Thus far of yethe almost incredible difference of yethe Barbarians & Romans in those principal Christian virtues, Charity, Abstinence from pleasures & Chastity. In yethe next place we will compare them in respect of persecuting, & here if we consider persecution according to yethe notion of which persecutors coframe to colour over their persecuting, wchwhich is that yethe true Church may punish men by yethe temporary sword for error in Faith: it must be granted ytthat if yethe Barbarians were yethe true Church then yethe Homousians during Theodosius's reign & afterwards were very great persecutors & yethe Barbarians none at all. But this is but to return their own argument upon those who are so blind & wicked as to condemn applaud that for piety in them selves wchwhich they condemn cry out against in others for wickedness. We are not to measure Persecution by yethe rule of Persecutors. The Magistrate may punish or cut off any for their vices or evil actions but not professors of Christianity for erronious opinions, least they pluck up yethe Wheat wthwith yethe Tares. The Church may reprove or excommunicate these but she has as little power to authority to guide yethe arm of yethe Magistrate as to handle his sword: for this is but to make her self yethe judge & him but yethe executioner. In short Whatsoever wears sheeps Shee may excommunicate fbut not force into communion. Christ never instituted that a means of her propagation & preservation. If we would have them once with us we must must not use yethe proper means to beget faith in them, & not urge them by violence to do what is contrary to their perswasion, seing whatsoever is not of faith is sin.Rom 14.23 By violence a Church may increase her numbers but ever allays & debases her self with impure mixtures, force prevailing with none but Hypocrites. And this I take to be yethe chief reason of yethe great wickedness of yethe Romans wchwhich ensued Theodosius's reign, his persecution squeezing out yethe consciencious & filling yethe persecuting church only with yethe Hipocrytical part of yethe Empire. Every Persecutor is a Wolf Matth 10.16, 17, & every Christian that preaches it is one of yethe fals Prophets called Wolfs in sheeps cloathing Math 7. These are yethe Christians of whom he said Then shall many be offended & shall betray one another & shall hate one another Matth 24. And to all such belongs that reprehension. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Luke 9. In short: whatsoever wears sheeps cloathing if it be as ravenous as a wolf it betrays it self by it's ravenousness to be no sheep. The Wolves may worry yethe sheep but Christ never taught yethe sheep to worry yethe wolves. By their ravenousness we are to know them & not to excuse their ravenousness by pretending they are sheep. For 'tis our Saviour's rule speaking of these wolfs, to judge yethe tree by yethe fruit & not yethe fruit by the tree. Matth. 7.

Hence then we have another character of a true Church. For you have already heard how vehement persecutors yethe Homoüsians were in Theodosius's reign & afterwar besides what they did afterwards; but yethe Barbarians were so free from it that Salvian 40 years after their breaking into the Empire2 Empire wrote thus of yethe general state of yethe west. Dicit fortè aliquis, non id esse nunc temporis ut pro Christo nos perferamus quæ tunc Apostoli pertulerunt. Verum est. Non enim sunt Principes Pagani, non Tyranni persecutores, non sanguis sanctorum funditur, nec fides supplicijs comprobatur – – – – – et ideo cùm et Principes Christiani sint, & Persecutio nulla sit & religio non inquietetur, qui ad probandum fidem experimentis durioribus non compellimus inferioribus saltem officijs domino plus placere debemus. Salv. lib. 3 De Gub. Dei. This was yethe generall moderation of yethe Babrbarians for yethe first 40 years of their conquests: wchwhich was yethe more admirable in that they absteined from pers retaliliatingretaliating persecution on those that had so highly provoked them by it. They shewed themselves Christians in absteining from persecuting: It was more for Conqueredrs not to persecute a conquered people, but not to retaliate persecution on their conquered persecutors was a high instance of Christian Principles.

This is enough to shew the temper of their religion at yethe f their first breaking into yethe Empire: though if we should prosecute it to later times when their religion abated began more & more to decay, we should find them generally less persecutors then reigning Christians used to be in any ages since. The aa. Procop. de Bel. Got. Ostrogoths never persecuted. (Procop. de de Bel. Got. l ) The Visigoths are not accused for it till yethe reign of Evarix & he did no more then to bb Consule Sidonij Epist 6. lib. 7, eodem tempore scriptam. Nam fabulas Monachorum de hujus æque ac aliorum persecutionibus planè contexuit Gregorius Turonensis ut mihi videtur. make a law that at yethe death of each of their Priests yethe Church where that Priest officiated, should be taken from them no successors should be created to their Bishops dying: wchwhich Law Law together wthwith yethe Persecution ceased wthwith his reign. The Vandals I reccon began not to persecute till Hunneric A C. 484. For Geiseric was rather a Tyrant then a persecutor being as cruel to those of his own religion as to others, & making no Law against yethe Homousian Religion as he must have done to raise a national persecution. But whatever yethe later times were when yethe Barbarians began to degenerate & imitate yethe Romans, its enough as I said to shew yethe temper of their Religion while influenced by those Roman Christians whom yethe Theodosian persecution had made fly to them, that at their first Conquests & for 40 years after, besides some time after Salvian wrote they persecuted not at all, & afterwards not so much as yethe Romans: no not yethe Vandals if acquitted from yethe forgeries of yethe Moncks whose custome it has ever been to cry up Malefactors of their own party for Martyrs.

We have seen out of Salvian how much the Barbarians transcended yethe Romans in their duty towards man: let us now see out of yethe same Salvian how much they differed in piety & devotion towards God. Dicit Deus – – –