66 their incredulity. They are vastly fond of a passage of Lucian in the death of Peregrinus, "a dexterous juggler turning Christian is sure of "making his fortune;" but Lucian is a profane author, and, of course, should be of no weight among us. These philosophers cannot bring themselves to believe the miracles of the second century, though eye-witnesses have in writing declared, that the bishop of Smyrna, St. Policarpe, having, pursuant to the sentence passed on him, been thrown into a blazing fire, they heard a voice from heaven calling out, "Chear up, Po"licarpe, be strong in the Lord, and shew "thyself a man;" at which the flames of the pile drawing back from his body, formed a fiery canopy over his head, and out of the pile flew a dove: at last they were obliged to cut off the good bishop's head. To what purpose was this miracle? say unbelievers; how came it that the flames deviated from their nature, and the executioner's ax had the natural effect? how is it that so many martyrs, after coming safe and sound out of boiling oil, have fallen under the edge of the sword? The usual answer is, that such was God's will; but the philosophers will believe no such thing, unless they had seen it with their own eyes. They who improve their reasonings by study, will tell you that the fathers of the church have themselves often owned that miracles were ceased in their time. St. Chrysostom says expressly, "The extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were given even to the unworthy, because the church then stood in need of miracles; but at ་་ 66 " present 46 66 present they are not so much as given to the worthy, the church no longer standing in need "of them." Afterwards he acknowledges that there was nobody then who raised the dead, or so much as cured the sick. 66 66 St. Austin himself, as if he had forgot the miracle of Gervase and Protais, says in his City of God, Why are those miracles, which were performed some time ago, at present ceased ?" and he gives the same reason, "Cur, inquiunt, "nunc illa miracula quæ prædicatis facta esse, "non fiunt? Possem quidem dicere, necessaria "priùs fuisse, quam crederet mundus, ad hoc ut "crederet mundus." It is objected to the philosophers, that St. Austin, notwithstanding this avowal, speaks of an old cobler at Hippo, who having lost his cloak, went to pray for relief at the chapel of the Twenty Martyrs, and in his return home found a fish, in the body of which was discovered a gold ring; the cook who dressed it giving it to the cobler, said, There is a present for you from the Twenty Martyrs. To this the philosophers answer, that in that story there is nothing contrary to the laws of nature; that a fish may very naturally have swallowed a gold ring; and that there is no miracle in the cook's giving that ring to the cobler. If the philosophers are put in mind that, according to St. Jerom, in his Life of the hermit Paul, this devout person had several conversations with satyrs and fauns; that a raven for thirty years together daily brought him half a loaf for his dinner; and a whole loaf the day St. Anthony paid him a visit; they may still reply that nothing of all this is absolutely con T. trary trary to nature; that satyrs and fauns may have existed; and that, after all, if this story be a puerility, that does not in the least affect the real miracles of our Saviour and his apostles. Several good Christians have rejected the story of St. Simin Stilites, written by Theodoret: many miracles accounted authentic in the Greek church have been questioned by Latin writers; so in return, Latin miracles have been suspected by the Greeks; in process of time came the Protestants, who have made very free with the miracles of both churches. A learned Jesuit (1) who preached a long time in the Indies, complains, that neither his brethren nor he could ever perform one single miracle. Xavier, in several letters, laments his not having the gift of tongues: he says that he is but as a dumb image among the Japanese; yet, according to the narrative of the Jesuits, he restored eight dead persons to life, and that is a great many; but it must withal be considered, that the scene of those restorations was six thousand leagues off. Some persons of later times make the suppression of the Jesuits in France a much greater miracle than all those of Xavier and Ignatius put together. Be that as it may, all Christians hold the miracles of Jesus Christ and his apostles to be indisputably true and real, but allow that some miracles of our modern times, and which are without any certain authenticity, may very well be doubted of. It were to be wished, that for the legal verification of a miracle, it should be performed be fore (1) Ospinian, p. 230. fore the Academy of Sciences at Paris, or the Royal Society, and the College of Physicians at London, with a detachment of the guards to keep off the people, whose tumultuous indiscretion might hinder the performance of the miracle. A philosopher was one day asked what he would say if the sun should stand still, that is,. if the motion of the earth round that body ceased'; if all the dead arose; and if all the mountains went and threw themselves into the sea; and all this to prove some important truth, we will suppose versatile grace. What I should say, answered the philosopher, I would turn Manichee, and say, that there is a principle which undoes what the other has done. MOSES. IT (1) has been the groundless opinion of many learned men that the Pentateuch cannot have been (1) So fond is our author of paradox, that in the fol lowing article he supposes Moses not to have been the author of the Pentateuch, or the five books commonly attributed to that legislator, viz. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It is true, as he acknowledges those books to have been written by an inspired writer, it is not essential to religion, whether Moses was the author of them or not. But for the sake of historical truth, we shall give a few remarks on this subject. The Pentateuch was called the law by way of excellence, because the principal part of it con tained the law which Moses had received from God on Mount Sinai. Now it can hardly be questioned but this legislator T 2 been written by Moses. They say that, accord ing to the scripture itself, the first known copy was gislator was the author of the Pentateuch, if we attentively consider the 24th chapter of Exodus and the 31st of Deuteronomy. In the former, it is expressly said, "And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord;" in the latter," And Moses wrote this law, and deliver❝ed it unto the priests the sons of Levi:" Again, " And "it came to pass when Moses had made an end of "writing the words of this law in a book until they 66 were finished." Besides, all antiquity, both sacred and profane, acknowledges Moses to have been the legislator of the Jews. That whole nation has always carefully preserved his books, and looked upon them as containing their law. When the tribes were divided into two kingdoms, both of them preserved the same respect for those books as being written by Moses. Prophane authors have spoken of those books, as penned by the same legislator. In short, it is as certain that the books which go by the name of Moses are his own, as that those ascribed to Thucydides and Livy, &c. appertain to those whose names they bear. It is possible there may have been some additions and alterations made in them; but the body of the history and the laws could not be altered. Thus the death of Moses is clearly mentioned in the last chapter of Deuteronomy: whence it is probable, that either Joshua or Esdras added the eight last verses of that book; though Josephus pretends that Moses, finding his dissolution approaching, wrote those lines himself, in order to certify his death at the end of his books, lest the Jews, from too great a regard to his memory, should deny his death, and give out that he had been translated into Heaven. Notwithstanding this evidence of Moses's being the author of the Pentateuch, some late writers, as Pere Simon and Le Clerc, have espoused |