Yet, on this occasion, the joint efforts of power and enthusiasm were
unsuccessful; and the ground of the Jewish temple, which is now covered by a
Mahometan mosque, still continued to exhibit the same edifying spectacle of
ruin and desolation. Perhaps the absence and death of the emperor, and the
new maxims of a Christian reign, might explain the interruption of an
arduous work, which was attempted only in the last six months of the life of
Julian. But the Christians entertained a natural and pious expectation,
that, in this memorable contest, the honor of religion would be vindicated
by some signal miracle. An earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption,
which overturned and scattered the new foundations of the temple, are
attested, with some variations, by contemporary and respectable evidence.
This public event is described by Ambrose, bishop of Milan, in an epistle to
the emperor Theodosius, which must provoke the severe animadversion of the
Jews; by the eloquent Chrysostom, who might appeal to the memory of the
elder part of his congregation at Antioch; and by Gregory Nazianzen, who
published his account of the miracle before the expiration of the same year.
The last of these writers has boldly declared, that this preternatural event
was not disputed by the infidels; and his assertion, strange as it may seem
is confirmed by the unexceptionable testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus. The
philosophic soldier, who loved the virtues, without adopting the prejudices, ...