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 Cuth.. 
And does it furround it, or does it furround any land what- 
ever? This, and fome fimilar wonders told by St Auguftine, 
have been eagerly catched at, and quoted by unbelieving 
{ceptics ; meaning to infinuate, that no better, in other re- 
{pects, was the authority of thefe fathers when they explain 
and defend the truths of Chriftianity. For my own part, 
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 le, and was promifed to the 
priefthood while occupied in their mafter’s commiffion the 
propagation of Chriftian knowledge ; but when, from vanity. 
and human frailty, he attempted to eftablifh things he had 
nothing to do with, {peaking nolonger by commandment; 
he reafoned like a mere man, mifled by vanity and too great. 
confidence in his own underftanding.. 
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- . 
fluous.. 
Ir is an obfervation that holds good through all the works 
of Providence, That although God, in the beginning, gave am 
inftance of his almighty power, by creating the world with 
one fingle 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 leatt 
degree of power pofiible, and by thofe means that feem moit 
ebvious to human conception. But it feemed, however, not 
according 
