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' in that they had not been pleased to cut him off by Sur'prise, 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 Vision, like that of Marcus Brutus, that first threatened him in Gaul, and afterwards appeared to him in Persia, just before his Death. These Words, that fome make him say, when he felt himself wounded, Thou hast overcome, Naza

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rene; or, as others, 'Content thyself, Nazarene,' would hardly have been omitted, had they been believed by my Witnesses, who, being present in the Army, have fet down even the least Motions and Words of his latter End, nơ more than certain other strange Things that are recorded of him.

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And, to return to my Subject, ' He long nourished, says Marcellinus, Paganism in his Heart;

but, all his Army being Christians, he durst ' not own it: But, in the End, seeing him• felf strong enough to dare to discover him' self, he caused the Temples of the Gods to • be thrown open, and did his utmost to set

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on foot Idolatry. The better to effect this,

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

general Tolera

tion.

having, at Constantinople, found the People • disunited, and also the Prelates of the Church divided

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amongst themselves, and having convened them all

• before him, he gravely and earnestly admonished them to calm those civil Dissensions; and that every one might freely, and without Fear, follow his own Religion: 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

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re-uniting, and consequently fortifying themselves a

VOL. II.

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► Ammian. Marcell. lib. xx. c. 5.

• Idem, lib. XXV. C. 2.

Vicifti, Galilæe. Theodoret. Hift. Ecclef. lib. iii. c. 20,

• Idem, lib. xxi. c. 2.

1. Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxii. c. 3.

gainft 'gainst him by their unanimous Intelligence and Con'cord; having experienced, by the Cruelty of some • Christians, that there is no Beast in the World so much ⚫ to be feared by Man, as Man.'

Reflections on this Policy, with regard to the Liberty

These are very near his Words, wherein this is very worthy of Confideration, that the Emperor Julian made Ufe of the same Receipt of Liberty of Confcience, to inflame the civil Difsensions, that our Kings have now done to extinguish them: So that it may be faid, on one fide, That to give the People the Reins ' to entertain every Man his own Opinion

of Conscience granted, in Montaigne's Time, to the Proteftants.

' is to scatter and sow Division, and, as it were, to lend a Hand to augment it, there being no ' Barrier nor Correction of Law to stop and hinder its • Career; but, on the other fide, a Man may also say, • 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 sharper 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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That we Taste nothing Pure.

O weak is our Condition, that Things cannot fall into our Ufe in their natural Simplicity and Purity; There is no the Elements that we enjoy, are changed, Conveniency even Metals themselves; and Gold must be without its In- debased, by some Alloy, to fit it for our convenience. Service. Neither has Virtue, so simple as that which Arifto, Pyrrbo, and also the Stoics have made the principal End of Life; nor the Cyrenaic and Ariftippic Pleasure been useful to it without a Mixture. Of the Pleafure

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

-medio de fonte leporum,

Surgit amari aliquid, quod in ipfis floribus angat 8.

i. e.

Something that's Bitter will arife,

Even amidst our Jollities.

Our extremest Pleasure has fome Air of groaning and complaining in it: Would you not say, 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, Softness, Feebleness, Faintness, Morbidezza, a great Testimony of their Confanguinity and Consubstantiality: Profound Joy has more of Severity than Gaiety in it: The extremest and fullest Contentment, more of the Sedate than of the Merry. Ipsa felicitas, se nifi temperat, premit: Even Felicity, unless it moderate itself, ' oppreffeth.' Pleasure preys upon us, according to the old Greek Verse, which says, 'That the Gods fell us all ' the Good they give us; that is to say, that they give us nothing Pure and Perfect, and which we do not purchase but at the Price of fome Evil.

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Labour and Pleasure, very unlike in Nature, associate, nevertheless, by I know not what natural Pain and Plea Conjunction. Socrates says, • That fome fure joined at 'God tried to mix in one Mass, and to con- one End, as ap • found Pain and Pleasure, but, not being pears from Me• able to do it, he bethought him, at least, lancholy.

' to couple them by the Tail.' Metrodorus faid, 'That ' in Sorrow there is fome Mixture of Pleasure.' I know not, whether or no he intended any Thing else by that Saying: But, for my Part, I am of Opinion, that there is Design, Confent, and Complacency in giving a Man's

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Πωλῶσιν ἡμῖν πάνια ταγαθὰ Θεοί.

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Epicharmus apud Xenophon. lib. xi. ἀπομνημονευμ

* In Plato's Dialogue, intitled Phadon, p. 376.

Metrodorus, Senec. Ep. 99.

Self

Self up to Melancholy; I say, that, besides Ambition, which may also have a Stroke in the Business, there is some Shadow of Delight and Delicacy, which smiles upon, and flatters us, even in the very Lap of Melancholy. Are there not fome Complexions that feed upon it ?

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-eft quædam flere voluptas m.

i. e.

A certain kind of Pleasure 'tis to Weep.

And one Attalus, in Seneca, says, 'That the Memory of

our deceased Friends is as grateful to us, as the Bitter

ness in the Wine, very old, is to the Palate ",

Minister vetulis puer Falerni
Ingere mi calices amariores.

i. e.

Thou, Boy, that fill'st the old Falernian Wine,
The bitt'rest pour into the Bowl that's mine.

• and as Apples that have a sweet Tartness.' Nature discovers this Confufion to us. Painters hold, 'That • the fame Motions and Screwings of the Face that ferve • for Weeping, ferve for Laughter too; and, indeed, before the one or the other be finished, do but observe the Painter's Conduct, and you will be in Doubt to which of the two the Design does tend: And the Extremity of Laughter is mixed with Tears: Nullum fine auctoramento malum eft : No Evil is without its Compensation.'

When I imagine Man furrounded with all the Conveniences that are to be defired, let us put the Cafe, that all his Members were always feized with a Pleasure like that of Generation in its

Conftant and univerfal PleaJure not to be borne by Man. most excessive Height; I fancy him melting under the Weight of his Delight, and fee him utterly unable to fupport so Pure, fo Continual, and so Universal a Pleasure: Indeed he is running away whilst he is there, and naturally makes Haste to escape, as from a Place

m Ovid. Trift. El. 3. v. 37. n Senec. Epift. 63. Epift. 25. v. 1, 2.

P Senec. Epift. 69.

where

• Catul. 3

where he cannot stand firm, and where he is afraid of finking.

When I religiously confefs myself, I find, that the best good Quality I have has in it fome Tincture Moral Good of Vice; and am afraid, that Plato, in his and Evil conpurest Virtue (I who am as fincere and per- founded in fect a Lover of him, and of the Virtues of Man. that Stamp, as any other whatever) if he laid his Ear close to himself, (and he did fo) he would have heard some jarring Sound of human Mixture; but so obfcure as only to be perceived by himself: Man is wholly and throughout but a patched and motly Composition.

Even the Laws of Justice themselves cannot fubfift without some Mixture of Injustice: Info- The justest much that Plato says, 'They undertake to Laws have

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cut off the Hydra's Head, who pretend Some Mixture • to purge the Laws, of all Inconvenience. of Injustice. Omne magnum exemplum habet aliquid ex iniquo, quod contra fingulos utilitate publicâ rependitur : Every great Example ' of Justice has in it fome Mixture of Injustice, which ' recompenfes the Wrong done to particular Men, by its ' public Utility,' says Tacitus.

Common Understanding more proper for Affairs than what is most refined.

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It is likewise true, that for the Business of Life, and the Service of public Commerce, there may be fome Excesses in the Purity and Perspicacity of our Mind; that penetrating Light has too much of Subtilty and Curiofity: It must be a little stupified and blunted, to be rendered more obedient to Example and Practice; and a little veiled and obfcured, to bear the better Proportion to this dark and terrestrial Life: And yet common and less speculative Souls are found to be more proper, and more fuccessful in the Management of Affairs; and the elevated and exquifite Opinions of Philosophy are unfit for Business: This acute Vivacity of the Mind, and the fupple and restless Volubility of it, disturb our Negociations: We are to manage human Enterprises more fuperficially and roughly, and leave a great Part to the Prerogatives of Fortune: It is not neceffary

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9 Tacit. Annal, lib. xiv.

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