of the gospel; and the Pagans had imbibed the
spirit of the church. In private families, the sentiments of nature were
extinguished by the blind fury of zeal and revenge: the majesty of the
laws was violated or abused; the cities of the East were stained with
blood; and the most implacable enemies of the Romans were in the bosom
of their country. Jovian was educated in the profession of Christianity;
and as he marched from Nisibis to Antioch, the banner of the Cross, the
Labarum of Constantine, which was again displayed at the head of the
legions, announced to the people the faith of their new emperor. As soon
as he ascended the throne, he transmitted a circular epistle to all
the governors of provinces; in which he confessed the divine truth,
and secured the legal establishment, of the Christian religion. The
insidious edicts of Julian were abolished; the ecclesiastical immunities
were restored and enlarged; and Jovian condescended to lament, that the
distress of the times obliged him to diminish the measure of charitable
distributions. The Christians were unanimous in the loud and sincere
applause which they bestowed on the pious successor of Julian. But they
were still ignorant what creed, or what synod, he would choose for the
standard of orthodoxy; and the peace of the church immediately revived
those eager disputes which had been suspended during the season of
persecution. The episcopal leaders of the contending sects, convinced,
from experience, how much their fate would depend on the earliest
impressions that were made on the mind of an untutored soldier, hastened
to the court of Edessa, or Antioch. The highways of the East were
crowded with Homoousian, and Arian, and Semi-Arian, and Eunomian
bishops, who struggled to outstrip each other in the holy race: the
apartments of the palace resounded with their clamors; and the ears
of the prince were assaulted, and perhaps astonished, by the singular
mixture of metaphysical argument and passionate invective. The
moderation of Jovian, who recommended concord and charity, and referred
the disputants to the sentence of a future council, was interpreted as
a symptom of indifference: but his attachment to the Nicene creed was at
length discovered and declared, by the reverence which he expressed for
the celestial virtues of the great Athanasius. The intrepid veteran of
the faith, at the age of seventy, had issued from his retreat on the
first intelligence of the tyrant's dea