eagerly expected the event, with a counten-spectators at the time, is the point to be attend. ance expressive of joy, executed what he was ed to. Still less is there of pertinency in Mr. desired to do. Immediately the hand was res- Hume's eulogium on the cautious and penetratored to its use, and light returned to the blind ting genius of the historian; forit does not apman. They who were present relate both these pear that the historian believed it. The terms cures, even at this time, when there is no- in which he speaks of Serapis, the deity to whose thing to be gained by lying.' interposition the miracle was attributed, scarceNow, though Tacitus wrote this account ly suffer us to suppose that Tacitus thought twenty-seven years after the miracle is said to the miracle to be real: "by the admonition of have been performed, and wrote at Rome of the god Serapis, whom that superstitious nawhat passed at Alexandria, and wrote also tion (dedita superstitionibus gens) worship from report and although it does not appear above all other gods." To have brought this that he had examined the story or that he be- supposed miracle within the limits of comparilieved it, (but rather the contrary,) yet I think son with the miracles of Christ, it ought to his testimony sufficient to prove that such a have appeared, that a person of a low and pritransaction took place: by which I mean, that vate station, in the midst of enemies, with the the two men in question did apply to Ves-whole power of the country opposing him, with pasian; that Vespasian did touch the diseased every one around him prejudiced or interested in the manner related; and that a cure was against his claims and character, pretended to reported to have followed the operation. But perform these cures, and required the spectathe affair labours under a strong and just sus-tors, upon the strength of what they saw, to picion, that the whole of it was a concerted im-give up their firmest hopes and opinions, and posture brought about by collusion between the follow him through a life of trial and danger; patients, the physician, and the emperor. This that many were so moved, as to obey his call, solution is probable, because there was every at the expense both of every notion in which thing to suggest, and every thing to facilitate, they had been brought up, and of their ease, such a scheme. The miracle was calculated to safety, and reputation; and that by these beconfer honour upon the emperor, and upon the ginnings, a change was produced in the world, god Serapis. It was achieved in the midst the effects of which remain to this day: a case, of the emperor's flatterers and followers; in a both in its circumstances and consequences, very city, and amongst a populace, beforehand de- unlike any thing we find in Tacitus's relation. voted to his interest, and to the worship of II. The story taken from the Memoirs of the god where it would have been treason Cardinal de Retz, which is the second examand blasphemy together, to have contradicted ple alleged by Mr. Hume, is this: " In the the fame of the cure, or even to have question-church of Saragossa in Spain, the canons show. ed it. And what is very observable in the ac-ed me a man whose business it was to light the count is, that the report of the physicians is just lamps; telling me, that he had been several such a report as would have been made of a years at the gate with one leg only. I saw case, in which no external marks of the dis- him with two."*

:

ease existed, and which, consequently, was ca- It is stated by Mr. Hume, that the cardipable of being easily counterfeited, vix. that nal, who relates this story, did not believe it: in the first of the patients the organs of vision and it no where appears, that he either exawere not destroyed, that the weakness of the mined the limb, or asked the patient, or indeed second was in his joints. The strongest cir- any one, a single question about the matter. cumstance in Tacitus's narartion is, that the An artificial leg, wrought with art, would be first patient was, "notus tabe oculorum,' re- sufficient, in a place where no such contrivance marked or notorious for the disease in his eyes. had ever before been heard of, to give origin But this was a circumstance which might have and currency to the report. The ecclesiastics found its way into the story in its progress of the place would, it is probable, favour the from a distant country, and during an inter-story, inasmuch as it advanced the honour of val of thirty years; or it might be true that their image and church. And if they patrothe malady of the eyes was notorious, yet that nized it, no other person at Saragossa, in the the nature and degree of the disease had never middle of the last century, would care to disbeen ascertained; a case by no means uncom-pute it. The story likewise coincided, not less mon. The emperor's reserve was easily affect-with the wishes and preconceptions of the peo. ed; or it is possible he might not be in the se- ple, than with the interests of their ecclesiascret. There does not seem to be much weight tical rulers: so that that there was prejudice in the observation of Tacitus, that they who backed by authority, and both operating upon were present, continued even then to relate extreme ignorance, to account for the success the story when there was nothing to be gain-of the imposture. If, as I have suggested, the ed by the lie. It only proves that those who contrivance of an artificial limb was then new, had told the story for many years persisted in it would not occur to the cardinal himself to it. The state of mind of the witnesses and suspect it; especially under the carelessness of

*Tacit. Hist. lib. iv.

* Liv. iv. A. D. 1654.

mind with which he heard the tale, and the little inclination he felt to scrutinize or expose its fallacy.

other remained. The inflammatiou had be fore been abated by medicine; and the young man, at the time of his attendance at the tomb, III. The miracles related to have been was using a lotion of laudanum. And, what wrought at the tomb of the abbé Paris, admit is a still more material part of the case, the inin general of this solution. The patients who flammation after some interval returned. Anofrequented the tomb were so affected by their ther case was that of a young man, who had devotion, their expectation, the place, the so-lost his sight by the puncture of an awl, and lemnity, and, above all, by the sympathy of the discharge of the aqueous humour through the surrounding multitude, that many of them the wound. The sight, which had been grawere thrown into violent convulsions, which dually returning, was much improved during convulsions, in certain instances, produced a his visit to the tomb, that is, probably in the removal of disorder, depending upon obstruc- same degree in which the discharged humour tion. We shall, at this day, have the less dif- was replaced by fresh secretions. And it is ficulty in admitting the above account, because observable, that these two are the only cases it is the very same thing as hath lately been which, from their nature, should seem unlikeexperienced in the operations of animal mag-ly to be affected by convulsions. netism: and the report of the French physicians upon that mysterious remedy is very ap-risian miracles were different from those relatplicable to the present consideration, viz. that the pretenders to the art, by working upon the imaginations of their patients, were frequently able to produce convulsions; that convulsions so produced, are amongst the most powerful, but, at the same time, most uncertain and unmanageable applications to the human frame which can be employed.

Circumstances, which indicate this explication in the case of the Parisian miracles, are the following:

In one material respect I allow that the Pa

ed by Tacitus, and from the Spanish miracle of the cardinal de Retz. They had not, like them, all the power and all the prejudice of the country on their side to begin with. They were alleged by one party against another, by the Jansenists against the Jesuits. These were of course opposed and examined by their adversaries. The consequence of which examination was, that many falsehoods were detected, that with something really extraordinary much fraud appeared to be mixed. And if some of the cases upon which designed misrepresentation could not be charged, were not at the time satisfactorily accounted for, it was because the efficacy of strong spasmodic affections was not then sufficiently known. Finally, the cause of Jansenism did not rise by the 3. The diseases were, for the most part, of miracles, but sunk, although the miracles had that sort, which depends upon inaction and the anterior persuasion of all the numerous obstruction, as dropsies, palsies, and some tu-adherents of that cause to set out with.

1. They were tentative. Out of many thousand sick, infirm, and diseased persons, who resorted to the tomb, the professed history of the miracles contains only nine cures.

2. The convulsions at the tomb are admit

ted.

mours.

4. The cures were gradual; some patients attending many days, some several weeks, and some several months.

5. The cures were many of them incomplete.

6. Others were temporary.

mortification, danger, and sufferings; none were called upon to attest them, at the expense of their fortunes and safety.

These, let us remember, are the strongest examples, which the history of ages supplies. In none of them, was the miracle unequivocal ; by none of them, were established prejudices and persuasions overthrown; of none of them, did the credit make its way, in opposition to authority and power; by none of them, were So that all the wonder we are called upon many induced to commit themselves, and that to account for is, that, out of an almost innu-in contradiction to prior opinions, to a life of merable multitude which resorted to the tomb for the cure of their complaints, and many of whom were there agitated by strong convulsions, a very small proportion experienced a beneficial change in their constitution, especially in the action of the nerves and glands. Some of the cases alleged, do not require that we should have recourse to this solution. The first case in the catalogue is scarcely distinguishable from the progress of a natural recovery. It was that of a young man, who laboured under an inflammation of one eye, and had lost the sight of the other. The inflamed eye was relieved, but the blindness of the

It may be thought that the historian of the Parisian miracles, M. Montgeron, forms an exception to this last should seem, of the danger of what he was doing) to the assertion. He presented his book (with a suspicion, as it king; and was shortly afterwards committed to prison; from which he never came out. Had the miracles been unequivocal, and had M. Montgeron been originally convinced by them, I should have allowed this exception. It would have stood, I think, alone, in the argument of the dubious nature of the miracles, the account which our adversaries. But, beside what has been observed of M. Montgeron has himself left of his conversion, shows both the state of his mind, and that his persuasion was not built upon external miracles." Scarcely had he entered the church-yard, when he was struck," he tells us, The reader will find these particulars verified in the" with awe and reverence, having never before heard detail, by the accurate inquiries of the present bishop of prayers pronounced with so much ardour and transport Sarum, in his Criterion of Miracles, p. 132, et seq. as he observed amongst the supplicants at the tomb

PART II.

OF THE AUXILIARY EVIDENCES OF

CHRISTIANITY.

CHAPTER I.

Prophecy.

These words are extant in a book, purporting to contain the predictions of a writer who lived seven centuries before the Christian era.

was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my right. eous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the Isaiah lii. 13. liii. "Behold my Servant spoil with the strong; because he hath poured shall deal prudently; he shall be exalted and out his soul unto death; and he was numberextolled, and be very high. As many were ed with the transgressors, and he bare the sin astonished at thee; (his visage was so marred of many, and made intercession for the transmore than any man, and his form more than gressors." the sons of men :) so shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him for that which had not been told them, shall they see; and that which they had not That material part of every argument from heard, shall they consider. Who hath believ- prophecy, namely, that the words alleged were ed our report? and to whom is the arm of the actually spoken or written before the fact to Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before which they are applied took place, or could by him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a any natural means be foreseen, is, in the pre dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; sent instance, incontestable. The record comes arid when we shall see him, there is no beauty out of the custody of adversaries. The Jews, that we should desire him. He is despised and as an ancient father well observed, are our rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and ac-librarians. The passage is in their copies, as quainted with grief: and we hid, as it were, well as in ours. With many attempts to exour faces from him; he was despised, and we plain it away, none has ever been made by esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our them to discredit its authenticity. griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did And, what adds to the force of the quotation esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and af- is, that it is taken from a writing declaredly flicted. But he was wounded for our trans-prophetic; a writing, professing to describe gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; such future transactions and changes in the the chastisement of our peace was upon him; world, as were connected with the fate and inand with his stripes we are healed. All we terests of the Jewish nation. It is not a paslike sheep have gone astray; we have turned sage in an historical or devotional composition, every one to his own way; and the Lord hath which, because it turns out to be applicable to laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was op- some future events, or to some future situapressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened tion of affairs, is presumed to have been oranot his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the cular. The words of Isaiah were delivered by slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers him in a prophetic. character, with the solemis dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He nity belonging to that character: and what he so delivered, was all along understood by the

"6 many

Upon this, throwing himself on his knees, resting his el-Jewish reader to refer to something that was bows on the tomb-stone, and covering his face with his to take place after the time of the author. The hands, he spake the following prayer-0 thou, by whose public sentiments of the Jews concerning the intercession so many miracles are said to be performed, if it be true that a part of thee surviveth the grave, and design of Isaiah's writings are set forth in the that thou hast influence with the Almighty, have pity on book of Ecclesiasticus: "He saw by an exthe darkness of my understanding, and through his mercy cellent spirit what should come to pass at the obtain the removal of it." Having prayed thus, thoughts," as he sayeth, "began to open themselves to last, and he comforted them that mourned in his mind; and so profound was his attention, that he Sion. He showed what should come to pass continued on his knees four hours, not in the least disturbed by the vast crowd of surrounding supplicants. for ever, and secret things or ever they came." During this time, all the arguments which he ever heard It is also an advantage which this prophecy or read in favour of Christianity, occurred to him with so much force, and seemed so strong and convincing, possesses, that it is intermixed with no other that he went home fully satisfied of the truth of religion subject. It is entire, separate, and uninterin general, and of the holiness and power of that person, ruptedly directed to one scene of things. who," as he supposed, "had engaged the Divine Good.

ness to enlighten his understanding so suddenly."-- |

Douglas's Crit, of Mir. p. 214.

* Chap. xlviii. ver.

The application of the prophecy to the evan-gular signification; that is to say, is capable gelic history is plain and appropriate. Here is of their construction as well as ours. And no double sense; no figurative language, but this is all the variation contended for; the what is sufficiently intelligible to every reader rest of the prophecy they read as we do. The of every country. The obscurities (by which probability therefore, of their exposition, is a I mean the expressions that require a know- subject of which we are as capable of judging ledge of local diction, and of local allusion) are as themselves. This judgment is open indeed few, and not of great importance. Nor have to the good sense of every attentive reader. I found that varieties of reading, or a differ- The application which the Jews contend for, ent construing of the original, produce any appears to me to labour under insuperable difmaterial alteration in the sense of the pro- ficulties; in particular, it may be demanded phecy. Compare the common translation with of them to explain, in whose name or person, that of Bishop Lowth, and the difference is not if the Jewish people be the sufferer, does the considerable. So far as they do differ, Bishop prophet speak, when he says, " He hath borne Lowth's corrections, which are the faithful re- our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet we did sult of an accurate examination, bring the de-esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afscription nearer to the New Testament history flicted; but he was wounded for our transthan it was before. In the fourth verse of the gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the fifty-third chapter, what our Bible renders chastisement of our peace was upon him, and "stricken," he translates "judicially strick- with his stripes we are healed." Again, the en :" and in the eighth verse, the clause, "he description in the seventh verse," he was opwas taken from prison and from judgment," pressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not the bishop gives "by an oppressive judgment his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the he was taken off." The next words to these, slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers "who shall declare his generation?" are much is dumb, so he opened not his mouth," quadcleared up in their meaning, by the bishop's rates with no part of the Jewish history with version; "his manner of life who would de- which we are acquainted. The mention of the clare ?" i. e. who would stand forth in his de-" grave," and the "tomb," in the ninth verse, fence? The former part of the ninth verse, "and he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death," which inverts the circumstances of Christ's passion, the bishop brings out in an order perfectly agreeable to the event; "and his grave was appointed with the wicked, but with the rich man was his tomb." The words in the eleventh verse, 66 by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many," are, in the bishop's version, "by the knowledge of him shall my righteous servant justify many."

It is natural to inquire what turn the Jews themselves give to this prophecy. There is good proof that the ancient Rabbins explained it of their expected Messiah:+ but their modern expositors concur, I think, in representing it as a description of the calamitous state, and intended restoration of the Jewish people, who are here, as they say, exhibited under the character of a single person. I have not discovered that their exposition rests upon any critical arguments, or upon these in any other than in a very minute degree. The clause in the ninth verse, which we render" for the transgression of my people was he stricken," and in the margin, 66 was the stroke upon him," the Jews read "for the transgression of my people was the stroke upon them." And what they allege in support of the alteration amounts only to this, that the Hebrew pronoun is capable of a plural as well as of a sin

"Vaticinium hoc Esaia est carnificina Rabbinorum, de quo aliqui Judæi mihi confessi sunt, Rabbinos suos ex propheticis scripturis facilè se extricare potuisse, modo Esaias tacuisset." Hulse, Theol. Jud. p. 318, quoted by Poole, in loc.

Hulse, Theol, Jud. p. 430,

is not very applicable to the fortunes of a nation; and still less so is the conclusion of the prophecy in the twelfth verse, which expressly represents the sufferings as voluntary, and the sufferer as interceding for the offenders; " be

Bishop Lowth adopts in this place the reading of the Seventy, which gives smitten to death," for the transgression of my people was he smitten to death." The addition of the words "to death," makes an end of the Jewish interpretation of the clause. And the authority upon which this reading (though not given by the present Hebrew text) is adopted, Dr. Kennicot has set forth by an argument not only so cogent, but so clear and popular, that I beg leave to transcribe the substance of it into this note:-"Origen, after having quoted at large this prophecy concerning the Messiah, tells us, that, having once made use of this passage, in a dispute against some that were accounted wise amongst the Jews, one of them replied that the words did not mean one man, but one people, the Jews, who were smitten of God, that he then urged many parts of this prophecy, to show and dispersed among the Gentiles for their conversion; the absurdity of this interpretation, and that he seemed to press them the hardest by this sentence, for the transgression of my people was he smitten to death. Now as Origen, the author of the Hexapla, must have understood Hebrew, we cannot suppose that he would have urged this last text as so decisive, if the Greek version had not agreed here with the Hebrew text; nor that these wise Jews would have been at all distressed by this quotation, unless the Hebrew text had read agree. ably to the words "to death," on which the argument principally depended; for, by quoting it immediately, they would have triumphed over him, and reprobated his Greek version. This, whenever they could do it, was their constant practice in their disputes with the Christians. Origen himself, who laboriously compared the Hebrew text with the Septuagint, has recorded the necessity of arguing with the Jews, from such passages only, as were in the Septuagint agreeable to the Hebrew. Wherefore, as Origen had carefully compared the Greek version of the Septuagint with the Hebrew text; and as he puzzled and confounded the learned Jews, by urging upon them the reading" to death" in this place; it seems almost impossible not to conclude, both from Origen's argument, and the silence of his Jewish adversa. ries, that the Hebrew text at that time actually had the word agreeably to the version of the Seventy." Lowth's Isaiah, p. 242.

cause he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

cause to be put to death. And shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls. And when ye There are other prophecies of the Old Testa- shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, ment, interpreted by Christians to relate to the then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Gospel history, which are deserving both of Then let them which are in Judea flee to the great regard, and of a very attentive considera- mountains; and let them which are in the tion: but I content myself with stating the midst of it depart out; and let not them that above, as well because I think it the clearest are in the countries enter thereinto. For these and the strongest of all, as because most of the be the days of vengeance, that all things which rest, in order that their value might be repreare written may be fulfilled. But woe unto sented with any tolerable degree of fidelity, re- them that are with child, and to them that quire a discussion unsuitable to the limits and give suck, in those days; for there shall be nature of this work. The reader will find them great distress in the land, and wrath upon this disposed in order, and distinctly explained, in people. And they shall fall by the edge of the Bishop Chandler's treatise on the subject; and sword, and shall be led away captive into all he will bear in mind, what has been often, and nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down I thick, truly urged by the advocates of Chris- of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles tianity, that there is no other eminent person, be fulfilled."

to the history of whose life so many circum- In terms nearly similar, this discourse is restances can be made to apply. They who ob-lated in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matject that much has been done by the power of thew, and the thirteenth of Mark. The prochance, the ingenuity of accommodation, and spect of the same evils drew from our Saviour, the industry of research, ought to try whether the same, or any thing like it, could be done, if Mahomet, or any other person, were proposed as the subject of Jewish prophecy.

II. A second head of argument from prophecy, is founded upon our Lord's predictions concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, recorded by three out of the four evangelists.

on another occasion, the following affecting expressions of concern, which are preserved by Saint Luke, (xix. 41—44.): "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upLuke xxi. 5-25. "And as some spake of on thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench the temple, how it was adorned with goodly about thee, and compass thee round, and keep stones and gifts, he said, As for these things thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even which ye behold, the days will come, in which with the ground, and thy children within there shall not be left one stone upon another, thee; and they shall not leave in thee one that shall not be thrown down. And they ask-stone upon another; because thou knewest not ed him, saying, Master, but when shall these the time of thy visitation."-These passages things be? and what sign will there be when are direct and explicit predictions. References these things shall come to pass? And he said, to the same event, some plain, some paraboliTake heed that ye be not deceived; for many cal, or otherwise figurative, are found in divers shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; other discourses of our Lord. and the time draweth near; go ye not there- The general agreement of the description fore after them But when ye shall hear of with the event, viz. with the ruin of the Jewish wars and commotions, be not terrified: for nation, and the capture of Jerusalem under these things must first come to pass; but the Vespasian, thirty-six years after Christ's death, end is not by-and-by. Then said he unto them, is most evident; and the accordancy in various Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom articles of detail and circumstances has been against kingdom: and great earthquakes shall shown by many learned writers. It is also an be in divers places, and famines and pestilen-advantage to the inquiry, and to the argument ces: and fearful sights, and great signs shall built upon it, that we have received a copious there be from heaven. But before all these, account of the transaction from Josephus, a they shall lay their hands on you, and perseJewish and contemporary historian. This part cute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, of the case is perfectly free from doubt. The and into prisons, being brought before kings only question which, in my opinion, can be and rulers for my name's sake. And it shall raised upon the subject, is, whether the proturn to you for a testimony. Settle it there- phecy was really delivered before the event; I fore in your hearts not to meditate before, what shall apply, therefore, my observations to this ye shall answer: for I will give you a mouth point solely. and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk and friends; and some of you shall they

1. The judgment of antiquity, though varying in the precise year of the publication

Luke xiii, 1-9. xx. 9-20, xxi, 5—13.

Matt. xxi. 33-46, xxii. 1-7. Mark xii. 1-12