you inquire, whether the bath is ready, the answer is, that the Son
was made out of nothing." The heretics, of various denominations,
subsisted in peace under the protection of the Arians of
Constantinople; who endeavored to secure the attachment of those
obscure sectaries, while they abused, with unrelenting severity, the
victory which they had obtained over the followers of the council of
Nice. During the partial reigns of Constantius and Valens, the feeble
remnant of the Homoousians was deprived of the public and private
exercise of their religion; and it has been observed, in pathetic
language, that the scattered flock was left without a shepherd to
wander on the mountains, or to be devoured by rapacious wolves. But,
as their zeal, instead of being subdued, derived strength and vigor
from oppression, they seized the first moments of imperfect freedom,
which they had acquired by the death of Valens, to form themselves
into a regular congregation, under the conduct of an episcopal pastor.
Two natives of Cappadocia, Basil, and Gregory Nazianzen, were
distinguished above all their contemporaries, by the rare union of
profane eloquence and of orthodox piety. These orators, who might
sometimes be compared, by themselves, and by the public, to the most
celebrated of the ancient Greeks, were united by the ties of the
strictest friendship. They had cultivated, with equal ardor, the same
liberal studies in the schools of Athens; they had retired, with equal
devotion, to the same solitude in the deserts of Pontus; and every
spark of emulation, or envy, appeared to be totally extinguished in
the holy and ingenuous breasts of Gregory and Basil. But the
exaltation of Basil, from a private life to the archiepiscopal throne
of Cæsarea, discovered to the world, and perhaps to himself, the pride
of his character; and the first favor which he condescended to bestow
on his friend, was received, and perhaps was intended, as a cruel
insult. Instead of employing the superior talents of Gregory in some