them to reside in cities. Let the reader see here the philosophizing heathen and the simple Christian in contrast, and judge which religion is human and which is divine. On some occasions Julian would defile the fountains with Gentile sacrifices, and sprinkle the food brought to market with hallowed water. Christians knew their privilege from St. Paul's well-known determination of the case, yet they groaned under the indignity. Juventinus, and Maximus, two officers of his guard, expostulated with great warmth against these proceedings, and so provoked his resentment, that he punished them capitally, though, with that caution which never forsook him, he declared, that he put them to death not as Christians, but as undutiful subjects. Jupiter had in no age possessed so zealous a devotee as this prince, who lived at the close of his religious dominion over mankind. The Decius's and the Galerius's, compared with Julian, were mere savages. It is certain, that no ingenuity could have contrived measures more dexterously. Disgrace, poverty, contempt, a moderate degree of severity, checked and disciplined by dissimulation, and every method of undermining the human spirit, were incessantly labouring to subvert Christianity. One sees not how the scheme could have failed, had Providence permitted this prudent and active genius to have proceeded many years in this course: but what a worm is man, when he sets himself to oppose his Maker! CENT. IV. CHAP. IX. THE CHURCH UNDER JULIAN. AFTER having taken a view of various circumstances, all tending to illustrate the state of Christendom, it is time to return to the order of our history from the death of Constantius. The people of God, CHAP. IX. with light very faint, were in a low state (torn within by the Arian controversy) and scandalized by the madness of the Donatists. The faithful sons and pastors of the church were by no means simple and intelligent in divine things, and were menaced even with destruction by a persecution conducted with as much malice and vigour as any of the foregoing, and with far greater dexterity. The Christian bishops, however, took advantage of Julian's affected moderation to return to their sees. Meletius came back to Antioch; Lucifer of Cagliari, and Eusebius of Vercellæ, returned to their churches; but Athanasius remained still in the desert, because of the power of George at Alexandria. Julian wrote a letter to Photinus the heretic, and commended his zeal against the divinity of Jesus Christ. He ordered Eusebius of Cyzicus, under severe penalties, to rebuild the church of the Novatians, which he had destroyed in the time of Constantius; a punishment probably just, though like every thing else done by Julian concerning the Christian religion, contrived by him with malignant intentions. He protected the Donatists in Africa, and defended them against the general church and against one another. The prohibition of human learning decreed by this emperor, induced Apollinarius, the father and the son, to invent something which might stand as a substitute for the loss. The father, a grammarian, wrote in heroics the sacred history, and imitated the Greek tragedians, taking his subjects out of the Scripture. The son, a philosopher, wrote in defence of the Gospel in the form of dialogues, like Plato. Little of these works has come down to us; the prohibition ceasing with the death of Julian, Christian scholars returned to their former studies, and we cannot judge how far the writings of the Apollinarii merited the rank of Classics. Ecebolius, a famous sophist at Constantinople, yielded to the caresses of Julian, and returned to paganism. After * Fleury, XV. 4. the emperor's death he desired to be received again into the church, and prostrating himself at the door of the church, said, "Tread me under foot like salt that hath lost its savour." I know no more of the man to enable me to form a just estimate of his character. We may be convinced, however, that a considerable number of true Christians were yet in the church, amidst all its corruptions, by this important fact, that the greatest part of public teachers and professors of Christianity chose to quit their chairs, rather than to forsake their religion. Proeresius ought to be distinguished. Julian had studied under him at Athens, and from a kindness to his master, excepted him out of the general law. Yet he refused to be thus singled out from his brethren, and retired. Another of them was Victorinus, an African, converted from idolatry in his old age. The manner of his conversion is finely told by Augustine, and I shall have occasion to give it to the reader hereafter. His rhetorical school was given up on occasion of Julian's edict, and he wrote with zeal in defence of divine truth, though his abilities were inadequate to the work, because he applied himself to the study of Scripture too late in life. Cæsarius, the brother of the famous Gregory Nazianzen, continued to practise physic at court, as he had done in the former reign. His brother wrote to him, how grievous a thing it was to himself and to their aged father (the bishop of Nazianzum in Cappadocia) that he should continue in the court of an infidel, seeking worldly greatness. "Our mother," says he, "could not endure the account. Such the weakness of her sex, and such the fervour of her piety, we are obliged to conceal the truth from her. Cæsarius profited by these rebukes; not all the artifices of Julian could move him. "I am a Christian," says he, "and must continue so." Cæsarius quitted the court, and retired to his pious father, who was as much delighted with his son's CHAP. conduct, as earthly-minded parents would have been displeased. IX. Among the officers of the army was Valentinian, afterwards emperor. He commanded the guards who attended Julian. The emperor one day entered into the temple of Fortune, and on each side of the gate stood the door-keepers, who sprinkled with sacred water those who came in. A drop of this water falling on Valentinian's mantle, he struck the officer with his fist, expressed his resentment at his being defiled with the impure water, and tore that part of his mantle. Julian, incensed at his boldness, banished him from his presence, not for his Christianity, as he pretended, but because he had not kept his cohort in good order. Sensible, however, of his merit, he still employed him in the army. There were others who like Valentinian defended their Christian profession not with meekness, but wrath. They found, however, the punishment of their folly from Julian, whose partiality and prejudices in favour of paganism urged him to adopt measures, which filled the whole empire with confusion. At Merum, a city of Phrygia, Amachius the governor of the province ordered the temple to be opened, and the idols to be cleansed. Three Christians, inflamed, says my author t, with Christian *Sozom. VI. c. 6. + Socrates, B. III. c. 15. I fear there was in this action more of pride than zeal. Christians having tasted a little of the pleasures of superiority over Pagans in the two last reigns, and being influenced in no high degree by Christian principles in those times, descended again into a state of disgrace and inferiority with much reluctance. In the same spirit, at Dorostora in Thrace, one Æmilian was cast into the fire by the soldiers for having overthrown certain altars. Those only who are in the vigorous exercise of spiritual arms, can with cheerful patience abstain from such as are carnal, when they are under provocation. Yet true Christians might be in a degree overcome by this spirit, and suffer with the love of Christ prevailing in the heart. The intelligent reader will take notice, however, from the commendations bestowed on such conduct by Socrates, how much the spirit of Christianity had declined since the days of Cyprian. zeal, could not bear the indignity. Burning, continues he, with an incredible love of virtue, they rushed by night into the temple, and broke all the images. The governor, in his wrath being about to chastise many innocent persons, the culprits very generously offered themselves to punishment. He gave them the alternative, to sacrifice, or to die. They preferred the latter, and suffered death with excruciating tortures; more admirable for fortitude than meekness in their behaviour during their dying scenes. At Pessinus in Galatia, on the confines of Phrygia, two young men suffered death in the presence of Julian. I wish I could say it was for professing the faith of Christ. But one of them had overturned an idol. The emperor put him to death in a cruel manner, with his companion, their mother, and the bishop of the city. At Ancyra, the capital of Galatia, there was a priest named Basil, who in the former reign had opposed Arianism, and now with equal sincerity resisted idolatry. He went through the city, publicly exhorting the people to avoid polluting themselves with sacrifices. Once observing the Gentiles employed in their religious rites, he sighed, and besought God, that no Christian* might be guilty of such enormity. The governor upon this apprehended him, charging him with sedition, and having tortured him, kept him in prison. Julian himself coming to Ancyra, sent for Basil, who reproached him with his apostasy. Julian said, he had intended to dismiss him, but was obliged to treat him severely on account of his impudence. And in the end this priest suffered death in torture. Busiris was an heretic of the sect of the Abstemious, and was tortured at the same place. His constancy was amazing to the beholders; but he outlived Julian, recovered his liberty, and afterwards quitting his heresy, returned to the general church. Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, being almost entirely CENT. IV. |