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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49900	The lives of Clemens Alexandrinus, Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, Gregory Nazianzen, and Prudentius, the Christian poet containing an impartial account of their lives and writings, together with several curious observations upon both : also a short history of Pelagianism / written originally in French by Monsieur Le Clerc ; and now translated into English.	Le Clerc, Jean, 1657-1736.	1696 (1696)	Wing L820; ESTC R22272	169,983	390

him wherein he criticizes his Work and three others which he entituled Of Ecclesiastick Theology wherein he establish'd the Opinions which he thought Orthodox touching the Divinity and refuted those of Marcellus and divers other Hereticks Marcellus was afterwards * Socrat. l. 2.20 Sozom. l. 2. c. 29. re-establish'd in the Synod of Sardica because he affirmed his Expressions had been mis-understood and being an Enemy to the Arians he insinuated himself into the Friendship of Athanasius who perhaps was surpriz'd by the equivocal Expressions used by Marcellus It 's certain that if we may judge of him by the Fragments which Eusebius cites he scarcely knew what he would say himself or else he conceal'd his Opinions under obscure terms lest he should fall into trouble After that Athanasius had been sent into Exile † Id. l. 1. c. 27 sec Arius had returned to Alexandria but his Presence being likely to cause a Disorder by reason of the great number of those who followed the Sentiments of Athanasius the Emperor recalled this Priest to Constantinople and to assure himself entirely of his Belief of which the Orthodox still doubted he offered him the Nicene Creed to sign which he did without ballancing and moreover swore he was of that Opinion A report ran that he had hid under his Arm a Writing which contain'd his Opinion and that he barely swore he believed what he had wrote but there is no great certainty to be expected in what his Enemies say of him Perhaps he thought like Eusebius of Caesarea that one might give to the words of the Creed a sence which amounted to his Sentiment although he wisht they had made use of other terms What the Fathers of Nice said more than he consisting in something absolutely incomprehensible perhaps moreover he counted that for nothing However Alexander Bishop of Constantinople refused to receive him into Communion although the Emperor had ordered him to do it and a great number of Bishops and of the People urged him to it Besides this the Arian Bishops were preparing to hold a Council to examine afresh the Question agitated at Nice and had mark't a day in which they were to meet to discourse about it and to conduct Arius into the Church maugre Alexander In this Extremity knowing not how to maintain his Refusal History tells us that he shut himself up in a Church called Peace and set himself very devoutfully to pray to God not that he would convert Arius or that he would discover to himself the Truth but That if the Opinion of Arius was true he himself might not see the day set apart to discourse of it Or That if his own Belief were true Arius who was the cause of so great Mischiefs might be punisht for his Infidelity A Prayer so little charitable and whence might be seen that this Bishop was more concerned for his Reputation than the Truth fail'd not of being heard seeing that the next Morning which was Sunday or the same Day at Night as Arius went to the Church accompanied by those of his Party or in some other Place for the Historians vary in passing by the Market of Constantine he had so great occasion to go and ease himself that he was forced to betake himself to the common Privies where instead of finding ease he evacuated his Bowels and thus died suddenly Since that time Passengers were commonly shewed these Places of Easement and no body dared sit down on the same place where Arius sate 'T is said that a rich Arian to abolish the memory of it bought afterwards this Place of the Publick and there built an House It 's thus that Rufinus Socrates and Sozomen relate the last Events of the Life of Arius But St. Athanasius says that having * In Epist ad Seraptonem having been recalled by the Sollicitations of those of his Party he offered his Confession of Faith to the Emperor and swore that he did not believe any thing After which those that protected him would introduce him into the Church at his going out of the Emperor's Palace but that he died as hath been said without having been received into Communion A † Valesius learned Man is of Opinion in this matter That the Arius who was received into Communion at Jerusalem was a Priest of the Party of the famous Arius and not he himself who had already died out of the Communion of the Church Because without this it must be said that Athanasius has been mistaken But were it granted him that this Bishop was mistaken in speaking of a Man whom he every moment o'erwhelm'd with Injuries it cannot be found strange especially not having been at Constantinople then when what he relates must have happened One may further say that Athanasius has related by way of abridgment and little exactly what he had heard say of Arius and that he regarded him as an excommunicated Person having been only received by a Council whose Authority Athanasius would not acknowledge it consisting principally of Persons whose Opinions had been anathematized at Nice It is far more natural thus to interpret this Passage of Athanasius than to reject wholly as false an History so circumstanc'd as that of the later years of the Life of Arius in respect of certain Facts which the Historians we have already cited had no interest to alter Arius being dead apparently of a sudden Death which may have given occasion to the tragical manner in which the Historians mention it the Disputes started on his occasion died not with him * Sozom. l. 2. c. 31. Those who were of Athanasius's Party at Alexandria besought of God his return in the Publick Prayers and ceased not to importune the Emperor to make him be recalled Constantine was obliged to write to the People of that Town a Letter wherein he upbraided them for their Lightness and Folly and enjoyns the Ecclesiasticks to remain quiet and wherein he declares he would not recall Athanasius whom he treats as a Seditious Person and one who had been condemned by a Council He answers likewise to Anthony the Hermit That he could not slight the Judgment of the Council of Tyre because that supposing some among the Bishops were Passionate yet it is not probable that so great a number of Wise and Learned Bishops should all of them act by Passion and that Athanasius was an Insolent Proud Troublesom Follow Constantine wrote these Letters but a little time before his Death which happen'd in the Year 337 the Circumstances of which may be seen in his Life writ by Eusebius Yet we must remember that this is rather a Panegyrick than an uninterest History whence it is that he says nothing of the Death of his two Wives and the Eldest Son of this Emperor whom he had put to Death through Jealousie or Revenge Eusebius lived not long after him he died towards the Year 340 and left in his Place Acacius his Disciple * Socrat. l.

many Christians to leave the Places of their Abode wherein they were too well known to give way to the Violence of the Persecution This seems to have given Clemens occasion to prove that it was lawful to run away in time of Persecution * Strom. l. 4. p. 503 seq Having said that Martyrdom cleanses from all Sins and exhorted those who are called to it to suffer it he observes That we ought to shew as well by our Manners as our Words that we are persuaded of the Truth of the Christian Religion Afterwards he explains that place of the Gospel When they persecute you in this City flee ye unto another The Lord says he doth not command us to flie as if to be Persecuted was an * That Reasoning is grounded upon the Principles of the Stoicks who deni'd that Pain was an Evil. Evil and doth not bid us avoid Death by flying as if we ought to fear it He will not have us to engage or help any Body to do ill c. Those who do not obey are rash and expose themselves to no purpose to manifest Dangers If he who kills a Man of God sins he who presents himself before a Judge's Tribunal is also guilty of his own Death c. He helps as much as lies in him the Wickedness of him who persecutes him If he exasperates him he is really the cause of his own Death just as if he had exasperated a Wild Beast that devoured him A little while after the Apostles some had been seen to look for Martyrdom but some having challenged the Executioners and having scandalously faln short of Christianity at the sight of the Torments that Conduct † Vid. Dodwel Diss Cyp. XII § 49. was found dangerous and those who willingly offered themselves to Martyrdom were Condemned as it appears by many Passages of the Antients and that of Clemens which I have just now quoted As we ought not to avoid Martyrdom when it cannot be done without renouncing Christianity or a Good Conscience so we ought to preserve our Lives as long as we can whilst 't is likely that we do Christians greater service by prolonging it if we fly than by losing it for the sake of Truth by staying in those Places where the Persecution rages and which we may come out of without ceasing to profess the Truth Those who blame or make some difficulty to justifie some Protestant Ministers who came out of a Kingdom wherein they could not stay without imminent Danger if they continued to perform their Functions should before prove that such a Conduct would have been more advantagious to Christianity than their Retreat Methinks the Solution of that Question which hath been lately moved viz. Whether they did well to retire depends upon this Clemens seems about that time to have left Alexandria since we read that he made some stay at Jerusalem with Alexander who a little while after was Bishop of that City and to whom he dedicated his Book entituled The Ecclesiastical Rule against those who follow the Opinions of the Jews Whilst he staid there he was very useful to that Church as it appears by a Letter of Alexander to the Church of Antioch of which Clemens was the Bearer * Euseb l. 6. p. 11. wherein that Bishop says That he was a Man of great Vertue as the Church of Antioch knew and would know it again and that being at Jerusalem by an Effect of God's Providence he had confirm'd and encreased the Church of God there From Antioch Clemens returned to Alexandria where 't is not known how long he lived All that can be said is that he survived Pantoenus at least some Years and that he was not Old when he writ his Stromata since he himself * Strom. l. 1. p. 274. says That he made them to serve him as a Collection in his Old Age when his Memory should fail History is silent concerning his Death but we may believe that his Memory was Blessed at Alexandria if we consider those words of the Bishop of Jerusalem whom I have just now mentioned who in a Letter to Origen says † Euseb ib. c. 14. That they both acknowledged for Fathers those Blessed Men who went out of this Life before them and with whom they should be in a short time viz. the Blessed Pantoenus and Pious Clemens of whom he had received great Help Amongst the many Works which Clemens wrote there are but Three extant that are considerable The First is An Exhortation to the Heathens Wherein he confutes their Religion and endeavours to persuade them to embrace Christianity The Second is entitled Paedagogus In which he directs the Manners of Young Men and gives them some Rules to live like Christians wherein he mixes some Maxims extremely severe and very remote from our Customs The Third is his Stromata that is to say Hangings which he entitled so * Ibid. l. 1. p. 276. l. 4. p. 476. l. 7. p. 766. because of the Variety of Matters which he handles in it He shews what Conformity there is between several Opinions of the Heathen Philosophers and those of the Jews and Christians He Censures what was Bad as he thinks in the Heathen Philosophy Defends and Explains the Christian Religion Refutes the Hereticks and shews every where a great Erudition But he observes little or no Order as he himself says at the End of the Seventh Book He takes occasion from one thing to pass to another without framing any Plan of what he is to say and without having any other Design but to collect the most useful things he had learned by Study and Meditation His Style in this latter Work is more harsh than in the two foregoing ones wherein notwithstanding there is more Affectation than Elegancy and Neatness He pretends that he had some Reason for it But there are Two great Inconveniences in such a Method The First is That for want of Order not only the strength of the most solid Proofs is not perceived but also an Author confounds himself often repeats the same thing and heaps up an infinite number of Arguments which prove nothing The Second is That a Carelesness of Style often makes what one says unintelligible for 't is not only Elegancy but Clearness that is wanting in it Now an Affected Obscurity in Difficult Matters as those are which Clemens treats of is so much the more to blame because 't is no easie thing to be understood even in Matters that are clear of themselves if One does not express himself neatly As we are to speak only to be understood so there is nothing can excuse an Author for not speaking clearly but an absolute impossibility of expressing himself better And indeed we are apt to believe that those who have an Obscure Style have no clear Head and that they speak so because they do not apprehend things more clearly than they speak ' em 'T is true that the affected Ornaments

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

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