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520 Credibility of the Gospel Uistonj.
3. He went into the common notion of that time, concerning
the fall of many of tlie^ angels.
4. It is also well known, that'' Lactantius expected a ter-
restrial reig-n of Christ for a thousand years before the
general judgment. Jerom has ridiculed' his Millenarian
notions, which are chiefly enlarged upon in the seventh and
last book of the Divine Institutions. Jerom took the same
freedom with Irenteus, TertuUian, Victorinus, and other
christian writers, who had the like sentiment.
This happy period our author thought to be very near,
and that it could not be deferred'' more than two hundred
years.
5. Jerom has more than once remarked upon Lactantius,
that' in his epistles, especially those to Demetrian, he denies
the personality of the Holy Ghost : referring him, as the
Jew s erroneously do, to the Father or the Son. Jerom says,
that*^^ in his time this was a common opinion with many, who
did not understand the scriptures.
6. In other places Jerom vindicates Lactantius" from an
^ Vid. Inst. 1. ii. c. 14. Epit. c. 27.
^ Non quod ille regnuni hoc terrenum fuerit adeptus, cujiis capiendi
nondiim tenipus advenit, sed quod cceleste et sempiternum. Inst. 1. iv. c. 7.
sub fin.
Nam cum ita sit a Deo constitutum, ut idem Christus hisadveniat in terram ;
semel, ut unum Deum gentibus nuntiet, deinde, rursus, ut regnet. 1. iv. c, 12.
p. 385.
Necesse est, ut in fine sexti millesimi anni malitia omnis aboleatur e terra,
et regnet per annos mille justitia, sitque tranquillitas, et requies a laboribus,
1. vii. c. 14. p. 695. Vid. quae ibidem sequuntur, etc. 15, 16, &c.
' Neque enim juxt.i judaicas fabulas— gemmatam et auream de coelo
expectamus Jerusalem Quod et multi nostrorum, etprsecipue Tertulliani
liber—de SpeFidelium,—et Lactantii Institutionum volumen septimum polli-
cetur, et Victorini Pitabionensis epistoli crebrae expositiones. Hieron. in Ezek.
cap. 36. T. iii. p. 952.
^ Jam superius ostendi, completis annorum sex millibus mulationem isfam
fieri oportere, et jam propinquare summum ilium conclusionis diem.—Quando
tamen compleatur haec summa, docent ii, qui detemporibus scripserunt.—Qui
licet varient, et aiiquantum numefi eorum summa dissentiat, omnis tamen
expectatio non amplius quam ducentorum videtur annorum. 1. vii. c. 25. p. 726.
' Lactantius in epistolis suis, et maxime in epistolis ad Demetrianum, Spiritiis
Sancti negat substantiam ; et errore judaico dicit eum vel ad Patrem referri,
ve! ad Filium, et sanctificationem utriusque personae sub ejus nomine demonstrari.
Hieron. ad Pamm. et Oc. ep. 41. [al. 65.] T. iv. p. 345.
•" Hoc ideo, quia multi per imperitiam scripturarum (quod et Firtnianus in
octavo ad Demetrianum epistolarum libro i'acit) asserunt, S])iri1um Sanctum
saepe Patrem saepe Filium, nomiuari. Et, cum perspicue inTrinitate credamus,
tertiam personam auferentes, non substantiam ejus voUint esse, sed nomen. In
Galat. c. iv. v. 6. p. 268.
" Quantum memoria suggerit, nisi tamen fallor, nescio me legisse Lactantium
avanitponiviiv animam dicere, &c. Adv. Ri.f. 1. ii. T. 4. p. 399. Conf,
1. ii.p. 395. etl. ]ii. p. 465.