, at the
distance of twenty years, a Roman historian, care less of theological
disputes, might adorn his work with the specious and splendid miracle.
[84]

[Footnote 77: Built by Omar, the second Khalif, who died A. D. 644. This
great mosque covers the whole consecrated ground of the Jewish temple,
and constitutes almost a square of 760 toises, or one Roman mile in
circumference. See D'Anville, Jerusalem, p. 45.]

[Footnote 78: Ammianus records the consults of the year 363, before
he proceeds to mention the thoughts of Julian. Templum. ... instaurare
sumptibus cogitabat immodicis. Warburton has a secret wish to anticipate
the design; but he must have understood, from former examples, that the
execution of such a work would have demanded many years.]

[Footnote 79: The subsequent witnesses, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret,
Philostorgius, &c., add contradictions rather than authority. Compare
the objections of Basnage (Hist. des Juifs, tom. viii. p. 156-168) with
Warburton's answers, (Julian, p. 174-258.) The bishop has ingeniously
explained the miraculous crosses which appeared on the garments of the
spectators by a similar instance, and the natural effects of lightning.]

[Footnote 80: Ambros. tom. ii. epist. xl. p. 946, edit. Benedictin. He
composed this fanatic epistle (A. D. 388) to justify a bishop who had
been condemned by the civil magistrate for burning a synagogue.]

[Footnote 81: Chrysostom, tom. i. p. 580, advers. Judaeos et Gentes,
tom. ii. p. 574, de Sto Babyla, edit. Montfaucon. I have followed the
common and natural supposition; but the learned Benedictine, who dates
the composition of these sermons in the year 383, is confident they were
never pronounced from the pulpit.]

[Footnote 82: Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iv. p. 110-113.]

[Footnote 83: Ammian. xxiii. 1. Cum itaque rei fortiter instaret
Alypius, juvaretque provinciae rector, metuendi globi flammarum prope
fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum exustis aliquoties
operantibus inaccessum; hocque modo elemento destinatius repellente,
cessavit inceptum. Warburton labors (p. 60-90) to extort a confession
of the miracle from the mouths of Julian and Libanius, and to employ the
evidence of a rabbi who lived in the fifteenth century. Such witnesses
can only be received by a very favorable judge.]

[Footnote 83a: Michaelis has given an ingenious and sufficiently
probable explanation of this remarkable incident, which the positive
testimony