21. Such were his surroundings when he
approved the wise counsel of Solomon that there is a time to every
purpose: Eccles. iii. 1. so he hid
himself for a while, escaping during the time of war, to show himself
when the time of peace came, as it did soon afterwards. Meanwhile
George, there being absolutely no one to resist him, overran Egypt, and
desolated Syria, in the might of ungodliness. He seized upon the
East also as far as he could, ever attracting the weak, as torrents
roll down objects in their course, and assailing the unstable or
faint-hearted. He won over also the simplicity of the Emperor,
for thus I must term his instability, though I respect his pious
motives. For, to say the truth, he had zeal, but not according to
knowledge. Rom. x. 2. He purchased
those in authority who were lovers of money rather than lovers of
Christ—for he was well supplied with the funds for the poor,
which he embezzled—especially the effeminate and unmanly
men, Unmanly men,
the Eunuchs, the chamberlains of Constantius. of doubtful sex, but of manifest impiety; to
whom, I know not how or why, Emperors of the Romans entrusted authority
over men, though their proper function was the charge of women.
In this lay the power of that servant Servant, etc.,
probably Acacius. of
the wicked one, that sower of tares, that forerunner of Antichrist;
foremost in speech of the orators of his time among the Bishops; if any
one likes to call him an orator who was not so much an impious, as he
was a hostile and contentious reasoner,—his name I will gladly
pass by: he was the hand of his party, perverting the truth by
the gold subscribed for pious uses, which the wicked made an instrument
of their impiety.