§ 7. THE DOWNFALL OF HEArHENISM. 71
Tlie word of tlie great apostle of the Gentiles was here fulfilled : " All things are yours." The ancient classics, delivered from the daemoniacal possession of idolatry, have come into the service of the only true and living God, once " unknown " to them, but now everywhere revealed, and are thus enabled to fulfil their true mission as the preparatory tutors of youth for Christian learning and culture. This is the noblest, the most worthy, and most complete victory of Christianity, transforming the enemy into friend and ally.
CHAPTER 11.
TRE LTTERAKY TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY OVEK GREEK A. TO KO«
MA2f HEATHENISM.
§ 8. Heathen Polemics. New Objections.
I. Comp. the sources at §§ 4 aud 5, esi:ecially the writings of Julian thk
Apostate Kma XpmTiai'ojv^ and Libaniuh, vnep twv Upwu. Also Pseudo- LuoiAN : Philopatris (of the age of Juhan or later, comprised in the works of Lucian). Proclus (412^87) : xviii inixeiprjp.aTa koto. Xpta- Tinva)v (preserved in the counter work of Joh. Philoponus : De a^ternitate mundi, ed. Venet. 1535). In part also the historical works of EuNAPius and Zosimtjs.
II. Makqu. d'Argens : Defense du paganisme par Temper. Julien en Grco
et en Franc, (collected from fragments in Cyril), avec dos disscrtat. Berl. 1764, sec. ed. augmentee, 1767. This singular work gave occasion to two against it by G. Fk. Meier, Halle, 1764, and "W. CEicnTOx, Halle, 1765, in which the arguments of Julian were refuted anew. Nath. Lakdner, in his learned collection of ancient heathen testimonies for the credibility of the Gospel History, treats also largely of Julian. See his collected works, ed. by Dr. Kippis, Lond. 1838, vol. vii. p. 581- 652. ScnROCKii: vi. 85^385. Neandkr : iii. 77 sqq. (Engl, transl. of Torrey, ii. 84-93).
The mteriial conflict between Loatlienism and Christianity presents the same spectacle of dissolution on the one hand and conscious power on the other. And here the Nicene age reaped tlie fruit of the earlier apologists, who ahly and fearlessl}' dofended the truth of the true religion and refuted the errors of idolatry in the midst of persecution.' The literary oppositioL
> Comp. vol. ii. ij.^ 2&-40 (p. 8,'3 sqq.).
§ b. UEATUEN POLEMICS. NEW CdJECTIONS. i6
to Christianity had ah'eady virtiiallj exhausted itself, and was now thrown bj the great change of circumstances intc apologj for lieathenism ; while what was then apologj on the Christian side now became triumphaTit polemics. The last enemy was the Neo-Platonic philosophy, as taught particularly in the schooli? of Alexandria and Athens even down to the fifth century. This philosophy, however, as we have before remarked,' was no longer the product of pure, fresh heathenism, but an artiticial syncretism of elements heathen and Christian, Oiiental and Hellenic, speculative and theurgic, evincing only the growing weakness of the old religion and the irresistible powei of the new.
Besides the old oft-refuted objections, sundry new ones came forward after the time of Constantine, in some cases the very opposite of the earlier ones, touching not so much the Cln-istianity of the Bible as more or less the state-church system of the Nicene and post-Nicene age, and testifying the intrusion of heathen elements into the church. Formerly simplicity and purity of morals were the great ornament of the Christians over against the prevailing corruption ; now it could be justly observed that, as the whole world had crowded into the church, it had let in also all the vices of the world. Against those vices, indeed, the genuine virtues of Christianity proved themselves as vigorous as ever. But the heathen either could not or woidd not look through the outward appearance and discriminate the wheat from the chaff. Again : the Christiana of the first three centuries had confessed their faith at the risk of life, maintained it under sufferings and death, and claimed only toleration ; now they had to meet reproach from the heathen minority for hypocrisy, selfishness, ambition, intolerance, and the spirit of persecution against heathens, Jews, and heretics. From being suspected as enemies to the emperor and the empire, tliey now came to be charged in various ways with servile and fawning submission to the Christian rulers. Formerly known as abhorring every kind of idolatry and all pomp in worshij), they now appeared in their growing veneration foi
J Comp. § 4 (p. 43), and vol. ii. § 34 (p. 97).