third of Greek Words and Phrases either worthy of Observation or such as that Author hath used in a particular Sence If those Index's were Compleat and Correct they would be undoubtedly very useful but they are neither There is a great many Faults in the Numbers and the Sence of Clemens is often mis-represented in them That Passage of Job There is none but is polluted is referred to the 25th Chapter of his Book whereas 't is in the 14th There is in the Index Peccato originali infectae omnium animae corpora 468. d. On the contrary Clemens confutes that Opinion in that place but Sylburgus or another who made that Index in all probability thought of what Clemens should have said in his judgment rather than what he did really say There is besides a Fourth Index before the Book which contains a Catalogue of the Authors cited by Clemens but the Pages in which they are cited being not marked 't is altogether useless 'T were to be wisht for the Common-wealth of Learning not only that Kings were Philosophers or Philosophers Kings but also that Printers were Learned Men or Learned Men Printers and that we might see again the Age of the Manutius's and Stephens to give us good Editions of the Writings of the Antients and make that Study more Easie which is Difficult enough of it self without encreasing the Difficulties by our own Negligence The Life OF EUSEBIUS Bishop of Caesarea THE same Reason that induced me to give the Publick the Life of Clemens Alexandrinus obliges me to give an Account of that of Eusebius of Caesarea It will be so much the more Curious to those who cannot consult the Originals because there happened more Remarkable Things in Eusebius his time than in Clemens's and because the former was in a Higher Station than the latter Eusebius was born in Palestine and perhaps at Caesarea at least * Ap. Socrat l. 5. c. 8. he seems to intimate in the beginning of his Letter to the Christians of that City That he was Instructed in the Christian Faith and Baptized there He was Born towards the End of the Third Century though we cannot find exactly the Year of his Birth He began early to apply himself to Learning especially to Divinity as it sufficiently appears in his Writings wherein may be seen that he had carefully read all sorts of Profane Authors and that all the Writings of the Christians who wrote in Greek and those of the Latin that were translated into that Tongue were known to him He had the advantage of the curious Library which the Martyr Pamphilius his particular Friend had collected at Caesarea It s affirm'd * Hieron Epist ad Chron. Heliod Antipater Bostrencis in Concil Nicaen II. Act. 5. That being become Bishop of this City he entreated Constantine who passed through it and who had bid him ask some Favour in behalf of his Church that he would permit him to make a search into all the Publick Registers to extract the Names of all the Martyrs and the Time of their Death However he has committed Faults enough in Chronology as Joseph Scaliger and a great many other Learned Men have observed and especially in relation to Martyrs as Mr. Dodwel has lately shewn in his Dissertation de Paucitate Martyrum But it was no easie Matter to escape these kind of Faults in such a Work as his Ecclesiastical History which was the first of that sort that was ever undertaken the Primitive Christians taking no care of the History of their Times Eusebius is commonly call'd the Son of Pamphilius Whether he was really his Son as some affirm or his Nephew according to the Opinion of others or in fine as most believe by reason of the great Friendship between them This Pamphilius was of Beryte in Phoenicia and Priest of Caesarea he held Origen's Opinions for whom he wrote an Apology of which there remains to us but a part of it in Latin among the Works of Origen and St. Jerome He made it in Prison where he was put in the Year 307 under the Emperor Decius and where Eusebius did not forsake him He could write only the five first Books having been hinder'd from finishing * Phot. Cod. CXVIII this Work by the Death which he sustered for the Gospel two years after he had been thrown into Prison But Eusebius finish'd it in adding thereto a sixth Book and publish'd it after his Death Pamphilius had for Master †Id. Cod. CXIX Pierius Priest of Alexandria who likewise suffer'd Martyrdom and was also of Origen's Opinion whose Assiduity and Eloquence he imitated which got him the Name of Second Origen It 's not amiss here to relate the Judgment which Photius makes of his Works He advances several things says he remote from those which are at present establish'd in the Church perhaps according to the Custom of the Antients Yet he speaks after a pious manner of the Father and the Son excepting that he assures us that they have Two Essences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Two Natures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 using the words Essence and Nature as it appears by what precedes and follows in this Passage for that of Hypostasis and not in the sence of the Arians But he speaks of the Holy Spirit in a dangerous and impious manner for he attributes to him a Glory inferiour to that of the Father and the Son Yet he was Catechist of Alexandria under the Patriarch Theonas who was Consecrated in the Year 282. Pamphilius being dead as has been said Eusebius retired to Paulinus Bishop of Tyre his Friend where he was Witness as he tells us * L. 8. c. 6. himself of several Martyrdoms the History of which he has left us in his Book of the Martyrs of Palestine From thence he went into Egypt where he found the Persecution yet more violent and where he was thrown into Prison But this Persecution having ceased he was set at liberty and a while after elected Bishop of Caesarea after the Death of Agapius It 's not certainly known in what Year this Election was made but at least he was already Bishop when Paulinus dedicated a stately Church in the City of Tyre which he had built there which was in the Year 316 in the 10th of Year Constantine's Reign for it was the Custom of the Christians * Ant. Pagi Diss Hypat par 2. c. 3. n. 12 13. as well as of the Pagans to Consecrate their Churches in the time of the Decennales of the Emperors or of any other Solemnity Eusebius recites a fine Oration spoken at this Dedication †L. 10. c. 4. and though he does not say that it was he himself that spoke it yet the Stile of this Oration and the modest Manner after which he mentions him that made it gives one reason to believe that he has supprest his Name only through Modesty One might imagine that he was then but Priest were it
this Council are lost and we know nothing of them but by what St. Athanasius * Vid. Bull. Def. Fid. Nic. §. 2. c. 1. §. 10 seq and some others extremely interessed to uphold this word have said in their Disputes against the Arians If we believe them the Fathers of the Council of Antioch said that the Father and the Son were not consubstantial in the same sence wherein we say that two pieces of Money made of the same Metal are consubstantial because that these pieces suppose a pre-existent Matter of which they have been form'd Whereas the Father and the Son do not suppose the like substance Paulus Samosatenus said that if the Son had not been made God we must suppose that he is of the same kind of Essence as that of the Father and that thus there must have been an anterior substance to the one and to the other of which they must have been form'd St. Athanasius assures us †In lib. de Syn. Arim. Seleu. Tom. 1. p. 919 seq that the term of Homoousios was condemn'd at Antioch in as much only as it might include the Idea of a Matter anterior to things which we call Coessentials These are the chief Heretical Opinions touching the Divinity of Jesus Christ which appear'd before the Council of Nice As for the Fathers which are respected as Orthodox they have not varied from the Expressions of the Platonists and as these have sometimes said that the Reason is different from the Supreme Being and sometimes that they are both one The Fathers have exprest themselves in the same terms The Platonists have said That the Father could not be without the Son nor the Son without the Father as the Light could not be without the Sun nor the Sun without Light And the Fathers have said the same thing Both one and the other have acknowledged that the Reason has existed before the World and that she has produced it and as Plato speaks in his Timaeus and Plotinus in his Enneades of the Generation of Reason as if the Good it self had produced it to create and govern the World So the Fathers have said that the Son hath proceeded in some manner from the Father before the Creation of the World to manifest himself to Men by his Production and that hence it is that the Scripture calls him the Son of God and his First-born Sometimes they say there was a time in which the Son was not sometimes that he was from Everlasting as well as the Father sometimes they affirm they are Equal and elsewhere they say the Father is Greatest Some of them believe that the Father and Son are two Hypostases two Natures two Essences as appears from the passage of Pierius related by * Cod. CXIX Photius others deny it To bring Instances of all this would be too great an Enlargement for this place and there being enough to be seen in Bull 's Book which we have already cited If it be demanded at present what Idea's they fix'd to these Expressions it cannot be affirm'd that they have been clear First Because whatever Endeavours are used to understand what they say a Man can get no distinct Notion thereof And Secondly Because they acknowledge themselves that it is a thing Incomprehensible All that can be done on this occasion is to relate the Terms which they have used to the end that it may be seen how they have heretofore exprest themselves on this Matter However learned Men have given themselves a great deal of trouble to explain the Passages of the Fathers who liv'd before the Council of Nice without considering that all their Explications are fruitless seeing the Fathers in acknowledging that what they said was Incomprehensible acknowledg'd at the same time that they fix'd no Idea on the Terms they used unless such as were general and confused Had the Matter staid here there had never been such great Disputes on the Sentiments of the Antients touching this Mystery seeing the Dispute doth not so much lie on the Terms they have used as the Idea's they have fasten'd to them which cannot be reduced to any thing that is clear Sometimes they use Terms which seem perfectly to agree with those which have been used since but there is found in some other places of their Works Expressions which seem to overthrow what they had said so that one cannot form any Notion of what they thought Lactantius for Example answers thus to the Heathens who ask'd the Christians how they said they acknowledged but One God seeing they gave this Name to the Father and to the Son * Instit l. 4. c. 29. p. 403. Ed. Oxon. When we call the Father God and the Son God we do not say that each of them is a different God And we do not separate them because the Father cannot be without the Son nor the Son separated from the Father He cannot be called Father without his Son nor the Son be begotten without his Father Seeing then that the Father makes the Son and that the Son is made the one and the other has the same Intellect One only Spirit and One only Substance VNA VTRIQVE MENS VNVS SPIRITVS VNA SVBSTANTIA These are Words which seem to be decisive and had Lactantius held to these Expressions he had never been accused of Heterodoxy But if he be question'd what he means by the word Vnus whether it be a Numerical Vnity or an Vnity of Consent and Resemblance he will appear determin'd to this latter sence * Ib. p. 104. When any one says he has a Son whom he dearly loves and who dwells in the House and under the governing Power of his Father although the Father grants him the Name and Authority of a Master yet in the terms of Civilians here is but one House and one Master So this World is but one House belonging to God and the Son and the Father who inhabit the World and who are of one Mind Vnanimes are One only God the One being as the Two and the Two as the One. And this ought not to appear strange seeing the Son is in the Father because the Father loveth the Son and the Father is in the Son by reason of his faithful Resignation to his Father's Will and that he does nothing nor never did do any thing unless what the Father has will'd or commanded him We may read further the 6th Chap. of the 4th Book which begins thus God who has conceived and produced all Things before he began this curious Work of the World begat a Spirit Holy and Incorruptible that he might call him his Son Although he has produced infinite others whom we call Angels for his Ministry yet he has vouchsafed to give the Name of Son to his First-born who is cloathed with the Vertue and Majesty of his Father That which is particular in this is That though Lactantius says That the Son is Co-eternal with the Father yet he
Crit. Baron ad An. 354 388. were it not that the whole Series of his Life shews it as the Reader will easily perceive by the remaining part of this History Julian who was afterward Emperor was also there rather as Gregory says to consult the Diviners concerning his Fortune than to study Philosophy From that time Gregory began to hope no good thing from him as I shall observe when I come to the Orations he made against him After Basil's departure he applied himself especially to Eloquence and Declamed with so much Applause that every body look'd upon him as one of the chief Orators of that time He was not naturally enclined as he himself says to that sort of life and he soon after made his escape from Athens where he had been detained as it were against his will without taking his leave of any Body †De Vita sua p. 5 6. Orat. x. p. 165. He loved naturally a quiet life which made him averse to any manner of life that would have made him too busie Those who live after that manner and perform well their Employments seemed to him to be only useful to others and those who live altogether in a retreat seem'd to him to be only good for themselves He wished he might keep a Medium between those two Extreams and lead a kind of a Monastical life in the midst of the World without taking upon him any Employment but such as he would have chosen and without being obnoxious to some troublesom Irregularities which render the best Employments unpleasant He departed from Athens full of those thoughts and went to Constantinople by Land He found there his Brother Caesarius who came thither by Sea at his return from Alexandria where he had studied Physick * Orat. x. p. 164. He had got so great a Reputation during the little time that he stay'd at Constantinople that the Emperor would keep him for his Physician make him a Citizen of Constantinople and confer upon him the Dignity of a Senator Though Caesarius was very willing to yield to those Solicitations yet his Parents Wishes and his Brother's Exhortations prevailed and he set out with him to go to Nazianzum But having stay'd there some time he returned to Constantinople where it was much more pleasant to live than in a desart Town of Cappadocia As for Gregory he was Baptized at Nazianzum and his Father persuaded him soon after to renounce that quiet life which he designed to lead and to take the Orders of a Priest Gregory a great while after could not †De Vita sua p. 6. forbear naming that Action ‖ Ep. xi of his Father a Tyranny But the Respect he had for him and the Troubles that good Men were put to during the Arian Controversies wherein his Father himself was concerned obliged him patient-to bear the yoke that was laid on him Basil had made him * Ep. v. Greg. promise that when he should leave Athens he would come and live with him But Gregory could not be as good as his Word being obliged to live with his Parents He invited Basil to come and see him sometimes but it doth not appear that they were ever long together Several Persons †Orat. xi wished that he would take Priests Orders but afterwards did not oftener frequent the Church of Nazianzum for all that as he upbraids them with it in one of his Orations in which notwithstanding he praises the Concord and Orthodoxy of that Church He doth also bestow upon them a considerable Commendation viz. that they made Piety to consist not in speaking much of God but in being silent and obeying him If Ancient and Modern Divines had endeavoured to deserve that Praise Christianity would not have been torn by so many Disputes nor would it be so now Constantius in order to allay the Arian Quarrels if it were possible called an Oecumenick Council in the Year 359 which was divided into two Assemblies The Eastern Bishops were to hold theirs at Seleucia in Isauria and the Western at Ariminum a Town of Romania The Arians who were at Seleucia * Socrat. l. 11. c. 40. made a Confession of Faith in which supposing that no unscriptural Term was to be used and consequently that the word Consubstantial ought not to be used they only said that the Son was like the Father according to the Apostle who says That the Son is the Image of the Invisible God Those who said that the Son was not like the Father were also condemned in it Acacius Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine drew up that Confession of Faith The same Acacius and those of his Party approved the Confession of Ariminum which was worded after the same manner †Socrat. l. 11. c. 41. Sozom. l. 4. c. 29. They only added to it that in this matter the words Substance and Hypostasis ought not to be used because those words which had caused so many Disputes were not to be found in the Holy Scripture In the mean time the Arians being urged by the Orthodox to say in what that Resemblance of the Father did consist made it to consist only in the Will Whereas the others maintained That the Substance of the Son though distinct was altogether like the Substance of the Father But forasmuch as equivocal Terms were used by both Parties it gave occasion to those who were not skill'd in those Subtilties to equivocate and confound two very different Opinions Gregory's Father was one of those who fell into that Snare * Orat. xix p. 297. Vit. Greg. p. 11. he subscribed to the Confessions of Faith of Seleucia and Ariminum The miraculous Light which appeared at his Baptism and his Study since that time had not enlightened his Mind to such a degree as to make him understand the Arian Controversies That Action of the Bishop of of Nazianzum allarm'd the Monks of Cappadocia who being full of Zeal for the Consubstantiality refused to Communicate with the good Man and got part of the People on their side 'T is likely that his Son Gregory was not then at Nazianzum for he would have hindred his Father from committing a Fault which he obliged him to acknowledge by a publick Recantation Having thus appeased the Monks Gregory the Son got into the Pulpit and made the Discourse concerning Peace which is his XII Oration in the presence of his Father who was not to be compared to him for Eloquence and Learning 1. He says That the pleasure he had to see Peace restored to the Church of Nazianzum had induced him to make that Discourse whereas before nothing could persuade him to speak 2. That he had been extremely moved at the Division which had before happened especially considering the austere and holy Life of the Monks which he describes by the bye with great Rhetorical Exaggerations 3. That Divisions are the cause of all sorts of Mischiefs and that they had reason to
thank God because that which arose in the Church of Nazianzum was over 4. That the Church of Nazianzum which before that last Division knew not what Schism was ought to endeavour for the future to enjoy a perpetual Peace 5. That in the last Discord Men were so fully persuaded that the Bishop of Nazianzum acted sincerely and kept the Truth of the Faith that they upbraided him only with his being imposed upon by equivocal Words 6. That every thing invites us to Peace God Angels and all Creatures which are maintained by Concord 7. That the Jews had been happy whilst they were at Peace one with another but became unfortunate as soon as they were divided 8. Notwithstanding that all manner of Peace ought not to be sought after but that a medium ought to be kept and that 't is one 's Duty to oppose Heresie with all one's might when any body prefesses it openly but that one ought to forbear making a Schism upon meer Suspicions * Pag. 203. When says he that which troubles us is only a Suspicion and a Fear grounded upon no Certainty Patience is more useful than Precipitation and Condescension more than Passion 'T is much better to remain united together to correct mutually one another as the Members of the same Body than to condemn one another by a Schism before they understand reciprocally one another or to lose the Trust which they put one in another by a Division and than to undertake to correct others not after a brotherly but tyrannical manner with Edicts and Laws Lastly Gregory exhorts the Church of Nazianzum to keep the good depositum concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity which he expresses in these terms * Pag. 204. We worship a Father a Son and a Holy Spirit in the Son we acknowledge the Father and in the Holy Spirit the Son c. Before we join them we distinguish 'em and before we distinguish 'em we join ' em We don't look upon those Three Things as One GOD for they are not things †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See the Life of Eusebius destitute of a distinct Existence or that have but One Existence so that our Riches be only in Names not in Things and that Three Things be really but One. 'T is One Thing not in Existence but in Divinity We worship an Unity in a Trinity and that Trinity re-united in the Unity is all adorable and Royal it hath but One Throne and Glory it is all above the World above Time Uncreated c. That Speech as almost all the Speeches of Gregory is 1st Without any great Order Thoughts are heaped one upon another as they came into the Author's Mind a Defect which almost all the ancient Orators were guilty of as well as he and which makes him repeat the same things to no purpose 2dly His Reasonings seem too far-fetch'd and are not very convincing as when he says That the World is preserved by Peace That 's a far-fetch'd Thought and the contrary might be said as indeed some Philosophers have asserted That the Opposition which is between the several Parts of the Universe keeps them in the state they are in because they hinder one another from leaving it 3dly The Style of that Oration is too full of Figures little correct and even sometimes harsh all which things often breed Obscurity However it must be confest that he abounds in noble Comparisons and happy and Energick Expressions such as those * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he uses in that place wherein he condemns the Schism which I have mentioned He is also full of Ornaments taken out of History or Heathenish Fables nay he speaks sometimes of the later as the Pagan Philosophers did without openly rejecting them Thus speaking of the Flames of Mount Aetna he uses this Expression * Orat. iii. p. 86. whether it be something else or the blowing of a Giant in torment Elsewhere having spoken of the Torments of Tantalus Ixion †Orat. iv p. 132. and Tityus he adds whether it be True or a Eable which teaches us the Truth under a Fiction Yet there is no doubt but Gregory look'd upon all those things as meer Fables but the Greek Philosophers whom he had carefully read spoke after the same manner It seems that the custom of speaking as others did made Gregory say many things which he had read in Pagan Authors without being willing to examine ' em But he is far from equalling the Neatness Exactness and Elegancy of Isocrates whom they say he proposed to himself as his Model I thought my self obliged to set down here in a few words what may be said of Gregory's Style that I may forbear repeating it when I come to speak of his other Orations I shall only present the Reader with some Examples of what I have said when occasion offers I must also observe here once for all that Gregory with respect to Philosophy followed the Platonick from which he borrows several terms which can't be understood without the knowledge of it Thus he says ‖ Pag. 1â—8 That God is the most Excellent and Highest of all Beings if one had not rather place him above the Essence and put in him the Whole Being since he gives it to other things To understand the meaning of those words to be above the Essence we must know that the Platonicks establish'd some Chains of Beings as they worded it that is a Series of Beings placed one above another so that going up by degrees in that Chain more excellent Beings did still offer themselves and at last the Supreme Trinity which is above all the Essences of those Beings that is to say which can't be referred to any particular Species but contains in it self all their Essences and therefore can produce ' em * Vid. Proclum Theol Platon l. 3. c. 20. alibi Whence it is that those Philosophers say that the Gods have some Super-essential Qualities Without the knowledge of that Platonick Doctrine one can't know Gregory's meaning in the words which I have just now quoted He says in the same Page That Angels partake first of the Light That they are enlightned by the True Reason and that they are some Beams of that Perfect Light All those terms are taken from the bottom of Platonism as I could easily shew by explaining them were it not that I should too much enlarge To return to the Historical part The Arians being informed of the Division which happened at Nazianzum took advantage of it and laughed at the Orthodox Which gave occasion to Gregory to make the Homily which is the XIII amongst his Orations wherein he shews the Arians that the Division of Nazianzum having been only by a Mistake and having not lasted long they did unjustly insult over that Church Besides he shews the advantage which the Orthodox had over the Arians and Sabellians by comparing the Opinions of those three Societies one with
nothing in it that was inconsistent with the Orthodox Opinions of that time and that if we had it we might look upon it as the Work of a Good Christian The Place which Clemens quotes out of it is too remarkable to be omitted here since we may know from it what many Antients who have not been charged with Idolatry thought of the Heathens Know that there is but One God said St. Peter in that Book who gave a Beginning to All Things and is able to make 'em End who is Invinsible and seeth all things who is shut up within no Bounds and contains all things who wants nothing and whom all things stand in need of since they exist by Him who is Incomprehensible Eternal and Incorruptible who was not made but made all things by his Powerful Word that is by his Son according to the Spiritual Interpretation put upon the Scripture Afterwards he adds as Clemens goes on Worship that God not as the Greeks do because Honest Men among the Greeks Worship'd the same God with us but without perfectly Knowing Him as those who have received the Doctrine of his Son He doth not say Do not worship the God whom the Greeks worship but Do not worship him as the Greeks do Changing only the Manner of the Worship but preaching no other God He himself explains what he means adding For being led by their Ignorance and not knowing God as perfectly as we do they make Statues of those things which God gave them for their use viz. Wood Stone Copper Iron Gold and Silver and instead of employing those things for their use they themselves worship ' em Besides they worship Beasts which God gave them for their Food the Birds of the Air the Fishes of the Sea the Creeping Creatures of the Earth Wild and Four-footed Beasts as well as Weasels Rats Dogs and Monkeys They sacrifice to Men what they should eat and offering Dead Things to the Dead as to Gods they prove Ungrateful to the True God and so deny his Existence And that it may appear that We and the Greeks Know the True God though in a different manner he goes on thus Worship not God neither as the Jews for fancying that They only know God they do not perceive that they worship Angels and Archangels the Months and the Moons for if the Moon does not appear they do not observe the Sabbath which they call First nor the New Moon nor the Days of Unleavened Bread nor any Holy Day Lastly he concludes saying As for you Learn the Just and Holy Doctrine which we teach you observe it and worship God after a new manner through Jesus Christ For we read in the Scripture that God said I make a new Covenant with you different from that which I made with your Fathers upon Mount Horeb. He hath given us a New Covenant for both that of the Jews and Greeks is old and We who worship him after a Third and New manner are Christians He clearly shews as Clemens adds That one and the same God was known to the Greeks after the manner of the Heathens to the Jews after the Jewish manner and to Vs after a New and Spiritual manner He shews further That the same God who gave the Two Covenants is He who gave Philosophy to the Greeks by which the Almighty is glorified amongst 'em c. As God was pleased to save the Jews by giving them some Prophets so he hath raised among the Greeks the most Honest Men whom he hath distinguisht from the Vulgar according as they were capable of receiving his Benefits to perform the part of PROPHETS amongst 'em in their own Tongue We learn this not only from St. Peter's Preaching but also from St. Paul when he says Take some Greek Books acknowledge that the Sybil teaches but One God and the Things that are to come ' Read Hydaspes and you 'll find that he hath writ much more clearly concerning the Son of God and that he said that many Kings would arm themselves against Jesus Christ that they would hate him and those that are called by his Name c. As the Preaching of the Gospel came in its time so the Law and the Prophets were given to the Barbarians in their time and Philosophy to the Greeks which accustoms the Ears to the Preaching of the Gospel Clemens speaks after the same manner in several other places and testifies clearly enough that Philosophy * Vid. Casab Exercitat 1. in App. Baron was among the Greeks what Prophecy was among the Hebrews and that God hath always given equally to all Men the Means necessary to be saved Which was also the Opinion of several other Greek Fathers Clemens therefore believed that the Greeks had no good Doctrine but what they took from the Barbarians especially from the Jews and the Sacred Books which he endeavours to prove in a thousand places and 't is well known that it was the common Opinion of the Fathers who undertook to censure the Philosophy of the Greeks The Jews said also the same thing as it appears from a Passage of Aristobulus a Peripatetick who is said to have been Tutor to Ptolemy Philometor and who speaks thus Plato did also follow our Laws and hath shewed that he had studied them well Now before Demetrius's time nay before the Empire of Alexander and that of the Perfians they were translated by others than the Septuagint as well as the History of what happen'd to the Hebrews our Fellow-Citizens at their departure from Egypt of what remarkable things they did and saw and how they took possession by their strength of the Land of Canaan and how the whole Law was given so that it is manifest that the Philosopher whom I have mention'd took several things from it for he was a Man of great Learning as well as Pythagoras who hath inserted several of our Opinions into his Doctrine But this Author is suspected for several Reasons and being the only Man who hath mention'd a Translation made before the Empire of the Persians one may justly doubt whether this is not a Jewish Fable However it appears that in the time of this Author whether he be Genuine or Supposititious the Jews charged the Heathens with having stoln the best things they had out of the Holy Books 'T is very likely that the Greeks had learnt many things of the Eastern Nations as of the Egyptians and Babylonians for they themselves * Vid. Diogen Laert. Proem ad illud Intt. confess it But if this Matter was fully examined one might perhaps find that many things were clearly spoken of in Greece before the Jews spoke of 'em after the same manner and that the latter began to express themselves as the Greeks only since they conversed with them I could alledge some Proofs of this Conjecture at least as strong as all those which the Fathers have alledged to prove the contrary But because I should too much wander from the chief
Subject in hand I shall not undertake this Matter Perhaps some time or other I shall publish a Dissertation about it I had rather observe here That although Clemens doth often charge the Greek Philosophers with Theft yet he believed that God had given them part of their Knowledge by the Ministry of Inferior Angels whereas he instucted the Christians by the Ministry of his Son * Strom. l. 7. p. 702. The Lord of all Men of the Greeks as well as the Barbarians persuades those that will believe in Him For he doth not force him to receive Salvation who may chuse and do what is in his power to embrace the Hope which God offers him 'T is He who gives Philosophy to the Greeks by the Ministry of Inferior Angels †Ibid. l. 1. p 309. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Angels have been long ago dispersed among the Nations by the Command of God but the Opinion of those that Believe is the Gift of the Lord. Afterwards he proves at large in the same place that God is the Saviour of the Heathens as well as the Jews As to the Ministry of Angels to reveal Philosophy to the Greeks Clemens and those who have been of the same Opinion came by it partly by reason of what Socrates said concerning his Daemon who warned him of several things and of whom ‖ Ibid. l. 1. p. 311 334. Clemens seems to speak in such terms as may make one believe that he was persuaded that Socrates spake the Truth And this agrees well enough with the Opinion of the same Father and several others who believed after several Heathen Philosophers that every Man had a Tutelar Angel who might sometimes advize him After what hath been said 't is no wonder that Clemens should ascribe a kind of Prophecy * Ibid. l. 5. p. 601. to Plato especially if it be considered that the words of that Philosopher suit Jesus Christ so well that the Condition which the Saviour of the World was reduced to when he was nailed to the Cross can scarce be better described now He †De Rep. l. 2. p. 423. ed. Ficin describes a Perfect Vertue and says that one might bestow that Name upon the Vertue of a Just Man who yet should be accounted a Wicked for being a strict Observer of Justice and who notwithstanding the ill Opinion which the World should have of him would walk on in the way of Vertue even to Death although he should be Whipt although he should suffer several Torments and be kept in Chains although his Eyes should be burnt out with a red-hot Iron although he should be exposed to all sorts of Misery and at last be Crucified However Clemens did not equal the Heathen Philosophy to the Doctrine of Christ He acknowledges that before his coming into the World it was only as it were a Degree and Preparation to Christianity and that the Philosophers could only be lookt upon as Children if compared to the Christians He thought that Faith was Necessary since the Gospel had been published through the whole World * Strom. l. 7. p. 704. The Saviour says be having given his Commands to the Barbarians and Philosophy to the Greeks hath shut up Unbelief until his Coming in which time whosoever doth not believe in Him is without Excuse All the Books of Clemens are full of these Sentiments and he defends them every where so clearly and so fully that it plainly appears that in his time those Opinions were not at least so commonly lookt upon as dangerous for it is not likely that they would have made him a Catechist after his Master Pantaenus or bestowed so many Praises upon him as they have done since if he had been lookt upon as a Man infected with dangerous Opinions St. Chrysostom maintained the same thing concerning the Salvation of Heathens in his 38th Hom. upon St. Matthew 'T was necessary to observe in few words those Opinions of Clemens because without it several places of his Writings cannot be understood and because 't was upon this account that he kept whatever he thought to be Rational in the Doctrine of the Heathens rejecting only what seem'd to him False or inconsistent with the Doctrines of the Gospel or what had been blamed by Christ and his Apostles Thus All the Greek Philosophers even those who were for a Fate having believed that Men are Free by their Nature and can abstain from doing Evil as they are able to apply themselves to Vertue And Christ and his Apostles having not undertaken to take them off from this Opinion Clemens openly maintains That Men have a liberty of Doing Evil or Abstaining from it * Strom. l. 1. p. 311. Neither Praises says he nor Censures nor Rewards nor Punishments are Just if the Soul hath not the power of Sinning or not Sinning and if Sin is Vnvoluntary The Pagans knew nothing of what was called since Original Sin And Clemens observing that the Sacred Writers do not upbraid the Heathens with their Ignorance in this Matter nor teach them that even New-born Children deserve the Fire of Hell he denies that Children are any ways corrupted The before-mentioned Hereticks who condemn'd Marriage faid amongst other Reasons That Men did only thereby bring Polluted Children into the World †Ibid. l. 3. p. 468 469. since David says of himself Psal 51. That he was conceived in Sin and shapen in Iniquity And Job maintains chap. 14. ver 4 5. That none is free from Pollution even though he should live but one Day Hereupon Clemens exclaims thus Let them tell us how a Child new-bown hath sinned or how he who hath done nothing yet is fallen under Adam 's Curse Afterwards he explains that Passage of David as if the Prophet had meant only that he was descended from Eve who was a Sinner It must be further observed That a Man with such a Disposition of Mind could scarce avoid believing that the Philosophers were of the same Opinion with the Apostles as soon as he perceived some Likeness between their Terms Thus Plato having spoken of the Three Chief Deities whom he acknowledged * In the Life of Eusebius as I shall shew elsewhere in Terms like those that were used by the Primitive Christians speaking of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Clemens believed that the Doctrine of that Philosopher was the same with that of the Christians I think says †Strom. l. 5. p. 598. he that Plato understood nothing else by it but the Holy Trinity and that the Third Being mention'd by him is the Holy Spirit as the Second is the Son by whom all things were made according to his Father 's Will. Wherefore when he speaks of Christ's Divinity he doth not describe it otherwise than the Platonicks did the Reason * Strom. l. 5. p. 598. The Nature of the Son says he is the most Perfect the most Holy that which hath the greatest share in the
the New Testament But it will be sufficient to remark here That the Apostles apply to our Saviour Christ Passages of the Old Testament which Philo had applied to the Reason and that this Jewish Philosopher has given to this same Reason most of the Titles which the Apostles have given to Jesus Christ. The Pagans who had then embraced the Gospel and who were in some measure vers'd in the Heathen Philosophy remarking this resemblance of Terms persuaded themselves that the Apostles believ'd the same things in respect of these Matters as the Platonick Jews and Pagans And this seems to be that which drew several Philosophers of this Sect into the Christian Religion and giv'n such a great Esteem to the Primitive Christians for Plato Justin Martyr in his First Apology says * Pag. 48. Edit Col. An. 1686. That Jesus Christ was known in part by Socrates for the Reason was and is still the same which is in every Man It is She that has foretold the Future by the Prophets and who being become subject to the same Infirmities as we has instructed us by her self He says moreover †Pag. 51 â—â—â—sd edit That the Opinions of Plato are not remote from those of Jesus Christ. And this has made likewise St. Augustine to say That if the ancient Platonists were such as they were described and were to rise again they would freely embrace Christianity in changing ‖ De. Ver. Rel. c. 3. Vid. Ep. LVI some few Words and Opinions which most of the late Platonists and those of his time had done Paucis mutatis verbis atque sententiis Christiani fierent sicut plerique recentiorum nostrorumque temporum Platonici fecerunt Tertullian affirms in his Apology * Cap. XXL That when the Christians say That God has made the Universe by his Word by his Reason and by his Power they speak only after the sage Heathens who tell us That God has made the World by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Word or Reason Clemens Alexandrinus has likewise believ'd that Plato held the Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity as I have observed in the Life of that Father Origen against Celsus does not deny but that Plato spake the truth in speaking of †Lib. 6. pag. 270 280. God and of his Son He only maintains that he did not make such a just Use as he ought of his Knowledge He does not say that the Foundation of the Christian Doctrine is different in this from that of Plato but that this Philosopher had learn'd it from the Jews Constantine in his Harangue to the ‖ Cap. IX Saints after having prais'd Plato in that he was the first Philosopher who brought Men to the Contemplation of Intellectual Things thus goes on He has spoken of a First God who is above all Essences wherein he has done well He has likewise submitted to him a Second and has distinguisht Two Essences in number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Perfection of the one being the same as that of the other and the Essence of the Second God taking his Existence from the First For it is He who is the Author and the Director of all things being Above All. He that is after him having executed his Orders attributes to Him as to the Supreme Cause the Production of the Universe There is then but One to speak properly who takes care to provider for All to wit the Reason who is God and who has set all things in their Order This Reason being God is likewise the Son of God for who can call 〈◊〉 otherwise without committing a great Fault He that is the Father of all things is justly said to be the Father of his own proper Reason HITHERTO 〈◊〉 TO HAS SPOKE LIKE A WISE MAN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he has varied from the Truth in introducing a multiplicity of Gods and in giving to each of 'em his Form We might cite several other such like Passages whereby one might see that several among the Fathers of the first three Centuries have believ'd that the Opinion of Plato and that of the Apostles was the same If we consider that the Question here is about things of which we have naturally no Idea and which is even Incomprehensible supposing Revelation and of which one can only speak in metaphorical and improper Language it will then appear to us no wonder if since the Apostles times there have arose several Opinions on this Subject Thus the Ebionites are charged to have denied the Pre-existence of Our Saviour's Divinity and to have held that he was only a meer Man These Ebionites have remain'd a long time seeing that not only Justin Martyr and St. Irenaeus do mention them but St. Jerom seems to take notice that they were in his time It 's affirm'd That Artemon under the Emperor Severus and Paulus Samosatenus Bishop of Antioch under the Emperor Aurelius maintain'd the same Opinions Cerinthus on the contrary held the Pre-existence of the Reason which he call'd the Christ and affirm'd that she had descended on Jesus in the form of a Dove when he was Baptiz'd and that she ascended up into Heaven when he was Crucify'd It is indeed very difficult to affirm that this was precisely the Opinions of these Hereticks because we have nothing remaining to us of them and that we cannot fully trust those who speak of 'em only with detestation seeing it might easily be that their great Zeal has hindred them from well comprehending them And this is a Remark which we must make in respect of all the Ancient Hereticks whose Opinions are denoted to us only from the Writings of their Adversaries About the Middle of the Third Century Sabellius of Ptolemaïs in Lybia produced a new Opinion which was condemned in Egypt and afterwards every where He was charg'd with * Synod Const ap Theod. l. 5. c. 9. Damas is apud eundem c. 11. confounding the Hypostases and for denying the Properties which distinguish the Father the Son and Holy Ghost and for having said That the Father is the same as the Son Whereas Plato and his Followers reckon'd Three Numerical Essences It seems that Sabellius would acknowledge but One whom he call'd the Father the Son or Holy Spirit in divers regards It 's said that some others had maintain'd the same thing before and after him as Noet and Beryllus of Botsra A while after Sabellius appear'd Paulus Samosatenus Bishop of Antioch who was as we have said of the Ebionites Sentiment in relation to our Saviour's Divinity Although the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been used in the Platonick Philosophy to signifie what is of the same kind as has been observ'd already and as may be seen in Bull 's Defence of the Nicene Council § 2. chap. 1. Yet the Council which met at Antioch to Condemn Paul of Samosotia Condemn'd likewise this Term. But its hard to find in what sence it was taken because the Acts of
says there was a time when he was not * L. 2. c. 9. in Ed. Betuleii Sicut mater sine exemplo genuit auctorem suum sic ineffabiliter Pater genuisse credendus est Co-aeternum De Matre natus est qui ante jam fuit de Patre qui aliquando non fuit Hoc fides credat intelligentia non requirat ne aut non inventum putet incredibile aut repertum non credat singulare It 's true this Passage is not to be found in some Manuscripts and that several learned Men have fancy'd that some fly Heretick has corrupted Lactantius's Works But in other places wherein all the Manuscripts do agree Lactantius expresses himself after the same manner And it may be replied with as much likelyhood that it has been the Orthodox Revisors who have cut off what they thought not fit to be made publick Lactantius has been long since charg'd with Heterodoxy but in this respect he has been no more faulty than other Fathers who liv'd before the Council of Nice whose Expressions are as different as those of the Platonists in matter of the Trinity And this has made Father Peteau and Mr. Huet to charge them with favouring the Arian Sentiments whil'st other learned Men have maintain'd that they have been far from them Each of them cites his Passages which examin'd apart seem to decide for him But when one comes to compare these Passages with one another it cannot be comprehended how the same Persons could speak so differently In this comparison their Expressions are found so obscure and so full of apparent Contradictions or real ones that a Man feels himself obliged to believe that the Fathers had done a great deal better in keeping themselves to the Terms of the Apostles and to have acknowledged that they understood them not than to throw themselves into such Labyrinths by endeavouring to explain them To shew further That the Expressions of the Fathers are only fit to produce confused Notions and such as are contrary to those which all Christians at this day hold we need only read Tertullian who having said in his Apology chap. 21. That the Nature of Reason is Spiritual adds Hunc ex Deo prolatum didicimus prolatione Generatum idciro Filium Deum dictum ex unitate substantiae nam Deus Spiritus est But what means Prolatione Genitus The Terms of Vnity of Substance may signifie not only of the same Substance in Number but moreover of a like Substance that is to say spiritually and equally perfect And what he adds seems to favour this last sence Etiam cum radius ex sole porrigitur portio ex summa sed Sol erit in radio quia Solis est radius nec separatur substantia sed extenditur The Substance of a Ray after what manner soever we conceive it is not the same in Number as that of the Sun And Tertullian says that it is the same of the Son Ita de Spiritu Spiritus de Deo Deus Thus a Spirit is born of a Spirit and a God of a God Vt Lumen de lumine accenditur manet integra indefecta materiae matrix etsi plures inde traduces qualitatum mutueris As when we light one Torch by another the Light which has lighted the other remains entire and without being wasted although we light several Torches who have the same qualities Ita quod de Deo profectum est Deus est Dei Filius unus ambo Ita de Spiritu Spiritus de Deo Deus modulo alternum numerum gradu non statu fecit à matrice non recessit sed excessit So what proceeds from God is God and Son of God and both are but one so the Spirit which is born of a Spirit and the God who is born of a God makes Two in respect of Degree but not in respect of his State he has not been separated from the Womb or from his Original but is gone out of it These Words of Tertullian do not appear at first sight agreeable with Arius's Opinion but at most they contain nothing that is clear for one might have demanded of Tertullian whether by this Prolation he speaks of the Reason has existed as Light from a Torch lighted by another Torch exists as soon as it is lighted Should he allow it he might have been told that to speak strictly there must have been Two Gods seeing that in fine two Spirits though exactly equal and strictly united are two Spirits If this be so the second Spirit being not form'd of the same Numerical Substance as that of the first one might say with Arius that he has been extracted from nothing and there would be in this regard nothing but a Dispute about Words between Arius and Tertullian But if it be answer'd for Tertullian That his Comparison is not good it will be ask'd Why he made use of a Comparison which may lead into Error especially having said before that he was of Plato's Opinion touching the Reason If he meant that the Father has produced in his proper Substance without multiplying it a Modification in respect of which one may call the Substance of the Father Son why does he say Spiritus ex Spiritu ex Deo Deus For to speak properly the Father has produced neither a Spirit nor a God but a new manner of Being in his proper Substance It is further to be observed That this Comparison is not of Tertullian alone but of Justin Martyr and a great number of Fathers besides before and after the Council of Nice and that there is no Passage which appears of greater force than that yet the Equivocation of it is apparent The Fathers have likewise used the term Hypostasis as well as the Platonists in two sences sometimes for the Existence taken in an abstracted manner and sometimes for the thing it self which exists The Equivocation of this Term and that of the Words One and Many which as has been shew'd are taken sometimes from the Unity and the Plurality Specificials and sometimes from the Unity and Plurality Numericals have caus'd great Controversies among the Fathers as divers learned Men have * Petavius Curcellaeus Huetius c. observed But it is sit we should take notice of one thing which is that Bull who has writ prolixly on this Matter has not a word of the Numerical and Specifick Vnity without which a Man cannot comprehend what the Fathers mean nor draw any Conclusions from them against the Hereticks Yet when they say there are three Hypostases or three Essences or three Natures he constantly takes it as if they said there are three Modifications in one only Numerical Essence He supposes that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature signifie Manners of Existing of one Numerical Essence only because that without this those who have thus spoken of it would not have been Orthodox or of the Opinion at present
Projection and the other that he was not begotten no more than the Father To this Arius added the Explanation of his Opinion which we have already related The Bishop * Sozom. II. of Nicomedia having receiv'd this Letter call'd a Synod of his Province of Bythinia which wrote Circular Letters to all the Eastern Bishops to induce them to receive Arius into Communion as maintaining the Truth and to engage Alexander to do as much We have still a Letter of Eusebius to Paulinus Bishop of Tyre wherein he not only intreats Paulinus to intercede for Arius but wherein he exposes and defends his Sentiments with great clearness He says He has never heard there were Two Beings without Generation nor that the One has been parted into Two but that this single Being had begotten another not of his Substance but perfectly like to him although of a different Nature and Power That not only we cannot express by Words the Beginning of the Son but that is even Incomprehensible to those Intellectual Beings which are above Men as well as to us To prove this he cites the 8th of the Proverbs God the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways before is works of old I was set up from Everlasting and he has begotten me before the mountains were brought forth He says That we must not search in the Term of Begetting any other signification than that of Producing because the Scripture does not only use it in reference to the Son but moreover in speaking of Creatures as when God says I have begotten Children and I have brought them up but they have rebelled against me But these Letters not having had the Success which Arius expected he sent to get leave of Paulinus of Eusebius and Patrophilus Bishop of Scythopolis to gather those who were of his Opinion into a Church and to exercise among them the Office of a Priest as he was wont to do before and as was done at Alexandria These Bishops having Convocated the other Bishops of Palestine granted him what he demanded but ordered him however to remain subject to Alexander and to omit nothing to obtain Communion with him There is extant a Letter of Arius directed to this Bishop * Apud Epiph II. and written from Nicomedia which contains a Confession of Faith according to the Doctrine which Arius affirm'd that Alexander himself had taught him wherein after having denoted his Belief touching the Father which includes nothing Heterodox he adds That he hath begotten his only Son before the times Eternal that it is by him that he has made the World that he has begotten him not only in Appearance but in Reality that this Son subsists by his own Will that he is unmoveable that he is a Creature of God that is perfect and not as other Creatures that he is a Production but not as other Productions Nor as Valentinian said a Projection of the Father Nor as Manes affirm'd a Consubstantial Part of the Father Nor as Sabellius call'd him a Son Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor as Hieracas spake a Lamp lighted by a Lamp or a Torch divided into two that he did not exist before he was begotten and became a Son that there are three Hypostases that is to say different Substances the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and that the Father is before the Son although the Son was created before all Ages Arius adds that Alexander had several times preach'd this Doctrine in the Church and refuted those who did not receive it This Letter is sign'd by Six Priests Seven Deacons and Three Bishops Secondus of Pentapolis Theonas of Lybia and Pistus whom the Arian Bishops had Establish't at Alexandria Alexander * Socrat. l. 1. c. 6. wrote on his side Circular Letters wherein he sharply censures Eusebius of Nicomedia in that he protected Arius and recommended him to others He joins to this the Names of those who had been Excommunicated and explains their Doctrine wherein he contents not himself to set down what we have seen in Arius's his Letters touching the Beginning which he attributes to the Son he says moreover that this Priest maintain'd that the Son is one of the Creatures that we cannot call him the Reason and Wisdom of the Father but improperly seeing that he himself has been produced by the Reason and Wisdom of God that he is subject to change as other Intelligent Creatures that he is of another Essence than God that the Father is Incomprehensible to him and that he doth not so much as know what his proper substance is that he has been made for our sakes to serve God as an Instrument in Creating us and that without this God had never begotten him Alexander adds That having assembled near a hundred Bishops of Egypt and Lybia they had Excommunicated Arius and his Followers by reason of his Opinions He afterwards comes to prove this and shews first The Eternity of the Son by this passage of St. John In the Beginning was the Reason 2. That he cannot be reckoned among the Creatures because the Father says of him in the 45th Psalm My Heart has uttered eructavit a good Word 3. That he is not unlike the Essence of the Father of which he is the perfect Image and the Splendor and of whom he says He that has seen me has seen the Father 4. That we cannot say There was a time in which he was not seeing that he is the Reason and the Wisdom of the Father and that it will be absurd to say There was a time in which the Father was without Reason and Wisdom 5. That he is not subject to change because the Scripture says He is the same yesterday and to day 6. That he was not made because of us seeing St. Paul says That it is because of him and by him that all things are 7. That the Father is not Incomprehensible to the Son seeing he says As the Father knows me so I know the Father This Letter wherein Eusebius of Nicomedia is extremely ill treated shock't this Bishop to the utmost Point and having great access to the Court because Constanstine made then his abode at Nicomedia this occasion'd divers Bishops to be at his devotion But he could not engage Alexander to forget what had past to speak no more of this Controversie and to receive Arius into Communion The Quarrels every day grew hotter and the People were seen to range themselves some taking Arius's side others Alexander's and the Comedians being Gentiles this gave them occasion to make a Sport of Christian Religion on their Theatres Each side treated one another with the odious Name of Heretick and endeavoured to shew that the Sentiments of the opposite Party overthrew the Christian Religion but it appears that neither the one nor the other Party could yet persuade the Emperor seeing he wrote to Alexander and to Arius a long Letter of which Hosius Bishop of Cordavia was the Bearer wherein he
equally chides them He says he found that the Controversie * Apud Euseb de Vit. Const c. 64. Seq Socrat. l. 1. c. 7. had begun in this manner That Alexander having demanded of each of his Priests what they thought of a Passage of Scripture or rather on an idle sort of Question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arius inconsiderately answered what he should not have thought or rather conceal'd if he had thought it That from thence had come his Excommunication and the Division of the People And therefore he exhorted them to a mutual pardoning of one anther and to receive his Opinion which was That it had been better not have troubled the Ecclesiasticks with this Question and that those who were ask'd it should have held their Tongues because the matter concern'd what was equally incomprehensible to both Parties and which serv'd only to raise Disturbances among the People He could not conceive how for a Question of very small importance and in which if they well understood one another they would find they agreed in the main they should make such a bustle and divide themselves in so scandalous a manner I do not say this adds he as if I would constrain you to think the same thing on a most vain Question or however you will please to call it For one may without dishonouring the Assembly and without breaking the Communion be in different Sentiments in such inconsiderable things We have not all the same Wills in all things neither are we all of us of the same Temper of Body and Humors The Emperor's Letter says Socrates gave them admirable Advice and full of Wisdom but the Mischief was grown too great and neither the Emperor's Endeavours nor his Authority who brought the Letter to Alexandria could appease it Alexander had taken care to write every where to hinder the spreading of Arius his Opinions We have still * Ap. Theod. l. 1. c. 4. a long Letter which he wrote to the Bishop of Constantinople wherein he vehemently inveighs against the Arian Faction and endeavours to render it odious in saying That Arius maintain'd That the Son was of a Nature capable of Evil as well as of Good although it actually remain'd without Sin and that it was for this that God had chosen him for his Eldest Son He proves the Eternity of the Son and that he was not extracted from Nothing because he was in the Beginning and that all things have been made by him Yet he holds That the Son has been begotten and that only the Father is without Generation although the Subsistence or Substance of the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †Valesius renders that word in that Letter sometimes Subsistentia and sometimes Essentia and Substantia although it be in the same continued Discourse be incomprehensible to the Angels themselves and that there is none but melancholy Persons who can think of comprehending it He afterwards shews That the Manner after which Jesus Christ is the Son of God is infinitely more excellent than the Manner after which Men are seeing he is so by his Nature we only by Adoption He accuses Arius with following the Doctrine of Ebion and Artemas and for having imitated Paul of Samosatia Bishop of Antioch whose Doctrine had been embrac'd by Lucien Martyr who by reason of this had separated himself from the Communion of three following Bishops of this City He joyns to him three Bishops of Syria who seem to have been Paulinus Eusebius and Theodotus and reproaches them with using Passages which relate to the Humiliation of Christ to attack his Divinity and to have forgotten those which speak of the Glory of his Nature such as this is The Father and I are one Which the Lord says adds he not to denote that he is the Father nor to say that two Natures in respect of the manner of existing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are but one but because the Son is of a Nature which exactly keeps the Paternal Resemblance being by his Nature like to him in all things the unchangeable Image of his Father and a Copy of this Original He afterwards defends himself largely against the Consequence which Arius drew from his Adversaries Sentiments which consisted in accusing them for denying the Generation of the Son in making him Eternal He affirm'd That there is an infinite difference between the Creation of the World and the Generation of the Son although this last be wholly Incomprehensible and that he cannot explain it In the mean time the Division encreased so greatly among the People that in some places it came to a Sedition wherein the very Statues * Euseb de Vit. Cons l. 3. c. 4. of the Emperor were thrown down who appear'd to favour the Arians because he would have 'em tolerated There was moreover the Controversie about Easter the one denying that it should be celebrated at the same time as the Jewish and the others affirming it but this Contest had not produced a Schism as Arianism had done Constantine seeing that these Letters had been fruitless thought there was no better way to allay these Controversies than to call a Council from all Parts of the Roman Empire It was perhaps Hosius who gave him this Advice at least if we may believe †L. 1. c. 7. Philostorgus the Bishop of Alexandria being gone to Nicomedia there assembled some Bishops of his Opinion with whom Hosius and he consults to find out means to set up their Opinion and to get that of Arius condemned and a little while after the Emperor call'd a Council at Nice a Town of Bythinia ‖ Euseb in Vit. Const l. 3. c. 6. This was in the Year 325 and to the end that nothing might hinder the Bishops from coming Constantine took on himself the Charges of their Journey The Historians are not agreed in reference to the Number of 'em some setting down more than Three hundred and * Eustathius of Antioch says there were 270. Theod. l. 8. Constantin 300. Socr. II. 9. Eusebius 252. Vit. Const l. 3. c. 9. S. Athanas 318. others less We must not wonder at this diversity seeing there are few Passages in Ecclesiastical History wherein appears more Confusion and Neglect than in the History of this famous Council And therefore have we been obliged to extract what we are going to say out of divers Historians because none of the Antients has been compleat in his Relations As to the diversity obserable among the Historians on the same Facts we have followed either the most ancient or those which have appeared most probable Eusebius who was present at the Council has past very lightly over the Circumstances of this History apparently lest he should either offend the Arians or the Orthodox This Affair has never been since discoursed of with an entire Dis-interests Reports having been often related as certain Facts In a word There has never any thing happen'd whereunto one may apply with more
appear'd remote in upholding the Arguments which seem'd to him weak and in giving Praises to such who seem'd to speak well Eusebius of Caesarea long held out against the Use which they * Socrat. l. 1. c. 8. Theod. l. 1. c. 12. would make of the word Consubstantial He offer'd another Confession of Faith wherein it was omitted and wherein he call'd the Son barely God born of God Light of Light Life of Life Only Son First-born of all Creatures Begotten of his Father before all Worlds The Emperor approv'd this Confession of Faith and exhorted the Fathers of the Synod to follow it in adding thereto only the word Consubstantial Afterwards the Confession was read which had been drawn up with this Word the Terms of which have been already recited Anathema's were join'd thereto against those who should use on this Occasion other Terms than those of the Holy Scripture which must be understood with an Exception of those which the Council thought fit to Consecrate This Proposition was particularly condemn'd That the Son existed not before he was begotten Eusebius and others requested That the Terms of the Symbol and Anathema's might be explained 1. It was said That the word Begotten and not Made was used because this last word expresses the Production of Creatures to which the Son has no likeness being of a Substance far more excellent than they begotten by the Father in an incomprehensible manner 2. As for the word Consubstantial it is proper to the Son not in the sence wherein it is taken when we speak of Bodies or Mortal Animals the Son being Consubstantial with the Father neither by a Division of the Divine Substance of which he possesses a part nor by any change of this same Substance The meaning of which is only this That the Son has no Resemblance with the Creatures which he has made but that he is in all things like to his Father by whom he has been begotten or That he is not of another Hypostasis or Substance but of that of the Father 3. Those were condemn'd who said That the Son was not before he was born seeing that he existed before his Corporal Birth and even before his Divine Generation according to Constantine's Argument * These words of Eusebius's Letter are not to be found but in Theodorit Socrates having retrenched them For before said he that he was actually Begotten he was in Power in his Father in a manner Unbegotten the Father having been always Father as he is always King and Saviour and all things in Power being eternally in the same Condition It will perhaps seem that this is pure Arianism and that this is to deny the Eternity of the Son But we must observe that in the style of that time to Exist before the World and to be Eternal is the same thing seeing that to prove his Eternity this Passage is cited * Vid. Ep. Alexandri Ep. Al. supra laudatam In the Beginning was the Word And it sufficed to shew that he was Begotten before there was any Time So that we must not reject these words as Supposititions meerly for this reason And it is so ordinary to find hard Expressions in those who attempt to explain in any sort this incomprehensible Mystery that if one might hence judge of them one would be apt to declare them all Hereticks which is to say to anathemamize the greatest part of the Ancients Besides this †* De. Deret Nicaen Tom. 1. pag. 251. St. Athanasius who openly treats Eusebius as an Arian makes allusion to one part of this Passage and draws thence a Consequence which Eusebius without doubt would not have owned which is That the Arians believed that the Divinity of Jesus Christ did not exist before his Corporal Birth After these Explications Eusebius subscribed as he himself testifies in the Letter above recited ‖ Athanas ibid. although he had refused it the day before The long and formal Opposition which he had made against the word Consubstantial caused it to be suspected that there was want of Sincerity in this Subscription In fine Arius and his Party were anathematized and all their Books condemned and particularly a Poem which Arius had entituled Thalia Most of the Arian Bishops subscribed after Eusebius his Example to this Confession of Faith and the Anathema's after the Explication above-mentioned Yet there were some of 'em who refused at first to sign * Socr. l. 1. c. 1. the principal of which were Eusebius of Nicomedia Theognis of Nice Maris of Calcedon Theonas of Marmarica and Secondus of Ptolemais They were immediately Excommunicated by the Council and were to be sent afterwards as well as Arius into Exile by Constantine The Council wrote a Circular Letter †Ib. Socr. l. 1. c. 9. to the Churches of Egypt denoting to 'em in what sort they had carried themselves in the business of Arius and what had been ordered touching Melece the Schismatical Bishop and the Observation of Easter Constantine wrote also to the Church of Alexandria to assure it that after a full and mature Examination Arius had been condemned by the common Consent He greatly vaunted of the Moderation and Learning of the Bishops making no mention of their Quarrels according to the Custom observed in Publick Acts and such like Occasions where every thing is supprest which may give an ill Opinion of the Decrees of these kinds of Assemblies In another Letter directed to the Bishops and Churches he enjoins the Name of Porphyrus to be given to Arius and his Followers to be called Porphyrians This Porphyry was a famous Platonist who had written against the Christian Religion and whose Books Constantine had caus'd to be burnt Lucas Holstenius has written his Life which is to be found at the end of the Book Of the Abstinence of Animals Constantine design'd to declare hereby Arius an Enemy to the Christian Religion and not in any manner reproach him with being a Platonist touching the Trinity seeing Constantine did not disapprove as we have seen the Sentiments of Plato It 's true the Arians have been upbraided with their too great application to the reading of this Philosopher and other Heathen Authors Revera de Platonis Aristophanis says * Advers Lucif T. 2. p. 142. Ed. Gryph St. Jerom in episcopatum allegentur Quotus enim quisque est qui non apprime in his eruditus sit Accedit ad hoc quod Ariana hoeresis magis cum sapientia seculi facit argumentationum rivos de Aristotelis fontibus mutuatur Thus the Orthodox and Hereticks equally approved the Sentiments of Plato each of them apparently explaining them according to his Hypothesis Constantine further ordered in the same Letter to burn all Arius's Books to the end that not only his pernicious Doctrine be destroyed but that there remain no monument of it to Posterity He likewise declared That if any one concealed any of his Books and did not bring
spoken of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity after the same manner as Plato spoke of the Three Principles of all things and that he borrowed the word Principle of him and the first words of his Book wherein he treated of them Eusebius might have easily apprehended his meaning and he was so far from believing that Plato was of another Opinion in this matter than the Sacred Writers and Origen that he he undertakes to prove the contrary at large in his Evangelical Preparation lib. 11. chap. 13 c. which are worth the reading In effect what he adds concerning the Father and the Son is equally agreeable to Origen's and Plato's Opinion Eusebius seems to have followed at this time St. Jerom's Maxim who ascribes it to him too as he himself made no scruple to follow it * In Apol. prolib cont Jov. p. 106 c. Edit Gryph 'T is one thing to write in order to Dispute and another to write in order to Teach In the first Method the Dispute is very much extended and one minds only to answer one's Adversary Sometimes one thing is proposed and sometimes another Men argue as they please speak after one manner and act after another c. In the second an open and ingenuous Face is necessary c. Origen Methodus Eusebius Apollinarius have writ a great deal against Celsus and Porphyry Consider what doubtful Arguments and Problems they use to confute some Writings composed by the Spirit of the Devil And because they are forced to say not what they think but what the Dispute requires non quod sentiunt sed quod necesse est they contradict the Heathens We may see thereby whether we ought always to believe what the Holy Fathers say and that Eusebius was no Arian only because he denied it and used all the terms of the Orthodox In the Writers of this kind a word spoken against the common Opinion proves often more than a hundred places wherein they speak as the Vulgar 8. The Letter to those of Caesarea concerning the Nicene Creed which I have already mention'd 9. Of the Places named in the Old Testament which is a little Geographical Dictionary of the Places mention'd in the Hebrew Books of the Scripture St. Jerom translated it and added to it what he thought fit Jacobus Bonfrerius printed the Original with St. Jerom's Translation and his own at Paris Anno 1659 in Fol. 10. The Life of Constantine is as hath been said rather a Panegyrick than a History and the Style of it also as Photius hath observed more florid than that of the other Works of Eusebius which is somewhat careless However there is afterwards a Panegyrick of that Emperor in due form which Eusebius recited Anno 335 at his Tricennales 11. An Exposition of the Song of Solomon printed at Leyden by Meursius in the Year 1617 in Quarto with Polychronius and Psellus 12. The Lives of the Prophets are ascribed to Eusebius in an ancient Manuscript and are joined with Procopius his Commentaries upon Isaiah in Greek and Latin John Courtier publish'd them at Paris in 1580 in Fol. Those who have publish'd a new Edition of the Evangelical Demonstration at Cologne in 1688 would not have done amiss to join those Pieces with it or to endeavour to get some of those which are not yet printed 13. Of that number are Four Books entitled Eclogae Propheticae de Christo which as Lambecius says are in the Library of Vienna and in that of the Escurial But 't is with those two Libraries as with that of Buda The Keepers of them are so faithful and jealous that they let nothing come out of them Labbaeus says that besides there is some Libraries some Commentaries of Eusebius upon Isaiah a Discourse upon the Three Days that our Lord remained in the Grave and two more concerning the Women who went to it and the Angels they found in it 14. We have lost of Eusebius 1. Some Books concerning the Ecclesiastical Preparations 2. Concerning the Ecclesiastical Demonstration 3. Thirty Books against Porphyry which in all probability are the greatest loss we have sustained with respect to the Writings of Eusebius for we might have learn'd by them the Objections of the most learned Philosopher of his time and the Answers of the most learned Bishop of his Age. 4. Some Varieties of the Evangelists 5. Five Books concerning the Coming of Jesus Christ 6. Some Commentaries upon the Psalms of which we have some Fragments in the Catena of the Greek Fathers upon that Book 7. Of Topical Names 8. An Apology for Origen whereof the Sixth Book only as hath been said was Eusebius's 9. Three Books of the Life of Pamphilus which he mentions in the 11th Chap. of the Book of the Martyrs of Palestine 10. An Apology for himself perhaps a Vindication of himself against those who accused him of following the Opinions of Arius 11. A Collection of Ancient Martyrdoms which is reported to be in the Library of the Escurial 12. A Description of a Church of Jerusalem 13. Of the Feast of Easter 14. Three Epistles the First to Constantia Constantine's Sister the Second to Alexander Bishop of Alexandria for the Re-establishment of Arius the Third to a Bishop named Euphration Some Fragments of those Letters may be found in the Acts of the Second Council of Nice Act. 5. 6. 15. An Ancient History which perhaps is the same with his Chronicle and is cited by Anastasius Sinaita as well as a Book dedicated to Marinus 15. Father Sirmond a Jesuite printed at Paris in 1643 several Latin Homilies which two Manuscripts ascribe to Eusebius of Caesarea and which Valesius thought to be his but Dr. Cave rather believes they were written by Eusebius of Emesus a Semi Arian who lived towards the middle of the Fourth Century After all the same may be said of the Cologne Edition 1688 of Eusebius his Evangelical Preparation and Evangelical Demonstration c. as of Clemens Alexandrinus his Works of the same Edition They have added nothing to the Paris Edition but new Faults Although Eusebius doth not observe in those Discourses a very exact Order yet because he divides them into Chapters one may more easily follow him than Clemens and in this Edition the Citations are better distinguish'd from the Words of the Author than in the Works of the Catechist of Alexandria for there is some Comma's in the Margin of the Passages that are quoted or they are in Italick Characters However there is still some Distinctions of Paragraphs wanting in it as well as in that of Clemens The Life OF Gregory Nazianzen GREGORY was * Vid. Pagi Crit. Baron ad An. 354 368. born according to the most exact Chronology in the Year 300 in a Village of the Second Cappadocia named Arianzum near the City of Nazianzum from whence comes the Sirname that is commonly given him His Father and Mother †Greg. Presb. in ejus Vita were Persons of Quality and
embraced That they admired among themselves what they sharply censured in another Party That there was nothing to be seen amongst 'em but Disputes like Night-Fights wherein Friends are not distinguished from Enemies That they wrangled about Trifles on the specious Pretence of defending the Faith Lastly That they were abhorred by the Heathens and despised by good Men among the Christians This is a true Picture of the Lives of the Ecclesiasticks in his time as it doth but too plainly appear by the History of that time It 's an unlucky thing that those of our time are so much like them that were it not known from whence those Complaints come one would be apt to look upon them as a Picture of our Modern Divines Another Difficulty which attended the Exercise of Episcopacy consisted in discoursing well of the Mysteries of Christianity and especially of the * Pag. 16. Holy Trinity concerning which according to Gregory a medium ought to be kept between the Jews who acknowledge but One God and the Pagans who worship Many A Medium which Sabellius did not keep by making the same God considered under several Relations Father Son and Holy Spirit nor Arius by maintaining that they are of different Natures As for him he believed as we have already seen and as he repeats it here and in many other places that he kept that wished for Medium by establishing Three Principles Equal in Perfection though the Father be the Principle of the Son and Holy Spirit It seems that Gregory had not been long his Father's Coadjutor when his Brother Caesarius died 'T was not long after the Earthquake which happen'd in Bithynia in October in the Year 368. He was then at * Orat. x. p. 169. Nice where he exercised the Office of Questor or the Emperor's Treasurer That City was almost altogether ruined and he was the only Officer of Valens who saved himself from that Danger Gregory made a Funeral Oration in his Praise which is the Tenth of those that are extant He makes a short Description of his Life the chief Circumstances of which I have related describes the Vanity of whatever we enjoy here and makes several Observations upon Death and the manner of comforting one's self upon the Death of one's Relations He wishes that his Brother may be in †Pag. 168. Abraham's Bosom whatever it may be And towards the ‖ Pag. 173. end describing the Happiness of Good Men after Death he says that according to Wise Men their Souls are full of Joy in the Contemplation of their future Happiness until they are received into the Heavenly Glory after the Resurrection Caesarius had given his Estate to the Poor at his Death yet notwithstanding they had much ado to save it those who were at his death having feized the greatest part of it as Gregory complains in his Eighteenth Letter whereby he desires Sophronius Governor of Bithynia to use his Authority in it Basil Gregory's Friend having been made Bishop of Caesarea * Vid. Pagi Crit. ad hunc ann in the Year 370 had some difference with Valens which I shall not mention here because it doth not at all relate to the Life of his Friend This was perhaps the reason that moved that Emperor to divide Cappadocia into Two Provinces and to make Tyane the Metropolis of the Second Cappadocia Forasmuch as the Jurisdiction of the Metropolitans reached as far as the extent of the Province several Bishops who were before Suffragan of Caesarea became Suffragan of Tyane so that Basil saw himself at the head of a lesser number of Bishops than before †Orat. xx p. 456. The new Metropolitan drew to himself the Provincial Assemblies ceased the Revenues of his Diocess and omitted nothing to lessen the Authority and Revenues of Basil Anthimus such was the Bishop of Tyane's Name who was an Arian shelter'd himself under the pretence of Piety and said that he could not give up the Flocks to Basil's Instruction whose Opinions concerning the Son of God were not right nor suffer that any Tribute should be paid to Hereticks Gregory assures us that he got some Soldiers to stop Basil's Mules to hinder him from receiving his Rents Basil found no other remedy to it but to make new Bishops who should have a greater care of the Flocks than he could have and by whose means every Town should carefully receive what was due to them Sasime being one of those Towns in which he was resolved to put some Bishops he cast his Eyes upon his Friend Gregory to send him to it without considering that that Place was altogether unworthy of a Person of such Merit 'T was a * Greg. de Vita sua p. 7. little Town without Water and Grass and full of Dust a Passage for Soldiers and inhabited only by some few poor Men. The Income of that Bishoprick was very small and besides he must either resolve to defend it by Force against Anthymus or submit to that new Metropolitan Gregory refused that Employment but at length the Importunity and Dexterity of Basil who wrought upon Gregory's Father obliged him to accept of it It seems that about that time he made his Seventh Oration wherein he addresses himself to his Father and Basil and desires their Help and Instruction to govern his new Church at Sasime Notwithstanding he says freely enough to Basil that the Episcopal Throne had made a great Alteration in him and that he was much milder when he was among the Sheep than since he was a Pastor The next day he made * Orat. vi another Oration on the Arrival of Gregory Nyssen Basil's Brother to whom he further complains of the violence his Brother had done him and because 't was a Day of some Martyr's Feast he adds several things on that occasion concerning the Manner of Celebrating Holy-days not with Profane Rejoycing but Pious Exercises He says amongst other things That 't is then time to raise one's self and become God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if one may so say and that the Martyrs perform therein the Office of Mediators 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Expression to become God instead of to become a Good Man and despise Earthly things doth often occur in Gregory's Writings He says elsewhere That the Priests * Orat. i. p. 31. Orat. xxiii p. 410. are Gods and Deifie other Men †Orat. ii p. 46. That Solitude Deify's Introducing ‖ Orat. xx p. 349. Basil who refused to embrace Arianism he makes him say That he could not worship a Creature he who was a Creature of God too and had received a Commandment of being God It ought to be observed that that Expression was used among the Pythagoreans as may be seen by the last Golden Verse of Pythagoras upon which Hierocles may be consulted When Gregory came to Sasime the misery of that Place made him believe that Basil despised him and abused altogether his Friendship Though he took
as I can conceive it If that Reason be Good let God be thanked for it if not we must look for a Better Afterwards Gregory proposes to himself an Arian Objection which shews more clearly still that the Orthodox placed not the Unity of God in the Numerical Vnity of the Divine Essence but in a Specifick Vnity of Distinct and Equal Essences and in a perfect Agreement of Wills * Pag. 602. Things which are of the same Essence say ye are ranked in the same Order of Things and those which are not Consubstantial are not so ranked From whence it follows that you cannot but confess that there are Three Gods according to your reckoning For as for us we are not in the same danger because we do not say that the Persons are Consubstantial The Arians meant That forasmuch as they admitted but of One Supreme God and who hath created all other things they might say in that respect that there is but One God because that God could not be ranked in the same Order and under the same Name with his Creatures but that the Orthodox acknowledging Three Beings of a perfectly like Nature they could not deny that they acknowledged Three Gods properly speaking Gregory answers only That Things which are not of the same Species are often reckoned in the same Rank 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which he gives several Instances out of the Scripture That shews that the Arians might be accused of admitting of Many Gods as well as the Orthodox not that the Orthodox acknowledged not Three Eternal Minds though perfectly Equal and having the same Will A little lower in the same Oration * Pag. 611. Gregory says That having sought among Created Things something like the Holy Trinity he could find no satisfactory Comparison He thought of an Eye a Fountain and a River but he found not those things proper enough to express his Thoughts I was afraid says he First that I should seem to introduce a cetain Fluxus of Divinity which should have no Consistency Secondly establish a Numerical Unity by those Comparisons For an Eye a Fountain and a Sun are One in Number though differently Modified I was thinking of the Sun the Beams and the Light but it was to be feared still on this occasion First That we should suppose a Composition in a Nature wherein there is none such as the Composition of the Sun and what is in the Sun Secondly That indeed we should give an Essence to the Father but should not ascribe a Distinct Existence to the other Persons by making them to be some Faculties which exist in God and have no distinct Existence The Rays or the Light are not other Suns as the Son and the Holy Spirit are other Minds distinct from the Father but some Emanations and Essential Properties of the Sun Lastly Gregory * Pag. 612 found nothing better than to lay aside those Images and Shadows as being Deceitful and very Remote from the Originals After all Gregory believes †Pag. 608 that the Holy Trinity was only revealed by degrees so that the Revelation manifested to Men first God the Father without speaking of God the Son but obscurely afterwards the Son without requiring from Men the Belief of the Holy Spirit and lastly the Holy Spirit after the Ascension of the Son One may judge from those places of the Doctrine of Gregory and the Orthodox of his time with whom the Orthodox of ours agree as well in Terms as they differ from them in Sence One may also observe in the Expressions of our Bishop a remarkable Effect of Disputing viz. when Men are afraid that their Adversaries will take advantage of certain Expressions they carefully forbear using them for fear of lying open to 'em though those Expressions are very proper to express the Doctrine they maintain 'T is manifest that Gregory to be well understood should have answered the Arians Yes 't is true we worship Three Gods since we acknowledge Three Eternal Minds who have Distinct Essences But those Gods are perfectly Equal and as perfectly United as Distinct Beings can be having the same Thoughts and the same Will hence it is that we commonly say that we acknowledge but One God But had he spoken thus the Arians who boasted of their studying and following the Scripture would have presently replied that the Scripture represents the Unity of the Supreme God as a Numerical Unity not as a Unity of Species and Agreement They would have said as they already did but with greater shew of Reason that the Homoousians introduced a New Paganism by acknowledging Three Collateral Gods So that they were obliged to avoid those Reproaches stoutly to maintain that there is but One God according to the Nicene Opinion The Platonicks who had the same Thought but were not confined to Expressions spoke it out and said that the Principles of All Things are Three Gods I cannot forbear quoting on this occasion some remarkable Words of St. Augustine which do admirably confirm what I have just now said * De Civit. Dei l. 10. c. 23. Liberis Verbis loquuntur Philosophi nec in rebus ad intelligendum difficillimis offensionem Religiosarum aurium pertimescunt Nobis autem ad certam Regulam loqui fas est ne verborum licentia ETIAM in rebus quae in his SIGNIFICANTVR impiam gignat opinionem Nos autem non dicimus Duo vel Tria Principia cum de Deo loquimur sicuti nec Duos Deos vel Tres nobis licitum est dicere quamvis de unoquoque loquentes vel de Filio vel de Spiritu Sancto etiam singulum quemque Deum esse fateamur The Philosophers do freely use any Words and are not afraid of offending Pious Ears in Matters very difficult to understand As for us we are not allowed to speak but according to a certain Rule lest some Words used with too great a licence should produce an impious Opinion if understood according to their Signification When we speak of God we neither mention Two nor Three Principles as we are not allowed neither to say that there are Two or Three Gods though speaking of every one of them either of the Son or Holy Spirit we say that each of 'em is God Such a Conduct was the Cause of departing by degrees from the ancient Notions because the word Vnity was taken in its ordinary Signification without minding that the Antients understood it in a particular Sence The same hath happen'd in several other Doctrines Having thus alledged so many Proofs of our Bishops Opinion concerning the Doctrines which then divided Christians 't is now time to return to his History The Council which I have already mention'd * Socrat. l. 5. c. 8. Sozom. l. 7. c. 7. met at Constantinople in May in the Year 381. It was made up of a CL. Orthodox Bishops and XXXVI Macedonians whom they hoped to bring to the Orthodox Faith Besides some Canons made in
it concerning the Discipline which I shall not mention the Business of Gregory and Maximus was debated in it and they made a Creed Maximus's †Conc. C.P. c. 4. Ordination and all those which he might have conferred were judged Null and then ‖ Carm. de Vit. p. 14. they declared Gregory Bishop of Constantinople though he endeavoured to be excused from it They made him promise he would stay in it because he persuaded himself that being in that Station he could more easily reconcile the different Parties which divided Christianity Indeed it was said against Gregory's Promotion that having been Bishop of Sasime and Nazianzum he could not be transferred to Constantinople without breaking the Fifteenth Canon of the Council of Nice which is Formal thereupon But Meletius Bishop of * Theodor. l. 5. c. 8. Antioch replied to that That the Design of that Canon was to bridle Pride and Ambition which had no share in that Business Besides it seems that that Canon was not observed in the East since †Carm. de Vit. sua p. 29. Gregory calls what they opposed to him Laws dead long since Furthermore he had exercised no Episcopal Function at Sasime and as to Nazianzum he had been only his Father's Coadjutor That Business being over they came to treat of the chief Subject for which they were met viz. Macedonius's Opinion who had been Bishop of Gonstantinople and believed that the Holy Spirit is but a Creature though all the Disciples of that Bishop agreed not about the Nature of that Divine Person as may be seen from a Passage of Gregory which I have quoted The Nicene Creed was presently confirmed in the Council and 't was thought fit ‖ Vid. Conc. Chalced. Act. 2. to make some Additions to it especially to what concerns the Holy Spirit That Addition is exprest in these words I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and Giver of Life who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified and who spake by the Prophets The Council did also Anathematize the Opinions of Sabellius Marcellus Photinus Eunomius Apollinaris and Macedonius but I shall not enlarge upon those Errors because they have no essential relation with the Life of Gregory For the same reason I shall omit what concerns the Discipline All things went quietly enough with respect to Gregory till there arose a Storm which deprived him of the Episcopal See of Constantinople when he least expected it The Spirit of Vengeance of a Party which he opposed was the cause of that Disturbance which Gregory who was not courageous enough to sustain the shock of his Adversaries could not get himself rid of but by running away There happen'd some time before a mischievous Schism in the Church of Antioch where there were Two Orthodox Bishops at the same time Meletius being dead at Constantinople before the Council was ended 't was proposed to give him a Successor Thereupon Gregory proposed an Expedient to put an end to that Schism viz. That Paulinus who was the other Orthodox Bishop * Carm. de Vit. p. 25. and had been Ordained by Lucifer of Cagliari should govern alone the Church of Antioch during the rest of his life and afterwards those of Melelius's Party being reunited with those of Paulinus's should chuse a Bishop by common Votes Lest it should be thought he had some Interest in favouring Paulinus and that he designed to make a Party he offered the Counsel to leave the Episcopal Throne of Constantinople on which he was just setled But the Ambitious Men and Incendiaries as Gregory calls 'em who began to move to give a Successor to Meletius would not hearken to that Proposal * Ib. p. 27. A company of Young Men fell a crying like Mag-pies and made so great a Noise that they drew in even the Old Bishops who should have resisted them and brought to a second Examination the Business of Gregory which was just before ended Gregory describes admirably well their Ambition Ignorance and their other Defects in the Poem he made concerning his Life One had better read it in the Author himself than here In the mean time the People having heard that Gregory began to be weary of the Council and was talking of retiring fell a crying that they would not take their Pastor from them and desired him that he would not leave his Flock Thereupon Timothy Bishop of Alexandria who had succeeded Peter and was of a violent and quarrelsom Temper arrived with several Egyptian Bishops The old Grudge they bore Gregory on the account of Maximus the Cynick had inflam'd them to such a degree against our Bishop that the first thing they did was to complain that they had broke the Canons by transferring Gregory from one Bishoprick to another This caused a great stir in the Council and on that occasion Gregory made his Oration concerning Peace which is the Fourteenth wherein he describes at large the Advantages of Concord and the Mischiefs which arise from Divisions He severely censures the Inconstancy of the Bishops who had other Thoughts of him without any reason and suffered themselves to be imposed upon by the Calumnies of his Adversaries He says that the ill Reports which are commonly spread against Moderate Men ought to be despised Lastly One may easily perceive by all that he says that 't is not only in our time that Men have cover'd their most shameful Passions with the specious Name of Zeal for the Purity of the Faith Wherefore Gregory says * Ib. p 29. that he told 'em That they should not trouble themselves so much with what concerned him but that they should endeavour to be re-united That 't was time for 'em to expose themselves no longer to be laught at as Wild Men and such as have learned nothing but Quarrelling That provided they would agree he would willingly be the Jonas who should make the Storm to cease That he had accepted of the Episcopal See against his will and willingly parted with it and that his Body weakened with Old Age obliged him to 't But because notwithstanding they charged him with Ambition still he made a Discourse which is his Twenty seventh Oration whereby he protests that he had accepted the Bishoprick of Constantinople against his will and appeals to all the People for it He says * Ortt. 27. p. 465. he doth not know whether he ought to call the See of Constantinople the Throne of a Tyrant or a Bishop He complains of his Enemies Evil-speaking and the Envy they bore him †Pag. 466. because of his Eloquence and Learning in the Sciences of the Pagans That perhaps raised the Envy of some but the Station he was in raised without doubt the Envy of many more He might have made use of all his Rhetorick at Sasime without being put to any trouble upon that account Having declared a Full Council that he desired to leave the
of Nice and believ'd that the Substance of the Son of God had existed after an Incomprehensible manner and without Generation in the Father from whom it emanated after an unspeakable manner * Vid. Bull Def. Fid. Nican §. 3. p. 5 c. before the Creation of the World and that Emananation they call his Generation Notwithstanding they do sometimes explain that Generation by the Example of the Production of the Word which made Tertullian say Hunc ex Deo prolatum didicimus prolatione generatum †Vid. Iren. l. 2. c. 48. We have learn'd that God produced him and begot him by Production Hence it is that the Fathers of the Council of Nice anathematized those who should say that the Son existed not before he was begotten So that in their Opinion the Nature of the Son of God existed not only before the World but is Co-Eternal with God properly speaking whereas his Personality is only Eternal inasmuch as it did exist before Time that is the Duration of the World The same Fathers teach that after the Generation of the Son he created the World as one may see in Dr. Bull. Prudentius says also agreeably to that Notion in the following words Quae prompta Caelum condidit Caelum Diemque caetera Which being emanated from the Father created Heaven the Day and all Things else Those who will give themselves the trouble to compare this Remark with F. Chamillard's Note will be able to judge whether it be safe to explain the Antients according to the Modern Notions If any one desires to have a clear Idea of the manner after which the Antients apprehended that the Essence of the Son existed without Generation in his Father and how he was emanated from him I refer him to the same Fathers who will tell him that 't is a Mystery they comprehended not no more than we 5. In the same Hymn * Vers 58. wherein the word Verbigena is to be found there is also an Opinion singular enough and which savours more of a Pythagorean or Manichean than an Orthodox Having said that the Earth affords all sorts of Fruits to the Christians he adds Absit onim procul illa fames Caedibus ut pecudum libeat Sanguineas lacerares dapes The Ebionites are accused as well as the Manicheans of having believed that 't is not lawful to eat Meat and one may see St. Epiphanius upon those two Heresies Prudentius might have said in this place more than he thought as F. Chamillard believes who observes that he only meant that many abstained from Meat the they thought it not unlawful only to live a more austere Life 6. Towards the end of the same Poem * Vers 19. Prudentius speaking of Christ's Resurrection says Nam modo corporeum memini De Phlegethonte gradu facili Ad superos remeasse Deum For I remember that a Corporeal God easily came up again from Phlegethon F. Chamillard paraphrases this latter word by that of Limbus as if Prudentius by the Name of one of the Rivers of Hell understood what they call Limbus Patrum 'T is certain that the Pagans who first used the word Phlegethon denoted by it not a River of the Elysian Fields or Fortunate Islands but of Hell and the Place of Torments So that unless Prudentius ex-explains it elsewhere or the general Opinion of the Christians of that time leads that way the Criticks will have much ado to apprehend why the word Phlegethon should not denote in Prudentius the Place of Torments Now having examined all the Passages in Prudentius wherein that Name and those of the other Rivers of Hell are used I find that Prudentius denotes by those terms not a Place of Rest but a Place wherein the Souls are Tormented He describes that Place as the Heathen Poets do either with respect to its Situation or the Torments which they suffer there Thus in the Apotheosis Vers 743 he speaks to Lazarus in these terms Dic cujus vocem tellure sub ima c. Tell us whose Voice you heard under the lowest Places of the Earth and what Force went through the hidden Places where the Dead make their abode Since when Christ recall'd you and order'd you to come forth from the Black Depth wherein you was you heard it as if you had been near By what so neighbouring an Abyss is the Kingdom of of Darkness almost joined with the Upper Parts of the Earth Where is the dismal Tenarus by which they go down through a vast Extent and that Hidden River which rouls Flames in its Channel which nothing can fill It appears from thence that Prudentius placed Hell under the Earth at a very great distance from the Place wherein the Living dwell as Homer and Hesiod who say that Tartarus is as far from hence as Heaven is and that an Iron Anvil thrown from Heaven upon Earth or from hence to Tartarus could get thither but in Ten Days In his Hamartigeny Ver. 824. he describes Hell in the following words Praescius inde Pater liventia Tartara plumbo Incendit liquido piccasque bitumine fossas Infernalis Aquae furvo subfodit Averno Et Phlegethonteo sub gurgite sanxit edaces Perpetuis scelerum poenis inolescere vermes One would almost think that 't is a Heathen Poet who speaks thus but he is not the only one who hath done the same the Jews before and after Christ and the ancient Christians exprest themselves in the same terms Now if it be asked what was the Opinion of the Fathers concerning the Place into which Christ descended and those he took out of it I answer That there was some diversity of Opinions amongst 'em upon that Subject although they agree in some respects They * See Pearson upon the Fifth Article of the Apostles Creed pag. 256 c. all constantly say that Christ descended into the subterranean Places where the Dead make their abode but they don't agree about the Persons to whom he made himself known and the End for which he went to them because they had not the same Notions concerning the State of the Dead Some who by the words Hades and Infernus understood the Places wherein the Souls of all Men both Good and Bad are expecting the Resurrection believed that the Soul of Christ descended towards the Souls of those who died in the fear of God as the Patriarchs and Prophers But some others as St. Augustine who thought that those words are never to be found in the Scripture for a Place of Happiness and consequently could not apprehend that the Souls of the Patriarchs and Prophets should be detained in it those Fathers I say could not believe that Christ in his Descent into Hell went to the Prophets and Patriarchs who were not there Some of those who followed the former Opinion as Eusebius St. Ambrose and St. Jerom believed that Christ took from Hell the Souls of Good Men and led them into Heaven That 's the Opinion of the
THE LIVES OF Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea Gregory Nazianzen AND Prudentius the Christian Poet Containing an Impartial Account of their LIVES and WRITINGS Together with Several Curious Observations upon Both. ALSO A Short History of Pelagianism Written Originally in French By Monsieur Le CLERC And now Translated into English LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin at the Oxford Arms in Warwick-Lane 1696. Advertisement 'T IS thought that the following Lives will not be Vnacceptable to the Publick The Author of 'em who is well known by his Writings justly complains that those who have hitherto written the Lives of the Fathers have not done it with such an Impartiality as is required from those who write for the sake of Truth Indeed it must be confest that Panegyricks of all sorts are very Numerous and that a True and Faithful Account of the Lives and Doctrine of the Fathers is very Necessary This Author will have it that he hath distinguished himself from other Writers in his Lives of some Fathers and professes a great Sincerity This I think is more than sufficient to recommend the Reading of this Work But besides it contains several Judicious Observations and Critical Remarks upon the Lives and Opinion◠of the Fathers very useful especially to those who apply or design to apply themselves to that Study I think that the Fathers were far from being Infallible but I am none of those who despise the Study of their Writings I confess it doth not require a Dull and Narrow-Spirited Reader who may grow the worse for it But an Ingenious and Judicious one may make a good use of it as will appear by the following Lives which may also give some Light to the late Disputes concerning the Holy Trinity I shall further add That the Fathers whose Lives Monsieur Le Clerc hath written are some of the most Famous Every body knows that Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea were very Learned Men and that Gregory Nazianzen was one of the greatest Orators the Christians had in his time Eusebius having been much concern'd in the Arian Disputes it was necessary to give a large Account of those Controversies which makes the Life of that Father so much the more Curious and Vseful In short the Reader will find here the Lives of some of the most Celebrated Fathers who lived in the most famous Ages of Christianity written with great Exactness and Impartiality and they are I think sufficient to give a Notion of the Fathers I must not forget that Monsieur Le Clerc hath taken care to shew what Philosophy those Fathers did especially apply themselves to This is a very Necessary Enquiry and those that are not sensible of its Vsefulness will be easily convinced of it when they come to read the followinging Lives 'T was also thought fit to print the History of Pelagianism tho' very short together with these Lives because several Gentlemen may be desirous to have in their own Tongue an Impartial Account of that Controversie which formerly made so great a Noise in the Christian World ERRATA PAge 9. Line 9. read Hypotyposes p. 10. l. 4. of the r. of those p. 16. l. 28. r. Stoicks p. 18. l. 28. r. Invisible p. 32. l. 22. r. Writings p. 50. l. 2. r. Months p. 58. l. 4. r Paedagogue p. 64. l. 13. r. Pamphilus and so elsewhere p. 67. l. 6. r. Year of p. 72. l. 27. perhaps add is p. 73. l. 24. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 78. l. 12. for contained r. understood p. 79. l. 20. r. those p. 81. l. 1. in speaking dele in p. 84. l. 12. r. gave p. 85. l. 10. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 86. l. 2. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 105. l. 29. r. his Works p. 110. l. 7. dele a and r sport of the ibid. l. 17. r. Cordova p. 113. l. 2. r. Lucian p. 117. l. 4. r. Nicomedia p. 130. l. 4. r. Bysantium p. 133. l. 7. r. Licinius p. 135. l. 24. r. fit to p. 137. l. 19. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 142. l. 18. r. Arsenius p. 146. l. 16. r. being come to p. 151. l. 9. r. any thing else p. 161. l. 18. r. Personas ibid. l. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 add signifies p. 167. l. 13. there is add in p. 173. l. 26. undeniable add Testimony p. 176. l. 31. r. Aegina p. 183. l. 3. r. patiently p. 193. l. 9. r. Individuum's p. 207. l. 24. r. used the Valentinians p. 212. l. 17. related add all p. 213. l. 17. r. breaking into p. 220. l. 28. r. seized p. 226. l. 26. r. Prosopopeïa p. 234 l. ult r. acknowledged p. 249. l. 9. r. Judgment p. 254. l. 20. Deity and is p. 265. l. 20. r. in a full p. 268. l. 24. dele 'em p. 282. l. 19. r. Prodicus p. 283. l. 25. r. such an Art p. 290. l. 17. r militiae p. 292. l. 28. r. Darkness p. 293. l. ult r. Mentem p. 295 l. 9. r. Judicature p. 301. l. 2. r. piceasque p. 304. l. 18. r. ingenuously p. 305. l. 14. r. perire p. 307. l. 23. Ninivites add were not ibid. l. 27. r. that People p. 312. l. 19. r. Cyprians p. 313. l. 17. r. foveis p. 317. l. 10. Image add was p. 321. l. 2. Nature is add of p. 321. l. 14. r. Conditor p. 325. l. 19. r. moras ibid. l. 21. r. murmureth p. 326. l. 25. r. it is p. 327. l. 7. r. languente p. 333. l. 12. Quadrants r. Tetrasticks ibid. l. 15. r. whereof p. 336. l. 14. r. Damietta p. 338. l. 27. dele not p. 363. l. penult r. facultatum l. seq r. exilium p. 368. l. 1. r. nullum The Life OF Clemens Alexandrinus ALthough those that are able to read the Fathers in the Original Tongues are but few yet there are a great many who ought to have some Notions of their Lives and Writings because they are now-a-days made use of in the Controversies which divide Christians The Teachers of the Church of Rome omit nothing to make Men believe that the Fathers were of their Opinion because they believe that it is not lawful to reject a Doctrine grounded upon the Testimony of the greatest part of the Fathers When they quote a Passage which they think to be agreeable to their Notions they don't fail to say As a Holy Father said well But if One objects to them some words which they cannot well get rid of They answer That 't was only his private Opinion and reject it as an Error The greatest part of the Protestants do not lay down the Consent of the Fathers as a Principle of their Faith but as for the rest many of their Authors seldom make any other use of them when they cite 'em than the Roman Catholicks Hence it is that in the Ecclesiastical Histories of both Parties such Places as seem proper to confirm the Opinion and Practices received now-a-days
amongst us are carefully observed Whereas such things as are thought to be Defective in their Conduct and Doctrine are only mentioned by the bye They persuade themselves that the Fathers especially those of the First Centuries held all the Opinions which are lookt upon as Essential where they live and then they think themselves obliged to heap up Praises upon 'em and excuse as much as they can the Defects which are observed either in their Writings or Lives So that instead of writing their History they write without being aware of it their Panegyrick or Apology Hence it is that they who read such Books believe that the Antients were Men of vast Learning and extraordinary Holiness From whence they conclude that if they have ill treated any Body they must needs have had some great Reasons for it and that they were far either from unfaithfully relating or ill confuting the Opinions of Hereticks They think themselves obliged to imitate their manner of Reasoning and Acting without much troubling themselves whether it be agreeable to the Precepts of the Gospel or not Thus it comes to pass that we have no Histories of the First Centuries that are faithful enough and do not make such a Use of those Histories as we ought to make I am far from thinking that I can cure so inveterate a Disease nor is it the Design of this Work But at least I think my self obliged to avoid as much as I can the Way of those who give the Publick Partial Panegyricks when Sincere and Impartial Histories were expected from them I have endeavoured to practice this in The History of Pelagianism and I shall yet endeavour to do it in the Life of Clemens which I am going to write in few words TITVS FLAVIVS CLEMENS famous for his Learing towards the End of the Second Century was born at Athens according to some Authors who believe they can reconcile this Opinion with the Opinion of those who call him Alexandrinus by saying that Athens was the Place of his Birth and that he got the Sirname of Alexandrinus because of his long stay at Alexandria But his Style though florid enough is often obscure and intricate and doth not much relish the Neatness and Elegancy of the Athenian Writers However it is certain that he begun his Studies in Greece continued them in Asia and ended his days in Egypt It appears that he was not content to be instructed only by one Master but that he travelled much to hear many and so to get a more exact and full knowledge of the Christian Religion as well as to improve in Humane Learning His Masters had been Disciples of the Apostles or had conversed with some Disciples of those Holy Men as it appears by his manner of speaking of them though he doth not express himself very clearly He says * Strâ—m l. 1. p. 274. Eusebius lib. 5. c. 11. reads this place somewhat differently upon which Valesius may be consulted That his Writings composed without Art are an Image and a Picture of those lively Discourses of the Happy Men and truly worthy of Esteem whom he had the Honour to hear The one as he goes on whom I saw in Greece was of the Ionick Sect. I have seen two in Calabria one of whom was a Coelo-Syrian and the other an Egyptian I met two more in the East one of whom was an Assyrian and the other with whom I conversed in Palestine was of a Jewish Extraction This latter was the first in Merit I stay'd in Egypt where he had hid himself to look for him He was as the Proverb says A true Sicilian Bee He gathered the Flowers scattered if one may so say in the Meadows of the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles by the means whereof he filled the Souls of those that heard him with a pure Knowledge Those Men having preserved the true Tradition of the Blessed Doctrine immediately after the Holy Apostles St. Peter St. James St. John and St. Paul as a Child who keeps what he hath learned of his Father Although there are Few like them have lived to our time by the Will of God to shed into our Hearts the Seed which they had received of the Apostles their Predecessors 'T is of great moment to know what Master an Author had to understand his Opinions right for then as now-a-days the Disciples did particularly stick to the Method of their Masters and explained Religion as much as they could according to the Principles of that Philosophy which they had learned of them Thus the School-men who were Peripateticks explained Divinity by Aristotle's Principles and Divinity is handled after the Cartesian way where Des-Cartes Philosophy is admitted Wherefore the Learned Men of our Age have endeavoured to guess who were those of whom Clemens speaks It appears by my Translation of the words of that Father that he had five Masters but Valesius allows him but four because he follows the Reading of Eusebius One can't positively affirm which is the best but I may say that the Interpreters who took the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a Proper Name have done it without reason 'T is not likely that Clemens who doth not tell the Names of the other whom he acknowledges for his Masters should name this Antiquity affords no Man whose Name was Ionick and that Name may denote the Sect of Philosophy to which that first Master of Clemens did especially apply himself Thales and Anaximander Philosophers of Miletus a Town of Ionia were the Heads of it Clemens Alexandrinus speaks well of those two Philosophers in his Writings Thales says he in one place * Strom. l. 1. p. 300. was a Phaenician as Leander and Herodotus say He is the only Man who seems to be conversant with the Egyptian Prophets and we do not read that any one hath been his Master c. Anaximander a Milesian and Son of Praxidamus succeeded Thales and had Anaximenes Son of Eurystratus a Milesian also for his Successor Anaxagoras of Clazomenes Son of Hegesibulus came after him he removed his Auditory from Ionia to Athens and had Archelaus Socrates 's Master for his Successor Elsewhere he says That Thales * Strom. l. 5. p. 595. being askt what God is He answered That which hath neither a Beginning nor an End And that another having askt him whether Men can hide their Actions from God How can that be answered he since they cannot so much as hide their Thoughts from him Speaking of Anaximander Archelaus and Anaxagoras Philosophers of the same Sect he says That the former hath establisht †Admen ad Gent. p. 43. the Infinite for the First Being and that the other two said that the Spirit governed the Infinite The Principles of those Philosophers may be seen more at large in Diogenes Laertius and one may easily perceive that some of them do well enough agree with those of the Jews and Christians as That whatever is upon the Earth came
Empire and Government and the most like Him who only is Almighty 'T is that Excellent Nature which governs all things according to the Father's Will which Rules the World well which Acts by an Unexhausted and Unwearied Power and which sees the most secret Thoughts The Son of God never leaves the Post from which he sees all things He is neither divided nor separated he doth not go from one place to another he is every where and is confin'd within no Bounds All Spirit All Paternal Light All Eye he sees all things understands all things knows all things and dives by his Power into the Powers themselves To that Paternal Reason who hath received that Holy Administration the whole Army of Angels and GODS is subjected because of Him who put them under him Clemens had another Opinion concerning the Humane Nature of Christ which perhaps he entertained lest he should make the Body of Christ inferior to that of the Gods of Homer The Gods of that Poet †Iliad 1. vers 342. neither ate Bread nor drank Wine And Our Lord according to * Paed. l. 1. p. 202. Clemens needed no Milk when he came into the World and was not nourished with Meat which he took only out of Condescension and which did not undergo the same Change in his Body which it does in ours Hence it is that †Vid. Diss P. Allix de Sanguine Christi Origen his Disciple believed that Christ had no Blood but a Liquor like that which Homer ascribes to his Gods and calls ΙΧΩΡ Plato says in several places that God inflicts no Punishment upon Men but for their Good and not at all out of meer Vengeance Which ‖ Paed. l. 1. p. 116. Strom. l. 4. p. 536. Clemens observes so as to make one believe that he approves it Plato said further That the Souls are purged with Fire in another Life and that after they have been purged they are restored to their former state * Strom. l. 5. p. 549 592. Clemens believed that the Apostles had the same Thoughts when they spake of a Fire which is to consume the World And †Vid. Huet Orig. l. 2. quaest 11. Origen his Disciple concluded from those Principles That the Devils and Damn'd Men should be one day delivered from their Sufferings The Apostles describe the Place wherein Wicked Men shall be tormented under the Notion of a Lake of Fiery Brimstone They use the same word with the Pagans to denote the State of the Souls after Death viz. ΑΔΗΣ They say that Men descend into it and that Christ descended into it This was enough to make Clemens exclaim thus * P. 592. What was Plato ignorant of the Rivers of Fire and the Depth of the Earth which the Barbarians call Gehenna and which he Prophetically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 named Tartarus He hath mention'd Cocytus Acheron Pyriphlegethon and such like Places where Wicked Men are punisht that they may be mended Clemens did also believe with most of the Ancient Fathers †Strom. l. 6. p. 637 seq That Christ did really descend into Hell and preached there to the Damned Souls of which he saved those that would believe in Him I could alledge many other Instances whereby it would appear that Clemens explained the Opinions of the Christians by the like Doctrines which he found in the Philosophers But the before-mentioned Examples will suffice to those who have neither Time nor the Means to read that Author Those who will consult the Original will find enough of themselves One may further learn one thing from thence which most of those who apply themselves to the reading of the Fathers do not much mind and without which 't is almost impossible to understand them well in an infinite number of places viz. That before One begins seriously that Study the Heathen Philosophers especially Plato must be carefully read Without this One can't well apprehend what Grounds they go upon nor succesfully examine the strength of their Reasonings nor guess how they came by so many Opinions that are so different from those which are now entertained in our Schools Now to return to the Life of Clemens The Antients do unanimously say that he succeeded Pantaenus in the Office of Catechist He performed it with success and many Great Men came out of his School as Origen and Alexander Bishop of Jerusalem His Method of Instructing the Catechumeni consisted in teaching them what was Good in the Heathen Philosophy and so leading them by degrees to Christianity which they more readily embraced when they had relished many of those Maxims derived from the Light of Nature and scatter'd in the Writing of the Philosophers whom they saw every Body had a great Respect for than if they had been roughly told that they ought to renounce all their Opinions and look upon the rest of Mankind not only as Men that were guilty of Error but that had said nothing that was True * Strom. l. 1. p. 278. As Plow-men do not cast the Seed into the Ground but when they have watered it so says Clemens we draw out of the Writings of the Grecians wherewith to water what is earthly in those whom we instruct that they may afterwards receive the Spiritual Seed and be able to make it easily spring forth In effect the Light of the Gospel supposes that of Nature and doth not destroy it We don't find that Christ and his Apostles undertook to give us a compleat System of all the Doctrines that have some relation with Religion they supposed that we were already provided with several Thoughts received in all Nations upon which they reasoned else they should have for Example exactly defined all Vertues which they have not done because they found in the Minds of all Men some Idea's which though imperfect yet were most true So that they were content to add what was wanting in them or to take from them what ill Customs might have unfitly added to ' em Besides the Office of Catechist Clemens was promoted to the Priesthood in the Beginning as 't is thought of the Empire of Severus because Eusebius writing the Events of the Year CXCV. gives Clemens the Title of Priest About that time he began to defend the Christian Religion against Heathens and Hereticks by a Work which he entitled Stromata of which I shall speak hereafter because in that Work according to a Chronological Supputation * Lib. 1. pag. 336. he doth not go higher than the Death of Commodus From whence †Lib. 6. cap. 6. Eusebius concluded that he compiled it under the Empire of Severus who succeeded that Emperor Severus being exasperated against the Christians ‖ Vid. Dodwel Diss Cyp. XI §. 41 seq perhaps because of a Rebellion of the Jews with whom the Heathens confounded those who profest Christianity began to persecute them violently That Persecution having begun at Antioch went as far as Egypt and forced
know that it is apparent they contain'd not the subject of the Three Principles like an infinite of others which they have known how to express in an even clear and elegant manner The Second thing we should observe is That in so difficult a Matter we must content our selves with what they say positively without attempting to draw far-fetch'd Consequences from their Principles which we cannot understand but by halves otherwise we are in danger of attributing to them such Notions as they never had Neither must we endeavour to reconcile in so abstracted a Subject the Contradictions which seem to appear in their Doctrine nor conclude that they could not mean things in such a manner because then they must contradict themselves It was the Custom of these Philosophers to affect certain apparent Contradictions in using the same Terms in divers Sences Besides its obvious enough to imagine that they may have sometimes contradicted themselves on a Subject whereof they had no distinct Idea These two Remarks were necessary to prevent the Questions which might be offer'd on these Matters and to shew that in writing the History of these Doctrines one should keep wholly to Facts and the Terms of the Authors we treat of A Second Opinion of the Platonists which has made a great noise in the World is that of the Prae-existence of Souls in places above the Moon * See Plato's Timoens of the Faults which they may have there committed of their banishments from these happy Abodes to come to inhabit in differently disposed Bodies according to the different Merits of these Souls in fine of their return into places whence they drew their Original We shall not trouble our selves to explain this Doctrine because it belongs not to the Relation in hand having only made mention of it for a particular Reason which will appear in its place The Kings of Egypt and Syria having carried the Sciences of the Greeks into Asia the Jews who were in great numbers in these two Kingdoms and who were obliged to converse with them learn'd of them their Opinions and made no difficulty of embracing those which did not appear to 'em contrary to their Religion Their Books containing nothing inconsistent with sundry of the Platonick Doctrines they believed therefore that these Doctrines might be true and receiv'd them so much the more easily in that they thought they might hereby defend their Religion against the Pagans and make them relish it the better Plato every where affirm'd the Unity of the Supreme Being yet without denying that there are other Beings which may be called Gods to wit the Angels which is agreeable to the Expressions of the Old Testament And this is apparently one of the things which made the Jews better relish the Opinions of this Philosopher But we should give some particular Proofs of this The Author of the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon was plainly of the Opinion of the Prae-existence of Souls as it appears from these words of chap. 8. ver 19 20. For I was a witty Child and had a good Spirit Yea rather being good I came into a Body undefiled The same Author has used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason in some places where Plato would have used it were he to have said the same thing Thus in chap. 18. ver 15 16. in speaking of the Deliverer of the Israelites he says Thy Almighty Reason descended from Heaven out of thy Royal Throne as a fierce Man of War into the midst of a Land of Destruction and brought thine unfeigned Commandment as a sharp Sword and standing up fill'd all things with Death and it touched the Heaven but it stood upon the Earth In chap. 9. ver 1. he says That God has made all things by his Reason It cannot be alledg'd that he has been the only one of the Jews that has spoke in this manner seeing that Philo who liv'd a little while after Our Saviour is full of the like Expressions as several of the Learned have observed It s known that this Author has so well imitated Plato that he has been call'd the Jewish Plato He believ'd that there was One only Supreme God as all the rest of the Jews do whom he calls TO ON the Being through Excellency But he further acknowledg'd a Divine Nature which he calls ΛΟΓΟΣ the Reason as well as Plato And another whom he calls likewise the Soul of the World His Writings are so full of these manner of speaking that there is no nead of offering * Vid. Defens Fid. Nicen. §. 1. c. 1. §. 16 17. Instances The Jews were of these Opinions when Our Saviour and his Apostles came into the World And this is perhaps the Reason why we find accordingly as it has been observed by several learned Men several Platonick Phrases in the New Testament especially in the Gospel of St. John It 's well known that Amelius the Platonick Philosopher having read the beginning of this Gospel remarked that this Apostle spake like Plato In effect this Philosopher might have said according to his Principles The Reason was in the beginning with God She it is who hath made all things who is Life and the Light of Men c. We find several Passages in Philo like to this This Jewish Philosopher calls Reason the Priest the Mediator between God and Men the Eldest Son of God c. Wherein it is observable that he mixes his Jewish Notions with the manners of Speaking of Plato He has likewise used in one place the term Paraclete * De Vit. Mos p. 521. Edit Gen. Graeco-Lat Intercessor in speaking of the Reason It was necessary said he that the High-Priest who is to offer Sacrifices to the Father of the World should have for Intercessor him of his Sons whose Vertue is the most perfect for to obtain the Pardon of Sins and abundant Graces He had said * Quod Det. Pot. Insid p. 137. that Moses denoted by the Manna and by the Rock of the Desart the same Reason The Prophet says he calls elsewhere this Rock Manna a name which signifies the same thing to wit the Divine Reason the most Ancient of Beings Our Saviour Christ calls himself Paraclete in St. John chap. 14.16 when he promises his Apostles to send them another Paraclete He says likewise that he is the True Bread in opposition to the Manna which could be no more than a Shadow of it And St. Paul says that the Stone of the Desart was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 These ways of speaking which are found in St. John to be the True Bread the True Vine and which denote that he to whom they are applied is able to produce in Mens Spirits as much Efficacy in another kind of things as the Bread and Wine produce in the Body These ways of speaking I say were particular to the Platonists as has been observed elsewhere We might give several other Examples of Platonick Phrases to be met with in
receiv'd which the Council must have approv'd of seeing otherwise it would not have been admitted as it is He supposes on the contrary for the same Reasons that when the Fathers deny there are Three Hypostases they do not barely mean that there are not Three Essences of different Kinds but that they are not Three in Number But others will deny there is any place where the words Nature and Essence can be taken for what we at this day call Personality which is to say for a Modification and that it appears from the Passages which he cites that the Fathers held the Numerical Vnity And this was the Condition of the Christian Church when the Quarrels of Arius disturb'd it Whence may be seen that it was no hard matter for the two Parties to cite Authorities of the Antients whose Equivocal Expressions might be interpreted in divers sences The Obscurity of the Subject the vain Subtilty of Humane Understanding which would know every thing the Desire of appearing able and the Passion which mingles it self in all Disputes gave Birth to these Controversies which for a long time tore Christianity into pieces Arius being a Priest of Alexandria about the Year 318 undertook as it seems to explain more clearly the Doctrine of the Divinity of Jesus Christ which had been till that time taught in the Christian Church under the Veil of those Terms which we have recited He said that to beget in this subject was nothing else but to produce whence he concluded that the Divinity of Jesus Christ had been extracted out of nothing by the Father Here 's how he expresses himself in a Letter which he wrote to Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia * Ap. Theod. l. 1. c. 5. We make profession to believe that the Son is not without Generation and that he is not a part of that which is unbegotten nor of any other Pre-existent Matter whatever but that by the Will and Council of God he has been perfect God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before all Time and Ages that he is his only Son and that he is not subject to change that before he was begotten or created he was not Arius was counted an able * Sozom. l. 1. c. 15. Logician and was in good esteem with his Bishop Alexander but speaking freely his mind he drew on him the harred of one †Epiphan in Haer. LXIX Melece Bishop in Thebais who had caus'd a Schism in Egypt although he did not much vary from the common Opinions only because he would not receive into Communion the Priests who had faln in the Dioclesian Persecution but after a long Penance and would have them for ever depriv'd of their Office One may see the History of this in St. Epiphanius who accuses him for having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an affected Devotion and taking up a particular way of living to to make himself admired by the People Arius had moreover another Enemy named Alexander and Sirnamed Baucalas ‖ Philost l. 1. c. 4. who was also an Associate Priest with him He joined himself to Melece to complain to the Bishop of Alexandria that Arius sowed a new Doctrine touching the Divinity of our Saviour Christ He could the better spread his Opinions in that having a particular Church at Alexandria committed * Epiph. to his care he preach'd there what he thought fit He drew such a great number of People into his Opinions that there were Seven hundred Religious Votaries who had embraced them and consequently a greater number among the Ordinary People It 's said that he was a Man of large Shape of a severe Countenance yet of a very agreeable Conversation †Sozom. Alexander thought that in a Matter wherein one might easily equivocate it were best to let the two Parties explain themselves to the end it might appear that he had accorded them more by Persuasion than Force He brought the two Parties to a Conference in demanding of them the Explication of a Passage of Scripture in the Presence of the Clergy of his Church But neither one nor the other of these Parties would yield endeavouring only to vanquish Arius his Adversaries maintained that the Son is of the same Essence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father and that he is Eternal as he is and Arius pretended that the Generation denoted a Beginning There was another Meeting call'd as fruitless as the first in respect of the Dispute but by which it seems Alexander who had before not any precise determined Sentiment on this Matter was induced to embrace the Opinion of Arius his Adversaries He afterwards commanded this Priest to believe the same thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to abandon the opposite Opinion But it being seldom known that Men yield Obedience to these kind of Injunctions Arius remained still in the same Opinion as well as several other Bishops and Ecclesiasticks who had approved of it Alexander angry at his not being obey'd Excommunicated him with all those of his Party and oblig'd him to depart out of Alexandria There were among others five Priests of this City and as many Deacons of the same Church besides some Bishops of Egypt as Secondas and Theonas To them were joined a great number of People some of which did in effect approve the Doctrine of Arius and others thought that he had been condemned with too high an hand without entring into the Discussion of the Controversie After this Severity the two Parties endeavoured to make their Opinions and Conduct be approved by Letters which they sent every where They exposed not only their Reasons but endeavoured to render odious the opposite Party by the Consequences they drew from their Opinions and in attributing to them strange Expressions Some Bishops as Eusebius of Nicomedia exhorted Alexander to reconcile himself with Arius and others approv'd his Conduct and advised him not to receive him into his Communion till he retracted The Letters of Alexander and Arius are too considerable to be here omitted Here 's then the summ of them Arius wrote to * Ap. Epiph in Hes LXIX Theoder l. 1. c. 5. Eusebius of Nicodemia to entreat his Protection against Alexander who had excommunicated him and driven him out of Alexandria because he could not grant him that the Father and the Son are Co-eternal that the Son co-exists with the Father without Generation having been always begotten and not begotten at the same time without letting it be imagined that the Father has existed so much as one Moment before the Son He added That Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea Theodotus of Laodicea Paulinus of Tyre Athanasius of Anazarba Gregory of Beryta and Aetius of Lydea condemning the Sentiments of Alexander had been likewise struck with an Anathema as well as all the Eastern People who were of the same Opinions except Philogonius Bishop of Antioch Hellanicus of Tripoly and Macarius of Jerusalem one of which said That the Son was an Eructation the other a
reason these words of Tacitus Maxima quaeque ambigua sunt dum alii quoquomodo audita pro compertis habent alii vera in contrarium vertunt gliscit utrumque posteritati Eusebius vaunts very much the Bishops which were here But †Socrat. l. 7. Sabinus a Macedonian Bishop of Heraclea a Town of Thrace treats them as Ignoramus's in his Collection of Councils There was likewise a great number of Priests and Deacons who came in company with the Bishops The Council open'd the 14th of June and therein were regulated several things which we shall not here take notice of designing only to remark what past in relation to the principal Question therein decided to wit Arianism As soon as ever the Bishops were arrived they made particular Assemblies without any interruption and sent for Arius * Sozom. l. 7. 19. to them to inform themselves of his Opinions After they had heard from him what he thought some of 'em were for condemning all sorts of Novelties and to content themselves in speaking of the Son in the same terms their Predecessors had used and others affirm'd that the Opinions of the Antients were not to be received without examining There were seventeen Bishops according to †Ib. c. 20. Sozomen who favoured Arius his new Explications the chief of which were Eusebius of Nicomedia Eusebius of Caesarea Menophantes of Ephesus Patrophilus of Scythopolis Theognis of Nice Narcissus of Neroniadas Theonas of Marmarica and Secondus of Ptolemais These Bishops drew up a Confession of Faith ‖ Theodor. l. 1. c. 7. ex Athanasio according to their Sentiments but they had no sooner read it in the Assembly but it was cry'd out upon as false 't was torn in pieces and they were reproach'd with it as Persons who would as they said betray the Faith and Godhead of Christ A Letter of Eusebius of Nicodemia wherein he exprest his Thoughts had the same lot Afterwards a Creed was undertaken to be made wherein the Opinions contrary to those of Arius were established It was immediately observ'd that the new ways of of speaking which the Arians used were to be condemned That the Son had been extracted from Nothing That he was a Creature That there was a time wherein he was not c. And Scripture Phrases were to be used such as these That the Son is Only-Begotten the Reason Power Wisdom of the Father the Brightness of his Glory and Character of his Power The Arians having shew'd that they were ready to admit a Confession exprest in these terms the Orthodox Bishops feard lest they should expound these terms in an ill sence And therefore they were for adding That the Son is of the Substance of the Father because this is that which distinguishes the Son from the Creatures Hereupon the Arians were ask'd whether they acknowledged That the Son is not a Creature but the Power the only Wisdom and Image of the Father That he is Eternal and like to the Father in all things in fine True God The Heterodox having spoken among themselves believ'd that these Expressions might very well agree with the Notion they had of the Divinity of the Son and denoted they were ready to receive them In fine It being observed that Eusebius of Nicomedia in the Letter which was read rejected the Term of Consubstantial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was thought that the Orthodox Doctrine could not be better express'd and all Equivocation excluded than in making use of it and so much the rather in that the Arians seem'd to be afraid of it This Circumstance is owing to * Lib. 3. de Pid ad Grac. cap. ult St. Ambrose whose words are these Auctor ipsorum Eusebius Nicomediae Episcopus Epistola sua prodidit dicens si verum inquit Dei Filium increatum dicimus homoousion Consubstantialem cum Patre incipimus consiteri Haec cum lecta esset Epistola in Concilio Nicoeno hoc verbum in tractatu fidei posuerunt Patres quod viderunt Adverfariis esse formidini ut tanquam evaginato ab ipfis gladio ipsum nefandae caput Haereseos amputarent The Orthodox conceiv'd then their Sentiment touching the Divinity of the Son in these terms †Socr. l. 1. c. 8. We believe in one only Lord Jesus Christ Son of God only Son of the Father that is to say of the Substance of the Father God born of God Light of Light True God born of the True God begotten not made Consubstantial with the Father The Arians in vain complain'd that these words were not to be found in Scripture They were told That those they were wont to use were not there neither being wholly new whereas it was near six-score Years since that several Bishops had used the word Consubstantial The Fathers of the Council during this Time were not so busied in vanquishing the Arians and in making several Regulations which I shall here omit but that they remembred their private Grudges Several Church-men says * L. 1. c. 17. Sozomen as if they had been assembled to prosecute their particular Affairs as it commonly happens thought this a sit time to get those punish'd who had offended them Each of 'em presented Requests to the Emperor wherein they accused one or other and signified the Wrong they had done them This happening every Day the Emperor set one a-part in which they were every one of 'em to bring his Grievance The Day being come the Emperor took all their Requests and caused them to be thrown into the Fire and exhorted them to a mutual Forgiveness according to the Precepts of the Gospel He afterwards enjoyn'd them to labour in clearing up the Points of Faith of which they were to be Judges and a fix'd Day wherein the Question of the Constubstantiality should be decided The Day appointed * Euseb Vit. Const l. 3. c. 10. being come Constantine convocated all the Bishops into an Hall of the Palace where he had caus'd Chairs to be set on both sides The Bishops entred first and the Emperor came in afterwards and did not sit down at the Head of the Assembly on a Gilded Seat which he caused to be there placed till the Bishops by Signs had given him leave Being set down Eusebius of Caesarea who was at his Right-hand harrangu'd him and thank'd him for the care he had taken to preserve the Purity of the Catholick Faith Constantine afterwards began to speak and made a Discourse in Latin wherein he represented That he had no greater Affliction than the Divisions he observ'd among Christians exhorting the Bishops very earnestly to Peace An Interpreter afterwards turn'd the Speech into Greek for the Eastern Bishops understood not Latin Although it seems that Business was prepared in particular Assemblies before-hand yet there arose at first a great Controversie And Constantine had the patience to hear long Contests wherein he exercised the Office of Moderator in endeavouring to accord those whose Sentiments or Expressions
2. c. 4. who wrote his Master's Life which we have not I shall not relate what happened afterwards with respect to the Arian Disputes because I only design'd to mention the Events which happened during the Life of Eusebius or in which he was somewhat concerned He was always of the Arians side and St. Athanasius and St. Jerom have accused him of being of their Opinion In effect 't is scarce credible that if he had been Orthodox he would have so much favoured Arianism and given his Consent to the Deposal of St. Athanasius Yet * Ib. c. 21. Socrates hath undertaken to justifie him by citing some Passages wherein he speaks as the Orthodox did and several modern Authors have done the same as Dr. Cave in the Life of Eusebius which he hath writ in Latin and English This latter seems to have thought himself obliged to 't through Christian Charity but others are of opinion that Christian Charity that is the Love we ought to have for all Christians should oblige all Historians to mention such Truths as make no Alteration in the state of those that are Dead and are very useful to the Living who learn thereby to judge soundly of things That pretended Charity which extends it self only to the Fathers who are look'd upon as Orthodox hath been the cause why we have in a manner only Panegyricks of the Antients wherein their Defects are always supprest when they cannot be covered with the Mask of some Vertues Eusebius as it appears by his Conduct at the Council of Nice was a dextrous Person which made no scruple to subscribe to Terms which he did not like provided he could expound them in a sence agreeable to his mind though little agreeable to that of those who set them up Indeed a Man must shut his Eyes who doth not see by what he says in his Letter to the Church of Caesarea that he understood otherwise the Terms of the Creed than Athanasius for example did So that we ought not to mind the Terms which he uses to accommodate himself to such ways of speaking as were authorized and which he look'd upon as equivocal but only such places wherein he speaks after a manner altogether opposite to the received Opinions In his Books De Theologia Ecclesiastica he explains himself with so great clearness in several places that if some equivocal Passages may be opposed to them there is scarce any Citation but what may be eluded You are afraid says he to Marcellus Book 3. chap. 7. lest by owning Two Hypostases you should introduce Two Principles and destroy the Unity of God Learn therefore that there being but One God without Generation and Beginning who begot the Son there is but One Principle One only Monarchy and One Reign since the Son acknowledges the Reign of his Father For God is the Head of Jesus Christ as the Apostle says But you very much fear say you lest those who confess that the Father and Son have Two Hypostases are obliged to acknowledge Two Principles Learn therefore that those who maintain that there are Two Hypostases in God are not obliged to acknowledge Two Fathers nor Two Sons but they will only grant that one of them is Father and the other Son So those who admit of Two Hypostases ought not necessarily to own that there are Two Gods For we do not say that they are Equal in Honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor that Both have no Beginning or are not Begotten but that the one is without Generation and Beginning and the other is Begotten and hath the Father for his Principle Hence it is that the Son calls his Father his God when he says I go to my God and to your God c. wherefore the Church teaches only One who is the God of the Son c. He goes on in the same strain and declares that that passage and the like cannot be understood of the Flesh or Humane Nature of Christ These Principles are very different from those of St. Athanasius who says that there is but One God though there is Three Persons * In 1. Dial. de Trin. Tom. 2. p. 160. Vid. Curcellaei Quaternion Diss 1. because those Three Persons are altogether Equal and there is but One Deity in Kind This is one of the chief things which ought to be observed in reading the Writings of Eusebius To which must be added that he was a Disciple of Origen of whom one may see several Opinions in the Life of Clemens Alexandrinus It remains only to give a Catalogue of his Works as I have done in the Life of Clemens I shall make use of Dr. Cave's Chartophylax adding to it what I shall think fit 1. A Chronicle or an Universal History The First Part whereof which is now very imperfect contains the Antiquities of almost all Nations of the Chaldaeans Assyrians Medes Persians Lydians Hebrews Egyptians c. Eusebius took it from Africanus The Second entitled A Chronological Canon is an Abridgment of the First and reduces all the Chronology into Decades from Abraham to the 25th year of Constantine Which makes one believe that that Work was finished a little before the Council of Nice St. Jerom translated it into Latin adding several things to it especially with respect to the Roman History in which Eusebius was not very well skill'd The Greek Original is lost and Joseph Scaliger endeavour'd to recover it as much as he could by collecting all the Fragments he found in Syncellus Cedrenus and the Chronicle of Alexandria He caused them to be printed at Leyden in 1606 with his Notes but they have been re-printed since at Amsterdam in 1658 with more Notes 2. The Evangelical Preparation in Fifteen Books which he published after the Council of Nice since he cites his Chronological Canons in them The Design of Eusebius in that Work is to confute the Religion of the Pagans and to prove some Principles of ours by their Philosophers to dispose 'em to embrace it more easily He shews therefore 1st That the Christians had very good Reasons to renounce the Heathenish Religion and gives some Abridgments of the Theology of the Phoenicians and Egyptians and of the Opinions of the Graecians concerning the Beginning of the World whereby it appears that all of them acknowledged that the World is not Eternal 2dly That the Graecians borrowed their Divinity from the Eastern Nations and that their Gods were only Dead men whose Graves were turned into Temples and whose Fabulous History was so ridiculous that Plato laught at it 3dly That to defend their Fables they have in vain explained them after an Allegorical manner a Method whereof he shews the Vanity 4thly That the Pagan Oracles contain only the Answers and Cheats of Bad Daemons 5thly That nothing was so false as what the Stoicks said concerning Fate 6thly That the Opinions and Customs of the ancient Hebrews were very agreeable to the Sentiments of the most rational Pagan Philosophers especially to
those of Plato 7. That the History of the Hebrews is confirmed by the Testimony of several Heathen Historians 8thly That the Graecians took their Philosophy from the Barbarians especially from the Jews to whom Plato and the Platonicks owe what they said concerning their Three Principles and several other Doctrines which the Greeks admired 9thly That the Philosophers had an infinite number of different Opinions which may easily be confuted the one by the other as it appears by Eusebius his Essay towards it One may see by this whole Work that he was very well vers'd in Heathen Authors and had taken care in his Study to collect whatever might be of use to prove or confirm the Christian Religion by the Testimony of Philosophers It affords several Fragments of Authors who are lost as Sanchoniathon and several Platonicks out of whom he cites some long Passages 3. The Evangelical Demonstration which contain'd Twenty Books is now reduced to Ten. The Author explains in it the Old Jewish Religion and undertakes to prove by the Prophets the Truth of the Christian Religion But he grounds all his Arguments upon some Mystical or Allegorical Explications of some Places of the Old Testament without being able to prove against those who would have denied it that they ought to be understood so He lends if I may so say his Principles to the Prophets and then fixes to their Terms the Idea's he had of them by virtue of those Principles Thus Book 5. chap. 1. where he explains at large the famous Passage of Solomon concerning Wisdom God hath begotten me before the Mountains he finds in the word to Beget all the Subtilties which the Arians used after the Council of Nice to explain it according to their Mind without openly shocking the Orthodox 4. The Ten Books of the Ecclesiastical History came out after the preceding which are cited in them It begins with Christ and ends in the Year 324 before the Council of Nice met One may complain of Eusebius because he hath incerted several Fables in it as that of Agbarus c. and committed several Faults in Chronology of which I have already said something But one ought to forgive him those Faults because he is the first who hath composed any Work concerning the Christian History for he hath preserved a great number of Fragments of ancient Authors whom we have lost and related their Opinions faithfully enough Besides 't is he chiefly who can give us some light concerning the Canon of the Books of the New Testament He dedicated that Book to Paulinus Bishop of Tyre who hath been rank't among the Prelates who favoured Arius The neatest Greek Edition we have of this Work is that of Robert Stephen in 1544 and the best Translation is that of Valesius which was printed together with the Greek in Columns at Paris and Francfort Yet the Translation of that learned Man is not without Faults I am persuaded that the greatest part of them come from meer Inadvertency but it cannot be doubted that some arise from his understanding the Terms of the Antients according to the Modern Notions as when he renders the words of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria which I before mention'd Duas Personam Vnam esse c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One cannot alledge any place wherein the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what we call now-a-days Persona in Divinis but by supposing that the Antients ought to think as we do and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can signifie only Two Natures in Existence that is which do not differ in Kind as a Man and a Horse but only in Existence or Number as Two Men. This Lucas Holstenius observed in a Discourse which Valesius himself caused to be printed at the end of * Pag. 199 Theodoret Evagrius c. wherein he says that this Place must needs be corrupted either by some Hereticks or Transcribers because he knew not how to reconcile it with the Orthodox Opinions 5. Of the Martyrs of Palestine This Book is to be found next to the Eighth of the Ecclesiastical History 6. The Book against Hierocles was writ against a Judge of Nicomedia who * Vid. Lactant Instit l. 5. c. 2 3 4. in the time of Dioclesian's Persecution had composed two Books entitled Philalethes wherein he compared Jesus Christ to Apollonius Thyaneus Eusebius hath shewed the absurdity of that Comparison by a short Critick of the Eight Books of the Life of that Philosopher written by Philostratus This Hierocles must be distinguish'd from a Philosopher of the same Name who lived almost a hundred years after and wrote a fine Commentary upon the Golden Verses of Pythagoras 7. I have already spoken of Eusebius his Books against Marcellus and of the Ecclesiastical Theology I shall only add here two things The first is that R. M. which are seen in the Title signifie Richard Montagu Bishop of Chichester who first publish'd them The second is of greater moment viz. that Eusebius wrote 'em in anger and not only gives his Adversary no quarter but besides Disputes with him about things that are clear and which himself had proved elsewhere * L. 1. c. 4. Marcellus said That if we ought to tell the truth about Origen it must be acknowledged that he was but just come from the study of Philosophy when he applied himself to the reading of the Scripture and that before he understood it well he betook himself to write sooner than he ought to do because of his great Learning in the Pagan Sciences from whence it is that Philosophy made him wander and that he had writ some things which are not true For Example says Marcellus having his mind full of Plato's Doctrines and the Difference he teaches between the Principles he wrote his Book Of Principles and entitled it so That Title only was sufficient to make one clearly perceive that he took from Plato the first Words of his Work as as well as the Title for he begins thus Those who have believed and those who have been believed c. words taken out of Plato's Gorgias There is nothing truer than what Marcellus says here and all who have read something of Origen will grant it Yet Eusebius answers him in these extremely morose terms Supposing this were true there was no need of calumniating Origen for it since he immediately after adds that Grace and Truth are by Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ is that Truth What is there in it that 's common to Plato I never heard that Plato wrote a Book of Principles and Origen hath not taught the same thing as Plato concerning those Principles Origen acknowledged only One Principle without Generation and Beginning and above all things who is the Father of an Only Son by whom all things were made One may plainly see that Eusebius made as if he understood not Marcellus or that Anger hinder'd him from understanding him The Bishop of Ancyra meant only this viz. that Origen had
their Vertue was esteem'd by those who knew them if we may believe their Son who always speaks of them with great Commendations He says that his Father whose Name was Gregory too was born of Parents who had I know not what Religion which did partake of the Heathenish and the Jewish ‖ Orat. 19. p. 289. They had neither Idols nor Sacrifices but they worshipped Fire and Torches They kept the Sabbath abstained from eating the Flesh of certain Beasts and yet despised Circumcision They went by the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they boasted of worshipping none but the Supreme God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They seem to have taken the Worship of Fire from the Magi of Cappadocia who went by the Name of * Strab. l. 15. Pyrethes because of the respect they had for Fire which they look'd upon as the Symbol of the Supreme Deity But they were not like them in other things 'T is a surprising thing that Gregory who as hath been said denies that they worshipped Idols and says that his Father was born with those Sentiments †Carm. 1. de rebus suis v. 125. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should positively say elsewhere that he was subject to the Images of Animals It seems that either his Memory was somewhat weak on this occasion or his great Zeal made him fall into that Contradiction unless one had rather excuse him by looking on what he says of the Idols of Animals which his Father worshipped as a Rhetorical Exaggeration a Figure common enough in Gregory's Style As for his Mother Nonna she was born of Christian Parents who had been careful of her Education and found her extremely enclined to Piety Her Son doth also infinitely praise her Parts and Conduct A Woman with such Dispositions could hardly allow that her Husband should profess the Errors of the Hypsistarians Besides Gregory was a good-natur'd and temperate Man so that tho' he had some erroneous Opinions yet his Life was unblameable Nonna was continually urging him to get himself instructed in the Christian Religion but he could not be persuaded to 't till he had a Dream which made him resolve upon it He dreamed that he was singing those words of the Cxxii Psalm I was glad when they said unto me We will go into the House of the Lord. That way of Singing though new pleased him and his Wife failed not to take hold of this Opportunity to persuade him to embrace Christianity It happen'd at the very same time that Leontius Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia went that way with some other Bishops in his Journey to Nice where Constanstine had called a Council Gregory went to see him and told him that he had a mind to turn Christian Leontius caused him to be instructed and whilst they were instructing him to admit him amongst the Cathecumeni he was upon his Knees without being bid to rise whereas the Cathecumeni commonly stood whilst they were instructed Those who were there observed that Posture because 't was the Posture of the Priests when they were consecrated And his Son * Orat. 19. says that every Body look'd upon it as an Omen of his being some time or other honour'd with the Orders of a Priest Afterwards as the Bishop of Nazianzum was baptising him those who stood by saw him come out of the Water surrounded with Light and the Bishop could not forbear saying that Gregory should succeed him in his Bishoprick as it happen'd when the See of Nazianzum had been vacant for some time His Son who relates these two Circumstances styles them Miracles And because then as now-a-days every body believed not whatever Church-men said he declares that he relates these Wonders only to the Faithful because none of those great things appear true to profane Men. But a Man that is not profane can't forbear suspecting not of want of Sincerity but of Credulity and Exaggeration those Rhetorical Souls who take Advantage of every thing By relating Facts of that nature when Men think that they say what they have seen they often say what they have thought concerning things at which they were surprized and instead of the undeniable of their Eyes they give out the doubtful Consequences of a prejudiced Mind They believe without any Examination whatever is advantageous to the Party they have embraced and whatever is contrary to it is false or at least suspected Those who will read Gregory Nazianzen without making these Reflexions will run the hazard either of looking upon him as a Man of little Sincerity or of believing many unlikely Miracles Nonna had but one Daughter in the beginning of her Marriage if Gorgonia whom Gregory her Brother mentions in several places was the first Child she had * Greg. de Vita sua p. 2. and she did heartily desire to have a Son She made a Vow to God to consecrate him to him if he gave her one and soon after she had a Dream in which she saw the Face of the Son she was to have and learned what should be his Name Instead of one she had two and as soon as they were born she took great care of their Education having observed in them some Dispositions which deserved to be cultivated As soon as Gregory came to years he was sent to Caesarea †Greg. Presb. in Vit. Gr. p. 4 c. the Metropolis of Cappadocia where he was put under the best Masters to learn Humane Learning that is to say to understand the Greek Poets and Orators and to write well in that Tongue 'T was the only thing that was minded in Asia and the reading of the Pagan Authors who had writ well in that Tongue was the Study which they applied themselves to 'T is thought that about that time Gregory became acquainted with Basil whose Friendship was so dear to him afterwards From Caesarea in Cappadocia he went afterwards * Orat-10 p. 163. to Caesarea in Palestine whereof Eusebius was Bishop He applied himself there †Hieron de Script Eccles in Euzoio to Declaming according to the Custom of that time under a famous Rhetor named Thespesius Having stay'd some time at Caesarea he went to Alexandria which for some Centuries was much celebrated by reason of the learned Men who were there His stay there was not useless to him but he did not think he could be accounted a learned Man without going to Athens the Mother of Learning Wherefore ‖ De Vita sua p. 3 4. Orat. 19. p. 306 307. he embarked on a Ship of the Island of Aegina which is not far from the City of Athens Forasmuch as 't was in the middle of November he had not a very prosperous Passage Being near the Isle of Cyprus his Ship was tossed with a violent Storm for several Days and Provisions failing the trouble they were in was attended with Hunger so that the Seamen would not have been able to do their Duty had not a Phoenician
another Though that Passage is somewhat long yet I shall set it down here because those who have not very well studied those Matters will better understand what was the Opinion of the Orthodox at that time than they have done from the Passage of the XII Oration which I have cited * Pag. 208. Why says he d'ye love Vanity and look after Lyes by giving he speaks to the Arians to the Deity a Nature which is neither One nor Simple but Three Natures which are divided and separated and even contrary by reason of the Proprieties which the one hath and the others want or by establishing One only Nature he speaks to the Sabellians but a narrow and streightened one and which hath not the Propriety of being the Principle of great things either for want of Power or Will It should be either out of Envy or Fear to establish nothing which should equal it in Honour or oppose it But by how much God is more Excellent than the Creatures by so much is it a thing more worthy of the First Cause to be the Principle of a DEITY than of Creatures and not to come to the latter but by a DEITY which is between both than if a Deity * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence comes the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 existed according to the Arians because of the Creatures as it seems to those who are too subtle If when we confess the Dignity of the Son and Spirit we acknowledged no Principle of them or if we referred them to a Principle of another nature one might have some reason to fear that we dishonour the Deity or introduce some Gods contrary one to another A little lower he says That the Unity moved it self because of its Riches and that the Number of Two was encreased because the Deity is above Matter and Form which are the Two Principles which Bodies are made of That the Trinity is bounded because of its Perfecton and surpasses the Conjunction of Two so that the Deity is neither too much streight'ned nor enlarged to Infinity The former as he goes on hath somewhat that 's mean and the latter would breed a Confusion The former is altogether Jewish and the latter Heathenish The word to move one's self here is a Platonick term * Vid. Plotin Ennead v. l. 1. c. 6 7. which those Philosophers use when they speak of the Productions of the Deity And Gregory means that the Divine Nature was multiplied to Three Hypostases or Three Idividuum's which is opposite to Judaism which acknowledges but One Supreme Nature and to Paganism which admits of too many Gods The Platonicks disputed about this among themselves some maintained That the Supreme Deity had multiplied it self only to Three Gods * Vid. Cyryl viii cont Julian Plotin Ennead v. l. 8. c. 12. and that whatever is beyond it is not of a like Nature and others extended it to a greater number of Deities Plato and †Porphyry were of the former Opinion and Plotinus of the latter Julian being come to the Throne in the Year 361 sought for all manner of ways to ruine the Christians and perceiving that they made a great use of the Pagan Authors either to fit themselves for Eloquence or to take from them some Reasons fit to defend the Christian Religion and attack Paganism he undertook to hinder the Christians from applying themselves to the study of Humane Learning Some Antients say that he forbad 'em * Vid. Pagi ad An. 362. not only to keep Schools to teach it but also to go to those of the Pagan Grammarians and Orators others seem only to say that the Christians were forbidden to keep Schools Julian himself says in express †Ep. xlii words in one of his Letters that the Children of Christians should not be forbidden to go to the Schools of Pagans however without forcing them to 't because those who sin only for want of Understanding ought to be taught not punished Gregory Nazianzen mentions that Prohibition of Julian in his Third Oration But as a ‖ Pagi ad Ann. 362. Modern Author judiciously observes forasmuch as he speaks there more like an Orator than an Historian t is a difficult thing to find out what he means 'T is an ill effect of the continual Rhetorick of most of the Antients They are so Eloquent that they can't be understood 'T is likely that Julian did not forbid the Children of Christians to go to the Schools of Pagan Teachers either because he himself says so or because it was a good way to seduce ' em Hence it is that some learned Men amongst the Christians as both Apollinaris's and Gregory put the Scripture and Doctrines of Religion in Greek Verses or fine Prose Those Writings might supply the room of those of the Ancient Pagans and the Youth needed no Grammarians to understand ' em Parents might easily be instead of Tutors to their Children to explain those Christian Verses to them after they had read the Holy Scripture However that Prohibition made the Christians very angry who could not abide that their Grammarians Rhetors and Philosophers should have been sent back to the Churches of the Galileans these are Julian's words to explain there Matthew and Luke Had they never done any thing else they would not have introduced so many new words nor handled the Doctrines then in question with so many Subtilties nor would the Platonick Philosophy have had so great a share in their Decisions About that time Caesarius Gregory's Brother who was returned as hath been said to Constantinople was made Julian's Chief Physician and because of his Learning he was admitted into the number of the Friends of that Emperor who loved learned Men. Whereupon Gregory wrote to him a very sharp * Ep. xvii Letter wherein he tells him That he had made all his Family ashamed by reason of his Conduct That every body wonder'd that a Bishop's Son should follow the Court and endeavour to get Honours and Riches among the Pagans That he made his Father's Life unpleasant to him who could not blame in others what his Son did That they were obliged to conceal his Conduct from his Mother lest she should die with Grief That he had enough to live handsomly without exposing himself to so great danger Lastly That if he went on in the same manner of life he must be rank't among those Christians who least deserve that Name If Caesarius was not persuaded by that Letter to return to his Parents 't is likely however that it strengthened him against Julian's Endeavours to induce him to renounce Christianity which his Brother mentions in * Orat. x. p. 167 168. one of his Orations He says that Caesarius having answer'd all his Reasons protested to him that he was a Christian and would be so all his life-time and that Julian in the presence of many Persons of his Court cried out thinking of the Bishop of Nazianzum and
his two Sons O Happy Father O Vnhappy Children Caesarius being either weary of Julian's Solicitations or moved with his Brother's Advice returned to Nazianzum when Julian set out to go against the Persians It seems that about the same time Julian sent a Captain with some Archers †Orat. xix p. 308. to Nazianzum to take possession of the Church of the Christians But he was so far from being able to perform what he desired that if he had not speedily made his escape by the Bishop's or some other's Advice he must have retired with broken Legs * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pedibus laceâ—â—tis so great was the Ardour of that Priest's Gregory the Father Anger and Zeal for that Church Those are the very words of his Son Which shews that those good Men did not always preach up Passive Obedience In the Year 363 Julian was killed in his Retreat before the Persian Army †Ibid. An effect if we believe charitable Gregory of the Prayers of the same Bishop and People who designed to break the Legs of the Captain of the Archers whom I mentioned just now At that time Gregory composed his two Invectives against Julian wherein he omits nothing that can make him odious to all Posterity Those two Orations are as full of Resentment and Passion as can be imagined against a Man who abating of his Paganism had been one of the Greatest Emperors that ever were in the Roman Empire A learned Man believed that those two Orations were made publick whilst Julian was alive but 't is a Mistake Gregory mentions his Death in both of them The same ‖ P. Cunaeus Praef. in Caesares Juliani Author observes not without reason That we are extremely deceived by the Authority of some of those who have been formerly illustrious in the Church when we come to judge after them of some Princes of their time Prejudices are so strong as he goes on that most Men examine nothing but are drawn by the Holiness of those great Men. The Vulgar fancies that 't is a great Sin to believe that the Piety of those Men was not always attended with a great Candour For my part as I am persuaded that they had great Vertue so I do believe that they have committed some Faults out of Passion and I remember that they are very sharp To say nothing of others those who had some Reputation in Greece were apt according to the ill Custom of their Nation to fall into Extreams c. They cast into Hell those with whom they were angry although their Vertue had raised them to Heaven And on the contrary they have so much extolled those whom they undertook to Praise that Posterity admires now-a-days their Vertue which was scarce of the second Order Those who will judge soundly of the Panegyricks and Invectives of the Christian Antiquity ought necessarily to remember that Genius of the Greeks 1. Gregory begins his * Orat. iii. p. 49. First Invective with opprobious Words against Julian to the hearing of which he invites Heaven and Earth He addresses himself particularly to the Soul of Constans who made Julian Caesar speaking to him he adds these words * Pag. 50. If the Dead perceive any thing From whence it appears that he doubted whether the Dead know any thing of what passes below Yet he says elsewere †Pag. 63. That he censures him as if Constans was present and heard him although he was with God and enjoyed his Glory Which shews that this was only a meer Rhetorical Apostrophe from which nothing can be concluded 2. He very much wonders that Constans raised Julian to the Dignity of Caesar knowing what he was and at the same time makes the Encomium of the former whose Piety he praises every where ‖ Pag. 65. He defends him against those who accused him of Imprudence for having raised Julian so high after he had put to death his Brother Gallus and says that he hoped to allay the Mind of Julian by his Favours and that trusting altogether to his own strength he did not fear him in the least as one might have seen if Constans had not died In the following Speech against Julian speaking of the same Emperor he excuses him * Orat. iv p. 119. for the Protection he granted to the Arians He says that he was imposed upon out of Simplicity and want of Firmness and that he was deceived by the seeming Zeal he perceived in the Arian Officers of the Court It would be a difficult thing to reconcile that with the Principles of Gregory who look'd upon the Arian Disputes as material ones were it not that 't is well known that the words of an Orator are not to be urged as those of a Mathematician But it would be a hard matter to reconcile him with St. Hilary Bishop of Poitiers who treated Constans much worse than Gregory did Julian Those Great Men acted as others do they spake according to the present Passion they were led by without very much weighing the Figures and Expressions which they used 3. Gregory * Pag. 51. doth justly laugh at Julian who forbad the Christians to teach Profane Learning for the Reasons of the Christians would not have been less strong though they were not propounded with so great Eloquence But he feigneth to despise Eloquence and Politeness which certainly he did not despise and which he displays as much as he can in all his Writings which would be very often clearer if there was not so much Rhetorick in them He doth also upbraid Julian who trusted much his Eloquence with the great desire he shewed of taking from the Christians the Means of acquiring it which says he is the same thing as if a Champion should Hector and play the Couragious Man after he hath forbidden all other Champions to fight with him 4. He assures * Pag. 58. that Constans had taken a particular Care of the Education of Gallus and Julian Sons of one of his Uncles Brother of Canstantine and whose Name was also Constans to shew that he had no hand in the Murther of the latter which was committed when Constans Constantine's Son came to the Throne Nay he designed to impart the Empire to his two Sons who were of a very different Temper if we believe Gregory Though they had been instructed after the same manner and would both be Anagnostes or read the Holy Scripture in the Church it appeared afterwards that one of them was no Christian Besides there was a report and Gregory believed it was true that Gallus and Julian building a Temple at common Costs to the Honour of some Martyrs that which Gallus caused to be built did sensibly encrease but the Earth quaked in the place wherein Julian was building and whatever was raised sunk down There happened many other Miracles besides all different from those of the Gospel which were not wrought so much in the behalf of Unbelievers as
of those whose Disposition made 'em not altogether unworthy of them 'T is true that †Pag. 70. Gregory says that some Lyes had been mixed with the Truth and relates only in a doubtful way what was reported that Julian as he was sacrificing saw a a Crowned Cross in the Bowels of a Victim But he assures as certain some things that are much more incredible in the following Oration * Pag. 71. and in this he says that Julian having called out the Daemons with certain Sacrifices could not forbear being frighted as soon as he heard the Noise and that he saw certain Fires which commonly precede their Apparition and that forasmuch as he had been bred up in the Christian Religion he made the Sign of the Cross which presently drove away all those Spectrum's The Priest who performed the Ceremonies and perceived the trouble Julian was in told him that the Gods abhorred him upon that account not that they were afraid of the Sign of the Cross which he had made 5. Gregory †Pag. 72. derides the Artifices which Julian made use of to persecute the Christians without procuring them the Honour of Martyrdom and without seeming to treat them ill because whatever Pretence he used one might easily see that their greatest Crime was Christianity Persecution upon the account of Religion is so odious of it self even to all those who have still some sense of Humanity left that even those who practice it are ashamed of it when Superstition and Cruelty allow them some time to think somewhat more calmly on what they are doing This is so true that most of those who have suffered themselves to be led by the blind Zeal of Persecution have used the same Artifices We have seen an egregious Example of it in our Age and if what Gregory says here of the pitiful Arts and Cunnings of Julian be compared with what was lately done in a great Kingdom one will find a great Resemblance between both I shall omit it here lest any body should think that I design to insist upon so odious a Parallel 6. Amongst other Reasons which Gregory uses to shew that Julian could not succeed in his Design he describes thus the Power of the Saints which the Christians honoured * Pag. 76 77. Did you not fear those on whom so great an Honour is bestowed and for whom solemn Feasts have been instituted by whom the Daemons are driven away and Diseases cured whose Apparitions and Predictions are known the very Bodies whereof have as much Vertue as their holy Souls whether they be touched or honoured some drops of whose Blood only have the same Vertue with their Bodies It appears from those words and several other places out of Gregory and other Fathers in his time that they had already a great respect for the Relicks of Saints and vented a great many Miracles wrought at their Graves 'T is to be wondered how Gregory who loved Exaggerations said not that the Bodies of the Saints had a greater Vertue after their Death than during their Life for there is no comparison between the multitude of Miracles which are said to have been wrought at the Graves of Martyrs and those which they wrought whilst they were alive Several People believe that the want of Sincerity of some Christians and the Credulity of some others did very much contribute to the keeping up of Paganism 7. Our Author * Pag. 77. makes afterwards an Encomium of the Monks and despises Socrates Plato and all the Heathen Philosophers Gregory upbraids Julian with his not esteeming Vertue in his Enemies but certainly his Zeal made him on this occasion commit somewhat like it and 't is very certain that he had learned more by the reading of Plato and Socrates's Discourses than by his Conversation with all the Monks he had seen As for Manners the continual Seditions of those Pious Hermits and their implacable Temper do plainly enough shew that they were infinitely below those great Patterns of the Pagan Antiquity 8. He †Pag. 80. rightly observes that to design the ruine of the Christian Religion in a time when the Roman Empire was full of Christians was to undertake to ruine the Empire it self When they were but a small number they might have been ill treated without any danger to the State but it could not then be done without causing great Commotions and too great Disorders in it It were to be wished that the Imitators of Julian had well considered that Advertisement of Gregory who despises with great reason whatever might be good in Julian's Government if compared with the mischief which so detestable a Design would have been the cause of if he had been able to execute it Besides one could have wish'd that our Age * Pag. 83 84. had been well acquainted with the horror the Christians had for the Snares which Julian laid for his Officers and Soldiers Gregory says that some Christian Soldiers having on one day wherein Julian was distributing some Liberalities to his Army thrown Incence into the Fire in his presence according to an ancient Custom it had been interpreted as if they had incens'd the Idols and having been told of their fault as they were praying to Christ by making the Sign of the Cross after a Meal by some who told 'em that they had renounced him they presently went into the publick Place and cried even in the Emperor's hearing that they had been surprized and were Christians Julian being angry because they had found out that Surprize sent 'em into Banishment 9. Gregory describes * Pag. 87 88. some horrible Cruelties against the Christians which Julian had either commanded or suffered in Egypt and Syria He says that the Inhabitants of Arethusa a Town of Syria after they had exposed some Virgins consecrated to God to a thousand Infamies killed them ate their Liver raw and threw their Bodies to be eaten by Dogs having cover'd them with Barley The same People treated with an abominable Barbarity the Bishop of that Town who notwithstanding seemed to be insensible in the midst of Torments There might be some Exaggerations in this and †Pag. 88. Gregory says that that Bishop had in Constans's time demolished an Habitation of Daemons that is a Pagan Temple according to the Power he had received from the Emperor That Action of Mark of Arethusa drew on him the Hatred of the People as a Heathen would have been detested by the Christians if he had pull'd down one of their Churches Notwithstanding Gregory says ‖ Pag. 97. a little lower not only that the Christians had not treated the Pagans as they were treated by them but he asks them what Liberty the Christians took from them As if it was nothing to pull down their Temples as they did * Sozom. l. 2. c. 5. since the Empire of Constantine They went on with the same Rigour under the following Emperors and to leave nothing that the
upon him the Government of it for a little time yet he exercised no Episcopal Function in it He did not Pray publickly with the People nor lay his Hands on any body Forasmuch as he went thither against his Will and without engaging himself to stay there he thought he might leave that Church and return into the Solitary Place out of which they took him when he came to Nazianzum He * Ep. 31 32. de Vita sua p. 7. alibi complained sharply of Basil's Pride whom the Episcopal Throne of Caesarea had so blinded that he had no more any regard to his Friends Those Complaints tho' never so just were look'd upon as a Rebellion by the Metropolitan who seemed to have forgot the Esteem he formerly had for Gregory and the Services the latter had done him in his Promotion to the See of Caesarea Yet Gregory continued to complain that he had been shamefully dealt with by his Friend Gregory having left Sasime * Greg. Presb. in ejus Vita p 14. retired into an Hospital of Sick Men whom he took care to consolate and his Father desired him in vain to return to Sasime he could never resolve himself to do it nor brook the Unkindness of Basil who out of fifty Bishopricks which were in his Diocess had given him the least All that Gregory the Father could obtain from his Son was that he should re-assume the care of the Bishoprick of Nazianzum during his Life †Ep. xlii Orat. viii without engaging himself to succeed him It seems that at that time a Commissary of the Emperor who had been a very good Friend of Gregory came to Tax the Inhabitants of Nazianzum They fearing he would not Tax them according to Equity obliged Gregory to make the Discourse which is his Ninth Oration wherein he exhorts Men of all Conditions to Piety and addresses himself to Julian who was the Emperor's Commissary to induce him to lay that Tax like an Honest Man Yet there happened a Tumult at Nazianzum which exasperated the Imperial Commissary and gave Gregory occasion to pronounce his Seventeenth Oration which is upon the same Subject and wherein he exhorts the People to Patience and the Commissary to Moderation 'T is also believed that his Sister Gorgonia who married a Man of Quality whose Name was Vitalian died about this time Gregory made her Funeral Oration which is the Eleventh in order I shall not mention the Praises he bestows upon her upon the account of her Piety and wise Conduct I shall only observe these Two things 1st That Gorgonia * Orat. xi p. 188. was Baptised with her Husband but a little while before she died according to the Custom of that time Her Brother did so much esteem her Piety that he doth not stick to say that there is scarce any body else to whom Baptism was rather a Seal than a Grace that is to say rather a Confirmation of the Vertue she had before than the Infusion of new Holiness 2. At the end of his Oration having said in his Address to her by a Rhetorical Figure very frequent in our Author that she enjoys the Contemplation of the Heavenly Glory he goeth on thus If you have any regard to us and if God hath given to Holy Souls the Privilege of perceiving such things receive our Oration rather than Funeral Gifts It appears from thence that he doubted whether the Souls of Dead Men know what 's done here One may also observe that the word which I have rendred Privilege * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hes Opera Dies vers 125. is the same which Hesiod uses when he says that Jupiter hath given to Kings the Advantage of being after their death the Guardians of Men. In the Year 371 Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria being dead Gregory †Orat. xxi made his Funeral Oration some Years after ‖ V. p. 376. being at Constantinople I shall say something of it when I come to that part of Gregory's Life In the Year 374 Gregory made another Funeral Oration in Praise of his Father which is the Nineteenth in order He says that he died being almost a Hundred Years old having been a Bishop Five and forty Years His Son makes his Panegyrick at large by giving an Abridgment of his Life and endeavours to consolate his Mother Nonna whom he also praises very much He addresses himself to his Father * Orat. xix p. 314. whom he desires to let him know what Glory he was in and to govern both the Flocks and Pastors of which he was named the Father and especially his Son Here he uses no word which may excuse so violent a Figure as that Prosopoeia is and had he not used elsewhere some softening words in the like occasions it would perhaps be a difficult thing to distinguish that Apostrophe from a true Invocation His Mother Nonna who was almost as * Pag. 315. old as her Husband died soon after and it was not necessary that Gregory should make any Discourse to her Praise because he had already made her Panegyrick in the Funeral Oration of his Father After the death of the latter they would oblige him to take upon him the Bishoprick of Nazianzum and 't was pretended that he had engaged himself to keep it when he began to take care of it But †Ep. xlii he excused himself because of his Old Age and the Bishops of the Province named Eulalius to succeed his Father and because 't was reported that that Election was made against Gregory's Will he wrote to Gregory Nyssen to let him know that there was nothing done in it but at his desire Forasmuch as things were not presently brought to that issue and Gregory ‖ Carmen de Vit. p. 9. was afraid that he should be forced to stay at Nazianzum he retired to Seleucia in a Monastery where he staid long enough till the Church of Nazianzum should be provided However he returned to that Town before the Election was made and he was again urged to take his old station but he would never do it The Author of his Life assures that Basil built at this time an Hospital for those that were sick of the Leprosie and that Gregory made on that occasion his * 'T is the Sixteenth Oration Discourse concerning Charity towards the Poor especially towards those that are sick of the Leprosie That Oration contains several Reflexions concerning Piety in general and the use of the Good things and Evils of this Life Gregory doth seldom confine himself to one Subject only and observe an Order clear and free from Digressions During the Empire of Valens who favoured the Arians that Sect and those that sprung out of it did very much encrease †Carmen de Vita sua p. 10. Constantinople especially was full of Arians and Apollinarists who believed that the Divinity of Christ was instead of a Soul to his Body
Whereupon several Bishops and many amongst the People who followed the Council of Nice obliged Gregory to go to Constantinople to confirm the Orthodox and oppose the Hereticks He says that he undertook that Journey against his will especially because 't was reported that there was to be a Synod made up of Apollinarists to establish their Opinion Being arrived at Constantinople ‖ Orat. 28. p. 484. †towards the end of the Year 378 he lodged at a Kinsman 's of his whom some Authors conjecture to have been Nicobulus who had marry'd Alypiane Daughter of Gorgonia Gregory's Sister Valens had given to the Arians all the Churches of Constantinople so that Gregory was obliged to Preach at his Kinsman's House There was soon after so great a concourse of People that that House having no Chamber that might hold them the Owner of it pull'd it down to make a Church of it * Orat. 32. p. 527. It was named Anastasis that is the Church of the Resurrection because the Orthodox Faith had been as it were raised in that Place Then the Arians stirred up almost the whole City against him by accusing him of believing Three Gods He ascribes the Zeal of the People against him to their ignorance of the manner how to reconcile the Trinity with the Unity of God It was not altogether the People's fault because Gregory himself speaks of it so as to make one believe that he introduced what we should call Three Gods according to the common way of speaking though according to his manner of defining the Unity it must be said he believed but One. He complains that they threw †Carm. de Vita p. 10 11. Stones at him upon that account and that he was summoned before the Judges as a Seditious Person All that helped to make him more Famous and encrese the number of his Admirers 'T was then that St. Jerom heard him as he said in ‖ Ep. ad Nepot Catal. Script Eccles cont Jovinian lib. 1. several places I have quoted elsewhere a Passage out of that Father wherein he gives but an ill Character of Gregory's Eloquence whom he describes as a Declamator and whom the People applauded without understanding what he said The number of the Orthodox encreasing every day they desired to have a Bishop of their Opinion and generally cast their Eyes upon Gregory The Eastern Orthodox Bishops especially Meletius of Antioch Basil of Caesarea and Peter of Alexandria did openly favour him Yet they succeeded not in their Design There was at Alexandria * Carm. de Vita sua p. 12. one Maximus a Profest Cynick and yet a Christian He pretended to be desoended from a Noble Family and in which there had been some Martyrs After the Death of Athanasius the Orthodox having been persecuted in Egypt he had been banished into a Village of the Wilderness of Thebais named Oasis He went drest like the Philosophers that is with a ragged Cloak on his Back he never cut his Hair nor shaved his Beard and went with a Stick as Diogenes Thus living a very austere life he took upon himself to censure every body's Vices without any regard to any one's Quality as the Ancient Cynicks did Yet under that severe Out-side and mortified Countenance there lay a Soul Deceitful Ambitious Malicious Covetous and full of the most shameful Passions But because those things appeared not to the Eyes of Men he got a great Reputation not only among the People but also among the most learned Men. He kept Correspondence with the Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia Gregory's Friend * Basil Ep. 41. 42. as it appears from two Letters of Basil which are directed to him Gregory received him so well at his arrival at Constantinople that he made an Oration in his Praise †Orat. 23. wherein he omits nothing that might contribute to make that Impostor be look'd upon as a Great and Good Man But having since found out his Cheat ‖ Hieron in Cat. in Greg. instead of the Name Maximus which was prefix'd to that Oration he put that of Heron and entitled it thus An Oration in the Praise of Heron a Philosopher of Alexandria sent into Exile because of the Faith and returned three Years after Gregory shews in that Discourse what use might be made of the Cynick Philosophy in the Christian Religion and mentions the Persecutions which the Princes who favour'd Arianism had exercised against the Orthodox especially in Egypt and against the Philosopher Maximus He concludes with explaining the Mystery of the Holy Trinity and exhorting his Philosopher constantly to persevere in the Sound Doctrine which kept a medium between Judaism and * Arianism †Pag. 425 c. He often makes that Observation when he mentions the Holy Trinity and one may observe in general by reading his Works that the same Thoughts do frequently occur He advises his Philosopher to despise the Objections that are raised against that Doctrine and bids him not be ashamed of the Charge of Tritheism whilst others the Arians and Macedonians run the hazard of establishing Two Gods for says he either you 'll resolve the Difficulty as they do or you will not be able to resolve it no more than they c. Gregory having thus made the Panegyrick of Maximus received him at his House Instructed Baptized and Ordained him and imparted to him his most secret Thoughts †Carm. de Vita sua p. 12 c. But as soon as Maximus thought himself Learned enough he saw with grief that they designed to make Gregory Bishop of Constantinople He thought he deserved that Station better than his Master and Benefactor and perceiving that one of the Chief Priests of that Church envied also Gregory that Dignity he joined with him to cross him In order to it Maximus got on his side Peter of Alexandria who before favoured Gregory Some time after the Corn Fleet which came every year from Alexandria to Constantinople arrived there and the Masters of the Ships Hammon Aphammon Harpocras Steppas Rhodon Anubis and Hermanubis joined presently with Gregory's Assembly though they had Orders to favour the Design of Maximus whom two or three Egyptian Bishops designed to uphold more vigorously afterwards In the mean time the arrival of the Egyptians and the care they took to join with Gregory rejoyced him so much that he made * Orat. 24. an Oration thereupon wherein he doth very much extoll the Piety and Constancy of those of Alexandria and explains to them his Opinion concerning the Equality of the Father Son and Holy Spirit He doth especially enlarge to prove the Divinity of the Holy Spirit and among other Reasons he uses this Argument the Terms whereof would seem strange had I not already observed the like before †Pag. 429. If the Holy Spirit is not God let him be made God first and then let him make me God equal to him in Honour The meaning of that harsh
against the Eunomians the Incomprehensibility of God which he doth often He shews that there is an infinite number of things in Nature which we do not comprehend to conclude from thence that 't is no good Reasoning to deny that something is in God only because we do not comprehend it Having thus prepared the Mind of his Reader or Hearer he proposes his Opinion concerning the Divinity of the Son ‖ Orat. 35. p. 562. and the Holy Trinity in general which he doth in these remarkable terms That which we worship is a Monarchy I don't call Monarchy what is possest by one Person only for it may happen that a Person not agreeing with himself produces the same effect as if there were many but what is grounded upon the Equality of Nature the Consent of the Will the same Motion and the same Design with respect to the things which that Monarchy produces which is not possible in Created Natures so that although those that compose that Monarchy differ in Number yet they differ not in Power Had Gregory believed the Numerical Unity of the Divine Essence he would have spoken very weakly and obscurely since instead of the Equality of the Nature he should should have said the Identity and not mention'd the Consent of Will but One only Will in Number In that Oration Gregory answers the Objections which the Arians raised against the Eternal Generation of the Son which are often very weak either because they are not well propounded or because the Arians argued not better However as one might Personate an Arian better so so one might perhaps maintain with greater advantage the Sentiments of the Council of Nice Among the Arian Objections which Gregory proposes to himself this is one of them which is the Eighth viz. * Pag. 569. That if the Son is as to the Essence altogether as the Father is it will follow that the Son is not Begotten as the Father is not Gregory answers not as the School-men do That the Son is not Begotten as to the Essence which is the same in Number with the Fathers as he should have said according to the Principles of the Modern Schools but that not to be Begotten is not a thing Essential to the Deity To which he adds Are you the Father of your Father that you may not be inferiour to him in any thing because you are the same thing as to the Essence If any one should doubt still whether the Vnity which our Orator speaks of is a Specifick or a Numerical one he needs only read these words which are at the bottom of the following Page †Pag. 570. This is our Doctrine As we judge alike of things which are under the same Species as a Horse an Oxe and a Man and every thing is properly called by the Name which suits the Nature of which it partakes whereas that which doth not partake of it doth not go by that Name or hath it but improperly so there is but One Essence and Nature in God which hath the same Name though the Persons and Names are distinguished by the Thoughts In the * Orat. 36. Fourth Oration Gregory resolves according to his way the Objections of the Arians by which they pretend to shew the Unequality of the Father and the Son In the †Orat. 37. Fifth he disputes about the Consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit against the Macedonians Some of those who believed the Divinity of the Son denied that of the Holy Spirit and were even so bold as to call the Holy Spirit a Strange God because he is styled God no where in the Holy Scripture Gregory made his Fifth and last Theological Oration against them In that Discourse speaking of the several Opinions that have been about that he says amongst other things ‖ Orat. ib. p. 595. That the greatest Theologers among the Pagans and those who came nearest to us have an Idea of Him though they gave him another Name having called him The Soul of the World and The Soul which comes from without and used some other such Names As for the Wise Men of our times some believe that the Holy Spirit is a Faculty some that he is a Creature some that he is a God and some know not in what Order of Things they should place him by reason of the respect they have for the Scripture which is not clear upon that Point Gregory maintains That 't is a Person Consubstantial with the Two other And when he answers his Adversaries who ask'd him wherein the Generation and Procession differed he hath recourse to the Incomprehensibility But one of the chief Objections against the Orthodox was * Pag. 600. That they acknowledged Three Gods If there is said their Adversaries a God and a God and a God how comes it that there are not Three Gods c. This is replyes Gregory what is said by those whose Impiety is come to its height and even by those who are in the Second rank that is who have a right Belief concerning the Son I have a common Answer to both and another which concerns only the latter I ask therefore the latter why they call us Tritheists since they honour the Son and whether though they leave out the Holy Spirit they are not Ditheists How d' ye explain your Ditheism when they offer you this Objection Teach us how we ought to answer for the Answer by which you will clear your selves from Ditheism will serve us to vindicate our selves from Tritheism c. Thus we shall get the Victory and our Accusers will be our Defenders c. But we have a Dispute with those two sorts of Adversaries and a common Answer to both We have but One God because there is but One Godhead and that those who emaned from it refer to One only thing though we believe Three of them The one is not more God than the other the one is not Anterior and the other Posterior They are not divided in Will nor separate in Power and there is nothing in them that is found in things divided but to say all in a word the Godhead is without Division in Three Divided Persons as in Three Suns fastened one to another there would be but One Mixture of Light When we consider the Deity and the First Cause of the Monarchy we conceive but One Thing but when we consider those in whom the Deity and those who emaned from the First Cause before Time was and enjoy the same Glory we worship Three But it will be said Is there not One only Deity among the Pagans as their most learned Philosophers say All Mankind hath but One Humanity and yet there are Many Gods among the Pagans not One only as there are Many Men. I answer That in those things the Unity lies only in the Thought Every Man is divided from others by Time Passions and Power which is not in God Therein doth the UNITY of God consist as far
Place which was so much envied he went to the Emperor's Palace to desire him to give him leave to retire He obtained it with some difficulty and having obtained it his only Thoughts were to take his leave publickly which he did in the Cathedral in the presence of a Hundred and Fifty Bishops and all the People The Discourse he made is extant still and is the Thirty second in order He describes the bad Condition he found the Orthodox Church of Constantinople in and the Alteration he made in it He makes a Confession of his Belief concerning the Holy Trinity and shews that he had done nothing that deserved to be censured He exhorts the Fathers of the Council to chuse a Person worthy of the See of Constantinople to succeed him and lastly takes his leave of all those who heard him In that * Pag. 523. Oration he complains of his Old Age. And in the Poem concerning his Life †Pag. 30. he says he was then but a Dead Man Animated Which he could not say had he been but Fifty six or Fifty seven years old according to the ordinary Supputation As soon as he had taken his leave the People and generally all those who heard him at Constantinople shewed a great grief for it The Conduct of the Council must needs have appeared to them very inconstant and violent since after they had confirmed Gregory in the See of Constantinople they obliged him to leave it when he was above Fourscore Years old Without doubt so imprudent and Unchristian a Behaviour gave matter of Sport to the Enemies of the Council and lessen'd in a great measure the Authority of their Decisions For how can it be imagined that Bishops as Factious Unjust and Ignorant as Gregory describes them in several Places were able to examine with Deliberation the Doctrines then in question If their Interest made 'em not encline to Orthodoxy 't was a meer Chance which led them into the right way The love of Truth is seldom to be found with so much Vanity and Ignorance Thus Gregory left the Bishoprick of Constantinople some Weeks after he had been setled in it by the Council that turned him out of it He retired into Cappadocia according to Gregory the Priest the Author of his Life and went to live at Arianzum where he was born Among those who were presented to the Emperor some Bishops * Sozom. l. 7. c. 8. put in Nectarius a Senator of Constantinople a Man of an Exemplary Life and good Mien but was not Baptized yet and had scarce any Learning 'T is not known whether Gregory set out for Cappadocia before that Election was made or whether he stay'd at Constantinople till they had named him a Successor However Gregory wrote †Orat. 46. an Instruction for Nectarius wherein he begins with saying That it seems God's Providence which heretofore took care of the Churches had altogether given over the Conduct of the Things of this Life He says that his Private Afflictions though so great that they would seem intollerable to any body else induced him not to speak so He assures that the Condition only the Church was in extorted those words from him Afterwards he describes to Nectarius the Boldness of the Arians and Macedonians who were at least as numerous as the Orthodox and dared to meet publickly A horrible Undertaking after the Decisions of a Council so well regulated as that which was held a little before Gregory could not apprehend how his Holiness and his Gravity so the Bishops were called suffered the Apollinarists to meet He lets him know that Apollinaris asserted That the Body of the Son of God existed before the World That the Divinity supplied the Place of the Soul and That the Body which descended from Heaven and is Essential to the Son did notwithstanding die Gregory fancied I know not why that to suffer those Men to Meet was to allow 'em that their Doctrine was Truer than that of the Council since there cannot be Two Truths As if to suffer some body is to denote that one believes their Opinion to be True Lastly He exhorts Nectarius to tell the Emperor That what he had done in the behalf of the Church would signifie nothing if Hereticks were suffered to Meet Thus good Gregory who whilst the Arians were strongest having the Emperor on their side would not have that practised which was blamed in them exhorted his Successor to forget that good Lecture So difficult a thing it is not to contradict one's self when one doth not take great care to be free from Passion The next Year * Theod. l. 5. c. 8. there was an Assembly of Bishops held at Constantinople to which Gregory was invited But he refused to go and he answered those who invited him to it thus †Ep. 55. If I must write the Truth t' ye I am so affected that I will always avoid any Assembly of Bishops because I never saw any Synod that had good Success or which did not rather encrease the Evil than lessen it Without any Exaggeration the Spirit of Dispute and Ambition is so great in them that it can't be exprest One ought not to think that our Bishop said so without thinking well on 't and in a Fit of Passion He repeats it in his Sixty-fifth Seventy first Seventy second and Seventy fourth Letters and besides he diverted himself by putting in Verses the same Thought in his Poetical Pieces ‖ Carm. 10. p. 80. I 'll never go says he to any Synod because Gregory drew for Example Baronius * Pagi ad an 389. a. 5. or some of his Transcribers into an Error since they believed that when Gregory a short time after the Death of his Brother Caesarius and Sister Gorgonia said that he was an Old Man it was to be understood of a Premature Old Age because the Translator made use of that term in translating the 363 Verse of the Poem entitled Carmen I. de Rebus suis though there is no such thing in the Original As for the Translation of the Works writ in Prose 't is incomparably better and it may be said that the Abbot de Billy was as fit for Prose as he was unfit for Verses 'T is a surprising thing that a Man of his Learning took so much pains to translate into bad Verses what he might have better translated in Prose However one may observe a thing in the Translation both of Gregory's Orations and Letters which shews that one ought always to have recourse to the Original viz. That the Punctuation of the Translation is often altogether different from that which is in the Greek which makes it appear neater This may arise partly from the fault of those who put the Greek over against his Translation for he publish'd it by it self and were not careful enough to correct it and partly from the liberty the Translator took who cut several Periods that were too long and
Prudentius one ought also to remark how they behaved themselves towards them whilst they were alive In the * Ver. 333. Fifth Hymn which contains St. Vincent's Passion Prudentius represents the Christians going in Crowds to the Prison wiping and kissing the Wounds which he received when he was pinched with Tongs ungularum duplices sulcos licking his Blood or dipping a Cloth in it to keep it as a kind of Preservative for them and their Posterity It appears also from the †Ver. 75 c. Sixth Hymn that Fructuosus Bishop of Sarragoza was attended with many Friends of his as far as the burning Pile and that they desired him to remember them Afterwards they gathered carefully his Ashes and Bones and having sprinkled them with Wine they buried them magnificently enough In the Tenth Hymn ‖ Ver. 665 c. which contains the Passion of Romanus a Christian Woman being at his Execution with a Child delivers him to be ask'd whether 't is not better to worship One God than Many The Child answers Yes and says that his Mother taught him so Whereupon the Pagan Judge causes him to be whipt till the Blood runs before his Mother who exhorts him to suffer is angry with him because he calls for some Drink and afterwards carries him to be Beheaded If those Circumstances and many more are true it doth necessarily follow that they spared then in some measure the Blood of the Christians and put but few of them to death to terrifie others since they did not put to death such Persons as made a publick Declaration Yet if we believe those who wrote since the History of those Times 't was enough to shew that one was a Christian to suffer Martyrdom and the Rivers were red with the innocent Blood that was shed to confess the Name of Christ Those who have no great love for Truth and maintain it with the same Spirit that stirs those who defend a Faction have always done the same They never believed that simple Truth was sufficient to maintain it self but that it wanted to be adorned and upholden with Lyes A fatal Conduct and which hath done Truth so great a wrong as will never be repaired All that can be done by those who love it is to endeavour to disintangle it from Fables as much as they can and ingenuously to confess that an infinite number of Falshoods hath been mixed with some true Facts This we are obliged to do especially in the History of the Martyrs and Mr. Dodwell hath happily performed it in his Cyprianick Dissertations wherein he shews that there hath not been so many Martyrs as the Martyrologies reckon 5. Although the Heathenish Custom of filling the Churches with Images is not approved because it hath been found by Experience that they do more harm than good yet it must be confest that that Custom was practised in Italy in the beginning of the Fourth Century and perhaps before We learn it from Prudentius in the Ninth Hymn wherein he says * Ver. 9. That as he was going to Rome he went into a Church at Imola where St. Cassianus a Martyr was buried and that being upon his Knees before his Grave he saw there the Representation of his Martyrdom over-against him Erexi ad Coelum faciem stetit obvia contrà Fucis colorum picta imago Martyris c. The same thing may be observed in the Eleventh Hymn concerning †Ver. 123. St. Hyppolitus in whose Chappel Prudentius reports that the same thing may may be seen as in that of Cassianus Exemplar sceleris paries habet illitus in quo Multicolor fucus digerit omne nefas Picta super tumulum species liquidis viget umbris Effigians fracti membra cruenta viri It ought to be observed that upon that Grave there was a Table or an Altar on which they celebrated the * Ibid. ver 170. Eucharist so that that Image precisely upon the Altar where they are wont to place Images now in the Church of Rome Thus those who had but a confused Notion of Christian Piety believed that it could not maintain it self without the help of Outward Objects and I know not what Heathenish Pomp which hath at last extinguished the Spirit of the Gospel and substituted Paganism in its room Whatever hath an Outward Appearance of Piety and may be observed without having any Vertue in the Soul was always easily entertained amongst ignorant Nations who on the contrary did always neglect whatever requires some Vertue to be practised However we must acknowledge that Images were not yet permitted every where at that time witness St. Epiphanius's Action who tore a Vail in a Church of a Village in Palestine named Anablatha because there was a Picture upon it saying that it was against the Authority of the Scripture He himself relates that Action in a Letter to John Bishop of Jerusalem which St. Jerom translated into Latin and speaks of it as of an Action which no body could blame and which was grounded upon the Doctrine of the Apostles However it apears from Prudentius that this was not the Opinion of the whole Christian Church and one may see thereby that the single Testimony of one Father is not sufficient to judge of the Opinions of all the Christians as 't is but too often practised III. Prudentius his Apotheosis is a Poem in Heroick Verses wherein he assaults several Errors either of some Hereticks or of the Jews He attacks 1. The Patripassians or Disciples of Noêtus who lived about the Year 240 who distinguished no Hypostases in the Deity and believing that it was united to Christ maintained that the Father had suffered as well as the Son 'T is a difficult thing to know whether the Opinion of that Heretick is faithfully related or whether they did not ascribe to him the Consequences which they drew from it However Prudentius endeavours to prove against him that the Father never made himself Visible and that consequently it cannot be said that he dwelt in Christ but it must be confest that this is a very weak Argument according to the Notions of our Modern Divines For if the Essence of the Son became in some respect Visible by being United to Christ that of the Father became Visible at the same time because 't is but One only Essence in Number 2. The next Hereticks against whom Prudentius writes are the Vnionites that is to say the Sabellians who began to appear about twenty Years after Noëtus They used the same Arguments with that Heretick to prove the Unity of a Divine Hypostasis and they were answered as Noëtus was as may be seen in * Haerēs 57 62. St. Epihanius Prudentius upbraids Sabellius with saying nothing that 's new because the Pagans especially the Philosopers acknowledged the Unity of a Supreme God as well as he although they did sometimes mention many Cum ventum tamen ad norman rationis artis Turbidulos sensus litigiosa
prevented by Death We have Two Books of his with the Two Books of Julian which he confutes printed at Paris by the care of Claudius Menard in the Year 1616. Julian exprest his Mind boldly in those Books and seems by his giving the Adversaries of Pelagius ill Words to have been willing to take his revenge of the severe Edicts which they had obtained against him But his Conduct proved prejudicial to him seeing Celestinus Bishop of Rome caused him to be banished out of Italy together with Florus Orentius Fabius and all the Bishops of the same Party It appears notwithstanding that Pelagianism spread it self maugre its Opposers seeing the Emperor Valentinian publish'd an Edict at Aquileia in the Year 425 to drive it from the Gauls by which he order'd Patroclus Bishop of Arles to go and see several Bishops who followed the Opinions of Pelagius and to let 'em know that if they did not retract their Errors within Twenty Days allowed them to deliberate about it they should be banisht from the Gauls and deprived of their Bishopricks Joaunes Cassianus a Scythian by Origin whom some will have to be an Athenian others a Roman and others to be born in the Gauls who had been Deacon of St. Chrysostome and Ordained a Priest by Innocent I. having retired to Marseilles betook himself to write some Books then by which softening a little the Opinions of Pelagius whom he otherwise condemn'd as a Heretick he gave birth to those Opinions which went since under the Name of Semi-Pelagianism His Opinions may be seen in his Collationes or Conferences which St. Prosper confuted and which he maintained to contain meer Pelagianism * Petav. lib. Laud. c. 7. Here 's in a few words what his Opinions may be reduced to 1. The Semi-Pelagians confest that Men are born corrupted and cannot free themselves from that Corruption but by the help of Grace which is notwithstanding prevented by some Motion of the Will as by a good Desire whence it is that they said Meum est velle credere Dei autem gratiae est adjuvare To be willing to believe depends on me but 't is the part of God's Grace to help me God in their Opinion expects those First Motions from us and then gives us his Grace 2. That God invites All Men by his Grace but that it depends upon Mens freedom to embrace or reject it 3. That God caused the Gospel to be preached to the Nations which he foresaw should embrace it and would not have it to be preached to the Nations which he foresaw should reject it 4. That although he would have all Men to be saved yet he had only elected to Salvation those whom he foresaw should persevere in Faith and Good Works 5. That there was no particular Grace absolutely necessary to Salvation which God gave only to a certain number of Men and that Men could lose all the Graces they had received 6. That among little Children who died in that Age God permitted that those only should be Baptized who according to God's Fore-knowledge would have been Pious Men if they had liv'd and on the contrary that those who were to be Wicked if they had come to a more advanced Age were excluded from Baptism by Providence 7. The Semi-Pelagians were also accused of making Grace altogether External so that in their Opinion it consisted only in the Preaching of the Gospel But some of them maintained that there was also an Inward Grace which Pelagius himself did not altogether reject Some others confest besides that there is a Preventing Grace Thus it seems that the Difference between their Opinions and those of Pelagius consisted in their owning that Men are born in some sort corrupted and in their insisting more upon the Necessity of Grace at least in Words Although the Difference is not very great yet they Anathematized Pelagius Which perhaps they did supposing that Pelagius maintained all the Opinions condemned by the Councils of Africa St. Augustine accuses them of making the whole Grace of God to consist in Instruction which concerns only the Understanding whereas he makes it to consist in a Particular and Inward Working of the Holy Ghost which unavoidably determines us to Good and that Determination is not the Effect of the Light we have The other Opinions of that Father either contrary to the Doctrine of Pelagius or that of the Semi-Pelagians are well known One may learn them especially in his Books concerning Predestination and Perseverance which he wrote at the Desire of St. Prosper against the Semi-Pelagians and in the Works of this latter To return to the History 't is said that in the Year 429 one Agricola Son of Severianus a Pelagian Bishop brought Pelagianism into England but St. German Bishop of Auxerre was sent thither by Pope Celestinus or the Bishops of the Gauls and soon extirpated it Many Miracles are ascribed to him in that Journey and whilst he staid in England which may be read in Bishop Vsher But if what * Hist Scot. lib. 8. Hector Boetius a Scotch Historian who liv'd in the beginning of the last Century says be true he used a Method which is not less efficacious for the extirpating of Heresie 't is this the Pelagians who would not retract their Errors were burnt by the care of the Magistrates But whilst St. German was purifying England the Seeds of Pelagianism which Cassianus had spread among the Monks of Marseilles and in Gallia Narbonensis made it grow in France St. Prosper and Hilary wrote to St. Augustine about it and let him know that many Clergy-men in the Gauls look'd upon his Opinions as dangerous Novelties St. Augustine answered their Objections in the Books which I have just now mentioned But the Toleration which Hilary Bishop of Arles and Maximus Bishop of Riez granted the Semi-Pelagians hindred every body from molesting them though they shewed a great Aversion to the Doctrine of St. Augustine Julian and the other Bishops who were banish'd as I have said from Italy went to Constantinople where they importun'd the Emperor to be re-establish'd but because they were accused of Heresie he would grant 'em nothing without knowing the Reasons for which they were expell'd Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople wrote to Celestinus about it who returned him a very sharp Answer and as if it had not been lawful to enquire for the Reasons of their Condemnation upbraiding him at the same time with his private Opinions His Letter is dated the 12th of August in the Year 430. St. Augustine died about that time whose Encomium's may be found in Bishop Vsher who approves the Praises bestowed upon him by Fulgentius in his Second Book Of the Truth of Predestination wherein he calls him an Inspired Man A little while after his Death the Letters of Theodosius who ' call'd him to the Council of Ephesus came to Africa from whence some Bishops were sent to it That Council made up of Two hundred and ten Bishops
alludes to his several Works Vers 35 c. which he designed or had already composed but perhaps were not yet made publick They all run upon some Subjects of Devotion and part of them are in Lyrick and part in Heroick Verses yet he was not born for Poetry and it doth not appear that he had much Learning He doth very often mistake the Quantity not only of Greek Words the Orthography of which he doth not seem to have well understood but also of Latin Words of which one may find some Lists in his Interpreters He also uses many words of the Latinity of his time and a Style which could only be liked then The noble Facility of the ancient Poets nor so much of Claudian who lived at the same time doth not appear in it and the bottom of his Style is low and prosaick enough though he doth whatever he can to raise it His Heat fails him at every moment One may perceive that Age had lessen'd the Heat of his Fancy and that he could not supply it by the Light of his Mind But if his Poetry doth not please by its Elegancy yet it may be useful because one may learn from it several Opinions and Customs of his time besides some Facts concerning the History of Martyrs as it will appear by the following Examination of some Places of our Poet. I. The Book entitled Hymns for Every Day contains Twelve of them composed as if they were to be sung or recited on several Occasions at Break of Day at one's Rising before and after Meals when they light the Candle when one goes to Bed on a Fast and after Fasting at all times at a Funeral on Christmas-Day and on the Epiphany The Preface which is before those Hymns seems to be rather a General Preface for all the Poems of Prudentius since as I have already observed he alludes therein to all his Works and says that he is resolved to leave for ever his worldly Employments that he might altogether apply himself to write Verses to the Praise of God against Heresies and the Pagan Religion to explain that of Christ and upon the Martyrs and Apostles Those are the Subjects upon which all the Poems of Prudentius run 1. One may observe that that Poet mentions several popular Opinions of the Christians in his time which they took from the Heathens as that which is to be found in the First Hymn Vers 38. wherein he assures us that they said That the Daemons whom the Darknesses of the Night rejoyces withdraw when the Day appears The Pagans believed that the Demi-Gods retired into some Desart Places and wandred in the Night and at Full-Noon as I have observed elsewhere to which the 72 73 and 74 Verses of Callimacus his Hymn entitled The Baths of Pallas may be joined wherein he says that that Goddess bathed herself at the same time that Mount Citheron enjoyed the Rest of Noon What the Latins said concerning their Lemures and Striges is well known 2. There is many Expressions in Prudentius which are very harsh and seem to say much more than he designed For Example * Ib. v. 58. speaking of St. Peter he says Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas Cum Mens maneret Innocens Animusque servaret fidem It seems that he meant no more than this viz. That though St. Peter had sworn that he knew not our Lord yet he kept in his mind the same Sentiments for him which he had before But his words taken in a rigorous sence seem to say that a Man may speak against his Conscience and yet have his Mind free from Guilt as in Euripides's Verse Juravi Lingua Mentam Injuratam gero Those who delight too much in a Figurative Style are liable to the like Expressions Thus St. Cyprian in his Book * Oxon. Ed. 127. de Lapsis speaking of those who were overcome by the violence of Torments says Infirmitas viscerum sensit nec animus sed corpus dolore defecit 'T is not the Mind but the Body that failed We shall see in the Sequel of this Discourse another remarkable Example by which it will appear that Prudentius says more than he means 3. In the Evelenth Hymn to be recited in the Morning †Vers 29. there is a slight Imitation of Horace wherein having said that in the Morning every body betakes himself to his Affairs Prudentius adds Miles Togatus navita Opifex arator institor Illum forensis gloria Hunc triste raptat classicum c. One may see the beginning of the First Satyr of Horace by which it will appear that by Togatus we are to understand a Juris Consult or a Lawyer F. Chamillard understands a Judge by it But what I have said and forensis gloria which follows shew that the Poet means a Person who frequented the Barr to get Glory by Pleading not to do Justice in it This agrees well enough with the Division of the Day which we find in Martial l. 4. Ep. 8. Prima salutantes atque altera distinet Hora Exercet raucos tertia Causidicos In the words of Cicero cited by F. Chamillard Cedant arma togae Toga doth not signifie the Judgments given in time of Peace and hath no relation with Junicature but denotes Eloquence as it appears by the rest of the Verse Concedat Laurea Linguae This is not the only place wherein Criticks will not agree with our Commentator 4. For Example Prudentius in the Third Hymn * Vers 2. to be recited Before Meals calls Christ Verbigena where F. Chamillard doth well observe that according to the Analogy of the Latin Tongue that word signifies Begotten or Born of the Word as Martigena signifies Born of Mars Yet he maintains that this is not Prudentius's meaning because it is contrary to the Faith which teaches us that Christ is the very Word of his Father not a Production of the Father's Word so that he explains Verbigena Begotten Word But as we would not have our Words to be always explained according to the Notions and Terms of the Antients 't is not just that we should make 'em speak as we do unless it be evident that they have really used the same Expressions in the same sence That Rule ought always to be observed but especially when the Question is about an Incomprehensible Subject as on this occasion for indeed whatever Expressions be used it doth not become more Intelligible Besides it appears from another place of Prudentius that by Verbigena he understood Begotten by Speaking Here are his words in * Vers 17. the Eleventh Hymn of the same Book Ex ore quamlibet Patris Sis ortus Verbo Editus Tamen paterno in pectore Sophia callebas priús Although Thou camest out of the Father's Mouth and wast begotten as the Word yet Thou wast before his Wisdom in his Breast Prudentius expresses in those words the Opinion of several Antients who liv'd before the Council