oceeds
thus--"There is a remarkable fragment of one of these tables still
extant, and exhibited by Gruter, in his collection, as it was found in
the ruins of Esculapius' Temple, in the island of the Tyber, at
Rome, which gives an account of two blind men restored to sight,
by Esculapius, in the open view, and with loud declamations of the
people, acknowledging the manifest power of the god!!" Upon
which he remarks, that "the learned Montfaucon makes this
reflection, ' that in this, are seen either the wiles of the Devil, or
the tricks of Pagan priests, suborning men to counterfeit diseases,
and miraculous cures.'" He then proceeds, (p.79)--"Now, though
nothing can support the belief, or credit of miracles more
authentically than public monuments erected in proof, and memory
of them at the time they were performed, yet, in defiance of that
authority, it is certain all these Heathen miracles were pure
forgeries, contrived to delude the multitude; and, in truth, this
particular claim of curing diseases miraculously, affords great
room for such a delusion, and a wide field for the exercise of
craft."

I need not observe, that by far the greater part of the miracles
recorded in the New Testament, are casting out devils, and healing
diseases, powers claimed by the heathens as well as these
Christians: and these miracles, (undoubtedly false) are as well, if
not far better authenticated than those of the New Testament: for
books may be forged, but public monuments of brass and marble
are not so capable of being so: and these are always con-sidered
as better evidence for facts than books. What then will the
Christian say to this? for since these miracles, recorded on brass
and marble, inscribed with the narratives of them almost
immediately after the occurrence of them, are unquestionably Lies;
what can he pretend to say of those recorded in books certainly
written many years after the events they record, and, as will be
proved hereafter, more than suspected to be apocryphal?
And what would become of truth? and who would be able to
distinguish truth from falsehood, in matters of religion, if attested
miracles, such as these, are sufficient to establish the divine
authority of doctrines said to be confirmed by them? Miracles are
as numerous, and better authenticated on the part of Jupiter,
Apollo, and Esculapius, than on the part of Christianity. They are
strong on the part of Popery against Protestantism: for the Roman
Catho