CENTURY IV.

CONCLUDED.

JOVIAN-VALENTINIAN AND VALENS.

FROM the obscurity of a private station, Jovian was raised by the army in Persia to the head of the Roman empire. This was a fatal blow to Paganism, for Jovian was a Christian, and we may hope and believe a sincere one. The account of Julian's death was received with horror and lamentation by the friends of the old religion, and the messenger who brought the account of it to a Pagan city, narrowly escaped being stoned to death. Without waiting for the orders they expected to be given, the priests closed their temples and fled, philosophers laid aside the garb they had lately worn, and Christians triumphed as Paganism fell.

I wish I could say that their humiliation under Julian's reign had made the Christians of a more meek and quiet spirit, but their conduct on their elevation did not, I fear, evince such. Jovian set them a better example; attached himself to Christianity, he knew that compulsion could not

make a Christian, and therefore he would not oblige any man to join company with the worshippers of God who did not give to Him the sincere homage of his soul. He forbad magic and incantations, but he allowed the Pagan temples to be opened; and gave the worshippers of the gods more real liberty than Julian had affected to bestow upon the worshippers of Christ.

Christianity was now again declared to be the established religion, and the figure of the cross, which Constantine had placed in the Roman standard, and Julian had removed, Jovian placed there once more. Athanasius, banished by Arian persecution from his bishopric of Alexandria, was immediately recalled, and Jovian solicited his advice and his prayers.

The church was distracted by schisms and heresies; and the leaders of each party looked to Jovian for encouragement; his answer to one of these was this, I hate disputes; I love and honor men of peace, and promoters of union.' To the followers of the Nicene creed he gave his cordial support, and I trust it was because they honoured and served Christ Jesus as "Lord and God."

The reign of Jovian was as short as it was useful and good. He had been proclaimed Emperor, in June of the year 363, and died in February, A. D. 364. He had not completed his journey from Persia to Constantinople. He had summoned Athanasius to meet him at Antioch, and was on his road from that city, to take possession

of the imperial dignity at Constantinople, when he was carried off by a sudden and rather mysterious death; being found dead in his bed, after having retired to rest in perfect health.

Christians lamented the death of their royal patron, and even Pagans did not hate his memory.

The Roman Empire, being again left without a master, Valentinian, the Christian officer whom I mentioned on a former occasion, was chosen to fill the lofty but unenviable station. The soldiers however, insisted on his choosing a colleague, and Valentinian associated with himself his brother Valens, a man of little judgment or abilities, but sincerely devoted to his brother, whose superior genius and authority, he always acknowledged..

But though in the civil government the brothers might act in concert, in the affairs of the church, they took different parts. Unacquainted, himself, with religion, Valens was easily induced to befriend the Arians in his part of the empire, and to persecute the orthodox, or true believers ; and under him this unchristian sect tyrannized over and persecuted the whole body of true Christians. Athanasius was for the fourth time banished from Alexandria, but so attached to him were the people there, that Valens, fearing an insurrection, was obliged to order him to return, and this firm defender of the truth died there in peace.

In the Church, during the remainder of this

century, there is little good to be seen, or told, and I am glad to pass it quickly over. We see one sect of professing Christians furiously fighting against, and persecuting, another; and it is seldom we get a glimpse of such a Church as Christ purchased by the sacrifice of himself. It is pleasing to turn from tales of strife and wrong, to mark the influence of the holy and pure religion of the gospel; but I must continue to relate facts as I find them.

The cruel persecution of orthodox Christians, by Valens, is attested by profane as well as by ecclesiastical historians; we never see the true Church of Christ a persecuting one, but we shall constantly find persecution wherever we meet with an unscriptural or corrupted one. The most barbarous act to which this zeal for Arianism prompted Valens, seems to have been the murder of the eighty ecclesiastics who were deputed to wait upon the Emperor at Nicomedia, to obtain, if possible, some redress for the oppressions of the Church of Antioch. Valens gave private orders that they should be put to death; but in order that this bloody deed should remain a secret, they were told that they were to be banished, and were embarked as for that purpose. When they were out at sea, the sailors set fire to the ship and made their escape in the boat. Was there ever a more revolting deed of wickedness!-but it was not performed in the silence or secrecy its wicked contrivers hoped; for the ship was driven by the wind, in flames as it was, into a harbour on the

coast of Bithynia, and there consumed with its. helpless cargo.

Some historians say, that Valens' fears for himself made him cruel to others; his life at all events seems not to have been a very happy one; and if the story of his death be true, he found the end to which he had doomed others.

He fell in an engagement with the Goths; but as his body could never be discovered, it was believed that he was burnt to death in a hut upon the field of battle, into which he had fled from the enemy, who, irritated by the resistance of some archers within, set fire to it, and consumed the Emperor in his place of refuge.

Valentinian had pursued a system of greater toleration; he allowed every man to follow his own religion, and though he made laws in favour of Christians, he allowed Pagans so much liberty that even a Pagan philosopher could not forbear contrasting the conduct of Valens towards Christians, with that of his brother towards Pagans. Valentinian was no friend to Arians, but as he seems to have possessed little of the spirit of a true Christian, his profession did more good to others than to himself. He died, according to our great Roman historian, in a paroxysm of fury, while addressing some ambassadors; his violent passion occasioned the rupture of a blood vessel, which terminated his reign of twelve years, A. D. 375.

And now I hope we come to a rare but beautiful