those of Plato 7. That the History of the Hebrews is confirmed by the Testimony of several Heathen Historians 8thly That the Graecians took their Philosophy from the Barbarians especially from the Jews to whom Plato and the Platonicks owe what they said concerning their Three Principles and several other Doctrines which the Greeks admired 9thly That the Philosophers had an infinite number of different Opinions which may easily be confuted the one by the other as it appears by Eusebius his Essay towards it One may see by this whole Work that he was very well vers'd in Heathen Authors and had taken care in his Study to collect whatever might be of use to prove or confirm the Christian Religion by the Testimony of Philosophers It affords several Fragments of Authors who are lost as Sanchoniathon and several Platonicks out of whom he cites some long Passages 3. The Evangelical Demonstration which contain'd Twenty Books is now reduced to Ten. The Author explains in it the Old Jewish Religion and undertakes to prove by the Prophets the Truth of the Christian Religion But he grounds all his Arguments upon some Mystical or Allegorical Explications of some Places of the Old Testament without being able to prove against those who would have denied it that they ought to be understood so He lends if I may so say his Principles to the Prophets and then fixes to their Terms the Idea's he had of them by virtue of those Principles Thus Book 5. chap. 1. where he explains at large the famous Passage of Solomon concerning Wisdom God hath begotten me before the Mountains he finds in the word to Beget all the Subtilties which the Arians used after the Council of Nice to explain it according to their Mind without openly shocking the Orthodox 4. The Ten Books of the Ecclesiastical History came out after the preceding which are cited in them It begins with Christ and ends in the Year 324 before the Council of Nice met One may complain of Eusebius because he hath incerted several Fables in it as that of Agbarus c. and committed several Faults in Chronology of which I have already said something But one ought to forgive him those Faults because he is the first who hath composed any Work concerning the Christian History for he hath preserved a great number of Fragments of ancient Authors whom we have lost and related their Opinions faithfully enough Besides 't is he chiefly who can give us some light concerning the Canon of the Books of the New Testament He dedicated that Book to Paulinus Bishop of Tyre who hath been rank't among the Prelates who favoured Arius The neatest Greek Edition we have of this Work is that of Robert Stephen in 1544 and the best Translation is that of Valesius which was printed together with the Greek in Columns at Paris and Francfort Yet the Translation of that learned Man is not without Faults I am persuaded that the greatest part of them come from meer Inadvertency but it cannot be doubted that some arise from his understanding the Terms of the Antients according to the Modern Notions as when he renders the words of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria which I before mention'd Duas Personam Vnam esse c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One cannot alledge any place wherein the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what we call now-a-days Persona in Divinis but by supposing that the Antients ought to think as we do and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can signifie only Two Natures in Existence that is which do not differ in Kind as a Man and a Horse but only in Existence or Number as Two Men. This Lucas Holstenius observed in a Discourse which Valesius himself caused to be printed at the end of * Pag. 199 Theodoret Evagrius c. wherein he says that this Place must needs be corrupted either by some Hereticks or Transcribers because he knew not how to reconcile it with the Orthodox Opinions 5. Of the Martyrs of Palestine This Book is to be found next to the Eighth of the Ecclesiastical History 6. The Book against Hierocles was writ against a Judge of Nicomedia who * Vid. Lactant Instit l. 5. c. 2 3 4. in the time of Dioclesian's Persecution had composed two Books entitled Philalethes wherein he compared Jesus Christ to Apollonius Thyaneus Eusebius hath shewed the absurdity of that Comparison by a short Critick of the Eight Books of the Life of that Philosopher written by Philostratus This Hierocles must be distinguish'd from a Philosopher of the same Name who lived almost a hundred years after and wrote a fine Commentary upon the Golden Verses of Pythagoras 7. I have already spoken of Eusebius his Books against Marcellus and of the Ecclesiastical Theology I shall only add here two things The first is that R. M. which are seen in the Title signifie Richard Montagu Bishop of Chichester who first publish'd them The second is of greater moment viz. that Eusebius wrote 'em in anger and not only gives his Adversary no quarter but besides Disputes with him about things that are clear and which himself had proved elsewhere * L. 1. c. 4. Marcellus said That if we ought to tell the truth about Origen it must be acknowledged that he was but just come from the study of Philosophy when he applied himself to the reading of the Scripture and that before he understood it well he betook himself to write sooner than he ought to do because of his great Learning in the Pagan Sciences from whence it is that Philosophy made him wander and that he had writ some things which are not true For Example says Marcellus having his mind full of Plato's Doctrines and the Difference he teaches between the Principles he wrote his Book Of Principles and entitled it so That Title only was sufficient to make one clearly perceive that he took from Plato the first Words of his Work as as well as the Title for he begins thus Those who have believed and those who have been believed c. words taken out of Plato's Gorgias There is nothing truer than what Marcellus says here and all who have read something of Origen will grant it Yet Eusebius answers him in these extremely morose terms Supposing this were true there was no need of calumniating Origen for it since he immediately after adds that Grace and Truth are by Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ is that Truth What is there in it that 's common to Plato I never heard that Plato wrote a Book of Principles and Origen hath not taught the same thing as Plato concerning those Principles Origen acknowledged only One Principle without Generation and Beginning and above all things who is the Father of an Only Son by whom all things were made One may plainly see that Eusebius made as if he understood not Marcellus or that Anger hinder'd him from understanding him The Bishop of Ancyra meant only this viz. that Origen had
appear'd remote in upholding the Arguments which seem'd to him weak and in giving Praises to such who seem'd to speak well Eusebius of Caesarea long held out against the Use which they * Socrat. l. 1. c. 8. Theod. l. 1. c. 12. would make of the word Consubstantial He offer'd another Confession of Faith wherein it was omitted and wherein he call'd the Son barely God born of God Light of Light Life of Life Only Son First-born of all Creatures Begotten of his Father before all Worlds The Emperor approv'd this Confession of Faith and exhorted the Fathers of the Synod to follow it in adding thereto only the word Consubstantial Afterwards the Confession was read which had been drawn up with this Word the Terms of which have been already recited Anathema's were join'd thereto against those who should use on this Occasion other Terms than those of the Holy Scripture which must be understood with an Exception of those which the Council thought fit to Consecrate This Proposition was particularly condemn'd That the Son existed not before he was begotten Eusebius and others requested That the Terms of the Symbol and Anathema's might be explained 1. It was said That the word Begotten and not Made was used because this last word expresses the Production of Creatures to which the Son has no likeness being of a Substance far more excellent than they begotten by the Father in an incomprehensible manner 2. As for the word Consubstantial it is proper to the Son not in the sence wherein it is taken when we speak of Bodies or Mortal Animals the Son being Consubstantial with the Father neither by a Division of the Divine Substance of which he possesses a part nor by any change of this same Substance The meaning of which is only this That the Son has no Resemblance with the Creatures which he has made but that he is in all things like to his Father by whom he has been begotten or That he is not of another Hypostasis or Substance but of that of the Father 3. Those were condemn'd who said That the Son was not before he was born seeing that he existed before his Corporal Birth and even before his Divine Generation according to Constantine's Argument * These words of Eusebius's Letter are not to be found but in Theodorit Socrates having retrenched them For before said he that he was actually Begotten he was in Power in his Father in a manner Unbegotten the Father having been always Father as he is always King and Saviour and all things in Power being eternally in the same Condition It will perhaps seem that this is pure Arianism and that this is to deny the Eternity of the Son But we must observe that in the style of that time to Exist before the World and to be Eternal is the same thing seeing that to prove his Eternity this Passage is cited * Vid. Ep. Alexandri Ep. Al. supra laudatam In the Beginning was the Word And it sufficed to shew that he was Begotten before there was any Time So that we must not reject these words as Supposititions meerly for this reason And it is so ordinary to find hard Expressions in those who attempt to explain in any sort this incomprehensible Mystery that if one might hence judge of them one would be apt to declare them all Hereticks which is to say to anathemamize the greatest part of the Ancients Besides this †* De. Deret Nicaen Tom. 1. pag. 251. St. Athanasius who openly treats Eusebius as an Arian makes allusion to one part of this Passage and draws thence a Consequence which Eusebius without doubt would not have owned which is That the Arians believed that the Divinity of Jesus Christ did not exist before his Corporal Birth After these Explications Eusebius subscribed as he himself testifies in the Letter above recited ‖ Athanas ibid. although he had refused it the day before The long and formal Opposition which he had made against the word Consubstantial caused it to be suspected that there was want of Sincerity in this Subscription In fine Arius and his Party were anathematized and all their Books condemned and particularly a Poem which Arius had entituled Thalia Most of the Arian Bishops subscribed after Eusebius his Example to this Confession of Faith and the Anathema's after the Explication above-mentioned Yet there were some of 'em who refused at first to sign * Socr. l. 1. c. 1. the principal of which were Eusebius of Nicomedia Theognis of Nice Maris of Calcedon Theonas of Marmarica and Secondus of Ptolemais They were immediately Excommunicated by the Council and were to be sent afterwards as well as Arius into Exile by Constantine The Council wrote a Circular Letter †Ib. Socr. l. 1. c. 9. to the Churches of Egypt denoting to 'em in what sort they had carried themselves in the business of Arius and what had been ordered touching Melece the Schismatical Bishop and the Observation of Easter Constantine wrote also to the Church of Alexandria to assure it that after a full and mature Examination Arius had been condemned by the common Consent He greatly vaunted of the Moderation and Learning of the Bishops making no mention of their Quarrels according to the Custom observed in Publick Acts and such like Occasions where every thing is supprest which may give an ill Opinion of the Decrees of these kinds of Assemblies In another Letter directed to the Bishops and Churches he enjoins the Name of Porphyrus to be given to Arius and his Followers to be called Porphyrians This Porphyry was a famous Platonist who had written against the Christian Religion and whose Books Constantine had caus'd to be burnt Lucas Holstenius has written his Life which is to be found at the end of the Book Of the Abstinence of Animals Constantine design'd to declare hereby Arius an Enemy to the Christian Religion and not in any manner reproach him with being a Platonist touching the Trinity seeing Constantine did not disapprove as we have seen the Sentiments of Plato It 's true the Arians have been upbraided with their too great application to the reading of this Philosopher and other Heathen Authors Revera de Platonis Aristophanis says * Advers Lucif T. 2. p. 142. Ed. Gryph St. Jerom in episcopatum allegentur Quotus enim quisque est qui non apprime in his eruditus sit Accedit ad hoc quod Ariana hoeresis magis cum sapientia seculi facit argumentationum rivos de Aristotelis fontibus mutuatur Thus the Orthodox and Hereticks equally approved the Sentiments of Plato each of them apparently explaining them according to his Hypothesis Constantine further ordered in the same Letter to burn all Arius's Books to the end that not only his pernicious Doctrine be destroyed but that there remain no monument of it to Posterity He likewise declared That if any one concealed any of his Books and did not bring
spoken of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity after the same manner as Plato spoke of the Three Principles of all things and that he borrowed the word Principle of him and the first words of his Book wherein he treated of them Eusebius might have easily apprehended his meaning and he was so far from believing that Plato was of another Opinion in this matter than the Sacred Writers and Origen that he he undertakes to prove the contrary at large in his Evangelical Preparation lib. 11. chap. 13 c. which are worth the reading In effect what he adds concerning the Father and the Son is equally agreeable to Origen's and Plato's Opinion Eusebius seems to have followed at this time St. Jerom's Maxim who ascribes it to him too as he himself made no scruple to follow it * In Apol. prolib cont Jov. p. 106 c. Edit Gryph 'T is one thing to write in order to Dispute and another to write in order to Teach In the first Method the Dispute is very much extended and one minds only to answer one's Adversary Sometimes one thing is proposed and sometimes another Men argue as they please speak after one manner and act after another c. In the second an open and ingenuous Face is necessary c. Origen Methodus Eusebius Apollinarius have writ a great deal against Celsus and Porphyry Consider what doubtful Arguments and Problems they use to confute some Writings composed by the Spirit of the Devil And because they are forced to say not what they think but what the Dispute requires non quod sentiunt sed quod necesse est they contradict the Heathens We may see thereby whether we ought always to believe what the Holy Fathers say and that Eusebius was no Arian only because he denied it and used all the terms of the Orthodox In the Writers of this kind a word spoken against the common Opinion proves often more than a hundred places wherein they speak as the Vulgar 8. The Letter to those of Caesarea concerning the Nicene Creed which I have already mention'd 9. Of the Places named in the Old Testament which is a little Geographical Dictionary of the Places mention'd in the Hebrew Books of the Scripture St. Jerom translated it and added to it what he thought fit Jacobus Bonfrerius printed the Original with St. Jerom's Translation and his own at Paris Anno 1659 in Fol. 10. The Life of Constantine is as hath been said rather a Panegyrick than a History and the Style of it also as Photius hath observed more florid than that of the other Works of Eusebius which is somewhat careless However there is afterwards a Panegyrick of that Emperor in due form which Eusebius recited Anno 335 at his Tricennales 11. An Exposition of the Song of Solomon printed at Leyden by Meursius in the Year 1617 in Quarto with Polychronius and Psellus 12. The Lives of the Prophets are ascribed to Eusebius in an ancient Manuscript and are joined with Procopius his Commentaries upon Isaiah in Greek and Latin John Courtier publish'd them at Paris in 1580 in Fol. Those who have publish'd a new Edition of the Evangelical Demonstration at Cologne in 1688 would not have done amiss to join those Pieces with it or to endeavour to get some of those which are not yet printed 13. Of that number are Four Books entitled Eclogae Propheticae de Christo which as Lambecius says are in the Library of Vienna and in that of the Escurial But 't is with those two Libraries as with that of Buda The Keepers of them are so faithful and jealous that they let nothing come out of them Labbaeus says that besides there is some Libraries some Commentaries of Eusebius upon Isaiah a Discourse upon the Three Days that our Lord remained in the Grave and two more concerning the Women who went to it and the Angels they found in it 14. We have lost of Eusebius 1. Some Books concerning the Ecclesiastical Preparations 2. Concerning the Ecclesiastical Demonstration 3. Thirty Books against Porphyry which in all probability are the greatest loss we have sustained with respect to the Writings of Eusebius for we might have learn'd by them the Objections of the most learned Philosopher of his time and the Answers of the most learned Bishop of his Age. 4. Some Varieties of the Evangelists 5. Five Books concerning the Coming of Jesus Christ 6. Some Commentaries upon the Psalms of which we have some Fragments in the Catena of the Greek Fathers upon that Book 7. Of Topical Names 8. An Apology for Origen whereof the Sixth Book only as hath been said was Eusebius's 9. Three Books of the Life of Pamphilus which he mentions in the 11th Chap. of the Book of the Martyrs of Palestine 10. An Apology for himself perhaps a Vindication of himself against those who accused him of following the Opinions of Arius 11. A Collection of Ancient Martyrdoms which is reported to be in the Library of the Escurial 12. A Description of a Church of Jerusalem 13. Of the Feast of Easter 14. Three Epistles the First to Constantia Constantine's Sister the Second to Alexander Bishop of Alexandria for the Re-establishment of Arius the Third to a Bishop named Euphration Some Fragments of those Letters may be found in the Acts of the Second Council of Nice Act. 5. 6. 15. An Ancient History which perhaps is the same with his Chronicle and is cited by Anastasius Sinaita as well as a Book dedicated to Marinus 15. Father Sirmond a Jesuite printed at Paris in 1643 several Latin Homilies which two Manuscripts ascribe to Eusebius of Caesarea and which Valesius thought to be his but Dr. Cave rather believes they were written by Eusebius of Emesus a Semi Arian who lived towards the middle of the Fourth Century After all the same may be said of the Cologne Edition 1688 of Eusebius his Evangelical Preparation and Evangelical Demonstration c. as of Clemens Alexandrinus his Works of the same Edition They have added nothing to the Paris Edition but new Faults Although Eusebius doth not observe in those Discourses a very exact Order yet because he divides them into Chapters one may more easily follow him than Clemens and in this Edition the Citations are better distinguish'd from the Words of the Author than in the Works of the Catechist of Alexandria for there is some Comma's in the Margin of the Passages that are quoted or they are in Italick Characters However there is still some Distinctions of Paragraphs wanting in it as well as in that of Clemens The Life OF Gregory Nazianzen GREGORY was * Vid. Pagi Crit. Baron ad An. 354 368. born according to the most exact Chronology in the Year 300 in a Village of the Second Cappadocia named Arianzum near the City of Nazianzum from whence comes the Sirname that is commonly given him His Father and Mother †Greg. Presb. in ejus Vita were Persons of Quality and
amongst us are carefully observed Whereas such things as are thought to be Defective in their Conduct and Doctrine are only mentioned by the bye They persuade themselves that the Fathers especially those of the First Centuries held all the Opinions which are lookt upon as Essential where they live and then they think themselves obliged to heap up Praises upon 'em and excuse as much as they can the Defects which are observed either in their Writings or Lives So that instead of writing their History they write without being aware of it their Panegyrick or Apology Hence it is that they who read such Books believe that the Antients were Men of vast Learning and extraordinary Holiness From whence they conclude that if they have ill treated any Body they must needs have had some great Reasons for it and that they were far either from unfaithfully relating or ill confuting the Opinions of Hereticks They think themselves obliged to imitate their manner of Reasoning and Acting without much troubling themselves whether it be agreeable to the Precepts of the Gospel or not Thus it comes to pass that we have no Histories of the First Centuries that are faithful enough and do not make such a Use of those Histories as we ought to make I am far from thinking that I can cure so inveterate a Disease nor is it the Design of this Work But at least I think my self obliged to avoid as much as I can the Way of those who give the Publick Partial Panegyricks when Sincere and Impartial Histories were expected from them I have endeavoured to practice this in The History of Pelagianism and I shall yet endeavour to do it in the Life of Clemens which I am going to write in few words TITVS FLAVIVS CLEMENS famous for his Learing towards the End of the Second Century was born at Athens according to some Authors who believe they can reconcile this Opinion with the Opinion of those who call him Alexandrinus by saying that Athens was the Place of his Birth and that he got the Sirname of Alexandrinus because of his long stay at Alexandria But his Style though florid enough is often obscure and intricate and doth not much relish the Neatness and Elegancy of the Athenian Writers However it is certain that he begun his Studies in Greece continued them in Asia and ended his days in Egypt It appears that he was not content to be instructed only by one Master but that he travelled much to hear many and so to get a more exact and full knowledge of the Christian Religion as well as to improve in Humane Learning His Masters had been Disciples of the Apostles or had conversed with some Disciples of those Holy Men as it appears by his manner of speaking of them though he doth not express himself very clearly He says * Strâ—m l. 1. p. 274. Eusebius lib. 5. c. 11. reads this place somewhat differently upon which Valesius may be consulted That his Writings composed without Art are an Image and a Picture of those lively Discourses of the Happy Men and truly worthy of Esteem whom he had the Honour to hear The one as he goes on whom I saw in Greece was of the Ionick Sect. I have seen two in Calabria one of whom was a Coelo-Syrian and the other an Egyptian I met two more in the East one of whom was an Assyrian and the other with whom I conversed in Palestine was of a Jewish Extraction This latter was the first in Merit I stay'd in Egypt where he had hid himself to look for him He was as the Proverb says A true Sicilian Bee He gathered the Flowers scattered if one may so say in the Meadows of the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles by the means whereof he filled the Souls of those that heard him with a pure Knowledge Those Men having preserved the true Tradition of the Blessed Doctrine immediately after the Holy Apostles St. Peter St. James St. John and St. Paul as a Child who keeps what he hath learned of his Father Although there are Few like them have lived to our time by the Will of God to shed into our Hearts the Seed which they had received of the Apostles their Predecessors 'T is of great moment to know what Master an Author had to understand his Opinions right for then as now-a-days the Disciples did particularly stick to the Method of their Masters and explained Religion as much as they could according to the Principles of that Philosophy which they had learned of them Thus the School-men who were Peripateticks explained Divinity by Aristotle's Principles and Divinity is handled after the Cartesian way where Des-Cartes Philosophy is admitted Wherefore the Learned Men of our Age have endeavoured to guess who were those of whom Clemens speaks It appears by my Translation of the words of that Father that he had five Masters but Valesius allows him but four because he follows the Reading of Eusebius One can't positively affirm which is the best but I may say that the Interpreters who took the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a Proper Name have done it without reason 'T is not likely that Clemens who doth not tell the Names of the other whom he acknowledges for his Masters should name this Antiquity affords no Man whose Name was Ionick and that Name may denote the Sect of Philosophy to which that first Master of Clemens did especially apply himself Thales and Anaximander Philosophers of Miletus a Town of Ionia were the Heads of it Clemens Alexandrinus speaks well of those two Philosophers in his Writings Thales says he in one place * Strom. l. 1. p. 300. was a Phaenician as Leander and Herodotus say He is the only Man who seems to be conversant with the Egyptian Prophets and we do not read that any one hath been his Master c. Anaximander a Milesian and Son of Praxidamus succeeded Thales and had Anaximenes Son of Eurystratus a Milesian also for his Successor Anaxagoras of Clazomenes Son of Hegesibulus came after him he removed his Auditory from Ionia to Athens and had Archelaus Socrates 's Master for his Successor Elsewhere he says That Thales * Strom. l. 5. p. 595. being askt what God is He answered That which hath neither a Beginning nor an End And that another having askt him whether Men can hide their Actions from God How can that be answered he since they cannot so much as hide their Thoughts from him Speaking of Anaximander Archelaus and Anaxagoras Philosophers of the same Sect he says That the former hath establisht †Admen ad Gent. p. 43. the Infinite for the First Being and that the other two said that the Spirit governed the Infinite The Principles of those Philosophers may be seen more at large in Diogenes Laertius and one may easily perceive that some of them do well enough agree with those of the Jews and Christians as That whatever is upon the Earth came
nothing in it that was inconsistent with the Orthodox Opinions of that time and that if we had it we might look upon it as the Work of a Good Christian The Place which Clemens quotes out of it is too remarkable to be omitted here since we may know from it what many Antients who have not been charged with Idolatry thought of the Heathens Know that there is but One God said St. Peter in that Book who gave a Beginning to All Things and is able to make 'em End who is Invinsible and seeth all things who is shut up within no Bounds and contains all things who wants nothing and whom all things stand in need of since they exist by Him who is Incomprehensible Eternal and Incorruptible who was not made but made all things by his Powerful Word that is by his Son according to the Spiritual Interpretation put upon the Scripture Afterwards he adds as Clemens goes on Worship that God not as the Greeks do because Honest Men among the Greeks Worship'd the same God with us but without perfectly Knowing Him as those who have received the Doctrine of his Son He doth not say Do not worship the God whom the Greeks worship but Do not worship him as the Greeks do Changing only the Manner of the Worship but preaching no other God He himself explains what he means adding For being led by their Ignorance and not knowing God as perfectly as we do they make Statues of those things which God gave them for their use viz. Wood Stone Copper Iron Gold and Silver and instead of employing those things for their use they themselves worship ' em Besides they worship Beasts which God gave them for their Food the Birds of the Air the Fishes of the Sea the Creeping Creatures of the Earth Wild and Four-footed Beasts as well as Weasels Rats Dogs and Monkeys They sacrifice to Men what they should eat and offering Dead Things to the Dead as to Gods they prove Ungrateful to the True God and so deny his Existence And that it may appear that We and the Greeks Know the True God though in a different manner he goes on thus Worship not God neither as the Jews for fancying that They only know God they do not perceive that they worship Angels and Archangels the Months and the Moons for if the Moon does not appear they do not observe the Sabbath which they call First nor the New Moon nor the Days of Unleavened Bread nor any Holy Day Lastly he concludes saying As for you Learn the Just and Holy Doctrine which we teach you observe it and worship God after a new manner through Jesus Christ For we read in the Scripture that God said I make a new Covenant with you different from that which I made with your Fathers upon Mount Horeb. He hath given us a New Covenant for both that of the Jews and Greeks is old and We who worship him after a Third and New manner are Christians He clearly shews as Clemens adds That one and the same God was known to the Greeks after the manner of the Heathens to the Jews after the Jewish manner and to Vs after a New and Spiritual manner He shews further That the same God who gave the Two Covenants is He who gave Philosophy to the Greeks by which the Almighty is glorified amongst 'em c. As God was pleased to save the Jews by giving them some Prophets so he hath raised among the Greeks the most Honest Men whom he hath distinguisht from the Vulgar according as they were capable of receiving his Benefits to perform the part of PROPHETS amongst 'em in their own Tongue We learn this not only from St. Peter's Preaching but also from St. Paul when he says Take some Greek Books acknowledge that the Sybil teaches but One God and the Things that are to come ' Read Hydaspes and you 'll find that he hath writ much more clearly concerning the Son of God and that he said that many Kings would arm themselves against Jesus Christ that they would hate him and those that are called by his Name c. As the Preaching of the Gospel came in its time so the Law and the Prophets were given to the Barbarians in their time and Philosophy to the Greeks which accustoms the Ears to the Preaching of the Gospel Clemens speaks after the same manner in several other places and testifies clearly enough that Philosophy * Vid. Casab Exercitat 1. in App. Baron was among the Greeks what Prophecy was among the Hebrews and that God hath always given equally to all Men the Means necessary to be saved Which was also the Opinion of several other Greek Fathers Clemens therefore believed that the Greeks had no good Doctrine but what they took from the Barbarians especially from the Jews and the Sacred Books which he endeavours to prove in a thousand places and 't is well known that it was the common Opinion of the Fathers who undertook to censure the Philosophy of the Greeks The Jews said also the same thing as it appears from a Passage of Aristobulus a Peripatetick who is said to have been Tutor to Ptolemy Philometor and who speaks thus Plato did also follow our Laws and hath shewed that he had studied them well Now before Demetrius's time nay before the Empire of Alexander and that of the Perfians they were translated by others than the Septuagint as well as the History of what happen'd to the Hebrews our Fellow-Citizens at their departure from Egypt of what remarkable things they did and saw and how they took possession by their strength of the Land of Canaan and how the whole Law was given so that it is manifest that the Philosopher whom I have mention'd took several things from it for he was a Man of great Learning as well as Pythagoras who hath inserted several of our Opinions into his Doctrine But this Author is suspected for several Reasons and being the only Man who hath mention'd a Translation made before the Empire of the Persians one may justly doubt whether this is not a Jewish Fable However it appears that in the time of this Author whether he be Genuine or Supposititious the Jews charged the Heathens with having stoln the best things they had out of the Holy Books 'T is very likely that the Greeks had learnt many things of the Eastern Nations as of the Egyptians and Babylonians for they themselves * Vid. Diogen Laert. Proem ad illud Intt. confess it But if this Matter was fully examined one might perhaps find that many things were clearly spoken of in Greece before the Jews spoke of 'em after the same manner and that the latter began to express themselves as the Greeks only since they conversed with them I could alledge some Proofs of this Conjecture at least as strong as all those which the Fathers have alledged to prove the contrary But because I should too much wander from the chief
it is disliked because no Body follows it at present For Example * Paed. l. 1. p. 101. Clemens believed that Angels had Bodies And it was also the Opinion of †Vid. Origeniana Huetii l. 2. c. 2 5. Origen and most of the Fathers Yet that Opinion is branded as an Error without any Reason For although the Scripture teaches us that Spirits have neither Flesh nor Bones and that Angels are Intelligences yet it says no where that they are not cloathed with Bodies There hath been no Revelation since upon that Matter nor have we found out any convincing Reason that can persuade us the contrary Notwithstanding t is commonly said that 't is an Error because the School-Men have said so I confess that the Fathers who have ascribed Bodies to the Angels have alledged no evident Reason to prove it But all that could be concluded from thence is that They affirmed a thing which They knew not no more than We. Thus we should have suspended our Judgment and affirmed nothing concerning a Subject which was equally unknown to us Such a Suspension suited not with the Dogmaticks who can hardly confess that they know not all things and believe 't is the part of a Witty Man to Determine himself speedily upon all sorts of Questions Indeed without this 't is not possible to frame a System as compleat as it ought to be to be accounted a Learned Man And it would be a shameful thing to confess that a Thousand Questions might be askt upon every Article which could not be answered if one should say nothing but what one knows The same Principle may be applied to several other Doctrines of Clemens concerning which 't were better ingeniously to confess one's Ignorance than to condemn some Opinions about which we are in the dark Hence it is that notwithstanding those Opinions some Antients have bestowed many Encomium's upon him * Hist Eccl. l. 6. c. 13. Eusebius says That his Books are full of Useful Learning †Cat. Scrip. Eccles in Ep. ad Magnum Orat. T. 2. St. Jerom says That he hath writ very fine Works full of Learning and Eloquence which he took out of the Holy Scripture and Profane Authors And elsewhere Clemens says he Priest of the Church of Alexandria the most Learned of our Authors in my judgment wrote Eight Books of Stromata as many of Hypotyposes a Book against the Pagans and Three Volumes entituled the Paedagouge Is there any thing in his Books but what is full of Learning and taken from the bottom of Philosophy Cyril of Alexandria affirms in his VIth and VIIth Books against Julian That he was a Man of wonderful Learning who dived to the bottom of Greek Learning with such an Exactness as few before him could attain to * Haeret. Fab. l. 1. c. 6. Theodoret says That that Holy Man surpassed all others by the extent of his Learning What hath been said is sufficient to have a Notion of the Doctrine of Clemens I shall only add a word concerning the Cologne Edition 1688. Two sorts of Faults may be observed in it whereof some are Common to it with many other Editions of the Books of the Antients and the other are Particular to it As to the First one may observe That the Editions wherein there is no Distinctions and Paragraphs want a thing which seems not to be of great moment in it self but yet doth very much conduce to the understanding of an Author The Beginning of a new Section is as it were an Advertisement to the Reader who only by casting his Eye upon a Page sees how many Arguments and what Matter it contains Else the want of distinct Paragraphs doth somewhat confound the Mind and forces the Reader to be more attentive to understand what he reads and to look for a Connexion where there is none or confound two Arguments Now one should always endeavour to lessen as much as can be the Trouble of the Reader who takes Pains enough to understand the Things themselves Paragraphs produce in some respects the same effect as the Distinction of Chapters which cannot be neglected without breeding Confusion 'T is true the Antients often neglected to divide their Books or Discourses into certain Parts But if it be well consider'd the want of Order in many of their Writings was the true cause of that Neglect 'T was easier to pass from one subject to another by reason of some small Connexion that was between 'em or confusedly to write down a crowd of Thoughts than to reduce 'em into a certain Order as it would be more easie to heap up the Materials of a House than to give every one of them its due place Those who desire some Examples of Books without Order need only cast their Eyes upon Seneca or Tertullian who both said with a great deal of Enthusiasm whatever came into their Mind scarce ever having a Notion of any Order which they design'd to follow If those Authors were printed so as to divide their Reasonings by Paragraphs they might be much better understood The other Fault which those that take care of the Editions of Ancient Authors often commit is that they do not distinguish in a different Character the Quotations from the Words of the Author From whence it comes to pass that those who do not read them attentively ascribe to one Author what belongs to another This Dr. Cave hath done in his English Life of Clemens Alexandrinus which hath been very useful to me in the writing of this Clemens in the above-mention'd place concerning the Philosophy which he approves cites Socrates who in Phaedo applies to the Philosophers this Proverb which was used in the Mysteries There are many who carry the Thyrsus but few that are truly filled with the Spirit of Bacchus * P. 380. Ed. Ficin Socrates adds immediately after These as I believe are only those who applied themselves to Philosophy as they ought to do OF the Number whereof I have endeavoured to be as much as I could c. The whole Passage being in Roman Characters Dr. Cave thought that those words Of the Number whereof c. were Clemens's whereas they are Socrates's as may be seen in Plato and even by reading the rest of the Page wherein Clemens cites ' em If the whole Passage had been printed in Italick Letters Dr. Cave would not have mistaken it Which ought not to seem strange to those who know that to write the Life of an Author collected out of several places so many things must be heeded all at once that 't is a hard matter not to confound one's self Besides by distinguishing the Matters by Paragraphs and Quotations by different Characters those who have read an Author may more easily find out again such places as they want which is no small Advantage As to the Edition of Cologne there are Three Index's the first of the Places cited by Clemens the second of the Contents and a
she had made a Vow of Virginity But it appeared that she did not so much as know Athanasius seeing she took one Timotheus a Priest for him who pretended to be the Bishop of Alexandria The business of the broken Chalice and the misusing the Priests was a little more difficult Athanasius began by an Appeal from Eusebius of Nicomedia and the rest of the Bishops of his Party He afterwards said That he whose Chalice was pretended to have been broken and whose Name was Ischyras was not a Priest However without any regard to these Reasons there were sent some Arian Bishops to take Informations against him at Alexandria with Ischyras his Accuser but he protested highly against this Proceeding and went to Jerusalem where the Emperor was In the mean time the Informations from Egypt were received and Athanasius being loaded with them he was deposed in his absence and forbid to go to Alexandria Arsenius having been admitted into Communion by the Council and made Bishop of Hypsyle a Town of Egypt subscribed to the Deposition of Athanasius although he had justified him in reference to one of the Accusations brought against him The Sentence of the Council bore That he had flighted the Emperor's Orders and made the Assembly wait for him in an indecent manner That he came to Tyre with a great multitude of People and endeavoured to make a Disturbance there That he had for some time refused to purge himself of the Crimes laid to his Charge and uttered Injuries to divers Bishops That he would not submit to their Judgment That he was convicted of breaking a Chalice by the Informations made against him at Alexandria Thus was Athanasius condemned by his Enemies who were his Judges as Arius had been anathematiz'd by Alexander his Predecessor and several other Bishops who had declared themselves against him before the Convocation of the Council The same usage has been observed in all the Assemblies of Bishops which have met since the Clergy having this Advantage above the Laity that they can be both Judges and Parties After the Deposal of Athanasius the Emperor wrote to the Fathers of the Council to repair as soon as possible to Jerusalem to celebrate the Dedication of the Church of the Apostles which was now finished Where being arriv'd they were magnificently receiv'd and made several Orations for the greater Solemnity of the Festival which happened to be very luckily in the same Year in which the Tricennales of the Emperor * In the Year 335. were to be celebrated which is to say the 30th Year of his Reign †In Vit. Const l. 4.46 33. Eusebius particularly made several Harrangues before the Emperor who took a great deal of pleasure in hearing them insomuch that he would hear standing a long Oration which this Bishop made on the holy Sepulchre Eusebius well remembers this Honour the Emperor did him and the Praises he gave to his Oration touching Easter and carefully inserts in the Life of Constantine all the Letters he had received from the Emperor perhaps not out of Acknowledgment but rather to do himself Honour * Baronius ad haec Tempora as he has been reproach'd with it The Bishops assembled at Jerusalem †Socrat. l. 1. c. 33. having ended the Dedication of the Church which Constantine had newly built and there received into Communion Arius and Euzoius on the Emperor's Recommendation Eusebius and Theognis say that Arius had been kindly received by the Bishops but in no sort that he was received into Communion Which was perhaps for some years refused him to try his Sincerity Afterwards they wrote to the Church of Alexandria that she might receive them and be assured she would enjoy henceforward a full Tranquility Envy having been driven out thence by the deposal of Athanasius ‖ Sozom. l. II. 28. In the mean time this Bishop had gotten to Constantinople to complain to the Emperor of what he had suffered but he could obtain no Audience from him all that he could be heard to say was That he entreated the Emperor to cite to Constantinople the Bishops which were at Jerusalem to have another Examination of his Affair Constantine wrote to Jerusalem and complains in his Letter that in a time wherein the Barbarians began to acknowledge the True God The Christians who would be thought to have the Mysteries of God in their keeping for he durst not say that that they kept them laboured only to entertain Divisions and Hatred among them not to say for the Destruction of Mankind And therefore he desired that the Bishops assembled at Jerusalem would meet at Constantinople to examine once for all the Affair of Athanasius and put some end to it This Letter being to Jerusalem some of the Bishops return'd to their Diocesses and others to Constantinople These last persuaded according to some * Sozom. id Authors the Emperor that Athanasius had effectually broken a Chalice or according to †Socrat. l. 1. c. 35. others that he had threatned to stop the Convoy of Provisions which went every year from Alexandria to Constantinople of which three Bishops were Witnesses The Emperor provoked by these Accusations order'd him to retire to Triers a Town of the Belgick Gaul where he remain'd about two years The Bishops who were met at Constantinople ‖ Id. c 36. deposed after this Marcellus of Ancyra as being faln into the Opinion of Paul of Samosatia One Asterius who had taught Rhetorick in Cappadocia having embraced the Christian Religion had wrote some Books wherein he spake of the Divinity of the Son in the same terms as Arius Marcellus undertook to refute them but far from establishing the Pre-existence of the Son he denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ existed before his Birth or at least exprest himself in such a manner that one might believe he regarded the Reason or the Word not as a Being that has his particular Existence but as I know not what kind of Accident such as is the Word or the Sound which is made in speaking He also very ill treated * Euseb cont Marcel l. 1. c. 4. in the same Book several Arian Bishops as the two Eusebius's Paulinus and Narcissus He charged likewise Origen for expounding the Holy Scripture according to the Notions of Heathen Philosophers and especially according to those of Plato from whom Marcellus affirmed he had taken his Doctrine of Principles which is to say of the Holy Trinity of which he had treated after the Platonick fashion The Arian Bishops offended with this Book had begun to examine it when they were as yet at Jerusalem but having been obliged to pass over to Constantinople they had only enjoined Marcellus to alter his Opinion according to the Style of that time He promis'd to burn his Book but having not done it and even refusing to do it his Affair was re-assumed at Constantinople and he was deposed Eusebius of Caesarea wrote two Books expresly against
lengthened those which seemed to him too short However it may be said in general that 't is one of the best Translations of the Greek Fathers that we have and at the same time one of the most difficult by reason of Gregory's Style being too Florid and even Harsh and Obscure in several places wherein he handles some controverted Doctrines I should end here the Life of Gregory because there is nothing else to be said of him that is certain were it not that I perceived a little too late that what I have said concerning the putting off of Baptism may be cleared by Gregory himself He disputes at large in his Fortieth Oration wherein he treats of Baptism against those who put it off for the above-mention'd Reasons After all it appears to say so in a word from that Oration that Gregory believed 1. That all past Sins are forgiven and blotted out by Baptism 2. That 't is a very difficult thing to be restored into a state of Salvation if one commits a mortal Sin after Baptism 3. That those who neglect Baptism and die without it are Damned 4. That those who die without being Baptized but have not neglected or put off their Baptism by their fault are neither Glorified nor Punished whether they die in Childhood or in a more advanced Age wherein they wished in vain to be Baptized It appears from that Doctrine and several others that Christian Societies now-a-days without excepting one cannot boast to follow the Doctrine of the Fathers in every thing Theology is subject to Revolutions as well as Empires but though it hath undergone considerable Changes yet the Humour of Divines is not very much alter'd as will easily appear by comparing what we see in those of our time with the Complaints Gregory Nazianzen makes against those who lived in his The Life OF PRUDENTIUS A Vrelius Prudentius Clemens was born in Spain in the Year 348 * Praefat. Cathem as he himself says in some places of his Works His Ancestors and Quality are not known but it appears that he had afterwards some considerable Employments †Ibid. After his Childhood he applied himself according to the Custom of those Times and the foregoing Ages to the Study of Eloquence under the Direction of a Rhetor. Youth learned in those Ages to Declame upon all sorts of Subjects before they applied themselves to the Sciences necessary to dive into the Nature of those Subjects and handle them well That way of Instructing Young Men was not New and the Abuses that crept into it were not introduced all of a sudden * L. 2. c. 4. Quintilian assures us that 't was only in Demetrius Phalerianus's time about 300 Years before Christ that the Athenian Masters of Rhetorick began to exercise Young Men who desired to advance themselves and get some Preferments in the State by proposing some feigned Subjects to them like those that were treated before the People or at the Barr and obliging them to discourse upon those Matters in their Schools But in Socrates's time who lived a hundred years before there were already some Masters whose Profession was to teach to defend all sorts of Causes and who boasted to argue them so as to make what is Unjust appear Just such were †Cicero in Bruto § 8. Gorgias Leontinus Thrasimachus of Calcedonia Protagoras Abderinus Prodicos of Ceos Hippias Eloeus and many others who promised with great insolence to teach how a Bad Cause might become Good by pleading it as one ought to do Quemadmodum causa inferior dicendo fieri superior posset One may see a bloody Satyr against those Men in Aristophanes his Nubes who indeed very unjustly ascribes that Doctrine to Socrates but grounds that Calumny only upon this viz. That there was at that time some Men who maintained it and upon some outward resemblance which might be between Socrates's Discourses and theirs He that will form yet a more compleat Idea of those Sophists must read Aristotle's Books concerning Sophistical Arguments wherein he assures us that the Art of those Men was a seeming Wisdom but not really so Socrates and the wise Men of his time omitted nothing to ridicule those Men and hinder that so pernicious an Art should be esteemed as it may be seen by Three Dialogues * Hippias Protagoras Euthydemus See Cicero de Orator l 3. c. 16. of Plato wherein he very ingeniously mocks the Sophists of his time But they did not succeed in their Design since Greece proved afterwards full of that sort of Rhetors and Isocrates whom Plato did much esteem made two Orations like those of Gorgias wherein he praises two Persons that are extremely to blame viz. Helena and Busiris Whatever Socrates and those that were of his Mind might have said a Discourse artificially composed and attended with the other Ornaments of Rhetorick made so great an Impression upon the People that by the means of such Art they overcame the best Reasons This could not fail to make a great many People desirous to learn it and to corrupt the Minds of most Men Therefore they endeavoured to know how to speak agreeably and readily upon all Subjects and because such a thing depended much more upon Exercise than the Knowledge of the Things themselves they spent a great deal more time in Declaming than in Forming their Judgment and Studying the other Sciences If they applied themselves to Philosophy it was not so much to please themselves with the Knowledge of the Truths which it might contain as to appear Learned and make use of them at the Barr. They chiefly applied themselves to Dialectick which was nothing else but the Art of Wrangling upon every thing and Arguing Sophistically rather than Rationally They pretended that they were not bound to use upon the Subjects which they treated Demonstrative Arguments or such as come as near them as can be and they thought that it was enough to alledge Likely Arguments not in such a degree of Probability which moves the Mind by it self but in such a degree as belongs to the Things which are not opposite to clear Truth 'T was almost enough to say nothing either altogether absurd or whereof the Weakness was palpable almost to every body * Vid. Diog. Laert. in ejus Vita p. 319. Ed. Hen. Steph. Aristotle who proposed Two things to himself in his Writings what is Probable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what is True handled the former in his Dialectick and Rhetorick wherein he shews how to make upon every thing Probable Discourses that is of the Falsity whereof every body is not sensible One may also convince one's self of all this by reading of the other Ancient Rhetors and especially the Rhetorical Books which Cicero wrote That Art as he himself says came from Greece to Rome and besides the Greeks who taught Rhetorick in it from the time of the Second Punick War some Masters did also teach to Declame in Latin 'T was one
Christians did against the Opinion of Fate He says that if it be true there should be no Laws nor Punishments against Malefactors quos ferrea Fata Cogunt ad facinus inevitabile mergunt Quin velle adigunt pravum insinuantia votum Ne liceat miseris vetitum committere nolle That Unmoveable Fate doth unavoidably force to Sin That it disposes the Will to do Ill so that Men cannot forbear being willing to do what is forbidden 4. The Heathen Orator vaunted much the Institution and Chastity of the Vestales But Prudentius who did not suffer himself to be surprized by fine words when the Question was about Paganism replied * Ver. 1065. That it must be observed that the Vestales were chosen in their Childhood before they came to despise the lawful Bond of Marriage of their own motion and kindled with the love of Virginity and Religion They Consecrate says he their Chastity before the Altars against their Wills and those poor Wretches are deprived of a Pleasure which they take away from them but they have not despised it If they are Chaste as to the Body they are not so as to the Mind They enjoy no Rest in their Beds where an Invisible Wound makes them sigh after the Nuptial Torches The same Argument cannot be made use of against the Christian Nuns of that time who were permitted to Marry if they were not content with Celebacy But some things have happen'd since among a part of Christians by the means whereof we see now-a-days upon the Theater of Christianity its several Parties act the same Scene between themselves which was acted formerly by the Pagans and Christians VII Lastly There are Forty nine Quadrants to be found in the Works of Prudentius upon several Histories of the Old and New Testament which make up a little Book entitled Enchiridion whereby the Style is still less Poetical than that of the other Works of our Poet. THE HISTORY OF PELAGIANISM IN the Fourth Century a vast number of People went to visit the Holy Places in Pulestine which made the Books of Origen to be known in the West where they were unknown before Rufinus amongst others a Priest of Aquileia having lived thirty Years in the East and studied under Evagrius an Origenist not only embraced the Opinions of Origen but being returned into Italy spread them every where by translating several of his Works Pelagius and Celestius learned of him at Rome that Doctrine of which I shall speak hereafter They were both Monks and of Great Britain Celestius was a Scotch-man and Pelagius an English-man The latter's Name was Morgan in the Language of his Countrey that is Born of the Sea or in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Name which he took out of his Native Countrey If we believe * In Proem Dial. cont Pelag. St. Jeram Pelagius was an ignorant Fellow who knew not how to express himself who deserved more to be pitied than envied and Celestius a Solecism-maker But St. Augustine speaks well of their Parts in several Places and indeed it appears by their Fragments which remain in his Works that they did not express themselves so ill as St. Jerom says We have still two Pieces of Pelagius among the Supposititious Writings of this latter whereof one is a Letter to Demetriades and the other is entitled Symboli Explanatio ad Damasum whereas it should be called Professio Fidei ad Innocentium for Pelagius sent it to Innocent This last Piece is also to be found in Baronius and in the First Volume of the Councils of Cologne in 1606. Pelagius made a long stay at Rome where he got a great Reputation by his Works and Conduct Hence it is that Augustin Bishop of Hippo praised him and wrote a very obliging Letter to him before he fell a Disputing with him He calls him in his Book De Peccatorum Meritis †Cap. 1 3. Vir ut audio sanctus nec parvo profectu Christianus bonus ac praedicandus Vir As I hear says he he is a Holy Man and very much improved in Piety a Good Man and worthy of Praise Petavius in his Book * Dogm Theol. T. 3. p. 586. De Pelagianorum Semi-Pelagianorum Dogmatum Historia observes that St. Augustin wrote the Book in which he speaks so advantageously of Pelagius after the Condemnation of Celestius in the Council of Carthage in 412. From whence he concludes that St. Chrysostom doth not mention the same Pelagius in his Fourth Letter wherein he laments the Fall of a Monk of the same Name 'T is not more likely that Pelagius the Hermit to whom St. Isidorus of Damietto wrote †Lib. 1. Ep. 314. sharp Censures was the same whose History I write and whose Life was always unblameable as it appears by St. Augustin's Testimony Rome having been taken by the Goths in the Year 410 ‖ Vid. Vsser Brit. Eccl. Antiq. c. 9. p. 16. Pelagius who was there left it and sailed into Africa but he did not stay there having presently set out for the East In the mean time Celestius his Disciple stay'd at Carthage and aspired to be Priest of that Church but because he made no scruple to maintain the Opinions of his Master he was accused by Paulinus a Deacon of the same Church in a Council wherein Aurelius Bishop of Carthage presided in the before-mentioned Year Celestius was Condemned and Excommunicated as having maintained these Seven Propositions 1. That Adam was created a Mortal Man and would have died whether he had sinned or not 2. That Adam's Sin had prejudiced none but himself not all Mankind 3. That the Law brought Men to the Heavenly Kingdom as well as the Gospel 4. That before the Coming of Jesus Christ Men were without Sin 5. That New-born Children are in the same Condition in which Adam was before his Fall 6. That all Men do not die through the Death and Prevarication of Adam as all Men do not rise through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 7. That Man is without Sin and may easily obey God's Commands if He pleases Celestius answered all those Heads but we have only some Fragments of his Answers in St. Augustine's Book that is to say we have no other Witnesses of his Doctrine but his Adversaries who took no great care to propose their Accusations clearly and to apprehend well of the Opinions of those whom they accused as it appears by the Obscurity of the before mention'd Heads * Aug. de Pecc Orig. c. 3. Celestius said among other things that as for what concerns the Propagation of Sin He had heard many Catholick Priests and especially Rufinus deny it He presented a Request to the Council wherein he consest that Children were Redeemed by Baptism But he was Condemned notwithstanding and being obliged to leave Africa he went into Sicily where he wrote some Books in his Vindication From thence some short Questions were sent to St. Augustine which Celestius
only Greek A Synod was held at Diospolis in Palestine towards the end of the same Year 415 where Fourteen Bishops met Eros and Lazarus Bishops of the Gaules had delivered to Eulogus Archbishop of Caesarea an Accusation in Writing against Pelagius but they could not come to that Synod because one of 'em fell sick in his Journey Pelagius appeared in it and answer'd the several Accusations laid on him so that the Council acquitted him and even approved of his Doctrine according to the Interpretations he put upon it Here 's in a few words an Account of the whole Matter * Aug. de Gest Palaest Syn Pelagius was accused of maintaining the following Propositions 1. That none can be without Sin without knowing the Law He answered That he meant only by it that the Law was a help to avoid Sin not that such a Knowledge was sufficient not to Sin 2. That all Men are led by their Will He owned that Proposition by saying That though Man hath a Free-Will yet when he chuses well 't is by God's Assistance 3. That in the Day of Judgment God will not forgive the Wicked and Sinners That 's said Pelagius the Doctrine of the Gospel 4. That Evil doth not so much as come into one's Thoughts He assured he had only said That Christians should endeavour to have no ill Thoughts 5. That the Kingdom of Heaven is promised in the Old Testament This he maintained by Dan. vii 18. 6. That Man may be without Sin if he will Pelagius said That he had maintained that this was possible by the Grace of God but that he never taught that any Man had lived without Sin from his Childhood to his Old Age. He also denied that he had maintained some other Doctrines of which he was accused Whereupon he was ask'd whether he did not Anathematize those who were of that Opinion I Anathematize 'em said he as Fools not as Hereticks for what they say is not a Doctrine 7. He was accused of maintaining the Opinions which had been condemned at Carthage which have been before mention'd and besides That a Child may be saved without Baptism He replied by denying that he ever taught any thing after the manner it was reported especially that ever he said that those who lived before Christ have been without Sin 8. Some places which were said to be extracted out of Celestius his Books were proposed to him but he said he could not warrant what another had writ and that he anathematized those who maintained Propositions so worded Amongst other Propositions this was one of 'em That Sinners who repent obtain the Forgiveness of their Sins not by the Grace and Mercy of God but according to their Merits and Penitence Perhaps this was only a Consequence drawn from Celestius's Opinions for in this whole Controversie both Parties ascribed to one another well or ill drawn Consequences as express and formal Doctrines Besides those Propositions which Eros and Lazarus extracted out of the Books of Pelagius and Celestius being separated from the Series of the Discourse might have a fence contrary to that which they had in those Books The Council having approved all his Answers declared him worthy of the Communion of the Catholick Church But the Enemies of Pelagius accused him of having concealed his true Opinions and deceived those Greek Bishops to whom he spoke only by an Interpreter St. Augustine says that Pelagius his Answers * De Gest Palaest Syn. c. 1 2. were Orthodox as the Fathers of the Council understood 'em not as Pelagius did But those who have not so bad an Opinion of Pelagius as he had observe that St. Augustine who understood not the Greek could not know by his own knowledge the Opinions of the Greek Church concerning that Matter If he had been able to read those Fathers say they he would have found that they spake not otherwise than †Vid. Bull. Harm Apost Diss 2. c. 7. §. 14. Exam. Cens p. 157. Pelagius as may be seen by an infinite number of Places out of St. Chrysostom and St. Isidorus of Damietta his Disciple whom some late Authors have openly accused of Pelagianism Therefore 't is not to be wonder'd that Greek Bishops should approve the Language of that English Monk Before the Acts of that Council were published Pelagius wrote to a Friend of his that his Opinions had been approved in it and made his Letter publick He also made a kind of an Apology for that Council in the Year 416 which he sent to the Bishop of Hippo who having received no other from Palestine durst not trust it He together with some other African Bishops wrote to John Bishop of Jerusalem to have the very Acts of the Council of Diospolis In the mean time St. Jerom who had written against the Pelagians and especially against the Bishop of Jerusalem occasion'd a Disorder which happen'd at Bethlehem where a Deacon was kill'd and some Monasteries were burnt The Bishop was accused of having stirred that Tumult but they had not time enough to bring him to an account for it because he died the same Year St. Jerom having also offended the Bishops of Palestine by despising their Assemblies thought the best way to maintain himself was to rely upon the Friendship of those of Africa though he was not of their Opinion in every thing being of that of the Semi-Pelagians of whom I shall speak in the Sequel of this History Wherefore he wrote to St. Augustin in these terms I am resolved to love honour respect and admire you and to defend what you say as if I had said it Mihi decretum est te amare te suspicere te colere te mirari tuaque dicta quasi mea defendere Pelagius was accused every where of denying altogether the Assistance of Grace To justifie himself he wrote a Book concerning Free-Will where he shewed that he * Petav. de Pelag. c. 2 c. acknowledged six sorts of Grace First 'T is a Grace of God according to Pelagius to have a Rational and Free Soul that is to say which may obey or not obey God without being unavoidably determin'd either to the one or the other Pelagius maintained that all Men were born in that state so that if they applied themselves to Evil it was not by an Unavoidable Necessity but by an ill use of their Liberty St. Augustine maintained First That what we receive from God by Creation ought not to be called a Grace on this occasion but only what we receive from him by virtue of our Redemption But that 's only a Dispute about Words Besides St. Augustine denied that Men are born otherwise than unavoidably determined to do Ill and said that 't was impossible for them to do any Good without an extraordinary Assistance of God which he only bestowed upon some and that those who had not that Assistance were unavoidably enclined to Evil. Thus though he admitted of the Name of Free-Will
he put a new sence upon those words since Freedom in his Opinion is only a meer Spotaneity and doth not imply a Power of not doing what one doth The difference therefore that was between St. Augustin and Pelagius in this Matter is that the former believed that since the Fall of Adam Men are so corrupted that they are born with ill Habits which do necessarily encline them to do Evil That if God would encline them to Good he must bestow upon them for every Good Action a Grace which makes 'em unavoidably willing to do Good And further That those to whom he gave not that Grace were Damn'd God by a Wisdom which we do not comprehend being willing that Mankind should be born with an unavoidable Necessity of Offending him and of being afterwards tormented with Everlasting Punishments without freeing from that dismal Necessity but a very small number of Persons upon whom he bestows an Irresistible Grace St. Augustine believed that this was to give God the Glory due to him Pelagius on the contrary believed that God had not permitted that Adam's Sin should cause so great a Disorder in the World that those who descended from him should not be able still to obey or not obey God's Law who gave their Souls the power of avoiding Evil and doing Good so that they were Damned only by their Fault without being bound to Sin and Everlasting Misery by any unavoidable Necessity Having received a Free-Will from God 't was not necessary that God should interpose in every Action * Vsser p. 141. ubi sup To be able to do Good said Pelagius comes from God who gave it to his Creature but to be willing to do Good and to practice Vertue depends on Man The Second Grace which Pelagius acknowledged is the Forgiveness of Past Sins which God grants to those who mend their Lives Pelagius Anathematized in the Council of Diospolis whosoever durst say that God hath any respect to Merits on this occasion St. Augustine complains that Pelagius being content to acknowledge that God freely forgives us our Past Sins confest not that he helps us to abstain from them hereafter But Pelagius maintain'd that that Forgiveness helped us to do our Duty for the time to come seeing we cannot betake our selves to serve God when we have offended him but by being persuaded that he will freely forgive us what is past He further said that as to those Sins which were committed in the very time of Penitence that is in the state of Regeneration they were forgiven us in consideration of our Good Works by which we also come to Glory And in that sence he maintained that Grace is given according to Merits that is according to Good Works Forasmuch as Children before the use of Reason commit no Sin they are not concerned in that kind of Grace The Third Grace according to Pelagius is the Law that is to say the Preaching of the Gospel and the Example of Jesus Christ which those who lived under the Old Dispensation had not He said that this Grace was altogether necessary to live like Christians The Fourth sort of Grace is an Inward Illumination of our Minds which Pelagius exprest thus * Apud Aug lib. de Grat. Chr. c. 7. I maintain that Grace doth not only consist in the Law but in the Assistance of God c. Now God assists us by his Doctrine and Revelation by opening the Eyes of our Hearts by shewing us things to come to hinder us from being too much taken up with present things by discovering to us the Snares of the Devil by enligthning us with the various and unspeakable Gifts of his Heavenly Grace Do you think adds Pelagius that those who speak thus deny the Grace of God Do they not rather acknowledge both Free-Will and the Grace of God together St. Augustine accuses Pelagius on this occasion not of having positively denied Grace but of having denied the Necessity of it and said that God did only give it that Free-Will might the more easily encline to Good That Grace according to Pelagius doth not infallibly and by it self produce the Will of Doing Good and Good Works but only enclines to be more easily Willing The Fifth is the Grace of Baptism by which according to him although Children receive not the Forgiveness of Sins which they have not committed being according to Pelagius altogether Innocent yet they enter into a better state which consists in their being thereby adopted by God and becoming Heirs of the Heavenly Kingdom On the contrary St. Augustine maintained that Children being born Sinners Baptism confers upon them the Forgiveness of Sin and sanctifies them by a Grace which God hath annexed to it Lastly The Sixth Grace consists according to Pelagius in Eternal Life and the Kingdom of Heaven He is accused of having distinguished those two things and said that Eternal Life might be obtained without the Revelation of the Gospel but that God gave the Kingdom of Heaven only to those who were Baptized According to Pelagius that Grace was given consequently to Merits that is to say a Good Life 'T is a hard matter to know wherein that Distinction of Eternal Life and Kingdom of Heaven did consist and to reconcile it with the Accusation raised against Pelagius that the Kingdom of Heaven was promised under the Old Testament St. Augustin said upon this last Article that if by the Old Testament the Legal Covenant was understood it did not promise Eternal Life but if all the Books of the Old Testament were understood by it 't was true that it was promised therein although the Kingdom of Heaven is not mention'd in them that Phrase belonging to the New Testament There was never a Dispute more intricate than this because each Party being urged with some troublesom Consequences endeavoured to get rid of them with the help of some Terms upon which they put a Sence different from that which they had in the Mouth of their Adversaries The word Grace when used by Pelagius did not signifie the same thing as when used by the Bishop of Hippo and the latter gave the Name of Liberty to a thing which was not ordinarily so called In short several People believe that if the chief Words that have been used in that Controversie and the Idea's that have been fixed to 'em were examined it would be found that there is scarce any of those Idea's that is very distinct so as to know perfectly the meaning of a Word to which one of those Idea's is fixed when 't is pronounced Nay there is in their opinion some of those words to which no Idea at all hath been fixed so that in some parts of that Dispute both Parties do in a manner imitate a Frenchman and an Arabian who knowing only their Mother-Tongue should speak by turns as loud as they could and sometimes both at one time without understanding one another and should afterwards boast each of them of having overcome his
Eccles Antiq. p. 147. Bishop Vsher hath shewed a great while ago that that great Bishop sweats to no purpose to hide the Bunch of Zosimus with his Purple It cannot be doubted after the reading of the Letters which he wrote to the Bishops of Africa that he did favour not only Celestius but Pelagius as being Catholicks without having ever departed from the True Faith Zosimus having sent his Letter into Africa received from Palestine a Packet directed to Innocent whose Death they knew not yet It contained some Letters of Praylus Bishop of Jerusalem and an Apology of Pelagius with a little Book wherein he explained his Opinions very clearly as it will appear by the reading of it Praylus did openly side with Pelagius and Zosimus caused those Letters and Writings to be publickly read which were approved by every Body as Zosimus wrote it a little while after to the Bishops of Africa Would to God says he to them my most Beloved Brethren that some of you had been at the reading of those Letters How great was the Joy of the Holy Men who were present at it In how great an Admiration were they All some of them could scarce forbear shedding Tears Is it possible that Men whose Belief is so pure could be so slandered Is there any place in their Writings in which they do not mention the Assistance and Grace of God Besides he condemned in that Letter Eros and Lazarus Accusers of Pelagius and Celestius as Men guilty of great Crimes Erubes cenda factis damnationibus nomina and spoke with great contempt of the others who had prosecuted him Yet the Bishops of Africa had no regard to those Letters Two hundred and fourteen of them met together at Carthage and condemned a new Pelagius and Celestius till they would acknowledge the Necessity of Grace in the same sence it was taught in Africa without using any shift as they had done hitherto That Assembly met in the Beginning of the Year 418 and sent its Constitutions with a Letter to Zosimus wherein those Bishops exhorted him to proceed against Pelagius agreeably to their Constitutions Their Letter had the Effect they wished for and Zosimus and his Clergy who had admired the Writings of Pelagius wherein he very clearly exprest his Opinions Being attentive as St. Augustine relates it to what the Romans whose Faith is to be praised in the Lord believed concerning it they saw that all their Opinions which agreed with one another were full of ardour for the Catholick Truth against the Error of Pelagius However when Zosimus condemned him he spoke not so eagerly as he did when he gave Sentence in his Behalf as may be seen in Bishop Vsher The Emperors Honorius and Theodosius received also the Acts of the Council of Africa and thought themselves obliged to maintain them by their Authority by making an Edict which they sent to the Three Praefects of the Praetorium to be publish'd through the whole Empire by which they banish'd Pelagius and Celestius from Rome and also condemned to a perpetual Banishment and Confiscation of Estates all those who should maintain their Doctrine where-ever they might be authorising all manner of Persons to Accuse them The Praefects of the Praetorium added to that Imperial Law particular Edicts one of which is still extant in the * Tom. 5. Col. 849. Centuriators of Magdeburg 'T is Palladius's Edict and it runs thus If he who is fallen into the infamous Opinion of that Dark Heresie be Lay-Man or a Clergy-Man by whomsoever he be drawn before the Judge and without minding the Accuser his Estate shall be confiscated and he shall be condemned to perpetual Banishment Et si sit ille Plebeius ac Clericus qui in Caliginis hujus obscoena reciderit à quocnnque tractus ad Judicem sine Accusatriois discretione Personae facultatem publicatione nudatus irrevocabile patietur exilum Some will suspect that that Edict exprest in words so Emphatical was penn'd by a zealous Clergy-Man but 't is nothing if compared with that of the Emperors Honorius and Theodosius which may be seen at large in * Vbi sup p. 151. Bishop Vsher Those who know the Style of the Preachers of that time will easily believe that it required a long Experience to begin an Imperial Edict with these Terms which I shall not undertake to translate into French Ad conturbandam Catholicae simplicitatis Lucem puro semper splendore radiantem dolosae antis ingenio novam subitò emicuisse versutiam pervulgatâ opinione cognovimus quae fallacis scientiae obumbrata mendaciis furiato tantum debacobata luctamine stabilem quietem coelestis conatur attrectare fidei dum novi acuminis commendata vento insignem notam Plebeiae aestimat vilitatis sentire cum cunctis ac prudentiae singulatis pálmain fore communiter approbata destruere c. The rest runs in the same strain and one may see thereby that in Honorius's time the Spiritual Exactations to convert the Hereticks were not very different from those that have been made use of in these latter Times In the mean time the same Bishops of Africa who had condemn'd Pelagius knowing nothing yet of the Emperor's Edict dated from the last Day of April met again the next Day at Carthage and Anathematized those who should say 1. That the First Man was Mortal by his Nature 2. That Little Children ought not to be Baptized or that they may be Baptized although they are not infected with Adam's Sin 3. That the Grace by which we are Justified serves only for the Forgiveness of Sins and is not an Assistance to abstain from them for the time to come 4. That Grace helps us only by teaching us our Duty and produces not the Obedience it self 5. That Grace is given us that we may more easily do by its means what we should do with greater difficulty without it 6. That 't is only out of Humility that we are all obliged to say that we are Sinners 7. That every one is not obliged to say Forgive us our Sins for himself but only for others who are Sinners 8. That the Saints are obliged to say the same words only out of Humility It seems that that Council intended not only to condemn the Opinions of Pelagius but also to anathematize before hand those who should fall into some Opinions which should have some relation with his For one may easily perceive that according to his Principles he might have altogether denied the Four last Propositions He did not believe that Grace did only teach us our Duty nor that any Man had lived without Sin except Jesus Christ. But it hath always been the Custom of Councils to anathematize such Erros as no body maintained when they condemned the true Opinions of the Heterodox perhaps to inspire a greater horror for Heresie and lest any one should be so rash as to protect Hereticks Thus as * Ep. 157. St. Augustine speaks by the Vigilance
of the Episcopal Councils with the Assistance of the Saviour who defends his Church and that of the Imperial Edicts Pelagius and Celestius were condemned through the whole Christian World unless they should repent In the mean time Pelagius who was at Jerusalem still being urged to it by Pinianus and Melanius published a Declaration as to what concerns the Necessity of Grace which he acknowledged to be necessary in every Act and at every Moment He also said That with respect to Baptism he was of the same Opinion which he had set down in his Profession of Faith to Pope Innocent viz. That Children ought to be Baptized as they were wont to be But whatever he might say they did not believe that he understood what he said in the same Sence as the Church of Africa In the mean time Julian Bishop of Celaena in Campania published some Commentaries upon the Song of Solomon a Book concerning Constancy and four Books against the first of St. Augustin De Concupiscentia Nuptiis wherein he maintained the Opinions of Pelagius In the last of those Works he openly called the Bishops of Africa Seditious Men and Innovators and said that they must needs not have Reason on their side since in the Dispute they frighted those who dared oppose them with Imperial Edicts but that by such Proceedings they perswaded not Understanding but Timorous Men. * Ap. Aug. cont Jul. lib. 3. c. 1. Laborare illam partem rationis inopiâ quae in disserendo cum terrorem Surrogat nullam à prudentibus impetrat sed coecum à meticulosis extorquet assensum He accused Zozimus of having prevaricated by condemning Pelagius after he had approved his Opinions And with respect to the Councils of Africa he said That those who had been condemned in them could not defend their Cause That none is able to judge well of controverted Matters unless he examines them with a Mind free from Hatred Friendship Enmity and Anger and that the Bishops of Africa were not in that Disposition seeing they hated the Opinions of Pelagius before they were acquainted with them That Advices ought not to be numbred but weighed and in short Whatever is commonly objected against the Judgment of Great Assemblies A New Council made up of 217 Bishops was held at Carthage in the Year 419. wherein whatever was done in the foregoing against Pelagius was confirmed and indeed to use the Terms of St. Prosper in his Poem de Ingratis An alium in finem posset procedere Sanctum Concilium cui Dux Aurelius ingeniumque Augustinus erat But the Episcopal Authority was again upheld in this occasion by that of the Emperors who by a Letter directed to Aurelius confirmed their precedeing Edict and ordered * Vsser ubi sup p. 161. That if any one knew in what part of the Empire Pelagius and Celestius lay hid and did not discover 'em or presently drive 'em from it they should be liable to the same Punishment as Hereticks And in order to correct the Obstinacy of some Bishops who maintained by a tacit consent those who disputed in the behalf of Heresie or did not destroy it by publickly assaulting it Aurelius should take care to Depose those who would not subscribe to the Condemnation of Pelagianism and that they should be Excommunicated and Banished Aurelius received Orders to publish that Edict through all Africa and he did punctually perform them sending a Circular Letter to the Bishops of the Byzacene and Arzugitane Provinces by which he exhorted to subscribe to the Acts of the last Council both those who had assisted at it and those who could not come to it that it might appear that there was in the Bishops neither Dissimulation nor Negligence or lest perhaps there might remain some just Suspicion of some hidden Heresie The Bishops who were of Pelagius's Opinion had much ado to subscribe to the Acts and Eighteen of them wrote to the Bishop of Thessalonica to endeavour to get the Eastern Bishops on their side To engage them the more easily to it they accused their Adversaries of Manicheism because the Manicheaus maintained also the unavoidable Necessity of Sin and the Natural Corruption of Man That Accusation was so much the more odious because St. Augustine the chief Defender of those Opinions had been infected in his Youth with the Opinions of Manes and because having abjured them he had confuted them by the same Principles which the Pelagians used which he afterwards forsook when he came to be a Bishop On the other hand Julian wrote to Rome and Celestius went to Constantinople in the Year 419 to endeavour to get Friends there But after the before-mention'd Imperial Edicts 't was not likely they should be successful in it Celestius was ill received by Atticus who had succeeded Arsacius substituted to St. Chrysostom who died soon after The Pelagians were also ill treated as St. Prosper relates it at Ephesus and in Sicily And Constantius whom Honorius had made Partner of the Empire made in the Year 420 an Edict like that of that Prince against those who should conceal Celestius St. Jerom died that Year and St. Augustine wrote his Four Books dedicated to Boniface Successor of Zosimus and Six against Julian dedicated to Claudius He makes the Encomium of St. Jerom in them and assures us that he was of the same Opinion with the Bishops of Africa in all likelyhood because he wrote against the Pelagians though he made not use of the same Arguments with St. Augustine * Lib. 1. in Pelag. St. Jerom said That God's Commands are possible but that every one cannot do whatever is possible not by any Weakness of Nature which would be a Reflection upon God but by the Custom of the Soul which cannot have all Vertues always and at the same time Possibilia praecepit Deus sed haec possibilia cuncta singuli habere non possumus non imbecillitate Naturae ut calumniam facias Deo sed animi assuetudine qui cunctas simul semper non potest habere virtutes St. Augustin was so far from being of that Opinion that in 191 Sermon de Tempore he speaks thus We detest the Blasphemy of those who say that God hath commanded Man any thing that is impossible and that Gods Commands cannot be observed by every one in particular but by All in common Execramur blasphemiam eorum qui dicunt impossible aliquid homini à Deo esse praeceptum mandata Dei non à singulis sed ab omnibus in commune posse servari Here we must supply By the Assistance of Grace Whilst * Vsser ubi sup c. 11. Pelagius lay hid in the East and kept silence Julian wrote Eight Books against the Second of St. Augustine de Concupiscentia Nuptiis having refuted the First in the Four Books above-mention'd St. Augustine undertook to Answer the Last Work of Julian as he had answered the First but he could not finish his Answer being
prevented by Death We have Two Books of his with the Two Books of Julian which he confutes printed at Paris by the care of Claudius Menard in the Year 1616. Julian exprest his Mind boldly in those Books and seems by his giving the Adversaries of Pelagius ill Words to have been willing to take his revenge of the severe Edicts which they had obtained against him But his Conduct proved prejudicial to him seeing Celestinus Bishop of Rome caused him to be banished out of Italy together with Florus Orentius Fabius and all the Bishops of the same Party It appears notwithstanding that Pelagianism spread it self maugre its Opposers seeing the Emperor Valentinian publish'd an Edict at Aquileia in the Year 425 to drive it from the Gauls by which he order'd Patroclus Bishop of Arles to go and see several Bishops who followed the Opinions of Pelagius and to let 'em know that if they did not retract their Errors within Twenty Days allowed them to deliberate about it they should be banisht from the Gauls and deprived of their Bishopricks Joaunes Cassianus a Scythian by Origin whom some will have to be an Athenian others a Roman and others to be born in the Gauls who had been Deacon of St. Chrysostome and Ordained a Priest by Innocent I. having retired to Marseilles betook himself to write some Books then by which softening a little the Opinions of Pelagius whom he otherwise condemn'd as a Heretick he gave birth to those Opinions which went since under the Name of Semi-Pelagianism His Opinions may be seen in his Collationes or Conferences which St. Prosper confuted and which he maintained to contain meer Pelagianism * Petav. lib. Laud. c. 7. Here 's in a few words what his Opinions may be reduced to 1. The Semi-Pelagians confest that Men are born corrupted and cannot free themselves from that Corruption but by the help of Grace which is notwithstanding prevented by some Motion of the Will as by a good Desire whence it is that they said Meum est velle credere Dei autem gratiae est adjuvare To be willing to believe depends on me but 't is the part of God's Grace to help me God in their Opinion expects those First Motions from us and then gives us his Grace 2. That God invites All Men by his Grace but that it depends upon Mens freedom to embrace or reject it 3. That God caused the Gospel to be preached to the Nations which he foresaw should embrace it and would not have it to be preached to the Nations which he foresaw should reject it 4. That although he would have all Men to be saved yet he had only elected to Salvation those whom he foresaw should persevere in Faith and Good Works 5. That there was no particular Grace absolutely necessary to Salvation which God gave only to a certain number of Men and that Men could lose all the Graces they had received 6. That among little Children who died in that Age God permitted that those only should be Baptized who according to God's Fore-knowledge would have been Pious Men if they had liv'd and on the contrary that those who were to be Wicked if they had come to a more advanced Age were excluded from Baptism by Providence 7. The Semi-Pelagians were also accused of making Grace altogether External so that in their Opinion it consisted only in the Preaching of the Gospel But some of them maintained that there was also an Inward Grace which Pelagius himself did not altogether reject Some others confest besides that there is a Preventing Grace Thus it seems that the Difference between their Opinions and those of Pelagius consisted in their owning that Men are born in some sort corrupted and in their insisting more upon the Necessity of Grace at least in Words Although the Difference is not very great yet they Anathematized Pelagius Which perhaps they did supposing that Pelagius maintained all the Opinions condemned by the Councils of Africa St. Augustine accuses them of making the whole Grace of God to consist in Instruction which concerns only the Understanding whereas he makes it to consist in a Particular and Inward Working of the Holy Ghost which unavoidably determines us to Good and that Determination is not the Effect of the Light we have The other Opinions of that Father either contrary to the Doctrine of Pelagius or that of the Semi-Pelagians are well known One may learn them especially in his Books concerning Predestination and Perseverance which he wrote at the Desire of St. Prosper against the Semi-Pelagians and in the Works of this latter To return to the History 't is said that in the Year 429 one Agricola Son of Severianus a Pelagian Bishop brought Pelagianism into England but St. German Bishop of Auxerre was sent thither by Pope Celestinus or the Bishops of the Gauls and soon extirpated it Many Miracles are ascribed to him in that Journey and whilst he staid in England which may be read in Bishop Vsher But if what * Hist Scot. lib. 8. Hector Boetius a Scotch Historian who liv'd in the beginning of the last Century says be true he used a Method which is not less efficacious for the extirpating of Heresie 't is this the Pelagians who would not retract their Errors were burnt by the care of the Magistrates But whilst St. German was purifying England the Seeds of Pelagianism which Cassianus had spread among the Monks of Marseilles and in Gallia Narbonensis made it grow in France St. Prosper and Hilary wrote to St. Augustine about it and let him know that many Clergy-men in the Gauls look'd upon his Opinions as dangerous Novelties St. Augustine answered their Objections in the Books which I have just now mentioned But the Toleration which Hilary Bishop of Arles and Maximus Bishop of Riez granted the Semi-Pelagians hindred every body from molesting them though they shewed a great Aversion to the Doctrine of St. Augustine Julian and the other Bishops who were banish'd as I have said from Italy went to Constantinople where they importun'd the Emperor to be re-establish'd but because they were accused of Heresie he would grant 'em nothing without knowing the Reasons for which they were expell'd Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople wrote to Celestinus about it who returned him a very sharp Answer and as if it had not been lawful to enquire for the Reasons of their Condemnation upbraiding him at the same time with his private Opinions His Letter is dated the 12th of August in the Year 430. St. Augustine died about that time whose Encomium's may be found in Bishop Vsher who approves the Praises bestowed upon him by Fulgentius in his Second Book Of the Truth of Predestination wherein he calls him an Inspired Man A little while after his Death the Letters of Theodosius who ' call'd him to the Council of Ephesus came to Africa from whence some Bishops were sent to it That Council made up of Two hundred and ten Bishops
met to Condemn Nestorius in the Year 431. Cyril of Alexandria presided in it and whilst it sate John Bishop of Antioch met with Thirty other Bishops who made some Canons opposite to those of that Council What is singular in it is that the Party of Cyril and that of John accused each other of Pelagianism but the greatest Party approved the Deposal of Julian and the other Italian Bishops whom Nestorius had treated more mildly He is accused of having been of their Opinion and of having maintained that Christ became the Son of God by reason of the good use he made of his Free-Will for a Reward whereof God had united him to the Eternal Word Hence it is that Pelagianism and Nestorianism were condemned together in that Council But notwithstanding all this and the care of Three Popes Celestinus Xystus III. and Leo I. Semi-Pelagianism maintained it self in the Gauls Perhaps the manner after which Celestinus wrote to the Bishops of France contributed towards it because although he condemned Pelagius with heat and praised much St. Augustine yet he said at the end of his Letter That as to what concerned the profound and difficult Questions which were mixed with that Controversie and had been handled at large by those who opposed the Hereticks as he durst not despise 'em he did not believe neither that it was necessary to determine one's self thereupon One may see in * Vbi sup c. 12. Bishop Vsher how much St. Prosper and the Popes Xystus and Leo laboured to confute or destroy Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism About the same time Vincentius Lirinensis wrote his Commonitorium that is three Years after the Council of Ephesus He is suspected to be the Author of the Objections which St. Prosper confuted under the Title of Objectiones Vincentianae His Commonitory was re-printed last Year 1687. in Twelves at Cambridge with Balusius's Notes and Sr. Augustine's Book de Haeresibus One may also see in †Ibid. Bishop Vsher the Devastation which the Scots and Picts made in England in that Century the Arrival of the Saxons into that Island after what manner they made themselves Masters of it and the other Events of that Time Before * Vid. Vsser ubi sup c. 13. those Misfortunes happen'd in England a Monk whose Name was Faustus went from that Countrey into Gallia Narbonensis where he became Abbot of Lerins and afterwards Bishop of Riez after Maximus to whom he had also succeeded in the Abbey of Lerins He assisted at a Council held at Rome towards the End of the Year 462 wherein it was agreed that a Council should be held every Year in the Gauls which should be convocated by the Archbishop of Arles There was one held a little while after in that City which ordered Faustus to declare his Opinions concerning the Matter of Grace and another at Lyons by the Order of which he added something to what he had already written because some new Errors had been discovered Those Errors are those to which the Divines of Marseilles gave the Name of Predestinarian Heresie which some maintain to have been a true Heresie and others the Opinion of St. Augustine We have no more the Acts of those two Synods but Faustus's Work is still extant it is entitled De Gratia Libero Arbitrio directed to Leontius Bishop of Arles and contains very clearly the Semi-Pelagianism Erasmus printed it for the first time at Basil in 1528 and it was since inserted into the Eighth Tome of the Bibliotheca Patrum Faustus sent the Opinions of the Second Council of Arles to a Predestinarian Priest named Lucidus to oblige him to retract his Errors and subscribe to the Doctrine of that Council We have still his Letter to Lucidus and the Answer of that Priest directed to the Bishops who met at Arles wherein he declares That he condemns the Opinions of those who believe that Free-Will was altogether lost after the Fall of the First Man That Christ died not for all Men That some are designed for Death and others for Life That from Adam to Christ no Heathen was saved by the First Grace of God that is by the Law of Nature because they have lost Free-Will in our First Father That the Patriarchs Prophets and greatest Saints have been in Paradise before the time of the Redemption This is almost an Abridgment of Faustus's Book Some learned Men have maintained that Faustus did more than he was order'd and that many of those who assisted at the Councils of Arles and Lyons would not have subscribed to his Book But 't is hard to apprehend how a Bishop who was very much esteem'd as it appears by the Letters of Sidonius Apollinaris Bishop of Clermont in Auvergne who makes his Encomium in many places and by Gennadius who praises that Work 't is I say somewhat hard to apprehend how he could have been so bold as to ascribe to a Council some Opinions which the greatest part of them would have abhorred and that the Members of that Council should shew no resentment of it Indeed those who say that Faustus did more than he was bid give no reason for it only they cannot believe that there was so many Semi-Pelagians in the Gauls One may see in Bishop Vsher the Judgment of several learned Men concerning Faustus and whereof the greatest part do not much favour him Baronius himself speaks ill of him so that what happen'd formerly to the Pelagians happens now-a-days to the Semi-Pelagians viz. those who maintain their chief Doctrines condemn them only because some Men who were more esteem'd than they have formerly condemn'd them Faustus his Book * Vsser ubi sup c. 14. did not remain unknown seeing they brought it to Constantinople where the Minds were divided concerning the Doctrines which it contain'd Some affirmed it was Orthodox and others Heretical as it appears by a Letter of Possâ—â—â— an African Bishop who was then at â—â—â—â—tantinople and wrote from thence to Pope Hormisda in the Year 520 to know what he thought of it Some Persons of the greatest Quality among which were Vitalian and Justinian who was since Emperor desired to know the Opinions of the Church of Rome thereupon Hormisda disapproved Faustus his Book and referred them to those of St. Augustine Of Predestination and Perseverance There was then at Constantinople a Monk whose Name was John Maxentius who wrote an Answer * Tom. 6. Bibl. P. P. Ed. Col. to Hormisda's Letter wherein he compares the Opinions of St. Augustine and Faustus and sharply censures Possessor and those who maintained that Faustus his Book was Orthodox It appears from thence that Possessor was a Semi-Pelagian and consequently that the Councils of Africa had not been yet able to bring all the Bishops of that Church to their Decisions The Vandals had invaded Africa during the heat of the Pelagian Controversies â—nd because they were Arian they turned out a great number of Bishops who followed the Decrees of the Council of Nice Thrasamond King of the Vandals had sent Sixty of the Byzacene Province into Banishment to Sardinia They were consulted from the East concerning the Controversies about Grace rather to have a publick Declaration of their Opinions than to be Instructed seeing those who wrote to them were already fixed in their Opinion and condemned in their Letters not only the Pelagians but the Books of Faustus Fulgentius Bishop of Esfagues answered in the Name of the others and explained the Opinion of St. Augustine in a Letter and a private Book directed to Paulus Diaconus The same Fulgentius wrote also some other Books concerning the same Matter He had composed Seven Books against Faustus his Two De Gratia Libero Arbitrio but they are lost Those African Bishops returned to their Churches in the Year 523 in which Thrasamond died as we learn from Victor of Tonneins in his Chronicle Fulgentius had confuted Faustus before he departed from Sardinia from whence it follows as well as from Possessor's Letter that Binius should not have placed the Third Council of Arles the Opinions of which Faustus had explained in the Year 524 But this is not the only Fault he hath committed he hath corrected or rather corrupted as he thought fit a vast number of Places in the Ancient Councils without having any regard to Manuscripts Wherefore * Vb. sup p. 231. Bishop Vsher gives him the Title of Contaminator Conciliorum As Hilary and Leontius Archbishops of Arles had favoured Semi-Pelagianism so Caesarius who succeeded Leontius favoured what the Divines of Marseilles call'd Predestinatianism that is the Opinions of St. Augustine The Second Council of Orange was held under his Direction in the Year 529 which approved St. Augustine's Opinions and whereof the Acts may be seen entire in †Vb. sup p. 262. Bishop Vsher A little while after another Council was held at Valence concerning the same Matters which did also condemn Semi-Pelagianism Boniface II. approved the Acts of that Council by a Letter which he wrote to Caesarius in the Year 531 which the same learned Primate of Ireland hath inserted in his Work Here ends the History of Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism which notwithstanding was not extinguished in the Gauls and England by so many Endeavours and Decrees of the Defenders of Grace as may be seen by the History of Godescale written by the same Bishop What can one conclude from thence according to St. Augustine's Principles but that God was not pleased to bestow his Grace upon Anathema's Confiscations Deposals and Banishments which the Godly Emperors and Holy Councils made use of against the Unfortunate Pelagians FINIS