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our philofopher feems to have overlooked, when he gave his judgment in this case.

At the time when these miracles were faid to have been performed, there was a strong and numerous party in France, under the conduct of very able and learned men, who were ftrongly prepoffeffed in favour of that caufe which thofe miracles were calculated to fupport; and on the first rumour of them, they were eagerly cried up, and confidered as the clear decifion of heaven in favour of the Janfenists.

The character of this Abbé was fuch, as makes it highly improbable that any miracle fhould have been wrought by him, or in his favour. His whole life was a courfe of the moft abfurd and painful fuperftitions. He abridged himself even of the neceffaries of life, and was, in fact, acceffary to his own death, by refufing proper affistance, and even better nourishment, when he was manifeftly drawing near his end, in confequence of his extreme austerities.

By the manner in which Mr. Hume writes upon this fubject, one would imagine that these miracles had never been contradicted, and that the evidence for them had never been difputed; and yet the fact is, that they were always fufpected by moft perfons who heard of them; that the archbishop of Sens confidered twenty-two of them as impoftures; that the counfellor Montgeron, who un

dertook

dertook to confute him, gave up feventeen of thefe pretended cures, and defended only five; that M. Des Voux proved to him that he defended them very ill; that in the judicial proceedings upon the occafion, the falfity of many of these prodigies was demonftrated; that many witneffes abfconded to escape examination; that others depofed that their certificates had been falfified, by the addition of circumstances which were not true; that many of the fick perfons protefted against the account which had been publifhed of their cures; that many of those who had been fubject to convulfions, confeffed to M. De Heraut, the lieutenant of the police, that their convulfions were artificial; that the cures, true or falfe, were but gradual, and accomplished by feveral steps; that they were obliged to go nine times at least, and often more, to the tomb of the Abbé; fo that the cures might very poffibly be either the work of time, of a lively imagination, or of the medicines which they continued to take; that by far the greatest number of thofe who applied for a cure were disappointed; that it was very unlikely that the affiftance of the divine being should not have been obtained but by means of convulfions, fwoonings, violent, and fome times very indecent geftures, which those who applied for a cure made ufe of; and lastly, that thefe miracles entirely ceafed when no credit

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was given to them; and instead of drawing the Janfenifts out of the low reputation into whey they were fallen, they only ferved to make the whole party more ridiculous and contemptible *.

Mr. Hume alfo mentions after the cardinal De Retz, a miracle which was faid to have been wrought in Saragoffa; but, by Mr. Hume's own account, the cardinal himself did not believe it.

The laft inftance I fhall mention is one on which Mr. Chubb lays great ftrefs, viz. a miracle faid to have been wrought among the Camifards, or the proteftants in the South of France, and which he fays cannot be diftinguished from a real miracle. The principal thing that was exhibited upon this occafion was one Clary, feeming to ftand or dance about in the flames unhurt. The account was published by Mr. Lacy, an English gentleman, who joined the French protestants when they took refuge in England, from the depofitions of John Cavalier, a brother of the principal leader of the Camifards, but a perfon of an infamous character, who afterwards turned papift, and enlifted in the French king's guards.

But M. Le Moine, who answered Mr Chubb's treatise on miracles, in which this fact was mentioned, having taken fome pains to enquire into it, found, upon the teftimony of the moft unexcep

Lettres de Rouftan, p. 85, &c.

tionable

tionable witneffes, efpecially that of one Serres, who had been a member of the privy council of the Camifards, that the whole business was a trick, contrived by themfelves, in order to encourage their troops. This perfon, when near his death, gave a circumftantial account of the manner in which the artifice had been conducted; and the particulars, together with the proofs of the whole discovery, may be feen in M. Le Moine's treatise on miracles, p. 4.0, &c.

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CHAPTER VII.

A VIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL OBJECTIONS TO THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN REVELATIONS.

N the preceding sections I have givẹn a general

IN

view of the evidence for the truth of the Jewish and christian revelations, or the reafons which induce me to believe that the divine being has interpofed in the affairs of this world, giving mankind laws and admonitions, with fuch fanctions refpecting our future expectations, and especially our expectations after death, as we find an account of in the fcriptures; and I prefume that such facts have been produced, as cannot be accounted for without fuppofing that these books contain a true and authentic history.

That teftimony fo copious, and fo particularly circumftanced, given by fuch numbers of perfons, who had the beft opportunity of being informed, and who were fo far from having any motive to impofe upon the world, fhould, notwithstanding, be given to a fafhood, cannot be admitted, without fuppofing all thofe perfons to have been conftituted in a manner quite different from other men. And by whatever method of reafoning we difpute the authenticity

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