{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/201/2010682.htm","path":"chr/ecf/201/2010682.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/201/2010682.htm","text":"Chapter XX.\u2014A Farther Quotation from Virgilius Maro respecting Christ, with its Interpretation, showing that the Mystery was indicated therein darkly, as might be expected from a Poet.\nA life immortal he shall lead, and be\nBy heroes seen, himself shall heroes see;\nevidently meaning the righteous.\nThe jarring nations he in peace shall bind,\nAnd with paternal virtues rule mankind.\nUnbidden earth her earliest fruits shall bring,\nAnd fragrant herbs, to greet her infant king.\nWell indeed was this admirably wise and accomplished man acquainted with the cruel character of the times. He proceeds:\nThe goats, uncall\u2019d, full udders home shall bear;\nThe lowing herds no more fierce lions fear.\nTruly said: for faith will not stand in awe of the mighty in the imperial palace.\nHis cradle shall with rising flowers be crown\u2019d:\nThe serpent\u2019s brood shall die; the sacred ground\nShall weeds and poisonous plants refuse to bear;\nEach common bush th\u2019 Assyrian rose 3468 shall wear.\nNothing could be said more true or more consistent with the Saviour\u2019s excellency than this. For the power of the Divine Spirit presents the very cradle of God, like fragrant flowers, to the new-born race. 3469 The serpent, too, and the venom of that serpent, perishes, who originally beguiled our first parents, and drew their thoughts from their native innocence 3470 to the enjoyment of pleasures, that they might experience 3471 that threatened death. For before the Saviour\u2019s advent, the serpent\u2019s power was shown in subverting the souls of those who were sustained by no well-grounded hope, and ignorant of that immortality which awaits the righteous. But after that he had suffered, and was separated for a season from the body which he had assumed, the power of the resurrection was revealed to man through the communication of the Holy Spirit: and whatever stain of human guilt might yet remain was removed by the washing of sacred lustrations.\nThen indeed could the Saviour bid his followers be of good cheer, and, remembering his adorable and glorious resurrection, expect the like for themselves. Truly, then, the poisonous race may be said to be extinct. Death himself is extinct, and the truth of the resurrection sealed. Again, the Assyrian race is gone, which first led the way to faith in God. 3472 But when he speaks of the growth of amomum every where, he alludes to the multitude of the true worshipers of God. 3473 For it is as though a multitude of branches, crowned with fragrant flowers, and fitly watered, sprung from the self-same root. Most justly said, Maro, thou wisest of poets! and with this all that follows is consistent.\nBut when heroic worth his youth shall hear,\nAnd learn his father\u2019s virtues to revere.\nBy the praises of heroes, he indicates the works of righteous men: by the virtues of his Father he speaks of the creation and everlasting structure of the world: and, it may be, of those laws by which God\u2019s beloved Church is guided, and ordered in a course of righteousness and virtue. Admirable, again, is the advance to higher p. 577 things of that state of life which is intermediate, as it were, between good and evil, and which seldom admits a sudden change:\nUnlabored harvests shall the fields adorn, 3474\nthat is, the fruit of the Divine law springs up for the service of men.\nAnd clustered gropes shall blush on every thorn.\nFar otherwise has it been during the corrupt and lawless period of human life.\nThe knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep. 3475\nHe here describes the folly and obduracy of the men of that age; and perhaps he also intimates that they who suffer hardships in the cause of God, shall reap sweet fruits of their own endurance.\nYet, of old fraud some footsteps shall remain;\nThe merchant still shall plough the deep for gain:\nGreat cities shall with walls be compassed round,\nAnd sharpened shares shall vex the fruitful ground:\nAnother Tiphys shall new seas explore;\nAnother Argo land the chiefs upon the Iberian shore;\nAnother Helen other wars create,\nAnd great Achilles urge the Trojan fate.\nWell said, wisest of bards! Thou hast carried the license of a poet precisely to the proper point. For it was not thy purpose to assume the functions of a prophet, to which thou hadst no claim. I suppose also he was restrained by a sense of the danger which threatened one who should assail the credit of ancient religious practice. Cautiously, therefore, and securely, as far as possible, he presents the truth to those who have faculties to understand it; and while he denounces the munitions and conflicts of war 3476 (which indeed are still to be found in the course of human life), he describes our Saviour as proceeding to the war against Troy, understanding by Troy the world itself. 3477 And surely he did maintain the struggle against the opposing powers of evil, sent on that mission both by the designs of his own providence and the commandment of his Almighty Father. How, then, does the poet proceed?\nBut when to ripen\u2019d manhood he shall grow,\nthat is, when, having arrived at the age of manhood, he shall utterly remove the evils which encompass the path of human life, and tranquilize the world by the blessings of peace:\nThe greedy sailor shall the seas forego;\nNo keel shall cut the waves for foreign ware,\nFor every soil shall every product bear.\nThe laboring hind his oxen shall disjoin;\nNo plough shall hurt the glebe, no pruning-hook the vine;\nNor wool shall in dissembled colors shine:\nBut the luxurious father of the fold,\nWith native purple, and unborrow\u2019d gold,\nBeneath his pompous fleece shall proudly sweat;\nAnd under Tyrian robes the lamb shall bleat.\nMature in years, to ready honors move,\nO of celestial seed, O foster son of Jove!\nSee, laboring nature calls thee to sustain\nThe nodding flame of heaven, and earth, and main!\nSee to their base restored, earth, seas, and air;\nAnd joyful ages, from behind, in crowing ranks appear.\nTo sing thy praise, would heaven my breath prolong.\nInfusing spirits worthy such a song,\nNot Thracian Orpheus should transcend my lays,\nNor Linus, crown\u2019d with never-fading bays;\nThough each his heavenly parent should inspire;\nThe Muse instruct the voice, and Ph\u0153bus tune the lyre.\nShould Pan contend in verse, and thou my theme,\nArcadian judges should their God condemn. 3478\nBehold (says he) how the mighty world and the elements together manifest their joy.\n[Amomum.\u2014Bag.] \u201cAssyrian cinnamon,\u201d Kennedy, p. 28; \u201cthe cardamon\u2019s spice shall grow, That from Assyria\u2019s gardens,\u201d Wilstach, 1, p. 157; \u201cSyrian spices,\u201d Trapp, 1, p. 92; \u201cAssyria\u2019s rich perfume,\u201d Warton, 1, p. 78; \u201cAssyrian roses,\u201d Ogilby, p. 42.\n576:3469 576:3470 576:3471\n\u201cMight not experience,\u201d according to some, including Heinichen, who rejects in first, but accepts in text of his second edition.\n576:3472\n[Referring, apparently, to Abraham. This passage is founded on a misconstruction of Virgil\u2019s line by Constantine. which is followed by the Greek verse itself according to one edition.\u2014Bag.]\n576:3473\n[By a kind of play on the word amomum, he alludes to the Christians as \u1f04\u03bc\u03c9\u03bc\u03bf\u03b9, or blameless persons.\u2014Bag.]\n577:3474\n\u201cThe fields shall mellow wax with golden grain.\u201d\n577:3475\n\u201cAnd through the matted grass the liquid gold shall creep.\u201d\n\u201cAnd th\u2019 hardened oaks with dewy honey sweat.\u201d\n\u201cForth from the hard oak stems the lovely honey flows.\u201d\nThese all approach Virgil closer than they do Constantine. With all allowance for poetic license, \u201cpine\u201d should hardly be translated \u201coak.\u201d\n577:3476\nLiterally, \u201ctimes and wars.\u201d\u20141709.\n577:3477\nThis, bad as it is, is hardly worse than the subjective interpretation of scripture by modern allegorizers, and certainly no worse than some of the Scripture interpretations of Eusebius.\n577:3478\n[The reader will perceive that the foregoing verses, with but little exception, and very slight alteration, are taken from Dryden\u2019s translation of the fourth eclogue of Virgil.\u2014Bag.]","title":"Nicene and Ante-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol I: The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius.: Chapter XX","type":"page"}