"with which divine justice visited the impious, each of them in a manner suitable to his crime? Some "burst asunder in the sight of all men, others were "taken off by extraordinary deaths. In the midst "of their torments they confessed their crimes with "a fruitless and unavailing grief. Some by dreams "of the night, others by visions of the day, had their impiety set before them. Who, I say, could enu"merate all the calamities by which God in a visible "manner avenged the demolition of the churches, the i. injuries done to the holy table, the profanation of "the sacred vessels, and the cruel usage of the ser"vants of Jesus Christ?" H. E. vii. 395. 66 A deacon, called Cyril, in the time of Constantius, had signalized himself by destroying several images of the gods at Heliopolis. The Pagans were so enraged at this, that when Julian reigned, they seized and slew Cyril, and ripped open his belly, and ate his liver. The divine vengeance pursued all those who had been guilty of this crime; their teeth came out, their tongues rotted, and they lost their sight. So says Theodoret, iii. 7. Valens, who was made emperor A. D. 364. was a Christian; but being of the Arian party, and of a cruel temper, he became a persecutor of the Consubstantialists. Fourscore presbyters came to him to complain of the ill usage which they had received from the Arians, whereupon it is reported that he caused them to be put to sea, and burnt alive in the ship. Afterwards, in a battle with the Goths, he was defeated, and wounded, and fled to a cottage, where he was burnt alive, as most historians relate. All All agree that he perished. See Socrates iv. 16. 38. and the notes. The Consubstantialists called his death a judgment: but if so, it was rather a punishment of his cruelty, than of his heresy of his cruelty which was exercised not only on the party which he disliked, but on all his subjects. A. D. 394. Theodosius, after having been almost defeated, and reduced to great distress, obtained a signal victory over Eugenius, which was generally thought to have been by a particular providence, commanding the storms to fight for him. So say Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Rufinus, Ambrose, Augustin, Orosius, &c. and it is thus elegantly represented by Claudian, though he was a pagan : Te propter gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis The Christians to this added other embellishments suitable to the taste of those times, as that the victory was foretold by cœlestial visions, dreams, and dæmoniacs, and obtained by the aid of John the Baptist, the tutelar saint of Theodosius. Supposing it to have been the effect of a particular providence, which might be the case, good reasons might be assigned for it: Arbogastes, a general, and a man of great authority, basely murdered his young emperor Valentinian II. and set up Eugenius in his place. Arbogastes was a Pagan and an enemy to Christianity, and Eu- genius the usurper was a sort of* nominal Christian, who took every step to endear himself to the Pagans, and from whose favour they expected great things. We may therefore look upon this war as upon a struggle between Paganism and Christianity, in which the latter, by God's blessing, was superior, without ascribing the success to the orthodoxy of the emperor, and to the intervention of saints. See Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. v. 356. &c. Theodosius, when he was to engage with Eugenius, shut himself in a church one night, to pray, and falling asleep, he saw in a vision two men in white apparel, on white horses, who promised him that they would assist him; the one was St Philip the apostle, and the other St John the evangelist. Theodoret, V. 24. In Tillemont's Hist. des Emp. T. v. this important vision is represented en taille-douce, in a print, in the frontispiece, as the most signal occurrence in the fourth century. The story seems to have been borrowed from the old Pagan story of Castor and Pollux, who fought for the Romans, and appeared equis candidus insidentes, as the Roman historians inform us. The only thing wanting to compleat the parallel was, that the apostles should have stroked the emperor's beard, and turned it red. Whilst the battle was fought, a dæmoniac at Constantinople was raised up in the air, and began to curse John the Baptist, and to reproach him that he had been beheaded, and to scream out, It is who you conquer me and destroy my army. Sozom. vii. 24. * Philostorgius says that he was a Pagan, p. 538. Either Either the devil and Sozomen, or else Theodoret› seem to have made a mistake, for the two first ascribe the victory to John the Baptist, and the third to John the Evangelist. The last Pagan prince who was a formidable enemy to Christianity was Radugaisus, a king of the Goths. He threatened no less than the ruin of the Roman empire, and invaded it with an army, as it is said, of four hundred thousand men, about A. D. 405. The Romans were saved from the hand of this barbarian, and slew him, and obtained a most signal victory, which they ascribed to a particular providence. Tillemont has collected with his usual accuracy what is recorded concerning this great deliverance. Hist. des Emp. v. 538. S. Basnage also hath giyen a large account of it, Annal. iii, 212. Radagaisus had vowed to sacrifice all the Romans to his gods. The Pagans in Rome and in Italy, who still were numerous, imputed these calamities to the introduction of Christianity, and to the suppression of Paganism, and were disposed to rebel and to reestablish their old religious rites. But the Romans, commanded by Stilicho, obtained a complete victory, without any loss of men, and Radagaisus, together with his sons, was taken prisoner, and put to death. Baronius assures us that the victory was owing to the assistance of Ambrose, though Augustin, and Orosius, who give the glory of it to God, might have taught him better. If bigotry and political godliness did not eat up all shame, Christians would not presume to ascribe a wonderful deliverance to Ambrose, rather than to Je sus Christ, upon the authority of an obscure mortal, one Paulinus, who wrote a life of Ambrose full of lying miracles, and who yet has not affirmed it. But, it seems, the divine providence can do nothing without the intercession of saints. Radagaisus besieged Florence. This city was reduced to the utmost straits, when saint Ambrose, who had once retired thi ther, (and who had now been dead nine years) appeared to a person of the house where he had lodged, and promised him that the city should be delivered from the ene my on the next day. The man told it to the inhabitants, who took courage, and resumed the hopes which they had quite lost and on the next day came Stilicho with his army. Paulinus, who relates this, learned it from a lady who lived at Florence. And this proves what Saint Paulinus says, that God granted the preservation of the Romans to the prayers of Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and the other martyrs and confessors who were honoured by the church throughout the empire, Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. v. p. 540, One might have asked Saint Paulinus, the bishop of Nola, Where wast thou, when the apostles and martyrs made supplication for the Romans? Didst thou stand by and hear them? Say no more about it, but go thy ways and cut chips out of the cross, which, as thou hast told us, grows again as fast as it is diminished. Hunneric, the Vandal, was an Arian, a cruel prince, and a most inhuman persecutor of the Consubstantilists, A. D. 484. This barbarian spared not even those of his own sect, or his own friends and kindred. His end, as historians relate, was suitable to his iniquities, and such as he would have equally deserved, 1 |