FIRMICUS, Maternus Julius, a Latin writer who flourished under the successors of Constantine. About the year 345 he composed a work entitled De Erroribus Profanarum Religionum, which he inscribed to Constantius and Constans, the sons of Constantine, and which is happily still extant, accompanied with the annotations of John Wouver. To Firmicus are also attributed eight books on astronomy, first printed by Aldus Manutius in 1501, and reprinted several times since; but as this work contains nothing relating to the true science of astronomy, and is filled with astrological calculations, after the manner of the Babylonians and Egyptians, Baronius doubts whether a good and pious Christian, as Firmicus is represented to have been, could have indulged in such profane and impious speculations. Cave, however, supposes that he might have written these books anterior to the date of his conversion from Paganism; a supposition not incompatible with the opinion of Baronius. Of the treatise on the Errors of the Profane Religions, the principal editions subsequent to that of Aldus are, one printed at Strasburg in 1562, another at Heidelberg in 1599, and a third at Paris in 1610, all in 8vo; but afterwards it was conjoined with Minucius Felix, and printed at Amsterdam in 1645, at Leyden in 1652, and again at Leyden by James Gronovius, in 1709, 8vo. It is likewise to be found in the Bibliotheca Ραtrwn, and at the end of Cyprian, printed at Paris in 1666. (Dupin; Cave; Moreri; Fabricius, Bibl. Lat. and Bibl. Lal. Med.) (a.) FIRST-Born. (See Primogeniture.) In Scripture the term first-born is often used in a figurative sense, to signify that which is first, most excellent, or most distinguished in any thing. Thus it is said of Christ that he is “the first-born of every creature ;” and in Revelation he is called “the first-begotten of the dead,” that is, according to the commentators, begotten of the Father before any creature was produced, and the first who rose from the dead by his o^n power. “The first-born of the poor” signifies the most miserable of all the poor; and in Job, “the first-born of death” means the most terrible of all deaths.

First Fruits (primitiae), amongst the Hebrews, oblations to God of part of the fruits of the harvest, as an acknowledgment of his sovereign dominion. The first of these fruits was offered in the name of the whole nation, being either two loaves of bread, or a sheaf of barley which was thrashed in the court of the temple. Every private person was obliged to bring to the temple his first fruits, consisting of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, apricos, olives, and dates.

There was another kind of first fruits offered to God. When bread was kneaded in a family, a portion of it “as set apart and given to the priest or Levite who dwelt in the place; but if there was no priest or Levite there, it was cast into the oven, and consumed by the fire. These offerings constituted a considerable part of the revenues of the Hebrew priesthood.

First Fruits are frequently mentioned by ancient Christian writers as forming part of the church revenue, v∏e of the councils of Carthage enjoins that they should consist only of grapes and corn; which shows that this was die practice of the African church.

First Emits, in the Church of England, are the pro ts of every spiritual benefice for the first year, according to the valuation thereof entered in the king’s books.