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His Moderation, by the Report of a Christian Au

thor.

He was, indeed, fharp against us, but yet no cruel Enemy: For our own People tell this Story of him, That, one Day, walking about the City of Chalcedon, Maris, Bishop of that Place, called out to him, and told him, that he was an Atheist, and an Apoftate:' To which he only answered, Go, Wretch, and lament the Lofs of thy Eyes: To this the Bishop replied again, I thank Jefus Chrift for taking away my Sight, that I might not fee thy impudent Face'. So it is, that this Action of his favours nothing of the Cruelty that he is said to have exercised towards us; though they fay, that his Answer to the Bishop was but an Affectation of Philofophic Patience. He was (fays Eutropius', my other Witnefs) an Enemy to Christianity, but without fhedding Blood.' And, to return to his Justice, there His Juftice. is nothing in that whereof he can be accused, but the Severity he practifed in the Beginning of his Reign, against thofe who had followed the Party of Conftantius, his Predeceffor ".

As to his Sobriety, he lived always a Soldier's kind of Life; and kept a Table, in Times of the His Sobriety, molt profound Peace, like one that prepared

and inured himself to the Rigours of War ".

His Vigilancy was fuch, that he divided the Night into three or four Parts, of which always the His Vigilancy. leaft was dedicated to Sleep; the rest was spent either in vifiting the Eftate of his Army and Guards, in Perfon, or in Study; for, amongst other rare Qualities, he was very excellent in all forts of Literature. Tis faid of Alexander the Great, That, when he was in Bed, for fear left Sleep fhould divert him from his Thoughts and Studies, he had always a Bafon fet by his Bed-fide, and held one of his Hands out with a Bullet of Copper in it, to the End, that, if he fell asleep, and his Fingers left their Hold, the Bullet, by falling into the Bafon, ⚫ might

• Sozomen's Ecclefiaftical History, lib. v. c. 4. Eutrop. lib. x. c. 8.

Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxii. c. 2.

* Idem, lib. xvi, c. 2. et xxvi. c. 5.

Book II. ⚫ might awake him. But this Julian was fo bent upon what he had a Mind to do, and fo little disturbed with Fumes, by reason of his fingular Abftinence, that he had no Need of any fuch Invention.

As to his Military Experience, he was admirable in all the Qualities of a great Captain, as it was

His Military
Experience.

likely he should, having been, almost all his Life, in a continual Exercife of War, and most of that Time with us in France, against the Germans and Franconians: We hardly read of any Man that ever encountered more Dangers, or that made more frequent Proofs of his perfonal Valour.

His Death.

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His Death has fomething in it like that of Epaminondas; for he was wounded with an Arrow, which he tried to pull out, and had done it, but that, being two-edged, it cut the Sinews of his Hand. He called out forthwith, That they would carry him, • in this Condition, into the Midft of the Battle to encourage his Soldiers,' who very bravely difputed the Battle without him, till Night parted the Armies. He was obliged to his Philofophy for the fingular Contempt he had for this Life, and all human Things; and he had a firm Belief of the Immortality of the Soul. In Matters of Religion, he was Vicious throughout, and was furnamed the Apoftate, for having relinquished ours: Though, methinks, 'tis more likely, that he had never thoroughly embraced it, but had diffembled, out of Obedience to the Laws, till he came to the Empire. He was, in his own, fo fuperftitious, that he was laughed at for it, by thofe of the fame Opinion of Exceffively fuhis own Time, who faid, That, had he got perftitious. the Victory over the Parthians, he had de-. stroyed the Breed of Oxen in the World to fupply his • Sacrifices. He was, moreover, a Bigot to the Art of Divination, and gave Authority to all forts of Predictions. He faid, amongst other Things, at his Death, That he was obliged to the Gods, and thanked them, 'in

He was addicted to the Worship of falfe Gods.

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* Ammian. Marcell. lib. xvi. c. 2. ▾ Idem, ibid. lib. xxv. c. 3. Idem, ibid. c. 6. a Idem, ibid. lib. xxv. c. 4.

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in that they had not been pleased to cut him off by Surprife, having, long before, advertised him of the Place and Hour of his Death; nor by a mean and unmanly Death, more becoming lazy and delicate People; nor by a Death that was languishing, long, and painful; ⚫ and that they had thought him worthy to die after that noble manner, in the Career of his Victories, and in the • Height of his Glory.' He had a Vifion, like that of Marcus Brutus, that first threatened him in Gaul, and afterwards appeared to him in Perfia, juft before his Death. These Words, that fome make him say, when he felt himself wounded, Thou haft overcome, Nazarene;' or, as others, Content thyfelf, Nazarene,' would hardly have been omitted, had they been believed by my Witneffes, who, being prefent in the Army, have set down even the leaft Motions and Words of his latter End, no more than certain other strange Things that are recorded of him.

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He aimed to re-establish Paganifm, and to destroy the Christians, by keeping up their Divisions by a general Tolera

tion.

And, to return to my Subject, He long nourished, fays Marcellinus, Paganifm in his Heart; but, all his Army being Chriftians, he durft ⚫ not own it: But, in the End, feeing him• felf strong enough to dare to discover himfelf, he caufed the Temples of the Gods to be thrown open, and did his utmoft to fet on foot Idolatry. The better to effect this, having, at Conftantinople, found the People difunited, and alfo the Prelates of the Church divided • amongst themselves, and having convened them all before him, he gravely and earnestly admonished them to calm thofe civil Diffenfions; and that every one might freely, and without Fear, follow his own Reli gion This he did the more fedulously follicit, in hopes that this License would augment the Schifms and Faction of their Divifion, and hinder the People from re-uniting, and confequently fortifying themselves aVOL. II. Hh

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b Ammian. Marcell. lib. xx. c. 5.

Idem, lib. xxv. c. 2.

Vicifti, Galilæe. Theodoret. Hift. Ecclef. lib. iii. c. 30,

• Idem, lib. xxi. c. 2.

f. Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxii. c, 3.

gainst

Book II. gainst him by their unanimous Intelligence and Concord; having experienced, by the Cruelty of fome • Chriftians, that there is no Beaft in the World fo much to be feared by Man, as Man.'

Reflections on this Policy, with regard to the Liberty of Confcience granted, in Montaigne's Time, to the Proteftants.

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These are very near his Words, wherein this is very worthy of Confideration, that the Emperor Julian made Ufe of the fame Receipt of Liberty of Confcience, to inflame the civil Diffenfions, that our Kings have now done to extinguish them: So that it may be said, on one fide, That to give the People the Reins to entertain every Man his own Opinion is to fcatter and fow Divifion, and, as it were, to lend a Hand to augment it, there being no • Barrier nor Correction of Law to ftop and hinder its Career; but, on the other fide, a Man may alfo fay, That to give People the Reins to entertain every Man his own Opinion is to mollify and appease them by Facility and Toleration, and dulls the Point which is whetted and made fharper by Singularity, Novelty, and Difficulty.' And, I think, it is more for the Honour of the Devotion of our Kings, that, not having been able to do what they would, they have made a Shew of being willing to do what they could.

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S

There is no Conveniency without its In

CHA P. XX.

That we Tafte nothing Pure.

O weak is our Condition, that Things cannot fall into our Ufe in their natural Simplicity and Purity; the Elements that we enjoy, are changed, even Metals themselves; and Gold must be debafed, by fome Alloy, to fit it for our Service. Neither has Virtue, so fimple as that which Arifto, Pyrrbo, and alfo the Stoics have made the principal End of Life; nor the Cyrenaic and Ariftippic Pleasure been ufeful to it without a Mixture. Of the

convenience.

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Pleasure

Pleafure and Goods that we enjoy, there is not one exempt from fome Mixture of Evil and Inconvenience.

medio de fonte leporum,

Surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipfis floribus angat .
i. e.

Something that's Bitter will arise,
Even amidst our Jollities.

Our extremeft Pleasure has fome Air of groaning and complaining in it: Would you not fay, that it is dying of Anguish? Nay, when we forge the Image of it, in its Excellency, we paint it with fickly and painful Epithets, Languor, Softnefs, Feeblenefs, Faintnefs, Morbidezza, a great Teftimony of their Confanguinity and Confubftantiality Profound Joy has more of Severity than Gaiety in it: The extremeft and fulleft Contentment, more of the Sedate than of the Merry. Ipfa fælicitas, fe nifi temperat, premit: Even Felicity, unless it moderate itself, oppreffeth.' Pleasure preys upon us, according to the old Greek Verfe, which fays, That the Gods fell us all the Good they give us; that is to fay, that they give us nothing Pure and Perfect, and which we do not purchafe but at the Price of fome Evil.

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Labour and Pleafure, very unlike in Nature, affociate, nevertheless, by I know not what natural Pain and PleaConjunction. * Socrates fays, That fome fure joined at one End, as ap pears from Melancholy.

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God tried to mix in one Mafs, and to con'found Pain and Pleafure, but, not being able to do it, he bethought him, at least, to couple them by the Tail.' Metrodorus faid, That in Sorrow there is fome Mixture of Pleafure.' I know not, whether or no he intended any Thing elfe by that Saying: But, for my Part, I am of Opinion, that there is Defign, Confent, and Complacency in giving a Man's Hh 2

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Πωλᾶσιν ἡμῖν πάντα ταγαθὰ Θεοί.

Epicharmus apud Xenophon. lib. xi. amourμcrop.
In Plato's Dialogue, intitled Phaden, p. 376.

* Metrodorus, Senec. Ep. 99.

Self

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