";s:4:"text";s:4074:"2nd. London, 1654. |xvi Epistle to the Colossians, Chap. Flavius Clemens and Eugenius, Bishop of Toledo, were disciples of Simon before their conversion to Christ. The miserable is not he, Who has neither fresh colour nor comely form, nor power, nor royalty; it is alone he, Who sees himself excluded from the possession of Beauty----a possession in comparison with which:he ought to disdain royalty, rule of the whole earth, of the sea, and heaven itself, if he should be able, by abandoning, by despising all these, to rise to the contemplation of the Beautiful, face to face." Preface
There is a tradition that Dionysius erected the altar in Athens "to God unknown," as author of the inexplicable darkness, which he observed in Egypt, and found afterwards from St. Paul to have been contemporaneous with the Crucifixion. Ammonius had such extasy during his lectures, in which he seemed to have Divine visions.
This touch of nature, preserved in a chronicle, written more than 1400 years ago, by an illustrious statesman, who was son of a Bishop celebrated for learning and sanctity, may fairly be deemed, by an unprejudiced mind, reasonable proof that the "Divine Names" were written previous to A.D. 98. Hierocles on "Golden Verses" of Pythagoras. Among the earliest Bishops of Toledo, Dexter describes a remarkable man,----Marcellus,----surnamed Eugenius, on account of his noble birth. He was Greek by nationality, and Presbyter of the Church in, Alexandria by vocation. of India, pp. As Jesus said, "Ye shall be witnesses of Me unto the uttermost parts of the earth "(Acts Chap. Dionysius: Persona. Pantaenus was born in Athens, a.d. 120, and died in Alexandria, a.d. 213. The similarity of doctrine is denied by none. On the Celestial Hierarchy, On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, On the Divine Names, On the Mystical Theology were widely read and influential throughout the Middle Ages. Plotinus was born in Lycopolis, a.d. 205, and died in Campagna, a.d. 270. I submit that the "Divine Names" will be instrumental in bringing India to the Christian Faith, in the best and only effectual way----by communities and not by individuals----through the most learned and devout, and not through the most ignorant. Jerome informs us (Scr. Wherefore, before everything, and especially theology, we must begin with prayer; not as though we ourselves were drawing the power, which is everywhere, and nowhere present, but as, by our godly reminiscences and invocations, conducting ourselves to, and making ourselves one with It. 9 Clemens and his family for the Christian Faith, there would have been a Christian Emperor in the first century. I am a pupil of Dr. Pusey, but I never listened to his oral teaching; I am pupil through his writings.
As He commanded the Apostles to preach the Gospel throughout the world, so the Gospel was preached when St. Paul wrote his Now, it is a startling fact, that though the teaching of Plotinus comes to us through Porphyry, there is not a word in the Enneades, in which the teaching of Plotinus is given, against the Christian Faith. He then returned to Athens and became a person of influence. Plotinus was not a refined scholar.