The Divine Institutes.

        In 304 he was already at work upon the Divine Institutes; he refers to that undertaking in his book On God's Workmanship (15:6; 20:2). Two recent philosophical attacks upon Christianity, one by Hierocles, who is said to have instigated Diocletian's persecution, stirred Lactantius to offer a positive presentation of Christianity. This turned out to be his great work. He was busy with it for a number of years, beginning with 304. It was certainly substantially finished by 311, and probably well before that time, although the dedication to Constantine in i” i and 7:26, and implied in 2: 1, 4:1, and 6:3, presupposes the new edict of toleration issued by Constamtine at Milan in A.D. 313, and these touches were probably introduced into a revised edition of the book after that emperor summoned Lactantius to Treves in 317, although some would say they were added by another hand.[95] Lactantius was therefore writing the Institutes at the very time that his old professor Arnobius back in North Africa was writing his work Against the Heathen, A.D. 304-10.

        The Institutes form a book a good deal (almost a third) longer than the New Testament. Some idea of its contents can be gained from the titles of the seven books: (1) “On False Religion,” polytheism is false; the best thought of prophets, poets, and philosophers shows that God is one; (2) “On the Origin of Error,” polytheism and its causes; (3) “On False Wisdom,” the errors of the philosophers; (4) “On True Wisdom and Religion,” they are inseparable. The prophets foretold the life and work of Christ; (5) “On justice,” which the Christians seek to bring back to the world; (6) “On True Worship,” which consists in serving God and showing justice and mercy to our fellowmen; (7) “On the Happy Life,” the right use of this world, the immortality of the soul, and the life to come. Lactantius followed the millennial calculations of Julius Africanus, that Christ was born in the year the of world 5500 and that, when the sixth “day” of a thousand years was ended, which would be in about two hundred years (7:25), the millennium would be ushered in, to be followed by the release of the devil, further outbreaks against the church, and the final resurrection and judgment.