overt manner. Socrates testifies, that
at the sight of the miracles, the Jews at first cried out that Christ is
God; yet returned home as hardened as ever. St. Gregory Nazianzen says,
that many Gentiles were converted upon it, and went over to the Church.
Theodoret and Sozomen say many were converted; but as to the Jews, they
evidently mean a sudden flash of conviction, not a real and lasting
conversion. The incredulous blinded themselves by various pretences: but
the evidence of the miracle leaves no room for the least cavil or
suspicion. The Christian writers of that age are unanimous in relating
it with its complicated circumstances yet with a diversity which shows
their agreement, though perfect, could not have been concerted. The same
is confirmed by the testimony of the most obstinate adversaries. They
who, when the temple at Daphne was consumed about the same time, by
lightning, pretended that it was set on fire by Christians, were not
able to suspect any possibility of contrivance in this case: nor could
the event have been natural. Every such suspicion is removed by the
conformity of the event with the prophecies: the importance of the
occasion, the extreme eagerness of Jews and Gentiles in the enterprise,
the attention of the whole empire fixed on it, and the circumstances of
the fact. The eruption, contrary to its usual nature, was confined to
one small spot; it obstinately broke out by fits, and ceased with the
project, and this in such a manner, that Ammianus himself ascribes it to
an intelligent cause. The phenomena of the cross in the air, and on the
garments, were admirably fitted, as moral emblems, to proclaim the
triumph of Christ over Julian, who had taken the cross out of the
military ensigns, which Constantine had put there to be a lasting
memorial of that cross which he had seen in the air that presaged his
victories. The same was again erected in the heavens to confound the
vanity of its impotent persecutor. The earthquake was undoubtedly
miraculous; and though its effects were mostly such as might naturally
follow, they were directed by a special supernatural providence, as the
burning of Sodom by fire from heaven. Whence Mr. Warburton concludes his
dissertation on this subject with the following corollary. "New light
continually springing up from each circumstance as it passes in review,
by such time as the whole event is considered, this illustrious miracle
comes out in one full blaze of evidence