Writings of Eusebius. The Oration of Eusebius Pamphilus
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Translated by Ernest Cushing Richardson, Ph.d.
librarian and associate professor in hartford theological seminary.
Under the editorial supervision of Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Church History in the Union Theological Semimary, New York,
and Henry Wace, D.D., Principal of King's College, London
Published in 1890 by Philip Schaff,
New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co.
The Oration of Eusebius Pamphilus,
in praise of the Emperor Constantine.
Pronounced on the thirtieth anniversary of his reign.
Prologue to the Oration. [3494]
1. I come not forward prepared with a fictitious narrative, nor with
elegance of language to captivate the ear, desiring to charm my
hearers as it were, with a siren's voice; nor shall I present the
draught of pleasure in cups of gold decorated with lovely flowers (I
mean the graces of style) to those who are pleased with such things.
Rather would I follow the precepts of the wise, and admonish all to
avoid and turn aside from the beaten road, and keep themselves from
contact with the vulgar crowd.
2. I come, then, prepared to celebrate our emperor's praises in a
newer strain; and, though the number be infinite of those who desire
to be my companions in my present task, I am resolved to shun the
common track of men, [3495] and to pursue that untrodden path which it
is unlawful to enter on with unwashed feet. Let those who admire a
vulgar style, abounding in puerile subtleties, and who court a
pleasing and popular muse, essay, since pleasure is the object they
have in view, to charm the ears of men by a narrative of merely human
merits. Those, however who are initiated into the universal science,
[3496] and have attained to Divine as well as human knowledge, and
account the choice of the latter as the real excellence, will prefer
those virtues of the emperor which Heaven itself approves, and his
pious actions, to his merely human accomplishments; and will leave to
inferior encomiasts the task of celebrating his lesser merits.
3. For since our emperor is gifted as well with that sacred wisdom
which has immediate reference to God, as with the knowledge which
concerns the interests of men; let those who are competent to such a
task describe his secular acquirements, great and transcendent as they
are, and fraught with advantage to mankind (for all that characterizes
the emperor is great and noble), yet still inferior to his diviner
qualifies, to those who stand without the sacred precincts.
4. Let those, however, who are within the sanctuary, and have access
to its inmost and untrodden recesses, close the doors against every
profane ear, and unfold, as it were, the secret mysteries of our
emperor's character to the initiated alone. And let those who have
purified their ears in the streams of piety, and raised their thoughts
on the soaring wing of the mind itself, join the company which
surrounds the Sovereign Lord of all, and learn in silence the divine
mysteries.
5. Meanwhile let the sacred oracles, given, not by the spirit of
divination (or rather let me say of madness and folly), but by the
inspiration of Divine truth, [3497] be our instructors in these
mysteries; speaking to us of sovereignty, generally: of him who is the
Supreme Sovereign of all, and the heavenly array which surrounds the
Lord of all; of that exemplar of imperial power which is before us,
and that counterfeit coin: and, lastly, of the consequences which
result from both. With these oracles, then, to initiate us in the
knowledge of the sacred rites, let us essay, as follows, the
commencement of our divine mysteries.
Footnotes
[3494] The conventional heading has been retained. Literally it is
"Tricennial oration of Eusebius, addressed to the Emperor Constantine.
Prologue to the praises addressed to Constantine." The translation of
this oration shows, even more than that of the Life or Constantine's
Oration, a sympathy on the part of the translator with the florid
style of Eusebius, and, trying as the style itself is, the success of
Bag. in presenting the spirit of the original with, on the whole, very
considerable accuracy of rendering has been a constant matter of
surprise during the effort to revise.
[3495] Cf. Hom. Il. 6. 202, tr. Bryant, 6. 263-4, "shunning every
haunt of human-kind."
[3496] Eusebius seems to use this phrase much as the modern phrases
"The final philosophy," "The science of sciences," "The queen of
sciences," when applied to theology.
[3497] "Divine light."
Chapter I.--The Oration.
1. To-day is the festival of our great emperor: and we his children
rejoice therein, feeling the inspiration of our sacred theme. He who
presides over our solemnity is the Great Sovereign himself; he, I
mean, who is truly great; of whom I affirm (nor will the sovereign who
hears me be offended, but will rather approve of this ascription of
praise to God), that HE is above and beyond all created things, the
Highest, the Greatest, the most Mighty One; whose throne is the arch
of heaven, and the earth the footstool of his feet. [3498] His being
none can worthily comprehend; and the ineffable splendor of the glory
which surrounds him repels the gaze of every eye from his Divine
majesty.
2. His ministers are the heavenly hosts; his armies the supernal
powers, who own allegiance to him as their Master, Lord, and King. The
countless multitudes of angels, the companies of archangels, the
chorus of holy spirits, draw from and reflect his radiance as from the
fountains of everlasting light. Yea every light, and specially those
divine and incorporeal intelligences whose place is beyond the
heavenly sphere, celebrate this august Sovereign with lofty and sacred
strains of praise. The vast expanse of heaven, like an azure veil, is
interposed between those without, and those who inhabit his royal
mansions: while round this expanse the sun and moon, with the rest of
the heavenly luminaries (like torch-bearers around the entrance of the
imperial palace), perform, in honor of their sovereign, their
appointed courses; holding forth, at the word of his command, an
ever-burning light to those whose lot is cast in the darker regions
without the pale of heaven.
3. And surely when I remember that our own victorious emperor renders
praises to this Mighty Sovereign, I do well to follow him, knowing as
I do that to him alone we owe that imperial power under which we live.
The pious Cęsars, instructed by their father's wisdom, acknowledge him
as the source of every blessing: the soldiery, the entire body of the
people, both in the country and in the cities of the empire, with the
governors of the several provinces, assembling together in accordance
with the precept of their great Saviour and Teacher, worship him. In
short, the whole family of mankind, of every nation, tribe, and
tongue, both collectively and severally, however diverse their
opinions on other subjects, are unanimous in this one confession; and,
in obedience to the reason implanted in them, and the spontaneous and
uninstructed impulse of their own minds, unite in calling on the One
and only God. [3499]
4. Nay, does not the universal frame of earth acknowledge him her
Lord, and declare, by the vegetable and animal life which she produces
her subjection to the will of a superior Power? The rivers, flowing
with abundant stream, and the perennial fountains, springing from
hidden and exhaustless depths, ascribe to him the cause of their
marvellous source. The mighty waters of the sea, enclosed in chambers
of unfathomable depth, and the swelling surges, which lift themselves
on high, and menace as it were the earth itself, shrink back when they
approach the shore, checked by the power of his Divine law. The duly
measured fall of winter's rain, the rolling thunder, the lightning's
flash, the eddying currents of the winds, and the airy courses of the
clouds, all reveal his presence to those to whom his Person is
invisible.
5. The all-radiant sun, who holds his constant career through the
lapse of ages, owns him Lord alone, and obedient to his will, dares
not depart from his appointed path. The inferior splendor of the moon,
alternately diminished and increased at stated periods, is subject to
his Divine command. The beauteous mechanism of the heavens, glittering
with the hosts of stars, moving in harmonious order, and preserving
the measure of each several orbit, proclaims him the giver of all
light: yea, all the heavenly luminaries maintaining at his will and
word a grand and perfect unity of motion, pursue the track of their
ethereal career, and complete in the lapse of revolving ages their
distant course. The alternate recurrence of day and night, the
changing seasons, the order and proportion of the universe, all
declare the manifold wisdom of [his boundless power]. To him the
unseen agencies which hold their course throughout the expanse of
space, render the due tribute of praise. To him this terrestrial globe
itself, to him the heavens above, and the choirs beyond the vault of
heaven, give honor as to their mighty Sovereign: the angelic hosts
greet him with ineffable songs of Praise; and the spirits which draw
their being from incorporeal light, adore him as their Creator. The
everlasting ages which were before this heaven and earth, with other
periods beside them, infinite, and antecedent to all visible creation,
acknowledge him the sole and supreme Sovereign and Lord.
6. Lastly, he who is in all, before, and after all, [3500] his only
begotten, pre-existent Word, the great High Priest of the mighty God,
elder than all time and every age, devoted to his Father's glory,
first and alone makes intercession with him for the salvation of
mankind. [3501] Supreme and pre-eminent Ruler of the universe, he
shares the glory of his Father's kingdom: for he is that Light, which,
transcendent above the universe, encircles the Father's Person,
interposing and dividing between the eternal and uncreated Essence and
all derived existence: that Light which, streaming from on high,
proceeds from that Deity who knows not origin or end, and illumines
the super-celestial regions, and all that heaven itself contains, with
the radiance of wisdom bright beyond the splendor of the sun. This is
he who holds a supreme dominion over this whole world, [3502] who is
over and in all things, and pervades all things [3503] visible and
invisible; the Word of God. From whom and by whom our divinely favored
emperor, receiving, as it were a transcript of the Divine sovereignty,
directs, in imitation of God himself, the administration of this
world's affairs.
Footnotes
[3498] Paraphrased from Is. lxvi. 1.
[3499] [We must be content here (and probably in other passages of
this Oration) to tolerate as rhetorical embellishment that which,
regarded literally, is in every sense palpably untrue.--Bag.] The
intention of the passage is probably like that of those who say now
that there is no nation where, in some form, God is not worshiped.
[3500] [Referring possibly to Rev. i. 8. "I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the ending saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and
which is to come, the Almighty."--Bag.] Or, possibly, refers to Eph.
iv. 6, as it seems to be simply some verbal suggestion.
[3501] [The Arianism implied in this passage, if referred to the Word
as God, disappears if we regard it as spoken of Christ as the Word
manifested in human nature. See the note of Valesius ad loc.--Bag.]
[3502] Universe.
[3503] This is directly from Eph. iv. 6: "Who is over all and through
all and in all." It is thus directly referred to the Father, and on
the basis of the above note of Bag. seems to convict of Arianism, but
in reality the conception of a pre-existing Word is distinctly
orthodox.
Chapter II.
1. This only begotten Word of God reigns, from ages which had no
beginning, to infinite and endless ages, the partner of his Father's
kingdom. And [our emperor] ever beloved by him, who derives the source
of imperial authority from above, and is strong in the power of his
sacred title, [3504] has controlled the empire of the world for a long
period of years.
2. Again, that Preserver of the universe orders these heavens and
earth, and the celestial kingdom, consistently with his Father's will.
Even so our emperor whom he loves, by bringing those whom he rules on
earth to the only begotten Word and Saviour renders them fit subjects
of his kingdom.
3. And as he who is the common Saviour of mankind, by his invisible
and Divine power as the good shepherd, drives far away from his flock,
like savage beasts, those apostate spirits which once flew through the
airy tracts above this earth, and fastened on the souls of men; [3505]
so this his friend, graced by his heavenly favor with victory over all
his foes, subdues and chastens the open adversaries of the truth in
accordance with the usages of war.
4. He who is the pre-existent Word, the Preserver of all things,
imparts to his disciples the seeds of true wisdom and salvation, and
at once enlightens and gives them understanding in the knowledge of
his Father's kingdom. Our emperor, his friend, acting as interpreter
to the Word of God, aims at recalling the whole human race to the
knowledge of God; proclaiming clearly in the ears of all, and
declaring with powerful voice the laws of truth and godliness to all
who dwell on the earth.
5. Once more, the universal Saviour opens the heavenly gates of his
Father's kingdom to those whose course is thitherward from this world.
Our emperor, emulous of his Divine example, having purged his earthly
dominion from every stain of impious error, invites each holy and
pious worshiper within his imperial mansions, earnestly desiring to
save with all its crew that mighty vessel of which he is the appointed
pilot. And he alone of all who have wielded the imperial power of
Rome, being honored by the Supreme Sovereign with a reign of three
decennial periods, now celebrates this festival, not, as his ancestors
might have done, in honor of infernal demons, or the apparitions of
seducing spirits, or of the fraud and deceitful arts of impious men;
but as an act of thanksgiving to him by whom he has thus been honored,
and in acknowledgment of the blessings he has received at his hands.
He does not, in imitation of ancient usage, defile his imperial
mansions with blood and gore, nor propitiate the infernal deities with
fire and smoke, and sacrificial offerings; but dedicates to the
universal Sovereign a pleasant and acceptable sacrifice, even his own
imperial soul, and a mind truly fitted for the service of God.
6. For this sacrifice alone is grateful to him: and this sacrifice our
emperor has learned, with purified mind and thoughts, to present as an
offering without the intervention of fire and blood, while his own
piety, strengthened by the truthful doctrines with which his soul is
stored, he sets forth in magnificent language the praises of God, and
imitates his Divine philanthropy by his own imperial acts. Wholly
devoted to him, he dedicates himself as a noble offering, a
first-fruit of that world, the government of which is intrusted to his
charge. This first and greatest sacrifice our emperor first dedicates
to God; and then, as a faithful shepherd, he offers, not "famous
hecatombs of firstling lambs," but the souls of that flock which is
the object of his care, those rational beings whom he leads to the
knowledge and pious worship of God.
Footnotes
[3504] [It is difficult to know precisely what is meant here. Possibly
the name of Christian.--Bag.]
[3505] This is an allusion to what was afterwards known as
Vampireism,--a belief of unknown antiquity and especially prevalent in
various forms in the East. Rydberg (Magic of the Middle Ages, p. 207)
describes the medięval form thus: "The vampires, according to the
belief of the Middle Ages, are disembodied souls which clothe
themselves again in their buried bodies, steal at night into houses,
and suck from the nipple of the sleeping all their blood." (Cf. Perty,
d. myst. Ersch. 1 [1872], 383. 91; Görres' Chr. myst. Vol. 3, etc.)
Similar in nature was that notion of the spirits who sucked away the
breath of sleeping persons, which has left its trace in the modern
superstition that cats suck away the breath of sleeping children.
Chapter III.
1. And gladly does he accept and welcome this sacrifice, and commend
the presenter of so august and noble an offering, by protracting his
reign to a lengthened period of years, giving larger proofs of his
beneficence in proportion to the emperor's holy services to himself.
Accordingly he permits him to celebrate each successive festival
during great and general prosperity throughout the empire, advancing
one of his sons, at the recurrence of each decennial period, to a
share of his own imperial power. [3506]
2. The eldest, who bears his father's name, he received as his partner
in the empire about the close of the first decade of his reign: the
second, next in point of age, at the second; and the third in like
manner at the third decennial period, the occasion of this our present
festival. And now that the fourth period has commenced, and the time
of his reign is still further prolonged, he desires to extend his
imperial authority by calling still more of his kindred to partake his
power; and, by the appointment of the Cęsars, [3507] fulfills the
predictions of the holy prophets, according to what they uttered ages
before: "And the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom."
[3508]
3. And thus the Almighty Sovereign himself accords an increase both of
years and of children to our most pious emperor, and renders his sway
over the nations of the world still fresh and flourishing, as though
it were even now springing up in its earliest vigor. He it is who
appoints him this present festival, in that he has made him victorious
over every enemy that disturbed his peace: he it is who displays him
as an example of true godliness to the human race.
4. And thus our emperor, like the radiant sun, illuminates the most
distant subjects of his empire through the presence of the Cęsars, as
with the far piercing rays of his own brightness. To us who occupy the
eastern regions he has given a son worthy of himself; [3509] a second
and a third respectively to other departments of his empire, to be, as
it were, brilliant reflectors of the light which proceeds from
himself. Once more, having harnessed, as it were, under the self-same
yoke the four most noble Cęsars [3510] as horses in the imperial
chariot, he sits on high and directs their course by the reins of holy
harmony and concord; and, himself every where present, and observant
of every event, thus traverses every region of the world.
5. Lastly, invested as he is with a semblance of heavenly sovereignty,
he directs his gaze above, and frames his earthly government according
to the pattern of that Divine original, feeling strength in its
conformity to the monarchy of God. And this conformity is granted by
the universal Sovereign to man alone of the creatures of this earth:
for he only is the author of sovereign power, who decrees that all
should be subject to the rule of one.
6. And surely monarchy far transcends every other constitution and
form of government: for that democratic equality of power, which is
its opposite, may rather be described as anarchy and disorder. Hence
there is one God, and not two, or three, or more: for to assert a
plurality of gods is plainly to deny the being of God at all. There is
one Sovereign; and his Word and royal Law is one: a Law not expressed
in syllables and words, not written or engraved on tablets, and
therefore subject to the ravages of time; but the living and
self-subsisting Word, who himself is God, and who administers his
Father's kingdom on behalf of all who are after him and subject to his
power.
7. His attendants are the heavenly hosts; the myriads of God's angelic
ministers; the super-terrestrial armies, of unnumbered multitude; and
those unseen spirits within heaven itself, whose agency is employed in
regulating the order of this world. Ruler and chief of all these is
the royal Word, acting as Regent of the Supreme Sovereign. To him the
names of Captain, and great High Priest, Prophet of the Father, Angel
of mighty counsel, Brightness of the Father's light, Only begotten
Son, with a thousand other titles, are ascribed in the oracles of the
sacred writers. And the Father, having constituted him the living
Word, and Law and Wisdom, the fullness of all blessing, has presented
this best and greatest gift to all who are the subjects of his
sovereignty.
8. And he himself, who pervades all things, and is every where
present, unfolding his Father's bounties to all with unsparing hand,
has accorded a specimen of his sovereign power even to his rational
creatures of this earth, in that he has provided the mind of man, who
is formed after his own image, with Divine faculties, whence it is
capable of other virtues also, which flow from the same heavenly
source. For he only is wise, who is the only God: he only is
essentially good: he only is of mighty power, the Parent of justice,
the Father of reason and wisdom, the Fountain of light and life, the
Dispenser of truth and virtue: in a word, the Author of empire itself,
and of all dominion and power.
Footnotes
[3506] A general statement, such as Eusebius is fond of making. The
elevation of his sons was about these times, but not on them exactly.
Compare Prolegomena, Life.
[3507] [Dalmatius and Hanniballianus.--Bag.]
[3508] [Dan. vii. 18. It is surely needless to remark on so singular
and vicious an application of Scripture as this, further than that it
is either a culpable rhetorical flourish, or else an indication of a
lamentable defect of spiritual intelligence in the most learned writer
of the fourth century.--Bag.] "But the saints of the Most High shall
receive the kingdom."--Revised Version.
[3509] [Constantius Cęsar.--Bag.]
[3510] Compare Prolegomena, under Life.
Chapter IV.
1. But whence has man this knowledge, and who has ministered these
truths to mortal ears? Or whence has a tongue of flesh the power to
speak of things so utterly distinct from fleshly or material
substance? Who has gazed on the invisible King, and beheld these
perfections in him? The bodily sense may comprehend elements and their
combinations, of a nature kindred to its own: but no one yet has
boasted to have scanned with corporeal eye that unseen kingdom which
governs all things nor has mortal nature yet discerned the beauty of
perfect wisdom. Who has beheld the face of righteousness through the
medium of flesh? And whence came the idea of legitimate sovereignty
and imperial power to man? Whence the thought of absolute dominion to
a being composed of flesh and blood? Who declared those ideas which
are invisible and undefined, and that incorporeal essence which has no
external form, to the mortals of this earth?
2. Surely there was but one interpreter of these things; the
all-pervading Word of God. [3511] For he is the author of that
rational and intelligent being which exists in man; and, being himself
one with his Father's Divine nature, he sheds upon his offspring the
out-flowings of his Father's bounty. Hence the natural and untaught
powers of thought, which all men, Greeks or Barbarians, alike possess:
hence the perception of reason and wisdom, the seeds of integrity and
righteousness, the understanding of the arts of life, the knowledge of
virtue, the precious name of wisdom, and the noble love of philosophic
learning. Hence the knowledge of all that is great and good: hence
apprehension of God himself, and a life worthy of his worship: hence
the royal authority of man, and his invincible lordship over the
creatures of this world.
3. And when that Word, who is the Parent of rational beings, had
impressed a character on the mind of man according to the image and
likeness of God, [3512] and had made him a royal creature, in that he
gave him alone of all earthly creatures capacity to rule and to obey
(as well as forethought and foreknowledge even here, concerning the
promised hope of his heavenly kingdom, because of which he himself
came, and, as the Parent of his children, disdained not to hold
converse with mortal men); he continued to cherish the seeds which
himself had sown, and renewed his gracious favors from above; holding
forth to all the promise of sharing his heavenly kingdom. Accordingly
he called men, and exhorted them to be ready for their heavenward
journey, and to provide themselves with the garment which became their
calling. And by an indescribable power he filled the world in every
part with his doctrine, expressing by the similitude of an earthly
kingdom that heavenly one to which he earnestly invites all mankind,
and presents it to them as a worthy object of their hope.
Footnotes
[3511] "And no one knoweth who the Son is, save the Father; and who
the Father is, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to
reveal him."-- Luke x. 22.
[3512] Eusebius, in making it the Word who impresses the image of God
on men, shows good philosophy and good theology.
Chapter V.
1. And in this hope our divinely-favored emperor partakes even in this
present life, gifted as he is by God with native virtues, and having
received into his soul the out-flowings of his favor. His reason he
derives from the great Source of all reason: he is wise, and good, and
just, as having fellowship with perfect Wisdom, Goodness, and
Righteousness: virtuous, as following the pattern of perfect virtue:
valiant, as partaking of heavenly strength.
2. And truly may he deserve the imperial title, who has formed his
soul to royal virtues, according to the standard of that celestial
kingdom. But he who is a stranger to these blessings, who denies the
Sovereign of the universe, and owns no allegiance to the heavenly
Father of spirits; who invests not himself with the virtues which
become an emperor, but overlays his soul with moral deformity and
baseness; who for royal clemency substitutes the fury of a savage
beast; for a generous temper, the incurable venom of malicious
wickedness; for prudence, folly; for reason and wisdom, that
recklessness which is the most odious of all vices, for from it, as
from a spring of bitterness, proceed the most pernicious fruits; such
as inveterate profligacy of life, covetousness, murder, impiety and
defiance of God; surely one abandoned to such vices as these, however
he may be deemed powerful through despotic violence, has no true title
to the name of Emperor.
3. For how should he whose soul is impressed with a thousand absurd
images of false deities, [3513] be able to exhibit a counterpart of
the true and heavenly sovereignty? Or how can he be absolute lord of
others, who has subjected himself to the dominion of a thousand cruel
masters? a slave of low delights and ungoverned lust, a slave of
wrongfully-extorted wealth, of rage and passion, as well as of
cowardice and terror; a slave of ruthless demons, and soul-destroying
spirits?
4. Let, then, our emperor, on the testimony of truth itself, be
declared alone worthy of the title; who is dear to the Supreme
Sovereign himself; who alone is free, nay, who is truly lord: above
the thirst of wealth, superior to sexual desire; victorious even over
natural pleasures; controlling, not controlled by, anger and passion.
[3514] He is indeed an emperor, and bears a title corresponding to his
deeds; a Victor in truth, who has gained the victory over those
passions which overmaster the rest of men: whose character is formed
after the Divine original [3515] of the Supreme Sovereign, and whose
mind reflects, as in a mirror, the radiance of his virtues. Hence is
our emperor perfect in discretion, in goodness, in justice, in
courage, in piety, in devotion to God: he truly and only is a
philosopher, since he knows himself, and is fully aware that supplies
of every blessing are showered on him from a source quite external to
himself, even from heaven itself. Declaring the august title of
supreme authority by the splendor of his vesture, he alone worthily
wears that imperial purple which so well becomes him.
5. He is indeed an emperor, who calls on and implores in prayer the
favor of his heavenly Father night and day, and whose ardent desires
are fixed on his celestial kingdom. For he knows that present things,
subject as they are to decay and death, flowing on and disappearing
like a river's stream, are not worthy to be compared with him who is
sovereign of all; therefore it is that he longs for the incorruptible
and incorporeal kingdom of God. And this kingdom he trusts he shall
obtain, elevating his mind as he does in sublimity of thought above
the vault of heaven, and filled with inexpressible longing for the
glories which shine there, in comparison with which he deems the
precious things of this present world but darkness. For he sees
earthly sovereignty to be but a petty and fleeting dominion over a
mortal and temporary life, and rates it not much higher than the
goatherd's, or shepherd's, or herdsman's power: nay, as more
burdensome than theirs, and exercised over more stubborn subjects. The
acclamations of the people, and the voice of flattery, he reckons
rather troublesome than pleasing, because of the steady constancy of
his character, and genuine discipline of his mind.
6. Again, when he beholds the military service of his subjects, the
vast array of his armies, the multitudes of horse and foot, entirely
devoted to his command, he feels no astonishment, no pride at the
possession of such mighty power; but turns his thoughts inward on
himself, and recognizes the same common nature there. He smiles at his
vesture, embroidered with gold and flowers, and at the imperial purple
and diadem itself, when he sees the multitude gaze in wonder, like
children at a bugbear, on the splendid spectacle. [3516] Himself
superior to such feelings, he clothes his soul with the knowledge of
God, that vesture, the broidery of which is temperance, righteousness,
piety, and all other virtues; a vesture such as truly becomes a
sovereign.
7. The wealth which others so much desire, as gold, silver, or
precious gems, he regards to be, as they really are, in themselves
mere stones and worthless matter, of no avail to preserve or defend
from evil. For what power have these things to free from disease, or
repel the approach of death? And knowing as he does this truth by
personal experience in the use of these things, he regards the
splendid attire of his subjects with calm indifference, and smiles at
the childishness of those to whom they prove attractive. Lastly, he
abstains from all excess in food and wine, and leaves superfluous
dainties to gluttons, judging that such indulgences, however suitable
to others, are not so to him, and deeply convinced of their pernicious
tendency, and their effect in darkening the intellectual powers of the
soul.
8. For all these reasons, our divinely taught and noble-minded
emperor, aspiring to higher objects than this life affords, calls upon
his heavenly Father as one who longs for his kingdom; exhibits a pious
spirit in each action of his life; and finally, as a wise and good
instructor, imparts to his subjects the knowledge of him who is the
Sovereign Lord of all.
Footnotes
[3513] There seems to be a clear hint of Philonism here, or Philonism
as developed by the Neo-Platonists and the Christian Theologians. The
history of the thought seems to begin in the Platonic ideas. These
self-existing forms which impress themselves on the soul naturally
become personalities to which the soul submits, and whose images are
impressed on the soul. These personalized ideas are in the thought of
Philo the thoughts or ideas of God, "powers" who do his will, like the
Valkyr of the Northern mythology,--the personified thoughts or will of
Odin. These objective ideas in organized whole were the Word. The
objectivity of ideas, placed in relation with "mind reading," "thought
transference," and the like, and with the modern conceptions of the
conservation of energy and transmission of force by vibrations, give
an interesting suggestion of a material basis for the conception. If
thought is accompanied by vibration of brain molecules, it is of
course quite conceivable that that vibration be projected through any
medium which can transmit vibration, whether the nerves of another
person or the air. A person of supreme energy of will would make these
vibrations more intense, and an Infinite personality would make
tangible even perhaps to the point of that resistance which we call
matter. The conception of one great central Personality issuing an
organized related system of thoughts in various stages of embodiment,
in one massive, constant forth-streaming of will, is most interesting.
According to it, all will forms of the individual are true as they are
in harmony with these norms. Where, however, the lesser wills project
incongruous will forms, they are in conflict with the greater.
According to it, the human soul is beaten upon by all ideas which have
ever been projected, either in individual or in some combined total of
force, and is formed according to what it submits itself to, whether
to the lesser and mal-organized or to the Great Norm.
[3514] Compare Prolegomena, Character. This peculiar self-control, it
is to be remembered, was characteristic also of his father, and in a
measure the product of the Neo-Platonic philosophy.
[3515] Literally, the "archetypal idea,"--the same phrase as that used
by Philo, 1. 4 (ed. Lips., 1828, I. p. 7); i.e. that incorporeal model
or image of God on which the corporeal world was formed.
[3516] This may be true; but compare Prolegomena, Character, for his
practice, at least.
Chapter VI.
1. And God himself, as an earnest of future reward, assigns to him now
as it were tricennial crowns [3517] composed of prosperous periods of
time; and now, after the revolution of three circles of ten years, he
grants permission to all mankind to celebrate this general, nay
rather, this universal festival.
2. And while those on earth thus rejoice, crowned as it were with the
flowers of divine knowledge, surely, we may not unduly suppose that
the heavenly choirs, attracted by a natural sympathy, unite their joy
with the joy of those on earth: nay, that the Supreme Sovereign
himself, as a gracious father, delights in the worship of duteous
children, and for this reason is pleased to honor the author and cause
of their obedience through a lengthened period of time; and, far from
limiting his reign to three decennial circles of years, he extends it
to the remotest period, even to far distant eternity.
3. Now eternity [3518] in its whole extent is beyond the power of
decline or death: its beginning and extent alike incapable of being
scanned by mortal thoughts. Nor will it suffer its central point to be
perceived, nor that which is termed its present duration to be grasped
by the inquiring mind. Far less, then, the future, or the past: for
the one is not, but is already gone; while the future has not yet
arrived, and therefore is not. As regards what is termed the present
time, it vanishes even as we think or speak, more swiftly than the
word itself is uttered. Nor is it possible in any sense to apprehend
this time as present; for we must either expect the future, or
contemplate the past; the present slips from us, and is gone, even in
the act of thought. Eternity, then, in its whole extent, resists and
refuses subjection to mortal reason.
4. But it does not refuse to acknowledge its own Sovereign and Lord,
[3519] and bears him as it were mounted on itself, rejoicing in the
fair trappings which he bestows. [3520] And he himself, not binding
it, as the poet imagined, with a golden chain, [3521] but as it were
controlling its movements by the reins of ineffable wisdom, has
adjusted its months and seasons, its times and years, and the
alterations of day and night, with perfect harmony, and has thus
attached to it limits and measures of various kinds. For eternity,
being in its nature direct, and stretching onward into infinity, and
receiving its name, eternity, as having an everlasting existence,
[3522] and being similar in all its parts, or rather having no
division or distance, progresses only in a line of direct extension.
But God, who has distributed it by intermediate sections, and has
divided it, like a far extended line, in many points, has included in
it a vast number of portions; and though it is in its nature one, and
resembles unity itself, he has attached to it a multiplicity of
numbers, and has given it, though formless in itself, an endless
variety of forms.
5. For first of all he framed in it formless matter, as a substance
capable of receiving all forms. He next, by the power of the number
two, imparted quality to matter, and gave beauty to that which before
was void of all grace. Again, by means of the number three, he framed
a body compounded of matter and form, and presenting the three
dimensions of breadth, and length, and depth. Then, from the doubling
of the number two, he devised the quaternion of the elements, earth,
water, air, and fire, and ordained them to be everlasting sources for
the supply of this universe. Again, the number four produces the
number ten. For the aggregate of one, and two, and three, and four, is
ten. [3523] And three multiplied with ten discovers the period of a
month: and twelve successive months complete the course of the sun.
Hence the revolutions of years, and changes of the seasons, which give
grace, like variety of color in painting, to that eternity which
before was formless and devoid of beauty, for the refreshment and
delight of those whose lot it is to traverse therein the course of
life.
6. For as the ground is defined by stated distances for those who run
in hope of obtaining the prize; and as the road of those who travel on
a distant journey is marked by resting-places and measured intervals,
that the traveler's courage may not fail at the interminable prospect;
even so the Sovereign of the universe, controlling eternity itself
within the restraining power of his own wisdom, directs and turns its
course as he judges best. The same God, I say, who thus clothes the
once undefined eternity as with fair colors and blooming flowers,
gladdens the day with the solar rays; and, while he overspreads the
night with a covering of darkness, yet causes the glittering stars, as
golden spangles, to shine therein. It is he who lights up the
brilliancy of the morning star, the changing splendor of the moon, and
the glorious companies of the starry host, and has arrayed the expanse
of heaven, like some vast mantle, in colors of varied beauty. Again,
having created the lofty and profound expanse of air, and caused the
world in its length and breadth to feel its cooling influence, he
decreed that the air itself should be graced with birds of every kind,
and left open this vast ocean of space to be traversed by every
creature, visible or invisible, whose course is through the tracts of
heaven. In the midst of this atmosphere he poised the earth, as it
were its center, and encompassed it with the ocean as with a beautiful
azure vesture.
7. Having ordained this earth to be at once the home, the nurse, and
the mother of all the creatures it contains, and watered it both with
rain and water-springs, he caused it to abound in plants and flowers
of every species, for the enjoyment of life. And when he had formed
man in his own likeness, the noblest of earthly creatures, and dearest
to himself, a creature gifted with intellect and knowledge, the child
of reason and wisdom, he gave him dominion over all other animals
which move and live upon the earth. For man was in truth of all
earthly creatures the dearest to God: man, I say, to whom, as an
indulgent Father, he has subjected the brute creation; for whom he has
made the ocean navigable, and crowned the earth with a profusion of
plants of every kind; to whom he has granted reasoning faculties for
acquiring all science; under whose control he has placed even the
creatures of the deep, and the winged inhabitants of the air; to whom
he has permitted the contemplation of celestial objects, and revealed
the course and changes of the sun and moon, and the periods of the
planets and fixed stars. In short, to man alone of earthly beings has
he given commandment to acknowledge him as his heavenly Father, and to
celebrate his praises as the Supreme Sovereign of eternity itself.
8. But the unchangeable course of eternity the Creator has limited by
the four seasons of the year, terminating the winter by the approach
of spring, and regulating as with an equal balance that season which
commences the annual period. Having thus graced the eternal course of
time with the varied productions of spring, he added the summer's
heat; and then granted as it were a relief of toil by the interval of
autumn: and lastly, refreshing and cleansing the season by the showers
of winter, he brings it, rendered sleek and glossy, like a noble
steed, by these abundant rains, once more to the gates of spring.
9. As soon, then, as the Supreme Sovereign had thus connected his own
eternity by these cords of wisdom with the annual circle, he committed
it to the guidance of a mighty Governor, even his only begotten Word,
to whom, as the Preserver of all creation, he yielded the reins of
universal power. And he, receiving this inheritance as from a
beneficent Father, and uniting all things both above and beneath the
circumference of heaven in one harmonious whole, directs their uniform
course; providing with perfect justice whatever is expedient for his
rational creatures on the earth, appointing its allotted limits to
human life, and granting to all alike permission to anticipate even
here the commencement of a future existence. For he has taught them
that beyond this present world there is a divine and blessed state of
being, reserved for those who have been supported here by the hope of
heavenly blessings; and that those who have lived a virtuous and godly
life will remove hence to a far better habitation; while he adjudges
to those who have been guilty and wicked here a place of punishment
according to their crimes.
10. Again, as in the distribution of prizes at the public games, he
proclaims various crowns to the victors, and invests each with the
rewards of different virtues: but for our good emperor, who is clothed
in the very robe of piety, he declares that a higher recompense of his
toils is prepared; and, as a prelude to this recompense, permits us
now to assemble at this festival, which is composed of perfect
numbers, of decades thrice, and triads ten times repeated.
11. The first of these, the triad, is the offspring of the unit, while
the unit is the mother of number itself, and presides over all months,
and seasons, and years, and every period of time. It may, indeed, be
justly termed the origin, foundation, and principle of all number, and
derives its name from its abiding character. [3524] For, while every
other number is diminished or increased according to the subtraction
or addition of others, the unit alone continues fixed and steadfast,
abstracted from all multitude and the numbers which are formed from
it, and resembling that indivisible essence which is distinct from all
things beside, but by virtue of participation in which the nature of
all things else subsists.
12. For the unit is the originator of every number, since all
multitude is made up by the composition and addition of units; nor is
it possible without the unit to conceive the existence of number at
all. But the unit itself is independent of multitude, apart from and
superior to all number; forming, indeed, and making all, but receiving
no increase from any.
13. Kindred to this is the triad; equally indivisible and perfect, the
first of those sums which are formed of even and uneven numbers. For
the perfect number two, receiving the addition of the unit, forms the
triad, the first perfect compound number. And the triad, by explaining
what equality is, first taught men justice, having itself an equal
beginning, and middle, and end. And it is also an image of the
mysterious, most holy, and royal Trinity, which, though itself without
beginning or origin, yet contains the germs, the reasons, and causes
of the existence of all created things.
14. Thus the power of the triad may justly be regarded as the first
cause of all things. Again, the number ten, which contains the end of
all numbers, and terminates them in itself, may truly be called a full
and perfect number, as comprehending every species and every measure
of numbers, proportions, concords, and harmonies. For example, the
units by addition form and are terminated by the number ten; and,
having this number as their parent, and as it were the limit of their
course, they round this as the goal of their career.
15. Then they perform a second circuit, and again a third, and a
fourth, until the tenth, and thus by ten decades they complete the
hundredth number. Returning thence to the first starting point, they
again proceed to the number ten, and having ten times completed the
hundredth number, again they recede, and perform round the same
barriers their protracted course, proceeding from themselves back to
themselves again, with revolving motion.
16. For the unit is the tenth of ten, and ten units make up a decade,
which is itself the limit, the settled goal and boundary of units: it
is that which terminates the infinity of number; the term and end of
units. Again, the triad combined with the decade, and performing a
threefold circuit of tens, produces that most natural number, thirty.
For as the triad is in respect to units, so is the number thirty in
respect to tens.
17. It is also the constant limit to the course of that luminary which
is second to the sun in brightness. For the course of the moon from
one conjunction with the sun to the next, completes the period of a
month; after which, receiving as it were a second birth, it
recommences a new light, and other days, being adorned and honored
with thirty units, three decades, and ten triads.
18. In the same manner is the universal reign of our victorious
emperor distinguished by the giver of all good, and now enters on a
new sphere of blessing, accomplishing, at present, this tricennalian
festival, but reaching forward beyond this to far more distant
intervals of time, and cherishing the hope of future blessings in the
celestial kingdom; where, not a single sun, but infinite hosts of
light surround the Almighty Sovereign, each surpassing the splendor of
the sun, glorious and resplendent with rays derived from the
everlasting source of light.
19. There the soul enjoys its existence, surrounded by fair and
unfading blessings; there is a life beyond the reach of sorrow; there
the enjoyment of pure and holy pleasures, and a time of unmeasured and
endless duration, extending into illimitable space; not defined by
intervals of days and months, the revolutions of years, or the
recurrence of times and seasons, but commensurate with a life which
knows no end. And this life needs not the light of the sun, nor the
lustre of the moon or the starry host, since it has the great Luminary
himself, even God the Word, the only begotten Son of the Almighty
Sovereign.
20. Hence it is that the mystic and sacred oracles reveal him to be
the Sun of righteousness, and the Light which far transcends all
light. We believe that he illumines also the thrice-blessed powers of
heaven with the rays of righteousness, and the brightness of wisdom,
and that he receives truly pious souls, not within the sphere of
heaven alone, but into his own bosom, and confirms indeed the
assurances which he himself has given.
21. No mortal eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor can the mind in its
vesture of flesh understand what things are prepared for those who
have been here adorned with the graces of godliness; blessings which
await thee too, most pious emperor, to whom alone since the world
began has the Almighty Sovereign of the universe granted power to
purify the course of human life: to whom also he has revealed his own
symbol of salvation, whereby he overcame the power of death, and
triumphed over every enemy. And this victorious trophy, the scourge of
evil spirits, thou hast arrayed against the errors of idol worship,
and hast obtained the victory not only over all thy impious and savage
foes, but over equally barbarous adversaries, the evil spirits
themselves.
Footnotes
[3517] [Alluding (says Valesius) to the crowns of gold which the
people of the several provinces were accustomed to present to the
Roman emperors on such occasions as the present.--Bag.] In his
prologue to the Life, Eusebius calls this very oration a weaving of
tricennial crowns (or garlands). These crowns had their historical
origin in the triumphal crowns under the Roman system. Cf. Rich, in
Smith, Dict. Gr. and Rom. Ant. p. 361.
[3518] [It is perhaps difficult to find a better word to express the
original ai& 240;n.--Bag.]
[3519] Compare 1 Tim. i. 17 (marg.), "King of the ages" ("ęons," or
according to this translation "eternity").
[3520] [Days, months, years, seasons, &c., are here intended.
Valesius, ad loc.--Bag.]
[3521] Hom. Il. 8, 19.
[3522] [Ai& 241;n, hosper aei on.--Bag.]
[3523] From what source Eusebius draws this particular application of
the Pythagorean principle is uncertain. This conception of the
derivation of ten from four is found in Philo, de Mund. Opif. ch. 15,
and indeed it is said (Ueberweg) that with the earliest Pythagoreans
four and ten were the especially significant numbers in creation. This
mixture of Neo-Pythagoreanism with Platonism and Philonism was
characteristic of the time.
[3524] [Monas, para to menein onomasmene. The analogies from number in
this Chapter (which the reader will probably consider puerile enough)
seem to be an imitation of some of the mystical speculations of
Plato.--Bag.]
Chapter VII.
1. For whereas we are composed of two distinct natures, I mean of body
and spirit, of which the one is visible to all, the other invisible,
against both these natures two kinds of barbarous and savage enemies,
the one invisibly, the other openly, are constantly arrayed. The one
oppose our bodies with bodily force: the other with incorporeal
assaults besiege the naked soul itself.
2. Again, the visible barbarians, like the wild nomad tribes, no
better than savage beasts, assail the nations of civilized men, ravage
their country, and enslave their cities, rushing on those who inhabit
them like ruthless wolves of the desert, and destroying all who fall
under their power. But those unseen foes, more cruel far than
barbarians, I mean the soul-destroying demons whose course is through
the regions of the air, had succeeded, through the snares of vile
polytheism, in enslaving the entire human race, insomuch that they no
longer recognized the true God, but wandered in the mazes of atheistic
error. For they procured, I know not whence, gods who never anywhere
existed, and set him aside who is the only and the true God, as though
he were not.
3. Accordingly the generation of bodies was esteemed by them a deity,
and so the opposite principle to this, their dissolution and
destruction, was also deified. The first, as the author of generative
power, was honored with rites under the name of Venus: [3525] the
second, as rich, and mighty in dominion over the human race, received
the names of Pluto, and Death. For men in those ages, knowing no other
than naturally generated life, declared the cause and origin of that
life to be divine: and again, believing in no existence after death,
they proclaimed Death himself a universal conqueror and a mighty god.
Hence, unconscious of responsibility, as destined to be annihilated by
death, they lived a life unworthy of the name, in the practice of
actions deserving a thousand deaths. No thought of God could enter
their minds, no expectation of Divine judgment, no recollection of, no
reflection on, their spiritual existence: acknowledging one dread
superior, Death, and persuaded that the dissolution of their bodies by
his power was final annihilation, they bestowed on Death the title of
a mighty, a wealthy god, and hence the name of Pluto. [3526] Thus,
then, Death became to them a god; nor only so, but whatever else they
accounted precious in comparison with death, whatever contributed to
the luxuries of life.
4. Hence animal pleasure became to them a god; nutrition, and its
production, a god; the fruit of trees, a god; drunken riot, a god;
carnal desire and pleasure, a god. Hence the mysteries of Ceres and
Proserpine, the rape of the latter, and her subsequent restoration, by
Pluto: hence the orgies of Bacchus, and Hercules overcome by
drunkenness as by a mightier god: hence the adulterous rites of Cupid
and of Venus: hence Jupiter himself infatuated with the love of women,
and of Ganymede: [3527] hence the licentious legends of deities
abandoned to effeminacy and pleasure.
5. Such were the weapons of superstition whereby these cruel
barbarians and enemies of the Supreme God afflicted, and indeed
entirely subdued, the human race; erecting everywhere the monuments of
impiety, and rearing in every corner the shrines and temples of their
false religion.
6. Nay, so far were the ruling powers of those times enslaved by the
force of error, as to appease their gods with the blood of their own
countrymen and kindred; to whet their swords against those who stood
forward to defend the truth; to maintain a ruthless war and raise
unholy hands, not against foreign or barbarian foes, but against men
bound to them by the ties of family and affection, against brethren,
and kinsmen, and dearest friends, who had resolved, in the practice of
virtue and true piety, to honor and worship God.
7. Such was the spirit of madness with which these princes sacrificed
to their demon deities men consecrated to the service of the King of
kings. On the other hand their victims, as noble martyrs in the cause
of true godliness, resolved to welcome a glorious death in preference
to life itself, and utterly despised these cruelties. Strengthened, as
soldiers of God, with patient fortitude, they mocked at death in all
its forms; at fire, and sword, and the torment of crucifixion; at
exposure to savage beasts, and drowning in the depths of the sea; at
the cutting off and searing of limbs, the digging out of eyes, the
mutilation of the whole body; lastly, at famine, the labor of the
mines, and captivity: nay, all these sufferings they counted better
than any earthly good or pleasure, for the love they bore their
heavenly King. In like manner women also evinced a spirit of constancy
and courage not inferior to that of men.
8. Some endured the same conflicts with them, and obtained a like
reward of their virtue: others, forcibly carried off to be the victims
of violence and pollution, welcomed death rather than dishonor; while
many, very many more, endured not even to hear the same threats
wherewith they were assailed by the provincial governors, but boldly
sustained every variety of torture, and sentence of death in every
form. [3528] Thus did these valiant soldiers of the Almighty Sovereign
maintain the conflict with steadfast fortitude of soul against the
hostile forces of polytheism: and thus did these enemies of God and
adversaries of man's salvation, more cruel far than the ferocious
savage, delight in libations of human blood: thus did their ministers
drain as it were the cup of unrighteous slaughter in honor of the
demons whom they served, and prepare for them this dread and impious
banquet, to the ruin of the human race.
9. In these sad circumstances, what course should the God and King of
these afflicted ones pursue? Could he be careless of the safety of his
dearest friends or abandon his servants in this great extremity?
Surely none could deem him a wary pilot, who, without an effort to
save his fellow-mariners should suffer his vessel to sink with all her
crew: surely no general could be found so reckless as to yield his own
allies, without resistance, to the mercy of the foe: nor can a
faithful shepherd regard with unconcern the straying of a single sheep
from his flock, but will rather leave the rest in safety, and dare all
things for the wanderer's sake, even, if need be, to contend with
savage beasts.
10. The zeal, however, of the great Sovereign of all was for no
unconscious [3529] sheep: his care was exercised for his own faithful
host, for those who sustained the battle for his sake: whose conflicts
in the cause of godliness he himself approved, and honored those who
had returned to his presence with the prize of victory which he only
can bestow, uniting them to the angelic choirs. Others he still
preserved on earth, to communicate the living seeds of piety to future
generations; to be at once eye-witnesses of his vengeance on the
ungodly, and narrators of the events.
11. After this he outstretched his arm in judgment on the adversaries,
and utterly destroyed them with the stroke of Divine wrath, compelling
them, how reluctant soever to confess with their own lips and recant
their wickedness, but raising from the ground and exalting gloriously
those who had long been oppressed and disclaimed by all.
12. Such were the dealings of the Supreme Sovereign, who ordained an
invincible champion to be the minister of his heaven-sent vengeance
(for our emperor's surpassing piety delights in the title of Servant
of God), and him he has proved victorious over all that opposed him,
having raised him up, an individual against many foes. For they were
indeed numberless, being the friends of many evil spirits (though in
reality they were nothing, and hence are now no more); but our emperor
is one, appointed by, and the representative of, the one Almighty
Sovereign. And they, in the very spirit of impiety, destroyed the
righteous with cruel slaughter: but he, in imitation of his Saviour,
and knowing only how to save men's lives, has spared and instructed in
godliness the impious themselves.
13. And so, as truly worthy the name of Victor, he has subdued the
twofold race of barbarians; soothing the savage tribes of men by
prudent embassies, compelling them to know and acknowledge their
superiors, and reclaiming them from a lawless and brutal life to the
governance of reason and humanity; at the same time that he proved by
the facts themselves that the fierce and ruthless race of unseen
spirits had long ago been vanquished by a higher power. For he who is
the preserver of the universe had punished these invisible spirits by
an invisible judgment: and our emperor, as the delegate of the Supreme
Sovereign, has followed up the victory, bearing away the spoils of
those who have long since died and mouldered into dust, and
distributing the plunder with lavish hand among the soldiers of his
victorious Lord. [3530]
Footnotes
[3525] Or Aphrodite.
[3526] [Megan theon kai plousion, para kai Ploutona, ton thEURnaton
anegoreuon.--Bag.]
[3527] On these various names, compare Smith, Dict. of Gr. and Rom.
Biog.
[3528] For account of the various details of persecution mentioned,
compare the Church History.
[3529] "alogou."
[3530] [That is, stripping the images of those whose temples he
destroyed, and apportioning the spoils among his Christian followers:
See the next Chapter, which is mostly a transcript of the 54th and
55th Chapters of the Third Book of the Life of Constantine.--Bag.]
Chapter VIII.
1. For as soon as he understood that the ignorant multitudes were
inspired with a vain and childish dread of these bugbears of error,
wrought in gold and silver, he judged it right to remove these also,
like stumbling-stones thrown in the path of men walking in the dark,
and henceforward to open a royal road, plain and unobstructed, to all.
2. Having formed this resolution, he considered that no soldiers or
military force of any sort was needed for the repression of the evil:
a few of his own friends sufficed for this service, and these he sent
by a simple expression of his will to visit each several province.
3. Accordingly, sustained by confidence in the emperor's piety and
their own personal devotion to God, they passed through the midst of
numberless tribes and nations, abolishing this ancient system of error
in every city and country. They ordered the priests themselves, in the
midst of general laughter and scorn, to bring their gods from their
dark recesses to the light of day. They then stripped them of their
ornaments, and exhibited to the gaze of all the unsightly reality
which had been hidden beneath a painted exterior: and lastly, whatever
part of the material appeared to be of value they scraped off and
melted in the fire to prove its worth, after which they secured and
set apart whatever they judged needful for their purposes, leaving to
the superstitious worshipers what was altogether useless, as a
memorial of their shame.
4. Meanwhile our admirable prince was himself engaged in a work
similar to that we have described. For at the same time that these
costly images of the dead were stripped, as we have said, of their
precious materials, he also attacked those composed of brass; causing
those to be dragged from their places with ropes, and, as it were,
carried away captive, whom the dotage of mythology had esteemed as
gods. The next care of our august emperor was to kindle, as it were, a
brilliant torch, by the light of which he directed his imperial gaze
around, to see if any hidden vestiges of error might yet exist.
5. And as the keen-sighted eagle in its heavenward flight is able to
descry from its lofty height the most distant objects on the earth: so
did he, whilst residing in the imperial palace of his own fair city,
discover, as from a watch-tower, a hidden and fatal snare of souls in
the province of Phoenicia. This was a grove and temple, not situated
in the midst of any city, or in any public place, as for splendor of
effect is generally the case, but apart from the beaten and frequented
road, on part of the summit of Mount Lebanon, and dedicated to the
foul demon known by the name of Venus.
6. It was a school of wickedness for all the abandoned votaries of
impurity and such as destroyed their bodies with effeminacy. Here men
undeserving the name forgot the dignity of their sex, and propitiated
the demon by their effeminate conduct: here too unlawful commerce of
women, and adulterous intercourse, with other horrible and infamous
practices, were perpetrated in this temple as in a place beyond the
scope and restraint of law.
Meantime these evils remained unchecked by the presence of any
observer, since no one of fair character ventured to visit such
scenes.
7. These proceedings, however, could not escape the vigilance of our
august emperor, who, having himself inspected them with characteristic
forethought, and judging that such a temple was unfit for the light of
heaven, gave orders that the building with its offerings should be
utterly destroyed. Accordingly, in obedience to the imperial edict,
these engines of an impure superstition were immediately abolished,
and the hand of military force was made instrumental in purging the
place. And now those who had heretofore lived without restraint,
learned, through the imperial threat of punishment, to practice
self-control.
8. Thus did our emperor tear the mask from this system of delusive
wickedness, and expose it to the public gaze, at the same time
proclaiming openly his Saviour's name to all. No advocate appeared;
neither god nor demon, prophet nor diviner, could lend his aid to the
detected authors of the imposture. For the souls of men were no longer
enveloped in thick darkness: but enlightened by the rays of true
godliness, they deplored the ignorance and pitied the blindness of
their forefathers, rejoicing at the same time in their own deliverance
from such fatal error. [3531]
9. Thus speedily, according to the counsel of the mighty God, and
through our emperor's agency, was every enemy, whether visible or
unseen, utterly removed: and henceforward peace, the happy nurse of
youth, extended her reign throughout the world. Wars were no more, for
the gods were not: no more did warfare in country or town, no more did
the effusion of human blood, distress mankind, as heretofore, when
demon-worship and the madness of idolatry prevailed.
Footnotes
[3531] "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank
thee that I am not as the rest of men."
Chapter IX.
1. And now we may well compare the present with former things, and
review these happy changes in contrast with the evils that are past,
and mark the elaborate care with which in ancient times porches and
sacred precincts, groves and temples, were prepared in every city for
these false deities, and how their shrines were enriched with abundant
offerings.
2. The sovereign rulers of those days had indeed a high regard for the
worship of the gods. The nations also and people subject to their
power honored them with images both in the country and in every city,
nay, even in their houses and secret chambers, according to the
religious practice of their fathers. The fruit, however, of this
devotion, far different from the peaceful concord which now meets our
view, appeared in war, in battles, and seditions, which harassed them
throughout their lives, and deluged their countries with blood and
civil slaughter.
3. Again, the objects of their worship could hold out to these
sovereigns with artful flattery the promise of prophecies, and
oracles, and the knowledge of futurity: yet could they not predict
their own destruction, nor forewarn themselves of the coming ruin: and
surely this was the greatest and most convincing proof of their
imposture.
4. Not one of those whose words once were heard with awe and wonder,
had announced the glorious advent of the Saviour of mankind, [3532] or
that new revelation of divine knowledge which he came to give. Not
Pythius himself, nor any of those mighty gods, could apprehend the
prospect of their approaching desolation; nor could their oracles
point at him who was to be their conqueror and destroyer.
5. What prophet or diviner could foretell that their rites would
vanish at the presence of a new Deity in the world, and that the
knowledge and worship of the Almighty Sovereign should be freely given
to all mankind? Which of them foreknew the august and pious reign of
our victorious emperor, or his triumphant conquests everywhere over
the false demons, or the overthrow of their high places?
6. Which of the heroes has announced the melting down and conversion
of the lifeless statues from their useless forms to the necessary uses
of men? Which of the gods have yet had power to speak of their own
images thus melted and contemptuously reduced to fragments?
7. Where were the protecting powers, that they should not interpose to
save their sacred memorials, thus destroyed by man? Where, I ask, are
those who once maintained the strife of war, yet now behold their
conquerors abiding securely in the profoundest peace? And where are
they who upheld themselves in a blind and foolish confidence, and
trusted in these vanities as gods; but who, in the very height of
their superstitious error, and while maintaining an implacable war
with the champions of the truth, perished by a fate proportioned to
their crimes?
8. Where is the giant race whose arms were turned against heaven
itself; the hissings of those serpents whose tongues were pointed with
impious words against the Almighty King? These adversaries of the Lord
of all, confident in the aid of a multitude of gods, advanced to the
attack with a powerful array of military force, preceded by certain
images of the dead, and lifeless statues, as their defense. On the
other side our emperor, secure in the armor of godliness, opposed to
the numbers of the enemy the salutary and life-giving Sign, as at the
same time a terror to the foe, and a protection against every harm;
and returned victorious at once over the enemy and the demons whom
they served. [3533] And then, with thanksgiving and praise, the tokens
of a grateful spirit, to the Author of his victory, he proclaimed this
triumphant Sign, by monuments as well as words, to all mankind,
erecting it as a mighty trophy against every enemy in the midst of the
imperial city, and expressly enjoining on all to acknowledge this
imperishable symbol of salvation as the safeguard of the power of Rome
and of the empire of the world.
9. Such were the instructions which he gave to his subjects generally;
but especially to his soldiers, whom he admonished to repose their
confidence, not in their weapons, or armor, or bodily strength, but to
acknowledge the Supreme God as the giver of every good, and of victory
itself.
10. Thus did the emperor himself, strange and incredible as the fact
may seem, become the instructor of his army in their religious
exercises, and teach them to offer pious prayers in accordance with
the divine ordinances, uplifting their hands towards heaven, and
raising their mental vision higher still to the King of heaven, on
whom they should call as the Author of victory, their preserver,
guardian, and helper. He commanded too, that one day should be
regarded as a special occasion for religious worship; I mean that
which is truly the first and chief of all, the day of our Lord and
Saviour; that day the name of which is connected with light, and life,
and immortality, and every good.
11. Prescribing the same pious conduct to himself, he honored his
Saviour in the chambers of his palace, performing his devotions
according to the Divine commands, and storing his mind with
instruction through the hearing of the sacred word. The entire care of
his household was intrusted to ministers devoted to the service of
God, and distinguished by gravity of life and every other virtue;
while his trusty body-guards, strong in affection and fidelity to his
person, found in their emperor an instructor in the practice of a
godly life.
12. Again, the honor with which he regards the victorious Sign is
founded on his actual experience of its divine efficacy. Before this
the hosts of his enemies have disappeared: by this the powers of the
unseen spirits have been turned to flight: through this the proud
boastings of God's adversaries have come to nought, and the tongues of
the profane and blasphemous been put to silence. By this Sign the
Barbarian tribes were vanquished: through this the rites of
superstitious fraud received a just rebuke: by this our emperor,
discharging as it were a sacred debt, has performed the crowning good
of all, by erecting triumphant memorials of its value in all parts of
the world, raising temples and churches on a scale of royal
costliness, and commanding all to unite in constructing the sacred
houses of prayer.
13. Accordingly these signal proofs of our emperor's magnificence
forthwith appeared in the provinces and cities of the empire, and soon
shone conspicuously in every country; convincing memorials of the
rebuke and overthrow of those impious tyrants who but a little while
before had madly dared to fight against God, and, raging like savage
dogs, had vented on unconscious buildings that fury which they were
unable to level against him; had thrown to the ground and upturned the
very foundations of the houses of prayer, causing them to present the
appearance of a city captured and abandoned to the enemy. Such was the
exhibition of that wicked spirit whereby they sought as it were to
assail God himself, but soon experienced the result of their own
madness and folly. But a little time elapsed, when a single blast of
the storm of Heaven's displeasure swept them utterly away, leaving
neither kindred, nor offspring, nor memorial of their existence among
men: for all, numerous as they were, disappeared as in a moment
beneath the stroke of Divine vengeance.
14. Such, then, was the fate which awaited these furious adversaries
of God: but he who, armed with the salutary Trophy, had alone opposed
them (nay rather, not alone, but aided by the presence and the power
of him who is the only Sovereign), has replaced the ruined edifices on
a greater scale, and made the second far superior to the first. For
example, besides erecting various churches to the honor of God in the
city which bears his name, and adorning the Bithynian capital with
another on the greatest and most splendid scale, he has distinguished
the principal cities of the other provinces by structures of a similar
kind.
15. Above all, he has selected two places in the eastern division of
the empire, the one in Palestine (since from thence the life-giving
stream has flowed as from a fountain for the blessing of all nations),
the other in that metropolis of the East which derives its name from
that of Antiochus; in which, as the head of that portion of the
empire, he has consecrated to the service of God a church of
unparalleled size and beauty. The entire building is encompassed by an
enclosure of great extent, within which the church itself rises to a
vast elevation, of an octagonal form, surrounded by many chambers and
courts on every side, and decorated with ornaments of the richest
kind. [3534]
16. Such was his work here. Again, in the province of Palestine, in
that city which was once the seat of Hebrew sovereignty, on the very
site of the Lord's sepulchre, he has raised a church of noble
dimensions, and adorned a temple sacred to the salutary Cross with
rich and lavish magnificence, honoring that everlasting monument, and
the trophies of the Saviour's victory over the power of death, with a
splendor which no language can describe.
17. In the same country he discovered three places venerable as the
localities of three sacred caves: and these also he adorned with
costly structures, paying a fitting tribute of reverence to the scene
of the first manifestation of the Saviour's presence; while at the
second cavern he hallowed the remembrance of his final ascension from
the mountain top; and celebrated his mighty conflict, and the victory
which crowned it, at the third. [3535] All these places our emperor
thus adorned in the hope of proclaiming the symbol of redemption to
all mankind;
18. that Cross which has indeed repaid his pious zeal; through which
his house and throne alike have prospered, his reign has been
confirmed for a lengthened series of years, and the rewards of virtue
bestowed on his noble sons, his kindred, and their descendants.
19. And surely it is a mighty evidence of the power of that God whom
he serves, that he has held the balances of justice with an equal
hand, and has apportioned to each party their due reward. With regard
to the destroyers of the houses of prayer, the penalty of their
impious conduct followed hard upon them: forthwith were they swept
away, and left neither race, nor house, nor family behind. On the
other hand, he whose pious devotion to his Lord is conspicuous in his
every act, who raises royal temples to his honor, and proclaims his
name to his subjects by sacred offerings throughout the world, he, I
say, has deservedly experienced him to be the preserver and defender
of his imperial house and race. Thus clearly have the dealings of God
been manifested, and this through the sacred efficacy of the salutary
Sign.
Footnotes
[3532] He seems to disagree with the view of the heathen prophecy
which his imperial hearer maintained in his Oration to the Saints.
[3533] For details respecting the following enumeration, compare the
Life of Constantine, of which this is a résumé. This sentence and the
preceding are taken almost word for word from ch. 16 of Bk. II.
[3534] Almost word for word from the Life, Bk. III. ch. 50.
[3535] [In the Life of Constantine (vide [Bk. III. ch. 41] supra),
Eusebius mentions two caves only, and speaks of the churches built by
Helena at Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives. He here alludes to the
magnificent church erected by Constantine at the Lord's sepulchre, and
ascribes to him those of Helena also, as having been raised at the
emperor's expense. Valesius, ad loc.--Bag.]
Chapter X.
1. Much might indeed be said of this salutary Sign, by those who are
skilled in the mysteries of our Divine religion. For it is in very
truth the symbol of salvation, wondrous to speak of, more wondrous
still to conceive; the appearance of which on earth has thrown the
fictions of all false religion from the beginning into the deepest
shade, has buried superstitious error in darkness and oblivion, and
has revealed to all that spiritual light which enlightens the souls of
men, even the knowledge of the only true God.
2. Hence the universal change for the better, which leads men to spurn
their lifeless idols, to trample under foot the lawless rites of their
demon deities, and laugh to scorn the time-honored follies of their
fathers. Hence, too, the establishment in every place of those schools
of sacred learning, wherein men are taught the precepts of saving
truth, and dread no more those objects of creation which are seen by
the natural eye, nor direct a gaze of wonder at the sun, the moon, or
stars; but acknowledge him who is above all these, that invisible
Being who is the Creator of them all, and learn to worship him alone.
3. Such are the blessings resulting to mankind from this great and
wondrous Sign, by virtue of which the evils which once existed are now
no more, and virtues heretofore unknown shine everywhere resplendent
with the light of true godliness.
4. Discourses, and precepts, and exhortations to a virtuous and holy
life, are proclaimed in the ears of all nations. Nay, the emperor
himself proclaims them: and it is indeed a marvel that this mighty
prince, raising his voice in the hearing of all the world, like an
interpreter of the Almighty Sovereign's will, invites his subjects in
every country to the knowledge of the true God.
5. No more, as in former times, is the babbling of impious men heard
in the imperial palace; but priests and pious worshipers of God
together celebrate his majesty with royal hymns of praise. The name of
the one Supreme Ruler of the universe is proclaimed to all: the gospel
of glad tidings connects the human race with its Almighty King,
declaring the grace and love of the heavenly Father to his children on
the earth.
6. His praise is everywhere sung in triumphant strains: the voice of
mortal man is blended with the harmony of the angelic choirs in
heaven; and the reasoning soul employs the body which invests it as an
instrument for sounding forth a fitting tribute of praise and
adoration to his name. The nations of the East and the West are
instructed at the same moment in his precepts: the people of the
Northern and Southern regions unite with one accord, under the
influence of the same principles and laws, in the pursuit of a godly
life, in praising the one Supreme God, in acknowledging his only
begotten Son their Saviour as the source of every blessing, and our
emperor as the one ruler on the earth, together with his pious sons.
7. He himself, as a skillful pilot, sits on high at the helm of state,
and directs the vessel with unerring course, conducting his people as
it were with favoring breeze to a secure and tranquil haven. Meanwhile
God himself, the great Sovereign, extends the right hand of his power
from above for his protection, giving him victory over every foe, and
establishing his empire by a lengthened period of years: and he will
bestow on him yet higher blessings, and confirm in every deed the
truth of his own promises. But on these we may not at present dwell;
but must await the change to a better world: for it is not given to
mortal eyes or ears of flesh, fully to apprehend the things of God.
[3536]
Footnotes
[3536] At this point, according to some (compare Special Prolegomena),
one oration ends and another begins.
Chapter XI.
1. And now, victorious and mighty Constantine, in this discourse,
whose noble argument is the glory of the Almighty King, let me lay
before thee some of the mysteries of his sacred truth: not as
presuming to instruct thee, who art thyself taught of God; nor to
disclose to thee those secret wonders which he himself, not through
the agency of man, but through our common Saviour, and the frequent
light of his Divine presence has long since revealed and unfolded to
thy view: but in the hope of leading the unlearned to the light, and
displaying before those who know them not the causes and motives of
thy pious deeds.
2. True it is that thy noble efforts for the daily worship and honor
of the Supreme God throughout the habitable world, are the theme of
universal praise. But those records of gratitude to thy Saviour and
Preserver which thou hast dedicated in our own province of Palestine,
and in that city from which as from a fountain-head the Saviour Word
[3537] has issued forth to all mankind; and again, the hallowed
edifices and consecrated temples which thou hast raised as trophies of
his victory over death; and those lofty and noble structures, imperial
monuments of an imperial spirit, which thou hast erected in honor of
the everlasting memory of the Saviour's tomb; the cause, I say, of
these things is not equally obvious to all.
3. Those, indeed, who are enlightened in heavenly knowledge by the
power of the Divine Spirit, well understand the cause, and justly
admire and bless thee for that counsel and resolution which Heaven
itself inspired. On the other hand the ignorant and spiritually blind
regard these designs with open mockery and scorn, and deem it a
strange and unworthy thing indeed that so mighty a prince should waste
his zeal on the graves and monuments of the dead.
4. "Were it not better," such a one might say, "to cherish those rites
which are hallowed by ancient usage; to seek the favor of those gods
and heroes whose worship is observed in every province; instead of
rejecting and disclaiming them, because subject to the calamities
incident to man? Surely they may claim equal honors with him who
himself has suffered: or, if they are to be rejected, as not exempt
from the sorrows of humanity, the same award would justly be
pronounced respecting him." Thus, with important and contracted brow,
might he give utterance in pompous language to his self-imagined
wisdom.
5. Filled with compassion for this ignorance, the gracious Word of our
most beneficent Father freely invites, not such a one alone, but all
who are in the path of error, to receive instruction in Divine
knowledge; and has ordained the means of such instruction throughout
the world, in every country and village, in cultivated and desert
lands alike, and in every city: and, as a gracious Saviour and
Physician of the soul, calls on the Greek and the Barbarian, the wise
and the unlearned, the rich and the poor, the servant and his master,
the subject and his lord, the ungodly, the profane, the ignorant, the
evil-doer, the blasphemer, alike to draw near, and hasten to receive
his heavenly cure. And thus in time past had he clearly announced to
all the pardon of former transgressions, saying, "Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." [3538] And
again, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to
repentance." [3539] And he adds the reason, saying, "For they that are
whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." [3540] And again,
"I desire not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should
repent." [3541]
6. Hence it is only for those who are themselves instructed in Divine
things and understand the motives of that zeal of which these works
are the result, to appreciate the more than human impulse by which our
emperor was guided, to admire his piety toward God, and to believe his
care for the memorial of our Saviour's resurrection to be a desire
imparted from above, and truly inspired by that Sovereign, to be whose
faithful servant and minister for good is his proudest boast.
7. In full persuasion, then, of thy approval, most mighty emperor, I
desire at this present time to proclaim to all the reasons and motives
of thy pious works. I desire to stand as the interpreter of thy
designs, to explain the counsels of a soul devoted to the love of God.
I propose to teach all men, what all should know who care to
understand the principles on which our Saviour God employs his power,
the reasons for which he who was the pre-existent Controller of all
things at length descended to us from heaven: the reasons for which he
assumed our nature, and submitted even to the power of death. I shall
declare the causes of that immortal life which followed, and of his
resurrection from the dead. Once more, I shall adduce convincing
proofs and arguments, for the sake of those who yet need such
testimony:
8. and now let me commence my appointed task.
Those who transfer the worship due to that God who formed and rules
the world to the works of his hand; who hold the sun and moon, or
other parts of this material system, nay, the elements themselves,
earth, water, air, and fire, in equal honor with the Creator of them
all; who give the name of gods to things which never would have had
existence, or even name, except as obedient to that Word of God who
made the world: such persons in my judgment resemble those who
overlook the master hand which gives its magnificence to a royal
palace; and, while lost in wonder at its roofs and walls, the
paintings of varied beauty and coloring which adorn them, and its
gilded ceilings and sculptures, ascribe to them the praise of that
skill which belongs to the artist whose work they are: whereas they
should assign the cause of their wonder, not to these visible objects,
but to the architect himself, and confess that the proofs of skill are
indeed manifest, but that he alone is the possessor of that skill who
has made them what they are.
9. Again, well might we liken those to children, who should admire the
seven-stringed lyre, and disregard him who invented or has power to
use it: or those who forget the valiant warrior, and adorn his spear
and shield with the chaplet of victory: or, lastly, those who hold the
squares and streets, the public buildings, temples, and gymnasia of a
great and royal city in equal honor with its founder; forgetting that
their admiration is due, not to lifeless stones, but to him whose
wisdom planned and executed these mighty works.
10. Not less absurd is it for those who regard this universe with the
natural eye to ascribe its origin to the sun, or moon, or any other
heavenly body. Rather let them confess that these are themselves the
works of a higher wisdom, remember the Maker and Framer of them all,
and render to him the praise and honor above all created objects. Nay
rather, inspired by the sight of these very objects, let them address
themselves with full purpose of heart to glorify and worship him who
is now invisible to mortal eye, but perceived by the clear and
unclouded vision of the soul, the supremely sovereign Word of God. To
take the instance of the human body: no one has yet conferred the
attribute of wisdom on the eyes, or head, the hands, or feet, or other
members, far less on the outward clothing, of a wise and learned man:
no one terms the philosopher's household furniture and utensils, wise:
but every rational person admires that invisible and secret power, the
mind of the man himself.
11. How much more, then, is our admiration due, not to the visible
mechanism of the universe, material as it is, and formed of the
selfsame elements; but to that invisible Word who has moulded and
arranged it all, who is the only-begotten Son of God, and whom the
Maker of all things, who far transcends all being, has begotten of
himself, and appointed Lord and Governor of this universe?
12. For since it was impossible that perishable bodies, or the
rational spirits which he had created, should approach the Supreme
God, by reason of their immeasurable distance from his perfections,
for he is unbegotten, above and beyond all creation, ineffable,
inaccessible, unapproachable, dwelling, as his holy word assures us,
[3542] in the light which none can enter; but they were created from
nothing, and are infinitely far removed from his unbegotten Essence;
well has the all-gracious and Almighty God interposed as it were an
intermediate Power [3543] between himself and them, even the Divine
omnipotence of his only-begotten Word. And this Power, which is in
perfect nearness and intimacy of union, with the Father which abides
in him, and shares his secret counsels, has yet condescended, in
fullness of grace, as it were to conform itself to those who are so
far removed from the supreme majesty of God. How else, consistently
with his own holiness could he who is far above and beyond all things
unite himself to corruptible and corporeal matter? Accordingly the
Divine Word, thus connecting himself with this universe, and receiving
into his hands the reins, as it were, of the world, turns and directs
it as a skillful charioteer according to his own will and pleasure.
13. The proof of these assertions is evident. For supposing that those
component parts of the world which we call elements, as earth, water,
air, and fire, the nature of which is manifestly without intelligence,
are self-existent; and if they have one common essence, which they who
are skilled in natural science call the great receptacle, mother, and
nurse of all things; and if this itself be utterly devoid of shape and
figure, of soul and reason; whence shall we say it has obtained its
present form and beauty? To what shall we ascribe the distinction of
the elements, or the union of things contrary in their very nature?
Who has commanded the liquid water to sustain the heavy element of
earth? Who has turned back the waters from their downward course, and
carried them aloft in clouds? Who has bound the force of fire, and
caused it to lie latent in wood, and to combine with substances most
contrary to itself? Who has mingled the cold air with heat, and thus
reconciled the enmity of opposing principles? Who has devised the
continuous succession of the human race, and given it as it were an
endless term of duration? Who has moulded the male and female form,
adapted their mutual relations with perfect harmony, and given one
common principle of production to every living creature? Who changes
the character of the fluid and corruptible seed, which in itself is
void of reason, and gives it its prolific power? Who is at this moment
working these and ten thousand effects more wonderful than these, nay,
surpassing all wonder, and with invisible influence is daily and
hourly perpetuating the production of them all?
14. Surely the wonder-working and truly omnipotent Word of God may
well be deemed the efficient cause of all these things: that Word who,
diffusing himself through all creation, pervading height and depth
with incorporeal energy, and embracing the length and breadth of the
universe within his mighty grasp, has compacted and reduced to order
this entire system, from whose unreasoned and formless matter he has
framed for himself an instrument of perfect harmony, the nicely
balanced chords and notes of which he touches with all-wise and
unerring skill. He it is who governs the sun, and moon, and the other
luminaries of heaven by inexplicable laws, and directs their motions
for the service of the universal whole.
15. It is this Word of God who has stooped to the earth on which we
live, and created the manifold species of animals, and the fair
varieties of the vegetable world. It is this same Word who has
penetrated the recesses of the deep, has given their being to the
finny race, and produced the countless forms of life which there
exist. It is he who fashions the burden of the womb, and informs it in
nature's laboratory with the principle of life. By him the fluid and
heavy moisture is raised on high, and then, sweetened by a purifying
change, descends in measured quantities to the earth, and at stated
seasons in more profuse supply.
16. Like a skillful husbandman, he fully irrigates the land, tempers
the moist and dry in just proportion, diversifying the whole with
brilliant flowers, with aspects of varied beauty, with pleasant
fragrance, with alternating varieties of fruits, and countless
gratifications for the taste of men. But why do I dare essay a
hopeless task, to recount the mighty works of the Word of God, and
describe an energy which surpasses mortal thought? By some, indeed, he
has been termed the Nature of the universe, by others, the World-Soul,
by others, Fate. Others again have declared him to be the most High
God himself, strangely confounding things most widely different;
bringing down to this earth, uniting to a corruptible and material
body, and assigning to that supreme and unbegotten Power who is Lord
of all an intermediate place between irrational animals and rational
mortals on the one hand, and immortal beings on the other. [3544]
Footnotes
[3537] Here the author seems to speak doubly of the Word and the word.
[3538] Matt. xi. 28.
[3539] Matt. xi. 13. R.V.: "For I came not to call the righteous, but
sinners." The text here has the reading eismetanoian, omitted by
Tischendorf and the revisers with # B, etc., but supported by CEGKL,
sab. cop., etc. It is worth noting that it is not in the Sinaitic, and
if this text reading is correct it would nearly overthrow the
possibility that this ms. was one of those prepared under the
direction of Eusebius.
[3540] Matt. xi. 12.
[3541] Ezek. xviii. 23. R.V.: "Have I any pleasure in the death of the
wicked, saith the Lord God: and not rather that he should return from
his way and live?"
[3542] 1 Tim. vi. 16.
[3543] [This whole passage (which is defended by Valesius) appears, if
rigidly interpreted, to lie under suspicion of a tinge of
Arianism.--Bag.] It savors directly of Philo. His doctrine was of an
ineffable God, above and separate from matter, and defiled by any
contact with it. To bring him into connection with created things he
introduced intermediate beings, or "powers," the universal power
including all the rest being the Logos. Compare brief account in
Zeller's Outlines of Greek Philosophy, p. 320-325; Siegfried, Philo
von Alexandria (Jena, 1875), especially p. 199 sq., 219 sq., and p.
362-364, where he treats very inadequately of Eusebius' dependence on
Philo; also works of Philo and Eusebius' Pręp. and Demonst. Ev. There
is a chance of viewing the Word thus as created, but if this is
guarded against (as it is by him in the use of "begotten"), there is
nothing intrinsically heterodox in making the Word the Creator of the
world and only Revealer of the Father. The direct Philonian influence
is seen in the phraseology of the following sentences.
[3544] [Of this somewhat obscure passage, a translator can do no more
than give as nearly as possible a literal version. The intelligent
reader will not fail to perceive that the author, here and in the
following Chapter, has trodden on very dangerous ground.--Bag.]
Compare above notes on the relations of Eusebius and Philo.
Chapter XII.
1. On the other hand, the sacred doctrine teaches that he who is the
supreme Source of good, and Cause of all things, is beyond all
comprehension, and therefore inexpressible by word, or speech, or
name; surpassing the power, not of language only, but of thought
itself. Uncircumscribed by place, or body; neither in heaven, nor in
ethereal space, nor in any other part of the universe; but entirely
independent of all things else, he pervades the depths of unexplored
and secret wisdom. The sacred oracles teach us to acknowledge him as
the only true God, [3545] apart from all corporeal essence, distinct
from all subordinate ministration. Hence it is said that all things
are from him, but not through him. [3546]
2. And he himself dwelling as Sovereign in secret and undiscovered
regions of unapproachable light, ordains and disposes all things by
the single power of his own will. At his will whatever is, exists;
without that will, it cannot be. And his will is in every case for
good, since he is essentially Goodness itself. But he through whom are
all things, even God the Word, proceeding in an ineffable manner from
the Father above, as from an everlasting and exhaustless fountain,
flows onward like a river with a full and abundant stream of power for
the preservation of the universal whole.
3. And now let us select an illustration from our own experience. The
invisible and undiscovered mind within us, the essential nature of
which no one has ever known, sits as a monarch in the seclusion of his
secret chambers, and alone resolves on our course of action. From this
proceeds the only-begotten word from its father's bosom, begotten in a
manner and by a power inexplicable to us; and is the first messenger
of its father's thoughts, declares his secret counsels, and, conveying
itself to the ears of others, accomplishes his designs.
4. And thus the advantage of this faculty is enjoyed by all: yet no
one has ever yet beheld that invisible and hidden mind, which is the
parent of the word itself. [3547] In the same manner, or rather in a
manner which far surpasses all likeness or comparison, the perfect
Word of the Supreme God, as the only-begotten Son of the Father (not
consisting in the power of utterance, nor comprehended in syllables
and parts of speech, nor conveyed by a voice which vibrates on the
air; but being himself the living and effectual Word of the most High,
and subsisting personally as the Power and Wisdom of God), [3548]
proceeds from his Father's Deity and kingdom. [3549] Thus, being the
perfect Offspring of a perfect Father, and the common Preserver of all
things, he diffuses himself with living power throughout creation, and
pours from his own fullness abundant supplies of reason, [3550]
wisdom, light, and every other blessing, not only on objects nearest
to himself, but on those most remote, whether in earth, or sea, or any
other sphere of being.
5. To all these he appoints with perfect equity their limits, places,
laws, and inheritance, allotting to each their suited portion
according to his sovereign will. To some he assigns the
super-terrestrial regions, to others heaven itself as their
habitation: others he places in ethereal space, others in air, and
others still on earth. He it is who transfers mankind from hence to
another sphere, impartially reviews their conduct here, and bestows a
recompense according to the life and habits of each. By him provision
is made for the life and food, not of rational creatures only, but
also of the brute creation, for the service of men;
6. and while to the latter he grants the enjoyment of a perishable and
fleeting term of existence, the former he invites to a share in the
possession of immortal life. Thus universal is the agency of the Word
of God: everywhere present, and pervading all things by the power of
his intelligence, he looks upward to his Father, and governs this
lower creation, inferior to and consequent upon himself, in accordance
with his will, as the common Preserver of all things.
7. Intermediate, as it were, and attracting the created to the
uncreated Essence, this Word of God exists as an unbroken bond between
the two, uniting things most widely different by an inseparable tie.
He is the Providence which rules the universe; the guardian and
director of the whole: he is the Power and Wisdom of God the
only-begotten God, the Word begotten of God himself. For "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made
that hath been made"; as we learn from the words of the sacred writer.
[3551] Through his vivifying power all nature grows and flourishes,
refreshed by his continual showers, and invested with a vigor and
beauty ever new.
8. Guiding the reigns of the universe, he holds its onward course in
conformity to the Father's will and moves, as it were, the helm of
this mighty ship. This glorious Agent, the only-begotten Son of the
Supreme God, begotten by the Father as his perfect Offspring, the
Father has given to this world as the highest of all goods; infusing
his word, as spirit into a lifeless body, into unconscious nature;
imparting light and energy to that which in itself was a rude,
inanimate, and formless mass, through the Divine power. Him therefore
it is ours to acknowledge and regard as everywhere present, and giving
life to matter and the elements of nature: [3552] in him we see Light,
even the spiritual offspring of inexpressible Light: one indeed in
essence, as being the Son of one Father; but possessing in himself
many and varied powers.
9. The world is indeed divided into many parts; yet let us not
therefore suppose that there are many independent Agents: nor, though
creation's works be manifold, let us thence assume the existence of
many gods. How grievous the error of those childish and infatuated
advocates of polytheistic worship, who deify the constituent parts of
the universe, and divide into many that system which is only one!
10. Such conduct resembles theirs who should abstract the eyes of an
individual man, and term them the man himself, and the ears, another
man, and so the head: or again, by an effort of thought should
separate the neck, the breast and shoulders, the feet and hands, or
other members, nay, the very powers of sense, and thus pronounce an
individual to be a multitude of men. Such folly must surely be
rewarded with contempt by men of sense. Yet such is he who from the
component parts of a single world can devise for himself a multitude
of gods, or even deem that world which is the work of a Creator, and
consists of many parts, to be itself a god: [3553] not knowing that
the Divine Nature can in no sense be divisible into parts; since, if
compounded, it must be so through the agency of another power; and
that which is so compounded can never be Divine. How indeed could it
be so, if composed of unequal and dissimilar, and hence of worse and
better elements? Simple, indivisible, uncompounded, the Divine Nature
exists at an infinite elevation above the visible constitution of this
world.
11. And hence we are assured by the clear testimony of the sacred
Herald, [3554] that the Word of God, who is before all things, must be
the sole Preserver of all intelligent beings: while God, who is above
all, and the Author of the generation of the Word, being himself the
Cause of all things, is rightly called the Father of the Word, as of
his only-begotten Son, himself acknowledging no superior Cause. God,
therefore, himself is One, and from him proceeds the one only-begotten
Word, the omnipresent Preserver of all things. And as the
many-stringed lyre is composed of different chords, both sharp and
flat, some slightly, others tensely strained, and others intermediate
between the two extremes, yet all attuned according to the rules of
harmonic art; even so this material world, compounded as it is of many
elements, containing opposite and antagonist principles, as moisture
and dryness, cold and heat, yet blended into one harmonious whole, may
justly be termed a mighty instrument framed by the hand of God: an
instrument on which the Divine Word, himself not composed of parts or
opposing principles, but indivisible and uncompounded, performs with
perfect skill, and produces a melody at once accordant with the will
of his Father the Supreme Lord of all, and glorious to himself. Again,
as there are manifold external and internal parts and members
comprised in a single body, yet one invisible soul, one undivided and
incorporeal mind pervades the whole; so is it in this creation, which,
consisting of many parts, yet is but one: and so the One mighty, yea,
Almighty Word of God, pervading all things, and diffusing himself with
undeviating energy throughout this universe, is the Cause of all
things that exist therein.
12. Survey the compass of this visible world. Seest thou not how the
same heaven contains within itself the countless courses and companies
of the stars? Again, the sun is one, and yet eclipses many, nay all
other luminaries, by the surpassing glory of his rays. Even so, as the
Father himself is One, his Word is also One, the perfect Son of that
perfect Father. Should any one object because they are not more, as
well might he complain that there are not many suns, or moons, or
worlds, and a thousand things beside; like the madman, who would fain
subvert the fair and perfect course of Nature herself. As in the
visible, so also in the spiritual world: in the one the same sun
diffuses his light throughout this material earth; in the other the
One Almighty Word of God illumines all things with invisible and
secret power.
13. Again, there is in man one spirit, and one faculty of reason,
which yet is the active cause of numberless effects. The same mind,
instructed in many things, will essay to cultivate the earth, to build
and guide a ship, and construct houses: nay, the one mind and reason
of man is capable of acquiring knowledge in a thousand forms: the same
mind shall understand geometry and astronomy, and discourse on the
rules of grammar, and rhetoric, and the healing art. Nor will it excel
in science only, but in practice too: and yet no one has ever supposed
the existence of many minds in one human form, nor expressed his
wonder at a plurality of being in man, because he is thus capable of
varied knowledge.
14. Suppose one were to find a shapeless mass of clay, to mould it
with his hands, and give it the form of a living creature; the head in
one figure, the hands and feet in another, the eyes and cheeks in a
third, and so to fashion the ears, the mouth and nose, the breast and
shoulders, according to the rules of the plastic art. The result,
indeed, is a variety of figure, of parts and members in the one body;
yet must we not suppose it the work of many hands, but ascribe it
entirely to the skill of a single artist, and yield the tribute of our
praise to him who by the energy of a single mind has framed it all.
The same is true of the universe itself, which is one, though
consisting of many parts: yet surely we need not suppose many creative
powers, nor invent a plurality of gods. Our duty is to adore the
all-wise and all-perfect agency of him who is indeed the Power and the
Wisdom of God, whose undivided force and energy pervades and
penetrates the universe, creating and giving life to all things, and
furnishing to all, collectively and severally, those manifold supplies
of which he is himself the source.
15. Even so one and the same impression of the solar rays illumines
the air at once, gives light to the eyes, warmth to the touch,
fertility to the earth, and growth to plants. The same luminary
constitutes the course of time, governs the motions of the stars,
performs the circuit of the heavens, imparts beauty to the earth, and
displays the power of God to all: and all this he performs by the sole
and unaided force of his own nature. In like manner fire has the
property of refining gold, and fusing lead, of dissolving wax, of
parching clay, and consuming wood; producing these varied effects by
one and the same burning power.
16. So also the Supreme Word of God, pervading all things, everywhere
existent, everywhere present in heaven and earth, governs and directs
the visible and invisible creation, the sun, the heaven, and the
universe itself, with an energy inexplicable in its nature,
irresistible in its effects. From him, as from an everlasting
fountain, the sun, the moon, and stars receive their light: and he
forever rules that heaven which he has framed as the fitting emblem of
his own greatness. The angelic and spiritual powers, the incorporeal
and intelligent beings which exist beyond the sphere of heaven and
earth, are filled by him with light and life, with wisdom and virtue,
with all that is great and good, from his own peculiar treasures. Once
more, with one and the same creative skill, he ceases not to furnish
the elements with substance, to regulate the union and combinations,
the forms and figures, and the innumerable qualities of organized
bodies; preserving the varied distinctions of animal and vegetable
life, of the rational and the brute creation; and supplying all things
to all with equal power: thus proving himself the Author, not indeed
of the seven-stringed lyre, [3555] but of that system of perfect
harmony which is the workmanship of the One world-creating Word.
[3556]
Footnotes
[3545] [Referring, apparently, to John xvii. 3, "And this is life
eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent:" a passage which has been called a stronghold of
the impugners of the Deity of Christ; but which, simply considered
with its context, cannot fairly be understood to indicate any
inferiority of the Son to the Father; but rather appears to speak of
the mission of the former as the manifestation of the grace of him who
is called "the only true God" in contradistinction to the polytheism
of the heathen world. In other words, the knowledge of "the only true
God," in connection with that of "Jesus Christ whom he has sent,"
constitutes "eternal life"; the one being ineffectual, and indeed
impossible, without the other.--Bag.] Compare 1 John v. 20-21: "That
we know him that is true and we are in him that is true, even in his
Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life," which seems
to show that John had no idea of any subordination in essence in this
matter.
[3546] [But see, for a refutation of this statement, Rom. xi. 36, and
Heb. ii. 10.--Bag.] Yet the second of these references clearly refers
to the Son. Eusebius, speaking of God the Father, has in mind the
truth that all things were made by the Son, "and without him was not
anything made that hath been made." John i. 3.
[3547] The author is now speaking especially of the spoken or
"expressed" word.
[3548] Compare 1 Cor. i. 24.
[3549] This conception that the Divine Word stands in something the
same relation with the Father that the human word (internal and
external) does to the human spirit has, at least, an interesting
suggestion towards the unraveling of this curious mystery, which, for
lack of a better word, it is the fashion just now to call a human
personality, and which certainly is made in the image and likeness of
God. Unless there lurks in the idea some subtle heresy, one may
venture to accept as an interesting analogy this relation of invisible
self, self expressed to self (internal word), self revealed (external
word), and an expression carried to the point of embodiment
(incarnation).
[3550] "Logos" again,--here the internal word.
[3551] John i. 1-3.
[3552] One on the scent for heresy might prick up his ears, and sound
the alarm of "Gnosticism."
[3553] A curious work just issued (anonymous), under the authority of
the Bureau of Education, very complacently evolves the truth of
existence out of the author's pure, untrammeled consciousness,--for he
has never read any works either on science or on theology,--and
arrives at the condescending conclusion that there is a God; or
rather, in the words of Eusebius, the author comes to "deem that
world...to be itself God."
[3554] [Referring (says Valesius) to St. John, whose words Eusebius
had lately cited, "In the beginning was the Word," &c., and now
explains paraphrastically. The reader will decide for himself on the
merits of the paraphrase.--Bag.]
[3555] [In reference, singularly enough, to the illustration of the
lyre in the preceding Chapter.--Bag.]
[3556] It is idle to treat as philosophically or theologically
unworthy of consideration a system of thought so definitely unified,
and with such Scriptural basis as the above. It may not be profound or
original, but is definite and clear.
Chapter XIII.
1. And now let us proceed to explain the reasons for which this mighty
Word of God descended to dwell with men. Our ignorant and foolish
race, incapable of comprehending him who is the Lord of heaven and
earth, proceeding from his Father's Deity as from the supreme
fountain, ever present throughout the world, and evincing by the
clearest proofs his providential care for the interests of man; have
ascribed the adorable title of Deity to the sun, and moon, the heaven
and the stars of heaven. Nor did they stop here, but deified the earth
itself, its products, and the various substances by which animal life
is sustained, and devised images of Ceres, of Proserpine, of Bacchus,
[3557] and many such as these.
2. Nay, they shrank not from giving the name of gods to the very
conceptions of their own minds, and the speech by which those
conceptions are expressed; calling the mind itself Minerva, and
language Mercury, [3558] and affixing the names of Mnemosyne and the
Muses to those faculties by means of which science is acquired. Nor
was even this enough: advancing still more rapidly in the career of
impiety and folly, they deified their own evil passions, which it
behooved them to regard with aversion, or restrain by the principles
of self-control. Their very lust and passion and impure disease of
soul, the members of the body which tempt to obscenity, and even the
very uncontrol [3559] in shameful pleasure, they described under the
titles of Cupid, Priapus, Venus, [3560] and other kindred terms.
3. Nor did they stop even here. Degrading their thoughts of God to
this corporeal and mortal life, they deified their fellow-men,
conferring the names of gods and heroes on those who had experienced
the common lot of all, and vainly imagining that the Divine and
imperishable Essence could frequent the tombs and monuments of the
dead. Nay, more than this: they paid divine honors to animals of
various species, and to the most noxious reptiles: they felled trees,
and excavated rocks; they provided themselves with brass, and iron,
and other metals, of which they fashioned resemblances of the male and
female human form, of beasts, and creeping things; and these they made
the objects of their worship.
4. Nor did this suffice. To the evil spirits themselves which lurked
within their statues, or lay concealed in secret and dark recesses,
eager to drink their libations, and inhale the odor of their
sacrifices, they ascribed the same divine honors. Once more, they
endeavored to secure the familiar aid of these spirits, and the unseen
powers which move through the tracts of air, by charms of forbidden
magic, and the compulsion of unhallowed songs and incantations. Again,
different nations have adopted different persons as objects of their
worship. The Greeks have rendered to Bacchus, Hercules, Ęsculapius,
Apollo, and others who were mortal men, the titles of gods and heroes.
The Egyptians have deified Horus and Isis, Osiris, and other mortals
such as these. And thus they who boast of the wondrous skill whereby
they have discovered geometry, astronomy, and the science of number,
know not, wise as they are in their own conceit, nor understand how to
estimate the measure of the power of God, or calculate his exceeding
greatness above the nature of irrational and mortal beings.
5. Hence they shrank not from applying the name of gods to the most
hideous of the brute creation, to venomous reptiles and savage beasts.
The Phoenicians deified Melcatharus, Usorus, [3561] and others; mere
mortals, and with little claim to honor: the Arabians, Dusaris [3562]
and Obodas: the Getę, Zamolxis: the Cicilians, Mopsus: and the
Thebans, Amphiaraus: [3563] in short, each nation has adopted its own
peculiar deities, differing in no respect from their fellow-mortals,
being simply and truly men. Again, the Egyptians with one consent, the
Phoenicians, the Greeks, nay, every nation beneath the sun, have
united in worshiping the very parts and elements of the world, and
even the produce of the ground itself. And, which is most surprising,
though acknowledging the adulterous, unnatural, and licentious crimes
of their deities, they have not only filled every city, and village,
and district with temples, shrines, and statues in their honor, but
have followed their evil example to the ruin of their own souls.
6. We hear of gods and the sons of gods described by them as heroes
and good genii, titles entirely opposed to truth, honors utterly at
variance with the qualifies they are intended to exalt. It is as if
one who desired to point out the sun and the luminaries of heaven,
instead of directing his gaze thitherward, should grope with his hands
on the ground, and search for the celestial powers in the mud and
mire. Even so mankind, deceived by their own folly and the craft of
evil spirits, have believed that the Divine and spiritual Essence
which is far above heaven and earth could be compatible with the
birth, the affections, and death, of mortal bodies here below. To such
a pitch of madness did they proceed, as to sacrifice the dearest
objects of their affection to their gods, regardless of all natural
ties, and urged by frenzied feeling to slay their only and best
beloved children.
7. For what can be a greater proof of madness, than to offer human
sacrifice, to pollute every city, and even their own houses, with
kindred blood? Do not the Greeks themselves attest this, and is not
all history filled with records of the same impiety? The Phoenicians
devoted their best beloved and only children as an annual sacrifice to
Saturn. The Rhodians, on the sixth day of the month Metageitnion,
[3564] offered human victims to the same god. At Salamis, a man was
pursued in the temple of Minerva Agraulis and Diomede, compelled to
run thrice round the altar, afterwards pierced with a lance by the
priest, and consumed as a burnt offering on the blazing pile. In
Egypt, human sacrifice was most abundant. At Heliopolis three victims
were daily offered to Juno, for whom king Amoses, impressed with the
atrocity of the practice, commanded the substitution of an equal
number of waxen figures. In Chios, and again in Tenedos, a man was
slain and offered up to Omadian Bacchus. At Sparta they immolated
human beings to Mars. In Crete they did likewise, offering human
sacrifices to Saturn. In Laodicea of Syria a virgin was yearly slain
in honor of Minerva, for whom a hart is now the substitute. The
Libyans and Carthaginians appeased their gods with human victims. The
Dumateni of Arabia buried a boy annually beneath the altar. History
informs us that the Greeks without exception, the Thracians also, and
Scythians, were accustomed to human sacrifice before they marched
forth to battle. The Athenians record the immolation of the virgin
children of Leus, [3565] and the daughter of Erechtheus. [3566] Who
knows not that at this day a human victim is offered in Rome itself at
the festival of Jupiter Latiaris?
8. And these facts are confirmed by the testimony of the most approved
philosophers. Diodorus, the epitomizer of libraries, [3567] affirms
that two hundred of the noblest youths were sacrificed to Saturn by
the Libyan people, and that three hundred more were voluntarily
offered by their own parents. Dionysius, the compiler of Roman
history, [3568] expressly says that Jupiter and Apollo demanded human
sacrifices of the so-called Aborigines, in Italy. He relates that on
this demand they offered a proportion of all their produce to the
gods; but that, because of their refusal to slay human victims, they
became involved in manifold calamities, from which they could obtain
no release until they had decimated themselves, a sacrifice of life
which proved the desolation of their country. Such and so great were
the evils which of old afflicted the whole human race.
9. Nor was this the full extent of their misery: they groaned beneath
the pressure of other evils equally numerous and irremediable. All
nations, whether civilized or barbarous, throughout the world, as if
actuated by a demoniac frenzy, were infected with sedition as with
some fierce and terrible disease: insomuch that the human family was
irreconcilably divided against itself; the great system of society was
distracted and torn asunder; and in every corner of the earth men
stood opposed to each other, and strove with fierce contention on
questions of law and government.
10. Nay, more than this: with passions aroused to fury, they engaged
in mutual conflicts, so frequent that their lives were passed as it
were in uninterrupted warfare. None could undertake a journey except
as prepared to encounter an enemy; in the very country and villages
the rustics girded on the sword, provided themselves with armor rather
than with the implements of rural labor, and deemed it noble exploit
to plunder and enslave any who belonged to a neighboring state.
11. Nay, more than this: from the fables they had themselves devised
respecting their own deities, they deduced occasions for a vile and
abandoned life, and wrought the ruin of body and soul by
licentiousness of every kind. Not content with this, they even
overstepped the bounds which nature had defined, and together
committed incredible and nameless crimes, "men with men (in the words
of the sacred writer) working un-seemliness, and receiving in
themselves that recompense of their error which was due."
12. Nor did they stop even here; but perverted their natural thoughts
of God, and denied that the course of this world was directed by his
providential care, ascribing the existence and constitution of all
things to the blind operation of chance, or the necessity of fate.
13. Once more: believing that soul and body were alike dissolved by
death, they led a brutish life, unworthy of the name: careless of the
nature or existence of the soul, they dreaded not the tribunal of
Divine justice, expected no reward of virtue, nor thought of
chastisement as the penalty of an evil life.
14. Hence it was that whole nations, a prey to wickedness in all its
forms, were wasted by the effects of their own brutality: some living
in the practice of most vile and lawless incest with mothers, others
with sisters, and others again corrupting their own daughters. Some
were found who slew their confiding guests; others who fed on human
flesh; some strangled, and then feasted on, their aged men; others
threw them alive to dogs. The time would fail me were I to attempt to
describe the multifarious symptoms of the inveterate malady which had
asserted its dominion over the whole human race.
15. Such, and numberless others like these, were the prevailing evils,
on account of which the gracious Word of God, full of compassion for
his human flock, had long since, by the ministry of his prophets, and
earlier still, as well as later, by that of men distinguished by pious
devotion to God, invited those thus desperately afflicted to their own
cure; and had, by means of laws, exhortations, and doctrines of every
kind, proclaimed to man the principles and elements of true godliness.
But when for mankind, distracted and torn as I have said, not indeed
by wolves and savage beasts, but by ruthless and soul-destroying
spirits of evil, human power no longer sufficed, but a help was needed
superior to that of man; then it was that the Word of God, obedient to
his all-gracious Father's will, at length himself appeared, and most
willingly made his abode amongst us.
16. The causes of his advent I have already described, induced by
which he condescended to the society of man; not in his wonted form
and manner, for he is incorporeal, and present everywhere throughout
the world, proving by his agency both in heaven and earth the
greatness of his almighty power, but in a character new and hitherto
unknown. Assuming a mortal body, he deigned to associate and converse
with men; desiring, through the medium of their own likeness, to save
our mortal race.
Footnotes
[3557] "Of Demeter, of Cora, of Dionysius."
[3558] "Athene...Hermes."
[3559] The word used here, akrEURteia, is the opposite of the famous
philosophical word for self-control--enkrEURteia
[3560] "Eros, Priapus, Aphrodite."
[3561] It is probably that "Melkathros" and "Usous" referred to in the
Pręp. Evang. 1. 10 (ed. Gaisford, Oxon. 1843, 1. p. 77 and 84). The
same passage may be found with English translation in Cory's Ancient
Fragments, Lond. 1832, p. 6-7, 13.
[3562] Dusaris was, it is said, equivalent to Bacchus.
[3563] All the above names, excepting those specially noted, may be
found in Smith, Dict. of Greek and Roman Biog. and Mythol.
[3564] Corresponding nearly to our August. Key. Calendarium, in Smith,
Dict. Gr. and R. Ant. p. 223.
[3565] [Leus is said to have offered his three daughters, Phasithea,
Theope, and Eubule; the oracle at Delphi having declared that the
relief of the city from famine could only be effected by the shedding
of the blood of his daughters by one of the citizens.--Bag.]
[3566] [Alluding to the sacrifice of his daughter Chthonia by
Erechtheus, son of Pandion; the Athenians having been promised
victory, by the oracle, over the Eleusinians and their Thracian
allies, on the condition of the death of a daughter of
Erechtheus.--Bag.]
[3567] Diodorus Siculus, whose work is mentioned elsewhere (Pręp.
Evang. 1. 6, ed. Gaisford, p. 40) as a "historical library."
[3568] Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
Chapter XIV.
1. And now let us explain the cause for which the incorporeal Word of
God assumed this mortal body as a medium of intercourse with man. How,
indeed, else than in human form could that Divine and impalpable, that
immaterial and invisible Essence manifest itself to those who sought
for God in created and earthly objects, unable or unwilling otherwise
to discern the Author and Maker of all things?
2. As a fitting means, therefore, of communication with mankind, he
assumed a mortal body, as that with which they were themselves
familiar; for like, it is proverbially said, loves its like. To those,
then, whose affections were engaged by visible objects, who looked for
gods in statues and lifeless images, who imagined the Deity to consist
in material and corporeal substance, nay, who conferred on men the
title of divinity, the Word of God presented himself in this form.
3. Hence he procured for himself this body as a thrice-hallowed
temple, a sensible habitation of an intellectual power; a noble and
most holy form, of far higher worth than any lifeless statue. The
material and senseless image, fashioned by base mechanic hands, of
brass or iron, of gold or ivory, wood or stone, may be a fitting abode
for evil spirits: but that Divine form, wrought by the power of
heavenly wisdom, was possessed of life and spiritual being; a form
animated by every excellence, the dwelling-place of the Word of God, a
holy temple of the holy God.
4. Thus the indwelling Word [3569] conversed with and was known to
men, as kindred with themselves; yet yielded not to passions such as
theirs, nor owned, as the natural soul, subjection to the body. He
parted not with aught of his intrinsic greatness, nor changed his
proper Deity. For as the all-pervading radiance of the sun receives no
stain from contact with dead and impure bodies; much less can the
incorporeal power of the Word of God be injured in its essential
purity, or part with any of its greatness, from spiritual contact with
a human body.
5. Thus, I say, did our common Saviour prove himself the benefactor
and preserver of all, displaying his wisdom through the
instrumentality of his human nature, even as a musician uses the lyre
to evince his skill. The Grecian myth tells us that Orpheus had power
to charm ferocious beasts, and tame their savage spirit, by striking
the chords of his instrument with a master hand: and this story is
celebrated by the Greeks, and generally believed, that an unconscious
instrument could subdue the untamed brute, and draw the trees from
their places, in obedience to its melodious power. But he who is the
author of perfect harmony, the all-wise Word of God, desiring to apply
every remedy to the manifold diseases of the souls of men, employed
that human nature which is the workmanship of his own wisdom, as an
instrument by the melodious strains of which he soothed, not indeed
the brute creation, but savages endued with reason; healing each
furious temper, each fierce and angry passion of the soul, both in
civilized and barbarous nations, by the remedial power of his Divine
doctrine. Like a physician of perfect skill, he met the diseases of
their souls who sought for God in nature and in bodies, by a fitting
and kindred remedy, and showed them God in human form.
6. And then, with no less care for the body than the soul, he
presented before the eyes of men wonders and signs, as proofs of his
Divine power, at the same time instilling into their ears of flesh the
doctrines which he himself uttered with a corporeal tongue. In short,
he performed all his works through the medium of that body which he
had assumed for the sake of those who else were incapable of
apprehending his Divine nature.
7. In all this he was the servant of his Father's will, himself
remaining still the same as when with the Father; unchanged in
essence, unimpaired in nature, unfettered by the trammels of mortal
flesh, nor hindered by his abode in a human body from being elsewhere
present. [3570]
8. Nay, at the very time of his intercourse with men, he was pervading
all things, was with and in the Father, and even then was caring for
all things both in heaven and earth. Nor was he precluded, as we are,
from being present everywhere, or from the continued exercise of his
Divine power. He gave of his own to man, but received nothing in
return: he imparted of his Divine power to mortality, but derived no
accession from mortality itself.
9. Hence his human birth to him brought no defilement; nor could his
impassible Essence suffer at the dissolution of his mortal body. For
let us suppose a lyre to receive an accidental injury, or its chord to
be broken; it does not follow that the performer on it suffers: nor,
if a wise man's body undergo punishment, can we fairly assert that his
wisdom, or the soul within him, are maimed or burned.
10. Far less can we affirm that the inherent power of the Word
sustained any detriment from his bodily passion, any more than, as in
the instance we have already used, the solar rays which are shot from
heaven to earth contract defilement, though in contact with mire and
pollution of every kind. We may, indeed, assert that these things
partake of the radiance of the light, but not that the light is
contaminated, or the sun defiled, by this contact with other bodies.
11. And indeed these things are themselves not contrary to nature; but
the Saviour, the incorporeal Word of God, being Life and spiritual
Light itself, whatever he touches with Divine and incorporeal power
must of necessity become endued with the intelligence of light and
life. Thus, if he touch a body, it becomes enlightened and sanctified,
is at once delivered from all disease, infirmity, and suffering, and
that which before was lacking is supplied by a portion of his
fullness.
12. And such was the tenor of his life on earth; now proving the
sympathies of his human nature with our own, and now revealing himself
as the Word of God: wondrous and mighty in his works as God;
foretelling the events of the far distant future; declaring in every
act, by signs, and wonders, and supernatural powers, that Word whose
presence was so little known; and finally, by his Divine teaching,
inviting the souls of men to prepare for those mansions which are
above the heavens.
Footnotes
[3569] All these various conceptions of the Word are strictly
Biblical: (1) The Word the only revealer of the Father, who otherwise
could not be known; (2) The human body the temple of God; (3) The
indwelling Word.
[3570] This ought to relieve Eusebius from any charge of Arianism in
this relation, however "dangerous" the ground he has trodden on may
be.
Chapter XV.
1. What now remains, but to account for those which are the crowning
facts of all; I mean his death, so far and widely known, the manner of
his passion, and the mighty miracle of his resurrection after death:
and then to establish the truth of these events by the clearest
testimonies?
2. For the reasons detailed above he used the instrumentality of a
mortal body, as a figure becoming his Divine majesty, and like a
mighty sovereign employed it as his interpreter in his intercourse
with men, performing all things consistently with his own Divine
power. Supposing, then, at the end of his sojourn among men, he had by
any other means suddenly withdrawn himself from their sight, and,
secretly removing that interpreter of himself, the form which he had
assumed, had hastened to flee from death, and afterwards by his own
act had consigned his mortal body to corruption and dissolution:
doubtless in such a case he would have been deemed a mere phantom by
all. Nor would he have acted in a manner worthy of himself, had he who
is Life, the Word, and the Power of God, abandoned this interpreter of
himself to corruption and death.
3. Nor, again, would his warfare with the spirits of evil have
received its consummation by conflict with the power of death. The
place of his retirement must have remained unknown; nor would his
existence have been believed by those who had not seen him for
themselves. No proof would have been given that he was superior to
death nor would he have delivered mortality from the law of its
natural infirmity. His name had never been heard throughout the world
nor could he have inspired his disciples with contempt of death, or
encouraged those who embraced his doctrine to hope for the enjoyment
of a future life with God. Nor would he have fulfilled the assurances
of his own promise, nor have accomplished the predictions of the
prophets concerning himself. Nor would he have undergone the last
conflict of all; for this was to be the struggle with the power of
death.
4. For all these reasons, then, and inasmuch as it was necessary that
the mortal body which had rendered such service to the Divine Word
should meet with an end worthy its sacred occupant, the manner of his
death was ordained accordingly. For since but two alternatives
remained: either to consign his body entirely to corruption, and so to
bring the scene of life to a dishonored close, or else to prove
himself victorious over death, and render mortality immortal by the
act of Divine power; the former of these alternatives would have
contravened his own promise. For as it is not the property of fire to
cool, nor of light to darken, no more is it compatible with life, to
deprive of life, or with Divine intelligence, to act in a manner
contrary to reason. For how would it be consistent, with reason, that
he who had promised life to others, should permit his own body, the
form which he had chosen, to perish beneath the power of corruption?
That he who had inspired his disciples with hopes of immortality,
should yield this exponent of his Divine counsels to be destroyed by
death?
5. The second alternative was therefore needful: I mean, that he
should assert his dominion over the power of death. But how? should
this be a furtive and secret act, or openly performed and in the sight
of all? So mighty an achievement, had it remained unknown and
unrevealed, must have failed of its effect as regards the interests of
men; whereas the same event, if openly declared and understood, would,
from its wondrous character, redound to the common benefit of all.
With reason, therefore, since it was needful to prove his body
victorious over death, and that not secretly but before the eyes of
men, he shrank not from the trial, for this indeed would have argued
fear, and a sense of inferiority to the power of death, but maintained
that conflict with the enemy which has rendered mortality immortal; a
conflict undertaken for the life, the immortality, the salvation of
all.
6. Suppose one desired to show us that a vessel could resist the force
of fire; how could he better prove the fact than by casting it into
the furnace and thence withdrawing it entire and unconsumed? Even thus
the Word of God who is the source of life to all, desiring to prove
the triumph of that body over death which he had assumed for man's
salvation, and to make this body partake his own life and immortality,
pursued a course consistent with this object. Leaving his body for a
little while, [3571] and delivering it up to death in proof of its
mortal nature, he soon redeemed it from death, in vindication of that
Divine power whereby he has manifested the immortality which he has
promised to be utterly beyond the sphere of death.
7. The reason of this is clear. It was needful that his disciples
should receive ocular proof of the certainty of that resurrection on
which he had taught them to rest their hopes as a motive for rising
superior to the fear of death. It was indeed most needful that they
who purposed to pursue a life of godliness should receive a clear
impression of this essential truth: more needful still for those who
were destined to declare his name in all the world, and to communicate
to mankind that knowledge of God which he had before ordained for all
nations.
8. For such the strongest conviction of a future life was necessary,
that they might be able with fearless and unshrinking zeal to maintain
the conflict with Gentile and polytheistic error: a conflict the
dangers of which they would never have been prepared to meet, except
as habituated to the contempt of death. Accordingly, in arming his
disciples against the power of this last enemy, he delivered not his
doctrines in mere verbal precepts, nor attempted to prove the soul's
immortality, by persuasive and probable arguments; but displayed to
them in his own person a real victory over death.
9. Such was the first and greatest reason of our Saviour's conflict
with the power of death, whereby he proved to his disciples the
nothingness of that which is the terror of all mankind, and afforded a
visible evidence of the reality of that life which he had promised;
presenting as it were a first-fruit of our common hope, of future life
and immortality in the presence of God.
10. The second cause of his resurrection was, that the Divine power
might be manifested which dwelt in his mortal body. Mankind had
heretofore conferred Divine honors on men who had yielded to the power
of death, and had given the titles of gods and heroes to mortals like
themselves. For this reason, therefore, the Word of God evinced his
gracious character, and proved to man his own superiority over death,
recalling his mortal body to a second life, displaying an immortal
triumph over death in the eyes of all, and teaching them to
acknowledge the Author of such a victory to be the only true God, even
in death itself.
11. I may allege yet a third cause of the Saviour's death. He was the
victim offered to the Supreme Sovereign of the universe for the whole
human race: a victim consecrated for the need of the human race, and
for the overthrow of the errors of demon worship. For as soon as the
one holy and mighty sacrifice, the sacred body of our Saviour, had
been slain for man, to be as a ransom for all nations, heretofore
involved in the guilt of impious superstition, thenceforward the power
of impure and unholy spirits was utterly abolished, and every
earth-born and delusive error was at once weakened and destroyed.
12. Thus, then, this salutary victim taken from among themselves, I
mean the mortal body of the Word, was offered on behalf of the common
race of men. This was that sacrifice delivered up to death, of which
the sacred oracles speak: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world." [3572] And again, as follows: "He was led as a
sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is dumb."
They declare also the cause, saying: "He bears our sins, and is pained
for us: yet we accounted him to be in trouble, and in suffering, and
in affliction. But he was wounded on account of our sins, and bruised
because of our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and by his bruises we were healed. All we as sheep have gone astray;
every one has gone astray in this way; and the Lord gave him up for
our sins." [3573]
13. Such were the causes which led to the offering of the human body
of the Word of God. But forasmuch as he was the great high priest,
consecrated to the Supreme Lord and King, and therefore more than a
victim, the Word, the Power, and the Wisdom of God; he soon recalled
his body from the grasp of death, presented it to his Father as the
first-fruit of our common salvation, and raised this trophy, a proof
at once of his victory over death and Satan, and of the abolition of
human sacrifices, for the blessing of all mankind.
Footnotes
[3571] [These words (as Valesius observes) need not be too rigidly
interpreted.--Bag.]
[3572] John i. 29.
[3573] [Isaiah liii. 4, 5, 6, 7. Septuagint, English translation p.
728.--Bag.] P. 889 of the Bagster ed., 1879. Though the first reasons
make one feel as if the author had been in danger of slighting the
atoning work of the Word, he here very clearly comes up, as usual, to
the Biblical position.
Chapter XVI.
1. And now the time is come for us to proceed to the demonstration of
these things; if indeed such truths require demonstration, and if the
aid of testimony be needful to confirm the certainty of palpable
facts. Such testimony, however, shall be here given; and let it be
received with an attentive and gracious ear.
2. Of old the nations of the earth, the entire human race, were
variously distributed into provincial, national, and local
governments, [3574] subject to kingdoms and principalities of many
kinds. The consequences of this variety were war and strife,
depopulation and captivity, which raged in country and city with
unceasing fury. Hence, too, the countless subjects of history,
adulteries, and rapes of women; hence the woes of Troy, and the
ancient tragedies, so known among all peoples.
3. The origin of these may justly be ascribed to the delusion of
polytheistic error. But when that instrument of our redemption, the
thrice holy body of Christ, which proved itself superior to all
Satanic fraud, and free from evil both in word and deed, was raised,
at once for the abolition of ancient evils, and in token of his
victory over the powers of darkness; the energy of these evil spirits
was at once destroyed. The manifold forms of government, the tyrannies
and republics, the siege of cities, and devastation of countries
caused thereby, were now no more, and one God was proclaimed to all
mankind.
4. At the same time one universal power, the Roman empire, arose and
flourished, while the enduring and implacable hatred of nation against
nation was now removed: and as the knowledge of one God, and one way
of religion and salvation, even the doctrine of Christ, was made known
to all mankind; so at the self-same period, the entire dominion of the
Roman empire being vested in a single sovereign, profound peace
reigned throughout the world. And thus, by the express appointment of
the same God, two roots of blessing, the Roman empire, and the
doctrine of Christian piety, sprang up together for the benefit of
men.
5. For before this time the various countries of the world, as Syria,
Asia, Macedonia, Egypt, and Arabia, had been severally subject to
different rulers. The Jewish people, again, had established their
dominion in the land of Palestine. And these nations, in every
village, city, and district, actuated by some insane spirit, were
engaged in incessant and murderous war and conflict. But two mighty
powers, starting from the same point, the Roman empire, which
henceforth was swayed by a single sovereign, and the Christian
religion, subdued and reconciled these contending elements.
6. Our Saviour's mighty power destroyed at once the many governments
and the many gods of the powers of darkness, and proclaimed to all
men, both rude and civilized, to the extremities of the earth, the
sole sovereignty of God himself. Meantime the Roman empire, the causes
of multiplied governments being thus removed, effected an easy
conquest of those which yet remained; its object being to unite all
nations in one harmonious whole; an object in great measure already
secured, and destined to be still more perfectly attained, even to the
final conquest of the ends of the habitable world, by means of the
salutary doctrine, and through the aid of that Divine power which
facilitates and smooths its way.
7. And surely this must appear a wondrous fact to those who will
examine the question in the love of truth, and desire not to cavil at
these blessings. [3575] The falsehood of demon superstition was
convicted: the inveterate strife and mutual hatred of the nations was
removed: at the same time One God, and the knowledge of that God, were
proclaimed to all: one universal empire prevailed; and the whole human
race, subdued by the controlling power of peace and concord, received
one another as brethren, and responded to the feelings of their common
nature. Hence, as children of one God and Father, and owning true
religion as their common mother, they saluted and welcomed each other
with words of peace. Thus the whole world appeared like one
well-ordered and united family: each one might journey unhindered as
far as and whithersoever he pleased: men might securely travel from
West to East, and from East to West, as to their own native country:
in short, the ancient oracles and predictions of the prophets were
fulfilled, more numerous than we can at present cite, and those
especially which speak as follows concerning the saving Word. "He
shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of
the earth." And again, "In his days shall righteousness spring up; and
abundance of peace." "And they shall beat their swords into
plough-shares, and their spears into sickles: and nation shall not
take up sword against nation, neither shall they learn to war any
more." [3576]
8. These words, predicted ages before in the Hebrew tongue, have
received in our own day a visible fulfillment, by which the
testimonies of the ancient oracles are clearly confirmed. And now, if
thou still desire more ample proof, receive it, not in words, but from
the facts themselves. Open the eyes of thine understanding; expand the
gates of thought; pause awhile, and consider; inquire of thyself as
though thou wert another, and thus diligently examine the nature of
the case. What king or prince in any age of the world, what
philosopher, legislator, or prophet, in civilized or barbarous lands,
has attained so great a height of excellence, I say not after death,
but while living still, and full of mighty power, as to fill the ears
and tongues of all mankind with the praises of his name? Surely none
save our only Saviour has done this, when, after his victory over
death, he spoke the word to his followers, and fulfilled it by the
event, saying to them, "Go ye, and make disciples of all nations in my
name." [3577] He it was who gave the distinct assurance, that his
gospel must be preached in all the world for a testimony to all
nations, and immediately verified his word: for within a little time
the world itself was filled with his doctrine.
9. How, then, will those who caviled at the commencement of my speech
be able to reply to this? For surely the force of ocular testimony is
superior to any verbal argument. Who else than he, with an invisible
and yet potent hand, has driven from human society like savage beasts
that ever noxious and destructive tribe of evil spirits who of old had
made all nations their prey, and by the motions of their images had
practiced many a delusion among men? Who else, beside our Saviour, by
the invocation of his name, and by unfeigned prayer addressed through
him to the Supreme God, has given power to banish from the world the
remnant of those wicked spirits to those who with genuine and sincere
obedience pursue the course of life and conduct which he has himself
prescribed? Who else but our Saviour has taught his followers to offer
those bloodless and reasonable sacrifices which are performed by
prayer and the secret worship of God?
10. Hence is it that throughout the habitable world altars are
erected, and churches dedicated, wherein these spiritual and rational
sacrifices are offered as a sacred service by every nation to the One
Supreme God. Once more, who but he, with invisible and secret power,
has suppressed and utterly abolished those bloody sacrifices which
were offered with fire and smoke, as well as the cruel and senseless
immolation of human victims; a fact which is attested by the heathen
historians themselves? For it was not till after the publication of
the Saviour's Divine doctrine, about the time of Hadrian's reign, that
the practice of human sacrifice was universally abandoned.
11. Such and so manifest are the proofs of our Saviour's power and
energy after death. Who then can be found of spirit so obdurate as to
withhold his assent to the truth, and refuse to acknowledge his life
to be Divine? Such deeds as I have described are done by the living,
not the dead; and visible acts are to us as evidence of those which we
cannot see. It is as it were an event of yesterday that an impious and
godless race disturbed and confounded the peace of human society, and
possessed mighty power. But these, as soon as life departed, lay
prostrate on the earth, worthless as dung, breathless, motionless,
bereft of speech, and have left neither fame nor memorial behind. For
such is the condition of the dead; and he who no longer lives is
nothing: and how can he who is nothing be capable of any act? But how
shall his existence be called in question, whose active power and
energy are greater than in those who are still alive? And though he be
invisible to the natural eye, yet the discerning faculty is not in
outward sense. We do not comprehend the rules of art, or the theories
of science, by bodily sensation; nor has any eye yet discerned the
mind of man. Far less, then, the power of God: and in such cases our
judgment is formed from apparent results.
12. Even thus are we bound to judge of our Saviour's invisible power,
and decide by its manifest effects whether we shall acknowledge the
mighty operations which he is even now carrying on to be the works of
a living agent; or whether they shall be ascribed to one who has no
existence; or, lastly, whether the inquiry be not absurd and
inconsistent in itself. For with what reason can we assert the
existence of one who is not? Since all allow that that which has no
existence is devoid of that power, and energy, and action, for these
are characteristics of the living, but the contrary is characteristic
of the dead.
Footnotes
[3574] Eparchies, ethnarchies, and toparchies.
[3575] This is a fair appeal, applicable to his present hearers. It at
least was true of Constantine's reign, that it produced a state of
relative peace and prosperity.
[3576] [Psalm lxxi. 7, 8; Isaiah ii. 4. Septuagint.--Bag.] Psalm
lxxii., English version.
[3577] Matt. xxviii. 19. There is an interesting various reading here,
where Eusebius, with B. as against Aleph, adds something; but where B.
and others have oun, and D. and others have nun, Eusebius has goun.
Chapter XVII.
1. And now the time is come for us to consider the works of our
Saviour in our own age, and to contemplate the living operations of
the living God. For how shall we describe these mighty works save as
living proofs of the power of a living agent, who truly enjoys the
life of God? If any one inquire the nature of these works, let him now
attend.
2. But recently a class of persons, impelled by furious zeal, and
backed by equal power and military force, evinced their enmity against
God, by destroying his churches, and overthrowing from their
foundations the buildings dedicated to his worship. In short, in every
way they directed their attacks against the unseen God, and assailed
him with a thousand shafts of impious words. But he who is invisible
avenged himself with an invisible hand.
3. By the single fiat of his will his enemies were utterly destroyed,
they who a little while before had been flourishing in great
prosperity, exalted by their fellow men as worthy of divine honor, and
blessed with a continued period of power and glory, [3578] so long as
they had maintained peace and amity with him whom they afterwards
opposed. As soon, however, as they dared openly to resist his will,
and to set their gods in array against him whom we adore; immediately,
according to the will and power of that God against whom their arms
were raised, they all received the judgment due to their audacious
deeds. Constrained to yield and flee before his power, together they
acknowledged his Divine nature, and hastened to reverse the measures
which they had before essayed.
4. Our Saviour, therefore, without delay erected trophies of this
victory everywhere, and once more adorned the world with holy temples
and consecrated houses of prayer; in every city and village, nay,
throughout all countries, and even in barbaric wilds, ordaining the
erection of churches and sacred buildings to the honor of the Supreme
God and Lord of all. Hence it is that these hallowed edifices are
deemed worthy to bear his name, and receive not their appellation from
men, but from the Lord himself, from which circumstances they are
called churches (or houses of the Lord). [3579]
5. And now let him who will stand forth and tell us who, after so
complete a desolation, has restored these sacred buildings from
foundation to roof? Who, when all hope appeared extinct, has caused
them to rise on a nobler scale than heretofore? And well may it claim
our wonder, that this renovation was not subsequent to the death of
those adversaries of God, but whilst the destroyers of these edifices
were still alive; so that the recantation of their evil deeds came in
their own words and edicts. [3580] And this they did, not in the
sunshine of prosperity and ease (for then we might suppose that
benevolence or clemency might be the cause), but at the very time that
they were suffering under the stroke of Divine vengeance.
6. Who, again, has been able to retain in obedience to his heavenly
precepts, after so many successive storms of persecution, nay, in the
very crisis of danger, so many persons throughout the world devoted to
philosophy, and the service of God and those holy choirs of virgins
who had dedicated themselves to a life of perpetual chastity and
purity? Who taught them cheerfully to persevere in the exercise of
protracted fasting, and to embrace a life of severe and consistent
self-denial? Who has persuaded multitudes of either sex to devote
themselves to the study of sacred things, and prefer to bodily
nutriment that intellectual food which is suited to the wants of a
rational soul? [3581] Who has instructed barbarians and peasants, yea,
feeble women, slaves, and children, in short, unnumbered multitudes of
all nations, to live in the contempt of death; persuaded of the
immortality of their souls, conscious that human actions are observed
by the unerring eye of justice, expecting God's award to the righteous
and the wicked, and therefore true to the practice of a just and
virtuous life? For they could not otherwise have persevered in the
course of godliness. Surely these are the acts which our Saviour, and
he alone, even now performs.
7. And now let us pass from these topics, and endeavor by inquiries
such as these that follow to convince the objector's obdurate
understanding. Come forward, then, whoever thou art, and speak the
words of reason: utter, not the thoughts of a senseless heart, but
those of an intelligent and enlightened mind: speak, I say, after deep
solemn converse with thyself. Who of the sages whose names have yet
been known to fame, has ever been fore-known and proclaimed from the
remotest ages, as our Saviour was by the prophetic oracles to the once
divinely-favored Hebrew nation? But his very birth-place, the period
of his advent the manner of his life, his miracles, and words and
mighty acts, were anticipated and recorded in the sacred volumes of
these prophets.
8. Again, who so present an avenger of crimes against himself; so
that, as the immediate consequence of their impiety, the entire Jewish
people were scattered by an unseen power, their royal seat utterly
removed, and their very temple with its holy things levelled with the
ground? Who, like our Saviour, has uttered predictions at once
concerning that impious nation and the establishment of his church
throughout the world, and has equally verified both by the event?
Respecting the temple of these wicked men, our Saviour said: "Your
house is left unto you desolate": [3582] and, "There shall not be left
one stone upon another in this place, that shall not be thrown down."
[3583] And again, of his church he says: "I will build my church upon
a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." [3584]
9. How wondrous, too, must that power be deemed which summoned obscure
and unlettered men from their fisher's trade, and made them the
legislators and instructors of the human race! And how clear a
demonstration of his deity do we find in the promise so well
performed, that he would make them fishers of men: in the power and
energy which he bestowed, so that they composed and published writings
of such authority that they were translated into every civilized and
barbarous language, [3585] were read and pondered by all nations, and
the doctrines contained in them accredited as the oracles of God!
10. How marvelous his predictions of the future, and the testimony
whereby his disciples were forewarned that they should be brought
before kings and rulers, and should endure the severest punishments,
not indeed as criminals, but simply for their confession of his name!
Or who shall adequately describe the power with which he prepared them
thus to suffer with a willing mind, and enabled them, strong in the
armor of godliness, to maintain a constancy of spirit indomitable in
the midst of conflict?
11. Or how shall we enough admire that steadfast firmness of soul
which strengthened, not merely his immediate followers, but their
successors also, even to our present age, in the joyful endurance of
every infliction, and every form of torture, in proof of their
devotion to the Supreme God? Again, what monarch has prolonged his
government through so vast a series of ages? Who else has power to
make war after death, to triumph over every enemy, to subjugate each
barbarous and civilized nation and city, and to subdue his adversaries
with an invisible and secret hand?
12. Lastly, and chief of all, what slanderous lip shall dare to
question that universal peace to which we have already referred;
established by his power throughout the world? [3586] For thus the
mutual concord and harmony of all nations coincided in point of time
with the extension of our Saviour's doctrine and preaching in all the
world: a concurrence of events predicted in long ages past by the
prophets of God. The day itself would fail me, gracious emperor,
should I attempt to exhibit in a single view those cogent proofs of
our Saviour's Divine power which even now are visible in their
effects; for no human being, in civilized or barbarous nations, has
ever yet exhibited such power of Divine virtue as our Saviour.
13. But why do I speak of men, since of the beings whom all nations
have deemed divine, none has appeared on earth with power like to his?
If there has, let the fact now be proved. Come forward, ye
philosophers, and tell us what god or hero has yet been known to fame,
who has delivered the doctrines of eternal life and a heavenly kingdom
as he has done who is our Saviour? Who, like him, has persuaded
multitudes throughout the world to pursue the principles of Divine
wisdom, to fix their hope on heaven itself, and look forward to the
mansions there reserved for them that love God? What god or hero in
human form has ever held his course from the rising to the setting
sun, a course co-extensive as it were with the solar light, and
irradiated mankind with the bright and glorious beams of his doctrine,
causing each nation of the earth to render united worship to the One
true God? What god or hero yet, as he has done, has set aside all gods
and heroes among civilized or barbarous nations; has ordained that
divine honors should be withheld from all, and claimed obedience to
that command: and then, though singly conflicting with the power of
all, has utterly destroyed the opposing hosts; victorious over the
gods and heroes of every age, and causing himself alone, in every
region of the habitable world, to be acknowledged by all people as the
only Son of God?
14. Who else has commanded the nations inhabiting the continents and
islands of this mighty globe to assemble weekly on the Lord's day, and
to observe it as a festival, not indeed for the pampering of the body,
but for the invigoration of the soul by instruction in Divine truth?
What god or hero, exposed, as our Saviour was, to so sore a conflict,
has raised the trophy of victory over every foe? For they indeed, from
first to last, unceasingly assailed his doctrine and his people: but
he who is invisible, by the exercise of a secret power, has raised his
servants and the sacred houses of their worship to the height of
glory.
But why should we still vainly aim at detailing those Divine proofs of
our Saviour's power which no language can worthily express; which need
indeed no words of ours, but themselves appeal in loudest tones to
those whose mental ears are open to the truth? Surely it is a strange,
a wondrous fact, unparalleled in the annals of human life; that the
blessings we have described should be accorded to our mortal race, and
that he who is in truth the only, the eternal Son of God, should thus
be visible on earth.
Footnotes
[3578] [Referring to Diocletian, and others of the persecuting
emperors.--Bag.]
[3579] [Kuriakon exiontai ton eponumion. The German "Kirche," the
Scotch "Kirk," and the English "Church" are said, probably enough, to
derive their origin from this Greek word.--Bag.]
[3580] Compare literature on the edicts of toleration.
[3581] [There is nothing which need surprise us in the praises of
virginity, monkery, and asceticism, in a writer of the fourth century.
The intelligent Christian will surely shrink from the thought of
ascribing, with Eusebius, these fruitful sources of corruption to the
Lord himself.--Bag.]
[3582] Matt. xxiii. 38.
[3583] Matt. xxiv. 2,--apparently a paraphrase from memory.
[3584] Matt. xvi. 18.
[3585] The Syriac, Peschito, and possibly the Curetonian, the old
Latin (Itala), probably both the Thebaic and Memphitic Coptic
versions, at least, had been made at this time.
[3586] [The peace which Christ, at his birth, bestowed on the Roman
world (Valesius).--Bag.]
Chapter XVIII.
1. These words of ours, however, [gracious] Sovereign, may well appear
superfluous in your ears, convinced as you are, by frequent and
personal experience, of our Saviour's Deity; yourself also, in actions
still more than words, a herald of the truth to all mankind. Yourself,
it may be, will vouchsafe at a time of leisure to relate to us the
abundant manifestations which your Saviour has accorded you of his
presence, and the oft-repeated visions of himself which have attended
you in the hours of sleep. I speak not of those secret suggestions
which to us are unrevealed: but of those principles which he has
instilled into your own mind, and which are fraught with general
interest and benefit to the human race. You will yourself relate in
worthy terms the visible protection which your Divine shield and
guardian has extended in the hour of battle; the ruin of your open and
secret foes; and his ready aid in time of peril. To him you will
ascribe relief in the midst of perplexity; defence in solitude;
expedients in extremity; foreknowledge of events yet future; your
forethought for the general weal; your power to investigate uncertain
questions; your conduct of most important enterprises; your
administration of civil affairs; [3587] your military arrangements,
and correction of abuses in all departments; your ordinances
respecting public right; and, lastly, your legislation for the common
benefit of all. You will, it may be, also detail to us those
particulars of his favor which are secret to us, but known to you
alone, and treasured in your royal memory as in secret storehouses.
Such, doubtless, are the reasons, and such the convincing proofs of
your Saviour's power, which caused you to raise that sacred edifice
which presents to all, believers and unbelievers alike, a trophy of
his victory over death, a holy temple of the holy God: to consecrate
those noble and splendid monuments of immortal life and his heavenly
kingdom: to offer memorials of our Almighty Saviour's conquest which
well become the imperial dignity of him by whom they are bestowed.
With such memorials have you adorned that edifice which witnesses of
eternal life: thus, as it were in imperial characters, ascribing
victory and triumph to the heavenly Word of God: thus proclaiming to
all nations, with clear and unmistakable voice, in deed and word, your
own devout and pious confession of his name.
Footnotes
[3587] Literally, "Your political economies."
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