pleas represented with all the advantages with which Wit Reason and Eloquence could set them off XXVII NOR wanted there of old those who stood up to plead and defend his cause especially Pamphilus the Martyr and Eusebius who published an Apology in six Books in his behalf the first five whereof were written by Pamphilus with Eusebius his assistance while they were in prison the last finished and added by Eusebius after the others Martyrdom Besides which a Cod. CXVIII col 297. Photius tells us there were many other famous men in those times who wrote Apologies for him he gives us a particular account b Cod. CXVII col 293. of one though without a name where in five Books the Author endeavours to justifie Origen as sound and Orthodox and cites Dionysius Demetrius and Clemens all of Alexandria and several others to give in evidence for him The main of these Apologies are perished long ago otherwise probably Origen's cause might appear with a better face seeing we have now nothing but his notions dressed up and glossed by his professed enemies and many things ascribed to him which he never owned but were coined by his pretended followers For my own part I shall onely note from the Ancients some general remarques which may be pleaded in abatement of the rigour and severity of the sentence usually passed upon him And first many things were said and written by him not positively and dogmatically but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the c Ibid. col 296. Author of his Apology in Photius by way of exercitation and this he himself was wont to plead at every turn and to beg the Readers pardon and profess that he propounded these things not as Doctrins but as disputable Problems and with a design to search and find out the truth as a Apolog. ap Hieron Tom. 4. p. 172. Pamphilus assures us and S. Hierom himself b Ad Avit p. 151. Tom. 2. cannot but confess and if we had the testimony of neither there is enough to this purpose in his Books still extant to put it beyond all just exception Thus discoursing concerning the union of the two natures in the person of our blessed Saviour he affirms c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. c. 6. p. 698. it to be a mystery which no created understanding can sufficiently explain concerning which says he not from any rashness of ours but onely as the order of Discourse requires we shall briefly speak rather what our Faith contains then what humane Reason is wont to assert producing rather our own conjectures then any plain and peremptory affirmations And to the same purpose he expresses himself at every turn Not to say that he wrote many things in the heat of disputation which it may be his cooler and more considering thoughts would have set right So the Apologist in Photius d Cod. CXVII col 296. pleads that whatever he said amiss in the doctrin of the Trinity proceeded meerly from a vehement opposition of Sabellius who confounded the number and difference of persons and whose Sect was one of the most prevailing Heresies of that time The confutation whereof made him attempt a greater difference and distinction in the persons then the rules of Faith did strictly allow Secondly those Books of his e Pamph. Apol. ubi supr p. 174 177. wherein he betrays the most unsound and unwarrantable notions were written privately and with no intention of being made public but as secrets communicable among friends and not as doctrines to disturb the Church And this he freely acknowledged in his Letter to Fabian f Ap. Hieron in Epist ad Pammach de err Orig. p. 193. 〈◊〉 Bishop of Rome and cast the blame upon his friend Ambrosius quod secretò edita in publicum protulerit that he had published those things which he meant should go no further then the brests or hands of his dearest friends And there is always allowed a greater freedom and latitude in debating things among friends the secrets whereof ought not to be divulged nor the Public made Judges of that innocent liberty which is taken within mens private walls Thirdly the disallowed opinions that he maintains are many of them such as were not the Catholic and determined Doctrins of the Church not defined by Synods nor disputed by Divines but either Philosophical or Speculations which had not been thought on before and which he himself at every turn cautiously distinguishes from those propositions which were entertained by the common and current consent and approbation of the Christian Church Sure I am he lays it down as a fundamental maxim in the very entrance upon that g Praef. ad lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 665. Book wherein his most dangerous assertions are contained that those Ecclesiastic Doctrins are to be preserved which had been successively delivered from the Apostles and were then received and that nothing was to be embraced for truth that any ways differed from the tradition of the Church XXVIII FOURTHLY Divers of Origen's works have been corrupted and interpolated by evil hands and Heretics to add a lustre and authority to their opinions by the veneration of so great a name have inserted their own assertions or altered his and made him speak their language An argument which however laughed at by S. Hierom a Ad â—ammath ubi supr is yet stifly maintained by Rufinus b Apol. pro Orig. apud Hier. Tom. 4. p. 194 195. c. Praef. ad lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. Tom. 2. p. 188. who shews this to have been an old and common art of Heretics and that they dealt thus with the writings of Clemens Romanus of Clemens and Dionysius of Alexandria of Athanasius Hilary Cyprian and many more Dionysius c Ap. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 23. p. 145. the famous Bishop of Corinth who lived many years before Origen assures us he was served at this rate that at the request of the brethren he had written several Epistles but that the Apostles and Emissaries of the Devil had filled them with weeds and tares expunging some things and adding others The Apologist in Photius d Ubi supr tells us Origen himself complained of this in his life time and so indeed he does in his e Ap. Ruffin iâ— Tom. 4. p. 195. Letter to them of Alexandria where he smartly resents that charge of blasphemy had been ascribed to him and his doctrine of which he was never guilty and that it was less wonder if his doctrine was adulterated when the great S. Paul could not escape their hands he tells them of an eminent Heretic that having taken a Copy of a dispute which he had had with him did afterwards cut off and add what he pleas'd and change it into another thing carrying it about with him and glorying in it And when some friends in Palestin sent it to him then at Athens he returned them a true
THE LIVES OF THE Primitive Fathers Imprimatur Hic Liber cui Titulus APOSTOLICI c. Maii 10. 1676. G. JANE R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. à Sacris Domesticis יהוה Hi sunt qui venerunt de tribulatione magna APOSTOLICI or The Lives of the Primitive Fathers for the three first Ages of the Christian Church By WILLIAM CAVE D.D. Caplain in ordinary to his Majesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non Evangeliz … Hic est patentia et fidei Sanctorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St Pauls Churhyard 1677 engraved title page Micha Burg delinet APOSTOLICI OR THE HISTORY OF THE Lives Acts Death AND MARTYRDOMS OF THOSE Who were Contemporary with or immediately Succeeded the APOSTLES As also the Most Eminent of the Primitive Fathers For the First Three Hundred Years To which is added A CHRONOLOGY OF THE Three First Ages of the CHURCH By WILLIAM CAVE D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 37. p. 109. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by A.C. for Richard Chisâ—â—el at the Rose and Crown in S. Pauls Church-yard MDCLXXVII To the Right Honourable And Right Reverend FATHER in GOD NATHANAEL LORD BISHOP of DURHAM Clerk of the Closet And one of His MAJESTIES most Honourable PRIVY-COUNCIL MY LORD THAT I once more presume to give your Lordship the trouble of such an Address is not from any confidence I have in the value of these Papers but partly because I well know that your Lordships candor and charity will be ready to pardon the faults and to cover the weaknesses of the Undertaking partly because I thought it very reasonable and decorous there to offer the Remaining Portions where I had consecrated the First-Fruits MY LORD You will here meet with Persons of your own Quality and Order Men Great and Venerable whose excellent Learning and exemplary Lives whose Piety and Patience Zeal and Charity Sobriety and Contempt of the World rendred them the honour of their Times and recommend them as incomparable Examples to Posterity We may here see in more instances then one the Episcopal Order immediately deriving it self from Apostolic hands whereof were not some men strangely biassed by Passion and Prejudice there could be no shadow of dispute For he that can read the Lives of Timothy and Titus of Ignatius Polycarp c. and yet fancy them to have been no more then meer Parish-Priests that only superintended a little Congregation must needs betray either prodigious Ignorance or unreasonable Partiality Here also we may find what a mighty reverence these First and better Ages had for the Governours of the Church and the Guides of Souls no respects being then thought great enough Wherein they acted agreeably not onely to the Rules of Christianity but to the common sense of mankind And indeed with what Honours and Dignities what Rights and Revenues what Priviledges and Immunities the Sacred Function has been invested in all Ages and Nations as well the rude and barbarous as the more polite and civilized Countries I could abundantly shew were it as proper to this place as it is necessary to the Age we live in For we are fallen into the worst of Times wherein men have been taught by bad Principles and worse Practices to despise the holy Order and to level it with the meanest of the People And this done not onely by profest Enemies for then we could have born it but by pretended friends who seem to have a high zeal for Religion and themselves By which means the hands of evil men have been strengthened and the designs of those sufficiently gratified who 't is like would rejoice at the ruine of us both I confess that the Persons and Credit of the Regular Clergy should by some men be treated with Contempt and Scorn is the less to be wondred at when Religion it self is not secure from the rude and bold railleries of some and the serious attempts of others who gravely design to banish the awe of Religion and the impressions of whatever is Divine and Sacred out of the minds of men But My Lord It is not my design to entertain your Lordship with an invective against the Iniquity of the Times I had rather silently bewail them and heartily pray for their reformation that the best of Churches may prosper and flourish under the best of Princes May Her Peace and Order be preserved inviolable her Liturgy and Divine Offices universally complied with Her Solemn Assemblies duly frequented Her Canons and Constitutions observed and practised May Her Priests be cloathed with Righteousness and able by sound Doctrin both to Exhort and to Convince Gainsayers May they be laborious in their Ministeries and be very highly esteemed in love at least for their relation to God and their Works sake May Her Governours diligently superintend the Flock of God and they that rule well be accounted worthy of double Honour In which number may your Lordship share a double portion May you fill up all the measures of a wise and able Counsellour in the State and of a faithful and vigilant Governour in the Church To all which great and holy ends if the following Papers wherein these things are represented in lively instances may be capable of contributing any assistance and in the least measure serviceable to retrive the Primitive temper and spirit of Religion it will be thought an invaluable compensation of the mean endeavours of MY LORD Your Lordships faithful and affectionate Servant WILLIAM CAVE TO THE READER IT is not the least argument for the spiritual and incorporeal Nature of humane souls and that they are acted by a higher principle then meer Matter and Motion their boundless and inquisitive re-searches after knowledge Our minds naturally grasp at a kind of Omnisciency and not content with the speculations of this or that particular Science hunt over the whole course of Nature nor are they satisfied with the present state of things but pursue the notices of former Ages and are desirous to comprehend whatever transactions have been since Time it self had a Being We endeavour to make up the shortness of our lives by the extent of our knowledge and because we cannot see forwards and spy what lies concealed in the Womb of Futurity we look back and eagerly trace the Footsteps of those Times that went before us Indeed to be ignorant of what happened before we our selves came into the World In Oratorâ— pag. 268. is as Cicero truly observes to be always children and to deprive our selves of what would at once entertain our minds with the highest pleasure and add the greatest authority and advantage to us The knowledge of Antiquity besides that it gratifies one of our noblest curiosities improves our minds by the wisdom of preceding Ages acquaints us with the most remarkable occurrences of the Divine Providence and presents us with the most apt and proper rules and instances that may form us to
Gospel The Schism in the Church of Corinth and Clemens his Epistle to that Church An enquiry into the time when that Epistle was written The Persecution under Trajan His proceeding against the Heteriae A short relation of S. Clemens his troubles out of Simeon Metaphrastes His banishment to Cherson Damnatio ad Metalla what The great success of his Ministry in the place of his exile S. Clemens his Martyrdom and the kind of it The anniversary miracle reported on the day of his solemnity The time of his Martyrdom His genuine Writings His Epistle to the Corinthians the commendations given of it by the Ancients It s Stile and Character The great modesty and humility that appears in it The fragment of his second Epistle Supposititious Writings The Recognitions their several titles and different editions Their Antiquity what A conjecture concerning the Author of them The censures of the Ancients concerning the corrupting of them considered The Epistle to S. James Pag. 77. The Life of S. SIMEON Bishop of Jerusalem The heedless confounding him with others of the like name His Parents and near Relation to our Saviour The time of his Birth His strict Education and way of Life The Order and Institution of the Rechabites what His conversion to Christianity The great care about a Successor to S. James Bishop of Jerusalem Simeon chosen to that place when and why The causes of the destruction of the Jewish state The original and progress of those Wars briefly related The miserable state of Jerusalem by Siege Pestilence and Famine Jerusalem stormed The burning of the Temple and the rage of the Fire The number of the Slain and Captives The just accomplishment of our Lords predictions The many Prodigies portending this destruction The Christians forewarned to depart before Jerusalem was shut up Their withdrawment to Pella The admirable care of the Divine Providence over them Their return back to Jerusalem when The flourishing condition of the Christian Church there The occasion of S. Simeons Martyrdom The infinite jealousie of the Roman Emperours concerning the line of David Simeons apprehension and crucifixion His singular torments and patience His great age and the time of his death Pag. 89. The Life of S. IGNATIUS Bishop of Antioch His Originals unknown Called Theophorus and why The Story of his being taken up into our Saviours arms refuted His Apostolic education S. Johns Disciple His being made Bishop of Antioch The eminency of that See The order of his succession stated His prudent Government of that Church The tradition of his appointing Antiphonal hymns by revelation Trajans persecuting the Church at Antioch His discourse with Ignatius Ignatius his cruel usage His sentence passed His being transmitted to Rome and why sent so far to his execution His arrival at Smyrna and meeting with S. Polycarp His Epistles to several Churches His coming to Troas and Epistles thence His arrival at Porto Romano Met on the way by the Christians at Rome His earnest desire of Martyrdom His praying for the prosperity of the Church The time of his Passion His being thrown to wild Beasts What kind of punishment that among the Romans The collection of his Remains and their transportation to Antioch and the great honours done to them The great plenty of them in the Church of Rome Trajans surceasing the Persecution against the Christians The dreadful Earthquakes happening at Antioch Ignatius his admirable Piety His general solicitude for the preservation and propagation of the Christian Doctrine as an Apostle His care diligence and fidelity as a Bishop His patience and fortitude as a Martyr His Epistles Polycarps commendation of them Pag. 99. The Life of S. POLYCARP Bishop of Smyrna The place of his Nativity The honour and eminency of Smyrna His education under S. John By him constituted Bishop of Smyrna Whether the same with the Bishop to whom S. John committed the young man S. Polycarp the Angel of the Church of Smyrna mentioned in the Apocalyps Ignatius his arrival at Smyrna His Letters to that Church and to S. Polycarp His Journey to Rome about the Quartodeciman Controversie The time of it enquired into Anicetus his succession to the See of Rome His reception there by Anicetus Their mutual kindness notwithstanding the difference His stout opposing Heretics at Rome His sharp treatment of Marcion and mighty zeal against those early corrupters of the Christian Doctrine Irenaeus his particular remarques of S. Polycarps actions The Persecution under M. Antoninus The time of Polycarps Martyrdom noted The acts of it written by the Church of Smyrna their great esteem and value S. Polycarp sought for His Martyrdom foretold by a dream His apprehension and being conducted to Smyrna Irenarchae who Polycarps rude treatment by Herodes His being brought before the Proconsul Christians refused to swear by the Emperours genius and why His pious and resolute answers His slighting the Proconsuls threatnings His sentence proclaimed Asiarchae who Preparation for his burning His Prayer before his death Miraculously preserved in the fire Dispatched with a Sword The care of the Christians about his Remains this far from a superstitious veneration Their annual meeting at the place of his Martyrdom His great Age at his death The day of his Passion His Tomb how honoured at this day The judgments happening to Smyrna after his death The Faith and Patience of the Primitive Christians noted out of the Preface to the Acts of his Martyrdom His Epistle to the Philippians It s usefulness Highly valued and publicly read in the ancient Church The Epistle it self Pag. 111. The Life of S. QUADRATUS Bishop of Athens His Birth-place enquired into His Learning His Education under the Apostles Publius Bishop of Athens Quadratus his succession in that See The degenerate state of that Church at his coming to it His indefatigable zeal and industry in its reformation It s purity and flourishing condition noted by Origen Quadratus his being endowed with a spirit of Prophecy and a power of Miracles This person proved to be the same with our Athenian Bishop The troubles raised against the Christians under the reign of Aadrian Aadrians Character His disposition towards Religion and base thoughts of the Christians His fondness for the Learning and Religion of Greece His coming to Athens and kindness to that City His being initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries These mysteries what and the degrees of initiation Several addresses made to the Emperour in behalf of the Christians Quadratus his Apologetic Ser. Granianus his Letter to Aadrian concerning the Christians The Emperours Rescript His good opinion afterwards of Christ and his Religion Quadratus driven from his charge His Martyrdom and place of Burial Pag. 131. The Life of S. JUSTIN the Martyr His vicinity to the Apostolic times His Birth-place and Kindred His Studies His Travels into Egypt To what Sect of Philosophy he applied himself The occasion and manner of his strange conversion to Christianity related by himself Christianity the onely safe and
Marcionites Montanists and other Heretics of those times But the principal of all was Irenaeus who took to task the most noted Heresies of those Ages and with incomparable industry and quickness of reasoning unravelled their Principles exposed their practices refuted their errors whereby as he frequently intimates many were reduced and recovered to the Church I might also mention several others who though not known to have particularly adventured in either of these ways are yet renowned for their excellent skill in all Arts and Sciences whereby they became eminently useful to the Church Such besides those whereof an account is given in the following work were Dionysius Bishop of Corinth Bardesanes the Syrian whose learning and eloquence were above the common standard though he also wrote against almost all the Heresies of the Age he lived in Ammonius the celebrated Philosopher of Alexandria Julius Africanus a man peculiarly eminent for History and Chronology Dorotheus Presbyter of Antioch famous for his skill in Hebrew as well as other parts of learning Anatolius the Alexandrian whom Eusebius magnifies so much as the most learned man and acute Philosopher of his age exquisitely skill'd in Arithmetic Geometry Astronomy Logic Physic Rhetoric and indeed what not Pierius Presbyter of Alexandria an eloquent Preacher and so great a Scholar that he was commonly styled Origen Junior But this is a field too large to proceed any further in and therefore I stop here By all which it is evident what St. Hierom a Discant ergo Celsus Porphyrius Julianus rabidi adversus Christum canes discant corum sectatores qui putant Ecclesiam nullos Philosophos eloquentes nullos habuisse Doctores quanti quales viri eam fundaverint extruxerint oraverint desinant fidem nostram rusticae tantum simplicitatis arguere suamque potias imperitiam agnoscunt S. Hieron praef ad Catalog de script Eccles remarques how little reason Celsus Porphyry and Julian had to clamour against the Christians as a rude and illiterate generation who had no Learning no Eloquence or Philosophy to recommend them XV. A third advantage that helpt on the progress of Christianity was the indefatigable zeal and industry used in the propagation of it No stone was left unturn'd no method unattempted whereby they might reclaim men from error and bring them over to the acknowledgment of the truth Hence in an ancient Inscription b Ap. Grâ—ter Inscript p. 238. N. IX said to be set up in Spain to the honour of Nero they are described under this Character QVI NOVAM GENERI HVM SVPERSTITION INCVLCAB Those who inculcated and obtruded a new Superstition upon mankind Indeed they were infinitely zealous to gain Proselytes to the best Religion in the world They preached it boldly and prayed heartily for the conversion and reformation of mankind solicited their neighbours that were yet strangers to the Faith instructed and informed new converts and built them up on the most holy Faith Those that were of greater parts and eminency erected and instituted Schools where they publicly taught those that resorted to them grounding them in the rudiments of the Faith and antidoting them both against Heathens on the one side and Heretics on the other Among us says Tatian a Orat. contr Graec. p. 167. not only the rich and the wealthy learn our Philosophy but the poor are freely disciplined and instructed we admit all that are willing to learn whether they be old or young And what the success was he tells b Ibid. p. 168. us a little after that all their Virgins were sober and modest and were wont to discourse concerning divine things even while they were sitting at their Distaffs Nor did they content themselves only to do thus at home many of them freely exposing themselves to all manner of hazards and hardships no pains were thought great no dangers considerable no difficulties insuperable that they might enlarge the bounds of the Gospel travelling into the most barbarous Nations and to the remotest corners of the world The divine and admirable Disciples of the Apostles says c H. Eccles l. 3. c. 37. p. 109. Eusebius built up the superstructures of those Churches the foundations whereof the Apostles had laid in all places where they came they every where promoted the publication of the Gospel sowing the seeds of that heavenly Doctrine throughout the whole world For their minds being inflamed with the love of a more divine Philosophy according to our Lords counsel they distributed their estates to the poor and leaving their own Countries took upon them the office of Evangelists preaching Christ and delivering the Evangelical Writings to those who had not yet so much as heard of the Christian Faith And no sooner had they founded the Faith in any forein Countries and ordained guides and Pastors to whom they committed the care of those new Plantations but they presently betook themselves to other Nations ratifying their Doctrine with the miraculous powers of that Divine Spirit that attended them so that as soon as ever they began to preach the people universally flocked to them and chearfully and heartily embraced the worship of the true God the great Creator of the world In the number of these Evangelical Missionaries that were of the first Apostolical succession were Silas Sylvanus Crescens Andronicus Trophimus Marcus Aristarchus c. as afterwards Pantaenus who went into India Pothinus and Irenaeus from Smyrna into France each successively becoming Bishop of Lyons and infinite others mentioned in the Histories and Martyrologies of the Church who counted not their lives to be dear unto them so that they might finish their course with joy and make known the mystery of the Gospel to the ends of the earth XVI FOURTHLY Christianity recommended it self to the world by the admirable lives of its professors which were so truly consonant to all the laws of virtue and goodness as could not but reconcile the wiser and more unprejudiced part of the Gentile world to a better opinion of it and vindicate it from those absurd and sensless cavils that were made against it For when they saw Christians every where so seriously devout and pious so incomparably chast and sober of such humble and mortified tempers so strictly just and righteous so kind and charitable not to themselves only but to all mankind they concluded there must be something more than humane in it as indeed no argument is so convictive as a demonstration from experience Their singular piety and the discipline of their manners weighed down all the disadvantages they were under The divine and most admirable Apostles of Christ says Eusebius a Ubi supr c. 24. p. 94. how rude soever they were in speech were yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the most pure and holy lives and had their minds adorned with all sorts of virtue And such generally were the Christians of the succeeding Ages they did not entertain the world with a parcel of good
that peculiarly derives its name from Sodom And such being the case what wonder if S. Paul bids Titus reprove them sharply seeing their corrupt and depraved manners would admit of the sharpest lancets and the most stinging corrosives he could apply to them VI. IN the Epistle it self the main body of it consists of rules and directions for the several ranks and relations of men and because Spiritual and Ecclesiastical affairs are of all others most considerable he first instructs him in the qualifications of those whom he should set apart to be Bishops and Guides of Souls that they be holy and harmless innocent and inoffensive such as had not divorced and put away their first Wife that they might marry a second whose children were sober and regular and trained up in the Christian Faith that they be easie and treatable meek and unpassionate free from the love of Wine and a desire after riches by sordid and covetous designs that they be kind and hospitable lovers of goodness and good men modest and prudent just and honest strict and temperate firm and constant in owning and asserting the Doctrines of Christianity that have been delivered to them that being thoroughly furnished with this pure Evangelical Doctrine they may be able both to persuade and comfort others and mightily to convince those that resist and oppose the truth And certainly it was not without great reason that the Apostle required that the Guides and Governours of the Church should be thus able to convince gainsayers For whatever Authors report of Crete that it bred no Serpents or venomous Creatures yet certain it is that the poison of Errour and Heresie had insinuated it self there together with the entertainment of Christianity Tit. 1.10 there being many unruly and vain talkers especially they of the Circumcision Verse 14. who endeavoured to corrupt the Doctrine of the Gospel with Jewish Fables groundless and unwarrantable Traditions mystical and Cabalistic explications 3.9 and foolish questions and genealogies For the Jews borrowing their notions herein from the Schools of Plato were fallen into a vein of deriving things from an imaginary generation first Binah or Understanding then Achmoth or Cochmah Wisdom and so till they came to Milcah the Kingdom and Schekinah or the Divine Presence Much after the same rate as the Poets of old deduced the pedigrees of their gods they had first their several 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their conjunctions the coupling and mixing of things together and thence proceeded their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their genealogies or generations out of Chaos came Erebus and the dark Night the conjunction of whom begot Aether and the Day and thence a Hesiod Theogon p.m. 466. Hesiod proceeds to explain the whole Pagan Theology concerning the original of their gods VII IN imitation of all which and from a mixture of all together the Valentinians Basilidians and the rest of the Gnostic crew formed the sensless and unintelligible Schemes of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and XXX Aeones divided into three Classes of Conjunction in the first were four couples Profundity and Silence Mind and Truth the Word and Life Man and the Church in the second five viz. Profound and Mixture Ageratus and Vnion c. in the third six the Paraclete and Faith Patricos and Hope c. Of all which if any desire to know more they may if they can understand it find enough in Irenaeus Tertullian and Epiphanius to this purpose The b Haeres XXXI pâ—g 76. vid. Tertull de Praescript Haeret. c. 7. p. 204. last of whom not onely affirms expresly that Valentinus and his Party introduced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fabulous and Poetic fancies of the Heathens but draws a particular parallel between Hesiods Theogonia and their thirty Aeones or Ages consisting of fifteen Couples or Conjugations Male and Female which he shews exactly to agree both in the number design and order of them For instance Valentinus his Tribe begins thus Ampsiu that is Profundity Auraan that is Silence Bucua that is Mind Tharthuu that is Truth Vbucua that is Word Thardeadie that is Life Merexa that is Man Atarbarba c. that is Church c. All which was nothing but a trifling and fantastical imitation of Hesiods Progeny and generation of the gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. which being joined in conjugations succeeded in this order Chaos Night Erebus Earth Aether Day c. There being as he observes no difference between the one Scheme and the other but onely the change and alteration of the names This may suffice for a Specimen to shew whence this idle Generation borrowed their extravagant conceits though there were that had set much what the like on foot before the time of Valentinus By such dark and wild notions and principles the false Apostles both in Crete and elsewhere sought to undermine the Christian Doctrin mixing it also with principles of great looseness and liberty that they might the easilier insinuate themselves into the affections of men whereby they brought over numerous Proselytes to their Party of whom they made merchandise Tit. 1.11 gaining sufficient advantage to themselves So that 't was absolutely necessary that these mens mouths should be stopped and that they should not be suffered to go on under a shew of such lofty and sublime speculations and a pretence of Christian liberty to pervert men from the Christian Religion and the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel Having done with Ecclesiastics he proceeds to give directions for persons of all Ages and Capacities whether old or young men or women children or servants and then of more public concernment Rulers and People and indeed how to deport our selves in the general carriage of our lives In the close of the Epistle he wishes him to furnish Zenas and Apollos the two Apostolical Messengers by whom this Letter was conveyed to him with all things necessary for their return commanding that he himself with all convenient speed should meet him at Nicopolis though where that was is not certain whether Nicopolis in Epirus so called from Augustus his Victory there over Antony and Cleopatra or rather Nicopolis in Thrace upon the River Nesus not far from the borders of Macedonia whither S. Paul was now going or some other City whereof many in those parts of that name where he had resolved to spend his Winter And that by withdrawing so useful and vigilant a Shepherd he might not seem to expose his Flock to the fury and the rage of the Wolves he promises to send Artemas or Tychicus to supply his place during his absence from them VIII S. PAVL departing from Ephesus was come to Troas where though he had a fair opportunity to preach the Gospel offered to him yet as himself tells us he had no rest in his spirit 2 Cor. 2.12 13. because he found not Titus his brother whom he impatiently expected to bring him an account of the state of the
necessary if not more then enough upon this argument though as to the date of their birth and first appearance when he thrusts them down to the sixth Century he takes somewhat off from the antiquity which may with probability be allowed them XIII WHO was the particular Author of these Books is not easie to determine Among the several conjectures about this matter none methinks deserves a fairer regard then what d Annot. in Act. Apost c. 17. Laurentius Valla tells us some learned Greeks of his time conceived that it was Apollinaris but whether Father or Son it matters not both being men of parts and of the same strain and humour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Socrat. H. Ecc. l. 2. c. 46. p. 160. both of them Masters in all the learning of the Greeks though of the two the Son was most likely to be the man Certain it is that Apollinaris was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as f H. Eccl. l. 5. c. 18. p. 623. Socr. loc citat Sozomen describes him trained up to all sorts of Learning and skilled in the artifices and frames of Words and Speeches and g Ep. LXXIV p. 125. Tom. 2. S. Basil says of him that being indued with a facility of writing upon any argument joined with a great readiness and volubility of language he filled the World with his Books though even in his Theologic Tracts he sought not to establish them by Scripture-proofs but from humane arguments and ways of reasoning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as h Leont de Sect. Act. IV. p. 446. another also says of him He was born and bred at Alexandria then which no place more famous for Schools of Humane Learning especially the Profession of the Platonic Philosophy and afterwards lived at Laodicea where he was so intimately familiar with the Gentile-Philosophers that Theodotus Bishop of the place forbad him though in vain any longer to keep company with them fearing lest he might be perverted to Paganism as afterwards George his successor excommunicated him for his insolent contempt in not doing it This is said to have given the first occasion to his starting aside from the Orthodox Doctrines of the Church For resenting it as an high affront and being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Socrat. ib. p. 161. prompted with a bold conceit of his sophistical Wit and subtle ways of reasoning he began to innovate in matters of Doctrine and set up a Sect after his own name And certainly whoever thoroughly considers Apollinaris his principles as they are represented by b Socrat. 〈◊〉 citat Socrates c Sâ—â—â—n l. 6. c. 27. p. 676. ex Ep. Nâ—â—ian de Necâ—â—â— Sozomen d Thâ—â—dor l. 5. c. 3. p. 2â—0 Theodoret e Basil ubi supr Basil and f Epiph. Haeres 77. p. 421. Epiphanius will find many of them to have a great affinity with the Platonic notions and some of them not un-akin to those in Dionysius his Books and that as to the Doctrine of the Trinity they were right in the main which g Ibid. vid. 〈◊〉 loc citat Socrates particularly tells us the Apollinarians confessed to be consubstantial To which I add what a learned h Dr. Stillingfl his Answer to Cress Apolog. c. 2. §. 17. p. 133. man of our own has observed upon this argument that Apollinaris and his followers were guilty of forging Ecclesiastical Writings which they fastned upon Grâ—gory Thaumaturgus Athanasius and Pope Julius as l De Sect. Act. VIII p. 527. Leontius particularly proves at large So that they might be probably enough forged in the School of Apollinaris either by himself or some of his Disciples XIV IT makes the conjecture look yet more favourable that there was one k Vid. Collat. Catâ—ol cum Seveâ—â—an Coâ—â— Trâ— 4. 〈◊〉 1767. Dionysius a friend probably of Apollinaris to whom he is said to have written that famous Epistle that went under the name of Pope Julius and then among his own Scholars he had a Timotheus condemned together with his Master by l 〈◊〉 H. Ecc. â— 5. c. â— 10. p. 21â— Damasus and the Synod at Rome so that they might easily enough take occasion from their own to vent their conceptions under the more venerable names of those ancient and Apostolic persons Or which is more probable Apollinaris himself so well versed in the arts of counterfeiting might from them take the hint to compose and publish them under the name of the ancient Dionysius Nor indeed could he likely pitch upon a name more favourable and agreeable to his purpose a man born in the very Center of Learning and Eloquence and who might easily be supposed to be bred up in all the Institutions of Philosophy and in a peculiar manner acquainted with the Writings and Theorems of Plato and his Followers so famous so generally entertained in that place And there will be the more reason to believe it still when we consider that m Socrat. l. 3. c. 16. p. 187. Apollinaris reduced the Gospels and the Writings of the Apostles into the form of Dialegues in imitation of Plato among the Greeks And then for the stile which is very lofty and affected we noted before how peculiarly qualified Apollinaris was with a quick invention of words and a sophistical way of speech and the n Soâ—om l. 6. c. 25. p. 672. Historian observes that the great instrument by which he set on foot his Heresie and wherein he had a singular talent was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 artificial Schemes of Words and subtle ways to express himself Soâ—om l. 5. c. 18. p. 623. Besides he was an incomparable Poet not onely the Father but the Son to the study whereof he peculiarly addicted himself and wrote Poems to the imitation and the envy of the best among the Heathens In imitation of Homer he writ Heroic Poems of the History of the old Testament till the reign of Saul Comedies after the manner of Menander Tragoedies in imitation of Euripides and Odes in imitation of Pindar he composed Divine Hymns Id. l. 6. c. 25. p. 671. that were publicly sung in the Churches of his separation and Songs which men sung both in their Feasts and at their Trades and even women at the Distaff By this means he was admirably prepared for lofty and poetic strains and might be easily tempted especially the matter admitting it to give way to a wanton and luxuriant fansie in the choice composition and use of words And certainly never was there a stranger heap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maximus himself calls it of sublime affected bombast and poetic phrases then is to be met with in these Books attributed to S. Denys XV. IF it shall be enquired why a man should after so much pains chuse to publish his Labors rather under another mans name then his own there needs no other answer then that this has been an old trade which some men have taken up
either because 't was their humor to lay their own children at other mens doors or to decline the censure which the notions they published were likely to expose them to or principally to conciliate the greater esteem and value for them by thrusting them forth under the name of those for whom the World has a just regard and veneration As for Monsieur Dailles conjecture De Script Dionys c. 39. p. 221. that the reason why several learned Volumes were written and fastned upon the Fathers of the ancient Church was to vindicate them from that common imputation of the Gentiles who were wont to charge the Christians for being a rude and illiterate generation whose Books were stuffed with nothing but plain simple Doctrines and who were strangers to all kind of Learning and Eloquence that to obviate this objection several took upon them to compose Books full of Learning and Philosophy which they published under the names of the first preachers and propagaters of the Christian Faith and that this particularly was the case of the Recognitions ascribed to Clemens and the Writings attributed to Dionysius The first I grant very likely and rational the Recognitions being probably written about the second Century when as appears from Celsus his Book against the Christians this objection was most rife and when few learned discourses had been published by them But can by no means allow it as to the second Dionysius his Works being written long after the Learning and Eloquence of the Christians had sufficiently approved it self to the World to the shame and conviction the envy and admiration of its greatest Enemies And there was far less need of them for this purpose if it be true what Daille himself so confidently asserts and so earnestly contends for that they were not written till the beginning of the sixth Century about the year DXX when there were few learned Gentiles left to make this objection Heathenism being almost wholly banished out of the civilized World XVI BUT whoever was their genuine Parent or upon what account soever he wrote them it is plain that he laid the foundation of a mystical and unintelligible Divinity among Christians and that hence proceeded all those wild Rosicrucean notions which some men are so fond of and the life and practice whereof they cry up as the very soul and perfection of the Christian State And that this Author does immediately minister to this design let the Reader judge by one instance and I assure him 't is none of the most obscure and intricate passages in these Books I have set it down in its own Language as well as ours not being confident of my own version though expressed word for word for I pretend to no great faculty in translating what I do not understand Thus then he discourses concerning the knowledge of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys de Divin Nomin cap. 7. p. 238. God saith he is known in all things and without all things he is known by knowledge and by ignorance there is both a cogitation of him and a word and a science and a touch and a sense and an opinion and an imagination and a name and all other things and yet he is neither thought nor spoken nor named He is not any thing of those things that are nor is he known in any of the things that are he is both all things in all and nothing in nothing out of all things he is known to all and out of nothing to nothing These are the things which we rightly discourse concerning God And this again is the most divine knowledge of God that which is known by ignorance according to the union that is above understanding when the mind getting at a distance from all things that are and having dismissed it self is united to those super-illustrious Beams from whence and where it is enlightned in the unfathomable depth of wisdom More of this and the like stuff is plentifully scattered up and down these Books And if this be not mystical and profound enough I know not what is and which certainly any man but one well versed in this sort of Theology would look upon as a strange Jargon of non sense and contradiction And yet this is the height of devotion and piety which some men earnestly press after and wherein they glory As if a man could not truly understand the mysteries of Religion till he had resigned his reason nor be a Christian without first becoming an Enthusiast nor be able to speak sense unless in a Language which none can understand Writings falsly attributed to him De Coelesti Hierarchia Lib. I. De Divinis Nominibus I. De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia I. De Mystica Theologia I. Epistolae ad Caium IV. Ad Dorotheum I. Ad Sosipatrum Epistola I. Ad Polycarpum I. Ad Demophilum I. Ad Titum I. Ad Joannem Evangelistam I. Ad Apollophanem I. The End of S. DIONYSIUS's Life THE LIFE OF S. CLEMENS BISHOP of ROME Michael Burghers delineavit et sculpsit S. CLEMENS ROMANUS His birth-place His Parents Kindred Education and Conversion to Christianity noted out of the Books extant under his name His relation to the Imperial Family shewed to be a mistake His being made Bishop of Rome The great confusion about the first Bishops of that See A probable account endeavoured concerning the order of S. Clemens his succession and the reconciling it with the times of the other Bishops What account given of him in the ancient Epistle to S. James Clemens his appointing Notaries to write the Acts of the Martyrs and dispatching Messengers to propagate the Gospel The Schism in the Church of Corinth and Clemens his Epistle to that Church An enquiry into the time when that Epistle was written The Persecution under Trajan His proceeding against the Heteriae A short relation of S. Clemens his troubles out of Simeon Metaphrastes His banishment to Cherson Damnatio ad Metalla what The great success of his Ministry in the place of his exile S. Clemens his Martyrdom and the kind of it The anniversary miracle reported on the day of his solemnity The time of his Martyrdom His genuine Writings His Epistle to the Corinthians the commendations given of it by the Ancients It s Stile and Character The great modesty and humility that appears in it The fragment of his second Epistle Supposititious Writings The Recognitions their several titles and different editions Their Antiquity what A conjecture concerning the Author of them The censures of the Ancients concerning the corrupting of them considered The Epistle to S. James I. IT makes not a little for the honour of this Venerable Apostolical Man for of him all antiquity understands it that he was Fellow-labourer with S. Paul and one of those whose names were written in the Book of Life He was born at Rome upon Mount Caelius as besides others the a Vit. Clement Concil Tom. 1. col 74. Pontifical under the name of Damasus
a Joseph Antiq. Jad l. 13. c. 23. p. 462. Jews under Alexander Jannaeus their King sacked it because they would not receive the Rites of their Religion And God 't is like on purpose directed the Christians hither that they might be out of the reach of the Besom of Destruction that was to sweep away the Jews where-ever it came Nor was it a less remarkable instance of the care and tenderness of the Divine Providence over them that when Cestius Gallus had besieged Jerusalem on a sudden he should unexpectedly break up the Siege at once giving them warning of their danger and an opportunity to escape How long Simeon and the Church continued in this little Sanctuary and when they returned to Jerusalem appears not If I might conjecture I should place their return about the beginning of Trajans reign when the fright being sufficiently over and the hatred and severity of the Romans asswaged they might come back with more safety Certain it is that they returned before b Epiph. de Pond Mens ibid. Adrians time who forty seven years after the devastation coming to Jerusalem in order to its reparation found there a few houses and a little Church of Christians built upon Mount Sion in that very place where that Vpper Room was into which the Disciples went up when they returned from our Lords Ascension Here the Christians who were returned from Pella kept their solemn Assemblies and were so renowned for the flourishing state of their Religion and the eminency of their Miracles that Aquila the Emperours Kinsman and whom he had made Governour and Overseer of the rebuilding of the City being convinced embraced Christianity But still pursuing his old Magic and Astrological studies notwithstanding the frequent admonitions that were given him he was cast out of the Church Which he resented as so great an affront that he apostatized to Judaism and afterwards translated the Bible into Greek But to return back to Simâ—on confident we may be that he administred his Province with all diligence and fidelity in the discharge whereof God was pleased to preserve him as a person highly useful to his Church to a very great Age till the middle of Trajans reign when he was brought to give his last testimony to his Religion and that upon a very slight pretence X. THE Roman Emperors were infinitely jealous of their new established Sovereignty and of any that might seem to be Corrivals with them especially in Palestine and the Eastern parts For an ancient and constant tradition as appears besides Josephus both from Suetonius and Tacitus had been entertained throughout the Eust that out of Judaea should arise a Prince that should be the great Monarch of the World Which though Josephus to ingratiate himself with the Romans flatteringly applied to Vespasian yet did not this quiet their minds but that still they beheld all that were of the line of David with a jealous eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chron. Alexandr ad Ann. 1. Olympiad CCXIII. Indict XV. Vespas V. p. 586. eadem habet de Domitian ad An. 1. Olymp. CCXVIII Ind. V. Domit. XIII p. 590. This made Domitian Vespasians son resolve to destroy all that were of the blood royal of the house of Judah upon which account two Nephews of S. Jude one of the brothers of our Lord were brought before him and despised by him for their poverty and meanness as persons very unlikely to stand competitors for a Crown The very same Indictment was brought against our aged Bishop for some of the Sects of the a Euseb l. 3. c. 32. p. 103. 104. Jews not able to bear his activity and zeal in the cause of his Religion and finding nothing else to charge upon him accused him to Atticus at that time Consular Legat of Syria for being of the Posterity of the Kings of Judah and withall a Christian Hereupon he was apprehended and brought before the Proconsul who commanded him for several days together to be wracked with the most exquisit torments All which he underwent with so composed a mind so unconquerable a patience that the Proconsul and all that were present were amazed to see a person of so great age able to endure such and so many tortures at last he was commanded to be crucified He suffered in CXX year of his age and in the X. year of Trajans reign Ann. Chr. CVII the Alexandrin Chronicon b An. 4. Olymp. CCXX Ind. â— p. 594. places it Traj VII Ann. Chr. as appears by the Consuls CIV though as doubtful of that he places it again in the following year after he had sate Bishop of Jerusalem computing his succession from S. James his Martyrdom XLIII or XLIV years c Animadv ad Epiph. Haeres LXVI p. 266 Petavius makes it no less then XLVII though Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople probably by a mistake of the figure assign him but XXIII A longer proportion of time then a dozen of his immediate successors were able to make up God probably lengthening out his life that as a skilful and faithful Pilot he might steer and conduct the Affairs of that Church in those dismal and stormy days The End of S. SIMEON'S Life THE LIFE OF S. IGNATIUS BISHOP of ANTIOCH 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Michael Burghers delineavit et sculpsit S. IGNATIUS ANTIOCHENUS His Originals unknown Called Theophorus and why The Story of his being taken up into our Saviours arms refuted His Apostolic education S. Johns Disciple His being made Bishop of Antioch The eminency of that See The order of his succession stated His prudent Government of that Church The tradition of his appointing Antiphonal hymns by revelation Trajans persecuting the Church at Antioch His discourse with Ignatius Ignatius his cruel usage His sentence passed His being transmitted to Rome and why sent so far to his execution His arrival at Smyrna and meeting with S. Polycarp His Epistles to several Churches His coming to Troas and Epistles thence His arrival at Porto Romano Met on the way by the Christians at Rome His earnest desire of martyrdom His praying for the prosperity of the Church The time of his Passion His being thrown to wild Beasts What kind of punishment that among the Romans The collection of his Remains and their transportation to Antioch and the great honours done to them The great plenty of them in the Church of Rome Trajans surceasing the Persecution against the Christians The dreadful Earthquakes happening at Antioch Ignatius his admirable Piety His general solicitude for the preservation and propagation of the Christian Doctrine as an Apostle His care diligence and fidelity as a Bishop His patience and fortitude as a Martyr His Epistles Polycarps commendation of them I. FINDING nothing recorded concerning the Countrey or Parentage of this Holy Man I shall not build upon meer fansie and conjecture He is ordinarily stiled both by himself and others Theophorus which though like Justus it be oft no more then a
rude and merciless usage of his Keepers who treated him with all ruggedness and inhumanity From Syria even to Rome both by Sea and Land I fight with Beasts night and day I am chained to ten Leopards which is my military guard who the kinder I am to them are the more cruel and fierce to me as a Epist ad Rom. p. 23. ap Euseb l. 3. c. 36. p. 107. himself complains Besides what was dearer to him then all this his credit and reputation might be in danger to suffer with him seeing at so great a distance the Romans were generally more likely to understand him to suffer as a Malefactor for some notorious crime then as a Martyr for Religion and this b Martyr ubi sâ—pr p. 995. Metaphrastes assures us was one particular end of his sending thither Not to say that beyond all this the Divine Providence which knows how to bring good out of evil and to over-rule the designs of bad men to wise and excellent purposes might the rather permit it to be so that the leading so great a man so far in triumph might make the Faith more remarkable and illustrious that he might have the better opportunity to establish and confirm the Christians Vid. Chrysost Homil. cit pag. 505. who flocked to him from all parts as he came along and by giving them the example of a generous Vertue arm them with the stronger resolution to die for their Religion and especially that he might seal the truth of his Religion at Rome where his death might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom speaks a Tutor of Piety Ibid. and teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the City that was so famous for Arts and Wisdom a new and better Philosophy then they had learned before To all which may be added that this was done not by the Provincial Governour who had indeed power of executing capital punishments within his own Province which seems to have been the main ground of Scaligers scruple but immediately by the Emperour himself whose pleasure and command it was that he should be sent to Rome whither we must now follow him to his Martyrdom in the account whereof we shall for the main keep to the Acts of it written in all probability by Philo and Agathopus the Companions of his Journey and present at his Passion two ancient Versions whereof the incomparable Bishop Vsher first recovered and published to the World VI. BEING c Act. Ignat. pag. 5. consigned to a guard of ten Souldiers he took his leave of his beloved Antioch and a sad parting no doubt there was between him and his people who were to see his face no more and was conducted on foot to Seleucia a Port-town of Syria about sixteen miles distant thence the very place whence Paul and Barnabas set sail for Cyprus Here going aboard after a tedious and difficult Voyage they arrived at Smyrna a famous City of Ionia where they were no sooner set on shore but he went to salute S. Polycarp Bishop of the place his old Fellow-Pupil under S. John the Apostle Joyful was the meeting of these two Holy men S. Polycarp being so far from being discouraged that he rejoiced in the others chains and earnestly pressed him to a firm and final perseverance Hither came in the Country round about especially the Bishops Presbyters and Deacons of the Asian Churches to behold so venerable a sight to partake of the holy Martyrs prayers and blessing and to encourage him to hold on to his consummation To requite whose kindness and for their further instruction and establishment in the Faith he wrote d Eâ—seb H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 36. p. 107. Letters from hence to several Churches one to the Ephesians wherein he commends Onesimus their Bishop for his singular charity another to the Magnesians a City seated upon the River Meander which he sent by Damas their Bishop Bassus and Apollonius Presbyters and Sotio Deacon of that Church a third to the Trallians by Polybius their Bishop wherein he particularly presses them to subjection to their spiritual Guides and to avoid those pestilent haeretical doctrines that were then risen in the Church A fourth he wrote to the Christians at Rome to acquaint them with his present state and passionate desire not to be hindred in that course of Martyrdom which he was now hastening to accomplish VII HIS Keepers a little impatient of their stay at Smyrna set sail for Troas a noted City of the lesser Phrygia not far from the ruines of the ancient Troy where at his arrival he was not a little refreshed with the news that he received of the Persecution ceasing in the Church of Antioch Hither several Churches sent their Messengers to visit and salute him and hence he dispatched two Epistles one to the Church at Philadelphia to press them to Love and Unity and to stand fast in the truth and simplicity of the Gospel the other to the Church of Smyrna from whence he lately departed which he sent as also the former by Burrhus the Deacon whom they and the Ephesians had sent to wait upon him and together with that as a Loc. cit p. 1â— Eusebius informs us he wrote privately to S. Polycarp particularly recommending to him the care and oversight of the Church of Antioch for which as a vigilant Pastor he could not but have a tender and very dear regard though very learned men but certainly without any just reason think this not to have been a distinct Epistle from the former but jointly directed and intended to S. Polycarp and his Church of Smyrna Which however it be they conclude it as certain that the Epistle to S. Polycarp now extant is none of it as in which nothing of the true temper and spirit of Ignatius does appear while others of great note not improbably contend for it as genuine and sincere From Troas they sailed to Neapolis a maritime Town of Macedonia thence to Philippi Act. 16.11.12 a Roman Colony the very same journey which S. Paul had gone before him where as b Epist Polycarp ad Philip. p. 13. â—on longe ab â—nit S. Polycarp intimates in his Epistle to that Church they were entertained with all imaginable kindness and courtesie and conducted forwards in their journey Hence they passed on foot through Macedonia and Epirus till they came to Epidamnum a City of Dalmatia where again taking Ship they sailed through the Adriatic and arrived at Rhegium a Port-Town in Italy whence they directed their course through the Tyrrhenian Sea to Puteoli Ignatius desiring if it might have been granted thence to have gone by Land that he might have traced the same way by which S. Paul went to Rome After a day and a nights stay at Puteoli a prosperous wind quickly carried them to the Roman Port the great Harbour and Station for their Navy built near Ostia at the mouth of Tyber about sixteen miles from Rome whither the
excellens ingenium as a De Script in Qâ—aâ—rat S. Hierom says of him so the place gave him mighty advantages in his education to be thoroughly trained up in the choicest parts of Learning and most excellent institutions of Philosophy upon which account the b Men. Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greeks truly stile him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of great Learning and Knowledge He became acquainted with the Doctrines and Principles of Christianity by being brought up under Apostolical instruction for so c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Ann. PKZâ— p. 211. Eusebius and d Hier. de Scrip. in Quadr. Epist ad Magn. Orat. Tom. 2. p. 327. S. Hierom more then once tells us that he was an Auditor and a Disciple of the Apostles which must be understood of the longer lived Apostles and particularly of S. John whose Scholar in all probability he was as were also Ignatius Polycarp Papias and others and therefore e H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 37. p. 109. Eusebius places him among those that had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that were of the very first rank and order among the Apostles Successors There are that make him and that too constituted by S. John though I confess I know not by what Authority the Ancients being wholly silent in this matter Bishop of Philadelphia one of the seven famous Churches of Asia and at that time when S. John sent his Epistle to that Church which I pass by as a groundless and precarious assertion seeing they might with equal warrant have made him Bishop of any other place II. UNDER the Reign of Trajan as is probable though Baronius places it under Hadrian Ann. Imp. VI. f Euseb l. 4. c. 23. p. â—43 Publius Bishop of Athens suffered Martyrdom who is thought by some to have been that very Publius whom S. Paul converted in the Island Melita in his voyage to Rome and who afterwards succeeded Dionysius the Areopagite in the See of Athens To him succeeded our Quadratus as g Epist ad Aâ—â—â—â— apud Eaâ—â— loc citat Dionysius Bishop of Corinth who lived not long after that time informs us who found the state of that Church in a bad condition at his coming to it For upon Publius his Martyrdom and the-Persecution that attended it the people were generally dispersed and fled as what wonder if when the Shepherd is smitten the Sheep be scattered and go astray their public and solemn Assemblies were deserted their Zeal grown cold and languid their lives and manners corrupted and there wanted but little of a total apostasie from the Christian Faith This good man therefore set himself with a mighty zeal to retrive the ancient spirit of Religion he re-setled Order and Discipline brought back the People to the public Assemblies kindled and blew up their faith into an holy flame Nor did he content himself with a bare Reformation of what was amiss but with infinite diligence preached the Faith and by daily Converts enlarged the bounds of his Church so that as the a Men. Graec. ubi supr Greek Rituals express it the Sages and Wise men of Greece being convinced by his Doctrines and wise discourses embraced the Gospel and acknowledged Christ to be the Creator of the World and the great Wisdom and Power of God And in a short time reduced it to such an excellent temper that b Contr. Cels l. 3. p. 128. Origen who lived some years after demonstrating the admirable efficacy of the Christian Faith over the minds of men and its triumph over all other Religions in the World instances in this very Church of Athens for its good Order and Constitution its meekness quietness and constancy and its care to approve it self to God infinitely beyond the common Assembly at Athens which was factious and tumultuary and no way to be compared with the Christian Church in that City that the Churches of Christ when examined by the Heathen Convocations shone like Lights in the World and that every one must confess that the worst parts of the Christian Church were better then the best of their popular Assemblies that the Senators of the Church as he calls them were fit to govern in any part of the Church of God while the Vulgar Senate had nothing worthy of that honourable dignity nor were raised above the manners of the common people III. THUS excellently constituted was the Athenian Church for which it was chiefly beholden to the indefatigable industry and the prudent care and conduct of its present Bishop whose success herein was not a little advantaged by those extraordinary supernatural Powers which God had conferred upon him That he was endued with a Spirit of Prophesie of speaking suddenly upon great and emergent occasions in interpreting obscure and difficult Scriptures but especially of fore-telling future events we have the express testimonies of c H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 37. p. 109. Eusebius affirming him to have lived at the same time with Philips Virgin-Daughters and to have had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gift of Prophecy and of another d Ap. Euseb l. 5. c. 17. p. 183. Author much ancienter then he who confuting the errour of the Cataphryges reckons him among the Prophets who flourished under the Oeconomy of the Gospel I know a learned e Vales Annot. ad Euseb l. 4. c. 23. p. 81. man would fain persuade us that the Quadratus who had the Prophetic gifts was a person distinct from our Athenian Bishop But the grounds he proceeds upon seem to me very weak and inconcluding For whereas he says that that Quadratus is not by Eusebius stiled a Bishop who knows not that persons are not in every place mentioned under all their capacities and less need was there for it here Quadratus when first spoken of by Eusebius not being then Bishop of Athens and so not proper to be taken notice of in that capacity Nor is his other exception of greater weight that the prophetic Quadratus did not survive the times of Adrian whereas ours was in the same time with Dionysius Bishop of Corinth who lived under M. Antoninus and speaks of him as his contemporary and lately ordained Bishop of Athens But whoever looks into that passage of * Ap. Eâ—seb l. 4. c. 23. p. 143. Dionysius will find no foundation for such an assertion but rather the quite contrary that he speaks of him as if dead before his time as I believe any one that impartially considers the place must needs confess Not to say that S. Hierom and all after him without any scruple make them to be the same So that we may still leave him his gift of prophecy which procured him so much reverence while he lived and so much honour to his memory since his death To which may he added what the Greeks in their Menaeon not improbably say of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men. Graec. loc supr cit that he was furnished with
for a due flight for Heaven without a mighty portion of grace to assist it The mysteries of Christianity as c Lib. 4. p. 181. vid. etiam ib. p. 227. Origen discourses against Celsus cannot be duly contemplated without a better afflatus and a more divine power for as no man knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man that is in him so no man knows the things of God but the Spirit of God it being all to no purpose as he elsewhere observes unless God by his grace does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enlighten the understanding Haec erit vis divinae gratiae potentior utique natura habens in nobis subjacentem sibi liberam arbitrii potestatem quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur Tertul. de Anim. c. 21. p. 279. I add no more but that of Tertullian who asserts that there is a power of divine grace stronger then nature which has in subjection the power of our Free Will So evident it is that when the Fathers talk highest of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the powers of nature they never intended to exclude and banish the grace of God Some other disputable or disallowed opinions may be probably met with in this good mans Writings but which are mostly nice and philosophical And indeed having been brought up under so many several Institutions of Philosophy and coming as most of the first Fathers did fresh out of the Schools of Plato 't is the less to be wondred at if the notions which he had there imbibed stuck to him and he endeavoured as much as might be to reconcile the Platonic principles with the dictates of Christianity His Writings Genuine Paraenesis ad Graecos Elenchus seu Oratio ad Graecos Apologia pro Christianis prima Apologia pro Christianis secunda Liber de Monarchia Dei forsan in fine mutilus Dialogus cum Tryphone Judaeo Epistola ad Diognetum Not extant Liber de Anima Liber Psaltes dictus Contra omnes Haereses Contra Marcionem Commentarius in Hexameron cujus meminit Anastasius Sinaita De Resurrectione Carnis teste Damasceno Doubtful Aristotelicorum quorundam Dogmatum eversio Epistola ad Zenam Serenum Supposititious Quaestiones Respons ad Graecos Quaestiones Graecanicae de incorporeo c. ad easdem Christianae Responsiones Quaestionum CXLVI Responsio ad Orthodoxos Vid. an hic liber sit idem sed interpolatus de quo Photius hoc titulo Dubitationum adversus Religionem summariae solutiones Expositio Fidei de S. Trinitate The End of S. JUSTIN Martyrs Life THE LIFE OF S. IRENAEUS BISHOP of LYONS Michael Burghers delineavit et sculpsit S. IRENAEUS His Countrey enquired into His Philosophical Studies His institution by Papias Papias who His education under S. Polycarp His coming into France and being made Presbyter of Lyons Pothinus who how and by whom sent into France The grievous Persecution there under M. Aurelius The Letters of the Martyrs to the Bishop of Rome Pope Eleutherius guilty of Montanism Irenaeus sent to Rome His writing against Florinus and Blastus The martyrdom of Pothinus Bishop of Lyons and the cruelty exercised towards him Irenaeus succeeds His great diligence in his charge His opposition of Heretics The Synods said to have been held under him to that purpose The Gnostic Heresies spread in France Their monstrous Villanies His confutation of them by word and writing Variety of Sects and Divisions objected by the Heathens against Christianity This largely answered by Clemens of Alexandria Pope Victor 's reviving the controversie about Easter The contests between him and the Asiatics Several Synods to determine this matter Irenaeus his moderate interposal His Synodical Epistle to Victor The Persecution under Severus It s rage about Lyons Irenaeus his Martyrdom and place of Burial His Vertues His industrious and elaborate confutation of the Gnostics His stile and phrase Photius his censure of his Works His errour concerning Christs Age. Miraculous gifts and powers common in his time His Writings I S IRENAEVS may justly challenge to go next the Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a De Spirit S. c. 29. p. 358. Tom. 2. S. Basil stiles him one near to the Apostles which b Epist ad Theodoâ— p. 196. T. 1. S. Hierom expresses by being a man of the Apostolic times His Originals are so obscure that some dispute has been to what part of the World he belonged whether East or West though that he was a Greek there can be no just cause to doubt The Ancients having not particularly fixed the place of his Nativity he is generally supposed to have been born at Smyrna or thereabouts In his youth he wanted not an ingenuous education in the Studies of Philosophy and Humane Learning whereby he was prepared to be afterwards an useful Instrument in the Church His first institution in the Doctrine of Christianity was laid under some of the most eminent persons that then were in the Christian Church S. Hierom c Lic citat makes him Scholar to Papias Bishop of Hierapolis who had himself conversed with the Apostles and their Followers This Papias as d Adv. Haeres l. 5. c. 33. p. 498. ap Euseb l. 3. c. 39. p. 110. Irenaeus and others inform us was one of S. Johns Disciples by whom though Eusebius understands not the Apostle but one sirnamed the Elder which he seems to collect from a passage of e Euseb loc cit Papias himself yet evident it is that though Papias in that place affirms that he diligently picked up what Memoirs he could meet with concerning the Apostles from those that had attended and followed them yet he no where denies that he himself conversed with them He was as f Ibid. c. 36. p. 106. Eusebius characters him a man very learned and eloquent and knowing in the Scriptures though as g Ibid. c. 39. p. 113. elsewhere he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a very weak and undiscerning judgment especially in the more abstruse and mysterious parts of the Christian Doctrine which easily betrayed him and others that followed him into great errours and mistakes He wrote five Books entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the explanation of our Lords Discourses and as he in h Steph Gob. ap â—bot Cod. CCXXXII col 901. Photius intimates and the i Au. III Oâ—vnp 235. Ind. I. M. Aâ—â—elâ—â— Alexandrine Chronicon expresly affirms died a Martyr being put to death at Pergamus in the Persecution under M. Aurelius He is said to have trained up many Scholars in the Christian Institution and among the rest our Irenaeus Which though not improbable yet we are sure not onely from the testimonies of a H. Eccl. l. 5. c. 5. p. 170. Eusebius and b Adv. Haeres dial 1. Theodoret but what is more from his c Epist ad Flor. apâ—d Euseb lb. c. 20. p. 188 Hieroâ— de Script iâ— Iren. own that he was trained
of the Empire he is as little to be credited and guilty of as notorious a falshood as Eusebius observes as when he affirms that Origen was born and bred up a Gentile and then turned off to Christianity when as nothing was more evident then that Origen was born of Christian Parents and that Ammonius retained his Christian and divine Philosophy to the very last minute of his life whereof the Books which he left behind him were a standing evidence Indeed e Annal. p. 332. Edit Poâ—ock vid. 〈◊〉 Selden retan Eutyâ—â— Sect. 23. p. 147. Eutychius Patriarch of Alexandria if he means the same seems to give some countenance to Porphyries report and further adds that Ammonius was one of the twenty Bishops which Heraclas then Bishop of Alexandria constituted over the Egyptian Churches but that he deserted his Religion Which Heraclas no sooner heard of but he convened a Synod of Bishops and went to the City where Ammonius was Bishop where having throughly scanned and discussed the matter he reduced him back again to the truth Whether he found this among the Records of that Church or took it from the mouth of Tradition and Report is uncertain the thing not being mentioned by any other Writer But however it was 't is plain that Ammonius was a man of incomparable parts and learning a Lib. de Provid fat ubi supr Hierocles himself stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one taught of God and when Plotinus the great Platonist had found him out he b Porphyr in vit Plotin p. â— Plot. n. Opâ—â— Praf Porphyr ap Eâ— seb ubi supr told his friend in a kind of triumph that this was the man whom he had sought after Under him Origen made himself perfect Master of the Platonic Notions being daily conversant in the Writings of Plato Numenius Cronius Apollophanes Longinus Moderatus Nicomachus and the most principal among the Pythagoreans as also of Chaeremon and Cornatus Stoics from whom as Porphyry truly enough observes he learned that allegorical and mystical way of interpretation which he introduced into the Christian Doctrin IV. BESIDES our Adamantius there was another Origen his Contemporary a Gentile Philosopher honourably mentioned by c Lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apâ—d Porphyr in vit Plotin Longinus d Ibid. Porphyry e Lib. de Fat ubi supr Hierocles f In vit Porphyr p. 19. Eunapius g In Plat. Tâ—eol l. 2. c. 4. p. 90. Proclus and others a person of that learning and accurate judgment that coming h Ap. Porphyr loc cit one day into Plotinus his School the grave Philosopher was ashamed and would have given place and when intreated by Origen to go on with his Lecture he answered with a complement that a man could have but little mind to speak there where he was to discourse to them who understood things as well as himself and so after a very short discourse broke up the meeting I am not ignorant that most learned men have carelesly confounded this person with our Origen Whence i De Vit. Script Porphyr c. 2. p. 11. Holstenius wonders why Eunapius should make him School-fellow with Porphyry who was much his junior whom Porphyry says indeed he knew being himself then very young and this probably not at Alexandria but at Tyre where he was born and where Origen a long time resided So that his wonder would have ceased had he considered what is plain enough that Eunapius meant it of this other Origen Porphyries fellow-Pupil not under Ammonius at Alexandria but under Plotinus at Rome Indeed were there nothing else this were enough to distinguish them that the account given of Origen and what he wrote by Longinus by Porphyry in the life of Plotinus and others does no ways agree to our Christian Writer V. THE Persecution under Severus in the tenth year of his reign was now grown hot at Alexandria Laetus the Governour daily adding fewel to the flames where among the great numbers of Martyrs k Euseb ib. c. 1. p 201. Leonides Origens Father was first imprisoned then beheaded and his estate confiscate and reduced into the public Exchequer During his imprisonment l Id. c. 2 p. 2â—â— Origen began to discover a most impatient desire of Martyrdom from which scarce any intreaties or considerations could restrain him He knew the deplorable estate wherein he was like to leave his wife and children could not but have a sad influence upon his Fathers mind whom therefore by Letters he passionately exhorted to persevere unto Martyrdom adding this clause among the rest Take heed Sir that for our sakes you do not change your mind And himself had gone not onely to prison but to the very block with his Father if the divine Providence had not interposed His Mother perceiving his resolutions treated him with all the charms and endearments of so affectionate a relation attempted him with prayers and tears intreating him if not for his own that at least for her sake and his nearest relatives he would spare himself All which not prevailing especially after his Fathers apprehension she was forced to betake her self to little Arts hiding all his cloths that meer shame might confine him to the house A mighty instance as the Historian notes of a juvenile forwardness and maturity and a most hearty affection for the true Religion VI. HIS Father being dead and the a Eâ—seb ibid. p. 203. Estate seized for the Emperours use he and the Family were reduced to great streights When behold the providence of God who peculiarly takes care of Widows and Orphans and especially the relicts of those that suffer for him made way for their relief A rich and honourable Matron of Alexandria pitying his miserable case liberally contributed to his necessities as she did to others and among them maintained one Paul of Antioch a ringleader of all the Heretics at Alexandria who by subtle artifices had so far insinuated himself into her that she had adopted him to be her Son Origen though he held his livelihood purely at her bounty would not yet comply with this Favourite not so much as to join in prayer with him no not when an innumerable multitude not onely of Heretics but of Orthodox daily flocked to him taken with the eloquence of his discourses For from his childhood he had religiously observed the Rule and Canon of the Church and abominated as himself expresses it all heretical Doctrines Whether this noble Lady upon this occasion withdrew her charity or whether he thought it more agreeable to the Christian Rule to live by his own labour then to depend wholly upon anothers bounty I know not but having perfected those Studies of Foreign Learning the foundations whereof he had laid under the Discipline of his Father he now began to set up for himself opening a School for the profession of the learned Arts where besides the good he did to others he raised a
and authentic Copy of it And the same foul play he lets them know he had met with in other places as at Ephesus and at Antioch as he there particularly relates And if they durst do this while he was yet alive and able as he did to right himself what may we think they would do after his death when there were none to controul them And upon this account most of those assertions must especially be discharged wherein Origen is made to contradict himself it being highly improbable as Rufinus f Loc. cit p. 194. well urges that so prudent and learned a person one far enough from being either fool or mad man should write things so contrary and repugnant to one another And that not only in divers but in one and the same Book XXIX I might further observe his constant zeal against Heretics his opposing and refuting of them wherever he came both by word and writing his being sent for into foreign Countries to convince gainsayers his professing to abominate all heretical doctrines and his refusing so much as to communicate in prayer with Paul the Heretic of Antioch though his whole maintenance did depend upon it And methinks it deserves to be considered that Athanasius in all the heat of the Arrian controversies then whom certainly none was ever more diligent to search out heretical persons and opinions or more accurate in examining and refuting the chief of those doctrines that are laid at Origen's door should never charge him upon that account Nay he particularly quotes him g Decret Synod Nic. contr Haeres Arrian p. 277. T. 1. vid. de Blasph in S. S. p. 971. Socr. H E. l. 6. c. 13. p. 320. to to prove our Lords coeternity and coessentiality with the Father exactly according to the decisions of the Nicene Synod dismissing him with the honourable character of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most admirable and infinitely industrious person Nor is there any heterodox opinion of his that I know of once taken notice of in all his works but only that concerning the duration of future torments and that too but h De Com. essent Patr. F. S◠p. 236. T. 1. obliquely mentioned Whence I am apt to conclude either that Origen's writings were not then so notoriously guilty or that this great man and zealous defender of the Churches doctrin who being Bishop of Alexandria could not be ignorant of what Origen had taught or written nay assures us he had read his Books did not look upon those dangerous things that were in them as his sense And indeed so he says expresly that what things he wrote by way of controversie and disputation are not to be looked upon as his own words and sentiments but as those of his contentious adversaries whom he had to deal with which accordingly in the passages he cites he carefully distinguishes from Origen's own words and sense To all which I may add that when the controversie about the condemnation of his Books was driven a Socrat. H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 12. p. 319. on most furiously by Theophilus and Epiphanius Theotimus the good Scythian Bishop plainly told Epiphanius that for his part he would never so much dishonour a person so venerable for his piety and antiquity nor durst he condemn what their Ancestors never rejected especially when there were no ill and mischievous Doctrins in Origen's Works therewithall pulling out a Book of Origen's which he read before the whole Convention and shewed it to contain Expositions agreeable to the Articles of the Church With these two excellent persons let me join the judgment of a Writer of the middle Ages of the Church b Breviar H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 3. p. 108 109. Haymo Bishop of Halberstad who speaking of the things laid to Origen's charge For my part says he saving the faith of the Ancients I affirm of him either that he never wrote these things but that they were wickedly forged by Heretics and fathered upon his name or if he did write them he wrote them not as his own judgment but as the opinion of others And if as some would have it they were his own sentiments we ought rather to deal compassionately with so learned a man who has conveyed so vast a treasury of Learning to us What faults there are in his Writings those orthodox and useful things which they contain are abundantly sufficient to over-ballance XXX THIS and a great deal more is and may be pleaded in Origen's defence And yet after all it must be confessed that he was guilty of great mistakes and rash propositions which the largest charity cannot excuse He had a natural warmth and fervor of mind a comprehensive wit an insatiable thirst after knowledge and a desire to understand the most abstruse and mysterious speculations of Theology which made him give himself an unbounded liberty in inquiring into and discoursing of the nature of things he wrote much and dictated apace and was ingaged in infinite variety of business which seldom gave him leisure to review and correct his writings and to let them pass the censure of second and maturer thoughts he traded greatly in the writings of the Heathens and was infinitely solicitous to make the doctrines of Christianity look as little unlike as might be to their best and beloved notions And certainly what Marcellus a Ap. Euseb contr Marcel l. 1. p. 23. Bishop of Ancyra long since objected against him is unquestionably true notwithstanding what Eusebius has said to salve it that coming fresh out of the philosophic Schools and having been a long time accurately trained up in the principles and books of Plato he applied himself to divine things before he was sufficiently disposed to receive them and fell upon writing concerning them while secular learning had yet the predominancy in his mind and so unwarily mingled philosophic notions with Christian principles further than the analogy of the Christian faith would allow And I doubt not but whoever would paralell his and and the Platonic principles would find that most of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is charged with his master-notions were brought out of the School of Plato as the above mentioned Huetius has in many things particularly observed S. Hierom himself whom the torrent of that time made a severe enemy to Origen could but have so much tenderness for him even in that very Tract b Ad Pammach de error Orig. p. 192. Tom. 2. wherein he passes the deepest censures upon him after he had commended him for his parts zeal and strictness of life Which of us says he is able to read so much as he has written who would not admire the ardent and sprightly temper of his mind towards the holy Scriptures But if any envious Zealot shall object his errours to us let him freely hear what was said of old Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus Horat. de Art Poet. v. 359. p. 815. Verum opere
and solemnity Though indeed it was then but the declining part of the Annus Millesimus which began with the Palilia about April XXI of the foregoing year and ended with the Palilia of this whence in the ancient coins of this Emperour these Secular Sports are sometimes ascribed to his second sometimes to his third Consulship as commencing in the one and being compleated in the other IV. THE entrance upon his Care and Government was calm and peaceable but he had not been long in it before a storm overtook him and upon what occasion I know not he was publicly e Epist 69. p. 117. Ep. 55. p. 80. vid. Pont. de vit Cypr. p. 12. proscribed by the name of Caecilius Cyprian Bishop of the Christians and every man commanded not to hide or conceal his goods And not satisfied with this they frequently called out that he might be thrown to the Lions So that being warned by a divine admonition and command from God as he pleads for himself f Epist 9. p. 22. and least by his resolute defiance of the public sentence he should provoke his adversaries g Epist 14. p. 27 to fall more severely upon the whole Church he thought good at present to withdraw himself hoping that malice would cool and die and the fire go out when the fewel that kindled it was taken away Loc. citat During this recess though absent in body yet was he present in spirit supplying the want of his presence by Letters whereof he wrote no less then XXXVIII by pious counsels grave admonitions frequent reproofs earnest exhortations and especially by hearty prayers to Heaven for the welfare and prosperity of the Church That which created him the greatest trouble was the case of the lapsed whom some Presbyters without the knowledge and consent of the Bishop rashly admitted to the communion of the Church upon very easie terms Cyprian a stiff asserter of Ecclesiastic Discipline and the rights of his place would not brook this but by several Letters not onely complained of it but endeavoured to reform it not sparing the Martyrs themselves who presuming upon their great merits in the cause of Religion took upon them to give Libels of Peace to the lapsed whereby they were again taken into communion sooner then the Rules of the Church did allow V. THIS remissness of Disciplin and easie admission of Penitents gave occasion to Novatus one of the Presbyters of Carthage to start aside and draw a Faction after him denying any place to the lapsed though penitent in the peace and communion of the Church not that they absolutely excluded them the mercy and pardon of God for they left them to the sentence of the divine Tribunal but maintained that the Church had no power to absolve them that once lapsed after Baptism and to receive them again into communion Having sufficiently imbroiled the Church at home where he was in danger to be excommunicated by Cyprian for his scandalous irregular and unpeaceable practices over he goes with some of his party to Rome where by a pretence of uncommon sanctity and severity besides some Consessors lately delivered out of Prison he seduced Novatianus who by the Greek Fathers is almost perpetually confounded with Novatus a Presbyter of the Roman Church a man of an insolent and ambitious temper and who had attempted to thrust himself into that Chair Him the Party procures by clancular Arts and uncanonical means to be consecrated Bishop and then set him up against Cornelius lately ordained Bishop of that See whom they peculiarly charged a Vid. Epist 55. ad Antonian p. 66. with holding a communion with Trophimus and some others of the Thurificati who had done sacrifice in the late Persecution Which though plausibly pretended was yet a false allegation Trophimus and his Party not being taken in till by great humility b Ibid. p. 69. and a public penance they had given satisfaction to the Church nor he then suffered to communicate any otherwise then in a Lay-capacity Being disappointed in their designs they now openly shew themselves in their own colours separate from the Church which they charge with loosness and licentiousness in admitting scandalous offenders and by way of distinction stiling themselves Cathari the pure undefiled Party those who kept themselves from all society with the lapsed or them that communicated with them Hereupon they were on all hands opposed by private persons and condemned by public Synods and cried down by the common Vote of the Church probably not so much upon the account of their different sentiments and opinions in point of pardon of sin and Ecclesiastical penance wherein they stood not at so wide a distance from the doctrin and practice of the early Ages of the Church as for their insolent and domineering temper their proud and surly carriage their rigorous and imperious imposing their way upon other Churches their taking upon them by their own private authority to judge censure and condemn those that joined not with them or opposed them their bold devesting the Governours of the Church of that great power lodged in them of remitting crimes upon repentance which seem to have been the very soul and spirit of the Novatian Sect. VI. IN the mean while the Persecution under Decius raged with an uncontrolled fury over the African Provinces and especially at Carthage concerning which Cyprian every where c Epist 53. p. 75 Epist 7. p. 16. Epist 8. p. 19. lib. ad Demetr p. 200. gives large and sad accounts whereof this the sum They were scourged and beaten and racked and roasted and their flesh pulled off with burning pincers beheaded with swords and run through with spears more instruments of torment being many times imployed about the man at once then there were limbs and members of his body they were spoiled and plundred chained and imprisoned thrown to wild Beasts and burnt at the stake And when they had run over all their old methods of execution they studied for more excogitat novas poenas ingeniosa crudelitas as he complains Nor did they onely vary but repeat the torments and where one ended another began they tortured them without hopes of dying and added this cruelty to all the rest to stop them in their journey to heaven many who were importunately desirous of death were so tortured that they might not die they were purposely kept upon the Rack that they might die by piece-meals that their pains might be lingring and their sense of them without intermission they gave them no intervals or times of respite unless any of them chanced to give them the slip and expire in the midst of torments All which did but render their faith and patience more illustrious and make them more earnestly long for Heaven They tired out their tormentors and overcame the sharpest engins of execution and smiled at the busie Officers that were raking in their wounds and when their flesh was wearied their faith was unconquerable
he reasonably presumed it would be no little encouragement to some to desert their superstitions and come over to Christianity if they were suffered to rejoice and use a little more innocent freedom then at other times which could not be better done then at the Memorials of the Martyrs though it cannot be denied but that this custom produced ill effects afterwards XVII IN the reign of the Emperour Gallienus about the year CCLX and for some years before God being as Osorius a Hist l. 7. c. 22. fâ—l 311. truly enough conjectures offended with the cruel usage which the Christians met withall from the present Powers was resolved to punish the World And to that end did not onely suffer Valerian the Emperour friendly enough at first but afterwards a bitter Persecutor of the Christians to be betrayed into the hands of Sapor King of Persia who treated him with the highest instances of scorn and insolence but permitted the Northern b Tâ—â—â— Poll. in viâ— Gallien c. â— 5. p. 717 718. vid. Zosim Hiâ—t lib. 1. p. 352. 〈◊〉 359. Tâ—â—b Pâ—ll in vit Claâ—d c. 8 p. 8â—6 Nations like a mighty inundation to break down the Banks and overflow most parts of the Roman Empire The Germans betook themselves some into Spain others passed the Alps and came through Italy as far as Ravenna the Alemanni forraged France and invaded Italy the Quades and Sarmatae wasted Pannonia the Parthians fell into Mesopotamia and Syria and the Goths broke in upon Pontus Asia and some parts of Greece Intollerable were the outrages which these barbarous people committed where-ever they came but especially upon the Christians whose goods they plundred ravished their Wives and Daughters tortured their persons and compelled them to offer sacrifice and communicate in their Idol-Feasts many of the Renegadoes spoiling their fellow-Christians and some under a pretence of finding stole or at least kept their neighbours goods to their own use In this general confusion a neighbour Bishop of those parts writes to S. Gregory of Neocaesarea to beg his advice what to do in this sad state of affairs Who by Euphrosynus sent back a Canonical Epistle so often cited and magnified by the Ancients and still extant to rectifie these irregularities and disorders wherein he prescribes the several stations and orders of Penitents but especially reproves and censures their inordinate avarice shewing how uncomely it is in it self how unsutable to Christians how abhorrent to God and all good men to covet and grasp what is another mans and how much more barbarous and inhumane in this calamitous time to spoil the oppressed and to enrich themselves by the bloud and ruines of their miserable Brethren And because some might be apt to plead they did not steal but onely take up what they accidentally met with he lets them know that whatever they had found of their neighbours nay though it were their enemies they were bound by Gods Law to restore it much more to their Brethren who were fellow-sufferers with them in the same condition And if any thought it were warrant enough to keep what they had found though belonging to others having been such deep losers themselves he tells them this is to justifie one wickedness with another and because the Goths had been enemies to them they would become Goths and Barbarians unto others Nay many as he tells us joined in with the Barbarians in open persecuting captivating and tormenting of their Brethren In all which cases he pronounces them fit to be excluded the communion of the Saints and not to be readmitted till by a just penance according to the various circumstances of the case they had made public and solemn satisfaction to the Church XVIII NOT long after this Paulus of Samosata Bishop of Antioch began to broach very pernicious Doctrins concerning the person of our blessed Saviour To prevent the infection whereof the most eminent of the Bishops and Clergy of all those parts frequently met in Synod at Antioch the chief of whom a Euseb H. E. l. 7. c. 27. p. 278. were Firmilian Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia our S. Gregory and his brother Athenodorus Bishop also in Pontus and some others The Synod being sate and having canvassed the matter the crafty Heretic saw 't was in vain to contend and therefore dissembling his errours as well as he could he confessed what could not be hid and by a feigned repentance salved his credit for the present and secured his continuance in that honourable place he held in the Church This Council was held Ann. Chr. CCLXIV which our S. Gregory seems not long to have survived dying either this or most probably the following year a Lib. 6. c. 17. p. 408. Nicephorus makes him to have lived to a very great age which he must if as he affirms he died under Dioclesian and b In voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 628. Suidas by a mistake much more prodigious makes him to decease in the reign of Julian A little before his death being sensible that his time drew near he sent c Gr. Niss ubi supr p. 1006. up and down the City and the Vicinage to make a strict enquiry whether there were any that yet were strangers to the Christian Faith And being told that there were but seventeen in all he sighed and lifting up his eyes to Heaven appealed to God how much it troubled him that he should leave any part of mens salvation incompleat but that withall it was a mercy that challenged the most grateful resentment that when he himself had found but seventeen Christians at his first coming thither he should leave but seventeen Idolaters to his successor Having heartily prayed for the conversion of Infidels and the increase and consummation of those that were converted he calmly and peaceably resigned up his soul to God having first enjoyned his friends to make no trouble about his Funeral nor procure him any proper and peculiar place of burial but that as in his life time he had carried himself as a Pilgrim and Foreigner in the World claiming nothing for himself so after death he might enjoy the portion of a Stranger and be cast into the common lot XIX HE was a man says d De Spir. S. c. 29. p. 359. Tim. 2. S. Basil of a Prophetical and Apostolic temper and who in the whole course of his life expressed the height and accuracy of an Evangelical conversation In all his e Id. ad Cler. Neocaes Epist LXIII p. 97. T. 3. devotions he was wont to shew the greatest reverence never covering his head in prayer as accounting that of the Apostle most proper and rational that every one praying or prophecying with his head covered dishonoureth his head All Oaths he avoided making Yea and Nay the usual measure of his communication Out of regard to our Lords threatning he durst never call his Brother Fool no anger wrath or bitterness proceeded out of his mouth Slandering
judgment and our conformity to him in glory and to hope for a state in the Kingdom of God wherein they should be entertained with such little and trifling such fading and transitory things as this World does afford Dionysius being then in the Province of the Arsenoitae where this Opinion had prevailed so far as to draw whole Churches into Schism and Separation summoned the Presbyters and Teachers who preached in the Country Villages and as many of the People as had a mind to come advising them that in their Sermons they would publicly examine this Doctrin They presently defended themselves with this Book whereupon he began more closely to join issue with them continuing with them three days together from morning to night weighing and discussing the doctrins contained in it In all which time he admired their constancy and love to truth their great quickness and readiness of understanding with so much order and decency so much modesty and moderation were the Discourses managed on both sides doubts propounded and assent yielded For they took an especial care not pertinaciously to defend their former opinions when once they found them to be erroneous nor to shun any objections which on either part were made against them As near as might be they kept to the present question which they endeavoured to make good but if convinced by argument that they were in the wrong made no scruple to change their minds and go over to the other side with honest minds and sincere intentions and hearts truly devoted to God embracing whatever was demonstrated by the holy Scriptures The issue was that Coracion the Commander and Champion of the other Party publicly promised and protested before them all that he would not henceforth either entertain or dispute or discourse or preach these opinions being sufficiently convinced by the arguments which the other side had offered to him all the Brethren departing with mutual love unanimity and satisfaction Such was the peaceable conclusion of this Meeting and less could not be expected from such pious and honest souls such wise and regular Disputers And happy had it been for the Christian World had all those controversies that have disturbed the Church been managed by such prudent and orderly debates which as usually conducted rather widen the breach then heal and mend it Dionysius to strike the controversie dead while his hand was in wrote a Book concerning the Promises which S. Hierom forgetting what he had truly said a De script in Dionys elsewhere that it was written against Nepos tells b Praef at in l. 18. Com. in Esa p. 242. T. 5. us was written against Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons mistaking the person probably for his opinion in the first part whereof he stated the question laid down his sense concerning it in the second he treated concerning the Revelation of S. John the main Pillar and Buttress of this Opinion where both by reason and the testimony of others he contends that it was not written by S. John the Apostle and Evangelist but by another of that name an account of whose judgment herein we have represented in another place c Antiq. Apost Life of S. John n. 14. XVI THE last controversie wherein he was concerned was that against Paul of Samosata Bishop of Antioch who had d Euseb ubi sup c. 27. p. 277 281. Epiph. Haeres LXV p. 262. Athanas de Syn d. Arim. Seleuc. p. 920. Niceph. l. 6. c. 27. p. 420. confidently vented these and such like impious dogmata that there is but one person in the Godhead that our blessed Saviour was though a holy yet a meer man who came not down from Heaven but was of a meer earthly extract and original in whom the word which he made not any thing distinct from the Father did sometimes reside and sometimes depart from him with abundance of the like wicked and sensless propositions Besides all which he was infinitely obnoxious in his e Epist Synod II. Antioch ap Euseb ib. c. 30. p. 280. c. morals as few men but serve the design of some lust by Schism and bad opinions covetous without any bounds heaping up a vast estate though born a poor mans son partly by fraud and sacriledge partly by cruel and unjust vexations of his brethren partly by fomenting differences and taking bribes to assist the weaker party Proud and vain-glorious he was beyond all measure affecting Pomp and Train and secular Power and rather to be stiled a temporal Prince then a Bishop going through the streets and all public places in solemn state with persons walking before him and crouds of people following after him In the Church he caused to be erected a Throne higher then ordinary and a place which he called Secretum after the manner of Civil Magistrates who in the inner part of the Praetorium had a place railed in with Curtains hung before it where they sate to hear Causes He was wont to clap his hand upon his thigh and to stamp with his feet upon the Bench frowning upon and reproaching those who did not Theatrically shout and make a noise while he was discoursing to them wherein he used also to reflect upon his predecessors and the most eminent persons that had been before him with all imaginable scorn and petulancy magnifying himself as far beyond them The Hymns that were ordinarily sung in honour of our Lord he abolished as late and novel and in stead thereof taught some of his proselyted Females upon the Easter solemnity to chaunt out some which he had composed in his own commendation to the horrour and astonishment of all that heard them procuring the Bishops and Presbyters of the neighbouring parts to publish the same things of him in their Sermons to the People some of his Proselytes not sticking to affirm that he was an Angel come down from Heaven All which he was so far from controlling that he highly encouraged them and heard them himself not onely with patience but delight He was moreover vehemently suspected of incontinency maintaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subintroduced Women in his house and some of them persons of exquisit beauty contrary to the Canons of the Church and to the great scandal of Religion And that he might not be muh reproached by those that were about him he endeavoured to debauch his Clergy conniving at their Vices and Irregularities and corrupting others with Pensions and whom he could not prevail with by evil arts he awed by power and his mighty interest in the Princes and great ones of those parts so that they were forced with sadness to bewail at home what they durst not publish and declare abroad XVII TO rectifie these enormities most of the chief Bishops of the East resolved to meet in a Synod at Antioch a Euseb ib. c. 27. p. 277. c. 30. p. 279. to which they earnestly invited our Dionysius But alas age and infirmities had rendred him incapable of such a journey
Claudius Crispinus Pope Callistus martyred after he had sate 5 years 1 moneth 12 days Urban chosen in his room 225  3 L. Turpilius Dexter  4 M. Maecius Refus 226  4 Imp. Alexander II.  5 C. Quinctilius Marcellus 227  5 D. Caelius Balbinus II. Hippolytus Bishop of Portus suffers Martyrdom 6 M. Clodius Pupienus Maximus 228  6 Verttius Modestus Origen ordained Presbyter by Alexander Bishop of Jerusalem and Theoctistus of Caesarea 7 Probus 229  7 Imp. Alexander III. The Sixth Greek Edition found at Nicopolis 8 Dio Cassius historicus 230  8 Calpurnius Agricola Origen prosecuted and Synodically condemned by Demetrius Bishop of Alexandria 9 Clementinus 231 Alexandri 9 T. Claudius Pompeianus Origen resigns up his Catechetic School to his Scholar Heraclas who is soon after chosen Bishop of Alexandria  10 Felicianus Pope Urban beheaded He is succeeded by Pontianus 232  10 Julius Lupus Origen departs from Alexandria and fixes his residence at Caesarea in Palestin 11 Maximus Plotinus becomes Ammonius his Scholar at Alexandria 233  11 Maximus II.  12 Ovinius Paternus 234  12 Maximus III. Pontianus Bishop of Rome banished into Sardinia 13 Urbanus 235  13 L. Catilius Severus Maximinus raises the Seventh Persecution against the Christians 14  Origen writes his exhortation to Martyrdom Maximinus à 18 Martii 1 L. Ragonius Urinatius Quintianus Pope Pontianus suffers martyrdom in Sardinia ..  Anterus succeeds in the Chair 236  1 Imp. Maximinus Anterus scarce having possessed his place one moneth is slain and Fabian elected in his room 2 C. Julius Africanus 237  2 P. Titius Perpetuus  3  Pupienus Balbinus à Maii 26. 1 L. Ovinius Rusticus Cornelianus 238  1 M. Ulpius Crinitus  Gordianus à Mense Martii 1 C. Nonius Proculus Pontianus 239 Gordiani 1 Imp. Gordianus Zebinus Bishop of Antioch dies Babylas is chosen to that See  2 M. Acilius Aviola 240  2 Vettius Sabinus About this time Origen is thought to have taken his second journey to Athens where he finished his Commentaries upon Ezekiel 3 Venustus 241  3 Imp. Gordianus II.  4 T. Claudiê° Pompeianê° II. 242  4 C. Aufidius Atticus  5 C. Asinius Praetextatus 243  5 C. Julius Africanus Origen is sent for into Arabia where he disputes with and converts Beryllus from his unsound and erroneous opinions 6 Aemilius Pappus 244  6 Fulvius Aemilianus  Philippê° Ã mense April 1 Peregrinus 245  1 Imp. Philippus  2 Tib. Fabius Titianus 246  2 Bruttius Praefens Dionysius one of Origens Scholars and successors in the Schola 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made Bishop of Alexandria 3 Nummius Albinus 247  3 Imp. Philippus II. The Annus Millesimus ab U. C. begun this ended the following year and celebrated by the Emperour with all imaginable solemnity and magnificence 4 M. Philippus F. Caesar 248 Philippi 4 Imp. Philippus III. Cyprian chosen Bishop of Carthage 5 M. Julius Philippus F. II. 249  5 Fulvius Aemilianus II. A tunnilt raised at Alexandria by an Impostor gives occasion to a preliminary Persecution against the Christians there 6  Decius à Maio. 1 Vettius Aquilinus 250   The Eighth Persecution raised by Decius 1 Imp. Messius Decius S. Cyprian in retirement 2 Annius Maximus Gratus Pope Fabian martyred After whose decease a vacancy in that See for above a year Novatian endeavouring to thrust himself in 251  2 Imp. Decius II. Great Schisms in the African Churches about the lapsed 3  Gallus Volusianus F. à Dec. 1 Q. Etruscus Deciê° F. Caesar Cornelius elected Bishop of Rome 252  1 Imp. Trebonianê° Gallus II. The Novatian Doctrines condemned in a Synod of 60 Bishops at Rome  The Emperours renew the Persecution begun under Decius 2 C. Vibius Volusianus A great mortality throughout the World 253  2 C. Vibius Volusianus II. Cornelius first banished then recalled cruelly beaten and at last beheaded 3  Valerianus cum Gallieno F. à Dec. 1 M. Valerius Maximus Lucius succeeds him 254  1 Imp. Licinius Valerianus II Origen dies and is buried at Tyre 2 Imp. Gallienus Valerian the Emperour at first a great Patron of the Christians 255  2 Imp. Valerianus III. Pope Lucius after one year and three moneths suffers Martyrdom Stephen a Roman chosen to be his successor 3 Imp. Gallienus II. 256 Valeriani 3 M. Valerius Maximus The great controversie about the rebaptizing such as had been baptized by Heretics hotly ventilated 4 M. Acilius Glabrio The heats between Cyprian and Stephen of Rome 257  4 Imp. Valerianus IV. The Nineth Persecution begun by Valerian 5 Imp. Gallienus III. Sabellius confounds the Persons in the Trinity and spreads his Heresie 258  5 M. Aurelius Memmius Fuscus Pope Stephen slain Aug. 2. which others refer to the foregoing year Sixtus succeeds 6 Pomponius Bassus S. Cyprian beheaded at Carthage Sept. 14. 259 Gallienus solus capto Valer. 6 Fulvius Aemilianus al. Gallienus IV. Pope Sixtus and his Deacon Laurentius receive the Crown of Martyrdom 7 Pomponius Bassus II. al. Valerianus jun. Dionysius succeeds in the See of Rome 260  7 cornelius Secularis Paul of Samosata made Bishop of Antioch 8 Junius Donatus Gallienus stops the Persecution against the Christians 261  8 Imp. Gallienus IV. Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria writes to Pope Dionysius to vindicate himself from the suspicion of Sabellianism charged upon him 9 Volusianus 262  9 Imp. Gallienus V. Aemylian attempts to make himself Emperour and besieges Alexandria where the Christians are reduced to great straits 10 App. Pompeius Faustinus 263  10 Nummius Albinus  11 Maximus Dexter 264 Gallieni 11 Imp. Gallienus VI.  12 Aemilius Saturninus 265  12 Valerianus Caesar II. A Synod held at Antioch against Paulus Samosatenus the Bishop of it 13 L. Caesonius Lucillus Macer Rufinianus Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria and Gregory Bishop of Neocaesarea depart this life 266  13 Imp. Gallienus VII Hymenaeus ordained Bishop of Jerusalem 14 Sabinillus 267  14 Ovinius Paternus  15 Arcesilaus 268  15 Ovinius Paternus II. Claudius the Emperour persecutes the Christians at Rome Claudius à Mart. 21. 1 Marinianus 269  1 Imp. Aur. Claudius  2 Ovinius Paternus III. 270  2 Flavius Antiochianus Another Synod held at Antioch wherein Paul of Samosata is condemned and deposed and Domnus placed in his room Aurelianus à Mart. 1 Furius Orfitus Pope Dionysius dies Decem. 26. 271  1 Imp. Aurelianus Felix chosen Bishop of Rome 2 Pomponius Bassus al. C. Jul. Capitolinus 272  2 Quietus Many suffer Martyrdom about this time 3 Voldumianus 273 Aureliani 3 M. Claudius Tacitus  4 Furius Placidianus 274  4 Imp. Aurelianus II. Zenobia Queen of the Palmyreni a Jewess and if some might be credited a Christian overcome by Aurelian and carried in triumph to Rome 5 C. Julius Capitolinus 275  5 Imp.