Christian slaves, and gives this reason for it, that it was not fit that they who had been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ should be in bondage to the murderers of the prophets and of the Son of God.

Lastly, Constantine ordered that the Jews might be made Decurions, since it was reasonable that they should bear part of the burthen of public offices: 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 burthen 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 an exemption from the emperor. Constantine 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 therefore obliged to recall those privileges, without discrimination, which caused great clamours against him and his memory, whilst others commended his conduct. Such was the condition of the Jews under the first Christian prince.' Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, vi. 14.

Under Constantius, the violent dissensions 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 was safer to be a Jewd or a

Theodosius forbad the Jews to keep Christian slaves, A. D. 384. Cod. Th. 1. iii. tit. i. p. 246.

d 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. 1. ii. tit. viii. p. 125. Thus were the Jews indulged, whilst no pity and favour was showed 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 VOL. II.

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Pagan, than to be a 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 at 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 expense, 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 Hierosolymam templum, quod post multa et interneciva 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 in

civil laws; but in religious things, to their own laws and decisions. Cod. Th. 1. 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. 1. 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 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.

staret 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.' 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 favour of Christianity, ascribed it perhaps to God's displeasure against Julian, a bigoted idolater, who deserved not the honour of rebuilding his temple, or to their own transgressions, which made them unworthy of being at that time restored; for men will acknowledge their own faults, when they can reap any advantage from the concession. The Pagans might give the honour of it to their deities, who hated the Jewish superstition and impiety; they might say that Providence interposed, just as it did when the Cnidians endeavoured to make an island of their peninsula, And perhaps

Nam quum initium ex Bybassia peninsula sumat, et præter exiguum quid Cnidia omnis sit circumflua: (eam enim partem, quæ Boream spectat, Ceramicus coercet sinus, australem vero mare, in quo est

both Jews and Pagans ascribed it to natural causes; for there have been eruptions of subtereous fires in various times and places, and such eruptions have perhaps sometimes accompanied earthquakes, though not so often as some have imagined. Tacitus mentions a remarkable instance of fire issuing from the earth: Sed civitas Juhonum, socia nobis, malo improviso afflicta est: nam ignes terra editi, villas, arva, vicos passim corripiebant, ferebanturque in ipsa conditæ nuper coloniæ moenia; neque extingui poterant, non si imbres caderent, non si fluvialibus aquis, aut quo alio humore niterentur: donec inopia remedii, et ira cladis, agrestes quidam eminus saxa jacere, dein resi dentibus flammis propius suggressi, ictu fustium, aliisque verberibus, ut feras absterrebant: postremo tegmina corpori direpta injiciunt, quanto magis profana et usu polluta, tanto magis oppressura ignes.' Ann. xiii. 57.

This relation given by Tacitus hath been thought extravagant and romantic by a late writer. Let us consider whether it be not supported by an authentic account of a fountain in Poland:

In Poloniæ minoris Palatinatu Cracoviensi mons reperitur Admirabilis appellatus, &c.-in cujus plagæ meridionalis medio scaturigo quædam aquæ limpidissimæ cum strepitu ac vibratione notabili exsurgit, cujus quidem ebullitio seu turgescentia cun lunæ augmento intenditur, cum decremento remittit.-Nullo intra natales hiemis congelascit frigore, imo, quod mirabile, a face propius admota instar subtilissimi spiritus vini exardescit, ut flamma super aquæ superficiem instar bullarum agitetur et subsultet, ideo

Syme ac Rhodus) istud igitur exiguum, circiter quinque stadiorum, Cnidii fodiebant, interea dum Harpagus Ioniam everteret, volentes suam regionem in insulæ formam redigere. Intus vero universa illis erat: nam Cnidia regio qua parte in continentem finitur, illic isthmus est, quem fodiebant. Et sane multa manu operantibus Cnidiis, amplius humano et divinius videbantur vnlnerari operarii, quam solet in talibus fieri, cum alias corporis partes, tum præcipue oculos incisâ et vulneratâ petrâ: Delphos miserunt consultores oraculi, qui sciscitarentur quidnam esset quod tantopere adversaretur. Pythia, ut ipsi referunt Cnidii, senario versu respondit talia;

Herodotus.

'Nec aggerate, nec vel isthmum fodite :
Nam si placuisset, insulam dederat Deus.'

que fons hic ignis fatuus audiat. Atque hic quidem ignis sponte sua nunquam extinguitur, nisi scopis percutiatur; quemadmodum ante annos circiter triginta quinque, cum accolæ accensum restinguere negligerent, per cataractas subterraneas sensim progrediendo radices arborum et cum his totam vicinam silvam in cineres redegit, per tres fere annos durans, antequam perfecte suffocari posset: a quo tempore publicæ etiam excubiæ constitutæ sunt, quæ frivolas ejusmodi accensiones impediant. Dum autem aliquantulum flagrat hæc aqua, multum sui impetus deponit, intra quatuordecim dies vix recuperandi. De cætero quamvis ligna admota brevi comburat hæc flamma, adeo tamen subtilis est, ut aquam non calefaciat sed hausta hæc frigida percipiatur; imo nec ipsa extra suam scaturiginem exardescit, utut in vasis exactissime clausis asservetur. Inflammabilitatem hujus fontis cunctis superioribus seculis ignotam fulmen manifestavit, quod casu eum feriens eundem accendit. Hinc lignatores ex silva vicina accurrentes, virgultis ex cæsis arboribus aquæ summitatem verberando ignem restinxerunt, a quo tempore aliquoties postmodum, experimenti causa, mediante face ardente illa denuo accensa, et virgultorum succussione quoque extincta fuit. Unde factum ut provinciæ illius incolæ cæca credulitate sibi persuaserint, fulmen seu tonitru a prima illa accensione in profundo fontis remansisse, quod dum egredi conetur, aquam adeo exagitet, et flammam hanc ad ejus superficiem erumpere faciat.'-See Act. Erud. 1684. p. 326.

We have an account of a tract of land about two miles long, near the Caspian Sea, which is inflammable, and which always burns, without casting out either smoke or flames, or consuming any thing. Phil. Transact. for the year 1748. N° 487, 488.

In the year 1647. at Santorini, an island in the Archipelago, subject to earthquakes, silvæ subterraneo igne conflagrantes pastoribus et armentis non leve damnum intulerunt.' Act. Erud. 1688.

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517..

Ammianus Marcellinus, after describing the earthquake by which Nicomedia was overturned, adds, Superesse potuit ædium sacrarum et privatarum, hominumque pars major, ni palantes abrupte flammarum ardores per quadraginta dies et noctes quicquid consumi poterat exussissent."