JERUSALE M. ?8l 
fe 
it in the moll forlorn and ruinous fituation. Haying "told, when they fhould return to their own land, rebuild 
formed a defign of reftoring it to its ancient luftre, die their temple, and reflore the la,w to its ancient force and 
eaufed, with a great deal of coft and labour, all the rub- fplendour. When thefe things had been thoroughly infi¬ 
ll i(h that had been thrown upon thofe places where our nuated, and heartily entertained (for deceit finds eafy ad- 
Saviour had fulfered, been buried, &c. to be removed, mittance when it flatters our'paflions), the Jews fet upon 
In doing this, it is faid they found the crofs on which he the work of rebuilding with great'attention, 'and pufiied 
died, as well as thofe of the two malefactors who fuffered on the project with the utinc-ft labour and .application, 
with him ; and, as the writers of thofe times relate, dif- But when, now driven from their work by a violent whirl- 
covered by a miracle .that which had borne the Saviour of wind and a l’udden earthquake, they fled together for re¬ 
mankind. She then caufed a magnificent church to be 
built, which inclofed as many of the fcenes of our Sa¬ 
viour’s fufferings as could conveniently be done, and 
adorned the city with feveral other buildings. It is com¬ 
monly faid, that under the reign of Conftantine the Great, 
the name of Hilia Capitolina was changed, and that of Je¬ 
rufalem fublfituted in its room. The church of Jerufalem 
enjoyed the high honour of being the moft ancient of all, 
and it has therefore been called the firfl in the world ; its 
firft bifhop vvas the apoftle St. James the Lefs, who began 
to govern it in the year 34; and continued to do fo till 
the year 62, when he fuffered martyrdom. 
In the year 363, the emperor Julian, a declared enemy 
to Chriftianity, is faid to have formed a defign of rebuild¬ 
ing the temple of Jerufalem, and of reftoring the Jewifh 
worfbip. This fcheme was contrived on purpofe to give 
the lie to our Saviour’s prophecy concerning the temple 
and city of Jerufalem: namely, that the firft fhould be 
totally deftroyed, without one ltone being left upon ano¬ 
ther; and that Jerufalem fhould be trodden down of the 
Gentiles till the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled. In 
this attempt, however, according to the accounts of the 
Chriftian writers of that age, the emperor was fruftrated. 
by an earthquake and fiery eruption from the earth, which 
totally deftroyed the work, confumed the materials which 
had been collefted, and killed a great number of the work¬ 
men. 
This event has been the fubjedt of much difpute. 
W.arburton, who publifned a treatife exprefsly on the truth 
of this faci, has colle&ed the following teftimonies in fa¬ 
vour of it. The firft is that of Ammianus Marcel I in us, 
who tells us, “Julian, (having been already thrice con- 
ful,) taking Salluft, prefect of the feveral Gauls, for his 
colleague, entered a fourth time on this high magiftracy ; 
and, although his fenfibility of the many and great events 
which this year was likely to produce made him very 
anxious for the future, yet he both pufhed on the various 
and complicated preparatives for this expedition with the 
utmoft application, and, having an eye in every quarter, 
and being defirous to eternize his reign by the greatnefs 
of his achievements, he proje&ed to rebuild at an im- 
menfe expence the proud and magnificent temple of Jeru¬ 
falem. He committed the condufl of this affair to Alypius 
of Antioch, who had formerly been lieutenant in Britain. 
When therefore this Alypius had fet himfelf to the vigor¬ 
ous execution of his charge, in which he had all the af- 
fiftance that the governor of the province could afford him, 
horrible balls of fire breaking out near the foundations, 
with frequent and reiterated attacks, rendered the place 
from time to time inacceffible to the fcorched and blafted 
workmen ; and the victorious element continuing, in this 
manner, obftinately and refolutely bent, as it were, to 
drive them to a diftance, Alypius thought beft to give over 
the enterprife.” 
The next teftimony is that of Gregory Nazianzeri. 
Speaking of the emperor Julian, he fays, “ After having 
run through a courfe of every other tyrannical experiment 
againft the faith, and upon trial defpifing all of them as 
trifling and contemptible, he at laft brought down the 
whole body of the Jews upon us; whom, for their ancient 
turn to leditious novelties, and an inveterate hatred of the 
Chriftian name, he chofe as the fitteft inftrument for his 
machinations. Thefe, under a fliow of great good-will, 
which hid his fecret purpofe, he endeavoured to convince 
from their facred books and traditions, which he took 
upon him to interpret, that now was come the time fore- 
’ Vol. X. No. 714, 
fuge to a certain neighbouring church, there are who fay, 
the church refufed them entrance ; and that, when they 
came to the doors, which were wide open but a moment 
before, they found them on a l'udden clofed by a fecret 
and invifible hand. This, however, is now affirmed and 
believed by all, that, as they ftrove to force their way in 
by violence, the fire, "which burll from the foundations 
of the temple, met and flopped them. One part it burnt 
and deftroyed, and another it defperately maimed, leaving 
them a living monument of God’s commination and 
wrath againft finners. But the thing moft wonderful was, 
a light which appeared in the heavens, of a crofs within, 
a circle. That name and figure, which impious men be¬ 
fore efteemed fo difhonourable upon earth, was now raifed 
on high, and equally objefled to the common view of all 
men ; advanced by God himfelf as the trophy of his vic¬ 
tory over unbelievers; of all trophies the moft exalted and 
fubiime. Nay further, they who were prefent, and parta¬ 
kers of the miracle we are now about to fpeak of, (how¬ 
to this very day the fign or figure of the crofs which was 
then marked or impreffed upon their garments. For at 
that time, as thefe men were fhowing thefe marks, or at¬ 
tending toothers who fhowed them, each prefently obferved 
the wonder, either on himfelf or his neighbour; having a 
radiant mark on his body or on his garment, in which 
there is fomething that, in art and elegance, exceeded all 
painting or embroidery.” 
Notwithftanding thefe teftimonies, however, the fa<Et 
has been ftrenuoufly contefted by others ; and indeed it 
mull be owned that the teftimonies above-mentioned are 
by no means unexceptionable. In the laft particularly, 
the propenfity to the marvellous is fo exceedingly great, 
that every one mull at firft fight be (truck with it. On 
the whole, however, it is not a matter of great conle- 
quence whether this event happened with the circumftances 
above-mentioned or not. If Julian did make any attempt 
to rebuild the temple, it is certain that fomething ob- 
flrufted the attempt, becaufe the temple was never actu¬ 
ally rebuilt. If he made no l'uch attempt, the prophecy 
of our Saviour ftill holds good ; and it furely cannot be 
thought to detraft from the merit of a prophecy, that no 
body ever attempted to elude it, or prove it to be a falfe- 
liood. 
In the year 378, pilgrimages to Jerufalem, and journeys 
thither for the purpofe of vifiting the holy places of that 
city, began to be very frequent. Man}' perfons celebrated 
for the nobility of their birth, and the fame of their fanc- 
tity, repaired to it with that view ; and the number of 
monks who inhabited the environs continued daily to in- 
creafe. In the year 614, the Perfians came before Jerufa¬ 
lem, which, having fallen into their hands, v/as facked 
and plundered. Ninety thoufand Chriftians, of both fexes 
and of all ages and conditions, were made Haves in this 
war, and fold by the Perlians to the Jews, who, contrary 
to the laws of humanity, butchered them in a cruel man¬ 
ner. In the year 628, Jerufalem was reftored to the em¬ 
peror Heraclius, who banifhed all the Jews, and inter¬ 
dicted them from approaching within three miles of it. 
Jerufalem continued in the hands of the eaflern emperors 
till the reign of the caliph Omar, who reduced it under 
his fubjeftion in 635, as related under the article Arabia, 
vol. ii. p. 9. The Saracens held pofleffion of it till the 
year 1099, when it was taken by the crufaders. They 
founded a new kingdom, of which Jerufalem was the ca 7 
pital, which lalted eighty-eight years under nine kings. 
At laft'this kingdom was utterly ruined by Saladin ; and, 
9 N though 
