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CHAP. may seem, is confirmed by the unexceptionable testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus. The philosophic soldier, who loved the virtues, without adopting the prejudices of his master, has recorded, in his judicious and candid history of his own times, the extraordinary obstacles which interrupted the restoration of the temple of Jerusalem. "Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, urged, with vigour " and diligence, the execution of the work, hor"rible balls of fire breaking out near the foun

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dations, with frequent and reiterated attacks, "rendered the place, from time to time, inac"cessible to the scorched and blasted work

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men; and the victorious element continuing "in this manner obstinately and resolutely bent "as it were, to drive them to a distance, the

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undertaking was abandoned." Such authority should satisfy a believing, and must astonish an incredulous, mind. Yet a philosopher may still require the original evidence of impartial and intelligent spectators. At this important crisis, any singular accident of nature would assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of a real prodigy. This glorious deliverance would be

• Ammian. xxiii, 1. Cum itaque rei fortiter instaret Alypius, juvaretque provinciæ rector, metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum; hocque modo elemento destinatius repellente, cessavit inceptum. Warburton labours (p. 60-90) to extort a confession ot the miracle from the mouths of Julian and Libanius, and to employ the evidence of a rabbi, who lived in the fifteenth century. Such witnesses can only be received by a very favourable judge.

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of Julian.

speedily improved and magnified by the pious CHAP. art of the clergy at Jerusalem, and the active credulity of the Christian world; and, at the distance of twenty years, a Roman historian, careless of theological disputes, might adorn his work with the specious and splendid miracle. The restoration of the Jewish temple was se- Partiality cretly connected with the ruin of the Christian church. Julian still continued to maintain the freedom of religious worship, without distinguishing, whether this universal toleration proceeded from his justice, or his clemency. He affected to pity the unhappy Christians, who were mistaken in the most important object of their lives; but his pity was degraded by contempt, his contempt was embittered by hatred; and the sentiments of Julian were expressed in a style of sarcastic wit, which inflicts a deep and deadly wound, whenever it issues from the mouth of a sovereign. As he was sensible that the Christians gloried in the name of their Redeemer, he countenanced, and perhaps enjoined, the use of the less honourable appellation of GALILEANS.

He declared, that, by the folly

P Dr. Lardner, perhaps alone of the Christian critics, presumes to doubt the truth of this famous miracle, (Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv, p. 47—71). The silence of Jerome would lead to a suspicion, that the same story, which was celebrated at a distance, might be despised on the spot.

4 Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. p. 81, And this law was confirmed by the invariable practice of Julian himself. Warburton has justly observed (p. 35), that the Platonists believed in the mysterious virtue of words; and Julian's dislike for the name of Christ might proceed from superstition, as well as from contempt

CHAR

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of the Galileans, whom he describes as a sect of fanatics, contemptible to men, and vdious to the gods, the empire had been reduced to the brink of destruction; and he insinuates in a public edict, that a frantic patient might sometimes be cured by salutary violence. An ungenerous distinction was admitted into the mind and counsels of Julian, that, according to the difference of their religious sentiments, one part of his subjects deserved his favour and friendship, while the other was entitled only to the common benefits that his justice could not refuse to an obedient people. According to a principle, pregnant with mischief and oppression, the emperor transferred, to the pontiffs of his own religion, the management of the liberal allowances from the public revenue, which had been granted to the church by the piety of Constantine and his sons. The proud system of clerical honours and immunities, which had been constructed with so much art and labour, was levelled to the ground; the hopes of testamentary donations were intercepted by the rigour of the laws; and the priests of the Christian sect were confounded with the last and most

r

Fragment. Julian. p. 288. He derides the μega raλay, (Epist. vii), and so far loses sight of the principles of toleration, as to wish, (Epist. xlii), 'novraç laoGal.

$ Ου γαρ μοι θεμις εςι κομιζεμεν η ελεαίρειν

Ανδρας, οι κε θεοισιν απεχθοντ' αθανατοισιν.

These two lines, which Julian has changed and perverted in the trus spirit of a bigot, (Epist. xlix), are taken from the speech of Æolus when he refuses to grant Ulysses a fresh supply of winds, (Odyss. x. 73). Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. lix, p. 286) attempts to justify this partial behaviour, by an apology, in which persecution peeps through the mask of candour.

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ignominious class of the people. Such of these CHAP. regulations as appeared necessary to check the ambition and avarice of the ecclesiastics, were soon afterwards imitated by the wisdom of an orthodox prince. The peculiar distinctions which policy has bestowed, or superstition has lavished, on the sacerdotal order, must be confined to those priests who profess the religion of the state. But the will of the legislator was not exempt from prejudice and passion; and it was the object of the insidious policy of Julian, to deprive the Christians of all the temporal honours and advantages which rendered them respectable in the eyes of the world.'

hibits the

teaching

A just and severe censure has been inflicted He proon the laws which prohibited the Christians from Christians teaching the arts of grammar and rhetoric." from The motives alleged by the emperor to justify schools this partial and oppressive measure might command, during his life-time, the silence of slaves and the applause of flatterers. Julian abuses the ambiguous meaning of a word which might be indifferently applied to the language and the religion of the GREEKS: he contemptuously observes, that the men who exalt the merit of implicit faith are unfit to claim or to enjoy the advantages of science; and he vainly contends,

These laws which affected the clergy, may be found in the slight hints of Julian himself, (Epist. lii), in the vague declamations of Gregory, (Orat. iii, p. 86, 87), and in the positive assertions of Sozomen, (l. v, c. 5).

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CHAP. that if they refuse to adore the gods of Homer and Demosthenes, they ought to content themselves with expounding Luke and Matthew in the churches of the Galilæans. In all the cities of the Roman world, the education of the youth was intrusted to masters of grammar and rhetoric; who were elected by the magistrates, maintained at the public expence, and distinguished by many lucrative and honourable privileges. The edict of Julian appears to have included the physicians, and professors of all the liberal arts; and the emperor, who reserved to himself the approbation of the candidates, was authorized by the laws to corrupt, or to punish, the religious constancy of the most learned of the Christians." As soon as the resignation of the more obstinate teachers had established the unrivalled dominion of the pagan sophists, Julian invited the rising generation to resort with freedom to the public schools, in a just confidence,

* The edict itself, which is still extant among the epistles of Julian (xlii), may be compared with the loose invectives of Gregory, (Orat. iii, p. 96). Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. vii, p. 1291–1294) has collected the seeming differences of ancients and moderns. They may be easily reconciled. The Christians were directly forbid to teach, they were indirectly forbid to learn; since they would not frequent the schools of the pagans.

y Codex Theodos. 1. xiii, tit. iii, de medicis et professoribus, leg. 5, (published the 17th of June, received, at Spoleto in Italy, the 29th of July, A. D. 363), with Godefroy's Illustrations, tom. v, p. 31.

...

z Orosius celebrates their disinterested resolution,-Sicut a majoribus nostris compertum habemus, omnes ubique propemodum officium quam fidem deserere maluerunt, vii. 30. Proæresius, a Christian sophist, refused to accept the partial favour of the emperor. Hieronym, in Chron. p. 185, edit. Scaliger Eunapius in Proæresio. D. 126.