guage touching this edition-any tendency to assign to Robert Stephens more MSS. than he has taken credit for [in his statement of the printed and written documents, that he selected, first and last, to give opposing readings in his margin]-we may most assuredly conclude that there is something wrong in the later representations.' Here we have, not indeed quite so open an avowal as that which Michaelis gives of their not being able to abide by Stephanus's own declarations, "vetustissima" and " scripta," but we have as decided an avowal that they cannot abide by the testimony either of Stephanus's chief collator, or of the man who made so great use of the collations.

FRANCIS HUYSHE.

LETTERS ON THE CHURCH OF THE FATHERS.

NO. IV.

As Athanasius was the great champion of catholic truth, during the incursions of Arianism upon it, so were Basil and Ambrose, in the east and in the west, the chief instruments in the hands of Providence for repairing and strengthening the bulwarks of the church, when the fury of the inroad was over. Both had to contend with an Arianized clergy and an Arian sovereign; and both gained their victory by the same means their popularity with the laity and the vigour of their discipline. From Milan, which had been in heretical possession for twenty years, "round about unto Illyricum," Ambrose preached in the west the gospel of Christ. Basil was called to a still more arduous post. Asia Minor had from the first been over-run by the Arians, and was, by the middle of the fourth century, in a deplorable state of religious ignorance. Hilary, who passed some time in banishment there, and is our informant in this matter, also speaks of the immoralities of Christians, and that in the case of the higher clergy as well as of the laity. This district was the scene of Basil's labours, first as priest, then as Bishop of the church of Cæsarea and Exarch of Cappadocia, from A.D. 358 to A.D. 379.

At the former of these dates, Dianius was in possession of the see. He was personally known to Basil, who speaks warmly in his praise, expressing the affection and respect he felt for him, and the pleasure he took in his conversation; and describing him as a man remarkable for his virtue, as frank and generous, nay, bold, while he was amiable and agreeable in his manners. However, he fell in with the fashion of the age, and had for nearly twenty years sided with the court faction against Athanasius and his sacred cause. Accordingly he signed without scruple the formulary of the council of Ariminum, which was presented to him A.D. 360, and in which the orthodox test of the Homoōusion being given up, the catholic doctrine was evaded under the pretence of expressing it only in terms of scripture. Basil was at this time a reader in the church of Cæsarea, having been appointed to the office by the Bishop. However, on this occasion, he hesitated not at once to retire from all intercourse with him, nor did he come near him till two years afterwards, when Dianius sent for him to at

tend his death-bed, and professed solemnly his adherence to the faith of Nicæa.

Eusebius, the successor of Dianius, was a prelate of orthodox views, but had little of the force of character necessary for coping with the formidable heresy with which the church was assailed. For some reason or other, perhaps from a feeling of jealousy, he manifested a coldness towards the rising theologian who is to be the subject of this paper; and Basil, who was now a priest, unwilling to excite the people, who had already declared in his favour, retired again from the metropolitan city.

His retreat, both now and on his separating from Dianius, was in Pontus, where he had founded a number of monasteries, over one of which he presided. He had retired thither first about A.D. 356, for the purposes of study and self-discipline; and to a mind ardent, and even ambitious, such as his, nothing was more suitable than such a temporary retreat from the turbulence of ecclesiastical politics. Nor was his life at this time one of inaction or solitude. On occasion of a famine in the neighbouring town and country he converted his lands into money to supply the wants of the people; taking upon himself particularly the charge of their children, besides relieving a number of chance comers, among whom the Jews are mentioned as receiving a share in his liberality. His monasteries became, in a short time, schools of that holy teaching which was banished from the sees of Asia; and it is said that he was in the practice of making a circuit of the neighbouring towns, from time to time, to preach to them the Nicene doctrine. This indeed was a benefit which was not unfrequently rendered to the church, in that hour of apostacy, by these ascetics, and for which we who now live have reason to be grateful to them.

The reason (says Sozoman, who, however, is somewhat too fond of them) why the doctrines of Eunomius and Apollinaris] had not any extensive success, (in addition to the causes above mentioned,) is, that the Solitaries took part against them. For those of Syria and Cappsdocia, and the neighbouring districts, firmly adhered to the creed of Nicæa. At one time, the oriental provinces, from Cilicia to Phoenicia, stood in great danger of becoming Apollinarian, while those from Cilicia and the Taurus to the Hellespont and Constantinople were exposed to Eunomianism; each heresiarch having success in his own neighbourhood. And then the early history of Arianism was (so to say) acted over again; for the populace in those parts had that reverence for the characters and the deeds of the Solitaries, as to trust their doctrine as orthodox; and they shrank from the opposite doctrine as spurious, from the unclesn lives of its advocates; just as the Egyptians followed the Solitaries of Egypt and opposed the Arians.

Basil had lived in his second retirement about three years, when the attack of the Arians, under the countenance of the Emperor Valens, upon the church of Cæsarea, made his loss felt, and his friend Gregory Nazianzen successfully interposed his mediation between him and Eusebius. Gregory's letters are extant, and I here present them to the reader.

GREGORY TO BASIL.

This time calls upon us to be well-judging in our measures, and to bear patiently what may come upon us; to surpass in bravery the generality of men; and to have a care lest all our past toil and labour should suddenly come to nothing. Why do I write thus? Because our admirable Bishop (for such we ought to think and call Eusebius in future) has most amicable and friendly feelings towards us, and, like steel in the fire, is softened by time. I even

expect that you will receive a despatch from him, to cheer you and command your presence at Cæsarea, as he himself hinted to me, and many of his confidential friends assure me. Let us then anticipate his advances, either by our presence or by a letter to him, or, what would be better still, by first writing and then making our appearance, that we may hereafter have no cause to feel remorse, should we lose the day, from the consciousness that there was a moment when we might have gained it by an honourable and dignified concession; which, indeed, is expected of us by the world. Come, then, at once to me, both on this account, and from consideration for the times. In truth, the heretical faction is trampling the church under foot; some of them are already among us and have commenced their agitation; others, it is said, will follow soon. Surely there is danger of their sweeping away the word of truth, unless the spirit of our Bezeleel (Exod. xxxi.) speedily awake, the spirit of the cunning masterbuilder of argument and doctrine. If you wish me to be present with a view of assisting in this business, or to be the companion of your journey, command my services.

It is impossible not to be struck with Gregory's delicacy in this letter, in which he speaks as if he himself were estranged from Eusebius, as well as Basil, though he stood at the time high in his favour. His next letter is to the prelate himself, whose intentions he anticipates with equal delicacy.

GREGORY TO EUSEBIUS, BISHOP OF CÆSAREA.

I know I am addressing one who hates insincerity himself, and has an especial talent in detecting it in another, though ever so skilfully and variously involved; and, indeed, I may say, if you will pardon the impertinence, I am myself averse to it, both by natural disposition and from study of the Scriptures. 'So let me speak out what is uppermost on my mind, and suffer my freedom. Indeed it would be an injury to me to restrain me and bid me keep my pain to myself, as a sore festering in my heart. Proud as I am of your notice (for I am a man, as some one says before me) and of your invitations to religious consultations and meetings; yet I cannot bear your holiness's past and present neglect of my most honoured brother Basil, whom I selected from the first as my intimate friend, to live with me and study with me, and search with me into the deepest subjects of divine wisdom. Such he has been to me, such he is still; I have no need to be dissatisfied with the opinion I have formed of him, and if I do not say more in his praise, it is lest, in enlarging on his admirable qualities, I should seem to be praising the party who is intimate with him. Now, your favour towards the one of us, and your slight towards the other, is as if a man should stroke one's head with one hand, and with the other strike one's cheek; or, decorate a house with paintings and beautify the outside, while he was secretly undermining it. I trust you will comply with me, for my request is equitable. He will certainly defer to you, if you do but pay a reasonable deference to him. For myself, I shall come after him as shadows follow bodies, being of small importance, and a lover of quiet. Miserable indeed should we be if, while we were desirous of wisdom in other matters, and to choose the better part, we yet thought little of that grace, which is the end of all our doctrine-charity; especially in the case of one who is our bishop, and so eminent, as we well know, in life, in doctrine, in conversation, and in the government of his diocese; for the truth must be spoken, whatever be our private feelings.

Great men love to be courted, and little men must not mind rebuffs. Gregory did not succeed in this first attempt with Eusebius, who seems to have been offended at his freedom; and he himself was disgusted, in turn, at the Bishop's stiffness. However, the danger of the church was too great to allow of the continuance of such feelings on either side, and Gregory had, in a little while, the satisfaction of seeing Basil at Cæsarea.

The vigorous talent of Basil soon put to rights the disorders and variances which had been the scandal of the church of Cæsarea; and, with the assistance of Gregory, he completely vanquished the Eunomian disputants, from whose subtilty the peace of the church had principally suffered. What was of more consequence to its permanent welfare, he was successful in obliterating all the suspicions his bishop had entertained concerning him, and at length gained that influence over him that he had really the government of the exarchate VOL. IV.-Dec. 1833.

5 F

in his own hands. This was the more desirable as Eusebius had not been regularly educated for the ministerial office, but called by the caprice of the people to fill the episcopal chair. It was at this period of his life that Basil compiled his celebrated liturgy. At length (A.D. 370) Eusebius died; and Basil, as might be expected, though not without a strong opposition, was elected to supply his place. This opposition was excited by the aristocracy of the country, who naturally feared a prelate of Basil's commanding character, and who were joined by some of the bishops of the exarchate. The Arian party seems to have been, even by this time, too much reduced to exert an open influence against him.

He had not been long seated in his see when he was brought into open collision with the civil power. Valens made a progress through the east, from Constantinople to Antioch, in A.D. 371, 372, with the object of deposing the catholic bishops in the countries which he traversed; and about the end of the former year he came to Cæsarea. There he called before him the Prefect Modestus, as he had done in the other cities, and bade him propose to Basil the alternative of communicating with the Arians, or losing his see. Modestus accordingly conveyed to the Bishop the pleasure of the Emperor, and caused to be set before him the arguments which had been already found successful with the inferior sort of men, that it was foolish to resist the times, and to trouble the church about questions of inconsiderable importance, and he promised him the prince's favour for him and his friends if he complied. Failing by soft language, he called him before him and adopted a higher tone. Gregory has preserved the dialogue which passed between them.

What is the meaning of this, you Basil, (said the Prefect, not deigned to style him Bishop) that you stand out against so great a Prince, and are self-willed when others yield? BASIL. In what does this absurdity of mine consist?

MODESTUS. In your not worshipping after the emperor's manner, when all the rest of your party have given way and been overcome.

BASIL. I have a Sovereign whose will is otherwise, namely, that I should not worship a creature, for such is your Christ. Nor can I bear the thought myself, who also am a creature of God, and bade to imitate his pattern.

MODESTUS. For whom do you take me?

BASIL. I account you as a thing of nought, while such are your commands.

MODESTUS. Is it, then, a mere nothing for one like you to have rank like myself, and to be my fellow.

BASIL. You are Prefect, and in noble place; I own it. But yet God's majesty is greater; and it is much to be your fellow, which I am, for we are both God's creatures. But it is as great a thing to be fellow to the lowest of my flock, for Christianity lies not in temporal distinctions, but in faith.

The Prefect was angered at this, and rose from his chair, and abruptly asked Basil if he did not fear his power.

BASIL. Fear what consequences? what sufferings?

MODESTUS. One of those many pains a Prefect can inflict.

BASIL. Let me know them.

MODESTUS. Confiscation, exile, the torture, death.

BASIL. Think of some other threat. These have no influence upon me. He runs no risk of confiscation who has nothing to lose, except these mean garments and a few books. Nor does the Christian sojourner care for exile, who has no home; who is not wedded to place, but makes every country his own; or rather makes the whole world God's, whose pilgrim he is upon the earth. Nor can tortures harm a frame so frail, that death would follow on the first blow. Thus you could but strike once, and death would be gain. It would but send me the sooner to Him for whom I live and labour, nay, am dead rather than live, to whom I have long been journeying,

MODESTUS. No one yet ever spoke to Modestus with such freedom.

BASIL. Doubtless, Modestus never before fell in with a BISHOP; or surely in a similar trial you would have heard the same language from him. O Prefect, in other things we are gentle, and more humble than all men living, (for such is the commandment,) so that we exalt not ourselves even before the lowest of the people, much less to such power as your's. But when God's honour is at stake, we think of nothing else, looking simply to him. Fire and the sword, beasts of prey with their rending claws, are an indulgence rather than a terror to a Christian. Therefore insult, threaten, do your worse, make much of your power. Let the emperor be informed of my purpose. Me you gain not to an impious creed, even by more fearful menaces.

Modestus parted with him with the respect which firmness necessarily inspires in those who witness it; and, going to the emperor, owned to him that they were fairly conquered by Basil. A second conversation between the Bishop and the Ministers of the Court took place in the presence of Valens himself, who had generosity enough to admire his high spirit, and to dismiss him without punishment. Indeed, his admiration of Basil occasioned a fresh trial of the prelate's constancy, more distressing, perhaps, than any which he had hitherto undergone. On the feast of the Epiphany, he attended the church where Basil officiated, with all his court, and heard his sermon, as was lawful for heretics. Afterwards followed the ceremony of bringing oblations to the altar, in commemoration of the offerings of the Magi. Valens is said to have been much affected by the chants which accompanied this part of the service, and the order which reigned through the congregation, and almost to have fainted away. At length he made an effort to approach the holy table to offer the oblation; but none of the ministers of the church presenting himself to receive it from him, his limbs again gave way, and it was only by the assistance of one of them that he was kept from falling.

Here is a lesson for us that the church gains the favour of the great, not by flattery, but by resisting their sins. It would be a satisfaction to be able to indulge a hope that the good feelings of the emperor were more than the excitement of the moment, but his persevering persecution of the catholics for years afterwards forbids the favourable supposition. Yet it was not the only time that he trembled before the majestic presence of the Exarch of Cæsarea, who ensured for his own provinces an immunity, in great measure, of the sufferings with which the catholics elsewhere were visited, and so far exerted an influence over him, as to gain some of the best of the imperial lands in the neighbourhood, as the endowment of an hospital which he had founded for lepers.

N.

THE COMING OF THE LORD.

THE difficulty with respect to the prophecy of our Lord's return, as vulgarly applied to the destruction of Jerusalem, appears to lie in these three points :-First, that if he is really to return, and if in various places it be stated in plain words of literal signification that he shall do so, it is inconceivable that words of equally plain construction should elsewhere have no such meaning, but one merely allegorical. Secondly, that the allegory, or thing signified, has no