Miracle, its Effects fhould have been Confin'd and Limited "to particular Times and Perfons, or be otherwise so circumftan"tiated, as that the Power of God, and not of Blind Nature, "might have appear'd in it." I appeal to the Reader, whether from the Turn and Make of Mr. W's Genius one might not expect fuch Objections as Thefe, if the Cafe had truly been what he feems to require it fhould be: and therefore who would quarrel with fo Reasonable a Circumftance of the Story as This is?

BY what has been faid in the foregoing Account of this Miracle, the Reader is prepar'd to fee the Captious Nature of some other Questions of this Author, viz. How often did the Angel defcend? How long before Chriff's Advent, and why not fince? p. 41. For (as I have fhew'd) it does not appear from any part of the Evangelift's Story, nor indeed from any other Good Authority, that this Sanative Virtue of the Pool ever happen'd, before or after This Feaft of the Paffover: 'Till the contrary be proved, let Mr. W. take for Answer, that it seems moft probable, for the Reasons before given, that the Pool of Bethesda had this Miraculous Quality only at this Seafon, and that probably for feveral days together; that it operated above once in a Day, may as well be fuppos'd as deny'd, because the Story is filent; all that we know being This, that, whenever the Water was troubled, the Healing Quality took effect on the First that stepped in.

BUT why not fince, is the Burden of this Author's Queftion: Because Providence fo order'd it: Is not that a fufficient Answer to a meer Question? Would he have us be Wife above what is written? and know the Reafon of things for certain, when those Reasons are not affigned?. -All that we can do, is to guefs; and if any fuppofition, that we can make, be confiftent with the Story, and be favoured by other Parts of the Gofpels, and at the fame time be fuch as will effectually answer his Queftion, I hope that it will be allow'd me to offer fuch an one: tho' I am far from pretending to lay any Weight upon it, and therefore fhall be lefs concern'd, if it fhould appear not to have any fufficient Foundation. It is but Conjecture, and as fuch only I offer the following Account to the Reader.

THIS Feaft of the Paffover was the fecond which was celebrated, and this was the fecond time too that Jefus was prefent at Jerufalem, after he had enter'd upon his Miniftry and begun to work Miracles. When he came up the first time, he feems to have had a Defign only to celebrate the Paffover in obedience to the Law, for he retir'd from Jerufalem soon after it was finish'd; and tho' he wrought fome Miracles there, yet we are not told whether they were of the Healing kind or not: We don't read, that the Scribes or Pharifees were at that time enrag'd against him; and therefore his Departure from

thence

thence into Galilee may have been owing to his own Choice of not defigning then to come and fettle in the work of his Miniftry at Jerufalem: But when he had gone preaching and healing Difeafes thro' all the Cities of Galilee, and thro' most other parts of the Country of Judea, he came up at this fecond Paffover to Jerufalem, probably with intent to fix his abode there, and thew that he was the Son of God by his Power over Devils and Diseases. What then if we fhould fuppofe, that Providence (by giving to the Pool of Bethesda this healing Quality at or a little before the beginning of this Feaft) might intend to fhew the Jews, that the Divine Power in Jefus was coming among them, and might mean the Miraculous Effect of this Pool for an Emblem only or Earneft of what Jefus was then preparing to do for them? We find, that God did in other Inftances prepare the way for Chrift; the Prophefies of the Old Teftament were given for this purpofe, and John the Baptift was declar'd his Forerunner. And why might not This Miracle be of the fame Preparatory Nature with Them? I may add too, that this Conjecture feems the more Reasonable, when it is remembred, that, befides the Cure of this Infirm Man, Jefus healed another at this Paffover, who had a wither'd Hand; and that he retir'd from the City, only because the Pharifees took Council against him how they might deftroy him. Matt. xii. 14. which when he knew, he withdrew himself from them, ver. 15. But if they had not thus wickedly fought his Ruin, before his time of fuffering was come, it may be gather'd from the Story as not Improbable, that he would have continued among them a long while, perhaps the whole time of his Miniftry. I lay no Weight (as I faid) upon all this: it is but Suppofition and Conjecture drawn from fome Circumftances which feem to favour it but fuch as it is, it may fuffice for an Anfwer to Mr. W's Question, Why the healing Quality was imparted to the Pool at That time, and not fince? I think it may be faid, that the Answer is at least as Good as the Question.

WHEN this Queftioner of Providence and its Vicegerents asks, Why no better care was taken by Providence or the Civil Magiftrate about the difpofal of this Angelical favour, than to leave it to him that could first step in? p. 42. He may know (if he he will reflect a little), that Providence had done enough, and the Magiftrate alone is concern'd in the Question: but if this Healing Power in the Pool was a New thing (as I fhew'd it moft Probable), and fuch as had not happen'd many Days, how does Mr. W. know that the Magiftrates were yet convinc'd of the Reality of the Miracle? Or if they were, is he fure that they thought it proper to limit to particular Perfons the Benefit of a Miracle which God had vifibly left at large? Or can he fhew that the Magiftrates, fo much employ'd

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Part IV. employ'd as they must have been at that bufy Time of the Paflover, had Leifure and Opportunity to make any Regulations about it?

WHAT (fays he) did the Blind, and the Halt, the Wither'd and Paralyticks do there? p. 45. By which he would intimate that their Condition put them out of all hope of ever being the First to ftep in: Perhaps fo: But they might have Friends ready there to affift them. And then to what purpofe is this Queftion? We find that the Infirm Man's complaint turns upon his wanting fuch Affiftance, and therefore we may fuppofe that he faw others provided with it; and the more they were, the less likely was he to get time enough to the Water.

THERE is another Objection, which Mr. W. has made, P. 47. made in the proper fenfe of the word, for it is wholly owing to his own Genius for Criticism: What We tranflate, A certain Man was there, who had an Infirmity thirty and eight Years, he fays fhould, more truly according to the Original, be tranflated thus, (k) A certain Man was there thirty and eight Years, which had an Infirmity. This Tranflation must be allow'd to be truly an Original one; but all other Truth it wants, as the Reader will plainly fee by the Note below where it appears, that Our Verfion is moft Certainly a Right one, and His moft Probably a Wrong, I mean as to Grammar and St. John's Idiom; for as to the Senfe he declares, that his Tranflation brings an Abfurdity upon the Story, and for this reafon alone it feems as if he choofes it. And yet upon no better a Foundation than fuch a poor piece of Criticism he falls out with the Infirm Man for waiting fo long at the Pool: St. John is a Romancer, the fick Man is a Fool, and Mr. W. rails at his Patience, till he feems to lofe all his Own.

() The Greek is. Ην δέ τις άνθρωπο ἐκεῖ τειακονταοκτώ ἔτη ἔχων ἐν τῇ ἀπενεία: which may literally be render'd thus, There was a certain Man, who had passed (or been) thirty eight Years in an Infirmity: But if we join (as Mr. W. does) the words relaxovTaona ern with ine, and fuppofe the Man to have been there fo long, then xv v develḍ must be conftru'd alone, and fignify baving or being in an Infirmity: But there is no Inftance of fuch a Greek Phrafe in all the New Teftament. On the other hand, if we join τριακονlαοκτώ ἔτη with ἔχων ἐν τῇ ἀπενεία, we have feveral Expreffions of this Evangelift to parallel it, as in Chap. xii. 17. he found him τέωσαρας ἡμέρας ἤδη ἔχοντα ἐν τῷ μνημείῳ, hav ing now been four days in the Grave. And in the very next Verfe to this, which we are confidering, it is faid of this Infirm Man, that Jefus knew ὅτι πολυ ήδη χρόνον ἔχει, that he had now paffed or been a long time in an Infirmity. And therefore the common Tranflation is the only one, which is truly according to the Original.

I

I come now to the Laft Objection (Mr. W. indeed has plac'd it in the Front) against the Truth of this Story, which is, that Neither Jofephus, nor any other Jewish Writers have made mention of it, p. 38.

NOW whatever Weight their Silence may have against the fuppofition of fuch a Miracle lafting among the Jews for any confiderable Number of Years, yet it favours and ftrengthens my Suppofition; for, because no Jewish Writer mentions it, therefore it feems to have never happen'd except at this Feaft But perhaps he may expect a Reason, why, tho' it happen'd but once, this Once is pafs'd over and unmention'd by all the Jewish Writers. If Mr. W. knows any thing of these matters, he might remember, that the Jews who wrote in or about Chrift's time are very few in Number, except the Authors of the New Teftament, tho' his Expreffion All would infinuate that there was a great Plenty of them. The Writers of the two Targums, with Philo and Jofephus, are All; the first of which wrote their Paraphrafes on the Old Teftament before this Miracle was vouchfafed to the Pool; Philo indeed and Jofephus wrote after it; but Philo lived at a great diftance from the Fact, as far as Alexandria in Egypt; and Jofephus was not born 'till after this had happen'd. Is not here room then to fuppofe, that a Miracle, which lafted fo few Days (as I have fhew'd), might never have come to their Ears? Or, if they had heard of it, might not they both have been in doubt, for want of knowing all its Circumftances, whether it was not a Natural Effect rather than a Divine one? Might not Philo particularly, who was jealous of the Honour of the Jewish Temple in Egypt, have look'd upon it as an Artifice of the Jewish Priefts at Jerufalem to fhew, that God was vifibly among them, and to argue from thence, that he did not approve of any Temple erected to his Service elfewhere? But for Jofephus we have not This to fay; he was a Worshipper at the Temple in Jerufalem, he liv'd and was brought up there, and could not He have known the Truth of the Cafe? If Mr. W. fhould be difpos'd to ask this Queftion, I would remind him that this great Hiftorian was not, fo Fair a Dealer in fome Inftances, as might be expected. What he wrote, he wrote for the Information of the Greeks and Learned Romans, who were Heathens, and he feems all along in his Hiftories to be very tender of dwelling too much upon Miracles he has omitted the mention of fome, and has left it in doubt with his Readers, whether natural Caufes might not be affign'd for others of thofe very Miracles of Mofes, which he undoubtedly did Believe and Teach too, as he was a Jewish Priest: The Cafe was, that he was afraid to make his Hiftory appear Incredible to his Readers, and therefore he foftened fome things which he was oblig'd to mention, and

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wholly

wholly omitted others which had no Publick Confequence: An Inftance of this (among many others) we have in what he fays concerning the Paffage of the Ifraelites thro' the RedSea; that the Fact might not feem (1) incredible (as he expreffes himself), he puts in a Doubt, Whether the Parting of the Waters on that occafion was caus'd by the Command of God, or by the Natural course of things, and refers (as to a Parallel Event) to what befell Alexander and his Army at the Pamphylian Sea.

FROM one of this turn, is it to be expected, that He fhould relate this Miracle at the Pool, fo much lefs Remarkable than that of Mofes? Jofephus's filence therefore about this Story of the Pool is no more an Argument against it, than Mr. w's Outcries are: It may be True, tho' the One has faid nothing concerning it; and notwithstanding all that the Other has faid against it.

AFTER all, let Mr. W. tell me, to what End and Purpofe fhould St. John romance in this particular Story: Did this Miracle do any Honour to Jefus? Or had it any neceffary Connection with that which he wrought on the Infirm Man? If St. John had not known it to be True, or at least if the current Report of the Jews had not run this way, would he have mention'd it, when the Cure that his Mafter wrought was equally the fame Miraculous one, whether this Poal had ever had fuch a Healing Quality or not? These Questions I leave with him, in return for the Many which he has ask'd about this Story; and I now call upon him to allow (as he fays he will) St. John's word to pass fooner than another Man's, if the Account was not loaded with Improbabilities, p. 39. I have taken the Load off from it, and therefore I hope that he will permit us to take the benefit of his Conceffion.

2 §. BUT it is time to come to the other Part of the Story, which we are more nearly interested in, I mean the Miraculous Cure, which Jefus perform'd upon the Man, who was there at the Pool, and had had an Infirmity for thirty and eight Years. TO this Mr. W. Objects two things,

THAT Jefus, by healing only One out of the great multitude of Impotent Folk at the Pool, fhew'd either want of Power, or want of Mercy and Compaffion, p. 49, 50. and

THAT, because we don't know what the Man's Infirmity was, there neither is, nor can be proved to be any thing fupernatural in it, p. 34, 53.

(1) Θαυμάσει μηδεις το λόγο αράδοξον, εἰ ἀρχαίοις ανθρώποις Ευρέθη σωτηρίας ὁδὸς καὶ διὰ θαλάωης, είτε και βέλησιν Θεῖ, ετε κατ' αὐτόματον· ὁπότε καὶ τοῖς περὶ ̓Αλέξανδρον, &c. Antig. Jud.

1. 2. c. 16.

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