and Ro- man churches, against which the pure spirit of Christianity has instinctively protested from the beginning, and will protest, till all remains of gross and refined idolatry shall be outward!}'' as well as inwardly overcome, and baptized and sanctified not only with water, but also with the spirit and fire of the gospel. Finally the better genius of ancient Greece and Rome still lives in the immortal productions of their poets, philosophers, historians, and orators, — yet no longer an enemy, but a friend and servant of Christ. What is truly great, and noble, and beautiful can never perish. The classic literature had prepared the way for the gospel, in the sphere of natural culture, and was to be tm-ned thenceforth into a weapon for its defence. It passed, like the Old Testament, as a rightful inheritance, into the possession of the Christian church, which saved those precious works of genius through the ravages of the migration of nations and the darkness of the middle ages, and used them as material in the rearing of the temple of modern civilization. quod ex quo venit Dominus usque ad consummationem saeculi non plus nee minus fieri annorum numerum, nisi CCCLXV usque ad Christi Domini iterum de coelo di- vinam praesentiam." ' Comp. August. : Epist. 232, where he thus eloquently addresses the heathen : " Videtis simulacrorum templa partim sine reparatione collapsa, partim diruta, par- lira clausa, partim in usus alienos commutata ; ipsaque simulacra vel confringi, vel ijicendi, vel includi, vel destrui ; atque ipsas huius saeculi potestatea, quae aliquando pro siraulacris populum Christianum persequebantur, victas et domitas, non a repug- nantibus sed a morientibus Christianis, et contra eadem simulacra, pro quibus Chris- :JU Uanos occidebant, impetus suos legesque vertisse et imperii nobilissimi eminentissi- nium culmcn ad sepulcrum piscatoris Petri submisso diademate supplicare." /<£ § 7. THE DOWNFALL OF HEATHENISM. 71 The word of tlie great apostle of the Gentiles was here fulfilled : "•All things are yours." The ancient classics, delivered from the dsemoniacal possession of idolatry, have come into the ser- vice 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 Chris- tian 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. THE LITERAEY TEIUMPH OF CHEISTIAIHTY OVEE GEEEK AKD KO- MAJSr HEATHENISM. § 8. Heathen Polemics. New Objections. I. Comp. the sources at §§ 4 and 5, especially the writings of Julian the Apostate Kara Xpiariavcov^ and Libanitjs, vnep raop lepSiv. Also Pseudo- Lucia N : Philopatris (of the age of Julian or later, comprised in the works of Lucian). Proolus (412-487) : xviii fTnxeiprjpaTa Kara Xpia- navav (preserved in the counter work of Joh. Philoponus : De seter- nitate mundi, ed. Yenet. 1535). In part also the historical works of Eunapius and Zosimus. II. Maequ. d'Argens