Epiphanius seems to have been thoroughly per"suaded of the truth of this miracle. As for us, we "shall only observe that the Jews were still powerful under Constantine, since they possessed four towns, one of which was Nazareth, where Christ "had been brought up. Their numbers made thei " insolent; for they assaulted those who went over to Christianity, and publicly opposed the execution "of the imperial orders for the building of churches. "This was what obliged Constantine to publish "the edict of which we have been speaking. He upbraids them, that when any person had a mind to quit their religion, they stoned him, or cast him in the fire: and he condemns them and their accomplices to the same punishment. We see here the 1. traces of those transports of zeal, by which they "thought themselves authorized to kill those whom

they surprized in any flagrant crime. These were "pretended to be precepts of the Oral law, and it "was alledged that Phineas had executed the verbal

orders of Moses. Another example was also produced from the Maccabees, when Mattathias slew "the Jew who was performing pagan rites. Their doctors authorized such practices, and Philo affirms "that God had established them. The Essenes, "devout and austere, ordered that if any one should

blaspheme against Moses, he should be slain. This sect had not the power of life and death; and there"fore must have punished such offenders by an act "of zeal. In spite of the horrible disorders and massacres perpetrated by the Zealots at Jerusalem,

VOL. II.

"the

See the whole history of Joseph in Tillemont H. E. vii. 290. It is a curious Legend, and it rests upon the authority of Epiphanius.

"the nation still preserved the dangerous maxim, and the Misnah teaches that if any one renounces "fundamentals, he must be slain by which rule they stoned, burned, and flung into rivers those "who apostatized, under the reign of Constantine. "So that he was obliged to repress this violence, and "as they obeyed not his first law, he was forced to publish a second.

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"He also forbad Christians to go over to Judaism, "under penalties to be inflicted at the pleasure of "the magistrate. What was most to be feared was, "that slaves might be seduced by their masters; he "therefore suffered not the Jews to circumcise their

*

servants, and ordered all those to be set at liberty who had been so used, or who were willing to em"brace Christianity. Eusebius says that it was not permitted to the Jews to purchase or to keep Chris"tian slaves, and gives this reason for it, that it "was not fit that they who have been redeemed by "the blood of Jesus Christ, should be in bondage to "the murderers of the prophets and the Son of God. Lastly, Constantine ordered that the Jews might "be made Decurions, since it was reasonable that

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they should bear part of the burden of public of "fices: but he exempted their patriarchs, and priests, and those who had considerable employments in the synagogues, as men who had not leisure to "serve in civil offices; and indeed it was not an honour, but a burden to serve as a Decurion, and "every one endeavoured to shun it by taking other employments in the army and in the state, or by obtaining

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Theodosius forbad the Jews to keep Christian slaves, A. D. 384. Cod. Th. L. iii. Tit. i. p. 246.

obtaining an exemption from the emperor. Con*stantine and his sons granted them to so many

persons, that in the time of Julian none were left "to serve the public in these posts. He was there"fore obliged to recal those privileges, without dis

crimination, which caused great clamours against "him and his memory, whilst others commended his

conduct. Such was the condition of the Jews un"der the first Christian Prince." Basnage Hist. des Juifs vi. 14.

Under Constantius, the violent dissentions amongst the Christians might have been profitable to the Jews, if they could have been quiet, and had behaved themselves well for when the Christians had divided and subdivided themselves into sects, they hated, calumniated, and oppressed each other more than they did the infidels, and in the fourth and fifth centuries * it 0 2

was

* Honorius and Theodosius II. made a law, that the Jews should not be compelled to violate their Sabbaths and their other holy days, upon any pretence, A. D. 409. Die Sabbati, ac reliquis, sub tempore quo Judæi cultus sui reverentiam, servant, neminem aut facere aliquid, aut ulla ex parte conveniri debere præcipimus: cum Fiscalibus commodis, et litigiis privatorum, constat reliquos dies posse sufficere, &c. Cod. Th. L. ii. Tit. viii. p. 125. Thus were the Jews indulged, whilst no pity and favour was shewed to those Christians who were called heretics.

Arcadius and Honorius, in their law, De Judæorum foro, A. D. 398. had ordered that in civil things the Jews should be subject to the civil laws, but in religious things to their own laws and decisions. Cod. Tb. L. ii. Tit. i. p. 87.

Valentinian I. had also protected the Jews, and did not permit their Synagogues to be profaned. A. D. 368. Cod. Th. L. vii. Tit. viii. p. 344. et Gothofred. This illustrious Prince had his faults, but he had his virtues likewise. He was a true and a steady friend to toleration, and would not suffer his subjects to be persecuted for their

was safer to be a Jew or a Pagan, than to be an heretic, or a schismatic, or a Christian of this or that denomination; and the obscurer the controverted points were, the greater was the contention, as it usually happens.

But the Jews, who could never be at rest, took arms in Palæstine, in the time of Constantius, and slew the soldiers who were quartered there, and many of the inhabitants, and ravaged the country: upon which Gallus Cæsar, the emperor's cousin, attacked them, and being of a cruel disposition, he burnt their cities, and slew all that he could find, without sparing even the women and the children.

Julian, in spite to the Christians, used the Jews kindly, and promised them great things, and had a mind to settle them again in Jerusalem, to rebuild their temple, and to enable them to observe their ceremonial as well as their moral law, which would have been an insult upon Christ and Christianity. He was resolved, says Marcellinus, to spare no pains or expence, and to restore the temple to its former splendor, and he gave orders to the governor of the province to set about it; which was instantly done: but when the work was begun, terrible balls of fire broke out from the foundations, and made the place inaccessible, and upon many repeated endeavours slew the workmen, so that the fire never ceasing to rage whilst any attempt was made to go on with the work, the undertaking was laid aside. Ambitiosum quondam

apud

religious opinions: He was also a friend to letters and to learned men. For these two good qualities he deserves to be mentioned with respect, and it is much to be wished that all princes would imitate His example.

apud Hierosolymam templum, quod post multa et interReciva certamina obsidente Vespasiano posteaque Tito, ægre est expugnatum, instaurare sumtibus cogitabat immodicis: negotiumque maturandum Alypio dederat Antiochensi, qui olim Britannias curaverat pro præfectis. Cum itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Alypius, juvaretque provincia rector, metuendi globi flammarum prope fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes, fecere locam, exustis aliquoties operantibus inaccessum: hocque modo, elemento destinatius repellente, cessavit inceptum, xxxiii. 1.

The same thing is related by many Christian writers, as by Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Rufinus, Socrates, Sozomen, Philostorgius, Theodoret, &c. some of whom lived at the time. They say nothing that contradicts the pagan historian, but they mention an earthquake, and add some circumstances not recorded by him, in which perhaps there may be exaggeration and embellishment. There is not one of these Christian authors who has not impaired his credit by the relation of miracles manifestly false; but still their testimony, as to the principal fact, is of weight, and is confirmed by Marcellinus, by Jewish writers, and perhaps by some passages in Julian's epistles, and by this circumstance above all, that they appeal to a thing which any one might go and see with his own eyes, to the interrupted work at Jerusalem, and to the foundations of the temple which had been digged up by the Jews, to clear the ground for the intended edifice; so that, all things considered, the story is as well attested as one can reasonably expect.

But when a man hath no mind to believe a thing he seldom wants excuses. The Jews who lived at. that time, and would not allow this to be a miracle in