"travelling through the deserts of Egypt, to "feek out Paul, another hermit, whom he " was ordered to vifit by a divine revelation, "he met with a Centaur upon the road, and "being amazed at the figure of so strange a "creature, and having armed himself with "the fign of the cross, he demanded of the "beast, in what part of the defert the ser"vant of God refided: to which the Centaur "made some answer in a strange and horri"ble tone of voice, and with geftures of great civility pointed out the road to him by ftretching forth his right-hand, and "then ran fwiftly away. Antony had not gone many steps farther, wondering within "himself at what he had just seen, before he

efpied a Satyr approaching towards him: "this creature was a little man, with goat's

feet, a crooked nofe, and a forehead armed "with horns, who, in token of peace, of"fered him the fruit of the palm-tree, and

being prefently afked by Antony, what he

"was, replied, I am a mortal, and one of "those inhabitants of the defert, whom the "deluded Gentiles worship, under the names "of Fauns, Satyrs, and Incubi; and am now deputed as an ambaffador from our whole "tribe, to beg your prayers and interceffion for us to our common lord and mafter,

"whom

"whom we know to have been fent for the "falvation of the whole world'."

EITHER these faints believed the miraculous ftories they related, or they did not believe them if they did believe them, they must have been fome of the weakest and most credulous of men: if they did not believe those things which they reported for truths, I fhall leave the reader to judge what appellation they deferve; and in either cafe, how much fuch perfons were to be relied on. But it is not very difficult to form a judgment of this laft-mentioned faint particularly, who, tho' he acknowledged a certain story told by the chriftians of Jerusalem, relating to the Jews, to be improbable, yet added, as I have elsewhere taken notice, Non condemnamus errorem, qui de odio Judæo rum & fidei pietate defcendet. i. e. "We do

not find fault with an error, which flows "from an hatred of the Jews, and a pious " zeal for the chriftian faith." And in an

other place he intimates, that refpecting controversy, whose end was victory rather than truth, it was allowable to employ every artifice which would beft ferve to conquer an

THIS is indeed quite agreeable to his "general character, avowed and defended by himself, to say and unfay, and to argue

pute, any

pro or con, just as it fuited the times, or "ferved his caufe: and this conduct he pre"tends to justify by the examples of other faints, of St. Paul, nay and of Chrift him"self, whom he reprefents as laying about « them, like mad-men, with every weapon, "good or bad, that comes next to hand, "without any regard to fincerity and truth, "which he thinks no man is tied to in a diffurther than it ferves his turn *.” HAD not the learned Mofheim, though a zealous advocate for chriftianity, reafon to exprefs his fears, "that thofe who fearch " with any attention into the writings of the greatest and most holy doctors of the fourth century, will find them all, without exception, difpofed To DECEIVE AND TO "LYE, whenever the intereft of religion re"quires it "?" But furely this author could' have little reafon to confine thefe fears to the fathers of one late century: might he not very juftly have faid, with Dr. Middleton? "If these later fathers, biaffed by a falfe zeal "or intereft, could be tempted to propagate.

A KNOWN LYE; or with all their learning "and knowledge, could be fo weakly cre"dulous

"dulous, as to believe the abfurd ftories " which they themselves atteft; there muft "always be reason to fufpect, that the fame "prejudices would operate even more strongly "in the earlier fathers, prompted by the fame → " zeal and the fame interefts, yet endued with "lefs learning, less judgment, and more credulity "."

the foregoing account of miracles

T given us by the fathers, I fhall add the

recital of three or four from those ancient and celebrated church-hiftorians, Eufebius, Sozomen, and Evagrius.

THE firft of these relates, from a certain author who wrote before his time, "an important fact, that," fays he, "happened among us, and which, if it had happened among the inhabitants of Sodom, would, I perfuade myself, have caufed them to re pent." It was of a martyr named Natalis, who lived in that time, and being feduced, by certain heretics, who taught that Chrift was but a mere man, to join in this belief, he (Natalis) was frequently advised in his dreams to separate from these men; but not conform

• Ibid.

ing

ing to this advice, he was fcourged during à whole night by angels: upon which, rifing early in the morning, covering himself with fack-cloth and ashes, and appearing before Zepherinus, the clergy and people, they were, by his tears and the fight of his wounds, fo moved to compaffion, that he was restored to the communion of the church.

SOZOMEN gives us the two following miracles performed about the year 324 by Spyridon, bishop of Cyprus.

A CERTAIN perfon having depofited something of value with Irene, this bishop's daughter, she hid it under-ground for the greater fecurity, and died foon after, without discovering to any one where it was concealed. He who had reposed this confidence in her, coming to 'demand his property, Spyridon searched the house for it, but to no purpose; whereupon he went to his daughter's grave, called her with a loud voice, and asked where he had laid what he was intrufted with the immediately declared the place in which it was hid, and Spyridon returning to his houfe found what had been left with her, and reftored it to the owner. The fame ftory, with a small variation, is told by Socrates, another of these ancient churchhiftorians ".

f Hift. Eccl. 1. v. c. 28. ▸ Socrates 1. i. c. xii,

THIS

Sozomen 1. i. c. xi,