gistrates to favour the deceit. None of these miracles were performed in places where they must have been the most wanted, viz. in the presence of unbelievers; and besides, they were of fuch a nature, as could answer no good end whatever, many of them a bad one, and the rest were whimsical and ridiculous, such as, we cannot but think, must have been altogether unworthy of the character of the fupreme being. And yet, with refpect even to the popish miracles, which are only pre.. tended to have been wrought in countries in which it is highly dangerous not only to make any inquiry into them, but even to hint the least suspicion of their truth; Mr. Chubb fcruples not to fay, that they are better attested than any that are faid to have been wrought in the first century, that is, by Chrift and the apostles; and the philofophical Mr. Hume expresses himself in a still stronger manner to the same purpose.

The pretended miracles of Apollonius Tyanæus have been set upon a level with those of Chrift by Hierocles and Philoftratus among the antients, and by Mr. Blount among the moderns. I shall therefore give a more particular account of thein:

This Apollonius was a Pythagorean philosopher, cotemporary with Christ, and remarkable, as it is faid, for his temperance and many other virtues. It is affirmed, that he performed many miracles, particularly, transporting himself in the air from

one place to another, and even raising the dead. He is alfo faid to have afcended into heaven, and to have appeared to the emperor Alexander.

But it certainly tends to descredit the story, that Apollonius had been dead, or tranflated, above a hundred years before Philoftratus wrote, and that his history was compiled partly from the commentaries of one Damis, which were never published, but given to this writer by the empress Julia, as Secret memoirs, without any evidence of their being genuine; and partly from the writings of Maximus Æginenfis, and Meragenes, the former of whom only wrote a few particulars; and, according to the character given of him by Philoftratus himself, was a very fabulous and romantic writer.

It is, indeed, faid, that there were public monuments of some of the Miracles of Apollonius, but they are also said to have been in distant cities of India and Ethiopia, where no writer pretends to have found them. Some letters of Apollonius are mentioned, but Philoftratus owns that they did not relate to any of his miracles, but only to the curiofities of the countries through which he travelled.

The manner in which Philoftratus writes, gives us but a very indifferent opinion of his own character, and his style is affected and extravagant, full of an oftentation of learning, and shewing a difpofition disposition to exaggerate every thing that could tend to the reputation of his hero.

Many of the miracles ascribed to Apollonius were faid to have been done in secret, or before very few witnesses; some were self-contradictory, and others were evidently vain and foolish; and not a few of them appear to have been borrowed from the history of the Evangelifts.

The occafion of Philoftratus's writing seems to have been his defire to ingratiate himself with Julia, the wife of Severus, and with Caracalla the fucceeding emperor, by detracting from chriftianity, to which they both had a very great aversion Lastly, the story of these miracles presently died away, and the disciples of Apollonius were so few, that there is little reason to believe that he was, in any respect, so extraordinary a person as Philostratus pretended.

As to the magical rites of the heathens, nothing could be more wicked or absurd. Nero shewed the most extravagant fondness for this odious and contemptible art, and fent for the most eminent profeffors of it from all parts of the world; but the issue of it was his own, and a general conviction of the folly of their pretences.

The emperor Vespasian is said to have cured a blind and a lame man at Alexandria; and this, Mr. Hume says, is one of the best attested miracles in all profane hiftory. But it may be easily

collected from the accounts of the two historians, who mention these miracles neither of whom it is probable believed in them, and one of them evidently did not) that these extraordinary narrations were very convenient, in order to give weight to. the authority of Vefpafian, who was newly made emperor.

Mohammed himself did not pretend to any miracle, except the Koran itself; and that this was a divine composition, he does not pretend to give any pofitive proof; but contents himself with appealing to its own excellence; and it was probably superior to the poetical compofitions of other Arabians of his time; and this it might very well be, though written by himself, or his confidents. In the tranflation of Mr. Sale, who is allowed to have been a great master of the Arabic language, and who certainly meant to give it all poffible advantage, it is, upon the whole, a very mean performance. The style of the Koran cannot be faid to be comparable to that of many parts of the Old Teftament, which, however, was never alledged as any proof of its divinity.

It does not appear that this only pretended miracle of Mohammed gained him any followers; the propagation of his religion having been owing chiefly to the sword. Moreover, though the Mohammedan religion be very abfurd, and unnaturally harsh in some respects, especially in the abfolute

lute prohibition of wine, it flatters men with the greatest indulgence in others; every inan being allowed four wives, and as many concubines as he can keep; and the future rewards of good Muffelmen are represented as being of a fenfual nature. The great advantage which Mohammedanism had over the corrupt chriftianity of the times in which it was published, was, that it afferted the great doctrine of the unity of God, against the Trinitarians; but, in other respects, all who profess this religion are slaves to the most abject superstition. And yet Mr. Chubb fays, that whether Mohammedanism be a divine revelation, or not, there seems to be a plaufible pretence, arifing from the circumstance of things, to stamp a divine character upon it.

Of all the Popish miracles, those which have been ascribed to the Abbé Paris are generally allowed to be the most credible. Mr. Hume boafts exceedingly of them, afferting that no where elfe can there be found such a number of circumstances, agreeing to the corroboration of one fact; and that nothing can be opposed to such a cloud of witnesses, but the abfolute impoffibility, or miraculous nature of the events. He even says, that those miracles may be faid, with fome appearance of reason, to furpass those of Christ in evidence and authority, Philofophical Essays, p. 198, &c. Let us now consider a few circumstances which