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dæis aspernatur cruenta illa animalium sacrificia, quæ et Judaici cultus pars erant insignis, et sibi per vim erepta Judei, si minus usu, saltem animo et voluntate retinebant. Pluribus aliis contigit Judeos eodem modo exagitare. S. Phileas Martyr de Judæis sic loquitur, Act. Mart. p. 444. "Solis Judeis præceptum fuerat sacrificare "Deo soli in Jerosolyma. Nunc autem peccant Judæi in locis aliis solemnia sua celebrantes, &c." Præf. p. 75.

I cannot believe that this epistle was written by Justin Martyr; for Justin would have managed the argument better, and have omitted neither the prophecies, nor the miracles. The author seems to have been some Gentile converted to Christianity, who had perused Justin's Cohortatio ad Græcos.

Justin begins it thus : ̓Αρχόμενος τῆς πρὸς ὑμᾶς παραινέσεως, ὦ ἄνδρες Ελληνες, εὔχομαι τῷ Θεῷ ἐμοὶ μὲν ὑπάρξαι, τὰ δέ αλλα πρὸς ὑμᾶς εἰπεῖν· ὑμᾶς δὲ, τῆς προτέρας αφεμένος φιλονεικίας, καὶ τῆς τῶν προγόνων πλάνης ἀπαλλαγέντας, ἐλέσθαι τὰ λυσιτελόνια ruri. Cohortationem apud vos, Græci, instituens, Deum precor, ut mihi quidem apud vos, ut par est, dicere contingat; vos autem pristinam pertinaciam relinquentes, et a majorum discedentes errore, que utilia sunt in præsentia eligatis. This is an imitation of the exordium in the oration of Demosthenes for Ctesiphon and as Justin imitates Demosthenes, so the writer of the Epistle imitates Justin-παρὰ τὸ Θεό, τι καὶ τὸ λέγ{ν καὶ τὸ ἀκέιν ἡμῖν χωρηγώνιος, αὐτομαι δοθῆναι ἐμοὶ μὲν εἰπᾶν ὅτως, ὡς μάλισα ἂν ἀκα

σαι

· [ακάσαντά] σε βελτίω γενέσθαι οί τε [δὲ] ὕτως ἀκᾶσαι, ὡς μὴ avæntñvaι Tò eitóvla. Peto a Deo, qui et loquendi et audiendi nobis facultatem suppeditat, ut ab eo detur, mihi quidem, ita verba facere ut in primis contingat, te, postquam audieris, meliorem evadere; et tibi, ita audire, ut tristitia non afficiatur is qui verba fecerit.

This is said well enough:

amphora capit

Institui; currente rota, cur urceus exit? The epistle has a few chasms, but there seems to be only a little of it that is lost. It was perhaps an exercise, or declamation, addressed to a great man, with whom the author had no acquaintance; as some modern epistles to the pope, and to Lewis the fourteenth, which were never presented.

As I have had occasion to mention Tillemont, and shall probably often cite him hereafter, I take this opportunity to own my obligations to him for his useful and laborious collections. After this due respect and acknowledgment, I hope it will be permitted to make a few observations which may do others some good, and can now do him no harm, nor destroy the peace which I believe he enjoys in a better world.

His history of the emperors is very valuable; but he has filled his other books with an account of trifling, absurd, ridiculous miracles.

He never affirms facts without vouchers, but he often makes use of bad ones in his Ecclesiastical History, and builds upon a sandy foundation, upon the testimony of forgers, fanatics, and of interested persons, who write in their own behalf, and want to discredit their adversaries.

He commonly proceeds upon a supposition that they who have obtained the honour of Ecclesiastical knighthood, and are called saints, are all excellent men, and entirely to be trusted, and that all they who were, or were accounted heterodox, are to be little regarded, and held in bad esteem.

He seems to have been a pious, humble, meek and modest, as well as a very learned and accurate man;

and

and yet he cannot forbear insulting Protestant writers as heretics, even those to whom he and the Christian world had great obligations, as Usher, Pearson, &c. He takes all opportunities, and sometimes goes out of his way to seek opportunities, of inculcating the horrible doctrine that the very best of Pagans, heretics, and schismatics are condemned to suffer eternal tortures. Speaking of young Tiberius, who was murdered by order of the Emperor Caius, and compelled by the soldiers, as Philo relates it, to thrust a sword into his own body, he concludes the melancholy tale with this reflection,-Thus by his own hand he ended his miserable life, to begin another the misery of which will never end. Hist. des Emp. i. p. 142. Observe that this unhappy youth was then but nineteen years of age, that he had been bred up at court under Tiberius, in a sort of genteel prison, that probably he had never heard Christianity even mentioned, and that history relates no one bad thing concerning him: So that the Pagan ignorance of this child was altogether invincible, and might have been thought sufficient to qualify him at least for purgatory.

Tantum relligio potuit suadere malorum!

It is remarkable that in the little edition of Tillemont the passage stands thus-he ended his miserable life, what follows was added afterwards in the quarto edit. whence we may learn that the good man, as he grew older, grew more uncharitable in his religious notions. The apophthegm of Horace is not always true,

Lenit albescens animos capillus.

The hoary heads of some persons are like mount Etna, where the snow and the fire dwell together in strict friendship.

Sed,

Sed, quamvis nimio fercens exuberet œstú,
Scit nivibus servare fidem

Claudian Rapt. Pros. i. 165.

These are some of the doctrines which have unhap pily helped to propagate Atheism or Deism, and have made many a man say to himself, If this be Christi anity, let my soul be with the philosophers.

The old Christians were more charitable, and had nobler sentiments of the Divine benignity. Justin Martyr, in his Apology, i. 46. speaks handsomely of Socrates and of other worthy men in the Pagan world, and represents them as a sort of Christians, and doubtless entertained favourable thoughts of their future state. Τὸν Χρισὸν πρωτότοκον τα Θεῖ εἶναι ἐδιδάχθημεν, και προς μηνύσαμεν λόγον όυλα, τα πᾶν γένος ἀνθρώπων μετέσχε καὶ οἱ μελά λόγο βιώσαντες, Χρισιανοί εἰσι, καν ἄθεοι ἐνομίσθησαν. οἷον ἐν Ἕλλησι μὲν Σωκράτης και Ηράκλειτος, καὶ οἱ ὅμοιοι αὐτοῖς—ὥσε καὶ οἱ προγενόμενοι ἄνευ λόγο βιώσαντες, ἄχρησοι καὶ ἐχθρὸς τῷ Χρισῷ ἦσαν, και φονεῖς τῶν μετὰ λόγω βιάνων· οἱ δὲ μετὰ λόγε βιώσαντες, και βιόλες, Χρισιανοί καὶ ἄφοβοι, καὶ ἀτάραχοι ὑπάρχουσι. Christum primogenitum Dei esse ac Rationem illam, cujus omne hominum genus particeps est, didicimus, et supra declaravimus. Et qui cum ratione vixerunt, Christiani sunt, etiamsi athei existimati sint; quales apud Græcos fuere Socrates et Heraclitus, iisque similes-Similiter qui olim absque ratione vixere, improbi et Christo inimici fuere, et eorum qui cum ratione vivebant, homicide. Qui vero cum ratione vixerunt et vivunt, Christiani sunt, atque impavidi atque intrepidi. Ed. Paris. 1742. Now turn to the preface, pag. xxxii. and see the Benedictin Editor, fighting for a theological system which has nothing at all to do with an edition of Justin, and taking great pains to clear the good father from the shameful imputation of supposing that a virtuous Pagan might be sa

ved, as well as a monk.

say

What will the Benedictin

for Clemens Alexandrinus? This learned and good-natured father was of opinion that Christ and his apostles preached the gospel in hades to the dead, and that the souls which repented and believed were received to favour ; ἐπεί (ωτήριοι, και παιδευτικαὶ αἱ * κολάσεις τῇ Θεό, εἷς ἐπιτροφὴν ἄγεσαι, καὶ τὴν μετάνοιαν το αμαρτωλός μάλλον ἢ τὸν θάνατον αἱρόμενοι· καὶ ταῦτα καθαρώτερον διορᾷν δυναμένων τῶν σωμάτων ἀπηλλαγμένων ψυχῶν, καν πάθεσιν ἐπισκοτῶνται, διὰ τὸ μη κάτι ΕΠΙΠΡΟΣΘΕΣΘΑΙ (αρχίῳ. Sunt enim salutares, et que erudiunt, Dei castigationes, adducentes ad converquæ sionem, et potius poenitentiam peccatoris eligentes quam mortem: idque præcipue cum possint animæ purius perspicere, quæ sunt liberæ a corporibus, etiamsi obscurentur perturbutionibus, eo quod non se amplius eis opponat et impediat caruncula.

I think it should be,―ipoodãodas (apní, obnubilari, from it. For the corrections of God are salutary, and instructive, leading to amendment, and preferring the repentance to the death of a sinner; and souls in their separate state, though obumbrated with perturbations, yet have a clearer discernment, than they had whilst they were in the body, as they are no longer clouded and encumbered with the flesh. Strom. vi. p. 764. See also p. 794. and the notes.

Ix

Διαφέρει δὲ τιμωρία ἢ κόλασις· ἡ μὲν γὰρ κόλασις τῇ πάσχοντος ἕνεκα isiv. ǹ dè ripwgic rỡ wares says Aristotle. In Xenophon. Oecon. terra xong, i. e. emendatur. See A. Gellius vi. 14. Og de τιμωρείται. ἔτι γὰρ ἡ τιμωρία, κατὰ ἀνταπόδοσις· κολαζει μέντοι πρὸς τὸ χρήσιμον – κοινῇ καὶ ἰδία τοῖς κολαζομένοις. Clemens Strom. vii. p. 895. Origin was of the same opinion, and perhaps carried it

somewhat farther.

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