modern times, the older Aramæan clergy were an order of men profoundly devoted to the investigation and defence of religious truth, and the advancement of its triumphs among the nations of the earth. And in ages when, in the greater part of Europe, the word of God either was not at all, or was a closed book, to the laity and priesthood alike, the illustrious COMMENTATORS of the Syrians were bringing to the study and explication of it the entire energies of life.

CONSPECTUS OF SYRIAN AUTHORS.

FIRST CLASS.-WRITERS WHOSE TIMES MAY BE

DETERMINED.

BARDESANES, A. D. 190: Dialogues against Marcion, and a Treatise on Destiny; the latter extant.

APHRAAT, surnamed the Blessed, flourished about A. D. 320: Homilies.

JACOB, ST., bishop of Nisebis, A, D. 325: no genuine works now extant.

MILLES, bishop of Susa and martyr, an. 330: Epistles and Orations.

SYMEON, OF SHIMON, BAR SABOC, S., Catholicos of Seleucia, and martyr, an. 333: Hymns and Epistles.

EPHREM, ST., deacon of Edessa, solitary, and doctor of the church: died about an. 378. The entire works of Ephrem comprised Commentaries on the whole Bible, controversial treatises, a book on the Holy Spirit, an immense number of moral and spiritual discourses, and Hymns for public worship. The chief portions of his writings which have come down to us, have been edited at Rome in Syriac by Steph.Evod. Assemanni; by Vossius, in Latin, at Antwerp; and in Greek at the Universitypress at Oxford. Besides, there are yet a number of manuscripts of his in the Vatican, consisting of sermons in Arabic, Egyptian, and Syriac, and some hymns in the latter language.

[Some have attributed the invention of the Syrian heptasyllabic verse to Ephrem, the hexasyllabic to Narses, the pentasyllabic to Balæus, and to Jacob of Sarug the tetrasyllable,—ter repetitur. But, long before those authors, there were poems in Syriac in most of those measures by Harmonius.]

GREGORY, abbot of a monastery in Palestine, towards the end of the fourth century: Homilies and Epistles.

MARUTHA, bishop of Tagrit, same date: A Liturgy, Commentaries on the Gospel, a Martyrology, and a translation of the Canons of Nice.

PAULONA, a disciple of Ephrem: Hymns and theological Disputations.

GREGORY, abbot in Cyprus, an. 390: Epistles.

MARUTHA, bishop of Maiphercata, in Mesopotamia, an. 400 History of the Council of Nice, a Martyrology, and Hymns.

ABSAMIA, presbyter of Edessa, an. 400: Hymns.

ISAAC, archbishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, ob. 411: Canons.

ISAAC, a disciple of Ephrem: The Life of his Master. BALEUS SYRUS, contemporary with the last: Hymns. RABULA, bishop of Edessa, 412: Epistles and Canons. ZENOBIUS, a disciple of Ephrem: A work against Marcion.

ACACIUS, or AKAK, bishop of Amida, 420: Epistles.

MARI, a Persian, about 425: Commentary on Daniel, Remarks on the Epistles of Acacius, and a Tract against certain Magicians of Nisebis.

ACHEUS, archbishop of Seleucia, ob. 420: A Martyrology.

ANDREW, bishop of Samosata, 429: Expositions, and a work against Cyril of Alexandria.

DODJESHU, patriarch, 430: Commentaries, in three volumes, on the Prophet Daniel, the Kings, and Sirach. IBA, or IHIBA, bishop of Edessa, 435: A celebrated Epistle.

[Either this or another Iba wrote an Exposition of the Proverbs, Hymns, and Disputations.]

MAANES, a Persian, student of Edessa, and archbishop of Seleucia, about the middle of the fifth century:

Translated some of the works of Theodore of Mopsuestia

into Syriac.

ALEXANDER, a bishop of Hierapolis, an. 431 a book against Julianus.

NARSES, doctor of Edessa, 435: Surnamed, for the value and elegance of his writings, "the Harp of the Spirit: " Commentaries on the Old Testament, three hundred and sixty Orations, a Liturgy, a Treatise on the Sacrament of Baptism, another on Evil Morals, various interpretations, paracletic Sermons, and Hymns.

KUMI and PROBA, doctors of Edessa in the time of Iba, translated the Commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia, and the writings of Aristotle, into Syriac.

N.

XYSTUS, bishop in the fifth century: Ascetical Tracts, and a Liturgy.

ABO YAZIDAD, one of the historians of the school of Edessa, 435.

NONNUS, bishop of Edessa, 449: A Synodical Epistle to the emperor Leo.

JACOB, deacon of Edessa under Nonnus: A Life of St. Pelagius of Antioch.

BARSUMA, presbyter and archimandrite, A. D. 435: Epistles. N.

PROCLUS, bishop of Cyzicus, ob. 446: He had been lector to St. Chrysostom at Constantinople: Two books on the Eucharist.

BARADATUS, anchorite, middle of the fifth century: An Epistle among the circular letters of the Council of Chalcedon.

SIMEON, surnamed the Stylite, 450: Epistles to the Emperors Theodosius and Leo; two for the council of Chalcedon, and one to Basil, bishop of Antioch. Simeon wrote in Syriac.

JACOB, S., bishop of Serug, [Batne Sarug, in Mesopotamia,] latter half of the fifth century: Two hundred

M

and thirty-one metrical Orations, a Liturgy, a Ritual for Baptism, a Treatise on the Trinity and the Incarnation, Parænetic and other Epistles, and several Homilies.

[There are seven offices for baptism among the Syrians, bearing the several names of,-1. The apostles, in use among the Nestorians; 2. St. James the apostle; 3. Severus, or Soarios, of Antioch; 4. Philoxenus of Mabug (the latter three belong to the Jacobites); 5. Basil the Great; 6. James of Sarug; 7. James of Edessa: these, together with that of James the apostle, belong to the Maronites.]

JOHN, bishop of Tela, an. 512: Canons.

MARHAS, bishop of Amida, 520, Monophysite: Commentary on the Gospels, of which the prologue only is

extant.

SIMEON, bishop of Betharsama, a Persian, 525: A Liturgy. An Epistle against Nestorianism, [in which he says, that the first Nestorians were those Jews who said to our Lord, "Thou blasphemest, because thou, being a man, makest thyself God,"] and an Epistle to Simeon, abbot of Gabula, describing certain martyrdoms.

EBED MESHICHA, native of Hirta, flourished 540, is mentioned by Ebed Jesu as the author of a book of great erudition.

MOSES, of Charcha, 540: a work of Morals [Deshapheruth Dubree].

ZAKARIAH, bishop of Meletina, in Armenia Minor, 540, surnamed Malela, or the Orator: An Ecclesiastical History. Extant.

JOHN SABA, a monk, native of Nineveh, about 550: Thirty Sermons, forty-eight Epistles.

ABRAHAM, of Beth Raban: Commentary on the Old Testament.

JACOB BARADEUS, the celebrated Monophysite leader, 541: A Liturgy.