favour of Christianity, ascribed it perhaps to God's displeasure against Julian, a bigotted 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 both Jews and Pagans ascribed it to natural causes; for there have been éruptions of subterraneous fires in various times and places, and such eruptions have perhaps sometimes accompanied earthquakes, tho' 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 * 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 Syme ac Rhodus) istud igitur exiguum, circiter quinque stadiorum, Cnidii fodiebant, interea dum Harpagus Ioniam everteret, volentes suam regionem in insule 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 vulnerari 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 adverseretor. Pythia, ut ipsi referunt Cnidii, senario versu respondit talia; Herodotus. Nec aggerate, nec vel Isthmum fodite: terra editi, villas, arva, vicos passim corripiebant, ferebanturque in ipsa condite nuper Colonite mania; 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 residentibus 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 Polonice minoris Palatinutu Cracoviensi mons reperitur Admirabilis appellatus, &c.-in cujus plaga meridionalis medio scaturigo quadam aquæ limpidissime cum strepitu uc vibratione notabili exsurgit, cujus quidem ebullitio seu turgescentia cum luna augmento intenditur, cum decremento remittit.Nullo intra natales hiemis congelascit frigore, ino, quod mirabile, a face propius admota instar subtilissimi spiritus vini exardescit, ut flamma super aquæ superficiem instar bullarum agitetur et subsultet, ideoque fous hic Ignis futuus audiat. Atque hic quidem ignis sponte sua nunquam extinguitur, nisi scopis percutiatur; quemadmodum ante annos circiter triginta quinque, cum accolte accensum restinguere negligerent, per cataractus subterraneus sensim progrediendo radices arborum et eum his totam vicinam silvam in cineres redegit, per tres fere annos durans, antequam perfecte suffocari posset: a quo tempore publicae etian excubic constitutæ sunt, que frivolas ejusmodi accensiones impediant. Dum autem aliquantulum flagrat hæc aqua, multum sui impetus deponit, intra quatuordecim dies vix recuperandi. recuperandi. De cætero quamvis ligna admota brevi comburat hæc flamma, adeo tamen subtilis est, ut aquam non calefaciat sed hausta haec frigida percipiatur; imo nec ipsa extra suam scaturiginem exardescit, utut in vasiş 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, No 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. p. 517. Ammianus Marcellinus, after describing the earthquake by which Nicomedia was overturned, adds, Superesse potuit cedium sacrarum et privatarum, hominumque pars major, ni palantes abrupte flammarum ardores per quadraginta dies et noctes quicquid consumi poterat exussissent. xvii. 7. But these Nicomedian fires were the fires of kitchens, baths, forges, &c. which burnt the timber and other combustible ma terials terials of the fallen houses, as Sozomen expressly informs us, iv. 16. In the fifth century the city of Antioch was destroyed by an earthquake and a fire. Succussio et terræ motus urbi supervenientes, pæne universam prostraverunt. Posthac secutus est ignis-quæcumque enim loca a succussione et terrie motu subversa non fuerant, ignis depascens in cinerem ac favillas redegit, Evagrius iv. 5. This also seems to have been no subterraneous eruption, but like the fire at Nicomedia. Sixty-one years after, there was another earthquake at Antioch, described by Evagrius who was then in the city, in which sixty thousand persons perished: but by the mercy of God, says Evagrius, no fire broke out, Nullum exortum est incendium, quamvis ingens ignis copia passim in urbe esset, partim ex focis, partem ex publicis et privatis lucernis, ex culinis item et fornacibus ac balneis, aliisque innumeris locis. vi, S. When twelve cities in Asia fell by an earthquake, fire was seen to burst out. Effulsisse inter ruinam ignes memorant. Tacitus Ann. ii. 47. ѝ Josephus mentions a violent earthquake in Judæa : Ἐν τότῳ καὶ τῆς ἐπ ̓ ̓Ακίῳ μάχης συνεταμένης Καίσαρι πρὸς ̓Αντώγιον,—σεισθεῖσα ἡ γῆ τῶν Ἰσδαίων, ὡς ἐκ ἄλλοτ ̓ ἐδόκει, τῶν ἐν τῇ χώρα κτηνῶν πολλὴν φθορὰν ἐποίησεν, ἐφθάρησαν δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὑπὸ ταῖς πεπιωκήαις οἰκείαις περὶ μυρίας. Interea per tempus pugne Actiuce, que Cesari cum Antonio fuit,concussa Judeæ terra, quantum nunquam antea videbatur, magnam pecorum stragem fecit per totam regionem, oppressaque sunt hominum etiam circiter decem millia ruina domorum. Ant. xv. 5. There had probably been other earthquakes in Palæstine, in diverse times. That in the reign of Uz ziah is mentioned as very remarkable by Zachariah and by Amos. But though it should be supposed and allowed that the eruption was not without natural causes, and that the seeds of it lay in the bowels of the earth, yet as this most uncommon fire broke out at the very instant when the Jews and Pagans were attempting to rebuild the temple, and was renewed, as the Historian says, upon their renewed attempt to go on, and ceased when they gave over, these circumstances seemed to be plain marks of a providential interposition. Another, and a most memorable circumstance, which distinguished it from the pretended miracles of those days, is that it was not wrought to serve a party, and either to favour or to confute Athanasians, Arians, Semiarians, Sabellians, Novatians, Manichæans, monks, anti-monks, relique-mongers, relique-haters, fasters, eaters, friends or foes to matrimony, &c. No sect could claim any countenance or honour from it, but it was performed by providence for the credit of Christianity, and to serve the common cause against Judaism and Paganism. It hath been said that Christ, who foretold the destruction of the temple, yet hath not affirmed that it should be rebuilt no more, or hath not clearly declared how long it should lie in ruins, and that if the Jews had rebuilt their temple under Julian, yet they would not have had time to make use of it, because his Christian successor would have pulled it down, or converted it into a church, and that therefore there was no occasion for a miracle to prevent Julian's design. But where is the force or the reasonableness of this argument? If it was not fit that the Jews should have |