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Arnobius. a. D. 306. 465
rally reckoned rough and unpolished, and hath in it some
uncoutli and obsolete words: it is strong and nervous, and*
there are in him shining and beautiful passages, which must
highly please attentive readers of good taste. It is very
much to the honour of this rhetorician, learned in all* the
learning of Greece and Rome, that he endjraced the christian
religion when under persecution : and that, like Moses, " he
chose rather to suffer alHiction with the people of God, than
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season: esteeming the
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures " of all
the world. Heb. xi. 25, 26. And see Acts vii. 22.
III. I shall now make some extracts out of Arnobius. 1.
He represents the sum of the christian religion in this manner:
' We" christians are men that worship the great Lord
' and governor of the Morld, according to the direction of
' Jesus Christ. If you examine it, you will find nothing else
' in this reliffion : this is the sum of the whole af!"air : this is
' the scope and design of all our religious offices: to this
' supreme Lord we all bow down : him we worship with
' united prayers : to him we present holy, and innocent, and
' honourable requests, fit to be heard by him.'
I place ^ another like passage at the bottom of the page,
without translating it, but referring it to the consideration
of my readers.
2. It is worth while to observe, what arguments Arnobius
makes use of to prove the truth and divine original of the
christian religion.
(1.) One argument insisted on by him is its excellence.
For this I would refer to what was before said"^ concerning
* Negari tamen non potest, plurima passim occiirrere apte, polite, eleganter,
et rhetonce dicta, ac gravissimis ornata illusfrataque verbis et sententiis. Nourry
Diss, in Amob. cap. ii. p. 287. A. B.
' Quem quidem locum plena jamdudum homines pectoris vivi tam Romanis
literis explicavere qiiam Graecis. 1. iii. p. 103.
" Nihil siunus aliiid christian!, nisi, magistro Christo, summi regis et principis
veneratores. Nihil, si consideres, aliud invenies in isti religione versari. Haec
totius summa est actionis. Hie propositus terminus divinorum officiorum, hie
finis. Huic omnes ex more prosternimur ; hunc coUatis precibus adoramus.
Ab hoc justa, et honesta, etaudituejuscondignadeposcimus. 1. i. p. 14, et 15.
" Qui [Christus] si dignus non esset, cui auscultare deberetis, aut credere ;
vel hoc ipso fuerat non aspernandus a vobis, ostenderet quod vias vobis ad
ccelum et vota immortalitatis optaret, qui hominibus caecis, et revera in
impietate degentibus, pietatis aperuit januas, et cui se submitterent indicavit.
An ulla est religio verior, officiosior, potenlior, justior, quam Deuni principem
nosse, scire Deo principi siipplicare, qui bonorum omnium solus caput et fons
est, perpetuarum pariter fundator et conditor rerum, a quo omnia terrena,
cunctaque coelestia animantur, et qui si non esset, nulla profecto res
esset, quae aliquod nomen, substantiamque portaret ? 1. ii. p. 42, 43. Vid. et
p. 13. f. " See p. 463, 464.
vol.. III. 2 H