with their care in keeping the flock committed to them (then equal in number to the Pagans) in due obedience to the laws. The return Julian makes for this act of duty, is to acquaint the people of Bostra, that their bishop was become their delator; that he had represented them as prone to sedition, and even capable of the last excesses, but that he and his clergy kept them in order. For this crime therefore, which he calls the taking to himself the merit of the people's good behaviour, he advises them to expel the bishop from their city*. After this, no instance of baseness or injustice will be thought strange. On pretence that the Arian church of Edessa was too rich, and had not used the Valentinians with temper, he seized on every thing belonging to it, and divided the plunder amongst his soldiers. And, to add the bitterness of contumely to his injustice, he told them he did it to ease them of their burthens, that they might proceed more lightly, and with less impediment in their journey to Heavent. But Socrates, the historian, tells us, that he imposed a tax or tribute, proportioned to every man's circumstances, on all who would not sacrifice. This was persecution in form: and yet he did not stop here, but proceeded to still greater extremities. Though he did not persecute to death by laws, that being directly contrary to his edicts of toleration, which * Ep. lii. Bosρnvors. It is remarkable, that the author of the Characteristics, in his third volume of Misc. Ref. hath given us a translation of this letter, for a pattern, as he tells us, of the humour and genius, of the principle and sentiments, of this virtuous, gallant, generous, and mild Emperor, p. 87, & seq. 4th ed. It is true, his translation drops the affair of Titus, their bishop. So that nothing hinders his reader from concluding but that the Emperor might indeed be as gallant and generous as he is pleased to represent him. + Ep. xliii. Εκηβόλῳ. Hist. Eccl. 1. iii. c. 13. he had with so much ostentation and frequency repeated; yet he connived at the fury of the people, and the brutality of the governors of provinces; who, during his short reign, brought many martyrs to the stake. For he put such into governments, whose inhumanity and blind zeal for their country-superstitions were most distinguished. And when the suffering churches presented their complaints to him, he dismissed them with cruel scoffs; telling them*, their religion directed them to suffer without murmuring. So that we have little reason to doubt what the ancients say of his declared intention (had he returned † victorious from the Persian war) to subject the whole Christian world to the honester persecution of fire and sword +. These were the efforts of the Emperor Julian to overturn Christianity. However he took care to avoid the absurdity of our modern apostates, who are for abolishing the faith in which, like him, they have been bred, without substituting any other religion in its stead. Julian's attempts to destroy Christianity did Greg. Naz. i. Orat. cont. Jul. Socrat. Eccl. Hist. l. iii, c. 14. + Greg. Naz. ii. Orat. contr. Jul. Ruff. Eccl. Hist. 1. i. c. 36. How well all this agrees with what the author of the Characteristics says of Julian, in the following words, I leave the admirers of that noble writer to determine: [Julian] was a great restrainer of persecution, and would allow of nothing further than a resumption of church lands and publick schools; without any attempt on the goods or persons, even of those who branded the state religion, and made a merit of affronting the public worship. Vol. I. p. 25. 4th edit. What his creature and confident Libanius tells us, as part of his panegyric, makes this account of the Christian writers very credible. He says that Julian took up arms against Constantius, to restore the Pagan religion : Οὗτος ὁ ὑπὲρ τῶν ὑβρισμένων ἱερῶν Γενά ξας μὲν ἕως τῦτ ̓ ἐξῆν μόνον, ὅπλων δὲ ἀψάμενος, ἐπειδὴ καιρὸς παρῆν. De Ulcis. Juliani nec, not not precede, but went hand in hand with his projects to support and reform Paganism. He wrote and he preached in person, in defence of Gentile superstition: and has himself acquainted us with the ill success of his ministry*. Of his controversial writings, his answerer Cyril hath given us a large specimen; by which we see he was equally intent to recommend Paganism and to discredit Revelation. His reformation of Gentile superstition turned upon these points: 1. To hide the absurdity of its traditions by moral and philosophic allegories †. These he found provided to his hands, principally, by philosophers of his own sect, the Platonists. Who, not without the assistance of the other sects of Theists, had, ever since the appearance of Christianity, been refining the theology of Paganism, to oppose it to that of Revelation; under pretence, that their new-invented allegories were the ancient spirit of the letter, which the first poetical divines had conveyed down, in this invelope, to posterity. A noble design! of which some letters, lately published, concerning mythology, will give the reader a very tolerable idea. 2. He then attempted to correct the morals of the Pagan priesthood, and regulate their manners on the practice of the first Christians. In his epistle to Arsacius, he not only requires of them a personal behaviour void of offence; but that they reform their houshold on the same principle: He directs that they who attend εἰς τὴν Βέῤῥοιαν ἐπορευόμην- Διελέχθην δὲ ὀλίγα τῇ βελῇ περὶ Θεοσεβείας, ἀλλὰ τες λόγες ἐπήνεν μὲν ἅπαντες. ἐπείσθησαν δὲ αὐτοῖς ὀλίγοι πάνυ, καὶ ἔτοι οἳ καὶ πρὸ τῶν ἐμῶν λόγων ἐδόκεν ἔχειν ὑγιως ἐλά βοντο δὲ ὥσπερ παῤῥησίας ἀπορίψασθαι τὴν αἰδῶ καὶ ἀποθέσθαι. Ep. xxvii. Διβανίω σοφιςή. + See his discourse composed in honour of the Mother of the Gods, at the altar should abstain from the theatre, the tavern, and the exercise of all ignoble professions: that in their private character they be meek and humble; but that, in the acts and offices of religion, they assume a character conformable to the majesty of the immortal Gods, whose ministers they are. But above all he recommends to them the virtues of charity and benevolence *. With regard to discipline and religious policy, Nazianzene and Sozomene tell us, he had planned an establishment for readers in divinity; for the order and parts of the divine offices; for a regular and formal service, with days and hours of worship; that he had decreed to found hospitals for the poor, monasteries for the devout, and to prescribe and enjoin initiatory and expiatory rites, with a course of instruction for converts, and of penance for offenders; and in all things to imitate the church discipline of that time †. CHAP. III. BUT the indifference and corruptions of Paganism, joined to the inflexibility and perseverance of the Christians, kept his project from advancing with that speed which his malice as well as zeal demanded. So that, impatient of delay, he struck out a new and daring project to alter the whole face of things at once. With this view he planned the famous scheme of rebuilding the TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM. Its final destruction had been foretold both by Jesus and the Prophets and it was, as he imagined, reserved for * Ep. xlix. ̓Αρσακίῳ ἀρχιερεῖ Γαλαλίας. Fragmentum Orationis Epistolæve. + Greg. Naz. i. Orat. cont. Jul. Sozom. 1. v. c. 16. this favourite of the Gods*, to give the lye to their predictions. He had before (in pursuance of his general scheme of opposing Revelation to itself, by setting one sect against another) written to the body or community of the Jews †, in which he assured them of his protection; his concern for their former ill usage; and his fixed purpose to screen them from future oppression, that they might be at liberty, and in a disposition to redouble their vows for the prosperity of his reign. And concluded with a promise, that, if he came back -victorious from the Persian war, he would rebuild Jerusalem, restore them to their possessions, live with them in the holy city, and join with them in the worship of the great God of the universe ‡. His confident, Libanius, compliments him on his close communion with the Gods, and on the familiar intercourse with which they honoured him. This, he speaks of as a peculiar fa vour, as indeed it was, both to hear and see them.-Kai jóvoç cù τὰς ἐκείνων ἑώρακας μορφὰς εὐδαίμων εὐδαιμόνων θεωρὸς, καὶ μόνῳ σοὶ φονῆς Dεãv iπñρkev á×ãoa. Legat. ad Julian. This was doubtless at an initiation; for Libanius informs us, in another place quoted above, that Julian had been joined in communion with Demons in all the mysteries. Of one of these initiations, Gregory, in his first oration against Julian, tells a remarkable story; that as he descended into the initiating cave, he was terrified with the visions that passed before him [see the account of the mysteries in the Div. Leg.], which, on his making the sign of the cross, fled and disappeared. I think this not incredible; for the sign of the cross was then the common security against all sudden and unusual terrors; and whatever the Demons did, the priests certainly did not like it. How they turned this farce to their advantage, in the present case, may be seen in Gregory. † Ιεδαίων τῷ κοινῷ. * Καλευθῦναι τὴν βασιλεῖαν ἐπὶ τὰ κάλλισα, καθάπερ προαιρέμεθα, ὅπερ χρὴ ποιεῖν ὑμᾶς, ἵνα καγὼ τὸν τῶν Περσῶν πόλεμον διορθωσάμενο τὴν ἐκ πολλῶν ἐτῶν ἐπιθυμεμένην παρ ̓ ὑμῖν ἰδεῖν οἰκεμένην πόλιν ἁγίαν Ιερεσαλήμ, ἐμοῖς καμάτοις ἀνοικοδομήσας οἰκήσω, καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ δόξαν δώσα μεθ ̓ ὑμῶν τῷ κρεῖττον, Εp. xxv. So |