CHAP. IV.

BUT the evidence given by the adversaries of our faith to the truth of this illustrious miracle does not rest upon a single witness: I propose to shew, that Libanius, the friend and favourite of Julian, and even JULIAN himself, whose impiety brought this disgrace upon Paganism, have both confessed the hand by which he was overcome; though with that obscurity, and confusion of tongue, which always attends the graceless shame of impenitent offenders.

And I shall be the fuller in weighing the value of their testimony, as it hath hitherto, I think, been entirely overlooked, and, by reason of an affected disguise, passed the critics unobserved.

**

Libanius, in the History of his own Life, speaking of the fate of Julian, says, "The Persians, indeed, were informed by a deserter, of the state to which "fortune had now reduced our affairs: but not a single man amongst us at Antioch, knew any "thing of the matter. It is true, the calamity seemed "to have been foretold by certain earthquakes in "Palestine, which overthrew some cities, and da"maged others. For it appeared to us, as if God "had presignified some great event by these dis"asters and, while we were making our vows for

66

averting the evil we apprehended, came a meś

* 'Ar@gúπwv pèr édes-The words are remarkable, and, I suspect, emphatical. It looks as if he used them to discredit a common report then in the mouths of the people, and which hath since figured in ecclesiastical history, to this effect, "That Libanius, about this time, meeting a certain schoolmaster in Antioch, asked him, in derision, What the carpenter's son was doing? To which the other replied, Making a coffin for your hero."

senger,

senger, &c. *." Again, in his funeral oration on Julian's death, he says, "The temple of Apollo con"sumed by fire, presaged this misfortune-as did "those earthquakes which shook all the land, the mes

sengers, as it were, of the following disorders and "confusion t." It can admit no doubt but that the earthquakes spoken of in both passages, and said to have happened before the death of Julian, are the same. The first says they were in Palestine; the second fixes them to the time of burning the temple at Daphne: all which laid together brings us directly to the earthquake at Jerusalem. And though, either out of malice, imperfect information, or wrong conception of what he heard, he lessens the event by the omission of one circumstance, and aggravates it by the invention of others, yet the characteristic marks of time and place, which he has left to it, prevent his putting the change upon us, if that was his intention, as it seems to have been, if we reflect, that the circumstance of destroying cities, and shaking the whole empire, belong to an earthquake which happened about a year and half after Julian's death, and of which he was well apprised, as appears by his oration to avenge the death of Julian, addressed to Theodosius:

* Τῷ μὲν δὴ Πέρση, παρ' αὐτομόλε τινὸς μαθεῖν ὑπῆρξεν, ἐν ὅτῳ εἴη τύχης. ἡμῖν δὲ τοῖς ̓Αντιοχεῦσιν, ἀνθρώπων μὲν ἐδείς. Σεισμοὶ δὲ ἐγί γνοντο τὰ κακὰ μήνυται, πόλεων τῶν ἐν τῇ Παλαισίνη [Παλαισίνη] Συρία, τῶν μὲν μέρη· τὰς δὲ ὅλας καλενε[κόνες. ἐδόκει γὰρ ἡμῖν ὁ Θεὸς, μεγάλοις πάθεσι, μέγα σημαίνειν. εὐχομένων δὲ μὴ τὰ ὅλα δοξάζειν, πικρόν, &c. † Τῦτο ἦν νεὼς ̓Απόλλωνα πυρὶ δαπανώμενος—τετο σεισμοὶ γῆν πᾶσαν δονῶνες μελλέσης ἄγγελοι ταραχῆς τε καὶ ἀκοσμίας.

દે

Kal. Aug. consule Valentiniano primum cum fratre horrendi terrores per omnem orbis, ambitum grassati sunt subiti.— concutitur omnis terreni STABILITAS ponderis, MAREque dispulsum retro fluctibus evolutis abscessit.-innumera quædam incivitatibus & ubi reperta sunt ædificia complanarunt.—Am, Marc. 1. xxvi. c. 10,

in which he tells the emperor, the Gods were angry that Julian's death had not been hitherto avenged: and had given evident marks of their displeasure by the frequent slaughters of the Roman people; and a dreadful earthquake, which shook both land and sea*. Hitherto Libanius, notwithstanding the disguisements taken notice of above, hath reasonably well distinguished these two different earthquakes, the one in Palestine, and the other over all the Roman empire; by expressly affirming, that the first happened before the death of Julian; and the second, some time after. Yet, in another place, in his oration on the death of Julian, he seems totally to have confounded them with one another f.

But the carelessness or the perversity of the writers of these times, whether Christians or Pagans, is equally to be lamented. We have observed the arts Libanius employs to hide the earthquake at Jerusalem, and seen with what pomp he ascribes the disaster occasioned by that, which happened under the first consulate of Valentinian and his brother, to the anger of the gods for the unavenged murder of Julian. On which account, I suppose, it is, that Sozomene affirms, that this earthquake happened in the time of Julian t, and makes it one of the marks of God's displeasure at his apostasy. So again because Li

* Ο πολὺς δὲ φόνος ὅτε τῇδε, ὅτε ἐν Ῥώμη, Δαιμόνων ὀργὴν μηνύει, δι ̓ ἣν οἱ μὲν ἀπέθνησκον, οἱ δὲ ἔμελλον. ὁ φόβω ΓΗΝ τε ἔσειε καὶ

ΘΑΛΑΤΤΑΝ. C. 10.

† Ἡ μέν γε γῆ, καλῶς τε ᾔσθεῖο τε πάθος-απωσεισαμένη, καθάπερ ἵππΘ. ἀναβάτην, πόλεις τίσας και τόσας· ἐν Παλαισίνῃ πολλὰς τὰς Λιβύων ἁπάσας, &c.

† Αμέλειοι παρὰ πάνα τὸν χρόνον ταυλησὶ τῆς βασιλείας ἀγανακτῶν ὁ Θεὸς ἐφαίνετο τῆς τε γὰρ γῆς συνεχῶς ὑποχαλεπωλήτων σεισμών τινασσομένης-συμβάλλω δὲ ἐξ ὧν ἐπυθόμην, ἢ βασιλεύονς αὐτὸ ἢ κατὰ τὸ δεύτερον σχῆμα τῆς βασιλείας ὄντα καὶ τὸ συμβὲν τοῖς πρὸς Αἴγυπτον Αλεξανδρεῦσι γέγονε πάθω, &c. Lib. vi. c. 2.

banius had with excessive impudence accused the Christians of the death of Julian, Gregory Naz. to be even with him,' charges Julian with the murder of Constantius. Each, I dare say, with equal justice; both, I am well satisfied, with the same spirit.

I come now to the testimony of Julian. His letter to the community of the Jews has been already mentioned. From that part of it, wherein he informs them how he had punished such as had given their people unjust vexation, it appears to have been written early in his reign; on his first coming to Constantinople, when he purged the city and palace of spies, informers, and the like pests of a corrupted court *. The principal design of it is to acquaint them with

his

• Sozomene takes notice of this letter, ἀρχηγοῖς αὐτῶν καὶ αὐτῷ δὲ τῷ πλήθει ἔγραψεν, εὔχεσθαι ὑπὲρ αὐτὸ καὶ Tūs aútě Baviλilas. Notwithstanding which, those who have conveyed it down to us have stampt this mark of doubt and suspicion on the face of it, i ymo. Without question, they believed it to be forged by the Jews. The writer of it styles the injuries offered to the Jews, impious; as if they were a holy nation-Καὶ τὸ τῆς τοιαύτης δυσφημίας ἀσέβημα ἐπαῦθα ἐβιασάμην soa: tells them that he had precipitated the delators into horrible dungeons with his own hands, ὃς μεν ἐγὼ ἐν χερσὶν ἐμαῖς λαβόμενα, εἰς βόθρον ὦσας ὤλεσα: calls the patriarch brother, τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἴελον τὸν αἰδεσιμώταῖον παλριάρχην : and promises, that when he had restored their city, he would come thither, and live and worship with them. All these particulars, the critics conceived to smell strongly of imposture.

But what probably most confirmed their suspicions, was the use the Jews made of it, to evade a miracle that so much humbled them: We see it only promises their restoration after his Persian expedition. And one R. David Gans, of the sixteenth century, in the second part of his book, called Zamach, quoted by Wagenseilius, in his Tela ignea Satanæ, p. 231. appears to have made this very use of it. "Julianus Cæsar præcepit ut "restitueretur templum sanctissimum, magno cum decore & "pulchritudine, huicque rei ipse sumtus suppeditavit. Verum

" cœlitus

his purpose to rebuild their city, on his return from the Persian war. And without doubt he then intended

"cœlitus impedimentum injectum est ne perficeretur fabrica, NAM Cæsar in bello Persico periit."

But what Greg. Nazianzen, in his second Invective, tells us of the conference that followed this letter, plainly shews it to be genuine. Julian, he says, assured the leaders of the Jews, he had discovered, from their sacred books, that the time of their restoration was at hand. ἐπιθειάζων τε δῆθεν ἐκ τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς βίβλων καὶ ἀποῤῥήτων, ὡς νῦν αὐτοῖς ἀποκείμενον εἴη κατελθεῖν εἰς τὴν ἑαυτῶν καὶ νεὼν ἀναδείμασθαι, καὶ τῶν παλρίων τὸ κράτος ἀνανεώσαθαι καὶ ἀποκρυπτόμενα εὐνοίας πλάσματι τὴν ἐπίνοιαν.—It is not a mere curiosity to inquire, what prophecy it was, that Julian perverted; because it tends to confirm the truth of Nazianzen's relation. I have sometimes thought it might possibly be the words of the Septuagint, in Dan. ix. 27. Eviléλeia dobýσetai iπi τὴν ἐρήνωσιν. The ambiguity of which Julian took the advantage of (against Hellenistic Jews, who, it is probable, knew no more of the original than himself) as signifying, the tribute shall be given to the desolate, instead of, the consummation shall be poured upon the desolate. For the letter in question tells us, he had remitted their tribute; and by so doing, we see, was for passing himself upon them for a kind of second Cyrus.

All this (that is to say, the authenticity of the letter, the truth of Nazianzen's relation, and this conjecture concerning the prophecy Julian pretended to go upon) seems greatly to be supported by what the Christian writers say of the behaviour of the Jews while the project was in agitation. Socrates assures us, that they menaced the Christians, and threatened to treat them as they themselves had been treated by the Romans. L. iii. c. 20. φοβερὸς δὲ τοῖς Χρισιανοῖς ἐπεδείκνυσαν ἑαυτὸς, ἠλαζονεύονό τε κατ ̓ αὐτῶν, ἐπαπειλῆνες τοσαῦτα ποιήσειν, ὅσα αὐτοὶ παρὰ Ῥωμαίων árai wela. And Rufinus says, they were as vain as if they had had a prophet of their own at their head. And this they might well be, when they had an emperor who promised to live and worship with them, and set himself up for the restorer foretold by their prophets.

There is only one thing in the letter, which remains to be accounted for; and that is, the strange boast of his personal atchievement, in thrusting down the delators into dungeons with his own hands: in which the Imperial character is so little

preserved,