him to the heart,
when his shoulder was touched by the hand of God. After a familiar,
though important conversation, he descended to Jerusalem, remounted the
Borak, returned to Mecca, and performed in the tenth part of a night the
journey of many thousand years. His resistless word split asunder the
orb of the moon, and the obedient planet stooped from her station in the
sky.[269:3]

These and many other wonders, similar in character to the story of Jesus
sending the demons into the swine, are related of Mahomet by his
followers.

It is very certain that the same circumstances which are claimed to have
taken place with respect to the Christian religion, are also claimed to
have taken place in the religions of Crishna, Buddha, Zoroaster,
AEsculapius, Bacchus, Apollonius, Simon Magus, &c. Histories of these
persons, with miracles, relics, circumstances of locality, suitable to
them, were as common, as well authenticated (if not better), and as much
believed by the devotees as were those relating to Jesus.

All the Christian theologians which the world has yet produced have not
been able to procure any evidence of the miracles recorded in the
_Gospels_, half so strong as can be procured in evidence of miracles
performed by heathens and heathen gods, both before and after the time
of Jesus; and, as they cannot do this, let them give us a reason why we
should reject the one and receive the other. And if they cannot do this,
let them candidly confess that we must either admit them all, or reject
them all, for they all stand on the same footing.

In the early times of the Roman republic, in the war with the Latins,
the gods Castor and Pollux are said to have appeared on white horses in
the Roman army, which by their assistance gained a complete victory: in
memory of which, the General Posthumius vowed and built a temple to
these deities; and for a proof of the fact, there was shown, we find, in
Cicero's time (106 to 43 B. C.), the marks of the horses' hoofs on a
rock at Regillum, where they first appeared.[270:1]

Now this miracle, with those which have already been mentioned, and many
others of the same kind which could be mentioned, has as authentic an
attestation, if not more so, as any of the Gospel miracles. It has, for
instance: The decree of a senate to confirm it; visible marks on the
spot where it was transacted; and all this supported by the best authors
of antiquity, amongst whom Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, w