Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	army_n	certain_a	great_a	1,264	5	2.8186	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58927	A Seasonable discourse shewing the unreasonableness and mischeifs [sic] of impositions in matters of religion recommended to serious consideration / by a learned pen.	Learned pen.	1687 (1687)	Wing S2229; ESTC R34063	41,323	46

Iulian nor the Gentleness of Iovianus the Christian could allay or mitigate by their Afflictions or Prosperity The Divine Nemesis executed Justice upon them by one anothers hand And so hainous a Crime as for a Christian a Bishop to Persecute stood yet in need as the only equal and exemplary Punishment of being reveng'd with a Persecution by Christians by Bishops And whosoever shall seriously consider all along the Successions of the Emperors can never have taken that satisfaction in the most judicious Representations of the Scene which he may in this worthy Speculation of the great Order and admirable conduct of wise Providence through the whole contexture of these Exterior seeming Accidents relating to the Ecclesiasticals of Christianity For to Iovianus succeeded Valentinian who in a short time took his Brother Valens to be his Companion in the Empire These two Brothers did as the Historian observes Socr. l. 14. c. 1. alike and equally take care at the beginning for the advantage and government of the State but very much disagreed though both Christians in matters of Religion Valetinianus the Elder being an Orthodox but Valens an Arrian and they used a different Method toward the Christians For Valentinian who chose the western part of the Empire and left the East to his Brother as he embraced those of his own Creed so yet he did not in the least molest the Arrians But Valens not only labor'd to increase the number of the Arrians but afflicted those of the contrary Opinion with grievous Punishments And both of 'm especially Valens had Bishops for their purpose The particulars of that heavy Persecution under Valens any one may further satisfie himself of in the Writers of those times And yet it is observable that within a little space while he pursued the Orthodox Bishops he gave Liberty to the Novatians who were of the same Creed but separated from them as I have said upon Discipline c. and caused their Churches which for a while were shut up to be opened again at Constantinople To be short Valens who out-lived his Brother that died of a natural Death himself in a Battel against the Goths could not escape neither the fate of a Christian Persecutor For the Goths having made application to him he saith Socrates not well fore-seeing the Consequence admitted them to Inhabit in certain places of Thracia pleasing himself that he should by that means always have an Army ready at hand against whatsoever Enemies and that those Foreign Guards would strike them with a greater Terror more by far than the Militia of his Subjects And so slighting the ancient Veterane Militia which used to consist of Bodies of Men raised proportionably in every Province and were stout Fellows that would Fight Manfully instead of them he levied Money rating the Country at so much for every Souldier But these new Inmates of the Emperors soon grew Troublesom as is customary and not only infested the Natives in Thracia but Plunder'd even the Suburbs of Constantinople there being no Armed Force to repress them Hereupon the whole People of the City cried out at a publick Spectacle where Valens was present neglecting this matter Give us Arms and we will manage this War our selves This extreamly provok'd him so that he forthwith made an Expedition against the Goths But Threatned the Citizens if he return'd in safety to be Reveng'd on them both for those Contumelies and for what under the Tyrant Procopius they had committed against the Empire and that he would Raze to the Ground and Plow up the City Yet before his departure out of the fear of the Foraign Enemy he totally ceas'd from persecuting the Orthodox in Constantinople But he was kill'd in the Fight or Flying into a Village that the Goths had set on fire he was burnt to ashes to the great grief of his Bishops who had he been Victorious might have revived the Persecution Such was the end of his Impetuous Reign and rash Counsels both as to his Government of State in matters of Peace and War and his Manage of the Church by Persecution His death brings me to the Succession of Theodosius the Great than whom no Christian Emperor did more make it his business to Nurse up the Church and to Lull the Bishops to keep the House in quiet But neither was it in his power to still their Bawling and Scratching one another as far as their Nails which were yet more tender but afterwards grew like Tallons would give them leave I shall not further vex the History or the Reader in recounting the particulars taking no delight neither my self in so uncomfortable Relations or to reflect beyond what is necessary upon the Wolfishness of those which then seemed and ought to have been the Christian Pastors but went on scattering their Flocks if not devouring and the Shepherds smiting one another In his Reign the second General Council was called that of Constantinople and the Creed was there made which took its name from the place The rest of their business any one that is further curious may observe in the Writers But I shall close this with a short touch concerning Gregory Nazianzen then living than whom also the Christian Church had not in those times and I question whether in any succeeding a Bishop that was more a Christian more a Getleman better appointed in all sorts of Learning requisite seasoned under Iulian's Persecution and exemplary to the highest pitch of true Religion and Practical Piety The eminence of these Vertues and in special of his Humility the lowliest but the highest of all Christian Qualifications raised him under Theodosius from the Parish-like Bishoprick of Nazianzum to that of Constantinople where he fill'd his place in that Council But having taken notice in what manner things were carried in that as they had been in former Councils and that some of the Bishops muttered at his promotion he of his own mind resigned that great Bishoprick whis was never of his desire or seeking and though so highly seated in the Emperors Reverence and Favor so acceptable to the People and generally to the Clergy whose unequal Abilities could not pretend or justifie an envy against him retired back for more content to a Solitary Life to his little Nazianzum And from thence he writes that Letter to his Friend Procopius wherein p. 418. upon his most recollected and serious reflexion on what had faln within his observation he useth these remarkable words I have resolved with my self if I may tell you the Naked Truth never more to come into any Assembly of Bishops for I never saw a good and happy end of any Council but which rather increased than remedied the mischiefs For their obstinate Contentions and Ambition are unexpressible It would require too great a Volume to deduce from the death of Theodosius the particulars that happened in the succeeding Reigns about this matter But the Reader may reckon that it was as stated a Quarrel betwixt the

Christians and can prove it that they commit any thing against the State that then he punish them according to the crime but if any man accuse them meerly for calumny and vexation as Christians then i'faith let him suffer for 't and take you care that he feel the smart of it Antoninus Pius writ his Edict very remarkable if there were place to recite it to the States of Asia Assembled at Ephesus wherein he takes notice of his Fathers command that unless the Christians were found to act any thing against the Roman Empire they should not be molested and then commands that if any man thereafter shall continue to trouble them tanquam tales as Christians for their Worship in that case he that is the Informer should be exposed to punishment but the Accused should be free and discharged I could not but observe that among other things in this Edict where he is speaking It is desirable to them that they may appear being accused more willing to die for their God than to live He adds It would not be amiss to admonish you concerning the Earth-quakes which have and do now happen that when you are afflicted at them you would compare our affairs with theirs They are thereby so much the more incouraged to a confidence and reliance upon God but you all the while go on in your ignorance and neglect both other gods and the Religion towards the immortal and banish and persecute them unto death Which words of that Emperors fall in so naturally with what it seems was a common observation about Earth-quakes that I cannot but to that purpose take further notice how also Gregory Nazianzen in Or. 2. contra Gentiles tells besides the breakings in of the Sea in several places and many fires that happened of the Earth-quakes in particular which he reckons as Symptoms of Iulian's Persecution And to this I may add Socr. l. 3. c. 10 who in the Reign of Valens that notorious Christian Persecutor saith at the same time there was an Earth-quake in Bithynia which turned the City of Nice that same in which the general Council was held under Constantine and a little after there was another But although these so happened the minds of Valens and of Eudoxius the Bishop of the Arrians were not all stirred up unto Piety and a right opinion of Religion For nevertheless they ceased not made no end of persecuting those who in their Creed dissented from them Those Earth-quakes seemed to be certain indications of tumults in the Church All which put together could not but make me reflect upon the late Earth-quakes great by how much more unusual here in England thorow so many Counties two years since at the same time when the Clergy some of them were so busie in their Cabals to promote this I would give it a modester name than Persecution which is now on foot against the Dissenters at so unseasonable a time and upon no occasion administred by them that those who comprehend the reasons yet cannot but wonder at the wisdom of it Yet I am not neither one of the most credulous nickers or appliers of natural events to human transanctions But neither am I so secure as the Learned Dr. Spencer nor can walk along the world without having some eye to the conjunctures of God's admirable Providence Neither was Marcus Aurelius that I may return to my matter negligent as to the particular But he observing as Antonnius had the Earth-quakes that in an expedition against the Germans and Sarmatians his Army being in despair almost for want of water the Melitine afterwards from the event called the Thundring Legion which consisted of Christians kneel'd down in the very heat of their thirst and fight praying for rain which posture the Enemies wondring at immediately there brake out such a thundring and lightning as together with the Christian valour routed the adverse Army but so much rain fell therewith as refreshed Aurelius his Forces that were at the last gasp for thirst He thence forward commanded by his Letters That upon pain of death none should inform against the Christians as Tertullian in his Apology for the Christians witnesses But who would have believed that even Commodus so great a Tyrant otherwise should have been so favourable as to make a Law That the Informers against Christians should be punished with death Yet he did and the Informer against Apollonius was by it executed Much less could a man have thought that that prodigy of cruelty Maximine and who exercised it so severely upon the Christians should as he did being struck with God's hand publish when it was too late Edict after Edict in great favour of the Christians But above all nothing could have been less expected than that after those Heathen Emperors the first Christian Constantine should have been seduced by the Bishops to be after them the first occasion of Persecution so contrary to his own excellent inclination 'T was then that he spake his own mind when he said Eus. de vitâ Const. 69. You ought to retain within the bounds of your private thoughts of those things which you cunningly and subtly seek out concerning most frivolous questions And then much plainer c. 67. where he saith so wisely You are not ignorant that the Philosophers all of them do agree in the profession of the same Discipline but do oftentimes differ in some part of the Opinions that they dogmatize in But yet although they do dissent about the Discipline that each several Sect observeth they nevertheless reconcile themselves again for the sake of that common Profession to which they have concurred But again compulsion in Religious matters so much every where that it is needless to insert one passage And he being of this disposition and universally famous for his care and countenance of the Christian Religion Eusebius saith these words While the People of God did glory and heighten it self in the doing of good things and all fear from without was taken away and the Church was fortifi'd as I may say on all sides by a peaceable and illustrious tranquility then Envy lying in wait against our prosperity craftily crept in and began first to dance in the midst of the company of Bishops so goes on telling the History of Alexander and Arrius I have been before large enough in that relation wherein appeared that contrary to that great Emperours pious intention whereas Envy began to dance among the Bishops first the good Constantine brought them the Fiddles But it appear'd likewise how soon he was weary of the Ball and toward his latter end as Princes often do upon too late experience would have repressed all and returned to his natural temper Of the other Christian Emperours I likewise discoursed omitting that I might insert it in this place how the great Heathen Philosopher Themistius in his Consolar Oration celebrated Iovianus for having given that toleration in Christien Religion and thereby defeated the flattering Bishops which sort of men