§ 4. RELATION TO EARLIER APOLOGIES

The Demonstratio comes at the end of a long series of apologetical works, and embodies and codifies their results. It is the work of a man of extraordinarily wide scholarship, which marshals and buttresses with additional support the "loci communes" of his predecessors. Eusebius is no adventurer breaking fresh ground.

A comparison of the Demonstratio with the Trypho or the contra Celsum reveals only a more systematic application of the argument from prophecy used by Justin and Origen. In some cases the prophecies are explained in almost identical language. We may instance the exegesis of Psalm xxii. in Book X with that of Justin, in Trypho, cc. 98-106, the references to Isaiah vii. 14, where he uses the language of Origen, contra Celsum, i. 35, points out that Jesus Christ alone suits the passage, and quotes Deut. xxii. 23, 24 in support of the translation of νεανις. The question of the Christian's rejection of the Jewish Law and his acceptance of the Jewish scriptures had been handled by Justin, and the most striking portion of the Demonstratio, the argument in Book III, that Christ was no sorcerer, may be said to have been suggested by Origen, contra Celsum, ii. 48, and Justin, 1st Apol. c. 30. His explanation of the Old Testament Theophanies is that of the earlier Apologists, his insistence that Christianity rests on reason as well as - xv - faith, and his allegorical method, are plainly those of Origen and the Alexandrian school. It could hardly have been otherwise. After two centuries of defensive warfare against Jews and Greeks, the lines of controversy were clearly defined, and the apologetic writer but reiterated in a new form against the critics of his own day, what his predecessors hud said against a previous generation of critics. His "loci communes" were well known to the Catechist, just as the ordinary course of instruction to candidates for Confirmation follows a definite line to-day. The most he could achieve was to present in a systematic form such a codification of existing arguments as the circle around him required.

Yet the Praeparatio opens with a remarkable claim to originality of method. Eusebius contrasts the "more logical" nature of his proofs with "refutations and contradictions of opposing arguments, exegesis of scripture, and controversial advocacy" (Praep. Ev. i. 3). Here alluding to a mass of evidential literature he proposes to reject "all deceitful and sophistical plausibilities" in favour of the evidence of the fulfilment of the Jewish prophecies in Christ, and the developing life of His Church. But this is very much what the earlier Apologists set out to do. In what sense can Eusebius say: "The purpose, however, which we have in hand is to be worked out in a way of our own" (Praep. Ev. 7 a)?

Lightfoot argues that Eusebius is referring to the use of lengthy quotations, by means of which religious ideals, that clash with Christianity, may be allowed to speak for themselves, as is stated in Praep. Ev. 16 d. "I shall not set down my own words, but those of the very persons who have taken the deepest interest in the worship of them whom they call Gods." But he admits that there was little originality in this method of controversy. It had been employed by the earlier Apologists.

The real claim of Eusebius seems to be made clear by the context. He quotes 1 Cor. ii. 14; iii. 6; and 2 Cor. iii. 5 as guides for avoiding "deceitful and sophistical plausibilities" and for the use of proofs free from ambiguity. And he contrasts the value of "words" with that of the evidence of "works" on which he prefers to rely. By "works" he means the power of Christ as a living, moving - xv -i energy in human life. The exact fulfilment of Christ's anticipations, the triumph of His Church as foretold in Matt. xvi. 18, the fate of the Jews, and the wonderful fulfilment of the predictions of the Hebrew prophets are the "works" upon which Eusebius proposes to base his "demonstration."

But even so it can hardly be said that there was anything novel in such an intention, looking back to the apologies of Justin, Athenagoras, Aristides and Tatian. There is a series of chapters in Justin which reads almost like an outline sketch of the Demonstratio. Eusebius, therefore, can hardly have meant that the method which he adopted was new in the sense that it had not been used before. What then did he mean? Surely he must have had in his mind the methods or evidential writers of his own day. He must have been thinking of dialectical encounters with literary opponents. He may only have intended to stress his determination to abstain in the Demonstratio from meeting the objections of Porphyry and his followers point by point, as Origen had dealt with Celsus. If the method of Origen had made a deep impression on the educated world, and if Eusebius was regarded in any sense as belonging to the school of Origen, it was natural for him to state definitely that he proposed in his new work to follow a different course from Origen's. Origen's method was to follow every turn of the trail of a slippery foe: his opponent, so to say, made the game. Eusebius wished it to be understood that he started with a well-ordered programme of Scriptural exposition, and did not intend to be drawn aside into detailed controversy on points that had been raised by individual controversialists.

This intention, however fitfully and diffusely it is carried through, can never be said to be lost sight of in the Demonstratio. We have a constant recurrence to the massive evidence of a growing and flourishing Church, a changed society, a converted character. The heart of the argument is the connection of this external evidence with the Divine and Human Person of Christ.

The lever that is intended to move the mind to realize the uniqueness of Christ is the exposition of a series of prophecies, whose selection, systematic arrangement and treatment confers on Eusebius, if not the crown of originality, - xv -ii at least the praise of having carefully codified the work of his predecessors.

The Demonstratio then, like all the best apologetic work of the early Church, is based on the continuous living evidence of the action of a Divine Power. "The help," says Eusebius, "which comes down from the God of the Universe supplies to the teaching and Name of our Saviour its irresistible and invincible force, and its victorious power against its enemies" (Praep. Ev. 9 d).

Compared with the Octavius, the Trypho, or the contra Celsum the Demonstratio may seem cold and academic, for it lacks the charm and interest of the dialogue-form. Where they are redolent of the open air, and the marketplace, it suggests the lecture-hall and the pulpit. Much of the warmth, directness, and reality has evaporated from the appeal of Eusebius. These are obvious criticisms. But it must be remembered that Eusebius wrote for the cultured people of his own age. His method and manner are less perhaps the result of his own temperament than the production of a stately and courtly entourage. As the heir of the apologetic of the market-place, and of a struggling sect of believers, he was called by the genius of his own time to reproduce in a polished and rhetorical style, for an educated circle, the old arguments which had welled forth from the lips of the infant Church in spontaneous freedom and life. There can be no doubt that the world for which they were intended received in the Praeparatio and the Demonstratio what was for it the most unanswerable defence of the Christian Religion.