forms Miracles, gives to Truth the Colourings of Falsehood. Hath not Truth always a Splendor peculiar to itself? and when God grants to his Meffengers miraculous Gifts, is it not to be fuppofed that thofe Gifts have fuch a Superiority over Impoftures, that unless one is wilfully blind, it is easy to make the Distinction ?

CHAP IV.

Of the Cure of the Man born blind, and of that of the blind Man of Bethfaida.

HAT I have said in the Two fore

WH

going Chapters will help me to folve a few Difficulties refpecting the Cure, of the Man born blind, and of the blind Man of Bethfaida, and refpecting the Refurrection of Lazarus.

"In the Detail of Facts, fays Mr. Rous

feau, we sometimes perceive a Gradation "which does not fuit with a fupernatural "Operation. A blind Man is prefented to Jefus; instead of curing him instant

ly, he takes him out of the Village, and "there anoints his Eyes with Spittle; af"ter which he afks him, whether he fees

any thing? The blind Man answers, "that he sees Men walking, who appear "to him like Trees. Upon which, judging the firft Operation not fufficient, Jefus begins again, and at length, the Man ❝is cured. Another Time, inftead of "making ufe of Spittle only, he tempers "it with Earth. Now, I afk, to what "does all this tend, as a Miracle? Does "Nature difpute with her Master? Has "he any need of Effort and Perfeverance "to make himself obeyed? Does he need Spittle, and Earth, and Ingredients? "

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See then, according to Mr. Rousseau, the Character of Miracle; it operates inftantaneously. I agree that this Character is indifpenfible, taken in the fame Senfe with that of our Author. But why then does he fu fpect of Amplification the Account of Lazarus's Refurrection, merely because that Refurrection was instantaneous? It must be inftantaneous to be miraculous; and, if you take away the Miracle, you take away the Refurrection. The Evangelift's Narration is so little exaggerated; that, according to Mr. Rouffeau's Principles, it is nothing, if you make any Deductions from

it.

Miracles,

Miracles, being a divine Operation, seem to be neceffarily the Work of an Inftant, and to exclude all Intervention of fecond Causes; whofe Agency, being gradual, and sometimes flow, always requires more or less Time. Accordingly, Jefus ufually performed them without any natural Means, and in an undivifible Moment. He fays to the Leper, Be thou clean; to the Paralytic, Arife, and walk to Lazarus, Come forth We fee him acting in behalf of God, and that it is God himfelf who acts in him; that God, who fpake and it was done; who commanded, and it flood fast †.

Indeed, in the Multitude of Miracles which Jefus wrought, fome feem to be an Exception to this Rule; as the Cure of the Man born blind, and that of the blind Man of Bethfaida. But what Ingredients were employed? Mr. Rouleau tells us, from the Evangelift, a little Earth and Spittle: but, has a little Earth and Spittle, applied to the Eye, a Power to give Sight to a blind Man? Befides, thefe Cures were immediate; even that of the blind Man of Bethfaida, where a Gradation is obfervable, was very rapid.

*Mat. viii, 3. Mark ii. 9. John xi. 43. † Pfalm xxxii. 9.

I 2

A fingle

A fingle Glance at each of these Cures, will fhew us wherein they differ from those which are the Work of human Art.

The Cure of the Man born blind, related in the ixth Chapter of St. John, cannot but be fupernatural. Jefus makes Clay with his Spittle: he anoints with it the Eyes of the Man born blind: he fays to him, Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam. blind goes thither, washes, and fees *:

The

The

Ufe which our Lord here makes of a little Earth and Spittle, is only a fymbolical Action, no way adapted of itself to operate this Cure. And befides, what Proportion has the Cause to such an Effect?

When they brought to Jefus a Man deaft, and deprived of Speech, he put his

* See Ver. 7. and 11. In the 11th Verse this Man fays, 1 washed, and I received Sight, which is the ftrick Senfe of anca, and marks out the inftantaneity of the Miracle.

+ The Gospel relates the Cure of feveral Men deaf and dumb. These Cures were perfect, inftantaneous, wrought without Trial, without Effort. In our own Time, Mr. Roderic Pereira, a Portuguese, long attempted to make Men speak who were deaf and dumb from their Birth in 1746 he undertook a young Man of nineteen, and, after feveral years Care and Labour, was able to prefent his Pupil to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, who put feveral Queftions to him, and he

answered

his Fingers into the Man's Ears, and taking Spittle, touched with it his Tongue. Will any one fay, that the Spittle had a phyfical Virtue, proper for giving Speech and Hearing to this Man?

The Opacity of the Cornea, or Crystalline, and a Paralyfis of the optic Nerve, are the Causes of Blindness; but neither of these Causes gives Way to a bare Gefture, or a mere Contact of the Hand. The Opacity of the Crystalline, which is called the Cataract, can be removed only by a delicate Operation*, depending upon Precautions and Preparations, which in the Cure of the Man born blind (if we fuppofe St. John to speak true) were not employed. The imperfect and periodical Gutta ferena, which does not wholly deprive of Sight, or which deprives of it but at certain Times, is capable of a Cure: but it is very

answered well, though slowly, and with a hoarfe Voice:But can this be compared with the Manner in which JESUS CHRIST gave HEARING and Speech to the Dumb?

* They begin by preparing the Patient with general Remedies, taking Care that not a Ray of the Sun may approach his Eyes, as it is of infinite Danger to expofe him to the Impreflions of Light: accordingly, the Operation being performed, the Eye-lids are closed.