prefumptuous empirics, who talk of their potable gold, and of the univerfal medecine. In incurable diseases they are the first and the last to be had recourse to; there they perform their chief feat, and deliver from all ills by precipitating families into mourning. The cafes in which remedies, ill applied, have had fatal confequences, are not rare. Infects have fometimes furnished matter for fuch accidents; as one example, I faw a physician of the kind we have mentioned adminifter cantharides to a man afflicted with the stone; the patient was immediately feized with the most excrutiating pains; he paffed blood, gangrene fucceeded, and he died. An Italian, whom I fhall not name, having taken cantharides, from an opinion generally received, that they provoke to venery, was foon punished for his ill judged temerity. He died in great agony, and upon opening his body, the paflages were all found inflamed and ulcerated.

I am fenfible, that I here afford to the atheist, but too favourable an opportunity of attacking religion, not to interrupt myfelf. I think I hear him fay, fince God, fupremely good, and infinitely wife, has created all things, and even infects, for a good end, he ought, for the fame reafon, to prevent man from employing them to a bad purpofe. Either God ́could not, or would not do this. If he could not, then he is not all-powerful; if he would not, he is deficient in goodness, confequently, he ceafes to be God, because he has not all the neceffary attributes of deity. This argument is fpecious, but it is not the lefs falfe and unfounded. The attributes of the Supreme Being, are intimately united with his effence, and, therefore, are infeparable. They can never be confidered apart, but fo united, that the power and the goodness of God, always perfectly accord with his wifdom. It is under this point of view, that, looking at man in the aggregate, we difcover,

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that the mechanifm of his body, is the work of infinite Power, the gift of reafon, the effect of inconceivable goodness, and his free will, that of confummate wifdom.. Now, if in order to make ufe of reafon, the Deity granted to man, the privilege of free will, it follows, that the Creator could not control the will, without an imputation on his own wifdom, and without annihilating, at the fame time, the liberty of the creature. Befides, as it is juft to ascribe to God all the good we receive from created things, it would be unjust to attribute to him the ill which results from the abufes we make of them.

CHAP. X.

OF THE PRODIGIES MENTIONED IN SCRIPTURE, WHICH RELATE TO INSECTS.

As a

Ir is as ridiculous to confider as miraculous, every thing that appears aftonishing, as it is impious to deny every fort of miracle. The firft betrays ignorance; the fecond manifefts the corruption of the mind, and the heart. This laft is the crime of atheists. miracle exceeds the power of nature, and, as in order to work one, a fuperior power is neceffary, they attribute this to nature herfelf, whom they confider, as a being poffeffed of omnipotence; that is, they maintain that nature can interrupt her own courfe, and change the laws fhe hath herself established. Except this, the atheist acknowledges no Supreme Being, confequently, no fupernatural effect, but in proportion as we contemplate

contemplate the conftant order that prevails in nature, the determinate structure, and multiplication of the different fpecics of animals, and in particular, what I have ftill to fay, with regard to infects; it is impoffible for us not to open our eyes, and acknowledge a Being, all-wife, different from nature, and all-powerful, a Being who hath created the universe, who hath regulated and limited the courfe of nature herself, who hath fixed the qualities and difpofitions of animals, and who can change, when he thinks fit, the order which he himfelf hath established: and, when this truth is once admitted, we can no longer doubt the poffibility of miracles. Accordingly, the Scripture informs us, that they have actually happened, and as its veracity hath been fufficiently demonftrated, its teftimony alone establishes the point.

We read, in Exodus, of various extraordinary events, which undoubtedly furpafs human power. I fhall not here stop to relate the proofs of the authenticity of the books of Mofes, not only because the fubject would lead me too far, but because others have already fet this in the cleareft light. I fhall only add, that the chaftifement of the ten plagues, inflicted on Egypt, by Mofes and Aaron, in three of which infects were the inftrument of the wrath of God, has been attefted by profane authors. St. Paul, II. Timothy iii. 8. puts Jannes and Jambres in the number of thofe who withstood Mofes, as other writers teftify. Numenius fays, that, when the Ifraelites were driven from Egypt, Jannes and Jambres, the facred writers of the Egyptians, had the reputation of being deeply skilled in magic; that they were unanimously chofen to oppofe their learning to the virtue of Mofes, the leader of the Jewish people, and that their prayers were fo effectual, as to ftop the progrefs of those plagues that had been brought on Pharoah and his fubjects. Though Numenius does not inform

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us, that thofe two magicians were unable to prevent thofe plagues, he, however, attefts the fact. Piny affures us, that there was a fort of magic known by Mofes, by Jambres and Jetopes, and which remained with the Jews, feveral thoufand years after the death of Zoroafter. What he fays is obfcure, but it fhews, however, that the legiflator of the Jews was celebrated for his miracles, and that he held a diftinguished place among the fages of his time.

Among other plagues which Egypt fuffered, the third is remarkable, as it is described in EXODUS viii. 16.-19. And the Lord faid unto Mofes, fay unto Aaron, stretch out thy rod, and fmite the duft of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And they did fo; for Aaron ftretched out his hand with his rod, and fmote the duft of the earth, and it became lice in man and beaft: all the duft of the land became lice, throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magicians did fo with their inchantments, to bring forth lice, but they could not; so there were lice upon man, and upon beaft. Then the magicians faid unto Pharoah, this is the finger of God; but Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had faid." There is nothing in this miracle, that can be imputed to natural caufes; it must be referred to the direction and power of God. The truth of the hiftory is inconteftible, not only in itself, but from the authority of many credible authors. Thus, the prophet David had this event in view, when, in fpeaking of the divine power, he fays, in PSALM CV. 30. 31. fpake, and there came divers forts of flies and lice in all their coafts." Jofephus has alfo mentioned this in his Jewish Antiquities. God, fays he, punished Pharaon for his wickednefs, but with another plague, for he overwhelmed the Egyptians with an innumerable quantity of lice, which fo tormented those

He

rebels,

rebels, that they could not get free from them, either by bathing, or anointing themfelves with oil. Even at this day, it is faid, the remains of thofe vermin are found, which the people of the country call Pharaoh's lice. They are a round infect, of a greyifh brown colour; fhining, and of the fize of a nut; they are greedy of blood, and their bite is intolerable, in a fhort time extenuating both men and beafts. We may eafily conceive, that they in nowife refemble those animals that are engendered by reafon of uncleanliness; we cannot but fuppofe, that those of Egypt were raised up by the hand that governs nature. Let us examine more particularly, the circumftances

of this prodigy. 1. Aaron was ordered to stretch forth his rod, in order to perform it. Is it to be fuppofed, that he wrought this miracle, folely by the virtue of his rod? 2. Aaron ftruck the duft of the earth, and transformed it into lice. It is a fact, now well-known to every naturalift, that duft is incapable of producing any living thing. Not only is it incapable of producing infects, but it is hurtful to them. We fee quadrupeds and birds roll themselves in the duft, in order to get quit of the vermin that prey on them. 3. It is remarkable, that in all the land of Egypt, the duft fuffered this change, at the moment that Aaron executed his orders. Now, though the multiplication of vermin is at all times rapid, yet, that they fhould extend over the whole country of a large kingdom, that they fhould attack all the inhabitants, from the king to the meanest of his fubjects, and that they fhould not fpare even animals of every kind, is a circumftance, quite beyond the ordinary operations of nature. 4. If, as David fays, the whole country fwarmed with thefe infects, does it not appear aftonishing, that the neighbouring regions fhould be free from them? 5. The magicians themfelves confeffed the impotence of their art, and acknowledged the power of that Mafter who controled