35 - Book X, Part 1

CHURCH HISTORY by EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA translated by ARTHUR CUSHMAN MACGUIFFERT Book Ten, Part One, Chapter One through Chapter Four, Paragraph Thirty-Five. Book Ten CHAPTER ONE THE PEACE GRANTED US BY GOD Thanks for all things be given unto God the Omnipotent Ruler and King of the Universe, and the greatest thanks to Jesus Christ the Saviour and Redeemer of our souls, through whom we pray that peace may be always preserved for us firm and undisturbed by external troubles and by troubles of the mind. Since, in accordance with thy wishes, my most holy Paulinus, we have added the tenth book of the Church history to those which have preceded, we will inscribe it to thee, proclaiming thee as the seal of the whole work, and we will fitly add in a perfect number the perfect panegyric upon the restoration of the churches, obeying the divine Spirit, which exhorts us in the following words, Sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvellous things. His right hand and his holy arm hath saved him. The Lord hath made known his salvation. His righteousness hath he revealed in the presence of the nations. And in accordance with the utterance which commands us to sing the new song, let us proceed to show that, after those terrible and gloomy spectacles which we have described, we are now permitted to see and celebrate such things as many truly righteous men and martyrs of God before us desired to see upon earth and did not see, and to hear and did not hear. But they, hastening on, obtained far better things, being carried to heaven and the paradise of divine pleasure. But acknowledging that even these things are greater than we deserve, we have been astonished at the grace manifested by the author of the great gifts, and rightly do we admire him, worshipping him with the whole power of our souls, and testifying to the truth of those recorded utterances, in which it is said, Come and see the works of the Lord, the wonders which he hath done upon the earth. He removeth wars to the ends of the world, he shall break the bow and snap the spear in sunder, and shall burn the shields with fire. Rejoicing in these things which have been clearly fulfilled in our day, let us proceed with our account. The whole race of God's enemies was destroyed in the manner indicated, and was thus suddenly swept from the sight of men. So that again a divine utterance had its fulfillment, I have seen the Empius highly exalted and raising himself like the cedars of Lebanon, and I have passed by, and behold, he was not, and I have sought his place, and it could not be found. And finally a bright and splendid day, overshadowed by no cloud, illuminated with beams of heavenly light the churches of Christ throughout the entire world. And not even those without our communion were prevented from sharing in the same blessings, or at least from coming under their influence and enjoying a part of the benefits bestowed upon us by God. CHAPTER II. THE RESTORATION OF THE CHURCHES. All men, then, were freed from the oppression of the tyrants, and being released from the former ills, one in one way and another in another, acknowledged the defender of the pious to be the only true God. And we especially who placed our hopes in the Christ of God had unspeakable gladness, and a certain inspired joy bloomed for all of us, when we saw every place which shortly before had been desolated by the impieties of the tyrants reviving as if from a long and death-fraught pestilence, and temples again rising from their foundations to an immense height, and receiving a splendor far greater than that of the old ones which had been destroyed. But the supreme rulers also confirmed to us still more extensively the munificence of God by repeated ordinances in behalf of the Christians, and personal letters of the emperor were sent to bishops with honors and gifts of money. It may not be unfitting to insert these documents, translated from the Roman into the Greek tongue, at the proper place in this book, as in a sacred tablet, that they may remain as a memorial to all who shall come after us. After this was seen the sight which had been desired and prayed for by us all, feasts of dedication in the cities and consecrations of the newly built houses of prayer took place, bishops assembled, foreigners came together from abroad, mutual love was exhibited between people and people, the members of Christ's body were united in complete harmony. Then was fulfilled the prophetic utterance which mystically foretold what was to take place, bone to bone and joint to joint, and whatever was truly announced in enigmatic expressions in the inspired passage. And there was one energy of the Divine Spirit pervading all the members, and one soul in all, and the same eagerness of faith, and one hymn from all in praise of the Deity. Yea, and perfect services were conducted by the prelates, the sacred rites being solemnized, and the majestic institutions of the Church observed, here with the singing of psalms and with the reading of the words committed to us by God, and there with the performance of divine and mystic services, and the mysterious symbols of the Savior's Passion were dispensed. At the same time, people of every age, both male and female, with all the power of the mind gave honor unto God, the author of their benefits, in prayers and thanksgiving, with a joyful mind and soul, and every one of the bishops present, each to the best of his ability, delivered panegyric orations, adding luster to the assembly. CHAPTER IV. PANEGYRIC ON THE SPLENDOR OF AFFAIRS A certain one of those of moderate talent, who had composed a discourse, stepped forward in the presence of many pastors who were assembled as if for a church gathering, and while they attended quietly and decently, he addressed himself as follows to one who was in all things a most excellent bishop and beloved of God, through whose zeal the temple in Tyre, which was the most splendid in Phoenicia, had been erected. Panegyric upon the building of the churches, addressed to Paulinus, bishop of Tyre. Friends and priests of God, who are clothed in the sacred gown and adorned with the heavenly crown of glory, the inspired unction and the sacerdotal garment of the Holy Spirit, and thou, O pride of God's new holy temple, endowed by Him with the wisdom of age, and yet exhibiting costly works and deeds of youthful and flourishing virtue, to whom God Himself, who embraces the entire world, has granted the distinguished honor of building and renewing this earthly house to Christ, His only begotten and firstborn Word, and to His holy and divine Bride, one might call thee a new Bezalel, the architect of a divine tabernacle, or Solomon, king of a new and much better Jerusalem, or also a new Zerubbabel, who added a much greater glory than the former to the temple of God, and you also, O nurslings of the sacred flock of Christ, habitation of good works, school of wisdom, and august and pious auditory of religion. It was long ago permitted us to raise hymns and songs to God, when we learned from hearing the divine scriptures read, the marvelous signs of God, and the benefits conferred upon men by the Lord's wondrous deeds, being taught to say, O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us the work which Thou didst in their days, in days of old. But now, as we no longer perceive the lofty arm and the celestial right hand of our all-gracious God and universal King, by hearsay merely or report, but observe so to speak in very deed and with our own eyes, that the declarations recorded long ago are faithful and true, it is permitted us to raise a second hymn of triumph, and to sing with loud voice, and say, As we have heard, so have we seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God. And in what city but in this newly built and God-constructed one, which is a church of the living God, a pillar and foundation of the truth, concerning which also another divine oracle thus proclaims, glorious things have been spoken of thee, O city of God, since the all-gracious God has brought us together to it, through the grace of His Only Begotten, let every one of those who have been summoned sing with loud voice, and say, I was glad when they said unto me, We shall go unto the house of the Lord, and, Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy house and the place where Thy glory dwelleth. And let us not only one by one, but all together, with one spirit and one soul, honor Him and cry aloud, saying, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain. For He is truly great, and great is His house, lofty and spacious and comely in beauty above the sons of men. Great is the Lord, who alone doeth wonderful things. Great is He who doeth great things and things past finding out, glorious and marvelous things which cannot be numbered. Great is He who changeth times and seasons, who exalteth and debaseth kings, who raiseth up the poor from the earth and lifteth up the needy from the dunghill. He hath put down princes from their thrones and hath exalted them of low degree from the earth. The hungry He hath filled with good things, and the arms of the proud He hath broken, not only to the faithful, but also to unbelievers, as He confirmed the record of ancient events. He that worketh miracles, He that doeth great things, the Master of all, the Creator of the whole world, the Omnipotent, the All-merciful, the one and only God, to Him let us sing the new song, supplying in thought, to Him who alone doeth great wonders, for His mercy endureth forever, to Him which smote great kings and slew famous kings, for His mercy endureth forever, for the Lord remembered us in our lowest state and delivered us from our adversaries. And let us never cease to cry aloud in these words to the Father of the universe, and let us always honor Him with our mouth, who is the second cause of our benefits, the instructor in divine knowledge, the teacher of the true religion, the destroyer of the impious, the slayer of tyrants, the reformer of life, Jesus, the Savior of us who were in despair. For He alone, as the only all-gracious Son of an all-gracious Father, in accordance with the purpose of His Father's benevolence, has willingly put on the nature of us who lay prostrate in corruption. And like some excellent physician, who for the sake of saving them that are ill examines their sufferings, handles their foul sores, and reaps pain for himself from the miseries of another, so us who were not only diseased and afflicted with terrible ulcers and wounds already mortified, but were even lying among the dead, He hath saved for Himself from the very jaws of death. For none other of those in heaven had such a power as without harm to minister to the salvation of so many. But He alone, having reached our deep corruption, He alone, having taken upon Himself our labors, He alone, having suffered the punishments due for our impieties, having recovered us who were not half-dead merely, but were already in tombs and sepulchres, and altogether foul and offensive, saves us, both anciently and now, by His beneficent zeal, beyond the expectation of anyone, even of ourselves, and imparts liberally of the Father's benefits. He who is the Giver of life and light, our great Physician and King and Lord, the Christ of God. For then, when the whole human race lay buried in gloomy night and in depths of darkness through the deceitful arts of guilty demons and the power of God-hating spirits, by His simple appearing, He loosed once for all the fast-bound cords of our impieties by the rays of His light, even as wax is melted. But when malignant envy and the evil-loving demon well-nigh burst with anger at such grace and kindness, and turned against us all His death-dealing forces, and when, at first, like a dog gone mad which gnashes His teeth at the stones thrown at Him, and pours out His rage against His assailants upon the inanimate missiles, He leveled His ferocious madness at the stones of the sanctuaries and at the lifeless material of the houses and desolated the churches, at least as He supposed, and then emitted terrible hissings and snake-like sounds, now by the threats of impious tyrants, and again by the blasphemous edicts of profane rulers, vomiting forth death, moreover, and infecting with His deleterious and soul-destroying poisons the souls captured by Him, and almost slaying them by His death-fraught sacrifices of dead idols, and causing every beast in the form of man and every kind of savage to assault us, then, indeed, the Angel of the Great Council, the Great Captain of God but after the mightiest soldiers of His kingdom had displayed sufficient exercise through patience and endurance in everything, suddenly appeared anew, and blotted out and annihilated His enemies and foes, so that they seemed never to have had even a name. But His friends and relatives He raised to the highest glory, in the presence not only of all men, but also of celestial powers, of sun and moon and stars, and of the whole heaven and earth, so that now, as has never happened before, the supreme rulers, conscious of the honor which they have received from Him, spit upon the faces of dead idols, trample upon the unhallowed rites of demons, make sport of the ancient delusion handed down from their fathers, and acknowledge only one God, the common benefactor of all, themselves included. And they confess Christ, the Son of God, universal King of all, and proclaim Him Savior on monuments, imperishably recording in imperial letters, in the midst of the city which rules over the earth, His righteous deeds and His victories over the impious. Thus Jesus Christ our Savior is the only one from all eternity who has been acknowledged, even by those highest in the earth, not as a common King among men, but as a trite Son of the universal God, and who has been worshiped as very God, and that rightly. For what King that ever lived attained such virtue as to fill the ears and tongues of all men upon earth with His own name? What King, after ordaining such pious and wise laws, has extended them from one end of the earth to the other, so that they are perpetually read in the hearing of all men? Who has abrogated barbarous and savage customs of uncivilized nations by His gentle and most philanthropic laws? Who, being attacked for entire ages by all, has shown such superhuman virtue as to flourish daily and remain young throughout His life? Who has founded a nation which of old was not even heard of, but which now is not concealed in some corner of the earth, but is spread abroad everywhere under the sun? Who has so fortified His soldiers with the arms of piety that their souls, being firmer than adamant, shine brilliantly in the contests with their opponents? What King prevails to such an extent and even after death leads on His soldiers and sets up trophies over His enemies, and fills every place, country and city, Greek and barbarian, with His royal dwellings, even divine temples with their consecrated oblations, like this very temple with its superb adornments and votive offerings, which are themselves so truly great and majestic, worthy of wonder and admiration, and clear signs of the sovereignty of our Savior? For now, too, He spake, and they were made, He commanded, and they were created. For what was there to resist the nod of the universal King and Governor and Word of God Himself? A special discourse would be needed accurately to survey and explain all this, and also to describe how great the zeal of the laborers is regarded by Him who is celebrated as divine, who looks upon the living temple which we all constitute, and surveys the house, composed of living and moving stones, which is well and surely built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the chief cornerstone being Jesus Christ Himself, who has been rejected not only by the builders of that ancient building which no longer stands, but also by the builders, evil architects of evil works, of the structure which is composed of the mass of men and still endures. But the Father has approved Him both then and now, and has made Him the head of the corner of this, our common church. Who that beholds this living temple of the living God formed of ourselves, this greatest and truly divine sanctuary, I say, whose inmost shrines are invisible to the multitude and are truly holy and a holy of holies, would venture to declare it. Who is able even to look within the sacred enclosure, except the great High Priest of all, to whom alone it is permitted to fathom the mysteries of every rational soul? But perhaps it is granted to another, to one only, to be second after Him in the same work, namely to the commander of this army whom the first and great High Priest Himself has honored with the second place in this sanctuary, the shepherd of your divine flock who has obtained your people by the allotment and the judgment of the Father, as if He had appointed Him His own servant and interpreter, a new Aaron or Melchizedek, made like the Son of God, remaining and continually preserved by Him in accordance with the united prayers of all of you. To Him therefore alone let it be granted, if not in the first place, at least in the second place, to be assigned after the first and greatest High Priest to observe and supervise the inmost state of your souls to Him who by experience and length of time has accurately proved each one, and who by His zeal and care has disposed you all in pious conduct and doctrine, and is better able than anyone else to give an account, adequate to the facts, of those things which He Himself has accomplished with the divine assistance. As to our first and great High Priest, it is said, Whatsoever He seeth the Father doing, those things likewise the Son also doeth. So also this one, looking up to Him as to the first Teacher, with pure eyes of the mind, using as archetypes whatsoever things He seeth Him doing, produceth images of them, making them so far as is possible in the same likeness, in nothing inferior to that Bezalel, whom God Himself filled with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and with other technical and scientific knowledge, and called to be the maker of the temple constructed after heavenly types given in symbols. Thus this one, also bearing in His own soul the image of the whole Christ, the Word, the Wisdom, the Light, has formed this magnificent temple of the highest God, corresponding to the pattern of the greater as a visible to an invisible, it is impossible to say with what greatness of soul, with what wealth and liberality of mind, and with what emulation on the part of all of you, shown in the magnanimity of the contributors who have ambitiously striven in no way to be left behind by Him in the execution of the same purpose. And this place, for this deserves to be mentioned first of all, which had been covered with all sorts of rubbish by the artifices of our enemies, He did not overlook, nor did He yield to the wickedness of those who had brought about that condition of things, although He might have chosen some other place, for many other sites were available in the city, where He would have had less labor and been free from trouble. But having first aroused Himself to the work, and then strengthened the whole people with zeal, and formed them all into one great body, He fought the first contest, for He thought that this church, which had been especially besieged by the enemy, which had first suffered and endured the same persecutions with us and for us, like a mother bereft of her children, should rejoice with us in the signal favor of the all-merciful God. For when the great shepherd had driven away the wild animals and wolves and every cruel and savage beast, and, as the divine oracles say, had broken the jaws of the lions, He thought good to collect again her children in the same place, and in the most righteous manner He set up the fold of her flock to put to shame the enemy and avenger, and to refute the impious daring of the enemies of God. And now they are not the haters of God, for they never were. After they had troubled and been troubled for a little time, they suffered the fitting punishment, and brought themselves and their friends and their relatives to total destruction, so that the declarations inscribed of old in sacred records have been proved true by facts. In these declarations the divine word truly says, among other things, the following concerning them. The wicked have drawn out the sword, they have bent their bow, to slay the righteous in heart. Let their sword enter into their own heart, and their bows be broken. And again, their memorial is perished with a sound. And, their name hast thou blotted out for ever and ever, for when they also were in trouble they cried out and there was none to save, unto the Lord, and He heard them not. But their feet were bound together, and they fell, but we have arisen and stand upright. And that which was announced beforehand in these words, O Lord, in thy city thou shalt set at not their image, has been shown to be true to the eyes of all. But having waged war like the giants against God, they died in this way. But she that was desolate and rejected by men received the consummation which we behold in consequence of her patience toward God, so that the prophecy of Isaiah was spoken of her. Rejoice, thirsty desert! Let the desert rejoice and blossom as the lily, and the desert places shall blossom and be glad. Be strengthened, ye weak hands and feeble knees. Be of good courage, ye feeble hearted, in your minds. Be strong, fear not. Behold, our God recompenseth judgment and will recompense. He will come and save us. For, he says, in the wilderness water has broken out, and a pool in thirsty ground, and the dry land shall be watered meadows, and in the thirsty ground there shall be springs of water. These things which were prophesied long ago have been recorded in sacred books, but no longer are they transmitted to us by hearsay merely, but in facts. This desert, this dry land, this widowed and deserted one, whose gates they cut down with axes like wood in a forest, whom they broke down with hatchet and hammer, whose books also they destroyed, burning with fire the sanctuary of God, and profaning unto the ground the habitation of his name, whom all that passed by upon the way plucked, and whose fences they broke down, whom the boar out of the wood ravaged, and on which the savage wild beasts fed, now by the wonderful power of Christ, when he wills it, has become like a lily. For at that time also she was chastened at his nod as by a careful father, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Then after being chastened in a measure, according to the necessities of the case, she is commanded to rejoice anew, and she blossoms as a lily and exhales her divine odor among all men. For, it is said, water hath broken out in the wilderness, the fountain of the saving bath of divine regeneration. And now she, who a little before was a desert, has become watered meadows, and springs of water have gushed forth in a thirsty land. The hands which before were weak have become truly strong, and these works are great and convincing proofs of strong hands. The knees also, which before were feeble and infirm, recovering their wanted strength, are moving straight forward in the path of divine knowledge, and hastening to the kindred flock of the all-gracious shepherd. And if there are any whose souls have been stupefied by the threats of the tyrants, not even they are passed by as incurable by the saving word. But he heals them also and urges them on to receive divine comfort, saying, Be ye comforted, ye who are faint-hearted, be ye strengthened, fear not. End of Book Ten, Part One.