CHAPTER I

THE PEACE WHICH WAS GRANTED US BY DIVINE INTERPOSITION

THANKS be to God, the omnipotent and universal Sovereign, thanks also to the Saviour and Redeemer of our souls, Jesus Christ, through whom we pray that peace will be preserved to us at all times, firm and unshaken by any temporal molestation from without, and troubles from the mind within. Attended by your prayers, O most holy Paulinus, whilst we add this tenth book to the preceding ones of our Ecclesiastical History, we shall dedicate this to You, announcing you as the seal of the whole work. Justly shall we here subjoin a perfect number, a complete discourse and panegyric on the renovation of the churches yielding to the Spirit of God, inviting us in the following manner: “Sing to the Lord a new song, because he hath done wonderful works. His right hand hath saved him, and his holy right arm. The Lord hath made known his salvation, his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen.” Thus, then, as the Scriptures enjoin upon us to sing a new song, we shall accordingly show that after those dreadful and gloomy spectacles and events, we have been privileged to see such things, and to celebrate such things as many of the really pious and martyrs of God before us ardently craved to see, and did not see them, and to hear, and did not hear them. They, indeed, hastening on their course, obtained “what was far, better;” being transferred to the heavens themselves, and to the paradise of celestial pleasures. But we, freely acknowledging this state of things in our day as better than what we could expect, have been beyond measure astonished at the magnitude of the grace manifested by the Author of our mercies, and justly do we admire and adore him with all the powers of our mind, and bear witness to the truth of those declarations recorded, where it is said, “Come hither and behold the works of God, the wonders that he hath done upon the earth; he removeth wars until the ends of the earth, he breaketh the bow and snappeth the spear asunder, and burneth the shields in fire.” Rejoicing in these things, fulfilled in our day, we shall pursue the tenor of our history. All the race of the enemies of God were destroyed in the manner we have stated, and were thus suddenly swept away from the sight of men, as the divine Word again declares: “I saw the wicked lifted up and exalted like cedars of Lebanon, and I passed by, and lo, he was not; and I sought, and his place was not found.” And now a bright and splendid day, with no overshadowing cloud, irradiated the churches in the whole world with its celestial light; neither was there any indisposition, even on the part of those who were strangers to our faith, to enjoy with us the same blessings, or of sharing at least in the overflowings of these as they were provided from God.