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Lactantius. a. D. 306. 489
heresies ; nhicli we do not know that he ever did, beingperhaps
prevented by death. 1 thonght it proper, however,
to take notice of it in this phice, as a proof of onr author's
zeal for truth, with m hich lie was greatly enamoured, (as
some other expressions also of his elsewhere* show,) and his
readiness to employ his time in the defence of it.
3. .And at the beginning of the seventh book of his Institutions,
he promises'' somewhat against the Jews, which we
have not, unless it be in the latter part of that very book.
4. Two of the three books first mentioned by Jerom, the
Itinerary and Grammaticus, seem to be irrecoverably lost.
And it has been generally thought, that the third, the Symposium,
or Banquet, was lost likewise. But Dr. Ileumann,
who not very long since published an edition of a work with
that title, asserts its genuineness. It is a collection of a
hundred tristich epigrams, with a prologue. I do not dispute
the favourable Judgment which the learned editor forms
of this work. But I shall have no occasion to quote it at
present.
5. All our author's books of epistles are entirely lost.
Pope Damasus, as'' before shown, did not read them with
pleasure, and seems to have set but little value upon them ;
nevertheless some learned Jiioderns'' regret the loss of them.
According to the passage before cited from Jerom's Catalogue,
there were only two books of epistles to Demetrian.
Nevertheless, in'' anotlier place Jerom quotes the eighth book
of Lactantius's epistles to Demetrian. I faiicy the reason is
there were in all eight books of epistles, and those to
this ;
Demetrian were placed last in the collection. Quoting
therefore the second book to Demetrian, he calls it the
eighth to him : meaning, however, no more than the eighth
book of this writer's epistles, which book was to Deme-
trian.
6. We still have the treatise, Of the Workmanship of God,
addressed to Demetrian, whom*^ he had taught rhetoric.
Demetrian" seems to have been a man of fortune, and to
' Nullus enim suavior animo cibus est, quam cognitio veritatis, cujus asse-
rendae atque illustrandaj, septem voluinina destinaviiiius. 1. i. c. I. p. 9.
^ Sed ent nobis contra Judaeos separata materia, in qua illos erroris et sceleris
revincemus. Inst. 1. vii. c. 1. ad fin. '^ See p. 487.
•^ Utinam eas epistolas tenipus reriim edax nobis non invidisset. Nos
libenter legeremus. Basn. Ann. 320. n. iv.
« quod et Firmianus in octavo ad Demetrianum epistolarum libro
facit. In Galat. c. iv. p. 268.
' Nam, si te in Uteris nihil aliud quam linguam instruentibus auditorem
satis strenuum praebuisti ; quanto magis in his veris, et ad vitam pertinentibus,
docihor esse debebis ? De Op. Dei, c. i. p. 829.
8 Nam, licet te publicse rei necessitas a veris et justis operibus avertat
;