Section 418
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 387 to the metropolis of all religion, entreating some remedy and re lief. Which salutary mind it is evident the immortal gods have imparted to you on account of your faith and piety. Where fore, that supreme and mighty Jove, he who presides over your most illustrious city, who has rescued your country's gods, and wives, and children, and houses, and homes, from every destruc tive pest, has infused into you the happy counsel, showing and proving to you how excellent, and noble, and profitable it is to observe the worship and the sacred rites of the immortal gods with the becoming reverence. For who can be so bereft of un derstanding, and all sense, as not to perceive, that it has happen ed by the gracious benevolence of the gods, that neither the earth has refused the seed committed to it, and disappointed the hope of the husbandmen, with vain expectation ; nor the pre sence of impious war has been inevitably fixed on earth, and under a corrupt atmosphere wasting bodies have been dragged and weighed down to death; nor indeed, the ocean swelling and rising on high, with the raging blasts of intemperate storms, nor unexpected tempests have burst and spread destruction around. Moreover, that neither the parent and nurturing earth has risen in dreadful tremblings, from its lowest depths, nor the superincumbent hills and mountains have sunk into its opening jaws. All which calamities, and worse than these, have, a^ we all know, frequently occurred. And all this in consequence of the destructive error of this hollow delusion of those lawless men, when it began to take root in their minds, and we may say has covered nearly all the world with infamy." A little after, he superadds the following : " Let them look at the flourishing crops in the wide extended fields waving with the loaded ears, and the meadows glittering with plants and flowers, from the seasonable showers, and the temperature of the air restored to a mild and placid state. Then let all rejoice, that by your piety, and sacrifices, and veneration of the gods, the divinity of omnipotent and mighty Mars has been propitiated, and hence let them enjoy tranquillity and solid peace, be filled "with pleasure and joy ; and as many as have abandoned that blind delusion and perplexing error, whoever 35*