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"being in the hands of those who shared the empire, "would check and intimidate each other, and that

the other armies not being strong enough to make "an emperor of their own chusing, they would lose

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by slow degrees the custom of electing; and lastly, "that the dignity of Cæsar being always subordinate, "the power divided between four for the secu

rity of the government, would yet be in its "whole extent and in reality only in the hands of

"two.

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"But what kept the military men still more in order, was that the wealth of private persons and the public revenues being diminished, the emperors "conld no longer bribe them with such vast presents, "so that the profit was not proportionable to the danger of making a new election.

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"Moreover, the Præfecti Prætorio, who for power "and office were in a manner the Grand Viziers of "those times, and caused emperors to be massacred "at their own pleasure, that they might take their place, were greatly reduced by Constantine, who " left them only civil functions, and instead of two "made them four.

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"Thus the lives of the emperors began to be bet"ter secured, and they died in their beds like other people, &c." Considerations sur les Causes de la Grandeur des Romains.

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But if this change was advantageous in one respect to the rulers, it was detrimental in another to the poor subjects, who were burdened with an increase of soldiers and taxes. Hinc denique Hinc denique parti Italice invectum tributorum igens malum; says Aurelius Victor. Tres enim participes regni sui fecit (Diocletianus) in quatuor partes orbe diviso, et multiplicatis exercitibus,

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cum singuli eorum longe majorem numerum militum habere contenderent quam priores principes habuerant cum soli rempublicam gererent. Adeo major esse cœperat numerus accipientium quam dantium, ut enormitate indictionum consumtis viribus colonorum, desererentur agri, et cultura verterentur in silvam, &c. Lactantius de Mort. Pers. c. 7.

Yet all these precautions did not protect the emperor and his colleagues from divine vengeance. At this time was the great contest between Christ and the Roman emperors, which should prevail. They were determined to blot out the Christian name from under heaven, and the persecution was far more fierce and brutal than it had ever been, and therefore it was time for providence to exert itself; and so indeed it did.

Diocletian persecuted A. D. 303. after which no thing prospered with him, he underwent many troubles, his senses were impaired, and he quitted the empire.

Severus, who was raised by Galerius, and therefore, like Galerius, not disposed to spare the Christians, was overthrown and put to death by Maximianus Herculius, A. D. 307.

About the same time, Urbanus, Præsident of Palestine, who had signalized himself by tormenting and destroying the Christians, met with his due reward.

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Immediately after the cruelties which he had ex"ercised upon Pamphilius, and whilst he was still in his government, the divine vengeance over “whelmed him. He who the day before sat in the judgment-seat, exercising dominion, surrounded

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*with guards, and ruler of all Palæstine: he who "was the companion, the guest, and the most inti“mate and honoured friend of the tyrant, suddenly "was stripped of all his dignity, and exposed to pub"lic ignominy before the face of those who had fear"ed and reverenced him. The whole nation beheld their governor dejected, dispirited, poorly begging "for mercy, and shewing the meanest and most unmanly behaviour: whilst Maximinus himself, "whose favour had filled him with vanity and insolence, and whose affection he had obtained by his "barbarity to the innocent Christians, proved his "most barbarous and inexorable enemy, and, after having convicted him of many crimes, and openly "shamed him at Cæsarea, condemned him to be put to death." Eusebius de Mart. Pal. vii.

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The ecclesiastical historian seems to have taken some pleasure in stigmatizing this inhuman and cowardly governor, in consigning him to everlasting infamy, and in sacrificing his worthless name to the manes of his dear friend Pamphilus.

Firmilianus, another persecuting governor, met with the same fate.

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"It is proper to observe here how the governors, as well as the tyrannical emperors, were punished

by God's providence for Firmilianus, who had so "much insolence and inhumanity to the martyrs of "Jesus Christ, was condemned to die with several others, and was beheaded." Eusebius, Mart. Pal. xi.

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Maximianus Herculius, one of the persecuting emperors, was compelled to hang himself, A. D. 310. Maximianus

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Maximianus Galerius, of all the tyrants in his time the most cruel, and the first mover of the persecution, was seized with a grievous and horrible disease, and tormented with ulcers and worms, to such a degree, that they who were ordered to attend him could not bear the stench. He then made an edict, preserved by Eusebius, in favour of the Christians, that they might pray to God for him, and he died, A. D.

311.

"The wrath of heaven fell upon him and afflicted "him with a disease which seized his body, and pene"trated to his soul. An abscess was suddenly formed about his secret parts, with a fistulous ulcer, which

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preyed upon his bowels, and an incredible quantity of worms issued thence with an intolerable stink. "For before this distemper, he had indulged his vo"racious appetite, and was grown extremely fat and

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unwieldly, and the huge mass of flesh being totally

currupted afforded a most hideous spectacle to those "who were about him. Of his physicians some "were put to death, because they could not "bear the suffocating stench of his body; and others "were still more barbarously condemned to the same

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punishment, because the remedies which they applied to him were ineffectual, and they could not "remove an incurable distemper," Eeusebius viii. 16,

Maxentius, an enemy to Christianity, was overthrown in battle by Constantine, and in his flight he fell into the Tiber, and was drowned, A. D. 312.

The Christians, who were thus delivered out of the hands of this tyrant, compared his death with that of Pharaoh. Eusebius ix. 9.

At this time there was a dreadful famine in the. eastern part of the empire, where Maximinus reigned,

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and a plague which particularly affected the eyes and took away the sight: upon which the Christians could not forbear observing that Maximinus had inflicted that very punishment on many thousand Christians, and had caused one of their eyes to be bored out.

The Christians signalized their piety and charity towards all persons in this public calamity, and forced even their pagan adversaries to admire and commend their behaviour. Eusebius ix, S.

At the same time Maximinus and his army suffered much in a war with the Armenians, with whom he had quarrelled, because they were Christians.

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Maximinus was defeated by Licinius; and he then repented, and made an edict favourable to the Christians, whom he had inhumanly oppressed and persecuted, and whose eyes he had put out. He died miserably, upon the rack, his eyes starting out of his head, through the violence of his distemper, A. D. 313.. All his family were destroyed, and his wife and children put to death, and with them many persons of rank, and governors of provinces, who had been his friends and dependents, and the ministers of his cruelty in tormenting and destroying the Christians, as Pincentius, Culcianus, Theotecnus. Nor was his latter "end like that of illustrious generals, who fighting boldly for their friends and their country, and for an honourable cause, met with a death no less ho"nourable but whilst his army was drawn up in "the

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* In the fifth century, there was a famine in Phrygia and the neighbourhood, and then a pestilence; Ex victus mutatione in mor bun delapsi, corporibus ob nimiam inflammationem tumescentibus. oculos ammittebant: simulque tussi vexati, tertio die moriebantur, Evagrius ii. 6.

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