Vit. Script Euseb and as Valesius conjectures some years after the Council of Nice though when not long before he expresly affirms that History to have been written before the Nicene Synod how he can herein be excused from a palpable contradiction I cannot imagine 'T is true Eusebius takes no notice of that Council but that might be partly because he designed to end in that joyful and prosperous Scene of things which Constantine restored to the Church as he himself plainly intimates in the beginning of his History which he was not willing to discompose with the controversies and contentions of that Synod according to the humour of all Historians who delight to shut up their Histories with some happy and successful period and partly because he intended to give some account of the affairs of that Council in his Book of the Life of Constantine the Great The Materials wherewith he was furnished for this great undertaking which he complains were very small and inconsiderable were besides Hegesippus his Commentaries then extant Africanus his Chronology the Books and Writings of several Fathers the Records of particular Cities Ecclesiastical Epistles written by the Bishops of those Times and kept in the Archives of their several Churches especially that famous Library at Jerusalem erected by Alexander Bishop of that place but chiefly the Acts of the Martyrs which in those Times were taken at large with great care and accuracy These at least a great many of them Eusebius collected into one Volume under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Collection of the Ancient Martyrdoms which he refers to at every turn besides a particular Narrative which he wrote still extant as an Appendage to the Eighth Book of his Ecclesiastical History concerning the Martyrs that suffered in Palestin A great part of these Acts by the negligence and unfaithfulness of succeeding Times were interpolated and corrupted especially in the darker and more undiscerning Ages when Superstition had overspread the Church and when Ignorance and Interest conspired to fill the World with idle and improbable Stories and men took what liberty they pleased in venting the issue of their own Brains insomuch that some of the more wise and moderate even of the Roman Communion have complained not without a just resentment and indignation that Laertius has written the Lives of Philosophers with more truth and chastness then many have done the Lives of the Saints Upon this account a great and general out-cry has been made against Simeon Metaphrastes as the Father of incredible Legends and one that has notoriously imposed upon the World by the most fabulous reports Nay some to reflect the more disgrace upon him have represented him as a petty Schoolmaster A charge in my mind rash and inconsiderate and in a great measure groundless and uncharitable He was a person of very considerable birth and fortunes advanced to the highest Honours and Offices one of the Primier Ministers of State and as is probable Great Chancellor to the Emperour of Constantinople learned and eloquent above the common standard and who by the persuasions not onely of some great ones of that time he flourished under Leo the Wise about the Year DCCCC but principally wrote under the reign of his successor but of the Emperour himself was prevailed with to reduce the Lives of the Saints into order To which end by his own infinite labour and the no less expences of the Emperour he ransacked the Libraries of the Empire till he had amassed a vast heap of Volumes The more ancient Acts he passed without any considerable alteration more then the correcting them by a collation of several Copies and the enlarging some circumstances to render them more plain and easie as appears by comparing some that are extant at this day Where Lives were confused and immethodical or written in a stile rude and barbarous he digested the history into order and clothed it in more polite and elegant language Others that were defective in neither he left as they were and gave them place amongst his own So that I see no reason for so severe a censure unless it were evident that he took his accounts of things not from the Writings of those that had gone before him but forged them of his own head Not to say that things have been made much worse by Translations seldom appearing in any but the dress of the Latine Church and that many Lives are laid at his door of which he never was the Father it being usual with some when they met with the Life of a Saint the Author whereof they knew not presently to fasten it upon Metaphrastes But to return to Eusebius from whom we have digressed His Ecclesiastical History the almost onely remaining Records of the ancient Church deserves a just esteem and veneration without which those very fragments of Antiquity had been lost which by this means have escaped the common Shipwrack And indeed S. Hierom Nicephorus and the rest do not onely build upon his foundation but almost entirely derive their materials from him As for Socrates Sozomen Theodorit and the later Historians they relate to Times without the limits of my present business generally conveying down little more then the History of their own Times the Church History of those more early Ages being either quite neglected or very negligently managed The first that to any purpose broke the ice after the Reformation were the Centuriators of Magdeburg a combination of learned and industrious men the chief of whom were John Wigandus Matth. Judex Basilius Faber Andreas Corvinus but especially Matth. Flaccius Illyricus who was the very soul of the undertaking They set themselves to traverse the Writings of the Fathers and all the ancient Monuments of the Church collecting whatever made to their purpose which with indefatigable pains they digested into an Ecclesiastic History This they divided into Centuries and each Century into fifteen Chapters into each of which as into its proper Classis and Repository they reduced whatever concerned the propagation of Religion the Peace or Persecutions of the Christians the Doctrines of the Church and the Heresies that arose in it the Rites and Ceremonies the Government Schisms Councils Bishops and persons noted either for Religion or Learning Heretics Martyrs Miracles the state of the Jews the Religion of them that were without and the political revolutions of that Age. A method accurate and useful and which administers to a very distinct and particular understanding the affairs of the Church The four first Centuries were finished in the City of Magdeburg the rest elsewhere A work of prodigious diligence and singular use True it is that it labours under some faults and imperfections and is chargeable with considerable errours and mistakes And no wonder for besides that the Persons themselves may be supposed to have been sometimes betraid into an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the heats and contentions of those Times it was the first attempt in this kind and
learning His Writings His Hypotyposes Photius his account of them corrupted by the Arrians His Books yet extant and the orderly gradation of them His Stromata what the design of it His stile what in this what in his other Books A short Apology for some unwary assertions in his Writings His Writings enumerated Pag. 193. The Life of TERTULLIAN Presbyter of Carthage His names whence His Father who His education in all kinds of Learning His skill in the Roman Laws Different from Tertylian the Lawyer His way of life before his conversion enquired into His married condition His conversion to Christianity when The great cruelty used towards the Christians Severus his kindness to them Tertullians excellent Apology in their behalf His address to Scapula and the tendency of that discourse Severus his violent persecuting the Christians His prohibition of the Heteriae Tertullians Book to the Martyrs and concerning Patience His zeal against Heresies and Writings that way His Book De Pallio when written and upon what occasion His becoming Presbyter when His Book De Corona and what the occasion of it His declining from the Catholic Party Montanus who and whence His principles and practices Tertullians owning them and upon what occasion His morose and stubborn temper How far he complied with the Montanists and acknowledged the Paraclete How he was imposed upon His Writings against the Catholics The severity of the ancient Discipline Episcopus Episcoporum in what sense meant by Tertullian concerning the Bishop of Rome His separate meetings at Carthage His death His Character His singular parts and learning His Books His phrase and stile What contributed to its perplexedness and obscurity His un-orthodox opinions A brief plea for him Pag. 201. The Life of ORIGEN Presbyter Catechist of Alexandria Origen where and when born Several conjectures about the original of his name His Father who His juvenile education and great towardliness in the knowledge of the Scriptures His Philosophical Studies under Clemens Alexandrinus His Institution under Ammonius Ammonius who His fame and excellency confessed by the Gentile Philosophers Another Origen his Contemporary These two heedlesly confounded His Fathers Martyrdom and the confiscation of his Estate Origen's resolute encouragement of his Father His own passionate desire of Martyrdom His maintenance by an honourable Matron of Alexandria His zeal against Heretics His setting up a private School He succeeds Clemens in the Catechetic School at eighteen years of Age. The frequency of his Auditors Many of them Martyrs for the Faith Origen's resolution in attending upon the Martyrs His danger His couragious act at the Temple of Serapis His emasculating himself and the reasons of it The eminent chastity of those Primitive Times Origen's journey to Rome and return to Alexandria His taking in a Colleague into the Catechetic Office He learns the Hebrew Tongue The prudent method of his Teaching Ambrosius converted Who he was His great intimacy with Origen Origen sent for by the Governour of Arabia His journey into Palestin and teaching at Caesarea Remanded by the Bishop of Alexandria Alexander Severus his excellent Vertues and kindness for the Christian Religion Origen sent for by the Empress Mammaea to Antioch He begins to write his Commentaries How many Notaries and Transcribers imployed and by whom maintained Notaries their Original and Office Their use and institution in the Primitive Church His journey into Greece His passage through Palestin and being ordained Presbyter at Caesarea Demetrius of Alexandria his envy and rage against him Origen condemned in two Synods at Alexandria and one at Rome The resignation of his Catechetic School to Heraclas Heraclas who The story of his offering Sacrifice The credit of this story questioned and why His departure from Alexandria and fixing at Caesarea The eminency of his School there Gregorius Thaumaturgus his Scholar His friendship with Firmilian Firmilian who The Persecution under Maximinus Origen's Book written to the Martyrs His retirement whither He compares the Versions of the Bible His Tetrapla Hexapla and Octapla what and how managed A Specimen given of them His second journey to Athens His going to Nicomedia and Letter to Africanus about the History of Susanna His confutation of Beryllus in Arabia His answer to Celsus Celsus who Origens Letters to Philip the Emperour The vanity of making him a Christian Origens journey into Arabia to refute Heresies The Helcesaitae who What their Principles Alexanders miraculous election to the See of Jerusalem His Coadjntorship Government Sufferings and Martyrdom Origens grievous sufferings at Tyre under the Decian Persecution His deliverance out of Prison Age and Death His Character His strict life His mighty zeal abstinence contempt of the World indefatigable diligence and patience noted His natural parts incomparable learning His Books and their several Classes His stile what His unsound opinions The great Out-cry against him in all Ages The Apologies written in his behalf Several things noted out of the Ancients to extenuate the charge His assertions not Dogmatical Not intended for public view Generally such as were not determined by the Church His Books corrupted and by whom His own complaints to that purpose The testimonies of Athanasius and Theotimus and Haymo in his vindication Great errours and mistakes acknowledged What things contributed to them His great kindness for the Platonic Principles S. Hierom's moderate censure of him His repenting of his rash Propositions His Writings enumerated and what now extant Pag. 213. The Life of S. BABYLAS Bishop of Antioch His Originals obscure His education and accomplishments enquired into Made Bishop of Antioch when Antioch taken by the King of Persia Recovered by the Roman Emperour Babylas his fidelity in his charge The Decian Persecution and the grounds of it severely urged by the Emperours Edicts Decius his coming to Antioch His attempt to break into the Christian Congregation Babylas his bold resistance This applied to Numerianus and the ground of the mistake The like reported of Philip the Emperour Decius his bloudy act related by S. Chrysostom His rage against Babylas and his examination of him The Martyrs resolute answer His imprisonment and hard usage The different accounts concerning his death Three Youths his fellow-sufferers in vain attempted by the Emperour Their Martyrdom first and why Babylas beheaded His command that his chains should be buried with him The translation of his body under Constantius The great sweetness and pleasantness of the Daphne Apollo's Temple there S. Babylas his bones translated thither by Gallus Caesar The Oracle immediately rendered dumb In vain consulted by Julian The confession of the Daemon Julian's command for removing Babylas his bones The Martyrs Remains triumphantly carried into the City The credit of this Story sufficiently attested The thing owned by Libanius and Julian Why such honour suffered to be done to the Martyr Julian afraid of an immediate vengeance His Persecution against the Christians at Antioch The sufferings of Theodorus The Temple of Apollo fired from Heaven Pag. 241. The Life of
help or benefit by the gods A great argument as Eusebius well urges of our Saviours Divine authority and the truth of his Doctrine For when says he a little before such numbers of fictitious deities fled at our Lords aprearance who would not with admiration behold it as an uncontroulable demonstration of his truly saving and excellent Religion whereby so many Churches and Oratories through all the world both in Cities and Villages and even in the Desarts and Solitudes of the most barbarous Nations have been erected and consecrated to the great Creator and the only Sovereign of the World when such multitudes of Books have been written containing the most incomparable rules and institutions to form mankind to a life of the most perfect Virtue and Religion precepts accommodate not to men only but to women and children when he shall see that the Oracles and Divinations of the Daemons are ceased and gone and that the Divine and Evangelical virtue of our Saviour no sooner visited mankind but they began to leave off their wild and frantic ways of worship and to abhor those humane sacrifices many times of their dearest relations wherewith they had been wont to propitiate and atone their bloody and merciless Daemons and into which their wisest and greatest men had been bewitched and seduced I add no more but S. Chrysostoms b Orat. III. adv Judaeos p. 420. Tom. 1. challenge Judge now with me O thou incredulous Jew and learn the excellency of the truth what Impostor ever gathered to himself so many Churches throughout the world and propagated his worship from one end of it to the other and subdued so many Subjects to his Crown even when thousands of impediments lay in the way to hinder him certainly no man a plain evidence that Christ was no Impostor but a Saviour and Benefactor and the Author of our life and happiness XII WE have seen with what a mighty success Christianity displayed its banners over the world let us next consider what it was that contributed to so vast an increase and propagation of it And here not to insist upon the blessing of the Divine Providence which did immediately superintend its prosperity and welfare nor upon the intrinsic excellency of the Religion it self which carried essential characters of Divinity upon it sufficient to recommend it to every wise and good man there were five things among others that did especially conduce to make way for it the miraculous powers then resident in the Church the great learning and abilities of its champions and defenders the indefatigable industry used in propagating of it the incomparable lives of its professors and their patience and constancy under sufferings It was not the least means that procured the Christian Religion a just veneration from the world the miraculous attestations that were given to it I shall not here concern my self to shew that miracles truly and publicly wrought are the highest external evidence that can be given to the truth of that Religion which they are brought to confirm the force of the argument is sufficiently pleaded by the Christian Apologists That such miraculous powers were then ordinary in the Church we have the concurrent testimonies of all the first Writers of it Justin Martyr a Apol. I. p. 45. tells the Emperor and the Senate that our Lord was born for the subversion of the Daemons which they might know from the very things done in their sight for that very many who had been vexed and possessed by Daemons throughout the world and in this very City of theirs whom all their exorcists and conjurers were not able to relieve had been cured by several Christians through the name of Jesus that was crucified under Pontius Pilate and that at this very time they still cur'd them disarming and expelling the Daemons out of those whom they had possess'd The same he affirms in his discourse with Trypho b Dial. cum Tryph. p. 24â— p. 302. the Jew more than once that the Devils trembled and stood in awe of the power of Christ and to this day being adjured by the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilat the Procurator of Judaea they were obedient to Christians Irenaeus c Adv. Haeres l. 2. c. 56. p. 215. c. 57. p. 218. assures us that in his time the Christians enabled by the Grace of Christ raised the dead ejected Daemons and unclean spirits the persons so dispossessed coming over to the Church others had Visions and the gift of Prophesie others by Imposition of hands healed the Sick and restored them to perfect health But I am not able says he to reckon up the number of those gifts which the Church throughout the world receiving from God does every day freely exercise in the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate to the benefit of the world Tertullian d Apol. c. 23. p. 22. challenges the Roman Governors to let any possessed person be brought before their own Tribunals and they should see that the spirit being commanded to speak by any Christian should as truly confess himself to be a Devil as at other times he falsly boasted himself to be a God And he tells Scapula e Ad Scap. c. 2. p. 6â— that they rejected disgraced and expelled Daemons every day as most could bear them witness Origen f Contr. Cels l. 2. p. 80. bids Celsus take notice that whatever he might think of the reports which the Gospel makes concerning our Saviour yet that it was the great and magnificent work of Jesus by his name to heal even to this day whom God pleased that he a Ib. l. 3. p. 124. himself had seen many who by having the name of God and Christ called over them had been delivered from the greatest evils frenzy and madness and infinite other distempers which neither men nor devils had been able to cure What influence these miraculous effects had upon the world he lets us know elsewhere The Apostles of our Lord says b Lib. 1. p. 34. he without these miraculous powers would never have been able to have moved their Auditors nor perswaded them to desert the institutions of their Country and to embrace their new Doctrine and having once embraced it to defend it even to death in defiance of the greatest dangers Yea even to this day the foot-steps of that Holy Spirit which appeared in the shape of a Dove are preserved among the Christians they exorcize Daemons perform many cures and according to the will of God foresee and foretel things to come At which though Celsus and his personated Jew may laugh yet I affirm further that many even against their inclinations have been brought over to the Christian Religion their former opposition of it being suddenly changed into a resolute maintaining of it unto death after they have had Visions communicated to them several of which nature we our selves have seen And should we only reckon up those at which we
in his Letter to Pope Victor particularly reckons b Ap. Euseb l. 5. c. 24. p. 191. Sagaris and Melito among the chief Champions of the Cause This Paschal Book of S. Melito was mentioned also by c Ap. Euseb ubi sâ—pr p. 147. Clemens of Alexandria in a Tract concerning the same subject wherein he confesses that he was moved to that undertaking by the discourse which Melito had published upon that subject V. HOW unwearied is true goodness and a love to souls how willing to digest any difficulties by which anothers happiness may be advanced his brother Onesimus had desired of him to remark such passages of the Old Testament as principally made for the confirmation of the Christian Religion and to let him know how many of those Books were admitted into the holy Canon Wherein that he might at once throughly satisfie both his brother and himself he took a journey on purpose into the East that is I suppose to Jerusalem where he was likeliest to receive full satisfaction in this matter and where having informed himself he gave his Brother at his return an account of it The Letter it self because but short and containing so authentic an evidence what Books of the Old Testament were received by the ancient Church we shall here subjoin Melito to his Brother Onesimus greeting FOR AS MVCH as out of your great love to and delight in the Holy Scriptures you have oft desired me to collect such passages out of the Law and the Prophets as relate to our Saviour and the several parts of our Christian Faith and to be certainly informed of the Books of the Old Testament how many in number and in what order they were written I have endeavoured to comply with your desires in this affair For I know your great zeal and care concerning the Faith and how much you desire to be instructed in matters of Religion and especially out of your love to God how infinitely you prefer these above all other things and are solicitous about your eternal salvation In order hereunto I travelled into the East and being arrived at the place where these things were done and published and having accurately informed myself of the Books of the Old Testament I have sent you the following account The five Books of Moses Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Jesus or Joshua the son of Nun Judges Ruth the four Books of Kings Two Books of Chronicles The Psalms of David The Proverbs of Solomon which is Wisdom Ecclesiastes the Song of Songs Job The Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah the twelve minor Prophets in one Book Daniel Ezekiel Esdras or Ezra Out of all which I have made Collections which I have digested into six Books VI. IN which Catalogue we may observe the Book of Esther is omitted as it is also by b Synops S. Script p. 471. S. Athanasius c Carm. XXXIII p. 98. Toâ— 2. Gregory Natâ—ianzen and d Sect. Act. II. p. 408. Lcontius in their enumeration of the Books of the holy Canon though for what reason is uncertain unless as e Biblioth S. l. 1. p. 5. Sixtus Senensis not improbably conjectures because it was not in those times looked upon as of such unquestionable credit and authority as the rest the spurious additions at the end of it causing the whole Book to be called in question Nor is here any particular mention made of Nehemiah probably because it was anciently comprehended under that of Esdras And by that of Wisdom we see is not meant the Apocryphal Book called the Wisdom of Solomon as f De Script Eccl. in Melit ad Ann. 150. Bellarmine and most Writers of that Church confidently enough assert but his Proverbs of which g Lib. 4. c. 22. p. 143. Eusebius expresly tells us that not onely Hegesippus but Irenaeus and all the Ancients were wont to call the Proverbs of Solomon by the name of Wisdo◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wisdom containing a System of all kind of vertues And indeed that Melito in this place could mean no other the words of his Letter as restored by Valesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Nicephorus his quotation and the faith of all the best and most ancient Manuscrips puts the case beyond all peradventure VII AT last this good man broken with infinite pains and labours and wearied with the inquietudes of a troublesome World retreated to the place of rest The time and manner of his death is unknown this onely we find h Polyâ—rat Fp. ap Euseb ubi p. 191. that he died and lies buried at Sardis waiting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Episcopal Visitation from Heaven when our Lord shall come and raise him up from the dead He was a man besides the piety of his mind and the strictness and innocency of his life of great parts and learning he had elegans declamatorium ingenium as i Apud Hieron de Script in Melit Tertullian said of him a smart elegant Wit able to represent things with their most proper aggravations He wrote Books almost in all kinds of Subjects Divine Moral and Philosophical the Monuments of no less Industry then Learning which are all long since lost some very few fragments onely excepted I know there are that suspected him to have had notions less Orthodox about some of the great principles of Religion which I confess seems to me a most uncharitable and unjust reflection upon so holy and so good a man especially seeing the conjecture is founded upon the meer titles of some of his Books none of the Books themselves being extant and of those titles a fair account might be given to satisfie any sober and impartial man there being but two that can be liable to exception the one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Deo not Corporeo however k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod. Quest XX. in Genes Tom. 1. pag. 21. Theodoret and as it seems from Origen understands it but Corporato as Tertullian would express it de Deo corpore induto as Rufinus of old translated it concerning God clothed with a body or the Word made flesh the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most Copies read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Creation and Generation of Christ Where admit it to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Creation he alluded I doubt not to that of Solomon the Lord possessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 created me in the beginning of his way And evident it is that before the rise of the Arrian Controversies the l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constit Apost l. 5. c. 19. col 370. Caterum ne tune quidem solus habebat enim secum quem habebat in semetipsâ— rationem suam scilicet hanâ— Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It aque Sophiam quoque exaudi ut secundam peâ—sonam conditam Primo Dominus creavit me initium viarum in opera sua c. nam ut primum Deus voluit
and strokes of it The best is their great piety and serviceableness in their generations while they lived and the singular usefulness of their Writings to posterity since they are dead are abundantly enough to weigh down any little failures or mistakes that dropt from them His Writings Extant Protrepticon ad Gentes Paedagogi Libri III. Stromatewv Libri VIII Orat. Quisnam dives ille sit qui salvetur Epitome doctrinae Orientalis Theodoti c. Not Extant Hypotyposcwv seu Institutionum Libri VIII Canon Ecclesiasticus seu Adversus Judaizantes De Paschate De obtrectatione Disputationes de jejunio Exhortatio ad Patientiam ad Neophytos Supposititious Commentariola in Prim. Canonicam S. Petri in Epistolam Judae tres Epistolas S. Joannis Apostoli The End of S. CLEMENS Alexandrinus his Life THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN PRESBYTER OF CARTHAGE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Michael Burghers Delineavit et sculpsit TERTULLIANUS His names whence His Father who His education in all kinds of Learning His skill in the Roman Laws Different from Tertylian the Lawyer His way of life before his conversion enquired into His married condition His Conversion to Christianity when The great cruelty used towards the Christians Severus his kindness to them Tertullians excellent Apology in their behalf His address to Scapula and the tendency of that discourse Severus his violent persecuting the Christians His prohibition of the Heteriae Tertullians Book to the Martyrs and concerning Patience His zeal against Heresies and Writings that way His Book De Pallio when written and upon what occasion His becoming Presbyter when His Book De Corona and what the occasion of it His declining from the Catholic Party Montanus who and whence His principles and practices Tertullians owning them and upon what occasion His morose and stubborn temper How far he complied with the Montanists and acknowledged the Paraclete How he was imposed upon His writings against the Catholics The severity of the ancient Discipline Episcopus Episcoporum in what sense meant by Tertullian concerning the Bishop of Rome His separate meetings at Carthage His death His Character His singular parts and learning His Books His phrase and stile What contributed to its perplexedness and obscurity His un-orthodox opinions A brief plea for him I. QVINTVS Septimius Florens Tertullianus was as the Ancients a Hieron de script in Tertul. Niceph. H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 34. p 334. affirm and himself b De Pall. c. 1. p. 112. Apolog c. 9. p. 9. implies when he calls it his Countrey born at Carthage the Metropolis of Afric famous above all others for Antiquity Soveraignty and Power insomuch that for some Ages it contended for glory and superiority even with Rome it self He was called Septimius because descended of the Gens Septimia a Tribe of great account among the Romans being first Regal afterwards Plebeian and last of all Consular and Patrician Florens from some particular Family of that House so called and Quintus a title common among the Romans probably because the fifth child which his Parents had and Tertullian a derivative from Tertullus it is like from his immediate Parent His Father was a Souldier a Centurion under the Proconsul of Afric called therefore by S. Hierom and others Centurio Proconsularis not a man of Proconsular dignity as some make him he was a Gentile in which Religion Tertullian also was brought up as himself c Apol. c. 18. p. 17. confesses He was educated in all the accomplishments which the learning either of the Greeks or Romans could add to him he seems to have left no paths untraced to have intimately conversed with Poets Historians Orators not to have looked onely but to have entered into the secrets of Philosophy and the Mathematics not unseen in Physic and the curiosities of nature and as Eusebius d H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 2. p. 41. notes a man famous for other things but especially admirably skilled in the Roman Laws though they who would hence infer him to have been a professed Lawyer and the same with him whose Excerpta are yet extant in the Pandects are guilty of a notorious mistake the name of that Lawyer being Tertylianus besides that dissonancy that is in their stile and language Or suppose with others that this Tertylian was one of Papinians Scholars in the reign of Alexander Severus he must by this account be at least thirty years after the others Conversion to Christianity The original of the Errour doubtless arose from the nearness and similitude of the names and the character of his skill in the Roman Laws given by Eusebius which indeed is evident from his Works and especially his Apology for the Christians II. WHAT was his particular course of life before he came over to the Christian Religion is uncertain They that conceive him to have been an Advocate and publicly to have pleaded Causes because after his Conversion he * De Pall. c. 9 p. 118. says of himself that he owed nothing to the Forum took up no place among the Rostra made no noise among the Benches did not toss about the Laws nor clamour out Causes as if he had done all this before mighty by the same reason conclude him to have been a Souldier because he adds in the same place that he owed nothing to the Camp with some other Offices there mentioned by him That he was married is evident though whether before or after his embracing the Christian Faith I cannot positively determine probably before However according to the severity of his principles he lived with his wife a great partof his life in a state of Continency conversing with her as his sister exhorting her to perpetual coelibacy and the utmost strictnesses of a single life as appears by his two Books written to her upon that Subject III. HIS conversion to Christianity we may conceive to have hapned not long after the beginning of Severus his reign and a little before the conclusion of the second Century Being a man of an inquisitive and sagacious mind he had observed the powerful and triumphant efficacy of the Christian Faith over the minds and lives of men its great Antiquity the admirable consent and truth of the Predictions recorded in the Books of the Christians the frequent Testimonies which the Heathen deities themselves gave to its truth and divinity the ordinary confessions of their Daemons when forced to abandon the persons they had possessed at the command of a Christian all which he shews a Vid. Apol. c. 19 20. p. 18. c. 23. p. 22 23. alibi passion at large at least as we may probably guess to have been the main inducements of his Conversion In the very entrance of the following Seculum Severus being gone to make War upon the Parthians the Magistrates at Rome and proportionably the Governours of Provinces began to bear hard upon the Christians beholding them as infamous persons and especially Traitors to the Empire Among whom the most
a life of true Philosophy and Vertue Ap. Dioâ— Hali◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. â—5 Tem. 2. History says Thucydides being nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophy drawn from Examples the one is a more gross and popular Philosophy the other a more subtle and refined History These considerations together with a desire to perpetuate the memory of brave and great Actions gave birth to History and obliged mankind to transmit the more observable passages both of their own and foregoing Times to the notice of Posterity The first in this kind was Moses the great Prince and Legislator of the Jewish Nation who from the Creation of the World conveyed down the Records of above MMDL years the same course being more or less continued through all the periods of the Jewish State Among the Babylonians they had their public Archives which were transcribed by Berosus the Priest of Belus who composed the Chaldean History The Egyptians were wont to record their memorable Acts upon Pillars in Hieroglyphic notes and sacred Characters first begun as they pretend by Thouth or the first of their Mercuries out of which Manethos their Chief Priest collected his three Books of Egyptian Dynasties which he dedicated to Ptolomy Philadelphus second of that line The Phoenician History was first attempted by Sanchoniathon digested partly out of the Annals of Cities partly out of the Books kept in the Temple and communicated to him by Jerombaal Priest of the God Jao this he dedicated to Abibalus King of Berytus which Philo Byblius about the time of the Emperour Adrian translated into Greek The Greeks boast of the Antiquity of Cadmus Archilochus and many others though the most ancient of their Historians now extant are Herodotus Thucydides and Xenophon Among the Romans the foundations of History were laid in Annals the public Acts of every year being made up by the Pontifex Maximus who kept them at his own house that the people upon any emergency might resort to them for satisfaction These were the Annales Maximi and afforded excellent materials to those who afterwards wrote the History of that great and powerful Commonwealth But that which of all others challenges the greatest regard both as it more immediately concerns the present enquiry and as it contains accounts of things relating to our biggest interests is the History of the Church For herein as in a Glass we have the true face of the Church in its several Ages represented to us Here we find with what infinite care those Divine Records which are the great instruments of our eternal happiness have through the several periods of time been conveyed down to us with what a mighty success Religion has triumphed over the greatest oppositions and spread its Banners in the remotest corners of the World With how incomparable a zeal good men have contended earnestly for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints with what a bitter and implacable fury the Enemies of Religion have set upon it and how signally the Divine Providence has appeared in its preservation and returned the mischief upon their own heads Here we see the constant succession of Bishops and the Ministers of Religion in their several stations the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs who with the most chearful and composed minds have gone to Heaven through the acutest torments In short we have here the most admirable examples of a divine and religious Life of a real and unfeigned Piety a sincere and universal Charity a strict Temperance and Sobriety an unconquerable Patience and Submission clearly represented to us And the higher we go the more illustrious are the instances of Piety and Vertue For however later Ages may have improved in knowledge Experience daily making new additions to Arts and Sciences yet former Times were most eminent for the practice and vertues of a holy life The Divine Laws while newly published had a stronger influence upon the minds of men and the spirit of Religion was more active and vigorous till men by degrees began to be debauched into that impiety and prophaneness that in these last Times has over-run the World It were altogether needless and improper for me to consider what Records there are of the state of the Church before our Saviours Incarnation it is sufficient to my purpose to enquire by what hands the first affairs of the Christian Church have been transmitted to us As for the Life and Death the Actions and Miracles of our Saviour and some of the first acts of his Apostles they are fully represented by the Evangelical Historians Indeed immediately after them we meet with nothing of this nature H. Eâ—cl l. 3. c. 24. p. 94. the Apostles and their immediate Successors as Eusebius observes not being at leisure to write many Books as being imployed in Ministeries greater and more immediately serviceable to the World The first that engaged in this way was Hegesippus an ancient and Apostolic man as he in Photius stiles him an Hebrew by descent Cod. 232. col 893. and born as is probable in Palestin He flourished principally in the reign of M. Aurelius and came to Rome in the time of Ancietus where he resided till the time of Eleutherius He wrote five Books of Ecclesiastical History which he stiled Commentaries of the Acts of the Church wherein in a plain and familiar stile he described the Apostles Travels and Preachings the remarkable passages of the Church the several Schisms Heresies and Persecutions that infested it from our Lords death till his own time But these alas are long since lost The next that succeeded in this Province though the first that reduced it to any exactness and perfection was Eusebius He was born in Palestin about the later times of the Emperour Gallienus ordained Presbyter by Agapius Bishop of Caesarea who suffering about the end of the Dioclesian Persecution Eusebius succeeded in his See A man of incomparable parts and learning and of no less industry and diligence in searching out the Records and Antiquities of the Church After several other Volumes in defence of the Christian Cause against the assaults both of Jews and Gentiles he set himself to write an Ecclesiastical History Lib. 1. c. 1. p. 3. wherein he designed as himself tells us to recount from the birth of our Lord till his time the most memorable Transactions of the Church the Apostolical successions the first Preachers and Planters of the Gospel the Bishops that presided in the most eminent Sees the most noted Errours and Heresies the calamities that befel the Jewish State the attempts and Persecutions made against the Christians by the Powers of the World the torments and sufferings of the Martyrs and the blessed and happy period that was put to them by the conversion of Constantine the Great All this accordingly he digested in Ten Book which he composed in the declining part of his life Praefat. de
our selves have been present and beheld it may be it would only make the Infidels merry supposing that we like themselves did forge and feign them But God bears witness with my conscience that I do not endeavour by falsly-contrived stories but by various powerful instances to recommend the Divine Religion of the Holy Jesus More testimonies of this kind I could easily produce from Minucius Faelix Cyprian Arnobius and Lactantius but that these are enough to my purpose XIII ANOTHER advantage that exceedingly contributed to the triumph of Christianity was the singular learning of many who became champions to defend it For it could not but be a mighty satisfaction especially to men of ordinary capacities and mean employments which are the far greatest part of mankind to see persons of the most smart and subtil reasonings of the most acute and refined understandings and consequently not easily capable of being imposed upon by arts of sophistry and plausible stories trampling upon their former sentiments and opinions and not only entertaining the Christian Faith but defending it against its most virulent opposers 'T is true indeed the Gospel at its first setting out was left to its own naked strength and men of the most unpolisht breeding made choice of to convey it to the world that it might not seem to be an humane artifice or the success of it be ascribed to the parts and powers of man But after that for an hundred years together it had approved it self to the world and a sharper edge was set upon the malice and keenness of its adversaries it was but proper to take in external helps to assist it And herein the care of the Divine providence was very remarkable that as miracles became less common and frequent in the Church God was pleased to raise up even from among the Gentiles themselves men of profound abilities and excellent learning who might 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Julian c Theod. H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 8. p. 131. said of the Christians of his time beat them at their own weapons and wound them with arrows drawn out of their own quiver and it was high time to do so for the Gentiles did not only attaque the Christians and their Religion by methods of cruelty and by arts of insinuation not only object what wit and subtilty could invent to bear any shadow and pretence of reason but load them with the blackest crimes which nothing but the utmost malice and prejudice could ever suspect to be true This gave occasion to the Christian Apologists and the first Writers against the Gentiles who by their learned and rational discourses assoil'd the Christians from the things charged against them justified the reasonableness excellency and divinity of their Religion and expos'd the folly and falshood the brutishness and impiety the absurd and trifling rites of the Pagan Worship by which means prejudices were removed and thousands brought over to the Faith In this way they that rendred themselves most renowned and did greatest service to the Christian cause were especially these Quadratus Bishop of Athens and Aristides formerly a famous Philosopher of that City a man wise and eloquent dedicated each an Apologetic to the Emperor Adrian Justin the Martyr besides several Tracts against the Gentiles wrote two Apologies the first presented to Antoninus Pius the second to M. Aurelius and the Senate about which time also Athenagoras presented his Apology to M. Aurelius and Aurelius Commodus not to mention his excellent discourse concerning the Resurrection To the same M. Aurelius Melito Bishop of Sardis exhibited his Apologetic Oration for the Christians under this Emperor also flourished Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia and dedicated to him an incomparable discourse in defence of the Christian Faith besides five Books which he wrote against the Gentiles and two concerning the truth Not long after Theophilus Bishop of Antioch compos'd his three excellent Books for the conviction of Autolycus and Miltiades presented an Apology probably to the Emperor Commodus Tarian the Syrian Scholar to Justin Martyr a man learned and eloquent among other things wrote a Book against the Gentiles which sufficiently evidences his great abilities Tertullian a man of admirable learning and the first of the Latins that appeared in this cause under the Reign of Severus published his Apologetic directed to the Magistrates of the Roman Empire besides his Books Ad Nationes De Idololatria Ad Scapulam and many more After him succeeded Origen whose eight Books against Celsus did not greater service to the Christian cause than they did honour to himself Minucius Faelix an eminent advocate at Rome wrote a short but most elegant Dialogue between Octavius and Caecilius which as Lactantius a De Instit l. 5. c. 1. p. 459. long since observed shews how fit and able an advocate he would have been to assert the truth had he wholly applied himself to it About the time of Gallus and Volusian Cyprian addressed himself in a discourse to Demetrian the Proconsul of Afric in behalf of the Christians and their Religion and published his Tract De Idolorum vanitate which is nothing but an Epitome of Minucius his Dialogue Towards the close of that Age under Dioclesian Arnobius taught Rhetoric with great applause at Sicca in Afric and being convinc'd of the truth of Christianity could hardly make the Christians at first believe that he was real In evidence therefore of his sincerity he wrote seven Books against the Gentiles wherein he smartly and rationally pleads the Christian cause as not long after his Scholar Lactantius who under Dioclesian professed Rhetoric at Nicomedia set himself to the composing several discourses in defence of the Christian and subversion of the Gentile Religion A man witty and eloquent but more happy in attacquing his Adversaries then in establishing the Principles of his own Religion many whereof he seems not very distinctly to have understood To all these I may add Apollonius a man versed in all kind of learning and Philosophy and if St. Hierom say right a Senator of Rome who in a set Oration with so brave and generous a confidence eloquently pleaded his own and the cause of Christianity before the Senate it self for which he suffered as a Martyr in the Reign of Commodus XIV AND as they thus defended Christianity on the one hand from the open assaults and calumnies of the Gentiles so were they no less careful on the other to clear it from the errors and Heresies wherewith men of perverse and evil minds sought to corrupt and poyson it And the chief of those that ingaged in this way were these Agrippa Castor a man of great learning in the time of Adrian wrote an accurate Refutation of Basilides and his Principles in xxiv Books Theophilus of Antioch against Hermogenes and Marcion Apollinaris Philip Bishop of Gortyna in Crete Musanus Modestus Rhodon Tatian's Scholar Miltiades Apollonius Serapion Bishop of Antioch and hundreds more who engag'd against the
he had bitterly quarrelled with Theophilus This notwithstanding he is not affrighted from undertaking him but treats him with all the freedom and ingenuity that became a Friend and a Philosopher tells e Ib. l. 1. p. 70. him that the cause was in himself why he did not discern and embrace the truth that his wickedness and impieties had depraved his mind and darkned his understanding and that men were not to blame the Sun for want of light when themselves were blind and wanted eyes to see it that the rust and soil must be wiped off from the Glass before 't would make a true and clear representation of the object and that God would not discover himself but to purged and prepared minds and such who by innocency and a divine life were become fit and disposed to receive and entertain him Then he explains to him the nature of God and gives him an account of the Origin of the World according to the Christian doctrin disproves and derides the ridiculous deities of the Heathens and particularly answers those black imputations usually laid upon the Christians and because Autolycus had mainly urged the lateness and novelty of the Christian Faith he shews shews at large how much superiour it was in many parts of it in point of Seniority and that by many Ages to any thing which the Heathen Religion could pretend to pressing him at every turn to comply with so excellent a Religion and assuring him the * Lib. 3. p. 127. People whom he invited him to were so far from being such as he represented them that they lived under the Conduct of Modesty and Sobriety Temperance and Chastity banished Injustice and rooted up all Vice and Wickedness loved Righteousness lived under Law and Rule exercised a Divine Religion acknowledged God served the Truth were under the preservation of Grace and Peace directed by a sacred Word taught by Wisdom rewarded by a life immortal and governed by God himself What the issue of his Discourses was we cannot tell but may probably hope they had a desired success especially since we find ⸫ Lib. 2. p. 80. Autolycus after the first conference a little more favourable to the cause abating of his conceived displeasure against Theophilus and desiring of him a further account of his Religion And certainly if Wisdom and Eloquence if strength of Reason and a prudent managing the Controversie were able to do it he could not well fail of reclaiming the man from his Errour and Idolatry V. NOR was he more sollicitous to gain others to the Faith then he was to keep those who already had embraced it from being infected and depraved with Errour For which cause he continually stood upon his guard faithfully gave warning of the approach of Heresie and vigorously set himself against it For notwithstanding the care and vigilance of the good and pious men of those days as a H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 24. p. 146. Eusebius observes envious men crept in and sowed Tares among the sincere Apostolic Doctrine so that the Pastors of the Church were forced to rise up in every place and to set themselves to drive away these wild Beasts from Christs Sheep-fold partly by exhorting and warning the Brethren partly by entering the lists with the Heretics themselves some personally disputing with and confuting them others accurately convincing and refuting their Opinions by the Books which they wrote against them Among whom he tells us was our Theophilus who conflicted with these Heretics and particularly wrote against Marcion who asserted two Deities and that the Soul onely as being the divine and better part and not the Body was capable of the happiness of the other World and this too granted to none but his Followers with many such impious and fond Opinions Another Book he wrote against Hermogenes one better skilled in Painting then drawing Schemes of new Divinity he forsook the Church and fled to the Stoies and being tinctured with their Principles maintained matter to be eternal out of which God created all things and that all evils proceeded out of Matter asserting moreover as Clemens of Alexandria b In excerpt Graec. Theod. ap Cl. Alex. p. 808. D. informs us that our Lords Body was lodged in the Sun ridiculously interpreting that place in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun Nor did our Theophilus neglect the weak and younger part of the charge he had not onely Physic for the Sick and strong meat for them of full age but milk for Babes and such as were yet unskilful in the word of righteousness composing many Catechetic Discourses that contained the first rudiments of the Faith VI. HE sate thirteen years c Niceph. C. P. Chronograph ap Scalig. p. 311. in his Bishoprick XXI says the Patriarch of Alexandria d Eutych Annal p. 359. and died about the second or third year of the Emperour Commodus for that he out-lived M. Antoninus is evident from his mentioning a Ad Autol. l. 3. p. 138. his death and the time of his reign in his Discourses with Autolycus after which he composed those Discourses but what kind of death it was whether natural or violent is to me unknown From the calmness and tranquillity of Commodus his reign as to any Persecution against the Christians we may probably guess it to have been a peaceable and quiet death Books he wrote many whereof b Hieron 〈◊〉 de Script in Theoph. S. Hierom gives this Character that they were elegant Tracts and greatly conducive to the edification of the Church And further adds that he had met with Commentaries upon the Gospel and the Proverbs of Solomon bearing his name but which seemed not to answer his other Writings in the elegancy and politeness of the stile His Writings Extant Ad Autolycum Libri III. Not Extant Contra Haeresin Hermogenis Adversus Marcionem Libri aliquot Catechetici Doubtful Commentarii in Evangelium Commentarii in Proverbia Solomonis The End of S. THEOPHILUS 's Life THE LIFE OF S. MELITO BISHOP of SARDIS M. Burg. sculp S. MELITO His Countrey and Birth-place His excellent Parts and Learning His being made Bishop of Sardis His coelibacy His Prophetic gifts The Persecution under Marcus Aurelius Melito his Apology for the Christians A fragment of it cited out of Eusebius The great advantages of Christianity to the Empire His endeavour to compose the Paschal Controversie His Book concerning that Subject His journey to Jerusalem to search what Books of the Old Testament were received by that Church The Copy of his Letter to his Brother Onesimus concerning the Canon of the Old Testament What Books admitted by the ancient Church Solomons Proverbs stiled by the Ancients the Book of Wisdom His death and burial The great variety of his works Vnjustly suspected of dangerous notions An account given of the titles of two of his Books most liable to suspicion His Writings enumerated I. S MELITO was born in Asia and probably at Sardis
industry After which he returned to Alexandria and the discharge of his Office where how long he continued or by what death he died Antiquity is silent Certain it is that for some considerable time he out-lived Pantaenus who died in the time of Caracalla and when he wrote his Stromata he tells us that he did it that he might lay up things in store against old Age a plain intimation that he was then pretty far from it I add no more but what Alexander of Hierusalem a Ap. Euseb l. 6. c. 14. p. 216. says in a Letter to Origen where having told him that their friendship which had commenced under their Predecessors should continue sacred and inviolable yea grow more firm and fervent he adds For we acknowledge for our Fathers those blessed Saints who are gone before us and to whom we shall go after a little time Pantaenus I mean the truly happy and my Master and the holy Clemens my Master and one that was greatly useful and helpful to me VI. TO commend this excellent man after the great things spoken of him by the Ancients were to hold a Candle to the Sun Let us hear the character which some of them give of him The holy and the blessed Clemens a man very virtuous and approved as we have seen Alexander Bishop of Jerusalem who knew him best testifying of him Indeed his zeal and piety modesty and humility could not but endear him unto all For his learning he was in b Epist ad Magn. Orat. p. 327. S. Hieroms judgment the most learned of all the Ancients A man admirably learned and skilful and that searched to the very bottom of all the learning of the Greeks with that exactness that perhaps few before him ever attained to says c Contr. Julian l. 7. p. 221. Tom. 6. vid. l. 6. p 205 S. Cyril of Alexandria An holy man says d Haeret. Fabul l. 1. c. 6. p. 197. Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and one that for his vast and diffusive learning incomparably surpassed all other men Nor was he less accurate in matters of Theology then humane learning an incomparable Master in the Christian Philosophy as Eusebius stiles him Witness his many Books crowded as e H. Eccl. l 6. c. 13. p. 215. Eusebius tells us with variety and plenty of useful knowledge derived as f De Script in Clem. ad Magn. Or. loc cit S. Hierom adds both from the holy Scriptures and secular learning wherein there is nothing unlearned nothing that it is not fetched out of the very center and bowels of Philosophy The titles of them those two Authors have preserved the far greatest part of the Books themselves having perished among which the most memorable was the Hypotyposes or Books of Institution so often cited by Eusebius which contained short and strict explications of many passages of holy Scriptures wherein a Cod. CIX col 285. Photius tells us there were many wild and impious opinions as That Matter was eternal and that Idaeas were introduced by certain Decrees that there is a transmigration of Souls and were many Worlds before Adam that the Son is among the number of created Beings and that the Word was not really made flesh but onely appeared so and many more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 monstrous blasphemies But withall insinuates that probably these things were inserted by another hand as b Apol. pro Orig. inter Oper. Hier. Tom. 4. p. 195. Rufinus expresly assures us that Heretics had corrupted Clemens his Writings Certainly had these Books been infected with these prophane and poysonous dogmata in Eusebius his time we can hardly think but that he would have given us at least some obscure intimations of it And considerable it is what Photius observes that these things are not countenanced by his other Books nay many of them plainly contradicted by them VII THE Books yet extant besides the little Tract entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lately published are chiefly three which seem to have been written in a very wise and excellent order the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Exhortation to the Gentiles the Paedagogus or Christian Instructor and the Stromata or Various Discourses in the first he very rationally refutes the follies and impieties of the Gentile Religion and strongly persuades men to embrace Christianity in the second he tutors and instructs new Converts and by the most admirable rules and pathetical insinuations prepares and forms them to an holy and truly Christian life in the third he administers strong meat to them that are of a more full age a clearer explication of the Christian Doctrine and a more particular confutation both of Gentile and Heretical opinions admitting the Disciple after his first purgation and initiation into a more immediate acquaintance with the sacred Mysteries of Religion His Stromata c Vid. Euseb l. 6. c. 13. p. 214. are nothing but Miscellaneous Discourses composed out of the holy Writings and the Books of the Gentiles explaining and as occasion is confuting the opinions of the Greeks and Barbarians the Sentiments of Philosophers the notions of Heretics inserting variety of Stories and Treasures out of all sorts of Learning which as himself tells us d Strom. l. 1. p. 278. l. 4. p. 476. he therefore stiled Stromata that is a variegated contexture of Discourses and which e Lib. 7. p. 766. he compares not to a curious Garden wherein the Trees and Plants are disposed according to the exactest rules of Method and Order but to a thick shady Mountain whereon trees of all sorts the Cypress and the Plantane the Laurel and the Ivy the Apple the Olive and the Figtree promiscuously grow together In the two former of his Books as f Loc. supr cit col 288. Photius observes his stile is florid but set off with a well proportioned gravity and a becoming variety of Learning In the latter he neither designed the ornaments of Eloquence nor would the nature of his design well admit it as he truly g Ubi supr p. 767. apologizes for himself his main care h Ib. l. 1. p. 293. was so to express things that he might be understood and further eloquence then this he neither studied nor desired If in these Books of his there be what i Ubi supr Photius affirms some few things here and there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not soundly or warily expressed yet not as he adds like those of the Hypotyposes but capable of a candid and benign interpretation not considerably prejudicial either to the doctrine and practice of Religion and such as are generally to be met with in the Writers of those early Ages And it is no wonder if the good and pious men of those times who were continually engaged in fierce disputes with Heathens on the one side and Jews and Heretics on the other did not always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divide the truth aright in some nicer lines
principal person I doubt not was Plautianus a man in great favour with the Emperour whose daughter was married to Antoninus the Emperours eldest Son and whom Severus at his going into the East had made Praefect of Rome of him we read b Dio. Cass H. Rom. l. 75. Xiphil in Vit. Sever. p 328. that in the Emperours absence he put to death an infinite number both of the Nobility and Common People Among whom we cannot question but the Christians had theirs and it 's like the far greatest share And so notorious was the cruelty that c Spartian in vit Sever. c. 15. p. 350. Severus at his return was forced to apologize for himself that he had no hand in it And indeed Severus in the first part of his reign was as Tertullian informs d Ad Scapul c. 4. p. 71. us very benign and favourable to the Christians for having been cured of a dangerous distemper by one Proculus a Christian who anointed him with oyl he kept him at Court with him ever after Nor did his kindness terminate here for when he knew that several both men and Women of the Senatorian Order were Christians he was so far from persecuting them upon that account that he gave them an honourable testimony and restrained the people when they were raging against the Christians This I suppose to have been done at his return from the Parthian Expedition when he found both Governours and People engaged in so hot and severe a Persecution of the Christians IV. THE barbarous and cruel usage which the Christians generally met with engaged Tertullian to vindicate and plead their cause both against the malice and cruelty of their enemies For which purpose he published and sent abroad his Apology dedicating it to the Magistrates of the Roman Empire and especially the Senate at Rome for that he went to Rome himself and personally presented it to the Senate I confess I see no convincing evidence wherein with incomparable learning and eloquence with all possible evidence and strength of reason he pleads their Cause complains of the iniquity and injustice of their enemies and the methods of their proceedings particularly demonstrates the vanity and falshood of those crimes that were commonly charged upon the Christians arguing their meekness and innocency their temperance and sobriety their piety to God and obedience to their Prince the reasonableness of their principles and the holiness of their lives beyond all just exception An Apology which undoubtedly contributed towards the cooling and qualifying of the present Calentures especially at Severus his return And indeed it appears not by the whole series of that Discourse that the Emperour had given any particular countenance to those severities nay on the contrary he expresly stiles * Apol. c. 4. p. 5. him the most constant Prince Not long after this Tertullian found work nearer home Scapula the President and Proconsul of Afric the same probably with Scapula Tertyllus a Provincial President to whom there is a Rescript of Marcus and Commodus a L. 14. ff de Offic. Praesid lib. 1. Tit. 18. treating the Christians much at the same rate that Plautianus had done at Rome To him therefore he addresses himself in a neat and pathetical Discourse representing the honesty and simplicity of Christians and their hearty prayers and endeavours for the prosperity of the Empire and those particular instances of severity which the Divine Providence had lately inflicted upon it which could not be reasonably supposed to have been sent upon any other errand so much as to revenge the innocent bloud that had been shed laying before him the clemency and indulgence of former Princes and Presidents yea and of the present Emperour himself so great a friend to Christians A plain evidence that this Book was written at this time before Severus broke out into open violence against them V. THE Christians now enjoyed a little respite but alas it was but like the intermitting fits of a Fever which being over the paroxysm returns with a fiercer violence Ann. Chr. CCII. Severi X. b Euseb Chron. ad eundem An. the Persecution revived and was now carried on by the command of the Emperour For Severus in his journey through Palestin forbad c Ael Spartian in vit Sever. c. 17. p. 352. any under the heaviest penalties to become Jews and the same Orders he issued out concerning Christians The general pretence it 's like was the prohibiting the Heteriae or unlawful Societies which we have elsewhere described for such a Rescript d L. 1. ff de Offic Praefect urb § 14. Tit. 12. lib. 1. Vlpian mentions whereby Severus forbad the illegal Colledges commanding the persons frequenting them to be accused before the Praefect of the City in which number they usually beheld the Christians though I doubt not but there were as Spartianus plainly affirms particular Edicts issued out against them The People who could hardly be held in before having now the reins thrown upon their necks and spurred on by the Imperial Orders ran apace upon the execution so that the Churches in all places e Euseb H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 1. p. 201. were filled with Martyrdoms and the bloud of the Saints and it grew so hot that f Ibid. c. 6. p. ◠8 Jude a Writer of those Times drawing down his Chronology of Daniels LXX Weeks to this Year broke off his computation supposing that the so much celebrated coming of Antichrist was now at hand So exceedingly says the Historian were the minds of many shaken and disturbed with the present Persecution Tertullian that he might speak a word in season took hold of the present opportunity and wrote to the Martyrs in prison to comfort them under their sufferings and exhort them to constancy and final perseverance as also for the same reason and about the same time he published his Discourse concerning Patience wherein he very elegantly describes the advantages and commendations of that Vertue and especially urges it from the example of God our blessed Saviour and speaks therein more favourably then he did afterwards of retiring in a time of Persecution Nor was he less watchful to defend and preserve the Church from Errour and Heresie writing his Praescription against Heretics for that it was written about this time is evident from several passages especially where he mentions the time of Persecution the place of the Tribunal the person of the Judge the bringing forth of Lions and the like wherein he enumerates and insists upon the several Heresies which had infested the Church till that time censuring and confuting their absurd opinions and promising * De Praescrip◠Haeret. c. 45. p. 219. a more distinct and particular confutation of them afterwards Which accordingly he performed in his Discourses against the Jews against Hermogenes the Valentinians Marcion Praxeas and some others of their Proselytes and Disciples and some of the Montanists themselves writing a particular Tract concerning
haughty and its face full of ancient wrinkles of which a Lib. 5. cap. 1. p. 459. Lactantius long since gave this censure that though he himself was skilled in all points of Learning yet his stile was rugged and uneasie and very obscure as indeed it requires a very attentive and diligent a sharp and sagacious understanding yet is it lofty and masculine and carries a kind of majestic eloquence along with it that gives a pleasant relish to the judicious and inquisitive Reader It is deeply tinctured with the African dialect and owes not a little of its perplexedness and obscurity to his conversing so much in the Writings of the Greeks whose forms and idioms he had so made his own that they naturally flowed into his pen and how great a Master he was of that Tongue is plain in that himself b De Baptism c. 15. p. 230. de Coron c. 6. p. 104 tells us he wrote a Book concerning Baptism and some others in Greek which could not but exceedingly vitiate and infect his native stile and render it less smooth elegant and delightful as we see in Ammianus Marcellinus who being a Greek born wrote his Roman History in Latin in a stile rough and unpleasant and next door to barbarous Besides what was in it self obscure and uneven became infinitely worse by the ignorance of succeeeding Ages who changed what they did not understand and crowded in spurious words in the room of those which were proper and natural till they had made it look like quite another thing then what it was when it first came from under the hand of its Author XIV HIS errours and unsound opinions are frequently noted by S. Augustin and the Ancients not to mention later Censors and Pamelius has reduced his Paradoxes to thirty one which together with their Explications and Antidotes he has prefixed before the Editions of his Works That of Montanus his being the Paraclete we noted before and for other things relating to that Sect they are rather matters concerning Order and Discipline then Articles and Points of Faith It cannot be denied but that he has some unwarrantable notions common with other Writers of those Times and some more peculiar to himself But he lived in an Age when the Faith was yet green and tender when the Church had not publicly and solemnly defined things by explicit Articles and nice Propositions when the Philosophy of the Schools was mainly predominant and men ran immediately from the Stoa and the Academy to the Church when a greater latitude of opining was indulged and good men were infinitely more solicitous about piety and a good life then about modes of Speech and how to express every thing so critically and exactly that it should not be liable to a severe scrutiny and examination His Writings Genuine Apologeticus Ad Nationes Libri II. De Testimonio Animae Ad Scapulam De Spectaculis De Idololatria De Corona De Pallio De Poenitentia De Oratione Ad Martyras De Patientia De cultu foeminarum Lib. II. Ad Vxorem Lib. II. De Virginibus Velandis Adversus Judaeos De Praescriptione Haereticorum De Baptismo Adversus Hermogenem Adversus Valentinianos De Anima De Carne Christi De Resurrectione Carnis Adversus Marcionem Lib. V. Scorpiace Adversus Praxeam Libri post Lapsum in Montanismum scripti De Exhortatione Castitatis De Monogamia De fuga in Persecutione De Jejuniis De Pudicitia Supposititious Poemata Adversus Marcionem Lib. V. De judicio Domini Genesis Sodoma Not extant De Paradiso De Spe Fidelium De Ecstasi Adversus Apollonium Adversus Apellecianos De Vestibus Aaron De Censu Animae Graece De Corona De Virginibus Velandis De Baptismo The End of TERTULLIAN 's Life THE LIFE OF ORIGEN Presbyter Catechist of ALEXANDRIA Michael Burghers sculpsit ORIGEN Origen where and when born Several conjectures about the original of his name His Father who His juvenile education and great towardliness in the knowledge of the Scriptures His Philosophical Studies under Clemens Alexandrinus His Institution under Ammonius Ammonius who His fame and excellency confessed by the Gentile Philosophers Another Origen his contemporary These two heedlesly confounded His Fathers martyrdom and the confiscation of his Estate Origen 's resolute encouragement of his Father His own passionate desire of Martyrdom His maintenance by an honourable Matron of Alexandria His zeal against Heretics His setting up a private School His succeding Clemens in the Catechetic Shool at eighteen years of Age. The frequency of his Auditors Many of them Martyrs for the Faith Origen 's resolution in attending upon the Martyrs His danger His couragious act at the Temple of Serapis His emasculating himself and the reasons of it The eminent chastity of those Primitive times Origen 's journey to Rome and return to Alexandria His taking in a Colleague into the Catechetic Office His learning the Hebrew Tongue The prudent method of his Teaching Ambrosius converted Who he was His great intâ—maâ—y with Origen Origen sent for by the Governour of Arabia His journey into Palestin and teaching at Caesarea Remanded by the Bishop of Alexandria Alexander Severus his excellent Vertues and kindness for the Christian Religion Origen sent for by the Empress Mammaea to Antioch He begins to write his Commentaries How many Notaries and Transcribers imployed and by whom maintained Notaries their Original and Office Their use and institution in the Primitive Church His journey into Greece His passage through Palestin and being ordained Presbyter at Caesarea Demetrius of Alexandria his envy and rage against him Origen condemned in two Synods at Alexandria and one at Rome The resignation of his Catechetic School to Heraclas Heraclas who The story of his offering sacrifice The credit of this story questioned and why His departure from Alexandria and fixing at Caesarea The eminency of his School there Gregorius Thaumaturgus his Scholar His friendship with Firmilian Firmilian who The Persecution under Maximinus Origen 's Book written to the Martyrs His retirement whither His comparing the Versions of the Bible His Tetrapla Hexapla and Octapla what and how managed A Speâ—imen given of them His second journey to Athens His going to Nicomedia and letter to Africanus about the History of Susanna His confutation of Beryllus in Arabia His answer to Celsus Celsus who Origens Letters to Philip the Emperour The vanity of making him a Christian Origen 's journey into Arabia to refute Heresies The Helcesaitae who What their Principles Alexander 's miraculous election to the See of Jerusalem his Coadjutor-ship Government Sufferings and Martyrdom Origen 's grievous sufferings at Tyre under the Decian Persecution His deliverance out of Prison Age and Death His Character His strict life His mighty zeal abstinence contempt of the World indefatigable diligence and patience noted His natural parts incomparable learning His Books and their several Classes His stile what His unsound opinions The great Out-cry against him in all Ages
full and solid answer in eight Books wherein as he had the better cause so he managed it with that strength of Reason clearness of Argument and convictive evidence of truth that were there nothing else to testifie the abilities of this great man this Book alone were enough to do it It was written probably about the beginning of the reign of Philip the Emperour with whom Origen seems to have had some acquaintance who a Id. ibid. p. 233 wrote one Letter to him and another to the Empress From whence and some other little probabilities Eusebius first and after him the generality of Ecclesiastic Writers have made that Emperour to have been a Christian and the first of the Imperial line that was so The vanity of which mistake and the original from whence it sprung we have shewed elsewhere Nor is the matter mended by those who say that Philip was privately baptized by Fabian Bishop of Rome and so his Christian Profession was known onely to the Christians but concealed from the Gentiles which being but a conjecture and a gratis dictum without any authority to confirm it may with the same ease and as much justice be rejected as it is obtruded and imposed upon us Nor has the late learned publisher b Rod. Wetsteinius Praefat. in Orig. Dial. contr Marc. c. Ã se Edit Basil 1674. 4 of some Tracts of Origen who in order to the securing the Dialogue against the Marcionites to belong to Origen has newly enforced this argument said any thing that may persuade a wise man to believe a Story so improbable in all its circumstances and which must have made a louder noise in the World and have had more and better witnesses to attest it then an obscure and uncertain report the onely authority which Eusebius who gave the first hint of it pretends in this matter XXI THE good success which Origen lately had in Arabia in the cause of Beryllus made him famous in all those parts and his help was now again c Ibid. c. 37. desired upon a like occasion For a sort of Hereties were start up who affirmed that at death both body and soul did expire together and were resolved into the same state of corruption and that at the resurrection they should revive and rise together to eternal life For this purpose a general Synod of those parts was called and Origen desired to be present at it who managed the cause with such weighty Arguments such unanswerable and clear convictions that the adverse party threw down their weapons and relinquished the sentiments which they maintained before Another heretical crew appeared at this time in the East the impious and abominable Sect of the Helcesaitae against whom also Origen seems to have been engaged concerning whom himself d Homil. in Psal 82. ap Euseb ibid. c. 38. p. 233. gives us this account They rejected a great part both of the Old and New Canon making use onely of some few parts of Scripture and such without question as they could make look most favourably upon their cause S. Paul they wholly rejected and held that it was lawful and indifferent to deny the faith and that he was the wise man that in his words would renounce Christianity in a time of danger and Persecution but maintain the truth in his heart They carried a Book about with them which they affirmed to have been immediately dropt down from Heaven which whoever received and gave credit to should receive remission of sins though different from that pardon which our Lord Jesus bestowed upon his followers But how far Origen was concerned against this absurd and sensless generation is to me unknown The best on 't is this Sect like a blazing Comet though its influence was malignant and pestilential suddenly arose and as suddenly disappeared XXII PHILIP the Emperour being slain by the Souldiers Decius made a shift by the help of the Army to step into the Throne a mortal enemy to the a Ibid. â— 3â— p. 234. Church in whose short reign more Martyrs especially men of note and eminency came to the Stake then in those who governed that Empire ten times his reign In Palaestin Alexander the aged and venerable Bishop of Jerusalem was thrown into prison where after long and hard usage and an illustrious confession of the Christian Faith before the public Tribunal he died This Alexander whom we have often mentioned had been first Bishop in Cappadocia b Ibid. c. 11. p. 212. where out of a religious curiosity he had resolved upon a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to visit the holy and venerable Antiquities of that place whereto he was particularly excited by a divine revelation intimating to him that it was the will of God that he should be assistant to the Bishop of that place It happened at this time that Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem being some years since returned to his See which he had deserted many years before was become incapable through his great age and infirmity being CXVI years old duly to manage his charge Alexander approaching near Jerusalem they were warned by a Vision and a Voice from Heaven to go out of the City and there receive him whom Heaven had designed to be their Bishop They did so and finding Alexander entertained and introduced him with all possible kindness and respect where by the importunity of the People and the consent of all the neighbour-Bishops he was constrained to become Colleague with Narcissus in the government of that Church This I suppose is the first express instance that we meet with in Church-antiquity of two Bishops sitting at once and that by consent in one See But the case was warranted by an extraordinary authority besides that Narcissus seems rather to have resigned and quitted the place retaining nothing but the title nor intermedling any further then by joining in prayers and devotions for the good of the Church surviving not above three or four years at most Alexander succeeding in the sole Presidency governed his Church with singular prudence and fidelity and among other memorable acts erected a Library at Jerusalem c Ibid. c. 20. p. 222. which he especially stored with Ecclesiastical Epistles and Records from whence Eusebius confesses he furnished himself with many considerable Memoirs and materials for the composing of his History He sate Bishop XXXIX years and after several arraignments and various imprisonments and sufferings died now in prison at Caesarea to the unconceivable loss and resentment of the whole Church and especially of Origen who had been ordained by him and whom he had ever found a fast Friend and Patron Nor did Origen himself who was at this time at Tyre escape without his share Eusebius does but briefly intimate his sufferings having given a larger account of them in another Book long since lost he tells d Ubi supr p. 234. us that the Devil mustered up all his Forces against him and assaulted him with all
pleas represented with all the advantages with which Wit Reason and Eloquence could set them off XXVII NOR wanted there of old those who stood up to plead and defend his cause especially Pamphilus the Martyr and Eusebius who published an Apology in six Books in his behalf the first five whereof were written by Pamphilus with Eusebius his assistance while they were in prison the last finished and added by Eusebius after the others Martyrdom Besides which a Cod. CXVIII col 297. Photius tells us there were many other famous men in those times who wrote Apologies for him he gives us a particular account b Cod. CXVII col 293. of one though without a name where in five Books the Author endeavours to justifie Origen as sound and Orthodox and cites Dionysius Demetrius and Clemens all of Alexandria and several others to give in evidence for him The main of these Apologies are perished long ago otherwise probably Origen's cause might appear with a better face seeing we have now nothing but his notions dressed up and glossed by his professed enemies and many things ascribed to him which he never owned but were coined by his pretended followers For my own part I shall onely note from the Ancients some general remarques which may be pleaded in abatement of the rigour and severity of the sentence usually passed upon him And first many things were said and written by him not positively and dogmatically but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the c Ibid. col 296. Author of his Apology in Photius by way of exercitation and this he himself was wont to plead at every turn and to beg the Readers pardon and profess that he propounded these things not as Doctrins but as disputable Problems and with a design to search and find out the truth as a Apolog. ap Hieron Tom. 4. p. 172. Pamphilus assures us and S. Hierom himself b Ad Avit p. 151. Tom. 2. cannot but confess and if we had the testimony of neither there is enough to this purpose in his Books still extant to put it beyond all just exception Thus discoursing concerning the union of the two natures in the person of our blessed Saviour he affirms c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. c. 6. p. 698. it to be a mystery which no created understanding can sufficiently explain concerning which says he not from any rashness of ours but onely as the order of Discourse requires we shall briefly speak rather what our Faith contains then what humane Reason is wont to assert producing rather our own conjectures then any plain and peremptory affirmations And to the same purpose he expresses himself at every turn Not to say that he wrote many things in the heat of disputation which it may be his cooler and more considering thoughts would have set right So the Apologist in Photius d Cod. CXVII col 296. pleads that whatever he said amiss in the doctrin of the Trinity proceeded meerly from a vehement opposition of Sabellius who confounded the number and difference of persons and whose Sect was one of the most prevailing Heresies of that time The confutation whereof made him attempt a greater difference and distinction in the persons then the rules of Faith did strictly allow Secondly those Books of his e Pamph. Apol. ubi supr p. 174 177. wherein he betrays the most unsound and unwarrantable notions were written privately and with no intention of being made public but as secrets communicable among friends and not as doctrines to disturb the Church And this he freely acknowledged in his Letter to Fabian f Ap. Hieron in Epist ad Pammach de err Orig. p. 193. 〈◊〉 Bishop of Rome and cast the blame upon his friend Ambrosius quod secretò edita in publicum protulerit that he had published those things which he meant should go no further then the brests or hands of his dearest friends And there is always allowed a greater freedom and latitude in debating things among friends the secrets whereof ought not to be divulged nor the Public made Judges of that innocent liberty which is taken within mens private walls Thirdly the disallowed opinions that he maintains are many of them such as were not the Catholic and determined Doctrins of the Church not defined by Synods nor disputed by Divines but either Philosophical or Speculations which had not been thought on before and which he himself at every turn cautiously distinguishes from those propositions which were entertained by the common and current consent and approbation of the Christian Church Sure I am he lays it down as a fundamental maxim in the very entrance upon that g Praef. ad lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 665. Book wherein his most dangerous assertions are contained that those Ecclesiastic Doctrins are to be preserved which had been successively delivered from the Apostles and were then received and that nothing was to be embraced for truth that any ways differed from the tradition of the Church XXVIII FOURTHLY Divers of Origen's works have been corrupted and interpolated by evil hands and Heretics to add a lustre and authority to their opinions by the veneration of so great a name have inserted their own assertions or altered his and made him speak their language An argument which however laughed at by S. Hierom a Ad â—ammath ubi supr is yet stifly maintained by Rufinus b Apol. pro Orig. apud Hier. Tom. 4. p. 194 195. c. Praef. ad lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. Tom. 2. p. 188. who shews this to have been an old and common art of Heretics and that they dealt thus with the writings of Clemens Romanus of Clemens and Dionysius of Alexandria of Athanasius Hilary Cyprian and many more Dionysius c Ap. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 23. p. 145. the famous Bishop of Corinth who lived many years before Origen assures us he was served at this rate that at the request of the brethren he had written several Epistles but that the Apostles and Emissaries of the Devil had filled them with weeds and tares expunging some things and adding others The Apologist in Photius d Ubi supr tells us Origen himself complained of this in his life time and so indeed he does in his e Ap. Ruffin iâ— Tom. 4. p. 195. Letter to them of Alexandria where he smartly resents that charge of blasphemy had been ascribed to him and his doctrine of which he was never guilty and that it was less wonder if his doctrine was adulterated when the great S. Paul could not escape their hands he tells them of an eminent Heretic that having taken a Copy of a dispute which he had had with him did afterwards cut off and add what he pleas'd and change it into another thing carrying it about with him and glorying in it And when some friends in Palestin sent it to him then at Athens he returned them a true
and authentic Copy of it And the same foul play he lets them know he had met with in other places as at Ephesus and at Antioch as he there particularly relates And if they durst do this while he was yet alive and able as he did to right himself what may we think they would do after his death when there were none to controul them And upon this account most of those assertions must especially be discharged wherein Origen is made to contradict himself it being highly improbable as Rufinus f Loc. cit p. 194. well urges that so prudent and learned a person one far enough from being either fool or mad man should write things so contrary and repugnant to one another And that not only in divers but in one and the same Book XXIX I might further observe his constant zeal against Heretics his opposing and refuting of them wherever he came both by word and writing his being sent for into foreign Countries to convince gainsayers his professing to abominate all heretical doctrines and his refusing so much as to communicate in prayer with Paul the Heretic of Antioch though his whole maintenance did depend upon it And methinks it deserves to be considered that Athanasius in all the heat of the Arrian controversies then whom certainly none was ever more diligent to search out heretical persons and opinions or more accurate in examining and refuting the chief of those doctrines that are laid at Origen's door should never charge him upon that account Nay he particularly quotes him g Decret Synod Nic. contr Haeres Arrian p. 277. T. 1. vid. de Blasph in S. S. p. 971. Socr. H E. l. 6. c. 13. p. 320. to to prove our Lords coeternity and coessentiality with the Father exactly according to the decisions of the Nicene Synod dismissing him with the honourable character of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most admirable and infinitely industrious person Nor is there any heterodox opinion of his that I know of once taken notice of in all his works but only that concerning the duration of future torments and that too but h De Com. essent Patr. F. S◠p. 236. T. 1. obliquely mentioned Whence I am apt to conclude either that Origen's writings were not then so notoriously guilty or that this great man and zealous defender of the Churches doctrin who being Bishop of Alexandria could not be ignorant of what Origen had taught or written nay assures us he had read his Books did not look upon those dangerous things that were in them as his sense And indeed so he says expresly that what things he wrote by way of controversie and disputation are not to be looked upon as his own words and sentiments but as those of his contentious adversaries whom he had to deal with which accordingly in the passages he cites he carefully distinguishes from Origen's own words and sense To all which I may add that when the controversie about the condemnation of his Books was driven a Socrat. H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 12. p. 319. on most furiously by Theophilus and Epiphanius Theotimus the good Scythian Bishop plainly told Epiphanius that for his part he would never so much dishonour a person so venerable for his piety and antiquity nor durst he condemn what their Ancestors never rejected especially when there were no ill and mischievous Doctrins in Origen's Works therewithall pulling out a Book of Origen's which he read before the whole Convention and shewed it to contain Expositions agreeable to the Articles of the Church With these two excellent persons let me join the judgment of a Writer of the middle Ages of the Church b Breviar H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 3. p. 108 109. Haymo Bishop of Halberstad who speaking of the things laid to Origen's charge For my part says he saving the faith of the Ancients I affirm of him either that he never wrote these things but that they were wickedly forged by Heretics and fathered upon his name or if he did write them he wrote them not as his own judgment but as the opinion of others And if as some would have it they were his own sentiments we ought rather to deal compassionately with so learned a man who has conveyed so vast a treasury of Learning to us What faults there are in his Writings those orthodox and useful things which they contain are abundantly sufficient to over-ballance XXX THIS and a great deal more is and may be pleaded in Origen's defence And yet after all it must be confessed that he was guilty of great mistakes and rash propositions which the largest charity cannot excuse He had a natural warmth and fervor of mind a comprehensive wit an insatiable thirst after knowledge and a desire to understand the most abstruse and mysterious speculations of Theology which made him give himself an unbounded liberty in inquiring into and discoursing of the nature of things he wrote much and dictated apace and was ingaged in infinite variety of business which seldom gave him leisure to review and correct his writings and to let them pass the censure of second and maturer thoughts he traded greatly in the writings of the Heathens and was infinitely solicitous to make the doctrines of Christianity look as little unlike as might be to their best and beloved notions And certainly what Marcellus a Ap. Euseb contr Marcel l. 1. p. 23. Bishop of Ancyra long since objected against him is unquestionably true notwithstanding what Eusebius has said to salve it that coming fresh out of the philosophic Schools and having been a long time accurately trained up in the principles and books of Plato he applied himself to divine things before he was sufficiently disposed to receive them and fell upon writing concerning them while secular learning had yet the predominancy in his mind and so unwarily mingled philosophic notions with Christian principles further than the analogy of the Christian faith would allow And I doubt not but whoever would paralell his and and the Platonic principles would find that most of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is charged with his master-notions were brought out of the School of Plato as the above mentioned Huetius has in many things particularly observed S. Hierom himself whom the torrent of that time made a severe enemy to Origen could but have so much tenderness for him even in that very Tract b Ad Pammach de error Orig. p. 192. Tom. 2. wherein he passes the deepest censures upon him after he had commended him for his parts zeal and strictness of life Which of us says he is able to read so much as he has written who would not admire the ardent and sprightly temper of his mind towards the holy Scriptures But if any envious Zealot shall object his errours to us let him freely hear what was said of old Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus Horat. de Art Poet. v. 359. p. 815. Verum opere
satisfactory Philosophy The great influence which the patience and fortitude of the Christians had upon his conversion The force of that argument to persuade men His vindication of himself from the charges of the Gentiles His continuance in his Philosophic habit The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what and by whom worn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His coming to Rome and opposing Heretics Marcion who and what his Principles Justin's first Apology to the Emperours and the design of it Antoninus his Letter to the Common-Council of Asia in favour of the Christians This shewed not to be the Edict of Marcus Antoninus Justin's journey into the East and conference with Trypho the Jew Trypho who The malice of the Jews against the Christians Justin's return to Rome His contests with Crescens the Philosopher Crescens his temper and principles Justin's second Apology To whom presented The occasion of it M. Antoninus his temper Justin fore-tells his own fate The Acts of his Martyrdom His arraignment before Rusticus Praefect of Rome Rusticus who the great honours done him by the Emperour Justin's discourse with the Praefect His freedom and courage His sentence and execution The time of his death His great Piety Charity Impartiality c. His natural parts and excellent learning His unskilfulness in the Hebrew Language noted A late Author censured His Writings The Epistle to Diognetus Diognetus who His stile and character The unwarrantable opinions he is charged with His indulgence to Heathens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in what sense used by the ancient Fathers How applied to Christ how to Reason His opinion concerning Chiliasm The concurrence of the Ancients with him herein This by whom first started by whom corrupted Concerning the state of the Soul after this life The doctrine of the Ancients in this matter His assertion concerning Angels maintained by most of the first Fathers The original of it Their opinion concerning Free-will shewed not to be opposed by them to the Grace of God What influence Justin's Philosophic education had upon his opinions His Writings enumerated Pag. 139. The Life of S. IRENAEUS Bishop of Lyons His Countrey enquired into His Philosophical Studies His institution by Papias Papias who His education under S. Polycarp His coming into France and being made Presbyter of Lyons Pothinus who how and by whom sent into France The grievous Persecution there under M. Aurelius The Letters of the Martyrs to the Bishop of Rome Pope Eleutherius guilty of Montanism Irenaeus sent to Rome His writing against Florinus and Blastus The martyrdom of Pothinus Bishop of Lyons and the cruelty exercised towards him Irenaeus succeeds His great diligence in his charge His oppostion of Heretics The Synods said to have been held under him to that purpose The Gnostic Heresies spread in France Their monstrous Villanies His confutation of them by word and writing Variety of Sects and Divisions objected by the Heathens against Christianity This largely answered by Clemens of Alexandria Pope Victor's reviving the controversie about Easter The contests between him and the Asiatics Several Synods to determine this matter Irenaeus his moderate interposal His Synodical Epistle to Victor The Persecution under Severus It s rage about Lyons Irenaeus his Martyrdom and place of Burial His Vertues His industrious and elaborate confutation of the Gnostics His stile and phrase Photius his censure of his Works His errour concerning Christs age Miraculous gifts and powers common in his time His Writings Pag. 161. The Life of S. THEOPHILUS Bishop of Antioch The great obscurity of his Originals His learned and ingenuous Education and natural parts An account of his conversion to Christianity and the reasons inducing him thereunto collected out of his own Writings His scrupling the Doctrine of the Resurrection The great difficulty of entertaining that Principle Synesius his case Theophilus his conquering this objection His great satisfaction in the Christian Religion His election to the Bishoprick of Antioch His desire to convert Autolycus Autolycus who His mighty prejudice against Christianity Theophilus his undertaking him and his free and impartial debating the case with him His excellent menage of the controversie His vigorous opposing the Heresies of those times His Books against Marcion and Hermogenes His death and the time of it S. Hierom's Character of his Works His Writings Pag. 173. The Life of S. MELITO Bishop of Sardis His Countrey and Birth-place His excellent Parts and Learning His being made Bishop of Sardis His coelibaâ—y His Prophetic gifts The Persecution under Marcus Aurelius Melito his Apology for the Christians A fragment of it cited out of Eusebius The great advantages of Christianity to the Empire His endeavour to compose the Paschal Controversie His Book concerning that Subject His journey to Jerusalem to search what Books of the Old Testament were received by that Church The Copy of his Letter to his Brother Onesimus concerning the Canon of the Old Testament What Books admitted by the ancient Church Solomons Proverbs stiled by the Ancients the Book of Wisdom His death and burial The great variety of his Works Vnjustly suspected of dangerous notions An account given of the titles of two of his Books most liable to suspicion His Writings enumerated Pag. 179. The Life of S. PANTAENUS Catechist of Alexandria The various conjectures concerning his Original The probabilities of his Jewish descent what Whether born in Sicily or at Alexandria His first institution The famous Platonic School erected by Ammonius at Alexandria The renown of that place for other parts of Learning Pantaenus addicted to the Sect of the Stoics The Principles of that Sect shewed to agree best with the dictates of Christianity His great emprovements in the Christian Doctrine The Catechetic School at Alexandria with its antiquity Pantaenus made Regent of it When he first entered upon this Office An Embassie from India to the Bishop of Alexandria for some to preach the Christian Faith Pantaenus sent upon this errand This Countrey where situate His arrival in India and converse with the Brachmans Their temper principles and way of life Their agreement with the Stoics Foot-steps of Christianity formerly planted there S. Matthews Hebrew Gospel found among them and brought by Pantaenus to Alexandria How far and by whom Christianity was propagated in India afterwards Pantaenus his return to Alexandria and resuming his Catechetic Office His Death His great Piety and Learning Pag. 185. The Life of S. CLEMENS of Alexandria His Countrey The progress of his Studies His instruction in the Christian doctrin His several Masters His impartial enquiry after truth The elective Sect what It s excellent genius Clemens of this Sect. His succeeding Pantaenus in the Catechetic School He is made Presbyter of Alexandria His Stromata published when Lawfulness of flying in time of Persecution His journey into the East What Tracts he wrote there His going from Jerusalem to Antioch and return to Alexandria His death The Elogia given of him by the Ancients His admirable
whom he hated for her free reproving his looseness and extravagancy and having first spoil'd her of all public honors and caused her to be openly disgraced and derided then thrice attempted her life by poison he at last sent an assassinate to stab her And the tradition then went that not content to do this he himself came and beheld her naked corps contemplating and handling its several parts commending some and dispraising others And if thus barbarous and inhumane towards his own Kindred and Subjects we cannot think he was overfavourable to Christians wanting this title says Eusebius a H. Eccles l. 2. â— 25. p. 67. to be added to all the rest to be styled the first Emperor that became an enemy to the Christian Religion publishing Laws and Edicts for the suppressing of it and prosecuting those that professed it with the utmost rigor in every place and that upon this occasion Among infinite other instances of this madness and folly he took up a resolution to burn Rome either as being offended with the narrowness of the streets and the deformity of the buildings or ambitious to become the author of a more stately and magnificent City and to call it after his own name But however it was he caused it to be set on fire about the XIX of July Ann. Christ LXIV The conquering flames quickly prevailed over that City that had so often triumphed over the rest of the world in six or seven days spoiling and reducing the far greatest part of it ten Regions of fourteen into ashes laying waste Houses and Temples and all the venerable Antiquities and Monuments of that place which had been preserved with so much care and reverence for many ages himself in the mean while from Mecaenas his Tower beholding the sad spectacle with pleasure and delight and in the habit of a Player singing the destruction of Troy And when the people would but have searched the ruines of their own houses he forbad them not suffering them to reap what the mercy of the flames had spared This Act as well it might expos'd him to all the hatred and detestation wherewith an injur'd and abused people could resent it which he endeavoured to remove by large promises and great rewards by consulting the Sibylline Books and by public supplications and sacrifices to the gods Notwithstanding all which Tacitus b Annal. l. 15. c. 44. p. 319. tells us the people still believed him to be the author of the mischief This not succeeding he sought to clear himself by deriving the odium upon the Christians whom he knew to be sufficiently hateful to the people charging them to have been the incendiaries and proceeding against them with the most exquisite torments Having apprehended some whom they either forced or persuaded to confess themselves guilty by their means great numbers of others were betrayed whom Tacitus confesses that not the burning of the City but the common hatred made criminal They were treated with all the instances of scorn and cruelty some of them were wrapt up in the skins of Wild Beasts and worried by Dogs others crucified others burnt alive being clad in paper coats dipt in pitch wax and such combustible matter that when day-light fail'd they might serve for torches in the night These spectacles Nero exhibited in his own Gardens which yet the people entertained with more pity than pleasure knowing they were done not for the public benefit but meerly to gratifie his own private rage and malice Little better usage did the Christians meet with in other parts of the Empire as appears from the inscription c Ap. Gratâ—◠〈…〉 citat found at Clunia in Spain dedicated to Nero in memory of his having cleared the Province of those that had introduced a new Superstition amongst mankind Under this Persecution suffered Tecla Torques Torquatus Marcellus and several others mentioned in the antient Martyrologies especially the Apostles Peter and Paul the one upon the Cross the other by the Sword XIX THE troublesome vicissitudes and revolutions of affairs that hapned under the succeeding Emperors Galba Otho and Vitellius and the mild and merciful disposition of Vespasian and Titus gave some rest to the Christians till Domitian succeeding began a SECOND PERSECUTION A man of a temper vastly different from that of his Father and his Brother for though at first he put on a plausible carriage yet he soon left off the vizor and appeared like himself lazy and unactive ill-natur'd and suspicious griping and covetous proud and insolent yea so vainly ambitious as to affect Divinity in all public Edicts assuming to himself and in all Petitions and Addresses requiring from others the titles of Lord and God He never truly loved any man and when he most pretended it it was a sure sign of that mans ruine His cruelty he exercis'd first upon flies thousands whereof he dispatched every day next upon men and those of all ranks and states putting to death the most illustrious Senators and persons of the greatest honour and nobility upon the most trifling pretences and many times for no cause at all In the fierceness and brutality of his temper he equall'd Nero Portio Neronis de crudelitate as Tertullian stiles him Loc. super citat nay in this exceeded him that Nero was content to command execution to be done at a distance while Domitian took pleasure in beholding his cruelties exercised before his eyes An argument of a temper deeper died in blood But the Christians alas bore the heaviest load of his rage and malice whom he every where persecuted either by death or banishment Under him S. John the Evangelist was sent for to Rome and by his command thrown into a Cauldron of boiling oil in the midst whereof when the Divine Providence had miraculously preserved him he immediately banished him into Patmos He put to death his cousin-german Fl. Clemens at that time Consul for being a Christian and banished his Wife Fl. Domitilla his own kinswoman also upon the same account into the Island Pandataria At length his brutish and bloody practices rendred him intolerable to his own friends and servants who conspir'd against him his own Wife Domitia being of the confederacy and slew him His successor Nerva abrogated his Acts and recalled those whom he had proscribed and banished among whom S. John taking the benefit of that Act of Revocation quitted Patmos and returned to Ephesus XX. THE THIRD PERSECUTION commenced under Trajan whom Nerva had adopted to be his Successor A Prince he was of excellent and incomparable virtues whose justice and impartiality gentleness and modesty munificence and liberality kindness and affability rendred him infinitely dear and acceptable to the people the extravagancies of his Predecessors not a little contributing to sweeten his Government to them He was mild and dis-passionate familiar and courteous he shewed a great reverence to the Senate by whose advice he usually acted and they to requite him gave him the title of Optimus
solemnity into the Imperial Palace Which yet could not be effected for the sturdy Mules that carried the Treasure being come as far as Constantines Baths would not advance one step further And when unreasonably whipped and pricked they spake aloud and told those that conducted them that the Martyr was to be reposed and interred in that place Which was accordingly done and a beautiful Church built there But certainly they that first added this passage to the Story had been at a great loss for invention had not the Story of Balaams Ass been upon record in Scripture I confess * Bar. ad Ann. 439. Tom. 5. p. 681. Baronius seems not over-forward to believe this relation not for the trifling and ridiculous improbabilities of it but onely because he could not well reconcile it with the time of its being first found out by Lucian Indeed my Authors tell us that this was done in the time of Constantine Metrophanes being then Bishop of Constantinople and that it was onely some part of his remains buried again by some devout Christians that was discovered in a Vision to Lucian and that the Empress Pulcheria by the help of her Brother Theodosius procured from the Bishop of Jerusalem the Martyrs right hand which being arrived at Constantinople was with singular reverence and rejoycing brought into the Palace and there laid up and a stately and magnificent Church erected for it set off with all rich and costly ornaments and advantages XXVI a Marcell Chro. Indict VII p. 24. Theodor. Lect. lib. 2. p. 568. AUTHORS mention another remove Ann. CCCCXXXIX and let the curious and inquisitive after these matters reconcile the different accounts of his remains to Constantinople by the Empress Eudocia Wife to Theodosius who having been at Jerusalem upon some pious and charitable designs carried back with her to the Imperial City the remains of S. Stephen which she carefully laid up in the Church of S. Laurence The Roman b Ad VII Maii p. 284. Martyrology says that in the time of Pope Pelagius they were removed from Constantinople to Rome and lodg'd in the Sepulchre of S. Laurence the Martyr in agro Verano where they are honoured with great piety and devotion But I find not any Author near those times mentioning their translation into any of these Western parts except the little parcel which c Vid. Avit Ep. Praef. Ep. Lucian Gennad de script Eccl. in Oros c. 39. p. 53. Marcell Chron. p. 17. Orosius brought from Jerusalem whither he had been sent by S. Augustin to know S. Hieroms sense in the Question about the Original of the Soul which he received from Avitus who had procured it of Lucian and brought it along with him into the West that is into Afric for whether it went any further I find not XXVII AS for the miracles reported to have been done by the remains of this Martyr d Deglor Martyr lib. 1. cap. 33. p. 42. c. Gregory Bishop of Tours and the Writers of the following Ages have furnished the World with abundant instances which I insist not upon Superstition having been the peculiar genius and humour of those middle Ages of the Church and the Christian World miserably over-run with an excessive and immoderate Veneration of the Reliques of departed Saints However I can venture the Readers displeasure for relating one and the rather because 't is so solemnly averred by e Annot. in Martyr Rom. ad Aug. III. p. 474. Baronius himself S. Gaudiosus an African Bishop flying from the Vandalic Persecution brought with him a Glass Vial of S. Stephens blood to Naples in Italy where it was famous especially for one miraculous effect that being set upon the Altar at the time of Mass it was annually wont upon the third of August the day whereon S. Stephens body was first discovered to melt and bubble as if it were but newly shed But the miracle of the miracle lay in this that when Pope Gregory the XIII reformed the Roman Kalendar and made no less then ten days difference from the former the bloud in the Vial ceased to bubble upon the third of August according to the old computation and bubbled upon that that fell according to the new Reformation A great justification I confess as Baronius well observes of the divine Authority of the Gregorian Kalendar and the Popes Constitutions but yet it was ill done to set the Kalendars at variance when both had been equally justified by the miracle But how easie it was to abuse the World with such tricks especially in these later Ages wherein the Artifice of the Priests was arrived to a kind of perfection in these affairs is no difficult matter to imagin XXVIII LET us then look to the more early Ages when Covetousness and Secular Interests had not so generally put men upon Arts of craft and subtlety and we are told both by Lucian and Photius Loc. anâ—e eleat that at the first discovery of the Martyrs body many strange miraculous cures were effected seventy three healed onely by smelling the odor and fragrancy of the body in some Daemons were cast out others cured of Issues of Bloud Tumours Agues Fevers and infinite other distempers that were upon them But that which most sways with me is what S. Augustin reports of these matters who seems to have been inquisitive about matters of Fact De Civ Dâ—i lib. 22. cap. 8. col 1346. c. Tom. 5. as the Argument he managed did require For being to demonstrate against the Gentiles that miracles were not altogether ceased in the Christian Church among several others he produces many instances of Cures miraculously done at the remains of S. Stephen brought thither as before we noted by Orosius from Jerusalem all done thereabouts and some of them in the place where himself lived and of which as he tells us they made Books which were solemnly published and read to the People whereof at the time of his Writing there were no less then seventy written of the Cures done at Hippo the place where he lived though it was not full two years since the memorial of S. Stephens Martyrdom had begun to be celebrated in that place besides many whereof no account had been given in writing To set down all were to tire the Readers patience beyond all recovery a few onely for a specimen shall suffice At the Aquae Tibilitanae Projectus the Bishop bringing the remains of the Martyr in a vast multitude of People a blind woman desiring to be brought to the Bishop and some Flowers which she brought being laid upon them and after applied to her eyes to the wonder of all she instantly received her sight Lucillus Bishop of Synica near Hippo carrying the same remains accompanied with all the people was suddenly freed from a desperate disease under which he had a long time laboured and for which he even then expected the Chirurgeons Knife Eucharius a Spanish Presbyter then dwelling at Calama
of his diet he had weakned his appetite and rendred his stomach unfit to serve the ends of nature Insomuch that S. Paul was forced to impose it as a kind of law upon him 1 Tim. 5.23 that he should no longer drink water but use a little wine for his stomachs sake and his often infirmities And yet in the midst of this weak tottering carcase there dwelt a vigorous and sprightly mind a soul acted by a mighty zeal and inspired with a true love to God he thought no difficulties great no dangers formidable that he might be serviceable to the purposes of Religion and the interest of souls he flew from place to place with a quicker speed and a more unwearied resolution then could have been expected from a stronger and a healthier person now to Ephesus then to Corinth oft into Macedonia then to Italy crossing Sea and Land and surmounting a thousand hazards and oppositions in all which as a Loc. citat pag. 7. Chrysostoms words are the weakness of his body did not prejudice the divine Philosophy of his mind so strangely active and powerful is Zeal for God so nimbly does it wing the soul with the swiftest flight And certainly as he adds as a great and robust body is little better for its health which has nothing but a dull and a heavy soul to inform it so bodily weakness is no great impediment where there is a quick and a generous mind to animate and enliven it X. THESE excellent Vertues infinitely endeared him to S. Paul who seems to have had a very passionate kindness for him never mentioning him without great tenderness and titles of reverence and respect sometimes styling him his son 1 Thess 3.2 his brother his fellow-labourer Timotheus our brother and Minister of God and our fellow-labourer in the Gospel of Christ sometimes with additions of a particular affection and honourable regard 2 Tim. 1.2 Timothy my dearly beloved son Timotheus who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord and to the Church at Philippi more expresly I trust to send Timotheus shortly to you Philip. 2.19 20 c. for I have no man like-minded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equally dear to me as my self who will naturally care for your state for all seek their own not the things that are Jesus Christs but ye know the proof of him that as a son with the father he hath served with me in the Gospel And because he knew that he was a young man and of a temper easily capable of harsh and unkind impressions he entered a particular caution on his behalf with the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 16.10 11. If Timotheus come see that he may be with you without fear for he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do let no man therefore despise him but conduct him forth in peace that he may come unto me Instances of a great care and tenderness and which plainly suppose Timothy to have been an extraordinary person His very calling him his dearly beloved son b Homil. 1. in 2 Tim. p. 1626. Chrysostom thinks a sufficient argument of his Vertue For such affection not being founded in Nature can flow from nothing but Vertue and Goodness the lovely and essential ornaments of a divine and a holy soul We love our children not onely because witty or handsom kind and dutiful but because they are ours and very often for no other reason nor can we do otherwise so long as we are subject to the Impressions and the Laws of Nature Whereas true Goodness and Vertue have no other Arts but their own naked worth and beauty to recommend them nor can by any other argument challenge regard and veneration from us XI SOME dispute there has been among the Writers of the Church of Rome whether our S. Timothy was the same with him to whom Dionysius the Areopagite dedicates the books said to be written by him and troops of arguments are mustered on either side But the foundation of the controversie is quite taken away with us who are sufficiently assured that those Books were written some hundreds of years after S. Denys his head was laid in the dust However it may not be improper to remarque that besides ours Bishop of Ephesus we are a Pet. de Natal Hist SS l. 1.24 Naucler Chron. vol. 2. gener 6. confer Adon. Martyr ad XII Kal. Jul. vid. Usser de primord c. 3. p. 31. told of another S. Timothy Disciple also to S. Paul the son of Pudens and Priscilla who is said to have lived unto a great Age till the times of Antoninus the Emperour and Pius Bishop of Rome and that he came over into Britain converted and baptized Lucius King of this Island the first King that ever embraced the Christian Faith Pius Bishop of Rome in a b Concil Tom. 1. col 576. Letter to Justus Bishop of Vienna which though suspected by most is yet owned by c Bar. ad Ann. 166. n. 1.2 Baronius reckons him among the Presbyters that had been educated by the Apostles and had come to Rome and tells us that he had suffered martyrdom accordingly the d Martyrol Rom. ad Mart. 24. p. 190. Roman Martyrology informs us that he obtained the Crown of Martyrdom under Antoninus the Emperour A Story which as I cannot confute so I am not over-forward to believe nor is it of moment enough to my purpose more particularly to enquire about it The End of S. TIMOTHY's Life THE LIFE OF S. TITUS BISHOP of CRETE MICHAEL BURGHERS DIELINE ET SCULP S. Titus His Country enquired into The report of his noble extract His education and conversion to Christianity His acquaintance with and accompanying S. Paul to the Synod at Jerusalem S. Pauls refusing to circumcise him and why His attending S. Paul in his travels Their arrival in Crete Titus constituted by him Bishop of that Island The testimonies of the Ancients to that purpose The intimations of it in S. Pauls Epistle to him S. Pauls censure of the People of Crete justified by the account which Gentile Writers give of their evil manners A short view of the Epistle it self The directions concerning Ecclesiastic persons His charge to exhort and convince gain-sayers Crete abounding with Heretical Teachers Jewish Fables and Genealogies what and whence derived The Aeones and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the ancient Gnostics borrowed from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Heathen Poets This shewn by particular instances Titus commanded to attend S. Paul at Nicopolis His coming to him into Macedonia His following S. Paul to Rome and departure into Dalmatia The Story of Pliny the Youngers being converted by him in Crete censured His age and death The Church erected to his memory I. THE ancient Writers of the Church make little mention of this holy man who and whence he was is not known but by uncertain probabilities a Hâ—riâ— 1. in Tit pag 1693. S. Chrysostom
in the more polite and useful Studies Though we find nothing particularly concerning his Parents yet we may safely conclude them to have been persons of a noble quality at least of a better rank than ordinary seeing none were admitted to be Areopagite Judges as a Isoer Orat. Arcopag p. 147. vii Maxim Prolog Oper. S. Dionys Pref. pag. 34. one who knew very well informs us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless they were nobly born and eminently exemplary for a vertuous and a sober life Being born in the very midst of Arts and Civility his education could not but be learned and ingenuous especially considering the advantages of his birth and fortunes Accordingly he was b Suid. in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 744. instructed in all the learned Sciences of Greece wherein he made such vast improvements that he easily out-stript any of his time scarce any Sect or Institution in Philosophy then in vogue which he had not considered and made trial of it does not indeed appear to which of them he particularly devoted and applied himself and they who suppose him to have addicted himself to the School of Plato do it I conceive for no other reason then because the Doctrin contained in the Books that bear his name seems so neer of kin to the principles of that noble Sect. II. BUT it was not an homebred Institution or all the advantages which Athens could afford that could fill the vast capacities of his mind which he therefore resolved to polish and improve by foreign Travels Being in the prime and vigour of his Youth about the age of XXV c 〈…〉 years he took with him one Apollophanes a Rhetorician his fellow-student and if d 〈…〉 p. 349. Tâ—m 1 Syncellus say true his Kinsman who was afterwards at Smyrna Master to Polemon the Laodicean as he was to Aristides the famous Philosopher and Apologist for the Christians Thus furnished with a suitable Companion he is said to have gone for Egypt to converse with their Philosophers and Wise Men that he might perfect himself in the Study of the Mathematics and the more mysterious and recondite parts of Learning Egypt had in all Ages been looked upon as the prime School not onely of Astrology but of the more abstruse and uncommon speculations of Theology and the great Masters of Wisdom and Divinity among the Gentiles never thought they had gained enough till they had crowned their Studies by conversing with the Egyptian Sages Hence it was frequented by Orpheus Homer Solon Thales by Pythagoras and Plato and whom not nay of Pythagoras a Stromat lib. 1. p. 302. Clemens of Alexandria reports that he suffered himself to be circumcised that so he might be admitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the concealed Rites and Notions of their Religion and be acquainted with their secret and mystical Philosophy The place he fixed at was Heliopolis a City between Coptus and Alexandria where the Egyptian Priests for the most resided as a place admirably advantagious for the contemplation of the Heavenly bodies and the Study of Philosophy and Astronomy and where b Geograph lib. 17. p. 806. Strabo who lived much about this time tells us he was shewed the habitations of the Priests and the apartments of Plâ—â—â— and Eudoxus who lived here thirteen years nay a very ancient c Alexand. Polyhist Hist de Judaeis ap Euseb praep Evang. l. 9. c. 17. p. 419. Historian assures us that Abraham himself lived here and taught the Egyptian Priests Astronomy and other parts of Learning III. DIONYSIVS no doubt plied his Studies in this place during whose stay there one memorable accident is reported The Son of God about this time was delivered up at Jerusalem to an acute and shameful death by the hands of Violence and Injustice when the Sun as if ashamed to behold so great a wickedness hid his head and put on mourning to wait upon the Funerals of its Maker This Eclipse was contrary to all the known Rules and Laws of Nature it hapning in a Full Moon when the Moon is in its greatest distance from the Sun and consequently not liable to a conjunction with him the Moon moving it self under the Sun from its Oriental to its Occidental point and thence back by a retrograde motion causing a strange defection of light for three hours together That there was such a wonderful and preternatural darkness over all the Earth for three hours at the time of our Saviours suffering whereby the Sun was darkned is unanimously attested by the Evangelical Historians and not by them onely but d Chronic. lib. 13. apud Euseb Chron. ad Ann. Chr. XXXII vid. Graecaâ— ET ΛΓ p. 202. vid. Orig. contr Cels l. 2. p. 80. Chro. Alexandr ad Ann. Tiber. XVIII Indict 4. Olymplad CCII. 4. p. 520. Phlegon Trallianus sometimes servant to the Emperour Trajan speaks of an Eclipse of the Sun that hapned about that time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of any that had been ever known whereby the day was turned into night and the Stars appeared at noon-day an Earthquake also accompanying it whereby many houses at Nice in Bithynia were overturned Apollophanes beholding this strange Eclipse cried out to Dionysius that these were changes and revolutions of some great affairs to whom the other replied that either God suffered or at least sympathized and bore part with him that did I confess these passages are not to be found in the most ancient Writers of the Church but that ought to be no just exception when we consider what little care was then taken to consign things to writing and how great a part of those few ancient Records that were written were quickly lost whereof Eusebius sufficiently complains not to say that a great many writings might and did escape his notice and e Prolog ante oper S. Dionys p. 36. Maximus I remember answering the objection that the Books ascribed to S. Denys are not mentioned by Eusebius tells us that himself had met with several pieces of the Ancients of which not the least footstep in Eusebius But however that be it concludes not against the matter of fact many things though never entered upon Record being as to the substance of them preserved by constant Tradition and Report I deny not but that the several Authors who report this passage might immediately derive it out of the Epistles said to be written to S. Polycarp and Apollophanes But then cannot suppose that the Author of these Epistles did purely feign the matter of fact of his own head but rather delivered what Tradition had conveyed down to his time Indeed that which would more shrewdly shake the foundation of the Story if it be true is what a Trâ—ct XXXV in Matth. fâ—l vi Ep. tol 1. Origen supposes that this darkness that was over all the Earth and the Earthquake that attended our Lords Passion extended no farther then Judaea as some of the Prodigies no
it seems to pack Hierotheus into Spain that room might be made for him Indeed that Dionysius was and that without any affront to S. Hierotheus the first Bishop of Athens we are assured by an Authority that cannot be doubted a Apud Euseb H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 4. p. 74. l. 4. c. 23. p. 144. Dionysius the famous Bishop of Corinth who lived not long after him expresly affirming it and b Niceph. H. Ecc. l. 2. c. 20. p. 167. Nicephorus adds what is probable enough that it was done with S. Pauls own hands I shall but mention his journey to Jerusalem to meet the Apostles who are said to have come from all parts of the World to be present at the last hours of the Blessed Virgin and his several Visitations of the Churches in Phrygia and Achaia to plant or confirm the Faith VII ALL which supposing they were true yet here we must take our leave For now the Writers of his Life generally make him prepare for a much longer journey Having setled his affairs at Athens and substituted a Successor in his See he is said to go to Rome a brief account of things shall suffice where no truth lies at the bottom at Rome he was dispatched by S. Clemens into France where he planted the Faith and founded an Episcopal See at Paris whence after many years about the ninetieth year of his Age he returned into the East to converse with S. John at Ephesus thence back again to Paris where he suffered martyrdom and among infinite other miracles reported of him he is said to have taken up his head after it had been cut off by the Executioners and to have carried it in his hands an Angel going before and an heavenly Chorus attending him all the way for two miles together till he came to the place of his interment where he gently laid it and himself down and was there honourably entombed This is the sum of a very tedious Story A Story so improbable in it self so directly contrary to what c Saâ—â— Hist lib. 2. pag. 143. Severus Sulpitius affirms that none were martyred for the Faith in France till the fifth Persecution under the reign of M. Aurelius Antoninus that I shall not spend much time in its confutation Especially when the thing has been unanswerably done by so many learned and ingenious men in the Church of Rome and by none more effectually then Sirmond and Launoy who have cleared it beyond all possibilities of just exception VIII INDEED we find in several very ancient d Usuard Martyr Calend. Octob. VII Id. Octob. Martyr Bede VII Id. Octob. Martyrologies as also in e Greg. Turon Hist Franc. lib. 1. c. 28. p. 265. Edit Du. Châ—sn Gregory Bishop of Tours who reports it out of the Acts of Saturninus the Martyr that one Dionysius with some others was sent by the Bishop of Rome into France in the time of Decius the Emperour Ann. Chr. CCL where he preached the Christian Faith and became Bishop of Paris and after great torments and sufferings was beheaded for his resolute and constant profession of Religion and accordingly his martyrdom is recorded in the most ancient Martyrologies upon a day distinct from that of the Athenian Dionysius and the same miracles ascribed to him that are reported of the other And that this was the first and true foundation of the Story I suppose no wise man will doubt Nor indeed is the least mention made of any such thing I am sure not any in Writer of Name and Note till the times of Charles the Great When f Vâ—â— Epist ejaâ— Hilduin Rescript apud Surdoc citat Ludovicus Emperour and King of France wrote to Hilduin Abbot of S. Denys to pick up what ever Memoirs he could find concerning him either in the Books of the Greeks or Latines or such Records as they had at home and to digest and compile them into orderly Tracts He did so and furnished out a very large and particular relation which was quickly improved and defended by Hinemar Bishop of Rhemes Scholar to Hilduin and Anastasius Bibliothecarius of Rome to whom the Greek Writers of that and the following Ages readily gave their Vote and Suffrage Nor has a late a J. Mabillonâ— not ad Epist Hincmar inter Analect Veter p. 63. Author much mended the matter in point of antiquity who tells us that in a convention of Bishops in France held Ann. DCCCXXV ten years before Hilduin wrote his Areopagitics mention is made of S. Dionysius his being sent into France by Clemens S. Peters Successor For we can easily allow that there might about that time be some blind and obscure Tradition though the fragment of the Synod which he there produces speaks not one syllable of this Dionysius his being the Areopagite or having any relation to Athens In short the case seems plainly this IX HILDVIN set on by his potent Patron partly that he might exalt the honour of France partly to advance the reputation of his particular Convent finding an obscure Dionysius to have been Bishop of Paris removes him an Age or two higher and makes him the same with him of Athens a person of greater honour and veneration and partly from the Records partly from the Traditions currant among themselves draws up a formal account of him from first to last adding 'tis like what he thought good of his own to make up the Story These Commentaries of his we may suppose were quickly conveyed to Rome where being met with by the Greeks who came upon frequent Embassies to that See about that time they were carried over to Constantinople out of which Methodius who had himself been Aprocrisiarius or Embassador from Nicephorus the Greek Patriarch to Pope Paschal at Rome and after infinite troubles was advanced to the Patriarchat of Constantinople furnishes himself with materials to write the life of Dionysius for that he had them not out of the Records of his own Church is plain in that when Hilduin set upon composing his Arcopagitics he expresly says b Rescript ad Ludov. Imper. n. 10. ibid. that the Greeks had written nothing concerning the Martyrdom of S. Denys the particulars whereof by reason of the vast distance they could not attain Out of Hilduin therefore or at least some reports of that time Methodius must needs derive his intelligence but most probably from Hilduin between whose relation and that of Methodius there is so exact an agreement not onely in particular passages but oft-times in the very same words as c Respons discuss cap. 9. p. 120. Monsieur Launoy has demonstrated by a particular collation Methodius his Tract was by the Greek Embassadors quickly brought from Constantinople to Rome where d Epist ad Carol Calv. Imp. apud Sur. ibid. p. 132. Anastasius confesses he met with it translated it into Latine and thence transmitted it into France where it was read owned and published by e Extat
necessary if not more then enough upon this argument though as to the date of their birth and first appearance when he thrusts them down to the sixth Century he takes somewhat off from the antiquity which may with probability be allowed them XIII WHO was the particular Author of these Books is not easie to determine Among the several conjectures about this matter none methinks deserves a fairer regard then what d Annot. in Act. Apost c. 17. Laurentius Valla tells us some learned Greeks of his time conceived that it was Apollinaris but whether Father or Son it matters not both being men of parts and of the same strain and humour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Socrat. H. Ecc. l. 2. c. 46. p. 160. both of them Masters in all the learning of the Greeks though of the two the Son was most likely to be the man Certain it is that Apollinaris was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as f H. Eccl. l. 5. c. 18. p. 623. Socr. loc citat Sozomen describes him trained up to all sorts of Learning and skilled in the artifices and frames of Words and Speeches and g Ep. LXXIV p. 125. Tom. 2. S. Basil says of him that being indued with a facility of writing upon any argument joined with a great readiness and volubility of language he filled the World with his Books though even in his Theologic Tracts he sought not to establish them by Scripture-proofs but from humane arguments and ways of reasoning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as h Leont de Sect. Act. IV. p. 446. another also says of him He was born and bred at Alexandria then which no place more famous for Schools of Humane Learning especially the Profession of the Platonic Philosophy and afterwards lived at Laodicea where he was so intimately familiar with the Gentile-Philosophers that Theodotus Bishop of the place forbad him though in vain any longer to keep company with them fearing lest he might be perverted to Paganism as afterwards George his successor excommunicated him for his insolent contempt in not doing it This is said to have given the first occasion to his starting aside from the Orthodox Doctrines of the Church For resenting it as an high affront and being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Socrat. ib. p. 161. prompted with a bold conceit of his sophistical Wit and subtle ways of reasoning he began to innovate in matters of Doctrine and set up a Sect after his own name And certainly whoever thoroughly considers Apollinaris his principles as they are represented by b Socrat. 〈◊〉 citat Socrates c Sâ—â—â—n l. 6. c. 27. p. 676. ex Ep. Nâ—â—ian de Necâ—â—â— Sozomen d Thâ—â—dor l. 5. c. 3. p. 2â—0 Theodoret e Basil ubi supr Basil and f Epiph. Haeres 77. p. 421. Epiphanius will find many of them to have a great affinity with the Platonic notions and some of them not un-akin to those in Dionysius his Books and that as to the Doctrine of the Trinity they were right in the main which g Ibid. vid. 〈◊〉 loc citat Socrates particularly tells us the Apollinarians confessed to be consubstantial To which I add what a learned h Dr. Stillingfl his Answer to Cress Apolog. c. 2. §. 17. p. 133. man of our own has observed upon this argument that Apollinaris and his followers were guilty of forging Ecclesiastical Writings which they fastned upon Grâ—gory Thaumaturgus Athanasius and Pope Julius as l De Sect. Act. VIII p. 527. Leontius particularly proves at large So that they might be probably enough forged in the School of Apollinaris either by himself or some of his Disciples XIV IT makes the conjecture look yet more favourable that there was one k Vid. Collat. Catâ—ol cum Seveâ—â—an Coâ—â— Trâ— 4. 〈◊〉 1767. Dionysius a friend probably of Apollinaris to whom he is said to have written that famous Epistle that went under the name of Pope Julius and then among his own Scholars he had a Timotheus condemned together with his Master by l 〈◊〉 H. Ecc. â— 5. c. â— 10. p. 21â— Damasus and the Synod at Rome so that they might easily enough take occasion from their own to vent their conceptions under the more venerable names of those ancient and Apostolic persons Or which is more probable Apollinaris himself so well versed in the arts of counterfeiting might from them take the hint to compose and publish them under the name of the ancient Dionysius Nor indeed could he likely pitch upon a name more favourable and agreeable to his purpose a man born in the very Center of Learning and Eloquence and who might easily be supposed to be bred up in all the Institutions of Philosophy and in a peculiar manner acquainted with the Writings and Theorems of Plato and his Followers so famous so generally entertained in that place And there will be the more reason to believe it still when we consider that m Socrat. l. 3. c. 16. p. 187. Apollinaris reduced the Gospels and the Writings of the Apostles into the form of Dialegues in imitation of Plato among the Greeks And then for the stile which is very lofty and affected we noted before how peculiarly qualified Apollinaris was with a quick invention of words and a sophistical way of speech and the n Soâ—om l. 6. c. 25. p. 672. Historian observes that the great instrument by which he set on foot his Heresie and wherein he had a singular talent was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 artificial Schemes of Words and subtle ways to express himself Soâ—om l. 5. c. 18. p. 623. Besides he was an incomparable Poet not onely the Father but the Son to the study whereof he peculiarly addicted himself and wrote Poems to the imitation and the envy of the best among the Heathens In imitation of Homer he writ Heroic Poems of the History of the old Testament till the reign of Saul Comedies after the manner of Menander Tragoedies in imitation of Euripides and Odes in imitation of Pindar he composed Divine Hymns Id. l. 6. c. 25. p. 671. that were publicly sung in the Churches of his separation and Songs which men sung both in their Feasts and at their Trades and even women at the Distaff By this means he was admirably prepared for lofty and poetic strains and might be easily tempted especially the matter admitting it to give way to a wanton and luxuriant fansie in the choice composition and use of words And certainly never was there a stranger heap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maximus himself calls it of sublime affected bombast and poetic phrases then is to be met with in these Books attributed to S. Denys XV. IF it shall be enquired why a man should after so much pains chuse to publish his Labors rather under another mans name then his own there needs no other answer then that this has been an old trade which some men have taken up
either because 't was their humor to lay their own children at other mens doors or to decline the censure which the notions they published were likely to expose them to or principally to conciliate the greater esteem and value for them by thrusting them forth under the name of those for whom the World has a just regard and veneration As for Monsieur Dailles conjecture De Script Dionys c. 39. p. 221. that the reason why several learned Volumes were written and fastned upon the Fathers of the ancient Church was to vindicate them from that common imputation of the Gentiles who were wont to charge the Christians for being a rude and illiterate generation whose Books were stuffed with nothing but plain simple Doctrines and who were strangers to all kind of Learning and Eloquence that to obviate this objection several took upon them to compose Books full of Learning and Philosophy which they published under the names of the first preachers and propagaters of the Christian Faith and that this particularly was the case of the Recognitions ascribed to Clemens and the Writings attributed to Dionysius The first I grant very likely and rational the Recognitions being probably written about the second Century when as appears from Celsus his Book against the Christians this objection was most rife and when few learned discourses had been published by them But can by no means allow it as to the second Dionysius his Works being written long after the Learning and Eloquence of the Christians had sufficiently approved it self to the World to the shame and conviction the envy and admiration of its greatest Enemies And there was far less need of them for this purpose if it be true what Daille himself so confidently asserts and so earnestly contends for that they were not written till the beginning of the sixth Century about the year DXX when there were few learned Gentiles left to make this objection Heathenism being almost wholly banished out of the civilized World XVI BUT whoever was their genuine Parent or upon what account soever he wrote them it is plain that he laid the foundation of a mystical and unintelligible Divinity among Christians and that hence proceeded all those wild Rosicrucean notions which some men are so fond of and the life and practice whereof they cry up as the very soul and perfection of the Christian State And that this Author does immediately minister to this design let the Reader judge by one instance and I assure him 't is none of the most obscure and intricate passages in these Books I have set it down in its own Language as well as ours not being confident of my own version though expressed word for word for I pretend to no great faculty in translating what I do not understand Thus then he discourses concerning the knowledge of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys de Divin Nomin cap. 7. p. 238. God saith he is known in all things and without all things he is known by knowledge and by ignorance there is both a cogitation of him and a word and a science and a touch and a sense and an opinion and an imagination and a name and all other things and yet he is neither thought nor spoken nor named He is not any thing of those things that are nor is he known in any of the things that are he is both all things in all and nothing in nothing out of all things he is known to all and out of nothing to nothing These are the things which we rightly discourse concerning God And this again is the most divine knowledge of God that which is known by ignorance according to the union that is above understanding when the mind getting at a distance from all things that are and having dismissed it self is united to those super-illustrious Beams from whence and where it is enlightned in the unfathomable depth of wisdom More of this and the like stuff is plentifully scattered up and down these Books And if this be not mystical and profound enough I know not what is and which certainly any man but one well versed in this sort of Theology would look upon as a strange Jargon of non sense and contradiction And yet this is the height of devotion and piety which some men earnestly press after and wherein they glory As if a man could not truly understand the mysteries of Religion till he had resigned his reason nor be a Christian without first becoming an Enthusiast nor be able to speak sense unless in a Language which none can understand Writings falsly attributed to him De Coelesti Hierarchia Lib. I. De Divinis Nominibus I. De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia I. De Mystica Theologia I. Epistolae ad Caium IV. Ad Dorotheum I. Ad Sosipatrum Epistola I. Ad Polycarpum I. Ad Demophilum I. Ad Titum I. Ad Joannem Evangelistam I. Ad Apollophanem I. The End of S. DIONYSIUS's Life THE LIFE OF S. CLEMENS BISHOP of ROME Michael Burghers delineavit et sculpsit S. CLEMENS ROMANUS His birth-place His Parents Kindred Education and Conversion to Christianity noted out of the Books extant under his name His relation to the Imperial Family shewed to be a mistake His being made Bishop of Rome The great confusion about the first Bishops of that See A probable account endeavoured concerning the order of S. Clemens his succession and the reconciling it with the times of the other Bishops What account given of him in the ancient Epistle to S. James Clemens his appointing Notaries to write the Acts of the Martyrs and dispatching Messengers to propagate the Gospel The Schism in the Church of Corinth and Clemens his Epistle to that Church An enquiry into the time when that Epistle was written The Persecution under Trajan His proceeding against the Heteriae A short relation of S. Clemens his troubles out of Simeon Metaphrastes His banishment to Cherson Damnatio ad Metalla what The great success of his Ministry in the place of his exile S. Clemens his Martyrdom and the kind of it The anniversary miracle reported on the day of his solemnity The time of his Martyrdom His genuine Writings His Epistle to the Corinthians the commendations given of it by the Ancients It s Stile and Character The great modesty and humility that appears in it The fragment of his second Epistle Supposititious Writings The Recognitions their several titles and different editions Their Antiquity what A conjecture concerning the Author of them The censures of the Ancients concerning the corrupting of them considered The Epistle to S. James I. IT makes not a little for the honour of this Venerable Apostolical Man for of him all antiquity understands it that he was Fellow-labourer with S. Paul and one of those whose names were written in the Book of Life He was born at Rome upon Mount Caelius as besides others the a Vit. Clement Concil Tom. 1. col 74. Pontifical under the name of Damasus
informs us His Fathers name was Faustinus but who he was and what his Profession and course of life is not recorded Indeed in the Book of the Recognitions and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by the Ancients and lately published we have more particular accounts concerning him Books which however falsly attributed to S. Clemens and liable in some cases to just exception yet being of great antiquity in the Church written not long after the Apostolic Age as we shall shew hereafter we shall thence derive some few notices to our purpose though we cannot absolutely engage for the certainty of them There we find S. Clemens brought in giving this account of himself II. HE b Recogn l. 7 n. 8. p. 476. Clem. Homil. 12. n. 8. p. 678. Epitom â— 76. p. 781. Edit Paris was descended of a noble race sprung from the family of the Caesars his Father Faustinianus or Faustus being near a kin to the Emperour I suppose Tiberius and educated together with him and by his procurement matched with Mattidia a woman of a prime Family in Rome He was the youngest of three sons his two elder Brothers being Faustinus and Faustus who after changed their names for Nicetas and Aquila His Mother a Woman it seems of exquisit beauty was by her husbands own brother strongly sollicited to unchast embraces To avoid whose troublesome importunities and yet loth to reveal it to her husband lest it should break out to the disturbance and dishonour of their Family she found out this expedient she pretended to her husband that she was warned in a dream together with her two eldest sons to depart for some time from Rome He accordingly sent them to reside at Athens for the greater conveniency of their education But hearing nothing of them though he sent Messengers on purpose every year he resolved at last to go himself in pursuit of them which he did leaving his youngest son then twelve years of age at home under the care of Tutors and Guardians a Recogn l. 2. â— 1. p. 399. â—â— Hom. 1. p. 540. Epist p. â—49 S. Clemens grew up in all manly Studies and vertuous actions till falling under some great dissatisfactions of mind concerning the immortality of the soul and the state of the other life he applied himself to search more narrowly into the nature and the truth of things After having baffled all his own notions he betook himself to the Schools of the Philosophers where he met with nothing but fierce contentions endless disputes sophistical and uncertain arts of reasoning thence he resolved to consult the Egyptian Hierophantae and to see if he could meet with any who by arts of Magic was able to fetch back one of those who were departed to the invisible World the very sight of whom might satisfie his curious enquiries about this matter While he was under this suspense he heard of the Son of God his appearing in the world and the excellent doctrins he had published in Judaea wherein he was further instructed by the ministry of S. Barnabas who came to Rome Him he followed first to Alexandria and thence after a little time to Judaea Arriving at Caesarea he met with S. Peter by whom he was instructed and baptized whose Companion and Disciple he continued for a great part of his life III. THIS is the sum of what I thought good to borrow from those ancient Writings As for his relations what various misadventures his Father and Mother and his two Brothers severally met with by what strange accidents they all afterwards met together were converted and baptized into the Christian Faith I omit partly as less proper to my purpose partly because it looks more like a dramatic Scene of Fansie then a true and real History As to that part of the account of his being related to the Imperial Family though it be more then once and again confidently asserted by b H. Feeâ— l. 2. c. 35. p. 191. l. 3. c. 2. 18. p. 247. Nicephorus who transcribes a good part of the Story and by c Euther Lugd. ad Valerian de contempt Mund. Anonym de vit Petr. Paul ap P. Jun. not in Clem. Ep. ad Corinth others before him yet I cannot but behold it as an evident mistake arising from no other Fountain then the Story of Flavius Clemens the Consul who was Cousin-german to the Emperour Domitian and his Wife Flavia Domitilla near akin also to the Emperour concerning whose conversion to and martyrdom for the Faith of Christ we have d Primit Christ p. 1. ch 3. elsewhere given an account from the Writers of those Times Probable it is that S. Clemens for the main attend S. Peters motions and came with him to Rome where he had at last the Government of that Church committed to him e Synops de vit App. in Bibl. PP Tom 3. p. 150. col 1. Dorotheus tells us that he was the first of the Gentiles that embraced the Christian Faith and that he was first made Bishop of Sardica a City in Thrace afterwards called Triaditza and then of Rome But herein I think he stands alone I am sure has none of the Ancients to join with him unless he understands it of another Clemens whom the f Chron. Alex. p. 508. Chronicon Alexandrinum also makes one of the LXX Disciples but withall seems to confound with ours That he was Bishop of Rome there is an unanimous and unquestionable agreement of all ancient Writers though they strangely vary about the place and order of his coming to it The Writers of the Roman Church how great words soever they speak of the constant and uninterrupted succession of S. Peters Chair are yet involved in an inextricable labyrinth about the succession of the four first Bishops of that See scarce two of them of any note bringing in the same account I shall not attempt to accommodate the difference between the several Schemes that are given in but onely propose what I conceive most likely and probable IV. EVIDENT it is both from a Adv. Heres l. 3. c. 3. p. 232. Irenaeus and b Epiph. Haeres XXVII p. 51. vid. Ham. Dissert V. c. 1. p. 256. Epiphanius as also before them from c Cal. adv Procâ—l Caius an ancient Writer and from d Dionys Epist ad Rom. apud Euseb l. 2. c. 25. p. 68. Dionysius Bishop of Corinth that Peter and Paul jointly laid the Foundations of the Church of Rome and are therefore equally stiled Bishops of it the one as Apostle of the Gentiles as we may probably suppose taking care of the Gentile Christians while the other as the Apostle of the Circumcision applied himself to the Jewish Converts at Rome For we cannot imagine that there being such chronical and inveterate prejudices between Jews and Gentiles especially in matters of Religion they should be suddainly laid aside and both enter-common in one public Society We know that in the Church
in the name of the Church of Rome without so much as ever mentioning his own but in that he treats them with such gentle and mild persuasives Nothing of sowreness or an imperious lording it over Gods heritage to be seen in the whole Epistle Had he known himself to be the infallible Judge of Controversies to whose sentence the whole Christian World was bound to stand invested with a supreme unaccountable Power from which there lay no Appeal we might have expected to have heard him argue at another rate But these were the Encroachments and Usurpations of later Ages when a spirit of Covetousness and secular ambition had stifled the modesty and simplicity of those first and best Ages of Religion There is so great an affinity in many things both as to Words and Matter between this and the Epistle to the Hebrews as tempted Eusebius and S. Hierom of old and some others before them Ibid. to conclude S. Clemens at least the Translator of that Epistle This Epistle to the Corinthians after it had been generally bewailed as lost for many Ages was not more to the benefit of the Church in general then the honour of our own in particular some forty years since published here in England a treasure not sufficiently to be valued Besides this first there is the fragment of a second Epistle or rather Homily containing a serious exhortation and direction to a pious life ancient indeed and which many will persuade us to be his and to have been written many years before the former as that which betrays no footsteps of troublesom and unquiet times but Eusebius S. Hierom Losis suprecitat and Photius assure us that it was rejected and never obtained among the ancients equal approbation with the first And therefore though we do not peremptorily determine against its being his yet we think it safer to acquiesce in the judgment of the Ancients then of some few late Writers in this matter X. AS for those Writings that are undoubtedly spurious and supposititious disown'd as a Ibid. pag. 110. Eusebius says because they did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 retain the true stamp and character of Orthodox Apostolic Doctrin though the truth is he speaks it onely of the Dialogues of Peter and Appion not mentioning the Decretal Epistles as not worth taking notice of there are four extant at this day that are entitled to him the Apostolical Canons and the Constitutions said to be penned by him though dictated by the Apostles the Recognitions Praef. to Primit Christianity and the Epistle to S. James For the two first the Apostolic Canons and Constitutions I have declared my sense of them in another place to which I shall add nothing here The Recognitions succeed conveyed to us under different titles by the Ancients sometimes stiled S. Clemens his Acts History Chronicle sometimes S. Peters Acts Itinerary Pâ—riods Dialogues with Appion all which are unquestionably but different inscriptions or it may be parcels of the same book True it is what b Cod. CXII col 289. Photius suspected and c Praefat. ad Gaudent p. 397. Rufinus who translated it expresly tells us that there were two several editions of this Book differing in some things but the same in most And it deserves to be considered whether the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by d H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 18. p. 248. Nicephorus and which he says the Church received and denies to be those meant by Eusebius and those Clementine Homilies lately published under that very name be not that other Edition of the Recognitions seeing they exactly answer Rufinus his Character differing in some things but in most agreeing with them There is yet a third Edition or rather Abstract out of all stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Clemens his Epitome of the Acts Travels and Preachings of S. Peter agreeing with the former though keeping more close to the Homilies then the other This I guess to have been compiled by Simeon the Metaphrast as for other reasons so especially because the appendage added to it by the same hand concerning Clemens his martyrdom is word for word the same with that of Metaphrastes the close of it onely excepted which is taken out of S. Ephraems Homily of the miracle done at his Tomb. XI THE Recognitions themselves are undoubtedly of very great antiquity e Pseudo-Isid p. 28. written about the same time and by the same hand as Blondel probably conjectures with the Constitutions about the Year CLXXX or not long after Sure I am they are cited by f Philocal c. 23. p. 81 82. Origen as the Work of Clemens in his Periods and his large quotation is in so many words g Recognit l. 10. extant in them at this day Nay before him we meet with a very long fragment of Bardesanes the h Extat ap Euseb Praep. Evan. l. 6. c. 10. p. 273 seq vid. Recogn lib. 9. p. 503. c. Syrian who flourished Ann. CLXXX concerning Fate word for word the same with what we find in the Recognitions and it seems equally reasonable to suppose that Bardesanes had it thence as that the other borrowed it from him Nay what if Bardesanes himself was the Author of these Books 'T is certain that he was a man of great parts and learning a man prompt and eloquent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i Euseb H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 30. p. 151. Epiph. Haeres LVI p. 207. an acute and subtle Disputant heretically enclined for he came out of the School of Valentinus whose uncouth notions he had so deeply imbibed that even after his recantation he could never get clear from the dregs of them as Eusebius informs us though Epiphanius tells us he was first Orthodox and afterwards fell into the errours of that Sect like a well fraighted Ship that having duly performed its Voyage is cast away in the very sight of the Harbour He was a great Mathematician and Astrologer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k Enstb Praep. Evang. l. 6. c. â— p. 273. accurately versed in the Chaldaean learning and wrote incomparable Dialogues concerning Fate which he dedicated to the Emperour Antoninus And surely none can have looked into the Recognitions but he musâ— see what a considerable part the Doctrines concerning Fate the Genesis the Influence of the Stars and heavenly Constellations and such like notions make there of S. Peters and S. Clemens his Dialogues and Discourses To which we may add what Photius has observed Ubi supre and is abundantly evident from the thing it self that these Books are considerable for their clearness and perspicuity their eloquent stile and grave Discourses and that great variety of Learning that is in them plainly shewing their Composer to have been a Master in all Humane Learning and the Study of Philosophy I might further remarque that Bardesanes seems to have had a peculiar genius for Books of this nature it being
which being formed according to the mode of the Greeks as a Contr. Cels l. 6. p. 3â—6 Origen long since observed in this very instance who were wont to add as to the termination of words borrowed from a Foreign Language becomes Satanas an adversary And therefore a late b Sand. Tâ—eâ—t de Vet. Script Eccl. Hist Ecccles Tom. 1. Praefix p. 44. Author who has weeded the Writings of the Ancients and whose quotations savour of infinitly greater oftentation then either judgment or fidelity sufficiently betrays his ignorance in those vety Fathers with which he pretends so much acquaintance when to prove the Quaest Resp ad Orthodoxos not to be the genuin work of our Jusâ—â— he urges the odd and ridiculous interpretation of the word Osanna there rendred c Vid. Quaest L. p. 421. by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 super-excellent magnificence of the true signification whereof says he Justin himself being a Samaritan could not be ignorant When as his unquestionable Tracts afford such evident footsteps of his lamentable unskilfulness in that Language But the man must be excused seeing in this as in many other things he traded purely upon trust securely stealing the whole passage word for word out of another Author Vid. Rivet Crit. Sacr. l. 2. c. 5. p. 198. so little skill had he to distinguish between true and false and to know when to follow his Guides and where to leave them As for Justin himself his ignorance herein is the less to be wondered at if we consider that his Religion as a Gentile born his early and almost sole converse with the Greeks his constant study of the Writings of the Gentile Philosophers might well make him a stranger to that Language which had not much in it to tempt a meer Philosopher to learn it In all other parts of Learning how great his abilities were may be seen in his Writings yet extant to say nothing of them that are lost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as d H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 18. p. 139. Eusebius says of them the Monuments of his singular Parts and of a mind studiously conversant about divine things richly fraught with excellent and useful knowledge They are all designed either in defence of the Christian Religion both against Jews and Gentiles or in beating down that common Religion and those prophane and ridiculous Rites of Worship which then governed the World or in prescribing Rules for the ordinary conduct of the Christian Life all which he has managed with an admirable acuteness and dexterity Some Books indeed have obtruded themselves under his name as the Expositio Fidei Quaestiones Responsa ad Orthodoxos Quaestiones Graecanicae ad Christianos Quaestiones V. ad Graecos c. all which are undoubtedly of a later Age composed after Christianity was fully setled in the World and the Arrian controversies had begun to disturb the Christian Church Or if any of them were originally his they have been so miserably interpolated and defaced by after-ages that it is almost impossible to discern true from false XIX AS for the Epistle to Diognetus though excepted against by some yet is it fairly able to maintain its title without any just cause alledged against it Nor is it improbable but that this might be that very Diognetus who was Tutour to the Emperour M. Aurelius who as himself confesses a M. Aurel. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. l. 1. §. 6. p. 1. persuaded him to the study of Philosophy and gave him wise counsels and directions to that purpose and being a person of note and eminency is accordingly saluted by the Martyr with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most excellent Diognetus His temper and course of life had made him infinitely curious as is evident from the first part of that Epistle to know particularly what was the Religion what the Manners and Rites of Christians what it was that inspired them with so brave and generous a courage as to contemn the world and to despise death upon what grounds they rejected the Religion and disowned the deities of the Gentiles and yet separated themselves from the Jewish Discipline and way of worship what was that admirable love and friendship by which they were so fast knit together and why this novel Institution came so late into the World To all which enquiries suitable enough to a man of a Philosophic genius Justin to whom probably he had a ddressed himself as the most noted Champion of the Christian cause returns a very particular and rational satisfaction in this Epistle though what effect it had upon the Philosopher is unknown That this Epistle is not mentioned by Eusebius is no just exception seeing he confesses b H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 18. p. 140. there were many other Books of Justins besides those which he there reckons up that it is a little more then ordinary polite and philosophical is yet less for who can wonder if so great a Scholar as Justin writing to a person so eminent for Learning and Philosophy endeavoured to give it all the advantages of a florid and eloquent discourse It must be confessed that his ordinary stile does not reach this for which let us take Photius c Loc. supr citat his censure a man able to pass a judgment in this case he studied not says he to set off the native beauty of Philosophy with the paint and varnish of Rhetorical Arts. For which cause his Discourses though otherwise very weighty and powerful and observing a composure agreeable enough to Art and Science have not yet those sweet and luscious insinuations those attractives and allurements that are wont to prevail upon vulgar Auditors and to draw them after them XX. THAT which may seem most to impair the credit of this ancient and venerable man is that he is commonly said to be guilty of some unorthodox sentiments and opinions disagreeing with the received Doctrines of the Church True it is that he has some notions not warranted by general entertainment or the sense of the Church especially in later Ages but yet scarce any but what were held by most of the Fathers in those early times and which for the main are speculative and have no ill influence upon a good life the most considerable whereof we shall here remark First he is charged with too much kindness and indulgence to the more eminent sort of Heathens and particularly toward Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. II. pag. 83. Heraclitus and such like such indeed he seems to allow to have been in some sense Christians and of Socrates particularly d Apol. I. p. 48. affirms that Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in part known to him and the like elsewhere more then once The ground of all which was this that such persons did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 live according to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word or reason and that this naturally is in every man and manifest to him
for a due flight for Heaven without a mighty portion of grace to assist it The mysteries of Christianity as c Lib. 4. p. 181. vid. etiam ib. p. 227. Origen discourses against Celsus cannot be duly contemplated without a better afflatus and a more divine power for as no man knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man that is in him so no man knows the things of God but the Spirit of God it being all to no purpose as he elsewhere observes unless God by his grace does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enlighten the understanding Haec erit vis divinae gratiae potentior utique natura habens in nobis subjacentem sibi liberam arbitrii potestatem quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur Tertul. de Anim. c. 21. p. 279. I add no more but that of Tertullian who asserts that there is a power of divine grace stronger then nature which has in subjection the power of our Free Will So evident it is that when the Fathers talk highest of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the powers of nature they never intended to exclude and banish the grace of God Some other disputable or disallowed opinions may be probably met with in this good mans Writings but which are mostly nice and philosophical And indeed having been brought up under so many several Institutions of Philosophy and coming as most of the first Fathers did fresh out of the Schools of Plato 't is the less to be wondred at if the notions which he had there imbibed stuck to him and he endeavoured as much as might be to reconcile the Platonic principles with the dictates of Christianity His Writings Genuine Paraenesis ad Graecos Elenchus seu Oratio ad Graecos Apologia pro Christianis prima Apologia pro Christianis secunda Liber de Monarchia Dei forsan in fine mutilus Dialogus cum Tryphone Judaeo Epistola ad Diognetum Not extant Liber de Anima Liber Psaltes dictus Contra omnes Haereses Contra Marcionem Commentarius in Hexameron cujus meminit Anastasius Sinaita De Resurrectione Carnis teste Damasceno Doubtful Aristotelicorum quorundam Dogmatum eversio Epistola ad Zenam Serenum Supposititious Quaestiones Respons ad Graecos Quaestiones Graecanicae de incorporeo c. ad easdem Christianae Responsiones Quaestionum CXLVI Responsio ad Orthodoxos Vid. an hic liber sit idem sed interpolatus de quo Photius hoc titulo Dubitationum adversus Religionem summariae solutiones Expositio Fidei de S. Trinitate The End of S. JUSTIN Martyrs Life THE LIFE OF S. IRENAEUS BISHOP of LYONS Michael Burghers delineavit et sculpsit S. IRENAEUS His Countrey enquired into His Philosophical Studies His institution by Papias Papias who His education under S. Polycarp His coming into France and being made Presbyter of Lyons Pothinus who how and by whom sent into France The grievous Persecution there under M. Aurelius The Letters of the Martyrs to the Bishop of Rome Pope Eleutherius guilty of Montanism Irenaeus sent to Rome His writing against Florinus and Blastus The martyrdom of Pothinus Bishop of Lyons and the cruelty exercised towards him Irenaeus succeeds His great diligence in his charge His opposition of Heretics The Synods said to have been held under him to that purpose The Gnostic Heresies spread in France Their monstrous Villanies His confutation of them by word and writing Variety of Sects and Divisions objected by the Heathens against Christianity This largely answered by Clemens of Alexandria Pope Victor 's reviving the controversie about Easter The contests between him and the Asiatics Several Synods to determine this matter Irenaeus his moderate interposal His Synodical Epistle to Victor The Persecution under Severus It s rage about Lyons Irenaeus his Martyrdom and place of Burial His Vertues His industrious and elaborate confutation of the Gnostics His stile and phrase Photius his censure of his Works His errour concerning Christs Age. Miraculous gifts and powers common in his time His Writings I S IRENAEVS may justly challenge to go next the Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a De Spirit S. c. 29. p. 358. Tom. 2. S. Basil stiles him one near to the Apostles which b Epist ad Theodoâ— p. 196. T. 1. S. Hierom expresses by being a man of the Apostolic times His Originals are so obscure that some dispute has been to what part of the World he belonged whether East or West though that he was a Greek there can be no just cause to doubt The Ancients having not particularly fixed the place of his Nativity he is generally supposed to have been born at Smyrna or thereabouts In his youth he wanted not an ingenuous education in the Studies of Philosophy and Humane Learning whereby he was prepared to be afterwards an useful Instrument in the Church His first institution in the Doctrine of Christianity was laid under some of the most eminent persons that then were in the Christian Church S. Hierom c Lic citat makes him Scholar to Papias Bishop of Hierapolis who had himself conversed with the Apostles and their Followers This Papias as d Adv. Haeres l. 5. c. 33. p. 498. ap Euseb l. 3. c. 39. p. 110. Irenaeus and others inform us was one of S. Johns Disciples by whom though Eusebius understands not the Apostle but one sirnamed the Elder which he seems to collect from a passage of e Euseb loc cit Papias himself yet evident it is that though Papias in that place affirms that he diligently picked up what Memoirs he could meet with concerning the Apostles from those that had attended and followed them yet he no where denies that he himself conversed with them He was as f Ibid. c. 36. p. 106. Eusebius characters him a man very learned and eloquent and knowing in the Scriptures though as g Ibid. c. 39. p. 113. elsewhere he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a very weak and undiscerning judgment especially in the more abstruse and mysterious parts of the Christian Doctrine which easily betrayed him and others that followed him into great errours and mistakes He wrote five Books entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the explanation of our Lords Discourses and as he in h Steph Gob. ap â—bot Cod. CCXXXII col 901. Photius intimates and the i Au. III Oâ—vnp 235. Ind. I. M. Aâ—â—elâ—â— Alexandrine Chronicon expresly affirms died a Martyr being put to death at Pergamus in the Persecution under M. Aurelius He is said to have trained up many Scholars in the Christian Institution and among the rest our Irenaeus Which though not improbable yet we are sure not onely from the testimonies of a H. Eccl. l. 5. c. 5. p. 170. Eusebius and b Adv. Haeres dial 1. Theodoret but what is more from his c Epist ad Flor. apâ—d Euseb lb. c. 20. p. 188 Hieroâ— de Script iâ— Iren. own that he was trained
Justin Martyr the rest are of an inferiour and more inconsiderable notice As for his affirming that our Lord was near d Adv. Haeres l. 2 c. 39. p. 192. c. 40. ibid. fifty years of age at the time of his public Ministry it was an errour into which he was betrayed partly from a false supposition that our Lord must be of a more mature and elderly Age that so he might deliver his doctrine with the greater authority partly from a mistaken report which he had somewhere picked up and it may be from his Master Papias that S. John and the rest of the Apostles had so affirmed and taught it and partly out of opposition to his adversaries who maintained that our Saviour staid no longer upon earth then till the thirty first year of his age against whom the eagerness of disputation tempted him to make good his assertion from any plausible pretence and to take the hint though his impetus and the desire of prosecuting his Argument would not give his thoughts leave to cool and take the place into sober consideration from that question of the Jews to Christ thou art not yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham whence in transitu he took it for granted that the Jews had some ground for what they said and that he must be near that age XI HIS care to have his Writings derived pure and uncorrupted to posterity was great and admirable adding to his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this solemn and religious obtestation e Ap. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 5. c 20. p. 187. I adjure thee whoever thou art that shalt transcribe this Book by our Lord Jesus Christ and by his glorious coming wherein he shall judge the quick and the dead that thou compare what thou transcribest and diligently correct it by the Copy from whence thou transcribest it and that thou likewise transcribe this adjuration and annex it to thy Copy And well had it been with the ancient Writers of the Church had their Books been treated with this care and reverence more of them had been conveyed down to us at least those few that are had arrived more sound and unpolluted I note no more and it is what Eusebius long since thought worth taking notice of then that in his time miraculous gifts and powers were very common in the Church For so he f Adv. Haeres l. 2. c. 57. p. 218. ap Eusch l. 5. c. 7. p. 171. tells us that some expelled and cast out Devils the persons often embracing Christianity upon it others had Visions and Revelations and foretold things to come some spake all manner of Languages and as occasion was discovered mens thoughts and secret purposes and expounded the mysteries and deep things of God others miraculously healed the sick and by laying their hands upon them restored their health and many who raised the dead the persons so raised living among them many years after The Gifts as he speaks which God in the name of our crucified Lord then bestowed upon the Church being innumerable all which they sincerely and freely improved to the great advantage and benefit of the World Whence with just reason he urges the truth of our Religion in general and how much advantage true Christians had to triumph over all those Impostors and Seducers who sheltered themselves under the venerable Title of being Christians His Writings Extant Adversus Haereses seu De refutatione eversione falsae scientiae Libri V. Not extant Libellus de Scientia adversus Gentes Demonstratio Apostolicae praedicationis ad Marcianum fratrem Liber de Ogdoade Epistola ad Blastum de Schismate Ad Florinum de Monarchia seu Quod Deus non sit conditor mali Epistola Ad Victorem Episcopum Romanum de Paschate Epistola Ad varios Episcopos de eadem re Epistolae plures Variorum Tractatuum Liber The End of S. IRENAEUS 's Life THE LIFE OF S. THEOPHILUS BISHOP of ANTIOCH Micha Burg Dili et sculpsit S. THEOPHILUS ANTIOCHENUS The great obscurity of his Originals His learned and ingenuous Education and natural parts An account of his Conversion to Christianity and the reasons inducing him thereunto collected out of his own Writings His scrupling the Doctrine of the Resurrection The great difficulty of entertaining that Principle Synesius his case Theophilus his conquering this objection His great satisfaction in the Christian Religion His election to the Bishoprick of Antioch His desire to convert Autolycus Autolycus who His mighty prejudice against Christianity Theophilus his undertaking him and his free and impartial debating the case with him His excellent merage of the controversie His vigorous opposing the Heresies of those times His Books against Marcion and Hermogenes His death and the time of it S. Hieroms Character of his Works His Writings I. THOUGH the Ancients furnish us with very few notices concerning this venerable Bishop yet perhaps it may not be unacceptable to the Reader to pick up that little which may be found The mistake is not worth confuting and scarce deserves mentioning that makes him the same with that Theophilus of Antioch to whom S. Luke dedicates his Evangelical Writings so great the distance of time if there were nothing more between them Whether he was born at Antioch is uncertain but where-ever he was born his Parents were Gentiles by whom he was brought up in the common Rites of that Religion that then governed the World They gave him all the accomplishments of a learned and liberal Education and vast improvements he made in the progress of his Studies so that he was throughly versed in the Writings of all the great Masters of Learning and Philosophy in the Heathen World which being set off with a quick and a pleasant wit as appears from his Disputes against the Gentiles rendred him a man of no inconsiderable note and account among them II. WHEN or by what means converted to Christianity is impossible particularly to determine thus much onely may be gathered from the Discourses which he left behind him Being a man of an inquisitive temper and doubtless of a very honest mind he gave up himself to a more free and impartial search into the nature and state of things He found that the account of things which that Religion gave wherein he was then engaged was altogether unsatisfactory that the stories of their gods were absurd and frivolous and some of them prophane and impious that their Rites of Worship were trifling and ridiculous he considered the several parts of the Creation and that excellent providence that governed the World wherein he easily discerned the plain notices of a wise and omnipotent Being and that God had purposely disposed things thus that his Grandeur and Majesty might appear to all Accordingly he directs his friend to this method of conviction as that which doubtless he had found most successful and satisfactory to himself He bids a Ad Autolyc l. 1. p. 72. him
survey and consider the Works of God the vicissitude and alteration of times according to their proper seasons the revolutions of the heavenly bodies the wisely established course of the Elements the beautiful order and disposition of Nights and Days and Months and Years the pleasant and admirable variety of Seeds Plants and Fruits the manifold generations of Beasts Birds Creeping things Fishes and the Inhabitants of the Watery Regions the prudent instinct by which all these Creatures are excited to preserve their kind and nourish their young and that not for their own advantage but for the necessity and pleasure of mankind God by a wise and secret Providence having so ordained that all things should be in subjection unto man And indeed so strangely was he ravished with the consideration of this Argument that he professes * Ibid. l. 2. p. 91. that no man is able duly to describe the singular Order and Oeconomy of the Creation no though he had a thousand mouths and as many tongues and were to live in the World a thousand years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so incomprehensibly great and unfathomable is that Divine Wisdom that shines in the Works of the Creation Thus prepared he seems to have betaken himself and to this also he advises Autolycus a Ibid. p. 110 111. to the consideration of other Volums the Books that contained the Religion of the Christians especially the writings of the Prophets and to have weighed the importance of their Revelations the variety of the persons the meanness and obscurity of their education their exact harmony and agreement the certainty of their predictions and how accurately the prophecy and the event met together so that as he adds b Ibid. p. 11â— whoever would but seriously apply himself to the study of them had a way ready open to come to the exact knowledge of the truth III. ONE thing there was which he himself c Lib. 1. p. 78. seems to intimate did more especially obstruct his full compliance with the Christian Doctrin the belief of the Resurrection He had been brought up in the Schools of Philosophy where he had been taught that from a privation of life there can be no return to the possession of it it is like he could not conceive how mens scattered dust after so many Ages could be recollected and built up again into the same bodies Indeed there is scarce any Principle of the Christian Faith that generally met with more opposition from the wise and the learned and which was more difficultly admitted into their Creed When S. Paul preached to the Philosophers at Athens while he told them of a judgment to come they made no scruple to give it entertainment it being a principle evident by natural light till he discoursed of a future Resurrection and this they rejected with contempt and scorn Acts 17.32 and when they heard of the resurrection of the dead some mocked and the most grave and sober took time to consider of it others said we will hear thee again of this matter And Synesius himself that great Philosopher after his being baptized into the Christian Religion when courted by Theophilus of Alexandria to take upon him the Bishoprick of Ptolemais would not yield d Synes Epist CV p. 249. vid Euagr. H. Eccl. l. 1. c. 15. p. 273. till he had publicly entered his dissent to the doctrine of the Resurrection at least as to the common explication of the Article he looked upon it as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as containing a kind of sacred and ineffable mystery in it but could not comply with the vulgar and received opinions being willing probably to admit it if he might explain it according to the principles of Philosophy and after the Platonic mode Though why the credibility of this Article should stick with any that own a Being of Infinite Power I see not it being equally easie to Omnipotence as e De Refurr mort p. 43. Athenagoras and others discourse upon this Argument to restore our scattered parts and combine them again into the same Mass as it was at first to create them out of nothing But to return to our Theophilus By a frequent reflection f Loc. supr 〈…〉 upon those many shadows of a Resurrection which God hath impressed upon the course of Nature and the standing Phaenomena of Divine Providence he conquered this objection especially after he had conversed with and embraced the holy Volums wherein these things were so positively declared and published And thus he became a Christian being baffled and disappointed in all other refuges he took sanctuary in the Church which as himself expresses it * Lib. 2. p. 93 94. God has set in the World like an Island in the midst of the Sea into whose safe and convenient Harbours the lovers of truth might fly and all those who desired to be saved and to escape the judgment and the wrath to come And glad he was that he ⸫ Vid. l. 1. p. 69. was got thither rejoycing that he bore the name of a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that name that was so dear to God how much soever otherwise despised and scorned by an ignorant and evil Age. IV. ABOUT the year a â—useb Chron. cod anno CLXIX b Annal. p. 359. Eutychius refers it to the sixteenth year of Antoninus his reign or rather the year before his Predecessor Eros being dead he was made Bishop of Antioch accounted by some the sixth by the others the seventh Bishop of that See And neither of them mistaken both being true according to different computations some reckoning S. Peter the first while others beholding him as an Apostle and as acting in a larger and more Oecumenical sphere then a private Bishop begin the account from Euodius as the first Bishop of it S. Theophilus thus fixed in his charge set himself to promote the true interest and happiness of men and as goodness always delights to communicate and diffuse it self he studied to bring over others to that Faith which he had entertained himself Among the rest he attempted a person of note his great friend Autolycus Who this Autolycus was we have no account more then what is given us by Theophilus himself c Theoph. l. 3. p. 119. He was a person learned and eloquent curious in all Arts and Sciences the acquist whereof he pursued with so indefatigable a diligence that he would bury himself among Books and steal hours for study from his necessary rest spending whole nights in Libraries and in conversing with the monuments of the dead But withall a Gentile d Ibid. l. 2. p. 80. infinitely zealous for his Religion and unreasonably prejudiced against Christianity which he cried out of as the highest folly and madness and loaded with all the common charges and calumnies which either the wit or malice of those times had invented to make it odious and for the defence and vindication whereof
was the true standard and measure of truth he considered that no man knows every thing that some things are obvious to one that are overseen or neglected by another that there are wholsom herbs and flowers in every Field and that if the thing be well said 't is no matter who 't is that says it that reason is to be submitted to before authority and though a fair regard be due to the opinions and principles of our Friends yet that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as e Ethic. l. 1. c. 4. p. 3. Tom. 2. Aristotle himself confesses more pious and reasonable to honour and esteem the truth And thus he picked up a System of noble principles like so many Flowers out of several Gardens professing f Laert. loc â—it this to be the great end of all his disquisitions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life perfected according to all the rules of Vertue Of this incomparable Order was our divine Philosopher I espoused not says he g Strom. l. 2. p. 288. this or that Philosophy not the Stoic nor the Platonic not the Epicurean or that of Aristotle but whatever any of these Sects had said that was fit and just that taught righteousness with a divine and religious knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that being selected I call Philosophy Though it cannot be denied but that of any Sect he came nearest to the Stoics as appears from his discoursing by way of Paradoxes and his affected novelty of words two things peculiar to the men of that way as a very learned and ingenious person h H. Dodwel Prolâ—â—â—â— Apol. ad 〈…〉 de 〈…〉 115. has observed And I doubt not but he was more peculiarly disposed towards this Sect by the instructions of his Master Pantaenus so great and professed an admirer of the Stoical Philosophy IV. PANTAENVS being dead he succeeded him in the Schola 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Catechetic School at Alexandria though questionless he taught in it long before that and probably during Pantaenus his absence in India supplying his place till his return and succeeding in it after his death for that he was Pantaenus his Successor the Ancients * Euseb l. 6. c. 6. p. 208. Hieron de Script in Clement Phot. Cod. CXVIII col 297. are all agreed Here he taught with great industry and fidelity and with no less success some of the most eminent men of those times Origen Alexander Bishop of Hicrusalem and others being bred under him And now as a Strom. l. 1. p. 278. himself confesses he found his Philosophy and Gentile-Learning very useful to him for as the Husbandman first waters the soil and then casts in the Seed so the notions he derived out of the Writings of the Gentiles served first to water and soften 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gross and terrestrial parts of the soul that the spiritual seed might be the better cast in and take vital root in the minds of men Besides the Office of a Catechist he was made Presbyter of the Church of Alexandria and that at least about the beginning of Severus his reign for under that capacity Eusebius takes notice of him Ann. CXCV. About which time prompted by his own zeal and obliged by the iniquity of the times he set himself to vindicate the cause of Christianity both against Heathens and Heretics which he has done at large with singular learning and dexterity in his Book called Stromata published about this time for drawing down a Chronological b Strom. l. 1. p. 336. account of things he ends his computation in the death of the Emperour Commodus Whence 't is evident as c Lib. 6. c. 6. p. 208. Eusebius observes that he compiled that Volume in the reign of Severus that succeeded him V. THE Persecution under Severus raged in all Provinces of the Empire and particularly at Alexandria which made many of the Christians for the present willing to retire and Clemens probably among the rest whom we therefore find particularly discoursing d Stromat l. 4. p. 504. the lawfulness of withdrawing in a time of Persecution that though we may not cowardly decline a danger or death when 't is necessary for the sake of Religion yet in other cases we are to follow the direction of our Saviour when they persecute you in one City flee ye into another and not to obey in such a case is to be bold and rash and unwarrantably to precipitate our selves into danger that if it be a great sin against God to destroy a man who is his image that man makes himself guilty of the crime who offers himself to the public tribunal and little better does he that when he may declines not the Persecution but rashly exposes himself to be apprehended thereby to his power conspiring with the wickedness of his Persecutors And if further he irritate and provoke them he is unquestionably the cause of his own ruine like a man that needlesly rouzes and enrages a wild Beast to fall upon him And this opportunity I doubt not he took to visit the Eastern parts where he had studied in his younger days We find him about this time at Jerusalem with Alexander shortly after Bishop of that place between whom there seems to have been a peculiar intimacy insomuch that S. Clemens dedicated e Euseb l. 6. c. 14. pag. 214. Hieron in Clement his Book to him called The Ecclesiastical Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or against them that Judaize During his stay here he preached constantly and declined no pains even in that evil time and with what success we may see by a piece of a Letter written by Alexander then in prison and sent by our S. Clemens to Antioch which we here insert * Apud Euseb ib. c. 11. p. 212. Alexander a Servant of God and a prisoner of Jesus Christ to the blessed Church at Antioch in the Lord greeting Our Lord has made my bonds in this time of my imprisonment light and easie to me while I understood that Asclepiades a person admirably qualified by his eminency in the faith was by the divine Providence become Bishop of your holy Church of Antioch Concluding these Letters worthy Brethren I have sent you by Clemens the blessed Presbyter a man virtuous and approved whom ye both do and shall yet further know who having been here with us according to the good will and providence of God has greatly established and encreased the Church of Christ By which Epistle we may by the way remarque the errour of ⸫ In Chron. ad Ann. CCXII. Eusebius who places Asclepiades his coming to the See of Antioch in the first year of Caracalla Ann. CCXII. whereas we see it was while Alexander was yet in prison under Severus which he himself makes to be Ann. CCV From Jerusalem then Clemens went to Antioch where we cannot question but he took the same pains and laboured with the same zeal and
Baptism and the use of Water in it and its necessity to salvation against Quintilla a woman of great note and eminency among the followers of Montanus what value soever he afterwards seemed to put upon that Sect. VI. ABOUT the XV. of Severus Ann. Chr. CCVII. he published his Book De Pallio upon this occasion He had lately left off the Gown the Garment ordinarily worn in all parts of the Roman Empire and had put on the Cloak the usual habit of Philosophers and of all those Christians that entered upon a severer state of life as we have shewn in the life of Justin Martyr Hereupon he was derided by them of Carthage for his lightness and vanity in so wantonly skipping à Toga ad Pallium from the Gown to the Cloak satyrically taxing his inconstancy in turning from one course of life to another To vindicate himself he writes this Discourse wherein he puts forth the keeness of a Sarcastic Wit and spreads all the sails of his African eloquence retorts the case upon his accusers shews the antiquity simplicity easiness and gravity of this habit and smartly upbraids that luxury and prodigality that had over-run all orders and ranks of men And that this was done about this time and not at his first taking upon him the profession of Christianity is judiciously observed and urged by Baronius a Ad Ann. 197. n. 3. seq and more fully proved by the learned Salmasius in his notes upon that Book Indeed the circumstances mentioned by b De Pall. cap. 2. p. 114. Tertullian do not well suit with any other time as the praesentis Imperii triplex virtus which cannot reasonably be meant of any but Severus and his two Sons Antoninus and Geta whence in several ancient inscriptions they are put together under the title of AVGVSTI and Emperours the present happiness security enlargement and tranquillity of the Roman State which these three powers of the Empire had made like a well-cultivated Field eradicato omni aconito hostilitatis every poysonous weed of hostility and sedition being rooted up with a great deal more to the same purpose Which evidently refers both to his Conquest of Pescennius Niger who usurped the Empire and whom he overthrew and killed at Cyzicum in the East and to his last years Victory as a Euseb Chron. ad eand Ann. Eusebius places it over Clodius Albinus and to his Party whom he subdued and slew at Lyons in France for attempting to make himself Emperour as afterwards he came into Britain maximum ejus Imperii Decus as the * Spart in vit Sever. c. 18. p. 354. Historian stiles it the greatest honour and ornament of his Empire where he conquered the Natives and secured his Conquests by the famous Picts Wall which he built by which means he rendred the State of the Roman Empire pacate and quiet At the same time we may suppose it was that Tertullian was made Presbyter of Carthage and that that was the particular occasion of altering his habit and assuming the Philosophic Pallium the Clergy of those times being generally those who took upon them an Ascetic course of life and for which reason doubtless the Cloak is called by Tertullian in his Dialect b Ibid. c. 4. p. 118. Sacerdos Suggestus the Priestly habit Accordingly c Chron. ad An. CCVIII Eusebius takes notice of him this very year as becoming famous in the account and esteem of all Christian Churches VII BEFORE Severus left Rome in order to his Britanic expedition were solemnized the Decennalia of Antoninus Caracalla when besides many magnificent Sports and Shews and a Largess bestowed upon the People the Emperour gave a Donative to the Souldiers which every one that received was to come up to the Tribune with a Laurel Crown upon his head Among the rest there was one a d De Coron Mi. lit c. 1. p. 100. Christian who brought his Crown along with him in his hand and being asked the reason why like others he wore it not upon his head answered he could not for that he was a Christian A Council of War was presently called and the man accused before the General stripped of his Military ornaments his Cloak Shoes and Sword unmercifully beaten till he was died in his own bloud and then cast into prison there expecting Martyrdom and a better donative and reward from Christ The rest of the Christians who were Fellow-Souldiers in the same Army took offence at his over-nice scrupulosity What was this but needlesly to betray their liberty and to sacrifice the general quiet and peace of Christians to one mans private humour to give the common Enemy too just a provocation to fall upon them where did the Laws of their Religion forbid such an innocent compliance nay rather not onely give leave but command us prudently to decline a danger by withdrawing from it what was this but a sturdy and an affected singularity as if he had been the onely Christian Tertullian whose mighty zeal engaged him to be a Patron to whatever had but the shadow of strictness and severity presently set himself to defend the fact and wrote his Book De Corona Militis wherein he cries up the Act as an heroic piece of Zeal and Christian Magnanimity not onely warrantable but honourable not onely lawful but just and necessary fortifying his assertion with several arguments and endeavouring to disable the most specious objections that were made against it This Military Act and Tertullians vindication of it hapned as we have here placed it Ann. Chr. CCVIII Sever. XVI while others refer it to the year CXCIX Sever. VII when the Emperour by the decree of the Senate created his elder Son Antoninus Emperour and his younger Geta Caesar in testimony whereof he entertained the People with various Shews and Solemnities and bestowed a Donative upon the Souldiers If the Reader like this period of time better I will not contend with him it being what I my self upon second thoughts do not think improbable VIII BUT let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall Tertullian who had hitherto stood firm and right in the Communion of the Catholic Church began now about the middle of his Age says a De Script in Tertull. S. Hierom which I am inclinable rather to understand of his Age as a Christian then the current of his life to incline towards the errours of the Montanists Of which before we give an account it may not be amiss a little to enquire into the Author and Principles of that Sect. b Vet. Script ap Euseb l. 5. c. 16. p. 180 c. Apollon ibid. c. 18. p. 184. Epiph. Haeres XLVIII p. 175. Tertull. de Praescript Haeretic c. 52. p. 223. Montanus was born at Ardaba a little Village in Mysia in the confines of Phrygia where about the latter times of Antoninus Pius but especially in the reign of his Successor he began to shew himself Pride and
b Vid. l. de Menogam c. 1. p. 525. c. 3. 4. passim de Jejun c. 12. p. 550 551. more then once particularly tells us Not to say that Montanus his followers as is usual with the after-brood of every Sect asserted many things which their Master himself never dreamt of which yet without distinction are laid at his door and Tertullian too because a favourer of the Party drawn into the guilt and made liable to many improvements to the Hay and Stubble which the successors of that Sect built upon it X. BUT however it was he stomached his excommunication and was highly offended at the looseness and remissness of the Discipline among the Catholics whom with great smartness he persecutes under the name of Psychici or Animal persons as those that took too much liberty in their manners and practices of devotion stiling his own party Spiritales as whom he thought more immediately guided by the Spirit more plentifully endowed with the gifts of it and conversant in a more divine and spiritual life Against these Psychici he presently published a Tract De Jejuniis wherein he defends the Montanists in the observation of their Fasts their abstinence from Flesh and feeding onely upon dried meats their Stationary days and the keeping them till the very evening while the Orthodox broke up theirs about three of the Clock in the afternoon in all which respects he makes many tart and severe reflections upon them Indeed the devotions of those times were brisk and fervent their usages strict and punctual their Ecclesiastic Discipline generally very rigid and extreme seldom admitting persons that had lapsed after Baptism to Penance and the Communion of the Church But this was looked upon by moderate and sober men as making the gate too strait and that which could not but discourage Coverts from entering in Accordingly it began to be relaxed in several places and particularly the Bishop of Rome c Tert. de Pudic cit c. 1. p. 555. had lately published a constitution wherein he admitted persons guilty of Adultery and Fornication and probably other crimes to a place among the Penitents Against this Tertullian storms cries up the severity of the antient Discipline writes his Book De Pudicitia wherein he considers and disputes the case and aggravates the greatness of those offences and undertakes the Arguments that pleaded for remission and indulgence And if in the mentioning this Decree the Bishop of Rome be stiled Episcopus Episcoporum the Champions of that Church before they make such advantage of it should do well to prove it to have been a part of the Decree or if it was that it was mentioned by Tertullian as his just right and priviledge and not rather which is infinitely more probable Tertullians Sarcasm intended by him as an Ironical reflection and a tart upbraiding the pride and ambition of the Bishops of that Church who took too much upon them and began as appears from Pope Victors carriage towards the Asian Churches in the case of Easter to domineer over their Brethren and usurp an insolent authority over the whole Christian Church And that this was his meaning I am abundantly satisfied from a Apud Cyprian p. 282. Cyprians using the phrase in this very sense in the famous Synod at Carthage where reflecting upon the rash and violent proceedings of the Bishops of Rome whom though he particularly names not yet all who are acquainted with the Story know whom he means against those who were engaged in the cause of rebaptizing Heretics he adds that as for themselves the Bishops then in the Synod none of them made himself Bishop of Bishops or by a tyrannical threatning forced his Colleagues into a necessity of Compliance since every Bishop according to the power and liberty granted to him had his proper jurisdiction and could no more be judged by another then he himself could judge others XI WHETHER ever he was reconciled to the Catholic Communion appears not 't is certain that for the main he forsook the b August de Haeres c. 86. Tom. 6. col 31. Cataphrygians and kept his separate meetings at Carthage and his Church was yet remaining till S. Augustins time by whose labours the very reliques of his followers called Tertullianists were dispersed and quite disappeared How long he continued after his departure from the Church is not known S. Hierom c De Script in Tertull. says that he lived to a very decrepit age but whether he died under the reign of Alexander Severus or before the Ancients tell us not as neither whether he died a natural or violent death He seems indeed to have been possessed with a passionate desire of laying down his life for the Faith though had he been a Martyr some mention would without peradventure have been made of it in the Writings of the Church XII HE was a man of a smart and acute wit though a little too much edged with Keeness and Satyrism acris vehementis ingenii as d Loc. citat S. Hierom characters him one that knew not how to treat an adversary without salt and sharpness He was of a stiff and rugged disposition a rigid Censor inclined to choler and impatient of opposition a strict observer of Rites and Discipline and a zealous asserter of the highest rigors and most nice severities of Religion His learning was admirable wherein though many excelled he had no superiours and few equals in the Age he lived in Tertulliano quid eruditius quid acutius says e Epist ad Mag. Grator p. 328. T. 2. S. Hierom who adds that his Apology and Book against the Gentiles took in all the treasures of Humane Learning f Commonit adv Haeres cap. 24 p. 59 60. Vincentius of Lire gives him this notable Elogium He is justly says he to be esteemed the Prince among the Writers of the Latin Church For what more learned who more conversant both in divine and humane Studies who by a strange largeness and capacity of mind had drawn all Philosophy and its several Sects the Authors and Abettors of Heresies with all their Rites and Principles and the whole circumference of History and all kind of Study within the compass of his own breast A man of such quick and weighty parts that there was scarce any thing which he set himself against which he did not either pierce through with the acumen of his Wit or batter down with the strength and solidity of his Arguments Who can sufficiently commend his Discourses so thick set with Troops of Reasons that whom they cannot persuade they are ready to force to an assent who hath almost as many sentences as words and not more periods then victories over those whom he hath to deal with XIII FOR his Books though time has devoured many yet a great number still remain and some of them written after his withdrawment from the Church His stile is for the most part abrupt and
The Apologies written in his behalf Several things noted out of the Ancients to extenuate the charge His assertions not Dogmatical Not intended for public view Generally such as were not determined by the Church His Books corrupted and by whom His own complaints to that purpose The testimonies of Athanasius and Theotimus and Haymo in his vindication Great errours and mistakes acknowledged What things contributed to them His great kindness for the Platonic Principles S. Hierom 's moderate censure of him His repenting of his rash Propositions His Writings enumerated and what now extant I. ORIGEN called also Adamantius either from the unwearied temper of his mind and that strength of reason wherewith he compacted his Discourses or his firmness and constancy in Religion notwithstanding all the assaults made against it was born at Alexandria the known Metropolis of Egypt unless we will suppose that upon some particular Tumult or Persecution raised against the Christians in that City his Parents fled for refuge to the Mountainous parts thereabouts where his Mother was delivered of him and that thence he was called Origenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 330. T. 2. quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which most conceive to be the Etymology of his name one born in the Mountains But whether that be the proper derivation of the Word or the other the particular occasion of its imposition let the Reader determine as he please However I believe the Reader will think it a much more probable and reasonable conjecture then what one a Halloix not ad Orig. defens c. 1. p. 1. supposes that he was so called because born of holy Parents the Saints in Scripture being as he tells us sometimes metaphorically stiled Mountains The first and the last I dare say that ever made that conjecture A learned man b Voss de Idol l. 2. c. 10. p. 182. supposes him rather and thinks no doubt can be made of it so called from Orus an Egyptian word and with them the title of Apollo or the Sun from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no question which signifies light or fire one of their principal Deities Hence Orus the name of one of the Egyptian Kings as it has been also of many others And thus as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes Diogenes one born of Jupiter so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived Origenes one descended of Or or Orus a Deity solemnly worshipped at Alexandria A conjecture that might have commanded its own entertainment did not one prejudice lie against it that we can hardly conceive so good a man and so severe a Christian as Origens Father would impose a name upon his Child for which he must be beholden to an Heathen Deity and whom he might see every day worshipped with the most sottish Idolatry that he should let him perpetually carry about that remembrance of Pagan Idolatry in his name which they so particularly and so solemnly renounced in their Baptism But to return II. HE was born about the year of our Lord CLXXXVI being seventeen c Euseb H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 2. p. 202. years of age at his Fathers death who suffered Ann. Chr. CCII. Severi X. His Father was Leonides whom Suidas d In voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 389. Tom. 2. and some others without any authority that I know of from the Ancients make a Bishop to be sure he was a good man and a Martyr for the Faith In his younger years he was brought up under the tutorage of his own e Euseb ibid. p. 202. Father who instructed him in all the grounds of humane literature and together with them took especial care to instill the principles of Religion seasoning his early age with the notices of divine things so that like another Timothy from a child he knew the holy Scriptures and was thoroughly exercised and instructed in them Nor was his Father more diligent to insinuate his instructions then the subject he managed was capable to receive them Part of his daily task was to learn and repeat some parts of the holy Scriptures which he readily discharged But not satisfied with the bare reading or recital of them he began to enquire more narrowly into the more profound sense of them often importuning his Father with questions what such or such a passage of Scripture meant The good man though seemingly reproving his busie forwardness and admonishing him to be content with the plain obvious sense and not to ask questions above his age did yet inwardly rejoice in his own mind and heartily bless God that he had made him the Father of such a child Much ado had the prudent man to keep the exuberance of his love and joy from running over before others but in private he gave it vent frequently going into the Chamber where the Youth lay asleep and reverently kissing his naked brest the treasury of an early piety and a divine spirit reflected upon himself how happy he was in so excellent a Son So great a comfort so invaluable a blessing is it to pious parents to see their children setting out betimes in the way of righteousness and sucking in Religion almost with their Mothers milk III. HAVING passed over his paternal education he was put to perfect his Studies under the Institution of Clemens Alexandrinus then Regent of the Catechist School at Alexandria where according to the acuteness of his parts and the greatness of his industry he made vast improvements in all sorts of learning From him he betook himself to Ammonius who had then newly set up a Platonic School at Alexandria and had reconciled a Hierocl l. 1. de provid Fat. ap Phot. Cod. CCXIV. col 549. Cod. CCLI col 1381. those inveterate feuds and differences that had been between the Schools of Plato and Aristotle and which had reigned among their Disciples till his time which he did says my Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of a divine transport for the truth of Philosophy despising the little opinions and wrangling contentions of peevish men and propounding a more free and generous kind of Philosophy to his Auditors Among whom was our Origen as Porphyry b Apud Euseb iâ—id c. 19. p. 220 vid. Theod. Serm. VI. de Provid p. 96. besides others witnesses who saw Origen when himself but a Youth This Ammonius was called Saccas from his carrying c Vid. Theod. loco citat sacks of Corn upon his back being a Porter by imployment before he betook himself to the Study of Philosophy one of the most learned and eloquent men of those times a great Philosopher and the chief of the Platonic Sect and which was above all a Christian born and brought up among them as d Loc. citat Porphyry himself is forced to confess though when he tells us that afterwards upon maturer consideration and his entering upon Philosophy he renounced Christianity and embraced Paganism and the Religion
renown and accordingly came thither while Pope Zephyrin sate Bishop of that See where he staid not long but returned back to Alexandria and to his accustomed Catechetic office Demetrius earnestly importuning him to resume it But finding the imployment c Ibid. c. 15. p. 217. grow upon him and so wholly to engross his time as not to allow him the least leisure for retirement and contemplation and the study of the Scriptures so fast did auditors press in upon him from morning to night he took in Heraclas who had been his Scholar a man versed both in divine and humane Studies to be his Partner dividing the work between them the younger and more untutored Catechumens he committed to him the maturer and those who had been of a longer standing he reserved to be instructed by himself And now he gave up himself to a closer and more accurate Study of the holy Scriptures which that he might manage with the better success he set himself to learn the Hebrew Tongue the true Key to unlock the Door wherein as d Apolog. adv Ruffin Tom. 2. p. 201. S. Hierom probably intimates he was assisted by the help of Huillus the Jewish Patriarch at that time at least in the Rabbinic Exposition of the Scripture a thing little understood in those times and the place he lived in and to him who was now in the prime of his age and the Flower of more pleasing and delightful Studies no doubt very difficult and uneasie But nothing is hard to an industrious diligence and a willing mind X. NOR did his pains in this interrupt his activity in his other imployments where he perceived e Eus ib. c. 18. p. 218. any of his Scholars of more smart and acute understandings he first instructed them in Geometry Arithmetic and other preparatory Institutions and then brought them through a course of Philosophy discovering the Principles of each Sect and explaining the Books of the Ancients and sometimes himself writing Comments upon them so that the very Gentiles cried him up for an eminent Philosopher The ruder and more unpolished part of his auditory he would often exhort to the Study of humane Arts assuring them that they would not a little conduce to the right understanding of the holy Scriptures Many flocked to him to make trial of his famed Skill and Learning others to be instructed in the Precepts both of Philosophy and Christianity Great numbers of Heretics were his Auditors some of whom he converted from the errour of their way and among the rest * Euseb ib. Hieron de Scrip. in Ambros Suid. in Voc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph ubi supr p. 228. Ambrosius a man of Nobility and Estate at Alexandria having been seduced into the Errours of Marcion and Valentinus being convinced by Origen's Discourses renounced his former Heresies and returned to the Catholic Doctrin of the Church and ever after became his intimate Friend his great Patron and Benefactor He was a man of neat elegant parts and was continually prompting Origen to explain and interpret some part of the Scripture as oft as they were together as a Epist ap Suid. ubi supr p. 390 vid. Hieron Ep. ad Marcell p. 129. Tom. 1. Origen himself informs us he suffered not a Supper time to pass without discourses to this purpose nor their very walks and recreations to be without them a great part of the night besides their morning studies were spent upon these pious exercises their meals and their rest were ushered in with continual Lectures and both night and day where Prayer ended Reading began as after reading they again betook themselves to Prayer Indeed this Ambrose was a pious and good man and though so great a person did not disdain to take upon him the Office of a Deacon in the Church nay to undergo great hardships and sufferings becoming an eminent Confessor for the Faith And there is onely this blot b Hieron de Script in Ambrof that I know of that sticks upon his memory that when he died rich he remembred not his dear and ancient Friend whose low and mean condition might well have admitted as his pains and intimacy might deservedly have challenged a bountiful legacy to have been bequeathed to him XI ABOUT this time came a c Euseb ibid. c. 19. p. 221. Messenger from the Governour of Arabia with Letters to Demetrius the Bishop and to the Praefect of Egypt desiring that with all speed Origen might be sent to impart the Christian Doctrin to him so considerable had the fame of this great man rendred him abroad in foreign Nations Accordingly he went into Arabia where having dispatched his errand he came back to Alexandria Not long after whose return the Emperour Caracalla drew his Army into those parts intending to fall severely upon that City To avoid whose rage and cruelty Origen thought good to withdraw himself and not knowing any place in Egypt that could afford him shelter he retired into Palestin and fixed his residence at Caesarea Where his excellent abilities being soon taken notice of he was requested by the Bishops of those parts though but then in the capacity of a Laic publicly in the Church and before themselves to expound the Scriptures to the People The news hereof was presently carried to Alexandria and highly resented by Demetrius who by Letters expostulated the case with Theoctistus Bishop of Caesarea and Alexander of Jerusalem as a thing never heard of before in the Christian Church who in their answer put him in mind that this had been no such unusual thing whereof they give him particular instances All which satisfied not Demetrius who by Letters commanded Origen to return and sent Deacons on purpose to urge him to it whereupon he came back and applied himself to his wonted charge XII ALEXANDER SEVERVS the present Emperour in order to his expedition against the Persians was come to Antioch attended with his mother Mammaea a wise and prudent and says d Ibid. c. 21. p. 223. vid. excerpt ex Jo. Antioch p. 830. Eusebius a most pious and religious Princess a great influence she had upon her Son whom she engaged in a most strict and constant administration of Justice and the affairs of the Empire that he might have no leisure to be debauched by Vice and Luxury Indeed he was a Prince of incomparable Vertues Historians representing him as mild and gentle compassionate and charitable sober and temperate just and impartial devout and pious one advanced to the Empire for the recovery and happiness of mankind He was no enemy to Christians whom he did not onely not persecute but favour at every turn and in his private Oratory he had among other Heroes the Images of Abraham and of Christ and was once minded to have built a Temple to him and publicly admitted him into the number of their gods He highly admired some precepts of the Christian Religion and from their Discipline learned some Rites
accomplished with a prodigious furniture of learning and all the improvements which Rome or Greece could afford being incomparably skilled as d De script in Orig. S. Hierom and e In Orig. p. 387. Suidas observes both in Gentile and Christian learning Logic Geometry Arithmetic Music Philosophy Rhetoric and the several sentiments and opinions of all the Sects of Philosophy and who always entertained his Auditors with something above common observation So great the force and acuteness of his parts says Vincentius Lerinensis f Contr. Haeres c. 23. p. 55. so profound quick and elegant that none could come near him so vast his stock of all sorts of Learning that there were few corners of divine and perhaps none of humane Philosophy which he had not accurately searched into and when the Greeks could lead him no further with an unparallel'd industry he conquered the language and learning of the Jews But no other character need be given him then what Porphyry a Ap. Euseb l. 6. c. 19. p. 220. who knew him though a learned man b L. Holsten de vit script Porphyr c. 6. p. 27. who from that passage in Eusebius makes him to have been his Scholar proceeds doubtless upon a great mistake and was an enemy bestows upon him that he was held in very great esteem in those times and had purchased a more then ordinary glory and renown from the greatest Masters which Christianity then had in the World and that under the discipline of Ammonius he attained to an admirable skill in Learning and Philosophy The monuments and evidences whereof as he there observes were the Books and Writings which he left behind him considerable not for their Subjects onely but their multitude arising to that vast number that Epiphanius c Ubi supr p. 256. vid. Ruffin Apol. pro Orig. inter Oper. Hier. T. 4. p. 197. tells us it was commonly reported that he wrote six thousand Volumes The greatest part of which being understood of Epistles and single Homilies the account will not be above belief nor give any just foundation for Rufinus and S. Hierom to wrangle so much about it the latter of whom point-blank denies that ever himself read or that Origen himself wrote so many d Loc. citat Vincentius affirms that no man ever wrote so much as he and that all his Books could not onely not be read but not so much as be found out by any So that it was not without reason that antiquity fastned the title of Syntacticus or the Composer upon him his innumerable Discourses upon all sorts of Subjects justly appropriating that title to him His Books were of old enumerated by many and digested into their proper Classes whether Scholia short strictures upon obscure difficult places Homilies and Tomes as the Ancients divided them or Exegetica and Syntagmata under which rank some Modern Writers comprehend them the greatest part whereof though they have long since perished through the carelessness and ill will of succeeding Times yet does a very large portion of them still remain His phrase and way of writing is clear and unaffected fluent and copious e Censur de Oper. Orig. Erasmus gives a high encomium of it preferring it before most other Writers of the Church that it is neither turgid and lofty like that of S. Hilary flying above the reach of ordinary Readers nor set off with gaudy and far-fetcht ornaments like that of S. Hierom nor abounding with flowers of Rhetoric and smart witty sentences like that of S. Ambrose nor over-seasoned with tart and satyrical reflections and obscured with obsolete and antiquated terms as that of Tertullian not superstitious in the curious and accurate structure of its several parts like that of S. Gregory nor running out into large digressions nor affecting a chiming cadency of words like that of St. Augustin but always brisk and lively easie and natural But when he commends it for its conciseness and brevity he certainly forgot himself or mistook and what wonder he should when t is like he took his measures not so much from the Original as Translations For his stile though it be generally plain and perspicuous yet is it diffusive and luxuriant flowing with plenty of words which might be often spared and therefore charged by some of his critical adversaries that he did infinita verba multiplicare f Epiph. Ep. ad Joan. Hierosol ap Hieron T. 2. p 158. g Eustath Antioch dissot de Engastrym adv Orig. inter Crit. S. Tom. 8. col 441 453. multiply an infinite crowd of words and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he filled the World with a company of needless and idle words which he unmeasurably poured out and that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceedingly trifle with vain tautologies and repetitions A censure wherein envy and emulation must be supposed to have had the predominant and over-ruling stroke For though abounding with words he was always allowed to be eloquent for which Vincentius highly commends him Ubi supr affirming his phrase to be so sweet pleasant and delightful that there seemed to him to have dropt not words so much as honey from his mouth XXVI BUT that alas which has cast clouds and darkness upon all his glory and buried so much of his fame in ignominy and reproach is the dangerous and unsound doctrines and principles which are scattered up and down his writings for which almost all Ages without any reverence to his parts learning piety and the judgment of the wisest and best of the times he lived in have without any mercy pronounced him Heretic and his sentiments and speculations rash absurd pernicious blasphemous and indeed what not The alarm began of old and was pursued with a mighty clamour and fierceness especially by Methodius Bishop of Olympus Eustathius of Antioch Apollinaris Theophilus of Alexandria and Epiphanius and the cry carried on with a loud noise in after-ages insomuch that the very mention of his name is in the Greek Church abominable at this day I had once resolved to have considered the chief of those notions and principles for which Origen is so heavily charged by the Ancients but superseded that labor when I found that the industry of the learned Monsieur Huet in his Origeniana had left no room for any to come after him so fully so clearly so impartially with such infinite variety of reading has he discussed and canvassed this matter and thither I remit the learned and capable Reader And for those that cannot or will not be at the pains to read his large and excellent Discourses they may consult nearer hand the ingenious Author of the Letter of Resolution concerning Origen and the chief of his opinions Edit Lond. 1661. 4. where they will find the most obnoxious of his dogmata reckoned up and the Apologies and Defences which a sincere lover of Origen might be supposed to make in his behalf and these
excellency of those ascribed to him The great honours done to his memory I. THASCIVS Caecilius Cyprian was born at Carthage in the declining part of the foregoing Saeculum though the particular year cannot be ascertained Who or what his Parents were is unknown a Ad Ann. 250. n. V. vid. not ad Martyrol Rom. Sept. XXVI p. 600. Cardinal Baronius not to mention others makes him descended of a rich honourable Family and himself to have been one of the chief of the Senatorian Order and this upon the authority of Nazianzen b Orat. in laud. S. Cypr. p. 275. who indeed affirms it but then certainly forgot that in very few lines before he had exploded as a fabulous mistake the confounding our Cyprian with another of the same name of whom Nazianzen unquestionably meant it For besides our Carthaginian Cyprian there was another born at Antioch a person of great learning and eminency who travelled through Greece Phrygia Egypt India Chaldaea and where not famous for the Study and the Arts of Magic by which he sought to compass the affections of Justina a noble Christian Virgin at Antioch by whose prayers and endeavours he was converted baptized made first Sexton then Deacon of that Church was indued with miraculous powers and afterwards consecrated Bishop of that Church though I confess I find not his name in the Catalogue of the Bishops of that See drawn up by Nicephorus of Constantinople and at last having been miserably tormented at Antioch was sent to Dioclesian himself then at Nicomedia by whose command together with Justina sent thither also at the same time from Damascus he was beheaded The History of all which was largely described in three Books in Verse written by the noble Empress Eudocia the excerpta whereof are still extant in a Cod. CLXXXIV col 416. Photius This account Simeon the Metaphrast Nicephorus and the later Greeks without any scruple attribute to S. Cyprian of Carthage nay some of them make him to suffer Martyrdom under the Decian Persecution Though in the whole mistake the more to be pardoned in that not onely Prudentius but Nazianzen had long before manifestly confounded these two eminent persons who finding several passages of the Antiochian Cyprian very near a kin to the other carried all the rest along with them as two persons very like are oft mistaken the one for the other To prove that our Cyprian was not him described by Nazianzen were a vain and needless attempt the accounts concerning them being so vastly different both as to their Countrey Education manner of Life Episcopal charge the time place and companions of their death that it is plainly impossible to reconcile them But of this enough II. S. CYPRIAN's education was ingenuous b Pont. Diac. in vit Cypr. non longe ab init polished by Study and the Liberal Arts though he principally addicted himself to the Study of Oratory and Eloquence wherein he made such vast improvements that publicly and with great applause he taught Rhetoric at e Hier. de script in Cypriano Carthage All which time he lived in great pomp and plenty in honour and power his garb splendid his retinue stately never going abroad as himself tells us d Ad Donat. Epist 1. p. 2. but he was thronged with a crowd of Clients and Followers The far greatest part of his life he passed among the errours of the Gentile Religion and was at least upon the borders of old Age when he was rescued from the Vassalage of inveterate Customs the darkness of Idolatry and the errours and vices of his past life as e Ubi supra himself intimates in his Epistle to Donatus He was converted to Christianity by the arguments and importunities of Caecilius f Pont. ibid. p. 12. a Presbyter of Carthage a person whom ever after he loved as a friend and reverenced as a father And so mutual an endearment was there between them that Cyprian in honour to him assumed the title of Caecilius and the other at his death made him his Executor and committed his Wife and Children to his sole care and tutelage Being yet a Catechumen g Id. ibid. p. 11. he gave early instances of a great and generous piety professed a strict and severe temperance and sobriety accounting it one of the best preparations for the entertainment of the truth to subdue and tread down all irregular appetites and inclinations His estate at least the greatest part of it he sold and distributed it among the necessities of the Poor at once triumphing over the love of the World and exercising that great duty of Mercy and Charity which God values above all the Ritual Devotions in the World So that by the speedy progress of his piety says Pontius his Friend and Deacon he became almost a perfect Christian before he had learnt the rules of Christianity III. BEING fully instructed in the rudiments of the Christian Faith he was baptized h Epist 1. p. 2 3 when the mighty assistances which he received from above perfectly dispelled all doubts enlightned all obscurities and enabled him with ease to do things which before he looked upon as impossible to be discharged Not long after he was called to the inferiour Ecclesiastic Offices and then advanced to the degree of Presbyter wherein he so admirably behaved himself that he was quickly summoned to the highest order and honour in the Church Donatus his immediate predecessor in the See of Carthage as his own words a Epist 55. p. 82 seem to imply being dead the general vogue both of Clergy and People Felicissimus the Presbyter and some very few of his party onely dissenting b Epist 40. p. 53. was for Cyprian to succeed him But the great modesty and humility of the man made him flie c P. Diac. p. 12. from the first approaches of the news he thought himself unfit for so weighty and honourable an imployment and therefore desired that a more worthy person and some of his Seniors in the Faith might possess the place His declining it did but set so much the keener an edge upon the desires and expectations of the People his doors were immediately crowded and all passages of escape blocked up he would indeed have fled out at the window but finding it in vain he unwillingly yielded the People in the mean while impatiently waiting divided between hope and fear till seeing him come forth they received him with an universal joy and satisfaction This charge he entered upon Ann. CCXLVIII as himself d Epist 55. p. 80 plainly intimates when in his Letter to Cornelius he tells him he had been four years Bishop of Carthage which Epistle was written not long after the beginning of Cornelius his Pontificat Ann. CCLI It was the third Consulship of Philip the Emperour a memorable time it being the thousandth year ab Vrbe Condita when the Ludi Saeculares were celebrated at Rome with all imaginable magnificence
he was carried aside into a by-place where he rested himself upon a seat which by chance was covered with a linnen cloth that so says my Author even in the hour of his Passion he might enjoy some part of Episcopal honour The length and hurry of his walk had put the infirm and aged man into a violent sweat which being observed by a Military Messenger who had formerly been a Christian he came to him and offered to accommodate him with dry linnen in stead of that wet and moist that was about him this he did in a pretended civility but really with design to have secured some monument of the Martyrs last agony and labour who returned no other answer then We seek to cure complaints and sorrows which perhaps to day shall be no more for ever By this time the Proconsul was come out who looking upon him said Art thou Thascius Cyprian who hast been Bishop and Father to men of an impious mind the sacred Emperours command thee to do sacrifice Be well advised and do not throw away thy life The holy Martyr replied I am Cyprian I am a Christian and I cannot sacrifice to the gods do as thou art commanded as for me in so just a cause there needs no consultation The Proconsul was angry at his resolute constancy and told him that he had been a long time of this sacrilegious humour had seduced abundance into the same wicked conspiracy with himself and shewn himself an enemy to the gods and religion of the Roman Empire one whom the pious and religious Emperours could never reduce to the observance of their holy Rites that therefore being found to be the Author and Ring-leader of so hainous a crime he should be made an example to those whom he had seduced into so great a wickedness and that disciplin and severity should be established in his bloud Whereupon he read his sentence out of a table-Table-book I will that Thascius Cyprian be beheaded To which the Martyr onely answered I heartily thank Almighty God who is pleased to set me free from the chains of the body XVI SENTENCE being passed he was led away from the Tribunal with a strong guard of Souldiers infinite numbers of people crouding after the Christians weeping and mourning and crying out let us also be beheaded with him The place of Execution was Sextus his Field a large Circuit of ground where the Trees whereof the place was full were loaded with persons to behold the Spectacle The Martyr presently began to strip himself first putting off his cloak which he folded up and laid at his feet and falling down upon his knees recommended his soul to God in prayer after which he put off his Dalmatic or under-coat which he delivered to the Deacons and so standing in nothing but a linnen vestment expected the headsman to whom he commanded the sum of about VI. Cum venisset Spiculator jussit suis ut eidem Spiculatori XXV alia Acta habent XX. aureos darent Act. Cypr. p. 18. Aureus sub imperatoribus Romanis valuit de nostro 15 s. sed sub Alexandro Severo primo cusi sunt Semissis Aurei de nostro 7 s. 6 d. Tremissis Aurei qui valuit de nostro 5 s. vid. Brierw de Num. cap. 14. de ultimo hunc ex Actis Cypriani locum intelligindum puto pounds to be given the Brethren spreading linnen cloths about him to preserve his bloud from being spread upon the ground His shirt sleeves being tied by Julian or as one of the Acts calls him Tullian the Presbyter and Julian the Sub-deacon he covered his eyes with his own hand and the Executioner did his Office His body was by the Christians deposited not far off but at night for fear of the Gentiles removed and with abundance of lights and torches solemnly interred in the Coemetery of Macrobius Candidus a Procurator near the Fish-ponds in the Mappalian way This was done Ann. CCLVIII. Valeriani Gallien V. so extravagantly wide is the account of the a Ann. 4. Olymplad CCLIII Indict XIII p. 626. Alexandrin Chronicle if it means the same person when it tells us that S. Cyprian suffered Martyrdom Ann. Alexandri Imp. XIII that is Ann. Chr. CCXXXIV though the Consuls under which he places it and this agrees better with his other accounts both of the Olympiads and of Christs Ascension assign it to the last year of Maximinus Ann. Chr. CCXXXVII for so he says that it was CCV years after our Lords ascension into Heaven Which was however far enough from truth Indeed elsewhere a An. I. Olymp. 259. Ind. IV. Valer. II. he places S. Cyprian's Martyrdom Valeriani II. which as appears by the Consuls should be V. that is Ann. Chr. CCLVIII. But it is no new thing with that Author to confound times and persons and assign the same events to different years Thus died this good man the first Bishop of his See that suffered Martyrdom as b Ibid. pag. 16. Pontius his Deacon informs us who was a true lover of him and followed him to the last and professes himself not to rejoice so much at the glory and triumph of his Master as to mourn that he himself was left behind XVII S. CYPRIAN though starting late ran apace in the Christian race He had a soul inflamed with a mighty love and zeal for God whose honour he studied by all ways to promote A wise and prudent Governour a great asserter of the Churches Rights a resolute Patron and defender of the Truth a faithful and vigilant Overseer of his flock powerful and diligent in preaching prudent in his determinations moderate in his counsels Quaecunque bona in multis libris tuis intulisâ—â— nescius ipsum te nobis designasti es enim omnibus in tractatu major in sermone sacundior in consiliâ— sapientior in patientia simplicior in operibus largior in abstinentia sanctior in obsequio hamilior in actu bono innocentioâ— Nemes c. Martyr Epist ad Cypr. p. 157. grave and severe in his admonitions pathetical and affectionate in his persuasives indulgent to the Penitent but inflexible to the obstinate and contumacious Infinite pains he took to reclaim the lapsed and to restore them to the Church by methods of penance c Vid. ad Cornel Epist 55. p. 85. and due humiliation he invited them kindly treated them tenderly if their minds were honest and their desires sincere he would not rigorously examine their crimes by over-nice weights and measures so prone to pity and compassion that he was afraid lest he himself offended in remitting other mens offences He valued the good of souls above the love of his own life constant in the profession of Religion from which neither by hopes nor fears could he be drawn aside How strictly chast and continent he was even in his first entrance upon Christianity we have noted in the beginning of his life His humility eminently appeared in his declining the honour of the
judgment and our conformity to him in glory and to hope for a state in the Kingdom of God wherein they should be entertained with such little and trifling such fading and transitory things as this World does afford Dionysius being then in the Province of the Arsenoitae where this Opinion had prevailed so far as to draw whole Churches into Schism and Separation summoned the Presbyters and Teachers who preached in the Country Villages and as many of the People as had a mind to come advising them that in their Sermons they would publicly examine this Doctrin They presently defended themselves with this Book whereupon he began more closely to join issue with them continuing with them three days together from morning to night weighing and discussing the doctrins contained in it In all which time he admired their constancy and love to truth their great quickness and readiness of understanding with so much order and decency so much modesty and moderation were the Discourses managed on both sides doubts propounded and assent yielded For they took an especial care not pertinaciously to defend their former opinions when once they found them to be erroneous nor to shun any objections which on either part were made against them As near as might be they kept to the present question which they endeavoured to make good but if convinced by argument that they were in the wrong made no scruple to change their minds and go over to the other side with honest minds and sincere intentions and hearts truly devoted to God embracing whatever was demonstrated by the holy Scriptures The issue was that Coracion the Commander and Champion of the other Party publicly promised and protested before them all that he would not henceforth either entertain or dispute or discourse or preach these opinions being sufficiently convinced by the arguments which the other side had offered to him all the Brethren departing with mutual love unanimity and satisfaction Such was the peaceable conclusion of this Meeting and less could not be expected from such pious and honest souls such wise and regular Disputers And happy had it been for the Christian World had all those controversies that have disturbed the Church been managed by such prudent and orderly debates which as usually conducted rather widen the breach then heal and mend it Dionysius to strike the controversie dead while his hand was in wrote a Book concerning the Promises which S. Hierom forgetting what he had truly said a De script in Dionys elsewhere that it was written against Nepos tells b Praef at in l. 18. Com. in Esa p. 242. T. 5. us was written against Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons mistaking the person probably for his opinion in the first part whereof he stated the question laid down his sense concerning it in the second he treated concerning the Revelation of S. John the main Pillar and Buttress of this Opinion where both by reason and the testimony of others he contends that it was not written by S. John the Apostle and Evangelist but by another of that name an account of whose judgment herein we have represented in another place c Antiq. Apost Life of S. John n. 14. XVI THE last controversie wherein he was concerned was that against Paul of Samosata Bishop of Antioch who had d Euseb ubi sup c. 27. p. 277 281. Epiph. Haeres LXV p. 262. Athanas de Syn d. Arim. Seleuc. p. 920. Niceph. l. 6. c. 27. p. 420. confidently vented these and such like impious dogmata that there is but one person in the Godhead that our blessed Saviour was though a holy yet a meer man who came not down from Heaven but was of a meer earthly extract and original in whom the word which he made not any thing distinct from the Father did sometimes reside and sometimes depart from him with abundance of the like wicked and sensless propositions Besides all which he was infinitely obnoxious in his e Epist Synod II. Antioch ap Euseb ib. c. 30. p. 280. c. morals as few men but serve the design of some lust by Schism and bad opinions covetous without any bounds heaping up a vast estate though born a poor mans son partly by fraud and sacriledge partly by cruel and unjust vexations of his brethren partly by fomenting differences and taking bribes to assist the weaker party Proud and vain-glorious he was beyond all measure affecting Pomp and Train and secular Power and rather to be stiled a temporal Prince then a Bishop going through the streets and all public places in solemn state with persons walking before him and crouds of people following after him In the Church he caused to be erected a Throne higher then ordinary and a place which he called Secretum after the manner of Civil Magistrates who in the inner part of the Praetorium had a place railed in with Curtains hung before it where they sate to hear Causes He was wont to clap his hand upon his thigh and to stamp with his feet upon the Bench frowning upon and reproaching those who did not Theatrically shout and make a noise while he was discoursing to them wherein he used also to reflect upon his predecessors and the most eminent persons that had been before him with all imaginable scorn and petulancy magnifying himself as far beyond them The Hymns that were ordinarily sung in honour of our Lord he abolished as late and novel and in stead thereof taught some of his proselyted Females upon the Easter solemnity to chaunt out some which he had composed in his own commendation to the horrour and astonishment of all that heard them procuring the Bishops and Presbyters of the neighbouring parts to publish the same things of him in their Sermons to the People some of his Proselytes not sticking to affirm that he was an Angel come down from Heaven All which he was so far from controlling that he highly encouraged them and heard them himself not onely with patience but delight He was moreover vehemently suspected of incontinency maintaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subintroduced Women in his house and some of them persons of exquisit beauty contrary to the Canons of the Church and to the great scandal of Religion And that he might not be muh reproached by those that were about him he endeavoured to debauch his Clergy conniving at their Vices and Irregularities and corrupting others with Pensions and whom he could not prevail with by evil arts he awed by power and his mighty interest in the Princes and great ones of those parts so that they were forced with sadness to bewail at home what they durst not publish and declare abroad XVII TO rectifie these enormities most of the chief Bishops of the East resolved to meet in a Synod at Antioch a Euseb ib. c. 27. p. 277. c. 30. p. 279. to which they earnestly invited our Dionysius But alas age and infirmities had rendred him incapable of such a journey
16. 19 Bruttius Praesens II. Julianus created Bishop of Alexandria  1 Sex Quinctiliâ— Gordianus Pantaenus a Christian Philosopher opens the Catechetic School at Alexandria  181  1 Imp. Commodus III. The Persecution against the Christians much abated  2 Antistius Burrhus  182  2 Petronius Mamertinus Theodotion of Pontus first a Marcionite then a Jew translates the Old Testament into Greek  3 Trebellius Rufus The Temple of Serapis at Alexandria burnt down  183  3 Imp. Commodus IV.  4 M. Aufidius Victorinus  184  4 M. Eggius Marullus seu Marcellus Commodus introduces the worship of Isis formerly prohibited into Rome  5 M. Papirius Aelianus  185 Commodi 5 Triarius Maternus  6 M. Atilius Metilius Bradua  186  6 Imp. Commodus V. About this time Lucius a Prince of Britain is said to have sent Letters to Pope Eleutherius to furnish him with Preachers to publish the Christian Faith in these parts  7 M. Acilius Glabrio Origen born  187  7 Tullius seu Clodius Crispinus Apollonius a great Philosopher and as S. Hierom affirms a Senator pleads his own and the cause of the Christian Religion before the Senate for which he suffers Martyrdom  8 Papirius Aelianus  188  8 C. Allius Fuscianus The Capitol burnt by Lightning which destroyed the adjacent buildings especially the famous Libraries  9 Duillius Silanus  189  9 Junius Silanus Demetrius ordained Bishop of Alexandria who sate 43 years  10 Q. Servilius Silanus Serapion made Bishop of Antioch this or as others the following year  190  10 Imp. Commodus VI. Commodus will have himself accounted Hercules the son of Jupiter and accordingly habits himself with other extravagant instances of folly  11 Petronius Septimianus  191  11 Cassius Apronianus Julian a Senator and many others said to be martyred about this time  12 M. Attilius Metilius Bradua II.  192  12 Imp. Commodus VII Pope Eleutherius having sate 15 years and 23 days dies in whose room Victor an African succeeds  13 P. Helvius Pertinax  193 Pertinax à 1 Januar.  Q. Sosius Falco  Did. Julianê° Ã Mart. 28.  Severus à Maii 11. 1 C. Julius Clarus  194 Severi 1 Imp. Severus II. Clemens Alexandrinus Pantaenus his Scholar and successor in the Catechetic School was famous about this time 2 Clodius Albinus Caesar II. Pope Victor excommunicates Theodorus the Heretic 195  2 Q. Fl. Tertullus Narcissus made Bishop of Jerusalem He is famous for miracles and an holy life 3 T. Fl. Clemens 196  3 Cn. Domitius Dexter Pope Victor revives the controversie about the celebration of Easter threatens to excommunicate the Asiatic Churches for which he is severely reproved by many and especially by Irenaeus 4 L. Valeriê° Messala Priscus Several Synods holden to this Purpose 197  4 Ap. Claudius Lateranus The Jews and Samaritans rebel and are overcome and their Religion strictly forbidden Severus triumphs for that Victory 5 M. Marius Rufinus  198  5 Tib. Aterius Saturninus  6 C. Annius Treboni Gallus 199  6 P. Cornelius Anulinus Severus creates his son Antoninus Emperour his son Geta Caesar and bestows a large Donative upon the Souldiers which gave occasion to Tertullian to write his Book De Corona 7 M. Aufidius Fronto 200 Severi 7 Tib. Claudius Severus The Christians at Rome severely treated by Plautianus Praefect of the City and in Afric by Saturninus the Proconsul 8 C. Aufidius Victorinus Tertullian writes his Apologetic either this or the following year 201  8 L. Annius Fabianus Pope Victor after 9 years and 2 moneths being martyred leaves the place to Zephyrinus 9 M. Nonius Mucianus Tertullian presents his Discourse to the President Scapula 202  9 Imp. Severus III. The Sixth Persecution wherein Leonidas Origens Father suffers Martyrdom at Alexandria Irenaeus at Lyons in France 10 Imp. Antoninus Caracalla 203  10 P. Septimius Geta. Origen a very Youth sets up a Grammar School at Alexandria and becomes famous 11 L. Septimius Plautianus At 18 years of Age he is preferred by Demetrius the Bishop to be Instructor of the Catechumens 204  11 L. Fabius Chilo Septimius The Secular Games celebrated at Rome upon which occasion probably Tertullian wrote his Book De Spectaculis and it may be that De Idololatria 12 M. Annius Libo 205  12 Imp. Antoninus Caracalla II.  13 P. Septimius Geta Caesar 206  13 M. Nummiê° Annius Albinê° Origen makes the famous attempt upon himself in making himself an Eunuch 14 Fulvius Aemilianus 207 Severi 14 M. Flavius Aper Tertullian writes against the Marcionites and his Book De Pallio and was then probably made Presbyter of Carthage 15 Q. Allius Maximus About this time Minucius Felix is supposed to publish his Dialogue called Octavius 208  15 Imp. Antoninus Caracalla III.  16 P. Septimius Geta Caesar II. 209  16 T. Claudius Pompeianus  17 Lollianus Avitus 210  17 M. Acilius Faustinus  18 C. Caesonius Macer Rufinianus 211  18 Q. Epidius Rufus Lollianus Gentianus  Antoninus Caracalla à 4 Febr. 1 Pomponius Bassus 212  1 M. Pompeius Asper Alexander a Cappadocian Bishop made Bishop of Jerusalem 2 P. Asper 213  2 Imp. Caracalla IV.  3 P. Caelius Balbinus 214  3 Silius Messala A disputation held at Rome between Caius and Proclus one of Montanus his Disciples whereupon Pope Zephyrin excluded Proclus and Tertullian communion with the Church of Rome which occasioned Tertullians starting aside to Montanus his Party 4 Q. Aquilius Sabinus 215 Antonini 4 Aemilius Laetus Tertullian writes against the Orthodox against whom he inveighs under the name of Psychici 5 Anicius Cerealis 216  5 Q. Aquilius Sabinus II.  6 Sex Corn. Anulinus 217  6  A Greek Translation of the Bible called the Fifth Edition found in a Hogs-head at Jericho inserted by Origen into his Octapla 7 Bruttius Praesens Macrinus Diadumen F à 10. April 1 Extricatus 218  2 Anton. Diadumenus Caesar  Antoninus Elagabalus à 7 Jun. 1 Adventus 219  1 Imp. Elagabalus II. Pope Zephyrin dies He sate 22 years and so many days Succeeded by Callistus 2 Licinius Sacerdos 220  2 Imp. Elagabalus III. Julius Africanus a famous Christian Writer sent upon an Embassie to the Emperour for the rebuilding of Nicopolis anciently Emmaus a City in Palestin 3 M. Aurelius Eutychianus Comazon 221  3 Annius Gratus  4 Claudius Seleucus 222  4 Imp. Elagabalus IV. Hippolytus Bishop of Portus composes his Paschal Canon Alexander Mam. à Martii 6. 1 M. Aurelius Severus Alexander Caesar 223 Alexandri 1 Maximus Among the famous men of this time was Ulpian the Lawyer who collected all the Imperial Edicts formerly published against the Christians 2 Papirius Aelianus 224  2 Claudius Julianus The Christians cruelly persecuted at Rome at the instigation of Ulpian the great Lawyer 3
particularly a Epipâ— loc cit noted of him that besides the Scriptures he traded in certain Apocryphal Writings He wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Euseb H. Eccl. ubi supr de Script Eccl. in Bardes which S. Hierom renders infinite Volumes written indeed for the most part in Syriac but which his Scholars translated into Greek though he himself was sufficiently skilful in that Language as Epiphanius notes In the number of these Books might be the Recognitions plausibly fathered upon S. Clemens who was notoriously known to be S. Peters Companion and Disciple and were but some of his many Books now extant I doubt not but a much greater affinity both in stile and notions would appear between them But this I propose onely as a probable conjecture and leave it at the Readers pleasure either to reject or entertain it I am not ignorant that both c Apol. adv Rufin p. 219. S. Hierom and d Phot. Cod. CXII col 289. Photius charge these Books with haeretical Opinions especially some derogatory to the honour of the Son of God which it may be Rufinus who e Apolog. pro Orig. ap Hieron Tom. 4. p. 195. confesses the same thing and supposes them to have been inserted by some haeretical hand concealed in his Translation Nay f Haeres XXX p. 65. Epiphanius tells us that the Ebionites did so extremely corrupt them that they scarce left any thing of S. Clemens sound and true in them which he observes from their repugnancy to his other Writings those Encyclical Epistles of his as he calls them which were read in the Churches But then its plain he means it onely of those Copies which were in the possession of those haeretics probably not now extant nor do any of those particular adulterations which he says they made in them appear in our Books nor in those large and to be sure uncorrupt fragments of Bardesanes and Origen is there the least considerable variation from those Books which we have at this day But of this enough XII THE Epistle to S. James the brother of our Lord is no doubt of equal date with the rest in the close whereof the Author pretends that he was commanded by S. Peter to give him an account of his Travels Discourses and the success of his Ministry under the title of Clemens his Epitome of Peters popular preachings to which he tells him he would next proceed So that this Epistle originally was nothing but a Praeface to S. Peters Acts or Periods the same in effect with the Recognitions and accordingly in the late Edition of the Clementine Homilies which have the very Title mentioned in that Epistle it is found prefixed before them Loc. supra citat This Epistle as Photius tells us varied according to different Editions sometimes pretending that it and the account of S. Peters Acts annexed to it were written by S. Peter himself and by him sent to S. James sometimes that they were written by Clemens at S. Peters instance and command Whence he conjectures that there was a twofold Edition of S. Peters Acts one said to be written by himself the other by Clemens and that when in time the first was lost that pretending to S. Clemens did remain For so he assures us he constantly found it in those many Copies that he met with notwithstanding that the Epistle and Inscription were sometimes different and various By the Original whereof now published appears the fraud of the Factors of the Romish Church who in all Latine Editions have added an Appendix almost twice as large as the Epistle it self And well had it been had this been the onely instance wherein some men to shore up a tottering Cause have made bold with the Writers of the ancient Church His Writings Genuine Epistola ad Corinthios Doubtful Epistola ad Corinth secunda Supposititious Epistola ad Jacobum Fratrem Domini Recognitionum lib. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu Homiliae Clementinae Constitutionum App. lib. 8. Canones Apostolici The End of S. CLEMENS's Life THE LIFE OF S. SIMEON BISHOP of JERUSALEM Micha burgh deli et sculp S. SYMEON HIEROSOLYMITANUS The heedless confounding him with others of the like name His Parents and near Relation to our Saviour The time of his Birth His strict Education and way of Life The Order and Institution of the Rechabites what His conversion to Christianity The great care about a Successor to S. James Bishop of Jerusalem Simeon chosen to that place when and why The causes of the destruction of the Jewish state The original and progress of those Wars briefly related The miserable state of Jerusalem by Siege Pestilence and Famine Jerusalem stormed The burning of the Temple and the rage of the Fire The number of the Slain and Captives The just accomplishment of our Lords predictions The many Prodigies portending this destruction The Christians forewarned to depart before Jerusalem was shut up Their withdrawment to Pella The admirable care of the Divine Providence over them Their return back to Jerusalem when The flourishing condition of the Christian Church there The occasion of S. Simeons Martyrdom The infinite jealousie of the Roman Emperours concerning the line of David Simeons apprehension and crucifixion His singular torments and patience His great age and the time of his death I. IT cannot be unobserved by any that have but looked into the Antiquities of the Church what confusion the identity or similitude of names has bred among Ecclesiastic Writers especially in the more early Ages where the Records are but short and few An instance whereof Vid. Caron Alexandr Olymp. CCXX Ind. I. Traj VII Ann. sequent p. 594. were there no other we have in the person of whom we write Whom some will have to be the same with S. Simon the Cananite one of the twelve Apostles others confound him with Simon one of the four brethren of our Lord while a third sort make all three to be but one and the same person the sound and similitude of names giving birth to the several mistakes For that Simeon of Jerusalem was a person altogether distinct from Simon the Apostle is undeniably evident from the most ancient Martyrologies both of the Greek and the Latine Church where vastly different accounts are given concerning their persons imployments and the time and places of their death Simon the Apostle being martyred in Britain or as others in Persia while Simeon the Bishop is notoriously known to have suffered in Palestine or in Syria Nor are the testimonies of Dorotheus Sophronius or Isidore considerable enough to be weighed against the Authorities of Hegesippus Eusebius Epiphanius and others But of this enough II. S. Simeon was the son of a Hâ—gesip ap Euseb l. 3. c. 11. p. 87. Epiph. Haeres LXVI p. 274. omnia antiqua Martyrologia Adonis Bedae Notkeri Usuardi apud Bolland de Vit. SS ad diem XVIII Febr. pag. 53 54. Cleophas brother to Joseph husband
the Metropolis of Lydia a great and ancient City the Seat of the Lydian Kings it was one of the Seven Churches to which S. John wrote Epistles and wherein he takes notice of some that durst own and stand up for God and Religion in that great degeneracy that was come upon it He was a man of admirable parts enriched with the furniture of all useful Learning acute and eloquent but especially conversant in the paths of Divine Knowledge having made deep enquiries into all the more uncommon parts and speculations of the Christian Doctrine He was for his singular eminency and usefulness chosen Bishop of Sardis though we cannot exactly define the time which were I to conjecture I should guess it about the latter end of Antoninus Pius his reign or the begining of his Successors He filled up all the parts of a very excellent Governour and Guide of Souls whose good he was careful to advance both by Word and Writing Which that he might attend with less solicitude and distraction he not onely kept himself within the compass of a single life but was more then ordinarily exemplary for his Chastity and Sobriety his self-denial and contempt of the World upon which account he is by Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus a Ap. Euseb l. 5. c. 24. p. 191. stiled an Eunuch that is in our Saviours explication one of those who make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heavens sake who for the service of Religion and the hopes of a better life are content to deny themselves the comforts of a married state and to renounce even the lawful pleasures of this World And God who delights to multiply his Grace upon pious and holy souls crowned his other Vertues with the gift of Prophesie for so b Ap. Hieron de Script in Melit Tertullian tells us that he was accounted by the Orthodox Christians as a Prophet and Polycrates says c Loc. supr citat of him that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in all things governed and directed by the afflatus and suggestion of the Holy Ghost Accordingly in the Catalogue d Ap Eâ—seb l. 4. c. 26. p. 147. of his Writings we find one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the right way of living and concerning Prophets and another concerning Prophesie II. IT was about the year CLXX and the tenth e Eâ—sâ—b Chron. ad Ann. CLXXI. of M. Antoninus his Brother L. Verus having died the year before of an Apoplexy as he sate in his Chariot when the Persecution grew high against the Christians greedy and malicious men taking occasion from the Imperial Edicts lately published by all the methods of cruelty and rapine to oppress and spoil innocent Christians Whereupon as others so especially f Eâ—seb H. Eccl. loc supr citat S. Melito presents an Apology and humble Supplication in their behalf to the Emperour wherein among other things he thus bespeaks him If these things Sir be done by your Order let them be thought well done For a righteous Prince will not at any time command what is unjust and we shall not think much to undergo the award of such a death This onely request we beg that your self would please first to examine the case of these resolute persons and then impartially determine whether they deserve punishment and death or safety and protection But if this new Edict and Decree which ought not to have been proclaimed against the most barbarous Enemies did not come out with your cognizance and consent we humbly pray and that with the greater importunity that you would not suffer us to be any longer exposed to this public rapine III. AFTER this he put him in mind how much the Empire had prospered since the rise of Christianity and that none but the worst of his Predecessors had entertained an implacable spight against the Christians This new Sect of Philosophy says he which we profess heretofore flourished among the Barbarians by which probably he means the Jews Afterwards under the reign of Augustus your Predecessor it spread it self over the Provinces of your Empire commencing with a happy omen to it since which time the Majesty and Greatness of the Roman Empire hath mightily increased whereof you are the wished-for Heir and Successor and together with your Son shall so continue especially while you protect that Religion which begun with Augustus and grew up together with the Empire and for which your Predecessors had together with other Rites of Worship some kind of reverence and regard And that our Religion which was bred up with the prosperity of the Empire was born for public good there is this great Argument to convince you that since the reign of Augustus there has no considerable mischief happened but on the contrary all things according to every ones desire have fallen out glorious and successful None but Nero and Domitian instigated by cruel and ill-minded men have attempted to reproach and calumniate our Religion whence sprang the common slanders concerning us the injudicious Vulgar greedily entertaining such reports without any strict examination But your Parents of Religious Memory gave a check to this Ignorance and injustice by frequent Rescripts reproving those who made any new attempts in this matter Among whom was your Grandfather Adrian who wrote as to several others so to Fundanus the Proconsul of Asia and your Father at what time your self was Colleague with him in the Empire wrote to several Cities particularly to Larissaea Thessalonica Athens and all the Cities of Greece that they should not create any new disturbance about this affair And for your self who have the same opinion of us which they had and a great deal better more becoming a good man and a Philosopher we promise our selves that you will grant all our Petitions and Requests An Address managed with great prudence and ingenuous freedom and which striking in with other Apologies presented about the same time did not a little contribute to the general quiet and prosperity of Christians IV. NOR was he so wholly swallowed up with care for the general Peace of Christians as to neglect the particular good of his own or neighbour Churches During the Government of Servilius Paulus Proconsul of Asia Sagaris Bishop of Laodicea had suffered Martyrdom in the late persecution a Ipse Milet. ap Euseb l. 4. c. 26. p. 147. at what time the controversie about the Paschal solemnity was hotly ventilated in that Church some strangers probably urging the observation of the Festival according to the Roman usage celebrating it upon the Lords-day contrary to the custom of those Churches who had ever kept it upon the fourteenth day of the Moon according to the manner of the Jews For the quieting of which contention Melito presently wrote two Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the Passover wherein no doubt he treated at large of the celebration of Easter according to the observation of the Asian Churches and therefore Polycrates