and gave the spoils of them to his courtiers, lived in perpetual fear of the Persians; and all they who appropriated to themselves those sacred things, came to an untimely end. Thus talks this Pagan orator: and in like manner the Pagans insulted the Jews for the calamities which they underwent.

This is enough to shew that temporal prosperity and adversity prove nothing concerning the favour or displeasure of Heaven; whatsoever they may pretend, who make use of such arguments, to serve their own ends, and to excite princes to actions good or bad. But the holy prelates of those days loved things temporal, at least as much as things spiritual, and were very jealous about prerogatives of their sees, and for ever wrangling about their titles, powers, and privileges *."

Amongst the vile methods which were practised to run down the Origenists, Arians, and Nestorians, are to be placed the visions of a certain monk. This fellow had been converted from Nestorianism; and was favoured with a marvellous sight. A man of a formidable aspect took him to a dark, stinking, burning cavern, and there shewed him Nestorius, Theodorus, Arius, and Origen, tormented in the fire †.

A. D. 402. Sulpitius Severus was a disciple of Martin of Tours, and a particular friend of Paulinus of Nola. He wrote the Life of Martin, and celebrated his miracles. His style is elegant, and far superior to that which was current in those days.

When he was a presbyter, he built a church, and desired Paulinus to give him some relique to place in it; and Paulinus sent him a bit of the cross.

Those

* Le Clerc, Bibl. Chois, viii. 28ɔ. + See Basnage, iii, 185,

Those ages were not ages of examination and ac curacy, but of credulity and negligence, and any story was propagated which seemed adapted to confirm the people in the faith. Thus Sulpitius and other writers tell us that Helena having built a church on the spot whence Christ ascended up into heaven, it was not possible to pave the place on which our Saviour had trodden immediately before his ascent, and that whatsoever was laid there was flung back into the face of the workmen, and that the print of his feet was impressed on the ground, and that the sand, though it was carried away, could never be dimi nished.

Here we see either the credulity, or the pious po licy of Sulpitius, which induced him to speak of this fable as of an undoubted truth, for the edification of good souls. But if his credulity, real or pretended, for imaginary miracles is censurable, he deserves commendation for condemning the bloody persecution of the Priscillianists.

His Life of Martin abounds with prodigies, which if wę admit, we must at the same time admit the most d absurd and incredible legends, and thereby cause the best attested miracles to become suspected. This is an important point, and it deserves serious consideration. It is a dangerous thing, says Plutarch, to be too credulous, or too incredulous on some points, because of the weakness of human nature, which can so difficultly preserve the true medium, and sometimes runs into superstition So and enthusiasm, sometimes into a neglect and contempt of the things relating to the Deity. The best way is to proceed cautiously, and to avoid extremes. A Christian divine could not give better advice, and it will be a shame for us to be less wise in this respect than a Pagan.

Miracles

Miracles then are not to be admitted or rejected, without a fair examination. When the relaters had means of being well informed, and no occasion to depend upon rumours, it only remains to consider whether they were not deceived themselves, or whether they were not disposed to deceive us.

When they are things which, as they declare, they had seen many times, and leisurely reviewed and considered, we may be sure that they could not be deceived. If instead of being gainers, they exposed themselves to the greatest dangers, and suffered much by testifying such things, when if they had held their peace, they might have escaped all ill usage, we have reason to think that they have not imposed upon us. If the miracles attested by them were wrought to confirm doctrines perfectly agreeable to reason, and which must produce a general good if they were generally received, I see no room left for doubt. But they recommend themselves still farther to our assent, if they were wrought neither for ostentation, nor without sufficient occasion, but with a certain frugality and moderation, which shews. that the persons who performed them sought not their own glory, nor the applause of the multitude, but proposed to do acts of charity, and relieve persons in distress, and at the same time to confirm the divine mission of men who taught a charitable and an amiable system of religion.

Now if we consider the miracles related by writers. of the fourth and fifth centuries, we find none of these characteristics of truth. They are perpetually relating things which they saw not, which they learned. from hearsays; and in these relations they agree not one with another. Such was the finding of the cross,

a story

a story told with discordant circumstances, * and a miracle easily counterfeited; for how was it possible to know that a scrap of wood, which was shewed about, was a piece of the true cross? They who gave away these reliques, and had received them from 0thers, might sincerely believe them to be genuine ; but how could they be sure that they were not deceived? Was it not rather a clear case that the frag ments were counterfeits, since if they had been all put together, they would have made a cross so large, and so heavy, that no one man could have carried it upon his shoulders? It is true, that to remove this obvious difficulty, it was said that the cross was endued with a miraculous vegetation, and though daily cut, yet never was diminished. But who sees not that the bishop of Jerusalem might easily impose upon the people, either by giving them pieces which were not cut off from the cross, or by substituting a new cross, when the old one had been too much chipped and pared? If we should say that the miracles wrought by these bits of wood were fables invented on purpose to enhance their value, or the mere effects of a disordered imagination, we should say nothing but what is more probable than the reality of these prodigies.

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Besides, as soon as the Christians became the prevailing party, they who related such false miracles had much to gain; and they had nothing to fear if their pious frauds were discovered. Such men were protected and caressed for the honour of religion, and tr by way of recompense for their godly intentions. Indeed it was dangerous to attack such frauds, on account of the power and interest of those who were concerned in them. A man was immediately marked the

* Tillemont himself is forced to confess thus much, vii. 3.

for

for an heretic or an atheist, and exposed to persecution, as we see by the example of Vigilantius, on whom Jerom poured forth a torrent of foul language, of threats and insults, because he had dared to deride the superstitious venerations of reliques.

These wonders were not wrought, properly speaking, to confirm the Christian religion, already established and secured by imperial laws. The miracles recorded in the Scriptures, and the beauty of the Christian doctrine, these things set in a true light, were sufficient to convert and confirm well-disposed persons.

But the ecclesiastics wanted to attract offerings and presents, and to increase the number of their tributaries. The manifest lucre, which they drew from these proceedings render all their relations extremely dubious, to say no more.

Besides, the doctrine of those days was no longer that amiable and venerable doctrine, so conformable to good sense, and under the most artless simplicity containing all the moral truths that the best philosophers had propounded, and surpassing by far all their discoveries. Christianity was now embarrassed with intricate disputes, rash decisions, new ceremonies, and awkward practices, much more adapted to destroy than to augment true piety.

Miracles were so profusely exhibited, and so ostentatiously vaunted by persons whom it was not safe to contradict, that it might easily be perceived to be a kind of game, tending to establish the authority of the winners, and to take advantage of the credulity of the populace; and it is hard to conceive that men of sense. in those days could pay any regard to them.

If