered The Epistle to S. James I. IT makes not a little for the honour of this Venerable Apostolical Man for of him all antiquity understands it that he was Fellow-labourer with S. Paul and one of those whose names were written in the Book of Life He was born at Rome upon Mount Caelius as besides others the a Vit. Clement Concil Tom. 1. col 74. Pontifical under the name of Damasus
particularly a Epipâ— loc cit noted of him that besides the Scriptures he traded in certain Apocryphal Writings He wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Euseb H. Eccl. ubi supr de Script Eccl. in Bardes which S. Hierom renders infinite Volumes written indeed for the most part in Syriac but which his Scholars translated into Greek though he himself was sufficiently skilful in that Language as Epiphanius notes In the number of these Books might be the Recognitions plausibly fathered upon S. Clemens who was notoriously known to be S. Peters Companion and Disciple and were but some of his many Books now extant I doubt not but a much greater affinity both in stile and notions would appear between them But this I propose onely as a probable conjecture and leave it at the Readers pleasure either to reject or entertain it I am not ignorant that both c Apol. adv Rufin p. 219. S. Hierom and d Phot. Cod. CXII col 289. Photius charge these Books with haeretical Opinions especially some derogatory to the honour of the Son of God which it may be Rufinus who e Apolog. pro Orig. ap Hieron Tom. 4. p. 195. confesses the same thing and supposes them to have been inserted by some haeretical hand concealed in his Translation Nay f Haeres XXX p. 65. Epiphanius tells us that the Ebionites did so extremely corrupt them that they scarce left any thing of S. Clemens sound and true in them which he observes from their repugnancy to his other Writings those Encyclical Epistles of his as he calls them which were read in the Churches But then its plain he means it onely of those Copies which were in the possession of those haeretics probably not now extant nor do any of those particular adulterations which he says they made in them appear in our Books nor in those large and to be sure uncorrupt fragments of Bardesanes and Origen is there the least considerable variation from those Books which we have at this day But of this enough XII THE Epistle to S. James the brother of our Lord is no doubt of equal date with the rest in the close whereof the Author pretends that he was commanded by S. Peter to give him an account of his Travels Discourses and the success of his Ministry under the title of Clemens his Epitome of Peters popular preachings to which he tells him he would next proceed So that this Epistle originally was nothing but a Praeface to S. Peters Acts or Periods the same in effect with the Recognitions and accordingly in the late Edition of the Clementine Homilies which have the very Title mentioned in that Epistle it is found prefixed before them Loc. supra citat This Epistle as Photius tells us varied according to different Editions sometimes pretending that it and the account of S. Peters Acts annexed to it were written by S. Peter himself and by him sent to S. James sometimes that they were written by Clemens at S. Peters instance and command Whence he conjectures that there was a twofold Edition of S. Peters Acts one said to be written by himself the other by Clemens and that when in time the first was lost that pretending to S. Clemens did remain For so he assures us he constantly found it in those many Copies that he met with notwithstanding that the Epistle and Inscription were sometimes different and various By the Original whereof now published appears the fraud of the Factors of the Romish Church who in all Latine Editions have added an Appendix almost twice as large as the Epistle it self And well had it been had this been the onely instance wherein some men to shore up a tottering Cause have made bold with the Writers of the ancient Church His Writings Genuine Epistola ad Corinthios Doubtful Epistola ad Corinth secunda Supposititious Epistola ad Jacobum Fratrem Domini Recognitionum lib. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu Homiliae Clementinae Constitutionum App. lib. 8. Canones Apostolici The End of S. CLEMENS's Life THE LIFE OF S. SIMEON BISHOP of JERUSALEM Micha burgh deli et sculp S. SYMEON HIEROSOLYMITANUS The heedless confounding him with others of the like name His Parents and near Relation to our Saviour The time of his Birth His strict Education and way of Life The Order and Institution of the Rechabites what His conversion to Christianity The great care about a Successor to S. James Bishop of Jerusalem Simeon chosen to that place when and why The causes of the destruction of the Jewish state The original and progress of those Wars briefly related The miserable state of Jerusalem by Siege Pestilence and Famine Jerusalem stormed The burning of the Temple and the rage of the Fire The number of the Slain and Captives The just accomplishment of our Lords predictions The many Prodigies portending this destruction The Christians forewarned to depart before Jerusalem was shut up Their withdrawment to Pella The admirable care of the Divine Providence over them Their return back to Jerusalem when The flourishing condition of the Christian Church there The occasion of S. Simeons Martyrdom The infinite jealousie of the Roman Emperours concerning the line of David Simeons apprehension and crucifixion His singular torments and patience His great age and the time of his death I. IT cannot be unobserved by any that have but looked into the Antiquities of the Church what confusion the identity or similitude of names has bred among Ecclesiastic Writers especially in the more early Ages where the Records are but short and few An instance whereof Vid. Caron Alexandr Olymp. CCXX Ind. I. Traj VII Ann. sequent p. 594. were there no other we have in the person of whom we write Whom some will have to be the same with S. Simon the Cananite one of the twelve Apostles others confound him with Simon one of the four brethren of our Lord while a third sort make all three to be but one and the same person the sound and similitude of names giving birth to the several mistakes For that Simeon of Jerusalem was a person altogether distinct from Simon the Apostle is undeniably evident from the most ancient Martyrologies both of the Greek and the Latine Church where vastly different accounts are given concerning their persons imployments and the time and places of their death Simon the Apostle being martyred in Britain or as others in Persia while Simeon the Bishop is notoriously known to have suffered in Palestine or in Syria Nor are the testimonies of Dorotheus Sophronius or Isidore considerable enough to be weighed against the Authorities of Hegesippus Eusebius Epiphanius and others But of this enough II. S. Simeon was the son of a Hâ—gesip ap Euseb l. 3. c. 11. p. 87. Epiph. Haeres LXVI p. 274. omnia antiqua Martyrologia Adonis Bedae Notkeri Usuardi apud Bolland de Vit. SS ad diem XVIII Febr. pag. 53 54. Cleophas brother to Joseph husband
and such like mischievous passions do proceed which being once driven out the soul presently enjoys a pleasant calmness and tranquillity And being delivered from that yoke of evils that before lay upon its neck it aspires and mounts up to its Creator it being but suitable that it should return to that place from whence it borrowed its original VI. BUT though he laid aside his former Profession he still retained his ancient Garb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Lib. 4. c. 11. p. 125. Eusebius and after him * De script in Justin S. Hierom reports preaching and defending the Christian Religion under his old Philosophic habit which was the Pallium or Cloak the usual badge of the Greek Philosophers different from that which was worn by the ordinary Greeks and which those Christians still kept to who before their conversion had been professed Philosophers So b De Script in Aristid S. Hierom tells us of Aristides the Athenian Philosopher contemporary with Quadratus that under his former habit he became Christs Disciple and c Ap. Euseb l. 6. c. 19. p. 221. Origen of Heraclas afterwards Bishop of Alexandria that giving up himself to the more strict study of Philosophy he put on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Philosophic Habit which he constantly wore even after he became Presbyter of that Church This custom continued long in the Christian Church that those who did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as d H. Eccl. l. 7. c. 37. Socrates speaks enter upon an Ascetic course of life and a more severe profession of Religion always wore the Philosophers Cloak and he tells us of Silvanus the Rhetorician that when he became Christian and professed this Ascetic life he was the first that laid aside the Cloak and contrary to custom put on the common Garb. Indeed it was so common that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 became proverbial among the Heathens when any Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passed by there goes a Greek Impostor because of their being clad after the same manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dion Chrys Orat. LXXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 627. and professing a severer life then ordinary like the Philosophers among the Grecians many of whom notwithstanding were meer cheats and hypocrites and e Epist ad Marcel p. 115. Tom. 1. S. Hierom notes of his time that if such a Christian were not so fine and spruce in his Garb as others presently the common saying was clapt upon him he is an Impostor and a Greek This habit it seems was generally black and sordid enough Whence the Monks who succeeded in this strict and regular course of life are severely noted by the Gentile Writers of those Times under this character * Orat. de Templ p. 10. e Epist ad Marcel p. 115. Tom. 1. Libanius calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 black-coat Monks and says f Ibid. p. 28. of them that the greatest demonstration of their vertue was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk about in mourning garments Much at the same rate g In vit Aedâ—f p. 65. Eunapius describes the Monks of Egypt that they were clad in black and were ambitious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go abroad in the most flovenly and sordid Garb. But it is time to return to our S. Justin who as h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cod. 125 col 304. Photius and i Haeres 46. p. 1â—1 Epiphanius note shewed himself in his words and actions as well as in his habit to be a true Philosopher VII HE came to Rome upon what occasion is uncertain probably about the beginning of Antoninus Pius his reign where he fixed his habitation dwelling as appears from the acts of his Martyrdom about the Timothine Baths which were upon the Viminal Mount Here he strenously imployed himself to defend and promote the cause of Christianity and particularly to confute and beat down the Heresies that then mainly infested and disturbed the Church writing a Book a Apol. II. p. 70. against all sorts of Heresies but more especially opposed himself to Marcion who was the son of a Bishop born in Pontus and for his deflowering a Virgin had been cast out of the Church whereupon he fled to Rome where he broached many damnable errours and among the rest that there were two Gods one the Creator of the World whom he made to be the God of the Old Testament and the Author of Evil the other a more Sovereign and Supreme Being Creator of more excellent things the Father of Christ whom he sent into the World to dissolve the Law and the Prophets and to destroy the works of the other deity whom he stiled the God of the Jews Others and among them especially b Haeres XLII p. 135. Epiphanius and a more ancient Author c Dial. contr Marcion p. 3 4 Basil edit 1674. 4. of the Dialogues against the Marcionites under the name of Origen for that it was Origen himself I much question make him to have established three differing Principles or Beings an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good Principle the Father of Christ and this was the God of the Christians an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Creating Principle that made the visible frame of things which presided over the Jews and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or evil Principle which was the Devil and ruled over the Gentiles With him Justin encountered both by Word and Writing particularly publishing a Book which he had composed against him and his pernicious principles VIII ABOUT the Year of our Lord CXL the Christians seem to have been more severely dealt with for though Antoninus the Emperour was a mild and excellent Prince and who put out no Edicts that we know of to the prejudice of Christianity yet the Christians being generally traduced and defamed as a wicked and barbarous generation had a hard hand born upon them in all places and were persecuted by virtue of the particular Edicts of former Emperours and the general standing Laws of the Roman Empire To vindicate them from the aspersions cast upon them and to mitigate the severities used towards them Justin about this time published his first Apology for though in all Editions it be set in the second place it was unquestionably the first Vid. Euseb l. 4. c. 18. p. 139. presenting it as appears from the Inscription to Antoninus Pius the Emperour and to his two sons Verus and Lucius to the Senate and by them to the whole People of Rome wherein with great strength and evidence of reason he defends the Christians from the common objections of their enemies proves the divinity of the Christian Faith and shews how unjust and unreasonable it was to proceed against them without due conviction and form of Law acquaints them with the innocent Rites and Usages of the Christian Assemblies and lastly puts the Emperour in mind of the course which Adrian his predecessor had taken in this matter who
Justin Martyr the rest are of an inferiour and more inconsiderable notice As for his affirming that our Lord was near d Adv. Haeres l. 2 c. 39. p. 192. c. 40. ibid. fifty years of age at the time of his public Ministry it was an errour into which he was betrayed partly from a false supposition that our Lord must be of a more mature and elderly Age that so he might deliver his doctrine with the greater authority partly from a mistaken report which he had somewhere picked up and it may be from his Master Papias that S. John and the rest of the Apostles had so affirmed and taught it and partly out of opposition to his adversaries who maintained that our Saviour staid no longer upon earth then till the thirty first year of his age against whom the eagerness of disputation tempted him to make good his assertion from any plausible pretence and to take the hint though his impetus and the desire of prosecuting his Argument would not give his thoughts leave to cool and take the place into sober consideration from that question of the Jews to Christ thou art not yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham whence in transitu he took it for granted that the Jews had some ground for what they said and that he must be near that age XI HIS care to have his Writings derived pure and uncorrupted to posterity was great and admirable adding to his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this solemn and religious obtestation e Ap. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 5. c 20. p. 187. I adjure thee whoever thou art that shalt transcribe this Book by our Lord Jesus Christ and by his glorious coming wherein he shall judge the quick and the dead that thou compare what thou transcribest and diligently correct it by the Copy from whence thou transcribest it and that thou likewise transcribe this adjuration and annex it to thy Copy And well had it been with the ancient Writers of the Church had their Books been treated with this care and reverence more of them had been conveyed down to us at least those few that are had arrived more sound and unpolluted I note no more and it is what Eusebius long since thought worth taking notice of then that in his time miraculous gifts and powers were very common in the Church For so he f Adv. Haeres l. 2. c. 57. p. 218. ap Eusch l. 5. c. 7. p. 171. tells us that some expelled and cast out Devils the persons often embracing Christianity upon it others had Visions and Revelations and foretold things to come some spake all manner of Languages and as occasion was discovered mens thoughts and secret purposes and expounded the mysteries and deep things of God others miraculously healed the sick and by laying their hands upon them restored their health and many who raised the dead the persons so raised living among them many years after The Gifts as he speaks which God in the name of our crucified Lord then bestowed upon the Church being innumerable all which they sincerely and freely improved to the great advantage and benefit of the World Whence with just reason he urges the truth of our Religion in general and how much advantage true Christians had to triumph over all those Impostors and Seducers who sheltered themselves under the venerable Title of being Christians His Writings Extant Adversus Haereses seu De refutatione eversione falsae scientiae Libri V. Not extant Libellus de Scientia adversus Gentes Demonstratio Apostolicae praedicationis ad Marcianum fratrem Liber de Ogdoade Epistola ad Blastum de Schismate Ad Florinum de Monarchia seu Quod Deus non sit conditor mali Epistola Ad Victorem Episcopum Romanum de Paschate Epistola Ad varios Episcopos de eadem re Epistolae plures Variorum Tractatuum Liber The End of S. IRENAEUS 's Life THE LIFE OF S. THEOPHILUS BISHOP of ANTIOCH Micha Burg Dili et sculpsit S. THEOPHILUS ANTIOCHENUS The great obscurity of his Originals His learned and ingenuous Education and natural parts An account of his Conversion to Christianity and the reasons inducing him thereunto collected out of his own Writings His scrupling the Doctrine of the Resurrection The great difficulty of entertaining that Principle Synesius his case Theophilus his conquering this objection His great satisfaction in the Christian Religion His election to the Bishoprick of Antioch His desire to convert Autolycus Autolycus who His mighty prejudice against Christianity Theophilus his undertaking him and his free and impartial debating the case with him His excellent merage of the controversie His vigorous opposing the Heresies of those times His Books against Marcion and Hermogenes His death and the time of it S. Hieroms Character of his Works His Writings I. THOUGH the Ancients furnish us with very few notices concerning this venerable Bishop yet perhaps it may not be unacceptable to the Reader to pick up that little which may be found The mistake is not worth confuting and scarce deserves mentioning that makes him the same with that Theophilus of Antioch to whom S. Luke dedicates his Evangelical Writings so great the distance of time if there were nothing more between them Whether he was born at Antioch is uncertain but where-ever he was born his Parents were Gentiles by whom he was brought up in the common Rites of that Religion that then governed the World They gave him all the accomplishments of a learned and liberal Education and vast improvements he made in the progress of his Studies so that he was throughly versed in the Writings of all the great Masters of Learning and Philosophy in the Heathen World which being set off with a quick and a pleasant wit as appears from his Disputes against the Gentiles rendred him a man of no inconsiderable note and account among them II. WHEN or by what means converted to Christianity is impossible particularly to determine thus much onely may be gathered from the Discourses which he left behind him Being a man of an inquisitive temper and doubtless of a very honest mind he gave up himself to a more free and impartial search into the nature and state of things He found that the account of things which that Religion gave wherein he was then engaged was altogether unsatisfactory that the stories of their gods were absurd and frivolous and some of them prophane and impious that their Rites of Worship were trifling and ridiculous he considered the several parts of the Creation and that excellent providence that governed the World wherein he easily discerned the plain notices of a wise and omnipotent Being and that God had purposely disposed things thus that his Grandeur and Majesty might appear to all Accordingly he directs his friend to this method of conviction as that which doubtless he had found most successful and satisfactory to himself He bids a Ad Autolyc l. 1. p. 72. him
The Apologies written in his behalf Several things noted out of the Ancients to extenuate the charge His assertions not Dogmatical Not intended for public view Generally such as were not determined by the Church His Books corrupted and by whom His own complaints to that purpose The testimonies of Athanasius and Theotimus and Haymo in his vindication Great errours and mistakes acknowledged What things contributed to them His great kindness for the Platonic Principles S. Hierom 's moderate censure of him His repenting of his rash Propositions His Writings enumerated and what now extant I. ORIGEN called also Adamantius either from the unwearied temper of his mind and that strength of reason wherewith he compacted his Discourses or his firmness and constancy in Religion notwithstanding all the assaults made against it was born at Alexandria the known Metropolis of Egypt unless we will suppose that upon some particular Tumult or Persecution raised against the Christians in that City his Parents fled for refuge to the Mountainous parts thereabouts where his Mother was delivered of him and that thence he was called Origenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 330. T. 2. quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which most conceive to be the Etymology of his name one born in the Mountains But whether that be the proper derivation of the Word or the other the particular occasion of its imposition let the Reader determine as he please However I believe the Reader will think it a much more probable and reasonable conjecture then what one a Halloix not ad Orig. defens c. 1. p. 1. supposes that he was so called because born of holy Parents the Saints in Scripture being as he tells us sometimes metaphorically stiled Mountains The first and the last I dare say that ever made that conjecture A learned man b Voss de Idol l. 2. c. 10. p. 182. supposes him rather and thinks no doubt can be made of it so called from Orus an Egyptian word and with them the title of Apollo or the Sun from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no question which signifies light or fire one of their principal Deities Hence Orus the name of one of the Egyptian Kings as it has been also of many others And thus as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes Diogenes one born of Jupiter so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived Origenes one descended of Or or Orus a Deity solemnly worshipped at Alexandria A conjecture that might have commanded its own entertainment did not one prejudice lie against it that we can hardly conceive so good a man and so severe a Christian as Origens Father would impose a name upon his Child for which he must be beholden to an Heathen Deity and whom he might see every day worshipped with the most sottish Idolatry that he should let him perpetually carry about that remembrance of Pagan Idolatry in his name which they so particularly and so solemnly renounced in their Baptism But to return II. HE was born about the year of our Lord CLXXXVI being seventeen c Euseb H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 2. p. 202. years of age at his Fathers death who suffered Ann. Chr. CCII. Severi X. His Father was Leonides whom Suidas d In voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 389. Tom. 2. and some others without any authority that I know of from the Ancients make a Bishop to be sure he was a good man and a Martyr for the Faith In his younger years he was brought up under the tutorage of his own e Euseb ibid. p. 202. Father who instructed him in all the grounds of humane literature and together with them took especial care to instill the principles of Religion seasoning his early age with the notices of divine things so that like another Timothy from a child he knew the holy Scriptures and was thoroughly exercised and instructed in them Nor was his Father more diligent to insinuate his instructions then the subject he managed was capable to receive them Part of his daily task was to learn and repeat some parts of the holy Scriptures which he readily discharged But not satisfied with the bare reading or recital of them he began to enquire more narrowly into the more profound sense of them often importuning his Father with questions what such or such a passage of Scripture meant The good man though seemingly reproving his busie forwardness and admonishing him to be content with the plain obvious sense and not to ask questions above his age did yet inwardly rejoice in his own mind and heartily bless God that he had made him the Father of such a child Much ado had the prudent man to keep the exuberance of his love and joy from running over before others but in private he gave it vent frequently going into the Chamber where the Youth lay asleep and reverently kissing his naked brest the treasury of an early piety and a divine spirit reflected upon himself how happy he was in so excellent a Son So great a comfort so invaluable a blessing is it to pious parents to see their children setting out betimes in the way of righteousness and sucking in Religion almost with their Mothers milk III. HAVING passed over his paternal education he was put to perfect his Studies under the Institution of Clemens Alexandrinus then Regent of the Catechist School at Alexandria where according to the acuteness of his parts and the greatness of his industry he made vast improvements in all sorts of learning From him he betook himself to Ammonius who had then newly set up a Platonic School at Alexandria and had reconciled a Hierocl l. 1. de provid Fat. ap Phot. Cod. CCXIV. col 549. Cod. CCLI col 1381. those inveterate feuds and differences that had been between the Schools of Plato and Aristotle and which had reigned among their Disciples till his time which he did says my Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of a divine transport for the truth of Philosophy despising the little opinions and wrangling contentions of peevish men and propounding a more free and generous kind of Philosophy to his Auditors Among whom was our Origen as Porphyry b Apud Euseb iâ—id c. 19. p. 220 vid. Theod. Serm. VI. de Provid p. 96. besides others witnesses who saw Origen when himself but a Youth This Ammonius was called Saccas from his carrying c Vid. Theod. loco citat sacks of Corn upon his back being a Porter by imployment before he betook himself to the Study of Philosophy one of the most learned and eloquent men of those times a great Philosopher and the chief of the Platonic Sect and which was above all a Christian born and brought up among them as d Loc. citat Porphyry himself is forced to confess though when he tells us that afterwards upon maturer consideration and his entering upon Philosophy he renounced Christianity and embraced Paganism and the Religion
accomplished with a prodigious furniture of learning and all the improvements which Rome or Greece could afford being incomparably skilled as d De script in Orig. S. Hierom and e In Orig. p. 387. Suidas observes both in Gentile and Christian learning Logic Geometry Arithmetic Music Philosophy Rhetoric and the several sentiments and opinions of all the Sects of Philosophy and who always entertained his Auditors with something above common observation So great the force and acuteness of his parts says Vincentius Lerinensis f Contr. Haeres c. 23. p. 55. so profound quick and elegant that none could come near him so vast his stock of all sorts of Learning that there were few corners of divine and perhaps none of humane Philosophy which he had not accurately searched into and when the Greeks could lead him no further with an unparallel'd industry he conquered the language and learning of the Jews But no other character need be given him then what Porphyry a Ap. Euseb l. 6. c. 19. p. 220. who knew him though a learned man b L. Holsten de vit script Porphyr c. 6. p. 27. who from that passage in Eusebius makes him to have been his Scholar proceeds doubtless upon a great mistake and was an enemy bestows upon him that he was held in very great esteem in those times and had purchased a more then ordinary glory and renown from the greatest Masters which Christianity then had in the World and that under the discipline of Ammonius he attained to an admirable skill in Learning and Philosophy The monuments and evidences whereof as he there observes were the Books and Writings which he left behind him considerable not for their Subjects onely but their multitude arising to that vast number that Epiphanius c Ubi supr p. 256. vid. Ruffin Apol. pro Orig. inter Oper. Hier. T. 4. p. 197. tells us it was commonly reported that he wrote six thousand Volumes The greatest part of which being understood of Epistles and single Homilies the account will not be above belief nor give any just foundation for Rufinus and S. Hierom to wrangle so much about it the latter of whom point-blank denies that ever himself read or that Origen himself wrote so many d Loc. citat Vincentius affirms that no man ever wrote so much as he and that all his Books could not onely not be read but not so much as be found out by any So that it was not without reason that antiquity fastned the title of Syntacticus or the Composer upon him his innumerable Discourses upon all sorts of Subjects justly appropriating that title to him His Books were of old enumerated by many and digested into their proper Classes whether Scholia short strictures upon obscure difficult places Homilies and Tomes as the Ancients divided them or Exegetica and Syntagmata under which rank some Modern Writers comprehend them the greatest part whereof though they have long since perished through the carelessness and ill will of succeeding Times yet does a very large portion of them still remain His phrase and way of writing is clear and unaffected fluent and copious e Censur de Oper. Orig. Erasmus gives a high encomium of it preferring it before most other Writers of the Church that it is neither turgid and lofty like that of S. Hilary flying above the reach of ordinary Readers nor set off with gaudy and far-fetcht ornaments like that of S. Hierom nor abounding with flowers of Rhetoric and smart witty sentences like that of S. Ambrose nor over-seasoned with tart and satyrical reflections and obscured with obsolete and antiquated terms as that of Tertullian not superstitious in the curious and accurate structure of its several parts like that of S. Gregory nor running out into large digressions nor affecting a chiming cadency of words like that of St. Augustin but always brisk and lively easie and natural But when he commends it for its conciseness and brevity he certainly forgot himself or mistook and what wonder he should when t is like he took his measures not so much from the Original as Translations For his stile though it be generally plain and perspicuous yet is it diffusive and luxuriant flowing with plenty of words which might be often spared and therefore charged by some of his critical adversaries that he did infinita verba multiplicare f Epiph. Ep. ad Joan. Hierosol ap Hieron T. 2. p 158. g Eustath Antioch dissot de Engastrym adv Orig. inter Crit. S. Tom. 8. col 441 453. multiply an infinite crowd of words and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he filled the World with a company of needless and idle words which he unmeasurably poured out and that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceedingly trifle with vain tautologies and repetitions A censure wherein envy and emulation must be supposed to have had the predominant and over-ruling stroke For though abounding with words he was always allowed to be eloquent for which Vincentius highly commends him Ubi supr affirming his phrase to be so sweet pleasant and delightful that there seemed to him to have dropt not words so much as honey from his mouth XXVI BUT that alas which has cast clouds and darkness upon all his glory and buried so much of his fame in ignominy and reproach is the dangerous and unsound doctrines and principles which are scattered up and down his writings for which almost all Ages without any reverence to his parts learning piety and the judgment of the wisest and best of the times he lived in have without any mercy pronounced him Heretic and his sentiments and speculations rash absurd pernicious blasphemous and indeed what not The alarm began of old and was pursued with a mighty clamour and fierceness especially by Methodius Bishop of Olympus Eustathius of Antioch Apollinaris Theophilus of Alexandria and Epiphanius and the cry carried on with a loud noise in after-ages insomuch that the very mention of his name is in the Greek Church abominable at this day I had once resolved to have considered the chief of those notions and principles for which Origen is so heavily charged by the Ancients but superseded that labor when I found that the industry of the learned Monsieur Huet in his Origeniana had left no room for any to come after him so fully so clearly so impartially with such infinite variety of reading has he discussed and canvassed this matter and thither I remit the learned and capable Reader And for those that cannot or will not be at the pains to read his large and excellent Discourses they may consult nearer hand the ingenious Author of the Letter of Resolution concerning Origen and the chief of his opinions Edit Lond. 1661. 4. where they will find the most obnoxious of his dogmata reckoned up and the Apologies and Defences which a sincere lover of Origen might be supposed to make in his behalf and these
pleas represented with all the advantages with which Wit Reason and Eloquence could set them off XXVII NOR wanted there of old those who stood up to plead and defend his cause especially Pamphilus the Martyr and Eusebius who published an Apology in six Books in his behalf the first five whereof were written by Pamphilus with Eusebius his assistance while they were in prison the last finished and added by Eusebius after the others Martyrdom Besides which a Cod. CXVIII col 297. Photius tells us there were many other famous men in those times who wrote Apologies for him he gives us a particular account b Cod. CXVII col 293. of one though without a name where in five Books the Author endeavours to justifie Origen as sound and Orthodox and cites Dionysius Demetrius and Clemens all of Alexandria and several others to give in evidence for him The main of these Apologies are perished long ago otherwise probably Origen's cause might appear with a better face seeing we have now nothing but his notions dressed up and glossed by his professed enemies and many things ascribed to him which he never owned but were coined by his pretended followers For my own part I shall onely note from the Ancients some general remarques which may be pleaded in abatement of the rigour and severity of the sentence usually passed upon him And first many things were said and written by him not positively and dogmatically but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the c Ibid. col 296. Author of his Apology in Photius by way of exercitation and this he himself was wont to plead at every turn and to beg the Readers pardon and profess that he propounded these things not as Doctrins but as disputable Problems and with a design to search and find out the truth as a Apolog. ap Hieron Tom. 4. p. 172. Pamphilus assures us and S. Hierom himself b Ad Avit p. 151. Tom. 2. cannot but confess and if we had the testimony of neither there is enough to this purpose in his Books still extant to put it beyond all just exception Thus discoursing concerning the union of the two natures in the person of our blessed Saviour he affirms c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. c. 6. p. 698. it to be a mystery which no created understanding can sufficiently explain concerning which says he not from any rashness of ours but onely as the order of Discourse requires we shall briefly speak rather what our Faith contains then what humane Reason is wont to assert producing rather our own conjectures then any plain and peremptory affirmations And to the same purpose he expresses himself at every turn Not to say that he wrote many things in the heat of disputation which it may be his cooler and more considering thoughts would have set right So the Apologist in Photius d Cod. CXVII col 296. pleads that whatever he said amiss in the doctrin of the Trinity proceeded meerly from a vehement opposition of Sabellius who confounded the number and difference of persons and whose Sect was one of the most prevailing Heresies of that time The confutation whereof made him attempt a greater difference and distinction in the persons then the rules of Faith did strictly allow Secondly those Books of his e Pamph. Apol. ubi supr p. 174 177. wherein he betrays the most unsound and unwarrantable notions were written privately and with no intention of being made public but as secrets communicable among friends and not as doctrines to disturb the Church And this he freely acknowledged in his Letter to Fabian f Ap. Hieron in Epist ad Pammach de err Orig. p. 193. 〈◊〉 Bishop of Rome and cast the blame upon his friend Ambrosius quod secretò edita in publicum protulerit that he had published those things which he meant should go no further then the brests or hands of his dearest friends And there is always allowed a greater freedom and latitude in debating things among friends the secrets whereof ought not to be divulged nor the Public made Judges of that innocent liberty which is taken within mens private walls Thirdly the disallowed opinions that he maintains are many of them such as were not the Catholic and determined Doctrins of the Church not defined by Synods nor disputed by Divines but either Philosophical or Speculations which had not been thought on before and which he himself at every turn cautiously distinguishes from those propositions which were entertained by the common and current consent and approbation of the Christian Church Sure I am he lays it down as a fundamental maxim in the very entrance upon that g Praef. ad lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 665. Book wherein his most dangerous assertions are contained that those Ecclesiastic Doctrins are to be preserved which had been successively delivered from the Apostles and were then received and that nothing was to be embraced for truth that any ways differed from the tradition of the Church XXVIII FOURTHLY Divers of Origen's works have been corrupted and interpolated by evil hands and Heretics to add a lustre and authority to their opinions by the veneration of so great a name have inserted their own assertions or altered his and made him speak their language An argument which however laughed at by S. Hierom a Ad â—ammath ubi supr is yet stifly maintained by Rufinus b Apol. pro Orig. apud Hier. Tom. 4. p. 194 195. c. Praef. ad lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. Tom. 2. p. 188. who shews this to have been an old and common art of Heretics and that they dealt thus with the writings of Clemens Romanus of Clemens and Dionysius of Alexandria of Athanasius Hilary Cyprian and many more Dionysius c Ap. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 23. p. 145. the famous Bishop of Corinth who lived many years before Origen assures us he was served at this rate that at the request of the brethren he had written several Epistles but that the Apostles and Emissaries of the Devil had filled them with weeds and tares expunging some things and adding others The Apologist in Photius d Ubi supr tells us Origen himself complained of this in his life time and so indeed he does in his e Ap. Ruffin iâ— Tom. 4. p. 195. Letter to them of Alexandria where he smartly resents that charge of blasphemy had been ascribed to him and his doctrine of which he was never guilty and that it was less wonder if his doctrine was adulterated when the great S. Paul could not escape their hands he tells them of an eminent Heretic that having taken a Copy of a dispute which he had had with him did afterwards cut off and add what he pleas'd and change it into another thing carrying it about with him and glorying in it And when some friends in Palestin sent it to him then at Athens he returned them a true
the merits of the cause and what the Laws of Kindness and Charity do allow I note no more concerning this then that Cyprian and his Party a Ad Quint. Epist 71. p. 119. expresly disowned Anabaptism or rebaptization they freely confessed that there was but one Baptism and that those who came over from Heretical Churches where they had had their baptism were not rebatpized but baptized their former baptism being ipso facto null and invalid and they did then receive what lawfully they had not before XII IT was now the Year CCLVII when Aspasius Paternus the Proconsul of Asric sent b Act. Pass S. Cypriani ap Cypr. p. 16 17 24. for Cyprian to appear before him telling him that he had lately received orders from the Emperours Valerian and Gallienus commanding that all that were of a Foreign Religion should worship the gods according to the Roman Rites desiring to know what was his resolution Cyprian answered I am a Christian and a Bishop I acknowledge no other gods but one onely true God who made Heaven and Earth and all that therein is This is he whom we Christians serve to whom we pray day and night for our selves and for all men and for the happiness and prosperity of the Emperours And is this then thy resolution said the Proconsul That resolution replied the Martyr which is founded in God cannot be altered Then he told him that he was to search out the Presbyters as well as Bishops requiring him to discover them To which Cyprian gave no other answer then that according to their own Laws they were not bound to be Informers The Proconsul then acquainted him that he was commanded to prohibit all private Assemblies and to proceed with capital severity against them that frequented them Whereat the good man told him that his best way was to do as he was commanded The Proconsul finding 't was in vain to treat with him commanded him to be banished and accordingly he was transported to Curubis a little City standing in a Peninsula within the Lybian Sea not far from Pentapolis a c P Diac. in vit Cypr. p. 14. place pleasant and delightful enough and where he met with a kind and a courteous usage was frequently visited by the brethren and furnished with all conveniences necessary for him XIII BUT the greatest entertainment in this retirement were those divine and heavenly Visions with which God was pleased to honour him by one whereof the very first day of his coming thither he was particularly forewarned of his approaching Martyrdom Locaeitat whereof Pontius the Deacon who accompanied him in his banishment gives us this account from the Martyrs own mouth There appeared to him as he was going to rest a young man of a prodigious stature who seemed to lead him to the Praetorium and to present him to the Proconsul then sitting upon the Bench who looking upon him began to write something in a Book which the young man who looked over his shoulder read but not daring to speak intimated by signs what it was for extending one of his hands at length he made a cross stroke over it with the other by which Cyprian presently guessed the manner of his death Whereupon he importunately begged of the Proconsul but one days respit to dispose his affairs and partly by the pleasingness of the Judges countenance partly by the signs which the young man made of what the Proconsul was noting in his Book he immediately gathered that his request was granted And just so it accordingly came to pass both as to the time and manner of his Martyrdom that very day twelve-moneth whereon he had this vision proving the period of his life XIV HOW active and diligent he was to improve his opportunities to the best advantage appears from the several Letters he wrote during his confinement especially to the Martyrs in prison whose spirit he refreshed by proper consolations and pressed them to persevere unto the Crown While he was here he had news brought a Ad Success Epist 82. p. 100. him of the daily increase of the Persecution the Emperor Valerian having sent a Rescript to the Senate that Bishops Presbyters and Deacons should be put to death without delay that Senators and persons of rank and quality should lose their honours and preferments forfeit their estates and if still they continued Christians lose their heads and that Matrons having had their goods confiscated should be banished that Xystus and Quartus had already suffered in the Coemetery where their solemn assemblies were held and that the Governours of the City carried on the Persecution with might and main spoiling and putting to death all that they could meet with This sad and uncomfortable news b P. 〈…〉 supr p. 15. gave the good man just reason to expect and provide for his own fate which he waited and wished for every day Indeed some persons of the highest rank and quality his ancient friends came to him and persuaded him for the present to withdraw offering to provide a secure place for his retreat But the desire of that Crown which he had in his eye had set him above the World and made him deaf to their kind offers and intreaties True it is that when news was brought that the Officers were coming for him to carry him to Vtica to suffer there by the advice of his friends he stept aside being unwilling to suffer any where but at Carthage in the eye of the people where he had so long and so successfully preached the Christian Faith the truth whereof he was desirous to seal with his bloud it being very fit and congruous that a Bishop should suffer for our Lord in that place where he had governed his Church and by that eminent confession edifie and encourage the Flock committed to him as he tells c Epist 82. p. 161. the People of his charge in the last Letter that ever he wrote As for themselves he advised them to peace and unity not to create trouble to one another not to offer themselves to the Gentiles but if any was apprehended to stand to it and freely confess as God should enable him to declare himself XV. GALERIVS Maximus the new Proconsul being returned to Carthage d Pont. ib. p. 15. Act. Passion ib. p. 16 18 19 24. Cyprian who resolved but till then to conceal himfelf came home and took up his residence in his own Gardens Where Officers were presently sent to apprehend him who putting him into a Chariot carried him to the place where the Proconsul was retired for his health who commanded him to be kept till the next day which was done in the house of one of the Officers that secured him the People alarm'd with the news of his return and apprehension flocking to the doors and watching there all night The next morning being Septemb. XIV Ann. Chr. CCLVIII. he was led to the Proconsuls Palace who not being yet come forth
Episcopal Order and desire that it might be conferred upon a more deserving person and when some factious and schismatical persons traduced him as taking too much upon him because he controlled their wild and licentious courses he vindicates his humility at large in a Letter to Pupianus d Epist 69. p. 116. who had made himself Head of the Party that appeared against him So modest that in all great transactions concerning the Church he always consulted both his Colleagues and his Flock himself assuring us e Ad Presb. Diac. Epist 5. p. 14. that from the very entrance upon his Bishoprick he determined not to adjudge any thing by his own private Order without the counsel of the Clergy and the consent of the People His behaviour was composed and sober f P. Diac. iâ— vit Cypr. p. 12. his countenance grave yet chearful neither guilty of a frowning severity nor an over-pleasant mirth but an equal decorum and temperament of both it being hard to say whether he more deserved to be loved or feared but that he equally deserved both And the very same he was in his garb sober and moderate observing a just distance both from slovenliness and superfluity such as neither argued him to be swelled with pride and vanity nor infected with a sordid and penurious mind But that which set the Crown upon the head of all his other Vertues was his admirable and exemplary Charity he was of a kind and compassionate temper and he gave it vent Upon his first embracing the Christian Religion he sold his estate which was not mean and inconsiderable and gave almost all of it to the Poor from which he suffered no considerations to restrain him His hand and tongue and heart were open upon all occasions we find him at one time not onely earnestly * Ad Episc Neâ—id Epist 6â— p. 97. pressing others to contribute towards the redemption of Christians taken captive by the Barbarians but himself sending a collection of a great many thousand Crowns Nor was this a single act done once in his life but his ordinary practice his doors a Pontâ—â—bi supr were open to all that came the Widow never returned empty from him to any that were blind he would be their guide to direct them those that were lame he was ready to lend his assistance to support them if any were oppressed by might he was at hand to rescue and protect them Which things he was wont to say they ought to do who desired to render themselves truly acceptable and dear to God XVIII HIS natural parts seem to have been ready and acute enough which how far he improved by secular and Gentile Learning is unknown He seems to have laid no deep foundations in the Study of Philosophy whereof few or no footsteps are to be seen in any of his Writings his main excellency was eloquence Rhetoric being his proper profession before his conversion to Christianity wherein he attained to so great a pitch that Erasmus a competent judge of these matters sticks not to affirm b 〈…〉 Cypr. 〈◊〉 Erasm Ep. l. 28. Epâ—st 6. 〈…〉 that among all the Ecclesiastics he is the onely African Writer that attained the native purity of the Latin Tongue Tertullian is difficult and obscure S. Augustin strangely perplexed and dry but Cyprian as S. Hierom c 〈…〉 Tom. 1 long since truly censured like a pure Fountain is smooth and sweet And Lactantius d 〈…〉 5 â— 1. p. 459. long before him passed this judgment that Cyprian alone was the chief and famous Writer eminent for his teaching Oratory and writing Books admirable in their kind that he had a facile copious pleasant and which is the greatest grace of Speech clear and perspicuous wit 〈…〉 Lybia sanguis sed ubique lingua pollet 〈…〉 agit de corpore sola obire nescit 〈◊〉 genus esse hominum Christus sinet vigere 〈…〉 Dirn liber â—llus erit dum scrinia sacra literarum 〈◊〉 â—eget omnis amans Christum tua Cypriane difâ—et Spiritus ille Dei qui fluxerat autor in Prophetas Fontibus eloquii te coelitus actus irrigavit O nive candidius linguae genus O novum saporem Ut liquor ambrosius cor mitigat imbuit palatum Sedem animae penetrat mentem fovet pererrat artâ—s Siâ— Deus interius sentitur inditur medullis Prudent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hynn XII in Passion Cypr. Martyris Episc Carthag that a man can hardly discern whether he be more eloquent in his expressions easie in his explications or potent in his persuasives Indeed his stile is very natural and easie nothing elaborate or affected in it or which savours of craft and ostentation but such every where the tenor of his language I speak * 〈…〉 Erasmus his sense as well as my own that you will think you hear a truly Christian Bishop and one designed for Martyrdom speaking to you His mind was inflamed with piety and his speech was answerable to his mind he spake elegantly and yet things more powerful then elegant nor did he speak powerful things so much as live them After his coming over to the Church he made such quick and vast proficiencies in Christian Theology that e 〈…〉 Baronius thinks it not improbable to suppose either that before his conversion he had been conversant in the Books of Christians or that he was miraculously instructed from above 'T is certain that afterwards he kept close to Tertullians Writings without which he scarce ever passed one day often saying to his Notary Reach hither my Master meaning Tertullian A passage which S. Hierom f 〈…〉 tells us he received from Paulus of Concordia in Italy who had it from the mouth of Cyprian's own Amanuensis at Rome And certainly it sounds not a little to the commendation of his judgment that he could drink so freely at that great mans Fountain and suck in none of his odd and uncouth opinions that he could pick the Flowers and pass by the useless or noxious weeds as a wise man many times is so far from being corrupted that he is the more warned and confirmed in the right by another mans errours and mistakes As for his Writings S. Hierom a Ibid. in Cypr. passes them over with this character that it was superfluous to reckon them up being clearer and more obvious then the Sun Many of them are undoubtedly lost the greatest part of what remain are Epistles and all of them such as admirably tend to promote the peace and order of the Church and advance piety and a good life A great number of Tracts either dubious or evidently suppositious are laid at his door some of them very ancient and most of them useful it being his happiness above all other Writers of the Church says b Ubi supr Erasmus that nothing is fathered upon him but what is learned and what was the issue of some considerable
judgment and our conformity to him in glory and to hope for a state in the Kingdom of God wherein they should be entertained with such little and trifling such fading and transitory things as this World does afford Dionysius being then in the Province of the Arsenoitae where this Opinion had prevailed so far as to draw whole Churches into Schism and Separation summoned the Presbyters and Teachers who preached in the Country Villages and as many of the People as had a mind to come advising them that in their Sermons they would publicly examine this Doctrin They presently defended themselves with this Book whereupon he began more closely to join issue with them continuing with them three days together from morning to night weighing and discussing the doctrins contained in it In all which time he admired their constancy and love to truth their great quickness and readiness of understanding with so much order and decency so much modesty and moderation were the Discourses managed on both sides doubts propounded and assent yielded For they took an especial care not pertinaciously to defend their former opinions when once they found them to be erroneous nor to shun any objections which on either part were made against them As near as might be they kept to the present question which they endeavoured to make good but if convinced by argument that they were in the wrong made no scruple to change their minds and go over to the other side with honest minds and sincere intentions and hearts truly devoted to God embracing whatever was demonstrated by the holy Scriptures The issue was that Coracion the Commander and Champion of the other Party publicly promised and protested before them all that he would not henceforth either entertain or dispute or discourse or preach these opinions being sufficiently convinced by the arguments which the other side had offered to him all the Brethren departing with mutual love unanimity and satisfaction Such was the peaceable conclusion of this Meeting and less could not be expected from such pious and honest souls such wise and regular Disputers And happy had it been for the Christian World had all those controversies that have disturbed the Church been managed by such prudent and orderly debates which as usually conducted rather widen the breach then heal and mend it Dionysius to strike the controversie dead while his hand was in wrote a Book concerning the Promises which S. Hierom forgetting what he had truly said a De script in Dionys elsewhere that it was written against Nepos tells b Praef at in l. 18. Com. in Esa p. 242. T. 5. us was written against Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons mistaking the person probably for his opinion in the first part whereof he stated the question laid down his sense concerning it in the second he treated concerning the Revelation of S. John the main Pillar and Buttress of this Opinion where both by reason and the testimony of others he contends that it was not written by S. John the Apostle and Evangelist but by another of that name an account of whose judgment herein we have represented in another place c Antiq. Apost Life of S. John n. 14. XVI THE last controversie wherein he was concerned was that against Paul of Samosata Bishop of Antioch who had d Euseb ubi sup c. 27. p. 277 281. Epiph. Haeres LXV p. 262. Athanas de Syn d. Arim. Seleuc. p. 920. Niceph. l. 6. c. 27. p. 420. confidently vented these and such like impious dogmata that there is but one person in the Godhead that our blessed Saviour was though a holy yet a meer man who came not down from Heaven but was of a meer earthly extract and original in whom the word which he made not any thing distinct from the Father did sometimes reside and sometimes depart from him with abundance of the like wicked and sensless propositions Besides all which he was infinitely obnoxious in his e Epist Synod II. Antioch ap Euseb ib. c. 30. p. 280. c. morals as few men but serve the design of some lust by Schism and bad opinions covetous without any bounds heaping up a vast estate though born a poor mans son partly by fraud and sacriledge partly by cruel and unjust vexations of his brethren partly by fomenting differences and taking bribes to assist the weaker party Proud and vain-glorious he was beyond all measure affecting Pomp and Train and secular Power and rather to be stiled a temporal Prince then a Bishop going through the streets and all public places in solemn state with persons walking before him and crouds of people following after him In the Church he caused to be erected a Throne higher then ordinary and a place which he called Secretum after the manner of Civil Magistrates who in the inner part of the Praetorium had a place railed in with Curtains hung before it where they sate to hear Causes He was wont to clap his hand upon his thigh and to stamp with his feet upon the Bench frowning upon and reproaching those who did not Theatrically shout and make a noise while he was discoursing to them wherein he used also to reflect upon his predecessors and the most eminent persons that had been before him with all imaginable scorn and petulancy magnifying himself as far beyond them The Hymns that were ordinarily sung in honour of our Lord he abolished as late and novel and in stead thereof taught some of his proselyted Females upon the Easter solemnity to chaunt out some which he had composed in his own commendation to the horrour and astonishment of all that heard them procuring the Bishops and Presbyters of the neighbouring parts to publish the same things of him in their Sermons to the People some of his Proselytes not sticking to affirm that he was an Angel come down from Heaven All which he was so far from controlling that he highly encouraged them and heard them himself not onely with patience but delight He was moreover vehemently suspected of incontinency maintaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subintroduced Women in his house and some of them persons of exquisit beauty contrary to the Canons of the Church and to the great scandal of Religion And that he might not be muh reproached by those that were about him he endeavoured to debauch his Clergy conniving at their Vices and Irregularities and corrupting others with Pensions and whom he could not prevail with by evil arts he awed by power and his mighty interest in the Princes and great ones of those parts so that they were forced with sadness to bewail at home what they durst not publish and declare abroad XVII TO rectifie these enormities most of the chief Bishops of the East resolved to meet in a Synod at Antioch a Euseb ib. c. 27. p. 277. c. 30. p. 279. to which they earnestly invited our Dionysius But alas age and infirmities had rendred him incapable of such a journey
S. Cyprian then in his retirement the Blessed Pope Cyprian in their Letter to them of Carthage To this Eleutherius then these Martyrs directed their Epistle For the Martyrs in those times had a mighty honour and reverence paid to them and their sentence in any weighty case was always entertained with a just esteem and veneration These Letters they sent to Rome by l Euseb ib. c. 4. Irenaeus whom they persuaded to undertake the journey and whom they particularly recommended to Eleutherius by a very honourable testimony desiring him to receive him not onely as their Brother and Companion but as a zealous professor and defender of that Religion which Christ had ratified with his blood I know a Annot. in â—useb p. 91 92. Mons Valois will not allow that Irenaeus actually went this journey that the Martyrs indeed had desired him and he had promised to undertake it but that the heat of the Persecution coming on and he being fixed in the Government and Presidency over that Church could not be spared personally to undergo it But since Eusebius clearly intimates and b De Script in Iren. S. Hierom expresly affirms that the Martyrs sent him upon this errand 't is safest to grant his journey thither though it must be while he was yet Presbyter for so they particularly say he was in their Epistle to the Bishop of Rome And there probably it was that he took more particular notice of Florinus and Blastus c Euseb ibid. c. 15. p. 178. who being Presbyters of the Church of Rome were about this time fallen into the Valentinian Heresie the first of whom he had formerly known d Id. ibid. c. 20. with S. Polycarp in Asia and noted him for his soft and delicate manners and to whom after his return home as also to Blastus he wrote Epistles to convince them of those novel and dangerous sentiments which they had espoused IV. AND now the Persecution at Lyons was daily carried on with a fiercer violence Vast numbers had already gone to Heaven through infinite and inexpressible racks and torments and to crown all e Epist Eccles Lugd. Vien ap Euseb ubi supr c. 1. p. 159. Pothinus their reverend and aged Bishop above ninety years old was seized in order to his being sent the same way Age and sickness had rendred him so infirm and weak that he was hardly able to crawl to his execution But he had a vigorous and sprightly soul in a decaied and ruinous body and his great desire to give the highest testimony to his Religion and that Christ might triumph in his Martyrdom added new life and spirit to him Being apprehended by the Officers he was brought before the Public Tribunal the Magistrates of the City following after and the common People giving such loud and joyful acclamations as if our Lord himself had been leading to execution The Governour presently asked him Who the God of the Christians was Which he knowing to be a captious and sarcastic question returned no other answer then Wert thou worthy thou shouldst know Instruction takes hold onely of the humble and obedient ear Truth is usually lost by being exposed to the vitious and the scornful 't is in vain to hold a Candle either to the Blind that cannot or to them that shut their eyes and will not see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen de Martyr p. 169. there is a reverence due to the Principles of Religion that obliges us not to cast Pearls before Swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend us Hereupon without any reverence to his age or so much as respect to humanity it self he was rudely dragged away and unmercifully beaten they that were near kicking him with their feet and striking him with their fists they that were farther off throwing at him what they could meet with making whatsoever came next to hand the instruments of their fury every man looking upon it as impious and piacular not to do something that might testifie his petulant scorn and rage against him For by this means they thought to revenge the quarrel of their gods But their savage cruelty thought it too much kindness to dispatch him at once it is like they intended him a second Tragoedy which if so Heaven disappointed their designs For being taken up with scarce so much breath as would entitle him to live he was thrown into the Prison where two days after he resigned up his soul to God V. THE Church of Lyons being thus deprived of its venerable Guide none could stand fairer for the Chair then Irenaeus a person honoured and admired by all who succeeded accordingly about the year CLXXIX in a troublesom and tempestuous time But he was a wise and skilful Pilot and steered the Ship with a prudent Conduct And need enough there was both of his courage and his conduct for the Church at this time was not onely assaulted by Enemies from without but undermined and betrayed by Heresies within The attempts of the one he endured with meekness and patience while he endeavoured to prevent the infection and poison of the other by a diligent and vigilant circumspection discovering their persons laying open their designs confuting and condemning their errours so that their folly was made manifest unto all The Author of the ancient a Edit Argent 1601. 4. pag. 2. Synodicon published by Pappus tells us of a Provincial Synod held at Lyons by Irenaeus where with the assistance and suffrage of twelve other Bishops he condemned the Heresies of Valentinus Marcion Basilides and the rest of that Antichristian crew Whence he derived this intelligence I know not it not being mentioned by any other of the Ancients However the thing it self is not improbable Irenaeus his zeal against that sort of men engaging him to oppose them both by word and writing and especially when 't is remembred what himself informs us of that they had invaded his own Province and were come home to his very door For having given us an account of Marcus one of those Gnostic Heresiarchs and his followers their beastly and licentious practices and by what ludicrous and sensless Arts what Magic and hellish Rites they were wont to ensnare and initiate their seduced Proselytes he tells us b Adv. Haeres l. 1. c. 9. p. 72. vid. Hieron Epist ad Theodor p. 196. they were come into the Countries round him all along the Roan where they generally prevailed which seems to have been observed as a Maxim and first principle by all Authors of Sects upon the weaker Sex corrupting their minds and debauching their bodies whose cauterized consciences being afterwards awakened some of them made public confession of their crimes others though deserting their Party were ashamed to return to the Church while others made a desperate and total Apostasie from any pretences to the Faith With some of these Ring-leaders c Praef. ad lib. 1. p. 2. Irenaeus
had personally encountred and read the Books of others which gave him occasion what the desires of many had importuned him to undertake to set upon that elaborate Work against Heresies wherein he has fully displayed their wild and phantastic principles their brutish and abominable practises and with such infinite pains endeavoured to refute them though indeed so prodigiously extravagant so utterly irreconcileable were they to any principles of sober reason that as he himself d Lib. 1. c. ult p. 139. observes it was Victory enough over them onely to discover and detect them This Work he composed in the time of Eleutherus Bishop of Rome as is evident from his Catalogue e Lib. 3. c. 3. p. 233. ap Eus l. 5. c. 6. p. 171. of the Bishops of that See ending in Eleutherus the twelfth successive Bishop who did then possess the place VI. AND indeed it was but time for Irenaeus and the rest of the wise and holy Bishops of those days to bestir themselves grievous Wolves having entered in and made havock of the flock The field of the Church was miserably over-run with taâ—es which did not onely endanger the choaking of Religion within the Church but obstruct the planting and propagating the Faith among them that were without Nothing being more commonly objected against the truth and divinity of the Christian Religion then that they were rent and torn into so many Schisms and Heresies a Stromat l. p. 753. S. Clemens of Alexandria particularly encounters this exception some of whose excellent reasonings are to this effect The first thing says he they charge upon us and pretend why they cannot embrace the Faith is the diversity of Sects that are among us truth being delayed and neglected while some assert one thing and some another To which he answers that there were various Sects and Parties both among the Jews and the Philosophers of the Gentiles and yet no man thought this a sufficient reason why they should cease to study Philosophy or adhere to the Jewish Rites and Discipline that our Lord had foretold that Errours would spring up with Truth like Tares growing up with the Wheat and that therefore 't was no wonder if it accordingly came to pass and that we ought not to be wanting to our duty because others cast off theirs but rather stick closer to them who continue constant in the profession of the Truth that a mind diseased and distempered with Errour and Idolatry ought no more to be discouraged from complying with an Institution that will cure it by reason of some differences and divisions that are in it then a sick man would refuse to take any Medicines because of the different opinions that are among Physitians and that they do not all use the same Prescriptions that the Apostle hath told us that there must be heresies that they that are approved may be made manifest that they heartily entertain the Christian Doctrin improve and persevere in Faith and a holy Life that if Truth be difficult to be discerned yet the finding it out will abundantly recompence the trouble and the labour that a wise man would not refuse to eat of fruit because he must take a little pains to discover what is ripe and real from that which is only painted and counterfeit Shall the Traveller resolve not to go his journey because there are a great many ways that cross and thwart the common Road and not rather enquire which is the plain and Kings High-way or the Husbandman refuse to till his ground because Weeds grow up together with the Plants We ought rather to make these differences an argument and incentive the more accurately to examine Truth from Falshood and Realities from Pretences that escaping the snares that are plausibly laid we may attain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the knowledge of that which is really truth indeed and which is not hard to find of them that sincerely seek it But to return back to Irenaeus VII HAVING passed over the times of the Emperour Commodus the onely honour of whose Reign was that he created no great disturbance to the Christians being otherwise a most debauched and dissolute Prince in whom the Vices of all his Predecessors seemed to meet as in one Common-Sewer Eleutherus died and Victor succeeded in the See of Rome A man furious and intemperate impatient of contradiction and who let loose the Reins to an impotent and ungovernable Passion He revived the Controversie about the celebration of Easter and endeavoured imperiously to impose the Roman Custom of keeping it on the next Lords day after the Jewish Passover upon the Churches of the Lesser Asia and those who observed the contrary usage and because they would not yield rashly thundred out an Excommunication against them not onely endeavouring but as a Lib. 5. c. 24. p. 192. Eusebius explains it in the following words actually proscribing and pronouncing them cut off from the Communion of the Church The Asiatics little regarding the fierce threatnings from Rome under the conduct of Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus stood their ground justifying their observing it upon the fourteenth day after the appearance of the Moon let it fall upon what day of the Week it would after the rule of the Jewish Passover and this by constant Tradition and uninterrupted usage derived from S. John and S. Philip the Apostles S. Polycarp and several others to that very day All which he told Pope Victor but prevailed nothing as what will satisfie a wilful and passionate mind to prevent his rending the Church in sunder For the composure of this unhappy Schism b Euseb ibid. c. 23. p. 190. Synods were called in several places as besides one at Rome one in Palestine under Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea Palestina and Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem another in Pontus under Palmas and many more in other places who were willing to lend their hands toward the quenching of the common Flame c Ibid. c. 24. p. 192. who all wrote to Victor sharply reproving him and advising him rather to mind what concerned the Peace of the Church and the love and unity of Christians among one another And among the rest our Irenaeus who as Eusebius observes truly answered his name in his peaceable and peace-making temper convened a d Ibid. c. 23. p. 191. Synod of the Churches of France under his jurisdiction where with thirteen Bishops besides himself says the fore-mentioned e Ubi supr p. 7. Synodicon he considered and determined of this matter In whose name he wrote a Synodical Epistle to Pope f Ibid. c. 24. p. 192. Victor wherein he told him that they agreed with him in the main of the Controversie but withall duly and gravely advised him to take heed how he excommunicated whole Churches for observing the ancient Customs derived down to them from their Ancestors that there was as little agreement in the manner of the Preparatory Fast before Easter as in the
haughty and its face full of ancient wrinkles of which a Lib. 5. cap. 1. p. 459. Lactantius long since gave this censure that though he himself was skilled in all points of Learning yet his stile was rugged and uneasie and very obscure as indeed it requires a very attentive and diligent a sharp and sagacious understanding yet is it lofty and masculine and carries a kind of majestic eloquence along with it that gives a pleasant relish to the judicious and inquisitive Reader It is deeply tinctured with the African dialect and owes not a little of its perplexedness and obscurity to his conversing so much in the Writings of the Greeks whose forms and idioms he had so made his own that they naturally flowed into his pen and how great a Master he was of that Tongue is plain in that himself b De Baptism c. 15. p. 230. de Coron c. 6. p. 104 tells us he wrote a Book concerning Baptism and some others in Greek which could not but exceedingly vitiate and infect his native stile and render it less smooth elegant and delightful as we see in Ammianus Marcellinus who being a Greek born wrote his Roman History in Latin in a stile rough and unpleasant and next door to barbarous Besides what was in it self obscure and uneven became infinitely worse by the ignorance of succeeeding Ages who changed what they did not understand and crowded in spurious words in the room of those which were proper and natural till they had made it look like quite another thing then what it was when it first came from under the hand of its Author XIV HIS errours and unsound opinions are frequently noted by S. Augustin and the Ancients not to mention later Censors and Pamelius has reduced his Paradoxes to thirty one which together with their Explications and Antidotes he has prefixed before the Editions of his Works That of Montanus his being the Paraclete we noted before and for other things relating to that Sect they are rather matters concerning Order and Discipline then Articles and Points of Faith It cannot be denied but that he has some unwarrantable notions common with other Writers of those Times and some more peculiar to himself But he lived in an Age when the Faith was yet green and tender when the Church had not publicly and solemnly defined things by explicit Articles and nice Propositions when the Philosophy of the Schools was mainly predominant and men ran immediately from the Stoa and the Academy to the Church when a greater latitude of opining was indulged and good men were infinitely more solicitous about piety and a good life then about modes of Speech and how to express every thing so critically and exactly that it should not be liable to a severe scrutiny and examination His Writings Genuine Apologeticus Ad Nationes Libri II. De Testimonio Animae Ad Scapulam De Spectaculis De Idololatria De Corona De Pallio De Poenitentia De Oratione Ad Martyras De Patientia De cultu foeminarum Lib. II. Ad Vxorem Lib. II. De Virginibus Velandis Adversus Judaeos De Praescriptione Haereticorum De Baptismo Adversus Hermogenem Adversus Valentinianos De Anima De Carne Christi De Resurrectione Carnis Adversus Marcionem Lib. V. Scorpiace Adversus Praxeam Libri post Lapsum in Montanismum scripti De Exhortatione Castitatis De Monogamia De fuga in Persecutione De Jejuniis De Pudicitia Supposititious Poemata Adversus Marcionem Lib. V. De judicio Domini Genesis Sodoma Not extant De Paradiso De Spe Fidelium De Ecstasi Adversus Apollonium Adversus Apellecianos De Vestibus Aaron De Censu Animae Graece De Corona De Virginibus Velandis De Baptismo The End of TERTULLIAN 's Life THE LIFE OF ORIGEN Presbyter Catechist of ALEXANDRIA Michael Burghers sculpsit ORIGEN Origen where and when born Several conjectures about the original of his name His Father who His juvenile education and great towardliness in the knowledge of the Scriptures His Philosophical Studies under Clemens Alexandrinus His Institution under Ammonius Ammonius who His fame and excellency confessed by the Gentile Philosophers Another Origen his contemporary These two heedlesly confounded His Fathers martyrdom and the confiscation of his Estate Origen 's resolute encouragement of his Father His own passionate desire of Martyrdom His maintenance by an honourable Matron of Alexandria His zeal against Heretics His setting up a private School His succeding Clemens in the Catechetic Shool at eighteen years of Age. The frequency of his Auditors Many of them Martyrs for the Faith Origen 's resolution in attending upon the Martyrs His danger His couragious act at the Temple of Serapis His emasculating himself and the reasons of it The eminent chastity of those Primitive times Origen 's journey to Rome and return to Alexandria His taking in a Colleague into the Catechetic Office His learning the Hebrew Tongue The prudent method of his Teaching Ambrosius converted Who he was His great intâ—maâ—y with Origen Origen sent for by the Governour of Arabia His journey into Palestin and teaching at Caesarea Remanded by the Bishop of Alexandria Alexander Severus his excellent Vertues and kindness for the Christian Religion Origen sent for by the Empress Mammaea to Antioch He begins to write his Commentaries How many Notaries and Transcribers imployed and by whom maintained Notaries their Original and Office Their use and institution in the Primitive Church His journey into Greece His passage through Palestin and being ordained Presbyter at Caesarea Demetrius of Alexandria his envy and rage against him Origen condemned in two Synods at Alexandria and one at Rome The resignation of his Catechetic School to Heraclas Heraclas who The story of his offering sacrifice The credit of this story questioned and why His departure from Alexandria and fixing at Caesarea The eminency of his School there Gregorius Thaumaturgus his Scholar His friendship with Firmilian Firmilian who The Persecution under Maximinus Origen 's Book written to the Martyrs His retirement whither His comparing the Versions of the Bible His Tetrapla Hexapla and Octapla what and how managed A Speâ—imen given of them His second journey to Athens His going to Nicomedia and letter to Africanus about the History of Susanna His confutation of Beryllus in Arabia His answer to Celsus Celsus who Origens Letters to Philip the Emperour The vanity of making him a Christian Origen 's journey into Arabia to refute Heresies The Helcesaitae who What their Principles Alexander 's miraculous election to the See of Jerusalem his Coadjutor-ship Government Sufferings and Martyrdom Origen 's grievous sufferings at Tyre under the Decian Persecution His deliverance out of Prison Age and Death His Character His strict life His mighty zeal abstinence contempt of the World indefatigable diligence and patience noted His natural parts incomparable learning His Books and their several Classes His stile what His unsound opinions The great Out-cry against him in all Ages