INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.

The genius of Lactantius suffers a sad transformation when stripped of his native language and the idiomatic graces of his style. However, the intelligent reader will certainly compare this translation with the original Latin, and return to it often to enjoy its charming rhetoric and the high sentiment it so nobly enforces and adorns. This volume will be a favorite in the series for many. The writings of the "Christian Cicero" Lactantius is often called the Christian Cicero for his eloquent Latin style. alone make up more than half its contents. It is supremely refreshing to finally reach an author who chronicles the triumph of the Gospel over "Herod and Pontius Pilate," over the heathens in their "rage" and the people in their "vain imaginings," and over "the kings of the earth who stood up, and the rulers who were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ."

I love the writings of Lactantius, and two of his sayings are always uppermost when I recall his name. They touch me like plaintive but inspiring music. Let me quote them in full: From De Opificio Dei, ch. xxi.

1. "If a wise man is to wish for life, surely I would desire to live for no other reason than to accomplish something worthy of life."
2. "I shall consider that I have lived long enough, and fulfilled the duty of a man, if my labor has freed some people from errors and directed them toward the heavenly path."

The Minor Writers included in this volume are not unworthy of their place. They are chiefly valuable as an appendix to preceding volumes For example, the apocalyptic comments of Victorinus must be compared with those of Commodian and Hippolytus, Dionysius with his namesake of Alexandria, Asterius with Caius, etc. and help illustrate their contents.

This series is enriched beyond its original scope by the Bryennios Manuscript and the complete form of the pseudo-Clementine Epistle, edited by Professor Riddle. The same hand has annotated the so-called Apostolic Constitutions. In his brief but learned notes, the student finds all the light shed by modern scholarship on these invaluable relics of antiquity since the days of the truly illustrious Bishop Beveridge. I have gathered these, along with the liturgical pseudepigraphic pseudepigraphic: writings falsely attributed to a biblical or historical figure treasures of early Christianity, to distinguish them from the mere Apocrypha, which will largely comprise the one remaining volume of the series.

Regarding the Liturgies, I have provided what seemed necessary as an introduction in the proper place. Compare Canon Wescott, The Historic Faith, pp. 185–202, 237. They are debased by medieval additions. In their English dress, and in the "nudity" of their appearance—without adequate notes and explanations—they are far from attractive specimens of liturgical literature. However, it would have been beyond my role to say much where the original editors said nothing, and I have contented myself with only the comments necessary to remind the student how to "separate the precious from the vile."

JUNE, 1886.
A. C. C.