a signal mark of divine displeasure. Unbelievers will reject all these examples as fabulous, and their system, though unreasonable, is so far consistent with itself: but why should a man, who believes the Scriptures, think it inconceivable that there should have been a providential interposition in this affair?

I observe, secondly, that if Julian had succeeded in his attempt to rebuild the temple, and had lived some years longer, the Jews would have been enabled to restore the temple-service and the ceremonial law. Three hundred years which were elapsed from the destruction of Jerusalem, had not perhaps so far confounded all distinction of families as to deprive them of a priesthood: but now, if they had Judæa in their possession, and a temple there, they could not reestablish the ceremonial law, having lost long ago all genealogies and all distinction of tribes. Some of the best Jewish doctors own as much, when they say that part of the office of the Messias shall be to sort their families, restore their genealogies, and set aside strangers; and that he shall purge and purify the sons of Levi, saying, This is a priest, and this is a Levite. See Chandler's Def. of Christ. p. 47. II est étonnant qu'on ose soutenir qu'on a conservé la distinction des tribus, et des familles. Maimonides a eu la bonne foi d'avouër qu'elles étoient tellement confonduës depuis le tems de Sennacherib, qu'on ne pouvoit plus les demêler.-Hinc familie inter nos confusæ sunt, ita ut dignosci nequeant inter se, nec e locis ipsarum cognosci.' Basnage Hist. des Juifs, t.iv. p. 1032.

6

The Jews, since the destruction of Jerusalem, have lived under Pagan, Christian, and Mahometan princes, and from time to time have been oppressed by them all, even when they did nothing to deserve it, but behaved themselves in the most obliging, quiet, and submissive manner.

As they were almost every where upon a kind of connivance, and upon the foot of strangers and sojourners, and excluded from places of power, honour, and profit, and from many ways of getting their bread, they applied themselves to commerce, and to lend money upon interest; and several of them in former days grew both rich and infamous by extortions. I say not this to reproach them in particular; for Christians have done and do the same. But what they thus got, perhaps by disingenuous dealing

and dishonest tricks, the princes often took away from them with the utmost iniquity and insolence; and so they were drudges and tools to arbitrary power, and spunges to be squeezed by merciless and avaricious tyrants. Thus, here in England, king John cast them into prison, not for any crime that he had to lay to their charge, but to make them deliver up their effects to him: there they were put to the torture, had their teeth pulled out, and were mangled and maimed to redeem themselves from destruction.

A thousand calumnies have been spread concerning them, as that they were magicians, that they profaned the host, and that they crucified Christian children; and as many lying miracles were reported to confirm those accusations, and then popular emotions and massacres always ensued.

For one story of this kind that was true, a multitude of false ones were related. Socrates tells us that in the fifth century, in the time of Honorius, some Jews in the neighbourhood of Antioch, who were drunk, took a Christian boy, tied him to a cross, derided and reviled him, and growing frantic gave him so many blows that he died. Upon which the governor of the province punished them severely. vii. 16.

Some time after this a Jew went to several bishops, pretending to embrace Christianity, and was baptized many times, and got money from the Christians. At last, he went with the same story to Paul the bishop of the Novatians, and desired baptism. The bishop told him that he must first prepare himself, and learn his Christian rudiments, and read, and pray, and fast for several days; which went much against the man's stomach. So he begged the time might be shortened, pretending zeal and impatience. But when he came to the baptismal font, behold, a miracle! the water suddenly vanished away. Upon a second trial, the same thing happened, though the pipes of the font were carefully stopped. Thus the bishop found him out to be an impostor, and one of the congregation remembered that he had seen him baptized by Atticus. If there be any

Libertas pauperis hæc est;

Pulsatus rogat, et pugnis concisus adorat,

Ut liceat paucis cum dentibus inde reverti.'

See Manasseh Ben Israel's Vindicia Judæorum, in the Phoenix, vol. ii. p. 391.

truth in the story, it is probable that the bishop, who was no fool, and saw that the Jew was a knave, over-reached him, and secretly unstopped a hole to let the water out. See Socrates, vii. 17.

Ambrose, who was made bishop of Milan A. D. 374, very injudiciously defends the burning of a Jewish synagogue by a Christian bishop, and the unlawfulness of rebuilding it; and in his letter to Theodosius on this subject,

he heaps together thoughts and expressions, which are rather declamations than arguments,' as Du Pin observes very fairly; and hints his dislike of such doctrines, though he dared not to speak out, and provoke the hornets.' Vol. ii. P. 285.

Theodosio nuncius affertur de incenso Valentinianorum templo, nec non de subruta ab episcopo Judæorum synagoga. Rem Ambrosius sic exequitur in sua ad Theodosium epistola: monachi, prohibentibus iter Valentinianis, quo Psalmos canentes ex consuetudine, usuque veteri, pergebant ad Maccabæorum martyrium, moti insolentia incenderunt fanum eorum. (De synagoga vero)relatum est a comite Orientis militarium partium, incensam esse synagogam, idque autore factum episcopo; jussisti vindicari in cæteros, synagogam ab ipso ædificari episcopo. Ignis fano Valentinianorum à monachis subjicitur. Factum et episcopi et monachorum improbaverat Theodosius, neque immerito, ut nostra fert sententia. Itaque tumultus autores poenis subjecerat: hoc moleste tulit Ambrosius, qui aculeatâ Theodosium epistolâ pungit: Quid mandas in absentes judicium? Habes præsentem, habes confitentem reum. Proclamo quod ego synagogam incenderim, certe quod illis mandaverim, ne esset locus, in quo Christus negaretur. Missa est hæc ad principem epistola: quâ lectâ, cum nondum flecteretur, reversus Mediolanum Ambrosius, in concione adversus Theodosium invehitur, inducto Christo, sic renitentem alloquente: Ego te triumphare sine labore feci, et tu de me inimicis donas triumphos. Impetravit tandem, ut quæ mandaverat Imperator revocarentur.

Zelum quidem Ambrosio non invidemus, prudentiam tamen in eo facto desideramus, cum et monachorum et epi

1 Epist. xl.

scopi facinus iniquitate conditum fuerit. Quid publicam evertere tranquillitatem, quid de magistratus autoritate delibare, quid pugnas movere, quid tumultus excitare, si hoc non fuit? Lex est Honorii sapientissima: Christianis demandamus, ut Judæis ac Paganis quiete degentibus, nihilque tentantibus turbulentum, non audeant manus inferre, religionis autoritate abusi. Nam si contra securos fuerint violenti, vel eorum bona diripuerint, non ea sola quæ abstule rint, sed convicti, in duplum quæ rapuerint restituere compellentur. Equidem si Valentinianorum fana, si Judæorum synagogæ evertendæ erant, principis edictum requirebatur. Neque privatis licet ædificia, sive Ethnicorum sive Judæorum publica subruere, quorum usus legibus et autoritate imperatorum conceditur. Quod si monachis episcopisve id licitum est, liceat quoque heterodoxorum bona diripere, et privatas domos incendere, in quibus et pietatem negant, et Christo conviciantur. Pace Ambrosii, factum, quod laudat, et vis fuit, et furtum, quo legitimis dominis bona sua eripiebantur, cum perturbatione ordinis omnis, cujus Deus autor est et constitutor. Quam monachis et episcopo impunitatem Ambrosius comparavit, ea maxima fuit illecebra furoris, ut an tistites ascetæque omnes licenter flammis cingerent ecclesias hæreticorum, templa ethnicorum, synagogas Judæorum. Puto dicturum episcopum (verba sunt Ambrosii) quod ipse ignes sparseril, turbas compulerit, populos concluserit, ne amittat occasionem martyrii. Oleatum mendacium!

Beata hæc mendacia nescit pietas.

"Hic quidem Baronius lupum auribus tenet, qui laudibus Ambrosii zelum afficit, quem sane improbat Gregorius Magnus, dum contraria Ambrosio statuit,' &c. S. Basnage Ann. iii. 114.

St. Ambrose expressed the most violent indignation against the emperor upon this occasion. He sent him a letter, which is still extant, and held in veneration as a glorious memorial of his fervent zeal. There are bold men who think that they may say and do any thing under the mask of godliness. The saint tells the prince that he could pray to God no longer for him, if he would not grant him his request. After such an haughty prelude, he asks him with what face he could order a bishop to rebuild the synagogue which he had burned, since the bishop must either be a

prevaricator if he obeyed, or a martyr if he disobeyed him. He takes the fault upon himself, and says that he had or dered the deed; not that this was true, but by way of bravado, and to challenge the emperor to punish him if he dared. He tells him that he would have done the same at Milan, if God had not prevented him by burning the Jewish synagogue himself. He then represents the church of God in tears, the godly bound in chains and fetters, the servants of the Lord condemned to the mines, and the triumphant exultation of the impious Jews, as the sure consequences of the emperor's orders. This sophistry and these rodomontades are so many tokens of gratitude which St. Ambrose was pleased to give to his royal master for having been his friend, his patron, and protector; and with this pride and insolence he repays his favours. Theodosius however complied, as they say, and excused the incendiaries from making restitution.' Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, l. vi. 14. p. 1266. See also some good remarks of Bayle, and of Barbeyrac, Morale des Peres, p. 325 et p. 330, where he takes notice of Symeon Stylites.

Yet this behaviour is what Tillemont, Ceillier, and many others of the church of Rome extol and admire; which makes us also admire no less the wisdom and the judgment of some of our brethren, who send us to learn ecclesiastical history from such writers, without giving us a caution not to trust them too far. They might as well send us to learn morality from Escobar, divinity from Bellarmin, and English history from father Sanders, or any father of that communion.

A. D. 406. A certain Jew had been confined many years to his bed with a palsy at Constantinople. Having tried in vain the aid of all the physicians, and received no benefit from the prayers of the Jews, he resolved to have recourse to the Christians, and to receive baptism. When this was told to Atticus the bishop, he instructed him in the faith, and then ordered him to be brought in his bed to the baptismal font. The Jew, there professing his faith in Christ, was baptized; and as soon as he was taken out of the water, he found himself cured, and his disease returned no more. Thus did our Saviour think fit to show forth his power, even in our days, by a miracle which converted