THE PRINCIPAL FACTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CONFIRMED, &c. PART II. CHAP. CXXVI. PRUDENTIUS. 1. AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS, an elegant Latin poet, descended of an honourable family, was born at Saragossa in Spain, in the year 348, when Fl. Salia, or Salias, was consul. He wrote the preface to his Cathemerinon, in the fifty-seventh year of his age; as he says himself in that preface, where his other writings also are briefly enumerated: consequently he is well placed as flourishing about the year 405. 2. I put belowe Gennadius's chapter of Prudentius, in * Per quinquennia jam decem, Ni fallor, fuimus. Septimus insuper Annum cardo rotat, dum fruimur sole volubili. Prudentius, vir seculari literaturâ eruditus, composuit Atroxaior, [AiπTvxov,] de toto veteri et Novo Testamento, personis exceptis. Commentatus est autem his book of Illustrious Men, published in 494; and 1 refer to some learned moderns, such as are desirous of a more particular account of this writer. е 3. Some have thought that Prudentius was consul; but without any good reason. Others have supposed that he was præfect of the Prætorium, or præfect of Rome: but there is no full proof of either. Gennadius, however, says, that he had a military employment at court. What Prudentius says of himself, in the forementioned preface, I transcribe below: from whence it appears, I think, that for a while he studied the law, and was a pleader; and that he had been a civil magistrate in some cities: after which he took to the profession of arms, and was honoured with some high military preferment under the emperor, either Theodosius, or Honorius: and, before he was very old, he retired from the world. 4. Prudentius celebrates, in his poems, our Lord's ,f nativity, and the circumstances of it; and also, his miracles, death, and resurrection. in morem Græcorum Hexaëmeron de Mundi Fabricâ usque ad conditionem primi hominis, et prevaricationem ejus. Composuit et libellos, quos Græcà appellatione attitulavit, Apotheosis, Psychomachia, Hamartigenia, id est, de Divinitate, de Compugnantià Animæ, De Origine Peccatorum. Fecit et in Laudem Martyrum, sub aliorum nominibus, invitationem ad Martyrium, librum unum, et Hymnorum alterum: speciali tamen intentione adversus Symmachum, idololatriam defendentem. Ex quorum lectione agnoscitur Palatinus miles fuisse. Gennad. de V. I. cap. 13. d Cav. H. L. T. i. Fabr. ad Gennad. cap. 13. ap. Bib. Ec. Voss. de Hist. Lat. l. ii. c. 10. Tillem. Mem. T. x. Du Pin. Bıb. T. iii. p. 5. J. Le Clerc. Bıb. Univ. T. xii. p. 135-193. Pagi. Ann. 405. n. 19. e Quid nos utile tanti spatio temporis egimus ? Ætas prima crepantibus Flevit sub ferulis.... Exin jurgia turbidos Armârunt animos, et male pertinax Vincendi studium subjacuit casibus asperis. Bis legum moderamine Frenos nobilium reximus urbium; Jus civile Lonis reddidimus, terruimus reos. Tandem militiæ gradu Evectum pietas principis extulit, Adsumtum propius stare jubens ordine proximo. Cathem. Præf. O beatus ortus ille, virgo cum puerpera Cantharis infusa lympha fit Falernum nobile. Cathem. Hymn. ix. ver. 19, &c. Vid. et Cath. Hymn. xii. 5. There is a book, called his Enchiridion, consisting of small poems, celebrating many remarkable events of the Old and the New Testament. Those of the New are taken out of the gospels, the Acts, and the Revelation. 6. Some have hesitated about the genuineness of that work, because it is not taken notice of by Prudentius in the preface before cited: nevertheless, it is particularly mentioned by Gennadius, by the title of Diptychon. Whether it be genuine, or not, the same things occur in the other unquestioned writings of Prudentius. 7. In particular, the Revelation is plainly referred to in some of the hymns in the Cathemerinon. And he seems to have supposed, that St. John had his visions in sleep. 8. I add one thing more: Prudentius considers martyrs as intercessors; and hopes, through them, to obtain of Christ the forgiveness of his sins. • Bis duodena senum sedes, pateris citharisque, Enchir. Num. 49. seu ult. Omnium, quæ sunt, fuerunt, quæque post futura sunt. Arcana per soporem Evangelista summi Fidissimus magistri, CHAP. CXXVII. PALLADIUS. a 1. IN the chapter of St. Jerom, I have quoted Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, author of the Lausiac History; and Palladius, author of a Dialogue of the Life of St. Chrysostom, written in 408. Whether they are different, or one and the same, is a question debated by many b learned men; particularly by Du Pin, who reckons them one and the same; by Tillemont and Fabricius, who think them to be different. I do not think it needful now to produce distinctly the reasons on either side. I here intend only to make some extracts out of the forementioned Dialogue, composed at Rome in 408, soon after the death of St. Chrysostom, by Palladius, friend of that bishop. 2. In this Dialogue, the gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the epistles, and particularly the epistle to the Hebrews, are freely quoted. 3. He quotes the epistle to the Ephesians with that title. 4. He has the words of 2 Pet. ii. 3, and quotes the epistle of St. Jude, expressly transcribing ver. 12, 13. 5. A large part of St. John's third epistle is here quoted, in this manner: As in the catholic epistles, the blessed John writes to Gaius, against a certain bishop; commending the hospitality of Gaius, and exhorting him not to imitate such bishops as were wicked.' 6. These things deserve our notice. St. Chrysostom, as we saw in his chapter, received only three of the catholic epistles that of James; the first of Peter; the first of a See Vol. iv. ch. cxiv. in Pr. ad. Dialog. T. iii. p. 92, 93. Vid. Cav. H. L. T. i. Emer. Bigot. c Pallade. Du Pin. Bib. des Aut. Ecc. d Tillem. Pallade, art. 12. Mem. T. xi. e Solet a multis longo jam tempore Palladio huic tribui Dialogus de Vità S. Chrysostomi, qui cum Theodoro Diacono Romano habitus Romæ fingitur circa ann. 408, non diu post Chrysostomi mortem. Auctorem Dialogi a Palladio Lausiacæ scriptore recte distinguunt Baronius A. 388. n. 110. Emericus Bigotius in Prefat. ad Dialogum, et Tillemontius. Fabr. Bib. Gr. l. v. c. 32. sect. 4. T. ix. p. 8. 1 Καθώς νεθετων Εβραιος λέγει ὁ μεyaλoopwr Havλoç. Dialog. cap. 1. p. 2. E. ap. S. Chrysost. Opp. T. xii. Vid. et p. 45. D. et p. 75. et passim. 8 Cap. 18. p. 71. F. h Οἷς το κρίμα εκ αργεί, και ή απολεια αυτών ο νυςάζει περι ὧν Ιεδας, αδελφος Ιακωβε, φησιν· Οὗτοι εἰσιν οἱ εν ταις αγαπαις ύμων σπιλάδες. Dial. c. 18. p. 63. C. D. Καθώς εν ταις καθολικαῖς γράφει Γαΐῳ ὁ i μακάριος Ιωάννης, κ. λ. Ib. cap. 20. p. 79. John. But this writer, though a friend and admirer of St. Chrysostom, quotes the second epistle of Peter, the epistle of Jude, and the third of John; and therefore, probably, received all the seven catholic epistles. This shows, that there were then different sentiments about some books of scripture. Men seem to have indulged a liberty of judging for themselves; and they determined, as the evidence appeared to them. And it is chiefly for the sake of these quotations, that I have made a distinct article of Palladius. 7. Whether he received the book of the Revelation, does not appear. 8. He has these expressions: The chief-shepherd himself; and chief-master, and chief-sophist, Jesus Christ; the reformer of the human error.' CHAP. CXXVIII. NONNUS. 1. NONNUS, of Panapolis, in Egypt, flourished, according to Cave, about 410; according to Mill, in the beginning of the fifth century. Du Pin says, his time is not exactly known. All we can say, is, that he lived after Gregory • Nazianzen, and before the reign of Justinian.' 2. He wrote in Greek verse a paraphrase of St. John's gospel, still extant. Some various readings have been observed in him. The principal is, that he has not the history of the woman taken in adultery and brought before our Saviour, which we now have at the beginning of the eighth chapter of St. John's Gospel. Moreover, in chap. xix. 14, he seems to have read about the third hour,' where we have" about the sixth hour:" concerning which, may be seen, Mill, Bengelius, J. J. Wetstein, Wolfius, and others, upon the place, and elsewhere. d k Αυτος ὁ αρχιποιμην και αρχιδιδασκαλος και αρχισοφισης Ιησες ὁ Χριτος, ὁ της ανθρωπινης πλανης διορθωτης, κ. λ. cap. 12. p. 47. Α. Vid. Cav. H. L. T. i. Fabr. Bib. Gr. 1. v. c. 16. T. vii. p. 682, &c. b Prolegom. ad. N. T. 908, &c. ini. P. ii. 77. d Έκτη δ', ἣν ενεπεσι προσάββατον, έπλετο ηως. |