SECTION IX. GREGORIUS NEOCÆSARIENSIS. A. D. 240. GREGORY, surnamed Thaumaturgus, the Wonder Worker, from the miracles said to be wrought by him, was born at Neocæsarea of Pontus, of noble and wealthy parents, heathens; he was converted to Christianity under the preaching of Origen, and was afterwards made bishop of the place where he was born; upon his leaving Cæsarea he made a panegyric oration to a numerous audience, in the presence of Origen, about A. D. 239 *, which, and his Metaphrase on Ecclesiastes, are the chief writings of his extant, to be depended on as genuine. Could the sermons upon the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, be thought to be his, which go under his name, they would furnish us with two or three testimonies in favour of original sin; but as they are dubioust, I shall not transcribe them, but refer the reader to them in the margin ; however, he has a passage in his oration which gives some plain hints of original sin, and the sad consequences of it; bewailing his departure from Cæsarea, and leaving Origen, " I know not how," says hes, "through what sufferings, or sinning again, I depart, or am driven hence; what to say I know not, but that as another Adam, out of paradise, I begin to speak-these seem to be sins, της παλαιας απατης, 'owing to the old deception,' the punishments αρχαιων, 'of the ancients' (meaning Adam and Eve) remain still on me; do I not seem again to disobey, daring to transgress the words of God, in which and with which I ought to abide?" He expresses his consciousness of his own weakness, without divine grace and assistance, to attain to any virtue either human or divine, or the knowledge of things spiritual: his words are these || ; "We neither have, nor are we near any virtue, either human or divine; we need much; these are great and high, and neither of them can be attained or gotten, οτω μη Θεος γε εμπνεοι δυναμιν, 'but to whom God inspires power;' we are not by nature fit nor worthy to enjoy, we still confess." He observes, in another place, that "they that hear the prophets, της αυτης δυναμεως δει προφητευουσι, 'have need of the same power with them that prophesy;' nor can any one hear a prophet, except the same spirit that prophesies gives him an understanding of his words; for there is such an oracle in the holy writings, affirming that he that shuts can only open, and no other." Gregory ascribes his conversion, which was when he was very young, to a divine power, and not to his own free will; "I first passed," says he **, "to the saving and true word I know not how, κατεναγκασμενος μαλλον είπερ εκων, forced rather than willing." And little after††, "Human reason, and the divine reason, or Logos, began together in me, the one helping, τη αλαλεκτω μεν εμοι, οικεια δε αυτω δυνάμει, by a power indeed unspeakable to me, but peculiar to him, the other helped." a * Vide Fabricii Græc. 1. 5, c. 1, s. 28, p. 247. † Vide Rivet. Critic. Sacr. 1. 2, c. 16, p. 219. KK SECTION Χ. CYPRIAN. A. D. 250. CYPRIAN was a strenuous assertor of original sin, as Austin * has proved by a considerable number of testimonies cited from him; he, and not only he, but the rest of his colleagues, who were present at the African synod, to the number of sixty-six bishops, affirm, "that a new-born infant has not sinned at all, unless that after Adam, being born in a carnal manner, it has contracted by its first birth the contagion of the ancient death; upon which account it is more easily admitted to receive the remission of sins, because not its own, sed aliena peccata, 'but another's sins,' are remitted to it." Yea, he asserted + that Adam by sinning lost the image and likeness of God, and consequently the moral liberty of the will, which was one part of that image, must be lost, and is what we contend for. The weakness and disability of man is frequently inculcated by him, and that all our strength and power to do that which is good comes from God, who should be applied to for it. "Whatsoever," says he †, "is grateful, non virtuti hominis ascribitur, sed de Dei munere prædicatur, is to be ascribed not to man's power, but to God's gift.' Dei est, inquam, Dei est omne quod possumus, 'it is God's, I say, all is God's that we can do;' hence we live, hence we excel, &c." Yea, he sayss, "that in nothing must we glory, quando nostrum nihil sit, since nothing is ours." For the proof of which he mentions John iii. 27, 1 Cor. iv. 7, and "that no man ought to be lifted up with his own works;" which he proves || from Luke xvii. 7-10. And upon those words in the Lord's prayer, Lead us not into temptation, he makes this remark, "When we pray that we may not come into temptation, admonemur infirmitatis et imbecillitatis nostræ, 'we are put in mind of our infirmity and weakness,' whilst we so pray;" lest any one should insolently lift up himself, lest any one should proudly and arrogantly assume to himself, lest any one should reckon the glory either of confession or suffering his own; when the Lord himself, teaching humility, said, Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Thus while an humble and low confession goes before, and the whole is ascribed to God, whatsoever is asked in a supplicating manner, with the fear and honour of God, ipsius pietate præstetur, "through his tenderness may be given." And, says he, in another place**, or his contemporary Cornelius, "We not only produce words which come from the holy fountains of the Scriptures, but with these words we join our prayers and vows to the Lord, that he would open both to us and you the treasures of his mysteries, et vires ad implenda que cognoscimus tribuat, and that he would give strength to fulfil what we know." Who also in the same treatise observes ††, "that among these things he had been speaking of, yea, and before them, de divinis castris auxilium petendum est, 'help is to be asked of God,' for God only is powerful, who vouchsafes to make men, et plena hominibus auxilia præstare, and to give sufficient helps to men." Cyprian does indeed in one place say *, "that the liberty of believing, or not believing, is placed in man's free will." Which is very true of the natural liberty of the will, which always continues, whether a man believes or does not believe, since no man believes against his will, or disbelieves contrary to it; but is not true of the moral liberty and power of the will, for no man by the strength of nature, without the grace of God, has a power to believe to the saving of the soul. Nor could this be Cyprian's meaning, who in the very same tract says, that "nothing is ours." Besides this passage, Doctor Whitby + has cited another, from this writer, in favour of man's free will, in which he observes, that Christ said to his disciples, "Will you go away? Preserving the law, by which man being left to his liberty, and put in the power of his own will, desires for himself either death or salvation." But this is not to be understood, as though Cyprian thought that the real disciples of Christ were in such a situation, and so left to the freedom of their wills, that they might totally and finally depart from Christ, for his next words are, Notwithstanding Peter, upon whom the church was built by the same Lord, speaking, one for all, and answering in the church's voice, said, Lord, whither should we go, thou hast the words of eternal life; and we believe and know that thou art the Son of the living God; signifying and showing, that those who depart from Christ perish through their own fault, but the church which believes in Christ, and which holds that which it hath once known, never at all departs from him; and they are the church who abide in the house of God." • Contr. Duas Ep. Pelag. 1. 4, с. 8. Ep. 2, ad Donat. p. 6. De Orat. Dominica, p. 270. † Cyprian de Bono § Test. ad Quirin. 1. 3, c. 4, p. 373. ** De Bono Pudicitise, p. 417. Patientiæ, p. 314. 66 SECTION ΧΙ. ARNOBIUS. A. D. 290. ARNOBIUS flourished under Dioclesian, taught rhetoric at Sicca in Africa, and was preceptor to Lactantius. He wrote seven books against the Gentiles, which are his only genuine works extant. There is a Commentary upon the Psalms which goes under his name, but is none of his. Bellarmine thinks it was written by Arnobius junior, who lived about the year 445, and after Pelagianism was broached, of which that writer seems to be a favourer, and either to deny, or at least to extenuate original sin§; which was far from the true Arnobius, who asserts the corruption of human nature, and the impotence of men to spiritual things. Thus speaking of the prayers and supplications of the Christians to their master Christ, he observes ||, that "these are not made to him for his sake, but for our profit and advantage; non quia proni ad culpas, et ad libidinis varios appetitus, vitio sumus † Postscript, p. 561; ed. 2, 538. • Test. ad Quirin. 1. 3, c. 52, p. 82. § Vide Rivet. Critic. Sacr. 1. 2, с. 17, p. 220, 221. || Arnob. adv. Gentes, 1. 1, p. 25. infirmitatis ingenitæ, 'for because we are prone to faults, and to various lustful desires, and are in the vice of inbred weakness,' he suffers himself to be always conceived in our thoughts." And in another place he says*, "Natural infirmity makes a man a sinner." Addressing himself to the heathens, he thus speaks†: "You place the salvation of your souls in yourselves, and trust that you may be made gods by your inward endeavour; but truly we promise ourselves nothing, de nostra infirmitate, 'from our weakness,' looking upon our nature virium esse nullarum, 'to have no strength,' and in every strife about matters to be overcome by its own affections; you, as soon as you shall go away, being loosed from the members of the body, think ye shall have easy wings by which you can fly to the stars and reach heaven; but we dread such boldness, nec in nostra ducimus esse positum potestate res superas petere, nor do we reckon it is in our power to reach things that are above." And elsewhere he says, "that the nature of men is blind, neque ullam posse comprehendere veritatem, 'nor can it comprehend any truth, nor find out certainly, and know things that are set before their eyes." And a little after he observes §, that “ none but the Almighty God can save souls, nor is there any besides him who can make a long-lived perpetuity, and put a spirit in the room of another, but he who is alone immortal and perpetual, and is not bounded by any circumscription of time." And a little after ||, "It is of our high priest to give salvation to souls, and to put by or in them a spirit of perpetuity." It is true, indeed, he asserts from Plato T, that the liberty of the will lies in the power of him that wills, which being understood of the natural liberty of the will, is not denied. , SECTION XII. LACTANTIUS. A. D. 320. LACTANTIUS embraced and maintained the same doctrine his master Arnobius did; he seems to be very sensible of the proneness of human nature to sin, and of its weakness and frailty, and how many ways it becomes subject to it. "No man," says he**, can be without sin as long as he is burdened with the clothing of the flesh, whose infirmity is subject three ways to the dominion of sin, by deeds, words, and thoughts; therefore just men, who can restrain themselves from every unjust work, yet sometimes are overcome through frailty itself, that either they say that which is evil in anger, or upon sight of things delightful lust after them in secret thought." And to the same effect he says in another place††, "There is none who sins not at all, and there are many things which provoke to sin, as age, oppression, want, occasion, reward, adeo subjecta est peccato fragilitas carnis qua induti sumus, 'the frailty of the flesh with which ye are clothed, is so subject to sin,' that unless God should spare this necessity, very few, perhaps, would live." He sometimes represents man as in a state of blindness and darkness, and suggests, that it is impossible he should have a knowledge of spiritual and heavenly things without divine teachings: "We," says he *, "who before as blind men, and as shut up in the prison of folly, sat in darkness, ignorant of God and truth, are enlightened by God, who hath adopted us in his covenant, and being delivered from evil bonds, and brought into the light of wisdom, he hath took into the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom." And elsewhere he sayst, that "the mind shut up in earthly bowels, and hindered by the corruption of the body, aut comprehendere per se potest aut capere veritatem nisi aliunde doceatur, 'can neither by itself comprehend nor receive truth, unless it be taught from some other person:" yea, he expressly says in another place, that "man cannot of himself come to this knowledge, nisi doceatur a Deo, 'unless he is taught of God:" by which he means the knowledge of spiritual and heavenly things; for elsewhere he observes §, that "the knowledge of truth, and of heavenly things, non potest esse in homine, nisi Deo docente, percepta, 'cannot be perceived in man, unless God teaches it;' for if man could understand divine things, he could do them; for to understand is, as it were, to follow them closely; but he cannot do what God can, because he is clothed with a mortal body, therefore neither can he understand what God has done." There are some things which he denies are in the power of man: "Tο undertake a thing," he observes ||, "is easy, to fulfil is difficult; for when thou committest thyself to a combat and conflict, in arbitrio Dei, non tuo, posita victoria est, the victory lies in the will of God, not in thine own." Hence he says in another place T, "It is not the part of a wise and good man to will to strive, and to commit himself to danger, because to overcome, non est in nostra potestate, is not in our power." The appeasing of conscience and healing the wounds which sin has made in it, are by him ascribed alone to the power and grace of God; his words are these**: "It is better therefore either to avoid conscience, or that we should willingly open our minds, and pour out the deadliness thereof through the lanced wound, quibus nemo alius mederi potest, which no other can heal,' but he alone who has given to the lame to walk, and sight to the blind, hath cleansed spotted members, and hath raised the dead; he will extinguish the heat of lust, he will root out unlawful desires, he will draw away envy, he will mitigate anger, he will give true and perpetual soundness." In one place, indeed, he seems to take too much upon him, and what is beyond the power of a mere man, when he says, "Give me a man that is angry, reproaching, and unruly, with a very few words of God I will make him as quiet as a lamb; give me one greedy, covetous, and tenacious, by and by I will return him to thee liberal, freely giving his money with his own hands, and those full; give me one fearful of pain and death, he shall immediately despise crosses, fires, and Phalaris's bull; give me one lustful, adulterous, a haunter of stews, you shall • Arnob. adv. Gentes, p. 42. § Ib. p. 108. † Ib. 1. 2, p. 83, 84. || Ib. p. 109. ** Lactant. Divin. Institut. 1. 6, с. 13, p. 480, 481. ‡ Ib. p. 106. Ib. p. 110, 111. † De Ira Dei, c. 20, p. 660. * Divin. Institut. 1. 4, c. 20, p. 328. |