* See the Catch Words

ytthat heaven of yethe Roman throne & in its room yethe Christian religion was exalted to yethe throne: then did yethe honour, riches, power & temporal advantages of this religion begin to tempt yethe heathens dayly to turn Christians; & in such converts who for temporal interest thus flowed into yethe Church yethe Devil now came down into yethe Church amongst yethe Christian people of yethe Eastern & Western Empires called yethe Inhabitants of yethe Earth & Sea. For such Converts being yethe most hypocritical sort of men, & under profession of Christianity retaining their old heathen vices & their inclination to all kinds of superstition, they were still heathens in reality thô in profession Christians, & may deservedly be called yethe Synagogue of Satan who say they are Iews (ytthat is Christians) & are not but do lye.

The visions of yethe woman & Dragon are a prophetical history of yethe fall of yethe heathen religion & yethe rise of yethe apostacy in its room & ytthat fall was on this manner. Dioclesian A.C. 302 raised a persecution of yethe whole Church wchwhich was far greater then all yethe former persecutions taken together & lasted in yethe western Empire two years & in yethe eastern ten. In yethe end of this persecution Constantine yethe great was converted to Christianity, & at yethe same time by yethe conquest of Maxentius became Emperour of yethe West. Licinius who was now Emperour of yethe East & still vexing yethe Church but not violently for fear of Constantine, endeavoured by treachery to circumvent Constantine & make himself Emperour of yethe whole: whereupon a war arose between them, & Constantine overcame, & then yethe flourishing of Christianity brought in great numbers of converts. Now all this is thus designed in yethe prophesy. The woman [or Church] in heaven wthwith Child [of a Christian Empire] cried [in this persecution of ten years] travailing in birth and pained to be delivered . And [at yethe same time] a great red Dragon [yethe Greek Empire] with his tail [or trains of attendants & officers civil & military] drew yethe third part of yethe stars of heaven [yethe saints of yethe Greek Empire] & cast them to yethe earth [ytthat earth out of wchwhich yethe two horned beast afterwards arose] & yethe woman brought forth a Manchild [yethe Western Christian Empire] under yethe dominion of Constantine yethe great] & yethe Dragon was ready [by yethe treacheries of LicinusLicinius] to devour her child as soon as it was born. And yethe Manchild [by yethe victory of Constantine over 2 Licinius] was caught up unto God & to his throne [for at ytthat time as we explained above] there was war in heaven; Michael [or yethe Manchild] & his Angels fought against yethe Dragon, & yethe Dragon fought & his Angels, & yethe great Dragon was cast out ytthat old serpent called yethe Devil & Satan [yethe heathen religion] wchwhich deceived yethe whole world: he was cast out into yethe earth [of yethe Eastern Empire] And there was heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, Now is come salvation [from yethe persecuting Dragon] & strength & yethe Kingdom of our God [a Christian Empire] & yethe power of his Christ [or dominion of his mystical body yethe Christians.] For yethe accuser of our brethren is cast out who [in yethe persecution] accused them before our God, & they overcame him by yethe blood of yethe Lamb [slain afresh in his mystical body in ytthat persecution] & by yethe word of their testimony [yethe testimony of confessors & Martyrs] & [in yethe persecution] they loved not their lives unto yethe death. Therefore rejoyce ye heavens & ye ytthat dwell in them [yethe victors over yethe Dragon, as many of them as are truly Saints] Wo to yethe inhabitants of yethe Earth & Sea [yethe hypocritical part of Christians & such as should not endure yethe following temptation] for yethe Devil [whom Michael cast out of heaven] is [by yethe flowing of dissembling heathens who say they are Christians & are not but do lye] come down unto you wthwith great wrath because he knoweth ytthat he hath but a short time [to reign among you untill he shall be cast in chains into yethe bottomless pitt] So then yethe Dragon in being cast out of heaven ceases not but begins a new reign on Earth among yethe Christian inhabitants of yethe Earth & Sea, yethe Empire from these fals converts still keeping yethe Name of yethe Dragon & yethe Manchild in being caught up to heaven soon vanishing out of sight. While yethe Empire continued heathen yethe small encouragements for hypocrites to turn heathen Christians was a guard upon yethe Christian religion to keep it from growing corrupt. For yethe mystery of iniquity wchwhich then worked could not grow to any maturity for want of hypocrites to work upon: but after ytthat yethe heathen religion wchwhich thus withheld yethe revelation of this mystery, was taken out of yethe way, ytthat mystery no longer wanting a fit people to work upon must begin to grow proportionally to yethe increase of hypocrites, & so as in a short time by yethe prevailing of such fals Christians to be reveialed. For in a dayly flow of such converts into yethe Churches, it could not be but ytthat in a few years yethe hypocrites would be more then double or trebiple to yethe 3 sincere; not to say more then ten or twenty times their number. Now by this influx of fals converts yethe mystery of iniquity grew in these respects.

First yethe Churches by yethe mixture & allay of such converts soon became very corrupt in manners. They ytthat please to read yethe book of Salvian De Providentia Dei, an AuthecrAuthor very sober cordate & pious will find ytthat within less then an hundred years after Constantines victory, yethe Christians all over yethe Empire, so far as his information reacht were grown as much or more more debaucht in manners (whoring, sodomy, blasphemy, covetousness, voluptuousness drinking, swearing, lying, gaming, cheating backbiting, malice, fraud, injustice, rapine, oppression) then even yethe barbarous nations & old heathens, & yethe various sorts of heretical Christians. This Salvian shews to satisfy his readers ytthat God was just in subjecting yethe Romans to yethe violence & dominion of yethe less wicked & barbarous Nations who in year 407 invaded yethe Western Empire. And if you will be at yethe pains to compare whim wthwith what you may find to yethe same purpose scattered up & down in yethe Ecclesiastical historians, Basil Gregory Nazianzen, Faustinus his Libellus precum, Ierom, Austin, Theodoret De curandis Græcorum affectionibus Guildas & other Authors of those times, as well concerning yethe pride, ambition, contentiousness & other ill manners of yethe Clergy & Monks, as those of yethe rest of yethe people; you will find sufficient reason to beleive ytthat Salvian wrote yethe truth impartially. He wrote not in a peevish way to accuse his age, but in a sober way to answer an objection made by many of his own age about yethe justice of God, & to falsify them by relating yethe matters of fact wchwhich they to whom he wrote were judges of as well as he: Nor is't a wonder ytthat Christians should become so vicious in so short a time seing yethe most immoral of yethe heathens would be most apt to turn Christians for interest, & yethe most ambitious Christians would seek most for preferment in the Churches. Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical history tells us ytthat Christians between yethe persecutions of Decius & Dioclesian through a respite of 30 or 40 a few years from persecution began to grow very corrupt in manners: & much more would they grow corrupt in a more lasting peace when they were not only freed from persecution, but flourished in riches & honours & dominion over yethe world, & were dayly allayedassayed & corrupted by yethe influx of yethe most hypocritical & consequently yethe worst of heathens. It may be said indeed ytthat yethe manners 4 of Christians were corrected by yethe persecutions they suffered under Constantius, Iulian & Valens: but those sufferings were not much in yethe West & but for a time, & not directly for religion but upon accusations for various crimes ,(as Basil & Gregory Nazianzen tells us of yethe sufferings under Valens, & Athanasius & Hilary of those under Constantius) & therefore they reached but to a few. And yethe same method was used by yethe King of yethe Vandals against yethe Africans. For when he would persecute them he caused their sacred virgins to be searched by midwives, & those who were found vitiated, to be forced by tortures to confess who had layn wthwith them, saying Dicite quomodo sacerdotes vestri concumbunt vobiscum, & then upon their confession about four thousand of their Bishops & Priests were banished together as Victor de Persecutione Vandalica relates. This I mention in confirmation of what Salvian affirms of yethe Africans. For he describes them yethe unchastest of all yethe Romans & ytthat God's judgment was conspicuous in subjecting them to yethe Vandals who were yethe chastest of all yethe Barbarians, & by their laws had almost made yethe Africans themselves chast. And yethe cruelty of Valens yethe Emperour & those about him in causing 80 Presbyters to be burnt together in a ship would afford us another notable instance, were it not ytthat I find in Gregory Nazianzien (who lived in yethe times when yethe thing was done & near yethe place werewhere 'twas done) ytthat yethe first report was but of one Presbyter sentenced to be burnt with a ship at sea & of many people standing upon yethe shore to see yethe execution done. But it may be pertinent to note yethe quick & easy approbation of yethe novel definitions & Sotadical verses of Arius, so as to make him in a laetter to Constantine before yethe Council of Nice boast of yethe multitude on his side, & Gregory Nazianzen (yethe contemporary of Athanasius) beleive ytthat almost all yethe East about ytthat time were for him; also yethe heats of yethe Bishops in yethe Councel of Nice may be noted & their libelling one another, so ytthat nothing could be done there till Constantine himself presided in person; & yethe presence of a Captain wthwith his Soldiers at yethe Councel of Tyre to prevent yethe like turbulent & immoral behaviour there, & yethe tumults in following Councels where this method was not used (wchwhich made Gregory Nazianzen compare them to flocks of Sheep Cranes & Geese, to stout & pertinaciuspertinacious Warriors & stageplayers who in yethe habit of Bishops personate what they are not) & lastly yethe shamelesness of yethe Eusebians at yethe infamous death of Arius they notwithstanding so far prevailing & outfacing it as to make Gregory 5 Gregory Nazianzen of opinion ytthat Athanasius (soon after yethe reign of Constantius) did first of any man discover by inspiration yethe DietyDeity of yethe Holy Ghost, yethe Church in her more tender age not being able to beare yethe revelation of so great a mystery, & ytthat nothing did ever so much shake yethe whole world as yethe open preaching thereof, even his own flock being thereupon disgusted. Yet are yethe circumstances of yethe death of Arius to be corrected. For 'tis certain ytthat he was (upon retracting his novel language) admitted into communion at yethe Councel of Tyre, & it could not be ytthat yethe same party afterwards at Constantinople, when he was already in their communion, would go about to admit him into their communion again, as if neither they nor he had known of his being admitted into it before. The story of his death being kept secret till about twenty years after he was dead & then made known to yethe Egyptians by Athanasius (as I gather by comparing two of his Epistles writ about yethe year 358, yethe one to those who live a solitary life, yethe other to Serapion) it might be easy for him (or Macarius from whom he relates it) to forget a circumstance or two: as he did also in his Apology in telling yethe story of yethe hand of Arsenius in a bag wchwhich both he & 300 Bishops of Egypt & yethe West about twelve or fifteen years before in yethe Counsel of Serdica told of a corps. I have made yethe more particular mention of these things because they were early, & shew yethe gradual declining & verging of yethe age to ytthat state of immorality wchwhich Salvian a little after describes. It would require a large discourse to give a full account of yethe manners of these times, but I do not think it necessary: I shall content my self wthwith two or three passages out of yethe writers of those times.

Gregory Nazianzen in his Oration Of yethe Bishops reprehends them Bishops as addicted to fals & crafty perverting of right & reason, contentious, proud, as to knowledge rude & unskilfull, as to faith ready to embrace either side being swayed by yethe laws not of God but of yethe times, flatterers, Lyons to yethe inferiour people & fawning dogs to them in power, studious of eating & drinking well, & mindfull not of what is profitable but of what is gratefull to others, & then he crys out: O yethe mystery of godliness, wchwhich is now propagated almost throughout the whole world. He describes also how there was no care in electing Men of deserts into Bishopricks, but any novice who could make an interest was admitted: yesterday at play & publick spectacles, at horsraces, at publick orator dancing-bouts, at revellings, a publick Orator, a civil Magistrate, a soldier, to day created a Presbyter or Bishop. Yesterday a6 a Simon Magus (buying a Bishoprick) to day a Simon Peter. And much to yethe same purpose he speaks in his Oration to yethe second general Councel, & in several of his verses. And least you should think he did it out of peevishness for yethe loss of yethe Bishoprick of Constantinople, he touches upon yethe same immorality of yethe Clergy in his Oration, Of yethe praises of Basil, written about three years before: There is danger, saith he, least yethe most holy Order become most ridiculous. For yethe Priesthood is acquired not so much by virtue as by evil-doing & wickedness: nor are yethe thrones of yethe most worthy but of yethe most powerfull. And even then fifteen years before when he was upon his first return from yethe wilderness he was under his Father made Bishop of Nazianzum A.C. 360 in his aApology or first Oration (after yethe middle of itp 33) he is large upon yethe vices & tempestuousness of ytthat age wherein, saith he, yethe members are at war one with another, & if there be any Charity yet remaining, it is departing; & yethe Priesthood is an empty name, – & we are all pious in this one thing ytthat we condemn others of impiety – & he is accounted best ytthat can fasten most reproaches upon his Neighbour. – We observe one anothers faults not to lament not 'em but to expose 'em, not to cure 'em but to inflict new wounds, & thence draw excuses for our own vices. Neither do we account Men good or evil according to their lives but according to friendship or enmity & what we praise to day we dispraise to morrow, & what we note for infamous in others we admire in our selves & easily pardon any wickedness in those who embrace impiety. Thus magnanimous are we in vice. And all things are in confusion like yethe world in yethe first Chaos, or like Men in a nocturnal fight where they cannot know their Friends from their Enemies or in a sea fight & storm wherein they perish in great confusion by falling foul on one another. And as yethe people is, so is yethe Priest & so are yethe Nobles. There are who quarrel about trifles & then engage parties, pretending yethe faith & so profaning yethe holy Name for private ends. Whence it comes to pass ytthat we are grown odious to yethe Gentiles & (wchwhich is worst of all) we can give no reason why not justly & deservedly: & even to yethe more honest of our own party we are infamous. We are become a new kind of spectacle not to Angels & Men, but to almost all yethe wicked in all times & places, in yethe Markets, in Feasts, in sports pleasures, in mournings. And now also we are also acted upon yethe Stages (wchwhich I speak almost weeping) & are derided wthwith yethe most impure & unchast; nor is there any scene so pleasing to yethe ear & eye as when a Christian is comically exposed. Also in yethe same Epistle before yethe middle describing how novices every where were exalted in yethe Church, he saith; We are so ill affected ytthat yethe most of us (not to say all) almost before we cast off our first hair, & cease to babble like Children, before we enter into7 into yethe divine Courts, before we know so much as yethe names of yethe Books of sacred scripture, before we know yethe Characters of yethe old & new Testaments or yethe Authors (for I do not yet say before we have washt away yethe spot of our Sins) if we have learnt two or three pious words & those not by reading but by hearing alone, or if we have learnt to sing a Psalm or two or to contract a cloak well or put on a Monastic girdle a little for a shew of piety (O yethe chief seates & yethe high-mindedness! For Samuel was fitly holy from his cradle,) we are presently Wisemen & Masters & sublime in divine things & yethe chief among yethe scribes & Lawyers, & ordain our selves heavenly men & affect to be called Rabbi; nor is there any thing spoke literally in yethe Scriptures, but all things are to be understood mystically, & if for this we be not praised & extolled we are angry. These are yethe manners of those who have most of goodness & simplicity among us. For those who are more spiritual & generous, much condemning us & vexing us & accounting us triflers of no value, depart from us despising our communion as yethe communion of Men not pious. Thus Gregory of yethe Churches of ytthat early age. In his other writings he describes a vehement contention between yethe eastern & western Churches, both in yethe Councel of Constantinople (wchwhich in his Epistle πασ to OlympiusEpist 77 he calls πα πάσης ἀνατολικης κὶ δυτικης σύνοδον an universal Councel of both yethe Eastern & Western Churches) & before & after. And being afterward invited to Synods he wrote in a letter to Saturninus: Epist 72All things by Gods blessing are well wthwith us, this one thing excepted, ytthat we are anxious & sollicitous about yethe Churches so filthily at variance. Reduce 'em if you can by any means to concord seing yethe Bishops meet again: for it is to be feared again least we now be shamed if this Synod has no happier an end then yethe former. [Epist. 72] And to Procopius;Epist 55 ytthat he never saw a happy event of any councel, they increasing rather then averting evils. For saith he, yethe contentious & desiresdesirous of dominion are pertinacious beyond what can be explained by my words. [Epist. 55] Epist 80And to Theodorus Bishop of Tyana: That he declined coming to Synods & conferences ever since he found many of them (to speak sparingly) wicked & flagitious. ‡ ‡ In yethe Councel of Nice there was such traducing & libelling one another ytthat nothing could be done till yethe Emperor Constantine came himself in person & moderated. And therefore in yethe Councel of Tyre to prevent yethe like discords ordered a Prefect to be present there with a band of soldiers at hand. And in yethe following Councels where this method was not taken, there were such doings as Gregory describes. Which made him in his poems compare them convening Bishops to Cranes & Geese & pertinacious warriors & profane stageplayers only drest in yethe habit of Bishops. [Epist 80] These ecclesiastical feuds & calamities so much complained of by Gregory & others of yethe same kind are mentioned by Socrates in yethe preface to yethe fifth book inof his Ecclesiastical History as judgments of God upon yethe age for their wickedness. And yethe like manners of yethe Western Bishops amongst themselves, Sulpitius Severus (who wrote about yethe yeare 400) makes this mention. Sulp. Hist. lib. 2 in fine. Ac inter nostros perpetuum discordiarum bellum exarserat: quod jam per quindecim annos fœdis dissentionibus agitatum, nullo modo sopiri poterat. Et nunc, ut maximè discordijs Episcoporum turbari aut misceri omnia cernerentur, cunctaqꝫue per eos odi, aut gratia, metu, inconstantia 8 invidia, factione, libidine, avaritia, arrogantia, desidia, essent depravata, postremo plures aadversus paucos bene consulentes; insanis consilijs & pertinacibus studijs certabant: inter haec plebs Dei et optimus quisqꝫue probro atqꝫue ludibrio habebatur. And in another place, speaking of yethe manners of yethe Clergy, he saith, Hist. lib. 1, c. 43Præcepti hujus [ut servirent Deo] non solum immemores sed etiam ignari mihi videntur tanta hoc tempore animos eorum habendi cupido veluti tabes incessit. Inhiant possessionibus, prædia excolunt, auro incubant, emunt ventduntqꝫue, quæstui per omnia student. At siqui melioris propositi videntur, neqꝫue possidentes neqꝫue negaciantesnegociantes, quod est multo turpius sedentes munera expectant, atqꝫue omne vitæ decus mercede corruptum habent dum quasi venalem præferunt, sanctitatem. Sed longius quam volui egressus sum dum me temporum nostrorum piget tædetqꝫue And again in describing yethe Persecution of Dioclesian: Hist. lib. 2. c. 47.Multo avidius tunc martyria gloriosis mortibus quærebantur quàm nunc Episcopatus pravis ambitionibus appetuntur. So also St.Saint Austigustine: Serm. De tempore Barbarico.Multi sunt qui gemunt – quos rem non timendam timent et dolent ob iniquitates quæ fiunt in medio eorum, volentes resistere sed timore secularium rerūum non audentes, quas adhuc vel adipisci desiderat humanhumana fragilitas vel amittere formidat infirmitas – quod rem non timendam timent, omnes declinarunt, simul omnes inutiles facti sunt: quia plus æstimatur timor hominis quam timor Dei, et præferunt homines res quas acceperunt a Deo ipsi Deo. – In ipso fine rerum posita est in ipsa universa provincia, et quotidie frequentantur spectacula, ut sanguis hominum infunditur quotidie funditur in mundo et insanientiūum voces increpant in circo – Meritò omnes sub flagello conterimur et doctor et factor, et auditor et contemptor. Studemus invicem reprehendere et non studemus opera nostra discutere. Detrahit proximus proximo, detrahit clericus clerico, detrahit laicus laico. Video quidem se invicem accusantes, sed neminem video justè se excusantem. – An ideo filios videres deligere, quia eorum voluptatibus faves? audis blasphemantes et patienter fers, vides frequentare spectacula et non revocas, vides luxuriantes et non verberas. So Sidonius Apollinaris ascribes yethe sinking of yethe western Empire under yethe Barbarians to yethe exactions & vices of yethe Romans, & ytthat yethe Bishops study not yethe publick but their private fortune, & yethe governors oppress yethe people. Those Authors I have cited who write before Salvian ytthat you may see he is not alone in lamenting yethe vices of his age. For if yethe degenerating Romans were so bad in their times, they were wors in his. To tell you what he says of them would be to transcribe his book, & therefore I had rather send you to it: I shall content my self to note ytthat after many things said of yethe vices of several provinciesprovinces he at length comes to compare yethe Romans with yethe Barbarians, Duo genera, saith he, in omni gente omniūum Barbarorum sunt, id est aut hæreticorum aut Paganorum. His ergo omnibus quantum ad legem divinam pertinet Dico9 pertinet Dico vos sine comparatione meliores: quantum autem ad vitam et actus doleo ac plango esse pejores. – Præter religiosos ac nonnullos etiam seculares religiosis pares, cæteros aut omnes aut pene omnes majoris reatus dico & criminatioris vitæ esse quam barbari. Irascens forsitan qui hæc legis & condemnas insuper quæ legis. Non refugio censuram tuam: condemna si mentior, condemna si non probavero. For yethe proof of this I referr you to yethe Book where you will find it explained; first of yethe heathen Barbarians how yethe several nations being noted for peculiar vices, as the Saxons for ferity, yethe Franks for perfidy, yethe Huns for unchastity, the Alans for drunkenness, yethe AlbansAlans for rapacity, yethe Roman Nation is more criminal in all these things, because they do against a known Law, what yethe other doe out of ignorance: then at large comparing the Romans & yethe Christian Barbarians how ytthat yethe Romans generally hate, envy, & vex one another, yethe Barbarians of yethe same Nation love one another; yethe Romans are intollerable in exactions, oppressions & injustice, yethe Barbarians (& particularly yethe Goths, Vandals, Franks, & Huns) are free from these crimes; yethe Romans frequent Theaters and Shows, yethe Barbarians suffer them not so much as in yethe Roman Cities wchwhich come into their power; yethe Romans are ungrateful to God for their victories, & other blessings, not giving him thanks but attributing them to fortune or conduct, yethe Goths & Vandals do not so; yethe Romans are extreamly unchast, & wchwhich is worst they are so amidst yethe chast Barbarians, & by their unchastity offend them. Amongst yethe Goth's a fornicator is not tollerated, yethe Romans only (by yethe prejudice of their Name and Nation) excepted. Almost all yethe Romans do these things of wchwhich it is hard to find but a few Barbarians guilty. To Salvian I might add Gildas & other Authors: but I shall rather confirm their testimonies wthwith matter of fact in yethe following instances.

Victor in yethe second book of his history of yethe Vandalick persecution relates how ytthat when yethe King of yethe Vandals was minded to persecute yethe Africans he caused their sacred Virgins to be searched by Midwifes, & those who were found vitiated to be urged by questions & tortures till thaey had confessed who had layn wthwith them saying, Tell us how your Bishops & Clergymen lye wthwith you. For, saith Victor, he endeavoured to find a way to begin ytthat persecution wchwhich he made. And thereupon were 5000 Bishops Priests & Deacons & other Members of yethe African Church sent at once into banishment. Now as yethe Vandals designed by this means to blemish yethe African Church, so yethe Africans laboured on yethe other hand to purge themselves by celebrating all these both Virgins & others for Confessors or& Martyrs. For whilst Salvian tells us ytthat yethe Romans were abominably unchast & yethe Africans yethe unchastest of all yethe Romans, & ytthat God's judgment was manifest in making the 10 Vandals lord over them upwho were yethe chastest of all yethe Barbarians, & by their laws had almost made yethe Africans chast: I leave yethe Reader to consider whether yethe Africans were not guilty of a double crime, unchastity in yethe Virgins & those who were banished, & yethe patronizing of unchastity by yethe rest who celebrated such for holy Men & confessors: a practise wchwhich yethe Roman Church has ever since followed in sanctifying those who suffer by yethe hand of justice when ever she thinks it her interest to do so.

Basil & Gregory Nazianzen while they speak much of yethe persecution of yethe Emperor Valens, they sometimes let fall words from whence it appears ytthat yethe persecution consisted in punishing Men not directly for religion, but upon accusations of various crimes. Now in an age wherein all men (as Nazianzen & StSaint Austin saith) so wicked, accused one another, & few justly excused themselves, how far yethe objected crimes were true or yethe witnesses fals I cannot determine. But be it as it will yethe immorality of yethe one side or yethe other or both is hence argued, & if either party was then grown immoral, yethe other scarce continued vertuous.

In yethe end of yethe reign of Constantius, The Egyptian Christians assembled in a Church of Alexandria resisted & beat yethe Emperors Soldiers sent against them & hung up their arms in yethe Church in triumph, & sent about a letter to stir up yethe people to their assistence, saying ytthat they had already resisted unto blood. (all wchwhich you may see in their letter extant in yethe works of StSaint Athanasius) & then being were overcome by fresh supplys of Soldiers & yethe ringleaders taken & sentenced for yethe disturbance, some to imprisonment some to be whipt, some to death: The greatness of this sedition Hilary in his book against Constantius written in yethe last year of that Emperor thus describes: Adest mecum Alexandria tot concussa bellis, tantum commotorum expeditionum pavens tumultum. Brevius enim adversum Persam quàm adversum eam armis certatum est. Mutati Præfecti, electi duces, corrupti populi, commotæ legiones ne ab Athanasio Christus prædicaretur. So long as this war lasted against yethe city so long you may be sure yethe City was in arms against their Emperor. And such was yethe Spirit of yethe Ethese Egyptians, that when Valens would have expelled Athanasius again, he durst not for fear of a new war. Now it seems to me a very great argument of yethe levity & corruptness of those times, first for some yethe Alexandrine Christians to behave themselves so tumultuously seditiously & then for others to celebrateing the Churches of that age to patronize & encourage such doings by celebrating all those for Martyrs & Confessors in being who were punished for it. And if it be suspected ytthat any of them suffered otherwise then deserve upon accusations for rebellion or other crimes, they Reader may inform theimselvfes otherwise out of StSaint Athanasius & Hilary. For Athanasius two or three years after speaking of these & yethe following sufferings of yethe Egyptian Bishops things & of some new stir in Egypt, (made (if I guess right) at yethe decree of some news about yethe Councel of Ariminum), writes thus: Be it so, saith he, ytthat against Athanasius & other Bishops wchwhich they have sent into banishment they could feign fals pretexts of crimes; yet what will they say to this new kind of evil. [And Hilary in his book against Constantius written in yethe last yeare of ytthat Emperors reign makes this mention of lets us know that those stirs at Alexandria were great enough for many to deserve to suffer: Adest mecūum Alexandria saith he tot concussa bellis, tantūum commotarūum expeditionum pavens tumultum. Brevius enim adversum Persam, quàm adversum eam armis certatūum est. Mutati Præfecti, electi duces, corrupti populi, commotæ legiones ne ab Athanasio Christus prædicaretur. And a little before he thus insinuates how yethe 11 ytthat Emperor endeavoured to avoid yethe name of a persecutor. Omnia sævissima, saith he, sine invidia gloriosarum mortium peragis, novo inauditoqꝫue ingenij triumpho de diabolo vincis & sine Martyrio persequeris. Plus crudelitati vestræ Nero, Deci Maximiane debemus &c. At tu omnium crudelitatum crudelissime damno majore in nos et venia minore desævis. Subrepis nomine blandientis, occidis specie religionis. – Scelessissime mortalium, omnia persecutionis mala ita temporas, ut excludas et in peccato veniam et in confessione Martyrium. Sed hæc ille pater tuus artifex humanarum mortium docuit, vincere sine contumacia, jugulare sine gladio, persequi sine infamia, odire sine suspicione, mentiri sine intelligentia, profiteri sine fide, blandiri sine bonitate, agere quid velis nec manifestare quæ velis] Hilar. cont Constant. If yethe Bishops were not banished but upon being arraigned & condemned for crimes, much less did the inferior people suffer directly for religion. I know some will be offended that I lay open these things, but in dobeing so they shew themselves to be men of such a spirit as I am describing, that is who are for colouring over & sanctifying crimes when they think it makes for their interest.