wulta faciunt. Primum de reperta Cruce traditionis dissimilitudo. Dein altissimum Eusebii Constantinique de ea inventione silentium, &c. Denique fraus Reliquiariorum nobis est timenda in rebus ejusmodi. Excogitatam esse Crucis inventionem, partim ut pergratum fieret Constantino, qui Reliquiis extra modum delectabatur, partim et Ecclesia Hierosolymitanæ honos accumularetur, quid vetat? Nonne Juvenalis, Cyrilli de successoribus unus, per commentitia scripta Palæstina principatum extorquere voluit, docente Leone, Epist. 62. Hieronymus quidem * Cyrillum ejusmodi coloribus pingit in Chronico, quibus existimari forsan posset animum a pis fraudibus alienum non gestasse, &c. S. Basnage, Ann. ii. 728-9. If Cyril of Jerusalem wrote these words, and vouched for the discovery of the true cross, he must, as to this particular, pass either for a deceiver, or for that too!, Which wise men work with, call'd One would therefore willingly suppose that the letter ascribed to Cyril is spurious or interpolated. The good woman Helena was near fourscore years old when she took this journey to Jerusalem. It is more probable that she should have been imposed upon, than that she should have had any share in the contrivance. As to Macarius, if what is here related of him be true, his Blessedness must have been let into the secret. Helena was sainted and highly honoured after her death her body is said to be in an abbey in France, and also at Rome; but there is no great inconvenience to suppose it to be in two places at once. The mul *See Sozom. iv. 25. vii. 7. Socrat. ii. 40. concerning the character of Cyril. REMARKS ON since he was eminent both in prudence and in good, ness. This historian hath transmitted to us a remarkable account of his antifanatical wisdom, by which he put a stop to a very absurd decree, which else might have passed in that general council. Paphnutius cujusdam urbis in superiori Thebaide fuit Episcopus; vir adeo pius Deoque carus, ut admiranda ab eo signa ederentur. Huic persecutionis tempore oculus fuerat effossus. Imperator vero hominem magnopere observabat, et frequenter in palatium acceṛsebat, effossumque ejus oculum deosculabatur.-Visum erat Episcopis novam legem inducere, ut quicumque in sacrum ordinem allecti essent, id est, Episcopi, Presbyteri, et Diaconi, ab uxorum quas, cum laici essent, matrimonii jure sibi sociaverant, concubitu abstinerent. Cumque hac re in medium proposita, singulorum sententice rogarentur, surgens in medio Episcoporum concessu Paphnutius, vehementer vociferatus est, non esse imponendum clericis et sacerdotibus grave hoc jugum honorabiles nuptias et torum immaculatum esse dicens; ne ex nimia severitate damnum potius inferrent Ecclesice. Neque enim omnes ferre posse tam districta continentia disciplinam; ac forsitan inde eventurum esse, ut cujusque uxoris castitas minime custodiretur. Castitatem autem vocabat congressum viri cum uxore legitima. Satis esse ut qui in Clerum fuissent adscripti, juxta veterem Ecclesiæ traditionem jam non amplius uxores ducerent: non tamen quemquam sejungendum esse ab ea quam antehac, tunc cum esset laicus, legitime duxisset. Atque hæc dixit, ipse non modo conjugi, sed muliebris congressus penitus expers; quippe qui a puero in monasterio educatus fuisset, et ob singularem castimoniam ab omnibus celebratus. Cæterum universus sacordotum cœtus Paphnuti sermonibus assensus est. Proinde omissa ejus rei disceptatione, singulo 7 rum rum arbitrio permiserunt, ut ab uxorum consuetudine abstinerent, si vellent. Soer. i. 11. Baronius and Valesius would willingly set the account aside, for obvious reasons. Du Pin and Tillemont are more fair and candid. See Lowth on Socrates, and Tillemont H. E. vi. p. 677. This decree concerning the marriages of the clergy, even as it was modified by the wise Paphnutius, will seem over-rigid to many: and for these, and several other reasons besides these, it is matter of some wonder how the church was supplied with a sufficient number of ecclesiastics, Who that loved peace and quiet, and could earn a morsel of bread any other way, would have chosen to travel year after year from Jerusalem to Jericho, from council to council, to live in perpetual disputes, jars, broils, and quarrels, censuring and censured, anathematizing and anathematized, and, if he happened to be on the wrong side of the question, sure to be banished and transported at least to some remote island, if nothing worse ensued? Who would not say: Quod te per Genium dextramque Deosque Penates The council of Illiberis is supposed by some to have been held in the time of Constantine, by others much earlier, and by Tillemont about A. D. 300. This council excommunicated those who lent money upon interest, though the laws of the empire permitted it; but almost all the fathers had wrong notions about interest, or usury, as also about self-defence, and bearing arms. Instead REMARKS ON of peace and quiet, he complied with it in a sense which he gave to it, and which hath been mentioned above. The use of unscriptural terms, saith he, has been the cause of almost all the confusion and disturbance that hath happened in the church-γράφοις χρήσασθαι φως καῖς· διὸ σχεδὸν ἡ πᾶσα γέγονε συγχυσίς τε καὶ ἀκαλαςασία τῶν ἐκnov. Apud. Socr. i. 8. p. 26. έκ He seems to have been neither an Arian nor an Athanasian, but one who endeavoured to steer a middle course, yet inclining more to the Arians than to the Athanasians. When he died, Acacius succeeded him in the see of Cæsarea, a learned man, who had been his disciple, and his intimate friend, and who was of the Semiarian party. See a life of Eusebius by Valesius, and another by Le Clerc, and Le Clerc's Ars Crit. vol. III. and Bib. A. et M. iv, 18. B. G. v. 30. Du Pin B. E. ii. 1. de Man. i. 545. Fleury H. E. xii. Fabricius Beausobre Hist. Tillemont, Cave, Montfaucon, and S. Basnage Ann. ii. 753, who, in his account of the Arian controversy, shews himself more favourable to the Consubstantialists than becomes an impartial historian. Eusebius was very laborious and industrious, and must have spent much time and pains in reading, collecting, and digesting, but he seems to have bestowed little in forming a style, and in imitating the colour, manner, and diction of polite writers; his language is neither elegant nor perspicuous, and where it aims at eloquence and sublimity, it is usually turgid and perplexed. Treating of the doctrine of the Trinity, he makes this remark: "Our Saviour hath taught us what we ought to think concerning him, in order to obtain salvation: God so loved the world, that he 6.6 $6 gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him แ may have life eternal. He says not, he who knoweth "his nature, but he who believeth in him. Contr. "Marc. i. 12. p. 72." In the Testimonia pro Eusebio, collected by Valesius, we find the following censure: Meminimus in quodam libello Eusebii quondam egregi in reliquis viri legisse, quia nec Spiritus Sanctus sciat mysterium nativitatis Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et admiror tantæ doctrine virum hanc maculam Spiritui Sancto inflixisse. Ex Libro Quest. &c. The writer of these Questions might not perhaps mean Eusebius of Cæsarea, but some other Eusebius. See Tillemont H. E. vii. 529. and perhaps he mistook his author, whoseover that author was, who might say that the evil spirit, the devil, was ignorant of this mystery, as Ignatius affirms in one of his epistles. Eusebius compares the three sons of Constantine to the Trinity. Οὕτω δὴ Τριάδος λόγῳ τριβὴν γονὴν παιδων θεοφι aĥ xînoάuevos.—Ita cum ad quandam Trinitatis similitudinem tres filios Deo amabiles sustulisset.-Vit. Const. iv. 40. What was become of his judgment and discretion, when he wrote such things! He observes that Christ left his body for a short space of time, to shew that he was really dead, and reassumed it to manifest his divine power.-Tò pèr owμa pis Bρaxu xalanıár-Laud. Const. xv. See how easy it is to fall into heterodoxy quite unawares! Eusebius thought not of giving offence by making this remark: but some wise school-man hath delivered it as an Apophthegm; Quod Christus assumsit, nunquam dimisit. And therefore we must bring Eusebius off as well as we can. Let Valesius plead his cause: Hac benigna interpretatione adjuvanda sunt, says |