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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36461	The triumph of Christianity, or, The life of Cl. Fl. Julian, the Apostate with remarks, contain'd in the resolution of several queries : to which is added, Reflections upon a pamphlet, call'd Seasonable remarks on the fall of the Emperor Julian, and on part of a late pernicious book, entituled, A short account of the life of Julian, &c.	Dowell, John, ca. 1627-1690.	1683 (1683)	Wing D2057; ESTC R8708	83,984	256

Constantius created him Coesar and he contrary to his Loyalty Faith and Gratitude usurped the Imperial Dignity Certainly he was one of the most ambitious and vain-glorious men in the World After he had made sport with all the preceding Emperors he concludes that drolling Tract with this encomium of himself Mercury directing himself to me thus saith I have made thee to acknowledge Apollo thy Father whose commands obey make him whilst alive thy secure refuge and when 't is requisite that thou departest out of this Life depart with a good hope under the propitious conduct of that god How this was verified the death of Julian doth declare The then Clergy he dreadfully loads with unjust imputations of Ambition Hypocrisy and Sedition 1. Ambition Pag. 14. This discerning Prince soon saw their design was to erect in all parts of the Empire their own Mosaic or Ecclesiastic Polity by themselves metamorphos'd from a Democracy into an absolute Tyranny they having advanc'd so far already as to procure of Constantine the sole Jurisdiction over Christians and leave to assemble themselves at Nice to divide the Roman Provinces amongst themselves and make a new Body of Laws called Ecclesiastical-Canons to the utter abolishing of the Roman Laws and Government and the great oppression of those Gentiles whom God had not yet enlightned with his Grace 1. The Church was never governed by a Democracy 2. The Convention of Councils was by the mutual consent of Bishops and the Churches in use down from the Apostles times 3. The Emperor being Christian gave the Christian Bishops liberty to meet at Nice where they did not then divide the Roman Provinces amongst themselves but confirmed that Division of the Ecclesiastic Government according to what it was before Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the Ancient custome be observed Can. 6. Concilii Niceni 'T is notorious in Ecclesiastick Story that the Bishops of those Cities which had the principal command in the Empire had their dignity and precedence therefore Rome first next Alexandria then Antioch and after that Constantinople became the Imperial Seat It was made by the Decree of the Council of Chalcedon the second Patriarchal See and this because it was Nova Roma This precedency was observed in the times of Persecution Carthage being the chiefest City of Barbary the Bishop thereof was the Primate of that Province And make a new Body of L They did not make a new body of Laws c. Under this Head may I rank this Slander Pag. 16. That he could see no person nor rank exempted from the dire Anathema neither could he know but that the Soveraign Prince himself might upon a Pique such as the disgrace of a Potent Prelate be on a sudden Paganized and next Assassinated even by them that had advanced him since he so lately saw Constans armed against his own Brother Constantius by the Roman Bishop and the great Athanasius merely because the latter had been outed his See though as some say for Treason Sorcery and Murther If he means that the Canons of the Church opposed Idolatry we must grant it but that they medled with the Civil Government or Law is to me false I know no Canon in the first four General Councils which doth interfere with the civil Laws of the Empire nor any Canon was formed to oppress the unconverted Gentiles Read the Councils General or Provincial in which any Canon or Decree was made which concerned the Imperial Laws or the Civil Estate 'T is true that Constantine and Constantius discountenanced Idolatry and did demolish many Heathen Temples Constantine the Great Commanded that all Idol Temples should be shut that an access for any person should be prohibited Cod. L. 1. Tit. 11. L. 1. and Sacrifices he commands should not be offered L. 1. That Constantine Commanded the Temples to be demolished that the famous Temple of Serapis in Alexandria was destroyed Eunapius in the Life of Edesius doth complain but these were Imperial Laws not the Laws of the Church which hath nothing to do with such matters When the Heathen did so violently persecute the Christians destroying their Churches burning their Sacred Books inflicting all sorts of punishment no wonder that Christian Emperors should prohibit Idolatry and demolish their Temples yet Cod. L. 1. Tit. 11. L. 6. 't is Commanded that no Christian should abuse the Authority of Religion to injure any Jew or Pagan that lived peaceably It is obvious that in Christian Armies Heathens were advanced to Command that often under Christian Emperors Heathens were Prefects in the greatest Cities as Atticus in Constantinople was Prefect under Arcadius and Nobilis Pretextatus in Rome 'T is not ingenuous to cast this Dirt and Odium upon the then Christian Clergy 'T is true there was an Episcopalis audientia granted and confirmed by Christian Emperors but was not till after Julian's Death Goto in rubri Episcopalis audient That it was not Forum nor jurisdictio hence upon Cod. L. 6. Goto in Civili negotio possunt Laici in Episcopum Arbitrum Cognitorem compromitere ejusque judicium firmum est The Bishop was to decide more Arbitri in all this which was after Julian's time it was a Power given by the Emperor and only over those that were willing and the Bishop was not a judge but an Arbitrator these things being true what verity is in his imputation is easily discerned 'T is known that no Heathen could be Excommunicated and Julian saw no Christian Emperor Excommunicated what he adds Pag. 16. is notoriously false he never saw any Emperor slain by virtue of an Excommunication that was of a Later date And what indeed might he not justly fear when he saw with what bestial rage the several factions the Bishops formed themselves amongst the People by whom they were then elected did massacre each other We have vindicated Christianity from that feral rage of Christians against Christians If any Man as imagine it were at Alexandria had a design to supplant a more potent and popular Competitor no way so likely to ruin him as by giving out that he was not a right Christian but a Corrupter of the true Faith for that he used to Read Origen and Plato unsanctified Authors and then ten to one but he was knock'd on the Head by the Rabble of the Town or by Sholes of Anthropomorphite Monks who commonly made what Bishops they pleased and for a long time made a Prey of the Egyptian Kingdom Origen was disliked by many none in danger of his Life or suffered in his Fame for reading Origen and Plato but for following those opinions which were not consonant to the Christian Doctrine and Faith The Anthropomorphites were more numerous than the other sort of Monks They moved a Sedition against Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria but that by their Power they elected an Alexandrian Bishop or made a Prey a long time of the Egyptian Kingdom is to me a Riddle The Haeresy was begun by one Audius about

such cruel courses for they tended to his ignominy and to the glory of Christians whereupon Theodorus was freed from the Rack and other Christians from the Goal The Power and Grace of God is observable miraculously comforting those who piously suffered This Theodorus being asked by some what pain he felt during the Rack answered that he was not altogether unsensible but that there was a young man that stood by him which abated the vehemency of his pain for with soft Linnen he wiped away his Blood and Sweat and poured cold water upon his Body which asswadged his Grief Presently after the Translation of Babylas that famous Temple of Daphne was burnt the discription of which fire and the eloquent discourse concerning it may be read in the fore quoted Books of Chrisostome The burning of the Temple was attributed by Julian to the Christians but most falsly and maliciously Yet he having this pretence racked many Christians thinking thereby to extort a Confession but they constantly and truly denyed His arts and cruelties were in vain The Priest of the Temple he dreadfully tortured by Scourges and the Rack who when he was almost torn in peices profess'd that the fire was the product of Divine anger not of any humane art or policy and after he had suffered various and grievous tortures averr'd that he could accuse no person and that the Temple was burnt by a fire from Heaven Theodoret affirms that some neighbouring Country-men testified that they saw the Temple set on fire by Lightning Chrisostome with a great deal of eloquence ascribes it to the prayer and power of Babylas the Martyr Julian being informed that near the Temple Appollo Didymus in Militus there was some Churches built in the Honour of Martyrs wrote to the Prefect of Caria that if they were finished and an Holy Table was placed in them he should reduce them to ashes if half built he should demolish the Walls and raize the foundations To manifest his inveterate anger against the Antiochian Christians he seized upon the Sacred Vessels and Treasures and shut up their Church-doors The Instruments of this Action were three of his Fellow Apostates Julian Uncle to the Emperor by the Mothers side Felix his Lord-Treasurer and Elbidius his Lord Privy Seal All these once professed Christianity but to ingratiate themselves with the Apostate they shamefully diserted their faith No greater Enemy to Christianity than impious Renegadoes This Julian Prefect of the East caused all the rich Monuments Treasures and Utensils of the Church to be seized on and banished the Clergy of Antioch only one Theodoret a Presbyter would not leave the City whom by reason the Treasures of the Church were committed to his custody this Julian apprehended and that he might make a further discovery of the Churches treasure he caused him to be grievously beaten dreadfully scourged and cuelly tortured and at last his constant and generous refusal made his Head to be struck off This unworthy Apostate after he had entred into the Church filthily and Sacrilegiously pissed upon the Communion Table and Box'd Euse the Bishop for reproving of him Felix seeing the magnificence of the Sacred Utensils for Constantine and Constantius provided most sumptuous Vessels for the Church belches out this most dreadful blasphemy How richly is the Son of Mary serv'd God permitted not those impious Blasphemers long to Glory in their villainies for Julian the Uncle dyed of a most fearful disease his excrements and blood came not out by natural passage but as a torrent run out of his mouth to whom his Wife a Woman enobled by her constancy in the Christian Religion thus spoke O my Husband you ought to admire Christ our Saviour who by these punishments you suffer manifests his power for he whom you have so dreadfully opposed had utterly rejected you if he had not exerted his wanted Clemency in inflicting these punishments upon you Whereupon this miserable person partly by his Wifes discourse and the heavy judgment under which he lay being convinced of the cause of his disease beg'd of the Emperor that he would restore to the Churches what he had violently taken from them but the Emperor refused and he suddenly died Felix likewse felt the Divine vengeance for his blood leaving its natural Vessels flowed violently out of his Mouth and so he died they both thus miserably perished when the Emperor was preparing his expedition against the Persians Upon their Deaths Marcellinus makes this observation Whilst he was ordering his affairs behold he was terrified with a certain Ominous Sign that took effect as the event shewed most surely and with speed for by occasion that Felix the Treasurer suddenly died of a Flux of Blood Julian himself not long after fatally perished The populacy in their acclamations joyned Julianus and Felix with Augustus those having received a miserable Death which he feared to be the prediction of his own Elbidius escaped not the punishment of Apostacy and Blasphemy He aspired to the Empire for which his Estate was confiscated his slight caused him not to feel the stroke of the Executioner but he escaped not the hand of God for being cursed and hated of all he pin'd away by an immoderate grief and so basely perished The Christian women at Antioch out of a great Zeal to Religion and hatred of Julian's impiety by Spiritual Songs and Psalms expos'd his Idolatry Publio a Noble Matron with her Quire of Virgins over whom she was Governess as Julian passed by the House where she lived Sang that of the Psalmist 115. 4. Their Idols are Silver and Gold the works of Mens Hands c. and ended with this They that make them are like unto them so is every one that trusteth in them At which Julian was so enraged that he commanded them to be silent when he passed by but Publia slighted that Precept and called together her Quire of Virgins who at her Instigation with greater alacrity and louder voices added in their singing of the former Psalm another verse of David's Psalm 68. 1. Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered and they that hate him flee before him Which so irritated the Emperour that he commanded the Mistress of the Quire to be brought before him whom though she was reverend for her Age and gray hairs he gave in charge to one of his Guard cruelly to buffet with disgrace but she esteemed it an Honour and returning home persisted with greater Ardour in singing Psalms to the derision of Idolatry There was one Porphirius a notable Droll and Mimick whom Julian made use of to disgrace Christianity by bitter jests and ridiculous postures This Porphirius to deride and make a jest of Baptisme was baptized Jocosely but God Almighty brings good out of evil and by a wonderful power converted this Mimick so that he seriously professed Christianity and constantly persisted in it Upon which Julian forgets himself to be a Philosopher and was so incens'd that one who exposed Christ

perverted Eudoxia his Empress a person of great Learning and Spirit to persecute the Orthodox and Catholick Christians Constantinus Junior and Constans Brother of Constantius governed in the West and South these did not at all disturb any sort of Christians Julian succeeding Constantius his Persecutions we have recited Jovian by the Acclamations of the Army was immediately created Emperor who being a Religious and Orthodox prince moved no persecutions but gave even to Hereticks Liberty On his death Valentinian was invested with the Eastern and Western Purple the Soldiers after his Election in a tumult declared that another should be his associate he in a resolute yet complying Speech acquainted the Army that it was in their Power not to have elected him but having elected him it was in his power to appoint a time when a Colleague should be chosen taking his opportunity he by the consent of the Army caused his Brother Valens to be chosen his associate To him the Eastern Purple was assigned To see the Power of God! Jovianus enjoyed the Empire but Eight Months the Army proceeding to another election constituted a great Soldier a wise person and most religious Christian Emperor who made then with the consent of the Army Valens his Partner at that time an Orthodox and Catholick Emperor who under Julian professed the true Doctrine but marrying a Princess who was an Arrian instilling those pernicious Doctrines into the head of him a Soldier and being Baptized by Eudoxius Bishop of Constantinople an Arrian and by him at his Baptism sworn to maintain the Arrian impieties he proved a most dreadful Persecutor God was so angry with him as to substract his Grace that falling from the true Faith he scarce appeared to be a Christian and being vanquished by the Goths he was forced to take Shelter in a Cottage where he was reduced to Ashes At Antioch the famous Miletius being Banished when he kept his Court in that City he gave to persons of all persuasions full Liberty publickly to perform their religious Offices he opened the Jewish Synagogues and the Pagan Temples and gave a general indulgence to all that owned the name of Christians to Hereticks and those who divulged opinions contrary to the Apostolical Faith By his connivance and approbation the Mysteries and Festivals of the Heathens were celebrated Those cheats were suppressed by Jovian Then began to flourish Ceremonies Sacrifices and Religious Rites of Jupiter Ceres and Bacchus were celebrated and this was done not in Corners as in the Reign of Religious Emperors but now in the midst of the City In the Forum they wildly ran up and down madly performing their Orgias He is only an enemy to those who profess and preach the Apostolical Faith These he first drove out of their holy Churches they then convened upon the tops of Mountains there they heard the Words of God there they glorifyed God with Hymns and Praises To perform Divine Exercises they endured the violence of all sort of Weather Storms Snow Frost and Scorching heats These recesses he permitted not to them but by his Troops dispersed them Theod. Lib. 4. The cruelties of these persecutions Basil does lively describe in his Letters to the Western Bishops the Persecutions of the Arrians were dreadful the Donatists had liberty till they grew violent then their Churches were taken from them and some of the Bishops punished but they becoming Bloody and a Sect amongst them especially called the Circumcelliones a feral and rabid company acting Barbarities upon the Catholicks they were restrained by more severe Laws That the Arrians prosecuted the Catholicks with the greater Rage and Cruelty the Vandalick Persecutions not to be read without Tears are too sad a Testimony The Catholiok Emperors were not Bloody nor did they prosecute the Arrians with Fire and Sword The first sanguinary Law was against the Manichees 5. Arcadius it was a most frantick and abominable Sect. 3dly An erroneous and wicked Principle imbib'd may be the Reason of Persecution Religion is not the cause of it but mens ignorance passion prejudice and evil apprehensions of things Because the Samaritans did not receive Christ James and John said unto him Wilt thou command fire down from Heaven to consume them Luk. 9. When Zeal like raging Fire does not warm but destroy lays Towns and Cities in Ashes no wonder they condemn to the Flames those whom they account Hereticks What blood will not those persons shed What Murders will not they commit what cruelties not exercise when instigated by an erroneous Conscience and believe that when they kill their Brethren they do God good service But this is absolutely contrary to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus 'T is true by the Law of Moses the Blasphemer was to be put to death In the new Law He that will not hear the Church let him be as an Heathen or Publican Matt. 18. I wish they were cut off that trouble you saith St. Paul Gal. 5. But from these words to prove that it is meritorious to put an Heathen on a Rack broyl a Publican on a Gridiron and to cut off the thread of a Schismaticks Life by Instruments of cruelty is as ridiculous as that of a Sciolus Hoereticum devita an Heretick reject To turn it de vita tolle take away the life of an Heretick it is unquestionably true The Gospel commands no corporal punishment The Church pronounceth the person an Heretick but the sentencing of that Heretick to the Fire and the executing of that sentence was performed by the Civil Judge and his Officers I must not be misinterpreted as tho' I judged that a corporal punishment may not be inflicted upon those who are real Hereticks granting that Conscience can't be forced yet it must be concluded that an erroneous person may be forc'd to those actions which may alter his judgement No Boy can be forc'd to believe that amo signifies I Love yet a Boy may be justly forced to go to School and to attend to his Masters Lectures and by that means he may be convinc'd that amo doth signifie to Love And this was the case of the Donatists For St. Augustin a Man of a meek and Divine temper who very well knew the sweetness of the Gospel and the greatness of mans infirmity was against any Penal Laws in causes Ecclesiastical But when the Donatists were compell'd to restore the Churches which under Julian were taken from the Catholicks and to come to Divine Prayers and to the hearing of Orthodox Sermons many of them were converted Upon this St. Augustine approves of that severity But that persons being subject to their Prince demeaning themselves soberly merely for an opinions sake should be kill'd as Dogs and that by all feral means to extirpate that which they call Heresy is meritorious is not the product of Religion but of Prejudice and Passion What a scandal did this give to the Name and Faith of the Lord Jesus The Indian King would not be in Heaven because

the Spaniards were there What bloody Tragedies have been acted over all Enrope on this account This savours not of the meekness and sweetness of Christianity The Religion of the Holy Jesus must not be reproached by the passions and evil opinions of men 4thly All are not Christians that call themselves so all are not Pythagoreans that are in the School of Pythagoras A feral spirit amongst many who call themselves Christians arises not only from an ill guided Zeal but from Principles contrary to the design of Christianity The Faith of the Lord Jesus is pretended when ambition and temporal prosperity are design'd And this has been undoubtedly the original of infinite slaughters amongst Christians which have been vailed with the glorious pretence of Piety Certainly for Christians to Arm for the recovery of the Holy Land and the redemption of so many Thousand Christians from the slavery that they were then involv'd in was for excellent purpose After the Lateran Council when a great Army was raised for that end by the instigation of the Pope the Swords of Christians in the West were turn'd against the Christians in the East Under that sacred vail was hid the design of reducing the Eastern to the obedience of the Western Church The Ambition of Rome was to set up a Latin Empire Ecclesiastical and Civil in the Greek Church and State The Gun-powder Treason in England whence proceeded it but from ambition The late feral Plot acknowledged to be Devilish by His Sacred Majesty and Three Parliaments Let Religion be pretended what was under the Varnish Coleman a name execrable not only to Protestants but to Romanists a Mushrom gaining favour durst be so arrogant as to attempt the introducing of Popery make the English Scepter truckle to France What was his aim To be a great Minister of State The same was proposed by those who assisted him in these detestable actions Religion was in the Front but in the Rear Great Ministers of State Ecclesiastical Dignities and Military Offices these must be their encouragers Tho' that Coleman durst to his last breath deny that there was any intention to introduce Popery by the Sword which denial of his was a most notorious falsity yet that Fame Dignities and accumulated Riches were the Port to which he Sail'd nothing more clear They who fall from one Religion to another must disguise their Apostacy with the fairest vails of Conscience Salvation and a future Glory Yet they give a reproach to themselves and to Religion when they design their Apostacy to open a Gate for preferment no wonder that these persons prove Persecutors Religion is not to be charged with these bloody actions No they are to be imputed to a damnable hypocrisy and worldly interest Coleman a Ministers Son a pragmatick Sophister in Cambridge went into Flanders changed his Religion turn'd Romanist then went up and down City and Country to make Proselites a person of a daring impudence tho' clearly bafled in disputes would never discover that he was conscious of a foil by one blush Durst proh bone Deus attempt those things which has given the greatest disquiet that ever could have been given to his sacred Majesty to the two Houses to the whole Kingdom to the Three Nations to the Protestant Interest Nay it may justly be averred that no English Romanist ought to pronounce his name without abhorrence and reluctation He can palliate his Villanies with no other pretence than Religion which he designed to promote not by blood or any feral means but by those holy methods which the holy Ghost approves as he attested at his Tryal Non verba sed facta loquuntur His words and actions give an eternal evidence against him Could we imagine that his Life gave an indication of the Heavenly composure of his mind Chrysostom in his so justly famed Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Apostate Why calls he him the Apostate Did he dissert his Religion fall from the Faith of the Lord Jesus No. But being born of rich and illustrious Parents his retiring into the Wilderness or to the top of a Mountain for the privacy of mortification and the more assiduous practice of holiness he at the Twentieth year of his age relinquished his divine Life returned into the City and there lived splendidly his retinue and Table were sumptuous and magnificent for this declining from the severer practice of Holiness Chrysostom condemns him and with all imaginable eloquence and piety endeavours to recall him But we have here an Apostate from the excellent Religion of the Church of England who not only imitates but outvies this Theodorus Theodorus reassumes his estate lives gallantly at the expences of his Patrimonial inheritance Coleman vies with the primest of the Nobility he that sprung up in a Night made his Apostacy the Ladder to climb to the highest preferments and the Favourite to bring him into the Councils of the greatest Princes of Europe and the great encourager to attempt the most notorious villany in the World Is this Faith and Godliness Can Christianity be reproached Must the Faith and Loyalty of the French Nation be condemned for the Treason of a Ravilliack That unchristian designs and secular aims are many times the cause of Christians shedding the Blood of Christians amongst many more Examples I will annex two Upon the death of Liberius Damasus and Vrsibinus were competitors for the Roman Pontificate The people are divided the parties are hot and passionate their heats are so vehement that both Parties fight Damasus his party was superior in this Bloody contest a Hundred Thirty Seven Bodies were found slain in one Church a Church which was once the House of one Sicininus the dissention was so great and fierce that Viventius the Prefect of the City could not appeale it This rage gave a disturbance to the City some time after perhaps the parties were not pacified till Vrsinius was gratifyed with the Archbishoprick of Naples Upon this Marcellinus an Heathen gives us this remark I can't deny considering with what gallantry the affairs of that City are managed that they who are competitors to gain what they so much desire should strive with the greatest ardour and force for when they have obtained their longed-for Dignity they are secure seeing that they shall be enriched with the oblation of Ladies they being gorgeously cloathed they shall be carried up and down in Coaches their Feasts shall be profuse and they shall maintain Tables superior to those of Kings These persons might indubitably be more Blessed if they contemning the splendor of the City would compose their demeanors after the mode of some Provincial Bishops whose spare Diet mean Garments and their Eyes constantly cast upon the Earth commend themselves to the True God and his Genuine Servants Macedonius was certainly an ambitious man Paulus being canonically elected Bishop of Constantinople was commanded by the Emperor Constantius to be removed from that See Phillip

the Prefect performs the Emperors command by a fine trick without the knowledge of the Citizens sends him into Banishment and then takes Macedonius into his own Coach and carries him into the Church the people were disconted the multitude was so great that what by the throng and the Sword of the Soldiers a passage was made for him to the Throne by the Corps of One thousand Three hundred and Fifty When possessed of that See what cruelties did he not exercise banishments confiscation of estates were but lighter punishments those that would not communicate with him he Imprisoned some he Tortured Women and Children he caused to be severely Scourged he forced the mouths of those that would not communicate with him to be opened and his Mysteries to be put into them he caused Eggs to be heated and cast upon the Breasts of Women he made the Breasts of other Women to be put between burning Plates and seared off he acted such Cruelties upon the Christians that were unheard of to the Heathens with an excessive pride without the consent of the Emperor he removed the Corps of Constantine the Great out of the Church in which he was inter'd into the Church of Acasius the Martyr This fact was endeavoured to be hindred by the Orthodox Christians of whom he killed many the Floor of the Church and Street adjoyning flowed with the Blood of them Were these sanguinary Acts the product of Religion No but of pride and his temporal Interest Qu. VI. Wherein the Christian Graces have a real preferency to the Pagan and Philosophical Vertues IT will not be unworthy to discuss this Great Question Wherein the Graces and Lives of Christians are superior to the Actions and Vertues of the Heathens Julian against whom these Papers are chiefly design'd was a Prince conspicuous by many excellent endowments Amongst the Heathens there were many Philosophers and Statesmen Orators Generals and Princes eminent in their singular qualifications Is Valour a Virtue Many were patient in bearing Calamities and none more daring in undertaking great actions Is Justice a Virtue they were diligent hearers of Causes and unbiassed in their final determinations Is Temperance a Virtue They were to a Miracle Abstemious Is Charity a Virtue they were Bountiful and haters of the base sin of Covetousness If a composure of mind by which persons are fitted for admirable Actions If industry and vigorous prosecution of Employments be excellent Ornaments in them they might glory To all which may be added in the Exercise of Religion which is the foundation of Virtue they were very devout To all these they made a great pretence Some of those Eminences must be granted yet to the Question it will with clear Reason and certain Truth be replied That the excellency of Christian Graces and Virtues are superlatively to be prefer'd to Pagan Eminences To evince which these Axioms must be premis'd 1. Bonum ex integra causa Malum ex quocunque defectu An Vniversal concurrence of Causes is required to make a thing good when any deficiency suffices to render it evil One obliquity makes a Line crooked when a continued recital is necessary to constitute a strait Line 2. When Virtues are intense then they are concatenated there is a Conspiration of all Virtues where the degrees are Heroical 3. That the fam'd Philosophers agree in this That there is a true God whose Will is the rule of Virtue 4. That then it must evidently follow That they who worship not the true God are not Virtuous 5. 'T is evidently perspicuous that Virtues must have a respect to their adequate objects He that is Temperate must both eat and drink moderately he that is Just must be so to all persons 6. That to the Constitution Prudence is required If this were not the Guide of the Pagan Virtuosi then it must of necessity follow they were not truly virtuous My Pen shall not be too crabbed nor my sentiments too bold in censuring the state of dead Philosophers What sentence the Divine Power hath passed upon them is known to him only to whom belongs righteousness and forgiveness I am not daring to peep into the dark but confident that the highest pitch of Virtue the severest Pagan arriv'd at is much beneath Christian perfection and the sublime life of Christian Philosophers 1. Let the actions of any person be never so exact and congruous to those Laws which goodness prescribe yet if the end be vain-glory they are not true Virtues Ambition is that deformity which sullies the splendor of the best Conversation in that life which seems to be a mirror to give the liveliest image of Goodness As the purest Chrystal is by breath so that by popular applause is stain'd which vice is infinitely oppos'd by Christian Religion Humility being adopted as a part of it it 's one of its prime constitutions enforced by the example of the Holy Jesus How guilty the Ethnick Philosophers were of this crime is notoriously known They were termed Vanoe glorioe mancipia How trifling was that temper of Demosthenes who was hugely pleased that the murmurs of a Rivulet from him gliding brought to his Ears the noise of a Woman speaking to her Companion This is the very Demosthenes Cic. Tusc Quest lib. 5. And Tully himself that great Orator and Virtuoso and famous Moralist Trahimur omnes glorioe studio optimus quisque maximè glorià ducitur The chiefest aim of the best men he makes to be Glory by Plutarch accused of Ambition and so judg'd by his Friends Crecens by Justin call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And of himself Cicero saith Orat. ad pop before his Banishment Quam virtutis gloria summâ cum laude ad coelum extulit He was infinitely affected with those expressions of kindness which he receiv'd from the Romans after his return from Banishment that he cries out I am come to Rome upon the Shoulders of all Italy As for Julian how vain-glorious he was take it from the Pen of Marcellinus he rejoyced very much in vulgar applause he was an immoderate hunter after praise even from the least things that were His affecting popularity made him to converse with mean and abject persons Christianity commands not to seek the praise of men but of God That he who glorieth may glory in the Lord. The glory which we receive from men is but small imperfect inconstant and makes not the person the better the glorying in God is raised perfect perpetual and makes the person really happy 2. We shall rarely find that there was a Concatenation of all Virtues in Heathen Philosophers and in them their Virtues had not a respect to their adequate objects which is otherwise in Christians In many thousands of them gloriously appear'd a concurrence of all Graces 'T is a Christian Axiom He that offends in one is guilty of all Christian Graces are like a Crown or Circle in which if there be any part taken away that ceaseth to be a Circle From the