t the impious tyrant, whose head they devoted to the justice of
offended Heaven. But they insinuated, with sullen resolution, that
their submission was no longer the effect of weakness; and that, in
the imperfect state of human virtue, the patience, which is founded
on principle, may be exhausted by persecution. It is impossible to
determine how far the zeal of Julian would have prevailed over his good
sense and humanity; but if we seriously reflect on the strength and
spirit of the church, we shall be convinced, that before the emperor
could have extinguished the religion of Christ, he must have involved
his country in the horrors of a civil war. [141]

[Footnote 135: See the fair confession of Gregory, (Orat. iii. p. 61,
62.)]

[Footnote 136: Hear the furious and absurd complaint of Optatus, (de
Schismat Denatist. l. ii. c. 16, 17.)]

[Footnote 137: Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 91, iv. p. 133. He praises
the rioters of Caesarea. See Sozomen, l. v. 4, 11. Tillemont (Mem.
Eccles. tom. vii. p. 649, 650) owns, that their behavior was not dans
l'ordre commun: but he is perfectly satisfied, as the great St. Basil
always celebrated the festival of these blessed martyrs.]

[Footnote 138: Julian determined a lawsuit against the new Christian
city at Maiuma, the port of Gaza; and his sentence, though it might be
imputed to bigotry, was never reversed by his successors. Sozomen, l. v.
c. 3. Reland, Palestin. tom. ii. p. 791.]

[Footnote 139: Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 93, 94, 95. Orat. iv. p. 114)
pretends to speak from the information of Julian's confidants, whom
Orosius (vii. 30) could not have seen.]

[Footnote 140: Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 91) charges the Apostate with
secret sacrifices of boys and girls; and positively affirms, that the
dead bodies were thrown into the Orontes. See Theodoret, l. iii. c. 26,
27; and the equivocal candor of the Abbe de la Bleterie, Vie de Julien,
p. 351, 352. Yet contemporary malice could not impute to Julian the
troops of martyrs, more especially in the West, which Baronius so
greedily swallows, and Tillemont so faintly rejects, (Mem. Eccles. tom.
vii. p. 1295-1315.)]

[Footnote 141: The resignation of Gregory is truly edifying, (Orat.
iv. p. 123, 124.) Yet, when an officer of Julian attempted to seize the
church of Nazianzus, he would have lost his life, if he had not yielded
to the zeal of the bishop and people, (Orat. xix. p. 308.) See the
reflections of Chrysostom, as they are allege