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490 Credibilitij of the Gospel History.
have bad then some public employment. Lactantius commends
him: but he likewise admonisheth him to'' be upon
his g-uard against the snares of his prosperous condition.
And yet it must have been a time of persecution. For with
regard to himself, he speaks of the difficulty both of his
own' circumstances, and of the times : and he says, that'' the
devil then acted as a roaring* lion. Tillemont thinks, that'
this was the first of our author's public labours in the ser-
vice of religion, because he here expresseth a resolution to
employ his time for the future in the defence of truth. But
that argument is but barely probable, since Lactantius
expresseth himself much after the same manner again in the
introduction to his Divine Institutions.
7. As those Institutions against the Gentiles, in seven
books, are the principal work of Lactantius, we should be
glad to settle the time of writing and publishing- them. As
we now have them, they are inscribed to Constantine. And
it is thought that he refers to the Licinian persecution,
which began in the year 319. They were not therefore published
before the year 320. So say '"Basnage and "Pagi,
whose arguments I have briefly placed in the margin, for
the sake of such readers as may not have their works at hand.
Du Pin says, that" Lactantius wrote his Institutions in the
time of Licinius's persecution, which began in 320, and
that!" he imdertook that work about the year of Christ, 320,
if his numbers are rightly printed, which I think cannot be
properly said. For it is not a work which could be com-
tamen fieri non potest, quin subinde in ccelum aspiciat mens sibi conscia recti,
ibid.
' Ego quidein laetor, omnia tibi, quae pro bonis habentur, prospere fluere :
vereor enim—Ideoque te moneo, repetens iterumque monebo, ne oblectamenta
ista terrse pro magnis aut veris boms habere te credas. ibid.
' Apud quern nunc profiteor, nulla me necessitate vel rei vcl temporis
impediri, quo minus aliquid excudam. De Op. Dei, cap. i. p. 829.
" Nam et ille colluctator et adversarius noster, scis, quam sit astutus, et idem
ipse violentus, sicuti nunc videmus. ib. p. 830.
' See Tillem. as before, p. 349, and Lact. de Op. Dei, cap. ult.
"' quern hoc anno [320.] Divinarum Institutionum libros Constantino
nuncupasse existimamus. Ardente quidem Liciniana persecutione editos esse,
verbis monemur auctoris: [Inst. 1. i. cap. 1.] Nam mails qui adversus justos in
aliis terrarum partibus sseviunt, quanto serius, tanto vehementius idem Omni-
potens mercedem sceleris exsolvet, &c. Basn. Ann. 320. n. iv.
" Sscviebat itaque tunc Licinii persecutio, quando Lactantius opus illud
Constantino dicavit, ideoque non anno 31 G, ut credidit Baronius, sed post
annum 319, in lucem emissum. Pag. in Bar. Ann. 315. n. vii. vid. et 316. n. vi.
° il a done ecrit du temps de la persecution de 1' empereur Licinius,
qui a commence en 320. Du Pin. Bib. T. i. p. 202.
p II entrepit ensuite les sept livres des Institutions vers I'an 320 de Jesus
Christ. Id. ib. p. 205.