A Church History (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 60 Ambroses funeral oration on Valentinian. the heavenly sacraments; let us follow the soul of our grandchild in Christ with our oblations. I will not sprinkle his grave with flowers, but will pour on his soul the fragrance of Christ. Let others scatter lilies 8 from full baskets; our Lily is Christ. I will join together the two brothers in one commemoration before Him, and thus hallow his remains. Both of them are happy, if my prayers are of any avail;9 no day, no night shall pass without my remembrance of them in prayer, and in the holy oblations. O Gratian and Valentinian, both lovely and dear, how near have ye been brought together by death; pleasant ye were in your lives, and in death are not divided (2 Sam. i. 23). O Lord, separate not me after death from those who were most dear to me in life; may I be ever with them hereafter, who were only mine for a short time here. O most mighty God, I pray Thee to raise these dear youths by a speedy resurrection to eternal life." The sudden death of Valentinian, and the growing power of the usurper Eugenius, supported by Arbogastes, aroused the courage of Theodosius, who made preparations for a second campaign in Italy.1 The Egyptian Anchorite John, to whom he sent an inquiry, assured him, it is said, of success; but foretold that the struggle would be sanguinary, and even fatal to himself.2 Christianity and Heathenism now met one another 8 One of the allusions to Virgil which abound in Ambrose's works. See Jandn. vi. 884. 9 On oblations and prayers for the faithful departed, which in the fourth century had become common in the Church, see above, vol. ii. 279, 286. More will be said on this subject below, in chapter vii. 1 Soz. iv. 55. Rufin. xi. 31. s Soz. vii. 24. Rufin. xi. 32. Theodoret, v. 24. Conflict ...