THE TRUE INTELLECTUAL SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE. CHAPTER V. SECTION I.-CONTINUED. WE come now to the second head proposed, of miracles and effects supernatural. That there hath been something miraculous or above nature, sometimes done even among the Pagans (whether by good or evil spirits), appears not only from their own records, but also from the scripture itself. And it is well known, that they pretended (besides oracles) to miracles also, even after the times of Christianity; and that not only in Apollonius Tyanæus and Apuleius, but also in the Roman emperors themselves, as Vespasian and Adrian, but especially in the temple of Esculapius; thus much appearing from that Greek table therein hung up at Rome,1 in which, amongst other things, this is recorded: "That a blind man being commanded by the oracle to kneel before the altar, and then passing from the right side thereof to the left, to lay five fingers upon the altar, and afterwards lifting up his hand, to touch his eyes therewith; all this being done accordingly, he recovered his sight, the people all applauding; that great miracles were done under the emperor Antoninus," &c. But we have in the scripture an account of miracles, both greater in number, and of a higher nature; done especially by Moses, and our Saviour Christ and his apostles. 1 Vide Gruteri Inscription. tom. 1. p. 71. This marble tablet, or rather fragment of a tablet, is supposed to have been suspended in the temple of Esculapius in an island in the Tiber at Rome, where instances were recorded of cures effected by Esculapius. This tablet has been copiously treated of by Daniel Le Clerc, Histoire de la Medicine, pt. 1. lib. 1. cap. 20. 2 Our author here follows the early fathers, almost all of whom unhesitatingly beVOL. III. B Wherefore it seems, that there are two sorts of miracles or effects supernatural. First, such as though they could not be done by any ordinary and natural causes here amongst us, and in lieved that many miracles and prodigies were anciently done among heathen nations by the power and influence of evil spirits. See Athenagoras, Apology, cap. 20. p. 89; Tertullian's Apology, cap. 22. p. 222; Clement's Recognitions, lib. 4. cap. 21. &c. p. 542. &c. of the first volume of the Patres Apostolici, and several others. But I think our author would have done better to have considered all the miracles reported to have anciently taken place among the Pagans, either as false or uncertain, or to have happened from natural causes, or to have proceeded from the frauds and tricks of the priests. [On this point consult Van Dalen, De Oraculis, who throughout that work enumerates and explains many false miracles.] This has been well demonstrated by Father Anselm, in a remarkable Dissertation in the Histoire de l'Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres, tom, 8. p. 59; by Freret, in another Dissertation in the same work, tom. 8. p. 76; and previously by Jacques Serces, Traité des Miracles, p. 258. &c. And this view appears to me much more consistent with the divine glory than the one adopted by Dr. Cudworth. For if God allowed such a number of miracles as are on record to be performed among the heathen for the purpose of establishing the pagan religion and worship, he would in some sense himself have caused them to persevere in their ancestral superstitions and ceremonies. Nor is the opinion that I have mentioned altogether destitute of authority from the fathers, some of whom were certainly quicksighted enough in distinguishing miracles and exposing the frauds of the priests. The instances of miracles mentioned in the text rather serve to confirm my view than to oppose it. I. Respecting the supposed miracles of Apollonius Tyanæus I have already made some observations. They are scarcely worthy of mention, and show their author to have been an ambitious man, somewhat skilled in deceiving the people. Nor do the prodigies of Apuleius deserve a better character; besides which, in his Apology, still extant, he himself expressly disclaims all suspicion of his being a magician. II. The miracles ascribed to Vespasian and Adrian bear internal marks of falsehood, as has been fully shown by C. A. Heumann, in a remarkable Dissertation, De Miraculis Vespasiani Pœciles, tom. 2. lib. 2. p. 427; J. Le Clerc, Historia Ecclesiæ Primorum Duorum Sæculorum, cent. 2. year 138. pp. 610.611; and J. Serces, Traité Des Miracles, p. 276. &c. III. There remain then only the miracles of Esculapius, the most celebrated of any, and most relied on by the heathen opponents of Christianity. But it will appear, I think, from the following observations, that no rational credit is due to them. (1.) First, then, I observe, that all the priests of Æsculapius, as I have proved in another place, were skilled in medicine, and having first minutely examined the diseases and the constitutions of those who lay sick in the temple of the god, afterwards prescribed remedies proper for curing their complaints. The invalids who committed the care of their recovery to Esculapius were not cured by a word or a sentence; but by herbs, juices, and other things such as are used by physicians. Esculapius' miracles were therefore just such as are done by medical men of the present day. I will prove this by two authentic testimonies, one from a Christian writer, the other from a disbeliever in Christianity. The first is Arnobius, Adv. Gentes, lib. 1. p. 35. 36. who thus writes: Dii, si quando, ut fama est, nonnullis attribuere medicinam, aut cibum aliquem jusserunt capi, aut qualitatis alicujus ebibi potionem, aut herbarum et graminum succos superimponi inquietantibus caussis, ambulare, cessare, aut re aliquâ, quæ officiat, abstinere; quod esse non magnum, nec admirationis alicujus stupore condignum promptum est, si volueritis attendere; et medici etiam sic curant......Nulla autem virtus est medicaminibus amovere, quæ noceant; beneficia ista rerum non sunt curationum potestates, "If the gods, as is reported, ever have administered medicine to any persons, or commanded a certain sort of food to be taken, or liquid of a particular kind to be drunk, or the juices of herbs and grains to be applied to the parts affected, to walk, to rest, or to abstain from any thing that may be hurtful, it is obviously no great thing, nor worthy of any extraordinary degree of wonder, if it be properly considered; and physicians use the same method of cure...... For there is no great power in removing what is noxious by means of medicines; such benefits as these are the powers of the things themselves rather than of the cures." The latter is Lucian, who, |