[28]It may perhaps be objected that I proceed rashly and from my notions of A/LEXANDER merely from the account given of him by Lucian, a professed enemy. It were indeed to be wished that some of the accounts published by his followers and accomplices had remained. The opposition and contrast betwixt the character and conduct of the same man as drawn by a friend or an enemy is as strong, even in common life, much more in these religious matters, as that betwixt any to men in the world; betwixt A/LEXANDER and St.
Paul, for instance. See a Letter to Gilbert West, Esq., on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul. [This note was removed by Hume from later editions of the . --J.F.]
[29]Hist. lib. v. cap. 8, S/UETONIUS gives nearly the same account in vita V/ESP.
[30]T/HIS book was by Mons. M/ONTGERON, counsellor or judge of the parliament of P/ARIS, a man of figure and character, who was also a martyr to the cause, and is now said to be somewhere in a dungeon on account of his book.
There is another book in three volumes (called P/ARIS) giving an account of many of these miracles, and accompanied with prefatory discourses, which are very well written. There runs, however, through the whole of these a ridiculous comparison between the miracles of our Saviour and those of Abbe;wherein it is asserted, that the evidence for the latter is equal to that for the former: As if the testimony of men could ever be put in the balance with that of God himself, who conducted the pen of the inspired writers. If these writers, indeed, were to be considered merely as human testimony, the F/RENCH author is very moderate in his comparison; since he might, with some appearance of reason, pretend, that the J/ANSENIST miracles much surpass the others in evidence and authority. the following circumstances are drawn from authentic papers, inserted in the above-mentioned book.
Many of the miracles of Abbe P/ARIS were proved immediately by witnesses before the officiality or bishop's court at P/ARIS, under the eye of cardinal Noailles, whose character for integrity and capacity was never contested even by his enemies.
His successor in the archbishopric was an enemy to the J/ANSENISTS, and for that reason promoted to the see by the court. Yet 22 rectors or of P/ARIS, with infinite earnestness, press him to examine those miracles, which they assert to be known to the whole world, and undisputably certain: But he wisely forbore.
The M/OLINIST party had tried to discredit these miracles in one instance, that of Mademoiselle le F/RANC.
But, besides that their proceedings were in many respects the most irregular in the world, particularly in citing only a few of the J/ANSENIST witnesses, whom they tampered with:
Besides this, I say, they soon found themselves overwhelmed by a cloud of new witnesses, one hundred and twenty in number, most of them persons of credit and substance in P/ARIS, who gave oath for the miracle. this was accompanied with a solemn and earnest appeal to the parliament. But the parliament were forbidden by authority to meddle in the affair. It was at last observed, that where men are heated by zeal and enthusiasm, there is no degree of human testimony so strong as may not be procured for the greatest absurdity: And those who will be so silly as to examine the affair by that medium, and seek particular flaws in the testimony, are almost sure to be confounded. It must be a miserable imposture,indeed, that does not prevail in that contest.
All who have been in F/RANCE about that time have heard of the reputation of Mons. H/ERAUT, the , whose vigilance, penetration, activity, and extensive intelligence have been much talked of. This magistrate, who by the nature of his office is almost absolute, was invested with full powers, on purpose to suppress or discredit these miracles; and he frequently seized immediately, and examined the witnesses and subjects of them: But never could reach any thing satisfactory against them.
In the case of Mademoiselle T/HIBAUT he sent the famous D/E S/YLVA to examine her; whose evidence is very curious. The physician declares, that it was impossible she could have been so ill as was proved by witnesses; because it was impossible sh could, in so short a time, have recovered so perfectly as he found her. He reasoned, like a man of sense, from natural causes; but the opposite party told him, that the whole was a miracle, and that his evidence was the very best proof of it.
The M/OLINISTS were in a sad dilemma. They durst not assert the absolute insufficiency of human evidence, to prove a miracle. They were obliged to say, that these miracles were wrought by witchcraft and the devil. But they were told, that this was the resource of the J/EWS of old.
No J/ANSENIST was ever embarrassed to account for the cessation of the miracles, when the church-yard was shut up by the king's edict. It was the touch of the tomb, which produced these extraordinary effects; and when no one could approach the tomb, no effects could be expected. God, indeed, could have thrown down the walls in a moment; but he is master of his own graces and works, and it belongs not to us to account for them. He did not throw down the walls of every city like those of J/ERICHO, on the sounding of the rams horns, nor break up the prison of every apostle, like that of St. P/AUL.
No less a man, than the Duc de C/HATILLON, a duke and peer of F/RANCE, of the highest rank and family, gives evidence of a miraculous cure, performed upon a servant of his, who had lived several years in his house with a visible and palpable infirmity.
I shall conclude with observing, that no clergy are more celebrated for strictness of life and manners than the secular clergy of F/RANCE, particularly the rectors or cures of P/ARIS, who bear testimony to these impostures.
