162 Paganism encouraged. Cent. 4. ed from the New Testament. Julian, seeing the great advantage accruing to the gospel system from the ministry of the word, attempted something of the same kind in order to establish and propagate paganism; but the project failed. The foolishness of preaching has accomplished great things, when the gospel of the Son of God has been the subject: but preaching any thing else will be foolishness indeed; this has been exemplified in the poor attempts of some clerical moralists; they preach morality, and under their preaching, the people increase in all vice. He attacked Christianity, with the keen shafts of ridicule. The Saviour he always distinguished by the epithet of the Galilean, and Christians, he called after the name of their Master. His subtilty, as the adversary of real Christianity, appeared in the encouragement he would sometimes give to the heterodox, rather than to the primitive church. He gave the Jews his countenance, and patronized their attempt to rebuild their temple at Jerusalem.* Various were the arts, and deep the subtilties, he employed to subvert the grand scheme of Christianity; but be it remembered to his honour, these attempts were without blood. Nor is that all ; for while he refrained from shedding the blood of Christians himself, he prevented those bearing that venerable name from shedding the blood of one another. Had the state of religion been what it was some few ages back, much under the reign of such a man as Julian, might have been done. Christianity was left to use its The Jews were not able to proceed in their work, being interrupted, and at length completely stopped, by wonderful eruptions and convulsions in the earth; which events had the appearance of the finger of that God, under whose curse they seemed determined to perpetuate an existence employed in rebellion, and marked with unbelief. Chap. 7. Julian the Apostate. 163 own native energies, and these properly employed, would have shown paganism on which side the truth laid. Indeed the battle between these two combatants had never been on equal groand; the establishment of either destroys the equilibrium: but here they are both alike tolerated, and the contest is at once fair. Unfavourable as the state of Christianity was, yet the event showed to which party the truth belonged. Paganism only tolerated, though encouraged by princely example, can never stand before the weakest efforts of true godliness. A great many ill-natured things have, doubtless, been recorded concerning Julian. He is branded by ecclesiasties as the APOSTATE. He is charged with some violent measures against Christianity. But upon the whole, he appears, notwithstanding all his hatred to the Galilean, to have preserved a morality, and an even band, far superior to his predecessors, concerning whom so many better things have been spoken. The church, under Julian, was thrown into a state of stagnation, and so it continued through his short reign. Some of the exiled bishops, among whom was Athanasius, returned to their flocks; but nothing was accomplished during this period worthy of our enlargement. The death of this prince was occasioned by a wound he received from a soldier's lance, while engaged in a war against the Persians. CHAPTER VIII. RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY UNDER JOVIAN. AT the age of thirty-three, this prince succeeded Julian. His reign commenced A. D. 363, and closed with his life, in the space of seven months. His predecessor had left the affairs of the empire in a critical state, owing to the disastrous war in which he had engaged with the Persians. Jovian appears not to have been the man to forward so great a political enterprise. Historians condemn him as a weak and unworthy monarch: yet in a religious point of view, he ranks very high. His genuine piety is allowed by all; some of the best proofs of which, we have in the prudent and gentle measures he adopted to counteract those evils which had begun strongly to operate, through the infidelity of the former emperor. He proceeded to re-establish Christianity, but continued to tolerate the pagans, leaving every man to the dictates of his own conscience. Athanasius had, during the former reign, just visited his people, and returned again to his retreat. As soun as he heard of the death of Julian, he appeared again at Alexandria, in which see he was immediately confirmed by the emperor, who conferred with him on the subject of the Nieene faith, to which this prince manifested a strong attachment. Under the auspices of Jovian, the Alexandrian bishop enjoyed an interval of peace, which he improved in directing the affairs of his church, and in defending himself from the cruel and wicked charges brought against him by his adversaries. Chap. 9. Valens and Valentinian. 165 In Jovian, the Arians were disappointed; he was no friend of their party, nor was he their persecutor. Having just raised the hopes of the church, God saw fit to take him, which he did very suddenly, to the great grief of many who were left to lament his loss. CHAPTER IX. A PERIOD OF THIRTY YEARS. Valens and Valentinian, Gratian and Theodosius; Death of Athanasius, Uniformity established. On the death of Jovian, Valentinian and Valens succeeded in the government; the former ruled in the West, the latter in the East. Valentinian was reputed orthodox, and followed the steps of his predecessor. Valens was a man of weak capacity, but a stubborn Arian, and Consequently the friend of that party. In the East, as might be expected, the Nicenians suffered the loss of their churches, and the banishment of their bishops. Athanasius was again attacked and driven from his church; but Valens, after a little time, recalled him to his charge, from the fearful apprehensions he entertained of the people's fury, whom he was aware, had more real regard for their bishop, than for their monarch. And in several instances, Valens was induced to mitigate his fury against the orthodox in general for the same reasons. One instance of Valens' cruelty and bigotry deserves to be recorded, as a memorial to his character. A dispute having taken place between the two parties, on occasion of the election of a bishop, 166 Arian Persecution Cent. 4. Valens banished the bishop who had dared to oppose the Arian ehoice. Upon which, eighty ecclesiasties were appointed to wait on the emperor, and to remonstrate on the conduct he had adopted. Valens, enraged at their temerity, gave orders to the prefeet to put them to death secretly. The prefect, pretending to a little more lenity than his master, insinuated to them that he would only banish them, and not be the means of their death. Accordingly, they were ordered in a private manner to take ship, to which they most cheerfully consented. But the mariners were instructed to set the ship on fire, as soon as they were out at sea. This cruel order the mariners executed, and themselves escaped in the boat. But this act, though so cunningly contrived, and so cautiously executed, was brought to light; for, by the intervention of Providence, the burning vessel was by a strong wind driven on the coast of Bithynia, where she was consumed in the sight of many witnesses. The pastors of Edessa had, by some means, attracted the notice, and, it seems, awakened the wrath of Valens ; for he banished many of them into the remoter parts of Egypt. But God was with his faithful witnesses in their exile, and made them instrumental in the conversion of many of the poor perishing pagans. After a long life of labour, and numerous sufferings, died Athanasius, in the year 373. The character of this great man stands high in point of purity; his zeal for orthodoxy was sometimes unworthy his profession, and the superstition of the times considerably influenced his mind in favour of monasticism, and other voluntary humiliations. On the death of this venerable preJate, his church elected Peter, an aged man whom their old pastor had recommended. To this appointment the emperor objected, and by the force of civil authority |