658 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
a feries of miracles, as it were, under the earth and under- the fea : To do what ? to furround the whole land of Culm And does it furround it, or does it furround any land what- ever ? This, and fome fimilar wonders told by St AuguftinCi have been eagerly catched at, and quoted by unbelieving fceptics ; meaning to infinuate, that no better, in other re* fpects, was the authority of thefe fathers when they explain and defend the truths of Chriftianity. For my own parti though perfectly a friend to free and temperate inquiry, thefe injudicious arguments which I need not quote, have little weight with me. St Auguftine, when explaining thofe truths, was undoubtedly under the direction of that fpirit which could not lie, and was promifed to the priefthood while occupied in their mailer's commiffion the pagation of Chriltian knowledge ; but when, from vanity and human frailty, he attempted to eflabliih things he had nothing to do with, fpeaking no longer by commandmene, he reafoned like a mere man, milled by vanity and too great confidence in his own underflanding.
We come now to inveftigate the reafon of the inundation of ; the Nile, which, being once explained, I cannot help thinking that all further inquiries concerning this fubject are fuper- fl-uous.
It is an obfervation that holds good through all the works of Providence, That although God, in the beginning, gave an inftance of his almighty power, by creating the world with one (ingle fat, yet, in the laws he has laid down for the maintaining order and regularity in the details of his crea-- tion, he has invariably produced all thefe effects by the leafl degree of power pomble, and by thofe means that feem mofl obvious to human conception,. But it feemed, however, not
according
