age received will not defray more than half the entire expense of the publication. He trusts, however, that its value as a history, and its merits as a version, together with the pains and expense incurred, to render the volume worthy of public approbation, will secure the success of a laudable enterprize. It is his wish to give that which he is persuaded the Christian community will be gratified to receive the history of the primitive Church, by Eusebius, accessible to common readers, and executed and finished with fidelity. Deeming it exceedingly important to the interests of religion, that the eye of Christians, generally, should be directed to primitive times, the undersigned contemplates the publication of some of the choicer works of that period. Should the patronage of Christian denominations, generally, warrant the undertaking, a regular series of the entire works, and parts of works, of primitive Christianity, as nearly in their chronological order as may be, adapted to the use of parish, congregational, and other public libraries, will, as soon as the important arrangements necessary to its being executed in good faith can be made, be commenced. THE PUBLISHER. Philadelphia, March 22d, 1833. The following history ends A. D. 324. The Council of Nice met A. D. 325. The Author's life and eulogy of Constantine, and that Emperor's address to the Council, are therefore, together with the history of Socrates, highly important and useful works, without which a proper acquaintance with that important period of the Church cannot be acquired. TRANSLATED* BY THE REV. S. E. PARKER, AUTHOR OF THE ARTICLES PROSODY,' 'QUANTITY,' AND 'VERSIFICATION,' IN ACCORDING to the testimony of Socrates,† a book relative to the life of Eusebius, was written by Acacius, the scholar of that prelate, and his successor in the see of Cæsarea. This book, however, through that negligence in antiquity to which the loss of many others is to be ascribed, is not now extant; but from the testimonies of the several writers that have mentioned Eusebius, no exertions of ours shall be wanting to supply the defect. It appears that Eusebius was born in Palestine, about the close of the reign of Gallienus. One proof of which is, that by the ancients, particularly by Basilius and Theodoret, he is frequently termed a Pa- lestinian. It is not impossible, indeed, that he might have received that name from his being the bishop of Cæsarea, yet probability is in favour of his having derived it from his country. In short, he him- self affirms, that he was educated, and when a youth, dwelt in Pales- tine, and that there he first saw Constantine, when journeying through Palestine in the suit of Diocletian Augustus. Eusebius, too, after repeating the contents of a law, written in favour of the Christians, by Constantine to the Palestinians, observes, "This letter of the Em- peror's is the first sent to us." On the authority of Eusebius himself, it may be affirmed, that he In this version, the sense, more than the expression of Valesius, is regarded. In his first book concerning the life of Constantine, chap. 19. § Life of Constantine, book ii. chap. 43, where see note a. Cambr. edit. 1692. Eusebius as au Bib. Sonra. 1858. By Lyman Coloma The Rev. W. E. Galdufell, 30, Church St., Ann Arbor, Mich. |