pupil of Arnobius, from whence he was removed by Diocletian to Nicomedia in Bythinia, and afterwards into Gaul to be the instructor of Crispus, the son of Constantine. His writings have been placed between A. D. 302 and 320. His seven books of institutions, his book on the anger of God, and another on the work of God have survived unto our day. The book on the deaths of the persecutors is not in his style. It must nevertheless have been written by some person, soon after the Diocletian persecution. In one passage in Ch. xv. the writer says, "Comprehensi Presbyteri ac ministri, et sine ulla probatione ad confessionem damnati, cum omnibus suis deducebantur:" which Dr. Burnet has rendered; "Some presbyters and deacons were seized on, and without any proof against them, they were condemned and executed." If the "cum omnibus suis," be meant of the people whose worship they conducted, we have the primitive idea of a church; but howsoever understood, there is no evidence either of the exaltation, or prostration of the one original ordinary_preaching office. The several poems attri buted to Lactantius are unworthy of credit. His numerous doctrinal mistakes are of common observation, and in some editions collected into one view. Not having been an ecclesiastic, his religion, like that of Justin, Tatian and Arnobius appears to have been his philosophy. Lactantius speaks with much commendation both of Tertullian and Cyprian, but has left, we believe, not a word of the clerical standing or grade of any one in the church."

n Lactant. Institut. Lib. v. S. 1.

SECTION X.

Eusebius, his character, an Arian; his object power.-In favor with Constantine. His advantages, credulity, and cunning great.-Ecclesiastic authority having been conferred upon the Christians by an establishment in his day, he aimed to conceal the truth of the former state of the church.-His history presents the poor and persecuted pastors of single churches in the dress of the bishops, whom Constantine in the fourth century had elevated to rank and power.-The permission of one church in a city, the position that the Holy Ghost was communicated only by the hands of the presiding presbyter, or bishop, required only increase of numbers to produce diocesan episcopacy, for which the church was ripe at the council of Nice.

EUSEBIUS, distinguished by the additions Pamphilus, Cæsariensis, and Palæstinus, received his Christian instruction from Dorotheus, a presbyter of Antioch : his parentage is unknown. The intimate friend of Pamphilus, he taught in his school at Cesarea, after whose martyrdom, A. D. 300, he assumed his name; and, sometime prior to 320, became bishop of the church in that city.

Not less a courtier than theologist, he gained and preserved the confidence of Constantine, and was honored with more than ordinary familiarity. To him was assigned the first seat at the emperor's right hand in the council of Nice, and to address him in their behalf.a He was also appointed to dedicate Constantine's temple at Jerusalem; and, at different times, to make two public orations, at the palace at Constantinople.

Jerom calls Eusebius a defender and standard

a Some think Eustathius, and others that Alexander had this honor, but the omission of the name by Eusebius, (Life of Constantine, lib. iii. c. xi.) unless he had been the person had been inexcusable.

bearer of the Arian faction.b It was also the judgment of Photiuse that he was an Arian blasphemer. He denominated Christ "a philosopher, and a truly pious man;" often spoke of Christianity as a restoration of the ancient religion of nature, and a substitution of moral virtues in the place of bloody sacrifices; and always inveighed against the consubstantiality, oμoovoia, of the Son as Sabellianism. If this were the only spot in his character, however fatal to himself, it would not prevent his competency as a witness; but his disingenuousness, a trait of character appearing in his profession of religion, his doctrines, his conduct in the council of Nice, his treatment of the Athanasians, in his adulation of Constantine, and his representations of the sacred canon, must affect the credibility of the historical representations he has given of the church. His Christianity was philosophy, his piety prudence, and his highest zeal the establishment of the visible church. That he sacrificed to idols, and thus escaped martyrdom, was openly charged upon him, and believed. Such prudent policy restrained the violence of passion, and saved him from much open opposition.

He wrote fifteen books of evangelical preparation, and twenty of evangelical demonstration; of the latter, the first ten only remain. Next followed his Chronicle, and then his Ecclesiastical History, in ten books. He also left four books of the life of Constantine; a treatise against Hierocles, in defence of Christianity; five books against Marcellus; a small gazetteer of the Scriptures, in two books, but the last only survives; an Oration in praise of Constantine; com

b-impietatis Arii apertissimus propugnator. Vol. i. p. 483. Ariane-signifer factionis. Page 493.

ο Εν πολλοις εστιν αυτον ιδειν τον υιον βλασφημούντα, και δευτερον αίτιον καλουντα—και αλλα τινα Αρειανικής λυσσης.—Photii Biblioth. p. 12.

1 — Φιλοσοφος αρα, και αληθείς ευσεβης. Dem. Evang. Lib. iii. p. 127.

mentaries on the Psalms and on Isaiah. His numerous other works have perished.

It was in the life-time of Eusebius, and much owing to his influence, that the Christian church received the accession of worldly power, riches, and honor, temptations of baleful influence. His advantages for writing a history were great; he mentions his access to the library collected by Pamphiluse and to that also of Alexander at Jerusalem, but the intimate of Constantine might command whatever evidence the civilized world possessed. What he wrote of his own days, is more credible; his account of the earlier ages of the church obviously bears, whether intentionally or not, a conformity to the then modern ideas of episcopal domination. And so careful has he been to conceal the gradual progress of the goo7wles, presiding presbyters, into the parochial, diocesan, and metropolitan bishops, that Blondell was able to find in his works, but three passages, in which he could discover a hint of the ancient state of things; and even those three have been written with so much caution, that they must be abandoned as doubtful proofs. His credulity in some things, forms so strange a contrast with his discernment and caution in others, that their consistency is an enigma, solvible only at the expense of his moral character. The success of a prayer of a deceased martyr, and her apparition to Basilicles; the efficacy of the prayer of Narcissus, whereby water was turned to oil and of a piece of sacramental bread, sent by a child to a dying man for the removal of his guilt, appear to have been firmly believed by Eusebius. But how a rational believer, who prized the Christian religion only as a system of philosophy, could have been firmly persuaded of such incredible things, is a difficult problem.

i

When he denominates those by whom the first pro

e Eccles. Hist. Lib. vi. c. 8.

g Lib. vi. c. 5.

i Ibid. c. 44.

f Ibid. Lib. vi. c. 22.

h Ibid. c. 9.

mulgation of the gospel was effected, evangelists and apostles, ευαγγελιστων και αποστολων, he follows the Scriptures; and when describing a period somewhat later, he substitutes pastors and evangelists, ποιμενες και ευαγ γελισται, he is still not censurable, if by ποιμενες he intended the bench of presbyters in every church; but if by pastors, be meant the goo7w7εs, presidents only of the respective congregations, he misrepresents the condition of the churches, at the period of which he there treats. And this sense is most probable, because he has used лgoε077es and noμeves as convertible terms.m It had been in the preceding ages accounted one characteristic of the orthodoxy of a church, that it could show a line of presiding presbyters, or bishops, from the days of the apostles; and we have seen, that Irenæus and others, have been careful to record their names; Eusebius, from motives of another kind, not to be mistaken, has devoted a number of his chapters to the perpetuation of the successions in the original churches; and has noticed, with great emphasis, many individuals of different ages, in distinct chapters, the enumeration of whose names, with whatever he has said of them, might have been exhibited together, with far less labor, but not with equal pomp. His efforts have had their premeditated effect. He has clothed the early presiding bishops in the dress of bishops of the fourth century. His example has been followed. It has been asserted, "that it is as impossible to doubt, whether there was a succession of bishops from the apostles, as it would be to call in question the succession of Roman emperors from Julius Cæsar." This is true of the name, but a misrepresentation of facts. The imperatores, among the Romans, when the word came first into use, differed not more in power and dignity from those emperors who afterwards governed the civilized world, than the bench of presbyters, or bishops, whom the apostles and evange

k Lib. iii. c. 3.

m Lib. viii, 2d. Suppt. c. 12.

1 Lib. iii. c. 37.