part of our character be not an exalted virtue And the paffive part, unmixed refignation, trust, and acquiefcence? In vain we wear the chriftian name, if we bear not the real, proper, character of chriftianity in our fouls. The appellation is nothing. Baptifm and the Supper are only means. The thing is the greatest virtue and the greatest piety. This is chriftian religion, whatever name we go by. Our piety must adore the one fupreme fpirit, the governor of all the worlds, our common parent, and preferve our judgment in harmony with all the caufes independent; fo as to pafs refignedly through this firft turbid, fickle period, without bewailings, or envyings, or murmurings, or complaints: And our virtue muft give us a god-like nature, by enabling us to act up to the strictest bonor and justice, and to be humble, pure, and useful. This appears from the infcription on the urn, to have been the religion of the Roman Emilia and unless our religion comes up to this at leaft, it is mere deception to imagine, we fhall have fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jefus Chrift; that is, that we fhall fhare in thofe bleffings and favors which come from the Father of the universe, through his favorire and well-beloved, our mediator. Surely, as we enjoy what the daughter of Lupus wanted, the light of revelation, we should strain every

I

every nerve to outdo her, and make the temper of our fouls be a tranfcript of all the moral excellencys of the Deity. For the honor of christianity, we ought to be holy in all manner of Converfation, and, in heart and life, be adorned with all the graces and virtues that become the dignity of our nature; and which the religion of the Son of God requires from us, to make us the peculiar glory of his Father.

But you will ask me, reader, I imagine, how I find the character I have given the Roman Emilia in the infcription on the urn? I answer, in the words tanti in Conftantiis. Cicero calls the Eupathies or well-feelings of the Greek Stoics Conftantia: And thefe Eupathies include all the fpecies of virtues and pietys. To have the Eupathies, was to have will, caution, and joy. By will, the Stoics meant rational defire; by caution, rational averfion; and by joy, rational exultation in the fovereign good: fo that by having the well-feelings or Eupathies of Zeno, which Tully phrases Tanti in Conftantiis, we pursue and avoid according to the rules of eternal reafon and the fitness of things; and we rejoice or delight only in the fupreme virtue. This is the beautiful philofophy of the Stoics.

You may likewife afk me, perhaps, why I tranflate Dis Manibus in the infcription on the altar, to the ghost of Julia Sorana; and Dis

O 2

ing of Dis

infcrip

tions.

The mean- Dis Manibus on the urn, to the infernal Gods? Manibus in I will tell you, friend. When the naine of the antient the deceased is in the nominative, then the Dii Manes in fuch infcriptions always fignify the ghost of the perfon. When the name is in the genitive cafe, Dii Manes, then fignify the infernal Gods; that is, as the wife understood it, the fupreme power which governed in the realms of Hades (a); or, according to others, the Genii, his minifters, who prefided, and under him ruled the subterranean regions. In this latter cafe, Dis Manibus was an offering and prayer to the Deity, or his agents, for the felicity of the

dead.

As to Lupus, the father of Æmilia, he was made Legatus Auguftalis by Severus, and commanded in the northern part of the Roman dominion in Great Britain. This made him well acquainted with the western islands. In all probability, he had a fummer refidence on Lewis. It was A. D. 196, that he was advanced to this government; and as Severus died. A. D. 210, it must be fometime between those two dates, that this Roman lady

(a) Seneca fays, the philofophers ufed the term Gods to exprefs the attributes of the Deity, and meant only the various exertions of divine power, wifdom, and goodness: It was the fame, when they used the names Apollo, Bacchus, etc.

No te, the Antients had no notion of fuch a Being as we call the devil, or devils.

de

departed this life. Her afhes were found in the urn, and in peace remain there.

Lewis.

As to Roman coyns, Mr. Bannerman found Roman feveral in Lewis of the bigger brafs, and coyns in three or four of filver. Among them are - fome of Antoninus Pius, and Severus; but more of Caraufius, Conftantine the Great, his fons Conftantine, Conftantius and Conftans, and of Julian: He had one of Conftantius Gallus, the brother of Julian, which, according to Savetus, are rarely found. This is filver, and is distinguished from that of Conftantius the emperor, by the beauty of Gallus's face, and a ftar before it. This Gallus, the brother of Julian, was put to death in the twentyeth year of his age, by the emperor Conftantius, his coufin-german; four years after he had been created Cæfar.

Of three coyns of Conftantine the Great, one engaged my attention more than the others, on account of the Labarum in it.

The Labarum, Reader, was a standard of Conftantine the Great, in which the monogram of Chrift was compofed of one character formed of the two Greek letters X and P, Ch and r, as in the margin, and was intended, as they fay, for an abridgment of XPICTOC, Chriftos: And this they farther tell us, was to represent a vision he faw in the air, when he was going to fight Maxentius, to wit, a flining cross, with this in0 3

scription

*

Remarks on Con

scription in Greek touto Nika, TÝTW vínu. Hac Vince. Eufebius in his life of Conftantine, tells the story at large, and seems to believe the truth of it: fo do many other fathers: And almost all the modern chriftians. But there are many objections to be made against the reality of this miracle. For my part, I take it to be a mere pious ftratagem of Conftantine, to animate his foldiers, and to engage the chriftians, a numerous body of them, on his fide. He could hardly fail of fuccefs against Maxentius, his competitor, if all the chriftians of the empire, declared for him. They were then the majority, and I cannot help thinking, from the circumstances of Conftantine's life, that he was a mere political chriftian. The apologists may found his praises for ever: but in facts he was a very bad man.

As to his Labarum, had there been a miftantine's racle of a cross, and the words In hoc vince standard, under it, it is ftrange that Conftantine did not Labarum, order these words to be put into his standard, as they are declared to be a part of the vifion:

called the

upon one

of his

coyns.

and that in boc figno, etc. did not appear on any standard or coyn, till the reign of Conftantius, the fecond fon of Conftantine. Inftead of the words, Conftantine placed a crown of gold and jewels in his ftandard. The appearance in the fky had the words, as Eufebius tells us; the Labarum was made in