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484 Credibility of iJie Gospel History.
has been largely considered by Dr. Heumann, to whom I
refer.
A good part of the history of our author, before taken
from Jerom, may be confirmed from himself. For he speaks
of" his being invited to Nicomedia, and of his teachingrhetoric
there, when the church of the christians in that city
"was destroyed, at the beginning" of the persecution, He
also intimates" his having" been long employed as a professor
of rhetoric, and his great diligence in the j)ursuit of eloquence
: which he did not repent of, because he hoped it
might be of use in the defence of true religion.
In his later Morks he refers to the more early. In his
Divine Institutions he refers toi' the Workmanship of God,
inscribed to his scholar Demetrian, and written not long-
before. In his book of the Wrath of God, he several times
makes mention of i the Divine Institutions. I need not add,
that these last are also taken notice of in the Epitome, or
abridgment of them. And whereas Jerom, among the works
of Lactantius, reckons two books to Asclepiades, we find"^
Asclepiades mentioned by Lactantius in his Institutions.
And we perceive, that Asclepiades had dedicated to him a
book, which he commends. In his Institutions Lactantius
also declares his intention^ to Mrite a distinct treatise upon
the subject. Of the Wrath of God : which he afterwards did,
as has been seen.
He also seems* to intimate his poverty, unless the Avords
are capable of another sense, and mean only his many employments,
by which he was fully engaged ; or rather the
difficulties of the time in which he lived, by reason of the
persecution of cruel tyrants, as" Nourry understands the
expression.
habemus nomina vulgo nota Prudentii, Vincentii, Conslantii, Fulgentii, Inno-
centii, Vigilantii. Id. ib. sect. 21. p. xxxiii.
" Ego cum in Bithynia oratorias literas accitus docerem, contigissetque, ut
eodem tempore Dei templum everteretur. — Inst. 1. v. c. 2. sub in.
° Multum tamen exercitatio ilia fictarum litium contulit, ut nunc majori
copia et facultate dicendi causam ventatis peroremus. Ib. 1. i. c. 1. p. 5.
P rjuam [materiam] ego nunc idcirco praetereo, quia nuper propiium
de ea lihrum ad Demetriadem auditorem meum scripsi. Inst. 1. ii. c. 10. p. 199.
1 Sed iinj)eritiam horum jam coargulmus in secundo Divinarum Institu-
tionum libro. Dc Ira Dei, cap. 2. p. 766. Vid. ib. p. 767. et cap. 11. p. 793.
et cap. 17. p. 809.
' Optime igitur Asclepiades noster de Providentia summi Dei disserens in
eo libro, quern scripsit ad me. Inst. 1. vii. c. 4. p. 660.
• Seponatur interim locus hie nobis De Ira Dei disserendi -, quod
et uberior
est materia, et opere j)roprio latius exsequenda. Inst. 1. ii. c. 17. sub fin.
' Quam minime sim quietus, etiam in summis neccssitatibus, ex hoc libello
poteris existimarfe. De Ira Dei, cap. 1. in.
" Summarum autem difficultatum nomine designare videtur horrendam