The Secret Vault presents: The Christian and Pagan Creeds Collated. Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
By the Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
Origen, 230AD
It is only necessary to follow the isoteric or interior evidences of the Christian religion below the close of the second century, for the sake of bringing the reader acquainted with the two most distinguished persons that ever were concerned with it; Origen, its most distinguished priest, and Constantine, its most distinguished patron. Origen, was born in that great cradle and nursery of all superstition, Egypt, in the year 184 or 185 - that is, the fifth or sixth of the Emperor Commodus, and died in the sixty- ninth or seventieth year of his age, AD. 253. Though Eusebius flatly denies the assertion of Porphyry, that Origen had been originally a heathen, - and was afterwards converted to Christianity, yet Origen is proud to vindicate to himself his imitation of his predecessor, Pantaenus, in the study of profane learning. He had studied under that celebrated philosopher, Ammonius Saccus, who, in the second century, had taught that
"Christianity and Paganism when rightly understood, differed in no essential points, but had a common origin, and really were one and the same religion, nothing but the schismatical trickery of fanatical adventurers, who sought to bring over the trade and profits of spiritualizing into their own hands, having introduced a distinction where in reality there was no difference."
This was unquestionably the orthodox doctrine of the second century, and it so entirely quadrates with all the historical phenomena, that one cannot but hold it honourable both to Origen's head and heart, that he has owned his early proficiency in the Ammonian philosophy, under this, its illustrious master.
Leonides, the father of Origen, is said to have suffered martyrdom, and to have been encouraged thereto by Origen (who was the oldest of his seven children) when not quite seventeen years of age: a fact, which if it were credible, would bear a very equivocal reading.
In the sincerity of his devotion to the cause of Monkery - from which Christianity is unquestionably derived "he was guilty of that rash act so well known," which he held to be his duty as inculcated by Christ in the celebrated Matt. xix. 12. His conduct at least demonstrates the existence of the text, as of high and unquestionable antiquity in his time, and the sincere prostration of his mind to its constraining authority.
This argument, adroitly handled, would constitute one of the very strongest evidences of Christianity: and played off with the blustering airs of sanctifi cation and parade of learning, which are generally called in to the aid of canonical sophistication, might much puzzle the Sciolist in these studies. The difficulty, however, is instantly dissipated upon collation of the character of the text itself, with the facts of history which this Diegesis supplies.
1. The text itself is unworthy of the character of rational and moral inculcation which Christians generally challenge for the discourses of their divine master.
2. It goes not to the extent of an institution of the practice there spoken of.
3. The practice is allowed, approved, and sanctioned, but not positively enjoined or commanded.
4. The text implies the historical fact of such a practice having existed long anterior to the time of the speaker; -and
5. Necessarily supposes the antiquity and notoriety of its prevalence. - This it is,
"But he said unto them, all men cannot receive this doctrine, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs which were so horn from their mother's womb, and there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men, and there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."
The Jewish law, which Sitricily forbad the making any sort of cuttings in the flesh and allowed not a eunuch so much as to enter into the congregation of the Lord, [Deut. xxiii. 1.] stands in resistless demonstration of the fact, that these eunuchs were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. We have to look then (where we shall assuredly find them,) to the monks of Egypt, who practised these excisions, and whose sacred books were none other than the original, or first written tale, from which our three first gospels are derived [Such was the opinion of Eusebius himself.] which had contained the whole gospel story and system of doctrine as imported from India, had been kept in the secret archives of their monastery, and held binding on the consciences of all the friars of their monkish society, long anterior to the times of Augustus, in whose reign, or soon after, we may suppose the three evangelists to have been appointed by the Alexandrian College to give authenticated versions of them into the Greek language, for the purpose of the more extensive propagation of monkery.
It has been said of Origen, that he had written six thousand volumes. St. Jerom asserts of him, that he had written more than any man could read. And it is from his unwearied pains in reading and writing that some think he had the name Aldamantius - under which, not without occasioning considerable perplexity, his writings are sometimes quoted. Lardner thus sums up his character; "He had a capacious mind, and a large compass of knowledge, and throughout his whole life was a man of unwearied application in studying and composing works of various sorts. He had the happiness of uniting different accomplishments, being at once the greatest preacher and the most learned and voluminous writer of the age: nor is it easy to say which is most admirable, his learning or his virtue. In a word, it must be owned, that Origen, though not perfect, nor infallible, was a bright light in the church of Christ, and one of those rare personages that have done honour to the human nature." [Lardner, vol. i. p. 528.]
He is undoubtedly the most distinguished personage in the whole drama of the Christian evidences, nor can any man who believes Christianity to be a blessing to mankind, have the least hesitation in pronouncing him to have been one of the wisest, greatest, and best of men, that was ever engaged in promoting it.
Nothing is so difficult as to determine the limits of the part this truly great man has borne in the absolute constitution of the Christian religion. He is the first author who has given us a distinct catalogue of the books of the New Testament, the first in whose writings such a name occurs as expressive of such a collection of writings: nor would any writings that he had seen fit to reject have ever conquered their way into canonical authority: nor any that he has once admitted, have been rejected. If there be consistency, harmony, or any where in those writings an observance of historical congruity, - the sacred text owes its felicity to the criticisms and emendations of Origen, who pruned excrescences, exscinded the more glaring contradictions, inserted whole verses of his own pure ingenuity and conjecture, and diligently laboured, by claiming for the whole a mystical and allegorical sense, to rescue it from the contempt of the wise, and to moderate its excitement on the minds of the vulgar.
His writings contain the finest and adroitest specimens of under-throwing, that could be well adduced; they are a sort of looking glass, in which either wise or simple will be sure to see the face he likes best. The all-adoring and all-digesting believer, may read his six thousand volumes and never be startled out of the brown study of Christian orthodoxy, - the reader who hath once learned to snuff his candle as he reads, will ever and anon perceive that Origen never played the fool, but once.
His character needs only the apology which human nature claims fur every man - his situation. Ke was in every sense of the word a master spirit - a civilized being among the wild men of the woods. There is no occasion, however, to act on Dr. Lardner's avowed principle of concealing facts to promote piety. [Lardner, "vol. i. p. 552.] It is not to be denied, that this wisest, greatest, best that ever bore the Christian name, relapsed at last into Paganism - publicly denied his Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, and did sacrifice unto idols. I find that Eusebius as well as Lardner, has omitted all mention of this grand and glorious fact; and but for the avowed intention of Dr Lardner to promote true piety, I should have considered his not finding it in Eusebius, an excuse for the omission. It is to be found, however, in Origen's own writings, and is confirmed in his life, in the Greek of Suidas. His dolorous lamentation and repentance after this outrageous apostacy, presents us with the most authentic, and at the same time most demonstrative view of the interior character of the most primitive Christianity; and must satisfy those who dream of a state of Christianity at any time before the Protestant Reformation, when what are called the principles of the Reformation were the principles of Christianity, how grossly their Protestant teachers have deceived them.
The dolorous Lamentation of Origen.
"In bitter affliction and grief of mind, I address myself unto them which hereafter shall read me thus confoundedly. But how can I speak with tongue tied, with throat dammed up, and lips that refuse their office. I fall to the ground on my bare knees and make this my humble prayer and supplication unto all the saints, that they will help me, silly wretch that I am, who by reason of the superfluity of my sin, dare not look up unto God. O ye saints of the blessed God! with watery eyes and sodden cheeks soaked in grief and pain, I beseech you to fall down before the mercy-seat of God, for me miserable sinner. Woe is me, because of the sorrow of my heart! Woe is me, for the affliction of my soul. Woe is me, my mother, that ever thou broughtest me forth, an heir of the kingdom of God, but now become an inheritor of the kingdom of the Devil; a perfect man, yea a priest, yet found wallowing in impiety; a man beautified with honour and dignity, yet in the end blemished with ignominy and shame; a burning light, yet forthwith darkened; a running fountain, yet bye and bye dried up; who will give streams of tears unto mine eyes, that I may bewail my sorrowful plight: my lost priesthood! my dishonoured ministry; O all you, my friends, tender my case! [a] Pity me, all ye, my friends, in that I have now trodden under foot the seal and cognizance of my profession and joined league with the devil! Pity me, ye, my friends, in that I am rejected and cast away from the face of God. It is for my lewd life that I am thus polluted and noted with open shame. Alas, how am I fallen. Alas, how am I thus come to nought! There is no sorrow comparable unto my sorrow; there is no affliction that exceedeth my affliction; there is no lamentation more lamentable than mine; neither is there any sin greater than my sin; and there is no salve for me. Alas! father Abraham! intreat for me, that I be not cut off from thy coasts. Rid me, Lord, from the roaring lion! The whole assembly of saints doth make intercession unto thee for me. The whole quire of angels, do entreat thee for me. Let down upon me thy Holy Spirit, that with his fiery countenance he may put to flight the crooked fiends of the devil! Let me be received again into the joy of my God, through the prayers and intercessions of the saints, through the earnest petitions of the Church which sorroweth over me, and humbleth herself unto Jesus Christ; to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all glory and honour, for ever and ever. Amen." So far Origen.
[note. [a] So absolutely primitive is the Roman Catholic Church, even in the most exceptionable of its practices, that we have here, the very form of worda in which, to this day the benefit of masses and prayers for the souls in purgatory, is formally requested, as I have seen them stuck up on the walls of their chapels, in Ireland: and in honest truth it must be infinitely more reasonable to pray to the saints, who being like ourselves, may be wheedled to our purposes, than to God, who is necessarily immutable, and consequently inexorable.]
I have abridged this intolerably tedious farrago, without breaking a single sentence, or changing or supplying one word not authorized by the original text.
The most distinguished of all the works of Origen is his celebrated answer to Celsus, contained in eight books, and from which, it is a very usual though an unfair thing to assume that we have what ought to be considered as the sentiments of Celsus. The exceeding intolerance of Christians against the writings of the enemies of their faith; the fact of the destruction of such as they did write; and the substitution of such as Christians themselves wrote and fathered upon them, in order to make them seem to have made none other than such objections as were either trifling and weak in themselves, or could be most triumphantly answered, should stand in bar of all reckoning upon Origen's report of Celsus's objections. The historical value of this important document is precisely this: it is a certificate to us of what the evidences of Christianity were at the time of its date, in reference to such objections as Christians themselves were willing to admit that it was liable to; that is, it instructs us what Christians thought that their adversaries could not but think of them. I subjoin a continuous specimen of this celebrated piece, freely availing myself of Bellamy's translation; though Origen's Greek is in general so lucid and easy, that hardly any translator could mislead us.
Origen's answer to Celsus.
Chapter 1. - "Then Celsus goes on, and asserts that Judaism, with which the Christian religion has a very close connexion, has all along been a barbarous sect, though he prudently forbears to reproach the Christian religion, as if it were of a mean and unpolished original."
Chapter 2. -"Now let us see how Celsus reproaches the practical part of our religion, as containing nothing but what me have in common with the heathens, nothing that is new or truly great. To this, I answer that they who bring down the just judgments of God upon them, by their notorious crimes, would never suffer by the hand of divine and inflexible justice, if all mankind had not some tolerable notions of moral good and evil."
Chapters 3 and 4. - A curious but idle allegory upon the story of the golden calf.
Chapter 5. - "Then Celsus, speaking of idolatry, does himself advance an argument that tends to justify and commend our practice. Therefore, endeavouring to show in the sequel of his discourse, that our notion of imageworship was not a discovery that was owing to the Scriptures, but that we have it in common with the heathens; he quotes a passage in Heraclitus to this effect.
"To this I answer, that since I have already granted that some common notions of good and evil are originally implanted in the minds of men, we need not wonder that Heraclitus and others, whether Greeks or barbarians, have publicly acknowledged to the world, that they held the very same notions which we maintain."
Chapter 6. - "Then Celsus says, that all the power which the Christians had was owing to the names of certain demons, and their invocation of them. But this is a most notorious calumny. For the power which the Christians had was not in the least owing to enchantments, but to their pronouncing the name I. E. S. U. S. and making mention of some remarkable occurrences of his life. Nay, the name of I. E. S. U. S. has such power over demons, that sometimes it has proved effectual, though pronounced by very wicked persons." [b]
[note. [b] The prevalence of this persuasion is strongly implied in the very fair bargain proposed by Simon Magus, who, "when he saw that through laying on of the Apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost." (Acts viii. 19.) And in the fatal experiment of the seven sons of Sceva, who attempted to deal with the Devil, without having served a regular apprenticeship- Jesus I know, and Paul I know, said the Devil; "but who are you?" (Acts xix. 15.) It is directly asserted by the formal proclamation of St. Peter, "Beit known unto you all, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, doth this man stand-here before you whole; for there is none other name under heaven in which we ought to be saved, - [GK] It is a more than curious quadrature with 'this, and many other passages to the like effect, that the name Jesus, and even the name Jesus Christ of Nazareth is worshipped in the Catholic church, distinctly from all relation to any person whatever, as having an independent charm and virtue in the mystical combination of the letters themselves, like the Abracadabra of the Egyptians, the Shem Hemophoresh of the Jews, and the Open sessame of the Arabians. God forbid it should be thought to have had no more than this sort of talismanic virtue, in its eternal repetitions at the close of our Protestant prayers, "through Jesus Christ our Lord," which ought always to be chanted!]
Chapter 7. - Celsus being represented to have objected that Christ was a very wicked man, and wrought his miracles by the power of magic, Origen answers:
"Though we should grant that 'tis difficult for us to determine precisely by what power our Saviour wrought his miracles, yet 'tis very plain that the Christians made use of no enchantments, unless, indeed, the name I. E. S. U. S., and some passages of the Holy Scriptures, were a kind of sacred spell."
Chapter 8. - In this Chapter, Origen admits that there were some Arcana Imperii, or state secrets, which are not fit to be communicated to the vulgar; and justifies the fact, from the secret doctrines of the Pagan philosophy.
Chapter 9. - Presents nothing bearing on Christian evidence.
Chapter 10. - "And Celsus continues his discourse and advises us to embrace no opinions but under the conduct of impartial reason, on account of the many and gross errors to which the contrary practice will shamefully and unavoidably expose us. And he compares those persons who take up any notions without due examination, to the designing- priests of Mithras, Bacchus, Cybele, Hecate, or any other mock deity of the heathens. For as these impostors, having once got the ascendant over the common people, who were grossly ignorant, could turn and wind these silly cattle, as their interest or fancy might direct, [c] so he says, the very same thing was known to be the common practice of the Christians."
In answer to this really formidable objection, instead of producing distinct historical testimony to demonstrate that the history of Jesus Christ rested on rational and convincing evidence, and could not therefore be fairly put on a level with the fabulous legends of those mock deities, that never had any existence but in the conceit of their deluded worshippers, Origen himself defends and justifies the self-same principle of implicit faith, from which all those fabulous legends and mock deities derived their authority, and proceeds -
"A vast number of persons who have left those horrid debaucheries in which they formerly wallowed, and have professed to embrace the Christian religion, shall receive a bright and massy crown when thift frail and short life is ended, though they don't stand to examine the grounds on which their faith is built, nor defer their conversion till they have a fair opportunity and capacity to apply themselves to rational and learned studies. And since our adversaries are continually making such a stir about our taking things on trust, [d] I answer, that we, who see plainly and have found the vast advantage that the common people do manifestly and frequently reap thereby - (who make up by far the greater number)- I say, we (the Christian clergy), who are so well advised of these things, do professedly teach men to believe without a severe examination."
[notes. [c] Surely this objection of Celsus, as allowed to have been made by him, by his adversary, is a proof that he was a wise and good man, and never did or would have shut his mind against evidence or have hardened his heart against conviction. It is utterly impossible that such a man should have rejected Christianity, had it in his days possessed historical and rational evidences.
[d] So! so! - So! so! And this, it seems, was the grievance from the first. The heathens wanted rational evidence for Christianity; but Christians could not produce it!]
Chapter 33. - "I have this to say further to the Greeks, who won't believe that our Saviour was born of a Virgin; that the Creator of the world, if he pleases can make every animal bring" forth its young in the same wonderful manner. [e] As for instance, the vultures which propagate their kind in this uncommon way, as the best writers of natural history do acquaint us. What absurdity is there then in supposing, that the all-wise God, designing to bless mankind with an extraordinary and truly divine teacher, should so order matters, that our blessed Saviour should not be born in the ordinary way of human generation."
[note. [e] From this it should seem, that the holy Virgin laid an egg; and that our blessed Saviour should rather be said to have been hatched than born. This sense is further supported by the express assurance of scripture, that the male agent in his generation, was, "in bodily shape like a dove." - Mark i. 10, John i, 32. Read, also, with awful reverence, that angelic testimony "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall - [GK] - thee; therefore, also, that holy thing (observe, it is not said child or babe, but that holy thing,) which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." - Luke i. 35. Milton describes this as the peculiar function of the Holy Spirit, who
"Dove-like, sat brooding on the vast abyss,
And made it pregnant." - Paradise Lost, Book i.
And as it might seem in relation to this adorable mystery, the prophet Isaiah asks,
"Who shall declare his generation?" Ch. liii. v. 8. I abhor no impiety more affectionately than that of our Unitarian divines, the most inconsistent, the most egregious, the most absurd of all sophists, who hesitate not at the most audacious blasphemies upon the mystical incarnation, and persist in representing Christ as a mere man, though unable to produce so much as one single proof, either scriptural or historical, that any such mere man ever existed at all.]
The work of Celsus, which Origen thus refutes, appears to have been entitled the true word, or the True Logos, written at least one hundred years before the time of Origen.
"Celsus and Porphyry," says Chrysostom, " are sufficient witnesses to the antiquity of the scriptures; for I presume that they did not oppose writings which had been published since their own times.' [Lardner, vol. iv. p. 114.] This writer, however, chooses to forget that it is not true that we are in possession of the evidence of Celsus and Porphyry. Nor would evidence of the antiquity of the scriptures afford any presumption that they were written by the persons to whom they are ascribed; while the presumption remains, that they are actually too ancient, and were, as to their general story and contents, in being before the life-time of those persons.
Dr Lardner pronounces this answer of Origen to Celsus
"An excellent performance, greatly esteemed and celebrated, not only by Eusebius and Jerom, but likewise by many judicious men of late times, particularly by Dupin, [Dupin, Bibl. Origines, p. 142.] who says, that it is polite, just, and methodical; not only the best work of Origen, but the completest and best written apology for the Christian religion, which the ancients have left us."
St. Gregory, Thaumaturgus, ADd. 243. Bishop of Neocaesarea.
I cannot present the reader with fairer grounds of judging of the whole worth and value of the evidences of the Christian religion, than by laying before him what those evidences will require him to believe of the characters and actions of the most remarkable personages concerned in its establishment and propagation. This I do, in none other than the lines and colours, the showing and acknowledgments, their own representations in their own words, not of the humbler and feebler advocates of Christianity, but of such as Christians themselves with justice and reason boast of, as the best, discreetest and ablest, defenders their cause ever had. If Dr Lardner could not have given a just and faithful representation of what the evidences of the Christian religion really were, or has not done so; who on earth shall be proposed as worthier of all acceptation? If on his representation it shall appear that Christianity rests ultimately and strictly on miraculous evidence, and on the probability of a continuous series of divine interpositions and interferences of the almighty power of God, not merely at first to promulge, but afterwards to propagate and continue this supernatural intimation of his will to man; what right or reason have our Unitarian divines to give themselves insolent airs of philosophical assurance, or to affect to treat those who reject miraculous evidence, as if they could not do so without rejecting historical fact and rational probability at the same time?
St. Gregory, Bishop of Neoesesarea in Pontus, was one of Origen's most noted scholars. It is fit we should now have a more particular history of this renowned convert and bishop, of the best times or near them, who is usually called Thaumaturgus or the Wonder-worker, for the many end great miracles wrought by him. [Lardner, vol. i. p. 243. I punctiliously give the words of Lardner, that the reader may see with what a grace this rational Socinian grapples with miracles which he cannot believe and dare not deny.] Gregory's parents were Gentiles. - "As soon as Origen saw Gregory (when a youth), and his brother Athenodorus, he neglected no means to inspire them with a love of philosophy, as a foundation of true religion and piety. [a] Of Origen they learned logic, physics, geometry, astronomy, ethics. He encouraged them in reading of all sorts of ancient authors, poets, ana philosophers, whether Greeks or barbarians, restraining them from none but such as denied a Deity or a Providence, from whom no possible advantage could be obtained." From Gregory of Nyssa, in Cappadocia, who flourished about a hundred years after this Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dr Lardner transcribes the most material things of his life. Nyssen says, that Gregory studied secular learning for some time at Alexandria, where there was a great resort of youth from all parts for the sake of philosophy and medicine. Our young Gregory was even then distinguished by the sobriety and discretion which appeared in his conduct. "A lewd woman having been employed by some idle people to disgrace him by indirect but impudent insinuations, his reputation was vindicated in a remarkable manner, for the woman was immediately seized with such horrible fits, as demonstrated them to be a judgment of heaven: nor was she relieved from the demon that had taken possession of her, till Gregory had interceded with God for her, and obtained the pardon of her fault." This miracle occurred while Gregory was yet a heathen - "his family however, was rich and noble." His ordination to the Christian ministry, it seems, took place even before his conversion to Christianity. "Phedimus, Bishop of Amasea, knowing the worth of this young man, and being grieved that a person of such accomplishments should live useless in the world, was desirous to consecrate him to God and his church;" but "Gregory was shy of such a charge, and industriously concealed himself from the bishop, whose design he was aware of. At length, Phedimus, tired of his fruitless attempts to meet Gregory, and being blessed with the gift of foreknowledge, consecrated him to God, though bodily absent, assigning him also a city which till that time was so addicted to idolatry, that in it, and in all the country round about, there were not above seventeen believers. Gregory was then at the distance of three days journey. He only desired of him by whom he had been ordained, a short time to prepare himself for the office, nor had he courage to undertake the work of preaching, till he had been informed of the truth by revelation. And while he was engaged in deep meditation, he had a magnificent and awful vision in his chamber." The Virgin Mary, and St. John the beloved disciple, ap-
peared to him, "encompassed also by a bright light too strong for him to look upon directly. He heard these persons discourse together about the doctrines in which he desired to be informed, and he perceived who they were, for they called each other by name; and the Virgin desired that John the Evangelist would teach that young man the Mystery of Piety, and he replied, that he was not unwilling to do what was desired by the mother of our Lord. John then gave the instruction he wanted, which, when they had disappeared, Gregory wrote down. According to that faith he always preached; and left it with his church as an invaluable treasure, by which means his people from that time to this, were preserved from all heretical pravity."
[a] This philosophy, which we meet with at every turn, as always constituting the basis of the Christian religion; this Alexandria, always the centre and nursery of this philosophy; these congresses of lazy pedants in universities, where young men are to be trained, and broken in to the business of becoming impostors themselves in their turn, are matters, at the least infinitely suspectable. Honesty never needed them! Compare p. 314 and 319, in this Diegesis. Justin, Melito &c. all professors in like manner of this Eclectic philosophy.]
Then follows the stupendous miracle, which I find quoted in Middleton's Free Inquiry, which I here abridge as much as possible: -
The holy Gregory, in travelling to take possession of his bishopric, was overtaken by a storm and benighted, so that for shelter he was obliged to spend the night in one of the heathen temples; in consequence of which, when the priest came to perform their idolatrous rites the next morning, "he was answered by the demon, that he could no more appear in that place, because of him who had lodged there the foregoing night. The priest greatly enraged at this, pursued Gregory, and threatened to inform the magistrates against him; but Gregory told the priest, that "God had given him such divine power, that "he could expel demons from any place and re-admit them as he saw fit: and as a demonstration of such power, he took a slip of paper and wrote upon it the words ' Gregory to Satan: Enter!' This paper being laid upon the altar, and the accustomed Paganish rites performed, the demon appeared as usual; which so convinced the Pagan priest of the superior power possessed by Christians, that he left the service of Satan, and became a minister of Jesus Christ, and was afterwards one of Gregory's deacons. -But some doubts still remaining, Gregory wrought another evident miracle - at his command a large heavy stone lying before them, moved as if it had life, and settled itself in the place Gregory directed."
Again, there were two brothers at variance with each other, whom Gregory could by no means reconcile. A certain lake was the matter in dispute. When they were about to decide the cause by arms, Gregory went to the lake the night before, and at his prayers it was dried up; so that there was no lake left for them to contend for.
Again: - "The river Sycus often overflowing, to the great damage of the neighbouring country, at the desire of the people who suffered by its inundations, Gregory prescribed its proper limits, which it never passed afterwards."
"After his return to Neocsesarea, Gregory cured a young man possessed of a demon; and a great many people were delivered from demons and released of their diseases by only having a piece of linen brought to them, which had been breathed upon by him."
After these, and several other marvellous relations of the same sort, and some trifling objections started against them, it is of importance that the reader should be aware, that it is none other than the judicious and learned Dr Lardner himself, who is driven to the distress of having to say -
"I do not intend to deny that Gregory wrought miracles; for I suppose he did, as I shall acknowledge more particularly by and bye. Nevertheless, there is no harm in making these remarks, if they are just, or in showing that Nyssen's relations are defective, and want some tokens of credibility with which we should have been mightily pleased."
Gregory's works are, a panegyrical oration in praise of Origen, pronounced in 239, still extant, and unquestionably his. Dupin says that it is very eloquent, and that it may be reckoned one of the finest pieces of rhetoric in all antiquity - a paraphrase of the book of Ecclesiastes, and that self-same creed or copy of the faith which we may believe he copied immediately from the dictation of St John.
"His history, as delivered by authors of the fourth and following centuries, particularly by Nyssen, it is to be feared, has in it somewhat of fiction; but," adds Dr Lardner - (yes, they are the very words of Lardner himself) - "there can be no reasonable doubt made but he was very successful in making converts to Christianity in the country of Pontus, about the middle of the third century; and that beside his natural and acquired abilities, he was favoured with extraordinary gifts of the spirit, and wrought miracles of surprising power. The plain and express testimonies of Basil and others, at no great distance of time and place from Gregory, must be reckoned sufficient grounds of credit with regard to these things. The extraordinary gifts of the spirit had not then entirely ceased; but Gregory was favoured with such gifts greatly beyond the common measure of other Christians or bishops at that season. Yet, as St. Jerom intimates, it is likely that he was more famous for his signs and wonders than his writings." [His writings are not to be disparaged, since they afford the clearest evidence of the genuineness of hjs miracles, by proving that he was no conjuror.]
With respect to Gregory's appointing anniversary festivals and solemnities in honour of the martyrs of his diocese, (as I have already given the important passage from Mosheim, in the chapter of Admissions,) Dr Lardner contends against it, that he is "unwilling to take this particular upon the credit of Nyssen; because this childish method of making converts appears unworthy of so wise and good a man as Gregory. Nor is it likely that those festivals should be instituted by one who had the gift of miracles, and therefore a much better way of bringing men to religion and virtue." See all these passages, purporting to be from Dr. Lardner's immortal work on the Credibility of the Gospel History, in his first volume, under the article St. Gregory of Neocsesarea. I have selected this Life of Pope Gregory the Wonder-worker, not so much to show the picture as the painter; and to set before my readers a demonstration of the important and consequential fact, that the ablest and most rational advocate of Christianity, is, in its vindication, driven on the necessity of using a sort of language which, on any other theme than that, he would have been ashamed of. We see the most eminent of all writers on the Christian evidences, driven* to the God-help-us of subscribing to a belief in the most ridiculous and contemptible miracles, rather than he will accept, even from his own authorities, the clear and natural solution of the difficulty - even that he who was ordained a Christian bishop, while yet he continued a Pagan, should have owed his success in converting others to the same slide-the -butcher system which had been so successfully practiced on himself; that is, letting them continue Pagans all the while, only calling them Christians.
From the short notice which Socrates has of this Father, it should seem that the Holy Ghost was somewhat premature in his gifts to Gregory, since he got possession of the power of working miracles before he became a convert to the Christian faith : "being yet a layman, he wrought many miracles, he cured the sick, chased away devils by his epistles, and converted the Gentiles and Ethnics unto the faith, not only with words, but by deeds of a far greater force." [Socrates Scholast. lib. 4, c. 22.]
ST. CYPRIAN, AD. 248. Bishop of Carthage.
Thascius Ccecilius Cyprianus was an African, who was converted from Paganism to Christianity, in the year 246, and suffered martyrdom in the year 258. So that the greatest part of his life was spent in heathenism. Cyprian had a good estate, which he sold and gave to the poor immediately upon his conversion. His advancement to the highest offices of the church was strikingly rapid; he was made presbyter the year after his conversion, and bishop of Carthage, the year after that. And let it not seem invidious to state, what may be a characteristic truth, in the words of Dr. Lardner himself, " The estate which Cyprian had sold for the benefit of the poor, was by some favourable providence restored to him again. "He was bishop of a most flourishing church, the metropolis of a province, and neither in fame nor fortune a loser by his conversion.
There can be no just grounds to disparage the renown of his martyrdom: which though unquestionably disgraceful to the government under which it happened, was not attended with any of those aggravating circumstances of childish cruelty, which throw an air of suspicion over almost all the other narratives of martyrdom, that have come down to us. Cyprian had rendered himself obnoxious to the government under which he had long enjoyed his episcopal dignity in peace and safety [a] and it is impossible not to see from the intolerant turbulence of his character, his restless ambition, and his inordinate claims of more than human authority; that more than human patience would have been required on the part of any government on earth, to have brooked the eternal -flashings of the civil administration with his assumed superior authority over the minds of the subjects of the empire.
He had been twice banished, and subsequently recalled, and reinstated in his possessions and dignities, but again and again, persisting in holding councils and assemblies, and enacting decrees, in defiance and actual solicitation of martyrdom, he was judicially sentenced to be beheaded, upon which, he exclaimed, God be thanked, and suffered accordingly, on the 14th of September, in the year 258. As his own historians tell the tale, his execution was attended with no additional circumstance of cruelty, anger, or indignation, but occurred amidst the sympathy of his Christian friends, and the admiration and regret even of those whom a sense of public duty had enforced to condemn him. "It is needless," says St. Jerom, "to give a catalogue of his works, they are brighter than the sun." St. Austin calls him a blessed martyr, and there can be no doubt that he has as good a claim, as any other tyrant who ever expiated his tyranny in the same way, to that title.
[a] "The constitution of every particular church in those times was a well-tempered monarchy. The bishop was the monarch, and the presbytery was his senate." - Principles of the Cyprianic age, by John Sage, a Scottish bishop, 1695, p. 82. "Cyprian carried his spiritual authority to such a pitch, as to claim the right of putting his rebellious and unruly deacon to death." - Ibid. p. 33. Surely here was cause enough to induce any government, to call such a traitor to some sort of reckoning?]