, an illustrious father of the church, and a man of great parts and
, an illustrious father of the church, and a man
of great parts and learning, was born at Alexandria in
Egypt about the year 185; and afterwards obtained the
surname of Adamantius, either because of that adamantine
strength of mind which enabled him to go through so many
vast works, or for that invincible firmness with which he
resisted the sharpest persecutions. Porphyry represents
him as having been born and educated a heathen; but
JEusebius has clearly proved, that his parents were Christian. His father Leonides took him at first under his own
management, and trained him at home for some time: he
taught him languages and profane learning, but had a particular view to his understanding the Holy Scriptures;
some portion of which he gave him to learn and repeat
every day. The son’s inclination suited exactly with the
father’s design, so far as that he pursued his studies with
most extraordinary zeal and ardour: but being endued with
a quick apprehension and a strong imagination, would not
content himself with that sense which at first presented itself, but farther endeavoured to dive into mysterious and
allegorical explications of the sacred books. This probably
suggested to his father that he might fall into that mode of
interpreting, which in fact, proved afterwards the source
of all his errors, and he therefore cautiously advised him
not to attempt to penetrate too far in the study of the Holy
Scriptures, but to content himself with their most clear,
obvious, and natural sense. But it appears that from a
forward conceit of his talents, he was already deeply infected with that “furor allegoricus,
” as a learned modern
calls it; that rage of expounding the Scriptures allegorically, which grew afterwards to be even a distemper, and
carried him to excesses which can never be excused.