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

of those whose Disposition made 'em not altogether unworthy of them 'T is true that † Pag. 70. Gregory says that some Lyes had been mixed with the Truth and relates only in a doubtful way what was reported that Julian as he was sacrificing saw a a Crowned Cross in the Bowels of a Victim But he assures as certain some things that are much more incredible in the following Oration * Pag. 71. and in this he says that Julian having called out the Daemons with certain Sacrifices could not forbear being frighted as soon as he heard the Noise and that he saw certain Fires which commonly precede their Apparition and that forasmuch as he had been bred up in the Christian Religion he made the Sign of the Cross which presently drove away all those Spectrum's The Priest who performed the Ceremonies and perceived the trouble Julian was in told him that the Gods abhorred him upon that account not that they were afraid of the Sign of the Cross which he had made 5. Gregory † Pag. 72. derides the Artifices which Julian made use of to persecute the Christians without procuring them the Honour of Martyrdom and without seeming to treat them ill because whatever Pretence he used one might easily see that their greatest Crime was Christianity Persecution upon the account of Religion is so odious of it self even to all those who have still some sense of Humanity left that even those who practice it are ashamed of it when Superstition and Cruelty allow them some time to think somewhat more calmly on what they are doing This is so true that most of those who have suffered themselves to be led by the blind Zeal of Persecution have used the same Artifices We have seen an egregious Example of it in our Age and if what Gregory says here of the pitiful Arts and Cunnings of Julian be compared with what was lately done in a great Kingdom one will find a great Resemblance between both I shall omit it here lest any body should think that I design to insist upon so odious a Parallel 6. Amongst other Reasons which Gregory uses to shew that Julian could not succeed in his Design he describes thus the Power of the Saints which the Christians honoured * Pag. 76 77. Did you not fear those on whom so great an Honour is bestowed and for whom solemn Feasts have been instituted by whom the Daemons are driven away and Diseases cured whose Apparitions and Predictions are known the very Bodies whereof have as much Vertue as their holy Souls whether they be touched or honoured some drops of whose Blood only have the same Vertue with their Bodies It appears from those words and several other places out of Gregory and other Fathers in his time that they had already a great respect for the Relicks of Saints and vented a great many Miracles wrought at their Graves 'T is to be wondered how Gregory who loved Exaggerations said not that the Bodies of the Saints had a greater Vertue after their Death than during their Life for there is no comparison between the multitude of Miracles which are said to have been wrought at the Graves of Martyrs and those which they wrought whilst they were alive Several People believe that the want of Sincerity of some Christians and the Credulity of some others did very much contribute to the keeping up of Paganism 7. Our Author * Pag. 77. makes afterwards an Encomium of the Monks and despises Socrates Plato and all the Heathen Philosophers Gregory upbraids Julian with his not esteeming Vertue in his Enemies but certainly his Zeal made him on this occasion commit somewhat like it and 't is very certain that he had learned more by the reading of Plato and Socrates's Discourses than by his Conversation with all the Monks he had seen As for Manners the continual Seditions of those Pious Hermits and their implacable Temper do plainly enough shew that they were infinitely below those great Patterns of the Pagan Antiquity 8. He † Pag. 80. rightly observes that to design the ruine of the Christian Religion in a time when the Roman Empire was full of Christians was to undertake to ruine the Empire it self When they were but a small number they might have been ill treated without any danger to the State but it could not then be done without causing great Commotions and too great Disorders in it It were to be wished that the Imitators of Julian had well considered that Advertisement of Gregory who despises with great reason whatever might be good in Julian's Government if compared with the mischief which so detestable a Design would have been the cause of if he had been able to execute it Besides one could have wish'd that our Age * Pag. 83 84. had been well acquainted with the horror the Christians had for the Snares which Julian laid for his Officers and Soldiers Gregory says that some Christian Soldiers having on one day wherein Julian was distributing some Liberalities to his Army thrown Incence into the Fire in his presence according to an ancient Custom it had been interpreted as if they had incens'd the Idols and having been told of their fault as they were praying to Christ by making the Sign of the Cross after a Meal by some who told 'em that they had renounced him they presently went into the publick Place and cried even in the Emperor's hearing that they had been surprized and were Christians Julian being angry because they had found out that Surprize sent 'em into Banishment 9. Gregory describes * Pag. 87 88. some horrible Cruelties against the Christians which Julian had either commanded or suffered in Egypt and Syria He says that the Inhabitants of Arethusa a Town of Syria after they had exposed some Virgins consecrated to God to a thousand Infamies killed them ate their Liver raw and threw their Bodies to be eaten by Dogs having cover'd them with Barley The same People treated with an abominable Barbarity the Bishop of that Town who notwithstanding seemed to be insensible in the midst of Torments There might be some Exaggerations in this and † Pag. 88. Gregory says that that Bishop had in Constans's time demolished an Habitation of Daemons that is a Pagan Temple according to the Power he had received from the Emperor That Action of Mark of Arethusa drew on him the Hatred of the People as a Heathen would have been detested by the Christians if he had pull'd down one of their Churches Notwithstanding Gregory says ‖ Pag. 97. a little lower not only that the Christians had not treated the Pagans as they were treated by them but he asks them what Liberty the Christians took from them As if it was nothing to pull down their Temples as they did * Sozom. l. 2. c. 5. since the Empire of Constantine They went on with the same Rigour under the following Emperors and to leave nothing that the

appear'd remote in upholding the Arguments which seem'd to him weak and in giving Praises to such who seem'd to speak well Eusebius of Caesarea long held out against the Use which they * Socrat. l. 1. c. 8. Theod. l. 1. c. 12. would make of the word Consubstantial He offer'd another Confession of Faith wherein it was omitted and wherein he call'd the Son barely God born of God Light of Light Life of Life Only Son First-born of all Creatures Begotten of his Father before all Worlds The Emperor approv'd this Confession of Faith and exhorted the Fathers of the Synod to follow it in adding thereto only the word Consubstantial Afterwards the Confession was read which had been drawn up with this Word the Terms of which have been already recited Anathema's were join'd thereto against those who should use on this Occasion other Terms than those of the Holy Scripture which must be understood with an Exception of those which the Council thought fit to Consecrate This Proposition was particularly condemn'd That the Son existed not before he was begotten Eusebius and others requested That the Terms of the Symbol and Anathema's might be explained 1. It was said That the word Begotten and not Made was used because this last word expresses the Production of Creatures to which the Son has no likeness being of a Substance far more excellent than they begotten by the Father in an incomprehensible manner 2. As for the word Consubstantial it is proper to the Son not in the sence wherein it is taken when we speak of Bodies or Mortal Animals the Son being Consubstantial with the Father neither by a Division of the Divine Substance of which he possesses a part nor by any change of this same Substance The meaning of which is only this That the Son has no Resemblance with the Creatures which he has made but that he is in all things like to his Father by whom he has been begotten or That he is not of another Hypostasis or Substance but of that of the Father 3. Those were condemn'd who said That the Son was not before he was born seeing that he existed before his Corporal Birth and even before his Divine Generation according to Constantine's Argument * These words of Eusebius's Letter are not to be found but in Theodorit Socrates having retrenched them For before said he that he was actually Begotten he was in Power in his Father in a manner Unbegotten the Father having been always Father as he is always King and Saviour and all things in Power being eternally in the same Condition It will perhaps seem that this is pure Arianism and that this is to deny the Eternity of the Son But we must observe that in the style of that time to Exist before the World and to be Eternal is the same thing seeing that to prove his Eternity this Passage is cited * Vid. Ep. Alexandri Ep. Al. supra laudatam In the Beginning was the Word And it sufficed to shew that he was Begotten before there was any Time So that we must not reject these words as Supposititions meerly for this reason And it is so ordinary to find hard Expressions in those who attempt to explain in any sort this incomprehensible Mystery that if one might hence judge of them one would be apt to declare them all Hereticks which is to say to anathemamize the greatest part of the Ancients Besides this † * De. Deret Nicaen Tom. 1. pag. 251. St. Athanasius who openly treats Eusebius as an Arian makes allusion to one part of this Passage and draws thence a Consequence which Eusebius without doubt would not have owned which is That the Arians believed that the Divinity of Jesus Christ did not exist before his Corporal Birth After these Explications Eusebius subscribed as he himself testifies in the Letter above recited ‖ Athanas ibid. although he had refused it the day before The long and formal Opposition which he had made against the word Consubstantial caused it to be suspected that there was want of Sincerity in this Subscription In fine Arius and his Party were anathematized and all their Books condemned and particularly a Poem which Arius had entituled Thalia Most of the Arian Bishops subscribed after Eusebius his Example to this Confession of Faith and the Anathema's after the Explication above-mentioned Yet there were some of 'em who refused at first to sign * Socr. l. 1. c. 1. the principal of which were Eusebius of Nicomedia Theognis of Nice Maris of Calcedon Theonas of Marmarica and Secondus of Ptolemais They were immediately Excommunicated by the Council and were to be sent afterwards as well as Arius into Exile by Constantine The Council wrote a Circular Letter † Ib. Socr. l. 1. c. 9. to the Churches of Egypt denoting to 'em in what sort they had carried themselves in the business of Arius and what had been ordered touching Melece the Schismatical Bishop and the Observation of Easter Constantine wrote also to the Church of Alexandria to assure it that after a full and mature Examination Arius had been condemned by the common Consent He greatly vaunted of the Moderation and Learning of the Bishops making no mention of their Quarrels according to the Custom observed in Publick Acts and such like Occasions where every thing is supprest which may give an ill Opinion of the Decrees of these kinds of Assemblies In another Letter directed to the Bishops and Churches he enjoins the Name of Porphyrus to be given to Arius and his Followers to be called Porphyrians This Porphyry was a famous Platonist who had written against the Christian Religion and whose Books Constantine had caus'd to be burnt Lucas Holstenius has written his Life which is to be found at the end of the Book Of the Abstinence of Animals Constantine design'd to declare hereby Arius an Enemy to the Christian Religion and not in any manner reproach him with being a Platonist touching the Trinity seeing Constantine did not disapprove as we have seen the Sentiments of Plato It 's true the Arians have been upbraided with their too great application to the reading of this Philosopher and other Heathen Authors Revera de Platonis Aristophanis says * Advers Lucif T. 2. p. 142. Ed. Gryph St. Jerom in episcopatum allegentur Quotus enim quisque est qui non apprime in his eruditus sit Accedit ad hoc quod Ariana hoeresis magis cum sapientia seculi facit argumentationum rivos de Aristotelis fontibus mutuatur Thus the Orthodox and Hereticks equally approved the Sentiments of Plato each of them apparently explaining them according to his Hypothesis Constantine further ordered in the same Letter to burn all Arius's Books to the end that not only his pernicious Doctrine be destroyed but that there remain no monument of it to Posterity He likewise declared That if any one concealed any of his Books and did not bring