Section 441
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410 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. mighty council, the great Captain and Leader of the armies of God, after a sufficient exercise which the greatest of the sol diers of his kingdom had exhibited in their patience and perse verance, again suddenly appeared, and destroying what was hostile, and annihilating his foes, so that they scarcely appeared to have had a name. But those that were his friends and of his household, he advanced not only to glory with all men, but now also, with celestial powers, the sun, the moon, and the stars, the whole heavens and the world.* So that now what never happened before, the supreme sovereigns, sensible of the honour conferred upon them by him, now spit upon the faces of idols, trample upon the unhallowed rites of daemons, ridicule the ancient delusion of their ancestors, and acknowledge only the one and true God, the common benefactor of all and of themselves. They also confess Christ the Son of God, as the universal king of all, and proclaim him the Saviour in their edicts, inscribing his righteous deeds and his victories over the impious with royal characters, on indelible records, and in the midst of that city which holds the sway over the earth. So that our Saviour Jesus Christ, is the only one ever acknowledged, by the supreme rulers of the earth, not as a common king among men, but worshipped as the true Son of God, and God himself.f And all this justly too. For who of kings at any time has ever advanced to such a height of excellence, as to fill the ears and the tongues of all men with his own name ? What king ever ordained laws so pious and wise, and extended them so as to be read by all men from the ends of the earth to its remotest bor ders? Who has ever abrogated the fierce and barbarous cus toms of fierce and barbarous nations, by his mild and most beneficent laws ? Who is there, when assailed by all for whole ages, that has ever exhibited a virtue far surpassing man, so as to rise and flourish again from day to day, throughout the whole world ? Who is there that has ever established a nation never * These expressions, " celestial powers, sun, moon, and stars," may be regarded as oriental hyperbole, for the " powers that be." What immediately follows, shows that Eusebius means the reigning emperors. j-The original here is auroSiov, God himself, or very God.