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næus, among his Orthodoxographa, Vol. I. p. 90, 91, and a few remarks on the fubject of it.

Περὶ Αὐγάρου τῶν Ἐδεσσηνῶν Βασιλέως καὶ τῆς εἰκόνος Χρίσου.

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Φέρεται δὲ καὶ τὶς ἱσορία, ὡς ὁ Κύριθ, Αὐγάρι τῇ τῆς Εδεσσηνῶν πόλεως βασιλεύοντῷ, ζωγράφον αποςείλαντο τὴν τῆ Κυρία ὁμοιογραφῆσαι εἰκόνα, μὴ δυνηθέντων τε ζωγράφε, διὰ τὴν ἀποςίλβεσαν τ8 προσώπε λαμπρότητα, αὐτὸς ἱμάτιον τῷ οἰκείῳ προσώπῳ τῷ θέσῳ καὶ ζωοποιῷ ἐπιθεὶς, ἐναπεμάξατο τῷ ἱματίῳ τὸ ἑαυτῆ ἀπεικόνισμα,

καὶ οὕτως ἀπέςειλε τέτο που θἄντι τῷ Αὐγάρῳ. Ὅτι δὲ καὶ πλεῖσα οἱ ̓Απόςολοι αγράφως παραδεδώκασι, γράφει Παῦλῷ ὁ τῶν ἐθνῶν ̓Απόςολος. Αρα ἂν ἀδελφοί, σήκετε καὶ κρατεῖτε τὰς παραδόσεις ἡμῶν, ἃς ἐδιδάχθητε, εἴτε διὰ λόγε, εἴτε διὰ ἐπιτολῆς ἡμῶν. Καὶ πρὸς Κορινθίας· Ἐπαινῶ δὲ ὑμᾶς, ἀδελφοί, ὅτι πάντα με μέμνησθε· καὶ καθῶς παρέδωκα ὑμῖν, τὰς παραδόσεις κατέχετε.

Concerning Abgarus, king of the Edefenes, and concerning the image or picture of Chrift.

There is allo a certain hif tory, that when Abgarus, king of the city of the Edeffenes, fent a limner to draw the picture of our Saviour, the linner was not able to do it, by reafon of the fining brightnefs of his countenance, but that our Saviour took a cloth, and laying it upon his godlike and enlivening (lifegiving) face, he wiped off his "his own piffure, and then fent face, and impreffed on the cloth it according to the defire of Abgarus. Now that the Apofles did deliver feveral hiftories which are not written, Paul the Apofle of the Gentiles has wrote, faying (2 Thefl. ii. 5. )Therefore, breihren, and faft, and hold the traditions which traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our Epiftle; and in his Epistle to the Corinthians (r Cor. xi. 2.), I praife you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances (traditions) as I delivered them to you.

Joannes

a

Joannes Jacobus Grynæus, who has published this fragment, fuppofes it probable, that it was taken out of fome accounts which were among the Chriftians in Syria, concerning Christ and Abgarus 2, and calls the author Anonymus quidam: but though he seems not to have known it, it is taken out of a writer of the eighth century, viz. Joannes Damascenus, lib. 4. de Fide Orthodoxa, c. 17. And the history was very commonly to be met with in the writers of the fixth, feventh, and following centuries. Euagrius ", out of Procopius, calls this image SEÓTEURTov, not made by the hands of men, but God; and relates a surprising miracle wrought by it; viz. "That "when Chofroes befieged Edeffa (of which Abgarus was "king), and the befieged found all methods of relief inef"fectual, they brought this picture forth, which being fprin"kled with water, they sprinkled also fome of it upon a vast “bulwark, which the besiegers had raised against the walls, "whereupon it was confumed; and though Chofroes turned

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a channel of water into it, the water itself burnt like oil or "brimstone." Darius Comes, in an Epiftle to St. Auftin ", relates, that when our Saviour fent his letter to Abgarus, he at the fame time gave him affurance, that his city fhould never be taken by any enemy. To which Procopius adds 4, that the people of Edessa say, these were the laft words of Christ's letter to Abgarus, and that they were wont to fix the letter upon their gates, as a bulwark against befiegers; although, if we may credit Joannes Xiphilinus out of Dio Caffius, Edessa was taken by Lucius, who was fent thither by Trajan; and Dr. Grabe f has proved out of the Alexandrian Chronicle, that it was also taken by the Perfians in the time of the Roman Emperor Phocas, who was proclaimed about the year of Christ DCX. But notwithstanding this, the story of Christ's picture wiped off his face, impreffed on the cloth, and fent by him to Abgarus, is related in the Second Council of Nice, called by the

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Greeks the Seventh General Synod, by Gregory II. Adrian I. Zonaras, Conftantinus Porphyrogenita, Nicephorus, and many others ©. The later writers among the Papifts have wrote much upon the subject, and I shall not think it a very criminal digreffion to give the reader the following abftract out of their celebrated Monfieur Durant d. Writers, fays he, of the best authority have informed us, that there were four feveral pictures of our Saviour made during his life on

earth.

"The first is, that which Chrift himself fent to Abgarus, "king of Edeffa, concerning which there is more full evi"dence, viz. Procopius cited by Euagrius (lib. 4. cap. 26.) "the feventh Synod (A&t 5.) which cites Euagrius, and adds "these words of Leo: I went to Edessa, and saw the venerable "image of Christ there, which was not made with hands, wor"Shipped and adored by the people: It is mentioned by Pope "Adrian I. (ad Carol. Magn. c. 18.) and Damascene (1. 4. "de Orthodox. Fid. c. 17. & Orat. 1. de Imag. confirm.) "Conftantinus Porphyrogenita has faid much of it in an ora❝tion before the emperors, clergy, and people (N. B. There " is a whole treatife of his on the fubject published by Combefifius "in Greek and Latin, among his Origines Conftantinopolitana, "p. 75, intitled, Narratio de Imagine Chrifti ab ipfo Serva"tore ad Abgarum Edeffe regem mifsâ, et ab Edefsâ Con"ftantinopolin deportatâ anno DCCCCXLIV.) fpoken of "by Nicephorus, Zonaras, &c.

"The fecond picture of Christ was ftamped or impressed upon "the napkin or handkerchief of Veronica; for when Chrift was "led to his crucifixion, Veronica, who followed Christ, put "a handkerchief to his face, on which Chrift impreffed his "picture. This is teftified by Methodius, Bishop of Tyre, "Conftantinus Porphyrogenita, &c.

"The third is that mentioned by Eufebius, Hift. Eccl. l. 7.

a Vid. Caranz. Summ. Concil. P. 512, &c.

Apud Cafaub. contr. Baron. Annal. Exercit. xiii. ann. 31. n. 58.

Vid. Durant. de Ritib. Cathol. Ecclef. 1. 1. c. 5.

d Ibid.

e See Dr. Cave's Hiftor. Liter. Vol. I. p. 577.

« c. 18. which was a ftatue of Christ erected by the woman "whom he cured of the issue of blood. The fubftance of the "account, as it is in Eufebius, is as follows: He calls it a "history worthy to be related, and says, the woman, whom ❝ our Saviour cured of the iffue of blood mentioned in our "Gofpels, lived at Cæfarea Philippi, called by the Phoenici« ans Paneas; that her house was in his time to be seen, and "several monuments of our Saviour's miracle wrought for "her; for near her house there was a brafen ftatue of the

woman fixed on a pedestal of stone, in the pofture of a fup"plicant, with bended knees, and her hands ftretched out. "Oppofite to it was the ftatue of a man made of the fame "metal, in a standing pofture, with a decent cloak on, and "stretching forth his hand to the woman. At the feet of this "statue, and the very basis of the column, grew a certain un"known herb, which growing up to the hem (of the gar"ment), or brafs cloak, was a prefent remedy for all forts of "diftempers. This ftatue (they fay) was like to Christ. It "continued, fays Eufebius, till my time, and I went to that “city, and faw it myself. He adds, that it is not to be "thought ftrange, that the Heathens fhould do this, fince he "himself faw the pictures of Peter and Paul, and Christ him"felf in his time a." Thus far Eufebius. I return to Durant, who cites Sozomen and Caffiodorus, as mentioning this ftory; and fays, they add, " that Julian the apoftate took "down this statue, and placed his own in the room of it.

a This story is mentioned in the fecond Council of Nice juft now cited, Act. 4. and feveral of the antients. In the chronology of Malela, printed out of a manufcript in the Bodleian library at Oxford, there is a petition of this woman to Herod, fetting forth her great cure, and her defire to erect this ftatue to the honour of Chrift; Herod's permiffion or grant to her to do it; her erecting it, and its being afterwards tranflated into a Church. But there feems very little regard due to this fabulous writer, whofe character fee in Dr. Cave's Hiftor. Lite

rar. Vol. I. p. 442.

b

Sozomen fays farther, that when the apoftate had erected his own ftatue in that place, a fire from heaven fmote it, and took off the head and neck, and fixed it in the earth, as, fays he, it continues to this day, looking black, as if it had been burnt with lightning; and though the Pagans tore in pieces the itatue of Chrift, the Chriftians collected the pieces, and placed them in the Church, where, fays he, they are still kept. Hift. Eccl. 1. 5.

C. 21.

"Theophylact

"Theophylact in Matth. ix. and Epiphanius (Sardin. Con"cil. 7. feu Nicæn. 2.) Nicephorus (1. 6. c. 15.) have alfo "mentioned it, and many others." To which I would add an excellent writer of the fourth century, viz. Asterius, Bishop of Amafæa, who fays, the brafen ftatue, which the woman erected, continued for a long time, for the conviction of those, who durft to charge the Evangelifts with falfehood; and would, fays he, have continued till our time, as an evidence at once of Chrift's miraculous power, and the woman's gratitude, if Maximinus, who was the Roman emperor before Conftantine, and an impious idolater, had not taken it awaya.

The next picture of Chrift, which Durant mentions, is one which Nicodemus made a prefent of to Gamaliel, which continued for many ages among the Jews at Berytus, and was by them Spit upon, fmote with a reed, crucified and pierced with a spear, whence came forth blood and water, of which there is much in the tract of Athanafius, concerning the paffion of the image of our Lord Jefus Chrift.

After this the author mentions some pictures of Christ, which they have now; particularly one at Rome not made with hands: but of this whole matter I fhall think it needless to say any more, referring the reader to Chemnitius, Exam. Concil. Trident. Part IV. p. 45, &c.

a See this in the eloquent homily of this Bishop upon Jairus and this woman, preferved by Photius, Biblioth. Cod. CCLXXII. p. 1507.

b This tract is undoubtedly fpurious, and largely proved to be fo

by our countryman Robert Coke, Cenfur. quorund, veter. Script. p. 93, &c. and after him by Rivet. Critic. Sacr. 1. 3. c. 6. as alfo by Bellarmine himself, De Scriptor. Ecclef. p. 100, &c.

CHAP.

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