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Medieval Sourcebook:
Eusebius of Caesarea
Oration in Praise of the Emperor Constantine
The emperor Constantine is celebrated as a saint in the Orthodox
Church, although not the Western Church. His great merit, from
a Christian point of view, was in legalizing Christianity. His
personal activities in other areas are less appealing.
EUSEBIUS PAMPHILUS OF CAESAREA
ORATION IN PRAISE OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE, PRONOUNCED ON
THE THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS REIGN.
[The Bagster translation, revised by Ernest Cushing Richardson,
Ph.D., Librarian and Associate Professor in Hartford Theological
Seminary. Full ref at end.]
I. Prologue to the Oration.(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 lorry 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, (2) 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 earn of men by a narrative of merely human
merits. Those, how- ever who are initiated into the universal
science, (3) 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 man- kind (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 emperors 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, (4) be our instructors in
these mysteries; speaking to us of sovereignty, generally: 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.
CHAPTER I: The Oration.
1. TODAY 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.(1) 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, 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 Caesars, 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.
(2) 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 exhaust-less 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, alternatively 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, [3] 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. [4]
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,
[5] who is over and in all things, and pervades all things [6]
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.
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, [1] 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; [2] 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, 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.
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. [1] 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 Caesars, [2]
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." [3] 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 Caesars, 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; [4]
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 Caesars [5] 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.
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?
3. Surely there was but one interpreter of these things; the all-pervading
Word of God. [1] 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 outflowings 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,
[2] 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.
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.
3. 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. For how should he whose
soul is impressed with a thousand absurd images of false deities,
[1] 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? Let,
4. 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.[2]
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 a 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. [4] 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,
I 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.
CHAPTER VI.
1. AND God himself, as an earnest of future reward, assigns to
him now as it were tricennial crowns [1] 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 [2] 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, [3] and bears him as it were mounted on itself, rejoicing
in the fair trappings which he bestows. [4] And he himself, not
binding it, as the poet imagined, with a golden chain, [5] 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, [6] 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. [7] 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 stab 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 land 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 11. triads ten times repeated. 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. [8] 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 13. from any. 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
16. motion. 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.
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: [1] 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. [2] 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: [8] 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 l 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? 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 [5] 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. [6]
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, 6. 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. It was a school of wickedness for
all the abandoned rotaries 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. [1]
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.
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, [1] 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? 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 his 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. [3] Such
was his work here. 16. 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. [4] 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.
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. His praise is everywhere
sung in triumphant strains: the voice of mortal man is blended
with the harmony of the angelic choirs in heaven; 6. 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. [1]
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 [1] 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." [2] And again, "I am not come to call the
righteous, but sinners, to repentance." [3] And he adds the
reason, saying, "For they that are whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick." [4] And again, "I desire not
the death of a sinner, but rather that he should repent."
[5]
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, [6] 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 [7]
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. [8]
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, [1] apart from all corporeal
essence, distinct from all subordinate ministration. Hence it
is said that all things are from him, but not through him. [2]
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 I parent of the word itself. [3] 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), [4] proceeds from his Father's
Deity and kingdom.[5] 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, [6] 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 be- stows 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 any. thing made that hath been made"; as we learn
from the words of the sacred writer.[7] 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: [8] 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: [9]
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, [10]
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 Iris 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, [11] but of that system of perfect harmony which is the
workmanship of the One world- creating Word. [12]
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, (1) 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, (2) 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 (3) in shameful pleasure,
they described under the titles of Cupid, Priapus, Venus, (4)
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, AEsculapius, 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,
(5) and others; mere mortals, and with little claim to honor:
the Arabians, Dusaris (6) and Obodas: the Getae, Zamolxis: the
Cicilians, Mopsus: and the Thebans, Amphiaraus: (7) 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, (8) 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, (9) and the daughter of Erechtheus.
(10) 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, (11) 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, (12)
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 unseemliness,
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.
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 (1) 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. (2) 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.
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,
(1) 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 l 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."
(2) 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.'' (3)
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.
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,
(1) 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 laud 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. (2) 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.'' (3)
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 weft 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.'' (4) 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.
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, (1) 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).(2) 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. (3) 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? (4) 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": (5) and, "There shall not be left
one stone upon another in this place, that shall not be thrown
down." (6) 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." (7) 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 languages 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. 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 chimed 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.
CHAPTER XVIII.
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 her-aid 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 at-tended 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 fore thought for the general weal; your
power to investigate uncertain questions; your conduct of most
important enterprises; your administration of civil affairs; (1)
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.
from Volume I, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series,
ed. P. Schaff and H. Wace, (Edinburgh: repr. Grand Rapids MI:
Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1955) yhe digital version is by The Electronic
Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
This text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book.
The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted
texts related to medieval and Byzantine history.
Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the
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No permission is granted for commercial use.
© Paul Halsall May 1997
halsall@murray.fordham.edu
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